If you are beginning 2026 in search of distraction from the too real world outside your screens, television and streaming have it in abundance. Favorites are returning, both current hits (“The Boys,” “Paradise,” “Outlander”) and shows you thought were dead (“Scrubs,” “Malcolm in the Middle”). Patrick Dempsey is back, the Forsytes have resurfaced, and “Game of Thrones” and “Yellowstone” have sprouted new spinoffs.
Perhaps the surest sign that comfort viewing is in the air: The old big-four broadcast networks, ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox, are all represented on this list. That all of them are making an effort outside the fall season is a noticeable change.
Here is my selection of notable shows from the next few months, in chronological order. All dates are subject to change.
‘YOU AND I ARE POLAR OPPOSITES’ The boutique anime studio Lapin Track (“Sarazanmai,” “Shoshimin: How to Become Ordinary”) made this deep, comic dive into a high school crush, which jumps between the points of view of a chatty, outgoing girl and the taciturn, self-contained boy she’s in love with. (Crunchyroll, Jan. 11)
‘POLE TO POLE WITH WILL SMITH’ It was announced in February 2022, the month before Smith slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars. Now we get to see him ski at the South Pole, dive below the ice at the North Pole and undertake adventures at many points in between in a series that, according to the publicity materials, was “five years in the making.” (National Geographic, Jan. 13)
‘RIOT WOMEN’ The new series from Sally Wainwright (“Happy Valley,” “Last Tango in Halifax”), about five British women with myriad problems who find solace in forming a punk band, lands in January after being scheduled for last October. (BritBox, Jan. 14)
‘AGATHA CHRISTIE’S SEVEN DIALS’ Agatha Christie’s 1929 novel, “The Seven Dials Mystery,” which actually involves eight clocks, is adapted by Chris Chibnall of “Broadchurch” and “Doctor Who.” Lord Caterham is now Lady Caterham, played by Helena Bonham Carter. (Netflix, Jan. 15)
‘STAYER’ Thirty years after being named Norway’s sexiest man, a former rock god (Aksel Hennie) grouses about having to play his hit and tries to set things right with his teenage daughter (Hannah Elise Adolfsen Fjeldbraaten). (Viaplay, Jan. 15)
‘SOUTHLAND’ Netflix does its subscribers a favor, adding the five seasons of this exemplary Los Angeles cop show, which ran on NBC and TNT from 2009-13. (Netflix, Jan. 16)
‘A KNIGHT OF THE SEVEN KINGDOMS’ On the George R.R. Martin timeline, it’s after “House of the Dragon,” before “Game of Thrones.” Prepare to learn the names of a slew of new Targaryens which, with any luck, you will never have to spell. (HBO, Jan. 18)
‘THE BEAUTY’ A new drug offers the possibility of physical perfection. Of course, there are yucky downsides. Ryan Murphy is a creator and writer of this series that jumps on the body-horror bandwagon, so expect lots of body and lots of horror. (FX and Hulu, Jan. 21)
‘MEMORY OF A KILLER’ Patrick Dempsey returns to network TV for the first time since he left “Grey’s Anatomy,” in a role that’s not very McDreamy: He plays a hit man whose family is threatened just as he enters the first stages of Alzheimer’s. (Fox, Jan. 25)
‘WONDER MAN’ Yahya Abdul-Mateen II jumps from the DC universe — he played the villain Black Manta in the Aquaman movies — to the Marvel singularity. He plays the aspiring actor Simon Williams, who is also the reluctant superhero Wonder Man, in the 17th Marvel Studios series. (Disney+, Jan. 27)
‘RISE OF THE 49ERS’ Tom Brady, a lifelong 49ers fan, narrates this four-episode documentary about the team’s glory days. Its ratings may vary depending on how far the current San Francisco squad advances in the N.F.L. playoffs, which it begins on Sunday with a game against Philadelphia. (AMC, Feb. 1)
