The 15 best TV shows of the year so far
(limited series, Netflix)
Where to begin? The long, cinematic camera takes that make you feel like you've intruded on a reality already in progress? The searing performances from Stephen Graham, Owen Cooper, Erin Doherty, and a stable of largely unknown UK actors? This tight, four-episode drama, about an adolescent (Cooper) accused of killing a female classmate, is a gut punch that diagnoses a world of contemporary problems without ever feeling like a sociological treatise.
Jessica Biel and Elizabeth Banks in "The Better Sister."
JOJO WHILDEN/Jojo Whilden/Prime
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(season 1, Amazon Prime Video)
The apple doesn't fall far. TV luminary David Milch's daughter, Olivia Milch, created this high-grade pulp drama with Regina Corrado, a key writer on David Milch's series 'Deadwood' (speaking of peak TV). Jaggedly funny and compulsively watchable, it follows two adult sisters (Jessica Biel and Pittsfield native
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'Black Mirror'
(season 7, Netflix)
A funny thing happened to Charlie Brooker's future-shock sci-fi anthology series on the way to 2025. It now feels more wickedly plausible than ever, and it therefore cuts closer to the bone. The season opener, starring Rashida Jones and Chris O'Dowd, is a soul-crushing masterpiece in which life and death become a matter of coverage tiers. It's still engineered to make you laugh until it hurts really, really bad.
Matthew Goode in "Dept. Q" on Netflix.
Jamie Simpson/Jamie Simpson/Netflix
(season 1, Netflix)
Scott Frank, who made chess exciting and sexy with his 2020 Netflix limited series '
Brian Tyree Henry in "Dope Thief."
Apple TV+
'Dope Thief'
(season 1, Apple TV+)
Brian Tyree Henry has been doing killer supporting work for a few years now on TV ('
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(limited series, HBO)
From the Department of Good Timing: At a moment when the principles of the civil rights movement are under attack, HBO released the third installment of a vital project that started back in 1987. These six chapters cover the period from the late 1970s to the present, exploring issues including fair housing, the war on affirmative action, the AIDS crisis, the Obama years, and more. It plays like a series of deeply reported feature stories.
'Forever'
(season 1, Netflix)
The Judy Blume renaissance continues with this series inspired by her 1975 novel about two teens dealing with raging hormones, societal expectations, and, yes, first love. Series creator Mara Brock Akil has moved the action to Los Angeles in 2018, where two Black high school athletes (Michael Cooper Jr. and Lovie Simone) fall head over heels and face highly realistic obstacles. Few series have so viscerally captured the pains of being a teenager.
'Inside the NBA'
(TNT)
Gone, but not forgotten. In fact, not exactly gone. TNT's freewheeling pregame and halftime show is the most spontaneous and entertaining sports enterprise on the air. Now Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith, Shaquille O'Neal, and ringmaster Ernie Johnson are moving (for NBA broadcast rights reasons) to ESPN and ABC, where the flavor promises to be a little different. But hopefully not
too
different. Here's hoping the new bosses let the mountainous Shaq tumble into some more Christmas trees.
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Bella Ramsey in "The Last of Us."
Courtesy of HBO
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(season 2, HBO)
It takes nerve to kill off the main character early in the second season of a hit series. It takes skill and imagination to keep the train rolling along in the aftermath. You won't find a more assured mix of prestige and popular appeal than HBO's zombie apocalypse drama, which, of course, is about far more than a zombie apocalypse. And you won't find better evidence for the blurring of high and 'low' culture than the fact that one of HBO's best series is based on a video game.
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(season 2, Netflix)
Palestinian-American actor/comedian
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(documentary, HBO)
A penetrating study of what it means to have a popular alter ego, and what happens when that alter ego takes over. The late Paul Reubens, better known as Pee-wee Herman, makes for a controlling, passive-aggressive, but somehow still appealing subject as he thrusts and parries with filmmaker Matt Wolf. The end results, in two parts and about four hours, ask probing questions about identity, fame, and the many guises we try on to get ahead.
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'The Rehearsal'
(season 2, HBO)
Comedian Nathan Fielder's first-person docuseries has moved well beyond the point of stunting. The recently completed season culminates in a surreal plane flight, with Fielder at the controls and the plane full of actors, all coordinated to make a point about cockpit communication and preventable crashes. It makes for riveting television and deadpan advocacy, delivered in a self-conscious monotone that belies a passionate sense of purpose.
'Saturday Night Live'
(season 51, NBC)
Maybe it was the re-election of Donald Trump, or just the right meshing of cast and writers. Whatever the reason, 'SNL' felt energized this season, like a big league pitcher getting his fastball back. The 'White Potus' sketch melded pop culture heat with political satire. The Please Don't Destroy team found a groove with its digital shorts (go to YouTube and search for 'First Class'). Michael Che and Colin Jost refined their vibe of friendly antagonism on 'Weekend Update.' And a big, 50-year-old dog showed it can learn some new tricks.
Seth Rogen in "The Studio."
Apple TV+
'
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(season 1, Apple TV+)
Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen's painfully funny send-up of the current movie business is certainly insidery, but it's also madcap, slapstick fun, a tasty poison pill and a lament for the difficulty of making art in a world defined by fast commerce. Throw in cameos from a weeping Martin Scorsese, a frustrated Sarah Polley, an enraged Ron Howard, and more, and you've got the satire that contemporary Hollywood deserves.
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(season 3, HBO)
At some point Mike White's formula of narcissistic tourists behaving horribly in paradise will wear out its welcome. But that point hasn't arrived yet. The writing and the acting — this season's standouts include Walton Goggins, Carrie Coon, Parker Posey, and the returning Natasha Rothwell — are still top-shelf, and the American idiots abroad motif carries a little extra oomph in this day and age. The coconut milk is off!
What do you think the best show of 2025 is? Sound off in the comments and let us know.
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