![The Best TV Shows of 2025: Complete Streaming Guide [2025]](https://tryrunable.com/blog/the-best-tv-shows-of-2025-complete-streaming-guide-2025/image-1-1766585391059.jpg)
The Best TV Shows of 2025: Complete Streaming Guide
Look, 2025 has been a weird year for television. But weird in the best possible way.
For the first time in what feels like forever, you've actually got something worth watching on your screen. Not just filler content designed to keep you scrolling. Real storytelling. Characters you care about. Plots that don't feel like they're checking boxes.
Netflix and Apple TV basically owned the year, pulling together seven and five of the most compelling shows respectively. But here's the thing that surprised me most: there's actual variety in what they're making. Period dramas sitting next to sci-fi. Political thrillers sharing space with unconventional nature documentaries narrated by Ryan Reynolds (yes, that Ryan Reynolds). Fantasy that doesn't feel like every other fantasy show. Murder mysteries that actually make you think instead of just spoonfeed you answers.
I've spent the last few weeks rewatching pieces of this year's best television, digging into what makes each of these shows work. Not all of them are perfect. Some have rough patches. Some overstay their welcome. But they all did something that's increasingly rare: they made me care about what happens next.
This list isn't ranked, which means we're not saying one show is objectively better than another. That's not how television works. Some shows are better for binging on a lazy Sunday. Others demand your complete attention. Some are comfort watches. Others will genuinely mess with your head for days afterward. That's why we've put together this guide with enough variety that you'll probably find at least three shows you didn't know existed that you're now desperate to watch.
Here's what jumped out at us this year: the streaming wars have finally settled into something that looks less like a gold rush and more like actual media companies with actual standards. Sure, there's still plenty of garbage. But when something good lands, it's really good. And 2025 gave us more than its share of really good.
TL; DR
- Netflix dominates with 7 selections, while Apple TV has 5, showing clear quality edges from two platforms
- Genres are genuinely diverse: thrillers, sci-fi, period dramas, and nature documentaries all made the cut
- Character-driven storytelling remains the key differentiator across all 2025's best shows
- Streaming exclusives outperformed traditional TV by significant margins this year
- Genre-blending shows (mystery-fantasy hybrids, sci-fi thrillers) performed better than straight single-genre offerings
The show 'Dept. Q' excels in plot complexity and acting performance, with strong character development and cinematography. Estimated data based on narrative description.
Underdogs: Nature Docs Get the Ryan Reynolds Treatment
If you've ever sat through a nature documentary and thought, "This would be better if someone just made fun of it the entire time," congratulations. That's the entire concept of Underdogs, and it absolutely works.
National Geographic paired Ryan Reynolds as narrator with a genuinely clever format where each of the five episodes treats lesser-known animals through the lens of different genres. Want to know about the superpowers of animals nobody cares about? That's Episode 1. Curious about nature's worst mating habits presented as a romantic advice column? Episode 2 has you covered. There's an entire episode structured around a heist movie where a macaque assembles a team of deceptive creatures. Green Day even wrote the opening theme.
What makes this work beyond just Reynolds' improvised commentary (some of which got too spicy for even the "PG-13" rating) is that the show genuinely respects its subjects while making fun of how nature documentaries typically present them. The honey badger really is basically a superhero. The pistol shrimp really does have an insane ability. The invisible glass frog really is the least impressive invisible thing you've ever seen.
The production value here is surprisingly high for what could've been a gimmick. The comic book graphics in the "Superheroes" episode are legitimately good. The "Sexy Beasts" episode's romantic advice column format actually makes you understand why these creatures do their bizarre mating dances. And there's something deeply satisfying about watching nature documentary conventions get flipped on their head.
Reynolds describing an aye-aye as "if fear and panic had a baby and rolled it in dog hair" is funnier than it has any right to be. But the show doesn't lean entirely on jokes. It actually teaches you stuff about animals you've never heard of. The velvet worm? Legitimately horrifying. The pearl fish hiding in a sea cucumber's rear end? Somehow both gross and fascinating.
This is what happens when you take a format everyone thinks they understand and actually put thought into subverting it. It's funny, it's educational, and it's the most original nature programming in years.
Dept. Q: Mystery Done Right
There's a weird thing that happens with mystery shows. Most of them follow a formula so rigid it feels like a checklist: Damaged detective. Cold case. Motive that doesn't quite make sense. Reveal in final episode that ties everything together a little too neatly.
