As “Stranger Things” takes its final crawl after a nine-year, five-season run, I’ve ranked the show’s top 10 characters: 
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10. Robin 
Robin Buckley (Maya Hawke) made her debut in Season 3 as Steve Harrington’s coworker at Scoops Ahoy in Starcourt Mall. Initially, Robin had a cool persona, but her character evolved — likely due to the trauma of fighting off monsters — into a quirky bestie who fit right into the group. She might be the comic relief this season, but she’s also the heart. Her story of accepting herself was a big reason why Will was starting to feel safe enough to reveal that he is gay. I’m reserving my judgment until the finale of whether Will actually came out to everyone, or if that was Vecna incognito. But regardless, Robin’s friendship with Will was crucial this season. 

9. Will 
Will “Badass” Byers (Noah Schnapp), as I now refer to him after he became a freaking sorcerer, has undoubtedly changed from a timid kid to a whiny teenager to a courageous, determined one. His feat of strength in the final season’s “Chapter Four: Sorcerer” was one of the best moments of the entire series. He’s always been a key piece of this story and will no doubt be a significant part of the finale. 

8. Joyce 
I went back and watched the first episode of “Stranger Things,” and seeing all of these characters before their lives got uprooted was a bit like opening a time capsule. I felt nostalgic for them. Joyce (Winona Ryder) was just a single mom trying to do her best. This season, she’s learning to trust her son’s abilities, despite every instinct that’s telling her to run away and keep him safe. She knows Vecna has to be destroyed, and watching the character balance her own fears with what she knows has to be done is captivating. 

7. Nancy 
I’ve always had a soft spot for the brilliant student-later-turned-journalist, Nancy Wheeler (Natalia Dyer). She’s grown from a naive teenager into a tough woman who is fully prepared to take out Vecna on her own if she has to. Even though she’s somewhat caught up in a love triangle, I think she’ll wind up on her own — in life or death. 

6. Vecna/Henry Creel/Mr. Whatsit 
Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) might be one of the greatest TV villains of all time because of his multifaceted personality. His backstory as the young Henry Creel (Maksim Blatt/Raphael Luce) is tragic, and you absolutely can sympathize with a child who was victimized into an experiment. At the same time, he’s made some serious evil choices as the monster Vecna. And then you have the creepy Mr. Whatsit, who is kidnapping children. It’s a fascinating character who might just get freed from his prison of darkness in the end, one way or another. 

5. Max 
I can see where it’d be hard for a character to enter the friend group of Eleven, Mike, Dustin and Lucas and fit in so effortlessly. While fans were still getting to know this group, Max entered the scene in season two. As cool as Eleven is because of her unique powers, Max Mayfield (Sadie Sink) is honestly cooler. At this point, I care more about the love story between her and Lucas than even Eleven and Mike (in the end, I do want them together, though). Aside from Eleven and possibly Nancy, there aren’t many characters out of this bunch who could have wandered around in Vecna’s mind that long and still kept it together so well. Holly needed her, Lucas needed her, and she did her absolute best for them while saving herself. 

4. Steve 
Oh, Steve Harrington (Joe Keery) — you beautiful young man. Vecna better not mess with Steve, or fans will weep. It’s been a running joke on social media to the tune of “Mr. Sandman,” singing, “Mr. Vecna, please don’t kill Steve,” but we all mean it. Don’t kill him, please. It’s a true testament to this character’s evolution that he’s the one fans are most worried about, especially when you go back to episode one, where all he wants is to get in Nancy’s pants. I’m so glad the Duffer Brothers saw the potential of this character because he went from a stereotypical ’80s popular jerk to the mother hen of the characters. His relationship with Dustin is one of the best on the show. He was marked for death in season one, until the Duffer Brothers realized they wanted him to stick around. Hopefully, they continue to show him that mercy. 

