In any other year, this would be the time that we’d be turning to the overabundant wealth of series that a new calendar year might bring. December is usually a time for holiday specials and relative programming afterthoughts and the shows that networks aren’t really sure where to fit in elsewhere.
Some of that still remains true in 2020. While the influx of fresh stories in the new year feels far from guaranteed, there are — against continued heightened odds — still plenty of new shows making their way to stateside networks and streaming services this month. Once again, a handful of them are imports that found international audiences at various points in the year. But also as usual, these series span a variety of genres that don’t stick to a single December-y feel.
To help plan out the next few weeks of TV watching, we’ve included synopses and basic viewing info for 13 of these new shows below. (And, as always, in case you’ve missed any of our past monthly roundups, you can find former editions for February, March, April, May, June, July, August, October, November, and our fall preview.) In the next few days, we’ll have picks for what to anticipate on Netflix, as well.
Investigative journalist Mariana van Zeller hosts this documentary series looking at various global smuggling rings that encompass an untold amount of goods, money, animals, and human lives. Drawing on her experiences researching some of these underworld elements, van Zeller looks to not only illuminate these dark-corner trading systems, but follow how they operate.
The general TV audience’s appetite for doc series and cults is once again sated with this look at the group that began as a religion tied to UFOs and ended in a tragedy that shook San Diego. “Gleason” and “Finders Keepers” director Clay Tweel leads this four-part look at a saga that spanned two decades and caught national attention for many different reasons over that time.
Joanne Froggatt plays a neuropsychologist confronting the challenges of her personal life and the calamities facing humanity in this eight-part season that originally aired on Stan in Australia. When her attempts at an IVF pregnancy hit a rough patch, the encroaching consequences of a climate change-ravaged world put her life’s goals into a new perspective.
Filming animals after sundown is the new vanguard of nature documentary filmmaking. Netflix had their doc series “Night on Earth,” while last year’s mutli-day NatGeo event “Yellowstone Live” featured some breakout beavers in their darkened habitat. This latest version will look to move beyond the night vision goggle aesthetic and into something closer to a daytime color palate. Taking his place in an already growing field of celebrity narrators for Apple TV+ projects is Tom Hiddleston, who lends his voice to the season’s six episodes.
Further proof that IP-holders will not rest until every bit of 1950s kids entertainment gets its own gritty update, this version of the classic series of teen adventure novels finds brothers Frank and Joe Hardy moving to a new town and (wouldn’t you know it) quickly uncovering the details behind a secret haunting their family. Callie Shaw, Biff Hooper, Phil Cohen, Chet Morton — the rest of the gang’s all here too in this 13-episode season that’ll be available to stream in full on its premiere date.
Bryan Cranston makes his TV headlining return in this limited series about a judge whose son is involved in a vicious high-profile hit-and-run case. “The Night Of” writer Peter Moffat serves as showrunner here, adapting the Israeli series “Kvodo.” The series is bolstered by an ensemble that also includes Michael Stuhlbarg, Hope Davis, Carmen Ejogo, Margo Martindale, Lorraine Toussaint, Amy Landecker, and Isiah Whitlock, Jr.
The American public demands medical dramas and it is medical dramas they shall receive. Joining fellow similarly themed imports “Coroner” and “Transplant,” which have both made their way to American broadcast TV, this drama tracks a handful of medical professionals beginning their careers at a Toronto hospital.
Set in 1950s India, this sweeping drama balancing a love story with the forming of a new nation was a 2020 TIFF selection. Featuring director Mira Nair’s first television work, this series originally produced for the BBC stars Ishaan Khatter, Tanya Maniktala, and Tabu. New episodes will drop weekly through to the beginning of 2021.
This documentary series looks at the day-to-day life for the different generations of the Ho family. Years after Binh and Hue Ho helped to build a banking and real estate empire that made them and their family multimillionaires, this show follows them, their children, and their wealthy Houston-based lifestyle.
Billed by Amazon Prime Video as its first YA series, this tale of survival centers on a group of teenage girls who manage to escape a deadly plane crash. As part of the show’s rollout, the first episode will be available to anyone, regardless of whether or not they have a subscription, on the various Prime Video social channels between the premiere date and Christmas.
Either the perfect TV show for the moment or the worst, this new adaptation of the Stephen King classic features James Marsden, Greg Kinnear, Alexander Skarsgård, Amber Heard, Whoopi Goldberg, Jovan Adepo, Ezra Miller, Nat Wolff, and Hamish Linklater as individuals locked on opposite sides of an apocalyptic battle for life after a deadly plague. Josh Boone, whose “New Mutants” movie finally made its way into the world this year, is a writer and director on the series, which culminates in a new ending co-written by King himself.
Breaking from a majority of their unscripted originals, this Disney+ doc series sets aside looks at theme parks and animation production and brand merchandising and instead shifts its focus to the students at the School of American Ballet. The show tracks the trajectories of those preparing for an annual performance of “The Nutcracker,” while also looking at soon-to-be graduates hoping to make a name for themselves in the wide world of international dance.
Hey, remember “The Masked Singer?” Wish they just took out the pesky singing part and had mildly famous people gyrate around in oversized animal/mythical creature/food/inanimate object suits? Want Brian Austin Green to be one of the panelists? If you said yes to all three, we can only assume you are a Fox executive and no one else.
