We’ve hit the midseason mark and with it comes a handful of series premieres worth getting excited about, along with the return of some of your favorite shows. Full speed ahead, after the break!
Tuesday, 1/7: Intelligence (CBS, 9PM) [Regular timeslot: Mondays @ 10PM starting 1/13]
Lost‘s Josh Holloway returns to TV in the CBS procedural Intelligence. In it he stars alongside Meghan Ory (Once Upon A Time) and Marg Helgenberger (CSI) as Gabriel Vaughn, a high-tech intelligence operative enhanced with a super-computer microchip in his brain. Though it was short-lived, the world knows Holloway can handle intense action sequences (see: MI: Ghost Protocol). As noted above, the pilot premieres on a special night and time, Tuesday, Jan. 7 at 9; the following week it will fall into its regular timeslot, Mondays at 10. Preview the new series here.
Friday, 1/10: Enlisted (FOX, 9:30PM)
Geoff Stults (The Finder), Chris Lowell (Private Practice), and Parker Young (Suburgatory) star as three brothers based on a small Florida Army post. This one promises to bring the funny and the heartfelt moments as shenanigans ensue and bonds are formed. Preview it here.
Sunday, 1/12: True Detective, Girls (HBO, 9PM & 10PM)
Movie stars Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey are Louisiana detectives revisiting a homicide case in a show that will rely heavily on bouncing between the present and the past to unravel the mysterious of the 17-year-old case. The official synopsis does it more justice:
In 2012, Louisiana State Police Detectives Rust Cohle and Martin Hart are brought in to revisit a homicide case they worked in 1995. As the inquiry unfolds in present day through separate interrogations, the two former detectives narrate the story of their investigation, reopening unhealed wounds, and drawing into question their supposed solving of a bizarre ritualistic murder in 1995. The timelines braid and converge in 2012 as each man is pulled back into a world they believed they’d left behind. In learning about each other and their killer, it becomes clear that darkness lives on both sides of the law.
True Detective is billed as a anthology series; like FX’s American Horror Story each season will subsequently have a beginning, middle, and end, with a new slate of characters and plotlines taking over each year. The 8-episode first season begins Sunday, Jan. 12 at 9PM. Watch a trailer here.
Following True Detective that same night at 10PM is the third season premiere of Lena Dunham’s Girls. Though season 2 wandered from the instant success that was season 1, fans of this oddly addicting show simply can’t drop it now. Preview the upcoming adventures of Hannah, Marnie, Shoshanna, and Jessa in these promos.
Wednesday, 1/15: Suburgatory (ABC, 8:30PM)
The warm-spirited and sometimes overwhelmingly funny ABC sitcom Suburgatory returns to the schedule with a shorter 13-episode third season. Chatswin and all of its bizarre crop of characters return, except of course for dim-witted neighbor Ryan Shay because Parker Young now stars in FOX’s Enlisted (see above).
Sunday, 1/19: The Following (FOX, approx. 10:30PM EST) [Regular timeslot: Mondays @ 9PM starting 1/20] / Sherlock (PBS, 10PM)
Joe Carroll continues to haunt Ryan Hardy from “the grave” in the season 2 premiere of The Following. I say “the grave” because it has not been officially confirmed that the Edgar Allen Poe-obsessed killer is dead and gone just yet. Kevin Williamson, the creator of The Vampire Diaries, stunned viewers last year with the riveting, pulse-pounding first season and fans are most certainly on pins and needles to see what happens in chapter 2 of this serial killer thriller. Brilliant director and series executive producer Marcos Siega helms the first episode titled “Resurrection” which premieres on a special night and time, Sunday, Jan. 19 following the NFC Championship Game; it resumes in its regular timeslot Mondays at 9 starting the very next day, Jan. 20. Preview season 2 with recaps, promos, and first looks.
The long-anticipated third series of Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss’ Sherlock finally premieres in the States. Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman reprise Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson, respectively, and viewers will finally know how Sherlock faked his death at the end of series 2 and under what circumstances the two reunite. You know the drill–three 90 minute installments will air across three consecutive Sundays: “The Empty Hearse” (January 19), “The Sign of Three” (January 26) and “His Last Vow” are this year’s titles. Watch a mini-episode that bridges the gap between series 2 and 3.
Wednesday, 1/22: Workaholics (Comedy Central, 10PM)
It’s almost time to head back to Rancho Cucamonga, California to witness Adam, Blake, and Ders commit serious acts of comedy inside and out of their TelAmeriCorp workplace. And don’t worry; we’ll be getting weird for at least another year after this since Comedy Central renewed the series for two additional seasons last January.
Thursday, 1/23: Rake (FOX, 9PM)
Greg Kinnear, another movie star, heads to TV land in the character-driven drama Rake. It’s easy to describe it as House in a courtroom but if you take a gander at this series preview that debuted back in May you’ll see that Kinnear carries his own kind of swagger and comedic oomph and he has the potential to distance himself from Hugh Laurie’s memorable role.
Brilliant, frustratingly charming and with zero filter, Keegan Deane is one of life’s great addicts. His staggering lack of discretion and inability to self-censor land him the cases that nobody else will touch, but behind that lies a resolute optimism and belief in justice that fuel his dogged determination to defend those who seem beyond redemption. He always tries to do the right thing, but at the same time struggles to save himself from the many self-destructive elements that plague his own life, such as his overindulgence of various excesses, including women and gambling.
Here’s to hoping Keegan Deane can break free from the Gregory House mold early on and catch viewers’ attention in new kinds of ways.
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