The best TV shows coming soon to TV and streaming services

2023 is primed to be an exciting year for TV. Our emotions have already been put through the wringer by The Last of Us and we’ve witnessed the end of Happy Valley, and we’re only partly through 2023. Here’s our guide to the best upcoming TV shows.

With networks and streaming services competing for your hard-earned subscription fee, there’s no shortage of TV shows to gorge on this year. There are crime capers in White House Plumbers, bounty hunting with The Mandalorian and the return of Ted Lasso to look forward to. So, from Netflix binges to weekly viewing, here are some of the TV shows we can’t wait to tune into this year.

Additional copy by Esat Dedezade and Ian Evenden

The Mandalorian — Season 3 (Disney+)

The latest season of the highly-anticipated Star Wars series sees critically acclaimed Pedro Pascal on a new mission, as he travels through the galaxy with his young charge — the ever-adorable Baby Yoda (aka, Grogu). With danger lurking at every turn and old enemies returning, the duo must rely on their quick reflexes and trust in one another to survive the perils of their journey.

Release date: Weekly from 1 March 2023

White House Plumbers (HBO)

Watergate was one of the biggest scandals in political history. So much so that any public controversy will likely forever be referenced as ‘Something or other-gate’. But while there’s been countless references to Nixon in TV and film, less is known about how the former President’s own political saboteurs, E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy, accidentally bungled the entire thing. White House Plumbers documents this true story in a comedy-drama caper, with Woody Harrelson and Justin Theroux playing the titular slapstick spies.

Release date: March 2023

Ted Lasso — Season 3 (Apple TV+)

The eagerly anticipated third season of Apple TV’s hit comedy show Ted Lasso sees the lovable coach and his team return in their struggle with navigating the choppy waters of the world of English football. As tensions rise and rivalries heat up, Lasso’s unconventional tactics and contagious optimism are, no doubt, going to be called upon once again. There’s no official release date as of yet, but spring 2023 has been hinted at, so colour us — much like Lasso himself — cautiously optimistic.

Release date: 15 March

Lucky Hank (AMC, AMC+)

While Bob Odenkirk may have been robbed for not receiving an Emmy for his performance in Better Call Saul, few people play a down and out middle-aged man like him. At least he has triples of the Nova. He returns to our screens in Lucky Hank, an English department chairman at a pretty rubbish US college. Adapted from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Russo’s novel ‘Straight Man’, Odenkirk plays a man stuck in a midlife crisis whose very nature and behaviour brings everyone around him down to his level – just not as harshly as we see in Better Call Saul.

Release date: 19 March 2023

Yellowjackets – Season 2 (Now TV, Showtime)

If Ted Lasso shows a Premier League team fighting the odds to come out on top, Yellowjackets depicts what would happen if a group of football players crash landed in a remote woodland and turn to cannibalistic means to survive. Packed full of mystery, deceit and more than a few question marks, Yellowjackets follows a group of survivors as they air out their dirty laundry in a secluded area. That goes about as well as you’d imagine, at least for some members of the possie.

Release date: 24 March

Succession — Season 4 (HBO, HBO Max, Now TV, Sky Atlantic)

Easily one of the most talked about TV shows of recent years, the Logan family return for a fourth series. Following the fictitious media family as they tear themselves apart in the name of power and Capitalism, Succession revels in its own scandalous plotlines, creative swearing and sordid scenes that will stick in your mind for both the right and wrong reasons.

Release date: 27 March 2023

Love and Death (HBO Max, ITVX)

There are certain stars that when you see their name on the credits, you know you’re in for something of a masterpiece. Philip Seymour Hoffman was one, Tilda Swinton is another. Jesse Plemons falls into that category, who will soon star alongside WandaVision’s Elizabeth Olsen in Love and Death. Set in a quiet, Texas suburb rocked by an axe murder in the 1980s, Love and Death is written by David E. Kelley (Big Little Lies, The Undoing) and directed by Lesli Linka Glatter, best known for Homeland.

Release date: 27 April

The Days (Netflix)

The Days is a Netflix Japan show coming to the UK this summer. Set amidst the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima nuclear plant following the earthquake and tsunami in 2011, The Days shows how events folded from the perspectives of government and corporate interests, alongside those putting their lives on the line to help contain the disaster.

Described by Netflix as a ‘dark and understated’ drama, the cast includes well-known Japanese stars Koji Yakusho and Kaoru Kobayashi, the latter of whom provided the dubbed voice for President Bartlett in the Japanese release of The West Wing.

Release date: June 1

Gen V (Prime Video)

Fans of Prime Video’s runaway gorefest that is The Boys will be happy to hear that we’re getting a superhero origin story with Gen V, which is pretty much a version of American Pie if Quentin Tarentino was the director. Gen V takes place at America’s only college for teenage superheroes. With that comes all the coming of age drama, awkwardness and ‘finding yourself’ one would expect, but with the added risk of accidentally getting blown to pieces in freshers week.

Release date: 7 July 2023 (rumoured)

M. Son of the Century (Now TV, Sky)

There’s no shortage of wartime epics out there from the American and British perspective. Band of Brothers, Catch-22, The Man in the High Castle, The Pacific, we could go on. The eight-part M. Son of the Century, though, will show Italy’s wartime role in a TV drama format. Based on the novel by Antonio Scurati, directed by BAFTA-winner Joe Wright (Darkest Hour, Atonement, Cyrano) and written by Stefano Bises (Gomorrah), M. Son of the Century charts the rise of fascism in Italy, and with it Mussolini’s grasp on power.

Release date: TBA, 2023

Mr and Mrs Smith (Prime Video)

Harking back to the origin story of Brangenlina, Mr and Mrs Smith (the forthcoming TV series) is based on the same storyline as Pitt and Jolie’s 2005 spy caper. But this time, Donald Glover (AKA Childish Gambino) and Maya Erskine, star of the hilariously absurd PEN15, star as the titular couple. Throw the I May Destroy You writer and actress Michaela Coel into the mix, and we have a very exciting show to look forward to.

Release date: TBA, 2023

Bodies (Netflix)

Stephen Graham. This Is England actor. National treasure. Master of the gritty drama and now, star of the crime epic Bodies. Based on the 2015 graphic novel of the same name, Bodies follows four detectives in four different eras who all find themselves investigating a murder committed under very similar circumstances. The catch is that, whether in the 1890s, 1940s, 2010s or a post-apocalyptic 2050, the victim is always the same person.

Release date: TBA, 2023