Worth Watching — October 17, 2026

Sunday’s Masterpiece lineup on PBS features new seasons of Maigret and the fact-based The Gold. The Peanuts classic It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is streaming for free this weekend on Apple TV. The Simpsons anticipates its annual “Treehouse of Horror” with a Halloween serial-killer thriller.

Maigret

SUNDAY: The contemporary Masterpiece adaptation of Georges Simenon’s classic mysteries returns for a second season, with the titular Chief Inspector (a handsomely brooding Benjamin Wainwright) unable to enjoy his office birthday party when the team is called to respond to a bomb threat that ends with a desperate woman’s public suicide. Maigret’s boss, Police Director Guichard (Nathaniel Parker), wants to shut down the case he calls an “embarrassment,” but will a guilt-ridden Maigret listen? As the skeptical Guichard notes, “He’s become a law unto himself.” The story, based on The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien, continues next week following a major cliffhanger.

The Gold

SUNDAY: Also from Masterpiece: a continuation of the fact-based heist drama that tracks the costly investigation into the 1983 Brinks-Mat theft of £26 million worth of gold bullion. The first season streamed on Paramount+ in 2023 and replayed in 2025 on Masterpiece, ending with Scotland Yard’s discovery that only half the gold had been accounted for. Downton Abbey‘s Hugh Bonneville returns as DCS Brian Boyce, arguing for more resources and more personnel to follow the money being laundered from these ill-gotten gains. His targets: career criminal Charlie Miller (Fargo‘s Sam Spruell), who hid his half in a Cornwall tin mine, and the smug John “Goldfinger” Palmer (Tom Cullen), who escaped punishment and is living the good life on the Spanish island of Tenerife.

It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown

SATURDAY & SUNDAY: Second only to A Charlie Brown Christmas in the hearts of Peanuts and Charles M. Schulz fans, the 1966 animated classic was for decades an annual TV tradition — and while the Peanuts library is now exclusive to Apple TV, Great Pumpkin is available to stream for free this weekend. The Halloween classic never gets old as we hold vigil with staunch believer Linus in the pumpkin patch, chase the Red Baron with Snoopy atop his imaginary Sopwith Camel doghouse, and empathize with Charlie Brown as he tries to kick the football, knowing full well that Lucy is only going to snatch it away.

The Simpsons

SUNDAY: We’re a week away from another annual tradition: the 37th edition of The Simpsons’ “Treehouse of Horror.” The long-running animated hit gets in the spirit earlier than usual with a Halloween-themed thriller in which a serial killer terrorizes Springfield on All Hallows’ Eve. Will the carnage rival an episode of The Itchy & Scratchy Show? We can hope. Celebrated conductor Gustavo Dudamel is the guest voice.

Youth

SUNDAY: They seem a match made in TV rom-com heaven: 50-something Alex (Sharon Horgan) and her carefree, and obviously smitten, bedmate, Patrick (Rupert Friend). But her insecurities flare up when a visiting friend asks her on a date, and Alex worries she’s blown it when she tries to pin her lover down on the rules of their relationship. On the work front, Alex and her boss/quasi-partner Sam (Sharlene Whyte) try to woo the impossibly pompous author Malcolm (a very amusing Douglas Hodge) back into their firm. It’s a stressful and humiliating situation, but even so, popping a Xanax after downing wine probably isn’t the best solution when one’s personal life is in such disarray.