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.

NETFLIX:

Fireplace For Your Home: Birchwood Edition

It's that time of year in which nothing would be better than curling up in front of a crackling fire as soon as the sun goes down, with nothing but the wind outside as a soundtrack. I don't know what "hygge" means but I think it's something resembling that. Anyway, if you don't have a fireplace (and if you do, please invite me over) this is the next best thing, offering all the comfort of a functioning fire without any of the hassle. I'm recommending the birchwood edition over the cherry. Please respect this decision.

American Vandal

American Vandal had two perfect seasons on Netflix, and maybe that's where we ought to leave it. The first season told an achingly deep story about dicks; the second, poop. It's juvenile scatology at its peak, and also smart as a whip.

Ozark

Ozark is no Breaking Bad, but it sure fills that pitch-black drama void if you're looking for an easy (but still extraordinarily stressful) watch. It keeps on winning Emmys, so it must be doing something right!

Big Mouth

Even counting the brouhaha over Big Mouth's easily-avoidable fumble when it came to introducing a new pansexual character, the show is as inventive and disgusting as ever in its third season. Puberty truly is a special kind of hell built for people completely unequipped to deal with it, and no show explores it better.

Crashing (U.K.)

Before Phoebe Waller-Bridge was stashing Emmys under her bed and rewriting James Bond movies, for god's sake, she was writing and starring in Crashing (no relation to the unremarkable HBO series of the same name.) The British series is far more a traditional sitcom than Fleabag, following a group of directionless Londoners squatting in a disused hospital. It's a blast.

Documentary Now!

Celebrate the perennially Emmys-snubbed masterpiece from Fred Armisen, Bill Hader, and Seth Meyers, who made several perfect seasons of this before handing off the reins to a bunch of different great comedians and creative teams week to week. It's impossible to pick a highlight—the episodes range from great to brilliant.

Breaking Bad

With El Camino now upon us, catch up on the saga that led to the redemption of poor, poor Jesse Pinkman with the entire series of Breaking Bad, available literally any time on Netflix. It's a complete gift that one of the best shows of all time is just...right there on the Internet to watch seamlessly from start to finish. Don't waste it.

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

Rachel Bloom's near-flawless exploration of rom-com and musical tropes, as well as a seriously sharp exposé on how the media presents mental illness, doesn't sound like it could work whatsoever. It does, and then some. One of the most underrated shows in the past few years.

Derry Girls

The Ireland-set comedy has charmed just about everyone who's taken the time to sit down and watch it. Why aren't you one of those people yet?

The Great British Baking Show

Now, blessedly, airing simultaneously with its run in the U.K., The Great British Bake-Off (WHY did they make the name less competitive and more boring in AMERICA of all places?) is adding new episodes weekly. It's polite and charming, and you'll find yourself screaming at the television about bread as if you're watching the World Series.

Tuca & Bertie

Cruelly canceled before it could really use its abundance of winged characters to get off the ground, Season One of Tuca & Bertie still brings a much-needed weirdo flair and deeper kindness to the BoJack Horseman aesthetic. Let's hope this one finds new life elsewhere.

Frasier

Rich, fancy creeps are definitely not in vogue these days, but Frasier was ahead of the curve when it came to burning the bluster of the self-satisfied, alcoholic white man down a peg. Everyone in this show is a delight, and the episodes range from good to some of the best comedy ever committed to television.

The OA

Another beloved institution, now canceled, and not even in the fun way where everyone piles onto a racist on Twitter. The OA died as it lived: embarrassingly sincere and often heavily misguided. It's still amazing this was ever made at all.

I Think You Should Leave

Unlikely as it sounds, Season Two of I Think You Should Leave is on its way. The show's become a cultural sensation since it aired earlier in the summer. If you've been walking around, wondering why people have been telling you to marry your mother-in-law for the past few months, watching this will clear things up.

