Are we still living in a golden age of television? Hard to tell. Netflix’s first generation of more refined offerings – Top Boy and The Crown – ended last year. As did Succession and Happy Valley. And there’s a general consensus that prestige peaked some point in the last decade. But there’s certainly a lot of television arriving this year, and the return of a few familiar faces. Anyone hankering after the halcyon days of Westeros will be happy to see the return of a Thrones spin-off as well as a new sci-fi series from the original show’s creators. Below you can find our previews of the most promising upcoming series as well as our pick of the best shows already out. Happy viewing.
The watch list
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Those About To Die
Thought much about the Roman Empire today? Sorry to mention it. But if you can just spare 15 seconds now, we can meet the stupid quota together, and all move on. Also could be worth it as Those About To Die does actually look excellent.
It stars Anthony Hopkins as the emperor Vaspasian and Iwan Rheon who appears to play an unscrupulous games organiser who’ll stop at nothing to give his baying Roman audiences the spectacle they crave. There’s a question mark over the CGI. But, at a cost of $14 million an episode, hopes are high. Plus, it was penned by Robert Rodat, who wrote Saving Private Ryan. Expect CGI lions and crocodiles, water-filled amphitheatres, breakneck chariot races as well as the usual scheming, sex and blood we all expect from a historical streaming series today.
Those About To Die will air on Prime Video from 19 July
The Penguin
If superheroes are on the way out, perhaps it was inevitable that villains would start taking up prime real estate. So here is The Penguin, with Colin Farrell as the titular bad guy (he first appeared in 2022’s The Batman with Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne). The eight-part series will follow the rise of Gotham’s devious gangster. Comic book adaptations are no longer sure fire hits but there’s enough here – a grungy, gangster vibe, Farrell’s moodiness – to pique our interest.
The Penguin will air on Max from 8 September
Dune: Prophecy
If Denis Villeneuve’s blockbuster sequel were not enough (read our verdict on Dune: Part Two), Max has another helping of Frank Herbert’s fantasy world for you. This one takes place 10,000 years before the action of the main novel and changes its focus to the Bene Gesserit, the shadowy sisterhood that plays a key role in the movies. Emily Watson and Mark Strong are on board for this Duniverse expansion, which is due later this autumn. Check out the trailer above for some ominous stares, intriguing sets and plenty of foreshadowing.
Dune: Prophecy is expected to land on Max in the autumn
Disclaimer
Apple
If there were one reason to switch on the television (or watch something sadly on your iPhone during a commute), it would look a lot like Disclaimer. Based on the novel of the same name by Renée Knight, the thriller stars Cate Blanchett, Lesley Manville, Sacha Baron Cohen and Squid Game’s HoYeon Jung. Another huge plus? It is written and directed by five-time Oscar winner Alfonso Cuarón. The seven-part limited series follows a slippery, scoop-hungry journalist (Blanchett) who realises she is a character in a novel that reveals a long-covered secret. Baron Cohen plays with husband while Kodi Smit-Mrphee plays their son. Nightmarish premise, excellent entertainment.
Disclaimer will air on Apple TV+ from 11 October
Alma’s Not Normal
One of the best sitcoms of the last five years or so, this, and it’s back for a second series. Alma Nuthall lives in Bolton with her heroin addict mum and stony grandma – what larks, you cry – and we left her at the end of the first series weighing up whether to stick by her mum or to go chasing her dreams with a theatre troupe. The phrase ‘like nothing else on TV’ gets bandied about a lot, but the mix of madness, earthiness and genuine drama is unique.
