The It List: Mummified lion cub unearthed in new doc, 'The Mandalorian' returns, how to watch 'It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown' for free and the best in pop culture the week of Oct. 26, 2020

The It List is Yahoo’s weekly look at the best in pop culture, including movies, music, TV, streaming, games, books, podcasts and more. During the coronavirus pandemic, when most of us are staying at home, we’re going to spotlight things you can enjoy from your couch, whether solo or in small groups, and leave out the rest. With that in mind, here are our picks for Oct. 26-Nov. 1, including the best deals we could find for each. (Yahoo Entertainment may receive a share from purchases made via links on this page.)

STREAM IT: Secrets of the Saqqara Tomb doc unearths lion cub mummy

In late 2018, archaeologists in Egypt made an amazing discovery, unearthing an untouched and well-preserved 4,400-year-old tomb of a royal priest — Wahtye — and his family. The “one of a kind” find, in Saqqara, an ancient city south of Cairo, is now the subject of a documentary, directed by James Tovell, highlighting the 3,000 artifacts discovered within including the first complete mummified lion cub and a temple dedicated to the Egyptian cat goddess Bastet. There's also evidence that the family died from an epidemic, which was probably malaria — and, if proven, it would be the first documented case of malaria in history. The owner of the tomb, which was buried 16 feet beneath the sand, has an interesting story too, having served King Neferirkare of the Old Kingdom’s fifth dynasty, which ruled from around 2500 to 2350 B.C. Hieroglyphs carved into the stone above the tomb’s door reveal some of his titles, including royal purification priest, royal supervisor and inspector of the sacred boat. — Suzy Byrne

Secrets of the Saqqara Tomb premieres Wednesday, Oct. 28 on Netflix.

STREAM IT: A kinder, sweeter, younger Wolfman story arrives with The True Adventures of Wolfboy

Not since the 1985 Michael J. Fox classic Teen Wolf (yeah we said classic) has a movie treated Wolfman-esque lore with such tender care. It might be arriving just in time for Halloween, but Martin Krejcí’s coming-of-age drama The True Adventures of Wolfboy is all heart, no horror. The film stars Knives Out breakout Jaeden Martel as a newly-turned-teen in Buffalo, N.Y. who suffers from a rare condition called congenital hypertrichosis that grows an abnormal amount of hair on his face and body. When he finds out new information about his long-gone mother, Paul (Martel) sets out on said adventures. Check out an exclusive clip from the film above. — Kevin Polowy

The True Adventures of Wolfboy is available Friday, Oct. 30 on digital and via on-demand services including Redbox and FandangoNOW.

STREAM IT: Loved Parasite? Catch up with one of Bong Joon-ho’s early masterpieces, Memories of Murder

Before Parasite made Hollywood history as the first foreign language film to win Best Picture, South Korean auteur Bong Joon-ho was already on the industry’s radar thanks to cult hits like The Host, Snowpiercer and Okja. Now Neon — which distributed Parasite in the U.S. — is making the director’s acclaimed second feature widely available on these shores for the first time. Released to international acclaim in 2003, Memories of Murder is a David Fincher-esque crime drama about a pair of detectives whose quest to find a small-town serial killer pushes them to the edge of sanity. One of those detectives is played by Bong’s regular collaborator, Song Kang-ho, and this exclusive clip from early on in the film highlights his supreme over-confidence in his own sleuthing skills. Look for that confidence to be challenged as this case takes its toll. — Ethan Alter

Memories of Murder is available Tuesday, Oct. 27 via on-demand services including Amazon, iTunes and FandangoNOW.

WATCH IT: Kevin Costner and Diane Lane have super reunion in Let Him Go

We don’t believe Let Him Go will be counted as DCEU canon, but it does mark a cool reunion between screen vets Kevin Costner and Diane Lane: The pair previously played super-parents to Henry Cavill’s Superman in Man of Steel and Batman v Superman. They’re espoused once again in the new dramatic thriller Let Him Go, playing a retired sheriff and his just-as-tough wife who attempt to rescue their grandson from the abusive relationship and dangerous family the widow of their late son has entered into. The film gets increasingly taut and violent as it goes along, but you can get witness a calmer moment before storm in the exclusive clip above. — K.P.

