Welcome to my TV show power rankings for 2026. The list changes often because streaming services keep dropping so many new shows that are worth my time. As a busy parent, it’s hard to keep up, so I do my best to share what’s worth your time.
The rankings are based on storytelling, performances, production value, and whether I stayed glued to the screen or started scrolling my phone. They’re completely scientific. (They’re not.)
We are entering what used to be the fall TV schedule, but August really dropped a few goodies. Let me know if you think I’m wrong or if I’m missing something you think is great.
As I said, there are so many new TV shows each month, it’s hard to keep up.
updated August 17, 2026
The Top 10
Best of the best so far this year.
1. Paradise S2 (1)
Platform: Hulu
Genre: Thriller
About: In Season 2, Paradise blows its bunker wide open: Xavier leaves the safety of the underground city to track down Teri in a ruined, post‑“Day” America, while the sealed-off elite back in Colorado start to fracture under fresh secrets, shifting alliances, and the truth about how this so-called sanctuary was really built.
Why? If you’re into twisty, prestige thrillers that mash up West Wing–style politics with Fallout‑adjacent apocalypse vibes, this is perfect and just wild enough that you’ll absolutely wish there was another ep.
2. The Pitt S2 (2)
Platform: HBO Max/ Crave in Canada
Genre: Medical Drama
About: The Pitt Season 2 drops us back into Pittsburgh’s busiest ER for another real-time, one-shift pressure cooker, this time over a chaotic Fourth of July. It’s sweaty, tense, and character-first, with every hour of the day peeling back more of what these doctors and nurses are sacrificing to keep people alive.
Why? The real-time format keeps the adrenaline up, and Season 2 doubles down on what made the first run pop: sharp performances, believable medicine, and emotional hits that land harder than any jump-scare.
3. Industry S4 (3)
Platform: HBO / Crave in Canada
Genre: Drama
About: In Season 4, Industry jumps from grad chaos to power-player mode: Harper runs a ruthless short fund with Otto’s money, while Yasmin is deep inside Henry Muck’s swaggering fintech, Tender. Everyone’s making bigger bets with fewer safety nets, and the damage (financial and emotional) hits a lot harder.
Why? If you like your prestige TV fast, mean, and financially nerdery-adjacent, this is an easy “kids in bed, one more episode” show, tense, smart, and just toxic enough to be fun. It’s a hard watch, in the best way. No Emmy nods?? Insane.
4. The Boys S5 (4)
Platform: Amazon Prime Video
Genre: Superhero / Dark Satire
About: Season 5 cranks the chaos up as the battle between The Boys and The Seven reaches its most explosive chapter yet. With Homelander tightening his grip on power and the world edging closer to all-out collapse, the stakes are bigger, darker, and more personal than ever.
Why? This season was the much-anticipated endgame, and the show mostly lived up to it. Expect brutal action, sharp satire, and the kind of shocking moments that have made The Boys one of the most talked-about series on streaming.
5. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (5)
Platform: HBO Max / Crave in Canada
Genre: Fantasy Drama
About: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms follows Ser Duncan the Tall and his squire Egg through the gritty buildup to Westeros’ next big war, full of tourneys, secret identities, and Targaryen family drama years before Game of Thrones. It’s a smaller-scale tale than dragons and White Walkers, but the stakes feel personal.
Why? I didn’t think I would like this version of the GOT’s universe, but it really grows on you. It’s a simple story, no melodrama and no giant effects. Episode 5 is one of the better episodes of TV you will ever see.
6. Lioness S3 (New)
Platform: Paramount+
Genre: Action Crime Drama / Spy Thriller
About: Joe and her elite team are part of covert operation connected to the Russia–Ukraine war that exposes a hidden network of foreign operatives inside the USA. When the threat reaches Joe’s home , she must investigate the conspiracy while deciding how much of her personal life she is willing to sacrifice for the job.
Why? For me this is Taylor Sheridan flexing what he does best. The suspense, action and emotional stakes make this the most intense version of Lioness so far.
