Paste Power Rankings: The 5 Best TV Shows on Right Now (November 4, 2025)

It’s surprisingly hard to make a good adaptation of Robin Hood. This might come as a shock to some, given the ubiquity of the legend and the fact that almost everyone is familiar with its basic plot beats. Guy lives in a forest, is an exceptional archer, robs the rich, and gives to the poor. Simple! Easy! And…yet. Adaptations on screens both large and small have struggled to grasp the idea of Robert of Locksley as a three-dimensional character rather than a flat archetype and frequently mistake the concept of goodness for a simple character trait, rather than lived-in action. (This is also the reason most adaptations of the King Arthur legend are bad, but that’s a rant for another day.) So perhaps it was inevitable that the first actually decent Robin Hood to hit screens in the better part of two decades was destined to land on a streamer relatively people likely know exists. While it’s the home of several excellent series, including Steven Knight’s World War II drama Rogue Heroes and the twisty sci-fi series From, MGM+ largely exists in the shadow of its larger sibling, Prime Video. Perhaps Robin Hood will be the series that helps it break into the mainstream—it deserves to, because it’s a genuinely thoughtful and well executed take on the classic tale, bolstering familiar story beats with historical context and details, embracing nuance, and featuring multiple complex female characters—who all get to do something besides be love interests.— Lacy Baugher Milas [Full Review]

4. Down Cemetery Road

Network: Apple TV
Last Week: N/A
This Week: A mysterious explosion leaves art conservationist Sarah searching for answers about a missing girl — and turning to a private investigator for help.

Apple TV has found considerable success with Slow Horses, its Emmy-winning espionage drama that wrestles with poignant questions of morality and purpose alongside its scenes of witty banter, black humor, and offbeat camaraderie. But it’s also a largely male-oriented show, and the bulk of its characters and stories (and most especially its humor) tend to reflect that fact. Although the streamer likely doesn’t intend for us to view its new series Down Cemetery Road as an attempt to provide some gender balance in this particular genre space, thanks to its overt focus on female characters and experiences, the comparisons sort of write themselves. Down Cemetery Road is also based on a series of books by Mick Herron. The show takes its name from his debut novel, which went on to spawn several sequels, and while the vibes aren’t entirely the same, the general feel is similar enough that it’s obvious why Apple leaped at the chance to adapt it for TV. Featuring familiar acerbic dialogue, dark laughs, and another memorable lead character in the vein of Slough House wrangler Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman) but with much less flatulence involved, the Oxford Investigations series doesn’t quite rise to the heights of his Slough House books. Still, it has all the elements to make some seriously quality TV.

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2. The Witcher

Network: Netflix
Last Week: N/A
This Week:  Liam Hemsworth is….mostly fine as the show’s new Geralt of Rivia, but it’s The Witcher’s women that make Season 4 worth watching.

Netflix’s fantasy drama The Witcher is clearly building up to an ending. In its fourth (and penultimate) season, the stakes are higher, the losses more devastating, the political wrangling somehow even more needlessly convoluted. There are difficult choices, genuine surprises, a handful of excellent action set pieces, and an ending that leaves several of the show’s most beloved characters in dark and dire straits. And almost none of that matters. Because the only thing that pretty much anybody’s going to want to talk about when it comes to Season 4 is the fact that it swapped out its lead actor in between seasons. On some level, that’s fair—it’s a fairly unprecedented sort of move, and former star Henry Cavill was essentially created in a lab to play the show’s titular monster hunter Geralt of Rivia. But while Liam Hemsworth may gamely up Cavill’s witcher mantle for the show’s penultimate season, viewers will likely be surprised to discover that he—and, subsequently, Geralt—are actually the least interesting part of the story this run of episodes is telling. That honor, once again, belongs to the series’ women. The female characters of The Witcher have always been this show’s secret weapon, but in this penultimate outing, they’re its beating heart. From the new sisterhood that sorceress Yennefer of Vengerberg (Anya Chalotra) begins to build out of the ruins of Aretuza, to Princess Cirilla of Cintra’s (Freya Allan) furious attempts to run away from both her past and the future she doesn’t want to face, the emotional center of this season runs through the show’s women who fight—in very different ways—to shape their own fates.. —Lacy Baugher Milas   [Full Review]

Everyone in Slough House is stuck. It’s professional purgatory for the service’s biggest screw-ups, all of whom are trapped in various messes of their own making. But even though their inability to move forward serves a purpose, stagnation also eventually leads to decay. Season 4 was a high point for Slow Horses. It was the show’s most emotionally affecting outing yet as River and his grandfather (Jonathan Pryce) found themselves in the crosshairs of an assassin-siring monster who turned out to be River’s long-lost father (Hugo Weaving). Not every season can (or should) be as personal, but it’s a major narrative development, and it didn’t just affect River and his grandfather; it also indirectly resulted in Marcus’ (Kadiff Kirwan) death. So it’s the type of season that demands action and movement in the aftermath, more so even than previous installments that saw Slough House agents die. And in that regard, it’s initially difficult to be dropped into a new story that mostly hinges on the question “No self-respecting woman would willingly date Roddy, right?” and not wonder if the show is as stuck as its titular slow horses.The good news is, the series doesn’t totally ignore the bomb dropped on River last season, nor does it gloss over the aftermath of Marcus’ murder. In fact, Slough House is under construction when the show returns, both a subtle reminder of what happened and an apt representation of the current states of those most affected by the prior season’s events. Understandably, Shirley (Aimee-Ffion Edwards) isn’t coping well with Marcus’ death, but she throws herself into protecting Roddy since she couldn’t do the same for her friend. Meanwhile, River has compartmentalized his trauma and chosen to prioritize work instead of processing that the health of his grandfather, the man who raised him, has declined significantly in recent months, or that his actual father just tried to kill him. All of this puts a strain on his already complicated relationship with Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman), yet another father figure of sorts. It all makes sense in terms of the characters, and yet there are instances when one wishes they could spend just a little bit more time with them in the in-between moments. — Kaitlin Thomas [Full Review]

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