The Final Season of
Lost (ABC)
The beginning of the end has arrived. Devoted fans are already mourning the demise of this intelligent and gripping immersive drama as
Lost begins its sixth and final season next month. While precious little has been revealed about Season 6, executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse have said that
Lost’s final season will answer many of the series’ lingering mysteries and have promised that the show won’t end on a cliffhanger. (Whew.) Many theories have emerged about what happened after Juliet detonated the bomb on the island and everything faded to white at the end of last season—and it would seem to involve long-dead characters seemingly springing back to life, possible space-time paradoxes, and perhaps, a certain crucial Oceanic Airlines flight between Sydney and Los Angeles. Prepare to say goodbye to the show’s signature mix of grimly determined castaways, daddy issues, and that accursed island. (Launches February 2 at 9 p.m.)
High-Profile Guest Stars on
30 Rock and
Parks and Recreation (NBC)
NBC’s Thursday night comedies return with new episodes as quite a few familiar faces turn up over the next few weeks. Julianne Moore will reprise her role as Nancy Donovan on
30 Rock as her flirtation with Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) intensifies. But don’t think that the redheaded Oscar-nominee will stick around for too long: Elizabeth Banks is on deck for a multiple-episode story arc as a Sean Hannity-esque CNBC host whom Jack falls for. Coming off of his
General Hospital stint, James Franco will guest star as himself on
30 Rock when he becomes involved in a publicity-generating arranged relationship with Jane Krakowski’s Jenna. Over on
Parks & Recreation, Amy Poehler’s real-life husband, Will Arnett, drops by this week as an MRI technician on a date with Leslie (Poehler). (New episodes return January 14)
American Idol (Fox)
January brings the return of
American Idol to Fox. But some changes have been made to the competition-slaying show. While the tension is likely to be just as high as ever for the stars-in-their-eyes contestants, the behind-the-scenes drama has been just as intense. Paula Abdul is out as a judge and Ellen DeGeneres takes her place for the ninth cycle of the musical competition show. Will she click with audiences as the supremely loopy Abdul did? Will this be judge Simon Cowell’s final season? Will there be another divisive Adam Lambert/Kris Allen-type showdown? Find out, as they say, after the break. (Launches January 12 at 8 p.m.)
Monday Night British Comedy Lineup (Showtime)
Monday evenings, take a trip across the pond with Showtime’s new 90-minute block of British comedy programming that includes
Secret Diary of a Call Girl,
Tracey Ullman’s State of the Union, and new entry
La La Land. Billie Piper returns for a third season of sex and sarcasm on
Secret Diary with a storyline that finds Piper’s Hannah striking it rich with her autobiography and falling for her dishy editor (James D’Arcy), in between turning tricks, of course. Tracey Ullman pulls out yet another collection of convincing accents and fake noses to tackle an outsider’s view of America. And British comedian Marc Wootton plays three different men—a disgraced psychic, a wannabe actor, and a failed documentarian—in search of fame and fortune in Los Angeles in comedy
La La Land, which pits Wootton against unsuspecting real people on the streets. (Launches January 25 from 10-11:30 p.m.)
Temple Grandin (HBO)
Claire Danes gives a remarkable performance in a provocative biopic as Temple Grandin, an autistic woman who revolutionized the cattle industry in the United States. Tracing her life from that of a mute child whose condition was widely misunderstood to a dynamic livestock expert, autism advocate, and university professor, the film challenges the audience to perceive the world in a very different way: through Temple’s eyes, since we’re invited to think in pictures as Grandin does. Bonding with the cows at the ranch of her loving aunt (Catherine O’Hara) as a wild teenager, Temple finds herself connecting with the animals on a primal level and sets out to improve their lot and her own, viewing every obstacle as a door that will open to new opportunities. Powerfully moving and inspirational,
Temple Grandin, both the film and the woman herself, will remain with you long after the credits have rolled. (Airs February 6 at 8 p.m.)
