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With the presents unwrapped, and leftovers now dominating the menu for the foreseeable future, it’s time to actually kick back, relax and enjoy some time to yourself.
However, if you’re feeling a little stuck as to how to fill all that time in, might we suggest finally getting round to watching some of those big TV hits from the last year that, for whatever reason, you never actually got round to seeing.
To help make your mind up, here’s a selection of the past year’s biggest shows that you can stream now that you’ve finally got the time…
The Last Of Us
We’ll admit that it does feel like a lot longer than a year ago that The Last Of Us first began dominating the conversation on both sides of the Atlantic, but the dystopian drama actually debuted in January 2023.
Leading stars Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey both won universal acclaim for their performance in the show, which sees their characters forming an unlikely team as they try to navigate a zombie apocalypse.
The Last Of Us – based on the hit video game of the same name – proved so popular that a second season has already been commissioned, although that’s not expected to hit our screens until 2025.
Stream it on: Now
Ted Lasso
Apple TV’s biggest streaming hit aired its third (and, sadly for its devoted fans, probably final) season in the spring, with its break-out star Hannah Waddingham once again receiving a wave of praise.
For those who feel like finding out what all the fuss is about, Hannah also released her own holiday special for the same platform earlier in the winter, which it’s juuuuust about not too late to watch.
Stream it on: Apple TV+
Race Across The World
Due to Covid restrictions that were in place at the time of filming, the third season of the globe-hopping BBC reality show took a rather different approach, with the teams tasked with traversing Canada, rather than entire continents.
But if that sounds like it makes for an easier time, or any less drama for the contestants, think again. The third season proved to be just as testing for its teams as its predecessors – and just as entertaining for us, helped in no small part by the introduction of the now-legendary Cathie and Tricia.
If you enjoy that, 2023 also gifted us the fist ever celebrity version of Race Across The World, which proved yet again to be a completely unique experience.
Stream it on: BBC iPlayer
The Night Agent
Believe it or not, this American spy thriller was actually Netflix’s most-watched show in the first half of the year, with users spending around 812.1 million hours spent watching The Night Agent in 2023 – and that’s just based on data from January to June.
Needless to say, Netflix wasted no time in announcing a second batch of episodes is coming in 2024, so now’s the perfect time to dive in and swot up if fast-paced action sounds up your street.
Stream it on: Netflix
Succession
Undoubtedly one of the year’s most talked-about shows, the award-winning dramedy Succession finally came to an end in May with a final season that gave us twists, iconic one-liners and a surprising (or, indeed, not-so-surprising given the nature of the show) death.
If you’ve managed this long without spoilers, we commend you, but also… please, please, please watch the final season of Succession immediately if not sooner to see how it finally all turns out.
Stream it on: Now
Beef
A new show that had us gripped in 2023 was the Netflix comedy Beef, starring Ali Wong and Steven Yeun as two complete strangers who wind up in a feud that takes over both of their lives after a chance meeting in a road range incident.
Beef won rave reviews and has already racked up 13 nods at the upcoming Golden Globes, and while it was initially billed as a miniseries, there have been whisperings of a second run, so it’s definitely not too late to catch up.
Stream it on: Netflix
Queen Charlotte
Although Bridgerton fans didn’t get a new series of the hit drama in 2023, they were blessed with this stand-alone prequel series, centred around the character of Queen Charlotte.
With all of the emotional, regency-era glamour and, of course, straight-up raunch that the main show has become known for, we’d recommend catching up on Queen Charlotte before the long-awaited third season of Bridgerton begins streaming in 2023.
Stream it on: Netflix
The Idol
Perhaps a strange one to include on this list, given it was totally panned by critics. And don’t get us wrong, The Idol was bad. Bad bad. Not even so bad it’s good.
And yet, when something is that bad, don’t you sort of want to check it for yourself so you can form your own opinion? No? Just us? Alright then…
Stream it on: Now
And Just Like That…
Did somebody say “bad bad”? We kid…
Obviously Sex And The City prequel And Just Like That… isn’t for everyone, and if you didn’t enjoy the bed-wetting, vomiting-in-the-street, “woke alarm”-hitting antics of the first series, then the idea of Charlotte teaching her husband kegel exercises, Miranda getting embroiled in history’s most awkward threesome or Carrie bringing an entire podcast empire to its knees because she won’t talk about vaginal dryness on the air probably isn’t for you either.
That being said, season two is a marked improvement on the first run, and what particularly surprised us was how the return of an old face wound up breathing new life into the show.
Roll on season three for yet more chaos, we say.
Stream it on: Now
The Bear
While many new shows worry about a “sophomore slump” when it comes to their second seasons, The Bear had no such worries.
