David Farnor | On 20, Apr 2025

Weekends. Bank Holidays. Half-terms. Christmas. Whatever the reason for you being indoors, TV shows are one of the best cures for having time to fill. From comedy to mystery, sci-fi to crime thrillers, British to French programmes and fantasy to historical dramas, here are the top TV box sets to binge watch the hours away instead of venturing outside.

Whether you use Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Sky, NOW, Channel 4, Apple TV+ or BBC iPlayer, there’s something here for you:

Andor

Diego Luna is a charismatic rebel with a cause in this timely, tense sci-fi thriller.

Severance

This dark, dystopian workplace thriller is a disturbingly timely watch – see it before everyone’s talking about in a year’s time.

Slow Horses

This enjoyably low-key thriller is an entertaining walk on the shabby side of spying.

Shogun

This ambitious, sweeping period epic is an astonishing feat of TV.

The Dropout

Amanda Seyfried is perfectly cast in this timely, gripping tale of fraud, ambition and entrepreneurship gone wrong.

Sherwood

James Graham’s brooding crime drama about a divided community doesn’t miss its mark.

The Bear

This pressure-cooker kitchen drama is finely seasoned TV to savour.

The Diplomat

This riveting, timely, funny and moving political thriller is one of the best shows on TV right now.

Supacell

Rapman’s ambitious tale of South Londoners finding their have super powers is a rich, thrilling bit of British blockbusting.

Silo

This gripping dystopian sci-fi is a thoughtful, surprising thriller about society and truth.

The White Lotus

Mike White’s scathing dissection of privilege is a deliciously awkward dive into darkness, delusion and just desserts.

Only Murders in the Building

Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez are a delight to watch in this warm and witty true crime comedy.

SAS Rogue Heroes

Steven Knight’s never knowingly understated wartime thriller is an entertaining ride.

The English

Hugo Blick’s bold, stylish two-hander is a brutal, brilliant reframing of the Western through a lens of race and identity.

Ludwig

David Mitchell is perfectly cast in this darkly comic crime drama about a puzzle expert trying to solve his brother’s disappearance.

Masters of the Air

This soaring WWII drama is a dazzling, dizzying, disorienting feat of TV.

Sunny

Dystopian and darkly funny, this enjoyably offbeat mystery thriller is one of the most original TV shows of 2024.

Agatha All Along

Kathryn Hahn is a delight in this fun and surprisingly spooky treat.

Barry

Bill Hader delivers a career-defining turn in this light-hearted dark comedy, which dazzles in the moral grey areas.

Black Bird

This brooding but understated prison drama packs a gripping, moving punch.

Am I Being Unreasonable?

Daisy May Cooper excels in this darkly comic thriller about friendships, family and secrets.

Abbott Elementary

If easygoing sitcoms are your thing, Quinta Brunson’s comedy set in an underfunded primary school is the best new show that’s streaming right now.

Station Eleven

This surprising pandemic drama is a cathartic tale of hope and humanity.

Pachinko

The superb, sweeping drama told in three languages — Korean, Japanese and English — begins with a forbidden love and crescendos into a sweeping saga that journeys between Korea, Japan and America to tell a story of war and peace, love and loss, triumph and reckoning.

House of the Dragon

Deftly balancing character and spectacle, this briliantly fiery family affair is more than a worthy successor to Game of Thrones.

Hacks

Say hello to your new favourite double-act in this funny, smart and warm odd couple comedy.

The Fall of the House of Usher

Mike Flanagan’s deliciously dark reworking of Edgar Allan Poe is a thrilling tale of frightful fate.

The Change

Bridget Christie’s funny, sharp and heartfelt menopause comedy is refreshingly unique.

Bridgerton

Be prepared to swoon over this saucy, sumptuous and seriously fun romantic romp.

The Last of Us

HBO’s surprisingly heartfelt survival thriller is a dark, harrowing and moving ride.

Succession

The biggest media and entertainment company in the world is controlled by the formidable Logan Family. However, their world changes when their father makes a life changing decision about his role in the company. Created by Jesse Armstrong and starring Brian Cox, this impeccably acted and hilariously painful saga is one of the best TV shows in recent memory. Don’t miss it.

Beef

Steven Yeun and Ali Wong are brilliantly toxic in this riveting, alarming revenge thriller.

English Teacher

Brian Jordan Alvarez’s smart, expectation-subverting series about a liberal teacher in Texas is top-of-the-class comedy.

Ripley

Andrew Scott is magnetic to watch in this intense, patient and starkly handsome adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s thriller.

Nobody Wants This

Adam Brody and Kristen Bell have instant chemistry in this wonderfully frank, funny and thoughtful rom-com.

The Traitors

The Mole meets Wink Murder in this compulsively entertaining reality contest.

Rivals

A charismatic cast and playful source material make this 80s satire a delightfully naughty romp.

Baby Reindeer

Unpredictable, unsettling, heartfelt and funny, Richard Gadd’s disarmingly vulnerable stalker drama is unlike anything you’ve seen before.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

This ambitious, expansive fantasy epic is a thrilling, beautiful return to Middle-earth. (Read our full review)

Lost Ollie

Toy Story goes dark in this hugely moving tale of a homemade stuffed toy – voiced by Jonathan Groff – who is trying to find his way back to his owner. Animated seamlessly into a live-action world, the result is a sweet, sad and (at times) surprisingly frank and bleak in its study of friendship, support and memory.

