Claire Foy Hosts ‘SNL,’ Garth Brooks Plays Notre Dame, ‘Life-Size 2’ and Many More Holiday Movies
A critical checklist of notable weekend TV:
Saturday Night Live (Saturday, 11:30/10:30c, NBC): We’re used to seeing Claire Foy play royalty: the ill-fated Anne Boleyn in PBS’s Wolf Hall, and more famously as Queen Elizabeth II in The Crown, winning her an Emmy and Golden Globe. Having recently graced the big screen with dramatic turns in First Man and The Girl in the Spider’s Web, she gives comedy a try in her first turn as SNL guest host. Let’s hope the show rises to the occasion. Anderson .Paak is the first-time musical guest.
Garth: Live at Notre Dame! (Sunday, 8/7c, CBS): It took just three hours for Country Music Hall of Famer Garth Brooks to sell out the 80,000-seat Notre Dame Stadium, the first concert ever at the iconic Indiana university’s arena. Shouldn’t be a surprise, though, given the success of his recently completed three-and-a-half-year Garth Brooks World Tour with Trisha Yearwood. Don’t worry about him catching a December chill. The concert was filmed in October.
Life-Size 2 (Sunday, 9/8c, Freeform): The highest-profile of the weekend’s many holiday movies is a sequel to 2000’s Disney Channel hit starring Tyra Banks as Eve, a fashionista doll come to bubbly life. In the follow-up, when a 20something toy-company CEO (grown-ish’s Francia Raisa) considers discontinuing the Eve doll, guess who reawakens to set the executive straight? (If you want a refresher on the original movie, Freeform repeats the first Life-Size movie Saturday at 11:55 pm/10:55c and Sunday afternoon at 2:35/1:35c.)
So what, you may ask, are Hallmark and Lifetime offering? Plenty. Saturday’s premieres: Mingle All the Way (Saturday, 8/7c, Hallmark), the name of a networking app that brings together two A-list professionals; Christmas Wonderland (9/8, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries), starring Emily Osment as a NYC art dealer who goes back home to Pleasant Valley, PA to babysit her niece and nephew and falls all over again for her high-school sweetheart; A Twist of Christmas (8/7c, Lifetime), about two single parents whose toy purchases get mixed up at the store. Sorting things out lead to, what else, romance.
Sunday’s premieres: A Majestic Christmas (Hallmark, 8/7c), starring Grey’s Anatomy’s Jerrika Hinton and Christian Vincent as an architect and theater owner who clash over the future of the Majestic Theater. Until they don’t… Friday Night Lights’ Aimee Teegarden stars in Hallmark Movies & Mysteries’ Once Upon a Christmas Miracle (9/8c), a fact-based romance about a woman who falls for the stranger (Brett Dalton) who gave her a life-saving kidney… Lifetime’s The Christmas Pact (8/7c) follows two BFFs from childhood into young adulthood, their love growing along with the Christmas tree they planted when they were 8 years old.
Anything else? Why, sure! TV One offers Merry Wishmas (Sunday, 7/6c), starring Tamela and David Mann in the story of a businesswoman who goes home to South Carolina and helps an old high-school friend keep his wellness facility afloat. The Facts of Life’s Kim Fields co-stars… UPtv’s Christmas Catch(Sunday, 7/6c) finds a female detective whose Christmas holiday is derailed when she tracks a hot guy who may be dealing in hot diamonds.
In the News: For the first time since they married in 1980, Jane Pauley interviews husband and Doonesbury cartoonist Garry Trudeau on CBS Sunday Morning (9 am/8c), to mark the 50th anniversary of his celebrated satirical comic strip… Hard to tell if this is wish fulfillment, but CNN presents the news special Presidents Under Fire: The History of Impeachment (Sunday, 9/8c, CNN and CNN International), with Fareed Zakaria hosting and providing historical perspective on modern-day “impeachment fever.” Zakaria moderates a debate among historians who wonder if the current volatile political climate has made the nation too fragile to survive another impeachment battle.