‘VANISHED’ Kaley Cuoco continues her post-“Big Bang Theory” run of mysteries with a thriller about a woman whose boyfriend (Sam Claflin) disappears during their French vacation. (MGM+, Feb. 1)
‘BLACK AND JEWISH AMERICA: AN INTERWOVEN HISTORY’ Henry Louis Gates Jr.’s latest documentary series examines a history of shared struggle and addresses the question of whether the struggle is still being shared. (PBS, Feb. 3)
‘THE ’BURBS’ Keke Palmer and Jack Whitehall take the Carrie Fisher and Tom Hanks roles in a reimagining of the 1989 Joe Dante film, a dark satire of suburban weirdness. The supporting cast includes reliably funny performers like Julia Duffy, Justin Kirk, Haley Joel Osment and Paula Pell. (Peacock, Feb. 8)
‘THE LAST THING HE TOLD ME’ The performances of Jennifer Garner and Angourie Rice — they played a mother and stepdaughter forced to work together when the husband and father disappeared — turned the first season of this Reese Witherspoon-produced series into something more than the usual mystery thriller. They return in Season 2, and the missing man (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) also reappears. (Apple TV, Feb. 20)
‘PORTOBELLO’ Marco Bellocchio’s new mini-series is based on the true story of a popular Italian TV host who was wrongly convicted of trafficking drugs for the Neapolitan mob. (HBO Max, Feb. 20)
‘CIA’ You can start your betting pool on the spinoffs: “CIA: Domestic”? “CIA: No Trial by Jury”? Dick Wolf, having turned the New York Police Department and the F.B.I. into lucrative TV franchises, moves from cops to spooks with his latest series, which was spun off from “FBI.” (CBS, Feb. 23)
‘THE FALL AND RISE OF REGGIE DINKINS’ A promising comic pairing: Tracy Morgan as a former football player and Daniel Radcliffe as the filmmaker he hires to help salvage his reputation. (NBC, Feb. 23)
‘PARADISE’ Hulu’s entry in the why-are-these-people-living-underground genre (other examples include Apple TV’s “Silo” and Amazon Prime Video’s “Fallout”) will continue to dole out its answers in Season 2. The Secret Service agent played by Sterling K. Brown left the bunker at the end of the first season, so perhaps the revelations will be more forthcoming. (Hulu, Feb. 23)
‘SCRUBS’ Do we need a 10th season of this hospital sitcom, 16 years after it was canceled? Apparently the show’s creator, Bill Lawrence, and the original cast members Zach Braff, Donald Faison, Sarah Chalke, Judy Reyes and John C. McGinley all think so. (ABC, Feb. 25)
‘MONARCH: LEGACY OF MONSTERS’ Kurt Russell, and some really excellent special effects, return in a second season of Godzilla- and King Kong-hunting. (Apple TV, Feb. 27)
‘AMERICAN CLASSIC’ The premise is familiar: A former lion of the theater retreats to his small-minded hometown and ends up putting on a show. The cast, while also familiar, is scintillating: Kevin Kline as the Broadway star reduced to dinner theater, along with Laura Linney, Jessica Hecht, Jane Alexander, Jon Tenney, Len Cariou, Tony Shalhoub, Stephen Spinella and Aaron Tveit. (MGM+, March 1)
‘MARSHALS’ After a couple of “Yellowstone” prequels, Taylor Sheridan moves on to a sequel to the series that made his name. Luke Grimes reprises his role as Kayce Dutton, son and heir of the patriarch played by Kevin Costner in “Yellowstone” and now part of a special unit of United States Marshals. (CBS, March 1)
‘OUTLANDER’ Caitriona Balfe and Sam Heughan return for one last whirl as a World War II nurse and her Scottish Highlands warrior in the eighth and final season of Starz’s time-traveling historical fantasy. Of course, Diana Gabaldon is still working on the 10th novel in the series on which the show is based, so never say never. (Starz, March 6)
‘SCARPETTA’ Nicole Kidman takes a break from mysterious melodrama — “The Undoing,” “Expats,” “The Perfect Couple,” “Nine Perfect Strangers” — and stars in a procedural mystery, playing a medical examiner in the first series based on Patricia Cornwell’s Kay Scarpetta novels. Jamie Lee Curtis co-stars as Scarpetta’s older sister. (Amazon Prime Video, March 11)