Let Him Go opens in theaters Friday, Nov. 6; visit Fandango for tickets and showtimes information.

STREAM IT: Baby Yoda and his Mandalorian sidekick return for more galactic adventures. We have spoken.

One year after launching the Disney+ era, The Mandalorian is back and so is the biggest (smallest) star in this or any far, far away galaxy: Baby Yoda. And this time, there will be Jedi. Season 2 of Jon Favreu and Dave Filoni’s blockbuster Star Wars series finds the dynamic duo trying to stay one step ahead of the post-Imperial, pre-First Order law, with the assistance of old friends like Greef Karga (Carl Weathers) and Cara Dune (Gina Carano). Now that the show is likely to run for multiple seasons, looks for its universe to expand ever-outwards, as the writers and filmmakers (including returning director, Bryce Dallas Howard, who is helming another action-packed episode after her Seven Samurai homage in Season 1) continue to fold in elements and characters from the larger Star Wars mythology. Chief among those additions will be Ahsoka Tano, the Clone Wars fan favorite who is reportedly making her live-action debut in the form of Rosario Dawson. This is the way The Mandalorian will continue to blow fans’ minds on a weekly basis. — E.A.

The Mandalorian Season 2 premieres Friday, Oct. 30 on Disney+.

HEAR IT: Sam Smith brings the love

Originally titled To Die For and scheduled for a June 2020 release, the Grammy- and Oscar-winning British crooner’s latest long-player got a title change and new release date due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (The original album art, which featured several pairs of bare hands touching Smith face, was also replaced with a more socially distanced photo of Smith lying alone in the grass.) Now titled Love Goes, Smith’s third studio album — boasting A-list collaborations with Demi Lovato, Labrinth, Burna Boy, Calvin Harris and Normani — is finally out, with his gorgeous vocal providing a much-needed sonic balm in these anxious times. — Lyndsey Parker

Download/stream Love Goes on Apple Music.

WATCH IT: Take a neighborhood-by-neighborhood tour of contemporary Chicago with Steve James’s docuseries City So Real

If you’re looking for the ideal Windy City cinematic tour guide, Steve James is your guy. Through acclaimed documentaries like Hoops Dreams, The Interrupters and Life Itself, the filmmaker has captured the people, neighborhoods and causes that define contemporary Chicago. James’s 5-part docuseries, City So Real, is another intimate, yet expansive, portrait of the city, one that challenges the perception — one popularized by national news and certain Washington D.C. politicians — that it’s just a hotbed of urban violence. Filmed over the course of Chicago’s 2019 mayoral campaign, City So Real investigates the complex web of social and political forces that shape its identity. National Geographic is airing the entire 5-hour series, commercial free, on Oct. 29, and episodes will be available to stream individually on Hulu starting Oct. 30. — E.A.

City So Real premieres Thursday, Oct. 29 on National Geographic.

STREAM IT: Enjoy It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown for free on Apple TV+

Watching It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown — the best Peanuts TV special of all time — is a Halloween tradition up there with rocking out to “Monster Mash” and snacking on your kids’ Halloween candy after they go to bed. But thanks to a recent deal between Apple TV+ and the minders of the Peanuts franchise, the half-hour cartoon will no longer air on broadcast television. Here’s a seasonally-appropriate treat, though: The streaming service is making Great Pumpkin free to stream for viewers young and old between Oct. 30 and Nov. 1. (Heads up Charlie Brown fans: The holiday favorites A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and A Charlie Brown Christmas will receive similar treatment later this year.) That’s better than a bag of rocks, for sure. — E.A.

It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown will stream for free on Apple TV+ from Oct. 30 to Nov. 1.