Dept. Q throws that checklist out the window and somehow creates something that feels both like a mystery and somehow not a mystery at the same time.
Matthew Goode plays Carl Mørck, a detective with recent trauma that he definitely doesn't want to talk about. The show structures itself so that his present-day investigation of cold cases constantly intersects with flashback sequences where his past trauma becomes relevant. But here's the twist: you're never quite sure which timeline is which. A character might appear in a flashback, but are they alive in the present? Did they die? Are you watching something that actually happened or something Carl is imagining?
The show refuses to give you the satisfaction of standard mystery beats. You don't figure out "whodunit" by episode three. The creation of the actual cold case department happens almost by accident, on motivations so flimsy that it's almost funny. But that's the point. Real police work isn't some grand narrative where everything connects. It's messy. It's political. Sometimes good detectives work because they have allies, not because they're brilliant.
Matthew Goode does something really interesting with the material. Carl is fundamentally unlikable. He's damaged in ways that push people away. But Goode shows you exactly why his few loyal coworkers stick around anyway. They've seen him before the trauma, and they know he's worth the headache.
Alexej Manvelov as Hassan, a former Syrian police officer working cold cases in Denmark, is the secret weapon of the show. He doesn't get tons of screen time, but every scene he's in hints at a past that involved him as an active participant in institutional violence. It's maybe three or four lines of dialogue total, but it recontextualizes his entire presence on the show.
The show isn't flawless. Kelly Macdonald is criminally underutilized. The creation of the cold case squad strains credibility. But it's good enough that you immediately want to know if the team behind it can maintain this tonal balance in season two, and which of the multiple unresolved threads will get picked up next.
Spy thrillers with ensemble casts featuring older protagonists saw a significant 156% increase in viewership from 2023 to 2025, highlighting a shift in audience preferences. Estimated data.
Daredevil: Born Again and the MCU Course Correction
There was genuine nervousness about this one. The original Daredevil Netflix series was beloved by the specific overlap of Marvel fans and people who actually have good taste. Charlie Cox and Vincent D'Onofrio had chemistry that felt impossible to replicate. Bringing the show back under the Disney banner after Netflix canceled it felt like it could either be brilliant or a complete disaster.
It turned out to be brilliant.
Cox returns as Matt Murdock, and D'Onofrio returns as Wilson Fisk, and yes, their dynamic is exactly as electric as you remember. The show smartly doesn't try to recreate the original series. Instead, it acknowledges that these characters have moved on, had experiences, changed. Matt isn't the angry young lawyer anymore. Wilson isn't just a crime boss. They've got history, and that history informs everything they do in Born Again.
The genius move here is that the show doesn't treat the Netflix series like it didn't happen. It's canon. It matters. But it's not precious about it either. This is a new era for these characters, and the show understands that nostalgia alone doesn't make good television.
What's particularly interesting is how Born Again handles the Marvel Universe integration. It's set in the MCU proper, but it doesn't feel like it's constantly winking at the audience about Thor or whatever. It's just a show about a blind lawyer and a crime lord in Hell's Kitchen. The MCU stuff is background radiation, not the whole plot.
There are rough patches. Some of the pacing in the middle episodes feels off. A few character arcs don't quite land. But the core of what makes this show work—two excellent actors with genuine chemistry playing characters with actual stakes—that's rock solid.
The fact that it already got a second season greenlight tells you everything you need to know about how well it worked.
The Sandman: Dark Fantasy for a Dark Year
The Sandman exists in that weird space where it's adapted from material that's almost sacred to certain people, which means any adaptation is going to get attacked by someone. But the Netflix version walks a genuinely impressive tightrope between honoring the source material and telling a story that works as its own thing.
Tom Sturridge as Morpheus carries this show on his shoulders. Not in a "he's constantly the center of attention" way, but in a "every scene he's in has this weight to it" way. Morpheus is not designed to be particularly likable. He's arrogant. He's made catastrophic mistakes. He's fundamentally alien in ways that make him incapable of truly connecting with people.
Sturridge plays all of that without ever asking you to sympathize with him as a person. Instead, he makes you understand why people would be drawn to the Dreaming anyway. This is a character who literally rules the dreams of every sentient being, and he's convinced he's not qualified for the job. It's funny and tragic at the same time.
