THE IDEA OF "new" television shows is a little bit of a tricky one these days. Sure, we do still get a fair share of truly new, exciting, unique ideas each year—just look at shows like Severance a couple years ago and Pluribus last year. Shows like last year's The Lowdown—rich, well-written, character-focused stories—still draw major stars like Ethan Hawke and still hit in a big way for audiences that watch it.
If someone was being dramatic and wanted to say original TV was dead, dying, or on life support, there's plenty of evidence out there to throw in their face. But at the same time, they aren't entirely wrong. For one reason or another, so much of the TV landscape—even shows we're really excited for—are based around something that in one way or another already exists.
Look, we can't beat too much around the bush: People love nostalgia, people love things they recognize and remember, and it can be pretty hard to get anyone to even attempt to give their attention to something new, let alone get really into it in the way we all like to with the very best of TV. Which is why we kind of have two different options here—people need to be really trusting of word of mouth and really aware when something is a really good new, original show (because no one likes to waste their time with a piece of junk), and we just need to really hope that all the remakes, reboots, reimaginings, and re-whatevers are good. HBO's Lanterns is modeled after True Detective, stars Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre as the titular Green Lanterns, and counts Watchmen genius Damon Lindelof as a producer.
Below, we're going to keep track all year. We're charting the shows we already know are good. We're charting the shows we think might be good.
And we're charting the shows that may not even come out this year, but if they do... they still might not be good. But, again, say it with us: We're choosing to be hopeful. Netflix has been really good of late at the pulpy, potboiler, limited series, and His & Hers is the latest in that winning streak.
The show follows a detective (Jon Bernthal) and his estranged journalist wife (Tessa Thompson) as they both hunt for answers when a local woman—whom they both have a close connection to—winds up dead. Based on Alice Feeney's book of the same name, His & Hers is exactly how this kind of show should be: Juicy, fun, easy to watch, and filled with really good actors. In shrinking its story down to a more intimate one that takes place between the margins of major universe events, Game of Thrones takes a page out of the Andor handbook with A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (based on George R.R.
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