The best new TV shows of 2023 (so far)

Much of this year’s television conversation so far has been about endings.

After the southern summer was dominated by a single post-apocalyptic show, the last few months have been all about farewelling characters we’ve come to know and love (or loathe).

As well as Neon’s Succession and Barry, we’ve also had to say goodbye to the staff of New Amsterdam, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Star Trek’s Jean-Luc Picard and, apparently, Ted Lasso.

However, after looking back over the past five-and-a-half months, Stuff to Watch has come up with a list of the 10 new shows we believe are well worth your while seeking out and that we hope will return for future instalments.

Minari’s Steven Yeun and Paper Girls’ Ali Wong face-off in this 10-part dramedy about two people whose road rage incident begins to consume their every thought and action. He is a failing contractor with a chip on his shoulder. She is a self-made entrepreneur with a seemingly picturesque life.

The creation of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia writer Lee Sung Jin, Beef is more than just a series of set pieces, it’s also a terrific character study and a pitch-perfect meditation on modern mores, stressors and intolerance.

Filled with moments shocking, outrageously funny and poignant, Beef’s twists and turns will certainly keep you on the edge of your seat.

Move over Simon Schama and Brian Cox, there’s a new British presenter aiming to entertain and enlighten audiences as to human history and how our home has changed over many millions of years.

Filmed in every corner of the globe “money and pandemic restrictions allowed”, this five-part mockumentary promises to highlight our species’ most stunning achievements (everything from the Statue of David to the musical version of The Lion King), while host Philomena Cunk (Motherland’s Diane Morgan) asks “academics, clever naughts and expertists” insightful and challenging questions like “was the invention of writing significant, or a flash in the pan like rap metal?”, “have any cave drawings been adapted into films?”, or “did numbers have the same value as now?”

While we’re admittedly still only halfway through this Australian crime-comedy’s eight-part season, it has made such a strong start that it is well worth its inclusion here.

Former Rake star Kate Box and New Zealand’s own Madeleine Sami make for magnificent sparring partners, as their extremely disparate law enforcers have to team up to try and solve a rapidly increasing number of murders in the sleepy seaside Tasmanian hamlet of the title.

Filled with fabulous one-liners, hilarious characters (Nina Oyama’s naive, true-crime podcast-loving Constable Abby Matsuda the standout) and brilliantly conceived scenarios, this offers perfect winter weekend viewing.

Rachel Weisz headlines this six-part series based on David Cronenberg’s 1988 psychological thriller. Like that film’s Jeremy Irons, she plays the Mantle twins, Elliot and Beverly, who both work as obstetricians.

While also sharing that tale’s visceral and disturbing imagery, it also has a modern swagger, confrontational style and darkly comedic sensibility that will leave you gasping at its verve and audacity. This is not a show for the faint-hearted, easily offended, or those who struggle with the sight of blood.

Although usually delineated only by the way they wear their hair, Weisz mesmerisingly imbues her two characters with distinctive personalities, while also using their penchant for swapping roles to wrong foot the viewer, as well as the on-screen person they are actually trying to fool.

The creation of former Homeland, Grey’s Anatomy and The West Wing screenwriter Debora Cahn, this eight-part political thriller offers Keri Russell her best role since she finished her five-season run on The Americans as KGB intelligence officer Elizabeth Jennings in 2018.

Set in the midst of an international crisis, it follows Russell’s career diplomat Kate Wyler, as she’s thrust into a high-profile job she’s ill-suited for. It’s a move that has tectonic implications for both her marriage – and political future.

Offering gripping, compelling viewing, this boasts crisp dialogue and snappy action brought to life by the terrific ensemble that includes Rufus Sewell, Rory Kinnear, Billie Appiah, Michael McKean and Ato Essandoh.

With its edgy humour, eclectic soundtrack, plethora of Emerald Isle accents, bittersweet narrative and colourful characters, it’s hard not to compare this eight-part series – set in a world where everyone over the age of 18 has a superpower (everyone that is – except 25-year-old Jen) – to another crowd-pleasing coming-of-age comedy – Derry Girls.

Sure the content skews a little bit older and there’s not the same nostalgic appeal as that ‘90s-set series, but the jokes come thick and fast, the actors delivering the one-liners with aplomb.

Could one of the most acclaimed video games of all-time have spawned the best-ever film and television adaptation?

While the bar is admittedly pretty low (the multiple Hitman, Tomb Raider, Resident Evil efforts are among the many disappointments), this certainly had viewers gripped throughout its nine-episode opening season.

Created by the original hit 2013 game’s helmer Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin (whose last outing was the series that caught the world’s attention in 2019 – Chernobyl), this feels like a cross between last year’s Station Eleven, War of the Worlds and those early exciting episodes of The Walking Dead.

Any concerns Bob Odenkirk might have trouble leaving Saul Goodman behind are surely wiped away within the first few minutes of this eight-part dramedy.

Based on Richard Russo’s 1997 novel Straight Man, this sees the Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul star play the troubled Railton College English Professor William Henry “Hank” Devereaux Jr. It’s a role that allows the now 60-year-old actor a chance to showcase his penchant for physical comedy, as well as innate timing, as his department head battles bureaucracy, belligerent students and his own self-destructive tendencies.

A kind of mash-up of 2000’s Wonder Boys, 1994 Paul Newman-starrer Nobody’s Fool (which was based on an earlier Russo novel) and Netflix’s recent The Chair, this finds that rare Six Feet Under and Parenthood-esque sweet spot between outrageous comedy and relatable human drama.

Having established his credentials as the master of the modern-day, cinematic Hollywood whodunit via Knives Out and Glass Onion, Rian Johnson turned his attention to the small screen and a series of “howcatchems”.

Yes, in this 10-part comedic crime drama, viewers find out the perpetrators of each “crime-of-the-week” fairly early on, the show’s true delights coming from watching how our seriously flawed, wildly eccentric, caustically acerbic, but keenly observant protagonist points the finger at the right person each time.

The secret of Charlie Cale’s (Natasha Lyonne, channelling the same mix of unpredictableness and wit that made Netflix’s Russian Doll such addictive viewing) crime-solving success? An innate ability to tell if someone is intentionally lying.

“I’ll try anything once, just maybe not on this trip.”

Yes, if you thought Richard Ayoade’s Travel Man was the least adventurous, or enthusiastic, globetrotting guide, just wait until you meet Eugene Levy in this eight-part series.

Perhaps closer in style to being a not-quite-as-eccentric and far less curious Jeff Goldblum, the now 76-year-old, Canadian-born former Schitt’s Creek, American Pie and Best in Show star appears regularly pained as he schelps his across exotic lands as diverse as Italy, Japan, the Maldives, South Africa and Portugal.

Sure he might get to stay in some truly opulent surroundings and remarkable hotels, but, as he mock-morosely informs us “the catch is I’ve agreed to explore what lies outside – the world I’ve spent my whole life avoiding”.