The best TV shows of 2025 so far

Congrats on making it halfway through this year! While many, many things that have happened/are happening this year are not great, TV remains a bright spot. Returning shows including Severance and Abbott Elementary shined with stellar seasons, while a passel of new series like The Pitt got our hearts racing. So stop doomscrolling and start binge-watching! Your to-do list begins below:

Severance (Apple TV+)

All Kier Egan wanted to do was eliminate pain from the human experience. But if Severance has taught us anything, it’s that science can no more separate the us from our hurt than it can stop the moon from controlling the tides. In its long-awaited second season, the darkly funny, exquisitely weird drama served up some key answers about Lumon Industries while pushing its characters to embrace their whole selves — both in and out of the office. Much like the employees in Lumon’s Macrodata Refinement department, Severance contains multitudes: office comedy, sci-fi thriller, artsy allegory about worker exploitation, star-crossed romance, family drama. Marshmallows are for team players, but Severance is for everyone who’s ever felt the ache of a broken heart.

Read the full review of Severance.

Forever (Netflix)

Adapted by Mara Brock Akil from Judy Blume’s groundbreaking 1975 young adult novel, Forever reminds us that while times change, the exquisite and excruciating drama of first love remains the same. Keisha (Lovie Simone) and Justin (Michael Cooper Jr.), two high-achieving Black teens in 2018 Los Angeles, fall hard after meeting at a New Year’s Eve party — and the subsequent relationship upends their lives in ways that are blissful, complicated, and ultimately profound. Akil translates Blume’s classic romance for the modern era — then: waiting by the phone; now: being left on read — she builds on it with a rich, moving story about Black excellence and the American dream.

Read the full review of Forever

Matlock (CBS)

Procedurals — especially CBS procedurals — get a bad rap from snobby TV critics like me. Known for their uninspired concepts (FBI: CIA???) rote character development, and predictable plotting, these types of dramas can be great to fold laundry to, but that’s about it. When I first read about Matlock — a reboot of the classic legal drama starring Kathy Bates in the Andy Griffith role — I assumed it’d be just another example of a network putting IP ahead of ideas. But as Bates’ Madeline “Matty” Matlock might say, “You know what happens when you assume, darlin’.” Developed by Jennie Snyder Urman (Jane the Virgin), Matlock is the rare procedural (and even rarer reboot) that puts characters first. Bates is Emmy-worthy as Madeline, a folksy, senior-citizen lawyer-slash-undercover grieving mom out to destroy a corrupt firm, and the show mixes clever case-of-the-week intrigue with heartfelt stories of grief, betrayal, and regret. If you had told a year ago that I’d be this invested in the future of Matty’s friendship with her boss Olympia (the superb Skye P. Marshall), I’d have laughed. But hey, it feels great to be wrong.

The Gilded Age (HBO Max)

The third season just started on June 22, so I’ll keep my praise spoiler-free. Julian Fellowes’ sumptuous period piece levels up yet again with eight episodes of captivating, emotional, and escapist drama about New York’s high society in the 1880s. Not only does the new season give more attention to the Scott family — Peggy (Denée Benton), Dorothy (Audra McDonald), and Arthur (John Douglas Thompson) — it also delivers standout storylines for put-upon heiress Gladys Russell (Taisa Farmiga), and footman/aspiring inventor Jack Trotter (Ben Ahlers, executing an exaggerated Noo Yawk accent that’s somehow more adorable than grating). And Blake Ritson deserves a special shout-out for his delightfully droll performance as the closeted Oscar van Rhijn, whose arc this season travels through tragedy and ends on the cusp of a tantalizing triumph.

Read the full review of The Gilded Age

Abbott Elementary (ABC)

Four years in, Quinta Brunson’s Emmy-winning comedy continues to set the standard. Many sitcoms stumble when it comes time to get their will-they-won’t-they leads together, but Abbott soared, allowing Janine (Brunson) and Gregory (Tyler James Williams) to deepen their relationship without sacrificing its goofy sweetness. Season four saw Abbott taking big swings — firing Janelle James’ indispensable Principal Ava, executing a highly weird yet somehow perfect crossover with It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia — and crushing it every time. Boasting the best comedy ensemble on TV, Abbott uses humor and hope to explore the realities of race and class inequity in public education — and yet it never feels like school. Maybe that’s because when we love characters this much, their battles become ours.

Dept. Q (Netflix)

As a certified scaredy cat, I wasn’t sure I could handle Dept. Q — but this harrowing crime drama from Scott Frank (The Queen’s Gambit) had me hooked from its premiere-episode twist, so bravery was a must. Adapted from Jussi Adler-Olsen’s book series, Dept. Q follows DCI Morck (Matthew Goode), an aggressively unpleasant British detective who returns to his Edinburgh department after being shot on the job. Desperate to avoid the trauma of his near-death experience, Morck takes on a new assignment heading up a new cold-cases department, along with a team of fellow precinct misfits: Akram Salim (Alexej Manvelov), a Syrian refugee and brilliant investigator; Rose (Leah Byrne), an anxious constable grappling with OCD and PTSD; and Detective Sergeant Hardy (Jamie Sives), paralyzed in the same shooting that injured Morck. Blending gallows humor with shoe-leather police work, riveting performances, and a twisted central mystery, Dept. Q manages to find hope and healing in the midst of human-on-human horror.

Read the full review of Dept. Q

Beyond the Gates (CBS)

Soap operas do the impossible. Working with a fraction of the budget primetime series get, soaps crank out 260 episodes of non-stop story a year. For those of us who grew up loving these shows, watching the networks slowly abandon the genre over the past decade has been painful. What a joy, then, to witness the birth of Beyond the Gates, the first new daytime drama since 1999. Created by soap legend Michelle Val Jean, Gates centers on the saga of the well-to-do Dupree family, pillars of society in an elite (and drama-filled) Black enclave near Washington, D.C. It’s impossible to summarize everything that’s happened in the 80 episodes (!) since Gates premiered in February, but the soapiest highlights include: a love child revealed in spectacular fashion, and a marriage ruined! A steamy (and top-secret) May-December romance between a former supermodel and a playboy photographer! A promising young politician haunted by a violent incident from his past! To quote the late, great Garry Marshall in Soapdish: “This is soap opera!”

Read the full review of Beyond the Gates

The Pitt (HBO Max)

No one wants to spend the day in an ER, but damn if The Pitt didn’t make those 15 hours fly by. The real-time medical drama offers a relentlessly frank exploration of America’s broken healthcare system — and the dedicated doctors, nurses, and hospital staff who refuse to break under its weight. Anchored by a phenomenal performance by Noah Wyle as Dr. “Robby” Rabinovich, The Pitt also features an ensemble packed with standouts, including (but not limited to): Taylor Dearden, beautifully earnest as second-year resident Mel King; Katherine LaNasa, a mesmerizing force as the unflappable charge nurse, Dana Evans; and Michael Hyatt, who brings heart to the role of Robby’s budget-conscious boss, Gloria Underwood. Like all great hospital dramas, The Pitt spikes our heart rate with urgent medical crises. But it also leaves us with the hope that when it comes time for our own life and death battle, we won’t be fighting alone.

Read the full review of The Pitt.