The 15 Best Under-the-Radar TV Shows of 2023
Photos Courtesy of Peacock, Starz, and Netflix TV Lists best of 2023
Every year, our Best TV of the Year list aims to capture the very best of the best, but sometimes, the greatest gems on TV just haven’t been seen by enough eyeballs to truly make an impact as Paste editors, staff, and writers vote for our favorites. Because of that, we present our best underrated picks to highlight the TV that you may have missed, but is just as good and just as worthy of a catch-up binge as the most celebrated series of the year.
Whether a product of the streaming service some of these shows hail from (Apple TV+ shows seem to always fly under the radar) or simply stiff competition that allowed these TV triumphs to fall to the wayside, we refuse to let them be forgotten in our celebrations of the best television to grace our screens this year.
Below, in no particular order, are the best shows you may or may not have heard of, but are still absolutely worth your time. But if these series aren’t niche enough for you, check out our picks for the best reality shows, K-dramas, and anime series of 2023.
Lessons in Chemistry
Developed by: Lee Eisenberg
Network: Apple TV+
Based on the best-selling novel of the same name, Apple TV+’s Lessons in Chemistry follows Elizabeth Zott (Brie Larson), who begins the series with ambitions of becoming a chemist, but the restraints of the time period force her to eventually become the host of popular cooking show Supper at Six. Unfolding over eight episodes, Lessons in Chemistry is part-romantic drama and part-feminist triumph, serving as a dynamic character piece with a keen focus on Elizabeth’s ambition and heart throughout the various phases of her life showcased on screen. Featuring a brilliant lead performance from Larson, alongside the grounding chemistry she shares with Lewis Pullman as Calvin or Aja Naomi King as Harriet, Lessons in Chemistry is a delightfully heartbreaking journey about life, love, and the power of connection. —Anna Govert
How To with John Wilson
Created by: John Wilson
Network: HBO
John Wilson decided to end his one-of-a-kind HBO show with its third season, and although it’s depressing that we don’t have any more How To to look forward to, it’s a decision that makes sense. Its 18 episodes make up one of the very few TV shows that remained uniformly excellent throughout its entire run, and although I could probably watch 40 more seasons of this exact same stuff, How To really had nowhere else to go but down. Get out while you’re ahead, and all that. Wilson’s meticulously edited footage of daily life in New York finds great humor but also pathos in its contrast of image and narration, and Wilson’s lack of judgment towards the people he meets during his episodes’ unexpected twists keeps it from feeling either condescending or exploitative. How To’s final season was an appropriately low-key send-off to a humble show that was consistently hilarious and often profound despite its understated demeanor, and although the show will be missed, it’s already proven itself to be eminently rewatchable. I’m pretty sure I’ll be returning to these lessons for years to come.—Garrett Martin
Ghosts
Created by: Joe Port, Joe Wiseman
Network: CBS / Paramount+
Based on the UK series of the same name (which itself is streaming on HBO Max), the delightful Ghosts has become a bona fide hit for CBS. But if you’re an elder Millennial such as myself, you could be knocked over with a feather to learn this is one of TV’s best series. And yet, don’t sleep on it.
Ghosts follows a married couple, Samantha and Jay (Rose McIver and Utkarsh Ambudkar), who inherit a large country estate that is, turns out, filled with ghosts only Sam (after she goes through a near-death experience) can see and hear. These ghosts aren’t scary though, they’re mostly friendly and occasionally annoying in their demands to smell bacon or have Sam turn on the TV. They also make for a fantastic comedy ensemble. Comprised of a small percentage of those who have died on the estate’s property from the beginning of time, the ghosts rule the roost: Bossy Revolutionary War soldier Isaac (Brandon Scott Jones), kind Boy Scout leader Pete (Richie Moriarty), pants-less Wall Street bro Trevor (Asher Grodman), uptight lady of the manor Hetty (Rebecca Wisocky), certified hippie Flower (Sheila Carrasco), flamboyant jazz singer Alberta (Danielle Pinnock), deadpan Lenape tribesman Sasappis (Roman Zaragoza), and the oldest of all the ghosts, Thorfinn (Devan Chandler Long), a Viking.