3. Dustin 
Dustin Henderson (Gaten Matarazzo) is the most interesting out of the original friend group. He’s nerdy, super smart and known by fans as the “glue” for all of them. From being the bridge between Mike and Lucas when Eleven showed up, to raising a Demogorgon to his grief over Eddie’s death, you can’t help but root for him. From the beginning, he’s been one of my favorite characters. I’ve long believed that if they do kill Steve in the finale, it’ll be because he is saving Dustin. “You die, I die,” as those two said, but let’s have neither of you die, OK? Please and thanks. 

2. Hopper 
Seems like eons ago that the character wasn’t just simply “Hopper,” but Hawkins Chief of Police Jim Hopper, Jr. (David Harbour), a Vietnam veteran, divorced and an alcoholic, grieving the loss of his only daughter, Sara, to cancer. Fast forward to season five and he’s father to Eleven, boyfriend to Joyce, a former Russian POW and the leader trying to keep all these young people from going completely off the rails into danger. Despite her resistance, he’ll continue to be Eleven’s protector and the north star of the show. 

1. Eleven 
“Stranger Things” may have originated with the disappearance of Will Byers, but Eleven/Jane (Millie Bobby Brown) has always been at the center of what makes this show unique. She is the protagonist to Vecna’s antagonist, showing what love and kindness can create despite the horrors they both experienced. Her relationship with Mike was precious as children, adorable when they were teens and now, I’m so curious to see what happens to them as they make this final push to finally end the suffering. Will El get her happy ending — with Mike, Hopper, the chance to live a normal life without the military hunting her? Eleven is the soul of “Stranger Things,” and while I care about all of these characters — please, again, not Steve! — what happens to Eleven will matter the most in the finale. 

Mike Franks was a character I really enjoyed on the CBS crime procedural “NCIS” whenever he would pop up in the first half of that show’s much-too-long run, as played by Muse Watson. Franks was the mentor to the show’s hero Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon), and somehow an even more old-school, grizzled federal agent than Gibbs. When a prequel to “NCIS” was announced, I knew they had to get two things right – they had to get younger Gibbs right (I’m still learning to live with Austin Stowell in the role) and they had to get younger Franks right, and Kyle Schmid, an actor I wasn’t familiar with before his role as Franks, is terrific. Schmid has the intensity you’d expect from the character, but you also get many glimpses at a softer side, thanks to the series being able to delve deeper into this character. I wasn’t sure I’d even want to continue another “NCIS” series, but Schmid’s performance has gone a long way in making me glad I gave it a shot. 

Bryan Cranston only appeared in three episodes of Apple TV’s “The Studio” as Continental Studios CEO Griffin Mill, but he absolutely stole every scene he was in, leading to his well-deserved Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series. Cranston steals every scene he’s in, especially in the final two episodes of the season, in which his old school studio head honcho was slammed out of his mind on mushrooms, leading up to a big presentation. This role showed Cranston can and will do just about anything for a laugh and plays slapstick as well as anyone in the business. 

Last year's list had Hannah Einbinder’s Ava Daniels at No. 1. In the fourth season of “Hacks,” it was Einbinder’s fellow Emmy-winning cohort on the show, Jean Smart as Deborah Vance, that had time to shine – although, after winning an Emmy for each of the show’s four seasons, you could argue she’s been shining the entire time. Season four sees Deborah living the apex of her career’s dream, hosting a late-night television talk show, which she once had ripped from her hands. It’s a struggle at first, and she’s warring with Ava, who blackmailed her way into the head writer gig on the show, but eventually things start to click for the show within a show. Then something happens that forces Deborah to make a hard decision – she can either fire Ava or keep her TV show. After years of having Deborah and Ava stab each other in the back, usually Deborah doing it to Ava, the decision Deborah makes is one viewers have been waiting for, and it’ll be an interesting way to see the show enter its fifth and final season. 

Honestly, I could’ve picked every member of the five main “English Teacher” characters/cast members for this list, as the show, which probably had the most laughs per episode of any comedy on TV this year, other than “The Studio,” had a perfect ensemble. I settled on Markie, played by Sean Patton, the gym teacher and football coach of the show’s high school setting, for the remarkable way he plays off each of the show’s characters, but primarily providing a conservative, masculine foil to Brian Jordan Alvarez’s English teacher Evan. In the hands of another actor, and definitely another set of writers, this character would’ve been stereotypical and unlikable, but Patton and the show’s writing staff make him this giant teddy bear of a character, who you might not always agree with, and he certainly doesn’t always share your feelings or opinions, but he still loves you like a brother.  

