12 of the most anticipated TV shows of 2019

2018 is dead, long live 2019. Finally. 

If there is one thing to be said for 2018, it’s that there was a lot of really good TV on to distract from literally everything else happening in the world; now that the year is over though, it’s time to look to the future. What does 2019 hold for TV watchers in the new year?

Here are the most anticipated shows of 2019, both new and returning, in no particular order.

1. Game of Thrones

Game of Thrones is one of the most watched TV shows of all time, and with its six-episode final season approaching it stands that they are highly, highly anticipated. Who knows what winter will bring for the Starks, Lannisters, and Targaryens, but whatever happens is sure to dominate everyone’s conversations come spring. 

2. The Umbrella Academy 

Emo kids and comic fans alike rejoiced when Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá’s two-volume comic The Umbrella Academy was going to become a Netflix original series. The story of six estranged siblings, all but one with superpowers, who come together after the death of their adopted father and discover a plot to destroy the world is sure to be an exciting and weird blend of family drama, black comedy, and throwback superhero realness. 

3. Jane The Virgin

After last season’s shocking finale that brought back a character everyone thought was gone, it seems like Jane The Virgin has truly embraced its telenovela roots. The question of what’s going to happen and where the story will go from there has been on every JTV fan’s mind since those last moments of the finale, and in 2019 everyone’s questions will finally be answered.

4. Watchmen

In 2009, the film adaptation of Alan Moore’s Watchmen comic came out and was, generally speaking, a disappointment. The dark take on a post-superhero world makes for a difficult and complex story, and now Damon Lindelof of Lost and The Leftovers fame is taking it in a different direction for an HBO TV show. The show won’t follow the plot of the comic and will instead take place in the same universe, and Moore fans are waiting with bated breath to see if this might be the story they’ve been waiting for. 

5. Good Omens

Neil Gaiman is one of this generation’s greatest storytellers and adaptations of his work are scattered all around the TV and filmsphere — look at American Gods, Stardust, Coraline, and so on for proof of that. Now his fantasy classic Good Omens is coming to screens, and the odd-couple tale of a demon and an angel who are (kind of) friends and are trying to thwart the apocalypse looks to be one of the highlights of 2019’s new TV lineup. 

6. Brooklyn Nine-Nine

When Fox canceled fan favorite Brooklyn Nine-Nine, it’s surprising there weren’t actual riots in the street. The beloved cop show, which ended its most recent season with an anticipated (and adorable) wedding episode, spent a few days in cancelation limbo before NBC scooped up the rights to produce future seasons. Brooklyn Nine-Nine will return in 2019 on NBC, much to the relief of everyone who was worried the story of the 99th precinct was over for good. 

7. Stranger Things 3

After a year without any updates on our beloved children from Hawkins, Stranger Things 3 is primed to premiere in 2019. The last we saw of the world’s sweetest, bravest little babies they were dancing the night away at the Snow Ball while the Mind Flayer kept a close watch on them from his extra-dimensional plane, but surely the kids can handle whatever the weirdness that their hometown and its incessant wormholes to horrifying alternate dimensions can throw at them. Right? 

8. Veep

Veep has always been a caustic, blunt look at DC politics, but that strikes a different nerve now than it did a few years ago. We know now that any ridiculous thing can happen, like the terrifying prospect of Jonah Ryan winning the presidency. Still, it’s cathartic to return to these characters, who have always been up front about being total dicks, and to the remarkable timing and acerbic eloquence of the cast and writing team. Also we need more Splett. – Proma Khosla, Entertainment Reporter

9. True Detective

True Detective Season 2 may have been something of a disappointment after the excellence that was Season 1, but 2019’s entry into the True Detective canon has something neither of those seasons had: Mahershala Ali in a suspect but period-appropriate wig. Stephen Dorff joins Ali’s character as his partner and the luminous Carmen Ejogo is in the cast as well. Most bets are on this season being a great one and will make True Detective must-watch TV once again.

10. The Crown

Farewell, Claire Foy’s Queen Elizabeth II. We barely knew ye. This new season of The Crown will put Olivia Coleman in the role of Britain’s monarch as the series jumps forward into the mid-1960s and ’70s. One of the joys of The Crown is watching history unfold while spying on those who make it happen, so this turbulent era is sure to be filled with extra drama behind the palace walls.

11. Big Little Lies

Welcome back to Monterey, where almost everyone is rich and someone pushed a dude down a flight of stairs at a fancy karaoke night. The second season of HBO’s Big Little Lies, which will go beyond the events of the book upon which the first season was based, adds Meryl Freaking Streep to the cast as Perry’s mother — word has it she’s concerned about what happened to her son and will cause all kinds of trouble for the moms of Otter Bay Elementary.

12. What We Do In The Shadows

Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement’s 2014 film What We Do In The Shadows is a hilarious take on what life is like for a nest of highly eccentric vampires, and rumors of the movie’s reimagining as a television show have circulated for years. 

In 2019, What We Do In The Shadows the show will premiere on FX, with new vampires and a relocation from New Zealand to New York City. Who knows what kind of dark bidding this new crew will get up to? Probably a table.