Once upon a time, television was an ephemeral, even disposable form of entertainment, cinema’s scrappy younger cousin. Today, much of Hollywood’s small-screen output is as star-studded and finely-crafted as anything you’ll find in theaters. The streaming prestige miniseries has all but replaced the theatrical mid-budget adult drama, while advances in digital effects (and exorbitant budgets) have made it possible to bring practically any fantastical world into the home. To someone living even a mere decade ago, a TV slate that included two new live-action Star Wars series and an Apple miniseries from Alfonso Cuarón and Cate Blanchett, would sound like a joke.
But on top of the flashy franchise installments and lavish historical epics, there are television shows that are still, essentially, television: Delightful single-camera sitcoms like Abbott Elementary and Girls5Eva, offbeat procedurals like Evil and Elsbeth, and animated comedies like Big Mouth and Hazbin Hotel. Big screen cinema may be clawing its way back to the top, but television — in all its forms — is still scrapping.
Here are the exciting new and returning shows to keep an eye on this year.
The Brothers Sun
Photo: Michael Desmond/Netflix
Release date: Premieres on Netflix on Jan. 4
“Michelle Yeoh stars as” is probably enough of a sell, but let’s continue. In the new Netflix series Yeoh plays the matriarch of a Los Angeles crime family. When war breaks out between rival gangs, the family must band together to protect their territory. The problem: One of her sons (Justin Chien) is a lethal assassin who’s been estranged from the family for years, and the other (Sam Song Li) has no idea what he was born into. Bloody, tightly choreographed action, complicated family drama, and fish-out-of-water comedy ensue.
Echo
Photo: Chuck Zlotnick/Marvel
Release date: Premieres on Disney Plus and Hulu on Jan. 10
Echo’s first trailer immediately set it apart from previous Disney Plus Marvel shows, boasting gnarly violence, an edgy adult tone, and a TV-MA rating. Though it still promises cameos and plot threads from other MCU properties, Echo looks to be an action-packed crime thriller first and foremost. Whether or not this bloody tale can stoke Marvel’s flickering flame is yet to be seen, but it’s also not the point — Marvel wants to assure you Echo is neither dependent on its parent show, Hawkeye, nor a mere precursor for some future crossover. It’s just a television show that can be enjoyed by Marvel fans and general audiences alike. Imagine that!
True Detective: Night Country
Photo: Michele K. Short/HBO
Release date: Premieres on HBO and Max on Jan. 14
It’s been a decade since HBO launched True Detective. While its first mystery was a critical phenomenon that had countless viewers gazing thoughtfully out of car windows musing about how “time is a flat circle,” none of the subsequent seasons have lived up to the hype, and the show itself now feels like a cold case waiting to be reopened. True Detective: Night Country aims to recapture the bone-chilling horror-thriller vibes of that first season, albeit in a dramatically different setting: the frozen Alaskan tundra. Jodie Foster and Kali Reis play a pair of cops still haunted by the case that destroyed their partnership six years prior. Night Country is helmed by director-showrunner Issa López, bringing her folk-horror bona fides to the chilling, supernatural-tinged crime drama.
Hazbin Hotel
Image: Prime Video
Release date: Premieres on Prime Video on Jan. 19
Rarely has an original series arrived on television with such a ready-made, rabid fanbase as Hazbin Hotel. The pilot episode of Vivienne Medrano’s animated musical comedy hit YouTube in 2019 and absolutely caught fire. (There are over 10,000 works of Hazbin Hotel fanfiction on AAO3 already.) The raunchy, violent workplace sitcom set at a rehab center for damned souls in Hell features the voices of Broadway star Erika Henningsen, Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s Stephanie Beatriz, and the legendary Keith David.
Mr. & Mrs. Smith
Photo: David Lee/Prime Video
Release date: Premieres on Prime Video on Feb. 2
From producer and star Donald Glover comes a new series kinda-sorta based on Mr. & Mrs. Smith, the 2005 film that hooked up Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie both on- and off-screen. The new version reverses the premise of the original, with Glover and Maya Erskine portraying a pair of spies who work undercover as a married couple. Sparks (and bullets) will fly as the Smiths embrace a new assignment each episode, opposite a magnificent array of guest stars like Paul Dano, Parker Posey, Michaela Coel, and Ron Perlman.
