The 20 Best New TV Shows of 2019

by Jason Dietz, Metacritic Features Editor – December 29, 2019

Above are the highest-scoring first-year TV series debuting in the United States between January 1, 2019 and December 31, 2019. 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, are ranked in a separate list.)

17 of 21 photo by John P Johnson/FX

80 What We Do in the Shadows (FX)

(#17) Few 2019 shows have offered as much silly fun as this FX series adaptation of the cult hit 2014 movie of the same name (from Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement). The TV version of Shadows is also a horror mockumentary that finds a film crew following the everyday lives of a group of four vampires who share a home—in this case, in New York's Staten Island rather than the film's New Zealand. There's an all-new cast (led by Matt Berry and Kayvan Novak), so you won't see Clement and Waititi in the series (except in cameos), but both have hands-on involvement as producers, writers, and directors. A second season arrives in 2020.

“Funny and inventive. ... The real achievement might be in how surprisingly fresh the conceit feels episode after episode, which is no easy feat.” —Tim Goodman, The Hollywood Reporter

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