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06 Jun, 2025
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Our TV experts have picked the 20 hottest TV shows and...
@Source: dailymail.co.uk
Running out of shows to binge? Never fear! US family drama Ginny & Georgia is back for season three, while the finale of Guy Ritchie's new gangster drama series MobLand, starring Tom Hardy, Helen Mirren and Pierce Brosnan, is out now. More of a film buff? We've got you covered, with Succession creator Jesse Armstrong's movie directing debut and the action-packed sequel to The Accountant, featuring Ben Affleck. With so much choice, it can be tricky deciding on your next watch - but, thankfully, our TV experts have rounded up the best shows and films to help you pick... St Denis Medical US mockumentary sitcom set in a busy underfunded hospital Year: 2024- Certificate: 12 This American sitcom is a mock documentary set inside a busy hospital in Oregon where nurse Alex (Allison Tolman, Fargo) has just been promoted to supervising nurse. The show's creator Justin Spitzer got his first TV writing credit on Scrubs, so is no stranger to this particular workplace, though he's taken detours on the way, through the shop floor (Superstore) and a car manufacturer (American Auto). Over those shows he's developed his own style, powered by lively banter, office romances and a light approach to any encroaching big issues - in Superstore it was workers' rights, here it's a staffing and funding crisis. It's about how everyone mucks in and stays sane in a system under strain. The main strength of the show is its characters and the lively interplay between them all. Tolman is superb, playing a workaholic who cares deeply about her patients. There's a career-making turn from Cocaine Bear's Kahyun Kim, a nurse with a wild streak, and Superstore veteran Kaliko Kauahi as Val, a no-nonsense administrator. Fans of Superstore won't want to miss it and this first series isn't the end, either - it has been picked up for a second. (18 episodes) Ginny & Georgia Surprising US family drama about a mother and daughter starting anew Year: 2021- Certificate: 15 With its teenage daughter and feisty young mum set-up, you could be forgiven for seeing Ginny & Georgia as a Gilmore Girls knock-off. It's definitely got some of that vibe (and even mocks itself for it) but there's so much more here. The mum in Gilmore Girls didn't have the murder of a few previous husbands on her hands for one thing, and there are far more whiplash twists in the drama here. Series two starts by explaining just where daughter Ginny was running away to, with more hints about Georgia's nefarious past set to emerge, and it ended on something of a cliffhanger - the details of which we'll spare you for the sake of spoilers. Suffice to say that the latest third series opens in the wake of that development, and leads to a stretch of episodes that will push Georgia 'to her limits', according to star Brianne Howey. (Three series) The Accountant 2 Jon Bernthal pairs up with Ben Affleck for the sequel to the numbers-and-guns action movie Certificate: 15 What if nerds were also great at beating people up? That feels like the question that's driving The Accountant movies, the first of which starred Ben Affleck as Christian Wolff - a maths savant with Asperger's syndrome who was schooled in martial arts by his military father as a child, then becomes a forensic accountant for crooks as an adult. As such, the first movie involves a lot of counting and fighting. This second is more of the same but bigger. It opens by playing Christian's socially awkward side for comedy, as he uses his skill with numbers to con the women at a speed-dating event. Later on, we see him wafting a Lightsaber about. Are these gags at the expense of his condition, or not? That's a topic for other people to discuss, but it's certainly one worth raising in a movie that had a mainstream cinematic release. We'll say this - the movie is certainly aware of it, as conversations that crop up later on prove, and is more sentimental than it first appears. That issue aside, The Accountant 2 (technically The Accountant squared) has the strong, basic bones of an action movie, and the weaving of Jon Bernthal into the film as Christian's brother, who is also great at killing and happens to be obsessed with dogs, is a definite positive. (132 minutes) Owen Wilson stars in a golfing comedy about a has-been taking on a teen prodigy Certificate: 15 Owen Wilson plays a washed-up golf pro who finds fresh purpose in a dry-witted ten-part comedy that's driven by heart and winds up resembling a dysfunctional family sitcom. Pryce Cahill (Wilson), which is a classic golfer's name if ever there was one, had a very public meltdown years ago and he's been aimless ever since. His marriage fell apart and he lives on the fringes of golf, making money off his past, until chance brings him into contact with teenage prodigy Santi. Could this be Pryce's route back to... something? With a steadily widening cast of characters that includes Santi's unpredictable mother, a rebellious bartender and Pryce's acerbic friend Mitts (Marc Maron) - not to mention an old foe played by the excellent Timothy Olyphant - Stick is a comedy that starts out looking like it should have been a film, before revealing itself to be a lovely way to spend an afternoon. Wilson has been playing goofy losers on screen for decades and he's doing it here too, but Pryce also has a tragic undercurrent and a hunger to him that gives the show an added dimension, and legs, in the process. (Ten episodes) Department Q: The Keeper Of Lost Causes The first of the Danish film series adapting Jussi Adler-Olsen's cold case novels Certificate: 15 Years before Scott Frank turned Jussi Adler-Olsen's Department Q books into a series for Netflix, they were made into films - and set in their author's native Denmark, rather than Scotland. This atmospheric slice of Nordic noir is the first of six movies based on the novels, and tracks the same plot as the first series of the Netflix show, as Detective Carl Morck (Nikolaj Lie Kaas, of Families Like Ours fame) is bumped down into the cold case basement, where he is assigned to find a woman who went missing from a ferry. The plotting here is tight, the style considerably darker than the Netflix show, and it was a critical hit. Nikolaj Lie Kaas returned for three more films, The Absent One, A Conspiracy of Faith and The Purity of Vengeance, and together they form a neat series about Morck. (96 minutes) The Survivors Australian murder-mystery drama set in a Tasmanian coastal town Certificate: 15 Fifteen years ago, two people drowned and a third disappeared near a town on the rocky shores of Tasmania. The people of Evelyn Bay have managed to bury the trauma of that incident, but the truth won't stay hidden for long when Kieran (Charlie Vickers), whose life was permanently changed by guilt after the tragedy, returns to the town with his wife Mia (Yerin Ha) and young family. And then the body of another girl is found on the beach. As the investigation into the latest death throws up connections to the events of the past, secrets bubble up menacingly and the townsfolk wonder if there's a killer hidden among them. This six-part Australian series marries a family drama to an intense psychological murder-mystery to great effect. The cast are all great, but the striking craggy coastline along which the action takes place is the real star. (Six episodes) Tom Hardy, Helen Mirren and Pierce Brosnan star in Guy Ritchie's gangster drama series, all ten episodes of which are now available Certificate: 18 With Pierce Brosnan as a merciless old-school Irish mob boss, Helen Mirren as his conniving Lady Macbeth-esque wife and Tom Hardy getting his hands bloody as their no-nonsense fixer, you'd watch this new British mobster series for the lead trio alone. The fact that it's also created (with a few episodes directed) by Snatch and The Gentlemen's Guy Ritchie and boasts a wider cast that includes House of the Dragon's Paddy Considine, Sherlock's Lara Pulver and Downton Abbey's Joanne Froggatt turns it into pretty much essential viewing. This series offers everything you'd expect from a Guy Ritchie show, from knife-sharp dialogue to lashings of over-the-top violence, as the Harrigan 'family', headed by Brosnan, Mirren and Hardy, faces a threat to its London crime empire from a tough new upstart gang. (Ten episodes) Hugh Grant gets creepy in darkly compelling religious horror Certificate: 15 Hugh Grant might finally have thrown off his bumbling Brit persona with this darkly satisfying religious horror. It's very much a film of two halves, with Grant playing the incredibly polite yet evidently mischievous Mr Reed, a man inviting two young Mormon women into his home to discuss the Church. Predictably enough, he's got a far more sinister intention and that's when Mr Reed, and his house, become a violent circle of hell for Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton (scream queen Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East). Before the really grisly stuff happens in the more preposterous second half, Mr Reed's monologues on religious topics and the human condition are thorny yet compelling. As he attempts to run philosophical rings around the two missionaries, the dread rises in controlled, incremental degrees. You won't guess quite where it's heading, and in a way the destination doesn't matter - this is a film that wants you to ponder and question its meaning. And for all the esoteric mumbo jumbo, Grant is its saving grace. (110 minutes) Mountainhead Steve Carell stars in Succession creator Jesse Armstrong's movie directing debut After the satirical swipes that Succession took at the wealthy heads of a media business, series creator Jesse Armstrong's debut feature-film directing effort sees him aiming his sights even higher as this black comedy zooms in on the world of a quartet of billionaires. Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman, Cory Michael Smith and Ramy Youssef play the high-flying tech bros who assemble in a lavish mountain retreat to banter, bond, ride snowmobiles and play poker... all while news broadcasts show a world in meltdown. Largely because of them and the influence that their businesses are having on society. It's a dark and sharp satire that asks telling questions about just what the uber-rich are doing and not doing to make the world a better place, with fine performances from Carell et al that undercut the satiric heft with sly wit and moments of unexpected comedy. It's not quite up there with Succession - it doesn't entirely follow through on the promise of its human drama - but it certainly has something to say about the world, and it says it well enough. Also, it's quite entertaining how blatant they've been when creating the character who seems to bear more than a passing resemblance to Elon Musk. (109 minutes) Venom: The Last Dance Tom Hardy returns for the third instalment in the Marvel superhero franchise Certificate: 15 Despite being bonded with a black fluid shape-shifting alien, Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) just wants a quiet life. He's not destined to get one, though, as this third outing sees the reluctant anti-hero and his hulking Venom symbiote on the run from both the US government and the might of Venom's own extraterrestrial species, who have sent their forces to Earth to hunt him down. Full of crazy stunts and infused with a madcap buddy-movie energy, this is easily the most enjoyable of the Venom movies. Hardy is having a blast as bumbling everyman Eddie, whose odd-couple friendship with his alien other half gives this dark Marvel superhero film a funny and oddly sweet emotional core. There are enjoyable performances from other Brits too, including Stephen Graham, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Ted Lasso's Juno Temple. (110 minutes) How To Train Your Dragon The original animated adventure based on the much-loved children's books Certificate: PG Marvellous animated feature film about a young Viking boy called Hiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel) who goes against his tribe's dragon-slaying tradition and befriends one of the local flying fire-breathers. Hiccup is the typical reluctant hero: geeky, awkward and with a tough act to follow in the shape of his warrior father, Stoick (voiced, wholly appropriately, by burly Gerard Butler). Heartwarming without being twee, and with a refreshingly sharp line in wisecracks, this was a deservedly big hit at the cinema and the launchpad for a trilogy of animations that would further draw on British author Cressida Cowell's books. After a six-year gap, a live-action remake was created to charm another generation of children, and is due for release in cinemas on June 9. (98 minutes) Castle's Nathan Fillion stars as the oldest rookie in the LAPD Year: 2018- Certificate: 15 There's a certain type of show that US TV has always done really well, and The Rookie is one of those. It has a snappy concept - what would happen if a fortysomething became the oldest rookie in the LAPD? - a charming star in Castle's Nathan Fillion, a good-looking wider cast and tight scripts that are funny, dramatic and manage to squeeze in a lot of action along the way, backed by a budget that allows all that to shine. It has something to offer everyone, and makes for immensely easy-to-watch TV, especially in its early series as Officer Nolan (Fillion) and his fellow rookies move through their training, learning lessons and making occasionally hilarious mistakes. The storylines turn darker and become more socially responsible in its later series, but The Rookie never forgets the reason that it's there - to entertain. Even in those darker moments, a twinkle is rarely far from Fillion's eye. The latest, seventh series opens with an episode written and directed by show creator Alexi Hawley and it features a shootout, a robbery and - believe it or not - the team on the trail of a missing nuclear device. (Seven series) Tom Daley: 1.6 Seconds Documentary looking at the life of the British Olympic diver Certificate: 12 Time plays a huge part in Tom Daley's life. Four-year cycles of Olympic preparation, for instance, ruled his days from when the British diver first competed at Beijing 2008 at the age of just 14 - he dived at a total of five games and collected five medals, including gold at Tokyo 2020. And all of that preparation is boiled down into the most important chunk of time - the 1.6 seconds it takes him to perform each dive. This intimate and heartwarming documentary biography is packed with home videos and interviews with Daley and those close to him, as it discusses everything from his sporting success to his family life, the untimely death of his father, and his decision to come out and become one of Britain's most high-profile gay sportsmen. (88 minutes) Godfather Of Harlem Forest Whitaker stars in a top-drawer 1960s New York gangster series Year: 2019- Certificate: 18 The first two series of Godfather of Harlem are seriously impressive stuff, following Bumpy Johnson (Forest Whitaker) as he battles with the police, the mafia and even some of his own people for control of the streets of Harlem in New York. Set in the 1960s (and loosely based on the life and times of real-life mobster Johnson), it's powerful, dense stuff full of great performances, not least from the magnificent Whitaker. Series three cemented the show's place up alongside Boardwalk Empire and The Sopranos as one of the great TV gangster dramas. Bumpy juggles alliances and conflicts with everyone from New York's Italian crime families to social reformers like Malcolm X in order to maintain his ruthless grip on his neighbourhood. Series four finds Bumpy facing new rival Frank Lucas. (Four series) Reality series following life for crew and guests on board Caribbean superyachts in the charter season Year: 2013- Certificate: 15 This sunny reality series follows life on board luxury yachts in the Caribbean and beyond, specifically superyachts during charter season, when vessels are hired by high rollers looking for tropical fun. The skipper remains the same in series one to ten - the firm but fair Captain Lee, who loathes socialising with guests - but the vessel he sails varies from season to season, as does his international crew. Standout hires in those early series include wild child steward Kat, perfectionist chef Ben, tough chief steward Kate and ex-soldier Kyle, who hails from Manchester, and whose words must be subtitled for the US audience. The guests are demanding, but leave big tips that are split equally - usually around $1,000 each. The show is worth watching if you'd like a little more sunshine in your life. The weather is always nice on Below Deck, and the upstairs-downstairs dynamic between guests and crew is fun to watch, too, as are the crew's high-spirited antics away from the clientele's eyes - the kind of antics that come from people living on top of each other for weeks. The latest, 12th series follows Captain Kerry - who took over from Captain Lee in series 11 - chief stew Fraser Olender from London and Scottish deckhand Kyle Stillie, as they set a course with a new crew for the islands of Anguilla, St Barths and St Maarten. (12 series) The Durrells Sunny family drama, set on Corfu, based on the childhood of author Gerald Durrell Year: 2016-2019 Certificate: PG This enchanting series arrived in our living rooms like a much-needed ray of spring sunshine. Keeley Hawes plays Louisa Durrell in Simon Nye's sun-drenched adaptation of Gerald Durrell's trilogy of Corfu memoirs, which includes My Family And Other Animals. This colourful drama, which begins in 1935, is full of warmth, humour and fun. It follows single mother Louisa's struggle to raise her four unruly children (including 11-year-old Gerald, played by Milo Parker) after the death of her husband ('It's just me now, shouldering the burden like a braying, sexless donkey!'). Sinking under a mountain of debt and depression, on a whim Louisa decides to up sticks and move to the beautiful island of Corfu. And that's where the adventures really begin, as her British family tries - with mixed success - to adapt to traditional Greek life. (Four series) Upstairs Downstairs (2010 series) Return to Eaton Place for a follow-up to the 1970s TV classic Year: 2010-2012 Certificate: 12 This bubbly, glossy drama catches up with 165 Eaton Place in 1936, six years on from the finale of the original ITV series (broadcast in 1975). The first series was a taster batch of three episodes which find the new residents