TV shows to watch in March, from Ted Lasso to Succession

(Image credit: Claudette Barius/HBO)

published 1 March 2023

March 2023 is absolutely packed when it comes to TV, with at least four massive shows set to return for new seasons — and two of them are even back on the same weekend. Some intriguing new series are also scheduled to premiere, including one that pairs Bob Odenkirk with AMC once again. Here are the biggest new and returning TV shows to watch in March:

The Mandalorian (March 1)

Pedro Pascal could seriously use some help with child care, as he'll soon be taking care of both Ellie and Grogu. The hit Star Wars show The Mandalorian returns for its third season to kick off March, though if you didn't watch The Book of Boba Fett, you may be a bit confused. Season two of The Mandalorian ended with Din Djarin dropping Grogu, a.k.a. Baby Yoda, off to be trained by Luke Skywalker. But in the spinoff The Book of Boba Fett, Grogu ended his training early and returned to his surrogate dad. So Mando and Grogu are back together in the new season, which promises to further deal with the fallout of Din removing his helmet, thereby breaking the code of his sect of Mandalorians. He also still has the Darksaber, a weapon wielded by the person who can rule all of Mandalore. New additions to season 3 include Back to the Future's Christopher Lloyd, who can perhaps go back in time to warn the Mandalorian producers that resolving a season finale cliffhanger in a spinoff may not be a great idea.

Let's get ready to rock. Riley Keough, granddaughter of Elvis Presley, stars in this Amazon Prime Video adaptation of the bestselling 2019 novel Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid. It chronicles the rise of a rock band in the 1970s, which is fictional but was loosely inspired by Fleetwood Mac. Sam Claflin, Camila Morrone, Suki Waterhouse, and Timothy Olyphant also star. Reid serves as producer, as does Reese Witherspoon. But the show was created by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, who have adapted bestselling books for the screen before by writing the film versions of The Spectacular Now, The Fault in Our Stars, and Paper Towns. The show will also feature original songs from Blake Mills, and musicians like Marcus Mumford and Phoebe Bridgers collaborated on the soundtrack, which there's a strong chance you'll find on your Spotify Wrapped at the end of 2023.

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For Mel Brooks, giving his 1981 comedy the title History of the World, Part I used to just be a gag, not a promise of a sequel. But more than 40 years later, he's decided to actually make Part II a reality. Brooks writes and produces this Hulu comedy series that follows up his classic parody set across multiple historical time periods. The sequel show has the same basic premise as the movie and stars a murderers' row of comedians and actors, including Ike Barinholtz, Nick Kroll, Wanda Sykes, Jack Black, Danny DeVito, Josh Gad, Seth Rogen, Sarah Silverman, and the list goes on, and the trailer teases sketches about Harriet Tubman, Alexander Graham Bell, Sigmund Freud, and more figures from throughout history. "I can't wait to once more tell the real truth about all the phony baloney stories the world has been conned into believing are history!" Brooks joked when the series was announced. If the show works out, perhaps he'll finally get around to making Spaceballs 2: The Search for More Money next.

Yeaaaah! After a far longer hiatus than expected thanks to some production delays, Ted Lasso is finally returning for its third, and potentially last, season this month. At the end of season 2, AFC Richmond was back in the Premier League, but Nate shockingly betrayed Ted by joining Rupert's team, West Ham United, as a coach. In the third season, Roy Kent is now assistant coach alongside Beard, and as Ted "deals with pressures at work, he continues to wrestle with his own personal issues back home," per Apple TV+. Apple hasn't confirmed whether this is the final season, but expect some finality regardless. After all, Ted Lasso was originally pitched as a three-season arc, so even if the show continues, this season is expected to conclude the story as originally envisioned. Jason Sudeikis compared the second season to The Empire Strikes Back, meaning this would be Return of the Jedi. So brace for the shocking twist that Rebecca is actually Ted's secret twin sister.

How lucky are we to get another Bob Odenkirk AMC show less than a year after the end of Better Call Saul? Odenkirk stars in this new AMC series, which was previously titled Straight Man, as the chair of the English department at an underfunded college who "toes the line between midlife crisis and full-blown meltdown, navigating the offbeat chaos in his personal and professional life," per the network. It's based on the novel Straight Man by Richard Russo. Paul Lieberstein, who played Toby on The Office and also produced that sitcom, is serving as executive producer, and he has described the series as "The Office, just with smarter people." Heck, it even also stars The Office's Oscar Nuñez. This will be Odenkirk's third show with AMC after Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad, in which Hank wasn't quite as lucky.

