_n_S1_E3_00_14_39_15.jpeg?width=1200&auto=webp&quality=75)
2025 has been a blockbuster year for television.
Over the course of 12 months, we got to see Philip Barantini’s blockbuster show Adolescence, and we had new series of The Bear, The White Lotus and Severance, among others. In short, we’ve been spoiled, but a good TV show is not the same thing as a standout TV moment. These are the moments that go viral (for good or ill) and have people talking around the water cooler, just as in the times of yore (aka, before streamers).
With 2026 on the way, what better way to say goodbye to this year than by rounding up some of our favourites?
Spoilers, naturally, ahead.
The Doctor’s surprise regeneration (Doctor Who)
Table of Contents
- The Doctor’s surprise regeneration (Doctor Who)
- Jamie’s interrogation (Adolescence)
- Mark chooses Helly over Gemma (Severance)
- Joel dies (The Last of Us Season 2)
- The eyeball sheep makes its debut (Alien: Earth)
- The toilet floods (And Just Like That)
- ‘That’ brotherly scene (The White Lotus)
- Alan Carr’s Celeb Traitors win (and tears)
- The staircase scene (The Summer I Turned Pretty)
Let’s face it: the most recent season of Doctor Who was a bit of a mixed bag. But there’s no denying that the last five minutes of the 2025 season finale were a shocker. As the nation looked on, Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor sacrificed himself to save Poppy, his ‘wish world’ fake daughter he had with companion Belinda (Varada Sethu). It was all a bit convoluted, but the upshot was worth it – as the stunned nation looked on, he regenerated into… Billie Piper.
What? Yes indeed. It’s still not been explained, and given that the show is currently on hiatus, it probably won’t be for a while yet. Guess we’ll have to keep wondering.
Jamie’s interrogation (Adolescence)
Adolescence-fever went around the world like a supervirus when it aired earlier this year – and no wonder. The show featured a knockout performance from newcomer Owen Cooper as Jamie, a 13 year old who winds up in police custody after killing a girl from his class.
The exact extent of Jamie’s culpability is kept vague throughout the show – does he feel guilty for what he’s done? Does he not? – but in episode three, the mask slips when his therapist (played by Erin Connor) comes to visit him for a psychoanalysis. The pair’s sparring is riveting, but it’s the scene at the end, in which Jamie spirals into violence and threats, that is truly chilling.
“You do not tell me when to sit down!” he shouts at her. Therapist Briony ends the episode in tears, while Jamie’s screaming of, ‘Do you believe me?’ as she leaves, is TV at its best.
Mark chooses Helly over Gemma (Severance)
Apple made us wait three years for Severance, but by god it was worth it. Our return to Lumon turned on all the weird taps and gave us a scene where Milchick led a marching band around the offices.
However, there was emotional heft too: namely, in Mark (Adam Scott)’s attempts to save his beloved wife Gemma (Dichen Lachman) from the experimentation she was being put through in the company’s lower levels. By cooperating with his innie, Mark managed to free her, but plot twist – innie Mark turned back right at the final second, to be with his other love interest, Helly R. It was a gobsmacking moment – how long do we have to wait for a third season again?
Joel dies (The Last of Us Season 2)
© 2025 Home Box Office, Inc. Al
The die-hard fans of the game knew it was coming – but these days, The Last of Us’ fanbase doesn’t necessarily include die-hard gamers. So Joel (Pedro Pascal)’s death, coming as it does just in episode two of the second season, sent shockwaves around the world.
It’s not just that Joel dies (and deprives us of seeing Pascal for the rest of the season). It’s the brutal way in which he goes, bludgeoned to death in front of his surrogate daughter Ellie (Bella Ramsey) with a golf club. It’s brutal, it’s visceral and it’s excellent television.
The eyeball sheep makes its debut (Alien: Earth)
As far as horror shows go, Alien: Earth was certainly one of the best of the year. Adapted from the chest-busting franchise of the same name, it moved the action to an alternate-timeline Earth, where a deep-space ship containing alien samples crash lands with devastating consequences.
The undisputed MVP, though, was the eyeball sheep. Or rather, a sheep that gets taken over by a parasitic alien lifeform (called T. Ocellus, if you want to get specific) masquerading as an eyeball. Only, the eyeball has the power to kill things (and people) in very disgusting ways. It’s an intelligent foe: intelligent enough to plan. It causes scientist Isaac (Kit Young) to be eaten by fly monsters, distracting him at a key moment when he’s trying to feed those monsters in the lab. It can talk to xenomorphs. Most importantly: it is spectacularly creepy.
The toilet floods (And Just Like That)
Does it count as a ‘best’ moment? Maybe not, but there could not be a more apt metaphor for Sex and the City’s little-loved spinoff show than this. Faced with cancellation, the show opted to end its run with perhaps the most bizarre finale ever shown on TV. Namely, Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) has to deal with the toilet overflowing in her apartment.
Apparently the scene showed “actual poop”, and was defended by the showrunner, Michael Patrick King, as a metaphor for not dealing with unresolved relationship issues. Regardless, it closed the show (famed for its fashion and glamour, lest we forget!) with an actual stinker. Why.
‘That’ brotherly scene (The White Lotus)
Say it with me: did that really happen? Showrunner Mike White has always taken a certain transgressive pleasure in pushing boundaries, but in season three he really outdid himself. There are quite a few signs that the Ratliff family aren’t quite right – dad Tim (Jason Isaac) likes to walk around with his junk hanging out, son Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger) is cosplaying a kind of performative toxic masculinity – but that all comes to a head (as it were) during one drunken night on a yacht, he and brother Lochlan (Sam Nivola) end up getting it on. Enough said.
Alan Carr’s Celeb Traitors win (and tears)
It was the twist nobody saw coming! Celebrity Traitors aired with much fanfare in September, pulling together an all-star cast including Stephen Fry, Paloma Faith and Celia Imrie for our viewing pleasure. But top of the pile had to be Alan Carr, who was made a Traitor and proceeded to squeal, sneak (badly) and deceive his way throughout the entire competition.
Despite suspicion falling on him more than once, he managed to make it to the final – where, in a complete plot twist, Nick Mohammed voted out long-term bestie Joe Marler and ensured Alan’s victory. But the most touching part was Carr’s tears at the end as he broke down, telling his friends that the strain had been too much for him. Watching Mohammed and David Olusoga go from appalled to giving him hugs was actually very wholesome.
Close runner up, by the way, goes to Celia Imrie’s fart. Which was too good not to at least mention here.
The staircase scene (The Summer I Turned Pretty)
Prime Video
This summer, we all went absolutely gaga for Jenny Han’s The Summer I Turned Pretty. Or least, women over 30 seemed to. Either way, we couldn’t get enough of watching long, long, long-term will they or won’t they couple Belly and Conrad (Lola Tung and Christopher Briney) pine for each other, make bad decisions and figure out whether or not to go to Paris. Spoiler alert: after three whole seasons of charged glances, the pair pretty much get it on all the way from the taxi to Belly’s apartment. Whew.
