From high-action fantasy to superhero comedies and psychological dramas… there’s almost too much to choose from Disney+ right now.
We’ve selected the 50 best offerings – sifting through thousands of options so you don’t have to.
Looking for a new series or to stream on Disney+ now?
Read on to find out the shows worth investing your precious time in…
The Bear (Series 1)
A prodigal son returns to cook up a storm in a family restaurant business
Year: 2022
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Disney+
Served up on the FX channel in the US to universal acclaim, this drama about a run-down restaurant in Chicago is genuine Michelin-star stuff. Shameless’s Jeremy Allen White stars as the culinary rising star who returns to the Windy City from New York to take over the family business after his brother’s sudden death.
Faced with grumpy staff, huge debts and his own demons, he sets out to transform the sandwich shop and diner he’s inherited into a proper professional eatery, but it isn’t easy. Pairing realistic and heartfelt drama with genuine moments of charm and comedy, The Bear nails the recipe for success and the first series isn’t the end – a second is also available. (Eight episodes)
Shogun
Adaptation of James Clavell’s epic novel about an Englishman in 17th-century Japan
Year: 2024
Certificate: 18
Watch now on Disney+
Fans of a certain generation will fondly remember the 1980s adaptation of James Clavell’s novel, which saw Richard Chamberlain star as John Blackthorne, a shipwrecked English sailor trying to survive dangerous political and military machinations in 17th-century Japan.
This ten-part adaptation doesn’t let down the good name of that show, presenting an impressively atmospheric rendering of a tale full of murky betrayal, forbidden romance and truly epic war. British actor Cosmo Jarvis is tough and battered as the indomitable Blackthorne, guided through the dangerous waters of Japanese society by Anna Sawai as his translator Lady Mariko.
The series actually presents Clavell’s story with considerably more edge and scale than the 1980s version did, and comes from FX. That’s the US TV brand that has given us such shows as The Shield, Sons Of Anarchy and The Americans down the years, so think of this very much in that tradition, rather than the soapy miniseries mould the 1980s version sprang from. The cast is terrific – Jarvis is reminiscent of Tom Hardy in the lead, while Sawai delivers an intriguing mix of composure and subtly bubbling emotion as Mariko, and Hiroyuki Sanada is riveting as Toranaga, a local lord who strikes an uneasy alliance with Blackthorne. The series itself evolves with a surely handled mix of action, intrigue, humour and real moments of pure, soul-stirring emotion that should earn it fans across the board. (Ten episodes)
Candy
Jessica Biel stars as a churchgoer – and suspected axe-murderer
Year: 2022
Certificate: 18
Watch now on Disney+
Almost unrecognisable under a curly wig and a set of false teeth, Jessica Biel is icily hard to read as Candy Montgomery, a seemingly perfect church-going wife and mother in 1980s Texas. Seemingly perfect? Well, yes, because after her best friend Betty’s brutal murder with an axe, the police discover that Candy had been having an affair with the dead woman’s husband. Surely Candy can’t also have been the one who wielded the axe that killed Betty – can she?
This engrossing thriller based on real events plays out over five parts shot through with perfect period detail and some great performances. Apart from the fantastic Biel, there’s a beautifully understated passive-aggressive turn from Yellowjackets’ Melanie Lynskey as the ill-fated Betty. (One series)
Welcome To Wrexham (Series 1)
How two Hollywood A-listers came to the rescue of Wrexham FC
Year: 2022
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Disney+
In 2020, Wrexham AFC became one of the most famous football clubs in the world. Not because they’d won the Champions League or won promotion, or even pulled off a particularly impressive spot of FA Cup giant-killing.
No, their sudden brush with celebrity came because Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney had just bought the club. But why did the Deadpool star and one of the blokes from It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia decide to back Wrexham AFC? And could their hands-on, community-based approach really work?
This cheery documentary follows what happens when movie-star glamour comes to North Wales and builds into something very real and uplifting as it goes on. It’s also a fascinating and genuinely innovative television premise, in that the show itself was actually conceived as a way of financing the club – not just to document the process. (18 episodes)
Extraordinary
Comedy about the world’s only person without a superpower
Year: 2023
Certificate: 18
Watch now on Disney+
Imagine a world in which every adult has a superpower except you. That’s the position that sarcastic 25-year-old Jen (Mairead Tyers) finds herself in Disney’s fantastical British series. From shapeshifting to flight, from super strength to the ability to make anyone tell the truth, everybody else in the world got a special gift when they turned 18, but Jen is still waiting for hers to arrive.
Can she kick-start the process with the help of her weirdo flatmates? Or is she doomed to be the ordinary one in the world of the extraordinary? The show has some great turns of phrase and some of the riotous spirit of Misfits (available to stream on Channel 4), and it succeeds because it’s more about the characters’ lives and loves than it is about their powers – many of which are played for laughs. (Two series)
Let It Be
Peter Jackson’s painstaking restoration of Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s documentary about the Beatles
Year: 1970
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Disney+
Let It Be, the director Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s documentary about the Beatles, was first released in 1970. Fast forward to 2024 and it hadn’t seen the light of day for more than 50 years until the director Peter Jackson, who was also behind the three-parter Get Back – carved out of 60 hours of footage filmed for Let It Be – embarked on a painstaking restoration that allowed the film to be shown in its full glory once again.
Let It Be features footage unseen in Get Back, taking us into the studio as the band recorded the album, and onto the roof for that famous concert – which was the last time they’d perform together live as a group. It’s a very different experience seeing the film now to back in its initial release in May 1970, one month after Paul McCartney announced he wasn’t working with the Beatles anymore.