For All Mankind

The premise for Ron Moore’s alt-history drama is wonderfully simple and full of fascinating potential: what if Russia won the space race? The opportunity for surprises is apparently immediately, as we see the moon landing take place in 1969, only for a Russian astronaut to end up on our lunar cousin, leaving America facing a red moon in the sky. The response is both shame and determination to catch up, and so we follow NASA as it races to get back in the pilot’s seat. It’s a cracking concept for a series, one that resonates with themes of national identity, global politics and scientific progress.

The Lazarus Project

This twisting time-travelling thriller is a fun mix of suspenseful set pieces and moral dilemmas.

Shining Girls

If you were ever in doubt that Elisabeth Moss is one of the greatest actors working today, Shining Girls will convince you beyond any doubt. A twisting, harrowing, fascinating thriller, it’s grounded, raw study of the lingering effects of trauma, wrapped up in a timey-wimey mystery.

Girls5eva

This note-perfect girl group comedy doesn’t miss a beat.

You

Netflix’s twisted social media thriller is enjoyably dark, addictively ridiculous, and enormously fun.

The Afterparty

This self-aware murder mystery comedy is a hilarious, inventive ride.

McCartney 3,2,1

This fascinating string of interviews with Paul McCartney is an accessible, insightful watch.

The Beatles: Get Back

Peter Jackson’s long and winding Beatles documentary is an absorbing, entertaining, fascinating watch.

The Underground Railroad

Barry Jenkins’ heartbreaking, powerful, beautiful adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s novel is an astounding achievement.

The West Wing

Aaron Sorkin’s seminal political drama takes us behind the scenes and experience of the inner workings of the White House and the Presidential advisors. Starring a sublime cast including Rob Lowe, Allison Janney, Bradley Whitford and Martin Sheen, this remains one of the best series ever brought to the small screen.

Dead to Me

Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini are amusing, sweet and heartbreaking in Netflix’s dark comedy about two women who find unexpected friendship amid a perfect storm of grief, loss and betrayal. With James Marsden as an ex-fiancé muddying the moral waters, what emerges is a unique blend of cathartic character drama and unpredictable potboiler thrills.

Ted Lasso

Jason Sudeikis is hugely charming as a clueless football manager in this delightful, optimistic gem that’s the nicest show in modern TV.

I May Destroy You

Michaela Coel’s frank exploration of consent is remarkable, personal and uncompromising TV.

New Girl

Zooey Deschanel gets a deserved chance to shine in the lead role of this sitcom, which follow Jess who, after a bad break-up, moves into an apartment loft with three single men – the heartbroken, on-off love interest Nick (Jake Johnson), the would-be playboy Schmidt (Max Greenfield), and the eccentric and sensitive Winston (Lamorne Morris).

Life on Mars

John Simm is great in the role of Sam Tyler, a detective who finds himself transported to the 1970s. Philip Glenister is even better as Gene Hunt, a Manchester police detective who lives up to every stereotype of the period. And then some.

Quiz

“The bottom’s fallen out of the truth market,” observes someone halfway through Quiz, ITV’s remarkable retelling of the extraordinary story of how Charles and Diana Ingram cheated on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and won a million pounds. Or did they? Based on the play by James Graham, the three-part drama takes its central slice of history and builds it into an investigation into the very nature of truth in our modern, post-truth society – an age where quizzes have remained popular because they simply distil the world into black-and-white, right-and-wrong categories. A sensational story, sensationally told.

Chernobyl

This haunting, gripping retelling of the 1986 disaster is not only a sweat-inducing thriller but also a timely story of power, corruption and truth.

We Are Lady Parts

This funny, smart, surprising comedy about an all-girl Muslim punk band is an uproarious delight.

Spooks

M:I-5. Not 9 to 5. Even the slogan for the BBC espionage series feels quaintly dated, but for all its love of numerical keypad phones and laptops as cutting-edge gizmos, this spy thriller is still grippingly modern, as it never relied on technology to make its programme relevant: the series’ real secret weapon was its focus on character, which was driven by increasingly far-fetched plots. With a cast including David Oyelowo, Richard Armitage, Matthew Macfadyen and Nicola Walker, that means you have a show that’s as hugely entertaining as ever.

The Marvellous Mrs Maisel

With one of the most recognisable creative voices around, Amy Sherman-Palladino’s defiantly witty, wittily defiant new project, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, was one of the most successful Amazon Pilots ever, almost immediately receiving a two-season order from Amazon Studios. Starring Rachel Brosnahan (House of Cards) as a dedicated, happy Jewish housewife in 1950s New York, the show charts her strict family life, her role as a woman, and her newfound fascination with stand-up comedy – and the conflict this causes. Sherman-Palladino’s trademark charm and attitude are everywhere you look.

Old Enough!

This Japanese reality series that sends toddlers out on errands alone is a surprising, heartwarming delight.

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