The 15 best TV shows of 2020: From ‘Queen’s Gambit’ to ‘Schitt’s Creek’ to ‘The Great’
One of the only respites from the unending horrors of 2020 has been the ability to escape to the different worlds available with a touch of the remote.
The COVID-19 pandemic changed everything in 2020, but much of our regularly scheduled programming continued, as TV series that filmed before the pandemic began (or those that resume production during it, under strict safety protocols) aired and streamed, even if later or more briefly than expected. And with movie theaters often shuttered, concerts canceled and everyday life upended, there was comfort in the sameness of TV.
The best TV shows of 2020 were made for kids and adults. The series' protagonists were fantastical vampires or real-life cheerleaders. They showed us potential futures and silly versions of the past. They included miniseries and beloved shows making their last hurrahs. What they had in common was the ability to transport us out of this tragic moment, if only for 30 minutes or an hour.
Amid the depressing news, frequent reruns and presidential debates that most often dominated our TV screens this year, these were the 15 series that made 2020 a little better.
15. ‘Your Honor’
Showtime
Bryan Cranston is back to breaking bad (sort of) in this tense legal thriller. The Emmy-winning actor stars as a judge forced to go against his own morals when his son accidentally kills the son of a dangerous crime boss in a hit-and-run accident. Cranston continues to prove he’s one of the best actors alive, helping ease the series through traumatic scenes and depressing plot twists on the strength of his performance alone, restrained most of the time and unleashed when necessary.
14. ‘Cheer’
Netflix
Released in the ancient pre-pandemic times of January, “Cheer” took the story of a small Texas junior college cheerleading team to epic (and spinning) heights. From the filmmakers behind “Last Chance U,” the docuseries revealed the unique, thrilling and harrowing culture of college cheerleading, and the student-athletes for whom the mat is their whole world. Intimate, entertaining and emotional, “Cheer” is the best of both sports stories and documentaries in one. Subsequent allegations against and arrest of one of the students featured only slightly hampers enjoyment of the series.
13. ‘Quiz’
AMC
This stranger-than-fiction miniseries, about a cheating scandal on the U.K. version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?,” is sharply written and even more sharply witted. Starring Sian Clifford (“Fleabag”) and Matthew Macfadyen (“Succession”), “Quiz” is true crime without the murder and tragedy, a scandalous mystery that invites you to revel in its glorious absurdity.
12. ‘The Baby-Sitters Club’
Netflix
The rare kids’ show with just as much to entertain adults as preteens, “Baby-Sitters” was a delightful surprise in a dreary summer. Effortlessly updating the 1990s classic middle-school novels for the modern era, the Netflix series balanced the serious with the silly, with plenty of jokes and a sparkling group of young stars.
11. ‘The Good Fight’
CBS All Access
A season of “Fight” cut short is still a better season of TV than most of it peers. Although 2020 forced the legal drama to conclude after just seven episodes, Robert and Michelle King’s masterpiece delivered piercing satire and compelling drama. The series featured terrific guest stars (from John Larroquette to “Good Wife” favorite Michael J. Fox) as its main cast (especially Delroy Lindo as Adrian Boseman) continues to deliver strong performances.
10. ‘Never Have I Ever’
Netflix
What sets Mindy Kaling’s teen comedy, loosely based on her own adolescence, apart from the many competitors in the genre is the authenticity that radiates from newcomer Maitreyi Ramakrishnan as Devi. Devi is a big pile of contradictions, as most teens are, and the series lets her emotions, particularly a boiling anger that relates her to series narrator John McEnroe (yes, the former tennis star), display without shame. Funny and sincere, “Never” enters the upper echelons of high school series in just one fabulous season.
9. ‘Ramy’
Hulu
Creator and star Ramy Youssef improved on the great first season of “Ramy” with a poignant, darkly funny Season 2. Going bigger, bolder and adding two-time Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali helped propel the new episodes to greater heights. Youssef proved himself an actor up to Ali’s gravitas, as Ali’s Sheikh Malik tries (somewhat in vain) to help Ramy become a better Muslim. Youssef and his deft writers never fail to balance the series' irreverent tone with deeper subject matter.
