The Ephemeric

One of the best series on television right now, The Bear is returning for a fourth season in 2025.

For those not acquainted, The Bear focuses on a formerly up and coming young chef, suffering from burnout, who takes over his deceased brother's run-down sandwich shop in downtown Chicago. A drama with elements of comedy, filmed in a realistic, diegetic style that allows the directors to dial up the intensity when needed. The Bear is a magnificent roller coaster of a series that can both stress and delight when needed, making its moments of relief all the more cathartic.

The Bear's new season is said to be in the later stages of production, with filming expected to wrap by the springtime, targeting a June release.

Start Date: June 2025

Zero Day is an upcoming Netflix limited series, notable as the first leading television role for legendary actor Robert De Niro. 

De Niro portrays George Mullen, a former U.S. president tasked with investigating a catastrophic cyberattack that has plunged the nation into chaos, resulting in thousands of fatalities. Joining him is Angela Bassett as President Evelyn Mitchell, who collaborates with Mullen to uncover the perpetrators behind the attack. 

The series delves into themes of disinformation and the collision of personal ambitions across technology, Wall Street, and government sectors. The ensemble cast includes Lizzy Caplan, Jesse Plemons, Joan Allen, Connie Britton, and Matthew Modine. The series is set to drop in February.

The original content coming out of AppleTV+ has been remarkable in recent years, propelling them almost instantly to the top tier of streaming networks. 

Severance was a real surprise package in 2022, a quirky, humorous, pitch black satire of corporate exploitation. Anchored by strong performances and whip-smart writing, the first season ended on the mother of all cliffhangers, making a follow up not only essential, but a mere formality with the success of its debut. 

Initially due for release in 2023, season 2 has been repeatedly delayed. With production now finally complete, filming has wrapped and the show will drop in January 2025.

This one has been on my list for some time, the return of legendary documentarian Ken Burns with his latest series, The American Revolution.

The American Revolution is a six-part, twelve-hour series that delves into America's founding struggle. Scheduled to premiere on PBS in the fall of 2025, the film is co-directed by Burns, Sarah Botstein, and David Schmidt. The series offers an expansive and evenhanded look at the virtues and contradictions in the fight for independence and the birth of the United States.

Burns is simply an icon in the realm of documentary series, almost a mark of quality unto itself. I can't wait for this one. 

It's been a few years, but the single most underappreciated series on television is back, with season 4 of The Orville in production and expected to release in 2025.

It started off as a strange amalgamation of Stark Trek and Seth Macfarlane's various comedy series such as Family Guy and Ted, but over three seasons has grown into so much more. The Orville is a work of the highest quality, with deft and surprisingly sophisticated writing bringing to mind the ideological pillars of human progress and morality that made Star Trek such an iconic franchise to begin with. Combine this, seamlessly, with Macfarlane's ironic wit, and more than a dose of Star Wars' sense of adventure to boot, and the result is arguably the finest original sci-fi series of this generation.

Production is still in the early stages, so there is some doubt as to whether this will really appear in 2025. The fact that this is so high up the list in spite of this speaks to just how exciting this is.

An exciting one for fans of the excellent Derry Girls, a new series from writer Lisa McGee.

All good things come to an end. This is the final chapter in what has to be one of the decades defining TV series, Stranger Things.

For many, this is the series that put Netflix's original content department on the map. A glorious homage to the horror and adventure films of the 1980s, which expertly manages to balance its frights with humour, all presented with impeccable style. Stranger Things is a nostalgia trip for anyone who grew up in the 1980s or 1990s, but it is also so much more than that.

So what do the Duffer Brothers have in store for this final series? They are understandably playing their cards close to their chest, but it is safe to say that ST5 will build towards a final, climactic battle with Vecna, revealed in season 4 to be the mastermind behind all the spooky shenanigans that have plagued Hawkins over the years. It's a shame that Stranger Things has to end, but at least its creators will get to end things on their own terms.

And finally, our top pick for 2025 goes to the long-awaited third season of Mike White's spectacularly uncomfortable black comedy anthology, The White Lotus.