The 30 Best TV Shows to Watch Across Every Streaming Service

This article will be updated as shows move on and off streaming services. An asterisk indicates a new addition to the list.

In some ways the world of streaming isn’t so different from how we watched television in the past. Increasingly, we contend with commercials, cable-like bundle packages, and live channels that seem to have everything except what we actually want to watch. Despite those gripes, though, there are still more TV shows available on demand than ever before, even if they are buried in endless scrolls and algorithmic feeds. It’s our job to help you find them. Whether you subscribe to Apple TV+, Netflix, Disney+, or some combination of them all, we have recommendations for the best TV shows to watch across streaming. You’ll find prestige and fringe favorites alike mixed into the 30 titles below. Watch something worth your time.

Jump to a streaming service:
Netflix | Amazon Prime Video | Max | Hulu | Apple TV+ | Peacock | Disney+ | Paramount+

Netflix

Better Call Saul

Years: 2015-2022
Length: 6 seasons, 63 episodes
Creators: Vince Gilligan, Peter Gould 

It shouldn’t have been so good. Prequel spin-offs that are as good as the original would make for a very small chapter in the book about the history of television. Saul Goodman broke the rules. With a stunning performance from Bob Odenkirk in the central role, the creators of this show used the origin story of a criminal attorney to unpack a story about the pull of being bad. If Breaking Bad was a show about a man willingly becoming evil, Better Call Saul was a show about a man trying so hard to take the righteous path, but falling victim to everything put in his way. This drama has some of the best writing and acting in the history of TV. It’s essential.

Bojack Horseman

Years: 2014-2020
Length: 6 seasons, 77 episodes
Creator: Raphael Bob-Waksberg

There is a lot of solid adult animation on Netflix — don’t sleep on Big Mouth or its anime offerings, either — but the best of the medium is this ingenious examination of celebrity culture, depression, and failed attempts at connection. It just happens to feature talking animals. Will Arnett does fantastic voice work as the title character, the star of a ‘90s sitcom who is struggling to find his way back to the spotlight. Amy Sedaris, Alison Brie, Paul F. Tompkins, and Aaron Paul co-star in a show that felt at first like just another Hollywood satire, but became richer and more emotionally complex with each season.

Key & Peele

Years: 2012-2015
Length: 5 seasons, 53 episodes
Creators: Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele 

Sketch comedy doesn’t get funnier than this massive Comedy Central hit that reunited a pair of Mad TV stars and let their genius run wild. Hitting hot button issues with fresh insight and hysterical precision, Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele revealed themselves to be two of the best comedy writers in the business, leading to a Peabody Award, two Emmy Awards, and millions of fans. You can see their fingerprints on so much of what people find clever in the 2020s.

Ozark

Years: 2017-2022
Length: 4 seasons, 44 episodes
Creators: Bill Dubuque, Mark Williams

One of Netflix’s biggest hits came to a close in 2022 with a critically acclaimed and Emmy-winning final season. Clearly inspired by Breaking Bad, this is a riveting thriller about an ordinary guy who ends up becoming a major player in the international drug trade. Jason Bateman does the best work of his career as Marty Byrde, who moves to the Ozarks with his family and becomes a major money launderer. Bateman, Laura Linney, and Julia Garner earned raves for their work in a show that works from beginning to bloody end.

Scavengers Reign

Year: 2023
Length: 1 season, 12 episodes
Creators: Joseph Bennett, Charles Huettner

It’s another weird case of shifting streaming services with this acclaimed show that Max canceled but Netflix saved. We don’t get a lot of adult sci-fi in animated form, but this sharply rendered and character-driven show follows the survivors of a cargo ship who end up stranded on a distant planet, hunting for supplies and fighting for survival. Voice talent includes Sunita Mani, Wunmi Mosaku, and Alia Shawkat. Watch it so Netflix gives it more life.

