#SetTheVCR: November 24-30, 2025

Monday, November 24

Everybody Loves Raymond: 30th Anniversary Reunion (8 p.m. / CBS)

The 90-minute special, hosted by Ray Romano and series creator Phil Rosenthal, looks back on the timeless show Everybody Loves Raymond, which premiered on September 13, 1996, and aired for nine seasons. Twenty years since the show’s finale episode, audiences are invited back to the recreated Barone living room for an unforgettable evening with America’s favourite family. The Reunion will feature candid conversations with castmates Brad Garrett, Patricia Heaton, Monica Horan, Madylin Sweeten and Sullivan Sweeten, as well as never-before-seen outtakes and commentary from the cast on how they became one of America’s most beloved families. The special will also include a moving tribute to Doris Roberts and Peter Boyle.
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: SANGRE DEL TORO (ANYTIME / NETFLIX)

Director Guillermo del Toro journeys through a labyrinth of childhood memories, cultural myths and monsters to reveal the origins of his visionary films.
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“Sangre del Toro explores Guillermo del Toro’s singular gift for fusing his Mexican roots with the cultural influences of Hollywood, Paris, and his hometown of Guadalajara. Through this lens of “cultural syncretism,” the documentary presents del Toro as a contemporary Minotaur, a figure both human and monstrous, moving through a labyrinth of creativity and symbolism. Audiences are invited to wander the enchanted corridors of his imagination, uncovering the human and the beastly forces that shape his cinematic world.” Yup, del Toro got a Last Dance if you wanna explore his intellectual Nightmare Alley.

Tuesday, November 25

The Shuffle (Anytime / HBO Max & Crave)

The Shuffle chronicles the making of the 1985 Chicago Bears’ iconic rap music video that became a cultural phenomenon enroute to the team’s storied Super Bowl XX championship. Featuring rare behind-the-scenes footage and new interviews with the star players who performed the song, the film explores the conception, execution, and impact of the Grammy-nominated track that energized the city of Chicago and football fans everywhere 40 years ago. The documentary is the first in a new series of short football films, made in partnership with NFL Films, and will debut in advance of the new season of Hard Knocks: In Season with the NFC East.
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: GOOD SPORTS WITH KEVIN HART & KENAN THOMPSON (ANYTIME / PRIME VIDEO)

The series celebrates a reunion of sports superfans and comedy superstars Kevin Hart and Kenan Thompson for an all-new sports comedy talk show that will give fans a front-row seat to the ultimate crossover and transform the traditional world of sports commentary into must-watch TV. Powered by their signature unfiltered opinions and electrifying energy, Kevin and Kenan will offer hilarious takes on everything from the NFL and NBA to neighborhood pickup games and little league drama… because whether it’s played in stadiums or backyards, all sports are Good Sports.
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Kevin Hart & Kenan Thompson unleash athletic foolishness. It’s high school all over again, just the dumbest jokes with your boys in the caf. Do not expect any expert analysis. Hart and Kenan riff, roast and rascal all sports. “Powered by their signature unfiltered opinions and electrifying energy, Kevin and Kenan will offer hilarious takes on everything from the NFL and NBA to neighborhood pickup games and little league drama…because whether it’s played in stadiums or backyards, all sports are Good Sports.” If you’ve enjoyed their annual Back That Year Up specials then you know this’ll be a weekly dose of unfiltered opinions, goofy field pieces and juicy athlete interviews—all while cracking each other up. It’s sports talk (more like sports sarcasm) from two friends who love the game—and enjoy clowning it just as much. It’s not a stretch to suggest you stretch before watching these episodes every Tuesday at 8 p.m. EST (5 p.m. PT) as you’ll be laughing so hard you could pull a muscle or two. And that’ll make for a bad sport. Programming Note: The season begins on Tuesday, November 25, 2025 and concludes on Tuesday, February 24, 2026.

Wednesday, November 26

Freakier Friday (Anytime / Disney+)

Two decades after an identity crisis, Anna’s blended family faces new challenges. Tess and Anna discover their past may be repeating with the next generation. A White People Special.
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: STRANGER THINGS 5 – VOLUME 1 (ANYTIME / NETFLIX)

With Hawkins under lockdown, El in hiding and danger lurking at every turn, the entire party unites with a single goal: to hunt and kill Vecna.
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“I need you to fight one last time…” and yet they spend half the first teaser Netflix released hiding from various Upside Down Monsters. Thankfully this fresh Stranger Things trailer looks way better than Will Byers’ cheezy bowl haircut. However, after the last couple of seasons I have zero confidence in the Duffer Brothers to stick the landing. Is this gonna be Matrix II and III or can they actually pull this off?! Stranger Things wasted the pandemic. Coming out of that hot mess the show’s writing and the sprawling mythology should have impressively tight. Focused like a laser. Season 4—1986 where Vecna is revealed to be Hawkins’ Pennywise—floundered under the weight of that exposition. So this is it. It doesn’t matter what I write this is the final season…the Losers are gonna take on Pennywise. The official timeline of the horror show is 1983 to 1987. (In real life Stranger Things was released on July 15, 2016 and won’t end until December 2025.) Programming Note: Volume 1: November 26, 2025 @ 5pm PT ,Volume 2: December 25, 2025 @ 5pm PT The Finale: December 31, 2025 @ 5pm PT.

