What TV Shows to Watch for the Rest of 2018
At the midpoint of each year, the TV critics swarm onto webpages like a team of professional football players. They conspire to cover as much ground as possible: With the exploding cornucopia of entertainment we have right now (this is not a complaint) it is impossible for a single person to have seen everything. So the technique is to divide and conquer. It’s been a tough year, and if a single good thing came out of it, it’s the wealth of great television and diverse storytelling: Westworld, The Handmaid’s Tale, The Bold Type, American Crime Story, Pose, Killing Eve, GLOW. And now that the year has drawn to a halfway mark, we’ve compiled a list of shows you still have to look forward to (read: binge) over the remainder of 2018. You can thank me later.
Castle Rock — July 25 (Hulu)
The fictional town of Castle Rock, Maine, is a topographical conductor of Stephen King’s mythological traumas. Over the course of over 30 years, it was the beleaguered, weathered landscape that was home to some of the American author’s most twisted horror stories: Cujo, The Dead Zone, Needful Things. Now, it will become the site of a new psychological horror series based on the stories of Stephen King, who has signed on (with sci-fi/fantasy heavyweight J.J. Abrams) as an executive producer. King is a proponent of the quotidian tranquility interruption; Castle Rock will tell the story of a death row attorney ( American Horror Story’s André Holland) who returns to his hometown—he hasn’t been back since the townspeople turned on him after a mysterious accident, of which he has no memory, killed his father—to represent a disturbed feral inmate kept in a cage underneath Shawshank State Penitentiary (Bill Skarsgård).
Orange is the New Black, Season 6 — July 27 (Netflix)
After a three-day riot erupted at Litchfield Prison last season—a riot fortified by commissary drugs, white supremacists and an inferno of prison records—we were left with a massive cliffhanger. CERT members in full riot gear burst into the jail, rounding up the inmates with “by any means necessary” tactics (batons, shields, lithium, the usual arsenal) and, assumedly, make plans to ship them off to a new prison. In this new prison, which we see in the trailer released early last month, the inmates have been shuttled into a new penitentiary segregated by uniform colour: “Blues and khakis have beef with each other,” Piper tells an anxious Crazy Eyes. “But pinks are safe out there.” Jenji Kohan, the show’s creator, has always been brilliant in her comedic balancing act of sex, race, gender, spirituality and sexuality. I’m looking forward to seeing the facelift she’ll give this season. (Netflix has already backed the show until season 7, so much is left to explore.)
Insecure, Season 3 — August 12 (HBO)
What started as a brilliant web series about an awkward black girl clumsily navigating her world and relationships quickly became something more. Insecure, actress/writer/director/all-around powerhouse Issa Rae’s popular HBO lovechild, extends the limits of the 30-minute episode—each feels like a small film that resolves to fall off a cliff at the 29-minute mark and leave the viewer enamoured by its magnetism. The sophomore season, which, recall, was laced with Frank Ocean and Drake easter eggs, left off with Issa and Lawrence (allegedly) closing the book on their relationship and further sequestering viewers into one of two internet hashtags: #LawrenceHive or #TeamIssa. We don’t know much about what’s coming in season 3, except that Issa has moved in with Daniel and that Rae’s “No Trump Policy” outlaws any mention of the American president.
Disenchantment — August 17 (Netflix)
The adult animated sitcom, a fantastical goofy template that often makes the viewer feel intensely high, is in its second coming. There’s the anthropomorphic BoJack Horseman, which is Emmy-nominated; there is the scatalogical Big Mouth, which is critically acclaimed; there is the interdimensional Rick and Morty, which is an incubator for conspiracy theories. And as of August, there will also be Disenchantment, a 20-episode Netflix exhibit powered by Matt Groening, the mastermind behind The Simpsons and Futurama. The series will be set in the fictional medieval kingdom of Dreamland, following the adventures and misadventures of an unconventional Princess Bean (who, naturally, is an alcoholic), her elf companion Elfo (yes, an elf) and Luci, her “personal demon” played by Eri Andre. It will be animated in Groening’s signature style and has been described as the “offspring” of Game of Thrones and The Simpsons.
