2025 in TV, Part 1

At long last, the countdown is finally here. All the work I put into the songs list, plus the weekly article, left me a little burned out. (Call me The Clientele, ’cause I’m pretty tired of making lists.) I’ve had the list itself finished for at least a month now, but making the time to finish the writeups in the midst of everything else I have going on proved surprisingly difficult. I found myself suffering through writer’s block as the last entries kept hanging over my head, and with some significant personal difficulties and tragedies in the first couple of months of the year slowing me down as well. I finally had to commit to just finishing it up and getting it out as soon as possible.

The writers strike that gave us a leaner year of TV in 2024 is also why we have so much TV for 2025. I finished 43 shows, and had several others I started but didn’t finish, not to mention shows I never got around to at all. And that doesn’t even count the shows that I was never going to watch but get lots of acclaim elsewhere! So that sheer volume is another reason this is coming in so late.

This is my ninth year of doing this, which seems like a wild commitment in my head (and may, in fact, be the second-longest commitment I’ve made in my life). And this year, there’s so much, and it’s not even my only lengthy list, that I start to wonder if I’m going mad by doing this. But I will deliver! Some of the writeups may be on the short side due to the volume of shows. (I’m more inclined to write more about shows new to the list, because I don’t need to re-summarize what a series is about every year.) And ranking is an inexact science, and I’m not even sure about some of these rankings— I’m more confident the closer we get to the top, of course. And the best shows this year were absolutely killer— #1 is arguably the best season of TV of the decade, and probably isn’t worse than second. (Even if I really stretch, it can’t possibly be outside of the top five.)

With so many shows this year, and me being so far behind as it is, we’re not doing the usual four- or five-part series. We’re gong to today with short writeups through #13, while the top 12 will get longer writeups over the next two days (which was going to be one day until I wrote too damn much).

Anyway, let’s get to talking TV!

Didn’t get to

Heated Rivalry – Became more interested when I learned Letterkenny co-creator Jacob Tierney adapted the books and is running the show, but I still haven’t gotten around to it.

The Pitt – I don’t have much interest in medical dramas, but this has gotten so much praise from so many corners (including corners I trust!) that I felt it deserved mention.

Adolescence, Dying for Sex – I was probably never going to get to these, but they are shows that have received enough praise that I felt like I should mention them.

Started but didn’t finish

I Love LA – Watched one episode, didn’t think it was badly made or anything, but I think I might just be too old (and maybe too “not from New York or Los Angeles”) to want to watch characters like this acting like this.

After Midnight – Watched a little bit of season 2 and it increasingly felt like the show’s format had seen some network meddling. It’s a lot to watch a nightly show anyway, and then Taylor Tomlinson decided she wanted to go back to doing standup and the show got canceled.

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The actual list

43. Abbott Elementary
ABC
Seasons 4-5

2025 was a pretty uneven year for Abbott. Though there were a few gems, there were too many more moments where the show went broad or wacky, or worse, trying to get character-based jokes that don’t really suit the character. Funny makes up for a lot, but it’s not a funny enough show to abandon its grounding (and if it was trying to prove it could be, it didn’t).

42. Mythic Quest
Season 4
Apple TV

And speaking of uneven, Mythic Quest also seemed all over the place in season 4; again, there were some very funny moments and plots here and there, but most of the season just felt… off, in terms of the characters and in terms of how seemingly removed the show had become from what it once was. And then the original ending caused a bit of an uproar. They released a revised ending after the show was cancelled. I think it just ran out of juice.

41. Chad Powers
Season 1
Hulu

Decent but not amazing. Short six-episode series where Glen Powell plays a disgraced former college quarterback who dons a disguise to try to start over at the only thing he’s good at. I generally enjoyed it although it didn’t reach any particularly notable heights.

40. Futurama
Season… 10? 13?
Hulu

Actually found this to be a bit of an improvement over the first two Hulu seasons. One major factor that helps is that they dropped so many of the “ripped from the headlines” plots (which frankly didn’t even work back in the original run – does anyone remember “300 Big Boys” as one of the best episodes of the show?). It’s still not at the level the show was at its best, but it’s been more consistent this year than the last two, with more legitimately funny jokes, and no truly dire episodes.

39. Animal Control
Season 3
FOX

I always feel like I like Animal Control more than it ends up rating on here, but on the other hand, it’s a solid network sitcom with a very good cast, but never really rises much above that and usually only airs 10 episodes a year to boot. Still, solid show.

