Today, NBC launched its new streaming service, called Peacock. Viewers can now browse Peacock’s free library of films and TV shows, as well as consider the premium tier of membership for $29.99/year or included with Xfinity.
We’ll be honest: We didn’t need another streaming service, but now that it’s live, we have to check it out. If you want to explore the free tier before making a bigger commitment, check out these seven shows we’re watching right now.
1. 30 Rock
Back in 2006, a fresh Saturday Night Live alum named Tina Fey teamed up with Robert Carlock to create a comedy show about a comedy show. 30 Rock lampooned the entertainment industry through an SNL-esque show (TGS With Tracy Jordan) and indelible comedy characters and caricatures like Jane Krakowski as the unhinged Jenna Maroney and Jack MacBrayer as Kenneth, an undying NBC page.
The show made headlines recently when its creators asked Peacock not stream four whole episodes that feature blackface, a move that has been criticized for sanitizing 30 Rock‘s history and avoiding tougher conversations about why this happened and how it can be harmful. The remaining episodes aren’t necessarily perfect either. But we can still watch them and have those conversations, understanding when satire is funny and effective versus when it’s edgy for the sake of edginess.
2. Saturday Night Live
SNL has seen a surge in popularity since the Trump era, and its 40-plus year history is full of rises and falls. Relive recent season highlights with Peacock’s free tier, and splurge on the premium if you want to really dive deep, revisiting old casts that include NBC darlings Amy Poehler and Andy Samberg, movie stars like Will Ferrell and Chris Rock, or the hallowed original cast with Dan Aykroyd and Gilda Radner.
3. Friday Night Lights
Another great show named after the later hours on a day of the week, Friday Night Lights (based on the book by Buzz Bissinger and 2004 film that followed) takes place in the fictional small town of Dillon, Texas, where high school football is not a sport, but a lifestyle. For viewers, it’s not football that takes hold but everything and everyone in Dillon.
You’ll find yourself sucked into the town and besotted by its inhabitants, from wholesome quarterback Matt Saracen (Zach Gilford) to the rebellious Tyra (Adrianne Palicki) to Coach Taylor (Kyle Chandler) and his indomitable wife Tami (Connie Britton). If you do care about football, you’ll relish the nostalgia of practices, game days, and rivalry — and if you couldn’t care less about the sport, you’ll still care deeply for the characters and come to understand how one night a week ultimately shapes their lives.
4. Heroes
Before you exit this page and throw your device out the nearest window, hear us out. Yes, Heroes was ultimately a disaster. Yes, it remains one of the preeminent poster children for a show gone south, squandering its potential to toxic dust in an almost impressively short time.
But the first season — and we mean only the first, do not continue, do not pass Go, do not collect $200 — still glows with promise. Around the world, ordinary people people start experiencing superhuman abilities: Peter (Milo Ventimiglia) can fly, Claire (Hayden Panetierre) can heal from any injury, Hiro (Masi Oka) can bend space and time. As they master their powers, they must team up to stop a violent serial killer and ominous “Company,” both of which target our titular heroes and want to exploit them. Whether or not you’ve been on this journey, it’ll get you. But remember: only Season 1.
5. Downton Abbey
The UK’s TV takeover arguably began with this 2010 series about a wealthy family in early 20th-century England and the daily goings on of their estate. Downton is distinctly British with its history and characters, but speaks to a wider nostalgia for formalwear and etiquette and other artifacts of the past.
Most episodes are utterly mundane, making high drama out of someone using the wrong plates or wearing their hair a certain way. It’s utterly delightful, and then you’re hit with a war or a plague or Theo James in brownface dying mid-coitus. While the first three seasons are a charming dance around the courtship of Mary (Michelle Dockery) and Matthew (Dan Stevens), the later seasons focus on more real-world issues, family, trauma, and eventually the noble goal of show runner Julian Fellowes to get every character married off by series’ end.
6. Battlestar Galactica
The Syfy remake of Battlestar Galactica is quite a journey. Masterminded by Ron Moore, one of the key architects behind some of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine‘s greatest moments, it definitely has its ups and downs. But even after you account for the incredibly divisive stretch of final episodes, this is one of the sharpest science fiction stories to ever grace TV screens. Between scream-worthy episodes like “33” and twists you’ll never see coming, this decade old series still has the ability to delight and surprise. – Adam Rosenberg, Senior Reporter/Weekend Editor
7. Suits
USA’s ultra-smooth legal drama may have ended with the previous decade (shortly after a certain actor’s marriage into royalty), but it remains almost disconcertingly rewatchable. Mike (Patrick J. Adams), a college dropout, goes to work for lawyer Harvey Spector (Gabriel Macht), and from then on they close case after case. At eight seasons, Suits is the kind of show that goes with any mood or activity.
