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| The Top TV Shows of 2023 |
There are also remakes of great movies like Fatal Attraction. We'll be keeping an eye out for more, so check back frequently for regular updates on the top entertainment hitting your tiny screens.
The Last of Us on HBO (January)
HBO had a bit of a problem on its hands when it came to adapting The Last of Us. It had a built-in fan base because it was based on a well-liked video game that has astonishingly sold 37 million copies; for those who were unfamiliar with the game or who had a certain level of snobbery towards video games, it also had to convince them that the medium could serve as a springboard for compelling television.
They didn't need to worry, though, as the programme has only aired three episodes and is already evoking the kind of watercooler discussion that is emblematic of HBO, with Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey's brilliantly subtle performances garnering particular praise.
Dear Edward on Apple TV+ (January)
Apple's Dear Edward, based on the best-selling novel by Ann Napolitano, errs on the side of Lifetime TV but ultimately succeeds thanks in great part to Connie Britton's performance as the anchor.
The actor portrays the wife of a man who perished in a plane crash that claimed the lives of all but one preteen kid named Edward. Edward ends up serving as the centre of all the anxieties, hopes, and anxieties that surround the tragedy.
The programme follows the survivors' intertwining stories. The show has a modern soap opera quality similar to This Is Us.
Stonehouse on Britbox (January)With a constant diet of quality UK TV that is exclusive to BritBox, the service is establishing a case for itself. One of the best shows of 2022 was Sherwood, and Stonehouse, a campy and wonderfully performed reenactment of a weird incident in 1970s British politics, is a treat. The star of the show is Matthew Macfayden, who is on loan from Succession and portraying Labour MP John Stonehouse, who kills himself to escape an espionage controversy and travels to Australia.
Macfayden severely mistreats his wife (Keeley Hawes, who is actually Macfayden's wife), doubling down on his terrible behavior as he approaches near salvation, adding psychopathic cruelty to Stonehouse's buffoonery.
Fauda Season 4 on Netflix (January)
The season 4 of this Israeli action thriller on Netflix is unrelenting and has twitchy handheld camera sequences that rival anything else the show has offered up to this point.
Both ardent supporters and fierce detractors of the Israeli propaganda-style television series Fauda, which depicts the exploits of a team of special Israeli operatives who routinely infiltrate Palestinian communities to uncover terrorist plots, are fans of the show.
The fourth season, which travels to Brussels and Syria and casts the Lebanese organisation Hezbollah as the enemy while dodging difficult concerns regarding occupation and maintaining our interest in its beardy, rugged, and endearing Israeli protagonists, won't end any discussions.
Poker Face on Peacock (January)
The star of this absurd yet endearing murder mystery programme is Natasha Lyonne. That's a convoluted explanation, but it follows a formula developed by author Rian Johnson, who has made a name for himself as a clever and assured writer of whodunits with oversized characters and kind hearts with his Knives Out movies.
Lyonne steals the show as a cocktail waitress at a casino who has a natural and enigmatic ability to tell when someone is lying. She solves a different mystery in each episode, a pattern that provides a welcome break from all the programmes one must watch from start to finish like so many 12-hour blockbusters.
After the release of her strange and magnificent Russian Doll, Lyonne has experienced something of a resurgence. This program feels more like a throwback to the network foremost mysteries of a pre-streaming era than that one, which was indie antics on late-night Netflix, but her charisma makes up for it.
Yellowjackets Season 2 on Showtime (March)
Last November, when Yellowjackets made its Showtime debut, it achieved the rarity of rarities in the streaming era: a slow-burn, word-of-mouth hit.
Finally, everyone's favourite high school football players (and perhaps cannibals) will return at the end of March for another season of regret, gore, and ruminating on the past, minus those who have already perished in the wilderness.
Natalie, was Lottie's cult holding her captive? Will Shauna escape punishment for killing Adam? Travis, did you truly end your life? What's up with the eerie altar in the basement and Taissa's out-of-body experiences? Two seasons can't come soon enough.
