Overview of the programs that are likely to mark the coming months: French and foreign, from science fiction to teen drama, there will be something for everyone!
What would the year 2020 have been like without the TV series? True boards of salvation for confined viewers, they rocked the long days of quarantine of millions of citizens around the world. And the new year also promises its share of television nuggets. A few highly anticipated programs are already looming; here is a selection of some of the series to watch over the next 12 months. Hoping to be able to savor them slowly, between two other hobbies … instead of devouring them all at once for want of being able to leave home.
1. WandaVision (Disney +)
For Marvel fans, the biggest events of the coming year will take place on the small screen. Among them, WandaVision, which arrives on Disney + from January 15. This series will focus on the couple formed by Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany), two superheroes well known to fans of the saga. Avengers. The first, enigmatic trailers suggest that the duo are stuck in a strange dimension in which they lead a tidy life in an American suburb. But very quickly, they realize that this peaceful facade hides a completely different truth …
And Marvel fans will get some for their Disney + subscription this year: in March the miniseries will land The Falcon and The Winter Soldier. In May, they will be able to discover Loki, a program centered on Thor’s enemy brother. And the end of the year should be marked by the arrival of Miss Marvel.
January 15th
2. Le reboot de Gossip Girl (HBO Max)
What would the adventures of the heroes of Gossip Girl at the dawn of the 2020s? Eight years after the end of the cult series for teens, HBO Max is preparing a new version of the program, expected this year. A few photos of the shoot have been unveiled, allowing us to discover the new generation of New York high school students at the heart of the plot. HBO also unveiled the names of the new characters througha series of photos posted on Instagram. The golden youth of Manhattan, always watched by a mysterious blogger, has not said its last word.
Two trends are already emerging: looks (a little) more relaxed, to match the codes of today’s youth, and a cast reflecting more diversity, which was sorely lacking in the original series.
Current 2021
3. It’s a Sin (Channel 4)
The release of a series created by Russell T. Davies (Queer as Folk, Years and Years), is always an event. The master of British television returns with It’s a Sin, a five-episode mini-series expected at the end of the month on the English channel Channel 4. It will focus on a group of gay friends who are dealing with the AIDS epidemic in London in the 1980s, when this disease, still little known, begins to wreak havoc and stigmatize the LGBT community. One of the main roles is played by actor and singer Olly Alexander, frontman of the group Years and Years, already seen in the series Penny Dreadful.
At the end of January
4. In Therapy (Arte)
The duo of filmmakers Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache (Untouchables, The sense of celebration) switches to the small screen with In therapy, broadcast on Arte from February (and available on ARTE.TV from the end of January). She follows a Parisian psychotherapist and five of her patients the day after the attacks of November 13, 2015. Over the sessions, everyone tries to untangle the trauma suffered that fall. This adaptation of the Israeli series BeTipul is carried by a prestigious cast including Frédéric Pierrot, Carole Bouquet, Mélanie Thierry, Reda Kateb, Clémence Poésy and Pio Marmaï.
In full on Arte.tv on January 28
5. I Promise You (TF1)
On the French side always, it is another adaptation of a foreign program that will make the event. TF1 is preparing a remake of This Is Us, an American series that has been a hit for four years in the United States. Entitled I promise you, this hexagonal version seems very faithful to the original program, a moving family saga, according to the synopsis:
“Paul and his wife Florence are impatiently awaiting the birth of their triplets. For their part, Mathis, a fulfilled trader, has just found his biological father, but hesitates to meet him; Maud, an obese young woman, is unable to lose weight and seek a meaning in his life and Michaël, footballer of a big Ligue 1 club sees his career halted after an unfortunate incident. While Paul, Mathis, Maud and Michaël are celebrating their 37 years, they face important choices , which will turn their lives upside down… “
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7o-dIXvp3sY
The progress of the shoot and the promotional photos suggest that I promise you could land quickly, but the channel has not announced a broadcast date. Some images were unveiled in a trailer for future TF1 programs. The leading roles will be held by Camille Lou (The Bazaar of Charity), Hugo Becker (Serving France), Guillaume Labbé, Marilou Berry and Narcisse Mame.
