23 upcoming shows to look forward to in 2023
A look ahead at the year that might make or break television's golden age.
I traditionally start the year by saying the same damn thing: I watched more television last year than I ever have. This time, 140 seasons of television in 2022, beating my 137 seasons record of the previous year. I know it's an imperfect science with season and episode length varying from show to show, but it serves more as a memory calendar than anything else: ah yes, I began 2022 by meditating on the second, pandemic-heavy season of Love Life, which coincided with fresh lockdowns during the spread of Omicron. I binged through Dickinson as I screwed together furniture for my new apartment, which I moved into in the middle of a winter storm exactly a year ago. Euphoria started airing not long after.
Watching an excess of television seemed instinctual from 2020-2021, like a hard shell we developed to protect ourselves from the real-life mortal dangers of being on this planet during a plague. In 2022, as I got dumped back into the world with a thud, I constantly felt like I was squeezing television in. My days felt shorter and busier. I watched an episode in the morning here, an episode before bed there. The year whooshed by as I listened to voice notes on double speed, rushed through writing on my lunch breaks while working an unrelated nine to five, went on one too many mediocre dates to make up for lost social time, and felt my heart beating a bit too quickly from the anxiety of it all. I ended the year and realized I didn’t even fulfill my resolutions to finish some of the seminal shows on my watch list.
That said, I came out of such a non-stop year reaffirmed by the passion I still have for it all. The emotions I feel from television’s unique storytelling abilities. The tear I shed during the powerful final two episodes of Fleishman is in Trouble, episodes so poignant my entire opinion about the show pivoted. The pride I feel when a friend or reader/follower finally gets around to watching Sharp Objects and My Brilliant Friend upon my recommendation. I want to do this forever, I tell myself. If I died tomorrow, I would just regret not having watched more, I would regret my time wasted in other directions, the time I didn’t spend watching, writing, and digesting television with others.
The year ahead might be a make-or-break year for television. We saw the streaming bubble start to burst in 2022 and a general belt-tightening around budget. AMC and HBO are shaving billions in cost-savings, The CW imploded, Netflix walked on eggshells for a few months and rolled out an ad-supported tier in many countries. After the rush to make as much content as quickly as possible, the industry is shifting its gaze toward financial security, while the rest of the world grapples with the risks of a 2023 recession. Studios are stockpiling scripts in the hopes of buffering against an imminent writer’s guild strike in 2023, reminiscent of 2007’s infamous four-month strike.
Despite all of that, there is another massive slate of television planned for this year. I suspect we will see another year of harsh cancellations and streamers finding ways to make extra cash (i.e., selling off their content to free, ad-supported streaming platforms like HBO Max is doing). But until then: Disney+ returns with a handful of Marvel and Star Wars releases; HBO aims to start the year strong with a huge, buzzy apocalyptic show; Apple TV+ is dramatically increasing their drama offerings; and Hulu has a bunch of promising titles. So here we go again.
See below for 23 shows to look forward to in 2023 with a significant honourable mentions list at the end. As always, thank you for reading (and thank you to everyone who became paid subscriber in 2022, which allows me to keep writing!), and happy watching.
23. Love and Death (HBO Max)
Key words: Candy Montgomery, true crime miniseries.
The lure: Television’s second attempt (see: Hulu’s Candy) within a year to adapt this true crime story, this time with Elizabeth Olsen and Lily Rabe, with David E. Kelley writing it up.
22. Just Cause (Prime Video)
Key words: Thriller and limited series based on John Katzenbach’s 1992 novel.
The lure: Scarlett Johansson to headline and executive produce.
21. The Power (Prime Video)
Key words: Global thriller about teenage girls developing the power to electrocute people at will.
The lure: Created by Naomi Alderman who also wrote the novel of the same name. Toni Collette will star.
20. La Máquina (Hulu)
Key words: Boxing, limited series.
The lure: Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna. Maybe they kiss?
19. Best Interests (BBC)
Key words: Four-part miniseries about parents trying to fight for their disabled daughter’s medical care.
The lure: Michael Sheen and Sharon Horgan co-star.
18. We Were the Lucky Ones (Hulu)
Key words: Limited series based on a NYT best-selling novel about a Jewish family separated during WWII.
The lure: Joey King will star alongside Logan Lerman and Robin Weigert.
17. The Woman in the Wall (BBC/Showtime)
Key words: Psychological thriller about a woman who wakes up next to a dead body (à la The Flight Attendant/The Night Of).
The lure: Ruth Wilson! Coming off her underrated, powerful performance on His Dark Materials.
16. Dark Matter (Apple TV+)
Key words: Sci-fi drama about the multiverse/alternate universes.
The lure: Jennifer Connelly and Joel Edgerton star.
15. Dead Ringers (Prime Video)
Key words: Body horror, based on the 1988 David Cronenberg film of the same name.
The lure: Rachel Weisz on television.
14. Mrs. Davis (April 20, Peacock)
Key words: Sci-fi drama about a nun and technology.
The lure: Betty Gilpin in a starring role. Damon Lindeloff, quiet since he wrapped The Leftovers and Watchmen, is teaming up with showrunner Tara Hernandez on this intriguing series for Peacock.
13. Fatal Attraction (Paramount+)
Key words: Reboot of the 1987 film of the same name.
The lure: Lizzy Caplan (the Lizzy Caplanaissance!) co-stars with Joshua Jackson.
12. Hijack (Apple TV+)
Key words: Heist-type thriller drama.
The lure: Idris Elba and Archie Panjabi co-star.
