What to Watch this Weekend: Chris Rock brings Saturday Night Live back to Studio 8H

EW Staff
·9 min read
What to Watch this Weekend: Chris Rock brings Saturday Night Live back to Studio 8H

What to Watch: Emily in Paris; The Good Lord Bird

This week on What to Watch, host Gerrad Hall and EW’s Ruth Kinane, Derek Lawrence and Dalton Ross scope out the premieres of ‘Emily in Paris’, ‘The Good Lord Bird’, and ‘The Walking Dead: World Beyond’.

We know TV has a lot to offer, be it network, cable, premium channels, or streaming platforms including Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, Facebook Watch, and others. So EW is here to help, guiding you every single day to the things that should be on your radar. Check out our recommendations below, and click here to learn how you can stream our picks via your own voice-controlled smart-speaker (Alexa, Google Home) or podcast app (Spotify, iTunes, Google Play).

FRIDAY

Savage x Fenty Show Vol. 2

HOW/WHEN & WHERE TO WATCH: Streaming on Amazon Prime Video

We found love on the brain after Rihanna's first — and wildly inventive — Savage x Fenty fashion show last year. We demanded she take a bow, get four five seconds of rest, then get back to work. (Yes, I did just work in a quintet of song title puns right there.) And she did. For round two of this fashion show meets concert, come for appearances by Lizzo, Demi Moore, Normani, Paris Hilton, and more ... stay (make that six!) for performances by Travis Scott, Rosalia, Bad Bunny, Ella Mai, Miguel, Mustard, and Roddy Ricch. —Gerrad Hall

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Tiny World

HOW/WHEN & WHERE TO WATCH: Streaming on Apple TV+

Series Debut

Ant-Man star Paul Rudd narrates and executive produces this docuseries about some of the world's tiniest creatures and what it takes for them to survive. You could say it's no small feat. Using new camera technology, audiences are able to see things from the unique perspective of these little critters — their ingenuity, resilience, and strength. —GH

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Monsterland

HOW/WHEN & WHERE TO WATCH: Streaming on Hulu

Series Debut

Hulu’s latest anthology series — which has an impressive cast featuring Kaitlyn Dever, Kelly Marie Tran, Jonathan Tucker, and more — is all about horror… but what kind? As the show tackles issues such as sexual assault, mental health, grief, and more, each episode poses a similar question. Viewers will be introduced to a human and a monster and as the story progresses, they’ll be forced to ask themselves: Which is more monstrous? —Samantha Highfill

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Emily in Paris

HOW/WHEN & WHERE TO WATCH: Streaming on Netflix

Series Debut

Pour yourself a glass of Côtes Du Rhône and grab the camembert because this weekend you're jetting off to the City of Lights! JK, sorry, there's defs still a travel ban in place, but since COVID is keeping us grounded, may as well embark on a journey from your couch, via Darren Star's (Sex and the City, Younger) new rom-com series Emily in Paris. Set in the French capital, the Netflix dramedy stars Lily Collins as a young marketing exec who ships off to Paris for a job at a luxury firm. On arrival, she soon discovers the capital isn’t all buttery croissants and suave beaux. Speaking as much French as Rosetta Stone could teach her on the eight-hour flight, Emily must prove to her prickly new colleagues she’s got that je ne sais quoi that makes her worthy of her new home. "I wanted to do a show about having an expatriate experience in Paris," Star tells EW. "I’ve had a love affair with the city since I went backpacking around Europe when I was 19. I’m the guy who took French from junior high through college and never actually learned the language, but I love the city and the culture. There’s something about wanting to take an American audience through that experience vicariously." Since we'll have to settle for vicarious experiences for now, may as well do it with Emily, her expansive chic wardrobe, and the horde of French hotties that follow in her wake. As Collins points out, "there's this wish-fulfillment element to [the show]; we all wish that we could be traveling around somewhere as beautiful as Paris." Mais oui! —Ruth Kinane

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What Else to Watch

Streaming

Oprah’s Book Club (“Isabel Wilkerson: Caste") — Apple TV+

Song Exploder (docuseries debut) — Netflix

Dick Johnson Is Dead (movie) — Netflix

Death of Me (movie) — Digital/VOD

2067 (movie) — Digital/VOD

Let's Scare Julie (movie) — Digital/VOD

The Rising Hawk (movie) — Digital/VOD

Then Came You (movie) — Digital/VOD

Eternal Beauty (movie) — Digital/VOD

Herb Alpert Is... (doc) — VOD

A Call to Spy (movie) — VOD

12 Hour Shift (movie) — VOD

Do Not Reply (movie) — VOD

8 p.m.

The Greatest #AtHome Videos — CBS

Schitt's Creek (Comedy Central debut) — Comedy Central

9 p.m.

Undercover Boss (season premiere) — CBS

A Wilderness of Error (back-to-back eps/finale) — FX

Kingdom of Silence (doc) — Showtime

10 p.m.

