Between the price hikes, password-sharing crackdowns and general reduction in output, you’d have been forgiven for thinking Netflix and co. didn’t want you to watch TV this year. Yes, the streaming bubble has finally burst – and after more than a decade of gratuitous spending, Ted Sarandos and other astoundingly rich men in suits have had to face up to the dim, blue light of morning telly: it’s time to make the numbers add up.
This meant more zeroes on your subscription fee and fewer big-money productions – but not necessarily a decline in quality. From gripping sci-fi thrillers to Trump-baiting political satires and heartbreaking queer comedies to brutal schoolyard dramas, there’s been plenty of good stuff on the box in 2025. Here are our absolute favourites…
Alex Flood, Managing Editor (Entertainment + Partnerships)
Words by: Jordan Bassett, Paul Bradshaw, Rhian Daly, Alex Flood, Nick Levine, James Mottram, Gary Ryan, Ali Shutler, Surej Singh, Andrew Trendell, Sam Warner and Kyann-Sian Williams
Season: two
In 2023, Such Brave Girls’ first season introduced the series as British TV’s next unhinged and unfiltered comedy, no trauma seemingly off limits, no joke too dark to make. Following sisters Josie (writer and creator Kat Sadler) and Billie Johnson (Lizzie Davidson), and their mum Deb (Louise Brealey), it navigated mental health, toxic relationships and the struggle to survive with arch humour.
Season two didn’t make things easier for the Johnsons, ramping up their personal tensions and raising the stakes on the family’s future, the wicked touch that made the first episodes so funny intact. Whether it was Billie deluding herself into thinking she was in a sugar baby arrangement with a married man or Deb’s constant desperation to lock down boyfriend Dev (Paul Bazely), there was a continued level of patheticness to the characters that made you root for them, even when their moral bar was in hell.
Best episode: ‘Such Mummy’s Girls’
Watercooler moment: Josie’s various schemes to spend as little time as possible with her cloying boyfriend Seb, including when she tries to get sectioned by claiming to have overdosed. RD
TikTok comedian Benito Skinner transports his own coming-out story into this ribald and unexpectedly tender six-part twist on American Pie college raunch comedies. Executive-produced by his mate Charli XCX, Overcompensating sees him star as Benny Scanlon, a golden-boy jock who tries to convince the world (and himself) that he’s straight. Every unconvincing frat-bro utterance of “I love pussy” feels like a distress flare he’s sending into the world. The masc-mask starts to chip when he tries to sleep with fellow freshman Carmen Neil (Wally Baram), and the pair strike up an us-against-the-world friendship, as he falls for film student Miles Hari (Rish Shah). Peppered with likeable characters, Overcompensating is astute on the queer coming-of-age experience – including the end-of-the-world fear people can see you’re gay before you’ve fully accepted it yourself – and is further bolstered by an array of scene-stealing guest stars including Megan Fox voicing a pep-talk-dispensing poster of herself, and Bowen Yang as one half of a couple the desperate Benny meets on Grindr, hornily hoping someone will toss him a bone(r).
Best episode: ‘Welcome To The Black Parade’
Watercooler moment: Episode four, ‘Boom Clap’, features a cameo from Charli XCX throwing a monstrous diva strop and the line: “Look, I don’t do college coke!” GR
Across five seasons of Breaking Bad and the six seasons of its prequel Better Call Saul, creator Vince Gilligan weaved a larger-than-life tale of criminal empires, drug kingpins and slick lawyers that never strayed too far into the realms of impossibility. His gritty, tense shows are among some of the best of modern times – so there were plenty of expectations about whatever Gilligan did next.
Rather than expand the Breaking Bad universe, Gilligan returned to his sci-fi roots for Pluribus, a bizarre, mind-boggling mash-up of Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, The Truman Show and Black Mirror. The horrifying drama sees miserable, famous author Carol Sturka (Rhea Seehorn) as one of the few people not caught up in an alien hivemind whose invasion killed millions – including Sturka’s optimistic partner Helen (Miriam Shor). Each day comes with a terrifying revelation about Carol’s new reality and with at least one more season on the way, this spooky dystopia is only just getting started. Like Severance, it’s one of those shows that you need to watch to fully comprehend.