Squid Game

Years: 2021-present
Length: 1 season, 9 episodes
Creator: Hwang Dong-hyuk

The most-viewed show in the history of Netflix rose to that pedestal for multiple reasons. The main one is the incredible accessibility of the concept — a game show with mortal stakes. Released during the pandemic, Squid Game tapped into a worldwide desperation. What would you do to change your fate? The story of a contest for a fortune also became one of Netflix’s biggest critical darlings, landing 14 Emmy nominations, with star Lee Jung-jae becoming the first Asian actor to win Best Actor for a non-English performance. Say what you will about Netflix, the success of this show helped stories from around the world find audiences in America.

Amazon Prime Video

The Boys

Years: 2019-present
Length: 4 seasons, 32 episodes
Creator: Eric Kripke

One of Prime’s biggest hits is this satire of superhero culture based on the graphic novel by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson. The series stars Karl Urban as Billy Butcher, someone intent on bringing down the collection of the most famous superheroes in the world known as The Seven. The dark comedy asks the question: What if superheroes were sociopaths? The first season is a bit rocky, but ultimately satisfying, and the show only gets more interesting in subsequent seasons.

The Fall

Years: 2013-2016
Length: 3 seasons, 17 episodes
Creator: Allan Cubitt

Gillian Anderson and Jamie Dornan star in this Irish crime drama as a detective and serial killer, respectively. That’s really all you need to know because the brilliance of this series is in how carefully and cleverly it unfolds. As of now, it’s only 17 episodes, so you can watch it all relatively quickly, and then keep hoping that creator Allan Cubitt fulfills his promise to return to this story eventually.

Fleabag

Years: 2016-2019
Length: 2 seasons, 12 episodes
Creator: Phoebe Waller-Bridge

Arguably the best original series yet produced by Amazon, Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s comedy went from good to great in its masterful second season, one of the best things you can watch on any service or any network. PWB plays the title character, a modern woman looking for stability in a tumultuous life, but that makes Fleabag sound like just another generic comedy when it’s anything but. Just see for yourself.

Jury Duty

Year: 2023
Length: 1 season, 8 episodes
Creators: Lee Eisenberg, Gene Stupnitsky

Sometimes it just takes a great idea. Two of the key voices behind The Office had one when they created this amazing smash hit that started life on Prime Video’s almost-unknown Freevee (which used to be IMDB TV before being integrated into Prime). Ronald Gladden is the only non-actor in this hoax show that sends the average guy to serve on an unforgettable jury. Ronald’s general kindness and agreeability are key to the show’s success, as is James Marsden’s willingness to poke fun at himself enough to earn his first Emmy nomination.

Max

Deadwood

Years: 2004-2006
Length: 3 seasons, 36 episodes
Creator: David Milch

One of the best television shows of all time returned to HBO in 2019 over a decade after its cancellation in the form of Deadwood: The Movie. If you’re wondering why fans were so excited to revisit David Milch’s Western, now is the time for an education. This is one of the smartest, deepest shows in the history of television, a program that takes what we think we know about history and the Old West and uses it to tell human stories that resonate today. It’s also got arguably the best overall ensemble in TV history.

Friends

Years: 1994-2004
Length: 10 seasons, 236 episodes
Creators: David Crane, Marta Kauffman

One of the things that put Max on the map was gaining exclusive streaming rights to one of the biggest comedies of all time. A previous smash on Netflix, this is just a perfect show for streaming. It’s easy to zone out to the familiar comedic rhythms of Ross, Rachel, Chandler, Joey, Monica, and Phoebe. Some of the comedy is undeniably dated now, but it’s easy to still appreciate the chemistry of this incredible cast.

The Sopranos

Years: 1999-2007
Length: 6 seasons, 86 episodes
Creator: David Chase

Often cited as the best TV show of all time, David Chase’s award-winning masterpiece can truly be credited with altering the landscape forever. Who knew when Tony Soprano sat down to talk to his therapist about panic attacks that a cultural phenomenon would come from it? The first season of The Sopranos is a perfect season of television. Just watch it and try not to be hooked enough to watch it all. Maybe even twice.

Succession

Years: 2018-2023
Length: 4 seasons, 39 episodes
Creator: Jesse Armstrong

The most acclaimed HBO show since the end of Game of Thrones, this drama only got more popular with each passing season, ending at the top of its game in 2023. Its final season became one of the most Emmy-nominated in history, as creator Jesse Armstrong concluded the story of the Roy family (at least for now) with a hysterical, moving run of episodes.

