Beyond Star Trek: Beyond: 79 of our most anticipated entertainments of 2016, part 2

This is the second installment of a two-part inventory about stuff we’re totally stoked for in 2016. The first part, which ran yesterday, is here.

40. UnREAL, season 2 (summer)

Number nine on our 2015 Best Of TV list, Lifetime’s UnREAL wowed us all with its unflinching scripted look at what goes on behind-the-scenes of reality television. Season one ended with Rachel blowing up Everlasting, the idealized reality dating series that employs her, for the second year in a row, followed by an uneasy alliance between herself and exec badass producer Quinn. With everyone hating Rachel now, and some cast members off on other series (like standout Johanna Braddy, now over on Quantico), we have no idea where this could all lead. But we’ll still be glued to this compulsively watchable summer series. [Gwen Ihnat]

41. Conner4Real (June 3)

The first time Andy Samberg got a shot at making a movie with his Lonely Island/SNL/lifelong buddies Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone, the result was the delightful box office bomb Hot Rod. The trio has seen plenty of success since then both on SNL and on their Lonely Island music-comedy albums, so they’ve gotten another shot at movies with this Judd Apatow production. Little is known for sure about the project (even the title seems tentative), but it may involve a rapper (Samberg) reluctantly reuniting with the boy band he left behind. Hopefully the protection of Apatow allows the guys to maintain the homemade weirdness of Hot Rod even as they venture back into the more familiar world of music parody. [Jesse Hassenger]

42. The Long Cosmos (June 14)

We lost one of genre fiction’s greats this year with the death of Terry Pratchett, best known for his satirical fantasy series Discworld. The final book in that series was released a few months after Pratchett’s death, but we still get to read the last entry in another series—The Long Earth, his collaboration with hard sci-fi writer Stephen Baxter. The five-book series is set in a world where numerous alternate Earths are discovered, all devoid of people. Travel between them is cheap and easy, and humanity spreads out through the multiverse. Pratchett had completed work on the planned fifth and final book, The Long Cosmos, before his death, so fans can look forward to a satisfying conclusion both to this story and a remarkable career. [Mike Vago]

43. Finding Dory (June 17)

Pixar’s Finding Nemo offered a perfectly lovely ending that made the words “the end” seem pretty definitive, but if Andrew Stanton, who wrote and directed the film, is of a mind to pen and helm a sequel, then it’s worth keeping an open mind—particularly when original voice actors Ellen DeGeneres (Dory), Albert Brooks (Marlin), and Willem Dafoe (Gill) are also returning. Finding Dory takes place six months after Nemo was found and revolves around Dory unexpectedly regaining memories from her childhood and deciding to search for her family, with Marlin and Nemo in tow. [Will Harris]

43. Independence Day: Resurgence (June 24)

Given how long an Independence Day sequel has been under discussion without coming to fruition, it’s hard not to raise an amused eyebrow at the confidence of Resurgence’s slogan: “We always knew they were coming back.” Still, if there’s one thing Roland Emmerich’s films are rarely lacking, it’s swagger. Some of the other things they’re rarely lacking: explosions, mass destructions, and loads of special effects, all of which look to be present, as are several cast members from the original film, including Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, Judd Hirsch, Vivica A. Fox, and Brent Spiner. Alas, Will Smith won’t be around, but Jessie Usher is stepping in to play Steven Hiller’s son, Dylan, and he’ll be ably abetted by fellow Independence Day newcomer Liam Hemsworth. [Will Harris]

44. La La Land (July 15)

Damien Chazelle’s follow-up to Whiplash is being described as a comedy about an L.A. jazz pianist (Ryan Gosling) who falls in love with an aspiring actress (Emma Stone). Though he’s best known for wringing sweaty tension out of tortured musical perfectionism—whether in his widely acclaimed breakthrough, or in his similarly themed script for the De Palma-esque Grand Piano—Chazelle first attracted critical attention with a scrappy jazz musical called Guy And Madeline On A Park Bench, and this promises to be a return to his more light-hearted, romantic roots. J.K. Simmons, who won a much-deserved Oscar for Whiplash, plays a supporting role. [Ignatiy Vishnevetsky]

