70 Best TV Shows of Recent Years: List of Highest Rated and Most Interesting TV Series

The modern TV industry is rapidly developing along with digital technologies. Cutting-edge methods of filming and post-production, advanced CGI, and innovative sound technologies reshaped the state of television paving the way for truly spectacular stories of episodic nature.

This is a comprehensible list of the greatest modern TV series spanning across different genres. Here you can find a wide variety of stories for every taste and fully immerse yourself in amazing worlds created by some of the most brilliant filmmakers.

Table of contents

House of the Dragon

Rating IMDB – 8.5
Genre: Fantasy, Action, Drama, Romance
US production / 2022
Directed by: Claire Kilner, Miguel Sapochnik, Greg Yaitans
Cast: Paddy Considine, Matt Smith, Emma D’Arcy, Rhys Ifans, Steve Toussaint, Eve Best, Sonoya Mizuno, Fabienne Frankel, Olivia Cooke, Emily Carey

House of the Dragon is a prequel of Game of Thrones which takes place 172 years before the events of GoT, arguably the most popular modern TV series.

Westeros is restless. Jaehaerys Targaryen created a powerful empire and tamed 10 dragons, but his reign is over. A few years later, King Viserys having no male heirs names his daughter Rhaenyra the successor to the Iron Throne. But Viserys finally manages to father a son, Aegon, who has the birthright to be the ruler of Westeros.

It leads to the division of court into 2 factions, Black and Green, and the beginning of the civil war for the throne known as The Dance of the Dragons.

The Iron Throne in House of the Dragon is larger and more asymmetrical than in the parent series. Its design now more closely matches its description in novels.

This Is Going to Hurt

Rating IMDB – 8.4
Genre: Drama, comedy
Production UK / 2022
Directed by: Lucy Forbes, Tom Kingsley
Cast: Ben Whishaw, Ambika Mode, Rory Fleck-Byrne, Michelle Austin, Alex Jennings, Ashley McGuire, Harriet Walter, Kadiff Kirwan, Tom Duran Pritchard

This Is Going to Hurt is a British medical TV series based on Adam Key memoir. He worked as a junior doctor on an obstetrics and gynaecology ward in a London hospital which constantly lacked both staff and equipment. What it didn’t lack was women in labor, all of whom needed the urgent help.

During the never-ending shifts Adam is trying to work his way through the ranks of hospital hierarchy and improve his personal life. But his day-to-day work consumes more and more of his time leaving no space for anything else.

In the UK, junior doctors are medical practitioners with a bachelor’s degree working towards a higher degree.

Peacemaker

Rating IMDB – 8.3
Genre: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Action, Comedy, Crime, Adventure
US production / 2022
Directed by: James Gunn, Brad Anderson, Jody Hill
Cast: John Cena, Danielle Brooks, Freddie Stroma, Chukudi Iwuji, Jennifer Holland, Steve Agee, Robert Patrick, Lochlyn Munro, Elizabeth Ludlow, Rizwan Manji

Peacemaker is a spin-off of The Suicide Squad (2021) and a part of DC Extended Universe. It follows the adventures of Christopher Smith, a cynical patriot, and a son of a white supremacist. In the original movie, Christopher ended up in the hospital surviving after being shot and having been found under the rubble of a destroyed building.

The TV show starts with fully recovered Christopher leaving the hospital but not for prison where he belongs. He was almost immediately found and recruited by Amanda Waller. From now on, the newly-minted Peacemaker must direct all his evil intents against the enemies of mankind.

James Gunn wrote the entire script for the first season in 2 months of COVID-19 lockdown.

Mare of Easttown

Rating IMDB – 8.4
Genre: Drama, crime, detective
US production / 2021
Director: Craig Zobel
Cast: Kate Winslet, Julianne Nicholson, Jean Smart, Angourie Rice, Evan Peters, Cailee Spaeny, Guy Pearce, David Denman, John Douglas Thompson, Joe Tippett

According to international critics, Mare of Easttown is one of the best series about a female detective.

Mare Sheehan is a police detective from a small town in Pennsylvania, where she once was the star of a high school basketball team. But that was 25 years ago.

Now Mare is investigating the murder of a young single mother and at the same time is looking for a girl who disappeared a year ago. She also has a lot of personal troubles – Mare is trying to get custody of her little grandson after her son committed suicide and her daughter-in-law became a drug addict.

Preparing for the role, Kate Winslet studied the work of detectives from Pennsylvania for several months.

Squid Game

Rating IMDB – 8.0
Genre: Thriller, drama
Production: South Korea / 2021
Budget: $21,000,000
Director: Hwang Dong-hyuk
Cast: Lee Jong-jae, Park Hae-soo, Oh Yeon-soo, Jung Ho-young, Heo Sung-tae, Anupam Tripathy, Kim Ju-ryong, Wi Ha-joon, Yoo Sung-joo, Lee Yoo-mi

Squid Game is critically acclaimed South Korean web series released in 2021. This is a brutal story about a survival game that may not be over yet. Writer and director Hwang Dong-hyuk based the narrative on Korean children’s games not often seen in thriller genre and added classic tropes of survival movies. The result turned out amazing.

The story revolves around an unknown rich man inviting people with economical struggles to take part in a secret contest. The only winner gets $40 million, the rest will die.

A huge list of employees in uniform works to serve the game, and the participants themselves become slaves, unable to escape from this large-scale death trap.

Hwang Dong-hyuk has officially announced the season 2, slated to premiere in 2024.

Secrets of Sulphur Springs

Rating IMDB – 7.6
Genre: Detective, family, drama, adventure
US production / 2021
Directed by: Robert J. Metoyer, Charles Pratt Jr., Mary Lou Belli
Cast: Preston Oliver, Kylie Curran, Elle Graham, Madeleine McGraw, Landon Gordon, Kelly Fry, Josh Braaten, Deandra Lyle, Bryant Tardy, Victoria Page Watkins

Secrets of Sulphur Springs is a family adventure series with mystery elements from Disney.

The story revolves around Campbell family moving into a small town and purchasing an old hotel with an intent to restore and reopen it.

In the local school, 12-year-old Griffin Campbell learns about a missing girl haunting the hotel his family just bought. And a little later, curious children discover a time-travel portal in the hotel basement not yet knowing that the fate of the missing girl is somehow connected with the Campbells.

Title of each episode has the word “Time” in it.

Resident Alien

Rating IMDB – 8.1
Genre: Fantasy, drama, comedy, detective
US production / 2021
Directed by: Robert Duncan MacNeil, Shannon Coley, Jay Chandrashekhar
Cast: Alan Tudyk, Sarah Tomko, Corey Reynolds, Alice Wetterlund, Levy Fieler, Judah Pren, Elizabeth Bowen, Meredith Garretson, Gary Farmer, Diana Pan

Resident Alien is a witty sci-fi comedy based on the popular comic book by Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhouse.

Dr. Harry Vanderspeigle from a small town in Colorado was accidentally killed by an alien ship crash. The alien takes on the identity of deceased doctor, and now lives as a hermit in his lake house trying to find the mass destruction weapon he lost in the mountains.

He learns to be human watching TV shows and tries to blend in with local people all while seeking the ways to destroy humanity. But someone always interferes with his grandiose plans for the Earth destruction: either an annoying girlfriend who was the first to find out his secret, or annoying kids tracking him down and stealing his valuable equipment.

The alien’s favorite TV show is Law & Order. That is why Resident Alien is choke-full of references to this old series.

Defending Jacob

Rating IMDB – 7.8
Genre: Thriller, drama, crime, detective
US production / 2020
Directed by: Morten Tyldum
Cast: Chris Evans, Michelle Dockery, Jaeden Martell, Cherry Jones, Pablo Schreiber, Betty Gabriel, Sakina Jaffrey, Daniel Henshall, Ben Taylor, Jordan Alexa Davis

Defending Jacob is an American crime miniseries. A crime in question is a murder of one Ben Rifkin whose mutilated body was found in a city park. Andy Barber, an assistant district attorney, takes over the investigation, but soon his son Jacob becomes the prime suspect in this case. There is too much evidence against the boy, albeit circumstantial.

Andy refuses to believe that his son could have been able to commit such atrocity and continues to search for Ben’s real killer. Along the way, the secrets of a small town are revealed, and many of its inhabitants no longer seem as decent people.

The TV show is based on the novel of the same name by William Landay.

