10. “The Pitt”
Essentially just a belated take on “ER”— the creator, Scott Gemmill, director/executive producer, John Wells and star Noah Wyle, all worked on the medical drama together, and even originally pitched it as a spin-off based on Wyle’s Dr. John Carter character—“The Pitt” is a contemporary ER drama set in Pittsburgh and set in the aftermath of the pandemic. The gimmick to this one—though it’s definitely less of a trick and more of an authentically sustained crescendo of tension and anxiety—is that an entire season is set over the course of a 15-hour day, with each episode being one hour in a trauma med ER shift. Wylie’s Michael “Robby” Robinavitch, the captain of the ship, oversees a grueling shift, with a cavalcade of people to juggle under him, newcomers—Shabana Azeez, Gerran Howell, Isa Briones, and Taylor Dearden— veterans Patrick Ball, Katherine LaNasa, Fiona Dourif and more. Together, they all try to surf the wave of ER chaos, and it’s an electric, compulsively watchable series that always makes you feel like you’re holding your breath for the entire episode. It’s a terrific cast in a great series, and it’s just getting started. – RP
9. “Alien: Earth”
Noah Hawley’s FX series “Alien: Earth” pulls off the rare franchise miracle: it’s genuinely frightening while also expanding the mythology with bracing, adult ideas. Set in 2120—two years before Ridley Scott’s 1979 film—it imagines an Earth where traditional governments have essentially been replaced by five mega-corporations jockeying for supremacy, turning capitalism into the real monster behind the monsters. The primal fear is still there—xenomorphs, darkness, the unknown—but Hawley leans just as hard into existential chill: a pitch-black future, spiritually unsettling in its view of inhumanity, emotionally bruising in its grief, and psychologically unnerving in its portrait of synthetics evolving beyond us with cold, ruthless efficiency. The show’s key invention is Wendy (Sydney Chandler), a prototype “hybrid” whose consciousness is uploaded into a super-humanoid by corporate visionary Julian Kavalier, working with scientists Dame Silvia (Essie Davis) and Arthur (David Rysdahl), reframing the franchise’s obsession with bodies, souls, ownership, and free will as a corporate arms race for immortality. Hawley’s craft is impeccable in the way it balances franchise expectations with unnerving new unknowns, while taking its visual grammar from Scott’s original—grimy texture, thick dread, and the sense that every corridor is a trap. It’s bright, layered, and anxiety-inducing, and it earns its scares by making the future feel as predatory as the creature- RP
8. “Severance”
It took three long years for Apple to premiere a second season of one of their biggest hits, but it was worth the wait for fans of this remarkably original and ambitious drama. While the first few episodes of season two felt a bit unfocused in a way that made it feel like the show wasn’t confident about where it was going, Dan Erickson and his team brought the season in for a solid landing. With great performances all around—especially Emmy winner Trammell Tillman this year—it’s one of the few shows of 2025 that really felt like it had people talking every week, one of the few shows that felt like it earned its social media buzz. – BT
7. “Dying for Sex”
Michelle Williams gives one of the best performances of her notable career in this story of a woman who discovers herself sexually when she receives a terminal cancer diagnosis. With the help of a BFF played perfectly by Jenny Slate and a neighbor/lover sketched by Rob Delaney, Williams’ character discovers the importance of advocating for yourself and finding joy in every moment you’re allowed on this Earth. It’s a sexy, funny, very moving piece of dramatic storytelling that deserves an even bigger audience. – BT
6. “The Lowdown”
Sterlin Harjo’s FX neo-noir comedy “The Lowdown” plays like a crooked blues riff—laid-back, shaggy, and funny up top, with a darker undertow waiting to swallow anyone dumb enough to keep digging. Ethan Hawke is effortlessly watchable as Lee Raybon, a self-described “truthstorian” (part muckraker, part folklorist, part amateur detective, full-time meddler) whose obsession with Tulsa’s rot keeps sabotaging his attempts to be a present father to his teenage daughter, Francis (Ryan Kiera Armstrong, terrific and sharp enough to become the show’s beating heart). When troubled outcast Dale Washberg (Tim Blake Nelson) turns up dead in a “suicide” just as Lee’s exposé on the powerful Washberg family hits print, Lee can’t stop himself from chasing the breadcrumbs. The orbit is delicious: Jeanne Tripplehorn as grief-as-performance widow Betty Jo, Kyle MacLachlan as her slick, menacing politician in-law Donald, Tracy Letts as a ruthless fixer, Scott Shepherd as an unsettling enforcer, and Keith David as a smooth mystery-man who feels like ally and threat at once. Harjo bends his “Reservation Dogs” hangout DNA toward noir mood—sodium-lamp streets, smoke, backrooms—letting dread and comedy bleed together until the real subject snaps into focus: truth-seeking costs, and the bill usually comes due at home – RP
