\tAdolescence (Netflix)<\/p>\n
\t\t\t![\"Adolescence.](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-rollingstone-2022\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Netflix\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tThis four-part British limited series, about a kid accused of murdering a classmate, hit Netflix on a Friday with little to no advance fanfare; by the end of the weekend, it was the most viewed show on the streamer and inspiring dozens of think pieces<\/a> about the impact of incel culture on young men. A labor of love from director Philip Barantini and co-writer and star Stephen Graham<\/a>, Adolescence starts with cops bursting into the home of an average suburban family and arresting 13-year-old Jamie Miller (newcomer Owen Cooper). Each episode then focuses on the aftermath via a different perspective, from Jamie\u2019s fellow students to his family members; Episode Three, a standoff between Cooper\u2019s incarcerated teen and a psychologist played by Erin Doherty, is a master class in sustaining tension. And as with Barantini and Graham\u2019s previous collaboration, the proto-Bear chef drama Boiling Point, everything is shot in a single extended take. There\u2019s a reason this import dominated the 2025 Emmys, but even if it hadn\u2019t walked away with armfuls of statues, it would still leave you feeling like you\u2019ve been gut-punched. \u2014David Fear<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \tAndor (Disney+)<\/p>\n \t\t\t \n\tThe sophomore (and final) season of Tony Gilroy\u2019s Star Wars prequel series doubled down on the revolutionary spirit, delivering an even deeper sausage-factory view of how the Rebellion was made while still giving fans what they needed. The fact that Diego Luna\u2019s Cassian and his fellow freedom fighters were fighting a fascist empire a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away almost feels incidental; few works of mass entertainment captured the social uncertainty of our current capital-R resistance moment better in 2025. These 10 episodes had their share of thrills and chills, first-class villains (especially Denise Gough\u2019s imperial apparatchik), highly memeable moments \u2014 dance like no one\u2019s watching, Mon Mothma!<\/a> \u2014 and a sequence inside an enemy hospital that played like a stand-alone heist movie. But the season also offered a chilling look at how authoritarian governments use misinformation and manipulate certain populations into enemies. The I.P. will be with us, always, but Gilroy\u2019s contribution<\/a> to the canon will be missed. It was even more invaluable the second time around. \u2014D.F.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \tDeath By Lightning (Netflix)<\/p>\n \t\t\t \n\tWriter Mike Makowsky, best known for his zippy 2019 HBO film Bad Education, took one of the oddest side plots in American history and made it one of the most riveting shows of the year. Based on Candice Millard\u2019s book Destiny of the Republic, Death By Lighting chronicles, over a tight yet expansive-feeling four episodes, the 1881 assassination of President James A. Garfield (played with stoicism by Michael Shannon) by an unstable fan turned hater named Charles Guiteau (Matthew Macfadyen, better than ever). It\u2019s an original story of standom gone wrong that tackles the scourge of American violence. It\u2019s also deeply amusing, featuring basically every character actor you know and love (lookin\u2019 at you, Nick Offerman, Bradley Whitford, and Shea Whigham) in a big bushy beard, absolutely killing it. \u2014Esther Zuckerman<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \tDept. Q (Netflix)<\/p>\n \t\t\t \n\tOne of the year\u2019s most delightful surprises was this sleeper hit in the vein of Slow Horses \u2014 it centers on a group of misfit cops in Scotland \u2014 but with a bit more emotional heft. Matthew Goode, who\u2019s bounced around in rom-coms and period pieces and legal dramas, absolutely melts into the lead role of Carl Morck, a prickly and misanthropic detective returning to work after an on-the-job shooting in which his partner was paralyzed. Banished to a basement office and saddled with a bunch of dead-end cold cases, he becomes the leader of a motley crew of crimefighting wannabes. At home, meanwhile, he\u2019s saddled with an annoying roommate and an angry teenager \u2014\u00a0the son of an ex-wife who up and left him. With The Queen\u2019s Gambit creator Scott Frank at the helm, the writing is