Abbott Elementary season 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8f0bK7njy8
Release date: Premieres on ABC on Feb. 7
Just when we thought the “docu-sitcom” was dead and buried, Quinta Brunson called us back into class with Abbott Elementary, an endlessly charming ode to America’s undervalued public educators. Two seasons and a handful of Emmys later, Abbott Elementary has come to occupy the space in our hearts left behind by Parks and Recreation, likewise a sunny satire about quirky public servants.
Halo season 2
Photo: Adrienn Szabo/Paramount+
Release date: Premieres on Paramount Plus on Feb. 8
After an eternity in development hell, the live-action Halo adaptation hit small screens in 2022 to what can generously be called a “mixed reception.” Bold as it was for showrunner Steven Kane to present a dramatically different take on the massively popular source material, no one seemed terribly interested in a show about an unmasked Master Chief reclaiming his humanity and losing his virginity. 343 Studios and Paramount Plus are looking to win fans back this year by promoting an action-heavy second season and making the first season free to watch on YouTube.
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Image: Robert Falconer/Netflix
Release date: Premieres on Netflix on Feb. 22
Let’s try this again. 14 years after the abysmal first attempt at adapting the acclaimed animated series to live-action, Netflix is unveiling its own take on Avatar: The Last Airbender. We emphasize “its own take” because ATLA creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko walked away from the project two years ago. Whether this new series will surpass the lifeless, whitewashed film version is hardly in question, but can this translation to live-action add anything new to the beloved story?
The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live
Photo: Gene Page/AMC
Release date: Premieres on AMC and AMC Plus on Feb. 25
The six-part miniseries set in the world of The Walking Dead sees the return of both Andrew Lincoln’s Sheriff Rick Grimes and Danai Gurira’s katana-wielding heroine Michonne. AMC’s initial announcement describes The Ones Who Live as “an epic love story,” one that may leave the door open for further stories with the duo. Given that Lincoln and Gurira’s departures are arguably what hobbled The Walking Dead to begin with, could this be the spinoff that jaded fans have been waiting for, or is it simply too late to revive mass interest in this sprawling, shambling franchise?
Shōgun
Photo: Katie Yu/FX
Release date: Premieres on FX and Hulu on Feb. 27
The word “epic” gets thrown around a lot nowadays, but Shōgun, a 10-part historical drama based on the acclaimed 1975 novel by James Clavell, appears worthy. FX chairman John Landgraf has hailed it as the network’s “biggest and most ambitious production ever,” and from the look of the trailer, that budget and scope certainly shows.
Elsbeth
Photo: Elizabeth Fisher/CBS
Release date: Premieres on CBS on Feb. 29
Elsbeth is the latest entry in Michelle and Robert King’s run of legal dramas that includes The Good Wife and The Good Fight (but not The Good Doctor), centering around fan favorite character Elsbeth Tascioni (Carrie Preston). The scatterbrained, effervescent defense attorney has appeared sporadically in the Chicago-based Good Universe since 2010, but her spinoff ships her off to the East Coast to lend her unique perspective to the NYPD.
Girls5Eva season 3
Photo: Heidi Gutman/Peacock
Release date: Premieres on Netflix on March 14
After languishing in Peacock obscurity for its first two seasons, showbiz comedy Girls5Eva has been picked up by Netflix, where — just like the titular pop group — they hope to finally get noticed. It’s a light, joke-dense comedy in the tradition of 30 Rock, created by Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt staffer Meredith Scardino and produced by Tina Fey, Robert Carlock, and Jeff Richmond. Can one of the best modern TV comedies mount the comeback it deserves?
Manhunt
Image: Apple TV Plus
Release date: Premieres on Apple TV Plus on March 18
Apple TV Plus and Monica Beletsky, showrunner for the third season of Fargo, present Manhunt, a 10-part historical drama/political thriller about the aftermath of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. The Crown’s Tobias Menzies stars as Edwin Stanton, the US Secretary of War, who obsessively pursues Lincoln’s killer, John Wilkes Booth (Anthony Boyle). The miniseries will reportedly also follow the efforts to preserve Lincoln’s Reconstruction agenda, and the assassination’s immediate and lingering impact on the rights and lives of Black Americans, drawing a line between the assassination and the still incomplete recovery from American slavery.
