TV Preview 2025: The 20 Shows We Can't Wait to See

There's something for everyone, from Robert De Niro's first series 'Zero Day' to Noah Wyle's return to the ER in 'The Pitt'

Tim Appelo,

AARP

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Published January 03, 2025

robert de niro in a crowd of police officers

Robert De Niro as George Mullen in Episode 101 of 'Zero Day'.

Courtesy Netflix

On the networks and streaming giants like Netflix and Prime Video, there’s a whole new crop of comedies, dramas and documentaries in the pipeline for 2025. Here’s what to look forward to in the coming months.

Lockerbie: A Search for Truth (Peacock, Jan. 2)

In 1988, 270 died in the crash of Pan Am Flight 103 in little Lockerbie, Scotland, the worst terror attack in UK history. Colin Firth, 64, plays Jim Swire, whose daughter died that day — and who controversially claimed that the government covered up the truth about the tragedy.

American Primeval (Netflix, Jan. 9)

This gritty, six-part dramatic series from Emmy-nominated Friday Night Lights director Peter Berg, 60, explores how the American West was settled in the 1800s. The storyline revolves around a mother and son struggling to survive in the violent and lawless frontier, forming a new surrogate family of fellow pioneers along the way. The cast includes Taylor Kitsch, Betty Gilpin, Jai Courtney, and Shea Whigham, 55.

On Call (Prime Video, Jan. 9)

Law & Order creator Dick Wolf’s latest series follows a rookie cop (Brandon Larracuente from The Good Doctor) paired with a veteran officer (Pretty Little Liars alum Troian Bellisario) as they hit the streets of Long Beach, California. But Wolf & Co. shake up the genre with a visceral approach that mixes hand-held cameras, body cams, and dashboard footage to produce a verité look at modern policing.

The Pitt (Max, Jan. 9)

ER veteran Noah Wyle, 53, plays a Pittsburgh ER doc in a show by ER producer John Wells, 68. Despite a lawsuit by ER creator Michael Crichton’s widow, who calls it an ER reboot, they say it’s not — Wyle’s character is Dr. Michael “Robby” Rabinavitch, not Dr. John Carter, and it’s more like 24, with each episode covering one hour of a 15-hour ER shift.

The Traitors, Season 3 (Peacock, Jan. 9)

Alan Cumming, 59, who’s also the witty host of AARP’s Movies for Grownups Awards on PBS Great Performances, Feb. 23, returns as host of the Peacock reality series where celebrities vie for a cash prize in a murder mystery game set in a castle in the Scottish Highlands.

SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night Live (Peacock, Jan. 16)

Get ready for the 50th anniversary special of Saturday Night Live (on NBC and Peacock, Feb. 16) by watching this four-part docuseries with behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with 60 castmembers, writers, and celebrities.

Severance, Season 2 (Apple TV+, Jan. 17)

After three years, the hit show about employees at Lumon Corporation, who have surgery that severs their “innies” (themselves at work) and their “outies” (themselves after work), who have no knowledge or memory of the other’s lives, returns. Adam Scott, 51, Christopher Walken, 81, John Turturro, 67 and Patricia Arquette, 56, are joined by new cast members Merritt Wever, Bob Balaban, 79, and Game of Thrones’ Gwendoline Christie.

Watson (CBS, Jan. 26)

Morris Chestnut, 55, plays Sherlock Holmes’ doctor sidekick in a detective show that’s also a medical-mystery drama about rare diseases, with a bit of romance in the mix. In the debut, Dr. Watson tackles a case of fatal insomnia.

Paradise (Hulu, Jan. 28)

What happens when a serene community inhabited by some of the world’s most prominent people gets hit with a shocking murder? A high-stakes investigation and this thrilling Hulu Original series from This Is Us’s Dan Fogelman, starring Sterling K. Brown (American Fiction), James Marsden, 51 (Dead To Me), and Julianne Nicholson, 53 (Mare of Easttown).

