10 Best Shows From the 2024-25 TV Season, Ranked

It’s officially summer, which means the 2024-2025 TV season has ended. A number of Network TV shows have just wrapped up until the fall, with many ending with explosive plot twists that will have to wait several months to be resolved. Additionally, quite a few streaming shows delivered excellent new seasons this past fall and winter, and there were some brand-new shows that have already gained fans and a renewal.

Many TV shows delivered excellent episodes this past TV season, and kept up with what previously made them so great. Some series really stood out with their most recent seasons, though, delivering new twists, surprising yet exciting changes in character dynamics, and finales that both answered the season’s questions yet left fans with more. These are the 10 best shows from the 2024-25 TV season, ranked.

10

‘What We Do in the Shadows’

Season 6

What We Do in the Shadows quietly flew under the radar as one of the best sitcoms on television for all six of its seasons, and its final installment is one of the funniest yet. The season shows Nandor (Kayan Novvak) feeling insecure when Guillermo (Harvey Guillén) gets an office job after being his familiar for so long, and Laszlo (Matt Berry) trying to create his own Cravensworth’s Monster (Andy Assaf) to prove himself as a scientist.

This is such a fun season of television, because it mixes up the characters’ dynamics for the show’s final installment. It also explores important emotional storylines, like Laszlo’s complicated relationship with his father (Steve Coogan), who briefly visits the vampires’ home in ghost form. Additionally, it sees Nandor and Guillermo’s dynamic come to a head in a wildly funny yet intense episode where Nandor rallies an army to fight on his behalf.

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9

‘A Man on the Inside’

Season 1

A Man on the Inside is one of the best new comedy shows of the 2024-25 TV season, and it will be returning later this year for another. The series follows Charles Nieuwendyk (Ted Danson), a widower and retired professor who has become very isolated. When his daughter, Emily (Mary Elizabeth Ellis), suggests that Charles get a job or hobby to fill his time, he ends up answering an advertisement from a Private Investigator named Julie (Lilah Richcreek Estrada).

The first season of A Man on the Inside sees Charles going undercover at Pacific View Retirement Community in order to figure out what happened to a missing necklace. It is a wildly funny season, as Charles tries to be a good spy, even though subtlety is not his strong suit. It is also very touching and heartwarming to see Charles make so many friends after he started the series feeling lonely and purposeless.

8

‘Only Murders in the Building’

Season 4

The fourth season of Only Murders in the Building sees Charles (Steve Martin), Oliver (Martin Short), and Mabel (Selena Gomez) investigating the murder of Sazz Pataki (Jane Lynch). They wind up spending a lot of time looking into two groups of people: the residents of the West side of the Arconia, and the cast and crew of the upcoming Only Murders in the Building film based on their podcast.

Four seasons in, Only Murders in the Building manages to both honor its tried and true formula and throw in a number of well-executed twists and turns. The killer reveal is absolutely perfect, complete with a hilarious cameo from a past character to top off the scene. Best of all, the season brings back a number of loose ends and seeming plot holes that are all related to an overarching mystery which still hasn’t been resolved.

7

‘Will Trent’

Season 3

Season 3 of Will Trent is an excellent and suspenseful installment that heightens the show’s physical and emotional stakes. The season starts with a six-month time jump, as Will (Ramón Rodríguez) returns to work for the first time after arresting Angie (Erika Christensen) and ending their relationship for good. The season includes a number of intense storylines, like Will going undercover to take down a dangerous cult, and a biological weapon spreading through takeout containers.

Will Trent‘s third season has multiple recurring storylines that show the GBI and APD dealing with complex cases, but the emotional throughline is what really makes this installment stand out. The season shows Will and Angie trying to move on from each other for good, Faith (Iantha Richardson) processing a well-meaning but hurtful betrayal by Will, and Ormewood (Jake McLaughlin) having to face his own mortality.

6

‘Abbott Elementary’

Season 4

Every season of Abbott Elementary is excellent, and it would have been easy for the show to stick to its tried and true formula for Season 4. What makes this season so fantastic, though, is that it takes a number of risks. Janine (Quinta Brunson) and Gregory (Tyler James Williams) are now an established couple, the gang from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia make an appearance as volunteers, and the faculty and staff of Abbott get wrapped up in a hilarious blackmail scheme.

