The best shows on Disney+ to watch right now

Oskar Schindler isn’t the only unlikely hero of the Holocaust, as this tough but hopeful war drama demonstrates. Miep Gies (Bel Powley, mighty) is the young Dutch woman who ‘turns on a small light in a dark room’ by hiding Anne Frank and her family in the Amsterdam home she and her husband (Joe Cole) share as the Nazis’ net tightens. That house – 263 Prinsengracht – is a pilgrimage site for millions of tourists. This eight-part series adds gripping context. 

What do you mean The Muppets are for kids? This reboot of Jim Henson’s felt family reinvents the original format for the reality TV ages in irreverent fashion. Expect silly riffs on celebrity chef shows starring Swedish Chef, Miss Piggy channelling The Kardashians, and Dr Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker doing an explode-y take on MythBusters  – presided over by an overworked Joe the Legal Weasel. Sadly, Pepé the King Prawn doesn’t go back to his roots in a Muppet version of Deadliest Catch.

Bridgerton fans will get a kick out of the story of Nell Jackson (Derry Girls’ Louisa Harland), a young woman who brings a feminist brand of justice to 18th century England. She’s the midway point between Dick Turpin and a superhero, a highwaywoman who is accompanied by a magical sprite (Ted Lasso’s Nick Mohammed) who serves as the spinach to her Popeye. Bullies and rogues get smacked all around Georgian England in the eight effervescent episodes. 

This evergreen BBC sci-fi show is now on its fifteenth Doctor and showing no signs of slowing down as its spins through time and space vanquishing intergalactic perils and annoying culture warriors. Newbies will either relish or be turned off by some of the cheerfully mid-budget effects – the early seasons didn’t even get a whole shoestring to work with – but the cast is locked in, the stakes are always enormous and the B-movie monsters are an unsettling bunch. 

This little Aussie animation – you may have heard of it – is standing by to bring joy, laughter and gentle life lessons to those in need. Its clan of Blue Heelers – the irrepressible Bluey, her younger sister Bingo, worn-out but willing dad Bandit, and super-mum Chilli – navigate the challenges of family life, parenting and play in all sorts of inspiring ways. Everyone has their favourite supporting character – g’day Snickers! – and their favourite episodes. The possibilities of the childhood imagination haven’t felt this endless since Dr Seuss.

Pixar’s first animated series is set in the high-pressure world of middle-school softball where a co-ed team called the Pickles are prepping for a clutch game. Of course it wouldn’t be Pixar just to do a cute version of The Bad News Bears. Instead, you get an episode each on the young characters and their loved ones trying to support them through the pre-match jitters – as well as the embodiment of their fretful inner voices in the spirit of Inside Out. Adorable, obviously, and always surprising, Win or Lose is a win. 

If David Lynch had made kids’ animations they might have a looked like this off-the-wall blend of Scooby-Do and Twin Peaks. It follows intrepid 12-year-old Dipper Pines (Jason Ritter) and his twin sister Mabel (Kristen Schaal) as they’re sent to Gravity Falls, Oregon, to spend a summer with their great uncle Stan (Alex Hirsch). ‘Grunkle’ Stan, a man who makes Moe Szyslak look upstanding, is their portal to supernatural, interdimensional mayhem – and yours to one of the best cult animations out there. 

A rare example of nostalgia done right, this revival of the animated series ’90s kids raced home from school to watch picks up where the previous show left off, in look, style and story. Retaining the 2D animation of the original, it follows the Marvel mutants as they adjust to life without their leader Professor Xavier, who’s been left incapacitated by an assassination attempt and sent to space to recuperate. Best enjoyed with a nuclear-hot plate of pizza rolls and a liter of soda.

Yet another addition to the sprawling Spider-Verse, but with an intriguing twist – several, in fact. Yes, Peter Parker is still a dweeb balancing his natural teenage nerdiness with his newfound web-slinging abilities. In this variation, though, his mentor isn’t the slick-talking Tony Stark but another wealthy industrialist, Norman Osborn, aka Green Goblin, typically one of Spidey’s main enemies. Animated in kinetic 3D that somehow retains the hand-drawn soul of the comics, the series exudes a snappy energy and features a predictably dynamic voice role from Colman Domingo as Osborn.

Marvel is at its most meta in a riff on I Love Lucy with a sting in the tail. Elizabeth Olsen does the Lucille Ball thing as superhero-turned-housewife Wanda Maximoff who decamps to a New Jersey community with her AI hubby Vision (Paul Bettany) after the events of Avengers: Endgame. Can they keep their real identities concealed in this white picket-fenced world of suburban normies? It’s fun to watch classic TV tropes subverted, especially when Kathryn Hahn is in this kind of form as the pair’s nosy neighbor.

Anyone ignoring the haters and giving this tween-skewing Marvel caper a spin will encounter a heartfelt love letter to fan culture full of snappy style and knowing gags. Avengers superfan Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) is your conduit into a high-school coming-of-age yarn that pivots on the discovery of a bangle with magical properties. You don’t need to watched too many MCU movies to get it, though you may want to watch The Marvels – its natural sequel – afterwards.

