January Midseason Shows Are Here—Here’s What You Should Be Watching




Underwire






The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore, starting Monday, is one of 10 new shows starting in January that you need to know about. Expand the gallery to see the full rundown. Comedy Central




The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore (Comedy Central)


Premiere:

Jan. 19


Living up to the legacy left behind by Stephen Colbert—not dead, merely going off to CBS—is a tall order, but Wilmore just might be up to it. Best known as a former


Daily Show

correspondent, Wilmore’s resume also includes co-creating


The Bernie Mac Show

, working on


The Office

and writing a book of essays called


I’d Rather We For Casinos: And Other Black Thoughts

. He’s unlikely to be the Second Coming of Colbert, but just could be the kinder, gentler late night host we’ve been waiting for.—Graeme McMillan




Verdict:

WATCH


Watch the Trailer

Comedy Central



Duplass brothers fans know not to expect Togetherness to be revolutionary, or visually stunning, or particularly profound. However, do expect the mumblecore vets' first television foray to perfect their signature steez. HBO




Togetherness (HBO)


Premiered:

Jan. 4


Duplass brothers fans know not to expect


Togetherness

to be revolutionary, or visually stunning, or particularly profound. However,


do

expect the mumblecore vets' first television foray to perfect their signature steez: hyper-milquetoast comedic perfection in a bunch of messy, middle-class, white thirty-somethings (including a blazingly good Amanda Peet) as they reckon with unpleasant complications of impending middle age, from dwindling marital passion to stalled careers to full-on existential breakdowns. (Also: Mary Steenburgen guest-stars as an irresistible, delightfully crunchy hippie.) —Devon Maloney




Verdict:

WATCH (at a leisurely pace)


Watch the Trailer

HBO



You already know the story on this one: part period drama, part Marvel spy show, Agent Carter takes all the good stuff from the lackluster Agents of SHIELD and sticks it in the 1940s, with Hayley Atwell clearly having the time of her life playing the underrated, hyper-capable hero. ABC




Agent Carter (ABC)


Premiered:

Jan. 5


You already know the story on this one: part period drama, part Marvel spy show,


Agent Carter

takes all the good stuff from the lackluster


Agents of SHIELD

and sticks it in the 1940s, with Hayley Atwell clearly having the time of her life playing the underrated, hyper-capable hero. Come for the hijinks, stay for the jazzy soundtrack and understated feminist underpinnings of the whole thing.—Graeme McMillan




Verdict:

WATCH


Watch the Trailer

ABC



According to the 20 Years Is Long Enough to Wait to Get Nostalgic Theory, we as a people can now get sentimental about the 1990s. Enter Hindsight, a VH1's present-day music-filled dramedy about a young woman who wakes up in 1995. VH1




Hindsight (VH1)


Premiered:

Jan. 7


According to the 20 Years Is Long Enough to Wait to Get Nostalgic Theory (that we just made up), we as a people are now firmly in the decade where we can get sentimental about the 1990s. Enter:


Hindsight

, a present-day music-filled dramedy about a young woman (Laura Ramsey) who wakes up in 1995. (To Ace of Base, no less.) She gets to reunite with her BFF and relive the days of flannel and clogs, but she also has to figure out what would happen if she had the chance to do it all over again. Want to relive the Clinton years, or maybe just see what the cast of


Friends

would’ve done had they ever met a millennial? This is your jam. (Dear VH1: Does this mean you could green-light


My So-Called Life: The Mid-30s Years

?) —Angela Watercutter




Verdict:

WATCH


Watch the Trailer

VH1



Lee Daniels' love of extra-ness is being put to extra good use on Fox's family drama Empire, his first television project. There’s dysfunction aplenty, and twice as much soap, but it’s the kind of self-aware soap that primetime sorely needs. Fox




Empire (Fox)


Premiered:

Jan. 7


On the big screen, Lee Daniels has already shown a willingness to engage brows both high (


The Butler

) and low (


The Paperboy

, which the NYT called “trash you can believe in”), but never abandoned his flair for melodrama. Now, that love of extra-ness is being put to extra good use on his first television project.


Empire

is nominally the portrait of a thug-turned-music-mogul (Terrance Howard) and his family---including his formidable ex-wife Cookie (Taraji P. Henson, having all kinds of fun), who’s back after 17 years in prison. There’s dysfunction aplenty, and twice as much soap, but it’s the kind of self-aware soap that primetime sorely needs. And judging from last week’s premiere numbers and this week’s even more surprising growth, audiences sorely need it too. This is better than watercooler television; it’s Twitter television. —Peter Rubin




Verdict:

WATCH


Watch the Trailer

Fox



Director Danny Boyle is an executive producer on Babylon, but that might be the least interesting thing about it. Set inside modern day Scotland Yard, the show focuses on the experience of a PR maven who’s gone across the pond to resuscitate British law enforcement’s moribund reputation. Sundance TV




Babylon (Sundance)


Premiered:

Jan. 8


Director Danny Boyle is an executive producer on


Babylon

, but that might be the least interesting thing about it. Set inside modern day Scotland Yard, the show focuses on the experience of PR maven Liz Garvey (more-amazing-all-the-time Brit Marling), who’s gone across the pond to resuscitate British state run law enforcement’s moribund reputation (Garvey worked at Instagram and blew up after giving a TED Talk—duh). Because it’s out of England, the humor is dark and at times just as heavy drama. Things get spooky timely when a Yard officer guns down a black teenager. You’ll swing rapidly back and forth between laughter and disgust, but somehow the tone always feels right.—Jordan Crucchiola