As Sam and Jay work to establish a B&B, the ghosts both help and hinder the process in earnestly funny ways. The charming CBS series is not quite as cozy as the UK’s version, and features a few early hallmarks of American sitcom formatting that can feel heavy-handed, but when it hits, it really hits. And in Season 2, the ensemble has grown even more on-point in their timing, just as the show’s witty writing continues to deliver weekly comedic joys. —Allison Keene
Fellow Travelers
Created by: Ron Nyswaner
Network: Showtime
One part love story, one part political thriller, and one part historical drama, Fellow Travelers follows the story of Hawkins Fuller (Matt Bomer), a worldly State Department official, and Tim Laughlin (Jonathan Bailey), a devout Catholic and new college graduate who arrives in the cutthroat world of Washington, D.C. politics, naively hoping to help change the country for the better. The two meet cute at an election night party on the eve of the 1950s Lavender Scare, just as Senator Joseph McCarthy began purging gays and lesbians from government jobs, stoking a national moral panic around homosexuality. Their flirtation turns into an intoxicating sexual connection, which becomes something much more intimate and lasting, despite the dangers, challenges, and other relationships that pass in and out of both their lives. Fellow Travelers isn’t always a particularly easy watch—it’s a story of loss and regret and what-ifs that serves as a necessary reminder of how far we’ve come in terms of the fight for LGBTQ rights, told through the story of two men whose lives would likely have turned out much differently if they’d been born a few short decades later. —Lacy Baugher Milas
Queen Charlotte
Created by: Shonda Rhimes
Network: Netflix
Netflix isn’t one to let a good thing simply thrive on its own—it’s going to figure out how to squeeze as much from it as possible. Enter Queen Charlotte, a limited series created and written by Shonda Rhimes that serves as a prequel series to the service’s wildly popular historical romance Bridgerton. The show, which was directed by Rhimes’ longtime collaborator Tom Verica, follows Queen Charlotte (India Amarteifio as a young woman, Golda Rosheuvel as an adult) at the beginning of her marriage to King George III (Corey Mylchreest), who at first shields himself from her because of a mental illness that few know about. As the series progresses, the two soon find common ground and begin falling in love, forever changing the course of British high society. Running parallel to this—and in direct contrast to it—is the story of Charlotte’s lady-in-waiting Lady Danbury (Arsema Thomas as a young woman, Adjoa Andoh as an adult) and her own husband, whom she detests. The show, which also tackles matters of race and features a queer love story, is a delight. Its only fault is that it is just six episodes. —Kaitlin Thomas
Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake
Developed by: Adam Muto
Network: Max
Spinning off from a few episodes of Adventure Time that followed gender-swapped fanfiction versions of the main cast, Fionna and Cake is a more serialized, dramatic adventure from this colorful world. It’s not quite peak Adventure Time, but Fionna and Cake is a worthy continuation of the legendary cartoon. The animation’s as fun as ever, and the voice cast is a mix of reliable returning talent and a few welcome new voices (wait until you find out who’s the new voice for Lemongrab). The transition from semi-episodic quarter-hour episodes to hyper-serialized half-hour ones is a bit of an adjustment, and the story itself isn’t mind-bendingly original, but at its best, it feels as if it’s making good on the promise of the original series’ theme song: “The fun will never end.” —Reuben Baron
Happy Valley
Created by: Sally Wainwright
Network: BBC One
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In 2014, the fruitful crime show trope of a good-hearted but taciturn cop (now on the brink of retirement) found its apex in the form of Happy Valley’s Sgt. Catherine Cawood (Sarah Lancashire). Her hatred of a psychopathic local criminal, Tommy Lee Royce (James Norton)—who she blames for her daughter’s death—the beating heart of the elegantly brief crime series, which returned for a second set of six episodes in 2016. At last, seven years later, the final season of Happy Valley gives us six episodes of closure to the saga that has been one of the primary TV triumphs of the last decade.
In this third and final season, Catherine is ready to retire and hike the Himalayas (why not?) But, once again, Tommy Lee Royce is an ever-present shadow over her life and her grandson Ryan’s, especially once it’s revealed that Tommy has made contact with Ryan who now visits him. This emotional bomb, which is only the beginning of their troubles with Tommy this season, rocks Catherine’s world and causes her—and Ryan, along with her sister Clare (Siobhan Finneran) and the entire family—to come face to face with the past, and Tommy’s toxic presence throughout it.
