The brew is potent indeed — a cocktail of dynastic intrigue, political unrest, and violence — in Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight‘s lurid and in-your-face historical drama about the combative heirs to the Guinness brewing fortune. The eight-part first season opens amid the turbulence of 1868, when the Dublin funeral of patriarch Sir Benjamin Guinness sparks fiery protests from rebellious Fenians seeking Irish independence and anti-alcohol temperance activists. The fun really begins when the will is read, leaving four siblings — diffident eldest son Arthur (Say Anything‘s Anthony Boyle), ambitious Edward (Louis Partridge), frustrated Anne (Emily Fairn), and dissolute drunkard Ben (Fionn O’Shea) — at odds and in conflict like a 19th-century version of Succession. James Norton (Happy Valley) costars as Sean Rafferty, the factory strongman and enforcer who demands loyalty to a brand that has its sights set on conquering America.

“Something’s off about this town,” said everybody who ever stumbled into a seemingly peaceful small town with dark secrets. But new police deputy Alex Dempsey (Mae Martin, star and creator), a trans transplant from Detroit with a pregnant wife (Sarah Gadon), isn’t wrong about the leafy Vermont hamlet Tall Pines and the nearby cult-like reform school shaping young delinquent minds, run by the unnervingly beatific wellness guru Evelyn Wade (Toni Collette, perfectly cast). The eight-part limited series juxtaposes Alex’s search for answers with the ordeal of two new Tall Pines Academy recruits, best friends and bad influences Abbie (Sydney Topliffe) and Leila (Alyvia Alyn Lind), as they experience the school’s bizarre and terrifying curriculum of radical therapy.

Class is back in session for the hilarious comedy about beleaguered high school English teacher Evan Marquez (series creator Brian Jordan Alvarez) and his wacky colleagues at Austin’s Morrison-Hensley High. Launching with three episodes — the entire 10-episode sophomore season can be streamed on Hulu starting Friday — Teacher opens with openly gay Evan’s progressive values challenged when his students decide to turn the school play (the AIDS epic Angels in America) into a Covid-era musical. Then he tries to bring AI tech into the school’s waste management system, until the interactive talking trash cans reveal a dark side. In the third and funniest episode, Evan and his pals go to dinner at the home of principal Grant Moretti (Emmy-worthy Enrico Colantoni), where his daughter’s boyfriend (an expert Micah Stock) sets off Evan’s gaydar.

The venerable legal drama opens its landmark 25th season with a continuation from last season’s cliffhanger, in which ADA Samantha Maroun (Odelya Halevi) is implicated in the death of an exonerated murder suspect she believes raped and killed her sister years earlier. The show’s rotating door has claimed Mehcad Brooks, whose character of Det. Jalen Shaw has transferred to another precinct, leaving Det. Vince Riley (Reid Scott) looking for a new partner and working more closely with Lt. Jessica Brady (Maura Tierney) in the interim.

The unstoppable spinoff, now in its 27th season, gets underway with the squad charged to protect a key witness while investigating a suspect for rape. Elsewhere, Capt. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) is challenged by a new chief of detectives, and Fin’s (Ice-T) work follows him home when he intervenes in an assault while off duty. Followed by Law & Order: Organized Crime (10/9c), presenting the fifth season, which originally was shown exclusively on Peacock earlier this year. In the opener, Det. Eliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) goes undercover to infiltrate a trucking company involved in smuggling, discovering a more disturbing side hustle in human trafficking of underage girls.

“No one’s safe with us,” laments Tony DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly), who barely has time to grieve his friend and Interpol colleague Henry (James D’Arcy) when he and Ziva (Cote de Pablo) intercept a distress call from their beloved 12-year-old daughter Tali (Isla Gie) and ex-agent nanny Sophie (Lara Rossi) when their supposedly safe house in Germany’s Black Forest is compromised. It should surprise no one that the offspring of such capable agents turn out to be brave and resourceful in the face of danger, but that doesn’t mean Tali doesn’t still need her mom and dad, who are still hours away.

INSIDE THURSDAY TV:

• Hell’s Kitchen (8/7c, Fox): The cooking competition’s 24th season opens with 50 semi-finalists in a “Battle of the States,” which is quickly whittled down to a Top 20, each chef representing a different locale. Followed by the Season 4 launch of the grueling Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test (9/8c), with a cast of famous and semi-famous recruits including Jussie Smollett, Olympian Shawn Johnson East and ex-NFL husband Andrew, Real Housewives’ Teresa Guidice and daughter Gia, soccer star Christie Pearce Rampone, and actress/model Eva Marcille.
• Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (8/7c, ABC): In case you haven’t heard enough about Jimmy Kimmel this week, the season finale of the game show he hosts airs on a special night, featuring comedians Sarah Silverman and Marc Maron in the hot seat, followed by The Office veterans Kate Flannery and Oscar Nuñez (The Paper). Followed by the broadcast premiere of the documentary Barbara Walters Tell Me Everything (9/8c), previously seen on Hulu.
• The Amazing Race (9/8c, CBS): The 38th running of the worldwide race begins in Amsterdam, with host Phil Keoghan welcoming teams of 13 Big Brother veterans with their partners (including one couple, Season 24 winner Taylor Hale and boyfriend Kyland Young from Season 23).
• Project Runway (9:30/8:30c, Freeform; streaming on Disney+): In the supersized finale, the final three designers present a capsule collection to decide the Season 21 winner.
• Cleopatra’s Final Secret (10/9c, National Geographic): A documentary follows the 20-year crusade by lawyer-turned-archaeologist Kathleen Martinez to find the final resting place of the legendary Egyptian queen. She enlists Titanic discoverer Bob Ballard in her quest when the search leads to a site offshore in the Mediterranean. 

ON THE STREAM:

• Lynley (streaming on BritBox): In the season finale, Lynley’s (Leo Suter) and Havers’ (Sofia Barclay) search for a possible serial killer leads to suspicion of corruption within the precinct.
• Silent Witness (streaming on BritBox): The 28th season of the long-running procedural returns with five two-part mysteries, featuring forensic pathologist Nikki Alexander (Emilia Fox in her 20th season) and her team investigating crimes, starting with the death of a vulnerable elderly woman found in a cave.
• Chloe Ayling: My Unbelievable Kidnapping (streaming on Sundance Now): To accompany the finale of the docudrama Kidnapped: The Chloe Ayling Story, the British model gives her first documentary interview since her abductors’ conviction.
• Cocaine Quarterback: Signal Caller for the Cartel (streaming on Prime Video): A three-part docuseries unwinds the cautionary tale of Owen Hanson, whose brush with fame as a walk-on player for the mighty USC football team leads to criminal detours in illegal sports bookmaking and cocaine smuggling.
• The Red King (streaming on AMC+): A six-part British mystery stars Anjli Mohindra as Grace, a police sergeant reassigned to a Welsh island that harbors an eerie religious sect which may be involved in the cold case of a young boy’s disappearance.