What to Watch This Week: October 29 to November 2

From the Peanuts and their Great Pumpkin to Hollywood’s Marvel muscle, we round up our top 10 shows to watch this week

 

1. It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown – Sunday, October 29, 8 p.m., ABC

A Halloween tradition since it first aired back in 1966, this beloved animated special follows Charlie Brown and the gang as they go trick-or-treating while Sally trails Linus on his annual trek to the pumpkin patch in hopes of getting a glimpse of the Great Pumpkin. Naturally, Halloween night turns out to be a big disaster for both Charlie Brown and Linus.

 

2. Warning: This Drug May Kill You – Monday, October 30, 6:30 p.m., HBO Canada

If you thought the opioid crisis was something that only affected other people, the stories of these four families are likely to change your tune as they break your heart.

 

3. Alias Grace – Monday, October 30, 9:01 p.m., CBC | Series Finale

Margaret Atwood has always been a Canadian treasure, but lately it seems as though the rest of the world—or Hollywood, at least—has finally wised up to the author’s genius. This week, the prolific (and, some say, prophetic) scribe’s most recent adaptation comes to a close with the finale of this Canadian true-crime drama, just as it arrives on Netflix for the rest of the world to devour. Actress-turned-filmmaker Sarah Polley wrote and developed the series following a long obsession with the book (She first tried to buy the rights when she was 17) and Canadian American Psycho director Mary Harron helmed all six episodes.

In the finale, it’s 1859 and the committee, Simon and Jerome DuPont begin the neuro-hypnosis experiment on Grace but when Mary Whitney’s voice surfaces from the “murderess” instead of Grace’s, it’s a game-changer that unnerves everyone and sets up a thoroughly unexpected conclusion.

 

4. Straight Outta Compton – Monday, October 30, 9:30 p.m., TMN1

Few rap groups were more influential in the 1980s and 1990s than N.W.A. The story of Eazy-E, Ice Cube, DJ Yella, MC Ren and Dr. Dre is a dramatic one, featuring violence, death, betrayal, lawsuits and, yes, some of the best rap music of all time.

 

5. Finding Your Roots – Tuesday, October 31, 5 p.m. & 10:30 p.m., WTVS; 8 p.m., KCTS

Tune in as Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. welcomes a trio of Hollywood’s finest—Scarlett Johansson, Paul Rudd and John Turturro—to his table, where they’ll more than likely be blown away by a few hidden branches on their respective family trees.

 

6. The Great Canadian Baking Show – Wednesday, November 1, 8 p.m, CBC | Series Premiere

If ever there was a series created to boost the sales of stretchy pants, it’s The Great Canadian Baking Show. Based on the monster international hit The Great British Bake Off, the competition series brings together 10 amateur bakers from across Canada to compete in a series of themed culinary challenges, all co-hosted by familiar small-screen faces Dan Levy (Schitt’s Creek) and Julia Chan (Saving Hope).

The show’s judges—Rochelle Adonis and Bruno Feldeisen—are not fooling around. In episode one, Adonis says, completely seriously: “Cupcakes are going to tell us who these bakers are.” (Apparently F.B.I. profilers have been doing it wrong all these years.)

 

7. Logan – Wednesday, November 1, Netflix

Hugh Jackman returns to the the franchise—along side Patrick Stewart as Professor X—in this mammoth box office smash. Acclaimed by audiences and critics alike for its dark, brutal tone, the film became one of the most successful films of 2017 and one of the best reviewed instalments in Marvel’s cinematic history.

 

8. The Beaverton – Wednesday, November 1, 10 p.m., Comedy | Season Premiere

When it comes to homegrown political satire on Canadian television, the list of shows is a pretty short one, including CBC’s This Hour Has 22 Minutes, The Rick Mercer Report and the annual New Year’s Eve specials of the Royal Canadian Air Farce. Or at least that was the case until last year’s debut of The Beaverton, a faux news broadcast that sprang from the website of the same name, offering hilarious fake news stories in the vein of The Onion.

The show’s debut season—which kicked off last November—was successful enough to warrant a second, which begins this week. Miguel Rivas and Emma Hunter return as anchors of the satirical fake newscast, joined by correspondents Marilla Wex, Laura Cilevitz, Aisha Alfa and Donavon Stinson.

 

9. Young Sheldon – Thursday, November 2, 8:30 p.m., CTV & CBS | Series Premiere

While the pilot aired as a special presentation back in September, this week marks the official premiere of this spinoff of The Big Bang Theory, with Jim Parsons providing voiceover narration (as grown Sheldon, of course) while Iain Armitage (Big Little Lies) plays the quirky, young genius at age nine.

 

10. S.W.A.T. – Thursday, November 2, 10 p.m., Global & CBS | Series Premiere

Many of the names—starting with the title—and some of the theme music will be familiar to fans of a 1970s action series. Originally made by TV mega-producer Aaron Spelling and current Blue Bloods supplier Leonard Goldberg, the cop drama S.W.A.T. gets a CBS reboot starting this week. Former Criminal Minds star Shemar Moore assumes Steve Forrest’s earlier role as Daniel “Hondo” Harrelson, the new leader of an elite Special Weapons and Tactics Team… but the new incarnation of the character is torn, having to police the Los Angeles streets where he grew up and still has roots, while rehabbing the image of a S.W.A.T. team that has a reputation for going too far.

The timing of S.W.A.T.‘s return is significant, since this year marks the 50th anniversary of the real-life founding of metropolitan L.A.’s first such team.