12 Best Starz Shows, Ranked

Gods old and new call upon you to watch this fantasy drama about an ex-convict lured into a battle between deities. Neil Gaiman, whose novels are the source material, is mired in scandal now, but this show is the result of so many other creative forces, especially TV producers Bryan Fuller of Hannibal fame and Michael Green of Kings.

Before Justin Marks co-created Shōgun, he created this sci-fi thriller, in which perennial fave J.K. Simmons plays a low-level United Nations employee whose work is mysterious and important. As that U.N. drone discovers, he has a ruthless counterpart in a parallel world engaged in a cold world with this one. (That’s right — two J.K. Simmonses in one show!)

Avast, mateys, and get ye to a television set to check out this ambitious action-adventure show, scripted as a prequel to the events of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island. Blackbeard, Long Jong Silver, Captain Flint, they’re all here, as are many other pirates of the Caribbean.

After HBO’s The Vow exposed the horrors of the NXIVM organization and its abuse-ridden DOS sect, this documentary delved deeper into the story, with harrowing firsthand testimony from one of the most recognizable ex-members: actor India Oxenberg, daughter of Dynasty alum Catherine Oxenberg.

It’d be outlandish to ignore this historical fantasy series, which stars Caitriona Balfe as a 1940s Scottish nurse who mysteriously travels two centuries in the past and falls for Sam Heughan’s Highland warrior in the middle of the Jacobite uprising. We imagine their romance is one for which many swooning viewers would likely give up their modern conveniences!

Never mind James St. Patrick (Omari Hardwick) or Kanan Stark (50 Cent) — we’d say it’s TV writer Courtney Kemp who has the power here. For it was she who created a crime-drama universe that Starz and its subscribers can’t get enough of after four series (dubbed “books”) and an origin story on the way.

After channeling their Oakland upbringing into the 2018 film of the same name, Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal created this sequel series, which strikes the same comedy-drama balance but grants the spotlight to Jasmine Cephas Jones’ character. (Fun fact: She and Diggs aren’t even the only Hamilton alums involved.)

This umpteenth depiction of the Watergate saga is a rare retelling to focus on Martha Mitchell, the wife of a Nixon-era U.S. attorney general, and a woman whose whistleblowing was discredited by a presidential administration. And frankly, the more we get of Julia Roberts on the small screen, the better.

Like Power, Spartacus also was just the start of a media universe, one that will continue with the upcoming spinoff House of Ashur. If you can get past the extreme violence and the glaring CGI, you’ll find a TV show that often subverts the toxically-masculine trappings of its sword-and-sandals rivals.

Party down? You don’t have to ask us twice, especially when this cater-waiter comedy features Adam Scott, Ken Marino, Jane Lynch, Ryan Hansen, and the aforementioned Simmons — all of whom, in no coincidence, are Veronica Mars alums — along with a cast filled with many more funny folk.

Viva this Vida! Having pulled off 100% Tomatometer ratings for all three seasons season, this comedy-drama follows Mexican-American sisters who return to L.A. to bury their mother, only to unearth an important facet of the late Vida’s personality. Specific in voice, inclusive in spirit… television needs more shows like this.

From the provider pen of Pulitzer-winning playwright Katori Hall comes this drama centering female and nonbinary Black characters working at a Mississippi strip club — told with soapiness, perhaps, but not shame. With transcendent cinematography and characterization, this Valley is the peak of Starz programming, and the long-delayed third season can’t come soon enough.