Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week.

Every now and then TV networks wind up premiering a lot of new shows all in the same week. This is one of those weeks.

‘Atlantic Crossing’

A rare non-British period costume drama on PBS’s “Masterpiece,” this heavily subtitled Norwegian production (9 p.m. Sundays through May 23, WQED-TV) tells the true World War II story of the Crown Princess of Norway, Martha (Sofia Helin), who escaped to America while her husband, Crown Prince Olav (Tobias Santelmann), stayed behind with King Haakon VII (Soren Pilmark).

Early episodes featuring the escape from Nazi invaders and family separations prove worthily harrowing and then the story takes a turn when FDR (Kyle MacLachlan, “Twin Peaks”) invites Martha and her kids to stay at the White House.

He seems smitten with her as whispers suggest FDR’s wife Eleanor (Harriet Sansom Harris) is living in New York with a woman.

While the crown princess’ influence on FDR is historically questionable, even FDR’s son thought his father had a crush on Martha.

Featuring a contemporary theme song, “When” by Suzanne Sundfor, another rarity for “Masterpiece,” “Atlantic Crossing” proves itself a decent soap (think: a lower budget “The Crown”), albeit one that suffers from some plots holes (the family of a royal employee becomes separated in the premiere and then their story is forgotten until the show returns to it briefly in episodes four and five).

‘Chad’

Former “Saturday Night Live” regular Nasim Pedrad stars in “Chad” as an extremely awkward 14-year-old Persian-American boy who’s desperate to be popular.

A cringe comedy of the cringiest order, “Chad” (10:30 p.m. Tuesday, TBS) takes all the worst moments one could imagine happening in high school and inflicts them on the lead character, who can be obnoxious and sometimes deserving of his peers’ raised eyebrows.

“Chad” is sure to gain a cult following but it’s too niche to steal the thunder of the grand poobah of uncomfortable comedy, “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”

‘Kung Fu’

The CW’s “Kung Fu” (8 p.m. Wednesday, WPCW-TV) appears to be inspired in title only by the 1972-75 series. This time around the show follows a Chinese-American 20-something woman, Nicky Shen (Olivia Liang), who viewers meet as she studies at a monastery in China.

These early scenes show promise in developing Nicky’s relationship with a mentor but then “Kung Fu” brings Nicky back home to San Francisco and the show becomes a patented CW series featuring family turmoil, fight scenes, hints of romance and a serialized arc about Nicky’s search for an assassin.

Representation matters, so the existence of an almost all-Asian cast on a broadcast network series is a welcome development even as the show’s format and themes feel overly familiar.

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)