Copyright Screen Rant
Things really got weird with 2025's best TV shows, and the good news is, there's more to come. Just like with anything else in popular culture, the world of television comes with a rotation of trends. There will be booms in fantasy, drama, action, and comedies, with several new, similar projects hitting streaming platforms around the same time. In the 2020s, we've seen a wide variety of popular streaming TV genres. 2020 was a big year for docuseries and crime dramas. 2021 saw an uptick in reality TV, while 2022 was the year of historical dramas and fantasy TV shows. 2023 was all about comedy series, and 2024 came with a growing interest in medical dramas. Now, in 2025, streaming charts have been dominated by fantastically bizarre psychological thrillers and sci-fi TV shows. 2025 Was Full Of Weird Psychological Thrillers & Sci-Fi Series This has been an excellent year for streaming TV, and many of the most talked-about series are among the weirdest we have seen in a while. Mind-bending psychological thrillers and sci-fi series really took things to a new level, disturbing and confusing audiences with what is essentially limitless creativity. It seems that 2025 is just the year of weird television. This was kicked off with Apple TV's dystopian sci-fi, Silo, which premiered its second season in November 2024 and concluded it in January 2025. Apple's streaming platform followed this up with Severance season 2, which premiered the same day as Silo's finale. Also a sci-fi series, Severance is the epitome of weird, with intriguing psychological twists and a unique blend of bizarre comedy. Apple TV delivered on the weird yet again in May 2025 with the arrival of Murderbot, another sci-fi comedy about a security robot that uses its newfound free will to sit around watching TV all day. This was followed up by MGM+'s Stephen King adaptation, The Institute, in July and Hulu's Alien: Earth in August. The weirdest of the weird of 2025 came from Netflix in September. Wayward is a psychological cult thriller that uses its strange delivery to explore meaningful concepts, such as the pitfalls of performative progressiveness and the abuse within teen institutions. It's a prime example of the sorts of ideas this genre can explore. Nearly all these strange thrillers and sci-fis were absolute hits, so it's no surprise that more such projects are on the way. Netflix & Apple TV Have More Weird TV Shows On The Way Netflix and Apple TV led the way with weird sci-fi and psychological thrillers in 2025, and these platforms are keeping the ball rolling through the end of the year and beyond. Netflix, of course, has the final season of Stranger Things releasing throughout the holiday season, which is guaranteed to take the show's mindbending premise to a new level. Additionally, 2026 should see the return of 3 Body Problem, a twisted sci-fi from the creators of Game of Thrones. While 2025 has fully established itself as the year of weird TV, there's no sign that this momentum will stop any time soon.
