The year ahead promises to be a pivotal one for the TV industry: HBO is charting a path into its post–Game of Thrones future with a flurry of high-profile adaptations; Netflix will face serious challenges from a trio of new streaming services by Disney, Apple, and WarnerMedia; and the march of Hollywood’s A-list to the small screen has burst into a full-on sprint. In other words, there’s a ton of great television coming in the next 12 months. Here’s our obsessive guide to the shows we’re most excited to see in 2019, arranged in chronological order by premiere date. Happy watching!
Good Trouble (Freeform, January 8)
When the Freeform series The Fosters ended its five-season run last June, heartbroken fans could at least take solace in the impending spinoff Good Trouble, which follows Callie (Maia Mitchell) and Mariana (Cierra Ramirez) as they move out of the Adams Foster home and to Los Angeles to chase their dreams. Picking up roughly a year after the Fosters finale, Good Trouble catches up with Callie and Mariana as they acclimate to their new roommates (read: lots of new characters) and navigate their way through entry-level jobs at a law firm (Callie) and tech start-up (Mariana), both of which Mitchell has said veer into “quite political†territory. With Fosters executive producers Peter Paige, Bradley Bredeweg, and Joanna Johnson returning — not to mention 2018’s internet boyfriend, Noah Centineo, in a two-episode cameo arc — Good Trouble is positioned to provide a seamless transition for adrift Fosters fans, and maybe pick up some new ones along the way. —Genevieve Koski
You’re the Worst season five (FX, January 9)
The rom-com about awful people who don’t believe in romance comes to an end in its fifth and final season by focusing on the upcoming wedding of the self-involved Jimmy (Chris Geere) and the dysfunctional Gretchen (Aya Cash). Is it possible that two people who first bonded by scoffing at commitment will wind up happily ever after? Honestly, I’m not sure if I’m even rooting for that to happen, which is what is so intriguing about this last season of You’re the Worst, a series that has made a perverse sport of subverting any and all rom-com tropes. —Jen Chaney
Brooklyn Nine-Nine season six (NBC, January 10)
We came very close to losing one of the silliest, warmest comedies on TV last spring when Fox canceled Brooklyn Nine-Nine, but the show was rescued by NBC and is now returning to TV. Season five ended with Jake and Amy’s wedding and a cliffhanger about whether Holt will become NYPD commissioner; season six picks up right where five left off, with Jake and Amy on their honeymoon and the gang getting back together. Hot damn! —Kathryn VanArendonk
True Detective season three (HBO, January 13)
The arc of opinion about Nic Pizzolatto’s crime noir series True Detective swung from laudatory to derisive in record time, and after its poorly received second season, it seemed possible that the anthology series would never return. But time truly is a flat circle, because 2019 is giving us not just a third season of True Detective, but a third season starring Mahershala Ali in three different timelines, playing a man who struggles to solve a case that eluded him as a young detective and continues to haunt him in his old age. The third season is a return to the themes and tics of season one, so if you’re in it for southern gothic darkness with a solid dose of creepy-ass dolls, you will probably enjoy yourself. —KVA
The Passage (Fox, January 14)
Producer Ridley Scott bought the film rights to Justin Cronin’s 2010 vampire-apocalypse novel The Passage before it was even fully written, but development stalled once the book revealed itself as an epic that spanned decades, dozens of characters, and, ultimately, two more brick-sized books (2012’s The Twelve and 2016’s City of Mirrors). In other words, it’s the kind of expansive story that’s better suited to ongoing serialized television, which is where Scott, along with co-executive producers Matt Reeves and Liz Heldens, ultimately landed the project. Fox’s adaptation of The Passage focuses on the story’s genesis in the work of Project Noah, a top-secret medical project doing viral experimentation with the potential to eradicate all disease, and/or the human race. No prizes for guessing which way that scenario ends up going — Cronin’s book is an apocalypse novel, after all — but who knows, maybe Mark-Paul Gosselaar, who stars as a rogue federal agent trying to protect Project Noah’s latest test subject, will save us all. —GK
Corporate (Comedy Central, January 15)
A common criticism about The Office during its run was, for real-life office employees, watching the show felt too painfully close to reality to enjoy. But what if a workplace comedy stretched that reality to even more depressing extremes? That’s what Matt Ingebretson, Jake Weisman, and Pat Bishop’s Corporate — the delightfully dark yin to the lighthearted yang of the sadly canceled Detroiters — serves up with a supporting cast including Anne Dudek, Aparna Nancherla, and Lance Reddick as the CEO/evil overlord of the largest corporation on Earth. If you like your comedy extra bleak, you’re going to want to check out the show that “makes It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia feel like a baby’s princess-themed birthday party†when it returns this January. —Megh Wright
Schitt’s Creek season five (Pop TV, January 16)
I’m so happy people are finally discovering this gem of a sitcom after four years, because for a while, my body was on autopilot yelling at randos to “watch Schitt’s Creek, dammit!†If you’re still oblivious to its comedic greatness: The Rose family are forced to shack up in a boondocks town after losing their massive fortune, and, uh, let’s say they’re not particularly pleased about their new motel living arrangements, but in due time, they learn to accept it. (Canadian royalty Catherine O’Hara and Eugene Levy are the parents, need we say more?) You’ll never look at wigs or pronounce “David!†the same way again, we guarantee it. —Devon Ivie
Black Monday (Showtime, January 20)