The Wire

Years: 2002-2008
Length: 5 seasons, 60 episodes
Creator: David Simon

Television doesn’t get more ambitious than David Simon’s five-season examination of life in a modern city. Using Baltimore as his template, Simon looks at every aspect of urban life, starting with what first seems like a simple-but-smart look at cops and criminals and expanding the canvas to include dock workers, educators, journalists, and politicians over the course of the series run. There’s a reason some people consider this the best show in the history of television.

Hulu

Abbott Elementary

Years: 2021-present
Length: 4 seasons, 49 episodes
Creator: Quinta Brunson

This is the show that proved that there’s still life in the network TV comedy. Hysterically funny and subtle in its social commentary, it’s the tale of a Philadelphia elementary school with a great staff but few resources. Shot like a mockumentary, it has incredibly sharp writing, but Abbott Elementary’s best asset is its ensemble, one of the best of its era of comedy television.

The Americans

Years: 2013-2018
Length: 6 seasons, 75 episodes
Creator: Joe Weisberg

Arguably the best show of the 2010s, this FX drama stars Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys as Elizabeth and Philip Jennings, a seemingly average couple with two kids living in ‘80s suburbia. It turns out that they’re actually undercover Russian operatives, staying on step agent of the FBI agent (Noah Emmerich) who happens to be their neighbor. Smart, sexy, moving, and thrilling, this show really feels like nothing else on TV then or now. It’s such a daring, brilliantly written program, and time will be very kind to it.

The Bear

Years: 2022-present
Length: 3 seasons, 28 episodes
Creator: Christopher Storer

One of the most acclaimed new shows of the last few years, The Bear is the story of a sandwich shop owner in the Windy City, and the pressures of life in the food business. Jeremy Allen White is spectacular in the lead role, but he’s ably supported by great turns from Ayo Edibiri and Ebon Moss-Bacharach. Expect them all to be Emmy players again. It’s third season wasn’t as big of a hit, but overall it’s both one of the funniest and most stress-inducing shows on TV.

Moonlighting

Years: 1985-1989
Length: 5 seasons, 67 episodes
Creator: Glenn Gordon Caron

Held up in music rights issues for decades, this ABC hit dramedy was finally made available to Hulu subscribers in October 2023. A show so far ahead of its time that it feels like creators are still catching up to it, Moonlighting made Bruce Willis a star as David Addison, half of a couple with Cybill Shepherd that solved crimes while defining the will-they-won’t-they dynamic of the era. It fell apart too soon, but there’s still so much to love over these five seasons. Start with a primer of the most essential episodes of Moonlighting.

Shōgun

Year: 2024-present
Length: 1 season, 10 episodes
Creators: Rachel Kondo, Justin Marks

Forty-four years after the ratings-breaking mini-series of the same name, FX has returned to the world of Shōgun, based on the hit novel by James Clavell. This 10-episode series is a gorgeously rendered epic, the story of a British sailor named Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis) who lands on the Japanese shores at a time of great conflict, and completely changes history in the process. Co-starring Hiroyuki Sanada and Anna Sawai, this version if even better than the Richard Chamberlain original. It may have begun its life as a limited series, but it’s been renewed for another season.

Apple TV+

For All Mankind

Year: 2019–present
Length: 4 seasons, 40 episodes
Creators: Ronald D. Moore, Matt Wolpert, Ben Nedivi

One of the geniuses behind the reboot of Battlestar Galactica collaborated on a very different kind of science fiction, a character-driven drama that imagines life in the United States in an alternate reality in which the Soviet Union landed on the moon before the United States. That’s just the setup for a show that has gone so many unexpected places since, incorporating figures from history like Neil Armstrong, Sally Ride, and even Wernher von Braun into a show that defies expectations. History is going to be very kind to this drama.

