Watch It: Noir is the TV colour of choice

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/01/2024 (1001 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Death and danger are lurking everywhere, from Alaska to the South of France to the high altitudes over Second World War Germany. Fortunately, there are heroes aplenty. And for a feel-good chaser, the Fab Five are reporting back from the Big Easy. Here are five shows to check out.

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True Detective: Night Country (Season 4 premières at 8 p.m. Sunday on HBO Crave)

It’s been a long wait for the fourth entry in this American noir anthology. It’s been a longer wait for the series to return to the spooky brilliance of the 2014 première season starring Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson (still on board as executive producers) looking back on a serial killer investigation in swampy Louisiana.

Seasons 2 and 3 were handsome but hard on the part of the brain that wants to know what’s going on. The stories are always about the darkness within and without and so it is in Alaska, the setting for this new season. Jodie Foster (Nyad) and Kali Reis (Catch the Fair One) are reluctant partners in the investigation of eight workers who’ve vanished from an arctic research station. As the trailer says, “This isn’t going to be good.”

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Monsieur Spade (series premières at 8 p.m. Sunday on AMC, AMC+ app)

Sam Spade just can’t catch a break. The year is 1963 and Dashiell Hammett’s exquisite private eye is trying to retire in the south of France. And then six beloved nuns are murdered. Clive Owen plays our hero, who can’t not help his new neighbours, even if it puts him in a foul mood.

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The Chicagos (Med/Fire/P.D. return from 7-10 p.m. Wednesday on NBC, Citytv), Law & Orders (original, Special Victims Unit and Organized Crime return from 7-10 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 18 on NBC, Citytv)

However worthwhile the gains, the Hollywood strikes took a toll on everybody. In Chicago Fire alone, the beleaguered lovers Kelly Severide and Stella Kidd (Taylor Kinney and Miranda Rae Mayo) have been suspended in a tortured limbo. But fear not, the return of network TV series is ramping up again! The trailer for the Chicagos is loaded with “mass casualties” and “shots fired at the police!” Over on the L&O franchise (DUN DUN), bad people are everywhere, but Det. Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) is on it: “Damn right I’m gonna get ’em.” Hello, TV friends. We’ve missed you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ob_-6aUCAiI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7qiWJfFmc8

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Queer Eye (Season 8 premières Wednesday, Jan. 24, on Netflix)

Bobby, don’t go! As you might already know, interior design expert Bobby Berk announced in November that this season, shot in New Orleans, will be his last. I am fond of his soft heart, but this is not as gutting as the thought of losing the remaining Fab Four: hair genie Jonathan Van Ness, foodie Antoni Porowski, culture ambassador Karamo Brown and fashion god Tan France. It helps to remind myself I survived the actual end of the OG Queer Eye for the Straight Guy (2003-7) with barely a tear. Or not many anyway. Speaking of tears, this season’s makeover recipients include a former nun, a teacher and, it says here, “a Bayou-born outdoorsman looking to reignite the spark in his marriage.” Season 9, by the way, will be set in Las Vegas.

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Masters of the Air (series première Friday, Jan. 26, on Apple TV+)

Landmark HBO series Band of Brothers (2001) excavated human stories from the U.S. army’s 101st Airborne Division; Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks’ new Second World War drama, based on Donald L. Miller’s book of the same name, is about the crews of the 100th Bomb Group (a.k.a. the Bloody Hundredth) flying raids over Nazi Germany. But how will this series land in the spaces between daily headlines of lives lost in Gaza and Ukraine, Israel and Russia?

I recall urging my mother to watch Mad Men for its stylish but brutal view on culture and sexual politics in the 1960s and ’70s. “No thanks,” she replied. “I lived through it once already.” I judged her for looking away from important stories, even in retrospect. I’ll still watch Masters of the Air, but it’ll be harder and I hear you a little better, Mother. Also, here’s to putting all war in the rear-view mirror.

Broadcast dates subject to change. Questions, comments to denise.duguay@winnipegfreepress.com.