Photo illustration by Matthew Cooley. Photographs in illustration by Netflix, 2; HBO Max
In many ways, the last six months of TV have been defined by impeccably crafted throwback series that aren’t embarrassed to act like television shows. The best series of the first half of 2025 include medical dramas, police procedurals, and quirky small-town comedies — the exact kinds of shows that were abundant long before the invention of the VCR, let alone streaming. But the situation is more nuanced than that. Most of these shows feel modern in different ways. The medical drama is partially serialized, with the whole season covering a single hospital shift, while the small-town comedy takes place in an Inuk community in the frozen plains of northern Canada.
And several our 10 best of the year so far are adventurous in other ways: a morally and politically complex drama set in the Star Wars universe; a miniseries where each episode was filmed in one continuous take; and a raunchy comedy about a woman’s quest for an orgasm that was also a tragedy about her dealing with terminal cancer.
This month is a bit slow in terms of notable TV premieres, so use the time to catch up on one or more of these great shows — listed here in alphabetical order — before favorites like The Bear and Squid Game return.
‘Adolescence’ (Netflix)
Netflix
The technical feat of this four-episode miniseries — each installment was filmed in an hour-long unbroken take — would be the most impressive thing about it, were it not for everything else about it. When 13-year-old Jamie (Owen Cooper, jaw-droppingly good in his screen debut) is arrested for the murder of a classmate, everyone around him tries to make sense of it: his father (Stephen Graham, who co-wrote the show with Jack Thorne), the detective assigned to the case (Ashley Walters), and his court-appointed psychologist (Erin Doherty), among others. The more they learn — not only about this specific tragedy, but about the larger sociological forces driving it — the more maddening this tale becomes. An instant classic.
‘Andor’ (Disney+)
Lucasfilm Ltd.
The second and final season of Tony Gilroy’s mature and complex Star Wars prequel series — one of the very best things the franchise has done since Disney bought it from George Lucas — perhaps bit off more than it could chew, by compressing what Gilroy had once planned to cover over four seasons into only 12 episodes. At times it felt rushed, or overly concerned with bringing its title character (Diego Luna) right up to the events of Rogue One. But in its best moments — the Empire manipulating public sentiment to justify destroying a whole planet, Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly) risking her life for an important speech, Kleya (Elizabeth Dulau) revisiting a lifetime with Luthen (Stellan Skarsgård) — it was so powerful, and so thoughtful, that it raised the question of why no one had tried to tell such an adult story in a Star Wars setting before.
‘Dept. Q’ (Netflix)
Netflix
Jussi Adler-Olsen’s novels about a cold-case squad made up of underestimated misfit detectives have already been adapted into multiple films in his native Denmark. Now they’ve translated smashingly to an English-language take, with Scott Frank (The Queen’s Gambit) and Chandni Lakhani relocating the cops to Scotland, and in the process creating a slightly less acerbic police version of Slow Horses.
‘Dying for Sex’ (Hulu)
Sarah Shatz/FX
The last time Michelle Williams starred in a miniseries developed by FX (Fosse/Verdon), she won an Emmy. She may need to make room on the mantel for another one, thanks to her alternately hilarious and poignant performance as a woman with Stage 4 breast cancer who’s determined to finally have a satisfying sex life before it’s too late. Williams is superbly backed by Jenny Slate as her best friend, Rob Delaney as her gross yet alluring neighbor, Sissy Spacek as her estranged mother, and more. This show is not always the easiest watch, but its ability to juggle the sadness and absurdities of the story is amazing.
‘Murderbot’ (Apple TV+)
Steve Wilkie/AppleTV+
Stellan isn’t the only Skarsgård with a sci-fi series on this list. Both Andor and Murderbot, starring his son, Alexander, deal with governments using state-run media to grease the wheels for atrocities. But where Andor is dark and cerebral, Murderbot — where Alexander plays a security droid that just wants to be left alone to watch its favorite streaming dramas — is light and often silly, in a very endearing way.
‘North of North’ (Netflix)
Netflix
This CBC-produced comedy, starring Anna Lambe as an Inuk woman who leaves a bad marriage and tries to start her life over, is in many ways as modest as the tiny village in frozen Nunavut, Canada’s northernmost territory, where it’s set. Not much happens, the humor is gentle, and it mostly coasts on vibes. But what vibes! The tone of the show, the charisma and joy that Lambe radiates, and the specificity of both Inuk culture and the remoteness of the community make it feel special, even as it’s contentedly ambling along.
‘The Pitt’ (Max)
Giles Keyte/HBO
The show of 2025 so far — and something’s going to have to be awfully great to dislodge it before December. More than 30 years after the debut of ER, actor Noah Wyle and producers R. Scott Gemmill and John Wells reunited for a simultaneously retro and forward-looking new hospital drama, set over 15 consecutive hours on the same relentless emergency room shift. Whether the staff — including wise veteran Dr. Robby (Wyle), no-bullshit head nurse Dana (Katherine LaNasa), and endearing rookies like Mel (Taylor Dearden) — were dealing with minor injuries or victims of a mass shooting, The Pitt was a celebration of competence and compassion in the face of nonstop horror.
‘The Residence’ (Netflix)
JESSICA BROOKS/NETFLIX
Like Poker Face (whose fun second season barely missed the list), this locked-room murder mystery about the White House’s head usher being murdered during a state dinner is an unabashed tribute to the detective stories that came before it. What it adds to all the Agatha Christie elements, though, is a spirit of anarchic comedy, as the witnesses, suspects, and even the detective (Uzo Aduba as a brilliant but eccentric sleuth who prefers birds to people) are all ridiculous to varying degrees. It’s a series that turns 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. into a fun place to hang out for a while.
‘Severance’ (Apple TV+)
AppleTV+
The dystopian office-set series’ long-delayed second season was filled with extreme highs and maddening lows. The latter were particularly noticeable in the season’s second half, when the pacing felt off and the supporting characters were largely ignored in favor of two off-format episodes (one good, one bad). That’s what happens when a show takes big swings, though. Sometimes, they whiff. But when they connect, you get episodes like the snowy ORTBO field trip, or the gripping season finale. More consistency would be welcome whenever Season Three arrives, but the best parts of this batch were extraordinary.
‘The Studio’ (Apple TV+)
AppleTV+
Like Severance, this inside-showbiz comedy — starring co-creator Seth Rogen as a new movie-studio boss in way over his head — could be wildly uneven. Some episodes (including one that, like Adolescence, was shot entirely in one take) could be screamingly funny; others (Rogen’s character’s underlings, played by Ike Barinholtz and Chase Sui Wonders, feuding over whose horror movie idea would get made), fell flat. But the highs were hilariously high, and few shows in recent memory have made better use of guest stars, whether they were playing themselves (Martin Scorsese, Zoë Kravitz, Sarah Polley), or playing characters. (In the finale, Bryan Cranston, as Rogen’s drug-tripping boss, served a potent reminder that before he was a Hall of Fame dramatic actor on Breaking Bad, he was an incredible physical comedian on Malcolm in the Middle.)
From Rolling Stone US.