The best Disney Plus shows, from Loki to The Mandalorian via Springfield.
One of the big selling points of Disney Plus when it launched was its vast back catalogue of movies, but the platform also delivers when it comes to TV. Having launched big with the Star Wars action of The Mandalorian, the roster of the best Disney Plus shows has now expanded to include three new entries in the Marvel Cinematic Universe: WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Loki. And there’s plenty more great Disney Plus TV shows to fill the hole until big new shows from the MCU (Hawkeye, Ms Marvel, She-Hulk) and that galaxy far, far away (The Book of Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Andor) make their eagerly anticipated debuts. When it comes to classic TV, the jewel in Disney Plus’s crown is undoubtedly 31 seasons of The Simpsons – meaning that arguably the most binge-worthy series ever made is at your fingertips. You can also hit some nostalgia buttons with animated shows like DuckTales and the classic X-Men animated series from the 1990s. Ready? We’re about to take an exciting journey taking in Star Wars, Marvel, Pixar, the Muppets and Jeff Goldblum as we list the best Disney Plus shows you can watch right now. (If you’re reading this outside the US, you have access to Star, which features many adult-oriented shows you won’t find on this list. Instead, we’ve stuck to shows universally available as part of Disney Plus, wherever you’re reading this.) One of the most popular villains/antiheroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe embarks on his own adventures in space and time. In Loki, Thor’s brother is taken into custody by the Time Variance Authority – a bureaucratic organization on a mission to keep history playing out as it should – and ends up encountering multiple versions of himself. Mixing elements of Doctor Who with a mismatched cop comedy (Loki’s double act with Owen Wilson’s Agent Mobius is wonderful), it takes the MCU to places it’s never been before – though you can’t help feeling that setting up future Marvel movies is a higher priority than continuing Loki’s own story. It’s not surprising that Star Wars and Marvel shows attract the biggest headlines, but the animation geniuses at Pixar are also producing exclusive new TV shows for Disney Plus. Monsters at Work is essentially a workplace sitcom – think The Office, but with bigger teeth – set after the events of the original Monsters, Inc. It’s centered on Tylor Tuskmon, a new recruit who topped his Scaring class at Monsters University, but finds himself having to adapt after laughter overtakes frights as Monstropolis’s number one source of power. Monsters, Inc leads Mike and Sulley (Billy Crystal and John Goodman) reprise their roles. Continuing the story of The Clone Wars, The Bad Batch is the story of Clone Force 99, a team of elite but unconventional Troopers who were introduced in the earlier show’s final season. After Order 66 turns the Clones against the Jedi, not all of the Bad Batch are affected, leaving them to forge an existence under the radar in a galaxy quickly falling under the Empire’s control – all while protecting Omega, a young female Clone on the run from her creators. Despite its potentially dark subject matter, The Bad Batch is tonally similar to its predecessor in being appropriate for younger viewers – and it’s just as beautifully animated. The second MCU show to land on Disney Plus, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier follows Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) in the turbulent aftermath of Avengers: Endgame, as the world picks itself up after the return of all the people who’d been disappeared by Thanos’s infamous finger snap. Will Sam take up the mantle of Captain America? That’s the big question at the center of this series, which is a little muddled in its plotting and overloads itself with villains, but is still well worth a watch – especially for fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. All six episodes are now available. The first Marvel Cinematic Universe TV show is also the best – so far. WandaVision is an oddball show featuring Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany), each reprising their roles from the Avengers movies. While the show is presented as a sitcom – or, rather, a series of sitcoms, with each episode riffing on the comedies of different decades – secrets about the true nature of the heroes’ new home lurk beneath the surface. It’s an unusual start for the MCU on the small screen, but a worthy and interesting effort to explore grief in an inventive way. The Mandalorian is Disney Plus’s breakout hit, and deservedly so. This expensive-looking show has unleashed Baby Yoda upon us – which is a true gift.
