If there’s one time during which TV shows come in handy, it is Ramazan. The belligerent and relentless heat, coupled with the long hours mean you can park yourself before your TV screen or laptop or whatever device you use and lose yourself in the narrative.
Dominic Cooper stars in AMC’s Preacher in the titular role. Developed by Seth
Rogen, the new series is a dense drama, full of theological debates drenched
in dirty violence.
Anthony Hopkins, Ed Harris join HBO’s Westworld as TV gears up for a shuffle.
If there’s one time during which TV shows come in handy, it is Ramazan. The belligerent and relentless heat, coupled with the long hours mean you can park yourself before your TV screen or laptop or whatever device you use and lose yourself in the narrative.
While Pakistani dramas, both good and bad, continue to give the audience close-ups and lack visual genius, TV shows from other countries such as the USA and the UK make up for it with some exception productions.
As dozens of show go-off air this year, it will be difficult to find an impressive companion amidst a sea of new productions. With that in mind, Instep handpicks shows that will make worthy replacements to their equally powerful predecessors.
Our story begins with Unreal, which made a comeback with its second season, earlier in May. The show demands attention because it is set behind the scenes of a fictional reality show akin to The Bachelor. With Constance Zimmer (House of Cards, Newsroom, Grey’s Anatomy) and Shiri Appleby (Roswell) Unreal is unafraid to look at the ugly and sometimes manipulative side of television.
Sir Anthony Hopkins, Ed Harris and Thandie Newton will star in HBO’s upcoming Jonathan Nolan series, Westworld..
The second show in the line-up is Peaky Blinders. Now back with a third season, the series is a British period drama set in the 1920s and is stark gangster saga, more slow-burning than fast-paced. Cillian Murphy’s performance in particular as well as the presence of Tom Hardy make it a must-watch series.
Our third pick is AMC’s Preacher, which made its debut this May. The show, starring Dominic Cooper as a heavy-drinking preacher looking for a reason to stay with the Church, is set in a sparse Texas town and is as broody, bloody and gritty as it gets. . Developed by Seth Rogen, Preacher sounds like a mixture of religious undertones and a violent Tarantino hangover in Texas. Okay, so it sounds a bit deranged. But who knows? AMC has a decent track record so it definitely has the potential to improve.
Though the show is based on the comic book series by Garth Ennis, it is not a strict adaptation as Rogen has taken liberty with the story. Expect a violent, sparse-looking, moody series.
And finally we come to two of television’s biggest names - J.J Abrams (Alias, Lost, Star Trek films) and Jonathan Nolan (creator and executive producer of Person of Interest) both of whom are teaming up for a new project for HBO. The show is called Westworld, described as a Western-meets-science fiction journey which (like Person of Interest) will pose questions about “artificial consciousness” and the “future of sin”. If that plot isn’t enough, take a look at the cast that includes the likes of Sir Anthony Hopkins, Ed Harris, Evan Rachel Wood, James Marsden and Thandie Newton. Due to production delays, the show’s air date was moved to 2017 but according to a new Nolan interview, the show will air this year.
