Our TV experts have picked the 20 best shows and films…

A dry-witted sci-fi comedy about robot who manages to break his programming. A drama from Spain about an ailing media mogul who turns on his children (sound familiar?)

These are just some of the excellent shows and films available to stream right now.

But with so much on offer, it can be hard to choose what to watch.

So to save you the trouble, our critics have trawled through hundreds of the best TV offerings on your behalf… 

Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney’s Welsh football team battles in League One

Year: 2025

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Disney+

Since taking ownership of Wrexham Football Club, Hollywood actors Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds have helped propel the team from the depths of non-league football through back-to-back promotions to sit in League One.  As the 2024-25 season kicks off, the goal is a historic third consecutive promotion. 

This fourth series follows the actors, the team and long-suffering club director and producer Humphrey Ker (who has to combine his day job of wrangling Rob and Ryan with preparing to reluctantly run a marathon in aid of a Wrexham-based charity) as they strive for elevation to the Championship.

As usual this behind-the-scenes documentary series is exciting, passionate, funny and often genuinely moving, as the club’s celebrity owners strive to combine building a better football team with building the wider community in the run-down Welsh town. (Eight episodes)

The #MomTok scandal, told by the women who were there – now back for a new series

Year: 2024

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Disney+

‘So Taylor, tell us how a couple of Mormon moms getting together, making TikToks, suddenly turns into this crazy swinging sex scandal.’ So begins this glossy, Real Housewives-style series about a group of Mormon women who decided to step outside the strict gender norms for their church.

The central figure in it all is Taylor Frankie Paul, the creator of the #MomTok group of Mormon wives on TikTok and the root of the scandal goes back to 2022, when Taylor revealed that she and husband Tate Paul were getting a divorce – after ‘soft swinging’ with their friendship group. She and Tate had an agreement on what was to be allowed in this ‘soft swinging’ and Taylor, in her words, stepped ‘outside of that agreement’. ‘No one was innocent, everyone has hooked up with everyone,’ she went on. 

If you want to learn more, this series meets the women and digs into their lives. Series one was a hit and series two Now, we return for a fresh brace of soapy revelations, including the return of one of the original swingers – which is the trigger for all manner of allegations . . .. (Two series) 

Murderbot

Alexander Skarsgard stars as a security robot who breaks his own programming in this sci-fi comedy

Year: 2025

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Apple TV+

Apple certainly make some unusual shows, and they all seem to have enormous budgets. This dry-witted, ten-part sci-fi comedy is no exception, and stars True Blood’s Alexander Skarsgard as a security robot who manages to break his programming (in the first scene!) but carries on working for humans afterwards. It’s not entirely clear why, but it seems that ‘Murderbot’ likes the easy life, apparently standing on guard for his human clients on remote planets while actually watching soapy TV inside his own head. 

We hear Murderbot’s wry, whinging internal monologue throughout each episode as he tries to reconcile his own laziness with the need to live independently. Will his rule-breaking be uncovered and get him in trouble? It’s hard to worry much about that, but the scale and casual tech wizardry of the show – and its constant flow of wit – make it very entertaining, especially in its half-hour episode form. 

Adapted from Martha Wells’s Murderbot Diaries by Chris and Paul Weitz (Oscar nominees for their About A Boy screenplay many years ago, but both behind so much else since) this show has scale, pace, a big story and a rather British sense of humour that, occasionally, reminds you of Red Dwarf. Just with a lot more money. (Ten episodes) 

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning

Tom Cruise embarks on a seventh thrill-packed mission as superspy Ethan Hunt

Year: 2023

Certificate: 12

Watch now on Netflix

Sitting alongside James Bond and Jason Bourne when it comes to the silver screen’s greatest secret agents, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) has triumphed over just about every baddie the world has to throw at him. But even he may have met his match as he and his team (including Simon Pegg and new member Hayley Atwell) are called upon to bring down a rogue Artificial Intelligence in this seventh adventure. 

