Maybe a somewhat lacklustre selection of new television this week, with the only one definite chink of light in the gloom of mediocrity being the opportunity to see Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig romp across your TV. Beyond that we’ve got knock off versions of The Walking Dead and Orange is the New Black, and not one, but three detective shows.
Do you like The Walking Dead? Do you need more episodic, zombie-based entertainment? Ignoring for a moment that the answer to both of those questions should really be ‘no’, you may be interested in Z Nation, a new show premiering this week. The show follows a group of people travelling across zombie-infested America with hopes of finding a cure. The show has already gotten underway in the US, where it has done well enough to warrant a second season, so it could be alright, but don’t expect any kind of groundbreaking television. Z Nation’s first episode airs on Pick TV at 10pm on Tuesday night.
The first show to return to our TVs this week is Devious Maids, a spinoff of hit show Desperate Housewives. It follows the lives of four maids working in the homes of the richest and most prestigious families in Beverley Hills. Devious Maids sees the start of its third season broadcast on TLC at 10pm on Wednesday.
If you don’t get TLC, or the antics of a bunch of maids doesn’t interest you, you could always tune in instead to Channel Five (said no-one ever). If you do find your way over to the murky depths of the fifth terrestrial channel, you may stumble across the third season of Wentworth Prison. The show is set in an Australian Prison and follows a woman convicted of murdering her husband – so it’s basically a not-as-good Orange is the New Black. It is broadcast at 10pm on Wednesday.
The final Wednesday offering comes from Channel Four, in the form of new show Witnesses, a French crime drama that has received thunderous applause from critics and been snapped up by Netflix for its American audience. The show, which has drawn comparisons to The Bridge, may well be another excellent piece of television to be imported from the continent, when it premieres at 10pm.
Another entirely new show starts this week – comedy miniseries The Spoils Before Dying. Serving as a prequel to The Spoils of Babylon, the show, starring Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig, is a jazz noir spoof that tells the story of a pianist-turned-private eye as he investigates a murder in the 1950s. Given the success of last year’s original, and the stellar cast (including Michael Sheen in a recurring role), The Spoils Before Dying could well be fantastic. It airs on Fox (UK) at 10:30pm on Thursday.
The final show this week, Partners in Crime, is also a new series, and it’s also a detective show (will there ever be a week without one?). The six-part series is an adaptation of two Agatha Christie novels: The Secret Adversary, and N or M?, and stars David Walliams and Jessica Raine. The series begins its broadcast on BBC One at 10pm on Sunday.
