Premieres
Queen Sugar
Ava DuVernay made an Oscar-worthy splash with Selma and her next stop is television. Who’s going to say no when Oprah Winfrey comes a-courting? Created by DuVernay, Winfrey and Melissa Carter based on the book of the same name, Queen Sugar follows estranged sisters Nova (True Blood’s Rutina Wesley) and Charley (Dawn-Lyen Gardner) as they move to rural Louisiana to run the sugar plantation their father left them. Can these women’s complicated pasts be resolved so that they can find a future for the family business? We’re going to love finding out. OWN, Tuesday 6 September at 10pm EST
Atlanta
Most people see the rap industry on TV through Empire, which looks at the millionaires at the top of the game. Atlanta is the total opposite. Writer, director and star Donald Glover plays Earnest, a semi-employed Atlanta native who is struggling to get into the game and sees an opportunity when his cousin Paper Boi (Brian Tyree Henry) has a single that heats up the charts. But hip-hop is only the excuse for this funny and keenly observed portrait of what it’s like to be black in America. Whether or not you’re into rap, this very well might be your new favorite show. FX, Tuesday 6 September at 10pm EST
Quarry
Full disclosure, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Quarry creators Michael D Fuller and Graham Gordy several times and they are quite delightful. But so is their first series about a Vietnam vet (Logan Marshall-Green) who returns home from the war struggling with re-entry and a society that doesn’t know what to do with him. He ends up enmeshed in the criminal underworld of Memphis in the early 70s. It’s worth it just for the killer facial hair alone. Cinemax, Friday 9 September at 10pm EST.
New to streaming
StartUp
Free streaming platform Crackle has been expanding past Jerry Seinfeld’s Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee and trying their hand at original series. Their latest foray boasts an all-star cast featuring Adam Brody and Martin Freeman as a guy trying to get involved in a digital currency (think bitcoin) and the FBI agent who is hot on his trail when he winds up involved with some shady characters. Set in Miami, this isn’t about the tech industry in the same way that Halt and Catch Fire or Silicon Valley are, but a more conventional cat-and-mouse drama with a bit of hacking thrown in for extra spice. Crackle, 6 September.
One Mississippi
Standup comedian Tig Notaro rocked the comedy world with a legendary set about her breast cancer diagnosis. Now, with the help of co-creator Diablo Cody and executive producer Louis CK, she’s back to do it all over again with her first sitcom. Notaro plays a woman returning to her home town after her mother’s sudden death and trying to fit into a world that she doesn’t understand any more. This was one of the better pilots that Amazon showed fans and it received such high marks it was ordered to a full series. Count on this one to be a hit. Amazon Prime Video, Friday 9 September.
Catch up
Supergirl
It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s … a perky blond girl saving the day. The Man of Steel is one of the few DC Comics heroes not to be on the small screen these days, but his cousin sure is kicking ass. A modest hit for CBS last season, this show is moving to the CW in the fall to join Greg Berlanti’s other superhero smashes like The Flash, Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow. Now you can stream the whole first season when it hits Netflix on 9 September. While this caped crusader is great to watch, the real gem of the series is Calista Flockhart as her demanding boss. Maybe they should rename this The Devil Wears Spandex.
Around the web
Luke Cage Street Level Hero Music
When thinking about an upcoming series, people tend to focus on the plot, actors, directors and writers. But what about the music? This short featurette about the upcoming Netflix series featuring the Marvel Comics badass is all about what you can expect on the soundtrack. Music supervisors Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad talk about how hip-hop influenced the story of this hero in Harlem. They even get the stamp of approval from rappers like Method Man and A$AP Ferg. 30 September can’t come soon enough so that we can listen to – I mean watch – Luke Cage.
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