3 Body Problem
Release date: Premieres on Netflix on March 21
In the 20th century, the imagination of science fiction authors generally outpaced the technology to adapt their strange worlds or high concepts to the screen. Today, just about anything is filmable, including The 3 Body Problem, Cixin Liu’s acclaimed novel about the discovery of extraterrestrial life and its repercussions on our world. Netflix’s big-budget streaming series adaptation features an ensemble cast that includes Benedict Wong, Eiza Gonzalez, and Jonathan Pryce, but the biggest names attached are Game of Thrones producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. Given the reception of GoT’s final season, that may not inspire an abundance of confidence, but this time they’re dealing with completed source material.
Fallout
Image: Prime Video
Release date: Premieres on Prime Video on April 12
The era of the live-action video game adaptation is in full swing, and every major streamer wants a piece. The Fallout series follows a sheltered survivor of a nuclear apocalypse (Ella Purcell) as she ventures into a wasteland populated by mutants, scavengers, and a skull-faced gunslinger played by Walton Goggins. Developed by Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan of Westworld fame, and run by alums of Portlandia and Captain Marvel, Fallout certainly has an interesting pedigree, and with six core games to mine from, we can probably expect the series to have a long half-life.
Star Trek: Discovery season 5
Image: Paramount Plus
Release date: Premieres on Paramount Plus in April
Star Trek: Discovery boldly kicked off the franchise’s streaming renaissance, setting the stage for arguably more successful installments in Strange New Worlds and Lower Decks, but never truly becoming comfortable with itself. Retooled practically every year since its debut, Discovery gets one more shot to cement its legacy with its fifth and final season, which appears to be leaning more than ever into flashy action-adventure. Though it wasn’t initially intended as a last hurrah for Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and her crew, additional shooting was performed last year to wrap up the series, and hopefully ensures Discovery gets an appropriately emotional final hour.
Bridgerton season 3
Photo: Laurence Cendrowicz/Netflix
Release date: Part 1 premieres on Netflix on May 16; part 2 premieres on June 13
News from Lady Whistledown! The third season of Bridgerton is coming in two parts. The wildly popular regency romance continues as Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan), who is secretly London’s notorious Gossip Girl, moves on from her crush on Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton) — or does she? What happens to her quest for a practical marriage when her heretofore unattainable dream guy suddenly seems attainable? Something sexy, we wager.
Arcane season 2
Image: Netflix
Release date: Premieres on Netflix in November
The second season of Arcane has been three years in the making, and honestly, Fortiche and Riot Games deserve every second of it. Its first season was a surprise knockout, a compelling story whose appeal reached far beyond the League of Legends fanbase. The steampunk/fantasy/coming-of-age action-tragedy has produced some of the most instantly iconic, fan-art-ready characters of the decade, and we can’t wait to see what’s next for sisters and revolutionary rivals Vi (Hailee Steinfeld) and Jinx (Ella Purnell). Actually, we can wait. Take all the time you want, we’ll be here.
Agatha: Darkhold Diaries
Image: Disney Plus
Release date: Premieres on Disney Plus this fall
Hey, remember back in 2021, when Marvel’s expansion onto Disney Plus had just begun and everyone was really jazzed about WandaVision? How exciting it was when we learned, via a catchy musical number, that the villain was “Agatha All Along?” Remember how the fandom cheered when it was announced that Kathryn Hahn’s charismatic, diabolical witch would receive her own spinoff? Well, here it is, with a lot of other MCU stuff behind it. Agatha: Darkhold Diaries is a dark comedy that will star not only Hahn, but America’s terrifying crush Aubrey Plaza, Heartbreaker’s Joe Locke, and Broadway legend Patti LuPone.
