What to Watch This Week: March 8 to 13

From firefighting heroics to feel-good dramas, we round up the top 10 shows to watch this week

1. Pete Davidson: Alive from New York — Netflix

It’s been a tough couple years for Pete Davidson. That may seem like an odd statement for someone who’s really only had a career at all for a couple of years—his first on-camera appearance was via MTV’s Failosophy in 2013, which was only a year before he was hired by Saturday Night Live—but it’s true. Remember how he was roundly chastised in 2018 for making fun of Congressman Dan Crenshaw’s eyepatch, which Crenshaw has been wearing since he was wounded in Afghanistan while serving as a U.S. Navy SEAL? Mind you, the Crenshaw brouhaha happened on the heels of Davidson being dumped by pop superstar Ariana Grande. And then, just a month after Eyepatch-Gate, Davidson’s social media posts confirmed that he was suffering from severe depression. Obviously, none of this is very funny, but the good news is that Davidson has clearly cheered up: in addition to continuing as a cast member on SNL and expanding his film career, he’s been honing his standup act to considerable success, resulting in Alive From New York, a title which offers a none-too-vague reference to his suicide scare a few years earlier.

“He really is a sweetheart guy,” Judd Apatow told People, having recently directed Davidson in hotly anticipated dramedy The King of Staten Island. “He’s so creative and smart. He’s been through things that no one on earth should ever have to go through. I think it’s been very challenging recovering from them, but he has such a big heart, and I think he’s taken this opportunity through his art to express what he’s going through.”

2. Hidden Figures — Sunday, March 8, 1 p.m., CTV

Fact-based feel-good Oscar-nominee about the unsung heroics of three African-American mathematicians (Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monáe) working at NASA in the early-’60s, who overcome racism to play a key role in America’s first orbital spaceflight, as flown by John Glenn.

3. The Outsider — Sunday, March 8, 8 p.m. & 11:45 p.m., HBO Canada | Series Finale

The Night Of writer Richard Price’s moody adaptation of this Stephen King novel unleashes its 10th and final slow-burning fright fest, as Ralph, Holly and the rest of the team make a desperate bid to smoke out El Coco—the creature that’s been stealing identities, killing children and, quite literally, feasting on the misery it leaves behind.

4. The Simpsons — Sunday, March 8, 8 p.m., City & Fox

Believing that the family is spending way too much time staring at the various screens in their lives, Marge decides to limit everyone’s TV/computer/phone time, only to discover that she’s the only one who’s actually addicted. And how about this for an unlikely pair of guest stars: Werner Herzog and Dr. Drew Pinsky!

5. 9-1-1: Lone Star — Monday, March 9, 8 p.m., CTV & Fox | Season Finale

Austin’s little-fire-engine-that-could has certainly had an eventful rookie season—tornados, strip-club brawls, an exploding bull semen factory… to say nothing of top-dog Owen’s ongoing battle with lung cancer. But just as quickly as Rob Lowe and Liv Tyler raced, sirens blaring, onto our TV screens, they’re speeding off again with this week’s characteristically bonkers two-hour finale. In it, Owen and the 126 deal with “a gender-reveal party gone horribly wrong,” before they’re forced to save a father and son who get in over their heads while spelunking.

Meanwhile, on the personal front, married first-responders Judd and Grace struggle to help Judd’s ailing father, Owen gently pushes his son/fellow flame-dodger T.K. to come to grips with past trauma, and the season-long mystery about Michelle’s long-missing sister is solved.

6. The Masked Singer — Wednesday, March 11, 8 p.m., CTV & Fox

We’ve met bananas, robots, kitties and white tigers, but now it’s time for the final six costumes of the season to be revealed on this celebrity sing-off/guessing game. Tune in as the Group C participants make their debut.

7. Dirty Money — Wednesday, March 11, Netflix | Season Premiere

Season two of this acclaimed docuseries continues to probe into untold stories of scandal, malfeasance and corruption in the world of business. Subjects include a peek into Jared Kushner’s seedy real estate empire, the 2016 Wells Fargo banking debacle and Malaysia’s 1MDB fiasco.

8. Better Things — Thursday, March 12, 6 p.m., 9 p.m. & 11:05 p.m., FX Canada

Pamela Adlon’s show about a mother raising her three daughters in Los Angeles may sport the sort of dialogue that sends a network’s Standards & Practices department into a cold sweat, but the real-life mom of three knows that no argument that takes place in the Fox household is impossible to resolve. “Things can escalate when you’re living in the same house,” says Adlon. “When you’re in a family, you can say all this stuff to each other, and if there’s true remorse or love, then you can live with it.”

9. Up — Friday, March 13, 8 p.m., YTV

A stirring meditation on loss and chasing your dreams, one of Pixar’s most celebrated creations follows 78-year-old Carl Fredericksen (voice of Ed Asner), as he ties thousands of balloons to his house and takes off for adventure in South America—not realizing there’s an eight-year-old Boy Scout on his porch.

10. Duran Duran: There’s Something You Should Know — Friday, March 13, 11:25 p.m., Crave1

Once upon a time in the ’80s, Duran Duran were the Fab Five—Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes, Andy Taylor, John Taylor and Roger Taylor—and they ruled the pop charts in the U.S., the U.K. and just about everywhere else. Although Andy isn’t in the mix anymore, here the remaining four members step in front of the camera for this documentary for an intimate retrospective, looking back on four decades of people, places and things of key importance to Duran Duran’s origins and the band’s subsequent superstardom (one noteworthy curio: their collection of over 10,000 fashion items collected along the way).