News & Notes

Tonight, PBS has the Series Premiere of Mercy Street.

Over on cable, A&E has The 21st Annual Critics’ Choice Awards, Cooking Channel has the sixth season finale of Unique Sweets, E! has the second season finale of The Royals, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries has the TV movie premiere of Flower Shop Mystery: Mum’s the Word, Showtime has the series premiere of Billions, and TBS has the series premiere of Angie Tribeca.

To celebrate the Golden Globe win for Amazon‘s Mozart in the Jungle they are running a discount on new Prime membership sign-ups. Get it for $73 instead of the normal $99 dollars through 11:59pm PT today. That’s a great deal and you can watch Mozart, The Man in the High Castle and other of their originals along with a solid catalog of movies and other TV series. Plus, you get 2-day shipping on thousands of eligible items, which came in really handy for my Christmas shopping last month.

Prime Picks

Madam Secretary (CBS): New. Elizabeth finds unexpected resistance to a trade agreement she is on her way to Myanmar to sign.

The Good Wife (CBS): New. Alicia and Cary work together for a former client. Alicia is being threatened with being evicted from her apartment for running her firm out of it.

Billions (Showtime): Series Premiere. A U.S. Attorney goes after billionaire hedge-fund manager after a tip on his dealings comes in. Stars Damian Lewis (Homeland), Paul Giamatti (John Adams), Malin Akerman (Trophy Wife) and Maggie Siff (Sons of Anarchy). Plays twice and again later. I really liked the first episode. It’s basically a giant pissing match between two rich white dudes, but Giamatti and Lewis are having a lot of fun with it. It doesn’t take itself overly seriously, which seems the right tone to take with the material. It could go off the rails quickly, but I’m onboard to find out.

Solid Selections

The Simpsons (FOX): New. Sanjay’s son takes over the Kwik-E-Mart and makes some big changes. Bart is convinced to come out of prank retirement. Runs 30 minutes.

Angie Tribeca (TBS): Series Premiere. Spoof of police procedurals that stars Rashida Jones (Parks and Recreation) as Det. Angie Tribeca. In the first episode she is assigned a new partner, played by Hayes MacArthur (Perfect Couples), by her lieutenant, played by Jere Burns (Justified, Dear John), to investigate who is blackmailing the mayor. It also stars Deon Cole (black-ish) and Andree Vermeulen (DreamWorks Dragons: Race to the Edge). Runs 25 hours as all 10 episodes of the first season play tonight into late night and then replay multiple times through to tomorrow night. This is in the same vein as Police Squad!, the short-lived series that subsequently became The Naked Gun movies. I love this style of humor from movies like Airplane!, Top Secret and the aforementioned The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! from back when spoofs were actually good. So, I was really looking forward to Angie Tribeca after hearing about it, but was kind of disappointed. I just didn’t find it to be all that funny. I kept watching though and have seen the first seven episodes so far. There is some really good stuff in it and I really love Vermeulen as the coroner. But, overall it is just too much. Pretty much everything is supposed to be a joke or a sight gag and it just overwhelms the good stuff. The cast is fantastic, as it the guest cast they have lined up. Unfortunately, when everything is a joke, nothing is a joke. The show has been renewed past the first season and will begin showing weekly episodes starting Monday, January 25th. I’m hoping that they throttle back just a bit and let some of the jokes breathe going forward. Will you be checking out Angie Tribeca tonight or tomorrow or OnDemand or the TBS app or the TBS website?

Other Option

• The Royals (E!): Season Finale. The second season comes to an end. Plays again later two times.

Sports Notes

• CBS has men’s college basketball action today with Michigan State at Wisconsin and later the second NFL game today with the AFC Divisional Game with the Pittsburgh Steelers at the Denver Broncos.
• CBS Sports has doubleheader men’s college basketball action today with American at Army and UConn at Houston followed by doubleheader women’s action with St. Joseph’s at Fordham and Davidson at Virginia Commonwealth.
• ESPN2 has doubleheader women’s college basketball action today with Texas A&M at South Carolina and Baylor at Texas and later tonight has first round coverage of the Australian Open tennis tournament.
• ESPNU has doubleheader women’s college basketball action today with George Washington at Duquesne and East Carolina at South Florida followed by tripleheader men’s action with Southern Illinois at Drake, Virginia at Florida State and Oregon State at Utah.
• FOX has the first NFL game today with the NFC Divisional Game with the Seattle Seahawks at the Carolina Panthers. Go Hawks!
• FS1 has men’s college basketball action today with Creighton at DePaul.
• NBC Sports has men’s college basketball action today with George Mason at St. Louis.

Late Night

• Colony (USA Network): Repeat. This past Thursday’s series premiere episode, “Pilot,” replays.

Sunday TV Marathons

Angie Tribeca (TBS): All 10 episode play multiple times starting tonight and for the next 25 hours.
Blue Bloods (WGN America): Five episodes tonight.
CSI: Miami (WEtv): Seven episodes tonight.
The Golden Girls (TV Land): Has 15 episodes today.
Good Times (TV One): Has 10 episodes today.
In the Heat of the Night (WGN America): Five episodes early.
Law & Order (TNT): Has 10 episodes early.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (USA Network): Has 14 episodes.
Leverage (ION): Has 14 episodes.
Murder, She Wrote (Hallmark Movies & Mysteries): Five episodes early.
Roseanne (WEtv): Has 12 episodes today.