The best and most anticipated TV shows of 2024

The best TV shows of 2024 have already come in thick and fast. We've 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 seasons like The Diplomat, Heartstopper and Squid Game, plus new gems like British crime thriller Black Doves starring none other than Kiera Knightly.

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 those three final cold months of the year, here are all the best and 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.

One Day

Release date: 8 February

One moment you're rolling your eyes, thinking “well, this is a bit cheesy” and the next your trying not to physically sob, deeply emotionally attached to fictional characters Dexter and Emma (Leo Woodall and Ambika Mod) and unable to imagine a life in which you're not following their lives. When One Day came out in February it was an instant hit, in part for shallow reasons: the good-looking cast, the wall-to-wall ‘80s and ‘90s bangers, the fact it's a will-they-won't-they romance. But the David Nicholls adaptation was more than all that, tackling themes from male loneliness to substance issues to what it feels like when you still feel directionless in your 30s and beyond. You can watch One Day on Netflix.

Constellation

Release date: 24 February

TV shows set in space aren't always the most riveting are they? I mean, look, once you've seen one astronaut floating about while having a crisis, you've seen them all right? Even so, Apple TV+’s sci-fi venture Constellation – starring Noomi Rapace as a mega smart astronaut who swaps bodies with herself in a parallel universe after a space trip gone wrong – will appeal to even the most sci-fi weary among us. Most of it's action takes place back down on earth and it's more of a philosophical spider web than anything else. While it's not been renewed for a second season, there's more than enough to feast on in the first, and (nearly) everything gets neatly tied up anyway. You can watch Constellation on Apple TV+.

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.

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. You can watch The Acolyte on Disney+.

Queenie

Release date: 4 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. You can watch Queenie on Channel 4.

Presumed Innocent

Release date: 14 June

Our expectations were 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. You can watch Presumed Innocent on Apple TV+.

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. You can watch House of the Dragon on Amazon Prime.

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. You can watch Supacell on Netflix.

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, released it's third season back in June to genuinely mixed results (some called it a bore, others called it an outright masterpiece). While prior seasons focussed on a high stress Chicago sandwich shop that always seemed moments from collapsing entirely, as well as a bit of romance, this one zoned in entirely with laser-sharp focus on the opening of Carmy's (Jeremy Allen White) new restaurant, with little room for anything else. You can watch The Bear on Disney+.

Spent

Release date: 8 July

Last Friday night I got an Uber without realising until it was too late that it was going to cost me thirty seven whole pounds and it kind of ruined my weekend. But at least I’ve never spent $14,000 on crystals! Spent’s protagonist Mia, played by Michelle de Swarte, has. She lands back in London with something of a thud at the tail-end of a successful modelling career in the US, and in failing to adjust to the decline in income that’s accompanied her decline in work, she’s ended up in debt. And not just pretend make-believe student debt, either. This is the real stuff. That you feel so on-side with someone who’s spent $14,000 on crystals is a testament to the strength of de Swarte’s writing and performance, which makes this series absolutely worth forking out (on your TV licence) for. You can watch Spent on BBC iPlayer.

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.” You can watch Sunny on Apple TV+.

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. You can watch Lady in the Lake on Apple TV+.

Those About to Die

Release date: 19 July

In December of last year, Iwan Rheon popped up in the lead role of the sensitive and gentle BBC TV Movie Men Up, playing the demure Meurig (or “Demeurig”, if you will), a man tentatively participating in one of the first ever trials of Viagra, in 1990s Swansea. It was a far cry from how we first came to know him, as Game of Thrones sadist-in-chief Ramsay Bolton. But perhaps Rheon had left his days of nasty antiquated violence behind him?

Perhaps not. He stars as crime boss Tenax in epic sword-and-sandal drama Those About to Die, which comes out on Amazon Prime in the UK this July. Chuck in Anthony Hopkins and some brutal arena battles, and you’ve got a recipe that brings Rheon back to his big bastardy best. You can watch Those About to Die on Amazon Prime.

