I recently revealed my best shows of 2025 list from the 60 new and returning shows that I watched this year. Yes, that’s a lot of shows watched, but it’s exponentially more episodes. We’re talking about literally hundreds of episodes, and I’d be lying if I said some haven’t run together.
But the best part of this job is when there’s an episode of a show that just pops or bowls you over, forever imprinting itself on your brain. Sometimes, it’s an episode so impressive you can’t help but applaud it. Other times, it’s an episode that takes your breath away or brings you to tears. Thankfully, there were quite a few episodes that met the mark this year, which I managed to whittle down to my final list.
There’s no way to talk about these episodes without spoiling them somewhat, though I’ll do everything I can to avoid spoiling an entire show. But if you proceed past this point, expect spoilers.
10. ‘Through the Valley’ (‘The Last of Us’ season 2, episode 2)
While the show did ultimately struggle to find its footing after Joel’s death, for many, it was a devastating moment. For those who were unaware of what was coming, it was on par with the Red Wedding in the “Game of Thrones” episode “The Rains of Castamere.”
The episode also features the Battle of Jackson, a show creation that did irk some fans of the games. The scale of this conflict was on par with “Blackwater,” another great “Game of Thrones” episode. While “Through the Valley” probably is a tier behind those two all-time greats, being in the same conversation as those episodes is a big reason why it was one of the best episodes of the year.
Stream “The Last of Us” season 2 on HBO Max now
9. ‘Missiles’ (‘Slow Horses’ season 5, episode 4)
While the episode prior to this one, titled “Tall Tales,” may have an Emmy-worthy monologue from Sir Gary Oldman, “Missiles” is the superior episode. It’s a masterclass in writing, grabbing your attention from the jump and then never letting go once it has you.
It starts with a back-and-forth between Roddy (Christopher Chung) and Emma Flyte (Ruth Bradley). Emma thinks she’s handed Roddy a loss at the end of it, but it’s then quickly revealed that spymaster Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman) has already figured everything out and is waiting for her to catch up. We, the audience, know this moment is coming, but it’s satisfying nonetheless when it happens.
This episode features two moments you don’t see coming. Director General of MI5 Claude Whelan (James Callis) absolutely dismantles the xenophobic mayoral candidate Dennis Gimball (Christopher Villiers) in front of his wife, Dodie (Victoria Hamilton), revealing to her that Dennis is secretly part-Turkish. It’s something that would have torn their marriage apart … if a paint can to the head didn’t kill Dennis later that night.
Gimball’s death is a stunner in part because you’ve let your guard down. A suspected assassination attempt fails to come earlier in the episode, and then the terrorist bad guys of this season do try to kill the mayor, Zafar Jaffrey (Nick Mohammed). But the second that you see the murderous paint can jostled by Coe (Tom Brooke), you know that it’s a missile headed straight for Gimball’s head and there’s nothing you can do but watch.
Stream “Slow Horses” season 5 on Apple TV now
8. ‘The Oner’ (‘The Studio’ season 1, episode 2)
I’ve been raving about “The Oner” ever since I wrote about the premiere of “The Studio.” The second part of the new show’s two-episode debut, it is an absolute masterpiece that delivers a delightful example of a play within a play. Don’t just take my word for it, either. This episode won Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series and Outstanding Cinematography for a Series (Half-Hour) at the Emmy Awards this year.
In “The Oner,” Matt (Seth Rogen) and Sal (Ike Barinholtz) are attending the shoot of one of Continental’s various movies, directed by Sarah Polley and starring Greta Lee. But it’s not just any shoot they’re attending; this shoot is for an “oner,” a term for conveying a movie or scene through a long, continuous single shot. This is a comedy, so perhaps, unsurprisingly, it devolves into an absolute farce.
I have this episode rated so highly for two reasons. First, even though you can see some of the mishaps and gags coming, the comedy of this episode just works. But the real coup of this episode is when you realize partway through that it’s also a oner; an episode consisting of a single 25-minute long shot, including capturing Matt and Sal driving away after causing mayhem and destruction.
Stream “The Studio” season 1 on Apple TV now
7. ‘The Day’ (‘Paradise’ season 1, episode 7)
“The Day” is a big reason why I declared “Paradise” the show of the year so far when it finished its first season on Hulu. While the show eventually finished as my seventh-best show of the year, this episode remains one of the best I’ve seen and one that haunts me to this day.
