A late and incomplete list of the best TV of 2025

LOOK AT ME POSTING A BEST OF LIST IN THE OPENING DAYS OF THE NEW YEAR!

Should this have been posted last month? Maybe, sure, whatever. THE POINT IS, considering I haven’t made a  best of list since 2023, I’m pretty proud of myself for putting this out here at all.

If you don’t already know, I hate making lists. I find them reductive. To get me over that particular mental block, I do my “best of” list a little differently: instead of one big Top Ten Best Shows of the Year list, I go month-by-month, picking the one show I enjoyed the most that began in that month. Does it make sense? No, not really. Does it limit me in many ways? Yes it does. Does it mean some months will have ridiculous shows that would never have been considered by more disciplined lists simply because there was a dearth of good shows that premiered in that particular month? Yes, obviously, you’ll probably be disappointed by at least a couple of these choices, if not outright scandalized, but whaddya gonna do, you know?

So here goes nothing: my favorite shows of 2025 as told month-by-month. As always, please come tell me how wrong and stupid I am in the comments.

JANUARY

The Pitt

I was hesitant to give The Pitt a chance when it debuted because it felt like a rehash of the greatest network medical drama of all time: a high-pressure, big-city emergency room; attractive medical professionals balancing their stressful jobs with their personal lives; and Noah Wylie. And while it possibly did get its start as a sequel to ER (at least according to Michael Crichton’s estate), it turns out The Pitt is its own great medical drama (maybe even greater than ER?), taking place in real time over 15 hours in a Pittsburgh emergency room, employed by a medical staff still traumatized by COVID, and just trying to deliver the best possible care to their patients in a disfunctional American medical system. It’s harrowing, it’s heartbreaking, it’s funny, it’s insightful, and it’s political in its own scalpel-sharp way.

Other Shows in January that I Enjoyed:

• Paradise
• Severance
• Mo
• The Traitors
• The Abbott Elementary/It’s Always Sunny crossover
• Ladies and Gentlemen: 50 Years of SNL Music
• RuPaul’s Drag Race

Shows I Missed:

• Going Dutch

FEBRUARY

SNL50: The Anniversary Special

SNL50: The Homecoming Concert

Saturday Night Live turned 50 in 2025, and they made a whole feast out of it: a documentary by QuestLove about the music of SNL, a documentary about the early years of SNL, a documentary series that takes a look behind-the-scenes of the show, a documentary about maybe the greatest writer the show has ever employed (and of all of the documentaries, you should go watch that one: Downey Wrote That on Peacock). But the centerpiece of the celebration were these two specials: a three-and-a-half hour collection of greatest sketch hits performed live with special guests like Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Eddie Murphy, Emma Stone, Jon Hamm, as well as many former cast members; and a three-hour concert featuring some of the greatest musicians who have ever graced the 8H stage, including Devo, Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean, Bad Bunny, David Byrne, Miley Cyrus, a Nirvana reunion (of sorts), Backstreet Boys and several other huge names, interspersed with some of the funniest SNL musical sketch performances over the past 50 years. Both specials managed to navigate a tricky combination of nostalgia, humor, and timeliness to deliver nearly 7 hours of historic entertainment. (And if you insisted I choose one of these specials, I’d go with the Homecoming Concert, which, considering I usually fast-forward through the musical performances on SNL, comes as much of a surprise to me as it does to you.)

Other Shows in February that I Enjoyed:

• The White Lotus
• Running Point
• Yellowjackets
• Love is Blind (I know. I’m ashamed, too.)

Shows I Missed:

• Common Side Effects
• Clean Slate
• Good Cop/Bad Cop
• Extracted

MARCH

Adolescence

It’s the most important show of the year. It’s also the most difficult to watch show of the year. The British limited series about a 13-year-old boy accused of stabbing his female classmate to death delivered unforgettable, award-winning performances (particularly from an impossibly young Owen Cooper) and an important conversation about what a toxic combination of isolation, social media, online bullying, and unrestrained misogyny is doing to our young people and society in general. The fact that each episode is filmed in one long continuous take is not just a gimmick; it contributes to the claustrophobic, suffocating atmosphere, the sense that none of us can escape this hell that we have created for ourselves and our children. It leaves us haunted and heartbroken, and with one last plea that we do something, we change this fatal trajectory before it is too late for our own babies.

