Finding the best Paramount Plus UK shows is a task that gets more difficult with each passing week. The name Paramount is synonymous with some of the biggest movie franchises in Hollywood history from The Godfather to Mission: Impossible and Scream, but the studio, via its CBS and Showtime imprints, has been making quality television for a long time now.
Most, though not all, of it can be found on Paramount Plus, the new-ish streaming service that aims to bring all the studio’s array of shows and movies together in a single offering.
Now, Paramount Plus is live in the UK and available to access on desktop browser, mobiles, TVs and via the Paramount Plus app. As well as this, the streaming service will also be available on Sky platforms in the UK, Ireland, Italy, Germany and Austria in 2022. Sky Cinema subscribers will get Paramount Plus included at no extra cost.
As for prices, you'll be able to purchase the service will cost £6.99 per month or £69.90 for the year, with a free seven-day trial available.
With the service now live in the UK, we've brought together all Paramount Plus' best shows. It's a list we'll keep updated to include all the latest releases, so you can continue to check back and be introduced to new shows as Paramount adds them.
So here, without further ado, are our pick of the best shows on Paramount Plus…
The Offer
Paramount's lavish new drama has had a mixed reception, but if you're hooked by the story, i.e How The Godfather got from book to big screen and the many pitfalls along the way, then you'll have a lot to enjoy.
Michael Tolkin’s 10-episode show re-tells the making of Francis Ford Coppola's legendary gangster movie from the perspective of its ambitious producer, Albert S. Ruddy.
Miles Teller stars as Ruddy with Ted Lasso's Juno Temple, Matthew Goode, Giovanni Ribisi and Dan Fogler among the supporting cast.
Halo
After more than a decade in development as a feature film, with directors like Peter Jackson and Neill Blomkamp attached at various points and a script by Alex Garland, Halo, the world-conquering video game franchise, has finally found its way onto our screens with a nine-episode first season.
The series is set in the year 2552, and follows John-117/Master Chief, a towering genetically-engineered supersoldier who leads humanity’s fight against an alien threat known as The Covenant.
After Master Chief and Silver Team – the squad he leads – defeat an elite Covenant scouting party on the planet Madrigal, the group discovers a mysterious object that could hold the key to ending the Human-Covenant war…
A pricey endeavor for Paramount with a budget of over $90 million for the series, the show is certainly impressive in scale, and boasts a cast that includes Pablo Schreiber, Shabana Azmi, Bokeem Woodbine and Natascha McElhone.
A second season is already confirmed, with Paramount betting big on Halo to become a flagship show for its streaming service.
Yellowjackets
One of the best new shows around with a flawless rating on Rotten Tomatoes and now heading for a second season, it's gruesome drama Yellowjackets.
The story alternates between 1996 and 2021. In 1996 a team of New Jersey high school soccer players is traveling to Seattle for a national tournament when their plane crashes deep in the Canadian wilderness. The surviving team members have to fend for themselves for 19 months, during which time the group splits into rival clans and descends into savagery, going full Lord of the Flies in the process. In the present day, the survivors have made new lives for themselves, but the ordeal they endured as teenagers is about to come back to haunt them.
Sharp, witty, and with a killer soundtrack, Yellowjackets is great TV, but a word of warning: the critics, desensitized bunch that they are, adored the show, but it’s gruesome stuff, and not for the faint-hearted.
Super Pumped: The Battle For Uber
2022 is a year where the story of tech giants and their controversial founders is in vogue on TV, with Hulu's The Dropout and Apple's WeCrashed both released to much fanfare earlier in the year. And this show is in the same pocket.
Super Pumped, or, to give it its full title, Super Pumped: The Battle For Uber, charts the rise of the ride-hailing app and the fall of its CEO, Travis Kalanick.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Kalanick, with Friday Night Lights' Kyle Chandler as his mentor, Bill Gurley, and Uma Thurman on board as Arianna Huffington.
The show documents Kalanick's relentless drive to succeed, a drive which saw him alienate many of those who supported him and compromise everything to get what he wanted.
Super Pumped is already on for a second run, with Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook as the new focus.
