These are the 22 must-see TV shows for 2025 you can’t miss

If The Revenant wasn’t quite gnarly enough for you, its writer, Mark L Smith, has taken the bloody western mayhem a notch further in this grimly compelling Netflix epic. Directed by Peter Berg, it’s told over six widescreen episodes and is full of gory action that wouldn’t be out of place in Saving Private Ryan – save for all the Shoshone warriors and scalpings. The cast of Taylor Kitsch, Dane DeHaan, Jai Courtney, Betty Gilpin, Shea Whigham and a scene-stealing Kim Coates is a good’un, too. 

Jan 9

If you’re feeling a bit mixed about going back to work this month, spare a thought for the staff of Lumon Industries. They return to their mind-manipulating employer for a second season that, promises showrunner Ben Stiller, will only get darker. Adam Scott, Patricia Arquette, John Turturro, Zach Cherry and Christopher Walken are back as ‘Innies’, workers who are severed from their out-of-hours consciousnesses. This time, they’re pushing back.

Jan 17

One half of the star-crossed couple that ruined us in Netflix’s One Day last year, Leo Woodall is going off-the-grid in his post-breakout moment with this Apple espionage thriller. He plays a maths prodigy who stumbles upon a series of prime numbers that can unlock every computer on the planet (prime target, see?). Okay, it’s the most on-the-nose title since Plane but it sounds like the perfect techie conspiracy thriller to fill the 3 Body Problem void.  

Jan 22

New season, new luxe hotel, new high-rollers… new corpse? Mike White’s smash-hit satire on the idle rich at their most idle adds a Thailand stamp to its passport as Jason Isaacs, Walton Goggins, Carrie Coon, Leslie Bibb, Michelle Monaghan, Patrick Schwarzenegger and others check in for the most stressful ‘destressing’ imaginable. Much as we’ll all miss Jennifer Coolidge – RIP Tanya – the third run of White Lotus should be February’s most talked-about telly.

Feb 5

For fans of true-life fraudster tales – Dopesick, The Dropout et al – this Aussie drama will be a must-see dose of schadenfreude. Based on ‘The Woman Who Fooled the World’, a forensic account of the rise and fall of so-called wellness guru Belle Gibson, the six-part series will chart how the proto-Insta influencer claimed to have cured her own cancer via the power of diet alone – and then turned the suspect claim into a business empire. Booksmart’s Kaitlyn Dever stars as the fraudulent girl boss. 

Feb 6

After a nationwide cyberattack kills more than 3000 Americans, a former president is conscripted into heading a task force investigating the incident in this political thriller from Narcos creator Eric Newman. The trailer makes it look like a CBS drama, except the cast is absolutely stacked. Robert De Niro stars as said ex-President, along with Jesse Plemons, Angela Bassett, Lizzy Caplan, Matthew Modine, Joan Allen and Connie Britton. Whew.

Feb 20

Oi oi, what’s all this then? The latest series from Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight is a grimy, Victorian-era British crime drama involving Jamaican immigrants, boxing and organised shoplifting. Small Axe’s Malachi Kirby plays a new arrival in London’s East End circa the 1880s who ends up in the crosshairs of both a violent brute and an all-female crime syndicate known as the Forty Elephants, which actually existed. It looks like something Guy Ritchie would be involved in, and indeed, Snatch alum Stephen Graham portrays a hulking heavy named Sugar Goodson.

Feb 21

Gugu Mbatha-Raw’s amnesiac Tess Caldwell continues her Memento-like quest to find out who she really is in a second season of this glossy jigsaw puzzle of an Apple thriller. This one takes her from San Francisco to her hometown of London where – to quote The Dude – new shit will come to light. The end of season 1 had Tess stitching up her ex (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) like a kipper, so expect him to resurface looking for at least an apology. Ted Lasso’s Phil Dunster joins the cast this time. 

Feb 21

Matt Murdock, Hell’s Kitchen’s finest, returns after a big-money transfer from Netflix to Disney. The blind lawyer, aka Daredevil (Charlie Cox), brings his super-senses back to bear in his fight for justice against mobster-turned-politician Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio). Netflix’s foray into superhero TV had its moments – and Fisk was the hulking presence behind most of them. Whatever fresh stamp Marvel brings to this one, hopefully the big bad will remain his malevolent self.

Mar 4

The home of Rocky becomes the home of meth rocks in a Philadelphia heist thriller based on a 2009 novel by crime writer Dennis Tafoya. Brian Tyree Henry and Narcos’ Wagner Moura star as a pair of pals who go from posing as DEA agents to rip off small-time meth dealers to unwittingly repeating the trick on a major narcotics crew when they rob a big country pile. The book is a cordite-tinged redemption tale; expect something similar from The Town co-writer Peter Craig, the showrunner here.

Mar 14

Seth Rogen and his Superbad writing partner Evan Goldberg conceived this showbiz satire, starring Rogen as the idealistic new head of a legacy movie studio who discovers his dream job has very little to do with actually producing good movies. It scans as The Player updated for post-pandemic Hollywood, and features Rogen’s character getting chewed out by a number of celebrity guests, including Martin Scorsese, Zac Efron and Kathryn Hahn. Intriguing.

