Just like last year, the first half of 2026 has revealed a dearth of quality TV, which could easily make its way in the year-end list. From new discoveries to returning series either continuing on their journeys or ending entirely, we’ve been spoiled for choices in the first half of the year, and the second half is looking equally promising. Of course, there are still blind spots which I plan on catching up to, but I still feel confident that the list below is the best TV of 2026 so far.

Honorable Mentions:

• The Bear, “Gary”
• The Boys
• Cape Fear
• Daredevil: Born Again
• Hacks
• Margo’s Got Money Troubles
• Spider-Noir
• Shrinking
• Welcome to Wrexham
• Wonder Man

Beef Season 2

Lee Sung Jin’s return to Beef sparked more conversations about class privilege through flawed but empathetic characters, brought to life by four of the year’s best performances so far. Oscar Isaac is the deeply insecure manager of an elite golf club who can’t get out of his own way. Carey Mulligan is Isaac’s wife who has grand ambitions but can’t help but feel like she settled every step of the way. Charles Melton is the textbook definition of a himbo, gleefully faking his way through life and hoping for the best. And Cailee Spaeny is Ashley, Melton’s fiance, who schemes her way to the top without thinking of the implications for her next steps. Beef season 2 may have stumbled a bit in the finale, but it was a joy throughout each episode to see the dumb decisions these goofballs made, enjoying their privilege yet never feeling like it would ever be enough. The prospect of Lee Sung Jin returning to Beef at first felt like tempting fate, adding on to something that already worked so perfectly, but season 2 has proven that there’s plenty of opportunities for storytelling to be found within this world.

The Comeback Season 3

Hollywood has changed so drastically since The Comeback aired its last season in 2014. Thankfully Valerie Cherish (Lisa Kudrow) is the same as she’s always been, constantly obsessed with her own image and reputation within the industry. For season 3, the reported final season of the Michael Patrick King show, Valerie is back as the lead on a new sitcom, but it’s being written by AI. True to Valerie’s MO, she’s initially skeptical, but is quickly won over once the studio execs say some nice things about her. Kudrow has never been better at channeling Valerie’s reprehensibility, while making her a mostly overlooked cog in the Hollywood machine. Entertainment-industry satires have become more and more common in recent years, a lot of them great, but The Comeback season 3 showed a fresh angle with unforgettable characters and a prescient message on the potential future of the industry.

The Pitt Season 2

The Pitt didn’t need to reinvent the wheel in season 2; all it needed to do was continue to do what it does best. That is, show a portrait of modern America filtered through a single, chaotic day shift in an emergency room. Every episode showcased unique medical cases and built on our understanding of our favorite characters, most notably Dr. Robbie (Noah Wyle), Nurse Dana (Katherine LaNasa), Dr. Langdon (Patrick Ball), Dr Mohan (Supriya Ganesh), and many, many more. But it was the sneakily smart way that showrunner R. Scott Gemmill brought up critical talking points through the patients that makes The Pitt season 2 so watchable. Whether it was the ICE crisis, the affordability of medical care, sexual assault, or any number of issues brought in through the hospital walls, Gemmill and the team of writers made each situation feel fresh without sensationalizing anyone. And the same can be said of the personal lives of the characters as they play out throughout the day, from Robbie’s fears of leaving on sabbatical to Langdon’s return from rehab, or Drs. Santos (Isa Briones) and Whitaker (Gerran Howell) and their living situation.

Primal Season 3

What if a caveman and a T-rex were best friends? This is essentially the premise for Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal, an animation showcase from one of the industry’s legends. Or, at least, it was the premise before season 3 upended the formula and went in an almost entirely new direction. The new batch sees Spear (“voiced” by Aaron LaPlante) as a kind of braindead zombie, mindlessly wandering the primordial landscape in search of his found family. Of course, Tartakovsky still filled each episode with the same brutal action and creative monsters which never felt like retreads of foes we’ve seen in previous seasons. It seems like an impossible task, to imbue genuine emotion into a show with so much repetitive violence without feeling cheap or manipulative, but Primal season 3 somehow found a way to make it work. Indeed, the driving engine of the new batch of episodes was in seeing Spear reunite with his family and community. The bloodthirsty demons and creatures were just a nice bit of window dressing.

Widow’s Bay Season 1

AppleTV has firmly established itself as the streamer to be for original genre series, and Widow’s Bay season 1 is another confident entry from series creator Katie Dippold. Horror-comedy shows don’t appear often on TV, but Widow’s Bay seems destined for several seasons of juicy, silly stories full of dark humor and colorful weirdo folklore. At its center is Mayor Tom Loftis (Matthew Rhys), a skeptic who butts heads with the titular New England island’s locals, who have bought into the town’s bizarre history and believe their home is cursed. But the show is rounded out with a plethora of Character Actor All-Stars, like Stephen Root, Dale Dickey, , Kevin Carroll, Jeff Hiller, and series breakout MVP Kate O’Flynn. Each episode pays homage to a number of horror classics, from The Shining to Midsommar to Halloween, and more, without feeling like lazy ways to shoehorn in familiar references. There were plenty of shows that I binge-watched and enjoyed this year, but none had me as giddily excited to see what comes next as much as Widow’s Bay season 1.