The 15 Best TV Shows On Showtime Right Now

Paramount has been in the news a fair bit recently, for good reasons (for people who love corporate consolidation, yay!!!) and, mostly, bad (for nerds who like boring stuff like free speech and political independence or whatever). But uh … they did put a lot of Showtime content on Paramount+. That kinda makes up for it all, right?

The concerning and confounding decisions of the network’s parent company aside, Showtime has long been the under-sung hero of prestige TV and the golden age of television at large. Would there be any shows with psychopathic, murderous protagonists without the success of “Dexter?” Would the political thriller subgenre be complete without “Homeland?” And is there a family drama so perfectly and relatably balanced between humor and heartbreak as “Shameless?” Unfortunately, you can’t watch everything Showtime has produced on Paramount+ as of writing — that said, of the shows available, these are the 15 most deserving of a rewatch.

Through “Da Ali G Show” and, much more notably, “Borat,” Sacha Baron Cohen made a name for himself by using elaborate pranks, disguises, and performances to disarm everyone from random passersby to prominent celebrities. The interactions he captured as a result of, essentially, being a persistent public nuisance were often cringe-inducing and hilarious, but it is inarguably the revealing nature of these unscripted moments that keep them relevant today. Hiding behind a fake voice, Cohen was quietly able to tune audiences into the very real voices on the fringes of American society.

With “Who Is America?” (which aired in 2018), the actor and comedian engages in his most direct and revealing interrogation of the country’s national psyche, somewhat fractured in the immediate aftermath of the unexpected results of the 2016 election. Adopting various new alter egos (including a rabid conspiracy theorist, a sociopathic Israeli intelligence officer, and a cryptofascist Finnish YouTuber), Cohen sits down with unwitting figures such as U.S. senator Bernie Sanders, then-recently disgraced senate candidate Roy Moore, soon-to-be disgraced congressman Matt Gaetz, and O.J. Simpson. Some of Cohen’s attempts at satire may be a bit broad, but the results are always undeniably shocking.

The worst thing you can say about “Your Honor” is that it might not be the best crime thriller to star Bryan Cranston as a seemingly upstanding citizen trapped in a moral downward spiral. Otherwise, it’s a solidly arresting series that will hold your attention even as it occasionally strains your credulity.

Moving on from New Mexico to New Orleans, Cranston stars as the honorable Michael Desiato, a successful state justice whose seemingly perfect life is upended when his son Adam (Hunter Doohan) kills another boy in a hit-and-run car accident. Giving in to his terrified need to protect Adam — and perhaps himself — from the life-ruining consequences of this awful mistake, Michael uses his legal expertise to cover up his son’s crime.

There’s just one problem — Adam’s victim wasn’t just any boy, but the son of organized crime boss Jimmy Baxter (Michael Stuhlbarg). Oscillating between a guilt-ridden psychological drama and slow-burn revenge thriller, “Your Honor” impressively manages to mostly do justice to its dual dramatic aims. It aired for just two seasons on Showtime before finding a larger audience on Netflix.

We may be fresh out of Pride Month as of writing, but it’s always the perfect time to revisit “The L Word.” In the 2010s, shows like “Modern Family” had less trouble prominently portraying members of the LGBTQ+ community, but it was largely “The L Word” that had the bravery to explore the challenges they faced — from the mundane to the existential — at a pivotal moment in the early 2000s.

The groundbreaking series first aired on Showtime in 2004, over ten years before the Supreme Court would legalize gay marriage nationwide (and less than a year after homosexuality was decriminalized). In this climate, “The L Word” courageously depicted the everyday lives of queer women, painting them in a complex but empathic light that granted them a humanity they were seldom afforded on TV. Though it hasn’t aged perfectly and is far from comprehensive in its depiction of queerness, it remains a fascinating and thought-provoking piece of TV history.

For fans of the good ol’ fashioned music biopic, your Showtime subscription would be best used on the 2022 miniseries “George and Tammy.” Michael Shannon (“Boardwalk Empire” and “The Shape of Water”) and Jessica Chastain (“Zero Dark Thirty” and “Interstellar”) star as George Jones and Tammy Wynette, the titular country musicians whose passion for one another is only rivaled by their passion for their craft.

