It's hard to believe we're already a third of the way through 2024. That said, when we've had so many fantastic shows to stream since the year began, it's little wonder the time has flown by.
The world's best streaming services aren't done bringing us more potentially great series, either. Between now and September 1, there are lots of new shows, plus the highly anticipated return of fan favorites, to look forward to. With that in mind, I've handpicked 10 of the most exciting shows I can't wait to watch in mid-2024 (NB: I would've included Cobra Kai season 6, whose first installment is out on July 18, but it was too late to include in this article. Sorry, Cobra Kai fans!).
Anyway, from epic sci-fi adventures and bloody fantasy to stellar superhero outings and romantic royal dramas, here are the shows I'm excited for in the weeks and months ahead.
Dark Matter (Apple TV Plus)
Release date: May 8
Apple TV Plus has become my go-to streamer for all things sci-fi over the past two years - with good reason. From Foundation and Silo to Severance and Constellation, there are plenty of top-tier shows of this genre to immerse myself in on the tech giant's streaming platform.
Dark Matter will hope to add its name to that growing list. Based on Blake Crouch's mind-bending, best-selling novel of the same name, it stars Joel Edgerton as Jason Dessen, a physics professor and devoted family man who becomes embroiled in a multiversal mystery after he's abducted from his reality. Jennifer Connolly, Alice Braga, and Oakes Fegley are among its strong supporting cast.
Considering how mind-bogglingly inventive Dark Matter's trailer looks, I suspect Apple will have another sci-fi hit on its hands. Expect, then, to see it join our illustrious best Apple TV Plus shows list in due course.
Dark Matter will launch with a two-episode premiere. New episodes will air weekly.
Doctor Who season 14 (Disney Plus/BBC iPlayer)
Release date: May 10 (US); May 11 (UK and Australia)
Fourteen years after ending his initial tenure as the showrunner of Doctor Who's revival (if you discount the 60th-anniversary specials and 2023 Christmas episode), Russell T Davies returns to take the legendary British sci-fi series in a bold, new direction.
Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson reprise their roles as the 15th Doctor and Ruby Rose from the aforementioned Christmas special, to lead the rebooted show's 14th season filled with daring, fun-filled adventures across time and space. Indeed, Doctor Who season 14's official trailer invites you to get your groove on before it materializes on Disney Plus internationally and BBC One/BBC iPlayer in the UK.
Incidentally, this is the first time a new season of Doctor Who will air on Disney Plus due to a landmark deal that'll even see Doctor Who season 14 debut on the service before BBC One. Here's hoping Davies, Gatwa, and Gibson can get the Who-niverse back on track after the lackluster Jodie Whittaker era and earn it a spot on our best Disney Plus shows list.
Doctor Who season 14 will launch with a two-episode premiere. New episodes will air weekly.
Bridgerton season 3 part 1 (Netflix)
Release date: May 16
Okay, I'm going to level with you – Bridgerton isn't really my idea of a good time. But, considering one of the best Netflix shows is set to return to our screens later this month, I felt I had to include it.
This time around, Netflix's aristocratic drama will focus its attentions on Nicola Coughlan's Penelope Featherington and Luke Newton's Colin Bridgerton, with the duo engaging in some rather steamy scenarios that'll no doubt set the cat among the Regency-era pigeons.
Like a number of other Netflix TV Originals in recent times, Bridgerton season 3 will be released in two parts – volume 1 arriving in mid-May, and volume 2 launching in early June. I'll leave it up to you to decide whether to wait until the full season is out before getting your latest romantic period drama fix.
Bridgerton season 3 part 1 will release in full on May 16.
Outer Range season 2 (Prime Video)
Release date: May 16
If risqué period dramas aren't your thing, the return of Prime Video's most underrated sci-fi series is worth catching instead. And, based on its official trailer, Outer Range season 2 will be even stranger than its forebear.
Picking up in the immediate aftermath of its predecessor's surprising (and bizarre) finale, Outer Range season 2 reunites us with the Abbott family – led once more by morally complex patriarch Royal (Marvel alumnus Josh Brolin) – as they contend with their questionable decisions from season 1.
That's not all they'll have to deal with, mind you. The Wyoming-based family will have to fight off threats on multiple fronts, including slanderous and physical attacks from vengeful rivals the Tillersons. Oh, and they'll need to get to the bottom of the mystery surrounding the black hole that suddenly appeared in their backyard last season. Catch up on this fascinating neo-Western sci-fi show before its second installment arrives ASAP.
Outer Range season 2 will debut with a single-episode premiere. New entries will arrive weekly.
Eric (Netflix)
Release date: May 30
Billed as a mystery/psychological thriller, this forthcoming limited series starring Doctor Strange's Benedict Cumberbatch will make for uneasy viewing for any parent. Judging from its first trailer, the puppet-based thriller looks like it'll be even more bizarre than I expected, too.
Eric will see Cumberbatch take on the role of Vincent, a New York-based puppeteer whose nine-year-old son goes missing one morning on his way to school. Increasingly desperate for answers about his child's whereabouts, Vincent becomes more unhinged as the story progresses. He eventually becomes convinced that his son's drawings of the titular ERIC – a blue monster puppet that Vincent created – are the only way to bring his son home.
