Justin Theroux is paying tribute to his wife, Nicole Brydon Bloom, on her first Mother’s Day after the birth of their baby boy.

“‘The loveliest masterpiece of the heart of God is the heart of a mother,’” Theroux, 54, wrote via Instagram on Sunday, May 10, quoting Thérèse of Lisieux. “Happy first Mother’s Day Nicole … you are such a gift to both of us. ❤️.”

Alongside the upload, Theroux shared an image of him cradling Bloom’s stomach before sharing several snaps with their newborn.

Theroux and Bloom, 32, were first linked in February 2023. The couple got engaged the following year when he proposed while they were in Italy for the 2024 Venice Film Festival. In March 2025, Theroux and Bloom tied the knot in Mexico.

Related: Justin Theroux’s Heart Opened ‘In a Beautiful Way’ After Welcoming 1st Baby

Justin Theroux can’t help but marvel over his 3-week-old baby. “It’s so hard to sum [fatherhood] up,” Theroux, 54, said on the Thursday, April 23, broadcast of Today. “I just love looking into his eyeballs. It’s just a wonderful thing. We’re in that period now where it’s a lot of quiet tip-toeing around the house […]

News broke in December 2025 that the couple were expecting their first baby several months after their wedding. Bloom confirmed her pregnancy that same month while debuting her baby bump at the season 2 premiere of Fallout in Los Angeles.

Later that month, Theroux and Bloom shared a glimpse of their babymoon getaway in Mexico.

“So much fun to revisit our favorite place with a little one on the way 🕊️👶🏼,” she captioned an Instagram post at the time.

In February, Bloom gushed that she’s “always wanted to be a mom.”

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Related: Jennifer Aniston Reacts After Ex Justin Theroux Welcomes His 1st Baby

Jennifer Aniston subtly offered her congratulations to  ex-husband Justin Theroux and his wife, Nicole Brydon Bloom, after they welcomed their first baby. “He’s here 🕊️We are so in love,” Theroux, 54, and Bloom, 32, captioned a joint Instagram post on Saturday, April 18, alongside a snap of the actor holding his newborn son. Aniston, 57, […]

“I love kids. I’ve always been looking forward to this chapter in my life, and certainly Justin has been, too,” Bloom told The Hollywood Reporter at the time, noting that she was excited about the pair’s new chapter. “It’ll have its challenges with going back to work and everything, but I’m just thrilled, very happy.”

Theroux and Bloom shared in April that they had welcomed their first baby, a boy. “He’s here 🕊️ we are so in love,” the pair wrote in a joint Instagram post at the time.

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The couple received several supportive messages from celebs and a subtle reaction from Theroux’s ex-wife, Jennifer Aniston, who “liked” the announcement. (Aniston and Theroux tied the knot in 2015 and divorced three years later. She is now dating hypnotist Jim Curtis.)

Days later, Theroux and Bloom walked the red carpet while attending the world premiere of The Devil Wears Prada 2 in New York City. Theroux, for his part, portrays Emily Blunt’s on-screen boyfriend in the sequel film.

At the event, Theroux told People that the best part of fatherhood so far has been “being able to pour all the love that I have into my son.”

Some shows deserve far more attention than they get. HBO has long built its reputation on a stacked lineup of award-winning hits, from the epic fantasy that is Game of Thrones to the gold standard of crime dramas, The Sopranos. But HBO has got a lot more right up its sleeves. Over the years, the network has quietly released several hidden gems that often slip through the cracks.

They may not have the same level of hype or marketing power to dominate the charts, but these shows more than make up for it with substance, storytelling, and staying power. With that in mind, here are the forgotten HBO shows that have aged like fine wine.

‘Years and Years’ (2019)

Image via HBO

Some apocalypses don’t happen overnight — they can also take years. Set between 2019 and 2034, Years and Years follows the Lyons family, a group of ordinary Britons who live life under the creeping political and economic collapse, as well as the rapid advancement of technology. As each crisis stacks on top of the others, it seems hapless to do anything about it.

The Lyons are neither heroes nor revolutionaries. They’re just working-class individuals trying to get by whatever comes their way. As society frays, technology becomes both escape and crutch. Meanwhile, those who actually possess power and influence take advantage of it to weaponize fear. The scariest part of the show is that these phenomena feel very true to real life.

‘The Night Of’ (2016)

Image via HBO

Wild, spontaneous nights take a murderous turn in The Night Of. Pakistani-American college student Nasir “Naz” Khan (Riz Ahmed) is about to attend a Manhattan party after taking his father’s cab without permission. However, things become a little blurry when he encounters a mysterious woman named Andrea. After a night of sex and bad decisions, Nasir wakes up to find Andrea brutally murdered.

The next few episodes are a bit of a doozy. Nasir has absolutely no idea what happened. However, when his intoxicated self becomes involved with the police, he quickly becomes the prime suspect in the case. It’s a sticky situation where, despite the debauchery of the night before, Nasir isn’t necessarily responsible for the murder — yet the system continues to wrong him due to a lack of clear evidence. The Night Of proves that the legal system doesn’t guarantee anyone justice despite the truth being out in the open, and no matter how “objective” it claims to be, perception takes greater precedence.

‘Vice Principals’ (2016)

Image via HBO

It’s the battle of VPs in this dark comedy — not Vice Presidents, but Vice Principals. At North Jackson High School, Neal Gamby (Danny McBride), the no-nonsense vice principal in charge of discipline, is sure that he’ll succeed as principal. However, his arrogance is taken down a notch when Lee Russell (Walton Goggins), the manipulative vice principal of curriculum, also has his sights set on the post. To the two’s surprise, the principal trusts neither of them.

What the two vice principals don’t realize is that the school hires an outsider to take over instead. Gamby and Russell aren’t having any of it, and the two team up to veto the decision, which seems nearly impossible since the incoming principal has been making a good impression. But Vice Principals‘ charm is simple: the insane chemistry between McBride and Goggins as two nitpicking, insult-trading, overgrown adults is comedy gold. Think of it as Abbott Elementary, but without the wholeheartedness and packed with inappropriate vulgarity in the hallways.

‘I May Destroy You’ (2020)

Image via HBO

Recognized as one of television’s greatest masterpieces, I May Destroy You is an essential watch during a time when sexual consent has become a bigger, more open discourse. Arabella (Michaela Coel) is a London-based writer with a huge social media following, currently under pressure to finish the follow-up to her successful second book. To let off some steam, Arabella spends the night with her friends at a local bar, only to wake up disoriented and sexually assaulted.

I May Destroy You doesn’t center solely on the assault itself, but rather on Arabella’s attempt to process the trauma. As is often the case with such experiences, her memories are fragmented, and she struggles to piece together what really happened that night. At the same time, the world keeps moving, forcing her to expedite her recovery in an environment that doesn’t pause for her pain. Arabella’s healing is anything but linear. She becomes a walking contradiction, trying to make sense of something she sometimes doubts was even real. At the same time, she channels her trauma into various outlets, some more successful than others.

