The best TV show of 2025, according to TIME’s year-end ranking, is Dying for Sex. The rest of the top 10 spans high-concept science fiction, historical drama, dark comedy, teen romance, workplace mystery, and a returning hospital drama. Here is the full U.S.-focused list, with the season or series status made explicit and the researched streaming destination for each title.
This is a transparent critics-informed watchlist, not an objective universal ranking. It uses TIME’s year-end list as its structure and cross-checks it against Metacritic, Rotten Tomatoes, The New Yorker, and the Los Angeles Times. Streaming catalogs change, so verify availability in the relevant U.S. service before watching.
A critics-informed, U.S.-focused guide to the standout new series and returning seasons of 2025, including Dying for Sex, Pluribus, Severance, Mo, and The Pitt.
The 10 best TV shows of 2025 at a glance
| Rank | Show | 2025 status | U.S. streaming destination | Metacritic score* |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dying for Sex | Limited series | Hulu | 83 |
| 2 | Pluribus | New science-fiction series | Apple TV | 87 |
| 3 | The Lowdown | New neo-noir series | Hulu | 85 |
| 4 | Mussolini: Son of the Century | Italian historical drama | MUBI | — |
| 5 | Severance, season 2 | Returning series | Apple TV | 87 |
| 6 | Mo, season 2 | Second and final season | Netflix | — |
| 7 | The Studio | New comedy series | Apple TV | — |
| 8 | Forever | Series adaptation | Netflix | 84 |
| 9 | Such Brave Girls | British black comedy | Hulu | — |
| 10 | The Pitt | Real-time hospital drama | HBO Max* | — |
*Metacritic figures are the scores supplied in the research for this guide and may change as databases update. The source identifies The Pitt as available on HBO Max; check the service’s current name and listing before publication or viewing.
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How this list was chosen
There is no single objective answer to the best TV shows of 2025. This ranking uses TIME’s year-end top 10 as its backbone, then checks the choices against professional-critic coverage from Metacritic, Rotten Tomatoes’ 2025 Certified Fresh guide, and other year-end lists from outlets including The New Yorker and the Los Angeles Times.
That method explains why the list includes both 2025 debuts and major seasons of established shows. Metacritic’s principal 2025 ranking focuses on first-year U.S. series and excludes returning programs, while this guide treats a remarkable new season as part of the year’s television story. Accordingly, Severance season 2 and Mo season 2 appear alongside newer series.
1. Dying for Sex — the year’s most affecting tonal balancing act
Where to stream in the U.S.: Hulu, as an FX-associated title.
Dying for Sex is a darkly comic limited series inspired by Molly Kochan’s decision to leave her marriage after a late-stage breast-cancer diagnosis and explore her sexuality with the help of her best friend. That premise could easily have produced either a relentlessly tragic illness drama or a glib sex comedy. Instead, the series tries to hold grief, desire, fear, friendship, and absurdity in the same frame.
That tonal mixture is the reason it sits at number one here. The show is emotionally direct without treating its central character as a lesson or a symbol, and its humor does not erase the seriousness of terminal illness. The friendship at its center gives the story its warmth, while the sexual self-discovery keeps it from becoming a conventional cancer narrative. Metacritic lists the series at 83 and identifies Hulu as its streaming outlet.
Content note: terminal illness, cancer, sex, grief, and discussions of death.
2. Pluribus — science fiction about the price of happiness
Where to stream in the U.S.: Apple TV.
Vince Gilligan’s Pluribus stars Rhea Seehorn as Carol Sturka, a writer apparently immune to a phenomenon that makes most of humanity happy, harmonious, and connected by a common consciousness. The central question is unsettling precisely because the transformation initially sounds benevolent: if nearly everyone is content, cooperative, and free of conflict, what could possibly be wrong?
The series builds its appeal around that philosophical hook and Seehorn’s performance as someone stranded outside an apparently perfect society. Carol’s isolation gives the high-concept premise a human scale, while the show’s controlled mystery invites viewers to think about individuality, consent, conformity, and whether happiness has value when it is imposed. It is best approached with as little advance information as possible; the pleasure comes from watching the premise unfold rather than from collecting plot revelations. Metacritic gives it an 87 Metascore.
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3. The Lowdown — a Tulsa neo-noir with a local point of view
Where to stream in the U.S.: Hulu, as an FX title.