First of all: Don Cheadle, Regina Hall, and Andrew Rannells — what a trio. Second, we’re all about exposing the frailty of America’s financial institutions via over-the-top satire. Showtime’s series traces the events that led to the stock market crash of 1987, with Cheadle, Hall, and Rannells playing outsiders trying to break into Wall Street’s very white, very male club. The supporting cast includes big-shouldered coats, big hair, many polo shirts, and lots and lots of cocaine. —Jackson McHenry
The Other Two (Comedy Central, January 24)
Former SNL head writers Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider, who made their name with pretaped sketches like “Wishin’ Boot†and “(Do It On My) Twin Bed,†are writing their own show, with a premise that’s delightful on its own: The rise of teenage pop star Chase Dreams (Case Walker), as witnessed by his two older siblings (Heléne Yorke and Drew Tarver). But most of all, I can’t wait to see what Molly Shannon (who starred in Kelly’s movie Other People) does with the role of Chase’s overbearing stage mom. —JM
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt season four (Netflix, January 25)
Four seasons in, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt remains one of the best joke-delivery vehicles on TV, even if it can feel like it’s spinning its wheels, character development–wise. With the news that the show will wrap up after this batch of episodes, there’s hope that it’ll go out with a bang, and maybe, the possibility that some of poor Kimmy’s trauma will be resolved. —JM
I Am the Night (TNT, January 28)
One of the pleasures of the 2017 blockbuster Wonder Woman is witnessing the collaboration between director Patty Jenkins and star Chris Pine. In my estimation, Pine is the best of the Hollywood Chrises due to his ambition and skill as an actor, and Jenkins perfectly understood the wry humor, vulnerability, and sense of an expansive inner world that Pine has at his best. The TNT limited series I Am the Night sees the actor-and-director team collaborating on a wildly different work: a period piece neo-noir about a young girl (India Eisley) who finds herself on the trail of a gynecologist involved in the infamous Black Dahlia murder. Pine plays Jay Singletary, a scuzzy and morally complex reporter, a role that acts as a great contradiction for his warm, inviting good looks. I am curious to see how Pine and Jenkins approach a genre as pitch-black as noir, especially because I Am the Night is a story tangled by race, brutality, and mid-century America’s vision of itself. I believe they are up for the challenge of bringing this to life. —Angelica Jade Bastién
Russian Doll (Netflix, February 1)
If you like weird dark comedies, a Groundhog Day–type premise, Natasha Lyonne, Amy Poehler, absorbing TV shows under 30 minutes long, and slick editing that neatly juggles tension and humor, you must set aside a weekend in February to watch Russian Doll. It’s a new Netflix series starring Lyonne and co-written by Lyonne, Poehler, and Leslye Headland, and it will fill the post-comedy hole in your chilly, black heart this winter. —KVA
One Day at a Time (Netflix, February 8)
We forgive One Day at a Time for putting Rita Moreno in a hospital bed and breaking our hearts as the Alvarez family (Schneider and Doc included) visited Lydia, who was in a coma, and told her what she meant to them. The powerful second-season finale culminated a season that dealt with anti-Trump protests (without uttering the president’s name), depression, a teenage girl’s first gay kiss, and Lydia and Schneider becoming U.S. citizens. Along the way, we laughed a lot, ate pastelitos, and — thank God! — Lydia recovered. So did we, but it’s time for a new dose of our favorite crazy Cubans. Azucar! —Maria Elena Fernandez
Pen15 (Hulu, February 8)
I knew within the first 30 seconds of the new Hulu series Pen15 that I was going to love it. It felt like it was made specifically for me, probably because it was made for anyone who felt awkward in seventh grade, especially a girl growing up around the dawn of AIM. Produced by the Lonely Island team, the show stars co-creators Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle as Maya and Anna, best friends living through the uniquely dumb pain of middle school. Yes, two adult women play versions of themselves as seventh-graders, and the kicker is, they’re surrounded by a cast of actual teenagers. It doesn’t sound like it should work, but it does, weirdly well, in ways that make the show self-aware about the tragedies of adolescence. While it tips more toward funny than sad, I laughed and cried my way through episodes about female masturbation, thongs, and mean-girl racism. There are lots of comedy-dramas you could compare Pen15 to, most recently Eighth Grade, but I’d say the closest analogue is Freaks and Geeks, for the way it puts its characters through torture while maintaining a deep humanism at its core. It’s also got the kind of magic Broad City did in its early seasons, in large part because these two unknowns are going to be stars overnight. —Gazelle Emami
Doom Patrol (DC Universe, February 15)
The second show from DC Universe — Warner Bros.’ experiment in direct-to-consumer streaming — features characters we already met in the first offering, Titans. Doom Patrol will follow the travails of the titular team, a group of scarred and screwed-up superheroes led by a domineering paterfamilias (Timothy Dalton, always a welcome presence). Brendan Fraser lends his voice to the depression-prone Robotman; Matt Bomer voices a man who merged with powerful energy and lives his life wrapped in bandages; Jane the Virgin and OITNB alum Diane Guerrero plays a woman who can shrink and grow at will. The comics versions of these characters have long thrived in a mix of humor and agony, so you can likely look forward that heady brew here as well. —Abraham Riesman
The Umbrella Academy (Netflix, February 15)