45. Ghostbusters (July 15)

Sexist backlash aside, director Paul Feig and star Melissa McCarthy have already proved that they are a hilarious, not-be-missed combination with Bridesmaids and Spy. So if anyone can take on this beloved franchise and make it relatable for a new century, it’s this crew, with head Bridesmaid Kristen Wiig in tow, along with Chris Hemsworth as the GB receptionist. So far, the Girl Power posts in face of unruly sexists have made us even more excited for this movie, like that’s even possible. Hey, if Bill Murray’s on board, no reason in the world why you shouldn’t be. [Gwen Ihnat]

46. Star Trek: Beyond (July 22)

The first trailer for the third J.J. Abrams-produced Star Trek movie immediately earned an explosion of vitriol from internet commenters who decried it as being everything they’d feared that a Star Trek movie directed by Justin Lin would be, but the use of Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage,” something Lin intentionally borrowed from Abrams’ first Trek film, is exactly the sort of moment that you’d expect the man behind the Fast And The Furious franchise to latch onto. Idris Elba serves as the film’s resident villain, which should add a touch of class to the proceedings, but even though Beyond already looks like a distinctly different Trek film from its predecessors, it seems destined to be an action-packed sci-fi extravaganza at the very least. [Will Harris]

47. Untitled Bourne sequel (July 29)

The Bourne trilogy was a highlight of action filmmaking in the ’00s, favoring low-budget-looking set pieces to the explosion-filled pomp that came to rule the decade’s biggest actioners. After the disappointing reboot/spin-off Bourne Legacy with Jeremy Renner—a forgettable film that disposed with much of the realism that made the original trilogy stand out—it’s good news that Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass are back to give us the real thing. [Caitlin PenzeyMoog]

48. Harry Potter And The Cursed Child (July 30)

One of two new stories coming this year from Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, The Cursed Child is stage play designed to be seen in two parts in London’s West End, making it a trifle difficult for the American muggle of average means to view. Still, it’s officially the eighth Harry Potter entry, and it focuses on Harry’s son Albus, who “must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted.” Sounds dark, and the best Harry Potter entries are the ones that traded in the kid’s stuff and embraced the darkness. [Caitlin PenzeyMoog]

49. Suicide Squad (August 5)

Following the Christopher Nolan-directed Dark Knight trilogy, DC Comics has struggled to find its footing on film, in stark contrast to its ultra-successful rival Marvel. Warner Brothers and DC are sticking with Zack Snyder for this year’s Man Of Steel sorta-sequel Batman V. Superman, which leaves bad-guy team-up Suicide Squad as the potential breath of fresh air. The Comic-Con trailer traffics in the same darkness and grit as a Snyder joint, but while director David Ayer doesn’t have a spotless track record, he’s surely a distinctive voice, which ought to be the DC approach anyway, countering the Marvel house style: be the filmmaker-based comics movies. That may not come to pass, but Suicide Squad’s motley collection of villains (including Margot Robbie as fan favorite Harley Quinn) recruited to fight even-worse evil at least has a shot at breaking away from the superhero formula. [Jesse Hassenger]

50. The Summer Olympics on NBC (August 5)

Call us suckers, but we’ve really been eating up those NBC commercials touting the network’s 2016 Summer Olympics coverage. The opening ceremony’s pageantry! The beautiful Brazilian scenery! The camaraderie and the competition! Winter Olympics are great and all, but Summer’s where you get track, swimming, soccer, basketball, gymnastics, and all sorts of other quick and fun sports, all of which should be available in a dizzying array of different programming iterations. Want to simply watch nightly recaps of what went on in Brazil that day? Great. NBC’s got you covered. Prefer, instead, to watch archery preliminaries online? Same thing. While away the day at work with sports noise on in the background. Who cares? The massive amounts of material available to us will be absolutely staggering, but we can’t wait. Bring it on. [Marah Eakin]