Brave New World

Rating IMDB – 7.0
Genre: Fantasy, thriller, drama
US production / 2020
Directed by: Owen Harris, Ifa Makardl, Andriy Parekh
Cast: Alden Ehrenreich, Jessica Brown Findlay, Harry Lloyd, Nina Sosanya, Joseph Morgan, Kylie Bunbury, Sen Mitsuji, Hannah John-Kamen, Sophie Mackintosh, Matthew Aubrey

Brave New World is a dystopian series set in the 26th century. In this fictional future, people are bred in incubators and divided into castes even before birth. They remain young and beautiful until the age of 60, then quickly die to make room for new generations. Almost every citizen constantly consumes “soma”, the strongest synthetic drug specifically designed to maintain happiness.

One day, a young man who grew up outside this future society finds himself in this fake paradise. He spent all his life among so called “savages” (natural-born people) who know how to love and hate. He quickly becomes a real sensation and its very existence poses a threat to this strange community.

Brave New World is a loose adaptation of the famous satirical dystopia of the same name by British writer Aldous Huxley.

Miss Scarlet and The Duke

Rating IMDB – 7.6
Genre: Detective, crime
Production: Ireland, UK / 2020
Directed by: Stephen Hughes, Declan O’Dwire, Ivan Zivkovic
Cast: Kate Phillips, Stuart Martin, Kathy Balton, Ansu Kabia, Simon Ladders, Danny Midwinter, Ian Peary, Andrew Gower, Kevin Doyle

Miss Scarlet and the Duke is an Irish historical crime drama series set in Victorian London.

The story revolves around Miss Eliza Scarlett, the young owner of a detective agency who in rebel spirit chose a traditionally male occupation. But she knows that without a male partner no one would entrust her with serious cases.

Luckily, William “Duke” Wellington, a Scotland Yard inspector, becomes her partner and later her friend. Clients see a respectable man in him and trust him with their case, not realizing that the “brains” of this duo is Eliza.

Eliza Scarlett is named after Elizabeth Bennet of Pride and Prejudice and Scarlett O’Hara of Gone with the Wind.

Little Fires Everywhere

Rating IMDB – 7.7
Genre: Drama
US production / 2020
Directed by: Lynn Shelton, Zinga Stewart, Michael Weaver
Cast: Reese Witherspoon, Kerry Washington, Alexandra Underwood, Joshua Jackson, Rosemary DeWitt, Jade Pettyjohn, Megan Stott, Gavin Lewis, Jordan Elsass, Huang Lu

Little Fires Everywhere is an American drama mini-series about a picture-perfect suburb ready to go up in flames of raw emotions.

Shaker Heights is an impeccable place. Local residents live by strict rules which govern even such details as grass height on the lawn. Elena Richardson is a typical resident of this enclave of integrity, a white married lady, a wife of a successful lawyer and a mother of four.

One day, Mia Warren, a dark-skinned single mother and an artist, moves into Shaker Heights. She is easy-going, rebellious and wayward, and that annoys Elena terribly. The conflict is brewing between them, and it might change the natural order of things forever.

Little Fires Everywhere is based on the novel of the same name by Celeste Ng.

Devs

Rating IMDB – 7.7
Genre: Fantasy, Thriller, Drama, Detective
Production: USA, UK / 2020
Directed by: Alex Garland
Cast: Sonoya Mizuno, Nick Offerman, Chin Ha, Cailee Spaeny, Stephen Henderson, Alison Pill, Zach Grenier, Jefferson Hall, Karl Glusman

Devs is a sci-fi drama thriller about young software engineer named Lily Chan. She lives in San Francisco and works for a quantum computing company. Lily is in good standing with Forest, her boss, and she has every chance of making a luxurious career.

Lily’s cloudless future is shattered when her boyfriend disappears without a trace and later is found dead. She begins her own investigation, and finds out that Forest may have been involved in the tragedy, and that her company has a secret Devs department engaged in dangerous, but very interesting research.

Alex Garland planned to direct only the pilot, but FX talked him into doing a full season.

The Outsider

Rating IMDB – 7.7
Genre: Thriller, detective, crime, fantasy
US production / 2020
Directed by: Andrew Bernstein, Jason Bateman, Charlotte Brandstrom
Cast Ben Mendelsohn, Bill Camp, Jeremy Bobb, Mare Winningham, Paddy Considine, Yul Vazquez, Julianne Nicholson, Mark Menchaca, Cynthia Erivo, Derek Cecil

The Outsider is a multi-episode mystical thriller with disturbing and addictive storylines and a slow pace. It takes place a small town somewhere in Georgia.

Local residents are shocked and frightened by the murder of local teenager Frank. The main suspect is his baseball coach, Terry Maitland, and Detective Ralph Anderson quickly arrests him right in the middle of the game not having enough evidence to press charges.

But townsfolk see this arrest as convincing proof of Terry’s guilt, and soon he is killed by victim’s brother. Later Ralph finds out that the coach had an undeniable alibi, so he has to reopen investigation and do it from square one.

The series is based on the novel of the same name by Stephen King, but the setting was changed from Oklahoma to Georgia.

Chernobyl

Rating IMDB – 9.4
Genre: Drama, history
Production: USA, UK / 2019
Directed by: Johan Renck
Cast: Jared Harris, Stellan Skarsgard, Emily Watson, Jesse Buckley, Adam Nagaitis, Paul Ritter, Robert Emms, Sam Troughton, Carl Davies, Michael Socha

Chernobyl disaster of 1986 was one of the most devastating tragedies of USSR. The team behind the Game of Thrones phenomenon offer an artistic recreation of those events. This miniseries was produced by НВО in collaboration with Sky UK.

Soviet scientist professor Valery Legasov is sent by the Kremlin to Chernobyl to investigate the circumstances of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant explosion. His team quickly arrives there and takes part in the cleanup effort while Legasov makes many fateful decisions regarding the accident. On the second anniversary of the tragedy, Legasov hanged himself without finishing his report on all the events that took place in Chernobyl. His death is shrouded in mystery.

Despite the controversial look at real events, Chernobyl has one of the highest ratings among the recent TV shows.

Sex Education

Rating IMDB – 8.4
Genre: Drama, comedy
Production: UK / 2019
Directed by: Ben Taylor, Kate Herron, Sophie Goodhart
Cast: Asa Butterfield, Gillian Anderson, Shuti Gatwa, Emma McKay, Alistair Petrie, Connor Swindells, Kedar Williams-Stirling, Aimee Lou Wood, Tanya Reynolds, Patricia Ellison

The protagonist of the series is 16-year-old Otis, a virgin teenager who lives with an ever-busy sex therapist mother and struggles with puberty. His story is frank, ironic and witty.

Otis tries to make some money by creating a kind of underground sex education course, where he helps his fellow students with their sexual problems, even the most bizarre ones. Of course, Otis learns a lot from his eccentric mom, but he soon realizes that he himself could use the help of a good sex therapist.

Sex Education rating on the largest review aggregators including IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, and Metacritic is over 8 out of 10.

The Mandalorian

Rating IMDB – 8.7
Genre: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Action, Adventure
US production / 2019
Directed by: Rick Famuyiva, Dave Filoni, Bryce Dallas Howard
Cast: Pedro Pascal, Gina Carano, Giancarlo Esposito, Carl Weathers, Temuera Morrison, Ming-Na Wen, Nick Nolte, Katee Sackhoff, Omid Abtahi, Rosario Dawson

The Mandalorian is an American science fiction television series set in the Star Wars universe. Set 5 years after Return of the Jedi, it follows the adventures of a Mandalorian bounty hunter.

He is a lone shooter, and one of the few of his kind left. His once powerful clan of warriors now being almost destroyed, so he is forced to live on the outskirts of the galaxy among the scum exiled away from the elite of the New Republic. Hired by Imperial forces to find and deliver baby Grogu, he runs off with the child to protect him. Thus begins the wanderings of a great space warrior.

After 2 seasons and few spin-offs, The Mandalorian still remains one of the most popular TV shows on Disney+.

The Witcher

Rating IMDB – 8.2
Genre: Fantasy, Adventure, Drama, Horror
Production: USA, Poland / 2019
Directed by: Alik Sakharov, Stephen Surjik, Charlotte Brandstrom
Cast: Henry Cavill, Freya Allan, Anya Chalotra, Mimi Diveni, Eamon Farren, MyAnna Buring, Wilson Raju-Pujalte, Anna Shaffer, Joey Batey, Royce Pirreson

The Witcher is a beautifully shot TV series from Netflix. It’s based on the book saga by Anrzjey Sapkowski and the iconic videogame series of the same name. Geralt is a witcher, a specially trained warrior, designed to protect ordinary people from all kinds of evil spirits. However, he is not a typical monster hunter – sometimes he spares his foes and even manages to make friends with them.

