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Sony doesn’t know how to name earbuds, but it sure knows how to build them. The WF-100XM5 buds were my favorite wireless earbuds last year, and they’ve since been supplanted by the Sony WF-1000XM6 buds.

Generally, whenever Sony releases a new version of its flagship earbuds, you can generally trust they will be the best your money can buy until the next iteration rolls around—and right now, you can get the WF-1000XM6 buds at a discount for the first time. They’re $298 (originally $329.99), the lowest price since the recent release, according to price tracking tools.

Bluetooth in-Ear Headphones, with Studio-Quality Sound, Up to 24 Hours of Battery Life, Black

Sony WF-1000XM6 The Best Truly Wireless Noise Cancelling Earbuds (2026 Model)

$298.00
at Amazon

$329.99
Save $31.99

$298.00
at Amazon

$329.99
Save $31.99

Bluetooth in-Ear Headphones, with Studio-Quality Sound, Up to 24 Hours of Battery Life, Platinum Silver

Sony WF-1000XM6 The Best Truly Wireless Noise Cancelling Earbuds (2026 Model)

$298.00
at Amazon

$329.99
Save $31.99

$298.00
at Amazon

$329.99
Save $31.99

The Sony WF-1000XM6 earbuds are a direct competitor with the Bose QuietComfort Ultra (2nd Gen), both outstanding options we have reviewed here in Lifehacker. The Bose are better suited for those looking for simplicity, user-friendliness, and comfort, while the Sonys are best for audiophiles looking to tweak and customize their experience exactly how they like it, with more options and features.

The Sony WF-1000XM6 earbuds are my favorite for pure listening enjoyment. Yes, they are comfortable and have amazing ANC, but the audio quality, especially when you tweak the EQ and are able to listen to audio in LC3 and Sony’s own LDAC codecs, is the best in the market for Bluetooth earbuds.

As you can read in Lifehacker’s review, Sony has improved the microphone count and quality, making calls, ANC, and transparency mode sound clear and more responsive to noise in your environment. As far as battery life, you can get eight hours when listening with just the buds, and 24 hours from the charging case.

If you’re an Apple user, I think the AirPods Pro 3 are a better option since they’re cheaper and better suited for iPhones. If you’re not, these Sony buds are my top recommendation—provided you want the best audio quality from Bluetooth earbuds you can find—and the current price is the lowest I’ve seen yet (and I don’t expect them to go much lower in 2026).

Since deep-learning super-sampling (DLSS) launch on 2018’s RTX 2080 cards, gamers have been generally bullish on the technology as a way to effectively use machine learning upscaling techniques to increase resolutions or juice frame rates in games. With yesterday’s tease of the upcoming DLSS 5, though, Nvidia has crossed a line from mere upscaling into complete lighting and texture overhauls influenced by “generative AI.” The result is a bland, uncanny gloss that has received an instant and overwhelmingly negative reaction from large swaths of gamers and the industry at large.

While previous DLSS releases rendered upscaled frames or created entirely new ones to smooth out gaps, Nvidia calls DLSS 5—which it plans to launch in Autumn—”a real-time neural rendering model” that can “deliver a new level of photoreal computer graphics previously only achieved in Hollywood visual effects.” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said explicitly that the technology melds “generative AI” with “handcrafted rendering” for “a dramatic leap in visual realism while preserving the control artists need for creative expression.”

Unlike existing generative video models, which Nvidia notes are “difficult to precisely control and often lack predictability,” DLSS 5 uses a game’s internal color and motion vectors “to infuse the scene with photoreal lighting and materials that are anchored to source 3D content and consistent from frame to frame.” That underlying game data helps the system “understand complex scene semantics such as characters, hair, fabric and translucent skin, along with environmental lighting conditions like front-lit, back-lit or overcast,” the company says.

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Starfield is officially coming to PS5, with a launch date set for April 7. Preorders are open right now for both the digital and physical versions. It’s long been rumored that Bethesda’s sci-fi RPG would be going multiplatform and, well, here we are.

The PS5 version will tap into the DualSense controller’s capabilities with adaptive triggers that work differently depending on the weapon you’re using. The light bar will offer an indication of your character and ship health (if you ever look at it while you’re playing, that is). You’ll also be able to use the touchpad to switch between points of view and access your map and hand scanner.

