TV viewers got lucky on Friday the 13th in October. This was such a strong horror month. So much warm fearpee.Here are some TV highlights that are #CouchWorthy. Maybe you missed em or didn’t hear about em.Some Sammy Suggestions for October 2023…
October Highlights
Pete Holmes: I Am Not For Everyone (Anytime / Netflix)
Netflix’s genres for this latest Pete Holmes comedy special are Witty and Goofy. In that order that perfectly encapsulates Pete Holmes. If he had a business card that’s exactly what it should say…Witty and Goofy.
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: MR. DRESSUP: THE MAGIC OF MAKE-BELIEVE (ANYTIME / PRIME VIDEO)
Ernie Coombs get a Last Dance! A detailed look about at famed, iconic television show from Canada that impacted multiple generations and its on-going legacy.
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We lost Ernie Coombs (better known as Mr. Dressup) in 2001, at the age of 73. Americans know who Jim Henson is and who Mister Rogers is. Mr. Dressup is to Canadians what Mister Rogers was to Americans. That’s not an accurate comparison since their childhood shows ran on different emotional vibes; though it sort of works like how Magic Johnson and Larry Bird are tied together. Both fantastic NBA players yet totally different styles. Mr. Dressup ran for 29 years crafting 4,000 episodes: when you see that staggering number you can instantly understand the indelible impact. (It helped Sesame Street taught us to “Count:” “Ah-Ah-Ah!”) This documentary features interviews with Canadians touched by the humble kindness and contagious creativity of Mr. Dressup, including Eric McCormack, Graham Greene, the Barenaked Ladies, Jonathan Torrens, Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, Andrew Phung, Bruce McCulloch, Scott Thompson, Bif Naked, Peter Mansbridge and Michael J. Fox. This is gonna leave you verklempt.
October Highlights
The Fall Of The House Of Usher: Limited Series (Anytime / Netflix)
Heirs to the Usher dynasty start dying at the hands of a mysterious woman from their youth. Just like Poe himself who died in Baltimore in 1849 at age 40 under murky circumstances. Even though Mike Flanagan’s cast are basically Cheers regulars; you’ve seen them all before…keep in mind Poe deployed unreliable narrators. (Actually new to the cast is Luke Skywalker himself. Interesting…) Still this modern telling of Poe’s work echoes Flanagan’s The Haunting of Hill House which was (sorta) based on a 1959 Shirley Jackson novel. 8 episodes and then this limited series is Nevermore.
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: MILLI VANILLI (ANYTIME / PARAMOUNT+)
The documentary tells the story of Robert “Rob” Pilatus and Fabrice “Fab” Morvan, who became fast friends during their youth in Germany. So much fallout.
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Man; we’ve lived through Y2K, Satanic and Moral Panics (no child has ever…ever died from Halloween candy) and…Milli Vanilli. Trust is a fragile commodity and after all of those experiences I’m super stingy when it comes to trust. This is the story of how 2 Germans became one of the biggest pop acts in the late 80s…only by the time they won the best new artist Grammy in 1990 they were a ticking time bomb. And it all went off when it was revealed they didn’t sing a single note. It was mess so hot they couldn’t just Blame It on the Rain. Milli Vanilli is a the ideal metaphor as we look back at the back 90s trying to sort out what’s real and what’s not. How little actions have big consequences. The 90s were the growth of the internet, the fall of the Soviet Union, the O.J. Simpson verdict…the last humble decade where most of our society still had the analog skills to survive on the streets while engaging Nintendo Game Boys and raising Tamagotchis as digital pets. Fantastic documentary and I highly recommend making a tea for this one.
October Highlights
Goosebumps: Season 1 (Anytime / Hulu & Disney+ Canada)
A chilling new series inspired by R.L. Stine’s worldwide bestselling books, follows a group of five high schoolers as they embark on a shadowy and twisted journey to investigate the tragic passing three decades earlier of a teen named Harold Biddle – while unearthing dark secrets from their parents’ past.
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: LOKI: SEASON 2 (ANYTIME / DISNEY+)
The second season promises new excitement as it thrusts the infamous God of Mischief into a new set of adventures with the TVA.
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More multiverse mischief with Miss Minutes and Loki. As you know from Season 1 Loki finds himself in a battle for the soul of the Time Variance Authority. What does it mean to process free will? Will you use your free will to watch this? Did you see Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania? Kang the Conqueror was in that just as he was in Season 1. He’s also back for Season 2 portraying Victor Timely, another variant of He Who Remains. It’s Kang…it’s all complicated. Loki: Season 2 will run for six episodes until November 9, as part of Phase Five of the MCU. (Phase Five rolls on with The Marvels to be released in November and December ushers in a new What If….? season but then after that it’s all on hold due to the recent Hollywood strike.)
October Highlights
Chucky: Season 3 (Anytime / Peacock & Showcase on Demand via Crave)
Chucky slashed his way to a third season that once again chronicles the murderous escapades of the notorious killer doll.