Geralt is in love with the mighty old sorceress Yennefer, he has friends among various races of sentient beings including vampires and elves, and he also has an adopted daughter, Ciri, who can save this world and destroy it with equal ease.

This TV show drew fierce criticism from The Witcher fans for its departure from the canon. Nevertheless, it is a beautiful and exciting heroic epic that is in no way inferior to the best fantasy stories.

Brassic

Rating IMDB – 8.4
Genre: Comedy, crime
Production: UK / 2019
Directed by: John Wright, Richard Stoddard, George Kane
Cast: Joseph Gilgun, Michelle Keegan, Damien Moloney, Tom Hanson, Aaron Heffernan, Ryan Sampson, Part Tuckerar, Joanna Higson, Steve Evets, Dominic West

Brassic is British slang for being on the brink of poverty, when, after paying for housing, one has hardly enough money for food.

The series follows misadventures of Vinnie, who suffers from bipolar disorder, and his longtime friend Dylan. They leave Lancashire in the hope of getting rich in a new place without much effort. Erin, Dylan’s girlfriend, decides to go with them. This trio constantly gets into all sorts of trouble, each time hoping that they will certainly be lucky.

Their petty scams and virtual games of poker often result in their complete financial ruin, but they do not lose hope, continuing to amuse the audience.

Vinnie is played by Joseph Gilgun who suffers from bipolar disorder in real life, like his character.

The Boys

Rating IMDB – 8.7
Genre: Fantasy, Action, Drama, Comedy, Crime
US production / 2019
Directed by: Philip Sgrikkia, Sarah Boyd, Stefan Schwartz
Cast: Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Anthony Starr, Erin Moriarty, Jesse Usher, Laz Alonso, Chace Crawford, Tomer Capon, Karen Fukuhara, Nathan Mitchell

The Boys is a high rated TV project that includes elements of several genres, from superhero fiction to crime and action comedy. This is the story of a fictional world where superheroes exist as a part of modern society.

From time to time they save the world from another threat, but in daily life they are simply unbearable. Superheroes’ day-to-day routine consist of, but not limited to drugs, alcohol, random destruction, uncontrolled and disorderly sex etc.

The CIA creates a special squad aptly named The Boys, designed to monitor the behavior of some out of control “supes”, which are not so easy for ordinary people to deal with.

The series is based on the comic book of the same name by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson.

Why Women Kill

Rating IMDB – 8.3
Genre: Drama, Comedy, Crime
US production / 2019
Directed by: David Warren, David Grossman, Mark Webb
Cast: Lucy Liu, Jack Davenport, Allison Tolman, Ginnifer Goodwin, Lana Parria, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, BK Cannon, Alexandra Daddario, Jordan Christie, Sam Jaeger

Why Women Kill follows the stories of three different women living in different eras in the same mansion in Pasadena. They all kill their husbands for cheating.

Beth Ann Stanton, a subservient housewife from 1963 in love with her husband, is transformed into a heartbroken and vengeful creature when faced with her lover’s betrayal.

Simone Grove lives in the 80s. A twice-divorced lady is seemingly ready for any upheavals in her family life. But she could not forgive her husband using their marriage to cover up his extremely active homosexuality.

Taylor Harding is a 21st century feminist. Taylor and her husband are having an affair with the same girl they can’t share. And the passions of a love triangle never end up with anything good.

In the season 2, the key storylines are repeated with a new cast of characters.

The Umbrella Academy

Rating IMDB – 7.9
Genre: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Action, Drama, Comedy, Adventure
US production / 2019
Directed by: Jeremy Webb, Ellen Kuras, Stephen Surjik
Cast: Elliot Page, Tom Hopper, David Castaneda, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Robert Sheehan, Aidan Gallagher, Mary J. Blige, Cameron Britton, John Magaro, Adam Godley

The series is set in the alternative world of the late 20th century. An alien from another world under the guise of a multimillionaire Reginald Hargreaves is looking for children with unique abilities on planet Earth and gathers them in his mansion.

In order not to avoid any problems with the government, Hargreaves adopts the foundlings and trains them according to his own methods. The alien needs a team of superheroes capable of saving the universe from an impending evil.

Despite his noble intentions, Hargreaves was not a loving father for children – he numbered all the “species” according to the level of their usefulness and forbade calling himself a father.

This series is an adaptation of Gerald Way and Gabriel Ba’s comic book of the same name.

Euphoria

Rating IMDB – 8.4
Genre: Drama
US production / 2019
Directed by: Sam Levinson, Pippa Bianco, Augustine Frizzell
Cast: Zendaya, Hunter Schafer, Jacob Elordi, Barbie Ferreira, Alexa Demie, Algy Smith, Sydney Sweeney, Angus Cloud, Maude Apatow, Javon Walton

Euphoria is a dark coming of age drama about the modern teenagers who comprehend life through drugs, music, violence, sex, trauma, and social networks.

17-year-old Rue Bennett has just returned home after overdosing and having a difficult rehabilitation in a drug clinic. She had a hard time there, but her habits did not change after coming home.

A week later, she began using drugs again, and at the same time she found a new friend, Jules, who had recently moved to the city. In addition to these two girls, there are other characters around them, each with their own fate, dark secrets, hobbies, beliefs and complexes.

The showrunner Sam Levinson based the story on his experience of drug use as a teenager.

Good Omens

Rating IMDB – 8.0
Genre: Fantasy, comedy
Production: UK, USA / 2019
Directed by: Douglas McKinnon
Cast: Michael Sheen, David Tennant, Frances McDormand, Sam Taylor Buck, Daniel Mays, Jon Hamm, Shan Brook, Miranda Richardson, Ollie, Shelley Conn

Good Omens, starring David Tennant and Michael Sheen, tells a magnificent story about the struggle between divine and demonic forces. A demon named Crowley receives an order from Satan – to replace a newborn baby with the Antichrist, so that when he grows up, he would bring the end of the world. Giving it a second thought, Crowley realizes that he likes living on Earth and he does not want to destroy it at all.

With his doubts, he goes to the angel Aziraphale, who is sure that a baby cannot be a carrier of evil as it all depends on upbringing. The angel advises Crowley to calmly complete the task so as not to anger Satan, and offers to work together on the Antichrist upbringing, looking after him so that he does not destroy the planet.

Meanwhile, Heaven and Hell are preparing for an inevitable war. Atlantis is rising, the horses of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are beating their hooves, the armies of Good and Evil are growing, the Divine plan is ready to come true. Except Crowley and Aziraphale seem to have misplaced the boy and lost the Antichrist.

The series is based on the bestseller of the same name written by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, the masters of modern ironic fiction.

The Haunting of Hill House

Rating IMDB – 8.6
Genre: Drama, horror
US production / 2018
Director: Mike Flanagan
Cast: Michiel Huisman, Carla Gugino, Henry Thomas, Elizabeth Reaser, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Kate Siegel, Victoria Pedretti, Lulu Wilson, Mckenna Grace, Paxton Singleton

The Haunting of Hill House is a horror series created by Mike Flanagan for Netflix. This project has two independent seasons.

Season One tells the story of Crain siblings who grew up in the old Hill House on the outskirts of a provincial town. After several mysterious deaths and strange events taking place in the mansion, the Crains were forced to flee. But the forces of evil that Crain siblings faced did not leave them and continued to haunt them.

Season Two is called The Haunting of Bly Manor and revolves around the orphaned nephews of a wealthy English aristocrat. He hires servants for the children and settles them in Bly Manor, another haunted house.

Season One is based on the book of the same name by Shirley Jackson, and Season Two is based on The Turn of the Screw, the mystical bestseller by Henry James.

Yellowstone

Rating IMDB – 8.7
Genre: Drama, Western
US production / 2018
Directed by: Stephen T. Kay, Taylor Sheridan, Guy Ferland
Cast: Kevin Costner, Luke Grimes, Kelly Reilly, Wes Bentley, Cole Houser, Kelsey Asbile, Bracken Merrill, Jefferson White, Gil Birmingham, Forry J. Smith

Yellowstone tells a long story about a family ranch in Montana, which is located on the grounds of Yellowstone National Park. John Dutton’s family owns vast lands, and they are not eager to share it with Indians from the reservation, or greedy developers, or travel companies that constantly claim their land.

This series uses a lot of classic western tropes and images including tough and determined men in hats, abundance dusty roads, unbroken horses and endless violence that is part of the life of these people.

Most of the actors seen in Yellowstone are the children of famous actors and got their roles by some degree of nepotism.