In “Paradise,” we learn throughout the course of this season that an apocalyptic event has struck the Earth, and the President of the United States (James Marsden), who is murdered in the series premiere, has been living in an underground mountain town that’s really a bunker housing what’s left of the government.
But “The Day” isn’t about the death of the President, or Secret Service agent Xavier Collins’s (Sterling K. Brown) attempt to solve who killed his boss. Instead, it’s the day the apocalypse struck the nations of the world, and it is one devastating emotional hammer blow after another. It left me feeling unwell after watching it, and that’s a hallmark of a great episode.
Stream “Paradise” season 1 on Hulu or Disney Plus now
6. ‘Sermon on the Mount’ (‘South Park’ season 27, episode 1)
“South Park” season 27 is the first of two seasons of the animated comedy series we got this year, and it’s the superior season of the two. It’s an incredible, real-time reaction to current events, mostly as a scathing satire. Nowhere is this more apparent, or more well-executed, than in the season premiere, “The Sermon on the Mount.”
This episode doesn’t start slowly either. We begin with Eric Cartman freaking out that NPR has been canceled and that “woke is dead.” Despondent, he tries to kill himself in his garage via carbon monoxide poisoning, which fails because his family owns an electric car.
From there, the show doesn’t let up. PC Principal is now Power Christian Principal. President Trump is animated in the same style as Saddam Hussein once was in this show, and similarly, he’s now in a sexual relationship with Satan. He’s also threatening to sue anyone who attacks him or his (visible) micropenis, including the city of South Park. But the coup de grace is when Jesus Christ arrives to deliver a sermon railing against Paramount Skydance’s acquiescence to the demands of the poorly-endowed fascist; that’s the same company that agreed to pay South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone $1.5 billion one day before “Sermon on the Mount” aired on Comedy Central.
Stream “South Park” season 27 on Paramount Plus now
5. ‘Episode 3’ (‘Adolescence’)
“The Oner” may be a great example of a one-shot episode done right, but it’s not the highest-rated one on this list. That honor goes to the third episode of Netflix’s Emmy-winning limited series, “Adolescence.”
Every single episode of “Adolescence” is a single continuous take. If someone messes up, the whole scene resets back to the start, and they do it all over again, even if it’s at the very end of the hour-long episode. That’s impressive in its own right, but in “Episode 3,” the show becomes impressive for the substance of what it delivers, rather than the style of how it’s delivered.
The show is centered around the arrest of Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper). He’s a 13-year-old British schoolboy accused of murdering his classmate, Katie. We learn at the end of “Episode 1” that Jamie did it, even though he maintains his innocence, but in “Episode 3,” we dive into the why.
We’re introduced to forensic psychologist Briony Ariston (Erin Doherty), who has been brought in on several occasions to examine why Jamie may have killed Katie. They then spend most of the hour-long episode in an interview discussing Jamie’s motivations, and in the interview, Jamie has several outbursts, the last of which leaves Briony visibly shaken.
For a show that earns praise for its technique, this episode of “Adolescence” is mostly just a showcase of two incredible performances in a single room. It essentially won Cooper and Doherty their acting awards at this year’s Emmy Awards, and is clearly one of the best episodes of TV from this year.
Stream “Adolescence” on Netflix now
4. ‘2:00 P.M.’ (‘The Pitt’ season 1, episode 8)
“The Pitt” is beloved for many reasons. Like “Adolescence,” it earns praise for its technique; each episode is told in real time. It’s also considered to be the medical drama that presents the most realistic portrayal of what it’s like to be a medical professional today. But one of the biggest successes of this show is how it manages to keep multiple storylines juggled at once, and how it can start a storyline in one episode, then pay it off several episodes later with devastating effect.
“2:00 P.M.” is the best such example of this. It brings in a new storyline; a six-year-old girl named Amber is brought in, unresponsive after drowning in the family pool. It’s then later revealed that she died saving her younger sister, Bella, from drowning after Bella fell in the pool. It’s a heartbreaking moment that reduces members of the staff to tears, and probably will have you choked up, too.
But then, the show kicks you when you’re down. Back in the second episode of the season, “8:00 A.M.,” Dr. Robby (Noah Wyle) has to inform the parents of college student Nick Bradley that he is now brain-dead due to a fentanyl overdose. It’s a gut punch when you hear Nick’s mother cry out, but now, hours later, the show hits you with her trauma again as she finally accepts that her son is gone, and agrees to let his organs be donated. This results in an honor walk for Nick and his parents, and so far has resulted in me crying every time I’ve watched it.