The Penguin
Photo: Macall Polay/Max
Release date: Premieres on Max in late 2024
Ey, take it easy, sweethaht! The story of Gotham mafioso Oswald “Oz” Cobblepot will be streaming on Max before you know it. Colin Farrell, under a lot of heavy makeup, will reprise his role in this spinoff from Matt Reeves’ The Batman, which will chart the Penguin’s attempt to fill the power vacuum left by mob boss Carmine Falcone. This isn’t the first attempt at a crime drama set in the world of Batman (remember Gotham?), but this one’s got Farrell’s star power and a place in (one of) the Batman movie continuit(ies), so it’s likely to attract more mainstream attention.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight
Release date: TBA on HBO and Max
Who’s up for more Game of Thrones? Alongside House of the Dragon, Max has commissioned this series in Westeros, with all six episodes co-written by George R.R. Martin himself. The Hedge Knight is based on the first entry in his novella series, Tales of Dunk & Egg, following the adventures of Ser Duncan the Tall and his squire, Aegon Targaryen, a century before the events of Game of Thrones. As of this writing, the series has yet to be cast, making a 2024 release feel optimistic at best, but given the popularity of House of the Dragon, Warner Bros. Discovery surely wants to put The Hedge Knight in front of audiences as soon as possible.
Dark Matter
Release date: TBA on Apple TV Plus
Not to be confused with the 2015 space sci-fi series of the same name, Dark Matter is an adaptation of the novel by Blake Crouch, in which a physicist finds himself unstuck in the multiverse, bouncing between unnerving alternate versions of his own life along his journey home. Crouch adapts his own work as showrunner for the nine-part miniseries for Apple TV Plus, which stars Joel Edgerton and Jennifer Connelly in the lead roles.
Sugar
Release date: TBA on Apple TV Plus
Colin Farrell seems to be everywhere of late, and you will likely see him again next year as the star of the Apple TV Plus detective series Sugar. Written and produced by Mark Protosevich, best known as the screenwriter of sci-fi thrillers I Am Legend and The Cell, Apple describes the project as “a genre-bending contemporary take on the private detective story,” we can reasonably assume that there will be some sort of fanciful twist.
Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire season 2
Photo: Larry Horricks/AMC
Release date: TBA on AMC and AMC Plus
The first bona fide hit from AMC Plus returns with a new season — and a new Claudia, with Delainey Haines succeeding Bailey Bass as the teenage vampire. The main attraction is, of course, Sam Reid as Lestat de Lioncourt, the worst person ever to live, who we expect to continue to delight and repulse us simultaneously. Interview has excited Anne Rice fans old and new with its fresh take on the bestselling novels, examining race and sexuality through a found family of bloodthirsty immortals.
House of the Dragon season 2
Photo: Ollie Upton/HBO
Release date: TBA on HBO and Max this summer
House of the Dragon is the leaner — and, improbably, even meaner — prequel to Game of Thrones, tracing the history of the Targaryen family during their reign over the grim fantasy world of Westeros. Based on a fictional history text rather than a novel, House of the Dragon thrives by being “an unspoilable show,” where the key events are a given and the intrigue comes from learning why these political animals make their presaged power moves. The upcoming season finds the dragon-riding despots embroiled a in civil war, promising a lot less dinner-table bickering and a lot more spitting of literal fire from the mouths of their scaly flying mascots.
Star Wars: The Acolyte
Photo: Christian Black / Lucasfilm Ltd.
Release date: TBA on Disney Plus
Is there room for new Star Wars? Tony Gilroy’s Andor, which ranks amongst the best Star Wars stories ever, gave us hope and every new piece of news about The Acolyte, the new series from Russian Doll co-creator Leslye Headland, remains promising. Set during the High Republic era when the Jedi are at the peak of their power and benevolence, The Acolyte promises to add some new flavors to the Star Wars recipe, such as a wuxia-inspired action aesthetic and an environment in which “the bad guys are outnumbered.”
Star Wars: Skeleton Crew
Release date: TBA on Disney Plus
Speaking of Star Wars, Skeleton Crew is a youth-oriented adventure that co-creator Jon Watts likens to classic Amblin coming-of-age stories. Much of the cast is young and relatively unknown, but it does boast Oscar-nominee Jude Law front and center as a Jedi, as well as a very interesting stable of directors. In addition to Star Wars stalwarts Bryce Dallas Howard and Lee Isaac Chung, The Green Knight’s David Lowery and Everything Everywhere All at Once’s Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert are taking turns behind the camera.