‘Perry Mason’ (2020–2023)

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Decades before the likes of Mickey Haller from The Lincoln Lawyer, there was defense attorney Perry Mason (Matthew Rhys). Set in 1932 Los Angeles, Perry Mason follows the flawed attorney-slash-private investigator as he works in the aftermath of the Great Depression and the rise of Hollywood. The combination of the two makes the perfect setting for corruption to slip through, whether it’s by criminals or the political system.

However, Mason isn’t perfect either. Still grappling with the trauma of World War I, he lacks any sense of stability in his personal life. A struggling alcoholic, his marriage is on the rocks, and he’s barely getting by with what little he has. Though he becomes the face of the courtroom, Mason isn’t above taking shady deals or bending the rules to crack a case. Don’t expect clear-cut victories. He’s often choosing the lesser evil, all while trying to keep himself from falling apart.

‘Animals.’ (2016–2018)

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New York City is home to 8.48 million people, but they’re not the only inhabitants of the Big Apple. As the title suggests, Animals. features a special group of characters: living, breathing, talking animals. It’s not just house cats in apartments or puppies playing in dog parks — the series also follows moths intoxicated by midnight neon lights and the horses often used in tourist carriages. Through separate episodes, these animals question life’s conundrums, but from an anthropomorphic point of view.

These animals go through distinctly human experiences, ranging from the ordinary — like dating — to the experimental, such as drug use, and even the philosophical, like existential dread. However, don’t expect any major revelations. Much of the show’s commentary leans toward observation, with Animals. focusing more on capturing the senseless absurdity of everyday life — an absurdity that mirrors the city itself. The use of animals is simply an added quirk, allowing viewers to see human behavior from a non-human perspective.

‘The Leftovers’ (2014–2017)

The Leftovers imagines an apocalypse where people give up on finding the truth. The series begins in the aftermath of the “Sudden Departure,” when 2% of the world’s population vanishes without warning or explanation. Instead of searching for answers, many of those left behind remain confused, fractured, and in denial. The cast includes Justin Theroux, Carrie Coon, Margaret Qualley, and Liv Tyler.

It isn’t the easiest show to watch, but it lingers with you. In a world stripped of meaning, the survivors struggle to create new purpose for themselves. The show follows ordinary people as they confront the impossible yet undeniable truth that their loved ones can vanish instantly without explanation. On top of that, they try to figure out what’s left to hold on to when everything else feels gone.

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The Leftovers

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2014 – 2017-00-00

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Damon Lindelof

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Damon Lindelof, Tom Perrotta

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The worst remakes of beloved ’70s movies usually commit the same fatal sin: they inherit a premise that already had pressure built into it, then flatten that pressure into product. The ’70s were messy, nervous, suspicious, and often spiritually bruised. Even the populist hits from that decade had grit in the joints. The violence felt uglier. Institutions felt less trustworthy. Men looked weaker, angrier, more confused, or more morally compromised. Women in genre films were often trapped inside systems that looked normal from the outside and rotten from within. The atmosphere mattered because the culture’s nerves were already exposed.

That is exactly why so many remakes of ’70s movies feel weirdly bloodless even when they are louder, slicker, and more expensive. They remember the thing you can put on a poster. They forget the social panic, the grime, the moral trap, the class resentment, the suburban dread, the humiliating vulnerability. A good remake has to understand what hurt in the original. These movies mostly just remember what sold.

10

‘Halloween’ (2007)

Image via Dimension Films 

Rob Zombie’s Halloween is not empty in the way some of the others are. It has intention. It has grime. It has a filmmaker’s fingerprint all over it. That is part of what makes the failure so interesting. This is not a cynical Xerox. It is a sincere misunderstanding. John Carpenter’s original is terrifying because Michael Myers (Nick Castle) is less a person than an intrusion. He is blankness with a knife. He drifts through suburbia and makes ordinary space feel spiritually unsafe. Hedges, sidewalks, afternoon light, babysitting, all of it starts to feel cursed because Michael is barely legible in human terms.

Zombie hates that kind of abstraction. He wants filth, abuse, broken homes, humiliations, ugly social roots. So he stuffs Michael’s childhood with explanation. The trouble is, explanation is not depth here. It is reduction. Michael becomes less mythic, less impossible, less like evil moving through space and more like a case file screaming for attention. That would already be a problem, but Zombie’s other weakness piles on top of it: everybody in the movie lives at the same shrill, vulgar register. Laurie Strode (Scout Taylor-Compton) and Dr. Loomis (Malcolm McDowell) are trapped inside a world that is degraded from frame one. And horror like Halloween needs contrast. It needs clean air before the poison. This version starts poisoned, which sounds “darker” until you realize fear has nowhere left to spread.

9

‘The Longest Yard’ (2005)

Image via Paramount Pictures

The original The Longest Yard is one of those deceptively loose ’70s movies that actually knows exactly what it is doing. On the surface, it’s just convicts playing football. But when you peel a layer, it is actually anti-authoritarian sports comedy built on humiliation, macho ruin, institutional sadism, and the weird dignity that can emerge in a rigged system when losers decide they would still rather hit back than behave. Paul Crewe (Burt Reynolds) in the original is already disgraced, already morally compromised, already spiritually beaten down in that perfect ’70s antihero way.

The remake turns a lot of that into broader, more crowd-pleasing underdog entertainment. That is not a crime in itself. A remake can shift the register. But the writing keeps softening the bitterness that made the original bite. Paul Crewe (Adam Sandler) is more digestible, less corroded, more built for eventual likability. The prison becomes a comedy venue more than a pressure system. Even when the movie has fun, and it sometimes does, it feels safer than it should. A prison-football movie should still have some meanness in its bloodstream. This one is too eager to entertain cleanly.

8

‘Death Wish’ (2018)

Image via MGM

The ugly beauty of the original Death Wish is that it never really lets Paul Kersey (Charles Bronson) off the hook. The movie knows the revenge fantasy is seductive, but it also understands that seduction as moral damage. Bronson’s Kersey does not become some triumphant action icon in any spiritually healthy sense. He hardens. He narrows. The city’s violence enters him and rearranges what he is willing to be. That discomfort is the point. Vigilantism is not just empowerment there. It is infection.

The remake keeps the bones and throws away too much of the infection. Paul Kersey (Bruce Willis) should feel like a man crossing into a state he cannot come back from, but the writing keeps smoothing that descent into more familiar action-revenge mechanics. Once that happens, you lose the queasiness that made the original worth arguing about. Revenge movies are easy. Morally ugly revenge movies that implicate the audience in the pleasure are harder. The remake wants the gunfire and the outrage while avoiding too much of the rot. And that is exactly what this story should never avoid.

7

‘Straw Dogs’ (2011)

Image via Screen Gems

This is one of the most difficult remakes on the list because Sam Peckinpah’s original Straw Dogs is simply about humiliation, sexual tension, masculine weakness, social performance, class resentment, intellectual fragility, and the horrifying way violence can awaken things a man would rather believe are not in him. David Sumner (Dustin Hoffman) in the original is not a sturdy hero pushed too far either but a man who does not know what force lives inside him until the siege demands an answer, and the answer is not cleansing. It is sickening.