51. Pete’s Dragon (August 12)

A non-musical remake of 1977 Disney clamshell-VHS-case favorite—but, wait, wait, wait, it’s directed and co-written by David Lowery, the prolific no-budget indie jack-of-all-trades editor-producer-cinematographer who made an unexpected leap into the big leagues following his second feature directing effort, Ain’t Them Bodies Saints. This is a big-budget movie about a boy and his invisible dragon buddy from the guy who cut Upstream Color and produced Listen Up Philip, and we can’t wait to find out what that looks like. Bryce Dallas Howard, Wes Bentley, Robert Redford, and Karl Urban lead the cast, with unbelievably named newcomer Oakes Fegley as Pete. [Ignatiy Vishnevetsky]

52. Kubo And The Two Strings (August 19)

Quietly, and somewhat improbably, Portland-based Laika Studios has become a credible challenger to Pixar’s 3-D animation throne, deploying stop-motion animated features (Coraline, ParaNorman, The Boxtrolls) with enough heart (and a certain degree of twistedness) to match anything coming from John Lasseter’s old crew. The studio’s new film looks to be no exception; a tale of a young boy questing for his father’s samurai armor, the trailer for Kubo is almost excessively gorgeous—those character designs! Those waves! Those origami-influenced birds!—suggesting that Laika will be keeping up its streak for at least another year. [William Hughes]

53. Based On A True Story, by Norm Macdonald (fall)

The former “Weekend Update” anchor is penning what Random House describes as the story of his life “more or less,” including his Canadian upbringing, his appearance on Star Search, and his stint on SNL. Norm Macdonald has offered the assurance that his book will please those who enjoy “a good old-fashioned tell-all bombshell about sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll, and if you like an unflinching account of how the dirty little business of big-time comedy works,” although he quickly offered the caveat that there’s at least one flinch and that he was actually lying about the rock ’n’ roll. As long as there are stories from the set of Dirty Work, we’re in. [Will Harris]

54. Johnny Marr’s autobiography (fall)

With a career that includes not only his legendary work with The Smiths but also time spent with The The, Electronic, The Cribs, and Modest Mouse, Johnny Marr should have plenty to say about the music industry from the ’80s up through the present, and he’ll be doing it in his own voice, having established in early conversations about his book that he planned to write “the way I talk.” Given his tendency to be relatively laid back in most of his interviews, fingers are crossed that the end result will be an entertaining read, but whatever Marr ends up titling his forthcoming memoir, he claims it won’t be a clever play on his last name: as he told New Musical Express earlier this year, “I’ve been looking at those headlines all my adult life, thanks very much.” Fine, just let Marr Than A Feeling go to waste, then. [Will Harris]

55. Phil Collins’ autobiography (October)

It’s easy enough to start scoffing at the mere mention of Phil Collins’ name, but at this point in his life and career, there’s every reason to believe that Collins’ claim that he’s writing a “warts and all” memoir is completely above board, as he’s got more than enough money at this point to be able to afford to speak his mind. In addition to tales from his time with Genesis and the gradual expansion of his solo career, expect Collins to spin stories from his early days as an actor (he was an extra in A Hard Day’s Night, for instance) and discuss his many other musical accomplishments. [Will Harris]

56. Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (October 21)

Just accept that Tom Cruise is past his great directors phase that lasted roughly from 1996 through 2005, reuniting with one of the few non-great directors from that period (Edward Zwick) for his Jack Reacher sequel. Cruise seems to remain in movie-star damage-control mode, booking mostly sci-fi and thrillers, but he’s also given some of his best movie-star performances in movies like Edge Of Tomorrow, the recent Mission: Impossible pictures and, yes, the original Jack Reacher, a satisfying slab of pulp with substantial cable-rewatch value. The sequel may see Cruise stepping into his second-ever franchise (after Mission: Impossible), but it’s a potentially worthy one—a series of ’70s-meets-’90s thrillers aimed at adults. [Jesse Hassenger]

