Wednesday: Jenna Ortega Confirms Season 2 Will Dive Deeper into Addams Family Lore

Jenna Ortega has more than once acknowledged that before Wednesday came along, friends and family in her life were already comparing her to the Addams Family’s woeful daughter, a character originally created by Charles Addams more than 90 years ago. With season 2 nearly upon us, she appears poised to make that likeness exact. During […]

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Whether it’s in your living room on a flatscreen, in bed on a tablet, or at your desk on a laptop, watching television is usually a relatively private experience. That’s not the case at South by Southwest.

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The 2025 SXSW Film and TV Festival is filled with small screen series getting their public debut on big screens. Some are appropriately huge like the star-studded Apple TV+ comedy The Studio, while others are lowkey indie and international pilots looking for a home. Here are all the shows you’re going to want to keep an eye on from this year’s festival.

#1 Happy Family USA

When the Hussein family’s neighbors start to see them as enemy #1 in the aftermath of 9/11, they only have one option: to become #1 Happy Family USA. Patriotism! Smiles! Fitting in! This satirical adult animated series, created by Ramy Youssef with South Park producer Pam Brady and A24, mines the early 2000s Muslim-American experience for sharp, absurd comedy. It’ll make its world premiere at SXSW before launching the first of two already-commissioned seasons on Prime Video in March.

Government Cheese

The ambitious, unconventional Chambers family were doing just fine in 1969 San Fernando Valley without patriarch Hampton while he served his jail time. Now, he’s a free man hoping to shake off his criminal past, reunite with his wife and sons, and make sense of what appear to be episodes of divine intervention in his life.

Created by acclaimed music video director Paul Hunter and screenwriter-producer Ayesha Carr, Government Cheese is a surrealist dramedy based on Hunter’s short film of the same name, which will stream on Apple TV+ in April. The 10-episode series stars Silo and Lawmen: Bass Reeves’ David Oyelowo as Hampton Chambers, with Simone Missick (Luke Cage’s Misty Knight) as his wife, Astoria. Expect strangeness.

Happy Face

The Dropout, Dirty John, Dr. Death … behind every hit true crime TV show is a podcast telling the same story, but without pictures and with more ads for Mailchimp. Eight-episode Paramount+ series Happy Face is based on the pod of the same name by Melissa G. Moore, a creator with a unique perspective on real-life serial killer Keith “Happy Face” Hunter Jesperson by dint of being his daughter. Starring Dennis Quaid as Jesperson and Annaleigh Ashford as Moore, it lands on March 20.

Spy High

You remember that one teacher with eyes in the back of their head? In 2010, a Philadelphia school district decided to go one better. Using webcams in school-issued laptops, they were alleged to have spied on students in their bedrooms at home, leading to an accusation that 15-year-old Blake Robbins was selling drugs. Robbins brought a lawsuit against them and successfully won damages, and Mark Wahlberg’s production company is here to tell the story in this four-part Prime Video docuseries.

The Studio

Matt Remick (Seth Rogen) got into the film biz because he loves movies, but now that he’s the head of Continental Studios, he’s worried that his job is to ruin them. Thanks to bottom lines, in-fighting execs, and narcissist creatives, it’ll certainly ruin him in this 10-episode industry satire coming to Apple TV+ on March 26.

From longtime collaborators Rogen and Evan Goldberg (Superbad, Knocked Up, This is the End), The Studio stars Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’s Catherine O’Hara and Agatha All Along’s Kathryn Hahn, with Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston, The Batman’s Paul Dano, and star cameos aplenty (Rogen and Goldberg are connected, so expect to see appearances by Martin Scorsese, Charlize Theron, and more). Can The Studio reach the same cynical depths as Robert Altman’s 1992 classic The Player? It can try! With any luck, it’ll fare better than HBO’s superhero movie satire The Franchise, which didn’t last longer than a season.

Dates in Real Life

From Norway comes the dramedy Dates in Real Life, a sideways look at dating in the age of technology. Dates in Real Life stars Gina Bernhoft Gørvell as Ida, a woman who thought her virtual relationship with her boyfriend was fulfilling—that is until she sees him in person with another woman. Her virtual reality shattered, Ida must figure out how to relate with others face-to-face. Creator Jakob Rørvik goes beyond banal observations for his award-winning series.

Mix Tape

Jim Sturgess is no stranger to the intersection of romance and music, having starred in the 2007 Beatles jukebox musical Across the Universe. Now, music is set to take him someplace even more exotic than across the universe: a 1989 house party in Sheffield.

A collaborative effort among Canadian, Australian, Finnish, and Irish producers, Mix Tape follows two teens who bond over their love of music and then meet again 20 years later to reflect on what could have been.

Bulldozer

Amid a successful career in casting, voice acting, and playing background roles in sitcoms (perhaps you remember “Vanessa’s Friend” in Curb Your Enthusiasm season 9?), Joanna Leeds takes center stage by creating and starring in comedy pilot Bulldozer.

Assisted by notable performers like Nat Faxon, Harvey Guillen, and Mary Steenburgen, Bulldozer depicts one passionate, if misguided, woman trying to find love while lurching from crisis to crisis like some kind of…motorized construction machine.

Stars Diner

Fun fact: the statistic that 90% of restaurants fail in their first year is a myth. Truthfully, “only” 17% of restaurants close after year one. But what are the statistics for restaurants that happen to be situated next to a massive volcano that could end all life in Fresno, California?

That’s the situation facing the employees of Stars Diner. This indie TV pilot is directed by Fidel Ruiz-Healy and Tyler Walker and features Natalie Palamides (who stopped by last year’s SXSW to promote fellow indie TV project The Broadcast).

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