Dune: Prophecy
Release date: TBA on Max
Dune: Part Two’s release delay was heartbreaking but patience will be rewarded big time in 2024. But in addition to Part Two’s arrival in theaters in March, we’re also getting a prequel series, Dune: The Sisterhood. Set 10,000 years before the events of the films, Sisterhood will shed light on the Bene Gesserit, the mysterious order that prophesies the galaxy’s future and then, through millennia of cultural engineering, makes it happen. The first two episodes will be helmed by Johan Renck, the Emmy-winning director of Chernobyl.
Daredevil: Born Again
Release date: TBA on Disney Plus
It’s been a decade since the Marvel Cinematic Universe first expanded to the small screen, first with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on ABC, then with a string of interconnected Netflix series geared towards an adult audience. Even after the demise of that project, there’s no getting rid of Charlie Cox as Daredevil, who has since guest starred in She-Hulk and Spider-Man: No Way Home. Now, the Man Without Fear is back, along with Vincent D’Onofrio as his nemesis Wilson Fisk, for a new series on Disney Plus — or, rather, he will be, once Marvel gets their ducks in a row. The studio just tossed out multiple episodes that had completed shooting and are taking the whole show back to formula as they rethink their entire television strategy.
Kite Man: Hell Yeah!
Release date: TBA on Max
What a journey the past few years have been for Kite Man. Initially a Z-tier Batman villain with no cultural footprint, Kite Man became a recurring character on the way-funnier-than-you’d-expect Harley Quinn animated series, where comedian Matt Oberg portrays him as the epitome of an average, affable midwestern guy who happens to pull elaborate heists while wearing a kite on his back. Now, he’s getting his own spinoff, bringing along a few other popular HQ characters (namely James Adomian’s Bane) for what appears to be more of the R-rated, self-aware comic book hijinx that fans have come to expect. Sounds like a great way to pass the time while we wait for Harley Quinn season 5.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 2
Image: Prime Video
Release date: TBA on Prime Video
Amazon’s unbelievably expensive streaming series based on the appendices to Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings will return this year, having spent its first season, as ProSpelare’s Josh Rivera put it, playing a secret game of Werewolf with all of its characters. Now that we know where most of our characters are aligned — including the identity of the Dark Lord Sauron — the game must change. Here are a lot of questions left to be answered, but the biggest of all might be whether or not The Rings of Power can find its footing as a series.
Marvel Zombies
Image: Marvel Studios/Disney
Release date: TBA on Disney Plus
Each episode of the MCU’s first animated series, What If?, explores a different alternate universe, usually branching off of the films’ timeline at some key juncture. One installment, however, is inspired directly by the popular Marvel Zombies comics series, in which an unstoppable virus turns most of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes into flesh-eating monsters. Now, the plague is spreading to its own animated series from What If? director Bryan Andrews, in which “a new generation of heroes” will try to fight back the super-powered zombie hoard.
Moana: The Series
Release date: TBA on Disney Plus
Moana’s streaming sequel was announced during the early days of Disney Plus back in 2020. Small-screen continuations were once an expected stage of the life cycle of any Disney animated features (even The Emperor’s New Groove got one), but Moana sounds more ambitious than those Disney Channel standards. The series will see Auli’i Cravalho reprising her role from the animated original (and the upcoming live-action version), and a “musical comedy” format, implying original songs in each episode.
Orphan Black: Echoes
Release date: TBA on AMC, AMC Plus, and BBC America
This spinoff from the hit Canadian sci-fi drama Orphan Black sports the clever tagline: “A completely unique copy of the original.” Like the 2013 series, Echoes centers around a woman who discovers that she is one of multiple identical genetic clones. Echoes, however, has not only a new star in Krysten Ritter, but a new setting in the glossy neon future of 2052.
The Veil
Image: FX
Release date: TBA on FX and Hulu
Elizabeth Moss stars in this limited series from FX, Hulu, and Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight. This globe-trotting thriller revolves around a conflict between two women, one deadly secret, and thousands of lives in the balance. This will be Steven Knight’s fourth series for FX, after the historical crime drama Taboo and his grim adaptations of A Christmas Carol and Great Expectations, though he is also the writer-director of the underrated Tom Hardy film Locke and the absolutely unhinged Serenity.
