Series to Have Watched: 2023

DQ looks back over the past year of television to pick out the shows that were worth tuning in for, from a rule-breaking Spanish saga and a stylistic murder mystery to an eccentrically British comedy-drama and the conclusions of two standout series.

A Murder at the End of the World
From: US
Original broadcasters: Hulu, Disney+
Producer: FX Productions
Starring: Emma Corrin, Clive Owen, Harris Dickinson, Alice Braga, Lu Mei, Raúl Esparza, Jermaine Fowler, Ryan J Haddad, Pegah Ferydoni, Javed Khan, Louis Cancelmi, Edoardo Ballerini and Brit Marling
They say: A seven-part mystery drama with a new kind of detective at its centre: Gen Z amateur sleuth and tech-savvy hacker Darby Hart (Corrin), who is invited to join a number of business and tech giants at a remote Icelandic retreat hosted by reclusive billionaire Andy Ronson (Owen). When one of the guests is found dead, Darby sets out to prove it wasn’t an accident – while a tide of competing interests stand in her way and before the killer strikes again.
We say: The long-awaited new drama from The OA creators Marling and Zal Batmanglij echoed its predecessor’s style, and had plenty of substance to boot, weaving conversations of climate change and artificial intelligence into a compelling closed-door murder mystery.
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Boiling Point
From: UK
Original broadcaster: BBC
Producers: Matriarch Productions, Ascendant Fox, Made Up Productions
Distributor: BBC Studios
Starring: Vinette Robinson, Hannah Walters, Izuka Hoyle, Ray Panthaki, Stephen McMillan and Stephen Graham
They say: Eight months after her mentor Andy Jones (Graham) suffered a heart attack, head chef Carly (Robinson) is battling to forge a name for new Dalston restaurant Point North alongside her old kitchen crew, while the stresses of keeping the restaurant running bear down on them amid a hospitality industry in crisis.
We say: A follow-up to the 2019 short and 2021 feature films of the same name – which were both shot in one take – the small-screen sequel loses none of the original tension and drama of life in a working restaurant while bringing familiar and new characters into sharper focus outside the kitchen.
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Champion
From: UK
Original broadcasters: BBC, Netflix
Producers: Balloon Entertainment, New Pictures
Distributor: All3Media International
Starring: Déja J Bowens, Malcolm Kamulete, Ray BLK, Nadine Marshall, Ray Fearon and Jo Martin
They say: Rap sensation Bosco Champion is home from prison and ready to dominate the music industry once more. But when his dutiful younger sister Vita’s own talent is discovered by Bosco’s rival, Vita steps out of her brother’s shadow to become a performer in her own right, setting the Champion siblings against one another and tearing apart the whole family in the process.
We say: The first television series from author Candice Carty-Williams, this absorbing family drama is elevated further by its pulsating soundtrack, featuring original music from Ray BLK, Ghetts, Shola Ama, M1llionz, Toddla T, MNEK and more.
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Happy Valley S3
From: UK
Original broadcaster: BBC
Producer: Lookout Point
Distributor: BBC Studios
Starring: Sarah Lancashire, James Norton, Siobhan Finneran and Rhys Connah
They say: When Sergeant Catherine Cawood (Lancashire) discovers the remains of a gangland murder victim in a drained reservoir, it sparks a chain of events that leads her straight back to Tommy Lee Royce (Norton). Her grandson, Ryan (Connah), is now 16 and has ideas of his own about the kind of relationship he wants to have with the man Catherine refuses to acknowledge as his father, leaving Catherine’s sister Clare (Finneran) caught in the middle.
We say: The long-awaited third and final season of Sally Wainwright’s acclaimed crime drama wrapped up the long-running battle between Catherine and Tommy Lee, with standout performances from both Lancashire and Norton, and provided further proof that Wainwright is one of Britain’s best screenwriters.
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La Mesías (The Messiah)
From: Spain
Original broadcaster: Movistar+
Producer: Suma Content
Distributor: Movistar+ International
Starring: Macarena García, Roger Casamajor, Lola Dueñas, Carmen Machi, Ana Rujas, Albert Pla, Amaia, Biel Rossell Pelfort and Cecilia Roth
They say: The first project in three years from creators, writers and directors Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvso, La Mesías introduces Enric, whose childhood was marked by his parents’ neglect, their religious fanaticism and his mother’s messianic delusions. When a pop music video from a group of Christian sisters goes viral, memories start to fill his head.
We say: A truly original series that doesn’t just break the rules but throws the storytelling playbook out of the window, La Mesías plays with multiple timelines, casts and locations to tell a story full of music and dance while discussing themes of religion and faith in a psychological drama tinged with science fiction and horror.
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Poker Face
From: US
Original broadcaster: Peacock
Producers: T-Street, MRC Television
Distributor: Paramount Global Content Distribution
Starring: Natasha Lyonne, Adrien Brody, Benjamin Bratt, Cherry Jones, Chloé Sevigny, Danielle MacDonald, Jameela Jamil, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Luis Guzmán and Ron Perlman
They say: The 10-part series follows Charlie (Lyonne), who has an extraordinary ability to determine when someone is lying. After an opening episode in which she helps to uncover the truth behind her friend’s murder, Charlie is forced to hit the road in her Plymouth Barracuda, with every stop leading her to encounter a new cast of characters and strange crimes she can’t help but solve.