It’s (on) Showtime! The premium channel’s Sunday dramas deliver yet again. Ray Donovan (9/8c) presents what may be its wackiest caper to date, and that’s saying something, when Mickey (Jon Voight) and Bunchy (Dash Mihok) decide to rob the Hampton Jitney in priestly garb. (The scene where Bunchy has to improv with a real priest is excruciatingly funny.) By the end of the brutal episode, which includes a masked intruder attacking Sam (Susan Sarandon) in her own bed, just about everyone in Ray’s (Liev Schreiber) world has taken a beating, literally or figuratively.
Followed by the third chapter of the compelling Escape at Dannemora (10/9c), with Richard Matt (Benecio del Toro) exulting, “This is the first time in 12 years nobody knows where you are,” when he and David Sweat (Paul Dano) test their escape route. They hit a few walls along the way, which means turning up their seductive manipulation of tailor shop supervisor Tilly (Patricia Arquette). And she’s already under more scrutiny for bringing meat — with tools embedded — into the prison for her favorite inmates, with whom she fantasizes running away to Mexico.
Inside Weekend TV: Missed Killing Eve on BBC America? On Saturday, Hulu begins streaming the entire first season of the acclaimed thriller, starring Emmy-nominated Sandra Oh as an MI5 agent on the trail of an amoral assassin (the dazzling Jodie Comer). … 40 years ago this month, authorities revealed and put an end to the murder spree of John Wayne Gacy Jr., a grisly story relived by CNN in a new documentary, The Curious Case of the Killer Clown (Saturday, 9/8c)… Epix spy drama Berlin Station (Sunday, 9/8c) returns for a third season, with station chief Valerie Edwards (Michelle Forbes) taking charge of intrigue involving Russian threats, vulnerable NATO allies and a former CIA legend (James Cromwell) who’s going too public on a podcast about past covert missions… It’s Christmastime on Bravo’s Dirty John (Sunday, 10/9c), and Debra (Connie Britton) couldn’t be happier with her new man (Eric Bana), and grandma (Jean Smart) has fallen for him, too. But daughter Veronica (Juno Temple) isn’t buying it, and she not only hires a private detective to dig up dirt, she puts a tracker on his car. … Looking for The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show Holiday Special on CBS, where it has aired for years? It’s back on ABC (Sunday, 10/9c), which first aired the flamboyant special back in 2001, but dropped it out of Disney-like concern over its flesh-baring content. Now these outfits might look right at home on an average episode of Dancing With the Stars.
Conversation34 Comments
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I'm enjoying this season of "Ray Donovan", but Mickey, the excellent as always, Jon Voight, antics is stretching credibility to the breaking point. Self-inducing a heart attack that gets him in dead's door, suddenly he is escaping the hospital, with his son's help, then punching a guy cold, and staging a kidnapping! All that while being very old, the actor is 80.
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G
My grandfather lived until age 94 and was going to the gym and walking briskly until the end. At age 80 he was in better shape than most 40 year olds. No joke
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C
I know, but have you seen Jon Voight on "Ray Donovan"?
I don't think we could do, the preposterous things he is doing this season. One thing is being a spry 80 year old, another is being a Superman at any age.
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I get what your saying. The vast majority of 80 year olds are not THAT active.
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I know I won't be...if I live that long! I'll consider myself lucky if I can just get around without a wheelchair or a walker. I see enough people in their 60s and 70s that can barely walk anymore.
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C
Yes, we are all doomed. Too much TV!
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P
SNL tonight (or tomorrow); Doctor Who -- next-to-last of the season, although there's a year-end special in a month as usual -- and Supergirl tomorrow night. Just might tape that CNN impeachment roundtable, if only to see whether the historians get as peeved as I do when people use "impeachment" to mean "removal from office" rather than charges (articles of impeachment) brought in the House of Representatives whose successful passage would trigger a trial in the Senate in which conviction would lead to removal from office. Surprised at no mention here of the Nightflyers premiere tomorrow night, by the way -- not even a passing link to Matt's (negative) review.