Altered Carbon

Rating IMDB – 7.9
Genre: Fantasy, detective, film noir, action
US production / 2018
Directed by: Uta Breezwitz, Alex Graves, Peter Khor
Cast: Joel Kinnaman, Anthony Mackie, Chris Conner, René Goldsberry, Dichen Lachman, Will Yun Lee, Martha Higareda, Ato Essando, James Purefoy, Christine Lehman

The story of Altered Carbon set in 27th century, when numerous scientific breakthroughs allowed to digitize and archive consciousness, and then transfer it to another body.

Elite soldier Takeshi Kovacs, who was sentenced to long prison term, finds himself in the body of disgraced police officer. As it turns out, his consciousness was transferred by the order of Laurens Bancroft, a powerful aristocrat in need of special mercenary.

Laurens used to transfer his mind into the bodies of young clones, the last of which mysteriously died. The police say it was a suicide, but Bancroft is sure that someone tried to kill him. Everything is complicated by the fact that the last backup of the rich man’s consciousness took place literally a few hours before death, without capturing the moment of death.

Each episode of season 1 is named after classic noir movies.

Patrick Melrose

Rating IMDB – 8.0
Genre: Drama
Production: UK, USA / 2018
Directed by: Edward Berger
Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Hugo Weaving, Sebastian Maltz, Jessica Raine, Prasanna Pouvanaja, Pip Torrens, Anna Madeley, Indira Varma, Gary Beadle

Patrick Melrose is a fascinating miniseries based on the series of works by Edward St Aubyn, a British writer and journalist. Edward described his own life artistically, coloring it with witty humor and dramatic situations.

Patrick Melrose comes from a wealthy, influential, but very dysfunctional family. The young and attractive heir to a serious fortune goes through the death of both parents, alcoholism, and drug addiction. One tragedy breeds the next, but Patrick fights desperately to cope with all the difficulties.

Back in 2014 Benedict Cumberbatch admitted in an interview that he would like to play Melrose, and a couple of years later he was offered this role.

See

Rating IMDB – 7.6
Genre: Fantasy, Action, Drama
US production / 2019
Directed by: Anders Engstrom, Fred Tua, Francis Lawrence
Cast: Jason Momoa, Sylvia Hoeks, Hera Hilmar, Christian Camargo, Archie Madekwe, Nesta Cooper, Olivia Cheng, Eden Epstein, Tom Mison, Alfre Woodard

In the distant future, an outbreak of an unknown virus caused billions of deaths. Those who survived went blind. After a few generations, the sense of sight is considered to be a myth, and civilization rolled back to tribal societies.

One day, a young pregnant woman appeared in one of the tribes. The authoritative Baba Voss took her as his wife, and in due time she gave birth to twins, a son and a daughter. Both babies were born with the ability to see. This event shook the already fragile balance of the lives of blind people and gave them a ghostly hope for survival in harsh conditions.

Sylvia Hooks shaved her head for her role in See.

Sharp Objects

Rating IMDB – 8.1
Genre: Thriller, drama, crime, detective
US production / 2018
Directed by: Jean-Marc Vallee
Cast: Amy Adams, Patricia Clarkson, Chris Messina, Eliza Scanlen, Matt Craven, Henry Czerny, Taylor John Smith, Madison Davenport, Miguel Sandoval, Sophia Lillis

Sharp Objects is a TV series with a murder mystery at its core, but it also tells a story about abuse, childhood trauma, its aftermath, and recovery.

Camille Preaker, a journalist who recently left the psychiatric hospital, where she tried to overcome her alcoholism and self-harm tendencies. She goes to her hometown to investigate the murders of two girls done by some unknown maniac.

In her house Camille founds Amma, her young half-sister who is a spitting image of Camille in her teenage years and her deceased sister Marian. Amma is an ordinary teenager who plays with a dollhouse at home, and tries to look older and more experienced when going out and flirting with older boys. Camilla quickly realizes that Amma may be the next victim of local maniac.

The series is based on the book of the same name by Gillian Flynn. She also wrote Gone Girl, which was adapted for big screen and became a modern thriller classic.

Killing Eve

Rating IMDB – 8.1
Genre: Action, thriller, drama, adventure
Production: USA, UK / 2018
Directed by: Damon Thomas, Stella Corradi, John East
Cast: Jodie Comer, Sandra Oh, Fiona Shaw, Kim Bodnia, Owen McDonnell, Sean Delaney, Edward Blumel, Camille Cotten, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Robert Gilbert

Killing Eve is a TV show based on a series of spy novels by Luke Jennings.

Oksana, a Russian language student convicted of murder, undergoes difficult training at a secret base, abandoning her past and getting a new name, Villanelle. The life of an unlucky criminal changes completely, and now there are spy passions all around her and unexpected adventures on every turn.

Her next target is Eve Polastri, at first glance quite unremarkable woman. But when Eve realizes that she’s being hunted, she almost enthusiastically accepts a deadly game, opposing the cold-blooded killer with all the power of her outstanding intellect.

Jody Comer learned several languages to better portray Villanelle on screen.

Money Heist

Rating IMDB – 8.2
Genre: Action, thriller, drama, crime, detective
Production: Spain / 2017
Directed by: Jesús Colmenar, Alex Rodrigo, Coldo Serra
Cast: Ursula Corbero, Alvaro Morte, Itziar Ituño, Pedro Alonso, Miguel Herran, Jaime Lorente, Esther Asebo, Darko Peric, Enrique Arce, Alba Flores

A group of criminals using aliases with the names of different cities, breaks into the Royal Mint of Spain, takes hostages and carries the ingenious robbery plan made by the mysterious “Professor” giving them orders from afar.

Police Inspector Raquel Murillo tries to track down the “Professor” while facing bureaucracy and discontent from the highest ranks of the justice system. Meanwhile, some of the hostages develop Stockholm Syndrome, and real passions rage inside the mint building, fueled by violence and conflict.

In Season 2 the same gang, two years on the run, plot to rob the Central Bank of Spain.

Money Heist received numerous awards and positive reviews, being the most watched series for several months, and gathered a dedicated fanbase.

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Rating IMDB – 8.7
Genre: Drama, comedy
US production / 2017
Directed by: Amy Sherman-Palladino, Daniel Palladino, Scott Ellis
Cast: Rachel Brosnahan, Alex Borstein, Michael Zegen, Marin Hinkle, Tony Shalhoub, Matthew Pascal, Matilda Downey, Kevin Pollack, Nuncio Pascal, Caroline Aaron

Miriam Meisel was quite satisfied with her stable life. She supported her husband Joel in his quest of becoming a comedian, raised children, and did housework. And then Joel announced that he was leaving her for his secretary.

Miriam goes to The Gaslight Café where her husband used to perform, gets drunk and starts to perform on stage, realizing with surprise that she has an outstanding comedian talent and a future in stand-up.

The problems of a single mother’s life, a quarrel with her parents, attempts to establish a personal life – all of this is reflected in her daily stand-ups. Audience applauds her and sincerely laughs at Maisel’s magnificent self-irony.

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is one of the most critically acclaimed recent TV shows. It won several Emmys and Golden Globes.

Mindhunter

Rating IMDB – 8.6
Genre: Thriller, drama, crime, detective
US production / 2017
Directed by: David Fincher, Carl Franklin, Andrew Douglas
Cast: Jonathan Groff, Holt McCallany, Anna Torv, Sonny Valicenti, Stacey Roca, Hannah Gross, Joe Tuttle, Zachary Scott Ross, Kotter Smith, Albert Jones

The series is set in 1979. Negotiator Holden Ford is transferred to the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit where he meets special agent Bill Tench.

They need to develop certain methods of analyzing the behavior of serial killers in order to stop the wave of violence across America. But in order to catch a killer one must learn to think like one, so Holden and Bill plunge into the world of perverted desires and fantasies of serial killers, interviewing them and exploring the facts of their biographies.

The series is based on the books of John E. Douglas, one of the first criminal profilers.

The Good Doctor

Rating IMDB – 8.1
Genre: Drama
US production / 2017
Directed by: Mike Listo, Stephen DePaul, David Straiton
Cast: Freddie Highmore, Hill Harper, Richard Schiff, Christina Chang, Paige Spara, Fiona Gubelmann, Will Yun Lee, Antonia Thomas, Nicholas Gonzalez, Bria Henderson

The series revolves around Shaun Murphy, a young man with savant syndrome. He has an excellent memory and golden hands, which makes him a quite talented surgeon. But at the same time, he looks like a teenager, and in many situations, he is nothing but a helpless child.