57. Doctor Strange (November 4)

Marvel is presently playing the details of this film very close to the vest, which makes sense given how many months away from release it still is, but the casting continues to intrigue. In addition to Benedict Cumberbatch putting on the Eye Of Agamotto to play Dr. Stephen Strange, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Tilda Swinton will be portraying Baron Mordo (or some approximation thereof) and The Ancient One, respectively. Little is known about the plot beyond the fact that it appears to be Strange’s origin story, but Marvel’s track record is such that it’s already a given that it’ll make millions at the box office. Just as long as the buzz is that it’s better than the 1978 TV movie, we’ll stay excited about its prospects. [Will Harris]

58. Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them (November 18)

A J.K. Rowling-penned romp through 1930s New York, this Harry Potter spin-off tells the story of wizard Newt Scamander, the author who wrote Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them, the textbook Harry and gang use some 70 years later. The teaser trailer shows Eddie Redmayne’s Newt traveling to New York with a briefcase of fantastic beasts that cause some mayhem. It’s tough to tell if it’ll be any good, but Rowling hasn’t let us down yet. [Caitlin PenzeyMoog]

59. Moana (November 23)

The last time Disney returned to its princess genre, it produced the recording breaking, hit-single generating juggernaut Frozen. That means expectations are especially high for Disney’s next princess adventure, but so far fans have every reason to look forward to Moana. The film follows a Polynesian teen—Disney’s first princess of color since 2009’s The Princess And The Frog—who sets off in search of a fabled island. The first concept art has been appropriately lush, while newcomer Auli’i Cravalho seems to have the right pluck for a Disney heroine. Even more exciting: Broadway favorite Lin-Manuel Miranda is working on the film’s music (which he announced via rap) and at least one song will be performed by none other than Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who is on hand to voice a demigod. [Caroline Siede]

60. Kanye West, Swish (TBA)

Sure, a new Kanye West record could probably have been on this very list a year ago, but you can’t rush genius, or whatever. At the very least, West’s Yeezus follow-up has a name—Swish, after Kim Kardashian—and on December 13, West tweeted, “I’m finishing my album,” saying, “no offense to anyone… I’m asking everyone DON’T ASK ME FOR ANYTHING TILL AFTER I’M FINISHED WITH MY ALBUM.” Granted, West probably didn’t need to take to Twitter to shut down whoever’s hounding him, but at least we know he’s making progress on that new LP. God (and Kanye) willing, Swish should be out sometime this year. [Marah Eakin]

61. Things To Come (TBA)

With a run of acclaimed low-key dramas under her belt (including The Father Of My Children, one of The A.V. Club’s favorite movies of the decade), Mia Hansen-Løve now takes on the essential rite of passage of the European arthouse filmmaker: making a movie with Isabelle Huppert. Formerly titled The Future, Hansen-Løve’s follow-up to her decades-spanning house music drama Eden seems to find the French writer-director scaling back to the narrow domestic focus of her early films, with Huppert playing a philosophy professor who’s going through a personal crisis. Shot this past summer, Things To Come will presumably debut at a major festival later this year, and given Hansen-Løve’s track record, we can’t wait to be among the first to tell you about it. [Ignatiy Vishnevetsky]

