I’m sorry to say that the daily column this week will be spotty at best, or more likely missing altogether, as I’m embarking on a trip that will take me away from wifi or make it exorbitantly expensive.
I’ll post when I can, but won’t be back to full service TV updates until March 9.
In the meantime, let me point out some highlights in the interim:
- “Secrets and Lies” (ABC, Sunday, 9 p.m.). Like “The Slap,” this is an Americanized series that originated in Australia, about a suburban man who seems to be the main suspect in a boy’s murder. It’s the kind of story that is well told on cable, but here seems stifled by the casting to start, with Ryan Phillippe as the family man turned suspect and Juliette Lewis as a tart detective. File it in the good intentions file, as broadcast networks try to approach cable storytelling heights rather than just program the same procedurals over and over.
- “Battle Creek” (CBS, Sunday, 10 p.m.) has some pretty good bona finds, starting with a pilot script written by “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul” creator Vince Gilligan. The caveat its hat he wrote it a real long time ago and will have little to do with it going forward. It’s still a little different, with its mid-sized city setting and a cast that includes Dean Winters even if it still has Josh Duhamel.
- “The Good Witch” (Hallmark, Saturday, 8 p.m. ). They’ve made about eight different movies using Catherine Bell’s benevolent character, so it’s hardly a surprise they’ve cut it down into a regular series (even if they’re not doing it at Halloween). It ought to be vary popular with an audience already very familiar with how it goes.
- “CSI: Cyber” (CBS, Wednesday), is the fourth spinoff of “Crime Scene Investigation” and the first not tied to a city. Instead, it’s all about internet crime, which means they’ll do more than the usual looking at screens. The new series has James Van Der Beek but also a recent Oscar winner (and old hand at CBS procedurals), Patricia Arquette.
- “Broadchurch” (BBC America, Wednesday). Who’d guess there’d be a second season for the wonderfully self contained British miniseries (which was brought to American audiences on as Fox’s “Gracepoint.” There may be confusion between the two, not only because they shared the same story, but also the same star in David Tennant, back to his original brogue here in the original. What’s more to say? There’s a trial for season one’s murderer, using a couple of high powered women as lead attorneys, Charlotte Rampling and Marianne Jean-Baptiste. And there is that old case of the detective that comes back to haunt him. Care to catch up? Season one is streaming on Netflix.
- “American Crime” (ABC, Thursday) is the one midseason series that is really different. A bracingly different urban saga that touches on all manner of today’s multicultural minefields with a great cast, including Felicity Huffman, Timpthy Hutton, under direction by writer John Ridley (“12 Years a Slave”) that is so jarringly different that it seems even beyond cable flourishes to something closer to independent film. The pilot blew me away, and I have great hopes for where it will go.
- “Dig” (USA, Thursday). The new “DaVinci Code”-like thriller from Tim Kring had its own collisions with modern problems, when filming in Jerusalem had to be halted because of fighting in Gaza. It stars the always good Jason Isaacs with a cast that includes Anne Heche.