20 New and Returning TV Shows You Should Add to Your 2024 Watchlist
Next year's TV schedule has undergone a great deal of shuffling, for good reason: For months, the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes held up production (also with good reason) on pretty much every major American production. As a result, release dates have been pushed back or pushed off the calendar entirely while scripts and filming schedules get back underway. On a couple of rare occasions, ready-to-go shows have moved up in the schedule to fill in. The shows below seem to have pretty firm dates, or at least narrow windows, but anything else is subject to change.
In addition to everything listed below, there are a few other heavy-hitters landing in 2024 without dates attached, nor even general timeframes...which probably means they'll arrive somewhere closer to the end of the year. Those include Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, the final season of The Bad Batch, and Agatha: Darkhold Diaries, all on Disney+; Orphan Black: Echoes and season two of Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire on AMC; Tiny Beautiful Things (with Kathryn Hahn) on Hulu; and even a Matlock reboot starring Kathy Bates, on CBS. We'll keep you posted.
The Brothers Sun (January 4)
Brad Falchuk (American Horror Story, Scream Queens, Pose, etc.) co-created this dark comedy starring impossibly busy recent Oscar-winner Michelle Yeoh as the matriarch of a Taiwanese family, trying to move on from the family's criminal past...with mixed results. Sam Song Li also stars as Bruce, who grew up in California with no knowledge of his own family history until he's drawn back in. It looks darkly funny and action packed in equal measures.
Where to watch: Netflix
Echo (January 10)
We first met Echo in the 2021 Hawkeye series, a relatively bright spot in Marvel's increasingly inconsistent output. Her upcoming solo series sees Alaqua Cox return to the role of Maya Lopez, a deaf assassin who once worked for Vincent D'Onofrio's Wilson Fisk. Here, she's on the run from Fisk, returning to her hometown in Oklahoma to come to terms with her past and to reconnect with her family and her roots in the Choctaw Nation. This is to be Marvel's first TV-MA show, and all episodes are dropping on Hulu and Disney+ simultaneously. Echo is a riskier character to take on in terms of name recognition, but it sounds like the show could be a welcome shift away from multiversal stakes of the mainline MCU in favor of something more personal. Charlie Cox also reprises his role as Daredevil, hinting at his own return to Disney+ in the future.
Where to watch: Disney+, Hulu
True Detective: Night Country (January 14)
After three seasons, creator Nic Pizzolatto is stepping away from showrunner's chair in favor of filmmaker Issa López, director of the rather brilliant Tigers Are Not Afraid; López is also writing and directing all six episodes of season four. Set in Ennis, Alaska, the new season will find (true) detectives Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster) and Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis) investigating the disappearances of eight men who operated the Tsalal Arctic Research Station. Sounds appropriately creepy.
Where to watch: Max
The Woman in the Wall (January 19)
This British import stars Ruth Wilson as Lorna Brady, a woman with a history of sleepwalking dating back to her time in one of Ireland's notorious Magdalene laundries—workhouses for "fallen" women, or those without familial support. She wakes up one morning to find a corpse in her house, and no knowledge of who the person was or how they died. The mystery ends up tying back to Lorna's past, naturally. Wilson received stellar reviews for her performance during the miniseries' initial BBC run.
Where to watch: Showtime
Sexy Beast (January 25)
This could be cool, or it could be an example of the nostalgia train having gone once more off the rails. It's a prequel to Jonathan Glazer's 2000 British gangster film of the same name, with James McArdle taking over the role of Gal from Ray Winstone and Emun Elliott subbing in for Ben Kingsley as Don in a show chronicling the early years of their budding partnership. There's no trailer yet, so you'll have to settle for catching up on the original movie.
Where to watch: Paramount+
Masters of the Air (January 26)
A spiritual successor to both Band of Brothers and The Pacific (all of them produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks), this latest WWII-era miniseries follows the real-life 100th Bomb Group of the United States Air Force, best known for suffering heavy losses during combat missions. The cast includes Austin Butler, Callum Turner, Barry Keoghan, and reigning Doctor Who Ncuti Gatwa.
Where to watch: Apple TV+
Feud: Capote vs. The Swans (January 31)
The first season of Feud, starring Jessica Lange and Susan Sarandon as Joan Crawford and Bette Davis, respectively, came out way back in 2017. The followup installment of this Ryan Murphy anthology series is finally upon us, focusing on Truman Capote's tempestuous relationship with the women of New York society in the '50s and '60s (which mostly involved him cozying up to them before writing bitchy, thinly veiled accounts of their private lives). Tom Hollander is playing Capote alongside Naomi Watts, Diane Lane, Chloë Sevigny, Calista Flockhart, Demi Moore, and Molly Ringwald as his friends/fodder. It's one helluva cast, and the stable of episode directors includes Gus Van Sant, Max Winkler, and Jennifer Lynch.
Where to watch: FX
Mr. & Mrs. Smith (February 2)
Riffing on the 2005 Brad Pitt/Angelina Jolie action-comedy (and not the Alfred Hitchcock rom-com), this series reboot sees Donald Glover and Maya Erskine (in a role originally intended for Phoebe Waller-Bridge)in the title roles as married spies. Glover also serves as co-creator and producer.
Where to watch: Prime Video
The Equalizer, Season 4 (February 18)
It's not the buzziest series, but Queen Latifah's Equalizer has been a solid performer for CBS, blending the Tiffany network's signature style of police procedural with style and a genuine social conscience. Presumably, Robyn McCall will continue to champion helpless New Yorkers while raising her daughter, and doing it all in impeccable style.