Best episode: ‘We Is Us’
Watercooler moment: The slow-burn premiere of Pluribus, which gradually ramps up the creeping tension until Helen finds herself addressing an alien hivemind through her TV set. AS
Following up Mare Of Easttown was never going to be an easy task (pun intended), but somehow, writer Brad Inglesby has crafted yet another must-watch miniseries. Bleak and bracing, crime drama Task follows FBI agent Tom Brandis (Mark Ruffalo) as he returns to field duty (following a devastating family tragedy) to lead a task force investigating a string of violent robberies orchestrated by a motorcycle gang. What follows is a slow-building, riveting and downright tragic game of cat-and-mouse as we see the story unfold from the perspectives of both our protagonist and antagonist.
Task expertly blurs the line between good and evil, right and wrong to create an experience that will leave viewers questioning everything they think they know about morality and redemption. Couple that with some Emmy-worthy performances and top-notch writing, and you’ve got a winner on your hands.
Best episode: ‘Vagrants’
Watercooler moment: Lizzie Stover’s death (no more need be said). SS
Season: four
Season four of this awards-gobbling sitcom picks up directly after three’s finale where old-school comedian Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) was blackmailed by her Gen Z foil Ava Daniels (Hannah Einbinder) into being appointed head writer on her new late night talk show – and promptly declared war on her “ginger Judas” former friend, creating the most toxic work environment this side of The Ellen DeGeneres Show (allegedly). “Don’t cut your nose off to spite your face,” warns Ava in the new episodes. “I’ve cut my nose plenty of times. It always works out well for my face,” responds the Joan Rivers-esque Deborah. Still the most scalpel-sharp comedy around with an undertow of pathos, highlights included Deborah running afoul of HR when offering her writers’ room drugs on a Las Vegas work retreat, the introduction of Julianne Nicolson’s cocaine-boofing TikTok star ‘Dance Mom’, and a sensational denouement that acts as a clever series redux.
Best episode: ‘Miss Table’
Watercooler moment: Deborah dances in a gay club’s go-go cage and does a bosh of strong poppers – promptly finding herself in A&E – in a moment of televisual (Liquid) gold. GR
Season: five
Just as Danny DeVito didn’t have to spend his autumn years playing despicable creep Frank Reynolds in It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, we should feel blessed that one of the most celebrated and talented actors of all time has gifted us with Slow Horses’ hilarious, farting old coot Jackson Lamb. Oscar-winning Gary Oldman plays the seasoned and jaded but secretly dedicated MI5 spy, leading his band of fellow outcast agents from the no-mans-land of Slough House.
This season, the gang’s challenges speak to our times: racial tension, corrupt politicians and establishment leaders, hysteria and paranoia. It’s another slick and unmissable batch of episodes, yet also human, humble and very British. This is certainly the most relatable the show has been, without losing that knife-edge tension. Slow Horses remains an antidote to James Bond in just how real it is – and it’s comforting to know that the fuck-ups could still save the world.
Best episode: ‘Missiles’
Watercooler moment: When nasty racist Gimball meets his sticky end – what a delicious twist. AT
Season: 28
In an unpredictable world, it’s reassuring to know that The Simpsons is still around, but no-one’s claiming the show is at the height of its powers. South Park, on the other hand, has been firing on all cylinders this year. When you elicit a damning response from the actual White House, whose spokesperson slammed Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s animation as “uninspired” after they depicted a micro penis-possessing Trump in bed with Satan, you know you’ve done your job as satirists. With American talk shows being hobbled after criticising the President, this sort of silliness is more important than ever. Is it big? Like Trump’s knob in the show (and allegedly in real life), it is not. Is it clever? Like anyone moaning about South Park being politicised (another idea sent up this series): no. But it is extremely funny – not bad for a show that premiered almost three decades ago.
Best episode: ‘Sora Not Sorry’ (episode 336!)
