What's On Tonight (Saturday): Free as my Hair

The Hair Tales

Merry Christmas! Here's what's on television for tonight, Saturday, October 22!

Our Top Pick tonight is the new docuseries The Hair Tales (Hulu, midnight / OWN, 9 & 10 p.m.). In this Hulu series that airs linearly on OWN, Black women talk about identity and beauty through their hair while also weaving stories about broader societal and historic themes. Producers include Tracee Ellis Ross and Oprah Winfrey.

Elsewhere, Housing Complex C reveals its mysteries, Criss Angel judges Magic, Frankstein takes a Bride, Animals send in more of their Funniest home videos, a family get-together is Happy, Pit Bulls and Parolees is back on duty, Yashahime meets demon slayers, and the War on Christmas-verse returns.

(All times are Eastern. All listings are new unless otherwise stated. For more listings, visit The Futon Critic or Zap2it.)

ON THIS SITE

This Weekend in Pop Culture (9:30 p.m.): What pop culture have you consumed lately? This is our weekly thread for you talk about it.

STREAMING & EARLY PRIMETIME

The Doctor Blake Mysteries (Ovation, 7 p.m.): On the eve of Anzac Day, Blake is called to the morgue where the attendant has been murdered. With the autopsy tools and a body missing, he smells a rat.

📺 Doctor Who (Retro TV, 6 p.m.): In San Martino, Hieronymous wants to summon the power of the Mandragora Helix to rule the planet.

⭐ The Hair Tales (Hulu, midnight / OWN, 9 & 10 p.m.): SERIES PREMIERE. A dynamic celebration of Black women's identity, beauty, culture, and humanity, uniquely expressed through the stories of their hair.✔️

📺 House of Payne (BET+, now): Despite having aired more than 254 episodes (1 more than The Jeffersons) when the show wrapped its 8th season in 2012, BET thought the Tyler Perry sitcom needed more in 2020. The show is exactly what you would expect from Tyler Perry, who isn't as involved in the show as he was for its first revival season -- as well as the show's first years. The show certainly has a sitcom rhythm. Whether you find it a good rhythm is in the eye of the beholder.

WHAT ELSE IS ON

Chef Swap at the Beach (Cooking Channel, 7 p.m.)

🕗 8 P.M. EASTERN / 🕖 7 P.M. CENTRAL

Criss Angel's Magic with the Stars (The CW): SERIES PREMIERE. In each episode, "two celebrities train with professional magicians and compete to create a show-stopping series of magic performances." They are "tasked with mastering three major categories of magic, which they perform in front of a team of judges led by magician Criss Angel."

🎥🎄 Destined at Christmas (GAC Family): Mr. Potter gets the biopic treatment. While he is currently the leader of the Koal Federation, the enemy of Christmasia in the War on Christmas, he wasn't always a harsh politics and business mastermind. He was born to parents in Kallikantzstan in the Great Northwest and grew up in the diverse community of Răzbunare, a large fishing haven on the coast of the Goblin Sea. In college, he was a top student in business at Belsnickel University in Christmasia, but when the kallikantzaros majority banded together and voted out many non-kallikantzaros in the Kallikantzstan government. Potter grew increasingly angry. His mother was one of those who was voted out of office, and the new government passed a lot of pro-kallikantzaros legislation. He didn't finish schooling at Belsnickel. He returned home and vehemently spoke out against the new government and soon began to push Kallikantzstan to join the Koal Federation. However, since his odds of being elected in the country, which at the time was an independent nation, were nil, he finished his studies at Krampuslauf and then entered politics with the final goal of expanding the Koal Federation into the independent states of the Great Northwest.

Finding Happy (Bounce TV): It's the annual family get-together, and Yaz's father Raymond is in town, causing his new girlfriend Cassandra and ex-wife Marilyn to face off; Shawn surprises Yaz by showing up at her job where he jealously faces off with Porter.

🎥 Swindler Seduction (Lifetime): Louisa meets entrepreneur Steve at a bar. After 48 blissful hours, Steve disappears and Louisa realizes she's been cheated out of thousands of dollars. Kinda like The Tinder Swindler but more basic.