Time Bandits

Release Date: 24th July

It’s got to be one of the funnest-sounding professions. Bandit. Sort of a rascal, maybe breaking the rules a bit but probably not doing too much harm. What kind of bandit would you most like to be? Maybe a sea bandit – well that’s just a pirate. Or you could be a bandit of the road – one of those old-school highway robbers. That might be fun. Or, maybe, you’d like to apply your banditry to the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future? If so, that would make you a Time Bandit. And you’d be the subject of Jermaine Clement, Taika Waititi & co’s upcoming TV series based on Terry Gilliam’s 1981 fantasy adventure film of the same name. Silly funny people applying their talents to the revival of a silly funny concept. Should be good. You can watch Time Bandits on Apple TV+.

Fantasmas

Release date: 1 August

This series is essentially the world according to Julio Torres. The Salvadorian-American writer and actor, of Saturday Night Live fame, has crafted a surreal, fantastical world through which his character – Julio Torres – must tumble in search of a lost oyster-shaped earring. It’s the characters along the way – played by the likes of Emma Stone and Steve Buscemi – in combination with Torres’s ingenuity that really make this series. They’re far from phone it in cameos, but rather little nuggets of value that are added in delightful sprinklings throughout the show. Who doesn’t love delightful sprinklings of nuggets? You can watch Fantasmas on Now.

The Umbrella Academy season 4

Release date: 8 August

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. You can watch The Umbrella Academy on Netflix.

Bad Monkey

Release date: 14 August

No, it’s not a series of monkeys being told off for various forms of misbehaviour (although that does sound great and I will be starting a GoFundMe to get that off in the ground in the very near future, watch this space and also let me know if you have access to monkeys and/or professional scolders). Instead, it’s a series where Vince Vaughan plays a detective who’s been relegated to the restaurant inspection circuit, until the discovery of a severed arm sends him after much bigger baddies than chefs ignoring hair net regulations. Creator Bill Lawrence is the guy behind Scrubs, which certainly makes this worth a more-than-cursory glance. You can watch Bad Monkey on Apple TV+.

Daddy Issues

Release date: 15 August

There’s been a lot of attention given to what Aimee Lou-Wood may or may not do after Sex Education. Daddy Issues won’t be her first gig since the Netflix mega-hit, but it looks set to be the best. In it she plays a 24 year-old care-free singleton who soon has one very large care bestowed upon her – an unexpected pregnancy from a one-night stand. This forces her to turn to her recently-divorced and permanently-hapless Dad (David Morrissey) for help. One imagines they’ll muddle through with adorable spirit and camaraderie? You can watch Daddy Issues on BBC iPlayer.

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. You can watch Pachinko on Apple TV+.

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 arrived at the tail-end of summer, just in time for cosy autumn viewing. You can watch Only Murders in the Building on Disney+.

KAOS

Release date: 29th August

Jeff Goldblum is Zeus. Oh, what? More information? Ok… well Jeff Goldblum is Zeus in a new Netflix series by The End of the F***ing World creator Charlie Covell, where Zeus develops an obsessive paranoia about the end of his reign at the top of the mythological hierarchy, without realising that Prometheus is in fact using three unsuspecting humans to execute a crafty plot to bring about the end of his reign at the top of the mythological hierarchy. Jeff Goldblum is Zeus. C'mon! You can watch KAOS on Netflix.

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 has also finally arrived. 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). You can watch The Rings of Power on Amazon.

Slow Horses

Release date: 4th September

Terrible news for perhaps the grumpiest character on TV – Gary Oldman’s unsuccessfully-retired spook Jackson Lamb – Apple have confirmed a season 4 is coming out later this year. He’s going to have to do more stuff. People will probably try and kill him, and he’ll probably have to try and kill some of them back. This ‘being a spy’ thing never stops, eh? Lucky for us, we just have to watch. Go on, Gary! Get him! You can watch Slow Horses on Apple TV+.

