What to Watch this Weekend: Borat returns in a Subsequent Moviefilm for our miserable moment

EW Staff
·7 min read

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

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm

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

Even though Amazon Prime decided to drop this movie early, it's still perfect weekend viewing as it attempts to meet this unprecedented time through satire, something many have tried and failed. And you’d be forgiven for not expecting the Borat sequel to break the mold — after all, the horrors that Sacha Baron Cohen’s groundbreaking 2006 film exposed in the corners of American culture have, in the decade-and-a-half since its premiere, moved proudly and distressingly to the fore. But Subsequent Moviefilm pulls off a clever trick by not only dropping us right back into the world it helped to presage, but by giving us a new guide, too: Borat’s daughter Tutar, played in a remarkable U.S. debut by Maria Bakolova. She’s an innocent, sheltered young woman who slowly emerges with a filthy streak of her own. Baron Cohen’s creation is the main attraction again, sure, but it’s the film’s fresh face who gives the sequel its cracked heart, its biggest laughs, and — in a jaw-dropping finale you’ve likely already read far too much about — its most shocking success. Very nice, very nice. —David Canfield

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Bruce Springsteen’s Letter to You

HOW/WHEN & WHERE TO WATCH: Streaming on Apple TV+

Arriving concurrently with his new album (though Apple TV+ dropped it early as a treat), Letter to You is Bruce Springsteen’s intimate look inside the recording of his first studio album recorded live with the E Street Band since 1984. It continues the more self-reflective side of The Boss that began with his memoir Born to Run and continued on into his Broadway show and last year’s concert film accompanying solo album Western Stars. It offers fans an in-depth and unprecedented glimpse of Springsteen’s creative process, with footage of the recording sessions, live take performances of songs on the new record, as well as never-before-seen archival material. Soak in the glory and the joy at home (and maybe even do a little dancing in the dark). —Maureen Lee Lenker

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On the Rocks

HOW/WHEN & WHERE TO WATCH: Streaming on Apple TV+

Sofia Coppola. Bill Murray. Rashida Jones: all delectable, quality ingredients in the 49-year-old director’s succulent cinematic cocktail. The Oscar-winning filmmaker’s chattiest film to date — about a writer who taps her playboy father to tail her seemingly unfaithful husband around Manhattan — is heavy on clever dialogue and stuffed with an extra helping of laughs not typically found in Coppola’s oeuvre. Glimpses of bustling, neon-coated New York nights help pepper the film with an added dash of nostalgia for stir-crazy quarantined audiences thirsting for a dollop of smart, sophisticated comedy spritzed with fizzy escapism. —Joey Nolfi

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Bad Hair

HOW/WHEN & WHERE TO WATCH: Streaming on Hulu

As Dear White People kicks off production on its long-awaited fourth season, creator Justin Simien’s new horror satire Bad Hair unfurls on Hulu. Originally premiered at Sundance a lifetime ago — or more specifically in January — the 1989-set film follows Anna (Elle Lorraine), an aspiring VJ whose new boss, played by Vanessa Williams, tells her she needs to get extensions if she wants to rise at the music video television show. Unfortunately, what she gets is a killer weave. For Simien, the move is an exploration of the struggles Black women face as they move a world that’s built against them. “The real evils [in Bad Hair] are white supremacy and the patriarchy,” Simien previously told EW. “It’s a psychological social thriller that is a commentary on the American experience and the kind of quiet little deaths we all have to endure to advance and be seen by mainstream society.” —Chancellor Agard

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The Queen's Gambit

HOW/WHEN & WHERE TO WATCH: Streaming on Netflix

Series Debut
Anya Taylor-Joy reigns over Netflix's new limited series The Queen's Gambit with an astounding performance as Beth, a young orphan who discovers a prodigious skill for chess. Across the series' seven episodes, Beth rises through the ranks of competitive chess in the 1960s while battling sexism and her own personal demons. "To borrow a 2020 phrase, I felt very seen by Beth," Taylor-Joy tells EW. "She's the character that I've had the least amount of skin between. I understood her so immediately and she came forth to me so quickly." Adds co-creator Scott Frank, "The minute I met her, I knew she was right. Everything about her, I thought, 'Oh my God, this is Beth. This is exactly who I've been looking for.'" Long live the queen. —Tyler Aquilina

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What Else to Watch

Streaming

Over the Moon (movie) — Netflix

Once Upon a Snowman (short animated film) — Disney+

The Big Fib (season finale) — Disney+

Friendsgiving (movie) — Digital/VOD

After We Collided (movie) — VOD

The Place of No Words (movie) — VOD

8 p.m.

Shark Tank — ABC

Big Brother (special night) — CBS

9 p.m.

20/20 — ABC

Undercover Boss — CBS

American Selfie: One Nation Shoots Itself (doc) — Showtime

10 p.m.

Dateline — NBC

11 p.m.

How To With John Wilson (docuseries debut) — HBO

SATURDAY

Getty Images (2)

Saturday Night Live

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

30 Rock is saying hello to Oscar and multi-Grammy winner Adele, who's making her Saturday Night Live hosting debut, with musical guest H.E.R. "I’ve always wanted to do it as a stand-alone moment so that I could roll up my sleeves and fully throw myself into it, but the time has never been right," the "Rolling in the Deep" singer said in an Instagram post. That doesn't mean she won't sing — perhaps in a sketch, perhaps dropping hints about a forthcoming album (fingers crossed!). All I ask is she gets better material to work with than recent episodes. —Gerrad Hall

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What Else to Watch

8 p.m.

Jingle Bell Bride — Hallmark

Christmas Unwrapped — Lifetime

9 p.m.

Christmas Tree Lane — Hallmark Movies & Mysteries

Black Love (season finale) — OWN

10 p.m.

Divided We Stand: Inside America's Anger — CNN

SUNDAY

The Undoing

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

Series Debut
The HBO thriller, which once again pairs Nicole Kidman with writer David E. Kelley (Big Little Lies), stars Kidman as Grace, a successful Manhattanite who finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation when a parent from her son’s school ends up dead. The six-episode series unravels the mystery while exploring the question of how well we know the people closest to us, including ourselves. —Samantha Highfill

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What Else to Watch

8 p.m.

Supermarket Sweep — ABC

Pandora — The CW

Chateau Christmas — Hallmark

The Spanish Princess — Starz

9 p.m.

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (season premiere) — ABC

Fear the Walking Dead — AMC

The Real Housewives of Potomac — Bravo

Halloween Wars: Legends (season finale) — Food Network

Deliver by Christmas — Hallmark Movies & Mysteries

The Good Lord Bird — Showtime

Paranormal Caught on Camera: Top 100 (special) — Travel Channel

10 p.m.

Card Sharks — ABC

The Walking Dead: World Beyond — AMC

Halloween Freakshow Cakes (back-to-back episode finale) — Food Network

Fargo — FX

I Love a Mama's Boy (series debut) — TLC

Midnight

The Eric Andre Show (season premiere) — Adult Swim

*times are ET and subject to change

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