The 18 TV shows we can’t wait to see this year

It’s been a busy first half of the television year, as demonstrated by the interim best-of list we recently put together. But as much as the likes of Adolescence, The Pitt and Andor delivered, you can make the case that the second half of 2025 has an even more promising roster. Here’s a headline sample of the scripted shows still to come, from exciting debuts to highly anticipated return seasons.

Meg Stalter stars in Lena Dunham’s new comedy Too Much.Credit:

Romantic comedy

New Too Much: Girls creator Lena Dunham is back, crafting this transatlantic romcom with her husband, British musician Luis Felber. The set-up has autobiographical leanings, with a New Yorker, Jessica (Megan Stalter, Hacks), moving to London, where she makes a connection with Felix (Will Sharpe, The White Lotus). Gotta love Richard E. Grant in the supporting cast. Netflix, July 11.

Joanne (Kristen Bell) and Noah (Adam Brody) are back in season two of Nobody Wants This.Credit:

Returning Nobody Wants This (season two): As Netflix’s data team can tell you, nearly everybody wants more of Erin Foster’s savvy show about a take-no-prisoners Los Angeles podcaster, Joanne (Kristen Bell), who finds a genuine connection, and much entanglement, when she begins dating a newly single rabbi, Noah (Adam Brody). The show’s first season profited off a prickly, unconventional take on romcom conventions. Hopefully the new episodes double down on that. Netflix, October 24.

Brian Fraser (Jamie Roy) and Ellen MacKenzie (Harriet Slater) in Outlander prequel Blood of my Blood.Credit:

Spin-off

New Outlander: Blood of My Blood: As the romantic period epic Outlander prepares for its eighth and final season, this dual-timeline prequel focuses on the origins of its time-crossed lovers, Jamie Fraser and Claire Randall. The narrative will alternate between the meetings of his parents in 18th-century Scotland, and her parents in World War I-era England. Expect the show’s trademark features: passionate longing, testing endurance and strong, shirtless men. Stan*, August 9.

Jenna Ortega as Wednesday in The Addams Family spin-off.Credit:

Returning Wednesday (season two): Star Jenna Ortega had to come to terms with the success of this 2022 supernatural mystery, in which she made the delightfully macabre Wednesday Addams iconic for a new generation, but she’s finally ready to rejoin the outcasts of Nevermore Academy. Wednesday’s magical mystery tour of romantic intrigue and spectral conspiracy gets a jolt with the addition of Lady Gaga as a legendary teacher. Netflix, August 9 (part one) and September 4 (part two).

Martha Plimpton and Mark Ruffalo in the new crime drama Task.Credit:

Action-thriller

New Task: Mare of Easttown creator Brad Ingelsby keeps the setting in Pennsylvania for this intense limited series about a pair of battered family men and committed professionals – Mark Ruffalo’s FBI agent and Tom Pelphrey’s armed robber – who are on a collision course when the former hunts the latter. Ingelsby is a sure hand with complex characters, illustrating them in striking ways. This should be gripping. Max, TBC September.

Taylor Kitsch as Ben Edwards in The Terminal List: Dark Wolf.Credit:

Returning The Terminal List: Dark Wolf: Chris Pratt’s former US Navy SEAL, James Reece, left a long and bloody – so, so bloody – line of bodies in his quest for vengeance in the first season of this muscular drama. This prequel explores how serving in the US Army and then the CIA made Reece and his comrade Ben Edwards (Taylor Kitsch) into the show’s uncompromising veterans. Amazon Prime Video, August 27.

Cooper Raiff and Mark Ruffalo play an awkward father and son in the comedy Hal & Harper.Credit:

Comedy-Drama

New Hal & Harper: Hal (writer-director Cooper Raiff) and Harper (Lili Reinhart) are co-dependent twenty-something siblings whose lives are going nowhere fast. Their imperfect father (Mark Ruffalo) may have something to do with that. Figuring out what to do next makes for a bittersweet comedy with an idiosyncratic outlook – in flashbacks to the brother and sister’s childhood, the adult actors play their primary-school-age characters. Stan, June 26.

Jeremy Allen White as Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto and Ayo Edebiri as Sydney in The Bear.Credit:

Returning The Bear (season four): Gotta say, there’s a lot of hugging in the trailer for the new instalment of this acclaimed kitchen drama about a barely-holding-it-together chef (Jeremy Allen White) trying to launch a fine-dining restaurant in Chicago. The new season looks as if it’s setting up some resolution amid the emotional exchanges, something that was in short supply for the third season. Disney+, June 26.

It: Welcome to Derry is a prequel to Stephen King’s 1986 novel It, which is about a child-killing clown that terrorises a small town. Credit:

Horror

New It: Welcome to Derry: HBO’s gambit of blockbuster spin-offs – see Dune: Prophecy and The Penguin – continues with this horror prequel to the hit movies adapted from Stephen King’s bestseller. The setting is once again the cursed Maine town of Derry, albeit in 1962, but evil never rests and the nightmarish Pennywise the Clown (Bill Skarsgard) will torment a new cast. The movies’ director, Andy Muschietti, helms multiple episodes. Max, TBC.

