Our most anticipated TV shows of 2024 are coming in thick and fast. We've already had Baby Reindeer sending the discourse machine into overdrive, meanwhile Amazon's Fallout series has continued the trend of truly great video game adaptations, making the long wait for The Last of Us season 2 a little bit more bearable.
But there's still much more to look forward to – from more Star Wars spin-offs to long-awaited returning seasons like The Diplomat, The Bear and Squid Game, plus new gems like Jake Gyllenhaal's first foray into the small screen, Presumed Innocent.
Whether you're someone who likes to fill out their calendar with shows to keep a chart of or you simply need some light at the end of the tunnel to get you over the finish line of spring, here are all the most anticipated TV shows of 2024.
True Detective: Night Country
Release date: 14 January
As 2023 kicked off with a bang with The Last of Us, 2024 gave us the goods early on in True Detective: Night Country, the brilliant fourth season of our premier hit-and-miss crime anthology series (by that we mean it hasn't been very good since the first McConaughey-Harrelson season blew our tiny little minds). In retrospect, the recipe was always there: Jodie Foster low-key reprising Clarice from The Silence in the Lambs, the ominous Alaskan setting, Christopher Eccleston and supreme character actor John Hawkes on the cast sheet. Its mystery unfurled like a the hand of a thawing corpsicle, with a twist ending that served up thrilling, chilling justice. You can watch True Detective: Night Country on NOW.
3 Body Problem
Release date: 21 March
You'd forgive David Benioff and D.B. Weiss for feeling as though they had nothing to prove after the barnstorming success of Game of Thrones, but that flop of a final season did a lot to harm their TV cred. Their follow-up 3 Body Problem, then, emerged under more scrutiny than you'd usually expect of a showrunner-pair's sophomore production, unhelped by the fact that readers of the original book broadly considered it unadaptable. Fortunately for our daring duo, the show mostly worked, not least helped by a coterie of Thrones alum on the ensemble, John Bradley, Liam Cunningham and Jonathan Pryce all putting in shifts that called back to the best of their Westerosi days. We deliberately haven't talked about the plot yet because it's a bit bonkers, defies spoiler-free explanation, and reader, you should go in blind. You can watch 3 Body Problem on Netflix.
Baby Reindeer
Release date: 11 April
Remember that, like, week-long period when everyone was having a bit of love-in about how good Baby Reindeer was? ‘Ah, what a nice surprise this is — a calling card for an exciting new voice in British TV, as Fleabag announced Phoebe Waller-Bridge to the world,’ we all said. And then people had to go and ruin it by being weird, tracking down the real-life woman that inspired creator Richard Gadd to write this notionally autobiographical story about a comedian stalked in London. Don't let the noise take away from it: rich, gripping, dark, eerie, staggeringly empathetic, and quite sad all-round, Baby Reindeer remains a TV debut that would be the envy of any budding dramatist. You can watch Baby Reindeer on Netflix.
Fallout
Release date: 12 April
Just over a year after The Last of Us blew common preconceptions about the quality of video game adaptations out of the water, Fallout arrived to nuke them for good; no longer shall we presume such films and shows to be dead on arrival. With its canny combination of fidelity to the game series it serves as a sequel to, a top-of-the-class ensemble of actors new (Ella Purnell, rising star) and old (Walton Goggins reclaiming his throne as king of the character actors), sexy zombie cowboys and mutated monstrosities, Graham Wagner and Geneva Robertson-Dworet's post-nuclear caper cemented itself as one of the shows of the year. Fans loved it, normies did too. And when does that ever happen? You can watch Fallout on Prime Video.
Eric
Release date: 30 May
It's 1980s New York and Vincent (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Cassie Anderson’s (Gaby Hoffmann) son has gone missing. What follows is a twisty, turny crime thriller that dabbles in the absurd as Vincent, a puppeteer, tries to recreate a puppet from his missing son's drawings (a monster named ‘Eric’) in an attempt to lure him home (I told you it was absurd). “Eric is a dark and crazy journey into the heart of ’80s New York – and the good, bad, and ugly world of Vincent,” creator Abi Morgan (The Hour, The Iron Lady, The Split) told Netflix. With it's hyper-saturated visuals and high-calibre cast, this one's got to be good. Bring on the Cumberbatch TV renaissance. You can watch Eric on Netflix.
