Good luck out there and other TV cures

It’s hard to be a grownup, as high school, college and university graduates are about to discover. For your viewing pleasure, here is a roundup of new broadcast and streaming options with some interesting takes on adulting, success, failure and how to get back up again.

● Adults (series premières Wednesday, May 28 at 8 p.m. on FX and the Citytv+ channel on Prime Video)

Whereas that 1990s juggernaut series Friends was about roommates consoling and cheering each on as they launch themselves into adulthood, Adults is about young people with marginal life skills and the dawning awareness that they have few prospects. And instead of a fancy Manhattan apartment, five friends are crashing in one character’s childhood suburban home. Darkly funny. “I always thought the world was going to be waiting for me. Instead, everyone seems to be annoyed that I’m here,” is one of the gang’s realizations. Another is that he doesn’t know his own social security number (though his mom does). Will young people feel seen? Will parents feel pangs? Will childless adults feel vindicated? Yes to all that.

● Dept. Q (series premières on Thursdayon Netflix)

If you know Matthew Goode from his vampire role in A Discovery of Witches, his lawyerly charmer in A Good Wife or the race-car-driving second-husband of Downton Abbey’s Lady Mary, here’s a bit of a change-up. He plays DCI Carl Morck, who feels responsible “for everything,” as one underling puts it, after an incident goes horribly, horribly wrong. His boss makes him the poster boy for all that is wrong with policing by relegating him to basement obscurity with only cold cases to focus on. But the boss hasn’t properly measured the man, because Morck will find justice despite departmental stonewalling, even while saddled with low expectations, his own worst instincts and a lacking assistant. If that doesn’t intrigue, the writer/director of Dept. Q is Frank Scott, whose work includes The Queen’s Gambit and Godless, both of which are highly recommended.

● Mountainhead (movie premières Saturday, May 31 on Crave)

Press kits for new TV are not usually so concise, but this one is a blisteringly accurate snapshot of the mindset of the four tech titans at the centre of this apocalyptic fiction: “Four friends. $371 billion net worth. Zero culpability.”

From writer/director Jesse Armstrong, who made us cringe with revulsion and delight at the antics of the richy-rich Roy family in Succession, this movie puts the four most powerful and rich tech billionaires in the world in a mountaintop mansion at the moment that the world begins devolving into actual flames.

A perfect-looking cast of Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman, Ramy Youssef and Cory Michael Smith play the men who grapple with their responsibility, their potential and whether they any have enough courage to reach beyond patting themselves on the back.

● Stick (series premières on Wednesday, June 4, on Apple TV+)

Who doesn’t love an Owen Wilson redemption story? Add to that the subject of golf and I’m betting this is a pre-summer winner. Although … the trailer is leaning a little suspiciously hard into Stick being from “the home of Ted Lasso” — which is to say, they will both be streaming on Apple TV+. But is that really a guarantee to bank on? Sounds kinda desperate. But I am faithful to Wilson (Royal Tenenbaums, Marry Me, Grand Budapest Hotel, etc.). And I don’t mind a bit of Marc Maron (GLOW) or Judy Greer (Best Christmas Pageant Ever). But never mind all that: In this series, Wilson plays Pryce Cahill, a onetime pro-golf golden boy who now sees a young prospect as his chance at redemption not so much on the circuit as to his own conscience. Awwwww.

● Good Night, and Good Luck (live theatre performance at 6 p.m., Saturday, June 7, on CNN)

CNN is congratulating itself for being the first network to broadcast a play live, promising the five-time Tony Award nominee “will stream live, without requiring a cable log-in, via CNN.com, CNN connected TV and mobile apps.” The moment will reveal whether that pledge will also cover logins on the Canadian side of the border but fingers crossed. The fact-based play, like the 2005 movie, is co-written by and stars George Clooney. While the Oscar winner played a supporting role in his film, in the play Clooney takes the lead role of Edward R. Murrow as the newsman executes his historic on-air showdown with Sen. Joseph McCarthy. Prepare to be thrilled. This live performance will be the play’s penultimate. The Tony Awards will be broadcast live on CBS the next day, Sunday, June 8.

Broadcast dates subject to change. Questions, comments to denise.duguay@winnipegfreepress.com.