Watercooler moment: When J.D. Vance and Trump shag to Foreigner’s ‘I Want to Know What Love Is’. An image to make you hate your own eyes. JB
Season: two
If season one of the post-apocalyptic drama raised the bar for video game adaptations, season two maintains its nuance and emotional intensity. That’s quite an achievement, because this run of episodes is based on much trickier source material. Kaitlyn Dever makes a devastating first impression as vengeful survivor Abby, but the show’s beating heart remains the fraught relationship between stoic smuggler Joel (Pedro Pascal) and his teenage ward Ellie (Bella Ramsey). Now more than ever, she has a target on her back because of her immunity to the mass fungal infection that has felled humanity. As the season progresses, some of its non-linear storytelling can feel fiddly, but The Last Of Us still offers a chillingly prescient vision of a dystopian America. By the end, you’ll question how your own moral code might hold up under such monumental pressure.
Best episode: ‘Through the Valley’
Watercooler moment: Episode two’s audacious plot twist is gobsmacking even if you remember it from the game. NL
Season: three
It’s an ingenious idea, isn’t it? With its emphasis on the titular, lavish hotel chain, Mike White’s deliciously twisted drama can introduce a new location and a fresh cast of spoiled, narcissistic wretches with each series. This time we’re in Thailand, with a violent cold open before the action spins back to reveal how we got there. Cue the arrival of holidaymakers including a trio of gal pals (Carrie Coon, Leslie Bibb and Michelle Monaghan) whose friendship creaks under the strain of 24/7 companionship; an age-gap couple (Aimee Lou Wood and Walton Goggins) whose relationship is the definition of push-pull; and the Ratliffs, a wealthy Southern family whose patriarch (Jason Isaacs) has some serious professional problems back home. Detractors might have moaned that the series was slower than its predecessors, but that languid pace just ratcheted up the tension as we crawled – like a doomed superyacht – towards the bloody denouement.
Best episode: ‘Full Moon Party’
Watercooler moment: The wince-inducing scene in which Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger) and Lochlan Ratliff (Sam Nivola) take ‘brotherly love’ a tad too far. JB
Season: four
After a few abstract detours in season three, The Bear found its way home this year – settling into a new groove that feels slightly less chaotic (thank god). Not that there isn’t literally a ticking clock running throughout all 10 episodes… This still definitely isn’t an easy show to watch – the restaurant given weeks/days/hours to dodge bankruptcy, Carmy barely clinging on to hope, Sydney with one foot out the door, the rest of the family on fire in the background – but it’s at least feeling more comfortable now as it deepens its characters and gives them a bit of quiet around all the chaos. Jeremy Allen White and Ayo Edebiri are still giving the best performances on TV (with an underserved Ebon Moss-Bachrach running a close third), but their broader arcs of grief, self-destruction and lost purpose are finally given sharper definition as the show looks to be heading towards some kind of conclusion.
Best episode: ‘Worms’
Watercooler moment: The ending, obviously. But since we can’t spoil it we’ll just remember how many people could fit under that wedding table… PB
Paris Lees’ captivating adaptation of her memoir is a coming-of-age story like no other. Set in Y2K Nottingham and soundtracked by Fatboy Slim, Moby and All Saints, it’s a tonal rollercoaster that really captures the tumult of teen life. The eight episodes explore gender dysphoria, generational trauma, sexual abuse, working-class deprivation and ket comedowns, but it’s all anchored by Ellis Howard’s breakout performance as Byron, a whip-smart 15-year-old wrestling with their identity. As the UK’s first major TV drama created by a trans woman, What It Feels Like For A Girl was always going to be groundbreaking. And yet, because it aired in a year when the UK’s trans community was callously used as a political football, it also felt timely and incredibly vital. But above all, it’s a transcendent testament to the power of human resilience.
Best episode: ‘Episode 5’
Watercooler moment: When Byron’s queer clique go wig shopping, they tell the sales clerks they’re in an S Club tribute act – iconic. NL
Season: seven
After 13 years, Charlie Brooker’s anthology series has proved so prescient that “it’s like Black Mirror” has become ubiquitous shorthand for anything dystopian. Despite culminating with the show’s first sequel – a feature-length continuation of the 2017 Emmy-winning episode ‘USS Callister’ – it wasn’t indicative of a veteran show running out of ideas. Indeed, season seven proved Black Mirror has lost none of its zeitgeisty edge, wild inventiveness and ability to shock. Its most memorable instalments used plausible technological ‘what ifs?’ to lean into humanity, including the sumptuous romance of ‘Hotel Reverie’ where a modern-day Hollywood star is digitally inserted into a black-and-white Golden Age movie. Best of all was instant classic ‘Eulogy’, featuring a knockout performance from Paul Giamatti as a man plagued by a lost love, who’s given the opportunity to step inside old photographs – which showed Brooker is still adept at throwing your heart into a NutriBullet and pulverising it.
