‘Simpsons’ Plays ‘It’ with King, ‘Dragon’ Finale, ‘Power Book’ Ends and ‘BMF Documentary’ Begins, Stars Do Magic with Criss Angel

In a departure from the usual “Treehouse of Horror” trilogy format (which returns next week), The Simpsons devotes an entire Halloween episode to a spoof of Stephen King’s classic opus It. HBO tees up a war of the Targaryens in the season finale of House of the Dragon. Starz closes the book on Power Book III: Raising Kanan’s Season 2 finale, then launches a docuseries inspired by its BMF (Black Mafia Family) drama. Illusionist Criss Angel welcomes celebrities to try their hand at magic in a new competition series.

SUNDAY: In a first (which is saying something for a show now in its 34th season), The Simpsons devotes an entire Halloween episode to one story, and it’s a doozy: Stephen King’s It, which took two whole movies to adapt. “Not It” begins in Kingfield—aka Springfield populated by numerous King in-jokes—with a young Barney falling victim to the sewer-dwelling menace of Krusto the Clown, forcing a confrontation with a Losers Club populated by young Homer, a tomboy Marge, Carl, Moe and Comic Book Guy. Flash forward 27 years later, and they’re all at it again, in a bizarro world where even the personalities of Bart and Lisa have flipped. If you miss the old format, not to worry. A traditional “Treehouse of Horror” trilogy airs Oct. 30.

SUNDAY: It’s game on in the War of the Targaryens, or so we’ve been led to believe as the tension has built in recent weeks toward the Season 1 finale of the darker-than-dark Game of Thrones prequel. Rejecting the late king’s desire for first-born daughter Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) to assume the Iron Throne in favor of his loathsome eldest son Aegon (Ton Glynn-Carney), the rulers of Westeros set up a conflict that’s destined to play out in spectacular fashion in Season 2.

SUNDAY: Family strife is also a theme of this spinoff crime drama, closing its second season with title character Kanan Stark (MeKai Curtis) pulling further away from his Queens drug queen-pin mother Raq (Patina Miller) to start his own street business in South Jamaica. Raq is also not having much luck healing her spat with brother Lou-Lou (Malcolm Mays). Followed by the premiere of a half-hour docuseries, The BMF Documentary: Blowing Money Fast, with insiders telling the story of the Black Mafia Family (inspiration for Starz’s Detroit-set drama BMF, returning for a second season next year). The first episode is set in 1980s Detroit as the Flenory brothers, Demetrius “Meech” and Terry, turn to the drug trade to boost their fortunes.

SATURDAY: He was a runner-up during his season on Dancing with the Stars, but how will High School Musical alum Corbin Bleu fare when he tries his hand at magic? Famed illusionist Criss Angel trains two celebs each week to perform magic before a judging panel, competing for a Golden Wand and a spot in a season-finale showdown. Eddie Griffin hosts, with Criss joined by comedian Loni Love and magician Lance Burton as judges. Bleu’s rival in the series premiere: black-ish star Miles Brown.

SUNDAY: The mystery-within-a-mystery deepens in the second chapter of the Masterpiece Mystery! adaptation of Anthony Horowitz’s clever novel. “Was there anyone (he) didn’t argue with?” wonders book editor and amateur sleuth Susan (Lesley Manville) about her murdered prize author Alan Conway (Conleth Hill), who left behind a final whodunit, Magpie Murders, with the final chapter missing. Susan discovers that all of Alan’s notebooks have also vanished, convincing her that Alan’s death was foul play. She gets more validation from surreal visitations by Alan’s fabled fictional detective, Atticus Pünd (Tim McMullan), who reminds her, “Everyone who read Alan Conway loved him. Everyone who met him did not.”

Inside Weekend TV:

• Kendrick Lamar’s The Big Steppers Tour (Saturday, 2 pm/ET, streaming on Prime Video and Amazon Music): Streaming live from the Accor Arena in Paris as part of the Grammy-winning rapper’s 65-date world tour, the concert will be available on demand once the music stops.
• The Hair Tales (Saturday, 9/8c and 10/9c, OWN): In back-to-back episodes, black-ish star and host Tracee Ellis Ross has intimate conversations with Oprah Winfrey and Insecure’s Issa Rae about the complex culture of Black hair and Black female identity.
• The Yule Log: Great American Family gets in on the early Christmas-movie game with Destined at Christmas (Saturday, 8/7c), about two Black Friday shoppers (Shae Robins and Casey Elliott) who meet-cute during the spree, until a power outage separates them. Can they find each other when crowds subside? Hallmark titles this weekend include We Wish You a Married Christmas (Saturday, 8/7c, Hallmark Channel), starring Marisol Nichols and Kristoffer Polaha as a married couple trying to rediscover their romantic spark at a snug Vermont inn; We Need a Little Christmas (Saturday, 10/9c, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries), starring Erica Durance as a single mom who turns to an older neighbor (Lynn Whitfield) for solace on her first Christmas without her husband; and A Kismet Christmas (Sunday, 8/7c, Hallmark Channel), starring Sarah Ramos as a children’s book author whose hometown visit leads to a romantic reunion with her teenage crush (Carlo Marks).
• 60 Minutes (Sunday, 7/6c, CBS): Sharyn Alfonsi visits Barefoot Contessa Ina Garten at home, Anderson Cooper interviews Dominion Voting Systems CEO John Poulos about false claims of a rigged election, and Bill Whitaker heads to the American prairie to savor grasslands that could become the largest nature reserve in the continental U.S.
• Celebrity Jeopardy! (Sunday, 8/7c, ABC): A new round of quarterfinal play begins with actress Aisha Tyler, game-show host John Michael Higgins (America Says) and comedian Matt Rogers as contestants.
• Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire (Sunday, 10/9c, AMC): The saga continues with young Claudia (Bailey Bass) unwillingly indoctrinated into the vampire world by her undead “daddies” Louis (Jacob Anderson) and Lestat (Sam Reid). Immature and bloodthirsty, she has a lot to learn about the consequences of indiscriminate killing. Her initial worldview: “You suck ’em like frog legs and burn ’em like trash.” This won’t end well.
• Let the Right One In (Sunday, 10/9c, Showtime): In TV’s other story of a restless teenage vampire, Eleanor (Madison Taylor Baez) whines, “Why am I even alive if I can’t do anything but hide and be alone?” Her defiant friendship with neighbor Isaiah (Ian Foreman) evolves when she learns he’s being bullied and decides to put a stop to that. Elsewhere, Isaiah’s detective mom Naomi (Anika Noni Rose) makes a horrific discovery when she follows the trail of a supernatural killer into the sewers of New York City.