Although IMDb’s functionality has faltered a bit in recent years, one aspect of the long-running movie website that’s still going strong is its list of the top 250 television series of all time. Spanning decades of entertainment, it serves as a primer for anyone looking to take a deep dive into the best of the best when it comes to the small screen. What’s especially useful about the list is that it doesn’t remain static — new series make the list periodically, and in 2025, four new shows made the cut.
Two of the new entries are “When Life Gives You Tangerines,” a Netflix K-drama, and “Takopi’s Original Sin,” a sci-fi anime production that’s currently on Crunchyroll. The other pair of inductees have something very specific in common: their body count. Both shows, “The Pitt” and “Dexter: Resurrection,” are a high risk for those with weak stomachs. They’re incredibly liberal in the amount of blood and guts that spill in nearly every episode. Tread carefully with your viewing choices if exposed human cavities aren’t your cup of tea.
The Pitt shows the bloody side of the ER
Although television has never been short of hospital dramas to fill the airwaves, “The Pitt” tapped into something new. Rather than having each episode reflect a different day in the ER — as we’ve seen on other medical shows, including star Noah Wyle’s aptly named previous hit, “ER” — the first season of the show covers a single shift. “The Pitt” stars Wyle as Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch, the senior attending physician in an understaffed, underfunded Pittsburgh emergency room.
As Dr. Robby attempts to make it through one of the toughest shifts of his career — it’s the anniversary of the death of his mentor, not to mention the day of a mass casualty event that almost brings the hospital to its knees — things in this ER get pretty nasty. You know all the stuff that network TV medical shows can’t or won’t show? Well, “The Pitt” is on HBO, so those rules don’t apply. The series isn’t afraid to reveal all of the blood and guts of a real day in the emergency room.
Dexter: Resurrection pulls no punches
“Dexter: Resurrection” centers around its titular serial killer, Dexter Morgan (played by Michael C. Hall), so it makes sense that it wouldn’t fall too short in the gore department. In fact, the series goes all the way in, featuring some bloody moments that even longtime fans thought went too far. Although the original “Dexter” went off the air in 2013, audiences have proven reluctant to let go of their favorite noble sociopath, even though life for Hall has never been the same since. We’ve had a continuing parade of different “Dexter” shows, including “Dexter: New Blood,” “Dexter: Original Sin,” and now “Dexter: Resurrection.” (If you need a recap before watching the newest series, don’t worry — we’ve got “Resurrection” covered.)
The latest entry in the franchise comes hot on the heels of “Dexter: New Blood,” kicking off just a few months after that show’s finale. In it, Dexter shakes off his recent brush with mortality, instead focusing all of his attention on tracking down his son, Harrison (Jack Alcott), in New York City. The plots may differ between iterations, but one thing doesn’t change in Dexter Morgan’s thankfully fictional world: The franchise’s willingness to get downright gruesome with its set pieces. Come for the moral ambiguity, stay for all the bad guys who find their lives ended in ever-disturbing ways.