As we step into 2025, the small screen is gearing up for a big year. With an exciting lineup of brand-new shows, gripping documentaries and highly anticipated new seasons of fan favourites, there’s never been a better time to upgrade your watchlist.
Whether you’re craving edge-of-your-seat drama, binge-worthy comedies, or a deep dive into the next viral docuseries, this year’s releases have you covered.
Here’s your ultimate guide to the best new TV shows hitting screens in 2025.
Jerry Springer: Fights, camera, action
7 January, Netflix
Straight into the year with a classic Netflix documentary charting a revolutionary but ultimately questionable figure or TV phenomenon (see: 2024’s Mr McMahon).
This two-part series tells the story of The Jerry Springer Show’s beginnings and meteoric rise, as well as, presumably, the inevitable darkness and Pandora’s box of cultural ramifications.
Severance Series 2
17 January, Apple TV+
It’s got to be said, Apple TV+ is starting the year extremely strong with a host of new and continued shows. If you didn’t see the first series of Severance, make it a priority to catch up.
The dystopian black comedy drama finished on a massive cliffhanger, so we’re gagging to resume. Dystopia aside, the show’s ability to poke fun at the banality of office life is second to none.
The White Lotus Series 3
16 February, Sky Atlantic
Farewell Jennifer Coolidge, you’ll be sorely missed. Series 3 of The White Lotus will check into a luxury resort in Thailand and feature Aimee Lou Wood, Walton Goggins and Jason Isaacs, among others.
Expect the usual sun-soaked chaos with the trademark nod to the local cultural setting. Series 2 will be a hard act to beat.
Zero Day
20 February, Netflix
The one and only Robert De Niro makes his big stream debut (assuming you didn’t watch Argentine drama, Nada) with a Netflix political cyber hacking conspiracy drama.
De Niro plays a former president tasked with finding the perpetrators of a devastating cyber attack. Angela Bassett, Dan Stevens, Jesse Plemons, Gaby Hoffmann and Lizzy Caplan make up a blockbuster cast.
A Thousand Blows
21 February, Disney+
Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight returns with another period piece, this time an illegal boxing drama set in Victorian East London starring a jacked Stephen Graham (everything) and Malachi Kirby (Small Axe).
The two face off in and out of the ring as Malachi’s Hezekiah Moscow, fresh to East London from Jamaica, befriends an all-female shoplifting gang.
Series two has already been filmed, something to keep you warm whilst you wait for the Peaky film.
Suits: LA
TBD
Dropping in the US in February, with the UK release date and streamer TBD, cult legal drama Suits is swapping East for West Coast, with a new Los Angeles spin-off.
Four lead characters (Stephen Amell, Josh McDermitt, Lex Scott Davis and Bryan Greenberg) will replace the original’s emphasis on two, with the infamous Harvey Spector predicted to be a recurring character.
If it’s anything like the original, it’s likely to become an extremely bingeable watch, albeit with more sun.
Dope Thief
14 March, Apple TV+
Another Apple TV+ banger. Based on Dennis Tafoya’s novel of the same name, Dope Thief tells the story of childhood friends from juve, Ray and Manny, and their ambitious plans to rob drugs with fake badges and thrift store Drug Enforcement Agency windbreakers.
The book is great; hopefully, Brian Tyree Henry and Wagner Moura will do it justice.
The Studio
26 March, Apple TV+
If the cast, trailer (Seth Rogan getting shouted at by a myriad of famous cameos, notably Scorsese) and premise of The Studio are anything to go by, we should be in for a treat here.
Rogan stars as a studio head who fears the death of his industry (very meta) amid the push to presumably make big money dross. Catherine O’Hara, Kathryn Hahn, Ike Barinholtz and Chase Sui Wonders also star.
Your Friends & Neighbours
11 April
John Hamm in a tux, not to be confused with the Ben Stiller film from the early 2000s. After being fired in disgrace, hedge fund manager Hamm chooses a life of crime, stealing from his affluent neighbours to support his luxury lifestyle.
Once he starts, however, he soon realises that those living around him aren’t what they seem.
The Death of Bunny Munro
TBD, Sky
Nick Cave’s second novel, The Death of Bunny Munro, about a road-tripping father-and-son duo roaming around Brighton, is getting an intriguing TV adaptation.
Matt Smith plays a sex-addicted, self-confessed lothario who sells beauty products door to door. When his wife commits suicide, he’s saddled with his young son, and the two embark on a trip across Southern England trying to process their grief.
The Last of Us Series 2
TBD, Sky Atlantic
The Last of Us took the video game to big screen move seriously, providing enough Easter eggs and winks for the gamers while telling a story as if it’d been written without the need for buttons and controllers.
Series 2 of the Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey-starring post-apocalyptic drama is set to be emotional, intense and true to many scenes from the game.
This City is Ours
TBD, BBC
We’re always in the market for a gritty British Sean Bean drama smacking of the scent of Jimmy McGovern’s writing, and we think that the Liverpool-set This City Is Ours will be the year’s closest.
Filmed in Liverpool and Spain, the crime drama will tell the story of a man who has spent his adult life in organised crime, searching for a new life after his boss hints at retirement.
