What to Watch This Week: October 18 to 23

From an ’80s homage to major league play, we round up the top 10 shows to watch this week

1. Supermarket Sweep – Sunday, October 18, 8 p.m., CTV & ABC | Series Premiere

Get ready to race down the aisles and fill those shopping carts sky-high in this revival of the classic game show, hosted by former Saturday Night Live cut-up Leslie Jones—who’s admitted in interviews that she herself tried out for a spot on the show’s previous iteration.

2. Surviving Joe Exotic – Sunday, October 18, 6 p.m. & Midnight, Discovery

Originally filmed in 2018 for Animal Planet series Wolves and Warriors, this special features one of Tiger King subject Joe Exotic’s final interviews before his arrest, along with the stories of the animals caught in the crossfire of his big cat breeding business. The film crew was provided full access to the man’s Oklahoma zoo and allowed an inside look at Mr. Exotic’s operations, including the stage show, the interactive tour and never-before-seen footage. Those who watched the wildly popular Netflix docuseries will also want to stay tuned for a second special, Joe Exotic: Before He Was King, airing right after at 7 p.m. and repeating at 1 a.m.

3. Lovecraft County – Sunday, October 18, 8 p.m. & 11:45 p.m., HBO Canada | Season Finale

Misha Green, Jordan Peele and J.J. Abrams’ mind-bending road trip across Jim Crow America caps season one. Tonight’s finale will officially exhaust the story provided by Matt Ruff’s novel; no word yet if the buzzy drama will return.

4. 2020 World Series – Tuesday, October 20, 5 p.m., Fox

It’s been a bumpy road, but the MLB has reached its end games. This has been a challenging, surreal season for fans and players alike, but even with COVID-19 changing sport life as we know it… well, there’s just nothing that compares to the thrill of a seven-part championship series.

5. The Conners – Wednesday, October 21, 7:30 p.m., CTV; 9 p.m., ABC | Season Premiere

As TV production begins gearing up, this Roseanne-without-Roseanne spinoff kicks off its third season—its first post-pandemic, so expect to see social distancing, face masks and other COVID-related elements figuring into the new season’s storylines.

6. The Goldbergs – Wednesday, October 21, 8 p.m., CTV & ABC | Season Premiere

Over the course of the past several seasons, it’s become a Goldbergs tradition for the premiere to also serve as a tribute to some iconic film from the ’80s. We’ve already seen them riff on The Karate Kid, National Lampoon’s Vacation and Risky Business, but this year the honour goes to one of the greatest comedies of all time: Airplane!

And before you ask: yes, we’re serious… and don’t call us Shirley! The plot of tonight’s one-hour season-eight debut revolves around the Goldberg family, along with the kids’ respective significant others, embarking on a trip to Miami, with the bulk of the story taking place during the flight.

Beyond that, we don’t really know what to expect, but we can at least offer the Goldbergs a bit of advice: if the meal choices are chicken or fish, ask for the lasagna.

7. My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman – Wednesday, October 21, Netflix | Season Premiere

His beard is bigger—we’ve been led to believe it actually has its own agent now—but Dave’s still the same irascible yet entertaining interviewer he’s always been. Guests this year include Robert Downey, Jr., Dave Chappelle and Lizzo.

8. Cadaver – Thursday, October 22, Netflix

This Norwegian horror film, set in the aftermath of a nuclear disaster, finds starving survivors invited by a local hotel to attend a theatre play, with a meal included, as a charitable effort to help those in need. After a family of three accepts the offer, the play takes an eerie turn when audience members begin to disappear.

9. The Queen’s Gambit – Friday, October 23, Netflix | Series Premiere

Get ready for a thoughtful, timely trip to the past, as Walter Tevis’s acclaimed novel is adapted in a new miniseries. The Witch‘s Anya Taylor-Joy stars as Beth Harmon, an orphan in the 1950s with a family history of mental illness and a peerless mind for chess.

The show traces her journey from childhood into womanhood, as she gains fame for being a masterful chess player while falling deeper and deeper into an addiction to pills and alcohol. That, coupled with unresolved issues from her past, lead to a spiral that threatens to unravel her from the inside out just as she’s ready to take on one of the biggest matches of her life. It’s one part old Hollywood thanks to some breathtaking cinematography, sets and wardrobe, and one part social commentary as this young woman tries to make her mark in a man’s world.

10. On the Rocks – Friday, October 23, Apple TV+

It’s been 17 years since Sofia Coppola first directed Bill Murray, and now that they’ve reteamed for the new Apple TV+ streaming film On the Rocks, Coppola is willing to admit the truth behind why it’s taken so long. As she told Dax Shepard in an interview on his podcast, she was nervous about the possibility of ruining the perfect track record they had going with Lost in Translation.

Thankfully, she finally decided it had been long enough—and that they’d reached different enough points in their careers—that it was worth taking the risk. Thank goodness she did. The film stars Parks and Rec alum Rashida Jones as Laura, a young mother who finds herself suddenly wondering about the solidity of her marriage to Dean (Marlon Wayans) after he starts working late nights.

Deciding that the person best able to provide insight into the situation is her gadabout father (played by Murray, because of course he is), the two team up for a daddy-daughter caper that finds them tracking Dean across New York City, moving from nightclubs to parties and, in the process, unexpectedly confronting their own fraught relationship.