The 40 Best TV Shows to Watch Right Now
The 40 Best TV Shows to Watch Right Now
Get Hooked on These TV Shows (And Maybe Even Watch Them All)
Hi, I'm Mel. And I watch a helluva lot of television. So much so that I'm going to share with you a list of my favorite TV shows, just in case you're wandering into a Netflix or Hulu hole and might need some inspiration.
But First: Before We Get Started, Here Are a Few Things Worth Mentioning...
I have not seen every show ever made, but I've seen a lot. In fact, most shows on this list I started watching recently, and that's why they're my current favorites. If you prefer older TV shows like Will & Grace (an all-time personal fav) and The Golden Girls, sorry you won't find them listed here. I know those shows are great, too!
In addition, I deliberately picked television series that can be streamed and binged by the season.
Finally, if your current favorite program didn't make the cut, it's probably because I haven't seen it yet. Or maybe I watched it and didn't like it... It's difficult to say. In a nutshell, I tried to compile a list of TV shows that I enjoy and would recommend to my friends.
Anyway, without further ado: here are my current 40+ favorite TV shows that you can watch right now!
Get Hooked on These 40 Best TV Shows
In alphabetical order and guaranteed to keep you glued to the screen
Photo credit: Netflix
AJ and the Queen
What is it? A drag queen (RuPaul) and a stowaway kid form an unlikely friendship crisscrossing the country snatching trophies while running from the bad guys.
What's it all about? Shantay, you stay.
Streaming Service/Network: Netflix
American Horror Story
What is it? An anthology from the horror genre that manages not to be too scary but keeps you glued to your seat as each tale weaves and winds its way.
What's it all about? A different story each season with a mix of new and old characters.
Streaming Service/Network: Netflix
Avenue 5
What is it? A satirical look at futuristic space travel fun-ship cruise style
What's it all about? What can go wrong will go hilariously, yet dreadfully wrong. 2 words: Wet Suit
Streaming Service/Network: HBO
A Black Lady Sketch Show
What is it? Think In Living Color but with an all-black female comedy cast for the 2020's.
What's it all about? It ain't always politically correct but it's correct.
Streaming Service/Network: HBO
The Boys
What is it? There's more than meets the eye when superheroes come to “save the day”.
What's it all about? Never thought it was possible to hate a “superhero” until now.
Streaming Service/Network: Amazon Prime Video
Photo credit: Netflix
Cheer
What is it? A raw and brutally honest look at what goes into the making of a 14x National Collegiate Cheer Champion, Navarro College.
What's it all about? Spill the tea, Monica! Who's making the mat?
Streaming Service/Network: Netflix
The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
What is it? Sabrina Spellman gets very very dark as a magical teen who must choose between high school life and ruling the underworld in this comic-turned tv show.
What's it all about? Melissa Joan Hart and her talking cat Salem, would never. . .
Streaming Service/Network: Netflix
The Comeback
What is it? A mockumentary starring Lisa Kudrow as washed-up B-List actress, Valerie Cherish, who hilariously attempts to breathe new life into her career.
What's it all about? A star is reborn!????
Streaming Service/Network: HBO
Photo Credit: Netflix
The Crown
What is it? An in-depth look at Queen Elizabeth's rise to power and her complicated life within the monarchy.
What's it all about? Meg-exit doesn't seem so bad now, huh?
Streaming Service/Network: Netflix
Dead to Me
What is it? A cynical widow playing Nancy Drew, an unlikely best friend, and a plot-twisting secret makes for a great dark comedy.
What's it all about? Death has a way of bringing people together.
Streaming Service/Network: Netflix
Desperate Housewives
What is it? 4 women. 4 lives. 4 secrets. 1 street.
What's it all about? Payton Place ain't got nothing on the women of Wisteria Lane.
Streaming Service/Network: Amazon Prime Video
Photo credit: Netflix
Elite
What is it? Uber-rich private school kids with too much time, money, sex, and drugs on their hands. All wrapped up in a Spanish (dubbed for your pleasure) show.
What's it all about? Oh, did I forget to mention there's a new murder mystery each season too?
Streaming Service/Network: Netflix
Entourage
What is it? Local NY boy, Vince, makes good and instantly becomes the next-big-thing actor. To stay grounded, he brings his brother and childhood friends along with him to the City of Angels.
What's it all about? The epitome of true friendship.