There will be a standard edition and a premium edition, matching the versions that originally showed up on Xbox consoles. The premium edition includes the base game, the Shattered Space and Terran Armada story expansions, a skin pack, some virtual currency and a digital artbook/soundtrack. The standard edition is $50, and the premium version will run you $70. If you buy the base game and decide later that you want to upgrade to the premium version to access the DLC, there’ll be a $25 upgrade available.

Other notable former Xbox exclusives have gone multiplatform, including Avowed, Forza Horizon 5, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II and Sea of Thieves. The PS5 will even be home to a Halo game in the near future.

It’s been rumored that the Switch 2 would be getting its own Starfield port at some point. If Nintendo’s new console can handle Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, another Bethesda release, it can likely run Starfield.

As for the Terran Armada DLC, that will be available on April 7 alongside a free update. The latter (which is dubbed Free Lanes) includes an overhaul of the space travel system. You’ll be able to fly freely between planets in a star system and enable cruise mode, which enables you to chat with shipmates or decorate your ship while traveling. Points of interest will pop up while you’re in cruise mode as well — you can switch your destination to one of those instead if there’s something that catches your interest. 

There are more space encounters too. If you run into one of these, your ship will exit cruise mode and you’ll have to deal with the situation before continuing. These encounters may or may not feature combat. In some cases, you’ll have to explore ship wreckages.

The free update also introduces deeper customization for weapons, gear and ships through a collectible item called X-Tech. You’ll be able to spend this (and regular credits) on re-rolls for legendary effects for your weapons. 

Elsewhere, there’s a new database system; more side quests; two higher-level quality tiers (superior and exceptional) for your gear; an optimization terminal you can add to your ship to help customize and upgrade your ride; containers from which you’ll be access stored gear at any of your outposts; an outpost pet; and much more. In addition, there’ll be a way for you to start a New Game+ run with all of the gear you’ve previously acquired.

If you don’t have the premium edition of Starfield, you can buy the Terran Armada DLC for $10. This includes a new story questline. You’ll face the Terrans, “an advanced militant force with their own vision for the Settled Systems.” One Terran robot will be available as a new companion.

The DLC introduces an Incursion system. This includes battles that form a key part of the DLC storyline. These range from “small skirmishes to large-scale infiltrations of Terran vessels where the objectives can vary,” Bethesda wrote in a blog post. You’ll be able to replay incursions to score extra loot. Via the gameplay options, you can limit how often non-story-required incursions pop up.

Terran Armada also adds new gear and ship parts; elite crew members; an outpost pre-build and decorations; and more.

Starfield is a huge sci-fi RPG with elements of Mass Effect and Fallout. We were blown away by its graphical beauty, but were initially underwhelmed by the generic story and gameplay. The game has, however, received a fair number of improvements since launch. It’s pretty good now, and hopefully the Free Lanes update and DLC will improve things even further.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/starfield-is-coming-to-ps5-on-april-7-162341201.html?src=rss

Microsoft has revealed the second wave of Game Pass additions for March. Disco Elysium and Resident Evil 7: Biohazard headline the 12-title batch, and several games previously exclusive to the Ultimate tier are also expanding to Premium.

DreamWorks Gabby’s Dollhouse: Ready to Party kicks off the wave on March 17. South of Midnight, the action-adventure from Xbox studio Compulsion Games, and The Alters both arrive on March 18 on the Premium tier after being Ultimate-only. The Alters, from Frostpunk studio 11 Bit Studios, strands you on a hostile planet where your survival plan involves creating alternate versions of yourself based on different life choices and putting them to work.

Disco Elysium arrives on March 19 across all tiers. ZA/UM‘s detective RPG casts you as an amnesiac cop tasked with solving a murder, though the game is just as happy to let you become “an absolute disaster of a human being.” Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, from the series formerly known as Yakuza, hits on March 24. Action packed roguelite Absolum, which we loved, follows on March 25, marking its Xbox debut.

Roman city-builder Nova Roma arrives March 26 as a day-one Game Pass release, and survival game The Long Dark joins on March 30. First-person survival epic Resident Evil 7: Biohazard arrives on March 31.

