Welcome back to Tune In: our weekly newsletter, offering a guide to the best of the week’s TV.
Each week, Variety’s TV team combs through the week’s TV schedule, selecting our picks of what to watch and when/how to watch it. This week, “The Good Wife” spinoff starts streaming, plus Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman bring their A-list star-power to the small screen.
“Doubt,” CBS, Wednesday, 10 p.m.
“Grey’s Anatomy” alum Katherine Heigl returns to broadcast TV, teaming up with “Orange Is The New Black” actress Laverne Cox, in this legal drama that delivers “frothy, silly fun,” according to Variety‘s critic Sonia Soraiya, who applauds Cox as the standout star. In her review, Soraiya quips: “’Doubt’ is what might happen if a Shonda Rhimes show got lost on the way to production and accidentally ended up at CBS.”
“Planet Earth II,” BBC America, Saturday, 9 p.m.
“Planet Earth” returns with new episodes for the first time in over a decade…that’s because the impressive nature docuseries takes that long to film. The second edition of the fan-favorite show shot for a whopping 2,089 days across 40 different countries to capture the stunning footage. The result? Must-see-TV, according to this reporter who’s screened three of the episodes.
“Billions,” Showtime, Sunday, 10 p.m. (CRITICS PICK)
“Billions” returns in entertaining form with Wall Street titan Bobby Axelrod (Damian Lewis) angrier than ever with U.S Attorney Chuck Rhoades’ (Paul Giamatti) efforts to take him down. As usual, Maggie Siff’s Wendy Rhoades is often the most fascinating person on the screen. Separated from Chuck, she negotiates a newly independent path between these powerful yet vulnerable men, whose mental calculations are often more transparent to Wendy than they think. Asia Kate Dillon is a fantastic addition to the cast as Taylor, a bright analyst who does not identify with either gender. The friendship that springs up between Bobby and Taylor is one of the most promising things about the second season of “Billions,” which ably builds on the pleasing strengths of the first.
“Big Little Lies,” HBO, Sunday, 9 p.m.
Reese Witherspoon. Nicole Kidman. Shailene Woodley. Need we say more? Aside from the star-power both on and off the screen — “Wild” helmer Jean-Marc Vallée is director — our critic calls this limited series “deeply satisfying” and describes the mystery as unfolding “like a delicate flower.” (Read Soraiya’s full review here.)
“The Good Fight,” Sunday, CBS All Access
After a series finale that disappointed many critics and fans, “The Good Wife” returns in new form: with a spinoff that revolves around Christine Baranski’s Diane Lockhart. The series is the first to debut on CBS’s streaming platform, CBS All Access, and Variety‘s Cynthia Littleton, who was at the show’s NYC premiere, reports that the screening was well-received by viewers of the original drama — in fact, when partygoers at the east coast event raved about Baranski’s performance, “Good Fight” co-creater Michelle King quipped, “We are so relieved.”