Streaming Service/Network: HBO + Amazon Prime Video
Euphoria
What is it? Wow! Where do I start?! Teenage angst, drug addiction, an angry football player, and a new trans friend. After a nearly fatal drug overdose, Rue struggles to get her life together while navigating adolescence.
What's it all about? If you've seen the cult classic movie “Kids”, multiply that x 10.
Streaming Service/Network: HBO
Photo Credit: HBO
Game of Thrones
What is it? Families and kingdoms fight to the death for the ultimate control of the Iron Throne.
What's it all about? “Winter is coming”
Streaming Service/Network: HBO
Gossip Girl
What is it? In NYC's Upper East Side, nothing escapes the watchful all-knowing eye of the Gossip Girl blog.
What's it all about? Come for the fashion, stay for all of the unbelievable backstabbing drama. XOXO- Gossip Girl
Streaming Service/Network: Netflix
Greenleaf
What is it? Every family has secrets. These secrets are just becoming harder to bury for a southern Megachurch Pastor Greenleaf and his family.
What's it all about? What is done in the dark will eventually come to light.
Streaming Service/Network: Netflix
Photo Credit: The Verge
Hacks
What is it? Deborah Vance, an iconic Las Vegas comic, is not too thrilled about being paired with an entitled, outcast 25-year-old comedy writer tasked to update her show. But, as they say, the only way to get better is to work with the best.
What's it all about? Did the job listing mention hazing?
Streaming Service/Network: HBO
The Handmaid's Tale
What is it? An adaptation of the Margaret Atwood book of the same name- Fertility enslavement, a 2nd United States Civil War, and a new government that goes by the name of Gilead has formed. And that's all in the first episode. . .
What's it all about? “Praised Be, Bitch!”
Streaming Service/Network: Hulu
Hunters
What is it? Nazi hunters in late 1970's NYC righting all the wrongs of the Holocaust by any means necessary.
What's it all about? Stay until the last episode because I guarantee you a plot twist like you never expected.
Streaming Service/Network: Amazon Prime Video
Photo Credit: HBO
Insecure
What is it? Issa Rae brings her web series, The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl to HBO.
What's it all about? Navigating life, love, and friendships in modern-day Los Angeles as a struggling college grad.
Streaming Service/Network: HBO
Ja'mie: Private School Girl
What is it? Mean girls reincarnated through Ja'mie, a self-centred queen bee private school girl. Move over Regina George.
What's it all about? Within the first 15 mins, you'll forget Chris Lilley is a man. He nails it!
Streaming Service/Network: HBO
Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez
What is it? You already know how the story ends, but take a closer look at the childhood of Aaron Hernandez and the events leading up to his infamous murder conviction and subsequent death.
What's it all about? Holy sh*t! That beautiful man was bat sh*t CRAZY!
Streaming Service/Network: Netflix
Killing Eve
What is it? Eve is a bored MI5 spy who is desk-bound. Villanelle is a talented couture-wearing assassin who is unpredictable yet darkly funny.
What's it all about? Killer Devil wears Prada fashion meets cat & mouse spy vs. spy game
Streaming Service/Network: Hulu
Locke & Key
What is it? Following their father's untimely death, 3 kids move to a mysterious home with reality-defying magical keys.
What's it all about? If only the “Anywhere” key existed.
Streaming Service/Network: Netflix
Photo Credit: TV Line
The Mandalorian
What is it? In the world of Star Wars, some bounty hunter is after something and blah, blah, blah.
What's it all about? Let's be honest, we are all just here for our dose baby Yoda. Cuteness overload x 1000.
Streaming Service/Network: Disney Plus+
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
What is it? Taking charge of her life, Upper West Side wife, Midge Maisel opts for a life as a stand-up comedian.
What's it all about? She cusses, she swears and she's a feminist in 1950's NYC.
Streaming Service/Network: Amazon Prime Video
McMillions
What is it? This is what happens when you mix the McDonald's Monopoly game and the mob.
What's it all about? Please speak clearly into the mic and define the term “winning”.
Streaming Service/Network: HBO
Photo Credit: Netflix
Money Heist
What is it? The Professor, a criminal mastermind, has a clever plan for the biggest robbery in recorded history -- the Royal Mint of Spain and recruits 8 highly skilled criminals to help.
What's it all about? Always bet on the Professor, Bella Ciao!