Warrior (season premiere) — Cinemax

Watch the full episode of What to Watch: Emily in Paris; The Good Lord Bird now on PeopleTV.com, or download the PeopleTV app on your favorite device.

SATURDAY

Saturday Night Live

HOW/WHEN & WHERE TO WATCH: 11:30 p.m. on NBC

Season Premiere

Two Rocks are back for SNL's 46th season premiere: host and former cast member Chris Rock, and the show's longtime home of 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City. After wrapping up its last season with three remotely-produced episodes, SNL is heading back to the studio — for now, at least — as movie and TV production has ramped back up nationwide with new COVID-19 prevention measures in place. It's anyone's guess as to how long that can last, but for now, we can all look forward to SNL getting back to business with Rock, musical guest Megan Thee Stallion, and what's sure to be an interesting cold open after Tuesday's presidential debate debacle. Be on the lookout for Jim Carrey as Joe Biden, and for a tribute to late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who was immortalized by Kate McKinnon's feisty impersonation on Weekend Update. —Tyler Aquilina

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What Else to Watch

Check local listings

Austin City Limits (season premiere) — PBS

8 p.m.

Dying to Be a Cheerleader — Lifetime

9 p.m.

Country at Heart — Hallmark

Black Love — OWN

SUNDAY

The Good Lord Bird

HOW/WHEN & WHERE TO WATCH: 9 p.m. on Showtime

Series Debut

Adapted from James McBride's 2013 National Book Award winner, this limited series is based on real events but seen from the POV of a fictional enslaved boy named Onion (Joshua Caleb Johnson), who is forced to pose as a girl upon being thrown into the orbit of fiercely passionate abolitionist John Brown (Ethan Hawke) and eloquent yet ribald activist Frederick Douglass (Daveed Diggs). For Hawke, the past several months have transformed his passion project into a timely reflection on America's ″great wound.″ “It's a really valuable moment to be studying this story,” Hawke tells EW. “Our inability to look at our nation's past hurts us. If we ignore these stories, we don't know ourselves as a country and as people. And a lot of people don't like to look at this part of history, they don't like to look at what happened to the Native Americans, they don't like to look at the legacy of slavery. But you're trapped by it if you don't look at it, and I think that John Brown allows you an in. Growing up in Texas, they didn't like to teach John Brown because then you're teaching that the Civil War was about slavery, and they like to overlook that piece of history — and that's a big problem. It's a fascinating moment that all the Confederate statues are finally coming down. I find that really beautiful and powerful. I felt that the story of The Good Lord Bird was relevant, but it seems to be an even more opportune time to revisit the story of John Brown than ever before.” —Derek Lawrence

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black-ish

HOW/WHEN & WHERE TO WATCH: 10 p.m. on ABC

The Johnson family dives into America’s electoral system in this one-hour special directed by Academy Award winner Matthew A. Cherry (Hair Love). In the first half, “Election Special Pt. 1” — which is mostly live-action — Junior receives an education in the many ways in which those in power have sought to keep minorities from voting throughout the years. While the country’s history is dark, the episode doesn’t settle defeatism. Then the fully-animated second part dives into the role money plays in our elections as Dre starts campaigning against his colleague Stevens, who launches a bid for congress. Along the way, Dre crosses paths with Stacey Abrams, Desus Nice, and the Kid Mero, all of whom guest-star as themselves. —Chancellor Agard

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The Walking Dead: World Beyond

HOW/WHEN & WHERE TO WATCH: 10 p.m. on AMC

Series Debut

Zombies are relentless. The proof of that fact comes once again in the form of yet another Walking Dead spin-off. The latest entry shifts the action to Omaha and a group of four youngsters about to leave the relatively cozy confines of a protected society to start off on a quest. World Beyond showrunner Matt Negrete says they took inspiration from Rob Reiner’s Stand By Me when crafting the story, with the big difference being that while this quest may not be the search for a dead body, the heroes are sure to encounter plenty of the dead along the way. Also, no Kiefer Sutherland chomping incessantly on a toothpick. —Dalton Ross

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What Else to Watch

Streaming

David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet (doc) — Netflix

Check local listings

Cobra (season premiere) — PBS

11 a.m.

Girl Meets Farm (season premiere) — Food Network

8 p.m.

Pandora (season premiere) — The CW

The Simpsons — Fox

Power Book II: Ghost (midseason finale) — Starz

8:30 p.m.

Bless the Harts — Fox

9 p.m.

The Walking Dead (season finale) — AMC

The Real Housewives of Potomac — Bravo

The Lost Lincoln (doc) — Discovery

Britannia (season premiere) — Epix

Halloween Wars — Food Network

Bob's Burgers — Fox

Lovecraft Country — HBO

9:30 p.m.

Family Guy — Fox

10 p.m.

First Ladies (docuseries debut) — CNN

Fargo — FX

The Vow — HBO

The Comedy Store (docuseries debut) — Showtime

*times are ET and subject to change