We're deep into the era of "peak TV," and even the most dedicated viewer can have a hard time keeping track of the shows on in a single evening — let alone a single year. With old favorites returning for another run, promising new shows arriving all the time, and entire seasons arriving on a variety of streaming services, how can you keep up?
I've done my best to sort through every possible option and winnow it all down to the most interesting TV shows of 2016, so you can pick and choose the ones that most appeal to you. These shows have been listed in the order they'll premiere, and I'm only including shows with a set release date. As other great TV shows lock down their premiere dates, I'll update accordingly.
1. Man Seeking Woman (FXX, January 6)
It's not exactly difficult to find a sitcom that explores the travails of modern dating — but if Man Seeking Woman isn't the first, it's definitely the weirdest. In a series of vignettes, protagonist Josh (Jay Baruchel) sees his desperate search for a girlfriend thwarted by a series of surreal mishaps: an encounter with Adolf Hitler, a trip to hell, a misplaced penis. Almost by definition, Man Seeking Woman is uneven, but when it works, it hits an ideal combo of surprising and hilarious.
2. American Crime (ABC, January 6)
Between American Horror Story, True Detective, and Fargo, the anthology series has been on an unexpected but welcome comeback tour — and ABC's own variation, American Crime, has similarly high ambitions. The first season chronicled the aftermath of a murder in California. Season two shifts to Indiana to tell the story of a high schooler who accuses his basketball teammates of drugging and sexually assaulting him. It's sobering material, but a capable cast — including season one alums Felicity Huffman, Timothy Hutton, and Regina King, playing all-new characters — give American Crime the appropriate weight to match.
3. Black-ish (ABC, January 6)
After a brief midseason break, the witty ABC sitcom returns for the back half of a second season that has deepened and expanded the show's exploration of modern blackness. Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross are reliably hilarious in the lead roles, and the series generally manages to balance out its humor with sharp cultural insights.
4. Todd Margaret (IFC, January 7)
David Cross' zany, densely plotted comedy series returns for an exceedingly unlikely third season, following a second season finale that saw the titular character unintentionally bring about the destruction of the planet. It's a tall order for a quasi-reboot, but Todd Margaret's structure is goofy enough to sustain any kind of narrative trickery — particularly with a ringer like Jack McBrayer joining the cast.
5. Shameless (Showtime, January 10)
Showtime's long-running Shameless is one of the quietest hits on premium television, with five solidly rated, well-reviewed seasons under its belt. Season six revisits the Gallagher family shortly after Frank (William H. Macy) returns from his brief, ill-fated move to Costa Rica. The new season will introduce a love interest from Frank's past in Twin Peaks alum Sherilyn Fenn.
6. Colony (USA, January 14)
Last summer, USA redefined its brand with the excellent hacker thriller Mr. Robot, which showed infinitely more ambition and daring than fluff like Suits or Royal Pains. Colony clearly aims to be phase two of USA's aim to court a younger and more devoted TV audience, casting Josh Holloway (Lost) and Sarah Wayne Callies (The Walking Dead) in a dystopian sci-fi narrative about life in a police state run by alien invaders.
7. Billions (Showtime, January 17)
Homeland star Damian Lewis returns to Showtime for another TV series that aims to capture the pulse of America's contemporary political climate. This time, Lewis is playing a shady hedge fund manager, opposite Paul Giamatti as a dogged attorney who wants to take him down.
8. Angie Tribeca (TBS, January 17)
Rashida Jones stars in this Police Squad!-esque cop show spoof about a tough-as-nails cop who plays by her own rules. TBS clearly believes that Angie Tribeca can attract a loyal cult following; the network will air all 10 episodes of the first season in a single, binge-watch-friendly bloc on January 17, with a second season set to premiere just a week later (on a more conventional weekly schedule).
9. War & Peace (Lifetime/A&E/History, January 18)
In a move that hearkens back to the days of event television, a trio of American networks will simulcast this BBC-produced miniseries adaptation of Tolstoy's epic historical novel over four consecutive weeks. The top-shelf cast is led by Paul Dano and Lily James, with supporting roles for actors like Gillian Anderson, Jim Broadbent, Stephen Rea, and Brian Cox.
