The best new TV series on every streaming service

The streaming landscape is vast and hard to keep track of. TV shows pop up (and get canceled) seemingly overnight, and even if you’re in a place where you’re looking for a new show to sink hours into, it can be overwhelming to make the right choice.

That’s what we’re here for. We’re going to keep this post updated with the most recent series on each of the major streaming platforms that we liked, as well as some other options if our pick doesn’t sound like your particular jam.

So, below, find the best new shows on Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, Max, Disney Plus, Paramount Plus, Apple TV, and Peacock. Our latest update added Castlevania: Nocturne, Gen V, Hijack, and The Continental.

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The best new shows on Netflix

Castlevania: Nocturne

Creator: Clive Bradley
Cast: Edward Bluemel, Thuso Mbedu, Pixie Davies

To say that the follow-up to Netflix’s Castlevania had a lot to live up to would be an understatement. Based on Konami’s acclaimed action-adventure game series and produced by Texas-based Powerhouse Animation Studios, the original 32-episode adult animated series was an unmistakable success for the streamer when it premiered in 2017. Chronicling the adventures of Trevor Belmont, the last surviving descendant of a long line of monster hunters, and Sypha, a powerful magic wielder hailing from a reclusive tribe of magicians, the series followed the pair as they joined forces with Alucard, half-human son of Dracula, to slay his vengeful father and save humanity from the threat of extinction.

Castlevania: Nocturne picks up three centuries after the original, and while Trevor and Sypha may be dead, their legacy lives on in the series’ new protagonist, Richter Belmont. Set amid the French Revolution, Nocturne follows Richter as he is enlisted by a young sorceress named Annette to fight against a conspiracy of aristocrats who have allied themselves with a powerful enemy known as the Vampire Messiah. Haunted by the death of his mother at the hands of a mysterious vampire named Olrox, Richter must call upon every ounce of his courage to face this new darkness and assume his birthright as a Belmont. Castlevania: Nocturne is a terrific installment in the franchise that meets and exceeds the original Castlevania at its best. From its brilliantly realized character designs and exhilarating action sequences to its beautiful score and nuanced take on real-life revolutions, the series is both an excellent continuation and fantastic entry point for new audiences. —Toussaint Egan

Also good: The Diplomat, a light, plot-heavy political thriller starring Keri Russell; The Night Agent, a fun popcorn spy thriller from The Shield’s Shawn Ryan; Physical 100, a brilliant and brutal competition show; Ganglands, a visceral French crime thriller; Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, the anime from CD Projekt Red and Studio Trigger; The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House, a food-centric drama from master filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda; Derry Girls, the hilarious comedy set against the backdrop of the Troubles; and The Sandman, the live-action adaptation of the DC Comics fantasy horror series by Neil Gaiman.

The best new show on Hulu

Reservation Dogs

Creator: Sterlin Harjo
Cast: Devery Jacobs, D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Lane Factor

Reservation Dogs was a wonderful thing — a show about misfits living on a reservation in Oklahoma who want nothing more than to get far the hell away… until that far-the-hell-away becomes actually tangible. While Taika Waititi produces the show, it is blissfully removed from his particular (and for me, very tiring) brand of humor, instead shining through award-winning filmmaker Sterlin Harjo and a dynamic cast of main characters and featured guests (the second season included a memorable guest appearance by Prey star Amber Midthunder, and the legendary Gary Farmer and Wes Studi have hilarious recurring roles). The third season wrapped the show up on its terms, leaving an indelible mark on television and the culture at large. —PV

Also good: Love Island UK, the reality dating show, What We Do in the Shadows, the hilarious TV adaptation of the modern-day vampire mockumentary, and the final season of Atlanta, the “Twin Peaks for rappers” comedy drama starring (and created by) Donald Glover.

The best new TV on Prime Video

Gen V

Showrunners: Michele Fazekas, Tara Butters
Cast: Jaz Sinclair, Chance Perdomo, Lizze Broadway

Becoming a superhero is hard. This is an established principle — those origin stories aren’t all sunshine and rainbows! — but it’s doubly true in the universe of The Boys, where Gen V takes place. This is a world where your powers manifest with your first period and then kill your mom, as happened to Marie (Jaz Sinclair). She eventually winds up at Godolkin University, the only university for supes in particular, and — well, it’s the land of Vought International and The Boys. Trouble ensues from there.

