From Succession to The Newsreader here are 16 shows to watch next

Congratulations if you’ve actually managed to keep up with the ever-increasing options of television in 2021. You’ve already watched Bump, Pretend it’s a City and Wakefield, checked in on MasterChef, gone the heartbreaking distance with The End, sampled Aftertaste, survived The Virtues, been immersed in The Underground Railroad and started The White Lotus. But as impressive as that is, despite the resulting lack of sleep, the year’s TV is only halfway done. The remainder of 2021 has no shortage of promising shows and welcome return seasons for you. Here are 16 series to watch out for.

Anna Torv stars as Helen Norville in the ABC’s 1980s-set drama The Newsreader.

The Newsreader (ABC)

The high stakes and demanding intensity of a busy newsroom has long drawn storytellers, with the ABC’s new drama from Five Bedrooms creator Michael Lucas using a commercial television broadcast during a climatic few months in 1986 â€" think the Chernobyl meltdown and Challenger explosion in quick succession â€" as the backdrop for the complex professional and personal relationship between a star news anchor (Anna Torv, Mindhunter) and an ambitious young reporter (Sam Reid, Lambs of God) who wants to sit beside her. August 15

Reservation Dogs (Binge)

Taika Waititi’s many screen commitments span engineering Thor movies with Chris Hemsworth and promoting new First Nations voices. It’s the latter that sees the New Zealand filmmaker and actor co-create this irreverent new half-hour comedy that follows the misadventures of four Native American teenagers in rural Oklahoma who are looking to illegally steal their way to a financial stake capable of getting them to California. Don’t expect a “moral of the week” ending to each episode. August 10

Only Murders in the Building (Disney+)

The long friendship and creative camaraderie of Steve Martin and Martin Short â€" shout out to Three Amigos! â€" finds fresh expression in this comedy series, co-created by Martin, where the veteran comics are joined by Selena Gomez to play a trio of true-crime obsessives living in the same apartment building and getting in way over their heads when a neighbour is found dead. The Martin and Short dynamic is well honed (see their Netflix special for proof), but look for Gomez to add some coolly deployed unpredictability. August 31

Billions (Stan)

What began as a judicious enquiry into wealth and power, with Damian Lewis (Homeland) as a hedge fund billionaire and Paul Giamatti (Sideways) as a powerful federal US prosecutor, has evolved into something funkier and more fun. Billions is a show of wealth porn and devious schemes, a little on the ludicrous side but acutely self-aware of how enjoyable it is. The second half of the show’s fifth season will return with Lewis’ Bobby Axelrod trying to get a licence for a bank (as you do), and will continue the pithy dialogue and exceptional rock’n’roll needle drops. September 9

Foundation (Apple TV+)

First published in the 1950s, Isaac Asimov’s Foundation novels are an essential building block of science fiction, set in a far future where a glittering galactic empire is starting to teeter and a revolutionary scientist uses his skills to concoct a plan for civilisation to survive. Apple see the show as a major franchise stretching for multiple seasons, and have spent accordingly on an adaptation that stars Jared Harris (Chernobyl) as the prescient outsider and Lee Pace (Halt and Catch Fire) as the hubristic emperor. Expect more than a space opera. September 24

The Shrink Next Door (Apple TV+)

The podcast-to-prestige-TV pathway continues with this adaptation of the chart-topping 2020 listen that explored the real-life story of an American psychiatrist whose relationship with his patients became so close that others saw it as exploitative. On the screen, in what’s pitched as a black comedy, is Will Ferrell as the uptight Marty Markowitz, while the ageless Paul Rudd plays his shrink Dr Isaac Herschkopf. Even better: the wondrous Kathryn Hahn (WandaVision) heads the supporting cast of what is definitely not an Anchorman reunion. November 12

The Block (Nine)

The Block host Scott Cam oversees this year’s fans v favourites season. Credit:Nine Entertainment

The reigning reality competition champion in the second half of each year, The Block returns for its 17th season with the nature of housing quickly changing: butler’s pantries are out, home offices are in. The year’s edition, which takes over a court in the Melbourne bayside suburb of Hampton, is a fans-versus-favourites scenario, with familiar faces and newcomers building five luxury family homes. In a first, each property will have a basement level excavated for design usage, although I doubt anyone will use my suggestion of a panic room. TBC

The Gilded Age (HBO/Foxtel)

Can Julian Fellowes bring the hook-laden storytelling of Downton Abbey to 19th-century America? The British screenwriter moves across the Atlantic for his new series, which focuses on the burgeoning wealth and changing society of New York City in the 1880s. His fulcrum is three women at the forefront of this world: a widowed aristocrat (Christine Baranski), her impoverished sister (Christine Nixon) and a new-money interloper determined to force change (Carrie Coon). Fingers crossed it has a line as sublime as Downton’s “What’s a weekend?” TBC

