Outlook’s Picks: 5 Best International OTT Shows Of 2025

2025 has witnessed beloved shows like Severance and The Rehearsal come to a close with a bang. New obsessions have spawned as well, like the ongoing Pluribus and Heated Rivalry. Each unravelling episode of these shows triggers a spate of theories and frenzy. Television charted exciting new frontiers, meshing contemporary landscapes with immediacy and impact. Imagination was clearly not in deficit in this format at least, proven by Nathan Fielder's boundary-defying docu-reality TV series. Neither were warnings of fascism, as Joe Wright erected a dazzling, furiously pumped portrait of Mussolini.

Here are Outlook's picks for the year's most vital international shows. They are topical, brave and relentlessly energetic glimpses of storytelling that mingled compulsive viewing with thoughtful provocation. One of them—the best—even hands out a revolutionary manifesto we all could live by.

A galaxy far, far away bounced back the horrors of Gaza. In the most chilling hour of the year, Andor’s Ghorman massacre episode conjured all the misinformation, propaganda, skewed narratives around the Israeli genocide of Palestinians. The second and final season became the ultimate portrait of a multi-tiered protest against fascism. Tony Gilroy assembles foot soldiers of resistance across planets, flashing fractures in its solidarity. There’s factionalism, collateral damage, wrenching sacrifices as the regime stares at early cracks of its unravelling. As exquisite suspense is built across rich arcs, vital political questions are posed and wrestled with. When does liberal protest become impossible? Mon Mothma’s parliament speech emerged as the most passionate wake-up call against passive tolerance of authoritarian regimes. Disney’s biggest Star Wars project, taking on geopolitics and civilian unrest, sounds almost too fantastical to be true. But Andor combined sincerity, smarts and style to mount a gorgeous, soulful saga around defiance and the price insurrection pays. This will endure as among the decade’s greatest shows—a spectacle with a rare political pulse, passing the baton to the next in tow. Rebellions are built on hope.

Trust Michelle Williams to do no wrong. The five-time Oscar nominee is the perfect engine for this raunchy comedy’s existential flights. Williams plays Molly, whose cancer diagnosis sets off her libido to uncontrollable impulses. Confronted with death, she gets a fresh lease of courage and vitality in hunting out life’s adventures. A sexless marriage is dunked and she wanders out on voyages of self-discovery, going through intimate, awkward and yet, empowering experiences with strangers. Williams and Jenny Slate, playing the best friend and primary caretaker, are absolutely delightful together. Dying For Sex could have easily turned mawkish, but it’s wiser, boundlessly curious and sprayed with human wonder. Williams plays every flickering beat, from indecision to self-assurance, with frankness and loose-bodied charm. The quest for the big O has rarely been this generous to its seeker—its balance of kink and comedy magical.

The recent Netflix acquisition of Warner Bros. adds a sharp caustic edge to this rip-roaring Hollywood satire. As juicy as a show about the eternal tussle between art and commerce sounds, The Studio hit the ground running. Co-created, co-directed by and starring Seth Rogen as an idealistic studio head perennially panicking over creative compromises, the show skewers the frenzied business, but with love. Hustling, gossip, cutthroat survival, caught haywire in that balance between intelligent art and complete sellout—all of it comes frantically alive. Ferreting out a galley of A-list cameos, including Martin Scorsese, The Studio revels in the unique madness of movie-making, its magic and endless heartbreaks. The absurdities are peppered with genuine affection for the industry—one that is as unsparing as teasing with pipe dreams every single day. The Studio raked in the highest Emmy wins for any comedy in its debut season.

More than a decade after the medical drama ER (1994) wrapped, it was resurrected in The Pitt. Key producers and players returned, like lead actor Noah Wyle. However, this spiritual follow-up takes place entirely over a 15-hour ER shift—each episode a grueling hour into the workday. For the clear institutional and systemic lack in the health care sector, there’s some reassurance to be found in persevering, resilient, caring staff weathering the worst odds. This real-time chronicle employs rigorous detail and exacting accuracy, as testified by professionals, effortlessly delivering complex choreography. The ensemble lets every character shine with grace and empathy, whilst unsentimentally handling every touchpoint from abortion rights to mass shootings.

The manosphere’s anxieties found chilling articulation in this four-episode show. Circling the 13-year-old Jamie (breakout star Owen Cooper) arrested for murdering his classmate, Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham’s miniseries hit a raw nerve at the point where online venom postures to ease modern male powerlessness. This fusion takes grotesque, terrifying shape, exploding in the raging breaking-point third episode. The Emmy-winning miniseries compels you to sit with uncomfortable questions around where the youth might be headed. An absolute gut punch, this is essential viewing.