Alma’s Not Normal is expected to air later this year
Ready to watch
Sunny
In Sunny, Apple TV+’s latest television offering (though, with the lack of fanfare surrounding these series, they appear more like a shrug), Rashida Jones is lost in translation: she plays Suzie, an American, living in Kyoto, without the ability to speak Japanese. Suzie is also a widow. Her husband, Masa (Drive My Car’s Hidetoshi Nishijima), and son have recently died in a plane crash. On the way home from meeting fellow relatives of plane crash victims, she finds a gift from her deceased husband’s company. An advanced robot assistant named Sunny (voiced by Joanna Sotomura). Masa had designed Sunny especially for Suzie, according to the colleague apprehensively waiting at the doorstep. The only weird thing? She thought her husband engineered refrigerators. This is an intriguing ten-parter, in which Jones shines, that should satisfy Severance fans.
Sunny is available to watch on Apple TV+
The Bear Season 3
Doors! It’s the hottest kitchen on telly, and we can’t wait to jump back in. We last saw Carmy and his recalcitrant crew at Friends and Family Night, so The Bear must now open for proper business. And by the looks of the trailer, season 3 promises to be as sweaty, sweary and steamy as ever, with enough raised voices and smashed soup bowls to awaken Escoffier himself. As the synopsis reads: "Our chefs have learned that every second counts, but this season we'll find out if they have what it takes to make it to tomorrow."
The Bear is available to watch on Disney+
House of the Dragon Season 2
Has any show ever benefitted so much from spoilers? Going into House of the Dragon, we knew exactly where these families would all end up thanks to eight seasons of Game of Thrones, which meant the pleasure was all about learning how those relationships came to be. Thanks to a stellar cast – Matt Smith and Emma D’Arcy on fine, pulpy form – the first season was a welcome return to George R.R. Martin’s fantasy word. The second season season goes bigger. We see more dragons, more of Westeros. More bloodshed. And the baddies, like Aemond (played by Ewan Mitchell) get more screen time! You can read our full review of the second season here, and follow along with the recaps.
House of the Dragon airs weekly on Sky Atlantic/NOW in the UK
The Acolyte
Pub quiz question: how many Star Wars films and TV have ever been made?
Answer: 40. FORTY! That’s 40 separate studio projects set in the Star Wars universe made since 1977 (four of those are currently in development). And now another has dropped on Disney+. It’s called The Acolyte, a sort-of crime thriller set during the final days of the High Republic era, roughly a century before the events of The Phantom Menace. It’s about a young Padawan who reunites with her Jedi Master to investigate a series of murders. But soon they’re dragged into a big-picture conspiracy-type situation where people in robes get very earnest and say things like, “I sense this is just a small part of a larger plan” and “destiny is not decided by an anonymous force.”
The Acolyte is on Disney+ now
Eric
Netflix
Learning that this new six-parter takes its title from the name of Benedict Cumberbatch’s imaginary friend in the show – a seven-foot blue and purple monster puppet – might give you a slightly misleading indication of its mood. In fact, Cumberbatch’s character, Vincent, a puppeteer in 1980s New York who runs a Sesame Street-esque kids show, begins imagining Eric only when his nine-year-old son, Edgar, goes missing on the way to school, kickstarting the kind of nightmarish descent into madness and despair that you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy. Eric’s creator – the show, not the puppet – is Abi Morgan (The Hour, The Split), so of course expect a series that is gripping, psychologically inquisitive and whip-smart (with some natty early Eighties fashions for good measure).
Eric is out now on Netflix
X-Men ’97
In the relentless tumble dryer of Marvel-related spin-offs and placeholders between increasingly ho-hum movies, the default reaction to any new Marvel series has been downgraded from two raised eyebrows and a well-I-might-watch-that kind of gentle nod to long, weary sigh. But don’t sleep on X-Men ’97. It is not Secret Wars. It is an absolute riot. It’s a revival of the old animated series from the mid-Nineties, and picks up with Cyclops, Wolverine, Storm and the gang working out what they’re going to do now Charles Xavier has left them high and dry. And, best of all, you don’t have to have seen any of the last five years of Marvel’s stuff to make sense of it.
