(Photo: Paul Kolnik/Courtesy of the American Ballet Theatre (dancers); Courtesy of Showtime (Homeland); Courtesy of NBC (Run the Jewels); Joe Lederer/Courtesy of Netflix (Series of Unfortunate Events); Courtesy of HBO (Beware the Slenderman))

TV
1. Watch A Series of Unfortunate Events
Beatrice dies again.
This lavishly mounted adaptation of the best-selling books follows the Baudelaire orphans as they try to prevent their inheritance from falling into the hands of the evil Count Olaf. Here, TV proves a much more suitable medium for long-form serialized fiction than the stand-alone �theatrical film; the entire thing just feels more cohesive. —Matt Zoller Seitz
Netflix, January 13.

Pop
2. Listen to I See You
An English treat.
Five years have passed since the last album from Britain’s the xx, but new single �On Hold� suggests the hushed indie rock and fey house grooves favored by producer Jamie xx and bandmate Romy Madley Croft are undiminished by the time off. —Craig Jenkins
Young Turks, January 13.

Art
3. See Liz Glynn: The Myth of Singularity
Conjuring a new kingdom.
Here, Glynn dips into recent history by recasting parts of Rodin’s sculptures and taking the fragments to make even more fragmentary wholes. The installation will also feature a new performance exploring notions of empathy and somatic responses to the 2016 presidential �election. —Jerry Saltz
Paula Cooper Gallery, through February 11.

Movies
4. See Patriots Day
With a Wahlberg.
Peter Berg’s fictionalized take on the Boston �Marathon bombing is no masterpiece, but it should probably be seen for making the �ticking time-bomb� case that’s used to justify government surveillance about as well as it could be made. (That’s not a political endorsement!) Here, in one fell swoop, is why some politicians feel that those with Islamic leanings need to be monitored. —David Edelstein
In theaters now.

Books
5. Read History of Wolves
Fascination and dread commingle.
Imagine one of those twisty �Girl�-titled mysteries in the hands of a great stylist. Emily Fridlund’s debut is something like that, but better. The young novelist evokes the creaks and shivers of a Minnesota winter as expertly as she plumbs the mind-wanderings of a teenage daughter of failed commune-dwellers. —Boris Kachka
Atlantic Monthly.

Classical
6. Hear Contact!
In the nick of time.
The New York Philharmonic was about to scrap its small but essential new-music series when it was rescued by a small corps of insiders that included the orchestra’s executive director. New music is always a labor of love, but when high-level musicians have to fund their own concert activities, it gives new meaning to the expression pay to play. —Justin Davidson
National Sawdust, January 23.

Theater
7. Attend The Fire This Time Festival
The rainbow sign.
Now in its eighth season (it won an Obie Award in 2015), this annual festival of rising playwrights of African and African-American descent presents panel discussions, workshops, readings of full-length plays and plays-in-progress, a web-series program, an evening of ten-minute plays, an open-mic night, and more. —Jesse Green
Kraine Theater, January 16 through February 5.

TV
8. Watch The Investigator: A British Crime Story
No Googling, spoilers abound.
America’s Got Talent executive producer Simon Cowell oversaw this compelling true-crime story fronted by Mark Williams-Thomas, the investigator who exposed Jimmy Savile as one of the most prolific child molesters in England. The subject is the 1985 disappearance of Carole Packman. When this series aired in England last year, it unearthed new evidence that inspired police to review the case. —M.Z.S.
Netflix, January 13.

Theater
9. See The 1599 Project
’Twas a very good year.
The dates of Shakespeare’s plays are much debated, but fuzzy enough to justify batching four of them � Henry V, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, and at least a draft of Hamlet � under the flag of 1599. Mashing them up, the Irondale Ensemble offers a four-hour marathon in which Henry, Brutus, Rosalind, and the indecisive Dane each takes up, for a time, the thread of a single tale. —J.G.
Irondale Theater, January 18 through February 3.

Books
10. Read Selection Day
All bets are off.
In his third novel, Booker Prize winner Aravind Adiga continues to tackle India’s socioeconomic growing pains, this time through the prism of cricket, the nation’s postcolonial pastime. Two brothers excel at it under the domineering coaching of their father, a sort of Williams dad gone mad, pursuing a sport that offers class uplift but also exploitation and corruption. —B.K.
Scribner.

Art
11. See James Siena, �Drawing�
Crystallizations of art and science.
James Siena is a wonderful drawer. See his small, tight, seductive, squirrelly repeating lines form concentric patterns that fall into visual pools of almost metaphysical meditations. Get lost in looking and the pleasures of the hand while detecting reason in every repetition. —J.S.
Pace Gallery, through February 11.

Pop
12. Listen to Run the Jewels 3
Taking what’s theirs.
Rap odd couple Run the Jewels deepens its jarring clash of New York grit and Atlanta attitude with this month’s Run the Jewels 3. Rapper-producer El-P and political firebrand Killer Mike have lots to talk about amid the current government upheaval; guests Danny Brown, Trina, Kamasi Washington, and Tunde Adebimpe from TV on the Radio are there to help. —C.J.
Mass Appeal Records, January 13.