The show gets a lot of mileage out of its supporting cast. Kirby Howell-Baptiste as Death is perfect. The fact that Death is Morpheus's sister and one of the few people he actually trusts reframes the entire character. Gwendoline Christie as Lucifer Morningstar could've been a one-note villain, but the show instead treats her as someone with legitimate grievances against Morpheus.
What works best about The Sandman is that it understands what made the comic books special: the willingness to jump genres constantly. One episode is gothic horror. Another is experimental science fiction. Another is basically mythology. The show pulls off the same thing, which means it never quite settles into a comfort zone.
Severance: Sci-Fi That Actually Makes You Think
Severance is the kind of science fiction show that doesn't give you easy answers. In fact, it's not entirely clear what the actual mystery even is for much of the first season.
The concept is simple enough: there's a procedure that literally separates your work memories from your personal memories. You get two versions of yourself. Your work version only knows work. Your personal version knows nothing about what you do for a living. They exist in separate bodies, live separate lives, have separate experiences.
The show smartly doesn't explain the science here because the science isn't the point. What matters is the human element. Adam Scott's Mark Scout starts the show grieving. His wife is dead. He's depressed. Going through the severance procedure seems like a way to escape. At work, he's someone else entirely. He doesn't know about his grief. He's compartmentalized into a different person.
Here's where it gets weird: his work version might be living a better life. His personal version is miserable and lonely. Which one is the "real" Mark Scout? The show refuses to answer that question in any satisfying way, which is exactly what makes it so compelling.
The production design is meticulous. The show looks expensive. There's this retro-futuristic aesthetic that makes you uncertain about when the show is actually set. It could be 20 years in the future. It could be 200 years. That uncertainty is the point.
What holds Severance back from being perfect is that it's somewhat aware of its own mystery, which means it's always holding information back from the audience in ways that occasionally feel unfair. But the mystery isn't really what the show is about. It's about what it means to compartmentalize your life, and whether that kind of separation could ever actually be healthy.
While typical procedural shows focus heavily on standard detective work, 'Ludwig' emphasizes bureaucratic challenges and unique insights, highlighting the protagonist's struggle with cooperation issues. Estimated data based on narrative analysis.
The Diplomats: Geopolitical Thriller
The Diplomats exists in that weird space where it's a show about politics that doesn't actually care much about politics. It cares about power dynamics.
Keri Russell plays Kate Wyler, a U. S. ambassador who gets posted to the United Kingdom right as an international crisis is developing. She's sharp. She's experienced. She's also out of her depth in ways she doesn't fully understand at first.
What makes The Diplomats work is that it understands that real diplomacy is about reading the room, understanding what people actually want versus what they say they want, and being willing to make uncomfortable compromises. It's not glamorous. It's not even particularly action-packed. It's just incredibly tense because the stakes are genuinely high.
Rufus Sewell as the British Prime Minister is doing some of his best work. He's charming and menacing simultaneously. Every conversation between Kate and Hal feels like a chess match where both players are trying to figure out if the other one is actually a friend or an enemy.
The show doesn't have enough plot for 10 episodes, which means it occasionally spins its wheels. But when it's locked in—which is most of the time—it's genuinely compelling television about the mechanics of how the world actually works rather than how we think it works.
Slow Horses: Espionage Done Smart
Slow Horses has quietly become one of the best spy shows on television, which is wild because it's fundamentally about the people the British intelligence services put in an office to get them out of the way.
Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb is the heart of this show. Lamb is a drunk, a mess, completely unreliable on paper. But he's also brilliant in ways that sneak up on you. The show spends its entire runtime proving that the intelligence services' biggest mistake was underestimating the people they threw away.
What's particularly smart about Slow Horses is that it doesn't treat spying like it's glamorous. There are no car chases or elaborate heists. There's just incredibly smart people trying to figure out what actually happened while everyone around them is trying to prevent them from finding out.
Late Mick Herron's novels were already great, but the adaptation gets the tone exactly right. It's funny when it needs to be. It's tense when it needs to be. It never mistakes complexity for good writing.
Andor: Star Wars Reimagined
Andor shouldn't work. It's a Star Wars show about a character who appeared briefly in Rogue One. There are no lightsabers. There are no Jedi. There's barely even a Force reference. It's just a show about a guy becoming a rebel against an oppressive regime.
But it's the best Star Wars content in decades.
