Welcome to Now See This, THR chief TV critic Daniel Fienberg’s weekly viewer guide newsletter dedicated to cutting through the daunting clutter of the broadcast, cable and streaming TV landscape! Comments and suggestions welcome at daniel.fienberg@thr.com.

Jodie Foster the People

If you've tuned out True Detective in seasons past, this weekend's premiere of True Detective: Night Country is a good place to hop back in. Issa López's Night Country, set in the endless darkness of the Alaskan winter, features strong work from Jodie Foster and Kali Reis, plus perhaps the clearest and cleanest mystery in True Detective  history. I thought it should have been two episodes longer to equal the eight- episode running lengths of the first three seasons, and to give more texture to the small town at the heart of the central crime. But it's solid stuff. If, however, you prefer your detectives to operate in endless day rather than endless night, Christopher Nolan's Insomnia is on Paramount+, while the Norwegian original is on Amazon.

'Spade' in Full

Like I said last week: It's detectives all the way down this month. AMC/AMC+/Acorn's Monsieur Spade has powerhouse creators (Scott Frank and Tom Fontana), an exceptional throwback leading man (Clive Owen) and a fun premise (Dashiell Hammett's Sam Spade is retired in the South of France when a murder investigation finds him). The biggest disappointment is that nobody in the show pronounces the famous detective's name as "Spa Day" like "Sade." Well, there are other disappointments, but it's still not bad. Oh, and The Maltese Falcon , which is spectacular, is on Tubi. (Next week, the gumshoe beat includes Hulu's Death and Other Details and Showtime's The Woman in the Wall. It's a lot.)

Speaking of Pets That Should Be 'Spade' or Neutered

Fun Fact: A common abbreviation of "detective" is "Det" and "Det" backwards is "Ted." Seth MacFarlane's TV adaptation of Ted is now up on Peacock. Our Angie Han says that if you can make it past the padded pilot and the desperate desire to be audacious and edgy, there are elements of a good comedy here. I found things to laugh at and things to roll my eyes at in each of the four episodes I watched.

Leggo my 'Echo'

I find Marvel's Echo, streaming on Hulu and Disney+, to be rather fascinating. It only occasionally works as a superhero show, but it's a five-episode examination of a fledgling hero who's deaf, Indigenous and an amputee that shows impressive respect for each facet of its main character. Plus, it's full of Reservation Dogs cameos and the creators of  This Close are both on the writing stuff. I based my review off three of five episodes, but having watched the last two, my feeling that this should have been a six- or eight-episode series is strong. See this week's running theme?

My Own Worst Emmy

Remember the Emmys? Little awards show intended to honor the best TV from between June 1, 2022, and May 31, 2023? Delayed four months to Monday, January 15, due to the industry strikes, the 75th Primetime Emmys are set to recognize Succession, The Bear and Beef — there's STILL time to catch up — just like the Golden Globes did last week. We discussed the inevitable and inevitably disappointing repetition on this week's TV's Top 5 podcast. With Anthony Anderson hosting, the Emmys just need to be a more entertaining show than the Jo Koy-hosted Globes. That shouldn't be too hard. (Or you can just join the vast majority of Americans in watching the Eagles and Buccaneers in a Monday night NFL wild card game instead.)

She Blinded Me With 'Reliance'

It's not the most robust slate of new streaming features. Hulu is premiering Jake Johnson’s Self Reliance, a reality TV satire that our Lovia Gyarkye felt needed a wilder approach. After this week's cancelation of Minx, the always-likable Johnson deserves a break. Amazon has  Role Play , featuring Kaley Cuoco and David Oyelowo as a married couple, one of whom happens to be an assassin. Our Frank Scheck calls the direction "uninspired" and the writing "formulaic." And Netflix's Lift has Kevin Hart and friends staging an audacious heist on an airplane. Lovia praises director F. Gary Gray, but not much else. Maybe go to Max and watch the Sundance award-winning documentary  Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project  (pictured), which Lovia called "enjoyably impressionistic."