We say: Knives Out and Glass Onion director Rian Johnson’s homage to classic detective series like Columbo finds a winning formula by pairing the show’s throwback case-of-the-week structure with Lyonne’s drifter-turned-detective Charlie.
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Succession S4
From: US
Original broadcaster: HBO
Producers: HBO, Gary Sanchez Productions, Hyperobject Industries, Hot Seat Productions, Project Zeus
Distributor: HBO
Starring: Brian Cox, Jeremy Strong, Sarah Snook, Kieran Culkin, Matthew Macfadyen and Alan Ruck
They say: A story of power and family dynamics through the eyes of patriarch Logan Roy (Cox) and his four grown children, Kendall (Strong), Siobhan (Snook), Roman (Culkin) and Connor (Ruck), season four picks up as the sale of media conglomerate Waystar Royco moves ever closer. The prospect of this seismic deal provokes existential angst and familial division among the Roys as they anticipate what their lives will look like once the sale is complete, leading to a power struggle among a family weighing up a future where their cultural and political weight is severely curtailed.
We say: Outstanding television to the end, the final season of Jesse Armstrong’s acclaimed series was true to its title and gave viewers the succession they were waiting for – and one that the rogues’ gallery of central characters deserved.
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The Bear S2
From: US
Original broadcaster: Hulu, Disney+
Producer: FX Productions
Starring: Jeremy Allen White, Ayo Edebiri and Ebon Moss-Bachrach
They say: Season two follows Carmen ‘Carmy’ Berzatto (White), Sydney Adamu (Edebiri) and Richard ‘Richie’ Jerimovich (Moss-Bachrach) as they work to transform their grimy sandwich joint into a next-level spot. As they strip the restaurant down to its bones, the crew undertake transformational journeys of their own, each forced to confront the past and reckon with who they want to be in the future.
We say: Funny, dramatic and heartbreaking, The Bear returned for a triumphant second season that dives deeper into the personal stories of the restaurant crew, while its extraordinary sixth episode Fishes provided a Christmas feast for the ages.
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The Change
From: UK
Original broadcaster: Channel 4
Producer: Expectation
Distributor: BBC Studios
Starring: Bridget Christie, Susan Lynch, Tanya Moodie, Jerome Flynn, Liza Tarbuck, Paul Whitehouse, Monica Dolan, Jim Howick and Omid Djalili
They say: Convinced she’s got early-onset dementia after forgetting what a shoe is called, Linda (Christie) becomes empowered after learning she’s going through the menopause. Deciding to do something for herself for a change, she heads off into the Forest of Dean in search of an identity, purpose and a tree she climbed as a child.
We say: The first TV series written by actor and stand-up comedian Christie, this comedy-drama put discussion of the menopause and deforestation front and centre, while its all-star cast inhabits a delightfully off-beat, traditional forest community featuring characters as eccentric as the Eel Sisters and Pig Man.
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The Last of Us
From: US
Original broadcaster: HBO
Producers: The Mighty Mint, Word Games, PlayStation Productions, Naughty Dog, Sony Pictures Television
Starring: Pedro Pascal, Bella Ramsey, Gabriel Luna, Anna Torv, Nico Parker, Murray Bartlett, Nick Offerman, Melanie Lynskey, Storm Reid, Merle Dandridge, Jeffrey Pierce, Lamar Johnson, Keivonn Woodard, Graham Greene and Elaine Miles
They say: Twenty years after modern civilisation has been destroyed, Joel, a hardened survivor, is hired to smuggle Ellie, a 14-year-old girl, out of an oppressive quarantine zone. What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal and heartbreaking journey as they both must traverse the US and depend on each other for survival.
We say: Based on the PlayStation title of the same name, The Last of Us raised the bar for video game adaptations with a series featuring cracking performances, thrills, scares and heart-breaking drama during a road trip across post-apocalyptic America.
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The Sixth Commandment
From: UK
Original broadcaster: BBC
Producers: Wild Mercury Productions, True Vision Productions
Distributor: Banijay Rights
Starring: Timothy Spall, Éanna Hardwicke, Anne Reid and Sheila Hancock
They say: The story of how the meeting of an inspirational teacher, Peter Farquhar (Spall), and a charismatic student, Ben Field (Hardwicke), set the stage for one of the most complex and confounding criminal cases in recent memory.
We say: The Sixth Commandment was a game-changer for true crime thanks to writer Sarah Phelps’s take on the story, splitting it into four parts. It first focuses on Farquhar and then on Ann Moore-Martin (Reid), who similarly falls under Field’s spell, before the police arrive in the third part and the real-life court case is recreated in the fourth. The superb writing is matched by standout performances, particularly from Spall, in what was a strong year for British true crime alongside The Reckoning and The Long Shadow.
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tagged in: A Murder at the End of the World, Boiling Point, Champion, La Mesías, Poker Face, Succession, The Bear, The Messiah