The story of TV in 2025 is, by and large, positive, in that the year yielded so much incredible TV that watching it all is impossible. Hence, the utility and concurrent tyranny of the Year-End list: It’s a wonderful viewing guide for our holiday breaks, and a reminder of everything we missed over the past 12 months.
I’m including myself in that summation, since I meant to review one show on this list but kept kicking that flaming can down the road until its season ended. Some may question why I included “Rage” instead of, say, “Murderbot,” and other honorable mentions listed at the end of this list. My answer is in the opening observation about the wealth of top-shelf TV and limited space and hours in a day; in any event, I assure you that these 10 selections are time well spent.
(HBO) Carmen Machi as Marga in “Rage”
10) “Rage,” i.e. “Furia”
“Rage” is a series of interconnected vignettes about five women: a wealthy, gun-loving artist whose husband is sleeping with their younger live-in housekeeper; the housekeeper’s mother, caring for her own dementia-ridden mother as her landlord threatens eviction; a stylish clerk pushed out of her job by subadult fashion influencers; a vegan chef hounded to ruin by an obsessed critic; and an aging adult film star.
Created, written and almost entirely directed by Spanish filmmaker Félix Sabroso, “Rage” achieves what we wish “And Just Like That” aspired to even attempt, confronting the reality of a woman’s power surge at a time in her life when society would rather kick her to the curb.
Sabroso maximizes the visual pop and sharp humor that defines every scene, saturating frames in “see me” colors popping citrusy in one moment and fiery in the next, lifting the cast’s audacious, extreme performances. Yet he also insists that everyone retains their humanity in the story’s darkest moments, such as when our cast-off fashionista serenely sits on the brink of ruin and shrugs, “I think it’s the calm of knowing that I have style.” And just like that, women of a certain age are validated in fantasizing about burning it all down. The good news is that this show will offer new catharsis in a second season that’s already been greenlighted.
“Rage” is streaming on HBO Max.
(Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images) Pee-wee as Himself
9) “Pee-wee as Himself”
Sometimes a dying artist has the energy and generosity to leave a consciously rendered final act for the world to cherish after they’re gone. In Paul Reubens’ case, saying goodbye was such a struggle that the filmmaker documenting his life, Matt Wolf, had no idea that the man he’d been interviewing for more than 40 hours was dying of lung cancer.
Wolf’s documentary series is the first to get Reubens, beloved by millions as Pee-wee Herman, to come out, while showing the lengths to which he buried his sexuality to serve his career. His ceaseless struggle to get Reubens to fully open up creates a crisp tension in two installments, showing how deeply scarred Reubens was by the manufactured scandals that falsely branded him a pedophile.
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Within this vulnerability, Wolf coaxes out a complex portrait of an ambitious artist burning to express his eternal creativity at the expense of living as his true self. Yet a viewer isn’t left with the sense that Reubens did that out of greed or egotism. “I wanted somehow for people to understand that my whole career, everything I did and wrote, was based in love,” he shared in a private recording meant for Wolf, and for us. Now, and forever, we know.
“Pee-wee as Himself” is streaming on HBO Max.
(Apple TV) Rhea Seehorn in “Pluribus”
8) “Pluribus”
Vince Gilligan’s follow-up to “Better Call Saul” is a compelling existential mystery stemming from a question he posed to himself: “What if everyone in the world was suddenly really, really nice to me personally?” From this, he spun a story about a melancholic romance author, Carol Sturka (Rhea Seehorn), who suddenly finds herself nearly alone in the world with nothing but the terror of free will, and her neighbors’ eagerness to please her every whim.
While the central meaning of all this has yet to be revealed, Seehorn’s performance of Carol’s obstinate loneliness is wrenchingly genuine to anyone who has ever felt alone in a sea of smiling strangers. And yet, there’s no denying that a world without want, racism and crime, where everyone gets along, looks a lot better than the one we’re suffering in now. However the mystery of “Pluribus” resolves, there’s much to appreciate in the fact that Gilligan has extended over nine hours so far and hasn’t managed to lose us once.