​It is always hard to portray real people, but I suppose it helps when few people know a lot about a real person, even if that person was Vice President and later President of the United States. Nick Offerman is also really good at playing different variations of Nick Offerman – loud, brash, masculine, tough, but with a bit of a soft side. His performance as politician Chester Arthur, who goes from political bouncer to President in a short time, in the Netflix four-episode limited series “Death by Lightning,” was one of the most fun on television all year. I remarked after the show’s run that everybody in the cast – Michael Shannon, Matthew Macfadyen, Bradley Whitford and Shea Whigham – was terrific, and Offerman’s performance still blew every other one out of the water. 

What would you do if you were one of the last true people on earth? That’s what romance novelist and all-around pessimist Carol Sturka is forced to reckon with in writer/producer Vince Gilligan’s latest TV series “Pluribus.” Rhea Seehorn, who blew away audiences in Gilligan’s previous TV series “Better Call Saul,” plays Carol, a woman who has lost everything but refuses to give up her humanity. It’s an incredible performance, filled with evident anger and a bubbling-under sadness that feels perfect for this year.  

I’m not sure anybody had a more complicated acting job than Britt Lower’s Emmy Award-winning performance as both Helly R. and Helena Eagan on the second season of Apple TV’s “Severance.” All of the cast's performances as the innie and outie versions of their characters are fascinating. Still, Lower’s performance is the only one that changes so drastically. More importantly, at times we don’t precisely know which character she is – is she Helly R., is she Helena Eagan, or is she Helena Eagan impersonating Helly R.? Lower’s little intricacies while playing each character were one of the highlights of the show’s second season. 

We knew Noah Wyle could play a doctor well. Hell, more than 30 years into his acting career, that’s the thing we knew about him the best. He spent a decade playing the young John Carter on NBC’s “ER,” a role that earned him Emmy Award nominations. All these years later, Wyle put on the scrubs and stethoscope again, to play a senior attending physician in a busy Pittsburgh emergency room, while suffering from PTSD brought on from treating COVID-19 and losing loved ones to it. Wyle gives a remarkable performance as a doctor on his last legs, trying to save lives and teach young doctors how to save lives, all the while reeling from mental anguish. It was a well-earned Emmy Award win for Wyle. 

There wasn’t a more heartbreaking performance on television this year than Tom Pelphrey as Robby Prendergrast in the HBO crime drama “Task.” Predergrast is a good guy, just trying to provide for his family – two young kids and a grown niece – after his brother is murdered and his wife has run off. The way to do this is to take revenge on the biker gang that killed his brother by robbing their drug stash houses. A good guy forced to do bad things to survive is always going to be an interesting character for me as a viewer, and Pelphrey’s performance as Prendergrast makes you care so much for this character, who needs to catch a break. 

Typically, we don’t include actual people in this list, but we have made an exception before (Amber Ruffin made the cut in 2017 for her hilarious appearances on NBC’s “Late Night with Seth Meyers”). Few people had a more challenging year in the television industry than late-night hosts Stephen Colbert of CBS’s ‘Late Show’ and Jimmy Kimmel of ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live.” In May, it was announced that Colbert and the entire ‘Late Show’ would be canceled after the current season, which ends in May 2026, despite being the most-watched late-night show on network television. It was seen by many as a political firing to appease the Trump administration, so that Paramount, which owns CBS, could be sold. Essentially, many viewed it as a bribe. Then, in September, ABC kowtowed to threats from FCC commissioner Brendan Carr and being yanked by affiliates of media groups Nexstar and Sinclair, and pulled Jimmy Kimmel’s show for what it said was an “indefinite” period, after the host made comments about the death of political activist Charlie Kirk on his show. A protest of ABC and Disney (which owns ABC) in the aftermath of Kimmel’s show being pulled led to his reinstatement the next week, and he’s since been given a contract extension (which I’m not sure would’ve happened, had it not been for the backlash to him being pulled). Colbert and Kimmel both handled their respective controversies with hilarity and grace, and neither refused to give in to or back down from censorship and fascism. 

