The Week’s guide to what’s worth watching
POV: The Mole Agent
Cinema has never had a spy quite like Sergio Chamy. An 83-year-old widower in ill-fitting tweed, the retiree agreed to go undercover in a nursing home while documentary cameras tracked his every move. Sergio never uncovered elder abuse, but director Maite Alberdi followed his lead and let her film become a poignant drama about a largely female community and a real catch: the kind of man who truly listens. Monday, Jan. 25, at 9:30 p.m., PBS; check local listings
Resident Alien
If the new doctor in town seems a little creepy, that could be because he’s an extraterrestrial. In this dramedy series, Alan Tudyk has fun playing an alien who’s struggling to pretend he’s human after a crash landing gives him no better option. Having assumed the form of a doctor and then learned to speak English by watching crime shows, he’s weirdly thrilled when the local sheriff asks him to assist in a murder case. Wednesday, Jan. 27, at 10 p.m., Syfy
The Dig
Shortly before World War II, a widow curious about the earthen mounds scattered about her English estate called in a local archaeologist to start shoveling. Carey Mulligan and Ralph Fiennes co-star in this gorgeously shot drama based on the true story of one of Britain’s greatest archaeological finds. Available for streaming Friday, Jan. 29, Netflix
Palmer
Maybe Justin Timberlake can do drama. In this affecting though sometimes affected movie from director Fisher Stevens, the pop star and sometime actor plays Eddie Palmer, an ex-con who works as a janitor at his old high school and happens into the role of father figure to a young boy who’s bullied for being gendernonconforming. Available for streaming Friday, Jan. 29, Apple TV+
Masterpiece: The Long Song
In 1831, freedom seemed near at hand for the slaves who worked Jamaica’s sugar plantations.
But life is not so simple, as we’re reminded by the narrator of this striking three-part drama series based on Andrea Levy’s 2010 novel. Tamara Lawrance stars as July, a former slave looking back years later on how, after being snatched from her mother and trained as the personal maidservant to a frivolous mistress, she found ways to exercise power in the face of cruelty. Sunday, Jan. 31, at 10 p.m., PBS, check local listings
Snowpiercer
A few cars are missing from the Snowpiercer as Season 2 begins for the series adaptation of the sci-fi thriller about a train circling a frozen globe, carrying all of humanity’s survivors. Monday, Jan. 25, at 9 p.m., TNT
We Are: The Brooklyn Saints
In a four-part docuseries, black Brooklyn comes together to field a youth football program that teaches boys how to win on the field and off. Available for streaming Friday, Jan. 29, Netflix
The Little Things
In a movie that will be in theaters simultaneously with its HBO Max release, three Oscar-winning actors—Denzel Washington, Rami Malek, and Jared Leto—team up for a thriller about the hunt for an L.A. serial killer. Available for streaming Friday, Jan. 29, HBO Max