Thursday, November 27

NFL Thanksgiving Day Games: Green Bay Packers at Detroit Lions (1:00 p.m. / Fox & Tubi)

“This is a much-anticipated rematch of the Week 1 game wherein the Packers absolutely laid the smack down on the Lions. Detroit will surely have revenge on its mind for this one, while Green Bay will be looking to pull off another win and stake a claim to the division title.” More Thanksgiving football follows as the holiday triple-header continues with: Kansas City Chiefs at Dallas Cowboys at 4:30 p.m. on CBC (Streaming on Paramount+) and finally Cincinnati Bengals at Baltimore Ravens at 8:20 p.m. on NBC. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: PLANES, TRAINS & AUTOMOBILES (ANYTIME / PLUTO TV COMEDY)

Easily excitable Neal Page (Steve Martin) is somewhat of a control freak. Trying to get home to Chicago to spend Thanksgiving with his wife (Laila Robins) and kids, his flight is rerouted to a distant city in Kansas because of a freak snowstorm, and his sanity begins to fray. Worse yet, he is forced to bunk up with talkative Del Griffith (John Candy), whom he finds extremely annoying. Together they must overcome the insanity of holiday travel to reach their intended destination.
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This Thanksgiving what are you watching? Planes, Trains, and Automobiles or Uncle Buck? Maybe even Home Alone? The recent John Candy resurgence has been driven by John Candy: A Life in Comedy, a biography by Paul Meyers, the Ryan Reynolds John Candy doc (John Candy: I Like Me on Prime Video) as well as the recent Godspell doc (Candy’s in the doc not in Godspell. It only played at TIFF so far but that still counts.) (It angers up the blood that Martin Scorsese’s SCTV doc will fail to extend this (Canadian) momentum. It’ll hit whenever Martin drops it but he really blew this divine opportunity to join all these Goodfellas and to celebrate a true King of Comedy.) And as we’ve spent this fall celebrating and commemorating John Candy, it’s time to return to his work. And this Thanksgiving is our first opportunity to do just that. The holiday tradition of Planes, Trains, and Automobiles has just become sweeter and more meaningful because now we know John Candy. Be thankful and celebrate those you love.

Friday, November 28

The Beatles Anthology 2025 (Anytime / Disney+)

First released three decades ago, The Beatles’ eight-part Anthology series reinvented the music documentary. Instead of a standard treatment centred on an outside narrator and talking heads, The Anthology featured John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr candidly telling their own story, with all its complexities and contradictions. It introduced The Beatles to new generations of viewers and listeners and marked the start of a creative and commercial afterlife that continues to this day. And in 2025 a completely new Episode Nine, including unseen behind-the-scenes footage of Paul, George and Ringo coming together between 1994 and 1995 to work on The Anthology and reflecting on their shared life as The Beatles.
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: KEVIN HART: ACTING MY AGE (ANYTIME / NETFLIX)

Older, wiser – and still hilarious. Kevin Hart opens up about his midlife mishaps, from intimacy pills to the perils of unexpected injuries.
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Kevin Hart’s still the loud, self-deprecating guy you know (and love), but with Acting His Age his punchlines arrive with wisdom…and a nagging knee. Hart roasts his own 40s like he’s writing the funniest resignation letter from youth. Is this a new age for the comic?

Saturday, November 29

The Bad Guys 2 (Anytime / Peacock)

Saturday Morning Cartoons: Reformed criminals Mr. Wolf, Mr. Snake, Mr. Piranha, Mr. Shark and Ms. Tarantula are trying very hard to be good. However, they soon find themselves hijacked into a high-stakes heist that’s masterminded by a new team of delinquents they never saw coming — the Bad Girls.
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: THE CONJURING: LAST RITES (ANYTIME / HBO MAX & CRAVE)

In 1986 paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren travel to Pennsylvania to vanquish a demon from a family’s home.
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I’ve officially lost the plot on the Insidious movies. I can barely keep The Conjuring Universe straight. I’ve mastered Fast & Furious lore like it’s scripture and I got the MCU down cold. I guess my grasping convoluted movie franchise continuity caps at 2. And yet here’s The Conjuring: Last Rites, the next “inspired by a true story of true(?) evil” chapter, reminding me I still can’t tell which movies are Conjurings, which are Annabelles, and which are Insidious offering similar creepy hand-me-down demons. For Last Rites the Warrens face a terrifying surge in demonic activity. Your classic evil so dark and vicious it threatens to push their work, their marriage and their faith past the breaking point. A final reckoning, a final investigation and maybe… some final rites.

Sunday, November 30

The Stringer: The Man Who Took the Photo (Anytime / Netflix)

A former Saigon photo editor reveals a secret he’s been plagued with for 52 years, setting off a gripping two-year investigation into the truth behind one of the Vietnam War’s most iconic photographs. Acclaimed conflict photographer Gary Knight and a small team of journalists embark on a relentless search to locate and seek justice for a man known only as “the stringer.”
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: THE SNEAKER BOOM (ANYTIME / CRAVE)

The series is set amidst the NBA’s rise in global popularity during the early ’90s.
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Lace up before you run through the wild ride of the 1990s sneaker arms race, where NBA legends and marketing geniuses turned basketball shoes into cultural bombs. From Penny Hardaway to Grant Hill, this five-part docuseries traces how sneakers became status symbols, fashion statements, and multi-million dollar obsessions. “The docuseries follows the maverick marketing and advertising execs who bet on unproven rookies and paired them to make wildly creative television commercials, and how the shoes they wore went from niche sportswear to everyday fashion as they reached superstardom.” Oh yes…that includes Lil Penny. (There’s gonna be hard moments of sorrow with Grant Hill and Penny…they had it! They coulda been somebody special but injuries cut it all short. Even Larry Johnson and those Hornets were special. Just…not meant to be.) This isn’t just about soles…it’s about soul. The soul of the game and the funky fresh foundation of sneaker culture.

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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.