This new Netflix series from Steve Blackman (Altered Carbon, Fargo, Legion) is based on the Eisner-winning comics series written by Gerard Way (former leader of My Chemical Romance), which approaches the familiar premise of a dysfunctional superhero “family†(see also: X-Men, Fantastic Four) through an aesthetic lens that splits the difference between Tim Burton and Wes Anderson. The Netflix adaptation looks to follow that stylistic direction as it introduces seven “gifted†children who were adopted by an eccentric billionaire and trained to save the world, only to splinter and drift apart as they entered adulthood. Might a tragedy bring this fractured family back together just in time to face a new threat that’s bigger than anything they’ve faced before? It just might! —GK
Desus & Mero (Showtime, February 21)
The brand is strong! The Bodega Boys — Desus Nice and The Kid Mero — cultivated the best, messiest, most fun show on Viceland, where they talked Black Twitter memes and Kanye West in front of a full-size taxidermied bear. But the Boys outgrew their Viceland show, and have now made the move to Showtime. (Also: The shade in Vice cutting the Boys’ contract short when they heard they’re onto bigger and better things.) Mero told The New York Times Magazine that their vision for the show is “mash-up of The Daily Show and the Chappelle show.†—Hunter Harris
Better Things (FX, February 28)
No show on TV explores single parenting more realistically or poignantly than Pamela Adlon’s Better Things. Its second season was a provocative master class in mother-daughter relationships that culminated with a gorgeous season finale — I’ll never listen to Christine and the Queen’s “Tilted†again without thinking of Sam’s beautiful graduation present to her daughter Max, a choreographed dance routine she offers with Max’s sisters, Frankie and Duke, and their grandmother Phil. Adlon directed the entire season, co-wrote most of the episodes, and of course starred in them all. The third season will be her first without her longtime writing partner, disgraced comedian Louis C.K. I doubt we’ll notice any difference. —MEF
American Gods (Starz, March 10)
After a turbulent year-plus of musical chairs in which showrunners left or were sidelined and actors subsequently gave up on the project, American Gods is out to convince fans that nothing’s changed. From what we know, this season will take viewers to Cairo, Illinois and the famed Wisconsin attraction known as the House on the Rock, which readers of the Neil Gaiman novel that the show’s based on will know are locations of great significance. And as the show’s narrative careens toward an inevitable conflict between the Old Gods and the New, we’ll also be getting glimpses of the past, including a look at the 1930s, when the Technical Boy was the Telephone Boy. Gaiman worshippers rejoice, for your savior’s work is being done. —AR
Shrill (Hulu, March 15)
Based on Lindy West’s funny and occasional furious 2016 memoir, Hulu’s six-episode comedy series Shrill could end up being just the sort of comedic showcase that Saturday Night Live’s Aidy Bryant deserves. Produced by Bryant alongside SNL czar Lorne Michaels and Elizabeth Banks, Shrill has been described as the story of an overweight young woman who “wants to change her life, but not her body,†and Bryant has the comedic chops to translate West’s sharply funny and incisive voice to a narrative, character-based format. Plus, with a pedigree like this, chances are good that Julia Sweeney playing Bryant’s mom is just the beginning of the SNL crossovers we’ll see on this series. —GK
Billions season four (Showtime, March 17)
When it returns this year, Brian Koppelman and David Levien’s show about conspicuous excess will jump off from a high point of palace intrigue: The chief antagonists who had driven the show up to now, hedge-funder Bobby “Axe†Axelrod (Damian Lewis) and U.S. Attorney Chuck Rhoades (Paul Giamatti), were both pushed out of their respective kingdoms by younger and more treacherous rivals (Asia Kate Dillon’s chief investment officer Taylor Mason, and Clancy Brown’s U.S. attorney general Waylon “Jock†Jeffcoat). —Matt Zoller Seitz
Killing Eve season two (BBC America, April 7)
The first season of Killing Eve is one of the most propulsive, mordantly decadent, impeccably acted TV debuts in recent memory. Adapted from Luke Jennings’s novella series, Killing Eve proves the perfect venue for the skills of series creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge. In Waller-Bridge’s hands, the typical dynamic of the dogged government agent and psychopathic is not only subverted because both of the protagonists are women — the series is injected with tantalizing sexual tension, enough hallmarks of obsession to make Hitchcock proud, and moments rich with darkly entrancing humor to offset all the horror that the proficient, petulant assassin Villanelle (Jodie Comer) unleashes as she both obsesses over and eludes the complex, equally focused MI6 agent, Eve Polastri (Sandra Oh). Now that Villanelle and Polastri have faced off, leaving the assassin with a gut wound and trashed apartment, I am curious how the world of the show will continue to bloom. How will the show fare without Waller-Bridge? Will the intense sexual tension between Eve and Villanelle boil over? There are many questions I am eager to have answered in season two. But most importantly, I am excited to see Sandra Oh continue with a role that lives up to her great skills as an actress to bruise and delight in equal measure. —AJB
Games of Thrones season eight (HBO, April TBD)
Since it debuted in 2011, Game of Thrones has served up cinematic battles galore, wild plot twists, a murderous shadow baby, and countless shocking deaths. While last season was a bit all over the place — literally, how did characters travel hundreds of miles so quickly? — winter is here, and even the most casual fan can admit that they’ll want to know how the epic fantasy series ends. In the eighth and final season, family secrets will be revealed, wars will be waged, incest will inevitably occur, a zombie dragon will fly, and when the snow settles, we’ll finally know which man, woman, or White Walker sits on the Iron Throne. That is, if there even is an iron throne left in Westeros. —Tolly Wright
Catch-22 (Hulu, Spring TBD)
