Election fear and fun: Saturday Night Live and Stephen Colbert
DENISE DUGUAY
First, we have an election day to get through. Then, Remembrance Day. Then, let’s allow ourselves the goofy humour promised by Kevin James’s True Memoirs of an International Assassin.
MONDAY, NOV. 7 2016 SNL Election Special (10 p.m., Global, NBC)
Saturday Night Live has plenty of moments to choose from in this one-hour review of its best coverage of the presidential election campaign and most of them involve Alec Baldwin as Donald Trump, Kate McKinnon as Hillary Clinton or the Weekend Update lads, Colin Jost and Michael Che. If you haven’t already, check out the “nasty woman” debate skit, moderated by Tom Hanks as Chris Wallace, at globaltv.com/saturdaynightlive (you’ll need your TV provider username and password).
TUESDAY, NOV. 8 Stephen Colbert’s Live Election Night Democracy’s Series Finale: Who’s Going to Clean Up This S--(11 p.m., The Movie Network)
Speaking of the U.S. election, welcome to voting day. The wall-towall coverage will probably break the Internet, but hopefully your TVs will soldier on. Check out Late Show host Stephen Colbert’s special, which will be broadcast live from his usual digs, the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York. Special guests, pre-taped segments and his biting, satirical commentary will be on offer, as usual, but this one-night move to Showtime in the U.S. and TMN in Canada, will allow Colbert to, as the press release says, “do things he’s never been able to do in this campaign, such as directly quote a candidate without being bleeped.” So dirty, Colbert! Let’s get this party started.
WEDNESDAY, NOV. 9 War Junk (9 p.m., History)
In the lead up to Remembrance Day, consider a peek at the history show that retells war stories through the “junk” or artifacts left behind, on and off the battlefields. In the Season 4 première, called Operation Market Garden, military historian David O’Keefe, filmmaker Wayne Abbott and their team parachute behind Second World War enemy lines.
THURSDAY, NOV. 10 Holmes + Holmes (10 p.m., HGTV)
Who doesn’t love a good fatherson moment? With hammers. OK, maybe not hammers, but Canada’s best known handyman and star of Holmes on Homes has a reputation for outrage. And Mike Holmes’s son, Mike Jr. or MJ to their fans, doesn’t fall far from the temper tree. So this new show will have a bit of yelling as the pair renovate the home of Holmes fils and to “Build it right!” But brace, too, for tenderness from the elder Holmes, that old softy.
FRIDAY, NOV. 11 The True Memoirs of an International Assassin (Netflix.com, after midnight)
In the whole of a spy novel, what possible difference could be made by adding or changing one word? Quite a lot, it turns out when the prefix “non” is added to the “fiction” category description of a new book by Sam Larson (Kevin James). The difference earns Larson the unwanted job of real-life high-level assassin. Judging by the very fun trailer, it helps to a be a fan of the former King of Queens’ very broad comedy, but I’m a sucker for spy spoofs.
SATURDAY, NOV. 12 Knuckleheads (9:30 p.m., Teletoon)
Continuing on the theme of goofy humour, Teletoon at Night starts rolling out new episodes of the English-language take on the crazy popular French comedy web and TV series, Têtes à Claques. The French-language original, which uses creator Michel Beaudet’s real eyes and mouth overtop claymation characters, moved from the web to Teletoon’s French side in 2011 and debuted the first English versions in January. Among the new batch of these very adult stand-alone adventures is Save the Zwizzes, in which a pilot is teleported, mid-bathroom moment, to a spaceship to save a skinny green king from a bloodthirsty brown king. Or something. The English episodes are voiced by Joe Cobden (The Aviator, The Vow).
SUNDAY, NOV. 13 The Walking Dead (9 p.m., AMC)
The season opener proved fatal to two main cast members as well as the supper I had eaten well before the episode, in which new bad guy Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) used barbed-wire studded bat Lucille to scare Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and his remaining gang into submission. The next episode was predictably softer, introducing the theatrical leader King Ezekiel (Khary Payton) and allowing Carol (Melissa McBride) to temporarily opt out of battle. I have loved this series for its characters and new-world disorder despite some seasons that stretched stories too thin and an infatuation with “Check this out!” gore, which hit 11 a few weeks ago. I still love it, but with a finger on the remote’s pause button and a hope that story will triumph over ooze dripping off the end of Lucille.
That’s it for me this week. Got a question? Spot an error? Find me, tell me. And remember, we do our best but times and dates are subject to change.