Aside from that difference in context, Jackson’s restoration applies the same loving care to the visuals as it does the sound, using the same technology as for his admirable work on Get Back. It’s a real time capsule of a film, as well as being a great documentary in its own right. (80 minutes)
The Dropout
Downfall of the woman behind the Theranos blood-testing scandal
Year: 2022
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Disney+
Watch now on BBC iPlayer
The story of Theranos, the American blood-testing company that promised a technology revolution but was founded on lies, is a fascinating one. And the character of its founder, the now convicted fraudster Elizabeth Holmes, is the key to that story.
The Dropout is based on a 2019 podcast of the same name but the strength of the TV adaptation is Amanda Seyfried’s compelling performance as Holmes, a woman who swindled investors out of millions of dollars. It was filmed while Holmes was on trial, and was created by Elizabeth Meriwether – best known for the sitcom New Girl.
That Meriwether managed to render the story around Holmes as well as she did is a serious achievement, and she was lucky to have such a riveting performance from Seyfried to anchor the whole thing. (Eight episodes)
Andor
Multi-stranded Star Wars spin-off centred on a rebel in hiding
Year: 2022-
Certificate: 12
Watch now on Disney+
This is a Star Wars show for people who don’t like Star Wars shows. Created by Bourne writer Tony Gilroy, Andor is a dramatically credible account of life at the sharp end of rebellion and is, essentially, a prequel to the brilliant movie Rogue One – which Gilroy also co-wrote, and was in itself essentially a sci-fi take on The Magnificent Seven.
Diego Luna (Narcos: Mexico) stars as Cassian Andor, a rebel in hiding, in a series that starts slowly but builds up and out in ways you don’t expect. In some places it becomes a workplace comedy drama set at Imperial intelligence, where the bureaucrats fight among themselves. It’s also a spy action thriller, with a particularly thrilling sideline in jail breaks, and it’s also a dark political drama about the consequences of fighting the system, hinged around a terrific performance from The Honourable Woman’s Genevieve O’Reilly as Mon Mothma.
That last element has the feel of the US House Of Cards, which is no coincidence – Beau Willimon, who created that show, wrote several episodes of Andor. A second and final series is on the way, but probably not until 2024. (One series)
The Americans
Gritty 1980s-set undercover espionage drama starring Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys
Year: 2013-2018
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Disney+
Watch now on Channel 4
Across six enthralling series, The Americans told the story of a pair of top-level KGB agents (The Diplomat’s Keri Russell and Perry Mason’s Matthew Rhys) as they lived and worked as undercover agents in the America of the early 1980s. It focused on the pair – and their children, neither of whom know their parents’ true identities – as they struggled to preserve their sleeper-agent status while trying to gain access to US secrets.
The result was a complex, intelligent and almost unbelievably tense period thriller series that well deserved the critical acclaim heaped upon its writing and performances. Plus there’s a nice behind-the-scenes element to keep in mind while watching, as Russell and Rhys became a couple for real while filming the show, and later married and had a child. (Six series)
What We Do In The Shadows
Four bickering vampires share a house in this film spin-off
Year: 2019-
Certificate: 18
Watch now on BBC iPlayer
Watch now on Disney+
Vampires have been played for laughs before – think George Hamilton in 1979 movie Love At First Bite (how does a vampire get a sun tan?). This undead houseshare comedy is a spin-off from the 2014 film of the same name and, although it’s set in suburban Staten Island in the US the majority of the cast are British. Kayvan Novak, Natasia Demetriou and Matt Berry are the hopeless bloodsuckers who live together for eternity, and spend their waking hours biting and bickering. (Four series)
WandaVision
Quirky Marvel superhero show set in the 50s with hints of Bewitched
Year: 2021
Certificate: 12
Watch now on Disney+
The first Marvel superhero show to launch on Disney+ caught a lot of people by surprise. At its heart, WandaVision is a simple drama about a relationship and grief, starring Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda (a powerful witch) and Paul Bettany as Vision (a powerful android).
Set after the events of Avengers: Endgame, it finds Wanda living a seemingly perfect 1950s sitcom life with Vision who, as Marvel fans will know, died one Avengers film earlier, in Infinity War. The mystery of how Vision is alive, the secrets of the couple’s neighbours and what it all means when cracks start to appear in their Bewitched-style life keep you riveted from the start.
By the end, there’s some of that big action Marvel is known for, too. Like Andor with Star Wars, this is a Marvel show for people who think they don’t like Marvel shows. (One series)
The Patient
Steve Carell and Domhnall Gleeson star in a tense psychological drama
Year: 2022
Certificate: 18
Watch now on Disney+
Don’t let the presence of Steve Carell fool you into thinking this is a comedy, although there are small moments of dark humour – and you’ll need them because this ten-part psychological thriller is seriously tense stuff. Domhnall Gleeson plays a serial killer who kidnaps his therapist (Carell) and forces him to treat him. What follows is harrowing, not necessarily because of what actually happens, but because of what you think might happen, so that humour, when it comes, acts as a welcome release valve.
Gleeson and Carell clearly went through the wringer for this one in acting terms – the lock and chain that confine Carell’s character are real and he spent a long time attached to them during filming. He said that, over time, the set around him took on an ‘ominous quality’. (One series)
American Born Chinese
High-action fantasy series full of magic and martial arts
Year: 2023
Certificate: 12
Watch now on Disney+
Chinese-American teenager Jin just wants to survive high school. Being tasked with looking after nerdy exchange student Wei-Chen isn’t going to make that easy, though, especially when he discovers that his new friend is actually a mythical being from another dimension. Dragged into a war between the gods of Chinese legend, Jin’s chances of making it through school unscathed suddenly got a lot slimmer.
