This week: Eddie Murphy visits ‘Candy Cane Lane,’ ‘The Artful Dodger’ debuts, and ’80s divas reunite
1. Consider yourself . . . ready for a new corner of the Dickens-verse. Set in the 1850s, “The Artful Dodger” is an eight-episode Australian spinoff of “Oliver Twist” that finds a transformed Dodger (Thomas Brodie-Sangster from “The Queen’s Gambit”) now using his agile pickpocketing fingers in a more respectable way, as a surgeon. But who’s that grimy visitor waiting to corrupt him? Why it’s Fagin, played by the great David Thewlis. The series premieres Wednesday on both Hulu and Disney+.
2. Chuck Lorre has had pretty good fortune when it comes to TV comedies. He’s the guy behind “Dharma & Greg,” “Two and a Half Men,” “The Big Bang Theory,” “Mom,” “Young Sheldon,” and “The Kominsky Method.” His latest series is called “Bookie,” and it stars Sebastian Maniscalco as an LA bookie whose livelihood is threatened by the possible legalization of sports betting. The cast of the eight-episode show includes Jorge Garcia (Hurley from “Lost”), Andrea Anders, and Charlie Sheen, Lorre’s one-time nemesis. It premieres Thursday on Max.
3. On Friday, Eddie Murphy stars in Amazon’s holiday comedy “Candy Cane Lane,” which is directed by Reginald Hudlin (who directed Murphy in “Boomerang” in 1992). Murphy plays a man who’s so driven to win his neighborhood’s home decoration contest that he makes a deal with a mischievous elf to better his chances. Things go awry, naturally. Tracee Ellis Ross, Jillian Bell, Ken Marino, Nick Offerman, Chris Redd, and Timothy Simons costar.
4. Am I having a 1980s-style flashback hallucination? My shoulder pads and hair just expanded a few inches. Loni Anderson, Morgan Fairchild, Linda Gray, Donna Mills, and Nicollette Sheridan are all together in a meta movie called “Ladies of the ’80s: A Divas Christmas.” They play former soap stars who reunite for a special episode of their old show. Rivalries reemerge, of course, as the divas fall back into some toxic habits. Sounds “Real Housewives”-esque. Need more ’80s? The theme song is performed by pop singer Tiffany. The Lifetime movie premieres Saturday at 8 p.m.
5. On Apple TV+’s “Slow Horses,” Gary Oldman is outstanding as the hard-drinking, sour-tempered, slovenly, and brilliant leader of a group of demoted, sidelined MI5 agents. I’m not sure why the awards shows have ignored him; he’s a wry delight. Adapted from the books by Mick Herron, the show is taut and takes its spy thriller cues from John le Carre, but it can also be quite funny. Watching Oldman go up against Kristin Scott Thomas as an MI5 boss is the kind of treat that more than compensates for some of the little tangles in the plotting. The show returns for season 3, which is based on Herron’s “Real Tigers,” on Wednesday.