Couples Therapy season 4
Release date: 31 May
If you love goss and just wish you knew what couples – and sometimes throuples – spoke about in the therapist's office, then Couples Therapy is for you. Now in its fourth season, Couples Therapy is a fascinating glimpse into the power struggles, intimacy issues and inter-personal emotional hurdles that other people face. With its stripped-back technique (you're literally just watching each couple's session via a camera, like a fly on the wall), you start forgetting that you're not in the therapist's office with them. Will it make you start reevaluating and picking apart all of your own relationships? Yes. Is it totally moreish and enlightening? Absolutely.
The Acolyte
Release date: 4 June
Here comes another one of those Star Wars spin-offs on Disney+, then, ready to transport us to a world beyond the stars, in a galaxy far, far away. We're yet to see whether The Acolyte will be more Andor (brilliant) or The Book of Boba Fett (peak doomscrolling background TV), but with a cast boasting the likes of Bodies Bodies Bodies's Amandla Stenberg, Squid Game's Lee Jung-jae and The Good Place's Manny Jacinto, they certainly have our attention.
Queenie
Release date: 7 June
After a messy break-up with her long-term boyfriend Tom (Jon Pointing), Queenie (Dionne Brown), a 25-year-old living in South London, “seeks comfort in all the wrong places” AKA has several ill-advised flings with men who all exist somewhere on the “not good” to “bad” spectrum. Based on the smart, funny 2019 novel by Candice Carty-Williams of the same name, Queenie essentially looks like a quarter-life crisis bottled in TV form. And, as with the upcoming Supacell and last year's Rye Lane, it's always fun to see South London depicted on screen.
Presumed Innocent
Release date: 14 June
Our expectations are high for Presumed Innocent, as it finally managed to lure Jake Gyllenhaal to the small screen. Yep, that's right, Hollywood's premiere purveyor of weird hunk roles has never been charmed into the world of prestige TV – until now. The 8-part limited series is based off the 1987 novel of the same name, which was also adapted into a film in the 90s starring Harrison Ford. Gyllenhaal will play Rusty Sabich, a prosecutor accused of killing his colleague. The spin is that he was the one who was investigating the murder in the first place. If you can't wait until June, you can find out the ending in multiple ways already.
House of the Dragon season 2
Release date: 16 June
Perhaps the most welcome surprise of 2022 was a return to form for Game of Thrones apropos of Matt Smith, Emma D'Arcy and Paddy Considine's delightful scenery chewing – the latter putting in the single most under-appreciated TV shift of the year as the waning King Viserys. (That final monologue!! Chalk it up as one of the greatest Emmy snubs of all time.) Whether they can keep it up for a second, Considine-less season is an open question, but all signs point to continued dominance on the fantasy front.
Supacell
Release date: 27 June
What at first looks like a nice, good vibes romance set in South East London quickly descends into an incredibly tense race against time in Supacell, this new time-bendy supernatural sci-fi thriller from Netflix and directed and created by Rapman. The premise goes like so: a group of people randomly develop superpowers, with no connection between them besides being Black. From the trailer, it essentially looks like a mix between 2000s series Misfits and Raine Allen-Miller's Rye Lane. In other words: pacy, twisty and bucketloads of fun.
The Bear season 3
Release date: 27 June
A show releasing a new season at regular intervals and not making its audience wait years for its next instalment? TV is so back, baby. The Bear, which is surely one of the biggest small-screen success stories of the past decade, is heading back into production for season 3 this month with an eye on a June release date. We ended season 2 of the Chicago-based series at Carmy's restaurant's friends and family night, meaning season 3 will most likely revolve around its actual opening. Not to mention all the personal drama that goes alongside all of the chef drama, like Carmy still potentially being locked in a walk-in freezer while seemingly every relationship around him is close to crumbling.
