Paramount+ recently stacked its lineup even more with the Showtime add-on. Here are the best shows of the package.
Streaming is a hopscotch game of services where the show you love will probably jump off the platform you pay for before you get a chance to finish it. Such is the horror of modernity. On the bright side, it also means that combining the right streaming services can act like a cheat code for gaining access to a bunch of cool, diverse series.
One of those cheat codes is getting Paramount+ with the Showtime add-on, ensuring you get prestige programming alongside network TV shows. Here are the 25 best Paramount Plus shows and the best show on Showtime you can watch.
Last updated on May 12, 2023
30. Mayor Of Kingstown
Year: 2021-present
Cast: Jeremy Renner, Dianne Wiest, Hugh Dillon, Tobi Bamtefa, Taylor Handley, Emma Laird, Derek Webster, Hamish Allan-Headley, Aidan Gillen, and Kyle Chandler
Genre: Crime Thriller
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: Season 1-2: 20 episodes
Created By: Taylor Sheridan, Hugh Dillon
Trailer: Watch here
What’s more important: rules or peace? You can’t have both in Kingstown. Luckily, the “Mayor” Mike McLusky knows this, but that doesn’t mean that bending the rules or keeping the peace is simple in a town where the most popular occupation is prison guard. McLusky and his family stand in the middle of the street gangs, prisoners, guards, and the cops, attempting to keep all hell from breaking loose. The series from Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan starts in the pressure cooker and refuses to leave, featuring some of Renner’s finest work as the unflappably tough figure with the dubious honor of running the town.
29. Penny Dreadful
Year: 2014-2016
Cast: Eva Green, Reeve Carney, Timothy Dalton, Rory Kinnear, Billie Piper, Harry Treadway, Helen McCrory, and Josh Hartnett
Genre: Gothic Horror, Drama, Dark Fantasy
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: Season 1-3: 27 episodes
Created By: John Logan
Trailer: Watch here
On the one hand, one more outing for Dr. Jekyll and Frankenstein (the doctor and the monster!) seems a little stale, but Logan found the sweet spot for bringing them to modern life. A dark warning masquerading as an invitation, the series was exquisite in both its look and its storytelling, leaning a bit into horror but mostly growling with a smile on its face. Set in 1891 London, it features an American showman gunslinger who is hired by an enigmatic woman and a wealthy adventurer to rescue his daughter from a dark creature. It makes the most of familiar Gothic favorites, and Eva Green might be having the most fun of her career.
28. Who Is America?
Year: 2018
Cast: Sacha Baron Cohen
Genre: Political Satire
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: Season 1: 7 episodes
Created By: Sacha Baron Cohen
Trailer: Watch here
Arriving in 2018 for only one season, it’s easy to see Who Is America? as Sacha Baron Cohen‘s hyper-specific response to the United States electing Donald Trump as president. Returning after a long hiatus to the ambush comedy that launched his career, the characters he crafted for this series seem almost designed to be disbelieved, trying to get caught in the lie by his targets and being disappointed every time that they don’t see through his mask. From a far right conspiracy theorist to an ex-Mossad anti-terrorism expert, you could understand why he probably wanted interview subjects to push back on his wild character’s plan to arm children for “safety” but they didn’t, so we’re left to laugh while weeping.
27. Rabbit/Hole
Year: 2023
Cast: Kiefer Sutherland, Meta Golding, Enid Graham, Rob Yang, Charles Dance, Walt Klink, and Wendy Makkena
Genre: Spy Thriller
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: Season 1: 8 episodes
Created By: Glenn Ficarra, John Requa
Trailer: Watch here
For fans of spy thrillers or those simply trying to reconnect with their dads, Kiefer Sutherland has got the show for you. In Rabbit/Hole, he plays a corporate spy who’s framed for murder and tumbles into a dizzyingly twist conspiracy. It’s a bit like 24 if Jack Bauer were having a good time instead of grousing about still being at work. Sutherland is magic in the role, pulling together the competing tones of Very Serious Action and Super Silly Plot Complications with veteran skill. With all the other self-serious spy thrillers out there, it’s refreshing to see one that knows how to have fun.
