When Disney joined the streaming revolution in the UK in 2020 many consumers may have sighed and asked themselves: “How many times can I really watch The Lion King?” Although the platform is home to all of the animated and live action films you’d expect from the 100-year-old House of Mouse, perhaps the biggest surprise is the strength and depth of the TV catalogue on show.
Disney’s acquisition of Lucasfilm and Marvel Studios (and a determination to get their money’s worth) has meant the platform is crammed with Star Wars and MCU original TV series, such as The Mandalorian and Loki, that complement the movie franchises. Add to this original programming and the best of ABC and Fox shows (from Abbott Elementary to 24) and fabulous originals from FX (such as Welcome to Wrexham and The Bear) combined with Hulu originals (including The Dropout and Only Murders in the Building) and you have a bewildering choice.
What are the best shows to watch on Disney+ right now? In this list we present the 40 best. We’ll be regularly updating this list with new shows to enjoy, so don’t forget to check back regularly and leave your favourite shows in the comments below . . .
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The best Disney+ TV shows and series
New for 2024…
Mastermind — To Think Like A Killer
True-crime documentary, one season, 2024
Ann Burgess, 87, is a professor of psychiatric nursing who was called in by the FBI in the 1970s when it found itself ill-equipped to tackle the rise in serial killers such as Ted Bundy and David Berkowitz, and to understand them. Burgess listened to the FBI’s interviews with violent criminals and gradually discerned patterns. As she describes in Disney’s docuseries, this enabled her and agents she was advising to get inside their heads and develop a model — the basis for modern serial-killer profiling — that has proved to be a vital tool for catching murderers and saving lives. And if all that sounds vaguely familiar, it’ll probably be because Burgess was the inspiration (in terms of her FBI work, not her personal life, she insists) for Anna Torv’s character Wendy Carr in the popular Netflix series Mindhunter.
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Brats
Documentary, one-off, 2024
The actor and director Andrew McCarthy might despise the term Brat Pack, but he’s not so daft that he’d leave it off the title of this nostalgic moan of a documentary that tries to get the gang back together one last time. Coined by David Blum in a 1985 New York Magazine story, it cemented a coterie of young actors as feckless, uncaring, priapic and empty-headed booze hounds. Good-looking lads, though. McCarthy was cropped out of the cover shot with Rob Lowe, Judd Nelson and Emilio Estevez but was present. “Is it a good idea to take a journalist drinking with you? Probably not.” For all the complaints, it’s hard for him to demonstrate that the gang fared so badly under the Brat banner. Lowe and early nepo-baby Estevez are hale and confident, Demi Moore and Ally Sheedy forgiving and wise, McCarthy intense. Still typecast after all these years.
The Bear
Comedy drama, three seasons, 2022-
One of the most feted shows on TV returns for a third series, and life for Carmy (Jeremy Allen White), Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) and co in the Chicago restaurant isn’t getting any less stressful — not now it’s a high-end eaterie with standards to be maintained. The series itself is becoming evermore refined alongside the food, apparently reaching for Michelin-starred heights. Specifically, the first episode is almost avant garde in its lack of dialogue, being a half-hour symphony of beautiful cinematography. From there, the series picks up, with Carmy’s mission to change the menu every day providing the requisite fireworks.
Under The Bridge
Crime drama, one season, 2024
Loosely based on the killing of 14-year-old Reena Virk in Victoria, British Columbia, in 1997, this magnificent eight-part murder mystery sidesteps all the usual clichés to tell a story that is perceptive, gripping and sensitively handled. Lily Gladstone and Riley Keough (Daisy Jones & The Six) are respectively excellent as the Native American police officer and wayward journalist investigating Virk’s murder, but the real stars here are the teenage cast of suspects, particularly Chloe Guidry, 15, who brings a powerful mix of feral defiance and raw vulnerability to her role as the queen bee gang leader Josephine.
