‘Through-the-fingers-TV’: The best episodes of 2025

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The end of the year is a great time to take stock. What events have meant the most to you, which people have made a difference and what damn TV episode you couldn’t stop thinking about. Our critics have, again, done the hard yards and selected some of the most outstanding episodes of the year. And while some of them come from programs on our best TV shows of the year list, quite a few are from shows that didn’t make the cut. As always, we’d love to hear what TV you loved this year, so please leave us a message in the comments below. Enjoy!

Rhea Seehorn (left) shines in a virtuoso performance in Pluribus.

Pluribus (Apple TV): We Is Us (season one, episode one)

It was worth the wait. No other show this year arrived with less information shared than the new series from Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan. Essentially, we were told the genre was science fiction, and it would pivot on a world-changing event. Beginning with a cold open featuring characters you never see again, We Is Us built a mysterious, unstoppable momentum that turned choreographed crowds into a menacing collective. I still don’t want to spoil it too much, but Rhea Seehorn nailed every emotion – bewilderment, panic and terrified disbelief – that fell upon her protagonist, stranded novelist Carol Sturka. The episode showed the world being changed. It was the same for the expectations of Pluribus viewers. Craig Mathieson

Bradley Cooper in The Righteous Gemstones.

The Righteous Gemstones (HBO Max): Prelude (season four, episode one)

This chaotic comedy about a family of wealthy, wayward American television evangelists made hypocrisy hilarious and skewered conservative privilege for three seasons. When the fourth and final season arrived, no one expected anything different, but creator Danny McBride (Eastbound & Down) delivered a telling twist.

Set in 1862, this American Civil War episode showed the origins of the Gemstone family’s biblical brand, with the secret casting of Hollywood filmmaker and leading man Bradley Cooper as Elijah Gemstone. First seen murdering a minister and then stealing his identity, Elijah is a scoundrel who can barely be bothered pretending to preach. His sermons are, let’s say, unique. Cooper captures both Elijah’s rogue malleability and his suspicion that there might be something to this faith business. It was the perfect beginning to the family’s tainted legacy. CM

James Marsden plays the US president in paranoid thriller Paradise.

Paradise (Disney+): The Day (season one, episode seven)

A vast conspiracy thriller that inversely dwelt on individual regrets – the creator, unsurprisingly, was This Is Us maestro Dan Fogelman – Paradise was set in an underground community where a picture-perfect town sheltered the survivors of an unknown apocalyptic event. The show doled out information and flashbacks, as a Secret Service agent (Sterling K. Brown) investigated the murder of a not very motivated US president (James Marsden).

The nightmarish day three years prior hung over everyone, but we don’t see it until the season’s penultimate episode. Set mainly in the White House, The Day doesn’t try to show doomsday via digital effects, but rather the intimate reactions of those facing escape or annihilation. The end of the world was brutal, bittersweet, gasp-inducing – and close up. CM

Adam Scott and Dichen Lachman in Severance.

Severance (Apple TV): Chikhai Bardo (season two, episode seven)

Fans of this ornate mystery box show had been waiting three years for the information revealed in this episode. What is happening to Gemma (Australia’s Dichen Lachman) inside Lumon? And how did she and her husband Mark (Adam Scott) become entangled with this dystopian megacorporation?

Of course, none of the answers to those questions are exactly clear, but we were given plenty to speculate about on Reddit. The real gift of this flashback-heavy episode, however, was the wild aesthetic and tonal shift from what we’d seen before. Episode director and series cinematographer Jessica Lee Gagne opted to shoot the scenes from Mark and Gemma’s old life on 35mm film, giving them a warmth, texture and richness completely counter to the cold and clinical world of Lumon. And the love story that’s packed into just 20 minutes on screen is strong enough and real enough to emotionally propel the show forward to its spectacular finale. Meg Watson

This season of South Park features Donald Trump in a relationship with Satan.

