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Small Screen: BIG EVENTS mean little TV

House of Cards return highlight of otherwise dry February

Well, like many people, what little time I had for watching TV over the holidays and in early January was devoted to playing catch up.

I'm knee-deep in True Detective at the moment, finishing off some of my favourite new series from 2013 and, perhaps most oddly, obsessed with all the Ken Burns documentaries now on Netflix Canada. Haters can hate, I love me some Burns.

Late January/early February is the time of BIG EVENTS on TV, so the pickens for new shows are rather slim. But that's OK, as you'll probably all be too busy watching the Olympics (starting Feb. 6), the Grammys (Jan. 26), the Super Bowl (Feb. 2) and, of course, the British Academy Awards (Feb. 16). No? Nobody else?

One series I'm keen to see is the upcoming four-part miniseries Fleming: The Man Who Would Be Bond, which is premiering on BBC America on Jan. 29. Now, I can't find out when this will be on BBC Canada (which I don't have anyway), but I hear you can sometimes find TV shows on this Internet thing. Not an endorsement, just saying.

I'm a huge Bond fan, and also a loud champion of actor Dominic Cooper (The Devil's Double, Captain America), who will play Ian Fleming, the author of the original Bond novels, so this is right up my alley. It will likely be fast and loose with the facts, but it honestly looks like a bit of fun.

Since his 1990s romcom fame, Greg Kinnear has become something of a cultural faux pas, but his new Fox series, Rake, premiering on Global Jan. 23 at 9 p.m., actually looks pretty good. The adaptation of an Australian series stars Kinnear as a lawyer balancing a messy personal life and bottom-of-the-barrel defence cases.

The dramedy has a strong trailer and looks as though it could actually be a lot of fun and fairly compelling at the same time.

Plus it's about all you're going to get for new shows this month, so dig in.

Like many, I'm also waiting with bated breath for the premiere of the second season of House of Cards on Netflix on Feb. 16. I loved the first season, with Kevin Spacey's delicious performance as scumbag Republican congressman Frank Underwood, who is now taking the reigns as vice president.

And of course, because Netflix knows what we want, we get all 13 episodes at once. Happy bingeing.

 

TV on DVD:

Downton Abbey, Season 4 - Jan. 28

Sherlock, Season 3 - Feb. 1