​10. "Saturday Night Live" 50th Anniversary Documentaries (Peacock/NBC)
“Saturday Night Live” celebrated its 50th season from the fall of 2024 through the spring of 2025, and with the celebration came several documentaries about the show that were an absolute delight for an ‘SNL’ superfan like me. A four-episode docuseries called “SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night” featured episodes on the show’s writing process, audition process, the “More Cowbell” sketch, which I and many consider to be the greatest sketch in ‘SNL’ history, and a documentary about the show’s eleventh season, which it almost didn’t survive. There was also the remarkable nearly three-hour ‘SNL’ music documentary, “Ladies & Gentlemen … 50 Years of SNL Music,” co-directed by The Roots drummer Amir “Questlove” Thompson and Oz Rodriguez, that featured a much-talked about opening supercut of some of the show’s most incredible performances that dropped jaws, and truly was one of the most fantastic TV scenes of the year. 
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​9. "Marc Maron: Panicked" (HBO/HBO Max)
Few people had a better year in entertainment than comedian/actor/podcaster Marc Maron. Maron ended his landmark podcast “WTF” in late 2025 after 16 years and more than 1600 episodes, his AppleTV comedy series “Stick” with Owen Wilson debuted and was picked up for a second season – and would appear on this list if we included 20 shows and his most recent comedy special, “Panicked,” which aired on HBO, was one of the year’s best received stand-up hours. “Panicked” was my favorite stand-up special of the year, and one of my all-time favorites. I dig Maron’s neurotic, witty, and let’s face it, liberal-leaning comedy. I enjoyed him poking fun at liberals, though, like how he joked that we being annoying led to people voting for fascism. But I also loved his jabs at conservative dumbass podcasters like Theo Vonn, musing about whether or not they would’ve interviewed Adolf Hitler. However, my absolute favorite bit from his special was about trying to flee a forest fire with his multiple cats. Any cat lover will understand and nearly pass out laughing from that story. 
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​8. "The Studio" (Apple TV)
One of 2025’s best and most exciting television series was about the film industry. Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s “The Studio” finds Rogen playing studio executive Matt Remick, who’s just been placed in charge of a fledgling studio and tasked with turning things around. The show is played for laughs, with Remick stumbling his way through his first year on the job and struggling to turn a profit while also trying to maintain his artistic integrity. “The Studio” was one of the year’s funniest TV shows and was awarded with a massive haul on Emmy night, including the coveted Outstanding Comedy Series honor. 

