A scene from Zero Day.Courtesy of Netflix © 2024/Netflix
The year 2025 will, once again, be one of belated returns in the television business, which still hasn’t regained a regular rhythm after a pandemic and a pair of Hollywood strikes.
The anticipated second seasons of Severance (Apple TV+) and The Last of Us (HBO, Crave) are arriving this winter two years on from their firsts, while the sixth and final season of The Handmaid’s Tale’s (Disney+) is set for the spring nearly three years after its penultimate instalment.
Brand-new shows expected from prominent creators such as Girls’ Lena Dunham (Too Much, Netflix) and Breaking Bad’s Vince Gilligan (a new sci-fi series, Apple TV+) don’t have release dates yet – or, in the case of the latter, even a set title. Expect the unexpected – and to wait for the expected – in the ever-evolving streaming era of the small screen.
North of North, CBC/APTN
Anna Lambe, recently seen in the last, chilly season of True Detective, stars in this comedy about a young Inuk mother reinventing her life in a tight-knit, fictional northern community called Ice Cove. Created by writer and producer Stacey Aglok MacDonald and filmmaker Alethea Arnaquq-Baril, the eight-episode first season was shot on location in Iqaluit – and in a bespoke studio built in its curling rink. After an initial dual run on CBC and APTN (starting Jan. 7), it lands on Netflix come springtime.
Doc, Fox/Global
There’s always room in a healthy TV viewing schedule for a solid network medical drama. This new one stars erstwhile Canadian indie-film darling Molly Parker as Dr. Amy Elias, who loses a major chunk of her memory after a brain injury. It’s based on a popular Italian series inspired by the true story of an ER physician who forgot 12 years of his life. Though set in Minneapolis, Minn., Doc was shot in Toronto – just like NBC’s Bronx-set Brilliant Minds, the Oliver Sacks-inspired medical drama it’ll be competing with. Premieres Jan. 7.
Zero Day, Netflix
The list of major movie stars who haven’t been regulars on a TV series gets even shorter on Feb. 20 when Robert De Niro takes the lead in this political thriller created by Eric Newman (Narcos). De Niro plays a respected ex-POTUS named George Mullen who heads a commission charged with getting to the bottom of a cyberattack that left thousands dead and a conspiracy that goes right to the top. The cast around him includes the likes of Angela Bassett, Joan Allen, Jesse Plemons and Connie Britton.
The Studio, Apple TV+
Satires of Hollywood studios are back in vogue. After last fall’s Marvel-spoofing The Franchise on HBO, here comes a new comedy starring Seth Rogen as a film executive up a creek in the streaming era. It was created by Rogen with his usual partner in comedy, Evan Goldberg – and, wonder of homophone wonders, has both Catherine O’Hara and Kathryn Hahn in the main cast. Expect to see many A-listers playing themselves starting with Martin Scorsese in the first episode dropping March 26.
Super Team Canada, Crave
Calgary-born TV comedy veterans and brothers Robert Cohen (everything from The Wonder Years to Somebody, Somewhere) and Joel H. Cohen (who put in a couple decades on The Simpsons) have returned home to make the first-ever adult animated series for Bell Media’s streamer. It follows the misadventures of six little-known Canadian superheroes who step up when everyone else with a cape is out of service. Voice talent lined up includes Cobie Smulders, Kevin McDonald and Will Arnett – and the theme song is by Bryan Adams. Release TBD.
