70 TV shows you probably aren’t watching – but should
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Abbott Elementary
Quinta Brunson’s irresistible mockumentary-style sitcom follows the beleaguered teachers of an underfunded Philadelphia school. The whole cast is tremendous, but Janelle James is the ultimate scene-stealer as the self-obsessed, social media-savvy principal Ava. (Where to watch: Disney+)
Acapulco
Roughly inspired by the comic film How to Be a Latin Lover, Acapulco hits that Ted Lasso/Schitt’s Creek feel-good sweet spot. It’s set at a luxury Mexican resort in the 1980s, where wide-eyed staffer Maximo chases wealth – and the girl of his dreams. (Where to watch: Apple TV+)
The Afterparty
Following a murder at a high school reunion, different characters shares their perspectives – in the form of genre spoofs for each episode of this inventive whodunit, from action movie to animation, musical, thriller and, in the latest series, Wes Anderson parody. The sparky cast includes Tiffany Haddish and Jack Whitehall. (Where to watch: Apple TV+)
American Auto
Workplace sitcoms are ten-a-penny. Few, though, have the guts to set themselves in the exuberantly unsexy world of Detroit’s crumbling motor industry. Which perhaps explains why this show was cancelled after only two seasons. That’s a shame as its fish-out-of-water premise – a Big Pharma exec takes over a skidding auto business – is sharp and the writing is consistently good. (Where to watch: Sky Comedy/Now)
Annika
Originally a Radio 4 drama set in Oslo, this crime drama about a marine homicide unit has been transported to Glasgow – although Nicola Walker’s Annika Strandhed is still Norwegian, and still a wry presence, whether dealing with corpses or her stroppy teenage daughter. (Where to watch: Alibi/Now)
Arcane
In the “discourse” about whether HBO’s The Last Of Us was the greatest-ever video game adaptation, Arcane was unfairly ignored. Based on the League Of Legends online beat ’em up, it’s an animated steampunk thriller about two sisters – Jinx and Vi – who end up on opposite sides of a struggle for power in a richly-imagined fantasy universe. (Where to watch: Netflix)
Barry
This Bill Hader-starring black comedy has grown ever murkier over its gripping four seasons. Hader plays a dissatisfied hitman who finds new purpose in an acting class (run by Henry Winkler’s eccentric coach), but who can’t escape his violent past. The direction – particularly of action set-pieces – is more thilling and inventive than anything on the big screen. (Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, Sky, Now)
Behind Her Eyes
You’ll have to go far and wide to find a drama as bonkers as this eye-swivelling adaptation of Sarah Pinborough’s supernatural thriller. Simona Brown plays a single mum drawn into a web of forbidden love with her new boss (Tom Bateman) – and his creepily passive wife (Eve Hewson). Silly fun and worth staying with for a twist that will have you hooting aloud. (Where to watch: Netflix)
The Chair
Killing Eve’s Sandra Oh swaps assassins for infighting and identity politics in academia. She plays the newly appointed chair of a prestigious university English department, but when her colleague does a mock Nazi salute during a lecture, a cancel culture scandal erupts. (Where to watch: Netflix)
Cheaters
After succumbing to a hasty one-night stand when their flight is delayed, Josh (Joshua McGuire) and Fola (Susan Wokoma) arrive home to find they’re now neighbours – and each has a long-term partner. Can they resist temptation? Happily, this moreish romcom comes in 10-minute episodes. (Where to watch: BBC iPlayer)
Chef’s Table
David Gelb’s mouthwatering documentary series takes us into the kitchens of some of the world’s greatest culinary talents. It’s a veritable feast of food porn, as well as offering genuine insight into what makes the likes of Massimo Bottura, Alain Passard and Asma Khan tick. (Where to watch: Seasons 1-6 on Netflix)
Counterpart
Cold War spy games meet futuristic sci-fi. JK Simmons is lowly bureaucrat Howard, who relays messages between two parallel Earths – at least until his alternate-world self pitches up, on the track of a deadly assassin and with a secret about Howard’s wife. (Where to watch: Lionsgate+)
Dalgliesh
