Peacock launched in mid-2020, largely on the promise of The Office reruns, but it also brought the power and checkbook of NBCUniversal to bear in creating some solid original content (“creating” being, in some cases, a euphemism for “importing”). Even though the library of originals is still relatively small, there’s an impressive amount of diversity in what’s there: not just in terms of style and genre, but in the representation on screen and off. It’s possible to be a little cynical about Peacock’s positioning of shows about, say, an all-Muslim punk band or an Indigenous cultural center in a small town, on an upstart streaming service rather than its TV-network sibling; but, on the other hand, streaming is clearly the future, and the fact that the network expects these shows to lure people to pay for their new-ish streamer is promising. Here’s some of the best stuff that’s exclusive to Peacock.
Poker Face (2023— , renewed for a second season)
After co-creating and starring in one of Netflix’s best original series, Russian Doll, Natasha Lyonne pulls a similar trick over here on Peacock. Poker Face, with Lyonne as pretty much the only regular character, pays tribute to Columbo in its mystery-anthology format: one-time cocktail waitress Charlie Cale, on the run from a ruthless casino magnate, travels the backroads of North America and encountering murder pretty much everywhere she goes. Fortunately, Charlie has an uncanny ability to tell when people are lying, as well as a very handy penchant for finding under-the-table work. Like Columbo, the audience is given all the details of the murder up front, and so the mystery isn’t whodunnit so much is how is Charlie going to solve it? Knives Out’s Rain Johnson created the series, and directs a few episodes, and the show has a style and a sense of humor that are recognizable, and welcome. Lyonne’s self-effacing, no-bullshit persona is perfect here, and she’s well-matched with a top-tier array of guest stars.
We Are Lady Parts (2021— , renewed for a second season)
A comedy import from across the pond, Lady Parts stars Anjana Vasan as Amina, a nice Muslim girl whose only goals are to finish her schooling (she’s working on a microbiology Ph.D.), and to settle down with a husband. All of which comes into question when she meets Saira, Ayesha, Bisma, and Momtaz—the women who make up the title punk band. The show’s creator, Nida Manzoor, co-wrote the original songs in the show, and the result is, perhaps, the best original soundtrack a sitcom has ever had. More than that, the show is funny, buoyed by great performances from Vasan and the other leads. There’s also a natural tension that the show smartly dives into: the members of an all-female, all-Muslim punk band are naturally outsiders in almost every circumstance; even within the group, the women have very different goals in life—guitarist Amina is a shy nerd whose nerves lead her to vomit at the drop of a beat, and her new role in this band is a challenge to her own image of herself, as well as to societal and family expectations. A second season was greenlit way back in 2021 and is expected to drop in 2024.
Mrs. Davis (2023— , one season)
Just a science fiction action comedy about a nun married to literal Jesus on a quest to save the world from the title artificial intelligence by finding the Holy Grail alongside her ex-boyfriend. So, yeah, there’s a lot going on in Mrs. Davis—sometimes a little too much, if I’m being honest. But Betty Gilpin holds everything together as Sister Simone, playing it straight in an extremely over-the-top world. It’s refreshing to see a show that’s so unafraid to take big swings, and it works much more often than it should. There’s no word yet on a second season, but it works perfectly well as a self-contained miniseries, and, like co-creator Damon Lindelof’s HBO series Watchmen, would probably be best served by remaining a one-and-done.
Bel-Air (2022 – , renewed for a third season)
Though the first season had promise but earned mixed reviews, the second season of the Fresh Prince reboot really came into its own. It’s jarring for fans of the beloved original to tune in to find a straight drama with the same premise—one that often leans into dour realism, especially in that first season. Jabari Banks plays Will Smith, a 16-year-old from West Philadelphia who gets movin’ with his auntie and uncle in Bel-Air following a gun charge and a run-in with a local drug lord. Banks is charismatic and believable, bringing a ton of personality to a show that occasionally veers down dark alleys.