🎥🎄 We Wish You a Married Christmas (Hallmark Channel): Since Jingle Belle became more recognizable after some high-profile encounters during some espionage and off-the-book works, the daughter of Christmasia prime minister Kris Kringle hasn't been given many top-tier assignments. Even though Christmas is still many months away, her family is kind of hoping she will put some roots down somewhere. She has been seen plenty of times with Anne Krismasi, of Dreidelstan, who is now running for governor of the territory. On the campaign trail, Anne is running hard on Dreidelstan becoming a Christmasia province. The family can't stop talking about Anne with Belle, especially Uncle Emmanuel. In reality, they probably broke up. Belle isn't quite sure. But she left Anne on a bad note, and she isn't good at apologizing or restarting things. Her sister Cassie is a bit too busy traveling with her job to be a big help. When Belle hears about ignored intel that Anne might be in danger, she has to forget her confusion – and probably anger Anne is feeling toward her – and uncover the provincehood opposition who is trying to stop Anne from running for governor. Given the intels disregarded status, the opposition could be getting help from within Christmasia.

WHAT ELSE IS ON

🎥 Fatale (BET)

Love & Marriage: Huntsville (OWN)

🎥 Svengoolie (MeTV): Bride of Frankenstein✔️

🎥 Wonder Woman 1984 (TNT)

Bride of Frankenstein (via Giphy)

🕘 9 P.M. EASTERN / 🕗 8 P.M. CENTRAL

📺 The Time Tunnel (Decades): Spend the weekend with this pretty bad 1960s sci-fi Irwin Allen series. Two guys get into a time machine and spend the rest of the one-season-wonder visiting largely major moments in human history while a crew back home observes and tries to help them. It is similar to Quantum Leap, but also vastly different from Quantum Leap. Turn your brain off and you might be able to tolerate it. In this episode, Tony and Doug pose as scientists to investigate a primitive enemy time-tunnel in 1956 in an Iron Curtain country.✔️

WHAT ELSE IS ON

Critter Fixers: Country Vets (National Geographic Wild)

Ghost Hunters (Travel Channel)

Pit Bulls and Parolees (Animal Planet): Season premiere

Weather Gone Viral (The Weather Channel)

World's Funniest Animals (The CW): Season premiere

🕙 10 P.M. EASTERN / 🕘 9 P.M. CENTRAL

📺 The Rockford Files (Get TV): The heir to a family fortune hires Rockford to find his parents' killers.

🎥🎄 We Need a Little Christmas (Hallmark Movies & Mysteries): In this historical drama, the quick and sudden death of King Druid V brings an end to the House of Frankincense rule of Bummock, one of many kingdoms on the Christmasia continent – but arguably the strongest and more advanced. The kingdom is now in crisis. There is no head of state and a war is percolating on its long western border where Krampus’ gremlins are terrorizing communities. There is no formal process for picking the new ruler, and many advisors and ministers are trying to throw their hats in the ring... even the reestablished House of Myrrh. However, under pressure, the 5-member Royal Council stalls, afraid of picking a poor monarch and some accepting bribes. As the terror of the gremlins only increases in the west, Ralph Noel, the minister of education with no military training, leads a couple small campaigns to try and quell the gremlins. It works, and the Royal Council takes note. Days later, with a full war inevitable, Ralph Noel will be the first monarch of the House of Noel.

WHAT ELSE IS ON

48 Hours (CBS)

Home Is Where the Farm Is (National Geographic Wild)

NFL Icons (Epix): Cris Carter

📺 SNL Vintage (NBC): Danny Aiello, Coolio (10 Feb 1996)

The Time Tunnel (via Tumblr)

💤😴 LATE NIGHT 😴💤

Housing Complex C (Adult Swim, midnight): SERIES FINALE. There's definitely something wrong, but the old residents don't seem to notice. The new arrivals will help unveil the horror that's been lurking all along.✔️

Naruto: Shippuden (Adult Swim, 2 & 2:30 a.m.): Madara transforms into the Jinchuriki of the Ten Tails and appears before Kakashi.

One Piece (Adult Swim, 1 & 1:30 a.m.): The Yeti Cool Brothers clash with the Straw Hats.

📺 Star Trek (MeTV, 11 p.m.): When a landing party disappears and one man is beamed up dead, Kirk and Spock investigate and meet a pair of aliens who seem capable of performing magic.

📺 Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (MeTV, 2 a.m.): "The Seaview searches the ocean floor for the force that caused an aborted missile launch."

Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon (Adult Swim, 12:30 a.m.): Zero unearths sadness and loneliness. Sesshomaru appears before the demon slayers and commands Setsuna to pay the Tree of Ages a visit.

WHAT ELSE IS ON

Austin City Limits (PBS, 11 p.m.): Allison Russell, The Weather Station

Housing Complex C

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Key Sources: The Futon Critic; IMDb; TV Passport; Zap2it

⭐: Top Pick
🎥: Movie

🎄: Holiday programming
📺: Throwback

✔️: Video/gif/photo included

Happy watching, everyone!