For television to be deemed worthy of our time, it usually has to be very serious. The agreed-upon best programmes ever made – The Sopranos, Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad – are high-budget American sagas, with dark storylines and some grand allegory to dish out.
But this year has been different. The best series have been lighthearted, fun and invariably hilarious (even when dealing with such dreadful topics as cancer and suicide). With an increasingly worrying news cycle, no wonder we all gravitated to the happier end of the TV scale – we all just needed a bloody good laugh.
With that said, here are my top 10 TV shows of 2025:
10. The Studio
Ike Barinholtz as Sal Saperstein, Kathryn Hahn as Maya Mason, Chase Sui Wonders as Quinn Hackett and Seth Rogen as Matt Remick (Photo: Apple)
There’s something rather delicious about watching Hollywood’s biggest stars sending up their own industry. Martin Scorsese, Ron Howard, Charlize Theron and Steve Buscemi are just a handful of the titans of film who appear in The Studio, a zippy mockumentary following the highs and lows of running a hitmaking studio.
Boss Matt (Seth Rogen) dreams of making arty blockbusters, but market pressures – and his boss, played by a brilliantly slimy Brian Cranston – force him to abandon those ideas in favour of a Kool-Aid movie and Duhpocalypse, a film about a diarrhea-spraying zombie starring Johhny Knoxville. It’s both a hilarious needling and depressing insight into the erosion of filmmaking as an art.
9. Amandaland
Lucy Punch as Amanda (Photo: Natalie Seery/Merman/BBC)
Motherland will go down in history as one of the most beloved sitcoms on British TV, so potentially undermining its status with a sub-par spin-off was a gamble. Thankfully, Amandaland was an absolute hoot. Following the original series’ yummy mummy villain, the six-part sitcom saw Amanda fall from grace as she became a divorced, single mother forced to live in the suburbs of South Harlesden (or SoHa, as she calls it).
The brilliance of Amanda lies in Lucy Punch’s selfless performance. With her perma-blow-dried hair and air of superiority (even when she’s working in a kitchen appliance shop), Punch isn’t afraid to push Amanda to her monstrous limits – without ever making us hate her. Plus, casting Joanna Lumley as her overbearing, snobby mother was a stroke of genius.
8. Louis Theroux: The Settlers
Louis Theroux (Photo: Josh Baker/Mindhouse Productions Ltd/BBC)
Louis Theroux focuses most of his time on podcasting these days, but this one-off film proved he still has the mettle to get out on the road and make important, urgent documentaries. The Settlers refers to the Israeli people who have set up their homes in the West Bank – a subject Theroux first interrogated in his 2011 film The Ultra Zionists.
The war in Gaza gave The Settlers an edge of urgency, and we saw a new side of Theroux when he was confronted by a gun-carrying Israeli soldier, warning him “don’t touch me”. Another scene saw Theroux and his crew holed up in the home of a Palestinian family, under siege by settlers in the middle of the night. But it was his meeting with Daniella Weiss, the architect of the settler movement, that really pushed Theroux’s buttons and ended with him calling her a “sociopath”. The very definition of must-watch television.
8. Big Boys
Dylan Llewellyn as Jack (Photo: Patch Dolan/Channel 4)
Set in “pre-covid, pre-Brexit, pre-air fryers” 2015, the third and final series of Jack Rooke’s university comedy ended with an emotional punch to the throat. Big Boys has always had an undercurrent of darkness, exploring the depths of male mental health through the laddy Danny (Jon Pointing), but the outstanding final episode was an absolute masterclass in how to bring a story to a devastating – yet somehow hopeful – end.
It wasn’t all doom and gloom – the early part of the series took us on a pal’s holiday to Greece and Jack (Dylan Llewellyn)’s exploration of his sexuality continues with hilarious consequences. But it’s that beautiful finale – which kicked off with the real Jack having a heart-to-heart with the fictional Danny – that made it such special, heartfelt television.
6. Dying for Sex
Jenny Slate as Nikki and Michelle Williams as Molly (Photo: Sarah Shatz/FX)
Just as Big Boys managed to lace a suicide storyline with humour, Dying for Sex found the funny side of a terminal cancer diagnosis. Michelle Williams plays Molly, a fortysomething New Yorker who leaves her husband and embarks on a sexual journey of discovery when she finds out her cancer will kill her in the next five years.
Dying for Sex is laugh out loud hilarious as Molly, flanked by her best friend Nikki (a scene-stealing Jenny Slate), learns what she really wants before her days are up. But in between the sex parties and standing on men in stilettos are the terrifying chemo appointments and the existential dread of leaving everything behind. In the end, though, it was a life-affirming – and rather sexy – joy to watch.