Barbie Horse Trails and 2025 Game of the Year Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 both land on April 2, with Clair Obscur coming to the Premium tier after launching as a day-one Game Pass Ultimate title. Final Fantasy IV rounds out the wave on April 7. Peppa Pig World Adventures and Mad Streets leave Game Pass on March 31.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/xbox/more-game-pass-additions-for-march-include-disco-elysium-and-resident-evil-7-161050028.html?src=rss

Samsung has been selling foldable phones for years, but they all fold in half. Recently, the company released the Galaxy Z TriFold, which has two hinges that allow it to expand from something approaching phone-sized to a 10-inch tablet. It’s a neat engineering demo, and that’s how it’s going to stay—Samsung has confirmed it’s ending sales of the Galaxy Z TriFold just three months after it launched.

According to Bloomberg, Samsung will begin winding down sales of the massive foldable in its home market of South Korea, where the TriFold debuted in December 2025. The device will disappear from other markets like the US as inventory is sold. Samsung released the Galaxy Z TriFold for the US in January, making its run even shorter stateside.

Samsung didn’t offer a rationale for this decision, but poor sales probably isn’t it. While the phone retailed for a whopping $2,899, Samsung was selling every unit it could produce. The company’s website actually teased restocks until recently, and desperate buyers were paying above MSRP on the second-hand market.

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Scroll through r/Garmin, r/ouraring, or r/whoop and you’ll find threads from users debating the merits of pairing devices. Common combinations include a GPS smartwatch like a Garmin or Apple Watch alongside a recovery-focused tracker like Whoop or Oura, with users assigning each device a distinct purpose: notifications and workout tracking from the watch, sleep and recovery data from the ring or band, and so on.

As wearable technology becomes increasingly sophisticated—not to mention increasingly embedded in how we think about our health—at what point does all this monitoring stop helping you and start just generating noise?

Oura Ring 4

$349.00
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$349.00
at Amazon

Do you need multiple fitness wearables? 

Before dismissing a multi-device setup as pure excess, though, it’s worth understanding why many people arrive there in the first place. After all, different devices have genuinely different strengths. Smart rings, for instance, are widely praised for sleep tracking, but struggle with workout detection (they don’t have GPS and have limited ability to capture exercise). A Garmin, meanwhile, excels at activity and training metrics, but it might be too bulky to sleep in night after night. Maybe your Apple Watch has the best notifications and cardiac monitoring, but you like to charge it overnight.

Many multi-device users are simply patching up all these gaps, always trying to use the best tool for each job. So if you’re into tracking your health, a multi-device setup sounds reasonable enough. Surely more inputs mean better data?

Not necessarily, says Dr. James Mitchell, an assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Informatics at the University of Colorado Anschutz. “Apple Watch, Oura, and Whoop are largely measuring the same physiological signals and repackaging them through different algorithms,” Mitchell says. “You’re not tripling your information—you’re tripling your noise.”

Zooming out, it’s worth noting that most consumer wearables are not medical-grade devices. And this is not to say that your smartwatches, rings, and bands aren’t legit. Far from it: The FDA has cleared several Apple Watch features as Class II medical devices. What’s important to understand is that designation applies to specific, well-validated features, and not to the broad range of metrics you might get on a daily basis. 

Instead, your smartwatch is best used for detecting trends over time—not to give you clinically accurate measurements at any given moment. This difference matters when people start making health decisions based on their at-home tracking.

Whoop 5.0

$359.00
at Amazon

$359.00
at Amazon

What’s actually worth tracking with fitness wearables

Not all metrics are created equal, but the wearable industry has a financial incentive to make everything seem equally important. According to Mitchell, the essentials include resting heart rate trends, heart rate variability (HRV) (when used as a general recovery indicator observed over time), sleep duration, and step count. “These are relatively well-validated and tend to track with meaningful health outcomes in the research literature,” he says.

Then there’s everything else. Stress scores are a prime example of a metric that sounds sophisticated but is built on shaky interpretive ground. They’re typically derived from HRV and heart rate—real physiological signals—but the “stress” label layered on top is not directly measuring your mental state at that moment. The same skepticism applies to things like “readiness scores” and “body battery” metrics. “They can be directionally useful,” Mitchell says, “but they’re likely not telling you anything your body isn’t already telling you if you pay attention to it.”