Best episode: ‘Eulogy’
Watercooler moment: The relentlessly bleak opening episode ‘Common People’ was a trenchant criticism of private healthcare and the concept of “enshittification”, where spiralling subscription costs of life-saving treatment force a woman to become a ghoulish walking pop-up advert. GR
Season: one
The Celebrity Traitors is reality TV at its most gleefully devious – and easily became the nation’s guilty pleasure this autumn. A star-studded cast featuring national sweethearts Paloma Faith and Stephen Fry alongside younger, more online celebs such as Niko Omilana all arrived convinced they were masters of manipulation, deception and sleuthing – but the Faithfuls proved they were anything but. Tasked with rooting out three Traitors (who, if they win, steal the entire cash pot for charity), the Faithfuls instead bumbled through the game: overthinking, ignoring the obvious and missing every cue to leave Traitors Alan Carr, Jonathan Ross and musician Cat Burns free to cause havoc. Carr obviously became a public favourite despite spending most of the time as a sweaty, rosé-guzzling mess. The tension, absurdity and sheer hilarity pulsed through every whispered strategy, backstabbed vote and desperate bluff. We couldn’t look away.
Best episode: ‘Finale’
Watercooler moment: Comedian Nick Mohammed’s last-minute switch-up during the final banishment was the nail-in-the-coffin no one saw coming. KSW
Season: one
You may scoff at the idea of a medical drama making numerous best-of lists in 2025, given the draggy nature of never-ending genre staples such as Grey’s Anatomy (and 15 seasons of ER before that). But that’s exactly what’s happened.
Instead of long, dull storylines that never pay off, The Pitt treated us to a mad rush of action. The entire season takes place within the span of a single 15-hour shift, each episode covering one hour of that time frame in chronological order. And while the personal lives of the medical teams still play a role in the series, they take a backseat to the chaos of the emergency room.
Grisly emergencies, unruly patients, fresh interns, grief, PTSD and an uncomfortably realistic portrayal of all-too-familiar tragedies all came together to form one of the most intense and bingeable series in recent memory.
Best episode: ‘6:00pm’
Watercooler moment: Robby’s raw and emotional breakdown in episode one. SS
Season: two
Some shows are worth the agonising wait. Three years on from the first season of Severance, Apple TV’s wild Emmy-winning workplace satire, the doors of Lumon Industries finally re-opened this year, returning us to this very unique biotech company where employees commit to their consciousness being snapped in two. Season one left us on a cliffhanger, as team leader Mark Scout (Adam Scott) and other ‘innies’ made it to the outside world, where their ‘outie’ selves exist, blissfully unaware of everything going at Lumon. Season two did exactly what a good follow-up series should do, with creator Dan Erickson deepening the mysteries and raising the stakes of this surreal love story. New characters added to the weird vibes, from the child-like Miss Huang (Sarah Bock) to Gwendoline Christie’s goat-tending Lumon employee Lorne – spawning more theories than a Lost fan convention. With another edge-of-your-seat season finale leaving us dangling, this oddball gem played a blinder.
Best episode: ‘Cold Harbour’
Watercooler moment: Irving, on the snowy outdoor retreat, tries to drown Holly. JM
Season: two
Focusing on the Rebellion in the years leading up to the events of Rogue One, this brilliant Star Wars spin-off wrapped up its two-season run this year. Structured in four blocks, the final season continues the stories of rebel Cassian Andor and Senator Mon Mothma as they grapple with ever-higher stakes in fighting the Empire – all culminating in some spectacular and horrifying scenes.
Andor’s strength lies in its taut storytelling within the Star Wars universe, with creator Tony Gilroy creating a sharp thriller about authoritarianism and the insidious and banal ways that it snakes its ways through a population’s lives, rather than another project from a galaxy far, far away drawing upon empty fan service. From the writing, to the acting, score and more, Andor hit every mark with a blaster – and will stand the test of time in a way that leaves other recent Star Wars projects in the dust.
Best episode: ‘Who Are You?’
