Over the previous couple of months, the CAPC group has compiled an inventory of our favourite popular culture artifacts from the earlier yr. In contrast to most year-end lists, we don’t declare that these are the “finest.” Quite, these are the issues that introduced us probably the most pleasure and satisfaction all through the final 12 months.
For 2025, our favourite TV included a sci-fi thriller, a late evening discuss present, a rom-com, and a return to Lumon Industries.
Andor, Season Two (Disney+)
Andor‘s first season set a reasonably excessive bar, taking us to the galaxy far, far-off however eschewing the anticipated Star Wars staples—there’s nary a Jedi or lightsaber in sight—to as a substitute ship a harrowing political thriller about Imperial tyranny and the rise of the Insurrection. When season two begins, Cassian Andor is a hardened insurgent operative, prepared to do no matter it takes to deliver down the festering Empire. Nonetheless, the nascent Insurrection operates in suits and begins, with competing factions attempting to deliver down the Empire with their very own agendas—after they’re not squabbling with one another.
Over the course of twelve episodes, Andor‘s closing season reveals the ethical and moral calls for concerned in battling tyranny, increasing on Luthen Rael’s highly effective “Sacrifice” monologue from season one to point out us characters all doing their finest to outlive the battle. Mon Mothma lives luxuriously as a galactic senator, however her efforts to fund the Insurrection will value her in methods she might by no means count on; Bix is wracked with PTSD from Imperial torture, escaping into medicine and schemes of revenge; and Luthen and his younger protege Kleya frequently function from throughout the shadows whilst their very own facet suspects them. A part of Andor‘s power is that it additionally exhibits us how the the opposite facet fares, and nowhere extra so than Dedra Meero, the Imperial agent whose ambition and guile are each her biggest power and weak spot.
As Andor‘s second season attracts nearer to its finish and the occasions of 2016’s Rogue One, its narrative power grows. Sequence creator Tony Gilroy and his fellow writers ship a collection that just about feels prophetic at instances because it makes crystal clear the gradual, seductive nature of tyranny and the pricey sacrifices essential to fight it. Because it culminates in a haunting montage that reveals the last word fates of its varied characters, one factor is definite: Andor will stick to you lengthy after the credit end rolling, Star Wars fan or not.
—Jason Morehead
Dept. Q, Season One (Netflix)
Initially revealed in Denmark as Kvinden i buret (The Keeper of Misplaced Causes) in 2007, Jussi Adler-Olsen’s novel collection focuses on a particular chilly case unit. The unit, known as “Division Q” (you guessed it, Afdeling Q in Danish), facilities round demoted Detective Carl Mørck (performed on this collection by Matthew Goode).
Should you’ve seen the trailer, you’ll know that, having barely survived being murdered, Morck should concurrently take care of PTSD and examine a excessive profile lacking individuals case. By the top of the primary episode we understand not solely is that this a riveting whodunit with dark-comedy features of an underdog assemblage, however a narrative informed on a number of timelines. That will sound like a variety of work for us because the viewers and granted, you may’t distractedly scroll in your telephone by way of this one, however why would you wish to?
The present is so good, that, very similar to the Dept. Q group, I can present empirical proof: I by no means binge exhibits, however I binged this one. I imply, when you thought Matthew Goode was goode in The Supply, simply wait. And but, there’s something extra, one thing deeper than an awesome plot and stellar performing, the intrigue is interpersonal.
I agree with John Energy’s assessment that the characters are integral, however I disagree that the mysteries take a again seat. As a result of each crime is finished by people and solved by people, a human viewers pertains to the interpersonal. That’s why 43 % of the Bible is narrative; God is mysteriously private and made us relational. I additionally imagine that is why fictional crime has flourished within the streaming period, as a result of we love nice tales and fixing an excellent thriller. But it surely’s no thriller whether or not we’ll get extra Dept. Q—the collection has been renewed for a second season!
—Chris Fogle
Dropout TV
Previously referred to as CollegeHumor, Dropout is the scrappy streaming underdog that turned out to be an enormous success due to its eclectic and hilarious programming. Make no mistake, although: Dropout’s varied titles—which embrace the meta recreation present Sport Changer, the D&D stay play Dimension 20, the madcap improv of Make Some Noise, and the awkward viewers interactions of Crowd Management—can get actually crass and actually bizarre.
However I’m satisfied that Dropout is much less a streaming platform that often traffics in R-rated humor, and extra a group stuffed with individuals who genuinely love and respect one another. That actually explains the fearlessness of a few of their bits; you’re not going to do the kind of zany, reckless improv that you simply see on Make Some Noise until you belief everybody else on the stage with you. And the present’s all of the extra hilarious because of this.