‘IMPERFECT WOMEN’ Kerry Washington and Elisabeth Moss play old friends whose bond is tested when a third friend is murdered. Joel Kinnaman, Corey Stoll, Keith Carradine and Leslie Odom Jr. play men who are, presumably, also imperfect. Annie Weisman, creator of Apple TV’s “Physical,” adapted a novel by Araminta Hall. (Apple TV, March 18)
‘THE FAITHFUL’ The current upswell in religious programming can lead to some unconventional labeling; Fox is referring to this retelling of the Book of Genesis, overseen by the “CSI” showrunner Carol Mendelsohn, as a “biblical event series.” Minnie Driver plays Sarah in a drama seen from the point of view of Old Testament women. (Fox, March 22)
‘THE FORSYTES’ Not exactly a new adaptation of John Galsworthy’s novels about a wealthy English family in the early 20th century, but a prequel series set a few decades earlier. Susan Hampshire, who won an Emmy in 1970 for playing young Fleur Forsyte in “The Forsyte Saga,” returns in a newly invented role. (PBS, March 22)
‘HENRY DAVID THOREAU’ Ken Burns is an executive producer of this three-episode documentary about the environmentalist, abolitionist and author of “Walden” and “Civil Disobedience,” who, if he were alive in today’s America, would be even more disappointed. (PBS, March 30)
‘YOUR FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS’ Jon Hamm carries his engaging performance as an outlaw in dad jeans into a second season, with the fund-manager-turned-high-end-burglar Coop having fully embraced his new profession. (Apple TV, April 3)
‘THE BOYS’ The sometimes eerily resonant series about superheroes gone wild begins its fifth and final season with America at the mercy of the sham patriot Homelander. (Amazon Prime Video, April 8)
‘MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE: LIFE’S STILL UNFAIR’ The fire hose of nostalgia spits out a mini-series sequel to the early 2000s Fox sitcom that made Bryan Cranston a star. Frankie Muniz returns as the adult Malcolm, who is forced to see his parents, Hal and Lois (Cranston and Jane Kaczmarek), on the occasion of their 40th anniversary. (Hulu, April 10)
‘MARGO’S GOT MONEY TROUBLES’ The latest from the tireless producer and writer David E. Kelley is a mini-series starring Elle Fanning and Michelle Pfeiffer as daughter (an OnlyFans novice) and mother (a former Hooters waitress). (Apple TV, April 15)
OTHER RETURNING SERIES
Acorn: “Hidden Assets” Jan. 19; Adult Swim: “Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal” Jan. 11; Amazon Prime Video: “The Night Manager” Jan. 11; “Cross” Feb. 11; AMC: “Dark Winds” Feb. 15; AMC+: “Gangs of London” Jan. 15; Apple TV: “Hijack” Jan. 14; “Drops of God” Jan. 21; “Shrinking” Jan. 28; “Yo Gabba Gabbaland!” Jan. 30; CBS: “Survivor” Feb. 25; Crunchyroll: ‘Trigun: Stargaze” Jan. 10; “Hell’s Paradise” Jan. 11; “Oshi no Ko” Jan. 14; “Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End” Jan. 16; CW: “Wild Cards” Jan. 26; Fox: “Going Dutch” Jan. 15; “Family Guy” Feb. 15; “American Dad” Feb. 22; HBO: “Industry” Jan. 11; “Real Time With Bill Maher” Jan. 23; “Like Water for Chocolate” Feb. 15; Hulu: “A Thousand Blows” Jan. 9; “Tell Me Lies” Jan. 13; “The Artful Dodger” Feb. 10; MHz Choice: “Unclaimed” Jan. 27; “The Sandhamn Murders” Feb. 17; “Murder In …” Feb. 24; Netflix: “Alpha Males” Jan. 9; “The Boyfriend” Jan. 13; “The Queen of Flow” Jan. 14; “The Upshaws” Jan. 15; “Queer Eye” Jan. 21; “Bridgerton” Jan. 29; “The Lincoln Lawyer” Feb. 5; “The Night Agent” Feb. 19; “One Piece” March 10; “Virgin River” March 12; “Beef” April 16; Paramount+: “School Spirits” Jan. 28; PBS: “All Creatures Great and Small” Jan. 11; “Miss Scarlet” Jan. 11; “Call the Midwife” (Feb. 20 online, March 22 broadcast); Peacock: “Ted” March 5.
Mike Hale is a television critic for The Times. He also writes about online video, film and media.
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