The Perfect Couple

Release date: 5th September

Eve Hewson’s dad might be Bono, but she no mere nepo baby – she was excellent in Sharon Horgan’s Apple TV series Bad Sisters, and now she’s made it into a new series starring the likes of Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber and Dakota Fanning. Her character is about to marry into Nicole Kidman’s very wealthy family, and while Kidman sneers disapprovingly on Hewson’s upstart moneygrabber, a body shows up near their Nantucket mansion. Who’s a suspect? Why it’s everyone, of course… You can watch The Perfect Couple on Netflix.

Nightsleeper

Release date: 15 September

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. You can watch Nightsleeper on BBC iPlayer.

A Very Royal Scandal

Release date: 19 September

Remember Scoop, the Netflix film about Emily Maitlis’s interview with Prince Andrew that came out back in April? Heck, remember the interview itself? It was only five years ago, but already we’ve got our second dramatisation of the sweatless prince's meeting with Maitlis. This version centres on Maitlis and her personal journey before, during and after the interview took place, laying out its importance for her career (and, conversely, the baffling naivety with which Andrew went into it). Look, we've seen it before, but this version still has the goods — and who doesn't love a big Michael Sheen impression? You can watch A Very Royal Scandal on Amazon Prime.

Frasier season 13

Release date: 20th September

Cheers is an excellent tv programme set entirely within a bar in Boston. You should watch it. It’s really very good indeed. So good, in fact, that in 1993, it pulled a rather late 2010s/early 2020s move and spawned a spin-off show, Frasier, which was successful enough to actually eclipse Cheers in renown. Its titular Frasier Crane was a psychiatrist who hosted his own radio show in Seattle, and it ran from 1993 until 2004 and everybody loved it very much. And then, last year, in a rather late 2010s/early 2020s move, it was announced that Frasier was coming back. Many shuddered. But upon seeing the new series, most relaxed. Kelsey Grammar’s class hadn’t faded a shade, and Only Fools and Horses legend Nicholas Lyndhurst brought a lively freshness to the latest iteration. We cautiously suggest the new series will be more of the same… You can watch Frasier on Channel 4.

The Penguin

Release date: 20 September

Colin Farrell is packing himself back into the prosthetics to return to his role as Gotham's greatest crime lord from 2022's The Batman. Landing on Sky Atlantic and NOW, the series will explore Oswald Cobblepot's rise to the apex of the city's criminal underworld and consist of eight episodes. It's already being lined up as a potential next occupant of The Sopranos' prestige mob show crown. Has it got the goods to wear it? Early signs are that it might. You can watch The Penguin on NOW.

Ludwig

Release date: 25 September

Imagine there are two David Mitchells. Imagine one of them, who's a detective, disappears. Imagine the other, non-detective one impersonates the disappeared detective one to try and track him down. That's Ludwig. The conceit of Mitchell's imposter brother being a puzzle-designer by trade is a fun one, and Anna Maxwell-Martin is involved, so it's pretty hard not to see this being a good old time. You can watch Ludwig on BBC iPlayer.

Mr McMahon

Release date: 25 September

On the face of it, WWE doesn’t exactly look like an operation with a tonne of brains behind it. But there are some, and over the last few decades they’ve mostly belonged to Vince McMahon. This new documentary series chronicles his rise through the wrestling ranks, via interviews with McMahon himself and all the big names – your Cenas, your Rocks, your Hulk Hogans etc – you'd hope for. What you'd also hope for is a serious appraisal of the shocking allegations of sexual misconduct made against McMahon in recent years. Whether or not the series pays due attention to them will be revealed on the 25th of September. You can watch Mr. McMahon on Netflix.

Brassic season 6

Release date: 26 September

This is England’s Joe Gilgun has been a more than capable captain at the helm of his own show for 5 years now, and what a refreshing run it’s been. Working-class northerners are sorely under-represented on British TV, and when they’re as fun as they are on Brassic, it’s hard to understand why. Rumours recently circulated that the end could be near for the lovably laddish comedy, only for Sky to announce that season 7 had been confirmed. Long may it reign. You can watch Brassic on NOW.

