50. “The New Pope” (HBO)
Synopsis: The Pope is back in Paolo Sorrentino’s successor to the critically-acclaimed series “The Young Pope.”
What You Need To Know: You’ve heard of “The Young Pope.” Well, Paolo Sorrentino’s HBO series is back, with an all-new Pope as advertised. The new Pope will be played by esteemed thespian John Malkovich, with last season’s Pope (the young one), Jude Law, returning in his current capacity as the old Pope.
Airdate: January 13, 2020
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAOD50blOKk
59. “The Outsider” (HBO)
Synopsis: Investigators are confounded over an unspeakable gruesome murder that’s been committed and the mysterious force surrounding the case.
What You Need To Know: Based on a 2018 Stephen King novel and boasting a seriously impressive cast (Ben Mendelsohn, Jason Bateman, Cynthia Erivo, Bill Camp, Paddy Considine, Julianne Nicholson, Jeremy Bobb, etc.), this 10-episode series is adapted by “The Wire” and “The Night Of” alum Richard Price. Bateman, who also produces, directs the first two episodes. A later episode is directed by the great Karyn Kusama (“The Invitation,” “Jennifer’s Body”). With a creative team this good, and trailers this solid, we have every confidence that “The Outsider” will be a standout series.
Airdate: January 12, 2020.
48. “Y: The Last Man” (FX)
Synopsis: Escape artist Yorick Brown — the last surviving human with a Y chromosome of a mysterious plague — and his Capuchin monkey, Ampersand, set out to learn what might have wiped out the world’s male population.
What You Need To Know: FX’s “Y” holds the distinction of having the most publicly troubled development process of the 60 series on this list. Originally announced in 2015, the buzzy series has gone through multiple incarnations and showrunners on its way to the small screen. That said, there’s still a lot to be hopeful for here. First, the cast: Diane Lane, Barry Keoghan, Imogen Poots, Amber Tamblyn, Timothy Hutton, et al. This is an eclectic group to be sure, but a promising one as well. Next, the director: “Queen and Slim’s” Melina Matsoukas. Matsoukas demonstrated a keen sense of style and a lot of thoughtfulness to boot in her directorial debut last year. She’s the perfect choice for this timely and political series. Finally, “Y” is based on an extremely popular and well-respected comic book series, “Y: The Last Man” by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra. For all the production difficulties, it’s easy to imagine this being one of the more interesting shows of 2020.
Airdate: FX on Hulu debuts March 2020, but “Y” has not been announced as one of the launch series.
47. “Star Trek: Picard” (CBS All Access)
Synopsis: While the specific plot is under wraps, this is the follow-up series to “Star Trek: The Next Generation” (1987), and centers on the next chapter of his life of Captain Jean-Luc Picard.
What You Need To Know: Sir Patrick Stewart thought he was totally done with “Star Trek,” but apparently “Star Trek” wasn’t done with him. When first pitched with the idea, Stewart wasn’t interested and even turned it down at first. Eventually, the ideas, created by exec producer Alex Kurtzman (the writer and producer of the newer “Star Trek” movie franchise and the current de facto creative boss of all things “Star Trek” on CBS All Access), eventually won him over. “A big concern was we did not want it to be and especially Patrick did not want it to be a ‘Next Generation’ reunion show,” one of the producers said last year and that’s apparently held true. While many ‘TNG’ actors will make appearances Brent Spiner, Jonathan Frakes, Marina Sirtis, Jonathan Del Arcon and Jeri Ryan (from “Deep Space Nine”), the principal cast is new characters played by Alison Pill, Santiago Cabrera, Harry Treadaway and more. The plot is vague, but Picard is no longer a StarFleet Federation Captain and the show apparently finds him in retirement and deeply affected by the death of Data (as depicted in “Star Trek Nemesis”).
Airdate: January 23, 2020.
46. “Normal People” (Hulu)
Synopsis: Follows the tender but complicated relationship of Marianne and Connell from the end of their school days in a small town west of Ireland to their undergraduate years at college.
What You Need To Know: From director Lenny Abrahamson, Hulu, and the BBC, comes “Normal People,” a series adaptation of Sally Rooney’s 2018 award-winning novel of the same name. The eclectic (but always compelling) Abrahamson is coming off of a box-office disappointment with 2018’s worthwhile “The Little Stranger,” so we’re especially curious to finally get a look at his follow-up project. The fact that it stars relative unknowns (at least outside of the U.K.) Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal make “Normal People” all the more intriguing to us.
Airdate: TBD 2020
45. “Tales From The Loop” (Amazon)
Synopsis: “Tales from the Loop” explores the town and people who live above “The Loop,” a machine built to unlock and explore the mysteries of the universe – making things possible that were previously relegated only to science fiction.
