Long Story Short is a Netflix adult animated comedy-drama created by Raphael Bob-Waksberg, his first new animated series since the acclaimed BoJack Horseman. Trading Hollywood satire for something more intimate, the show is a warm, melancholy, and very funny portrait of a single family told across the sweep of its members' entire lives.
The series follows the Schwooper family, jumping freely and non-chronologically through the decades, from childhood and adolescence to marriage, parenthood, and old age, so that a character might be a squabbling kid in one scene and a weary adult in the next. This restless time-hopping structure lets the show explore how families carry their history with them, how old wounds and inside jokes echo across generations, and how small moments accumulate into a life. Its voice cast includes Abbi Jacobson, Ben Feldman, Lisa Edelstein, Paul Reiser, and Nicole Byer.
Rooted in Bob-Waksberg's own Jewish American upbringing, Long Story Short earned strong reviews for balancing sharp comedy with genuine emotional depth, the same alchemy that made his previous work resonate. It is streaming on Netflix.
Run Away is a Netflix mystery thriller adapted from Harlan Coben's 2019 novel, the latest in the best-selling author's sweeping multi-series partnership with the streamer. Made by the team behind the hit Coben adaptation Fool Me Once, it transplants the story to the United Kingdom and unspools as a twist-laden limited series in the tradition that has made Coben a global Netflix mainstay.
James Nesbitt stars as a father whose comfortable family life shatters when his estranged, troubled daughter vanishes into a dangerous world. His desperate search to bring her home drags him into a web of secrets, violence, and buried family history. Minnie Driver, Ruth Jones, and Alfred Enoch co-star in an ensemble that keeps the show's loyalties and truths in constant doubt.
Released at the start of 2026, Run Away became an immediate phenomenon, shooting to number one on Netflix around the world in its first days and briefly toppling the platform's biggest titles. Its propulsive, cliff-hanger-driven storytelling exemplified the addictive formula that has turned Coben's adaptations into reliable streaming juggernauts. Run Away streams on Netflix.
Cape Fear is an Apple TV+ psychological thriller that reimagines the story first told in John D. MacDonald's novel The Executioners and famously filmed in 1962 and again by Martin Scorsese in 1991. Developed by showrunner Nick Antosca, the series counts Scorsese and Steven Spielberg among its executive producers, lending Hollywood pedigree to a modern, expanded take on the material.
Javier Bardem stars as Max Cady, the vengeful ex-convict played on screen by Robert Mitchum and Robert De Niro, who fixates on the family of a lawyer he blames for his imprisonment. Amy Adams and Patrick Wilson play the couple whose lives Cady systematically invades, as the series stretches a taut two-hour premise into an eight-episode slow burn of intimidation, manipulation, and mounting dread.
Debuting in June 2026, the series uses its longer runtime to deepen the cat-and-mouse dynamic and to depart in significant ways from the earlier films, building to a divisive, talked-about finale. Anchored by Bardem's menacing performance and Adams's fraught heroine, it became one of Apple TV+'s signature dramas of the year. Cape Fear streams on Apple TV+.
Spider-Noir is a live-action superhero series on Prime Video, produced under the Amazon MGM and Sony partnership, that spins Nicolas Cage's animated Spider-Verse character off into his own hard-boiled detective story. Cage, who voiced Spider-Man Noir in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, now plays the character in the flesh, headlining a period noir steeped in the shadows of Depression-era New York.
Set in the 1930s, the series follows an aging, down-on-his-luck private investigator who was once the city's masked protector and finds himself pulled back into a dangerous case that forces the web-slinger out of retirement. Rendered largely in stark black and white to evoke classic film noir, the show trades the multiverse spectacle of its animated origins for gumshoes, gangsters, and grim mystery. Lamorne Morris, Brendan Gleeson, and Li Jun Li are among the cast.
