2025 TV: The Hits That Already Stole the Spotlight and What’s Next
Get ready for 2025's most talked-about TV shows, from exciting new debuts to the highly anticipated return of fan favorites.
Almost three years after its acclaimed and unforgettable first season, Adam Scott reprised his role as Mark Scout in "Severance" on Apple TV+. The Ben Stiller-directed series, which returned for its second season on January 17, 2025, had fans and critics buzzing once again. With 14 nominations at the 74th Primetime Emmy Awards, expectations sure remained sky-high for this chapter.
What will Netflix do without the show that has defined its identity? "Stranger Things" will release its fifth and final season in the months to come, likely split into two parts as the streamer has done with its recent mega-hits. Fans will say their goodbyes to Hawkins and the Upside Down in what promises to be an emotional and thrilling conclusion.
Year after year, Netflix takes on increasingly ambitious projects, and for 2025, they’ve produced a gritty and adventurous exploration of the birth of the American West. "American Primeval," released on January 9, delves into the violent clashes of cults, religions, and individuals fighting for control of a new world.
Who would have thought an Italian beef sandwich shop could make waves on TV? "The Bear" has dominated the cultural conversation, and its fourth season, coming in 2025, is highly anticipated. Fans hope the show will maintain its tension, sharp writing, and high production values in this next chapter.
The fact that "The Residence" is a Shonda Rhimes series should be enough reason to watch it. However, its intriguing premise adds to its appeal: Cordelia Cupp, an eccentric detective, arrives at the White House to investigate a murder during a state dinner. The investigation unravels interpersonal conflicts among the residence’s 157 staff members. The series premiered on Netflix on March 20, 2025.
Since "Only Murders in the Building" was renewed for a fifth season in September 2024, fans have been anxiously awaiting the new year. Expected to premiere between June and August, the new installment is poised to equal or even surpass the ratings of its predecessor, garner even more critical acclaim, and potentially sweep the Emmys once again.
Back in 2016, "This Is Us" creator Dan Fogelman cast Sterling K. Brown as the sweet yet troubled Randall Pearson, and now he’s moved the actor to a drama thriller. In "Paradise," Brown plays a security guard suspected of assassinating the President of the United States. Hulu has put everything into this nerve-wracking production, which premiered on January 28.
Sometimes all we need is Jon Hamm, and Apple TV+ understands this perfectly. "Your Friends and Neighbors" debuted on April 11, 2025, and has already been renewed for a second season. The series follows Coop, a recently divorced and unemployed New York hedge fund manager, who resorts to criminal methods to maintain his lifestyle and provide for his family.
Our favorite casino worker turned detective is back! Natasha Lyonne returns as Charlie Cale in the second season of Peacock’s hit crime-comedy-drama series "Poker Face." Premiering its part two on May 8, the show promises more "case-of-the-week" mysteries, inverted detective narrative, and Charlie’s uncanny ability to spot lies.
We can’t get enough of Penn Badgley, and neither can Netflix. The fifth and final season of "You" brought Joe Goldberg back to New York City, where viewers met his extended family and watched as the consequences of his twisted past finally caught up with him. Now that the series has wrapped, fans are still reeling from its explosive finale and debating whether justice was truly served.
RuPaul’s small-screen empire shows no signs of slowing down, and its seventeenth season achieved the same level of success and high viewership as its predecessors. This time, 14 contestants competed, with special guest judges including Katy Perry, Doechii, Hunter Schafer, Sam Smith, and others.
Of all the shows on this list, "The White Lotus" is the one that took the biggest creative risks. For its February 2025 return on Max, the black comedy-drama series relocated to Thailand. Natasha Rothwell, who portrays Belinda Lindsey, revealed to Vanity Fair that she gasped at least five times while reading the script!
The worlds of George R. R. Martin are certainly going through tumultuous times right now. First of all, the last seasons of "Game of Thrones" felt like a betrayal to all of those who loved the show, and "House of the Dragon" is beginning to have the same bad smell, with even the book's writer speaking poorly about it publicly. However, Max is still betting it all on this universe and is releasing the six-episode prequel series "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms" at some point around the end of 2025.
