The 9 Best TV Shows to Stream This Month (November 2026)

Save Story Save this story Save Story Save this story With temperatures dropping, the holidays approaching, and relatives preparing to invade the sanctity of our homes, November is the perfect time to find a little peace and quiet in front of the TV . Fortunately, this month’s lineup of must-watch shows offers plenty of excuses to escape, including a dramatization of one of the biggest scandals in cryptocurrency history, a return to the dystopian world of Blade Runner , and a dark comedy about desperate parents who turn to surveillance technology to find their missing daughter. There’s also a return to Middle-earth , a deadly game of international espionage, and a mysterious archaeological discovery that sets off a globe-trotting conspiracy. Plus, we're revisiting two groundbreaking television series that helped shape our fascination with government secrets, surveillance, and conspiracy theories. As always, we’re not just chasing the biggest names or the shows everyone is already talking about (as much as we do enjoy The Gilded Age ). Instead, these picks reflect the kinds of stories WIRED covers every day, from technology and science to politics and culture , and the unexpected ways they often intersect. Whether you’re in the mood for a mind-bending sci-fi thriller, a twisty international conspiracy, or a classic worth rediscovering, these are the TV shows worth making time for this month. Black Doves Ben Whishaw (Q in Daniel Craig’s Bond movies) is one of the finest actors working today, even if his name isn’t quite as recognizable as it should be. Fortunately, Black Doves gives him plenty of opportunities to remind us why. The deliciously twisty British spy thriller stars Keira Knightley as Helen Webb, a seemingly ordinary wife and mother who just happens to be secretly passing government intelligence to a shadowy organization known as the Black Doves. Whishaw plays Sam, her longtime friend and a professional assassin who gets pulled back into her dangerous double life. Then there’s the always-brilliant Sarah Lancashire ( Happy Valley ) as Helen’s formidable handler, Mrs. Reed. Season 2, which arrived November 5, raises the stakes considerably as Helen’s husband prepares to become Britain’s prime minister, putting her at the very heart of government. It’s a wickedly entertaining mix of political intrigue, espionage, dark humor, and double-crosses, with a stellar cast that makes even the most murderous characters hard to resist. Watch on Netflix The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power If you thought things were looking bleak in Middle-earth at the end of Season 2, just wait. Amazon's spectacularly ambitious—and wildly expensive—prequel to J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings returns for a third season, picking up five years after the fall of Eregion. Sauron (Charlie Vickers) has been busy building his armies and conquering much of Middle-earth, leaving the Elves, Dwarves, Men, and Wizards scrambling to stop him. Meanwhile, the Dark Lord is working on his most dangerous creation yet: the One Ring. The new season promises plenty of political intrigue, epic battles, and the kind of jaw-dropping fantasy world-building that makes the series such a visual feast. Even if you know where Tolkien’s story ultimately leads, watching the pieces fall into place is half the fun. The first four episodes arrive November 11, with the remaining four rolling out over the following two weeks. Watch on Prime Video The Altruists Remember when cryptocurrency was going to change the world? For a while, Sam Bankman-Fried seemed poised to make that happen. The young entrepreneur became a billionaire seemingly overnight as the founder of FTX , a cryptocurrency exchange that promised to revolutionize finance. Then it all came crashing down in spectacular fashion, exposing an $8 billion fraud that landed Bankman-Fried in prison for 25 years. The Altruists dramatizes that astonishing rise and fall, with Anthony Boyle ( Say Nothing ) playing Bankman-Fried and Julia Garner ( Ozark ) portraying Caroline Ellison (no relation to Larry Ellison ), his on-again, off-again girlfriend and the CEO of his trading firm, Alameda Research. Inspired by reporting from New York magazine, the eight-part limited series explores how two young idealists who embraced the philosophy of effective altruism—using wealth and resources to do the most good—became central figures in one of the biggest financial scandals in recent history. All eight episodes premiere November 19. Watch on Netflix Dig If Amy Poehler and Mike Schur taught us anything with Parks and Recreation , it’s that even the most mundane workplace can be a breeding ground for brilliant comedy. Their latest collaboration takes that idea to an archaeological dig in Greece. Based on Kate Myers’ 2023 novel Excavations , the 10-episode comedy stars Poehler as Elise, an ambitious archaeologist who has spent years waiting for her boss (Hugh Laurie) to retire so she can take over the operation. When she and three fellow excavators (Geraldine Viswanathan, Antonia Thomas, and Fina Strazza) uncover a mysterious artifact that could rewrite history, they make the questionable decision to keep it secret. Naturally, things spiral out of control, drawing the women into an international conspiracy that threatens their careers—and possibly much more. With a cast that also includes What We Do in the Shadows ’s Kayvan Novak (aka Nandor the Relentless), Dig delivers an entertaining mix of workplace comedy, historical mystery, and archaeological intrigue. All 10 episodes premiere November 23. Watch on Peacock Blade Runner 2099 More than 40 years after Ridley Scott ’s Blade Runner first introduced audiences to a dystopian Los Angeles, where synthetic humans are almost indistinguishable from the real thing, the franchise is still daring to ask science fiction’s most unsettling question. In this case: What makes us human? Set 50 years after the events of Denis Villeneuve’s excellent Blade Runner 2049 , this eight-part limited series stars Hunter Schafer ( Euphoria ) as Cora, a fugitive who assumes the identity of a Blade Runner, a special operative tasked with hunting down rogue Replicants. She’s forced to team up with Olwen (Michelle Yeoh), a Replicant whose days are numbered, to track down another fugitive whose secret could unravel the very foundations of their society. With artificial intelligence advancing at a dizzying pace in the real world, the franchise’s questions about consciousness, identity, and the increasingly blurry line between humans and machines feel more relevant than ever. All eight episodes arrive November 25. Watch on Prime Video Where’s Wanda? How far would you go to find your missing child? For Dedo (Axel Stein) and Carlotta Klatt (Heike Makatsch), the answer is: very far. And well beyond the boundaries of what’s legal. When their teenage daughter, Wanda (Lea Drinda), disappears without a trace, the desperate German couple takes matters into their own hands, enlisting their tech-savvy son to help them secretly install surveillance equipment throughout their seemingly sleepy suburban neighborhood. What they discover is that practically everyone has something to hide. The delightfully dark German-language comedy blends a missing-person mystery with a surprisingly sharp examination of privacy, voyeurism, and just how easily technology can turn ordinary people into amateur spies. The eight-episode second season premiered October 21, with new episodes arriving weekly through December 9. Watch on Apple TV The X-Files The truth is still out there. More than three decades after The X-Files premiered, Chris Carter 's groundbreaking sci-fi series remains one of television’s most addictive explorations of government conspiracies, alien encounters, and things that go bump in the night (or creepily squeeze through air vents ). It also made pop