A slew of game-changing, female-run television series are ending this year, from Orange Is the New Black to Jane the Virgin. Luckily, the women who created those touchstones of popular culture have paved the way for future female showrunners to flood the market with new, original stories.
In 2019, some of Hollywood’s most prominent writers and directors, including Ava DuVernay, Patty Jenkins, Lena Waithe and Mindy Kaling, will debut new shows on the small screen. The series range from mysteries based on true crime to a reboot of the classic rom-com Four Weddings and Funeral. Here are just a few of the series we are most excited to watch.
I Am the Night
Jan. 28 on TNT
Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins re-teams with actor Chris Pine for this miniseries about a journalist’s investigation into the Black Dahlia killer. Jenkins will direct all the episodes.
Russian Doll
Feb. 1 on Netflix
This Groundhog Day-like dramedy focuses on a woman who repeatedly dies and wakes up again at her birthday party. In the series, co-created by Amy Poehler, Orange Is the New Black actor Natasha Lyonne and Bachelorette writer-director Leslye Headland, a New Yorker (played by Lyonne) tries to escape the time loop.
Pen15
Feb. 8 on Hulu
Comedy duo Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle write and star in this middle school-set comedy about two best friends surviving the 8th grade. Produced by Lonely Island, this show is its creators’ answer to awkward, gross-out coming-of-age stories like Superbad and Freaks and Geeks.
Shrill
March 15 on Hulu
Lindy West adapts her feminist, body-positive memoir for television with the help of Saturday Night Live breakout star Aidy Bryant and Ali Rushfield. Bryant stars as a Portland writer pursuing her professional ambitions while trying to sort out her love life.
Bless This Mess
April 16 on ABC
New Girl creator Elizabeth Meriwether joins forces with Lake Bell to write this comedy about a couple who gives up life in the big city and moves to a Nebraskan farm. Bell plays the wife opposite Dax Shepard.
Central Park Five
TBA on Netflix
Ava DuVernay is writing and directing this miniseries based on the true story of five black and Latino teens who were convicted of a brutal rape they did not commit. DNA evidence later overturned the conviction, and the case ignited discussions about racial discrimination in the criminal justice system.
First Wives Club
TBA on BET
Girls Trip writer Tracy Oliver reboots the iconic 1996 film about three women who form a bond after their respective marriages fall apart. The show will star Ryan Michelle Bathe, Michelle Buteau and Jill Scott.
Four Weddings and a Funeral
TBA on Hulu
Fresh off The Mindy Project, writer and rom-com fanatic Mindy Kaling turns a classic of the genre into a limited series starring Nathalie Emmanuel from Game of Thrones.
Mrs. America
TBA on FX
Cate Blanchett will play real-life activist Phyllis Schlafly, who campaigned against the Equal Rights Amendment and fought against feminist causes in the 1970s. The script comes from Mad Men and Halt and Catch Fire writer Dahvi Waller.
Tuca & Bertie
TBA on Netflix
BoJack Horseman alumna Lisa Hanawalt gets her own animated series. Ali Wong and Tiffany Haddish lend their voices to this show about two 30-year-old bird-women who live in the same apartment building.
Twenties
TBA on TBS
The Chi creator and Master of None writer Lena Waithe drew from her own experiences as a young, queer, black woman to write the pilot for the upcoming comedy Twenties.
Unbelievable
TBA on Netflix
Erin Brockovich writer Susannah Grant, along with novelists Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman, adapts a true story of a teen charged with lying about rape. Toni Collette and Merritt Wever star as the female detectives who investigate the alleged assault.
