2025 has been the best year for me of TV watching as any year in recent memory. Besides watching the shows below which comprise the Best of television in 2025, I was able to catch up on some series which had previously eluded me. I crossed a major blind spot off and watched The Sopranos for the first time. I watched the delightful, underseen and underappreciated cartoon Craig of the Creek. I finally caught up with Emmy darling Hacks (and enjoyed it as much as I expected, even if season 4 wasn’t my favorite). Between all of that, I made time to rewatch many of my favorite episodes of The Simpsons.

Regardless, I have no doubt that 2025 will go down as one of the great years for television, with amazing seasons from returning series like The Rehearsal and Stranger Things, great limited series like Adolescence, and new shows from previously established voices like Raphael Bob-Waksberg’s Long Story Short and Vince Gilligan’s Pluribus. Of course there were disappointments from previous critical favorites, like The White Lotus season 3, The Last of Us season 2, the final installment of Squid Game, and The Bear season 4, but those lows were few and far between in a great year for TV. As I said, my time spent with the boob tube was at its peak, but there were inevitably shows that still slipped through the cracks. If you’re wondering why shows like The Righteous Gemstones, The Diplomat, Nobody Wants This, Daredevil: Born Again, Fallout (which wasn’t screened in time for publication) et cetera, aren’t on this list, now you know why.

Runners-Up (in Alphabetical Order):

• Adolescence
• The Buccaneers
• The Chair Company
• Hacks
• Harley Quinn
• Jellystone!
• Long Story Short
• Mythic Quest
• Slow Horses
• The Studio
• Task
• Welcome to Wrexham

Special Mention: Big Mouth

For too long, Andrew Goldberg, Nick Kroll, Mark Levin, and Jennifer Flackett have gone unheralded for creating one of the most consistently hilarious shows on TV. Big Mouth ended its eighth and final season in 2025 and stayed faithful to its mission statement of depicting puberty in all its disgusting, embarrassing glory, while still having new things to say on the matter. As Nick (Kroll), Andrew (John Mulaney), Jessi (Jessi Klein), Missy (Ayo Edibiri), and all their friends and imaginary hormonal creations finally evolved to high schoolers, the show found fresh spins on teenage drama in its singularly shocking and grotesque ways. TV won’t be the same without Big Mouth, but it’s a minor miracle we got 8 seasons of unique depravity as is.

10. Pluribus Season 1

Okay, no, I still haven’t seen the full season one of Pluribus yet, but what’s aired so far on AppleTV has been a solid enough foundation to announce the show as one of the best of 2025. Vince Gilligan’s first foray as showrunner outside the world of Breaking Bad borrows from many celebrated TV properties (Lost, The Twilight Zone, The Leftovers, even The Last Man on Earth), but is as fresh of a concept as any. When an alien virus turns all but a dozen people on earth, including miserable romance author Carol Sturka (Rhea Seehorn), into a collective hivemind, Carol must find a way not just to reverse course but find a way to be happy. Seehorn, who broke out in Better Call Saul, gives the best performance on TV all year as a woman who can’t help but think of the negative, in spite of all the positives around her. An original sci-fi show which constantly subverts genre expectations, allows for nearly endless narrative possibilities, and long ruminations on philosophical implications after each episode, Pluribus season one is just the beginning of what could be landmark TV from one of the format’s leading voices.

9. Death by Lightning

Political dramas and comedies are a risky gamble in the Year of our Lord 2025, but Death by Lightning rises above because of how it so deftly connects to the world of today. Through only 4 episodes, showrunner Mike Makowsky shows the rot at the core of the American experiment through events which took place nearly 150 years ago. Makowsky knows that the story he’s telling is largely forgotten today, which makes its urgency all the more poignant. By showing the quick political rise of President James Garfield (Michael Shannon), the troubled mind of his future assassin Charles Guiteau (Matthew Macfadyen), and the operatives seeking to destroy Garfield’s agenda (Nick Offerman and Shea Whigham), the show holds a mirror to our present political system and the underhanded tactics that have always festered under the surface. Shannon and Macfadyen deliver stirring performances as men who so strongly believe in their misguided convictions. In the former, it’s in his insistence in allowing the people to have a say in government. In the latter, it’s in his belief that he has an almost divine purpose to do something great. Neither is inherently wrong; they just live in a flawed country which would never allow them to succeed.

