Paste Power Rankings: The 5 Best TV Shows on Right Now
Illustration by Christine Fernando TV Lists Power Ranking
From the biggest streaming services to the most reliable broadcast networks, there are so many shows vying for your time and attention every single week. Lucky for you, the Paste Editors and TV writers sort through the deluge of Peak TV “content” to make sure you’re watching the best the small screen has to offer. Between under-the-radar gems and the biggest, buzziest hits, we keep our finger on TV’s racing pulse so you don’t have to.
The rules for the Power Rankings are simple: any current series on TV qualifies, whether it’s a comedy, drama, news program, animated series, variety show, or sports event. It can be on a network, basic cable, premium channel, Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, YouTube, or whatever you can stream on your smart TV, as long as a new episode was made available within the past week (ending Sunday)—or, in the case of shows released all at once, it has to have been released within the previous four weeks.
Below is what we’re enjoying right now. Happy viewing!
Best TV Shows for the week of April 29th:
Honorable Mention: The Girls on the Bus (Max), We Were the Lucky Ones (Hulu), Fallout (Prime Video), Palm Royale (Apple TV+)
5. Under the Bridge
Network: Hulu
Last Week: 1
This Week: We’re all still hung up on that scene, right?
Based on the novel of the same name written by the late Rebecca Godfrey, Hulu’s Under the Bridge tells the harrowing true story of the brutal murder of Reena Virk (Vritika Gupta), a 14-year-old who became the undeserving target of something more horrifying than anything that goes bump in the night: teenage girls. Through multiple timelines, the series catalogs Reena’s life and death, the relationship she shared with a group of wayward girls—Josephine (Chloe Guidry), Kelly (Izzy G.), and Dusty (Aiyana Goodfellow)—and the efforts of both author Rebecca (Riley Keough) and officer Cam (Lily Gladstone) to bring the perpetrators of this truly disturbing crime to justice. In an era where convicted killers in TV adaptations become meme fodder for social media managers and satirical takes on the genre don’t feel that far removed from reality, Under the Bridge respectfully weaves this tragic tale, elevating it above all other true crime series. Instantly gripping and filled with phenomenal performance both from the marquee names and the stellar young cast, Under the Bridge is a true crime dramatization tour de force. —Anna Govert [Full Review]
4. Baby Reindeer
Network: Netflix
Last Week: Honorable Mention
This Week: This surprise hit is a true highlight of 2024’s TV offerings—maddening, heartbreaking, and truly terrifying.
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Based on Richard Gadd’s real-life experience with his own real-life stalker, Netflix’s Baby Reindeer catalogs the very beginnings of a nightmare, and how quickly one single person can turn your life upside down. The series follows comedian and bartender Donny (Gadd) as a woman he offered a single free drink to one night becomes so enraptured by him that she begins to stalk him. She shows up to his sets to laugh louder than everyone else, she hangs around his place of work to learn more about his life, and she sends thousands upon thousands of emails, all without end for years. As Donny’s life continues to spiral out of his control, Martha (Jessica Gunning) becomes the one person responsible for all the chaos, destruction, and turmoil he faces on a daily basis, with the police and those around him unable to understand the depth of this experience. It’s a terrifying, heartbreaking, and maddening watch that will stay with you long after the credits roll on the final episode. —Anna Govert
3. Dead Boy Detectives
Network: Netflix
Last Week: Not Eligible
This Week: Infinitely charming and delightfully binge-worthy, this series is absolutely worth checking out for its YA-slanted Sandman vibes.
Set in the same universe as Netflix’s Neil Gaiman adaptation The Sandman, Dead Boy Detectives follows the story of Edwin Payne (George Rexstrew) and Charles Rowland (Jayden Revri), two ghosts who became best friends after their deaths. Now, they refuse to part from one another, even if staying together means spending most of their time avoiding and running from Death (Kirby Howell-Baptiste), the member of the Endless charged with escorting souls to whatever afterlife is meant to come next for each of them. Rather than move on, they’ve founded the Dead Boy Detectives, an investigative agency meant to solve supernatural mysteries and help ghosts find the answers that could give them a shot at peace. The series’ eight episodes are largely framed around a series of case-of-the-week-style investigations, with a handful of overarching plots tying them all together. Entertaining, often quite weird, and strangely charming by turns, Dead Boy Detectives doesn’t quite reach the emotional and narrative heights of The Sandman. But it’s a good time in its own right, and its existence serves as an important reminder that there is (so much) more to this fictional world than Tom Sturridge’s Dream, and plenty of hidden corners worth exploring. Here’s hoping this adventure is just the first of many. —Lacy Baugher Milas [Full Review]
2. X-Men ‘97
Network: Disney+
Last Week: 3
This Week: Another brutal and harrowing episode delivers stunning animation and heartbreaking character moments.
Nearly 30 years after that infamous cliffhanger, X-Men ’97 has finally arrived, and with it the weight of anticipation and expectation from an entire generation of adults who grew up watching the now-iconic X-Men: The Animated Series, alongside a slew of new fans just waiting to discover this classic team. X-Men ‘97 aims to thread a very tight needle, picking up the story of a series that ended a full 27 years ago but being innovative enough to write a new chapter that is true to that beloved saga, while also being interesting enough that it’s actually worth telling in the first place. Picking up a few months after the death of Charles Xavier, the premiere of X-Men ‘97 is a true love letter to the original series, with plenty of homages to that first adventure that introduced fans to these characters and their world. That original series had an outsized influence on everything Marvel would become all these years later, and this is a fitting tribute to the series that started it all. The X-Men animated series was Marvel at its best, and X-Men ’97 is thankfully more of the same. —Trent Moore [Full Review]
1. Shōgun
Network: FX (streaming on Hulu)
Last Week: Honorable Mention
This Week: Shōgun’s series finale was an elegy rather than a bloodbath, putting the final, finishing touches on TV’s best show of the year so far.
Set during a time of political upheaval when Japan’s powerful Taiko has died and left behind a child who isn’t yet old enough to rule, Shōgun follows the story of five warring clans who seek to control the country. Though a Council of Regents has been established to ostensibly hold power until the heir comes of age, competing factions—led by aging war hero Lord Yoshii Toranaga (the great Hiroyuki Sanada), former right hand to the Taiko, and the scheming Lord Ishido (Takehiro Hira), who has plans of his own—are already on the brink of shattering the tenuous peace. Threatened with impeachment, removal from his position, and almost certain death, Toranaga must scramble to both stay alive and hold Japan together. Everything changes when a British ship carrying John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis) arrives on the shores, becoming at first an unwilling and then an invaluable element of Toranaga’s plans as their fates become increasingly intertwined. The 10-episode series is a genuinely remarkable achievement, the sort of epic, sweeping saga many might have wondered if television as a medium was still capable of creating. A bold, ambitious update of a classic that finds genuine humanity in its tangled, sprawling tale of politics and betrayal, Shōgun certainly aims high—and more than hits its target. —Lacy Baugher Milas [Full Review]
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