The remake translates too much of that unease into more standard Southern-hostility thriller energy. David Sumner (James Marsden) is less spiritually baffling than the role needs to be, and the whole conflict becomes more legible in ways that weaken it. The locals are hostile, the marriage is tense, the old boyfriend energy is bad, the house becomes a battleground, all the plot machinery is there. But Straw Dogs should feel morally dangerous. You should be watching a man become competent at violence and feel no comfort in it at all. The remake does not fully trust that discomfort. It starts behaving more like a siege thriller and less like a nightmare about civilization cracking open to reveal how thin it was.

6

‘The Taking of Pelham 123’ (2009)

Image via Columbia Pictures

The original The Taking of Pelham 123 is a great urban pressure-cooker thriller because it understands that systems are dramatic. A hijacked subway train, city bureaucracy, labor tensions, criminal intelligence, civic personality, procedural improvisation, all of it clicks because every human being feels positioned inside a larger machine that is overheating. The threat is not just the gunmen. The threat is that New York itself has to respond as a living, burdened organism.

The remake keeps the basic skeleton and inflates the personalities. That sounds fun in theory. Walter Garber (Denzel Washington) and Ryder (John Travolta) should be electric on paper. But the film keeps pushing everything outward, toward bigger acting, bigger score cues, bigger emotional emphasis, and in doing so it loses the elegant procedural tension of the original. Ryder becomes more performative and less unnerving. Garber gets bulked up into a more explicitly guilty, redemptive protagonist. The result is not terrible scene to scene, but the story loses the civic tightness that made the original feel so alive. The machine has been replaced by star wattage.

5

‘Rollerball’ (2002)

Image via Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures

The original Rollerball is one of the coolest examples of science fiction and action working together without either side getting dumbed down for the other. The sport matters because the politics matter. Corporate power wants spectacle without individual transcendence. The public gets addicted to violence. The player becomes a problem the second he starts looking too singular, too legendary, too human inside the machine. Jonathan E. (James Caan) is compelling because his very persistence begins threatening the logic of the system. That is a real idea. That is not just a setup.

The remake seems to have looked at the title and concluded that rollerblading violence, MTV editing, metallic chaos, and nihilist sports energy would be enough. But without the social idea, it is just noise. Jonathan Cross (Chris Klein) never becomes symbolically dangerous to the world around him. He is merely present inside it. And that is devastating for a story like this. Rollerball should make mass entertainment feel politically sinister. The remake behaves like mass entertainment already won and nobody writing it was smart enough to notice.

4

‘Get Carter’ (2000)

Image via Warner Bros. Pictures

The original Get Carter is one of the meanest, most clear-eyed revenge films ever made. Jack Carter (Michael Caine) returns home as a dangerous man already shaped by vice, crime, and emotional hardening (not as a romantic Avenger). The film works because the investigation into his brother’s death becomes a guided tour through a city’s rot, and Carter is not morally above any of it. He belongs to the same darkness he is moving through. That is what gives the revenge its foul taste.

The remake keeps trying to make Jack Carter more sympathetic in a way that weakens the whole enterprise. Jack Carter (Sylvester Stallone) becomes more mournful, more recognizably bruised, more conventionally redeemable. But Get Carter is not supposed to redeem its avenger. It is supposed to let him cut through filth like somebody who already carries the same stain. The more accessible the hero becomes, the less poisonous the story is. And once the poison is gone, you are left with a revenge movie that has style residue and very little soul.

3

‘The Stepford Wives’ (2004)

Image via Paramount

This one is especially infuriating because the original is such a razor-sharp genre concept. It is not “men turn wives into robots” in some goofy high-concept vacuum. It is suburban misogyny rendered as science-fiction horror. It is the male fantasy of frictionless domesticity turned into annihilation. Women do not merely become obedient. They are emptied out, polished, displayed, and stripped of real personhood so their husbands never again have to cope with female will, mess, thought, contradiction, or independence. The chill in the original comes from how recognizable the desire underneath the horror is.

The remake turns that into upscale camp. Not clever poison. Not destabilizing satire. Camp. That decision kills almost everything. Joanna Eberhart (Nicole Kidman) should feel like a woman watching the language of perfect home life turn mechanically predatory around her. Instead the film keeps tipping toward broadness, reassurance, and audience-safe joke rhythms. It is too charmed by its own decorative world. The Stepford premise only bites when the film is willing to say something ugly and specific about how patriarchy dreams of femininity. This version mostly wants to be glossy and cute in a story that absolutely should not be cute.

2

‘The Omen’ (2006)

Image via 20th Century Fox

This is the most frustratingly faithful failure on the list. You can feel the movie trying to assure horror fans that it remembers all the right stations: Damien’s eerie presence, the nanny, the priest warnings, the church panic, the family dread, the accidental revelation that your child may be a vessel for apocalypse. All the pieces are there. And that is exactly why the weakness becomes so obvious. It proves, scene by scene, that remembering the beats is not the same as carrying the dread.

The original The Omen was so loved because it treats its premise with terrifying seriousness. Robert Thorn (Gregory Peck) slowly realizes that modern privilege, diplomacy, fatherhood, and rationality may all be useless against a biblical evil already growing inside his own house. The remake copies the map and misses the conviction. Robert Thorn (Liev Schreiber) and Katherine Thorn (Julia Stiles) move through the same broad ordeal, but the movie never makes you feel the full spiritual indecency of what is happening. The Antichrist should not feel like a franchise concept but reality itself curdling.

1

‘The Wicker Man’ (2006)

Image Via Warner Bros.

This had to be number one because it is the clearest example here of a remake not merely failing, but failing to comprehend its original on the level of worldview. The Wicker Man is not about a weird island and pagans. It is about ideological collision. It is about a devout, sexually repressed, morally rigid Christian policeman walking into a culture whose rituals, eroticism, and social harmony are all structured around a completely different understanding of life, sacrifice, fertility, and order. The horror comes from the fact that he thinks he is investigating them when really they have already read him perfectly. The ending, therefore, becomes not just shocking but cosmological. His belief system is not enough to save him from theirs.

The remake throws almost all of that away. It swaps in paternal guilt, louder conspiracy-thriller mechanics, and a more generalized “creepy isolated community” approach that completely misses the original’s spiritual trap. Edward Malus (Nicolas Cage) is not undone by the limitations of his own moral certainty in the same way Sergeant Howie (Edward Woodward) was. He is just dragged through increasingly bizarre set pieces until the movie bursts into camp notoriety. The memes do not even annoy me as much as the misunderstanding does. The original burns because every ritual, every smile, every song, every sensual provocation has been tightening the same noose. The remake just flails. And that is why it sits at the bottom. It does not know what kind of story it is desecrating.

Paramount+ had a very revealing U.S. chart on May 8, 2026, because the top of the TV list was not controlled by one of the platform’s newer prestige plays. South Park held No. 1, but the more interesting movement came directly beneath it: a long-running CBS police procedural landed at No. 2, while Taylor Sheridan’s Marshals dropped to No. 4. This is interesting because Sheridan’s TV universe has been one of Paramount’s strongest identity engines, yet the movement shows older broadcast muscle still competing hard inside the same streaming ecosystem.