Winona Ryder (back left) as Joyce Byers and Finn Wolfhard as Mike Wheeler (front) lead season five of Stranger Things. Credit:

Returning Stranger Things (season five): It’s setting up to be the streaming event of the year. With some episodes reportedly each as long as a feature film, the conclusion of the Duffer brothers’ heroic mix of pop-culture nostalgia, adolescent science-fiction and wide-eyed horror will release as a three-part epic. The young stars are all adults now – this series debuted in 2016 – but its interdimensional monsters are timeless. Netflix, November 27 (part one); December 26 (part two); and January 1 (finale).

Family saga Long Story Short follows siblings from childhood through adulthood. Credit:

Animated

New Long Story Short: One of Netflix’s earliest and greatest triumphs was the tragicomic adult animation BoJack Horseman, which concluded in 2020 after six illuminating seasons. Now its creator, Raphael Bob-Waksberg, and designer, Lisa Hanawalt, have reunited for this family saga, which follows a group of siblings from childhood through adulthood. The voice cast includes Paul Reiser (Mad About You) and Abbi Jacobson (Broad City). Netflix, August 23.

Sixteen years after it ended, King of the Hill is back. Credit:

Returning King of the Hill (season 14): This is quite the comeback. Mike Judge’s animated sitcom about an everyday Texan family last aired in 2009. The plot has propane salesman Hank Hill and wife Peggy returning to Texas after years working abroad, while their son Bobby is now a twenty-something chef. The show had fun with a traditional man in a changing world, but as a setting America has changed wildly. Revisiting Hank’s conspiracy-theorist friend Dale looms as a challenge. Disney+, August 4.

Filippa Coster-Waldau as Smilla in the politically fraught drama Smilla’s Sense of Snow.Credit:

Science-fiction

New Smilla’s Sense of Snow: Danish author Peter Hoeg’s 1992 mystery novel Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow was a literary hit and Scandi-noir precursor. There was a Hollywood film in 1997 but it’s been reimagined here, set in a politically fraught near-future. Filippa Coster-Waldau (daughter of Game of Thrones star Nikolaj) plays the title role, a young woman unofficially investigating the suspicious death of a neighbouring Greenlandic boy. SBS, TBC

Jared Harris as renegade scientist Hari Seldon in season three of the science-fiction epic Foundation.Credit:

Returning Foundation (season three): This galactic epic launched with the goal of turning Isaac Asimov’s seminal Foundation stories into eight seasons that covered 1000 years of complex history. With Jared Harris as renegade scientist Hari Seldon, and Lee Pace as an emperor losing his grip on power, it’s actually getting there. This season introduces a crucial book character, mutant usurper the Mule (Pilou Asbæk), which will up the conflict. Apple TV+, July 11.

Brooke Satchwell in the coming Dear Life. Credit:

Australian

New Dear Life: The creative team of Robyn Butler and Wayne Hope add to an already impressive CV – The Librarians, Little Lunch, Upper Middle Bogan – with this heartfelt series about grief and understanding. Brooke Satchwell plays a woman who lost the love of her life, sending her on a journey to track down the recipients of the organ donations, which sets off a chain of unexpected new connections. Stan, TBC

Austin is back, with Ingrid (Sally Phillips), Julian (Ben Miller), Mel (Gia Carides) and Austin (Michael Theo).Credit:

Returning Austin (season two): Last year’s debut of this Australian-British comedy proved to be a warm, witty hit, exploring the difficulty of change through the first-time meeting of a floundering British author, Julian (Ben Miller), and his adult, Australian, autistic son, Austin (Michael Theo). The show succeeded as gentle farce and representation for the neurodiverse. In the new season Austin faces the temptation of unexpected success. ABC, TBC.

Sydney Chandler as Wendy in Alien: Earth, which is a prequel to the Alien film franchise. Credit:

Dystopian

New Alien: Earth: Creator Noah Hawley, whose previous successes include building the Fargo anthology off the Coen brothers’ film, delves into the Alien franchise with this horror-primed prequel set two years before 1979’s original movie. The story brings the terrifying xenomorph creature to Earth after a space vessel crash-lands, with only a unique young woman and a squad of misfit soldiers on hand to confront it. Disney+, August 13.

Lee Byung-hun as Frontman in season three of Squid Game. Credit:

Returning Squid Game (season three): Filmed back-to-back with season two, the third instalment of this South Korean blockbuster will conclude the warped survival tale of Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) as he attempts to bring down the macabre life-and-death games being run by a cynical syndicate. The show has made economic inequality and murderous giant dolls equally memorable, and you would expect creator Hwang Dong-hyuk to hold his nerve. Netflix, July 27.

What shows are you looking forward to this year? Please tell us in the comments below.

*Stan is owned by Nine, the publisher of this masthead.

Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday.