Winter TV Preview 2024: The 16 Most Promising Shows Coming Your Way

Cruel Intentions (Prime Video, Nov. 21)

It’s hard to believe it’s been 25 years since Cruel Intentions, a movie that updated the 18th-century French novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses and the 1988 film Dangerous Liaisons to center on spoiled American prep schoolers (and made stars of Ryan Phillippe and Reese Witherspoon). Now, Amazon rolls out a new series version set at a college, where privileged trust-funders Caroline Merteuil and Lucien Belmont rule the social hierarchy. After a vicious hazing tragedy threatens the school’s Greek system, the two set their sights on seducing the sweet daughter of the Vice President. Sexy shenanigans ensue.

The Madness (Netflix, Nov. 28)

Rustin’s Oscar nominee Colman Domingo, 54, plays a TV pundit who witnesses the murder of a white supremacist in the Poconos mountains, gets framed for it, and goes on the run, desperate to clear his name, reconnect with his estranged relatives, rediscover his lost ideals — and survive.

The Later Daters (Netflix, Nov. 29)

In this Michelle Obama-produced reality show, the beautiful, Harvard-trained behavioral scientist Logan Ury interviews six singles aged 56 to 71 and their families, to suss out their psychology. Love coach Ury gives them pep talks before they go on blind dates, then talks to them afterwards about how they went. It’s Netflix’s answer to The Golden Bachelor/Bachelorette, and it sounds like Later Daters might have better odds of finding romance that lasts.

The Agency (Paramount+, Nov. 29)

In his first major TV role, Richard Gere, 75, plays the CIA’s London Station Chief, the tough-love father figure to an undercover agent (Michael Fassbender), with Jeffrey Wright, 58, as another CIA mentor, and guest stars including The Crown’s Dominic West,55, and Downton Abbey’s Hugh Bonneville, 61.

Black Doves (Netflix, Dec. 5)

Nowhere is lovelier than London at Christmas — but it's less jolly when a fast-rising politician’s wife (Kiera Knightley) discovers her secret lover’s been gunned down. Is she next? She’s a spy, and her shady boss Reed (Happy Valley’s Sarah Lancashire, 60) recruits an old assassin friend to protect her (Paddington’s Ben Whishaw). Reed scolds him: “You have a warm heart and blood on your hands — that’s a bad combination!”

The Sticky (Prime Video, Dec. 6)

In a ridiculously improbable, fact-based story, a peeved maple syrup farmer (Margo Martindale, 73) fed up with the bureaucracy stages the multimillion-dollar Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist of Quebec’s syrup surplus. Executive producer Jamie Lee Curtis, 65, guest stars in an undisclosed role.

One Hundred Years of Solitude (Netflix, Dec. 11)

Nobel Prizewinner Gabriel García Márquez’s masterpiece novel about the magical, isolated, tumultuous Colombian seaside village of Macondo becomes a 16-part series.

The Six Triple Eight (In theaters Dec. 6, on Netflix Dec. 20)

Kerry Washington, Oprah Winfrey, 70, and Sam Waterston, 83, star in the story of the first (and only) Women’s Army Corps unit of color stationed overseas in World War II. 

Dexter: Original Sin (Paramount+ Dec. 13, Showtime Dec. 15)

In a prequel to the hit about the serial killer of serial killers, Michael C. Hall, 53, who played detective/serial killer Dexter, narrates the thoughts of the young Dexter (Patrick Gibson), with Christian Slater, 55, as his Miami homicide squad colleague and Grey's Anatomy’s Patrick Dempsey, 58, as their captain. 

No Good Deed (Netflix, Dec. 12)

Everybody in this satirical comedy is competing to buy the 1920s Spanish-style house of their dreams (and soon, nightmares): a high-strung pianist and stressed, broke contractor (Lisa Kudrow, 61 and Ray Romano, 66), a sharky, upwardly mobile house-flipper (Linda Cardellini, 49), a sardonic pregnant architect (Teyonah Parris), a struggling writer (O-T Fagbenie) and a sad, unemployed soap opera star (Luke Wilson, 53).

Laid (Peacock, Dec. 19)

Ruby (Everything Everywhere All at Once’s hilarious Stephanie Hsu) is a rom-com heroine on the hunt for love — but she’s got a problem: all her exes seem to be dropping dead in highly mysterious ways. So with her bestie (Girls’ Zosia Mamet), she tracks them down to warn them.