The year 2025 has brought an exceptional slate of new and returning series, from high-concept sci-fi to gripping crime dramas and workplace comedies.
Here are the 10 best TV shows that premiered or returned for a new season this year, based on viewer anticipation and critical reception.
1. Severance (Season 2)
The dystopian workplace thriller returned with its highly anticipated second season. We dove deeper into the mysteries of Lumon Industries and the bizarre ‘severance’ procedure that bifurcates employees’ work and home memories.
2. Paradise
Set three years after a global doomsday event, this suspenseful drama unfolded in a massive city-sized underground bunker in Colorado.
The series followed Secret Service Agent Xavier Collins (Played by Sterling K Brown) as he investigates the murder of the President of the United States.
Under suspicion himself, Collins navigates a society built on lies, searching for the truth and unsure who he can trust in their isolated ‘paradise.’
3. IT: Welcome To Derry
Serving as a prequel to the terrifying It saga, this series is set in 1962 and explores the unsettling origins of the infamous town of Derry, Maine, and the entity that haunts it.
The plot follows a young boy and a family whose bizarre and increasingly dark journey is tied to the town’s history of evil, including the arrival of Major Leroy Hanlon at the military base.
4. Mo (Season 2)
Comedian Mo Amer returned as Mo Najjar, a Palestinian refugee seeking asylum in Houston.
Season 2 picks up with Mo stranded across the border, desperately trying to return to the US before his family’s asylum hearing.
Balancing sharp, observational humor with the harsh realities of statelessness, the season includes encounters in a detention center and an emotional trip to the West Bank, exploring themes of survival and belonging.
5. Pluribus
This fascinating sci-fi thriller centers on author Carol Sturka, who is one of only 13 individuals immune to “the Joining”—an event caused by an extraterrestrial virus that has merged the rest of humanity into a peaceful, content hive mind known as “the Others.”
The show, titled after the Latin phrase e pluribus unum (“out of many, one”), follows Carol’s struggle against an entity that seeks to amicably assimilate her, exploring themes of individuality versus collective identity.
6. The Pitt
A tense, realistic medical drama focusing on a single, grueling 15-hour work shift in the Emergency Department of the fictional Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center.
The series highlights the immense pressure, staff shortages, and systemic underfunding faced by the dedicated healthcare workers as they fight to save lives under extreme duress.
7. Dept. Q
This Scottish crime drama introduces top-rated detective Carl Morck, who returns to work after a traumatic shooting leaves a colleague paralyzed and another dead.
Regarded as arrogant by his peers, Morck is tasked with setting up a new, under-resourced unit to focus on unsolved cold cases. A civilian employee, Akram Salim, helps Morck begin investigating the mysterious 2020 disappearance of a notorious prosecutor.
8. The Studio
A sharp, star-studded workplace comedy set behind the scenes of Hollywood. The series follows Seth Rogen’s character, the newly appointed head of Continental Studios, and his team of executives as they juggle creative ambitions, corporate demands, and the constant need for celebrity approval, all in an effort to keep “movies alive and relevant.”
9. Alien Earth
Expanding the Alien universe, this sci-fi horror series begins when the deep-space vessel USCSS Maginot crash-lands on Earth.
The story is centered on a young hybrid woman, Wendy, and a group of tactical soldiers who make a terrifying discovery, bringing them face-to-face with a Xenomorph and exploring humanity’s pursuit of immortality through cyborgs, synthetics, and hybrids.
10. Adolescence
A raw and hard-hitting drama set in Yorkshire, England. The series begins when 13-year-old Jamie Miller is arrested on suspicion of murdering his classmate, Katie Leonard, who had rejected his advances and cyberbullied him.
The show is a deep exploration of modern youth, cyberbullying, and the complex psychological pressures of adolescence.
Bonus Must-Watch: Four Seasons
This comedy drama explores the intimate lives of three married couples—Nick and Anne, Kate and Jack, and Danny and Claude—over a year, with events structured around the four seasons.
It begins during a 25th-anniversary celebration where Nick plans to divorce Anne, setting off a chain of events that exposes the messy, relatable, and sometimes heartbreaking complexities of long-term relationships and middle age.
This article was edited with AI and reviewed by human editors
