These are the shows we’ve gotten excited about so far this year – and where you can watch them.
Each month we’re here to help you decide what to watch—with updates to this list of our fave shows so far this year. Whether you want to watch for the first time or check out a new season of an existing fave, we hope these recommendations from our team of writers come in handy.
For the avoidance of any confusion, these are titles we covered in 2025—as opposed to what a formal release year might say—and there’s a chance not all of them will be available where you are.
Look, we just want you to watch some good stuff, OK?
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Black Snow
Travis Fimmel returns for a second season of mystery (and a fresh cold case—if you can call a cold case ‘fresh’) in Aussie cop show Black Snow. Queensland’s Glasshouse Mountains provide a picturesque backdrop to what David Michael Brown describes as an “equally-as-enthralling sophomore investigation” into the disappearance of a young woman in 2003. Kimmel impresses on both sides of the camera, the show’s star also making his directorial debut as he joins Sian Davies and Helena Brooks as a series director.
Adolescence
Netflix’s gripping four-part series Adolescence is a real watercooler production, a show that’s surged to the top of Netflix’s charts and prompted plenty of conversation by critics and viewers. Family drama meets commentary on the “manosphere” and elements of the police procedural genre in this story of a 13-year-old boy in the UK for the murder of his classmate—elements that are enhanced by the use of seemingly unbroken takes or ‘oners’. It’s a filmmaking technique that Luke Buckmaster’s feature unpacks to see how it impacts and enhances the nature and staging of the drama.
Dope Thief
Best friends Ray (Brian Tyree Henry – Atlanta and Causeway) and Manny (Wagner Moura – Narcos and Civil War) think they are on to a winning scam, posing as DEA agents and raiding drug houses for their cash and stash. That’s until they hit the wrong place and set off an explosive chain of consequences… The opening episode sets the tone, establishing the pair’s strong relationship, their rhythm of unforced humour, and rapidly piles on some superbly-staged tension—thanks to director Sir Ridley Scott (also an exec producer). Steve Newall learned more in his interviews with the series showrunner and its stars.
The Wheel of Time
High-stakes sword and sorcery returns in season three of The Wheel of Time, set in a world where time repeats in an infinite loop, and everyone’s destined to live their lives repeatedly, in exactly the same manner, forever. Which is a buzzy notion, threatened by the prophecy of The Dark One, an evil force intent on remaking the universe in its own damaged image. “Fantasy fans will delight in the show’s meticulous and vividly realised world-building, and character-driven plots,” writes Adam Fresco in his feature on the latest season.
The Righteous Gemstones
The Righteous Gemstones: Season 4
Danny McBride’s phenomenally funny comedy The Righteous Gemstones returns for its fourth and final season, charting the fortunes of a multi-generational family of megachurch preachers. It’s a show that offers a lot more than that description suggests, never treating religion itself as the punching bag, but as with previous McBride outings like Eastbound and Down, making its main characters the butt of its jokes—even if their lives are as opulent and bejeweled as their surname might suggest. Steve Newall learned more, speaking with Danny McBride and his onscreen wife Cassidy Freeman.
Paradise
A star-powered secret service thriller was what we thought we were getting with Paradise—Sterling K Brown investigating the murder of US President James Marsden. The marketing hinted at some mysterious elements, but the cliffhanger ending of season one landed a bug punch, showing just what the show was keeping under wraps. “I can’t recall the last time, or any time, a show pulled such a rope-a-dope in its opening ep,” wrote Liam Maguren. “But, boy, what a fantastic surprise and a great payoff for anyone who took a punt on this series.”
Reacher
There’s a lot (both figuratively and literally) to love about the third season of Reacher—its gargantuan behemoth of a hero finally has a baddie with a physique to credibly threaten him in a fight, for one thing. Of course there’s mystery with plenty of twists and turns and intrigue aplenty. And, yes, there are bursts of action punctuated with tough-guy one-liners. But its Reacher’s towering seven foot, two inches tall opponent that makes this essential, according to Travis Johnson’s feature: “We all know what the main event is: The Dutch Giant vs The Vanilla Gorilla. That’s appointment television.”
The White Lotus
A fresh ensemble, a new location, and a new take on an earworm theme song—Mike White’s The White Lotus is back with a hiss and a roar. With Thailand as its backdrop, a new batch of self-obsessed Western tourists assemble for delicious drama and comedy—among them Jason Isaacs, Parker Posey, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Walton Goggins, Michelle Monaghan, Blackpink’s Lalisa Manoban et cetera. As Dominic Corry puts it, the new season “reveals White’s knack for creating relentlessly captivating characters to be stronger than ever. As it does his tendency for revelatory casting.”
Invisible Boys
The remote West Australian port city of Geraldton is the location for this queer coming-of-age drama series, following a trio of young men whose sexuality seems incompatible with the social environment they’re growing up in. Showing the warts-and-all process of nascent gay desire blossoming into painful reckonings with family and friends, this series really goes there, writes Eliza Janssen: “Some viewers may argue that Invisible Boys is too explicit or thematically heavy for the very demographic it depicts: scenes of sex and masturbation are frank and frequent.” But, as its title might suggest, this show isn’t interested in hiding or sanitising the truth.
Invincible
Now that viewers of Invincible have worked up a tolerance for OTT violence, The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman has turned his focus to the consequences of power in this not-for-kids animated superhero show. The new season poses one of the most interesting questions you can ask of the genre, says Clarisse Loughrey’s Show of the Week column: “What does it mean to be a hero when its definition is created entirely by those whose interests they serve?”
Mythic Quest
Mythic Quest: Raven's Banquet - Season 4
Four seasons in, the Always Sunny team’s other sitcom has completed its refinement after having flown under the radar (like a lot of Apple TV+ shows). Set in the company who make a World of Warcraft-like MMORPG (massive multiplayer online role-playing game), Mythic Quest “humanises workplace stereotypes while regularly calling them up on their bullshit,” writes Clarisse Loughrey. “It’s the perfect underdog. A piece of art that feels good and valiant to cheer on.”
Severance
Much more present in the culture is another Apple TV+ workplace comedy, one that has more overtly dark, dramatic and surreal elements coming to the fore. It’s been a while between drinks for Severance, which returns three(!) years after its first, impactful season. “It wasn’t an instant sensation, but its reputation has grown steadily over the three years since its first season and, now, in its second, I can sense a kind of acceleration in the way people talk about it,” writes Clarisse Loughrey. “At first Severance was great. Now people are starting make it sound important.”
The Pitt
Instead of medical dramas’ tired case-of-the-week formula, a new intense series centres on a single 15-hour shift at Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Hospital. Back in scrubs after a long time in the break room—ER‘s Noah Wyle, playing head attending physician Dr. Michael “Robby” Rabinavitch. “It’s a superb work,” writes Travis Johnson, praising the propulsive pacing, great cast, black humour and commitment to showing the current situation of the American health system. “The Pitt might be the best American drama series I’ve seen in years.”
