January may have started with the very last episode of Stranger Things (sob!), but the box didn’t let us down through the winter months. From brand new binge-worthy dramas to end-of-an-era finales and rib-busting comedic free-for-alls, the first half of 2026 served up some top TV. Here, then, are our thoughts on the best shows so far this year…
Words: James Mottram
New shows
Bait
Amid the endless (read: tiresome) furore about who gets to play the next James Bond, Riz Ahmed created and starred in this exquisite comedy series about Shah Latif, a rapper-turned-actor who lands an audition to replace Daniel Craig as the next 007. Tapping into his own biography, Ahmed hops satisfyingly from movie industry satire to introspective identity crisis tale, with help from the likes of Himesh Patel and Guz Khan.
Episode to remember: Five – Shah dreams a series of 007-like action sequences.
DTF St. Louis
HBO’s seven-episode limited series explored midlife crisis and murder in Missouri, with this smartly scripted story centring around the titular dating app, designed for marrieds who want an affair. The classiest cast this season – Jason Bateman, Richard Jenkins, Linda Cardellini among them – turned this into a highly binge-able delight. And, of course, the appearance of a post-Lily Allen David Harbour as Floyd only added to the intrigue.
Episode to remember: ‘Amphezyne’ – who can forget Floyd’s old Playgirl photoshoot, cut to Bob Dylan’s ‘Forever Young’?
Half Man
Baby Reindeer creator Richard Gadd was back – and buffed to the max – in this dark drama, taking toxic masculinity to the extreme in a tale of two ‘brothers’ spread over 30 years. Gadd’s violent, unhinged Ruben and Jamie Bell’s picked-on Niall made for excellent sparring partners, though with the show frequently flashing back to their earlier years, it was Stuart Campbell and Mitchell Robertson, as their younger selves, who really pulled up trees.
Episode to remember: Two – a terrifying moment, when Ruben cruelly assaults Niall’s future husband-to-be.
Small Prophets
The Detectorists’ co-creator Mackenzie Crook returned with a sitcom boasting that show’s same gentle Brit charm. Swapping metal detectors for homunculi, it summoned up suburban wizardry as loner Michael (Pearce Quigley, finally getting a lead he deserves) magics up little creatures to help with his missing missus. Comedy legends Paul Kaye and Michael Palin also featured, bit it was Crook’s turn as the jobsworth at the DIY store that stole the show.
Episode to remember: Two – Michael gathers up the ingredients as he conjures up the homunculi.
Take That
A documentary about Britain’s biggest (sorry, One Direction) boy band. Could it be magic? Oh yes. No Robbie or Jason (in terms of fresh interviews), but plenty from Gary, Howard and Mark, as they recount the glory days that turned them into a five-piece chart-busting wonder. All the material with Robbie leaving the band and trash-talking Gary is uncomfortable viewing, but the film joyously segues from ’90s hedonism to the fallow years and the band’s heralded comeback.
Episode to remember: One – the boys get their start, playing gay clubs (chainmail codpieces and all) and, er, school assemblies.
Wonderman
Finally, a Marvel show that didn’t hinge on the end of the world. Instead, this satirical poke at Hollywood gave us Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Simon, a would-be actor with secret superpowers auditioning for a remake of ‘Wonder Man’. With Ben Kingsley reprising Trevor Slattery, his OTT thespian first seen in Iron Man 3, theirs was a charming buddy-up – the modern-day answer to Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman in Midnight Cowboy.
Episode to remember: ‘Doorman’ – Josh Gad cameos, as himself, and gets an inner body experience.
Returning favourites
A Thousand Blows
Season: two
Steven Knight’s post-Peaky Blinders Disney+ drama was back for round two, spiriting us once again to London’s East End at the closing of the Victorian era. Even if it wasn’t quite the knockout that was season one, Adolescence co-stars Stephen Graham and Erin Doherty were on top form as boxer Henry ‘Sugar’ Goodson and his local rival, pickpocket extraordinaire Mary Carr, who in typically brazen fashion was out to steal a Caravaggio this time around.
Episode to remember: Six – the Gordian knot of a plot comes together, with Sugar going on the rampage.
Beef
Season: two
The anthology show returned with new beef and a seasoned A-list cast, as Inside Llewyn Davis co-stars Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan reunited to play a country club couple in this cross-generational tale of greed and ambition. With Mulligan letting rip in a way Hollywood rarely lets her, venting spleen at the Gen-Zs (Charles Melton, Cailee Spaeny) who dare to cross her, this was peak-era TV par excellence.
