Your Guide to the Must-Watch Emmy Winners of 2025
Add this year hottest Emmy winners and nominations to your watch list
Television’s landscape keeps shifting.
At the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards this year, one thing was for sure: it wasn’t the year for the usual heavyweights, but a handful of newer, sharper series that cleaned up the wins in unexpected ways.
Adolescence and The Studio dominated many categories; The Pitt edged out favourites to take Best Drama; and shows like Severance, Hacks, Andor etc., either won or got big nods.
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So, if you’re wondering where to start, consider this your cheat sheet.
Adolescence (Netflix)
Television rarely pulls off something both experimental and mainstream, but Adolescence managed exactly that. Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham’s limited series unfolds over four unbroken, hour-long takes, each following the fallout of a 13-year-old accused of murder. It’s police cell drama, domestic tragedy, but mostly an exercise in suffocating intimacy. That formal gamble paid off: six Emmys, including acting wins for Stephen Graham and breakout star Owen Cooper, the youngest male winner in Emmy history. It’s worth watching not just for the performances, but for how it turns you, the viewer, into a silent witness you can’t squirm away from.
The Studio (Apple TV+)
No show captured Hollywood’s self-loathing with more bite than The Studio. Co-created by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, it follows a new studio head trying to reconcile artistic ambition with corporate greed — a satire that lands uncomfortably close to reality. Cameos abound, budgets balloon, and egos explode, all while skewering the absurdity of modern entertainment. The industry clearly saw itself in the mirror: the show won 13 Emmys, a record for a comedy, including Best Comedy Series.
The Pitt (Jio Hotstar)
The Pitt did the impossible: it toppled prestige heavyweights to win Outstanding Drama Series. Set in a Pittsburgh emergency ward, the show compresses a gruelling 15-hour shift into its season, forcing viewers into the claustrophobia of a system constantly on the brink. Noah Wyle, long overdue, finally picked up an Emmy for Lead Actor, and Katherine LaNasa scored in Supporting. It’s brutal, relentless television.
Severance (Apple TV+)
Few series have haunted the cultural imagination like Severance. Its conceit — splitting your work and personal selves into two distinct consciousnesses — is sci-fi minimalism at its finest. Season two deepened the paranoia and the dread, and this year the Emmys rewarded that ambition with wins for Britt Lower and Tramell Tillman, whose performances turned high-concept horror into something deeply human. It’s eerie, meticulous, and oddly cathartic in an era where “work-life balance” is a constant debate.
Andor (Jio Hotstar)
This prequel to Rogue One strips away lightsabers and space wizards to tell a story about resistance, politics, and the cost of rebellion. It’s television with the grit of Cold War thrillers, anchored by Diego Luna’s understated performance. The Emmys recognised its writing and production design — proof that sci-fi can be prestige TV when it refuses to play like a toy commercial.
Slow Horses (Apple TV+)
It follows MI5 rejects relegated to a dingy outpost called Slough House, where Gary Oldman’s slovenly Jackson Lamb turns incompetence into art form. Underneath the cynicism is taut, unpredictable spycraft that’s made the show a critics’ darling. At the Emmys, it finally broke through with acting and writing honours. For anyone tired of polished spy fantasies, this one’s a smoke-stained antidote.
Hacks (Netflix)
Three seasons in, Hacks is still television’s sharpest comedy about comedy. Jean Smart’s Deborah Vance, a Vegas diva clinging to relevance, sparring with a millennial writer played by Hannah Einbinder, remains a masterclass in timing. The Emmys once again rewarded the series for writing and Smart’s towering performance. If you haven’t jumped in yet, now’s the time.
The Honourable Mentions
These shows didn't win anything this year, but that doesn't mean they're not worth watching?
The White Lotus (Jio Hotstar)
It didn’t win this year, but The White Lotus doesn’t need trophies anymore — it’s become cultural shorthand. Class, privilege, sex, money — all dissected in sun-drenched resorts where the cocktails are free but nothing else is. Each season is a slow-burn satire wrapped in a murder mystery, and Emmy loss or not, it remains one of TV’s sharpest mirrors.
The Bear (Disney+ Hotstar)
Some shows feel like panic attacks in real time — The Bear perfected that art. A cramped Chicago kitchen, a cast constantly on the verge of implosion, and storytelling that feels like it’s sweating through its chef’s whites. It didn’t snag the Emmy, but it didn’t need to: it already redefined what a “kitchen drama” looks like.
The Last of Us (Jio Hotstar / HBO Max)
Adaptations almost always stumble, but The Last of Us didn’t. Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey gave the apocalypse a soul, turning fungal zombies into the least terrifying part of the story. Nominated for Best Drama and Best Actor, it walked away empty-handed but left no doubt.
Only Murders in the Building (Disney+ Hotstar)
Comedy, murder, and podcasting shouldn’t work together, but Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez make it sing. Only Murders is part whodunnit, part hangout sitcom, part love letter to New York real estate. Nominated for Best Comedy, it’s a reminder that comfort TV doesn’t have to be brainless — it can be clever, self-aware, and still give you characters you want to hang out with forever.