The daily pattern makes the result sharper. Earlier in the week, Marshals had topped Paramount+’s U.S. TV chart on May 5, while South Park led on May 4, May 6, May 8, and May 9. The CBS procedural also briefly took the top TV spot on May 7, proving its No. 2 placement the next day had substance instead of being a mere library bump. The Amazon Channels overall chart gives Sheridan some balance, since Marshals still ranked No. 1 there, but on Paramount+’s main U.S. TV chart, the procedural clearly outranked it.

That procedural is NCIS, which sat at No. 2 on Paramount+ in the United States on May 8, ahead of Survivor at No. 3 and Marshals at No. 4. The win is especially impressive because NCIS is not a shiny new launch but a long-running CBS institution with hundreds of episodes, familiar case-of-the-week comfort, and built-in rewatch value. Against a newer Taylor Sheridan title, that kind of durability is exactly the story: Paramount+ still runs on franchise heat, but CBS procedurals remain its streaming backbone.

What Else Is Currently Trending on Paramount+?

Image via CBS

Beyond NCIS and Marshals, Paramount+’s May 8 U.S. chart has a mix of legacy comfort, action rewatch titles, and surprise catalog movement. Top Gun: Maverick is leading the movie chart at No. 1, followed by Gasoline Alley, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, Primate, and The Mechanic. But the deeper movie list is where the fun is: 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi at No. 7, Jack Reacher sits at No. 9, and Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle is at #8, which is an extremely niche, interesting title to be trending in 2026.

Both NCIS and Marshals are available to stream on Paramount+. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.

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Release Date

September 23, 2003

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Showrunner

Donald P. Bellisario

Directors

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Dennis Smith, Terrence O’Hara, Tony Wharmby, James Whitmore Jr., Thomas J. Wright, Michael Zinberg, Arvin Brown, Rocky Carroll, Diana Valentine, Leslie Libman, Tawnia McKiernan, Colin Bucksey, William Webb, Bethany Rooney, Alrick Riley, Jeff Woolnough, Alan J. Levi, Lionel Coleman, Martha Mitchell, Peter Ellis, Michael Weatherly, Edward Ornelas, Stephen Cragg, Tom Wright

Writers

George Schenck, Frank Cardea, Jesse Stern, John C. Kelley, Jennifer Corbett, Christopher Silber, Reed Steiner, Nicole Mirante-Matthews, Jack Bernstein, Scott J. Jarrett, Matthew R. Jarrett, Kimberly-Rose Wolter, Don McGill, Gil Grant, Frank Military, Nell Scovell, Steven Kriozere, Brian Dietzen, Kate Torgovnick May, Jeff Vlaming, Sydney Mitchel, Katie White, Richard C. Arthur, Laurence Walsh

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  Sean Murray

  Timothy McGee

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  david mccallum

  Dr. Donald ‘Ducky’ Mallard

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Netflix has a new crime drama breaking out globally, and its early chart movement is already wider than the usual “British show doing well at home” story. The six-part series launched on May 7, and by May 9, it is already inside Netflix’s Top 10 in 39 countries, currently sitting at No. 10 globally, as per FlixPatrol.

The most important detail is how evenly it’s traveling. The show’s chart come-up is strongest in its natural home market, ranking No. 3 in the United Kingdom, but the spread is much bigger than that: No. 4 in Ireland and Canada, No. 7 in Australia, and No. 8 in the United States. Across Europe, it is also holding steady in the middle of the Top 10, including No. 5 in Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Serbia, and Sweden, plus No. 6 placements across countries like Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Romania, Slovenia, and Ukraine. That tells you the hook is landing internationally: ’90s Britain, drugs flooding the streets, and state workers forced into the criminal underworld.

The title of the show is Legends, starring Tom Burke, Steve Coogan, Tom Hughes, Aml Ameen, Jasmine Blackborow, Hayley Squires, Douglas Hodge, Johnny Harris, and Charlotte Ritchie. The show plays like Narcos and Peaky Blinders had a baby, combining the drug-war machinery of the former with the period British crime texture of the latter.

‘Legends’ IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes Scores Make It Look Like a Strong Watch

Image via Netflix

Legends looks genuinely worth trying, but its current ratings point to a specific kind of appeal. IMDb currently has it at 7.8/10 from 334 ratings, while over at Rotten Tomatoes, Legends Season 1 has a 92% critics’ score, and the Popcornmeter is still too early. Nonetheless, those two figures are already convincing enough to try it out. The hook, too, is sharp, and since the show is spread over six episodes, it is a strong binge-watch for viewers who like controlled, adult crime thrillers.

Legends is currently available to stream on Netflix. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.

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Release Date

May 7, 2026

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Netflix

Directors

Brady Hood, Julian Holmes

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While Pete Davidson and Elsie Hewitt figure out their next steps as a couple, they are especially glad to be parents to daughter Scottie Rose.

“We’re all here because of a mother’s sacrifice to make herself your first home,” Hewitt, 30, captioned throwback photos from her pregnancy via Instagram on Sunday, May 10. “I got to be Scottie’s❣️. [It is the] greatest honor of my life. Happy Mother’s Day.”

Davidson, 32, and Hewitt welcomed their first child in December 2025, naming Scottie after the comedian’s late father. (Davidson’s dad, Scott, was a firefighter who died in the line of duty while responding to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York City.)

“The best thing I’ve been telling people is [that Scottie is] the biggest gift,” Davidson exclusively told Us Weekly one month after Scottie’s birth. “Nothing else matters as much or intensely, like career, activities, hanging out with people [or] what do people think of me, that sort of s***. I still want to do cool stuff, but it’s like, ‘Well, how long do I have to be away?’ Or ‘Is this worth being away?’”

Related: Pete Davidson and Elsie Hewitt Are ‘Figuring Out’ Their Future After Baby

Pete Davidson and Elise Hewitt are “figuring out what they want” in their relationship months after welcoming daughter Scottie. “They are working things out,” a source with knowledge of the couple tells Us Weekly exclusively. “They are on their own timeframe and it’s up to them to make a decision about their future.” The insider […]

Davidson also told Us that it was “f***ing awesome” watch Hewitt be a mom.

“The whole time I was very sure and knew that she would be great at being a mom. She’s very caring and, almost to a fault, puts everybody else’s needs first,” the Saturday Night Live alum gushed at the time. “It’s really just sweet to see how on top of things she is, and … if [Scottie is] crying, [Elsie] knows exactly what to do. She has, like, little tricks that get her to relax or calm down, and all that stuff is really f***ing cool to watch and see.”

Davidson continued, “She definitely will wake up every three, four hours just to check the Nanit [baby monitor], like, no matter what, the Nanit app is open on Elsie’s phone. She’s always making sure that the baby’s all set. … She genuinely enjoys it, which is great, and we both do.”

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Nearly four months later, a source told Us that Davidson and Hewitt were “figuring out what they want” in their relationship.

“They are working things out,” the insider shared earlier this month. “They are on their own timeframe and it’s up to them to make a decision about their future.”

Davidson and Hewitt have been romantically linked since March 2025. Neither star has  publicly addressed their current relationship status.

