The Best Shows to Watch During the Holidays (Without Losing Your Mind)

If you only click one thing, click The Bear Season 2, Episode 6, "Fishes." It's the meanest, funniest, most accurate depiction of a family holiday ever put on television, and watching it will make your own dysfunctional Christmas feel like a spa day. That's the #1 pick. The rest of this list is for the other 47 hours you'll spend on the couch between December 22nd and January 2nd, pretending your uncle didn't say what he just said.

Some of these are cozy. Some are dark. A couple are dumb on purpose. All of them are actually good, or at least good for the specific kind of brain rot the holidays require. Skip anything I tell you to skip. I'm doing you a favor.

Must-Watch

The Bear (2022, 4 seasons, Hulu)

Starter episode: S2E6 "Fishes." If you're new to the show, yes, jump in mid-season — it's a bottle episode and it slaps you in the mouth. If you like it, start over from S1E1. Who'll love it, who'll bounce: If you liked Uncut Gems, you're home. If you want a soothing hangout show, this will give you a panic attack. Time: Four seasons, half-hour episodes mostly. You can plow through a season in a snowed-in afternoon. Status: Ongoing, season 5 confirmed. Why it works right now: Nothing on TV captures the specific emotional register of a family holiday like "Fishes" — the way a room full of people who love each other can also want to strangle each other over a stuffed shell. Jamie Lee Curtis screaming in a kitchen while Bob Odenkirk quietly loses his mind is more honest than any Hallmark movie ever made. You watch it and you feel seen, and then you feel bad for feeling seen. Perfect December television.

🏆 DROP EVERYTHING

Fargo (2014, 5 seasons, Hulu)

Starter episode: S1E1 or S2E1. Each season is standalone, and S2 (set in 1979 North Dakota, with snow up to the windows) is the platonic ideal of a winter watch. Who'll love it, who'll bounce: If you liked the Coen Brothers movie, obviously yes. If you need happy endings, this show will drown you in a wood chipper. Time: Ten episodes per season, roughly an hour. One season = a long weekend. Status: Anthology, ongoing, Noah Hawley keeps making them and they keep being great. Why it works right now: Snow. Menace. Dark humor. Small-town Midwestern politeness masking absolute horror. It's the exact frequency your brain wants when it's cold outside and your relatives are three drinks in. Kirsten Dunst in season 2 is one of the best television performances of the last fifteen years and nobody talks about it enough. Start there.

🏆 DROP EVERYTHING

The Leftovers (2014, 3 seasons, HBO Max)

Starter episode: S1E1 is famously rough — biblical, grim, dog-shooting. If you bail, come back and try S1E3. If you like the tone by S2, you're in for one of the best runs of television ever made. Who'll love it, who'll bounce: If you liked Lost but wanted it to actually mean something, yes. If you're already depressed, maybe skip until February. Time: 28 episodes, about an hour each. A serious commitment. Status: Ended, three perfect seasons, Damon Lindelof stuck the landing. Why it works right now: The holidays are secretly about grief — the people who aren't at the table anymore, the years that used to be different. This show is about that and nothing else. It sounds miserable. It's not. It's the most emotionally cathartic thing you can watch in December, and Justin Theroux running in a tracksuit while Max Richter's score plays will fix something in you.

🏆 DROP EVERYTHING

Worth Your Time

The Holiday-Adjacent Bear Trap: Succession (2018, 4 seasons, HBO Max)

Starter episode: S1E1. Don't skip around. The pilot is slow, stick with it through episode 3. Who'll love it, who'll bounce: If you liked Arrested Development but wanted the family to actually have consequences, yes. If you need someone to root for, no — everyone here is a monster. Time: 39 episodes, an hour each. You will finish it and mourn. Status: Ended, four seasons, best finale in years. Why it works right now: Two words: Thanksgiving episode. Season 3's "Retired Janitors of Idaho" is a Thanksgiving episode disguised as an election-night episode, and the whole show is really about a family that can't stop hurting each other during holidays. Every episode is basically a family dinner from hell dressed up in $12,000 sweaters. It'll make you love your own family, which is a Christmas miracle.

🏆 DROP EVERYTHING

Detectorists (2014, 3 seasons + specials, on Amazon via Acorn TV)

Starter episode: S1E1. Twenty-five minutes. If you don't smile once, quit. Most people smile eight times. Who'll love it, who'll bounce: If you liked Ted Lasso before it got precious, yes. If you need plot twists and stakes, this is a show about two guys walking through fields looking for coins. Time: 19 episodes plus a Christmas special. A gentle week. Status: Ended, with a 2022 special that wrapped it perfectly. Why it works right now: This is the coziest show ever made. Two English hobbyists metal-detecting in the countryside, gentle jokes, a Johnny Flynn theme song that will live in your head forever. It's what people wanted Ted Lasso to be. Perfect for the morning-after, when you're hungover in a robe and can't handle plot. Find Detectorists on Amazon and thank me later.

✅ WORTH IT

Slow Horses (2022, 5 seasons, Apple TV+)

Starter episode: S1E1. It's tight, plot-forward, and you'll know by minute 20 if you're in. Who'll love it, who'll bounce: If you liked Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy but wished it had more fart jokes, yes. If you want 24-style action, this is slower and meaner. Time: Six episodes per season, an hour each. A season a day if you're truly checked out. Status: Ongoing, renewed through season 7. Based on the Mick Herron novels. Why it works right now: Gary Oldman plays a flatulent, brilliant, spectacularly rude MI5 washout, and it is the most fun anyone is having on television. The plots are tight enough to follow while your mom asks questions, and every season is a self-contained thriller. Rare bird: a prestige show that actually respects your time.