Love and Death on HBO Max (March)The story of Candy Montgomery, a beautiful Texas housewife who in the summer of 1980 used 41 axe strokes to kill Betty Gore—a close friend and the wife of Montgomery's previous lover, Allan—may be familiar to true-crime experts (and Hulu subscribers?).
Love and Death (HBO Max), starring Elizabeth Olsen as Montgomery as well as Lily Rabe and Jesse Plemons as the Gores, is based on the same case as 2022's Candy, a Hulu miniseries (with Jessica Biel as Montgomery as well as Melanie Lynskey and Pablo Schreiber playing the Gores). (Yikes!) Dave E.
This version was directed by Kelly, and it has all the hallmarks of his best work: dramatic opening credits set to Nina Simone's "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood"; an upper-middle-class town that is gossipy and close-knit; and a strong cast of A-list actors. (Krysten Ritter and Elizabeth Marvel are also involved.)
Despite the fact that we already know how it all turns out, Love and Death is still a ton of fun thanks to Olsen's excellent lead performance.
Fatal Attraction on Paramount+ (April)
Fatal Attraction, an upcoming adaptation of Adrian Lyne's 1987 film of the same name by Paramount+, is a classic sensual thriller that becomes a sexy judicial drama.
The story of Dan Gallagher, a family man and lawyer from New York who meets Alex Forrest at work, agrees to a passionate relationship, and then must fend off her increasingly unstable (and ultimately violent) advances, picks up here where the first one left off.
While the offending tryst is depicted in one timeline in the 2010s, with a modernized setting in California, and a competent new cast (Joshua Jackson as the dashing Dan and Lizzy Caplan—recent from a devastatingly good, if criminally under sung performance in Fleishman Is in Trouble—as the alarming Alex), another timeline finds Dan some 10 or 15 years later, estranged from his now-adult daughter, seeking parole for Alex's murder Despite the subtle nods to its inspiration (Alex Caplan, like Glenn Close's character, has a taste for black leather), this Fatal Attraction is a totally different creature.
Beef on Netflix (Spring)
Steven Yeun and Ali Wong square off in Beef; the new Netflix series from A24 is both compellingly deranged and incredibly twitchy.
Yeun portrays a handyman who is not particularly successful, and Wong portrays an entrepreneur who has created a business selling the kinds of air plants you can't help but encounter whenever you walk into a West Elm.
She's dealing with the stress of trying to sell her company to something like a Home Depot as her sculptor husband tinkers with his clay pots at home. He's feeling bad that his parents lost their motels and had to return to Korea while his slacker brother trades cryptocurrencies.
When their paths practically cross in a road-rage incident, both of these characters, who are both feeling quite resentful, become the targets of the other's fury. The program is both dark and humorous, a parody that digs deep into some unsettling facts.
Tiny Beautiful Things on Hulu (April)
Little Lovely Things, a program featuring a powerful female performance at its core, stars Kathryn Hahn. The show follows its reticent author as she explores her own problematic background for life tips that occasionally resemble more tone poems.
The show is loosely modelled on the Dear Sugar advice column that appeared on The Rumpus and defined an early-aughts slice of internet advice giving. Indeed, Cheryl Strayed, the author of the bestselling memoir Wild, was known as Dear Sugar.
Dead Ringers on Amazon
Dead Ringers, which stars Rachel Weisz as a pair of twin gynecologists' and has been adapted by the in-demand author Alice Birch, whose previous works include Lady Macbeth and Normal People, has one of the most intriguing TV plots of the year.
One of the twin doctors' dubious ethical approach to the job ultimately puts them both in danger. (Finally, if that didn't whet your appetite, the show is also a gender-flipped remake of David Cronenberg's gory 1988 horror-thriller of same name, which featured Jeremy Irons as the lead.)
