The 20 Best New TV Shows of 2018

by Jason Dietz, Metacritic Features Editor – December 28, 2018

Above are the highest-scoring first-year TV series debuting in the United States between January 1, 2018 and December 31, 2018. Shows are ranked by Metascore (an average of grades from top professional critics on a 0-100 scale) prior to rounding, and any programs with fewer than 7 reviews are excluded. (Note that limited series, as well as TV movies and specials, will be ranked in a separate list arriving this weekend.)

4 of 22 photo by HBO

83 #4: Random Acts of Flyness

This unconventional late-night HBO series from artist/filmmaker Terence Nance (An Oversimplification of Her Beauty) blends scripted segments, documentary, musical performances, and animation to paint a picture of "the beauty and ugliness of contemporary American life." Guests include Whoopi Goldberg, Gillian Jacobs, Paul Sparks, and Dominique Fishback. HBO has renewed the series for a second season, which is due in 2019.

“Passionately inventive. ... [Nance] invents original, yet nonetheless personal, ways of relating collective stories. ... It’s also a work of meticulous composition that highlights the imaginative astonishments, political perspectives, and personal insights that are unleashed by the cinema’s technical power.” —Richard Brody, The New Yorker

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