The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
WINTER WONDERS
Here are 10 new shows you really should know about
Everyone, it seems, complains that there is too much good TV these days. It’s just impossible to stay on top of it all.
And yet, we keep hearing from people looking for something new to watch.
Fortunately, the winter months of 2021 are serving up plenty of intriguing fresh titles — from Marvel’s wildly offbeat “WandaVision” to contemporary reboots like “The Equalizer” and “Walker.”
Here then are 10 new scripted series that we’re eager to check out in the coming weeks:
“WANDAVISION” » This trippy, sitcom-inspired series from Marvel Studios might be the year’s biggest surprise. It takes characters from Marvel’s superhero universe and plops them in a retro setting, like those in TV classics such as “The Dick Van Dyke Show” and “Bewitched.” Picking up after the events of “Avengers: Endgame,” the nine-episode series reunites Wanda Maximoff, aka the Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), with the android Vision (Paul Bettany). These superpowered beings are apparently married and living in suburban bliss (punctuated by a laugh track). But soon they begin to suspect that everything is not as it seems. “WandaVision” is wild, weird and some kind of wonderful. (Now streaming on Disney+).
“WALKER” » After spending 15 seasons hunting demons on “Supernatural,” Jared Padalecki assumes a very different kind of role. He stars as Cordell Walker, a widower, father and Lone Star lawman with his own moral code. Sound familiar? Kung fu tough guy Chuck Norris played the character in “Walker, Texas Ranger,” which, amazingly, ran for eight seasons (1993-2001). Producers say the reboot will be more of a family drama than the turbocharged original. Let’s hope it will be less ridiculous, as well. (Premiered Jan. 21, The CW)
“LOSING ALICE” » A slick, eight-part “neo-noir” thriller from Israel, this series follows the title character (Ayelet Zurer), an aging
film director who feels restless and irrelevant after stepping away from work to raise a family. Meanwhile, her actor husband, David (Gal Toren), is in the prime of his career. After a chance encounter with a young screenwriter (Lihi Kornowski), Alice becomes obsessed with the woman and her haunting film in which David is set to star. As the women enter into a toxic relationship, the series explores just how far someone is willing to go to attain the life they desire. (New episodes available on Fridays, Apple TV+)
“THE SISTER” » You might want to keep the lights on for this chilling, four-part British mystery about a man desperately trying to keep a dark piece of his past from surfacing. Nathan (Russell Tovey) is haunted by the night long ago when he attended a party that led to the sudden death of a young woman. Only he and an old acquaintance know what really happened and they’ve vowed to stay silent. But now comes an ominous development that threatens to rip Nathan’s world apart. The four-part series is based on “Burial,” a novel by Neil Cross. (Available now, Hulu).
“THE LONG SONG” » This intimate and moving threepart “Masterpiece” adaptation of Andrea Levy’s award-winning novel is set during the final days of slavery in 19th-century Jamaica. Rising star Tamara Lawrance plays July, a strong-willed young slave who works on a sugar cane
plantation with her demanding mistress, Caroline Mortimer (Hayley Atwell). Their lives change with the arrival of a charming new overseer, Robert Goodwin (Jack Lowden), who is determined to improve the plantation for both the slaves and the mistress. (Premieres Jan. 31, PBS)
“RESIDENT ALIEN” » The aliens-living-among-us thing feels a little shopworn (See: “Mork & Mindy,” “3rd Rock From the Sun,” “Roswell,” etc.). But this dramedy from former “Family Guy” writer Chris Sheridan is poised to bring some amusing new twists to the premise. Based on a comic book of the same name, the series follows an alien (Alan Tudyk) who crash-lands in Colorado and poses as a small-town human doctor. He’s on a mission to kill all earthlings, but complications arise when he is roped into solving a local murder. (Premiered Jan. 27, Syfy)
“SUPERMAN & LOIS” » Behold yet another TV twist on the Man of Steel and the comic books’ most famous journalist. In this incarnation, Clark Kent (Tyler Hoechlin) and Lois Lane (Elizabeth Tulloch) are married and raising two boys in
idyllic Smallville. The series, we’re told, will explore the substantial challenges and complexities that come with being working parents in today’s fast-paced society. Then again, the title characters have responsibilities that other dads and moms don’t — like saving the world, at a moment’s notice, from an array of heinous villains. Can this power couple really have it all? (Premieres Feb. 23, The CW)
“CLARICE” » Remember Clarice Starling, the intrepid FBI trainee played by Jodie Foster in the oh-so-creepy “Silence of the Lambs”? Now, Rebecca Breeds (“Pretty Little Liars”) steps into the role, portraying Clarice as she returns to the field in 1993 — one year after the events of the Oscar-winning film. Because of messy rights issues, the cannibalistic Hannibal Lecter won’t even be mentioned in this psychological thriller. But Clarice still will deal with the trauma she experienced while chasing serial killer Buffalo Bill, and she’ll have her hands full with plenty of other baddies. (Premieres Feb. 11, CBS)
“FIREFLY LANE” » A couple of former TV doctors — Katherine Heigl (“Grey’s Anatomy”) and Sarah Chalke
(“Scrubs”) — team up in this heartfelt series about the power of female friendship. Based on the novel by Kristin Hannah, it follows Tully (Heigl) and Kate (Chalke), who meet as girls in the 1970s and become lifelong besties, despite possessing very different personalities. With a narrative that bounces back and forth in time, the story spans three decades, chronicling all their ups and downs, including a love triangle that strains their relationship. It all makes for some soapy, sweet and sexy fun. (Available Feb. 3, Netflix)
“THE EQUALIZER” » TV’s fascination with do-overs continues
with a “reimagining” of the popular 1980s crime saga that also inspired a couple of Denzel Washington films. The commanding Queen Latifah plays Robyn McCall, an “enigmatic woman with a mysterious background” who uses her extensive skills as a former CIA operative to exact justice on behalf of downtrodden and oppressed victims caught up in a rigged system. As Robyn conducts this work anonymously, not even her teen daughter and livein aunt are on to her. But a shrewd NYPD detective is determined to uncover the identity of this vigilante. (Premieres Feb. 7, CBS, following the Super Bowl)