There are scores of TV shows out there, with dozens of new episodes each week, not to mention everything you can find on Hulu Plus, Netflix streaming, and HBO Go. How’s a viewer to keep up? To help you sort through all that television has to offer, Flavorwire is compiling the five best bets for the coming week. This week, Marvel’s Jessica Jones spinoff Luke Cage hits Netflix, and Woody Allen’s Crisis in Six Scenes hits Amazon Prime. Plus, an ambitious new HBO drama attempts to fill the Game of Throne-sized hole in your heart. Happy watching, friends!
Today: Luke Cage
Marvel’s latest TV series may very well be its best — Netflix was stingy with the screeners on this one so I haven’t seen it yet, but all signs (and early reviews) point to awesome. Luke Cage — a spinoff of Netflix’s Jessica Jones — stars Mike Colter as Cage, a bulletproof fugitive rebuilding his life and kicking ass in Harlem. (Creator Cheo Hodari Coker sold the show as a Wire-like examination of the historic NYC neighborhood.) As Netflix and Marvel’s first show centered on a black superhero, Luke Cage boasts a majority black writing staff and a killer cast, including Alfre Woodard, Mahershala Ali, and Rosario Dawson. Composer Adrian Younge teamed up with A Tribe Called Quest’s Ali Shaheed Muhammad to score the show, which features performances from real artists like Faith Evans and Raphael Saadiq. Lots to look forward to. Enjoy the weekend!
Today: Crisis in Six Scenes
Woody Allen’s first original TV series arrives on Amazon Prime today, and it’s… not terrible? Crisis takes place in the late 1960s, where Sidney (Allen) and his wife, Kay (Elaine May) are living a cozy suburban life — until the radical young Lennie (Miley Cyrus), a family friend on the run from the “Constitutional Liberation Army,” crashes the party with her plea to shack up with the couple until she can leave the country. Read our film critic Jason Bailey’s review here, and check out all six episodes on Amazon Prime today.
Sunday: Westworld
HBO’s new hourlong drama is an adaptation of the 1973 Michael Crichton film of the same name. Westworld is set at an expansive amusement park meant to provide an immersive simulation of the Old West. Wealthy guests can visit the park and act out their wildest gun-slinging fantasies; the park’s “hosts” are extremely lifelike robots designed to cater to the guests’ whims, no matter how depraved. But the park’s engineers find themselves in trouble when some of the hosts seem to be developing independent consciousness. Westworld has a strong cast, including Evan Rachel Wood, Ed Harris, James Marsden, Anthony Hopkins, Jeffrey Wright, and Thandie Newton, and will definitely give you lots to think about. Check out the premiere this Sunday at 9 p.m. on HBO.
Tuesday: The Mindy Project Season 5
The back half of The Mindy Project‘s last season was extremely disappointing to this loyal Mindy viewer; after a promising setup in which Mindy (creator Mindy Kaling) began to realize that her relationship with her baby’s father, Danny (Chris Messina) might not be as healthy as she thought, the second half of Season 4 lost focus and fell apart. The season ended with Mindy and Danny hooking up in an elevator — even as, unbeknownst to Mindy, Danny was engaged to another woman. Oh, and Mindy’s co-worker Jody (Garret Dillahunt) surprised her by buying the apartment above hers, because that’s something that men who have a crush on their colleagues do. Sigh. Here’s hoping Season 5 rights this ship.
Tuesday: No Tomorrow
The poster for this new CW series is perhaps the whitest image I have ever encountered, and its appearance on subway platforms across the city has made it hard for me to take this show too seriously. But maybe that’s for the best: No Tomorrow is about an uptight blonde named Evie (Tori Anderson) who meets a hunky free spirit named Xavier (Joshua Sasse) who encourages her to live as if there’s — wait for it — no tomorrow. That concept might be a little more romantic if Xavier weren’t convinced of an upcoming apocalypse, but hey — you do you, Evie. No Tomorrow premieres Tuesday at 9 p.m. on the CW.