20 TV shows to watch in 2020: Star Trek: Picard, WandaVision, the Boys and more!
There are so many amazing TV shows on the way!
So many shows to watch, so little time! | Image: CBS
The roaring 20s are making a comeback.
Remember how we made a list of the best TV shows of 2019? Well, catching up is well and good, but it’s a whole new decade now - and that means it’s time to binge some new stuff! Your choices are virtually endless, with all the streaming services and TV channels available, but we’re here to make your life a little easier.
Here are 20 TV shows you should absolutely watch in 2020, starting with:
Star Trek: Picard - January 23
Patrick Stewart returns to his defining role as Jean-Luc Picard, captain of the USS Enterprise after 18 entire years! That’s an event any way you cut it. The series takes place 20 years after we last saw Picard in Star Trek: Nemesis, exploring the retired Starfleet admiral's life since the events of the movie.
When talking about returning to the role, Stewart said he wanted to, "... research and experience what comforting and reforming light he might shine on these often very dark times.” That’s just wholesome.
Mythic Quest - February 7
Apple TV+’s next big original series is a workplace comedy about videogame development called Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet. The show centres on fictional game Mythic Quest’s narcissistic creative director, Iam Grimm (Rob McElhenney). His abrasive personality clashes with the rest of the team, as they all struggle to make Mythic Quest happen under his leadership. The show comes from one of the creators of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, so it’s bound to be good.
I Am Not Okay with This - February 26
If you're into coming-of-age dramas with a touch of superpowered shenanigans, this one's for you. | Image: Netflix
Netflix’s I Am Not Okay with This is based on a comic by The End of the F***ing World writer Charles Forsman. This coming-of-age drama follows Sydney (Sophia Lillis), a teenage girl navigating the trials of high school life while dealing with her complex family, her budding sexuality and mysterious new superpowers. The series will reunite two members of It (the movie)’s Losers Club - Lillis and Wyatt Oleff.
Devs - March 5
What's Ron Swanson doing here? | Image: Hulu
This one is interesting. This Hulu drama is worth watching for its creator alone - Alex Garland. The writer-director just recently directed two fantastic sci-fi films - Ex Machina and Annihilation. Devs follows Lily Chan (Sonoya Mizuno), a computer engineer who investigates a quantum computing company called Amaya run by Forest (Nick Offerman). She believes that the company is somehow responsible for the disappearance of her boyfriend. You had me at Nick Offerman, Devs.
Amazing Stories - March 6
Who knows where this anthology will take us? | Image: Apple
Apple TV+’s upcoming Amazing Stories is a remake of the 1985 anthology series of the same name created by Steven Spielberg. It’s a show in the same vein as Black Mirror and the Twilight Zone - an anthology series exploring strange and fascinating things happening to ordinary people. That sounds awesome by itself, but the show also boasts some pretty great acting talent - with actors like Dylan O’Brien, Victoria Pedretti, Josh Holloway, Sasha Alexander and more.
Westworld (Season 3) - March 15
Westworld Season 3 is pretty special, because we’re finally breaking out of Westworld and into the Blade Runner-esque world beyond it. Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood), a rogue android from Westworld, has finally escaped into the real world and plans to kickstart an android revolution. Maeve (Thandie Newton) finds herself in a World War II-themed park as well, and Caleb (Aaron Paul) runs into Dolores in futuristic Los Angeles. This is one of HBO’s flagship dramas - and this season has some incredible talent behind it!
Fargo (Season 4) - April 19
Some could argue that Fargo peaked with Season 2, but that could change this year. The series focuses on different characters and settings every season, and this season is all about crime in 1950s Kansas City, Missouri. Chris Rock plays the head of a crime syndicate who goes against the entire Kansas City mafia. Timothy Olyphant, Ben Whishaw, Jason Schwartzman and more also star.
Barry (Season 3) - Sometime in 2020
I called Barry the third-best TV show of 2019, and I stand by that. This HBO dramedy stars Bill Hader as a hitman struggling to leave his murderous ways behind for a new life in the theatre. Barry has always managed to be equal parts funny and intense, making for some pretty unique and constantly unpredictable television. Without spoiling anything, last season saw a massive revelation that might bring an end to the life Barry has built for himself. How on earth is he going to crawl out of this mess?
Space Force - Sometime in 2020
This is going to be big! The Office creator Greg Daniels reunites with Steve Carell for an all-new workplace comedy on Netflix. The show centers on a group of people tasked with establishing the sixth branch of the United States armed services, Space Force. This is, of course, inspired by President Trump’s push for a space force to become the sixth branch of the U.S. military. Just recently, the real-life Space Force logo was revealed and… wait, is that the Starfleet logo?
Lovecraft Country - Sometime in 2020
Are you up for some cosmic horror madness? | Image: HBO
This is the one I’m most excited for in 2020. Jonathan Majors (who was phenomenal in The Last Black Man in San Francisco) stars as Atticus Black. Black joins up with his friend Letitia (Jurnee Smollett-Bell) and uncle George (Courtney B. Vance) to embark on a road trip across America in the 1950s, searching for his missing father. Things take a turn for the worse, and soon they have to struggle to survive against the terrors of white America and the terrifying monsters of Lovecraftian lore.
H.P. Lovecraft was a well-known horror writer, famous for writing about beasts of cosmic horror - such as Cthulhu! If this HBO show is going to dive into Lovecraft’s strange brand of horror, you can definitely count me in.
