5 best TV shows to binge on Paramount Plus

Elizabeth Fisher/CBSFour seasons of The Good Fight are on Paramount Plus — that’s 40 episodes to get to know lawyers Diane Lockhart (Christine Baranski), Maia Rindell (Rose Leslie) and Lucca Quinn (Cush Jumbo). The Good Fight is a spinoff of The Good Wife, but differs from its predecessor in all the right ways, focusing less on relationships and more on politics. It’s also about good old human struggle — following Lockhart after her daughter Maia’s reputation is destroyed in a financial scam. Broke, they join Lucca Quinn’s big Chicago law firm. Get ready to be hooked. (Good news: a fifth season is to come.)

CBS All AccessThe first of Paramount Plus’ (it first arrived on CBS All Access) big Star Trek shows is set roughly 10 years before the events of Star Trek: The Original Series. It wasn’t a hit straight away, with a few problematic storylines to clean up, but thanks to Sonequa Martin-Green’s strong lead performance as Michael Burnham, Star Trek: Discovery eventually sweeps you up. Season 1 finds the crew of the USS Discovery embroiled in a war between the Klingon houses and the United Federation of Planets. Season 4 is set to hit Paramount Plus this year.

Robert FalconerGet Out and Us director Jordan Peele helped develop this new take on the original 1959 The Twilight Zone series, and the first season (it was canceled after the second) provides plenty of modern thought-provoking strangeness worth checking out. Peele also narrates the anthology, which features stars like Kumail Nanjiani, Tracy Morgan, Steven Yeun and more. It could probably be scarier (and the episodes shorter) but a few gems — like episode Replay — do the original series proud.

CBSStar Trek: Picard brings back Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard, the former captain of the USS Enterprise — in a multi-layered redemption story. Picard, nearing the end of his days, reflects on his choice to abandon Starfleet, after the Federation chose not to aid the Romulans when their planet was destroyed. Suffering from his past decisions and the death of fellow Enterprise officer Data, Picard steps out of his quiet life at a vineyard to help a mysterious young woman in need. A slower-paced, psychological character study, Star Trek: Picard is a full-bodied show to savor.

Paramount PlusWhy Women Kill juggles a few serious themes like infidelity and, well, murder, but the key to enjoying this show is focusing on the performances of Ginnifer Goodwin, Lucy Liu and Kirby Howell-Baptiste. Why Women Kill ambitiously explores the marriages of three women who all live in the same campily-designed Pasadena mansion (the outfits are wonderfully campy as well) across different decades. They’re connected by their partners’ infidelity, which sets of a chain of events that leads to the women killing someone. A stylish mix of black comedy and soapy drama that gets better with every episode.