TV

What to Watch this Weekend: Saturday Night Live with Issa Rae and Justin Bieber

Published on October 16, 2020 06:00AM EDT

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

What the Constitution Means to Me

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

Heidi Schreck brings her Tony-nominated play What the Constitution Means to Me to the small-screen in this live recording filmed in her final weeks on Broadway. "When we filmed it, I just had the instinct that we should have a beautifully filmed record of it," Schreck tells EW. "I didn't know that a global pandemic was coming and theaters would be shut down, and having a beautifully filmed piece of theater would be an exciting, important thing to have." The play stars Schreck as a teenage version of herself, meditating on the contests she used to win writing speeches about the U.S. Constitution. Through this look back, she reflects on women's rights, her generational trauma, and just how we can truly make the Constitution include everyone in the preamble's words "we the people." —Maureen Lee Lenker

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Clouds

HOW/WHEN & WHERE TO WATCH: Streaming on Disney+

"We all have limited time." Truer words have never been spoken in this movie, based on a true story, about Zach Sobiech (Fin Argus), a high school student whose rare bone cancer spreads, and advances to a terminal diagnosis. What we do with that time is what really matters, and that's why this musically-talented teen, along with his best friend and songwriting partner Sammy (Sabrina Carpenter), decide to focus his energies and limited time following their dreams. That's when they're presented with an incredible opportunity and offered a record deal, thanks to Zach teacher/mentor (Lil Rel Howery), getting to explore the true power of music. Tom Everett Scott and Neve Campbell also star. —Gerrad Hall

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Helstrom

HOW/WHEN & WHERE TO WATCH: Streaming on Hulu

Series Debut
With Helstrom, Marvel wades into horror territory for the first time. Based on the Son of Satan comics, the spooky 10-episode series follows Daimon (The Royals' Tom Austen) and Ana Helstrom (Succession's Sydney Lemmon), the offspring of a serial-killing demon. As youngsters, their father's devilish disposition destroyed the family, leaving them emotionally scarred. Now grown, the estranged siblings use their inherited powers to fight evil in different ways: Daimon performs exorcisms in Portland, while his icy San Francisco-based sister hunts wicked men like her dad. Unfortunately, they're forced to reunite with their possessed and institutionalized mother (Elizabeth Marvel) when a powerful demon is unleashed. "The show is really the story of a messed up family," says showrunner Paul Zbyszewski, "about them overcoming those demons of their past, both literal and figurative." —Chancellor Agard

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The Trial of the Chicago 7

HOW/WHEN & WHERE TO WATCH: Streaming on Netflix

"We would have hung a sheet in the parking lot and projected it against that," writer-director Aaron Sorkin says of being determined to release his timely tale of protests, police violence, and the government persecuting its own citizens before the upcoming election. Thankfully, amid an increasingly murky time for theatrical releases, Netflix came to the rescue, allowing Sorkin, his star-studded cast (Sacha Baron Cohen and Eddie Redmayne are among the A-listers), and audiences to stay parked on the couch. Originally timed to come out ahead of the 2008 election, Sorkin is finally telling the story of a sensational slice of 20th-century history: the trial of seven famed antiwar activists charged with inciting a riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention (an eighth was removed from the case). "I've been asked, did the script change at all to mirror the times? And no, it didn't; the times changed to mirror the script," Sorkin tells EW. "When we started shooting, I thought it was relevant, and we didn't need it to get more relevant, but it did… Watching recent coverage of protesters clashing with police, all you had to do was degrade the color a bit and it would look exactly like the footage from 1968." —Derek Lawrence

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What Else to Watch

Streaming
Time (doc) — Amazon Prime Video
Helpsters (season premiere) — Apple TV+
Meet the Chimps (series debut) — Disney+
Grand Army (series debut) — Netflix
Dream Home Makeover (series debut) — Netflix
The Opening Act (movie) — Digital/VOD
The Devil Has a Name (movie) — Digital/VOD
S#!%HOUSE (movie) — VOD
Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President (doc) — VOD
Monochrome: The Chromism (movie) — VOD
The Secrets We Keep (movie) — VOD

7 p.m.
MTV Unplugged Presents: Miley Cyrus Backyard Sessions — MTV

8 p.m.
Shark Tank (season premiere) — ABC
The Greatest #AtHome Videos — CBS
The Perfect Weapon (doc) — HBO

9 p.m.
20/20 ("John Lennon: His Life, Legacy, Last Days") — ABC
Undercover Boss — CBS
Bad Hombres (doc) — Showtime

10 p.m.
Dateline — NBC

Watch the full episode of What to Watch: The Trial of the Chicago 7; Grand Army now on PeopleTV.com, or download the PeopleTV app on your favorite device.

SATURDAY

David Byrne's American Utopia

HOW/WHEN & WHERE TO WATCH: 8 p.m. on HBO

You may find yourself in your living room Saturday night. You may ask yourself: What should I watch tonight? And the answer unequivocally is David Byrne's heroically uplifting show American Utopia. Director Spike Lee tackles the task of bringing the singer-songwriter's acclaimed Broadway show to HBO and pulls it off with aplomb. Even if you don't count yourself among Byrne's fans, this show is electric, joyfully infectious, and thought-provoking in unexpected ways as he runs through a judiciously curated cross-section of his catalog — both Talking Heads and solo work — backed by a merry band of musicians. American Utopia is assuredly a road to somewhere you want to go. —Sarah Rodman

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Saturday Night Live

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

Without a second presidential debate to lampoon, what will SNL's cold open look like this week? Will the show join the cast of This Is Us in slamming their NBC overlords for airing a town hall with President Trump? You'll have to tune in to find out, but here's what we do know: with Justin Bieber will return to SNL for his fourth go-round as musical guest, while Issa Rae steps into Studio 8H for her first turn as host. Hopefully she doesn't feel too Insecure about taking on the gig. —Tyler Aquilina

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What Else to Watch

10 a.m.
The Pioneer Woman (Halloween Special) — Food Network

8 p.m.
The Wrong Cheerleader Coach — Lifetime

9 p.m.
Sweet Autumn — Hallmark

10 p.m.
Photo Ark (special) — Nat Geo Wild

SUNDAY

Supermarket Sweep

HOW/WHEN & WHERE TO WATCH: 8 p.m. on ABC

Series Debut
Leslie Jones was never able to get on Supermarket Sweep as a superfan, but that's okay because now she's host of it. The Saturday Night Live alum is asking the questions and sending contestants on shopping sprees in this reboot of the classic game show. And now, the winning team could take home up to $100,000." These contestants are real people: some who want to put people through college; people who want to pay bills; people who have children they need to take care of," Jones tells EW. "Especially during COVID, for us to be able to give this type of money away is life-changing." —GH

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Lovecraft Country

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

Season Finale
After a haunted house, Indiana Jones adventure, trip through the multiverse, time travel, and several other genre thrills, Lovecraft Country heads back to where it all started in Sunday's season 1 finale. Last week, Atticus (Jonathan Majors), Leti (Jurnee Smollett), and Montrose (Michael K. Williams) journeyed to the 1921 Tulsa Massacre to recover the Book of Names. Now with the magical tome in hand, the gang returns to Arkham to perform the "ultimate spell" in this weekend's "Full Circle." Will Atticus survive Christina's dangerous ritual? You'll have to tune in to see. —Chancellor Agard

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