The best TV shows of 2023 (so far) you need to stream

Succession creator Jesse Armstrong and co could easily have eeked out another season or two of their Emmy-garlanded satire – this was not a writers’ room running short on inspiration or crushing putdowns – and a less audacious show would have kept that big early-season twist for much later in the final run. But Succession nailed the landing perfectly, delivering its ‘winner’ (though surely the most pyrrhic, short-term victory) and a multitude of losers at precisely the right moment, tying up its biggest question – what would happen to the kids without dad’s unique brand of sneering coercive control to rein them in? – in a brilliantly conceived and immaculately acted run of episodes. Even in a golden age for TV, Succession stands apart for making the most unpalatable truths about modern capitalism into unmissable entertainment.—Phil de Semlyen

Length of binge: 9 hours 49 mins

Adding ‘clickers’ and ‘shamblers’ to our daily vernacular, and leaving us eyeing up those moldy mushrooms in the veggie drawer with added suspicion, HBO’s adaptation of the monster-selling video game is the grand spectacle we’d all hoped it would be. And Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey bring more than enough humanity, humour and warmth to stop us weeping through ever gripping moment of Joel and Ellie’s desolate, zombie-riddled trek through a desolate America. We still wept, though – especially during that heartbreaking standalone third episode. Linda Ronstadt is going to a tough listen from here on in.—Phil de Semlyen

Length of binge: 8 hours 45 mins

From the yellow titles to the sorta-’70s aesthetic, Rian Johnson’s latest murder mystery is a straight-up Columbo tribute: a howdunit, if you will, as we see a new crime play out in each episode’s opening. The joy and thrill then comes when Natasha Lyonne’s human lie detector Charlie wanders into the story to piece together the evidence and mutter ‘bullshit!’ in the face of a parade of weekly guest stars (Benjamin Bratt, Chloë Sevigny and Lil Rel Howery), plus Johnson-verse regulars (Adrien Brody, Joseph Gordon-Levitt).—Michael Juliano

Length of binge: 9 hours 10 mins

Still somehow straddling the line between being absolutely hilarious and soul-scarringly harrowing, the fourth and final season of Barry was further proof that Bill Hader might just be the cleverest man in Hollywood. A hitman, actor and former soldier with some serious PTSD, the titular Barry finally seems like he might be getting his just desserts. Even a somewhat clunky time jump quickly proves its purpose, and the chilling ending is every bit as powerful as the final scene of Succession (with both airing on the same momentous day).—Leonie Cooper

Length of binge: 4 hours 11 mins

With the edge of Spike Lee and the imagination of Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman, Boots Riley’s brilliantly offbeat Amazon show is an almost undefinable collage of touching coming-of-age drama, gonzo superhero adventure and fiery political manifesto. There’s loads squeezed into its seven episodes, as 13-foot-tall Cootie (Jharrel Jerome) gets to grips with his own giant stature, his sexual awakening and a revolutionary cause. Walton Goggins’s The Hero, a sinister super with more than a touch of The Boys’ Homelander, embodies Riley’s major preoccupation: a capitalist system that’s underpinned by legitimised violence. This small-screen follow-up to Sorry To Bother You is sharp enough to make communists of us all.

Length of binge: 3 hours 31 mins

Not every great TV show needs to rumble on for ten sofa-bothering hours. Shane Meadows’s riproaring period piece comes in three pacy instalments – more a quick hit than a binge – and leaves you wanting more. Its loveable characters, a tight-knit rural community scratching a living in late 18th century Yorkshire, are led by David Hartley (This is England ’86’s Michael Socha), a real-life Robin Hood whose coin-clipping skills offer them all a way out of poverty. It’s like an Ealing comedy with a Meadows sensibility – affectionate pisstaking, blues rock music cues, trippy interludes, split screen shots of chickens and all. Socha is a roguishly charming heart for the story, adapted from Benjamin Myers’s award-winning novel, but everyone in the often improvising cast keeps it fuelled with warmth and laughs too. 

