All The TV Shows Coming In 2018 To Get Stupidly Excited About
There is so much TV this year you won't have to go outside at all!
I’m not saying that television is the only reason to keep tromping through the never-ending drudgery of day-to-day life, but it is a GREAT reason to keep on pushing, to keep on never giving up. And 2018 looks like it’s going to be an absolute golden era of wonderful, binge-worthy televisual content.
We’ve got so much to look forward to, a veritable snowstorm of escapism to block out the never-ending disappointments from your own life. The actions of your lacklustre adult son will soon pale into insignificance compared to season 2 of Jessica Jones. Thank you, television.
We’ve got the return of big prestige shows like House of Cards, we’ve got reboots of classic nostalgia trips like Roseanne and we’ve got spinoffs to hit franchises. Heck, we’ve even got one or two entirely new shows to look forward to.
Let’s dive into the only reason to be excited about 2018.
The Best TV Shows Coming In 2018
Marvel’s Jessica Jones Season 2
WHAT
Jessica Jones was the best of Marvel’s Netflix offerings by far, and the return of the sarcastic, hard-drinking, super powered heroine has been long anticipated — especially after her lacklustre participation in the debacle that was The Defenders.
Jessica Jones season 2 will focus on exploring her mysterious origin story, which is an interesting strategy for the second season of a superhero’s journey. Usually we get the whole origin myth out of the way at the beginning.
There’s even hints that David Tennant will return as Kilgrave, although we’re not sure exactly what form that will take.
WHEN
Jessica Jones is currently streaming on Netflix.
Krypton
WHAT
In the tradition of prequels nobody really asked for, such as Gotham which could be called “Batman without Batman”, we now get Krypton. Set on Superman’s home world (before it gets destroyed — that’s not a spoiler, that’s literally the plot of every Superman story since the 1960s), it will also not involve the man of steel himself, but rather his hot granddad.
However the plot thickens, as there is also a time-travel element somehow involved, with heroes form the present sent back in time to safeguard Superman’s bloodline. Cool! Time travel always works as a plot device.
WHEN
Krypton plays on Syfy from March 29st.
Roseanne
WHAT
Definitely topping the list of “shows you didn’t expect to be talking about again in 2018”, classic working class sitcom Roseanne is BACK. The original series ran between 1988 and 1997, and rather famously ended on a weird dream sequence. Also, Roseanne’s husband Dan DIED, but that’s apparently all been ignored, and he and lots of the other favourite cast members are back.
Look, this is probably going to be a train wreck, but it’s much-watch.
WHEN
The Roseanne reboot airs on Tuesday March 27 on America’s CBS.
"Wait. Didn't Dan die?" #Roseanne pic.twitter.com/oc3VKhIebq
— Roseanne on ABC (@RoseanneOnABC) February 15, 2018
Marvel’s Cloak and Dagger
WHAT
Hot teens with cool powers! Cloak and Dagger is aimed at a younger audience than a lot of Marvel’s staple shows and focuses entirely on the stories of its two teenage protagonists.
Set in a post-Katrina New Orleans, it follows the story of Tandy Bowen (Olivia Holt) and Tyrone Johnson (Aubrey Joseph), two teenagers who realise they have superpowers. It looks like it’s got a different mood than the rest of the superhero shows we’ve been used to, and could be extremely cool.
WHEN
Cloak and Dagger comes to Freeform in June this year, but no word on an Australian release yet.
The Perfectionists
WHAT
Did you love Pretty Little Liars? Of course you did, you’re not an absolute idiot.
Well, excitingly another Sara Sheperd book series is being adapted for the screen. The Perfectionists, which Marlene King has been developing since 2014, will also be a Pretty Little Liars spinoff. Let’s pray to everything holy that it’s better than PLL’s first spinoff, the spookily shit Ravenswood.
The plot seems pretty familiar — a town of overachieving glamour teens and a mysterious murder. But that’s fine, because we’ve even got some cast from the original PLL coming over for the spinoff, including Alison DiLaurentis and Mona Vanderwaal.
WHEN
If all goes to plan, we should be seeing The Perfectionists on Freeform in late 2018.
