More New Shows: Schitt, Slaps, and Bosch

If you still have room on your television schedule, a few new shows are starting this week, though at least one is probably doomed from the start.  

-- Schitt's Creek (POP), February 11:  With an unfortunate name like this, should you still watch?  I'm both intrigued and repelled.   Here is the basic story from USA Today:

Schitt's reunites Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara, who've collaborated for decades on the SCTV sketch-comedy series and Christopher Guest's mockumentary movies (Best in Show, Waiting for Guffman). The series, acquired from Canada's CBC network, stars the pair as a rich couple who lose their riches, earned from a failed video-store chain, and are forced to live in a motel in a sad-looking town that dad bought as a joke because of its name. Levy created the series with his son, Daniel, who co-stars as his fictional son, and it was filmed in and near Toronto. 

-- The Slap (NBC), February 12:  Can you sustain and entire season based on an adult slapping a child?  I doubt it, but you have some promising writers and actors trying to pull it off.  And did we really have to go to Australia to find this plot?  This is the story: 

"The Slap" is a miniseries based on the book by Christos Tsiolkas and the Australian television series ("The Slap") produced by Matchbox Pictures.

Meet Hector (Peter Sarsgaard, "An Education," "Blue Jasmine"), a public servant, husband, father and valued friend on the cusp of his 40th birthday. Meet Aisha (Thandie Newton, "Crash," "Beloved"), Hector's beautiful and intelligent wife who is planning his party filled with friends and his very boisterous Greek family. Sounds like the makings of a great day, right? Wrong.

As Hector tries to navigate family politics, awkward friendships and the young woman he is dangerously captivated by, the built-up tension explodes when Hector's hotheaded cousin slaps another couple's misbehaving child. Everyone is understandably stunned, and the party abruptly ends with the child's parents vowing legal action. What the hosts and guests don't know, however, is that this moment will ignite a chain of events that will uncover long-buried secrets within this group of friends and family... and vigorously challenge the core values of everyone involved.

"The Slap" also stars Uma Thurman ("Pulp Fiction," "Kill Bill"), Zachary Quinto ("Star Trek," "American Horror Story"), Melissa George ("30 Days of Night," "In Treatment"), Thomas Sadoski ("The Newsroom") and Brian Cox ("X-Men 2," "Red 2").

From writer-executive producer Jon Robin Baitz ("Brothers & Sisters"), executive producers Walter F. Parkes and Laurie MacDonald ("Gladiator," the "Men in Black" franchise) and director (pilot only) and executive producer Lisa Cholodenko ("The Kids Are All Right," "Olive Kitteridge"), comes this unflinching look at how one little slap can have a huge impact. 

-- Bosch (Amazon), February 13:  I have long awaited this Amazon Original after an excellent first episode.  It was part of the pilot season that brought us Transparent and Mozart in the Jungle, a very successful pilot period.  You can still see the first episode here.  This is a must see.  Here is the teaser:

Based on Michael Connelly's best-selling novels, Harry Bosch (Titus Welliver), an LAPD homicide detective, stands trial for the fatal shooting of a serial murder suspect. A cold case involving the remains of a missing boy forces Bosch to confront his past. As daring recruit Julia Brasher (Annie Wersching) catches his eye, and departmental politics heat up, Bosch will pursue justice at all costs.