Best TV Binge Watches For Twixmas
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4 weeks ago
Catch up on 2025's best shows, and get ahead of 2026's new releases
What to do in that liminal space between Christmas and New Year? If you’re organised, you might have planned a festive(ish) escape. But the rest of us are left grappling to fill our time – and you can rest assured the sofa and a left over tub of Quality Street will play a large part.
As TV lovers, Twixmas (that is, ‘betwixtmas’: the space between Christmas and New Year) is our prime time to catch up on all of the agenda-setting TV shows of the year. Olivia Emily and Grace Bishop have gathered the best below. Plus: some stellar series are returning in 2026; it’s prime time for a refresher…
Best TV Shows To Binge Watch During Twixmas 2025
The Night Manager first aired in 2016. (BBC)
The Night Manager
If you didn’t tune into The Night Manager when it first aired in 2016, now is the time to get up to speed: the much-awaited series 2 will premiere on New Year’s Day. Bagging BAFTAs and Emmys, the first series centres on ex-soldier Jonathan Pine (Tom Hiddleston) who starts as, you guessed it, a hotel night manager, before he finds himself entangled in a dangerous arms dealing clan… Hugh Laurie, Olivia Colman and Tom Hollander also star. BBC iPlayer.
(L to R) Erin Doherty as Briony Ariston, Owen Cooper as Jamie Miller in Adolescence. (Courtesy of Ben Blackall/Netflix © 2024)
Adolescence
Undoubtedly one of the best and most talked about dramas of 2025, if you never watched it before, Twixmas is the perfect time to binge this four-part drama. Starring Stephen Graham as the father to Owen Cooper’s accused murderer of a son, each episode was filmed in one shot, earning a whopping eight Emmy Awards. Also starring Erin Doherty, Ashley Walters and Faye Marsay. Netflix
Claire Danes as Aggie Wiggs in The Beast in Me. (Netflix © 2025)
The Beast In Me
One of the more recent releases you may have missed in the festive hubbub, miniseries The Beast in Me is a psychological thriller with a stacked cast – impressive credentials for its newcomer creator and writer Gabe Rotter. It centres on Pulitzer Prize winning writer Aggie Wiggs (Claire Danes), who lives in an affluent Long Island neighborhood stricken with grief and writers’ block following the death of her young son years prior. But when a millionaire real estate scion accused of murdering his wife moves in nearby, her attention is seized. Netflix
Laura (Robin Wright) & Cherry (Olivia Cooke) in The Girlfriend. (Christopher Raphael © Amazon Content Services LLC)
The Girlfriend
Speaking of thrillers, this twisty drama has a bit more lightness to it – perfect for some easy (if gripping) Twixmas watching. We follow Laura (Robin Wright), loving, perhaps suffocating mother of Daniel (Laurie Davidson) who brings home new girlfriend Cherry (Olivia Cooke) – much to her dismay. Immediately taking a disliking to each other, Laura and Cherry become women at war, competing for Daniel’s love in a six-part story told through each’s unreliable narration. So who is the psychopath, and who is being paranoid? Prime Video
(L to R) Glenn Howerton as Ethan, Milly Alcock as Simone, Meghann Fahy as Devon in episode 101 of Sirens. (Courtesy of Netflix © 2025)
Sirens
For some glitzy, fluffier watching, dark comedy Sirens is the perfect antidote. The White Lotus meets The Perfect Couple in this five-part miniseries. We centre on Devon (Meghan Fahy) who visits a mysterious secluded beach estate in search of her sister Simone (Milly Alcock), who has a frankly weird relationship with her boss Michaela (Julianne Moore). Netflix
Yerin Ha as Sophie Beckett & Luke Thompson as Benedict Bridgerton in episode 401 of Bridgerton. (Liam Daniel/Netflix © 2025)
Bridgerton
Dearest Readers, it would seem that you haven’t caught up with your favourite gossip, Lady Whistledown. Well make haste: with a new batch of debutantes yearning to be picked as the diamond of the season, love, drama and talk are back in the Ton, with Benedict (Luke Thompson) taking the lead. If you’ve resisted up until now, we bid you relent. Netflix
