The hidden gem TV shows you may have missed in 2025

There are hundreds of new seasons of TV out every year, and about two dozen streaming services to host them.

The biggest and buzziest titles suck up most of the pop cultural oxygen, and a lot of them aren’t even worth the click. But that does mean some wonderful smaller shows get crowded out.

Here are the hidden gems TV series you may have missed this year, and that you should add to your watchlist this summer.

SUCH BRAVE GIRLS S2

Such Brave Girls is hilariously stinging. It lashes out as much as its lead characters do, and this might sound contradictory, but it does so with love. That’s its magic, that it can make objectively unlikeable characters empathetic and even, dare we say it, relatable.

Created by Kat Sadler, who also stars in the series alongside real-life sister Lizzie Davidson, Such Brave Girls is about two sisters and their mother, lying, hustling and manipulating to claim a better slice of life. But beneath the barbed dialogue and genuinely appalling behaviour is a desperation to survive.

Watch: Stan

LONG STORY SHORT

Another adult animation series from Raphael Bob-Waksberg, who created the insanely smart and emotionally astute Bojack Horseman, was always going to be something special, and he delivered with Long Story Short.

This series about the multi-generational Schwoopers, an American Jewish family, who we check in with across various points in their lives as they wrestle with their relationships to each other, faith and themselves. It’s lived-in and real, and dryly funny. The voice cast includes Ben Feldman, Abbi Jacobson and Lisa Edelstein.

Watch: Netflix

CAREME

How much do you know about Antonin Careme, the father of French cooking and, arguably, the world’s first celebrity chef who gained notoriety in the social re-ordering of post-revolutionary Paris. He invented the vol-au-vent, the croquembouche and codified the five mother sauces.

What he probably wasn’t, but which this zippy historical thriller series contends he was, was a spy. But it’s fun to imagine that, maybe, sure, he was involved in espionage during the first Napoleonic era, running secret messages and using his delectable creations as diplomatic seductions.

Watch: Apple TV+

DELI BOYS

So, there are these two work-shy Philadelphia brothers who have lived the good life thanks to their family’s largesse, which they think comes from a chain of delis. But when their father dies from a freak golfing accident, they discover daddy dearest was actually running a criminal empire.

With rivals and the FBI on their tails, and the boys being largely incompetent at everything, it makes for a raucous good time. Cocaine deals with mobsters, internal power struggles and a guy who refuses to die are just some of the shenanigans in this very likeable comedy.

Watch: Disney+

THE CHAIR COMPANY

Comedian and Saturday Night Live alumnus Tim Robinson is definitely not for everyone. The mercurial artist is an oddball, and has what could be described as an off-putting, abrasive and repellent energy.

But he’s also kind of a brilliant madman and his series The Chair Company relishes in that chaos in telling a story about middle-manager everyman who becomes convinced he’s the target of a conspiracy when his chair collapses beneath him onstage during a presentation. He’s, uh, not wrong.

Watch: HBO Max

NORTH OF NORTH

There’s nothing else out there quite like North of North, which is both to its credit and a reflection of the few opportunities afforded to indigenous filmmakers in telling their own stories. Because when they do, we are gifted delightful shows like this.

This Canadian series is set in the far reaches of the Arctic circle, and centred on a young Inuk mother and wife who is sick of being an appendage to someone else. So, she takes control of her own life and put herself first. The cultural specificity and humour make it a winning combo.

Watch: Netflix

LUDWIG

British cosy crime is hardly an endangered species, so when something like Ludwig comes along and manages to not only hit the core requirements but also add a little zing to the genre, you should take notice. Part of that is due to David Mitchell’s ability to bring you along wherever he goes.

He plays John Taylor, a professional puzzle maker who, through a strange confluence of events, ends up impersonating his police officer twin brother after the latter vanishes. So, now he’s on the case investigating that disappearance from the inside while his meticulously logical brain is also put to work solving crimes around Cambridge.

Watch: 7plus

MURDERBOT

Normally, if a robot gains sentience and one of the first things he does is give himself the moniker Murderbot, you’re in for some SkyNet horror. But not in this series where the robot in question mostly wants to be left alone so he can watch the thousands of hours of space soap operas he’s secretly downloaded onto his server/brain.

With a droll performance from Alexander Skarsgard, this surprising and quirky show explores the limits of our programming and how even those who aren’t supposed to have any humanity learn to appreciate connections with others.

Watch: Apple TV

ENGLISH TEACHER S2

Disney did little to promote the second season of this clever comedy, and maybe that’s down to some thorny questions about creator and star Brian Jordan Alvarez’s past (he was accused of sexual misconduct, which he denied), and now it’s been cancelled, maybe because no one knew it was one.

But if you did discover this comedy, you would’ve been won over by how it uses its premise (teachers at a high school in Austin, Texas) to explore politics and social mores in the 21st century. Its episodes often centre on an issue (DEI, big tech, privacy, sexuality) and takes it on with good faith through humour.

Watch: Disney+