assured and the pacing is swift. The show builds suspense but never at the expense of feeling; some of the most quietly poignant scenes are between Morck and his hospitalized partner (played by Jamie Sives), two men communicating a lot without saying much. The case the Dept. Q oddballs end up solving is less memorable than the characters themselves \u2014 a recipe for a show with legs. \u2014Maria Fontoura<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \tDying for Sex (FX on Hulu)<\/p>\n \t\t\t \n\tIt\u2019s understandable if you put off watching Dying for Sex for a while, knowing that it would devastate you. (This writer certainly did.) But once you dig into Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock\u2019s adaptation of the nonfiction podcast of the same name, you\u2019ll be wholly glad you did. Michelle Williams gives one her finest performances \u2014 and that\u2019s saying a lot \u2014 as Molly Kochan, who, upon learning her stage 4 breast cancer has returned, decides to ditch the husband who refuses to touch her (Jay Duplass) and embark on a journey of sexual self-discovery. Her flighty actress best friend (Jenny Slate) becomes her primary caretaker, while Molly has a series of misadventures in the hopes of orgasming and understanding her body before the disease takes it away from her. With an achingly tender supporting performance by Rob Delaney, the show is as heartfelt and funny as it is kinky. \u2014E.Z.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \tLong Story Short (Netflix)<\/p>\n \t\t\t \n\tHow do you follow up a near-perfect animated series like Bojack Horseman? If you\u2019re Raphael Bob-Waksberg and Lisa Hanawalt, you craft a deep dive into the agonies and ecstasies of a dysfunctional NorCal family that spans decades, gleefully hops timelines, and does for the Jewish-American experience what the pair\u2019s previous collaboration did for Hollywood-celebrity neuroses. Meet the Schwoopers: Naomi (Lisa Edelstein), the occasionally nagging matriarch; Elliot (Paul Reiser), the peacemaking husband and father; Avi (Ben Feldman), a former music critic; Shira (Abbi Jacobson), who\u2019s raising two kids with her wife Kendra (Nicole Byer); and the youngest, Yoshi (Max Greenfield), who has executive dysfunction and a secret. We watch them grow up, grow old, get into fights, and go to bar mitzvahs, JCC tributes, and funerals. Nothing happens except life and the forward motion of time, both of which have a way of going by way too fast \u2014 there\u2019s a sudden flash-forward at the end of the first episode that hits like slap to the face. But when that moment gets not just a callback but more context in the finale, you see exactly how Long Story Short has been playing its long game: Family will drive you crazy. They\u2019re also the only thing that keeps you from truly going insane, so be thankful for them now rather than later. \u2014D.F.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \tPluribus (Apple TV)<\/p>\n \t\t\t \n\tDone with the Breaking Bad universe, at least for now, Vince Gilligan has cooked up<\/a> a phenomenal new sci-fi series that sucks you in almost immediately \u2014 and keeps you perpetually on your toes. Pluribus tells the story of Carol (Rhea Seehorn), an author who becomes one of only 12 people on the planet not to succumb to a hive-mind pandemic caused by a sort of virus synthesized from alien code. While everyone else suddenly shares all human knowledge and becomes cheerily complacent (\u201cHi, Carol!\u201d), Carol \u2014 whom the show bills as \u201cthe most miserable person on Earth\u201d \u2014 must decide whether she\u2019ll be the face of the resistance. The pleasure comes from Gilligan\u2019s slyly incremental plotting that makes you second-guess whether Carol\u2019s independence is worth saving, and Seehorn\u2019s powerhouse performance that gives you the answer. \u2014E.Z.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \tSeverance (Apple TV)<\/p>\n \t\t\t \n\tWe all had to wait a long time for Severance, which debuted in 2022, to return, but it was well worth the nearly three years of thumb-twiddling. The second season expanded the mystery of the show\u2019s central company, Lumon, while also heightening our emotional pull toward Mark (Adam Scott), Helly (Britt Lower), and the rest of its employees. As we got to know our protagonists\u2019 outies better, we got to see the world they leave behind when they enter Lumon\u2019s doors. The result was often heartbreaking. Beautiful spotlights on characters like Gemma (Dichen Lachman) and Harmony (Patricia Arquette) only deepened the series\u2019 emotional range. At the same time, the visual language of the show became even more spectacular, with mind-blowing sequences including the instantly iconic Mr. Milchik (Tramell Tillman) leading a marching band. \u2014E.Z.