X-Men ’97 is out now on Disney+
Doctor Who
James Pardon//BBC
For some time, the question of whether Doctor Who is any good or not has been irrelevant. It has been going for 61 years now, and exists in its own pocket universe where it can both get away with murder compared to other big legacy TV shows. It can also make narrative decisions which would be met with a shrug by most other fandoms but which are, to Whovians, tantamount to cultural vandalism. An unusual place to be. This is the first series for 15th Doctor Ncuti Gatwa, who is his usual luminous self, and the shape and scale of the stories which have been teased so far feel way bigger and way less kitchen sink drama than recent series. The opening episode was promising if not perfect – what is? – but it intrigued us enough to tune in again, so job done realy.
Doctor Who is available to watch on iPlayer and Disney+, and airs weekly
Baby Reindeer
There’s nothing about Netflix’s new drama Baby Reindeer that isn’t quite odd. Based on the real-life experiences of comedian Richard Gadd, which he has already turned into a successful play, it details his time working at a pub in his twenties during which he took pity on a lonely regular, who turned out to be a convicted (and mentally unstable, though that goes without saying) stalker. Gadd – who plays a version himself called Donny in the show, with Jessica Gunning as his admirer, Martha – is careful not to excuse himself for his fostering of their relationship as it plays out (platonic on his part, though it gets complicated; sexually fantastical on hers: “Baby Reindeer” is the pet-name she gives him). The seven-part series of mostly half-hour episodes starts in comedy-grotesque mode – Martha and Donny frequently look down and up at each other from alarmingly wonky angles – but four episodes in there’s a shift: a revelation, of sorts, as to why Donny has acted as he has, or rather, failed to act, to end his nightmarish situation. It makes for a twisty, thought-provoking drama that is both rich and strange.
Baby Reindeer is out now on Netflix
Fallout
Amazon’s big-budget TV adaptation of beloved video game series Fallout turned out to be very good, very gory fun. For those unfamiliar with the franchise, we are in America, 200 years after nuclear explosion that has forced a lucky few (known as “vault dwellers”) underground. One of those vault dwellers, Lucy (played by Ella Purnell), ventures into the world above to rescue her father after a disastrous wedding. After last year’s The Last of Us, we are two for two on successful video game adaptations (though, for our money, Fallout is a little more fun).Naturally, a second season has been announced.
Fallout is out now on Prime Video
The Sympathizer
“Confessing secrets is the most exciting thing in the world,” announces Sandra Oh’s wide-eyed character in the trailer for The Sympathiser. If you share that worldview, you are in for a treat with HBO’s latest miniseries, an adaptation of Viet Thanh Nguyen’s 2015 novel of the same name. Xoa Huande plays the Captain, a North Vietnamese mole who flees to Los Angeles in the final days of the Vietnam War. In America, he learns that his days of espionage may not be quite over just yet. The novel – a debut which won the Pulitzer Prize – is an energetic mix of styles, part comedy, part political thriller, part immigration narrative. There is a memorable storyline in which the Captain consults on a film, which is a parody of Apocalypse Now-style Vietnam war narratives. Read the truth behind the fiction here.
The Sympathizer is out now in the US and will air on Sky in the UK
Curb Your Enthusiasm Season 12
Larry David shrugs his last in this final season, and manages to extraordinary feat sticking the landing with one of its strongest of all. Obviously we've been here before. Larry died in 2005 then got sent back to Earth, and Curb went on a six-year hiatus in 2011. So, you know, don't count your chickens. But if this is seriously the last series, it's a fine way to go out: as cantankerous and misanthropic as ever, as Larry's criminal trial for giving Leon's aunt a bottle of water while she waited in line to vote heaves into view.
Curb Your Enthusiasm is out now on Apple TV+
How To with John Wilson Season 3
Thomas Wilson/HBO
Another big cult show hits its home straight. The third season of How To aired last year in America but has only just made it over here, and it's worth the wait: John Wilson's roaming POV of the weird, the gross and the oddly moving bits of New York and further afield hits some of its highest peaks as he explains how to find a public toilet, how to get really beefy and how to track your package. On the way he meets people who are freezing their brains to be reanimated in the future, giant pumpkin growers and a remote colony of people who can't bear being around electronics. The fourth ep, which takes him to a group of vintage vacuum cleaner enthusiasts, might be the best thing he's done yet.
