Wild Cards, Season Three, on CW

Say it isn’t so. Surely Max Mitchell, the thief and con artist forced to serve as a “consultant” to the Vancouver police hasn’t gone straight? Okay, it isn’t so, but she really wanted to. She was also ready to run off with Det. Cole Ellis, her on-again-off-again partner, whose will-they-or-won’t-they romantic tension never lets up. Unfortunately, she stood him up due to some unusually messy family business, even by her standards. Yet, she still hopes to remain a reformed crime-fighter in the third season of creator Michael Konyves’s Wild Cards, which premieres tonight on CW.

Ellis is back from his head-clearing Mexican vacation and fully cleared by Internal Affairs, so Chief Li immediately re-teams him with Mitchell. She wants to explain, but finds him strangely chill with regards to her apparent rejection. Frankly, she seems more distracted than Ellis as they work the case of a murdered pool player.

Mitchell has a right to be a bit preoccupied. During the season two cliffhanger finale, she discovered her supposedly dead mother Vivienne faked her demise, after stealing 98 million from Gedeon Varga, a Keyser Soze-like crime figure. Now, she is back, to beg for all the money from the big score Mitchell and her father George Graham pulled off at the end of season two. Of course, she’ll need to cover interest too, so Varga’s intimidating associate, Tomo Hayashi suggests a little job to clear their debt: stealing a big Hopey diamond.

Understandably Mitchell’s bestie Ricky Wilson is dashed resentful to find himself caught-up in Vivienne’s mess—and out several million dollars. Regardless, Mitchell has murders to solve, starting with the pool hustler in “Rack ‘Em Up,” written by Konyves and directed by Andy Mikita. Of course, we know from past episodes Mitchell is also quite the pool shark. In fact, it is rather fun to watch this episode riff on The Color of Money, when the victim’s stake-horse, a former hustler himself, emerges as a prime suspect.

“Quit Playing Games (with My Life),” directed by Mikita and written by Kristin Slaney, leans heavily into 1990s boyband nostalgia, or at least the idea of it. None of the guest stars are notable boy band alumni, but they can carry a tune okay, and look like aging idols. The mystery isn’t terribly written, but the real murder conspicuously stands out due to lack of subtlety in the performance and direction. Regardless, a lot viewers will relate to this episode. Plus, there is some decent comic relief from Amy Goodmurphy and Michael Xavier as somewhat rival Detectives Yates and Simmons.

Reacher Season Three, on Prime Video

[Jack] Reacher looks a lot like Paul Bunyan, or his ox, Babe, but he is more of a lone wolf by temperament. He is also skeptical of bureaucrats and government officials, despite having run the Army’s special 110^th Investigative Unit. Nevertheless, he agrees to go undercover for the DEA. The circumstances involved are unusual, dicey, and embargoed. Regardless, Reacher takes on the dangerous assignment, but the bad guys will be the ones in trouble throughout the third season of creator Nick Santora’s Reacher, adapted from Lee Child’s novel Persuader, which premieres tomorrow on Prime Video.

As viewers of season one and season two know, Reacher often generates quite a high body-count, but he lives by a code. Fortunately, one of his initial duties for Zachary Beck presents no moral qualms for Reacher. He regularly serves as the bodyguard for Beck’s son Richard, who has no involvement in his father’s smuggling business. Just what Beck smuggles is not exactly clear. That is one of the reasons why DEA Agent Susan Duffy convinces Reacher to infiltrate Beck’s operation. She also hopes to rescue her informant who worked as a domestic in Beck’s fortress like mansion.

Recher also has personal reasons for agreeing. He suspects an old enemy from his past might be in business with Beck. Reportedly, his target has amnesia, so maybe he won’t remember Reacher if they even come face-to-face—or maybe he will. Obviously, this is a tough gig, especially since Beck has Paulie, a neanderthal henchman who is even bigger and stronger than Reacher.

For backup, Reacher only has Duffy, who is one of the good guys even though she is a Red Sox fan (try doing the math on that one), her soon-to-retire mentor Guillermo Villanueva (whose back, knees, and arches are on the verge of collapse), and Steven Elliott, the rookie who botched the paperwork for a warrant, landing them in the bureaucratic wilderness. Of course, Reacher’s old comrade Frances Neagley will always back-up her former commanding officer, but he wants to protect her from his suspected nemesis.

All three seasons of Reacher are rock-solid and reasonably faithful to Child’s books. In this case, Reacher’s complicated relationships with the Becks, father and son, elevate what might otherwise seem like a relatively simple infiltrate-and-bust thriller. Aside from the imposing Ritchson (who still convincingly looks the part of Reacher), Anthony Michael Hall most stands out this season for his surprisingly complex portrayal of Zachary Beck. He is not exactly what we assume, which adds considerably to the drama.

COBRA: Rebellion, on PBS

TV Prime Minister Robert Sutherland outlasted Boris Johnson Liz Truss, and Rishi Sunak. He might be the most reassuring PM since Jim Hacker on Yes, Prime Minister. However, Sutherland could use a Sir Humphrey, because many of his cabinet members follow their own agendas, often against the interests of his administration. It gets so bad, his flamboyantly arrogant Conservative Party rival Archie Glover-Morgan is more friend than foe this time around—or at least it’s a close call. That will be a problem when the next crisis strikes in the 6-part COBRA: Rebellion (a.k.a. season three), which premieres tonight on PBS.