38. Poppa’s House
Season 1
CBS

Cancelled after one season, but I really enjoyed seeing the Damons Wayans on screen together (and Essence Atkins is also terrific).

37. Rick and Morty
Season 8
[adult swim]

A couple of episodes aside, this season of Rick and Morty was… largely middle-of-the-road and inoffensive? Not the nadirs of the show’s worst points, but not a lot of the inspiration that guided its highest points, either. Still a few standout episodes, though.

36. Smiling Friends
Season 3
[adult swim]

There were a couple of episodes I was kinda meh on, but for the most part, this was still what you’d expect from Smiling Friends. There were also a couple of episodes and stories I particularly liked.

35. The Great North
Season 5
FOX

The adventures of the Tobins have come to an end, as Fox elected to cancel the show after the fifth season ended. But I think the Molyneux sisters were aware of this, and managed to give it a sendoff finale appropriate for the show. And I continued to enjoy the show until the end, although it never rose to the level of a favorite.

34. DMV
Season 1
CBS

New sitcom from CBS has a strong central trio of actors in Harriet Dyer, Tim Meadows, and Tony Cavalero— Molly Kearney has been great too— although it’s been hamstrung a bit by the writing for Dyer’s Colette, largely focused on her crush on new coworker Noa (Alex Tarrant), which unfortunately leads her too often to act like a hackneyed, stock insane sitcom/romcom character. But other than that, the cast is pretty great and the stories can be very funny (Cavalero’s Vic is very different than his most famous role, but he’s still hilarious here). The good news, reporting from March, is that the midseason tinkering has all but abandoned the “Colette pining for Noa” story and has dialed in more on the best parts of the show (including giving Gigi Zumbado more to do).

33. Going Dutch
Season 1
FOX

Fox’s new short-season spring partner with Animal Control, Going Dutch stars Denis Leary as a hard-ass colonel who gets buried by his superiors and assigned to a military base in the Netherlands, which has no real strategic purpose, and is a pretty cushy place, essentially a luxury resort that makes cheese. Will this fish out of water shape the place up… or will it shape him? Or both? And can he mend fences with the captain who formerly ran the base… and is his estranged daughter?! Okay, I pitched that in the hackiest way possible, but the show is actually pretty entertaining, with a solid cast— Danny Pudi may be the next-best known name, Taylor Misiak (Dave) is the co-lead, and Hal Cumpston is the scene-stealer. The show doesn’t really rise to greatness, but it was better than it could have been, and good enough to earn its place in our weekly network rotation. (And even though it doesn’t factor into the ranking for 2025, season 2 so far has been sharper on the comic writing, so if you were on the fence about checking it out, that may tip you over.)

32. The Paper
Season 1
Peacock / NBC

First, to get the obvious out of the way: The Paper doesn’t lean on its quality of being an Office spinoff, although the question arises as to why it was in the first place. But it’s pretty fun, with a solid cast— Eric Rahill, as he did in Let’s Start a Cult, steals the show every time he’s on screen with a similar “total idiot of firm convictions” character. That said, a couple of the characters don’t really work out the gate— trying to keep a newspaper alive in Toledo seems like enough of a struggle that the paper doesn’t really need internal antagonists and saboteurs. That said, of those two characters, Sabrina Impacciatore’s Esmeralda gets some better shading as the season goes on, and Tim Key’s Ken is too pathetic and incompetent to be any real threat. But the rest of the cast is pretty good, with a few familiar faces (I’ve been seeing Chelsea Frei in a lot of sitcoms lately, and I remembered Ramona Young from Santa Clarita Diet, and I presume you all know Domhnall Gleeson), and it ended up being a pretty fun watch on the whole.

31. Only Murders in the Building
Season 5
Hulu

Hanging with this cast is still enjoyable, and the show is still fun, but the mystery element hasn’t been particularly strong since the first couple of seasons. The show is still enjoyable and occasionally gives some time to the history of the Arconia and the personal lives and motives of our main trio, but it still doesn’t feel as intriguing as it did in the first couple of seasons. More like breezy fun now.

30. Bob’s Burgers
Seasons 15-16
FOX

What else is there to say about this show at this point? It has been as steady and consistent as can be all this time. There are a few particularly fun episodes, but mostly, it’s the same show it’s always been.