X-Men ’97
Release date: TBA on Disney Plus
There’s been an incredible renaissance in X-Men comics over the past five years, with the entire line receiving a much-needed overhaul that has redefined many of the iconic Mutant heroes and elevated many of the more obscure ones to places of prominence. It’s an exciting new era that is, so far, totally untapped in screen media. So, naturally, the upcoming X-Men animated series is a continuation of the 1993 cartoon, resurrecting the classic roster, costumes, and voice cast. Will this reboot find a way to blend the familiar, memetic series with the new characters and ideas from the intervening 20 years of X-Men comics? We hope so, but we absolutely promise you there will be at least one scene of Wolverine gazing longingly at a framed photo of someone.
Big Mouth season 8
Release date: TBA on Netflix
While Netflix has developed a reputation for prematurely canceling their original series, the raunchy animated coming-of-age comedy Big Mouth is rounding out a record-setting eighth season. The series, which stars a who’s-who of alt-comedians and Saturday Night Live alums, has both shocked and charmed audiences with its blend of shamelessly filthy comedy and sincere, progressive commentary on modern adolescence. Big Mouth will have its final say on puberty, sexuality, shame, and mental health this year — via monsters and dick jokes, of course.
You season 5
Release date: TBA on Netflix
After traveling to a different city each season, homicidal bookworm Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) returns to New York for the final chapter of You. The psychological drama has habitually reinvented itself, and the end of season four teases what will make Joe’s final act unique: At last, the truly hopeless romantic has accepted that he’s a monster, and he’s ready to run with it.
The Umbrella Academy season 4
Release date: TBA on Netflix
Finally, that Gerard Way project you love is back! No, not My Chemical Romance (though, it’s good to have you back, boys), we’re talking about The Umbrella Academy, the Netflix show loosely based on Way and artist Gabriel Bá’s comics series. The series is coming to an end with its fourth season, and since this live-action version has already diverted significantly from its source material, even devoted fans could be in for some big surprises.
Star Wars: The Bad Batch season 3
Release date: TBA on Disney Plus
The Bad Batch, a spinoff from the long-running Star Wars: The Clone Wars, is returning for a third and final season that will wrap up the story of the fugitive Clone Force 99. Set in the immediate aftermath of the Prequel Trilogy, The Bad Batch has depicted the eerie and violent transformation of the Galactic Republic into the Galactic Empire, through the eyes of the tank-grown soldiers who look back at their service in the Clone Wars and say, “Oops.” Like The Clone Wars and Rebels before it, The Bad Batch is a kid-targeted show that has grown more mature over the course of its run, and while we don’t expect its ending to break our hearts like the finale of Clone Wars, fans of the franchise will definitely want to give it a shot.
Vikings: Valhalla season 3
Photo: Bernard Walsh/Netflix
Release date: TBA on Netflix
Vikings: Valhalla, a Netflix spinoff from The History Channel’s first scripted drama, is drawing to a close. We surmise it will end the age of Vikings, with historical icons Leif Erikson (Sam Corlett), Freydís Eiríksdóttir (Frida Gustavsson), and Harald Sigurdsson (Leo Suter) poised for a deadly conflict with the English. (Spoilers for a thing that happened a thousand years ago: it’s not going to end well for them.)
American Horror Story: Delicate part 2
Release date: TBA on FX and Hulu
Ryan Murphy’s anthology series American Horror Story is onto its 12th installment, and it’s…good now? Color us shocked, but the first half of AHS: Delicate caught our attention with its emphasis on psychological horror over shock and gore, and its pivot from ensemble drama to a focus on a single character, a rising Hollywood star and aspiring parent portrayed by Emma Roberts. There are a lot of new elements that you could point towards to explain the show’s uptick in quality — new showrunner Halley Feiffer, the source material by author Danielle Valentine — but we wouldn’t have guessed that a standout performance from Kim Kardashian would be one of them.
The Boys season 4
Release date: TBA on Prime Video
The meanest, nastiest, and probably most believable depiction of a world full of superheroes returns to lampoon American politics and celebrity culture once more. How does a society cope when its most powerful individuals flaunt their narcissism, to the thunderous applause of the general public? Is there any hope for a world where the worst people get to thrive, consequence-free, while the rest of us spend our lives on the precipice of total ruin? Is democracy doomed as harshly divided camps rally behind leaders who would rather stoke their rage than solve their problems? Anyway, we should get back to talking about The Boys.