If you loved the film hit Everything Everywhere All At Once then you’re going to find a lot to enjoy in this eight-part fantasy adventure, with a similar mix of dimension-hopping and martial-arts action, as well as big roles for that film’s Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan and Stephanie Hsu. The series is also directed by Shang-Chi director Destin Daniel Cretton and there’s a definite, if offbeat, Marvel flavour to its feel, too. (Eight episodes)
The Walking Dead
Zombie apocalypse horror that became a global hit
Year: 2010-2022
Certificate: 18
Watch now on Disney+
Watch now on Prime Video
Launched in 2010 on the US cable channel AMC – the original home of Mad Men – this post-apocalyptic drama became a TV phenomenon, running for 11 series and spawning numerous spin-offs. The Walking Dead explores the stories of survivors in the wake of a zombie apocalypse, and evokes that same sense of wonder at a world in suspension that you see in movies such as 28 Days Later and I Am Legend.
The writer and director is Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption), and the story is derived from a series of comic books. This Life’s Andrew Lincoln is the main star, playing a heroic cop – and with an American accent that doesn’t make you cringe – who awakes from a coma to find the world overrun by zombies; fellow Brit Lennie James plays one of the survivors he finds.
Be warned though, it’s strong stuff and very scary at times, although more for the tension it creates than the gore – although there is that too. The zombies are, of course, horrific – yet the series doesn’t revel in that, and there’s a heartbreaking poignancy to survivors coming face to face with hopelessly changed former friends and family. The Walking Dead has scale, depth and ambition, plus a great mystery at its heart – one to watch, if you have the stomach and nerves for it. (11 series)
Loki (Series 1)
Tom Hiddleston’s the Norse god of mischief in this Avengers spin-off
Year: 2021
Certificate: 12
Watch now on Disney+
The best Marvel series after WandaVision, this Avengers spin-off follows what happens when the Norse god of mischief is captured by the mysterious Time Variance Authority and put to work fixing the broken timeline. Loki (a riveting Tom Hiddleston) is cocky when he’s first captured, but Agent Mobius (Owen Wilson) soon makes it clear who’s in charge and sets the deity off on an unwelcome journey of self-discovery.
The two ultimately make a good double act, and that’s what this show is all about – double acts, most significantly the one that plays out inside Loki’s own head. Is he good, or is he bad? Beyond that classic devil-and-angel premise, the series is also fabulously entertaining in that traditional Marvel fashion and features some genuine curveball moments – don’t miss the outlandish role played by Richard E Grant in part four. (Six episodes)
Homeland
Claire Danes is award-winning in this tense spy thriller
Year: 2011-2020
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Disney+
The first series of Homeland took the viewing world by storm. At its core was the return of an American PoW long thought dead, and the suspicion of one unstable intelligence analyst that he could have been turned by al-Qaeda. Was he? That’s the initial premise of Homeland and the personal game that plays out between Nicholas Brody (Damian Lewis) and the bipolar Carrie Mathison (a brilliant Claire Danes) as it evolves layers something electric into it all.
That first series is flat-out superb. What comes in the next two over-extends the story to the point of ridiculousness until, in series four, Homeland reboots itself as a lean, mean John le Carré-style series about global espionage threats and becomes unmissable TV once again. The double Emmy Award-winning Danes remains at its core and is later joined by Rupert Friend, in another series standout performance as a deeply damaged assassin. (Eight series)
Dopesick
Compelling exploration of the American opioid epidemic
Year: 2021
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Disney+
Watch now on BBC iPlayer
THIS eight-parter about the American opioid epidemic has some seriously great acting. Michael Keaton – who won an Emmy for his performance – plays a doctor who prescribes the horrendously addictive painkiller OxyContin after being led to believe it is safe. Michael Stuhlbarg is Richard Sackler, the billionaire businessman who drove the drug’s creation, and is part of the family whose name has been removed from so many art galleries in the years since.
Both believe they’re doing the right thing and, in Sackler’s case, that’s fascinating because the most interesting bad guys are those who believe they have the moral high ground. (Eight episodes)
Shardlake
Sean Bean plays Thomas Cromwell in this TV series take on the Tudor mystery books
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Disney+
The author CJ Sansom wrote a series of seven books about the fortunes of Matthew Shardlake, a hunchbacked barrister toiling in the reign of Henry VIII, against the backdrop of the dissolution of the monasteries. They make for absorbing reading and this TV adaptation brings them to atmospheric life even if, as is ever the case with such things, the actors they’ve chosen don’t always match the characters you had in your head while reading.
The Archers’ Arthur Hughes is our Shardlake, a man oft-judged for his appearance but who holds himself straight and true to one principle – the truth. His uneasy companion in investigation is Jack Barak, a fearsome henchman of Thomas Cromwell’s who is less keen on truth than he is on serving his brutal master’s version of it. Masters Of The Air’s Anthony Boyle plays Barak with swagger and violence, both traits masking a compelling chink of insecurity that ensures it’s his character’s journey you’re watching most closely here.
The collision of Barak and Shardlake’s motivations plays out to fascinating effect in this opening four-part murder case, which begins with the latter being instructed to investigate by Cromwell himself, imperiously played by Sean Bean. Don’t expect to see much of Bean, though, fun as he is, or of Peter Firth’s deliciously Machiavellian Norfolk – this is all about Shardlake and Barak, a partnership that becomes stronger and deeper as the books go on. Hopefully, the TV series will get the same chance to show us that. (Four episodes)
Renegade Nell
Sally Wainwright’s family adventure about a super-powered highwaywoman
Year: 2024
Certificate: 12
Watch now on Disney+
Sally Wainwright is one of our finest screenwriters. Over the years she’s given us great shows like At Home With The Braithwaites, Last Tango In Halifax and Happy Valley to name but three. Renegade Nell, her eight-parter for Disney+, feels like her entry into the genre of family-friendly TV adventure serials, telling the story of a young 18th-century highwaywoman with special powers.
