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Top TV week of Oct. 27: 'The McCarthys,' 'Great Pumpkin,' Taylor Swift on 'The Voice'

 
Blake Shelton and Taylor Swift
Blake Shelton and Taylor Swift
Published Oct. 24, 2014

MONDAY

Halloween, 7 p.m., AMC

Start the week off in the right spooky spirit with John Carpenter's 1978 horror classic starring Jamie Lee Curtis, infamous villain Michael Myers, and Carpenter's chilling score.

The Voice, 8 p.m., NBC

The Knockout Rounds begin this week, but the big news is that Taylor Swift shows up to give pointers to the remaining contestants! Not coincidentally, this is also the same week her new album 1989 comes out. You didn't think the biggest music star on the planet would make a completely selfless appearance, did you?

TUESDAY

The Great Halloween Fright Fight, 8 p.m., ABC

Judges determine which homeowner best turned their house into a spectacular Halloween display, and the first-place winner gets $50,000. That's a whoooooole lot of fun-size Snickers bars.

Benched, 10:30 p.m., USA

Eliza Coupe from Happy Endings leads an awesome ensemble cast in this new sitcom. She plays attorney Nina Whitley, who learns in this first episode that her ex-fiance is getting married and she's been passed over for a partnership at the law firm. None of which are as disappointing as the fact that Happy Endings got canceled. (Nope, still not over it.)

WEDNESDAY

The Middle, 8 p.m., ABC

Sue tries to arrange a showing of It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown in an actual pumpkin patch, which is some great cross-promotion, ABC! (Ahem, see below.)

American Horror Story: Freak Show, 10 p.m., FX

Jimmy and Maggie (Evan Peters, Emma Roberts) have a run-in with Twisty, the psycho clown, which, even during this week of scary programming, is the most terrifying thing we can imagine.

THURSDAY

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, 8 p.m., ABC

It's your last chance to squeeze in a viewing of this holiday classic before you end up in a candy coma Friday night.

Scandal, 9 p.m., ABC

Mellie feels a strong kinship with a former first lady, which can only mean one thing: Fried chicken / booze girls night!

SEASON PREMIERE The McCarthys, 9:30 p.m., CBS

Sure, the premise of this new sitcom is a little creaky — about a gay, sports-hating son (Tyler Ritter) in a bawdy Boston family whose father picks him to help coach a basketball team — but it's got a slick quality, a terrific cast (all hail Laurie Metcalf as the matriarch) and, at least in this week's pilot, plenty of actual laughs.

A to Z, 9:30 p.m., NBC

Ray Parker Jr. of Ghostbusters fame appears as himself in this new episode, in which he's tasked with livening up the company Halloween party.

How to Get Away With Murder, 10 p.m., ABC

We were worried this show would take a long time to find itself, and dubious it could find a way to balance star Viola Davis with its large ensemble. Thank goodness we've been proven wrong: Murder is on a roll, serving up a run of pulse-pounding episodes that keep Annalise (Davis) front and center (man, that scene where she confronts her husband!) and make the cast around her suitably entertaining.

SATURDAY

One Starry Christmas, 8 p.m., Hallmark

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Fun fact: This year's edition of Hallmark's Countdown to Christmas starts on Halloween this year, which means this new movie about a Christmas-loving astronomy professor named Holly isn't even the first Christmas programming to appear on the channel.

SUNDAY

The Affair, 10 p.m., Showtime

As Noah and Alison get deeper into their affair, we get deeper into this drama that employs a riveting shifting-perspective storytelling technique. The various relationship dynamics are so good we could even do without the apparent murder investigation.