TV Of The Year 2025 - Part 3: The Sequel Zone & Jury's Out
Jury’s Out (still watching)
All Her Fault - These are all contenders for next year’s “I See The Name…” list…
Nine Bodies in A Mexican Morgue …especially with titles like this
The Beast Within Me - I know this isn’t about an actual beast, but already I’m not sure
Down Cemetery Road - Only two eps in, probably brilliant
The Newsreader - An old Aussie series, three seasons long, we’re enjoying the first one
Asterix and Obelix - Actually forgot we’d stopped watching this, must finish off
Changing Ends - The third series of Alan Carr’s sitcom finally comes to TV in a form where you can fast forward over the adverts.
And so to The Sequel Zone
(a follow up season to something I ranked highly before, really has to work hard to escape this zone)
Ten Pound Poms 2 - not as good as the first series
Uncanny 2 - actually pretty good, but the podcast version has the edge
Wednesday 2 - lost its way a bit, but parts were still excellent
Poker Face 2 - see Wednesday
Severance 2 - see Poker Face
Doctor Who 2 (or is it 15 or maybe 44?) - oh god, this was a dog’s breakfast. What we continue to learn about the behind the scenes chaos makes me ache for this poor disaster of a season. A few episodes were classics, and will be fondly remembered. But audiences mostly remember the ending, and this collapsed in on itself so badly it will hurt for years.
Reacher 3 - better than its second season, really good fun
Ghosts US 3 & 4 - each season is too long for the quality to remain high, but season 3 actually succeeded a few times.
Stranger Things 5 - only one episode in at the moment, and really suffering from missing that recap.
Only Murders In The Building 5 - Full marks for delivering a season a year, with a 6th on the way. Got cluttered, but some parts great.
Unforgotten 5 - Consistent and solid, again it’s so formulaic its hard for it to really stand out, or to fail that badly.
Slow Horses 5 - It really is a quality show, and making one even year can’t be easy. This was its silliest storyline, to be honest.
Black Mirror 7 - Maintaining the quality, and managing to come up with original sci fi contents after so long, not bad. The sequel to USS Callister may have been the most entertaining and original sci fi movie I saw this year. Also full marks to Charlie Brooker & Annabel Jones for cleverly getting out of their Black Mirror contract by leaving their production company. So there will be more Black Mirror, but it won't be by them.
Taskmaster 19 & 20 - Why I don’t bracket this with the staples like HIGNFY and Only Connect I don’t know. It is the last remaining outstanding comedy format that we’ll look back on in years to come and wonder how we ever managed to do such things. We are, as a sidebar, currently enjoying playing the Taskmaster advent calendar, which is as good as the games in the show.
SNL 50 & 51 - I’m a recent convert. or returnee, to Saturday Night Live, largely thanks to the social media presence it got for its 50th anniversary season. I sometimes only see the sketches on Youtube, and have only sat through a few entire episodes. And it is never, repeat never, an entertaining 90 minutes. But it is the very definition of a Curate’s Egg, and I’ve adored a good few sketches this year. I’ve also indulged myself in masses of its archive, as well as a couple of podcast and Youtube series on its history, and the movie Saturday Night. SNL may have owned more minutes of my attention across 2025 than any other single show.
And so to Part 4: My TV Of The Year, 25 - 11
Part 1: The Podcasts
Part 3: The Sequel Zone, and Jury’s Out
Part 4: 25 to 11
Part 5: My Top Ten TV of 2025
*****
My Top TV of... 2021 • 2020 • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2015 • 2014 • 2013 • 2011 • 2009
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Richard The Third (Colour) | Doctors Who? Colouring | Socks Do Shakespeare | Kids Comics Annual 2026 |
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Richard The Third (bw) | Findlay Macbeth | Prince of Denmark Street | Midsummer Night's Dream Team |
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Shakespeare Omnibus | Comic Tales From The Bible | Joseph, Ruth & Other Stories | Space Elain |
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