Current 2021
6. American Crime Story: Impeachment (FX)
With season 3 of his anthology series American Crime Story, Ryan Murphy will bring to the screen one of the most significant American scandals of the 20th century. American Crime Story: Impeachment will come back to Bill Clinton, President of the United States, with Monica Lewinsky, then an intern at the White House. This case had almost caused the dismissal of the Head of State at the end of the 1990s.
Ryan Murphy calls on his favorite actress Sarah Paulson to play Linda Tripp, Monica Lewinsky’s confidante. The latter will be played by Beanie Feldstein while Clive Owen will slip into the skin of Bill Clinton. Originally scheduled for late 2020 on the American channel FX, the broadcast was postponed due to the coronavirus crisis. Everything suggests that it will finally take place later this year. In France, Netflix broadcasts the series.
Current 2021
7. Foundation (Apple TV +)
This is arguably one of the most ambitious TV projects of 2021: Foundation, an Apple TV + series. This is the adaptation of the Foundation cycle, a series of science fiction novels by Isaac Asimov, published between 1951 and 1993. A cult work, whose intrigue spans hundreds of years, which has marked generations of science fiction fans.
Foundation takes place tens of thousands of years after our era, when Earth was lost and humans live in a Galactic Empire. As it dies, a group of exiles tries to reinvent it.
Current 2021
8. OVNI(s) (Canal+)
Science fiction combined with comedy: this is the cocktail offered by RAM (s), a French Canal + series which begins airing next Monday. Melvil Poupaud (Laurence Anyways) camped there Didier Mathure, space engineer transferred against his will to the head of a research unit on UFOs at the end of the 1970s. Despite his unfailing pragmatism, which pushes him to do everything to abandon his task, he finds himself confronted with phenomena which will shake up his certainties. Michel Vuillermoz, Géraldine Pailhas and Quentin Dolmaire complete the cast ofRAM (s).
January 11
9. Dexter (Showtime)
Admittedly, this is only a sequel, but the event is no less important: eight years after the end of Dexter – whose last episode had disappointed many fans – the American channel Showtime is preparing a ninth new season, a direct sequel to the previous ones.
Series star Michael C. Hall will reprise the role of Dexter, forensic expert by day and serial killer by night. This sequel will be piloted by Clyde Phillips, the creator of the original program.
Release in fall 2021
10. Inventing Anna (Netflix)
At the end of December, Shonda Rhimes unveiled the series The Bridgertons Chronicle, his very first production for Netflix. But the one who joined the platform in 2018 has not yet unveiled a series of her own for the streaming giant. His first creation made in Netflix should be Inventing Anna, which will be released this year. In this fiction, the creator of Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal will come back to the true story of Anna Sorokin, a naturalized German Russian swindler, convicted in 2019 for having obtained loans from New York banks while posing as a rich heiress.
Current 2021
But also…
Many highly anticipated series, whose dates have not been announced, could be revealed this year. In particular the event series drawn from the universe of Lord of the Rings, prepared by Amazon. This prequel, whose plot will take place before the first book of the literary saga imagined by JRR Tolkien, was announced for 2021 in 2018. But no date has been specified since, and the interruption of filming because of the coronavirus crisis may upset the calendar …
The reboot of Prince of Bel-Air, which will tell the same story in a darker, more engaged tone than the original series, could also be among the big hits of 2021. But then again, no official date has been announced.
Without forgetting Colin in Black & White, Netflix project by Ava DuVernay. The filmmaker wants to look back on the adolescence of Colin Kaepernick, the former NFL player who lost his place after protesting against police violence and racial discrimination in the United States. The actor Jaden Michael will play the athlete in his younger years, and Colin Kaepernick himself will provide the voice-over.
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