By Alyssa & DRWHO42
The winter season premieres continue to impress with a few more entries this week. Training Day and sitcoms Powerless, Santa Clarita Diet & Superior Donuts. While we’re generally not a huge fan of sitcoms (with the exception of The Big Bang Theory), this crop looks impressive. Superior Donuts, staring Judd Hirsch opposite newcomer Jermaine Fowler, is laugh out loud funny and a recommended watch. The zombie twist in Santa Clarita Diet, starting Drew Barrymore, is fun and worth a trying out. The NBC series, Powerless, seems cute and entertaining plus the inclusion of Alan Tudyk in the cast – need we say more?
The dramatic entry this week is CBS’s Training Day staring Bill Paxton has a feeling of being a bit edgier then normal cop shows. This is appealing with Paxton staring and based on the previews we are hoping for a bit more “in your face” than normal procedural cop series.
The premieres last week were a mixed bag, we encourage you give Riverdale a try, especially if you like other CW-type series. The other premiere, the reality show Hunted was a bit too much Cops & not enough smart Amazing Race contestants – we will pass on it. The Magicians returned in a big way as did the The CW’s Hero Line up of Arrow, Supergirl, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, and Supernatural.
This week brings back the highly anticipated SyFy series The Expanse. We wrote about the series last year as part of our TV spotlight “What I’m watching” – Click here to read. If you haven’t caught up with the series you can find season 1 is available on Netflix. We also have an excellent refresher (cliff notes of S1), just published for anyone who’s already watched the first season Click here to read.
Other notable returning show’s are Black Sails, launching for its final season, and The 100.
Lastly, we will say adieu to Conviction, Hell’s Kitchen, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, & Vikings which cap off their seasons this week. Gotham, Teen Wolf, and Lucifer take their winter breaks.
We’re announcing the winter & spring season premieres every Sunday so stay tune to our weekly posts for more details. What shows are you looking forward in 2017? If there are any series that excites you please join the conversation on the FoCC forum and let us know by clicking here.
DRWHO42’s picks:
New: Black Sails, The 100
On-going: Victoria, Emerald City, Sleepy Hollow, The Blacklist, Blindspot, The Big Bang Theory, Agents of SHIELD, Colony, Taboo, Timeless, Gotham, Supergirl, Quantico, Flash, Arrow
Binge / Stack: Hawaii 5-0, Westworld, Glitch, Incorporated, Elementary, Voltron, The Magicians
Alyssa’s picks:
New/Returning: The Expanse, Superior Donuts, Training Day, Powerless,
Watching live +3: Riverdale, Magicians, Face off, Vikings, Emerald City, Bones, Colony, Victoria, Timeless, Arrow & Legends of Tomorrow,
Still Stacked up: The 100, The Exorcist, Van Helsing, Z-nation, The Flash, Gotham, Blindspot, Supergirl, Shooter, Marvel AoS, Falling Water, Six, Incorporated, Taboo, The Frontier.
Notable geek shows are highlighted in red.
Sunday – January 29, 2017
7:00 pm
FOX FOX Special: The 65th Annual Miss Universe(r) Pageant (sp-1716) [3-hour Special Presentation]
8:00 pm
ESPN NFL Special: The 2017 Pro Bowl
TBS Special: 23rd Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards
9:00 pm
STARZ Black Sails [4th Season Premiere]
10:00 pm
SHOWTIME The Affair: Episode 10 [3rd Season Finale]
ABC Conviction: Past, Prologue & What’s To Come [1st Season Finale]
COMEDY Jeff Ross Presents Roast Battle: Live Finals [70-minute 2nd Season Finale]
Monday – January 30, 2017
8:00 pm
FOX Gotham: Mad City: The Gentle Art Of Making Enemies [3rd Season Winter Finale]
9:00 pm
CBS The Odd Couple: The God Couple [Special Time]
NGC The Story Of God With Morgan Freeman: Proof Of God [2nd Season Finale]
9:01 pm
FOX Lucifer: A Good Day To Die [2nd Season Winter Finale]
9:30 pm
CBS The Odd Couple: Conscious Odd Coupling [3rd Season Finale]
Tuesday – January 31, 2017
8:00 pm
CBS CBS Special: Super Bowl Greatest Commercials 2017 [1-hour Special Presentation]
9:00 pm
MTV Teen Wolf: Riders On The Storm [6th Season Winter Finale]
Wednesday – February 01, 2017
8:00 pm
FOX SHOWTIME At The Apollo [1-hour Special Presentation]
9:00 pm
CW The 100: Echoes [4th Season Premiere]
HISTORY Vikings: The Reckoning (#420) [4th Season Finale]
10:00 pm
SYFY The Expanse: Safe; Doors & Corners (#201/202) [Two-hour 2nd Season Premiere]
Thursday – February 02, 2017
8:00 pm
FOX Hell’s Kitchen: Leaving It On The Line (hk-1616) [16th Season Finale]
8:30 pm
NBC Powerless: Wayne Or Lose [Series Premiere]
