The 8 Best Shows and Movies On OTT In 2025 (So Far)

Every show featured on this list has been rigorously vetted by a (fictional) Esquire editor with impeccable taste, drops mic-worthy commentary, and maybe a stiff drink in hand. With watching TV, we also adjudicate, bless or crush, and pass judgment with unmistakable flair.

When my colleague and I first scoped out 2025’s TV offerings early this year, we were gobsmacked. Right out the gate, the streaming world unleashed relentless greatness: The White Lotus, The Bear, Adolescence, Paatal Lok Season 2—each a contender for our own personal awards dreams.

And the award for the weirdest siblings on TV goes to: Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger), Piper (Sarah Catherine Hook) and Lochlan (Sam Nivola)IMDB

In 2024, I would've been ecstatic if that was the full menu. Turns out, it was just the amuse-bouche. After our spring update, the airwaves went radio silent—save for a few slapper-of-quality respite like Khauf, Criminal Justice, Khakee : The Bengal Chapter , maybe even Mandala Murders.

But oh, fall 2025 is shaping up to be a banquet. Expect another high-stakes Pennsylvania showdown from the Mare of Eastown mastermind (hello, Task), the sci-fi prestige epic we've been craving (Alien: Earth), and a long-overdue The Office spin-off (The Paper).

Yet before that floodgates open, here’s your curated smoke-break lineup: the ten best OTT shows of 2025 so far, each dissected, celebrated, and served with a side of Esquire panache.

Criminal Justice: A Family Matter

For anyone who is yet to watch this marvellous series, you must not take it as only a legal drama, it’s actually moral quicksand. Pankaj Tripathi anchors a riveting courtroom saga that pulls viewers into its ethical whirlpool.

His performance is quietly magnetic, transforming legal procedural into intimate familial reckoning, while the script gets under your skin with sharp compassion and relentless tension. It’s India’s most-watched original of the year for a reason because it doesn’t only entertain, it also interrogates justice.

Paatal Lok: Season 2

Season two slathers pessimism like war paint. Ahlawat returns as Inspector Hathiram, navigating rot so deep it feels seismic. The violence feels like a betrayal whispered in your ear, and corrupt systems shudder like tectonic plates. With atmosphere that suffocates and stakes that punch visceral, it’s unmissable TV as indictment.

Adolescence

Gen‑Z apocalypse: adolescence longing mired in existential dread. The story drips grime and poetry, teenage rage and fragile empathy interlaced like barbed wire. Relentlessly honest, brutally poetic, and lingers long after post credits. And a bonus is the brilliant cinematography.

Black Warrant

Inside Tihar Jail, humanity fractures in panoramic close‑ups. A true‑crime drama grounded in realist patience. The storytelling respects its characters—victims, perpetrators, and system alike. Each frame with Zahaan Kapoor is a moral dilemma. Hard-hitting in restraint, unforgettable in sincerity.

The White Lotus: Season 3

Mike White shifts paradise to Thailand, where trauma and entitlement tango under steamy skies. The ensemble—Parker Posey, Carrie Coon, Aimee Lou Wood—excavates privilege with surgical wit and uncanny empathy. This season may not top its earlier peaks, but it drips sophistication. White’s gaze remains sharp, sardonic, and uncomfortably revealing.

Stolen

Child trafficking, told with necessary silence and sobriety and totally away from sensationalism, it taps into just humanity in its most vulnerable form. The performances elevate, the narrative delivers impact without exploiting pain. It educates, haunts, and honors.

Saare Jahan Se Accha

An alt-history of India that doesn’t just imagine better—it imagines radical. Ambitious, provocative, politically electric. Like The Crown, but remixed with subcontinental swagger and audacity. It repositions post‑’47 India on the tightrope of possibility, and leaps with bravura.

Beyond the Bar

Procedure meets inheritance in a legal drama whispering of legacy’s weight. Courtroom scenes pulse with unspoken lineage, family reputations draped like juryrigged armor. It’s fashionably austere, quietly devastating, and precisely calibrated. Think Suits meets generational reckoning, but highbrow, deeply layered.