8. I Love LA Season 1

Rachel Sennott knows there are plenty of pre-conceived notions about her generation. I Love LA doesn’t try to debunk those notions but leans into them and skewers what makes them great. Every character within the show is obsessed with fame in one capacity or another, which often leads to hilarious hijinks and misunderstandings. Sennott – who serves as showrunner, and stars as a hungry talent manager – is the main draw, but it’s Odessa A’zion that’s stolen the show since the beginning as a burgeoning influencer adapting to life in SoCal. Through pure energy and charisma, A’zion makes her character a whirlwind of chaos, while still somehow managing to be likeable at the end of the day. Sure, the central premise of I Love LA – a cadre of twentysomethings trying to find personal and professional happiness within and outside of their friend group – isn’t the most original, but the show was a joy to watch from week to week. Sure, there were more original offerings which could have gone in this spot, like The Chair Company or The Studio, but I felt more compelled to catch this show from week to week as soon as possible. Rachel Sennott has been on an upward trajectory throughout Hollywood in the past 5 years, and I Love LA will only further cement her as a certified ingenue with a long career to come.

7. The Eternaut Season 1

Sci-fi of the post-apocalyptic variety is one of my favorite genres across all media, and The Eternaut tells a uniquely layered story that reaches across generations. Based on an Argentinian graphic novel originally published way back in 1957 as a thinly-veiled critique of the totalitarian regime, Netflix’s adaptation still feels prescient 68 years later. Showrunner Bruno Stagnaro balances character drama with action spectacle, especially in the latter half of season one, where a mysterious snowfall instantly kills everything it touches. A ragtag, middle-aged(!!!) group of survivors devise ways to venture outside in order to rescue their estranged family members, and we get to see an impressively devastated Argentina. But the second half of the season pivots into pure genre territory and, without spoiling anything, ups the dramatic stakes to an impressive degree. As is often the case with most non-English TV, Netflix debuted the show with zero fanfare, and I only knew of the show because of coverage on “The Watch” podcast. But, if nothing else, The Eternaut shows that there will always be pockets within the mass of streaming which offer unexpected delights for fans curious enough to seek them out.

6. Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Season 1

Disney and Marvel didn’t need to make Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, but that doesn’t mean it’s not enjoyable. Another origin story for the heroic webhead sounds tedious in theory, but this version switches things up in welcome ways. Like in Peter Parker’s (Hudson Thames) mentor-mentee relationship with Norman Osborn (Colman Domingo), or his friend group and their private lives. Indeed, about half of the season was spent developing Pete’s friend Lonnie (Eugene Byrd), and his slow and consequential descent into becoming Tombstone. The show’s visual aesthetic harkens back to the original comic book look, which fits the mostly grounded approach to Spider-Man’s action and villains. Though quality animated offerings were in short supply in 2025, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man reinvigorated the Marvel formula by refusing to coalesce into a larger universe. My kids may have been the main driving force behind me initially checking the show out, but the show quickly became a favorite because of its dedication to telling a unique story, complexly rendered characters, and stand-out visuals and action sequences.

5. Peacemaker Season 2

2025 provided even more evidence that James Gunn reigns supreme in the world of comic book adaptations, and the rightful co-leader of DC Studios. Between Superman and the long-awaited Peacemaker season 2, Gunn used his trademark mixture of slapstick humor, hyperviolent action, and grounded character drama to make one of the best superhero shows yet. Season 2 drills even further down into Chris Smith’s (John Cena) internal conflict as he searches for validation from his absent father and previously dead brother. Oh yeah, and the best opening credits sequence on television got even better. Cena is undoubtedly the center of the show, but Gunn continues to focus on the ensemble, wringing emotional and comedic performances from Danielle Brooks, Jennifer Holland, Freddie Stroma, Tim Meadows, Michael Rooker, and Frank Grillo. It should surprise nobody that a James Gunn property explores the idea of a found family, but Peacemaker season 2 used this and the multiverse to show that Chris wants to be loved just as much as he wants to do the right thing. By all accounts, it sounds like we won’t get more seasons of the show for a long time, if at all, but Gunn and Cena made it count.