The majority of the show's specifics are now unknown, but if Weisz and Birch are involved in it, you can anticipate that when it debuts on Amazon Prime Video later this year, this deliciously perverse (and probably contentious) treat will spark discussion.
Happy Valley on AMC
Happy Valley, Sally Wainwright's masterwork of a crime series, made a triumphant return on New Year's Day on the BBC after a seven-year absence (at least in Britain; it's anticipated to run on AMC in the States later this year).
And there was no need to worry that Catherine Cawood, the adored police sergeant played by Sarah Lancashire in this series, would go mellow with the lengthy break between it and the last one.
Beginning with the discovery of a dead body in a quarry—which, of course, turns out to be connected to Catherine's enduring foe, the now-incarcerated Tommy Lee Royce, played once again with devilish charm by James Norton—she reprimands her fellow officers after they make a patronising comment to her with: "I'll leave it to you—twats."
Happy Valley is poised to cement its position as one of the best British dramas of the last ten years with more twists and turns than you can toss a truncheon at, as well as the consistently spectacular performances by Siobhan Finneran as her demure sister Claire and Warwick Lancashire.
The Idol on HBO
Lily-Rose Depp portrays a dejected pop diva who is drawn into the bizarre, twisted world of a contemporary cult leader and self-help guru in this melancholy, dark thriller (played by The Weeknd). The Weeknd, Reza Fahim, and Euphoria creator Sam Levinson also contributed to the grungy and highly stylized series, which was also co-produced by hitmaker A24.
The Idol's path to airing has been notably bumpy: Variety reported in April of last year that the series was going through a significant "creative change" midway through filming and lost a director and character actor in the process.
Regardless of the drama occurring off-screen, viewers are guaranteed to find the onscreen experience to be engaging. There is a talented bunch of young stars in the mix, some of whom are acting for the first time.
The likes of Troye Sivan, Moses Sumney, Dan Levy, Jennie Ruby Jane from Blackpink, Hari Nef, and others make notable cameos. Fans of Ecstasy and other A24 projects will undoubtedly enjoy this pop-minded series, which places a strong emphasis on fast-paced editing, eye-catching fashion, and an overall strong LA vibe.
And Just Like That Season 2 on HBOWhether you like it or not, the first season of this so-called Sex and the City reboot and sequel series generated a lot of buzz when it debuted in December 2021.
Stocks appeared to fall after one of the franchise's characters died on a Peloton, which prompted the business to reiterate the safety of their stationary bikes in a statement. Che Diaz, portrayed by the astute Sara Ramirez, rose to prominence as the symbol of bizarre pandemonium. Carrie's eccentric, goofy style surpassed previous heights.
The main characters from Sex and the City are now returning, this time without Samantha. The show's central subplot, Aidan and Carrie's reunion, has been meticulously teased and advertised.
When an official photo of the longtime couple walking around New York hand in hand was made public, the internet erupted with a flurry of conflicting reactions. And we're confident that the actual series will only intensify fans' feelings.
They portrayed Carrie as the romantic in anguish, while Aidan always revealed a somewhat different, colder side to the expertly complex character.
Will Carrie still be alive at this point? Or has our beloved furniture manufacturer once again gotten himself into trouble? Questions abound. Season two of And Just Like That is unquestionably a fantastic dose of nostalgia, even though it finally feels like a far cry from the deep, realistic experience of the first SATC series. And sometimes, that suffices well.
Succession Season 4 on HBO
Beginning in March, the fourth season of everybody's favourite light-to-moderate sociopath family—with some family members elevated to heavy—begins.
The fourth year in a row, watching the Roy children's plan against their business titan father Logan will be mandatory viewing due to the involvement of Alexander Skarsgrd as the digital entrepreneur who is in the process of purchasing the family business.
Will Connor and Wills get married at long last? Who will Annabeth Gish's character be in the recently revealed cast? What in the world will happen to Tom? Fortunately, we won't have to wait long to find out the answers to these and other questions.