Joan

Release date: 29 September

Wearing obscenely expensive jewels? Kinda chic, kinda cool. Stealing obscenely expensive jewels by swallowing them and them selling them on once they… re-emerge? Well, maybe chic isn’t quite the word, but it’s fucking cool, and it’s exactly how Joan Hannington got her start in the jewel-thieving game. That and the rest of her criminal career are the subject of a new series on ITV starring the perfectly-cast Sophie Turner, whose cool on-screen hardness is sure to send a frozen aisle in the supermarket-size chill down your spine as she plays one of the most notorious thieves in this country’s history.

Industry season 3

Release date: 1 October

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.

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 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 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.”

Alma's Not Normal season 2

Release date: 7 October

The first series of Alma’s Not Normal, all four years ago that it was now, leapt out of nowhere to win the hearts of critics, audiences and probably also some people who were just on the sofa half-paying attention while their flatmate watched it. Sophie Willan’s semi-autobiographical sitcom saw the titular Alma contend with her mother’s addiction and the general hopelessness of her surroundings (sorry, Bolton) as she begins life as a sex worker in order to support herself while she pursues her dream of becoming an actor. Sometimes sad but mostly very funny and pleasingly smart, season 1 is definitely worth catching up on just in time for season 2.

The Franchise

Release date: 8 October

Armanda Iannucci and Sam Mendes have set their satire and smarts loose on the set of a fictional superhero movie. A reflection, perhaps, of where true power now lies in western society – that Iannucci’s sacked off the corridors of government for the studio lots of Hollywood’s most moneyed franchise – or just a sign that something lots of people love and lots of people hate and no one can avoid was well overdue for a good ribbing. Either way, if you like The Thick of It you’ll probably like this, and if you haven’t seen The Thick of It, then watch it, and when you inevitably like it you’ll also fall into the category of people who will like this.

Sweetpea

Release date: 10 October

So from what I can tell, this is a series about a woman who’s frustrated by her job, her boyfriend, and her general lack of anything interesting in her life. And so to solve this series of problems, she starts… killing people? And then we see if she can keep getting away with it? It’s from the producers behind Slow Horses and Heartstopper so I’m inclined to trust that this slightly strange premise will bear big fat juicy fruit. We're interested to see how.

Disclaimer

Release date: 11 October

Alfonso Cuarón doesn’t tend to miss. He’s got the likes of Gravity, Roma and Children of Men under his belt on the big screen, and now he’s turning his attention to the small one. Disclaimer stars Cate Blanchett as a journalist who finds out she’s essentially a character in a novel someone she knows has written, and that a huge secret belonging to this “character” – so, also, her – is revealed in the novel. Cue a life dismantling, etc etc. Stressful!

Mr Loverman

Release date: 14 October

Bernadine Evaristo is probably most famous for having written 2019’s Girl, Woman, Other, but it’s one of her previous efforts, 2014’s Mr Loverman, that’s been the first to be deemed adaptable for TV. And so we have Lennie James playing elderly British-Caribbean gent Barry, whose wife’s suspicions about a potential affair with another woman turn out to be well-founded, but not in exactly the way she’s imagined – Barry is having an affair, but it’s not with a woman. It’s with his best friend Morris. Big decisions follow, and they incorporate questions about the British-Caribbean diaspora, attitudes towards homosexuality, and what it means to belong – with plenty of snazzy suits to boot.

Everyone Else Burns season 2

Release date: 14 October

Simon Bird fully emerged from the shadow of The Inbetweeners now, vast as it was, and after success in Friday Night Dinner and others he’s now on his second season of Everyone Else Burns, in which he plays a wannabe leader trying to rise through the ranks of an extremist Christian cult trying to convince the world of how soon we’re all going to be eternally damned – it’s funnier than it sounds. Lolly Adefope, Morgana Robinson and the always-intriguing Liam Williams are among a strong supporting cast that reveal just how ripe for comedy a puritanical sect of probably-crazed doomsayers can be.