Emily Locke (Vanessa Hudgens) lands her dream job as Director of Research and Development for Wayne Security in Charm City, home to super heroes and villains and citizens fed up with the collateral damage of their constant fighting. Full of confidence and big ideas, Emily quickly learns that her aspirations far exceed those of her new boss Batman’s cousin Van Wayne ( Alan Tudyk) and officemates, so it will be up to her to lead the team toward their full potential and the realization that you don’t need superpowers to be a hero. Click to read more Click for Trailer
CBS Superior Donuts: Pilot (#sd101) [Series Premiere – Special Night & Time]
Superior Donuts is a comedy about the owner of a small donut shop that’s located in a quickly gentrifying Chicago neighborhood. Arthur is a gruff, to the point Chicagoan who refuses to sell newfangled cronuts and macchiatos or renovate his dated shop that hasn’t changed since it opened in 1969. That all changes when enterprising go-getter Franco fast talks his way into Arthur’s life as his new (and only) employee, and convinces him that he can bring the shop – and Arthur – into the 21st century. Arthur’s supportive regulars include loyal patron Randy, a cop whose late father was Arthur’s best friend; her overeager rookie partner, James; Tush, a colorful customer who uses the shop counter as a makeshift office, where he keeps tabs on a variety of odd jobs via fax machine; Maya, a privileged grad-school student working on her Ph. D; and Sweatpants, Franco’s longtime friend who’s willing to dress as a donut to help drum up more business. Looking to cash in on the urban renewal is Arthur’s over-caffeinated neighbor, aspiring real estate capitalist Fawz, who pushes Arthur on a daily basis to sell the building to him. With his business in jeopardy, Arthur grudgingly realizes that he had better embrace the change around him and that Franco could be exactly what he – and the donut shop – need to thrive. Based on the play by Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning writer Tracy Letts. Click to read more Click to watch Trailer
10:00 pm
A&E Nightwatch: The End Is Just The Beginning ) [3rd Season Finale]
CBS Training Day: Apocalypse Now [Series Premiere]
Training Day is a crime thriller that begins 15 years after the events of the feature film, about a young, idealistic police officer (Justin Conrwell) who is tapped to go undercover in an elite squad of the LAPD where he partners with a morally ambiguous veteran detective. Detective Frank Rourke (Bill Paxton) is the maverick head of the Special Investigation Section (S.I.S.) that hunts the city’s most dangerous criminals, and one of the finest investigators the department has ever produced. However, when the LAPD brass notices Rourke’s penchant for operating in a gray area to fight the war on crime, they assign Kyle Craig (Justin Conrwell), a heroic, untarnished cop, to pose as Frank’s trainee to spy on him and report on his off-book methods. The members of Frank’s loyal team include Rebecca Lee (Katrina Law), a formidable officer with killer aim and a dark past, and Tommy Campbell (Drew Van Acker), a former pro surfer who follows Frank’s orders without hesitation. The team’s cases find Frank and Kyle often crossing paths with Detective Valeria Chavez (Christina Vidal), one of the LAPD’s top investigators. Providing Frank with intel is his girlfriend, Holly Butler (Julie Benz) , a well-connected, unapologetic Hollywood madam. While LAPD Deputy Chief Joy Lockhart (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) coolly puts Kyle in danger in her mission to take down Frank, Kyle’s schoolteacher wife, Alyse (Alexis “Lex Scott” Davis), worries her husband’s resolve to avenge the murder of his father, a cop, may be his undoing. As Frank starts teaching his principled trainee the way of the streets where the ends often justify the means, they form an uneasy alliance that will change the course of both their lives irrevocably. Click to read more Click to watch Trailer
Friday – February 03, 2017
3:01 am
AMAZON The Grand Tour: Episode 13 [1st Season Finale]
NETFLIX Santa Clarita Diet: Complete First Season [Series Premiere]
Santa Clarita Diet is an upcoming Netflix original comedy-horror series created by Victor Fresco, starring Drew Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant as a married couple, Sheila and Joel. They are real estate agents in Santa Clarita, California. When Sheila dies, their lives take a dark turn. Click to watch Trailer
9:00 pm
CW Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: Can Josh Take A Leap Of Faith? (#213) [2nd Season Finale]