Winter TV Preview: 16 Shows to Watch This Season

If you're trying to figure out what to add to your TV schedule this winter, we've got you covered. As we transition from 2023 to 2024, the next few months will bring us returning series (The Crown, Reacher), new takes on old favorites (True Detective: Night Country, Mr. and Mrs. Smith), and a bunch of adaptations (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Masters of the Air, Shōgun). If you're planning on hibernating until the weather outside becomes less frightful, at least you have television to keep you company.

Below, you'll find our preview of the best shows and movies to watch from December 2023 through February 2024. For more, here's the ultimate guide to everything coming to Netflix, Hulu, Max, and more in December.

Fall 2023 guide: Fall TV Preview: The Best Shows to Watch

The best shows to watch this winter

The Crown Season 6 Part 2 (Dec. 14, Netflix) 

The queen's reign is ending. After the first half of Season 6 premiered in November, The Crown returns for its final six episodes, which pick up in the aftermath of Princess Diana's (Elizabeth Debicki) untimely death and follow the royals as they try to put their lives back together. Ed McVey and Luther Ford take over the roles of Prince William and Prince Harry, respectively, and Meg Bellamy will debut her take on Kate Middleton, infamous sheer dress and all. What will Queen Elizabeth (Imelda Staunton) think of this? -Kelly Connolly [Trailer] [Review]

Reacher Season 2 (Dec. 15, Prime Video) 

Amazon's free-range detective series follows a few simple rules that have turned it into one of the streamer's biggest hits: An ex-military police officer with tree trunks for biceps travels the country beating up bad guys, solving crimes, and making wisecracks. In Season 2, Jack Reacher (Alan Ritchson) meets up with his old military police group after one of them is murdered, and they suspect someone is picking them off one by one. Someone's bones are about to get broken. -Tim Surette [Trailer] [Review]

Percy Jackson and the Olympians (Dec. 20, Disney+)

They say lightning isn't supposed to strike the same place twice, but since the first two Percy Jackson adaptations (the 2010 and 2013 films) weren't exactly faithful, fans of the fantasy books are still waiting for lightning to strike once. It seems like this could be it. The Disney+ series, which author Rick Riordan executive produces and has voiced his enthusiastic approval for, stars Walker Scobell as the titular demigod, who's framed for stealing Zeus' lightning bolt and sets out with his friends on a journey to find the real thief. Leah Jeffries and Aryan Simhadri play Annabeth Chase and Grover Underwood, respectively, alongside an ensemble that also includes Virginia Kull, Glynn Turman, Jason Mantzoukas, Megan Mullally, and the late Lance Reddick. Here's everything to know about the series. -Kelly Connolly [Trailer] [Review]

Letterkenny Season 12 (Dec. 26, Hulu)

Pitter patter, let's get at 'er — one last time. Season 12 will be the end of the road for Jared Keeso's cult hit Canadian comedy, set in a rural community full of hicks, hockey players, and other eccentrics who are as happy making bawdy jokes as they are rattling off lightning-fast wordplay. Its spin-off, Shoresy, lives on, but for now, let's make this last trip to Letterkenny count. -Kelly Connolly

The Brothers Sun (Jan. 4, Netflix)

Imagine finding out that your family runs a notorious triad and that your estranged brother is its deadliest weapon. That's what happens to Bruce Sun (Sam Song Li) when his older sibling Charles (Justin Chien) suddenly appears in Los Angeles and reveals the unthinkable life he's lived as a Taiwanese gangster. Only it's not unthinkable to their mom, Eileen (Michelle Yeoh): Mama Sun deliberately left Taiwan years ago to leave the family's criminal past behind, and brought only Bruce with her. Come for Michelle Yeoh mothering, stay for two brothers finding each other — and themselves. -Kat Moon [Trailer]

Echo (Jan. 9, Disney+ and Hulu)

In 2021, Hawkeye introduced the world to Alaqua Cox, who made her acting debut as Maya Lopez — also known as the superhero Echo. Now, Cox, who is deaf and Native American, like her character, is starring in a series focused on Maya's origin story. Echo is part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Phase 5, and also features Chaske Spencer, Tantoo Cardinal, Devery Jacobs, and Cody Lightning. -Kat Moon [Trailer]

True Detective: Night Country (Jan. 14, HBO)

Bundle up: True Detective is headed to the Last Frontier. After almost five years away, the hit HBO anthology series is returning for its long-awaited fourth season, and it's moving the action to Alaska, a far cry from the hot and sweaty climates the show used to call home. Subtitled Night Country, this season stars Jodie Foster and Kali Reis as a pair of detectives tasked with investigating a mysterious case — the disappearance of eight men who operate an Arctic research station — during the long winter night. Fans of great television should note that The Leftovers' Christopher Eccleston and Fleabag's Fiona Shaw are also in the cast. Here's everything we know about Season 4. -Kelly Connolly [Trailer]

Sort Of Season 3 (Jan. 18, Max)

The third and final season of Bilal Baig's tender, low-key dramedy finds Sabi (Baig) processing their particularly complicated grief after the death of their father. Free of his expectations, they begin to confront old and new questions about their identity. It'll be sad to say goodbye to one of TV's most underrated gems, but if we're confident in any show's ability to stick the landing, it's this one. -Allison Picurro [Trailer]

