Now that 2017 has come to an end, it’s time to look ahead and see what the small screen has to offer us in 2018.
There’s a new Black Mirror on the horizon (technically, coming in 2017, but…), finally a new season of Atlanta, a Kevin Spacey-free House of Cards and plenty of new shows to get excited about.
Is Rise the new Friday Night Lights? Is Cloak and Dagger the Marvel Romeo and Juliet story we’ve been waiting for? (Yes.)
See below for 10 shows to get excited about in 2018. There are many, many more, of course, but this is a good place to start looking for your next binge-worthy show.
Black Lightning
The CW is really going to test its superhero saturation point with the addition of Black Lightning, the fifth DC superhero show to hit the network – a network that programs only two hours every night and nothing on Sundays. Thankfully, the newest adaptation is a worthy addition, regardless of whether audiences can stomach yet another costumed crimefighter. Black Lightning is also unique in its upfront approach to issues of race and politics, from the pilot.
Rise
There hasn’t been a show quite like Friday Night Lights since it went off the air, but Jason Katims is about to rectify that with his newest high school set drama, about a rundown theater department that gets transformed under the guidance of an unlikely hero of a teacher. It’s basically Friday Night Lights meets Glee, even down to the football players who take up doing musicals, and it’s also got Hamilton producer Jeffrey Seller and Moana breakout star Auli’i Cravalho on board to make it even more enticing.
Black Mirror
Technically this is coming out on December 29, but who has time to watch new TV shows when it’s the holidays? Save this terrifying vision of technology and the future for the new year, where new actors will act out six new stories that should, by now, have taught us that technology is always evil and never works out for the people who give in to it, but alas. The Star Trek installment in the fourth season of the sci-fi anthology series seems especially intriguing this time around.
Untitled Sabrina series
Whether it’s on The CW or Netflix, the Riverdale spinoff has been highly anticipated since before the Archie comic book adaptation even began airing. Now that Netflix has put its full confidence in the show – a dark, horror take on the teenage witch once made famous by Melissa Joan Hart – we can’t wait any longer to see it. There’s no word yet on when the first of the 20-episode order will begin airing, but fall 2018 seems like a safe bet.
House of Cards
And thus the reign of Claire begins. Kevin Spacey was fired from House of Cards for serious issues, but fans have been clamoring for the rise of the other Underwood. It’s a perfect time to do it, as Spacey’s Frank resigned as President and thought he installed his wife as a shadow head of state, but as we know, Claire is just as cunning and ruthless as Frank, and it would certainly be a fitting end for Frank to be taken down by his own wife. Spacey won’t be in Season 6, the sixth and final season, at all, and we can’t wait to see how Claire does now that she’s finally out from under his shadow.
Atlanta
That collective wail you heard back in 2016 was the sound of everyone finding out Atlanta would be gone from our screens for over a year, but rejoice, 2018 is finally almost here and that means more of Donald Glover’s irreverent, silly, thoughtful and important show is about to come back to FX. Who knows how he’s going to top black Justin Bieber, the rise of Paper Boi and a literal invisible car, but we can’t wait to find out.
Sweetbitter and Vida
Starz is sticking to its promise of catering to underserved audiences and will continue to do that by doubling down on the half-hour drama format it first pioneered with The Girlfriend Experience. Its two new shows, Sweetbitter, about a young woman coming of age in the New York City restaurant scene and Vida, about two Mexican-American sisters in Los Angeles, will seek to pack as much drama into 30 minutes as their fan-favorite hourlong epics like Outlander and Power.
Maniac
Cary Fukunaga’s exit from True Detective was deeply felt but in 2018, the director is back helming every episode of a TV show, and this one is just as star-studded as the last: Emma Stone and Jonah Hill are leading the half-hour dark comedy series. It’s based on a 2014 Norwegian series about a guy who lives a fantasy life in his dreams but in reality is locked up at an institution, but really, whatever it’s about, we’re there.
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Television is officially the place to be when even the Coen brothers are making the move to the small screen. Though they have an open invitation to weigh in on FX’s Fargo, based on their movie of the same name, the filmmakers known for their quirky and unique sensibilities decided to take on an original project for their first foray into TV. It’s a Western, because of course it is, and it’s an anthology, with each episode following a new story, all involving Tim Blake Nelson’s titular character in some way.
Cloak and Dagger
Five years after Daredevil led the way for Marvel to make live-action Cloak and Dagger follows two teenagers from very different worlds who meet as runaways and fall in love, as well as develop superpowers, transforming them into a formidable superhero duo. TV shows, one of the most ambitious explorations of the comic book genre will hit the screen. Are audiences ready for Marvel’s Romeo and Juliet? To hear Marvel TV boss Jeph Loeb tell it, the company has been carefully preparing them for just this moment, and we can’t wait.
Linda Ge | TV Editor
