1. ADOLESCENCE (Netflix)
This four-part tale of teenage crime and punishment was breathtaking on every level, from the frighteningly intense performance of Owen Cooper as a baby-faced murder suspect to the technical bravura of each episode’s single-take storytelling (with seemingly impossible tracking shots through windows and, at one point, straight up into the sky). Co-creators Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham (who also contributed a heartbreaking performance as Cooper’s father) quickly resolved the whodunnit aspect of the mystery to focus on the why in a disturbing indictment of the 21st century’s uniquely toxic youth culture.
2. JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE! (ABC)
The Daily Show, Have I Got News for You, John Oliver, Seth Meyers, South Park, Weekend Update, and countless online content providers like Double Toasted and Lovett or Leave It kept us sane with commentary and gallows humor throughout the annus horribilis of 2025 (while Stephen Colbert and Robby Roadsteamer were respectively canceled and arrested for daring to mock Dear Leader). But Jimmy Kimmel delivered jokes while serving as the type of empathetic moral compass sorely lacking in MAGA America — before unexpectedly transforming into a tide-shifting reminder that public outrage and boycotts can still undo vindictive Trumpian decrees.
3. COMMON SIDE EFFECTS (Adult Swim)
In a fractured media landscape, it’s easy for great shows to get lost in the shuffle, but thankfully Martin Thomas’s Top TV list for DoubleToasted.com (and a 100% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes) called attention to this underpromoted Adult Swim gem about a chubby, frequently bare-chested hippie mycologist named Marshall dodging Big Pharma goons after discovering a mushroom that could make the world a healthier place. Trippy, topical, suspenseful, funny, and packed with unpredictable, multilayered characters, the first season of this animated series from creators Joe Bennett and Steve Hely felt more true-to-life than most of 2025’s live action shows and movies.
4. THE REHEARSAL (HBO)
It’s easy to be weird, it’s easy to be “cringe,” yet it’s much more difficult to be a truly unnerving iconoclast like Nathan Fielder, who devoted the entire second season of his meta, thought-provoking experimental HBO “reality” show The Rehearsal to intertwining tales of a fake singing competition, a seemingly real attempt to improve airline safety, and the creator/star’s growing awareness of (and unwillingness to acknowledge) his own potentially neurodivergent tendencies — all resulting in one of the most suspenseful and surprising season finales of the year.
5. THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION (PBS)
The Ken Burns formula is predictable enough to be easily parodied at this point, yet the familiar combo of plaintive old-timey music paired with an all-star cast reading the letters and journals of commoners, commanders, and kings had the intended effect of adding emotion and complexity to an American origin story far messier than many self-identified “patriots” are willing to admit (even as many of the issues the Founding Fathers grappled with and ultimately failed to resolve continue to rankle and divide the U.S. 250 years later).
6. SNL 50 (NBC/PEACOCK)
Saturday Night Live has survived 50 years of its current seasons being unfavorably compared to allegedly funnier earlier seasons — but 2025’s year-long Golden Jubilee salute to the Not Ready For Primetime Players (as well, as their producers, writers, crew, and guest performers) across interconnected programming like Questlove’s Ladies & Gentlemen … 50 Years of SNL Music, a homecoming concert, an official anniversary episode, and a four-part docuseries (featuring an entire episode dedicated to the cowbell sketch) clearly highlighted the undeniable impact of the show on a half century of politics and pop culture.
7. DEATH BY LIGHTNING (NETFLIX)
In a year of endless political mendacity, Mike Makowsky’s prestigious four-part depiction of the life and death of James A. Garfield (based on the nonfiction novel Destiny of the Republic by Candice Millard) highlighted the corruption-busting zeal and inspirational integrity of a largely forgotten president (portrayed by Michael Shannon at the top of his game) and the likewise forgotten vice-president he inspired to be a better man (i.e., Nick Offerman at his Nick Offerman-est as a sausage-loving Chester Arthur). Meanwhile, Matthew Macfadyen’s visceral performance as the assassin Charles Guiteau vividly dramatized the ongoing tragedy of men who murder in a futile attempt to escape their own unending sense of worthlessness.
8. THE PITT (HBO)
With all the humanity and high stakes drama inherent in a hospital setting, it’s hard to mess up the evergreen medical genre. Like pizza, even bad versions of such a basic staple can still be pretty good — but when you add gourmet ingredients (like national treasure Noah Wylie, reteamed with his former colleague, ER producer John Wells, plus a crackerjack supporting cast in a clever format where each episode equals one hour of a long, stressful shift at the titular underfunded Pittsburgh facility) the end result can be even more satisfying and addictive than anticipated.
9. CELTICS CITY (HBO)
Even if you’re not a fan of basketball in general or the Boston Celtics in particular (but especially if you are), this nine-part HBO Sports docuseries resonated with the power of an influentially diverse team of fascinating individuals recounting decades of triumphs and tragedies against a historical backdrop of civil rights tensions in a city known for both progressive politics and ugly racial incidents like the 1970s busing crisis and a 1989 wave of police brutality after white murderer Charles Stuart blamed his pregnant wife’s death on a fictive black assailant.
10. STRANGER THINGS (NETFLIX)
If you haven’t been following the Duffer Brothers’ 1980s’ kids-on-bikes misfits since 2016 (when a tsunami of malevolence flipped both the imaginary town of Hawkins and the real world lives of viewers upside-down), it’s unlikely the final adventures of Stranger Things‘ all-growed-up ensemble will have quite the same nostalgic emotional impact. But for long-time fans, Season 5 is must-see TV (if only to end the suspense of whether the series will stick the landing or go down in anticlimactic dragon flames).
Honorable Mention: Abbott Elementary, The Chair Company, Cunk on Life, The Daily Show, Double Toasted, The Gilded Age, Have I Got News For You, Las Culturistas Culture Awards 2025, Last Week Tonight, Late Night With Seth Meyers, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Lovett or Leave It, South Park, St. Denis Medical, The White Lotus
Wildcards (potentially list-worthy shows as yet unseen by moi): Andor, Blue Lights, Paradise, Pluribus, Severance, Slow Horses, The Studio
