Favorite TV SHows of 2025

Hey everyone, and welcome. Today, we will be talking about my favorite shows of 2025. There are so many TV shows released, so unfortunately, I’m not able to catch them all, even though I caught a lot. TV shows are a great way to tell a story that may need longer than 2 or 3 hours, which can really help people feel more connected to the stories. Some of these I’ve done a deeper dive into the shows, so I’ll make sure to link them. So without further ado, let’s get right into it.

There are so many great shows, and unfortunately, I couldn’t see all of them, and even all the ones I saw couldn’t all make it onto my list, but I still wanted to give them a shoutout. Here are some of my honorable mentions: Pluribus, which would have made it on the list probably, but I was late to the party, and at the time of filming have not finished, reacher, Devil May Cry, Ironheart, Blood of Zeus season 3, Only Murders in the Building season 5, The Mighty Nein, and Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.

Season 2 of Peacemaker asks the question: if you could go to a new world where everything is better for you, would you do it? Chris does in this season, even though his friends don’t want him to, but he feels lost and alone, and the world has some secrets. In his home world, he’s also being chased by ARGUS, which is led by Rick Flag Sr., who is mad about his son’s death. Peacemaker still manages to bring the action and the comedy, and the show builds to a satisfying conclusion. The cast from season one is great as ever, but the addition of Tim Meadows took it to a new level. Peacemaker proves one thing that I always say about James Gunn, which is that he really excels at taking relatively unknown superpeople and making people interested in them and their story. While Peacemaker stands on its own, it also helps set up the greater DCU, and I’m looking forward to what is next.

Overcompensating is a comedy show that premiered on Prime, which details Benny navigating freshman year in the closet and is inspired by creator and star Benito Skinner’s life. The show takes place around the late 2000’s or early 2010’s, which is when I was also in college, and some of the songs used and how people behave in college had me thinking about my college experiences. The show is really funny to me, especially Hailee, but also has its more heartfelt and personal moments as we see Bento navigating this freedom in college and falling for someone straight, meeting his best friend Carmen, dealing with his #1 hater, aka his sister Grace, with her loser boyfriend. It was a great first season, and I just absolutely loved it. The music was fantastic, and with the cliffhanger, I’m looking forward to more.

Season 2 of Castlevania: Nocturne takes place right after the last, with the Vampire Messiah being partly powered by Sehkmet and the group going to Paris to get the rest before she can get all parts of Sehkmet and become unstoppable. Alucard from the original series joins the group and offers his skills and knowledge, and offers some backstory as to what has been going on that he has been researching regarding Sekhmet. With Tara now a vampire we see Maria turning to the dark side in hopes of getting revenge for her fathers role in all this, Annette is seeing dead souls being collected by Papa Legba, Juste is rejoining the fight and eventually gets his magic back and is trying to show Maria the perks of being good, Drolta being reborn as a night creature vampire hybrid, and Mizrak is dealing with Olrox who loves him but loves playing a middle man. The show has amazing fight scenes and beautiful animation, and mixes folklore and history. Maria drops what has become a favorite line of mine when she says most of what's bad in the world is because of stupid old men, after Juste tells her that her powers are for good, not for killing stupid old men. The final battle will go down as one of my favorite fights in a show, and I just need more of this show.

  Hacks is a show that will have you laughing and then on the verge of tears, and that was no different with season 4. This season starts off with Ava and Deborah at odds after Ava blackmailed Deborah. The season is hilarious as we see the two try to take out each other, but slowly realize the only reason they are in the position they are in is because of each other, and they need to work together. I love how Deborah has faced an uphill battle and is still changing the comedy scene, and because of Ava, she is showing that just because things worked in the past doesn’t mean that they work now, especially when it comes to the treatment of women in entertainment. They need to stick together and call out the predatory men. The show makes sure to show how there’s been a double standard for women and how much harder it is for them in the industry, but also mixes in this dynamic that is very reminiscent of a mother and daughter. My favorite part of the season is the parts where Deborah uses her platform for good, like letting the mayor of Vegas tell her story or quitting the show because the network was forcing her to have a sexual predator on. I was very happy that both of the leads now have Emmys for this show because it is well deserved.

The Righteous Gemstones ended this year and truly went out with a bang. This season sees Eli Gemstone dating his ex-wife’s best friend, Lori, which sends his kids into a frenzy as they try to break them up, but what they don’t know is that her ex is also trying to get them to break up, except he would prefer they die.  Of course, the kids are also trying to prove they can manage the church and will be fine with out thier dad and deal with their personal lives, which brings in another layer of laughter while Uncle Baby Billy is making a show about Teen Jesus called teenjus. It took me way too long to realize that this show is not a critique of religion but more so a critique of the capitalistic nature of religion and the role of megachurches in the US. The show is so funny, and I enjoy it so much, and with standouts like Edi Patterson and Walton Goggins, I was always crying laughing. The show had a very satisfying ending and really made me cry happy tears, and I’m glad they always found a way to bring their mom back, who was played by Jennifer Nettles.