26. The Stand
Year: 2020
Cast: James Marsden, Whoopi Goldberg, Alexander Skarsgard, Greg Kinnear, Amber Heard, Jovan Adepo, Odessa Young, Owen Teague, Henrique Zaga, Brad William Henke, Nat Wolff, and Irene Bedard
Genre: Post-Apocalyptic, Horror, Disaster, Fantasy Drama
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: Season 1: 9 episodes
Created By: Josh Boone, Benjamin Cavell
Trailer: Watch here
It’s just bad luck that this new adaptation of Stephen King‘s magnum opus doomsday novel landed in 2020. After almost a year of Covid, it hit a little too close to home, and maybe it does still, but for those brave enough, it’s an excellent version of the story. As with the seminal ’90s mini-series starring Gary Sinise, this version follows a group of survivors of a humanmade plague as they’re drawn either to a Godlike figure or the Devil himself, setting up the dominoes for an epic battle of good against evil for the soul of humanity. M-O-O-N: that spells pandemic horror.
25. Evil
Year: 2019 –
Cast: Katja Herbers, Mike Colter, Aasif Mandvi, Michael Emerson, Maddy Crocco, Skylar Gray
Genre: Crime Drama/Horror
Rating: TV-MA
Seasons: 3 (30 episodes)
Created By: Michelle King, Robert King
Trailer: Watch here
A dynamic that’s not unlike the central pair in the The X-Files surfaces in this series that questions where evil originates, and if that’s more from science or from religion. A priest-in-training dives into unexplained mysteries in the Catholic Church with the help of a skeptical female mental health professional. In the process, the show glides through exorcisms, hauntings, and miracles. Can logic or the supernatural prevail more? Therein lies the issue.
24. Homeland
Year: 2011-2020
Cast: Claire Danes, Damian Lewis, Morena Baccarin, David Harewood, Diego Klattenhoff, Jamey Sheridan, and Mandy Patinkin
Genre: Spy Thriller, Political Thriller
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: Season 1-8: 96 episodes
Created By: Howard Gordon, Alex Gansa
Trailer: Watch here
More than any other espionage thriller, Homeland captured the zeitgeist of the Iraq War era, showcasing both the bravery of individual agents as well as recklessness and questionable moral allegiances. As far as single seasons go, the first is one of the best in television history, pitting the potentially paranoid CIA agent Carrie Mathison against the war hero Marine Sergeant Nicholas Brody who may or may not be part of a terrorist plot that threatens the highest levels of government. It was a weekly dose of sweaty palms that is now bingeable in case you need to keep your heart rate elevated for hours on end.
23. Æon Flux
Year: 1991-1995
Cast: Denise Poirier, John Rafter Lee, and Julia Fletcher
Genre: Adventure, Animation, Avant-Garde, Experimental Sci-Fi
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: Season 1-3: 21 episodes
Created By: Peter Chung
Trailer: Watch here
Part of the Liquid Television lineup back in the day, Aeon Flux was the show you watched before you knew what the F in WTF stood for. Æon Flux is a Barbarella-like secret agent who wears a black bikini and heavy weapons, hailing from a city of nihilism and anarchy in perpetual war with a rigid totalitarian city. Flux’s eternal mission is to bring the city down by targeting its ruler. A glorious cyberpunk ballet, the cartoon series was unique in its German Expressionistic look and its gutsy experimentalism. All of that was sanded down for a questionable live-action film starring Charlize Theron, which never stood a chance of bringing the gonzo world of this weirdo show to full fruition.
