Here’s what’s up in the world of TV for Sunday, January 1. All times are Eastern.
Top picks
The Mick (Fox, 8 p.m.): Congratulations everyone, we survived one of the most disheartening years in living memory, and it’s time for the clean slate of a new year. The first new television show to be entered into said year is The Mick, where human trainwreck Mickey (It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia’s Kaitlin Olson) relocates to wealthy Greenwich to become the unwilling guardian of her niece and nephews due to her sister’s criminal activities. Erik Adams took a look at the early episodes, and feels that while the show is somewhat unformed in the early going, there’s enough FX sensibility to the program that it smartly avoids the more heartwarming tropes of its premise:
If a pilot is a statement of purpose, then The Mick’s purpose is comic outrageousness, a gentler variation of the kind that Olson has stirred up for 11 seasons (and booked through a record-tying 14th) on It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia. (Mick creators John and Dave Chernin are co-executive producers on Sunny.) Seen elsewhere in the episode: light shoplifting, a heavily stained wedding dress, shattered objects aplenty, and drastic bodily harm visited upon the main character. It’s as if Uncle Buck (John Candy edition) stumbled out of Paddy’s Pub and into the Kardashian’s house.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine (Fox, 8:30 p.m.): Brooklyn Nine-Nine moves back to its old Sunday home for a two-part winter finale, as a prison van crash leads to a sea of escaped prisoners in the streets of Brooklyn and a competition between Jake and Amy on who can arrest the most convicts. The only witness to the event? Former Seattle Seahawks running back and “refuge of sublime quiet amid a meaningless cacophony” Marshawn Lynch. It remains to be seen if Lynch’s performance in her past fantasy football leagues (or in The League itself, come to think of it) will color LaToya Ferguson’s judgment of the episodes one way or the other.
Sherlock (PBS, 9 p.m.): Richard III died in the Battle Of Bosworth Field on last week’s installment of The Hollow Crown, but there’s no rest for Benedict Cumberbatch. Sherlock returns for its fourth (and possibly final) season tonight, a season where the trailers promise a reckoning for Sherlock and the reliably creepy presence of Toby Jones. Tonight’s premiere is called “The Six Thatchers,” a reference to “The Adventure Of The Six Napoleons.” We encourage Allison Shoemaker to inspect any Margaret Thatcher busts she may own for giant black pearls.