In its second year, The Bear packed in just as much anxiety-inducing drama (plus a couple of impressive cameos) into its new batch of episodes, that helped made it just as popular with both viewers and critics as the first series.
Stream it on: Disney+
Hearstopper
The much-hyped second season of Heartstopper built on what made its first outing so popular, but introduced new layers to the characters we already know and loved.
Kit Connor and Joe Locke completely deserve all of the love they get for their performances as the show’s central couple, but we have to give a special mention to Fisayo Akinade and Nima Taleghani, who gave us one of Hearstopper’s most unexpectedly tender moments during the show’s Paris trip.
Stream it on: Netflix
One Piece
Possibly one of 2023’s most unexpected TV hits was Netflix’s live-action remake of the popular manga One Piece.
Retaining what followers of the original anime already loved while adapting it to a real-world setting, One Piece managed to top Netflix’s most-watched chart in an impressive 84 countries, smashing a joint record previously held by Stranger Things and Wednesday.
With a second season already in the works, as well as a new anime coming to Netflix in 2024, the One Piece train is definitely not slowing down in the next year, so now’s the perfect time to hop on.
Stream it on: Netflix
Juice
Offbeat, surprising and at times completely surreal, comedian and YouTube personality Mawaan Rizwan’s BBC sitcom Juice is one of the past year’s most underrated new shows.
Based on his Edinburgh show of the same name, Juice takes us inside lead character Jamma’s mind as he grapples with family life and his new relationship with an older older boyfriend (played by Years & Years and American Horror Story star Russell Tovey), with the show often snapping into strange and unexpected directions
If you’re looking for something that’s completely different from everything else you watched this year, Juice is it.
Stream it on: BBC iPlayer
Beckham
Between Arnold Schwarzenegger, Pamela Anderson and Robbie Williams, a host of stars used Netflix to put out their side of their highly-publicised life stories with self-endorsed documentaries.
None of them got the world talking quite like David Beckham’s, though. Taking us behind some of the biggest media stories of the 21st century in his own words, Beckham also gave us some of the year’s best memes, thanks to a certain Posh Spice.
Stream it on: Netflix
Survivor
The most high-stakes reality show on British telly got its revival after more than two decades in 2023. While certain media outlets would have you believe the show was DOA, those who stuck with it said it made for gripping viewing, as the contestants took on strenuous and exerting challenges beyond what Survivor’s reality TV counterparts have offered up in recent history.
Unlike other more time-consuming shows like Love Island or Big Brother, Survivor also took place over the course of a month and was divided into 16 instalments, making it perfect for bingeing during downtime like Crimbo Limbo.
Stream it on: BBC iPlayer
Fellow Travelers
If you’ve heard anything about Fellow Travelers, we’d guess it has to do with some rather graphic sex scenes between Jonathan Bailey and Matt Bomer, but we promise there’s a lot more to this tender love story than just toe-sucking and al fresco fun.
Set over a number of decades, the show also explores queer history through its central couple, beginning in the McCarthy era and taking us right through to a hedonistic period in the 1970s and AIDS epidemic in the following decade.
No two ways about it, though, those many, many sex scenes are certainly something.
Stream it on: Paramount+
The Crown
Those final two seasons of The Crown may have been a little more subdued than the action of season four, which saw the arrival of Princess Diana ruffling feathers within the firm, but it certainly wasn’t without its dramas.
Following the death of Princess Diana in the middle of season six, The Crown’s final instalments centre around major events like the death of Princess Margaret, King Charles’ second wedding and the ups and downs of Tony Blair’s tenure as prime minister, culminating in the late Queen Elizabeth’s Golden Jubilee.
It also gave us some slightly alarming moments, including an imagined nightmare where Tony Blair succeeds the Queen as monarch, a sequence where the royal seeks advice from her younger incarnations and the much-discussed “ghost Diana” scenes.
Even if it never quite reaches the heights of some earlier seasons, we have to commend the show’s final cast members, including Imelda Staunton, Dominic West and Elizabeth Debicki, but also Jonathan Pryce, whose take on Prince Philip is a little underrated, as well as a late-stage appearance from Bertie Carvel as Tony Blair.
Stream it on: Netflix
Squid Game: The Challenge
When it was first announced that a new competition show based on the dystopian satire Squid Game was in the works, we’ll admit that we weren’t quite sure how to feel, with many critics suggesting Netflix had kind of missed the point of their own show.
The finished product finally began streaming in November, and we have to admit, despite our reservations, we were hooked pretty much immediately. Quite what that says about us we’d rather not dwell on, but if you’re a reality TV fan who wants to take the journey for yourself, we’d very much recommend it.
Stream it on: Netflix
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