Critic’s Notebook: 10 Best Shows of 2025, Ranked

Even when you’re scratching your head, your mind is blown by the audacious creativity of this uniquely surreal workplace fantasy-drama, where the “outie” real lives of Lumon employees are separated from the drudgery of their “innie” cubicle existence. As the bifurcated heroes seek the truth in Season 2, Severance runs the risk of puzzle shows like Lost in providing answers that only baffle further. (Could someone explain “Cold Harbor” to me again?) Better to just enjoy the ride.

As a curtain-raiser to next year’s 250th anniversary of America’s birthday, Ken Burns’ fascinating 12-hour documentary strips away any romanticism of the colonial conflict to remind us in granular detail just how painful the nation’s birth pangs were. Burns’ work also serves as a necessary testament to public TV’s essential place in our cultural landscape, currently threatened by punitive and politically motivated cuts that caused the dissolution of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

The Mandalorian has its moments, but this thrilling prequel to the Star Wars movie Rogue One finally fulfills the IP (intellectual property) potential of the renowned sci-fi franchise’s many TV and streaming spinoffs. The dashing Diego Luna as the title rebel grounds this sweeping, rousing allegory of revolution against an oppressive Empire in its second and final season.

The most sensationally entertaining political drama since The West Wing just keeps raising the global stakes in its breathless third season. Keri Russell is a hoot as frazzled U.K. Ambassador Kate Wyler, serving a duplicitous new president (Allison Janney) while navigating one of the most complicated TV marriages (to the droll Rufus Sewell) since Russell’s earlier gig as a Soviet spy in The Americans. What a jaw-dropping gas.

Vince Gilligan (Breaking Bad) taps into his X-Files roots for the year’s most original surprise: an unsettling, weirdly amusing, and bracingly unpredictable fable of eerie conformity. Better Call Saul’s brilliant Rhea Seehorn stars as Carol, a misanthrope who fights back against a suddenly transformed world where everyone but her has become unusually and implacably cheerful. Carol is the antithesis of a Stepford wife, and we’re rooting for her, even though in the real world, we’d probably be more like the “Others” and want to keep our distance.

With each of its four devastating episodes filmed in a single take, this British drama — Emmy winner for Outstanding Limited Series — never lets us look away from the wrenching consequences of a horrific crime committed by a 13-year-old boy (Owen Cooper in an astonishing debut). With co-creator Stephen Graham and Christine Tremarco heartbreaking as the disbelieving parents and Erin Doherty riveting as the psychologist who tries to pierce the boy’s defensive armor, Adolescence provides no easy answers. How could it?

It was the party of the year when Saturday Night Live stars, past and present, gathered in February to mark the iconic late-night show’s half-century milestone in a memorable live extravaganza of comedy and music on NBC. Several fascinating behind-the-scenes documentaries and an astounding all-star “Homecoming Concert” of musical acts at Radio City Music Hall only confirmed SNL’s cultural impact and influence. Here’s to 50 more.

In our living rooms, everyone could hear us scream — in delight — at Noah Hawley’s smart, scary, and impressively epic reimagining of the sci-fi horror franchise. A Peter Pan metaphor takes root in Sydney Chandler’s star-making performance as human-robot hybrid Wendy, a child in an adult body who forges an intriguing psychic connection with the drooling Xenomorph monster that crash-lands on Earth along with other creepy cargo. (The mobile eyeball still gives me nightmares.)

Hooray for Hollyweird in Seth Rogen’s rollicking and masterful satire (Emmy winner for Outstanding Comedy) about the unsentimental education of an idealistic and hapless new movie-studio boss, played by Rogen. Hilarious cameos by real-life Hollywood legends (Martin Scorsese, Ron Howard) pepper this affectionately savage and formally inventive skewering of 21st-century corporate filmmaking.

Hour by grueling hour of an unsparing shift in a Pittsburgh emergency room, this emotionally gripping series (Emmy winner for Outstanding Drama) fuses the urgency of 24 with the gritty procedural realism of ER, which made Noah Wyle a star way back in the 1990s. He now heads The Pitt’s ER as the overwhelmed Dr. Robby, leading a remarkable ensemble (including Emmy winner Katharine LaNasa as the charge nurse/mother hen Dana) as they tackle heartbreaking and harrowing crises through a very long day. An instant classic.