Keep these risks in mind with fitness wearables

The conversation around wearables tends to focus on their benefits, but there are risks beyond notification fatigue. Privacy is perhaps the most under-appreciated concern. We regularly sign various “terms of service” that are long, vague, and subject to change. “Your health data is among the most sensitive data you generate, and most people have no idea what wearable companies are doing with it,” Mitchell says. His recommendation: Research what each company actually does with your data and how seriously they take privacy before you commit.

Mental health is another risk. For instance, there’s a documented phenomenon called “orthosomnia“—a term for when people become so focused on optimizing their sleep scores that the monitoring itself begins to disrupt their sleep. More broadly, constant tracking can erode a person’s connection to their own body. “Constant tracking can shift you from listening to your body to only trusting what the device says,” Mitchell says. People can become fixated on day-to-day metrics that, on any given day, may not be fully accurate. “Focusing on trends over time is a much better way of using the data, and listening to your body is always better.”

And then cost is of course a factor, one that compounds. Devices like Whoop and Oura rely on subscription models that add up quickly. If the data isn’t changing your behavior in a concrete way, your money is better spent elsewhere. 

Who fitness wearables are actually good for

Again, none of this means wearables are without value. Training for an endurance event and wanting to track recovery is a strong use case. Managing a chronic condition with physician guidance is another. Identifying patterns around sleep disruption or cardiac irregularities is genuinely, clinically meaningful. And for people who simply enjoy engaging with their data, without it causing anxiety, that’s a legitimate use case too.

The sweet spot for wearables comes down to specificity. “Pick one or two metrics that actually connect to your goals and focus on those over weeks and months, not days” Mitchell says. Day-to-day fluctuations are mostly noise, and chasing them is a good way to make yourself anxious without getting healthier.

For people without a specific medical concern or athletic goal, these questions are worth sitting with:

• Has any data from this device changed a decision you made in the last three months?

• If you skip checking your stats for a week, does anything bad actually happen?

• Are you buying a second or third wearable because the first one gave you actionable information, or because you’re hoping the next one will finally tell you something useful?

“For healthy people with no specific goals, the return on investment for most wearables is pretty modest,” he says. “If you’re sleeping fine, exercising regularly, and your doctor isn’t flagging concerns, you’re probably getting more anxiety than insight from layering on more devices.”

The consumer market, driven by competition and the constant pressure to justify subscription fees and annual hardware upgrades, has raced ahead of science in many areas. Wearables are still an exciting and promising arena, but it feels like we’re being sold comprehensiveness when what we actually need is clarity.

If you’re wearing two or three devices simultaneously and struggling to articulate what each one is telling you that the others aren’t … that’s probably your answer. Consider taking a week off from using your wearables. If you feel lost without your devices, that’s worth reflecting on. At the end of the day, collecting data and acting on data are very different things.

At the start of the year, Google introduced Personal Intelligence, a Gemini feature that allows the chatbot to pull information from the user’s other Google apps and services to generate personalized responses. After making the feature first available to Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers, the company is expanding availability to more users in the US. 

Google is kicking off the expansion with AI Mode. Starting today, anyone in the US can enable Personal Intelligence inside of the company’s dedicated search chatbot. To enable the feature, tap on your profile, select Search personalization, followed by Connected Content Apps. From there, select Connect Workspace and Google Photos.

In the coming weeks, Google will start rolling out Personal Intelligence to free users of the Gemini app in the US, with international availability to follow thereafter. The company plans to do the same with Gemini in Chrome, where personalization will first roll out to users in the US before becoming available in other countries. 

Google suggests a few different use cases for Gemini personalization inside of AI Mode, the Gemini app and Chrome. For instance, say you turn to AI mode for help with planning an upcoming trip. Instead of generating a generic itinerary, the chatbot will pull information from your apps to suggest something more tailored to your interests. It can also help you with troubleshooting in cases where you can’t remember the exact make or model of a device you’re trying to fix, as long as there are some hints to its origin contained inside of your Gmail account.

In each case, Personal Intelligence is disabled by default. Gemini will not personalize its responses unless you enable the new feature. Additionally, personalization is only available to personal accounts and not for Workspace business, enterprise and education users.  