What makes Gen V so compelling is how deftly it weaves together its themes. The (latest) conspiracy smoothly brings Marie and her cohort together, leapfrogging tropes and letting the story flow. Gen V manages to do the impossible: Make superhero TV feel like more than a collection of origin story tropes, and let its characters feel very grounded and like people. It’s The Boys, so you know you’re in for a giant dick or a puppet massacre, but it’s worth that buy-in to see just how well Gen V makes its grade. —Zosha Millman

Also good: A League of Their Own, an adaptation of the sports movie classic unfortunately canceled after just one season; Paper Girls, a sci-fi coming-of-age comic adaptation also unfortunately canceled after one season; and Reacher, a detective series that asks the important question, “What if Sherlock Holmes was absolutely massive?”

The best new TV on Max

Unicorn: Warriors Eternal

Creators: Genndy Tartakovsky, Darrick Bachman
Cast: Hazel Doupe, Demari Hunte, Tom Milligan, Paul Tylak

Genndy Tartakovsky is a name that needs no introduction among animation fans. The creator of such well-known and beloved series as Dexter’s Laboratory, Samurai Jack, Primal, and more, Tartakovsky is known for his imaginative worlds populated with eccentric and memorable characters. Unicorn: Warriors Eternal is the director-animator’s latest masterpiece; a fantasy action series over two decades in the making that follows a group of immortal heroes who are reincarnated across time and space to do battle against an ancient evil. The series combines several of Tartakovsky’s most passionate interests — the science-fiction of Osamu Tezuka’s Astro Boy, the steampunk-adjacent Victorian settings of Hayao Miyazaki’s work, the idiosyncratic character designs of Popeye creator E. C. Segar — to create an experience that feels unlike anything else on television in 2023, animated or otherwise. —Toussaint Egan

Also good: My Adventures with Superman, the slice-of-life action series based on the DC Comics superhero, Full Circle, Stephen Soderbergh’s miniseries loosely based on Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low, Danny McBride’s rapturously funny The Righteous Gemstones, and Harley Quinn, which is currently airing its fourth season.

The best new TV on Disney Plus

Andor

Creator: Tony Gilroy
Cast: Diego Luna, Kyle Soller, Adria Arjona

Aside from being one of the best Star Wars shows to date, Andor has the enviable distinction of holding the No. 1 spot on our list of the best shows of 2022. Either of those two facts alone warrants the show’s inclusion on this list, but combined, that well-earned place feels all but mandatory. Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton) returns to the Star Wars after his turn as co-screenwriter on 2016’s Rogue One, diving into an origin story of the eponymous Rebel captain that also functions as an origin story of the Rebel Alliance itself. The series meticulously moves away from the rote, Easter egg-laden iconography for which many Star Wars fans typically associate the franchise with and substitutes it with down-to-earth aesthetic and tone that treats the stakes of its universe as seriously as the underdogs who occupy it.

Diego Luna, much like his character, Cassian Andor, is the perfect leading man for the job, while Stellan S​​karsgård’s supporting performance as the cunning rebellion ringleader Luthen Rael has quickly asserted itself as one of the best characters to come out of Star Wars since Disney acquired the property in 2012. It takes three or so episodes to shift into full gear, but once it does, it’s a exhilarating journey you’ll want to see through to the end. —Toussaint Egan

Also good: Willow, the TV revival of the 1988 fantasy adventure.

The best new TV on Paramount Plus

The Good Fight

Creators: Robert and Michelle King
Cast: Christine Baranski, Audra McDonald, a rotating cast of your favorite actors on TV

One of the initial promises of streaming television was that it would bring us the kind of shows that were not possible on more traditional broadcast or cable networks. In practice, this hasn’t actually amounted to much more than bloated episode length and the occasional one-off experiment, like Arrested Development season 4 or Netflix’s choose-your-own heist show Kaleidoscope.

