Unmissable shows on Now TV
Now TV has been a revelation for Sky. Its arrival in 2012 meant a whole host of programmes that used to be strictly tethered to a satellite dish could be enjoyed without a contract. Now anyone can now enjoy Sky, as long as you have a broadband connection that can stream movies and TV shows.
The box is cheap – really cheap. You can get one for under around £20 and it comes with a (limited) free subscription to either the service’s movies, sports or TV offerings.
Sky now has two box options for Now TV. There’s this Now TV box to entice you to take up its non-contract shenanigans. Or the new Now TV Smart Box that marries both non-contract streaming and Freeview channels.
We’re here to tell you about the best Now TV shows available if you buy the monthly Entertainment Pass. Unlike Netflix or Amazon Prime Instant Vi d eo , Sky’s shows tend to disappear a little quicker due to rights issues, but don’t fear – we will keep this list of the best Now TV shows constantly updated so you always know what’s available when you buy your monthly pass.
And if you don’t fancy anything, don’t forget to regularly check back as new content becomes available through the service.
● Best Amazon Prime Instant TV Shows : 30 to choose from
● Best Netflix TV Shows : 50 of the best
Boardwalk Empire is pristine television that takes its time to tell its tale but stick with it and you will be rewarded. Steve Buscemi is in the role of his life as Nucky, a respected gangster who is making it rich in the prohibition era. Based on real events – interspersed with fabrication to heighten the drama – Boardwalk is the ultimate tale of gangsters that plays out like one long movie. The show was unfairly cut short by a season, which means the last season feels a little rushed, but it does culminate in one of the tensest endings ever seen. Superb stuff.
Comedian and podcaster Adam Buxton is at his best when he does BUG. The show is achingly simple – show a bunch of music videos and talk about them, then point out the funniest YouTube comments that sit below them. Buxton manages to elevate this conceit and make it both hilarious and endlessly watchable.
The Affair is not what it seems. At all. It starts off as a half-decent melodrama following writer Noah (Dominic West) and his family as they go on vacation to Montauk in Long Island. There Noah falls for local waitress Alison Lockhart (Ruth Wilson). She’s married, he’s married and, well, things spiral out of control. The reason The Affair is compelling viewing is because it holds a mirror up to the affair in question. We get differing points of view, from both Noah and Alison. The same scenes play out but clothes change, dialogue changes, even settings change as they remember their sides of same the convoluted story. The first season is essential viewing but the conceit is stretched somewhat for the second and third season – it’s still great fun, though.
Donald Glover wrote, starred and produced this superb show about the music scene in Atlanta. The first seasons charts the rise of two cousins as hip hop artists, trying make something of themselves. The show is what you should expect from Glover. It’s smart, funny and a fitting looks at being black and middle class in America. Unfortunately season 2 is going to be delayed as Glover is set to play a young Lando in the upcoming Han Solo movie. As excuses go, that’s one of the best we have heard.
It looks like there won’t be a season 3 for Aquarius, which is a real shame as the show was just getting good. Based on the lurid true-life goings on of Charles Manson and his ‘family’ the show is part police procedural and part biopic of the cult leader. David Duchovny is great as the investigating officer – injecting humour into a show that clearly goes to dark places. The second season is where things get really good, with all of the episodes relating in some way to the Manson Family’s grizzly murders.
It’s not often that you root for a billionaire hedge fund manager, but Damian Lewis’ likeable performance in Billions means you get behind the rich guy – even if his methods of making money may be on the dubious side. Lewis is Bobby Axelrod a hedge fund manager that is being pursued by Paul Giamatti’s Chuck Rhoades for insider trading. The whole things is an effortless watch and endlessly entertaining.
Season 2 begins 21 February.
Swearier than Delia Smith at a Norwich game, Deadwood is a show that may have been short-lived but it will linger a long time in the memory. From the golden age of HBO programming, Deadwood stars a never-bettered Ian McShane as saloon owner Al Swearengen – even his name is sweary – and Timothy Olyphant as the sheriff of Deadwood Seth Bullock. Over three seasons, and set some six months after Custer’s last stand, life (and death) in Deadwood is laid bare.
There’s jump scares aplenty in this adaptation of the ‘true story’ of a house in London in the Seventies that was subject of a vicious haunting. The cast is pitch perfect, with Timothy Spall as the sympathetic paranormal inspector and newcomer Eleanor Worthington-Cox as one of the children affected by the poltergeist. While the show doesn’t scrimp on accusations that the hauntings were faked by the children, it does hit hard with its scares – think Paranormal Activity by way of EastEnders.
The Flash is the best superhero show on television. Yes, that includes all of the Marvel entities. It’s the best as it’s the truest to the comic books, has a fantastic Flash in the form of Grant Gustin and scripts that add real pathos to all of the characters – even when they are fighting giant gorillas.
Season one sets the story arcs up well, while season two intricately plots the events leading up to season 3, which starts with the famous comic-book series Flashpoint.
