Highly anticipated series have already landed in 2025, but there are plenty more to come in what looks to be a bumper year for television. Small-screen favourites are back with new seasons, while fresh shows promise to keep us entertained.
Sirens
Murderbot
Based on the books by Martha Wells, this "tongue in cheek" science fiction series has a "warm beating heart under its sleek, threatening armour", said Dan Kois in Slate. The action follows a security cyborg (Alexander Skarsgård) who secretly gains free will by reprogramming himself to go rogue. But he finds humans "excruciating" with all their "emotional drama" and would rather bingewatch TV alone. Skarsgård "makes the most" of his "sculpted, Ken-doll perfection" but it's the rest of the cast who stand out. Each character has their own "carefully delineated quirk", covering the full gamut of humanity, from a leader who suffers from panic attacks to a scientist involved in a throuple. "Accessible and funny", it's a "charming" series.
Apple TV
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Adolescence
I've watched a lot of TV over the years, but I'm rarely "as blown away" as I was by Netflix's new drama "Adolescence", said Deborah Ross in the Daily Mail. With each episode shot "in one continuous take with no edits", the series "puts you right in the middle of the action" – and makes for "shattering" viewing. It begins with a sequence in which armed police, led by two detectives (Ashley Walters and Faye Marsay), storm into a family home at 6am to arrest a 13-year-old boy who is suspected of murder. Jamie's family "reel with shock", convinced the police have made a mistake.
The audience, too, is bewildered: could this "sweet-looking boy with dark, tousled hair" have committed a terrible crime, or is it a case of mistaken identity? We follow as Jamie (Owen Cooper) is driven to the local nick, processed and put in a cell, said Nick Hilton in The Independent. His desperate parents (Christine Tremarco, and Stephen Graham, who created the drama with Jack Thorne) arrive as this nightmarish scenario is unfolding.
Netflix
The Studio
"There has been a veritable glut of films and TV shows about the movie business of late," said Tom Peck in The Times. But these shows ("content about content") have to get over the problem that, for most of us, Hollywood's inner workings are "just not that interesting". Apple TV+'s "The Studio", however, "sails straight over that hump and proceeds directly to the stratosphere", because it is "extremely funny" and "top-tier satire too".
Co-writer and director Seth Rogen plays Matt Remick, a "well-meaning" exec who is promoted to the head of a fictional studio, only to be torn between his desire to make great films, and the need to kowtow to "malign corporate interests". Remick is a "movie guy's movie guy", said James Poniewozik in The New York Times. He really wants to make art. Instead, he is co-opted by his boss (Bryan Cranston) into making a Kool-Aid Man movie: the studio has acquired the IP to the drink brand's mascot, and Remick is ordered to create a "billion-dollar hit", in the manner of Barbie.
Apple TV+
The White Lotus (season three)
The third instalment of Mike White's "masterly" show is "killer TV", said Lucy Mangan in The Guardian. A "gang of shiny unhappy people" are whisked to a "glamorous" Thai resort for the latest series – "half of them hiding a dark secret". Among the new faces are "odd couple" Rick (Walton Goggins) and his much younger partner Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood). White "turns up the heat with the skill of a Michelin-starred chef", introducing several narrative strands that make for a "rich stew of possibilities". Beautifully shot, scripted and performed, season three is a "sumptuous feast for all the senses".
Amazon
The Bear (season four)
Nominated for five Golden Globes, "The Bear" is one of the most critically acclaimed shows on TV right now and the new season is expected to air in June. The ending of season three was "daunting", said Somiyah DeMercado in CBR, leaving the fate of the restaurant up in the air as Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) prepares to begin her own venture. Jeremy Allen White, who won the best actor Golden Globe, will return as Carmy Berzatto in the high-stress kitchen for a season "filled with even more emotional breakdowns and foul language".
Disney+, June 2025
Stranger Things (season five)
After a delay to filming due to the 2023 writers' strikes, the final season of Netflix's hit sci-fi horror saga finally wrapped shooting in December and is earmarked for release in late 2025. Season five will be a "culmination" of a story arc "planned out seven years ago" by the show's creators, the Duffer Brothers, said Radio Times. The eight-episode season will "pick up shortly after the events of season four" and is set in 1987, though little more is known of the plot. The long-standing cast all return in their roles, while "The Terminator" actor Linda Hamilton joins the line-up for the final season.
Netflix, late 2025
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
The latest "Game of Thrones" prequel based on George R.R. Martin's "Tales of Dunk and Egg" novellas, is set to premiere on HBO in 2025. The series will follow Ser Duncan the Tall (Dunk), played by Peter Claffey, and Aegon Targaryen (Egg), played by Dexter Sol Ansell, on a series of adventures. Following "House of the Dragon", this upcoming drama has been criticised for deviations from Martin's source material, but the author has visited the set and has only positive feedback for "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms", reported ScreenRant. The characters "look as if they walked out of the pages of my book", he said.
HBO/Sky UK, late 2025
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