Just when you thought you'd managed to catch up on every buzzy comedy-drama and true crime dramatisation – or given the bad guy's Wikipedia a quick glance, same thing – it starts all over again.

There's an absolute avalanche of great new TV coming next year, and the risk of accidentally wasting half an hour on something your mate at work said was decent only to find it is, in fact, a load of old pap, is enormous.

You've got a lot on. You do not have enough square footage in your life to waste on bad TV. So we've pulled together all the stuff that's looking likeliest to make it to the end of year best-of lists, and give you an ace card to play in the inevitable so-have-you-seen-anything-good-recently pub chat.

The Last of Us (January)

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The definitive narrative video game of the last decade, post-apocalyptic zombie emote-'em-up The Last of Us gets its big HBO adaptation. Of course, this one comes with caveats. Video games are notoriously hard to make into decent TV or film. But Chernobyl writer Craig Mazin is a co-writer, for one thing, and he's convinced that he's working with "the Lawrence of Arabia of video game narratives" here. Could be a game-changer.

The Mandalorian season 3 (February)

Mando returns for another run, with the world opening up to Grogu as he prepares to start learning how to Jedi under the tutelage of one L. Skywalker. It also looks like Din Djarin will be off back to his home plant to face the music for having popped his helmet off in season two. "I’m going to Mandalore so that I may be forgiven for my transgressions," he says in a teaser. Spoiler alert: doesn't usually pan out very well for Mandalorians, that kind of caper. Will Baby Yoda get on the warpath? Let's see.

Succession season 4 (spring)

succession
HBO

After the rug-pull ending to the third season, there are a lot of questions that need answering. Is Tom Wambsgans the chosen one? Will the Roy kids finally get it together? Is Greg still suing Greenpeace? We don’t know when the Roy circus will roll back into town yet either – or whether Roman will ever have his PJ rights restored – but creator Jesse Armstrong said in May 2022 that writing was almost done, and that the American side of the operation was on its way over to London to work on tweaks.

Secret Invasion (spring)

Samuel L Jackson's back in black overcoats as Nick Fury in the latest of Marvel's between-films miniseries. Said secret invasion is the return of Ben Mendelsohn's Skrull leader Talos and his shape-shifting mob from Captain Marvel. You might recall there were sightings of Jackson around Halifax as filming went on at the palatial Piece Hall in the West Yorkshire town earlier this year. Reports that Fury's plan to defeat the Skrulls by taking them on the Otley Run remain unconfirmed.

Loki season 2 (summer)

Well, Loki was fun wasn't it? All those timelines, the JG Ballard stylings, Richard E Grant. Quite what madness could possibly top an alligator slugging wine out of a children's paddling pool is difficult to fathom, but Kevin Feige says things are well underway and we've already seen Tom Hiddleston back in his slicked, jet-black hairdo on set in the summer. Director Kate Herron won't be returning, sadly, but Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Owen Wilson should be. Even Grant's up for it if someone gives him a shout.

Doctor Who (November)

preview for Doctor Who 60th anniversary specials trailer (BBC)

We're as surprised as anyone, but somehow Doctor Who has managed to wangle its way into being unmissable TV in 2023. If you spent any time in its company in the last year or two – or, indeed, in the company of any committed Whovian – you'll have probably come to the conclusion that it was beyond help. Yeet the Tardis into the sun and let's all move on.

But now the much maligned head honcho Chris Chibnall has departed and been replaced by much cherished genuine national treasure Russell T Davies and – in a rug-pull ending to the last season which literally nobody saw coming – Jodie Whittaker's Doctor regenerated into not Ncuti Gatwa, as had been trailed, but David Tennant. Yep, the David Tennant who was Doctor 15 years ago and somehow looks exactly the same.

We'll find out exactly what kind of wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey nonsense is going on here during three specials coming in November to celebrate Doctor Who's 60th anniversary. Bringing back Tennant (and Catherine Tate's Donna Noble, who you may recall got plonked back in real life with no memories of the Doctor but with her brain primed to melt as soon as she remembers him) along with Davies is nakedly populist, nostalgist stuff. It's also the best idea the series has had in the last decade, and exactly the kick up the arse it needed.

The Crown (TBC)

In the last season of Netflix's absolute juggernaut of a 20th century epic, we'll get to the heavy stuff. There was a lot of portent and pouting in season five; in season six Diana's going to die very early doors. From there we'll head into the Blair premiership proper, the wreckage of the death of Diana, the beginnings of the split between Harry, William and Charles, the demise of Blairism and Queen Lizzie's encroaching mortality. Maybe we'll get to see some 9/11 too! What larks!

Masters of the Air (TBC)

cannes, france may 25 austin butler attends the screening of elvis during the 75th annual cannes film festival at palais des festivals on may 25, 2022 in cannes, france photo by marc piaseckifilmmagic
Marc Piasecki//Getty Images

After the extremely brilliant Band of Brothers and the kind of good The Pacific, Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg’s third arm of their nobly commemorative Second World War dramas is set among the US Air Force during its attempts to bomb Germany into submission. No Time To Die director Cary Joji Fukunaga is on board to direct three episodes, and the long-as-your-arm cast list includes Ncuti Gatwa, Barry Keoghan and erstwhile hip-swiveller Austin Butler. Expect a high class operation all round.

Fallout (TBC)

The other big post-apocalypse-set video game adaptation of 2023 will be the retrofuturist horror-world of Fallout on Amazon Prime. Walter Goggins and Kyle MacLachlan are on board, and leaked set photos suggest the mech suits are going to be properly gargantuan. If you're unfamiliar, the world of Fallout sees the remnants humanity scurrying around underground vaults trying not to die. It'll be fun!

True Detective: Night Country (TBC)

Hey, remember 2014 when True Detective was the best thing we'd ever seen? And then when it came back in 2015, and it was sort of bad? And then the Mahershala Ali-powered third season made it kind of good again? There's an upward trend there! Jodie Foster is the new season's heavyweight casting, and she's on the trail of six men who've disappeared from an Alaskan research station. Spooky.

Squid Game season 2 (TBC)

The breakout hit of 2021 will return for a second run of its particular brand of Saw: The Live Experience-style games, whittling down a band of desperate South Korean people in ever more inventively explosive ways. Early noises are that Gi-hun, our hero from season one, will go looking for revenge on the people who put him through the trials. No word on when it'll be out yet though – don't expect it before Q3.

How To With John Wilson (TBC)

We finally got the first two seasons of maladroit New Yorker John Wilson's slices of life on iPlayer this autumn, and it's one of those shows that you immediately tell everyone you know to watch as soon as they possibly can. What starts out as interrogations of problems big and small – how to remember your dreams, how to get a decent parking spot – turn into tender explorations of more profound things, all from Wilson's POV as he wanders the city. The third season is out on 30 December this year in the States, but there's no word yet on when we'll get it over here. It's so, so, so good.