Lord of the Rings (Amazon Prime)

Given that it’s going to be the most expensive television series ever made, this prequel â€" by thousands of years â€" to Peter Jackson’s film trilogy could yet slip back to 2022. Either way, Amazon paid the estate of author J.R.R. Tolkien about $US330 million for the rights alone, with the vast production buoying the New Zealand economy for more than a year now. An ensemble cast will re-create the fantasy world of humans, elves, dwarves and orcs as evil rises and Middle-earth obsessives get very, very excited. TBC

Making It Australia (Ten)

Harley Breen and Susie Youssef host the hit crafting competition Making It Australia. 

Reality competition shows have long relied on crafty contestants, but the term gets a different spin in this inclusive series where hopefuls race against the clock to craft their best handmade projects for judging. The American edition, hosted by Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman, is already a hit, with challenges including costume production and shed fitouts. The Project’s Susie Youssef and comedian Harley Breen host the Australian version, where getting on the tools is meant to be a feel-good experience. TBC

Ms. Marvel (Disney+)

Disney’s streaming foray into the Marvel blockbuster realm has been focused on familiar film characters, in series such as WandaVision and Loki, but it will break new ground with this screen adaptation by British comic Bisha K. Ali of the comic book about a 16-year-old New Jersey Muslim American, Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani), who goes from writing superhero fan fiction to wrestling with her superpowers. It’s a teenage origin story, steeped in family and school, which is a milieu that could resonate if handled right. TBC

New Gold Mountain (SBS)

Yoson An and Alyssa Sutherland star in SBS’s gold-rush drama New Gold Mountain.Credit:SBS

The gold rush of the 1850s changed the trajectory of the British colonies that would become Australia, but period drama tropes get a welcome new lens in this revisionist drama that examines the dual worlds of British rule and Chinese miners in 1855 Bendigo. The two parallel worlds cross over when a murder brings unwanted attention, linking characters played by Yoson An (Mulan) and Alyssa Sutherland (Vikings). If this works, history textbooks should get a vivid and illuminating screen update. TBC

Russian Doll (Netflix)

Natasha Lyonne returns in season two of Russian Doll.

It’s definitely a risk. The first season of this wild but heartfelt metaphysical comedy about a sardonic New Yorker (Natasha Lyonne) trapped in a deadly time loop was one of the very best shows of 2019 (haven’t seen it? Start watching immediately!) and perfectly self-contained. Can lightning strike twice with a second season? Co-creators Lyonne, Leslye Headland and Amy Poehler have certainly earnt the right to try. TBC

Scenes from a Marriage (HBO/Foxtel)

So it turns out comic books aren’t the only intellectual property being updated by Hollywood. Ingmar Bergman’s quietly coruscating 1973 Swedish miniseries turned international feature film about the unerring disintegration of a marriage gets an English-language adaptation from Israeli writer-director Hagai Levi (The Affair). His stars are Jessica Chastain and Oscar Isaac, who had a fraught, intimate chemistry in 2014’s A Most Violent Year that bodes well for this dissection of domestic unity. TBC September

Spreadsheet (Paramount+)

The cast of new Melbourne comedy Spreadsheet (from left) Stephen Curry, Katrina Milosevic, Katherine Parkinson, Robbie Magasiva and Rowan Witt.

Launching on August 11 and adding to your anxiety about which streaming services to subscribe to, Paramount+ will be adding Australian content to its servers as the year unfolds. Most promising is this new comedy, presently trying to shoot in Melbourne, about a divorced mother of two (Katherine Parkinson) whose desire for sex without commitment leads her to set up a spreadsheet of potential male partners who soon prove unable to stay in their columns. Stephen Curry, Ryan Shelton, Tina Bursill co-star in what should be a slam-dunk product placement opportunity for Microsoft Excel. TBC

Succession (HBO/Foxtel)

There is no show am I hungering for more than the third season of this scabrous black comedy about the rivalry and rancour inside the family and office of an ageing media mogul. Possessing the most witheringly funny dialogue on television right now, matched to a genuinely honest appreciation of human foibles, Succession is perfectly poised for new episodes after dutiful son Kendall Roy (Jeremy Strong) turned on his dictatorial father Logan (Brian Cox). To borrow from Godzilla: “Let them fight” â€" but also please allow cousin Greg to continue his unlikely rise. TBC

Stan is owned by Nine, the publisher of this masthead.

Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday.

Craig Mathieson is a TV, film and music writer for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.

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