What to Watch This Week: August 26 to 31

From musical tragedies at sea to comic failures on the force, we round up our top 10 shows to watch this week

From musical tragedies at sea to comic failures on the force, we round up our top 10 shows to watch this week

1. 2018 iheartradio Much Music Video Awards – Sunday, August 26, 9 p.m., CTV

YouTube rapper and recent Ocean’s 8 star Awkwafina hosts this year’s MMVAs, which will once again shut down a major Toronto intersection to stage an epic block party. Performers include the superstar likes of Meghan Trainor, Shawn Mendes, Alessia Cara and Halsey, while Tyra Banks, World of Dance‘s Derek Hough, Star Trek: Discovery‘s Sonequa Martin-Green and This Is Us‘s Chrissy Metz hand out hardware.

2. Who Is America? – Sunday, August 26, 9 p.m., TMN1 | Season Finale

After spending the past several weeks touring the U.S. in various disguises, making a mockery of American politicians and wingnuts, former Borat and Ali G star Sacha Baron Cohen wraps up the first season of his hot-button prank interview series this week. Here’s hoping there’s a season two.

3. Insecure – Sunday, August 26, 9:30 p.m. & 3 a.m., HBO Canada

Issa spends the day recruiting at a job fair, finding some unexpected inspiration along the way; riding that high, she takes Daniel out for a night on the town, hoping the door hasn’t completely closed on a potential future relationship. Erstwhile, Molly finally starts her dream job at an African-American-run law firm.

4. Our Cartoon President – Sunday, August 26, 9:30 p.m., TMN1 | Season Finale

Co-creator Stephen Colbert and his team deliver some parting shots to the Trump White House as this spinoff of the popular Late Show sketch reaches the end of season one. Tonight, the Donald gets some lessons on how to campaign like a “traditional non-racist president” from his wingman Mike Pence; meanwhile, Pence’s wife Karen secretly plots to put her husband in the Oval Office. We still don’t know whether or not the show will be back for season two, but either way, if you’ve fallen in love with the characters, savour this episode—just like their real-life counterparts, these cartoons are always teetering on the brink of a major cast shakeup.

5. Love It or List It – Monday, August 27, 6 p.m. & 9 p.m., HGTV

There comes a time when your home stops aging gracefully. It could be because your family is growing or the number of needed repairs is outpacing your capacity to care, or it really is just plain old. Most of us can relate.

That’s one of the reasons Love It or List It is such a huge hit. We can all tune in and put ourselves in the homeowners’ shoes. Should we renovate the place and bring it back to life or stick a “For Sale” sign out front and head to greener pastures?

It’s the daily struggle for Canadian hosts Hilary Farr and David Visentin, who go head-to-head each week in an effort to help the homeowners decide whether to stay in their current home or find something that better suits their needs. Farr is a glamorous and talented international interior designer and Visentin is, well, a balding middle-aged man—and real estate agent. Together they entertainingly bicker their way through each episode in an attempt to get homeowners to take their side—Farr turns their old home into a thing of beauty while Visentin finds them multiple alternatives worth buying.

6. The Proposal – Monday, August 27, 10:01 p.m., City & ABC | Season Finale

The show that’s been credited with driving the reality-romance genre to trash-tastic new lows ends its first season. Canadian host Jesse Palmer welcomes one final mystery suitor or suitress, who will preside over one final “pageant,” the grand prize of which is an instant, sure-to-last engagement to a relative stranger.

7. Titanic: The Band Played On – Wednesday, August 29, 10 p.m., Knowledge

You likely know the chap they call Suggs best as the lead singer of the British band Madness, but he’s setting aside his ska-influenced pop to host this look at the band of musicians on the RMS Titanic who famously kept playing as the ship sank.

8. Ozark – Friday, August 31, Netflix | Season Premiere

If the explosive ending to season one of Ozark promised us anything, it’s that our return to Missouri’s recreational haven is not to take advantage of the area’s vacation activities. Forget jet skis and lazy lakeside afternoons, the Byrdes have some serious work to do. And this time everyone is committing to the family business.

“They’ve made the choice to do this together,” saus Laura Linney, whose character, family matriarch Wendy Byrde, returned with their two children to her husband at the end of last year’s finale. “There’s a commitment to their mutual survival, which fuels everything.”

9. Paradise PD – Friday, August 31, Netflix | Series Premiere

When it comes to animated series aimed at adult audiences—well, let’s just say those audiences tend to be a lot tougher to please (and therefore to predict) than younger cartoon consumers. But when Netflix found success with the filthy fun of the newly pubescent characters on Big Mouth, they knew there was a portion of their subscriber base that was interested in that sort of thing. If you’re part of this demographic, then go ahead and mark out space in your calendar to binge on Paradise PD.

The series revolves around a small-town police department where the officers are borderline incompetent. Wait, did we say “borderline?” We actually meant, to quote the show’s official logline: “They’re bad cops. Not bad like no-nonsense. Not bad like cool. Bad like sh***y.”

In an interview with The Daily Dot, cast member Tom Kenny—best known for giving voice to SpongeBob SquarePants—described the series both as “Brickleberry on Earth B” and “Brooklyn Nine-Nine meets Breaking Bad,” while Dana Snyder, who’s also in the voice cast, referred to his character as “a diabetic heart with arms and legs.”

In addition to these two gentlemen, the series continues the trend of all-star voice casting with Cedric Yarbrough (Speechless), David Herman (Office Space), Grey Griffin (Scooby-Doo), standup comedian Kyle Kinane (Love) and Canadian Sarah Chalke (Scrubs).

10. Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan – Friday, August 31, Amazon Prime Video | Series Premiere

Throughout his on-screen escapades, Jack Ryan has had many iconic face. As portrayed by Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford, Ben Affleck and Chris Pine, the analyst-turned-field-operative has evaded volatile confrontations between the Soviet Union and the USA, fought a Colombian drug cartel, stopped neo-Nazis and the I.R.A. What he hasn’t done, is show us how he became the brainy operator equipped to safeguard his country from every threat that comes its way. But when Jack Ryan (John Krasinski) finally hist the small screen, that is exactly where we are headed–all the way back to the beginning.