This is a list of television shows considered by critics and audiences as Peak TV (it has also been called "the Second Golden Age of Television" and "Prestige TV").
Patricia Arquette is an American actress. She made her feature film debut as Kristen Parker in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) and has since starred in several film and television productions. She has received several awards, including an Academy Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards.
Frank Charles Spotnitz is an American television writer and producer. He is best known for his work on the series The X-Files (1995-2002) and its spin-off The Lone Gunmen (2001), and as the developer/creator of The Man in the High Castle (2015-19), Medici (2016-19), Ransom (2017-19), and Leonardo (2021-present)
Fleabag is a British comedy-drama television series created and written by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, based on her one-woman show first performed in 2013 at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The series was produced by Two Brothers Pictures for digital channel BBC Three, in a co-production agreement with Amazon Studios. Waller-Bridge stars as the title character, a free-spirited but angry and confused single young woman living in London. Sian Clifford co-stars as Fleabag's sister Claire, with Andrew Scott joining in the second series; most of the show's main characters are never named, including Waller-Bridge's and Scott's. The protagonist frequently breaks the fourth wall, providing exposition, internal monologues, and running commentary to the audience.
The Americans is an American period spy drama television series created by Joe Weisberg for FX. It aired for six seasons from January 30, 2013, to May 30, 2018. Weisberg and Joel Fields also served as showrunners and executive producers. Set during the Cold War, the show follows Elizabeth and Philip Jennings, two Soviet KGB intelligence officers posing as an American married couple living in Falls Church, a Virginia suburb of Washington, D.C., with their American-born children Paige and Henry. It also explores the conflict between Washington's FBI office and the KGB Rezidentura there, from the perspectives of agents on both sides, including the Jennings' neighbor Stan Beeman, an FBI agent working in counterintelligence. The series begins in the aftermath of the inauguration of President Ronald Reagan in January 1981 and concludes in December 1987, shortly before the leaders of the United States and the Soviet Union signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.
Scarlett Johansson is an American actress who has appeared in films, television series, video games and stage plays. Johansson made her debut in the 1994 comedy-drama North. Her first lead role was as the 11-year-old sister of a pregnant teenager in Manny & Lo (1996), for which she received a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead. Johansson starred in Robert Redford's drama The Horse Whisperer (1998), and appeared with Thora Birch and Steve Buscemi in the black comedy Ghost World (2001). Two years later, Johansson played a woman in her 20s stuck in a listless marriage who befriends an aging American actor in Japan in the Sofia Coppola-directed Lost in Translation, and also played a servant in Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer's household in Girl with a Pearl Earring with Colin Firth. She was nominated at the 61st Golden Globe Awards for both films, and received the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for the former.
Hate-watching is the activity of watching a television show or film with the intention of acquiring amusement from the mockery of its content or subject. Closely related to anti-fan behaviours, viewers who partake in hate-watching derive pleasure and entertainment from a show's absurdities or failures. The act of hate-watching is premised on the audience engaging with media through a satirical lens.
In the United States, the Golden Age of Television is a period widely regarded for its high number of "high quality", internationally acclaimed television programs.
Atlanta is an American comedy-drama television series created by Donald Glover. The series follows college dropout and music manager Earnest "Earn" Marks (Glover) and rapper Alfred "Paper Boi" Miles as they navigate a strange, seemingly otherworldly Atlanta hip hop scene. Atlanta also stars LaKeith Stanfield as Darius, Earn and Alfred's eccentric friend, and Zazie Beetz as Vanessa "Van" Kiefer, Earn's on-again-off-again girlfriend and the mother of his daughter.
The third season of Twin Peaks, also known as Twin Peaks: The Return and Twin Peaks: A Limited Event Series, consists of 18 episodes and premiered on Showtime on May 21, 2017. Developed and written by creators David Lynch and Mark Frost, with Lynch directing, the season is a continuation of the 1990–1991 ABC series and its 1992 theatrical prequel, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me. An ensemble of returning and new cast members appear, led by original star Kyle MacLachlan.