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \tTask (HBO)<\/p>\n \t\t\t \n\tWe know what you may have been thinking when you got word of this Brad Ingelsby series: Oh, great, another dour story set in an incomprehensibly gray part of Pennsylvania, where people are grouchy and everyone talks funny. You\u2019d only be half-right. Yes, the Mare of Easttown creator returned to his native stomping grounds outside Philly for this show. Yes, the characters talk with a distinct Delco accent (or try to, anyway). And yes, the storyline is dark. But where Mare could sometimes feel leaden (despite great performances from Kate Winslet and Jean Smart), Task was somehow softer and lighter on its feet. The episodes were propulsive, following two men on a collision course: Tom Pelphrey\u2019s garbageman-with-a-plan, Robbie, who leads a crew robbing stash houses along his trash route, and Mark Ruffalo\u2019s taciturn cop Tom, grief stricken from a family tragedy and merely going through the motions until he\u2019s put on this case. Pelphrey\u2019s performance is a revelation \u2014 a marvel of emotional depth \u2014 while Ruffalo is in peak less-is-more mode. Emilia Jones is so in the pocket as Tom\u2019s frustrated niece\/keeper Maeve it\u2019s hard to believe she wasn\u2019t plucked from a Delaware County casting call. And just when you think you know where the show is headed, it takes an unexpected turn. Not only that, for all its sadnesses, Task manages to end on a hopeful note. A feat, especially in 2025. \u2014M.F.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \tThe Chair Company (HBO)<\/p>\n \t\t\t \n\tTim Robinson has done it again: He\u2019s gotten us invested in the plight of another maniac. This time it\u2019s William Ronald Trosper, known as Ron, an Ohio man who is helping develop a new mall complex. In the pilot, Ron has just finished giving a big presentation when he goes to sit down onstage in an office chair that promptly collapses on him. Most people would brush off this incident as a minor humiliation. Not a Tim Robinson character. Ron spirals trying to figure out just what was wrong with this seating implement, leading him down a darkly absurdist path. Along the way he finds a little person hiding in his coat closet, fights a man with a large dent in his head at a \u201ccoke bar,\u201d and is briefly coerced into having a fake affair on camera, among other activities. (Kudos to Joseph Tudisco, who plays Ron\u2019s investigation partner, Mike Santini, like a Sopranos extra who\u2019s just been jabbed in the heart with adrenaline.) Created by Robinson and his comedic partner Zach Kanin, The Chair Company is both a compelling mystery and a deluge of some of the most bizarre images you\u2019ll see onscreen this year. A masterpiece of oddity. \u2014E.Z.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \tThe Last of Us (HBO)<\/p>\n \t\t\t \n\tThe general consensus is that The Last of Us Season Two was not as good as Season One. So be it. It was still one of the most well-crafted, finely acted, compulsively watchable shows of this year. The early death of Joel (uh, spoiler?) is a blow to the show\u2019s heart center but it makes you treasure Pedro Pascal\u2019s return for the flashback sixth episode \u2014 an intimate look at the evolution, and breakdown, of\u00a0Ellie and Joel\u2019s relationship \u2014 all the more. It also opens the door for Kaitlyn Dever to flex her dark side as the vengeful Abby. The set pieces were as dazzling as ever, and the creepy next-level infected upped the stakes. Season Three, set to focus on Abby, has much to live up to. \u2014M.F.