Worth Watching: Time Travel on ‘Lovecraft,’ ‘Fear the Walking Dead,’ An Everest Mystery
A selective critical checklist of notable weekend TV:
Lovecraft Country (Sunday, 9/8c, HBO): The penultimate first-season episode of the adventurous fantasy series revisits a tragedy that was also the starting point of HBO’s Emmy-winning Watchmen: the 1921 massacre of black citizens in Tulsa. The tragedy is a key part of Atticus’ (Jonathan Majors) family history, and also has a bearing on the fate of the Book of Names, which Atticus, Letitia (Jurnee Smollett) and a deeply conflicted Montrose (Michael K. Williams) go back in time to retrieve, with Hippolyta (Aunjanue Ellis) acting as conduit for very personal reasons. As in most time-travel scenarios, they all know better than to do anything to change events, but oh how they’re tempted.
Fear the Walking Dead (Sunday, 9/8c, AMC): Returning after a year’s absence, the Walking Dead spinoff has scattered its embattled ensemble of heroes to parts unknown, thanks to the latest villain, Virginia (Colby Minifie), and her minions. The season opener is all about the one left behind and seriously wounded: Morgan (Lennie James), whose will to “Just Live” seems in doubt when he is befriended by an ex-Marine while an ax-wielding bounty hunter follows their every move.
Eli Roth’s History of Horror (Saturday, 10/9c, AMC): If you prefer to take a broader look at the horror genre, filmmaker Eli Roth once again assembles experts like Stephen King and Jordan Peele, with an assortment of actors and craftspersons, to analyze vintage and more modern classics. The second season, well timed in the immediate wake of Netflix’s The Haunting of Bly Manor, discusses “Houses of Hell.”
Everest’s Greatest Mystery (Sunday, 9/8c, Discovery): Discovery’s “Undiscovered” franchise of documentaries that dig into long-unsolved historical mysteries weighs in on a puzzle that dates back nearly a century. In 1924, explorers George Mallory and Andrew Irvine disappeared while trying to be the first to reach the Mt. Everest summit. Mallory’s preserved body was found on the mountain’s north face in 1999 by researchers including Jake Norton, who returns to the site with a team that hopes to find Irvine’s remains — and the camera lost with him — and possibly settle the debate over whether these doomed mountaineers may have reached the peak before the fabled Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953.
Fargo (Sunday, 10/9c, FX): The war between the Italians and Loy Cannon’s (Chris Rock) crime syndicate escalates after last week’s audacious and bloody burglary, which may not be the best time for Loy’s adversary, Josto Fadda (Jason Schwartzman), to intensify his dalliance with Kansas City’s most unstable nurse, Oraetta Mayflower (the sensational Jessie Buckley). While even the most thorough money laundering can’t remove the stink from the ill-gotten loot, the subplot that will likely have you on the edge of your seat involves the undertaker’s daughter, Ethelrida (E’myri Crutchfield), who goes snooping where she oughtn’t.
Inside Weekend TV: CBS News’ 48 Hours (Saturday, 10/9c) interviews the prosecutor and defense attorneys on opposite sides in the case of the fatal February shooting of Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man shot and killed while jogging in Georgia, with three white men accused of the crime… Nashville‘s Chaley Rose stars in Hallmark Channel’s My Best Friend’s Bouquet (Saturday, 9/8c) as a single woman who catches the title object only to wonder which of the guys in her life the bouquet is pointing her towards… A second season of Starz’ historical drama The Spanish Princess (Sunday, 8/7c) revisits Queen Catherine of Aragon (Charlotte Hope) and King Henry VIII (Ruiari O’Connor) as their popular union is endangered by her inability to produce an heir… The second episode of PBS’s addictive Masterpiece mystery-drama Flesh and Blood (Sunday, 9/8c, check local listings at pbs.org) finds the grown offspring of Vivien (Francesca Annis) becoming more alarmed as her relationship with sketchy beau Mark (Stephen Rae) advances with unusual speed. Meddling neighbor Mary (Imelda Staunton), none too happy that her best friend has put her house on the market, plants further seeds of doubt in Vivien’s kids’ minds… The delightfully outspoken black-ish star Jenifer Lewis opens up about her turbulent life and successful career in TV One’s Uncensored (Sunday, 10/9c)… Superman fans will want to check out MeTV’s Collector’s Call (Sunday, 10/9c), which visits the Hambrick family’s museum of Man of Steel collectibles in (where else) Metropolis, Ill.
Fear the Walking Dead where to stream