South Park (Paramount+): Sermon on the Mount (season 27, episode one)

This was the year South Park roared back into the zeitgeist, routinely making headlines for its vicious satire of the second Trump presidency. But nothing quite matched the shock, awe and (literal) balls of that first episode. Landing shortly after Paramount controversially settled a multimillion-dollar lawsuit with the President, Sermon on the Mount featured Trump suing the town of South Park while in an abusive relationship with Satan (in the same style the show used to depict Saddam Hussein in the late ’90s). The episode later featured Jesus Christ warning everyone to fall in line – “You really want to end up like Colbert?” – as well as a deepfake of the President wandering naked in a desert with a micro-penis. Even if South Park isn’t your thing, you have to respect timely TV that sticks to its convictions. The show’s creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, did all this just days after signing a $US1.5 billion deal ($2.26 billion) with Paramount and had everything to lose. MW

The Rehearsal (HBO Max): Pilot’s Code (season two, episode three)

You know an episode has earned its place on this list when you remember exactly where you were when you first watched it. For this insane masterpiece, I was standing in the kitchen cooking dinner, involuntarily screaming before my partner came in to check if I was OK (I was not). From Nathan For You to The Curse to the first season of this genre-defying series, Nathan Fielder has set a high bar for absurd cringe comedy, but he outdid himself with this one – an elaborate exploration of the psyche of Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, the beloved pilot who landed a passenger plane on the Hudson. I won’t spoil every twist and turn, but this very important and serious piece of journalism includes Fielder, a 41-year-old man, breastfeeding; cloned dogs; and a scene set to Evanescence’s 2003 goth-pop hit Bring Me To Life that made me cry with laughter. Enjoy. MW

Owen Cooper as Jamie Miller in Adolescence.

Adolescence (Netflix): Episode three

Each of the four episodes in Adolescence is a remarkable feat of screen storytelling, marrying writing, performance and technical precision to powerful effect. But in terms of acting, the third episode is unmatched. For the most part, a simple two-hander with none of the filmmaking wizardry on display elsewhere, this is all about the performances of Owen Cooper as teenage murderer Jamie Miller and Erin Doherty as Briony, the psychologist whose job it is to ascertain the boy’s state of mind and readiness for trial. Jamie is by turns charming, childlike, vicious and violent, while Briony does her best to remain calm throughout; only at the last, as he is dragged away by guards after yet another outburst, does she let the mask slip. It’s superb work, and rightly won Emmy awards for both actors, Cooper – who was 14 at the time it was shot – becoming the youngest male ever to win in his category. Karl Quinn

Pedro Pascal and Kaitlyn Dever in The Last of Us.

The Last of Us (HBO Max): Through the Valley (season two, episode two)

It takes a huge act of bravery (or self-sabotage) to kill off one of your major characters, but this excellent HBO zombocalypse drama did exactly that when it nixed Joel (Pedro Pascal) in just the second episode of its second season. The Walking Dead took almost seven seasons to kill Glenn (Stephen Yeun), and arguably never recovered, but The Last of Us moved swiftly, suggesting the gore rather than dwelling on it, and giving the killer (Kaitlyn Dever’s Abby) a reason beyond sadism (the motivator for TWD’s Negan). And, as a sneaky salve, it has a flashback structure that means we can mourn Joel and still have him with us, at least a little. KQ

The White Lotus: Full-Moon Party (season three, episode five)

The standout moment in the third season of The White Lotus was the scene in a Bangkok bar in which Rick (Walton Goggins) sits in dumbfounded near-silence while his old buddy Frank (Sam Rockwell) explains his journey from wild hedonism to Buddhist self-abnegation.

He fetishises, and has sex with, countless Asian women; he begins to realise he identifies with these women and so seeks to become one of them, and have sex with “himself”, dressing as an Asian woman and inviting men to have sex with him; he sometimes pays Asian women to watch as he does so; and finally, he relinquishes it all, having exhausted desire entirely. It is 550 words of madness and intensity, it’s confronting as all hell (the shifting expression on Rick’s face is the perfect avatar for the audience), and it’s strangely moving and profound. This being Mike White, it’s also funny as all hell. KQ

Jacinda (Ava Cannon) and Angie Davis (Claudia Karvan) in episode nine of Bump’s season five.

