While 2026 has brought breakout hits like \u201cLove Story\u201d and \u201cSummer House,\u201d there has not yet been a seismic, discourse-dominating show along the lines of \u201cAdolescence\u201d (2025), \u201cBaby Reindeer\u201d (2024), \u201cSuccession\u201d (2023) or \u201cSeverance\u201d (2022). But there have been some pleasant surprises along with solid seasons from returning series.<\/p>\n
These were the best of the bunch, arranged alphabetically.<\/p>\n
\u2018The Comeback\u2019<\/p>\n
This showbiz satire, starring Lisa Kudrow as the flighty but determined actress Valerie Cherish, put out three seasons over 21 years, allowing it to parody three distinct eras of Hollywood.<\/p>\n
\u201cKudrow, who created the series with Michael Patrick King, made Valerie a character for the ages, simultaneously broad and complex, delusional but deceptively savvy,\u201d James Poniewozik writes<\/a>. \u201cNow she\u2019s back, summoned by the bat signal of Hollywood\u2019s latest epochal threat, artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n \u201cThe bleakly funny result is the series\u2019s most pointed yet, as it shifts focus from Valerie\u2019s insecurities to the insecurity of the entire creative class. The first two seasons established that Valerie is a survivor. The third (and purportedly last) wonders if the rest of her business will be so lucky.\u201d<\/p>\n Read the review<\/a> and more coverage of the series<\/a>. Stream it on HBO Max<\/a>.<\/p>\n In the fourth season of this crime drama set in Navajo Nation, Zahn McClarnon\u2019s Lt. Joe Leaphorn chases an assassin who is obsessed with him and his culture.<\/p>\n \u201cMcClarnon has a full r\u00e9sum\u00e9 when it comes to TV tribal cops, and each one he\u2019s played has been entirely distinct,\u201d Mike Hale writes. \u201cHe was mocking and unamused as Chief Mathias in \u2018Longmire,\u2019 mystical and blissed out as Officer Big in \u2018Reservation Dogs.\u2019 As Lt. Joe Leaphorn in \u2018Dark Winds,\u2019 he\u2019s tough, troubled, stoical, obsessed with justice. It\u2019s the most conventional characterization of the three, but across four seasons (the fourth ended in April), he has built Leaphorn into a figure of nearly tragic dimension; at moments he feels frighteningly alive.<\/p>\n \u201cThe season-long story lines, based loosely on novels by Tony Hillerman, can get a little baroque. Season 4 stretched to incorporate a plot involving the German romanticization and fetishization of Native American culture, with Franka Potente playing a grim assassin raised on the novels of Karl May. But where else are you going to get that? Add it to Leaphorn\u2019s dogged, heartbreaking effort to patch things up with his wife, Emma (Deanna Allison), and his tough love for his officers Chee (Kiowa Gordon) and Manuelito (Jessica Matten), and there was ample canvas for McClarnon\u2019s understated artistry.<\/p>\n Read more coverage<\/a> of the series<\/a>. Stream it on AMC+<\/a>.<\/p>\n This darkly comic series by Steven Conrad (\u201cPatriot\u201d) presents as a domestic murder mystery but morphs into something quirkier, deeper and more melancholy.<\/p>\n The acclaimed and prolific screenwriter Jack Thorne<\/a> created this new adaptation of the disquieting syllabus staple.<\/p>\n \u201cThorne co-wrote last year\u2019s Netflix limited series \u2018Adolescence,\u2019 a kind of surgeon general\u2019s warning on the dangers of social media for unformed minds,\u201d Poniewozik writes. \u201cSo his follow-up might seem like a lovely corrective \u2014 no phones, no Wi-Fi, just a group of boys touching grass and having hands-on experiences! \u2014 until you see that it is an adaptation of William Golding\u2019s classic novel of desert-island barbarism.<\/p>\n \u201cThorne\u2019s rendering is broadly faithful, but it resonates chillingly with today\u2019s crises of masculine aggression and might-makes-rightism. The four episodes capture the descent into atavism with haunting imagery and heartbreaking attention to the children\u2019s brutality and futile decency. It\u2019s stunning and horrific and \u2014 sadly \u2014 not a touch dated.\u201d<\/p>\n Read more coverage of the series<\/a>. Stream it on Netflix<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2018Margo\u2019s Got Money Troubles\u2019<\/p>\n In this warm dramedy by David E. Kelley (\u201cBig Little Lies\u201d and many, many others), adapted from the Rufi Thorpe novel<\/a>, a young mother (Elle Fanning) performs on OnlyFans to make ends meet.<\/p>\n \u201cJudging by TV\u2019s past explorations of sex work \u2014 \u2018The Deuce,<\/a>\u2019 \u2018P-Valley,<\/a>\u2019 \u2018The Girlfriend Experience<\/a>\u2019 \u2014 you might expect a series about a protagonist\u2019s online-exhibitionism career to be provocative, dark, maybe spicy,\u201d Poniewozik writes<\/a>. \u201cBut would you believe \u2026 sweet?