Paste Power Rankings: The 5 Best TV Shows on Right Now

TV Lists Power Ranking
Paste Power Rankings: The 5 Best TV Shows on Right Now

With so many streaming services, networks, and good ol’ broadcast TV vying for your eyeballs every week, it would help to know just which shows are worth watching. Lucky for you, dear reader, 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. From under-the-radar gems to 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!

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Best TV Shows for the week of March 11th:

Honorable Mention: Wild Cards (The CW), Extraordinary (Hulu), Ghosts (CBS), Masters of the Air (Apple TV+)

5. The Traitors

the traitors us

Network: Peacock
Last Week: Honorable Mention
This Week: An entertaining and fun finale rounded out the second season of this incredible reality competition.

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In Peacock’s The Traitors, a varying group of contestants—many “Faithful” and a few hand-selected “Traitors”—come together in Alan Cumming’s incredible Scotland castle to vie for a cash prize that they have to earn along the way through physically and intellectually challenging competitions. And all the while, the Faithfuls desperately try to banish the Traitors at their daily roundtables before the Traitors meet at the witching hour to decide which Faithful they would like to “murder” next. The show is effortlessly entertaining and has been a smashing success, with the first season of the hit reality competition series bringing together 10 celebrities and 10 “regular” folks to battle it out for the cash prize. The second season already dips into the “all-star” game with an entirely celebrity cast that doesn’t work nearly as well, but this series is still a juicy good time filled with pitch-perfect reality competition drama. —Jay Snow


4. The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin

Network: Apple TV+
Last Week: 2
This Week: A delightfully smart and easy watch.

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The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin stars The Mighty Boosh’s Noel Fielding as Dick Turpin, an outlaw who apparently existed in real life, though you can be sure even the romanticized version of the historical figure has very little to do with what you see on screen. He’s a butcher’s son, but he’s obsessed with clothing and style and can’t bear to take up the family business. He leaves to find his fortune, and soon finds himself as the head of a gang of highwaymen, called the Essex Gang, after accidentally murdering their leader. Turpin, always the optimist, decides he’s going to create a new kind of gang, one with more style than violence and hopefully boost them from their current ranking as the second-worst gang in existence (yes, in this world, there are highwaymen rankings). Everything here is goofy to the bone, from Turpin’s tiny gun and horse to the secret passageway in the village pub which, for some reason, is directly next to a cupboard with the same exact door. To put it simply, the show provides easy comedy without coming across as stupid, is fun without being a “guilty pleasure,” and is hilarious without feeling forced. It’s smart, it’s ridiculous, and it’s defiantly unique in both style and substance. For six half-hour episodes, the world of Dick Turpin makes for a lovely escape. —Shane Ryan [Full Review]


3. Death and Other Details

death and other details review

Network: Hulu
Last Week: 5
This Week: This two-part finale may have left us a little cold, but it was an otherwise fun and engaging wrap-up to an overall entertaining, twisty season.

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Rian Johnson, bless you. The huge success of his Knives Out (2019) ignited a resurgence in popularity for the frothy ensemble mystery, Agatha Christie style, and Hulu’s Death and Other Details is just the latest entry in this beloved genre. Eighteen years ago, young Imogene’s (Beane) mother was killed in a car explosion on the wealthy Collier family’s grounds. Since she was a treasured employee of the company, the Collier’s adopt her now-orphaned daughter and hire the “world’s greatest detective,” Rufus Cotesworth (Patinkin), to get to the bottom of the tragedy… to no avail. The lack of resolution to the case means there’s plenty of resentment harbored by grown Imogene, as she’s never gotten closure on the event that shaped her whole life. When the two reunite on the Collier’s luxury cruise excursion (meant to mark the beginnings of a deal between their company and wealthy Chinese investors), a murder binds them together once again, all leading back to the mystery that they couldn’t solve all those years ago. Beane and Patinkin are an excellent entry into the pantheon of mystery duos, and this series is absolutely worth seeking out for its smart mystery and compelling central pair. —Tara Bennett [Full Review]


2. Abbott Elementary

abbott elementary season 3

Network: ABC (streaming on Hulu)
Last Week: 3
This Week: Bradley Cooper, star of Oppenheimer (everyone was in that movie, you know), made an appearance in a hilarious post-Oscars episode.

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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]


1. Shōgun

shogun

Network: FX (streaming on Hulu)
Last Week: 1
This Week: Visually stunning and politically engaging, Shōgun is a show that you can’t miss.

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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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