Club Benefits
With Hollywood juggernauts like Netflix, Apple TV, Prime Video and more, streaming services are obviously the dominant way that most people are consuming television these days. However, good old cable TV is still home to some of the best shows around, original series that very much shouldn't be slept on in the overwhelming wake of all of the streaming options out there.
Across premium cable networks like HBO, AMC, Starz and FX, you can find acclaimed cringe comedies, Western psychological thrillers, sci-fi horror dramas and much more, the type of titles that will have you rethinking if you really want to cut the cord after all. Better yet, you can stream cable shows with one of the best live TV streaming services.
'Dark Winds'
Currently airing on AMC (the fourth season kicked off on February 15, with episodes running on Sunday at 9 p.m. ET through April 5), "Dark Winds" is a 1970s-era Western noir set on a remote outpost of the Navajo Nation near Monument Valley, where two tribal police officers — Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn (Zahn McClarnon) and his deputy Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon) — investigate a series of seemingly unrelated crimes. However, as they dig deeper into double murders, armed heists and more, the men begin to question both their spiritual beliefs and respective pasts.
The psychological thriller is the rare TV beast with a 100% Rotten Tomatoes approval rating across all four of its seasons — the site's critical consensus for season three praises the installment for testing "Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn's resolve more than ever before, providing the outstanding Zahn McClaron with some of his best material yet." It's no surprise then that AMC has already renewed the drama for a fifth season, which is set to debut in 2027.
"Dark Winds" airs on AMC
'Alien: Earth'
With series like "Stranger Things," "Fallout," "Andor" and more, streamers including Netflix, Prime Video and Disney+ (home to the "Star Wars" franchise and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, among others), streaming is a major hub of sci-fi activity. However, one of the best science-fiction shows of the past year can be found on the FX cable channel: "Alien Earth."
The first series spinoff of the iconic "Alien" franchise, the horror drama is set in the year 2120 — two years before the events of the 1979 original film — and follows a young hybrid woman named "Wendy" (Sydney Chandler) and a ragtag group of tactical soldiers as they attempt to survive and stop an extraterrestrial outbreak after deep-space research vessel USCSS Maginot crash-lands on Earth and unleashes Xenomorphs in a heavily populated city.
Also starring Timothy Olyphant, Alex Lawther, Essie Davis, Camuel Blenkin, Babou Ceesay and Adarsh Gourav, the FX show has already been renewed for a second season, with a potential release date in 2027.
Alien: Earth airs on FX
'The Chair Company'
Few people do cringe comedy as well as Tim Robinson and this tense HBO title is hilarious proof. Here, the actor-comic partners up yet again with his old "Saturday Night Live" writing pal Zach Kanin (with whom he created the comedy series "Detroiters" and "I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson") and stars as William Ronald "Ron" Trosper, a recently promoted project manager at the property development firm Fisher Robay, who sets off on an all-consuming investigation into an apparent conspiracy involving a chair manufacturing company. (It's funnier than it sounds, we promise.)
"The Chair Company" was widely acclaimed by critics for its offbeat first season, which has a stellar 100% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes: "Tim Robinson's volcanic comedic ethos finds an ideal outlet in 'The Chair Company,' a descent into paranoia that finds huge laughs in deeply uncomfortable places," reads the site's critical consensus. Fans can expect season 2 to hit HBO sometime in late 2026 or early 2027.
"The Chair Company" airs on HBO
'P-Valley'
Over on Starz, you'll find the vibrant strip-club drama "P-Valley," which the cable channel has confirmed will return for its strike-delayed third season this year after wrapping production on the new episodes back in November 2024.
If you haven't tuned in yet, the Katori Hall-created drama centers on the eccentric employees of the Mississippi nude bar The Pynk, where you'll meet the likes of veteran performer Mercedes Woodbine (Brandee Evans), hurricane survivor Hailey Colton (Elarica Johnson), aspiring rapper LaMarques (J. Alphonse Nicholson) and more.
The series has been universally lauded for its depiction of Black female strippers and sex workers as they navigate everything from racial tensions to domestic abuse. Hannah Giorgis of The Atlantic called it "the Southern-Gothic stripper drama that TV deserves," writing: "P-Valley is lush, resplendent, and sometimes haunting. All of the women's strife occurs against the backdrop of sweeping southern vistas or kaleidoscopic lighting, often with eerily bouncing beats soundtracking their dances."
"P-Valley" airs on Starz
'The Lowdown'
This Tulsa-set crime comedy brings Ethan Hawke into the FX fold as citizen journalist Lee Raybon — loosely inspired by historian Lee Roy Chapman — whose insatiable need for tracking down the truth and exposing corruption has a dirty habit of getting him into trouble. It's a relentlessness that drives his ex Samantha (Kaniehtiio Horn) crazy and often pulls him away from his precocious 14-year-old daughter, “Francis” (Ryan Kiera Armstrong).
"When the publication of Lee’s latest exposé — a deep dive into the powerful Washberg family – is immediately followed by the suspicious suicide of ‘Dale Washberg’ (Tim Blake Nelson), Lee knows he’s stumbled onto something big,” reads the official season-one synopsis, per FX. (The series was renewed for a second installment in January 2026.)
With a near-perfect approval rating of 98% on Rotten Tomatoes, "The Lowdown" reaches "impressive highs as pulpy entertainment" by "brightening up its mysteries with a hometown affection for Tulsa and hanging its hat on Ethan Hawke's hangdog charisma," says the site's critics consensus.
"The Lowdown" airs on FX and streams on Hulu
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