Shrinking season 2

Release date: 16 October

A therapist goes rogue and decides to tell it to his clients like it is – simple and strong as a concept. That therapist is Jason Segel, and he counts Harrison Ford among his clientele. Also involved behind the scenes are Ted Lasso creative duo Bill Lawrence and Brett Goldstein, the latter of whom comes out from behind the writing desk for some guest appearances in the second season.

Rivals

Release date: 18 October

Here’s everything we know about Disney+’s hotly-anticipated Rivals thus far: It's about the television industry in the 1980s. It stars David Tennant and Aidan Turner. It's based on a sexy Jilly Cooper novel. And, according to show notes, it'll bring “a 2020s lens to the 1980s, offering a raw exploration of a complicated moment in British history when class, race, sex, wealth, and sexual liberation meant that, for the very privileged few, there were no limits to what they could achieve.” Oh, and it'll be out later this year.

The Office Australia

Release date: 18 October

For a lot of people, it won't even slightly matter what this is like. Another iteration of The Office is still an iteration of The Office, and therefore another opportunity to see some version of David Brent/Michael Scott, Gareth Keenan/Dwight Schrute, Tim/Jim, Dawn/Pam et al navigate the quotidian frustrations recognisable to all the nine-to-five warriors out there. Reactions to the recently-dropped trailer have been… mixed. But look. It's The Office. It's gotta be good. And even if it isn't… it's The Office!

The Devil's Hour season 2

Release date: 18 October

The consensus on this one is that while season one was solid, season two is moving into the territory of all-out impressive. It’s a sort-of-thriller/horror-type thing starring Peter Capaldi and some other, less famous people about a social worker who wakes up at the same time every night after having these horrible dreams that might just be dreams but might also be some kind of ominous vision of the future. She’s also, to add to her stresses, got a marriage that’s breaking down and a kid who doesn’t seem to express any emotion whatsoever, in a freaky way that no one except Peter Capali seems to have a clue about.

Before

Release date: 25 October

A ten-episode series with the legendary Billy Crystal behind the camera as an executive producer as well as in front of it, where he plays a child psychologist who finds out that one of his juvenile clients seems to have a mysterious connection to his past. Does this sound a lot like The Sixth Sense? It does sound a lot like The Sixth Sense. Hey – no bad thing. Everyone likes The Sixth Sense, right?

The Diplomat season 2

Release date: October 31

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.

The Old Man season 2

Release date: 6 November

Jeff Bridges sighing and going “right, fine, I'll do it.” It just makes sense, doesn't it? In this the case thing he'll do is return to the world of the CIA that he thought retirement had sufficiently excused him from participating in – if it were only so simple. To be fair it is kind of his own fault for shooting someone who breaks into his home, which sets John Lithgow's Harold Harper chasing after him across the country. There's plenty of flashbacks to their past to keep things layered and interesting, and Bridges is predictably watchable as always.

The Day of the Jackal

Release date: 7 November

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 MI6 agent tasked with taking him down.

Say Nothing

Release date: 13 November

Patrick Radden-Keefe has built himself a reputation for finding stories that have been screaming their heads off for investigation, investigating them, and conveying them in a way that makes it impossible to put down whichever copy of the New Yorker they appear in. He came to the attention of much of this side of the pond with his book Say Nothing, which illuminates the everyday conditions of the Troubles in Northern Ireland via its investigation into the kidnap and disappearance of Jean McConville. He's about to come to much more attention – the book's being made into a TV series, starring Maxine Peak, Lola Petticrew and Martin McCann, of Blue Lights fame. His writing is excellent, so I'm gonna bet the series will be too.

