When I sat down to compile my list of the best and worst TV series of 2025 — already leaving plenty out and not even touching on films — I realized the staggering number of hours I spent watching television this year. There were premieres, returns, season finales, fleeting phenomena, and shows that truly left a lasting impression. A singular year (no pun intended), hard to surpass.

That said, I don’t expect 2026 to be much different. It will once again be an intense year, with countless stories competing for the same finite amount of time. To arrive at a list of fifteen — because ten simply wouldn’t be enough — I had to leave things out. More than a numerical exercise, it became one of choice.

Ted Lasso and the Risk of Returning to What Was Already Complete

The return of Ted Lasso is one of those curious cases. Apple TV+ is keeping the release month under wraps, but with the World Cup taking place in the United States in June, it’s hard to imagine a more perfect window to bring back our favorite football coach.

There is, of course, a significant risk involved. From the beginning, Jason Sudeikis was clear that the story had been conceived for three seasons — and ultimately delivered four. We wanted more, but he was right: the transformation arcs were complete. So even though the series seemed to have said a fairly definitive goodbye, its return raises a legitimate question: what is left to say in that universe? In increasingly cynical times, Ted Lasso has always gone against the grain, betting on empathy as its dramatic engine. Revisiting it in 2026 intrigues me precisely for that reason — to see whether that tone can still be sustained without tipping into naivety, or whether the series will find a new balance between warmth and maturity.

Westeros in Turmoil: House of the Dragon and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

At the opposite emotional end lies the third season of House of the Dragon, which enters 2026 as an engine already in full combustion. The Targaryen civil war has something Game of Thrones never did: a closed narrative, with a clear beginning, middle, and end already known to fans. What excites me isn’t just the spectacle, but the show’s insistence on examining power, legacy, and historical error — and how small personal decisions continue to generate irreversible consequences.

Alongside it, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms appears as a more delicate counterpoint: a smaller, more intimate story that still carries the symbolic weight of Westeros and the curiosity of seeing that world before it became defined by ruin and trauma. The series opens the year, giving us a double dose of Westeros in 2026 — not exactly by strategic design, but because its production, completed in 2024, was shelved in 2025 to avoid getting lost among other releases. All’s well: the wait only heightened the anticipation, and we’re ready to return.

Bridgerton and the Global Power of Escapism

If we’re revisiting stories that “saved” us during the pandemic, Bridgerton is another emblematic case. I no longer watch it expecting structural surprises, but as someone returning to a universe that understands its cultural role perfectly. The new season premieres in January 2026 surrounded by expectation because the series has mastered, like few others, the blend of romance, spectacle, and pop social commentary — and because it remains a powerful barometer of global reach.

Indeed, its formula of inclusive casting, anachronism, and pure escapism has been endlessly copied (what was done to The Buccaneers in an attempt to replicate Bridgerton is, to me, nearly criminal). But when it comes to the original franchise, Netflix and Shonda Rhimes hit the mark in a way few competitors have. Since each season focuses on a different sibling — and the adaptation order has shifted — there is still plenty of story left to tell.

The House of the Spirits: Why This Adaptation Matters

Among the projects promising greater depth, The House of the Spirits carries enormous literary, political, and emotional weight. Adapting it has never been simple. The 1993 film starring Meryl Streep, Jeremy Irons, Glenn Close, Antonio Banderas, and Winona Ryder was uneven, to put it kindly. Perhaps that’s why I’m following this new version so closely: for the chance to see a complex Latin American narrative occupy a central place in an industry still overwhelmingly Anglophone. The release month has not yet been confirmed, but the series is expected to be released sometime in 2026.

Young Detectives and Old Formulas

Another series that sparks curiosity is Young Sherlock. Not because the character himself hasn’t already been revisited countless times, but because of how a new generation will be invited to look at him. Hero Fiennes Tiffin takes on the role of Sherlock, while his uncle, Joseph Fiennes, plays Silas Holmes. Directed by Guy Ritchie, it’s a combination that, at the very least, deserves attention.

Still within the detective genre, Netflix deserves credit for riding the new Agatha Christie wave with The Seven Dials Mystery, premiering in January. With a young female protagonist, it has an additional draw: it’s based on one of Christie’s lesser-adapted books, offering fertile ground to attract new fans of the classic whodunit.

