What to Watch This Week: March 18 to 23

From Netflix exclusives to movies to reality TV, we round up our top 10 shows to watch this week

From Netflix exclusives to crime dramas to reality TV, we round up our top 10 shows to watch this week

 

1. Kevin Can Wait – Monday, March 19, 8 p.m., Global & CBS

Seeing an opportunity to promote their new security business, Vanessa urges Kevin to appear on a talk show with the now-grown “baby boy” he helped deliver back when he was a cop. Alas, this brings him face-to-face with his old nemesis, Frank Munson.

 

2. The Voice – Tuesday, March 20, 8 p.m., CTV & NBC

Now that the show’s newly revamped panel of coaches (Blake Shelton, Kelly Clarkson, Alicia Keys, Adam Levine) has had a chance to establish their rapport with one another and to pick their teams of singers, it’s time for those singers to show us all what they’ve got in this week’s inaugural battle rounds.

 

3. The Standups – Tuesday, March 20, Netflix | Season Premiere

Netflix is doing everything in its power to become the go-to place for established standup comedians to bring their specials, so it stands to reason that they’d also be on the lookout for as much new or underrated talent as possible. The first season of The Standups offered six 30-minute episodes, each spotlighting a different comedian, and the results were—thankfully—pretty darned funny. This week, the series is back with another six-pack.

Who’s taking their turn at the mic this time? Glad you asked! The talent roster includes Gina Yashere, Rachel Feinstein, Kyle Kinane, Aparna Nancherla, Joe List and Brent Morin. You may know some of these folks already—Kinane has appeared on virtually every talk show of note and Morin has already had a Netflix special of his own—but soon you’ll know them all.

 

4. The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story – Wednesday, March 21, 7 p.m., 8:10 p.m. & 10 p.m., FX Canada | Season Finale

Darren Criss puts the finishing touches on his beautifully nuanced performance in the second-season finale. After flashing back to Andrew Cunanan’s fraught childhood last week, we’re now, finally, back in the present, as the hunt for the serial killer comes to a frantic finish.

 

5. The X-Files – Wednesday, March 21, 8 p.m., CTV & Fox | Season Finale

It lasted through nine original seasons, two feature films and, now, two revival seasons. But this could be the last-ever creepy case tackled by Mulder and Scully, as star Gillian Anderson has confirmed she’s done with playing Dana Scully. That said, creator Chris Carter is exploring ways to keep the series going.

 

6. Great Performances – Wednesday, March 21, 11 p.m., KCTS

Legendary B.C.-born producer David Foster shines in the spotlight during this Great Performances encore of Hitman: David Foster and Friends, featuring a Las Vegas performance in which he’s joined by such stars as Michael Bublé, Kenny G, Josh Groban, Peter Cetera, Andrea Bocelli, Blake Shelton and many more.

 

7. Station 19 – Thursday, March 22, 9 p.m., CTV & ABC | Series Premiere

We can only imagine the brainstorming session that led to the creation of Station 19, (which until recently was called Untitled Grey’s Anatomy Spinoff), in which Dr. Ben Warren (Jason George) decides to change careers from surgeon to firefighter and work for the Seattle Fire Department because… well, I’ll let exec producer Stacy McKee take that one.

“His character seemed like such an organic character to transition into the spinoff, especially once we’d settled on the idea of firefighting and a fire station,” McKee said during a session for the new spinoff during the Television Critics Association press tour.

“If you followed Ben Warren as a character, he’s changed careers a couple of times,” she added (his character was initially an anesthesiologist), pointing out that “he always goes after the thing that he thinks is going to satisfy him the most in the moment. And he’s never satisfied if he’s stuck somewhere that isn’t fulfilling him. So it just seemed like a really organic, natural transition.”

As George explained, his character is undoubtedly taking a steep pay cut to follow his dream of fighting fires, yet the career change is right in step with Ben’s desire to make a difference. “I don’t think anybody becomes a firefighter for the money,” he joked, noting that Ben is “at a point where he sees the opportunity to get closer to the source of people’s problems and help improve that situation until it gets to the hospital.”