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \tThe Lowdown (FX)<\/p>\n \t\t\t \n\tMeet Lee Raybon \u2014 muckraking journalist, bookstore owner, resident \u201ctruthstorian,\u201d and the sort of rambling, shambling sleuth that makes Jeffrey Lebowski look like a seasoned professional. Sterlin Harjo\u2019s follow-up to Reservation Dogs hands Ethan Hawke the role of a lifetime<\/a>, and were his Oklahoma noir simply a showcase for the actor to play his own version of a shaggy-dog detective in way over his head, this would still be one of the best shows to hit TV over the past 12 months. But like the best hardboiled tales, The Lowdown pulls on the single thread of a case, i.e. the apparent suicide of a prominent local, and watches as an entire infrastructure involving class, race, land ownership, and a legacy of exploitation unravels before its hero\u2019s eyes. (Forget it, Lee\u2026 it\u2019s downtown Tulsa.) Throw in a crack ensemble of actors like Tim Blake Nelson, Keith David, Jeanne Triplehorn, and Kyle MacLachlan, as well as oddball bits of business involving underground caviar rings, wannabe Native gangsters, and first-edition Jim Thompson paperbacks, and you have a sideways genre exercise that still packs a helluva uppercut at the end. \u2014D.F.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \tThe Pitt (HBO Max)<\/p>\n \t\t\t \n\tYou\u2019d have been forgiven for thinking that the medical drama was long played out. Soapy and frequently silly, the genre couldn\u2019t possibly offer something innovative or relevant to our times. Then The Pitt arrived like a shock to the system in January. The series\u2019 first season traced a single 15-hour shift in the emergency department of a Pittsburgh trauma hospital \u2014 one hour per episode \u2014 swapping network schmaltz for a no-frills adrenaline rush. On the strength of its precise and understated writing as well as its extremely capable cast \u2014 including Noah Wyle as the weary head of department Dr. Michael \u201cRobby\u201d Robinavitch, journeywoman Katherine LaNasa as the straight-shooting nurse Dana holding the whole chaotic operation together, and standout newcomer Taylor Dearden as shy resident Mel King \u2014 The Pitt rightfully zoomed straight to hit status. In the process it highlighted real problems facing American hospitals, from budget cuts and understaffing to vaccine skepticism and opioid addiction, and made heroes out of people who just do their damn jobs<\/a>. Season Two is just weeks away: Come for the case-of-the-minute drama; stay for the rich character studies and competence porn. \u2014Claire McNear<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \tThe Rehearsal (HBO)<\/p>\n \t\t\t \n\tHow to follow something as profoundly bizarre as the 2022 debut season of The Rehearsal, Nathan Fielder\u2019s surrealist docuseries? Make it much, much stranger, obviously. The show\u2019s sophomore season<\/a> took on aviation in the way that, say, Salvador Dal\u00ed took on clocks. As its premise this time around, The Rehearsal asked a basically reasonable question: What if most aviation accidents are attributable to pilot performance, and what might one have to do to change that? In Fielder\u2019s hands, the prompt led to an exercise in gonzo limit-pushing that featured, among other things, the staging of a fake American Idol\u2013style competition show and the acquisition of an actual 737, which Fielder flew with a fuselage full of fake passengers after getting formally licensed as a pilot. And that only scratches the surface of The Rehearsal\u2019s bonkers shenanigans. It\u2019s unlikely that anyone who saw the Sully Sullenberger episode \u2014 in which Fielder attempts to get to the heart of the captain\u2019s heroics during the Miracle on the Hudson by personally speed-running Sullenberger\u2019s entire life, complete with scenes in a supersized crib with a giant puppet mother breastfeeding him \u2014 will ever forget it. \u2014C.M.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \tThe Studio (Apple TV)<\/p>\n \t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Lucasfilm Ltd.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: LARRY HORRICKS\/NETFLIX\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Justin Downing\/Netflix\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Sarah Shatz\/FX\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Netflix\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Lewis Jacobs\/AppleTV\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: AppleTV\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Peter Kramer\/HBO\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Virginia Sherwood\/HBO\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: HBO\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Shane Brown\/FX\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Warwick Page\/HBO\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: John P. Johnson\/HBO\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Apple TV\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n