Previously adapted to film by the late Mike Nichols, Joseph Heller’s classic World War II satire gets a big-budget mini-series treatment in this international co-production. Regular filmmaking partners George Clooney and Grant Heslov (Good Night and Good Luck) are overseeing a cast that includes Clooney, Kyle Chandler, Hugh Laurie, and Giancarlo Giannini. Former Girls regular Christopher Abbott stars as U.S. Air Force bombardier John Yossarian, who runs afoul of the self-canceling “catch†of the title: You have have to be insane to want to fly combat missions, but asking to be removed from duty is evidence of a rational mind, and disqualifies an airman from being excused. —MZS
Deadwood movie (HBO, Spring TBD)
Listen up, hoopleheads! After years of begging, speculation, optimism, and doubt, David Milch is actually making a film-length follow-up to Deadwood. It’s one of the best television shows of all time, and when it was abruptly canceled after its third season, many of its stories were left without any resolution. Much of the original cast has returned for the movie, including Timothy Olyphant as Seth Bullock and Ian McShane as Al Swearengen. No word yet on the presence of unauthorized cinnamon. —KVA
Fosse/Verdon (FX, Spring TBD)
Theater is coming to television in a very big way with this FX limited series about director-choreographer Bob Fosse and dancer Gwen Verdon, their torrid personal history, and their contributions to theater history. Sam Rockwell and Michelle Williams are playing the title characters, while Lin-Manuel Miranda is executive producing. The supporting cast includes a bunch of cool theater and TV actors who can definitely dance, so this show better commit to re-creating some of Verdon and Fosse’s best work for us. —JM
Jane the Virgin season five (The CW, Spring TBD)
Say good-bye to one of TV’s very best shows. Jane the Virgin’s fifth season will be its last, and showrunner Jennie Urman has promised that it will be a full-circle journey for Jane and the Villanueva family. Will Sin Rostro get her comeuppance? Will Jane’s career as a novelist ever take off? Will Rogelio ever popularize the telenovela for American audiences? Will we ever learn who the Narrator is? Will Jane have a happy ending, and if so, with who?! —KVA
Veep (HBO, Spring TBD)
TV has had a number of successful political series in recent years. But none has placed its finger so directly on the Zeitgeist — actually, ahead of the Zeitgeist — as Veep has. Even though the Emmy-winning comedy takes place in a fictional parallel universe where the scheming Selina Meyer, played to two-faced perfection by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, is not identified as Democrat or Republican, its gallows humor and chaotic portrait of Washington has felt increasingly accurate in the Trump era. As the series winds down with its final seven episodes — which find Selina once again running for president against multiple candidates, including the captain of D.C. douches, Jonah Ryan (Timothy Simons) — I am very optimistic it will find a way to make American politics funny again. —JC
What We Do in the Shadows (FX, Spring TBD)
Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement’s exuberantly silly vampire movie gets a second afterlife with this FX series. The show takes the premise — a house full of ancient, undead roommates living in a modern city — and moves the action from New Zealand to Staten Island. The vampires (played here by Kayvan Novak, Matt Berry, and Natasia Demetriou) came to America centuries earlier with the intentions of turning the country into a nation of blood-sucking nocturnal monsters, but they keep getting distracted. Waititi, Clement, and Paul Simms serve as executive producers of the supernatural hijinks. —TW
Younger season six (Paramount, Spring TBD)
Sometimes you just need a sugary, flaky, 21-minute confection of a sitcom to perk you up, and that is what Younger has become for me. (See also: Schitt’s Creek.) Wonderful performances by Sutton Foster, Hilary Duff, and Miriam Shor’s necklaces aside, it’s nice being immersed in a world where women are the HBICs and kicking literary ass. The very nice clothes are an added bonus. —DI
Stranger Things season three (Netflix, July 4)
Before the second season of Stranger Things dropped on Netflix, I was fairly certain it could not live up to the massive, unexpected hype generated by season one. I turned out to be wrong. The lackluster stand-alone seventh episode aside, Stranger Things 2 was an even more emotionally moving drama than the first installment, one that managed to hit on all the ’80s nostalgia pressure points while telling its own, uniquely absorbing story. Now that we know when season three will arrive and that it will focus on the events in Hawkins, Indiana, in the summer of 1985, I find myself anxious to see whether the Duffer brothers can conjure more of their retro sci-fi magic, and once again uncertain that it’s possible. In the realm of the Upside Down, that skepticism may actually be a good sign. —JC
Big Little Lies (HBO, Summer TBD)
Look, I admit the theme song alone gets me excited. But spending more time with “I love my grudges†Madeline and her BFF Celeste? Heaven. And finding out who will dare to mess with Renata?! Gold. And what about Jane and Bonnie, now forever part of the bonded-by-murder inner circle? We’re yet to find out, but after they all pranced happily together on the beach, these Monterey ladies seem unstoppable. And have you heard? Meryl Streep is coming to town as Celeste’s mother-in-law. Evil Perry’s mama? Delicious. You can all have Game of Thrones — leave me over here with my real-estate porn and the best group of women HBO has ever gifted us. (Sorry, Sex and the City.) —MEF
Transparent finale (Amazon, Fall TBD)
In light of all the behind-the-scenes Transparent drama — the allegations of sexual harassment by Jeffrey Tambor, which ultimately led to his firing — whatever happens next in the story of the Pfeffermans is going to be interesting. The fact that the show’s Tambor-less finale will be a movie-musical that, according to what series creator Jill Soloway recently told the New York Times, “will hopefully feel like Jesus Christ Superstar mixed with La La Land mixed with Flight of the Conchords with something more Jewish thrown in� Well, that’s about as intriguing as it gets. —JC