The Purge — September 4 (USA Network)
Based on the American horror film franchise of the same name, The Purge is set to be a ten-episode series centred around a 12-hour “glorious holiday,” when all crime—including theft, rape and murder—are legalized. “Tonight, we celebrate because we made this country great,” a woman says in the intense trailer. “Let the fun begin!” Just on the heels of The First Purge, the show will take place in an alternately dystopian “future America” governed by an autocratic political party that sanctions a night of bloodsport (as political allegory) and mayhem.
Kidding — September 9 (Showtime)
Jim Carrey hasn’t been on TV in a while. He returns this fall alongside Catherine Keener in a Showtime comedy-drama directed by his old friend Michel Gondry, who directed the 2004 Oscar-winning film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, in which Carrey starred. The show follows a man named Jeff, a.k.a Mr. Pickles, an “icon of children’s television” who “anchors a multimillion-dollar branding empire.” Of course, as in any good story about a person’s boring, diurnal life, something happens to disturb his success. When Jeff’s family begins to dissolve, he is flung into an existential crisis that challenges the limits of his humour. How can a comedian fare in the face of familial tragedy?
American Horror Story, Season 8 — September 12 (FX)
Ryan Murphy is having a moment. In the midst of his migration to Netflix, away from 20th Century Fox, the writer-director’s hand has been in some of the most beloved and culturally explosive series in the last year, with American Crime Story: Versace and Pose among them. In the fall, his highly anticipated American anthology horror series is making a return. Last season, American Horror Story: Cult, in an alternative Clinton/Trump electoral reality, the show followed the story of a murderous cult led by a fictional psychopath who leads them to pursue political capital during the 2018 US presidential election. With the new series (each is self-contained), which will be set 18 months from the present, there is very little information about the storyline—but the title American Horror Story: Radioactive has reportedly been trademarked. It has been speculated that the season will focus on one of two deadly sins: lust or violence. (Oh, and there will be a Coven/Murder House crossover.)
This is Us, Season 3 — September 25 (NBC)
NBC’s tearjerking family drama, which stars Milo Ventimiglia, Mandy Moore and Sterling K. Brown, was such a fan favourite that it was renewed for a second and third season at the same time. It’s a harrowing tale of kin—we follow the heartbreaking stories of three siblings, two biological and one adopted (and black) as they grow older together, losing a father and having their own children. Last season concluded with an excess of emotion: we learned the truth about Jack’s death, Beth and Randall wrestled over raising the foster child they’ve adopted, Kevin and Zoe travelled to Vietnam together. This season will [maybe] delve further into the story of Rebecca and Miguel (we know after Jack died she started dating his best friend) as well as the journey of Kevin and Zoe to the country where Jack previously served in the war.
Empire, Season 5 — September 26 (Fox)
The hip-hop melodrama Empire—created by Lee Daniels and Danny Strong; starring Taraji P. Henson and Terrence Howard—emerged triumphantly in early 2015 as the story of a musical dynasty. Focusing on a fictional music and entertainment label, Empire Entertainment, and the quarrelling family behind it, the story was compelling in its illustration of a family that sporadically engages in soapy civil wars. The show is an entry in a particular base of television that people seem to love: the serial music drama, plagued by fashion pageantry and theatrical dialogue. The 18-episode fifth season of Empire, which is the second most watched show on Fox, is likely to be a viewership lightning rod, and will offer a continuation of the compelling, emotional storyline the world has come to love.
