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The Best TV Shows to Stream Right Now

It's nearly impossible to figure out what, exactly, the best TV shows worth your time are on all the streaming platforms out there, so we did the work and found the very best TV shows to watch online right now. (For the best movies to stream right now, click here.)

Want to get watching right away? Netflix, HBO Go, Amazon, Hulu, AppleTV+, and Disney+ all offer free trials so you can start streaming without committing a cent. Note: If you sign up for a free trial through these links, GQ may earn an affiliate commission.

Amazon Prime

Hunters

Hunters
Hunters
Courtesy of Amazon

The very latest big-budget genre show to enter the streaming arena, Hunters offers up a bonkers, brilliant premise with plenty of gore and some big names to help sell it. It's the 1970s and a group of New York-based justice-seekers has found out there are hundreds of high-ranking former Nazi officers living in the U.S. planning the rise of the Fourth Reich. I mean, what more could you want? Logan Lerman is great as the incredulous Jonah, the newest member inducted into the Hunters after his grandmother is murdered at the hands of a secret Nazi. Al Pacino does good work as always, Carol Kane plays another of the cold-blooded killers, and even Josh Radnor turns up for a better than expected bit of work.

30 Rock

<cite class="credit">NBC</cite>
NBC

A few of the jokes haven't aged super well, but this is still one of the most influential sitcoms of our time. If you like to laugh, at least half your favorite shows probably owe some of their DNA, one way or another, to 30 Rock.

Netflix

Love is Blind

<cite class="credit">Netflix Media</cite>
Netflix Media

Netflix's new, entirely unhinged reality show has one of the most upsetting premises I've ever come across: What if you got engaged to someone you've never actually met, and then had to see that engagement through to the moment you're walking down the aisle, then decide whether or not you want to get married? It's truly wild, and sometimes more, and also maybe a little upsetting and exploitative? Get streaming and decide for yourself.

James Acaster: Repertoire

<cite class="credit">Netflix Media</cite>
Netflix Media

The U.K.'s greatest working comedian right now has a four-part special on Netflix it'd be a crime to sleep on. James Acaster dresses like a dad from a '70s sitcom, has the face of a boy mannequin, and posseses a comedic style nearly impossible to nail down.

Better Call Saul

Better Call Saul

Episode 305

Better Call Saul
Michele K.Short / Netflix

No longer the Breaking Bad prequel some saw it as, Better Call Saul is now very comfortably its own beast. In fact, its greatest stumble is its forays into fleshing out the stories of Gus Fring, Mike Ehrmantraut, and some of Walter White's other eventual cohorts. Bob Odenkirk and Rhea Seehorn are the beating heart of Better Call Saul, which manages to tell a more credible (and heartbreaking) story of one man's descent into darkness while the people around him try desperately to help and minimize his damage. Whisper it, but maybe we should start calling Breaking Bad "that Better Call Saul spinoff."

Locke & Key

Locke & Key

1

Locke & Key
Christos Kalohoridis / Courtesy of Netflix

Full disclosure: I have not read the beloved comic series this new Netflix original is based on, but I have read a lot of horror icon Joe Hill's other work, and Locke and Key functions perfectly well for people entirely unfamiliar with the source material. It's creepy without being grotesque, and young adult-appropriate without compromising its surprisingly emotional story. More of this, please, Netflix!

Santa Clarita Diet

Santa Clarita Diet

3

Santa Clarita Diet
Saeed Adyani / Courtesy of Netflix

I've had some time to think about this and I'd like to declare Drew Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant's familial unit in Santa Clarita Diet the best husband and wife TV pairing of the 2010s. Cruelly lopped off Netflix's roster at the end of its third season (which left things on one hell of a cliffhanger), Santa Clarita Diet is one of the great underrated sitcoms. R.I.P.

Sex Education

1st May Ep 2-16.dng
1st May Ep 2-16.dng
Netflix

Season Two of Sex Education expands on its concept and world-building to finally fulfill the potential this oddball showed in its first outing. Gillian Anderson and Asa Butterfield are good as ever, but now that the introductions are out the way, it's time to bring some consequences crashing down on Otis and his at-best morally dubious for-profit sex clinic. The show's unafraid to show the darker, more vulnerable moments of high schoolers learning about the world around them. Aimee Lou-Wood gets a fantastic story this season centered around trauma which never becomes too heavy or too flippant, and Oti's showdown with his father in the finale should be required viewing for every teen who's ever so much as glanced embarrassingly at a pack of condoms in the grocery store.