8. ‘Ted Lasso’
Apple TV+
Apple’s goofy, heartwarming series about an American football coach who heads to London to lead a soccer team is one of the most surprising series of the year. Jason Sudeikis transformed a cringe character created for a commercial into one of the most endearing on TV. “Lasso” is ostensibly about soccer, but the comedy centers on the important, authentic relationships between Ted and his coworkers, and what it really means to be a part of a team. There aren’t too many series on TV brave enough to be so unabashedly sentimental.
7. ‘The Queen’s Gambit’
Netflix
Chess has never been so sexy as when Anya Taylor-Joy’s Beth Harmon moves her pieces across the board. The young actress offers one of her best performances in this fantastic series about a female chess prodigy in the 1960s who dominates the sport while privately battling addiction. The evocative show is wonderfully crafted, with engaging scripts, gorgeous costumes and sets and a strong supporting cast.
6. ‘Schitt’s Creek’
PopTV
Compared to all those Emmy wins, a place on this list won’t be quite as exciting for the cast and creators of “Schitt’s,” who made history sweeping the comedy categories in September, when the series won nine awards. But the sixth and final season of the cult comedy was both a superb ending for the sweet sitcom and simply another season of great television from co-creators Dan and Eugene Levy. In a year with so much tragedy, no series celebrated love, happiness and family more than “Schitt’s.”
5. ‘BoJack Horseman’
Netflix
Another series with an exit both stunning and profound was Netflix’s animated black comedy about a has-been Hollywood horse. Insightful to the end, the final season fully examined the failures of BoJack (Will Arnett) and his effect on those he proclaims to care about. For an antihero as compelling as Tony Soprano or Don Draper, a not-so-happy ending was what BoJack deserved.
4. ‘Upload’
Amazon
Call it a spiritual cousin of NBC’s “The Good Place.” The Amazon dramedy, from “The Office” co-creator Greg Daniels, is set in a not-too-distant future in which humanity has figured out how to upload human consciousness to a digital afterlife. This cloud-based great beyond isn’t quite heaven, serving only to highlight the vast inequalities and problems with humanity back on Earth. This sci-fi concept is grounded, if you will, by a beautiful romance at the center between an uploaded soul (Robbie Amell) and his Earth-bound angel and customer service rep (Andy Allo). The series is shocking and sweet in the best way possible.
3. ‘What We Do in the Shadows’
FX
FX’s vampire mockumentary was bloody funny in its first season, but in its second it reached new heights of hilarity. From Matt Berry’s Laszlo posing as a bartender named “Jackie Daytona” to "energy vampire" Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch) reveling in the power of his new promotion, the series was an embarrassment of comedic riches. “Shadows” offered more laughs in just a single episode than lesser comedies could manage in an entire season.
2. ‘The Great’
Hulu
Hulu’s historical drama, billed as an “occasionally true story,” is zany, satirical and sometimes actually deep. Elle Fanning and Nicholas Hoult are wondrous as Russia’s Catherine the Great and her doofus of a husband, Peter III. Created by the writer of Oscar-winner “The Favourite,” “Great” is a stronger comedic piece, celebrating its well-intentioned heroine and taking every opportunity to rip her hypocrisy and self-centered naïvete to shreds. Realized in bold, bright colors and sometimes graphic violence, the series is both sumptuous and deliriously funny.
1. ‘I May Destroy You’
HBO
Dark, disturbing but triumphantly wrought, this miniseries examines consent, love and commitment with a nuance lacking not only in other TV and films, but in many real-life situations. Creator, co-director and star Michaela Coel (“Chewing Gum”) is an absolute force as Arabella, a woman drugged and raped who struggles at first to remember her assault and then to live with the reality of it. “Destroy” succeeds in this sensitive subject area without ever feeling exploitative, titillating or trite. If it only focused on Arabella’s story, the series would be great, but the way in which the script weaves in the stories of her friends, who contend with similar but distinct tragedies and problems, adds complexity and richness to the narrative. Gripping to the point of discomfort, “Destroy” is the most transcendent series of the year.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 2020 in review: 15 best TV shows, from 'Schitt's Creek' to 'Shadows'