Other Shows in March that I Enjoyed:

• The Studio
• Wolf Hall
• The Residence
• The Righteous Gemstones
• Top Chef

Shows I Missed:

• Deli Boys
• Dope Thief
• Mid-Century Modern

APRIL

The Rehearsal

There are obvious arguments for Hacks and Andor for April’s spot. They are both brilliant series, excelling in their particular genres, delivering more than just “comedy” or “rebel espionage sci-fi spinoff drama,” and widely recognized and celebrated with the big awards. But The Rehearsal, even in this second season, defies the concept of “genre” altogether. While the first season was ostensibly about Nathan Fielder helping people “rehearse” social situations so that they would be more comfortable once that situation occurred, but then evolved into something much weirder, and much more profound about human connection and reality itself; this season was ostensibly about using his “rehearsal” techniques to prevent airplane crashes, only to become a surrealist conversation about communication, psychology, and authenticity. When I say the third episode of this series is the strangest, most unhinged thing I have seen on TV this year — perhaps this decade — I feel like I might be understating it. And then there is the finale … He might not be for everyone, but Fielder continues to be the most original and thought-provoking creator in television today.

Other Shows in April that I Enjoyed:

• Andor
• Hacks
• Dying for Sex
• Black Mirror
• The Last of Us
• Your Friends and Neighbors
• The Conners
• You
• Love on the Spectrum: U.S.
• The Handmaid’s Tale

Shows I Missed:

• Government Cheese
• Etoile

MAY

Dept. Q

Truth be told, this spot could just have easily gone to Murderbot, Poker Face, The Four Seasons, Tucci in Italy, or Adults. They were all fun in their own ways, and if you want to disagree with me on this one, you know what? I hear ya. But Dept. Q was an unexpected little bonbon: a Scottish crime drama starring the always charismatic Matthew Goode as Carl Morck, a misanthropic detective tasked with starting a cold case division (mostly to get him out of the hair of all the other cops who don’t care for him). He and his team, consisting of a quietly dangerous former Syrian police officer and a plucky young constable, investigate the case of a missing prosecutor with a misanthropic streak of her own that’s so wide, there are plenty of suspects to go around in her disappearance. Dept. Q is not the best show of the year — or even the best crime drama of the year — but it is a clever, wry, and satisfying mystery, buoyed by standout performances by a clearly bemused cast.

Other Shows in May that I Enjoyed:

• The Four Seasons
• Murderbot
• Overcompensating
• Tucci in Italy
• Sirens
• Adults
• The Better Sister
• Poker Face
• Pee-Wee As Himself
• And Just Like That …*

Shows I Missed:

• Forever

JUNE

The Bear

Is it an easy choice? Sure. But The Bear has been one of the best shows on television since its debut in 2022. Season four premiered this June with some ground to make up after a less-than-perfect third season that left some fans wondering if the show had lost some of its magic, or if it was even worth the anxiety of it all. Because, Lord, there is so much anxiety. But thankfully, season four regained its momentum by refusing to stay in place: it lifted Sydney and her story (most beautifully in “Worms,” an episode co-written by Ayo Edebiri), and gave other characters, notably Richie, a chance to grow and mature. The show itself mellowed into something less stressful and more emotional and resonant, granting its characters the grace to finally begin moving forward, including Carmy, instead of just being consumed with panic and flop sweat.

(Honorable mention here goes to The Gilded Age, which delivered the first season I’ve actually enjoyed start to finish. Once it decided to fully embrace its soapiness and humor instead of dancing around it at the edges, the show came into its own.)