Barry season two (HBO, TBD)
The droll and dark first season of Barry implied that its hit man protagonist, played in a brilliantly understated turn by Bill Hader, just wanted to get out of the professional killing business. But by the end of those initial eight episodes, it became obvious that Barry has no idea how to stop murdering people and is willing to do whatever it takes in the name of self-preservation. That suggests season two could get even darker, giving Hader and the rest of this excellent cast even more layers to play with and multifaceted masks to wear. —JC
Better Call Saul season five (AMC, TBD)
If Peter Gould and Vince Gilligan’s Breaking Bad prequel had decided to call it quits after season four, it would’ve been able to say that it went out on a perfect, if disquieting, high note: Disgraced attorney Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk) officially reinvented himself as Saul Goodman, the lawyer of the worst of the worst, while ex-cop turned underworld fixer Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks) lost a bit more of his soul. But there’s still more story to tell — including what becomes of Jimmy/Saul’s partner and sometime-squeeze, Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn), who seems to have solidified her moral compass at a time when other characters were losing theirs. Plus, there’s all that cartel action. —MZS
Black Mirror season five (Netflix, TBD)
Love it or hate it, Black Mirror demands to be noticed. Fresh off the interactive, choose-your-own-adventure Bandersnatch movie, this pitch-black sci-fi anthology series has fans thirsting for more bleak tech nightmares. They might wanna prepare for a wait, though: Bandersnatch was such a headache to make, apparently, that the show’s upcoming fifth season has been delayed. It’s still due to drop sometime in 2019, which means you’ll just barely have enough time to watch every one of Stefan’s many Bandersnatch endings first. —Chris Heller
BoJack Horseman season six (Netflix, TBD)
One of the great joys of being a TV critic is the annual thrill of finding a new season of BoJack Horseman in my Netflix queue. Somehow this series gets smarter and resonates more deeply every season. That was certainly true of the most recent fifth go-round, which forced the washed-up-ish equine actor voiced by Will Arnett to face up to his transgressions as a misogynistic alcoholic while also shining more of a spotlight on the comedy’s female characters. The way that most recent season ended makes me especially interested to see where it goes next, especially if that new direction involves BoJack actually figuring out how to be less of a self-involved dick. —JC
The Central Park Five (Netflix, TBD)
In this docudrama about the arrest and trial of the Central Park Five for murder, Ava DuVernay combines three of her persistent directorial fascinations: racial discrimination, the prison-industrial complex, and the effect of state-inflicted trauma on defendants’ families and friends. Michael K. Williams, Vera Farmiga, and John Leguizamo head a formidable ensemble cast. DuVernay is teamed against with her regular cinematographer Bradford Young (Solo), who has worked with her on five projects. —MZS
The Crown season three (Netflix, TBD)
The third season of The Crown should be something of a litmus test for the hit Netflix series, which will once again jump forward in time between seasons — only this time, it will do so with a new main cast. Can the series maintain its momentum, which arguably sputtered in season two, while also reorienting itself around a new time period (the 1970s) and a new slate of actors? When those actors include The Favourite’s Olivia Colman as an older (and wiser?) Queen Elizabeth, Helena Bonham Carter as Princess Margaret (whose divorce will likely be a major plot point), and Tobias Menzies (Outlander, Game of Thrones) as Prince Philip, plus the introduction of Camilla Parker Bowles (played by Call the Midwife’s Emerald Fennell), chances are very good it can. —GK
The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (Netflix, TBD)
The most extreme manifestation of Muppet creator Jim Henson’s attempts to prove that puppets weren’t just for children, the 1984 Dark Crystal film was a critical and commercial flop that remains more vividly remembered than some of that year’s most successful films. No substantial details are available on the Netflix reboot, but we’re assured that the character and set design will be consistent with Henson’s original vision and that all the characters will be handmade puppets performed by human operators. —MZS
Dear White People season three (Netflix, TBD)
Justin Simien’s college comedy-drama was one of several series that took a leap forward in quality during its second season last year, climaxing with a revelation that completely altered our perceptions of a major character while wondering how on earth the writers could possibly justify the twist. That’s not a bad starting place for a series whose watchword is audacity. —MZS
Devs (FX, TBD)
Alex Garland, the man behind mind-bending sci-fi films Annihilation and Ex Machina is getting to write and direct his own mind-bending TV show about some sort of mysterious tech-company conspiracy. It’s shrouded in mystery for now, and all we know is that Sonoya Mizuno leads an enviable cast that includes Nick Offerman, Jin Ha, Zach Grenier, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Cailee Spaeny, and Alison Pill. Film auteur–to–TV transitions don’t always pay off, but this is a mighty intriguing pitch. —JM
The End of the F***ing World, season two (Netflix, TBD)
Charles Forsman didn’t begin his career thinking he’d be a hit with the teens, but entertainment works in mysterious ways. The cartoonist published a graphic novel called The End of the Fucking World in 2013, but although it received a fair share of acclaim, the book’s popularity was dwarfed by that of its screen adaptation. The creators ported Forsman’s narrative from America to England but retained his brutal honesty about the obscene desires one experiences as an adolescent and the joy and horror that come when those desires are acted upon. The first season ended on an ambiguous note, so it’s anyone’s guess what teenage ne’er-do-wells James (Alex Lawther) and Alyssa (Jessica Barden) will get up to this time. —AR
