| August 3, 2026 
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Fighting crime in Glacier National Park | | Tracy Spiridakos as the titular park ranger in the new USA procedural “Anna Pigeon.” Michelle Faye/USA Network |
Dear Watchers,They say nature is healing. But Anna (Tracy Spiridakos), the titular park ranger of “Anna Pigeon,” prefers numbing her pain with “work and wine.” Years ago, an unknown assailant murdered her husband, Zach (Jordan Sledz), in their Manhattan home. Shortly after, Anna fled the city, joining the law enforcement division of the National Park Service. But not all is well. She has worked at five different posts in three years, had a string of one-night stands and has an attachment style that her psychologist sister, Molly (Tricia Helfer), calls avoidant. Anna clearly hasn’t processed the trauma from her old life. In the first episode, premiering Friday on USA, Anna is preparing to leave Glacier National Park, in Montana, for another new post. Then a fellow ranger’s death upends her plans. Her boss Geoff (Ryan Northcott) is quick to chalk it up to a cougar attack, but Anna isn’t buying it. Dodging his attempts to shut her down, Anna sleuths her way to the (human) culprit and decides that sticking around might not be so bad after all. Spiridakos’s Anna is aggressively self-sufficient, and the show has fun with her discomfort around her quirky co-workers. Among them are an eager ranger mentee (Paulina Alexis), a down-on-his-luck colleague (Manuel Rodriguez-Saenz) and a beleaguered dispatcher (Crystle Lightning). When the group surprises her with a ukulele-and-pie serenade to celebrate her decision to stay, she tells her sister she already has “buyer’s remorse.” The remaining nine episodes hew closely to the crime-of-the-week formula, sometimes testing credulity. Who knew a single national park would be such a hotbed of crime? (The author of the popular source novels, Nevada Barr, avoids this problem by setting each one at a different park.) Zach’s murder haunts the series, too, surfacing in Anna’s nightmares and in the continuing F.B.I. investigation, pursued quietly by a friend of hers (Ronnie Rowe) at the bureau. “Anna Pigeon” makes the most of Glacier’s serene beauty — a contrast to Anna’s inner turbulence — interweaving the drama with long overhead shots of stately pines, meandering streams and craggy peaks. A character in its own right, the park is imperiled by budget cuts, but also by polluters, poachers and profiteers. Anna repeatedly butts heads with the worst of the local criminals, Jeremiah Paulson (Kim Coates), a wealthy developer who covets the park’s resources and, of course, drives a hulking, black gas-guzzler. “This place is worth fighting for,” Anna’s mentee tells her as yet another criminal is caught and order restored. It’s a typically tidy sentiment for a show that can sometimes resort to platitudes. But the show’s earnestness, and the lingering mystery at its heart, make it easy to keep watching. Also this week | | Igby Rigney as Bret and Kaia Gerber as Susan in Ryan Murphy’s latest, “The Shards,” adapted from the semi-autobiographical novel by Bret Easton Ellis. FX |
- The first seven episodes of Season 2 of “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” a Spanish-language adaptation of the Gabriel García Márquez novel, premiere on Wednesday, on Netflix. The series finale will air on Aug. 26.
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- Based on the semi-autobiographical novel by Bret Easton Ellis, “The Shards” follows a group of students at an elite private school in 1980s Los Angeles just as a serial killer targeting teenagers terrorizes the city. The series, created by Ellis and Ryan Murphy, debuts on Wednesday at 9 p.m., on FX and Hulu.
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- A collaboration between Production I.G. and Lucasfilm, the eight-episode anime series “Star Wars: Visions Presents — The Ninth Jedi” continues the saga of Lah Kara, a Force-sensitive girl, set long after the fall of the Sith and the disappearance of the Jedi Order. The series arrives on Wednesday, on Disney+ and Hulu.
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- The adult animated series “Alley Cats,” created by Ricky Gervais, follows a group of feral, foul-mouthed cats, featuring the vocal talents of several of Gervais’s frequent collaborators (including Tom Basden, David Earl and Kerry Godliman). All six episodes, each about 15 minutes, arrive on Friday, on Netflix.
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