Winter Arts Guide

Winter Arts Guide/Boston Sunday Globe 1/21/24

10 new TV shows to watch when you need to chill out this winter


MASTERS OF THE AIR “Top Gun: Maverick” who?? The producing team behind “Band of Brothers” and “The Pacific,” including Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, turn their focus to the World War II bombing raids over Nazi Germany and the men whose lives were forever altered by them. Based on the Donald L. Miller book of the same name, the nine-episode series will feature stunning and terrifying flying footage as it tells the story of the 100th Bomb Group, known as the “Bloody Hundredth.” As in the previous two miniseries, the cast is packed with young actors of promise including Austin Butler (“Elvis”), Barry Keoghan (“The Banshees of Inisherin”), Anthony Boyle (“The Plot Against America”), and Callum Turner (“Fantastic Beasts” movies). (Apple TV+, Jan. 26)

EXPATS Based on the 2016 novel “The Expatriates” by Janice Y.K. Lee, the six-episode miniseries follows a close-knit group of Westerners living as outsiders in Hong Kong. The miniseries is created by Lulu Wang, writer-director of the 2019 Awkwafina movie “The Farewell,” and the focus is on three women, played by Nicole Kidman, Sarayu Blue, and Ji-young Yoo, who are all affected by a family tragedy. With “Big Little Lies,” “The Undoing,” “Nine Perfect Strangers,” and now this, Kidman is becoming the queen of TV miniseries. (Amazon, Jan. 26)

MR. & MRS. SMITH Donald Glover and Maya Erskine are the leads in a series adaptation of the 2005 movie with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Glover — the show’s co-creator — and Erskine play strangers who work for the same spy agency, which offers them a life of wealth and travel if they’ll participate in an arranged marriage as Mr. and Mrs. John and Jane Smith. Initially, Erskine’s role belonged to Phoebe Waller Bridge, but she left the project because of creative differences. Also in the impressive cast: Alexander Skarsgård, Sarah Paulson, Sharon Horgan, Ron Perlman, Billy Campbell, Paul Dano, Michaela Coel, John Turturro, and Parker Posey. (Amazon, Feb. 2)

ONE DAY This romantic drama is based on the 2009 novel by David Nicholls, and it was made into a disappointing Anne Hathaway movie in 2011. The couple — played here by Ambika Mod (excellent in “This Is Going to Hurt”) and Leo Woodall (from “The White Lotus”) — spend the night together after they graduate in 1988, then go their separate ways. The show then proceeds to catch up with them on the same day across the years. Are they fated to be together? The cast includes Eleanor Tomlinson, Joely Richardson, and Toby Stephens. (Netflix, Feb. 8)

THE NEW LOOK The big draw is Ben Mendelsohn as Christian Dior and Juliette Binoche as Coco Chanel, who star in this drama about the beginnings of modern fashion in Paris amid the fallout from World War II. It’s from Todd A. Kessler, who co-created “Damages” and “Bloodline,” which brought Mendelsohn a supporting actor Emmy in 2016, and it costars John Malkovich, Maisie Williams, Emily Mortimer, Claes Bang, and Glenn Close. (Apple TV+, Feb. 14)

ELSBETH Quirky’s coming at you on this network spinoff series. Elsbeth Tascioni, the lawyer played by Carrie Preston in “The Good Wife” and “The Good Fight,” has a series of her own. Created by Michelle and Robert King, the creators of the “Good” franchise, it finds Tascioni in New York working with the Police Department as part of a performance improvement plan. Wendell Pierce and Carra Patterson costar. (CBS, Feb. 29)

THE REGIME Will Tracy, a writer for “Succession,” created this six-episode political satire about the ruler of a fictional European autocracy. Kate Winslet — returning to HBO after “Mildred Pierce” and “Mare of Easttown” — stars as that ruler, whose regime is unraveling over the course of a year. Andrea Riseborough plays her chief minister, Hugh Grant is the opposition leader, and Martha Plimpton is the American secretary of state. Among the directors: Stephen Frears. Among the writers: Gary Shteyngart. (HBO and Max, March 3)

MASTERPIECE: NOLLY Russell T Davies, creator of the original “Queer as Folk,” the 2005 revival of “Doctor Who,” “A Very English Scandal” with Hugh Grant, and the HBO drama “Years and Years,” has a three-parter coming to “Masterpiece.” It’s based on the true story of Noele “Nolly” Gordon, a popular British TV star in the 1960s and ‘70s whose abrupt firing from the soap opera “Crossroads” in 1981 made headlines. You need more British excellence? Helena Bonham Carter stars. (PBS, March 17)

PALM ROYALE What a cast! Kristen Wiig, Laura Dern, Allison Janney, Josh Lucas, Bruce Dern, Leslie Bibb, and — what’s this? — Carol Burnett. Set in 1969, based on the 2018 novel “Mr. and Mrs. American Pie” by Juliet McDaniel, the comedy follows the struggle by Wiig’s character to gain entrance into Palm Beach high society after her husband leaves her. It’s created by Abe Sylvia (“George & Tammy,” “Nurse Jackie”). (Apple TV+, March 20)

3 BODY PROBLEM D.B. Weiss and David Benioff, the guys behind “Game of Thrones,” along with Alexander Woo, are adapting Liu Cixin’s sci-fi trilogy “Remembrances of Earth’s Past” as part of the “GoT” pair’s $200 million Netflix deal. Set in China, it’s about mankind’s first communications with aliens and mysterious deaths in the scientific community. The international cast includes Rosalind Chao, Benedict Wong, Eiza González, Jess Hong, and a few “Game of Thrones” alums, Jonathan Pryce (High Sparrow), Liam Cunningham (Davos Seaworth), and John Bradley (Samwell Tarly). (Netflix, March 21)




RETURNING SHOWS “Curb Your Enthusiasm” (HBO, Feb. 4); “Abbott Elementary” (ABC, Feb. 7); “Ghosts” (CBS, Feb. 15); “Life and Beth” (Hulu, Feb. 16); “Blue Bloods” (CBS, Feb. 16); “Girls5eva” (Netflix, March 14); “Grey’s Anatomy” (ABC, March 14); “Call the Midwife” (PBS, March 17)