Days in the lives of cops, docs and other Type As

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 27/12/2024 (641 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The new year of TV will bring a new (third? 666th?) version of cheeky celebrity game show Hollywood Squares (Sunday, Jan. 9, CBS), hosted by former footballer Nate Burleson and featuring the delightfully daffy Drew Barrymore in the centre square. More importantly, January will bring the 82nd annual Golden Globes awards show on Jan. 5 (CBS, Paramount+). The host is comedian Nikki Glaser. The leading film nominee is Emilia Perez, with 10 nominations, and the leading TV contender is The Bear, with five.

Before those arrive, here are six (the usual five plus a bonus!) series that look worth at least an initial investment. Happy viewing in 2025.

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● Teacup (series premières Monday on Showcase/StackTV)

Now that the holidays are coming to a close, let’s ramp up with some onscreen horror.

Something’s spooked Mr. Goat and the other animals on a farm in Georgia. And despite what Mom (Yvonne Strahovski, Handmaid’s Tale) is telling her offspring, it is not a tempest in the titular teacup.

Not even the handsome and fully armed neighbour, James (Canadian actor Scott Speedman of Grey’s Anatomy), can protect them.

Probably best not to be cradling a cup of hot of anything while watching. Based in part on the Robert McCammon novel Stinger.

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● Going Dutch (series premières Thursday, Jan. 2, on Fox)

Did you enjoy the latest dose of Denis Leary in Netflix’s comic real-estate thriller No Good Deed?

Or maybe you still recall the great thing that was his post-9/11 comic masterpiece, Rescue Me (2004-11), about a bunch of firefighters operatically toughing out their PTSD? (You can stream that classic on FX/CityTV+ via Prime Video.)

For something fresher, Leary is back with a new workplace comedy: Grumpy Col. Patrick Quinn (Leary) gets banished to the least important U.S. army base in the world.

It’s in the Netherlands and is “notable for its Michelin Star-commissary, top-notch bowling alley, lavender-infused laundry and the best (and only) fromagerie in the U.S. Armed Forces.”

Sounds lightweight, but Leary, plus the stalwart Danny Pudi (Community, Mythic Quest) place this solidly on the give-it-a-chance list.

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● Doc (series premières Tuesday, Jan. 7, on Fox); The Pitt (series premières two episodes Thursday, Jan. 9, on Crave)

Post-holiday Rx: Take two medical series and go to bed.

The first stars Canadian Molly Parker (Deadwood, House of Cards) as the chief of internal medicine who wakes up in her Minneapolis hospital with no memory of the previous eight years.

Eight years, it turns out, during which she had burned most of her life to the ground. F

luff the tissues for a prickly but hard-fought turnaround. Co-stars include Omar Metwally (Munich, The Affair), Scott Wolf (Party of Five, Nancy Drew) and Patrick Walker (Lessons in Chemistry, The Resident).

The second new medical drama is not a carbon copy of the Chicago-based ER (1994-2009), NOT, despite both being produced by John Wells and both starring Noah Wyle in a frenetic hospital setting.

Because The Pitt is set in Pittsburgh, you hear?

Wyle (The Librarians) is Dr. Michael (Robby) Robinavitch, the chief attendant in Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Hospital’s emergency room.

Come to think of it, ER was pretty good, so bring it on.

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● American Primeval (series premières with all six episodes on Thursday, Jan. 9, on Netflix)

This looks like it will be hard to watch.

Hard good? Hard bad?

From the narrative factory that is Peter Berg (Painkiller, Friday Night Lights) comes this tale of the American West in the year 1857 where, as the tagline reads, “no one survives alone.”

Especially not a woman alone, as Sara (Betty Gilpin of Mrs. Davis, GLOW) is finding out.

Leading her, for good or ill, is Isaac (Taylor Kitsch of Waco, True Detective). Complicating factors are warring Mormons, scapegoated Indigenous people and greedy land-grabbers.

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● On Call (series premières Thursday, Jan. 9, on Prime Video)

With another nod to ER, that series’ onetime Dr. Peter Benton, Eriq La Salle, stars in what the press material calls a new “visceral police drama” set in Long Beach, Calif. Full House veteran Lori Loughlin co-stars.

Both play senior cops.

The heart of the action is, of course, the initiation of the rookie, Alex Diaz, played by Brandon Larracuente of The Rookie, The Good Doctor, 13 Reasons Why.

His brittle but force-of-nature training officer is Traci Harmon, played by Troina Bellisario (Pretty Little Liars).

 

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