Derry Girls’ Louisa Harland plays the gutsy Nell who, in moments of peril, is able to slow down time like Neo in The Matrix and stop bullets with her bare hands. Nell is very British – she says things like ‘have you learned nothing from the last time I duffed you all up?’ – as is the show, with an array of familiar UK acting faces in supporting roles such as Adrian Lester, Joely Richardson and Pip Torrens, along with Ted Lasso’s Nick Mohammed as a diminutive fairy at Nell’s side. The moments when we’re not with Nell do sag a little – the plotting of her enemies simply isn’t as interesting – but she’s on-screen a lot so it’s a small problem in context, and the excellent action sequences are both unusual and a lot of fun. (Eight episodes)
The X-Files
Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny star in the classic spooky paranormal series
Year: 1993-2018
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Disney+
Watch now on Channel 4
Watch now on Paramount+
Chalk and cheese detective shows are one of the mainstays of TV, but few have nailed the formula so completely as Chris Carter’s series, which was must-see viewing in the 1990s. David Duchovny plays the believer – Fox ‘Spooky’ Mulder, an FBI agent obsessed with the paranormal cases the regular FBI regards as ridiculous. These are ‘The X-Files’ of the title, but oddball Mulder’s investigations don’t take off until he’s paired with a skeptical scientist- Dr Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), who is actually brought in to debunk his work.
These kinds of shows don’t go the distance unless you have two things. The first is chemistry between the leads, be it platonic or of the will-they, won’t-they variety. The second is great mysteries that keep people coming back week after week. The X-Files has both, as well as an overarching conspiracy plot that simmered away in the background the whole time the show was on, taking many outlandish twists and turns.
There was a long gap between the ninth and last two series but they managed to exceed expectations too. If you’ve never watched this now undeniably classic show – which is 30 years old – you’re in for a treat. (11 series, plus the 1998 movie)
Only Murders In The Building (Series 3)
Meryl Streep and Paul Rudd join the brilliant third series of this comedy mystery
Year: 2023
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Disney+
The first series of this funny US mystery starring Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez was a total delight. The second was decent enough, but number three is a real return to form. It features two big stars – new addition Meryl Streep and the evergreen Paul Rudd, who briefly appeared in the finale to series two. Both are playing actors in a show directed by Short’s character Oliver, and the murder that interrupts it – a crime that happens outside the building for once, you’ll notice – is going to be terrific fun to unravel.
That’s partly down to the identity of one of the suspects, which gives the story a very personal spin – no spoilers here, in case you’re yet to catch up on series two – but also to the presence of Streep as no-hope actor Loretta, who is playing enjoyably against her real-life reputation for incredible success. The famously nice Rudd is doing that too, portraying a showbiz monster who creates havoc at the centre of Oliver’s play. Now, performances like that might feel like smug inside jokes on other shows, but that’s not the case here – both Loretta and Ben quickly become fully-rounded characters, just with some knowing winks to reality slipped in on top.
And, last but not least, there’s the fun of seeing Oliver stressing out in his natural Broadway habitat as the chaos from the disrupted show unfolds, because Short is always at his side-splitting finest when Oliver is stressed. (Ten episodes)
Black Cake
Explosive story of a mother’s secrets that takes us from the Caribbean to London
Year: 2023
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Disney+
Every generation has its secrets. That’s the truth at the heart of this twisting and powerfully played drama based on the novel by Charmaine Wilkerson. It’s the story of two estranged siblings reunited by revelations about their dead mother’s life – a mystery that takes us from sudden death in the Caribbean to a new life, and a new name, in London.
Produced by Oprah Winfrey, Black Cake is divided into eight parts that flip between the past and the present, between the siblings steadily bonding over recordings from their mother to flashbacks to her explosive, dangerous life. Each period is well-acted and full of nice details, and you can never quite tell where the story is going to go. By the time the first episode arrives at its gripping end, though, it’s clear we’re in safe hands, not least thanks to the fully rounded performance of Mia Isaac as the young Coventina. She’s a star in the making, that one. (Eight episodes)
Lost
Fantasy series in which the survivors of a plane crash work together to survive on a deserted island
Year: 2004-2010
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Disney+
After a commercial flight crashes en route from Sydney to Los Angeles, 70 strangers (and one dog) find themselves stranded on a seemingly uninhabited tropical island. Centred around the lives of these survivors, Lost has continued to enthral and perplex viewers long after the show’s controversial finale in 2010 – there’s even a dedicated ‘Lostpedia’, and several podcasts for fans wanting to continue mulling over the series’ more knotty moments.
Starring Matthew Fox as brooding surgeon Jack Shephard, the show details the aftermath of the crash, as the passengers of the Oceanic Airlines Flight 815 battle for survival on the island they must now call home. Over the course of the six series, a conflict plays out between the humans and the ‘Others’, the nefarious inhabitants of the island, and viewers are flung between timelines with flashbacks, flashforwards and a considerable amount of time-bending.
Interwoven with elements of the supernatural – from the mysterious ‘Smoke Monster’ to ‘The Others’, led by Jacob (Mark Pellegrino) – it is the show’s thoughtful engagement with the mythological, in combination with its complicated, well-conceived characters that has sustained interest and intrigue today. Even if the plot gets a little lost at points (what’s with the polar bear?), this unique adventure-drama is well worth a watch. (Six series)
American Crime Story: The Assassination Of Gianni Versace
Glossy true-crime drama about the brutal murder of the lauded Italian fashion designer
Year: 2017
Watch now on Disney+
It might be titled The Assassination Of Gianni Versace, but the multi-award winning series isn’t really about the fashion designer whose brutal murder shocked the world in 1997, but his enigmatic killer Andrew Cunanan. Played by Darren Criss, formerly known for Glee, Cunanan drives this fascinating nine-part series, which goes back and forth in time and changes pace from quick horror to agonisingly slow tension. Versace was Cunanan’s fifth murder in the space of three months; the designer was gunned down outside his Miami Beach mansion.
