I can’t possibly review every show I watch. I have a job. And a little bit of self respect. So rather than sit there looking at the the overwhelming list of shows I watched in 2025 that I never reviewed, I’ll just put them all (or mostly) here. Because, as you’ve probably figured out, this site is just a giant cataloging excercise anyway. I’m sure I missed a bunch. And am only including those series that I completed. Here we go.
Abbott Elementary: Season 4
Network: ABC
Watch: Hulu
Previous Full Review: Abbott Elementary: Season 1
Capsule Review: Beyond season one I’ve never really found this show to be particularly funny. Amusing, sure. Cute? Yeah, sometimes. But never like lolz. It seams perhaps they’ve expanded their writing room a little bit, or loosened the reins a little bit, as there were some actual laughs this year. And, for once, it wasn’t only the Tariq character (who is admittedly pretty funny). This will never be much more than an ABC sitcom now that it’s become part of the fabric of the yearly schedule, but one could certainly do worse than this one for a family comedy that still warms the heart and now even throws out the occasional har-har.
Black Mirror: Season 7
Network: Netflix
Watch: Netflix
Previous Full Review: Black Mirror: Season 3 / Black Mirror: Bandersnatch
Capsule Review: This is certainly a more consistent season than the previous version of the series. There aren’t any stupid werewolves or whatever was going on. We’re back to tech-centric horror mixed with horrible regret and societal collapse. This one definitely felt more cohesive as a piece. Though that meant that a lot of it felt samey-samey from episode to episode. A lot of brian uploads and downloads and grotesque human tracking. I will always watch these Twilight Zone-level episodes and both recoil from and enjoy their creepiness. It was cool to revisit Jesse Plemons in the “U.S.S. Callister: Into Infinity,” in a meta pretzel that is basically fan service about fan service. Good show.
The Diplomat: Season 3
Network: Netflix
Watch: Netflix
Previous Full Review: The Diplomat: Season 1
Capsule Review: This season is weirdly both more insular and way more global. The couple at the heart of the show make it all the way to the vice presidency. Things get bonkers and complicated in their marriage or non-marriage and we get another fun season of back-and-forth between Keri Russell and Rufus Sewell. They’ve really settled into the roles after three seasons and have the rat-a-tat banter down to a science. Sometimes almost to the show’s detriment, as the dialogue flies at such pace that some of the political machinations get garbled. It is a truly entertaining show, but really most of it is all about the actors. The narrative escalates quickly — like real quickly — in a way that is probably not incredibly realistic, but the show is well made enough to ground it in reality. I’m curious to see where they take it in season four, but it’s still solid, adult programming that I look forward to experiencing.
Hacks: Season 4
Network: HBO Max
Watch: HBO Max
Previous Full Review: Hacks: Season 1
Capsule Review: Let’s run it back! No, seriously, Deborah Vance and Ava break up and get back together more than Ben Affleck and whomever he’s currently not married to. The constant tonal shifts and general bad behavior and backstabbing hits a fever pitch, which makes the show somewhat unpleasant to watch at times and the writers lean into some of the repetitive gags one (or seven) too many times. Like Michaela Watkins’ exasperated weirdo HR rep who always has to deal with Deborah and Ava’s spats. Funny the first couple of times, but not the fiftieth. And Megan Stalter. She was a funny, quirk in dribs and drabs in previous seasons as Jimmy’s assistant, but raised to main cast she turns out to be one of the worst actresses and one of the most annoying characters to ever grace out small screen. Truly unwatchable. We’ll happily take those Ja Rule guest appearances for 16 bars, but nobody has ever made it through a whole Ja album. Never.
The Morning Show: Season 4
Network: Apple TV+
Watch: Apple TV+
Previous Full Review: The Morning Show: Season 2 / The Morning Show: Season 1
Capsule Review: This show is just god-awful. Truly the dregs of premier TV. This, season four, is practically unwatchable. Everything, from the writing to the way it looks, is just plastic-y and off putting. Ms. Hipster and I were only hate watching at this point, as this thing spirals into maudlin nonsense and what I think was them trying to make some sort of weak environmental comment. The characters also contradict their former selves — some of them completely unrecognizable from their previous forms — and the ones who do exist serve little-to-no purpose. It’s bad. Real bad. Oh, there’s this weather guy character, Yanko (Néstor Carbonell), who is 57 years old and seems to constantly be pulling all these young hotties and nobody questions his eye liner and the fact these women half his age are fawning over him? Just weird and more bad.