What You Need To Know: Based on the acclaimed sci-fi art of Simon Stålenhag, there’s a lot of good names involved in this one. Rebecca Hall (“Vicky Christina Barcelona”) stars, Matt Reeves produces, Nathaniel Halpern (“Legion”) is a producer and writer, and Mark Romanek (“One Hour Photo”), desperately missing in action from the world of film and TV lately, directs the pilot. “In this fantastical, mysterious town, poignant human tales are told that bare universal emotional experiences while drawing on the intrigue of genre storytelling,” Deadline wrote when first announced. We’re in. Paul Schneider (“Channel Zero”) and Jonathan Pryce (“The Two Popes”) co-star.
Airdate: TBD 2020
44. “Betty” (HBO)
Synopsis: A six-episode skateboarding comedy inspired by Crystal Moselle’s critically acclaimed feature “Skate Kitchen.”
What You Need To Know: What do you do in Hollywood if you have an indie film hit in Hollywood, want to make money off of it for once, and have a strong idea how to expand it, if you’re writer/director Crystal Moselle (also known for the great documentary “The Wolfpack”), you team up with a longtime friend and collaborator, “Love” co-creator Lesley Arfin, and turn your indie into a show. “Betty” is a “Skate Kitchen” spin-off essentially —a skate betty is slang for a female skater, but it also originally had a pejorative connotation as girls who hung out with skater boys, but actually just sat their watched and didn’t skate. A kind of street-level groupie. Given “Skate Kitchen,” and these two female filmmakers, they’ll be once again flipping that term on its head and slamming it on the concrete. All of the original female lead cast returns including Dede Lovelace, Ajani Russell, Rachelle Vinberg, Nina Moran and Kabrina Adams aka “Moonbear.” How the show differs or if they’re playing different characters is unclear, but given “Skate Kitchen” was a tiny indie on Magnolia Pictures, we’re sure bringing the same story to a larger audience and expanding it, isn’t going to hurt it any.
Airdate: TBD 2020.
https://twitter.com/ThePlaylist/status/1206614224199442433
43. “The Haunting Of Bly Manor” (Netflix)
Synopsis: The upcoming second season of the American anthology supernatural horror drama series “The Haunting of Hill House.”
What You Need To Know: Horror filmmaker Mike Flanagan had been toiling away on strong horror indies, but he hit it big when Netflix gave him the “Haunting Of Hill House” which was a big hit in 2018. Loosely based on the 1898 horror novella “The Turn of the Screw” by Henry James. While Flanagan swears there will be “no dramatic link between The Haunting of Bly Manor and its predecessor,” and that the story of the Crain family from Season 1 is, “done,” strangely enough, some of the original cast returns in new roles including Victoria Pedretti, Henry Thomas, Oliver Jackson-Cohen and Kate Siegel. New cast members include T’Nia Miller, Rahul Kohli, Catherine Parker. Netflix did well with premiering ‘Haunting’ a few weeks before Halloween, the defacto horror season, and we’ll expect them to do the same again.
Airdate: TBD 2020, but probably October.
Love is uncannily similar to the tortured Nell Crain, Pedretti’s role in @Haunting. Both have fraternal twin brothers with substance abuse issues, both are widows and both come from well-off families (don't worry – Pedretti will return for The Haunting of Bly Manor too) pic.twitter.com/R2cAzuXNmc
— Netflix ANZ (@NetflixANZ) January 8, 2020
42. “Briarpatch” (USA Network)
Synopsis: An investigator returns home to solve the death of her sister from a car-bombing. The search for a killer unravels a system of corruption in her small border town.
What You Need To Know: The USA Network premiered the “Briarpatch” pilot at TIFF 2019 to very positive reviews. Which was no real surprise, considering the creative team here. “Briarpatch” is adapted by Andy Greenwald (“Legion”)from the 1985 Ross Thomas novel of the same name. Its pilot (and an unspecified number of subsequent episodes) is directed by the great Ana Lily Amirpour, of “A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night” (and the underrated “The Bad Batch”) fame. It stars Rosario Dawson, Jay R. Ferguson, and Kim Dickens. Sam Esmail (“Mr. Robot,” “Homecoming”) produces. It’s just got so much going for it. Fingers crossed it lives up to the hype.
Airdate: February 6, 2020.
41. “Away” (Netflix)
Synopsis: American astronaut Emma Logan must leave her husband and teenage daughter behind in order to command an international space crew embarking upon a treacherous, year-long mission to Mars.
What You Need To Know: Netflix’s “Away” is produced by Matt Reeves (the upcoming “The Batman”) and Jason Katims (“Friday Night Lights,”) and will be showrun by Jessica Goldberg (Hulu’s “The Path”). It stars Hilary Swank as a Mars-bound astronaut and Josh Charles (“The Good Wife”) as her Earthly husband. Ed Zwick (“Glory,” “Trial By Fire”) directs the pilot. This all seems very straightforward, though we have to wonder why, in 2020, anyone would give their television series such an SEO-unfriendly name as “Away.”
Airdate: TBD 2020.
