Five Ace New Series From 2020 That You Can (and Should) Binge in Full Before the Year Is Out
They're the brand new releases that made an impact this year, and you can stream them all.
Five Ace New Series From 2020 That You Can (and Should) Binge in Full Before the Year Is Out
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They're the brand new releases that made an impact this year, and you can stream them all.
2020 will forever be known as the year everyone wore an extra groove into their couch. And because the past 12 months have just been so chaotic, you probably haven't managed to do everything you wanted to — even working through your streaming queue. You've been distracted by quite the hectic circumstances, so that's perfectly natural.
Now that life slowly seems to be returning to normal — and now that holidays are upon us, too — you're probably wondering which series you should catch up on. 2020 delivered a heap of stellar new shows, however, so that isn't a straightforward question. Thankfully, in collaboration with streaming service Binge, we're here to help. Here are five of the year's absolute must-sees, all of which you can binge in full now — including via a 14-day free trial for new customers.
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If you didn’t know that Jordan Peele was involved with HBO series Lovecraft Country, it really wouldn’t take you long to guess. Based on the novel of the same name, the horror-drama steps back to 50s-era America, to a time of segregation, and into the life of Atticus ‘Tic’ Freeman (Jonathan Majors). He has returned from the Korean War, is trying to track down his missing father (Michael K Williams), and soon finds himself surrounded by monsters of the fantastical and very real kind.
Yes, as he did so impressively in Get Out and Us, Peele once again examines the historical and current treatment of Black Americans through an unflinching and unsettling genre lens. He’s Lovecraft Country‘s executive producer, rather than taking on writing or directing duties, but this is another exceptional, thematically powerful and visually engaging addition to his resume.
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A Twitter-famous writer with a bestseller to her name and plenty of online fame, Arabella (Michaela Coel) has a deadline. Overnight, she needs to finish the first draft of her second book or her publishers won’t be happy. But when her mates suggest that she comes out for a couple of drinks, the London-based scribe quickly acquiesces. The next morning, though, she doesn’t feel okay — and it isn’t just a hangover, with Arabella slowly realising that she has been the victim of sexual assault.
It’s best to take I May Destroy You‘s title literally from the get-go — in reference to how this show will make you feel, that is. Turning a traumatic experience into blistering television, the 12-part series is easily 2020’s best, and it is definitely a phenomenal effort from creator/writer/co-director/star Coel. Watching Arabella come to terms with what’s happened to her, and to regain her sense of self, isn’t easy viewing — but it’s absolutely must-see TV.
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Fleabag fans, rejoice — because Phoebe Waller-Bridge is back on our screens, and back working with playwright and screenwriter Vicky Jones, too. The latter is the driving force behind comedy-thriller Run, and Waller-Bridge only plays a supporting part, but that’s more than enough reason to binge your way through its seven instantly moreish episodes.
The setup: college sweethearts Ruby (Merritt Wever) and Billy (Domhnall Gleeson) always promised each other that, if one of them texted the word ‘run’ to the other and received the same back in reply, they’d drop everything, hightail it to New York’s Grand Central Station and catch a train across America together. And, that’s exactly what happens. As for why, and what this means to the two central characters, that’s all part of the fun of watching. So is enjoying the rapport between the always-great Wever and Gleeson.
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Mark Ruffalo has always been a stellar actor, and he has the resume to prove it. But he’s in particularly excellent form in I Know This Much Is True. It isn’t just because he’s as reliably great as ever in the six-part HBO miniseries, which is adapted from the book of the same name. He is, of course; however he’s also playing two roles.
While identical twins Dominick and Thomas Birdsey look alike, they have their own struggles — including, in the latter’s case, paranoid schizophrenia. Set in the 90s in Three Rivers, Connecticut, the series charts the intricacies of their intertwined lives as past and present troubles collide. It’s no slouch behind the lens, either, with Blue Valentine and The Place Beyond the Pines filmmaker Derek Cianfrance directing and co-writing the entire thing.
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Thanks to a certain chest-bursting franchise that first hit screens more than four decades ago, Ridley Scott has long been synonymous with science fiction. So when the veteran filmmaker jumps onboard a sci-fi TV series — featuring androids again, but no aliens this time around — it’s definitely something worth paying attention to.
That show is Raised by Wolves, which is set in a dystopian future in the 22nd century, when the earth has been destroyed by war. Two androids, known only as Mother and Father, head to the planet Kepler-22b with two human embryos in their care, with the obvious aim of restarting civilisation. While it’s immediately apparent that little will go as planned — that’s just not human nature — don’t go thinking that you’ll be able to pick this striking, big-thinking series’ every twist and turn.
To watch your way through all of the above shows, head to streaming platform Binge — where you can sign up for a free 14-day trial, then keep working your way through its jam-packed catalogue for $10 per month (based on Binge Basic, its first subscription tier).
