What to Watch This Week: January 21 to 26

From espionage in parallel dimensions to athletes with hidden talents, we round up our top 10 shows to watch this week

From espionage in parallel dimensions to athletes with hidden talents, we round up our top 10 shows to watch this week

1. Counterpart – Sunday, January 21, CraveTV | Series Premiere

Sci-fi and John le Carré’s spy novels normally aren’t dual inspirations for one project… but then, there’s Counterpart. Series creator and executive producer Justin Marks (writer of 2016’s The Jungle Book) has welded two genres together for the new drama, which airs on Starz in the U.S., but rolls out weekly on Canadian streaming service CraveTV. Whiplash Oscar winner J.K. Simmons stars as a rather ordinary bureaucrat—working in Berlin for the United Nations—who’s thrust into the extraordinary when he learns of a parallel dimension where his duplicate is a highly skilled espionage agent.

2. The Resident – Sunday, January 21, 7 p.m., Fox; 10 p.m., City | Series Premiere

Between old staples like Grey’s Anatomy and newer offerings like The Good Doctor, medical dramas aren’t exactly in short supply at the moment. The formula today is the same as it ever was: offer up a few compellingly novel cases of the week while populating the cast with charming doctors whose series-long character arcs we just can’t help but invest in. This new series has plenty of that, but also strives to offer some fresh takes on hospital power dynamics, the volatile psyches of people whose sense of self is tied up in their calling, and the fraught economics of medicine.

Our entry point to this world is Conrad Hawkins (The Good Wife‘s Matt Czuchry), a tough third-year resident who isn’t afraid to stand up to his bosses (including Bruce Greenwood’s surgeon-with-a-secret) and is on the path to brilliance, if only he can overcome his daunting past. He’s forced to confront some of those demons as he teaches his newest prote?ge?, Dr. Devon Pravesh (Manish Dayal), an idealistic Harvard grad with plenty of things to learn—and unlearn. Revenge‘s Emily VanCamp co-stars as Nurse Nic, who periodically flings it up with Conrad.

3. Absentia – Sunday, January 21, 6 p.m. & 9 p.m., Showcase | Series Premiere

When we first meet FBI agent Emily Byrne, played by Canada’s own Stana Katic (Castle), she’s trapped in a glass box that’s slowly filling with water. She’s been missing for six years and presumed dead after disappearing while chasing one of Boston’s most notorious serial killers.

Her husband, fellow FBI agent Nick Durand (Patrick Heusinger, Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce) has remarried and is raising their son with his new wife (Cara Theobold, Crazyhead). A phone call in the middle of the night by the supposed killer alerts him of Emily’s predicament, kicking off one humdinger of a paranoia-fuelled mystery. The 10-episode thriller Absentia premieres this weekend, and it’s clear we’re all about to take a ride we won’t soon forget as the emotional toll and trauma of both Emily’s disappearance and return leave everyone in a tailspin.

4. Mosaic – Monday, January 22 to Thursday, January 25, 7 p.m.; Friday, January 26, 7 p.m. & 7:52 p.m., HBO Canada

Academy Award winner and consummate cinematic experimenter Steven Soderbergh (Erin Brockovich) has been behind some memorable small-screen projects of late, including The Knick and most recently, Godless. Now, the famed producer and director is showing us yet another new look: a highly anticipated, interactive six-part event with a choose-your-own-narrative.

A 7.5-hour cut of this murder mystery will air on HBO in one-hour instalments Monday through Friday. Where the interactivity comes in is an app, also titled Mosaic, for iOS and Apple TV. Through that app, users can decide whether they want to follow one character’s story right to the end, or if they want to jump between characters to see how the action unfolds from multiple points of view. Creative? Most definitely. Confusing? Quite possibly, although you don’t have to worry because the HBO broadcast itself will be a linear story.

Having spent three years in development, costing $20 million to produce and already expected to return for at least two more seasons, the project has attracted an all-star ensemble, including Sharon Stone, Garrett Hedlund, Paul Reubens and Beau Bridges.

