“Marvel’s Runaways”
Synopsis: After discovering their parents are super-villains in disguise, a group of teenagers band together to run away from their homes in order to atone for their parents’ actions and to discover the secrets of their origins.
What You Need To Know: If you have yet to hear, things are looking dire for Marvel television properties. Considering the majorities sub-par quality of the years (and your opinion may vary on what rests higher than others) this isn’t a total blow but it remains to be seen if Marvel has a plan for the shows to be brought back in the future. All of which is to say that the continued existence of Hulu’s “Marvel’s Runaways” is peculiar given the muted response to Season 1. It’s a property that has quite the passionate fan base and there are certain subplots that worked, particularly a would they/won’t they romance between Karolina (Virginia Gardner) and Nico (Lyrica Okano) but we were less than impressed with our critic writing of Season 1, “We’ve seen these cliche characters thousands of times, the show has zero insights into adolescence, the plot is banal, the superhero VFX cheap.”
Release Date: Season 2 Premieres on Hulu on December 21
“Vanity Fair”
Synopsis: In a world where everyone is striving for what is not worth having, no one is more determined to climb to the heights of English Society than Miss Rebecca Sharp.
What You Need To Know: Released in partnership with Amazon Studios and ITV, the seven-part historical period drama “Vanity Fair” premieres this month. Based on the 1848 novel of the same name by William Makepeace Thackeray, the story has seen many different incantations over the years, with its first film adaptation in 1932 and its last in 2004 starring Reese Witherspoon. It’s also been done as a television miniseries more than a handful of times since then. This version, written for television by Gwyneth Hughes and starring Michael Palin, Olivia Cooke, Tom Bateman, and Johnny Flynn promises to be a modern take on classic rags to riches story. A poor young woman with seemingly boundless ambition, risks everything to elevate her status and infiltrate English high society.
Release Date: The seven-part series hits Amazon Prime Video on December 21
“Watership Down”
Synopsis: Fleeing their doomed warren, a colony of rabbits struggle to find and defend a new home.
What You Need To Know: Netflix is bringing us some animated cheer just in time for the holidays with the new adaptation of “Watership Down,” the misleadingly dour animated tale based on the classic novel by Richard Adams. With a truly impressive cast that includes James McAvoy, Gemma Chan, Peter Capaldi, John Boyega and many, many more, it’s a story that’s already seen an adaptation, meaning this miniseries is tasked with breathing new life into a story many have either seen or read before.
Release Date: Season 1 Premieres on Netflix December 22
“The Orville”
Synopsis: An exploratory ship from Earth faces intergalactic challenges 400 years in the future.
What You Need To Know: Created by and starring Seth MacFarlane in what clearly is a passion project, “The Orville” generated some positive buzz in Season 1 but anyone who had yet to be charmed by MacFarlane’s schtick remained that way. As one of those in the latter categories, there’s some appeal to any form of “Star Trek” homage but by playing it often too straight it lost some of the possible momentum. Starring Adrianne Palicki and Penny Johnson Jerald along with MacFarlane, we should expect more science fiction elements in season two.
Release Date: Season 2 Premieres on Fox December 30
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAc1nutoHoM