Comedy
13. Go to What a Joke: A National Comedy Fest
Laugh through the tears.
On Inauguration weekend, comedians in nearly 30 cities will perform in shows with proceeds going to the ACLU. The New York edition will feature the likes of Janeane Garofalo at the Stand (January 19) and Dave Hill at Rough Trade (January 21).
Various locations, January 19�21.

Classical
14. Hear Missa Papae Marcelli
Choral majesty.
Few works of music are as mythically significant as Palestrina’s 1562 Mass in memory of Pope Marcellus. The legend goes that its lush, intricate beauty persuaded the ideologues of the Council of Trent not to ban polyphonic music from the Church. That a cappella splendor endures, courtesy of the vocal ensemble New York Polyphony and Columbia’s Miller Theatre. —J.D.
Church of St. Mary the Virgin, January 21.

Movies
15. See Pirandello 150
Paying tribute to a Nobel laureate.
The work of the Sicilian playwright and novelist Luigi Pirandello never really caught on in the U.S. In any case, as part of New York’s �Pirandello 150� celebration (it’s the anniversary of his birth), Film Forum presents a week of movies based on his work. The best is the Taviani brothers’ delightful Kaos (1984), but you can also catch the 1926 silent drama The Late Mathias Pascal with live piano accompaniment. —D.E.
Film Forum, January 13�19.

Theater
16. See Get Happy
Chase all your cares away.
Though Harold Arlen was a composer, he was such a great one, with so many fine collaborators, that �Lyrics & Lyricists� has chosen to begin its 2017 with a concert of his early songs, from 1929 (�Get Happy�) to 1939 (�Over the Rainbow�). Broadway regulars Stephen DeRosa and Erin Dilly lead a cast accompanied by Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks, playing vintage charts. —J.G.
92nd Street Y, January 21�23.

TV
17. Watch Homeland
Carrie’s in a New York state of mind.
Just in time for the inauguration, Homeland returns for season six to offer us an alternate reality where a female president-elect is about to take office, threatening the various powers-that-be. Cue up your cry-face.
Showtime, January 15.

Theater
18. See The Exponential Festival
Downtown jamboree.
Now in its second year, the Exponential Festival showcases the work of several downtown New York theater artists in venues across Brooklyn. Highlights include Porto, a theatrical exploration of food, sex, and feminism at the Bushwick Starr, and The Last Class: A Jazzercize Play at Chez Bushwick.
Various locations, through January 31.

Opera
19. Hear Sir John in Love
A Shakespeare-inspired marvel.
The Bronx Opera is one of those arts organizations that labor, if not exactly in obscurity, then lit by a 40-watt bulb of glory, yet fortify the city’s cultural life. Now 50, the company has had Ralph Vaughan Williams’s robustly tuneful Falstaff opera pretty much to itself over the years, staging it in the ’70s and ’80s, and now once more. Miss it this time and you may not get another shot for a generation. —J.D.
Lehman College, January 14 and 15; Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College, January 21 and 22.

TV
20. Watch Beware the Slenderman
Terror IRL.
This chilling documentary tells the story of 12-year-olds Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier, who lured their best friend into the woods and stabbed her nearly to death at the behest of a mysterious being known as the Slenderman. Equally a procedural and a study of how mass hysteria is abetted by social media. —M.Z.S.
HBO, January 23.

Dance
21. See New York City Ballet’s Art Series
Moving visuals.
For the past three years, New York City Ballet’s Art Series has executed an admirable premise � collaborating with visual artists � with mixed results. This year, that seems likely to change. Finnish-born, Brooklyn-based Santtu Mustonen studied ballet as a figure skater growing up, and he says the digital installation he’s created aims to �make work move like a dancer.�
David H. Koch Theater; January 17�February 26.

Pop
22. Listen to Oczy Mlody
Trippy as hell.
Flaming Lips front man Wayne Coyne described his group’s new album as sounding like A$AP Rocky and Pink Floyd’s Syd Barrett getting trapped in a fairy tale together. The closing track features an appearance by Coyne’s pal Miley Cyrus.
Warner Bros., January 13.

Books
23. Read Always Happy Hour
Women on the verge.
Somewhere between the old trope of the fallen woman and the unctuousness of the likable heroine, the young narrators of Mary Miller’s searching stories inhabit the middle space known as reality. They drink, bed the wrong men (or the right men at the wrong times), and puzzle over peers who seem to have figured life out. —B.K.
Liveright.

Books
24. See Ottessa Moshfegh
Homesick in a new home.
The first author event in Greenlight Bookstore’s brand-spanking-new Prospect�Lefferts Gardens store will feature Ottessa Moshfegh discussing her new short-story collection, Homesick for Another World, with Brooklyn author and editor Michele Filgate. Wine reception to follow.
Greenlight Bookstore PLG, January 23.

Classical
25. Hear Staatskapelle Berlin
Soaring to new heights.
The conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim is fond of mountainous challenges; leading all of Bruckner’s sprawling, extravagant, sublime symphonies�and playing a fistful of Mozart piano concertos into the bargain�over nine concerts is about as Himalayan as it gets. —J.D.
Carnegie Hall, January 19�29.