4. The Pitt Season 1

I didn’t want to love The Pitt season1. Medical procedurals (or procedurals of any kind) aren’t among my favorite genres, but R. Scott Gemmill’s Emmy-winning drama quickly won me over. Throughout one hellish day set almost entirely within in a fictional emergency room, Dr. Robby (Noah Wyle) stood as the firm leader of a team of newbies and seasoned veterans. The magic trick of the show wasn’t just in how it realistically depicted varying medical crises, but in how it so effortlessly juggled so many conflicting storylines and characters – both recurring and cameos – without feeling overbearing or confusing. Throw in the show’s chaotic late-season mass shooting storyline, a subtle nod to the funding and staffing crises in hospitals across the country, and the show became topical and nerve-wracking. In an era when TV shows are getting bigger and bigger, and taking longer breaks between seasons, it’s always refreshing to see the format return to its sturdy roots, and The Pitt season 1 exemplified this better than most shows in 2025.

3. The Rehearsal Season 2

Nathan Fielder took an already convoluted premise and made it even more convoluted in The Rehearsal season 2, making one of the all-time great seasons of comedic television. The writer-director-star improbably and (initially) inexplicably pivoted from the idea of rehearsing life’s uncomfortable possibilities into improving airline safety, and while the idea may not make sense at first, Fielder smartly showed how a lack of communication can lead to disaster. There are times, months after I first watched, when I’ll simply reminisce on the hysterical moments from episodes 2 or 3, or the season finale, where Fielder truly lets loose and gets silly, and will still laugh uncontrollably. Beyond all of this, Fielder’s continued deconstruction of reality TV, and how we communicate to each other, provided much to chew on between all the laughs. Where Fielder, and The Rehearsal, goes from here is anyone’s guess, but season 2 showed that the possibilities are as limitless as they are hilarious.

2. Andor Season 2

Where does Star Wars stand now that Andor has concluded after two perfect seasons? It’s easy to say that Tony Gilroy has set the standard for the franchise – and he has – but the show always had grander ambitions than depicting the classic struggle between good and evil. In a year when the world started to look more and more like it would be turning towards the Galactic Empire, Gilroy showed that a ragtag crew could plant the seeds of revolution through hard sacrifices. There weren’t any large-scale space battles or lightsaber duels or uses of Force lightning, but the attention to character development made a much longer lasting impact. Season 2 utilized a unique structure by essentially making four 3-hour movies across 12 episodes, as Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), Bix (Adria Arjona), Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgård), Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly), and the rest of the rebels sought any way to disrupt the Empire’s brutal tactics. So much of Star Wars seeks to show how rebellion can be chalked up to one person’s brave heroics, but Andor showed how it’s a collective action, born from hardships that can so easily become forgotten, but are no less important, once the myths become legends.

1. Severance Season 2

From the moment that Mark (Adam Scott) and Helly (Britt Lower) started running towards the camera in the season 2 finale of Severance, its place atop this list was all but assured. Dan Erickson, Ben Stiller, and everyone on the creative team expanded the already great setup of AppleTV’s hit after an almost unbearable three year wait between seasons. Season 2 saw our heroes pushing back against the shadowy forces of Lumon, their severed selves, and discovering what it really means to live and find love. Beyond each week’s thrilling installments, it was a joy to see how fans of the show reacted to every minor development, every character beat, every bizarre piece of lore, and theorize on what it all means in the greater scheme of the show’s universe. And when was the last time a TV show permeated the culture like Severance season 2? In a grand design worthy of Kier Egan himself, AppleTV bookended 2025 (and this list) with two high quality shows of original sci-fi which interrogate what it means to be human in deeply thought-provoking ways. Only time will tell how much longer we’ll have to wait for season 3, but there’s a good chance that, no matter when it happens, I’ll still be ruminating on the magic of this very special show.