Becoming Karl Lagerfeld
Fact-based drama, one season, 2024
After the success of Ewan McGregor as a muscular, sexy Roy Halston in Netflix’s 2021 mini-series of the same surname, perhaps it was inevitable that television executives would fixate on 20th century fashion? A recent BBC4 Arena documentary unbuttoned Coco Chanel, Apple TV+ then pitted her against Christian Dior in the drama The New Look, Cristóbal Balenciaga got the biographical treatment from Disney+, and now it falls to the same channel to deliver the goods on German Karl Lagerfeld. We meet the designer in the summer of 1972 as a “gun for hire”, a ready-to-wear mercenary working quietly on brands such as Fendi, Chloé and Valentino, envious of his rival Yves Saint Laurent. It’s glamorous, if a little chaste compared with Halston, and set in a time before marketing took precedence over artistry.
Star Wars: The Acolyte
Sci-fi thriller, one season, 2024-
Yet another offering from the ever-expanding Star Wars universe, The Acolyte is set in the High Republic era, approximately 100 years before the events of the main Star Wars films. It tells the story of the respected Jedi Master Sol (Lee Jung-jae), who is ordered to track down a rogue warrior played by Amandla Stenberg. There is plenty of expertly choreographed lightsaber action and the cast includes Carrie-Anne Moss, Dafne Keen and Manny Jacinto (The Good Place). Leslye Headland, co-creator of the Netflix hit Russian Doll, is the showrunner, and like Andor, this dark thriller should appeal to adults, as well as the legion of hardcore fans.
Camden
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Music documentary, one-off, 2024
For many Londoners Camden has become little more than a vape-shop amusement park, a congested ruin of past glories where tourists are more likely to find a pair of cheap sunglasses and a bubble tea than any true countercultural frisson. This four-part series attempts to dig deep into the area’s rich and pungent musical history, arguing that there are still traces of rock’n’roll magic detectable on its grimy streets. Executive produced by the Camden-raised Dua Lipa and orchestrated by Asif Kapadia (the director of Amy), the series corrals an entertaining clutch of testimonies from those who know their Dublin Castle from their Dingwalls. Among those contributing their memories across the series are Chris Martin, Noel Gallagher, Lauren Laverne, Suggs, Little Simz and the ever-lyrical Carl Barât and Peter Doherty of the Libertines.
The Beach Boys
Music documentary, one-off, 2024
The news that Brian Wilson, the genius behind the Beach Boys, has been placed under a conservatorship at the age of 81 as a result of dementia makes this new documentary all the more poignant. It’s already a story soaked in melancholy — of how three brothers, a cousin and a friend suffered loss, trauma and psychological breakdown while making music that redrew pop’s boundaries. Frank Marshall and Thom Zimny, the directors, blend archive footage with new and old interviews with the band, their associates and famous fans, among them Lindsey Buckingham from Fleetwood Mac. Bursts of Wouldn’t It Be Nice or God Only Knows probably say as much as anyone needs to know. Yet this film carefully traces their history, from their “landlubber” upbringing in California, rivalry with the Beatles to a brush with Charles Manson. Wilson’s health is a recurring theme, and there are lawsuits and fractured relationships, but their standing as a great band is lovingly honoured. Smile, even if somewhat sadly.
Let It Be
Music documentary, one-off, 2024
Peter Jackson’s 2021 documentary series The Beatles — Get Back shed new light on the Let It Be recording sessions. Using rushes from Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s 1970 film, it highlighted the friendship and camaraderie between the Fab Four. Now Disney+ gives music fans the chance to watch a newly restored version of the original film, which featured sessions with the US musician Billy Preston. Using post-production techniques from Peter Jackson’s production company, you can marvel at Apple Corps’ rooftop gig in January 1969 with a new visual clarity.
Shardlake
Period drama, one season, 2024
Viewers who enjoy historical fiction and ecclesiastical murdering — Wolf Hall, The Cadfael Chronicles or The Name of the Rose — should make a beeline for this cloak-and-dagger crime drama, set during the dissolution of the monasteries. Based on the Shardlake novels by CJ Sansom, the series centres on Matthew Shardlake (Arthur Hughes), a lawyer who is hired by no less a figure than Thomas Cromwell (Sean Bean) to investigate a murder in a remote town. A film or TV adaptation of the books has been a long time coming (Kenneth Branagh was attached to a version more than 20 years ago), but this incarnation of the Tudor Poirot seems worth the wait — dangerous, dankly atmospheric, full of dread and dark corners. Babou Ceesay, Paul Kaye and Anthony Boyle are among those starring alongside Bean and the suitably intense Hughes.
