House Of The Dragon
I felt prepared to loathe House of the Dragon – I, like the rest of the internet, have yet to forgive HBO for the demise of Game of Thrones – but it surprised me in the best possible way. It is, in every way, as provocative – and disgusting – as the best seasons of its predecessor (the Crabfeeder has a strong case for being 2022’s most terrifying villain, despite never actually saying a word), and showrunners Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik deliver everything from breathtaking CGI to epic battles right out of the gate. Also: who knew Matt Smith looked so good as a blond? Hayley Maitland
Severance
It’s a testament to the slow-burning brilliance of Severance that it takes a few episodes – if not the full first season – to fully register the true emotional cost of the titular procedure. For those who have yet to fall down a subreddit dissecting Dan Erickson’s quietly devastating masterpiece, it centres on Mark S (Adam Scott), part of a “data processing team” at biotech giant Lumon Industries, where a certain number of employees have voluntarily had their consciousness bisected through a cutting-edge neurological procedure. In essence, while at work, they have no memory of their life beyond the office’s fluorescent lighting, “waffle parties” and employee handbook, while at home, they cannot recall anything about their 9 to 5 – incapable of recognising their colleagues, or even telling people the precise nature of what they do. When Mark S’s “work best friend” disappears, however, he begins to suspect there’s more to the story than Lumon is letting on. Special mention to Patricia Arquette’s utterly chilling performance as Cobel. HM
Slow Horses
Even if you’ve never cracked the spine of one of Mick Herron’s bestselling Slow Horses spy novels, you’ll be instantly won over by his cast of misfits, brought to life by Jack Lowden, Gary Oldman and Kristin Scott Thomas (in peak ice queen mode). It’s a deeply British take on the world of intelligence, but not in a Bond way. More a drizzly, drowning your sorrows in the pub after work way. Which is not to say it’s lacking drama – there’s plenty of action in between all the sardonic remarks – but it’s the Oldman/Scott Thomas pas de deux that makes for the most compelling viewing. Kerry McDermott
The Bear
Is it worth watching The Bear just to lust over Jeremy Allen White’s Carmy and his collection of vintage Levi’s (“this is original Big E redline selvedge!”)? Arguably, yes, but there is so much more to love about Christopher Storer’s Chicago-set series: the revival of Ebon Moss-Bachrach (aka Desi from Girls) as Richie “I-suffer-from-anxiety-and-dread” Jerimovich; everything about the dynamic between Ayo Edebiri’s Sydney and Liza Colón-Zayas’s Tina; chef Matty Matheson’s appearance as hapless handyman Fak… Make yourself some chicken piccata (or order in some doughnuts), and watch it all in one go. HM
Mood
Nicôle Lecky’s exuberant six-part series opens with a bang: our heroine, Sasha (played with verve by the writer herself), a 25-year-old aspiring singer, struts down a London street, crooning about being in love. Then, she’s quickly brought back to reality – her boyfriend has left her, her mum needs her to move out, and she must find a way to make money while waiting for her big break. Enter Carly (Lara Peake), a Northern firecracker she meets through friends, who is an influencer by day and cam girl by night. Having run out of options, Sasha moves in with her and falls down a rabbit hole of hard partying, OnlyFans and elderly sugar daddies, before embarking on an ill-fated work trip. The tone glides from sexy to stomach-turning, euphoric to uneasy, but what’s striking throughout is the show’s abundant empathy and lack of judgement. We fall in love with Sasha as we get to know her – through flashbacks to a difficult childhood, surreal set pieces and irreverent original songs, including one that plays out in a benefits office and is alone worth the price of admission. Radhika Seth
The White Lotus
There are elements of ridiculousness to Jennifer Coolidge’s second outing in The White Lotus – see her much meme-d turn in those Betsey Johnson PVC sandals – but, if Mike White’s comedy lost some of its bite this season, it’s still the most straightforwardly compelling drama of the year, alluring as Simona Tabasco’s Lucia, enigmatic as Meghann Fahy’s Daphne. Come for the mystery of who ends up dead in the Med; stay for the crazy sex appeal of Essex lad Jack. HM
Yellowjackets
Yellowjackets is a programme best watched with an empty stomach, in a well-lit room, through your fingers. If you somehow missed the hype around Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson’s gory 10-part drama, it flashes between two storylines: one in the riot grrrl-dominated ’90s, when an all-female soccer team, the Yellowjackets, is stranded in the Canadian wilderness after a plane crash, and and one in the present, when the survivors are reckoning with the consequences of their 18 months in the Rockies, battling potential mystical forces and subsisting on a diet of… each other. The Hollywood newcomers assembled to play the teenaged Yellowjackets are standout (particularly Ella Purnell as manipulative team captain, Jackie), but it’s Melanie Lynskey, Tawny Cypress, Christina Ricci, and Juliette Lewis as the present-day team members (made infamous by a cannibalism-themed US Weekly story) that make this essential viewing. Consider yourself forewarned: it will take you less time to actually watch the series than to trawl through Reddit’s million-plus fan theories, and debate how your own group of friends would react in the Yellowjackets’ shoes. HM
Top Boy
Way before Drake got involved, Top Boy was already one of the most authentic and gripping dramas on UK television – not to mention brimming with young British talent. As well as allowing leads Ashley Walters and Kano to show they had more to offer the world besides their music, the first two seasons – which aired on Channel 4 from 2011 to 2013 before the broadcaster dropped the show – featured a young Letitia Wright and Michaela Coel. Since being revived by super fan Champagne Papi, the tale of east London drug dealers has been given an injection of Netflix polish, but has lost none of the realism that makes it so compelling. Micheal Ward returns for season four as Jamie, young pretender to the title of “top boy”, who Dushane (Walters) wants to recruit and Sully (Kano) wants to dispatch with permanently. You’ll be hooked until the final staggering scene. KM
Euphoria
I’m one of about seven people in the English-speaking world who found themselves left cold by the first instalment of Sam Levinson’s teenage fever dream of a series, but Euphoria’s most recent season officially won me over – in no small part thanks to the Howard family’s brilliantly toxic dynamic. It’s strangely enjoyable to watch Sydney Sweeney’s Cassie give into all of her worst impulses, over and over and over again: compulsively dry-brushing herself at 4am before pouring herself into a Prada outfit in order to seduce Nate (Jacob Elordi), the human embodiment of toxic masculinity. For me, though, this season belonged to Maude Apatow’s Lexi – my favourite character ever since she dressed as Bob Ross for Halloween – and Angus Cloud’s Fezco (who deserves an Emmy for that ET interview alone), with special mention to Alanna Ubach’s Chardonnay-swilling Suze and the 52-minute-long panic attack that is the “Stand Still Like The Hummingbird” episode. HM
Pachinko
If you’ve devoured Squidgame, considered joining the BTS army and count Decision to Leave as one of the best films of the year, make a point of streaming AppleTV+’s adaptation of Min Jin Lee’s bestseller Pachinko immediately. Minari’s Yuh-Jung Youn plays the older version of its heroine, Sunja, which is reason enough alone to watch it, but there’s so much to love about this sweeping epic, which chronicles one Korean family’s story from the Japanese invasion in 1910 through to 1989. Each episode is directed by either Kogonada (After Yang) or Justin Chon (Ms Purple), and there are several career-launching performances of note (including a spectacular turn from Minha Kim as the teenage Sunja). It’s the production design that will stay with you, though – with AppleTV+ using its enormous budget to meticulously recreate everything from a fishing village at the turn of the century to the Tokyo Stock Exchange in the money-grabbing ’80s. HM