The Good Fight, however, was different. The show opened its first season in 2017 with a very clear mission statement, as Diane Lockhart (Christine Baranski), a character from series predecessor The Good Wife, prepares to leave her cushy job as partner at a law firm to become a fashionable expat in Italy after the election of Donald Trump. Unfortunately for her, she loses her nest egg when her money is tied up in a Ponzi scheme, and is forced to go back to work — not at her old, majority-white firm, but at Chicago’s largest Black law firm.

With this setup, The Good Fight endeavored to tell the story of Trump-era America as it was written, and while it had its blind spots, it often did a better job of it than most cable news networks, telling unflinching stories about race in America, right-wing internet trolls, and the outrage economy that drives culture wars. But it was also one of the most inventive shows on television — any given episode could have animated musical segments explaining geopolitics, stories about a secret court that Mandy Patinkin runs like a game show, or a cutaway gag ruminating on whether or not Jeffrey Epstein had his penis frozen for preservation. In this, it was the Star Trek of legal dramas, always different, full of ideas, and gloriously messy. —Joshua Rivera

Also good: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, the best of a stellar crop of new Star Trek shows.

The best new TV on Apple TV Plus

Hijack

Creators: George Kay, Jim Field Smith
Cast: Idris Elba, Neil Maskell, Archie Panjabi

Hijack is almost exactly what it sounds like: It’s about a hijacking. But that simplicity of premise belies a much richer, much more fun story, something that reads much more like a breezy blockbuster thriller of yore than another drop in the streaming TV bucket. Comparing TV to movies can be seen as derogatory, suggesting a show lacks the pacing of quality television, but here it just serves to highlight how effectively Hijack is doing what it’s doing. This is a show that knows what it’s about.

As does Sam Nelson (Idris Elba), one of the many passengers just trying to make it home when his plane gets suddenly hijacked by a group of terrorists. Without arousing suspicion from the gunmen closely watching the plane, Sam and his fellow travelers have to figure out how to secure the plane and get everyone home safely.

Hijack is taut, making every moment count, even in ways you don’t expect. Little details that feel brushed past are returned to, and things that first seem like plot holes get filled in, exploited by the passengers or the hijackers. And it’s told in close to real time, with every minute and every decision made by those on the plane (and on the ground, as British law enforcement mobilizes to help on their end). It’s twisty, it’s neat, and it involves Idris Elba ducking around a plane — something Elba said he had to really do, since he is very tall and they filmed in an actual plane. In a world drowning in watchlists that grow larger by the day, Hijack is a breath of fresh air: easy, competent, and just a pure pleasure. —ZM

Also good: Severance, a stark science fiction take on the modern workplace; Slow Horses, a British spy drama about a bunch of losers (including Gary Oldman) who would like a win.

The best new TV on Peacock

The Continental: From the World of John Wick

Creators: Greg Coolidge, Kirk Ward, Shawn Simmons
Cast: Colin Woodell, Mishel Prada, Hubert Point-Du Jour

I entered The Continental warily. The world of John Wick didn’t exactly need a prequel series, and it was hard to imagine a television show could come anywhere close to matching the exhilarating highs of the movies’ action sequences.

But early on, one thing gave me hope: The hiring of action legend Larnell Stovall to lead the show’s fight sequences. And boy, did Stovall and his team deliver: From the show’s opening heist sequence to the incredible rooftop fight in the third episode, The Continental delivers reliable bangers throughout its three-episode run. The show smartly avoids becoming too loyal to the movies’ visual style — something the miniseries could never accurately mimic on a more limited budget. Instead, The Continental leans into action appropriate for the era it is set in, and builds surprisingly strong characters and relationships in our brief time at the hotel. —PV

Also good: Poker Face, Rian Johnson’s inverted detective series starring Natasha Lyonne; Grand Crew, a sitcom about Black wine aficionados; Girls5Eva, a hilarious comedy about a girl group getting back together; The Resort, a dark mystery-comedy starring William Jackson Harper (The Good Place) and Cristin Milioti (Made for Love) as a couple on vacation who stumble across a deadly mystery.