January 2024 TV preview: True Detective, Echo, and 15 other big shows to watch

This co-production between Canadian network CBC and The CW is a lighthearted cops-and-robbers procedural with major rom-com vibes. In Wild Cards, Vanessa Morgan (Riverdale) stars as Max, a clever con artist who teams up with a disgraced police detective Cole Ellis (Grey’s Anatomy’s Giacomo Gianniotti) to help him solve his cases and keep herself out of jail. Canadian national treasure and Beverly Hills, 90210 veteran Jason Priestly is also on board as Max’s father, who taught her everything she knows about the art of the con. [Cindy White]

Created by Vivienne Medrano, is an animated series that she launched back in 2019 with a pilot online. It gained popularity over the years, and now it’s a full-fledged TV show. It centers on the princess of Hell, Charlie Morningstar (Erika Henningsen), who opens up a Happy Hotel to rehabilitate the sinful residents so they can redeem themselves and go to Heaven. She gets help from her devoted girlfriend, Vaggie (Stephanie Beatriz). The voice cast features Jeremy Jordan, Amir Talai, Kimiko Glenn, and Christian Borle. [Saloni Gajjar]

British miniseries makes its way to the U.S. first on Paramount+ on January 19, and two days later on Showtime. The six-episode thriller is about Lorna Brady (Ruth Wilson), who suffers from PTSD after her infant was taken away from her. It manifests in the form of sleepwalking, and one fine night, she realizes there’s a dead woman in her house. Lorna’s world collides with Detective Colman (Daryl McCormack), who is investigating her for a different crime altogether. Color us intrigued. [Saloni Gajjar]

Sofia Vergara is synonymous with her character, Gloria Pritchett. Now, almost four years after it ended, she’s returning to TV with a totally different persona. She leads Netflix’s crime drama , playing Colombian drug lord Griselda Blanco, also dubbed the Godmother of Cocaine. The show charts how she rose to criminal notoriety, creating one of the biggest cartels in the underworld of Miami and orchestrating hundreds of deaths. Her co-stars include Alberto Guerra, Vanessa Ferlito, Karol G, Maximiliano Hernández, Martin Rodriguez, and Juliana Aidén Martinez. [Saloni Gajjar]

Co-created by Zach Woods and Mike Judge, is an animated series about Lauren Caspian (Woods), NPR’s third most popular host. The specificity of this detail is much appreciated, as is his official description: “A well-meaning, hypocritical nimrod.” The episodes follow the making of Lauren’s podcast wherein he collaborates with the NPR staff—everyone’s a puppet and a nimrod, by the way—to conduct in-depth interviews. [Saloni Gajjar]

Lulu Wang follows up on the fantastic with her first small-screen venture, , starring , Sarayu Blue, Brian Tee, Ji-young Yoo, Jack Huston, Flora Chan, and Will Or. A close-knit expatriate community in Hong Kong experiences grief, loss, love, and friendship in the six-part limited series. Margaret (Kidman) and Clarke (Tee) experience tragedy when their young son goes missing, fracturing her bond with her friend, Hilary (Blue), and the other people in their lives. [Saloni Gajjar]

Executive produced by Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, and Gary Goetzman, . This World War II drama takes its inspiration from Donald L. Miller’s book : America’s Bomber Boys Who Fought The Air War Against Nazi Germany, a lengthy title that lays out the premise of this nine-episode limited series pretty well. Austin Butler stars as Major Gale Cleven, one of several pilots of the Air Force’s 100th Bomb Group, nicknamed the “Bloody Hundredth” due to the many casualties it suffered in combat during the war. The cast includes Barry Keoghan, Ncuti Gatwa, and more British actors doing their best approximation of an American accent. Apple beat out HBO in a bidding war for the project and spent somewhere between $200 and $250 million to produce a feature-quality spectacle. [Cindy White]

It’s been nearly seven years since the last season of , which centered on Bette Davis and Joan Crawford filming Whatever Happened To Baby Jane? and its aftermath. The upcoming second season of the anthology series has its sights set on a topic just as campy with personalities just as big: Truman Capote and the “swans,” his circle of female socialites whom he counted as close friends. While Ryan Murphy—who created and executive produces the show—has been spread pretty thin as of late, there is reason to believe this season will be new ground. Besides the top-notch cast that includes Tom Hollander, Calista Flockhart, Demi Moore, Diane Lane, and many more, all eight episodes are to be directed by Gus van Sant. [Drew Gillis]