5. Drunk History – Tuesday, January 23, 7 p.m., Much | Season Premiere

U.S. cable network Comedy Central has, particularly in recent years, distinguished itself as a purveyor of intriguingly offbeat programming. But even amidst a lineup that’s included such edgy series as Key & Peele, Inside Amy Schumer and Broad City, Drunk History stands out for pure, unhinged originality. For the uninitiated, the show features co-creator Derek Waters sitting down with his funny famous friends, getting them plastered and having them recount a chapter of U.S. history. Their slurred, increasingly unreliable narration is then acted out by Hollywood A-listers. Season five debuts with an episode that sees Late Night writer Amber Ruffin recalling the founding of the Red Cross by battlefield nurse Clara Barton (Mandy Moore), surgeon James Dunn (Alexander Skarsga?rd) and Abraham Lincoln (30 Rock‘s Jack McBrayer); also, Criminal Minds‘ Paget Brewster gives us her take on the saga of Deborah Sampson (Westworld‘s Evan Rachel Wood), a war hero who disguised herself as a man to fight in the American Revolution.

6. The X Files – Wednesday, January 24, 8 p.m., CTV & Fox

If there’s one X-Files writer who can always be relied upon to pen an ingenious, hilarious episode, it’s Darin Morgan (i.e. last season’s “Were-Monster” adventure). He returns this week to give us a case that revolves around the Mandela Effect, “in which large groups of people remember an alternate history.” Meanwhile, Mulder and Scully inch closer to uncovering the true origin of the X-Files.

7. Vikings – Wednesday, January 23, 9 p.m. & Midnight, History | Season Finale

A very bloody season comes to a very bloody close, as the Norse forces brace for a decisive battle on their home court of Kattegat, a “sense of doom” hanging in the air. As the defeated army is sent fleeing, “a legendary warrior makes his way home.”

8. Top Chef – Thursday, January 25, 7 p.m. & 10 p.m., Food

Every long-running reality show needs to switch up the pace once in a while to keep its format semi-fresh, and so far this season it’s safe to say that the Colorado instalment of this aging culinary series has cooked up a winner. With Rocky Mountain-themed challenges (including one shot 10,000 feet above sea level) and ingredients (bull testicles, anyone?), local competitors and a new panel of rotating judges to look forward to (good to see you again, MasterChef‘s Graham Elliot), this has been one of the most fun and competitive seasons in recent memory. It’s about to get even more aggressive with this week’s anticipated Restaurant Wars episode, where the chefs concoct their own menus to truly display they’ve got what it takes to plate a winning lineup — a key hurdle on the road to being crowned Top Chef.

9. MVP: Most Valuable Performer – Thursday, January 25, 8 p.m., CBS

Viewers love NFL football, and they also love televised talent competitions — so how about a special that takes football players off the field, puts them on a stage and finds out about their hidden talents as a performer? Let’s assume that was the thinking that led to MVP: Most Valuable Performer, a one-hour interactive live special with the goal of finding the pro football player with the best off-field talent. The top finalists will be matched with celebrity mentors specializing in that particular talent, with the performances critiqued by a panel of celebrity judges before viewers vote online, with the winner revealed at the end of the show. L.L. Cool J (NCIS: Los Angeles) hosts.

10. One Day at a Time – Friday, January 26, Netflix | Season Premiere

One of the most pleasant TV surprises of 2017 was Norman Lear’s revival of One Day at a Time for Netflix, taking the series’ general premise—a single mom raising two daughters—and tweaking it in a number of ways to make it more relevant to the audiences of today. It’s a comedy that isn’t afraid to mirror reality, and doesn’t shy from bringing up issues such as race, gender and identity: Penelope Alvarez (Justina Machado) is an Army veteran, her ex-husband Victor (James Martinez), a fellow veteran, suffers from PTSD and her daughter Elena (Isabella Gomez) has just come out as a lesbian. Although the show’s creative team has been staying hush hush about what to expect in the new season, we can confirm at least one issue the writers will take aim at over these next 13 episodes: the Trump presidency.