7. DTF ST. Louis (6)
Platform: HBO / Crave in Canada
Genre: Drama / Dark Comedy
About: DTF St. Louis follows a group of adults in St. Louis whose lives get tangled up in relationships, status, and increasingly messy personal choices. The title suggests a blunt, adult tone, and the show appears to lean into social awkwardness, emotional friction, and messy consequences.
Why? If you like shows about flawed people making bad decisions and dealing with the fallout, this one should fit right in. The cast is excellent, and I have to say David Harbour should win some awards.
8. House of the Dragon (7)
Platform: HBO Max / Crave in Canada
Genre: Fantasy Drama
About: House of the Dragon is finally bringing that GOT energy I have been waiting for. Season 3 pushes the Targaryen civil war into full-blown chaos, with Rhaenyra and Aegon’s sides edging toward major battle while the political fallout deepens in King’s Landing and beyond. The first episode is pretty epic.
Why? Fans and critics say Season 3 finally gets the show moving with bigger spectacle, sharper power plays, and more confidence in its chess-match style of storytelling, even if some still think it spends too much time on setup. I can’t believe we have to wait until 2028 for more.
9. Star City (8)
Platform: Apple TV+
Genre: Fiction/Drama
About: Star City expands the world of For All Mankind and shifts the focus to the Soviet Union’s side of the space race. The series follows cosmonauts, engineers, and intelligence officers working behind the Iron Curtain as the USSR pushes to beat the United States into space.
Why? It’s a tense, alt-history space drama with big stakes, a strong built-in fanbase, and the kind of political and emotional pressure that makes this universe work so well.
10. Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed (9)
Platform: Netflix
Genre: Comedy / Drama
About: Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed follows a seemingly ordinary suburban mom who gets pulled into a messy world of secrets, reinvention, and increasingly absurd choices after her life takes an unexpected turn. As her situation spirals, she has to juggle family, desire, and the fallout from decisions she can’t easily undo.
Why? If you like darkly funny shows about messy people making bigger and bigger mistakes, this should fit right in. It’s great to have Tatiana Maslany back on TV.
The Next Group
11. Steal (10)
Platform: Amazon Prime Video
Genre: Crime Thriller
About: Steal follows Zara, an ordinary office drone at Lochmill Capital, whose normal day explodes when armed thieves burst in, take hostages, and force her and her mate Luke to pull off a massive pension fund heist. What starts as a smash-and-grab spirals into paranoia, double-crosses, and MI5 interference.
Why? Candidate for my surprise show of the year, an absolute binge where the 6 episodes disappear as fast as the pension funds in the story. Loved the premise, style, and how the twists just keep landing. The pilot is Christopher Nolan-level tension.
12. Big Mistakes (11)
Platform: Netflix
Genre: Comedy / Drama
About: Big Mistakes follows two wildly unprepared siblings who get pulled into a dangerous criminal underworld after one bad decision snowballs into a much bigger problem. As the pressure builds, they’re forced to keep improvising their way through a mess that only keeps getting worse.
Why? It’s a sharp, fast-moving crime comedy built around bad judgment, sibling chaos, and escalating consequences. The show works because it keeps turning one mistake into another, making the whole thing feel tense, funny, and completely out of control.
13. The Agency S2 (15)
Platform: Paramount+
Genre: Thriller / Drama
About: The Agency Season 2 follows undercover CIA agent Martian as he’s pulled back into the London Station orbit, with the season digging into his relationship with Sami and the fallout of earlier espionage. This is an adult spy drama that treats office politics, field work, and personal betrayal like a high-stakes game.
Why? Michael Fassbender’s performance, the ensemble chemistry, and the way it turns routine spy-work into suspense. This show is just slick in every way.
14. Shrinking S3 (12)
Platform: Apple TV+
Genre: Comedy-Drama
About: Shrinking Season 3 keeps Jimmy, Paul, and Gaby doing what they do best (and worst): giving bold advice to everyone else while barely holding their own lives together. This season leans into the show’s sweet spot, big feelings, bad decisions, and that awkward space where therapy talk crashes into real family.
Why? Harrison Ford cranks up the gruff charm as Paul, making every eye-roll and tough-love moment land harder than ever, proving the guy can do comedy as well as he did Han Solo.
