From a Family Guy holiday special to a Beatlemania documentary, we round up our top 10 shows to watch this week
1. ACL Presents: 23rd Annual Americana Honors – Saturday, November 23, WTVS
Fans of roots-oriented music will enjoy this this year’s celebration of Americana, held at Nashville’s famed Ryman Auditorium earlier this year. Duane Betts (pictured above) opened the show on an emotional note, performing a rip-roaring rendition of The Allman Brothers’ classic “Blue Sky,” in tribute to his father, Allman Brothers guitarist Dickey Betts, who died in April. Other performers include The Milk Carton Kids, Kaitlin Butts, Waxahatchee, sibling duo Larkin Poe, Turnpike Troubadours, The War and Treaty, Sarah Jarosz, Brandy Clark accompanied by SistaStrings, Sierra Ferrell and Noah Kahan. Several artists also received lifetime achievement from the Americana Music Association, including gospel group The Blind Boys of Alabama, Dave Alvin (of The Blasters, X and The Knitters), Rev. Gary Davis, Shelby Lynne, Dwight Yoakam and musician/producer Don Was.
2. Get Millie Black – Monday, November 25, HBO Canada | Series Premiere
A missing persons case gets a tad too personal for one detective in this five-part series from across the pond. Intrepid yet troubled sleuth Millie Black (Tamara Lawrance) finds herself forced out of Scotland Yard, regrouping in her native Jamaica. Alas, the past and the present collide when Millie must work a new case alongside British copper Luke Holborn (Game of Thrones alum Joe Dempsie), who comes to Kingston on the hunt for someone who has up and vanished without a trace.
What unfolds is a tangled web that will force our heroine to “save a sibling who won’t be saved, to find a child who can’t be found, and to solve a case that will blow her world apart and prove almost as tough to crack as Millie Black.”
It’s all based on the novel by Booker Prize-winning author Marlon James, who also serves as this series’ creator. Click here to watch trailer.
3. Family Guy: Gift of the White Guy – Monday, November 25, Disney+
A new holiday special debuting not on Family Guy’s home broadcaster Fox, but streamer Disney+ finds Peter scrambling to recover Lois’ Christmas brooch after losing it in a game of White Elephant, while Stewie reckons with being on Santa’s dreaded “naughty list.”
4. Our Little Secret – Wednesday, November 27, Netflix
Former child phenom Lindsay Lohan continues her second act with another Netflix original flick. This one finds the erstwhile Parent Trap star playing Avery, a young woman whose messy breakup gets all the messier when she learns that her ex (Pretty Little Liars alum Ian Harding) is now dating the sister of her current boyfriend. Worse yet, she only stumbles across this information after turning up at her new fella’s family home for Christmas, where all involved are stuck together for the holidays.
Speaking with Netflix’s Tudum, Lohan describedher character as “a girl soul-searching on a journey of love” who, alas, winds upin a screwball rom-com wherein “all kinds of stuff breaks loose.”
The all-star supporting cast includes Kristin Chenoweth, Tim Meadows and Chris Parnell. Click here to watch trailer.
5. The Untold Story of Mary Poppins: A Special Edition of 20/20 – Wednesday, November 27, ABC
This special commemorates the 60th anniversary of the beloved Disney classic, featuring rarely seen footage and photos, in addition to new interviews with stars Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke.
6. The Madness – Thursday, November 28, Netflix | Series Premiere
A conspiracy thriller that very much encapsulates these inexplicable times in which we live, The Madness stars Fear the Walking Dead breakout Colman Domingo as Muncie Daniels, a media pundit who goes from commenting on news stories to becoming the story.
While visiting family in Pennsylvania, he is randomly, wrongfully implicated in a murder plot deep in the Pocono Mountains. Fighting for both his life and his freedom, Muncie must take a good, hard look at the man he’s let himself become, struggling to find justice in a world where perception trumps reality. “It was a unique protagonist, one that I had never seen or experienced,” Domingo told Tudum. “Someone who has very centrist beliefs, and now they’re being thrust into the world to really hardcore-believe in something and to re-examine the people that they believed were possible enemies. You realize you have more in common with them than you thought you had in the beginning. I think it says a lot about who we are now and what we’re willing to do. And also to look at who’s really pulling the strings, and for whose benefit.”
