My 2025 TV Show Round-Up
Wow! I watched a lot of TV in 2025! The more small screen I watch, the more I find adjacently related shows, and the more I have friends, family, and acquaintances tell me about the shows that they’re into. It feels endless. It’s an embarrassment of riches. Across my HBO Max, Hulu, Apple TV, and Prime accounts, I have a few baker’s dozen shows that I need to continue watching. It almost feels like homework that I have to keep checking off in my endless pushing of the boulder up the mountain to be culturally knowledgeable. During the holiday time, however, I’ve found that it is important to remember that it is the connection to people that matters: which shows can you talk about with your family, which ones do your coworkers watch, what moments stood out in the social media sphere, which shows can you use to impress your crush, or which shows can you brag about having watched around your peers? I’ve made a haphazard round-up of the most memorable.
2025 was a year in which I was a sucker for animated shows. Common Side Effects and Lazarus took the drama/thriller category to whole new heights. YOLO Rainbow Trinity and Smiling Friends had me creasing and tearing up at luscious colorful marsupials and the absurdity of existing in the current moment. I also dipped my toes into older shows like The Amazing World of Gumball– also, its newer continuation, Phineas and Ferb– and its newer continuation, Steven Universe, Bob’s Burgers, Samurai Jack, Ambient Swim, Moral Orel, Haha, You Clowns, Gravity Falls, Fiona and Cake, Craig of the Creek, Creature Commandos, and Bluey. Yes, I watched Bluey, but somehow I failed to watch more age-appropriate shows like Family Guy this year. My brain works in mysterious ways, but I’m not complaining because I’ve had a jam-packed year in cartoons. I was even able to attend The Art of the New Yorker Cartoon at the New Yorker Festival!
The joy of reality TV was apparently very strong in my watch patterns this year. Guy Fieri’s reign on the Food Network had me hooked. I got the cooking itch from The Kitchen, which is ending this year. Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations is timeless and aging like fine wine. Stanley Tucci’s Searching for Italy brought to life those same feelings of traveling vicariously through much more well-connected strangers, the strangers being celebrities with whom I share a parasocial relationship. Love Thy Nader introduced me to a glamorous lifestyle that had me bewitched. Virgins is a TLC reality TV show with a very self-explanatory name; it had me cringing and curling up in a ball on the floor of my bedroom. I watched baking championships this year with a fervor like I had skin in the game, and an underbaked pâte à choux was somehow a personal failure on my part as the viewer, who was cheering these brave bakers along. I don’t have kids, but I get very paternal over those bakers, like having my kid up there.
Sports can be considered reality TV– I think– so I will include it. Arsenal broke my heart yet again by failing to win the Premier League or the Champions League– I had the privilege to witness them lose to PSG at the O’Hanlon overflow bar in the East Village. However, the Arsenal Women’s team had me dry heaving in tears after they beat Barcelona to win the Champions League. Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner reminded me that I should work out more at the French Open and at the US Open. The Thunder won the NBA title, and I got a taste of the envy-inducing dynasty that Oklahoma City may potentially have on their hands. Fights caught my attention this year. So much so that I attended the Urban Action Film Showcase and Expo, met James Saito from the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) film and Keith Cooke, Chris Casamassa, and Hakim Alston from Mortal Kombat (1995), and watched my heart out on action films at the Regal Theater in Times Square. “Do you have a favorite move?” I asked, and the answer I got was that variations on kicks are the way to go! They gifted me a cool Mortal Kombat jacket along with awesome stories about their experiences making and marketing the film. They also gave me a lanyard, which made me feel like an official sports interviewer and film journalist. I was elated!
Now, on to the prestige television of 2025. Not that cartoons, reality TV, or sports don’t count as upper-echelon entertainment; the fact that they took up so much of my attention this year proves that they are. These shows, though, are those outstanding series shows that you brag about having seen, as I mentioned earlier. The Pitt is brilliant in the best, anxiety-inducing way. Pluribus and Slow Horses have done a number on my mental state. Hacks and I Love LA are horrific (complimentary). HBO Max was on fire this summer with The Gilded Age, Peacemaker, and Task all delving deep into the fabric of America. The Boys and Invincible have been unbelievably solid. I’m currently giving The Sopranos, Mad Men, The Wire, and Friends a few more runs over. The final season of Stranger Things has eluded me thus far; I’m waiting for the second part to come out to watch. The unwatched status also goes for Heated Rivalry, which doesn’t bode well for me, given that these two shows are the current pulse in popular culture. The Chair Company, IT: Welcome to Derry, and Adults left me a little wanting, but they were still very well done. There was another season of The Bear, but I think The Studio was a much better fit for the comedy category. All in all, I think I need to get out more. I feel like this blog post is diagnosable.
