Best of 2025 - Television

Wrapping up my best of 2025 lists today I come to you with my top five tv shows of the year. Much like I talked about on my blog Friday, and in the most recent episode of our podcast, tv is in a golden era. There's a ton of stuff to watch, and there seems to be something for everyone's taste. There are some shows I don't watch, or haven't seen yet, so that is why they're not on this list. I have watched four episodes of "Pluribus" to this point, and that show is truly amazing, but I feel like there needs to be a legit season before I personally put something on my list. I like the whole finality of a season or series finale. I had to really pare this list down, but in the end I feel like I got the five best shows for me.

At number 5 I have "The Chair Company". Much like I said with "Friendship" on my movie list, "The Chair Company" allows Tim Robinson and Zach Kanin and their whole crew to go as wild as they want. They do some odd and different comedy and it all works for me. While this show was on I wrote a whole thing about how much I like how real everyone looks and seems on the show. This isn't some type of beautiful people being put in odd situations. This is people who look like you and me dealing with everyday stuff. That is awesome to me. I like that Robinson casts his buddies in major roles. I was all in on his friendship with that creep Mike all season long. I wanted to see how all that got resolved. I loved the stuff with his kids. His and Lake Bell's relationship felt real. I like how Robinson, as Ron, would complain about mundane stuff like his pillow and they kept it in the show. Best of all was they made me care about such an innocuous thing like this random guy falling on some random chair and then going to great lengths to prove a non existing conspiracy. "The Chair Company" is great because Tim Robinson and crew are in a total groove and they have had nothing but good ideas to this point.

At number 4 I have "The Rehearsal". This season of "The Rehearsal" enacted real change in our world. Pilots and co-pilots now get to talk about their feelings more openly because that was the crux of what Nathan Fielder wanted to do with this show. And boy oh boy was this season a doozy. Fielder created this season to try and find an answer to why accidents happen on planes and his idea to base it on the pilot/co-pilot relationship was a great way to start. From there on out we got to see Fielder cosplay as Sully Sullenbeger, we got to see actors try to date co-pilots, I learned a ton about the Evanescence song "Wake Me Up" and we found out that Fielder's show is of great importance to the autistic community. But, the biggest thing we learned was Fielder put his money where his mouth was and became a real deal pilot. He has flown everything from one man planes to big cargo planes delivering massive objects to remote places. When he flew that jumbo jet, it was awesome. Fielder is a modern day comedy genius and season two of "The Rehearsal"  was one of his greatest works to date.

At number 3 I have the final season of "The Righteous Gemstones". Danny McBride and crew sent this show out in the best way possible. This final season was a great sendoff, and I feel like they gave everyone proper due. The Gemstones had their typical trials and tribulations,  and they came out back on top. We got to see Eli fall in love and be happy once again. Keif got his just due and a proper happy ending. Michael Rooker, Sean William Scott and Megan Mullaly were excellent additions to this final season. We got to see Bradley Cooper give us the origin story of the Gemstone family. But this season was all about Uncle Baby Billy, one of the greatest characters ever played by Walton Goggins. All credit due to RD when he brought this up on the last podcast. Uncle Baby Billy transcended the show the moment he exclaimed, "All I want is an eight ball and two million dollars". He didn't have to do anything else, but he also gave us "Teenjus", yelling "COCAINE!!!!" like it was his superpower and his constant fights with his family's live-in nanny. Goggins made this the iconic role it became and I will be forever grateful to him for that gift.

Getting off HBO Max shows, at number 2 I have season two of "Severance". It was going to be hard to build upon what they did in season 1, but they did just that and so much more. This season was heavier than the first, but it also helped to grow the story. Zach Cherry having a relationship with his wife being his innie and outie was heartbreaking, The fact that John Tuttoro and Christopher Walken didn't get a happy ending crushed me. Brit Lower did a masterful job as Helly because I grew to despise her more and more as the season went on. The whole episode on the snowy mountains was one of the best hours of tv I've ever watched. Trammel Tillman made me feel bad for his character, and then he gave us such a dope dance sequence in the finale. And Adam Scott and Dichen Lachman just continued to break my heart with their backstory and everything that culminated in the finale. When we saw Lachman's backstory it was so eye opening and sad as hell. It was going to be hard to come back but "Severance" did it with aplomb and I'm not patiently waiting for the third season. In fact, maybe I'm not so patient.

