How ’bout these road apples? Hip doc to air

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/09/2024 (741 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

With the coming and going of this year’s Primetime Emmy Awards, which aired Sunday night, the fall TV season will be fully upon us.

Some productions are already all over old media and social media, such as the movie Wolfs, starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt as duelling fixers on the scene of a “high-profile crime.” That will come first to cinemas on Sept. 20, before hitting Apple TV+ on Sept. 27.

Then there is a handful of new series that look to be worth checking out for at least, but possibly not more than, one episode: Kathy Bates in a Murder She Wrote-ish remake of Matlock (Sept. 22 on Global, CBS); Zachary Quinto as a neuroscientist solving psychological mysteries in Brilliant Minds (Sept. 23 on NBC); and Joshua Jackson and Don Johnson in cruise-ship hospital drama Doctor Odyssey (Sept. 26 on CTV, ABC).

OK that last one, from Ryan Murphy, might be worth four episodes, but pace yourself. There are many more shows to attend to. Here are five more premièring over the next two weeks that look promising.

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● High Potential (series premières Tuesday, Sept. 17, on CTV, ABC)

I’ve had two cleaning ladies. The most recent was brilliant, everything gleaming and intact. The earlier edition gossiped, left streaks and piled up the pieces of the sculpture she broke as though I wouldn’t notice. (Which I didn’t for two weeks, but I digress.) The genius single-mom cleaning lady-turned-police consultant in this new crime procedural is a whole other animal. And she is played with acid disregard for authority by Kaitlin Olson (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia). Written by The Good Place’s Drew Goddard and co-starring Daniel Sunjata (Rescue Me), this is the show I am most anticipating.

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● Agatha All Along (series premières with two episodes on Wednesday, Sept. 18, on Disney+)

Although Kathryn Hahn is beyond compare (Tiny Beautiful Things, Glass Onion, Transparent), hers wasn’t my favourite character in the otherwise excellent Marvel series WandaVision. In this spinoff, bitter witch Agatha Harkness reluctantly takes up with a band of teenagers to run the “magical gauntlet” called Witches Road. One expects there to be more story and character than she got in the earlier series. Co-stars Patti LuPone, Aubrey Plaza and Joe Locke inspire hope.

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● The Penguin (series premières Thursday, Sept. 19, on HBO/Crave with new episodes Sundays starting Sept. 29)

We’d follow Colin Farrell anywhere, from the wayback Irish soap Ballykissangel through the powerful quiet of The Banshees of Inisherin and weird twists of the noir Sugar. And never mind that all the makeup used to transform our lad into Oswald Cobblepot, a.k.a. Oz Cobb, a.k.a. The Penguin makes him look like an overweight Justin Theroux. This “next chapter in the Batman Saga” is the origin story we’ve been waiting for: “The world ain’t set up for the honest man to succeed.” Preach, brother. Cristin Milioti (Palm Springs, How I Met Your Mother) looks perfectly terrifying as Sofia Falcone.

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● The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal (docuseries premières all four parts Thursday, Sept. 19, on Prime Video)

Yeah, we’re all crying already. After a warm reception at the world première earlier this month at the Toronto International Film Festival, this four-part documentary looks at 40 years of music and other drama from the Ontario band that became Canada’s band. It is all, of course, through the lens of the death of beloved frontman Gord Downie in October 2017, as directed by his brother, Mike Downie. Among the famous Canadians included are Will Arnett, Jay Baruchel, Dan Aykroyd, Bruce McCulloch, Sarah Harmer, Geddy Lee and Justin Trudeau.

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● Nobody Wants This (full season premières Thursday, Sept. 26, on Netflix)

I’m not sure what I’m most excited for: a romantic comedy that is not One Day, because I’ve watched that Netflix weepie so many times I can sob full scenes of dialogue, or a streaming series that arrives with all episodes all at once! It’s a dead heat. Here, Kristen Bell (The Good Place) and Adam Brody (The O.C.) play Joanne, the jaded agnostic podcaster, and Noah, an unconventional rabbi, as they fall reluctantly in love. Their friends and family do not get it. Their audience and congregation, respectively, do not get it. Even they do not get it. But — all together now — love prevails!

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