How To with John Wilson is out now on iPlayer
Renegade Nell
Renegade Nell, the new series from Sally Wainwright (Gentleman Jack, Happy Valley), takes familiar genre tropes – period-drama jolliness, superhero-movie action sequences, and a little bit of Doctor Who eccentricity – and combines them into something defiantly and rambunctiously new. Derry Girls’ Louisa Harland plays Nell Jackson, a free-spirited young woman making her way in early 1700s Tottenham (with the accent ‘n’ all), who comes into surprise magical powers of strength and agility, which she uses to fight the corrupt ruling gentry who killed her father. It’s got swagger, energy, and glossy production values, plus a bonus sprite played by a mulletted Nick Mohammed.
Renegade Nell is out now on Disney+
Loot Season 2
I confess I had forgotten that this amiable comedy would be returning for a second season, but what happy news it is. Maya Rudolph plays Molly, the newly-divorced wife of a Bezos-like billionaire (Adam Scott), who is wondering what the hell to do with her life and very, very deep pockets. What would do with an $87 billion settlement? She decides to set up a charitable foundation. That was, as you may guess, a mixed bag as Molly learnt to balance hum-drum office life with her domestic luxury (she keeps celebrity chef David Chang in her kitchen). In Season 2, as she continues her efforts to make the world a better place, will there be mishaps? We would bet a few billion on the answer being a yes. Amid dreary dramas and plodding sci-fi series, a 20-minute sitcom with good jokes and a solid supporting cast (the stand-out is Nat Faxon, who plays a hapless numbers guy) is a very welcome diversion.
Loot Season 2 is out now on Apple TV+, and airs weekly
Ripley
Every time you think Andrew Scott’s gone and popped off as hard as he can, he comes along with another banger. All of Us Strangers made you weep hot, sad tears to ‘Always on my Mind’; Ripley promises to have you swearing you’d not trust him as far as you could throw him. Scott’s Tom Ripley – of The Talented Mr Ripley, first Patricia Highsmith’s book and then the Matt Damon movie – is a grifter just about keeping his head above water in mid-Sixties New York, when he’s sent to Italy to convince an industrial magnate’s wayward son to come home. Fraud, murder, lies ensue. You can read our cover interview with Scott for his read on Ripley (and much more).
Ripley is out now on Netflix
True Detective: Night Country
True Detective returned in fine (if sometimes uneven) form with Jodie Foster and Kali Reis taking the reins of the twisty crime series. We are in Alaska where detectives Liz Danzers (Foster) and Evangeline Navarro (Reis) are investigating the disappearance of six men from an Arctic research station. For many, this season was a reminder of what the show could be: a well-paced thriller with gory set pieces and a few existential questions. Just don’t ask the original series creator Nic Pizzolatto for his take.
True Detective: Night Country is out now on Sky Atlantic and NOW TV
Inside No. 9
This cult series from Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith has been telling its strange, freaky and often terrifying stories for 10 years, and in June, the last ever series from their twisted anthology was broadcast. The format always stayed the same: a standalone, half hour story, each episode with a different guest star, a masterclass in storytelling, that always had a clever twist at the end. The final, ninth series saw appearances from Hayley Squires and Natalie Dormer, while the last ever episode went meta – harking back to some of their brilliant previous episodes – and saw Pemberton and Shearsmith playing themselves, celebrating the end of Inside No 9, until jealousy threatens to railroad it all.
