Once again, it’s time for me, Nick Bryan, to creak my written TV critic muscles back into action for their one annual outing, after another year of only outpiping my opinions via the spoken word in this podcast (apart from the occasional capsule review in my newsletter).
This is the fourteenth time I’ve done this, and you can re-experience all the previous write-ups below:
As ever, this is entirely my opinion, I’m veering away from the consensus on a few items here. Artistic preference is ultimately subjective and anyone who tells you otherwise is lying.
This year, it was another competitive one, several list veterans didn’t make it. Even though the heaving mass of peak TV has slowed, there’s still more than enough to fill this chart and keep me guessing.
We start with an unsurprising entry for me…
#10 – Daredevil: Born Again
It’s actually been a while since the last live action superhero series on this list – see Stats Corner for some details on that – despite Marvel making multiple attempts on Disney+ across the whole current decade.
But after all those years and all those heroes, what it really took was the return of a series from the 2010s. Yes, Daredevil: Born Again is basically a clean continuation of the old Netflix Daredevil show, with most of the main cast intact, along with that show’s willingness to throw in some excessive violence.
Not sure other critics will have this as high on their charts, but I enjoy a good street-level loner superhero series, so a well-made Daredevil return is an easy sell for me. They brought in the brooding noir crime vibe, and anchored it in great performances by Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio.
Also very excited that they seem to be committing to two more seasons over the next two years, rather than the traditional eternal wait of the modern streaming show.
Stats Corner: Last live-action superhero show was Peacemaker in 2022. The only ones of the Marvel Disney+ live-action shows to impact the chart were both Hawkeye and Wandavision in 2021. However, Marvel was represented by X-Men ’97 last year. Also, the original Netflix Daredevil show appeared at #7 in 2015 and #10 in 2018, so technically this is a non-mover. (With a six year gap.)
#9 – The Diplomat
Speaking of series that reliably deliver every year – it’s The Diplomat, the political romance-comedy-drama from Netflix about a power couple of ambassadors struggling with the imbalance in their relationship after Keri Russell’s Kate finds herself promoted over Rufus Sewell’s Hal.
This show continued to improve year on year, maybe not quite topping last season’s amazing cliffhanger, but raising the stakes with ruthless efficiency, taking us to a new world of international intrigue and a new level of romantic discontent for our lead characters.
The chemistry between Russell and Sewell is fantastic and a big part of what makes this series work, but this year’s plot requires they separate for chunks of the narrative and it still keeps on rolling. Yes, I also enjoyed The West Wing nostalgia guestings from Allison Janney and Bradley Whitford, but I don’t think the show is using them as a crutch.
Funny, entertaining and enjoyably soap-opera addictive TV.
Stats Corner: A rare climber, from #9 last year to #10 now.
#8 – Peacemaker
The dam has fully broken on the live-action superhero drought, with Peacemaker following behind Daredevil. (Though don’t get too excited, there aren’t any more.)
This is the spin-off series from James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad movie, written by Gunn himself, focusing on lovable loser Chris Smith (aka Peacemaker, a man determined to bring about peace via violence) and his determination to become a better, more impressive person, despite being thwarted at every turn by a combination of other people’s manipulations and his own actions.
This season includes a rare example of the multiverse working efficiently and usefully in a modern story, as well as one of the most enjoyably ridiculous plot twists on TV this year. Might’ve been a few places higher if I hadn’t felt the last episode trailed off slightly.
Stats Corner: Down from #6 in 2022.
#7 – Adolescence
Others may place this a lot higher, but here is Adolescence, the Netflix miniseries about a heartbreaking murder committed by a teenage boy, and the consequences rippling outwards across his friends and loved ones.
Obviously this is both a touching, sensitive piece of writing and an extremely technically impressive work of TV production in how each episode is filmed in one single continuous shot. The performances by both Stephen Graham and the young actor Owen Cooper are especially devastating.