Sterlin Harjo’s The Lowdown follows Ethan Hawke’s Lee Raybon, a self-described “truthstorian,” journalist, and used-book dealer investigating the apparent suicide of a prominent family’s black sheep. Lee’s work leads him into a conspiracy shaped by local history, family power, and the stories a community chooses to preserve or bury.
The series is more than a detective puzzle. Its Tulsa setting matters, as do its attention to Indigenous and Black Oklahoma perspectives. Harjo combines noir suspicion with humor and a sense of place, giving Lee’s investigation an odd, lived-in texture rather than presenting the city as a generic backdrop for secrets. The result is a show for viewers who want a mystery with cultural and historical stakes, not just another chain of twists. Metacritic lists the series at 85 and identifies Hulu as its streaming destination.
4. Mussolini: Son of the Century — history without the glamour
Where to stream in the U.S.: MUBI, according to TIME’s year-end listing. MUBI’s catalog is especially dependent on territory, so confirm the U.S. title page before subscribing or planning a watch.
Joe Wright’s Italian historical drama traces Benito Mussolini’s rise from newspaper editor to dictator, with Luca Marinelli in the central role. Its style is deliberately abrasive: fourth-wall-breaking narration, heightened visual choices, and a presentation that refuses to make fascism seem mysterious, seductive, or safely distant.
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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsThat refusal is central to the show’s critical case. Rather than turning Mussolini into a charismatic historical enigma, the drama examines the mechanisms and appetites that allow authoritarian politics to grow. Its theatricality can be confrontational, but it keeps the subject from settling into the complacent rhythms of a standard biographical chronicle. This is the list’s strongest international and historical selection, and a particularly good choice for viewers who want political history presented with formal ambition.
Content note: fascism, political violence, authoritarianism, and disturbing historical material.
5. Severance season 2 — the rare sequel that justifies the wait
Where to stream in the U.S.: Apple TV. Start with season 1 if you have not seen the series.
Dan Erickson’s workplace science-fiction drama returns to the employees whose work and personal memories have been surgically separated. Season 2 had to follow a widely discussed first season and a long gap between installments, two conditions that often make a return feel either over-explained or less urgent. Instead, the second season remained one of 2025’s major television highlights.
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The show continues to use its corporate setting as both a mystery engine and a way to examine labor, identity, obedience, and the boundaries between a person’s public and private selves. Its achievement is not simply that it preserves the original premise; it expands the consequences of that premise without discarding the strange, precise atmosphere that made the series distinctive. TIME ranked the season fifth, while Metacritic separately lists it as the highest-reviewed returning series in its 2025 comparison, with an 87 score.
Because this is a returning season rather than a 2025 debut, it illustrates why a year-end list should judge the television released during the year, not only shows that premiered during it.
6. Mo season 2 — a funny, humane conclusion
Where to stream in the U.S.: Netflix.
The second and final season of Mo Amer’s semi-autobiographical comedy-drama follows Mo Najjar, a Palestinian refugee in Houston navigating family, statelessness, immigration bureaucracy, and an unmistakably American life. The show’s comedy can be dark and uncomfortable, but it is rooted in the pressures of trying to build an ordinary existence when legal status, family history, and national borders keep interrupting the ordinary.
What makes the concluding season stand out is its vision of community. Mo’s world crosses racial, ethnic, and national lines without pretending that those differences are trivial. The series can move from a joke to a painful confrontation quickly, using humor as a survival tool rather than as an escape from politics. Since this is the final season, Mo is also a compact binge for viewers who prefer a complete story instead of a show waiting for its next renewal.
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Where to stream in the U.S.: Apple TV.
Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s comedy casts Rogen as a studio head attempting to make meaningful films while dealing with executives, commercial pressure, new technology, and an industry-wide financial crisis. The joke is not simply that Hollywood is absurd; it is that the people making the decisions often know exactly how absurd the system is and remain trapped inside it anyway.
The Studio gets much of its energy from guest stars, film homages, and the tension between artistic ambition and the need to sell something. It is a strong choice for movie lovers because its satire is not purely contemptuous. Beneath the panic, vanity, and corporate maneuvering is an evident affection for cinema and for the difficult, collaborative process of making it. The series should not be treated as a complete portrait of the film business, but it is an unusually entertaining portrait of one corner of that business under pressure.
Metacritic’s entry notes that the debut season received 23 Emmy nominations and won 13, including Outstanding Comedy Series. Those awards figures should be rechecked against the final awards record if this article is updated.
8. Forever — Judy Blume reimagined as a contemporary Black teen romance
Where to stream in the U.S.: Netflix.
