A slow(ish) post-holiday weekend schedule is as good a time as any to reflect on the onslaught of series launched just this past month. Even taking into account the recently settled writers and actors strikes, the number of new series (don’t dare call it “content”) can be daunting.
November began with one of the year’s better and more overlooked series. Not everybody subscribes to the Britbox service, and not everyone cares about U.K. politics. But the miniseries “This England” can be considered a kind of masterpiece.
Kenneth Branagh (“Death on the Nile”) portrays British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Recently endorsed by the public in a landslide victory for the Conservative Party, he and his colleagues feel they have the wind of history at their backs. Johnson, a former journalist who hopes to write a biography of Shakespeare while in office, is given to quoting snippets of the Bard both to make political points and as boudoir talk with his girlfriend, Carrie (Ophelia Lovibond).
Self-confident to the point of delusion, he seems to think of himself as Winston Churchill because he once wrote a book about him.
When COVID strikes, this arrogance fuels national catastrophe and hubristic calamity. “This England” quickly transforms from a political story to a day-by-day, even hour-by-hour account of the pandemic.
The action moves from Downing Street to the homes and hospital beds of stricken individuals. Some may think it may be too soon to revisit the COVID tragedy, but “This England” turns it into a riveting drama with the highest stakes, a story that relegates a prime minister’s rapid political downfall to a minor detail.
Two other notable series returned last week, both steeped in history and both notable for how they handle well-documented events. Not to give too much away, but the final season of Netflix’s “The Crown” begins with the sound of Diana (Elizabeth Debicki) and Dodi’s (Khalid Abdalla) fatal 1997 automobile crash, and then spends three more episodes exploring the decisions that led to that tragedy.
Did “The Crown” (spoiler alert) jump the shark by including conversations with ghosts? We’ll just have to consider that elsewhere.
During this season of “Julia,” streaming on Max, the action moves to the White House when Julia Child (Sarah Lancashire) is invited to cover a state dinner. But it’s the Johnson White House, and we’re reminded that the Kennedy Camelot years are behind us. There was a time when a show set in a television studio in Boston in the early 1960s would have had to at least pause for some reflection on the murder of the president. But 60 years have passed. And “Julia” is more about the joy of cooking than sad reflection.
Other honorable mentions for memorable November programming include the Gen-Z Agatha Christie mystery “A Murder at the End of the World,” streaming on Hulu, “The Curse,” a politically charged satire of reality television, airing on Showtime, and the 2023 documentary “The Lady Bird Diaries,” streaming on Hulu. And let’s not forget the gloriously gloomy Irish comedy “Obituary,” streaming on Hulu, and, of course the return of “Fargo,” a series that helped define the term “Peak TV.” And the month won’t end before Apple TV+’s “Slow Horses” trots into its third season on Wednesday.
Not a bad month, I’d say.
— Now in its second year, “Byron Allen Presents theGRIO Awards” (8 p.m. Saturday, CBS, TV-PG) is a black-tie event taped at The Beverly Hilton celebrating icons who have made a positive impact on America. theGrio is an entertainment website and TV network aimed at an African-American audience. This year’s honorees include Mariah Carey, Don Cheadle, Dwayne Johnson and Eddie Murphy, among many others.
— Derek Hough and Julianne Hough host “The Wonderful World of Disney: Magical Holiday Celebration” (8 p.m. Sunday, ABC, TV-PG), featuring Michael Bolton, Mickey Guyton, Adam Blackstone, Andra Day, Chris Janson, Tori Kelly, Chrissy Metz, the Smashing Pumpkins, Robin Thicke and Iam Tongi.
— Set in Chicago in the 1980s, the 2021 holiday comedy “8-Bit Christmas” (8 p.m. Saturday, TBS, TV-PG) reflects one boy’s dream of getting the most cutting-edge video game. Released to generally positive reviews. One from the Los Angeles Times, went so far to call it “a surprise contender for Best Christmas Movie of the last several years.” What are the other contenders?
