From action-packed, timey-wimey sci-fi adventures to a surreal journey through the human mind,
these are the shows you should be watching in 2018.
Throw some popcorn in the microwave and dig out your binge-watching sweatpants, because
we're diving in.
HBO's True Detective brought Cary Fukunaga's work to a mainstream audience.
His keen eye for cinematography was a key component of the show's season one success.
After that, he released Beasts of No Nation, which was met with similarly positive critical
acclaim.
Then, he more or less disappeared for three years before blazing back to the small screen
with Maniac.
The wait was worth it.
Starring Jonah Hill and Emma Stone as patients in an experimental mental health study in
a retro-futuristic dystopia, the beautifully shot Maniac jumps from genre to genre through
Owen and Annie's fantasies.
And Fukunaga keeps the focus squarely on the difficulty of living with mental illness and
trauma, and the possibility of finding connection and community despite, or even because of,
those issues.
"Of course you make me happy.
You always made me happy."
Donald Glover and his team had a lot to live up to when the second season of Atlanta was
announced, the show's first season firmly established it as one of the most electrifying
television series in recent memory.
And Glover's performance as Earn in season two of Atlanta, subtitled "Robbin' Season,"
is as good as you'd expect, but it also showcases the other characters with a confidence that
you won't see on any other show.
The season was filled with standout episodes highlighting the other characters in the show,
like the nightmarish "Teddy Perkins," which followed Darius, played by Lakeith Stanfield,
meeting a Michael Jackson-esque musician in an ominous mansion.
"Woods," on the other hand, followed Brian Tyree Henry's Al, A.K.A.
"Paper Boi," as he's haunted by the downsides of his own fame and success.
"Keep standing still, you're gone, boy.
You're wasting time.
And the only people who got time are dead."
More than half of the season was directed by Hiro Murai, Glover's longtime music video
director, and Murai's expert visual sense and rich use of surrealism has made Atlanta
one of the best-looking shows on television.
After returning to television for the first time in twenty years in 2005, Doctor Who re-established
itself as a stylish sci-fi show for a new audience.
Still, despite multiple showrunners and multiple actors playing the eponymous Doctor, the next
decade of Doctor Who settled into a comfortable rhythm: an eccentric male lead, on-again off-again
romances with various co-stars, callbacks to the original run, and silly science-fiction
shenanigans.
"Sko bo tro no fro jo."
"No bo ho sho ko ro to sho.
Forohopotokopojo."
That all changed in 2018 when, for the first time, a woman took over as the title character.
"What do we do?"
"Why are you asking her?"
"'Cause she's in charge, bro."
"Says who?"
"Says us!"
Jodie Whitaker's turn as the Doctor ended up being exactly the shot in the arm that
the show needed, coinciding nicely with new showrunner Chris Chibnall's tenure.
The Haunting of Hill House is horror at its best, simultaneously terrifying and thrilling
while also dealing with the emotional core that should be at the center of every horror
movie.
That richness of character has led to some reviews calling Hill House "a drama with ghosts"
or "like This Is Us wrapped in a gothic ghost story," but make no mistake.
Hill House is absolutely terrifying.
Director/showrunner Mike Flanagan showcases all the technical brilliance that made Oculus
and Gerald's Game so profoundly scary, and through it all, he never loses sight of the
fact that the ghosts are a way for the audience to connect to the Crain family's trauma.
It's just that, y'know, they're also scary as hell.
As the prequel, and sometimes-kinda-sequel to Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul takes a
bit of a slower pace than its predecessor, but is still prone to occasional explosions
of violence.
You're more likely to see elaborate cons than the vicious meth heads that populated Breaking
Bad, but the underlying moral decay and fantastic character writing is even better.
Bob Odenkirk fills Jimmy with such warmth and humanity that it's like watching a horror
movie as he slowly loses his last bits of morality.
"You think I'm some kind of lowlife, some kind of ass----."
"What?"
"The kind of lawyer only guilty people hire, right?"
"Jimmy, that's not…"
"You look at me and you see 'Slippin' Jimmy.'"
Even for a show as consistent as Better Call Saul, season four was a victory lap and took
viewers closer to the events of Breaking Bad than anyone really expected, and we couldn't
be more excited for what's to come.
We already know that Jimmy is destined for moral rot and a job managing a Cinnabon, the
beauty of the show is how much you don't want it to happen.
DC's new take on a familiar cast of caped crusaders, Titans needed just two glorious
words to get fans riled up:
"F--- Batman."
Sure, Robin and the rest of the titular team look like they just bought out a Hot Topic,
but critics dig DC's gritty reimagining of the young super heroes.
For instance, Autumn Noel Kelly at Newsweek wrote positively about the show, claiming:
"Titans is the most balanced superhero show out there.
It's skillfully constructed, narratively speaking, and there's a surprising amount of flavor
beneath its classification as a dark, moody, teen drama."
But really, you know why you're watching.
"F--- Batman."