Netflix has just announced their 2024 TV slate, which includes more ‘Squid Game’ and ‘Bridgerton,’ the epic ‘3 Body Problem,’ and a must-see ‘Drive to Survive’ season for F1 fans.
Following a rocky 2023 defined by a widely criticized (but ultimately profitable) crackdown on password sharing and the simultaneous SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes, Netflix is kicking into 2024 with a bang. On February 1, the ubiquitous streaming service published a sizzle trailer for the coming year, highlighting not just its new films but also its slate of original TV programs. Serialized television was critical to Netflix’s entry into original content, with episodes such as Orange is the New Black and Stranger Things helping to transform the narrative surrounding the old DVD-mailing firm.
Netflix has been experiencing an existential crisis in recent years, and some prominent shows have yet to recover their investments by capturing the zeitgeist. However, the 2024 slate looks promising, with star-studded new releases like 3 Body Problem, Ripley, and No Good Deed, as well as the return of reality smashes (Formula One: Drive to Survive, Love is Blind) and established favorites (Bridgerton, Squid Game). You can view the sizzle reel right now; after the jump, we’ll go over what stood out to GQ from a relatively large download of Netflix series-programming updates.
Game of Thrones showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff’s much-anticipated (in every sense of the term) return to the cinema adapts Liu Cixin’s existential sci-fi novel The Three-Body Problem. The trailer, which was released in January, depicts the grandiose investigation of humanity’s discovery of alien species and its implications for global society. The series premieres on March 21 and stars Eiza González, Benedict Wong, and Rosalind Chao, among others in a diverse cast.
Dead Boy Detectives, based on the funny supernatural mystery comic by Sandman’s Neil Gaiman and artist Matt Wagner, and Ripley also make their debuts (April 4). Steve Zallian’s adaptation of the Talented Mr. Ripley universe will be an origin series based on Patricia Highsmith’s novels, starring Andrew Scott as the titular con artist. Death By Lightning is an adaptation of Candace Millard’s novel Destiny of the Republic; Michael Shannon and Succession’s Matthew McFayden will play US President James Garfield and his assassin, Charles Guiteau.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s renowned One Hundred Years of Solitude is getting its first adaptation on Netflix, albeit there are currently little details on the characters involved. The streamer’s journey into the world of Formula One continues with Senna, a six-episode historical drama on the late Brazilian driver Ayrton Senna, starring Gabriel Leone (who portrayed another race driver Fon de Potago in Michael Mann’s Ferrari).
The Gentlemen, Guy Ritchie’s financially successful but creatively uninspired film, is being adapted into a series with a completely new ensemble led by Theo James, Kaya Scodelario, and Giancarlo Esposito’s return to the realm of televised drug selling.
Will Squid Game restore its position as the most popular show in the world?
Squid Game was the most successful show on Netflix when it debuted, a true global phenomenon that was even made into a reality competition show. But now, after nearly three years, Hwang Dong-hyuk’s dystopian series returns, with a wholly new cast of people assisting Lee Jung-jae’s everyman protagonist Seong Gi-hun as he strives to bring down the cabal behind the fatalistic challenge.
Bridgerton’s third season will be split into two episodes, with the first airing on May 16. This time, the period romance drama centers on the conflict between important characters and close friends Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) and Eloise (Claudia Jessie). “Bridgerton is about love in all its manifestations, including friendship,” showrunner Jess Brownell told Entertainment Weekly.
Other notable returners include top-tier guilty pleasures such as Outer Banks and Emily in Paris, Keri Russell reprising her Emmy-nominated role on season 2 of The Diplomat, a third season of the YA hit Heartstopper, the final seasons of Cobra Kai and Umbrella Academy, and a second season of the massively popular action drama The Night Agent, which premiered last March to massive viewership numbers.
The unscripted slate included Drive to Survive and Love is Blind.
With the seismic revelation that Lewis Hamilton will leave Mercedes for Ferrari in 2025, all eyes will be on the Formula One docuseries Drive to Survive for clues as to what prompted Hamilton’s startling decision. The acclaimed series will return on February 23, and while the F1 season it is covering was not particularly spectacular, the Drive to Survive producers have always found touching drama in the struggles of up-and-coming drivers. The Netflix Slam, a Las Vegas exhibition match between Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz, marks the streamer’s latest investment in live sports. Netflix is also collaborating with HYBE, K-pop’s largest corporation, on a series tracing the formation of Katseye, a U.S.-based girl group.
On the more conventional reality program side, everyone’s favorite cringe-inducing dating show Love is Blind returns in weekly episodes beginning February 14, as well as staples like Selling Sunset, Unsolved Mysteries, and The Ultimatum. The rap reality competition show Rhythm + Flow returns over five years after its first season, with celebrity judges Ludacris, DJ Khaled, and Latto. The series has also generated the first Italian translation of a Netflix original, Rhythm + Flow Italy, which premieres on February 19th and features MCs from Rome, Milan, and Naples battling and freestyling their way to a 100,000-Euro prize.
After a disappointing year, Netflix’s comedy programming finally appears potential.
Netflix’s TV division has always done better with drama and horror projects than comedies, and with Dead to Me and Grace and Frankie ending in 2022, there was a gap in the schedule that even Tim Robinson couldn’t fill. Fortunately, the rest of the year looks good, with numerous exciting new projects and the return of several old series.
Girls5eva, a cult music industry comedy, will have its first season on Netflix after moving from Peacock. The show, which stars Sara Bareilles, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Paula Pell, and Busy Philipps, is one of the most consistently gut-busting programs on television, and it should reach a larger audience. Mo Amer’s relevant, personal show Mo returns for its second and last season, following the titular character’s journey as a Palestinian refugee in Texas.
Netflix is delving deeper into the Liz Feldman business: The Dead to Me creator brings together sitcom vets Ray Romano and Lisa Kudrow for No Good Deed, a program about middle-aged financial concern that Feldman told Variety was “inspired by my many late nights during the early pandemic, maniacally scanning Zillow listings for a way out of my house.” The much-anticipated reunion of Mike Schur and Ted Danson is also set to be released this year, with Danson’s character as a mole recruited by a private investigator to probe a nursing home, based on the Oscar-nominated Chilean documentary The Mole Agent. Kristen Bell and Adam Brody make an amazing combo in Erin Foster’s unnamed comedy about religion.
Vince Staples, a rapper and practitioner of deadpan humor, has launched The Vince Staples Show, a semi-autobiographical TV comedy. If the Vince-on-the-street promo video and Staples’ backing for Abbott Elementary are any indicator, the show should be one of the funniest new projects in 2024.