22. 1923
Year: 2022-present
Cast: Helen Mirren, Harrison Ford, Brandon Sklenar, Julia Schlaepfer, Jerome Flynn, Darren Mann, Isabel May, Brian Geraghty, Aminah Nieves, Michelle Randolph, and Timothy Dalton
Genre: Western
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: Season 1: 8 episodes
Created By: Taylor Sheridan
Trailer: Watch here
It’s impossible to turn on Paramount+ while escaping Taylor Sheridan. He’s the Shonda Rhimes of the streaming channel, spinning off massive successes off his massive successes. 1923 is just one of them — a branch from the Yellowstone tree taking us back to bust decade Montana where the Dutton family weathers economic downturns, prohibition, conflicts at the local Catholic boarding school, and men who want to do them harm. If you want to understand how good this show is, just take a look at the cast list. Ford and Mirren are fantastic, and while it was meant to be a one-off, a second season was ordered because fan response was so strong.
21. 1883
Year: 2021-2022
Cast: Sam Elliott, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Isabel May, LaMonica Garrett, Marc Rissmann, Audie Rick, Eric Nelsen, James Landry Hebert, and Noah Le Gros
Genre: Western, Period Drama
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: Season 1: 10 episodes
Created By: Taylor Sheridan
Trailer: Watch here
Seriously. You can’t escape Taylor Sheridan. In the other spin-off from Yellowstone, we go back even further in time to the Dutton ancestor James Dillard Dutton as he puts the Civil War behind him in order to help a wagon train out of Texas heading for Oregon. The journey is as dangerous as the computer game promised. McGraw and Hill both more than hold their own against seasoned actors, including Sam Elliott who, of course, is contractually obligated to star in every western ever made. For good reason. It’s a harrowing series about sacrificing in order to make a better life, wallpapered with gorgeous vistas and fantastic cinematography.
20. Californication
Year: 2007-2014
Cast: David Duchovny, Natascha McElhone, Madeleine Martin, Evan Handler, Pamela Adlon, and Madeline Zima
Genre: Comedy Drama, Sex Comedy
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: Season 1-7: 84 episodes
Created By: Tom Kapinos
Trailer: Watch here
Hank Moody is an alcoholic writer who is super sad that his trenchant niche novel has been converted into a wildly popular (and soulless) movie. He’s also having a rough time with his ex-girlfriend/love of his life marrying a fancy Los Angeles publisher and his teenage daughter pulling away from him because of his terminal inability to make good choices. Aided by his deplorable agent, Hank tries to clean up his life, but it’s not exactly a linear process. Sophisticated and filled to the brim with sex and excess, David Duchovny rocked the role with a constant stream of devil may care vibes and the wink of a possibility that this slime ball was somehow redeemable.
19. Tulsa King
Year: 2022-present
Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Andrea Savage, Martin Starr, Jay Will, Max Casella, Domenick Lombardozzi, Vincent Piazza, Garrett Hedlund, and Dana Delaney
Genre: Crime Drama
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: Season 1: 9 episodes
Created By: Taylor Sheridan
Trailer: Watch here
Another barn burner from Taylor Sheridan, he’s hit upon a novel crime idea by sending a mafioso into Oklahoma not in the witness protection program, but as the lead in fresh territory for his criminal bosses to exploit. Stallone is pitch perfect here playing the gray haired mobster Manfredi who refused to rat and is rewarded by being sent to the middle of nowhere. Unlike other tough guy figures, he’s given full license to be funny, quipping constantly and dispensing old school crime boss wisdom alongside murderous one-liners. That attitude, alongside the absurd clash between Manfredi’s fish-out-of-water NYC sensibilities and the legal weed world of Tulsa, sets it apart from other crime dramas.
18. Your Honor
Year: 2020-2023
Cast: Bryan Cranston, Hunter Doohan, Hope Davis, Sofia Black-D’Elia, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Michael Stuhlbarg, and Carmen Ejogo
Genre: Legal Drama
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: Season 1-2: 20 episodes
Created By: Peter Moffat
Trailer: Watch here
Told over two white knuckle seasons, Cranston stars as a respected judge in New Orleans whose son kills another boy in a hit and run accident. Courageously, the judge wants his son to turn himself in and face the music, but he changes his tune when he learns that the boy his son killed is the child of a mafia kingpin. It’s the kind of situation where a rock and a hard place would be a sincere upgrade, and once again, Cranston proves he’s unstoppable as the upright figure driven to immoral measures when the going gets tough. Gorgeously shot, the Showtime series is a riveting drama from start to shocking finish.