10. Agent Carter (ABC, January 19)
ABC's unjustly underappreciated Marvel series finally returns for a second season. The terrific Hayley Atwell stars as Peggy Carter, onetime ally and love interest to Captain America, as she adjusts to life post-World War II while working for an early version of what will eventually become S.H.I.E.L.D. The second season moves the action from New York City to Los Angeles, but otherwise, fans can expect the same delightful mix of action, fashion, snappy dialogue, and retro-cool spy gadgets.
11. Legends of Tomorrow (The CW, January 21)
The CW's latest expansion of its successful DC Comics-based superhero shows builds on characters introduced in Arrow and The Flash. The time-traveling sci-fi narrative loops in a number of lesser-known superheroes, including The Atom (Brandon South), White Canary (Caity Lotz), and Hawkman (Falk Hentschel).
12. London Spy (BBC America, January 21)
Ben Whishaw, best known as the new Q in the 007 franchise, takes center stage in this limited BBC series about a man who discovers his new lover was actually a spy. The TV series, which was created by Child 44 novelist Tom Rob Smith and costars Jim Broadbent and Charlotte Rampling, has already aired to general acclaim in England.
13. Baskets (FX, January 21)
Zach Galifianakis takes on his first starring TV role in the characteristically offbeat comedy Baskets, which follows a failed professional clown who is reduced to accepting a job as a rodeo clown in his hometown. If you're not into Galifianakis' shtick, Baskets definitely won't change your mind, but fans will find plenty to laugh at in his sad-sack protagonist's various misfortunes.
14. Black Sails (Starz, January 23)
Starz has a lot of faith in its ambitious pirate drama; a fourth season has already been ordered, and the third is only premiering now. Black Sails offers a mix of fact and fiction, interlacing an original prequel to Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island with real-life figures like Anne Bonny, Charles Vane, and Jack Rackham. This season promises to introduce one of the most notorious pirates of all: Blackbeard, played by Rome alum Ray Stevenson.
15. The X-Files (Fox, January 24)
At this point, it would probably be faster to rattle off the cult TV shows that aren't being rebooted or revived for modern audiences — but the ahead-of-its-time The X-Files is unusually ripe for this kind of treatment. Though the TV show went off the air in 2002, it never really resolved its various mysteries in a satisfying manner (and a dismal 2008 movie sequel only made things worse). And with original stars Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny returning, alongside fan-favorite characters like Skinner and The Cigarette Smoking Man, this six-episode miniseries is a welcome chance to end one of TV's most beloved cult series on the high note it deserved.
16. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (The CW, January 25)
Don't be fooled by the dumb title — this musical comedy, which aired its first eight episodes last fall, is anything but a lazy cliché. As a young woman who abandons her life in New York and moves to California after a chance encounter with an ex, Rachel Bloom is phenomenally multifaceted, remaining intensely likable while embracing the characters' uglier side. And the musical interludes are perfectly calibrated, balancing catchy tunes and witty lyrics that also provide genuine insights into the characters.
17. The Magicians (Syfy, January 25)
Lev Grossman's sci-fi/fantasy novel gets the small-screen treatment in The Magicians, which offers a kind of adult-oriented mashup between Harry Potter and The Chronicles of Narnia. As the series begins, protagonist Quentin (Jason Ralph) is thrilled to begin a new life at a secret Hogwarts-esque school for magicians — only to discover that the real-life problems of adulthood can't be waved away by a wand.
18. Lucifer (Fox, January 25)
Lucifer is the rare TV show that managed to alienate two intensely opinionated groups before airing a single episode. One Million Moms launched a petition urging Fox not to air a TV series that casts Satan as a hero working alongside the L.A.P.D., eventually securing 130,000 signatures. Meanwhile, fans of this particular take on Lucifer — which originated in Neil Gaiman's brilliant comic series Sandman — are skeptical of what looks like a very, very loose adaptation of the source material. Will the TV show be any good? There are plenty of reasons to be skeptical, but either way, it'll be fascinating to watch the cultural sparks fly when it's actually on the air.