Emily in Paris season 4
Release date: Part 1 — 16 May, Part 2 — 13 June
Maybe you love Emily in Paris. Maybe you can't stand it. Or, maybe, like the majority of people, you just love getting mad at it and will definitely fire up the fourth season when it arrives on Netflix later this summer. For those not in the know, Emily in Paris landed on our screens in October 2020 – a year in which we were all, let's be honest, watching loads of weird things. But the show – about a chirpy aspiring marketing executive from Chicago joining the team in Paris – somehow outlasted every other lockdown trend and is still, for better or worse, still with us.
Sunny
Release date: 10 July
Sunny isn't the first TV series about an A.I. robot with sentiency and it certainly won't be the last (why can't we get enough of humans with scary little robot friends?), but it does look like an interesting take on the tried-and-test genre. The 10-episode Apple TV+ series, which has been described as a “mystery thriller with a darkly comic bent” follows an American woman living in Kyoto, Japan “whose life is upended when her husband and son disappear in a mysterious plane crash.” As a sort of “grief gift” she's given unny, the A.I. robot in question. Together, they “uncover the dark truth of what really happened to Suzie’s family.”
Lady in the Lake
Release date: 19 July
It's always a treat when a capital ‘F’ film stars lends their talents to the small screen (see above: Presumed Innocent), so we're looking forward to Apple TV+’s Lady in the Lake starring Natalie Portman as an investigative journalist who becomes completely obsessed with two unsolved murders: that of 11-year-old Tessie Fine and a bartender named Cleo Sherwood (Moses Ingram). The film is based on a novel by Laura Lippman, which is in turn loosely based on two real-life murders in the 1960s. If this won't convince you to finally subscribe to Apple TV+, then I don't know what will.
Industry season 3
Release date: 11 August
Holy moly did Industry season 2 end on one nuclear-grade banger of a cliffhanger or what, when [redacted for spoilers] was sacked, unceremoniously, from Pierpoint, presumably with nowhere to go and their career in the mud. Whomp whomp! We can only expect (and hope) that the third season will be as brutal, sexy and vicious as the first and second, which combined made for some of the best TV drama we've seen in ages, with the frenetic thrills of Uncut Gems and robust character work of a Sopranos, or any other heavyweight small screen classic worth its salt. We demand more Ken Leung.
Bad Monkey
Release date: 14 August
Wondered what your man Vince Vaughn was up to these days? Well, he's producing, writing and starring in the upcoming Apple TV+ series Bad Monkey, based on the best-selling book of the same name, alongside Ted Lasso producer Bill Lawrence. Is is about bad monkeys? Well, sort of. It's about a guy who used to be in the Miami Police Department (played by Vaughn). He comes across a human arm that's been fished out of the lake by tourists and decides that if he can prove that it's a murder, he'll find his way back into the police. Oh, and there's a monkey somehow involved, but that bit's not been revealed yet.
Pachinko season 2
Release date: 23 August
And here with have another gorgeous offering from Apple TV+ that a lot of people won't have heard of (but those who have are obsessed with). The series – based on the Min Jin Lee's best-selling novel about a Korean family trying to survive through Japanese occupation, societal pressures and poverty through the years 1915 to 1989 – might sound a bit complex and cerebral, but trust me when I say this sumptuous epic, with it's sweeping strings and acclaimed cinematography, is worth the ride. The second season comes out late August, which'll give you plenty of time to cram in all eight hour-long episodes of the first.
Only Murders in the Building season 4
Release date: 27 August
Over the past few years, the deliciously smart whodunnit Only Murders in the Building – starring Steve Martin, Martin Short, Selena Gomez and yes indeed Meryl Streep – has quietly become the biggest comedy on TV, with a cast so stacked it makes The White Lotus look like a low-key indie production. And guess what? It's not been cancelled! A fourth season arrives at the tail-end of summer, just in time for cosy autumn viewing.
Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 2
Release date: 29 August
Lord of the Rings nerds rejoice! For not only is a reboot of films reportedly on the way (Do we need them? Does it really matter if we don't?), but a brand new season of Prime Video's The Rings of Power is also set to land this year, in August. The last season, mercifully, ended up being a crowd-pleaser (a relief considering it was apparently one of the most expensive TV shows ever made). This new season will take place in the Second Age of the Lord of the Rings universe and will depict the early adventures of returning characters like Galadriel (Morfydd Clark), Elrond (Robert Aramayo) and the rise of the Dark Lord Sauron (Charlie Vickers).