Mar 26

Don Draper breaks bad! In his return to televised drama, Jon Hamm once again plays a suave, well-dressed New Yorker living a lie. Here, the name’s Andrew Cooper, a hedge fund manager who loses his job and resorts to burglarising his wealthy neighbours to maintain his family’s lifestyle. Created by Jonathan Tropper, of Cinemax’s Banshee, no one’s expecting another Mad Men, but Apple has already ordered a second season, so expectations are clearly still high.

April 11

When Tony Gilroy was shuttled in to get Rogue One over the line during its troubled production in 2016, the modern Star Wars universe inherited arguably its greatest asset. The screenwriter-filmmaker-showrunner proved with prequel series, Andor, that he has a better handle on what makes Star Wars tick than many, delivering an examination of the nature of resistance full of thrilling moments. We don’t know too much about his second Andor run, except that it has Diego Luna back as rebel-with-a-cause Cassian Andor, and that its 12 episodes will take us right up to the events depicted in Rogue One. Altogether now: ‘On program!’

Apr 22

Ah, Jane Austen and public broadcasting – name a more iconic duo, we’ll wait. In the case of this four-episode miniseries, though, the Miss Austen in question is not the legendary novelist but her sister, Cassandra. Set a decade after the author’s death, it weaves together truth and fiction while investigating the central mystery of the elder Austen’s life: why did she destroy a large chunk of her correspondence with her famous sibling? A number of familiar faces from other TV period dramas, including Keeley Hawes of The Durrells, star in this adaptation of the best-selling Gill Hornby novel. 

May 4

Whether you consider it a ‘true’ zombie series or not, the first season of The Last of Us eclipsed any single season of The Walking Dead and landed in the top tier of video game adaptations all-time. (A low bar, but still.) The second season is reportedly set five years after the events of the first, as Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey continue traversing America in the aftermath of history’s most destructive fungal infection, the former now harbouring a major secret. Catherine O’Hara appears in the trailer as some sort of… post-apocalyptic therapist, maybe?

TBC 2025

Rewatching Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is your homework for a Marvel spinoff that focuses on young tech wiz Riri Williams, aka the super-suited Ironheart, as she heads back to Chicago and gets involved with the mysterious (but almost certainly villainous) The Hood​. Into the Heights’ Anthony Ramos plays the antagonist, while Dominique Thorne returns as Wakanda’s answer to Tony Stark – now back on home turf. San Francisco poet, educator and playwright Chinaka Hodge is an enticing pick as head writer.

Jun 24

Wonder who? Sure, DC has Wonder Woman but Marvel’s deep-cut superhero has mystery on his side – at least, for all but the most dedicated comic-book readers. For newbies, this MCU Phase 6 series introduces Simon Williams, the titular S​pandex-wearer played by Candyman’s Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. He’s a stuntman who, in a seriously meta twist, stars in a superhero TV show. The character behind Iron Man 3’s big rug pull, Ben Kingsley’s inept actor Trevor Slattery returns, while Ed Harris stars as William’s agent.

Dec 2025

Nick Cave’s brutally bleak aesthetic hasn’t made it to screens of any size since the 2012 bootlegger drama Lawless, for which he wrote the screenplay. Now the Brits, at least, get to enjoy an entire limited series based on his 2009 novel. A sex-addicted, alcoholic travelling salesman (The Crown’s Matt Smith) takes his young son on a wild, possibly redemptive road trip to Brighton following his wife’s suicide. Oh, and there’s a serial killer on the loose. Yep, sounds like a Nick Cave joint.

TBC 2025

The end is near for the young demon-slayers of Hawkins, Indiana, and thus for one of Netflix’s truest monocultural phenomenons. Creators the Duffer brothers are being cagey on details, but after an overstuffed fourth season, hopefully we get back to basics for this final battle with the forces of the Upside Down. Could we maybe get one last wave from the afterworld from Barb, Bob and Eddie, too? Please?

TBC 2025

Netflix blew the cobwebs off The Addams Family property in 2022, turning it into a gothy YA mystery series focused on the franchise’s best character, and scored a massive hit. Season 2 won’t be messing with the formula, as Jenna Ortega’s sullen teen detective continues her tenure at private reform school Nevermore Academy, but it does add Steve Buscemi, Thandiwe Newton and Billie Piper to the cast. Will the show maintain its popularity, or go the way of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina? And does Ortega have another viral dance performance in her?

TBC 2025

In a year where a billionaire tech bro is effectively acting as the shadow President, is it possible for Black Mirror to still present a vision of the future that’s any more bleak than our current reality? Creator Charlie Brooker surely has some ideas. Guest stars in the seventh season of the sci-fi anthology series include Paul Giamatti, Issa Rae and Peter Capaldi, and two of the episodes are said to be feature-length. Plus, the show will present its first-ever sequel, to the fan-favourite fourth-season instalment, ‘USS Callister’. 

TBC 2025

On the heels of the under-seen One Hundred Years of Solitude, Netflix takes another shot at an ambitious literary adaptation – this time Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s 1958 novel about the unification of Italy. It’s already, famously, been brought to the screen by Luchino Visconti in 1963, making this endeavour doubly ambitious. But the trailer looks sumptuous, and the critical success of the aforementioned Gabriel García Márquez translation suggests the streamer can pull it off. Hopefully they actually promote it this time.

TBC 2025