I spend more time reviewing movies professionally, but I do watch a fair bit of TV and did plenty of that in 2025. While I’m reluctant to return to the deluge of TV show coverage I attempted a lifetime ago, I do enjoy writing about shows that feel like a comforting weekly routine. Here are some thoughts on the handful of shows I watched this year.

“Creature Commandos” Season 1

The DCU cartoons are off to a good start with James Gunn’s monster misfit ensemble. In all honesty, it has the same framework and even a few of the same characters from Gunn’s The Suicide Squad. But, hey, if ain’t broke, don’t fix it. And it worked pretty well here for finding something to do with Rick Flag Jr. beyond shaking his fists at Superman and Peacemaker. In animated form, he gets to do far more and hang out with quirky creatures, like the cynical Bride and the eccentric Nazi-hunter G.I. Robot.

“Star Wars: Andor” Season 2

This is everything Star Wars shows have been lacking. While most of the shows seem to be trying so hard to recapture the Star Wars magic of adventure and Jedi lore, here was a show that fearlessly jumped into a gritty battle where the Empire is more of a fascistic authoritarian regime and the Rebels are a messy force grappling with the struggle. It draws on George Lucas’s real-life influences for the original Star Wars trilogy (relating to the Vietnam War) and amplifies them in a way that makes the intent refreshingly unambiguous. I love me some gritty space-war politics and the daringness of this show to end on a hopeful note, where anti-fascists keep the fight going, and complicit fascists die alone and forgotten by the apparatus they helped build.

“Daredevil: Born Again” Season 1

Call it perfect timing, but Born Again felt perfectly reflective for its story of a burnt-out Daredevil gaining the confidence to stand up to Kingpin’s ascent to Mayor. Of course, Matt Murdock will put the suit back on, but after realizing that working within a corrupt system doesn’t work. The premise is solid, but it still only feels like half a season for how much it spins its wheels with the many arcs, where the real meat of Kingpin’s corrupt New York won’t take shape until the following season. And even then, I have some doubts that Disney will take this show into darker places rather than favoring a lukewarm compromise.

“Harley Quinn” Season 5

This show is out of gas. The shift in location for Harley and Ivy to take off to Metropolis is due to them being stuck in a rut, and it feels like the writing is in that same spot. With the honeymoon phase of paying off the Harley/Ivy romance over, there are fewer funny places for this show to go, especially after reducing Joker and Batman to bantering dads, Brainiac’s half-thought arc of trauma amid perfection, and a family squabbling between Lex Luthor and his sister. There are a few funny fines here and there, but with nowhere near the same flow as past seasons.

“The Handmaid’s Tale” Season 6

The dystopian tale of fighting back against the erosion of women’s rights finally concludes, but also in an abrupt manner that leaves lingering threads. There’s still some good drama and intense scenes, including a satisfying violent strike against Gilead, but it never felt like the show reached an emotional and philosophically gratifying conclusion. It just wraps up the majority of plots as quickly as possible while still leaving the door open for revolution never being so simple. As such, the final season ends up in this Goldilocks Zone for an ending, delivering on surface-level satisfaction while rarely exploring the healing that comes after the destruction of a fascist regime.

“Squid Game” Season 2.5

Boy, did this show take an odd turn. After the empty feeling Seong Gi-hun incurred from failing to stop the games with a player-led revolution, the finale felt more like a cutting of losses, where Gi-hun finds more hope in saving a baby than stopping the games. While I get the thematic focus of the final episodes and how it centers on self-sacrifice, the unsatisfying way it ends leaves me feeling hopeless. There’s an especially nasty taste left in the mouth from the ending, which leaves the door open for an American iteration that is sure to miss the point of the capitalism satire as much as Netflix’s Squid Game-style gameshow.

“Common Side Effects” Season 1

I love the low-key comedy and the high-concept surrealism of this odd show. The conspiracy behind a death-curing mushroom reaches Twin Peaks levels of mystery, revealing the charming quirks of the characters and the unexplained dreams induced by the mushroom’s effects. I also love the atmosphere, which tries to stress a certain seriousness and realism amid characters with big heads and small hands. There’s plenty of surreal qualities left to explore by the season’s end, and I greatly look forward to season two.

“Lazarus” Season 1

Director Shinichirō Watanabe has done it again by helming an anime thriller packed with unique characters, vibrant world-building, and an intoxicating vibe of action and science fiction. There’s genuine excitement as a band of skilled mercenaries tracks down a scientist who has given humanity only a few weeks to live. While the ending does wrap itself up too quickly with a bow, the journey to that happy resolve was quite the ride. It’s one of the few original Adult Swim anime projects that packs a punch and recaptures some of the same fun I had watching Cowboy Bebop.

“Invincible” Season 3

While this animated show is doing a solid job adapting the comics, season three of Invincible takes some unique routes in its adaptation. Aside from going hard on the brutality, there are some neat asides, as in one episode that begins with a metahuman struggling to turn away from a life of crime when capitalism forces him into a dire situation that threatens his relationship. It remains one of the best modern superhero shows for embracing what made Invincible so great and then going further with its own touches.

“Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” Season 3

It saddens me to see the crown jewel of this new age of Star Trek take such a hard dip in season three. Strange New Worlds stumbles hard when trying to form a ho-hum villain for the season, a ticking-clock of an infected character, a brief divulgence of the mysterious Gorn, and a HUGE misunderstanding of Vulcans that goes well beyond mere nitpicking of little details. Even with some bright spots, as with the charming wedding episode, this is the weakest season.

“Gquuuuuux” Season 1

This is a Gundam show that is sure to be only for the fans, with how it toys with the original timeline in a multiverse-style warping of worlds. In that regard, it is a terrible entry point, but there were some thrills to be had in how the second episode set up the intriguing premise, “What if Char piloted the Gundam and Zeon won the war?” The writing gets weaker as the show descends into many Universal Century references and tinkering with familiar elements, but it was a neat little treat for this Gundam fan.

“Marvel Zombies” Season 1

Hideous. A four-part event where the only appeal is finding out how many ways zombies can brutalize the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The favoring of dark comedy amid these familiar characters being torn apart just felt off and it’s the one fear I had with a show like this, given that disheartening quality from the Marvel’s What If episode this show spun off from. It’s a tonally off animated series and felt like a gross misuse of characters like Ms. Marvel.

“Alien: Earth” Season 1

Noah Hawley has helmed a show that takes the Alien franchise in a fascinating direction. The central characters of children placed in artificial bodies have some immediate appeal and become all the more compelling when corporate politics and dangerous aliens are thrown into the mix. All of that engrossing writing makes Hawley’s devotion to maintaining the retro tech of the original Alien film all the more entertaining. There’s incredible sci-fi tension in Alien: Earth, with masterful performances and gruesome violence, as it explores lesser-explored aspects of Earth in this franchise. I’m hooked; bring on season two!

“Gen V” Season 2

While arriving at an ending for the central antagonist, you can really feel the strings being pulled for Gen V to be less of its own show and more of a bridge for the final season of The Boys. The grotesque nature is still satisfyingly vulgar, and I appreciated the show presenting more complex relationships among the young characters. But the limitations can really be felt this season, beyond the show’s constant talk of defeating Homelander, with the villain never once gracing the screen. The saving grace for the season was how deceptively clever and sinister Hamish Linklater was in the role of Cipher. His masterful control of the campus really made this season work, strong enough to make me overlook most of the shortcomings.

“Solar Opposites” Season 6

This was a fine way to end the most consistently funny adult cartoons of the past few years. The alien family recovers quickly from what could have been a lukewarm plot about being dominated by a superior of their species and delights in some amusing antics of whimsical purgatory, horny condos, and becoming immature in a quantifiable way. Even the subplots involving the shrunken adventures of The Wall and the intergalactic conflict of the SilverCops paid off well for this final season. It was a satisfying ending for what is easily Hulu’s best animated show.

“Peacemaker” Season 2

Even as it tries to tie the anti-hero closer to the DCU, Peacemaker still hasn’t lost its absurd touch of a flawed character trying to do right, despite his dumb mouth. The plot of an alternative-reality story packed with Nazis is perfectly on point for the show’s poignant, cathartic humor. The second season was a lot of fun… up until the season finale, directed by James Gunn, which fell back hard on his music choices and on setting up future DC Comics events. The ending makes me very cautious about the future of the DCU, even if I’m still intrigued to see what happens next with Peacemaker’s potential for season three.

“Haunted Hotel” Season 1

Developed by Matt Roller (writer on Rick & Morty), Haunted Hotel was an absolutely charming horror-comedy for how it toys with genre conventions (even parodying a few franchises) and presents characters worth getting invested in for their plights and quirks. I adored the eccentric attitude of the always-positive ghost, Nathaan, and the deadpan charisma of the demon Abaddon, who possessed a boy from the 1700s. Amusing writing and hilarious slapstick made this show so marvelous and has me anticipating season two.

“Haha, You Clowns” Season 1

Joe Cappa’s crude cartoon comedy has so much more going on than just the absurd characters and goofy voices. The show presents this seemingly wholesome sitcom family with sitcom-style stories, yet there’s a creepy realism that seeps into the visuals and environment. When characters cry, their eyes turn completely red. When showcasing the well-meaning Campbell Boys, they struggle to ward off the awkward, ugly nature of the prim, upper-middle-class suburban world they inhabit. That odd mixture of the internal horror and the external wholesome felt like an intoxicating animated series unlike any other.

“Smiling Friends” Season 3

I gotta be honest; I’m not digging Smiling Friends. I know a lot of people love it for the mixture of media and plucking of YouTube personalities, but it’s just not doing anything for me. Yes, I caught the subtle reference to Chris Chan in that one episode. And I don’t care. It’s just not that funny. You know those video game movies that are built less for being entertaining and more for acknowledging the fandom through references? Smiling Friends is that, but for people who spend too much time watching YouTube and want their devotion validated through random character quirks and meandering mumblecore humor that is more dead than deadpan.

“The Chair Company” Season 1

Tim Robinson’s awkward sketch comedy blends perfectly well into this unpredictable conspiracy comedy. By throwing in amusing, tongue-in-cheek developments with each episode, the embracing of absurdity makes this thriller more relatable, presenting an anxiety that life is not as complex as we hope. It’s easily one of the funniest shows of 2025.