FX’s Feud — Capote vs The Swans
Drama, two seasons, 2017-
The best Ryan Murphy productions (Nip/Tuck, Halston) are brash melodramas hiding an inner core of heartbreak. As such, Truman Capote’s fall from grace amongst New York’s monied socialites (his “Swans”) is the perfect subject. As played by Tom Hollander, Murphy’s Capote is a flamboyant shell ready to crack. Jon Robin Baitz’s script evolves seamlessly from parody to tragedy, while under the expert direction of Gus Van Sant the wounded swans (Naomi Watts, Diane Lane, Chloe Sevigny and Calista Flockhart) move in expertly for the kill.
Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (Taylor’s Version)
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Concert film, one-off, 2024
The highest-grossing music event of all time, Taylor Swift’s 152 show Eras Tour spans gigs on five continents. If you’ve not managed to get tickets to see Taylor at Wembley, this three-hour concert film on Disney+ captures the ten-act retrospective discography show in all its glory. Filmed across three nights in Los Angeles, the movie was first out in cinemas in October 2023 and later as pay per view, but is now available to all Disney+ subscribers.
Shogun
Period drama, one season, 2024-
There was a time in the late 1970s when no home was complete without a copy of James Clavell’s historical novel about an English sailor pitched into 15th-century feudal Japan. A lavish nine-hour miniseries starring Richard “Dr Kildare” Chamberlain and Toshiro Mifune followed to critical and audience acclaim in 1980, and Clavell acknowledged that he had become “a brand name, like Heinz Baked Beans”. Nearly 50 years after the book was published FX has thrown considerable resources into ten extraordinary episodes of drama (every gesture authentic, we are assured by the production, certainly every frame is a masterpiece) that follows the fortunes of big lunk John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis), “barbarian” pilot of a Protestant ship, in the alien court of Lord Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada, magnificent). This is event television as art.
Cristóbal Balenciaga
Biopic drama, one season, 2024-
This stiff Spanish biography of its finest fashion son gives no indication that Cristóbal Balenciaga would have anything positive to say about his brand’s 21st-century incarnation, fighting off criticism over a 2022 campaign featuring children and “bondage” teddy bears. Quite the contrary, this subtitled production makes it clear that the designer (played by Alberto San Juan) preferred to let his dresses do the talking. Dramatically, this can be tricky as whenever Coco Chanel (Anouk Grinberg) wafts smokily across the screen, our necks crane to follow her. She’s shacked up at the Ritz in Paris with some Nazis, after all, while Balenciaga is back in Spain eating soup with his mum. Yet true glamour fans will have pins and needles waiting for Apple TV+’s Dior show The New Look in February. Juliette Binoche as Chanel? Fantastique.
The Artful Dodger
Drama, one season, 2024-
Fans of Robert Downey Jr’s Sherlock Holmes will appreciate the hectic Victoriana of this sequel to Oliver Twist. Hubris, maybe, but the writers take the concept and gallop away with it at speed, imagining a life for quintessential urchin the Artful Dodger beyond London. Thomas Brodie-Sangster plays Jack Dawkins, a Royal Navy surgeon now performing amputations in a flamboyant way in Australia. When he discovers his old “mentor”, Fagin (David Thewlis), has been transported to Port Victory it’s clear that his past is not to be shed so easily. Meanwhile the governor’s headstrong daughter, Lady Belle Fox (Maia Mitchell), unearths information about Dawkins that she can use to further her ambition to become a surgeon. Too adult to be Enola Holmes-style family viewing, it’s still a vibrant hurtle through Dodger’s second act. Consider yourself well in.
Best drama
Snowfall
Drama, six seasons, 2017-2023
Devised by John Singleton (Boyz n the Hood), this is a 20th-century ugly American epic — the story of the rise of the crack-cocaine epidemic in 1980s Los Angeles, retold as soap opera. The show has an epic ambition but also allocates time to focus on the telling details. None of this would work without a good cast and Snowfall is blessed with one of the best, particularly Damson Idris, who hails from London, as the show’s young protagonist, Franklin Saint.
