What's on TV this week—True Detective: Night Country and the Emmy Awards

Welcome to What’s On, our weekly picks of must-watch shows. Here’s what you need to watch from Sunday, January 14 to Thursday, January 18. All times are Eastern. [Note: The weekend edition of What’s On drops on Fridays.]

The biggies

True Detective: Night Country (HBO, Sunday, 9 p.m.)

All it takes is a seemingly chilling thrilling True Detective season to bring Jodie Foster to the small screen. The iconic actor stars in and co-produces the HBO anthology’s fourth season, with Issa López taking over showrunner duties. The six-episode Night Country is set in Alaska, where Detective Liz Danvers (Foster) searches for eight men who vanished without a trace from an arctic research station. She teams up with a young officer, Evangeline Navarro (Keli Reis), and they often clash while confronting the dark secrets of their small, frosty town. Fiona Shaw, Finn Bennett, Isabella Star Lablanc, Aka Niviâna, Anna Lambe, Joel D. Montgrand, Christopher Eccleston, and John Hawkes co-star. The A.V. Club will recap the show weekly.

Awards season is in full swing. With the Golden Globes behind us, we’re now gearing up for the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards, hosted by Anthony Anderson. As a reminder, the show was pushed from September to January because of the Hollywood strikes last year, but the eligibility period remains the same (June 1, 2022, to May 31, 2023). So, yes, all those The Bear nominations are for season one still. Check out the full nominee list, including favorites like Succession, The White Lotus, Better Call Saul, Jury Duty, Ted Lasso, Beef, and Barry. Plus, consult our predictions on who will win and check back for our coverage on the big night.

Hidden gems

Monsieur Spade (AMC, Sunday, 9 p.m.:)

In the 1963-set neo-noir Monsieur Spade, detective Sam Spade (Clive Owen) is enjoying a quiet retirement in France—until his rival forces him to go back to his investigative ways. What’s more, six beloved nuns are murdered, and Sam is learning that it’s all connected to a child with potentially great powers. The six-episode show hails from Scott Frank (The Queen’s Gambit) and co-stars Denis Ménochet, Matthew Beard, Rebecca Root, and Cara Bossom. Here’s a bit from The A.V. Club’s review:

Owen is superb, even when his American accent occasionally falters. He can spit the rat-a-tat zingers Spade is famous for with confidence and menace; a lesser actor would sound ridiculous spouting tough-guy bon mots.

Mandy Patinkin does his best Poirot in Death And Other Details, a murder mystery inspired by the likes of Agatha Christie and Columbo. (Join the club, huh?) In the 10-episode season, Patinkin plays detective Rufus Cotesworth, who is traveling on a cruise when a deadly crime occurs. Cotesworth gets roped in to solve the case with an unexpected assist from Imogene Scott (Violett Beane), a young woman tied to one of his previously unsolved cases. The ensemble features Rahul Kohli, Lauren Patten, Linda Emond, Jayne Atkinson, Sofia Rosinsky, and David Marshall Grant. Here’s an excerpt from The A.V. Club’s review:

This story has multiple deaths and red herrings, an astute old detective, a tenacious young woman seeking the truth, deception, and revenge. The best part? The dastardly crimes take place on a lavish Mediterranean cruise, trapping the wealthy passengers so no amount of glamor and money can help them escape the past.

From The Tinder Swindler’s Felicity Morris and Bernadette Higgins comes a new docuseries American Nightmare. The three-parter digs into the March 2015 case of Denise Huskins, who was kidnapped in the middle of the night by a home invader. A national media frenzy ensued, andseveral theories emerged, including the similarities to Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl. However, here the truth is stranger than fiction.

More good stuff

The Critics Choice Awards (The CW, Sunday, 7 p.m.)

It’s not just Emmys week, people. The 29th annual Critic’s Choice Awards take place in L.A. on Sunday, with Chelsea Handler returning to host. Barbie, Oppenheimer, Poor Things, and Killers Of The Flower Moon top the film nominees, while on the TV side, the top spot weirdly goes to The Morning Show, with several nods for Succession, Abbott Elementary, The Bear, and Beef.

Wild Cards, the first original show on the the rebooted CW, is here. (And just in time: The network is in serious need of something fun in a post-Riverdale and –Arrowverse era.) The procedural follows water cop—yes, that’s right—Cole Ellis (Giacomo Giannoti) and con woman Max Mithcell (VanessaMorgan), who team up to solve cases. Jason Priestley and Andy Nez co-star. Here’s a bit from The A.V. Club’s review:

Wild Cards is not reinventing the wheel, nor is it even coming anywhere close to perfecting the wheel, at least in these first couple of episodes. But it’s hitting those old familiar beats that are enjoyable, even soothing, to watch, with very pleasant and likable characters at its core.

Host Jason Momoa travels across the country in the eight-part docuseries On The Roam with the goal of interacting with and learning about artists and craftsmen across different fields. Two episodes of the Max show drop each week.

Can’t miss recaps

Fargo (FX, Tuesday, 10 p.m., season five finale)

Arriving now

Chicago Med, Chicago Fire, Chicago P.D. (NBC, Wednesday, 8-11 p.m., season premieres)

Sort Of (Max, Thursday, 3:01 a.m., season three premiere)

Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU, Law & Order: Organized Crime (NBC, Thursday, 8-11 p.m., season premieres)

Ending soon

Found (NBC, Tuesday, 10 p.m., season one finale)