Favorite Shows of 2025

#1. Andor Season 2
Andor Season 1 was a revelation. I'd given up on Star Wars as a concept that could still produce great storytelling and I half-watched the first episode and didn't continue. Then all the critics and podcasts I listened to raved about it and I went back, some time later, falling into a groove in the 2nd 3-episode arc (of 12) and falling in love. Andor Season 2 jumped ahead a year in the revolution (all a leadup to Rogue One, the prelude to the original Star Wars from 1977 in the show's timeline) and showed Diego Luna and the various revolutionaries in 4 more sets of 3-episode arcs, each jumping a year ahead until the time of Rogue One. While all of the arcs are great and the ending arc ties a neat, tragic, beautiful coda around these characters that we've spent the last couple years with, the "Gorman" arc in episodes 7-9 shines, focused on a mini-rebellion against an authoritarian takeover that smears the formerly well-respected locals as savages through a years long misinformation campaign and then brutally murders them to take over the planet for completely unrelated reasons (mineral reserves). Somewhat important today in America. Watch this show, from the start, whether you like Star Wars or not. On Disney+.

#2. Pluribus Season 1

The concept hooked me from the jump. Strange (probably alien) virus turns the planet into a single connected "hive mind" stripped of individual thought or purpose, with only a dozen humans left unaffected, including novelist Carol, played by the brilliant Rhea Seehorn of Better Call Saul fame. I never watched Better Call Saul because I didn't watch the show it was spin off from (I know, a huge blind spot in my viewership) but Vince Gilligan's latest has hooked me completely. Yes, it's slow, and much more focused on Carol's solo journey through grief and acceptance, and yes Carol is a prickly, difficult, angry person. And yes the overarching big sci-fi concept remains mostly unanswered after a full nine episodes. But man, each episode was so gripping to me, personally, I couldn't get enough of the show. Seehorn does so well and I found myself quite sympathetic to her unsympathetic character, especially in the face of her overly friendly "Hive-mind" co-stars. The production budget explodes on the screen and the patience the show has with showing mundane tasks like refilling a Trader Joe's is just wonderful. It's taking care with the story and really leaning into the characterization of Carol and Menousos, the only two characters of the humans alive who are willing at the moment to fight back against the Hive. And it's also laugh-out-loud hilarious throughout, in particular (to me) the scene with the drone trying to "take out the trash", one of the funniest moments I've seen on screen all year. It's on Apple TV.

#3. Adolescence.

I binged this back in the spring (4 episodes worth) and while the last of the four wasn't as strong as the truly magical first three, this Netflix series on how society has failed its young boys is well deserving of Emmys and likely Golden Globes.

#4. Peacemaker Season 2

Peacemaker Season 1 was uneven but consistently hilarious and well-written. Season 2 was the same, with some of the greatest episodes of television this season and then some less brilliant, but the cast is outstanding, the writing top notch, and the story this season (is an alternate universe that appears to be perfect preferable to your current universe?) explores the multi-verse in a far better way than anything Marvel has done. ​ HBO Max.

#5. The Residence

This whodonit murder series at the White House did not get renewed and did drag on a bit, but it was really funny, really fun, and featured a perfectly realized lead character "detective" played by Uzo Aduba. It sadly did not get renewed for another season but was way better than the last couple seasons of Only Murders in the Building. Netflix. 

#6. The Studio, Season 1 (Apple)

#7. Platonic, Season 2 (Apple)

#8. Stranger Things, Season 5 (Netflix)

#9. Dept Q, Season 1 (Netflix)

#10. The Bear, Season 4 (FX/Hulu)