Streaming TV shows no signs of slowing down in 2023. By contrast, the list of high-profile, high-production-value, star-studded shows is overflowing. Among the offerings: a video game turned HBO hit, the return of favorites like “Yellowstone” and “Your Honor” on Paramount+, and Netflix tanks. And there is more to come.
HBO
When it came to adapting “The Last of Us”, HBO had a huge challenge on its hands. Based on a beloved video game that has sold a staggering 37 million copies, it came with a built-in fan base that expected it to be as close to the source material as possible. And the show, set in a zombie post-apocalyptic future, delivered on the aesthetics and sober performances of its two leads, Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey as Joel and Ellie, which garnered praise. The program added more than 388 million hours watched on the HBO Max platform and is the great success so far this year, but not the only one.
The frantic fourth and final season “Succession”, the media industry epic developed by Jesse Armstrong, returned with the death of patriarch Logan Roy in a shocking early twist and, after a dramatic funeral, a flurry of maneuvering, seismic betrayals, and one dramatic choice follows: the reins of Waystar Royco will eventually be handed over to (spoiler alert) Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgard) and Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen). For Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Roman (Kieran Culkin) and Shiv (Sarah Snook), the ending is an utterly devastating one, one that will ensure the show will be remembered as one of the best of the decade. The fourth season averages so far 8.4 million viewers per episode, surpassing the 7.4 of the previous one.
And the mid-year bet on HBO premiered this June 22: the second season of Just like that sequel to “Sex and the City” that left illustrious moments and viral speeches. The return of Aiden will be the key to the new season in which the return of Samantha Jones is also targeted to sustain the ratings: when it debuted in December 2021, it was the best historical premiere of the Warner Bros. Discovery group platform.
Netflix
the korean series Beef was the big surprise for the streaming giant in the first half of the year. The plot pits Steven Yeun against Ali Wong, with Yeun playing a worker and Wong a businessman who has built a lucrative business. The two collide in altered states, and when their paths literally collide in a road rage incident, each becomes the target of the other’s wrath. It was the most watched fiction in April, repeating the success of other hits from the Korean factory, including of course “The Squid Game”, and a fiction that arrived in the last days of 2022 and swept the platform for January: “The Glory” racked up 436.9 million hours viewed – portrays a young woman who decides the best course of action to get revenge after being bullied to the point of dropping out of school.
And Netflix is still saving a few tanks for this year. In fact, one of them has just premiered: the sixth season of Black Mirror arrived on June 15, casting a notable cast including Salma Hayek, Paapa Essiedu, Annie Murphy, Myha’la Herrold, Zazie Beetz and Anjana Vasan in five dark but hilarious episodes, directed by Charlie Brooker and his generous dose of existentialism.
Meanwhile, the second semester includes the premiere of the second season of another Korean series: “We are all dead”whose debut in January 2022 totaled 560.78 million hours watched (based on the webtoon “Now at Our School” and has a rating of 7.5/10 on IMDb). The zombie thriller TV show is set in a high school where a mysterious disease has turned the students into the walking dead.
The teen spirit that yields to Netflix: it had 1.2 billion hours watched between November 2022 and March 2023 with the first season of “Merlina”, the spinoff of “Los Locos Adams” (the second could arrive at the end of this year ). And the same public to which he will appeal with the fifth season of “Stranger Things”whose premiere ranges from December 2023 to the first months of 2024.
Contenders
On the Disney+ side, the great premiere in the first half of the year was the third season of “The Mandalorians”, the series that has Pedro Pascal (yes, he is the actor of the moment) as the bounty hunter from the Star Wars universe. It was far from the ratings of its debut cycle, but it has plenty to be much more successful than other franchise plots such as “Andor” or “Obi-Wan Kenobi.” And Disney will follow the line with the premiere in August “ahsoka”, about Darth Vader’s Jedi apprentice. Meanwhile, he will feed Marvel fans in parallel with “Secret Invasion”, which began airing on June 21 and tells the adventures of Nick Fury, the agent who coordinated the Avengers.
by the side of Star+ and Paramount+Meanwhile, the bet is on dramatic series with powerful performances that earn the honeys of critics and have an impact on viewers who arrive by word of mouth, giving them the seal of quality they seek to sustain subscribers. There, on June 22, the second season of “The Bear”, the series directed by Jeremy Allen White that will up the ante with two more episodes than the first season, with a total of 10 episodes (it premieres on August 23 in Argentina). “It’s not a reopening, it’s a rebirth,” the teaser states.
Bob Odenkirk, known as criminal defender Saul Goodman on Better Call Saul, joins the cast of “The Bear”, which revolves around Carmy, a star chef who returns to her hometown to take over her late brother’s neighborhood restaurant. Produced by FX, the plot of the second season includes new staff and the return of an ex-girlfriend.
Jeremy Allen White (Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award winner) and Ayo Edebri will reprise their roles as Carmy and Sydney.
At Paramount+, finally, 2023 brought the premiere of the second season of “Your Honor”, starring Emmy winner Bryan Cranston (forever the Walter White of “Breaking Bad”), a judge who ends up in prison after covering up the murder and escape of his son in a traffic accident. to favorable results for a more mature strategy.
by RN
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