40 fantasy and sci-fi shows to watch this year
By Daniel Roman
Twisted Metal
Video game adaptations are a hot topic of conversation right now thanks to big hits like HBO’s The Last of Us and Netflix’s Arcane. Another game that’s getting the small screen treatment is Twisted Metal, which is a long-running PlayStation series where people driving souped up cars battle it out in a post-apocalyptic landscape. Twisted Metal might not be the first game that you think of when it comes to TV shows, but someone somewhere did and so we’re getting one.
Pegged as a half hour action comedy series, Twisted Metal stars Anthony Mackie as John Doe, a motor-mouthed milkman who’s out to cross the U.S. and stay alive in the process. The rest of the cast is surprisingly stacked as well, featuring Neve Campbell, Thomas Hayden Church, and Will Arnett as the maniacal clown and de facto series mascot Sweet Tooth.
All 10 episodes of Twisted Metal season 1 will drop on Peacock on July 27, which means you can binge this one with a suitable amount of unhinged mayhem.
Futurama
This year Disney and Hulu will be launching a revival of Futurama, the classic sci-fi comedy cartoon series from The Simpsons creator Matt Groening. The original Futurama ran from 1999-2003 on Fox, but it’s never really been good at staying off-air. It’s been brought back with movies as well as a 2008 revival series on Comedy Central, and this year that vaunted tradition will continue with Hulu’s new show.
The original Futurama primarily followed Phillip J. Fry, a pizza delivery guy from our time who is frozen and wakes up 1,000 years in the future. He then joins a ragtag group of misfits who run an interplanetary delivery service. Hilarity and social commentary ensues.
The new series features the return of the show’s original voice cast. Futurama has had pretty good luck with revivals in the past and it’ll probably be the same this time. It’s expected to launch on Hulu this summer.