With more content than ever to sift through in the streaming era, no one wants to feel like a slave to the algorithm. Here are the best new and returning shows to bookmark in 2026 so you don’t end up wasting your time on shoddy box sets.
New TV shows in 2026
‘A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms’
Release date: January 19
Where to watch: Sky Atlantic and NOW
Starring: Peter Claffey, Dexter Sol Ansell, Bertie Carvel
Fancy another Game Of Thrones spin-off? Set a century before events in the main series, this one centres on the Westeros adventures of wandering knight Dunk (Claffey) and his child squire Egg (Ansell). It’s already been renewed for a second season, so you can afford to get fully invested.
‘Steal’
Release date: January 21
Where to watch: Prime Video
Starring: Sophie Turner, Archie Madekwe, Jacob Fortune-Lloyd
There’s nothing small fry about this six-part heist thriller. Turner and Madekwe play a couple of finance execs who are forced to transfer a billion-pound pension fund to a violent gang who invade their office. Getting to the bottom of this morally bankrupt crime should be a lot of fun.
‘The Beauty’
Release date: January 22
Where to watch: Disney+
Starring: Evan Peters, Ashton Kutcher, Rebecca Hall
Co-created by TV impresario Ryan Murphy, this body-horror series set in the fashion world centres on a miracle drug that claims to produce physical perfection. Murphy’s output can be hit and miss – hello, All’s Fair! – but his dark and campy style is a good fit for a timely Ozempic satire.
‘How To Get To Heaven From Belfast’
Release date: February 12
Where to watch: Netflix
Starring: Roísín Gallagher, Sinéad Keenan, Caoilfhionn Dunne
Lisa McGee’s follow-up to Derry Girls is a comedy-thriller about three lifelong friends who team up to find out who – or what – killed the fourth member of their childhood gang. According to McGee, it’s “an Irish odyssey full of twists, turns and arguments about eyelash extensions”. Let’s hope a “wee English fella” isn’t to blame.
‘Rooster’
Release date: March 8
Where to watch: Sky Atlantic and NOW
Starring: Steve Carell, Charly Clive, Danielle Deadwyler
Co-created by Bill Lawrence (Scrubs, Ted Lasso), this 10-episode comedy centres on an author who has a complex relationship with his college student daughter. If anyone can conjure up laughs from the ever-cringe generation gap, it’s surely Steve Carell, who also serves as an executive producer.
‘Half Man’
Release date: April 23
Where to watch: BBC iPlayer
Starring: Richard Gadd, Jamie Bell, Bilal Hasna
Richard Gadd’s follow-up to his landmark stalking drama Baby Reindeer is a more expansive story set in Glasgow. He and Jamie Bell star as estranged brothers whose violent reunion sparks memories of a tempestuous relationship that spans from their teenage years to the present day. With Gadd writing every episode, it won’t pull any punches.
‘Blade Runner 2099’
Release date: Delayed to 2027
Where to watch: Prime Video
Starring: Michelle Yeoh, Hunter Schafer, Tom Burke
Conceived as a sequel to 1982’s Blade Runner and 2017’s Blade Runner 2049, this live-action series has been in the pipeline for over five years. Michelle Yeoh stars as a replicant nearing the end of her life: a promising premise for a sci-fi franchise that has always been rooted in pathos.
‘Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen’
Release date: March 26
Where to watch: Netflix
Starring: Camila Morrone, Adam DiMarco, Jennifer Jason Leigh
Exec-produced by Stranger Things creators the Duffer Brothers, this horror series from Haley Z. Boston (Guillermo Del Toro’s Cabinet Of Curiosities) is being billed as “twisted” and “terrifying”. It follows a bride and groom whose lives go seriously awry in the week before their wedding. Don’t expect anyone to catch the bouquet.
‘Hamburg Days’
Release date: TBC
Where to watch: BBC iPlayer
Starring: TBC
Based on the memoir of German artist Klaus Voormann, this biographical drama tells the story of The Beatles’ formative trips to Hamburg in the early ’60s. Succession alum Jamie Carragher (no, not that one) serves as head writer, while the BBC has issued an open casting call for actors to play the Fab Four. If done well, this could be the archetypal rock ‘n’ roll origin story.