Streaming Service/Network: Netflix
Orange Is the New Black
What is it? Fair-haired business executive Piper Chapman's past life as a drug runner has finally caught up with her when she's convicted and must serve time in the penitentiary.
What's it all about? Everyone's got a story.
Streaming Service/Network: Netflix
Ozark
What is it? Meet Marty Byrd, a married father of two who becomes caught in an endless web of money laundering for the Mexican cartel in the Ozarks.
What's it all about? Small towns are full of big secrets
Streaming Service/Network: Netflix
Peacemaker
What is it? Peacemaker is a dimwitted, somewhat bigoted superhero adversary who is reconsidering his commitment to achieving peace at any cost, no matter how many people or aliens he has to kill.
What's it all about? Hellooooo, comedic toxic masculinity!
Streaming Service/Network: HBO
Photo Credit: HBO
The Righteous Gemstones
What is it? A ridiculously fun comedic romp with the Gemstones, a televangelist megachurch family, who will stop at nothing (and I mean nothing) to fight to keep their religious empirical house of cards intact.
What's it all about? Each character is even crazier than the next. Enjoy.
Streaming Service/Network: HBO
*BONUS: If you like The Righteous Gemstones, then you'll love Vice Principals. Why? Because the same hilarious cast is in both series.
RuPaul's Drag Race
What is it? A gorgeous runway battle royale to snatch the ultimate crown but to do so, each queen must prove they have the most Charism, Uniqueness, Talent, and Nerve.
What's it all about? To win, "you betta werk!"
Streaming Service/Network: Paramount network & VH1
Scandal
What is it? The mother of all bad bitch shows, Olivia Pope and company are the clean-up crew for DC's politicians and the POTUS.
What's it all about? It's handled.
Streaming Service/Network: Netflix
Schitt's Creek
What is it? A vapid mega-rich family loses their fortune and is hilariously forced to live in the (aptly named) town they bought as a joke.
What's it all about? Cathrine O'Hara + Dan & Eugene Levy = Comedy Solid Gold! They really are up “Schitt's Creek” without a paddle
Streaming Service/Network: Netflix
Photo Credit: Insider
Stranger Things
What is it? 80's retro sci-fi serving you feathered hair, aliens, secret government experiments, and friendship.
What's it all about? Thank god for Eleven.
Streaming Service/Network: Netflix
Succession
What is it? When greed, envy, and wealth are a family business.
What's it all about? Sibling rivalry like you've never ever seen it before.
Streaming Service/Network: HBO
Photo Credit: HBO
True Blood
What is it? Sparks fly when vampire Bill comes to the rescue of Sookie Stackhouse.
What's it all about? Vampires and fairies and werewolves, oh my!
Streaming Service/Network: HBO + Amazon Prime Video
Vice Principals
What is it? This is what happens when 2 second-rate high school Vice Principals join forces to take down the new Principal at their school.
What's it all about? Hell hath no fury as 2 Vice Principals scorned.
Streaming Service/Network: HBO
*BONUS: If you like Vice Principals, then you'll love The Righteous Gemstones. Why? Because the same wacky cast is in both series.
Weeds
What is it? Nice innocent Nancy Botwin is a rich suburban housewife who just so happens to sell marijuana in order to keep her lavish lifestyle afloat after her husband's untimely passing.
What's it all about? Nice Nancy's not as innocent as she seems.
Streaming Service/Network: Showtime + Netflix
Photo Credit: Netflix
The Witcher
What is it? A monster hunter for hire lives by an unexpected moral compass of his own.
What's it all about? Try hard not to get mesmerized by the beauty that is Henry Cavill- The Witcher.
Streaming Service/Network: Netflix
You
What is it? Poor lonely Joe works in a bookstore and is a hopeless romantic. There's only one problem, people keep disappearing and dying.
What's it all about? There's always more fish in the sea.
Streaming Service/Network: Netflix
Thank You
As you can see, I love watching tv. This list is a great place to start when you're looking for your next TV show obsession.
If you have any suggestions of shows that I missed or wanna chat tv, please feel free to leave them in the comments below or tweet me @thisismeldrake!
I can't wait to hear from all of you and get more recommendations for my future lists. In the meantime, enjoy these 40 best TV shows on TV right now!
-XOXO (as always)
Mel D.
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*Originally published in March 2020 and updated February 2022, this post has been updated by Mel Drake to add new tv shows and images that weren't included in the original post. The post was also updated with structural and grammatical changes as well.