SATURDAY’S BEST PICKS
8 PM ( HBO) MOVIE David Byrne’s American Utopia Oscar and Emmy winner Spike Lee directed this visually arresting film version of the critically acclaimed Broadway production, which stars former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne and an ensemble of 11 musicians from around the world. The film includes choreographed performances of songs from Byrne’s 2018 album “American
Utopia,” along with such Talking
Heads favorites as “Burning Down the House.” The show invites audiences to enter a joyous dream world where human connection and social justice are paramount, with Byrne addressing socio-political topics in brief intersong monologues.
9 PM ( HALL) MOVIE Sweet Autumn When Maggie (Nikki DeLoach), a successful entrepreneur, returns to her hometown for the reading of her late aunt’s will, she learns she has inherited half of her aunt’s celebrated maple candy business. More surprising, though, the other half has been left to Dex (Andrew Walker), who is equally puzzled by his inheritance. As the community’s Sweet Autumn Fest approaches, Maggie and Dex pore over a series of letters left by the dear departed, looking for clues to her intentions. Henriette Ivanans co-stars in this 2020 romance.
9 PM ( SYFY) MOVIE Tales From the Hood 3 Executive-produced by Spike Lee, this third horror anthology collaboration from writer-directors Rusty Cundieff and Darin Scott gets a release on cable and home video as the pandemic continues to complicate theatrical distribution. Tony Todd stars in the framing story as William, a man in his 50s, who is trying to outrun an unseen evil with 6-year-old Brooklyn (Sage Arrindell). As they pause in their flight, she tells him four moralistic yet horrific stories to keep her mind off their impending danger. Lynn Whitfield and Cooper Huckabee also star.
9 PM ( TRAV) Ghost Nation Jason Hawes, Steve Gonsalves and Dave Tango return in new episodes to investigate bigger, edgier paranormal mysteries, starting with “Evil Ink,” a new hour that finds the guys in Deptford, N.J. A local tattoo parlor called Zone 13 Tattoo and Body Piercing Shop has been the scene of disturbing apparitions, disembodied voices and such upsetting physical encounters that the business is starting to suffer. One theory is that the shop is haunted by one of the property’s former owners, a woman named Bertha.
9 PM ( SHO) MOVIE The Gentlemen After a string of box-office disappointments, director Guy Ritchie enjoyed a comeback with this 2019 action comedy, which he also wrote. The story follows American marijuana kingpin Michael “Mickey” Pearson (Matthew McConaughey), now in England, as he tries to sell his business. That venture sets off a complicated chain of blackmail attempts and other schemes to undermine him. Charlie Hunnam, Henry Golding, Michelle Dockery, Jeremy Strong, Eddie Marsan, Hugh Grant and Colin Farrell also appear in the strong ensemble cast.
11 PM (AMC) Cursed Films A new episode goes behind the scenes on “The Omen,” Richard Donner’s 1976 thriller starring Gregory Peck and Lee Remick as an American ambassador and his wife, who come to worry that the son they are raising may be the Antichrist. After a series of unfortunate events plagued the cast and crew during production, some folk suggested that the film might be cursed by the devil himself. Those rumors didn’t hurt the box office: “The Omen” was one of the top-grossing films of its year.
1 AM ^ Austin City Limits As the coronavirus pandemic continues to complicate making new episodes of this popular, intimate music series, the newly produced “Stevie Ray Vaughan: A Retrospective” delivers an hour of vintage Vaughan appearances on “Austin City Limits” with his band Double Trouble. Although his mainstream career only spanned seven years before his untimely death in a 1990 helicopter crash at age 35, the late Texas blues rocker is widely regarded as one of the most iconic and influential musicians in blues history. Songs include “Pride and Joy” and “Texas Flood.”