Ask the StoryBots is an American live-action/animated preschool children's television series based on the characters from the StoryBots educational website and videos. It premiered exclusively on Netflix on August 12, 2016. Originally created and produced by JibJab Bros. Studios, the StoryBots media franchise was fully acquired by Netflix in May 2019. The show targets young children aged 1–8. In its first season, the series was nominated for an Annie Awards, was a finalist for a Peabody Award, was nominated in the International category at the British Academy Children's Awards and received six nominations for the Daytime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Preschool Children's Animated Program. It won the 2017 Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Interactive Media - Enhancement to a Daytime Program or Series. Its second season, which premiered on Netflix on August 24, 2018, received the Annie Award for Best Animated Television Production for Preschool Children and won two Daytime Emmy Awards for writing and directing.
Hiro Murai is a Japanese-born American filmmaker based in Los Angeles. He is best-known for music videos for Childish Gambino, Earl Sweatshirt, Chet Faker and others.
Carpool Karaoke is a recurring segment on The Late Late Show with James Corden, in which host James Corden invites famous musical guests to sing along to their songs with him whilst traveling in a car driven by Corden on a planned route usually in Los Angeles, usually under the pretense of needing to get to work and preferring to use the high-occupancy carpool vehicle lane, or the pretext of needing directions from a local when in a new town, such as London, Liverpool, New York City or Las Vegas.
Killing Eve is a British spy thriller television series, produced in the United Kingdom by Sid Gentle Films for BBC America and BBC Three. The series follows Eve Polastri, a British intelligence investigator tasked with capturing psychopathic assassin Villanelle. As the chase progresses, the two develop a mutual obsession. Based on the Villanelle novel series by Luke Jennings, each of the show's series is led by a different female head writer. The first series had Phoebe Waller-Bridge as the head writer, the second series Emerald Fennell, the third series Suzanne Heathcote, and the fourth series Laura Neal.
The Boys is an American satirical superhero television series developed by Eric Kripke for Amazon Prime Video. Based on the comic book of the same name by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, it follows the eponymous team of vigilantes as they combat superpowered individuals who abuse their powers for personal gain and work for a powerful company that ensures the general public views them as heroes. The series features an ensemble cast that includes Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Antony Starr, Erin Moriarty, Dominique McElligott, Jessie T. Usher, Chace Crawford, Laz Alonso, Tomer Capone, Karen Fukuhara, Nathan Mitchell, Elisabeth Shue, Colby Minifie, Aya Cash, Claudia Doumit, Jensen Ackles, Cameron Crovetti, Susan Heyward, Valorie Curry, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan.
Russian Doll is an American comedy-drama television series, created by Natasha Lyonne, Leslye Headland, and Amy Poehler, that premiered on Netflix on February 1, 2019. The series follows Nadia Vulvokov (Lyonne), a game developer who repeatedly dies and relives the same night in an ongoing time loop and tries to solve it, leading to her finding Alan Zaveri in the same situation. It also stars Greta Lee, Yul Vazquez, Elizabeth Ashley, and Chloë Sevigny.
Devs is an American science fiction thriller television miniseries created, written, and directed by Alex Garland. It premiered on March 5, 2020, on FX on Hulu.
Selena Gomez is an American actress, singer, and producer. As a child, she began her acting career by appearing on the children's television series Barney & Friends (2002–2004). She rose to prominence for her lead role as Alex Russo on the Emmy Award-winning Disney Channel television series, Wizards of Waverly Place (2007–2012). It garnered positive reviews, with Gomez's being particularly praised for her comic timing and sarcastic delivery. Gomez had a leading role as an aspiring dancer in the direct-to-video film Another Cinderella Story (2008), and won the Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a TV Movie — Leading Young Actress. This was followed by lead roles in two 2009 Disney Channel films—Princess Protection Program and Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie—the latter was cable's number-one scripted telecast of the year in total viewers and won a Primetime Emmy Award. Gomez then starred in the film adaptation of the children's novel series by Beverly Cleary, Ramona and Beezus (2010), with Gomez portraying Beezus Quimby. The following year, she played the lead role of Grace, a teenager "mistaken for a British heiress", in the comedy film Monte Carlo.
Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street is a 2021 American documentary film directed by Marilyn Agrelo. Based on the non-fiction book Street Gang by Michael Davis, the film chronicles the development and airing of the children's television program Sesame Street, featuring interviews with series creators Joan Ganz Cooney and Lloyd Morrisett, as well as writers, actors, and artists involved in its creation.
Hannah Einbinder is an American comedian, actor, and writer known for starring in the Max series Hacks, for which she received nominations for three Primetime Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards.