This week: Surviving the Holocaust in the ‘Lucky Ones,’ an Ewan McGregor series, and a Steve Martin doc
1. Here’s another TV series set in and around World War II and the Holocaust, joining recent releases “A Small Light,” “The New Look,” “Masters of the Air,” and “All the Light We Cannot See,” among others. “We Were the Lucky Ones,” an adaptation of Georgia Hunter’s 2017 novel, begins in Poland at the start of the war, as a large, close Jewish family, the Kurcs, become separated as they flee the Nazis. Starring Joey King, Logan Lerman, Michael Aloni, and Robin Weigert, the eight-episode story finds the family desperately trying to find one another and reunite. It premieres Thursday on Hulu.
2. Ewan McGregor stars as the fictional Count Alexander Rostov in “A Gentleman in Moscow,” an adaptation of the 2016 novel by Amor Towles. Set in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, Rostov is banished by a Bolshevik tribunal to an attic in the opulent Hotel Metropol. The years pass and he builds a new life within the walls of the hotel. Leah Harvey, Beau Gadsdon, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead (who’s married to McGregor) costar in the eight-parter, which premieres Friday on Paramount+ and Sunday at 9 p.m. on Showtime.
3. Giancarlo Esposito of “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul” is back on AMC in “Parish,” a six-episode adaptation of the British miniseries “The Driver.”
He plays the owner of a luxury car service in New Orleans who comes up against a crime syndicate. Paula Malcomson, Skeet Ulrich, Bradley Whitford, and Arica Himmel costar on the show, which premieres Sunday at 10:15 p.m.
4. The first season of “American Rust,” a downbeat drama starring Maura Tierney and Jeff Daniels, ran on Showtime back in 2021. Now Amazon Prime is bringing the show back, as “American Rust: Broken Justice,” for a second season of 10 episodes. Set in a fictional small Pennsylvania town, the story finds Daniels’s cop dealing with a string of seemingly unrelated murders. The show, adapted from the 2009 novel by Philipp Meyer, returns on Thursday.
5. The title — “STEVE! (martin) a documentary in 2 pieces” — is a cap-shift nightmare, but let’s see whether it’s any good. On Friday, Apple TV+ is premiering the documentary, which is structured in two parts: “Then” chronicles Martin’s rise in the world of stand-up and the albums he made, while “Now” — you guessed it! — focuses on the more recent years of his career, including “Only Murders in the Building.” Directed by Morgan Neville, it includes comments from Jerry Seinfeld, Tina Fey, Lorne Michaels, Larry David, Diane Keaton, Eric Idle, Selena Gomez, and, of course, Martin Short.