Episode to remember: ‘All The Things We’re Never Going To Have’ – that blazing row between Josh and Lindsay that sets everything in motion. What a way to start.
Hacks
Season: five
One of the best out-and-out comedies on TV, the final season wrap-up of this Emmy-winner was an unexpected rollercoaster of emotion, with that tear-jerker of a season finale bringing Jean Smart’s scheming and out-of-touch stand-up comic Deborah’s arc to a resounding close. Her relationship with put-upon writer Ava (Hannah Einbinder) remained as sweet and spicy as ever.
Episode to remember: ‘Montecito’ – ahead of her big comeback, Deborah pretends to be coupled up with Ava, all for the sake of an iconic suit.
Industry
Season: four
“Truly top-tier television,” wrote The Guardian, reviewing the latest instalment of the BBC’s debauched take on the rarefied world of investment bankers. Fair enough. With the likes of Mad Men’s Kiernan Shipka and Charlie Heaton joining the gang, in an arc that followed the fate of bank-in-waiting Tender, the series smartly wrapped up its gripping yarn in a blizzard of Class As and Enya songs. Thoroughly addictive, whether you’re in the one per cent or not.
Episode to remember: ‘Dear Henry’ – extortion, blackmail, resignations and corporate takedowns, this one had it all.
Last One Laughing
Season: two
After becoming Prime Video’s most watched show in 2025, the Jimmy Carr-fronted mischievous, mirthful parlour game returned in March – restocked with 10 new comedians trying to make each other chuckle while keeping a straight face themselves. With season one winner Bob Mortimer back on deadpan form, he was joined for more rib-tickling by the likes of David Mitchell, Diane Morgan and master giggler himself Alan Carr.
Episode to remember: Three – the host with the most, Carr’s ‘Constipation or Concentration’ game show should be greenlit for real.
The Boys
Season: Five
The fifth and final season of this Prime Video-streamed series of antiheroes and antagonists did not disappoint. Set a year on from Anthony Starr’s Homelander seizing the Oval Office and going full Trump, this extreme cocktail of satire and savagery once again felt lightyears from Marvel/DC fluff. Extreme gore, dark laughs (mainly thanks to Karl Urban’s gawd-blimey ‘Butcher’) and the bleakest vision of humanity possible.
Episode to remember: ‘One-Shots’ – if only for Seth Rogen, Will Forte and others sucking up to Homelander, as a celeb poker game gets interrupted.
The Night Manager
Season: two
A decade on from the original show, Tom Hiddleston returned as hotelier turned MI6 operative Jonathan Pine for – it’s fair to say – a divisive second season. Veering away from John Le Carré’s source material (the late author never wrote a sequel to his book The Night Manager), this took us into rural Colombia as Pine set out to crack a drug trafficking ring. Diego Calva stood out as top target Teddy amid this stylish thriller with Shakespearean overtones.
Episode to remember: Three – he’s only glimpsed at the end, but the ‘surprise’ return of Pine’s old nemesis Richard Roper was a doozy.
The Pitt
Season: two
Thanks to a delayed release on these shores, this was the moment everyone in the UK started watching The Pitt. All set at a fictional Pittsburgh trauma centre, star Noah Wyle brought the ER vibes, while the real-time format, with the entire season spanning a 15-hour shift, again recalled the nerve-shredding feel of 24. High-intensity drama that even makes The Bear look slow, this follow-up felt somehow more electric than season one.
Episode to remember: ‘8.00 A.M.’ – the patient with the unwanted, eight-hour erection, due to an overdose of erectile dysfunction medicine, was – if you excuse the pun – right up there.
The Traitors
Season: four
It was always a tough ask to top Alan Carr’s tears and Celia Imrie’s fart from 2025’s Celebrity Traitors, but the fourth season of The Traitors UK delivered. This mere mortals version gave us a secret traitor (Fiona, wickedly brilliant), a boyfriend-girlfriend mystery (Ellie-Ross) and the first ever joint winners (Rachel-Stephen), as the game spilled over with tensions. Yes, the tasks are still annoying, but the fashions (Stephen’s trousers, anyone?) and the foul-ups (Hugo’s exit) were what made it.
Episode to remember: Five – Fiona comes out swinging, accusing fellow traitor Rachel of lying and causing a civil war.