Rachel Carey (HOLLIDAY GRAINGER) in The Capture season 3. (© BBC/Heyday Television Ltd/Laurence Cendrowicz)
The Capture
With series 3 set to drop in spring, it’s time for a refresher on The Capture, the BBC’s twisty-turny surveillance drama led by Halliday Grainger. If you’ve never seen it before, The Capture follows a knotty new crime with each season, untangled by DI Rachel Carey (Grainger). The first surrounds British Army Lance Corporal Shaun Emery (Callum Turner) who, after being acquitted of a war crime in Afghanistan, finds himself accused of kidnapping and murder back in the UK. The second saw rising politician Isaac Turner (Paapa Essiedu) become a victim of a deepfake conspiracy. The third will see a terror attack draw Rachel even deeper into the unfolding geopolitical crisis infecting the British political establishment, its security services and the media, too. Also starring Ben Miles, Ron Perlman and Lia Williams. Netflix
Aimee Lou Wood as Chelsea in The White Lotus season 3. (© HBO)
The White Lotus
Television escapism doesn’t get better than The White Lotus, which returned for season 3 in February 2025. Bringing misery to paradise, the series focuses on several guests staying in the same hotel, The White Lotus, and traces the events of a week leading up to the death of one of them. After season 1’s Hawaii and season 2’s Sicily, hopes were high for season 3’s Thailand, which certainly took a darker turn into wealth and power. And with season 4 already in the works, it’s worth the catch up. Now TV
Will Forte as Jack, Tina Fey as Kate, Marco Calvani as Claude, Colman Domingo as Danny, Steve Carell as Nick, and Kerri Kenney as Anne in Episode 101 of The Four Seasons. (JON PACK/Netflix © 2024)
The Four Seasons
Speaking of swanky hotels, Netflix’s The Four Seasons quietly challenged The White Lotus’s holidays drama dominance this year, and while it wasn’t the most spoken about series of the year it earned acclaim from critics and audiences plus a 2025 Emmy nomination. The series follows three married couples – and decades-long friends – who are tested when one of the couples divorces, complicating their quarterly group weekend getaways. Starring Tina Fey, Steve Carell and Colman Domingo, it’s a laugh-out-loud winner. Netflix
Rosalind Elezar as Kat Donovan & Ashley Walters as Josh Buchanan in Missing You. (Vishal Sharma/Netflix © 2024)
Missing You
Harlan Coben rarely disappoints, and this dramatic miniseries is full of twists from start to finish. Five-part thriller Missing You follows Detective Kat Donovan (Rosalind Eleazar) whose life begins to unravel when she finds her estranged fiancé on a dating app, having ghosted her years prior. If you’ve already seen it, Coben’s 2026 thriller will land on NYD; here’s what you need to know. Netflix
(L-R) Pedro Pascal as Joel and Bella Ramsey as Ellie in ‘Kin’ (season 1, episode 6), The Last of Us.
The Last Of Us
Was 2025 the year of Pedro Pascal? Eddington, Materialists and The Fantastic Four: First Steps all landed in cinemas, keeping the star all over the entertainment news agenda. But on the small screen it was The Last of Us that impressed us week after week, returning for its second season in April 2025. Based on the action adventure video game of the same name, this post-apocalyptic series follows Joel (Pedro Pascal) as he smuggles teenager Ellie (Bella Ramsey) across a barren wasteland of a nation riddled with zombies. Praised for its fresh take on zombies – people are converted when they catch a fungal infection – the storytelling is truly incredible, with intense, thought-provoking and intimate storylines backdropped by the end of the world as we know it. Who knew a zombie video game adaptation could be so gripping? Now TV
Idris Elba in “Hijack,” now streaming on Apple TV+.
