Ah February – the month known for marking the halfway point of winter, and romance. The deluge of new television premieres and debuts will certainly make it easier to use the tried and true “Netflix and chill” excuse to get the person of your affections to stay over. Below are thirteen of February’s top picks to snuggle up and watch with your beau:
“Altered Carbon”
Synopsis: In a future where humans can survive physical death by having their memories and consciousness “re-sleeved” into new bodies, the lone surviving soldier from a movement opposing resleevement is downloaded into a new body by an aristocrat, who was recently killed, and tasks him with finding who had him murdered.
What You Need To Know: Netflix is definitely looking for its TV version of “Blade Runner.” The concept of resleevement and eternal life via digitization is an intriguing narrative, but one will have to wait and see if the series will bring anything new to the sci-fi genre. At least Joel Kinnaman (“The Killing”) looks to be a competent action protagonist, with a pleasantly diverse cast including Renee Elise Goldsberry (“Hamilton”), James Purefoy (“Hap and Leonard”), Kristin Lehman (“Motive”), Martha Higareda (“Royal Pains”), Dichen Lachman (“Being Human”) and Leonardo Nam (“Westworld”).
Release Date: February 2nd
“Channel Zero: Butcher’s Block”
Synopsis: Two sisters move to a small town to start over and are drawn to a charismatic family living on the wrong side of the tracks.
What You Need To Know: Nick Antosca’s (“Hannibal”) terrifying Syfy horror anthology is back with yet another terrifying tale. Olivia Luccardi (“The Deuce”) and Holland Roden (“Teen Wolf”) star as sisters Alice and Zoe Woods starting over in a new town in order to better cope with Zoe’s schizophrenia. They meet Joseph Peach (Rutger Hauer), patriarch of a family living on the outskirts of town in the hellish Butcher’s Block district, who promises them a utopia without illness. However, the sisters soon learn there is a cost to their paradise. Good luck trying to fall asleep at night!
Release Date: February 7th
“Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” (Season Finale)
Synopsis: A driven young woman abandons her life in New York in an attempt to find love and happiness with her ex-boyfriend in the unlikely locale of West Covina, California.
What You Need To Know: The finale of the CW’s “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” looks like it is going to be a doozy. While Rebecca (Rachel Bloom) has made great strides in maintaining her Borderline Personality Disorder and finally moving beyond her romantic obsession with Josh (Vincent Rodriguez III), personal and professional issues continue to bubble to the surface. Whatever the outcome, we will at least be guaranteed a catchy musical number that will burrow deep into our brains.
Release Date: February 9th
“Our Cartoon President”
Synopsis:
What You Need To Know: I genuinely can’t decide if Showtime’s animated series about the clusterfork that is the President and current White House administration is genius or a crass media bandwagon attempt to profit amidst political chaos. I suspect audiences won’t be able to decide either. Created by Stephen Colbert and with voices by Jeff Bergman, Zach Cherry, Gabriel Gundacker and Anna Eilinsfeld, “Our Cartoon President” will probably end up being shown high school civics classes and university poli-sci courses in 2118 in order to provide context for insanity that was US politics from 2016-2020.
Release Date: February 11th
“Here and Now”
Synopsis: A multi-racial family made of up husband, wife, three adopted children from Somalia, Vietnam and Colombia and one biological child, find their bonds tested when one of the children begins seeing things which the rest cannot.
What You Need To Know: Alan Ball (“Six Feet Under,” “True Blood”) is back at his HBO stomping ground and appears to have delivered another television classic. The lives of progressive liberals Audrey (Holly Hunter) and Greg (Tim Robbins) and their children, three adopted (Jerrika Hinton, Raymond Lee, Daniel Zovatto) and one biological (Sosie Bacon) start to spiral in the face of America’s current political climate and when Duc begins to see and experience things the others cannot. “Here and Now” looks to be a nuanced and piercing examination of the trials and issues of a modern American family under duress.
Release Date: February 11th