Fantasy can be hard because of the names, the number of characters, and the complexity of storylines, but Wheel of Time managed to get it right, and with season 3, they proved they just kept getting better. The show focuses on this dragon reborn, who is set to break the world or fix it. With Rand proclaiming himself the dragon reborn, people are deciding whether they want to support him, go against him, or try to control him. The white tower is in disarray because of the discovery of an evil group called the Black Ajah; they still don’t know where the dragon reborn has gone, and more forsaken keep getting involved. It’s complex but also easy to follow, and the story had me fully invested. The story is filled with some great performances and great displays of magic. My favorite part is seeing the characters grow and really take on more responsibilities as a battle looms, and they know they need to be ready. I loved seeing the trolloc attack on the Two Rivers and how Perrin rallied the town to fight back, and then finally seeing Nyneave get her powers back. The Wheel of Time is one of the best fantasy shows on air, and I’m so sad that it got cancelled.

What a way to wrap up the year with the steamy but emotionally damaging Heated Rivalry. It deals with two Hockey players, Ilya Rosanov and Shane Hollander, who fall for each other but due to politics and fear, they keep their relationship a secret for about 10 years, oh, and not to mention that they are bitter rivals on the Ice. We also get to see another hockey player, Scott Hunter, grapple with his sexuality when he falls for a barista but doesn’t want to make it public. Shane and Ilya have their ups and downs, which leave you on the edge of your seat, and after Scott Hunter comes out, he gives them hope that they, too, can have some happiness. The show did a good to balance the steamy scenes with the heartfelt ones, and I loved learning why the characters acted the way they acted and seeing them fall in love as the series went on. One thing that really sold me was the chemistry between the actors, which sold me on this relationship. The show also reminded me of All The Things She Said by Tatu and how much of a banger that song is. It was beautiful towards the end to see them realize they love each other, and this situation wasn’t just random feelings, no matter how much they tried to avoid it and each other. Heated Rivalry was a sleeper hit for me because I didn’t expect to like it as much as I did, and everyone I know who watched loved it.

I love the IT movies, so I was excited to watch Welcome to Derry, but I was not expecting it to be as good as it was. This is the best horror show of the year for me and probably my favorite since Hill House. The show takes place 27 years before the losers’ Club, with Pennywise terrorizing a group of kids and the military trying to find Pennywise and use it as a weapon. The show keeps the scares up throughout the entire season, and while there are different storylines, they make sure to tie them back to Pennywise. We learn so much more about Derry and Pennywise and understand how the natives of the land are the real MVPs, keeping IT locked up. Bill Skarsgard gives a legendary performance, but there are standout performances from Chris Chalk, who plays the famous Dick Halloran, and Taylour Paige. There are some small connections to other Stephen King novels, but the focus doesn’t shift too much from Derry. This show was a highlight while it was on and had me waiting for the next episode, especially to hear that theme song and see how else IT was going to terrorize this town.

Alien: Earth is the latest in the Alien franchise and proves there is still so much to learn and explore in this universe. When a Weyland-Yutani ship crashes, Prodigy Corporation takes what’s onboard since it’s in its city. Onboard is, of course, a Xenomorph, along with other dangerous new species that we learn about as the season goes on. This is one of the best Sci-fi shows I’ve seen in a while, and it did a good job of mixing the horror from the first film, the action from the second, and the deep dive into the alien biology elements that are in Prometheus and Covenant. It’s interesting because we see this battle over whose property these creatures are, and assumed it was an accident that led them to Prodigy, but we later learn it was planned. The show does a good job of showing how capitalism is bad because these corporations put money and ego over everything. I loved the cast, but also explaining the world order and introducing us to new lore that we never knew about. This show proved that even though we know so much about the franchise and so much more to explore.

I think Amazon Prime has some of the best superhero shows, and one of them is Gen V. Gen V is a spinoff of The Boys, and both take the superhero genre and mix it with more controversial events that mirror real life. In this season, the group that was arrested at the end of last season ends up back at school under a new headmaster while they figure out what Project Odessa is. The world is becoming pro-supe and anti-human, and this new headmaster is training them for something. This season sees the group realizing they will have to rebel against what’s going on with Homeleander and Godolkin, and even if they don’t think their powers are useful, they are. One thing I love about this show is how there are people who might be seen as the strongest supe, but then someone comes along and challenges that, so this idea of strongest supe becomes super subjective. Jaz Sinclair gives an amazing performance throughout the show, and one thing about the boys and Gen V is the characters’ frustration with being given to scientists to be injected with compound V as a kid, and in Marie’s case, her powers accidentally killed her parents, and everyone shunned her when she didn’t ask for it. I like how Gen V shows us real-life issues, but then adds in the superpowers as a bonus, which makes some lives easier but some harder.

Stranger Things season 5 barely made the cut, but I really enjoyed the final season. The final season shows the showdown with Vecna, which is intense and wraps up so many storylines. The show has always had me invested, and they always manage to have something on the show that will surprise me and have me cheering at how cool it is, and change the game. With the first batch of episodes, we learned that Will can syphon Vecna’s powers, and he kills Demigorgons, Vecnas plan is in its final stages, and the government wants to stop him, but only to continue the program that created 11 using Henry’s blood. By the time we get to the finale, they finish the story and have a very heartfelt ending that feels like the ending of an 80’s movie or tv shows in the 90’s and 2000’s that had alot of seasons and had a very emotional and dramatic series finale. There were some great perfromances and it was great to see the story wrapped up and the flashbacks really showed how far we have come.

There were so many TV shows, and these stood out and made my TV-watching experience better. One thing I love about weekly TV is when there is so much discussion online week to week about a show because there’s always some funny reactions. I’m looking forward to many shows in 2026 and can’t wait to see what it brings.