TV with Whisky chaser

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 11/01/2025 (645 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There’s wee bit of a quality lull over the next couple of weeks, but that’s OK because these five good bets are solid enough to tide you over.

Severance (Season 2 premières Friday, Jan. 17, on Apple TV+)

“What is this all about?” This is a line in the trailer for Season 2 of this dystopian thriller, but it is also a reasonable response to the sci-fi mystery’s storyline: the employees of Lumon Industries have agreed to have their memory severed, separating work and home consciousnesses.

Weird, sinister, not your average workplace template, but not surprising given it comes from the awkwardly big brain of Ben Stiller. Here he concerns himself with curious and concerned Lumon employees who eventually tear down the titular memory blockade.

As the action of Season 2 opens with the mutineers back on Lumon property, it looks set up to double down on what Season 1 was all about: a gripping and ripping queer-friendly ode to love, grief and devotion.

Joining the rock solid cast this year — including Adam Scott, Christopher Walken, John Turturro, Michael Chernus and Patricia Arquette — are Merritt Wever (Tiny Beautiful Things) and John Noble (Fringe).

 

The Couple Next Door (series premières Friday, Jan. 17, on Starz/Crave)

Moving into a new neighbourhood carries such great hope and potential reward, but also risk: will the people next door be wonderful or weird?

Fresh out of the moving truck, Evie (Eleanor Tomlinson of The Outlaws) and Pete (Alfred Enoch of How to Get Away with Murder) feel they’ve hit the jackpot with Danny (Outlander’s Sam Heughan) and Becka (Pennyworth’s Jessica De Gouw).

But what danger lurks in the deep dark suburbs? Quite a lot, it appears. Looks to be soapy and steamy, with occasional gunplay.

Which way to the hot tub?

 

Prime Target (series premières Wednesday, Jan. 22, on Apple TV+)

Beware mathematicians! But also: Mathematicians will save the world!

In this new thriller, it is not easy being Edward (One Day and White Lotus’s Leo Woodall), whose postgraduate work in prime numbers (!!!) could… fix the internet? Or, in other hands, allow unfettered access to every computer in the land!

Furthermore, can he trust the NSA agent investigating him (Quintessa Swindell of Black Adam, Master Gardener) and the other mathematicians?

Is the excess of punctuation communicating how thrilling this series might be? An official trailer was not to be found, encouraging more question marks, but Woodall’s appeal calls for at least a two-episode commitment.

 

Whiskey on the Rocks (miniseries premières Wednesday, Jan. 22, on Disney+)

With all the international territorial threats coming from south of our border, it might be the perfect time to laugh too loudly while watching a farce inspired by real events that, according to its trailer, put the world on the verge of a third world war.

In October 1981, a Soviet nuclear Whiskey-class submarine ran aground in Sweden’s restricted military space. In this version, this all started because Russian sailors can’t handle their drink.

Filmed in Sweden, this looks to have the dark nordic humour of, say, the Steven Van Zandt comedy Lilyhammer (Netflix) with a dash of slapstick flavoured by and bowing down to the Peter Sellers and Stanley Kubrick 1964 classic, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.

 

Star Trek: Section 31 (movie premières Friday, Jan. 24, on Paramount+)

Fans of the franchise will be glad to know that the great Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All at Once; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) is back as Emperor Philippa Georgiou, seen earlier in Star Trek: Discovery, and risen to great heights here as part of a secret Starfleet division tasked with protecting the United Federation of Planets.

Oh is that all? Well, she’ll also battle personal demons, of course.

For some, just the name Yeoh is enough to put this movie on the watch list. Also worth anticipating are Section 31’s brilliant locales and the costumes — Those shoes! Her nails! The hats! — that Yeoh and other characters swish around in.

There’s also the usual zeal to help at least some packet of civilization live to see another hopeful day.

 

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