TV shows with 100% Rotten Tomatoes ratings often stand out because they achieved something rare by impressing critics across the board. When new TV shows launch, critics and audiences alike turn to Rotten Tomatoes for a first impression. These new 2025 TV shows instantly set themselves apart from the crowded television landscape. It’s not just about the hype, but about the quality that critics unanimously praised.
A perfect score signals not just popularity, but a level of quality that makes them worth including in audiences’ binge list. Interestingly, most of them are international shows, proving their growing influence in cinema. What’s fascinating about these 2025 TV shows is that they cut across genres. Here’s a look at the 2025 TV shows that debuted with a 100% Rotten Tomatoes score.
Lynley
The British crime drama Lynley is a reboot of the Elizabeth George-created The Inspector Lynley Mysteries for BBC One that aired from 2001 to 2008. Lynley centers on Detective Inspector Tommy Lynley (Leo Suter), an aristocrat paired with Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers (Sofia Barclay), who comes from a working-class background.
The unusual pairing brings together a polished man and Havers, who has a bold, unconventional style of handling cases. Together, despite their very different personalities and lives, they are drawn into investigating complex crimes. They’re forced to rely on each other’s strength as they work through clues, motives, and shifting alliances.
The Survivors
The six-episode Australian drama miniseries debuted with a 100% Rotten Tomatoes rating. The show, adapted from Jane Harper’s 2020 novel, centers on Kieran Elliott (Charlie Vickers), who returns to Evelyn Bay, a small coastal town in Tasmania, along with his partner and child, 15 years after a life-altering storm. Once back, Kieran hopes to confront the past, reconnect with family, and settle in. However, the discovery of a young woman’s body on the shore forces old questions to surface.
Code of Silence
The British crime drama Code of Silence centers on Alison Woods (Rose Ayling-Ellis), a dear woman working in a police canteen. Her life changes when two detectives, DS Ashleigh Francis (Charlotte Ritchie) and DI James Marsh (Andrew Buchan), recruit Alison for her lip-reading ability. She’s asked to help with surveillance of a criminal gang, interpreting covert conversations that others cannot hear, pulling her into police work she never expected to be a part of. The six-episode first season premiered on July 24, 2025.
In Flight
In Flight is another British crime drama thriller with a 100% Rotten Tomatoes score. It follows Jo Conran (Katherine Kelly), a single mother and flight attendant. Her life is upended when her son is arrested for a crime he says he’s innocent of. Jo is approached by a criminal gang that blackmails her, exploiting her job’s reach through international air travel. Reluctantly, Jo is forced into smuggling drugs, using her airline routes to carry out the operation. As she tries to maintain some normalcy, the stakes increase.
Ballard
2025 also saw the premiere of a new police procedural crime drama series, Ballard. The Amazon Prime Video series is spun off from the Bosch universe. The story centers on Renée Ballard (Maggie Q), an LAPD detective who’s given the responsibility of leading the department’s cold case division. With little funding and support, Ballard and her team, which includes volunteers, take on cases that have gone cold, trying to bring justice to investigations that have stayed unsolved for years.
When Life Gives You Tangerines
For lovers of all things Korean, this new 2025 South Korean romance slice-of-life, When Life Gives You Tangerines, is a must-watch. The show tracks the lives of two people, Oh Ae-sun (IU) and Yang Gwan-sik (Park Bo-gum). It begins in Jeju Island during the 1950s and follows them through many years and phases of life.
Ae-sun, born in a modest family in Jeju, dreams of becoming a poet despite her family’s poverty and limited access to schooling. Gwan-sik, who grows up nearby, is quiet, hardworking, and devoted. His relationship with Ae-sun spans decades, marked by closeness, distance, personal ambition, and familial expectation. The series’ plot is narrated, in part, by their daughter.
Secrets We Keep
Secrets We Keep is a Danish miniseries that follows Cecille (Marie Bach Hansen), a resident of an affluent Copenhagen suburb. Her regular life is thrown off balance when a young Filipino au pair named Ruby (Donna Levkovski) disappears. Cecille’s own au pair, Angel (Excel Busano), develops personal concern as rumors spread among the local au pairs. With the police reluctant to push resources to investigate the case, Cecille and Angel become involved. As they dig deeper, they realize the disappearance may be more than just a missing persons case.
The Narrow Road to the Deep North
The Narrow Road to the Deep North is another new Australian series with a 100% Rotten Tomatoes score. The five-part drama miniseries is based on Richard Flanagan’s 2013 novel. It follows the life of Dorrigo Evans (Jacob Elordi), whose journey spans several periods: before World War II, during his time as a prisoner of war, and the years that followed. It also tracks a forbidden and complicated love affair between him and his aunt, Amy Mulvaney (Odessa Young).
Toxic Town
Toxic Town is a four-part British drama series that dramatizes real events in Corby, Northamptonshire, during the Corby toxic waste case. It follows several mothers who begin to suspect something is wrong after giving birth to children with similar physical deformities. As they piece together evidence, they start to challenge local authorities and seek answers for their families.
Just One Look
The Polish miniseries Just One Look is a crime thriller adapted from Harlan Coben’s 2004 novel. It follows Greta Rembiewska (Maria Dębska), a jewellery designer who believes she has a stable, ordinary life with her husband and kids. However, her world is turned upside down when she sees a photograph that raises unsettling questions about who her husband really is, and then he goes missing.
I, Jack Wright
British drama series I, Jack Wright follows the fallout after the death of Jack Wright (Trevor Eve), a wealthy businessman whose final will shocks the family. His third wife, Sally (Nikki Amuka-Bird), and sons discover they have been largely disinherited. What begins with grief and confusion quickly escalates into intrigue. As the investigation unfolds, various members of the Wright family are forced to reckon with his legacy.
Trigger
Trigger is a South Korean action thriller series that imagines a South Korea, traditionally strict about gun control, suddenly faces a crisis when illegal firearms begin appearing among its civilian population. The story follows Lee Do (Kim Nam-gil), a former military marksman who now works as a police officer. He investigates the unexpected surge in gun violence. Alongside Lee is Moon Baek (Kim Young-kwang), a mysterious arms dealer whose actions are central to the unfolding events.
Cassandra
This German sci-fi horror-thriller, Cassandra, also debuted with a 100% Rotten Tomatoes score. It follows Samira (Mina Tander), her husband David (Michael Klammer), and their two children. The family moves into what turns out to be Germany’s first smart home, built in the 1970s. The home has a long-dormant AI assistant named Cassandra (voiced by Lavinia Wilson), which was developed as an electronic domestic helper. After decades of inactivity, following mysterious events that left the home abandoned, Cassandra is unexpectedly reactivated by the family’s arrival.
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