The Patient
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Psychological thriller, one season, 2022
Steve Carell and Domhnall Gleeson deliver memorable performances in this claustrophobic and tense, largely two-handed series. Gleeson plays Sam, a serial killer who takes his therapist Alan (Carrell) prisoner and keeps him chained to a bed in his basement until he can be “cured” and stop killing. The plot thickens when we find that Sam’s mother, Candace (Linda Emond), is living upstairs and is aware of what’s happening, but refuses to intervene. Psychologically and emotionally challenging, this slow-burn drama is worth every minute of your time.
A Murder At The End Of The World
Drama, one season, 2023-
Emma Corrin stars as Darby Hart, an amateur internet sleuth and hacking prodigy in a murder mystery that feels like it’s been put together by a committee based on “stuff young people like.” It largely succeeds thanks to epic budgets and a hammy older cast. Hart is a high school freak who is alert to societal misogyny thanks to the number of dead women her coroner father heaves out of icy pools. Her book (yes, she’s a writer as well) about tracking down a murderer has come to the attention of the shady tech billionaire Andy Ronson (Clive Owen). And no sooner can he say, “I guess you’re wondering why I gathered you all here,” than she finds herself holed up in a snow-bound hotel with a cast of mysterious do-gooders, some of whom are evidently intent on doing bad.
Welcome to Chippendales
True crime drama, one season, 2023-
The incredible story of the rise and fall of Somen “Steve” Banerjee, the founder of the male stripping sensation the Chippendales, makes for a compelling TV show. Kumail Nanjiani stars as Banerjee, an Indian immigrant who wants to achieve the American dream. He establishes America’s first all-male strip club and achieves global acclaim, but the story soon becomes much darker as Banerjee is drawn into a world of crime that will bring his story to a grim end. Co-stars include Murray Bartlett, Annaleigh Ashford and Juliette Lewis, with an excellent short turn from Dan Stevens. This is one you’ll binge from start to finish.
The Dropout
True crime drama, one season, 2022
Amanda Seyfried excels in this jaw-dropping drama about Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of Theranos, a medical company that claimed it had developed technology that would revolutionise blood testing. The entrepreneur ended up raising more than $700 million from some of the most powerful investors in America — before it emerged that everything she had done was flawed. She is now serving a prison sentence for financial crimes. Well-crafted, compelling and engrossing, this series is a must-watch for lovers of Succession and The Social Network. Seyfried won best actress at the Golden Globe awards for her outstanding performance.
Fleishman Is in Trouble
Drama, one season, 2023-
Toby Fleishman (Jesse Eisenberg), a recently divorced fortysomething, has discovered dating apps and is attempting to make up for a lack of romantic success when he was younger. However, he’s thrown a curveball when his ex-wife, Rachel (Clare Danes), leaves him with their two children and disappears without a trace. Struggling to juggle children, a busy job at the hospital and his escalating love life, Toby begins to realise that he needs to come to terms with why his marriage failed if he’s to move forward. Co-stars Lizzy Caplan and Adam Brody.
Culprits
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Drama, one season, 2023-
There are points during J Blakeson’s thrilling heist-gone-wrong drama where your credulity will be tested. What keeps you watching is Nathan Stewart-Jarrett. The Candyman star plays Joe Petrus, an unassuming American dad who, three years earlier, was recruited by a British gang boss (a frowny Gemma Arterton) as the muscle in a high-stakes robbery. Now his past is catching up with him. It’s the kind of series where realism is sacrificed for rug-pulling kicks. Thankfully, Stewart-Jarrett’s complex, haunted lead gives the show its vital beating heart.
Dopesick
Drama, one season, 2021
A terrific, harrowing eight-episode series about the American opioid crisis. It tells of how members of the billionaire Sackler family pushed the OxyContin painkiller into the healthcare system while also being philanthropists to the arts world. Michael Keaton stars as a small-town doctor, who, after being wooed by Will Poulter’s sales rep, becomes increasingly worried about the damaging effects of the drug. The excellent Michael Stuhlbarg plays the sinister boss of a pharma corporation. This is serious, grown-up drama that proves Disney+ is so much more than simply kids’ content.