Bill Skarsgard’s portrayal of Pennywise the Clown has solidified "It" as a horror classic, and producers at Max weren’t satisfied with just the two movies directed by Andy Muschietti. "It: Welcome to Derry," likely releasing in the latter half of 2025, explores events in the 1960s leading up to the first film in Stephen King’s iconic universe.
Among Jenna Ortega’s packed 2025 schedule, one of her most anticipated projects is the second season of "Wednesday," Netflix’s most popular show of all time following its November 2022 debut. Fans will reunite with the beloved cast from the first installment, while new faces like Christopher Lloyd, Haley Joel Osment, Joanna Lumley, and reportedly even Lady Gaga will join the mix.
Widely regarded by die-hard "Star Wars" fans as one of the most polished entries in the George Lucas universe, "Andor" returned for its second and final season on Disney+ on April 22. This chapter dives deeper into Cassian’s transformation and seamlessly bridges the gap to the events of "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story," bringing the narrative full circle.
Video game adaptations have been hit-or-miss, but "The Last of Us" shattered expectations as one of the most beloved TV series of its time. The second installment premiered on Max on April 13, continuing the heart-wrenching story of Joel and Ellie with the same impeccable quality that made the first season a standout.
What began as a quirky animated comedy has become one of Netflix’s signature series. "Big Mouth" concluded with its eighth and final season, wrapping up the coming-of-age story of best friends Nick Birch and Andrew Glouberman. Fans have now said goodbye to the kids they grew up watching.
"Black Mirror" made a haunting return on April 10 with its seventh season on Netflix, delivering a fresh lineup and the signature darkness fans have come to expect. This new chapter of Charlie Brooker’s mind-bending anthology welcomed back Will Poulter and Asim Chaudhry, reuniting after their twisted journey through "Bandersnatch." They were joined by a wave of new faces, including Michele Austin, Ben Bailey Smith, Josh Finan, James Nelson-Joyce, Jay Simpson, and Michael Workéyè.
Ranked among the best TV series of the 21st century by The Guardian and BBC Culture, "The Handmaid’s Tale" has consistently sparked intense discussions. The sixth and final season began streaming on Hulu on April 8, 2025, with one highly anticipated episode still to come. As the story nears its end, the show continues to deliver powerful real-world parallels and sharp political commentary.
Created by Seth Rogen, "The Studio" is one of Apple TV+’s biggest hits of 2025. The ten-episode comedy series, released on March 26, explores the struggles of a legacy Hollywood movie studio trying to survive in an industry where art and business collide. Expect plenty of A-list cameos, including Martin Scorsese, Charlize Theron, Paul Dano, Zac Efron, and Anthony Mackie, among others.
Apple TV+’s conspiracy thriller "Prime Target" follows a postgraduate mathematics student who discovers an effort to destroy his work—a formula revealing patterns in prime numbers that could unlock access to every computer in the world. The eight-episode series, starring Leo Woodall and Quintessa Swindell, premiered on January 22.
Combining themes of capitalism and economic disparity, "Squid Game" became a global cultural phenomenon. Its third and final season is expected to debut on June 27, delivering another nail-biting chapter in the dystopian survival series that captivated millions worldwide.
Christina Ricci teased that the third season of "Yellowjackets" would be even more shocking and surprising than the previous ones—and she was right. Since its premiere on February 14 on Paramount+ with Showtime, the series has continued the gripping story of the infamous group of teenagers who survived a 1996 plane crash, keeping fans hooked with every twist.
For fans of book-to-screen adaptations, "Long Bright River" has been one of the most exciting projects of 2025. Based on Liz Moore’s novel, the suspenseful series follows a Philadelphia police officer (portrayed by Amanda Seyfried) navigating a neighborhood plagued by drug abuse and a series of murders—all while searching for her missing sister. It premiered on Peacock on March 13 to strong acclaim.