Premiering in 2026, Spider-Noir stands out as the first live-action solo Spider-Man television series and an unusually stylish, adult-leaning take on the character. Building on the popularity of Cage's scene-stealing Spider-Verse role, it reimagines a comic-book hero through the lens of 1930s pulp detective fiction. Spider-Noir streams on Prime Video.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is an HBO Max fantasy series set in George R.R. Martin's world of Westeros, adapted from his Dunk and Egg novellas that began with The Hedge Knight. Developed by Martin and showrunner Ira Parker, it is the second live-action Game of Thrones spinoff after House of the Dragon and unfolds roughly ninety years before the events of the original series.
The story follows Ser Duncan the Tall, a lowborn, big-hearted hedge knight of little means, and his cunning young squire Egg, who is secretly far more than he appears. Peter Claffey stars as Dunk and Dexter Sol Ansell as Egg, as the mismatched pair travel a more peaceful, hopeful Westeros in search of adventure, honor, and a place in the world, in a lighter and more intimate register than the sprawling political warfare of its predecessors.
Premiering in early 2026, the series was warmly received as a change of pace for the franchise, trading dragons and dynastic bloodshed for a charming buddy adventure rooted in chivalry and friendship. Martin, who has spoken fondly of the Dunk and Egg tales, remained closely involved in bringing them to the screen. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms streams on HBO Max.
Boots is a Netflix comedy-drama series created by Andy Parker, adapted from Greg Cope White's memoir The Pink Marine. Set in 1990, it follows a directionless young man who impulsively joins the United States Marine Corps alongside his best friend and must survive the brutal crucible of boot camp while carrying a secret about who he is. Executive produced by the legendary Norman Lear in one of his final projects, it balances raw military rigor with warmth and humor.
Miles Heizer stars as Cameron Cope, an aimless teenager with no obvious prospects who signs up largely on a whim and finds himself utterly unprepared for the punishing world of Marine training. Vera Farmiga plays his loving but overbearing mother, and Max Parker, Liam Oh, and Angus O'Brien fill out the ensemble of recruits and drill instructors who become Cameron's unlikely found family. The series mines both comedy and genuine drama from the pressure cooker of basic training and the secrets its recruits carry.
Critics responded enthusiastically, and the show earned a strong 92% Rotten Tomatoes score along with a top-ten streaming run, praised for its heart, its period specificity, and Heizer's grounded lead performance. Though Netflix ultimately did not renew it beyond its first season, Boots was widely embraced as a standout dramedy. It streams on Netflix.
All's Fair is a glossy Hulu legal drama from the prolific Ryan Murphy, the creator behind American Horror Story, Glee, and Feud, built around an all-female divorce law firm in New York City. Co-created by Murphy with Jon Robin Baitz and Joe Baken, the series is a splashy, soap-operatic ensemble piece and one of the most heavily marketed television launches of the year, anchored by a cast of Hollywood heavyweights.
Kim Kardashian stars as Allura Grant, a powerhouse divorce attorney who breaks away from a male-dominated firm to launch her own practice alongside a team of formidable women. Naomi Watts, Niecy Nash-Betts, and Teyana Taylor play her partners, with Sarah Paulson as a fierce rival and Glenn Close among the ensemble, as the firm takes on high-net-worth clients, explosive settlements, and the personal betrayals that blur the line between business and vengeance. The show trades in designer wardrobes, palatial interiors, and the melodramatic power struggles that are Murphy's signature.
The series became a genuine cultural talking point on arrival: it drew scathing reviews from critics, who made it one of the most negatively reviewed shows of the year, even as it pulled enormous viewership numbers for Hulu and quickly earned a second-season renewal. Marking Kim Kardashian's first major scripted leading role, All's Fair is streaming on Hulu.
Malice is a glossy psychological revenge thriller on Prime Video, created and written by James Wood, that unfolds like a sun-drenched cross between The Talented Mr. Ripley and a modern eat-the-rich satire. Premiering in November 2025 across six episodes, it gives comedian Jack Whitehall his first leading dramatic role, cast sharply against type as a charming young man harboring a dark and patient agenda.