It’s this devastating emotional undercurrent leading to the last confrontation between Catherine and Tommy that makes the series finale a triumphant cap to an exceptional show—and it doesn’t play out as one might predict. As hard as it is to say goodbye, creator Sally Wainwright knows how to do a proper sendoff that speaks to the series’ many recurring themes, pays homage to its troubled locale, and honors its affecting stories. While there’s not much happiness to find in Happy Valley, there’s the right amount of satisfaction in the glimmer of hope that we get a peek of at the end. —Allison Keene
Minx
Created by: Ellen Rapoport
Network: Starz
Hugh Hefner is dead. Long live Joyce Prigger. Despite the move from Max to Starz, Minx’s second outing is not very different from the first, at least on a base level—to its benefit. It still manages to uphold that seemingly-impossible balance of raunchy yet restrained that was introduced to us in Season 1, while elevating its various elements to new heights. Season 2 watches the masterminds behind Minx, Joyce (Ophelia Lovibond) and Doug (Jake Johnson), finally make a leadership decision and navigate the tricks and traps of the male-dominated women’s magazines landscape, all while dancing around the realities and relationships that await them at home. Nothing is over-the-top dramatic; it’s lighthearted but serious, and a joy to watch—while still reminding its viewers of the very real hurdles those of us who are not straight white men must jump over just to succeed in this world. In its grand return, Minx’s second season is a fantastic balancing act of epic proportions. —Gillian Bennett
Mrs. Davis
Created by: Tara Hernandez, Damon Lindelof
Network: Peacock
Peacock’s Mrs. Davis, from Lost alum Damon Lindelof and starring Betty Gilpin as Sister Simone, is a complicated exploration of faith, belief, and the love that passeth understanding all wrapped up in a story that includes everything from jaded magicians, a ship-wrecked scientist, and jam-making nuns to a quest for the Holy Grail and a very literal relationship with Jesus Christ—this show is, no joke, like nothing you’ve ever seen before. In a television landscape fully stocked with procedurals and reboots of familiar IPs, it’s rare to find something that’s genuinely ambitious, a show that feels so bonkers you can’t actually believe a network somewhere actually greenlit it, that you know from the jump won’t be for everyone but that will deeply impact the people it connects with in unexpectedly meaningful ways. Mrs. Davis is absolutely that show—its heavy religious themes, non-linear timeline, and genre-defying narrative swerves are the definition of “high concept” and also “extremely extra” depending on who you’re asking. While the plot of this series is almost impossible to explain, its simultaneous ridiculousness and earnestness make for an incredibly fun, global romp that believes in faith, love, and humanity more than anything else. —Lacy Baugher Milas
Silo
Created by: Graham Yost
Network: Apple TV+
Hugh Howey became the face of the self-publishing movement when his 2011 dystopian novella Wool became an enormous hit on Amazon’s Kindle platform. It was the first of the three books in the Silo trilogy and became the basis for the first season of the new Apple TV+ series, developed by Justified creator Graham Yost. Like the book, the series is set in a self-contained world of a 144-story silo surrounded by a dead earth and begins with an IT worker (Rashida Jones) and her sheriff husband (David Oyelowo) digging into the secrets of the their strange anachronistic world (there are computers but no photographs) before shifting focus to an engineer (Rebecca Ferguson), who’s thrown into the center of the Silo’s power struggles. The mysteries and shifting alliances unfold at a brisk pace with mostly satisfying results, as Yost stays true to the story that unexpectedly captivated millions, and the cast is strong, with additional support from Common, Tim Robbins, and Geraldine James. Alongside Severance, Foundation and Hello Tomorrow!, Apple continues to establish itself as the home for smart, enjoyable sci-fi shows. —Josh Jackson
The Righteous Gemstones
Created by: Danny McBride
Network: HBO
Danny McBride truly lives by the motto “go big or go home,” and never is that clearer than in the latest season of The Righteous Gemstones: The titular Gemstone siblings bust out of their cousins’ prepper compound via monster truck, Judy’s long-suffering husband BJ (Tim Baltz, ever the scene-stealer) fights her ex-lover Stephen (Jeremy from Broad City) while the latter is naked, and Baby Billy (Walton Goggins, national treasure) performs an elaborate number at Zion’s Landing in a costume that would make Liberace blush—and that’s just a taste of what’s in store. With an insanely stacked main and supporting cast (this season sees Steve Zahn join as the Gemstones’ unhinged Uncle Peter, with their cousins played by Lukas Haas and strongman Robert Oberst in an excellent acting debut), no moment goes to waste. Every scene goes hard in the pursuit of laughs, all while giving us plenty of bombastic spectacle along the way. The Righteous Gemstones is one of those rare cases where more is more. —Clare Martin