Fargo, season four (FX, TBD)
Noah Hawley’s Coen brothers-inspired anthology series is going even further back in time, to 1950, following an African-American gang boss (Chris Rock) in conflict with the Mafia in jazz-saturated Kansas City. The synopsis makes it sound more pointedly historical and political than past seasons, with a story pitting the descendants of slaves who fled persecution in the Jim Crow south against recently arrived European immigrants. The big flourish: To keep the peace, the crime bosses have agreed to trade sons and raise them as their own. —MZS
Fleabag (Amazon, TBD)
With Fleabag, creator-writer-star Phoebe Waller-Bridge took a story about a young London woman navigating personal dilemmas both mortifying and heartbreaking, then injected it with such insight it proved genius. The comedy was pitch-black, often coming in fourth-wall-breaking asides to the audience during awkward sex scenes or embarrassing mistakes. The drama proved bruising. Fleabag (played by Waller-Bridge) had to navigate an endlessly fraught relationship with her sister, a shifting sense of self, and the aftermath of various tragedies in a way that felt emotionally rich because Waller-Bridge wasn’t striving to make some grand statement about modern womanhood. Instead, she simply untangled the internal life of a single woman and her place in the world. Waller-Bridge went on to write the outstanding crime series Killing Eve and co-star in Solo: A Star Wars Story. Now that her career has bloomed and her voice has grown, I am curious to see how that will resonate in her return to Fleabag, a show whose strength is partially in its simplicity and detail. —AJB
GLOW, season three (Netflix, TBD)
When we last left the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, they were on a bus headed toward Vegas, en route to a nightly stage show on the Strip. A change of both scenery and stakes bodes well for the Netflix show as it heads into its third season with a more inclusive, fleshed-out approach toward its ensemble and the various interpersonal relationships therein. Sure, Ruth’s ever-tenuous relationships with both Sam and Debbie are bound to get more time in the spotlight than other plotlines, as they always have, but new relationships introduced in season two — like Arthie and Yolanda, and Bash and Rhonda — combined with a move away from the TV-production milieu, suggest the potential for the series to branch out in unexpected ways. At the very least, nightly GLOW stage shows in Sin City should make for plenty of shenanigans, both in and out of the ring. —GK
The Good Fight, season three (CBS All Access, TBD)
The first season of The Good Fight struggled a bit in finding its footing. It needed to establish an identity separate from its parent program, The Good Wife, but it also had to rapidly adapt after having been planned to appear in the context of a Clinton presidency. But by the second season, The Good Fight became one of the best shows about what it feels like to be alive right now — not just in the stories it tells (classically Good Wife-esque legal battles about technology, politics, and culture), but in its tone, which swerves from deep despair to giddy surreality to hardened resolve and then back again. If it were on a regular TV network we’d all be yelling about it all the time. As it is, it’s definitely worth a CBS All Access subscription to binge the new season as quickly as possible. —KVA
Good Omens (Amazon, TBD)
I write this as a complete outsider with little to no knowledge of graphic novels or — gasp — the wonderful world of Neil Gaiman. So let me preach what I do know instead, okay? This mini-series is going to be TV catnip for many reasons: David Tennant as a sexy demon, Michael Sheen as a sexy angel, Jon Hamm as a sexy archangel, end of list. The plot seems pretty great, too, with Tennant and Shannon’s unlikely pals joining forces to prevent the complete annihilation of the Earth as we know it. It’ll be one part buddy comedy, one part religious allegory. Hallelujah! —DI
Harley Quinn (DC Universe, TBD)
In animation was Harley Quinn born, and to animation shall she return. The DC anti-heroine and sometime paramour of the Joker was first introduced in the early-’90s classic Batman: The Animated Series and has since become one of the most popular characters to emerge from superhero fiction. Warner Bros.’ streaming network will soon debut an adults-only cartoon take on Harley, with Kaley Cuoco in the title role, Alan Tudyk as the Joker, and Lake Bell as Harley’s friend (another of the Joker’s sometime-paramours) Poison Ivy. There are as-yet-unspecified roles for a bevy of recognizable names, from Jason Alexander and Tony Hale to JB Smoove and Wanda Sykes, making this a must-see for all you puddin’s out there. —AR
His Dark Materials (HBO, TBD)
In the post–Game of Thrones billion-dollar arms race to make the next big fantasy TV adaptation, the BBC has emptied its coffers for an adaptation of Philip Pullman’s multiverse-traversing novels that taught a generation of geeky kids to fear organized religion. Hollywood tried and failed to turn The Golden Compass into a movie franchise — featuring Nicole Kidman and the CGI polar bears — in 2007, but the novels seem better suited for a longer-format TV adaptation. This version is led by Logan’s Dafne Keen, Ruth Wilson, James McAvoy, and Lin-Manuel Miranda (as Lee Scoresby … sure?) and directed by Tom Hooper (of The King’s Speech, Les Miserables, and, uh, Cats). The show will air in America on HBO, which is co-producing the series, and will hopefully insist on budgeting just as much for the daemon animation as they did for Dany’s dragons. —JM
Homecoming, season two (Amazon, TBD)
The second season of Homecoming can’t come fast enough. So many questions! Whether you think Walter recognized Heidi at the diner or not, there’s a lot left to unpack about his story. What happened in the four years between Walter’s time at the Homecoming facility and his move to his California cabin? Now that Heidi has found him and knows he’s doing well, will she be able to move on? Colin took the fall, but will we see him again? Colin: Leave Heidi alone! And is Audrey who she says she is? Bring it, Homecoming. We’re waiting. —MEF
