It can be easy in any given year for great TV to slip through the cracks as the deluge of content rolls ever onward and 2025 was no exception.
While shows like “Severance,” “The Pitt,” and “Adolescence” were all deservingly devoured and celebrated, there were plenty more stellar options that might not have enjoyed the limelight as much as they should. Whether it’s a fantasy series that felt like peak “Game of Thrones” or a period political drama that had us yearning for days of “The West Wing,” 2025 had plenty of gems that deserve a binge at year’s end.
These are the 2025 TV shows you might have missed but definitely deserve a watch.
“The Wheel of Time”
“The Wheel of Time” is a rare show that improved every season across its three-season run on Prime Video. While the first was rocky for both fans of Robert Jordan’s sprawling book series and TV viewers looking for the next “Game of Thrones,” the third – and unfortunately final – season found its footing and stands as one of the best shows of 2025.
Adapting the fourth book in the series – “The Shadow Rising,” considered by many the high point of Jordan’s epic – “The Wheel of Time” Season 3 managed to finally find the balance of ramping up for big action set pieces and slowing down to give the individual characters quieter moments to grow within. After two seasons of heavy world-building and plot placing, the Prime Video series found a groove in Season 3 that fantasy TV hadn’t struck since peak “Thrones.” – Jacob Bryant
“Shoresy”
“Shoresy” continues to be a fast-paced comedy with a heart of gold that hits year after year. The fourth season also flexes a muscle many shows, particularly comedies, tend to be missing – an ability to grow and evolve along with the characters. The latest season found the titular character coming to terms with his hockey career being over and grappling with a question many viewers also likely had: What is “Shoresy” without the hockey player element?
The answer unpacked throughout Season 4 was a heartfelt ride of self-discovery – with plenty of sophomoric barbs thrown in. – JB
“Death By Lightning”
For people yearning for an aspirational version of politics a lá “The West Wing” with a historical slant, you’re in luck because Netflix’s “Death By Lightning” is waiting to be binged. The limited series chronicles oft-forgotten President James Garfield’s rise to office and the troubled man who would assassinate him shortly after the election. Michael Shannon, Betty Gilpin, Nick Offerman and “West Wing” alum Bradley Whitford are all stellar in the four-episode series, but it’s Matthew Macfadyen as Garfield assassin Charles Guiteau that steals the show. After his showing as Tom in “Succession,” his role in “Death By Lightning” solidifies that nobody plays an absolute f–king loser better than Macfadyen. – JB
“Common Side Effects”
“Common Side Effects” is an animated thriller about a rare mushroom with the ability to heal just about any wound or ailment the human body could suffer. If that sounds like a show best enjoyed on mushrooms of your own, that could very well be the point – but the alchemy of the new Adult Swim hit is that they aren’t needed. The Mike Judge-produced series manages to thread a number of needles simultaneously, making the series feel suspenseful, heartfelt, spooky, thrilling, and genuinely hilarious week in and week out. “Common Side Effects” is the latest superb show to prove that corporate espionage with a splash of “The X-Files” are two great tastes that taste great together. – JB
“Dimension 20: Cloudward, Ho!”
Dungeons & Dragons continues to blow up in popularity year after year and few actual-play games circulating the internet capture the chaos, hilarity, and heartfelt moments of being at the table better than “Dimension 20.” The most recent major season of the Dropout anthology series – “Cloudward Ho!” – was a swashbuckling steampunk adventure with a splash of Lovecraftian nightmare. If that’s not enough to get you to try out a season while on your journey to start your own game then nothing will. – JB
“Murderbot”
Apple TV+’s “Murderbot” series managed to toe the comedy and drama line that Martha Well’s series of novellas did perfectly. The series stars a rogue SecUnit robot who gains free will, trying to hide the fact that he couldn’t care less about the group they were hired by for protection – preferring to just binge watch one of their many favorite shows instead – while also growing over time to genuinely care for this oddball family of scientists and researchers.
Alexander Skarsgård plays the titular robot with a perfect blend of disconnected disinterest, childlike wonder, and ruthlessly efficient killer. In a world where narrative voice-over harms more than it helps, Skarsgård’s running internal monologue as Murderbot takes each episode to another level of hilarity and sincerity. – JB
“The Buccaneers”
“The Buccaneers” returned to Apple TV+ for a darker, seductive second season that rewrites the rules of a period drama. Picking up just moments after Nan St. George (Kristine Frøseth) is left at the altar, the Americans abroad navigate tragic death, illicit affairs and royal corruption. Set in 1870s London but with a pop, 2025 soundtrack, the series lets its young women step into their own — becoming business owners, divorcing husbands and loving on their own terms. Apple TV+ renewed the series for Season 3, so there is still time to catch up before the young women tackle their next daunting adventure. – Tess Patton
“Étoile”
Amy Sherman-Palladino has featured dance in all of her TV shows, but Prime Video’s “Étoile” was by far her most ambitious portrayal of the art form so far. With seemingly a carte blanche to make the show however she wished following the success of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” Sherman-Palladino and her longtime collaborator and husband, Daniel, shepherded this tale of two world-renowned ballet companies, one in New York City and one in Paris, who swap their most talented stars to build buzz and breathe new life to their struggling endeavors.
Starring “Mrs. Maisel” standout Luke Kirby and Charlotte Gainsbourg, the series grappled with dysfunctional work relationships with the Palladinos’ signature fast and biting dialogue for a funny and cross-cultural comedy full of dynamic dance sequences. Despite first receiving a two-season order, the show was canceled after one season. But performances from Lou de Laâge as Cheyenne Toussaint and Gideo Glick as Tobias Bell are more than worth stepping into this short-lived dance universe. – Jose Bastidas
“Long Story Short”
One of the few shows this year to make me cry and laugh out loud in the same episode, “Long Story Short” is the follow-up from “BoJack Horseman” creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg, and it’s a lovely, funny, complex piece of adult animation that’s entirely distinct from his last star-studded Netflix series. Speaking of the cast, “Long Story Short’s” is stacked, including Ben Feldman, Abbi Jacobson, Max Greenfield, Lisa Edelstein, Paul Reiser, Nicole Byer and Dave Franco as members of the Schwoopers, the family at the center of the tapestry-style series.
Zooming back and forth in time, the series captures the lives, loves and losses of the Schwoopers, and while Bob-Waksberg still has his knack for painfully relatable moments of soul-crushing truth, “Long Story Short” has gentler, warmer touch and just as many, if not more, moments that lift you up and warm your spirit. – Haleigh Foutch
The Best Movies of 2025