Muppets return, murder meets comedy and more

What’s old — careers, love, Muppets, childhood homes and friends — is new again in this new batch of viewing recommendations.

● Wonder Man

Series premières all eight episodes today on Disney+

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II plays Simon, a young actor trying to land his big break.

En route to trying out for the newest superhero movie, he meets Trevor (Ben Kingsley), who is hoping for a career revival. But a funny thing happens en route to their being considered by “legendary director Von Kovak” (Zlato Buric), who is himself straying from art house films in search of viral fame and relevance.

That funny thing could be the arrival of actual superpowers for one of our heroes… or maybe not.

Scampish and playful in tone, this satirical deconstruction of superhero culture comes from Destin Daniel Cretton (Shang-Chi) and Andrew Guest (Hawkeye, Brooklyn Nine-Nine) and is the newest entry in the Disney+’s own Marvel Cinematic Universe.

 

● Shrinking

Season 3 premières the first episode on Wednesday, Jan. 28, on Apple TV

This comedy about grief is doing what few other shows attempt, let alone master — acknowledging there is no solving grief, no achieving closure, only making room for it.

Hilarious, right? Cue the brilliantly calibrated laughter.

The whole gang returns, including Jason Segel as the grieving therapist, Harrison Ford as the therapist with Parkinson’s and Jessica Williams as the divorcee therapist, creator-writer Brett Goldstein as the “guilty” one, as well as the romantic interests played by Cobey Smulders, Wendie Malick and Damon Wayans Jr.

Guests include Michael J. Fox.

The new season moves beyond grief (Season 1) and forgiveness (Season 2) into all that comes next, including empty-nesting, new love and other forms of getting (re)started.

 

● The Muppet Show

Special premières Wednesday, Feb. 4, on ABC and Disney+

“It’s time to play the music!”

Ready for a little good chaos? A new “special event” from the house that Jim Henson built arrives at possibly the most needful time.

Kermit, Miss Piggy and the Muppet gang are back with the music, star power and vaudevillian style that have made the Muppet Show the template for humour that welcomes grown-ups and kids without compromise.

Sabrina Carpenter is the star du jour, joined by exec producer Seth Rogen in this one-off (so far).

 

● The ’Burbs

Series premières in Canada on Thursday, Feb. 12, on W Network, Stack TV

This adaptation of the 1989 film of the same name plucks the same chord that has appealed to more than a few via Netflix’s The Beast in Me, starring Claire Danes (Homeland) as a blocked writer who gets curious about her new neighbour, played by Matthew Rhys (The Americans). In The ’Burbs, Keke Palmer (Nope) stars in and exec produces a story about a family that reluctantly relocated to the husband’s childhood home. Cul de sacs are scary but the cast list is intriguing: Jack Whitehall (Jungle Cruise), Julia Duffy (Palm Royale), Paula Pell (Girls5eva), Mark Proksch (What We Do in the Shadows) and Kapil Talwakar (Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist).

 

● How to Get to Heaven from Belfast

Series premières all eight episodes Thursday, Feb. 12, on Netflix

If you’re on a giggly high from the elder punk rockers of BritBox’s Riot Women, you are primed for this slightly darker comedy.

Way back, four childhood friends became three grown friends after one ghosted them.

Twenty years on, an email puts the three on a path to face their mortality and solve a homicide.

It’s created and written by Derry Girls’ Lisa McGee and stars familiar British TV stalwarts Roisin Gallagher (Lazarus), Sinead Keenan (Unforgotten, Doctor Who) and Caoilfhionn Dunne (A Thousand Blows).

Think Apple TV’s Bad Sisters, only this is chosen family.

 

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