Pop Thruster’s Top 10 TV shows of 2025, from The White Lotus and Task to The Rehearsal and The Last of Us, ranked by what hit hardest this year.
Pop Thruster
Your pop culture afterburner – fueling obsessive pop culture projects and deeply opinionated coverage of TV, movies, and music.
Landman has better actors than it deserves
Landman is fun, pulpy TV, but its real secret weapon is an absurdly stacked cast. Billy Bob Thornton, Ali Larter, Demi Moore and more elevate it.
Carlito’s Way is a Mount Rushmore New York City movie
Carlito’s Way earns Mount Rushmore NYC status: Pacino at his most grounded, Penn unhinged, and De Palma delivering a stunning, muscular final half hour.
Nirvana – Nevermind: #1 of best 1,000 albums ever!
I don’t care what you think unless it is about me.
R.E.M. – New Adventures in Hi-Fi: #2 of best 1,000 albums ever!
I don’t know what I’m hungry for – I don’t know what I want anymore.
Led Zeppelin – Physical Graffiti: #3 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Talk and song from tongues of lilting grace, sounds caress my ear.
The Doors – The Doors: #4 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Break on through to the other side.
Frank Black – Teenager of the Year: #5 of best 1,000 albums ever!
I want to live on an abstract plain.
Beastie Boys – Paul’s Boutique: #6 of best 1,000 albums ever!
It’s the sound of science.
The Raconteurs – Consolers of the Lonely: #16 of best 1,000 albums ever!
How you gonna top yourself when there is nobody else?
Operation Ivy – Operation Ivy: #7 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Sound system gonna bring me back up, yeah, one thing that I can depend on.
Wu-Tang Clan – Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers): #8 of best 1,000 albums ever!
And if you want beef, then bring the ruckus.
The Beatles – Abbey Road: #9 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Because the world is round, it turns me on because the world is round.
Rage Against the Machine – Rage Against the Machine: #10 of best 1,000 albums ever!
The land of the free? Whoever told you that is your enemy.
Nirvana – MTV Unplugged in New York: #11 of best 1,000 albums ever!
In the pines, in the pines, where the sun don’t ever shine, I would shiver the whole night through.
The Doors – Strange Days: #12 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Cancel my subscription to the resurrection.
A Tribe Called Quest – Midnight Marauders: #13 of best 1,000 albums ever!
We can get down.
The Beatles – Revolver: #14 of best 1,000 albums ever!
All the lonely people – where do they all come from?
R.E.M. – Live at the Olympia: #15 of best 1,000 albums ever!
This is not a show.
Radiohead – Kid A: #17 of best 1,000 albums ever!
I’m not here, this isn’t happening.
Beck – One Foot in the Grave: #18 of best 1,000 albums ever!
I got time on my hands.
Why didn’t anyone tell me there’s a Nobody Wants This and Party Down connected universe?
Ryan Hansen’s Kyle from Party Down shows up in Nobody Wants This – yes, in a Karma Rocket shirt – creating a surprise connected TV universe.
The White Stripes – White Blood Cells: #19 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Said it once before but it bears repeating now.
Blur – Blur: #20 of best 1,000 albums ever!
I got my head done, when I was young.
Beastie Boys – Check Your Head: #21 of best 1,000 albums ever!
You think that you can front when revelation comes?
Stranger Things Season 5: sometimes smaller is better
Stranger Things Season 5 hits Netflix for Thanksgiving 2025 — a supersized finale that trades small-town magic for full-blown CGI apocalypse.
Led Zeppelin – Houses of the Holy: #22 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Many times I’ve lied, many times I’ve listened. Many times I’ve gazed along the open road.
Nirvana – With the Lights Out: #23 of best 1,000 albums ever!
One more day to complain my servant. One more doubt here to find a servant.
Beck – Odelay: #24 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Pulling out jives and jamboree handouts – two turntables and a microphone.
Welcome to Derry, a prequel TV series for Stephen King’s It movies, is a scary fun romp
HBO’s Welcome to Derry dives into Stephen King’s haunted hometown with scares, nostalgia, and style — a prequel that already outshines the It movies.
Guns N’ Roses – Appetite for Destruction: #25 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Welcome to the jungle.
The Suicide Machines – Battle Hymns: #26 of best 1,000 albums ever!
And what do we learn? To kill better.
Wu-Tang Clan – Wu-Tang Forever: #27 of best 1,000 albums ever!
I bomb atomically, Socrates’ philosophies and hypotheses can’t define how I be droppin’ these mockeries.
The Beatles – Rubber Soul: #28 of best 1,000 albums ever!
What goes on in your heart? What goes on in your mind?
Pop Thruster Afterburner: AI-powered TV picks, Task, The Chair Company, The Daytrippers
Quick-hit TV dispatch: AI-powered show recs, Task finale hype, Tim Robinson’s The Chair Company, and hidden gems like The Daytrippers.
Frank Black & The Catholics – Pistolero: #29 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Yo soy un pistelero, I’m not shaking in my boots.
Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin II: #30 of best 1,000 albums ever!
I’m gonna give you my love, I’m gonna give you my love.
Midnight Oil – Blue Sky Mining: #31 of best 1,000 albums ever!
But if I work all day on the blue sky mine, there’ll be food on the table tonight.
Foo Fighters – Foo Fighters: #32 of best 1,000 albums ever!
This is a call to all my past resignations. This is a call to all.
The Beatles – The Beatles (White Album): #33 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Everybody’s got something to hide, except me and the monkey.
Weezer – Pinkerton: #34 of best 1,000 albums ever!
This is beginning to hurt – this is beginning to be serious.
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack: #35 of best 1,000 albums ever!
We are Sex Bob-omb.
The Doors – L.A. Woman: #36 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Are you a lucky little lady in the city of light? Or just another lost angel, city of night.
Task is the best show on television right now
HBO’s Task, from Mare of Easttown creator Brad Ingelsby, might just be the best new show of 2025 — a moody, character-rich thriller that proves the Sunday-night crown still belongs to HBO.
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones – Live From the Middle East: #37 of best 1,000 albums ever!
One, two, what’s in the stew? Three, four, no one’s really sure.
Frank Black – Frank Black: #38 of best 1,000 albums ever!
I’ll wait in Los Angeles – I’ll wait in the pouring sun.
The Streets – Original Pirate Material: #39 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Let’s push things forward.
The Beatles – A Hard Day’s Night: #40 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Someday when we’re dreaming – deep in love, not a lot to say – then we will remember things we said today.
Beastie Boys – Licensed to Ill: #41 of best 1,000 albums ever!
No sleep ‘till Brooklyn.
Task is great, but what’s with all the Sopranos crossover vibes?
Mark Ruffalo’s Task is already a critical hit, but the Sopranos Easter eggs — from Grasso to the Vipers — hint at a wild Philly–Jersey crossover.