From ‘Peccato’ to ‘Nightsleeper’: this week’s TV series. From baseball to a mockumentary about Emanuela Fanelli

By Valerio Vestoso, written and performed by Emanuela Fanelli, starring Alessandro Borghi and Valerio Mastandrea (coming this autumn on HBO Max).

The exact release date is still unknown. However, the available details are sufficient to generate anticipation. The project is a mockumentary about Emanuela Fanelli, written and starring the actress herself, with high-profile guests. It has also been honoured with inclusion in the Venice Film Festival programme. The plot finds Emanuela Fanelli retired to a remote village in the Aosta Valley. How did she end up there, having turned her back on the world of show business? The action is set in 2049, the year of the second Blade Runner film. Far enough away, yet close enough, for the inevitable gags to come. The list of special guests ranges from Anna Bonaiuto to Paolo Virzi, including Gigi Marzullo and Tullio Solenghi.

By Glen Powell and Michael Waldron, starring Glen Powell and Steve Zahn (seasons one and two on Disney+)

Why have we overlooked her until now? Well, obviously, because baseball is involved. And yet we’d seen – and greatly admired – the actor in Richard Linklater’s "Hit Man – Killer by Accident". Among a thousand roles – but as we all know, for a girl, handsome men outside romantic comedies (in the broadest sense) are a waste. In the first series, our favourite was a student, the quarterback of the university team. Talented but utterly undisciplined, so they kept him on the sidelines. To avoid missing out on the sporting season, he pretends to be someone else: a talented, good-natured young man who turns the fortunes of a small, underperforming team round. The second series will focus on drama – even American football players have a heart.

By Nick Leather, with Alexandra Roach, Joe Cole and Lois Chimimba (Sky Atlantic and Now)

Tough times for trains and passengers. ‘Train to Busan’ is now in cinemas, and for us – that is to say, non-Korean viewers – it sparked the wave that has swept through TV series, as well as the more traditional festival formats. The narrative unfolds on a night train travelling between Glasgow and London. Controlled remotely. However, remote controls—a generic term referring to cybernetic systems guided by artificial intelligence that never sleeps—are not always 100 per cent reliable. It is a BBC series, with the second series already in the pipeline. With an all-new cast, the second season will be set aboard a ship on the Irish Sea. Those were the days when only aeroplanes were hijacked. Even the actors did not have it easy, spending 12 hours a day crammed into a carriage.

By Chuck Lorre, with Kevin Sussman, Lauren Lapsus and Brian Posehn (HBO Max)

A spin-off from one of the best-known, most beloved and longest-running series. The new series by Chuck Lorre – the man behind ‘The Kominsky Method’, ‘Mike & Molly’ and, above all, ‘The Big Bang Theory’, from which ‘The Young Sheldon’ was already derived – tells the story of Stuart Bloom, the comic book seller from whom the scientists used to buy their comics. When the shop burns down, he becomes the carer for Howard Wolowitz’s mother – the one with the quiff. Here, Stuart – who’s always a bit clumsy – breaks a quantum device built by Stuart and Leonard. This causes a colossal disaster in the universe, so he finds himself forced to travel between parallel universes to repair the damage. Each of the 10 episodes has a spoiler in its title.