Length of binge: 3 hours 4 mins

Trying to make a new cop show without clichés is a bit like attempting to jump into the ocean without getting wet. Massive props, then, to a gripping and cliché-free police drama that started impressively and ended up feeling like it just might grow into Belfast’s answer to The Wire. Its tight-knit police unit is beautifully sketched and impeccably played, with Game of Thrones’ Richard Dormer and Siân Brooke standouts as a salty old-timer with a past and an ex-social worker finding radically different ways to get the job done. John Lynch, once Gwyneth Paltrow’s smarmy boyfriend in Sliding Doors, is a revelation as the brooding crime boss they’re gunning for.—Phil de Semlyen

Length of binge: 5 hours 48 mins

Everyone loves a show featuring a dog, but it’s the two adorably flawed and relatable humans – brought together by said dog – who draw you in to this Aussie comedy. The series plays on Gen X vs Millennial clashes while exploring the challenges of modern-day dating, and strikes the right balance of deep and compelling yet easy and breezy to watch. Will-they-or-won’t-they comedy series have been done thousands of times over, but this one is fresh. It’s gross, it’s irreverent, it’s awkward and cringey – and really very charming.—Alice Ellis

Length of binge: 3 hrs 38 min.

Like ’90s HBO horndog comedy Dream On set in the well-heeled Manhattan of The Undoing, sprinkled with a dose of Woody Allen-esque Jewish male neuroses, this barbed and tonally surefooted take on Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s novel is both a guilty-pleasure comedy and a startling insight into an unravelling marriage. Jesse Eisenberg is perfect as Toby Fleishman, a divorced doctor whose Tinder-fuelled sexual awakening is put on hold when his ex-wife, Rachel Fleishman (Claire Danes), disappears, leaving him with the kids and an unravelling sense of self. Danes is scary good, too, while Adam Brody plays against his own impish likeability as Toby’s sleazy gateway to the full joys/horrors of single life.—Phil de Semlyen

Length of binge: 6 hours 53 mins

It’s not easy to PG-ify the Holocaust without softballing its epochal horrors or choosing a problematic perspective, as The Boy in the Striped Pajamas amply demonstrates. Massive credit, then, to National Geographic’s tough but still family-friendly drama for finding a fresh angle on the Anne Frank story that pays tribute to the Jewish community in hiding in wartime Amsterdam and to the Dutch people who hid them. Front and centre is Bel Powley, who is surely Emmy-bound for her towering turn as Miep Gies, the woman who hid the Franks at huge personal risk. It’s a gripping, deeply emotional story about occupation, resistance, collaboration, and, most of all, moral courage.—Phil de Semlyen

Korean director Lee Sung Jin‘s ​spiky ​black comedy – a kind of Falling Down with belly laughs – is a watch-through-your-fingers burst of fury and existential despair that will chime even with people who’d never dream of pursuing a road rage incident to the point of catastrophic self-sabotage. That’s the spiralling scenario Steven Yeun’s struggling handyman, Danny, and Ali Wong’s unhappy entrepreneur, Amy, fall into over ten propulsive episodes. The two Angelinos collide and re-collide in a show that gives OTT expression to the stresses of modern life. The supporting cast – especially Joseph Lee as Danny’s puppy-dog brother Paul – is a knockout too.—Phil de Semlyen

Length of binge: 5 hours 22 mins

After being a fixture in British viewers’ lives for the best part of a decade, it was time to bid the fondest of farewells to the wild west of Yorkshire and Sarah Lancashire’s brilliant and vengeful Catherine Cawood – the only cop it’s alright to have a crush on. The third and final season of Happy Valley is as tense and tender as the two seasons that came before, proof of creator Sally Wainwright’s impeccable way with not just a show-stopping action extravaganza, but also of the intimate exchanges between friends and family. It was pretty damn funny, too.—Leonie Cooper

Length of binge: 5 hours 59 mins

Just when you thought we’d been spoilt enough with one Rachel Weisz on screen, Dead Ringers slaps two together and it’s a riveting feat of flair and fuckery. Rather than just copying, pasting and expanding David Cronenberg’s 1988 psychology thriller into six episodes, Alice Birch and her female writing staff have crafted an exquisitely witty, provocative and horrifying exploration of womanhood, the reproductive experience and medical malfeasance through the eyes of twin obstetricians Dr Elliot and Beverly Mantle – Weisz’s dynamic and diabolical duo. One of the sharpest and smartest film to TV adaptations. Period.—Hanna Flint

