Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Dustin Rowles | TV | February 6, 2024
While HBO has long been considered the home of prestige television, the cupboards have been bare in recent months. Post-Succession, HBO’s biggest hits have been the, uh, Laker series that was canceled after two seasons, Julia (also canceled after two seasons), Gilded Age, and True Detective season four. The next few months — until the second season of House of Dragon — do not look particularly bright, either, with little beyond another season of Tokyo Vice, Kate Winslet’s The Regime, and new seasons of Hacks and Sex Lives of College Girls. Unless the new Robert Downey, Jr. series falls in the Spring, that’s about it.
The real prestige television, meanwhile, seems to have moved over to Apple TV+, which has enough money that it doesn’t need to worry about drastic cost-cutting measures or axing beloved-but-not-highly-rated enough series like Our Flag Means Death. After the current slate of originals (Masters of Air, Criminal Record) runs its course, there’s plenty in the pipeline, including over 20 new and returning series between now and this summer.
Among them: The New Look (a historical drama series starring Ben Mendelsohn as Christian Dior); a documentary series about the New England Patriots; Constellation, a psychological thriller starring Noomi Rapace and Jonathan Banks; Sugar, a private detective series starring Colin Farrel; a limited series about Benjamin Franklin starring Michael Douglas; additional seasons of Big Door Prize, Trying, Loot, and ACAPULCO ; Dark Matter, a sci-fi series starring Joel Edgerton and Jennifer Connelly; a television adaptation of Scott Turow’s Presumed Innocent starring Jake Gyllenhaal; and Lady in the Lake, Natalie Portman’s adaptation of the phenomenal Laura Lippman novel.
A few of the forthcoming series have also released trailers, including The Complete Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin, starring Noel Fielding.
Manhunt, the story of the hunt for John Wilkes Booth in the aftermath of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination starring Tobias Menzies.
And Palm Royale, which is about how Kristen Wiig’s Maxine Simmons tries to break into Palm Beach high society in 1969. The series also stars Laura Dern, Allison Janney, Leslie Bibb, and Carol Burnett.
It’s also worth noting that, despite the price hike, ad-free Apple TV+ ($9.99) is still much cheaper than ad-free Max ($15.99). If I could only choose one between the end of True Detective and the beginning of House of Dragon, it’d be a no-brainer for Apple TV+_.
For glimpses of the other new and returning series that have not yet released trailers, here’s an Apple TV+ sizzle reel:
