10 of the best TV shows of 2026 so far

From a Ryan Murphy body horror to an ingenious James Bond-themed comedy-drama and the latest Game of Thrones prequel, we pick the year’s greatest programmes to stream right now.

1. Industry

This BBC/HBO drama has been on quite a journey since it kicked off 2020: where it began as a tight, claustrophobic drama about London graduates trying to make it in the cutthroat world of the banking industry, in its fourth series its young protagonists are now power-players, and its scope has expanded to equally incorporate the worlds of media, politics and Britain’s landed gentry. The new thematic ambition is admirable, turning it into something like a state-of-the-West drama, albeit an extremely pessimistic one – but what remains most impressive is the sharpness of the writing and performances. 

2. How to Get to Heaven from Belfast

This thoroughly winning romp from Lisa McGee, the creator of Derry Girls, is a comedy and a mystery, along with a road trip across Ireland and beyond. And at heart, it is another of her stories of female friendship, no matter how unlike each other those friends are.

We believe the three late-thirty-something heroines have stayed close for 20 years despite their diverging paths: Robyn is a polished but harried mother of three, Saoirse is a successful TV writer clearly engaged to the wrong man, and awkward Dara is a carer for her mother and still mourning a broken romance with the woman who was her true love. 

3. The Beauty

While super-producer Ryan Murphy seems to become ever-more prolific, he definitely has issues with quality control: see last year’s universally slated legal drama All’s Fair as an example.

But he’s certainly had a strong run in 2026 so far: Love Story, telling the story of the tragically cut-short relationship of John F Kennedy Jr and Carolyn Bessette, was a real watercooler hit, although it came under fire for its looseness with the facts. But body horror, The Beauty was a more unqualified success: based on a comic book, it satirises today’s vanity-driven age with its story of a wonder drug that literally causes people to be reborn as a more physically attractive version of themselves, with the unfortunate side effect that they may, at some point, explode.

4. The Night Manager

There aren’t many series so good that they can afford to wait 10 years between seasons, but this espionage drama is a thrilling exception. Tom Hiddleston once more plays Jonathan Pine, now an MI5 agent who is as tightly wound as they come, but somehow still endlessly charming.

The first season used up the plot of John le Carré’s novel of the same name, but writer David Farr does a first-rate job of channelling him to create a new story involving gun-running and political intrigue in Colombia and the corrupt involvement of MI5 itself. Diego Calva gives a magnetic, star-making performance as a new villain, the arms dealer Teddy Dos Santos.

5. Lord of the Flies

After writer Jack Thorne had a global mega-hit with his Netflix drama Adolescence, it might seem foolhardy for him to follow it up with another piece focused on boys behaving violently. Yet his adaptation of William Golding’s celebrated parable about a group of schoolkids stranded on a desert island is a triumph.

While it retains the book’s period setting, it’s a fresh, innovative retelling, which makes an inspired decision to present each of the four episodes from a different character’s point of view, giving it an immersive quality that is intensified by the queasy, over-saturated visuals and White Lotus composer Cristobal Tapia de Veer’s disturbing, discordant score. 

6. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

This lively standalone series may be a prequel to Game of Thrones, taking place in author George RR Martin’s familiar world, but its refreshing wit and lightness set it apart. There is no cutthroat palace intrigue because the immensely likeable hero is the impoverished Ser Duncan (Peter Claffey) – low in rank, tall in height and possibly not even a real knight, given the dubious way he was made one.

His clever sidekick and squire is an even more likeable character, a sardonic little boy known as Egg (the delightful Dexter Sol Ansell). There is colourful medieval-style action at a jousting tournament, but the characters are the point here. 

7. The Comeback

Lisa Kudrow’s mockumentary about a sitcom actress, the irrepressible Valerie Cherish, desperate to stay relevant, has had a fascinating trajectory. Initially cancelled after just one season in 2005, before garnering a cult following, it has subsequently returned every 10 years to reflect on the state of Film, TV and popular culture in scathingly hilarious style.

This third run takes on Hollywood’s looming AI crisis as Valerie signs up to appear in a new multi-camera comedy written by a machine, her qualms outweighed by her need to keep her career afloat. Sharply satirical, but with a more poignant and searching undertow of melancholy than ever, it’s a sophisticated piece of work, but most importantly, it’s still laugh-out-loud hilarious. 

8. Rooster

Steve Carell is a comic master at turning unlikely characters into lovable, messy heroes. And Bill Lawrence, co-creator of Ted Lasso, Shrinking and many other series, makes shows that are heartfelt without being saccharine or feeling fake. They’ve combined those strengths in this smart sitcom that isn’t afraid to be silly. The premise is beyond improbable: Greg Russo, a writer of commercial novels, is hired to teach at a college he happened to be visiting to check in on his daughter, an art history professor going through a messy public divorce from a colleague.

But Carell soars above the goofy premise. So does the ensemble cast, including Danielle Deadwyler, Phil Dunster (Jamie on Ted Lasso) and John C McGinley, who is especially funny as the college’s benign, clueless, gossipy dean.

9. Bait

If there’s one good thing to come out of the endless, exhausting speculation game that is the hunt for the next James Bond, it’s this inspired, very meta show created by and starring Riz Ahmed. It sees the British-Pakistani Oscar nominee play Shah Latif, a down-on-his-luck actor, formerly a rising star, now broke, who gets an audition to play 007.

After he then deliberately gets himself papped leaving the building, he finds himself at the centre of a media circus – one that leads to attacks on all sides, from those who believe Bond should remain a white man, to Muslim peers who think he’s selling out by taking on such an establishment role. What’s most exciting about Bait is how determinedly it evades classification: through its six sub-half-hour episodes, it manages to at once be a penetrating industry satire about the knotty issue of “representation”, a delightful family comedy, and an involving psycho-drama. 

10. The Pitt

Anchored by Noah Wyle’s intense, empathetic performance as Dr Robby, this compelling medical series found an ideal formula that it carries seamlessly into season two. As it goes through a single 15-hour shift at a Pittsburgh trauma centre in real time, it captures, often in gut-wrenching detail, the life-or-death stakes and the personal stories of the doctors, nurses and other staff.

But even patients who are treated briefly emerge as vivid characters rather than case studies, in line with the show’s humane tone. The latest season arrived in the US before the first landed in the UK last month, but even for viewers catching up it’s no spoiler to say that Robby, who has a kind of PTSD from years of treating patients who can’t always be saved, is more on edge than ever.