We know your DVR is already full of conflicts, but these underappreciated series are worth your attention.
12 Monkeys
Embarrassing confession: I have never seen the movie 12 Monkeys. I know, and I'm right on top of that, Rose, but in the interim, I'm loving Syfy's slightly skewed take on the 1995 film. James Cole (Aaron Stanford) time-travels from the year 2043, where he links up with virologist Cassandra Railly (Amanda Schull) to stop the release of a deadly plague by the mysterious Army of the Twelve Monkeys. Its wacky, high-concept madness would quickly fail on network TV, but is right at home on Syfy. Nevertheless, the series has been slipping in ratings, which is baffling — it's Syfy's sleekest, sharpest show in years. Admirably complex but compulsively watchable, 12 Monkeys is the kind of smart sci-fi that network television should be aspiring to. —Louis Peitzman
12 Monkeys airs Fridays at 9 p.m. on Syfy.
Syfy
Agent Carter
Marvel's Agent Carter is one of the rare adaptations of a comic book where a woman is the main character, and that woman's gender is relevant to her life, and that woman isn't sexualized at all. Carter is a superhero without superpowers — her crime-fighting skill set never veers very far from the believable, except when she satisfyingly incapacitates largeish groups of men. If that weren't enough, there's a hard-boiled vibe to the '40s-set show that is both over-the-top and charming. Come for the female hero, stay for the appealingly corny hijinks. —Ariane Lange
Agent Carter airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on ABC.
ABC
Being Mary Jane
Gabrielle Union effortlessly delivers the flawed Mary Jane Paul rather, well, flawlessly. This BET drama has a limited audience, as it's running on a specialty network, but it deserves a broader, more mainstream one too. The dialogue is scary-real, and though you'd think the situations that Mary Jane — a single, successful cable news anchor who is longing for love and a baby — finds herself in are ridiculous and far from reality, they're not. Some of Being Mary Jane's elements read as specific to the largely black audience that turns out to view it — family dynamics that center around socioeconomic issues, fear of success, and keeping your eye on the prize — but it really is designed for anyone who is striving to have it all in a world that's not quite designed for such. And hey, if you can stomach the dumb decisions that Scandal's Olivia Pope endures, surely you can give Mary Jane a shot. —Kelley L. Carter
Being Mary Jane airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. on BET.
BET
Episodes
What The Office was to corporate America and Veep is to politics, Episodes is to the entertainment industry. A biting, savvy satire of Hollywood and the people who populate it, the comedy, now in its fourth season, has become so much more than a platform for Matt LeBlanc to skewer his public, post-Friends persona. In the very capable hands of David Crane (who co-created Friends with Marta Kauffman) and Jeffrey Klarik, Episodes has become a true ensemble piece, boasting standout performances from Kathleen Rose Perkins and Tamsin Greig in particular. —Jarett Wieselman
Episodes airs Sundays at 10:30 p.m. on Showtime.
Showtime
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