The cast also includes Penelope Cruz as Versace’s sister Donatella (who she is close friends with in real life), Edgar Ramirez as the genius Gianni and Ricky Martin as his lover Antonio D’Amico. The series offers captivating insight into the flamboyant world of high fashion as well as the actions of a disturbed murderer. (Nine episodes)
Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (Taylor’s Version)
Watch the singer’s sensational $1 billion concert from the comfort of your own home
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Disney+
Every generation has a few stars who burn brighter than all the others. In 2023, Taylor Swift proved she was burning the brightest by far
The experience survived the transition from stage to big screen when Swift bypassed all the major studios to release her tour in cinemas, setting new box office records in the process. Then it became available to rent at home with three extra songs, and now it’s part of the subscription on Disney+ – with four extra acoustic numbers that didn’t make either of those previous releases. We haven’t even touched on the breathtaking scale and skill of the show itself but, suffice to say, The Eras Tour is a spectacle for the ages, and Swift richly deserves all her success. (210 minutes)
A Small Light
The true story of the woman who tried to save Anne Frank
Year: 2023
Certificate: 12
Watch now on Disney+
The tragic account of Anne Frank and her family as they attempted to hide from the Nazis in occupied Amsterdam became famous after the young girl’s diaries survived, but just who helped the Frank family to hide out in an attic for more than two years?
This mini series tells the story of Miep Gies (Bel Powley), an employee and friend of Otto Frank (Liev Schreiber) who risked everything to keep him and his family safe for as long as she could. A powerful drama about courage and resistance against seemingly invincible foes, it’s a fascinating companion piece to Frank’s own diaries. (Eight episodes)
Free Solo
Oscar-winning documentary with unharnessed climber Alex Honnold
Year: 2018
Certificate: 12
Watch now on Disney+
Rock climber Alex Honnold is best known for his free solo ascents – climbs where he doesn’t use ropes, harnesses or other protective equipment, relying instead on skill and strength. Since 2007 he has appeared in numerous films on climbing, but it was this documentary – charting his attempt on the vertiginous El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park, California – that brought him wider fame. Stunning camerawork and huge tension from life-threatening moments will have you on the edge of your seat in this Oscar-winning documentary. (100mins)
Fleishman Is In Trouble
Claire Danes and Jesse Eisenberg star in a New York story of divorce
Year: 2022
Certificate: 18
Watch now on Disney+
Taffy Brodesser-Akner adapted her own novel into this US drama, and had a great cast to bring her words to life. We meet Jesse Eisenberg’s Dr Toby Fleishman first – a principled medic who has eschewed promotion, and is shocked to discover that his marriage to driven theatrical agent Rachel (Claire Danes) is falling apart. We see the story from his point of view for a while – a long while – and it’s all narrated by Toby’s friend Libby (Masters Of Sex’s Lizzy Caplan), the reason for which becomes clear later.
You can take it as a given that all of this is very well acted – but what sets this series aside is the way you ultimately see the story from everyone’s perspective, and things that once seemed completely justified end up becoming something else entirely. It plays like one long film, and has plenty to say about mid-life, marriage, motherhood, divorce and just life in general. (Eight episodes)
Percy Jackson And The Olympians
Series based on the books about the Harry Potter-style demigod
Year: 2023
Certificate: 12
Watch now on Disney+
‘Am I a troubled kid? Yeah, you could say that.’ The Percy Jackson stories have always lived in the shadow of Harry Potter, playing second fiddle to JK Rowling’s boy wizard both in book and film form. And that was justified, with the films at least – the two movies that came out in the 2010s certainly looked the blockbuster part, but both were awfully two-dimensional.
Disney’s impressive series looks set to put that right. From the very start, it puts us right inside the head of outsider schoolboy Percy (The Adam Project’s Walker Scobell), as he steadily realises he’s the son of Poseidon and possesses special powers – powers that place him in the crosshairs of dangerous foes.
There are some stars among the adult cast of divine beings (Will & Grace’s Megan Mullally, The Wire’s Lance Reddick and Toby Stephens) but this is really Scobell’s show to carry as Percy. And carry it he does, giving his character the third dimension he deserves in a hero’s quest of a series that should win the franchise new fans and, hopefully, please its current ones. A second series is on the way. (Eight episodes)
Under The Banner Of Heaven
Compelling true-crime drama set among a Mormon family
Year: 2022
Certificate: 18
Watch now on Disney+
A true-crime tale with a ghastly double murder at its heart, this Disney+ drama dives deep into the Mormon religion as it chronicles the 1984 murder of a mother and her toddler in Utah, home of the religion since 1830. Starring Spider-Man’s Andrew Garfield in a rare TV role, the seven-parter follows the investigation into the killing of Brenda Lafferty (Normal People’s Daisy Edgar-Jones) and her daughter Erica.
The series ladles on the dread as Garfield’s fictional detective Jeb Pyre is shaken to the core by the deaths. He’s a Mormon who values religion and family and is horrified by the sight of a mother and baby with their throats slashed, a crime committed by those who share his faith.
It’s a well-acted and atmospheric show and is, intriguingly, told across three timelines: the present day with the murders; the 1980s, when Brenda marries into the Laffertys; and 200 years ago, when Mormonism was founded and its policy of polygamy – men having more than one wife – was instituted. It’s now also available to watch on ITVX for free. (Seven episodes)
Tiny Beautiful Things
Kathryn Hahn stars in a drama about a woman on the edge thrown a lifeline
Year: 2023
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Disney+
Kathryn Hahn is a great actress to watch in anything. She shines in supporting roles (she was Emmy-nominated as the mysterious neighbour in WandaVision, and was a lot of fun in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery) and brings real complexity to lead roles, although that doesn’t happen as often as it should. The HBO series Mrs Fletcher is one of the few examples on that short list.
