I meant to do a top five, but then as usual, I couldn't pick just that many, so here's all the genre shows from 2026 that aren't mysteries I've watched and (mostly) enjoyed. A few started in 2025, but if they trailed into this year I list them. Also there are older shows that crop up I haven't seen. Listed here! Could be spoilers, reader beware.
Fallout Season 2
While there was plenty to enjoy in this season, it wasn't as fun as the first. A few storylines dragged out and that phrase "lost the plot" is right on. Unlike the first season, which was released all at once, this one came out once a week.
I've watched season one 8+ times and season two only once. I'm hoping that once I view it in a quicker sequence, (binge the episodes as they were meant to be binged) it will fall together better. Season 3 is being filmed as we speak.
Project Hail Mary
The book was better. I felt that they skipped over quite a bit of the story fueled by Grace's shock at finding himself alone, in space, with no idea how he got there, or what he should do to survive. I pictured Rocky as more spider like. I'm not sure Ryan Gosling was a good choice to play the character. Despite all of that, there was much to like. Amaze, amaze, amaze!
Star Fleet Academy
This show was much better than anticipated, and as a lifelong Star Trek fan, I think they presented a new Trek experience, with many excellent characters. I'm glad they already had season two filmed, since it was shocking for the show to be canceled after season one had just finished airing.
Jumanji Welcome To The Jungle
This was unexpectedly hilarious, I thought, as four teens enter a game world, but their avatars are all grown up people who look and sound nothing like their real selves. Well plotted for a game based story, as those get messed up more often than not.
School Spirits
Maddie unexpectedly dies in the school basement and finds herself trapped on the school grounds with an assortment of ghosts from other times. She's determined to solve her murder, even though she'll still be dead, and still be trapped. The show is spooky rather than all out horror. The characters are great.
War Machine
Rip roaring action, that's what I'm talking about. It starts off with a man joining the Army Rangers to honor his brother. A field test for a bunch of recruits goes awry when they try to blow up a downed ship they've been assigned to destroy, but oops, it's an alien ship. Boom boom, run run run! Loved it.
Paradise
I didn't watch this when it first came out, but now I'm caught up and ready for the next season. Season one was super clever in unfolding the story so you didn't realize, Spoiler Alert, that everything you see is taking place in an underground bunker of a city, after apocalyptic events occur. It's such a perfect city. Except for murders, assassinations and folks disappearing.
Jurassic World Rebirth
It might take me a year or two, but I eventually watch all of the Jurassic Park movies. A group of mercenaries led by bad ass Zora Bennett (Scarlet Johansson) take scientists to the forbidden Ile Saint- Hubert to gather dinosaur samples. Lots of jump scares, chases and narrow escapes (for some). Fine Jurassic form except for a side story about a family all indignant that their boat was capsized by a dinosaur. Wah wah.
Stranger Things Final Season
Loved it till the last episode and the Fate of 11. Vowed not to watch anything more by the Duffer brothers. I'm still mad.
The Boroughs
I only watched this show because of the cast. I especially love Alfred Molina. Steenkin Duffer brothers did a great job here. In a remote retirement community, residents watch out for each other but also are ready for a knives to the back situation if need be. It's one of those ideal communities, except, little by little it's a horror show, with very nasty things creeping out at night. Despite great ratings, Netflix canceled the show after this initial season.
La Brea
Totally wacky premise--the tarpits open to reveal a giant chasm which swallows cars and buildings and people. Families are separated. Shockingly, those who fell down the hole wake up uninjured in the grass near fallen cars and signs and building bits. Those left on the surface try to find a way to rescue those who fell, though why they'd think that would be possible is a question.
What works is the story unfolding both on the surface and below. Lots of mysteries to be solved. I got to halfway through season two and paused and haven't gone back to finish, I'm not sure why.
Star Trek Strange New Worlds Season 4
Pike is the best of all the Captains. That's really all that needs to be said. I hate that the series ends with season 5, which has already been filmed and it's done. Meanwhile, the current season has just begun, and the first episode was pretty great, a callback to an original Trek episode. I might as well opine that Ethan Peck is the best of all the Spocks. I will miss him terribly, along with most of the cast of this series.
