While most of us will look back at 2016 as quite a dour year for the arts, it has to be said that we were treated to some remarkable television. On the one hand there was the return of much-loved favourites; A Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead both added another gripping chapter to their sagas, while we were once again left enamoured with nature and David Attenborough with the astonishing brilliance of Planet Earth II. It was also a year of great new television, with much of the spotlight taken up by the eerie charm of Netflix’s original sci-fi-horror series Stranger Things. HBO’s recreation of Michael Crichton’s 1973 sci-fi Western Westworld blew many minds around the world, and, as if we weren’t already weirded out enough, Netflix ended the TV year by dishing out creepy mystery drama The OA just in time for Christmas.
We look ahead to pick out our selection of the top 10 most anticipated TV shows of 2017 you should have on your radar this year.
TWIN PEAKS
Two and a half decades since its second season came wound to a close, Mark Frost and David Lynch’s beloved original series Twin Peaks is set to return to screens in 2017. The show’s third season will feature many of the original cast—including Kyle MacLachlan as FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper—and will air on Sky Atlantic in the UK and Showtime in the US.
CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM
Seinfeld co-creator Larry David last year confirmed that he was in the midst of creating a new, ninth series of Curb Your Enthusiasm—the show’s first since 2011. JB Smoove—the actor behind popular supporting character Leon Black—posted a clip of him filming the new season in mid-November, with fans anticipating the release later this year.
https://twitter.com/HBO/status/797121737137623041
HOUSE OF CARDS
Frank and Claire Underwood’s fifth outing will begin with the First Lady ostensibly taking the upper hand over her husband. This season will mark the series’ first since the departure of creator and showrunner Beau Willimon.
STRANGER THINGS
Having pretty much dominated the TV world in 2016, Stranger Things seemed to be something of an inevitability for 2017. Its second series picks up a year after the events of Season 1, and will explore the “bigger mythology” behind Will’s disappearance according to the show’s creators.
THE WALKING DEAD
With popularity at an all-time high heading into Season 7, The Walking Dead’s producers revealed that it had renewed for an eighth season before it had even begun. Ratings have since dropped, however, and it is expected that the show will return with some major new plot movements in its latest season expected to air late in 2017.
I LOVE DICK
Emmy award-winning Transparent creator Jil Soloway adapts Chris Kraus’ 1997 bestselling novel for what is set to be one of Amazon Prime’s most exciting offerings this year. Starring Kevin Bacon alongside Kathryn Hahn and Griffin Dunne, the story follows a failed filmmaker on the brink of turning 40 who falls in love with a celebrated art and culture therapist named Dick. To seduce her lover, the filmmaker looks for help from her husband, a radical but somewhat chaste French academic.
CATASTROPHE
After scooping a BAFTA TV Award for Best Writing in 2016, show creators Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney are back with a third series of their British sitcom comedy later this year. This series will notably feature a posthumous appearance from Carrie Fisher as Rob’s mother which has proved to be one of the film icon’s final appearances on screen.
NETFLIX
There ain’t no rest for the wicked, and after its successes with the likes of Stranger Things and The OA in 2016 Netflix has planned a relentless schedule of great TV for you in 2017. As if it hadn’t already taken over large portions of your life, the streaming site plans to average almost one new project each and every week in 2017, including a number of new Marvel offerings including Iron Fist and The Defenders.
FARGO
Due for release in spring this year, Fargo Season 3 is set in 2010 according to creator Noah Hawley—leaving the potential for characters from previous seasons to return. With Ewan McGregor and Carrie Coon cast in the lead roles, it is also known that David Thewlis will play "a mysterious loner and true capitalist who delivers Emmit (Ewan McGregor), the Parking Lot King of Minnesota, the bad news that he has just become partners with his employers, whose business interests lay outside the law" according to FX’s publicity department.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKIIJ3Zn_1E
TABOO
Tom Hardy reunites with his father Edward “Chips” Hardy and Peaky Blinders creator Stephen Knight in this hotly anticipated miniseries to be aired this Saturday on BBC One. Set in the early 1800s, the show follows the story of an adventurer on his return from Africa to Britain where he aims to avenge is father’s death.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1fiijqrKuc