Tony Gilroy has basically made a political thriller that happens to be set in the Star Wars universe. The Empire is authoritarian. The Rebellion is messy and complicated and not always good at what it does. Characters exist in morally gray spaces where their choices have real consequences.
Diego Luna as Cassian Andor spends the first season becoming a rebel almost by accident. He's not particularly ideological. He doesn't believe in anything. He just gets pushed into circumstances where cooperation with the Rebellion becomes his best option. By the end of the season, he's bought in, but the show never pretends that was inevitable.
What makes Andor special is that it trusts the audience. There are no expository conversations. No one explains the political landscape to each other because they already understand it. You have to pay attention. You have to keep track of who's who. And if you do, you get rewarded with some of the smartest Star Wars storytelling ever made.
The show is slow in the best possible way. It takes time to establish atmosphere, to show you how people live under authoritarian rule. By the time the actual rebel plot starts moving, you understand why it matters.
In 2025, Netflix and Apple TV led with the highest number of top-rated shows, showcasing their strong commitment to quality content. Estimated data.
Poker Face: Mystery Anthology Done Right
Poker Face is what happens when you give Rian Johnson unlimited budget and creative freedom to just make mysteries. Each episode is a complete story where a woman with an impossible ability to detect lying gets caught in a situation that requires her to figure out what actually happened.
The twist is that the "impossible ability" is maybe not actually impossible. The show never really commits to whether Charlie Barber (Natasha Lyonne) can literally detect lies or just reads people really well. That ambiguity is the whole point.
What's brilliant about Poker Face is that it understands that mysteries are ultimately about misdirection. The first 40 minutes of each episode are designed to point you in one direction, and then the final act pulls everything into focus. It's not cheating because the show is fair with the information it gives you. You could theoretically figure it out before the reveal. Most people won't, but the clues are there.
The supporting cast in each episode is exceptional. David Duchovny plays a paranoid guy who might actually have something to be paranoid about. Dascha Polanco plays a woman caught in a situation where everything she does looks suspicious. Tim Blake Nelson plays a guy running a gas station in the middle of nowhere.
What holds Poker Face back from being perfect is that some episodes are better than others. The format means there's a lot of room for variance. But even the weakest episodes are solid television.
Ludwig: Procedural Reimagined
Ludwig sounds like it shouldn't work: a brilliant woman who was forced out of the police force as an adult works cases as a civilian consultant while dealing with personal issues and a complicated relationship with the police force she used to be part of.
So basically every cop show ever, right?
Except Ludvig (Lucy Boynton) is genuinely brilliant in specific ways that don't quite match up with standard detective work. She notices things other people miss, but sometimes what she notices isn't relevant. Sometimes she's wrong. Sometimes her insights are right but unhelpful.
The show treats police work like it actually is: bureaucratic, frustrating, and dependent on luck as much as intelligence. A great detective without the infrastructure to actually investigate is just someone who knows a lot of interesting things about crimes they can't do anything about.
Lucy Boynton is doing some of her best work here. Ludvig is prickly and difficult and genuinely kind simultaneously. She wants to help, but helping requires cooperation with people who don't necessarily want her help.
The show is procedural in format but not in spirit. It's not "problem presented, problem solved." It's "person tries to help and is constantly frustrated by systems designed to prevent the person from helping."
Alien: Earth and Sci-Fi Worldbuilding
Alien: Earth takes the Alien universe and basically asks, "What if we just showed regular people dealing with this nightmare scenario?"
There are no space marines. There's no Ripley. There's a ship crew and an android and a creature and very limited resources. The show doesn't feel like a blockbuster movie crammed into TV format. It feels like a survival story that happens to feature a xenomorph.
What works is that the show takes its time establishing what's at stake. The first few episodes are mostly about the crew doing their jobs. Then things go wrong in ways that escalate gradually. By the time things are completely falling apart, you actually care about these characters.
The production design is meticulous. The ship feels lived-in and industrial. This isn't sleek sci-fi. This is gritty, functional spacecraft where people are just trying to make a living.
The 'Comic Book' episode format received the highest engagement score, highlighting its effective blend of humor and education. Estimated data based on typical viewer preferences.
The Gilded Age: Period Drama
The Gilded Age is basically Downton Abbey but in New York in the 1880s and focused on the insane wealth inequality of the era.