11. Dreamland (Sky)
Key words: Dark dramedy, intergenerational trauma.
The lure: Lily Allen and Freema Agyeman co-star in this series produced by Sharon Horgan.
10. The New Look (Apple TV+)
Key words: Fashion, biographical drama.
The lure: Todd A. Kessler’s track-record creating successful dramas and Ben Mendelsohn, Juliette Binoche, Maisie Williams, John Malkovich, Emily Mortimer as well-known fashion designers/fashion people.
Television has been primed for a historical fashion drama. This post-World War II series is named after the ground-breaking hourglass silhouettes by Christian Dior that is said to have changed Western fashion forever. Ryan Murphy is surprisingly not involved in this.
9. Liaison (Apple TV+)
Key words: British and French co-production, high-stakes contemporary thriller.
The lure: Vincent Cassel and Eva Green co-star, Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu will also appear.
8. Nolly (Feb 2, ITV)
Key words: Three-part biographical series about actress Noele Gordon, best known for her role on the British soap Crossroads (1964-1981).
The lure: Helena Bonham Carter will play Gordon, and the series is created by Russell T Davies.
7. Extrapolations (Apple TV+)
Key words: Anthology series, climate change.
The lure: Meryl Streep plus everyone who’s anyone is in this.
Is the anthology show dead yet? Black Mirror is set to return in 2023 as well, but Extrapolations will surely test our patience with the genre, this time with the likes of Meryl Streep, Sienna Miller, Tobey Maguire, Keri Russell, and a ton of other actors that will make you raise an eyebrow. Television, and well, our societal and political structures, have a hard time confronting climate change generally so I’m curious about what angle they will tackle (futuristic? apocalyptic? optimistic?).
6. The Lying Life of Adults (Jan 4, Netflix)
Key words: A new Italian Elena Ferrante television adaptation.
The lure: Anyone who has followed my account/writing knows my love for My Brilliant Friend and Elena Ferrante’s ability to capture the complex intimacies of female friendship. Unfortunately that show is buried away on HBO and has been a word-of-mouth type discovery for most—Lying Life will pop right up at the start of the year. Give me emotions!
5. The Last of Us (Jan 15, HBO)
Key words: Zombies, high-budget apocalypse, beloved video game adaptation.
The lure: Critics have been breaking their embargo left and right for this show, tweeting about stand-out episodes (“early contender for best episode of 2023!”) and how the series draws you in right from the beginning. It’s surely going to be the first, big buzzy series of the year, drawing in the video game crowd, Chernobyl fans (the two shows share a creator in Craig Mazin), and those who just want to watch Pedro Pascal in another Mandalorian-esque role. It has all the ingredients of a massive hit…if The Walking Dead hasn’t burnt out audiences on zombie content.
4. Tiny Beautiful Things (Hulu)
Key words: Based on Cheryl Strayed’s book and ”Dear Sugar” advice column.
The lure: Kathryn Hahn and Merritt Wever, showrun by Liz Tigelaar (Little Fires Everywhere). I’m expecting big feelings and approaching mid-life existentialism.
3. Poker Face (Jan. 26, Peacock)
Key words: Case of the week mystery, guest stars galore.
The lure: Natasha Lyonne! We got to see her solve mysteries on Russian Doll and I can imagine this format—episodic, case-of-the-week created with Rian Johnson (Glass Onion)—will be a riot to watch.
2. The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart (Prime Video)
Key words: Limited series based on an emotional novel from 2018 by Holly Ringland, filmed in Australia and spanning two decades of story.
The lure: Sigourney Weaver, Alycia Debnam-Carey, Frankie Adams.
1. How to Die Alone (Hulu)
Key words: Half-hour comedy.
The lure: Natasha Rothwell.
Since Insecure and The White Lotus, I have been patiently waiting for a starring vehicle for Natasha Rothwell. Vera Santamaria, Desiree Akhavan, and Rothwell herself are all executive producers. Although this has been in production relatively quietly, I suspect it will be one of the bigger and most anticipated shows of the year for me.
Honourable mentions:
Buzzy and could go either way: Dear Edward (Apple TV+), Masters of the Air (Apple TV+), Wolf Pack (Peacock), Wool (Apple TV+), The Big Cigar (Apple TV+), Hello Tomorrow! (Apple TV+), Beef (Netflix), The Palace (HBO), Under The Bridge (Hulu), The Curse (Showtime)
Most likely to prompt annoying online discourse: The Idol (HBO), Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies (Paramount+), Justified: City Primeval (FX), Daisy Jones and the Six (Prime Video), Bupkis (Peacock)
Expectations are low but open to having my mind changed: The Company You Keep (ABC), Shrinking (Apple TV+), Copenhagen Cowboy (Netflix), White House Plumbers (HBO), Citadel (Prime Video), Faraway Downs (Hulu), Great Expectations (BBC)
Based on significant IP: Mayfair Witches (AMC+), That '90s Show (reboot, Netflix), Velma (HBO Max), Agatha: House of Harkness (Disney+), Secret Invasion (Disney+), Ironheart (Disney+), Star Wars: The Acolyte (Disney+), Star Wars: Ahsoka (Disney+), Freeridge (On My Block spin-off, Netflix), Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story (Netflix), Gen V (Prime Video)
Shows I forgot about but added later: Saint X (Hulu), Avatar: The Last Airbender (Netflix), Shogun (FX)
so much good tv to look forward to! i can’t believe i didn’t know there was an upcoming thriller starring eva green on the horizon, thank you for that essential information.