STARZ has some seriously addictive dramas to binge
STARZ has some seriously addictive dramas to binge
From ‘Outlander’ to ‘Power,’ these are the STARZ shows built for just-one-more-episode nights.
I don’t think STARZ gets enough credit for the quality of drama TV shows they have. Sure, they don’t have a ton of series compared to other streamers, but what is there is very well-made and extremely bingeable. This list has romance, crime, betrayal, pirates, family drama, historical chaos, and plenty of people making terrible decisions under pressure. The four shows below all scratch a different drama itch, but they all have that same binge engine: big stakes, strong characters, and endings that basically dare you not to hit play on the next episode. Here are my picks for the best binge-worthy drama TV shows streaming on STARZ right now.
Best binge-worthy drama shows streaming on STARZ
Best romance binge: ‘Outlander’
“Outlander” is one of those shows with a complicated premise, but once you’re in, you’re in. It starts with Claire Randall, a World War II nurse in 1945, who mysteriously gets pulled back in time to 1743 Scotland. From there, she meets Jamie Fraser, gets swept into the Jacobite Rising, and suddenly her life becomes this giant emotional knot of romance, war, family, history, and time travel. Caitríona Balfe and Sam Heughan are the reason the whole thing works. Their chemistry gives the show its heart, while the story keeps expanding around them into Scotland, France, colonial America, the American Revolution, family secrets, sacrifices, and basically every possible way history can ruin your day.
What makes “Outlander” such a good binge is that it gives you romance, but it doesn’t stop at romance. There are battles, rescues, political danger, family tragedies, rivalries, betrayals, and enough cliffhangers to keep you glued to the couch. The episodes are long, the production looks expensive, and the whole thing has that rich, immersive feeling you want from a historical drama. You don’t just watch it — you move into it for a while. If you want a drama binge that’s romantic, epic, stressful, and deeply committed to making you care about one family across multiple timelines, “Outlander” is the one to start with.
Outlander
The story of Claire Randall, a married combat nurse from 1945 who is mysteriously swept back in time to 1743, where she is immediately thrown into an unknown world where her life is threatened. When she is forced to marry Jamie, a chivalrous and romantic young Scottish warrior, a passionate affair is ignited that tears Claire’s heart between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives.
Best crime binge: ‘Power’
“Power” is pure crime-drama addiction. It follows James “Ghost” St. Patrick, played by Omari Hardwick, a New York nightclub owner who’s also secretly running a drug empire. So, you know, not exactly work-life balance goals. Ghost wants to leave the criminal world behind and go legit, but the problem is that everything in his life is tied to the game — his money, his marriage, his friendships, his enemies, his reputation, all of it. Hardwick is great at playing both sides of him, while Joseph Sikora’s Tommy Egan brings the chaos as Ghost’s best friend, partner, and eventual walking disaster zone.
The binge hook is that every relationship in “Power” feels like it could explode at any second. Ghost’s wife Tasha, his former love Angela, Tommy, Kanan, Tariq, the cops, the lawyers, everybody is either hiding something, chasing something, or about to betray someone. The show moves fast, too. There are raids, hookups, shootings, courtroom problems, family meltdowns, and hundreds of moments where someone should probably just leave town but absolutely does not. It’s stylish, intense, and built around cliffhangers, which is exactly what you want from this kind of binge.
Power
A successful New York entrepreneur lives a double life as the head of a drug empire that serves only the rich and influential, all while wanting to escape the underworld and keep his family safe.
Best follow-up crime binge: ‘Power Book II: Ghost’
Once you finish “Power,” the obvious next move is “Power Book II: Ghost.” This show shifts the focus to Tariq St. Patrick, Ghost’s son, as he tries to survive the mess his family left behind while creating plenty of new mess on his own. The show picks up right after the original series and follows Tariq as he tries to protect his mother, Tasha, keep up appearances at school, and navigate the drug world at the same time. Michael Rainey Jr. carries the tension well, Mary J. Blige brings major crime-family energy as Monet Tejada, and Method Man’s Davis MacLean adds a slick legal angle.
What makes “Power Book II: Ghost” such a strong binge is that it keeps the parent show’s DNA while finding its own lane. It still has the secrets, betrayals, cliffhangers, and “how is he getting out of this?” energy of “Power,” but Tariq’s age gives it a different charge. He’s not a kingpin trying to go legit — he’s a kid trying to survive long enough to become something, even if that something might be exactly what he claims he doesn’t want to be. As a follow-up binge, it does exactly what it should do: it keeps the world alive and gives you a new reason to stay hooked.
Power Book II: Ghost
Picking up just days after the “Power” finale, this sequel series follows Tariq navigating his new life, in which his desire to shed his father’s legacy comes up against the mounting pressure to save his family.
Best adventure binge: ‘Black Sails’
“Black Sails” is the one you fire up when you want something big, gritty, and full of people making dramatic speeches on ships. It’s a pirate drama set during the Golden Age of Piracy, and it works as a prequel to “Treasure Island.” The show centers on Captain James Flint, played by Toby Stephens, and a young John Silver, played by Luke Arnold, as they get pulled into treasure hunts, pirate politics, betrayals, and eventually a full-on fight against British control. It starts with the hunt for the Spanish treasure galleon Urca d’Lima, but it gets way bigger than a simple treasure story.
As a binge, “Black Sails” is sneaky because it starts a little more deliberate, then grows into a monster. Once the treasure hunt, the pirate politics, and the British threat all start colliding, it becomes incredibly hard to stop. The ensemble is stacked with shifting alliances, especially around Flint, Silver, Eleanor Guthrie, Billy Bones, Charles Vane, Jack Rackham, and Anne Bonny, so someone is always plotting, switching sides, or about five seconds away from disaster. The episodes feel cinematic, the world feels dangerous, and the show has that “one long movie” quality where each chapter keeps pushing the larger story forward. If you want the STARZ drama binge with the most adventure and scope, this is the pick.
Black Sails
The pirate adventures of Captain Flint and his men twenty years prior to Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic “Treasure Island.” Flint, the most brilliant and most feared pirate captain of his day, takes on a fast-talking young addition to his crew who goes by the name John Silver. Threatened with extinction on all sides, they fight for the survival of New Providence Island, the most notorious criminal haven of its day – a debauched paradise teeming with pirates, prostitutes, thieves and fortune seekers, a place defined by both its enlightened ideals and its stunning brutality.
More binge-worthy drama TV shows on STARZ
‘Power Book III: Raising Kanan’
Power Book III: Raising Kanan
Set in South Jamaica, Queens, in 1991, this prequel to “Power” revolves around the coming of age of Kanan Stark.
‘The Spanish Princess’
The Spanish Princess
The beautiful Spanish princess, Catherine of Aragon, navigates the royal lineage of England with an eye on the throne.
‘Spartacus’
Spartacus
Torn from his homeland and the woman he loves, Spartacus is condemned to the brutal world of the arena where blood and death are primetime entertainment.
‘P-Valley’
P-Valley
Down deep in the Mississippi Delta, Trap music meets film noir in this kaleidoscopic story of a little-strip-club-that-could and the big characters who come through its doors—the hopeful, the lost, the broken, the ballers, the beautiful, and the damned.