After seeing 43 shows over seven months, my list of the best shows of 2025 so far is starting to solidify.
I did this exercise back in March when I had only watched a mere 24 shows this year. Now, I've nearly doubled that figure, and that's not even counting my rewatch of "Call My Agent."
Full disclosure: Just because I've seen 43 shows doesn't mean I've seen everything. I still have yet to see "Squid Game" season 3, for example.
But still, 43 is a good sample size, especially given that more than a few of these recently earned Emmy nominations. I feel particularly vindicated in a few of my selections after seeing them secure dozens of nominations.
As usual, these shows are all available on the best streaming services, including Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max and more. In fact, all but two of them are streaming originals.
So, without further ado, here are the nine best shows of 2025 so far that you need to stream right now. Spoiler alert: it's largely changed from my previous list, so you definitely want to read to see what's changed.
My top 9 shows of 2025 so far
9. 'The Agency' (Paramount Plus with Showtime)
A quick peek behind the curtain: As I maintain my list of best shows (I do this for movies, too), I create tiers, in addition to ranking the shows in order. If a show is within a given tier, I could probably be convinced to reconsider its ranking, relative to the other shows in the same tier.
I say this because "The Agency" and the two shows above it in my rankings are all outside of my top two tiers. They're simply not as good as the top six shows.
It's also the lone entry on this list that didn't have its full season air during 2025. Only the final four episodes of the 10-episode first season debuted on Paramount Plus this year.
But if I were judging on just those four episodes alone, this show might be ranked even higher. "The Agency" started a bit slow, but it quickly picked up as the season went on and ended with a season finale that literally gave me chills and is still one of my favorite episodes of the year in any show.
Is "The Agency" as good as "The Bureau," the French show it's adapting? Perhaps not. But this spy thriller starring Michael Fassbender is one of the best shows I've watched this year. It's one of three must-watch spy thrillers that I fell in love with in the past several months.
Stream now on Paramount Plus with Showtime
8. 'The Last of Us' season 2
"The Last of Us" season 2 was a divisive season of television. For fans of the video game, it felt like a letdown and even I was concerned at times about how it shifted away from the video games in a big way.
But when this show delivers, it's still one of the best shows on television or any streaming service. The first episode was good and the second episode was even better, delivering what will go down as one of the most shocking moments in HBO history.
The finale also worked for me, delivering a final shock or two before calling it until season 3, which unfortunately probably won't come until 2027. If the show hadn't taken a significant dip in form in many of the episodes between the first two and the final two episodes of the season, I'd probably have this show ranked even higher.
Stream now on HBO Max
7. 'The Bear' season 4 (Hulu)
This season was a significant improvement from last year's season 3, which barely cracked my top 25 shows last year.
Yes, it still felt a bit thin on story, but examining Carmy's (Jeremy Allen White) personal journey as a chef and as a person, and then bringing it to a close, was a worthwhile experience.
I also particularly enjoyed the episode "Worms," which was written by two of the show's main cast, Ayo Edibiri and Lionel Boyce. "Bears" also serves as a great response to the season 2 episode "Fishes,"
and the season finale "Goodbye" feels like a gripping play in the way it's constructed.
So, though I felt "The Bear" season 4 never quite hit the high marks of some of the episodes in "The Last of Us" season 2, I found it to be a better viewing experience overall, which is why it wins out in my rankings.
Stream now on Hulu
6. 'The Studio' season 1 (Apple TV Plus)
I loved "The Studio." In our Emmy nominations coverage, I declared it my top comedy series of the year ... and up until a few days ago, it was (more on that later).
But regardless of what has moved ahead of it, that doesn't diminish how good this show is. The show's two-episode premiere was excellent, with the first episode establishing the world in which Matt Remick's (Seth Rogen) fictional Continental Studios exists.
It never really dips in quality from there. The second episode, "The Oner," is a masterpiece and remains one of the best episodes of television I've watched all year. Its Emmy nomination for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series is well deserved. I just hope that if it wins, somebody thanks Sal Saperstein.
Stream now on Apple TV Plus
5. 'Paradise' season 1 (Hulu)
"Paradise" was briefly my show of the year so far. It's been pushed down to fifth on the list, which just goes to show you what a great year of television 2025 has quietly been.
The Hulu political drama stars Sterling K. Brown as a Secret Service agent to an assassinated president, and it's a masterclass in story building. It expertly layers twist after twist and manages to pay them all off by the season's end, while still propelling us into season 2.