19. Outsiders (WGN America, January 26)
WGN America continues to reshape itself into a home for top-shelf prestige television with Outsiders, a grim drama about a tight-knit family living off the grid in the Appalachian mountains. As the series begins, patriarch Big Foster (David Morse) declares war on a collective of police officers and businessmen bent on securing control of the mountain for lucrative redevelopment. Think Sons of Anarchy by way of Winter's Bone and you'll be in the right ballpark.
20. The Muppets (ABC, February 2)
ABC's much-discussed relaunch of The Muppets was correctly pegged as one of the biggest disappointments of the fall TV season — a crass, strangely cynical series that bore little resemblance to the characters longtime fans have come to know and love. But if you're one of the people who tuned out The Muppets this fall, it's worth giving it one last chance after the midseason break. The Muppets will return in a kind of "reboot," with Kristin Newman — a writer/producer with credits on shows like How I Met Your Mother, The Neighbors, and Galavant — taking over for departing showrunner Bob Kushell.
21. American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson (FX, February 2)
Riffing on the format of Ryan Murphy's hit TV series American Horror Story for an anthological true-crime tale, creators Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski have assembled a formidable cast to tell a fictionalized version of one of the most infamous and polarizing trials in modern history. Cast members include John Travolta as defense attorney Robert Shapiro, Sarah Paulson as prosecutor Marcia Clark, and Cuba Gooding, Jr. as plaintiff O.J. Simpson.
22. Madoff (ABC, February 3)
A special event airing over two consecutive evenings, Madoff casts Richard Dreyfuss as the infamous stockbroker behind the biggest Ponzi scheme in U.S. history, now serving a sentence of 150 years in prison. It's a story that will be very, very familiar to anyone who has followed the news cycle over the past decade, but those who can stomach an in-depth look at Madoff's crimes will find no shortage of drama to explore.
23. Animals (HBO, February 5)
HBO gets back into the quirky animated comedy game with Animals, a series of shaggy sketches centered on the problems of unusually chatty rats, cats, and pigeons attempting to survive in New York City. Animals' exceedingly loose format has enabled a who's-who list of modern comedians to make time to voice an animal: the first three episodes contain work from Aziz Ansari, Ellie Kemper, Adam Scott, Chelsea Peretti, and Nathan Fielder, among many others.
24. The Walking Dead (AMC, February 14)
AMC's unstoppable zombie juggernaut continues to chug along with no end in sight. The zombie drama tested critics' patience by pretending to kill off a major character, but ratings have remained sky-high. And fans of the original Walking Dead comic-book series based have an extra reason to tune in for the back half of season six: the long-awaited introduction of Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), the TV show's most notorious villain.
25. Vinyl (HBO, February 14)
Boardwalk Empire may be over, but Martin Scorsese and Terence Winter's creative collaboration continues to bear fruit. Their latest TV series follows an ambitious record executive (Bobby Cannavale) navigating the New York City music scene in the 1970s. Vinyl's extensive supporting cast also includes Olivia Wilde, Ray Romano, and Juno Temple.
26. 11.22.63 (Hulu, February 15)
Hulu's newest and biggest original series is clearly designed for maximum buzz: A historical sci-fi thriller based on Stephen King's bestselling novel of the same name, produced by J.J. Abrams and starring James Franco. The series follows a time traveler (Franco) attempting to prevent Lee Harvey Oswald from assassinating President Kennedy. It's a hoary premise, but Stephen King worked wonders with it, giving the TV show a promising blueprint to make 11.22.63 shine.
27. Better Call Saul (AMC, February 15)
Last year, AMC's Breaking Bad prequel/spin-off Better Call Saul overcame some very understandable skepticism to emerge as a top-notch drama in its own right. The second season promises to take Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk) further down the road to corruption that eventually sees him remake himself as Saul Goodman, the sketchy-but-savvy lawyer who becomes one of Walt and Jesse's key allies in Breaking Bad.
