Nov. 15 – Nov. 21
Country stars, swords ‘n’ sandals, big-screen witches & Billy Bob Thornton’s a ‘Landman’
All times Eastern.
FRIDAY, Nov. 15
Silo
Rebecca Ferguson returns for season two, about the last handful of people on Earth living deep underground in, yes, a massive silo to protect them from the toxic world above. With Tim Robbins (Apple TV+).
It’s All Country
Country star Luke Bryan explores the inspirations, personal moments and secrets that help shape the sounds fans love, with input from Sheryl Crow, Kane Brown, Wynonna Judd and others (Hulu).
SATURDAY, Nov. 16
Saturday Night Live
Charli xcx pulls double duty tonight, making her first appearance as host and her third as a musical guest, performing songs from her new remixed album “Brat and It’s Completely Different but Also Still Brat.” Huh? (11:30, NBC).
The Polar Express
The first big-screen “motion capture” digital animation film (it’s in Guinness World Records as such), this 2004 fantasy “stars” Tom Hanks as a train conductor who shows a young boy what Christmas is all about. It’s based on a book by the author who also wrote Jumanji (4:27 p.m. and 10:15 p.m., TBS)
SUNDAY, Nov. 17
LandMan
Yellowstone creator Ty Sheridan’s new series stars Billy Bob Thornton (above), Ali Larter, Mark Collie and Demi Moore in a modern-day tale of oil-rigging drama (Paramount+).
Dune: Prophesy
The futuristic sci-fi movie franchise now gets a small(er) screen extension with this dramatic series about two sisters fighting forces that threaten all mankind. Cause, of course, it’s the future. Starring Emily Watson, Olivia Williams and Mark Strong (9 p.m., HBO).
MONDAY, Nov. 18
Leonardo da Vinci
Acclaimed documentary filmmaker Ken Burns turns his lens to his first “non-American” subject, the 15th century Italian innovator and how he influenced and inspired future generations to this day (8 p.m., PBS).
The Making of Gladiator II
Go behind the scenes of director Ridley Scott’s new mega-movie (above), an epic extension (starring Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal, Denzel Washington and more) of the 2000 original. Learn about new characters, the spectacle and the scale, training the cast in gladiatorial combat, costumes, props and the movie’s historical accuracy (10:30 p.m., CBS).
TUESDAY, Nov. 19
Defying Gravity: The Curtain Rises on Wicked
Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande (below) host this TV event taking viewers inside their new movie based on the hit Broadway musical (10 p.m., NBC).
Interior Chinatown
A small-part actor (Jimmy O. Yang) in a TV police procedural set in Chinatown inadvertently become a witness to a real crime, leading him to unravel a hidden criminal web in San Francisco (Hulu).
WEDNESDAY, Nov. 20
The CMA Awards
Luke Bryan, Peyton Manning and Lainey Wilson host tonight’s 58th annual awarding of trophies bestowed by the Country Music Association, live from Nashville (8 p.m., ABC).
THURSDAY, Nov. 21
Based on a True Story
Kaley Cuoco and Chris Messina star in season two as a couple capitalizing on America’s true-crime obsession by starting a podcast…partnering with the serial killer terrorizing Los Angeles (Peacock).
Nugget is Dead? A Christmas Story
When her beloved family dog falls sick over Christmas, a young woman (Vic Zerbst) has to make new plans with her family in Australia (8 p.m., CBS).
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Remember the ‘80s? In The 1980s: Image of a Decade (Thames & Hudson), author Henry Carroll looks at the eventful decade through images of its design, art, fashion, technology, games, sports and global events. From the rise of hip hop to the fall of the Berlin Wall, it’s all here, in a kaleidoscope of culture from all corners—a world big enough to contain Pee-Wee Herman, Dirty Dancing, the Berlin Wall, the Challenger disaster and Live Aid at the same time!
The iconic singer and actress tells her own story in Cher: The Memoir, Part One (Harper Collins), from being a dyslexic child who dreamed of being famous to becoming the only woman to top the Billboard charts in seven consecutive decades, an Oscar winner and an inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
How much do you know about the forces that shape our world, sometimes cause chaos and destruction, and have inspired poets, scientists and philosophers for eons? Elements (Thames & Hudson) takes a close and evocative look, with accompanying photography and insightful texts, on the five natural elements (wood, fire, earth, water and metal) essential to life on planet Earth, how they’ve been represented, interpreted, revered and feared across the centuries.
In American Artifacts (Thames & Hudson), award-winning photographer Matt Black presents a diverse collection of flotsam and jetsam he’s come across in his 100,000-mile, six-year, cross-country odyssey. A continuation of his 2021 photobook American Geography, it’s spectrum of discarded objects, from scribbled notes to cigarette boxes, shoes, bottles, cans, yard signs and busted locks. It’s a strikingly unique portrait of America, revealed and symbolized by the things we throw away, lose or leave behind. And you may not think your old dirty glove or broken hairbrush is “art,” but he might.
BRING IT HOME
The new deluxe steelbook reissue of the epic 1984 fantasy movie Labyrinth is a true collectors’ set with a 4k restoration of the film directed by Jim Henson, and featuring his fanciful non-Muppet “puppet” creatures alongside the actors, which included rock star David Bowie and Demi Moore. (Shout! Factory).
Happy anniversary to three classic movies, all now available remastered on 4K! The West was never wilder—or as wildy funny—as it was Blazing Saddles (1974), director Mel Brooks’ spectacularly hilarious spoof of the cowboy genre. (And Richard Pryor helped write the screenplay!). Ah-nold is the iconic cyborg assassin from the future in The Terminator (1984). Didja know his costar, Linda Hamiliton, would go on to marry the director, James Cameron? And Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest (1959) was one of his greatest thrillers, with Cary Grant chased across the country in a case of mistaken identity.
The ghost with the most is back in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment), with Michael Keaton reprising his 1980s role as the devious netherworld demon, with former castmates Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara, plus newcomer Jenna Ortega. Extras include commentary by director Tim Burton, a feature on the movie’s stop-motion artistry, and other insider stuff!
The Media Tourist 