Where to watch: CBS
Avatar: The Last Airbender (February 22)
M. Night Shyamalan's live-action adaptation of the beloved Nickelodeon animated series isn't exactly beloved, so I guess there's nowhere to go but up? Netflix's recent live-action take on the One Piece anime was well received, but they also did a pretty dismal adaptation of Cowboy Bebop that was cancelled almost immediately. So...best of three, maybe?
Where to watch: Netflix
The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live (February 25)
Those of us who lost track of The Walking Dead a long time ago might be surprised to learn that we're about to witness the sixth spin-off of the recently concluded original series (Daryl Dixon and Dead City are also likely to see second season premieres in 2024 or early 2025). The focus here is on Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and Michonne (Danai Gurira) in the aftermath of Rick's apparent death way back in 2018. They're joined by Jadis (Pollyanna McIntosh), with the show promising a more definite conclusion for two of TWD's most beloved characters.
Where to watch: AMC
Shōgun (February 27)
The James Clavell novel on which this new series is based was first adapted way back in 1980, during the golden age of the epic TV miniseries. But everything old is new again, so here we are, back to Japan at the turn of the 17th century . Starring Cosmo Jarvis, Hiroyuki Sanada, and Anna Sawai, the series involves a shipwrecked English sailor, a powerful daimyo, and the woman samurai who becomes the link between them, despite her disreputable lineage. The novel takes a very Eurocentric approach to its exploration of Japanese history, so it'll be interesting to see if the series goes in a different direction, especially with some actual Japanese people involved behind the scenes.
Where to watch: FX
Apples Never Fall (March)
Liane Moriarty's novels have been adapted with quite a bit of success in the past: HBO's Big Little Lies draws from one of her books, as does Hulu's Nine Perfect Strangers. This latest follows the Delaney family, whose four siblings are forced to confront their dark family history following the disappearance of their mother, Joy (Annette Benning)—a disappearance in which their father, Stand (Sam Neill), is a person of interest. Alison Brie, Jake Lacy, and Georgie Flood also star.
Where to watch: Peacock
Palm Royale (March 20)
This stylish-looking period comedy follows Maxine Simmons (Kristen Wiig) “as she endeavors to break into Palm Beach high society” in 1969. The cast is wild: Wiig is joined by Laura Dern, Allison Janney, Ricky Martin, Carol Burnett, and Mindy Cohn, among others. It's based on the novel Mr. and Mrs. American Pie by Juliet McDaniel
Where to watch: Apple TV+
3 Body Problem (March 21)
Adaptations of Liu Cixin's Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy have been bandied about since the book's original release back in 2008, with a Chinese-language miniseries adaptation having done well earlier this year. This American take comes to us via the pair behind HBO's Game of Thones, David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, joined by Alexander Woo. The series moves from past, to the present, and into the future with Rosalind Chao (The Joy Luck Club, Star Trek: The Next Generation), beginning with the story of Ye Wenjie, whose parents were killed during the Cultural Revolution, an event that sets her life on a course that eventually leads her to confront an extraterrestrial threat to all of humanity.
Where to watch: Netflix
Star Trek: Discovery, Season 5 (April)
The wellspring of all modern Trek is coming to an end with a 10-episode fifth season, premiering in April. Sonequa Martin-Green and the rest of the main crew are all returning for a mission that will “send them on an epic adventure across the galaxy to find an ancient power whose very existence has been deliberately hidden for centuries." The Disco era of Trek doesn't end here, though: a Section 31 movie, with Michelle Yeoh reprising her Philippa Georgiou role, is in production, and a Starfleet Academy spin-off set in Discovery's far-future timeline is in development.
Where to watch: Paramount+
Fallout (April 12)
The creators of Westworld, Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, took their new sci-fi show to Prime Video, presumably with hope that it won't get cancelled right before the end and then dumped unceremoniously. (Though the post-renewal cancellation of The Peripheral doesn't bode well.) Anyway! This one's an adaptation of the post-apocalyptic video game series, telling the story of Lucy (Ella Purnell), who is forced to leave her subterranean bunker for the first time in her life to face a world full of mutants and humans, without any other goals than to stay alive. Think Last of Us, but with more of a sense of humor. Walton Goggins, Aaron Moten, Kyle MacLachlan, and Moisés Arias also star.
Where to watch: Prime Video
Bridgerton, Season 3 (May 16)
The latest season of Shonda Rhimes' lively take on Regency romance is set to focus on Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan), aka Lady Whistledown herself, who decides to move on from her infatuation with Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton) just as he's ready to take the plunge. Romantic complications will certainly ensue. The third season (not including the Queen Charlotte spin-off) will be split into two parts, with the first half dropping on May 16, and the second coming on June 13.
Where to watch: Netflix
House of the Dragon (Summer)
You can't keep a good dragon down, nor a bad Targaryen, so the Game of Thrones follow-up is back next summer. It's one of a few major series not to have been delayed by the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, thanks to its UK-based contracts.
Where to watch: HBO, Max
Yellowstone, Season 5b (November)
It's hard to believe Taylor Sheridan's powerhouse series is coming to an end, with the final run of six episodes beginning in November. Fear not, though, there's still plenty of Yellowstone-adjacent TV to come: the Sam Elliott-led spin-off miniseries 1883 is done, as is the David Oyelowo Bass Reeves mini, but 1923 (with Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren) is returning for a second season at some point. Also in production are 1944, 6666 (set in the present), and a direct sequel series rumored to star Matthew McConaughey. You'll have to say goodbye to Kevin Costner, but the Yellowstone-verse goes on.
Where to watch: Paramount Network