It’s always Emmy season at Time Out, where thrusting bouquets at our favourite all-time TV and streaming shows is a year-round preoccupation.
And a new addition to our critic-picked list of the 100 Greatest TV Shows of All Time has just landed.
Netflix’s sci-fi thriller Squid Game has wrapped up after three fierce, addictive and satirical seasons of dystopian death and mayhem. We love it, and judging by worldwide viewing figures that make it the streamer’s most watched show, so does everyone else.
Born from his aborted idea for a movie, Korean writer Hwang Dong-hyuk’s 22-episode three-season series follows down-on-his-luck chauffeur and gambling addict Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) through a battle of survival in a Grand Guignol game show run by the mysterious Front Man.
‘Absurd, upsetting and blackly comic, it’s an excoriating indictment of human greed,’ reads the new entry on Time Out’s 100 Greatest TV Shows list. ‘It’s shot through with compelling human drama as Gi-hun clings desperately to his humanity as all around him abandon theirs.’
Squid Game lands at number 48 on the 100-strong list.
Here’s Time Out’s top 10 in full:
1. Breaking Bad (2008-2013)
2. Twin Peaks (1990–1991)
3. The Sopranos (1999-2007)
4. The Wire (2002–2008)
5. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979)
6. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003)
7. Game of Thrones (2011-2019)
8. The Office (UK) (2001-03)
9. Mad Men (2007–2015)
10. Succession (2018–2023)
The best TV and streaming shows of 2025 (so far).