What to Watch this Weekend: HBO gets into the Stephen King business with The Outsider
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
AJ and the Queen
HOW/WHEN & WHERE TO WATCH: Streaming on Netflix
Series Debut
RuPaul embraces his inner child — and, in a refreshing departure from his throne behind the Drag Race judging panel — the art of lip-syncing in full drag across this playful road comedy from co-creator Michael Patrick King (The Comeback). Filled with actual queens (22 Drag Race alums costar) and cameos (hello, Jane Krakowski!), AJ follows a down-on-her-luck drag performer (RuPaul) who hits the road to make a quick buck on a nationwide tour after her boyfriend swindles her out of her life's savings. Little does she know that a 10-year-old stowaway (newcomer Izzy G.) is along for the life-changing ride, and the pair's clashing personalities (as well as RuPaul's elaborate musical numbers) makes for one of the most tender, charming, original, and outrageously hilarious television romps in recent memory. —Joey Nolfi
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Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector
HOW/WHEN & WHERE TO WATCH: 8 p.m. on NBC
Series Debut
Nothing will stop the great Lincoln Rhyme (Russell Hornsby), not even a near-death injury that left him a paraplegic. Teaming up with NYPD officer Amelia Sachs (Arielle Kebbel) and paired with the finest technology, Detective Rhyme finally gets a shot at catching the Bone Collector — the notorious killer who put Rhyme in his current state — and ending his terror once and for all. Roslyn Ruff, Ramses Jimenez, Brooke Lyons, and Tate Ellington also star in the crime drama based on Jefferey Deaver's novel of the same name. —Rachel Yang
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What Else to Watch
Streaming
Speed of Life (movie) — Various platforms
Inherit the Viper (movie) — Digital/VOD
Three Christs (movie) — Digital/VOD
The Corrupted (movie) — Digital/VOD
The Murder of Nicole Brown Simpson (movie) — Digital/VOD
Medical Police (series debut) — Netflix
Harvey Girls Forever! (season premiere) — Netflix
Zumbo's Just Desserts (season premiere) — Netflix
Encore — Disney+
Forky Asks a Question (season finale) — Disney+
One Day at Disney — Disney+
Pick of the Litter — Disney+
The World According to Jeff Goldblum — Disney+
Servant — Apple TV+
Truth Be Told — Apple TV+
8 p.m.
Baby Monitor Murders — Lifetime Movie Network
Hawaii Five-0 — CBS
8:45 p.m.
The Owl House (animated series debut) — Disney Channel
10 p.m.
Blue Bloods — CBS
SATURDAY
What Else to Watch
Check local listings
Samantha Brown's Places to Love (season premiere) — PBS
SUNDAY
The Outsider
HOW/WHEN & WHERE TO WATCH: 9 p.m. on HBO
Series Debut
A new year means a new adaptation of a Stephen King horror story. The Outsider brings the best-selling author's 2018 novel to the screen in a 10-episode miniseries event on HBO, and there are some pretty intriguing names among the cast. Viewers will get re-acquainted (in live-action form) with Det. Ralph Anderson (Rogue One's Ben Mendelsohn), who's investigating the puzzling and brutal murder of an 11-year-old in Georgia. Fingerprints belonging to a local family man and Little League coach (Ozark's Jason Bateman) were found all over the crime scene, but then there's the fact that security camera footage places him miles away from the site at the time of the slaying. How can someone be in two places at once? That's the question Ralph and his unorthodox partner-in-crime, private investigator Holly Ginny (Harriet's Cynthia Erivo), are trying to figure out. We can't get into any specifics at the risk of spoiling this mystery, but given that this is a Stephen King tale, it's safe to presume there's something seriously sinister behind it all. King himself called The Outsider series "one of the best adaptations of my work." You can't argue with the man himself. —Nick Romano
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What Else to Watch
Check local listings
Sanditon (two-episode series debut) — PBS
7 p.m.
The 25th Annual Critics' Choice Awards — The CW
America's Funniest Home Videos — ABC
8 p.m.
Kids Say the Darndest Things — ABC
90 Day Fiance — TLC
God Friended Me — CBS
Psycho Party Planner — Lifetime
Ray Donovan — Showtime
Power — Starz
9 p.m.
NCIS: Los Angeles — CBS
Shameless — Showtime
10 p.m.
The L Word: Generation Q — Showtime
*times are ET and subject to change
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