Fall 2024 TV Preview
Looking ahead.
I’m reporting live from the last gasp of summer: the weeks immediately following warm weather where my body is still acclimated to hot days and I feel the pull to be way more social than I will be in reality, later in the fall. I’ve got a lot of television on my plate and plenty of fall weekends ahead to enjoy their worlds — or at least this is what I’m trying to tell myself, as I come out of the Vancouver International Film Festival and try to stop overbooking my weekends.
As always, I’ve got my ear to the ground for what’s coming down the pipe. Below is a collection of upcoming shows that are on my radar in some capacity. This is by no means a comprehensive list. Rather, it’s specific to what I’ll be watching or at least keeping on my radar to see how it’s received. You also never know when an unknown Netflix show or international offering will emerge as a stand-out in the landscape — such is the nature of the industry. And although there is certainly less television being produced these days, there is by no means a gap in my schedule.
At top of my mind right now: I’m getting quite sick of living in unprecedented times on all fronts, as if what’s going on in Gaza and Lebanon doesn’t paint the rest of life with a meaningless hue (particularly as a Lebanese person). Is television just a distraction, I often ask myself? We’re going into one of the busier TV times of the year, and there’s quite a privilege in being able to even watch what’s on air, given how many hundreds of thousands of people are being displaced and murdered by a genocidal maniacal war campaign. How many kids won’t ever get to watch these shows because they happened to have been born in Gaza, the West Bank, or southern Lebanon? World leaders don’t seem to give a fuck as long as war protects their political interests, their economies.
Know that this is all continuously on my mind as I write, post, and talk about TV. There’s no way it’s not all intertwined. It’s sad to admit that if television is a distraction, maybe I want to be — need to be — distracted. Or I’ll combust. Because what we’re witnessing is that horrible to digest. Entering the lives of fictional characters is the only thing soothing enough to be able to stay present right now…I’m sure I’m not alone.
Fall Drama