The ever-versatile Bertie Carvel makes a convincing account of PD James’s modest, poetry-scribbling detective in this classy new adaptation with a detailed 1970s setting. If you missed the premiere on Channel 5, you can now find it on Amazon. (Where to watch: Acorn TV, My5)
Dave
There are many TV shows about wannabe music moguls, and even a few worth your time (Atlanta, People Just Do Nothing). But this US sitcom is one of the choicest picks of the bunch. Co-created by rapper Dave Burd, it follows the travails of a fictionalised version of his stage persona, Lil Dicky, and is notable for its bevy of star cameos, from the obvious – Usher, Doja Cat – to the more unexpected likes of Brad Pitt and Rachel McAdams. (Whatever happened to Megan Fox? Well, she ended up on Dave.) (Where to watch: Disney+)
Detroiters
Humming with zany high-energy and a dedication to the surreal which would impress the Monty Python team, Tim Robinson and Sam Richardson play a low-rent local ad agency whose strike rate is inversely proportional to their screw-ups. It’s breathless – but boy is it fun. (Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video)
Difficult People
Billy Eichner and Julie Klausner play aspiring comedians and caustic best friends in this deliberately abrasive cringe comedy. It’s like a cattier version of Curb Your Enthusiasm, with a similarly impressive guest star roster and close-to-the-bone, pop culture-savvy gags. (Where to watch: Sky/NOW)
Documentary Now!
A peerless mockumentary series which sends up a different genre in each episode, aided by big-name guests. Highlights include a remarkable Sondheim spoof, with John Mulaney as the exacting composer, and Cate Blanchett playing a tortured performance artist. (Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video)
The Dry
Aptly named, this bone-dry Irish comedy – impeccably scripted by playwright Nancy Harris, and produced by Normal People’s Element Pictures – sees recovering alcoholic Shiv return home to her dysfunctional family. Ciarán Hinds plays her philandering father. (Where to watch: NOW)
Empress
The Crown meets All Quiet on the Western Front in this German-language dramatisation of the life of Empress Elisabeth of Austria. Elisabeth – or “Sisi” – falls in love with her sister’s intended, Emperor Franz Joseph and finds herself sucked into courtly intrigue in Vienna. Her timing could be better: the Empire has never been more unstable and now Russia and England each want Franz to join their side in the Crimean War. (Where to watch: Netflix)
Evil
Deliciously blending laughs with a real streak of horror nastiness, the three seasons of Evil star Mike Colter as a trainee Catholic priest who teams up with Katja Herbert’s psychologist to investigate supernatural phenomena. It’s The Exorcist put through the National Lampoon wringer. (Where to watch: Alibi)
The Exorcist
Speaking of Walter Peter Blatty’s seminal horror, this series follows a pair of psychic investigators working in the aftermath of the 1973 original film. It’s a direct sequel, too, so you can safely ignore the increasingly shonky film successors. (Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video)
Fauda
Israeli television has been responsible for a number of imported gems, and this spy thriller is one of the finest. Its three seasons follow an Israeli Defence Forces operative hunting a ruthless Palestinian assassin. Based on the writers’ own time in the military, it’s murky and disorientating as a sudden sandstorm. (Where to watch: Netflix)
Five Came Back
In the early years of WWII, five acclaimed American directors answered the call of duty and headed to the front to record what they saw and transmute it into propaganda films. In this three-part series, five contemporary directors discuss the legacy and impact of their mythmaking. Steven Spielberg takes William Wyler, Francis Ford Coppola profiles John Huston, Guillermo del Toro discusses Frank Capra, while Paul Greengrass and Lawrence Kasdan explore John Ford and George Stevens respectively. (Where to watch: Netflix)
Foundation
There was a galactic backlash against David S Goyer – writer of Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy – and his adaptation of the cult Isaac Asimov novels on the not-treasonable grounds of his Foundation having almost nothing to do with the source material. Never mind. On its own merits, Foundation is a grippingly OTT portrait of a utopian society in decline – worth watching for the feverish Lee Pace as an emperor who cannot die but sometimes wishes he could. (Where to watch: Apple TV+)