It additionally explains the grace and generosity that Dropout CEO Sam Reich and his quite a few collaborators—Brennan Lee Mulligan, Josh Ruben, Zac Oyama, Vic Michaelis, Jacob Wysocki, Ally Beardsley, Lisa Gilroy, and lots of extra—present each other. For one episode of Sport Changer, Dropout took on a company sponsor (LinkedIn) in order that they may create an elaborate ruse to present Wysocki $100,000 as he dealt together with his mom’s dying. And within the season’s largest twist, Mulligan, who’s often the butt of Reich’s remedy on Sport Changer, kidnapped Reich and compelled him to take part in his personal Sport Changer episode—which in the end proved to be a pleasant celebration of Reich’s life, pursuits, and relationships. Even Gilroy’s unending antagonism of Reich comes from a spot of affection. (Not less than, I hope it does.)
It’s most likely too presumptuous to say that I want the church regarded extra like Dropout. However, after I watch an episode of Sport Changer or Make Some Noise, I see the kind of beneficiant group that I want would higher characterize how us Christians deal with one another. After I’m not rolling round on the ground laughing, that’s.
—Jason Morehead
Final Week Tonight with John Oliver, Season 12 (HBO)
One in all John Oliver’s favourite jokes to make on his long-running HBO comedy present, Final Week Tonight with John Oliver, is to tug the viewers for having to sit down by way of what they assume goes to be a comedy present however is in truth a really critical present about unfunny subjects like politics, science, humanitarian crises, and extra. It’s true, Final Week Tonight covers weighty topics—usually so weighty that my husband and I select to look at a “enjoyable” present afterwards to decompress—and in 2025’s twelfth season, the theme of Oliver’s protection of these topics appeared to shift.
In contrast to most late-night exhibits, which reply to present occasions after which host visitors (often selling some upcoming film, album, and many others.), the format of Final Week Tonight doesn’t deliver on visitors, however reasonably, provides Oliver the complete time to answer one thing present after which do an extended section on a giant matter. Season 12’s episodes lined youngster incarceration, ICE detention amenities, sports activities betting, medicare, gang databases… you get the concept. The primary theme that emerged in season 12, spoken many instances by John Oliver—immediately and not directly—is that individuals’s lives matter. Life itself issues. Human life is treasured, what we do with it issues, and the way we stay additionally issues.
Trying again on earlier seasons, Oliver has lengthy lined the identical kind of subjects as he did in season 12, so possibly that’s all the time been a theme of the present. However I’ve watched Final Week Tonight for half a decade now and by no means felt as impressed by the urgency of the message to avoid wasting and promote life as I did in 2025. Maybe most importantly, I couldn’t assist considering that John Oliver was saying what I want Evangelical church leaders would say about human life. Final Week Tonight‘s twelfth season jogged my memory that God just isn’t absent in laborious instances in America, however generally we are going to discover his voice being spoken in unlikely locations.
—Okay. B. Hoyle
No one Needs This, Season Two (Netflix)
In a yr when a variety of tv felt both bleak, preachy, or inexplicably irritating, No one Needs This‘s second season provided one thing uncommon: a romantic comedy that’s genuinely romantic, genuinely humorous, and (most stunning of all) extremely considerate about religion. Additionally, it included an American Lady doll combat, which immediately gained my coronary heart. Millennial ladies like myself know the way completely diabolical it might be to chop one other lady’s Felicity doll’s hair at a sleepover, and the truth that the present treats this as a critical historic grievance (because it ought to!) is a part of what makes it so sharp. (I used to be Felicity for Halloween final yr, so naturally I took this grievance personally after I noticed it.)
The premise remains to be irresistible: Joanne (Kristen Bell), a blunt agnostic courting podcaster, falls for Noah (Adam Brody), a rabbi who’s genuinely good, genuinely good-looking, and genuinely attempting to stay a life with ethical seriousness. Which, because the present retains reminding us, is mainly the least handy factor you may attempt to do whereas courting in 2025. Season two constructed on what the earlier season arrange so nicely: the actual battle isn’t whether or not the couple has chemistry (they do), however whether or not love can survive group expectations, spiritual stress, and the truth that everybody has opinions—particularly individuals who have by no means met you however someway really feel spiritually known as to weigh in.