The Amber Ruffin Show (2020—, returning as a series of specials)
Amber Ruffin went from the writer’s room on shows like A Black Lady Sketch Show, Drunk History, and Late Night With Seth Meyers (where she was the first black woman to write for any late-night show, which is super cool but also, WTF?) to the big chair on her own show, which is now the signature comedy talk show on Peacock. Even though it’s relatively new, I don’t see much evidence of a learning curve for Ruffin or for the show’s other producers. She’s consistently confident, smart, and hilarious from pretty much episode one. The show has already launched a few viral moments, possibly the only true measure of success for a late-night talk show in the 2020s. Within just a few weeks of the 2020 premiere, “The Wall of People Whose Shit We Were Not Trying to Hear” seemed to be everywhere online. The first and second seasons streamed weekly, but Ruffin has since taken on other projects, and so the show is on a very irregular schedule since the start of the third season.
Based on a True Story (2023— , one season)
We’re definitely in Only Murders in the Building territory here, with a true crime enthusiast and armchair detective starting a podcast based on a series of local killings. The twist here is that Ava Bartlett (Kaley Cuoco) and her husband, Nathan (Chris Messina) realize that they know the serial killer they’re investigating (Tom Bateman), and realize that they’re sitting on a goldmine. Instead of turning him in, they’ll make a podcast about him (don’t worry: they’re not really meant to be likable). The show takes a while (nearly too long) to finds its voice, but once it does, it’s becomes a solid satire of capitalism and fame culture, going to dark places in considering what our true-crime obsessions really say about us.
Days of Our Lives: Beyond Salem (2021— , two seasons)
It’s tough to keep up with a daily soap schedule, and, even when you can make the time, the sometimes languid pacing (to ensure that viewers who can’t watch every day are able to keep up) can make watching a little bit of a grind. There are still plenty of charms to the genre, though, and there’s a reason that Days persists over half a century since its debut. Each of Beyond Salem’s two seasons works as a standalone miniseries—the first sends some of the show’s most popular characters (veterans, newcomers, and a couple of returning stars) to the four corners of the earth on the hunt for a set of jewels stolen thirty years earlier by a mystery woman (possibly the Princess Gina Von Amberg, who’s actually a brainwashed Hope Brady, naturally). The jewels need to be restored to their setting in the Alamanian Peacock, so we’re definitely invited to think Infinity War, but with soap stars rather than superheroes. The second season heads to even more far-flung locales, and involves three magical prisms that ultimately resurrect a Days legend.
Girls5eva (2021—, renewed for a third season on Netflix)
What’s that you say? Another girl-group-themed, sitcom-is musical series? No complaints from me! The premise here is that a very ‘90s group (Sara Bareilles, Busy Philipps, Paula Pell, and Renée Elise Goldsberry) who made it big very briefly with exactly one hit song gets a shot at a comeback (they’re Girls5eva because, as they expected to be in the game “longer than 4 ever”—turned out, not so much). An up-and-coming rapper, though, samples their classic and opens a door, just slightly, for the band to get back together. Tina Fey is one of the executive producers, and the (very fun) 90s-inspired original music was composed and written for the show by the creators. It’s been renewed for a third season on Netflix, but, for now at least, Peacock remains the show’s home.
Save Me (2018— , renewed for a third season)
Writer/creator Lennie James also stars in this British import as Nelly Rowe, a jovial sort of man-about-town who loves a drink and has a few different women in his life, none of whom know about the others. He’s not a bad guy by any means, but comes off as a fairly insubstantial person. That’s until the police bust in and accuse him of kidnapping his estranged daughter. Rowe stretches his contacts and connections to their absolute limits in trying to find out what really happened to the girl, working against and later with Claire (Suranne Jones), the girl’s upper-class mother. Lennie James makes for a great, complicated lead character in a series that’s well-acted all the way around. A third season is on the way, but with no set date.
