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 TV shows 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 August 12:
Honorable Mentions: The Hunting Wives (Netflix), Twisted Metal (Peacock), The Summer I Turned Pretty (Prime Video), The Sandman (Netflix)
5. Chief of War
Network: Apple TV+ Last Week: N/A This Week: This sweeping historical epic about Hawai’i’s indigenous history is immersive, layered, and anchored by Jason Momoa’s best work to date.
When most people think of Hawaiʻi they picture pristine beaches, palm trees swaying in the breeze, surfboards slicing through turquoise waves, leis draped over sunburned shoulders, and sitting at a luau with an unlucky pig that died eating an apple. Toss in a few mai tais and a ukulele, and you’ve got the version of paradise sold to tourists everywhere. You probably also recall that Hawaiʻi is the 50th U.S. state, it was the site of the Pearl Harbor attack, and its flag is the only state banner to feature the Union Jack, a nod to its long relationship with England. For many Americans, that’s where their knowledge of Hawaiian history ends. But the real story of Hawaiʻi is far more layered and compelling. The islands are shaped by a rich indigenous culture, a legacy of resistance, and centuries of geopolitical upheaval. It’s this deeper, often-overlooked chapter—the unification of Hawaiʻi told from a native perspective—that Apple TV+’s Chief of War brings to the screen with cinematic intensity and cultural authenticity. The historical drama opens with the steely stare of Jason Momoa, and from the first frame makes clear this isn’t the Hawaiʻi you see in postcards.
With dialogue almost entirely in Hawaiian and featuring a predominantly Polynesian cast, the show is deeply immersive. Combat is visceral and often massive in scale, mostly with hand-to-hand or traditional Hawaiian weapons, and it results in graphic, well-choreographed chaos. There’s even a dash of mysticism, thanks to a riddle-speaking priestess who can see the future. There may not be any dragons, but there are plenty of power struggles, betrayals, and morally complex characters. But the heart of the series is Momoa himself, who not only stars but is also a writer, director, and producer on the series. While most viewers know him as Aquaman, Khal Drogo, or more recently, the guy from Minecraft: The Movie, Chief of War gives him the space to deliver something deeper. He’s still the fierce warrior, that’s to be expected, but we also see him as a conflicted man, deeply devoted to family, and someone who suffers real emotional loss. It’s the most layered and compelling performance of his career. Chief of War is a stunning, culturally rich epic, and Momoa’s finest work to date. —Terry Terrones [Full Review]
Network: Netflix Last Week: N/A This Week:Wednesday is back
Wednesday, who grew from a character in cartoonist Charles Addams’ The New Yorker strip about a family who derives pleasure in making normies confront the macabre, is a champion of outsiders even as she’s suspicious of them (because she’s suspicious of everyone). The major theme for this season, which is broken up into two parts with the second half dropping September 3, is that our heroine must crack her jawbreaker exoskeleton to allow room in her heart for … shocking as it may seem to her … people who look up to her and actually want to be her friend. She also gets into battles of wits with the eccentric personalities who both go to her school, Nevermore, and live in the nearby town of Jericho. Stunt casting is involved, as former child stars like Heather Matarazzo and Haley Joel Osment get some fun screentime.
Wednesday is, essentially, Veronica Mars. And, thus, Wednesday the show is Veronica Mars, but about people with supernatural abilities. Kristen Bell’s prickly heroine from that cult favorite series, which premiered in 2004 on UPN, was memorably described as a “marshmallow” in its first episode: hard outer coating with a gooey center. The show’s fans, which in the pre-streaming days never came close to amassing as large a following as Wednesday’s legions, adopted this as a moniker; our jaded attitudes and eye rolls were performative defense mechanisms, and we didn’t, like, really hate you. Wednesday attempts to intimidate adults with lines like “if you can’t kill them with kindness, try lethal injection” and explaining that she has “FOBI: Fear of Being Included.” But her major missions during the first four episodes of the season concern saving her bubbly roommate Enid (Emma Myers) from a doom that Wednesday prophesied in a vision and vindicating society’s so-called Outcasts like the sirens, werewolves, and gorgons who go to her school.
For Wednesday the show to work, Wednesday the character must be a marshmallow. Audiences must want her to be an underage April Ludgate and to actually be a motivated protector. Audiences must also accept that this is a world where Outcasts are known and prevalent, as opposed to the Addamses being the sole oddballs who, in turn, think everyone else is odd. But then does Wednesday the series go against the intent of Wednesday the character and her family? Kinda, yeah.–-Whitney Friedlander [Full Review]
Network: Paramount+ Last Week: 1 This Week: The Enterprise crew uncovers a reality-bending hidden temple with a dark secret inside
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3 gives us goofy adventures, high-minded treatises, and more than a little earnest charm. If there’s a simple explanation for why this show is frequently viewed as the best of new-age Trek, it’s found in how it pairs the new (glossy, expensive presentation and serial storytelling tendencies) with the old (an episodic structure and a willingness to get a bit silly) and this latest season delivers both modes with ease. For instance, at one point, M’Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) continues to work through his complex trauma over what happened in one of last season’s best outings, “Under the Cloak of War,” while he and Pike land in a well-trodden pop-culture situation so tropey that it has them both a bit incredulous. Meanwhile, Spock also gets plenty of screen time, with his amusing love life developing in the foreground and background of several episodes. Strange New Worlds continues to do right by him, and Ethan Peck nails waffling between stoicism and sometimes not-so-subtly hidden emotions as Spock struggles to become the person we know him as in The Original Series.
