The Kallys® – Best TV of 2025: The Definitive List
The Kallys® are an annual set of made-up awards (aren’t they all?) that celebrate my favourite creative works from the calendar year just gone. It’s a fun way to reflect on my favourite arty experiences and share them with others. I give you full permission to pass these suggestions off as your own when someone comes to you for a cool recommendation. I hereby present The Kallys®: Best TV of 2025.
The strongest creative work being done right now is in television and streaming (as well as some of the absolute worst, and that will only get sloppier as AI advances into every corner of our lives).
This year saw some absolutely brilliant long-form storytelling, with some of my favourites not even making this shortlist (e.g. The Pitt – well worth a watch if you’re not squeamish and still harbour a longing for the days of network television and the likes of ER-shaped dramas).
There was genuinely loads to savour this year, so I whittled it down to the shows that have really stuck with me well beyond clicking the remote control off. I’m talking about the ones that linger in your noggin for the days and weeks that follow.
Thus, without further ado (a phrase that in and of itself is actually some further ado) here are my favourite TV shows of 2025. Binge away!
1 \ Industry (HBO/BBC)
This show makes you question why you ever thought your job was stressful. It’s a deceptively simple, well-written show, with plenty of it yoinked directly from the headlines.
The backdrop is the chaotic world of the trading floor, with modern tales of avarice, lust, privilege, greed, hope, and whatever you’re having yerself. The characters initially felt like cliches (look, we have people from different socio-economic backgrounds in a story about economics!) but gradually the cast inhabited the roles so completely that I was all in. Marisa Abela and Ken Leung were my main standouts in a great ensemble. Kit Harington felt a bit less convincing as a foppish billionaire twit (You’ve clearly learned nothing Jon Snow). But a big shout-out to Harry Lawtey and Myha’la who I hadn’t seen before, but was mighty impressed.
This is a show (now in its 3rd season) that doesn’t get talked about nearly enough, and it is a gripping peek inside a world many of us are largely unaware of. Well worth a watch and certainly among the best TV of 2025. I’d put money on it that you’ll like it.
2 / Gone Fishing with Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse (BBC)
This show is endlessly charming and a pure shot of calm. The perfect antidote to the rest of all the frantic nonsense in our lives.
Now I’m not someone who fishes at all, but I understand the gentle contemplative draw of it. This show feels like I get the best of that without having to stand in my wellies on a riverbank for 6 hours.
Instead, I tune in to a couple of brilliantly funny people spending time with one another against the backdrop of gorgeous, simple scenery. And the occasional fish shows up too.
3 \ Severance (Apple TV+)
Apple continues to deliver glossy prestige drama like The Morning Show (a sexy soap opera phoned-in by the stars), but Severance has the substance to back up the shine. The anticipation for season 2 (after maaaany years of waiting) was off the charts for this cult hit. Rightly so. But could they craft something as fiendishly clever and zeitgeisty once again? Not quite.
The writing was probably not as tight as before, but the level of scrutiny was also way higher. In fairness to the creators, they did still manage to deliver something original and compelling, even if some of the plot twists felt forced (ahem, Cobel’s notebook?).
Regardless, it delivered some of the best episodes so far in both “Woe’s Hollow” and the season finale, “Cold Harbor”. Once again the production design was unreal (an indoor meadow with goats anyone?) and the calibre of acting was world class. Tramell Tillman and Britt Lower might be my favourite actors in the whole world of life right now.
We are lucky to still see this level of craft in our storytelling. A show where the creators truly care and it shows onscreen. And good art takes time. That is worthy of our admiration. Praise Kier indeed.
Best comeback – The Bear – Season 4 (FX)
Yes, chef. The show about generational trauma masquerading as food porn is back. Last season was imperfect, but mostly because it felt like it was a wafer thin appetiser for this season. We all know about the terrific cast (and amazing roster of guest stars) but it is the cinematography and soundtrack that spoke to me the loudest this season. At times the dialogue does veer into heavy-handed profundities followed by meaningful pauses and perfect indie music needle drops. But it’s hard to be too critical of a show this well crafted overall. This remains one of the artiest shows on TV and I love it. Let it rip!
Best single episode of TV – Paradise (Hulu)
Paradise centres around a gimmick that kinda constrains the show and occasionally allows it to be quite inventive too. I won’t spoil that twist. That said, the show was relatively entertaining (in a US network show sorta way), although I don’t think I’d be rushing out to binge it. But credit where it’s due. In terms of pure dramatic tension, episode 7, entitled “The Day” (written by John Hoberg), is a genuinely propulsive piece of storytelling. The stakes feel high. The pacing is sharp. And you feel like you are in the chaotic mix of a monumental moment. Genuinely great storytelling.
TV Moment(s) Of The Year – Troy Parrott
Live sport. Nothing compares to the pure theatre of it when it crescendos. But for the longest time, the Irish football team has been pretty grim viewing. Gone are the halcyon days of Italia 90 when our tiny little island defied the odds and made it to the quarter finals of the World Cup. An iconic sporting moment that has been immortalised in art by everyone from Dermot Bolger to Roddy Doyle. It even yielded our own celebratory chant (Olé, Olé, Olé) that is sung whenever we are in large groups to let everyone know that we’re having great craic altogether.
So, with Irish football in the proverbial doldrums, expectations were drastically low when Ireland played their recent World Cup qualifiers against Portugal and Hungary. In any other season, the Portugal game itself would have been a high tide mark (2 goals from Troy Parrott and a red card for that gobshite Ronaldo), if it weren’t for the theatrics and incredible sporting drama that came in the final game.
If you’re Irish, you’ve watched it at least 5 million times. If you haven’t , it was a bit like this. With all hope lost (the score tied at 2-2 thanks to a pair of goals by Troy Parrott again) the ball is launched into the last chance saloon for Ireland. Parrott glides in like a green Nosferatu and strokey pokes the ball home for Ireland to win it at the death. Cue histrionics. Everyone in Ireland is lepping around the place. Grown men, undoubtedly weeping.
And as if that moment couldn’t be bettered, it effectively was in Troy Parrott’s heartfelt post-match interview. As someone else described it, “it’s like watching Reeling In The Years in real time”. It was a moment of authenticity that is so rare in this stage-managed soundbite-y world. The match was unreal, but this was the truly heroic moment for me.
Even if you know nothing about (or care little for) football, this is worth a watch, purely for the emotional heft that comes with a true sporting underdog story.
P.S. We still haven’t even qualified for the World Cup yet, but remember, our biggest footballing achievement thus far is reaching the quarter finals of a previous World Cup. So, let’s get carried away.
