Television Premieres and Notables: January 18-24, 2016

Monday, 1/18

War & Peace; A&E. 8 pm CST. Mini-series Premiere.
Tolstoy's classic story gets a four-part mini.


Tuesday, 1/19

Marvel's Agent Carter; ABC. 8 pm CST. 2nd Season Premiere.
Hayley Atwell's secret agent returns-- and relocates to California.
Cool.


Thursday, 1/21

DC's Legends of Tomorrow; The CW. 7 pm CST. Series Premiere.
So... I was pretty worried about this one when it was first announced, but it just keeps sounding better and better.
I should know better than to think these people are going to have a bomb with these properties; Arrow and Flash are home runs, and I have found CBS' Supergirl (created by the same group of people) to be a delight as well.
Rip Hunter pulls some "lost" and rookie heroes-- and a pair of villains-- together to travel through time to stop Vandal Savage at various points in the timestream.
Sounds a lot like the pre-New 52 Booster Gold comic, minus the Booster part-- and the addition of a team and Savage.
Rip enlists Ray Palmer, new at the super-hero game as Atom (but had Arrow as an inspiration), White Canary (who became a little less deceased on Arrow), The newly-formed Firestorm (first seen in Flash), the latest reincarnations of Hawkman and Hawkwoman, and Flash villains Captain Cold and Heatwave (played to perfection by Prison Break brothers Wentworth Miller and Dominic Purcell).
Both Arrow and Flash this season have done some of the world-building for this series, so they should be able to jump right in and have adventures.

Heroes Reborn (NBC; 7 pm CST). Season Finale.
But we all know it is really series finale...

The 100; The CW. 8 pm CST. Season Premiere.

Baskets; FX. 9 pm CST. Series Premiere.
Zach Galifianakis stars as a rodeo clown.

London Spy; BBC America. 9 pm CST. Series Premiere.

Portlandia; IFC. 9 pm CST. Season Premiere.

Dark Net; Showtime. 10 pm CST. Series Premiere.
A look into the more nefarious internet world we live in.


Friday, 1/22

Childrens Hospital; adult swim. 10 pm CST. Season Premiere.

Mad Dogs; Amazon Prime. Streaming. Series Premiere.
Sorry, I don't know anything about this one other than Shawn Ryan is the producer.

Saturday, 1/23

Black Sails; Starz. 8 pm CST. Season Premiere.

Beowulf; Esquire. 9 pm CST. Series Premiere.
The oldest written story gets the TV treatment in this 13-part series.

Chelsea Does; Netflix. Streaming. Series Premiere.
Chelsea Handler "investigates" such things as marriage, racism, and drugs.


Sunday, 1/24

The X-Files; Fox. 9 pm CST. Series Return.