Pluribus, The Chair Company, Ballard
Apple TV, HBO, Amazon Prime
Rotten Tomatoes has been tracking a list of the best shows of 2025, based on its own critic scores, and it’s just made an announcement that a new series has arrived at #1 on the site.
If you’ve been paying attention to recent TV releases, you may guess that it’s Pluribus, the new Apple TV series created by Vince Gilligan of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul fame. Pluribus just debuted this past Friday and has racked up a perfect 100% score from dozens and dozens of critics, putting it on top even among more than ten other shows that have perfect critic scores this year.
With a bunch of other shows tied with 100% scores, how has Pluribus come out on top? It would seem the ranking order is due to how many critic reviews are in for each show. It’s much harder to maintain a perfect 100% score when you have 74 reviews in like Pluribus, compared to Ballard’s 22, for instance. You want to see the list? Here’s the top 20, if you’re looking for things to watch:
1) Pluribus season 1 – 100%
2) Pee-Wee As Himself (miniseries) – 100%
3) The Chair Company season 1 – 100%
4) The Narrow Road to the Deep North (miniseries) – 100%
5) Long Story Short season 1 – 100%
6) Platonic season 2 – 100%
7) Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light season 2 – 100%
8) Common Side Effects season 1 – 100%
9) Code of Silence season 1 – 100%
10) North of North season 1 – 100%
11) Ballard season 1 – 100%
12) The Righteous Gemstones season 4 – 100%
13) Toxic Town (miniseries) – 100%
14) Asura season 1- 100%
15) Dying for Sex (miniseries) – 98%
16) Mr. Scorsese (miniseries) – 98%
17) King of the Hill season 14 – 98%
18) The Lowdown season 1 – 98%
19) Reacher season 3 – 98%
20) The Rehearsal season 2 – 98%
If you want to know which of these has the highest audience score, that would be Asura with a 94%. Pee-Wee, Common Side Effects, Mr. Scorsese, King of the Hill and The Rehearsal all have above a 90%. Pretty much every show here that is in season 1 has been renewed for season 2. I think almost all the non-miniseries have been, short of The Righteous Gemstones, where that was the series finale.
My favorites in this list would be Pluribus, The Chair Company, Common Side Effects, The Righteous Gemstones, The Lowdown and The Rehearsal. I didn’t think Reacher was particularly good this season so a 98% seems rather insane to me.
It is possible that Pluribus could be knocked down, as it only takes a single negative review, and sometimes critics want to be “that guy.” For now though, perfect, and even if not, absolutely a must-watch.
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Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2025/11/11/rotten-tomatoes-best-tv-shows-of-2025-list-has-a-new-no-1-pluribus/
