Netflix’s Octopus Murders, Shōgun, and more of the best new TV this week

There are plenty of new shows this week, but I will do the rare cheat out and tell you I already have a favorite: Shōgun.

The limited series, based on the hit novel by James Clavell that also inspired a Toshiro Mifune-led miniseries in 1980, is easily my favorite show of the year so far, the sort of television event filled with rewarding, complex political intrigue that can be hard to find these days (and even harder for creatives to land the plane on). But it’s finally here, with a two-episode premiere; rejoice folks!

But that’s not the only good thing out this week — whether you’re in for a wild documentary or a crumbling regime, or even just a fun and cozy murder procedural, this week’s TV has got it. Here are all the new TV premieres this week:

Genre: True crime documentary
Release date: Feb. 28, with all episodes
Director: Zachary Treitz

From the folks who brought you Wild Wild Country, The Octopus Murders looks at the wild, wild story of Danny Casolaro, an investigative journalist who was found dead in 1991. At the time he was on a story that started as an IP dispute and went somewhere... bigger, possibly even a much more massive and dark web of something.

Genre: Period intrigue
Release date: Feb. 27 with two episodes
Showrunner/creator: Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks
Cast: Hiroyuki Sanada, Anna Sawai, Cosmo Jarvis

A power struggle is afoot in Japan, with five regents all vying to take control. But when a risk-seeking English sailor enters the mix, Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada) sees his opportunity — if he can manage the political backstabbing (and literal samurai fighting) well enough.

Genre: Paranoid political satire
Release date: March 3 with one episode
Showrunner/creator: Will Tracy
Cast: Kate Winslet, Matthias Schoenaerts, and more

An authoritarian regime is crumbling! Great news, right? Except for the woman who sits at the top, Chancellor Elena Vernham (Kate Winslet), who’s feeling increasingly unstable. She turns to a volatile soldier for a confidante, and attempts to expand her power — all without leaving the palace, a surefire sign of political stability.

Genre: Columbo-esque procedural
Release date: Feb. 29 with one episode
Showrunner/creator: Robert and Michelle King
Cast: Carrie Preston, Wendell Pierce, and more

If you love The Good Wife, or specifically Carrie Preston’s kooky lawyer Elsbeth Tascioni, or even just crime procedurals (particularly of the Columbo persuasion), then Elsbeth is for you. She’s moved out to New York to observe the police, but along the way she puts her aloof, astute skills towards also helping them solve murders.

Genre: Reality show competition
Release date: Feb. 28, with a two-hour episode
Host: Jeff Probst
Cast: A group of cutthroat castaways

You know the drill: Beachy competition, castaways who form cliques and vote others off the island, betrayals and backstabbing and plenty of gamesmanship. Survivor is back, baby!

Genre: Comedy-adventure
Release date: March 1 with
Creators: Claire Downes, Stuart Lane, and Ian Jarvis
Cast: Noel Fielding, Hugh Bonneville, and more

Dick Turpin (Noel Fielding) didn’t want to be the leader of a band of outlaws. But here he is! This show gives us his totally true (maybe? Sort of?) tales of escapades outrunning the (corrupt) lawman Jonathan Wilde (Hugh Bonneville) with his gang of (charming) rogues.