HEAR IT: Elvis Costello has perfect timing

Hey Clockface, Costello’s 31st studio album, finds the legendary singer-songwriter working with experimental jazz guitarists Bill Frisell and Nels Cline as well as longtime bandmate Steve Nieve. While most of the album was recorded with these collaborators in Helsinki and Paris before the pandemic, one chilling late addition to the tracklist, “Newspaper Pane,” was created in isolation — and it eerily captures that 2020 energy in a way only a genius storyteller like Costello can. — L.P.

Download/stream Hey Clockface on Apple Music.

READ IT: Crack open The X-Files: The Official Archives and go monster hunting anew with Mulder and Scully

The X-Files is on the short list for scariest TV shows of all time; now, just in time for the spookiest season of the year, comes The X-Files: The Official Archives — Cryptids, Biological Anomalies, and Parapsychic Phenomena. Painstakingly recreating purported archival material from Mulder and Scully’s greatest hits, author Paul Terry’s tome collects field reports, photos, autopsy files, newspaper clippings, sketches, security-cam footage and other miscellaneous ephemera — along with fresh behind-the-scenes insights from creator Chris Carter and writers Vince Gilligan and Frank Spotnitz — for 50 classic cases, including Eugene Victor Tooms, the Fluekman and the Peacock family. In other words, this is as close as you’ll ever come to being down in the FBI basement poring over actual X-Files. To paraphrase Mulder, the truth is in here. — Marcus Errico

The X-Files: The Official Archives — Cryptids, Biological Anomalies, and Parapsychic Phenomena is available at Amazon.

WATCH IT: CBS honors Essential Heroes with Momento Latino special

Eva Longoria, Ricky Martin and Gloria Estefan produce and host Essential Heroes: A Momento Latino Event, a one-hour special celebrating America's diversity with a focus on the Latinx culture and community. Essential Heroes will include musical performances, comedy pieces, docu-shorts and appearances by Lin-Manuel Miranda, George Lopez, Rita Moreno, Wilmer Valderrama and more. Pitbull, Luis Fonsi, Kelsey Ballerini and Juanes are set to perform. The event aims to amplify Latinx voices and to bring awareness to a community that has been deeply affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. — Gisselle Bances

Essential Heroes: A Momento Latino Event premieres Monday, Oct. 26 at 9 p.m. on CBS.

HEAR IT: Welcome (back) to the Bungle

NoCal’s recently reunited experimental rockers Mr. Bungle, fronted by Faith No More’s Mike Patton, return with their first new album since 1999 — but it’s not really new. In a truly meta move, The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny Demo is actually a remake of the band’s 1986 debut demo, featuring songs written but never professionally recorded. — L.P.

Download/stream The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny Demo on Apple Music.

BUY IT: Pre-order Hasbro’s full-sized Captain America shield for that aspiring Avenger in your life

Steve Rogers may be retired, but someone’s gotta carry Captain America’s shield. In advance of the upcoming Disney+ series, The Falcon & The Winter Soldier — in which Anthony Mackie’s winged hero, Sam Wilson, prepares to take over his friend’s star-spangled mantle — Hasbro has produced a full-scale replica of the Vibranium-enhanced weapon that’s perfect for role-playing or wall-mounting. Set to hit stores later this fall, the shield is currently available for pre-order, which gives you plenty of time to give your throwing arm a workout. — E.A.

The Falcon & Winter Soldier Role-Play Shield is available for pre-order at GameStop, Entertainment Earth and Best Buy.

HEAR IT: Midnight Oil burns again

The Makarrata Project, Midnight Oil’s first album in 18 years, finds the Sydney post-punk political band collaborating with Indigenous and First Nations artists like Jessica Mauboy, Alice Skye, Tasman Keith, Leah Flanagan, Troy Cassar-Daley, Kev Carmody, Sammy Butcher and Frank Yamma; proceeds from the project will go to organizations working for Indigenous reconciliation in Australia. “These songs are about recognizing that our shared history needs settlement… we need to walk together to create a better future,” frontman (and ex-politician) Peter Garrett declares in a statement. — L.P.

Download/stream The Makarrata Project on Apple Music.

— Video produced by Gisselle Bances