The 5 New and Under-the-Radar Shows You Can’t Miss in November

We don’t need Mariah Carey to tell us that the holiday season is upon us. Even though a plethora of holiday movies about a big city doctor/lawyer/chef who moves back to her hometown to save the Christmas tree farm/theater/orphanage will take over your television during the next two months, there are still plenty of new and returning shows coming your way this November. Wendi McLendon-Covey, David Alan Grier, and Allison Tolman headline the new NBC comedy St. Denis Medical premiering November 12. Hulu has the new Jimmy O. Yang series Interior Chinatown on November 19. Paramount+ with Showtime (try saying that five times fast) has Michael Fassbender and The Agency on November 29. And Eddie Redmayne plays a legendary fictional hitman in Peacock’s The Day of the Jackal, out on November 7.

But with so much TV to be thankful for this month, we want to make sure you don’t miss a thing. Here are the five new shows you can’t miss this month. 

Like Water for Chocolate

Stars:  Irene Azuela, Azul Guaita, Ana Valeria Becerril, Andrea Chaparro, Andrés Baida, Ángeles Cruz, Mauricio García Lozano, Ari Brickman and Louis David Horné 

Premiere Date:  November 3 on Max with one new episode premiering each Sunday until the finale on December 8

From executive producer Salma Hayek Pinault, this six episode, Spanish-language series is based on the 1989 novel by Laura Esquivel. And if you are having a sense of deja vu that’s because the beloved novel was already turned into a 1992 movie. We are told at the start of the mystical series that the narrator learned a long time ago that “stories are neither entirely true nor false.”  Elena (Irenee Azeula) gives birth to her youngest daughter Tita (Azul Guaita), a child she doesn’t want. Nacha (Ángeles Cruz) teaches Tita (Azul Guaita) how to cook and Tita’s cooking becomes a sign of her love. But being the youngest daughter, Tita isn’t allowed to marry even when she falls deeply in love with Pedro (Andrés Baida). Her mother announces that Tita’s sister Rosaura (Ana Valeria Becerril) will marry Pedro instead as this series unfolds. 

Harry Potter: Wizards of Baking

Stars:  James Phelps, Oliver Phelps, Carla Hall and Jozef Youssef

Premiere Date:  November 14 at 8 p.m. on the Food Network with a new episode every Thursday until the finale on December 19

Calling all Muggles. James and Oliver Phelps, who played the mischievous twins Fred and George Weasley in all eight Harry Potter films, host this cooking competition which finds nine pairs of bakers and pastry chefs competing at Warner Bros. Studios in England. Each week, they present their creative concoctions to judges Carla Hall and Jozef Youssef in some of the movie’s most iconic settings including The Great Hall and the Forbidden Forest. First up, the teams must create a culinary creation that is two feet tall and includes at least one magical effect. The winning pair will take home the Wizards of Baking Cup and will appear in an upcoming Harry Potter Cookbook.

Holidazed

Stars:  Dennis Haysbert, Erin Cahill, Holland Roden, Ian Harding, John C. McGinley, Lindy Booth,  Loretta Devine, Lucille Soong, Noemi Gonzalez, Osric Chau, Rachelle Lefevre, Ser’Darius Blain and Virginia Madsen

Premiere Date:  The first two episodes premiere November 14 on Hallmark+  with one new episode premiering every Thursday until the finale on December 24. 

Hallmark is the undisputed champion of the holiday season, and this year it’s celebrating its 15th Countdown to Christmas. Now, for the first time, it is offering up a holiday series on its new streaming platform Hallmark+. The show follows six families who all live in the same cul-de-sac and all have different issues they are facing this holiday season. Each episode will focus on a different family. Keep an eye out for Loretta Devine as a woman who brings her much younger boyfriend (Ser’Darius Blain) to the holiday celebrations much to the chagrin of her ex-husband (Dennis Haysbert).

A Man on the Inside

Stars:  Ted Danson, Mary Elizabeth Ellis, Stephanie Beatriz, Lilah Richcreek Estrada, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Sally Struthers, Margaret Avery, John Getz, Susan Ruttan, Lori Tan Chinn, Clyde Kusatsu, Marc Evan Jackson, Jama Williamson, Wyatt Yang, Deuce Basco, Lincoln Lambert and Kerry O’Malley.

Premiere Date: All eight episodes premiere November 21 on Netflix 

Ted Danson reunites with his The Good Place creator Michael Schur in this Netflix comedy based on the Oscar nominated 2021 documentary The Mole Agent. Danson stars as Charles, a retired professor still mourning the death of his wife. His daughter (Mary Elizabeth Ellis) challenges him to try something new. So he goes undercover at the Pacific View Retirement Home in search of a valuable missing necklace. Stephanie Beatriz (from Schur’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine) co-stars as the retirement home’s director and the series is a who’s who of some of our most beloved sitcom stars, including the legendary Sally Struthers as one of the home’s more flirtatious residents. 

Cruel Intentions

Stars:  Sarah Catherine Hook , Zac Burgess, Savannah Lee Smith, Sara Silva, John Harlan Kim, Khobe Clarke, Sean Patrick Thomas and Brooke Lena Johnson 

Premiere Date:  All eight episodes premiere November 21 on Prime Video

Inspired by the 1999 movie of the same name (which, of course, was inspired by the 18th century novel Dangerous Liaisons), this eight-episode series brings a new set of conniving characters to the fictional setting of Manchester College. Caroline Merteuil (Sarah Catherine Hook) and Lucien Belmont (Zac Burgess) are two step-siblings who will stop at nothing to get what they want. And what they want this time around is to keep their Greek college life from meeting its demise after a hazing incident goes tragically awry. Sean Patrick Thomas who played Ronald Clifford in the movie 25 years ago now appears as a college professor.

Amy Amatangelo, the TV Gal®, is a Boston-based freelance writer and a member of the Television Critics Association. She wasn’t allowed to watch much TV as a child and now her parents have to live with this as her career. You can follow her on Twitter (@AmyTVGal).

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