5. The White Lotus
Walton Goggins as Rick and Aimee Lou Wood as Chelsea (Photo: HBO)
Three seasons in and The White Lotus formula – murder mystery in a luxury hotel – is a well-trodden path. Yet this year’s season, set in the humid jungle of Thailand, still managed to surprise me. As usual, we had no idea who had been killed or who had done the killing, but it was the relationships between the uber rich guests that kept me tuning in week in, week out.
The show turned Stockport native Aimee Lou Wood into an international star, thanks to her doe-eyed innocence as Chelsea, the young girlfriend of Walton Goggin’s miserable, vengeful Rick. But my favourite performance came from Parker Posey, who gave her character Victoria the most ridiculous (and imitable) North Carolina accent. More silly accents in serious dramas, please!
4. Pluribus
Rhea Seehorn as Carol (Photo: Anna Kooris/Apple)
Pluribus doesn’t get the attention it deserves. If you ask me, the entire nation should be talking about this eccentric, brilliant series. Made by Vince Gilligan – the man behind Breaking Bad and its spin-off Better Call Saul – it’s set in the near future, when an alien signal is beamed down to Earth, turning the entire human race into a happy hive mind. Well, everyone except Carol (Rhea Seehorn).
As she grapples with the concept of being a true outsider, Carol becomes increasingly desperate to reverse this so-called “joining”. It makes for a propulsive, tricksy, intelligent drama – and a rare example of a series that doesn’t spoon-feed its audience. All that and it still managed to make me crack up with laughter.
3. Adolescence
Mark Stanley as Paulie Hunter, Owen Cooper as Jamie Miller and Stephen Graham as Eddie Miller (Photo: Netflix)
Jack Thorne’s tale about a teenage boy accused of murdering one of his classmates took the world by storm when it arrived in March, obviously hitting a nerve about our collective worry over how the “manosphere” is affecting the lives of our young people. It was only four episodes, but each instalment made you think differently about the unfolding story – in the first episode, I felt sorry for Jamie (Owen Cooper), the boy in question, but by the propulsive third, I was firmly against him.
Cooper, Stephen Graham and Erin Doherty gave powerhouse performances, made all the more impressive by the fact that each episode was filmed in real time and in one continuous take. Adolescence was so impactful that it was shown in schools and discussed at cabinet meetings – yet further proof that television is a powerful tool when it comes to confronting real-life troubles.
2. Last One Laughing UK
Bob Mortimer, Judi Love, Lou Sanders, Harriet Kemsley, Jimmy Carr, Rob Beckett, Roisin Conaty, Daisy May Cooper, Sara Pascoe, Richard Ayoade, Joe Lycett and Joe Wilkinson (Photo: Amazon)
I had my reservations about Last One Laughing. Not only was it hosted by Jimmy Carr (not my favourite comedian to say the least), but it’s also a concept that’s been around for a while in the guise of its various international versions. But with such a spectacular line up – featuring the likes of Bob Mortimer, Judi Love, Joe Wilkinson and Daisy May Cooper – I gave it a fair shot.
And thank God I did. I can’t remember the last time a TV show made me laugh so hysterically – ironic, since the whole concept of the series is that the competing comics weren’t allowed to laugh. From Bob’s magic show to Daisy’s impression of being on a roller coaster (complete with a leaf blower), Last One Laughing UK was brilliant in its simplicity. I shan’t spoil it for those who are yet to watch, but I will say that it’s a genius move to invite Bob back for the upcoming second series.
1. The Celebrity Traitors
Alan Carr and Cat Burns (Photo: Euan Cherry/Studio Lambert/BBC)
Another programme I was wary about was the celebrity version of The Traitors. The civilian series is so beloved that it’s almost sacred, and I was sure that (just as with Celebrity MasterChef and Celebrity Race Across the World) inviting famous people to play would fall flat. I’ve never been happier to be so wrong.
Not only did every single celeb get into the sleuthing spirit – including knight of the realm Sir Stephen Fry – but even the trials (usually a damp squib) were more exciting. Who can forget Celia Imrie screaming down a well like a banshee, or the time she farted with nerves while chained up in a derelict shed?
It was a rollercoaster ride of subterfuge, sneaky murders and, in the very last moments, utter treachery. I watched the finale with the same anticipation I would if England were in the World Cup final and it went to penalties – not so much on the edge of my seat as stood on my feet, shouting at the TV.
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