There are scores of TV shows out there, with dozens of new episodes each week, not to mention everything you can find on Hulu Plus, Netflix streaming, and HBO Go. How’s a viewer to keep up? To help you sort through all that television has to offer, Flavorwire is compiling the five best bets for the coming week. It’s the last week before the elections, so lighten up with a new comedy special from Pete Davidson and the celebrity-filled ceremony honoring Bill Murray as the latest recipient of the prestigious Mark Twain Prize. Plus, a very special guest stops by the set of Full Frontal to talk politics with Samantha Bee. Deep breaths, everyone — we can do this.
Today: Good Girls Revolt
This new Amazon hourlong drama appears to be following in the footsteps of Mad Men, another ’60s-set period piece about office politics. But this one puts the Peggys front and center: Good Girls Revolt is based on the 2012 book by journalist Lynn Povich, an account of the 1970 lawsuit brought against Newsweek magazine by 46 women who worked there, Povich included. The topic couldn’t be more relevant, two weeks before an election in which one candidate is a woman and the other a man who has said “putting a wife to work is a very dangerous thing.” But the show is a pretty weak-tea version of this fight, IMHO, and gives into too many tired clichés of the period. In any case, you can watch the first season on Amazon Prime as of today.
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Today: Bill Murray: The Mark Twain Prize
Huzzah! Earlier this week, Bill Murray was awarded the 19th Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in a star-studded ceremony at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and PBS is airing the event tonight at 9 p.m. See David Letterman, Steve Martin, Aziz Ansari, Miley Cyrus, Sigourney Weaver, Jane Curtin, Emma Stone, Jimmy Kimmel, Paul Shaffer, and more honor one of our funniest living comics.
Saturday: Pete Davidson: SMD
Saturday Night Live‘s youngest cast member premieres his very first hour-long stand-up special this weekend on Comedy Central. Pete Davidson: SMD was filmed in New York City, appropriate for this Staten Island native, and is full of the 22-year-old comic’s hilarious stoner musings: Davidson regales us with stories about the time he almost went to rehab, the time he for sure went to a Justin Bieber concert, and the many times he’s texted his mom pictures of his dick. Catch the special on Comedy Central Saturday at 11 p.m.
Saturday: The Fall Season 3
Fans of The Fall, a crime drama starring Gillian Anderson as a no-nonsense (and, it must be said, devastatingly sexy) police detective, have had to wait a long time between the British series’ second season and its third, which lands on Netflix this weekend. The second season culminated in a rather silly showdown between Anderson’s Stella and Paul (Jamie Dornan), the serial killer she’s been after all along. It’s unclear if The Fall will continue or get the axe, but creator Alan Cubitt has promised Stella and Paul’s “cat and mouse game” will finally come to a close in the third season. Watch it on Netflix as of Saturday.
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Monday: Full Frontal with Samantha Bee
A very special guest will stop by Full Frontal on All Hallow’s Eve: President Barack Obama himself. (The show announced the news in typically cheeky fashion; the press release declared, “Samantha Bee Interviews Her First Male President.”) Obama has been campaigning hard on behalf of Hillary Clinton in recent weeks, so his appearance on the Hillary-loving Full Frontal is no surprise. Watch the interview on Monday’s episode, which airs on TBS at 10:30 p.m.