Lost
Sci-fi, six seasons, 2004-10
OK, so this show famously doesn’t have an ending that pleases everyone — but that needn’t detract from just what a brilliant journey it took viewers on. The mystery of why an aircraft full of strangers crashed on an island filled with supernatural forces, bunkers and hostile “others” captivated audiences for six seasons. Even if every question asked doesn’t quite have an answer, this is a show that has enough fine storytelling and characters in a visually arresting environment that it rewards re-watching. Maybe it is time you gave it another try?
The Old Man
Thriller, one season, 2022
The former CIA operative and Vietnam veteran Dan Chase (Jeff Bridges) has been living off the grid for the past 30 years in Vermont. However, after an intruder breaks into his home and he kills them, he is forced into hiding, renting a room from Zoe McDonald (Amy Brenneman). Meanwhile, a complex past between the FBI assistant director for counterintelligence, Harold Harper (John Lithgow), and Chase is revealed as Harper is drafted in to apprehend the fugitive, in what quickly spirals into a thrilling drama.
Extraordinary
Superhero, one season, 2023-
What if there was a parallel universe where everyone possessed a superpower — except you. That is the delightful premise of Emma Moran’s eight-part comedy drama, in which the ever-ebullient Máiréad Tyers stars as a 25-year-old Irish ex-pat costume-shop worker, Jen, living in a London in which all adults but her are blessed with a unique supernatural gift. Playful, raunchy and irreverent, it is part acerbic slice-of-life rom-com, part superhero coming-of-age drama and has enough comic set-pieces and caustic one-liners that you will happily overlook its lack of narrative direction in the final three episodes.
Best comedy
The Simpsons
Animated comedy, 34 seasons, 1989-
The longest-running American sitcom and animated series, despite inevitable peaks and troughs in its form since first airing in 1989, The Simpsons remains a razor-sharp satire with truly brilliant characters. Season 34 kicks off on Disney+ and has episodes that include Ned Flanders getting mixed up with the Springfield mafia, Lisa joining a newly co-ed boy scout’s troop and Bart enrolling for Krusty’s new clown school.
Abbott Elementary
Mockumentary, two seasons, 2021-
A woefully underfunded school in Philadelphia is the backdrop for this smart workplace comedy created by and starring Quinta Brunson, an incredible comic talent who started off producing comedy content online. She plays Janine, a teacher a year into her career who still has enough optimism and passion for the profession that she continues to try to make a difference. Some of her more jaded contemporaries, such as Barbara (Sheryl Lee Ralph) and Melissa (Lisa Ann Walter), have long since gone their own way. Throw in the incompetent principal Ava (Janelle James) and a burgeoning love story with the temp Greg (Tyler James Williams) and you have an education in sitcom fun. TG
Mr Inbetween
Comedy drama, three seasons, 2018-21
This is a crime drama set among Sydney’s “left-behind” — you won’t see the opera house on this show. Ray (Scott Ryan) is a criminal who takes on jobs for underworld bosses that too often involve digging graves. Yet that’s only half of it. Ray will break your heart as he brings up his daughter and cares for his brother, who has motor neurone disease. Much of his time is devoted to mundanities such as the school drop-off. It is devilishly funny, The Sopranos with g’days. With its longest episode running to 32 minutes, this is a morally challenging mini-epic of exquisite efficiency. But there’s more. Its star, Ryan, has played only one character: Ray. In 2005 he starred in a film about Ray called The Magician and 13 years later it became this series. By then Ryan was driving taxis. “When people tell you all your life that you’ll never amount to anything,” he said in a rare interview, “part of you digs in and says, ‘We’ll f***ing see about that.’ ” He is Mr Inbetween — a personal, painful, yet frequently hilarious TV original that deserves more love.
