Is it just me, or did TV feel exceptionally good this summer? It’s not an entirely surprising sensation—the networks always pack their late-summer/early-fall release calendars with titles sure to draw eyeballs back to the screen. This summer was all about House of the Dragon, East of Eden, Dutton Ranch, and the return of Ted Lasso.
But newcomers like DC’s Lanterns and FX’s crime drama Furious made big impacts as well. That’s not easy to do, especially around Emmy season. Hopefully by now, audiences who hadn’t caught up to Widow’s Bay before it swept the awards show have also come around to its comedy-horror genius.
If that wasn’t enough, the first half of the year also saw the end of The Bear, the last episode of Hacks, and a stellar second season of The Pitt—a show so popular that “The Pitt” and “series finale” may never share a sentence in our lifetime. But have we already seen enough good TV this year to declare one the best show of 2026? Better yet, is there even such a thing as “enough good TV”?
Next up, Mike Flanagan’s Carrie series debuts on Prime Video. Plus, Yellowjackets returns to finally give audiences some answers this November, and HBO’s Harry Potter series kicks off a return to the Wizarding World come Christmas. So before we close the chapter on 2026, we highlighted 18 of the best TV episodes of the year so far below. —Josh Rosenberg John Steinbeck’s classic novel is beautifully captured in Zoe Kazan’s Netflix adaptation—a sprawling limited series of American landscapes and 19th-century period drama.
The series stars Christopher Abbott and Mike Faist as brothers Adam and Charles Trask, with Florence Pugh leading the show as runaway Cathy Ames. In episode 3, “In the Valley,” Adam and Cathy’s marriage is tested by her reluctance to move or have children in California (as gorgeous as the scenery is), while her agency is quickly stripped away from her. It’s another look at the book’s themes of nature vs. nurture and what shapes one’s beliefs as to whether they view people as inherently good or evil. —J.R.
The delayed season 2 finale arrived for House of the Dragon fans when season 3 aired this summer. Showrunner Ryan Condal promised the greatest battle that the HBO fantasy series had produced yet, and the premiere did not disappoint. The episode featured dragon fights, naval battles, and everything House of the Dragon fans wished HBO had the budget for every episode.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
