Mind Coffee: TV series I’ve resolved to see in 2019

I’ve had Netflix for a while. I just signed up for Hulu’s 12 months for $12 deal. Amazon Prime has shows I’d like to watch, but I haven’t taken the plunge.

But with the new year just days away, networks are rolling out new shows or coming back after a program’s midseason break. Looking through a wide-ranging list of the show debuts and new seasons, I’m struck by how many of them have been on the air for two, three, four or more seasons, yet I’ve never heard of them. “Future Man”? “Victoria”? “The Grand Tour”? “Crashing”? I’m beyond out-of-touch, more like out-of-reality.

But there are some returning shows and new series that I’ve put on my list of like-to-see. Whether I watch them is still questionable, but I have the best of intentions.

I was a huge fan of “Justified,” which I consider one of the best TV shows I’ve ever watched. A friend said I might like “Ozark” because it has a similar sensibility. The first two seasons are on Netflix and Season 3 is now in production for release later this year.

» “True Detective.” During one of those free weekends on cable, I recorded the first season of this show. I’d like to see the second season and the new one coming up, but I’m just not paying for HBO, not even for “Game of Thrones.”

» “Berlin Babylon.” The German-made crime drama is about as gritty as it gets, yet it’s almost impossible to pull yourself away once you start watching it. The two eight-episode seasons that aired in Germany were stuffed into one 16-episode season on Netflix. The third season began shooting in the fall. That means it will be mid- to late-2019 before it actually hits TV, but I’ll be waiting.

» “American Gods.” There’s no set premiere date for Season 2, but new episodes already have been made and will be released sometime in 2019. I like the TV series far more than the book, which I thought was a brilliant concept but wasted with a plot that meandered all over the place and generated very little that was engaging. The series stretches and expands on the book and is more interesting.

» “Project Blue Book.” I’m a sucker for UFOs and this new show on the History Channel is named after the U.S. Air Force’s investigation of UFOs that began in 1952 and was officially decommissioned in 1970. The fictional show focuses on J. Allen Hynek, who was the scientific consultant of Project Blue Book. And apparently, they are out there.

Contact Shawn Ryan at mshawnryan@gmail.com.