We're almost there, all of us. January – the most difficult month – is almost over. But first we have to watch a lot of TV.
And this week the new TV has many different flavors to offer: the fantastical charm of the new Masters of the Universe; the bloody glory of war in “Masters of the Air”; Lives that intersect in big (Expats) and surreal (The Bachelor) ways.
Sunday's episode 3 of True Detective: Night Country also takes center stage, following last episode's confusing cliffhanger. And to those of you watching the NFL playoff games this week, congratulations.
Here are this week's best TV premieres and finales:
New shows on Netflix
Masters of the Universe: Revolution
Genre: He-Man
Release date: January 25th, with five episodes
Showrunner/Creator: Kevin Smith
Pour: Chris Wood, Mark Hamill, Liam Cunningham and more
If you enjoyed Masters of the Universe: Revelation, Kevin Smith's final He-Man animated adaptation, you should look forward to Revolution, which follows on from its ending. Now Prince Adam, King Randor and Co. have to fight against the new version of Skeletor, who was recently infected with a kind of technovirus.
New shows on Hulu
The bachelor
Genre: “Romantic” “reality” show
Release date: January 22nd at 8pm EST, with one episode; January 23 on Hulu
Host: Jesse Palmer
Pour: Joey Graziadei and a lot of women who want to date him
The Bachelor is back with another single guy who's tired of looking for love in all the wrong places on The Bachelorette, where he came in second place in season 20. Now 28-year-old Joey Graziadei is the Bachelor and hopes to give his final rose to his true love.
New shows on Prime Video
Foreigners
Genre: theatre
Release date: January 26th, with two episodes
Showrunner/Creator: Lulu Wang
Pour: Nicole Kidman, Sarayu Blue, Ji-young Yoo and more
Lulu Wang, director of “The Farewell,” adapts Janice YK Lee’s novel “The Expatriates” – what a sentence! Set in Hong Kong in 2014, the six-part series follows a group of foreigners whose lives intersect after a tragedy.
New shows on Paramount Plus
Sexy beast
Genre: Prequel
Release date: January 25th, with an episode
Showrunner/Creator: Michael Caleo
Pour: James McArdle, Emun Elliott and more
This show is not the Netflix dating show of the same name where people dress up as animals to date each other (that's “Sexy Beasts”). Rather, this is the long-running prequel to Jonathan Glazer's 2000 crime film of the same name – “Sexy Beast”. The show focuses on the early relationship between Gal (James McArdle) and Don (Emun Elliott) in the 1990s.
New shows on Peacock
In the knowledge
Genre: Stop-motion comedy for adults
Release date: January 25th, with all consequences
Showrunner/Creator: Zach Woods, Mike Judge and Brandon Gardner
Pour: Zach Woods, Carl Tart, J. Smith Cameron and more
Co-written and starring Zach Woods, “In the Know” follows the trials and tribulations of creating NPR's third most popular show (also called “In the Know”). Not only will each episode showcase all the work that goes into creating a single episode of the talk show, but it will also feature an important celebrity guest (not in Claymation, like the rest of the show).
New shows on Apple TV Plus
Master of the air
Genre: Men at war
Release date: January 26th, with two episodes
Showrunner/Creator: John Shiban and John Orloff
Pour: Austin Butler, Callum Turner, Barry Keoghan and more
It's easy to write off a war story like this as “a time when men were men and women were happy about it.” But “Masters of the Air” – based on the 2007 book “Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany” by Donald L. Miller and companion to “Band of Brothers” and “The Pacific” – goes deeper than that, showcasing the challenges, pitfalls, victories and battles of the “Bloody Hundredth” Air Force Bomb Group.