Full of humour, excitement and stunts (many performed for real by the seemingly indestructible Cruise himself), this is a beast of an adventure that builds to a cliffhanger finish ahead of The Final Reckoning – the franchise-concluding instalment that’s due in cinemas here on 21 May. And, while it’s not the best of the lot – that honour belongs to Fallout or, arguably, the very first movie – if you’re after a blockbuster, few do them better than Cruise. (164 minutes) 

Dazzling, feelgood Eurovision comedy extravaganza from Will Ferrell

Year: 2020

Certificate: 12

Watch now on Netflix

Will Ferrell was introduced to the Eurovision Song Contest while visiting the family of his Swedish wife, the actress Viveca Paulin. The American comedian was captivated, describing the musical spectacle as ‘the craziest thing I have ever seen’, and wanted to make a comedy about it for years after. His dream came true in this visually dazzling feelgood extravaganza for Netflix, and with a terrific cast that includes Rachel McAdams, Dan Stevens, Pierce Brosnan and even Graham Norton. 

It is very much a movie about dreams, too. Ferrell and McAdams play childhood friends who long to win for their home nation of Iceland, and we follow their progress through the contest. The musical numbers are fantastic and easily worthy of Eurovision itself (one song, Husavik, was Oscar-nominated) and Dan Stevens is stupendous as the duo’s outlandish rival from Russia. If the movie has a weakness it’s the lengthy running time, but then Eurovision itself is hardly known for brevity. (123 minutes) 

The Game (2025 TV series)

Jason Watkins and Robson Green go head-to-head in cat-and-mouse suburban thriller

Year: 2025

Certificate: 12

Watch now on 5 (Ch5)

Robson Green and Jason Watkins star in this new four-part thriller which turns a leafy suburban street into the frontline of a battle of wits.

Watkins is Huw, a former police detective haunted by a case he couldn’t crack – a serial killer known as the Ripton Stalker, who slipped through his fingers and set him on the path to early retirement.

As Huw fills his free time with golf and DIY, the arrival of a new neighbour, charismatic Patrick (Green), triggers the all-consuming obsession that Huw never really gave up. Could Patrick be the Ripton Stalker? Or is Huw losing the plot?

Watkins excels at playing the beleaguered everyman, of which this is his third such role in a 5 original drama (see also The Catch, Coma). Green, meanwhile, seems to be having fun switching to the dark side, as well as playing an object of a desire for lusty middle-aged women like neighbour Liz (Amy Huberman).

This isn’t the most original or exciting game of cat and mouse you’re likely to see, but Green and Watkins keep it close to tense and suspenseful. (Four episodes)

Elsbeth

Good Wife spin-off that’s well suited to fans of Columbo

Year: 2024

Certificate: 15

Watch now on NOW

Watch now on Sky

If you’re a fan of Columbo, then this US series should feel familiar. A spin-off from The Good Wife, it follows quirky lawyer Elsbeth Tascioni (Carrie Preston) to New York as she takes up a new position observing police investigations. 

What does that mean? Well, essentially it means she’s Columbo, sniffing around crime scenes in her kooky and seemingly innocent way, before suddenly locking eyes with the person we all know is the killer – we saw them do it in the first scene – and then spending the rest of the episode in a game of chess with them, trying to prove it. 

Elsbeth is one of those Marmite characters who will delight some and irritate others. She seems like a nice, easily amused idiot, full of compliments for everyone and following whatever shiny thing has just crossed her path, but then she’ll suddenly turn, look someone dead in the eye and ask them the only question that matters. 

So, is the quirkiness just an act? Figuring that out is part of what makes this show fun to watch and Elsbeth’s opening chess match, with a murderous theatre director played by True Blood’s Stephen Moyer, is a particularly delightful clash of opposites. Just wait for the scene when she starts bombarding him with questions about Cats and The Lion King and there’s plenty of great stuff to come after that too. Other top guest stars to look out for in series one include 30 Rock’s Jane Krakowski and Modern Family’s Jesse Tyler Ferguson, while the much longer second series opens with the show’s best guest star yet: Broadway legend Nathan Lane, playing a murderous opera snob. (Two series) 

Virgin Island

Reality show where virgins take their first steps towards sex

Year: 2025

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Channel 4

The obsession with dating shows (of which Channel 4 has its fair share), as well as the accessibility and availability of porn, implies that people have embraced an era of sexual empowerment and positivity, for good or ill. But that does not mean people are actually having sex. In fact, research suggests that there are more virgins under the age of 26 than ever – one in eight are still virgins, compared to one in 20 in previous generations.