29. Common Side Effects
Season 1
Hulu

This was a popular pick for many best-of lists, although I didn’t enjoy Marshall and company’s misadventures over the mysterious and healing mushroom he finds as much as many of them did. The story is pretty interesting, kinda thought-provoking, kinda cool, but Marshall’s continued naivete got painful for me at points, and it’s also one of those ugly-animation shows. Still, it was pretty good and engaging, and there’s a good chance you’ll like it better than I did.

28. Beavis and Butt-Head
Season 11
Comedy Central

There are a lot of animated sitcoms that have found a formula that works for them, stick with it, and consistently deliver; here is yet another one. Of course, this revival version has a few changes, most notably the uses of old Beavis and Butt-Head and smart Beavis and Butt-Head. But they’re fun additions, and give the show a lot of stories for our modern day, and some that would have fit just fine in the original run. (Which, as this is the third season of the current revival, means it’s probably also the third time I wrote more or less exactly this.)

27. American Dad!
Season 21
TBS

Much like with Bob’s Burgers, this show has been steady and consistent as ever. Some killer high-concept episodes this season, too, like “The Clearview Motel” and season finale “What Great Advancements!” I think I’d put it even higher if we hadn’t just gotten half a season. (Maybe I will regret not doing so anyway. Probably not, since this list is of no consequence.)

26. High Potential
Seasons 1-2
ABC

Unlike some of our other network procedurals, I felt like High Potential got more formulaic as the first season went on, rather than finding ways to break out of that formula. Season 2 has a couple of running stories that do give the show a different energy, which helps it feel fresh. And some of the cases are fast-paced with enough plausible twists to not feel stale or formulaic.

25. The Four Seasons
Season 1
Netflix

From everything I’ve heard about the original movie, this is significantly better. I don’t have the point of comparison, but being told over eight episodes gives the story a little room to breathe, and the cast is pretty killer. Three middle-aged married couples, checking in with them at their seasonal vacation get-togethers for two episodes each, and where their lives and relationships are now— spurred, in part, by one of them in the spring realizing he wants a divorce; by the summer, he’s dating a much younger woman. I think the explorations of the marriages at different points work pretty well, and with Tina Fey, Will Forte, Steve Carell, and Kerri Kenney-Silver in the cast, it can’t help but be funny. I would wager I appreciated this show a lot more than I would have in my younger days.

24. Shoresy
Season 4
Crave / Hulu

The second act of Shoresy kicks off with Shoresy’s post-playing career— and part of that is figuring out what exactly that will entail. Will he be a media personality? A coach? Something else? Meantime, of course, Shoresy and his teammates are celebrating their National Senior Tournament championship, mentoring junior players, and trying to get invitations to the Weird Sudbury party. I think I liked season 3 better, but the gap in rankings between the two is a lot more reflective of the substantially increased volume of good TV from 2025 to 2024 than a gap in quality between seasons.

23. Grimsburg
Season 2
FOX

I thought Grimsburg really started to click in season 2, and it was a definite step up from season 1. (And, per the above comment about volume, it actually ranks lower on the list this year.) I unfortunately can’t remember much else to say about Fox’s animated sitcom about a murder detective in a somewhat fantastical city, having aired so long ago, but it was quite good. I feel like I should put a little more effort into it other than telling you to re-read my season 1 writeup, since this show seems to be the least watched and discussed among Fox’s animation efforts, but that writeup covers the premise pretty well, and suffice to say, the show was funnier and crisper in season 2.

22. Stumble
Season 1
NBC

Stumble‘s most impressive achievement may be that it only aired six episodes in 2025 and was already good enough to rate this highly. Most sitcoms need a little time to really click and dial in on what works about them, but this Jenn Lyon-starring comedy about a ragtag misfit junior college cheerleading team is already very funny, full of sharp lines and great performance, not just from Lyon and Taran Killam but newcomers such as Taylor Dunbar and Georgie Murphy.

21. Murderbot
Season 1
Apple TV

Alexander Skarsgård stars in this adaptation of Martha Wells’ The Murderbot Diaries, which, albeit starting a little slowly (and with the humans this Murderbot is assigned to a little on the shallow and ridiculous side), it develops quite well, and even the humans show some real and surprising depth, with David Dastmalchian’s Gurathin the standout among them.

20. The Studio
Season 1
Apple TV

It’s already won all the Emmys, and I didn’t quite rate it that highly, as it leans a bit on the cringe side at times, but when the show goes into farce, it’s excellent. “The War,” where Sal and Quinn feud, “The Golden Globes,” and the two-part finale are the best examples of this.

