From ringing in the new year with joy to bidding farewell to a cherished series — and happily welcoming back familiar favorites — this week’s TV Corner Notes is all about embracing change.
Happy New Year! I’m so glad you’re here for the first TV Corner Notes of the year. I love sharing what I’ve been watching and highlighting the best shows to watch in the upcoming week. This week, Landman ups the ante with a bold corporate gamble, Stranger Things bids farewell, and a bunch of returning favorites — including One Chicago, Grey’s Anatomy, Abbott Elementary, and The Hunting Party — show us how vibrant January TV is. Let’s get started!
Landman – “Handsome Touched Me”
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The pressure intensifies as Cami officially goes all-in on the offshore drilling plan, backing the dangerous 10% option despite strong objections from Tommy and Rebecca. With Gallino’s support, her decision locks M-Tex into a high-stakes gamble and signals a power shift Tommy can’t ignore. Cami’s resolve is fueled by a deeply unsettling personal encounter, making her refusal to “fold” as emotional as it is strategic.
At home, Tommy faces a more intimate crisis when he discovers T.L. has fallen due to his worsening health. His unconventional solution — hiring a questionable “physical therapist” — leads to one of the episode’s most surprisingly heartfelt moments, reinforcing the emotional core of their relationship.
Meanwhile, Angela and Ainsley take assisted living residents on a casino trip that spirals into equal parts chaos and empowerment, ending with Angela turning a $10,000 loan into a jaw-dropping $300,000 win — a game-changing moment for her independence.
“Handsome Touched Me” smartly balances corporate brinkmanship with intimate character beats, pushing multiple power dynamics into flux as the season finale approaches.
Rating: 8/10
Check out the full recap and review.
Stranger Things: Saying Goodbye to Hawkins
The series finale of Stranger Things, “The Rightside Up,” feels less like a final battle and more like a quiet reckoning with the end of childhood. While the episode delivers spectacle, its real power lies in its emotional restraint — and its willingness to let loss linger.
Rather than leaning on lore or one last monster fight, the finale centers on sacrifice, agency, and memory. Will confronts the darkness that’s followed him since season one, Eleven faces the cost of saving everyone else, and Joyce, Hopper, and the rest of the Hawkins crew step into lives forever shaped by what they survived.
The time jump allows the story to breathe, showing characters who aren’t “fixed,” but moving forward. Careers begin, relationships shift, and life continues. Passing the D&D torch to a new generation — and leaving Eleven’s future deliberately uncertain — reinforces the show’s core message: growing up means learning to live without all the answers.
“The Rightside Up” isn’t a perfect finale, but it is a thoughtful and emotionally honest one. Stranger Things ends not by promising everything will be okay, but by reminding us that the bonds forged in childhood, in fear and wonder, never really leave us.
Rating: 9.5/10
Check out my full recap and review.
Did the finale give you the closure you wanted, or were you hoping for a clearer goodbye?
The Copenhagen Test (Season 1)
This weekend, I got to check out the latest new series on Peacock, The Copenhagen Test, starring Simu Liu. Here are my short thoughts on the series.
What if your thoughts, senses, and memories were no longer private? That unsettling idea fuels The Copenhagen Test, Peacock’s sleek and paranoid sci-fi espionage thriller.
Simu Liu stars as Alexander Hale, an intelligence analyst who discovers that his brain has been hacked by experimental nanites, which broadcast his sensory experiences to an unknown enemy. When his agency offers him an impossible choice—shut down the hack and lose his career, or stay compromised as bait—Alexander is forced to perform normalcy while knowing he’s constantly being watched. That performance includes a fabricated romantic relationship with fellow operative Michelle (Melissa Barrera), blurring the line between manipulation and genuine connection.
Rather than relying on nonstop action, the series excels at psychological tension, asking uneasy questions about privacy, loyalty, and the ethical cost of national security. The season’s biggest twist—that the experiment was orchestrated by Alexander’s own mentor—reframes the story as a chilling study of control and trust.
Simu Liu delivers a quietly gripping performance, and Barrera brings emotional grounding to a high-concept premise. While some early episodes lean too heavily on flashbacks and technobabble, the back half sharpens into an addictive, unsettling watch.
Smart, stylish, and deeply paranoid, The Copenhagen Test is one of Peacock’s stronger original thrillers and leaves just enough unanswered to make a second season feel necessary.
Rating: 8/10
Check out my full recap and review.
The Copenhagen Test is streaming now on Peacock.
The Hunting Party (Season 1)
With The Hunting Party returning for Season 2 this week, now’s the perfect time to revisit NBC’s high-concept thriller. If The Blacklist met Criminal Minds, the result would look a lot like this fast-moving, conspiracy-heavy procedural.
The series opens with a mysterious explosion at “The Pit” (not the hospital), a secret underground prison holding serial killers the public believes are already dead. When the inmates escape, an off-the-books task force is assembled, led by profiler Rebecca “Bex” Henderson (Melissa Roxburgh), pulled out of professional exile and back into the darkest corners of criminal psychology.