​7. "Pluribus" (Apple TV)
I didn’t know anything about Vince Gilligan’s Apple TV show “Pluribus” until I started watching. It seems nobody really did. The promotion for the show didn’t give away much – I guess when you have Gilligan’s first series since “Better Call Saul,” you figure folks will tune in. I don’t really want to elaborate much on the show, but I will say that it’s a science fiction series and Rhea Seehorn gives one of the year’s best performances as Carol Sturka, a romance novelist who experiences a worldwide change and must work her way through it. That should be enough to get you excited. 
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​6. Hacks (HBO Max)
“Hacks” is the only series on this list to have appeared last season – of course, it’s one of only two on the list that aired a season in 2024 – but it’s found a home on our best TV of the year list every season it’s aired. It was our No. 1 show last year, it was No. 3 for its second season and No. 2 for its first season. While this might be the first time it’s been out of the top three, it’s still clicking along just as well as ever. In season four, Deborah Vance (the excellent Jean Smart, who has won an Emmy for all four seasons) has reached the pinnacle of her career – she’s finally a late-night TV host. Unfortunately, it doesn’t go as planned, and by the season’s end, she’s forced to decide between her show or Ava (Hannah Einbinder, who I’m thrilled finally won an Emmy Award for her performance), and after years of doing wrong by Ava, Deborah finally makes the right decision. It’ll be interesting to see where that takes us for next year’s final season. 
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​5. "The Last of Us" (HBO)
The second season of HBO’s apocalyptic-horror drama “The Last of Us” was the most unfairly maligned season of television in 2025. The biggest reason is that a good portion of the audience was obviously unaware of the source material – the video games – and didn’t know that a very popular character was going to meet their end in the season. I’m one of the show’s viewers who are unfamiliar with the source material, but I’m fine with the show’s creators sticking to artistic integrity and sticking with the story as it was meant to be told. Bella Ramsey’s portrayal of Ellie, which came to the forefront in season two, was powerful (though many online have it out for Ramsey for reasons not necessarily related to the show). The addition of Isabela Merced, Kaitlyn Dever and Jeffrey Wright to the cast added to the show’s already great history of plugging in actors in more minor, yet important roles. 
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4. The Bear (Hulu)
The first two seasons of “The Bear,” an FX production on Hulu, were perfect television – both seasons topped this very list. Then came season three, a slower, more meandering season that didn’t really go anywhere, and it seemed the magic vanished into thin air (and I didn’t even dislike the season, as many did). Showrunner Christopher Storer righted the ship in season four, which saw the gang of lovable restaurant workers back in gear, working together to make a struggling restaurant succeed against all odds. The show is truly magical when clicking on all cylinders, and that came through brilliantly in one of my favorite single episodes of TV in 2025, “Bears,” with every single person on screen performing flawlessly. 
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3. "Task" (HBO)
Brad Inglesby’s HBO limited crime series “Mare of Easttown” was one of my favorite shows of 2021, and ranked No. 6 on this very list from that year. Thus, I was super pumped to hear Inglesby had another crime series coming to HBO this fall called “Task,” which starred Mark Ruffalo and Tom Pelphrey. “Task” was every bit as good as “Mare of Easttown,” if not even better. Pelphrey plays a sanitation worker who robs drug houses of a local biker gang, against whom he holds a grudge. Ruffalo is the FBI agent tasked with solving the crime. The performances from Pelphrey and Ruffalo are among the best on TV all year, and the show features another fantastic performance by Emilia Jones, who plays the 21-year-old niece of Pelphrey’s Robbie Prendergrast. The final three episodes of the seven-episode first season are damn near perfect, especially scenes between Ruffalo and Pelphrey in the fifth episode, “Vagrants.” 
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2. "Adolescence" (Netflix)
​“Adolescence,” a four-part Netflix limited series about the murder of a young girl and the case surrounding it, was a remarkable bit of storytelling, the kind we rarely see on television, as each episode was told in one long take. The series, created and written by Steven Graham and Jack Thorne, was a remarkable take on what a crime drama can be, after viewers figure they’ve seen them all. The English series featured incredible acting that matched the excellent filming and writing that led to Emmy wins for Graham, who also portrayed the father of the killer, Owen Cooper, a young man in his first acting role, and Erin Doherty, as a child psychologist in one of the year’s most riveting single episodes. Ashley Walters and Christine Tremarco (also nominated for Emmys) and Faye Marsay were also remarkable. 

​1. "The Pitt" (HBO Max)
I never would have guessed HBO Max’s medical series “The Pitt” to be the best television show of 2025. I had heard it was coming, and it sounded like a lesser version of “ER,” and even may have had origins as an “ER” spinoff that damn near got the whole thing shut down before it even started. What the show wound up being was the most realistic portrayal of emergency room doctors, nurses and staff ever shown on television, and done so in a not new, but well-chosen method of telling a story in real-time with every episode being an hour during the shift of the medical staff. The writing and performances by a cast led by Noah Wyle and featuring a bunch of mostly unknown faces – both young and veteran – gave us the most interesting group of characters on television all year. “The Pitt,” which aired 15 episodes in its first season and aired weekly, brought an old-fashioned type of television most of us grew up watching into the streaming era, and we ate it up. 