Murdaugh: Death in the Family
Network: Hulu
Watch: Hulu
Capsule Review: Much like The Staircase, we have ourselves a dramatized murder situation where a clearly screwed-up dude kills his wife. And, in this case, also his son. That said, this one is less mystery and more about power, privilege and spiraling mental decline. We know that this patriarch, fail son, Alex Murdaugh, killed his family, but we’re kind of led into the why of it all. And, of course, we know his wife, played by a matronly Patricia Arquette, is gonna get got, yet we live in denial until he just shoots her in cold blood. But it’s Patricia Arquette! You bastard! The series itself is honestly about two episodes too long — there are only so many scenes of watching both Alex and his son spiral into addiction and agonizing whatever — but it’s an interesting and well-acted look into the crumbling of a Southern dynasty. It would be gothic, if it wasn’t so redneck.
Only Murders in the Building: Season 5
Network: Hulu
Watch: Hulu
Capsule Review: This show is absolute garbage. No, it is aggressively terrible. Like the creators went out of their way this season to get it canceled in a fiery ball of nonsense. You know, go out with a bang. The acting is poor. The plot is completely stupid and makes absolutely no sense. And the general feeling is that this is a show running on a room full of depleted writing talent and ten cups of cold coffee. Martin Short remains at least kinda-sorta entertaining, but even his snorting schtick has run its course. It’s time to either blow this thing up and reboot or just put it out to pasture.
Peacemaker: Season 2
Network: HBO Max
Watch: HBO Max
Previous Full Review: Peacemaker: Season 1
Capsule Review: Okay, this isn’t super-deep. And there are one too many — maybe seven too many — music video scenes where they clearly had nowhere to go with the plot. But I was still entertained by this show. I’m also impressed by the care put into the CGI and the production in general. There are big-budget movies that can’t render animals properly, but this show make Peacemaker’s eagle look so real I had a hard time telling it wasn’t. John Cena is also a very charismatic lead and, yes, they may have retconned his character from The Suicide Squad and even, to some extent, season one of this series, but I give a wider whatever to comic book stuff. I know there are some plot holes and the aforementioned cringey music montages, but this is still a fun watch and even throws in a multiverse twist that I didn’t see coming and was super-amused by when it did.
Poker Face: Season 2
Network: Peacock
Watch: Peacock
Previous Full Review: Poker Face: Season 1
Capsule Review: I realized, after struggling with the tone and complete disregard for detail in a show that is ostensibly a show about details, that the best and only way to watch this show is to turn your brain off and just watch. It’s not meant to be a detective show. It’s not meant to be taken seriously in any way. Not seriously in a dramatic way, but seriously in a television show way. Like the creators just kind of snorted some lines of something, put the camera on the actors and were like “go!” It was loose and goofy and just unserious about itself and its subject matter. At times it honestly felt like they were fucking with us just to see how little logic and care they could get away with. This season was no different, but following my own advice I was able to be amused at times and even held back the bile bubbling up in my throat when they just abandoned plot lines, put together nonsensical mysteries and just kind of turned their own show into a cartoon of a cartoon. And then it got canceled. Vindication.
Reacher: Season 3
Network: Prime Video
Watch: Prime Video
Previous Full Review: Reacher: Seasons 1 & 2
Capsule Review: This show was always absurd. This giant autistic monolith of a man walks around both ruthlessly murdering and saving people. I’m not sure if they’re kind of joking with this series or not. The man — presumably just based on his muscles and curiosity — seems to score with one woman a season, but definitely only eats peanut butter on white bread and plain pasta, loves trains and has the emotional maturity of a six year old on mood stabilizers. This season’s plot is a more insular one, eschewing the larger conspiracy story for a crime-family-based one. Despite this, Reacher has to fire bigger guns, get in more complicated and challenging physical altercations and, unfortunately for Alan Ritchson, do more running. An activity that is seemingly super-challenging for an increasingly musclebound actor in motorcycle boots. Despite the silliness of the show, it’s endlessly amusing and Ritchson certainly leans into the absurdity in a way that keeps the show entertaining and constantly amusing.