What I appreciated most is that the present takes religion severely. Not in a heavy-handed “Very Particular Episode” sort of method, however in a human one: religion as a formative lifestyle—filled with magnificence, obligation, and actual value. Noah’s spiritual vocation isn’t handled like a unusual impediment, and Joanne isn’t required to turn into a special individual in a single day with a purpose to be cherished. The strain is allowed to stay what it truly is: a query about belonging, sacrifice, identification, and what love asks of us when it’s not only a feeling.
In different phrases: it’s a rom-com, but it surely’s additionally trustworthy.
And to inform the reality? In a tradition obsessive about “doing what feels proper,” I discovered myself weirdly moved by a present that implies love may generally require self-discipline: endurance, humility, precise progress, and the willingness to study one another’s household traditions, create new ones, and adapt in methods which are troublesome however price it. (The Purim episode—Purim being a Jewish vacation filled with costumes, storytelling, and pleasure—was one significantly good instance of this.)
Anyway, Netflix, I remorse nothing. I might be bingeing this present whereas folding laundry and calling it analysis for Christ and Pop Tradition—as God supposed.
—LuElla D’Amico
Pushers, Season One (Channel 4)
Extra than simply gags and giggles, comedy has lengthy been used as a gauge to measure the development of society whereas pushing its bounds additional nonetheless. And British sitcom Pushers is an excellent instance that this custom really is alive and nicely. Co-written by and starring standard comic Rosie Jones, the collection follows a younger girl with cerebral palsy who’s denied public advantages and as a substitute turns to an unlikely gang of drug pushers to make ends meet.
The present makes use of fast wit and dry humor to boost an eyebrow on the assumptions made of individuals with disabilities, and wraps it up in an effortlessly bingeable format. Following on from the setups exemplified by earlier British hits like The Workplace, Stath Lets Flats, and Blackadder, Pushers is motivated by a forged of characters so distinctive and contrasting that their interactions are nothing in need of good.
Whereas nice for a comedic evening on the sofa, this present additionally feels well timed and essential to the adjustments that we’ve seen in illustration over the previous yr. Primarily, there appears to have been an elevated focus not solely on together with numerous views within the dialog, however on giving them room to write the dialog as nicely. The truth that Rosie Jones’ specific fashion of comedy is so prevalent within the collection’ script and storyline is an encouraging instance of tales which aren’t solely genuine to the experiences and voices behind them but in addition simply rather well made.
—Sophie Pell
The Residence, Season One (Netflix)
The White Home is arguably probably the most safe and personal residence on the face of the Earth. Thus, it’s surprising when the White Home’s Chief Usher is found lifeless throughout a state dinner, the apparent sufferer of foul play. Solely, there’s completely nothing apparent in regards to the case, which suggests you’ll want a really unorthodox detective to resolve the case. Enter Cordelia Cupp (Uzo Aduba, Orange Is the New Black), a consulting detective whose knack for navigating the inevitable twists and turns of a homicide thriller is matched solely by her love of birding.
As Cupp meanders by way of the White Home, questioning everybody from the Presidential workers to the White Home’s rival cooks to the President’s family, her unorthodox strategies appear to ruffle everybody’s feathers. (Sorry, no extra fowl jokes, I promise!) However these exact same strategies additionally expose hidden agendas and conspiracies, bringing energy struggles and rivalries to the sunshine, and making it abundantly clear that these lead the nation aren’t essentially the perfect or brightest that the nation has to supply.
Thoughts you, The Residence by no means will get preachy or heavy-handed about these things. It stays enjoyable and filled with twists proper as much as the very finish. However, it does make some legitimate, if humorous, observations in regards to the perils of energy, and the way shut proximity to energy can deliver out absolutely the worst in everybody.
—Jason Morehead
Severance, Season Two (Apple TV)
The second season of Apple TV’s provocative and mysterious present Severance arrived after a lot anticipation and an extended wait in early 2025. Telling the story of a group of company employees who’ve volunteered to bear a surgical process that divides their brains between “innies” (severed employees) and “outies” (their outdoors selves), Severance raises ethical questions of self-determination, identification, reality vs falsehood, and company overreach. Severance is superb in each method, with excellent writing and performing, a propulsive and mind-bending thriller, immersive and beautiful visuals (with use of shade symbolism, as nicely), and evocative music and sound modifying. In brief, it appears like a cinematic expertise.
When season two arrived in 2025, it dug deeper into the ethical questions that had been raised in 2022’s first season. In a novel story that comprises a variety of outrageous issues, these very issues enable two characters with full company and competing wants and wishes to inhabit one physique that they need to share, presenting excessive stakes to the viewer and offering a framework to think about the identical ethical and psychological quandary that the characters discover themselves in: one which asks who provides life, what it means to be alive, and who can take it away.
—Okay. B. Hoyle
