‘Fellow Travelers’ on Showtime, Return to ‘The Gilded Age,’ ‘Billions’ Finale, Party Time in ‘Krapopolis’

Fellow Travelers

SUNDAY: The love that once dared not speak its name is further clouded by political paranoia in a historical drama from Ron Nyswaner (Philadelphia), loosely based on Thomas Mallon’s novel, set mostly in 1950s Washington D.C., during Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s reign of persecution against Communists and “deviant” homosexuals in government. Matt Bomer (never better) stars with Bridgerton’s Jonathan Bailey as closeted men whose relationship, soured by fear, bridges the gay-rights movement of the 1970s and the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s. (See the full review.)

The Gilded Age

SUNDAY: The stakes couldn’t be lower—and sillier—but the production values couldn’t be higher in Season 2 of Julian Fellowes’ entertaining though shallow attempt to recreate a Downton Abbey vibe in the mansions of 1880s New York high society. Christine Baranski, as dragon lady Agnes Van Rhijn, is in rare form, erupting when she learns her penniless niece Marian (Louisa Jacobson) has taken a job teaching watercolors to girls on Thursdays. “The day is immaterial,” she huffs. Across the street, nouveau riche Bertha Russell (Carrie Coon) ignites a seemingly never-ending “Opera War” when she promotes the upstart Metropolitan Opera over the unwelcoming Academy of Music, putting her at odds with old-money A-lister Mrs. Astor (Donna Murphy). Ignore the simpering younger characters to luxuriate in the costumes, staggering interiors and barbed banter of the upper class as fortunes rise and fall amid scandal and tragedy. (See the full review.)

Billions

SUNDAY: “Endings are tough. Someone always ends up unsatisfied,” says Wags (David Costabile), quite prophetically, as the high-finance drama ends its run after seven seasons. And yet there is satisfaction in watching sworn enemies like billionaire market manipulator Bobby “Axe” Axelrod (Damian Lewis) and U.S. Attorney Chuck Rhoades (Paul Giamatti) find common ground in their efforts, with other allies and turncoats, to block smug presidential candidate Mike Prince (Corey Stoll) from the White House. Somewhere, Scrooge McDuck is smiling as he watches from his vault of riches.

Krapopolis

SUNDAY: The newest member of Fox’s animation block, set in a parody version of ancient Greece, gets its party on during an annual forest festival where awkward king Tyrannis (Richard Ayoade) breaks out of his shell, capturing the attention of party god Dionysus, to the dismay of the local wood nymphs, who say of the human interlopers, “You’re like termites to us.” Elsewhere in Fox animation, The Simpsons (8/7c) presents a mock documentary with voice cameos by Ken Burns, Christiane Amanpour, Peter Coyote, Peter Jackson, Kara Swisher and Andrew Ross Sorkin as themselves, with Elizabeth Banks as a college-dropout entrepreneur who’s faking it until she makes it. On Bob’s Burgers (9/8c), Bob (H. Jon Benjamin) explores lucid dreaming, and on Family Guy (9:30/8:30c), Peter (Seth MacFarlane) creates a hologram of himself to get out of housework.

Heartland

SUNDAY: The Canadian family drama wraps its 16^th season with back-to-back episodes in which Amy (Amber Marshall) helps Georgie (Alisha Newton) get back showjumping saddle, while patriarch Jack (Shaun Johnston) faces the truth about his conflict with Al Cotter (Duncan Fraser) and granddaughter Lou (Michelle Morgan) takes her relationship with Peter (Gabriel Hogan) to the next level.

Bringing Christmas Home

Among the weekend’s holiday-movie offerings: On Great American Family, Bringing Christmas Home (Saturday, 8/7c) teams Jill Wagner and Paul Greene as a military history professor and antique store owner who find love letters in the pocket of a WWII uniform and track down the original owner. (Greene wrote and performs the title song.) GAF’s Journey to Christmas (Sunday, 8/7c) stars Ash Tsai as a model on a charity tour who’s stranded by weather in the home of her driver (Joey Heyworth). Hallmark Channel chimes in with Mystic Christmas (Saturday, 8/7c), set in the Connecticut town, starring Days of Our Lives’ Chandler Massey as a pizza-shop owner more than happy to share slices with holiday visitor Jessy Schram. William R. Moses from 1988’s Mystic Pizza co-stars. On Sunday, Hallmark’s Joyeux Noel (8/7c) stars Grey’s Anatomy’s Jaicy Elliot as a copy editor who travels to France with reporter Brant Daugherty to explore the history of a painting of a Christmas market.

INSIDE WEEKEND TV:

• Would You Kill for Me? The Mary Bailey Story (Saturday, 8/7c, Lifetime): A horrific true-crime docudrama explores the shooting death of abusive husband/stepfather Willard (Connor McMahon) from the perspectives of his mother-in-law Ella (Melissa Joan Hart), his wife Veronica (Olivia Scriven) and 11-year-old stepdaughter Mary (Presley Allard).
• Svengoolie (Saturday, 8/7c, MeTV): The horror host’s “Halloween BOOnanza” movie lineup includes classic 1970s TV movies: Kolchak: The Night Stalker from 1973, followed by Dan Curtis’ unforgettable Trilogy of Terror (10:30/9:30c), featuring Karen Black and a relentlessly scary Zuni fetish doll. Stay up for a marathon of episodes from the 1974-75 cult series Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1 am/12c), starring Darren McGavin as a reporter on the trail of the supernatural.
• Metal Massacre: The Story of the Legendary Album (Saturday, 9/8c, AXS TV): A documentary depicts the genesis of the influential 1982 compilation album that led to the formation of the Metal Blade Records label.
• OWN Spotlight: Oprah & Kerry Washington (Saturday, 10/9c, OWN): Oprah Winfrey chats with the Scandal star about her revealing memoir, Thicker Than Water.
• Saturday Night Live (Saturday, 11:30/10:30c, 8:30 pm/PT, NBC): Comedian Nate Bargatze makes his debut as guest host, while the better-known Foo Fighters return for their ninth time as musical guest.
• 60 Minutes (Sunday, 7:30/6:30c, 7 pm/PT, CBS): Another expanded 90-minute edition features Bill Whitaker interviewing Vice President Kamala Harris, Sharyn Alfonsi with Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili, Dr. Jon LaPook providing an update on post-pandemic measures to improve indoor air systems, and Jon Wertheim’s two-part segment on singing the blues in Clarksdale, Mississippi.
• Sunday Night Football (Sunday, 8:15 pm/ET): The prime-time marquee match-up pits the Chicago Bears against the Los Angeles Chargers.
• The Garden: Commune or Cult (Sunday, 9/8c, Discovery): A six-part docuseries opens with a two-hour premiere, investigating a retreat in the Ozarks where survivalists live free—or do they?
• World on Fire (Sunday, 9/8c, PBS): World War II heats up at Season 2’s midpoint, with British soldier Stan (Blake Harrison) stranded in the Egyptian desert with British Indian Army soldier Rajib (the impressive Ahad Raza Mir) and Jewish RAF pilot David (Gregg Sulkin) taking on ever more dangerous missions in the skies. In Germany, Hitler Youth teen Marga (Miriam Schiweck) enters the Nazi breeding program, and her romanticism about the cause soon evaporates.
• Yellowstone (Sunday, 9/8c, 8:30 pm/PT, CBS): The repurposed contemporary hit Western moves into its second season on CBS.
• The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper (Sunday, 10/9c, CNN): In a report titled “Hostage to Terror,” the CNN anchor interviews survivors and family members about the hostages kidnapped from the Nir Oz kibbutz in Southern Israel on Oct. 7.