Stream “The Pitt” season 1 on HBO Max now
3. ‘My Controls’ (‘The Rehearsal’ season 2, episode 6)
I’m not sure an episode has left me as stunned as “My Controls.” You truly don’t know what’s coming until it happens, and even when it does, you still can’t believe it.
In “The Rehearsal” season 2, comedian Nathan Fielder builds on the “Fielder Method” he developed in season 1, which involves covertly observing and imitating unaware subjects to rehearse for real-life situations. His goal in this season? To teach commercial airline captains and first officers to better communicate and reduce crashes. The show is constructed as a hybrid comedy/reality show/documentary, and it has Nathan examine real pilots and crew, get into the mindset of legendary pilot Sully Sullenberger, and more, to land on the best program for pilots to use in real-life to improve airline safety.
That’s already stunning for what’s supposed to be a half-hour comedy, but in “My Controls,” you learn that Nathan has gone above and beyond to ensure he’s tested his program — he’s learned how to fly a Boeing 737 and is a commercially-rated pilot. It’s a stunning reveal, and you’re still in disbelief when Nathan successfully takes off, flies and lands a commercial airliner in this season finale.
Honorable mentions: “Pilots Code”(season 2, episode 3)
Stream “The Rehearsal” season 2 on HBO Max now
2. ‘Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a river.’ (‘Task’ season 1, episode 6)
“Task” stars Mark Ruffalo as Tom Brandis, an FBI agent reeling from a family trauma, which is revealed early in the show to be the death of his wife. But he’s called back into service to form a task force aimed at hunting down a criminal who’s robbing stash houses. In his task force is Anthony Grasso (Fabien Frankel), Aleah Clinton (Thuso Mbedu) and Lizzie Stover (Alison Oliver).
We learn, before they do, that the criminal they’re chasing is Robbie (Tom Pelphrey), and he’s a more complex character than the simple robber he’s made out to be. He’s trying to do right by his family by getting a life-changing amount of money, while also getting vengeance for his brother, who was a member of the Dark Hearts biker gang that Robbie and his friend Cliff (Raúl Castillo) are robbing. Robbie’s brother was murdered by Jayson (Sam Keeley), the leader of the gang, and so Robbie considers it justice to be screwing them over.
At the start of “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a river.”, the task force, Robbie and the Dark Hearts have all converged on each other for a tense shootout. That shootout lasts for twenty minutes, and I think I only remembered to breathe in the twentieth minute when a shocking death wakes you up from the trance the episode puts you in. It’s absolutely stunning television.
Stream “Task” season 1 on HBO Max now
1. ‘Who Are You’ (‘Andor’ season 2, episode 8)
In “Andor” season 2, a moment we know we’re building towards is the Ghorman massacre, a horrific tragedy of unknown proportions committed by the Galactic Empire against a member planet. In episode 4 of season 2, Cassian Andor (Diego Luno) makes his first trip to Ghorman, and then in episode 7, he begins his last trip to the planet, because in episode 8, “Who Are You?”, we finally get the tragic moment we’ve been building towards.
But it’s not just the end of the Ghormans we witness in this episode. Syril Karn (Kyle Soller) has been obsessed with catching and destroying Cassian since they first crossed paths in season 1. He’s since risen through the ranks of the Empire, developed a relationship with a fellow Imperial, Dedra (Denise Gough) and is stationed on Ghorman. At the beginning of this climactic episode, though, he learns he’s been helping the Empire with their secret plans to eliminate the Ghormans. He assaults Dedra and storms out into the plaza, when a shot rings out and the massacre begins.
This could be a heroic moment for Syril; the moment he turns against the fascists who used him. But as he wanders around, stunned, he spies Cassian and sees red. He fights Cassian and has him dead to rights, but when Cassian says, “Who are you?” Syril realizes the man who has driven him to madness doesn’t even know who he is. In that moment, he hesitates. In the next moment, he’s hit with a blaster bolt in the head and killed instantly. It’s a genuinely show-stopping moment in an incredible episode of television, and will be remembered as one of the greatest scenes in Star Wars. Period.
Honorable mentions: “Make It Stop” (season 2, episode 10)
Stream “Andor” season 2 on Disney Plus now
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