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/google-makes-gemini-personalization-available-to-free-users-160000581.html?src=rss

The U.S. SEC is reportedly preparing a proposal to make quarterly earnings reports optional, potentially allowing companies to report results just twice a year. “The proposal could be published as soon as next month,” reports Reuters, citing a paywalled report from the Wall Street Journal, adding that “regulators are in talks with major exchanges to discuss how their rules may need to be adjusted.” Reuters reports: The SEC will vote on the proposal once it is published, after a public comment period which typically lasts at least 30 days, the report said. The WSJ report added that the rule is expected to make quarterly reporting optional and not eliminate it altogether. The proposed change in the reporting standard would allow listed companies to publish results every six months instead of the current mandate to report figures every 90 days.

Trump, who first floated the idea in his first term as president, has argued the change in requirements would discourage shortsightedness from public companies while cutting costs. Skeptics, however, caution delaying disclosures could reduce transparency and heighten market volatility.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

It’s time to lock in those brackets. The 2026 NCAA basketball tournaments, affectionately known as March Madness, begin this week. In fact, some of the action on the men’s side starts tonight. Both the men’s and women’s tournaments are available to stream through various apps and services, but navigating the web of broadcasters and TV channels can be confusing. We’ve broken down when all the games are happening, where to watch and the best options for saving some cash doing so. 

What does March Madness start?

The men’s NCAA Basketball Tournament begins on Tuesday, March 17 with two of the First Four matchups. These are the four games that are used to determine the final four teams in the main 64-team bracket. To some, they’re known as the “play-in games” although they’ve officially been part of the men’s tournament since 2011. The first game on March 17 begins at 6:40PM ET with another to follow at 9:15PM ET. The same schedule is expected for the second slate of games on Wednesday, March 19.

On the women’s side, everything is offset by a day. The first two of the First Four games take place on Wednesday, March 18 at 7PM ET and 9PM ET. The second pair of matchups follows on Thursday, March 19 in the same two time slots.

The 64-team bracket kicks off in earnest for the men at 12:15PM ET on Thursday, March 19. For the women, the main action begins at 11:30AM ET on Friday, March 20. Here’s the full schedule for each tournament:

2026 Men’s NCAA Basketball Tournament

• First Four: March 17-18

• First round: March 19-20

• Second round: March 21-22

• Sweet 16: March 26-27

• Elite Eight: March 28-29

• Final Four: April 4

• Championship game: April 6

2026 Women’s NCAA Basketball Tournament

• First Four: March 18-19

• First round: March 20-21

• Second round: March 22-23

• Sweet 16: March 27-28

• Elite Eight: March 29-30

• Final Four: April 3

• Championship game: April 5

How to stream the 2026 Men’s NCAA Tournament

Jacob Kupferman via Getty Images

CBS and Warner Bros. Discovery share the broadcast rights to the men’s tournament, so TV coverage will be spread across four networks. During the course of March Madness, games will air on CBS, TNT, TBS and truTV, with the final rounds and championship game landing on TBS.

If you already have a paid TV plan (such as traditional cable), a good way to watch the men’s tournament is with the March Madness Live app or website. There’s a big catch though: CBS games aren’t available in the app. That means this is really only a good option through the Elite Eight. Once you log in with your TV provider credentials, you can watch games on the other networks in one spot with features like multiview (up to four games at once) and a Fast Break stream that covers all the in-progress games in one spot.

The app also offers ways to follow your bracket, if you filled it out on MarchMadness.com. And when you’re watching on desktop, the crucial Boss Button will throw up a fake work screen to keep your job safe. In addition to your laptop or phone, March Madness Live is also available on Amazon devices, Fire TV, Apple TV, iOS, macOS, Google Play, LG smart TVs, Roku and Xbox consoles.

The most affordable option to watch every game is to actually use two services. It’s not ideal, I know, but it will save you a lot of money. HBO Max’s Basic plan is $11/month and gives you access to live games from TNT, TBS and truTV with three-game multiview (46 games total). That includes the Final Four and National Championship as those three games are on TBS this year. If you splurge for a pricier plan ($23/month), you can stream games in Dolby Vision with Dolby Atmos surround sound. For the CBS games, you’ll need a Paramount+ Premium subscription that costs $14/month ($6 for two months for new users). So, with this best price scenario, streaming all of the men’s tournaments will cost $25 across two apps.

