What's on TV this week—1923, Emily In Paris, The Best Man: Final Chapters

Welcome to What’s On, our weekly picks of must-watch shows. Here’s what you need to watch from Sunday, December 18, to Thursday, December 22. All times are Eastern. [Note: The weekend edition of What’s On drops on Fridays.]

The biggies

1923 (Paramount+, Sunday, 3:01 a.m.)

Taylor Sheridan can’t stop (won’t stop) expanding his Yellowstone universe. The latest spinoff, 1923, features a star-studded cast led by Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren. They play married couple Jacob and Cara Dutton, who live on the family’s Montana ranch during tough times. 1923 will run for two seasons of eight episodes each. The cast also includes Sebastian Roché, Marley Shelton, James Badge Dale, Jerome Flynn, Brian Geraghty, and Timothy Dalton.

Is it even holiday week if we’re not hate-watching Emily In Paris? Darren Star’s glossy drama returns for a third season, in which Lily Collins’ Emily will undoubtedly navigate ridiculous shenanigans in the French capital, including a love triangle, a job crisis, and glorious fashion dilemmas. Ashley Park, Lucas Bravo, Camille Razat, and Lucien Laviscount also star. Keep an eye out for The A.V. Club’s review this week.

The cast of 1999’s The Best Man reunites after all these years to catch us up with their characters as they confront midlife crises in Malcolm D. Lee’s eight-episode comedy. The returning ensemble boasts Sanaa Lathan, Nia Long, Morris Chestnut, Regina Hall, Taye Diggs, Harold Perrineau, Terrence Howard, and Melissa de Sousa. The A.V. Club’s review goes up later this week.

Hidden gems

Big Bet (Hulu, Wednesday, 12:01 a.m.)

Written and directed by The Outlaws’ Kang Yoon-seong, Big Bet is a South Korean drama about Cha Moosik (Choi Min-sik) who, after many hard years, becomes a casino mogul in the Philippines—but lands in hot water when he gets caught up in a murder case.

Japanese sci-fi thriller Alice In Borderland (based on the manga of the same name) follows players who are forced to compete in dangerous games to make it out alive. The show, led by Kento Yamazaki and Tao Tsuchiya, returns for a second season after a two-year break.

Billie Piper and Lucy Prebble’s British series I Hate Suzie returns for a three-part second season. Piper plays actor Suzie Pickles, whose life is thrown into turmoil when her phone is hacked and compromising photographs of her are leaked. The show follows Suzie’s eight—decidedly not five—stages of grief. Daniel Ings and Nathaniel Martello-White co-star.

More good stuff

Mariah Carey: Merry Christmas To All (CBS, Tuesday, 8 p.m.)

The queen of Christmas, a.k.a. Mariah Carey, is back for a new holiday special that airs on CBS and streams on Paramount+. Catch her New York City gig, when the singer performs a selection of her biggest hits for two hours, including, yes, “All I Want for Christmas Is You.”

Jack Ryan stars John Krasinski, who doesn’t shoot the camera glances in this series but does do a lot of butt-kicking as a CIA analyst caught in the middle of political warfare. In this eight-episode third season, Krasinski is joined by Nina Hoss, Betty Gabriel, James Cosmo, and Wendell Pierce.

If there’s even the slightest chance you haven’t seen the movie of summer 2022, Top Gun: Maverick starts streaming on Paramount+ on December 22—just in time for some holiday family viewing. Tom Cruise reprises his role as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, and he’s joined by an ensemble that includes Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, and Glen Powell. Here’s a bit from The A.V. Club’s review:

Cruise commands the screen in a performance that leverages his multimillion-dollar star wattage to brighten the entire film.

Can’t miss recaps

Welcome To Chippendales (Hulu, Tuesday, 12:01 a.m.)

Willow (Disney+, Wednesday, 3:01 a.m.)

Mythic Quest (Apple TV+, Friday, 12:01 a.m.)

Slow Horses (Apple TV+, Friday, 12:01 a.m)

Ending soon

Step Up: High Water (Starz, Sunday, 9 p.m., season three finale)

American Dad! (TBS, Monday, 10 p.m., season 17 finale)

Sort Of (HBO Max, Thursday, 3:01 a.m., season two finale)

Branson (HBO, Thursday, 9 p.m., season one finale)