Heartstopper season 3
Release date: 3 October
Maybe Heartstopper is a little sickly sweet for you. Or maybe you're of the mindset that the world's bleak and cynical enough and it's heartening to watch some little angels experience queer love for the first time. If you're in the second camp then fear not, for Heartstopper season 3 is finally arriving in October. Last season ended with Charlie (Joe Locke) and Nick (Kit Connor) further solidifying their feelings for each other in a heartfelt convo in which Nick nearly told Charlie he loves him. According to series creator and writer Alice Oseman, this new season will veer away slightly from its saccharine tone: “While Heartstopper will always celebrate the joyful and point towards hope, I’m really excited that we are allowing the tone of the show to mature alongside our beloved characters growing up. Mental health, sex, university ambitions, and more.”
The Penguin
Release date: Autumn
Colin Farrell is packing himself back into the prosthetics to reinhabit his role as Gotham's greatest crime lord from 2022's The Batman. Landing on HBO's Max, the series will explore Oswald Cobblepot's rise to the echelons of the city's criminal underworld and consist of eight episodes. Not much is known about the series yet, but that's just the way the shadows of organised crime works, you know?
Originally slated for an early 2024 release, The Penguin was pushed back by the actors' strikes that hit Hollywood and put everything on ice for six months last year. A preview of Max's slate in November suggested that we'll now see The Penguin by autumn. But let's see how that bears out.
Dune: Prophesy
Release date: Autumn
Dune will be the latest sci-fi franchise to get its own TV spin-off in a series which should land this Autumn, though that's yet to be concreted, and will cover the origins of sectarian sisterhood the Bene Gesserit (funnily enough, it was originally subtitled The Sisterhood). We have no idea what it'll be about at this juncture but presume that the updated subtitle is in reference to the prophecy around Paul Atreides, portrayed by Timmy Chalamet in Denis Villeneuve's two films. But who knows?
Hotel Cocaine
Release date: At some point in 2024
Anyone who's watched Scarface, Narcos or / and Griselda should be at least faintly familiar with The Mutiny nightclub, a real-life nightclub in the basement of a Miami hotel which wound up being a notorious hangout for musicians, CIA affiliates and, of course, drug kingpins throughout the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. Now, the hotel – which still exists, by the way, but is no longer a mobster hangout – is getting the television treatment. The eight-episode series will be available in the US from 16 June, with a UK date yet to be announced.
The Veil
Release date: At some point in 2024
Elisabeth Moss? Peaky Blinders’ Steven Knight? An international spy thriller set in Istanbul, Paris and London? Deadly secrets and lies? Honestly, we couldn't be more excited for this tense, glossy-looking new series, in which Moss plays Imogen Salter, an MI6 agent who speaks a gazillion languages and is used to going undercover, alongside Yumna Marwan (Little Birds, Heaven Sent) as Adilah El Idrissi, the woman she's after, who's believed to be an ISIS commander. Those across the pond will be able to watch The Veil on Hulu from 30 April, but a UK release date is yet to be announced.
The Boys season 4
Release date: At some point in 2024
The bloodiest (non-animated; we see you, Invincible) superhero series on air returns for its fourth season in 2024, in which we can expect Homelander to go full fascistic-homicidal-Nazi-dad mode and commit a genocide or two with his eye lasers. That's unless Butcher has anything to do about it (before he, er, kicks the bucket). The Walking Dead fans will be excited to see the introduction of that series' very own Negan, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, seen here without his signature baseball bat. Not that it'd be any use against a coterie of megalomanic killer supes, anywho.
Black Doves
Release date: At some point in 2024
We simply must get a handful of spy capers each year for the world to keep spinning on its axis. It's just science. Black Doves stars Keira Knightley, Ben Whishaw and Sarah Lancashire and revolves around a secret spy who hides her identity from her new partner, only for him to get roped into the grim reality of London's underworld. At just six episodes long, this'll likely be a mini-series.