Unfortunately (as “Walk Hard” and all the best musical biopics have conditioned us to expect at this point), their personal and professional lives are marred by toxic codependency, addiction, and a reckless dedication to music. This real life musical tragedy is made all the more engaging thanks to the excellent performances of its all-star cast — particularly from Shannon, Chastain, and Igor Martinovic (all of whom earned Primetime Emmy Award nominations for their work), as well as Tim Blake Nelson and “White Lotus” alums Steve Zahn and Walton Goggins.

If you loved the FX crime drama “Snowfall” as much as we did, it’s time for you to check out “The Chi.” The series — created by Lena Waithe and executive produced by musician Common, among others — premiered on Showtime in 2018, and is still running on the network as of writing.

Set in the South Side of Chicago (Waithe and Common were born and raised in the city), “The Chi” explores how average people try to make lives in an environment that often feels dangerous, seductive, and almost deliberately designed to prevent someone from growing outside its bounds. Jacob Lattimore plays aimless cook and hapless father Emmet Washington, serving as the series’ anchor following the sudden exit of “Straight Outta Compton” star Jason Mitchell in season 2. Season 1 begins with the tragic death of a young boy, which subtly forces Emmet, aspiring chef Brandon (Mitchell), struggling veteran Ronnie (Ntare Mwine of “The Lincoln Lawyer” and “Dexter: Resurrection”), young Kevin (Alex Hibbert), and those around them in their community to confront what it takes to thrive in “The Chi.”

In a roundabout sort of way, “Penny Dreadful” is a better adaptation of “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” than 20th Century Fox’s hilariously awful “LXG.” The 2003 film, the beloved comic series from Alan Moore, upon which it was based, and the aforementioned Showtime drama all tell wild, genre-bending stories using a mishmash of classic literary characters in the public domain. Only the comic and TV show are watchable.

Created by acclaimed screenwriter John Logan (“Gladiator,” “The Aviator,” and the Tim Burton film adaptation of the musical “Sweeney Todd”), “Penny Dreadful” initially tells the tale of original character Vanessa Ives (Eva Green), a supernaturally gifted clairvoyant who believes dark forces from another world are descending upon her own. The plot draws inspiration and includes characters from classic monster books and films like “Dracula,” “Frankenstein,” “The Wolf Man” (with Josh Hartnett playing a tormented werewolf), and “The Picture of Dorian Gray” (with Broadway star Reeve Carney playing the titular character).

For most of our readers, Matt LeBlanc is and always will be Joey from “Friends.” But have you ever considered that Matt LeBlanc’s greatest role could be … Matt LeBlanc?

That’s how we feel, at least, after using our Showtime subscription to finally watch his dramedy series “Episodes,” in which he stars as a fictionalized (and amusingly self-deprecating) version of himself. Experiencing a dry spell in his career as an actor, and having struggled to escape the constraints of perception born from his career-defining performance on “Friends,” this LeBlanc cynically agrees to take a paycheck gig as the lead in the U.S. remake of an acclaimed British sitcom.

While LeBlanc cares little for the tasteful series or the husband-and-wife duo responsible for its success (Stephen Mangan and Tamsin Greig), the feeling is very much mutual — the refined British storytellers didn’t exactly have Joey in mind when they envisioned bringing their show to an American audience. “Episodes” is well-written and directed on its own, but LeBlanc’s willingness to go all-out in portraying himself as an out-of-touch, arrogant, and only vaguely talented performer makes the series truly great, and further serves to illuminate why the real LeBlanc was so effective as an actor in the first place.

If you found the political drama of the McCarthy era thrilling in Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer,” the Showtime miniseries “Fellow Travelers” is the perfect follow up. Released the fall after the Academy Award-winning film premiered, it follows a U.S. government employee (“Doom Patrol” star Matt Bomer) who begins to attract unwanted attention from those hunting communists during the Red Scare. But his political affiliations aren’t necessarily what he’s most wary of concealing — that would be his clandestine, illegal love affair with another man (Jonathan Bailey).