It is difficult to trust a young doctor who sometime behaves as a ten-year-old kid. However, Sean’s boss, Dr. Aaron Glassman, dares to take a chance and recruits the best surgeon of our time.

Savant syndrome is a rare degree of autism in which a person exhibits genius in one or more areas while remaining highly limited in all other areas.

Ozark

Rating IMDB – 8.5
Genre: Thriller, Drama, Crime
US production / 2017
Directed by: Jason Bateman, Alik Sakharov, Andrew Bernstein
Cast: Jason Bateman, Laura Linney, Sofia Hublitz, Skylar Gaertner, Julia Garner, Charlie Tahan, Lisa Emery, Carson Holmes, Jordana Spiro, Jessica Francis Dukes

The series is set in the Lake of the Ozarks region, in a small Missouri town. This is where the protagonist, Marty Byrde, comes with his wife and children. Just a few days ago he was a very successful Chicago financial advisor, laundering money for the mafia, but after things gone wrong, he was exiled to the wilderness for five long years so that the FBI would not find him.

Soon after his arrival, Marty finds out that many residents of this town have long been in trouble with the law, and some of the local residents are quite happy to make him their accomplice. Meanwhile, Byrde’s wife and children are in no hurry to settle here.

After the series’ release, a real bar called Marty Byrde’s was built in the Lake of the Ozarks region.

Dark

Rating IMDB – 8.7
Genre: Thriller, fantasy, drama, crime, detective
Production: Germany, USA / 2017
Directed by: Baran bo Odar
Cast: Louis Hofmann, Caroline Eichhorn, Lisa Vicary, Maya Schöne, Jordis Triebel, Andreas Pitschmann, Stefan Kampwirth, Paul Luks, Oliver Mazucci, Moritz Jahn

Winden is a small town in the north of Germany, where everyone knows each other well. Nothing has happened here for years. But one day, local community is shocked with the mysterious disappearance of two teenagers.

The town police begin an investigation and does not find anything that could shed light on the incident. But it slowly reveals the dark secrets of the past and present, frighteningly unfolding the true image of the German province, chock-full of the most terrible vices.

This is the first German series produced by Netflix.

Big Little Lies

Rating IMDB – 8.5
Genre: Detective, Drama, Crime
US production / 2017
Directed by: Jean-Marc Vallee, Andrea Arnold
Cast: Shailene Woodley, Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Alexander Skarsgård, Adam Scott, Meryl Streep, Zoë Kravitz, Laura Dern, James Tupper, Jeffrey Nordling

Big Little Lies is a series about a murder in a prosperous small town. It tells a story about how mistakes made in youth may break the lives of adult, successful people.

A murder occurs during a school fundraiser in Monterey, California. Five powerful women of this town are drawn into the investigation of the tragedy, discovering carefully hidden skeletons in their neighbors’ closets and remembering the reckless actions of their past.

As it turned out, the modern tragedies originate from a distant youth and mistakes of the past that remained hidden for far too long. Main characters tried to disguise those mistakes with little lies not realizing that over the years lies grow into real undisguised evil.

The series is based on the book of the same name by Liane Moriarty.

Young Sheldon

Rating IMDB – 7.6
Genre: Comedy
US production / 2017
Directed by: Jaffar Mahmood, Alex Reid, Chris Koch
Cast: Ian Armitage, Zoe Perry, Lance Barber, Montana Jordan, Regan Reward, Jim Parsons, Annie Potts, Wallace Shawn, Wyatt McClure, Matt Hobby

Young Sheldon is a spin-off of the famous The Big Bang Theory. It is a story about the family of a young genius who grows up surrounded by an overprotective mom, a dumb but kind dad working as a coach, a bully brother, a gloomy twin sister and his beloved eccentric granny. They are not geniuses, and therefore young Sheldon sometimes feels very lonely.

Sheldon is not interested in studying in a primitive school. At the age of 11, he already graduated from it and became a university student just to receive an honorary degree at 14. After that, he dived into researches and inventions, which sometimes lead him to a hospital bed.

Jim Parsons, who played the adult Sheldon in the original series, reads the voice-over text in this TV show.

The Handmaid’s Tale

Rating IMDB – 8.4
Genre: Fantasy, thriller, drama
US production / 2017
Directed by: Mike Barker, Elisabeth Moss, Kari Skogland
Cast: Elisabeth Moss, Yvonne Strahovski, Ann Dowd, O. T. Fagbenle, Madeleine Brewer, Max Minghella, Joseph Fiennes, Samira Wylie, Amanda Brugel, Bradley Whitford

This is a fantastic dystopian drama set in the dictatorial republic of Gilead. Military officers became ruling elite, and their authorities is to be passed through their descendants. The recent years were not kind to the ruling dynasties as there were no healthy children born in their families.

That has led to the enslavement of the most healthy and fertile women. They live indoors, and their only purpose is to obey and please their masters, and then, having given birth to a child, they are obliged to part with it without regret.

Offred, previously known under a different name, is the main character of the story. She was chosen to be a breeding stock for the regime. Her husband is killed, and her little daughter is sent to a state orphanage. Now she is the property of her “commander”, and Offred must give birth to an heir of this officer.

The series is based on the bestseller novel of the same name written by Margaret Atwood in 1985.

The End of the F***ing World

Rating IMDB – 8.1
Genre: Thriller, drama, melodrama, comedy, crime, adventure
Production: UK / 2017
Directed by: Jonathan Entwistle, Lucy Cherniak, Destiny Ekaraga
Cast: Jessica Barden, Alex Lawther, Steve Oram, Christine Bottomley, Naomi Aki, Jonathan Aris, Wunmi Mossaku, Gemma Whelan, Josh Dylan, Naveen Chowdhry

James is 17 and considers himself a psychopath. He never understood his father’s jokes, and when his father bought an air fryer (the boy was 9), James put his hand into the boiling oil in an attempt to feel something.

At 15, he killed a cat for the first time, then tortured other animals. And then he wanted more. He began looking for a human victim and met Alice, who had recently transferred to his school. James immediately decided that it would be very interesting to kill this particular girl.

As it turned out, she has her own mental problems. Alice invites James to run away from this city. James was even glad that he didn’t have to kill his funny friend so soon, and he would still have time to plan a slow execution – if they stayed together. Teenagers run away from home searching for adventures, and it finds them sooner than they thought.

The series is inspired by the graphic novel by Charles Forsman.

Guardian: The Lonely and Great God

Rating IMDB – 8.6
Genre: Fantasy, melodrama, drama, comedy
Production: South Korea / 2016
Directed by: Lee Eun-bok
Cast: Gong Yoo, Kim Go-eun, Lee Dong-wook, Yoo In-na, Yook Sung-jae, Lee El, Cho Woo-jin, Kim Sung-gyeom, Park Hee-bong, Han Seo-jin

The South Korean drama Guardian follows the adventures of a young man named Kim Shin. He is an immortal demon cursed to be young forever, and this is a heavy burden he desperately desires to get rid of. Unfortunately, there is only one way to do this – to find a true love.

One day, he seems to have find a right girl. He feels irresistible attraction towards Ji Eun-tak, a light-hearted pretty high school student girl, with a slight peculiarity. She has amnesia. Having restored lost memories of his beloved, Kim discovers that she is also not of this world. Would this love be able to solve the demon’s problem?

Stranger Things

Rating IMDB – 8.7
Genre: Horror, science fiction, fantasy, thriller, drama, detective
US production / 2016
Directed by: Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer, Shawn Levy
Cast: Winona Ryder, David Harbor, Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Joe Keery, Noah Schnapp

Stranger Things is mystical horror set in a sleepy and quiet provincial town. It all starts with the strange disappearance of the 12-year-old boy Will, whom all the locals knew as a polite and well-mannered child. The sheriff is eager to find the missing boy, and starts massive investigation. Mike, whom Will visited the day before, tells the sheriff some rather strange details that he noticed in the behavior of his friend.

All the residents of a small town in Indiana are involved in the search for the boy, and gradually the tracks lead them to a mysterious laboratory. But a girl with paranormal abilities gets in the way of people looking for Will, and she seems trying to interfere with the investigation.

Talking about Stranger Things, Stephen King called the series “a pure fun”.

