When it comes to outlets for new shows, cable has easily overtaken broadcast networks over the years for top-quality dramas and comedies, but it’s almost impossible to get excited about anything more than Netflix’s original programming. Though it’s only been creating original content for a few years now, Netflix’s success rate is nearly impeccable, and even its worst series are better than some networks’ best shows. And there’s so much more to come.
Here are 7 upcoming Netflix shows that you definitely need to have on your radar, especially since the streaming giant doesn’t do much of its own advertising. Let’s kick things off with the next entry from Marvel’s slate of streaming series.
Jessica Jones
Release Date: 2015
While Daredevil kicked things off for Netflix and Marvel in a battle-ready noir fashion, step two will be the psychological thriller Jessica Jones, with Krysten Ritter starring as the titular former superhero who opens up a detective agency focused on solving cases involving powered folks. It features co-stars like Mike Colter as Luke Cage (who will get his own series in 2016), David Tennant as the terrifying villain Kilgrave and Rachael Taylor as Jessica’s best friend Patsy, as well as Carrie-Anne Moss, Eka Darville and Erin Moriarty. And as it will be for each of the Marvel series, Rosario Dawson will reprise her role of nurse Claire Temple. Considering how solid and action-packed Daredevil was, we have all the faith that developer and showrunner Melissa Rosenberg will deliver as much excitement as we can stand.
Master of None
Release Date: November 6, 2015
If you’ve been missing comedian Aziz Ansari since Parks and Recreation ended its seven-season run earlier this year, then you won’t have to wait much longer to see him return, and in a show centered all around his character no less. Master of None is the creation of Ansari and Parks and Rec writer Alan Yang (with that series’ Mike Schur as an executive producer), and it follows Ansari as Dev, a 30-something New York-based actor who can’t quite make up his mind about anything, from his meals to his career path, though he’ll have lots of experiences that teach him more about himself. The show also stars such comedy standouts as Archer’s H. Jon Benjamin and Tim and Eric’s Eric Wareheim, along with Ravi Patel, Kelvin Yu and Noël Wells. I’m a huge fan of Ansari’s stand-up specials, and I can’t see this being unsatisfying in the least.
With Bob and David
Release Date: 2015
When Mr. Show with Bob and David came to an end after years of HBO not really knowing what to do with it, comedy fans everywhere had to wait 17 years to get the amazing news that Bob Odenkirk and David Cross would once again be creating a TV show, only this time for Netflix, where they can pretty much do whatever they want. This new sketch series, which will sadly only be comprised of four episodes, is said to be faster and less tied together than the duo’s earlier efforts, and it will boast a stellar cast of co-writers and co-stars including Scott Aukerman, Jay Johnston, Paul F. Tompkins, Brian Posehn, Dino Stamatopoulos, Katie McCabe, John Ennis and more. There’s a decent chance that more episodes will be created if people dig these, so don’t brutalize them!
The Get Down
Release Date: 2016
Baz Luhrmann, the Oscar-nominated director of such films as Moulin Rouge! and The Great Gatsby, will be creating his very first TV series for Netflix, and The Get Down will naturally be a project that is very much set in the world of music. The series, co-created by The Shield mastermind Shawn Ryan, will take place in a morally and financially bankrupt New York at a time when punk rock, disco and hip-hop are all coming into their own as art forms, and it will center on a group of teenagers who share dreams of making it in the world doing what they love. Beyond the largely unknown young cast, The Get Down will also star Breaking Bad’s Giancarlo Esposito, Sons of Anarchy’s Jimmy Smits, and Jaden Smith. Make what you will of the latter’s inclusion, but this series sounds like nothing else on TV.
Love
Release Date: 2016
As a writer and filmmaker whose voice reaches out to all ages, Judd Apatow is a creator that many people want to work with, and Netflix nabbed him for the romance-driven comedy Love, a co-creation from Girls writer Lesley Arlin, who also worked on Awkward. and Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Netflix gave an up-front two-season order to Love, which stars Community’s Gillian Jacobs and Super Fun Night’s Paul Rust as Mickey and Gus, respectively, a couple going through the modern relationship checklist of excitement, humiliation, commitment issues and other things both were hoping not to deal with. Co-stars include Apatow vets like Freaks and Geeks’ Dave Allen and Bridesmaids’s Steve Bannos, as well as Morningwood lead singer Chantal Claret. If this show is anything like FX’s You’re the Worst, we know we’ll be in…Love…with it. Sorry.
Release Date: 2016
At this point, Netflix’s supernatural-tinged output has been limited to the werewolf-heavy Hemlock Grove and the youth-oriented Between, but they’re headed to what sounds like a traditionally spooky place with Stranger Things (formerly titled Montauk. Created by Wayward Pines writers Matt and Ross Duffer, Stranger Things is a throwback to 1980s thrillers and takes place in Indiana in 1983, when the disappearance of a young boy puts an entire community in the middle of a terrifying mystery that involves the local police, top-secret government experiments, supernatural forces and one extremely mysterious young girl, played by Intruders’s Millie Brown. Winona Ryder will play Joyce, the single mother whose son disappears, while State of Affairs’ David Harbour will play the chief of police and newcomer Finn Wolfhard will play the missing boy’s best friend. Assuming they nail the tone and aesthetic, Stranger Things could reach the upper echelon of genre TV when it debuts.
Flaked
Release Date: 2016
While we’ll still be waiting a while to hear about Season 5 of Arrested Development actually getting developed, we can look forward to the next team-up from that series’ creator Mitch Hurwitz and star Will Arnett coming next year in the form of the comedy Flaked. Arnett, whose other other Netflix series is the surprisingly deep BoJack Horseman, will put his self-indulgent talents to work as Chip, a life guru making an all-but-honest living with a furniture shop in Venice, California, where he falls for London, played by The Following’s Ruth Kearney, a woman that his best friend Dennis (David Sullivan) is in love with. The series was co-created and co-written by Arnett and Mark Chappell, who wrote for The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret and A Young Doctor’s Notebook. Those shows are great, so there’s no reason to think Flaked will be anything but hilarious.
