‘Forbrydelsen’
The dark Danish series that kindled the Nordic-noir boom, winning multiple International Emmy and BAFTA awards for best series and being remade in America as “The Killing,” has apparently never been available on TV or for streaming in the United States. The streaming service Topic will finally remedy that situation, 14 years after the show’s premiere, offering its three seasons in successive weeks. Seeing Sofie Grabol’s performance as the anguished detective Sarah Lund, not to mention seeing Lund’s iconic Faroe Islands sweater, will no longer require skulduggery or an all-regions DVD player. (Topic, Aug. 12)
‘Modern Love’
Get out your handkerchiefs: Summer brings a second season of the anthology series based on the popular New York Times feature of the same name, nearly two years after the premiere of Season 1. (What could be more appropriate than the pandemic’s having delayed a show about the vicissitudes of contemporary coupling?) Interesting names in the new season’s multitudinous cast include Gbenga Akinnagbe, Minnie Driver, Tobias Menzies, Sophie Okonedo and Anna Paquin. (Amazon Prime Video, Aug. 13)
‘Heels’
A folksy family drama incongruously set in the world of professional wrestling. Alexander Ludwig (“Vikings”) plays the star of a small family-run circuit, and Stephen Amell (“Arrow”) plays the golden boy’s disgruntled, more responsible brother, who writes the scripts in which he casts himself as the hateful “heel.” (Starz, Aug. 15)
‘Nine Perfect Strangers’
The latest Nicole Kidman-David E. Kelley-Liane Moriarty team-up (following “Big Little Lies,” also based on a Moriarty novel) is set at an Australian wellness resort. Kidman plays the woman in charge; her castmates in the presumably mysterious and melodramatic goings-on include Melissa McCarthy, Michael Shannon and the Australian star Asher Keddie. (Hulu, Aug. 18)
‘The Chair’
The provenance of this low-key romantic-academic comedy set at an Ivy-ish university is surprising: The “Game of Thrones” duo David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are executive producers, and Benioff’s wife, the actress Amanda Peet, is the showrunner and a writer, her first time in either role. But the name that matters is that of Sandra Oh, who stars as the newly installed chairwoman of the English department, saddled with a faculty that includes querulous veterans (Holland Taylor, Bob Balaban) and a celebrated, self-destructive writer (Jay Duplass). (Netflix, Aug. 27)
‘Only Murders in the Building’