Bump (Stan*): Cinders (season five, episode nine)

Unflinching and inspirational, this penultimate episode of the final season of this wonderful local comedy-drama deals with the last days of cancer-stricken mother and grandmother Angie (Claudia Karvan). She’s surrounded by her family and loved ones, but they’re in denial and clutching on to vain hope. A frustrated Angie seeks support and advice from Gaby (Catherine McClements), an end-of-life counsellor blessed with a steady gaze and a compassionate yet forthright approach to dying. “You can ignore it,” Gaby says to Angie’s distraught partner Edith (Anita Hegh), “but it’s happening”. Written by Shanti Gudgeon and directed by Rebecca O’Brien, Cinders is an achingly beautiful, heart-wrenching and life-affirming episode that allows a beloved central character to “go out on her own terms”. A more fitting or moving exit is impossible to imagine. Debi Enker

The Studio (Apple TV): The Oner (season one, episode two)

This sly, knowing satire about the machinations of the Hollywood hierarchy is at its slapstick best in its second episode. Puffed up by his new powers and in full, giddy fanboy mode, recently installed studio boss Matt Remick (Seth Rogen) visits the set of a film being directed by Sarah Polley. He’s like a kid who has the keys to the candy store and while nobody wants him there, everybody wants something from him. The crew is rushing to capture a complicated, intricately choreographed, single-take sunset shot before the film’s star, Greta Lee, leaves the production. “Pretend I’m not here,” he repeatedly and uselessly instructs as his behaviour causes a hilariously escalating level of disruption. It’s pure comedy gold as his ego and oblivious enthusiasm collide. DE

The Pitt (HBO Max): 6pm (season one, episode 12)

Pumping with urgent activity, the premiere season of this riveting, Emmy award-winning hospital drama presents a day in the life of an emergency ward at a crowded Pittsburgh hospital that’s straining under budget, resource and staff limitations. In this episode, casualties from a shooting at a music festival start to flood in and the show’s besieged protagonist, Dr Michael “Robby” Robinavitch (Noah Wyle), tries to steer his team through triaging and treating the often critically injured arrivals. The tension and pathos are ratcheted even higher by the knowledge that Robby’s de facto son and his partner were attending the event. The emotional stakes are high, the pace never falters and, in a testament to the accomplishment and priorities of the series, the writers consign the shooter to the periphery while focusing on the skill and dedication of the medical staff. DE

Andor (Disney+): Who Are You? (season two, episode eight)

If you thought Star Wars was for kids and nerds reliving their childhood, Andor is here to prove you wrong. Over two short seasons, the spy thriller delivered a masterclass in complex storytelling that dealt with genocide, colonialism, fascism and the oppression of minorities. Episode eight of season two, however, was where it all came together, with the massacre of peaceful Ghorman protesters by the Empire.

It was chilling and gasp-worthy and all the more shocking because of its parallels with many real-world events. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Andor’s showrunner Tony Gilroy said that while the massacre – and a barnstorming speech about the event by Mon Mothma that followed in episode nine – was not inspired by any particular event, the “really sorry truth about this question — and we get it a lot — is that peace and prosperity and calm are the rarities. Those are rarities throughout the last 6000 years of recorded history. You could drop this show at any point in the last 6000 years, and it would make sense to some people about what’s happening to them.” Louise Rugendyke

final five contestants (from left) David Olusoga, Cat Burns, host Claudia Winkleman, Nick Mohammed, Alan Carr and Joe Marler.

Celebrity Traitors UK: Episode nine

No television show has me screaming at the screen like Celebrity Traitors this year. Yes, it’s reality nonsense, but in a world of heavy dramas and endless true crime, this shone as brightly as one of Alan Carr’s patterned jumpers. Everyone who watched it raved about it, capped off by a final episode that revelled in the ridiculousness (running from an exploding train!) and then produced three nail-biting votes, in which traitor Cat Burns was caught, faithful Joe Marler was banished (turned on by his friend Nick Mohammed!), allowing traitor Alan Carr to slip through and win the whole thing. It was such good, through-the-fingers TV that it only just beat out episode three, in which 73-year-old award-winning screen legend Celia Imrie farted. Truly, it was a mad year in TV. LR

* Stan is owned by Nine, which is also the owner of this masthead.

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