Between streaming and cable, there is a seemingly endless variety of things to watch. Here is a selection of TV shows and specials that are available live or streaming this week, Jan. 27-Feb. 2. Details and times are subject to change.
A dream deferred
In a scene set in an immigration courthouse on the first season of “Mo,” the titular character, played by Mohammed Amer, sits between two strangers awaiting their respective hearings. One woman asks the other, “How did you get here?” “On the Mayflower,” the other responds dryly. It’s the kind of exchange that’s typical of the series, which tells the story of one Palestinian family’s life in Texas as they await a response to their asylum application. In “Mo,” humor serves as ballast for the uncertainty and vulnerability of the characters’ situation.
The stakes are high, as Amer is personally aware. The show cleaves closely to his experience with American bureaucracy and the 20 years it took to get asylum and U.S. citizenship after emigrating from Kuwait during the first gulf war. “To watch ‘Mo’ and meet Amer is to wonder where the artist and his creation diverge,” Chris Vognar wrote in his 2022 interview with Amer for The New York Times. The show will resume for a second season, where the ironies and absurdities of everyday life will be used as fodder for comedy as well as drama. Streaming Thursday on Netflix.
‘Not in Hollywood anymore’
This could be an unofficial tagline of Tom Green’s new series, “Tom Green Country,” which airs this week. The Ontario, Canada, native flew the coop to pursue comedy, and he became a mainstay of the stand-up world around the turn of the millennium, garnering his own show on MTV and an appearance as Drew Barrymore’s hapless paramour, Chad, in “Charlie’s Angels” (2000). (Green and Barrymore were briefly married offscreen as well.) Now, the prodigal son returns to Canada, where he has bought a huge property not far from where he grew up. Although Green may have left Hollywood behind, he has not forsaken showbiz as he commemorates this new era of his life in the form of reality TV. Tune in to watch Green’s trials and tribulations — and several cameos by his parents. Streaming Friday on Amazon Prime Video.
A 50-year anniversary
Ahead of the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon in April 1975, Apple TV+ is releasing the documentary series “Vietnam: The War That Changed America.” The filmmakers sifted through more than 1,000 hours of archival footage to create the six episodes, which are interspersed with the present-day reflections of people who lived through the events onscreen. The show promises extended interviews not only with American soldiers and war correspondents, but also with Vietnamese civilians and soldiers from the National Liberation Front who fought against the U.S. forces. Ethan Hawke, who assumed the reflective tones of a former military chaplain in Paul Schrader’s “First Reformed” (2017), now narrates the long and harrowing chronicle of America’s involvement in Southeast Asia. Streaming Friday on Apple TV+.
London calling
“Funny Woman” is a show based on the 2014 novel “Funny Girl” by the British writer Nick Hornby. Unlike other notable Hornby onscreen adaptations such as “High Fidelity” and “About a Boy,” which focus on the lives of mildly sleazy men, “Funny Woman” tells the story of Barbara Parker (Gemma Arterton), a beauty queen from the English port city of Blackpool. Over the course of the first season, Parker moves to London in the 1960s and sets her sights on breaking into comedy television. Arterton, replete with blond bouffant hair, chases her big break with her agent (Rupert Everett) in tow. The second season opens this week, offering period sets and mod outfits, as Parker continues to navigate a male-dominated industry and the changing social climate around her. Airing Sunday at 10 p.m. on PBS.
Cabincore
Never a dull moment with Maine’s content creators, whether it’s lobster fishermen showcasing their catch on social media, or “Maine Cabin Masters,” a reality TV show now in its 10th season. Every episode takes viewers to a different part of the state and a different fixer-upper, each of which presents a unique set of challenges. Watch their team combat wood rot and carpenter ants as they restore properties to their owners’ specifications. Pairing “Grateful Dead” T-shirts and lumber jackets, the cabin masters have a good-natured fun working together and ribbing each other in the broad vowels of a Maine accent. If you’re seeking escapism through rustic home renovation during the cold winter months, tune in for the vicarious satisfaction of home improvement projects brought to completion. Airing Monday at 9 p.m. on the Magnolia Network.