Though not particularly popular compared to its immediate contemporaries (particularly Richard Gadd’s limited series “Baby Reindeer” over on Netflix), “Fellow Travelers” was remarkably well-received — Matt Bomer and Jonathan Bailey were both nominated for acting awards at the Emmys in 2024. If that’s not enough of an endorsement, then Bailey’s lauded performance in the two-part musical epic “Wicked” should absolutely make you curious about his work in this more intimate, mature, character-driven piece.

Admittedly, it’s hard to recommend “The Curse” to a readership as large as /Film enjoys. You trust us to turn you toward the best films and television shows available to you right now and, if we’re being honest, this is absolutely not a series for everyone. However, that’s also why it’s one of the most memorable TV satires ever produced.

“The Curse” is co-created by comedian and pilot Nathan Fielder (“The Rehearsal”), who somewhat inexplicably also stars in the series opposite two-time Academy Award-winner Emma Stone, despite mostly being known for graduating from one of Canada’s top business schools with really good grades. And yet, this unlikely casting choice is immediately genius in the obvious incongruity between Stone’s effortless star-power and Fielder’s singular awkwardness. They portray a husband-and-wife creative team behind an upcoming HGTV series through which they flip homes in low-income communities. Co-creator Benny Safdie (one of the writer-directors of “Uncut Gems” and one of the stars of “Oppenheimer”) also stars as the show’s grubby producer.

As straightforward as this all sounds so far, we can’t overstate how absurdly “The Curse” manages to mangle its premise. Its determination to shock the audience borders on assaulting, whether through its blunt use of nudity or its confounding final episode. Even so, you won’t find another show as genuinely audacious as this one.

It’s a crime that “Ray Donovan” isn’t mentioned more in discussions about the great antiheroes of the golden age of TV — though that isn’t the sort of crime that the titular character would be hired to cover up. Liev Schreiber stars in the Showtime series as Ray Donovan himself, a Hollywood fixer who helps the most public faces in Los Angeles deal with their most private secrets. Whether you’re caught illegally paying for sex or you wake up with a corpse in your bed, he’s willing to do whatever it takes to keep your reputation clean (for a considerable fee, of course).

“Ray Donovan” may not have been as popular as “Dexter,” but it was just as critically acclaimed at its height, if not more so. Schreiber was nominated for five Primetime Emmy Awards — though he was, again, sadly drowned out by buzzier antiheroes like Bryan Cranston’s Walter White, Kevin Spacey’s Frank Underwood, and Jon Hamm’s Don Draper. If you were blown away by any of these performances, give “Ray Donovan” a chance to earn its overdue place in the conversation.

Before Ben Stiller began directing the mega-hit series “Severance” for Apple TV+, the popular comedic actor helmed a little known true crime miniseries for Showtime, which, as of writing, you can binge watch in its entirety on their app. Released in 2018, “Escape at Dannemora” retells the story of a real life prison break that took place just three years earlier in 2015 at the Clinton Correctional Facility (a maximum security penitentiary in Upstate New York).

When you hear how insane the true story is, it’s no wonder Stiller and Showtime immediately got to dramatizing it. Stiller’s future “Severance” collaborator Patricia Arquette stars as an employee of the CCF who falls in dubious lust with not one, but two inmates — convicted murderers Richard Matt and David Sweat, played by Benicio del Toro and Paul Dano, respectively — despite already being married to another CCF employee. Incredible yet totally believable, viewers will see shades of the tone Stiller perfected on his subsequent series.

Perhaps the network’s most popular program of all time, it wouldn’t be right if Showtime subscribers weren’t able to stream “Dexter.” Originally airing from 2006 to 2013, it stars “Six Feet Under” breakout Michael C. Hall as the titular serial killer, who strains to channel his dark, murderous urges toward the “benevolent” cause of taking care of those criminals that fall through the cracks of Miami Metro Police Department … which he also works at.