For All Mankind
“Alternative history” is usually codeword for “what if the Nazis won the war and Big Ben was redesigned to resemble Hitler’s face?”. This Apple series from Battlestar Galactica showrunner Ronald D Moore is more subtle: it gives us a reimagined Cold War space race where the Soviets landed on the moon first, and is as gripping as TV gets. (Where to watch: Apple TV +)
Gaslit
Inspired by the acclaimed Slow Burn podcast, this political thriller tells the story of Watergate from the perspective of those surrounding Nixon. It centers on Martha Mitchell, the wife of Nixon’s Attorney General, played by Julia Roberts, who was the first person to expose the affair. (Where to watch: Amazon Prime/Lionsgate+)
Girls5eva
This Tina Fey-produced sitcom about a girl group reuniting in middle age has a ridiculously great cast (Sara Bareilles, Busy Philipps, Paula Pell and Renée Elise Goldsberry), a head-spinning joke rate, and a clutch of slyly satirical, but genuinely catchy, original songs. (Where to watch: Netflix)
Godless
A gleeful braiding of Deadwood with Lysistrata, this Western from Queen’s Gambit creator Scott Frank has a 10-gallon hatful of acting talent with Jack O’Connell leading as a murderous outlaw seeking revenge in a frontier town populated almost entirely by women – courtesy of a mining accident which has wiped out the menfolk. Jeff Daniels, Michelle Dockery and Thomas Brodie-Sangster also star. (Where to watch: Netflix)
The Good Fight
No other TV series so perfectly encapsulates the fury, frustration and sheer surreality of the President Trump era. Christine Baranski leads this stylish legal drama (a spin-off of The Good Wife); scenery-chewing guests include Mandy Patinkin and Michael Sheen. Fantastic opening titles, too. (Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video)
Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities
If you like horror but would rather not be scared stiff, del Toro’s hokey anthology series is the perfect guilty pleasure. HP Lovecraft is among the inspirations for an enjoyably ripe show in which each gruesome tale is introduced by del Toro – taking his cue from Alfred Hitchcock in Alfred Hitchcock Presents. (Where to watch: Netflix)
Guilt
This pitch-black comic crime series about two brothers covering up an accidental hit and run in Edinburgh is like a Caledonian Coen Brothers caper. Mark Bonnar is in career-best form as the sardonic, amoral lawyer Max, and there are plenty of twists in this riveting tale. (Where to watch: Seasons 1-2 on Amazon Prime Video; Season 2 on BBC iPlayer)
Halt and Catch Fire
Today, brand origin stories are all-the-rage and breaking box office records (take a curtsy, Barbie). But when this series premiered on AMC in 2014, it went criminally underwatched, despite critical acclaim. An insider’s view of the personal computer revolution of the late 80s and 90s, it’s whip-sharp and ripe with period detail. Think Mad Men, with PCs big enough to roast a turkey inside. (Where to watch: All4)
Heels
Sweat, Spandex and fraternal rivalry make for a heady brew in this wrestling-based drama. Two brothers try to resurrect their father’s (somewhat improbable) pro-wrestling business in small-town Georgia. But which will be the hero, and which will be the “heel” and take a fall? (Where to watch: Lionsgate+)
Home Before Dark
Inspired by the real-life nine-year-old reporter Hilde Lysiak, this compelling crime drama sees our pint-sized newshound on the trail of a momentous cold case in her father’s secretive hometown. Brooklynn Prince is the precocious Hilde and Jim Sturgess plays her dad. (Where to watch: Apple TV+)
How To With John Wilson
Attempting to describe this gloriously peculiar show is to fall into a trap sprung by the filmmaker himself. Essentially, it involves comedian John Wilson totting a camera around New York asking bystanders how to solve life’s most difficult questions. Such as – how to cook the perfect risotto? And, is mankind doomed? It sounds effortfully oddball; and it is. But it’s also wonderfully alert, funny and often quite moving. And it makes you want to book a ticket to the Big Apple immediately to meet its apparently inexhaustible cast of kooks. (Where to watch: BBC iPlayer)
In My Skin
This underrated Welsh gem is well worth hunting down on iPlayer. Teenager Bethan has a challenging home life – her father is a violent drunk, her mother has bipolar disorder – but also finds moments of hope via exquisitely tender adolescent romance. (Where to watch: BBC iPlayer)
Invincible
Has The Boys left you hankering for more foul-mouthed, super-powered violence? Then sink your teeth into this – lovingly crafted and very much adults-only – animation about a boy who discovers his father, the superhero Omni-Man is not perhaps as squeaky-clean as he seems. (Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video)
Julia
We’ve already had Meryl Streep’s version of 1960s TV chef Julia Child on the big screen, but Happy Valley star Sarah Lancashire’s take is just as delicious – and includes some Mad Men-esque social commentary. David Hyde Pierce, Bebe Neuwirth and Judith Light are scrumptious support. (Where to watch: Sky/Now)
The Knick
Picture House set in turn-of-the-century New York, with added racial tension. Steven Soderbergh directed the first season of this scalp-sharp medical drama, set in the titular Knickerbocker Hospital, chronicling its brilliant, but opium-addicted leader of the surgery staff (Clive Owen) and a pioneering black doctor (André Holland). Moonlight’s Barry Jenkins is reportedly working on a third season. (Where to watch: NOW, Sky)
Last Chance U
You don’t have to be a sports buff to appreciate the sheer human drama of this riveting documentary series, which follows the beleaguered football teams of American community colleges. Can they band together to win? Not always. Think Friday Night Lights, but for real. (Where to watch: Netflix)
The Lazarus Project
In this propulsive sci-fi thriller from Joe Barton (Giri/Haji), Paapa Essiedu’s George discovers he’s part of an elite group who can reverse time to prevent an extinction event – but will also erase anything else that happened, adding a wrenching emotive element. (Where to watch: Sky)
The Mick
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s Kaitlin Olson stars as Mickey, a scuzzy wastrel who winds up caring for her rich, prissy sister’s children in LA after her sister and husband are jailed for fraud. It’s got Always Sunny’s wicked delight in offending, and the same knockabout energy. The dirty uncle’s Modern Family. (Where to watch: Disney+)
Midnight Mass
Created by The Haunting of Hill House’s Mike Flanagan, this slow-burn horror centers around an isolated American fishing community which becomes enraptured by a new Catholic priest who can seemingly perform miracles. As always, the payoff is less engaging than the premise – but it’s still a chillingly fascinating, moving exploration of faith. (Where to watch: Netflix)
Miracle Workers
This imaginative anthology comedy series has the same terrific cast throughout, but transposed into different settings: from a bureaucratic Heaven to the Dark Ages and then the Oregon Trail. Daniel Radcliffe, Steve Buscemi and Geraldine Viswanathan star. (Where to watch: NOW, Sky)
The Mosquito Coast
“Middle-age man has crisis” has been a core element of some of the best prestige television, from The Sopranos to Breaking Bad and Madmen. But however outdated that premise may seem nowadays, you have to credit Justin Theroux’s adaptation of 1981 bestseller The Mosquito Coast (by his uncle Paul Theroux) for diving in head first. It’s a richly over-cooked portrait of midlife meltdown with Theroux cultivating layers of angsty stubble in order to portray an eccentric inventor who flees the US government and takes his increasingly reluctant family to Central America. (Where to watch: Apple TV+)
Mythic Quest
This brilliantly detailed workplace sitcom is fuelled by the power struggle between egomaniacal video game creator Ian (Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s Rob McElhenney) and talented engineer Poppy (Charlotte Nicdao). F Murray Abraham is scene-stealing as a soused sci-fi novelist. (Where to watch: Apple TV+)
Nathan for You
Canadian comedian Nathan Fielder plays a socially awkward version of himself in this reality documentary-style prank show. It’s a pitch-perfect, jaw-droppingly elaborate parody of management consultants and commercialism, with victims ranging from a petting zoo to the rebranded Dumb Starbucks coffee shop. (Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video)
