📺 The Best TV Shows of 2025 (So Far)
Jess and Jenni's 15 favorite TV shows of the year so far
Happy Thursday. This week we’re doing one of Jess’s favorite things and Jenni’s least favorite: naming the best TV shows of the year (so far). The good news is we mostly agreed, which means one longer combined list. The bad news is it’s going to be hard for anything still to come this year to surpass these.
In today’s edition:
Weekly Watchlist
Jess and Jenni’s Top 15 TV Shows of 2025 (so far)
— Jess Spoll and Jenni Cullen
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Below is a subset of new shows and movies premiering this week. Our unabridged list of July releases is available for premium subscribers.
Untamed (Limited Series) — From American Primeval creator Mark L. Smith comes this murder mystery starring Eric Bana as a National Parks Service special agent investigating the mysterious death of a young woman in Yosemite.
Watch on Netflix: July 17 (all 6 episodes)The Amateur* (Movie) — Rami Malek stars as a CIA cryptographer who goes rogue to track down the terrorists who killed his wife in this action flick based on the 1981 novel by Robert Littell.
Watch on Hulu: July 17 (*streaming premiere)The Hunting Wives (Season 1) — Based on the novel of the same name, this domestic thriller follows a woman (Brittany Snow) who becomes entangled in a clique of housewives hiding deadly secrets.
Watch on Netflix: July 21 (all 8 episodes)Washington Black (Limited Series) — Based on Esi Edugyan's 2018 novel, this coming-of-age story follows an eleven-year-old boy who is forced to flee his home on a sugar plantation in Barbados after a shocking death. Sterling K. Brown and Tom Ellis star.
Watch on Hulu: July 23 (all 8 episodes)Acapulco (Season 4) — The bilingual comedy returns for its fourth and final season, wrapping up the heartwarming story of Máximo Gallardo facing big decisions about love, family, and legacy.
Watch on Apple TV+: July 23 (2 of 10 episodes, then weekly)Dope Girls (Limited Series) — This six-part period drama from the UK follows a working-class woman (Julianne Nicholson) who sets up a nightclub in Soho at the end of WWI.
Watch on Hulu: July 28 (all 6 episodes)
Jess and Jenni’s Top 15 Shows of The Year So Far
We’re (roughly) halfway through 2025, so we’re taking the time to reflect on this year’s standouts. The spring brought us a wave of returning favorites, along with a few new hits, and of course, the usual forgettable filler. Whether it’s a cold case detective drama, a Gen Z comedy, or a prestige sequel with a devoted fanbase, the best shows this year have been distinctive in form, tone, and ambition.
Luckily, we agreed on a lot of them. This is a joint list of our favorite TV shows of the year so far. We had so much overlap it felt easier to combine, though the ranking is only loosely ordered (lowest → highest) since we don’t entirely agree on placement. What we do agree on: these are the 15 best things we’ve watched in 2025.
The Bear - S4 (Hulu) — After a weaker Season 3, The Bear bounced back with a season that felt surprisingly warm compared to the chaos of the early episodes. Season 4 recenters the show’s emotional core and delivers a satisfying arc for Carmy—so satisfying that we both think the show could easily end here. (It won’t: it’s already been renewed for a fifth season.)
The Four Seasons (Netflix) — A thoughtful and funny adaptation of the 1981 Alan Alda film, reimagined by Tina Fey. Well-observed and rooted in emotional truth, it’s a story about the quirks, rituals, and quiet tensions that build up in tightly-knit groups over time.
Dying for Sex (Hulu) — Not nearly as raunchy as the title may imply, this limited series is a hilarious, devastating story about friendship, desire, and facing mortality. Michelle Williams is phenomenal as a woman diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer who abandons her husband of 15 years and begins to fully explore her sexuality.
The Traitors U.S. (Peacock) — An unscripted competition series that even reality TV haters might enjoy, this year’s season featured its best cast yet, with backstabbing, alliances, and chaos that made for compulsive viewing. Gabby Windey, we love you forever.
Such Brave Girls - S2 (Hulu) — Somehow even funnier and more emotionally deranged than Season 1, Such Brave Girls is a cult comedy classic in our worlds. If you like your comedy ruthless and bleak but also hilarious, this is for you.
The Righteous Gemstones - S4 (HBO Max) — This season of Gemstones was not its best, but it was a riotous and conclusive end to a series that has remained woefully under-appreciated. Uncle Baby Billy and Judy Gemstone will go down in history as some of the funniest characters of all time.
The White Lotus - S3 (HBO Max) — The White Lotus has achieved water-cooler TV status—a feat that’s hard to accomplish in the age of streaming. I (Jess) have been a mega fan of this series since the beginning, and although this outing was my least favorite, it’s still much better than people give it credit for.
Dept Q (Netflix) — A cold case detective drama that’s like a less acerbic Slow Horses, transplanted to Scotland. Unlike many of its genre peers, this gripping slow-burn series avoids clichés in favor of character depth.
The Rehearsal - S2 (HBO Max) — Nathan Fielder returns with even more mind-bending emotional puzzles. Season 2 somehow brings freshness and doubles down on the existential unease and meta experimentation that makes The Rehearsal unlike anything else on TV.
Hacks - S4 (HBO Max) — Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder continue to be one of the best duos on TV, and we love this funny, sharp, emotionally satisfying showbiz comedy. Shoutout to season standouts Meg Stalter and Paul W. Downs as Kayla and Jimmy; it’s a travesty that they weren’t nominated for Emmys.
The Studio (Apple TV+) — Some say The Studio is too self-interested and inside baseball, but we are not the people to agree. This behind-the-scenes comedy about the film industry from Seth Rogen manages to be both a brutal satire and a surprisingly earnest portrait of creative dysfunction. It's clever, chaotic, and one of the year's best surprises.
Adolescence (Netflix) — Adolescence tells the story of a young boy accused of murdering a schoolmate, but it avoids the sensationalism of the thriller genre and instead offers a deep psychological study of modern youth and the effect that social media has on development. It’s both visually and emotionally stunning, and such an important watch that the British Prime Minister made it available to all secondary schools across the UK.
Adults (FX/Hulu) — This comedy about codependent twenty-somethings navigating adulthood completely won us over—so much so, that we’ve both already rewatched it. If there’s any justice in the world, it will run for many more seasons.
The Pitt (HBO Max) — Set in a realistically understaffed ER and told in real-time, The Pitt is intelligent, gripping, and far more grounded than most medical dramas. The success of the series proves that people really just want TV to feel like TV again. We can’t wait for Season 2.
Severance - S2 (Apple TV+) — Severance remains one of TV’s most original and emotionally unsettling shows, balancing workplace horror with comedy and an exploration of grief. It will not be a surprise to anyone who listens to the pod, but this is number one in Jess’s heart (and not #1 in Jenni’s, but still close to it!)
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