Monsieur Spade shows its hand, The Curse delivers an unforgettable finale, and more from the week in TV

Catching up with The A.V. Club's top TV stories from the week of January 8 2 / 12 It kind of goes without saying, but here we go anyway: Humphrey Bogart’s portrayal of Dashiell Hammett’s genre defining private detective character Sam Spade in the 1941 noir classic is one of the all time great movie performances.

Bogie’s brooding gumshoe is vulnerable and cynical at the same time, rattling off terse one liners while trying to solve multiple mysteries, including the murder of his partner. He’s unforgettable, and few have tried to fill his fedora. That is, until now. In AMC’s slick, six episode crime thriller , which , Clive Owen takes on the titular monsieur.

John DeVore 3 / 12 Oh, Gator. In all your time trying to get the upper hand on Ole Munch, have you ever actually stopped and thought about the of man you’re dealing with? Year Five’s penultimate episode opens in a tiny ice fishing shack, with the runt of the Tillman litter begging for his life as Munch heats the tip of a knife.

Gator tried bartering with cash, “girls,” even a fucking flamethrower. But Munch, as we know, is less concerned with such...mortal things. It was never about the money he was cheated out of by Roy at the beginning of the season. It’s about the debt itself. Now, Munch’s “mama” is dead, and there’s only one language Munch speaks, one currency that could ever repay that loss.

“A rabbit screams because a rabbit is caught,” Munch simply responds, the blade now glowing red hot. Tom Philip 4 / 12 “A wise guy walks into a psychiatrist’s office.” It’s a simple, funny, intriguing enough elevator pitch, and 25 years ago—on January 10, 1999, to be precise—the world got to see just what creator David Chase & Co.

could do with it. But what’s striking, a quarter of a century later, is not just that this series ended up changing television. It’s also that, even after the many fantastic shows it influenced, nothing that has come since has managed to hit quite like . It’s steeped in the time it aired but incredibly relevant today.

(You could dedicate a college course—and they probably exist—to the series’ examination of wealth disparity, xenophobia, racism, religion, death, family, feminism, art, global politics, urban decay, existentialism, and so on.) It’s genuinely shocking and envelope pushing and creative and meta.

Its soundtrack rules. It’s very, very funny. And, of course, it’s anchored by two of the greatest performances of all time—on TV or otherwise—thanks James Gandolfini and Edie Falco. It’s …. a lot, and yet somehow seems to succeed by these weirdly specific metrics that only has. There is, indeed, no other show like it.

And there won’t be. Which is all to say: Narrowing down this list to just 25 episodes was incredibly tough. So, please, be nice. Tim Lowery 5 / 12 There’s a moment halfway through (out on and )—a years later spinoff of the mostly cheery (and underrated) series—where a seemingly small plot point plays out in such a way that feels unexpectedly moving and speaks to the power that these superhero stories have when they manage to pair the perfect actor with the perfect character.

And that’s what Marvel seems to have done with star Alaqua Cox. Sam Barsanti 6 / 12 Let me get this out of the way first: OMG! I know I’m supposed to offer cogent if not outright literate reactions to what happens in every episode of Showtime’s most deliriously absurd home reno satire but there really are no words to describe the way my jaw dropped to the floor when… okay, maybe I should recap the start of the episode a bit before we dig into moment—even if said moment all but took over the very course of the series’ entire sensibility, archly amplifying its blunt metaphors, and thrusting us into that rare supernatural territory we kept being told would be kept at bay by Nathan Fielder and Benny Safdie’s discomfiting comedy chops.

Manuel Betancourt 7 / 12 What will ? It’s the question on everyone’s (read: a niche community of genre TV enjoyers) minds. The network that was once a haven for soapy teen television and schlocky superhero fare (non derogatory!) has come under new ownership, and new ownership is taking the CW in a new direction.

Beyond targeting an older demographic and importing shows from Canada, it was unclear what that direction would be. Now we have an answer in the form of the first original programming for the rebooted network, : , a new CW show with an old CW face. Mary Kate Carr 8 / 12 For the generation that came up in the ’90s, before the internet could worm its cruel, pitiless tentacles around our minds and hearts, it was TV that shaped us.

Game shows allowed people to dream of nicer stuff for the house. Talk shows gave everyone something to bicker about around the table. But it was sitcoms that gave audiences a moral True North—or, at least, they were designed to, which might help explain why television would soon metastasize into a cynical, postmodern wasteland and why most of us have grown into adults with the vagueness of ennui informing every day of our waking lives.

Anyway, Seth MacFarlane’s , the latest film series to be spun off into a show (out on ), incorporates these aspects of TV’s yesteryear—with a strong focus on the family sitcom structure—into a prequel about a young boy and his talking teddy bear. Jarrod Jones 9 / 12 The latest Primetime Emmy nominations, which cover work that aired from June 1, 2022, to May 31, 2023, offer an embarrassment of riches.

The period boasts the final seasons of , , , , and ; the successful sophomore returns of , , and ; and some pretty damn great debuts, like , , , and, yes, even (season two aired in June and will be eligible next year. . C , as well as . Saloni Gajjar 10 / 12 Early on in , which on , 13 year old Eli Bell breaks down in sobs at the end of a very rough week.

When his stepdad asks him why, Eli sputters, “I don’t know! I’ve just got a whole lot of tears inside me. I can’t help it.” Jenna Scherer 11 / 12 Jodie Foster in her first major TV role is already Appointment Television. But Jodie Foster, with a badge, starring in the much anticipated fourth installment of as directed by one of horror’s freshest, freakiest minds? Well, that’s arguably the television event of the year.

Christina Izzo 12 / 12.