A live TV service like YouTube TV or Hulu + Live TV is over $80 more per month at full price, but they would offer you all the games in the men’s tournament in one place. YouTube TV is currently on sale for $60/month for the first two months after a free 10-day trial. Hulu + Live TV now includes Disney+ and ESPN Select, hence its higher price.

How to stream the 2026 Women’s NCAA Tournament

Joe Buglewicz via Getty Images

While Warner Brothers Discovery owns the rights to the men’s NCAA Tournament, ESPN has the women’s bracket locked down. Every game of the women’s tournament will be spread across ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPNEWS, including the First Four matchups. The Final Four will be on ESPN, but the championship game will air on ABC. All three of those culminating games will stream on ESPN+ (and in the ESPN app) as MegaCast feeds.

ESPN says the MegaCasts are available in two options. First, Beyond the Rim provides an aerial camera angle with the main commentary and replays, plus the addition of enhanced stats. On the Rail shows you game action the full length of the floor. This feed will offer “natural” sound and replays. 

Since ESPN+ won’t get every game, it’s not an option if you want to watch the entire tournament. However, since last year’s March Madness, Disney debuted standalone offerings for ESPN. The most affordable option here is ESPN Select which includes women’s college basketball and costs $13/month. 

You could also opt for a live-TV streaming service like Sling, YouTube TV or Hulu + Live TV for a comprehensive experience. Sling is the cheapest of these, with the requisite Orange and Sports Extra plan costing $57 (Sling is currently offering a discount on the first month of Orange). YouTube and Hulu live TV options are both more expensive at over $80/month (YouTube TV currently discounted to $60 for the first two months), so it’s a matter of which set of content and features you like best. YouTube TV offers a handy multiview tool so you can watch up to four games at once, but Hulu + Live TV comes with Disney+ and ESPN Select for that cost.

Once you have a TV plan that includes the ESPN family of networks, the ESPN app is the best place to watch the tournament. The mix of scores and info, along with multiview streaming for up to four games at a time on Apple TV and Xbox, make the app a well-equipped conduit for the women’s tournament.

The March Madness website only shows scores and news for the women’s tournament. None of the women’s games will be available for streaming live on the website.

Are any of the March Madness games available to stream for free?

Michael Reaves via Getty Images

Without a TV provider login, you can watch all of the games broadcast on CBS on the March Madness website and mobile apps. Sure, it’s a small sample of the tournament, but it’s completely free and a good option for casual fans who don’t have a paid TV plan they can exploit for more of the action. It’s also a good way to watch the first round at work, if your company hasn’t blocked streaming sites, or if you can discreetly watch on your phone.

For the women’s tournament, there aren’t any games available for free. Unless you have an old-school OTA antenna, that is, in which case you can watch women’s games on ABC (and men’s games on CBS) without any kind of streaming plan. Of course, as this is a streaming guide published in 2026, I’d consider an antenna an extraordinary move.

If you were hoping to use a free trial period to watch March Madness, I’ve got bad news. None of them will last long enough to cover the entire tournament. Some services don’t offer a free trial at all, but the longest is YouTube TV at 10 days. Sadly, that won’t even get you through the second weekend.

What if I want to stream both the men’s and women’s tournaments?

If you’re hoping to stream all of the men’s and women’s NCAA tournaments, I hope you ordered Samsung’s eight-TV bundle. In terms of streaming services, just jump straight to a live-TV option like YouTube TV or Hulu + Live TV. I prefer the former because of its multiview feature. At times when there are multiple games that you want to watch, especially during the first two rounds, you’ll want multiview in order to keep tabs on all of the action.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/march-madness-2026-how-to-watch-every-game-of-the-ncaa-basketball-tournaments-154903317.html?src=rss

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Each of writer/creator/director Steven Conrad’s series has been distinctive, which is to say, unsettling and off-kilter. Patriot; Perpetual Grace, LTD, and the tough-to-stream Ultra City Smiths each has a style and tone that sets it apart from anything else on television, and also each other. They’ve also all struggled to break out amid a bustling streaming pack, though that may well be changing: only a few episodes in, Conrad’s new HBO series DTF St. Louis is building buzz.

