Shows to watch in 2024, Fargo and The Curse recaps, and more from the week in TV

Right, we’re calling it: The world doesn’t need another tight eight-episode season of a series. And we especially don’t need another tighter-than-tight eight-episode season of a series that has, for reasons that remain utterly bewildering to everyone bar the producers and streaming platforms, been split into two volumes, released months apart. (We’re looking at you, and .) – Kayleigh Dray

Damn, January comes out swinging with its loaded TV content. After a somewhat lackluster December, this new year is immediately busy with a lot of highly anticipated shows. True Detective is back after five years, with none other than Jodie Foster leading the charge. Marvel kicks off 2024 with Echo. Ted makes its way to the small screen on Peacock. Mandy Patinkin gears up to play a detective. Ryan Murphy brings Feud back. Plus, there are other promising TV series led by Michelle Yeoh, Sofia Vergara, Nicole Kidman, and Ruth Wilson. To prep you for the month, here is The A.V. Club’s guide to the 17 major shows to watch out for, and a list of other TV returns. – Saloni Gajjar

Though the initiative was first launched to give solo spin-offs to Marvel heroes from the movies (the Scarlet Witch, Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes, Loki, and Hawkeye), Disney+’s MCU shows spent all of last year introducing whole new characters (Moon Knight, Ms. Marvel, and She-Hulk) in their very own bespoke spin-offs. Now we’re getting a fun combination of the two, with Alaqua Cox’s getting her after debuting in . – Sam Barsanti

It’s a new year, people, which means it’s high time to get excited about plenty of premiering (and returning) TV shows. The next 12 months promise some real bangers, from star-studded murder mysteries to buzzy book adaptations, from genre-bending comedies to the next chapters of and . If you’re looking for a snapshot of your TV year to be, The A.V. Club has you covered. We’ve compiled the shows we’re most excited to dig into, including the Jodie Foster-led fourth round of , the Angela Bassett-starring Zero Day, Alfonso Cuarón’s Disclaimer, or The Penguin with Colin Farrell. Happy viewing. – Saloni Gajjar

 was an early international success story for Netflix in 2017. The Spanish TV series, about Robin Hood-style bank robbers who become folk heroes in a war against out-of-control capitalism, originally aired season one in its home country. Netflix picked up the streaming rights, turning it into a global hit. They then dumped a ton of money into expanding its budget for two additional seasons. The series had a lot of iconic characters, including Álvaro Morte’s heist mastermind El Profesor and Alba Flores’ Nairobi (a.k.a La Puta Ama). The undeniable breakout, however, was Pedro Alonso’s Berlin—a professional jewel thief, unrepentant bastard, and legitimately problematic fan-favorite character. Now, he’s the star of , which premiered December 29 on Netflix. – Sam Barsanti

Michelle Yeoh has made a name for herself on the big screen, having become the first Asian to win the Academy Award for Best Actress in 2023. But in recent years, the Malaysian-born actor has ventured into television, intent on playing different kinds of characters across multiple episodes. After playing a Starfleet captain and ruthless emperor (), a green-eyed elf (), and the Chinese goddess of mercy (), Yeoh takes on her most down-to-earth TV role to date as an immigrant single mother in . – Max Gao

We are one episode away from the season-one finale of , and I keep having just one question on my mind. Who is Whitney Siegel, really? Or maybe the better question we should be asking ourselves is: Who is Whitney Rhodes?

“Well come on, then, you must have more ghoulish tales for us,” a man says to Detective Chief Inspector Daniel Hegarty (Peter Capaldi) in the opening scene of ’s drama , which . “I got a million,” growls Hegarty. Out of those million, the story Criminal Record is concerned with is straightforward on the surface: More than a decade previously, Hegarty arrested Errol Mathis (Tom Moutchi), who confessed to killing his partner Adelaide Burrows and is now serving a 24-year prison sentence. The ghoulish tale, though, isn’t so much the murder itself, but the way in which it was handled by Hegarty and his cronies, nicknamed the 62s, at the time.