“Pluribus” is streaming on Apple TV.
(FX) Adarsh Gourav, Timothy Olyphant and Babou Ceesay in “Alien: Earth”
7) “Alien: Earth”
People are right to seethe over the stranglehold film and TV franchises have on the industry. Even so, Hawley’s stellar adaptation of a decades-old blockbuster conceit proves that the right take on a classic movie monster can yield provocative storytelling.
Hawley takes our tech oligarchs’ power grab to one believable end: a future where a handful of them rule over the planet and life is only worth what you can afford to pay for it. A spaceship’s crash landing brings another disruption, gathering forces to wage war over ownership of strange beasts that exist to kill and multiply, and that can’t be controlled. Or can they?
As much as Hawley gets right about the world of “Aliens” that we know, his introduction of a new beastie, the Eye Midge, is an inspired touch that stands to take the plot in directions we haven’t seen before in this universe. Between that and Sydney Chandler’s portrayal of Wendy – not a girl, not yet a mechanical woman – this new chapter is bracingly unfamiliar terrain.
“Alien: Earth” is streaming on Hulu and Disney+.
(Apple TV+) Adam Scott and Britt Lower in “Severance”
6) “Severance”
Returning three years after its initial run of episodes, the second season of Dan Erickson’s highly stylized, off-putting workplace drama extended the mythology of Lumon Industries without losing its narrative bearings. One of its best expansions is Tramell Tillman’s screentime as Seth Milchick, the model manager who contorts his behavior in bizarre and devastating ways to prove a worth that those of higher rank will never recognize. His arc is just one of the ways the weirdness and anxiety inherent to life on the severed floor only deepened throughout these new episodes, presenting Lumon’s corporate culture as a cult.
Of course, you can say that about most white-collar jobs, but most corporate offices lack a hidden floor staffed by goats and their keepers, a Lumon department known as Mammalians Nurturable. What are they for, besides the occasional sacrifice? That’s one of several mysteries left for the third season. Praise Kier.
“Severance” is streaming on Apple TV.
5) “The American Revolution”
An effort ten years in the making, Ken Burns’ latest, which he co-directed with David Schmidt and Sarah Botstein, presents a version of our foundational history that Donald Trump’s minions would like to pretend is a fantasy. That’s because it includes a spectrum of voices from across our culture – nobles and villagers, Black and Indigenous figures, women, British loyalists, philosophers and soldiers among them.
Through this, the filmmakers fulfill their aim of presenting a more complicated and fascinating version of the American story, showing that the ills afflicting us today were present from the very beginning. We’re constantly reminded about the Founding Fathers’ hypocrisy on the matter of liberty, for example, but in a way that feeds curiosity about this American experiment of ours, not shame. With conservatives erasing historic contributions that don’t serve their whitewashed take on the American story, Burns’ 12-hour epic reminds us that messy, complicated history is far more fascinating than any version edited to spare a constituency’s feelings.
“The American Revolution” is streaming online at PBS.org, on the PBS app and on demand.
(Shane Brown/FX) Jeanne Tripplehorn and Ethan Hawke in “The Lowdown”
4) “The Lowdown”
Series creator Sterlin Harjo superbly utilizes Ethan Hawke’s magnetism as Lee Raybon, a shabby, perpetually bruised citizen journalist sniffing around conspiracies the rest of the world would rather ignore. Such is the lot of a “truthstorian,” a term Lee invented to class up an avocation that reels him into trouble with Tulsa, Oklahoma’s most influential family, one that recently lost an adult son to a gunshot to the head that Lee doesn’t believe was a suicide.
