Though Disney+ entered the streaming service game with a splash, it took a while for the platform to build up a solid library of original TV shows. While its Marvel and Star Wars series have obviously dominated the schedule and, at times, reignited the cause for the weekly release of episodes, rather than the binge model, there is more to Disney+ than just expanded universe content. And though many of those other series are geared towards children, in true Disney fashion, almost all are engineered to have four-quadrant appeal.
The list below features the best of Disney+’s current scripted original series (which also means no shows that aired on other Disney platforms in the past, like Disney Channel, ABC, or others). So even though we’re focusing on the best series for adult viewers (kids have plenty to choose from on the platform), if you’re looking for entertaining and probably pretty wholesome TV series—especially those featuring puppets—you’re in the right place.
13. Percy Jackson and the Olympians
In complete contrast to the 2010 movie that disappointed the masses, Disney+’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians series finally gives the fans and the story the respect they have always deserved. The show stars Walker Scobell as the titular Percy, a 12-year-old whose world is turned inside out when he discovers he’s the son of an unnamed god. As if that isn’t life-changing enough, upon arrival at Camp Half-Blood, a training facility for half-human children, Percy is accused of stealing Zeus’ famed lightning bolt and must set out on a quest to clear his name.
Although the show is not an exact retelling of the novel—the first season is only eight episodes—the changes that have been made have only streamlined and enhanced the story. From the casting to the writing to the production design, this is the adaptation of Rick Riordan’s The Lightning Thief that fans have been waiting to see. —Kathryn Porter and Kaitlin Thomas
12. Loki
Of all of the Marvel TV series on Disney+, Loki was the most highly anticipated. An OG associate of the Avengers universe, Loki remains the brightest spot of any movie he’s in. Tom Hiddleston has made the character iconic, and his portrayal—be it in Thor movies or Avengers get-togethers—is off-the-charts charming. It’s also the reason Loki has been the only truly successful Marvel villain to date, one who not only has a fully-realized backstory and emotional connection to the heroes, but who just keeps gloriously popping up (as the God of Mischief is wont to do). He’s not a one-off rushed through 120 minutes of storytelling, he’s a dynamic presence who has earned his own fandom.
And now, at last, he has his own show. In Loki, our Asgardian prince starts off in 2012, where he deviates from the “sacred timeline” of events by snatching the Tesseract and zipping away from imprisonment. He’s quickly apprehended by agents of the TVA (Time Variant Authority), who are charged with keeping the multiverse down to just one stream of approved reality. This Loki, now a “variant,” is essentially marked for extermination, until an agent named Mobius (Owen Wilson) advocates for him to help the TVA investigate a series of crimes suited to his unique skill set.
From there, Loki turns into a kind of buddy-cop procedural before morphing into a potentially universe-collapsing meditation on self. Sure, it takes a lot of convincing to get Loki on board at first, and no, you can never tell whether or not he’s lying or what his ultimate game is, but that’s all part of the fun (and when the show is at its best). The key to Loki—both the character and the show—is always Tom Hiddleston. He is the king of arrogant grandstanding, withering looks, and the ability to turn on a dime and make you feel overwhelming pathos for him. All of this to say: If you like Loki, the character, you’ll probably like Loki, the show. It’s not as groundbreakingly bonkers as WandaVision, but it’s also not as dourly macho as The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. One perhaps wishes for more when it comes to Loki. Then again, he’s known for not living up to his own expectations at times. “For a guy born to rule, you sure do lose a lot,” Mobius notes. But by Odin, he sure is a charmer. —Allison Keene
11. High School Musical: The Musical: The Series
High School Musical: The Musical: The Series is a delight. To crib the rhythm of a former TikTok trend: Does it flaunt the platform’s corporate reach(™)? Yes. Is it unwieldy as hell? YES. Who’s ready to crown it a self-aware heavyweight champ? Me! Is that because this Disney+ defining teen series came out of the gate so extremely self-aware that it blazes right past the meta event horizon that would incinerate all other attempts at such a vertically integrated creative experiment, rolling instead to a victorious stop in the land of what I am, of this moment, going to be calling post-cringe? Ah! (Translation: Yes.)
High School Musical: The Musical: The Series follows the fictional students of the fictional version of the real Salt Lake area high school where the real High School Musical was filmed, as they embark on staging the first production of the fictional High School Musical: The Musical at the real (that is, fictional) East High—if your brain’s not broken yet, then I suspect you’re already doubled over with how chaotically genius this is.
