It’s been a strong start for television this year, with the likes of Widow’s Bay, Dog Park and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms rightfully drawing accolades. But beyond the headline hits, there’s a separate layer of intriguing series: the hidden gems. If you need a new winter binge or two, here’s a list of 2026’s worthy but underseen shows. There are satires and subtitled dramas, crime thrillers and – yes! – Muppets.
The Art of Sarah (Netflix)
K-dramas can often sprawl, but this South Korean mystery is concise and consuming, mixing stolen identities and inequality’s obsessive tug to create a tale that meets this era head-on. When the body of Seoul murder victim, Sarah Kim (Shin Hye-sun) is found, her wealthy lifestyle isn’t matched by any historic records, leaving police detective Park Mu-gyeong (Lee Joon-hyuk) to uncover a troubling truth. This one goes down to the wire.
For fans of: Banshee, Ripley.
The Audacity (SBS On Demand)
A satire of budding Palo Alto sociopaths, this American series draws barbed laughs from the conscience-light machinations of an entitled CEO (Billy Magnussen), an embittered tech titan (Zach Galifianakis), and their very conflicted therapist (Sarah Goldberg). The show gets the wearying wealth details right and finds illumination in the children born into this warped community, where their parents are dictating a future we all have to live in.
For fans of: Succession, Silicon Valley.
Bandi (Netflix)
The French writer and director Eric Rochant is responsible for Paramount+’s The Bureau, a masterpiece espionage thriller, but he left Paris behind to co-create this family crime drama set on the island of Martinique, a French territory in the Caribbean. When a loving working-class matriarch dies, the 11 Lafleur children have to find a way to stick together and survive. For some of the older siblings, that means negotiating the criminal underworld.
For fans of: Top Boy, Shameless.
Chris Fleming: Live at the Palace (HBO Max)
The best stand-up special of the year to date stars a beanpole American comic who rocks a purple fit with Prince-ly power and has a dazzling way with witty words. Chris Fleming is a genuine vibe, sidestepping culture wars humour for a pocket universe where his non-sequiturs go off like giggly grenades and his sustained storytelling can build and build to a wild punchline.
For fans of: The Mighty Boosh, John Early.
Dear Killer Nannies (Disney+)
It turns out there actually is a fresh perspective for the story of Pablo Escobar, the infamous Colombian cocaine baron – his son’s upbringing. This coming-of-age drama is told from the viewpoint of Juan Pablo, who was raised in part by his father’s hair-trigger assassins. Adapted from Juan Pablo’s memoir, it’s a story of adapting to violent, surreal circumstances while trying to maintain a family’s connection.
For fans of: The Sopranos, Narcos.
Gone (Stan*)
Between Tip Toe and this missing-person thriller, it’s been a banner year for the British actor David Morrissey. Here he plays Michael Polly, a stern, respected private school principal whose sense of authority is tested when his wife disappears and a police detective, Annie Cassidy (Eve Myles), has some demanding questions. The creator is Hijack mastermind George Kay, so you know this has tightrope tension lurking at every turn.
For fans of: Sherwood, Mystery Road.
Homebodies (SBS On Demand)
SBS has a terrific track record of signal-boosting young Australian talent by commissioning micro-series – generally comprising six 10-minute episodes – and this unique ghost story from AP Pobjoy is one of the best yet. When a young trans man (Luke Wiltshire) comes home to visit his ailing mother (Claudia Karvan), he discovers a spectral housemate – his teenage self, the pre-transition Dree (Jazi Hall). What ensues is heartfelt and deeply honest.
For fans of: Heartstopper, School Spirits.
The Muppet Show (Disney+)
A one-off return to the classic 1970s format, this delightful half-hour reopened the Muppet Theatre and brought back all your favourite characters as a chaotic live show took shape (including Statler and Waldorf offering running commentary). With the likes of Sabrina Carpenter – a fine foil for Miss Piggy – and Seth Rogen guesting, this saluted past glories without succumbing to nostalgia. More please. Many more.
For fans of: The Muppets!
Neighbours (HBO Max)
Unfolding far from Erinsborough, this US documentary series focuses on the shared boundary disputes that usually lead to a chaotic YouTube video shot on someone’s phone. But instead of conflict, the focus is a deeper study of the participants and their – real or more often perceived – grievances. With the producers including Marty Supreme director Josh Safdie, the show is a war correspondent’s dispatch from the fall of America. Everyone is mad and monetised.
For fans of: How to With John Wilson, Cops.
Ponies (Binge)
This 1970s espionage comic-drama is set inside the communist Soviet Union, but it operates on a very specific frequency. Emilia Clarke and Haley Lu Richardson play Bea and Twila, the sidelined wives of covert American CIA agents working at the US embassy in Moscow, whose husbands disappear, leading the pair to seek the truth by becoming mismatched operatives. The setting is serious, but their amateur antics are funny even as they make haphazard progress.
For fans of: Killing Eve, Deadloch.
Small Prophets (ABC iview)
Mackenzie Crook will forever be recognised as Gareth in the original British edition of The Office, but he’s also the creator of two excellent series: the first was Amazon Prime’s Detectorists, a loving study of best friends seeking satisfaction, and the second is this magic realist comedy about Michael (Pearce Quigley), a grieving everyman who finds himself creating a wondrous solution (or hindrance?) in his garden shed. In a case of genius casting, Monty Python legend Michael Palin stars as Brian, Michael’s father.
For fans of: Reservation Dogs, Ghosts.
Star City (Apple TV)
The long-running Apple TV series For All Mankind tells an alternate history based on the Soviet Union beating the US to the moon in 1969 and the Americans doubling down on the space race. Star City has the same starting point, but it’s told from the Soviet perspective. The tone is entirely different, complete with totalitarian dictates and a paranoid KGB represented by Anna Maxwell Martin’s cold-blooded colonel. It’s a study of people – and space capsules – operating under extreme pressure.
For fans of: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy and Chernobyl.
Steal (Amazon Prime Video)
Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner is aces in this twisty British thriller, where she plays Zara, an unfulfilled clerk in the backrooms of a London pension fund manager whose knowledge proves invaluable when armed thieves invade the office and take over the banking system. What transpires from there – and it’s a lot – is an engrossing mix of grand conspiracy and personal disaffection, told through the lens of 21st-century financial disparity.
For fans of: Money Heist, Sneaky Pete.
Strip Law (Netflix)
Leaning right into American absurdity, this animated comedy is headlined by Severance star Adam Scott. He plays Lincoln Gumb, a straight-arrow Las Vegas lawyer who gets fired from the family firm because judges and juries don’t think he’s entertaining enough. With street magician Sheila Flambe (Janelle James) as his new associate, Lincoln tries to game the chaotic system. It rarely goes to plan, but the ludicrous failures are amusing.
For fans of: Archer, Bojack Horseman.
These Sacred Vows (Binge/Foxtel)
“An Irish White Lotus” is the simplest pitch for this crime-comedy. Two families, their friends, and a Catholic priest fly from Ireland to Spain for a wedding, but as the show’s cold open reveals, the man of God is found dead in their villa’s pool after a night of wild celebrations. It’s not about filleting the wealthy, though; they’re budget holidayers in (sometimes literally) over their heads. The real question? What does being Irish mean today?
For fans of: Bad Sisters, The Perfect Couple.
*Stan is owned by Nine, the publisher of this masthead.