Finally, at number 1 I have the second and final season of "Andor". First off, thank you RD for coaxing me to watch this show time and again. "Andor" is one of the best tv shows to have existed and this second season was one for the books. I have told my dad to watch it and he is hesitant because of the whole "Star Wars" aspect. I have told him that they use names from "Star Wars" and the same weapons, but this is a show about overthrowing a fascist government. It has very little other connections to "Star Wars". This show is dark and bleak but also hopeful. I loved in season two how every three episodes gave us a one year time jump. People died and it crushed me. I also found hope when an entire planet decided enough was enough and wanted to fight back and did their best. There's people I hate and people I root for as should be the way on a show like this. I'm glad Bixx got the ending she did. She more than deserved that after everything she went through. I thought Diego Luna was the best as Cassian. And Stellan Skaarsgaard's death may be the most brutal I have ever seen on a tv show. There isn't any perfect show out there, but "Andor" is as close as it gets.

Thank you all for reading my best of lists. Please let me know what I've missed. Now, I'm going to continue watching "Pluribus". 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Ty Watches "The Chair Company" Season 1

I watched the season finale of "The Chair Company" yesterday and I want to say a few things about the first season of this show. This review will be spoiler free. I am not going to divulge any big news because I feel like what Zach Kanin and Tim Robinson achieved with this should be watched by anyone who is a fan of their work.

I was predestined to like this new show of thiers, and it wildly exceeded my expectations. After the finale I sat back and tried to figure out what it was that had me so interested. And I have come up with a few ideas. First off, for the most part, they cast people that look like real people. This is a show filled with people that I feel like I could see walking down my street. This is not a knock on their looks. I appreciate when shows have real looking actors on. Not everyone on tv has to be this ideal look of beauty and skinny. They don't need to have pounds of makeup on covering any minor thing that may not look great on film. The people who populate this show look like me and my family and friends. They got people who know how to act, then put them on a major tv program, and I don't know why but I appreciated that. Tim Robinson is a normal looking guy, as is Zach Kanin. So is Jim Downey and almost everyone else on the show. They did cast Lou Diamond Phillips and Lake Bell, who are both very attractive, but that didn't take anything away from the rest of the cast. Even the actors playing Robinson and Bell's kids were great choices. I like that they did that because that's what they did on "I Think you Should Leave" and "Friendship".

I also liked how compact and quick this season went. It was eight episodes, all about 30 minutes long. That is how it should be done. I don't mind 45 minute to hour long shows, but they can be tedious from time to time, especially when an entire episode is basically foreplay to some big idea later in the season. With each episode going 30 minutes they needed to get it all out there in each episode. They leave no stones unturned. We get answers and I am fully on board with that. I want more shows to adopt the 30 minute runtime and have a season be 10 episodes or less. It is way less of a commitment and leaves room for other content to stream.

I liked how dark and angry this show is. Tim Robinson isn't afraid to do comedy like that and that is why I like his work so much. My mother in law was asking if this is a show she should watch and I immediately told her no because of how dark it is. She doesn't like that stuff, and while I do, I know that she would be put off by it. I am all for it. I want it to be dark and dreary. I loved when something uncomfortable would happen during this first season. The whole scene at the bar with the local actor and the bowl of soup was cringe comedy gold. And that was just the tip of the iceberg with the first season.

