Premieres
The Great Indoors
The funniest joke in this new sitcom about a wilderness reporter who takes a job working at the digital department of an outdoors magazine is that there is a job at a magazine. Hahaha. There are no jobs in media anymore. Luckily, said reporter is played by Community’s Joel McHale playing a Gen X-er who can’t deal with his millennial colleagues, who never leave their computer screens. Expect lots of “Oh, kids today” jokes. With Stephen Fry and Superbad’s Christopher Mintz-Plasse along for the ride, the cast is the main reason to tune in. CBS, Thursday 27 October at 8.30pm ET
Tracey Ullman’s Show
For fans of the comedian, who has been doing a rogue’s gallery of original characters and impersonations on US television for the past three decades, they will be happy that she’s back. This series actually ran in the UK back in January and it was the first time she had made something for British telly in 30 years. Sadly, it wasn’t very well received. “It’s not brave or funny enough, like a step backwards from Little Britain, 10 years after Little Britain,” the Guardian’s Sam Wollaston wrote of the show. Ouch! At least her impressions of Dames Judi Dench and Maggie Smith are spot on. HBO, Friday, 28 October at 11pm ET
Returning Shows
It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
Before everyone was obsessed with dressing up as someone from this year’s election (sorry, your Melania Trump costume idea is not original no matter how you do it), we were all obsessed with the second-most-popular Peanuts holiday special. You know, the one where Linus waits out in a pumpkin patch all night convinced that the spirit of Halloween will come and scare the bejesus out of him. Watch it again or introduce someone a bit younger to the tradition. It’s paired with a lesser-known cartoon from Snoopy and the gang called You’re Not Elected, Charlie Brown. God, is everyone obsessed with politics right now? ABC, Friday 28 October 28, at 8pm ET
New to Streaming
Good Girls Revolt
Imagine if Mad Men were only about Peggy Olson and it focused on the newspapers that carried the ads rather than the ads themselves. Oh, and it’s based on true events. Then you’d have Good Girls Revolt, Amazon’s newest show, inspired by a real lawsuit in which female journalists at Newsweek sued their bosses in the 60s over equal treatment in the newsroom. (There’s even a book written about it in case the Amazon show convinces you to make an Amazon order.) Anna Camp, Genevieve Angelson and Erin Darke play the women who square off against their sexist boss (Jim Belushi). Mamie Gummer has a small role as Nora Ephron, who worked at the magazine before she become a Hollywood legend. Amazon, Friday 28 October
What to Catch Up On
Rectify
There used to be a promo for this show that ran on Sundance TV in which the main character, Daniel Holden (Aden Young), was lying in a bathtub watching water drip out of the drain. That is a perfect way to encapsulate this moody, moving, brilliant show that sometimes moves more slowly than a slug on a heavy dose of sedatives. Daniel is released from death row after 20 years when some DNA evidence suggests he may not have raped and murdered his high school girlfriend. The fourth and final season of this drama follows Daniel’s long journey trying to acclimate to the world and his family trying to acclimate to him. The premiere is on Sundance TV on Wednesday 26 October at 10pm ET and the previous seasons are all on Netflix. While it might be a little dense for a binge, you’re going to want to give this gorgeous and underrated show the goodbye it deserves.
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