Westworld

Rating IMDB – 8.5
Genre: Fantasy, Drama, Detective
US production / 2016
Director: Richard J. Lewis, Jonathan Nolan, Fred Tua
Cast: Tandive Newton, Jeffrey Wright, Ed Harris, Evan Rachel Wood, Tessa Thompson, James Marsden, Luke Hemsworth, Angela Sarafian, Anthony Hopkins, Aaron Paul

The Westworld series is set in a futuristic world where humanoid androids have firmly occupied a service niche in entertainment industry. Historical reenactments are very popular here – amusement parks are being built around the whole planet, where any historical era is recreated. Wild West Park is wildly popular, as it is allowed to kill androids posing as cowboys and bandits there.

But a glitch in the program allows some “dolls” to feel like living thinking beings, and the deadly game on the streets of the Wild West turns into the most dangerous adventure for unsuspecting tourists.

The events of the series continue the theme of the feature film of the same name.

Medici

Rating IMDB – 7.9
Genre: Thriller, drama, melodrama, detective story, biography, history
Made in: Italy, UK, France / 2016
Directed by: Christian Duguet, Sergio Mimica-Gezzan, John Kassar
Cast: Sarah Parish, Alessandra Mastronardi, Sunnøve Carlsen, Julian Sands, Daniel Sharman, Sebastian de Souza, Pietro Ragusa, Anabel Cholay, David Brandon, Aurora Ruffino

The historical drama follows the Medici family during the 15th century. It was one of the most influential political forces in Italy. Successful decisions, wise conduct of business and family cohesion became the key to an amazing fortune, thanks to which a rather ordinary family founded a large banking business and became one of the most powerful clans in the world.

Throughout many centuries the Medicis were famous patrons of the arts, supporting sculptors, artists and architects of the Renaissance. Several Popes and two queens of France came from this family. At the same time, the clan constantly supported the struggle of the common people with the nobles, making a lot of enemies among the aristocracy as the result.

The Young Pope

Rating IMDB – 8.3
Genre: Drama
Production: Italy, France, Spain, UK, USA / 2016
Directed by: Paolo Sorrentino
Cast: Jude Law, Diane Keaton, Silvio Orlando, Javier Camara, Scott Shepherd, Cecile De France, Ludivine Sagnier, Tony Bertorelli, James Cromwell, Ignazio Oliva

The Young Pope is a religious drama about a priest of a small church, Lenny Belardo. Extreme lust for power and asceticism, rigidity towards his parishioners and a penchant for spectacular gestures coexist in his complex character.

Having ascended the Roman Holy See, Lenny receives the name Pius XIII, and begins his reign by removing all supporters and close friends from himself, trying to protect himself from envy and flattery, which would indulge his excessive pride. But the new Pope also has a good heart, and therefore his deeds in favor of the poor immediately become public knowledge, surprising the world with their scope.

Ambition and doubt, pride and conservatism – all of this creates an incredible and contradictory mixture of emotions in the mind of young Pope. It is here, on the Holy See, that the firm believer Lenny will experience the deepest crisis of faith.

11.22.63

Rating IMDB – 8.1
Genre: Fantasy, thriller, drama, melodrama, detective
US production / 2016
Directed by: James Strong, Fred Tua, John David Coles
Cast: James Franco, Sarah Gadon, George MacKay, Chris Cooper, Cherry Jones, Daniel Webber, Kevin J. O’Connor, Lucy Fry, Jonathan Coyne, Nick Searcy

Jake Epping is an ordinary English teacher who is friends with the old diner owner. One day the old man shows James a portal to the past and persuades him to go back to the 60s in order to prevent the assassination attempt on Kennedy.

To do this, James needs to find Lee Harvey Oswald, a man who dared to kill the head of state, and, if possible, stop him. Since then, James’ life has become a series of travels and attempts to correct both history and the consequences of his actions.

The series is based on Stephen King’s superb novel of the same name.

Lucifer

Rating IMDB – 8.1
Genre: Fantasy, Drama, Crime
US production / 2016
Directed by: Nathan Hope, Egil Egilsson, Louis Shaw Milito
Cast: Tom Ellis, Lauren German, Kevin Alejandro, D.B. Woodside, Lesley-Ann Brandt, Rachel Harris, Aimee Garcia, Scarlett Estevez, Trisha Helfer, Tom Welling

Lucifer is one of the best series of recent years. It starts with Satan coming to Earth, but this time he does not want to destroy humanity. On the contrary, he decides to take advantage of the possibilities of modern civilization.

Having settled in Los Angeles, Lucifer opens his nightclub called Lux and even tries to help the police in the search for the most dangerous criminals. On Earth, Satan gets into the most unexpected and ridiculous situations, because, despite all his strength, here he is just a naive beginner.

The popular modern science fiction writer Neil Gaiman took part in the creation of the series. In his novels, evil sometimes takes unexpected, and even comical forms.

The Night Of

Rating IMDB – 8.5
Genre: Drama, crime, detective
US production / 2016
Directed by: Stephen Zaillian, James Marsh
Cast: John Turturro, Riz Ahmed, Michael Kenneth Williams, Bill Camp, Jenny Berlin, Purna Jagannathan, Peyman Moaadi, Amara Karan, Paul Sparks, Siam M. Lafi

This story began in a mundane and even somewhat banal way. Nasir, a young man with Pakistani roots, a taxi driver in the New York car park, meets a girl. A chance meeting ends with wild sex, and in the morning, Nasir wakes up next to the corpse of his one-night stand becoming the prime murder suspect.

But he didn’t do it. Nasir fails to prove his innocence and faces a long prison term. However, there is a lawyer who unconditionally believes the innocence of the young man and trying to clear him of all charges.

The plot of the series is based on Criminal Justice, the British TV show broadcast in 2008-2009.

Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency

Rating IMDB – 8.2
Genre: Fiction, detective, fantasy, action, comedy, adventure
US production / 2016
Directed by: Michael Patrick Jann, Paco Cabezas, Tamra Davis
Cast: Samuel Barnett, Elijah Wood, Hannah Marks, Jade Eshete, Mpho Koaho, Dustin Milligan, Fiona Dourif, Osrik Chau, Michael Eklund, Bentley

Dirk Gently, a private detective with a very mysterious past and psychic powers, is constantly looking for the connections of everything to everything in the universe. He is convinced that the flap of the notorious butterfly’s wing can really cause a tsunami on the other side of the world, and intends to prevent any catastrophe by finding out all the causes and effects.

Sure, he is weird, and his unwitting assistant Todd Brotzman is constantly in a slight shock from the actions of his boss, which, to the amazement of the public, often turn out to be effective.

The series is inspired by the Douglas Adams bestselling series of the same name.

Billions

Rating IMDB – 8.4
Genre: Drama
US production / 2016
Directed by: Colin Baxey, Neil Burger, Adam Bernstein
Cast: Damian Lewis, Paul Giamatti, Maggie Siff, David Costabile, Condola Rashad, Daniel K. Isaac, Jeffrey DeMunn, Dan Soder, Asia Kate Dillon, Kelly AuCoin

Billions is a series from the creators of Ocean’s Eleven. It focuses on a huge financial empire and a titanic struggle between two powerhouses: the magnificent “king of hedge funds” Bobby Axelrod and US Attorney Chuck Rhodes, who dreams of getting Bobby to jail for financial fraud.

Season 1 focuses on the origin of the confrontation between a millionaire and a lawyer, as well as the world of hedge funds, fast-moving stock market games, high stakes and risky schemes with incredibly large sums.

The pilot was directed by Neil Burger, director of The Illusionist and Limitless.

Narcos

Rating IMDB – 8.8
Genre: Crime, Drama
Made in USA, Colombia / 2015
Directed by Andres Bays, Joseph Wladyka, Fernando Coimbra
Cast: Wagner Moura, Boyd Holbrook, Pedro Pascal, Joanna Christie, Maurice Comte, Andre Mattos, Roberto Urbina, Diego Catagno, Jorge A. Jimenez, Paulina Gaitan

Narcos is a large-scale biopic following the life of infamous Pablo Escobar. The narrative is filled with documentary footage, real facts and artistic assumptions of the scriptwriters.

Pablo Escobar has long been the people’s favorite in Colombia. He was called the modern-day Robin Hood, the Great Man of the People. And only after a while the real face of this “philanthropist” was revealed.

Destroying any witnesses and other threats, he founded a drug cartel that began to influence all aspects of life for Colombian people. Having suffered a fiasco in his political career, Escobar began to take revenge on those who did not allow him to come to full power in the country, literally cutting out the political elite of Colombia with the hands of professional killers.

He was the most wanted criminal in several dozen countries. Escobar was shot dead by special forces at 44 after a single mistake revealing his hideout.