17. Criminal Minds
Year: 2005 –
Cast: Matthew Gray Gubler, Kirsten Vangsness, A.J. Cook, Shemar Moore, Paget Brewster, Aisha Tyler
Genre: Procedural/Crime Drama
Rating: TV-MA
Seasons: 16 (324 episodes)
Created By: Jeff Davis
Trailer: Watch here
Matthew Gray Gubler hasn’t surfaced yet in the Evolution leg of this series (exclusively available on Paramount+), but the good news is that there are already sixteen other seasons of the principle series for fans to feast upon in repeated fashion. This show, of course, is one of several procedurals that continue to capture the hearts and minds of viewers. These elite FBI profilers, known as the Behavioral Analysis Unit, never rest, it seems, while they attempt to understand predatorily motivations and stop future potential crimes through the art of so-called “mind hunting.” In the Evolution series, serial killers of the pandemic take central stage. Yikes.
16. Murder In Big Horn
Year: 2023
Cast: Documentary Figures
Genre: Documentary, True Crime
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: Season 1: 3 episodes
Created By: Razelle Benally, Matthew Galkin
Trailer: Watch here
This vital docuseries from Galkin and Benally is a different kind of true crime story. Instead of inventing unnecessary twists and turns, it seeks to tell the frustratingly straightforward story of an epidemic of murdered and missing indigenous women laced with the maddening official responses that doubt there’s any real problem. It’s the kind of necessary narrative that will have you alternative between clenching your fists and crying, but it’s miles away from “homework viewing.” The stories they’ve unearthed through conversations with locals, including family members of missing young women, are fascinating, often tragic, and invaluable to hear.
15. Halo
Year: 2022-present
Cast: Pablo Schreiber, Shabana Azmi, Natasha Culzac, Olive Gray, Yerin Ha, Charlie Murphy, Jen Taylor, Bokeem Woodbine, and Natascha McElhone
Genre: Military Sci-Fi, Action, Adventure
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: Season 1: 9 episodes
Created By: Kyle Killen, Steven Kane
Trailer: Watch here
Finally a serious version of Red vs Blue! Based on the wildly popular video game series, Halo brings Master Chief to live action reality, pushing the superhuman soldier through the paces of fighting the aliens of The Covenant and questioning whether maybe his superiors are, you know, not totally great either. The show ignores some of the elements of the game and its subsequent novels, but it offers clear cut sci-fi action that has set the stage for future seasons to bust out of the tropes and shine. Schreiber is clearly in his element voicing the grizzled living weapon and the inclusion of Jen Taylor voicing Cortana brings some legit connective tissue to the video games.
14. Avatar: The Last Airbender
Year: 2005 – 2008
Cast: Dee Bradley Baker, Zach Tyler Eisen, Mae Whitman
Genre: Animation/Adventure
Rating: TV-Y7-FV
Seasons: 3 (62 episodes)
Created By: Michael Dante DiMartino, Bryan Konietzko
Trailer: Watch here
This Nickelodeon series will appeal to many generations and revolves around the four nations that represent the four natural elements: water, earth, fire, and air. Special beings known as the Benders can control their own particular element, but all four elements can be mastered by the Avatar. In this series, a tribe discovers that the missing Avatar is among them, and now, Aang must use his abilities to truly become the master that he was intended to be.