The shows follows Floyd Smernitch (Stranger Things’ David Harbour), a married sign language interpreter with a fading sex life and a weird penis (it’s a plot point) who saves the life of local meteorologist and recumbent bicyclist Clark Forrest (Jason Bateman). The two become friends, and Clark introduces Floyd to a dating app for married people looking for side action. They both sign up, but within a few weeks, Floyd is found dead, and the police investigate it as a murder (no spoilers: this all happens within the first act of the first episode). Linda Cardellini stars as Carol, Floyd’s wife, who’s also having an affair with Clark.

To DTF‘s credit, I’m not sure there’s another show exactly like it, but the 10 I’ve highlighted below all manage to juggle a similarly smart, quirky, and slightly surreal tone while unraveling plots rich in secrets and lies in unexpected settings. Stream DTF St. Louis on HBO Max, then sample these other series between episodes.

Patriot (2015 – 2018)

Shot through with a vein of black comedy that wouldn’t feel out of place in a Coen brothers movie, Patriot is the story of a beleaguered intelligence officer who just cannot catch a break. Michael Dorman is John Tavner, tasked with ensuring that the leading candidate for the presidency of Iran doesn’t win. An elaborate plan to support a more moderate rival candidate sees him taking on a non-official cover identity and getting a job at a Milwaukee piping firm. After he blows the interview, he needs to eliminate his hapless competition for the job, then borrow urine for the drug test, efforts that wind up exposing him to extortion, and things spiral from there. As the screwups began to stack higher and higher, John’s situation becomes ever more precarious (and darkly hilarious—his musical talent means that a lot of exposition comes in the form of extremely specific folk songs that he performs at open mics under yet another assumed name). The show comes from DTF St. Louis’s very own creator Steven Conrad, so while the genre isn’t a 1:1 match, the tone certainly is. Stream Patriot on Prime Video.

Patriot (2015 – 2018)

Deadloch (2023 – )

Both a twisty crime procedural and a brilliant satire of the genre, this Australian import follows Dulcie Collins (Kate Box), the fastidious senior sergeant of the police force in the fictional town of Deadloch. When a body turns up on the beach, Dulcie is joined by Madeleine Sami’s Eddie Redcliffe, a crud, generally obnoxious detective brought in to help solve the case. Their unraveling of the web of secrets in the tiny Tasmanian town is addictive, and as an added bonus, cop thriller tropes are mercilessly mocked throughout. A new season is dropping soon. Stream Deadloch on Prime Video.

Deadloch (2023 – )

at Prime Video

at Prime Video

The Chair Company (2025 – )

Tim Robinson and Zach Kanin followed up their Netflix sketch show I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson with this… cringe comedy/thriller? Somehow this surreal, genre-defying caper broke HBO Max records, and deservedly so. Robinson plays Ron Trosper, a middle manager in charge of building a new shopping mall. A collapsing chair during a public presentation sends Ron on a quest to uncover a massive conspiracy—he’s convinced that the broken chair is just the first rung in a ladder of sabotage. The show sends us along with him on a darkly funny, sometimes horrific, journey down a rabbit hole that still, nonetheless, feels like a reflection of a modern American work culture that’s no less nuts than Ron’s conspiracy of chairs. Stream The Chair Company on HBO Max.

The Chair Company (2025 – )

at HBO Max

at HBO Max

The Shrink Next Door (2021)

A dark comedy that also happens to be based on a true story, this miniseries stars Will Ferrell as Marty Markowitz and Paul Rudd as his therapist, Dr. Ike Herschkopf. Over the course of nearly thirty years, the good doctor ingratiated himself into Marty’s life while collecting payments of several million dollars. Ferrell and Rudd play against type, leaning into the show’s central mystery: how the hell does a reasonable person give someone so much control over their existence? It’s by no means grim, as the show also recognizes that there’s a core absurdity to the relationship between the two. Stream The Shrink Next Door on Apple TV+.

The Shrink Next Door (2021)

at Apple TV+

at Apple TV+

Bodkin (2024)

Less domestic in its concerns than DTF, this one is nonetheless firmly in dark comedy/murder mystery territory. Bodkin takes us to the title’s rather quirky Irish coastal town. Will Forte plays Gilbert Power, an American podcaster who arrives to investigate the cold case of three people who went missing during a Samhain celebration three decades prior. He’s soon joined by Dove Maloney (Siobhán Cullen), a Dublin-born journalist who’d been living in London, and aspiring journalist Emmy Sizergh (Robyn Cara). It’s very nearly a satire of the genre, with an engaging mystery at its heart nonetheless. Stream Bodkin on Netflix.