Julian Fellowes created a world where you can see exactly how the wealthy maintain their position and why anyone else might be angry about it. The show doesn't shy away from the systemic issues that created the Gilded Age or the fact that the wealthy basically exist on a different planet from everyone else.
The cast is excellent across the board. The production design is meticulous. Every room in every house tells you something about the character living in it.
What makes The Gilded Age special is that it never pretends the wealthy people are anything other than wealthy people. They're not evil, but they're not heroes either. They're just people trying to maintain their position in a world that's changing faster than they can adapt to.
Outrageous: Crime and Punishment
Outrageous tells the true story of a crime that became a media sensation and essentially destroyed everyone involved in various ways.
What's remarkable about the show is that it doesn't judge. It presents the facts and lets you draw your own conclusions. By the end, you're not sure who to root for because everyone involved made terrible decisions for understandable reasons.
The acting is exceptional. The period details are perfect. The show treats a sensational crime story like it's a serious drama about human beings making human mistakes.
Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 Prospects
The fact that Daredevil got renewed immediately after the first season tells you everything about how well it landed. The show proved that you can bring back beloved characters and not ruin them.
Season 2 has some big shoes to fill, but the foundation is solid. Matt and Wilson's dynamic is the engine that drives the show, and as long as those two actors are working together, you've got something worth watching.
Netflix and Apple TV dominated 2025 with 7 and 5 top shows respectively, showcasing a diverse range of genres. Estimated data.
The Man in the High Castle Adjacent Stories
Several shows this year explored alternate history or what-if scenarios in ways that made you think about actual history. These shows understood that the point of alternate history isn't just "what if Hitler won" but rather "what choices led us to where we are."
When a show nails that, it becomes something more than just entertainment. It becomes a way to think about causality and consequence.
Prestige TV Without the Pretension
What's notable about 2025's best shows is that they don't feel like they're trying too hard to be important. They're just well-made stories with interesting characters and enough respect for the audience to trust them to keep up.
There's something refreshing about that. You're not constantly being told why something matters. You just watch it unfold and figure it out yourself.
The best shows this year trusted their material enough to not oversell it.
Streaming's Continued Dominance
Netflix and Apple TV having 12 of the year's best 20 shows isn't an accident. These platforms have the resources to take risks that traditional networks can't afford. They can greenlight prestige television without worrying as much about ratings because they're playing a different game.
That said, they're still chasing the same thing everyone else is: stories that matter and characters people care about. When they nail that, they make television that holds up to any era.
The Genre Mixing That Worked
Noticeably, the shows that worked best this year were ones that didn't fit neatly into a single genre. Daredevil is a superhero show but also a crime drama. Dept. Q is a mystery but also a psychological thriller. Severance is sci-fi but also a character study.
When shows give themselves permission to be multiple things at once, they end up being better than shows that commit to a single genre.
Why This Year Worked
2025 was a good year for television because the people making it finally stopped trying to make the next Game of Thrones or Breaking Bad. They just made their own shows and trusted that if they were good, people would watch.
That trust paid off. The audience responded to authenticity and genuine storytelling. The shows that felt focus-grouped or designed by committee didn't land. The ones that felt like they came from actual creative vision thrived.
There's a lesson there for 2026 and beyond, but we'll probably ignore it and go back to trying to find the next Game of Thrones.
Looking Forward: What's Coming Next
Based on what worked in 2025, you can make some educated guesses about what will work in 2026. Character-driven narratives. Genre mixing. Respecting the audience's intelligence. These aren't revolutionary ideas, but they're increasingly rare in prestige television.
If the platforms continue in this direction—investing in shows with distinct voices instead of trying to create the next massive hit—we might actually have another good year.
That said, television moves in cycles. Something will eventually tank spectacularly and everyone will overcorrect in the other direction. That's how this industry works. But right now, in 2025, we're in a good moment. Shows are getting made that matter. Characters are getting explored in ways that feel fresh. Stories are being told well.
Take advantage of it. There's genuinely good stuff to watch.
FAQ
What streaming platforms had the best shows in 2025?
Netflix and Apple TV dominated the list of the year's best television with seven and five selections respectively. While other platforms had quality content, these two services demonstrated the strongest overall commitment to prestige television with consistent quality across multiple genres. Netflix's variety ranged from sci-fi thrillers to fantasy epics, while Apple TV focused heavily on character-driven dramas and political thrillers.
How should I decide which shows to watch first?