The Woman in the Wall (Jan. 19, Showtime)

No, it's not The Woman in the Window or The Girl on the Train. This time, there's a woman in the wall, and Ruth Wilson may or may not know something about it. This Ireland-set crime series stars Wilson as Lorna Brady, a sleepwalker who wakes up with a dead woman in her house and no memory of how she got there or what might have happened to her. The six-part series also examines the Magdalene laundries, one of the darkest institutions in Ireland's history. -Allison Picurro [Trailer]

Masters of the Air (Jan. 26, Apple TV+)

You thought Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks were done making limited series about World War II? Think again. The duo behind Band of Brothers and The Pacific are now bringing us Masters of the Air, which follows a group of airmen, nicknamed the "Bloody Hundredth," who conducted risky bomb raids over Germany during the war. The sprawling cast is a real who's who of It boys, including Austin Butler, Barry Keoghan, and Ncuti Gatwa. -Allison Picurro [Trailer]

Expats (Jan. 26, Prime Video)

The Farewell director Lulu Wang is the creator, director, and writer of this six-part limited series adaptation of Janice Y. K. Lee's novel The Expatriates. Set in 2014 Hong Kong, Expats follows three American women, played by Nicole Kidman, Sarayu Blue, and Ji-young Yoo, whose lives intersect after a tragedy, and explores the blurred lines between victimhood and culpability. -Allison Picurro

FEUD: Capote vs. The Swans (Jan. 31, FX; Feb. 1, Hulu)

Ryan Murphy is known for his ability to attract talent, but this is just ridiculous. The second season of his Feud anthology — Season 1's Joan Crawford and Bette Davis showdown aired all the way back in 2017 — stars Tom Hollander as author Truman Capote and — deep breath — Naomi Watts, Diane Lane, Chloë Sevigny, Calista Flockhart, Demi Moore, and Molly Ringwald as the Swans, a collection of high-society women Capote once palled around with. After becoming their confidante, Capote would go on to write a thinly veiled novel about characters whose lives and secrets were lifted from the Swans, and you know what happened next: feud! Once their trust in him was destroyed, the Swans cast Capote out from his precious high society, and as the legend goes, he was never the same. -Tim Surette

Mr. & Mrs. Smith (Feb. 2, Prime Video)

Mr. & Mrs. Smith is always a drama magnet. The 2005 film famously launched the Brad Pitt-Angelina Jolie relationship (which may or may not have overlapped with Pitt's marriage to Jennifer Aniston, but we're not here to speculate about dated tabloid rumors). And rumors of creative differences plagued Prime Video's new series, which is based on the movie, when Phoebe Waller-Bridge departed the project in 2021. ("Some marriages don't work out," she later told Vanity Fair of her exit. I'll say!) Nevertheless, the show got made, and now we have Mr. & Mrs. Smith starring Donald Glover and Pen15's Maya Erskine, replacing Waller-Bridge. The supporting cast, which includes Michaela Coel, Parker Posey, John Turturro, Alexander Skarsgärd, and Paul Dano, is especially exciting. -Allison Picurro [Trailer]

One Day (Feb. 8, Netflix)

Based on David Nicholls' novel of the same name (which was adapted into a 2011 film starring Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess), One Day stars two of our most charming up-and-coming TV stars, The White Lotus' Leo Woodall and This Is Going to Hurt's Ambika Mod. The 14-episode series begins in the late '80s when a chance meeting between two graduating students begins a lifelong bond. Every year, they reunite on the same date — July 15 — even as they grow up and grow apart. -Allison Picurro 

Avatar: The Last Airbender (Feb. 22, Netflix)

After watching the live-action adaptation of One Piece, we have more faith in Netflix when it comes to remaking beloved animated series. And few shows are more beloved than Avatar: The Last Airbender, which the streaming platform is launching a live-action adaptation of in 2024. When showrunner Albert Kim was first approached about the project, he too asked, why? "What is there I could do or say with the story that wasn't done or said in the original?" Kim said in a press release. But among his reasons for taking on the show is the opportunity to "showcase Asian and Indigenous characters as living, breathing people." The live-action series is led by Gordon Cormier as Aang, the titular avatar, alongside Kiawentiio as Katara, Ian Ousley as Sokka, and Dallas Liu as Zuko. -Kat Moon [Trailer]

Shōgun (Feb. 27, FX)

At Shōgun's press screening in New York City, actor Hiroyuki Sanada described the upcoming period drama as a "dream East-meets-West project." It's not hard to understand why. The series, which adapts James Clavell's 1975 book of the same name, is an extensive collaboration between writers, producers, and actors from both the U.S. and Japan. Set in 1600, the story follows Lord Toranaga (Sanada) as his political rivals form an alliance to plot his demise. The arrival of shipwrecked English pilot John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis) just might be Toranaga's saving grace, but the daimyo must also put his trust in noblewoman Toda Mariko (Anna Sawai) as their translator. Shōgun promises to astound in scale and scope, transporting us to feudal Japan, when life or death hinges on where one's loyalties lie. -Kat Moon