Hahn adds another starring entry with this measured adaptation of Cheryl Strayed’s book Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice On Love And Life From Dear Sugar, in which she plays Clare, a woman who’s near rock bottom when she receives a surprising job offer – to become the advice columnist ‘Dear Sugar’, whose words she previously clung onto as if they were a life raft. Can telling other people how to fix their lives help Clare fix herself? It sounds like a trite concept but Hahn is never trite, and the complex web this drama weaves should appeal to fans of indie American cinema. A dark laugh is never far off, either. (Eight episodes)
The Old Man
Jeff Bridges is a deadly ex-CIA man forced back into action
Year: 2022
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Disney+
There’s no shortage of dramas about men being dragged out of retirement for one last job – Liam Neeson has made a whole second Hollywood career out of it – but this series is one of the finest TV examples. A big part of that is having Jeff Bridges as that (old) man, a deadly ex-CIA operative with one weakness, aside from ageing muscles – his daughter.
When he’s pulled out of retirement though, the result isn’t just a long sequence of fights that leave him bloodied but unbowed (although there is a lot of that). No, this is a grown-up drama about the choices we make and the consequences they have, with top-tier actors such as John Lithgow (as Bridges’ friend turned enemy Harold Harper) and NYPD Blue’s Amy Brenneman as a divorcee he meets on the road. (One series)
Pam & Tommy
Baywatch star Pamela Anderson’s torrid marriage to rocker Tommy Lee
Year: 2022
Certificate: 18
Watch now on Disney+
One of Disney’s more adult dramas in all senses of the word, this eight-parter dives into the tempestuous 1990s marriage of Baywatch’s Pamela Anderson and Motley Crue’s Tommy Lee. The trigger for all this is the theft of a sex tape featuring the two, and it’s in the impact of that on the initially happy couple that the show really soars.
Downton Abbey’s Lily James delivers an eerily accurate and sympathetic performance as Anderson, while Marvel’s Sebastian Stan is a lot of fun as the wildman rocker. At the start we see their relationship from the outside, and it’s hard to have any sympathy for either of them, but that changes as the show goes on. (One series)
Coleen Rooney: The Real Wagatha Story
The inside story of the Wagatha affair, told by Coleen Rooney
Year: 2023
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Disney+
The ‘Wagatha Christie’ affair, where Coleen Rooney accused Rebekah Vardy of leaking stories about her to the press, has been one of the most extraordinary celebrity stories of the 21st century – partly because of the way Rooney turned into an amateur sleuth to gather the evidence herself. The accusation ‘It’s…Rebekah Vardy’s account’, announced with great dramatic flair on Rooney’s Instagram in 2019, led to a libel case that Vardy lost in 2022.
In this expansive three-part series for Disney+, Rooney speaks at length about the case for the first time, alongside her family and legal team. For fans of celebrity stories it should be a real popcorn moment, but the show also makes time to examine the impact of living life in the spotlight.
Rooney had this to say about the experience of making the documentary: ‘It hit home just how low I was at that time. My emotions really came out and that made the interview process quite intense, but then it was also a good chance to reflect. I truly stuck to my guns from beginning to end. My story never changed from day one, and I was telling the truth. That’s all I could do, and that’s what I did.’ Find out more in the series. (Three parts)
Don’t Trust The B**** In Apartment 23
Krysten Ritter and James Van Der Beek star in an edgy, smartly written US comedy
Year: 2012-2014
Certificate: 12
Watch now on Disney+
Dawson’s Creek’s James Van Der Beek plays a sleazy version of himself in this edgy, fast and playful US comedy about two female flatmates of very different temperaments – one sweet and newly arrived in New York (Dreama Walker), the other a cynical party girl (Jessica Jones’s Krysten Ritter).
Created by Nahnatchka Khan (Fresh Off The Boat, Totally Killer), Apartment 23 was the smartest and edgiest comedy on US TV at the time, and still feels fresh and punchy today. Ritter is gleefully vicious as Chloe, a character who never truly softens in the way you might expect her to, and Van Der Beek has a terrific time sending himself up. Ritter has spoken since about how good the atmosphere was on set, and how much room the actors were given to do their thing – and you can certainly see the results of that on screen. It’s a show that richly deserves a new generation of fans, so bravo to Disney+ for dusting it off from the ABC TV library and giving it the chance to attract exactly that. (Two series)
Tracker
This Is Us star Justin Hartley headlines this US action show
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Disney+
Survivalist Colter Shaw (Justin Hartley) puts the skills he learned being raised in the wilds by an obsessive dad to good use as he travels the highways and byways of the US collecting reward money for helping the authorities locate everything from missing objects to missing people. It’s a slick, high-concept adventure show full of action, a smattering of will-they-won’t-they? romance, quirky supporting characters and snappy dialogue.
Hartley clearly relishes the chance to turn his charisma up to 11 as he gets to have fun in something a bit lighter than his previous big hit This Is Us. There are only eight episodes in this first series but don’t fret: the show’s already been renewed for a second run. (Eight episodes)
Grey’s Anatomy
Shonda Rhimes’s hugely enjoyable medical supersoap
Year: 2005-
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Disney+
Created in 2005 by TV legend Shonda Rhimes, this much-loved medical drama about the lives and loves of doctors-in-training at a major hospital is a cultural phenomenon and still going strong. It has made stars of several cast members including Sandra Oh, Katherine Heigl, Patrick ‘McDreamy’ Dempsey and Ellen Pompeo, who plays the main character, Dr Meredith Grey.
