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The Emmy Awards are a long way off. But with more TV than ever, networks have made spring a showcase for some of their best series, hoping taxed voters will mark their ballots accordingly. That means you donât have to wait for the shows everyone will be talking about. Theyâre already here.
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12 TV shows youâll need to watch to get ready for this yearâs Emmys
If you start watching now and apply yourself â I mean, really grind it out â then you might see about half the programs and performances that figure to be nominated for an Emmy this year.
That kind of abundance means you need to be disciplined and discerning (or possess a limitless amount of free time). And, these days, who has that? To help, Iâve put together an early guide, mixing series that have already aired with promising programs that will premiere in the next several weeks. One way or another, theyâll all be in the conversation leading up to July 14.
Times TV writers choose their most eagerly anticipated TV shows â new and returning â of 2020.
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Supporting actors are TVâs secret weapon. Let us count the ways
Supporting actors, who are sometimes but not always âcharacter actors,â make up the ranks of best friends, colorful sidekicks, strange relations, eccentric coworkers, superior officers, crazy neighbors, service workers. In life, stars are the outliers, âbigger than life.â Life is what supporting actors bring, a taste of the world as most of us routinely experience it; they provide color, context, depth. They create a community, where the stars stand alone. Stars are other people. Supporting actors are us.
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âBillionsâ has become a criticsâ darling. When will Emmy voters notice?
âBillions,â Showtimeâs acclaimed drama about the cutthroat world of New York finance and politics, is about to launch its fifth season in May, just in time to catch the wave of an election season that saw two billionaires running for president.
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The Silicon Valley of âDevsâ is years away. Hereâs how its tech compares with reality
Science is at the heart of all Alex Garlandâs work, but the writer-director is less interested in erudite theories than he is in what those theories reveal about humanity itself. That growing obsession has resulted, years later, in âDevs,â a self-contained, eight-episode series for FX on Hulu, which Garland pursued after making âAnnihilationâ in 2018.
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Confused by âWestworldâ? Thatâs a feature, not a bug
HBOâs sci-fi drama âWestworld,â the award-winning series that debuted in 2016, returns to the fold this month with a third season of murderous robot fun.
The dystopian mind-bender of a series has inspired little to no gray area between its fans and critics. One side sees the show as a multifaceted maze of reality-meets-fantasy genius. The other complains itâs a confusing tangle of future-shock nonsense.
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Meet the new star of your scam obsession: the working stiff
âQuiz,â about two men accused of cheating their way to a million-pound prize on âWho Wants to Be a Millionaire?â in 2001, is not the only new show in 2020 to tell an absurd, stranger-than-fiction story about a forgotten scam involving a popular game from the early â00s. It follows on the heels of âMcMillions,â a six-part HBO documentary chronicling a massive fraud in which a group of conspirators stole $24 million in prize money from the McDonaldâs Monopoly game.
These shows join a growing list of pop culture about cons, hoaxes, frauds and debacles â a thriving subgenre of (mostly) blood-free true crime that feeds on a shared contempt for a rigged system and the people who most shamelessly manipulate it.
