What's on TV this week—Curb Your Enthusiasm, Abbott Elementary, and Tokyo Vice return
Plus, Netflix rom-com One Day debuts, an adult-animated Valentine's Day special drops, and more
Welcome to What’s On, our weekly picks of must-watch shows. Here’s what you need to watch from Sunday, February 4 to Thursday, February 8. All times are Eastern. [Note: The weekend edition of What’s On drops on Fridays.]
The biggies
Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO, Sunday, 10 p.m.)
Curb Your Enthusiasm gears up for one last dance. Larry David’s long-running HBO comedy ends with its 10-episode 12th season, and we’re pretty, pretty, pretty sure spite will have something to do with whatever happens. David stars as a heightened version of himself, a neurotic, semi-retired TV writer and producer, and Cheryl Hines, J.B. Smoove, Jeff Garlin, and Susie Essman round out the cast. The A.V. Club will recap the show weekly.
Abbott Elementary (ABC, Wednesday, 9 p.m.)
Network TV is back—and by that, we mean sitcom Abbott Elementary is kicking off its third season (with an hourlong premiere, no less). Created by and starring Emmy winner Quinta Brunson, the mockumentary follows the teachers of a Philadelphia public elementary school and co-stars Janelle James, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Tyler James Williams, and Lisa Ann Walter. Look out for The A.V. Club’s coverage of the new season this week.
Tokyo Vice (Max, Thursday, 3:01 a.m.)
Based on Jake Adelstein’s book, the Michael Mann-EP’d Tokyo Vice is a slick, slow-burn crime thriller. Set in the late ’90s, the series chronicles a journalist (Ansel Elgort), who relocates to Tokyo and starts working with a veteran detective (Ken Watanabe) to cover the dangerous world of the yakuza. The cast also includes Rachel Keller, Rinko Kikuchi, Hideaki Itō, and Tomohisa Yamashita. Here’s a bit from The A.V. Club’s review:
Tokyo Vice returns with a more focused and flexible season, finding time for moments of connection and understanding between characters. There’s a familiarity between them, a comfortability that couldn’t exist in 2022 but is now the show’s greatest strength.
Hidden gems
Solar Opposites: An Earth-Shatteringly Romantic Valentine’s Day Special (Hulu, Monday, 12:01 a.m.)
The Valentine’s Day special episode of adult-animated series Solar Opposites wonders what the world would be like if love didn’t exist. In it, Korvo (Dan Stevens) is upset by the smitten couples around him and sets out to ruin the holiday—and accidentally spreads hate and war instead.
#Cybersleuths: The Idaho Murders (Paramount+, Tuesday, 3:01 a.m.)
The three-part docuseries #Cybersleuths examines how online detectives can potentially harm an ongoing case. It uses the horrific University of Idaho murders of 2022 as an example by exploring how TikTok turned everyone into a sudden expert on true crime, with amateurs trying to solve the case by interviewing family members, visiting the crime scene, digging up potential suspects, and upending innocent lives in the process.
One Day (Netflix, Thursday, 3:01 a.m.)
The rom-com series One Day follows Dexter (Leo Woodall) and Emma (Ambika Mod), who interact for the first time during their graduation and promise to keep meeting each other on the same day every year. Each episode finds them one year older as they navigate relationships, careers, and heartbreak. The A.V. Club’s review of the show publishes on Tuesday.
More good stuff
A Shop For Killers (Hulu, Wednesday, 12:01 a.m.)
The South Korean drama A Shop For Killers centers on Jeong Ji-an (Kim Hye-jun), who learns her uncle owns a mall after his suspicious death. Once she’s attacked by unidentified murderers who are after her uncle’s supplies, it leads her down a dark path of crime.
Halo (Paramount+, Thursday, 3:01 a.m.)
Halo returns with an eight-episode second season that welcomes new cast member Joseph Morgan. Based on the popular video game, the show is a 26th-century-set military sci-fi drama about a super-soldier dubbed Master Chief (Pablo Schreiber) and his fight against an alien invasion. The ensemble features Natasha McElhonne, Shabana Azmi, Yerin Ha, Charlie Murphy, and Jen Taylor.
They Called Him Mostly Harmless (Max, Thursday, 3:01 a.m.)
Based on a 2020 Wired article, true-crime docuseries They Called Him Mostly Harmless centers on an unidentified hiker whose emaciated body was found in the Florida wilderness. It would take two years, thousands of devoted internet detectives, and a miracle of science to identify him.
Can’t miss recaps
Saturday Night Live (NBC, 11:30 p.m.)
True Detective: Night Country (HBO, Sunday, 9 p.m.)
Arriving now
Below Deck (Bravo, Monday, 9 p.m., season 11 premiere)
The Conners (ABC, Wednesday, 8 p.m., season six premiere)
Not Dead Yet (ABC, Wednesday, 8:30 p.m., season two premiere)
Ending soon
Sort Of (Max, Thursday, 3:01 a.m., series finale)