Other Shows in June that I Enjoyed:

• The Gilded Age
• We Were Liars
• The Buccaneers
• Squid Game

Shows I Missed:

• Stick
• Resident Alien
• Revival
• Patience
• Smoke
• My Mom Jayne

JULY

The Hunting Wives

Speaking of soapiness and humor, let me be VERY clear: The Hunting Wives is not a “good” show. It is, however, a deeply entertaining one, the kind of trash that helps get you through a long, hot summer when your brain cells are too sluggish to be tasked with following something even remotely intellectual or emotionally taxing. It’s the kind of show that makes you roll your eyes, and laugh out loud (unintentionally), all the while knowing that you are in the presence of a pop culture phenomenon. Brittany Snow plays Sophie, a bored Massachusetts housewife who is relocated to a small East Texas town (think Tyler). There, she meets Malin Akerman’s sexy, dangerous socialite, Margo, who welcomes Sophie into her circle of friends, the “Hunting Wives,” who each have their own dark secrets. It’s not good, y’all, but it is so much fun.

Other Shows in July that I Enjoyed:

• South Park
• Too Much
• Such Brave Girls
• It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
• Project Runway

Shows I Missed:

• The Sandman
• Dexter: Resurrection
• The Institute
• Washington Black

AUGUST

Alien: Earth

But being fun doesn’t mean being dumb: ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Alien: Earth. Noah Hawley, the creator and showrunner, is uniquely talented at taking a familiar, beloved property and turning it into something simultaneously new and true to the original. His first series, Legion, examined a lesser-known Marvel character and created something psychedelic, beautiful, and terrifying, and nothing like a traditional superhero story. Hawley’s next project, an anthology series based on the Coen Brothers’ classic film Fargo, was a brilliant reimagining of the original, with each subsequent season a fresh take on the repeated themes of a very specific kind of American violence.

Which brings us to Alien: Earth, a lovingly crafted prequel to the Alien films. Here, corporations headed by narcissistic trillionaires race to nab the contents of a ship that has crashed into Earth. To that end, one corporation, Prodigy, deploys its team of hybrid humans, who themselves are an immortality experiment; each hybrid contains the consciousness of a previously terminally ill child, who, in their new cyborg bodies, will never die. The series carefully recreates the visual vocabulary of the original films and their broader anti-capitalist themes while creating something new — literally so in the new (and terrifying) alien lifeforms that crash land onto the planet, and the deceptively vulnerable hybrids who, like the iconic Xenomorphs, might be too powerful to be contained.

Other Shows in August that I Enjoyed:

• Platonic
• Yogurt Shop Murders
• King of the Hill
• Unknown Number: The High School Catfish

Shows I Missed:

• Wednesday
• Peacemaker
• Hostage
• Invasion
• Chief of War
• The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox
• The Thursday Murder Club

SEPTEMBER

Gen V

I know: Task. And listen, LISTEN! Task was good! Mark Ruffalo is always good, and Tom Pelphrey was great! But … I don’t know, I feel like I have had my share of moody crime dramas for a while. Which is why I chose Gen V‘s second season over the more obvious HBO prestige drama. Gen V is the lesser-appreciated younger sibling of The Boys, set in a university for young supes. While it doesn’t have the same blistering politics as The Boys, it is a superb spinoff that manages to be its own story, while supplementing and enhancing the original series’ trajectory. Having established our young protagonists in the first season, this second season introduced a delightfully wicked villain played by the ever talented Hamish Linklater (seriously, between this and Midnight Mass, I’ll watch anything Linklater is in), set up the urgency of the final season of The Boys, and gracefully navigate the tragic death of star Chace Perdomo, using his real-life loss to deepen the stakes and bring a profound emotional poignancy to the entire season.

Other Shows in September that I Enjoyed:

• Only Murders in the Building
• The Girlfriend
• The Paper
• Slow Horses
• Task
• English Teacher
• High Potential
• The Lowdown

Shows I Missed:

• Black Rabbit
• Chad Powers
• House of Guinness

OCTOBER

The Diplomat

You’re sick of me saying this, I’m sure, but I was genuinely torn on this one because The Chair Company was undeniably one of the weirdest, most original, and best shows of the year, and there is certainly an argument for it being in this spot. Tim Robinson’s conspiratorial comedy was unlike anything else on TV, and the perfect outlet for his unique brand of cringe comedy, hyperfixating on an embarrassing situation only to escalate it to insane heights. THIS IS WHY I HATE MAKING LISTS.