Meanwhile, McKee’s fellow producer Paris Barclay promises the firehouse spinoff will tick all the boxes for fans of Grey’s Anatomy, offering only “slight” differentiation in terms of the show’s tone and style.

“We want the Grey’s Anatomy fans to love this show the way they love Grey’s,” he said. “We want them to be comfortable. It’s like having dinner at your uncle’s, but your mother’s still cooking.”

 

8. Alexa & Katie – Friday, March 23, Netflix | Series Premiere

Netflix’s latest contribution to the multicam comedy club focuses on—you guessed it—Alexa (Paris Berelc) and Katie (Isabel May), two teens who’ve been best friends practically since birth and are psyched to start high school together. Yes, we know, it sounds straight out of the Disney Channel playbook, but there’s an additional aspect that sets it outside of the norm: Alexa is in the midst of undergoing cancer treatment.

As you can imagine, this makes her the centre of attention at school in the worst way possible, but Katie is there for her every step of the way, as is Alexa’s mom, Lori, played by former Saved by the Bell and White Collar star Tiffani Thiessen.

Taking into account the past televisual accomplishments of series creator Heather Wordham (Hannah Montana, Reba) and showrunner Matthew Carlson (Malcolm in the Middle, Samantha Who?), there would seem to be a distinct chance that Alexa & Katie could straddle the worlds of ‘tween-coms and mainstream primetime sitcom fare while also imbuing the material with a quirkiness that will defuse some of the schmaltziness. Keep your fingers crossed.

 

9. Dynasty – Friday, March 23, 8 p.m., The CW

The CW’s reboot of this classic primetime soap has struggled in the ratings department so far this first season. The trysts and treacheries of the energy-magnate Carrington family just haven’t enthralled viewers the way they used to. That said, one of the key catalysts from that original show has been missing, as producers opted to keep Carrington matriarch Alexis—mother of Fallon and ex-wife of Blake—waiting in the wings. Alexis, of course, is one of TV’s most iconic divas, a reputation fuelled by the performance of Joan Collins and one epic lilypond catfight with her ex’s new wife, Krystle (Linda Evans).

Alexis 2.0 will be played by Desperate Housewives alum Nicollette Sheridan, who arrives tonight in “unexpected” fashion, eager to reunite with her children, stake her claim of the family fortune and, yes, stir things up with Cristal.

 

10. Santa Clarita Diet – Friday, March 23, Netflix

In this post-Sopranos era, cable networks and streaming services have become downright ravenous for shows that push boundaries and stand out in an increasingly crowded TV landscape; and while many creators have taken advantage of this newfound freedom to craft edgy and intriguing work, it’s still rare to encounter a concept that feels genuinely, strikingly original.

Of course, any series that features Drew Barrymore repainting the walls of a lovely little suburban bathroom with projectile vomit, before dying, rising again, impulse-buying a Range Rover and devouring Nathan Fillion alive—all in the first 30 minutes of its first season—is going to turn heads. (We mean, really, a Range Rover is not a purchase to take so lightly.)

But beyond the considerable shock value of seeing one of America’s proverbial sweethearts devour human flesh, the show, from quirky comedy auteur Victor Fresco (Better Off Ted), stands out for another reason: it functions simultaneously as a graphic horror series, a biting yet bubbly satire of suburban life and a warm-hearted family comedy (in which said family must procure corpses for the matriarch to eat).

So obviously, when Netflix invited TV Week to set during the filming of season two, we took them up on it. And unlike a lot of shows, Santa Clarita Diet is filmed exactly where it’s set: the Southern California suburb of Santa Clarita, home to a studio that serves as the primary shooting location for several series; the difference being that the sets they’re building for Santa Clarita Diet aren’t pirate ships or a 1960s advertising firm, but rather mimic the mundane suburban homes of the city itself—give or take a dismembered body in a bathtub.

