The Best TV Shows to Stream Right Now (2026), by Platform
The best TV series streaming right now — from Breaking Bad and The Pitt to Apple TV's summer wave of Lucky, Cape Fear, and Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed — ranked by Celluloid Score and sorted by platform.
The best television is scattered across a dozen subscriptions — so we ranked it in one place. Every series below carries a Celluloid Score, averaged from critic reviews, audience ratings, Metascore, IMDb and fan ratings. Browse the full catalog at the TV Shows hub; the highlights, by platform, are here.
The best of the best
The summit of our catalog is a cluster of all-time greats. Breaking Bad (94%) remains the benchmark. Right behind it sit The Wire (93%), The Sopranos (93%), Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag (92%), plus modern leaders Shōgun (91%) and Arcane (91%). If you watch nothing else, start here.
Best new in summer 2026
The 2026 class has arrived in force. AMC’s The Vampire Lestat is the year’s best-reviewed premiere (98% Tomatometer); Apple TV+ counters with Widow’s Bay (Matthew Rhys), the Soviet-space thriller Star City, Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed (Tatiana Maslany), Lucky (Anya Taylor-Joy), and Cape Fear (Javier Bardem, Amy Adams). On HBO Max, The Pitt remains the medical drama to beat and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms makes Westeros fun again. The full midyear ranking: Best TV Shows of 2026 So Far.
Best shows on Netflix
Netflix still commands the deepest bench. Beyond Breaking Bad, The Sopranos and Arcane, there’s Better Call Saul (91%), the one-shot devastation of Adolescence (88%), the ’80s nostalgia machine Stranger Things (86%), the regal melancholy of The Crown (85%), the true-crime phenomenon Baby Reindeer (85%), and the global sensation Squid Game (82%). New in 2026: How to Get to Heaven from Belfast (85%), Korea’s Teach You a Lesson (83%), the live-action ONE PIECE (84%), and the most-watched show of the year, HIS & HERS.
Best shows on HBO Max
HBO Max is the prestige powerhouse, home to The Wire (93%) and The Sopranos (93%) alongside Game of Thrones (88%). It also holds the Emmy-winning medical drama The Pitt (90%), Succession (90%), The Last of Us (88%), The White Lotus (82%), and House of the Dragon (81%). Coming Christmas Day 2026: the HBO Harry Potter series (Philosopher’s Stone season) — see our series guide and film watch order to prep the theatrical library on the same platform.
Best shows on Apple TV+
Apple TV+ punches above its size — and this summer it is overloaded. Severance (90%) remains the formally radical workplace nightmare; Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed is the bingeable surprise; Lucky is the Taylor-Joy adrenaline shot; Cape Fear is Bardem at full menace; Pachinko (87%) is a ravishing diaspora epic; Ted Lasso (85%) made sincerity a virtue again; and Silo (78%) is a tightly wound dystopian mystery.
Best shows elsewhere
Prime Video is home to Fleabag (92%), The Boys (83%) and Fallout (84%) — plus 2026’s Bait (Riz Ahmed), Young Sherlock, and Chile’s The House of the Spirits. Hulu carries Shōgun, The Bear (84%), the Handmaid’s Tale sequel The Testaments, and the 97%-fresh Rivals. Disney+ has Andor (88%). Peacock has Poker Face (83%) and Keke Palmer’s horror-comedy The ’Burbs, Paramount+ holds Yellowjackets (77%), and new arrival AMC+ leads with The Vampire Lestat.
Best international (non-English) series
Leading the pack is Korea’s My Mister (93%), Germany’s Dark (91%), and Crash Landing on You (91%). China’s costume epics remain essential: Nirvana in Fire (92%), Empresses in the Palace (88%), and The Untamed (88%). For more thrills: Kingdom (89%), The Glory (86%), Alice in Borderland, Money Heist, Lupin, and Sacred Games. Browse them all at the TV Shows hub.
How we rank them
The Celluloid Score blends five independent sources into one number, so no single bad review — or bit of review-bombing — distorts the picture. Every show above links to its full page with a critic-versus-audience breakdown. Explore the whole catalog at the TV Shows hub.