At its best, it delivers an electrifying blend of drama, soap opera and romantic comedy. Sometimes when a show endures this long, there’s a snobbish assumption that it can’t be any good; the writers and actors must just be phoning it in. That’s not the case here. The latest, 20th series is the first not to regularly feature Pompeo on screen, and opens with the interns on thin ice – ’twas ever thus… (20 series)
The Mandalorian
Sci-fi meets Western in the first live-action Star Wars TV spin-off
Year: 2019
Certificate: pg
Watch now on Disney+
The first live-action Star Wars TV spin-off had a lot to live up to, and gave us plenty to enjoy with its western-style action, delightfully sweet sidekick and a rousing end credits theme that’s up there with the best western soundtracks.
Our hero comes from a group called the Mandalorians, who were originally a noble warrior people – a bit like medieval knights – until the evil Empire scattered them across the universe, forcing them to scratch out a living as bounty-hunters. When we meet ‘Mando’ (Pedro Pascal), he’s every inch the mysterious stranger, and it doesn’t look like anything can get to him – but then he meets sweet little ‘Baby Yoda’.
This show is precision-engineered to be something the whole family can watch and has a wry sense of humour that the Star Wars movies don’t always manage. (Three series)
The Kardashians
Glitzy, feud-filled follow-up to Keeping Up With The Kardashians
Year: 2022-
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Disney+
What is there to say about the return of the Kardashians other than get ready for more glitz, glamour and family feuding? Their fourth series since they moved from E! to Hulu in the US (Disney+ in the UK), it seems likely that this ten-part run could cover the somewhat surprising coupling of Kylie Jenner with movie star Timothée Chalamet, the acting exploits of Kim on American Horror Story, and the news that Kourtney and Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker are expecting a child together. And what about the continued fallout from Kim’s divorce from Kanye West, which was finalised towards the end of 2022?
It all seems distinctly possible but one thing is for certain – this latest series will continue to display the considerably bigger-budget approach that’s been the hallmark of the shift from E! since the start. That hugely impressive opening drone shot that took us around the Kardashians’ empire, way back in the opening episode of series one, set the standard for what’s followed since. (Four series)
American Horror Story
The spine-chilling series returns – this time featuring Kim Kardashian
Year: 2011-
Certificate: 18
Watch now on Disney+
Ryan Murphy’s horror anthology series started back in 2011, with the inventive haunted-home tale Murder House. That was followed by the demented Asylum, which featured a particularly stunning acting turn from Jessica Lange as a nun. The show made for shocking and transgressive viewing in those early days, and the way Murphy recast a rotating band of actors in different roles each year kept it interesting for a while after that, too. AHS has since lapsed into gory predictability but the latest story Delicate, based on Danielle Valentine’s book Delicate Condition, has a new energy to it.
The original book has been described as a ‘feminist Rosemary’s Baby’, and the TV version follows actress Anna Victoria Alcott (Emma Roberts), who is on the verge of hitting the big time just as she’s also trying to have a baby through IVF. It’s a tough process, and the stress the procedures place on her, and the way society often doesn’t believe the stories and pain of women in general, are two sources for the horror that follows. This makes it feel much more uncomfortably real and urgent than some recent series of AHS, and adding to that intrigue is the casting of Kim Kardashian as Anna’s publicist, a cheery but no-nonsense showbiz professional. The reality TV veteran is well-suited to such a role, and it’ll be interesting to see if the character reveals hidden depths later on. At the start, just expect to spend a lot of time wincing at what Anna has to endure. (12 series)
Tell Me Lies
Steamy tale of deceit and death at an East Coast US college
Year: 2022
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Disney+
Watch now on BBC iPlayer
Brooding, mysterious and steamy, this ten-episode drama focuses on the lives and relationships of a small group of students at an East Coast US college. When Lucy and Stephen meet in their final year there’s an instant attraction, but this is far from the start of a happy-ever-after tale. Love triangles, secrets, deceit and even a death create ripples in their relationship that swamp everyone around them.
As the show begins to unpick the web of lies that surrounds the pair, you begin to wonder less about whether their relationship will survive and more about whether both of them will survive their relationship. If you enjoyed Normal People, this is definitely worth a look. (One series)
OJ: Made In America
Oscar-winning documentary about the life of OJ Simpson and America itself
Year: 2016
Certificate: 18
Watch now on NOW
Watch now on Sky
Watch now on Disney+
At 467 minutes, this Oscar-winning documentary is no small undertaking. It is, however, an immensely satisfying and unexpectedly addictive experience that digs deep into the personality of OJ Simpson, the people around him, the trial and even the US itself, using Simpson’s life to explore issues of race and celebrity in the 20th century.
There’s an uncommon rigour to what’s on screen here so, if you’re someone for whom the word ‘documentary’ has become sullied by some less than high-quality examples from recent years, this is the series to restore your faith in the form. It’s just that good, and has taken on an added dimension since Simpson’s death. (Five episodes)
Death And Other Details
Homeland’s Mandy Patinkin stars in this sunny, Agatha Christie-style mystery
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Disney+
‘If you want to solve a crime, you must first learn to see through the illusion. Details matter.’ So says Rufus Cotesworth, once hailed as the world’s greatest detective, who happens to be onboard when murder strikes on a luxury cruise. And not just any murder – a locked-room murder. The unravelling of the case is the business of this sunny ten-part mystery from the US, which is clearly aiming for Agatha Christie-style territory by the way it’s gathered a lot of glamorous suspects together in one place.
