A light week coming up as far as television is concerned, with only four shows starting their broadcasts in the next seven days. That’s not to say that the shows we will get are necessarily awful. In fact two of them are the opposite, as Chris Pratt and the Victorian police return to our television screens (not at the same time, though that would be awesome).
Monday night kicks off with the return of Melissa and Joey, an American sitcom about local politician Mel and the man she hired to look after her niece and nephew, Joe (because apparently giving the main characters their full, eponymous names makes too much sense). This week’s episode will mark the beginning of the series’ fourth and final season when it is broadcast on E4 at 7:30.
Another show returning on Monday night is the acclaimed mockumentary-style sitcom Parks and Recreation, which, until recently, served as the stomping ground for everyone’s favourite down-to-earth, goofball celebrity, Chris Pratt (Guardians of the Galaxy, Jurassic World, just in case you haven’t been paying attention for the past year). Pratt is joined by a host of other big name actors, including Amy Poehler and Rob Lowe, portraying the goings on in a local government department. If you haven’t already seen the show during its original run in the US (and how could you have? It’s obviously impossible to watch an American show when you’re in Britain) it’s well worth a watch, though some catching up will be necessary, as the show is starting its fourth season when it airs on Dave at 8pm.
This week’s detective show (there’s always a detective show) is of the Victorian flavour. Ripper Street, which follows the police force in 1890s Whitechapel – Victorian Whitechapel as in Jack the Ripper, as in Ripper Street. The show stars Matthew MacFadyen (Spooks, Pride and Prejudice (2005)) and Jerome Flynn (Game of Thrones), and despite being cancelled due to low viewership figures, was revived by Amazon’s Instant Video service and scheduled for three new seasons. The series will air its third season on BBC One at 9pm on Friday.
It seems fitting that a new month would start with a new show. Unfortunately, all that August gets is Tut, a new show starting on Channel Five, which is hardly known for its quality programming. The show, which is Canadian-American made, is a miniseries based on the life of Tutankhamun, the young, ill-fated Egyptian Pharaoh. The show stars Ben Kingsley (Ghandi, Hugo), and the first of its three parts airs at 9pm on Saturday.