62. Creepy and The Woman In The Silver Plate (TBA)

Kiyoshi Kurosawa—the Japanese director behind Cure and Pulse, two of The A.V. Club’s favorite modern horror movies—has two new films slated for this year. Set to hit Japanese theaters in July, but currently without an American distributor, Creepy is an adaption of a award-winning mystery novel about a criminology professor who is asked to investigate an unsolved disappearance, but soon gets drawn into the suspicious activities of his own neighbors. But we’re even more intrigued by The Woman In The Silver Plate, the veteran director’s first real international production. (The earlier Seventh Code, shot on location in Russia, only half-counts.) Set in Paris, the film reportedly centers on a French photographer obsessed with daguerreotypes, believing them to have supernatural significance, and the young man who becomes his assistant. [Ignatiy Vishnevetsky]

63. Big Little Lies (TBA)

Australian author Liane Moriarty offers beach reads that won’t turn your brain to mush, with engaging characters and usually an intriguing mystery to keep you flipping pages until you forget to put on the sunscreen. Her Big Little Lies starts off with a mysterious death at a school event, but immediately delves, as she so deftly does, into the intrigue-filled labyrinth of grade-school parents, and the politics behind playdates and carpools. An all-star cast has already lined up for this David E. Kelley-helmed HBO event—including Reese Witherspoon, Adam Scott, Shailene Woodley, and Nicole Kidman—transforming this paperback bestseller into an unlikely prestige miniseries. [Gwen Ihnat]

64. Personal Shopper (TBA)

French director Olivier Assayas—whose wife, Mia Hansen-Løve, also has a new movie due that we’re looking forward to—reunites with the increasingly less underrated Kristen Stewart for what’s being described as a ghost story set within the world of French fashion. Assayas’ last film, Clouds Of Sils Maria, made Stewart the first American actor to win a Cesar, the French equivalent of the Oscar, and his new one—which was fast-tracked after Assayas’ planned American debut, which would have starred Stewart’s Twilight co-star Robert Pattinson, fell through—is reportedly something of a thematic companion piece, albeit with a supernatural themes. [Ignatiy Vishnevetsky]

65. Paris Is Happening (TBA)

There’s no release information yet for the new movie from Bertrand Bonello, director of Saint Laurent and House Of Pleasures, one of The A.V. Club’s favorites movies of the decade—and that probably has a lot to do with bad timing. Filmed in this past summer, Bonello’s latest reportedly deals with a group of radicalized teenagers, and is said include terrorist attacks on Paris as part of the plot. The writer-director has been understandably cagey about the project, which sees him returning to a contemporary setting after two historical mood pieces, going only so far as to say that the project is less focused on the why of terrorism (“If you want understand the reasons behind violence, just read the newspaper”) than on the how. [Ignatiy Vishnevetsky]

66. A new Radiohead album (TBA)

It’s been nearly five years since Radiohead’s last record, the decent but slightly forgettable The King Of Limbs. That’s a long time even by their standards—even if their follow-up drops surprise-style in early 2016, it’ll be their longest between-album gap yet. Hopefully the extra time has allowed the band to engage in one of its signature style change-ups; one reason King Of Limbs underwhelmed was that it was maybe the first Radiohead to more or less sound like the one that preceded it. But even if the new album is another eight-song spiritual sequel to In Rainbows, it’ll still be worth dissecting and obsessing over. [Jesse Hassenger]

67. Marvel’s Luke Cage (TBA)

So far Marvel is two for two with its gritty Netflix shows, with both Daredevil and Jessica Jones snagging spots on our Top TV of 2015 list. And the next series in the Defenders universe has the added advantage of a recognizable star: Mike Colter earned rave reviews for his supporting turn as Luke Cage, Jessica Jones’ indestructible love interest. And there’s every reason to think he’ll be just as good, if not better, on his own series as he’s allowed to delve even deeper into the role of tortured, soulful barkeep. The show switches locales from Hell’s Kitchen to Harlem, which Colter has promised will give Luke Cage a “different energy” than its predecessors. It’s got an insanely talented supporting cast including Alfre Woodard, Mahershala Ali, Rosario Dawson, and newcomer Simone Missick as fan favorite superhero Misty Knight. Plus, after umpteen films starring white guys named Chris, it’s about time that Marvel got around to centering a project on a black hero. [Caroline Siede]

