2026 · Year-In-Progress · Ranked
Best Movies and Shows of 2026 So Far, Ranked by IQ Score
The strongest films and series released since the start of 2025, scored on TV Intelligentsia's IQ Score rubric. Updated as new titles are scored.
Critic-aggregator scores are typically locked within weeks of release and rarely revisited. The TVI rubric is built to survive that problem, the Cognitive Stimulation, Educational Value, and Craft & Quality dimensions are structural questions about the work itself, not poll-driven sentiment that drifts with discourse. The titles below are the strongest 2025-2026 releases in the database, ranked by IQ Score.
Project Hail Mary leads the year's narrative film slate, treating its hard-sci-fi premise with the structural discipline the genre rewards. Adolescence demonstrates what sustained-take limited series can do when the form is matched to the subject. Severance's second season cemented its philosophical engagement with personhood and consent. The Brutalist and The Pitt are both rare instances of formal ambition matched to ideational substance.
16 titles · ranked by IQ Score
-
1
-
2
-
3
-
4
-
5
-
6
-
7
-
8
-
9
-
10
-
11
-
12
-
13
-
14
-
15
-
16
Save this list. Get the next one.
New ranked lists and the editorials behind them, by email. Every list scored on the same published rubric. No spam, no studio money.
Founding Circle
Lifetime membership, one payment.
Founders get the monthly founders newsletter, quarterly deep dives with a 30-day founder-first window, two title requests a year, and a place on the founders wall. 100 lifetime spots at $99.
Claim your spot →Browse every ranked list on TV Intelligentsia
202 ranked-by-IQ lists, filmographies, decade hubs, year hubs, character rankings, streaming-platform lists, and editorial curations. All scored on the same published rubric.
See all ranked lists → Open the full database