13. Daria
Year: 1997-2002
Cast: Tracy Grandstaff, Wendy Hoopes, Julian Rebolledo, Marc Thompson, and Alvaro J. Gonzalez
Genre: Adult Animation, Teen Drama, Comedy, Satire
Rating: TV-PG
Runtime: Season 1-5: 65 episodes
Created By: Glenn Eichler, Susie Lewis Lynn
Trailer: Watch here
Thankfully escaping the orbit of Beavis and Butt-head, Daria Morgendorffer got her own show to be as sarcastic and cynical as she wanted to be. No offence to B&B — they’re just wildly different shows, and Daria deserved room to breathe. Fortunately, we got 5 seasons of this exaggerated suburban landscape where Daria skewered all things bright, sunny, and popular in the ’90s. Amid the sea of sparkly lip gloss and football pads, Daria is still a counterculture icon. Jaded and hilarious, she’s earned pop cultural immortality that she would probably despise.
12. Yellowjackets
Year: 2021-present
Cast: Melanie Lynskey, Tawny Cypress, Sophie Nelisse, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Christina Ricci, Sammi Hanratty, Juliette Lewis, and Sophie Thatcher
Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller, Psychological Drama
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: Season 1: 10 episodes
Created By: Ashley Lyle, Bart Nickerson
Trailer: Watch here
In 1972, the Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 plane crashed in the remote Andes, and the survivors were forced to resort to cannibalism as a means to survive the inhospitable climes until they could be rescued. Yellowjackets asks what would happen if the plane had been filled with teenage soccer players. Jumping back and forth between the wilderness and the present day, the series is a taut thriller tinged with the unfolding mystery of what really happened out there when the girls’ plane went down. Is it as simple as they made it sound in the press, or does it get a lot stranger? (Hint: you already know the answer.) Anchored by rock-star performances by Lynskey and Lewis and Ricci and the young crew, it’s earned its spot as a TV phenomenon for good reason.
11. Nathan For You
Year: 2013 – 2017 Unchanged: Year: 2013 – 2017
Cast: Nathan Fielder
Genre: Reality/Comedy
Rating: TV-MA
Seasons: 4 (25 episodes)
Created By: Nathan Fielder
Trailer: Watch here
Before Nathan Fielder truly unsettled the world with The Rehearsal‘s higher (and even more awkward) stakes full of manipulation, he warmed up with this assortment of satirical pranks. At times, this series is so cringeworthy to watch that, well, it is hard not to look away from the small-business scenarios. Yet Fielder keeps viewers hooked despite any discomfort, and it’s worth doubling back for a refresh of this deranged yet innovative series.
10. Frasier
Year: 1993-2004
Cast: Kelsey Grammer, Jane Leeves, David Hyde Pierce, Peri Gilpin, John Mahoney, and Moose The Dog and Enzo The Dog
Genre: Sitcom
Rating: TV-PG
Runtime: Season 1-11: 264 episodes
Created By: David Angell, Peter Casey, David Lee
Trailer: Watch here
Yes, you hear the blues a’callin’. It’s inevitable. The pull of one of the most successful sitcoms of all time was, inexplicably, about a posh psychiatrist doling out radio advice in Seattle. The Cheers spin-off found a winning formula in affably pompous Frasier butting heads Odd Couple style with his domestic beer-swilling, retired cop father. Naturally, his effete brother Niles and dad’s daffy line-in physio Daphne are key to the mix, as well as his deadpan genius producer Roz. It’s difficult to see the show working without any of them because they made up a bizarre family that squabbled, had each other’s backs, and occasionally got into vaudeville-esque hijinks. A welcome antidote after watching so much TV-MA.
9. I Love Lucy
Year: 1951-1957
Cast: Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, William Frawley, and Richard Keith
Genre: Sitcom
Rating: TV-G
Runtime: Season 1-6: 180 episodes
Created By: Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz
Trailer: Watch here
Speaking of comic antidotes, there’s nothing like going back to the classics. It’s a true gift that every episode of I Love Lucy is available on Paramount+ because it rings that nostalgia bell whether you watched its original run or stayed up slightly late to catch it on Nick At Nite. The show features wife and husband comedy team Ball and Arnaz with Lucy trying her best to get into trouble in every episode, usually by ignoring completely practical advice. After more than a half-century, its proven both its staying power and timelessness — the jokes as fresh today as they were in the black and white era.