Only Murders in the Building
Mystery comedy drama, two seasons, 2021-
A refreshingly humorous approach to the true crime genre, the show follows the adventures of three unlikely amateur sleuths brought together by their love of true crime podcasts. The show stars the comedy legend Steve Martin as Charles-Haden Savage, a 1960s TV star, his regular co-conspirator Martin Short as Oliver Putnam, a struggling Broadway director, and Selena Gomez as Mabel Mora, a young artist living in her aunt’s apartment in the same building. The trio team up to make a podcast about a murder in their own building — and crack the case along the way.
Best documentaries
JFK — One Day In America
Documentary, one season, 2023-
Unfolding like a piece of narrative drama, with eyewitness interviews cleverly interspersed between the original documents, this three-part documentary is a moving recreation of the fateful events of November 22, 1963, that changed America. It’s a moving and raw piece of film-making, with only one curious omission. Given the film’s commitment to veracity it is odd that the footage of Kennedy’s moment of death has been edited for graphic content.
Welcome to Wrexham
Sport documentary, two seasons, 2022-
If you’ve paid any attention to football this year, you’ll know this show’s second season comes with a built-in spoiler. Wrexham AFC were promoted to League Two in April, ending 15 years of non-league football, the result of a plan coming together in style. The club’s new owners, It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia star Rob McElhenney and actor Ryan Reynolds, bought the team simply to make this series, but the hall-of-mirrors artificiality was quickly eclipsed by a warm emotional investigation of club and community. This series begins with a new football season and the prospect of a visit from the King. “Oh my god, the expectation,” says Reynolds.
Coleen Rooney — The Real Wagatha Story
Documentary, one-off, 2023
In 2019 Coleen Rooney accused Rebekah Vardy of leaking posts from her private Instagram account to The Sun. Vardy sued Rooney for libel and the so-called “Wagatha” case between the two footballer’s wives went to a High Court trial. The show promises the inside story on what happened when she successfully defended the libel action. With contributions from Rooney, her family and friends.
The Beatles: Get Back
Music documentary, one season, 2021
Peter Jackson’s love letter to the Beatles takes viewers into the room during the Let It Be recording session at a time when rock ’n’ roll folklore would have us believe the Fab Four were at each other’s throats. However, what this masterly work across three parts, totalling nearly eight hours, reveals is a much more complex relationship between John, Paul, John and Ringo — gifted musicians, big personalities, rivals, but most of all friends who have shared an extraordinary journey. You don’t have to be a Beatles fan to watch take after take of the same songs, but it helps …
Limitless with Chris Hemsworth
Documentary, one season, 2022
Everyone wants to live better for longer, right? Well, the Hollywood actor Chris Hemsworth is on a mission to do just that in this interesting series in which he confronts his mortality, shocking his system and building resilience in all manner of spectacular locations. It’s a lot easier to watch this show than it must have been to star in — so sit back, relax and enjoy.
Best kids’ shows
Once Upon A Studio
Animated adventure, one-off, 2023
The short celebrates 100 years of Walt Disney’s kingdom by bringing together 543 characters from 85 feature-length and short films for a hand-drawn and CGI hybrid story celebrating the great heroes, villains and princesses. Whether your favourite character is Bambi, Peter Pan, Elsa or Moana, this one-off spectacular promises to be an all-singing, all-dancing multigenerational hit for film fans across the globe.
Bluey
Animated comedy, three seasons, 2018-
The beauty of this Australian family comedy — one of the most talked about and celebrated kids’ shows of the past few years — is that it appeals just as much to adults as the pre-schoolers for whom it’s primarily intended. The witty and lively show follows the adventures of Bluey, an anthropomorphised six-year-old blue heeler puppy as she interacts with her younger sister, Bingo, and her mum and dad.
Percy Jackson And The Olympians
After a brace of lacklustre film adaptations, in 2010 and 2013, fans of Rick Riordan’s fantasy novels finally have someone able to do justice to their favourite teen demigod. Riordan himself oversees this series, with Muppets alumnus James Bobin directing. It promises to be faithful to the books while lending enough of a stylistic twist to keep even word-perfect fans of the franchise on their toes.