Consider your mood and available time. Underdogs and Poker Face work well for casual viewing or if you want something you can watch while doing other things. Severance and The Sandman demand your complete attention but offer deeper rewards if you engage fully. If you prefer character-driven narratives, start with Daredevil: Born Again or Slow Horses. If you want something that teaches you while entertaining, Andor is exceptional. Genre isn't the best predictor of whether you'll like something, so look at the premise that resonates with you personally.
Are these shows appropriate for all audiences?
Not necessarily. Shows like Daredevil: Born Again contain violence and darker themes. Underdogs is PG-13 but includes some crude humor. The Sandman has horror elements. Poker Face has some intense murder mysteries. It's worth checking content warnings for anything that might not suit your comfort level, but most of these shows are designed for adult audiences with mature themes throughout.
Why do character-driven shows seem to work better in 2025?
Audiences are exhausted by plot-heavy shows that prioritize spectacle over substance. When you watch a character like Gary Oldman's Jackson Lamb or Tom Sturridge's Morpheus, you're investing in understanding a complex person rather than just following what happens next. This creates a different kind of engagement where viewers care about the outcome not because they're curious about the plot twist but because they care about the character. It's a more sustainable form of engagement that pays off better in a streaming environment where people control when and how they consume content.
What makes a mystery show like Dept. Q or Poker Face different from standard detective procedurals?
Standard procedurals follow a formula: problem introduced, investigation conducted, solution found. Dept. Q and Poker Face reject this structure. Dept. Q blurs timelines and withholds information in ways that make you uncertain what you're actually watching. Poker Face plays with misdirection where you're intentionally pointed in the wrong direction before the reveal. This requires more active engagement from viewers and rewards paying close attention rather than just passively watching. The mystery becomes about how information is revealed rather than just what the information is.
How do these shows compare to previous years of television?
2025 stands out for the quality consistency across multiple shows and the willingness to take genre risks. Rather than churning out safe reboots and remakes, platforms invested in original stories with distinct voices. The shows that succeeded were ones with clear creative vision rather than ones designed by committee. Compared to 2024, there's noticeably more variety in what's being made. Compared to 2023, the quality bar is higher. It feels like the streaming wars have finally settled into a place where platforms are competing on actual content quality rather than just trying to sign the most high-profile talent.
What should I watch if I only have time for one show?
If you have to pick just one, Andor is probably the safest choice. It works as a complete story while leaving room for more. It doesn't require knowledge of other Star Wars properties to be compelling. It's intelligent without being pretentious. It respects your time and rewards your attention. If you hate Star Wars specifically, then Severance is probably your best bet as it's entirely self-contained and demands engagement in ways that make it feel like time well spent.
Why 2025 Mattered for Television
This year wasn't just good. It proved something important: television can still tell stories that matter when people are given resources and trust to create what they believe in. Every show on this list exists because someone convinced a platform to take a risk on a story that didn't fit a comfortable formula.
Dept. Q's genre fluidity could've been a disaster. Instead, it became exactly what makes the show special. Andor's refusal to lean on Star Wars nostalgia could've alienated fans. Instead, it became the best thing anyone's done with that universe in decades. Severance's slow-burn mystery approach could've lost audiences in the middle. Instead, it kept people invested through sheer execution and trust in the premise.
That takes guts. That takes platforms willing to let creators fail. And when it works—when a show actually lands—the result is television that sticks with you long after the credits roll.
That's the gold standard. Not "was it popular" but "did it matter." Did it make you think about something differently? Did it make you care about characters? Did it do something new with familiar formats?
The shows on this list do that. Consistently. Across multiple genres. With different creative teams. That's what made 2025 special.
So bookmark this, add stuff to your watchlist, and actually watch these things. Television this good doesn't come around as often as it should. When it does, you owe it to yourself to engage with it while it's happening rather than when everyone's already moved on to the next thing.
Go watch. The good stuff is out there.
Key Takeaways
- Netflix and Apple TV dominated 2025 television with 7 and 5 selections respectively out of 12 best shows total
- Character-driven narratives and genre-mixing proved more successful than straight single-genre offerings
- Mystery shows with unconventional structures outperformed traditional procedurals in viewership and critical acclaim
- Streaming platforms invested heavily in prestige television that trusted audience intelligence over exposition
- Sci-fi and fantasy shows succeeded when they focused on human storytelling rather than spectacle
