Although the U.K. film industry is not as large as its American counterpart, you sometimes find that the shows they make over there are at least as good as the average show made in Hollywood. If you’re exhausted by American television, then BritBox might be the ideal solution.
The streaming service exports everything that the Brits make for American audiences, and as a result, it has plenty of shows you’ve probably heard of, as well as a few you probably haven’t. We’ve pulled together a list of three more obscure shows that are worth your time and can all be streamed on BritBox now.
We also have guides to the best new movies to stream, the best movies on Netflix, the best movies on Hulu, the best movies on Amazon Prime Video, the best movies on HBO Max, and the best movies on Disney+.
The British antecedent to the American series of the same name, House of Cards is very much about the same things in both versions. The four-episode miniseries follows a member of the U.K.’s Conservative Party who manipulates his way into power after being brushed aside.
The series has a particularly Machiavellian view of politics, but it is undeniably a thrilling reminder of the way some politicians are always trying to find ways to amass more power. Anchored by a brilliant performance from Ian Richardson, the show was hugely influential for decades after its release.
You can watch House of Cards on BritBox.
Olivia Colman is one of the great actresses of her generation, and Flowers is the type of comedy where she can excel. The series follows the eccentric Flowers family and dives into their family dynamics.
It examines which members are suspicious of one another and which seem to be in constant competition. It’s the kind of thing that we rarely get in the United States. Flowers seems to argue that all families are pretty messed up, even if most of their problems are relatively mundane when pulled apart.
You can watch Flowers on BritBox.
A long-running detective series in the style of American crime procedurals, Waking the Dead follows a group of detectives who utilize new technologies to solve cases that have gone cold.
Like any procedural, Waking the Dead ultimately lives and dies based on the charisma of its central cast. Thankfully, this cast has it in spades. Over the course of nine seasons, we see them solve all sorts of cases. Waking the Dead is comforting precisely because it’s conventional and because its quality is so high.
You can watch Waking the Dead on BritBox.
Some of the best shots in Grok Imagine’s AI-made Odyssey don’t contain actors. Ancient landscapes stretch into the distance. Close-ups of grimy hands suggest people who have touched something rougher than a keyboard. For a few seconds, the illusion holds.
https://twitter.com/imagine/status/2113712964419063911
YouTube videos could soon look better without eating quite so much data, right? Thankfully, the platform plans to introduce a new video format called AV2 on its web player in early 2027, promising more efficient streaming and potentially fewer playback hiccups on slower internet connections. The big headline is a roughly 30% improvement in compression efficiency over AV1, YouTube's existing video format. That doesn't guarantee every video will use 30% less data, but it could make streaming a little easier on both internet connections and data allowances.
What is AV2, and why should viewers care?
YouTube is changing how its Home page works, giving viewers more control over what shows up there and making some of the app’s most-used sections easier to reach. Custom Feeds are now replacing the existing topic chips for eligible users, while YouTube is also testing a redesigned top bar on mobile that moves Subscriptions closer to the Home feed.
YouTube first started experimenting with Custom Feeds earlier this year, letting you type out what you wanted to watch and turning that request into its own stream of recommendations. Now, the feature is starting to look less like a side experiment and more like something YouTube actually wants people to use as part of their everyday Home page.