Starstruck
Created by: Rose Matafeo
Network: Max
One of the most complex problems in romance is not whether a certain couple will get together, or find their way back to one another after a breakup. It’s what happens afterward. The third installment of Starstruck, the glittery Max rom-com, is something of a departure from its first two seasons, which were largely a mix of witty banter, swoony flirtation, wish fulfillment (who hasn’t dreamed of dating a movie star?), and delicious will they/won’t they tension. But Season 3 sees the series’ central couple seemingly go their separate ways for good, a narrative choice that turns much of what we thought we knew about the show and its premise on its head. And while this decision is certainly a bold move—one that ultimately broadens the series’ scope in intriguing ways—it’s a pretty big adjustment for everyone involved. If this season is truly about anything, it’s about the fact that there’s more to every story than romance, and falling in love isn’t a panacea for all the other problems in your life. Through the ups and downs, its heartfelt honesty continues to shine through. —Lacy Baugher Milas
Scavengers Reign
Created by: Joseph Bennett, Charles Huettner
Network: Max
Scavengers Reign arrived on Max with little fanfare—no existing IP other than a 2016 short film, no famous showrunners, and not a single animated character voiced by Chris Pratt. But what a delightfully weird animated sci-fi show to somehow make it onto David Zaslov’s streaming service! (I guess they spent too little on it to shelve it as a tax right-off.) The premise is simple—centuries in the future, corporate pressure leads to a catastrophic accident on a spaceship and the crew must seek shelter on a nearby planet, knowing that their bosses don’t value their lives enough for a rescue mission. But the nearby planet turns out to be the star of this imaginative show, inhabited by an array of flora and fauna that is as beautiful as it is menacing in what becomes a meditative horror survival story that makes James Cameron’s Pandora look like a ride at Disney. Kudos to creators Joseph Bennett and Charles Huettner for giving us the strangest of new worlds to tell their engaging stories in. —Josh Jackson
Scott Pilgrim Takes Off
Created by: Bryan Lee O’Malley, BenDavid Grabinski
Network: Netflix
Despite what the marketing suggests, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off is not a shot-for-shot remake, but a meta reimagining of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World that tells a (mostly) new story. The result is a delightful animated series that approaches this narrative from a new perspective. Following the movie’s plot throughout the first episode (Scott Pilgrim [Michael Cera] must defeat Ramona Flowers’ [Mary Elizabeth Winstead] seven evil exes before he can date her), it doesn’t take long until Scott Pilgrim Takes Off deviates from the established plot. The main difference here is that in this rendition, we largely follow Ramona as she confronts her previous significant others and tries to piece together why events have gone off course. It synthesizes a transmedia whirlwind as it brings back the movie’s cast and evokes the comic’s art style through creative bursts of animation. Most importantly, it retains the underlying tone and messaging of what came before as it successfully reenvisions this story with Ramona at center stage. In the end, it manages to do something tricky, transposing a more than decade-old tune while barely missing a beat. —Elijah Gonzalez
Heartstopper
Created by: Alice Oseman
Network: Netflix
Following the revelation at the end of Heartstopper’s first season that high schoolers Nick (Kit Conner) and Charlie (Joe Locke) are finally boyfriends, Season 2 picks up the very next day. Still from series creator and writer Alice Oseman, this second season follows Nick and Charlie as they navigate coming out and being a couple, and all the drama, joy, and heartache that comes with it. Surrounded by their friends, including the will-they won’t-they pair Tao (William Gao) and Elle (Yasmin Finney), couple Tara (Corinna Brown) and Darcy (Kizzy Edgell), and bookworm Isaac (Tobie Donovan), Nick and Charlie must take both the elation and heartbreak in stride in order to make it through the rest of the school year intact. Maintaining the series’ airy and comforting tone, backed by a killer soundtrack and its staple animated leaves and hearts, Heartstopper Season 2 is an enjoyable—if sometimes surface-level—binge. —Anna Govert
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