Severance

Year: 2022–present
Length: 1 season, 9 episodes
Creator: Dan Erickson

One of the most acclaimed new shows of the 2020s, Severance takes a clever concept and runs full speed with it into unexpected places. Adam Scott stars as an employee at a company that uses a revolutionary process that literally divides the work-life dynamic in a new way. What if your work self and home self had different lives, memories, and concerns? Britt Lower, Patricia Arquette, and Christopher Walken co-star in this incredibly smart and witty sci-fi drama.

Peacock

Columbo

Years: 1968-1978
Length: 10 seasons, 69 episodes
Creators: Richard Levinson, William Link

Maybe it was the success of the Natasha Lyonne hit Poker Face, but there was a recent revival in the pop culture universe for the best trenchcoat-wearing crime solver of all time. Peter Falk plays the title character, an average guy with a brilliant mind for solving crimes. Its second life on streaming has guided new viewers to the simple charms of one of the best mystery shows of all time.

Those About to Die

Year: 2024-present
Length: 1 season, 8 episodes
Creator: Robert Rodat

The writer of Saving Private Ryan adapted this incredibly expensive – rumored north of $140 million — original series that includes direction by disaster master Roland Emmerich and a supporting role for the legendary Anthony Hopkins. With Gladiator 2 on the horizon, why not consider this as a sort of opening act to the kind of swords-and-sandals bloodshed that used to be such a big part of pop culture?

The Traitors

Years: 2023-present
Length: 2 seasons, 23 episodes
Creators: Lee Gant, Christine Rose 

The biggest new reality TV hit of 2023 so far is this gem of a competition show with a delightful hosting job by Alan Cumming. He guides a fascinating array of reality TV stars from shows like Below Deck, Survivor, and Big Brother through a game with a simple premise — three of them are traitors. Can the contestants figure out who’s stabbing them in the back before they all end up eliminated? It’s a smartly crafted show.

Yellowstone

Years: 2018-present
Length: 5 seasons, 47 episodes
Creators: Taylor Sheridan, John Linson

This Kevin Costner Western slowly became one of the biggest shows on television. Starting life on the Paramount Network, it now airs original episodes on Paramount+, but the catalog of its first four seasons remains on Peacock — TV rights are weird. Yellowstone has grown to become a legitimate franchise with four spin-offs — 1883 and 1923 are over on Paramount+ and 6666 and 1944 are in development. They love their numbers.

Disney+

Andor

Years: 2022–present
Length: 1 season, 12 episodes
Creator: Tony Gilroy

Is this the best Star Wars TV series? It’s certainly the one that takes this world the most seriously, an incredibly smart origin story for Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), one of the characters from 2016’s Rogue One. It helps that the film’s co-writer, Tony Gilroy, is the creative force behind this captivating show, one that doesn’t talk down to its audience like so many of the Disney+ Star Wars shows have a bad habit of doing. It’s also remarkably well made, looking more like a short film every episode than an episode of television.

X-Men ‘97

Year: 2024-present
Length: 1 season, 10 episodes
Creator: Beau DeMayo

This show feels impossible. Not only does it reboot the mid-’90s hit X-Men: The Animated Series, it picks up right where that show ended in 1997, complete with most of the same voice cast in key roles. It’s like being transported back in time. And it’s much more than mere nostalgia, taking this chance to create one of the most thematically rich comic book shows on any streaming service.

Paramount+

Evil

Years: 2019-2024
Length: 4 seasons, 47 episodes
Creators: Robert King, Michelle King

The creators of The Good Fight launched a very different (but just as smart) series on CBS in 2019, but it moved to Paramount+ for its second season and got even better. Katja Herbers and Mike Colter star in a show that’s really about the modern definition of evil, and how it manifests in everything from social media to crypto currency. This became one of the smartest shows on TV, a modern X-Files riff that’s sexy, creepy, and brilliant.

The Star Trek franchise

Years: Various
Length: Various
Creator: Gene Roddenberry

Paramount and Star Trek have been partners for generations, so it makes sense that the streaming service has weeks-worth of trips to the final frontier for fans to watch. There’s a wave of originals like Discovery, Prodigy, Lower Decks, Strange New Worlds, and Picard. But the real draw remains the classics, including The Original Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise. You could watch nothing but Star Trek on Paramount+ and have little time to do anything else.