Only Murders in the Building

Picture this"¦ it's the 1950's in the ultra glamorous Miami Florida. The hotels are huge and luxurious and the people who run them all appear to be a bit "shady". Mob influence is obvious but the guests who stay for days or weeks at a time don't mind as they watch for "Miami Vice" to come to life there. Creator Mitch Glazer lived the life when he was growing up as he worked as a cabana boy and his father was involved in hotel maintenance back in the late 50's. All the glitz and glamour covers up a world of gangsters, dope dealers, and strippers that has always been part of the lifestyle. And it makes for interesting viewing, particularly when based on true events. Starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Supernatural, Watchmen) as "Ike" Isaac Evans, Olga Kurylenko (Quantum of Solace, Hitman) plays Vera Evans, Steven Strait (Undiscovered, City Island) is the young Stevie Evans, and Elena Satine (Melrose Place, Smallville) is Judi Silver. An intriguing show with lots of nice scenery and plenty of action, Magic City is one to watch.

"The Chicago Code" has nothing to do with deep-dish pizzas or the cruelly cursed Cubbies. "The Chicago Code" openly, unabashedly, plain and simple, is all about good versus evil. The good guys following "The Chicago Code" are very very good, and the bad guys breaking the code are very very bad. The windy city itself, definitely a critical element in the drama's development, lives somewhere in-between. Chicago may be "the second city," but it stands out as America's number one oxymoron. "Hog-butcher to the world," Chicago also brought us Hemingway and Frank Lloyd Wright. Home to Picasso's breathtaking artistic monument, Chicago also has been home to some monumental con artists: Rod Blagojevich comes immediately to mind. "Blaggo" is to Chicago scams as the Picasso is to the city's art and architecture. More to the point of "The Chicago Code," in just over thirty years, thirty-one second city aldermen have been convicted of violent crimes or corruption. In Chicago, graft greases the wheels and gets your streets ploughed. Although corruption may be common as camel-hair coats on the Magnificent Mile, Chicago cops still want to collar the bad guys. "The Chicago Code" attempts to dramatize how and why they do it, and it packs a pretty good punch for a network production. Critics and home-grown Chicago viewers strongly suspect "The Chicago Code" would achieve its completely gritty potential on cable, but it's hard to complain about Jennifer Beals, still fit and fabulous all these years after Flashdance, going balls-to-the-wall against the bad guys in Monday night primetime.

Defense attorney Mickey Haller works L.A. cases from the back of his Lincoln in Netflix's hit adaptation of Michael Connelly's novels. On Netflix.

Eric Bana plays a haunted National Park Service agent investigating a death in Yosemite in this atmospheric wilderness murder mystery. Streaming on Netflix.

Big Sky is an American television series that premiered on ABC in November 2020. The show is based on the novel "The Highway" by C.J. Box and is set in Montana. It follows private detectives Cassie Dewell and Cody Hoyt as they investigate the disappearance of two sisters on a remote highway. The investigation leads them to a sinister kidnapping ring operating in the area, and the detectives must race against time to rescue the victims and bring the perpetrators to justice.

Elsbeth follows the brilliantly scatterbrained attorney Elsbeth Tascioni overseeing the NYPD — a Columbo-style whodunit with Carrie Preston stealing every scene on Paramount+.