What to watch this weekend Jan. 3, 2025: TV awards contenders

They say you can’t go home again, but Hallmark’s hit series The Way Home proves that’s not entirely true. The drama, which kicks off its third season Friday at 9/8c (streaming the next day on Hallmark+), stars Andie MacDowell and Chyler Leigh as an estranged mother and daughter who must find their way back together after the latter moves home with her teenage daughter (Sadie Laflamme-Snow’s Alice) amidst a divorce. They’re aided in their growth and healing via a mysterious pond on the property that allows various members of the Landry family to travel through time, an experience that reveals the answers to as many questions as it creates.

Upon first glance, The Way Home appears to be a big swing for Hallmark, which is still best known for romantic fare and its annual Christmas-themed movie slate, but beneath the surface it’s a compelling family drama, putting it squarely in the network’s wheelhouse. And in Season 3, yet more Landry lore is to be uncovered, as Kat (Leigh) and Alice travel to 1974, the year Del (MacDowell) met Colton, her husband-to-be who is dead in the present but is apparently also versed in the ways of time travel. Just as likely to intrigue as it is to pluck at your heartstrings, The Way Home is the awards contender to watch this weekend.

SEE What to watch this weekend Dec. 27, 2024: TV awards contenders

If that doesn’t sound like your cup of time-traveling pond water, though, other contenders include:

• Going Dutch: Following up his recent appearance in Netflix’s No Good Deed, multiple Emmy nominee Denis Leary leads this new military-themed sitcom about a hot-headed, career-obsessed colonel who is reassigned to the U.S.’s least impressive Army base after an offensive rant is captured on camera. Initially shocked to discover that the base in the Netherlands lacks weapons but has plenty of cheese, he’s even more surprised when he learns the real reason he was sent to this particular base for punishment: its commander is his own estranged daughter, Maggie (Taylor Misiak). The series premiere is now streaming on Hulu.

• Cunk on Life: This one-off special is a follow-up to Cunk on Earth, which was seemingly everywhere two years ago after finally hitting Netflix in the States. It finds Diane Morgan’s inquisitive and blunt Philomena Cunk as she interviews experts and attempts to discover the meaning of life (and presumably also the universe and everything). The one-hour special is now streaming on Netflix.

• Mayfair Witches: AMC’s other Anne Rice adaptation returns for an unhinged (in a good way) sophomore outing this weekend, as Alexandra Daddario‘s heroine Rowan Fielding attempts to stop Lasher (Jack Huston) — a dark spirit who was reborn into a human body at the end of Season 1 — once he begins killing Mayfair women. The episode airs Sunday at 9/8c on AMC and AMC+.