settling in above and below stairs. Above, Sir Hallam and Lady Agnes Holland (Ed Stoppard and Keeley Hawes) are soon joined by the irrepressible Maud, Lady Holland (Eileen Atkins), while the residents below are employed by an agency run by former parlour maid Rose Buck (Jean Marsh, who co-created the original series with Atkins). Series two gave us a proper run of six episodes, and time moved on a couple of years to 1938. Lady Agnes is in hospital, having just given birth. She is frail and unhappy, but determined to return home. Sir Hallam, meanwhile, is in the thick of historic events as Chamberlain returns from Munich, believing he's secured 'peace in our time'. Sir Hallam begs to differ... Meanwhile, below stairs, the staff welcome a spirited new maid and Mr Pritchard throws himself into his duties as an air-raid warden. The shadows of war are closing in. But we would never see whether Eaton Place survived the Blitz as the show never made it to series three. (Two series) Billy Connolly Does... Hilarious and poignant tales from the Big Yin's tumultuous career Year: 2022-24 Certificate: 15 Series one of this archive clip-filled tour through the high points of the great man's life was a real treat, with Connolly regaling us with tales from his 50-year career as a comedian, actor and presenter. It was divided into seven themed episodes, tackling fame, fatherhood, life on the road etc - don't miss the story about Keith Moon in the instalment on bad behaviour - but you always got the impression there was so much more to tell. As a result, a second batch of episodes was ordered, and Glasgow's finest welcomed us back into his Florida home for another trawl through his favourite memories. The side-splittingly hilarious rubbed shoulders with the unbelievably poignant in the three-strong second series as Connolly muses on his heroes and villains, reveals what he really thinks about fame and showbiz, and discusses growing old disgracefully. The third series opens with a musing on what it means to be Scottish. It's got nothing to do with kilts, according to Connolly. The first two series are available on free service U. (Three series) American workplace comedy about the staff of a car-repair garage starring Shane Gillis Year: 2024- Certificate: 15 When Will (Steve Gerben) takes over his father's auto repair chain, he's determined to modernise it and create a business fit for the 21st century. Trouble is, the resolutely old-fashioned staff like it just the way it is and dig their heels firmly in. Especially his cousin and now employee, Shane (Shane Gillis), who struggles to get his sexist and non-PC brain around even the simplest of Will's reforms. Following the long-established tradition of workplace sitcoms such as The Office and Superstore, this series pulls together a fine ensemble cast to poke cheery fun at life in the American workforce. Gerben is likeably earnest as the ineffectual Will, but it's stand-up-turned-actor Gillis (who co-created the show) who steals the most scenes as the brash and unrepentantly old-school Shane. (Two series) C*A*U*G*H*T Four Australian soldiers sent on a mission to a war-torn country are captured by freedom fighters Certificate: 15 This six-part Australian comedy is a Tropic Thunder for the social media age. Instead of parodying the vanity of big budget movies like Ben Stiller's 2008 comedy, it's the turnover of clickbait and selfies that are plumbed for absurdist humour. It's the kind of show where Sean Penn trends as a clown and where four Australian idiots, special service soldiers on a covert mission, can orchestrate a social media coup when captured by freedom fighters in the fictional conflict zone of Behati-Prinsloo. Penn, one of Hollywood's most famously earnest humanitarians, sends himself up pretty mercilessly, playing himself on a morning TV cooking segment wearing a 'May the forks be with you' T-shirt and reluctantly doing the Macarena. He also produced the show and was able to attract other big names including Susan Sarandon (who plays the US Secretary of State) and Aussie screen legend Bryan Brown (as the Australian PM) to this rude and outrageous riot of a comedy. While there is plenty of satire, the show is primarily about four brash Aussies abroad. It's written by Kick Gurry, who also stars as one of the captive soldiers. The idea for the show emerged when the quartet shared a house together as struggling actors in Los Angeles. Their chemistry is plain to see on screen - especially in some of the more unrestrained scenes. Let's just say they clearly had to be very comfortable with each other. (Six episodes)
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