<\/p>\n This Apple TV special is a return to chaotic form for the beloved troupe, channeling the backstage energy of the original (and best) \u201cMuppet Show,\u201d from the 1970s.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no newfangled hook, no contrived rationalization to bring the characters up to date, no pretensions toward heft or hipness,\u201d Poniewozik writes<\/a>. \u201cThere are songs and slapstick and jokes, and nobody, blessedly, stayed up too late thinking about the reasons why. (Because Muppets, that\u2019s why.)\u201d<\/p>\n This mini-series recounts the story of Enzo Tortora, an enormously popular TV host in Italy whose career was ruined in the 1980s when he was falsely accused of being a member of the Camorra, an Italian crime syndicate.<\/p>\n \u201cToday, assaulting a reputation with lies and innuendo is easily accomplished,\u201d Hale writes<\/a>. \u201cIt was not such a simple matter four decades ago, and the Italian filmmaker Marco Bellocchio has devoted six episodes and more than six hours to dramatizing all the confounding, astounding, heartbreaking details of Tortora\u2019s story.\u201d<\/p>\n Read the review.<\/a> Stream it on HBO Max.<\/a><\/p>\n This new show by Katie Dippold (\u201cParks and Recreation\u201d) follows the besieged mayor of a small island hamlet (Matthew Rhys) as he contends with local ghouls, ghoulish locals and the community\u2019s cursed history.<\/p>\n \u201cThe series is that tricky chimera, a horror-comedy, and it is equally \u2014 and more impressive, simultaneously \u2014 effective at both,\u201d Poniewozik writes<\/a>. \u201cA laugh and a scare are different outcomes of the same achievement, a good surprise, and \u2018Widow\u2019s Bay\u2019 has more of those than there are fish in the sea.<\/p>\n \u201dGive me all that, and I\u2019m ready to call this the most fun new show of the year to date. What elevates it to the best new show is how it reinvents a well-worn TV trope \u2014 the cozy backwater full of adorable kooks \u2014 and how it turns the town\u2019s history into its biggest monster.\u201d<\/p>\n Read the review<\/a>. Stream it on Apple TV<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2018Your Friends & Neighbors\u2019<\/p>\n Jon Hamm stars as a financier turned burglar in this satirical series about the idle rich in New York\u2019s Westchester County.<\/p>\n \u201cThis haute-suburban twist on \u2018Breaking Bad\u2019 is a ripe fantasy for both the 1 percent and for those who despise them; it has love and hate tattooed on its interlaced knuckles.” Hale writes. \u201cIn its simultaneous satirization and celebration \u2014 backhanded, perhaps, but potent \u2014 of traditional American greed, it captures our particular moment in a way few shows do.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s hard to imagine the series, whose second season ended this month, working as well as it does with anyone besides Jon Hamm at its center. His combination of frazzled charm, unforced virility and bemused vulnerability keeps our sympathies aligned with Andy, the former hedge-fund bro whose theater of larceny moves from the money markets to his friends\u2019 Westchester homes (and, in Season 2, encompassed both). As Andy\u2019s emotionally unmoored ex-wife, Mel, Amanda Peet is the combative Rosalind Russell to Hamm\u2019s harried Cary Grant.\u201d<\/p>\n Read more<\/a> coverage of<\/a> the series<\/a>. Stream it on Apple TV<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While 2026 has brought breakout hits like \u201cLove Story\u201d and \u201cSummer House,\u201d there has not yet been a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":639815,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[215877,215878,96,215879,215880,215881,3133,215882,215883,215884,391,56,54,55,215885],"class_list":["post-639814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-dark-winds-tv-program","tag-dtf-st-louis-tv-program","tag-entertainment","tag-lord-of-the-flies-tv-program","tag-margos-got-money-troubles-tv-program","tag-portobello-tv-program","tag-television","tag-the-comeback-tv-program","tag-the-muppet-show-tv-program","tag-the-pitt-tv-program","tag-tv","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-your-friends-neighbors-tv-program"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=639814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/639815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=639814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=639814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=639814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}