One of Us is Lying (2021 – 2022, two seasons)
Another murder mystery series, this time based on a young adult novel from Karen M. McManus. Here it’s a group of five high schoolers who show up to detention, only to have one of them die of what at first appears to be an allergic reaction. One of the students, Simon, runs a blog that reveals everyone’s secrets, and when it starts to look like murder, there are an awful lot of suspects. The premise isn’t wildly original, but it’s a solid, effectively twisty-turny mystery series that dovetails surprisingly well into its second season.
The Lost Symbol (2021, one season)
By this point, we know what to expect with these Dan Brown adaptations: “Symbologist” Robert Langdon will put his hyper-specific skillset to use in uncovering a conspiracy the likes of which are rarely encountered by academics. And archaeologists don’t often come across lost arks and temples of doom, so this is a realm of disbelief that we’re perfectly content to suspend, especially following the Ron Howard/Tom Hanks movie series that began with The DaVinci Code. That team adapted three of the five books, but skipped this one for some reason, and so here we are: a new Robert Langdon, now played by Succession’s Ashley Zukerman, on the hunt for his kidnapped mentor as part of a mystery that’s tied up with the Freemasons. It’s talky, rather overly so, but works as a polished mystery that will absolutely appeal to fans of the films.
John Wayne Gacy: Devil in Disguise (2021)
I was born in Chicago in the years just following the John Wayne Gacy murders, the facts of which weren’t kept from my extremely impressionable young ears. So, you know...not big into clowns, and I have a slightly fraught relationship with the true crime genre. There’s a bit more going on in director Rod Blackhurst’s true crime docuseries, though, than just wallowing in Gacy’s gruesome crimes. While the common (and not inaccurate) image of Gacy is as someone who ingratiated himself with victims by performing as a clown, there’s more to the story than that. His volunteer work, his role as the head of a contracting business, as well as involvement in local politics seemed to obscure his intentions, and kept both police and the media from digging as deeply as they should have into his criminal record. Almost as disturbing as the crimes themselves is the extent to which we can be taken in by someone who meets all our expectations of an upright citizen.
Rutherford Falls (2020—2022, two seasons)
Writer and producer Sierra Teller Ornelas joins Ed Helms and Michael Schur (The Office) for a warm and delightful sitcom with an unexpected premise: Helms plays Nathan Rutherford, a descendent of the guy whose statue has a prominent spot in town. His best friend is Reagan Wells (Jana Schmieding), who runs the local cultural center for the (fictional) Minishonka tribe. The two are on completely different sides of the big issues that arise when the mayor wants to take down the old statue (mostly because it’s in a bad spot and cars keep running into it), but work to maintain their friendship anyway. It’s a big-hearted show that isn’t afraid to get into complicated conversations, buoyed by the record number of Indigenous writers on staff, as well as Ornelas herself: In addition to her writing credits for shows like Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Superstore, she’s a sixth-generation Diné weaver, and that perspective is a huge part of the show’s success.
Saved by the Bell (2020—2021, two seasons)
Look. You probably already have a sense if this is for your or not. Surprisingly, though, Saved by the Bell has is more successful than some of the other recent reboots of YA-skewing, family friendly sitcoms from back in the day (RIP Punky Brewster). Rather than bring back the old cast and coasting on nostalgia, the reboot introduces an entirely new generation of teens and lets them have their own lives and adventures, with humor that’s a bit smarter and more self-aware than the original show managed. Of course, plenty of the old gang (meaning: almost everyone) show up here and there, so you Gen-Xers and elder Millennials won’t be totally left wanting. The show’s post-second-season cancellation was a disappointment.
Dr. Death (2021, miniseries)
The docudrama, based on a true crime podcast which was, in turn, an investigation into the story of the real-life Dr. Christopher Duntsch, is at least as terrifying as the story of John Wayne Gacy in Peacock’s documentary on that serial killer. Duntsch, played here by Joshua Jackson, was a wildly overconfident but dangerously incompetent surgeon who maimed or killed the overwhelming majority of his patients in incidents that, according to investigators, were entirely avoidable. The series dramatizes the events that lead up to the revocation of his medical license, long after alarms had been raised about his record, as well as heavy substance abuse. The well-acted show asks exactly the right questions: Why was he able to get away with it for so long, and how did so many people and employers fall for his carefully crafted facade in the face of his horrific track record?
