Hacks, series four (Now TV)
This brilliant under-the-radar comedy, now in its fourth series, is about a veteran standup comedian, Deborah, who is paired with Gen Z comedy writer Ava to boost her declining career. Deborah has now finally landed her dream gig as a late-night TV host, but Ava has all but blackmailed her way to a job as the show’s head writer. The relationship between the two is “one of TV’s most captivating”, says The Guardian, and there’s a terrific roster of new “scene-stealing minor characters” too.
10 episodes, 30 minutes each

Adolescence (Netflix)
The year’s most talked-about programme was undoubtedly Stephen Graham’s groundbreaking drama about what drove a 13-year-old boy to fatally stab a female classmate, says The Independent. With each of its four episodes shot in one continuous take, the series covered toxic masculinity as well as online brainwashing, and was full of “astonishing performances”. A “tough but compulsive” watch.
Four episodes, one hour each

Slow Horses, series five (Apple TV)
The “impeccable” Slow Horses is that rare thing, says The Daily Telegraph: “a long-running drama that has suffered no drop in quality”. The fifth series sees the gang of MI5 misfits on the trail of Libyan dissidents causing carnage in London. All six episodes are “perfectly paced” and Gary Oldman’s “splendidly greasy” spy boss Jackson Lamb is as gloriously politically incorrect as ever. “I’m not sure you can say ‘dumb’ anymore,” he says at one point. “I think it offends the vocally impaired. Or idiots. I can’t remember which.”
Six episodes, 45 minutes each

Dying for Sex (Disney+)
Faced with a terminal cancer diagnosis, Molly Kochan (Michelle Williams) flees her sexless marriage and follows her starved libido through dozens of kinky trysts, dissecting them all in her unfiltered podcast, Dying for Sex. It’s a remarkable comedy which sees “life devoured in the face of death”, says Time Magazine. And unlike every other show about end-stage illness, it’s not stuffed with “inspiring moments and tear-jerking monologues”.
Eight episodes, 30 minutes each

The Studio (Apple TV)
Seth Rogen plays a movie studio boss navigating the daily battle between art and business in this “superb satire” on the Hollywood film industry, says The Daily Telegraph. Its mix of screwball capering, toe-curling cringiness and razor-sharp one-liners is laugh-out-loud funny and brilliantly performed, with enjoyable cameos from Zac Efron, Olivia Wilde, Martin Scorsese and Aaron Sorkin.
10 episodes, 30 minutes each

Mussolini: Son of the Century (Sky)
This gripping Italian-language drama maps Benito Mussolini’s meteoric rise from leader of a ragtag movement of disaffected young men to total control of the Italian state in a mere six years, says The New York Times. What begins as a “darkly comic phantasmagoria” culminates in Il Duce’s acceptance of unapologetic violence as “the price of power”. Vividly entertaining.
Eight episodes, one hour each

Amandaland (BBC)
Alpha mum Amanda (Lucy Punch) takes centre stage in this hilarious – and “arguably superior” – spin-off of the much-loved Motherland, says The Daily Telegraph. Fresh from a divorce, Amanda is trying to style out her reduced circumstances: South Harlesden is rebranded “SoHa”; flogging her things in a car-boot sale is “streamlining my investment pieces”. Punch is terrific; so too Joanna Lumley as her overbearing mother and Philippa Dunne as her obsequious minion.
Six episodes, 30 minutes each

The Narrow Road to the Deep North (Amazon Prime)
This adaptation of Richard Flanagan’s World War Two novel is “masterful”, says The Economist. It charts the ordeals endured by an Australian soldier and his comrades – first in Syria and later as prisoners of war on the infamous death railway in Burma – as well as his inability to convey those horrors later in life. There’s also a passionate, full-bodied love story.
Five episodes, 40 minutes each

Andor, series two (Disney+)
This Rogue One prequel is the most universally appealing of the many recent additions to the Star Wars universe, says Empire. The action follows Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), a thief and scavenger whose home planet has been rendered uninhabitable by the Galactic Empire. It’s compelling television that will make you fall in love with Star Wars, “whether for the first time or the 50th”.
12 episodes, 45 minutes each

Pluribus (Apple TV)
From Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan comes this “spectacularly original sci-fi story”, says The Guardian. Carol is a miserable novelist who is immune to an alien virus that takes hold of 99.9% of the world and turns them into a happy, mind-melded hive. As she tries to “save” the world, the show transcends into a “sharply funny” social observation and a psychological thriller that “hums with existential dread”. Each episode racks up questions that keep you hooked for the entire series.
Nine episodes, 50 minutes each