Eric was one of four new Netflix shows I said I couldn't wait for earlier this year. Thanks to its first-look images – released in late March and showed Cumberbatch on the other side of a Sherlock-style mystery tale – and its official trailer (see above), I'm convinced it'll be another solid TV win for Netflix.
Eric will release in full on Netflix in late May.
Star Wars: The Acolyte (Disney Plus)
Release date: June 4
The next big Star Wars TV show kicks off a packed June for the world's most popular streamers. Set 100 years before Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Star Wars: The Acolyte will bring the legendary franchise's High Republic era to life in live-action for the first time. Based on the footage I've seen, and the stuff I've read about it, The Acolyte sounds like it could be the best Disney Plus show ever made in that galaxy far, far away.
Surprisingly positioned as a neo-noir mystery-thriller, it stars Amandla Stenberg (Bodies Bodies Bodies) as Mae, a former Padawan who reluctantly reunites with her Jedi Master Sol (Squid Game's Lee Jung-sae) to investigate a series of murders. An all-star cast, including Carrie-Anne Moss, Jodie Turner, Dafne Keen, Manny Jacinto, Charlie Barnett, Rebecca Henderson, Dean-Charles Chapman, and Joonas Suotamo, is also set to feature.
Created by Russian Doll showrunner and diehard Star Wars fan Leslye Headland, expect The Acolyte to deliver more than an ominous disturbance in the Force. Indeed, it could up-end everything we thought we knew about Lucasfilm's popular franchise.
Star Wars: The Acolyte will debut with a two-episode premiere. New installments will be released weekly.
The Boys season 4 (Prime Video)
Release date: June 13
The Boys are back in town – well, next month, anyway. That's right, the hugely successful Prime Video superhero series returns in shockingly hilarious fashion in mid-June as Amazon, Disney, and HBO (more on HBO below) go head-to-head for viewers' attention throughout June.
The Boys season 4 will pick up events following its predecessor and Gen V season 1, the college-based spin-off that proved equally popular with audiences. It'll continue to explore the increasing tensions between the titular Supe hunters and The Seven, aka the world's best superhero team led by the erratic Homelander, in typically gory and satirized fashion.
Easily one of the best Prime Video shows of all time, I'm delighted that The Boys will be back to humorously shock us all once more. Make sure you watch its first teaser, which teases new Supes, Jeffrey Dean Morgan's mystery character, and Homelander versus Starlight, before it takes flight. Oh, and then check out its official trailer, which reveals ties to Gen V, Supe-d up farm animals, and a battle for America's soul.
The first three episodes of The Boys season 4 will be released on launch day. New episodes arrive weekly.
Presumed Innocent (Apple TV Plus)
Release date: June 14
Apple continues to adapt best-selling novels for its streaming platform in June with Scott Turow's Presumed Innocent, an eight-part series that aims to offer a more intriguing and twisty-turny murder mystery than Tom Holland's The Crowded Room did.
Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Chicago deputy chief prosecutor Rosat 'Rusty' Sabich, who finds himself at the center of a horrific murder case when he's shockingly accused of committing said crime. Of course, it doesn't help that the married Rosat had an affair with the woman he's suspected of killing. Ruth Negga, Bill Camp, O-T Fagbenie, and Elizabeth Marvel join Gyllenhaal on the show's roster. J.J. Abrams is among Presumed Innocent's many executive producers, too.
Presumed Innocent will premiere on Apple TV Plus with two episodes. Subsequent entries will be released every week.
House of the Dragon season 2 (Max)
Release date: June 18 (US); June 19 (UK and Australia)
A stacked June is rounded out by the return of this critically acclaimed Game of Thrones prequel series, which will be available to stream on HBO and Max in the US.
Set in the immediate aftermath of season 1's stunning and emotion-laden finale, House of the Dragon season 2 will mark the start of the 'Dance of Dragons' – an epic civil war that destroyed House Targaryen, the family that ruled Westeros for generations, from the inside. Expect plenty of fire (and the odd glimpse of ice, judging by the footage I've seen) from this high-fantasy show.
House of the Dragon's sophomore outing was given an official Max release date and three (!) fiery trailers in late March, which confirmed it'll go up against Bridgerton, The Acolyte, and The Boys in June. You and I, dear reader, are being well and truly spoiled on the TV front in mid-2024, aren't we?
NB: House of the Dragon season 2 will be viewable on Sky Atlantic in the UK and Binge in Australia.
The Umbrella Academy season 4 (Netflix)
Release date: August 8
With July looking like a sparse month for shows that piqued my interest, we're fast-forwarding to August for the final entry of this article. Step forward The Umbrella Academy season 4, the last outing in Netflix's hit superhero series. Bizarrely, it will only comprise six episodes instead of the 10 its three forebears were made up of.
Netflix hasn't released a plot synopsis or trailer for The Umbrella Academy's last hurrah yet. The only information we have on it, other than that its apocalyptic end was announced in July 2022, is that it'll make its debut on the world's most popular streamer in early August. Netflix doesn't tend to release trailers for new shows (or new seasons of returning TV shows) until around a month before they launch, so we might have to wait until July for our first official look at this show's last season.
All six episodes of The Umbrella Academy season 4 are expected to be released on launch day.
For more TV streaming coverage, read our guides on the best Hulu shows and the best Paramount Plus shows. Alternatively, find out what we know about Amazon's Fallout season 2 (release date TBA) and FX's The Bear season 3, which could make a surprise return to our screens in June if online speculation is to be believed.
