Upcoming TV Shows to Get Excited About

Over the next several months, several hit tv shows will be premiering new seasons.  These shows have already proven to be critical and fan favorites at the top of their game.  Below are the 4 that I'm most excited about, and you should be too!


1. The Good Fight (CBS All Access, premieres March 14): For 7 seasons, The Good Wife on CBS was the sharpest and smartest legal drama/political thriller on tv.  Star Julianna Margulies earned an Emmy for the role of scorned politician's wife Alicia Florrick.  I was skeptical that the show's spinoff would be as compelling without her, but The Good Fight has expanded on the Chicago legal world created by its predecessor, taking bolder story risks and breathing more freely without the constraints of network tv.  The show's decidedly liberal-leaning point-of-view and "naughty-word" infused dialogue is more true to life for how I imagine high-priced law firms actually operate, but the downside to this freedom is that the show doesn't have nearly the level of exposure that it would had it aired on CBS.  Critics love it, but most people either don't seem to know that it exists or don't want to pay for yet another streaming service.  My suggestion: Wait til all episodes have aired, then get a free week trial of CBS All Access and try to watch them all within that week.  It won't be hard; like a good book, you won't want to stop.


The Good Fight season 3 trailer


2. Killing Eve (BBC Amercia/AMC, premieres April 7): This show came out of nowhere last year and completely blew me away with its 8 episode first season.  Following American Eve Polastri, working as a British intelligence agent in London, she is tasked with tracking a weird and totally psychotic hit woman cleverly nicknamed named Villanelle.  The cat and mouse game between Eve and Villanelle took them on a dazzling trip through Europe's major cities and led to an unusual love/hate relationship between the women that can't even really be described.  The two women's first face to face meeting was one of the most thrilling scenes on television last year.  Season 1 only began to dig into the backstories and these characters, and I can't wait to see more.  Like The Good Fight, many people didn't know about this show last year because BBC America is a relatively obscure cable network, but hopefully that will change some this season as it will now also air simultaneously on the AMC network. 


Killing Eve season 2 trailer


3. Game of Thrones (HBO, premieres April 14): The final six episode season of the fantasy epic series is the most anticipated tv event of the year for me.  The show has been off the air for an agonizingly long time (almost 2 years), but the amount of time spent writing and filming the final season gives me hope that these episodes could be some of the most incredible things to ever air on television.  The Battle of Winterfell episode, in which the White Walkers will invade the northern kingdom, is already said to be the most complex battle to ever be filmed, and that includes film as well as television.  There are a lot of stories to wrap up before the series ends (Who will take the Iron Throne? Will the White Walkers be defeated? Which characters will die?), and some fans will inevitably be unhappy with the ending, but here's hoping that viewers can just go along for the ride and enjoy it as much as possible.  I'm in a winner-take-all Game of Thrones pool in which I pay $10 to guess what will happen on the show, so here's hoping that my predictions make me richer as well.


Game of Thrones final season trailer


4. The Handmaid's Tale (Hulu, premieres June 5): This dystopian drama, which imagines a near-future when a misogynistic religious cult takes over America, is the darkest show on tv.  There's rape, abuse, and an overarching sense of dread and hopelessness.  The parallels to today's political landscape are numerous and terrifying, but the strength of the show really lies in its many Emmy-nominated performances, led by the terrific Elisabeth Moss as handmaid June, who is raped and forced to bear a child for a high-ranking military commander and his wife.  Joseph Fiennes and Yvonne Strahovski give layered, complex performances as the couple; they're not simply evil caricatures to be hated.  Add in other acting powerhouses like Ann Dowd, Samira Wiley, and Max Minghella, and you get a completely riveting drama.  After the heartbreaking ending of season 2 (I won't spoil it here), I can't wait for this show's return.     


The Handmaid's Tale season 3 trailer

Best TV Seasons

I have watched many many tv shows in my time.  Most, especially long-running classics, have peaks and valleys in their overall quality; this is only natural.  Specific seasons of some of my favorite shows, where the story is compelling from start to finish, stand out as classics in my mind.  Here are just a few...

24 (Season 5): I still have nightmares about the plot of this season, in which terrorists release canisters of toxic nerve gas throughout L.A.  Chemical weapons, after all, are one of my biggest fears (don't ask).  When the gas was released into the ventilation system of CTU and characters were forced to seal themselves inside a conference room, I was on the edge of my seat.  Even before this point in the season, the show had already shockingly killed off multiple major players in the preceding episodes, two of them just in the opening minutes of the season premiere.  Add to this the fascinating reign of the evil, unhinged President Logan (Gregory Itzin) and his wife Martha (Jean Smart), and it's no wonder that this season won the Emmy for Outstanding TV Drama. 

The Simpsons (Season 4): It's hard to imagine now that the animated sitcom, the longest-running scripted primetime series in tv history, now in its 30th (!) season, was once the most groundbreaking and funniest show on tv.  It started off a little rough, but by season 4 the show had definitely found its rhythm and was at its creative peak, mostly due to amazing writers like future late night tv host Conan O'Brien.  The season started with classic episode "Kamp Krusty" and ended with celebrity voice-packed "Krusty Gets Kancelled", but every episode in between was memorable, particularly my very favorite episode "Marge vs. the Monorail".

Dexter (Season 4): I was hooked almost from the beginning of this show about a police blood spatter expert/secret serial killer, but this season stands out as by far the best, mostly due to the memorable turn of John Lithgow as Dexter's nemesis the "Trinity Killer".  The entire season was a fascinating game of cat and mouse between the two men, culminating in the shocking murder of (SPOILER ALERT) Dexter's wife Rita in the season finale, which completely changed the dynamics of the show afterwards.  It's a shame that the show ended with one of the worst final seasons and most disappointing series finales in tv history, but none of that takes away from the truly incredible season 4.       

Lost (Season 1): Starting with the incredible pilot episode (the most expensive in tv history up until that point), in which a group of plane crash survivors are introduced to their new mysterious island home, Lost was a bona fide cultural phenomenon in its first season.  Like any great suspense film or tv show, the show was strongest when viewers still didn't quite know what was going on, and before its sci-fi elements became too-far "out-there" in the next couple of seasons.  The flashback format of the show introduced in this season, in which every episode focused on the backstory of a different character, enriched the viewers' understanding of the characters and became an often-copied plot device used by other shows.  While the show's ending after 6 weird seasons is often criticized, I would argue that it worked just fine.  After all, there was really no single satisfying way to conclude such a wild and crazy show.  Still, viewers seemed to most enjoy the fresh mystery and suspense of the island in the amazing first season.