The Capture (2019—, two seasons)
There are several imports on this list; Peacock is just too new to have a large stable of homegrown shows, but they’ve managed a handful of impressive acquisitions. In this British series, a young, ambitious detective with the London police department is tasked with the investigation of a soldier who’d only recently been exonerated for a war crime, but who seems to have turned around and assaulted and then kidnapped his lawyer (well, OK, his barrister). There’s plenty of police procedural drama and international intrigue, but the show has a slightly different target: it’s looking at the dangers of our reliance on CCTV surveillance, and on the dangers of a widespread assumption that cameras don’t lie. London is one of the most heavily surveilled cities in the world, so there’s a particularly British point of view here, but the issues will be recognizable to anyone who’s spent time in any major city. No word yet on a potential third season.
Killing It (2022—, renewed for a second season)
With this show about a wide array of grifters and con artists and a cash-strapped bank security guard who hopes to change his fortunes by killing snakes, Peacock has produced one of the sweetest, most surprisingly humane shows in a TV landscape full of much darker stories. At the outset, Craig Foster (Craig Robinson) loses his job after his brother robs the bank that Craig works for. If you’re in need of cash in the state of Florida, what else are you gonna do but hunt pythons? Craig, with no experience whatsoever, teams up with an Uber-driver friend (Claudia O’Doherty) to cash in on a state-sponsored contest. The show approaches even its sleaziest characters with empathy, and while it’s not the funniest comedy on streaming, it’s smartly written and bound to squeeze your heart like a python.
Departure (2019—, two seasons)
It’d be unfortunately easy to confuse this with Manifest, that other popular missing plane drama, but while that one’s a Lost-style supernatural mystery, Departure has more in common with 24 (there’s even a ticking clock sound effect that shows up frequently to remind us that these characters are in a hurry). The Canadian-British import involves the investigation into a plane that disappeared during a flight from New York to London. Leading the team (in the first two seasons, anyway) is the late, great Christopher Plummer, who elevates this material (as he did everything her appeared in). It’s a procedural, with many of those familiar beats, but the unique setting and impressively crafted mystery make it juicier than most, even if it can get fairly talky. The long-gestating third season, with Eric McCormack joining the cast, will stream later in 2023.
Quantum Leap (2022 – , renewed for season two)
OK, cheating here, because the 2022 Quantum Leap revival isn’t technically a Peacock original, instead being a production of its parent network, NBC. But the show’s streaming presence has been a huge part of its success, ensuring an expanded first-season episode order and an early second-season renewal even when a spotty airing schedule left the show with wildly uneven broadcast ratings. Picking up where the original, Scott Bakula/Dean Stockwell-lead series left off, Raymond Lee plays time-traveling physicist Ben Song, literally walking in other people’s shoes as he finds himself living the lives of people who need a little help. He’s aided by Caitlin Bassett as his observer from the present, as well as Ernie Hudson and Mason Alexander Park (The Sandman). The show starts slow and gets better after a couple of episodes, and has an empathetic point of view that’s welcome in these days of cynical entertainment.
Twisted Metal (2023— , one season)
The newest show on the Peacock block stars Anthony Mackie as John Doe, and is based on the ‘90s era vehicular combat games that your parents probably hated (it’s a lot of wild, demolition-derby style action involving smashing and/or blowing up your opponents). Based on a sampling, the show does what it says on the tin, providing plenty of frenetic car-on-car action (and car-on-semi, car-on-hearse, -ice cream truck, etc.). The show’s creators work to build out its world with mixed success, but Anthony Mackie is an effective anchor for the chaos, joined by an impressive supporting cast that includes Stephanie Beatriz, Thomas Haden Church, and Neve Campbell. Cars go boom, mostly, and sometimes that’s exactly what you want—it’s the show for the 15-year-old gamer inside all of us.