TV Talk: Is Netflix’s filmed-in-Pittsburgh ‘Archive 81’ worth watching? ‘Peacemaker,’ ‘Wolf Like Me’ also debut this week

Filmed-in-Pittsburgh “Archive 81,” streaming on Netflix Friday, is more supernatural thriller than horror series, with minimal gore but plenty of moody atmosphere, intriguing mystery and a few jump scares.

Adapted from a podcast of the same name by writer Rebecca Sonnenshine (“The Boys,” “The Vampire Diaries”), “Archive 81” starts strong with creepy atmospherics, gets a little confusing in its mythology around episode six but then clears everything up in time for a cliffhanger in the eighth episode, the show’s first-season finale.

“Archive 81” follows quiet, pensive Dan Turner (Mamoudou Athie), who is recruited by wealthy Virgil (Martin Donovan) to take a job restoring a collection of damaged videotapes from 1994. The ‘90s videos were shot by Melody Pendras (Dina Shihabi), who stumbles upon a cult living in New York’s Visser apartment building.

“Archive 81” constantly shifts between Dan’s present-day work, which he does in an isolated upstate New York compound, and Melody’s 1994 experiences. But the show makes these shifts in a way that’s clear and coherent. The series only becomes a little confusing in later episodes when it tries to piece together the cult’s mythology – but in time it all gets sorted out and clarity prevails.

Credit Sonnenshine and director Rebecca Thomas (“Stranger Things,” “Limetown”) with making “Archive 81” as understandable as it is and with the foreboding sense of dread and doom that hangs over Dan as he learns more about Melody’s 1994 experience.

Most episodes open with a short video that helps deepen and explain the mythology with shades of “Dispatches from Elsewhere” in these scene-setters. Through some of these – and the character of Dan’s best friend and podcaster Mark (Matt McGorry, “How to Get Away with Murder”) — “Archive 81” allows for some lighter, dark humor moments.

Pittsburgh mostly plays New York City in the series, although Mark makes a trip to Pittsburgh in episode three.

If “Archive 81” doesn’t quite stick its landing, it gets close enough as it sets up an intriguing prospect for a yet-to-be-ordered second season.

‘Peacemaker’

Big, loud and sorta dumb but often fun, HBO Max’s “Suicide Squad” series spin-off, “Peacemaker,” finds Christopher “Peacemaker” Schmidt (John Cena) out of prison but still indebted to the government and forced to go on missions with a new, less-expensive-than-the-“Suicide Squad”-cast crew.

The opening credits, featuring the entire cast dancing, are a hoot, as is some of the profanity-riddled dialogue, particularly an exchange early in the premiere between Peacemaker and a hospital janitor (Rizwan Manji, “Outsourced”). The janitor accuses Peacemaker – who made a “vow to have peace no matter how many people I have to kill to get it” – of racism for killing more whites than people of color.

Streaming Thursday, the entire first season was written by 2021 “Suicide Squad” director James Gunn, who also directed five of the eight episodes.

The action set pieces are massive for TV — clearly, HBO Max did not skimp on this show’s budget – but they also tend to go on and on, resulting in the plot advancing slowly in early episodes.

‘Wolf Like Me’

2003 Carnegie Mellon University grad Josh Gad already has one streaming series, Apple TV+’s “Central Park,” and he’ll soon film Disney+’s “Beauty and the Beast” prequel series centered on Gaston (Luke Evans) and LeFou (Gad), but before that there’s this slight entry.

“Wolf Like Me,” streaming Thursday on Peacock, stars Gad as Gary, an American widower living in Australia with his anxiety-riddled daughter. Gary meets Mary (Isla Fisher, “Wedding Crashers”), who has a secret that the series seems structured to suggest is a big reveal but the show’s title gives it away.

Series creator/director Abe Forsythe gives “Wolf Like Me” some occasionally funny moments, but it’s mostly a somber downer, careening from one traumatic event to another, mostly involving Gary’s daughter. Perhaps it’s intended to be a meditation on change and death gussied-up like a wolf in sheep’s clothing – while never showing the werewolf through the first three, of six, episodes – but “Wolf Like Me” is more of a bummer than a fun watch.

Kept/canceled

PBS’s “All Creatures Great and Small,” now in its second season on “Masterpiece,” has been renewed for its third and fourth seasons.

Amazon’s Prime Video canceled its “I Know What You Did Last Summer” series after a single season.

Channel surfing

Hallmark Channel’s “When Calls the Heart” returns for its ninth season at 9 p.m. March 6. … NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” returns Jan. 15 with Ariana DeBose (“West Side Story”) as guest host and Roddy Ricch as musical guest. … ABC renewed “Grey’s Anatomy” for the 2022-23 TV season. … Netflix renewed “Emily in Paris” for seasons three and four. … Apple TV+ renewed “The Morning Show” for a third season.