Mara Brock Akil’s Forever adapts Judy Blume’s 1975 novel into a contemporary Black teen romance set in Los Angeles. The series keeps the source material’s interest in young people discovering love and sexuality, but expands the perspective and the social world around that experience.
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That expansion is the adaptation’s defining strength. The show gives attention to both teenagers and their parents, treating neither generation as a caricature and allowing the romance to exist within a larger family and community context. Metacritic lists it at 84. Viewers should also know that this is a series adaptation of Blume’s novel, not a direct remake of the 1978 television movie.
Content note: sexual content and teen relationships, including sexual situations involving young characters.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.9. Such Brave Girls — an abrasive, under-the-radar family comedy
Where to stream in the U.S.: Hulu, according to TIME’s year-end list. Confirm the current listing, since acquired programming can move between services.
Kat Sadler’s British black comedy follows a dysfunctional family whose members are selfish, desperate, delusional, and frequently hilarious. It is not a comfort-watch about damaged people gradually learning to communicate. Its comedy comes from watching people make bad decisions, defend indefensible behavior, and turn private dysfunction into a form of social performance.
TIME’s description of the series as a female-led “traumedy” captures its appeal: Such Brave Girls is bleak, but it is not flatly miserable. The show’s sharpness and small scale make it a useful counterweight to the larger prestige dramas on this list. Choose it when you want something stranger, meaner, and less polished than consensus television—and when the idea of a dysfunctional family comedy does not require the family to become especially lovable.
10. The Pitt — an old television format made urgent again
Where to stream in the U.S.: HBO Max in the researched listing; verify the service’s current branding and U.S. availability before watching.
Starring Noah Wyle and built by veterans associated with ER, The Pitt is a real-time hospital drama about emergency-room workers trying to keep patients alive and one another functioning through exhausting shifts. Its weekly-release, network-style structure might initially suggest nostalgia, but the show’s critical case is more contemporary than that.
The drama uses the emergency room to address gun violence, misogyny, public-system austerity, exhaustion, and the practical value of competent care. The format gives those pressures time to accumulate: a crisis does not end just because one patient’s story has reached its emotional climax. By returning to the rhythms of a traditional medical drama while focusing on current institutional strains, The Pitt makes an old structure feel newly purposeful.
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If you only watch three
If you want a representative sample rather than a long viewing project, start with these three:
- Dying for Sex: the best choice for a self-contained, emotionally rich limited series that can be funny and devastating in the same episode.
- Pluribus: the pick for ambitious science fiction, an original high-concept premise, and questions about individuality and enforced happiness.
- Severance season 2: the essential returning season, provided you begin with season 1 and want a continuing mystery about work, memory, and identity.
Together they cover three different television experiences: a completed personal drama, a philosophical science-fiction series, and a returning prestige show whose second season rewards an existing investment.
What you need to watch these shows
Most of these titles are intended to be watched through the service listed beside them, so the first practical step is to search for the exact show in the service’s current U.S. app or official title page. Do not assume that an FX association means a separate FX subscription is required: for the titles listed here, Hulu is the identified on-demand destination. Likewise, platform catalogs and branding can change independently of a critics’ year-end list.
If your television lacks a built-in streaming app, or you prefer a separate interface, a device such as the Roku Streaming Stick 4K can add access to a dedicated streaming interface and support HD, 4K, HDR10+, and Dolby Vision where the television and content are compatible. It does not include Netflix, Apple TV, Hulu, Max, or MUBI subscriptions, and compatibility with every listed service should be checked before purchase.
Where to verify availability
The services in this guide are U.S. destinations identified by the underlying year-end sources, not permanent licensing guarantees. Hulu carries the researched FX-associated titles Dying for Sex, The Lowdown, and Such Brave Girls; Apple TV carries Pluribus, Severance, and The Studio; Netflix carries Mo and Forever; MUBI is the listed U.S. destination for Mussolini: Son of the Century; and HBO Max is the researched listing for The Pitt.
Before you subscribe, search each exact title in the platform’s U.S. app or official catalog. This is particularly important for MUBI, whose rights are highly territory-sensitive, and for service names that may change. Availability also varies outside the United States, so readers in other countries should use their local catalog rather than treating this list as a worldwide streaming guide.
The Bottom Line
Bottom line: TIME’s critics-informed 2025 ranking puts Dying for Sex first, but the strongest starting point depends on your mood: choose Pluribus for science fiction, Severance for a returning mystery, Mo for a completed comedy-drama, or The Pitt for urgent ensemble television.
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