What to Watch on TV this Weekend: Chloe's Guide

Sept. 30–Oct. 2, 2016

Summer's over, but fall is just beginning, and as the weather cools down, Patch readers are invited to get cozy with a few suggestions for what to watch on the upcoming weekend.

Jurassic World (2015)

Friday, Sept. 30 - HBO2 - 2:20 p.m.

I was 3-years old when Jurassic Park was released in 1993. Watching the film for the first time in later years, I found myself spellbound by what was, for me, a lifelike recreation of creatures so uncanny in their sizableness and unlike anything I had ever before seen or imagined. This was the stuff of dreams—or nightmares. Each encounter between these reptilian beasts and the film's human protagonists had me less at the edge of my seat and more so cowering up against the wall of my bedroom, immersed in an irresistible combination of fear and awe. Naturally, the power of Lady Nostalgia was too tempting to resist, and when Jurassic World was released, starring Hollywood golden boy Chris Pratt, I bought a ticket.

Jurassic World illustrates the events that unfold following a revamping of the original theme park premise, with technological advances and dinosaur trainers. A successful version of the park, from which the film derives its title, has been open to the public for 10 years. The story follows Park Operations Manager Claire Dearing (played by Bryce Dallas Howard), veloceraptor expert Owen Grady (Pratt) and Dearing's nephews, Gray (Ty Simpkins) and Zach (Nick Robinson). The film also stars Vincent D'Onofrio as Vic Hoskins, head of security operations, who wants to use the raptors and the Indominus rex—a new, hybrid dinosaur—as military weapons.

Suspense and action know few bounds in Jurassic World, living up to the adventure and thrills that made the inaugural film the iconic classic that it has become.

Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)

Saturday, Oct. 1 - FX- 3 p.m.

Gore Verbinski is the creative mind behind the Pirates of the Caribbean film that started it all as well as its two (out of three) sequels, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006) and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007). Verbinski is known for his directorial work on The Mexican (2001), The Ring (2002) as well as post-Pirates of the Caribbean films Rango (2011) and The Lone Ranger (2013).

The fantasy swashbuckler film tells the story of Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) and blacksmith Will Turner (Orlando Bloom), whose unlikely partnership is established for the sake of Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley), captive of the cursed crew of the Black Pearl and Turner's love interest. The Curse of the Black Pearl sets the pace for the franchise, a wildly intrepid narrative. The film, based on an attraction at Disney theme parks, offers allusions to the complexities of its main cast and such characters' relationships, preparing audiences for the ultimate climax that rears its head in the series's third installment. It grossed $46,630,690 in its opening weekend and eventually earned $654,264,015 worldwide.

Westworld (New)

Sunday, Oct. 2 - HBO - 9 p.m.

Westworld, a series based on the 1973 eponymous film, has been described as "a dark odyssey about the dawn of artificial consciousness and the future of sin," and if that doesn't pique one's curiosity, perhaps one is without curiosity to pique. HBO released a teaser for the show in August of 2015; more than a year later, the reimagined production stars Anthony Hopkins and Evan Rachel Wood (Across the Universe, Thirteen), the first cast members to be formally announced, as well as Thandie Newtown, Ed Harris, James Marsden, Ben Barnes and others.

Westworld employs music composed by Ramin Djawadi, known for scoring Game of Thrones. Developed by Jonathan Nolan—co-writer of The Dark Knight (2008), The Dark Knight Rises (2012) and Interstellar (2014)—and Lisa Joy, the series boasts a star-studded team of executive producers that includes J. J. Abrams and Bryan Burk. TV Guide has placed the series as fifth among the top 10 picks for the most anticipated, new shows of the 2016-2017 season.

Pan's Labyrinth (2006)

Cox Communications On Demand

I have been a fan of fairytale-centric stories since I was a little girl, glued to the screen as an underwater princess sung of her wanderlust and curiosity for a world beyond her own and as a glamoured street rat paraded down the streets of Agrabah in order to catch the eye of a beautiful royal.

But Pan's Labyrinth is no Disney fable; filmmaker Guillermo del Toro's production is a fairytale for adults, and that is no overstatement. It is visceral, yet wondrous, unnerving, yet passionate. Most of all, Pan's Labyrinth is a work of art. The plot follows 10-year-old heroine Ofelia in 1944 Spain, five years after the Spanish Civil War. The story braids together the real world with a mythical one, the latter hinging on a mysterious faun that guards an overgrown labyrinth. The Pan's Labyrinth narrative is easy to follow, but the tale, a journey for protagonist and viewer alike, is one to which attention should be paid.

Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

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I am no Marvel enthusiast; the crux of my comic book interests lay in the DC Universe. However, when trailers for James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy began pouring through mainstream media outlets, I was on board upon learning that the cast would include some of my favorite actors in Hollywood—Zoë Saldaña, Christ Pratt and Bradley Cooper. But the film does more than employ an all-star cast (which includes Vin Diesel, Michael Rooker, Benicio del Toro, Glenn Close and John C. Reiley); it expands Marvel's cinematic universe to the cosmos, exploring the complex goings-on of outer space that are essential to the bigger picture that Marvel has painted for its audiences throughout the years. The film also introduces a new team of heroes beyond the Avengers.

Guardians of the Galaxy earned $333.2 million in the box office in North America and an estimated $441 million in other countries, with a worldwide total of $773.3 million. The film became the third highest-grossing film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe behind The Avengers and Iron Man 3. It was announced at San Diego Comic-Con International in 2014, before the first film's release, that there would be a sequel. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is scheduled to be released in May of 2017.

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