Not since Lost have we been so captivated by a plane crash mystery show. Showtime's Yellowjackets is yet another hit series set to return for a new season in March after its buzzy freshman outing. The show follows a group of teens who become stranded in the wilderness after their plane crashes, and that story is intercut with scenes of their adult selves in the future. But many questions remain about what, exactly, happened between the two storylines. Season one ended with the shocking death of Jackie, who froze to death. There's a lot that still has to happen before the teens make it out, though, and we know that at some point, they descend into cannibalism. Joining the cast this season are Lauren Ambrose and Simone Kessell as the adult versions of Van and Lottie, and Elijah Wood is also playing a citizen detective. Yellowjackets has already been renewed for season 3, though if this really is the new Lost, we can already predict it will all end with viewers wrongly believing they were dead the whole time.

We always have great expectations for any Olivia Colman project these days, and there's no reason to think she'll let us down with her latest series. The Oscar-winner stars as Miss Havisham in this FX on Hulu adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic novel Great Expectations, and Dunkirk star Fionn Whitehead plays Pip. This new version comes from Steven Knight, the creator of Peaky Blinders who also previously wrote a 2019 adaptation of Dickens' A Christmas Carol. The series will consist of six episodes, and the cast also includes Shalom Brune-Franklin as Estella, Ashley Thomas as Jaggers, and Johnny Harris as Magwitch. AMC is carving out a whole Anne Rice universe with Interview with the Vampire and Mayfair Witches, so if Great Expectations works out, perhaps a Dickens Cinematic Universe will be FX's answer.

2022 was a big year for "eat the rich" movies between Triangle of Sadness and The Menu, but peak terrible rich people content is about to return on HBO. Succession is back at the end of the month for its fourth and final season, which promises an all-out war between the Roy children and their father. Season three ended with Kendall, Shiv, and Roman teaming up against Logan, trying — and dramatically failing — to stop him from selling Waystar to GoJo CEO Lukas Matsson. "The prospect of this seismic sale provokes existential angst and familial division among the Roys as they anticipate what their lives will look like once the deal is complete," the plot synopsis for season 4 says. "A power struggle ensues as the family weighs up a future where their cultural and political weight is severely curtailed." Succession also happens to be returning the same weekend as Yellowjackets, so look forward to the thrilling crossover between the two shows, in which the phrase "eat the rich" becomes quite literal.

We still don't have a premiere date for Black Mirror's sixth season, but at least we're getting a show in March that sounds like an extended Black Mirror episode. Chris O'Dowd stars in this new Apple TV+ series that follows a "small town that is forever changed when a mysterious machine appears in the general store, promising to reveal each resident's true life potential," per Apple. That could get real dark, real fast, but the show is actually described as a half-hour comedy, and it was created by David West Read, one of the producers of Schitt's Creek. Gabrielle Dennis, Ally Maki, Josh Segarra, Damon Gupton, Crystal Fox, Sammy Fourlas, and Djouliet Amara also star, and it's based on the novel of the same name by M.O. Walsh. With O'Dowd at the center, this is one to look forward to for the IT Crowd crowd.

The Last of Us may be inching closer to its season finale, but HBO is bringing in the big guns to ensure you don't cancel your subscription when it's over. On top of Succession's return, Woody Harrelson and Justin Theroux also lead the star-studded White House Plumbers, which dramatizes the Watergate scandal. Harrelson plays E. Howard Hunt, while Theroux plays G. Gordon Liddy, and the show "tells the story of how Nixon's own political saboteurs and Watergate masterminds" accidentally "toppled the presidency they were zealously trying to protect," per HBO. Lena Headey, Judy Greer, Domhnall Gleeson, Kiernan Shipka, and F. Murray Abraham also star, and former Veep showrunner David Mandel serves as executive producer. HBO hasn't announced the premiere date, but it's expected to be in March. White House Plumbers is described as a five-episode miniseries, though given HBO's track record of turning limited series into ongoing dramas, don't be shocked to see it somehow return for White House Plumbers: Sicily.

Brendan worked as a culture writer at The Week from 2018 to 2023, covering the entertainment industry, including film reviews, television recaps, awards season, the box office, major movie franchises and Hollywood gossip. He has written about film and television for outlets including Bloody Disgusting, Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Heavy and The Celebrity Cafe.