WandaVision/The Falcon and the Winter Soldier - Sometime in 2020
Time to see what happened to these folks after Avengers: Endgame. | Image: Disney
This one is a twofer. We’ve known for a while now that multiple TV shows set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe have been in the works for Disney+, and this year will see the release of two of them. WandaVision will centre on Scarlet Witch and Vision, with the latter being brought back after his death in Avengers: Infinity War. Characters from other MCU movies will also appear, and the series has been described as, “super avant-garde and weird.”
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier on the other hand, is a much more grounded affair. Set after Avengers: Endgame, Bucky Barnes and Sam Wilson have to deal with the fact that Captain America has passed the shield over to Sam. Baron Helmut Zemo returns from Captain America: Civil War, while Wyatt Russell joins the cast as U.S. Agent, the military’s appointed successor to Captain America. That can’t end well for the duo.
The Third Day - Sometime in 2020
I'm always in for more Jude Law. | Image: HBO
HBO’s The Third Day follows a man and a woman who arrive on a strange island at different times. The first half of the show, titled ‘Summer’, tells Sam’s (Jude Law) story - a man who finds himself drawn to the island, but encounters a group of islanders hellbent on preserving their traditions. The second half, titled ‘Winter’, follows Helen (Naomie Harris), a strong-willed outsider who arrives on the island seeking answers - but ends up triggering a massive battle instead.
The Third Day seems pretty ambitious, and has some enormous talent behind it - including the creator of the critically acclaimed conspiracy thriller Utopia.
Jupiter’s Legacy - Sometime in 2020
It's a good time to be a comicbook fan. | Image: Image Comics
We are living in the golden age of superhero stories, aren’t we? Jupiter’s Legacy adapts legendary comic writer Frank Miller’s series of the same name. This Netflix show follows the story of the world’s very first generation of superheroes, who got their powers way back in the 1930s. In the present day however, their superpowered children struggle to live up to their parents’ enormous legacy.
The Haunting of Bly Manor - Sometime in 2020
After the brilliance of the Haunting of Hill House, the talent behind the series is coming back for more spooks, thrills and an all-new story. Horror writer-director Mike Flanagan adapts Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw for the second season of this Netflix show. Victoria Pedretti, Henry Thomas, Oliver Jackson-Cohen and Kate Siegel will return for The Haunting of Bly Manor.
The Mandalorian (Season 2) - Sometime in 2020
Maybe this will be the year Disney+ comes to Asia. One can dream, right? The second season of Disney’s smash success follows The Mandalorian - a bounty hunter in the Star Wars universe. Season one ended with a whole bunch of tragedy, bloodshed and tantalising connections to Star Wars: The Clone Wars - so what might be in store for the Mandalorian and his cuddly green companion next? We’ll just have to wait and see.
The Boys (Season 2) - Sometime in 2020
If you’re getting a little sick of the often light and happy tone of Marvel’s superhero movies (Endgame aside), you’ve probably already seen The Boys. In this world, a team of superpowered beings, the Seven, are widely revered as heroes to the general public. Unbeknownst to them, these seven superheroes are really mostly corrupt and evil, with their leader Homelander being especially psychotic. Billy Butcher and his Boys are the only ones willing to stand up to these menaces - but do they even stand a chance?
Y - Sometime in 2020
This is going to be one heck of an adventure. | Image: FX
Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra’s comic series Y: the Last Man is finally hitting the silver screen! In this world, all living mammals with a Y chromosome simultaneously die in a global catastrophe - with one exception. Amateur escape artist Yorick Brown and his little monkey buddy Ampersand are the only males alive, and as such become humanity’s last hope for survival.
Run - Sometime in 2020
This has a 500% chance of being brilliant. | Image: HBO
I just have one name for you: Phoebe Waller-Bridge. Waller-Bridge created the absolutely phenomenal dramedy Fleabag, which ended last year to massive critical acclaim. Fleabag was my personal favourite show of 2019 - so hearing that Waller-Bridge is working on a comedy thriller for HBO? Can I sign up twice?
Run follows a woman living a relatively boring life, who gets a text inviting her to fulfill a pact she made a long time ago. True love and self-reinvention is just one journey away - with her oldest flame. The series stars Merritt Wever, Domhnall Gleeson and Waller-Bridge herself.
Succession (Season 3) - Sometime in 2020
How can you not follow one of the most talked-about TV shows of 2019 at this point? Succession follows the fictional Roy family, owners and operators of a global media and hospitality empire. When the family’s patriarch Logan Roy’s leadership falls into question, the family begins to fight for control of the entire company.
Last season ended with Logan’s son Kendall going against his father in a pretty radical way, and it’s going to be interesting to see how both parties come back from it. HBO’s worst family is back on our screens this year - and thank goodness for that.
We Are Who We Are - Sometime in 2020
The acclaimed director behind Call Me By Your Name is creating this new HBO series. | Image: Sony Pictures Classics
We Are Who We Are is HBO’s new coming-of-age story following two American 14-year-olds living on an American military base in Italy. The show focuses on friendship, first love and all the confusion that comes with being a teenager. We Are Who We Are is written and directed by Luca Guadagnino - the man behind Call Me By Your Name and Suspiria (2018). Jack Dylan Grazer (It, Shazam) stars alongside Chloë Sevigny and Kid Cudi.
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