Once of Netflix’s underrated Hell’s Kitchen superhero run, blind lawyer Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) – aka Daredevil – is cleaning up the streets again in a brutal revival that bears a debt to New York exploitation cinema. But before we give too much credit to Michael Winner and Death Wish, there’s real moral complexity in a world where criminals wield political power and while justice may be blind, it’s never harmless. You don’t need to be a superhero stan to find this a fierce, topical binge. 

Tom Huddleston reprises his role as the God of Mischief in this alternate-timeline exploration of Thor’s adopted brother, set sometime after the events of Avengers: Endgame… or maybe it’s more accurate to say alongside? Honestly, all the timeline variance is eye-twitch-inducing for anyone not already well-versed in Marvel’s multiversal antics, but Huddleston ports over his charmingly droll humour, and the twists, time-traveling and stunning effects are enough to keep the attention of even minor MCU scholars.

Kathyrn Hahn was the breakout star of WandaVision as witch-next-door Agatha Harkness, so it’s not surprising that she’d eventually get her own spinoff. Set three years after the end of WandaVision, Agatha is left powerless and trapped in the suburbs of New Jersey. Breaking out of the spell that binds her, she sets out to start a new coven. The cast does much of the heavy-lifting here – not just the always-great Hahn but Patti LuPone, Sasheer Zamata, Debra Jo Rupp and Aubrey Plaza as ‘warrior witch’ Rio Vidal.

Every hipster’s favourite Star Wars movie, Rogue One also birthed its best spinoff show. Diego Luna is Cassian Andor, a thief-turned-revolutionary who blazes a symbolic trail for Luke Skywalker – only without the Jedi powers and with no friends to help him. His route to rebellion takes in great characters (Fiona Shaw's steely Maarva Andor and Alex Lawther's plucky Karis Nemik) and iconic scenes (Luthen Rael’s monologue; ‘One way out!’). Season one reaches for greatness; season two achieves it.

We all went crazy for Baby Yoda – sorry, ‘Grogu’ – when this superior spinoff first landed but, like, when was the last time you saw him in anything? It’s Pedro Pascal who’s the real power behind this space western as intergalactic bounty hunter and reluctant babysitter Din Djarin. His path to a higher calling doesn’t require too much prior knowledge of Star Wars lore. Instead, strap in for a space adventure that keeps things fleet-footed for at least two thirds of its three seasons.

An intergalactic Oliver Twist? The Goonies in orbit? While it never quite delivers on its boisterous premise, there’s fun to be had as Jude Law’s space scallywag Jod Na Nawood helps four loveable urchins make it back to their home planet from a perilous corner of the galaxy. Because it skirts around Star Wars lore rather than plunging through it, it makes an easygoing, adventuresome entry point for young Jedis. 

Rosario Dawson revives her Anakin Skywalker-trained Jedi from The Mandalorian in this standout spinoff. Dawson is Ahsoka Tano, a one-time apprentice of the future Darth Vader, uniting with other members of the New Republic to stop a dangerous admiral. She’s the guiding light of the series, steely but layered. And hey, weren’t you just waiting to see Hayden Christensen, aka Young Vader, return to the Star Wars universe?

A police procedural set in space? Sounds good to us. When a Jedi turns to the dark side, a master of the lightsabre arts investigates their crimes and aims to bring them to justice. Set roughly a century before The Phantom Menace, and largely disconnected from the broader Star Wars canon, it’s a highly entertaining one-off that plays around with the lore enough to make it a fun, engrossing experience for noobs as much as fanatics.

There’s not many bands you’d watch noodling around in the studio having minor squabbles, but watching The Beatles marinade in end-of-the-line tensions in between nonchalantly turning out era-defining tunes will be a spiritual experience for anyone who grew up on their music. That moment in time is captured by Peter Jackson’s intimate, access-all-areas docuseries. If you want the fun-loving Beatles high on their own camaraderie and irreverence, tee up 1964’s A Hard Day's Night. For a glimpse of the band as they really were, look no further than this three-part epic. 

As Jurassic Park’s Ian Malcolm once pointed out: ‘If The Pirates of the Caribbean breaks down, the pirates don't eat the tourists.’ This documentary series dials you in on the secrets behind Disney’s famous old amusement parks (and the total absence of flesh-eating pirates): from their inception by Walt Disney and the early animatronic days to the cutting edge rides of 21st century. Is it a Disney puff piece? Sure, but it’s also a love letter to craft and the artisans who bring it all to life.    

Don’t tell Mike Leigh but in many ways, the story of ILM – Industrial Light & Magic – is the story of modern moviemaking. George Lucas’s pioneering effects house’s blossoming from the practical magic of Star Wars to the VFX powerhouse that it is today. But as demonstrated by this fascinating series, it’s also a story as full as characters as the movies it features. Lucas is joined by Steven Spielberg, James Cameron and other blockbuster talking heads in a series that’ll be catnip for tech heads and cinephiles alike.