Peacock was a late arrival to the world of streamers making original content, but several new Peacock TV shows have caught our attention since they hit the ground running with shows like the hilarious comedy Killing It, starring Craig Robinson, and the warm charm of Rutherford Falls, starring Ed Helms. Come to think of it, with the recent addition of Rainn Wilson’s Geography of Bliss, Peacock’s guiding principle seems to be hiring actors from The Office. But the latest round of new series from Peacock include vehicles from Kaley Cuoco, Pete Davidson, Natasha Lyonne and Betty Gilpin.
Here are the six newest shows from Peacock:
1. Based on a True Story
Release Date: June 8, 2023
Creator: Craig Rosenberg
Stars: Kaley Cuoco, Chris Messina, Tom Bateman, Liana Liberato, Priscilla Quintana, Natalia Dyer, Alex Alomar Akpobome
Genre: Comedy, mystery
Paste Review Rating: 8.4
Based on a True Story, from The Boys’ Craig Rosenberg, follows realtor Ava (Kaley Cuoco) and former tennis star Nathan (Chris Messina), a couple living in LA and struggling to make ends meet in the midst of their failing marriage—all with a baby on the way. However, when a serial killer begins tormenting the LA area, Ava and Nathan decide to take advantage of America’s obsession with murder and exploit their community’s woes for a podcast. Their idea to make their podcast stand out amongst the many true-crime shows flooding the internet? They aim to get the killer on their show, and make them explain why they do what they do. What follows is a series that skewers America’s obsession with true crime and our tendency to immortalize serial killers, and blends dark comedy and unshakable tension to create a high-anxiety series that is an impossible binge to put down. It’s eight episodes of heart-pounding tension, bleak dark comedy, and pitch-perfect lampooning of the true crime industry. Cuoco and Messina are wonderful together, anchoring the series’ more outlandish moments to the chemistry and bond between their characters. As Ava and Nathan fall further and further down the rabbit hole and into more and more dangerous territory, it’s easy to root for them, even when they’re forced to do despicable things. If you love true crime, you’ll love this show; if you hate true crime, you’ll love this show. Based on a True Story is perfect for anyone who misses the excellent Flight Attendant, or who just wants to fill the Only Murders-murder-podcast-show-shaped hole in your heart this summer. —Anna Govert
2. Rainn Wilson and the Geography of Bliss
Release Date: May 18, 2023
Creator: Niharika Desai, Eric Weiner
Stars: Rainn Wilson
Genre: Travel docuseries
The Office and Super star Rainn Wilson is the latest in a growing line of celebrities with their own travel shows. The former assistant to the office manager’s twist is his search around the world for what makes people happy. Over the course of five episodes, the self-described “mope” travels to Iceland, Blugaria, Ghana, Thailand and back to his home in Los Angeles to find what makes people happy across the globe.
3. Bupkis
Release Date: May 4, 2023
Creator: Pete Davidson, Judah Miller, Dave Sirus
Stars: Pete Davidson, Edie Falco, Joe Pesci
Genre: Comedy, drama
Paste Review Rating: 7.5
One wonders how many times a comedian/actor/writer can sell the same semi-autobiographical story successfully in a slightly different wrapping. But with Peacock’s latest 8-episode comedy series Bupkis, Pete Davidson is two for two so far. After 2020’s The King of Staten Island, the comedian doubles down on his “fictionalized” life in a meta approach that’s stuffed with Hollywood stars playing either one of his relatives or themselves. And in doing so, we’ll forever owe him for bringing back Joe Pesci to play his foul-mouthed Italian-American grandpa, that’s for sure. Bupkis‘s plot is loosely defined with vague character arcs that barely classify as a continuous narrative, but are just enough to keep the ball rolling. We follow Davidson (apparently playing a “heightened” version of himself) in Staten Island, living with his mother (Edie Falco) who’s generally worried about him. Pete’s just doing what the Pete Davidsons of the world do on a regular basis: hanging out with his boys, smoking weed, jerking off, taking pills, and having fun in between gigs. His worry-free lifestyle is somewhat interrupted when he learns that his street-wise grandfather, Joe (Pesci), is dying of cancer. This unfolds in a heartfelt conversation between the two, where Joe says that all he wants is to spend more time with his grandson and get to know him better. This serves as a sort of wake-up call for Davidson to change his life, stop being a joke, and act like a man instead of a child. Bupkis generally nails a well-balanced mix of humor, self-awareness, and drama stemming from both reality and fiction, giving us a multi-flavored comedy that goes down easy. —Akos Peterbencze
4. Mrs. Davis
Release Date: April 20, 2023
Creators: Tara Hernandez, Damon Lindelof
Stars: Betty Gilpin, Jake McDorman, Andy McQueen
Genre: Sci-fi, fantasy
Paste Review Rating: 8.8
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
5. Poker Face
Release Date: January 26, 2023
Creators: Rian Johnson
Stars: Natasha Lyonne
Genre: Mystery, comedy
Paste Review Rating: 8.3
The deck is heavily stacked in the audience’s favour with Rian Johnson and Natasha Lyonne’s Poker Face, a case-of-the-week “howcatchem” that feels less like an ode to Columbo and more like a gleeful, excited squeal of adoration. Johnson writes and directs the pilot, giving us a welcome return to the darker, restrained type of genre filmmaking he showed in Brick and Looper, which provides an impeccable introduction to the world of Charlie (Lyonne), a nobody who can sniff out when anyone is ever lying. Our perceptive idol still has to slum it across America’s backroads, seemingly drawn to impractical, impossible murders being staged in regional theaters, crummy punk bars, and a militant old folks home. There’s a great deal of texture to the world that a team of capable writers and directors explore, and despite some repetitive structure issues, Poker Face makes us wonder why procedurals like these aren’t on TV year-round. –Rory Doherty
6. Night Court
Release Date: January 17, 2023
Creator: Reinhold Weege
Stars: Melissa Rauch, India de Beaufort, Kapil Talwalkar, Lacretta, John Larroquette
Genre: Sitcom
Rating: TV-14
Paste Review Rating: 6.2
The reboot of NBC’s Night Court, which ran from 1984-1992, epitomizes how hard it is to revisit beloved properties. How do you stay true to the source material without seeming dated, tired, and the sitcom version of an anachronism? In her first regular series TV role since The Big Bang Theory ended, Melissa Rauch stars as Abby Stone, the daughter of Harry Stone, the character played by the late Harry Anderson in the original series. Rauch also serves as an executive producer on the series along with her husband Winston Rauch. Abby leaves her fiancé and her comfortable life in upstate New York to follow her father’s career path and become a judge on the night shift of a Manhattan arraignment court. In the pilot, the ever-cheery Abby meets Olivia (India de Beaufort), the court’s assistant district attorney, court clerk Neil (Kapil Talwalkar), and bailiff Gurgs (Lacretta). All she’s missing is a public defender after Paul (David Theune) unceremoniously quits once Abby tells him she wants him to work harder because she believes in him. Enter her dad’s old pal Dan Fielding (John Larroquette, the only returning cast member). Now retired from his days as the court’s district attorney (and with the shaggy beard to prove it), Dan has no interest in revisiting his former stomping grounds. But Abby is persistent, and Larroquette is a series regular so, of course, she convinces Dan to come back to night court. Fans of the original will be happy to hear the theme music is back, and that there are fun site gag references to the original series. But Night Court is guilty of not being funny or entertaining. And unlike Abby, I can’t find an optimistic spin. —Amy Amatangelo