Watercooler moment: Mon Mothma’s powerful Senate speech calling out Emperor Palpatine by name in ‘Welcome To The Rebellion’. SW
Alien fans have had a lot to contend with since Ridley Scott ruined the prospect of space travel for everyone in 1979. At one point, it looked like 2024’s Alien: Romulus – an enjoyable, reverential retread – would be the best we could hope for. Praise be, then, for Noah Hawley, the Fargo TV showrunner who’s proven his uncanny ability for reinventing cinematic opuses for the small screen. Where the franchise once traded on claustrophobia, his vision is decidedly wide in scope. In 2120, two years before the events of Alien, a dastardly tech autocrat (the fabulously named Boy Kavalier, played with slippery glee by Samuel Blenkin) intercepts a Xenomorph-occupied space shuttle that’s crash-landed on our unfortunate planet. Things certainly don’t look good for human-android hybrid Wendy (Sydney Chandler) and her medic brother Hermit (Alex Lawther), though fans of gnarly sci-fi and classic rock (Alien: Earth has a killer soundtrack) screamed for joy.
Best episode: ‘In Space, No One…’
Watercooler moment: The critters unleashed in that aforementioned fifth episode. You’ll never look at your water bottle in the same way again. JB
Season: three
Throughout its first two seasons, Big Boys deftly toed the line between emotional devastation and heartwarming humour. Rooted in creator Jack Rooke’s time at university during the 2010s, it told a coming-of-age story impacted by grief, but was also a beautiful celebration of identity, love and youthful stumbles.
As the seasons progressed, so too did Jack (played by Derry Girls’ Dylan Llewellyn) – growing in confidence as he gained more experience in the world and began to unlock new sides of his personality. By season three, that meant a cringe-inducing step into the world of performance poetry – but with a tight-knit gang of friends, including best pal Danny (Jon Pointing), to support him along the way. Jack and Danny’s unlikely friendship was always at the core of Big Boys, but in season three, gave the show its highest highs and lowest lows in a poignant portrait of connection, depression and grief.
Best episode: ‘The Sea’
Watercooler moment: The devastating final scene, Jack and Danny’s last conversation – guaranteed to leave you a sobbing mess. RD
Well of course The Studio set a record for the most-nominated comedy debut in Emmy history. There’s nothing the film industry likes more than an in-joke, and there are few funnier, slicker punchlines around than those crammed into the first season of Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s backlot cringe comedy. Old-fashioned enough to not seem nostalgic about a film studio being run by a human being instead of a streaming conglomerate, the series cast Rogen as Matt Remick – a man flailing his way through one blockbuster car crash after another. One episode was a Chinatown pastiche. Another was about a sharting-zombie movie. The last one was just an excuse to see Bryan Cranston on shrooms. The list of a-listers cameoing as themselves was part of the draw (Martin Scorsese, Charlize Theron, Zac Efron, Ice Cube…) but the real star was the script: a warm-hearted, lovingly made, deeply funny knife to the guts of Hollywood.
Best episode: ‘The Oner’
Watercooler moment: The chaos of filming a “one-shot movie”: like Seth Rogen’s 1917 with all the stress of Uncut Gems. PB
Every year there’s a show that enflames the collective consciousness so aggressively it seems almost divinely ordained. As if the big telly god in the sky has analysed all of our brains and crafted the perfect story to match. In 2025, Adolescence was that show.
Tapping into public panic about the impact of misogynist ‘manosphere’ influencers on young boys, Adolescence told the shocking story of 13-year-old murderer Jamie in just four taut, gripping episodes. Bullied at school and radicalised by the likes of Andrew Tate on TikTok, Jamie (newcomer Owen Cooper) is arrested for killing classmate Katie in the miniseries’ opening scenes. Why seemingly sweet young lad Jamie might want to kill anyone is slowly made terrifyingly clear, as clueless police officers and his oblivious parents draw the horrible truth out of him. Technical wizardry and some stunning performances elevate the action on-screen, but it’s the anxious response from viewers that has turned Adolescence into a true telly phenomenon.
Best episode: ‘Episode 3’
Watercooler moment: After a gruelling one-on-one evaluation of Jamie, child psychologist Briony (Erin Doherty) breaks down in the face of such unfiltered anger. AF
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