Inside Must-Watch New, Returning Shows
Settle in! The winter season is upon us — and it won’t be long before new and returning shows are back on our screens.
Fans of That ’70s Show will see the cast reunite in its upcoming spinoff, That ‘90s Show. Topher Grace, Laura Prepon, Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis and Wilmer Valderrama will be reuniting with Kurtwood Smith and Debra Jo Rupp after starring in the original show from 1999 to 2006.
The comedy series which will be released in January, follows Red and Kitty Forman as they watch over their granddaughter, Leia Forman, while she’s in town for the summer.
Ahead of the Netflix show’s premiere, Prepon opened up about her reaction to being back on set. “It’s so fun. It’s all the same sets,” the actress teased to Us Weekly in June 2022. “When I first went there, I cried. I’m just like, ‘The nostalgia is so strong and it was such an incredible time in my life.’ I can’t wait for people to see it. I think they’re really, really gonna get a kick out of it.”
According to the Orange Is The New Black alum, it was “oddly” not “weird” returning to her roots as Donna.
“It just was like the nostalgia of it,” she continued. “You don’t realize like, it’s still, like, if I hear Todd Rundgren’s [song] ‘Hello, It’s Me,’ I burst into tears ‘cause that’s the pilot song, you know, that was like the Eric and Donna [theme song and] it was a really pinnacle song for that relationship, but yeah, it’s great [to return].”
In February 2022, viewers get to look forward to Outer Banks making a splash on Netflix with its third season. The next chapter in the teen drama picks up after John B (Chase Stokes), Sarah (Madelyn Cline), Kiara (Madison Bailey), Pope (Jonathan Daviss), JJ (Rudy Pankow) and newcomer Cleo (Carlacia Grant) end up on a deserted island which they name Poguelandia.
Showrunners Jonas Pate, Josh Pate, and Shannon Burke previously teased what the group of teenagers can expect to deal with following their overseas escape.
“Romance! That was one thing we really loved about season 1 that’s less of an element of season 2 that we really want to get back to,” Pate shared with Entertainment Weekly in July 2021. “That was the plan, kind of architecting the characters towards opening up some romances in season 3.”
Burke added: “In general, we were basically shot out of a canon in season 2. And we want to have a little more room for like our teen drama and teen romances in season 3, just as a general principle.”
As for the story lines, the audience can expect Big John to play a big role in the next chapter of Outer Banks. “We always knew it was a possibility and we have this card we can play,” Pate noted. “In the evolution of the season, it just became more apparent that we wanted to play it at the end of the season. It was always an idea lingering around and thematically, it sets up some stuff we want to explore in the third season.”
Scroll on for more new and returning shows this winter:
Credit: Jackson Lee Davis/Netflix; Sergei Bachlakov/CBS
Winter TV Preview 2023: Inside the Must-Watch New and Returning Shows
Settle in! The winter season is upon us — and it won’t be long before new and returning shows are back on our screens.
Fans of That ’70s Show will see the cast reunite in its upcoming spinoff, That ‘90s Show. Topher Grace, Laura Prepon, Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis and Wilmer Valderrama will be reuniting with Kurtwood Smith and Debra Jo Rupp after starring in the original show from 1999 to 2006.
The comedy series which will be released in January, follows Red and Kitty Forman as they watch over their granddaughter, Leia Forman, while she’s in town for the summer.
Ahead of the Netflix show’s premiere, Prepon opened up about her reaction to being back on set. “It’s so fun. It’s all the same sets,” the actress teased to Us Weekly in June 2022. “When I first went there, I cried. I’m just like, ‘The nostalgia is so strong and it was such an incredible time in my life.’ I can’t wait for people to see it. I think they’re really, really gonna get a kick out of it.”
According to the Orange Is The New Black alum, it was “oddly” not “weird” returning to her roots as Donna.
“It just was like the nostalgia of it,” she continued. “You don’t realize like, it’s still, like, if I hear Todd Rundgren’s [song] ‘Hello, It’s Me,’ I burst into tears ‘cause that’s the pilot song, you know, that was like the Eric and Donna [theme song and] it was a really pinnacle song for that relationship, but yeah, it’s great [to return].”
In February 2022, viewers get to look forward to Outer Banks making a splash on Netflix with its third season. The next chapter in the teen drama picks up after John B (Chase Stokes), Sarah (Madelyn Cline), Kiara (Madison Bailey), Pope (Jonathan Daviss), JJ (Rudy Pankow) and newcomer Cleo (Carlacia Grant) end up on a deserted island which they name Poguelandia.
Showrunners Jonas Pate, Josh Pate, and Shannon Burke previously teased what the group of teenagers can expect to deal with following their overseas escape.
