Welcome to Now See This, THR chief TV critic Daniel Fienberg’s weekly viewer guide newsletter dedicated to cutting through the daunting clutter of the broadcast, cable and streaming TV landscape! Comments and suggestions welcome at daniel.fienberg@thr.com.

The Secret of My 'Succession'

There's no competition this week. The best thing on TV this weekend (and likely for the next two months) is Sunday's return of Succession. The 2020 Emmy winner for outstanding drama series (even though it's really a dark satire with Shakespearean tragic elements) is back, and based on the season's first seven episodes, the Roy family is funnier and more vicious than ever before. The season's family civil war structure gives everybody, from Brian Cox and Jeremy Strong to Sarah Snook and Nicholas Braun, room to shine. Check out the relatively spoiler-free back-and-forth review of the new season by Angie Han and me, and listen to Snook talking all things Shiv on this week's TV's Top 5 podcast. 

Beckinsale: New Series, Never Watched

As I noted on this week's TV's Top 5, networks and streamers gave Succession a wide berth this week, and while there are absolutely other options, I'm not sure that I'd recommend any of them. Paramount+ has a Kate Beckinsale dramedy, Guilty Party , but as Angie notes, it never finds the sort of tonal balance required to sell this story of a disgraced journalist trying to restart her career. I watched two half-hour episodes, and I won't watch a third. I was mixed on Amazon's series version of I Know What You Did Last Summer, and if you're interested in the Lois Duncan semi-adaptation, I recommend sticking it out until the end of the premiere to see the "twist" that's actually the show's whole premise. And while we were both too swamped to review it, Angie liked the start of the third season of Netflix's newly renewed SEO nightmare You, a show with a better sense of enticing trashiness than either I Know What You Did Last Summer or Peacock's One of Us Is Lying.

You're the Durst

Robert Durst was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the murder of Susan Berman. Yes, this counts as a spoiler for HBO's The Jinx. And yes, the creative team behind The Jinx has faced some questions of documentary ethics stemming from their six-episode documentary. That doesn't charge the fact that The Jinx was my favorite TV show of 2015 , and I think it's possibly the best true crime TV series ever made. I can accept arguments on behalf of The Staircase, at least in its original pre-Netflix form, but I'd still love to be spending my weekend rewatching The Jinx on HBO Max.

Skip HBO Max's Brittany Murphy Doc

HBO Max has a new documentary titled What Happened, Brittany Murphy?, focusing on the tragically short life of the Clueless star, who died in 2009 at the age of 32. Unfortunately, the documentary is trash, focusing more on Murphy's late con-man husband than on its ostensible heroine. So maybe skip What Happened, Brittany Murphy? and instead check out some of Murphy's best performances. Other than Girl, Interrupted, they're almost all streaming. HBO Max has Clueless, 8 Mile and Just Married , while Amazon has the darker duo of Spun and Freeway. The Ramen Girl is on Hulu, and, if you can tolerate a few commercials, Don't Say a Word and Love and Other Disasters are on Tubi. Any combination of those would be a better way of remembering Murphy's transcendent screen presence.

The 'Kills' Are Alive

Still looking for more traction for its Peacock streaming service, Universal has decided to go the day-and-date route with Halloween Kills, the week's second-most-exciting thing to happen to a man in a William Shatner mask. (William Shatner going to space is first.) Unfortunately, our David Rooney was decidedly not a fan, primarily lamenting the new film's lack of restraint — restraint being a key characteristic of John Carpenter's iconic 1978 original. Rooney and nearly everybody else found more to adore in The Velvet Underground, Todd Haynes' documentary focusing on the wildly influential New York City band. Rooney calls it "two fabulously entertaining hours" and raves over its ending, structure and wealth of archival research. It launches Friday on Apple TV+.

This Week's THR Staff Pick 

Starz's wrestling drama Heels finished its first season over the weekend, and senior producer Lesley Carrol is a fan. She raves, "Heels  feels like those WB dramas I was obsessed with growing up, except instead of teens, it’s wrestlers trying to navigate family, relationships, jealousy, loss, betrayal and all that melodrama. Stephen Amell and Alexander Ludwig play Jack and Ace Spade, feuding brothers at the center of the story who are constantly clashing in and outside the ring. You find yourself sympathizing with one, then at a turn rooting for the other, and going back and forth until you’re not sure which one you love or hate. Kelli Berglund’s character, Crystal, is easily a favorite, as you see her fighting to be taken seriously as a woman in wrestling and often outshining the men. I love that you can never predict what the characters will do next — the show has enough swerves for wrestling and non-wrestling fans both to enjoy!"