It’s already been a good year for TV fans, with critics raving about “Mare of Easttown,” “The Underground Railroad,” and “The White Lotus” (among others on lists like this one). As anyone knows, the most robust time for television is from when kids go back to school in the fall through Christmas. After an incredibly weird autumn last year thanks to pandemic delays, streaming services and networks are hoping that this season is more traditional, and they are all bringing out their big guns, including new dramas, returning shows, and long-awaited mini-series. These are the dozens you should put on your calendar, in chronological order.
SEPTEMBER
“What We Do in the Shadows” Season 3 (FX)
Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi transformed a 2014 vampire mockumentary into a series, and lo and behold it’s become of the most popular shows on television, even landing an Emmy nod for Best Comedy Series for season two (also appearing on just about every Best of 2020 list, including ours). The adventures of these Staten Island creatures of the night — Nandor (Kayvan Novak), Laszlo (Matt Berry), and Nadja (Natasia Demetriou)— returns dealing with the revelation at the end of last season that their familiar Guillermo (Harvey Guillen) is more of a vampire hunter than an actual vampire. The only question for Season 3 is if the writers can live up to the incredibly high standard the show set in Season 2.
Airdate: September 2 – Brian Tallerico
“American Crime Story: Impeachment” (FX)
Ryan Murphy’s FX franchise, ‘American Crime Story,’ will surely sensationalize or at least bring the melodrama to the 1990s Monica Lewinsky/Bill Clinton political scandal. “Booksmart” breakout star Beanie Feldstein plays Lewinsky, Clive Owen is Bill Clinton, Sarah Paulson stars as Linda Tripp, and Annaleigh Ashford appears as Paula Jones. Murphy told Lewinsky herself at a party, “Nobody should tell your story but you, and it’s kind of gross if they do. ‘If you want to produce it with me, I would love that; but you should be the producer and you should make all the goddamn money.” And well, she agreed and is an executive producer on the show. Let’s hope she’s not disappointed by his trademark excess and broadness.
Airdate: September 7 – Rodrigo Perez
“Scenes from a Marriage” (HBO)
Jessica Chastain and Oscar Isaac (who appeared together in “A Most Violent Year”) reunite in the central roles of a remake of Ingmar Bergman’s devastating marriage disintegration series from the 1970s, Helmed by Hagai Levi (“The Affair”), the new version of the very personal Bergman piece will examine many of the same issues but update them to a modern American couple. While it seems unlikely to live up to the original, Chastain and Isaac could be captivating enough to allow it to escape that long shadow.
Airdate: September 12, but it is premiering at the Venice Film Festival. – BT
“American Rust” (Showtime)
Jeff Daniels plays a Pennsylvania cop whose entire community is struggling economically. Into the depression of smalltown Pennsylvania—which audiences obviously fell in love with, with HBO’s “Mare of Easttown”—drops a murder. And when the main suspect is the son of a woman the police offer loves (Maura Tierney), he’s forced to consider how much he actually wants to solve the case. A small town, big secrets, a murder, a great lead performer, viewers fell in love with this formula once already this year, and Showtime hopes it could easily happen again. Bonus: The great John Dahl (“Red Rock West,” “The Last Seduction”) directed several episodes (our review).
Airdate: September 12 – BT
“Y: The Last Man” (FX on Hulu)
Originally announced as a series in 2015, Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra’s “Y: The Last Man”, went through multiple false starts and showrunners in development. Finally complete, ‘Y’ stars Diane Lane, Ben Schnetzer, Olivia Thirlby, and Ashley Romans, as the main characters in a series about the last surviving human of a mysterious plague with a Y chromosome and his capuchin monkey who set out to learn what might have wiped out the world’s male population.
Airdate: September 13 – BT.
“Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol” (Peacock)
Peacock sure hopes people remember when the author of “The Da Vinci Code” and “Angels & Demons” ruled the literary world. They’ve invested in a limited series based on Dan Brown’s hit 2009 thriller “The Lost Symbol,” executive produced by kingpins Ron Howard and Brian Grazer. Yes, it’s another Robert Langdon story! Originally developed for Tom Hanks to star, the character is now played by Ashley Zukerman (“Manhattan”) in what is reportedly a prequel story for the man who unravels all of history’s mysteries. When Langdon’s mentor goes missing, the CIA hires him to solve a series of deadly puzzles. The premiere will be helmed by the great Dan Trachtenberg (“10 Cloverfield Lane”).
Airdate: September 16 – BT
“The Premise” (Hulu)
B.J. Novak’s project for Hulu had been shrouded in mystery until a recent trailer and the results? “Think comedic ‘Black Mirror‘” and an anthology series commentary on issues of the day like social media, allyship, publicity, celebrity, and more. The big draw for this dark dramedy is likely to be its stacked ensemble, which includes Lucas Hedges, Jon Bernthal, Kaitlyn Dever, Ben Platt, Tracee Ellis Ross, Daniel Dae Kim, Lola Kirke, and many more. The trailer offers the enticing promise that “No topic is off-limits.” Well, at least for five episodes.
Airdate: September 16 – BT
“Chicago Party Aunt” (Netflix)
The “Zola” Twitter thread may have inspired a whole ass movie, but the bird app has also inspired a totally different show. The popular account “Chicago Party Aunt,” whose profile reads “If life gives you lemons, turn that shit into Mike’s Hard Lemonade,” is getting its own animated Netflix series for adults. The Twitter account was created by a Chicago improv vet named Chris Witaske, who will work on the show with Jon Barinholtz (“Superstore”) and Katie Rich (“Saturday Night Live”). The animation was created by the celebrated Titmouse studios (responsible for“Big Mouth”) and another Second City vet, Lauren Ash (“Superstore”) will be taking lead voice work, supported by Ike Barinholtz, RuPaul Charles, and Da’Vine Joy Randolph.
Airdate: September 17 – BT
“The Morning Show” Season 2 (Apple TV+)
Having already earned an Emmy for Best Supporting Actor (Billy Crudup), “The Morning Shows” returns for another round of backstabbing, second-guessing, and proving to people that AppleTV+ is more than just “Ted Lasso.” Alex (Jennifer Aniston) and Bradley (Reese Witherspoon) are divided again after Alex leaves the show, replaced by an anchor played by Hasan Minhaj. Can Crudup’s puppet master get her back in the fold? Meanwhile, Julianna Margulies joins the cast as a reporter who gets Alex to spill all the beans about her time on the news show. As Alex says in the trailer, “There’s a cost to success and fame.”
Airdate: September 17 – BT
“Star Wars: Visions” (Disney+)
While “Star Wars” has a rich history in animation, much of it led by Dave Filoni, who has graduated to live-action storytelling, ‘Visions’ has a distinctly different idea: telling new “Star Wars” stories through the singular style and tradition of Japanese anime. Some of the famous anime studios creating shorts for the anthology include Kamikaze Douga, Studio Colorido, and the American voice cast feature Joseph Gordon-Levi, Lucy Liu, Alison Brie, Bobby Moynihan, Neil Patrick Harris, “Shang Chi” star Simu Liu, Kyle Chandler, David Harbour, Henry Golding, Jamie Chung, George Takei, Karen Fukuhara, and Temuera Morrison as Boba Fett among many others.
Airdate: September 22 – RP