The Recruit: Season 2
Network: Netflix
Watch: Netflix
Previous Full Review: The Recruit: Season 1
Capsule Review: I was a surprised fan of the first season of The Recruit. It’s lead, Noah Centineo, is charismatic and funny and capable of doing the physical feats of wackiness that the role needs. The whole thing of the naive, reluctant lawyer-turned-spy thing worked in season one. But now that he’s an experienced spy, his character is less reluctant more warrior. Which leads to a bunch of fun action scenes and tons of him getting the shit kicked out of him in Korea and various other locales, but missing is that “but he’s just a lawyer” thing. No, he’s just a straight-up action hero at this point. Unrealistically put into situation that the CIA would never put someone with no training — other than law school — into. It’s certainly another pretty entertaining season of TV (and a relatively compact one at only six episodes) but the everyman-in-danger fun of the first season is replaced by more and more outlandish feats of physical craziness. I imagine — given the foreign locations and constant action — that this is an expensive show to produce and is probably the reason for its cancelation after two seasons. Oh well.
Rick and Morty: Season 8
Network: Cartoon Network
Watch: Hulu / HBO Max
Previous Full Review: Rick and Morty: Seasons 1 – 3
Capsule Review: I liken Rick and Morty to a season of Black Mirror. Kinda sorta. There is the world of Rick and Morty running underneath each episode, adding a continuity that doesn’t exist in Black Mirror, but it’s also a world where anything can happen and always does. Mostly some twisty-turny tale of time travel or universe hopping that defies your expectations and/or mystifies with its creativity and mind-bending storytelling. This particular season is certainly entertaining and mines some new areas, but it doesn’t quite hit the heights of some of the earlier seasons’ zany-brained humor and debauched wackiness. Though is a bounce-back from the season prior, which was the first without now-canceled Justin Roiland. That season seemed to have a bit of a cloud (and suicide theme) hanging over it. This one felt less encumbered by whatever internal turmoil was going on with the production. Plus, I was less distracted by the voice actor changes. This still remains one of the most creative shows on TV and one that, taken as a whole, is a great sci-fi comedy that is also subversively a thinker.
Slow Horses: Season 5
Network: Apple TV+
Watch: Apple TV+
Previous Full Review: Slow Horses: Season 1
Capsule Review: This is a bit of a bounceback season after a lackluster season four. It’s a heavy Roddy season, which is definitely a change, but is something different at least. Granted, the plotting is a little clunky, starting off with what feels like an innocuous almost-accident involving Roddy that one of the members of Slough House, Shirley, takes as a sign of something that seems completely unconnected. It’s a logic leap that drives the season and I feel like we’re just asked to go with it. Meanwhile, Shirley’s character basically spins out for reasons that seem both understandable, but also feels a little incongruous with her character to this point. There are historical British politics intertwined with the plot that are probably more familiar to folks in the UK, but without a little Googling, it’s still a more intricate and nuanced narrative than some of the past swings. It remains an entertaining show, but I’m hoping they’ve unlocked something in Gary Oldman’s character this season that will bring us more than another season of him being a brilliant, disgusting curmudgeon.
Squid Game: Season 3
Network: Netflix
Watch: Netflix
Previous Full Review: Squid Game: Season 1
Capsule Review: When did this show become a dour slog? Oh right, in season two. The gloom and repetitive violence just became completely unfun and uninteresting from both a social critique and narrative function. Add in the fact there’s reading involved and this season of television became more tiring than it was a good time. I’m not certain if it’s the writing and acting or just a function of the translation and cultural differences in what viewers expect from their performers, but there are scenes that a laughably bad in both dialogue and delivery. So over-the-top and silly. There are some non-Korean “actors” who speak their lines in English that had to be just the first white people they ran into on the street outside the studio — they’re that terrible. Ultimately this show should have been a limited, one-season phenomenon, but Netflix saw dollar signs and wasted all of our time and the legacy of their product by piling on this drek.
