The 10 best shows on Paramount Plus to watch right now

Welcome to our new list of the best shows on Paramount Plus! Here we're pulling out 10 fantastic shows in a range of genres that you can stream right now.

Although Paramount isn't quite as big as Netflix, Disney Plus, or Prime, it's arguably becoming one of the best streaming services – especially if you're a fan of great TV. It's the home of the Star Trek shows, as well as comedy big hitters like Frasier and Colin From Accounts. It's also where you'll find the TV behemoth that is the Yellowstone franchise, plus supernatural thriller series Evil.

So join us now as we pick out 10 of the streamer's best shows. We're going to be building this list out over the coming weeks, so check back for more soon. In the meantime you can also read our list of the best Hulu shows or the best Max shows.

10. Yellowjackets

Year: 2021
Seasons: 3

This gripping – and often unexpectedly very funny – mystery drama takes place in two different time zones. In the '90s, an all-girl football team's plane crashes in a mountainous wilderness. With seemingly no hope of rescue, the survivors turn to increasingly desperate measures to survive, including cannibalism. In the present day, we learn that some of the survivors eventually made it back to civilisation, but their adult lives are, if anything, even more perilous...

Yellowjackets has a perfect first season and two almost as good follow ups. It's a brilliantly unpredictable and often ruthlessly dark thriller with an exceptional cast. Christina Ricci impresses as Misty, shy and bullied as a teenager, now a master manipulator. But it's Melanie Lynskey's increasingly off the rails Shauna who has grown into the rotten heart of an increasingly psychotic series.

Seen all of Yellowjackets but still have questions? Check out our guide to the ending of Yellowjackets season 3.

9. South Park

Year: 1997
Seasons: 26

America's most outrageous animated series is as scabrously filthy and hilarious as when it debuted back in 1997. Trey Parker and Matt Stone's hands-on approach to every aspect of making the series means that, while it has its fair share of weaker episodes, it has remained remarkably consistent over more than 300 episodes now.

South Park follows the adventures of four young boys (along with their schoolmates and parents) in the titular town. There are occasional aliens and supernatural events, but mostly the series is about poking satirical fun at everyday life. In that regard, Parker and Stone go out of their way to offend everybody. And while it's fair to say that some of South Park's gags have aged poorly, it remains an impressively reliable joke machine. The show returns for its 27th season later this year.

These are the 25 best South Park episodes, mmkay?

8. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Year: 2022
Seasons: 2

The best of the many recent Star Trek spin-offs is this refreshingly old-school space adventure show. Set a few years before the original 1960s Trek, Strange New Worlds follows the crew of a pre-Captain Kirk USS Enterprise. In the captain's chair is Christopher Pike (Anson Mount), a charming, immaculately coiffed leader who we know will eventually face a terrible fate. Alongside him is Rebecca Romijn as Pike's first officer, nicknamed Number One, and Ethan Peck as a young Spock.

Strange New Worlds mainly trades in one-off episodes, which makes it the easiest Trek to get into for new viewers, but there are also some neat arcs ticking along in the background – such as Pike learning of his seemingly inescapable fate. It's also blessed with a truly lovable central cast. Two seasons are streamable now, with a third run starting later this year.

Unsure where Strange New Worlds sits in relation to Deep Space 9 or The Next Generation? Check out our Star Trek timeline.

7. Yellowstone

Year: 2018
Seasons: 5

Taylor Sheridan and John Linson's mega-hit Western franchise started with this addictive drama. Kevin Costner stars as John Dutton III, the head of a family of ranchers in Montana, whose border runs alongside a Native American reservation. Meanwhile, land developers are eying up the territory, causing problems for everyone.

Yellowstone is peak Dad TV, full of tough men making tough decisions against rugged landscapes. But while the show's soap opera-ish tendencies have made it an easy series to overlook, there's no disputing that Yellowstone has struck a chord with viewers, and Costner – already Western royalty thanks to 1990s Dances With Wolves – remains as charismatic as ever. The main show wrapped up last year with its fifth and final season, but the franchise lives on with spin-off prequels 1883 and 1923, as well as a forthcoming sequel, The Madison.

6. Frasier

Year: 1993
Seasons: 11

Is Frasier the best TV spinoff ever made? It's certainly one of the most successful, running for 11 seasons between 1993 and 2004. Kelsey Grammar reprises his Cheers role as Dr. Frasier Crane, a fussy radio psychiatrist brought down to Earth when he is forced to take in his father Martin, a retired cop played with earthy charm by the late John Mahoney. Also in the mix is Martin's live-in carer Daphne (Jane Leeves), and Niles (David Hyde Pierce), Frasier's even snootier younger brother.