This series takes 12 adult virgins and drops them at an island retreat where they will get hands-on help from therapists and experts to overcome the issues and anxieties that have stopped them from having sex. The resort has culty vibes, especially when they change into a bland uniform of nondescript slacks and t-shirts. And the two lead therapists Celeste and Danielle might also remind you a little of Nicole Kidman’s character in Nine Perfect Strangers. Stick with it, though, this show isn’t really about the ‘sexperts’, but the 12 brave virgins who are there to take the plunge and conquer their fears of intimacy.

There are a few cringe-inducing moments, but the tone is warm and supportive and what could be exploitative and downright icky is actually rather endearing. As for the hands-on approach, it really is that – from erotic touching workshops and writing exercises to sex surrogates for those ready to go all the way. Some move faster than others. (One series)

Change Your Mind, Change Your Life With Matt And Emma Willis

Explore how therapy can help navigate the challenges of modern life

Year: 2025

Watch now on BBC iPlayer

As a couple, and separately, Matt and Emma Willis have both had therapy and are enthusiastic converts to its benefits. They’re hosting this new four-part series, teaming up with the Open University and some of Britain’s leading practitioners to show how therapy works, and how it can help as we navigate life’s more challenging times.

At a specially created clinic, the series films therapy in action, as people from all walks of life explore the ‘talking cure’. The patients have given permission to be filmed in what is usually a private process, and if you have any assumptions about what might drive people to therapy, prepare to have them gently blown away. Put simply, it’s good to talk, and having a safe and welcoming space to do that in is clearly a tonic for those we watch in the room.

If you’ve ever wondered what therapy involves, this show aims to demystify the process, as well as offering pointers on how you can work on many of the most common issues, from grief and anxiety to phobias and relationship struggles. (Four episodes)

Fred & Rose West: A British Horror Story

Documentary series investigating the crimes of the married serial killers

Year: 2025

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Netflix

Between 1967 and 1987, Fred and Rose West were responsible for the torture, sexual assault and murder of an unknown number of women in their Gloucester home, including their own 16-year-old daughter Heather. Twelve sets of bones were found buried under their home, but the police suspect their involvement in many more deaths. 

Employing previously unseen police video and unheard recordings of the Wests themselves, this gruelling documentary series balances a recounting of the investigation that led to the couple’s capture with a focus on the families of their victims. Some of the relatives of the murdered women speak openly here for the first time, offering up an insight into the pain they endured for years. The series subtitle is no exaggeration – this is indeed a horrific story. (Three episodes) 

Bibaa & Nicole: Murder In The Park

Documentary series investigating events surrounding the deaths of two sisters

Year: 2025

Certificate: 15

Watch now on NOW

Watch now on Sky

In June 2020, a group of friends gathered in Fryent Country Park in London to mark both the easing of the Covid lockdown and the birthday of one of them, Bibaa Henry. By the end of the night, Bibaa and her sister Nicole were the only two left, still dancing in the park. They were never seen alive again. The police failed to act on missing reports for the pair and 36 hours later their bodies were found by Nicole’s partner. 

Featuring interviews with friends, family and investigators, this is a detailed and hard-hitting three-part documentary that charts not only the investigation into the crime itself, but also the shortcomings of the police handling of the investigation – apart from the initial failure to act, officers shockingly also illicitly photographed the women’s bodies and even posted images on social media. (Three episodes) 

Garbo: Where Did You Go?

Lorna Tucker’s profile of the great Swedish star of Hollywood, who famously wanted to be alone

Year: 2024

Certificate: pg

Watch now on NOW

Watch now on Sky

The British filmmaker Lorna Tucker (Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist) is behind this documentary about Hollywood icon Greta Garbo, the Swedish-born star who came from nothing to dominate Tinseltown, although she rarely seemed happy about it – even after surviving the transition from silents to talkies, a shift that felled so many of her contemporaries. 

That emotional tension is at the heart of Tucker’s portrait which, as the title suggests, focuses on why Garbo shrank from the public eye after quitting her movie career (of which Queen Christina and Grand Hotel were just two highlights). It’s at its most fascinating in its profile of her relationships, because of what they tell you about her – most notably, a formative A Star Is Born-style situation with director Mauritz Stiller – and in how she managed her privacy in the later, reclusive years. 

It’s also a brutal portrait of Hollywood at a time when its stars, despite their glamour, were often at the mercy of the studio system. The stories of her small rebellions against that are heartening and her later New York years, reclusive as they may have been, were at least conducted on her own terms. 

Tucker’s documentary tells Garbo’s story with artistic flourishes that are initially off-putting but soon settle down and make sense, using the character of an ‘investigator’ as a kind of narrator who is piecing together Garbo’s life, while actress Noomi Rapace (also a Swede) provides Garbo’s voice. (90 minutes)

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

The long-awaited sequel reunites Michael Keaton’s ‘bio-exorcist’ with director Tim Burton

Year: 2024

Certificate: 12

Watch now on NOW

Watch now on Sky

After 36 years Beetlejuice, the wild-eyed ‘bio-exorcist’ played by Michael Keaton, returned to cinema screens for the long-awaited sequel alongside director Tim Burton. After an unexpected family tragedy, three generations of the Deetz family return home to Winter River. Still haunted by Beetlejuice, Lydia’s (Winona Ryder) life is turned upside down when her own rebellious teenage daughter Astrid (Jenna Ortega) discovers the mysterious model of the town in the attic.

When Beetlejuice is inevitably summoned (don’t say his name three times!) chaos and carnage ensues. In classic Tim Burton style prepare to be entertained by a cavalcade of the gruesome and strange, as we follow the Deetz family through a grim and twisted afterlife where Keaton plays the role like he never left it.

After the original’s grand success back in 1988, a sequel was fast-tracked – initially titled Beetlejuice In Love. After decades in developmental hell, the follow-up was finally picked up again in 2022 by Brad Pitt’s studio Plan B Entertainment. (105 minutes) 

A Working Man

Jason Statham stars as an ex-Royal Marines commando with child custody issues, now working on a construction site

Year: 2025

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Prime Video

Jason Statham is a sub-genre of action movies all by himself, starring in one reliably successful example after another as a highly-skilled, fundamentally noble one-man killing machine. The Transporter and The Beekeeper are two of the best examples and here we have A Working Man, in which Statham is working on a construction site but, when trouble breaks out, reveals skills that no ordinary layer of bricks would display under pressure. Where did they come from?

We discover all that over a slightly overlong running time of nearly two hours as, in a screenplay co-written by Sylvester Stallone, Statham’s ex-Royal Marines commando springs into action when his friend Jenny is kidnapped by human traffickers. Will what ensues help to fix his own issues with PTSD, which have resulted in him losing custody of his daughter? Look out for Statham’s old Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels co-star Jason Flemyng in the cast of a film that sits more toward the brutal end of the Statham cinematic spectrum. (116 minutes)

Rotten Legacy

Succession-style drama from Spain about an ailing media mogul who turns on his children

Year: 2025

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Netflix

Imagine a soapy Spanish take on Succession and you’ve got the basics of Rotten Legacy, an eight-parter where the emotions of the King Lear style story sit right on the surface. The hard-charging father (José Coronado) seems to openly loathe his children and, when Federico retires for two years to deal with pancreatic cancer, they change his newspaper business in ways he simply can’t stomach. So he comes back swinging, cancer be damned, to stop them from destroying his legacy. 

The tense scenes that ensue as he shows them exactly how much he dislikes them can border on the hilarious, but in a different way to the sweary one-liners that made Succession so memorable. It’s all about the strength of feeling on display, and dad is not alone in disliking his offspring – ‘the real cancer is his children,’ remarks another character in episode one. As with Succession, figuring out who you can sympathise with here is a challenge but it’s a very entertaining ride and the cheesiness of the dubbed English dialogue actually works well with the soapy tone, if you don’t fancy the subtitles. (Eight episodes) 

BET

Action-packed high school drama based on a manga series about a compulsive gambler

Year: 2025

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Netflix

It takes a while to get used to the tone of this show, but if you’ve enjoyed the likes of Gossip Girl in the past, you may find it addictive. Based on the Japanese manga series Kakegurui, BET is the story of Yumeko, the mysterious new student at an elite boarding school ruled by a sinister council of students who are obsessed with gambling. All the children strive to make it up a leaderboard that keeps track of their earnings but it’s not a fair fight – the council cheat, and losers face the ignominy of being turned into a ‘house pet’ or, worse still, disappearing altogether. 