Top Chef: Destination Canada
Network: Bravo
Watch: Peacock
Previous Full Review: Top Chef: All-Stars L.A. / Top Chef: Colorado
Capsule Review: This show has outlived its usefulness. It used to be a show that went out and celebrated the cuisine of a city. It presented challenges — and, yes, sometimes they were dumb, branded bullshit — that brought that city to life and even showed us some global cuisines in its later stages. But now it’s just a bunch of nice people with not-as-great resumes sitting in a studio in Canada cooking grub that is neither interesting nor original. And I don’t know if this is a COVID hangover or just a general budget decline, but this season gives us little-to-no sense of Canada. A country whose cuisine is limited to cheese fries with gravy and elk steaks. In fact, Canada is so vanilla that they had to go to Milan for the finale to even have something of interest in the season. I do appreciate Kristen Kish’s new tenure as host, but even her charm and knowledge can’t save a drowning franchise. They need to retool if this show ever has a chance to catch any of its old magic again.
Wednesday: Season 2
Network: Netflix
Watch: Netflix
Previous Full Review: Wednesday: Season 1
Capsule Review: Look, it’s probably not fair for me — a whole ass adult — to judge what is ostensibly a TV show to teens. I watched it with Hipster Jr. Jr. and watched her face at times to see if she was enjoying it any more than I was. Ultimately her reaction was much like Jenna Ortega’s Wednesday: blank. And therein lies the first issue I have with the show. The main character, who operates as a sort of cardboard, humorless goth automaton, doesn’t compel watchers to do much more than use her as a cypher to untangle a pretty tangled mythos. The second issue is that the series can’t figure out if it wants to be a teen soap opera or build a world filled with monsters and whatnot and can’t or is unable to build a good balance. You can see the balance at the edges, but at its core is some of the worst tendencies of Tim Burton leaning into the wrong thing at the wrong time. Kids — and adult people of all stripes — really care more about the relationships and the human side of humans and less about the creatures and mysteries that the show generally seems to bungle. Admittedly, my interest in the show waned and I found myself scrolling on the side during some of the more hectic scenes, but I’d give it a teenage “mid” as a final grade.
Welcome to Wrexham: Season 4
Network: FX
Watch: Hulu
Previous Full Review: Welcome to Wrexham: Season 1
Capsule Review: The boys are at it again, and the show has really honed its ability to tell personal stories about the players and keep it balanced with background about the town. Granted, the little upstart has now become the behemoth, which takes away from the sentimentality and underdog story that once helped with the emotional edge. It’s still well-made television, but this season struggled at times to build tension amid the corporate dollars flowing in to buy the best team money can afford. It felt, at times, like a big product placement undertaking more than a sports doc, but someone has to pay for that crumbling stadium, I suppose. Not sure how season five is gonna go now that real money has come into the club, but we shall see.
The White Lotus: Season 3
Network: HBO
Watch: HBO Max
Previous Full Review: The White Lotus: Season 1 / The White Lotus: Season 2
Capsule Review: While this season was entertaining, it felt scattered and incomplete. There were a lot of plot cul-de-sacs that led nowhere, and some others that were telegraphed in very clunky ways. Chekhov’s poison fruit tree, for instance. I mean, why would you possibly have a tree with poison fruit hanging out around your guest’s bungalows? It’s dumb and kind of lazy. The Mook character played by a K-pop star is lovely to look at, but is completely uninspired and confusing in her motivations. There are just enough of these types of plotting inconsistencies and wonky characters to almost derail what is otherwise a powerhouse acting performance by several of our main characters. One of which is actually wasted, as Jason Isaacs, after a great start, spends almost the entire series walking around in a stupor. It felt a little like having John Elway and only letting him throw checkdowns. I think we need a White Lotus prequel spin-off series where we focus on the bad-old days with Walton Goggins’ and Sam Rockwell’s characters. Now, that’s a show!