Length of binge: 5 hours and 54 mins

Matthew Rhys continues to impress as maverick lawyer Perry Mason in a thrillingly rendered 1930s Los Angeles. The second season of this HBO crime drama is not only stacked with twists and intrigue, but boasts compelling insights into the rampant racism and homophobia of the era. Despite having a man’s name over the banner, it’s the women that make the show, with Severance’s Jen Tullock as sassy screenwriter Anita St. Pierre, and Hope Davis as fancy rich lady Camilla Nygaard, as well as the return of the brilliant Juliet Rylance as Perry’s more-than-capable sidekick Della Street.—Leonie Cooper

Length of binge: 6 hrs 51 mins

Like Shallow Grave with creaky knees, this ace Edinburgh (and Leith)-set crime thriller spent two seasons taking us on our tour of Scotland’s criminal underworld when bickering fiftysomething brothers Max and Jake (Mark Bonnar and Jamie Sives) accidentally run over an elderly man and decide to cover it up. The concluding run gives us more dark laughs, edgy thrills and tangled schemes, as the siblings try to dig their way out of the very deep hole that gangland supremo Maggie Lynch has them in. Phyllis Logan – Downton Abbey’s Mrs Hughes, no less – is a revelation as the icily in-control crime boss, but it’s Bonnar, once Catastrophe’s resident scene-stealer, who makes off with the show as the Machiavellian but kinda good-hearted Max.—Phil de Semlyen 

Length of binge: 3 hours 50 mins

Like Extras, Ricky Gervais’s underrated post-The Office sitcom, Starz’s goofy, good-hearted sitcom mines comedy gold from the painful reality of struggling actors scratching a living within touching distance of their dreams. The six-ep revival left us wanting more – quite a lot more – but its existence still felt like a blessing after the show’s sudden cancellation 13 years ago. Adam Scott was back as one of a group of thesps working for an LA catering company run with chaotic fervour by Ken Marino’s recovering addict. The ’shrooms episode, in particular, is a slice of demented genius.—Phil de Semlyen

Length of binge: 3 hours 9 mins

When Star Trek spin-off Picard began three seasons ago, it was a scrappy, patchy addition to the franchise, taking Patrick Stewart’s Jean-Luc Picard back into action long after retirement. But the show only really hit its stride in this third and, theoretically, final season, with the decision to reunite all Picard’s original crew, older but not necessarily wiser. Showrunner Terry Matalas doesn’t rely on simple nostalgia however, weaving a dense mystery plot. It’s a potent combination for fans and newcomers alike: as with The Wrath of Khan, the mere sense of shared history between the cast give everything extra resonance.—Helen O’Hara

Length of binge: 8 hours 51 mins

Yellowjackets continued to be a television force majeure with a second run that delivered on its first season’S promise in beguiling and batshit ways. Props to the casting team for adding Simone Kessell (as the older Lottie), Lauren Ambrose (older Van) and the excellent Elijah Wood to the line-up. Some Stephen King horror nods bolster the drama, but the ensemble cast is still its biggest strength. The ’90s-era girlies stuck in the wilderness showcase some truly feral performances, while their modern-day counterparts bring acerbic comic relief as their lives chaotically unravel towards the meaty finale.—Hanna Flint

Length of binge: 8 hours 41 mins

The gaping hole left by Happy Valley in the BBC’s crime drama scheduling was quickly filled by this pacy six-part race through the Brink’s-Mat gold robbery of 1983, one of the UK’s biggest heists of all time. Its graciously grey rendering of ’80s London; full of grimy pubs, battered motors and suburban gangsters is spot-on, but some artistic licence has been taken too, as the show’s most engaging character, Charlotte Spencer’s no-bullshit detective Nicki Jennings, sadly never existed.—Leonie Cooper

Length of binge: 5 hours 45 mins

The third run of the Star Wars spin-off saw Pedro Pascal’s bounty hunter taking a back seat as Katee Sackhoff’s Bo-Katan Kryze led a homecoming quest. The busy and bumpy eight-ep run also threw in space pirates (farewell Gorian Shard, you seaweed-faced chancer), giant raptors, the return of the Vader-like Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito), the Blade Runner-y city planet of Coruscant, and an undercurrent of po-faced Mandalore spirituality. But as usual, there was also loads to enjoy in its big-hearted adventure and the dad-son dynamics between Mando and Grogu. The winky final shot was a delight, too.—Phil de Semlyen

