The Best TV Shows for Stunts in 2026, According to Stunt Coordinators

Stunt coordinators and second unit directors tell IndieWire which shows deliver the most thrilling action in 2026.

As we’re doing with other crafts this summer, the IndieWire Craft team reached out to some incredible second unit directors and stunt coordinators about what they’ve seen on TV this year that’s blown them away.

This has been a really strong year across all kinds of television. Of course, this includes the big, prestige or genre shows where you’d expect stunt performances and stunt coordinators to carry whole sections and episodes — and boy, do they. But procedurals and comedies also have their fair share of complex, intricate stuntwork that needs to dance backward in heels, as it were, before flipping a car and exploding it.  

In fact, stuntwork’s ability to look natural was something the stunt coordinators and second-unit directors we talked to really prized. Rob Inch, the second unit director behind “Alien: Earth” and “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” stressed that the important thing, even with shows that have moments of spectacle, is to make them feel “really gritty without trying too hard,” Inch told IndieWire. 

Finding ways to ground stunt performances, even in the most fantastical circumstances, is what makes them feel truly dangerous, and not just like more pixels moving across a screen. John Koyama, the stunt coordinator for “The Boys,” called out both the second season of “Fallout” and the final season of “Stranger Things” for being able to do just that.

“Each of these shows have characters with superhuman strength and durability while performing stunts in complex costumes,” Koyama told IndieWire. “They are very well done, especially the wire stunt reactions, which have violent impacts that result in the large destruction of set pieces.” 

Paul Kennington, the second unit director on “Slow Horses,” praised “Fallout” as well for the post-apocalyptic Amazon Prime Video series’ ability to go loud and sometimes overboard with its level of action, but in a way that’s perfect and does as much as the costumes and music to set the tone. “Good choreography,” Kennington told IndieWire. “[It’s] in keeping with the show.” 

Sometimes, it’s impressive that stuntwork simply keeps up with a show as it goes on. Christopher Place, the second unit director for “Dexter: Resurrection,” praised the “FBI” stunt team for stepping up to the plate with an increased stunt load. When that happens, “you know people are liking what they see,” Place told IndieWire. “[Stunt coordinator Victor Paguia] over there hasn’t slowed down as the years go on; he’s sped up. It’s a constant daily workload to make the actors look professional, and the action look good, and keep everyone safe.” 

Place would know. Like a lot of folks who end up directing action from the second unit chair, he’s been and still is a stunt performer himself — most recently on “Disclosure Day,” but he also worked on an “FBI” sequence that involves fighting and being thrown from a big-rig truck. “We did this in negative freezing temperatures. The rigging team, stunt performers, and drivers all performed excellently despite the weather,” Place said. 

Sometimes you can find really bravura fight choreography in the shows you’d least expect it, too, and that work stands out. Andy Rusk, stunt coordinator for “The Lowdown,” shouted out the savage beatings (complimentary) crafted by stunt coordinator David Morizot in “Murdaugh: A Death in the Family” that make you feel every single punch. He also singled out “Pluribus”: “It’s a marvel based on the sheer number of stuntmen and stuntwomen hitting the ground alone.  Stunt coordinator Al Goto was a legend long before I ever got in the business. His team absolutely crushed that show,” Rusk told IndieWire.  

But one of the coolest things about the best TV stunts on display in 2026 is that everyone can, and everyone is, doing them. Rusk is a big fan of stunt coordinator Chelsea Bruland and puts her and her stunt team’s work on “The Hunting Wives” right up there with the best on the small-to-medium screens. 

“Chelsea set up some nice fights and car stuff on ‘The Hunting Wives,’ including a car chase with a U-Haul trailer, which can be tricky. Most of the cars in that show are late models with modern, computerized safety features that make them tougher to slide around, but her crew broke ‘em loose. ‘Hunting Wives’ is maybe not what you’d consider to be an ‘action’ show, but that’s what makes her work stand out: The stunts serve as exclamation points to the narrative,” Rusk said. “And big action shows usually have big stunt teams. On a dark comedy like ‘Hunting Wives,’ the stunt coordinator is a department of one, until the day of the big crash or the big fight.” 

In that kind of environment, the stunt coordinator’s work is even more important. “It’s no secret that the stunt community is kind of a boys’ club; that’s why it’s massively important that a female-led show like ‘Hunting Wives’ has a world-class stunt coordinator like Chelsea and world-class stunt doubles like Heather Hayes handling the action elements. Representation matters,” Rusk said.

Whether you prefer the action in “Fallout,” “FBI,” “The Hunting Wives,” “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” “Murdaugh: Murder in the Family,” “Pluribus,” or “Stranger Things,” what unites all of them is that stunt coordinators and performers worked incredibly hard to make them seem like the work of a moment. As Koyama told IndieWire, great stunts are “dynamic yet grounded, and most importantly, they are practically performed and executed.”