2025 promises to be a great year for returning shows — we share our list of those we think you just cannot miss
Lots of big shows took a year out in 2024, due to various strikes last year. We pick a few of those, as well as one that did manage an appearance, and one absent without leave since 2022. To trim the list, we’ve left out all the cozy crime shows and will try to cover those elsewhere.
As to which show we’re most looking forward to, it’s definitely one of these, though don’t ask us to pick a favourite. For a change, we’ve gone reverse alphabetical order.
Wednesday
First up, it’s the biggest Netflix show of all time — Wednesday. The smash hit of 2022, fans of Jenna Ortega, Emma Myers & co have had to wait for what seems like too long for the return of Wednesday Adams. The wait is nearly over. Season 2 has finished filming in Ireland and we hope to see everyone back at Nevermore Academy sometime soon.
And if by some chance you’ve not seen season 1, shame on you. You have time still to join the show’s many fans, so you may still redeem yourself.
One Piece
If you just want sheer exuberant entertainment, with pirates and an unforgettable cast of characters, One Piece the live action show (we’ve lost count of the number of anime episodes) is for you. The summer hit of 2023, it tells the tale of Monkey D Luffy and his crew in search of fabled treasure in a surrealistic world of heroes, villains and those somewhere in-between.
There’s a lot more on the Netflix show page, and the cast includes Iñaki Godoy, Emily Rudd, Mackenyu, Jacob Romero Gibson and Taz Skylar.
Gen V
Following the shocking death of actor Chance Perdomo, the show was paused and won’t return until 2025. Some of the characters did appear in the most recent season of The Boys, but only in a few short scenes. With The Boys coming to an end with season 5, there’s a lot of interest in how Gen V will develop and whether Prime Video will find other ways to extend the franchise.
Like the parent show, Gen V is an often shockingly explicit look at a world where supes answer to no morality bar their own desires and ambitions. Unlike The Boys, this show has a cast of young supes as its heroes, last seen trapped in an escape proof cell… We expect that won’t last for long, else season 2 might be a little dull!
Bridgerton
As Monty Python used to tell us: and now for something completely different. Yes, it’s the another Netflix behemoth, with three seasons in the all time top 10. Yes, it’s Bridgerton, managing to still release one season in 2024. Season three saw the big reveal of Lady Whistledown’s true identity, two marriages for the Bridgerton clan and quite a few balls.
Season 4 promises nuptials for Benedict (Luke Thompson) and newcomer Sophie Baek (Yerin Ha), and you can get an early glimpse of things to come here.
Severance
Another show from 2022, and you’d be forgiven for not knowing much about Severance on Apple TV+. If the show is a complete mystery to you (and it may still be after the enigmatic season 1), you could do worse than read the recent Apple TV+ confirmation of January 17 for season 2. There’s this summary of the show:
Mark Scout (Adam Scott) leads a team at Lumon Industries, whose employees have undergone a severance procedure, which surgically divides their memories between their work and personal lives. This daring experiment in “work-life balance” is called into question as Mark finds himself at the center of an unraveling mystery that will force him to confront the true nature of his work … and of himself. In season two, Mark and his friends learn the dire consequences of trifling with the severance barrier, leading them further down a path of woe.
There’s also a nicely teasing trailer: