This year’s ‘best of’ list season is off to a strong start. For Exclaim!, I contributed two blurbs for their Best Television Series of 2025 list.
Severance:
After the first season of Severance captured the zeitgeist back in 2022, viewers clamoured for answers to the series’ mysteries. Season 2 delivers on that promise and then some. Answering questions (but asking even more) while diving deeper into both halves of each of our main characters, the series posits hard questions about grief, identity and personal agency in a hyper-capitalist society. Beautifully acted and gorgeously shot, the allegories for our times in Severance are prescient, poignant and uncomfortable, as great art often is.
and Adolescence:
The brainchild of Stephen Graham and Jack Thorne, Adolescence follows a family in the aftermath of their 13-year-old son being accused of murdering a classmate. Directed by Philip Barantini, each episode plays out as a single take, in real time, and not only stands as a technical masterwork but a deeply affecting drama as well.
Featuring powerful performances from Graham, Erin Doherty and newcomer Owen Cooper (each of whom won Emmys), the limited series digs into the difficulties of parenting in the age of social media, and the pipeline that leads some young men from social media to misogyny and, ultimately, to acts of violence against women. An intense and sometimes difficult but critical watch, Adolescence provides a stark warning about how young boys don’t just fall into the so-called “red pill” community but are actively courted by it. The series finds impact on a personal level, but could, and should, have a meaningful imprint on society at large, handily making it one of the best and most important dramas of this decade, let alone this year.
Here’s the link to the full list, which has 11 other great write-ups of 11 other great shows you should watch: https://exclaim.ca/film/article/exclaim-s-13-best-tv-series-of-2025