Yellowstone
A true TV behemoth, Yellowstone is one of the biggest shows in the world right now, but hasn't had much of a chance to build up a following in the UK, something Paramount will be hoping changes with the launch of its own streaming service.
Created and overseen by Taylor Sheridan, the man behind Sicario and Wind River, and led Kevin Costner, the show is a modern-day Western.
Costner plays John Dutton, owner of the controls the largest ranch in the United States. His property, vast as it is, is in constant conflict with those it borders -- an expanding town, an Indian reservation, and America's first national park, all of which play out amid corruption and bloody dealings.
There are four seasons on here and the show's power is obvious from the opening seconds.
1883
1883 is a prequel to Yellowstone, which is so successful, it keeps spawning spin-offs.
Whereas Yellowstone follows the Dutton family in modern times, this show follows the story of how the Duttons came to own the land that would become the Yellowstone Ranch. Set, as you might imagine, in 1883, we follow the Duttons as they leave Tennessee, journey to Fort Worth, Texas, and join a European immigrant wagon train heading towards their eventual home.
Sam Elliott leads the way here, with LaMonica Garrett and country music royalty Tim McGraw and Faith Hill among the supporting players.
Another prequel to Yellowstone, 1932, has been ordered. And Sheridan has another show on Paramount Plus ongoing too...
Mayor of Kingstown
Marvel Cinematic Universe regular Jeremy Renner commands this drama, which has already been renewed for a second season.
The show follows the McLusky family, power brokers in the fictional town of Kingstown, Michigan.
Kingstown is in the punishment business: it has seven prisons within a 10-mile radius, some for men and some for women.
Renner plays Mike, a one-time felon, who now works with his brother, Kyle Chandler’s Mitch, whose nickname is the titular Mayor of Kingstown. The pair are fixers, working between police officers, prison guards, local crime syndicates and the inmates.
As with all of Sheridan’s work, it’s rough and very tough, but the runtime fizzes by all the same.
Frasier
Paramount Plus is the home of all 11 seasons (that’s 264 episodes) of Frasier, with a revival also coming down the track.
The show follows Kelsey Grammar’s psychiatrist Frasier Crane, who leaves Boston and the gang at Cheers, and returns to his hometown of Seattle, to begin a new chapter as a radio show host.
Once there, he reconnects with his father and younger brother and sets out to build a new life.
Still as witty and sparkling as the day it first aired in 1993, if you’re in the market for a new sitcom, get stuck in, there’s a lot to enjoy.
Twin Peaks
David Lynch’s genre-defying, reality-bending and hugely influential detective drama is still an absolute must-watch.
On the face of it, Twin Peaks is a simple whodunnit. Kyle MacLachlan’s FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper is called in to assist local Sheriff Harry S. Truman as he investigates the murder of homecoming queen Laura Palmer in the fictional town of Twin Peaks.
However, within the first few minutes of the show’s feature-length first episode, you’ll quickly realize this is a detective drama like nothing else.
Trippy, esoteric, mind-bending and impossible to take your eyes off, Twin Peaks is well worth an investment, a good 30 years after its first broadcast.
The Man Who Fell To Earth
A UK exclusive for Paramount, this is both a TV spin-off and a sequel to the iconic 1976 movie, which starred David Bowie.
Chiwetel Ejiofor as an alien, simply known as Faraday, who arrives on Planet Earth at a turning point in human evolution and is introduced to Thomas Newton, the role played by Bowie and now played by Bill Nighy. Naomie Harris, Annelle Olaleye, Clarke Peters and Rob Delaney also star.
Deadwood
An absolute must-see with an all-star cast and a devoted fanbase, who will tell anybody who will listen that this is the finest show of the last 20 years.
Deadwood chronicles life in the South Dakota town of Deadwood in the 1870s, exploring its transition from lawless camp to town and showcasing how civilisation can be built from chaos.
Led by Ian McShane and Timothy Olyphant, the show was canceled prematurely after only three seasons, but was later wrapped up in a one-off movie event which provided the series with a satisfying end. Both of which are on Paramount Plus.
