TV shows, new DVDs, movies and books you’ll want to check out this week!
(All times Eastern.)
MONDAY, Jan. 18
War & Peace
Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy’s epic tale of love, war and family comes to television in a four-week mini-series event starring Lily James, James Norton and Paul Dano, beginning tonight and airing on multiple A&E network platforms (Check times, A&E, Lifetime and History).
5 Things You Didn’t Know About Paul Dano
Ellen’s Design Challenge
TV daytime host Ellen DeGeneres returns to the night shift for the second season of her top-rated competition series, in which rivals sketch, design and build innovative pieces of furniture to try to avoid elimination (9 p.m., HGTV).
Peek Inside Ellen DeGeneres’ Home
TUESDAY, Jan. 19
Marvel’s Captain America: 75 Heroic Years
Take a look back at the iconic red-white-and-blue character, his fascinating history, wide-ranging influence on pop culture, and the many changes he’s undergone since his first appearance in a comic book in 1941 (8 p.m., ABC).
Like a Boss
Follow four hardworking and motivated office assistants as they look to emulate the success of their mentors (media mogul Nick Cannon, real estate agent Blair Myers, radio personality Big Tigger and music exec Abou “Bu” Thiam) in this new Atlanta-based reality series (9 p.m., Oxygen).
WEDNESDAY, Jan. 20
Law and Order: Special Victims Unit
A murky he-said/she-said date-rape case darkens the futures of two high-school students in this episode directed by series star Mariska Hargitay (10 p.m., NBC).
Mariska Hargitay: Law & Order: SVU ‘Made Me A Better Mother’
Kocktails With Khloé
Friends, family and surprise guests join the youngest Kardashian sister in this “non-traditional” talk-show setting—a kitchen, dining room and living spaces—for a lively dinner party, sparkling conversation and, of course, Kocktails (10 p.m., FYI).
THURSDAY, Jan. 21
Baskets
Poor Chip Baskets (Zach Galifianakis)—he wants so badly to be a French clown, but reality keeps crushing his dreams. Faced with financial difficulties and a language barrier he can’t surmount, he moves back home to Bakersfield and takes a gig as a rodeo clown (10 p.m., FX).
Zach Galifianakis: Not Going Just For Laughs
Recipe for Deception
What’s cooking is important, but so is what’s concealed in this new culinary competition series in which a chef’s ability to lie is an essential ingredient. A test of strategy based on the popular parlor game “Two Truths and a Lie,” competing chefs must successfully bluff each other from guessing their “mystery ingredient” (10 p.m., Bravo).
FRIDAY, Jan. 22
Truth and Power
Maggie Gyllenhaal hosts this powerful new half-hour docu-series that explores how ordinary people have gone to extraordinary lengths to reveal abuses of corporate power and examples of government overreach (10 p.m., Pivot).
Maggie Gyllenhaal: All Moms Do ‘The Best They Can’
Children’s Hospital
Season seven of the Emmy-winning satirical comedy series parodying the medical drama genre begins tonight. What’s it like to live in a world without tongue depressors? Why is that horse wanted by the Mob? With Lake Bell, Rob Corddry, Ken Marino, Megan Mullally and Henry Winkler (11 p.m., Adult Swim).
Lake Bell Talks In a World…, Gender Equality in Hollywood & Million Dollar Arm
SATURDAY, Jan. 23
Black Sails
Ahoy, matey! The third season of Starz hit pirate series sets sail tonight in the wake of the destruction of Charles Town and a world in fear of Captain Flint (Toby Stephens) and his campaign of terror. (9 p.m., Starz).
Is Black Sails Star Toby Stephens Related to Maggie Smith?
Saturday Night Live
Two first-timers make their debuts: UFC fighter and Olympic medalist Ronda Rousey steps into the SNL spotlight for the first time as host, and musical guest Selena Gomez makes her premiere appearance with tunes from her new album, Revival (11:30 p.m., NBC).
SUNDAY, Jan. 24
The X-Files
Agents Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) are back on the sci-fi-crime case to reboot the iconic TV series in the first of six all-new episodes, set nearly a decade after the characters went “dark” following the second X-Files movie in 2008 (10 p.m., or following the NFC Championship game, FOX)
What is David Duchovny Looking Forward to in X-Files Reboot?
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Two new official companion books from Penguin Random House’s DK publishing division take you inside the biggest box-office blockbuster in decades. Star Wars: The Force Awakens Visual Dictionary is the definitive visual guide to all the characters, droids, aliens, creatures and accessories of the movie. And Star Wars: The Force Awakens Incredible Cross Sections offers 12 full-color, geek-tastic detailed “cut-away” illustrations—and specs—of the weapons, spacecraft and other technology.
Think you know it all about Michael Jackson? Well, I daresay you’ll find out much, much more in Kit O’Toole’s Michael Jackson FAQ: All That’s Left to Know About the King of Pop (Backbeat Books), a jam-packed 445-page paperback compendium of the MJ legacy, from childhood through his lasting impact on pop culture and today’s stars.
NEW ON DVD & BLU-RAY
Academy Award winners Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway proved you can teach an old boss new tricks in The Intern (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment), in which a 70-year-old widower gets back “in the game” after discovering retirement isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
The sharp, witty and provocative coming-of-age comedy The Diary of a Teenage Girl (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment) features an acclaimed breakout performance by young Bel Powley with fine support from Kristen Wiig, Christopher Meloni and Alexander Skarsgärd.
Climb every mountain, as the song goes. But in Everest (Universal Pictures Home Entertainment), based on an actual 1996 summit expedition that took a tragic turn, climbers learn that some mountains, sometimes, don’t play that tune. An all-star cast (Jake Gyllenhaal, Jason Clarke, Josh Brolin, John Hawkes, Keira Knightley, Robin Wright, Emily Watson) give it their best.
The uplifting reboot of Hasbro’s 1980s TV series, Jem and the Holograms (Universal Pictures Home Entertainment), stars Aubrey Peeples (from TV’s Nashville) as a small-town girl with a secret life as a singing superstar. With Juliette Lewis and Molly Ringwald.
THIS WEEK AT THE MOVIES
In The Boy, an American nanny (Lauren Cohan, from TV’s The Walking Dead) takes a job with a British family and is shocked to discover to that their “boy” is actually a life-sized porcelain figurine that they treat as an actual child—until disturbing events in the big, ol’ house lead her to believe that the doll might really be alive. Creepy!
Chloë Grace Martinez, Nick Robinson, Maggie Siff, Leiv Schreiber and Maria Bello star in The 5th Wave, an apocalyptic sci-fi thriller intended to be the first in a new trilogy based on a young-adult novel by Rick Yancey.
Robert De Niro is a Dirty Grandpa indeed in this randy romp about a raunchy pawpaw who accompanies his grandson (Zac Efron) to Florida for spring break.
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