The White Lotus, Season 3 (HBO, Max, Feb. 16)

Leslie Bibb, 50, Carrie Coon and Michelle Monaghan play old friends reunited on a girls’ trip to Thailand, where a rugged guy with a chip on his shoulder (Walton Goggins, 53) vacations with his younger girlfriend (Aimee Lou Wood) and a rich businessman (Jason Isaacs, 61) and his wife (Parker Posey, 56) take their three kids on a sojourn that likely proves more memorable than they’d planned.

Zero Day (Netflix, Feb. 20)

In his first TV series, Robert De Niro, 81, plays an ex-President who comes out of retirement to combat a catastrophic cyberattack — but he may be losing his grip on reality. With Joan Allen, 68, as First Lady and Angela Bassett, 66, as the current President.

The Americas (NBC, Feb. 23)

Who needs David Attenborough when you’ve got Tom Hanks, 68, narrating a nature docuseries shot over five years from the tip of North America to the Antarctic?

Suits LA (NBC, Feb. 23)

In a Suits spinoff series, Stephen Amell plays a Manhattan prosecutor who reinvents himself as a Hollywood entertainment lawyer. Gabriel Macht, 52, guest stars as his Suits character Harvey Specter, and fans may see a few more familiar faces.

Daredevil: Born Again (Disney+, March 4)

Charlie Cox plays the blind superhero Daredevil and Vincent D’Onofrio, 65, his nemesis Kingpin in a show Netflix cancelled and Disney rescued, aiming for dark, sinister drama worth a grownup’s time. Cox told EW, “We really pushed for the show to remain geared towards an older audience and not dumbed down to kind of capture a wider net of people.”

Dark Winds, Season 3 (AMC, March 9)

Don't miss Zahn McClarnon, 58, as Navajo County tribal police officer Joe Leaphorn in a noirish drama adapted from Tony Hillerman's bestseller novels. It's getting better and more popular with each season.

The Residence (Netflix, March 20)

Scandal’s Shonda Rhimes, 55, presents a “screwball whodunnit” about a murder at the White House with 157 suspects. Uzo Aduba plays the detective on the case; Giancarlo Esposito, 66, the White House usher; Al Franken, 73, a Washington state senator; and Jane Curtin, 77, the first mother-in-law.

Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light (PBS MASTERPIECE, March 23)

The subtle, dazzling Mark Rylance, 65, plays wily Thomas Cromwell, minister to whimsical, wife-beheading King Henry VIII (Damian Lewis, 54) in the concluding sequel to Hilary Mantel’s award-winning historical fiction. TV doesn’t get any smarter than this.

The Studio (Apple TV+, March 26)

In a promising satire, Seth Rogen plays the new head of a movie studio desperately trying to survive the streaming era. Catherine O’Hara, 70, and Kathryn Hahn, 51, costar, Bryan Cranston, 68, guest stars, and Martin Scorsese, 82, Zac Efron, Ron Howard, 70, and Charlize Theron play themselves.

Your Friends and Neighbors (Apple TV+, April 11)

Mad Men star Jon Hamm, 53, plays a divorced hedge fund manager who gets fired and resorts to stealing from his neighbors in ritzy Westmont Village — but stumbles onto some secrets he might be better off not knowing.

The Four Seasons (Netflix, 2025)

We don’t have a release date for the series reboot of the 1981 hit comedy by Alan Alda, 88, about couples whose annual group vacation is upended when one guy divorces his wife and brings his new wife along. But with Tina Fey, 54, writing and starring along with Steve Carell, 62, Will Forte, 54, and Colman Domingo, 55, we’ll be watching it.

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Tim Appelo covers entertainment and is the film and TV critic for AARP. Previously, he was the entertainment editor at Amazon, video critic at Entertainment Weekly, and a critic and writer for The Hollywood Reporter, People, MTV, The Village Voice and LA Weekly.