Whitehall plays Adam Healey, a personable tutor who insinuates himself into the household of the fabulously wealthy Tanner family, first at their idyllic Greek island retreat and later in London. David Duchovny stars as the family's tech-magnate patriarch, Jamie Tanner, with Carice van Houten as his wife Nat. As Adam makes himself indispensable, it becomes clear that his warmth masks a meticulous scheme of revenge, and the series tightens into a game of manipulation in which the audience is never quite sure who is playing whom.
Reviews were mixed, with some critics finding the plotting deliberate to a fault, but audiences made it a genuine streaming hit, drawn by its glamorous settings, its soapy tension, and Whitehall's surprising dramatic turn. Filmed in London and on the Greek island of Paros, Malice is streaming on Prime Video.
Chad Powers is a Hulu sports comedy series co-created by and starring Glen Powell, expanding a viral comedy bit into a full six-episode showcase for one of Hollywood's fastest-rising stars. Developed by Powell with Michael Waldron, the writer behind Loki and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, the series premiered in September 2025 and leans fully into big-hearted, broad sports-movie comedy.
Powell plays Russ Holliday, a spectacularly arrogant college quarterback whose career self-destructs in a moment of infamy that makes him a national punchline. Years later, desperate for redemption and unrecognizable under heavy prosthetics, he reinvents himself as Chad Powers, an earnest, goofy walk-on who tries out for a struggling college football team without anyone knowing who he really is. As Chad becomes the heart of the team, Russ must reckon with the ego that ruined him. Steve Zahn and Perry Mattfeld co-star.
The show grew out of a character Powell originally created with Eli Manning for an ESPN Eli's Places segment, in which Manning donned a disguise to secretly try out for a college team. Audiences responded warmly to the series' underdog charm and Powell's game, prosthetic-aided performance, and Hulu renewed it for a second season. Chad Powers is streaming on Hulu.
The Lowdown is an FX drama series created by Sterlin Harjo, the co-creator of the beloved Reservation Dogs, marking his return to television with another richly regional story rooted in his home state of Oklahoma. Premiering in September 2025 and streaming on Hulu, it blends noir mystery, shaggy comedy, and social conscience into a distinctly Tulsa-flavored character study.
Ethan Hawke stars as Lee Raybon, a self-styled truthstorian, an obsessive amateur historian, rare-book dealer, and gadfly journalist who cannot stop digging into the buried secrets of his city. When his investigation into a prominent local family's death pulls him into a web of corruption, old money, and long-suppressed history, Lee's compulsive truth-telling puts him and those around him in real danger. The character is loosely inspired by the late real-life Tulsa historian and activist Lee Roy Chapman, grounding the series in genuine local lore.
Critics embraced the show as a warm, idiosyncratic showcase for Hawke and for Harjo's deep affection for Oklahoma's people and contradictions, praising its blend of mystery-of-the-week momentum and lived-in regional texture. Like Reservation Dogs before it, The Lowdown finds the universal in the specific. It streams on Hulu.
Death by Lightning is a Netflix limited series that dramatizes one of the strangest and most tragic chapters in American political history: the assassination of President James A. Garfield. Adapted from Candice Millard's acclaimed nonfiction book Destiny of the Republic, the four-part drama was created by Mike Makowsky and executive produced by a team that includes David Benioff and D. B. Weiss of Game of Thrones fame.
Michael Shannon stars as Garfield, the reluctant, principled Ohioan swept into the presidency in 1880 almost against his will, while Matthew Macfadyen plays Charles Guiteau, the delusional, chronically failed office-seeker who came to believe he was destined to kill the president. The series braids their two lives together, tracing Garfield's improbable ascent and Guiteau's descent into fatal grandiosity, before turning to the grim aftermath in which the president's own doctors may have done more harm than the assassin's bullet. Nick Offerman, Betty Gilpin, Shea Whigham, and Bradley Whitford round out the ensemble.
Critics praised the series for its dark wit, its detailed period craft, and the performances of its two leads, with Macfadyen's twitchy, tragicomic Guiteau drawing particular attention. Both a political tragedy and a mordant character study, it revives a largely forgotten American story for a modern audience. Death by Lightning is streaming on Netflix.