Search

CBS All Access announced a trio of pickups on Tuesday, ranging from a murder mystery to a drug bust gone wrong. And, wait, what’s this about “sex magic rituals”?

Here’s a quick rundown of the three new offerings, all of which were announced during the Television Critics Association summer press tour:

* Drama series Strange Angel follows Jack Parsons, a “mysterious and brilliant” man living in 1940s Los Angeles, “who by day helps birth the entirely unknown discipline of American rocketry, and by night is a performer of sex magic rituals and a disciple to occultist Aleister Crowley.” (Wow, that suddenly took a really dark turn.) Strange Angel is based on British author George Pendle’s 2005 book of the same name.

* CBS All Access’ first original comedy series, No Activity — from Will Ferrell, Adam McKay and Funny Or Die — focuses on the more “mundane” aspects of a major drug cartel bust. For example, what are the low-level cops “who have spent far too much time in a car together” up to? How do the less in-the-know criminals feel about being kept in the dark? And what of the two Mexican tunnelers “who are in way too small a space considering they’ve only just met”?

* And then there’s mystery/thriller $1, which takes place in a “small rust belt town in post-recession America, where a one-dollar bill changing hands connects a group of characters involved in a shocking multiple murder. The path of the dollar bill and point of view in each episode paint a picture of a modern American town with deep class and cultural divides that spill out into the open as the town’s secrets get revealed.” (Figured we’d let that one explain itself.)