Friday, December 26, 2025 |
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It's been a hell of a year on the small screen. (Also, you know, a hell of a year in general. But I digress.) If you followed along with Esquire's television coverage in 2025, you already know our favorites: The Pitt. Severance. Pluribus. Pretty much anything that aired in HBO's Sunday-night primetime slot. Or starred Matthew Rhys. But at the end of the year, we narrow down our favorites into a tight—and, most importantly, ranked—top ten. It's reliably my most difficult task of the year. But it's also my favorite. Take a look at our final list of the best shows of 2025 and let us know if we got it right. —Brady Langmann, senior entertainment editor Plus: |
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It's time to settle the show-of-the-year debate once and for all. |
Much like Pluribus's Carol after thousands of alien body-snatchers packed up and left town, the life of a TV critic is pretty damn lonely. Watching your favorite shows before anyone else sounds great in theory! More often than not, it's a bummer in practice. I remember watching—and, uh, crying, if I'm being honest—Severance's season 2 finale weeks before my friends and family, then having no choice but to keep it all a secret (MARK, WHY?!?!!?!?!?!) until the episode finally debuted on Apple TV. Same goes for just about all of The Chair Company (exceptional, but landed just outside of our top ten), which is simply a show that you should watch with as many of your fellow weirdos as possible. It's not all bad, though. The stellar slate this year was the best we've had in a long time, really. Several TV shows made for sleepless nights (I'm sorry, but could you stop watching Andor if you had multiple episodes at once?) and some moments that I'll never forget. |
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If you totally missed Black Friday and Cyber Week due to a turkey-induced coma or hellish Q4 work deadlines, there are still opportunities to get what you need. Enter: Lululemon's end-of-year sale. Whether you're hunting for actual comfy work pants for sitting in the office or new workout shirts so you can kick off your 2026 fitness resolutions on a strong note, there's a lot of heavily discounted gear to be found at Lululemon right now. |
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For Gaten Matarazzo, the stakes of the final Stranger Things season are much less about whatever fate befalls his character, the good-hearted, fast-talking Dustin. Even he knows that Stranger Things needed to end. I suggest that not even the most devoted Stranger Things head wants to see a thirty-year-old Dustin. "I don't think anybody wants to see a twenty-year-old Dustin," he says. (For what it's worth: Fans place Dustin and his crew around their sweet sixteen.) During the long and complicated run of Stranger Things—which spanned three different presidents, a pandemic, and lengthy Hollywood strikes—Matarazzo starred in films (including 2022's underrated Honors Society), performed on Broadway (a stellar run in the 2023 Sweeney Todd revival), and completed voice work for several animated projects (including Andy Serkis's recent Animal Farm adaptation). But none, understandably, reached the stratospheric level of Stranger Things. Which means that next year—for the first time since Matarazzo sealed his fate in Atlanta—he has a blank canvas. "I view it as like the second chapter of my life," he says. |
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