The Offer
Written by Michael Tolkin (The Player), this 10-part miniseries follows the behind-the-scenes shenanigans which dogged the making of Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather. Not only is it an irresistible delve into copper-bottomed cinematic lore, it’s a compelling drama in its own right, emphasising just how precarious the act of creation can be, even when the end result becomes an unshakeable cultural landmark. (Where to watch: Paramount+)
Only Murders in the Building
Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez are true-crime podcast fanatics who team up when there’s a murder in their own New York apartment complex. Blissfully silly parody and generation-gap gags are balanced with riveting mystery-story reveals. (Where to watch: Disney+)
Pacific Rim: The Black
Anime has become one of the biggest genres in steaming – but for newcomers, it can be hard to know where to start. One good jumping-off point is Netflix’s spin-off of Guillermo del Toro’s giant robots v monsters romp Pacific Rim. In fact, the Black owes as much to Frank Herbert’s Dune as to Godzilla, with its tale of crazed cults in the Australian desert and of a whey-faced kid with strange powers and a shocking destiny. (Where to watch: Netflix)
Paper Girls
What if Stranger Things was a weighty rumination on friendship, the ageing process and midlife melancholia – with giant robots? That’s the deal with Paper Girls, movingly adapted from the Brian K Vaughan graphic novel about four young girls who, while on their newspaper round, find themselves blinking forward from 1988 to 2022. (Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video)
Tales From The Loop
Based on the retro-future sci-fi of Swedish artist Simon Stålenhag, Tales from the Loop is melancholic slow TV, set in the fictional town of Mercer, Ohio – where advanced experiential physics has quietly remade the contours of reality. Rebecca Hall and Jonathan Pryce head the cast – though the real star is Philip Glass’s hypnotic score. (Where to watch: Prime Video)
The Outsider
There are shiversome strains of True Detective in this supernatural crime-horror, based on Stephen King’s novel. It follows Ben Mendelsohn’s detective who wrestles with his rationality when investigating the murder of a child, apparently by an upstanding, perfectly decent family man (Jason Bateman). (Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video)
The Patient
The set-up honks like Stinking Bishop left too long in the sun, but the execution of this horror-drama is chillingly entertaining. Steve Carrel stars as a therapist held hostage by a serial killer who asks for help in curbing his homicidal urges. It’s an excellent excuse to see Domhnall Gleeson shrug off his romcom baggage as the icy killer. (Where to watch: Season 1 on Disney+)
Perry Mason
In this origin story of the great TV defence lawyer, set in a sinful 1930s LA, Perry Mason is a broke, boozy PI haunted by his wartime experiences. It’s visually sumptuous Old Hollywood noir, complete with dodgy cops, dodgier evangelists and hard-boiled dialogue. (Where to watch: Sky/Now)
Quarry
As pitch-black as the Mississippi night, this neo-noir follows a Vietnam vet who returns to Memphis and becomes a mob enforcer and hitman. Soused in Deep South atmosphere, it’s a finger lickin’ serving of delicious amorality. (Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video)
Red Rose
The smartphone horror has had a bit of a moment recently with filmmakers utilising the format to satirise our always-on era. The genius of this excellent show, though, lies in its ability to sustain that tension over the course of an entire series as it sees a cluster of gossiping, jockeying teens succumb to a curse seemingly spread via their online interactions. As always with these set-ups, it’s the real-life horror of a life lived mostly online which terrifies more than the supernatural mumbo-jumbo. (Where to watch: BBC iPlayer)
Reservation Dogs
Taika Waititi (of the goofier Thor movies) and Sterlin Harjo supply a sweetly offbeat, Tarantino-riffing comedy about a group of Native American teenagers – and hapless petty criminals – who long to escape their Oklahoma community for California. (Where to watch: Disney+)
Revenant