Personally, brutal kitchen sink dramas are not my favourite thing, but I can’t deny the impact here, or the quality of the work.
Stats Corner: The last dark drama in this vein to make the top 10 might’ve been… The Fall in 2014?
#6 – Death by Lightning
Speaking of Netflix miniseries, it’s Death by Lightning, a historical drama about the career and assassination of President Andrew Garfield. I watched this a few weeks ago as part of an attempt to see a few more acclaimed shows of 2025 to inform this chart, and although the other item from that session won’t be appearing on the chart (sorry Task, you were too much of a dreary bummer), I was surprised how much I liked this.
Helps that it features the excellent Matthew Macfadyen playing a complete worm, in a fun continuation of his role in Succession. And of course, it’s about US politics, so Bradley Whitford pops up again as well.
But mostly, it’s a brisk, funny, sad portrayal of someone completely divorced from principles (and reality) and the awful effect they can have, with some added material about grim early medical procedures towards the end. Worth giving this a look if you didn’t see it.
Stats Corner: Previous show about US politics… well, it’s The Diplomat again.
#5 – The Traitors (Celebrity and regular)
To avoid oversaturating the chart, I’ve grouped both flavours of The Traitors (UK edition) into a single entry. I could pretend I only ever watch acclaimed dramas, but this was one of the most compelling viewing experiences of the year.
Last year, I caught up with The Traitors a little after the fact, but getting to watch it along live with the rest of the country this time was an absolute treat. They’ve kept up their mastery of an addictive reality TV format, but with enough flourishes and silliness to remind us that it’s just a game show, without straying into trashy manipulation.
Will there one day be a horrifying exposé of how unethical The Traitors really is? Maybe, but right now, I’m still having a great time. Maybe found the celeb version slightly more compelling this year, but it’s a close one. Looking forward to the new run in a few days,
Stats Corner: Another big climber, jumping from #9 to #5.
#4 – The Bear
A veteran of the chart in the last few years, stressful character drama The Bear returns for its fourth consecutive appearance. My affection for these characters and this show’s general vibe of intense introspection continues unabated.
This year, our family of furious chefs tries to draw closer together after a few knocks over the last couple of seasons, and mostly succeed in becoming slightly better people. Unfortunately, just as our heroes get their shit together, the actual restaurant might finally fail. It’s all very emotional and, as ever – make me cry, place highly in the charts.
Is it as good as the first couple of seasons? Probably not, but I think it’s a stronger run than last year’s slightly meandering one (although it’s landed in exactly the same place on the list). You get the feeling they’ll need to bring this story in for a landing in the next season or two, and hopefully they’ll keep on this upward trajectory and finish strong.
Stars Corner: The Bear has now placed in four charts running, moving from #2 in 2022 to #1 in 2023, and now non-moving at #4 for two straight years. This puts them equal for most consecutive appearances with Doctor Who from 2012-15. If they manage to make another season in 2026 and chart it, they’ll take the lead.
#3 – Hacks
Most years, somewhere on this chart, there is a longrunning show I catch up on from the beginning, resulting in their current season being catapulted up the rankings due to my sheer level of immersion.
This year, it’s Hacks, the comedy-drama about veteran comedian Deborah Vance (played by Jean Smart) who finds herself drifting out of relevance and forced to work with young up-and-comer Ava (Hannah Einbinder), who desperately needs a break after getting blackballed from the industry due to some ill-advised social media drunkposting.
They’re stuck together, they work so well together, they both love and hate each other, it’s a classic toxic co-dependent relationship story. If you enjoyed Peep Show and wished there was a slightly glossier gender-swapped version set in Hollywood, this may be the series you’ve been waiting for.
And yeah, I liked it a lot, it’s both funny and emotional in well-handled levels, and has done a great job over these first four seasons of building their relationship to a fever pitch of desperate misery and occasional redemptive warmth. The 2025 season wasn’t their best, but Hacks is still damn good and I highly recommend.