Because if I’m being honest with myself, the show I enjoyed the most this month, the one I looked most forward to was The Diplomat, the Keri Russel, Rufus Sewell political thriller, now in its third season. The Diplomat manages to make high-stakes political drama fun, not just tense, and the twists sprinkled throughout are well-earned thanks to sharp writing and excellent performances. And speaking of performances, whoever’s idea it was to cast Bradley Whitford as Allison Janney’s First Gentleman, giving us The West Wing reunion we’ve longed for, deserves all the flowers. Five stars, no notes, A+++++.

Other Shows in October that I Enjoyed:

• Down Cemetery Road
• The Chair Company
• Downey Wrote That
• Nobody Wants This
• Murdaugh: Death in the Family
• Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy
• It: Welcome to Derry
• Boots
• Abbott Elementary
• Love is Blind
• The Perfect Neighbor

Shows I Missed:

• The Last Frontier
• Loot
• Mr. Scorcese
• Stiller & Meara: Nothing is Lost
• The Witcher

NOVEMBER

Pluribus

Look, this is the best show of the year, and it might be the best of the decade. I’m not sure what I can add to the conversation about Pluribus, except to note that Vince Gilligan took a huge swing with this one and knocked it right out of the park. After an alien virus infects all of humanity and turns it into a contented hive mind, novelist Carol Sturka finds herself isolated and desperate to bring the world back. Pluribus is one of the most original, thought-provoking, and risky TV shows I’ve ever seen, exploring big ideas about individuality, the nature of happiness, the tension between assimilation and inclusion, what makes us human, and, of course, it also serves as a metaphor for the dangers of A.I. and our interconnected world. Our protagonist, Carol, is unlikeable, harsh, and sarcastic, which turned some viewers off (there’s an entire conversation to be had about why audiences can root for male antiheroes, but have no room for female ones ~cough~ misogyny ~cough~), and she is one of the most fascinating characters Gilligan has created in his very successful career. As played by the brilliant Rhea Seehorn, she is what grounds us in this strange universe; her search for genuine connection is what propels her to fight this happiness virus, rather than just submit to her own easy bliss. Emotional, funny, challenging, and deeply intelligent, this show will be a part of our collective conversation for a while, and honestly, disagreeing about it is the most human thing we could do.

Other Shows in November that I Enjoyed:

• Stranger Things
• Stumble
• The Beast In Me
• I Love LA
• A Man on the Inside
• All Her Fault
• Death by Lightning
• Frankenstein

Shows I Missed:

• Heated Rivalry
• Crutch
• Palm Royale
• Malice
• The Seduction
• Train Dreams

DECEMBER

Fallout

As of this writing, only three episodes of the second season of Fallout have been released, but those three episodes have been a carnival ride, positively comparable to the first season of this zippy, gory, and darkly funny sci-fi series based on the video games of the same name. A side note: my son is a big fan of the video games and has served well as my guide through the Fallout universe, but somehow I didn’t realize until this season that unlike The Last of Us, Fallout, the show, is following its own plot. Meaning, our protagonist, Lucy, is not in the video game, and her journey has been created whole cloth for this series. Compared to The Last of Us, Fallout has more breathing room, as it is untethered to the video game fans’ rigid ideas about the characters or how the story should unfold. The result is a deeply imagined and richly drawn world, pre- and post-apocalypse, populated with mutants and monsters and wide-eyed innocents, all just trying to survive (and find answers) in a hilariously dangerous, toxic wasteland.

Fallout

Other Shows in December that I Enjoyed:

• Knives Out: Wake Up Dead Man
• Emily in Paris
• Sean Combs: The Reckoning

Shows I Missed:

• The Abandons
• Spartacus: House of Ashur
• Jay Kelly
• Percy Jackson and the Olympians

Alright, what did I miss? And what did I get wrong? Let me have it. I’ll go get a glass of wine and wait here.