✅ WORTH IT

Only Murders in the Building (2021, 4 seasons, Hulu)

Starter episode: S1E1. If Steve Martin and Martin Short bantering isn't for you, you'll know in twelve minutes. Who'll love it, who'll bounce: If your parents like CSI but you like Fleabag, this is the exact midpoint. If you want a real murder mystery, the mysteries are okay, the vibes are the point. Time: Ten episodes per season, half-hour-ish. A cozy long weekend. Status: Ongoing, season 5 airing. Why it works right now: It's the show you can watch with your mom without either of you flinching. Genuinely funny, gently mysterious, filmed inside a warm apartment building in New York during what is always secretly autumn. Selena Gomez is the surprise MVP. Low stakes, high hangout energy. Perfect for December 27th when you've given up on being a person.

✅ WORTH IT

Reacher (2022, 3 seasons, Prime Video)

Starter episode: S1E1. Big man, small town, corpses. You'll know. Who'll love it, who'll bounce: If you liked the Lee Child Jack Reacher books, yes. If you need moral complexity, Reacher solves problems with his fists and never doubts himself, which is either exactly what you want in December or extremely not. Time: Eight episodes per season, an hour. Two evenings. Status: Ongoing, renewed through season 4. Watch Reacher on Prime Video. Why it works right now: Sometimes on December 28th you don't want art. You want a 6'5" drifter to break a bad guy's arm in a diner. Reacher delivers. It's dumb in the way Die Hard is dumb, which is to say not dumb at all — it just knows what it is. If you have Prime already, this is free content. If not, start a Prime Video free trial and burn through a season.

✅ WORTH IT

Only-For-Fans

Shrinking (2023, 2 seasons, Apple TV+)

Starter episode: S1E1. Jason Segel, Harrison Ford, a therapist who breaks the rules. Who'll love it, who'll bounce: If you liked Ted Lasso and didn't mind the sentiment, yes. If treacle makes you gag, no — this show is emotionally direct in a way that some people will read as manipulative. Time: Ten episodes, half-hour. Doable in a day. Status: Ongoing, season 3 in production. Why it works right now: Harrison Ford being grumpy at people about their feelings is genuinely healing content. It's the show your therapist is watching. Not for cynics. If you're sad in a specifically holiday way, this will hug you. If you resent being hugged, put on The Leftovers instead.

✅ WORTH IT

The Curse (2023, 1 season, Paramount+/Showtime, streaming varies)

Starter episode: S1E1. It's a slow, weird burn. Give it three episodes. Who'll love it, who'll bounce: If you liked Nathan For You, obviously yes. If you want conventional TV, this show ends with something that will make you slam your laptop shut and stare at a wall for forty minutes. Time: Ten episodes, an hour. One weird week. Status: Ended, one season, complete. Why it works right now: Nathan Fielder and Emma Stone play a couple flipping eco-homes and slowly ruining a New Mexico town on camera. It is the funniest and most uncomfortable show of the last five years, and there is something about watching cringe-comedy in a house full of relatives that makes it hit harder. Off-the-beaten-path pick. Trust me.

✅ WORTH IT

Skip

Emily in Paris (2020, 5 seasons, Netflix)

Starter episode: Don't. Who'll love it, who'll bounce: People who watch television with the sound off while scrolling their phone. Everyone else. Time: Five seasons, 30-min episodes. An eternity. Status: Ongoing, unfortunately. Why it doesn't work right now: I'm not going to be a snob about a Netflix show — I understand the appeal of a pretty person in Paris eating a croissant. But this show is what happens when an algorithm writes about a city it's never visited. The dialogue was clearly translated from English into English by a robot. Every conflict resolves in eleven minutes. It is the definition of content, in the industrial sense: something to fill a slot. If you want cozy Paris television during the holidays, watch Call My Agent! on Netflix instead. Actual French people, actual jokes.

🐍 SLOP

FAQ

What's the best show to watch on Christmas Day itself?

Season 2 of Fargo. It's set at Christmas-adjacent in the 1970s Midwest, it looks like the inside of a snow globe, and the plot is engaging enough to survive your family walking through the room asking who that is. If you want something lighter, the Detectorists Christmas special (2022) is 90 minutes of pure warmth.

What should I watch when I'm hungover on the 26th?

Only Murders in the Building or Detectorists. Both are half-hour, pleasant, and don't ask you to remember anything from the previous episode. Reacher works too if you want to feel powerful while eating cold ham straight from the fridge.

What if my family wants to watch something together?

Slow Horses if your family is above 40 and likes British accents. Only Murders in the Building if the age range is wider. Skip The Bear and The Curse for group viewing — both will start fights with grandma.

Are there any actually good new holiday shows in 2026?

Most "holiday shows" the streamers dump in November are algorithmic misery — a Kelly Clarkson song, a small-town bakery, a widower. Skip them. The best holiday TV isn't holiday TV at all. It's a great show you happen to be watching in December.

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Start with The Bear Season 2, Episode 6 tonight. It's 66 minutes. When it's over, you'll either love your family more or resent them more, and either way you'll understand them better. That's the holidays.

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