Life Style: What to watch: The top TV of 2023

DUBAI: From major finales to the return of old favorites and the creation of new ones, here are some of the best shows coming our way over the next 12 months 

‘Succession’  

Starring: Brian Cox, Jeremy Strong, Sarah Snook, Kieran Culkin 

Jesse Armstrong’s Emmy-winning dark comedy drama about the wealthy media magnate Logan Roy and his dysfunctional family returns for a fourth season, in which the sale of the family business — the sprawling media conglomerate Waystar Royco — to Nordic tech ‘visionary’ Lukas Matsson creeps closer. The divisions between the Roys grow increasingly wider as they begin to imagine what their lives will become once the business is sold — dramatically reducing their societal standing — with each member tackling their own internal angst while trying to hold it together on the surface. 

‘The Last of Us’ 

Starring: Pedro Pascal, Bella Ramsey, Gabriel Luna, Anna Torv 

The fact that this video-game adaptation has such a strong and passionate (‘rabid’ could also be fair) pre-existing fanbase probably helped get the series greenlit, but also means it’s going to have to be very, very good to satisfy that fanbase. The games on which it’s based are fantastic, with extremely strong, emotionally engaging storylines that lend themselves to live-action adaptation. Set 20 years after the collapse of civilization due to a fungal-based pandemic that turns humans into shambling monsters, cynical, world-weary smuggler Joel is hired to smuggle 14-year-old Ellie out of a quarantine zone. What seems a straightforward task quickly turns into a brutal cross-country journey during which the pair come to depend on each other. 

‘The Mandalorian’  

Starring: Pedro Pascal, Gina Carano, Carl Weathers, Giancarlo Esposito 

It’s a big year for “Star Wars” spinoffs, with Jude Law-led “Skeleton Crew,” “Young Jedi Adventures” and spinoff-spinoff “Ashoka” (with Rosario Dawson as the titular former Jedi student) all slated to launch in 2023 (and, for fans of the other major sci-fi franchise, there’s “Star Trek: Picard”). But the flagship of the fleet is the third season of “The Mandalorian,” which — much to the delight of everyone — finds our titular bounty hunter reunited with Grogu (aka Baby Yoda) while the former continues his quest to restore his honor. 

‘Ted Lasso’ 

Starring: Jason Sudekis, Brett Goldstein, Hannah Waddingham, Juno Temple 

The third and final season of Apple TV’s much-loved comedy about a fish-out-of-water American coach who finds himself managing an English football league team despite lacking any of the necessary qualifications or experience to do so will see AFC Richmond back in the Premier League and hoping to avoid the painful relegation of season one. Their main rivals, West Ham, now have Ted’s former protégé Nate on their staff.  

‘The Power’

Starring: Toni Collette, Auli’I Cravalho, John Leguizamo, Toheeb Jimoh 

English author Naomi Alderman has adapted her 2016 speculative sci-fi novel for the screen. In the TV version, teenage girls across the world suddenly develop the ability to “shoot” potentially fatal jolts of electricity from their fingertips. The power is hereditary, and cannot be erased. And they learn they can awaken that same power in older women. Suddenly, the patriarchy is turned on its head, with men no longer the dominant sex. Of course, there are a number of men who find their new reality hard to accept. 

‘True Detective: Night Country’  

Starring: Jodie Foster, Kali Reis, John Hawkes, Christopher Ecclestone 

The first season of the anthology series “True Detective” — the one with Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey as the leads — remains one of the finest crime shows of all time. Seasons two and three didn’t reach the same dizzy heights, but there’s plenty of justifiable excitement around season four, “Night Country,” in which two-time Oscar-winner Jodie Foster will play detective Liz Danvers, investigating the disappearance of the eight men operating the Tsalal Arctic Research Station in Ennis, Alaska. 

‘Severance’  

Starring: Adam Scott, Patricia Arquette, John Turturro, Britt Lower 

The best show of 2022 will reportedly return for a second season some time this year. Filming was underway in October, so we probably won’t be revisiting the Lumon employees (who have all volunteered to undergo a mysterious procedure to ‘sever’ their personal and professional memories) until late 2023. Details of the plot are, understandably, thin on the ground, but expect further revelations about Lumon’s true purpose. And we know there will be eight new cast members added to the already-stellar ensemble, including Gwendoline Christie (“Game of Thrones”) and Merritt Wever (“Unbelievable”). 

‘Masters of the Air’ 

Starring: Austin Butler, Callum Turner, Anthony Boyle, Nate Mann 

Executive producers Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks will complete their trilogy of miniseries about World War II this year. Having focused on the army in 2001’s “Band of Brothers” and the marines in 2010’s “The Pacific,” they turn their attention to the air force this time, specifically the Eighth Air Force, which was engaged in some of the war’s most-dangerous missions in Northern Europe. Acclaimed filmmaker Cary Fukunaga (“No Time To Die,” “True Detective”) helms the 10-episode show. 

‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’  

Starring: Rachel Brosnahan, Michael Zegen, Alex Borstein, Tony Shalhoub 

The fifth and final season of Amazon’s sublime-looking period comedy about a once-prim-and-proper woman who discovers a previously unrealized talent for stand-up comedy when her husband cheats on her. She goes on to establish herself as a member of the first wave of alternative comedians in the US — alongside the likes of the legendary Lenny Bruce — with some considerable help from her foul-mouthed, streetwise manager Susie Myerson (who will presumably continue to steal the show), much to the dismay of her uptight Jewish parents.