Last Chance U

Based on the GQ story by Drew Jubera, Last Chance U is a Friday Night Lights for people who want their stories realer and, in some cases, without TV-friendly happy endings. Now in its fourth season, the documentary drama series follows a football program for promising but underachieving athletes. The latest batch of episodes is some of the most bittersweet TV you'll see all year, but the whole dang thing's good, too.

Dark

Season Two of Dark picks up where we left off: fucked-up families in a small town dealing with the ramifications of a twisted sci-fi secret buried deep within their own histories. This is Stranger Things for full-on grownups, and, not to oversell it, the final shot of this season will make you lose your damn mind.

Arrested Development

Stream what we can all probably properly assume is the entire series now. Season Five has met its end, and it's unlikely the band will ever get back together again. The final run of episodes is great fun. Don’t miss it.

Mad Men

One of the best shows of the decade is streaming in its entirety on everyone's favorite time-wasting website. Watch it before everyone decides Roger Sterling is problematic and everyone at SCDP is canceled.

Schitt's Creek

Celebrate Schitt's Creek's overdue Emmy nominations by streaming it on Netflix. Eugene Levy, Dan Levy, Catherine O'Hara, and Annie Murphy make up one of the most lovingly dysfunctional family units since the Simpsons plopped their asses down onto that couch. There are shades of long-gone favorites like Parks and Recreation and more than a little bit of Arrested Development DNA in here, but very quickly this show becomes something entirely itself, thanks to the insane performances by all four leads and writing that seems to get better with each successive season.

Orange Is the New Black

[Regina Spektor voice] You've got tiiiiiiime to watch the final season of Orange Is the New Black, whenever you want to. It's on Netflix now.

DISNEY +

The Mandalorian

Baby Yoda has, predictably, broken the Internet, but there's a lot more to like about Jon Favreau's Space Western series than just the best Lucasfilm puppet design work since Porgs. The Mandalorian is a slow burn so far, but the action is fantastic and, frankly, which other mainstream genre show has Werner Herzog firing off monologues left and right? You're welcome.

The Simpsons

Disney+ has promised to fix the aspect ratio nightmare inflicted upon The Simpsons' earlier seasons in early 2020. Until then, you might as well try to enjoy some of the episodes anyway, hm?

AMAZON PRIME:

The Feed

A new Black Mirror-esque show in which everyone's brains are hooked up to the cloud, which then gets hacked. Look, I don't know what'll happen in the future, but we rejected Google Glass and until I can trust my computer not to break when I try to turn the volume up or down sometimes, I'm sure as hell not going to port my mind over the some server in California.

The Expanse

I haven't seen this space show yet, but I hear it's a good space show. Better, probably, than The Mandalorian, which by all accounts has become a $100 million exercise in how to make a truly unremarkable TV series.

Mr. Robot

Mr. Robot is about to wrap up its twist-drenched story once and for all. Was it perfect? Nah, but a quiet cult following and the real-time maturation of Sam Esmail as a great screenwriter made this one of the more underrated good times on regular old-fashioned TV. It'll be missed.

Undone

We're completely in love with Undone, a new kind of show from Kate Purdy and BoJack Horseman creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg. Rosa Salazar travels through time, space, and her own memories to solve the mystery surrounding her father's death in one of the more affecting and most visually striking series in the history of streaming TV.

The Boys

During my brief amateur stint as a comics reader (volume one of Runaways, Ultimate Spider-Man; I didn't read anything else), I didn't get very far into The Boys, which is a gray, nihilist take on the superhero genre with gratuitous sexual violence and barely a single identifiable character to like. Those things make it into the TV show, too, but the characters, given life by actors, suddenly feel more human. The sexual violence has been toned down to the point of making the single male perpetrator look pathetic (though I still could have done without it altogether, it lands much softer). I don't blame anyone for not wanting to check this out due to superhero fatigue, but there's plenty of on-message themes in The Boys that speak to the most modern concerns around the booming superhero-movie complex, with themes like exploitative capitalism and monopolies based around these personalities. Is that really much different from what's going on in real life?