15. Hacks S5 (13)
Platform: HBO / Crave in Canada
Genre: Comedy/Drama
About: Hacks Season 5 picks up the razor-sharp dynamic between legendary comedian Deborah Vance and her brilliant, chaotic writer Hannah Stein. The new season deepens their twisted mentor–mentee relationship as they navigate new gigs, personal reckonings, and the constant push between legacy and reinvention.
Why? Hacks is one of the best-written, most addictive half-hours on TV. If you like shows that blend sharp comedy with real emotional depth and complex women at the center, Season 5 is a must-watch.
16. Widow’s Bay (14)
Platform: Apple TV+
Genre: Horror/Comedy
About: Widow’s Bay follows the mayor of a cursed New England island town who resolves to turn it into the next tourist hot spot, despite local warnings that it’s cursed. The story leans into a mix of eerie folklore, small-town tension, and dark humour. Many are calling it the horror version of Parks and Rec.
Why? It’s a slow-burn folk horror that is genuinely unsettling while landing laugh-out-loud moments, with Matthew Rhys playing a bumbling, kind-hearted mayor instead of his usual evil role.
17. Margo’s Got Money Problems (New)
Platform: Apple TV+
Genre: Comedy / Drama
About: Margo’s Got Money Troubles follows Margo, a talented college student and aspiring writer whose affair with her English professor leaves her unexpectedly pregnant. After deciding to keep the baby, she drops out and turns to an unconventional online career to pay the bills, while reconnecting with her parents.
Why? The series is funny, strange and occasionally uncomfortable, but underneath all the outrageous moments is a surprisingly heartfelt story about money, motherhood, family and finding a way forward when life doesn’t go according to plan.
18. Furious (New)
Platform: Hulu
Genre: Thriller / Mystery Drama
About: Furious follows a former homicide detective turned FBI agent, as she investigates a mysterious female serial killer. The victims appear to be powerful men connected to a child-trafficking network, and as Alice gets closer to the truth, the case begins to expose the failures of the police, the FBI and the justice system.
Why? The cat-and-mouse story between Alice and Catherine is tense, but the show is really about abuse, revenge and what happens when the people who are supposed to provide justice fail victims.
19. Tires S3 (New)
Platform: Netflix
Genre: Comedy
About: Tires S3 returns to Valley Forge Auto, where manager Will continues trying to improve his family’s struggling repair business while dealing with his immature, troublemaking cousin Shane. The gang deals with failed marketing ideas, mystery shoppers, awkward networking events, relationship problems and more.
Why? It’s crude, chaotic and sometimes painfully awkward, but if you enjoy workplace comedies built around a group of people who should never be left unsupervised, Tires is an easy binge. I can’t get enough of Steve Gerben.
20. Silo S3 (19)
Platform: Apple TV+
Genre: Sci-Fi / Drama
About: Silo Season 3 expands the dystopian mystery by splitting its focus between Juliette’s fight in the present and the “Before Times,” where the show digs further into how the silos came to be and who shaped the world outside. Will we get more context of how each silo came to be before the season ends?
Why? As someone who has read the books, I am really looking forward to how they show the “Before Times”, and tie it to the story they have already shared. It’s a slow-burning show, and I am really hoping for the payoff.
TV show archives
New and Returning Shows in March 2026
New and Returning TV Shows in April 2026
New and Returning TV Shows in May 2026
New and Returning TV Shows in June 2026
Gotta add The Boroughs to this list
Your monthly TV power rankings are one of the few I actually trust, Michael — though half the fun is arguing back when my pick lands too low. So I turned the 2026 question into something your readers can settle themselves, head-to-head: https://youpick.best/ranking/what-is-the-best-tv-show-of-2026
It’s a little widget you can drop straight into a post — people vote inline and see live results, no signup, no redirect. Here’s the 2-minute how-it-works: https://youpick.best/add-rankings-to-your-site
It’s a side project I build in my spare time (not a company, no catch) — I just like giving readers a say. It’d slot right under your power rankings, and I’m happy to build a custom one for any month or list you want.