Best Star Wars shows
Read our full ranking of the best Star Wars movies and TV shows
Andor
Sci-fi, one season, 2022-
This prequel to the 2016 movie Rogue One (the best Star Wars film since The Empire Strikes Back) is brilliant. Rather than trying to appease fans, the showrunner Tony Gilroy — best known for scripting Jason Bourne films — has boldly taken the franchise in a different direction: less cosmic space nonsense and more gritty drama. It’s dark, sophisticated and led by a terrific performance from Diego Luna, who returns as the brooding Cassian Andor. Forest Whitaker, Denise Gough and Stellan Skarsgard also star.
The Mandalorian
Sci-fi, three seasons, 2019-
The first live-action Star Wars television series is far better than expected. Created by Jon Favreau (the director of Iron Man), this series took us on a Wild West-like journey through the underbelly of the galaxy. Werner Herzog delivers a great performance as a shifty Imperial, and Pedro Pascal impresses as the bounty hunter despite the fact we never see his face. And there’s an adorable baby Yoda.
Obi-Wan Kenobi
Sci-fi, one season, 2022-
There was a lot of pressure riding on this series, with Ewan McGregor returning to the franchise almost 17 years since he last took on the role. Overall, it delivered. There are some interesting twists, McGregor on fine form and some blockbuster battle scenes. Whether or not we needed this story of Kenobi before A New Hope is another matter.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
Animated sci-fi, seven seasons, 2008-20
This animated series made up for the disappointing film of the same name that was released two months earlier. There have been at least seven Star Wars cartoon spin-offs with hundreds of episodes, but none of them match this series. It brilliantly explored other realms of the Star Wars galaxy, balancing hundreds of characters and dozens of key events. It proved so popular that the Star Wars fan base saved it from cancellation twice.
The Bad Batch
Sci-fi animation, three seasons, 2021-2024
With many sub-par Star Wars spin-offs behind us, is it time to reassess Jennifer Corbett and Dave Filoni’s animated Jedi-variant on The Dirty Dozen? Admittedly, your wary correspondent initially described series one as “Saturday morning cartoons for ageing Jedi fundamentalists” — but the final two episodes of series two were narratively thrilling and visually stunning. Of the third and final season so far (including the return of Sith assassin/bounty hunter Asajj Ventress), the series promises to go out in a blaze of Empire-busting glory.
Best Marvel shows
Read our full ranking of the best Marvel shows
WandaVision
Superhero, one season, 2021-
The first of many Disney+ Marvel TV series, WandaVision also opened the fourth phase of the MCU. A loving homage to US sitcoms, the series stars Elizabeth Olsen as the superpowered Wanda Maximoff, and Paul Bettany as her android husband, Vision. It opens with a daring black-and-white episode set in the picket-fence-lined suburban neighbourhood of Westview. It soon turns out that their neighbour Agnes (Kathryn Hahn) has more to her than meets the eye as a series of intriguing twists take the viewer on a trademark Marvel adventure.
Loki
Superhero, two seasons, 2021-
The second instalment of the Thor spin-offf finds Tom Hiddleston’s God of Mischief playing with more gravitas. Perhaps chastened by the poor response to Phase Five of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, head-writer Eric Martin has injected a note of darkness into the MCU’s multiverse jocularity. As Owen Wilson’s Mobius puts it: “You weren’t born to be a king, Loki, you were brought here to cause pain and death.”
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Superhero, seven seasons, 2013-20
This series made a big splash when it arrived on screen in 2013, making heroes of unlikely characters and bringing a new strength and depth to the Marvel franchise. It’s long run was perhaps at times overshadowed by the release of new Marvel TV shows, but at its core this story of the adventures of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division (S.H.I.E.L.D.), led by Agent Phil Coulson, is one of the most intriguing and well-crafted Marvel properties.
Moon Knight
Superhero, one season, 2022-
Cor blimey, Oscar Isaac’s attempt at a British accent is annoying, but look past that and you’ll enjoy a witty series about a nocturnal warrior trapped inside the body of a polite museum gift shop assistant. Isaac has a blast, as does Ethan Hawke as Moon Knight’s leading foe. By the end, even the accent has more to it than we first thought.
