Skip all this bullshit and take me to the list.

I think it’s safe to say we’re firmly past the peak of the “Golden Age” of television. In some ways it feels less like we’re strolling down the other side of that hill and more like we’re dangling off the precipice at the very end of our grasp. AI isn’t coming to wipe everything out in a clean, cinematic apocalypse. It’s coming to step on our fingers.

It won’t be Terminator 2. It’ll be that cruel middle-school bully who deep-fakes your nudes and rewrites your social media history until everyone thinks you’re the one who shot everybody’s favorite racist. It won’t obliterate culture. It’ll just quietly ruin things.

My friend Owen said:

“I think people are so beat down they don’t want to do hard work, and AI will be happy to convince them that they’ve done hard things easily. Or something like that.
This thing where people are like, ‘I can make the better version, the Star Wars with only white people,’ or whatever, like that’s an accomplishment.
It convinces them they’re doing something as good as people making something good, or that they don’t ever have to question things they thought were really amazing.
There’s a shortcut in it all that’s the same as skipping an essay so you can get a grade, like the essay and the work and the thinking weren’t the real point, even if it turned out kinda mediocre. Like you don’t have to work at it again and again and again to make something great.
People compare it to a calculator, but there’s something in real calculation or reasoning your way through things. A calculator lets you do real things faster. AI skips that end goal and just leaves you with a bunch of hollow bullshit. You’re suddenly at the end point with a bad product and an empty process.
And the industry side, the money side, never cared about process or product anyway, so they don’t care about ruining either if it’s cheaper.”

I’ve written before about how art is a medium for communicating things we can’t easily put into words. A way of communicating an emotion, or a situation, or a concept. The complications and nuances of how each person receives that message are part of the art itself. That’s why great art can feel obscure or difficult, and why it’s so often manipulated or flattened until the original message is barely recognizable.

This is where long-form television has shined. A great series can hide its message long enough that by the time it lands, it’s too late to interfere with it. It doesn’t have to water itself down or simplify its ideas to survive.

I once used e-bikes as an example of this. An e-bike gives someone access to terrain they might never have considered riding. They get the joy of the experience without changing the terrain itself, and riders with greater physical ability lose nothing in the process. That’s the best version of television too. It expands access without taking anything away.

Which brings me to this list.

When I looked at my top ten shows of 2025, a couple of themes jumped out immediately. First, a lot of slow burns. That makes sense. Messages are under heavier scrutiny than they’ve been in a long time, and slow storytelling lets writers protect their work from being diluted or misinterpreted before it’s ready.

Second, there’s a clear political lean. In a world that increasingly feels defined by anti-compassion, a lot of television is pushing back, saying that most of us still believe in empathy and are willing to fight for it. That message has always been present in art, but it hasn’t always been this transparent.

This isn’t true of all television, of course. Plenty of shows exist purely to fill space long enough to sell you something. For a while it felt like those shows were disappearing, drowned out by the abundance of genuinely artistic work. Maybe streaming platforms took bigger risks to stand out. Maybe the collapse of the theater model pushed serious storytellers toward television. Maybe creators realized long-form storytelling was the best way to keep their ideas intact.

Whatever the reason, we’re on the other side of that moment now. As media companies merge, they consolidate power and erase choices, both for audiences and for storytellers. Putting together a top ten list used to feel easy. Now it feels deliberate.

Still, there’s a strange optimism here. If the medium becomes cheap enough, empty enough, maybe only the people who truly want to make art will stick around. And maybe that’s how we get a renaissance.

That sounded darker than I intended.

So. Here’s the list.

10. Daredevil: Born Again
This one was about the joy of watching three incredible actors return to roles they clearly love. Charlie Cox, Vincent D’Onofrio, and Jon Bernthal are magnetic together. Some people wanted more action, others wanted more story. I thought it struck the balance just right.

9. The Righteous Gemstones
I still can’t decide whether Danny McBride is the greatest doofus of all time or one of the sharpest character actors working. This show feels like the perfect balance of both. It’s savage satire, consistently hilarious, and I think it’ll be remembered as one of the best comedies ever made.

8. Obituary
The UK’s obsession with murder mysteries continues to pay off. Instead of asking who did it, Obituary asks how she’s going to get away with it. It treats the genre as a theme rather than a formula, and the result is sharp, dark humor.

7. Poker Face
I wrote about Poker Face before learning it was cancelled, and I’m still baffled by that decision. Letting show runner Rian Johnson go feels almost negligent. This show deserved better.
You can read my write up at this link:
https://carbatterytv.com/2025/05/18/poker-face/

6. Big Boys
It was a genuine gift to see this show get a proper ending after its (second!) cancellation. Jack Rooke wrapped up this sweet, sad story with the same care that made it special in the first place.

5. Fisk
This will either inspire a deeply disappointing American remake or become the next The Office. Either way, it’s some of the best television to come out of Australia, which is saying a lot.

4. The White Lotus
This show has always wavered between cynicism and brilliance. This latest season is its most confident yet, with its strongest cast so far. Mike White’s talent is truly blossoming as a show runner.

3. The Change
After rewatching Northern Exposure, this felt like its spiritual successor, filtered through Jungian archetypes and philosophy. So far, it’s even better, which is not something I say lightly.

2. Pluribus
An unapologetic slow burn. It asks for patience and occasionally makes you uncomfortable, but every piece feels intentional. It’s clearly building toward something beautiful. Albeit we may die before we ever actually learn what that is, as it’s looking like it could be anywhere from 3 to 5 years before we even get season 2.

1. Andor
This should be at the top of everyone’s list. It’s television storytelling at its absolute best. The perfect e-bike. We all made it to the mountaintop together, and no one had to give anything up to get there. Two seasons was exactly right. That some folks complained it was slow even though it was only 24 episodes in total is probably the best back handed unintentional compliment there could be. The story knew where it needed to go, and it took us somewhere special.