Frasier strikes the perfect balance between sitcom farce and genuine emotion. The relationship between the Crane boys and their father is strained, but loving, while the tentative romance between Daphne and Niles becomes the heart of the show. Frasier relaunched in 2024 for a new series, which ran for two seasons. It's better than its critics might suggest, but doesn't touch the original.

5. RuPaul's Drag Race

Year: 2009
Seasons: 17

The only reality show on this list is this wildly OTT, gloriously camp, and endlessly entertaining competition. Every season the iconic drag queen RuPaul, and a group of judges, pit a group of up and coming queens against each other in a series of challenges, involving makeovers, lip syncs, and more. The contestants are whittled down to just a few finalists who display the most "charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent". until RuPaul declares America's next drag superstar.

Drag Race is a world-conquering phenomenon that has so far run for 17 seasons of the original, and numerous spin-offs. The reason is simple: it's just a huge amount of fun. What started as an enjoyably scrappy and low budget show now has real glitz and glamor, but its cheeky sense of humor remains intact, as does RuPaul's deadpan delivery.

4. Key & Peele

Year: 2012
Seasons: 5

Before he rebranded himself as the master of smart, subversive and satirical horror films like Get Out and Nope, Jordan Peele was most famous for his work with Keegan-Michael Key. Together, the pair made five seasons of sketch show Key & Peele for Comedy Central, a relentlessly funny shotgun blast of absurdist ideas and social commentary.

Summing up a sketch show is a difficult task, so instead we'll suggest you check out a few specific sketches to get a flavor of the show, all of which are available on the Comedy Central YouTube: the Gremlins 2 brainstorm from season 5, the Obama meet and greet from season 4 (the former US President has even praised Peele's impression of him), and the blisteringly funny pizza order from season 2. Key & Peele's ability to quickly create fully realized characters is unmatched, and their show is a fountain of hilarious ideas.

3. Dexter

Year: 2006
Seasons: 8

This serial killer thriller, inspired by Jeff Lindsay's novel series, has an irresistible premise. Over eight seasons Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) struggles to keep three very different parts of his life separate. To his friends and relatives he is a kind family man. At work he is a forensic technician working with the Miami Police. But by night Dexter is a serial murderer, albeit one with a very specific MO: he only kills killers.

Dexter was an immediate sensation when it launched in 2006, and for its first four seasons it was a remarkably gripping watch. Alas, its final years were less surefooted, leading to an infamously awful final episode. Happily, that was not the end for Dexter. Hall reprised the role in 2021 for Dexter: New Blood, a sequel miniseries that helped clear the original show's name, while another sequel, Dexter: Resurrection, is set to drop later this year.

2. Twin Peaks

Year: 1990
Seasons: 2

There's a reason why Twin Peaks remains so beloved, 35 years after it changed the face of TV. Its blend of surreal murder mystery, soap opera, and extra-dimensional horror was groundbreaking, and while it inspired countless imitators, nothing quite compares to David Lynch and Mark Frost's baffling, brilliant series. Peaks brought a more mature style to US television when it first aired in 1990 and became an instant smash hit as audiences around the world longed to discover who murdered homecoming queen Laura Palmer.

Twin Peaks lived fast and died young. Its second season started strong, but once the Palmer mystery had been resolved (against Lynch and Frost's wishes) the show floundered. Still, Lynch made sure it went out in style, giving the show one of TV's greatest endings and a cliffhanger that would pay off 25 years later in the excellent sequel, Twin Peaks: The Return.

1. The Curse

Year: 2023
Seasons: 1

Nathan Fielder follows up the impossibly funny Nathan For You with this brilliant, if absolutely agonizing sort-of-comedy. Whitney (Fielder) and Asher Siegel (Emma Stone) are a married couple who star in a grim reality TV show about a couple who do supposedly good deeds for the people of Española, New Mexico. In truth, they are also trying to boost their own business interests, buying and flipping cheap homes for the maximum amount of money.

Uncut Gems' Benny Safdie co-created, co-wrote and also appears in the series, and some of that film's unrelenting tension is palpable here. But The Curse also feels in many ways like the natural next step of the sort of jaw-dropping mix of cringe comedy and cutting satire that Fielder excelled at in Nathan For You, here taken to new extremes. The Curse is so funny, so devastating, and so original that it feels like nothing else on TV.

For more TV streaming picks, you can read our lists of the best shows on Amazon Prime, the best shows on Disney Plus, and the best shows on Netflix.

Paramount Plus
Whatever country you're in, it's easy to sign up to Paramount Plus, where you can enjoy a vast library of shows and movies. Just head to the website here to get signed up.

And don't forget that new customers are also able to take advantage of the service's 7-day FREE trial, letting you effectively try before you buy.

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