BoJack Horseman

<cite class="credit">Netflix</cite>
Netflix

After six seasons, Netflix's flagship sad horse cartoon has come to an end. However you felt about BoJack's journey, his treatment of others around him, or the show's treatment of his treatment, it's safe to say this show changed a lot about the state of streaming and animated television. Goodbye to this horse(man).

Twin Peaks

<h1 class="title">Part 18</h1><cite class="credit">Everett </cite>

Part 18

Everett

Can a show be terrifying as well as warmly comforting? If anything's even come close, it's Twin Peaks, which holds up today as a hyper-surreal exploration of small-town America, an interrogation of the spate of police procedurals that preceded it, and a straight-up horror series that still finds time to indulge in a warm slice of cherry pie and hot cup of coffee from time to time. David Lynch's follow-ups, Fire Walk With Me and Twin peaks: The Return are brilliant as well, if not better, but this is the show that started it all, and changed everything.

Billy On the Street

<h1 class="title">BILLY ON THE STREET WITH BILLY EICHNER (aka FUNNY OR DIE'S BILLY ON THE STREET), from left: Sarah</h1><cite class="credit">Everett Collection</cite>

BILLY ON THE STREET WITH BILLY EICHNER (aka FUNNY OR DIE'S BILLY ON THE STREET), from left: Sarah

Everett Collection

These are dark times we live in, and generally, the best TV shows out there like to reflect that in one sense or another. Not so for Billy on the Street, which keeps its focus solidly on wide-ranging celebrity trivia and its irresistibly manic host, Billy Eichner, the only New Yorker you'd be happy to yell in your face without warning during your commute.

The Sinner

<h1 class="title">The Sinner - Season 1</h1><cite class="credit">Everett Collection</cite>

The Sinner - Season 1

Everett Collection

Each year The Sinner presents an impossibly intriguing mystery to unravel, and each year the payoff is stranger and more satisfying than a hurriedly-arranged basic cable thriller has any right to be. Carrie Coon and Bill Pullman's cat-and-mouse game in Season Two was a highlight, despite the excellent first season with Jessica Biel, which is also worth a watch.

The Circle

<h1 class="title">TCDCIRC ZX002</h1><cite class="credit">Everett</cite>

TCDCIRC ZX002

Everett

Don't take my word for it, take two people's words for it. This is the greatest trash show of the new year and, yes, I am including Winter Love Island (U.K.).

Russian Doll

<h1 class="title">1</h1><cite class="credit">Netflix</cite>

1

Netflix

Natasha Lyonne stars in this extraordinarily brilliant series about a woman trapped to relive her birthday over and over again, dying repeatedly, until she figures out just what the hell is going on. What begins as a quirky high-concept comedy subtly transforms over its first season to become a twisty metaphysical take on being painfully human. And some of those deaths are wild.

HBO Go

High Maintenance

<cite class="credit">HBO Media</cite>
HBO Media

What started as a humble Vimeo miniseries is now one of HBO's crown jewels, attracting the kind of guest actors and comedians most other shows would have to pay through the nose for. Honestly, may it go on forever.

Bored to Death

<cite class="credit">HBO Media</cite>
HBO Media

From HBO's vaults, why not check out Bored to Death, a seriously esoteric comedy from Jonathan Ames that combines hardboiled detective storytelling with some social and sexual messaging far before its time. Bored To Death never really got the send-off it deserved, but maybe a show like this is meant to go under-appreciated in their own weird way. Stars Ted Danson, Zack Galifianakis, and Jason Schwartzman are doing just fine.

McMillions

McMillions
McMillions
Courtesy of HBO

I'm not much of a true-crime guy, but even I couldn't resist McMillions, which mixes Serial-esque reporting and twists with the frivolous knowledge that all this drama centers around... a fake game invented to sell more burgers.

Avenue 5

<cite class="credit">HBO Media</cite>
HBO Media

After spending most of his career in the weeds of real-world (mostly) political machinations, Armando Ianucci finally gives himself a break and takes to the stars for Avenue 5, a typically whip-smart sitcom about a doomed luxury spaceship/hotel. It's far, far lighter than anything Ianucci has attempted before, and his from-scratch world-building doesn't have nearly the strength of his forays in Washington, D.C. for Veep or Parliament for The Thick of It, but there's still a killer cast and endless potential for this thing to find its feet.

Curb Your Enthusiasm

<cite class="credit">HBO</cite>
HBO

Curb Your Enthusiasm is back for its 10th Season in 20 years. Never let it be said Larry David does not move at his own pace. It's as horribly outrageous as ever, and as long as David keeps thinking up convoluted social rules to flout/introduce, I'll happily keep watching.

The Outsider

God bless Stephen King, who never met a hardboiled detective thriller he couldn't help but nudge into the supernatural realm. Thankfully, The Outsider on HBO's central mystery doesn't suffer from its early introduction of the uncanny, and while the characters (even the brilliant Holly Gibney, played by Cynthia Erivo) might be frustratingly slow on the uptake compared to the amount of information we get up front, this is still an absorbing, pitch-black horror showcase for Ben Mendelsohn, Jason Bateman (who also directed the pilot), and Erivo herself.

Flight of the Conchords

<cite class="credit">HBO</cite>
HBO

I rewatched Season One of Flight of the Conchords on a whim and what do you know? It's a sensitive and fully unique show about the artistic struggle and deep friendship that still holds up. A salve.

Hulu

The Thick of It

<h1 class="title">THE THICK OF IT, Peter Capaldi, (Season 4, 2012), 2005-2012. photo: Des Willie / ©BBC / Courtesy:</h1><cite class="credit">Everett Collection</cite>

THE THICK OF IT, Peter Capaldi, (Season 4, 2012), 2005-2012. photo: Des Willie / ©BBC / Courtesy:

Everett Collection

If you're tired of a byzantine backstabbing of American politics at the moment, why not take a break and enjoy the... byzantine backstabbing of British politics? Armando Ianucci's masterpiece, which preceded other hits like Veep and Avenue 5 has a similar love of transporting its characters into the most chaotic, frustrating situations possible, but it's the inclusion of Peter Capaldi's Malcolm Tucker that makes this show really sing. if Veep was missing anything, it was an inflexible Scot exacting the President's every will and subjecting anyone who displeases him to some of the most vile, giddily brilliant insults ever committed to film.

Don't Trust the B- in Apartment 23

<cite class="credit">Hulu</cite>
Hulu

Don't let the terrible title and even worse theme song fool you: this is one of the most underrated sitcoms of the modern era. Mainline it.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine

<h1 class="title">BROOKLYN NINE-NINE, (from left): Andy Samberg, Chris Parnell, 'Sabotage', (Season 2, ep. 219, aired</h1><cite class="credit">Everett </cite>

BROOKLYN NINE-NINE, (from left): Andy Samberg, Chris Parnell, 'Sabotage', (Season 2, ep. 219, aired

Everett

Seven seasons in and Brooklyn Nine-Nine is as good as ever—seriously. This is the rare show that doesn't devolve into leaning on its character's archetypes for the same version of laughs year after year, instead finding ways to challenge and change its roster over time in a way most shows are frankly afraid to do. This season: Captain Holt (Andre Baugher) has been downgraded to a beat cop and Terry (Terry Crews), now a lieutenant, has to hold the precinct together. What a warm miracle of a show. May it never end.

WWE NXT

<cite class="credit">WWE</cite>
WWE

Professional Wrestling is having more than a moment. In fact, it's back, with SmackDown airing live on a broadcast network weekly and the upstart AEW being handed a primetime deal on TNT through to 2023. For the first time in a long time, wrestling is again a part of mainstream entertainment culture, and it doesn't get more entertaining than NXT. originally conceived as a developmental show/brand that wrestlers pass through before graduating to Raw or SmackDown, it's now fully a third entity of the global wrestling powerhouse in its own right. There's still a distinctly underground, special feel to NXT that doesn't extend to the rest of WWE's overproduced programming, and the quality of both the characters and wrestling are far beyond anything else. As a quick cheat sheet for newcomers, you'll want to keep your eye on the likes of Bianca Belair, Pete Dunne, Keith Lee, Matt Riddle, Rhea Ripley, and, hell, the entirety of the villainous Undisputed Era. Go on, give it a shot.

The Good Place

<cite class="credit">NBC</cite>
NBC

Rewatch the best sitcom on TV before the memories fade. I'm going to miss these morally corrupted weirdos.

Disney+

The Mandalorian

<h1 class="title">TCDMAND G5027</h1><cite class="credit">Everett Collection</cite>

TCDMAND G5027

Everett Collection

Have you still not checked out the fuss over Baby Yoda? What are you doing with your life? Sure, the rest of the show is pretty hit-and-miss (it's essentially a Western, meaning you can drop a bunch of the middle episodes and still not miss much) but the performances are good, the writing's clever, and it's so nice spending some time in what feels like the classic Star Wars movies again.

BritBox

Inside No. 9

Inside No. 9
Inside No. 9
Courtesy of BBC

BritBox is still in its infancy as a must-have streaming service, but its exclusive rights to the brilliant Inside No. 9 might be all it takes to make it a must-have. Now in its fifth season, the pitch-black anthology series by Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton delivers laughs, horror, and wild, Shakespearean twists each and every week, and it's as good as ever.


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Originally Appeared on GQ