New year, new TV. It’s time for the latest installment of what to watch this month! There are a total of 10 new and returning shows to look out for in January so let’s get right to it, after the break.
MARVEL’S AGENT CARTER (Tuesday, Jan. 6, ABC, 8PM)
While Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. are on winter break, Agent Carter comes out to play. The series was inspired by the Marvel One-Shot short film of the same name that came bundled with the home video release of Captain America: The First Avenger. English bombshell Hayley Atwell reprises her role as Peggy Carter; in addition to starring in the One-Shot she also served as Captain America’s love interest in The First Avenger and then they reunited in her old age in The Winter Soldier. Most recently, Carter–along with the Howling Commandos–popped up in flashbacks this season on AoS. The TV series, essentially, takes place after the first Cap movie when the superhero is presumed dead after he crash-lands deadly weapons into the Arctic. Here’s a quick synopsis:
It’s 1946, and peace has dealt Peggy Carter a serious blow as she finds herself marginalized when the men return home from fighting abroad. Working for the covert SSR (Strategic Scientific Reserve), Peggy must balance doing administrative work and going on secret missions for Howard Stark.
The SSR, of course, eventually becomes S.H.I.E.L.D. so you can expect at least some crossover mythology between the films and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Marvel execs are making it clear that Agent Carter is indeed also part of the ever-expanding Marvel Cinematic Universe. In other words, everything is connected.
Scheduling note: Agent Carter has a 2-hour premiere on 1/6 from 8-10p on ABC. It will continue its 8-episode debut season in its regular Tuesday 8-9p time slot starting the following week on 1/13.
EMPIRE (Wednesday, Jan. 7, FOX, 9PM)
FOX’s latest drama is a hip-hop soap opera called Empire starring film actor Terrence Howard (Hustle & Flow) as a music industry mogul. In the pilot he shares that he’s taking his hip-hop company Empire Entertainment public, and after learning of a troubling diagnosis, he must now choose between his two musically-inclined sons to take over his company. Taraij P. Henson (Person of Interest) shakes things up as Howard’s character’s ex-wife when she claims she deserves a slice of the company’s earnings. Sound fun? There’s more: In addition to Howard and Henson starring, the pedigree behind this series reaches a new high when you take into consideration its creators Lee Daniels (The Butler), Danny Strong (Game Change), and Brian Grazer (24) and its music supervisor Timbaland. That’s right–characters are going to bust out original songs produced and written by the renowned beat-maker.
TOGETHERNESS (Sunday, Jan. 11, HBO, 9:30PM)
Brothers Jay and Mark Duplass are everywhere these days. Currently, Jay stars in the critically acclaimed Amazon original series Transparent and Mark stars in FXX comedy The League and guest stars in FOX’s The Mindy Project. In addition to acting, the Duplass brothers are masters at their craft behind the camera as directors and writers. Films like The Puffy Chair, Baghead, Cyrus, Jeff, Who Lives at Home, and The Do-Deca-Pentathlon are outstanding works bursting with real emotion and naturalistic dialogue. They’re pioneers of mumblecore, an indie film subgenre that’s all about natural performance and dialogue. In other words, when you watch one of their movies it’s as if you’re looking into your neighbor’s window and sneaking at peek at their real life conversations and actions.
And now, for the first time, Jay and Mark are collaborating on a television series that I hope will introduce their mumblecore tendencies to a wider audience. It’s called Togetherness and it’s described as “a comedic look at four middle-aged people reconciling their dreams with their current personal and professional lives in Los Angeles.” Mark stars alongside Melanie Lynskey, Steve Zissis, and Amanda Peet.
MAN SEEKING WOMAN (Wednesday, Jan. 14, FXX, 10:30PM)
Jay Baruchel (This is the End, She’s Out of My League) stars in a surreal sitcom, Man Seeking Woman.
A sweet and surreal look at the life-and-death stakes of dating, Man Seeking Woman follows naïve twenty-something Josh Greenberg (Baruchel) on his unrelenting quest for love. Josh soldiers through one-night stands, painful break-ups, a blind date with a troll, time travel, sex aliens, many deaths and a Japanese penis monster named “Tanaka” on his fantastical journey to find love.
If you’ve seen any of the ads, you get a pretty good idea about how the 10-episode season will ride the romantic comedy waters. It’s a half-hour rom-com with an absurd, imaginative twist. Intrigued enough to give it a shot? I am.
Returning series premiering this month:
–Glee returns for its sixth and final shortened season on Friday, Jan. 9 at 8PM on FOX. Following its 2-hour premiere, it will fall into its regular Friday at 9p time slot starting Jan. 16. The action returns to McKinley High for the final hurrah.
–Girls is back for a fourth season on Sunday, Jan. 11 at 9PM on HBO. Watch the latest s4 promo here featuring the life and times of Hannah, Marnie, Jessa, and Shoshanna.
–Parks and Recreation finally comes back to the airwaves for its seventh and (tear) final season on Tuesday, Jan. 13 at 8PM on NBC. If you recall, last season surprised fans with a major time-shift into the future–2017 to be exact. Leslie Knope is so in charge now (with bangs!) and Jon Hamm joined the cast only to get immediately fired from her staff. It’s truly sad to see this one go–it’s certainly one of the best network sitcoms of all-time mastering the art of packing laughs and so much heart. Sneak a peek here. And here. Note: The Peacock will air back-to-back episodes every week leading up to the show’s Feb. 24 one-hour series finale. Double doses of Parks? Yes, please!
–Workaholics keeps on chugging with a fifth season starting Wednesday, Jan. 14 at 10PM on Comedy Central. The boys of TelAmeriCorp from Rancho Cucamonga, California put together this fantastic, action-packed, over-the-top trailer for the upcoming season: check it and get weird.
–The Fall, a wonderfully addictive BBC Two series that thankfully airs in the States on Netflix, returns to the streaming service on Friday, Jan. 16 for a 6-episode second season. Gillian Anderson’s detective Stella Gibson and Jamie Dornan’s sexually motivated serial killer Paul Spector return in their game of cat and mouse. Though Gibson and Spector never actually met face-to-face last season, their chemistry really is electric and the stakes are higher than ever now that Spector is on the run. It’s a dark, disturbing, and calculating drama with European accents galore that you mustn’t skip. Missed out on the first batch of episodes? Binge all 5 of them now. Here are a couple s2 previews.
–The Americans, starring Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys as the undercover Soviet spies you root for, comes back Wednesday, Jan. 28 at 10PM on FX. The Cold War is about to heat up for the Jennings; in the season three finale the Center ordered Elizabeth and Philip to convert their suspecting daughter Paige into a spy! Also, will FBI agent Stan Beeman somehow save his soulmate Nina Sergeevna who was last seen being dragged back to Moscow to her potential death? Here’s the s4 trailer.
