What to Watch This Week: September 28 to October 4

From new family secrets to a conversation on white privilege, we round up the top 10 shows to watch this week

1. Between Two Ferns – Netflix

What began as a recurring Funny or Die talk-show sketch has been transformed into a feature-length film. But it’s a film that won’t actually be in theatres, which, given the cast Zach Galifianakis has managed to corral, is pretty remarkable, seeing as just about any one of the names dropped within the trailer—Benedict Cumberbatch, Keanu Reeves, Tiffany Haddish, oh my!—is worthy of headlining a major motion picture. (OK, maybe not Chrissy Teigen, but since she helps set up a great John Legend joke, we’ll allow it.) The premise is admittedly a bit thin; when an interview with Matthew McConaughey goes awry, Zach must go on the road and record 10 new episodes of Between Two Ferns or producer Will Ferrell will cancel him; but we’ve already seen enough chuckles to trust that the A-list team will keep the laugh boat afloat.

2. Hello Privilege. It’s Me, Chelsea – Netflix

Once upon a time, comedian Chelsea Handler wrote a book entitled Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea, but now she’s addressing a new topic—one that’s decidedly more serious: white privilege, specifically as it permeates American culture. “I think it’s important to have uncomfortable conversations about race because we have a big situation that’s happening,” Handler said on The View back in April 2019. “And I thought, like an idiot, Barack Obama being elected was the end of racial tension in this country, and that’s not the case.”

3. Celebrity Family Feud – Sunday, September 29, 7 p.m., City; 8 p.m., ABC I Season Premiere

It’s going to be an epic battle, the fight of the century, the melee of the millennium! Well, maybe not all that, but pretty close to it in game show terms when team black-ish, led by Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross, faces off against The Goldbergs, helmed by Jeff Garlin. Expect the usual barbs, banter and buffoonery during this season finale of the perennial favourite where contestants go head-to-head trying to guess the most popular responses to survey-type questions posed to 100 people, for a chance to win moolah for the charity of their choice—in this case, Color of Change for black-ish, and F Cancer for The Goldbergs.

4. Preacher – Sunday, September 29, 7:14 p.m. & 10:46 p.m., AMC I Series Finale

After four seasons of supernatural mayhem, the otherworldly exploits of titular preacher Jesse Custer (Dominic Cooper), Tulip O’Hare (Ruth Negga) and affable Irish vampire Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun) are coming to a conclusion in the sure-to-be epic series finale of the comic book-inspired show. While fans can expect an apocalyptic ending to the good-vs.-evil battle, the show’s star says he’s hopeful they find the finale to be a narratively satisfying one. “[The writers] have cleverly managed to do, I think what was owed to fans of the comic, which is close off the story,” Cooper explained in a recent interview with TV Insider. “We went on very separate journeys on this, but we all came to a head in the end and it reached a monumental peak. They’ve done what the comics did, which I think was one of the best things I’ve ever read.” Completing production on the final episode, he added, “was very odd because you think it’s going to be this wonderful thing, like a play, where you finish and you bow. Truth is, you’re lonely and sad in a parking lot at 4:30 a.m. and we were all separated.”

5. The Simpsons – Sunday, September 29, 8 p.m., City & Fox I Season Premiere

Let’s see, is there anything Bart and Homer haven’t done yet? Hey, wait a minute, they haven’t become social media celebrities! However, that’s all going to change in Sunday’s premiere when a video of Bart and Homer having a tussle goes viral. Meanwhile, Lisa battles her school’s new industrialized detention system. By the way, tonight marks the beginning of the Simpson family’s 31st season. At this rate, they’re going to outlive us all!

6. Bluff City Law – Monday, September 29, 10 p.m., City & NBC I Series Premiere

Nearly three decades after Jimmy Smits rose to fame as Victor Sifuentes on L.A. Law, the actor returns to the legal profession as Elijah Strait, the head of a family law firm in Memphis, Tennessee. Together with his daughter Sydney, played by Caitlin McGee, the two form an initially reluctant partnership as they tackle cases they hope will make a difference, for the better.

7. iHeartRadio Music Festival – Wednesday, October 2 & Thursday, October 3, 8 p.m., The CW

No one knows how to put on a show like the impresarios in Las Vegas, which is why it’s a shame we weren’t able to attend this year’s star-packed iHeartRadio Music Festival, which takes place in late September. The fest’s impressive lineup includes, but is not confined to, Alicia Keys, Backstreet Boys, Heart, Miley Cyrus, Mumford & Sons, Zac Brown Band and Tim McGraw. As ever, the two-day extravaganza is being pared down to a select few highlights for this week’s two-night television broadcast. It won’t all be your cup o’ tea, but there should be a little something for everyone on the multi-genre card. So grab your “bae,” whip up a bunch of heart-shaped cookies and enjoy the show. It may just be the incentive you need to start saving up for a ticket to next year’s fest.

8. Almost Family – Wednesday, October 2, 9 p.m., CTV & Fox I Series Premiere

And you thought your family life was complicated. Try matching it against that of the main characters in Almost Family, a new Fox drama from former Parenthood and Friday Night Lights executive producer Jason Katims, starring Brittany Snow (Pitch Perfect) as a supposed only child who learns her fertility-doctor father (Oscar winner Timothy Hutton) used his sperm to conceive roughly 100 other offspring. Her once-best friend (Megalyn Echikunwoke, Vixen) and an ex-Olympian (Emily Osment, Young & Hungry) are among them, leaving the women to ponder their new relationships to one another—and potentially to many others.

9. Emergency Room: Life and Death at VGH – Wednesday, October 2, 11 p.m., Knowledge

This season-two episode of the Vancouver-set hospital series finds VGH’s finest, the patients they serve and the families of those patients reluctantly forced to confront their own mortality—which even the most advanced treatments and technology cannot safeguard forever.

10. Goliath – Friday, October 4, Amazon Prime Video I Season Premiere

Perpetually reluctant lawyer Billy McBride (Billy Bob Thornton) returns for a third season of noir-tinged courtroom theatrics. This time, the death of an old friend (Sherilyn Fenn) puts Billy and his team of underdogs on the trail of a billionaire rancher (Dennis Quaid), who’s wrapped up in a scheme involving “the drought-stricken Central Valley.” Over the course of Billy’s investigation, “old enemies and personal demons resurface, forcing him to confront his own mortality.” This season’s all-star cast also includes Amy Brenneman, Beau Bridges, Illeana Douglas, and Canadians Graham Greene and Shamier Anderson.