Tieghan Gerard rose to online fame after capturing readers’ attention with her Half Baked Harvest recipes.

“One day, when I was 16, my mom and I were hiking together,” she wrote on her website, going on to explain how she decided on the name. “She was encouraging me to start a food blog since all I did in my free time was cook! She came up with the ‘half baked’ part of our name – because my family is very ‘half baked.’ And by that I mean we’re a little all over the place and crazy! I’ve just always loved the word harvest, so Half Baked Harvest it was!”

While publishing several cookbooks, Gerard has continued to share her love of cooking to her more than 5.4 million Instagram followers. In 2026, however, Gerard revealed she had decided to take a step back from social media after dealing with “haters.”

Scroll down to learn more about Gerard:

Tieghan Gerard Grew Up in Ohio

Gerard shared on her Half Baked Harvest website that she spent the first 14 years of her life in Cleveland, Ohio, before her family relocated to “the very snowy mountains of Colorado.”

“I now live in a converted horse barn and work out of a studio barn that we built next door. It is a special place that I was able to design entirely around my lifestyle,” she wrote. “It’s where I shot my third cookbook, and where I spend my days experimenting with new recipes, photographing my creations, feeding my family, and making one giant mess in the process. My hope is to inspire a love for food in others, as well as the courage to try something new!”

Tieghan Gerard Has 7 Siblings

Gerard is one of seven siblings. “I have 7 siblings…6 brothers and 1 sister. Here we are in order: Creighton, Trevor, Brendan, Tieghan, Malachi, Red, Asher, and Oslo,” she shared on her website. Gerard noted that her younger brother Oslo was adopted at birth.

Tieghan Gerard Went to Fashion School

At the age of 18, Gerard attended fashion school in Los Angeles for design and merchandising. Gerard, however, moved back home after giving it a go.

“My entire life I had big plans to live in LA and be a fashion stylist. I moved to LA and was all set to attend school at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising when I decided that living in LA wasn’t for me. I was young and totally homesick, so I moved my butt back home,” she told All Sorts Of. “It was my mom who encouraged me to finally start HBH. Once I started writing, cooking and photographing I never looked back, and have been working on it ever since.”

Tieghan Gerard Has Been the Recipient of Several Awards

After starting her blog in 2012, Gerard went on to be featured on Food Network, HGTV and more outlets. Half Baked Harvest was named Readers’ Choice Favorite Food Blog by Better Homes and Gardens in 2014 and 2016, and Gerard also received the Saveur Magazine’s 2016 Award for Most Inspired Weeknight Dinners and the 2016 Bloglovin’ Best Food Blog Award, according to her website.

Tieghan Gerard Took a Step Back From Social Media

In 2026, Gerard took to her Instagram Story to explain that she had taken a bit of a step back from social media after dealing with “haters.”

“I just had to take a step back, but I’m back, you guys,” she said at the time. “I feel so excited, I feel so good. I am here in Miami right now, just soaking up the sunshine, I’m working [and] all things. Everything is so, so good, and at the end of the day, I am just here to share beautiful things with you guys. I’m here to share my beautiful recipes with you guys [and] beautiful ways to present those recipes.”

While Gerard’s posts have sparked controversy online regarding claims of cultural appropriation, intellectual property, privilege and body shaming, she denied any intentional harm. Gerard shared that she wanted to be able to “share [her] life” with her followers.

“It’s so special to me, and you know I love it so much,” she added, offering a life update since her online hiatus. “I’m in Miami. I’m renting here for a year. I needed to get away from the cold, I needed to get away from Colorado, be in a very big, warm, sunshine place. You know I love it here.”

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Gerard continued, “I love being able to work here and actually being able to see my family so much more. It’s been so special, and I’m so excited to spend some time here and share it with you guys because I have so much to share. We’re working on so many things behind the scenes.”

While Gerard has been “proud” of her upcoming Half Baked Harvest launches, she said she felt “sad” that she couldn’t express much on social media.

“Finally today, I was like, ‘You know what? I don’t want to do that anymore,’” she quipped. “I don’t want to be quiet. You can take it, you can leave it, you can criticize me all you want, but I love doing this. I’m only here to share a little bit of good and happiness, and that’s all I really care about at the end of the day.”

Sitcoms make for the best comfort shows, due to their familiar characters, frequent jokes, and cozy settings. Sometimes, these series will get the opportunity to go on for a number of seasons, following the characters and their dynamics through the years. This can be a real gift for sitcom fans, but sometimes, the shows can lose steam in their later seasons. Some of the very best sitcoms have at least one season that fans can generally agree is weaker than the rest of the show, including New Girl, The Office, and Friends.

There are some sitcoms, though, without a single bad season. Some of these are shorter series that never got the opportunity to really hit the ground running, while others had a full run, but still managed to stay strong throughout. These shows are excellent both upon a first watch and upon rewatching, because there is no noticeable dip in quality at all over the course of their run. These are the sitcoms that are amazing from start to finish.

‘One Day at a Time’ (2017–2020)

Image via Netflix

Based on the 1975 sitcom of the same name, One Day at a Time follows the Alvarez family: Penelope (Justina Machado), her children, Elena (Isabella Gomez) and Alex (Marcel Ruiz), and her mother, Lydia (Rita Moreno). The four of them all live together, and often clash in hilarious ways due to being in such close quarters together. They are also unusually close with their landlord, Schneider (Todd Grinnell), who is always popping in and out of their apartment.

One Day at a Time had an unusual run, in which it was cancelled by Netflix after three seasons, then only got to air an incomplete Season 4 on Pop TV. Still, though, every season of One Day at a Time is still very strong. The series combines a number of funny moments, like the running gag of Lydia dramatically opening the curtains to her bedroom, with much more heartfelt scenes of the family supporting each other.

‘What We Do in the Shadows’ (2019–2024)

Image via FX

Based on the 2014 film of the same name, What We Do in the Shadows is a mockumentary-style sitcom that focuses on the lives and afterlives of four vampires and their familiar. They all live together in a Staten Island mansion, and the series follows their antics as both housemates and vampires. Once sent to New York City to conquer the tri-state area, the vampires often get caught up in much more mundane day-to-day activities.

What We Do in the Shadows is wildly funny throughout its six seasons, with the inclusion of new characters, shocking plot twists, and well-written pieces of lore throughout. The vampires’ afterlives change throughout the series, as they try out new jobs and hobbies, and take on new roles within both their community and their neighborhood. At the center of What We Do in the Shadows, though, is a hilarious living situation made up of five very different beings.

‘Schitt’s Creek’ (2015–2020)

Image via CBC Television

Schitt’s Creek follows the wealthy and famous Rose family: longtime married couple Johnny (Eugene Levy) and Moira (Catherine O’Hara), and their adult children, David (Dan Levy) and Alexis (Annie Murphy). When all the Roses’ money gets stolen, they end up having to move to Schitt’s Creek, a small town that Johnny once bought as a joke. Throughout their time living in Schitt’s Creek, the Roses get close to each other again, and they reevaluate their priorities.