But, the thing I loved most and what kept me coming back was how involved I became with the plot. I wanted to know why the chair broke. I was invested in the whole investigation between Robinson and the people who helped along the way. I wanted to know more and more about Tecca and Red Ball Marketing. These are things I shouldn't care about, and shouldn't work on a tv show, but they made it work and made it tense and anxiety riddled. The run-ins with the bad guys were great. The "friendship" between Mike and Ron was so bleak yet I couldn't turn away. The sheer fact that they made me care that Mike wasn't invited to a teenager's birthday party should speak volumes as to how well done this show is. But, the whole idea of watching a middle aged midwestern dad go down this crazy rabbit hole because he fell when he went to sit down on a Tecca chair just shouldn't have worked. Yet it worked like gangbusters and I cannot wait to see what they do in the next season and beyond.

If you enjoy dark comedy and specifically the works of Zach Kanin and Tim Robinson, "The Chair Company" is a must watch. It shows growth but also gives you all the stuff you have liked from their previous work. This show is awesome. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Ty Watches "The Chair Company"

Tim Robinson and Zach Kanin are on a hot streak right now. I absolutely love "I Think You Should Leave". It is one of the best sketch comedy shows there has ever been. I know that Kanin didn't direct, and I don't even think he is in the movie, but you could see his fingerprints all over "Friendship". He and Robinson had to have written a bunch of that movie together at one point or another. And now they have "The Chair Company" on HBO.

Look, I was predetermined to like this show. I remember hearing about it awhile ago and I was already in at the mere mention of Tim Robinson and Zach Kanin's involvement. Then I saw a teaser trailer and I loved it and had no idea what I saw. It was just a clip of Robinson hanging out in the bathroom and then some shots of him at a computer. I was super intrigued by that 30 seconds alone. Then I saw some people talk about it online, some people got early screenings of the first episode and they had nothing but good things to say about it. I did not watch the premiere on Sunday, but I did watch it pretty much as soon as I woke up on the following Monday. And I loved it. This show is fully inline with the work these guys have done before, but they are taking it a few steps further than they have with their other stuff. You could see this coming, but the way they have pulled it off to this point has been right up my alley.

The whole idea of the show is, Robinson plays a middle America worker at your run of the mill company. He gets promoted for a big job, and on the day he is announcing everything to everyone who works in the office he goes to sit down and the chair breaks into a bunch of pieces. He is clearly embarrassed. Others at the job seem to have moved on from the incident, but not Robinson. He is consumed by what happened to him and this chair. He starts to dig deeper and deeper into the company that makes the chairs and some revealing stuff has already happened in the first two episodes. The show is hilarious, as one would expect, but it is also dark. There are some heavy undertones attached to this simple premise. But what I have loved the most about this show is how insane Kanin and Robinson make the mundane everyday life stuff. Robinson is meeting some shady individuals, but they are old and pretend gangsters. He is always on edge when he is having conversations with this family. His wife is very busy planning their daughter's wedding and their son is focused on getting a basketball scholarship. They manage to take this stuff and make it funny to me. There's a scene where Robinson is trying to sleep at night and he makes some blanket statements about his pillow being the issue. I love that he says it is the worst pillow in the world. I cannot count how many times I have said that about the pillows I used to own. I also like how Robinson is constantly trying to get out of this conspiracy he started himself and simply cannot. It appears he has gone a little too far and has dragged himself far too much into this chair company. And speaking to the mundane, the scenes where he is trying to figure out more about this chair company by doing some internet research have some of the best and funniest facial reactions. This is the stuff I have come to adore about Robinson's acting. He can make these wild faces that never cease to crack me up over and over again. And when he talks to himself, I find myself laughing harder and harder.

"The Chair Company" is off to a great start so far. I am really interested to see where this story goes, and if they will make more when it is all said and done. Robinson seems to be on an upward trajectory similar to what Nathan Fielder has going on right now. They both have unique and awesome comic minds. They make comedy unlike anything else that is out there today. And I'm here for it. I want it to continue. From "The Rehearsal" to "The Chair Company", Fielder and Robinson's version of comedy is better than anything else out there at the moment. Check this show out. It is pretty great. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

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SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.