The Listeners
Release date: At some point in 2024
Produced by the same team that gave us Normal People, upcoming BBC drama The Listeners is centred on an English teacher called Claire (Rebecca Hall) who starts randomly noticing a low humming sound that nobody else around her can hear (and no, it’s not tinnitus). Eventually the mysterious hum begins to upset the balance of her life (well it would, wouldn’t it?), causing tension between her and her husband and daughter. But, get this, she's not the only person who can hear The Hum. There are others, many of whom believe they are “the chosen few”.
Nightsleeper
Release date: At some point in 2024
All of the best thrillers take place on planes, trains and automobiles (Strangers on a Train! Murder on the Orient Express! Hijack!) so the BBC’s upcoming Nightsleeper is already a few points ahead in that regard. The official logline describes the series as a “real-time thriller about the hacking of a sleeper train travelling from Glasgow to London, and a government agency’s frantic efforts to intervene in the rapidly-escalating events onboard.” I didn't even realise trains could be hacked! What happens to them? Do they swerve onto entirely different destinations? Either way, expect a lot of adrenaline and people frantically running around platforms.
Squid Game season 2
Release date: At some point in 2024
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The biggest show that Netflix ever released is, of course, getting a second series. How couldn't it? It's a good thing the first series, about a deadly game inflicted on the most debt-ridden people in society, ended on a cliffhanger. After taking home the massive winnings, Gi-hun has his sights set on the game masters who want nothing more than for him to keep quiet so they can keep playing their evil games. Season 2 looks set to crack the whole thing wide open, but we still have to wait some time before a release date is delivered (hopefully not through ominous playground speakers).
The Umbrella Academy season 4
Release date: At some point in 2024
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The most dysfunctional family in the universe are getting one last adventure. The fourth and final season of The Umbrella Academy, based on the Gerard Way comic book of the same name, will hit our small screens sometime this year, wrapping up a huge plot twist that shocked fans at the end of its last run. Season three ended with the enhanced siblings sans their superpowers, meaning season four will revolve either around them getting them back or trying to work out life without them. According to Netflix, this final season will also see them face a bigger and worse enemy than ever before, one that wants them out of the picture for good.
The Diplomat season 2
Release date: At some point in 2024
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The Diplomat's first season became an overnight success when it launched on Netflix last year, so it's no surprise they're raring to get its second outing out the door. At the end of season one, the titular diplomat, Kate Wyler (Keri Russell), who is on deployment in London to prevent all-out war, is left reeling from the potential death of her husband Hal (Rufus Sewell) in an explosion ordered by the Prime Minister (Rory Kinnear) who is trying to cover up his international faux pas. Clearly, we're going to start season two with a bang. The streamer has also announced that Allison Janney will make her political drama return after The West Wing by joining for season two.
Agatha: Darkhold Diaries
Release date: At some point in 2024
It was Agatha all along! Well, actually, at first it was Agatha: House of Harkness, then it was Agatha: Coven of Chaos and now it's Agatha: Darkhold Diaries. The standout supporting character from the shining jewel of Marvel's TV series offerings, WandaVision, played by Katherine Hahn will be joined by Aubrey Plaza, Heartstopper's Joe Locke and theatre legend Patti LuPone for this spin-off of everyone's favourite meddling witch next door. Not much is known about what the series is about, or even when it's going to be coming out, but we can probably expect a fair amount of spooks and spells along the way.
Severance season 2
Release date: At some point in 2024
The second season of Ben Stiller's work-life balance mindfuck drama has been a long time coming. The first season dropped in 2022 and imagined a world where clocking out from the dramas of work wasn't just a vague aspiration but something that could be bioengineered with the help of a brain implant – when you're at work you have no memory of home, and when you're at home you have no memory of work. Considering the finale ended on the kind of cliffhanger that would have you racing to skip the opening credits of the next episode, the fact we've had to wait two years for even confirmation that a second instalment seems cruel and unusual punishment (almost like having a chip rammed into your head). But with production now officially underway, we hopefully don't have to wait long to clock back in.