‘First Day On Earth’
Release date: TBC
Where to watch: BBC iPlayer
Starring: Michaela Coel
In the first TV series she has written and created since 2020’s multi-Emmy-winning I May Destroy You, Michaela Coel stars as a flailing novelist who heads to Ghana, the country of her heritage, to reconnect with her father. According to Coel, what follows is a “wild odyssey”, so consider us seated.
Returning TV shows in 2026
‘Industry’
Season: four
Release date: January 12
Where to watch: BBC iPlayer
Starring: Marisa Abela, Kit Harington, Myha’la
Like the super-slippery finance world it drills into, Industry never stands still. This fourth season is being billed as a “high-stakes, globetrotting cat-and-mouse game” involving a “new fintech darling” who disrupts London’s investment scene. The eight new episodes are being rolled out weekly: a sure sign that Industry’s stock is still rising.
‘Paradise’
Season: two
Release date: February 23
Where to watch: Disney+
Starring: Sterling K. Brown, Julianne Nicholson, Sarah Shahi
Set three years after a global catastrophe sent the human race into underground bunkers, this post-apocalyptic thriller was one of 2025’s best new shows. Season two follows Sterling K. Brown’s stoic secret agent Xavier as he searches for his missing wife in the outside world. Set the dial to treacherous – very treacherous.
‘Scrubs’
Release date: February 25
Where to watch: ABC / Disney+
Starring: Zach Braff, Donald Faison, Sarah Chalke
After a 17-year hiatus, the brilliantly surreal medical sitcom returns with most of its key cast members and OG showrunner Bill Lawrence at the helm. The revival series will comprise nine episodes: a sensible way to bring back an old-school network comedy in the highly competitive streaming era.
‘The Boys’
Season: five
Release date: April 8
Where to watch: Prime Video
Starring: Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Chace Crawford
According to creator Eric Kripke, The Boys‘ fifth and final season is rooted in “a true underground resistance against a fascist government, which definitely has no comparison or parallel to anything going on anywhere in the world.” Ahem. Expect TV’s smartest and sweariest superhero series to land plenty of timely jabs as it bids a frenetic farewell.
‘Euphoria’
Season: three
Release date: April 12
Where to watch: Sky Atlantic and NOW
Starring: Zendaya, Jacob Elordi, Sydney Sweeney
Season three of Gen Z’s defining teen drama begins with a five-year time jump. Creator Sam Levinson has revealed that Rue (Zendaya) is now living in Mexico, while Cassie (Sweeney) and Nate (Elordi) are shacked up in the suburbs. This being Euphoria, though, no one will stay settled for long.
‘Malcolm In The Middle: Life’s Still Unfair’
Release date: April 10
Where to watch: Disney+
Starring: Frankie Muniz, Bryan Cranston, Jane Kaczmarek
Another revival series, but a laser-focused one. The four 30-minute episodes take place 20 years after the original sitcom and follow Frankie Muniz’s Malcolm, who now has a daughter of his own, as he attends his parents’ 40th wedding anniversary party. Let the oddly heartwarming chaos commence.
‘Mobland’
Season: two
Release date: TBC
Where to watch: Paramount+
Starring: Tom Hardy, Pierce Brosnan, Helen Mirren
Creator Ronan Bennett and exec producer Guy Ritchie won’t be short of ideas for season two of their gritty gangster thriller. After all, the great thing about feuding crime families is that they never stop feuding. All the key players are back, joined by new cast members Johnny Flynn (Stardust) and Ophelia Lovibond (Trying).
‘House Of The Dragon’
Season: three
Release date: June 22
Where to watch: Sky Atlantic and NOW
Starring: Matt Smith, Emma D’Arcy, Olivia Cooke
According to Matt Smith, the gripping Game Of Thrones spin-off will return in August, a full two years since its second season concluded. That’s quite a hiatus, but don’t be surprised if the intricate mix of scheming, shifting loyalties and subterfuge reels you in again pretty quickly. What’s more, a fourth season is already in the works.
‘The Bear’
Season: five
Release date: June 25
Where to watch: Sky Atlantic and NOW
Starring: Jeremy Allen White, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Ayo Edebiri
Season four of the culinary dramedy ended with Jeremy Allen White’s Carmy stepping away from the kitchen so he could work on himself. Could personal growth keep him from cooking for the entirety of season five? Expect plenty of the show’s usual spicy beef either way.
*All release dates UK unless stated otherwise