Although Schitt’s Creek really hit its stride about halfway through, each one of its seasons is absolutely fantastic. The Roses are such well-written and unique characters, that even the most ordinary errands and scenarios become wildly funny when they are involved. The show has the perfect balance of humor and heart throughout, as the Roses’ core flaws and personality traits stay the same, but they all each experience a great deal of growth.

‘Santa Clarita Diet’ (2017–2019)

Image via Netflix

Santa Clarita Diet follows Sheila (Drew Barrymore) and Joel Hammond (Timothy Olyphant), a happily married couple who also work together as a realtor duo. They live a quiet, comfortable life in the suburbs of Santa Clarita, until Sheila suddenly starts exhibiting some odd behaviors. Alongside their daughter, Abby (Liv Hewson), and neighbor, Eric (Skyler Gisondo), Sheila and Joel soon learn that Sheila is now undead.

With the perfect blend of creative zombie lore, hilariously morbid antics, and high stakes, Santa Clarita Diet is a fantastic dark comedy. It is a classic family sitcom with a wild supernatural twist, in which Sheila is thrilled about her newfound zest for life – until she realizes that she now has to kill and eat people in order to survive. Santa Clarita Diet was sadly cancelled after just three seasons, but each one of its seasons includes new twists and turns that elevate the show.

‘Crashing’ (2016)

Image via Channel 4

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Even with only six episodes, Crashing is an absolute delight of a hangout comedy. The sitcom follows a group of people who all live together in an abandoned hospital, where they are property managers in order to save money. The group dynamic shifts after they host a party, when two new people move in: Lulu (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), whose childhood friend lives there with his fiancée, and Colin (Adrian Scarborough), who is struggling after a divorce.

Crashing easily could have gone on for many more seasons, but its first season is amazing as is. The series explores the drama and hilarious antics of the residents of the former hospital, with awkward dinner parties, odd confessions in the form of ukelele songs, and a number of bizarrely specific fights. Its single season may be short, but it gives each of the main characters and dynamics some really excellent development.

‘The Good Place’ (2016–2020)

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The Good Place follows Eleanor Shellstrop (Kristen Bell), a selfish woman who suddenly dies and gets sent to The Good Place by mistake. In order to avoid getting exposed and sent to The Bad Place, Eleanor convinces her mistakenly-assigned soulmate, former ethics and moral philosophy professor Chidi Anagonye (William Jackson Harper), to teach her how to be a good person.

Each of The Good Place‘s four seasons is very intentional in how it continues the main story, while also developing a specific arc for that installment. It is a wildly funny show that also gives really incredible character development to each of its main characters, and that contains a number of brilliantly-executed plot twists and reveals. Four seasons was the perfect number to tell this story, and the show’s series finale is easily one of the best in sitcom history.

‘Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23’ (2012–2014)

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Even though it was cancelled after just two seasons, Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23 is still a fantastic sitcom with a satisfying ending. The series follows June Colburn (Dreama Walker), an optimistic woman who moves to New York City for her dream job. When the job falls through, June has to move in with Chloe (Krysten Ritter), a charismatic con-woman and party girl who uses her extra room to scam people for money.

June and Chloe turn out to be the perfect match as roommates, and their dynamic is absolutely hilarious. Each episode of Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23 shows Chloe cooking up an elaborate scheme, and June often somehow getting reluctantly dragged into it. Rounding out the main cast of characters are James Van Der Beek as a fictionalized version of himself, alongside his personal assistant, Luther (Ray Ford), June and Chloe’s neighbors, Robin (Liza Lapira) and Eli (Michael Blaiklock), and June’s boss, Mark (Eric André).

‘Happy Endings’ (2011–2013)

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Happy Endings follows an extremely close and codependent group of friends living in Chicago: Jane (Eliza Coupe), Brad (Damon Wayans Jr.), Penny (Casey Wilson), Max (Adam Pally), Dave (Zachary Knighton), and Alex (Elisha Cuthbert). When Alex leaves Dave at the altar, the friends have to deal with the awkwardness and anger between the two of them in the wake of their breakup.

Although it was sadly cancelled after just three seasons, Happy Endings is an amazing sitcom throughout each of its seasons. Happy Endings has sharp dialogue, an excellent sense of humor, and a unique cast of characters with detailed lore. It explores the hilarious antics of the group, from their specific traditions and holidays, to lies that spin out of control, to an intense and over-the-top prank war.

‘Galavant’ (2016–2017)

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Galavant follows a once-successful knight named Galavant (Joshua Sasse) who’s been moping around since his former love, Madalena (Mallory Jansen), left him for the evil King Richard (Timothy Omundson). When the desperate Princess Isabella (Karen David) asks Galavant to help save her kingdom from King Richard, he declines, until she reveals that Madalena misses him.

Galavant then embarks on a quest to King Richard’s castle with Isabella and his squire, Sid (Luke Youngblood). Little does he know, though, the whole thing is a trap so that Richard can kill him. Galavant is such a funny and clever show, with over-the-top musical numbers, epic battle scenes, and some excellent character development. The series was cancelled after two seasons, but each of its seasons is truly fantastic.

‘BoJack Horseman’ (2014–2020)

BoJack Horseman was very intentional with its storytelling over the course of its six seasons. The result is a TV show with careful attention to detail, excellent continuity, and some truly brilliant character arcs. The series follows BoJack Horseman (Will Arnett), a washed-up former sitcom star who’s still clinging onto his previous fame. Throughout the show, BoJack is met with both new career opportunities, as well as difficult situations where he often makes the wrong decision.

BoJack Horseman takes full advantage of its sitcom structure to parody and call out the flaws of the sitcom, while also honoring all the best parts of the genre. The series tells a really heartbreaking and emotional story, which it expertly balances with wild and over-the-top comedy. Each of BoJack Horseman‘s seasons is a little different, yet they all work together perfectly in the build-up to the show’s unforgettable conclusion.

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BoJack Horseman

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Release Date

2014 – 2020-00-00

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Netflix

Showrunner

Raphael Bob-Waksberg

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Directors

Amy Winfrey, JC Gonzalez, Adam Parton, Joel Moser, Martin Cendreda, Peter Merryman, Matt Mariska, Mike Roberts, Mollie Helms, Tim Rauch

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• 

  BoJack Horseman / BoBo the Angsty Zebra (voice)

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  Todd Chavez / Emperor Fingerface (voice)

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Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are reportedly planning an unconventional two-part wedding, according to sources.

The idea is said to include a large, heavily secured public celebration in Rhode Island alongside a smaller, private ceremony kept out of the spotlight.

Insiders claim that heightened security concerns and repeated leaks have prompted Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce to reconsider their plans.

Swift and Kelce’s wedding might come in two parts, according to sources speaking to OK! Magazine.

This would reportedly be in the form of a large, heavily secured public celebration designed to draw attention, alongside a smaller, private ceremony kept strictly out of the public eye.

The couple, both 36, are believed to be planning to marry in June at Swift’s waterfront estate in Rhode Island, with around 150 guests expected.

The main festivities are said to span her property and nearby luxury locations, including the Ocean House resort. However, ongoing leaks about guest lists, outfits, and scheduling have reportedly forced the planning team to tighten security and rethink the structure of the event.