2024 releases to be confirmed:
The Night Manager season 2
Release date: TBA
The world fell to its knees when the first season of The Night Manager hit our screens in 2016, introducing us to Tom Hiddleston's former military officer Jonathan Pine. Based on the John le Carré novel, it was a slick and sexy spy offering and one we thought we'd left back in the ‘10s. However, last year it was announced that the series would be coming back with Tom Hiddleston, and now it's been confirmed by Deadline that the show has been given a second and third season and that it will be kicking off filming later this year. It might be tight to get it before the year is out, but if we don't get the second outing by the end of 2024 it will likely be early 2025.
Wednesday season 2
Release date: TBA
The moodiest girl in the world will be back for round two. Wednesday's first season broke Stranger Things season 4's viewing records at lightning speed, so it's only natural the Addams Family spin-off will be back for more. Jenna Ortega's take on the sullen sibling sees her at Nevermore Academy, a boarding school for outcasts. After fending off a literal beast in season 1, there are plenty more monstrous and familial battles in store for round two.
You season 5
Release date: TBA
Hello, you, again (and again and again and again). You just can't get rid of Joe Goldberg – stalkers are like that, after all. Coming back with one final season, season five of You, the series about a stalker slash hopeless romantic slash murderer slash book enthusiast, will land is back where it all started in New York City. Joe is happily settled down with Kate, who knows (most of) his dirty little secrets, but homecomings always entail a few reunions. According to Netflix, a familiar face is back to haunt Joe, and with the mammoth list of victims left in his wake, the avenger could be anyone's guess. Goodbye, you.
The show was originally slated to drop in 2024, but the writers' and actors' strikes may see it pushed back to 2025. Only time will tell.
Alien
Release date: TBA
There's a lot of Alien to look forward to on the horizon. Not only are we getting a new film, Alien: Romulus, but a TV series as well. With so many Alien timelines all over the place, you'd be forgiven for being confused about where exactly this show is going to fit. While most details are being kept under wraps, we do know that it's set 70 years in the future, meaning it fits somewhere between the original franchise and the prequel films (Prometheus and Alien: Covenant). It will also be taking place on Earth, somewhere the Xenomorphs so far haven't been. The series is being headed up by Fargo and Legion showrunner Noah Hawley, so at least the notoriously variable-in-quality property is in good hands.
Hijack season 2
Release date: TBA
Idris Elba might just be the unluckiest passenger of all time. After successfully negotiating a hijack of a flight mid-air in season one of Hijack, it's been announced that the Apple TV+ series will be coming back for a second run. Will he have to prevent the hijacking of a bus this time? A train? A boat? Who knows! It's slightly unlikely that Hijack season 2 will hit our screens this year, but remain hopeful that this flight will arrive at its destination ahead of schedule.
Doomsday Machine
Release date: TBA
Another year, another deep dive into the inner machinations of our tech overlords. In Doomsday Machine, Claire Foy will star as Sheryl Sandberg, who held the position of COO of Meta (first Facebook), before stepping down in 2022. The show is based on Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang’s book An Ugly Truth: Inside Facebook’s Battle for Domination, which delved into how Facebook became a key name in political and social upheaval and how its relentless pursuit of growth and impact has shaped our current cultural and geopolitical climate. The limited series will run on HBO sometime this year.
The Day of the Jackal
Release date: TBA
This year's roster of spy thrillers is filling up nicely with the addition of The Day of the Jackal. Following in the footsteps of Bond and The Night Manager, the series takes inspiration from one of the most seminal pieces of spy fiction, written by Fredrick Forsyth in 1971 (which also had a famous film adaptation a couple of years later). Eddie Redmayne will star as ‘The Jackal’, a mysterious assassin hired to take down a global leader, while Lashana Lynch will play an MI5 agent tasked with taking him down. The 10-episode series will air on Sky sometime later this year.
Death by Lightning
Release date: TBA
The likelihood of this one landing in our laps before the end of the year is slim, but with as stacked a cast as it has, can you blame us for trying to rush it along? Michael Shannon and Matthew Macfadyen will star respectively in Death by Lightning as early US president James Garfield and Charles Guiteau, one of his greatest supporters and who ended up being the man who killed him. Nick Offerman and GLOW star Betty Gilpin have also recently been announced in the series which will be executive produced by Game of Thrones creators (and the people behind the upcoming Netflix series 3 Body Problem) David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.
