Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Samantha Song | | October 18, 2026
This week, everyone has secrets.
A Paris detective is solving murders. An Italian woman is investigating something. A man is committing elaborate heists across France. Someone has conducted a famous psychological experiment. Somewhere, people are revealing hospital secrets. And two adults got married on impulse despite apparently not discussing this plan beforehand.
PBS, meanwhile, has simply brought back a British crime drama.
It is somehow the calming option.
Sunday, October 18th: Maigret (PBS, season two premiere) returns Benjamin Wainwright as Georges Simenon’s legendary Paris detective for another collection of murders solved through careful observation and wool coats. Immediately afterward, The Gold (PBS, season two) continues the dramatization of the fallout from the 1983 Brink’s-Mat robbery and the criminal network created by attempting to move £26 million worth of stolen gold.
PBS has assembled an elegant Sunday-night double feature about two very different approaches to crime. At 9, a thoughtful French detective patiently studies human behavior. At 10, everyone discovers that stealing several tons of gold creates logistical complications.
Vibe: Crime, but everyone has excellent outerwear and occasionally pauses for tea.
Monday, October 19th: Signora Volpe (season three finale) concludes this Italian mystery-drama, wrapping up whatever investigation Volpe was undertaking with presumably both style and regional European production values. This is the season finale, which means one of three things: the mystery is solved with satisfying elegance, the mystery remains unsolved but everyone looks fantastic, or you spend the next year on Italian television forums demanding answers that may never come.
The good news is that Signora Volpe has enough continental charm and conspiratorial intrigue that even if nothing gets resolved, you will at least have spent several hours watching someone solve crimes while looking like they stepped out of a Milan fashion week.
Vibe: The week’s most elegant conclusion to a mystery you may not have started watching, featuring people who solve crimes the way other people pick wine.
Tuesday, October 20th: Hulu delivers Phony (two-episode premiere), arriving with a premise the title helpfully suggests involves deception, dishonesty, or various forms of elaborate lying. The show shows up, announces itself as Phony, and then immediately demonstrates that everyone on screen is faking something. The setup is promising: two episodes to establish who is lying, what they’re lying about, and whether anyone will survive discovering the truth.
This is precisely the kind of show that releases two episodes and then makes you wait months for the rest, at which point you will have constructed seventeen different theories about what is actually happening, none of which will be correct.
Vibe: Two episodes to figure out who is faking what, and six weeks to regret trusting anyone.
Wednesday, October 21st: Prime Video brings The Terminal List (season two premiere, all eight episodes), with Chris Pratt’s Navy SEAL James Reece returning to his ongoing project of discovering that virtually everyone responsible for his suffering has made the catastrophic mistake of remaining within driving distance. Season 1 involved murdered teammates, government corruption, and pharmaceutical conspiracies. Apparently somebody survived.
Somewhere else this week is The New Stanford Prison Experiment, the streaming examination of one of psychology’s most ethically questionable studies. It is considerably less fun than watching someone get arrested, and considerably more disturbing than watching a man compile a revenge list.
Vibe: Revenge logistics and psychological horror separated by a wide ethical gulf.
Thursday, October 22nd: After the First 48 (A&E, season nine premiere) continues investigating homicides beyond the initial 48 hours, following cases through arrests, prosecutions, and the criminal-justice process. True crime with no pretense, no narrative flourishes, no breathless voice-over suggesting that justice is anything but complicated. Just detectives, evidence, and the grinding machinery of the legal system determining who goes to prison and why.
A&E has decided that the best way to spend Thursday evening is by demonstrating that murder is bad, murdering people is a terrible idea, and the process of dealing with the consequences involves an enormous amount of paperwork.
Vibe: Your Thursday-night reminder that the true-crime documentary voice-over is never about to say, “And everything was completely fine,” and also that murder is essentially a bureaucratic nightmare for everyone involved.
Friday, October 23rd: Netflix brings back Lupin (season four premiere, all eight episodes), with Assane Diop returning to commit enormously elaborate crimes while looking approximately fifteen times better dressed than anyone attempting to arrest him. Eight episodes means you can watch an entire season in one sitting if you have called in sick to work, which you should not do but absolutely will.
NBC counters with Happy’s Place (season three premiere), reuniting Reba McEntire with her sitcom about running a bar. This is less emotionally complicated than watching a man orchestrate heists across Europe and considerably more emotionally complicated than most Fridays, given that Reba is involved and Reba does not do anything halfway.
Vibe: French heists and sitcom chaos, take your pick. Lupin will make you feel like you could plan a diamond heist. Happy’s Place will remind you that you cannot even plan dinner reservations.
Saturday, October 24th: Secrets of Mercy Hospital (streaming premiere) opens its doors to reveal what everyone in medical settings has been hiding, because hospitals are where people tell their deepest secrets while simultaneously lying about their symptoms. A hospital is where patients insist they are fine while bleeding, where staff members process impossible decisions before lunch, and where everyone knows something that will shock someone.
This show promises to reveal what happens behind the curtain at a hospital, which means either you will see genuine medical drama or you will watch people tell slightly more dramatic versions of medical drama than they ordinarily would.
Either way, secrets exist.
Vibe: The designated recovery period for whatever you decided was most important on Friday, now with hospital gowns and revelations.
Also This Week
Professor T (PBS, Sunday, October 18, season five premiere)
WNBA Finals Game 2 (USA Network, Monday, October 19)
Vanderpump Rules: Lisa Las Vegas (Bravo, Tuesday, October 20, two-night event premiere)
Theo Von: I’m Doing Fine (Netflix, Tuesday, October 20, comedy special)
All the Queen’s Men (Paramount+, Wednesday, October 21, two-episode return)
Slow Horses (Apple TV, Wednesday, October 21, season six finale)
I Will Always Love You: A Celebration of Dolly Parton (ABC/Disney+, Wednesday, October 21)
Nobody Wants This (Netflix, Thursday, October 22, 10-episode binge)
Swipe Right on the Devil (Hulu, Thursday, October 22, documentary)
Judy Justice (Prime Video, Friday, October 23, series finale)
Yaga (AMC+, Friday, October 23, two-episode premiere)
MLB World Series Game 1 (Fox, Friday, October 23)
Newlyweds (NBC, Friday, October 23, series premiere)
A Christmas Prayer Tradition (Great American Family, Saturday, October 24)
Forgotten Holiday (Hallmark Channel, Saturday, October 24)
This Week’s Hostage: Phony
There are more responsible streaming choices this week.
Lupin is back. Maigret can teach you about French detective work. The Terminal List will spend eight episodes demonstrating what happens when a Navy SEAL discovers that revenge logistics are incredibly time-consuming.
But Hulu has just released two episodes of something called Phony.
And the title is not subtle.
It is literally telling you that someone in this show is faking something, and presumably the next six episodes will involve increasingly elaborate revelations about exactly what is being faked, who is faking it, and whether anyone will survive discovering the truth.
Phony, by definition, means you are in for two hours of people lying.
Two hours.
After two hours, you will either have clarity on the deception or you will have seventeen new questions and no choice but to watch the remaining episodes in one sitting.
There are Italian mysteries.
There are Navy SEALs.
There are men in excellent coats solving murders in Paris.
But Hulu is giving you two episodes of a show literally called Phony and asking you to resist finding out what is being faked.
You will not resist.
You are watching.
Phony is correct.
