The Super Bowl is great if you’re someone who loves football, food, or commercials. For the rest of us who won’t be tuning into the big game, though, it’s not like there’s nothing else to watch. We’re living in an era where the problem most people have is that they are subscribed to too many services, and have no idea how to choose what to watch.
If you’re in that boat, and you don’t think you’re going to spend any Sundays watching football soon, then you’re in luck. We’ve picked out three recent series that are all worth checking out, and will make for great viewing if you’re not planning to tune in to watch grown men throw a ball around a field.
Still want more Super Bowl alternatives? Try the 5 best Netflix TV shows to watch instead of the 2024 Super Bowl, 10 great TV shows to stream instead of the 2024 Super Bowl, 3 best Amazon Prime Video movies to watch instead of the 2024 Super Bowl, and 3 great Hulu shows to watch instead of the 2024 Super Bowl.
Need some Super Bowl 2024 recommendations? Check out who is performing in the Super Bowl halftime show, how to watch the Super Bowl for free, and 3 great sports documentaries to watch.
True Detective: Night Country (2024)
The fourth season of HBO’s True Detective anthology, titled True Detective: Night Country, shifts the setting to the icy tundra of northern Alaska. It also shifts the focus away from men to two female police officers who are working together to solve the disappearance of a group of scientists working at a remote base together.
Jodie Foster has rarely been better than she is in the lead role, and she’s supported by stellar work from relative newcomer Kali Reis. The show, which takes place at the end of the year, is slightly more supernatural than previous installments, but it’s making the most of its incredibly atmospheric setting in each episode.
True Detective: Night Country is streaming on HBO Max.
Slow Horses (2022-)
One of the greatest delights on Apple TV+, Slow Horses is adapted from a series of novels of the same name, and follows a group of MI-5 agents who for one reason or another have found themselves relegated to the minor leagues of spycraft. In spite of their reputations for being bad at their jobs, these slow horses often find themselves doing real spy work, and are usually guided more by their own sense of morality than they are by the higher callings of MI-5.
Slow Horses is a delight both because it seems to have a fairly grounded understanding of spies, and because it’s far funnier than any show about secret agents has a right to be. James Bond this is not, and that’s a good thing.
Slow Horses is streaming on Apple TV+.
Mr. and Mrs. Smith (2024-)
It may share a title with the Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie movie, but Mr. and Mrs. Smith takes its story in a totally different direction than that film. The series follows two agents who find themselves assigned to carry out missions while pretending to be a married couple, and it doesn’t take long for the lines to get blurry.
Starring Donald Glover and Maya Erskine, the show is carried off in large part by the pair’s incredible charisma and chemistry, as well as by a slew of guest stars that help make its case-of-the-week stories each feel uniquely compelling.
Mr. and Mrs. Smith is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
