presented by

Week of January 17 – 23

This week is another biggie – we’ve got a new “Game of Thrones” series (“A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” on HBO), a terrific documentary on the creation of Disneyland (“Disneyland Handcrafted” on Disney+), an outrageous new Ryan Murphy series (“The Beauty” on Hulu) and a live event where a guy climbs a skyscraper like Tom Cruise (“Skyscraper Live” on Netflix). All that and the “Landman” season finale (on Paramount+). Like we said – a big week!

On with the television! 

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

Sunday, January 18 at 10 p.m., HBO

Source: HBO

“A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” the latest series set in the mythical land of Westeros, is unlike the two previous “Game of Thrones” series that came before it. For one, the new show (based on a series of slender novels by author George R.R. Martin), has a much more modest scale.

There are no dragons or large-scale battles. Instead, it’s a relatively intimate story of a squire named Dunk (Peter Claffey) who assumes the title of a hedge knight following the death of his mentor and dreams of competing in a jousting tournament. He’s assisted by “Egg” (Dexter Sol Ansell), an orphaned child who becomes his squire.

Another thing that sets it apart from other “Game of Thrones” series is that it is funny – like really, really funny. And the runtime of each episode is relatively brief; between 30 and 40 minutes, as opposed to the full-on hour.

Warmhearted, emotionally engaging and a huge amount of fun, “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” occasionally feels like a beloved fantasy RPG from the early Nintendo or Super Nintendo days – you walk around a muddy countryside, collect your party and eventually do battle.

It’s charming and nostalgic and will undoubtedly be one of the best shows you see all year – and it’s only January. How about that? [TRAILER]

Landman

Sunday, January 18, Paramount+

Source: Paramount+

This season of “Landman” (its second) has been gloriously outrageous, full of genuinely unhinged performances and hairpin narrative turns. (Remember the episode that opened with a bunch of hunters dropping dead?)

This might be Taylor Sheridan’s most compulsively watchable, dramatically rich series outside of the core “Yellowstone” franchise. And if you’ve never seen an episode, it’s not too late – Billy Bob Thornton plays Tommy Norris, a landman-turned-oil-executive who, this season, is dealing with his elevated position and the fallout from his boss’s death.

Additional complications this season included Tommy’s dad (Sam Elliott) moving in with the family and a cartel boss (Andy Garcia) who becomes an unlikely business partner. The finale keeps up the level of thrills, chills and surprises of the rest of the season and beautifully sets up season 3. May this series never run dry. [TRAILER]

Disneyland Handcrafted

Thursday, January 22, Disney+

Source: Disney

When filmmaker Leslie Iwerks was working on her Disney+ series “The Imagineering Story,” she came across footage of Disneyland – hours and hours from pre-opening and the opening day. Much of the footage had never been seen. And while she contemplated using the footage in the series, Disney management and archivists urged her to save it for something else, a movie all its own. “Disneyland Handcrafted” is that movie.

Iwerks took the approach of only using archival footage and vintage soundbites, which play over the footage. There are no cutaways to cheery talking heads or anything else, and the result is absolutely spellbinding.

“Disneyland Handcrafted” makes you appreciate the invention of a truly groundbreaking theme park, with Walt Disney and his team diving head-first into the unknown. It’s riveting, beautiful and strangely profound. You’ll appreciate it even more when you realize that all the sounds had to be created from scratch by the team at Skywalker Sound and colorized by the wizards at Industrial Light & Magic. Disneyland was a feat. So is this documentary. [TRAILER]

Mel Brooks: The 99-Year-Old Man!

Thursday, January 22 at 8 p.m., HBO

Source: HBO

This two-part documentary, airing across Thursday and Friday, “explores the life, career, friendships, and loves of legendary writer, director, producer, and performer, Mel Brooks,” according to the official synopsis.

Directed by Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio and anchored by Apatow’s candid conversations with Brooks and rare archival footage, the documentary “highlights how he turned personal pain, postwar trauma, and the absurdities of life into bold, hilarious satire that subverted norms and reshaped American comedy” via movies like “Young Frankenstein” and “Blazing Saddles” and Broadway productions like “The Producers.”

For film fans, comedy aficionados and people who love to giggle, “Mel Brooks: The 99-Year-Old Man!” will be a must-see event. [TRAILER]

Bugonia

Peacock

Source: Disney+

Yorgos Lanthimos’ latest team-up with frequent creative partner Emma Stone is an out-of-this world comedic thriller that will keep you guessing until the very end. In “Bugonia,” adapted from the South Korean cult classic “Save the Green Planet,” Stone plays a steely pharmaceutical CEO who is abducted by a pair of dim-witted conspiracy theorists (Jesse Plemons and Aidan Delbis), who are convinced that Stone’s character is an alien in disguise with nefarious plans for our planet.