Let’s get this out of the way right now: NBC’s Suits LA and Netflix’s Celebrity Bear Hunt were 2025’s worst new TV offerings, hands down. Suits LA arrived almost two years after the streaming resurgence of the already meh 2011-2019 series Suits, and Celebrity Bear Hunt featured no actual bears and zero mauled celebrities.
Maybe Trump’s new real-life Hunger Games series will right this wrong in 2026.
But before we completely leave 2025 behind, I’ve assembled my picks for the best new TV shows that premiered during the past year. If I didn’t include your favorites, remember this: Opinions are like old Twitter accounts—everybody has one, and they’re all best left abandoned or deleted.
Pluribus (Apple TV): Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan’s first new series in years arrived with heat but little information in November. Was it going to be a sci-fi thriller? A psychological mind-mangler? An emotional tour de force for Better Call Saul’s Rhea Seehorn? Yes, yes and yes—and so much more. While Pluribus focuses mostly on the lonely (and sometimes comical) struggle of Carol (Seehorn) amid an alien hive-mind occupation, it also drops enough plot seeds to grow several more seasons. Believe all the hype.
The Studio (Apple TV): Seth Rogen’s latest Apple TV series may be long on inside-baseball Hollywood-isms, but you don’t have to be a diehard cinephile like new Continental Studios head Matt Remick (Rogen) to get blissfully lost in The Studio’s fast and furiously funny chaos. Matt is committed to making art; the studio only wants to make money; and the expansive guest-star cast is more than game to take the piss out of their A-list images. Strap in for the nasty side of “nice guy” director Ron Howard.
The Lowdown (FX/Hulu): The dusty, bohemian haunts of Tulsa featured in The Lowdown are far removed from the glossy exteriors of Tulsa King, as is local journalist (or “truthstorian”) Lee Raybon (Ethan Hawke). Another gem from Reservation Dogs creator Sterlin Harjo, The Lowdown is loaded with hilarious, tragic characters, led here by dogged writer Lee, who’s chasing a local murder case that’s more likely to get him killed than win him a Pulitzer. The Lowdown is crime noir with a big heart, if little common sense.
It: Welcome to Derry (HBO/HBO Max): Even though the first screen adaptation of the Stephen King novel It was a 1990 TV miniseries, there was no path back to the tube for Pennywise the Clown—or so many of us thought. The 1960s-set prequel seriesIt: Welcome to Derry establishes a deeper backstory for Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård, returning from the 2017 and 2019 movies) and the quaint town of Derry while cranking the gore and dread to 11. It: Welcome to Derry has set the new horror TV bar.
The Chair Company (HBO/HBO Max): I never believed Tim Robinson’s sketch series I Think You Should Leave was the work of genius the fanboys claimed it was, but The Chair Company? Also not genius, but it is entertaining AF under mild chemical influence. The twists the series throws in order to conflate a vast conspiracy out of a poorly constructed office chair are impressive, and Robinson sells the hell out of it, one cartoonish “Oh my GOD!” at a time. If he can sustain this weirdness for a second season, OK, genius.
I Love LA (HBO/HBO Max): At first glance, I Love LA looks like Gen Z noise, way too cool and out of reach for the average, aged-out viewer. But Rachel Sennott’s semi-autobiographical comedy about life on the fringes of Hollywood is goofily relatable and reaffirming, even though she and her, ahem, Entourage (Odessa A’Zion, True Whitaker and Jordan Firstman) are really, really, really, ridiculously gorgeous and funny. Paired with the previous two series, I Love LA completed the strangest Sunday HBO lineup ever.
Common Side Effects (Adult Swim/HBO Max): At this point in its 24-year history, the most radical programming move Adult Swim could pull would be an unironic conspiracy thriller with minimal laughs—enter Common Side Effects. When fungi expert Marshall (voiced by Dave King) discovers a mushroom with the power to cure any disease—even death—he becomes the target of shadowy governmental and pharmaceutical entities. For a cartoon, Common Side Effects is heavy.
Stumble (NBC/Peacock): NBC is betting on The Office-esque mockumentaries like St. Denis Medical and The Paper to save its comedy division, and Friday-night straggler Stumble may be its brightest hope … if more, or any, viewers find it on Peacock. Star Jenn Lyon (Justified, Claws) effortlessly leads the series as the coach of a ragtag college cheerleading squad with looonnng-shot championship dreams. Stumble’s jokes-per-minute attack is a metaphysical marvel that puts the Dunder-Mifflin crew to shame.
More new highlights from 2025: Adults (FX/Hulu), Alien: Earth (FX/Hulu), Daredevil: Born Again (Disney+), Death by Lightning (Netflix), Dexter: Resurrection (Paramount+/Showtime), Down Cemetery Road (Apple TV), Duster (HBO Max), The Hunting Party (NBC), The Hunting Wives (Netflix), Long Bright River (Peacock), Mid-Century Modern (Hulu), The Paper (Peacock), Paradise (Hulu), The Pitt (HBO Max), Smoke (Apple TV), Stick (Apple TV), Task (HBO/HBO Max), and Your Friends & Neighbors (Apple TV).