Yumeko seems better equipped than most to survive. A brilliant, compulsive gambler and skilled manipulator, she also has a tragic childhood, a good heart and a hidden agenda to pursue at the school – and slowly gathers a band of misfits to help her achieve it. Packed with pace, action and fully-committed performances, BET is the kind of show you start watching on a whim but suddenly takes out an entire afternoon. (Ten episodes)

Sunset Grove

Finnish drama in which residents of a care home investigate a mystery

Year: 2025

Certificate: 12

Watch now on Channel 4

This Finnish black comedy-drama is set in a retirement home where 94-year-old Siiri (Leena Uotila) and her friends drink whisky and muse about death and how they have outlived everyone – friends, husbands, sons. Old they may be, but they’ve still got plenty of life left in them.

When her favourite cook, 35-year-old Tero, dies suddenly and much too young, Siiri suspects foul play and, with her friend Irma (Eeva Litmanen), launches an investigation into what’s going on and the potential corruption and crime at the care home. When Irma is banished to the dreaded dementia ward, Siiri must save her friend before it’s too late.

If you enjoyed Ted Danson’s A Man On The Inside (Netflix) or whodunnits like Only Murders In The Building (Disney+), this is well worth a look. (Eight episodes)

The End

Tilda Swinton and Michael Shannon star in a surprising mix of family drama and apocalypse musical

Year: 2024

Certificate: 12

Watch now on Mubi

Apocalypse dramas are common and we’re trained, as viewers, to expect certain things from them. Discard all such expectations for The End, a small-scale blend of musical and family drama from director Joshua Oppenheimer, previously best known for his disturbing documentaries about mass killings in Indonesia. 

In The End, the world long ago succumbed to climate change and the surface is on fire, but we don’t see any of that directly – the whole film takes place in an icy underground bunker, where a rich family live out their days by pretending everything is fine and dandy, eating cake and admiring paintings. The dad (Michael Shannon) was a big wheel in the energy industry, the mum (Tilda Swinton) something floaty in the arts, and they’ve raised a child in their isolated home (George MacKay) with three staff (Bronagh Gallagher, Tim McInnerny, Lennie James). 

One day, a survivor from the outside wanders into that ordered existence, and that’s the trigger for all kinds of secrets to emerge. They do so slowly, punctuated by musical numbers that do a good job of highlighting what characters are really thinking in a finely acted, play-like film that doesn’t go as far as you might hope, but gives you plenty to chew on in the process. (149 minutes) 

UNTOLD: The Liver King

Sports documentary examining the rise and fall of the social media fitness influencer

Year: 2025

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Netflix

Brian Johnson made a huge impact on social media. Billing himself as the Liver King, he promoted a lifestyle based around consuming huge amounts of raw meat – including liver – championing the virtues of a return to an ‘ancestral lifestyle’. Nutritionists balked at his claims, but one look at Johnson’s physique – a mass of sculpted abs and rippling muscles – seemed to indicate that he was onto something and he swiftly became an online sensation. It didn’t last though. 

This latest in Netflix’s UNTOLD strand of always-gripping sporting documentaries charts his rise from zero to fitness hero, but also his subsequent fall after a string of email leaks revealed that Johnson was in fact a massive steroid user, with his physique owing more to drug use than any fad diet. (68 minutes)

Overcompensating

College-set US sitcom about finding yourself and fitting in

Year: 2025

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Prime Video

Pitched somewhere between Fresh Meat and Animal House, this US sitcom follows Benny (Benito Skinner) as he arrives at college, desperate to fit in. In high school he was a football star and homecoming king – but in college he realises that he’s been living in the closet. Can he continue to keep his gay side hidden as he makes new friends or is it time to let people see the real him? 

With help from his big sister Grace and her boyfriend Peter, the show follows him as he charts a path through fraternities and classes, parties and roommates, with help and hindrance from new friends like Carmen (Wally Baram) and potential relationships such as Miles (Rish Shah). It’s bright, raucous, occasionally rude stuff with a winning lead performance from Skinner, who also created the show. (Eight episodes)