Hijack
One of the more marmite streaming services is Apple TV, but there’s no denying some of its original series are the best in the industry. Think Severance, The Morning Show, Slow Horses… In 2023, the big show to binge was Hijack, a British thriller (with more of a Hollywood scale budget) led by Idris Elba. The seven-part series tells the hour-by-hour story of a hijacked plane travelling from Dubai to London, with corporate business negotiator (Elba) aboard and simply refusing to die today. We won’t spoil the ending, but two years on a second series is slated to launch on 14 January – so it’s time to squeeze in a binge-watch so you can be part of the conversation. Apple TV
Sam Heughan (“Jamie Fraser”) and Caitríona Balfe (“Claire Fraser”) in Outlander Season 7
Outlander
Fancy joining a new fandom? Historical fiction fans should tune into Outlander, an addictive series led by Caitríona Balfe and based on Diana Gabaldon’s bestselling book series of the same name. Claire Randall (Balfe) is a former WWII military nurse in Scotland who falls through a time loop and is transported from 1945 to 1743. There, she encounters Highland warrior Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan), falling in love and marrying him – despite having a husband in 1945. First airing in 2014, the series follows her 18th century adventures, including becoming embroiled in the Jacobite rising and the complexities of her relationships in the past and present. And more than a decade later, the tenth and final season is set to launch on 6 March 2026. Prime Video
Aidan Turner as Declan O’Hara in Rivals. (Courtesy of Robert Viglasky/Disney)
Rivals
Rivals was possibly the sexiest series of 2024 – and it’s set to return for season 2 in 2026. Dubbed a ‘bonkbuster’ by the media and based on the late Jilly Cooper‘s best-selling ’80s novel of the same name, Rivals whisks us off to the fashionable Cotswolds. It’s 1986 and the TV business is booming – if cutthroat. At the fore is Lord Tony Baddingham (David Tennant), controller of Corinium Television whose rivalry with ex-Olympian, MP and notorious womaniser Rupert Campbell-Black (Alex Hassell) bubbles to the surface. Meanwhile, journalist and TV presenter Declan O’Hara (Aidan Turner) gets caught in the crossfire. Also starring Danny Dyer, Nafessa Williams, Emily Atack, Katherine Parkinson and Claire Rushbrook. Disney+
Eddie Redmayne as The Jackal in The Day of The Jackal. (© 2023 Carnival Film & Television Limited/Sky)
The Day Of The Jackal
Another 2024 hit series set to return in 2026 is The Day of the Jackal. Eddie Redmayne shines as a cool, calm and collected assassin in this Sky original series. A cat and mouse chase, we watch as he, The Jackal, traverses Europe while tenacious British intelligence officer (Lashana Lynch) tries to pin him down. It’s gripping, stylish and intelligent – you’ll race through it this Twixmas. Now TV
Ella Purnell (Lucy MacLean) in Fallout season 2. (Lorenzo Sisti/Prime © Amazon Content Services LLC)
Fallout
For something more offbeat this Twixmas, it’s time to binge Fallout: a second season has just landed on Prime Video. On the heels of The Witcher and The Last of Us comes this fellow video game-to-TV adaptation that’s, frankly, surprisingly good. Set 200 years after a nuclear war in an alternate 1950s, communities of humans have been living safely below ground in bunkers for years. However, when optimistic vault-dweller Lucy Walton (Ella Purnell) emerges outside for the first time, she discovers the world above-ground has descended into a post-apocalyptic Wild West. She embarks on a journey through the wastelands of California – and an inevitable clash between the two civilisations (those above ground and those living in the vaults) ensues. Also starring Walton Goggins, Kyle MacLachlan and Moisés Arias. Prime Video
Robert (HARRY LAWTEY) and Henry (KIT HARINGTON) in Industry series 3. (© HBO/Nick Strasburg)
Industry
Centring on a group of young London bankers as they navigate their new high-stakes world, Industry sounds a bit dry on paper. In reality it’s a sex and drug-fuelled high-pressure drama – and Industry has gained new fans with each and every season thanks to stellar writing, performances and plotting. Three seasons are reading to binge on BBC iPlayer, with season 4 set to launch in January 2026 – so Twixmas is a great time to catch up. BBC iPlayer