Daredevil

Rating IMDB – 8.6
Genre: Fantasy, Action, Fantasy, Thriller, Drama, Crime
US production / 2015
Budget: $40,000,000
Directed by Phil Abraham, Stephen Surjik, Peter Hoare
Cast: Charlie Cox, Deborah Ann Woll, Elden Henson, Vincent D’Onofrio, Jon Bernthal, Elodie Yung, Rosario Dawson, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Ayelet Zurer, Toby Leonard Moore

Daredevil is a Marvel’s comic book superhero. Prior to this series, he was relatively unknown for the wide audience. Matt Murdock has been blind since childhood which did not stop him from building a successful career as a lawyer. He is well aware that it is not always possible to get justice in the courtroom, especially if the offender is rich and influential.

One day, out of desperation Murdock tries on a superhero costume that really becomes him. Matt becomes Daredevil, a real “pain in the butt” for the entire criminal world of New York.

In 2017, a spin-off series, The Punisher, was released.

Better Call Saul

Rating IMDB – 8.9
Genre: Drama, Crime
US production / 2015
Directed by Vince Gilligan, Thomas Schnause, Peter Gould
Cast: Bob Odenkirk, Jonathan Banks, Ray Seehorn, Patrick Fabian, Michael Mando, Giancarlo Esposito, Michael McKean, Tony Dalton, Mark Margolis, Kerry Condon

Better Call Saul is the addictive prequel of Breaking Bad. The main character of this multi-part story is the cynical and successful lawyer Saul Goodman, who is ready to do anything to win in court.

Saul dreams of opening his own office in Albuquerque. According to Goodman, here he would not have a shortage of customers. And he has practically no competitors here. In the process of creating a business, characters familiar from the original series will appear in Saul’s life.

Mr. Robot

Rating IMDB – 8.6
Genre: Thriller, Drama, Crime
US production / 2015
Directed by Sam Esmail, Jim McKay, Tricia Brock
Cast: Rami Malek, Christian Slater, Carly Chaikin, Martin Wallström, Portia Doubleday, Michael Christopher, Grace Gummer, B.D. Wong, Stephanie Corneliussen, Vaishnavi Sharma

Elliot is a sociopath and does not need any company. He prefers the virtual world to reality, breaking into any network and watching people’s lives from the side. He is a brilliant hacker and a completely helpless man in real life.

Of course, the guy’s talent does not go unnoticed, and one day someone with the nickname “Mr. Robot” finds him. They tell Elliot a plan for the collapse of all American corporations through a series of cyberattacks. Elliot is interested in the task until he reveals the true goals of “Mr. Robot” and realizes that it might have been a huge mistake to work for this guy.

The cyberthriller Mr. Robot was praised by critics not only for the story and visuals but also for the musical score and acting.

Skam

Rating IMDB – 8.6
Genre: Drama, melodrama
Production: Norway / 2015
Directed by Julie Andem
Cast: Yousefine Frida Pettersen, Iman Meschini, Ulrikke Falk, Lisa Teige, Tarjei Sandvik Moo, Marlon Langeland, Herman Tommeraas, Thomas Hayes, Carl Martin Eggesb

The Skam series is one of the crowning achievements in the history of Norwegian TV shows. It focuses on the life of modern teenagers with its ensemble cast. Eva, Vilde, Noora, Chris and Sana are a group of friends studying at Hartvig Nissen, a high school in Oslo. The series displays the problems that concern today’s Norwegian youth. However, they are indistinguishable from adolescent problems in any country in the world.

The show’s main appeal is that all the characters have accounts in popular social networks. New photos and videos are constantly appearing there, as well as the text messages. This makes the series as close as possible to the realities of modern life.

This series has seven adaptations released in different countries, including Russia.ии.

The Night Manager

Rating IMDB – 8.0
Genre: Thriller, drama, crime, detective
Production: UK, USA / 2015
Budget: £30,000,000
Directed by Suzanne Beer
Cast: Tom Hiddleston, Hugh Laurie, Elizabeth Debicki, Olivia Colman, Alistair Petrie, Michael Nardone, Hovik Keuchkerian, Adil Akhtar, Tom Hollander, Douglas Hodge

This is the story of an ex-soldier named Jonathan Pine (Tom Hiddleston) who gets a job at a hotel controlled by a criminal gang. He meets a crime boss girlfriend who tells him the methods of fraud used by her master. Jonathan passes the crucial information to British intelligence which leads to girl’s death.

In order to take revenge on the killers and right his wrongs, Pine enters into an agreement with the secret services, becoming their ears and eyes in the underworld, continuing to work as an ordinary night manager in the same hotel. This crime thriller is full of intricate, intriguing investigations, shootouts, fights and chases.

The series was nominated for a total of 36 awards and won 11 of them.

Fear the Walking Dead

Rating IMDB – 6.8
Genre: Horror, fantasy, thriller, drama
US production / 2015
US fees: $605,764
Directed by Michael E. Satrazemis, Stefan Schwartz, Andrew Bernstein
Cast: Kim Dickens, Cliff Curtis, Frank Dillane, Alicia Debnam-Carey, Elizabeth Rodriguez, Mercedes Mason, Lorenzo James Henry, Ruben Blades, Colman Domingo, Denay Garcia

This zombie series is a spin-off of The Walking Dead based on the same comic book. It takes place in the same universe, but with a focus on a different city and a different cast of characters.

It’s set in the first days of the epidemic in Los Angeles. Divorced teacher Travis Manawa and single mother Madison Clark are at the center of the story as they try to save their loved ones. During their survival efforts they are joined by a lot of other people.

Showrunners Robert Kirkman and Dave Erickson have said that the show’s goal is not to show the spectacular struggle for survival, as in the original, but the psychological side of such a struggle.

The Last Kingdom

Rating IMDB – 8.5
Genre: Action, drama, history
Production: UK / 2015
Directed by John East, Edward Bazalgette, Peter Hoare
Cast: Alexander Drymon, Eliza Butterworth, Arnas Fedaravichus, Mark Rowley, Emily Cox, James Northcote, Millie Brady, Timothy Innes, Cavan Clerkin, Ian Hart

The series is set in 9th century during the ongoing Viking incursions to Southern England. The small fortress of Wessex still resists the Vikings, who enslaved almost the entire country. King Alfred the Great no longer tries to restore England, he only saves what’s left of his people.

His opponent, the nobleman Uhtred raised by the Vikings, must make a difficult choice – help England fall and seize power, leaving the barbarians to rule the country, or betray his kin in order to save his homeland.

The confrontation between two men, backed up by military force and skill on the part of the king and the wild, unbridled fury of the fearless Vikings on the other, will lead to incredible consequences for the entire history of England.

Limitless

Rating IMDB – 7.6
Genre: Fantasy, Thriller, Drama, Comedy, Crime
US production / 2015
Directed by Douglas Arniokoski, Peter Warner, Mark Webb
Cast: Jake McDorman, Jennifer Carpenter, Hill Harper, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Tom Denyan, Colin Salmon, Michael James Shaw, Ron Rifkin, Michael Devine, Megan Guinan

The popular movie Limitless was built on the unique concept. It was about a miracle drug that allows one to completely control their memory and sharpens all the senses to the utmost. But the side effects lead to complete exhaustion or insanity. Using the productivity of his brain, spurred on by amazing pills, the protagonist of the movie develops a fundamentally new formula for the drug, which allows one to avoid unpleasant consequences.

The Limitless series focuses on another drug user with his own struggles and is full of funny, dangerous and bizarre situations that new hero always finds himself in.

Photos showing brain damage from the drug are from the Faces of Meth archive, which is a collection of snapshots of real-life meth damage to human body.

Sense8

Rating IMDB – 8.2
Genre: Fantasy, Thriller, Drama, Detective
US production / 2015
Directed by Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski, James McTeague
Cast: Tuppence Middleton, Brian J. Smith, Jamie Clayton, Aml Amin, Tina Desai, Max Riemelt, Bae Doon-na, Miguel Angel Silvestre, Naveen Andrews, Freema Agyeman

There are eight of them. They are different. They live in different cities in America, Korea, and Germany. They have a collective conscience, and they are irresistibly drawn to each other. Their lives turn into a constant search for others with a strange mental connection, and then finding out the reasons of it. One thing is clear – there are destined for something great.

Everything is complicated by the fact that the authorities see a threat in eight gifted people and try to destroy them by all means. Survive, meet each other and find out the truth – this is the main goal of the main characters of the sci-fi series Sence8 from Lana and Lilly Wachowsky, the creators of Matrix and Cloud Atlas.