Salacious, disturbing, and surprisingly funny, “Dexter” was a massive hit for Showtime that sadly suffered from a steady decline in quality over the course of its (arguably overextended) lifespan. If we were judging “Dexter” only by its best episodes, it would deserve an even higher place on this list – considering how bad its worst seasons get, the most we can do here is a spot in the top five.

All that being said, Hall and Showtime are still keen to give “Dexter” the ending fans have been dying for. After mediocre reception to “Dexter: New Blood,” the network has produced two more spin-offs — the prequel series “Dexter: Original Sin” and the ongoing sequel series “Dexter: Resurrection,” all of which are available to stream on the Showtime app.

After earning critical acclaim for starring in “Homeland” (which, as of writing, you actually can’t stream with a Showtime subscription), it made perfect sense for Damian Lewis to re-team with the network for another project. The resulting series, “Billions,” may not reach the same level of narrative excellence or psychological complexity as the aforementioned political thriller, but its clever writing, sharp sense of style, and ensemble cast of character actors still earn it a place among Showtime’s best productions.

“Billions” follows the high-stakes world of New York hedge fund stock trading, where split second decisions based on mere hunches (or, in many cases, ill-gotten and misused inside knowledge) are made with billions of dollars on the line. Lewis plays Bobby Axelrod, the charismatic, arrogant, rockstar manager of Axe Capital, whose success is so extraordinary it catches the attention of U.S. District Attorney Chuck Rhoades Jr. (Paul Giamatti). The series’ strongest asset is its cast, with Lewis and Giamatti being joined by the likes of David Costabile (“Breaking Bad”), Asia Kate Dillon (“John Wick”), Corey Stoll (“Ant-Man”), Clancy Brown, Rick Hoffman (“Suits”), comedians Dan Soder and Mike Birbiglia, and the legendary John Malkovich. It ran for seven seasons, ending in the fall of 2023.

One of the most thrilling and refreshing new TV shows produced on any network over the last several years, “Yellowjackets” should be near the top of anyone’s watch list. It tells the story of a high school girls soccer team, whose private jet — en route to a national championship tournament in 1996 — crash lands on a deserted island far away from their New Jersey home. Those who survive the crash are stranded there for nearly 2 years, having to fend for themselves in a harsh and almost supernaturally threatening environment. But that’s only half the story.

Thirty-ish years later, those that made it off the island are still haunted by what they witnessed there, and what they were forced to do to survive. In season 1, the girls’ first weeks in the wilderness runs parallel with the present-day storyline of a mysterious entity’s attempts to blackmail a group of survivors — Shauna (a struggling mother, barely keeping it together, played by Melanie Lynskey), Taissa (an aspiring state politician, played by Tawny Cypress), Misty (a nurse with an obvious personality disorder, played by Christina Ricci), and Natalie (a tough burnout with a gun, played by Juliette Lewis). Travelling between the worlds of teen drama, supernatural horror, and grounded psychological thriller, “Yellowjackets” takes a familiar premise and executes it in a satisfyingly inventive way.

It’s hard to think of a show as legendary, enigmatic, and yet strangely impenetrable as “Twin Peaks.” Created by Mark Frost and David Lynch (the latter of whom played a supporting role in the series), it aired on ABC for just two seasons and 30 episodes (which wasn’t that much at the time) from 1990 to 1991 — and, if you asked most fans, including Lynch himself, only the first season is truly great. And yet, the best of “Twin Peaks” is so iconic and influential that — unlike “Dexter” — it actually does make up for what shortcomings it admittedly has.

The story begins with the discovery of a body — beloved high schooler Laura Palmer. When Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) of the FBI is assigned to the case, he must make his way through the strange yet unmistakably ominous small town of Twin Peaks, Washington, uncovering dark secrets from this world and, potentially, the world beyond. The first two seasons from the ’90s and the 3rd season (released by Showtime in 2017) are all available to stream on the app as of writing. (However, the film “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me,” which takes place somewhere in the middle of the “Twin Peaks” continuity, is available on HBO Max.)