5 incredible series you may have overlooked and can catch up on this summer

Ah, summer.

Sun, beach, cold drink, evening breeze, relaxation…

And, of course, series!

After all, what is a summer without catching up on everything that came out during the year that you’ve been told is essential and that you couldn’t be bothered to watch when you got back from work?

So you don’t hit that slump again, I’m bringing you a foolproof plan: the 5 series of 2026 beyond the usual ones, that you may have overlooked and that are going to be perfect for your summer afternoons by the pool.

Or, if you have to work (like me), they’ll hit the spot on those nights when nobody can sleep.

Smiling Friends

Few things have hurt me more lately in the world of TV than the disappearance of Smiling Friends, a demented series of about 12 minutes per episode that had all the rhythm of YouTube Poop without giving the viewer a second to breathe.

A constant overstimulation packed with impossible gags where you can never know what’s going to happen next.

And that, indeed, is what makes it so good.

You’ve never seen insanities like this, or gags pushed to the limit with such precision, or ones so spot-on within all that franticness.

A three-season marvel.

The Rehearsal

Yes, I admit it: sometimes I’d like to have all the tricky situations in my life well rehearsed, with every variable accounted for, so I’d know exactly everything that could happen.

Nathan Fielder is a genius, and with this simple idea he created The Rehearsal, a series that starts out relatively small (but surprising) and little by little keeps growing until an ending, in season 2, that is possibly the most incredible moment on television of the last decade and the perfect definition of having too much passion for what you do.

You’ve never seen anything like The Rehearsal, halfway between reality TV, a David Lynch film, and self-help.

Nathan Fielder, we are clay in your hands.

Tear Along the Dotted Line / This World Can’t Tear Me Down / For Peanuts

A hat trick of Netflix series that, really, are three seasons of the same thing, with the characters created by Zerocalcare.

One minute you’ll be cracking up at a forced reference and the next your heart will be shattered by things only a millennial can understand, like lying to your mother when she tells you “I only want you to be happy,” the death of someone close, the fight against fascism, or discovering that the perfect person you wanted to see yourself reflected in was actually a bad person.

The three series complement each other, but I don’t need to tell you that: as soon as you finish Tear Along the Dotted Line you’re going to keep going instinctively, because they’re a tour de force.

The Curse of Widow’s Bay

Okay, maybe you have heard of this one, but Apple TV+ series tend to fly under the radar, beyond Pluribus, Severance and The Studio.

And this one deserves the very best: a horror series mixed with comedy in which one episode is about demons and the next is a straight-up slasher, a Victorian episode, or a possession that’s as funny as it is terrifying.

One of the biggest surprises of 2026, which, aside from a somewhat weaker first episode, hits the mark the whole time, surprising in every episode and ending with lore that Lost would love to have.

Paradise

We grew up with 24 and Lost, so, naturally, a good cliffhanger is all we need.

And what better cliffhanger than the one in the first episode of Paradise, a series that constantly keeps the viewer guessing so they never know what they’re watching?

What starts with the investigation into the murder of the president of the United States ends up going down a totally unknown and impassable path in one of those series that deserve the fame of blander ones like From.

Ah! If you take my advice, try not to run into any spoilers and go in cold, because it’s simply spectacular.