To embarrass her father, Sutherland’s daughter Ellie joined an extremist environmental group occupying tunnels under a contested construction site. However, she needs daddy to save her when a freak sink-hole collapse traps her underground. The disaster site turns into a crime scene when remnants of an explosive device are discovered. Awkwardly, the activist trapped with her knows an awful lot about it. Logically, suspicion also falls on Ellie, requiring her father to maintain impartial treatment towards her.

That does not sit so well with his wife Rachel, with whom his marriage was already strained. Fortunately, he can finally count on the wise counsel of his chief of staff, Anna Marshall. Like Lloyd Bridges in Airplane!, she picked the wrong day to return from sick leave, after waking from her second season coma. Indeed, she wants to be in the cabinet briefings (the so-called COBRAs) to support Sutherland—and anywhere else he might need her . . . support.

Somehow, a fictional Middle East kingdom that is absolutely not supposed to represent Saudi Arabia is also mixed up in the expanding crisis. Apparently, they kidnapped the dissident Princess Yadira, who was a women’s rights activist back home and a legal resident of the United Kingdom. Sutherland is quite put out that they would conduct such an operation on British soil, but the ruthlessly ambitious Defense Minister, Victoria Dalton is determined to preserve British defense contractors’ lucrative deals with the oil-rich kingdom.

Uncharacteristically, Glover-Morgan, who ascended to the deputy PM position in season two, advises caution to both. While he wants to preserve the defense contracts, he also wants no part of the regime’s reported human rights abuses. In fact, the subtle evolution of Glover-Morgan, from jerky to rather waggish, is one of the best developments in Rebellion.

David Haig practically chortles with delight firing off zingers and scheming behind-the-scenes. He is like Frank Underwood or Francis Urquhart in either version of House of Cards, except Glover-Morgan is more human, more principled, and arguably a true patriot, despite his devious, roguishness. Honestly, if he were the lead of the next season, it would be jolly good fun.

In comparison, Robert Carlyle is still a bit bland as Sutherland, but he projects a sense of sound judgement and temperament that frankly a lot of Americans are currently yearning for. Lisa Palfrey is still appropriately shifty and morally ambiguous as Intelligence Chair Eleanor James. Edward Bennett is also entertainingly snide and pompous as Glover-Morgan’s former ally, press secretary Peter Mott, who has turned against the Deputy PM. However, Marsha Thomason is dull as dish water playing former Sutherland advisor and current Labour shadow minister, Francine Bridge, whose duties apparently solely consist of walking about looking heroically concerned. Similarly, a lot of viewers would prefer to leave Holly Cattle’s character, nauseatingly petulant Ellie Sutherland buried in the collapsed tunnel.

Downton Abbey, Season 3

It is the moment viewers have been waiting for, but anyone who expects an easy trip down the altar for Cousin Matthew and Lady Mary has another thing coming.  With the war over, the Granthams have plenty of milestones ahead, including weddings, babies, and even a funeral.  Rest assured, there will also be plenty of scandal when season three of Downton Abbey kicks off the New Year in style next Sunday on PBS’s Masterpiece (promo here).

Just as the future of Downton seems secure, the Earl receives dire financial news.  Yet, Matthew Crawley might be able to save Downton yet again, if his scruples will allow it.  His moral dilemma will cause his cause friction with Lady Mary on the eve of the ceremony—just like old times.  While the presence of Lady Sybil and her husband, the former chauffeur, is also slightly awkward, the family slowly warms to him over the course of season three.  Slowly, “Branson” becomes “Tom,” without terribly compromising his Irish Republican ideals.

This would seem to be the season for wallflower sister Lady Edith to come into her own, but her wretched luck continues unabated.  Yet, arguably it is the Earl who has the worst of it in the post-war years, spending the better part of this season apologizing.  At least, Thomas, the slimy acting valet, will get his comeuppance, perhaps once and for all.  Yet, it is the efforts of modest house-maid Anna Bates to clear that name of her wrongly convicted husband that appear most likely to bring some good news to Downton.  It will all culminate with a return to a tradition suspended during the war when the Crawleys once again spend Christmas in the Scottish highlands.

In the third season, some cast-members evidently began to tire of Downton or perhaps asked for more money, which means curtains for some apparently hale and hearty characters.  Of course, new characters will also be introduced, but the overly hyped arrival of Shirley MacLaine as Lady Mary’s fabulously wealthy American grandmother never delivers the anticipated sparks.  Still, Dame Maggie Smith remains the wonderfully tart force of nature, firmly maintaining decorum as the imperious Lady Violet, the Dowager Countess.

Julian Fellowes’ writing is a razor-sharp as ever, particularly the zingers he saves for Lady Violet.  However, fans might be surprised by the more tragic tone of season three, even compared to the WWI years of season two.  Nonetheless, all the elements that made the show a phenomenon are still present.  Jim Carter is still a deeply sympathetic bulwark of social conservatism as Mr. Carson, the Butler.  Michelle Dockery and Dan Evans nicely the develop Matthew and Mary’s stormy chemistry into a mature, believable marriage.  Even if her Lady Edith is stuck under a cloud of misfortune, Laura Carmichael has her best moments in the show this season, hardening and humanizing what has been one of the series’ least defined, most unpopular characters.

There is always hope for the future at Downton.  Indeed, a season four is already in the works, albeit without a familiar face here and there.  Still the best written show on television and the only one co-starring Maggie Smith, season three of Downton Abbey is enthusiastically recommended when it begins next Sunday (1/6) on most PBS outlets nationwide.