Here’s what’s up in the world of TV for Friday, October 23, and Saturday, October 24. All times are Eastern.
Top pick
Hemlock Grove (Netflix, 3:01 a.m., Friday): The third season of this supernatural streaming series drops! We thought of making Zack Handlen review it again, but then we remembered that we like Zack. From his original review:
Hemlock Grove is rich with embarrassment. It is a shockingly inane misstep, a ponderous mess whose only saving grace are the occasional moments of camp, inadvertent and otherwise, sprinkled throughout. This is the sort of show that would’ve been laughed off the screen after an episode or two on broadcast, and yet there it sits on Netflix’s electronic shelves, a pulsating pus-ridden boil waiting for the next unsuspecting victim to click through.
Enjoy!
Also noted
Red Oaks (Amazon, Friday): No ‘80s-set coming-of-age series would be complete without a body-swap episode, which Molly Eichel says went pretty well. In the eighth episode, David’s summer of many experiences hits the road for a requisite adventure in New York City.
Casual (Hulu, Friday): After what she called this Michaela Watkins-led comedy’s best episode yet, Allison Shoemaker is back to check out this next outing in the Hulu-aissance.
The Knick (Cinemax, 10 p.m., Friday): Clive Owen’s Dr. Thackery makes a move to return to The Knick, which the hospital board frowns upon. Possibly because of all the heroin and so forth. Brandon Nowalk protests, yelling, “But he gets results, you stupid board!”
Blunt Talk (Starz, 9 p.m., Saturday): In the first season finale, Patrick Stewart’s high-strung newsman Walter Blunt goes to an unconventional therapist and kicks a controversial guest off his show. After a season of watching Stewart run roughshod over this entertaining show, Brandon Nowalk says he can bump anyone he wants. It’s Patrick Stewart, for God’s sake.
Doctor Who (BBC America, 9 p.m., Saturday): The Doctor ends up back in 17th century England and runs afoul of a mysterious highwayman who looks suspiciously like [redacted]. Alasdair Wilkins is holding tight to his lupins, just in case.
Guardians Of The Galaxy (Disney XD, 9:30 p.m., Saturday): The team gets dragooned into infiltrating a deadly gang of weapons dealers—space weapons dealers. You know what that means—laser beams freaking everywhere! Kevin Johnson is sure that everything will turn out juuuust fine.
Survivor’s Remorse (Starz, 9:30 p.m., Saturday): Joshua Alston called last week’s bummer of an episode “overly precious and self-indulgent.” Yowch. Well, a good show gets one bad episode a season (it’s a rule—look it up), so Joshua’s counting on this week’s season finale to end things on a good note—even though Cam’s family faces an unexpected crisis.
The Last Kingdom (BBC America, 10 p.m., Saturday): Uhtred forms an uneasy alliance with English King Alfred (of “the Great” fame), making childhood friend-turned-lover Brida smack him around concerning the issue of divided loyalties. Kyle Fowle continues to praise this rollicking historical adventure series—and says that anything Brida does is just fine with him.
Regular coverage
Reign (CW, 8 p.m., Friday)
Please Like Me (Pivot, 10 p.m., Friday)
Elsewhere in TV Club
Unconventional Families Week wraps up on Friday with the biggest Family Feud showdown between eccentric, bookish families The Royal Tenenbaums and J.D. Salinger’s Glass family. John Teti’s on Team Tenenbaum, while Ignatiy Vishnevetsky takes Team Glass. Editorial Director Josh Modell is, as he is in all things, the final arbiter. Continuing the family theme, this week’s AVQ&A sees your favorite AV Clubbers giving their picks for the unconventional families (blood-related or not) they’d feel most comfortable joining. And, proving that having a screwed-up family always makes for good drama, Gwen Ihnat’s Watch This profiles the little-seen but excellent Southern Gothic family melodrama Toys In The Attic. Marah Eakin has an interview with Clarissa Explains It All creator Mitchell Kriegman. Meanwhile, Will Harris scores another stellar get for Random Roles, getting the great Carol Kane to run through some of the best, worst, and weirdest entries on her IMDb page. Then, over in Film, Alex McCown has a typically funny and thoughtful interview with comedian Sarah Silverman, on her acclaimed new dramatic turn in the film I Smile Back. Over in Music, David Brusie gets to talk with Elvis Costello about his new memoir Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink.
What else is on
Halloween II (AMC, 7:30 p.m., Friday): Get in the Halloween spirit by watching the sequel to a remake that missed the point of the classic original film entirely! Or, you know, put on a DVD of John Carpenter’s movie instead.
Undateable (NBC, 8 p.m., Friday): The all-live Undateable experiment marches on, at least promising plenty of Ron Funches giggles, which are one of the things that makes television worthwhile.
