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 22nd:
Honorable Mention: Shōgun (FX), Renegade Nell (Disney+), The Sympathizer (HBO), Palm Royale (Apple TV+)
5. Bluey
Network: Disney+
Last Week: 4
This Week: Surprise! Last week wasn’t the end of Bluey after all, but this episode does have us spinning like we just watched an installment of peak Lost.
Bluey has become a phenomenon. The Australian TV series debuted in 2018 with a 52-episode season comprising 7-minute moments in the life of a loving family living in Queensland. With three seasons and over 150 episodes under its belt, Bluey knows what it is and what it represents: a program designed for both children and parents. It’s for everyone who’s willing to learn something new, or be reminded of just how fun it is to be young.
In each of its short episodes, Bluey—a six-year-old Blue Heeler puppy—along with her younger sister, Bingo, play with each other, their parents (Bandit and Chili), and their friends. That’s it. There’s nothing else to creator Joe Blumm’s Bluey, and there doesn’t need to be. Every episode transforms into a small reminder of how light life can be, of how much joy can come from being silly around the people you love. For kids, the show is a learning tool. For parents, it can be used as a distraction. For adults who spend several hours per day staring at a laptop for more stressful reasons, like me, Bluey is gentle respite, unfettered happiness depicted on screen. —Michael Frank
4. Abbott Elementary
Network: ABC (streaming on Hulu)
Last Week: Honorable Mention
This Week: So many grand returns this week, from Ava Fest 2.0 to Janine finally back at Abbott for good.
It’s been a long break (nearly 10 months!) without our favorite Philly public school and its teachers in one of the finest (if not the finest) currently airing mockumentary sitcoms on television. But Abbott Elementary is back, baby! With only 14 episodes ordered post-strikes, Season 3 immediately jumps right in, showcasing that a lot has changed since we last saw Janine (Quinta Brunson) and the bunch. But fear not, the goofy humor, heartfelt one-on-ones, and the cute, touching moments we love the series for have remained very much intact. Though comedy is its heartbeat, Abbott has always been incisive about pointing out the flaws in the American education system and public schools, and Brunson’s ambitious approach to highlighting (and perhaps fixing) some of those issues doesn’t seem ready to flicker out any time soon. With the laughs and the heart maintaining perfect attendance, we’re certainly in for another intriguing and funny season in our dearest school on television. —Akos Peterbencze [Full Review]
3. X-Men ‘97
Network: Disney+
Last Week: 2
This Week: Another sufficiently harrowing episode continues to cement this series as must-see TV.
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]
2. Fallout
Network: Prime Video
Last Week: 1
This Week: This series is funny, exciting, and a meta capitalist critique from Amazon—what more could you ask for?
Helmed by Lisa Joy and Jonathon Nolan, the co-creators of HBO’s Westworld, Fallout is an eight-part series based on the videogame franchise of the same name. Within it, we follow the exploits of Lucy MacLean (Ella Purnell), a Vault Dweller forced to leave the safety of her subterranean bunker, Vault 33, and journey into what’s left of Los Angeles 219 years after the bombs fell. She’s searching for her father (Kyle MacLachlan), who was abducted by raiders, and her only means of locating the kidnapper is a dangerous quest that involves delivering an item that could change the balance of power in the Wasteland.
But of course, she’s not the only one after this prize. Maximus (Aaron Moten) is in on the hunt, a squire in the band of feudal-cosplaying assholes known as the Brotherhood of Steel. He wants to use this opportunity to become anointed as a knight and nab the T-60 power armor and respect that comes with it. The Ghoul (Walton Goggins) is also in the scrum, a gunslinger who has been around since The Great War thanks to mutations caused by nuclear radiation. As Lucy leaves her sheltered life behind to save her dad, she faces harsh truths about the state of the world outside her bubble. Through its excellent emulation of the franchise’s vibes and a strong understanding of its underlying ideas, the Fallout TV series doesn’t only imitate the games, but meaningfully expands on them in a way that radiates confidence. —Elijah Gonzalez [Full Review]
1. Under the Bridge
Network: Hulu
Last Week: Not Eligible
This Week: This true crime drama is a tough watch, but the performances and deeply respectful storytelling alongside its central case make it essential appointment viewing.
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]
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