#SetTheVCR: September 28 – October 04, 2026

Monday, September 28

Tales From The Crypt: Complete Series (Anytime / Tubi & Shudder)

Tales from the Crypt, the popular 90s horror anthology series inspired by the 1950s EC Comics, is back exclusively streaming on Shudder! Each episode is a self-contained story, often featuring well-known talent and directors, and is hosted by the Crypt Keeper (John Kassir), a wisecracking corpse known for his macabre puns. With its signature unrestricted gore, profanity, and dark irony, the show’s episode styles range from comedy to drama and deliver twisted moral lessons where “bad people” meet poetically horrific ends – and issues like greed, lust, and moral decay lead to tragic consequences. Created by William Gaines and Steven Dodd, the HBO series ran for seven seasons: from June 10, 1989, to July 19, 1996, with a total of 93 episodes.
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: THE FURIOUS (ANYTIME / CRAVE & STARZ-US)

After the daughter of Wang Wei is kidnapped by a criminal network and he receives no help from the corrupt police, Wei sets out on a rampage to find her himself. His only ally is Navin – a relentless journalist whose wife has mysteriously disappeared. Fueled by a furious vengeance, the unlikely duo ruthlessly fights against the kidnappers in this explosive martial arts showdown.
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Today is my birthday so for this special Sammy Suggestion I’m gonna go with…Ruckus. A Hong Kong action film, from the guys in The Raid: Redemption. Super kinetic, long-take martial arts choreography is delicious. The plot is super simple and instantly sets up all the ruckus. Wang Wei (Xie Miao) sees his young daughter kidnapped by a corrupt human trafficking ring. (Rude!) Local police refuse to help. (Expected!) Wei goes on a violent rescue mission. (Fresh!) He teams up with Navin (Joe Taslim), an investigative journalist whose wife is missing. (Sure.) Perfect TV for my birthday as I get older I become… The Furious.

Tuesday, September 29

Last Seen: Limited Series (Anytime / Apple TV)

Police detective Ian Ridley’s (Brammall) life fell apart 11 years ago when his young daughter, Maggie, disappeared without a trace. Now working as a police dispatcher, he has only his implacable refusal to accept that she might be gone forever to keep him going. When he receives a distress call from a teenage girl he is certain is Maggie, he will stop at nothing to find her and reunite his broken family, whatever the cost.
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: TUNER (ANYTIME / PARAMOUNT+ & PRIME VIDEO-CANADA)

A talented piano tuner’s life is turned upside down when he discovers that his meticulous skills for tuning pianos can equally be applied to cracking safes.
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Ah, I was out of “Tuner” during #TIFF50 and I missed this heist flick: Limitless with safe cracking. That hits all the right notes for me. So happy now that it’s streaming, I can sing a different Tuner. (I’m done now. Thanks for not Tuner…ing me out…) Programming Note: This’ll stream on Prime Video-Canada on October 5.

Wednesday, September 30

Youth: Season 1 (Anytime / HBO Max & Crave)

Youth follows a 50-year-old divorcee’s search for sex and love while juggling caring for her ailing parents and parenting her should-be grown-up son.
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: MILLER NIGHT FOOTBALL (ANYTIME / HBO MAX)

Miller Night Football chronicles comedian Dennis Miller’s unlikely arrival in the Monday Night Football (MNF) broadcast booth in 2000, alongside veteran sportscaster Al Michaels and former NFL quarterback Dan Fouts. Through candid new interviews with Miller, his colleagues at ABC Sports, and vintage MNF footage, the film examines one of the most ambitious experiments in sports broadcasting history. The featured participants include Dennis Miller; former MNF broadcasters Al Michaels, Dan Fouts, and Melissa Stark; former MNF producers David Israel and Fred Gaudelli; former ABC Sports President Howard Katz; and comedian Dana Carvey.
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A 40-minute blast from the past to remind us of the time ABC executives made a massive sports bet. In 2000, Monday Night Football decided to fix a ratings slump by installing Dennis Miller in the broadcast booth alongside Al Michaels and Dan Fouts. It still sounds like a strange experiment in 2026. Esoteric pop-culture references dropped over a third-and-long. That’s what NFL fans wanna hear as they root for their team and consume chicken wings? The “funny” thing is Dennis Miller isn’t like ha-hah funny. He worked okay on SNL but on a cast with Dana Carvey and Phil Hartman, he was never gonna stand out or out joke those clowns. And yet Miller’s mandate included attracting a broader audience. The press release for this documentary notes: “Miller’s addition and his distinctly cerebral brand of humor were met with both intrigue and skepticism across sports and television.” That’s true then and it’s true now. So, put down your chicken wings and raise your glass: it’s Miller Time.

Thursday, October 01

Lockbox (Anytime / MGM+)

Seeking peace after her mother’s death, Ellen retreats to a rural town with her traumatized cousin, Winthrop. When strange phenomena escalate, she must protect him from a dangerous otherworldly entity determined to hunt him down.
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: SILVER SCREAMERS (ANYTIME / TVO DOCS)

A heartwarming and spine-tingling documentary that follows a group of spirited senior citizens as they embark on an extraordinary adventure far outside their comfort zones: creating a horror film.
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The acclaimed Canadian documentary Silver Screamers touring the global festival circuit and independent cinemas has found a…retirement home at TVO? Horror is a strange genre. How do you ease children into The Shining or gloss over Freddy Kruger’s dark origins? Free candy offsets any Halloween fears. So what if you became a senior citizen, all retired and you never did get around to horror? Cue: octogenarians learning to master special effects and fake blood on a shoestring budget. Silver Screamers is a spirited documentary about a group of Toronto-area senior citizens who decide to fight off the monotony of aging not with bingo or water aerobics, but by making a low-budget horror movie about a man-eating killer rug. Director Sean Cisterna crafts an award-winning, life-affirming look at a crew of fearless retirees stepping far outside their comfort zones and into the…Twilight Zone. Do You Like Scary Movies? “What…speak up…I can’t hear you.” This production was completely chaotic, but the uplifting message is clear: imagination doesn’t retire. Like zombies, imagination never stays dead for long.

