What to Watch Friday: New gay horror film debuts + ‘Dateline’ on Anton Black killing
Here’s what’s on TV tonight.
20/20: Fatal Flaw - Stacy Castor (8 p.m. EST, ABC)
I know I posted this last week, but according to the schedule sent to me by ABC News, this episode — “On the Rocks” — was scheduled for July 29. But I guess it got bumped because it’s back on the schedule for this week. Or maybe it’s just really, really good and they’re showing it every week. Or never.
In any case, at some point in time, “Fatal Flaw” will (probably) look at a case of a so-called “black widow” killer who framed her own daughter for the deaths of her two husbands. Stacey Castor of Weedsport, NY, was convicted in 2009 of killing her second husband, David Castor, for attempting to kill her daughter, Ashley Wallace, after framing Ashley for his death. Stacey poisoned David with antifreeze in 2005 and attempted to kill Ashley in 2007 with a mixture of pills mixed into vodka, orange juice and Sprite. After all this, the death of her first husband, Michael Wallace, also fell under suspicion.
Lifetime made a movie based on the case called “Poisoned Love: The Stacey Castor” story.
So what was the fatal flaw in Stacey Castor’s plan to get away with murder? That’s what we learn from this episode. This program uses firsthand accounts from journalists and law enforcement officials to recount the twists and turns of criminal investigations, focusing on “breakthrough moments that led investigators and police to each killer’s doorstep.”
There’s commentary from ABC News contributors Elizabeth Vargas, Ryan Smith and Matt Murphy. Episodes stream the next day on Hulu.
The first episode of the series looked at the case of Raven Abaroa, who went on trial in Durham for the stabbing death of his wife, Janet.
Note: If “On the Rocks” isn’t the episode that shows up tonight, it could be an episode called “Secrets in the Freezer,” which is the episode I was originally told would air on Aug. 5. (insert shrug emoji).
Dateline: What Happened to Anton Black? (10 p.m. EST, NBC) -
NBC News anchor Lester Holt reports on Anton Black, a 19-year-old Black man who died in 2018 while being taken into police custody in Maryland. The one-hour special investigates the warning signs the town of Greensboro, Maryland received about Thomas Webster, the officer who initially chased Black after receiving a 911 call that Black had been dragging another boy down the street, unaware that the two boys had known each other for years.
Anton’s parents and sister talk to Holt about the tragedy, which occurred after Webster, two additional police officers and a bystander restrained him on his front porch. Holt also interviews Jason Johnson, the president of The Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund, who says he believes Webster’s actions met “the professional standard.”
They/Them (Peacock)
The new original film “They/Them” (pronounced “they-slash-them”) is billed an LGBTQIA+ horror film (formerly known as “Whistler Camp”) and is a queer empowerment story set at a gay conversion camp.
Writer and director John Logan said of the project: “I’ve loved horror movies as long as I can remember, I think because monsters represent ‘the other,’ and as gay kid I felt a powerful sense of kinship with those characters who were different, outlawed, or forbidden. I wanted to make a movie that celebrates queerness, with characters that I never saw when I was growing up.”
The movie stars: Kevin Bacon (he/him) as Owen Whistler, the conversion camp director who runs Whistler Camp alongside several counselors including his wife, Cora, played by Carrie Preston (she/her); Anna Chlumsky (she/her) as Molly, the camp’s medic and newest employee; Theo Germaine (they/them) as Jordan, a transgender and non-binary camper from a religious background who has made a deal with their parents to legally emancipate if attending Whistler doesn’t “work”; Quei Tann (she/her) as Alexandra, a transgender woman whose parents have threatened to kick her out of the house if she didn’t attend the camp; and others.
Some programming descriptions are provided by networks.