8. The Good Wife
Year: 2009-2016
Cast: Julianna Margulies, Matt Czuchry, Archie Panjabi, Graham Phillips, Makenzie Vega, Josh Charles, and Christine Baranski
Genre: Legal Drama, Political Drama
Rating: TV-14
Runtime: Season 1-7: 156 episodes
Created By: Robert King, Michelle King
Trailer: Watch here
The Kings’ series is an institution ripe for a rewatch (or long overdue for you to see). Jumping off the cliched image of the humbling politician admitting to an affair to a packed press conference with his trapped doting wife holding his hand as a measure of public support, the show featured a woman who refused to play nice. After her husband is jailed for a sex scandal-tinged corruption charge, Alicia Florrick emerges from being a stay-at-home mother to rejoin the ranks of litigation to provide for her two children. The Good Wife deftly jumped between Florrick’s personal woes and the weekly courtroom challenges she faced with courage and smarts, all while touting an impressive list of guest stars and recurring actors.
7. Shameless
Year: 2011 – 2021
Cast: Emmy Rossum, William H. Macy, Jeremy Allen White
Genre: Dramedy
Rating: TV-MA
Seasons: 12 (134 episodes)
Created By: Paul Abbott, John Wells
Trailer: Watch here
The U.S. version of the Gallagher family lasted one season longer than its U.K. predecessor, and we received laughter and tears and more laughter before all was said and done. Fiona left the building one season before her siblings, and the show never recovered. Yet viewers will always enjoy revisiting how Fiona held the group together even when they drove her nuts. Tragic Lip and chaotic Carl were only a few of the character highlights, and incredible guest stars like Dermot Mulroney and Katey Sagal were icing on the Chicago South Side cake.
6. Reno 911!
Year: 2003-2009
Cast: Cedric Yarbrough, Niecy Nash, Robert Ben Garant, Thomas Lennon, Carlos Alazraqui, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Kerri Kenney-Silver, Mary Birdsong, Ian Roberts, and Joe Lo Truglio
Genre: Comedy
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: Season 1-8: 124 episodes
Created By: Robert Ben Garant, Thomas Lennon, Kerri Kenney-Silver
Trailer: Watch here
It’s a comedy miracle that this weird, wonderful parody of Cops exists. Throughout seasons of the most taboo jokes possible, the underlying philosophy of the series is that these Reno cops are profoundly inept. It’s the comic well from which all the funny stuff flows, and the cast nails it straight to the ground every time. It’s outrageous and singular, and fans of Party Down and I Think You Should Leave who, somehow, haven’t checked this out should spare some binge time to connect with their comedy ancestors. Beyond its peerless humor, this Comedy Central show pulls off the impossible of having every cast member be the MVP of every episode.
5. The Chi
Year: 2017-present
Cast: Jason Mitchell, Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine, Jacob Latimore, Alex Hibbert, Tiffany Boone, Yolonda Ross, and Armando Riesco
Genre: Drama
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: Season 1-5: 50 episodes
Created By: Lena Waithe
Trailer: Watch here
It’s easy to accidentally binge shows these days, but it’s genuinely difficult to stop watching The Chi. The series from Waithe and Common is a web of daily lives on the South Side of Chicago all affected in different ways by a dramatic series of events. It doesn’t feel quite right to call it a drama because it encompasses the totality of human experience through the eyes of its ensemble — from risky first loves to challenging jobs to the struggles of poverty and a lack of good choices. With fantastic performances throughout, the show is deeply humane and finds incredible joy in each of its vibrant, compelling characters.
4. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Year: 1993-1999
Cast: Avery Brooks, Rene Auberjonois, Terry Farrell, Cirroc Lofton, Colm Meaney, Armin Shimerman, Alexander Siddig, Nana Visitor, Michael Dorn, and Nicole de Boer
Genre: Adventure, Sci-Fi
Rating: TV-PG
Runtime: Season 1-7: 176 episodes
Created By: Rick Berman, Michael Piller
Trailer: Watch here
There’s no doubt that Star Trek is having another fantastic Renaissance with a handful of shows spanning styles and tones, and while you’re enjoying the haunting Picard and hilarious Lower Decks, you should make time to return to the greatest Star Trek series of all time. Set on a space station jointly administered by Starfleet and Bajorans — who were previously brutally occupied by Kardassians — the show took the typical Trek formula and cast of characters but had room to let their stories breathe because they weren’t constantly rocketing off to a new planet to meet new aliens. As such, it had a lot to say about Colonizing, freedom fighters and terrorists, religious faith, and duty, yet still found some time to play baseball, too.
3. Dexter/Dexter: New Blood
Year: 2006-2013/2021-present
Cast: Michael C. Hall, Jennifer Carpenter, Julie Benz, Erik King, Lauren Velez, David Zayas, James Remar, C.S. Lee, John Lithgow, Julia Stiles, and Jimmy Smits
Genre: Crime Drama, Mystery, Thriller, Dark Comedy, Police Procedural
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: Season 1-8: 96 episodes/Season 1: 10 episodes
Created By: James Manos Jr./Clyde Phillips
Trailer: Watch here
Dexter Morgan is a blood splatter technician/serial killer in Miami who loves his sister, excels at work, and kills people with decent regularity. The good news is that he was brought up with a moral code, so he sticks with murdering murderers. The police don’t seem too enthusiastic about that as an excuse, so he’s under constant threat of being discovered by the very people he shares a breakroom with. This series hit hard when it premiered, and it continues to shock, particularly because of its aggressive performances and ability to place Dexter in impossible situations that he juuuuuuuust manages to squeak out of. Most of the time. It eventually went delightfully off the rails, and the revival series New Blood clearly decided that staying grounded was overrated. It remains a guilty beach read in TV form.
2. Chappelle’s Show
Year: 2003-2006
Cast: Dave Chappelle, Charlie Murphy, Donnell Rawlings, and Paul Mooney
Genre: Sketch Comedy
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: Season 1-3: 28 episodes
Created By: Dave Chappelle, Neal Brennan
Trailer: Watch here
The GOAT that was too good to last. At first glance, there’s nothing groundbreaking about the structure of the sketch series. Dave Chappelle would do some standup and introduced some pre-recorded sketches to a clapping audience — but that standup, and those sketches, changed television. From Charlie Murphy‘s hilarious tales of Hollywood life to the Racial Draft to a very different look for Wayne Brady, Chappelle’s Show dared to push boundaries and go where other shows simply weren’t even thinking about going.
1. Billions
Year: 2016-present
Cast: Paul Giamatti, Damian Lewis, Maggie Siff, David Costabile, Condola Rashad, Asia Kate Dillon, Kelly AuCoin, and Corey Stoll
Genre: Drama
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: Season 1-6: 72 episodes
Created By: Brian Koppelman, David Levien, Andrew Ross Sorkin
Trailer: Watch here
What whip-smart series about prosecuting the super-rich for fraud just got a new injection of relevance? This one! Koppelman, Levien, and Sorkin’s original series offered a hip jab against the uber-wealthy, treading that balance beam that allows us to salivate in envy at the lifestyle while deeply, deeply wishing they would get taken down. Based on several real-world fraud cases, the inciting storyline focuses on U.S. Attorney Chuck Rhoades’ attempt to nail charming hedge fund manager Bobby Axelrod for doing a bunch of illegal stuff in order to make and secure his billions. Unsurprisingly, the minds behind Ocean’s 13 and Rounders inject an incredible sense of cool alongside the twisting back stabs and reversals of massive fortune. Watch it for the clever drama, but be sure to take notes on some hot restaurants to check out for your next NYC visit.