Firebug
Release date: TBA
The Taron Egerton x Apple TV+ relationship remains strong after his 2022 prison series Black Bird (which was tragically overlooked when it was released). He's teaming back up with the streamer for Firebug, a series loosely based on the serial arsonist John Leonard Orr. Orr was an arson investigator and fire captain thought to have set more than 2,000 fires over the decades before being arrested in 1991. Egerton will play the Orr proxy (as well as executive produce the series) while Jurnee Smollett co-stars as his rising star detective.
Murderbot
Release date: TBA
Alexander Skarsgård has always managed to embody characters that have a rogue, sometimes sinister oddness to them, as if you don't quite know what they're thinking (Lukas in Succession, James in Infinity Pool, Eric in True Blood). To that end, his upcoming role as a self-hacking android who simply loves to spend his days watching trash TV feels tailor-made for the actor. The show in question is Murderbot, based on the book series The Murderbot Diaries by best-selling author Martha Wells. Another Apple TV+ big-budget sci-fi punt no less, so you know it's going to be good.
The Miniature Wife
Release date: TBA
We will have no shortage of Matthew Macfadyen on our screen in months to come, which is a good thing for anyone still trying to fill the hole left by Succession. He'll be starring alongside Elizabeth Banks in The Miniature Wife, a dramedy about a married couple dealing with strife and power imbalances in their relationship. If that all sounds very Tom and Shiv, just wait for the high-concept twist that the title teases – the wife is shrunk. This show is literally about a miniature wife. In all seriousness, though, the series is based on the critically acclaimed short story by Manuel Gonzalez, which picked up heaps of praise when it was released in 2013.
Down Cemetery Road
Release date: TBA
From the same production that gives us Slow Horses (probably your dad's favourite show) and Hijack (probably also your dad's favourite show) will come Down Cemetary Road, starring Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson. The series, which will launch on Apple TV+, will see Wilson star as a woman obsessed with the disappearance of a young girl in the aftermath of a freak house explosion and Thompson as the private investigator she hires to figure out the truth once and for all. It will be based on a novel by Mick Herron, whose book also inspires Slow Horses (seriously, ask your dad about it).
Lions
Release date: TBA
Richard Gadd is the most buzzy man on television right now as his darkly confessional series Baby Reindeer dances around the top spot of the Netflix charts. We'll be seeing more of him in the future, with his next series, Lions, which he's also written and will star in, coming to the BBC. The six-part series will follow Niall and his estranged ‘brother’ Ruben, who reunite at a wedding. When chaos ensues, their tumultuous decades-long relationship is stirred up. The show will follow almost 40 years of their highs and lows and reflect on what it means to be a man.
Dear England
Release date: TBA
Joseph Fiennes will reprise his Olivier-nominated performance in a TV adaptation of Dear England, the play about Gareth Southgate and the England men’s football team. It may have seemed like a bit of a bonkers premise to take to the theatre, but the play was an almost immediate hit. The show, which kicked off at the National Theatre before making its West End debut last year, is a fictionalised dig into the highs and lows of the nation's biggest sport, with extensive research conducted into how the England manager navigates various struggles.
The Four Seasons
Release date: TBA
If you saw everyone sharing 30 Rock clips a few months back and thought, ‘Man, I wish we had another show like that’, well, you might be in luck. The team behind 30 Rock – Tina Fey, Lang Fisher and Tracey Wigfield – are coming together again to reboot the 1981 film The Four Seasons for TV. If that line-up wasn't already good enough, Steve Carrell is also on board to star. The film follows three couples who vacation together every season and starred Alan Alda and Carol Burnett. There aren't many details about whether the adaptation will stick true to the original or treat the concept as a jumping-off point, and so far there aren't any other hints at casting. Let's hope the roll-a-dex of 30 Rock cameo stars is being whipped out as we speak.
Find all of the most anticipated movies of 2024 here.