Narcos: Mexico — September (???) (Netflix)
There is something universally alluring about the treacherous underground labyrinth of drug trade. When the American crime drama Narcos, which focused on Colombia’s billionaire narcotrafficker Pablo Escobar, released in the summer of 2015, it seduced a cult following into a world of supply and demand, of crime and shifty evasion. The new installment of the Narcos franchise shifts away from Colombia, where the show tread for three seasons, and over to Mexico, examining the origins of the modern drug war by exploring the rise of the Guadalajara Cartel in the 1980s.
Into the Dark — October 5 (Hulu)
Anything Blumhouse attaches its name to is golden. Even in spite of its sinister low budget production, the company is behind some of the most captivating horror films and franchises in recent memory (Get Out, Split, Insidious, The Purge). That they are set to produce Into the Dark, a new horror anthology series, is a telling sign of its creative potential. The 12-episode long series, each a feature length standalone in clear homage to Black Mirror, will follow a new release model, with episodes arriving the first weekend of every month, shirking the en-masse bingeing habits of an increasingly inattentive audience. Its first episode, “The Body,” is set in “the selfie culture of Los Angeles on Halloween night” and follows “a sophisticated, overconfident hitman who always carries out his work in style.”
Riverdale, Season 3 — October 10 (Netflix)
I feel it’s important to disclose that I haven’t watched all of Riverdale. What I do know, though, is that the teen drama series—which is based on the characters from those old Archie comics from late last century—is one of the most popular shows on Netflix (and probably on television among the teenage demographic). Now that season two has wrapped up, it’s been reported that the next season will open with Archie defending himself in a courtroom following his arrest at the end of the last episode. Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, a writer on the show, recently published a screenshot of the script featuring an image from the comic showing a lawyer yelling at Archie. And the series will definitely build on the romance of Betty and Jughead (Bughead?) because what is Riverdale without a star-crossed teen romance?
House of Cards, Season 6 — TBD
At the end of Netflix’ Shakespearean political thriller, House of Cards, First Lady Claire Underwood (Robin Wright), who has since graduated into the role of President of the United States, turns to the viewer and delivers a sharp two words: “My turn.” House of Cards followed the twisted story of congressman Frank Underwood (the now-disgraced Kevin Spacey), an anything-goes Democrat from the South whose marriage is subject to any reformations that might advance their greedy political agenda. Throughout the series, Wright often played the character foil to Spacey, who was fired from the show in late 2017 following revelations that he had allegedly sexually assaulted a number of men, some as young as 14. But with the sixth and final season of the show, the focus will be shifted back to the ruthlessly pragmatic Claire Underwood.
How to Get Away With Murder, Season 5 — TBD
Shonda Rhimes has a formula that never fails. How to Get Away with Murder, which is created by Peter Nowalk and produced by Rhimes, features some of the complex character development on television right now. The critically acclaimed Viola Davis stars as Annalise Keating, a matriarchal law professor at a prestigious university who becomes entrenched in a murder plot with five interning students. At the end of last season, the gang seemed to finally be relaxing into a good place: Laurel got custody of her son, Annalise won her Supreme Court case and Connor had reapplied to the school to resume his law studies. But in the finale, we were left with questions to be answered in this season when a mysterious student named Gabriel Maddox, the son of another character in the show, appeared at the school. Of course, the fifth season is sure to open with the same cliffhanger it always does: Who’s going to die next?
Black Mirror, Season 5 — TBD
Charlie Brooker, the British humorist turned critically acclaimed television auteur, is a wizard in the land of dystopian storylines. His sci-fi anthology series Black Mirror is a thorough and pessimistic examination of modern society as it relates to new technologies. The self-contained episodes, which are more like short films than they are TV programming, play out in a version of the present or somewhere in the distant future and have enraptured millions of frightened viewers. It is a depraved cross between The Twilight Zone and Tales of the Unexpected, with occasional standout moments like season three’s “San Junipero” or the last season’s “U.S.S. Callister,” which is nominated for an Emmy, consistently proving its breadth. While nothing is fully confirmed yet, other than the show’s renewal for a new season, judging by previous release dates season 5 will air at the very end of 2018.
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