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TV of the Year: 25 best shows of 2025.

TV year in review: The 25 best shows of 2025

This was a huge year for TV, with some of the best shows coming out of the blue. Do you agree with our critics?

  • Craig Mathieson, Meg Watson, Louise Rugendyke, Karl Quinn, Kylie Northover and Debi Enker

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What to stream: (clockwise from top left) NCIS: Tony and Ziva; The House of Guinness; Next Gen Chef; Slow Horses; The Lowdown; and Mutiny in Heaven.

What to stream this week: Ethan Hawke’s eccentric thriller and five more picks

Don’t miss The Lowdown, a Succession-style drama about the Irish Guinness family, and the return of Slow Horses.

  • Craig Mathieson
Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman), the dishevelled leader of a team of MI5 outcasts in Slow Horses S5.

Slow Horses is back for a fifth season. But can it maintain the pace?

The pleasures of Jackson Lamb and his misfit crew of spies are becoming familiar, but each season still feels like a delight.

  • Karl Quinn
Christopher Chung stars in Apple TV+’s Slow Horses.

Slow Horses launches Christopher Chung’s life in the fast lane

He plays the thoroughly unlikeable Roddy Ho in Slow Horses, but Christopher Chung is only getting started.

  • Louise Rugendyke
Noah Wyle accepts the award for outstanding lead actor in a drama series for The Pitt.

Full list of nominees and winners at the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards 2025

Severance, The Penguin, The Studio and The White Lotus swept this year’s nominations, with almost 100 nods between them.

  • Michael Idato and Louise Rugendyke
Spring TV index image

The 29 best shows to watch this spring (and two extra for summer)

Next big things, epic finales, returning favourites, new comedies and killer dramas: this is the best TV coming your way.

  • Louise Rugendyke
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Hugo Weaving stars as Frank Harness in season four of Slow Horses.

Hugo Weaving rarely does TV. He made an exception for Slow Horses

The Australian actor steps into season four of the British spy thriller, playing the American leader of a mercenary group.

  • Louise Rugendyke
Anna Sawai as the translator Mariko in Shogun.

Shogun v The Bear: Who will dominate this year’s Emmy Awards?

With no Succession dominating the awards, a power vacuum has opened up, making it one of the more unpredictable ceremonies in years.

  • Louise Rugendyke
 Gary Oldman as Beethoven in the 1994 movie Immortal Beloved.

A 250-year symphony: The many movie angles on Beethoven

In the 250th year since his birth, revisit portrayals of the composer as romantic hero, political animal, irascible old man, and even late-blooming feminist.

  • Sandra Hall
Animal Kingdom - Janine Cody (Jacki Weaver) and Barry Brown (Joel	Edgerton)

Films of the decade: from Animal Kingdom to La La Land and Get Out

This list of the best movies of the last 10 years is wickedly personal. No one will agree with all; some won't agree with any. I'll probably disagree with it by next week.

  • Paul Byrnes