But while there are many allusions and tie-ins to the crew’s growth across the story so far, this still remains the kind of show that you can pick up watching at almost any point (even if that’s an increasingly unlikely occurrence in the streaming era). Because while the first episode back suffers a bit from being a direct continuation of a cliffhanger from two years ago, the rest of these missions are siloed in the best way possible, delving into kooky weekly premises. Specifically, in the best episode of this season so far, we get a fan-favorite setup that both pokes fun at The Original Series and pensively reflects on that show’s legacy, all while also developing an unlikely bond. At another point, there’s a grim outing where the gang is dropped into a death trap that has them solving interdimensional puzzles that hint at a tantalizing hidden history. There’s a good variance in lighthearted hangout material and more grave turns, embodying the range that both Strange New Worlds and the series writ large have often excelled at, even if there’s an undeniable emphasis on pulp, and more specifically pulp horror, so far. —Elijah Gonzazlez [Full Review]
2. The Gilded Age
Network: HBO Max Last Week: 3 This Week: The true takeaway from the Season 3 finale: Bertha was right, and we should all say so.
The Gilded Age Season 3 is indulgent and entertaining in all the best ways, full of ridiculous plot twists, social scandals, and family spats. As always, there are lavish parties, jaw-dropping costumes, and a few random historical figures thrown in for good measure, but what’s most exciting is the way the series continues to evolve, jettisoning characters and plots that don’t work, doubling down on the things that do. The result is a delightful mix of bonkers excess and character-driven relationship drama with a healthy dollop of much-needed romance on the side, a balance the show’s been chasing since its inception, but has only just finally truly achieved.
The story picks up where last season left off: Bertha Russell (Carrie Coon), victorious after having successfully backed the Metropolitan Opera, has never been more influential in New York society. (Not bad for a woman most people would only begrudgingly talk to back in Season 1.) But she’s not content to rest on her laurels; she’s actively plotting to take things even further by marrying her daughter Gladys (Taissa Farmiga) to the English Duke of Buckingham (Ben Lamb). Across the street, old money traditionalist Agnes van Rhijn (Christine Baranski) and her sister Ada (Cynthia Nixon) are attempting to adjust to their own new normal—one in which Agnes no longer rules the proverbial roost. With Ada’s money now paying for everyone’s upkeep, Agnes seems somewhat adrift, reluctant to relinquish her control over the staff and household accounts and continually ordering her sister around. (But don’t worry, Baranski still gets most of the series’ best one-liners.) The Gilded Age has never been better, and it’s a joy to watch it so confidently become the show it was always meant to be: A little darker, a lot more romantic, and so much more enjoyable than it probably has any right to be.. —Lacy Baugher Milas [Full Review]
1. Outlander: Blood of My Blood
Network: Starz Last Week: N/A This Week: The swoon-worthy new Outlander prequel has everything fans of the original could ask for, and provides an easy jumping on point for new viewers curious about the franchise.
Prequels (and sequels, come to that) are tricky things. Stories rarely compare all that favorably to the original work, and there’s often a whiff of desperation to the whole thing, as we watch a previously beloved franchise try to find a reason to keep existing past the end of its flagship property. Every so often, though, one of these sorts of series manages to surprise you: Not only justifying its own existence, but reminding you of everything you loved about the original in the first place. And while Outlander: Blood of My Blood may technically be a prequel that explores the familial origins of several characters from the megapopular Starz historical romance, the series more than stands on its own tartan-clad feet, striking a near-perfect balance between the old and the new.
For Outlander fans, the star-crossed romance of Jamie Fraser’s (Sam Heughan) parents was already the stuff of legend, a story that Sassenach Claire Beauchamp (Caitriona Balfe) heard about ad nauseam when she first time-traveled to early 18th-century Scotland and found herself caught up in the interfamily drama of the MacKenzies of Castle Leoch. Viewers knew much less about Claire’s parents, save the fact that they died in a car crash when she was quite young. Blood of My Blood aims not only to tell the story of these two love affairs but also to tie them together in a thrilling new way, rewriting the fates of Claire’s parents to firmly intertwine their lives with the story of Jamie’s in a way no one likely expected.
To be fair, you don’t have to have seen a minute of Outlander to enjoy Blood of My Blood, which is a fully and compellingly immersive story in its own right.. Yes, the series is packed full of Easter eggs and narrative callbacks that will delight longtime fans of the long-running original. (Heck, the show’s entire premise is essentially that the romance between Outlander’s Claire Beauchamp and Jamie Fraser was so fated it impacted multiple generations.) And, those who are familiar with the original series will surely find themselves gasping at the skill of this franchise’s casting department, who have managed to find a quartet of leads who are startingly similar in both appearance and mannerisms to the actors who portrayed their onscreen relations. But if you have never heard of Craigh Na Dun, there’s still plenty to enjoy in this story of forbidden love, Scottish political intrigue, and women fighting for the chance to choose their own fates. —Lacy Baugher Milas [Full Review]
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