Insiders claim the heavy media interest and constant speculation have created real safety concerns.

One source told the publication that the “strategy being discussed is to hold one large, highly visible celebration with extensive security, which effectively acts as a decoy, while a second, much smaller ceremony.”

“The idea is that by putting on a big, headline-grabbing day, it draws attention away from the real, more meaningful moment – she believes that will reduce the risk of stalkers or troublemakers attempting to track her movements on a second big day,” the source added.

The Lovebirds’ Wedding Security Reportedly Tightened Amid Major Privacy Concerns

Security planning is reportedly being treated with extreme seriousness. Another insider noted that too much information has already become public, making strict control essential.

With high-profile attendees expected and expensive fashion and jewelry involved, protection measures are said to be extensive and multi-layered.

Swift’s wedding dress is rumored to take inspiration from classic Hollywood styles, particularly vintage silhouettes similar to Elizabeth Taylor’s 1950 wedding look.

Designers such as Sarah Burton have been mentioned in speculation, though nothing has been confirmed. There is also talk that Swift may incorporate a historic piece of jewelry linked to Taylor.

Taylor Swift And Travis Kelce Want To Keep Their Marriage Traditional And Grounded

Despite the scale of the event, those close to the couple say they are focused on keeping things meaningful and grounded.

Family traditions are expected to play a role, including Swift being walked down the aisle by her father and a classical father-daughter dance.

Friends from Swift’s circle, including Selena Gomez, Gigi Hadid, Emma Stone, and Zoë Kravitz, are expected to attend, along with Kelce’s brother Jason and teammate Patrick Mahomes.

Security is reportedly extending well beyond the venue itself, with surrounding areas monitored and guest movement tightly controlled.

Contingency plans are reportedly in place in case of last-minute changes, though the couple is said to be prioritizing a calm and enjoyable atmosphere.

The Couple Turned Heads In Coordinated Fashion During Stylish London Getaway

Meanwhile, Swift and Kelce have reportedly been spending time together in London this past week, making several public appearances while enjoying a low-key getaway in the city.

On May 8, the pair were photographed walking hand in hand, offering a glimpse of their coordinated, fashion-forward style.

As reported by The Blast, Swift opted for an all-black look featuring a Toteme leather coat layered over a lace-trimmed Staud top and a Fleur du Mal slip skirt. She completed the outfit with a Rabanne leather shoulder bag, Celine strappy sandals, and her hair styled in a soft updo with loose face-framing strands.

Kelce matched her monochrome theme in a relaxed black outfit made up of loose trousers and a long-sleeve button-down shirt, finished with sunglasses and patterned loafers.

Earlier that day, the couple was seen in more formal coordinating outfits. Swift wore a floral Zimmermann midi dress paired with a structured coat from The Row and Larkspur & Hawk earrings, while Kelce dressed in a gray Louis Vuitton suit styled with a black top and subtle accessories.

Taylor Swift And Travis Kelce Enjoy Star-Studded London Night Out

Their London outing reportedly included dinner at the Indian restaurant Gymkhana, where they were joined by cinematographer Rina Yang.

The pair later attended a West End performance of “Romeo & Juliet” at the Harold Pinter Theatre, starring Sadie Sink, who previously worked with Swift on “All Too Well: The Short Film.” Audience members said the couple gave Sink a standing ovation after the show.

The evening continued with a stop at Poppy Delevingne’s 40th birthday celebration at The Hart, followed by an after-party at 77 London.

Guests at the event reportedly included Cara Delevingne, Lily James, Georgia May Jagger, and Princess Eugenie and Princess Beatrice.

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Television has become a great source of suspenseful, agonizing storytelling. Whereas movies only get a couple of hours to establish stakes, define characters, and deliver thrills, a TV show gets episode upon episode and season upon season to outline its characters’ desires and motivations, and to bring the weight of their decisions crashing down upon them.

The medium’s most stressful series span everything from slow-burning murder mysteries to callous immersions in the morality of organized crime, skewering and satirical spins on big business politics, dystopian futures of authoritarianism and abuse, and even farfetched fantasy realms where every misstep can result in a swift and unceremonious demise. They are as addictive as they are excruciating, gaining notoriety and universal acclaim not only for their heart-racing tension, but for their storytelling prowess, performances, and piercing drama as well.

10

‘Severance’ (2022–Present)

Image via Apple TV

Severance is one of the defining series of the 2020s so far. It is also one of the most suspenseful. A cutting marriage of high-concept sci-fi and social commentary on the nature of the modern-day workplace, it revolves around a company where employees undergo a surgical procedure that sees their memories split between their professional experience and their personal lives. When Mark Scout (Adam Scott) has a bizarre encounter with a former colleague in the real world, he sets out to uncover the truth about his job.

Richly psychological, the series implements a cynical tone of unsettling normality serving as a veil to something far more sinister and corrupt. Its dystopian elements complement this intense mood brilliantly, as does the series’ puzzle-like plotting that makes every discovery feel shocking and fills every attempt to get closer to the truth with unpredictability and searing tension. Both of Severance’s seasons thus far have meticulously built up the suspense leading to their finales, while the series’ understanding of the stressful uncertainty of leaving questions unanswered has been a defining quality of its absorbing yet agonizing intensity.

9

‘The Bear’ (2022–2026)

Image via FX

A mixture of dark comedy, piercing character drama, and relentless realism when it comes to depicting the chaos of a kitchen workplace, The Bear conjures a frenzied and fast-paced atmosphere of desperate tension as it revolves around the tumultuous life of Carmy Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White). The series follows the award-winning chef as he returns to his hometown of Chicago to manage his late brother’s sandwich shop. While he is torn between his grief and the mounting responsibilities of operating a restaurant, Carmy strives to achieve his dream by transforming ‘The Beef’ into an acclaimed fine dining establishment.

Carmy’s complex and dysfunctional family environment makes for gripping and often heartbreaking drama, but The Bear finds its enchanting, stressful allure in its presentation of a professional kitchen. Characters shout over each other, unexpected disasters arise, and the constant clock of a streamline of orders immerses viewers in the brutality and bedlam of hospitality. Complimented by razor-sharp writing, exceptional performances, and its claustrophobic, documentary-style camera work, The Bear is a visceral plunge into an environment of anxiety and pressure that marks one of the most arresting yet taxing TV shows in recent years.

8

‘Succession’ (2018–2023)

Image via HBO

While it is well-known for its satirical brilliance and its skewering of inherited wealth and corporate environments, Succession is also a frightfully frantic and stressful series when it wants to be. Revolving around the Roy family, it follows three siblings who battle to showcase their expertise and win the favor of their father as the aging patriarch contemplates stepping down as the head of Waystar RoyCo., a worldwide multimedia conglomerate that is worth billions.

Derived from William Shakespeare’s King Lear, Succession flaunts a dramatic intensity and narrative volatility that is entrancing to watch unfold. Every misstep results in damning humiliation, and every triumph is won through betrayal and manipulation. The acidic and vulgar wit of the dialogue only reinforces this sense of high-stakes stress, promoting an atmosphere of emotional abuse and constant tension that pushes the characters beyond their breaking points, and often drags viewers to similar boundaries. Its four-season run is a meticulously orchestrated train wreck of ambition and ego, and even though the characters are largely unsympathetic, audiences can’t help but be immersed in their world of business politics, where every mistake can be a career-ending, life-altering failure.