After a set tour that somewhat fittingly felt more like an open house, we sat down with Barrymore and co-lead Timothy Olyphant to discuss what’s ahead for married realtors Sheila and Joel, as they continue to brave the challenges and embrace the opportunities Sheila’s new condition brings.

“The first [season is] a diet, the second one maybe more of a lifestyle,” the actress explains, as the two dogs she brought to set—Lucy and Douglas—weave their way between journalists’ legs under the conference table at which we’ve all set up shop. “If last year was, ‘How are we gonna make this work?’ now they’re just in it, so it is less apologetic, less confusing, less overwhelming. You saw that scene today about they only kill bad people. I think they know what the mission is now. They’re victims of this… If they have to kill and eat, they’re gonna get rid of the scum while they have to do that.”

And on that note, Barrymore would like to set the record straight on a bit of fake news that’s been making the rounds since before season one.

“I am not a cannibal. She’s a zombie. It’s very different. Cannibals kill people by choice, because they’re a**holes; zombies kill because they can’t help it. It’s what’s happened to them.”

Of course, it’s an easy mistake to make, given that aside from some very minor decomposition, Sheila doesn’t act like your typical shuffling, moaning brain-muncher. Quite the opposite: death has compelled her to start embracing life with a reckless abandon. Her ego has been turned off, her id switched into overdrive. It’s a character development that Olyphant would welcome for Joel.

“It’d be fun to see where he takes it. Because the cool thing about the undead in this show is that they’re not all acting in unison. They’re all kind of living out their dreams, their fantasies, things they’ve always wanted to do but never admitted… We could find Joel always wanting to be a French teacher; that would be fun. Maybe if he wore a beret? And then there would be subtitles.”

But beneath the zany, bloody, satirical hilarity, the core of the show is the enduring bond between Sheila, Joel, their teen daughter Abby (Liv Hewson) and nerd-next-door Eric (Skyler Gisondo), who becomes something of a surrogate son this year. (“Eric is a big part of our family in a lot of ways—especially since we killed and ate his stepfather,” Olyphant quips.) As the foursome bands together in the face of a larger-than-life threat, they can’t help get caught up in petty, relatable domestic nonsense.

“One of the things Victor does so well,” Olyphant explains, “is that even in the most dire, stressful, high-stakes scenes, interspersed with that is still the love and the bickering, and it comes through.”

As for the mystery of how this happened to Sheila in the first place, the stars tease that we will in fact learn the origin of her illness this year, but there yet remains a much deeper rabbit hole.

“I think Victor straddles a nice line so that when things do reveal themselves, it’s delicious and surprising and you want more, versus it being constantly about the reason… the mystery [is] rolled out in a way that keeps it delightful rather than procedural.”

For Barrymore in particular, this has proven to be a genuinely life-changing ride. For one thing, there’s the dieting; and while the actress assures us she’s “not Method,” she has cut out carbs, dairy and a lot of other fun foodstuff to reflect Sheila’s new high-protein tastes. In the process, she went from a size 10 to a four.

“I exercise a lot and I eat so clean when I’m doing the show, and I kind of run around and stare like a seagull at everyone else’s food because I can’t eat it,” she says. “It’s been great for the character and my own sort of self-respect. This job has given me a lot more than just a job. It’s made me pull my s*** together.”

What’s more, that problematic craving for flesh aside, the character’s overall liberated outlook has been enriching on a spiritual level. “I find her incredibly empowering. I always say she woke me up… I think since Firestarter, for me, this is the most fun I’ve had. The best f***in’ kickass character.”

Alas, Barrymore must also take care to keep her inner Sheila in check.

“I had to walk away from a situation this weekend. Sheila does get under my skin. It was just a guy at a movie theatre. He said I was late to the movie and he wouldn’t let me in. And I was like, ‘But it’s in previews. I don’t want to see the previews, I just came to see the movie.’ But they wouldn’t let me in, and I drove home really angry… I did have fantasies of leaping across his table and grabbing him by the lapels and eating his face off. But that’s not the right thing to do, obviously.”