5. Paradise

Paradise turned Sterling K. Brown from America’s dad on This Is Us into Hollywood’s latest badass as Secret Service agent Xavier Collins by having him lead a paramilitary coup against the fascist government of a city built inside of a Colorado mountain. Brown’s ability to go from doting father to fierce protector to disgruntled employee while exhibiting the same dutiful passion for doing what he feels is right helps the series transcend some of the one-dimensional pitfalls of most post-apocalyptic shows. But it also helps that Paradise intricately examines how the titular city is formed, from the hierarchical selection of its residents to the artificial ways they recreate normal life, all so well-developed and thought through that they make this world feel lived-in and fun to explore.

Brown isn’t alone. Julianne Nicholson plays Samantha “Sinatra” Redmond, chief decision-maker and mastermind of the mountainous bunker, as a woman who funnels her grief over her son dying into her efforts to exert total control over the world around her in order to prevent ever having to experience anything like that again. Such character nuances are pervasive throughout the show. Also the penultimate episode, in which Collins has to forcibly get the President of the United States out of the White House through a mob of governmental officials who just found out the world is ending, is not only one of the best TV episodes of 2025. It’s one of the best episodes in Hulu’s history.