It's almost the new year, and there's plenty to look forward to — from The Carrie Diaries and Beautiful Creatures to Oldboy .
It's nice to look forward to things to mitigate the irritations of life – or so I tell myself. With that in mind, the year ending is not only a good time to look back on the best of the recent past, but to catalog what there is to hope for in the months to come. And so I offer this personal list of the 2013 movies and TV shows that look exciting to me, with a few qualifiers. 1) The first half of the year is much more set than the second; I'm sure there are plenty of people already prognosticating about next year's Oscar race, but I'm not one of them, so I haven't included any awards-bait movies. 2) I listed new TV shows only, not ones that will be returning – we know that Breaking Bad and the like will be back, and yes, that will be a highlight. 3) These are in loose chronological order, but some of the dates aren't set yet. 4) Please don't blame me if the shows with good pilots crash and burn immediately like Smash did.
OK? Let us go, then!
"The Carrie Diaries"
CW
CW, Jan. 14 at 8 p.m.
As a Sex and the City fan, I met every step of the development process of The Carrie Diaries with rolled eyes – couldn't they leave well enough alone? How could a series based on these SATC prequel books – which also should have left well enough alone – be anything other than terrible? Then, after the network upfronts in May, when The Carrie Diaries was officially picked up, the CW sent out its pilots and I watched it, full of dread. What can I say? I liked it! Quite a bit, in fact. I liked AnnaSophia Robb, who has the impossible-seeming task of playing young Carrie; I didn't cringe at the 80s setting. I look forward to seeing more. It's nice to be surprised.
"The Following" and "Hannibal"
Trailer for "The Following."