The Amazing Race (CBS, 8 p.m., Friday): The contestants continue to fart around at Victoria Falls.
Last Man Standing (ABC, 8 p.m., Friday): Tim Allen’s Mike gets a used classic car for his birthday, but then the previous owner won’t stop coming by to visit his old car because men and cars and so on.
MLB Playoffs: Blue Jays At Royals (Fox Sports 1, 8 p.m., Friday) Tune in same time, same place on Saturday, if necessary.
Dr. Ken (ABC, 8:30 p.m., Friday): Ken’s invited to speak at a testimonial dinner for his wife’s ex, and turns the event into a roast instead, because Dr. Ken don’t give a fuck! (And is sadly incapable of doing anything in a straightforward manner without yelling at people and making a spectacle of himself, which could be the sign of a behavioral disorder. He should really see a doctor who’s not him.)
Truth Be Told (NBC, 8:30 p.m., Friday): In the show Erik Adams famously redubbed “Chatty Assholes,” the chatty assholes go to the porn awards. That only took two episodes.
Compared to What? The Improbable Journey of Barney Frank (Showtime, 9 p.m., Friday): Documentary chronicling the final days in office of openly gay, pioneering Congressman Frank, who had to put up with an (truly) ungodly amount of crap over his career.
Hawaii Five-O (CBS, 9 p.m., Friday): The gang tries to arrest a member of a stunt motorcycle gang who escaped by jumping his bike from the top of one building to another. And then they just let him go because it was the coolest thing any of them have ever seen.
Shark Tank (ABC, 9 p.m., Friday): The sharks fight over bagels, Halloween candy, and beef jerky, only one of which sounds even remotely enticing for sharks.
Great Performances: Billy Elliot The Musical Live (PBS, 9 p.m., Friday): Did somebody say… dance?
Z Nation (Syfy, 10 p.m., Friday): Man, last week’s The Walking Dead was pretty devastating, huh? Well, if that’s too grim for you, why not try out this zombie apocalypse, where episode descriptions like this one are the norm: “10K gets mixed up in Sketchy and Skeezy’s latest scam, which leads to a frightening run-in with Escorpion.” It could be all grim ‘n’ gritty despite that, but, no, probably not. Sketchy and Skeezy are there!
Blue Bloods (CBS, 10 p.m., Friday): Selleck scion Danny pursues a pair of escaped convicts, at least partly because he wrongly arrested one of them in the first place and, presumably, wants to bring him a nice “Sorry I Wrongly Arrested You” Edible Arrangement.
Satisfaction (USA, 10 p.m., Friday): After Grace had sex with an escort, husband Neill secretly became an escort—to help their marriage? Somehow? Apparently, it’s pretty good, though.
Day Of The Dead (AMC, 10 p.m., Friday): The finale of George A. Romero’s original zombie trilogy is in some ways the best of the bunch, in several more ways, the worst. It’s still pretty great, and features the single worst performance of any horror movie (or perhaps any movie ever)—he’s got the best death scene ever, though, so it all evens out.
Black Jesus (Adult Swim, 11 p.m., Friday): Jesus loses his cell phone, which, considering his dad is number one on his contact list, is sort of a big deal.
TripTank (Comedy Central, 11:59 p.m., Friday): Warning: possible farting cartoon ducks. (Always a danger on TripTank.)
Leprechaun-a-thon! (AMC, 7 p.m., Saturday): Warwick Davis enthusiasts rejoice all through the land as AMC broadcasts the first four Leprechaun films right through to the wee hours of Sunday morning. Sadly, fans of Leprechaun: In The Hood and Leprechaun: Back 2 Tha Hood are shut out—again.
Da Vinci’s Demons (Starz, 8 p.m., Saturday): In the season three premiere, the 25-year-old Leonardo Da Vinci continues to invent new ways to be a sexy, swashbuckling adventurer guy.
16 & Missing (Lifetime, 8 p.m., Saturday): Tanyaaaaaa!!!!
Good Witch Halloween (Hallmark, 9 p.m., Saturday): Catherine Bell’s nice witch gets her own Halloween TV movie, where she continues to dispense helpful magic and twinkly glances from her darling little magic shop.
The Hollow (Syfy, 9 p.m., Saturday): Some teens run out of gas and afoul of Syfy’s “31 Days Of Halloween” original horror movie marathon.
In case you missed it
Nathan For You: Erik Adams fills in for this typically, squirmily funny episode of Nathan Fielder’s “outside the box” business acumen, which, this week, includes a generous helping of Nazi imagery. Maybe regular reviewer John Teti just needed a week off to collect himself.