Bad Sisters season 2

Release date: 13 November

Not the most obviously second-season-friendly, what with the great mystery of how Eve's nasty husband died having been solved at the end of season one. But we’re shooting two years forward here, and it looks like Eve might be getting married again? Hopefully to someone better than John Paul. Sharon Horgan hasn’t really put a foot wrong in her TV writing career. Catastrophe, Motherland and the first season of Bad Sisters all knocked it out of the park so there’s no reason to think this won’t, too.

Cross

Release date: 14 November

James Patterson’s books are exciting. Very exciting! So exciting that they've made him the second-highest-earning author of all time (or possibly third, depending on what kind of contract God signed for the Bible). And so what we can expect from Cross, adapted from his Alex Cross novels which follow forensic psychologists hunting down murderers, is lots and lots of excitement. Like, maybe even more excitement than your usual murder-y crime drama.

Silo season 2

Release date: 15 November

Rebecca Ferguson sure loves herself a sci-fi dystopia. She’s excellent in them, so who’s complaining? First Dune, then Silo, where she plays an engineer who work at the bottom of an enormous underground – well, silo – that houses all of civilization. Based on Graham Yost’s books series of the same name, the first series was a critical hit, and the second has been hotly-anticipated.

Cobra Kai season 6 part 2

Release date: 15 November

One of the more successful TV sequel/prequel efforts, Cobra Kai reaches the second but not final part of its sixth and final season this November. (The third and final part comes next year). The Karate Kid follow-up has won fans with its kind of Sex Education-esque shaky collegiality built on a shared endurance of a difficult experience over the last few years. And be it fighting bad guys or going through puberty, there’s something nice and fuzzy about that. Hi-ya!

Landman

Release date: 17 November

Sort of picking up where he’ll soon be leaving off with Yellowstone, Taylor Sheridan creates another world of rural American empire-making in Landman. Think modern-day Dallas. Or maybe modern-day There Will Be Blood. Or maybe… well it’s a show about oil rigs in Texas, so think about it however you’d think about that. Based on the hugely-successful Boomtown podcast, Landman looks at oil from all angles – the wealth, the desperate scramble for it, the winners and the losers. It also features the Billy Bob Thornton and the Jon Hamm, so we’re in safe, slick-black hands here one would think.

The Agency

Release date: 30 November

George Clooney produces this spy thriller – which is based on the French hit Le Bureau des Legendes – starring Michael Fassbender, Jodie Turner-Smith, Jeffrey Wright and Richard Gere. The series focuses on the not-so-glamorous side of spying and training its sights on agents who are going undercover for the long haul, and enduring all the psychological challenges that entails. That mental toil is the real focus of the series – but don't worry, there'll be plenty of crash-bang-wallop excitement along the way to keep things interesting.

Squid Game season 2

Release date: December 26

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).

Dune: Prophesy

Release date: at some point in November

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?

One Hundred Years of Solitude

Release date: at some point in 2024

If you’re the kind of person that goes a bit mad after maybe half a day of not talking to anyone, then a cool hundred years of solitude probably sounds pretty bad. But it’s actually a multi-generational epic novel about two cousins who get married and flee the place of their upbringing to establish a utopian colony where their ancestors will live happily (but also sadly) ever after, that sold over 50 million copies and pretty much won its author the Nobel Prize for Literature, so… probably pretty good? Probably also worth a look if turned into a 16-episode series by Netflix, set to be released this autumn? Yeah? Well you’ll never guess what…

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.

SAS: Rogue Heroes season 2

Release date: At some point in 2024

Steven Knight's success as Peaky Blinders writer made him an inspired choice to tell the story of the origins of the SAS. Chuck in the likes of Jack O'Connell, who similarly specialises in angry young men dramas, Conor Swindells (same) and Alfie Allen (same again), and you're looking at a pretty special set of ingredients there. Bohemian Rhapsody's Gwilym Lee enters the picture in season two as brother to Swindells and antagonist to O'Connell – it might be set in the big scary army, but it's still ultimately about people falling out with each other, and that's we all watch TV for, right?

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”.

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.

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.