While it's ultimately dropped into a tier just below the final four shows on this list, it still has incredible moments. "Paradise" episode 7, "The Day," hits you like a nuclear bomb and will leave you feeling genuinely unsettled. I'm still shook by it, and that's no small feat.
Stream now on Hulu
4. 'The Rehearsal' season 2 (HBO Max)
I only just started watching "The Rehearsal" season 2 around the time it was wrapping up its run on HBO. I never watched the first season, and while I think show star/director/creator Nathan Fielder can be brilliant, I find some of his stuff can miss the mark. I couldn't even finish "The Curse."
But wow, am I glad I watched this show. It's brilliant, expertly blending the genres of reality TV and scripted comedy in a way that constantly messes with your mind. You can never tell what's an act, what's real, and honestly, it doesn't even matter if it's all an act — because it's just so compelling.
I can't tell you exactly where this season goes without spoiling it, and I don't want to do that. But the show starts with Fielder crafting a role-play simulation to examine why pilot communication failures lead to fatal airplane crashes.
Ultimately, to fully construct his rehearsal, he creates a flight simulator, recreates a terminal of George Bush Intercontinental Airport and even stages a fake reality music competition within the show. He also crafts the episodes "Pilot's Code" and "My Controls," which are two of the five best episodes of TV I've watched all year.
Stream now on HBO Max
3. 'Andor' season 2 (Disney Plus)
"Andor" season 2 started rough. A three-episode partial binge drop release schedule over just four weeks dumped 12 hours of episodes within a month. After the first three episodes underwhelmed me, I was ready to take a break and just come back to it eventually.
But I'm glad I stuck with it, because the final nine episodes of this series were excellent, and if season 2 had maintained that level of quality across 12 episodes, it might be my No. 1 show of the year.
Unlike last season, this season is covering four years within the "Star Wars" universe, with each three-episode arc covering essentially a weekend in one of those four years. The show hits its high watermark at episode 8, "Who Are You?", which is the best episode of TV I've seen all year and brings us the legendary Ghorman Massacre to life, a pivotal moment in "Star Wars" history.
Stream now on Disney Plus
2. 'Adolescence' (Netflix)
"Adolescence" is not for the faint of heart. Consisting of just four episodes, each is an emotional gut punch, particularly the finale.
The show revolves around the arrest of Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper), a 13-year-old boy who is suspected of murdering his classmate Katie Leonard (Emilia Holliday). Over four hours, we watch this tear apart his family and learn what may have contributed to the alleged killing, particularly the toxic online environment known as the manosphere.
It's a compelling story that presents more like a play over four acts than a standard scripted drama. But "Adolescence" is also a technical marvel. The story takes place over months, but each episode is an hour of real time and is comprised of just a single shot. This choice forces the show to take us away from certain characters and moments when other dramas would cut back and forth, but in "Adolescence," it's a choice that pays off.
Despite the impressive technique on display, though, this show lives and dies on its performances, and it holds the No. 2 spot on my list because of two specific performances, one of which is Stephen Graham's emotional scene to close out the show.
The other is the entirety of "Episode 3," which is almost entirely a dialogue between Jamie and forensic psychologist Briony Ariston (Erin Doherty). Both are incredible, but Cooper's performance as Jamie in this episode should be enough to win him an Emmy. It already earned the show a Tom's Guide Award for Best Streaming Original Show.
Stream now on Netflix
1. 'The Pitt' (HBO Max)
Last time I did this list, I started this blurb with a simple line: "'The Pitt' is incredible."
Spoiler alert: It's still incredible, and now the Television Academy has recognized how incredible this medical drama is, nominating it for 13 Emmys, including Outstanding Drama Series and several acting nominations.
For those who haven't seen it yet, "The Pitt" is part "E.R." and part "24." It stars "E.R." vet Noah Wyle as Dr. Robby Robinavitch and follows him and his colleagues at the fictional Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Hospital throughout a 15-hour shift.
That means, like "Adolescence," each episode takes place in real time. But despite the first season covering just mere hours in the lives of the characters, it accomplishes incredible world-building and character development.
The show also excels at being realistic and navigating ongoing storylines. In the first part of the season, storylines can run throughout episodes, sometimes taking an episode off only to come back and make you cry, as episode 8, "2:00 P.M.," does to me every time. But then in episode 12, suddenly everything compresses into a single storyline, and it's executed perfectly.
Stream now on Max
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