Stats Corner: Jean Smart, of course, previously placed highly in these charts as part of the cast of Legion – #2 in 2017, #4 in 2018, #6 in 2019.
#2 – Andor
On this particular point, I think me and the assembled TV critics are more or less in lockstep. Time for Andor, the Star Wars series about rising revolutionary Cassian Andor as he discovers the grim reality of what it takes to resist the evil galactic empire, and most pointedly, what he’ll lose in the process.
This was also the last season, and this being a fairly brutal prequel about the realities of rebellion, there are heartbreaking moments throughout, all leading up to Andor heading off for his appearance in Rogue One to face his own great reckoning.
It perhaps took an episode or two to warm up, but the moral, practical and emotional complexity is second to none (except the show it is literally second to in this chart), and once I locked into it, I found it almost hypnotically compelling.
Stats Corner: The previous season of Andor came in at #4 in 2022, and this remains the only Star Wars (or Star Trek) show to chart.
#1 – Pluribus
I talked about the focused practicality of Andor, and there’s only one show that can beat it on that count – Pluribus, the new series from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul showrunner Vince Gilligan, which basically takes the lengthy process montages from those shows and gives them their own spin-off.
Honestly, half the reason Pluribus is so compelling is that there’s nothing else quite like it. Any other science-fiction show might feel the need to rush to the dramatic climax of their premise, but this show is happy to quietly contemplate exactly what it means to be one of the few remaining autonomous humans on a world largely absorbed into an alien hivemind, and even worse, how it feels. You hear a lot about how lonely we all are nowadays, but Pluribus might be one of the deepest dives into that I’ve seen on television.
This series has dedicated as much time to the lead character’s trips to the supermarket as any kind of pitched battle with aliens, and somehow it just works. It helps that Rhea Seehorn is delivering a quietly astonishing performance as the protagonist. Most of this show is continuous shots of her face, and the nuance she’s able to portray is a big part of why this series is so good, especially because the character we’re spending all this time on arguably isn’t even that likable.
And yet I sit there happily for hours, watching as she walks slowly though her house, struck dumb with deep sadness. Now that’s television.
Stats Corner: Gilligan has a strong record on this chart, starting with Breaking Bad at #2 in 2012 and #1 in 2013, then Better Call Saul at #5 in 2017, #7 in 2018, #4 in 2020 and #1 in 2022. If these were all one show, it would basically be total dominance.
Honourable Mentions
It was a tricky chart this year, a lot of good shows ended up falling away, including some I honestly expected to make it in there somewhere.
For example, one of the last items to be cut was Alien: Earth, Noah Hawley’s new series about the arrival of xenomorphs on our doomed planet. A fun, if slightly weirdly paced, series, with one of the most memorable farm animals I’ve seen on TV for a while.
The second run of Ncuti Gatwa’s time on Doctor Who was more consistent than the first, in my opinion, and held itself together a lot better as it went along, but still didn’t quite manage to break the chart.
Two other shows I really liked also returned this year and fell short – Slow Horses and Poker Face both kept a strong level of quality (although I felt like Slow Horses wobbled a little compared to previous fantastic efforts), but didn’t quite slip in.
Most surprisingly, Dexter: Resurrection was in competition, even though the final season of the original Dexter show was one of the worst things I’ve ever watched voluntarily. But they managed to get back to basics with surprising success in this latest comeback.
All of the above are worth watching, even if they fall outside the top ten. Meanwhile, in non-eligible older shows, I watched the whole of The Marvellous Mrs Maisel (meanders at times, but the characters and dialogue are so good, you barely care). the first four seasons of Homicide: Life on the Street (one of the best straight-up cop shows I’ve seen) and the first half of Barry (like Dexter only better).
And also the first 13 seasons of Taskmaster while working out at the gym. Yes, everyone was right, that’s a lot of fun.