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: TOTALLY KILLER (ANYTIME / PRIME VIDEO)
They had so much time to kill in the ’80s…
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Totally Killer is totally like…Hot Tub Time Machine meets Happy Death Day. “Thirty-five years after the shocking murder of three teens, the infamous Sweet Sixteen Killer returns on Halloween night to claim a fourth victim.” Cue…“Seventeen-year-old Jamie who comes face-to-face with the masked maniac and, on the run for her life, accidentally time-travels to 1987, the year of the original killings.” See? Hot Tub Time Machine meets Happy Death Day. Eh, alright…I’m not sure if it’s totally rad or totally bad (bad in as in bad, not bad as in good…) but I’ll totally give it a shot. I’ve got time to kill. Programming Note: If you’re in the mood for (more?) ’80s set horror you can check out V/H/S/85 now streaming on Shudder. It’s like Black Mirror but set in the ’80s. One of the writers is C. Robert Cargill. The title alone makes it easy to ah…#SetTheVCR.
October Highlights
John Carpenter’s Suburban Screams (Anytime / Peacock)
In 1978 audiences met creepy Michael Myers in John Carpenter’s Halloween. At the time the original pitch by John Carpenter and Debra Hill was that Halloween could become an anthology series of films that centered around Halloween night. Each sequel would contain its own characters, setting, and storyline. However Myers proved to be way too popular. That original pitch is why Halloween III: Season of the Witch doesn’t have anything to do with Michael Myers vs babysitters. (It also bombed so badly that it promoted the swift return of Michael Myers.) So the idea of a Halloween anthology was abandoned and I dunno how many movies later Michael Myers is still trying to silently kill his sister. However, you can celebrate a Halloween anthology with John Carpenter’s Suburban Screams. Now this is a fascinating hook: “Each episode focuses on one true tale of terror, told by the real people who lived through it. Their firsthand accounts are brought to life through premium cinematic scene-work, news clips, home photos, and archival footage, combining the visual language of horror films with the tools and techniques of documentaries, creating a uniquely frightening experience for viewers.” And just like Halloween…Carpenter also composes the series’ theme music.
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: BODIES: LIMITED SERIES (ANYTIME / NETFLIX)
Four detectives. One body. Stephen Graham stars in this genre-bending mystery thriller.
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Are you sick and tired of comic book adaptations? Then skip Bodies by Si Spencer and Dean Ormston an eight issue limited series published in 2014 by Vertigo. Bodies the Netflix show begins in 2023, with police attending a far-right march in London’s East End and discovering a…body. Before that investigation is launched the episode jumps back to 1941 where a detective in London’s East End discovers a…body. Before that investigation is launched the episode jumps back to 1890 where a detective in London’s East End discovers a…body. Yes there’s a Groundhog Day quality to the body…to how the victim was killed and much more. But before the audience can process all that…there’s an even more audacious leap to…2053. If you’re a fan of time jump TV shows like The Lazarus Project and Dark (both #SetTheVCR recommendations) you’ll wanna check this Bodies.
October Highlights
Shining Vale: Season 2 (Anytime / Starz)
A dysfunctional family that tried to run from their problems by moving their kids into a possibly-haunted Victorian mansion in small-town Connecticut. For Season 2 the house starts to reveal the shocking secrets of its dark past.
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: CREEPSHOW: SEASON 4 (ANYTIME / SHUDDER & AMC+)
Executive produced by showrunner Greg Nicotero and based on the 1982 horror comedy classic Creepshow the horror anthology series returns for a fourth season.
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Creepshow is a comic book coming to life in a series of vignettes, exploring terrors ranging from murder, creatures, monsters, and delusions to the supernatural and unexplainable. This season dropped on Friday the 13th in October…really doesn’t get much better than that.
October Highlights
Reptile (Anytime / Netflix)
An “intricate New England–set noir in which the worlds of real estate, narcotics trafficking, and police work merge.” Oh, I enjoy those things. You know everybody in this: Benicio Del Toro, Justin Timberlake, and Alicia Silverstone. (It’s weird to see Alicia brandishing a gun, though.) The classic logline: “When a realtor is stabbed to death in a show home, homicide detective Tom Nichols (Del Toro) has no shortage of suspects to investigate. The body was discovered by the victim’s boyfriend and colleague, Will (Timberlake), with whom she fought the night before. The victim’s ex, to whom she was still married, is possibly a drug dealer. Meanwhile, an eccentric man with a longstanding grudge against Will and his family seems to take an unhealthy interest in the case.” Anyways the hook in the trailer is the line “everyone’s a suspect.” Oh…that works for me. I “suspect” I’ll check this out.
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: DOOM PATROL: SEASON 4 (ANYTIME / HBO MAX & CRAVE)
In the series’ gripping final episodes, the Doom Patrol meet old friends and foes as they race to defeat Immortus and get back their longevities.
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The superpowered freaks are back for the end of Season 4 for one last mission. (This is the end of the series! These final 6 episodes are all ya get.) Season 3 kicked off with Madame Rouge arriving in a time machine with a specific mission. The Doom Patrol are still “out of time” (literally?) as Season 4 opened with them in the future (the Year 2042!). Can these weirdos save the future even if they’re all uncomfortable with their pasts? I’ve yet to finish Doom Patrol and I never finished Titans which ran for four seasons until May 11, 2023. I’m behind on my super duper TV shows.
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Sammy Younan is the affable host of My Summer Lair: think NPR’s Fresh Air meets Kevin Smith: interviews & impressions on Pop Culture.
