Remember when the DVR was a boon to convenient TV watching? Neither do I. Remember how Hulu and Netflix tried made things easier by keeping entire seasons safe and secure for when we’re ready to watch them? Me neither. Between (in no particular order) writing, another job that actually pays the bills, a cat, a wife, and a growing interest in pinball, who has time to actually watch the second season of Marvel’s Agent Carter* or, for that matter, any of Daredevil**?
I’ve kind of written off the hope of ever being caught up on shows in which I’m casually interested. That’s okay, I’d like to do other things with my waking hours***. However, It looks like there will be a massive confluence of premieres for shows I absolutely love in the next few months. So much so that I’m seriously going to have to seriously think about giving up on the pinball if I am to have any hope of keeping up with my cursed queue of shows.
Here are just a few of the premieres of terrific shows coming in the next few months that will serve to only cut into my productivity.
Rick and Morty
If you’re reading this, you may have to work a little harder to catch the third season premiere of Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland’s faux Back to the Future descent into insanity. Since season two ended in October 2015, fans have become increasingly irascible as to the unanswered question of when new episodes would be delivered. Harmon—never one to shy from a fight on twitter on the subject—once devoted an entire free-style rap session on his podcast, Harmontown, to trying to put the issue to rest****.
With almost no fanfare, Adult Swim ran a loop of the third season premiere for several hours last night. It’s a terrific episode that puts the show back in its evergreen format yet also manages to move everything forward*****. I can’t readily think of any other season premiere being released in such a clandestine fashion, and it was in perfect sync with the sensibilities of the show. Adult Swim’s live stream will apparently re-run the episode at the tail-end of series-long marathons airing currently, so check in and time your viewing out. Or, you know, watch the whole show and then get caught up. It’s amazing.
Season 3 premiere(d) on April 1st online. The rest of the season is due to air sometime this summer on Cartoon Network.
Fargo
I was as surprised as anyone when one of my top ten favorite movies of all time turned out to yield not only a watchable show, but my favorite show currently on the air. Maybe I was being unfair in my skepticism. Maybe the Canadian-made train wreck Robocop: The Series is the outlier.
But Fargo is the real deal, dontcha know. The first season is a little too tied to the mythos and format of the movie, but still manages to deliver on the goods. Season two, on the other hand? Typewriters. Flying Saucers. Ted Danson. These are a few of my favorite things, and they all play a prominent role in the second batch of ten episodes. The further the show moves from the movie that birthed it, the more it captures its absurdist, yet hard boiled sprit. I can’t recommend this show enough, and ad infinitum I’m on board with the prospect of ten more episodes on spec. With Ewan McGregor playing twin brothers? Oh, ya. Real good, then.
Season 3 premieres April 19th, 2017 on FX.
Better Call Saul
Despite loving Breaking Bad, I slacked on watching the second season of Saul. I’m not sure why I didn’t get on board with last year’s season. It might have had something to do with 2016 being an expansive garbage fire that will take years to recover from, but I’m getting kind of tired of blaming last year for everything. Season 2 is on Netflix now, and I plan to tear through those episodes in anticipation of the forthcoming Season 3. Gus Fring is back! With his face and everything. As 2017 appears to be just a parboil of terrible, I may keep my appointment with the best fictional lawyer in all of the Land of Enchantment.
Season 3 premieres April 10th, 2017 on AMC.
Doctor Who
I like Peter Capaldi. I like him as The Doctor. I really do. And yet, I’ve found his two seasons at the helm of the TARDIS to be a little underwhelming. Maybe it’s that the 50th anniversary special was so satisfying in its timey wimey acrobatics, and maybe it could be writer/producer Stephen Moffat tiring out after five years in charge of the BBC production. Either way, I’m still on board with twelve more hours with the Twelfth Doctor. There tends to be a creative renaissance going into a regeneration, and the thoughts of who might succeed Capaldi as the mad (wo)man in a box continues to light the imagination on fire.
Series 9 (or season 36, if you’re nasty) premieres April 15th, 2017.
Veep (and also Silicon Valley)
One of the best live-action comedies currently on the air is bound to incite some different feelings than it had in the past when it arrives for a new season in the next few weeks. Superlative showrunner Armando Iannucci left the show after last year’s season 5, which can always throw the rhythms of a show off.
Also…
Also, not for nothing, I worry that a show about a childish, misanthropic politician careening between justified embarrassment and improbable success might not be as funny as it used to be in the before time, long long ago.
Here’s hoping.
Season 6 of Veep will premiere on HBO on April 16th, 2017, and the fourth season of Silicon Valley (about which I don’t have conflicted feelings) premieres one week later, on April 23rd, 2017.
Next week, I’ll delve into some of the streaming shows that will soon drive me to distraction. Are there any shows I’m missing? Let me know in the comments. I can’t imagine how I’m ever going to find time to watch these unknown shows, but let me, all the same******.
* Which isn’t on Netflix, but has been on my DVR for a year-and-a-half.
** Which is on Netlfix, but hasn’t moved from my “my list” list since it premiered two years ago.
*** Is there a way for shows to be injected into my brain while I sleep? I’d imagine Hulu is working on something along those lines. It might get me back into Gotham.
**** He mainly just repeated the words “They’re drawing it” for fifteen minutes through an auto-tune filter.
***** Or is it backwards? Is the show all about McNugget sauce?
****** Am I getting my footnote groove back? I may just be.