An eclectic array of new shows for your watch list

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This article was published 08/03/2025 (235 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Drugs, robots, murder and crosswords sounds like a crazy weekend in the life of superstar comedian John Mulaney before he got sober, got married to Olivia Munn and became a dad. In fact, they are the bullet points to illustrate a solid lineup of best bet TV recommendations.

Everybody’s Live with John Mulaney

(weekly talk show premières Wednesday at 9 p.m. on Netflix)

This new live talk show is a continuation of the chaotic, stream-of-consciousness project Saturday Night Live writer/performer Mulaney began last year with comedy and celebrity interviews from Los Angeles.

I checked out a couple of episodes of John Mulaney Presents Everybody’s in L.A. because it included appearances by Richard Kind, Nate Bargatze, Patton Oswalt, Marcia Clark and helicopter reporter Zoey Tur.

It was interesting, but I didn’t last the whole week. That, however, was a trial run.

Hopefully this new iteration keeps the looseness that evokes David Letterman’s talk-show strength but tidies up the more absurd, big-brain insider jokes that can leave you cold even when you feel like you’re in on the joke.

This weekly series is set for at least 12 Wednesdays.

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Dope Thief

(series premières Friday on Apple TV+); and Long Bright River (miniseries premières Thursday on Crave app, Saturday, March 15 on Crave’s channel)

Drugs are bad. Don’t do drugs. But do consider these series that revolve around drugs.

Dope Thief, based on the book of the same name, puts a comic spin on some drug-war tension.

It stars Brian Tyree Henry (Atlanta, Bullet Train) and Wagner Moura (Narcos) as childhood friends whose criminal signature is posing as DEA agents to rip off drug dealers. But they do one job too many and end up, along with their family members, in the crosshairs of real cops and drug bosses. Looks as slick and tense as you’d expect a Ridley Scott project to look.

 

On a more harrowing note, Long Bright River stars Amanda Seyfried (The Dropout) as beat cop Mickey, who grew up alongside the now-sex workers whose murders she is investigating. Fellow cop Eddie (Ray Donovan’s Dash Mihok) wonders why Mickey is taking it all so personally. Adapted from the novel of the same name.

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The Electric State

(sci-fi movie premières Friday on Netflix)

Fast forward to a wary retro future where the robots tried and failed to take over the world.

The life of sad Michelle (Stranger Things/Enola’s Millie Bobby Brown) becomes more fun but also much more dangerous after she meets Cosmo (voiced by Resident Alien’s Alan Tudyk), a sweet robot who appears to be a messenger from her brilliant presumed-dead brother.

Off they go in hopes of finding little bro. Soon, they are joined by a smuggler (Chris Pratt, Guardians of the Galaxy) and his own bot, Herman (voiced by new Captain America Anthony Mackie).

A great list of co-stars includes Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All at Once), Seinfeld’s Jason Alexander, Breaking Bad’s Giancarlo Esposito, Conclave’s Stanley Tucci and Succession’s Brian Cox and Holly Hunter.

Directed by Stranger Things’ Anthony and Joe Russo and based on the graphic novel by Simon Stålenhag.

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The Residence

(series premières all eight episodes on Thursday, March 20, on Netflix)

“Mr. President, this house needs to be treated like a crime scene.”

Sadly, this is not a line spoken in a house where crimes against global trade and security are happening every day lately. On the plus side, it’s a line from the trailer of what looks like a brilliant new comic thriller.

Cordelia Cupp (Uzo Aduba of Orange Is the New Black, In Treatment) is the most brilliant detective in the world — take that Knives Out’s Benoit Blanc.

Speaking of which, this homage places that locked-room template atop the White House after a fatal state dinner.

The “screwball whodunit,” inspired by the book The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House, features a glittering cast, including Giancarlo Esposito, Ken Marino, Bronson Pinchot, Randall Park, Jane Curtin, Al Franken, Taran Killam, CNN’s Jake Tapper and even Kylie Minogue.

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Ludwig

(series premières with two episodes on Thursday, March 20, on BritBox)

This British crime procedural will separate the wheat from the chaff, and the use of this tweed old phrase is indeed intentional.

Calling all fans of David Mitchell, star of the absurdly, cringey-funny Peep Show (BritBox, Pluto TV), which is about misanthropic roommates. Gather, devotees of Would I Lie to You? (also on BritBox) and many other U.K. game shows employing his prodigious talents as writer/producer/actor. And finally, a shy nod of recognition to the reclusive crossword lovers who prefer newsprint and screens to actual people.

If those apply, prepare to meet a new hero.

In this new crime series (already readying a second season), the recluse John Taylor (Mitchell) could not be more opposite his identical twin brother, renowned Det. Chief Insp. James Taylor. But the latter has gone missing and so John is coaxed from the home in which he creates crosswords under the name Ludwig.

At the beseeching of James’ wife, Lucy (Anna Maxwell Martin, Line of Duty), John agrees to impersonate his brother to access his office and find an important notebook. But along the way, John-as-James is sucked into the one thing he loves more than his solitude: puzzles. More specifically, murder investigations, which he aces.

No mere procedural, this is also a clever character study that mashes the broad comedy of a technophobe hermit bumbling into a fast, noisy workplace with a nuanced investigation of family and self.

When John spots a message within a cryptic message his missing brother left for Lucy, it echoes a devastating letter from the twins’ childhood. Might that long-ago letter also have contained more than a cruel, cowardly farewell?

 

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