Outlander

Rating IMDB – 8.4
Genre: Fantasy, Drama, Romance
Made in USA, UK / 2014
Directed by Metin Hussein, Jamie Payne, Stephen Wolfenden
Cast: Caitrina Balfe, Sam Heughan, Sophie Skelton, Richard Rankin, Duncan Lacroix, Graham McTavish, John Bell, Cesar Domboy, Lauren Lyle, Tobias Menzies

Outlander is a historical drama developed by Ronald D. Moore and started airing in 2014. The story begins during the World War II, where a nurse named Claire helps the wounded soldiers until she somehow finds herself transported to 1743.

To survive in the harsh past, she marries the knight named Jamie and gradually falls in love with him. But Claire has a husband in future, Frank, whom she loves dearly. And she faces a difficult dilemma: look for a way home to reunite with Frank, or stay with a noble knight?

Actors playing 18th-century Scots set up a veritable camp where they learned Gaelic and wore kilts without underwear.

True Detective

Rating IMDB – 8.9
Genre: Detective, Crime, Thriller, Drama
US production / 2014
Directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, Daniel Sackheim, John Crowley
Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Colin Farrell, Mahershala Ali, Woody Harrelson, Rachel McAdams, Carmen Ejogo, Michelle Monaghan, Taylor Kitsch, Stephen Dorff, Michael Potts

True Detective is an excellent crime thriller from one of the best modern screenwriters, Nick Pizzolatto. The creators of the series decided to turn it into an anthology, where each season will be based on a completely new story.

Season 1 with its gripping dialogue and great lead actors (Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey) quickly became a phenomenon among the fans of the genre. It follows two cops investigating a series of occult murders in Louisiana only to fail and reopen the case many years later.

Season 2 is a separate story, also starting with a brutal murder in California, but featuring different characters. Season 3 takes place in three different time periods and begins with a murder on the Ozark Plateau. Season 4 revolves around the investigation of a mysterious disappearance of a scientific expedition in Alaska.

Fargo

Rating IMDB – 8.9
Genre: Thriller, Drama, Crime
US production / 2014
Directed by Michael Uppendahl, Noah Hawley, Keith Gordon
Cast: Martin Freeman, Billy Bob Thornton, Allison Tolman, Colin Hanks, Patrick Wilson, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, Ewan McGregor, Carrie Coon, Mary Elizabeth Winstead

The Fargo series is heavily inspired by Coen brothers’ 1996 movie of the same name about a pregnant police officer investigating a chain of murders in a small town. The movie received numerous awards.

Coen brothers produced the series which loosely follows the plot of the original, but does not repeat its key elements turning the story into different direction. Ridiculous murders, the complexity of the plot, memorable dialogues and bizarre situations allowed this TV show to become a global phenomenon.

Fargo was supposed to be a miniseries, but high ratings convinced the executive producers to shoot a few more seasons.

The Knick

Rating IMDB – 8.5
Genre: Drama, history
US production / 2014
Director: Steven Soderbergh, Barry Jenkins
Cast: Andre Holland, Clive Owen, Jeremy Bobb, Juliet Rylance, Eve Hewson, Michael Angarano, Kara Seymour, Eric Johnson, Chris Sullivan, Granger Hines

Another medical drama plunges us into the atmosphere of New York at the beginning of the 20th century, introducing the Knickerbocker Hospital and the outstanding surgeon John Tucker.

Like many of the pioneers of modern medicine, John uses cocaine and struggles with addiction. He is a leader of surgery staff. Being a talented doctor, albeit a narcissistic cynic by nature, he manages to save countless lives doing it without modern surgical instruments and even without something that is indispensable today – antibiotics.

John Tucker is based on the real-life pioneering physician William Stuart Halstead, who was also a cocaine addict.

Silicon Valley

Rating IMDB – 8.5
Genre: Comedy
US production / 2014
Directed by Mike Judge, Alec Berg, Jamie Babbitt
Cast: Thomas Middleditch, Josh Brener, Martin Starr, Kumail Nanjiani, Amanda Crew, Zach Woods, Matt Ross, Jimmy O. Yan, Suzanne Cryer, TJ Miller

Talented programmer Richard works in one of the largest Internet organizations in the country developing his side project. He manages to make an app to compress music tracks without losing quality, and gets hundreds offers for sale from interested parties.

Not wanting to sell the rights to his app, he finds an investor for a personal website. Now he is the head of a huge project, having several IT-guys under his supervision. But Richard, like his employees, knows nothing about business side of things.

This comedy series is focused on life and business in the world-famous Silicon Valley. Memorable characters, funny situations and impeccable humor will delight any fan of quality TV shows.

The Outlaws

Rating IMDB – 7.7
Genre: Thriller, Drama, Comedy, Crime
Production UK / 2021
Directed by John Butler, Alicia MacDonald, Stephen Merchant
Cast: Rihanna Barreto, Darren Boyd, Gamba Cole, Charles Babalola, Jessica Gunning, Claire Perkins, Eleanor Tomlinson, Grace Calder, Stephen Merchant, Christopher Walken

It is a relatively new British crime comedy from the creators of Office. The story begins with seven main characters being sentenced to community service for minor offenses. They are very, very different, and each of them has an exciting story to tell. Gradually, the outlaws get to know each other, and then begin to help each other and finding their way around difficult life situations.

The plot has rivalry, mystery, intrigue, love, social commentaries, crime and even a bit of a thriller. This is a great series with a dynamic plot and excellent development of the main characters, and, of course, a fair amount of the classic English humor.

The series became the biggest comedy project on BBC in 2021.

Our Flag Means Death

Rating IMDB – 7.8
Genre: Action, melodrama, comedy, adventure, biography, history
US production / 2022
Directed by Fernando Friash, Nacho Vigalondo, Bert
Cast: Reese Darby, Joel Fry, Samson Kayo, Nathan Fode, Matthew Meher, Christian Nairn, Samba Schutte, Ewan Bremner, Cohn O’Neill, Vico Ortiz

Our Flag Means Death is a witty and provocative multi-part satire of pirate films created by David Jenkins and starring parody master Taika Waititi.

Stede Bonnet is the most unfortunate pirate in the sea because of his excessive softness. He is a refined London aristocrat who insists on upholding the principles of humanity and demanding good manners from his crew, calling himself a “gentleman pirate”.

As a child, he suffered ridicule from his peers, and when he grew up, he got married and had kids, as society demanded. But he soon realized that he was dreaming of adventure. He leaves the house, buys a ship, hires a bunch of scum in the port and goes to unsuccessfully rob the honest sailors. One day he will face the formidable Edward Teach, the legendary Blackbeard and even manage to tame him.

Edward Teach was played by Taika Waititi himself.

The North Water

Rating IMDB – 7.6
Genre: Drama, detective, adventure
Production UK, Canada / 2021
Directed by Andrew Hay
Cast: Jack O’Connell, Colin Farrell, Sam Spruell, Roland Moeller, Gary Lamont, Philip Hill-Pearson, Jerry Lynch, Stephen Graham, Kieran Urquhart

The North Water is a great British mini-series that was, sadly, overshadowed by other mainstream high-profile projects. However, this powerful, frank, and brutal story is one of the most impressive series of recent years.

The story revolves around everyday life of British whalers in the 19th century. Military surgeon Patrick joins the crew of a whaling ship, and it soon becomes clear that a dangerous and violent psychopath is on board. In the critical conditions of a difficult mission, masks of civilization slip off people, exposing the truth, as old as the world: “Man is a wolf to man”.

For two months, the cast and crew lived on two boats in the Arctic Ocean without even taking a shower.

Terror

Rating IMDB – 7.9
Genre: Horror, Thriller, Drama, History, Fantasy
US production / 2018
Directed by Tim Mielants, Edward Berger, Sergio Mimica-Gezzan
Cast: Jared Harris, Derek Mio, Tobias Menzies, Kiki Sukezane, Paul Ready, Christina Rodlo, Adam Nagaitis, Shingo Usami, Ian Hart, Naoko Mori

The Terror is a powerful epic horror with impressive cast of characters. The series retell the most mysterious historical events with a fair amount of frightening mysticism.

Season 1 is based on the novel of the same name by Dan Simmons and focuses on the famous expedition of the 19th century. The ships Erebus and Terror are looking for a sea route through the icy waters of the northernmost latitudes, but get stuck in the ice, and the expedition turns into a game of survival with cold, hunger, and unknown legendary evil.

The events of Season 2, Infamy, take place during the World War II. The plot revolves around a family that ended up in a Japanese internment camp, which is haunted by the terrible mythical spirit of bakemono. The story unfolds against the backdrop of the most difficult times of war.