Chucky S3 part 2
Release date: TBA on Syfy, USA, and Peacock
Keeping a horror franchise fun and interesting after 35 years is anything but Child’s Play, but Chucky has breathed new life into the killer doll saga while discarding none of its messy continuity. The bizarre horror comedy sees Chucky (voice of Brad Dourif) spilling blood and swapping bodies as usual, while bonding with bullied gay teenager Jake (Zackary Arthur) and revisiting a string of his past victims and companions. Season 3 finds Chucky settling into his new home — the freaking White House — and it’ll be up to Jake to kill Chucky (some more) and prevent an international incident.
The Diplomat Season 2
Photo: Alex Bailey/Netflix
Release date: TBA on Netflix
Keri Russell returns for more twisty political intrigue in The Diplomat, a terrific Netflix thriller that came out of nowhere when its first season dropped in 2023. Russell portrays an ambitious American politician who is unexpectedly assigned as the US Ambassador to the United Kingdom, a position that is typically not taken seriously. Power brokering and high-stakes conflict ensue, sometimes pitting her directly against her shrewd, equally adept diplomat husband (God’s perfect weasel Rufus Seward).
Evil season 4
Release date: TBA on Paramount Plus
Evil, the paranormal procedural that was too weird to stay on CBS, is back on Paramount Plus this year. Priest David Acosta (Mike Coulter), forensic psychologist Dr. Kristen Bouchard (Katja Herbers), and technologist Ben Shakir (Aasif Mandvi) investigate strange phenomena that may or not (but frequently are) caused by demons. Part X-Files, part Hannibal, and part The Exorcist, Evil is a critical darling that still hasn’t achieved the wider viewership it deserves.
Squid Game season 2
Release date: TBA on Netflix
Hwang Dong-hyuk’s Squid Game is the most popular program ever to debut on Netflix, watched for a cumulative 1.6 billion hours worldwide in its first month. A second season was a given, whether or not the story truly demands one. My taste for more of the clever and devastatingly cruel survival drama has lessened somewhat after learning how poorly Hwang and the cast were compensated for their blockbuster hit, to say nothing of Netflix’s distasteful and generally lousy game show adaptation, but in truth, there’s no way I’m opting out of Squid Game. As in the show, the rewards are simply too great to pass up.
Invincible season 2 part 2
Release date: TBA on Prime Video
Image: Prime Video
Invincible, the animated series based on the long-running comics series by writer Robert Kirkman and artists Cory Walker and Ryan Ottley, has suffered some long production delays since it launched in 2021, but fans will tell you, this show is well worth the wait. More than a pastiche of coming-of-age superhero stories, Invincible makes better use of the genre’s tropes than its mainstream counterparts and leans into its potential for nuance and social commentary. Plus, it’s gleefully self-aware and so very, very violent. For grown-up superhero comics fans, this is a can’t-miss.
Disclaimer
Release date: TBA on Apple TV Plus
Acclaimed filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón hasn’t released a new film since 2018’s Roma, and he’s very rarely lent his talents to television since his film career took off in the 1990s. Oscar-winner and arguably Hollywood’s greatest living actor Cate Blanchett has dipped her toe into the world of prestige streaming television only once, with 2019’s Miss America. The two artists have never worked together, but now they’ve teamed up for an Apple TV Plus miniseries based on a thriller by Renée Knight. Blanchett plays a journalist who realizes that the mystery novel she’s reading is actually about her, and could reveal her most closely guarded secrets.
Star Trek: Prodigy season 2
Release date: TBA on Paramount Plus
The past five years have seen the Star Trek franchise expanding aggressively in multiple directions, but the most surprising of all its new offerings is Star Trek: Prodigy, the kid-targeted animated series from Trollhunters creators Kevin and Dan Hageman. Prodigy is designed as an on-ramp for viewers with no history or prior interest in the Star Trek universe, essentially a metafictional hyperbaric chamber that acclimatizes Star Wars fans to the more sunny and cerebral world of Trek. Along the way, it’s generated a few of streaming Trek’s best episodes and unfolded an exciting longform story in its own right, which is why it stung so much when Paramount decided not to air its nearly-completed second season. Thankfully, Netflix stepped in to ensure that fans new and old would get the chance to see the remaining 20 episodes.