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C
Doctor Who's usual was always a Christmas special which has been changed to a Year-End special this year.
Since this column was originally what Matt recommended watching, I can see why he wouldn't include Nightflyers if he doesn't like it. Although, I'd like to hear his explanation for including some of those awful made-for-TV holiday movies.
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P
Good point on the latter -- and, really, on the former too, but there I was just avoiding mention that the special moved from Christmas to New Year's since it's just one week (and we have had a New Year's special before, albeit continued from the Christmas one).
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R
Matt's Review starts with: "Nightflyers is a grisly hybrid of science fiction and horror"...
I enjoy science fiction and I enjoy horror...
It ends with: "When you learn what (or who) is behind the mayhem, you may scream — with unintended laughter."...
I enjoy laughing...
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"Facebook’s video-on-demand service Facebook Watch is getting a trio of familiar classics: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly."
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C
Another pay TV service?
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B
No. The excellent "Sorry For Your Loss" was on it, original programming, and even that was free.
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C
Wait a minute! Are you saying that anyone with a registered Facebook account will be able to watch Buffy, Angel, and Firefly for free? What's the catch?
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B
Probably like YouTube and several other services: ads of some kind. Though I didn't see one during the 10 episodes of "Sorry For Your Loss." Unsure if that's because there weren't any or because of adblocking.
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G
Don't know if I'll watch "SNL" tonight or not as I have to read in church tomorrow and we have some relatives at our house right now...
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If you miss it tonight, you can watch it free on Yahoo tomorrow.
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P
Or Hulu or the NBC website or app.
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Yahoo is what used to be the free part of Hulu now that Hulu itself is a pay service. I think they post the show before it's posted on the NBC website.
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I must admit that I'm so used to my monthly Hulu sub, just as a security net for stuff I miss live and don't record, I forgot it went all-pay.
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C
My problem is that a few of my shows are only on Hulu, a few only on Netflix, a few only on Amazon, and a few on other pay services. I can't afford to subscribe to all of them!
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G
If we add up all of the streaming services monthly fees, I don't think the savings of cutting the cord will be all that significant. And who has the time for all of those streaming shows and movies, there is more than enough on broadcast and cable .
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Exactly! And you seem to have more than enough to watch on broadcast and cable!
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C
When I added up all the streaming services I'd need to equal what I get with cable, it came to just as much per month...if not more. And I can't get any local channels without cable either!
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There are a few shows on streaming channels I think I'd enjoy, but you're right...I probably wouldn't have time to watch them in addition to what I already watch.
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R
Don't care about Garth Brooks, except insofar as he's mucking up my Sunday TV. Kind of wish I could watch Escape at Dannemora, but I don't get that premium channel. And does anyone watch Berlin Station? When it first came on a year or so ago, I watched the first couple of episodes, but it seemed as if we were dropped in at the middle of the story, rather than the beginning, and I felt out of the loop, so I quit watching.
Therefore, Supergirl is the only new show for me this weekend.
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C
You should watch The Irwins. You liked all the other shows about zoos.
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Maybe I'll give it a look. I assume they don't only deal with reptiles.
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No, last week about half the show was about a new group of lemurs they received, and the week before they were moving a giraffe to another zoo.
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C
No more Walking Dead this year, but I've still got Doctor Who on Sunday! Plus, there are new episodes of The Simpsons, Family Guy, The Irwins, and Return to Amish! That should keep me busy enough for this week!
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Tonight (Saturday) I'm watching the most recent Doctor Who, and couldn't miss recognizing a particular voice: Alan Cumming, as King James. 🙂 I wish he could always use his natural voice (accent) when he's on TV.
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It took me about 10 minutes to figure out who he was. I knew the voice, but the long hair and beard threw me off.
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Yeah, the 'disguise' of hair & beard (heh) did a pretty good job of hiding him, but to me the voice was instantly recognizable, and I think seeing his nose was the clincher. 😀
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C
Yeah, but you watch the TV shows he's in. I don't. The last time I saw him was hosting Masterpiece Mystery on PBS a year or two ago.
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