Westworld Season 2
WHAT
HBO’s big 2016 prestige sci-fi series Westworld is coming back this year, and we all get to immerse ourselves in the robot theme-park of our nightmares.
This is one of those frustrating shows that deliberately leaves itself open to a thousand conspiracy theories, but we can be certain that many people are “surprisingly” robots. It’s just so sad about all the robots and the robot things they do.
That said, I reckon we’ll get to see the robots tear the place up, which is going to be very satisfying.
WHEN
Westworld season 2 hits HBO on April 22.
The Good Place Season 3
WHAT
The Good Place is the best and most surprising comedy of last year, and I am so forking grateful that we get another season of moral philosophy hijinks to look forward to.
The show is known for some rather sneaky and effective twists, and we go into the third season with an almost completely new premise than the last two — but considering how dramatically they have shifted the premise before, this only increases the hype.
WHEN
The Good Place season 3 is expected to drop on to Netflix around September.
The Terror
WHAT
A spooky new thriller from AMC about a bunch of old British dudes stranded in the Antarctic on ludicrously shit old-timey boats, while some kind of mysterious ice creature kills them? Sign me up.
I assume it’s gonna be the penguins from Happy Feet out for revenge. Plus, it’s based on real life events, so it’s basically learning.
WHEN
The Terror will be on AMC in late March.
Doctor Who Season 11
WHAT
For every person who watches the next season of Doctor Who, another gallon of neckbeard tears are spilled.
While that’s enough reason to watch the show on its own, Jodie Whittaker was heartbreakingly brilliant on Broadchurch, and is sure to bring something special to the time-travelling shenanigans of Doctor Who as the 13th Doctor.
WHEN
Rumours have Doctor Who season 11 airing in August on the BBC.
The Handmaid’s Tale Season 2
WHAT
The Handmaid’s Tale is a grim and supremely relevant dystopian story centred around the reproductive rights of women — and it’s compulsive viewing.
In the highly anticipated second season, we go into uncharted territory beyond the original source material of Margaret Atwood’s novel of the same name. It’s all fairly mysterious, but you can bet it will be tragic and confronting!
WHEN
The second season premieres April 26 in Australia on SBS and SBS On Demand.
House of Cards Season 6
WHAT
Netflix resumed shooting House Of Cards’ final season earlier this year, after production was suspended in October when sexual assault allegations were made against its star and producer Kevin Spacey. Now we get a whole new President.
WHEN
A trailer released in March teased that Season 6 will air in America’s “Fall” or Autumn, so our… Spring? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
We're just getting started. pic.twitter.com/h2XafRynew
— House of Cards (@HouseofCards) March 5, 2018
The Rain
WHAT
If you love post-apocalyptic TV but you feel that zombies are way overplayed, this new Danish series for Netflix could be just the gloomy end-of-the-world replacement that you need.
The story is set in Scandinavia, six years after a brutal virus wiped out almost all humans, following a group of young survivors who set out to find out whether a new world has begun somewhere else. Instead of face-chomping corpses we get… spooky rain.
The slogan for the show is “Stay dry, stay alive” which honestly just sounds like a melodramatic advertisement for menstrual pads.
WHEN
The Rain is coming to Netflix late 2018.
Atlanta Season 2
WHAT
Handsome multi-talented man Donald Glover is back with a new season of his Emmy award winning comedy-drama Atlanta, a funny and raw portrait of a city that is absolutely at the centre of some of the best culture being produced anywhere in the world. Season 2 continues the journey of Earn Marks as he struggles to get by.
WHEN
It’s airing week by week on SBS On Demand right now.
Picnic At Hanging Rock
WHAT
This year the picnic… returns. Foxtel’s highly anticipated adaptation Joan Lindsay’s legendary 1967 novel follows in the wake of the critically acclaimed 1975 film of the same name. The new TV series adds big names like Natalie Dormer (Game of Thrones) and Yael Stone (Orange is the New Black).
WHEN
Picnic at Hanging Rock is screening on Foxtel from May 6th.
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For more of the best TV out right now, catch up with our list of 2017’s best TV shows.