7

‘Breaking Bad’ (2008–2013)

Image via Netflix

The greatest series of all time in the eyes of many, Breaking Bad combines the heart-racing allure of crime tension with a harrowing story of moral decay focused on the grim character arc of Walter White (Bryan Cranston). A suburban family man and high school science teacher, White applies his knowledge of chemistry to the cooking of methamphetamine when he is diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer. While his initial desire to amass some quick money for his family is grounded in humanity and goodwill, he soon develops a haunting obsession with power as he becomes embroiled in the drug trade.

While the series starts out with an underlying sense of wry, dark comedy, it very quickly evolves to be a brutally intense story of high-stakes violence and criminal ferocity anchored by White’s descent from a meek everyman to a lethal and cunning villain. Breaking Bad is a series where every action matters, and every action has consequences, a storytelling quality that makes audiences agonize over every decision characters make and every calamitous disaster that unfolds.

6

‘The Pitt’ (2025–Present)

Image via HBO

A medical series that commits to relentless realism rather than character-driven melodrama, The Pitt is a ruthlessly frenetic immersion into the nature of healthcare work. Both seasons so far have used their 15-episode runs to explore the chaos of a 15-hour shift in the Pittsburgh Medical Trauma Center’s emergency room in real time, following the overworked and burned-out staff as they strive to save lives despite facing obstacles in the form of debilitating systemic bureaucracy, mounting emotional duress, and the limitations of their underfunded ER.

What few moments of respite the series does offer from its non-stop tension are used to delve into the frazzled and exhausted mindsets of the hospital workers, a subtle and humane focus that only adds to the intensity when they are then thrust into the operating room to save someone’s life. Also exploring such confronting themes as PTSD, suicidal ideation, socio-political tensions, and the untreated mental health crisis in modern America, The Pitt is a procession of stress and panic that brings one of the most demanding workplace environments in the world to the screen in a manner that is mentally, emotionally, and even physically draining.

5

‘The Wire’ (2002–2008)

Image via HBO

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With its epic scope covering every element of crime, corruption, and institutionalized rot across a city, The Wire is one of the most ambitious and awe-inspiring series ever made. However, the HBO masterpiece isn’t just an anxiety-fueled immersion into police procedures and organized crime, but an emotionally devastating exploration of morality and hopelessness in the most damned corners of American society. Operating as a visual novel, it explores the hierarchy of Baltimore’s drug trade while depicting police efforts to curtail organized crime, even as bureaucratic processes and political interference intercede with their operations.

Its storytelling is incredibly efficient and mentally demanding, while its grim realism conjures a penetrating urgency in its story and the litany of jaded and desperate characters it follows. Season 4’s emphasis on the city’s public school system and how youths become involved in gang violence is particularly harrowing, but the entire series’ endeavor to showcase real-world violence through a lens of humanity and understanding ensures every single episode is a masterpiece of intense crime drama.

4

‘Game of Thrones’ (2011–2019)

Image via HBO

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When it was operating at the peak of its powers, there was no more stress-inducing series in the history of television than Game of Thrones. Based on George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire novel series, the stunning HBO production transpires in the fantasy realms of Westeros and Essos as the most powerful families in the land engage in a ruthless war for power defined by political conniving and devastating betrayals.

The series quickly gained notoriety for its penchant for killing off main characters, creating an imposing sense of tension and terror as no one was ever safe, and, when beloved characters did meet their demise, it was typically bloody and brutal. It was exciting and even addictive when it was airing, creating a true cultural phenomenon as millions of viewers around the world agonized over who would die next and what deceitful and sinister plot might be enacted to change the course of the war. While its underwhelming final season did strip the series of much of its prestige and pressing intensity, Game of Thrones remains one of the most viscerally stressful shows television lovers have ever been treated to.

3

‘Oz’ (1997–2003)

Image via HBO

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Conjuring obscenely stressful viewing from its unflinching immersion in life in a maximum-security prison, Oz marks a raw and savage beginning to the modern era of prestige television drama that stands as HBO’s first-ever one-hour-long scripted drama. The six-season series doesn’t run with a progressive narrative as much as it delves into the atmosphere of despair and anxiety that emerges when the Oswald Maximum Security Correctional Facility integrates a vast array of inmates in an experimental new wing designed to encourage reform over punishment.

Between the simmering hostility of gangland violence, the inhuman and domineering brutality of masculinity and sadism, and even the disturbing amorality exhibited by many of the prisoners, Oz is a ferocious and unforgiving exploration of real-world evil. This relentless tone of fear and depravity is only bolstered by the series’ intense and immersive camera work, with its documentary-style rawness establishing a claustrophobic atmosphere of helplessness where no character is safe from the eruption of graphic violence that is always just around the corner.

2

‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ (2017–2025)

Image via Hulu

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A dystopian drama laced with uncompromising political and social commentary concerning issues of misogyny, oppression, and totalitarianism, The Handmaid’s Tale is one of the most confronting and harrowing series television has ever seen. Based on Margaret Atwood’s novel of the same name, it transpires in a grim future where the alarming rise of infertility rates has seen a fascist regime rise to power that forces fertile women to be enslaved and assigned as “handmaids” to the ruling elite. When June (Elisabeth Moss) is subjected to such a fate, she bides her time while dreaming of being reunited with her daughter.

The series has, if anything, become even more stress-inducing in the years since it premiered, with modern political trends, not only in America but around the world as well, teetering towards extremism, authoritarianism, and normalized bigotry. In addition to its disconcerting reflection of modern society, The Handmaid’s Tale also unnerves with its brutal violence, the constant theme of sexual assault, and its unyielding air of intense psychological tension. It exacts a monumental emotional toll on viewers, with many considering it to be too frightful to watch all the way through.

1

‘Chernobyl’ (2019)

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Whereas many series need multiple seasons to conjure stress-inducing suspense, Chernobyl requires just five episodes to deliver a television triumph of excruciating tension. A perfect marriage of real historical drama, horrendous political deceit, and life-and-death stakes that affect millions of people, it documents the strenuous efforts to contain the Chernobyl nuclear disaster of 1986 as ordinary people risk their lives to limit the fallout while the leaders of the Soviet Union strive to conceal the severity of the catastrophe from the world.

Its atmospheric intensity is petrifying, running with a facts-based emphasis on the countless operations that had to be conducted to prevent the incident from decimating the population of mainland Europe while grounding its air of terror in unflinching presentations of the effects of radiation poisoning. Whether it is depicting people being assigned jobs that will submit them to painful and inevitable deaths or exploring the political fallout as a trial is assembled to allocate blame as to who is responsible for the reactor meltdown, Chernobyl is a masterful miniseries that exudes horrifying, relentless, and unbearable tension from start to finish.

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Chernobyl

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Release Date

2019 – 2019

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Network

HBO

Showrunner

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Craig Mazin

Directors

Johan Renck

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