An outside observer may assume that in the month of the Oscars, TV might simmer down as bit. But even with film’s biggest night just around the corner, television — as we inexplicably seem to be saying every month — isn’t really showing any signs of slowing.
By now, the prospect of a mix of brand new series spanning premium networks and streaming services is basically the norm, even with a flurry of international imports dotting programming lineups. Add to that the idea that networks are slowly ramping back to fall 2019 production levels and this April looks as packed as it’s always been.
With the heart of awards season premieres on the horizon, TV fans are in for a busy next few weeks of brand new series to get excited about. (As usual, if this collection isn’t enough to fill your viewing calendar, check out our roundups from February and March. And if you’re looking for Netflix recommendations, our overview of what’s on the way to that platform will be available in just a few days.)
Years after departing his mainstay role on “Law & Order: SVU,” Christopher Meloni is back as Det. Elliot Stabler in this new offshoot to the long-running Dick Wolf franchise. As the title indicates, Stabler will be heading up a unit that tries to dismantle some of New York’s biggest criminal operations. As a bonus for “SVU” fans, the new series will premiere with a Thursday night, quasi-backdoor-pilot crossover event that will cross both shows.
One of the big TV premieres at last month’s SXSW, this adaptation of Alissa Nutting’s novel finds Cristin Milioti’s Hazel an unwitting test case of an insidious technology that melds lovers’ brains together. Ray Romano co-stars as her father Herbert, with Billy Magnussen as her soon-to-be ex-husband who happens to be the ethically compromised tech impresario whose company developed the product in the first place. Nutting is also a writer on the series, alongside showrunner Christina Lee.
Kyle MacLachlan becomes the latest actor to step into the shoes of FDR in this eight-part series set during World War II. The Masterpiece presentation is based on the relationship between Roosevelt and Princess Martha of Norway, who lived in the US with her children to evade Nazi forces. The series is the English-language debut for Norwegian writer-director Alexander Elk.
International crime takes center stage in this city-sprawling epic co-created by “The Raid” director Gareth Evans. As decades-long claims give way with the killing of a high-level leader in the London crime world, representatives of groups from different countries look to fill the void and take the city’s crown. Joe Cole, Sope Dirisu, Colm Meaney, Lucian Msamati, Michelle Fairley, Paapa Essiedu, and Pippa Bennett-Warner lead the cast for these first ten episodes — AMC has already renewed the show for a second season.
Inspired by the indelible “Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law,” this new animated series stars Paget Brewster as a crimefighter trying to undo the mess that her family business has wreaked upon the world. Tony Hale, Rob Delaney, Kether Donohue, and Negin Farsad are also part of the voice cast for this spinoff.
The prolific directing team of Ken Burns and Lynn Novick once again returns to the PBS airwaves, this time with a look at a literary titan. This three-part series will debut over the span of a week, chronicling the life and career of Ernest Hemingway, in both the written classics he left behind and the larger-than-life celebrity shadow he cast during his lifetime.
After being in the works for years, TBS finally gets to debut this comedy series starring Nasim Pedrad as an angsty high school boy. Life at school and his quest to join the ranks of the popular kids is one of Chad’s clear goals, but a complicated relationship with his mom and her dating life threaten to get in the way. “Documentary Now!” and “John Mulaney and the Sack Lunch Bunch” director Rhys Thomas is behind the camera for the pilot.
In his highly-awaited follow-up to the 2016 documentary “I Am Not Your Negro,” Raoul Peck looks at the long-reaching consequences of white supremacy throughout history. Examining the last thousand years through a formally complex lens, Peck uses a blend of archival footage, scripted scenes, animation, and more to provide a new way to perceive the immediate horrors and lasting effects of slavery and the genocide of indigenous peoples.
New network sitcoms continue to trickle through to the primetime schedule outside of any traditional season. The latest addition to the ABC lineup is this big-family tale of three siblings living under very different financial situations. Between the middling author in search of a bestseller (Topher Grace), comfortably wealthy investor (“American Vandal” breakout Jimmy Tatro), and a therapist working with at-risk youth (Caitlin McGee), these three look to find common ground in each other.
The CW reboots the popular David Carradine series nearly a half-century later, this time with actress Olivia Liang in the lead. After a life-changing stay at a Chinese monastery, Nicky (Liang) returns home to her Bay Area neighborhood to find that her crime-fighting services are needed. To carry out her newly developed skills, she enlists the help of friends and families, not to mention romantic interests past and present.
