Last week, we welcomed the post-writers’-strike return of late-night TV talkers Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, and John Oliver (you know, the Strike Force Five podcast guys). This weekend, Saturday Night Live is finally back, with host Pete Davidson and musical guest Ice Spice. Next week, Comedy Central’s The Daily Show resumes snarking—it’s a great time to be an insomniac.
This week’s What to Watch recs include the comeback of Frasier, Netflix’s take on The Fall of the House of Usher, the final run of Doom Patrol, the long-awaited streaming premiere of Moonlighting, and NHL season-opener hockey action. Stream on!
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What’s premiering this week
Frasier | Paramount+ | Comedy
Series reboot premiere, Thursday, October 12: Necromancer streaming service Paramount+ is going to bring every TV show and movie of our pop-cultural lifetime back from the dead, including Frasier. Dr. Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer) is the only regular character returning from the original 1993–2004 Cheers spinoff as the radio psychiatrist moves back to Boston, though Lilith (Bebe Neuwirth) and Roz (Peri Gilpin) will drop in occasionally (sorry, no Eddie the dog). Two of 10 episodes stream on October 12.
Coverage begins Tuesday, October 10: The 2023–2024 NHL season sticks off with a triple-header: Nashville Predators vs. Tampa Bay Lightning (5:30 p.m. ET/2:30 PT), Chicago Blackhawks vs. Pittsburgh Penguins (8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT), and Seattle Kraken vs. Stanley Cup champs Vegas Golden Knights (10:30 p.m. ET/7:30 PT). This season, NHL games will be televised on ABC, ESPN, TNT, and NHL Network, with out-of-market games carried by ESPN+ and NHL Center Ice. Go Knights! (The team nearest to CableTV.com HQ.)
What to watch on Netflix this week
Big Vape: The Rise and Fall of Juul | Netflix | Documentary
Series premiere, Wednesday, October 11: If you think ‘Merica is dumb right now, here’s a reminder that less than 10 years ago, a multibillion-dollar company was built on the idea of “healthy cigarettes.” Director R.J. Cutler’s Big Vape: The Rise and Fall of Juul chronicles the rise and fall of the electronic cigarette company that aimed to take on Big Tobacco but inadvertently became a hit with underage smokers. Yes, Juul is still in business and still fighting bans and false-marketing legal claims.
The Fall of the House of Usher | Netflix | Drama, horror
Series premiere, Thursday, October 12: Director Mike Flanagan (The Haunting of Hill House, Midnight Mass) adapts and modernizes not only The Fall of the House of Usher but also other Edgar Allan Poe works in an eight-episode miniseries. The sprawling cast includes Bruce Greenwood, Carla Gugino, Mary McDonnell, Mark Hamill, Henry Thomas, Annabeth Gish, Zach Gilford, Michael Trucco, Katie Parker, Rahul Kohli, and Carl Lumbly, with Flanagan and Michael Fimognari trading off director’s hats.
What to watch on Max this week
Doom Patrol | Max | Drama, fantasy
Season 4 Pt. 2 premiere, Thursday, October 12: The first part of Doom Patrol’s fourth and (sadly) final season ended way back in January of this year—to channel Robotman, “WTF, Max?!” But now that the last episodes of DC’s weirdest TV series ever are here, it feels like too soon. How will it end for Robotman Cliff (Brendan Fraser), Negative Man Larry (Matt Bomer), Elasti-Woman Rita (April Bowlby), and Crazy Jane (Diane Guerrero)? Prepare for a mindblower, normies. Two of five episodes stream on October 12.
Rick and Morty | Adult Swim, Max | Animation, comedy
Season 7 premiere, Sunday, October 15: Series co-creator and lead voice actor Justin Roiland got himself canceled earlier this year, so where does that leave Rick and Morty? Still sitting high atop a mountain of Warner Bros. Discovery cash with a multi-season order to fill. Co-creator Dan Harmon still has a least one hand on the showrunner wheel, a new actor (or actors) will voice Rick and Morty, and the show’s occasionally overzealous fanbase won’t even notice the change in the Szechuan Sauce formula. Maybe.
What to watch on Peacock this week
The Mill | Hulu | Drama, sci-fi
Movie premiere, Monday, October 9: If your company doesn’t enroll you in a nightmarish “advanced career training” program in an open-air prison hellscape against your will, consider your corporate culture pretty good. In The Mill, Joe (Lil Rel Howrey), a company man at megacorporation Mallard (it’s like Apple or Google, but bigger than both combined), wakes up and finds himself in that prison cell, tasked with pushing a grist mill 9-to-5 daily … forever? Sheesh, way to start the workweek, Hulu.
Moonlighting | Hulu | Comedy, mystery
Streaming premiere, Tuesday, October 10: Aside from a couple of VHS and DVD releases in the 1990s and 2000s, ‘80s favorite Moonlighting has been famously unavailable on home media for over 30 years. But now, all five seasons of the 1985–1989 comic detective series have been remastered in HD for Hulu. The setup: Broke ex-model Maddie Hayes (Cybill Shepard) teams up with wildcard detective David Addison (Bruce Willis, pre-Die Hard); wackiness and sexual tension ensue. Binge-watch this now.
W2W wildcards of the week
Shining Vale | STARZ | Comedy, horror
Season 2 premiere, Friday, October 13: In season 1 of Shining Vale, author Pat’s (Courteney Cox) writer’s block was exacerbated by the presence of ghost Rosemary (Mira Sorvino), eventually driving Pat to try to murder her family with an ax. In season 2, she’s been released early from a psychiatric hospital, and her new novel is a hit, but her husband Terry (Greg Kinnear) has amnesia, and their new neighbor Ruth looks exactly like Rosemary. Imagine Ghosts with the psychological terror turned up to 11—that’s Shining Vale.
New series, Tuesdays: On the surface, new fall NBC series Found looks like a standard procedural crime drama, this one about a crisis management specialist, Gabi Mosley (Shanola Hampton, Shameless), who takes on missing persons cases that the police won’t touch. But there’s a twist: Gabi was kidnapped as a child, and she now keeps that kidnapper (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) chained up in her basement as a captive case advisor, a flipped Clarice/Hannibal Lecter dynamic. Someone’s not getting Saved by the Bell this time! (Had to do it, not sorry.)
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