Jim Lombardo’s 2025 TV Review

(A note from David Lombardo: I’m very delinquent in posting my dad’s television diary from 2025. My apologies to the handful of fans that were kept waiting. And feel free to check out my list from last year. 

The 2025 TV Review is back by popular demand. Some years, it is British TV. Some years it is Scandinavian TV. This is the year of Polish TV! Who knew? Once again, I thank Barb for helping to prepare the list for publication.

TOP PICKS
1. Andor Season 2. (Disney) 2025. Prequel to Rogue One. David bugged me to
keep watching. He was right.
2. Death by Lightning (Netflix) 2025 miniseries. Assassination of President James
Garfield. With Michael Shannon, Matthew Macfadyen, Nick Offerman. Great
facial hair!
3. Slow Horses (Apple) 2025, Season 5. Based on Mick Herron books. Misfit MI5
agents starring Gary Oldman, Kristin Scott Thomas and Jack Lowden.
4. The Gold (PBS) 2023, Season 1. Based on 1983 heist in England. The story
involves what thieves do with 26 million pounds worth of stolen gold, and how
police try to catch them. With Hugh Bonneville and Jack Lowden.
5. Lowdown (Hulu) 2025, Season 1. Crime story set in Tulsa starring Ethan
Hawke. Done by people who did Reservation Dogs.
6. Unforgotten (PBS) 2025, Season 6. Cold cases in England. Even after the
death of Nicola Walker character, Sanjeev Bhaskar carries on as Sunny Khan.
7. Dept. Q (Netflix) 2025, Season 1. Based on Danish books by Jussi Adler-Olsen.
Moved to Scotland for TV. Matthew Goode stars. Detective with issues and his
quirky group are assigned to unsolved cases.
8. Task (HBO Max) 2025, Season 1. Mark Ruffalo as a troubled FBI agent.
Criminals steal from biker criminals. Set in Pennsylvania. By the people who did
Mare of Easttown.
9. Blue Lights (Britbox) Season 2. Set in present-day Belfast. Follows probationary
officers in Season 1. One of Barb’s favorites.
10. Babylon Berlin German. 2022, Season 4. On MHZ but I got DVD from library.
Detectives in 1930s Berlin have to deal with the rise of Nazis.
11. Say Nothing (Hulu) 2024, miniseries. Historic drama set in Northern Ireland
during The Troubles, based on the Price sisters and Gerry Adams.
12. Paradise (Hulu) Season 1. Sterling K. Brown as a secret service agent and
James Mardsen as a Bill Clinton-like president. Set in an underground bunker
after a doomsday event.
13. The Studio (Apple) Seth Rogen as a movie studio executive. Some episodes
great, others not so. Lots of cameos.
14. The Bear (Hulu) Seasons 3 and 4. The third season wouldn’t have made this list
but Season 4 is much better.

Special Recognition: I watched these shows in 2025 and are highly recommended.
But since they were available much earlier, I did not put them on my Top Picks list.
1. Peaky Blinders (Netflix) Seasons 5 and 6 (2019 and 2022).
2. Homicide: Life on the Streets (Peacock) Seasons 5-6 (1996-97). I can’t believe I
didn’t watch this back then. Strong cast with three late great stars: Richard
Belzer, Yaphet Kotto and Andre Braugher. Better than “Law and Order” and any
other TV police procedurals. Season 7 still to go.

Special Category: Polish TV shows
I recommend them all. Some might have made my Top Picks, but instead I’m listing
them here as a group.
1. The Defense Also known as The Disappearance. (HBO Max.) Seasons 1-4,
2018 to 2021). A female lawyer who smokes and drinks too much, and wins her
cases. Waiting for Barb to watch Season 5.
2. Thaw (HBO Max.) Season 3. Widowed Polish female detective.
3. Eastern Gate (HBO Max.) Season 1. Female spy sent to Belarus to uncover
mole. Poland is worried Russia will invade part of Poland. Will there be a Season
2?
4. High Water (Netflix) 2022. Historic drama based on catastrophic 1997 flooding
of Wroclaw.
5. Heweliusz (Netflix) 2025.. Historic drama based on sinking of a polish ferry and
the people wrongfully blamed.
6. The Breslau Murders (Hulu) 2025. Detective must investigate murders under
Naza occupation before the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
7. 1983 (Netflix) 2018. A terrorist attack in 1983 alters Polish history. Set in 2003,
in this alternate history, Berlin Wall did not come down and Cold War exists.
8. The Mire (Netflix) Followed by The Mire: ‘97 and The Mire: Millennium (2018
and 2024). Murder mystery stretches over three time periods.
9. Two Harlan Coben books transferred from U.S. to Polish settings: Hold Tight and
Just One. Not as good as the real Polish shows but better than the Coben books
set in England.