68. Persona 5 (TBA)

A second-year veteran of our Most Anticipated list (thanks to a recently announced delay), this combination of role-playing game battles and heart-to-heart conversations with your friends looks as good as it ever has. Taking the Persona series’ tried-and-true “high school student by day, supernatural warrior by night” conceit and adding in a jazzy soundtrack and your hero’s new role as a metaphysical cat burglar, stealing darkness from other people’s hearts, and this latest iteration of the long-running franchise looks like it’ll be a blast, whenever it ends up coming out. [William Hughes]

69. The Lost City Of Z (TBA)

This long-in-the-works passion project for overlooked master James Gray (The Immigrant) is one of the most anticipated and followed cinephile items of the year. Adapted from David Grann’s acclaimed non-fiction bestseller, The Lost City Of Z centers on British explorer Percival Fawcett’s search for a reputed lost city in the Amazon, which ended with Fawcett’s mysterious 1925 disappearance in the jungles of Brazil. Set photos of World War I battlefields and reports of extensive filming in the U.K. suggest that this could be the sweeping historical epic that lets Gray’s New Hollywood-meets-the-silent-era style run wild, though it’ll be strange to see him working without longtime leading man Joaquin Phoenix for the first time in two decades. The cast includes Charlie Hunnam, Sienna Miller, and Robert Pattinson. [Ignatiy Vishnevetsky]

70. The Banner Saga 2 (TBA)

The first Banner Saga played like the lushly animated, unholy spawn of Oregon Trail and Final Fantasy Tactics, the kind of game that made you ask yourself, “Do I force-march my wagon train of refugees away from danger, or risk a monster attack by letting them rest?” and, “Wouldn’t life be easier if I let some of these people starve?” We don’t know much about the game’s sequel yet, but developer Stoic has promised that consequences from the first game will carry forward, a dread-heavy oath that matches the new game’s grimly appropriate release date: “Winter.” [William Hughes]

71. ReCore (TBA)

It’s been nearly eight years since three of the key developers behind Metroid Prime left Retro to form Armature Studio. Despite that pedigree, the team has only released one game of its own in that time (though not for lack of trying), an all but forgotten handheld Batman game. But in 2016, Armature is putting out two original games, and it’s ReCore, an Xbox One exclusive conceptualized in partnership with Mega Man creator Keiji Inafune, that has us most excited. The details are still hazy—something about controlling the last human in a vast desert world as she befriends robots and searches for answers among the ruins—but it looks to combine ideas from Mega Man Legends with Pixar levels of emotional attachment to non-human characters. [Matt Gerardi]

72. Tacoma (TBA)

Even from what little of Tacoma we’ve seen, it makes the last game from Fullbright, Gone Home, seem like a focused and intimate test run for what the acclaimed studio was planning all along. Tacoma transplants all the mystery and exploration of that grounded debut into an original sci-fi setting. Instead of digging through notes in your sister’s Lisa Frank binders, you’re walking the halls of an abandoned space station and observing the holographic recordings of its missing crew. Fullbright has already proven deft at recreating familiar places and people, and it’s exciting to see the studio apply those same skills to a vision all its own. [Matt Gerardi]

73. Pathologic remake (TBA)

Ice-Pick Lodge’s Pathologic is one of the most frustrating entries in the history of horror gaming; fascinating and endlessly tense, but cursed with a truly terrible Russian-to-English translation that’s the kiss of death for a game that’s couched in nuance and metaphysics, and also brutally difficult to survive. Luckily, crowdfunding is coming to the rescue: Ice-Pick launched a Kickstarter last year to remake its game, complete with a (hopefully) improved new script. If it gets the company’s twisted tale of medicine, disease, and sacrifice in front of more players, then it’ll make for one video game remake that serves as an example of the unequivocal good in revisiting old works. [William Hughes]