Bodkin (2024)

at Netflix

at Netflix

Perpetual Grace LTD (2019)

A cult favorite that didn’t last long, this was another distinctive Steven Conrad series (co-created with Bruce Terris) that felt like nothing else on TV. Jimmi Simpson (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia) plays James, a disturbed and depressed former firefighter in rural New Mexico who gets roped into a scheme by Paul (Damon Herriman), the son of local pastor “Pa” Brown (Ben Kingsley). Pa is a bad guy, ripping off his parishioners via a shady rehab center. Paul figures that he can get James to infiltrate the center and ingratiate himself, robbing the shady pastor while a similarly crooked local sheriff (Luis Guzman) gets Pa out of the way. It’s a juicy and addictive neo-noir thriller, with the type of wonderfully stylized dialogue that you’ll recognize from DTF. Buy Perpetual Grace LTD from Prime Video and Apple TV.

Perpetual Grace LTD (2019)

at Prime Video

at Prime Video

Landscapers (2021)

Another in the truth-is-stranger-than-fiction genre, this dark comedy does several things that make it quite a bit more interesting, and far more weird, than the usual true crime narrative. The first great choice is in its casting: Olivia Colman and David Thewliss play Susan and Christopher Edwards, a mild-mannered couple who were discovered to have murdered Susan’s parents and buried them in the back garden, even while sending off Christmas cards to the “vacationing” parents. The show smartly doesn’t try very hard to decipher motives, instead interrogating our need to understand people like Susan and Edward. Stream Landscapers on HBO Max.

Landscapers (2021)

at HBO Max

at HBO Max

The ‘Burbs (2026 – )

A bit sillier than DTF, this fun, loose adaptation of the 1989 Tom Hanks film nonetheless covers much of the same ground: secrets, infidelity, and murder in unlikely places. Keke Palmer’s Samira and Jack Whitehall’s Rob move back to his impossibly safe and tidy hometown, their new house across the street from a dilapidated Victorian eyesore that may or may not have been the location of a murder a couple of decades before—a girl who only wanted to get out. As Samira adjusts to new motherhood as well as life on the cul-de-sac, she learns that even the nicest of her neighbors (played by Julia Duffy, Paula Pell, Mark Proksch, and Kapil Talwalkar) have secrets, and comes to suspect that her husband knows more about the missing girl than he’s letting on. Stream The ‘Burbs on Peacock.

The ‘Burbs (2026 – )

at Peacock

at Peacock

Dead to Me (2019 – 2022)

Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini (also in DTF) make for an all-time-great TV pairing in this dark, twisty comedy about a couple of women who become united in tragedy and lies. Applegate is Jen Harding, a realtor whose husband was killed in a hit-and-run incident; she’s not dealing very well, and takes a bit of inspiration from Cardellini’s Judy, who has maintained a cheery disposition following her fiancé Steve’s death from a heart attack—easier to do given that Steve’s still secretly alive. And then we discover that Judy has a storage unit with a car that looks suspiciously like the one that killed Jen’s husband. That’s all just part of the first episode, and the show only gets wilder from there. Stream Dead to Me on Netflix.

Dead to Me (2019)

at Netflix

at Netflix

How to Get to Heaven from Belfast (2026 – )

Probably the most batty, surreal show on this list (which is saying quite a bit), How to Get to Heaven comes from Irish playwright and Derry Girls creator Lisa McGee, though that earlier and justifiably beloved show won’t quite prepare you for McGee’s latest. Three high school friends from Belfast reunite after learning that their fourth bestie has died unexpectedly—except that maybe she didn’t, a mixed blessing given that they all have secrets that they were hoping to bury. Now they’re off to investigate the mystery of the maybe-murder, and find themselves immediately in way (way way way) over their heads. The tone is all over the place in a way that somehow really works. Stream How to Get to Heaven from Belfast on Netflix.

How to Get to Heaven from Belfast (2026 – )

at Netflix

at Netflix