“Romance! That was one thing we really loved about season 1 that’s less of an element of season 2 that we really want to get back to,” Pate shared with Entertainment Weekly in July 2021. “That was the plan, kind of architecting the characters towards opening up some romances in season 3.”
Burke added: “In general, we were basically shot out of a canon in season 2. And we want to have a little more room for like our teen drama and teen romances in season 3, just as a general principle.”
As for the story lines, the audience can expect Big John to play a big role in the next chapter of Outer Banks. “We always knew it was a possibility and we have this card we can play,” Pate noted. “In the evolution of the season, it just became more apparent that we wanted to play it at the end of the season. It was always an idea lingering around and thematically, it sets up some stuff we want to explore in the third season.”
Scroll on for more new and returning shows this winter:
Credit: Alfonso Bresciani/AMC
Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches (AMC+)
The drama stars Alexandra Daddario as Rowan, a neurosurgeon equipped with unique skills she can’t explain until she learns she hails from a line of New Orleans witches — and inherited a threatening force hell-bent on hunting her ancestors (January 8)
Credit: Shane Harvey/HBO
The Last of Us (HBO)
Fans of The Last of Us video game will be tuning into the HBO series that follows Joel (Pedro Pascal) on his journey to escort Ellie (Bella Ramsey) across a post-apocalyptic world. Gabriel Luna also stars as Joel’s younger brother. (January 15)
Credit: Patrick Wymore/Netflix
That ’90s Show (Netflix)
Back to the basement! Smith and Rupp reprise their roles as Red and Kitty Forman in That ’70s Show sequel following their granddaughter Leia and her group of friends in the summer of 1995. (January 19)
Credit: Courtesy of Apple TV+
Shrinking (Apple TV+)
Bill Lawrence‘s newest comedy introduces Jason Segel as a therapist who treats his patients while dealing with his own severe grief. The series also stars Harrison Ford, Jessica Williams, Christa Miller and Michael Urie. (January 27)
Credit: Sergei Bachlakov/CBS
Fire Country (CBS)
Following the shocking cliffhanger, Fire Country returns to finish out its premiere season. Viewers will finally find out what happened to Bode (Max Thieriot) after he went against chief Vince Leone’s (Billy Burke) orders. (January 29)
Credit: Freeform/JUSTINE YEUNG
The Watchful Eye (Freeform)
The Freeform original series focuses on a woman (Amy Acker) who accepts a nanny position from a handsome widower only to get caught up in some deadly secrets. (January 30)
Credit: Kevin Estrada/Netflix
Freeridge (Netflix)
The On My Block spinoff is a coming of age comedy following sibling rivals Gloria (Keyla Monterroso Mejia) and Ines (Bryana Salaz) who unleash a dark curse on themselves and their friends Demi (Ciara Riley Wilson) and Cameron (Tenzing Norgay Trainor). Fans of the OG series can expect several cameos throughout the season. (February 2)
Credit: Courtesy of Apple TV+
Dear Edward (Apple TV+)
Connie Britton, Colin O’Brien and Taylor Schilling star in the Apple TV+ series based on the novel of the same name by Ann Napolitano. The show focuses on the lone survivor of a plane crash that must deal with the aftermath of the tragedy — which took the lives of his family. (February 3)
Credit: ABC/Temma Hankin
Not Dead Yet (ABC)
Based on Alexandra Potter‘s 2020 novel, Confessions of a Dirty-Something F**k Up, the comedy stars Gina Rodriguez as Nell, who accepts a job writing obituaries — and gets a new perspective on life. (February 8)
Credit: Courtesy of FOX
Animal Control (Fox)
The workplace comedy stars Joel McHale as a former cop forced to take a new gig as an animal control officer. Under his guidance, his fellow employees — including Ravi Patel and Vella Lovell — hilariously navigate creatures of all kinds. (February 16)
Credit: ABC/Eric McCandless
The Company You Keep (ABC)
After wrapping up his time on This Is Us, Milo Ventimiglia will star in the ABC series based on the South Korean television series My Fellow Citizens!
At the center of the story is con man Charlie (Ventimiglia) and undercover CIA officer Emma (Catherine Haena Kim) whose paths continue to cross in unexpected ways. (February 19)
Credit: Matt Miller/NBC
Found (NBC)
Shanola Hampton leads this new drama as Gabby, a former missing person who now oversees crisis management for a team of people searching for those who have gone AWOL. Mark-Paul Gosselaar also stars. (February 19)
Credit: Jackson Lee Davis/Netflix
Outer Banks (Netflix)
The Pogues are back with another treasure hunt — only this time the stakes are higher than ever before. While on another run for their lives, John B, Sarah, Kiara, Pope, JJ welcome newcomer Cleo to the grow. (February 23)
