My next batch of tv series I have queued up for January and beyond are a mixed lot, some I have had for a while like Happy! season 2 or the last few Archer series, or very new series that have just been completed like Watchmen or The Witcher. Either way lots to get through and looking forward to them all.
Krypton Season 2
Set two generations before the destruction of Superman’s home planet, Krypton follows Seg-El, the legendary Man of Steel’s grandfather – whose House of El was ostracized and shamed. With Krypton’s leadership in disarray, Seg-El encounters Earthly time-traveler Adam Strange who warns he’s under the clock to save his beloved world from chaos. Fighting to redeem his family’s honor and protect the ones he loves, Seg is also faced with a life and death conflict – save his home planet or let it be destroyed in order to restore the fate of his future grandson.
The Witcher Season 1
Set in a medieval fictional world on a landmass known as “the Continent”, The Witcher follows the story of solitary monster hunter Geralt of Rivia (Henry Cavill), sorceress Yennefer of Vengerberg (Anya Chalotra) and Cintran princess Ciri (Freya Allan), who find their destinies tied together. The first season is based on The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny, a collection of short stories which precede the main Witcher saga. The first season explores formative events that shaped the three lead characters, prior to their first encounters with each other.
Watchmen Season 1
Watchmen takes place 34 years after the events of the comic series. Set in the comic’s alternate history of the 20th century, vigilantes, once seen as heroes, have been outlawed due to their violent methods. In 1985, Adrian Veidt, formerly known as the vigilante Ozymandias, created a fake attack on New York City by a squid-like alien that resulted in millions within New York being killed, coercing nations to work together against a common threat and to avert a nuclear holocaust. Veidt’s actions disgusted his former companions, with Rorschach planning to tell the world of Veidt’s misdeeds before he is vaporized by Doctor Manhattan, who subsequently left the planet, unaware Rorschach had sent his journal to be published beforehand.
The show takes place in 2019 Tulsa, Oklahoma. A white supremacist group, the Seventh Kavalry, inspired by Rorschach’s writings and masked image, wage violent war against minorities and the police that enforce special reparations for victims of racial injustice. On Christmas Eve 2016, during an event that came to be known as the “White Night”, the Kavalry attacked the homes of 40 police officers working for the Tulsa Police Department.Of those who survived, only two stayed with the force: Detective Angela Abar and Police Chief Judd Crawford. As the police force was rebuilt, laws were passed that required police to not disclose their profession and to protect their identities while on the job by wearing masks, which includes allowing for costumed police officers.
The Mandalorian Season 1
After the stories of Jango and Boba Fett, another warrior emerges in the Star Wars universe. The Mandalorian is set after the fall of the Empire and before the emergence of the First Order. The series depicts a lone bounty hunter in the outer reaches of the galaxy far from the authority of the New Republic.
Happy! Season 2
Nick Sax is a drunken and corrupt former cop who becomes a hit man, and who is adrift in a world of casual murder, soulless sex and betrayal. After a job goes wrong, his inebriated life is forever changed by a small, relentlessly positive, imaginary winged horse named Happy.
The second season involves “the biggest holiday rebranding of all time” and a plot to “make Easter great again” courtesy of malevolent child-kidnapper Sunny Shine), and while Merry McCarthy is keen to pursue Shine again, Sax is reluctant to get back into the fray.
Archer Season 8
This season resolves the cliffhanger from last season, which ended with Archer floating lifeless in a swimming pool after being shot several times. It is revealed that Archer survived but has been in a coma for three months, trapped in a 1947 noir-esque Los Angeles setting called Dreamland. It also reveals the fate of Woodhouse (whose original voice actor George Coe died in 2015), the heroin-addicted valet of Archer dying shortly before the season premiere.
Archer Season 9
FXX announced that season 9 would see a change in the time period once again, with this series taking place in 1938. Along with the change in time period, the network announced that although the same voice cast will return as in previous seasons, they will again play different versions of their characters. This means that Archer, who was found shot in actress Veronica Deane’s pool at the conclusion of season seven, remains in a coma, and the events of the season are of his imagination.
These different versions have similar personalities to their “normal” counterparts but take on different jobs or roles and have different relationships. The season’s premise sees Archer as an alcoholic co-pilot with Pam, who crash land onto the lush and mysterious Pacific island of Mitimotu.
The season also pays homage to the short lived 1980s television series Tales of the Gold Monkey which featured a very similar premise as Danger Island. Adam Reed has previously claimed that Tales of the Gold Monkey was “one of my favorite shows ever”.
Archer Season 10
Season 10 is going to be set in Archer’s subconscious version of space, with “a 1970s vision of the future. It will feature “all ’70s clunky set design and production design” with the feel of somebody’s “idea of the future from 1970”. There will be nods to the “prevalent aesthetic at the time, of clackity keyboards and hoses and just overall clunkiness,” and not to “Aliens” or “Giger-influenced stuff.” Archer’s “not going to know what the future is [like]…he’s going to have a 1970s vision of the future.”
