The 8 best TV shows of 2025 that you probably missed, from Hollywood satires to eat-the-rich dramas

Seth Rogan may have initially shot to fame for his gross out, ‘stoner’ comedies, but The Studio is by far his most thoughtful and mature work to date. That’s not to say its humourless; the 10-part series is a biting satire of Hollywood today, with Rogan playing hapless studio exec Matt Remick. Matt and his team are true cinephiles, dedicated to the craft of making actually good movies – but also have to balance corporate demands, clueless celebrities and supersized egos in the process. In addition to its genuinely outstanding cameos (Martin Scorsese is merely the tip of the A-List iceberg), The Studio’s arrival in 2025 is certainly timely; in a world dominated by corporations serving up easily digestible AI slop, how can we produce art that’s actually worthwhile?

This excellent series, which stars Erin Doherty and Stephen Graham was sadly massively overshadowed by Adolescence (in which the pair also featured) that released just a few weeks later. Doherty gives an enthralling performance as Mary, the leader of a troop of female thieves and pickpockets known as the Forty Elephants (based on a real-life gang ), while Graham is bone-crunchingly terrifying as bare-knuckle champion Henry ‘Sugar’ Goodson. Meanwhile, Hezekiah Moscow (Malachi Kirby) is the warmth and tenderness at the heart of the series as an idealistic dreamer new to London hoping to seek his fortune.

Penned by Peaky Blinders’ Steven Knight (and again, perhaps upstaged by his Netflix series House of Guinness that was also released this year), it is enthralling, graphic – and entirely irresistible.

While she established herself as arguably the breakout star of this season’s helping of The White Lotus, Film Club shows Aimee Lou Wood is more than just a one-trick pony. Co-writing this series alongside friend and fellow actor, Ralph Davis, the series follows Evie (Wood) and her best friend Noa (an ever-charming Nabhaan Rizwan) while they attend their weekly ‘film club’. Not particularly cinematic fare; they watch a classic movie and pay homage to it by dressing up and generally fooling around together.

The film club takes part in Evie’s mum’s garage after Evie experienced a ‘wobble’ six months prior, which the six-part series slowly delves into. Film Club is a tender exploration into vulnerability and longing, touching on mental health without bordering onto preachiness or sentimentality.

Okay, so maybe we’re cheating a bit here; Pluribus only hit streaming services last month, and with Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul creator Vince Gilligan at the helm, has had rave reviews from critics. Rhea Seehorn plays Carol – a supremely rich romance author who is widely adored – yet she is a complaining misanthrope. Things go from bad to worse for Carol when the whole world is seemingly taken out with a virus that makes them impossibly, irrevocably happy. Carol, meanwhile, is seemingly immune – and furious for it.

While it may sound schlocky in principle, and is a slow burn at times, Gilligan’s masterful writing prevents Pluribus from reverting to cliché. Instead, it poses questions that viewers are left to chew on well after they have finished their binge. If we’re stripped of our individualism and our own opinions, do we cease to become human? Is our desire to people-please damaging our ability to think critically? It’s not Breaking Bad, but it certainly shares the same bleak borders.

Adapted from Paris Lees’ memoir of the same name, this riotous coming-of-age story follows Byron (an electrifying performance by Ellis Howard) growing up queer in the derisive culture of Noughties Nottinghamshire. Parts of the series are shocking; Byron finds themselves caught up in sex work at just 15, and navigates the underworld of Nottingham’s nightlife with the trans friends they meet in the nightclubs where Byron finds their clientele. It’s not the typical tale of victimhood, nor necessarily a life-affirming narrative for someone establishing their trans identity. It’s a real, raw, gritty and a totally fearless series that the BBC deserves far more kudos for.

This gritty Scottish detective drama was a sleeper hit for Netflix, which may have resulted in some viewers missing the hype upon its early summertime release. Based on a Scandi noir by Jussi Adler-Olsen (but now relocated in Scotland), Matthew Goode plays grizzled and hardened detective Carl Morck, who works solving cold cases in Dept Q - a dank basement. Morck is hardly the most likeable TV detective (his arrogance is what sees him demoted down into the basement like a mole), but it's his dedicated if somewhat bizarre team – cadet Rose (Leah Byrne), DI James Hardy (Jamie Sives) and former police officer Akram Salim (Alexej Manvelov) that keeps viewers rooting for Dept Q. The humour, like the setting, is pitch black; those wanting to catch up should make use of the Christmas lull, as season two is just round the corner.