SATURDAY’S HIGHLIGHTS
— An American tourist enchants a famous soccer star in the 2023 holiday romance “Christmas in Notting Hill” (6 p.m., Hallmark, TV-G). Perhaps the title, “Four Weddings, a Funeral and Christmas” didn’t please the focus group.
— College football action includes Florida State at Florida (7 p.m., ESPN) and Georgia at Georgia Tech (7:30 p.m., ABC).
— David Frei and John O’Hurley host the National Dog Show (8 p.m., NBC, r, TV-PG).
— A former TV host faces the prospect of spending the holidays at a posh hotel with her ex-husband and his new lover in the 2023 holiday comedy “Christmas at the Chalet” (8 p.m., Lifetime, TV-PG).
— A couple helps decorate their new neighborhood in the 2023 romance “Haul Out the Holiday: Lit Up” (8 p.m., Hallmark, TV-G).
— A crisis manager discovers that her new client is her ex-boyfriend, a sports anchor, in the 2022 holiday romance “A Christmas Fumble” (9:05 p.m., OWN, TV-PG).
SUNDAY’S HIGHLIGHTS
— “60 Minutes” (7:30 p.m., CBS).
— “Lucy Worsley’s Royal Myths and Secrets” (PBS, r, check local listings) explores Queen Elizabeth I (8 p.m., TV-PG), Queen Anne (9 p.m., TV-14) and Marie Antoinette (10 p.m., TV-14).
— An enchanted timepiece sends a woman back to the set of a 1947 movie in the 2023 holiday fantasy “A Biltmore Christmas” (8 p.m., Hallmark, TV-G).
— The 2018 documentary “Friedkin Uncut” (8 p.m., TCM) profiles William Friedkin, director of “The French Connection” and “The Exorcist” (10 p.m., TCM, TV-14).
— A fledgling performer receives a boost from a handsome mentor in the 2023 holiday romance “Laughing All the Way” (8 p.m., Lifetime, TV-PG).
— The Los Angeles Chargers host the Baltimore Ravens in NFL action (8:15 p.m., NBC).
— “The Toys That Built America” (9 p.m., History, TV-PG) celebrate Uno and Connect Four, two family-friendly board games that took off in the 1970s.
— Roy Cohn’s obsessive efforts to protect Schine from ordinary military service result in the televised Army-McCarthy hearings that expose McCarthy’s demagoguery on “Fellow Travelers” (9 p.m., Showtime, TV-MA).
— Miss Armstrong visits her humble family home on “The Gilded Age” (9 p.m., HBO, TV-MA).
— Believing in their good intentions, the hosts of an HGTV neighborhood makeover show have no idea how much they symbolize the destructive nature of consumer capitalism on “The Curse” (10 p.m., Showtime, TV-MA).
— “The Great Christmas Light Fight” (10 p.m., ABC, TV-PG) looks back at some past illuminations.
CULT CHOICE
An insurance salesman (Fred MacMurray) falls for a homicidal femme fatale (Barbara Stanwyck) in director Billy Wilder’s 1944 adaptation of James M. Cain’s novel “Double Indemnity” (6 p.m. Saturday, TCM, TV-PG).
SATURDAY SERIES
“48 Hours” (10 p.m., CBS) … “Dateline” (10 p.m., NBC, r).
SUNDAY SERIES
A crossing guard assignment sends Homer on a power trip on “The Simpsons” (8 p.m., Fox, r, TV-14) … War and peace on “Krapopolis” (8:30 p.m., Fox, r, TV-14).
On two episodes of “Yellowstone” (CBS, TV-14): the Becks balk at Dutton intransigence (9 p.m.); revenge on the range (10 p.m.) … A wharfside tangle with a soothsaying mollusk on “Bob’s Burgers” (9 p.m., Fox, TV-PG) … A contest windfall churns up a tsunami of woes on “Family Guy” (9:30 p.m., Fox, TV-14).