Law & Order: Hate Crimes (NBC, TBD)
Dun-dun! The next Dick Wolf drama to serve as ambient noise as you’re making dinner or deep conditioning your hair will be 13 episodes of Law & Order: Hate Crimes. More fast-walking through court houses, more tough-but-empathetic cops, more spotting New York City landmarks, but inside a new division: The NBC drama will follow crimes investigated by New York City’s biased-based task force, an actual group created in 2016 by Governor Andrew Cuomo. —HH
Lodge 49, season two (AMC, TBD)
Jim Gavin’s series about a secret society in a dying Southern California beach town was one of last year’s sweetest surprises, deftly mixing the Coen brothers, Charles Portis, Thomas Pynchon, and, of all things, John From Cincinnati, into a beguilingly fresh package, fusing mysticism and eccentric character comedy. Season two has plenty of room to expand on the series’ burgeoning mythology, which started out seeming like a put-on but got increasingly earnest and deep with each new installment. —MZS
Mindhunter, season two (Netflix, TBD)
There are a lot of underwhelming crime shows out there. From okay-ish procedurals to fine prestige TV dramas, many feel like box-checking exercises: dead body (probably a woman), competent detective (probably a man), sepia color palette, couple of twists, a few interrogation scenes here and there. The remarkable thing about the first season of Netflix’s Mindhunter was how effectively it ticked all of those boxes and yet still stood out from the crowd. Jonathan Groff’s performance as Holden Ford is great, but season two may be most exciting for the return of the show’s secondary characters, especially flat-top-sporting Bill Tench (Holt McCallany), whose Big Dad Energy was one of the show’s biggest revelations. —KVA
The New Pope (HBO, TBD)
Baroque, baffling, and bonkers, The Young Pope led to the immaculate conception of a million memes and some challenging thoughts about the nature of Catholicism. Creator Paolo Sorrentino is now coming back with a new, somehow related series that will star John Malkovich as well as Jude Law, who played the titular character in the original series. Crack open a Cherry Coke Zero in anticipation of whatever happens next. —JM
The Politician (Netflix, TBD)
The Ryan Murphy approach of casting a bunch of fun actors and letting them run wild is coming to Netflix. This time, Ben Platt, hot off of Dear Evan Hansen and ready to sing-cry on command, plays an ambitious aspiring politician in Santa Barbara, among a cast that includes Dylan McDermott, January Jones, Zoey Deutch, Laura Dreyfuss, Lucy Boynton, Rahne Jones, and Gwyneth Paltrow. There will be both singing and scheming, which is pretty much all I want from TV anyway. —JM
Pose, season two (FX, TBD)
The first season of Pose managed to be both hilarious and heartbreaking, especially once it found its footing and moved past a sometimes hand-holding introduction to its world and characters. In the second season, with the stakes clearly established, we can’t wait to see what the cast (including standouts Mj Rodriguez, Dominique Jackson, and Billy Porter) gets to do with deeper material — just please, enough with the James Van Der Beek–Kate Mara stuff. —JM
Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists (Freeform, TBD)
I have way, way too many questions about this Pretty Little Liars spinoff, which promises to uproot the Liars with the most character-appropriate endings — Alison DiLaurentis (Sasha Pieterse) and Mona Vanderwaal (Janel Parrish) — and drop them into … a very gloomy Oregon? But that absurdism is exactly why fans tuned in to PLL in the first place: Of course Mona is going to crash Alison’s new life as a professor, of course there’s something sinister nobody talks about in this town, and of course there’s immediately a murder mystery that needs solving. Your reign as the king of teen dramas is over, Riverdale. —DI
Ratched (Netflix, TBD)
Ratched will be the latest entry in the long-running collaboration between Ryan Murphy and Sarah Paulson, in a series that will delve into the backstory of the character Nurse Ratched from Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (as well as Miloš Forman’s 1975 film adaptation). Murphy has described Ratched as “like a female Lecter,†and even though public details are sparse, Netflix has already given the show a two-season, 18-episode commitment. —KVA
Rick & Morty, season four (Adult Swim, TBD)
Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon’s time-and-space-bending comedy-satire became an issue in its third season, thanks to a fan base that’s been known to identify unironically with the show’s hero, know-it-all mad scientist and alcoholic slime-bag Rick Sanchez — a problem that has affected other great shows, too, including Breaking Bad. It’s a shame, because season three was a quantum leap forward (pun somewhat intended) for the series: Building on season two, which ended on a cliffhanger, the storytelling was simultaneously more complex and more fully human, embracing serialized storytelling and pushing the family unit into territory so dark it verged on goofball tragedy. —MZS
Snowpiercer (TNT, TBD)
Set on a microcosmic train endlessly circling the globe after an environmental catastrophe, this looks like one of those film-to-TV series adaptations that’s iffy in theory: Bong Joon-Ho’s 2013 film was perfect on its own oddball terms, and would seem to require no elaboration. But it’s based on a 1982 French graphic novel, Le Transperceneige, that inspired sequels that ultimately filled four translated volumes, the most recent of which came out two years ago. Graeme Manson, co-creator of Orphan Black, supervises this new version, and Hamilton’s Daveed Diggs co-stars with Oscar-winner Jennifer Connelly. Scott Derrickson (Doctor Strange) directed the pilot, but refused to return for reshoots, an indication of the dreaded “creative differences†that one hopes this potentially fascinating science fiction series will be able to surmount. —MZS