Inside No. 9 is on BBC iPlayer now
Sexy Beast
Imagine Muppet Babies but for psychopathic gangsters…. And lo! Here comes Sexy Beast, the series: a prequel to Jonathan Glazer’s iconic 2000 film about the misadventures of Gal Dove and Don Logan. Now though, they’re not old and disaffected, but young and up to no good in naughty Nineties’ London, with James McArdle as Gal and Emun Elliott as Don, taking on the roles made famous by Ray Winstone and Ben Kingsley respectively in the original, with Stephen Moyer doing Ian McShane’s memorable drug lord, Teddy Bass. Will it have the staying power of the movie? That remains to be seen, but the tongue-in-cheek homage to the famous sunbathing scene in episode one shows it’s wearing its heritage lightly.
Sexy Beast is out now on Paramount+
Expats
When Expats creator Lulu Wang spoke to Esquire ahead of the show’s launch, she said that it was a series about perspective. “It jumps around, both in timeline and perspective, to show you different sides of the same story,” the Farewell director told us. It turns out that this is both the best and at-times frustrating aspect of the Hong Kong-set miniseries, which tells the story of an American expat Margaret (played by Nicole Kidman) whose youngest child goes missing. While the series gains a lot of energy by jumping around – we also follow nanny Mercy (Ji-young Yoo) and Margaret’s long-suffering friend, Hilary (Sarayu Blue) – it can also prove dizzying and threatens, at times, to lose us. But stick with this strange, unexpectedly paced show, and you are in for a treat, especially as it builds towards its conclusion. There may not be easy answers (or any answers at all, really) in Expats, but it only adds to the show’s life-like appeal.
Expats is out now on Amazon Prime Video
Masters of the Air
This is the third instalment of a loose trilogy from executive producers Gary Goetzman, Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg (Band of Brothers debuted in 2001, The Pacific followed in 2010). This time round, we follow the explosive highs and devastating lows of the US army’s 100th Bomb Group during World War II. The cast is a who’s who of potential Bonds: Callum Turner (last seen on the big screen in George Clooney’s The Boys in the Boat), Austin Butler, Barry Keoghan, Ncuti Gatwa, Anthony Boyle, Raff Law. That starry cast elevate the war drama, which hits the exact right notes for fans of the genre: inventive fight sequences, romantic yearning and some really great aviator jackets.
Masters of the Air is out now on Apple TV+
Mr. & Mrs. Smith
When a television remake of a 2005 flick (which, you may recall, brought together Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie) was announced in 2021, it sounded like a dream pairing: Donald Glover and Phoebe Waller-Bridge would take on the lead-roles. But then Waller-Bridge left, and it seemed to encounter development trouble (last year’s strikes also caused a delay). We are happy to report that the eight-part show is a subversive and surprisingly sexy slow-burn – can we thank Donald Glover’s bootcut jeans for that? – with superb sets and genuinely great action sequences, though the main characters’ spy skills are another matter. You can read our full review of the show here.
Mr. and Mrs. Smith is out now on Amazon Prime Video
Abbott Elementary
Gilles Mingasson
Even if you do not feel evangelical about this breakthrough mockumentary – as large swathes of the internet do – it’s hard to deny its small-scale, gently biting appeal. Quinta Brunson’s school-based comedy has provided two seasons’ worth of consistent laughter (and to a less successful extent, romance) and it still feels like it’s only getting better. This season experiments with the well-worn formula by separating Janine (Brunson’s character) from the rest of the gang, which provides some fresh scenarios and much-needed character development. As ever, it’s worth tuning in for the stand-out performance by Janelle James, who plays a disastrous but somehow-Teflon principal.
You can watch Abbott Elementary Season 3 now. In the UK, you can watch it on Disney Plus, and new episodes air weekly
One Day
For many people who treasured David Nicholls’ best-selling 2009 book, One Day, about a young man, Dexter, and a young woman, Emma, who meet at university and have a will-they-won’t-they friendship over the next 20 years, Lone Scherfig’s 2011 movie adaptation didn’t quite scratch the itch. Perhaps that’s because the book is about the lingering slow-burn, and was better suited to a drawn-out TV drama. Great news: Netflix arrived with a 14-part take, with The White Lotus’s Leo Woodall and This Is Going to Hurt’s Ambika Mod playing the compelling (kind of) couple. It was hard not to fall for this adaptation, with its nostalgic set pieces and charming performances, proving once again that romcoms are thriving on the small screen. You can read our interview with Nicholls about the streaming hit here.
