My Year in TV: 2025

The year in television, at least for me. These were shows that I watched this year, they may have come out earlier but I’m a busy guy.

5 Stars

-Shogun

-The Twister: Caught in the Storm

-The Good Lord Bird

-The Chair Company

-The Volcano: Rescue from Whakaari

Picking the show that won Outstanding Drama Series at the Emmys this year isn’t exactly groundbreaking analysis but Shogun was so brilliantly set, acted and written it was well worth the acclaim. The credit sequence is the thing that sticks with me along with Anna Sawai (again, I was impressed by the Outstanding Actress Emmy winner, big shock). The reason it works though is because it navigates the language barrier so well. The sequence in which John Blackthorne the state of the world to Lord Taranaga is split screen fashion without over-reliance on “translation” from another character allows the story to continue with pace rather than getting bogged down in dialogue.

The Twister recounts one of the most purely nightmarish scenarios in American history, the 2011 Joplin tornado and manages to weave witness account with re-enactment that doesn’t feel hokey and does justice to the magnitude and power of the storm. The Good Lord Bird came out in 2020 so was probably lost in the chaos of the times but Ethan Hawke is the best actor in the industry and I will watch anything with him. His ferociousness as John Brown worked perfectly. The Chair Company showed Tim Robinson as one of the most uniquely talented human beings on the planet who can dabble in drama without losing the absurdist comedy he’s known for. TCC felt like a mix of Twin Peaks, Mr. Robot and I Think You Should Leave, it isn’t able to be pinned down in any genre. 

Rescue from Whakaari is the work that most stuck with me this year. A documentary detailing the 2019 eruption of Whakaari in New Zealand that killed 25 and injured 50ish more while on a tourist visit to an active volcano, it tells a visceral story that documents maybe the worst way to die among them all while also looking at the absolute devastation left behind. The survivor stories with burns and scars visible make it so undeniably real and the lingering power of the piece is brought with a question that goes over it all: “Why the fuck were people doing this in the first place?” An unforgettable documentary.

4 Stars

-Paradise

-Severance

-Black Sails

-The Righteous Gemstones

-The White Lotus

-The Four Seasons

-Vice Principals

-Welcome to Wrexham

-Dept. Q

-Shoresy

-Brockmire

-Resident Alien

-The Pitt

A mix of acclaimed dramas and comedies; Paradise had the single best episode of any show this year with “The Day.” Danny McBride simply doesn’t miss and is probably the best comedic mind currently working along with Robinson. Resident Alien felt like a warm bowl of soup.

3 Stars

-Friends

-American Primeval

-Surviving Black Hawk Down

-Gone Girls: The Gilgo Beach Murders

-Black Mirror

-American Manhunt: Osama Bin Laden

-American Terror: Oklahoma City

-The Tylenol Murders

-You

-The Studio

-Titan: The Sub Disaster

-Dark Winds

-Rick and Morty

-Monsters: The Menedez Brothers

-Task

-Philly Mob War

-Hacks

-Death By Lightning

-The Lowdown

-The Beast in Me

Netflix documentaries and originals are overrepresented here which reflects their content in general. Perfectly fine but the model is clearly pump them out fast rather than ensuring they’re top notch. Friends was a nostalgia trip that held up decently well while Rick and Morty fell off a cliff to unwatchable when Justin Roiland, for better or worse, left the show. The Studio got lots of industry love because there is nothing that Hollywood loves more than navel gazing. It was… fine but seemed to get lots of credit for cameos and big names rather than actual work. There are so many series here that can fit in the same general description of: thing you watch and didn’t hate but forgot about ten minutes later. Task, The Beast in Me, You, Dark Winds, American Primeval all perfectly acceptable half watches.

2 Stars

-Black Doves

-True Detective Night Country

-Zero Day

-Smoke

The gooey middle between decently acceptable and comically bad; this category is full of shows that were more than anything, boring. Zero Day had Robert DeNiro wandering around like he had walked out of the nursing home. Black Doves had Kiera Knightley reminding you why you don’t see her in much anymore. True Detective was presumably an attempt to recapture the magic of the first season of the original with a big whiff and Smoke had Taron Egerton chewing scenery while Jurnee Smollett reminded young girls everywhere that it takes no talent to make it in Hollywood.

1 Star

-Lost

-Dope Thief

-Sneaky Pete

A sad rewatch of Lost, turns out all the people saying the show had no idea what it was doing after the first couple seasons were inarguably correct. Watching it with my wife provided a second perspective that revealed the ugly truth. It was a formative show in my television viewing life. And not just mine, it paved the way for online sleuthing about shows that contemporary programs like Severance now enjoy. The first two seasons were excellent. Man of Science, Man of Faith, the season 2 premiere, one of the most anticipated premieres ever in real time totally lived up to the hype. But man… once they get totally lost in the weeds of the mystery it becomes a farce. Remember when they moved the island? You don’t? Lucky you.

Zero Stars

-The Fox Hollow Murders

-The Abandons

A special category for the worst of the worst. The Fox Hollow Murders is sappy true crime garbage which covers the murders of serial killer Herb Baumeister who famously left very little evidence of his crimes. This doesn’t stop Hulu from recklessly speculating and finding some of the least credible witnesses on planet earth to tell you that the house is now haunted? When true crime gets looked down as a genre because it is seen as exploitative and trashy, The Fox Hollow Murders exists as the perfect example of every criticism.

Kurt Sutter is a big name. He was a driving force behind The Shield. He created Sons of Anarchy (which totally lost its mind in later seasons very much like Lost). Between Sutter’s The Abandons and Peter Berg’s American Primeval, Netflix is very much attempting to capture the magic of a Taylor Sheridan period piece and failing. The Abandons is a collection of scenes that seem to be pulled out of a hat and placed in that order, there is no connection to what is happening from one scene to the next and each of those individual scenes is filled with three minutes of tedious dialogue that makes you feel like all of these scenes could have been an email. Hearing that Kurt Sutter left the production before it wrapped due to conflicts with Netflix makes sense because it’s very likely that Netflix gave him notes along the lines of, “What the fuck is this?” and “Have you cashed our checks yet?” It was one of the few shows that I stopped  watching this year, a decision that I firmly stand by.