7. Great Performances – Friday, November 29, WTVS & KCTS
The Great Performances presentation Mancini 100 features highlights from a star-studded concert at the Hollywood Bowl honouring Henry Mancini, the late composer who brought us such unforgettable melodies as “Moon River” and the theme from The Pink Panther, on what would have been his 100th birthday. Performers include Michael Bublé, Cynthia Erivo, saxophonist Dave Koz and Mancini’s daughter, singer Monica Mancini.
8. Beatles ’64 – Friday, November 29, Disney+
Peter Jackson’s exhaustive three-part, six-hour Get Back delivered a fly-on-the-wall look at the fraught recording sessions for Let It Be, revealing all the tension and bickering that preceded the bitter breakup of The Beatles.
A new Disney+ documentary, however, presents the Fab Four at the opposite point in the band’s career. Produced by Martin Scorsese and directed by David Tedeschi, Beatles ’64 captures the Liverpool foursome’s triumphant first visit to America in all its glory, re-examining the brief period of time in which four mop-topped young Brits transformed into global superstars.
It all began on February 7, 1964, when the plane carrying John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr touched down at NYC’s JFK airport, with the four greeted with an unprecedented level of hysteria that only intensified. Dubbed Beatlemania by the press, the furor engulfed all of America when The Beatles’ debut on The Ed Sullivan Show was watched by more than 73 million viewers, becoming the most-watched television event of its era.
The film features rare footage filmed by documentary filmmakers Albert and David Maysles, including live performance footage from The Beatles’ first American concert at the Washington, D.C. Coliseum and their Ed Sullivan TV appearances, all painstakingly restored to 4K. Adding context are surviving Beatles McCartney and Starr, who share their remembrances in new interviews, as do fans whose lives were transformed by the band’s timeless music.
“Beatles ’64 presents the spectacle, but also reflects a more intimate behind-the-scenes story, capturing the camaraderie of John, Paul, George and Ringo as they experienced unimaginable fame,” declares the synopsis of what promises to be a must-watch experience for Beatle fans. Click here to watch trailer.
9. The Later Daters – Friday, November 29, Netflix | Series Premiere
Hot on the impeccably stylish heels of The Golden Bachelorette, another series sets out to unpack the charmingly messy process of looking for love in the twilight of life.
These days, there are more singles over the age of 55 than at any other time in the history of civilization. And, indeed, the older we get, the more baggage we drag into a potential romantic connection.
Across eight episodes, The Later Daters follows a quirky array of folks from all different backgrounds who share one thing in common: they’re single well past the point when dating is easy.
Forced to put aside their “hang-ups,” each must decide what exactly they’re looking for in a partner, while also examining how their own problematic tendencies may be holding them back from both personal and romantic satisfaction.
Guiding these Daters through it all is Logan Ury (pictured above), a Harvard-educated behavioural scientist turned relationship guru who penned a book aptly titled How to Not Die Alone.
“Dating is actually a very new thing in the span of human history,” Ury said in a chat withbehavioralscientist.org. “While we’re born knowing how to love, we’re not necessarily born knowing how to date. Dating, and what to optimize for in a long-term partner,
isn’t an inherently known thing. It’s something that you have to learn.”
10. Hard North – Friday, November 29, Prime Video | Series Premiere
No matter where you choose to live your life or who you choose to live it with, survival is a challenge at the best of times. The folks profiled in this new series . . . well, let’s just say they’re not making it any easier on themselves.
Per a press release, Hard North follows a diverse group of youngsters as they struggle to “build a life in the vast and unforgiving Canadian wilderness. The series takes viewers on an adventure through some of the country’s most remote and rugged landscapes as these aspiring homesteaders face the harsh realities of living off the land and strive to not just survive — but to thrive in these wild places they now call home.”
It hails from creator Paul Kilback, who previously enticed us with such bone-chilling reality series as Life Below Zero: Canada and Wild Things With Dominic Monaghan.
In episode one, as we meet our collection of plucky survivalists, “Margot searches the vast wilds of the Yukon for the perfect place to build her new Northwoods cabin; Matty discovers that his Newfoundland homestead is not as ready for the fast-approaching winter as he had hoped; Billy resorts to some old-school techniques to make some new and improved outbuilding upgrades; and Emilie and Gilbert take the first stepon their journey to build their backwoods family dream home.”
