A ‘Scooby-Doo’ Reunion, ‘Colin in Black & White’ and ‘Army of Thieves’ on Netflix, Roy Wood Jr. Stand-Up, More ‘Paranormal Activity’

Documentary Premiere

8/7c

A nostalgic treat awaits those who (like me) have fond memories of Saturday morning cartoons in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? was a personal favorite, and this hourlong special reunites the Scooby Gang at Warner Bros. Studios for behind-the-scenes reminiscences of their favorite cases. Naturally, they begin to suspect something sinister is afoot on the backlot. Celebrity guests include Young Sheldon’s Iain Armitage, Seth Green, Queer Eye’s Karamo Brown, “Weird Al” Yankovic and Saturday Night Live veteran Cheri Oteri.

Series Premiere

With elements of The Wonder Years and Friday Night Lights, this surprising collaboration of director Ava DuVernay and former NFL quarterback-turned-activist Colin Kaepernick is a six-part drama (narrated by Kaepernick) that looks back on the biracial athlete’s formative teen years as a star athlete in small-town California. Nick Offerman and Mary-Louise Parker play his adoptive parents, who support young Colin (Jaden Michael) while not always acknowledging the racial and cultural prejudices that spur the awakening of his social conscience.

Series Premiere

NBA star Kevin Durant is among the producing and creative team behind another youth-oriented sports drama. Set in the world of youth basketball, Swagger stars O’Shea Jackson Jr. as a former star player-turned-coach who’s guiding new phenom Jace Carson (Isaiah Hill) to follow his dreams, perhaps to the NBA with all of its temptations and pitfalls. The 10-part series opens with three episodes, the remainder dropping weekly through the Dec. 17 season finale.

Movie Premiere

One of the more popular characters of Zack Snyder’s hit zombie thriller Army of the Dead, nebbishy German safecracker Dieter gets his own origin story in this light-caper prequel. Starring and directed by Matthias Schweighöfer, Thieves presents Dieter as his actual persona, Sebastian, who’s recruited by international thief Gwendoline (Nathalie Emmanuel) to join a team for a series of three high-stakes European heists.

Special

10:30/9:30c

The outspoken and always entertaining Daily Show correspondent takes on some big issues in his third special for his home network in a stand-up set filmed earlier this month in Denver. Among the topics he subjects to his barbed commentary: police and prison reform, the Jan. 6 Capitol riots and (this sounds like fun) Black British actors in civil-rights movies.

Movie Premiere

If you’ve already survived Halloween Kills, another ongoing horror franchise delivers a new chapter just in time for Halloween. Emily Bader stars as Margot, who invites a documentary filmmaker (which explains the footage) to follow her as she enters a remote Amish community to reconnect with her family. Supernatural trouble unnaturally ensues.

A pivotal episode stages a fraught reunion between disgraced ex-anchor Mitch Kessler (Steve Carell) and his one-time partner Alex Levy (Jennifer Aniston) when she shows up unannounced at the gates of his enviable Italian villa. “I no-showed a debate and chartered a plane into a hot zone!” Alex screams as they assess the scandalous fallout from a new exposé and wonder about the state and future of their friendship. Meanwhile, a COVID-19 spike in Italy could impede Alex’s chances of a quick getaway.

Ripped from the Headlines:

Friday’s newsmagazines examine two of the year’s highest-profile crime stories. ABC’s 20/20 (9/8c) digs into the Gabby Petito case that went viral on social media (and soon after traditional media), posing questions about what comes next after the discovery of her fiancé Brian Laundrie’s remains in Florida. On Dateline NBC (9/8c), a report on the twisted saga of South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh includes exclusive interviews with family members of Gloria Satterfield, the housekeeper who died after falling at the Murdaugh home. The two-hour broadcast also includes an update on the investigation into the disappearance of California Polytechnic State University freshman Kristin Smart in 1996.

Inside Friday TV:

• The World Series (7:30/6:30c, 4:30/PT, Fox): The Fall Classic moves to Atlanta for the next three games, with the Braves and Houston Astros tied at one win each.
• The Abominable Dr. Phibes (8/7c, Turner Classic Movies): TCM’s Halloween-themed weekend of horror classics begins with the campy Vincent Price revenge thriller from 1971, followed by George A. Romero’s trendsetting 1968 zombie shocker Night of the Living Dead (10/9c). Notable scary movies continue through Sunday evening, with Alfred Hitchcock’s timeless Psycho at 8/7c.
• Eli Roth’s History of Horror (10/9c, AMC and AMC+): The study and celebration of horror-movie genres continues with a well-timed look at “Holiday Horror. Halloween scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis joins experts weighing in on films including the Halloween franchise, Black Christmas, My Bloody Valentine and more.
• Now Hear This (9/8c, PBS, check local listings at pbs.org): A special episode of the musical docuseries conjures “Beethoven’s Ghost,” as host/violinist Scott Yoo delves into the fabled composer’s psyche with performances of his work including the “Ghost Trio” and imagines dramatized conversations between Beethoven and Sigmund Freud.
• Fairfax (streaming on Prime Video): The latest in a line of “adult” animated comedies about kids follows four middle-school besties as they desperately try to fit in and not fall behind the curve of a relentless hypebeast culture.