The boldest and most brilliant decision of the season is the choice to have Ava (Janelle James) get fired after the blackmail scheme comes to light. It’s a heartbreaking yet very funny storyline that ends with an emotional episode where a number of parents, local business owners, and students all rally to support Ava and the teachers. The season ends with a field trip to the Please Touch museum, where the teachers participate in a play about them, and Janine impresses Gregory’s father (Orlando Jones).

5

‘High Potential’

Season 1

Based on the French-Belgian series HPI, High Potential first aired on ABC last fall, and will be returning this coming fall. The series follows Morgan Gillory (Kaitlin Olson), a night cleaner for the LAPD who is also a High Potential Intellectual individual. When Morgan uses her condition to solve a case that has the Major Crimes unit stumped, she is brought on permanently as a consultant.

High Potential is such a fun and entertaining new procedural. Each episode shows Morgan solving crimes alongside her partner, Detective Karadec (Daniel Sunjata), as well as the rest of the team. Some of these crimes include a murder where the weapon was poisoned hand soap, and a string of murders that are a part of a game that the killer is trying to play with the LAPD.

4

‘Overcompensating’

Season 1

Prime Video’s brand-new college comedy, Overcompensating, is an absolute delight. The series follows Benny Scanlon (the show’s creator, Benito Skinner), a closeted gay man and former high school football player who is just trying to blend in as a freshman at Yates University. Benny quickly develops a close friendship with Carmen Neil (Wally Baram), while also rushing a secret society called Flesh and Gold, and navigating a secret crush on his new friend Miles (Rish Shah).

There is a lot to love about Overcompensating, from its messy and touching portrayal of friendships, to the journey towards accepting his sexuality that Benny goes on throughout Season 1. What really stands out about this show, though, is its wonderfully weird sense of humor. For example, throughout the season, Benny looks to an unlikely source for advice: the Megan Fox poster that he keeps on his wall so that people will think he’s straight, and whom he regularly imagines speaking back to him.

3

‘Paradise’

Season 1

The 2024-25 TV season was a real treat for television drama fans, with some truly phenomenal and suspenseful seasons of television. One of these was the first season of Paradise, a post-apocalyptic political thriller from This Is Us creator Dan Fogelman. The series follows Agent Xavier Collins (Sterling K. Brown), the head Secret Service agent for the detail of President Cal Bradford (James Marsden).

Cal was once the President of the United States, but he is now the president of Paradise, an underground bunker that contains the survivors of a doomsday event. When Cal is murdered, it is up to Xavier to figure out what happened, even as the people in charge of Paradise try to prevent him from learning the truth. The first season of the show is fantastic, both delivering a satisfying murder mystery while also posing compelling moral and ethical questions related to the apocalypse.

2

‘The Pitt’

Season 1

The medical drama is a tried and true sub-genre of television. HBO Max’s new contribution, The Pitt, is an excellent addition to this sub-genre. The series follows the doctors and nurses who work in the Emergency Room at Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center, over the course of a single fifteen-hour shift. At the show’s center is Dr. Robby (Noah Wyle), the senior attending physician, who is working on the anniversary of his mentor’s death for the first time in four years.

The Pitt takes full advantage of its structure, using its limited timeframe to heighten the stakes, show the toll that the job takes on the ER doctors and nurses, and give viewers room to get attached to the patients. Over the course of the season, the medical staff of PTMC deal with a number of difficult cases, and eventually tend to the victims of a mass shooting, without so much as a break.

1

‘Severance’

Season 2

How does a show top something as incredible as Severance‘s first season? Well, with a stolen identity switch-up, a bizarre company retreat that ends in tragedy, and a delightfully strange marching band performance – to name just a few. There is no better experience while watching a TV show than feeling like the series knows exactly what it’s doing, and that it is very deliberate with even the smallest details. All that’s left to do then is just sit back and enjoy the show.

And what a show Severance is, with a second season that contains some of the best episodes of television of recent years: “Woe’s Hollow,” “Chikhai Bardo,” and “Cold Harbor.” Season 2 of Severance is unbelievably entertaining, and it makes for a fantastic viewing experience. Better yet, though, is how each episode leaves the show’s viewers deep in thought long after the credits have rolled.

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