74. Kentucky Route Zero: Act IV (TBA)

Since the release of its first chapter in January 2013, Cardboard Computer’s Kentucky Route Zero has become gaming’s most bewitching, cerebral slow burn. Across its low-key, poetic odyssey through a quietly surreal vision of the American south, KRZ has developed a fascination with the ways capitalism and the country’s economic woes affect its people, a powerful metaphor that emerged to the game’s forefront in the superlative Act III. But it’s so much more than just that crushing exploration. Nothing else looks, sounds, or cares quite like Kentucky Route Zero, and its creators have promised Act IV is almost done. [Matt Gerardi]

75. Bruce Springsteen’s solo album (TBA)

Thank the heavens, 2016 means Bruce Springsteen is getting the band back together for a 24-city tour. Members of the church of Springsteen can thank Bruce’s next album for the cross-country jaunt. “The project I’ve been working on is more of a solo project,” Springsteen told E Street Radio in December. “It wasn’t a project I was going to probably take the band out on. So I said, ‘Gee, that’s going to push the band playing again until a ways in the future. It’ll be nice to get some playing in so you don’t wind up being two or three years between E Street tours.’” For the tour, The Boss is paring down the E Street Band from a bloated 18 members to the core (plus Jake Clemons and Soozie Tyrell). A Springsteen record is always welcome, but a potential solo album is even better. Springsteen has put out some decent, if not great, records in recent years. A solo record could give him the freedom to enter exciting new territory that he hasn’t tried out since the last time he gave the E Street Band a break, 2006’s excellent We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions. [Molly Eichel]

76. Frank Ocean, Boys Don’t Cry (TBA)

You can’t claim the top spot in one of The A.V. Club’s year-end best album lists and not expect us to get impatient for what’s next. Though an ambiguous message from way back in April seemed to imply that Ocean’s sophomore album was imminent, the remainder of 2015 breezed by without another peep, and fans were left feeling blue while anticipating the follow-up to Channel Orange. Nevertheless, the extended silence gives hope that the perfectionist is simply fine-tuning his latest masterpiece, which again feels poised to achieve “best of” status, no matter what year it comes out. [Cameron Scheetz]

77. Search Party (TBA)

It’s about damn time someone gave Alia Shawkat a chance to headline a comedy of her own. After years of playing kooky best friends and killing it in one-off guest appearances, Shawkat will take the lead in TBS’ Search Party. Part of the “very funny” network’s major brand overhaul this year, the dark half-hour comedy puts a group of aimless twentysomethings (including John Early and Meredith Hagner) on the trail of their missing best friend. The pitch-perfect early trailer highlights the show’s enticingly unique tone and hints that maybe (just Maeby) what these characters are really searching for is themselves. [Cameron Scheetz]

78. James Blake, Radio Silence (TBA)

A lot of the magic in James Blake’s output thus far can be found in the small moments of pause and restraint. Similarly, though it’s been some time since we’ve heard anything official from the enigmatic electronic artist, you can bet that Blake has been using the moment of silence to tinker away at another album of expertly produced, genre-defying music. Official details on Radio Silence, his third studio LP, have been limited, but the promise of collaborations with the likes of Justin Vernon and Kanye West will certainly make this one worth the wait. [Cameron Scheetz]

79. Westworld (TBA)

In comparison to the blockbusting franchise that Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park has inspired, the novelist’s early foray into film, Westworld, looks like a rinky-dink state fair. Leave it to executive producer J.J. Abrams to blow the dust off the ol’ attraction and get its gears turning at HBO, where the network is hungry for a big, sexy new series. Word on the sci-fi/Western hybrid has been sparse, but the cast alone (who may or may not be touching genitals) is worth lining up for, with Anthony Hopkins, Ed Harris, Evan Rachel Wood, and James Marsden as the main attractions. [Cameron Scheetz]