What to watch in 2018

There’s plenty of great new TV due to be released across 2018 – here are a few of Sam Savelli’s top picks:

 Doctor Who Series 11 – BBC

Jodie Whittaker’s thirteenth Doctor was briefly seen in action for the first time this Christmas, but we’ll have to wait until Autumn for her first full season. Doctor Who in 2018 is gonna be exciting, not just because it is another season; it’s something of a new start for the show. An all-new cast along with an all-new head writer and format… just what Doctor Who needs right now to rebuild its popularity. Steven Moffat has given us plenty of great and memorable Doctor Who moments in the last eight years, but I feel certain aspects of his style were becoming very tired and repetitive. Let’s hope Jodie Whittaker and Chris Chibnall help to take things in an exciting new direction.

 Bodyguard – BBC

f Duty was my favourite show of 2017, so I’m devastated that I have to wait until 2019 to see a new season of it. Bodyguard, coming to BBC One later this year, might just fill the gap, as it’s penned by Line of Duty writer, Jed Mercurio. The premise is about the relationship between a fictional Home Secretary and her bodyguard, who thoroughly disagrees with her politics but must protect her nonetheless. With Mercurio on board, I reckon there’s gonna be a whole lot more going on as well. Keeley Hawes stars in this series – which is perhaps the main reason I am avidly anticipating it. Since I first grew to love her in Ashes to Ashes, Keeley Hawes has proved to be an amazing actress in everything in which she appears, and so I know that she alone will make Bodyguard worth watching.

 House of Cards Season 6 – Netflix

After revelations about the inappropriate behaviour of lead star Kevin Spacey, the future of House of Cards has had to take an unexpected turn this coming year. The truncated sixth season will be the show’s last and will not feature Spacey’s Frank Underwood, instead having Robin Wright’s Claire Underwood as the lead character. House of Cards has been one of Netflix’s flagship dramas since the inception of Netflix’s original content, and so it would have been a shame for the scandal to cause it an abrupt demise. The decision to continue without Spacey offers everyone else involved in House of Cards the dignity of a proper resolution, and a chance to save the show’s tarnished reputation.

 Humans Season 3 – Channel 4

I’ve greatly enjoyed the first two seasons of Channel 4’s science fiction series, Humans, which depicts a near future in which robot ‘synths’ live in a regular society. The show particularly succeeded in its portrayal of how robots would infiltrate and affect human society, from Gemma Chan’s memorably eerie domestic robot in Season 1 to the human children who wanted to be synths in Season 2. The cliffhanger in the final moments of Season 2 has set the stage for a potentially very different show going forward and so I’m looking forward to seeing where it’s taken. Plus, with Amazon’s ‘Alexa’ and Google’s ‘Google Home’ slowly infiltrating homes across the world, the earliest season of Humans is starting to look almost familiar. The show’s subject matter plays on the undying suspicion of artificial intelligence, and so hopefully still has plenty more to give.

 A Series of Unfortunate Events Season 2 – Netflix

Perhaps I’ve just grown out of the source material, but I found Netflix’s adaptation of Lemony Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events to be somewhat too cartoonish and pantomime. I felt the show didn’t quite do the darkness and sincerity of the story justice, which I was absolutely hooked on as a child. Still, the first season appears to have been popular and I am pleased to see that, unlike the 2004 film, this adaptation is continuing to give us the series in its entirety. After all, the earlier books are actually the least compelling – the stories to be adapted later this year are those most exciting. For me, it will never recreate the intrigue and excitement that I once got from the books, so I’ll probably pass on this adaptation myself, but if it can intrigue and excite a new generation then this season will be a worthwhile new release of 2018.