Fleabag

Hot Priest Summer. That is all.

Homecoming

No, not the Beyoncé one (that’s on Netflix, and it slaps—stream that, too). Thanks to its short episodes and fantastic lead performances from Julia Roberts and Stephan James, Homecoming is an utterly engrossing show with wild twists and a hell of a beating heart.

The Affair

I've never seen this show, but if it's half as good as its offscreen drama, I'll be thrilled.

Broadchurch

Another U.K. drama that shows America how it's done. David Tennant and Olivia Colman make a really good "messed-up detectives" duo, and the central mystery of the first season is a master class in crime storytelling from Chris Chibnall (now the Doctor Who show runner). Things get bogged down in Season Two before a return to form in its third and final chapter, which tells a new, heartbreaking story centered around grief, shame, and trauma.

SHUDDER:

Creepshow

Shudder isn't one of the "big" streaming sites, but its ever-expanding catalog makes it much more than just a refuge for devoted horror fans. Its newest original series, Creepshow, is based on Stephen King and George A. Romero's 1982 movie of the same name. It takes much of those same sensibilities—a pitch-black sense of humor, startlingly effective practical effects, and some of the best horror writing in the world today—and turns it into an anthology well worth your time. The first episode's segment, "The House of the Head," adapts one of the more sinister short stories I've read in years. Reader: It nails it.

HULU:

Castle Rock: Season Two

If Season One of Castle Rock wasn't necessarily your cup of tea, rejoice: Season Two is an improvement in every way for the Stephen King-inspired anthology series. Lizzy Caplan bosses it as Annie Wilkes from Misery, one of King's most famous stories, and the show's renewed focus on character and the aching pain of the past is great. Don't worry—it's scary, too.

The Good Place

The Good Place's fourth and final season is underway, and it's as lovingly intricate and sweetly funny as ever. The mythology runs deep, but it never gets in the way of some of the best comedy writing seen on network TV this decade.

AEW: Dynamite

For the first time in nearly 20 years, WWE has legitimate competition when it comes to professional wrestling you can watch on TV. AEW: Dynamite has only aired two episodes on TNT, but they've been barnburners: Introducing the world to a whole new world of wrestlers, feuds, and a grittier style of the sport-entertainment than you'll get from the big shiny Vince McMahon conglomerate. If you've never seen the likes of Kenny Omega, Nyla Rose, Darby Allin, The Young Bucks, or Orange Cassidy in action, you're in for a hell of a treat.

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

If thirteen seasons of the Reynolds family can't save your weekend, I don't know what can. Sunny is as sharp, edgy, experimental, deceptively deep, and yes, funny as ever.

A.P. Bio

NBC killed A.P. Bio and then revived it just weeks later in what I think we can all agree is the greatest resurrection story on historical record. I can't wait for more of this deeply weird, warm show (especially given the cliffhanger Season Two ended on), but until then, I'm more than happy to watch the show's first two installments on repeat.

WWE NXT

All Elite Wrestling—WWE's first legitimate USA-based competitor since it swallowed WCW in 2000—is about to start its weekly TV show on TNT this October, bringing with it a new era of professional wrestling one-upmanship between companies. If WWE is going to compete against this scrappier, more hardcore, and, frankly, better upstart, NXT is what the company should look to: Ostensibly a "development" brand for wrestlers to hone their TV skills for the WWE style before being drafted to "main roster" shows Raw or Smackdown, NXT has slowly become a prestige brand in its own right, delivering top-tier wrestling, storylines that aren't overwritten to within an inch of their life, and all-round a more cohesive, exhilarating product. Why not give it a go?

Happy Endings

I know we have a lot of problems in the world right now, and shows getting canceled left and right is par for the course, but it's still a sin Happy Endings didn't get to run for, like, ten years. Essentially working with a premise of "Friends, but better," it's a ridiculously good time and probably the only show I can think of, outside of 30 Rock, that actually nails its cultural references which don't immediately date the writing.