Friday, October 02

East of Eden: Limited Series (Anytime / Netflix)

This modern interpretation of Steinbeck’s masterpiece will explore the multigenerational saga of the Trask family, focusing new attention on its indelible antihero, Cathy Ames.
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: KILL JACKIE: LIMITED SERIES (ANYTIME / AMC+ & PRIME VIDEO-CANADA)

Jackie Price (Catherine Zeta-Jones) has been living a luxurious existence for the last twenty years – travelling the world, selling fine art and, above all, trying to stay anonymous after escaping a dangerous past as an international drug smuggler. But just as life starts to feel a little boring, it takes a sudden lethal turn when she discovers that The Seven Demons, a squad of the world’s most terrifying hitmen, have been hired to kill her. Assuming someone from her past is behind it, Jackie unleashes her old instincts and embarks on a wild, dangerous game plan: to take down The Demons one by one before they kill her. However, she soon realizes her own demons are much more terrifying than the ruthless killers on her trail… and her buried secrets lead her closer to home, with surprising consequences.
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I’ve never read the 2018 action-noir novel The Price You Pay, written by Nick Harkaway (under the pen name Aidan Truhen) about a male cocaine dealer vs hitmen. Yes, based on the novel this was a dude. It’s been gender-swapped (why do we still do that?!) for this series. The gender-swap and the recycled name Kill Jackie with aggressive and distinct hitmen basically turns Kill Bill into a TV Movie of The Week. I hope there is something of value here: the series is co-created and written by creatives behind Gangs of London. Well. I hope they… kill it.

Saturday, October 03

Adventure Time: Side Quests: Season 2 (Anytime / Disney+ & Hulu)

Finn and Jake are back for more adventure and even more side quests across the wild, wonderful land of Ooo. Wrestling toads, facing baby gladiators, and getting tangled up in one too many magic spells, it’s clear no side quest is too strange, too small, or too dangerous to take on. All episodes of the second season will be available to stream on October 2.
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: WAR: LIMITED SERIES (ANYTIME / HBO MAX)

War is a high-stakes, legal drama following the lives of London’s most powerful lawyers as firms Cathcarts & Sons and Taylor & Byrne clash over a headline-grabbing legal battle, drawing ambitious young lawyer Jonathan “Johnny” Warren into a ruthless world where ambition is currency, betrayal is strategy, and winning is everything. Season one follows the explosive divorce of British tech entrepreneur Morgan Henderson and international film star Carla Duval, as Cathcarts & Sons and Taylor & Byrne stop at nothing to secure victory for their clients.
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What is this?! The War of the Roses…again? That was a 1981 novel, then a Danny DeVito movie. Then Benedict Cumberbatch did it again in 2025. How is HBO’s War gonna be any different?! Can you you offer anything new…at all?! This offering trades trades the violent domestic battlefield for elite yet cutthroat London law firms. I don’t see any Roses…I just feel the sharp sting of recycled thorns. HBO swears this is a completely original, high-stakes British courtroom anthology. Really? Looks like the courtroom and the whole system is out of order. We’re losing the War to mediocrity.

Sunday, October 04

Tracker: Season 4 (9:30 pm / CBS)

Safe Harbor – Colter’s search for a teenage boy’s missing father leads him to a dangerous criminal operation at the Port of Los Angeles. Tracker is back for a fourth season.
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: TIP TOE: LIMITED SERIES (ANYTIME / STARZ)

In Tip Toe, Leo and Clive have lived next door to each other in Manchester for almost 15 years. Leo runs Spit & Polish, a bar on Canal Street, and Clive is an electrician with two teenage sons. But just as life should be settling down for both of them, the world around them is growing more tense. Words become weapons, opinions become radicalized, and the two neighbors gradually become deadly enemies in a tense, thrilling drama that spotlights the prejudices that have begun to creep back into our lives, a story that speaks not just to the queer community but to the world at large.
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I, like so many others, had a number of obvious issues with Russell T Davies’ return to Doctor Who. (And the new Doctor sucked, so bad.) However, his non-Doctor Who track record (almost always drama and almost always queer themed) is quite engaging. It’s A Sin and Years and Years are two limited series’ I highly recommend. He’s back with another queer British drama. This time he’s exploring a subtle British invasion of quiet suburban paranoia. Alan Cumming plays a flamboyant Canal Street bar owner living in Manchester for almost 15 years next door to David Morrissey. Morrissey’s Clive is an electrician with two teenage sons. A simple convenient friendship evolves from a block party to blockheads as modern and online prejudices seep into the neighbourhood. The escalating suburban hostility over a shared driveway demands a Tip Toe as opinions become radicalized. There’s not quite as lazy as hate. Originally broadcast in the UK on Channel 4 in the U.K. from May 31 to June 9, 2026, it tip toes into North America via Sarz.

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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.