19. St. Denis Medical
Seasons 1-2
NBC

It feels like there already isn’t much for me to say about St. Denis Medical, as it hit the ground running nearly fully formed and has consistently solidly delivered. Season 2 stands out a little more among 2025 episodes because it did deliver a couple of my favorite gags. Justin Spitzer’s third sitcom for NBC keeps chugging along as dependable higher-end network coemdy.

18. Elsbeth
Seasons 2-3
CBS

Elsbeth, unlike some procedurals, hasn’t really started to get stale or formulaic in its third season; if anything, it’s gotten a little more interesting with a few spins on its procedural format, as well as a few extended storylines— most notably, the season-2 storyline featuring Michael Emerson as a corrupt judge covering up a dark secret, but there’s also a season-3 story brewing about Elsbeth’s budding relationship with a young and handsome mayoral candidate… who may not be all that he appears to be. In any case, the show continues to be fun every-week viewing, elevated especially by Carrie Preston’s energetic and specific performance.

17. Solar Opposites
Season 6
Hulu

The show’s final season largely delivered the consistent quality episodic television we’ve come to love from it, although it did find a way to wrap up its major storylines surprisingly efficiently, from the Opposites themselves to the Wall to the SilverCops and everything related to them (and even ends up paying off the main storyline of the Opposites’ mission with a seemingly out-of-nowhere twist that somehow ties it all together). There’s a certain point for a show where I’ve been writing long enough about it that there isn’t much new to say. (I’ve been writing the TV countdown for nine years now, and the only shows I’ve covered more seasons of therein are Bob’s Burgers and American Dad!) I mean, if you haven’t been watching it, you probably won’t start now, and if you already were, then you probably finished, right?

16. Everybody’s Live with John Mulaney
Season 1
Netflix

2024’s one-off Everybody’s in L.A. turned into a permanent talk show for John Mulaney, and it was delightful— and like that show, aired each episode live on Netflix. As funny, odd, and unique as you would expect a talk show from Mulaney— and, I think, a step up from Everybody’s in L.A., with lessons from that experience applied to sharpen the show on the whole. It also airs live and with a call-in segment, which alone would be enough to distinguish it from any other late-night talk show; Mulaney’s cracked sense of humor and twists on the format certainly do that as well. And I know for a fact it’s the only show on TV where you can watch Stavros Halkias ask former Acting Solicitor General of the United States Neal Katyal about beating off.

15. Good Cop / Bad Cop
Season 1
CW / Stan

Another fun show that I feel like might not get much attention (and might not get renewed as a result), Good Cop / Bad Cop stars the always-delightful Leighton Meester alongside Clancy Brown and Luke Cook. A family of cops, Cook’s Henry moves back from Seattle to his hometown of Eden Vale after his career stalls out due to his lack of social skills; Big Hank (Brown) offers him a promotion to detective and an opportunity to patch up the rift between him, and Henry’s sister Lou (Meester) is already there as the formerly sole detective in town. Hits the right balance of a few different elements: The case of the week format is blended well with the season’s overall mystery and the town secrets it implies; the balance of humor, quirk, and realistic behavior among the small town is well-struck; and the balance between personal and professional lives is, as well.

And Cook’s Henry is one of the better portrayals of an autistic-coded character in this type of show— very intelligent, with poor social skills, but that are poor because of his arrogance and belief his intelligence makes him superior to others and therefore social skills are a waste of time, rather than an inability to develop them. And Lou and Big Hank will call him out on this. So it’s fun and feels real without devolving into caricature, and Meester is the super-winning presence you’d expect her to be, and Brown is the gruff-but-lovable presence you’d expect him to be. Please watch this because I don’t know if it has much chance to get renewed if you don’t.

14. Matlock
Seasons 1-2
CBS

Matlock is buoyed by the absolutely killer stretch to close out season 1, and how that permanently changes the game for the show. Season 2 started off feeling a bit circular, as the Olympia-Matty dynamic seemed to keep rehashing a lot of the same issues, but in the last few episodes before the winter break it really broke out and moved forward.

13. English Teacher
Season 2
FX

Yeah, I watched it. It’s still pretty much as funny as it was in season 1, but it’s also been cancelled. You can read my review in last year’s TV writeup if you want to know more.

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Tomorrow, we will get to longer writeups as we start counting down the top 12 shows, which I think showed to be a cut above this year.