28. Broad City (Comedy Central, February 17)
Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson's raucous sitcom turns New York City into a playground for the chaotic misadventures of two freewheeling 20-somethings. Though Broad City remains delightfully unpredictable on an episode-by-episode basis, we do know one thing about season three: Hilary Clinton will be popping up in a guest role.
29. Girls (HBO, February 21)
I could try to sell you on Girls' extremely polarizing portrayal of millennial angst, but let's be honest: After four seasons, you probably know whether or not this is your kind of show. The new season will pick up after the flash-forward in last year's season four finale, which saw Hannah (Dunham) rejecting Adam (Adam Driver) in favor of a relationship with Fran (Jake Lacy).
30. Togetherness (HBO, February 21)
Girls' timeslot partner earns just a fraction of its ratings — but Togetherness offers an equally insightful look at a quartet of adults who are struggling to find happiness as they settle into middle age. Mark Duplass — pulling quadruple duty as co-creator, co-writer, co-director, and star — has assembled a terrific ensemble cast that also includes Melanie Lynskey, Amanda Peet, and Steve Zissis.
31. The Family (ABC, March 6)
The latest ShondaLand drama promises a soapy look at a ruthless gubernatorial candidate (Joan Allen), whose carefully constructed public image is rattled when her kidnapped son, presumed dead 10 years earlier, suddenly reemerges and rejoins her family. (One piece of advice: Don't watch the teaser, which tells you more than you want to know before you watch the pilot.)
32. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (ABC, March 8)
If you tuned out of Marvel's first big superhero drama during its rocky first year, it's time to tune back in. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has grown more confident with each season, and the front half of season three saw the show break format for its best-ever episode, which stranded one character on an alien planet for a gripping and emotionally fraught hour. The new run of episodes will pick up where the old ones left off, as the team squares off against both a sinister government mucky-muck (Powers Boothe) and a body-snatching alien threat.
33. Underground (WGN America, March 9)
WGN America's Underground is a period drama centered on a group of slaves who resolve to flee a plantation via the Underground Railroad. It's a powerful narrative from an exceedingly dark chapter in American history, and Underground promises to explore it from every angle: the plantation owners, the people who sheltered the runaway slaves, and the people who did — and didn't — manage to escape.
34. Daredevil (Netflix, March 18)
Netflix's gritty take on the popular Marvel superhero returns for another batch of episodes with a couple of new fan-favorites in the mix. Élodie Yung will debut as the ultra-lethal assassin Elektra, who was previously played by Jennifer Garner on the big screen, and Jon Bernthal will debut as the Punisher, a brutal antihero whose goals seem to conflict with Daredevil's. And hey — given how closely interrelated Marvel's Netflix shows are intended to be, there's always a chance Luke Cage or Jessica Jones might pop in.
35. The Path (Hulu, March 30)
Relatively little has been revealed about Hulu's The Path, which follows a man who converts to a controversial, cult-like religion — but the premise is intriguing, and its pedigree is unimpeachable. The series will star Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad), Michelle Monaghan (True Detective), and Hugh Dancy (Hannibal), with Kathleen Turner and Minka Kelly slated for supporting roles.
36. Empire (Fox, March 30)
Empire is nothing if not bold. In the first half of its second season, Fox's buzzy soap practically caused whiplash with the breakneck pacing of its myriad twists and turns — and even when it strained to make sense, it was hard to look away. The back half of the season promises more of the same, as Lucious Lyon (Terrence Howard) attempts to win back control of his record label.
37. Game of Thrones
Last year, the HBO fantasy series ended on a buzzy cliffhanger that guaranteed even the most jaded fans would tune in for another season. But while Game of Thrones remains one of TV's most durable hits, there's an intriguing new wrinkle to season six. The TV series has officially caught up with its literary source material, which remains unfinished, and author George R.R. Martin recently confirmed that the next book won't be published before the sixth season premieres. In short: For the first time ever, fans of the books don't know what's coming next.