While each episode tracks a different escaped killer, the bigger hook is the revelation that these prisoners were secretly being “reprogrammed,” making them even more dangerous. The season builds to an intense cliffhanger, revealing the breakout wasn’t an accident — but a calculated release tied to a shadowy government conspiracy.
Melissa Roxburgh anchors the series with a compelling performance, supported by strong ensemble chemistry. Though the show occasionally struggles to balance its case-of-the-week structure with its larger mythology, its slick production and propulsive pacing make it an easy binge.
The Hunting Party may not reinvent the procedural, but it delivers precisely what it promises: a dark, addictive thriller packed with “just one more episode” energy.
Rating: 7.5/10
Check out the full review.
The Hunting Party returns Thursday, Jan. 8 at 10/9c on NBC. Season 1 is streaming on Peacock.
What to Watch This Week
It's the start of a brand new year, bringing a mix of exciting new shows and beloved favorites this week.
Monday, Jan. 5
My Life is Murder Season 5 (Acorn TV)
8/7c Antiques Roadshow Season 30 (PBS)
8/7c Baking Championship: Next Gen (Food Network): Twelve teams of siblings aged 8-14 compete to win $25,000; Duff Goldman and Kardea Brown serve as hosts and judges.
8/7c St. Denis Medical (NBC) returns
9/8c The Wall Season 6 (NBC)
10/9c Brilliant Minds returns (NBC)
Tuesday, January 6
8/7c Finding Your Roots Season 12 (PBS)
8/7c Good Sports returns (Prime Video)
8/7c Moonshiners Season 15 (Discovery)
8/7c Will Trent Season 4 (ABC)
9/8c Doc returns (FOX)
9/8c High Potential returns (ABC)
10/9c The Rookie Season 8 (ABC)
Wednesday, January 7
The Ms. Pat Show Season 5 (BET+)
8/7c Chicago Med Returns (NBC)
8/7c Alaska State Troopers Season 9 (A&E)
8/7c Hollywood Squares Season 2 (CBS)
8/7c The Masked Singer Season 14 (FOX)
8/7c Shifting Gears returns (ABC)
8:30/7:30c Abbott Elementary returns (ABC)
9/8c Chicago Fire returns (NBC)
9/8c Sistas Season 10 (BET)
10/9c Chicago P.D. returns (NBC)
10/9c Harlan Coben's Final Twist (CBS): In each one-hour episode, Coben will guide audiences through gripping tales of murder, high-profile crimes, and life-altering surprises.
10/9c Shark Tank returns (ABC)
Thursday, January 8
The Game (BritBox): Jason Watkins stars as a retired detective who becomes convinced his new neighbor (Robson Green) is the stalker who once terrorized his town and got away with murder.
Girl Taken (Paramount+, six-episode binge): Based on Hollie Overton's novel "Baby Doll," the psychological thriller stars Alfie Allen as a teacher whose abduction of a teenage girl devastates a rural English town.
His & Hers (Netflix, six-episode binge): The limited series stars Tessa Thompson as a former news anchor pulled into a hometown murder investigation, where she clashes with a skeptical detective (Jon Bernthal).
8/7c Law & Order returns (NBC)
8/7c 9-1-1 returns (ABC)
9/8c Law & Order: SVU returns (NBC)
9/8c The Pitt Season 2 (HBO Max)
9/8c 9-1-1: Nashville returns (ABC)
9/8c The Traitors Season 4 (Peacock, three-episode premiere)
9/8c The Valley: Persian Style (Bravo): The spinoff follows a tight-knit group of Persian friends, including Bravo alums Reza Farahan, Golnesa Gharachedahi, and Mercedes Javid, who have traded Beverly Hills for suburban life in the Valley/
10/9c Grey's Anatomy returns
10/9c The Hunting Party Season 2 (NBC)
Friday, January 9
Coldwater (Paramount+ stateside debut): Andrew Lincoln stars as a stay-at-home father who relocated his family from London to a remote Scottish town after a violent incident sparks a personal crisis.
Tehran Season 3 (Apple TV)
8/7c Celebrity Wheel of Fortune returns (ABC)
People We Meet on Vacation (Netflix movie): Based on Emily Henry's novel, Poppy (Emily Bader) is a free spirit, and Alex (Tom Blyth) loves a plan, and after years of summer vacations, the longtime friends begin to wonder if they could be a perfect romantic match.
Saturday, January 10
Casualty returns (BritBox)
8/7c Ainslet McGregor Mysteries: A Case for the Watchmaker (Great American Family movie): Candace Cameron Bure returns as the amateur sleuth, who investigates a cold case tied to a rare antique watch after a murder resurfaces in her small hometown.
From exciting risks to touching farewells, this week’s TV shows us that truly great programs do more than just entertain — they stay with us. Here’s to another year of watching with curiosity, pondering deeply, and sharing our thoughts with each other.
Until next time,
Adam
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