Often we come to you with these TV dispatches with a focus on the biggest premieres of the week — which we are now doing again. But this week also sees a whole host of finales, all of big shows that started in the tail end of 2023. While none of these three shows made our top 50 of the year, they’re all pretty big in their own way.
Noah Hawley’s Fargo is ending its fifth season this week, concluding yet another chapter of exploring American greed and the violence it spawns. There’s also Reacher, TV’s biggest guy, with what’s sure to be an action-packed finale for the second season (and hopefully teeing up the already greenlit season 3). And then there’s Found, the new splashy procedural following a woman who locates missing people (and with a few dark secrets of her own).
There’s more new and premiering TV to watch, of course — in addition to whatever ongoing shows you might be following, like True Detective: Night Country — but it’s a good reminder that there’s plenty of television worth catching up on, even without the urgency of the new episode.
Here’s the best of those new finales and premieres to watch on TV this week.
New shows on Netflix
Love on the Spectrum season 2
Genre: Finding romance reality show
Release date: Jan. 19
Relationship coach: Jodi Rodgers
Cast: A group of people on the spectrum looking for love
Netflix is back with another reality dating show, this time a second season of Love on the Spectrum, a show about exactly what it sounds like: people on the autism spectrum navigating the dating world. Season 2 of the show features some new cast members, alongside some folks from season 1.
New shows on Hulu
Death and Other Details
Genre: Murder mystery
Release date: Jan. 16, with two episodes
Showrunner/creator: Mike Weiss and Heidi Cole McAdams
Cast: Mandy Patinkin, Violett Beane, and more
A locked-room murder mystery on a cruise ship, filled with plenty of staggeringly rich people who all have a motive. Also on board, conveniently: Rufus Cotesworth (Mandy Patinkin), a washed-up detective, who leaps into action — with the help of his also conveniently present former protege Imogene (Violett Beane). Very quickly, though, they learn there’s more to this murder — and its victim — than meets the eye.
Fargo season 5 finale
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Genre: Crime drama
Release date: Jan. 16
Showrunner/creator: Noah Hawley
Cast: Juno Temple, Jon Hamm, and more
It’s all coming to a close, as Dot (Juno Temple) hopes to reassert control over her life and rid herself of her megalomaniac ex-husband, Sheriff Roy Tillman (Jon Hamm). The body count has been rising, and the penultimate episode saw government forces gear up to raid Tillman Ranch, setting up what should be an action-packed, violent finale.
New shows on Prime Video
Hazbin Hotel
Genre: Animated goth theater kid musical
Release date: Jan. 19, with four episodes
Showrunner/creator: Vivienne Medrano
Cast: Stephanie Beatriz, Kimiko Glenn, Keith David, and more
Charlie Morningstar (Erika Henningsen) is the princess of hell, and has her heart set on doing the impossible: rehabilitating sinners in her hotel so well that they’ll be accepted into heaven. It isn’t long before she finds this task is harder than she thinks — luckily, she has a cast of characters who are there to help her (if not fully believe in her mission). Also: It’s a musical!
Reacher season 2 finale
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Genre: Big guy spy action
Release date: Jan. 19
Showrunner/creator: Nick Santora
Cast: Alan Ritchson, Serinda Swan, Shaun Sipos, and more
The Big Man’s back for his final episode of the second season. The penultimate episode ended in quite the cliffhanger, with multiple team members held hostage by Robert Patrick’s Shane Langston. No big deal, though — Reacher is still Reacher, and last we saw him, he was sauntering through the front gate ready to dole out some punishment.
New shows on Paramount Plus
The Woman in the Wall
Genre: Broody detective story
Release date: Jan. 19, with one episode
Showrunner/creator: Joe Murtagh
Cast: Ruth Wilson, Daryl McCormick, and more
When a woman wakes up to find a dead body in her house, she’s got two problems: The first — well, obviously, she has a dead body that is in her house. But the second is more important: She has no idea how it got there.
The Woman in the Wall picks up from there for what Showtime calls a “psychologically and emotionally compelling detective story shot through with dark humor,” using six episodes to reexamine one of Ireland’s biggest scandals, the Magdalene Laundries.
New shows on Peacock
Found season 1 finale
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Genre: Dramatic procedural
Release date: Jan. 16
Showrunner/creator: Nkechi Okoro Carroll
Cast: Shanola Hampton, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Kelli Williams, and more
Gabi (Shanola Hampton) has been finding people — and hiding the secret of having her own kidnapper in her basement — all season. And it’s been a pretty wild ride, with plenty of flair for the dramatic. So I’m guessing the season finale of Found will deliver a helluva cliffhanger, particularly since it’s already been greenlit for season 2.