My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman: Adam Sandler (Netflix) – Monday, December 1
David Letterman’s Netflix interview show, “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction,” has seemingly dropped the season format of releasing multiple episodes at once and gone to one-off episodes. His latest features comedian and actor Adam Sandler, and is perfectly timed for Monday, December 1, just a few days before Sandler’s latest film, “Jay Kelly,” which is receiving potential Oscar buzz for Sandler, premieres on the streamer on Friday, December 5. Sandler was always a fun interview on Letterman’s ‘Late Show,’ and a longer interview should provide many laughs and insight into Sandler’s life and career.

The Abandons (Netflix) – Thursday, December 4
“The Abandons,” which premieres on Netflix on Thursday, December 4, sees creator Kurt Sutter trading in the outlaws of “Sons of Anarchy” for a different kind of outlaw: the American West's in the 1850s. “The Abandons” sees Lena Headey as Fiona Nolan, an Irish woman unable to conceive, who builds her own family by adopting four orphans, only to see English aristocrats, led by Gillian Anderson’s Constance Van Ness, claim her Oregon home.  
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Jay Kelly (Netflix) – Friday, December 5
Writer/director Noah Baumbach’s latest film, “Jay Kelly,” premiering on Netflix on Friday, December 5, is garnering potential Oscar buzz in multiple categories, including Best Picture. “Jay Kelly” sees Oscar-winner George Clooney as the titular character, an aging movie star, who embarks on a European trip with his longtime manager, played by Adam Sandler (also drawing Oscar buzz), and contemplating choices they have made throughout their career. 
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Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (Netflix) – Friday, December 12
“Wake Up Dead Man,” the latest in writer/director Rian Johnson’s ‘Knives Out’ mystery series featuring Daniel Craig’s glorious Benoit Blanc character, finds Blanc trying to solve the murder of a Catholic Monsignor, with a former boxer, turned Catholic priest, as the main suspect. Josh O’Connor is getting rave reviews as said priest, and the supporting cast – as in the other ‘Knives Out’ whodunnits – is amazing with Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Mila Kunis and Jeffrey Wright. 
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Taylor Swift: The End of an Era (Disney+) – Friday, December 12
To be frank, I have zero interest in Disney+’s “Taylor Swift: The End of an Era” documentary, which follows the massive pop star behind the scenes of her Eras Tour over six episodes. Many of us are Swifted out, especially when it comes to that tour, but the pop sensation knows how to keep her large and loyal fanbase happy with constant content. This docuseries will undoubtedly be one of the biggest pop culture moments of the year as it comes to an end. The first two episodes drop on Friday, December 12, with two more coming each subsequent Friday. 
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Sarah Squirm: Live + In The Flesh (HBO/HBO Max) – Friday, December 12
Sarah Sherman has been one of the most unique cast members in “Saturday Night Live” history with her humor, including wild, wacky and out there aspects, largely featuring body horror. It has made her a bit of a “love her or hate her” cast member among fans of that show. But for those who love her, her HBO special “Sarah Squirm: Live + In The Flesh,” premiering on Friday, December 12, should be disgustingly hilarious.

Breakdown: 1975 (Netflix) – Friday, December 19
Netflix’s documentary “Breakdown: 1975,” directed by Morgan Neville, will be a “can’t miss” for film buffs, as it focuses on how the social and political upheaval of the early to mid-1970s led to films like Martin Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver,” Sidney Lumet’s “Network” and Milos Forman’s “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” The documentary, narrated by Oscar-winner Jodie Foster, features interviews with Albert Brooks, Ellen Burstyn, Josh Brolin, Scorsese, Oliver Stone, Seth Rogen and more.

Stranger Things: Part 2 & Finale (Netflix) – Thursday, December 25 & Wednesday, December 31
The first four episodes of the “Stranger Things” fifth and final season dropped on Netflix over Thanksgiving week and immediately became the talk of the pop culture and television world. After a decade, a ridiculously prolonged decade, the story of Eleven, Mike, Hopper, and all of our favorite Hawkins, Ind., characters comes to an end, first with three episodes coming on Christmas Day, and the nearly two-hour-long series finale dropping on New Year’s Eve. So, ring in the New Year by seeing if Vecna can be defeated!