24 (Fox)
He just can’t get a break. Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) must once again save the country as he’s reluctantly called back into duty in Day Eight of
24. Here, he attempts to avert the assassination of a moderate Islamic leader (Anil Kapoor) amid a delicate peace process with the U.S. and the machinations of some cutthroat Russian baddies. Katee Sackhoff, Freddie Prinze Jr., and Mykelti Williamson assume control of CTU this season (it’s a boutique hotel-like subterranean spot in NYC); Mary Lynn Rasjkub, Cherry Jones, Bob Gunton, Elisha Cuthbert, and Annie Wersching are back, some bruised more than others. And Jack Bauer does what he does best: kick ass and take names. (Launches January 17 at 8 p.m.)
Caprica (Syfy)
Battlestar Galactica might have ended last year but the story of why the human race’s civilization fell will be told in prequel spinoff
Caprica. Starring Eric Stoltz, Paula Malcomson, Esai Morales, and Polly Walker,
Caprica tells the story of a grief-stricken scientist (Stoltz) who—reeling from the loss of his brilliant teenage daughter (Alessandra Toressani)—inadvertently creates the Cylon race, his doctor wife (Malcomson) who discovers she didn’t know her daughter at all, a corrupt lawyer (Morales) with ties to organized crime, and a shadowy private school headmistress (Walker) who may not be what she seems. Together, their intertwined paths take them down a road of technological discovery, religious conflict, and an exploration of the nature of humanity itself. The birth of the Cylon race begins here with the death of a 16-year-old girl. (Read
our story about
Caprica, which launches January 22 at 8 p.m.)
The New Supporting Cast of
Damages (FX)
FX’s serpentine legal thriller
Damages returns with a third season that finds adversarial attorneys Patty Hewes (Glenn Close) and Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne) once more making some immoral decisions in pursuit of justice (or, in their case, acts of vengeance). Executive producers Glenn Kessler, Aaron Zelman, and Todd A. Kessler have managed to once again lure a phenomenal supporting cast. Campbell Scott and Martin Short join the cast of
Damages as regulars while Lily Tomlin, Sarah Wynter, Reiko Aylesworth, and Keith Carradine will recur throughout the season. The overarching plot will involve a prominent Manhattan family (Scott, Tomlin) who becomes enmeshed in a financial scheme involving billions (shades of Bernie Madoff, anyone?) as Patty is pitted against the family’s attorney (Short) and Ellen (Byrne) adjusts to her new life. Who knew that the legal profession could be so deadly? (Launches January 25 at 10 p.m.)
The Ricky Gervais Show (HBO)
Fusing together the looseness of Ricky Gervais’ Guinness Book of World Records-ranked podcast with a loopy hand-drawn style, HBO’s animated comedy
The Ricky Gervais Show finds Gervais and sidekicks Stephen Merchant and Karl Pilkington discussing everything under the sun including population control, philosophy, travel medication, round heads, and, oh yes, monkeys. The episodes, culled from audio footage of the podcast, typically feature Gervais and Merchant ganging up on the dim-witted Pilkington as they try to educate him about the world at large… and the show itself is being paired with the acid comedy of animated show
The Life and Times of Tim on Friday evenings. Given Gervais and Merchant’s track record (
The Office,
Extras), this offbeat comedy might just be a hit in the making. (Launches February 19 at 9 p.m.)
