While coming back to favorite TV shows is always something to look forward to in any new year, there’s something special about discovering fresh series that you end up loving. Much like opening gifts under a Christmas tree, you don’t always know what you’re going to get. Here’s a look back at five great TV shows that launched in 2018 that were a shock, whether because of marketing, expectations based on the names attached to it, or simply being something you’d never expect to see.
1. Titans
While Marvel rules the film world, DC always had stronger television presence from their legendary animated series of the early ‘90s to their ongoing live-action series with six shows currently running on the CW network, a seventh in development, and the longest running current animated show on Cartoon Network. So it’s not surprising that Warner Brothers launched a streaming service based on these properties with DC Universe earlier in the year. What was surprising was the first original Universe series, Titans, and the form it took.
When the first trailer dropped with Robin bluntly and loudly saying, “F**k Batman,” it shocked everyone. While it isn’t totally unexpected WB/DC used the freedom from regulated television to be a little edgier than what The Flash or iZombie can get away with, no one expected Robin to be cussing out Batman, or for the violence level to be that graphic and bloody, being by far the most violent superhero TV show produced.
While superhero media has pushed the envelope as of late, with R-rated film fare like the Deadpool movies or Logan, it’s largely avoided going past the PG-13 barrier, particularly on TV (Legion on FX is the only real exception before Titans, but it stays divorced from its source and isn’t nearly as violent). Of all the properties to push that border, Teen Titans is the last one people expected to cross that line, especially for those who grew up on the 2003 animated show, or the current Teen Titans Go! with its chibi art style and irreverent humor. Even readers of the comics, which always took on a much darker tone than its adaptations, never thought DC would use that property to break down the door in such an aggressive way.
2. Kidding
Jim Carrey and Michel Gondry came together for this strange take on a modern day Mr. Rogers for Showtime. While the show was never really marketed as a comedy per say, one might expect it to be at least somewhat comedic based on Carrey, the concept of an aloof Mr. Rogers in the darker world of today, and the half-hour format Kidding uses. With Gondry involved you’d also expect some degree of surrealism or odd French quirkiness, if for no other reason than based on the film he and Carrey worked on originally, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
It is, in fact, neither of those things. While the show has small amounts of humor, it’s a hard drama at its core. Portraying the Mr. Rogers stand-in, Mr. Pickles, as a character suffering a deep tragedy that broke his family, and is slowly breaking him, Carrey deep dives into a story filled with depression and an overwhelming feeling that the better days are behind us even as we do all we can to hold on to better times. Plus Judy Greer plays against type to give a strong performance that compliments Carrey’s raw portrayal well.
It’s not the show you’d expect from a comedy icon coming back to the small screen. And it’s relentless, as life often is, with how much Mr. Pickles has to endure in his grief and anger.
3. The Connors
When Roseanne got rebooted in an effort to reach out to red state voters, Roseanne Barr managed to avoid talking about her radical transformation from the progressive feminist of the ’90s to conspiracy theory slinging hardcore right-winger of today. But true to form, Barr tweeted out something racist that got her booted from the show despite it debuting to record-smashing ratings and solid critical reception. Many expected that the series would die then and there.
Surprisingly, ABC decided to try and keep the show going by retooling it into The Connors. No one was quite sure what form it would take or what kind of show could it be without the lead character and actress it was named after. Would it be a direct continuation? How would they explain away the character anchoring the show since the beginning? How could you do an ALF or a Dick Van Dyke Show without those characters? A daunting task to say the least.
The biggest surprise of all was how well they managed to pull it off. With a quick write off of the iconic Roseanne Connor in the first episode in line with what they established in the previous season, The Connors continues on feeling like nothing changed. In some ways the overbearing presence of Roseanne, both as a character and the real life Barr, being removed gives room for the other characters to breathe in ways they weren’t allowed to with her there before (and for those who were uncomfortable with Barr’s actual behavior, it was a breath of relief).
Whether the show will continue much longer remains to be seen. The ratings dropped hard after Roseanne got the boot, but they’ve remained steady since launch. Either way, no matter how long it lasts, hats off to the team behind the show for doing what seemed impossible.
4. The Haunting of Hill House
Mike Flanagan has been one of horror’s hidden gems over the last several years, making concepts like haunted mirrors into great movies and heading strong sequels to ho-hum horror films. Him spearheading a new adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s legendary novel for Netflix made a lot of sense and for a lot of anticipation. The trailers and teasers focused on the spookiness, the ghosts, and the foreboding Hill House as described ominously in the opening pages of Jackson’s novel.
The show wasn’t really about any of that, though.
It’s not that it lacks ghosts or scares. There are plenty, and once you realize that every episode has hidden ghosts the series can become a Where’s Waldo? of trying to find them in tucked away dark corners or fleeting glances in reflections. But the real drive of the show isn’t the specters, but the intense family drama that unfolds over the two time periods it takes place in.
In a lot of ways, Hill House itself almost seems irrelevant as the show goes on. You could remove it and the entities within, and you’d still be left with a show filled to the brim with raw emotion as a dysfunctional family navigates a labyrinth of old wounds and a sad past. The Haunting of Hill House is probably my pick for best television show of the year, but it certainly isn’t the one you expect based on the concept and marketing. In fact, the show flips expectations in many ways, with the echoes of real life being far more powerful and intense than any ghost could ever be. You’ll find the ghosts are the last thing that haunts you after you finish.
5. Who is America?
It’s impossible to talk about surprising TV shows in 2018 without mentioning Sacha Baron Cohen and Showtime’s Who is America? It was something that Cohen kept under wraps until near release where he went undercover as several different characters over the course of a year to shoot the series.
A searing and painful look at America’s divided and degrading status get explored by the over the top personas Cohen employs, and it was steeped in controversy before a single episode aired. The likes of former Vice President candidate Sarah Palin or then embattled Senate hopeful Roy Moore decried the show for the interviews that featured them in the lead up marketing to its airing. No show in recent memory has inspired so much anger and rage before a minute of it was on a television screen with many of those bamboozled quick to spin whatever their appearance as out of context or misleading.
Even without the element of a surprise reveal, the show itself has some of the most shocking and unbelievable things on TV that’d put the likes of Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead to shame. The debate will always rage about how much of Cohen’s work is staged, manipulated or cut in a misleading way, but regardless, you can’t say seeing an American state congressman scream the n-word at the top of his lungs and pull his pants down to expose his bare ass as part of a fake anti-ISIS video is anything you’d ever expect to see on television in 2018.