Succession, season two (HBO, TBD)
The first season of Succession was a slow burn. A comedy as pitch-black as a moonless night that masquerades as a self-serious prestige TV drama, it can take a little while to adjust to the fact that you’re supposed to be loathing its characters, while also finding them complicated and pitiable. There are many great things about Succession, but season two would make it onto any “highly anticipated†list just for Matthew Macfayden’s performance as the fumbling, frustrated, supercilious, and sycophantic Tom Wamsgans. —KVA
Swamp Thing (DC Universe, TBD)
Yet another offering from DC Universe, and potentially the trippiest one of them all. The verdant heap of vegetable matter known as Swamp Thing has trudged through the pages of DC Comics for decades, racking up existential tales from famed writers such as Alan Moore, Rick Veitch, and Brian K. Vaughan — and now DC is hoping to bring his horror-superhero blend to a new audience. Ol’ Swampy (played by Andy Bean and Derek Mears, in his human and superhoic forms, respectively) is a man transformed into a plant “elemental†who defends the earth while bonding with lady-love Abby Arcane (Crystal Reed, returning to the DC fold after Gotham). Expect pathos. —AR
The Terror, season two (AMC, TBD)
One-stop shopping for misery porn, and eerily compelling for its total commitment to that form, The Terror adapted a best-selling nonfiction book of the same name about Captain Sir John Franklin’s doomed voyage to find the Northwest Passage in the 1800s. Season two will be based on an original story from writers Alexander Woo and Max Borenstein that’s set during World War II, about a mysterious, menacing creature that follows a Japanese-American family from their home in Southern California to an internment camp. Whether we’re looking at an evolutionary step forward for a great anthology series or a True Detective-style sophomore jinx remains to be seen. —MZS
The Twilight Zone (CBS All Access, TBD)
It’s Jordan Peele remaking one of the greatest TV shows of all time. It’s the latest chapter in a sci-fi lodestar that’s inspired the genre for generations. If that’s not reason enough to watch — skeptically, even, for the die-hards among us — consider the cast: The Get Out director has enlisted Adam Scott, Kumail Nanjiani, John Cho, Allison Tolman, Jacob Tremblay, Steven Yeun, and Greg Kinnear in what’s sure to be a bold attempt to catch (half-century-old) lightning in a bottle. Will the new Zone manage to reach Rod Serling’s wondrous land, whose boundaries are that of imagination? We won’t know until we reach that famous next stop. —CH
The Underground Railroad (Amazon, TBD)
After Moonlight and If Beale Street Could Talk, director Barry Jenkins moves to the small screen: The Oscar winner will direct an 11-episode adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s story of slaves escaping a Georgia cotton plantation via a literal railroad beneath the southern plantations. Whitehead’s novel, published in 2016, was awarded the 2017 Pulitzer Prize, the 2016 National Book Award, and was a pick for Oprah’s Book Club 2.0. —HH
Untitled Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston Morning Show (Apple, TBD)
The selling point is in the (un)title: Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon are making a TV show about morning news together. Wouldn’t you want to watch that? Especially if Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Billy Crudup, and Steve Carell were involved? Apple hasn’t actually announced how people will be able to watch the TV shows they’re making, but still, we’re excited about this. —JM
Veronica Mars revival (Hulu, TBD)
Veronica Mars fans already got the chance to bring Kristen Bell’s detective back thanks to that Kickstarter movie and … it did not turn out that great. Why bother getting excited about this Hulu revival, then? There’s the promise from creator Rob Thomas that it’ll be “hardcore So-Cal noir†built around one big case over eight episodes, the return of a lot of key characters, and the fact that you aren’t personally donating a dime to it. —JM
Vida (Starz, TBD)
The first season of Vida provided a nuanced look at gentrification, Latinx and LGBTQ culture, and familial responsibility via the story of two sisters, Emma (Mishel Prada) and Lyn (Melissa Barrera), who return to their transforming East L.A. neighborhood in the wake of their mother’s death. But with so much television to consume, this gem about loss, rebuilding, and reclaiming one’s identity was largely overlooked. Hopefully the second season, due later this year, will bring the show’s valuable perspective to a wider audience. —JC
Watchmen (HBO, TBD)
It’s going to be a big year for DC on TV. As you’ve seen on this list, Warner Bros.’ superhero brand is cranking out a hefty helping of serialized storytelling this year, but its crown jewel will be Damon Lindelof’s HBO adaptation of Watchmen. We know virtually nothing about it, other than that it’ll be a “remixed†take on Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’s megafamous graphic novel of the same name. The cast is stacked with brilliant talents playing mysterious roles: Regina King, Frances Fisher, and Jean Smart, just to name a few. Jeremy Irons will grace us with his presence as book character Adrian Veidt (a.k.a. Ozymandias) and Tim Blake Nelson plays a new superhero named Looking Glass, but that’s about all that’s public so far. Name recognition and morbid curiosity will probably be enough to make the premiere one of HBO’s most-watched ever. —AR
The Witcher (Netflix, TBD)
Based on the book series and the popular series of video game adaptations, Netflix is producing a Witcher TV show, starring Henry Cavill as Geralt of Rivia. The Witcher is set in a medieval fantasy world full of monsters and magic, and Geralt is a monster hunter, someone who’ll happily clear your village of its noonwraith problem if you’re willing to pay his fee. No word on whether the Netflix series will incorporate a story about endlessly gathering finicky potion ingredients so you can make yourself invisible for 30 damn seconds. —KVA