The biggest movie of 2022, Top Gun: Maverick, is now available to watch on Paramount Plus, so for just $4.99 or £6.99 per month (with a seven-day free trial) you can catch up on the year's biggest blockbuster. But once those two hours and 11 minutes are up, you might be wondering, "what else should I watch?"
Thankfully, between Paramount Plus original series, new blockbuster movies and classics, there's a lot to sink your teeth into. And that's before you start on the Paramount Plus live sports offerings.
With that in mind, we've created this list of the best Paramount Plus shows and movies, so you know what to jump to. When Paramount Plus gets new shows and movies, we'll be updating and expanding this list, so stay tuned if you decide to subscribe for the long haul.
If you're looking for other streaming service recommendation lists, we've got guides to the best Netflix series, best Prime Video shows and best Apple TV Plus shows. And if you're yet to dip your toes into the video-on-demand world, our guides to the best streaming services and best streaming service deals should help.
Best Paramount Plus TV shows
Yellowstone/1883/1923
One of the biggest Paramount properties right now is the Taylor Sheridan-created Yellowstone universe, consisting of Yellowstone, 1883 and 1923 and starring Kevin Costner, Harrison Ford, Hellen Mirren and Sam Elliot across the different series.
Sheridan's work is known for for its great writing and epic scale. The series follow the Dutton family, with Yellowstone taking place in modern day Montana as the family fights to preserve its land against encroaching enemies, while both 1883 and 1923 are prequel depicting different generations of the Dutton family.
Both 1923 and 1883 are on Paramount Plus, and the entirety of Yellowstone is too if you live in the UK, though in the US it's on Peacock. Still, that's a lot of western drama for any fan.
Tulsa King
Sylvester Stallone's first ever starring role in a TV show, Tulsa King is another series created by Paramount's wonder child Taylor Sheridan.
Tulsa King tells the story of a mafia captain who, after serving 25 years in jail, is ordered by his boss to start a new branch of the organization in Tulsa, Okla. In doing so, he brings together a band of misfits he can trust.
Critics have been mostly positive on the show, particularly on Stallone's performance, and who doesn't like seeing the Rocky star work his charm?
While it's quite a new show, Paramount has already renewed it for a second season, so we'll be seeing more Stallone crime action very soon.
Halo
The TV adaptation of a popular video game series, Halo is quite unique from many of the other Paramount Plus originals.
Set 500 years in the future, Halo is about humanity's war with the Covenant, an alliance of aliens that wants to wipe out humanity. The tale focuses on Master Chief, a supersoldier who has an AI called Cortana implanted in his brain to make him the best at fighting aliens. So the show is a military sci-fi action one, with lots of action and special effects.
A second season of Halo is on its way.
Twin Peaks
Cult classic TV show Twin Peaks gives Paramount Plus subscribers something a bit dark and brooding. This popular David Lynch show is sometimes considered one of the best TV series ever made, telling the story of investigators as they try and work out who murdered a popular girl in the town of Twin Peaks. It's not just a crime drama, though, with hints of the supernatural too.
Twin Peaks is as much a historical object and permanent fixture in the TV canon as it is a story in its own right. It's led to many spin-off books as well as a movie and revival TV show (though those aren't on Paramount Plus), and is credit with inspiring plenty of video games and TV shows, like Riverdale, Bates Motel and Gravity Falls.
Cheers/Fraiser
Another classic TV show in Paramount Plus' library is Cheers, the long-running sit-com about the various patrons and workers at a bar called Cheers in Boston. There are so many episodes of Cheers that, if you were to try to watch it all over the course of Paramount Plus' free trial, you'd only get four hours of sleep per day. And that's if you decided to only stick to the main series itself.
Popular Cheers spin-off Frasier, focusing on Kelsey Grammer's character from the original, is also on Paramount Plus, and it itself has 11 seasons and 264 episodes. That leads to a total of 22 seasons and 539 episodes, if you really don't want to see daylight for a while.
FYI, a Fraiser reboot is also on the way as a Paramount Plus original.
Best Paramount Plus movies
Mission: Impossible franchise
The entirety of the Mission: Impossible franchise is streaming on Paramount Plus. That's six movies in total: the original is joined by 2, III, Ghost Protocol, Rogue Nation and finally 2018's Fallout.
The Mission Impossible movies, based on a 1966 TV show, follows the Impossible Mission Force as it works to stop global threats and fight various bad guys. Starring Tom Cruise, this franchise has progressed over time from spy thrillers to gung-ho action films, with Cruise constantly grabbing headlines for the fantastic stunts he performs in them (like this upcoming one from Mission: Impossible 7, being called the "biggest stunt in cinema history."
People flocking to Paramount Plus for Top Gun: Maverick should absolutely catch up on the Mission Impossible franchise, particularly Rogue Nation, which features another Cruise plane stunt. And if six movies sounds daunting, you can probably skip 2, and also III if you're really pressed for time — they're not bad, but the other four movies are better.
The Lost City
The 2022 hit movie The Lost City is now streaming on Paramount Plus. Starring Sandra Bullock, Channing Tatum and Daniel Radcliffe, The Lost City is about a novelist who finds herself unwittingly thrown into an adventure to find a lost city, alongside a bumbling male model and racing against an eccentric millionaire.
If you love romance, action or adventure, this is a great pick for you, continuing the tradition of Indiana Jones, Tomb Raider or Romancing the Stone — after all, this kind of lost-city-hunting caper is always a good bit of fun.
Significant Other
While there are far fewer Paramount Plus original movies as there are TV shows, one such example is Significant Other, a sci-fi horror film. Significant Other tells the story of a couple backpacking in the Pacific Northwest, but their relationship drama is made worse when a certain sci-fi event occurs (no spoilers!).
Fans of low-budget horror movies will enjoy this one; the fact that it's pretty short doesn't hurt either, so it's worth checking out if you're looking for a creepy night-time watch.
Smile/Scream
We've included both Smile and Scream as the same entry, because while both are popular 2022 horror movies, Smile is only available to stream in the US whereas Scream can only be watched in the UK.
Smile is about a therapist who starts to have a tough time of things when she witnesses a patient commit suicide — and then realizes that the issues plaguing her may be paranormal.
Scream, the fifth entry in the long-running franchise, is a slasher movie that sees the return of Ghostface, the murderous character from the first four films.
While it's a shame that both aren't available in the same region, at least you'll definitely have something to stream if you want some good old-fashioned horror.
Jackass Forever
There have been four Jackass movies at this point, so you probably know whether you like it or not. Jackass Forever has been called one of the best entries in the long-running series.
If you're looking for a well-told story, this isn't one for you — as with all Jackass movies, this is a compilation of pranks and stunts. Perhaps a good fan for Tom Cruise fans, then!
Johnny Knoxville and Steve-O return to host, but there are new cast members for the first time in Jackass' history, making it a different prospect than previous entries in the franchise.
