What to Watch this Weekend: Rob Lowe heads to Texas for 9-1-1: Lone Star

EW Staff

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

Sex Education

HOW/WHEN & WHERE TO WATCH: Streaming on Netflix

Season Premiere
Otis (Asa Butterfield) & Co. are back to dole out more Sex Education in the Netflix comedy’s second season — and what better way to kick off a new school year than a chlamydia epidemic! Though Otis and Maeve (Emma Mackey) disbanded their sex clinic at the end of last season, they’re soon back in business — after all, someone’s gotta tend to the horny, undereducated teens at Moordale High. Meanwhile, Otis is enjoying his recently discovered talent at any, and every, given moment. “Otis has a lot of masturbating scenes, which was interesting,” Butterfield tells EW. “Most of them are unsuccessful… By the end of it I did so many wanking scenes that it became very normal.” What’s probably less normal for the teen is his mother (Gillian Anderson) taking up a position at his school as a sex education counselor, but at least things are in a good place with his bestie, Eric (Ncuti Gatwa). “Otis and Eric are [each other’s] number ones,” says Butterfield. But Eric might find himself distracted pretty soon with the introduction of a new classmate. “There’s a lot of new characters this season that very much shake up the status quo,” says Gatwa. “We’ve got a very beautiful French man and he catches all of Moordale High’s eye, including Eric’s.” Ooh la la! —Ruth Kinane

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Hopelessly in Love: Anna Nicole Smith and Larry Birkhead

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

Learn more about Anna Nicole Smith and Larry Birkhead’s love story in the Lifetime documentary Hopelessly in Love. Birkhead shares never-before-heard stories about how he met the former Playboy Playmate and later reality star, and details about their tumultuous on/off relationship that spanned two years. The former celebrity photographer will also cover his highly publicized paternity battle for custody of their daughter, Dannielynn, following Smith’s tragic death in 2007 from a drug overdose. There will also be an update on Dannielynn, who today is 13 years old. —Rosy Cordero

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What Else to Watch

Streaming
Troop Zero (movie) — Amazon Prime Video
Hip-Hop Evolution (season premiere) — Netflix
Tyler Perry’s A Fall From Grace — Netflix
Little America (series debut) — Apple TV+
Oprah’s Book Club — Elizabeth Strout: Olive, Again — Apple TV+
Servant (season finale) — Apple TV+
Diary of a Future President (series debut) — Disney+
The World According to Jeff Goldblum — Disney+
Harley Quinn — DC Universe
Disturbing the Peace (movie) — Digital/VOD

8 p.m.
American Housewife (midseason premiere) — ABC
Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector — NBC
Charmed (winter premiere) — The CW

8:30 p.m.
Fresh Off the Boat — ABC

9 p.m.
Dynasty (winter premiere) — The CW

10 p.m.
Real Time With Bill Maher (season premiere) — HBO

SATURDAY

Seven Worlds, One Planet

HOW/WHEN & WHERE TO WATCH: BBC America, AMC, IFC, Sundance TV (Check local listings)

Series Debut
Using new technology and drone camera techniques to capture animal behavior and other unique spectacles, this multi-network, seven-part event explores the Earth’s seven continents and the “extraordinary animal behavior and biodiversity we see today,” according to a press release. And no nature documentary worth its time would be complete without Sir David Attenborough, who narrates and even appears, as we see the last two northern white rhinos on Earth in Africa. Making this series even more epic, in addition to Hans Zimmer co-composing the theme, are all the firsts captured on camera, like polar bears jumping from rocks to catch adult beluga whales, as well as a firefly spectacle in North America. And that is what you call one lit nature series. —Gerrad Hall

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What Else to Watch

11:30 a.m.
It’s Pony (series debut) — Nickelodeon

8 p.m.
Stolen By My Mother: The Kamiyah Mobley Story — Lifetime

9 p.m.
Say Yes to the Dress America — TLC
Love on Iceland — Hallmark

SUNDAY

9-1-1: Lone Star

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

Series Debut
In Fox’s 9-1-1 spin-off, things are heating up for Rob Lowe’s Owen, a New York City firefighter who takes on a new gig in Austin, Texas, after an on-the-job disaster wipes out most of the fighters at the original 126 firehouse. But the Texans aren’t the only ones dealing with trauma. “There’s an emotional side to playing Owen,” Lowe tells EW. “My character is the only guy in his New York firehouse who survived 9/11. That informs every decision and how he views life. It’s been very emotional and fraught, wanting to honor it in a way that doesn’t feel like we’re ‘using’ it.” Keeping his emotions in check, the first episode sees Owen and his son T.K. (Ronen Rubenstein) put together a new and diverse crew that ruffles a few of the more conservative feathers in Austin. “Any time you can tell stories of people who are historically underrepresented is great for the culture,” says Lowe. “This is the 2020 iteration of a show like this. They were never going to do those stories on Emergency!” —R.K.

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Avenue 5

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

Series Debut
Veep creator Armando Iannucci takes his signature, cuttingly farcical comedic style (see also: In the Loop, The Death of Stalin) to the stars with HBO’s Avenue 5. Starring Hugh Laurie as the captain of the titular luxury cruise starship, the series follows the crew and passengers as they deal with a malfunction in the midst of a journey around Saturn. There’s no better way to find out who someone really is than to trap them in space; as EW’s Kristen Baldwin writes in her review, “Avenue 5 isn’t so much a space comedy as it is a droll exploration of a character-revealing crisis.” Think the No Exit-inflected misery antics of The Good Place… except people can actually swear here. —Tyler Aquilina

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Curb Your Enthusiasm

HOW/WHEN & WHERE TO WATCH: 10:30 p.m. on HBO

Season Premiere
Fatwa danger seemingly behind him, Larry David has returned to being kicked out homes, offices, and hospitals in season 10; you name the room and someone is asking him to “get the f— out” of it. Brace for Jon Hamm, Laverne Cox, Isla Fisher, Jane Krakowski, Kaitlin Olson, and Fred Armisen, plus plenty of quickly escalating arguments. —Dan Snierson

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What Else to Watch

Check local listings
Sanditon — PBS

7 p.m.
America’s Funniest Home Videos — ABC

8 p.m.
Batwoman (winter premiere) — The CW
Doctor Who — BBC America
Kids Say the Darndest Things (season finale) — ABC
Ray Donovan (season finale) — Showtime
Power — Starz
Murder in the Suburbs — Lifetime
The Real Housewives of Atlanta — Bravo
26th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards — TNT/TBS

9 p.m.
Shameless — Showtime
The Outsider — HBO
Shark Tank — ABC
Supergirl (winter premiere) — The CW

10 p.m.
The L Word: Generation Q — Showtime

*times are ET and subject to change