It’s Winter TV Season! Here’s the Top 10 Shows You’ll Want to Cuddle Up and Watch

It’s January. You’ve pretty much exhausted all the binge-able shows you had saved up for the holiday break. You watched more Hallmark (and Netflix!) Christmas movies than you prefer to admit, and have watched parades, specials, light-fights and cooking competition series to satisfy you until next December. And now, it’s the new year, which has traditionally been a time when new TV is still in hibernation, when you spend evenings perusing channels and once again settle on South Park re-runs (not a wholly bad option).  

It used to be that there would always be a few new shows that would debut as “midseason replacement” shows. Regular TV seasons always used to start in the fall, but by December, a few new series would be struggling, so networks always had shows reserved as “midseason replacements”, would start them in January, hoping they would fare better than their predecessor. A few years ago, as both premium cable and streaming services rose in popularity, the “winter premiere” became an opportunity to debut original content, and now we have a relative feast of television to look forward to in the cold winter months.  So in honor of the “winter premiere” season, my husband Mark and I have compiled a list of our “Top Ten TV shows to look forward to in Winter 2019”:

• Sex Education (Netflix)  – January 11^th A quirky (and perhaps kinky) dramedy and British coming-of-age story staring Asa Butterfield as awkward high-schooler Otis and Gillian Anderson as his sex therapist mom. This looks like a sweet and funny show that seems pretty heart-warming.

• Future Man (Hulu) – January 11^th This is one of our returning favorites. Future Man is completely weird, hilarious and awesome all at the same time. It stars Josh Hutcherson as Josh Futturman, a janitor by day and gamer by night, who gets swept up in a crazy time-travel adventure when two characters from the game he plays come to life (played by Eliza Coupe and Derek Wilson) If you are a fan of 80’s sci-fi, music and pop culture references, you should give this one a try. It’s pretty great.

• True Detective (HBO) -January 13^th This is another returning show that is highly anticipated. We loved season one of this show, but we were pretty disappointed in the 2^nd season. Rumor is that this new season will be back to the level of greatness as the first, maybe even better. Season 3 will be starring Mahershala Ali and follows a horrific crime in the Ozarks, told over several time periods. 

• The Passage (Fox) -January 14^th Part vampire pandemic, part post-apocalyptic survival story, The Passage is a book series by Justin Cronin of epic proportions and I admit I got a little lost when I was reading. However, I thought the most captivating part was the journey and relationship between the character of Brad Wolgast (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) and Amy (Saniyya Sydney), the girl who maybe the key to saving humanity. I am very curious to see this adaptation, and I will watch anything with Zack Morris in it. 

• Roswell, New Mexico (CW) – January 15^th It has been 20 (what?!?) years since the premiere of the original series, and it was a show I never watched but always wanted to. This “re-imagining” has a lot of the same themes, teenage drama and alien-human love stories. It looks just as deliciously soapy as the original, so this time I won’t miss it. 

• Black Monday (Showtime) -January 20^th Set around October 19^th, 1987, historically the worst stock market crash in history, my interest in the show is hugely based on two of it’s stars, Don Cheadle and Regina Hall. This looks to be a slick, biting black comedy about the rise and fall of Wall Street in the late 80’s, almost like House of Lies meets Wolf of Wall Street. 

• The Magicians (Syfy) – January 23^rd   Both of us are such huge fans of this show, a smart, funny, sexy and often poignant fantasy series. Based on a series of books by Lev Grossman, this show has become a huge hit for Syfy, it’s about to begin season 4. It is a solidly fantastic setting where magic is real (and often dangerous), but the series is anchored by the incredibly committed and captivating performances of it’s ensemble cast. 

• Miracle Workers (TBS) – February 12^th This show looks pretty great.  This show, just as The Good Place does, takes place in the afterlife, if the afterlife were a major corporation. Daniel Radcliffe and Karan Soni (so good in Deadpool) play employees in and Steve Buscemi is God who has seemingly lost his faith. This looks heartwarming, wacky and kind of wonderful. 

• The Umbrella Academy (Netflix) – February 15^th Based on a graphic novel published in 2007, this series looks to be a bit like X-Men, with a Lemony Snicket-type feel to it. It boasts some great cast members (Ellen Page, Mary J. Blige, Cameron Britton), and looks like a lot of fun.

• Whiskey Cavalier (ABC) -February 27^th Okay, we are both fans of great chemistry and a good “ship” in a tv show. Every season there is a show that throws their hat in the ring of the on-going attempt to capture “Moonlighting” magic, and from what I have seen, “Whiskey Cavalier” maybe this season’s. It looks like it could be charming and fun, and I am a fan of both leads, Lauren Cohen and Scott Foley.