Watch This: The Best in Streaming This Week — ‘Star Wars: Visions’ and ‘The Wonder Years’
More big premieres as the Fall Television Season continues this week. Star Wars: Visions delivers a unique, anime-based version of the Star Wars universe to television screens on Disney+, streaming on Wednesday. The anthology includes nine separate adventures from just as many award-winning Japanese anime studios, with an all-star cast of voices bringing “a fresh and diverse cultural perspective to Star Wars,” according to Lucasfilm.
The Wonder Years reimagines the classic 1980s-90s ABC coming-of-age comedy of the same name. This time, however, while the timeframe is still the 1960s, the setting and characters are completely different: looking at a black, middle-class family in Montgomery, Alabama. Fred Savage, star of the original version of The Wonder Years, is one of the new show’s executive producers, plus he directs this week’s pilot episode, Wednesday night on ABC. Episodes stream the following day on Hulu.
That just scratches the surface of the best of streaming television this week. Just watch this:
‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody’
Dancing With The Stars starts Season 30 on Monday night, with a whole new batch of contestants vying for the Mirrorball Trophy. This year’s dancers include an Olympic Gold Medalist, an NBA superstar, a YouTube celebrity, a Peloton Fitness instructor, and a WWE wrestler. So who will win? That is all up to you and your votes. Season 30 premieres Monday night on ABC. Episodes stream the following day on Hulu.
‘Who Are You Under That Mask?’
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, The Masked Singer returns for its 6th season premiere on Wednesday and Thursday nights on Fox. On Wednesday night, the stage is set with debut performances from the characters in Group A, ending with a shocking double elimination. The number one entertainment series on television returns Wednesday night at 8 pm ET on Fox. Episodes stream the following day on Hulu.
Comic Under The Hood
Legendary late-night comic Jay Leno returns for the 6th season of Jay Leno's Garage on CNBC. This season, Jay — a recent inductee to the Automotive Hall of Fame — will be joined by some of his friends, including Tiffany Haddish, Kelly Clarkson, James Corden, Mark Cuban, Michael Strahan, Margaret Cho, Trevor Noah, Tim Allen, Jeff Gordon, and more. Jay Leno’s Garage returns Wednesday night at 10 pm ET on CNBC. Episodes stream the following day on Peacock.
The Croods Are Back!
Everyone’s favorite modern stone-age family — no, not that one, the OTHER one — the Croods … They’re back! The stars of the 2013 Dreamworks animated movie The Croods, and its sequel, 2020’s The Croods: A New Age, are coming back in a new TV series. The Croods: Family Tree premieres Thursday and streams on both Peacock and Hulu.
The Empire Will Fall; Save Your Legacy
Foundation is one of the cornerstone masterworks of all science fiction. Written in the 1950s by Isaac Asimov, it is the beginning of an epic, universe-spanning story of the fall of the Galactic Empire. Elements of Foundation have found their way into most hardcore science fiction that has come since, including Star Trek, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Now, this colossal story has finally found its way to a television series from Apple TV+. The series premiere of Foundation streams Friday on Apple TV+.
The Tony Award Goes To…
This year, the Tony Awards will be awarded in a somewhat different fashion, thanks to the pandemic. As opposed to the usual three-plus-hour extravaganza that we are accustomed to getting, a two-hour awards show will be streamed on Sunday night on Paramount+. This will be immediately followed by a two-hour-long special entitled, The Tony Awards Presents ‘Broadway’s Back!’ on CBS, showcasing some of the best that theater has to offer, now that the Great White Way is back open for business, albeit in a somewhat reduced form since the pandemic still is threatening everyone, thanks to the COVID variants floating around.