Best TV of the week: Atlanta, One Mississippi and Oprahs latest drama

A hip-hop comedy, a sugar-cane family epic, a bitcoin thriller. This is a busy and diverse week

Premieres

Queen Sugar

Ava DuVernay made an Oscar-worthy splash with Selma and her next stop is television. Whos going to say no when Oprah Winfrey comes a-courting? Created by DuVernay, Winfrey and Melissa Carter based on the book of the same name, Queen Sugar follows estranged sisters Nova (True Bloods Rutina Wesley) and Charley (Dawn-Lyen Gardner) as they move to rural Louisiana to run the sugar plantation their father left them. Can these womens complicated pasts be resolved so that they can find a future for the family business? Were going to love finding out. OWN, Tuesday 6 September at 10pm EST

Atlanta

Most people see the rap industry on TV through Empire, which looks at the millionaires at the top of the game. Atlanta is the total opposite. Writer, director and star Donald Glover plays Earnest, a semi-employed Atlanta native who is struggling to get into the game and sees an opportunity when his cousin Paper Boi (Brian Tyree Henry) has a single that heats up the charts. But hip-hop is only the excuse for this funny and keenly observed portrait of what its like to be black in America. Whether or not youre into rap, this very well might be your new favorite show. FX, Tuesday 6 September at 10pm EST

Quarry

Full disclosure, Ive had the pleasure of meeting Quarry creators Michael D Fuller and Graham Gordy several times and they are quiet delightful. But so is their first series about a Vietnam vet (Logan Marshall-Green) who returns home from the war struggling with re-entry and a society that doesnt know what to do with him. He ends up enmeshed in the criminal underworld of Memphis in the early 70s. Its worth it just for the killer facial hair alone. Cinemax, Friday 9 September at 10pm EST.

New to streaming

StartUp

Free streaming platform Crackle has been expanding past Jerry Seinfelds Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee and trying their hand at original series. Their latest foray boasts an all-star cast featuring Adam Brody and Martin Freeman as a guy trying to get involved in a digital currency (think bitcoin) and the FBI agent who is hot on his trail when he winds up involved with some shady characters. Set in Miami, this isnt about the tech industry in the same way that Halt and Catch Fire or Silicon Valley are, but a more conventional cat-and-mouse drama with a bit of hacking thrown in for extra spice. Crackle, 6 September.

One Mississippi