Homeland’s Mandy Patinkin plays Cotesworth, a man ‘brought low by circumstance’, while his prime suspect for the crime is Imogene Scott (Violet Beane), a woman who insists she’s innocent and who Cotesworth has known since she was a child. So, the two work together to prove she didn’t do it. Now, ten episodes is a long time to sustain one mystery and it’s true that you can feel the strain on the script at times. Still, these kinds of shows don’t come along often and the sunny setting, rogues gallery of guests and many twists and turns – some of which involve jumping back and forward in time – make for pleasingly stimulating viewing. Patinkin and Beane also make for a decent odd-couple double act, and the show has some thought-provoking things to say about memory along the way. (Ten episodes)
Welcome To Chippendales
Complex true story of the male strip club founder’s downfall and death
Year: 2022
Certificate: 18
Watch now on Disney+
This addictive drama presents the true story of how Somen Banerjee, the Indian creator of Chippendales, found great success in the US with the male strip club – and then, in 1994, killed himself in prison while awaiting sentencing for murder. That’s a complex life story by any standard, and Banerjee’s sour experience of the American dream provides the spine for an eight-parter filled with colourful characters brought to life by a top cast.
Kumail Nanjiani is mostly known as a comic actor and plays Banerjee with a sense of lightness and hope that makes the character’s later, darker moments of disillusion and rage much sadder. Dan Stevens is on dynamite form as his business partner Paul Snider, a man who isn’t what he seems, while The White Lotus’s Murray Bartlett is chameleon-like as Nick De Noia, who choreographs some eye-popping shows at Banerjee’s club. (One series)
Up Here
Songs, slapstick and inner voices abound in a fun musical comedy series
Year: 2023
Watch now on Disney+
When wannabe writer Lindsay (Good Girl’s Mae Whitman) moves to New York, she swiftly falls in love with rich kid Miguel (Carlos Valdes). They seem perfect for each other. Now if only they can get the voices in their heads to agree with that…
This gloriously likeable eight-episode series takes a familiar romcom set up and peppers it with fantastic fantasy elements (only we can see the various figures who play the voices inside the characters’ heads), physical comedy and songs – lots and lots of songs. With a script by the man behind Tick, Tick…Boom! and songs from the team behind Frozen, it’s a genuine treat. (One series)
Obi-Wan Kenobi
Ewan McGregor plays the Jedi master in this visually stunning Star Wars show
Year: 2022
Certificate: 12
Watch now on Disney+
Disney must have had a lot of faith in this six-parter as they chose, rather cheekily, to launch it on the same day as the return of Netflix’s Stranger Things. The big-budget series started life as a film project and has a big-screen feel, with Ewan McGregor reprising his role as Kenobi in a story set a decade after Star Wars: Revenge Of The Sith – as the grieving, isolated Jedi watches over young Luke on Tatooine.
Hayden Christensen also returns as Darth Vader, but he was never the world’s most dynamic actor, and the show’s secret weapon is actually Homeland’s Rupert Friend as one of Vader’s Jedi hunters. Overall, the series turned out to be chiefly a feast for the senses rather than anything more substantial, but it certainly builds out the Star Wars universe in eye-catching and light-hearted style and, sometimes, that’s exactly what you want. (Six episodes)
The Artful Dodger
Oliver Twist’s light-fingered friend returns for a grown-up adventure
Year: 2023
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Disney+
Having escaped his life as the prince of pickpockets in Victorian London, the now-grown-up Artful Dodger aka Jack Dawkins (Love Actually’s Thomas Brodie-Sangster) is doing very nicely for himself as a surgeon in 1850s Australia. But then a certain old friend by the name of Fagin (David Thewlis) turns up and Jack is dragged back into a life of crime for one last job.
This cheery eight-part adventure owes as much to Indiana Jones as it does to Charles Dickens, as Jack and Fagin duck and dive their way out of perilous scrape after perilous scrape. Thewlis is a drawling scene-stealer as Fagin, while Brodie-Sangster makes certain that his matinee idol looks never completely hide the gleeful twinkle in his eyes. Can we have some more please. (Eight episodes)
Feud: Capote vs The Swans
Tom Hollander plays Truman Capote in series two of this star-studded anthology
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Disney+
With Susan Sarandon and Jessica Lange excelling as Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, the first series of this grand anthology show by TV giant Ryan Murphy set the bar punishingly high. This second run matches it, though, as British actor Tom Hollander takes on the role of waspish US writer Truman Capote as he faces off against a group of vengeful New York socialites after he reveals their dark and frequently twisted secrets in a magazine article.
The female cast alone makes it worth streaming as Naomi Watts, Diane Lane, Chloë Sevigny, Calista Flockhart, Demi Moore and Molly Ringwald all relish the chance to portray the iciest of high society queens. (Eight episodes)
Culprits
Slick British crime thriller starring Gemma Arterton and Eddie Izzard
Year: 2023
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Disney+
After pulling off the heist of their careers, a mob of hi-tech robbers (including Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Gemma Arterton, Eddie Izzard, Kirby Howell-Baptiste and Niamh Algar) go their separate ways and relax into enjoying their ill-gotten gains. But then someone begins targeting them one by one and the surviving members of the gang are reluctantly forced to regroup before the assassin can pick them off too. Just what’s prompted the killings though? And can all the gang members be trusted not to be involved?
Twisty, clever and exciting, this is a top-drawer British crime series that trades on paranoia and excitement as much as it does plot twists and surprises. (Eight episodes)
Wedding Season
Disney+’s first UK Original show is a fast-paced and funny chase thriller
Year: 2022
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Disney+
Don’t let the title fool you – this is not a soppy romance. No, Disney+’s first ‘UK Original’ show is a wryly comical action romp about a man and a woman on the run from both the law and the bad guys out to kill them.
Katie and Stefan fall in love when they meet at a wedding. Trouble is, she’s already engaged to someone else. When Stefan bursts in and objects during Katy’s nuptials, he’s then suspect number one when half of the bride’s in-laws drop dead after being poisoned at the wedding reception… One thing leads to another and soon the pair are chasing across the UK and the US in a fast, funny and very twisty thriller. (One series)