One Day is out now on Netflix
Boarders
BBC
If Saltburn proved anything, it’s that the cloisters of privilege are perpetually fascinating to us. This new six-part comedy-drama from writer Daniel Lawrence Taylor is a delightful exploration of what might happen if a majority-white British private boarding school turned out – courtesy of an incriminating leaked video – not to be teaching its students excellent morals (imagine!) and sought to make amends (and definitely not enact a hollow PR exercise!) by offering scholarships to five black students from more modest inner-London backgrounds. The five young leads – Aruna Jalloh, Josh Tedeku, Jodie Campbell, Myles Kamwendo and Sekou Diaby – fill this energetic show with pathos, charisma and humour.
Boarders is out now on on BBC iPlayer
Shōgun
Does it feel like you’ve heard this one before? This 10-episode FX creation is based on James Clavell’s novel of the same name, published in 1975 as part of his Asian Saga, a series which chronicles adventures of Europeans in Asia. Then there was an Emmy award-winning miniseries in 1980. And now a fresh adaptation, with Cosmo Jarvis taking on the lead role of John Blackthorne, a sailor who washed up in Japan and is swiftly thrown into a power struggle between feudal lords and Western traders. With spirited performances, gorgeous scenery and devious plotting, there’s plenty to like here. It is also the kind of television show that can cut through the crowded landscape, hitting a sweet spot between those interested in history but who are not historians (who would surely spend each hour pointing out that, actually, it didn’t happen quite like that).
Shōgun is out now on Disney Plus
The Regime
Hmmmm, is anyone in the mood to watch the manic final days of a crumbling European regime? And no, it is not a documentary but a six-part miniseries written by Will Tracy (The Menu and Succession), directed by Stephen Frears and Jessica Hobbs, and starring Kate Winslet (as well as Hugh Grant, Matthias Schoenaerts and Andrea Riseborough). Although it is not entirely clear what The Regime is trying to say – dictators are bad? – it is watchable stuff: Winslet, in particular, is masterful at playing the hypochondriac leader whose grip on reality is crumbling.
The Regime is out now on Sky Atlantic and NOW TV
3 Body Problem
David Benioff and D. B. Weiss – whose names you will remember from the Game of Thrones opening credits – bring a major sci-fi epic to Netflix with 3 Body Problem. Based on a trilogy of novels – Liu Cixin’s The Three-Body Problem (no idea why they changed that title) – the series follows an astrophysicist who witnessed her father’s violent murder during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Later enlisted at a military radar base, she makes a decision that will echo through time and space. Meanwhile, in current-day London, Clarence (played by Benedict Wong) is investigating a string of high-profile suicides among the scientific community which leads him to a group of former Oxford students and a shadowy organisation or two. At this point (spoilers, I guess!) I must tell you that aliens are involved, and your enjoyment of the show will hinge on your tolerance for extraterrestrials and physics problems. If you find those unappealing, avoid. But if they are your thing, jump right in. You can read our full review here.
Three Body Problem is out now on Netflix
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Henry is a senior culture writer at Esquire, covering film, television, literature, music and art for the print magazine and website. He has previously written for the Guardian, The Telegraph and The Evening Standard. At Esquire, he explores entertainment in all forms, from long reads on Lost in Translation’s legacy to trend stories about Taylor Swift, as well as writing regular reviews of movies and television shows. He has also written many profiles for Esquire, and interviewed the likes of George Clooney, Austin Butler and Mike Faist.
Miranda Collinge is the Deputy Editor of Esquire, overseeing editorial commissioning for the brand. With a background in arts and entertainment journalism, she also writes widely herself, on topics ranging from Instagram fish to psychedelic supper clubs, and has written numerous cover profiles for the magazine including Cillian Murphy, Rami Malek and Tom Hardy.
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