Nope – not the frozen epic which starred Leonardo DiCaprio and a much-abused horse. This is a defiantly oddball Korean drama about a young woman possessed by a mysterious entity, trying to solve a string of supernatural suicides. Yes, it’s freaky. Yes, it’s very Korean. And yes, is it worth your time. (Where to watch: Disney+)
Shining Girls
The always excellent Elisabeth Moss is Kirby, who barely survived a brutal assault and is now hunting her attacker (a thoroughly creepy Jamie Bell). But this serial killer thriller has a supernatural twist: Kirby’s reality keeps changing, and the intricate plot involves time travel. (Where to watch: Apple TV+)
Slow Horses
Mick Herron’s series of novels about paper-pushing MI5 rejects who become ensnared in a dangerous spy game is now a thoroughly entertaining drama. Gary Oldman, playing the grizzled but still shrewd Jackson Lamb, spars brilliantly with an icy Kristin Scott Thomas. (Where to watch: Apple TV+)
The Spy
Try to shake Borat from your mind as Sacha Baron Cohen plays an Israeli spy sent to infiltrate the Syrian government. It’s based on the astonishing true story of Eli Cohen (no relation). (Where to watch: Netflix)
The Staircase
Not the mediocre Colin Firth-starring drama, but the original documentary – a classic of the true crime genre. Michael Peterson is accused of murdering his wife, and this bizarre case features surprises like an eerie cold case, a bisexuality reveal, and, yes, the infamous owl theory. (Where to watch: Netflix)
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
The creaking interstellar franchise boldly goes back to its core values with a rip-roaring prequel series set immediately before the original Captain Kirk saga. Anson Mount gives it the full “William Shatner” as Christopher Pike, Kirk’s predecessor in the chair of the Starship Enterprise. Recently Star Trek shows have tried to “reinvent” the brand for a modern audience. This one reverts to basics and sets phasers to fun. (Where to watch: Paramount+)
Treadstone
For Bourne fans, Operation Treadstone will have a chilling resonance. It was the CIA black ops programme which created super-assassins through behavioral modification – and from which Matt Damon’s Jason Bourne did his damndest to escape. This prequel series traces the programme’s origins and explores the backstories of some of its other alumni. (Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video)
Trying
Rafe Spall and Esther Smith play a couple who find they can’t conceive and so begin the process of adopting a child in this winning comedy-drama. A fantastic ensemble features Imelda Staunton, Ophelia Lovibond, Oliver Chris, Darren Boyd, Phil Davis and Cush Jumbo. (Where to watch: Apple TV+)
Under The Banner of Heaven
Based on a book-length exploration by Jon Krakauer, this superlative series stars Andrew Garfield as a detective who finds his faith shaken whilst investigating a brutal killing in a Mormon community. Though it has shades of True Detective in its small-town claustrophobia, it’s a rich and prickling watch all of its own. (Where to watch: Disney+)
Upload
Parks and Recreation’s Greg Daniels wrote this high-concept sci-fi comedy which follows a computer programmer who finds his consciousness uploaded into a VR afterlife when he dies – complete with in-app purchases. Like a cheerier, shinier Black Mirror. (Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video)
Yellowstone
Taylor Sheridan’s dyed-in-the-denim series about a Wyoming cattle rancher out of time (Kevin Costner) is all-conquering in the US, but somewhat overlooked here. It’s high time that changed as this ultra-violent neo-Western is well worth saddling up for. (Where to watch: Paramount+)
You Don’t Know Me
Hero is about to go down for murder – but is he really guilty? This adaptation of barrister Imran Mahmood’s novel by Vigil creator Tom Edge cleverly dramatises the racial prejudice and social challenges that Hero faces, while keeping us guessing about his ultimate culpability. (Where to watch: BBC iPlayer, Netflix)
ZeroZeroZero
Based on Gomorrah writer Roberto Saviano’s book of the same name, this globe-trotting drama orbits around a drug-smuggling family, moving cocaine across the globe. The lavish production values scream big bucks, and there’s a gritty presence to its depiction of criminality. (Amazon Prime Video, Sky)
NB. This article is frequently updated