Justified (FX)
FX is also heading West, metaphorically speaking, with its new drama series
Justified. Timothy Olyphant (Deadwood) takes on the role of a lawman in the vein of classic Westerns, a man who lives by the way of the gun and his own, distinct moral code. Based on a character created by Elmore Leonard,
Justified finds Olyphant’s U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens sent back to the Kentucky town where he grew up after a well-publicized shooting of a suspect. He discovers that old wounds—both professional and romantic—can’t be forgotten, regardless of whether you wear a badge or not. The result is an understated and gritty drama about a man as potentially dangerous as those he’s sent to track down. (Launches March TBA)
Masterpiece Classic (PBS)
Travel back in time with the new season of
Masterpiece—hosted by Laura Linney—which gets underway this month with
Return to Cranford, the sequel to the Emmy-nominated 2008 drama
Cranford (based on Elizabeth Gaskell’s novel) with Dame Judi Dench and an all-star cast, and a new adaptation of
Emma starring Romola Garai, Jonny Lee Miller, and Michael Gambon. Tune in the end of February for a remake of WWI espionage tale
The 39 Steps, starring Rupert Penry-Jones (
Spooks); the return of Sean Bean’s dashing adventurer Richard Sharpe in
Sharpe’s Challenge and
Sharpe’s Peril; a grimly accurate retelling of
The Diary of Anne Frank; and an adaptation of Andrea Levy’s novel
Small Island, about Jamaicans and Londoners during World War II. (Launched January 10 at 9 p.m. Check local listings for details)
The Pacific (HBO)
A cast of dozens unites on screen for HBO’s 10-episode limited series
The Pacific, which tells the story of U.S. Marines fighting in the Pacific Theatre during World War II. Following up on the award-winning miniseries
Band of Brothers,
The Pacific is executive produced by Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, and Gary Goetzman and tells the story of three different Marines—played by James Badge Dale, Joe Mazzello, and John Basilone—as they move across the Pacific islands, battling the Japanese, and finally returning home at the end of the war. Gripping, heartbreaking, and eye-opening, it’s a testament to the strength and courage of the Marines and their stories, meticulously recreated and viscerally felt. (Launches March 14 at 9 p.m.)
Survivors (BBC America)
Imagine a world where a deadly virus wipes out 99 percent of the world’s population and the survivors of this flu pandemic must adjust to life without any of the modern conveniences we all take for granted. The premise is that of BBC America’s post-apocalyptic drama series
Survivors, a remake of the 1970s cult series (itself based on the novel by Terry Nation). As a group of strangers—a mother, a doctor, a playboy, a survivalist, a child, and a criminal—are thrown together, they attempt to forge a new civilization and find a way to survive together. But there are some major complications, not to mention the fact that not everyone who survived the modern-day plague has the same ideas about community or working together for the future. (Launches February 13 at 8 p.m.)
Human Target (Fox)
Mark Valley (
Fringe) is Christopher Chance, a man who is employed to become a literal human target, taking the place of a victim in the line of fire and shielding them from danger, often with his own body. (The series is based on a comic book character created by Len Wein and Carmine Infantino, the same source material for an aborted 1992 series starring Rick Springfield.) Aided by his sarcastic business partner Winston (Chi McBride) and unpredictable contractor Guerrero (Jackie Earle Haley), Chance takes personal protection to a whole new level, throwing himself in harm’s way without blinking an eye, even as he attempts to escape his own dark past. The result is an action series that feels like a throwback to 1980s adrenaline pieces such as
The A-Team and
Knight Rider. Whether it will prove to hit its target audience remains to be seen. (Launches January 17 at 8 p.m.)
Spartacus: Blood and Sand (Starz)
The retelling of the slave rebellion spearheaded by the indefatigable Spartacus (Andy Whitfield) is brought to life in glorious color… red, in particular. Drenched in blood and sex, this is not your father’s
Spartacus (or even
Rome) but rather a computer-assisted and 300-influenced spectacle where curtains of blood rain down after beheadings, public orgies are
de rigueur, and the savagery of the arena is matched by the bloodlust of the ruling class. Ultraviolent, the story tells of a Thracian warrior betrayed by the Romans, torn away from his wife, and forced into a life of slavery, where he must compete as a gladiator for the amusement of his captors. Lucy Lawless and John Hannah stand out amid a cast of mostly unknowns but the often brutal show isn’t for the faint of heart, even as it astonishes with its graphic depictions of life in the ancient Roman empire. (Launches January 22 at 9 p.m.)