Harjo’s follow-up to “Reservation Dogs” is an atmospheric tribute to his home state’s complicated cultural vibrancy and powerful interconnectedness in the face of dual (and related) incursions by greedy corporate interests and white nationalists. But it’s really the performances that seal this drama as one of the year’s greats, highlighted by moving work from Keith David, Kaniehtiio Horn, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Kyle MacLachlan, and stellar guest appearances by Peter Dinklage and the late Graham Greene.
“The Lowdown” is streaming on Hulu and Disney+.
(Lucasfilm/Disney+) Diego Luna in “Andor”
3) “Andor”
Who would have thought that a product churned out by the “Star Wars” factory would produce one of the most riveting illustrations of how fascism takes root in free republics? Then again, Tony Gilroy’s creation was never designed to be standard Skywalker Saga fare any more than 2016’s “Rogue One,” which he co-wrote, was meant to be.
Palpatine is the unseen villain in this second and final season, enacting his authoritarian will through recognizable means. Disinformation campaigns manufacture the population’s consent to obliterate a peaceful culture on a distant planet. Criminalizing dissent becomes acceptable. Throughout, Diego Luna’s Cassian Andor is less of a guide than a binding agent joining various subplots about the perils that nascent rebellions face – and the disposability of lower-ranking officials who enable a strongman’s sinister whims. Overwhelming evil calls for extreme sacrifice, one of the highest being Cassian’s last, to which he flies in the series’ final scene.
“Andor” is streaming on Disney+.
(Ben Blackall/Netflix) (L to R) Owen Cooper as Jamie Miller and Erin Doherty as Briony Ariston in “Adolescence”
2) “Adolescence”
The most legitimately daring drama of the year pulled off several courageous experiments in one pass. Shooting an entire episode in an extended shot is just one of them. Building a narrative around a murder case in which a 13-year-old boy from a nice family is accused of viciously stabbing a girl to death is another. Exploring these craggy psychological contours from the perspectives of the investigators, the accused’s shocked parents, and a psychologist tasked with evaluating the boy and his parents in four taut episodes is equally impressive.
“Adolescence” powerfully channels the intimacy of a live theater experience into each of its frames, an effectiveness that leaves the viewer physically shaken by the end of its third episode.
But the greatest coup this drama pulls off is foregrounding Owen Cooper’s frightening, wrenching performance – an astounding accomplishment by any young actor, but singularly incredible given Cooper’s lack of acting experience before he was cast as Eddie.
“Adolescence” is streaming on Netflix.
(John Johnson/Max) Taylor Dearden, Noah Wyle and Shawn Hatosy in “The Pitt”
1) “The Pitt”
Since first recommending “The Pitt,” I’ve been bombarded with reasons people refuse to watch. More than once, naysayers dismissed it as an “ER” retread – which, given that it stars Noah Wyle, who also executive produces alongside “ER” showrunner John Wells, is understandable. It’s also not quite correct. Others acknowledge that its reading of how systemic failures converge in hospital emergency centers is too accurate, a view supported by medical professionals’ endorsements of the show.
But the reason the show tops this year’s list is that its this hour-by-hour witnessing of a 15-hour shift at the fictional Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Hospital upholds the humanity and inner fortitude that bolsters these doctors through a day that’s at times humorous, touching, and, once a mass shooting extends one shift into a double, emotionally grueling. By that point, though, Wyle’s “Robby” Robinavitch and the shift’s charge nurse Dana (Katherine LaNasa) will have already won you over with their loyalty to each other and this inspiring, tight circle of healers who only want to ease the pain of a society addicted to inflicting it.
Season 2 of “The Pitt” premieres at 9 p.m. ET Thursday, Jan. 8, on HBO Max, where all episodes of Season 1 are currently streaming.
Honorable mentions: “Dying For Sex.” “I Love LA.” “Task.” “The Last of Us.” “Hacks.” “The Chair Company.” “The Beast in Me.” “The Diplomat.” “King of the Hill.” “The Studio.” “Common Side Effects.” And yes, “Murderbot.”
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of our Best of 2025 selections
