Promising Shows Coming In 2016 You Haven't Even Heard Of Yet
We're just getting into 2016 and there's a whole year of new TV heading our way. Some shows, like Netflix's Luke Cage and The Defenders, have been talked about for ages, but some others are sneaking under the radar. Do yourself a favor and look them up, though, because they might turn out to be worthwhile.
Lucifer
How do you make a show about the Devil? As protagonists go, he's kind of hard to side with, right? Well, not necessarily. Lucifer's actually been an archetypal antihero since the days of Milton, though Lucifer here is loosely adapted from Neil Gaiman's Lucifer in The Sandman series. He's kind of a Matthew-McConnaughey-meets-eternal-damnation character who, at one point, just gave up his throne and retired.
Following Gaiman's storyline, the show follows Lucifer, fallen angel and Prince of Hell, as he gets bored with his life ruling the underworld and opts instead to quit. He heads to Los Angeles where he feeds his need to punish the wicked by helping the police fight crime. So basically you have yourself a cop show featuring someone who absolutely will have no problem with bending or breaking the rules in pursuit of justice. Finally, a cop show minus morality.
You, Me and The Apocalypse
This show basically takes the premise of The Last Man on Earth and works it the other way. The world hasn't ended yet: the end is coming, and everyone knows. So how does the world react when the whole shebang is coming to an end?
Naturally the show is a comedy and features characters like Rob Lowe as a foul-mouthed priest, Megan Mullally as a white supremacist, plus NSA hackers, the US military, and a host of other curious individuals you might run afoul of in the final days of humanity. If the show lives up to its premise, it should be absolutely amazing and well worth a watch.
American Crime Story
If the name looks familiar it's because, yes, this is from the people that brought you American Horror Story. Now imagine that level of acting and story telling, only this time with a true crime twist. The first season is tackling the OJ Simpson story, which could end up being incredible if the showrunners manage to dig deep and give us some decent tidbits we haven't seen already. The cast featuring John Travolta, Cuba Gooding Jr., and David Schwimmer is already set to impress, so this show is probably going to draw some decent views.
Houdini and Doyle
Working with a Sherlock vibe, this show could definitely turn out to be a good one as it explores two of history's coolest men, Harry Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Houdini, as we all know, was the greatest illusionist of all time, while Doyle was an acclaimed author and creator of Sherlock Holmes.The two really were friends in life and both had a serious interest in the paranormal. Houdini was a renowned debunker of fakers and Doyle wanted to believe in pretty much everything.
The show is helmed by House creator David Shore and sees the two historical figures teaming up to investigate crimes with a paranormal bent. It's like The X-Files, but in olden times. Sounds pretty awesome.
Cleverman
An Australian production that features Aboriginal mythology and a dystopian future landscape, Cleverman is the story of a near-future world in which beings both human and non-human live together, but not necessarily in harmony. As the humans grow more hostile, a group of non-humans need to find a way to survive. Word is Peter Jackson's WETA workshop is also doing creature design for beings that exist in Dreamtime that may make their way into the real world.
Westworld
Based on the 1973 movie of the same name, this show absolutely has to be awesome. Produced by J.J. Abrams and starring Anthony Hopkins, Ed Harris, Thandie Newton, Evan Rachel Wood, and a host of others, it's the story of a Wild West-themed amusement park populated by super realistic androids. The hook is that the androids begin to malfunction in a way that oddly resembles thinking and feeling for themselves.
It's hard to say at this point if the show is going to follow the movie exactly, though there doesn't seem to be a Gunslinger in the show cast and he was an integral part of the film. But whatever happens, the A-list cast and very cool pedigree mean this should be a show worth watching.
Outcast
If you like The Walking Dead, you're going to want to see Outcast. The spiritual successor to The Walking Dead, unlike the spinoff Fear the Walking Dead, this show is based in a whole new universe imagined by Robert Kirkman, the co-creator and writer of The Walking Dead comics.
Outcast, another graphic novel by Kirkman, deals with demons and possession. In the books, the main character has lived his whole life surrounded by people who have been possessed by demons. While he himself has special abilities, he wants to understand why, and why the demons are there and what they want. So, he teams up with a local priest and discovers that things are way worse than he ever imagined. A fresh take on horror from the creator of The Walking Dead seems like it could be just what your TV viewing needs.
Empire of the Dead
For everyone who loves The Walking Dead or, conversely, who wishes The Walking Dead was better, you're in luck. The original father of the zombie genre, George Romero, is back. Empire of the Dead, based on the comic miniseries, takes the zombie apocalypse to the walled off island of Manhattan where the dead roam free inside. And, as an added bonus, they're not alone. There are vampires with them.
If there's one way to up the stakes in any zombie story, it's to toss in an even more dangerous predator who still feeds on humanity. Empire of the Dead may finally make zombies scary again after The Walking Dead relegated them to more of a background nuisance.
Sex Criminals
Based on the Image Comic of the same name, Sex Criminals is the story of a man and a woman who discover that time stops when they get intimate. So naturally they decide to start committing crimes like bank robbery. The book was declared the best new comic of 2013, and has been fairly popular as a non-superhero type book ever since with a unique concept and solid writing. Rumor has it Sex Criminals will premiere sometime late in 2016.
Atlanta
Donald Glover is pretty much awesome at everything he does, so you should already be stoked to hear he's bringing a new show to FX this year. Atlanta features Glover as a struggling rapper trying to get into the Atlanta hip hop scene. Basically it's crossing his Childish Gambino persona with his acting persona to create something new and potentially very cool. With the success of Empire, there's definitely more room for some well written and well-acted hip hop themed programming, and with Glover at the helm it'll be worth a look.