Katey Sagal leads this ABC drama as a self-taught public advocate taking on the legal system as an uncompromising outsider. (If this sounds a tad familiar this is, in fact, based on the life and work of Erin Brokovich.) Andy Garcia, John Corbett, and Kevin Zegers co-star in this series created by longtime “Grey’s Anatomy” universe vet Krista Vernoff.
In the first season of a planned anthology series, “Them” follows a Black family who’s recently moved from North Carolina to Los Angeles. What they find is a neighborhood where it’s not just the people living next to them who are unwelcoming. Deborah Ayorinde, Ashley Thomas, Alison Pill, Shahadi Wright Joseph, Melody Hurd, and Ryan Kwanten star in this series created by Little Marvin and executive produced by Lena Waithe. A second season is already on the way.
In the dwindling years of the 19th century, a supernatural event bestows incalculable powers on young women of London. Together, they must protect each other from a disapproving society and other metaphysical forces threatening to destroy them. The series’ vast ensemble includes Laura Donnelly, Olivia Williams, James Norton, Nick Frost, and Denis O’Hare Joss Whedon wrote and directed the pilot before leaving the series last fall following misconduct allegations. Philippa Goslett has since assumed duties as showrunner.
Not content with merely one family youth sports series in the platform’s rotation, Disney+ follows up last month’s “The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers” with this show set around a girl’s basketball team. John Stamos stars as Coach Korn, ousted from the collegiate ranks, who looks to improve a high school team’s chances on the court (and presumably teach them something important about themselves in the process).
Brian Gleeson stars as this comedy’s title character, a wayward self-destructive ex-musician who’s having trouble adjusting to life as a single man. Along the way to help him is Doofus (Domhnall Gleeson, who also happens to be Brian’s brother), trying his best to keep both their lives together. The series, a co-production with the UK network Channel 4, is directed by MJ Delaney (who also worked on “Ted Lasso”) and executive produced by “Catastrophe” star Sharon Horgan.
A decade after “Mildred Pierce,” Kate Winslet is back in HBO limited series title role mode. This time, she’s taking the mantle of a Pennsylvania officer tasked with investigating a possible homicide. Along the way she’ll face obstacles from her mother (Jean Smart), daughter (Angourie Rice), new work partner (Evan Peters), ex-husband (David Denman), and the town’s new charming professor (Guy Pearce). Craig Zobel, who was behind the camera for TV’s greatest ever hotel reincarnation story, directs all seven episodes of this limited series.
Freeform gets its own psychological thriller in the form of a high school disappearance story. When a girl (Olivia Holt) vanishes with barely a clue to her whereabouts, social misfit (Chiara Aurelia) insists she’s innocent. As time passes and circumstances change, the truth begins to trickle out in some unexpected ways. The new show boasts Jessica Biel as an executive producer and co-stars Michael Landes, Froy Gutierrez, Harley Quinn Smith, Allius Barnes, Blake Lee and Brooklyn Sudano.
When civil rights attorney Larry Krasner became the District Attorney of Philadelphia, filmmakers Ted Passon, Yoni Brook, and Nicole Salazar began a behind-the-scenes look at his efforts to curb mass incarceration in the city. This resulting documentary offers an inside perspective on the legislative and bureaucratic hurdles to reform, as well as the pressure to deliver on campaign promises. This project, which has its virtual premiere at Sundance earlier this year, is arriving as Krasner prepares for reelection in the fall.
“A man tries to find the truth behind a quarter-century-old rumor of a vicious killing” may sound like a standard true-crime setup….until you find out that the potential killer is a massive Bigfoot. That journey is what “Lorena” director Joshua Rofé tracks over this three-part series produced in part by the Duplass Brothers, who after “The Lady and the Dale” and “Wild Wild Country” are amassing quite the doc series resume.
Spring is decidedly upon us, which means another wave of nature docs to bring in the renewal of another year. Narrated by Sigourney Weaver, this new series follows longtime National Geographic photographer as he tracks the intricacies of lives among a variety of whale species. The four-part documentary touts a bevy of never-before-seen insights into how they communicate, interact, and raise their young.
Justin Theroux makes his TV drama return in this new adaptation of his uncle Paul’s 1971 novel. Melissa George, Logan Polish, and Gabriel Bateman co-star alongside Theroux, who plays an inventor who uproots his family and flees to Mexico when he suspects the federal government is on his heels. The show comes from “Luther” mastermind Neil Cross, whose most recent effort “The Sister” debuted on Hulu earlier this year.