Four Weddings and a Funeral

Hulu's got a new Four Weddings adaptation on the go from producer Mindy Kaling, and thanks to some major casting coups, snagged the likes of Game of Thrones star Nathalie Emmanuel and indie comedy favorite John Reynolds. This is one to watch, in both senses of the term.

Fresh Meat

From Peep Show creators Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong comes this brilliant, sweet show that displays college ("uni") life in somehow both a radical way, and also maybe the most accurate. No one knows who they are at nineteen, and Fresh Meat captures the agony of being a young adult in a new environment while also being one of the filthiest, funniest shows you haven't seen yet. This is a sleeper hit.

APPLE TV +

Dickinson

Dickinson is ahistorical, batshit insane, and, to some scholars, no doubt heretical in portraying the early life of mysterious poet Emily Dickinson. This is a hilarious, charming, show fueled by Hailee Steinfeld as an unapologetically modern teen interpretation of Dickinson, who, yes, writes good poems, but also has debauched Euphoria-style opium parties and makes out with her best friend frequently.

The Morning Show

According to Apple itself, The Morning Show was positioned as the flagship Apple TV+ offering out the gate, but Dickinson's numbers have easily eclipsed it. It's easy to see why, too. While the show itself is well-acted (hello, Billy Crudup! Good job!) and addictive, it seems a little confused in its message at times and doesn't have the guts to be as weird or as pulpy as it should be. Not everything has to be prestige drama, folks. You can get weird. You have my permission.

HBO GO:

Mrs. Fletcher

Easily one of the best new shows of 2019, Mrs. Fletcher is a powerful, important story given life by Kathryn Hahn as an unsatisfied forty-something woman learning to embrace new experiences and desires after her son swans off to college. This is a life-affirming kind of series (with still plenty of that trademark Tom Perrotta darkness and sly humor) that treats all its lost characters with empathy, and that positions things like growth and kindness as actively sexy.

Watchmen

Damon Lindelof went and did a Watchmen show and that description alone will either make you watch it or avoid it entirely. I'm not the boss of you.

The Righteous Gemstones

Following in the grand tradition of Eastbound and Down and Vice Principals, The Righteous Gemstones is a Danny McBride-led HBO comedy that refuses to be anything other than filthy, audacious, and profoundly entertaining week to week. There's not a weak link in this stacked cast.

The Leftovers

It's not all Gemstones fun and Succession mind games on HBO. In fact, for my money, the network's best original series of all time is probably its bleakest. The Leftovers is a triumph from start to finish, which begins with an irresistible apocalyptic premise and builds, over three seasons, into something unlike anything else that's ever been on TV.

Succession

Season Two has maintained the rapid-fire pace and acidic tone of the first. Jesse Armstrong (Veep, Peep Show) has staked his claim as one of the best TV writers in the world, and I hope Succession lasts forever.

Barry

Featuring what GQ staffer Gabriella Paiella called "the greatest grocery store fight scene of all time," Barry is two-for-two in astoundingly deep, funny, horrifying seasons about Bill Hader's hitman-cum-aspiring actor. Eight more seasons like this, please.

Euphoria

The teens shall inherit the earth and, based on this show and what I can gather from TikTok compilations I watch in bed when I'm drunk, they thoroughly deserve it.

Vice Principals

For my money, the best of the Danny McBride-led HBO comedies about the failings of traditional masculinity and those who uphold it. Vice Principals unites McBride and a stunning Walton Goggins, one of the best comedy double acts since Laurel and Hardy waddled onto the scene (no, I mean it, really). It only lasted two seasons, but each episode is to be cherished and rewatched again and again. A quietly perfect, inexhaustibly funny, and sometimes oddly sad show.

From Family Feud to The View to Ballers, staffers make the case for their favorite television comfort food.

Originally Appeared on GQ