Verdict:

WATCH


Watch the Trailer

Sundance TV



There are a lot of moving parts in Syfy's miniseries version of 12 Monkeys—including a narrative that doesn’t necessarily flow in chronological order—that makes this a show that you might want to wait until the end of the first season and watch it in a one-r. Syfy




12 Monkeys (SyFy)


Premiered:

Jan. 16


Remaking the 1995 Bruce Willis movie (that was, itself, a remake of a 1962 short called


La Jetee

), the latest SyFy high concept drama throws a bunch of familiar faces (The hacker guy from the CW’s


Nikita

! Charlie from


Fringe

!) together to try and remake the time travel story into a long form conspiracy theory and viral drama. There’re a lot of moving parts here—including a narrative that doesn’t necessarily flow in chronological order—that makes this a show that you might want to wait until the end of the first season and watch it in a one-r.—Graeme McMillan




Verdict:

BINGE


Watch the Trailer

Syfy



Jay Baruchel, long one of the quieter members of the Judd Apatow Youth Choir, forced to navigate the minefield of dating on FXX's newest dark comedy. As Undeclared remember well, Baruchel excels at schlemiel, and with help from the underappreciated Eric Andre, could help this thing become a dark surprise along the lines of FX’s You’re the Worst. FXX




Man Seeking Woman (FXX)


Premiered:

Jan. 14


Winter Wednesdays have evolved into one of the best cable-comedy nights in recent memory, with


It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia

,


Broad City

, and


Workaholics

all popping up in the 10-11pm slot. Joining them as of this week is FXX’s newest original series, adapted from


SNL

writer Simon Rich’s short story collection


The Last Girlfriend on Earth

(not to be confused with Lord/Miller and Will Forte’s forthcoming Fox comedy


The Last Man on Earth

, which we’ll get to in March.) Jay Baruchel, long one of the quieter members of the Judd Apatow Youth Choir, stars as Rich’s stand-in, forced to navigate the minefield of dating when its figurative horrors become literal—a blind date with an actual troll! His ex-girlfriend dating actual Hitler! You get the idea. It sounds hackish, but as


Undeclared

remember well, Baruchel excels at schlemiel, and with help from the underappreciated Eric Andre, could help this thing become a dark surprise along the lines of FX’s


You’re the Worst

. —Peter Rubin




Verdict:

BINGE


Watch the Trailer

FXX



Hosted by comedian Ari Shaffer, who has the craziest salvia-trip story imaginable, Comedy Central's This is Not Happening is half standup, half The Moth-style raconteurfest: comics deviating from their usual material to go deep with longform storytelling. Comedy Central




This is Not Happening (Comedy Central)


Premiere:

Jan. 23


Comedy Central has plenty of experience turning web funny into TV funny (to wit:


Workaholics

and


Broad City

), but this is the first time the network has created a TV show from its own web series. Hosted by comedian Ari Shaffer, who has


the craziest salvia-trip story imaginable

,


TINH

is half standup, half The Moth-style raconteurfest: comics deviating from their usual material to go deep with longform storytelling. Like any storytelling program---or any standup night, really---it can be as indulgent as it is hilarious, but the lineup is stellar and the format is refreshing, so it’s well worth a shot (though you may want to check out the


original web version

first to see if it’s your speed). —Peter Rubin




Verdict:

WATCH (Well, DVR. It’s on after midnight!)


Watch the Trailer

Comedy Central



The Man in The High Castle is one of the Amazon pilots, and not a full series just yet. Nonetheless, this adaptation of the Philip K. Dick novel is worth checking out for the way it manages to make a world in which the Allies lost World War II (and America was split between German and Japanese forces) seem all too real, and all too chilling. Amazon Studios



The Man in The High Castle (Amazon.com)


Premiere: N/A

This one’s a bit of a cheat: it’s one of the Amazon pilots, and not a full series just yet. Nonetheless, this adaptation of the Philip K. Dick novel (by X-Files veteran Frank Spotnitz, with Ridley Scott onboard as executive producer) is worth checking out for the way it manages to make a world in which the Allies lost World War II (and America was split between German and Japanese forces) seem all too real, and all too chilling. If Amazon doesn’t pick this one up, some enterprising TV network (or Netflix) really should. —Graeme McMillan

Verdict: WATCH Amazon Studios






Remember when fall felt like a magical time full of infinite promise? You’d see commercials for all the new shows coming to the major networks, and you’d be giddy with anticipation? Well, now fall stinks. Seriously. Increasingly over the last decade, the shows that used to be known as “midseason replacements” have proven to be more imaginative, riskier, and often funnier than anything from the fall crop. This year, there are 10 new shows premiering in January alone (with more to come in February and March). Some have already aired, some are still to come, but in this age of instant retroactive catch-up, we wanted to commemorate the month’s midpoint by weighing in all the series. Are they must-watches? DVR wait-and-sees? Would you be better off pretending they didn’t exist? Could be! But get your season pass finger ready, because there are certainly some winners.





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