Halloween weekend heralds the beginning of the end for the 13th, and first female, Doctor Who with a six-part season subtitled Flux. Anthony Head (Buffy, Ted Lasso) is The Canterville Ghost in a modern-day four-part adaptation of the comic Oscar Wilde story. CBS’ SEAL Team goes on a mission that will take them to streaming on Paramount+ after Sunday’s episode. After a streaming and theatrical window, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s jubilant musical In the Heights begins a run on HBO.
James Pardon/BBC Studios/BBC America
Doctor Who
SUNDAY: What better way for the first female Doctor (spunky Jodie Whittaker) to begin her final season than with an episode titled “The Halloween Apocalypse?” Perfectly timed as a final holiday treat, a six-part adventure subtitled Flux sends the Doctor and her companions to the edge of the universe, taking on monsters new and old. It all begins on Halloween, naturally, with the stirrings of ancient evil from the Arctic circle to deep space. Sounds like the Doctor will be keeping busy until it’s time to hand off to the 14th Time Lord.
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The Canterville Ghost
SUNDAY: Prefer some levity with your hauntings? (You should be watching CBS’ Ghosts.) A four-part contemporary adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s comic short story stars Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Anthony Head as Sir Simon de Canterville, a mischievous 16th-century spirit who has been haunting Canterville Chase for eons—unbeknownst to American tech billionaire Hiram Otis (James Lance), who buys the property only to encounter resistance from the local gentry as well as the cantankerous ghost.
Chapelwaite
SUNDAY: For true Halloween horror, the finale of the Stephen King-inspired vampire thriller stages a climactic battle between the fearsome vampire army led by Jakub (Christopher Heyerdahl) and the seemingly outmatched human defenders led by Charles (Adrien Brody) over control of a cursed ancient book. When the dust—make that blood—settles, Charles must make a hauntingly tough decision to keep humanity safe from the book for eternity. (For those needing to catch up, Epix airs the first nine episodes in a pre-Halloween marathon on Saturday, starting at noon/11c.)
HBO Max/Warner Bros
In the Heights
SATURDAY: If you missed it on HBO Max or in the movie theater, director Jon M. Chu’s (Crazy Rich Asians) exuberant film version of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tony-winning musical is guaranteed to brighten your weekend. Anthony Ramos (Hamilton) is a charmer as Usnavi, a bodega owner in upper Manhattan’s vibrant Washington Heights neighborhood whose dreams, including a crush on would-be downtown girl Vanessa (Melissa Berrera), fuel this uplifting slice of tuneful urban life, with some incredible dancing.
Ron P. Jaffe/CBS
SEAL Team
SUNDAY: In a move that has caused no end of aggravation among the military drama’s fan base, the series airs its final episode on CBS before moving exclusively to the Paramount+ streaming platform. And they’re trying their best to hook viewers to come along, with the first of a three-episode arc that will continue the following daywith part 2, and part 3 airing exclusively on the streamer on Nov. 7. The action begins as the Bravo Team is sent on a last-minute mission to Africa, where new intel diverts them to rush to prevent a major terrorist attack. How it all ends you’ll have to subscribe to Paramount+ to find out.
HBO
Succession
SUNDAY: The most volatile chess game since The Queen’s Gambit finds all the players and pawns inside Waystar Royco squirming with the feds at their gate, and outlier Kendall (Jeremy Strong) mulling disruption as the family plans to address the latest turmoil at an internal town-hall meeting. “There are a million knives being sharpened right now,” warns Tom (Matthew Macfadyen), one of many trying to figure out their next move.
Inside Weekend TV:
- Torn from Her Arms (Saturday, 8/7c, Lifetime): Based on reporting from the OZY editorial team, this ripped-from-the-headlines drama stars Claws’ Judy Reyes as a Texas immigration lawyer and ER’s Gloria Reuben as a Pulitzer-winning ProPublica reporter who shine light on the plight of an El Salvador refugee (Fátima Molina) and her 6-year-old daughter (Camila Nuñez), separated at the border and detained in different states as part of the former administration’s zero-tolerance policy.
- Ghost Hunters (Sunday, streaming on discovery+): How appropriate for Halloween to be the occasion to jump-start the revival of the series that spawned a paranormal cottage industry. Original team leader Jason Hawes is joined by Steve Gonsalves, Dave Tango and Shari DeBenedetti for a special Halloween sneak-peek event, hunting for horror within one of America’s scariest prisons.
- The Equalizer (Sunday, 8/7c, CBS): This could be awkward. Robyn McCall’s (Queen Latifah) latest mission of mercy involves D.A. Grafton (Jennifer Ferron), the prosecutor who’s been trying to bring the vigilante to justice. If McCall saves Grafton from being murdered, will she seal her own fate?
- Insecure (Sunday, 10/9c, HBO): The comedy jumps forward a year in its final season, with BFFs Issa (Issa Rae) and Molly (Yvonne Orji) back in sync. Their support system may come in handy as Molly considers getting back in the dating pool and Issa faces professional challenges while producing an event for an uncompromising client.