Length of binge: 5 hours 54 mins

In this hilarious and frequently heartwarming comedy from writer Emma Moran and Killing Eve producer Sid Gentle, everyone has a super-power after the age of 18 – except for 25-year-old Jen (Máiréad Tyers, brilliantly chaotic). Surrounded by people gifted with powers ranging between completely amazing to utterly useless (one man has a backside that doubles as a 3D printer), Jen is adrift in a world where her romantic, work and financial woes are tripled by her failure to do the basics and just learn to fly already. If the superhero theme doesn't tempt you, perhaps a stray cat named Jizzlord will.—Henrietta Taylor

Length of binge: 4 hours 2 mins

As the two Bad Neighbors films prove, Rose Byrne and Seth Rogen have the kind of gonzo comic chemistry few on-screen double acts can match. It’s the not-so-secret sauce of a TV comedy about what happens when you hit middle age without a metaphorical seatbelt on. She’s a stay-at-home moment who reconnects with her old college friend (Rogen), now the owner of an LA microbrewery, to the chagrin of her straight-laced husband (Bros’s Luke Macfarlane). The When Harry Met Sally… comparisons are misleading, because it’s a quest for purpose rather than romance that drives the pair’s connection. The R-rated laughs come steadily, with one ketamine scene right up there with The Wolf of Wall Street’s quaalude overdose.

Length of binge: 5 hours 4 mins

After three seasons of murdering his way around New York and California, the unfeasibly charming Joe Goldberg decamps to a geographically-challenged London for a quieter life as a uni professor. Fat chance, of course, as a bunch of poshos draw him into a post-Bullingdon clique stalked by a murderer of its own. The role may have become something of a millstone for Penn Badgley, but his easy charisma, heady aura of danger and ability to effortless rock a grandpa cardie make You the easiest of binges. And cardboard cutout toffs in mortal danger is a subgenre we’ll never tire of.—Jess Phillips

The (likely) end of Ted Lasso got a little lost in all the Succession mania, but Jason Sudeikis’s cheery American soccer coach will still be much missed. Season 3 saw Ted going full divorced dad in a surprisingly plangent story thread, while reinventing Richmond’s playing style after a shroom-fuelled night out in Amsterdam. It encapsulates the broad span of what Apple’s breakout comedy was trying – not always successfully – to achieve. That broadness gave it a bitty ‘topic of the week’ feel, with Juno Temple’s Keeley unwisely sidelined. But if it was exactly ‘total telly’, it still scored some screamers – including that Amsterdam episode – and made a cockle-warning antidote to all those skeevy Roys siblings.

Length of binge: 11 hours 8 mins

Though Bill Lawrence and Brett Goldstein’s latest has some Ted Lasso fibers to it, more than anything it fills the sitcom landscape’s Scrubs-sized sweatpants. Comedy and grief collide over melancholy indie music as co-creator Jason Segel’s self-destructive widower tries to patch up his personal life and therapy practice. But this is a feelgood show, honest, and it’s buoyed by its sunny Pasadena setting, Segel’s sad dad-meets-goofball vibes and a pair of his scene-stealing co-workers: a warm, quick-witted Jessica Williams and a quietly crotchety Harrison Ford, who turns in his funniest performance in decades.—Michael Juliano

Length of binge: 5 hours 14 mins

Reanimating that long dormant genre, the airplane hijacking thriller, almost on the back of Idris Elba’s charisma alone, this Apple TV+ seven-parter is best embraced as high-altitude hokum rather than a gleaming slice of prestige telly – more 24 than United 93. It starts strongly, introducing Elba’s sharp-witted business negotiator on a Dubai to London flight as he subtly disrupts the power dynamics of the hijackers and their captives, and keeps the cortisol levels high as Neil Maskell’s band of mysterious skyjackers slowly lose control of the situation. The overcrowded, underwritten ensemble of characters on the ground feel like offcuts from an old episode of Spooks, but the almost-in-real-time device works a treat, with fatigue-impaired judgments lending unpredictability to the on-board scenes.

Length of binge: 5 hours 37 mins