Lee Pace in an ’80s computer-programming drama, a Victorian horror mash-up, sex researchers, Jack Bauer, Louie , and female prisoners? Check, check, check, check, check, and check.
24: Live Another Day (Monday, May 5, at 8 p.m. on Fox)
Kiefer Sutherland's seemingly unkillable Jack Bauer is back as 24 returns this summer with 24: Live Another Day. The action moves from Los Angeles to London in this 12-episode limited-series event that finds Jack racing against the clock to thwart a terrorist attack. Expect explosions, Jack yelling (though it takes a full two hours to see Jack growl "damn it!" for the first time), whiplash-inducing plot twists, and some familiar faces, including Kim Raver and William Devane, as well as Mary Lynn Rajskub, whose Chloe seems to be emulating Lisbeth Salander here. Plus, Yvonne Strahovski (Dexter) joins the cast as a disgraced CIA agent; other additions include Gbenga Akinnagbe, Tate Donovan, and Benjamin Bratt. Your mileage will vary based on how much you enjoyed 24 the first time around; this newest iteration puts a British-accented spin on the formula, though Sutherland's Jack Bauer feels like a bit of a relic of a bygone era at this point.
Greg Williams/Fox
Louie (Monday, May 5, at 10 p.m. on FX)
After a seemingly interminable hiatus between seasons (seriously, it was last on in September 2012, a full 19 months ago), Louis C.K.'s mordantly charming comedy Louie returns for a sterling fourth season that finds the hapless comedian struggling with back pain, Jerry Seinfeld's wrath, and an encounter in the Hamptons with a model (Yvonne Strahovski again!) that seems to recall the (wrongly) maligned Girls episode where Hannah stumbles into the arms of Patrick Wilson's Joshua. In true Louie fashion, however, things go from awkwardly wonderful to strange to absurdly terrifying rather quickly. What follows is powerfully incisive comedy at its most wicked and witty, as Louie's fourth season proves more than worth the wait.
Frank Ockenfels/FX Networks
Penny Dreadful (Sunday, May 11, at 10 p.m. on Showtime)
I am not a horror fan, so the fact that I quickly found myself obsessed with John Logan's Penny Dreadful, a period mash-up of such familiar characters as Dr. Victor Frankenstein, Mina Murray, and Dorian Grey, speaks volumes about its savage spell. Featuring Josh Hartnett, Eva Green, Billie Piper, and Timothy Dalton, Penny Dreadful is a gory Victorian portmanteau, sliding between the sinister and the sizzling as it recasts characters from our collective nightmares. Addictive and nightmare-inducing, in the best possible way.
Jim Fiscus/SHOWTIME
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