Peaky Blinders: Nostalgia, Risk, and Myth

My greatest anticipation of the first quarter, however, is reserved for March 2026, which already has a fixed place on my calendar: the return of Peaky Blinders. The series comes back wrapped in expectation and nostalgia, but also in risk. Something is fascinating about watching stories so closely tied to a specific era attempt to reinsert themselves into another — and about seeing how their characters confront the weight of their own mythology.

Peaky Blinders turned Cillian Murphy into a global star long before his Oscar win and concluded its run with a relatively open ending. Deaths within the cast and other complications leave open questions about how Steven Knight — currently one of the most in-demand showrunners in the industry and also involved in the new 007 — will steer the narrative. Still, I trust him. And I’m eager.

Comforting Universes: Star Wars, Marvel, and Continuity

On Disney+, the second season of Ahsoka promises to transport me once again to a galaxy far, far away. Within the Marvel universe, the standout is VisionQuest, the final chapter of the trilogy that began with WandaVision. Paul Bettany returns as Vision, now on a journey across the world in search of memory and identity — a path that will bring him face to face with classic villains like Ultron and new antagonists such as Paladino and Jocasta.

Adult Prestige on the Rise

My greatest Christmas gift of 2025 came from HBO Max, which surprised me by announcing the return of The Gilded Age in 2026. The platform usually “rests” its strongest titles for a year, but it enters 2026 with significant returns already lined up, while my favorite escapist drama is expected closer to the end of the year.

The Gilded Age grew quietly, season by season, until becoming one of television’s most compelling portraits of money, power, and social performance. There is something deeply contemporary about revisiting it in a world once again obsessed with inequality and display.

In this same realm of adult prestige, Scarpetta emerges as one of the most intriguing adaptations of 2026. The Amazon Prime Video series brings Patricia Cornwell’s iconic character to television, with Nicole Kidman starring as Dr. Kay Scarpetta, a brilliant medical examiner emotionally marked by a case that defined her career decades earlier. It’s a psychological thriller less interested in easy twists than in the emotional toll of relentlessly pursuing the truth — a choice that aligns closely with the actress’s current phase and the kind of adult storytelling that continues to hold my attention.

Euphoria returns as an inevitable event. I don’t know if I expect comfort, but I do expect impact. It’s a series that was never designed to please — and perhaps that’s why it remains relevant, even when it provokes rejection. Alongside it, Hacks represents what draws me most today: adult, cynical, imperfect characters trying to survive within systems that leave no room for fragility.

Dune: Prophecy and the Ambition to Think About Power Slowly

Finally, Dune: Prophecy appears as another piece of a larger puzzle. Not merely as universe expansion, but as an attempt to sustain a political and spiritual mythology that television rarely treats with patience. I’m not a devoted reader of the books, and I embraced this standalone prequel to the films with an open heart.

Some choices make one pause — and characters that still feel loosely anchored — but the central trio wins me over effortlessly: Olivia Williams, Travis Fimmel, and Emily Watson.

I know there will be many other series in 2026. Some not yet announced, others that will arrive as surprises. But these, in particular, excite me because they don’t seem to exist simply to fill a catalog. They promise continuity, conflict, risk — and above all, the feeling that it’s still worth sitting down, watching, and thinking about what we’ve just seen.

If 2025 was the year of excess, 2026 promises to be the year of choice — and these are, today, the choices that most draw me in.

The 15 Series That Will Shape My 2026

• Ted Lasso — Apple TV+ | release date TBA
• House of the Dragon — HBO Max | release date TBA (U.S. window expected in June)
• A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms — HBO Max | premieres January 8
• Bridgerton — Netflix | premieres January 29
• Scarpetta — Amazon Prime Video | premieres March 11
• The House of the Spirits — Amazon Prime Video | release date TBA
• Young Sherlock — Amazon Prime Video | release date TBA
• The Seven Dials Mystery — Netflix | premieres January 15
• Peaky Blinders — Netflix | premieres in March
• Ahsoka — Disney+ | release date TBA
• VisionQuest — Disney+ | release date TBA
• The Gilded Age — HBO Max | release date TBA
• Euphoria — HBO Max | expected to premiere in April
• Hacks — HBO Max | release date TBA
• Dune: Prophecy — HBO Max | release date TBA