The best TV shows of 2025… so far!

With so many new shows and streaming services to choose from, it’s getting harder to sort the modern classics from the mere content fodder. So, here’s a guide to the best TV series of 2025 so far, including agenda-setting dramas, side-splitting comedies and scintillating sci-fi. 

Words: Nick Levine

Adolescence

Where to watch: Netflix

When it premiered in March, Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham’s astonishing psychological crime drama became a culture-shifting phenomenon. By exploring how seemingly normal schoolboy Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper) became a radicalised murderer, it changed the way we think about incel culture and toxic masculinity. With each of its four episodes shot in a meticulous continuous take, it’s also bold and brilliant TV.

Episode to remember: Three – a nerve-shredding head-to-head between Jamie and a stoic forensic psychologist (Erin Doherty).

Andor

Season: two
Where to watch: Disney+

The second and final season of the Star Wars spin-off – technically, a prequel to the spin-off film Rogue One – is even better than the first. Grittier than anything else in the franchise, it follows the Galactic Empire’s merciless efforts to annex an industrial nation so it can plunder their natural resources. Driven by Diego Luna’s charismatic turn as the eponymous scavenger, it’s high-IQ sci-fi that doubles as a punchy political allegory. 

Episode to remember: ‘Who Are You?’ – an intense chiller building towards the savage massacre of the Ghorman rebels.

A Thousand Blows

Season: one
Where to watch: Disney+

Created by Peaky Blinders mastermind Steven Knight, this riveting historical drama pivots between two shadowy gangs in the Victorian East End: an all-female crime syndicate and a macho gaggle of bare-knuckle boxers. Fuelled by ferocious performances from Malachi Kirby, Erin Doherty and Stephen Graham, it’s a lavish but gritty thriller that’s well worth going six rounds with.

Episode to remember: 5 – a bloody knockout in which Graham’s boxing overlord Sugar Goodson embraces chaos both inside and outside the ring.

Big Boys

Season: three
Where to watch: Channel 4

Jack Rooke’s coming-of-age sitcom bows out with an incredibly moving, very funny and utterly singular final season. What other TV show can make you gasp with a smutty cameo from TV icon Rylan, then make you cry with a heart-rending depiction of male mental health issues? Rooke even gives (not so) clueless SU officer Jules Handy (Katy Wix) the mother of all redemption arcs.

Episode to remember: ‘The Sea’ – the remarkable series finale goes meta to give Danny (Jon Pointing) the happy ending he deserves.

Black Mirror

Season: seven
Where to watch: Netflix 

After 14 years, Charlie Brooker’s dystopian anthology series remains as terrifyingly prophetic as ever. This time around, individual episodes riff on the rise of AI, our over-reliance on the online Cloud, and the dark side of highly advanced gaming. The season ends with something Black Mirror has never tried before: a feature-length sequel to a fan favourite episode, 2017’s ‘USS Callister’.

Episode to remember: ‘Eulogy’ – Paul Giamatti delivers a devastating performance as a man who uses immersive photo technology to revisit a past relationship.

Daredevil: Born Again

Season: one
Where to watch: Disney+

Six years after Daredevil was prematurely cancelled by Netflix, it gets a satisfying revival on Disney+ with Charlie Cox back as lawyer-cum-vigilante Matt Murdock. Vincent D’Onofrio also returns as Murdock’s longtime adversary Wilson Fisk, only this time he’s running for New York City mayor with Trumpian bluster and populist policies. The result is darker than the average Marvel series – much darker – and much smarter, too.

Episode to remember: ‘Isle of Joy’ – an intense twister that gives overdue screentime to Wilson Bethel’s psychopathic marksman Bullseye.

Hacks

Season: four
Where to watch: Sky Max and NOW

The showbiz sitcom’s superior fourth follows seasoned comedian Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) and her punchline supplier/punching bag Ava (Hannah Einbinder) as they launch an old-school late-night show.  It’s a subtle gear shift that fixes Hacks‘ Achilles heel – why aren’t Deborah’s stand-up routines funnier? – while upping the satirical ante. Would the great Deborah Vance really use a naff social media star called Dance Mom to prop up her show? Of course she would!

Episode to remember: ‘Clickable Face’ – Ava and Deborah trade put-downs as the quest for ratings gets messy.