Best of the Rest

1. Only Murders in the Buildings. (Hulu) 2024, Season 4. Season 5 is on list to
watch.
2. Hacks. (HBO Max.) Season 4. Great show, but this season not as good as
previous one.
3. Sherwood. (Britbox) 2022, Season 2. Stars David Morrissey and Barb’s fave
Lesley Manville.
4. Smoke. (Apple.) 2025, Season 1. Created by Dennis Lehane. Stars Taron
Egerton as a fire investigator and possible arsonist.
5. Landman. (Paramount) Season 1. Taylor Sheridan show. Billy Bob Thornton as
an over-the-top oilman. Season 2 is on now.
6. Astrid. (PBS.) 2022, Season 3. French. A heartwarming favorite of Barb. Autistic
records-keeper in crime library solves cases with detective. Slowly working way
through Season 4.
7. Dark Winds. (AMC.) Season 3. Navajo detectives, based on Tony Hillerman
novels.
8. Berlin ER. (Apple TV.) 2025, Season 1.German. A tough, chaotic hospital with
compelling characters.
9. Ben Franklin. (Apple.) Miniseries. Michael Dougla as Ben Franklin in France.
10. Poker Face. (Peacock.) Season 2. Murder of the week, Columbo-style. Stars
Natasha Lyonne. There will not be a Season 3.
11. Mobland. (Paramount.) Season 1. Pierce Brosnan and Helen Mirren as crime
bosses in England, with Tom Hardy as their fixer.
12. Spy Among Friends. (Britbox.) 2022, miniseries. Story of defection of British spy
Kim Philby. Starring Damian Lewis and Guy Pearce.
13. Black Doves. (Netflix.) 2024, Season 1. British spies for hire. Keira Knightley, Ben
Whishaw and Sara Lancashire.
14. Jack Irish. (Amazon.) 2016, Season 1. Australian dramedy with Guy Pearce as
lawyer-turned-investigator.
15. The Assassin. 2025. Watched on a plane on Amazon UK. Not available in U.S.
Son finds out mom Keeley Hawes is a retired assassin.
16. Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light. (PBS.) 2024. British. Damian Lewis as Henry
VIII and Mark Rylance as Thomas Cromwell.
17. Night Agent. (Netflix.) 2025, Season 2.
18. Bloodlands. (AMC Amazon.) 2021-22, Seasons 1 and 2. Set in Northern Ireland.
Stars James Nesbitt as bent copper.
19. Black Snow. (AMC Amazon.) 2024, Seasons 1 and 2. Australian cold cases.
20. Top Dog. (PBS.) 2023, Season 2. Swedish crime drama. Finally, Scandinavian
TV! With Serbian mobsters. Season 4 is not available.
21. The Unlikely Murder. (Netflix.) 2021, Swedish miniseries. Historic drams on
assassination of Prime Minister Olof Palme.
22. Arctic Circe. (Amazon.) Season 1. Finland, 2018. Dead bodies found: A deadly
virus or serial killer?
23. Two Sides of the Abyss. (HBO Max.) Season 1. German. A police officer has to
deal with her daughter’s murderer getting out of prison early.
24. When No One Sees Us. (HBO Max.) 2025, Season 1. Spanish. Investigation of
events on U.S. military base in Spain.
25. The Breakthrough. (Netflix.) 2025, Season 1. Swedish. Historic crime drama
based on 2004 double murders that were solved in 2020.
26. Sara – Woman in the Shadows. (Netflix.) Italian. A retired spy comes out of
retirement to investigate her son’s death.
27. The Are Murders. (Netflix.) 2025. Swedish. A female detective leaves Stockholm
for remote Sweden and investigates a missing girl case.

Shows to Watch … or Finish
Some on this list would have been on my Top 10 list but at Barb’s request I’m waiting for
her to watch some of them with me.
1. The Pitt (HBO Max). Season 2 is starting soon.
2. Adolescence (Netflix). British.
3. Families Like Ours (Netflix). Danish.
4. Only Murders in the Building (Hulu). Season 5.
5. Down Cemetery Road (Apple TV).
6. Shrinking (Apple TV) . Season 2. Season 3 starting soon.
7. The Diplomat (Netflix). Season 3
8. Astrid, Season 4.
9. Landman, Season 2.
10. The Defense (HBO Max). Season 5.