The corporate behemoth that Disney has become is literally the only operation in town that could produce something as vertically integrated and as richly and winkingly self-referential as HSM: TM: TS. And for all that, it’s both fun and fascinating to see the company use its new Disney+ platform to send up its own fairly conservative cable television past. —Alexis Gunderson
10. Hawkeye
Say what you will about Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) and his place within the MCU films, Hawkeye is a gift. Although the show sometimes struggles with tone and Vera Farmiga seems to be in a completely different series, it successfully merges the larger world of the MCU with the former Netflix Marvel shows while introducing viewers to a member of the next generation of heroes: Kate Bishop (Steinfeld). Her energy and stubbornness is the perfect match for Renner’s dryness as a tired Avenger who just wants to go home (for Christmas). It’s the mismatched buddy comedy The Falcon and The Winter Soldier was not. The show also features Rogers: The Musical, Lucky the Pizza Dog, and Clint LARPing, which gives it a fun and lighthearted quality. This counterbalances the emotionality of Clint still trying to get over Nat’s death; the arrival of Yelena (Florence Pugh), who wants to kill Clint for what happened to her sister; and the fact Echo (Alaqua Cox), the Tracksuit Mafia, and Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio) aren’t always satisfying villains.
Also working in the show’s favor is the fact it deals primarily with Clint’s history as the violent Ronin—something we only glimpsed in Avengers: Endgame—and not a universe-level or mythology-changing threat. This allows it to stand on its own, while the fact it’s structured like a TV show, with a few pacing issues but several well-placed cliffhangers, makes it one of the better Disney+ products in terms of its effectiveness as television. It’s also an emotionally satisfying end to one chapter in the MCU and the beginning of another. —Kaitlin Thomas
9. Muppets Now
The relatively low-fi Muppets Now taps into pure Jim Henson art, leaving the explicitly educational focus of the Sesame Workshop for an entertainment experience that informs through tone and content. The Muppet Show wasn’t supposed to be just for kids (one of its pilots was titled The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence), but its bananas antics became a gateway to pop culture for many impressionable, starry-eyed showbiz wannabes. Beyond the guest list of iconic actors and legendary musicians, the bevy of parody at hand eased kids into mainstream media with slapstick and silliness, from soap opera knock-off “Veterinarian’s Hospital” to “Pigs in Space” to Sam the Eagle’s ridiculous editorials.
Where Mark Hamill, Vincent Price, Elton John, and Diana Ross were once humanized and sillified by their foam-and-felt companions, RuPaul, Seth Rogen, and Taye Diggs take part in the media mélange of Muppets Now. And it still floats between the scenes and behind-the-scenes in a way that makes both more fun. That gives it a simplified 30 Rock feel (or Between Two Ferns, according to our Keri Lumm), where the ridiculous variety of TV genres (and the nonsense behind creating them) are brought down a few pegs.
Interspersed between hit-and-miss reality shows and celebrity chefs are bits of industry operation filled with references to having final cut, getting coverage, or punching up jokes. And it’s best when it all falls apart. Like the failures and trials of the Sesame Street stars, the explosive disasters of the Muppets—flecked with jargon shrapnel to separate the media circus from the regular circus—not only return the Muppets to their unpredictable and childishly dangerous roots (how far they’ve come from blowing people away in a coffee ad), but make them even more approachable. Nothing says “relatable” to kids more than making a mess and goofing off. The segments may have gotten a facelift and the lingo may have been updated, but the same addictive and attractive qualities of entertainment TV are being put back to use for something good—even if it’s not capital, brought-to-you-by-the-letter-G Sesame Street Good. —Jacob Oller
8. Renegade Nell
Sally Wainwright is responsible for some of the most engrossing and emotionally complex TV shows of the last decade, including the award-winning crime drama Happy Valley and the bold historical drama Gentleman Jack. On the surface, her original series for Disney+, Renegade Nell, is wholly unlike these previous projects. To start, it’s family friendly (do not let your children watch Happy Valley). But when you strip away the flourishes of historical fantasy and get down to it, you’ll find that Renegade Nell is yet another winning show about a fiercely competent woman underestimated by her peers.
The series stars Derry Girls scene-stealer Louisa Harland as the titular Nell, a fearless widow who has returned home after she’d long been thought dead only to find herself framed for the murder of a local aristocrat, forcing her to go on the run with her younger sisters and engage in highway robbery to survive. It helps that she’s got the assistance of a faerie protector (Nick Mohammed) who allows her to pull off impressive feats of strength along the way. Briskly paced and full of adventure, the show is a welcome departure from much of the more familiar IP-driven projects that dominate Disney+, and it’s this uniqueness that makes the series a delightfully fun way to pass the time. —Kaitlin Thomas