Overcompensating 

Season: one
Where to watch: Prime Video

Created by and starring TikTok comedian Benito Skinner, this campus dramedy is a coming out story in coming-of-age clothing. Skinner stars as Benny Scanlon, a jittery jock desperately trying to hide the fact that he’s sexually attracted to men. Once you accept that several cast members are a little (ahem) older than actual college students, Overcompensating becomes a funny, touching, wonderfully bubbly delight.

Episode to remember: ‘Boom Clap’ – it features butt-naked fratboy hazing and a Charli XCX cameo. What more could you want?

Severance

Season: two
Where to watch: Apple TV+

It’s been three years since its captivating debut season, but Severance hasn’t lost a lost a scintilla of its trippy style, Set in a dystopian present where biotech company Lumon has “severed” employees’ consciousness so their work and home lives stay separate, it’s equal parts provocative and prescient. If you haven’t binged it yet, book some annual leave immediately.

Episode to remember: ‘Woe’s Hollow’– a mid-season belter that sets the trajectory for the remaining episodes; what happens at the corporate retreat definitely doesn’t stay at the corporate retreat.

Solo Leveling

Season: two
Where to watch: Netflix and Crunchyroll 

This spectacular anime series follows Sung Jinwoo, once the weakest hunter in a world of monsters, as his combat skills keep on levelling up. So, there’s a pleasing symmetry to the way this second season improves on the first with snappier storytelling and truly cinematic visuals. The kinetic fight scenes are particularly thrilling.

Episode to remember: ‘Are You The King Of Humans?’ – Sung Jinwoo’s epic battle against the Ant King is anime at its most dazzling.

The Four Seasons

Season: one
Where to watch: Netflix

Co-created by Tina Fey, who stars alongside Steve Carell and Colman Domingo, this dramedy based on a classic Alan Alda film oozes class. It follows four middle-aged couples who holiday together four times a year as they deal with the shockwaves of a clique-fracturing divorce. The Four Seasons could have felt cosy, but it’s actually warm, well-observed and filled with witty lines like “even in a throuple, someone’s got to clean the air fryer”.

Episode to remember: ‘Fun’ – the season ends on a poignant note that highlights the show’s flair for blending heart and laughs.

The Last Of Us

Season: two
Where to watch: Sky Atlantic and NOW

The post-apocalyptic drama’s second season is defined by daddy issues – and not just because it stars Pedro Pascal. Though Ellie (Bella Ramsey) feels stifled by her partner in survival, Pascal’s quasi-paternal Joel, she realises a little too late that he has her back. This season’s non-chronological storytelling can feel fiddly, but the show’s vision of a dystopian America is still chilling and often profoundly moving.

Episode to remember: ‘Through The Valley’ – the savage plot twist is harrowing even if you remember it from the original video game.

The Studio

Season: one
Where to watch: Apple TV+

Co-created by and starring Seth Rogen, this satirical sitcom drills into Hollywood’s favourite topic: Hollywood. The parade of A-list cameos is dizzying – everyone from Martin Scorsese to Zac Efron swings by – but The Studio never succumbs to smugness. As Rogen’s conflicted studio boss tries to balance high art with the bottom line, the zingers keep on coming like bullets from an action hero’s machine gun.

Episode to remember: ‘The Golden Globes’ – a painfully funny romp skewering the BS of awards season. It even has a cameo from Netflix boss Ted Sarandos.

The White Lotus

Season: three
Where to watch: Sky Atlantic and NOW

Though Mike White’s satirical marvel is more sluggish than before, it’s still a wellspring for memes. Highlights of this Thailand-set season include an exquisite exploration of female friendship, an audacious portrayal of accidental incest, and Aimee Lou Wood’s tender performance as Chelsea, a genuinely nice character. Oh, and every word that one-percenter Victoria (Parker Posey) delivers in her ludicrous Southern drawl, especially “lorazepam”.

Episode to remember: ‘Full-Moon Party’ – a transgressive cracker even before Frank (Sam Rockwell) delivers a jaw-dropping monologue about his sexual peccadilloes.

What It Feels Like For A Girl

Where to watch: BBC iPlayer

Paris Lees’ adaptation of her own remarkable memoir is a raw and raucous coming-of-age story set in Y2K Nottingham. As smart working-class kid Byron (a superb Ellis Howard) grapples with their gender identity, they make dangerous life choices that give them a brief taste of power. Authentic trans representation isn’t the half of it; this enthralling survival story reminds us that no one should be written off by the system.

Episode to remember: 5 – Byron confronts some uncomfortable home truths during a ket comedown. TV is rarely this vivid.

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