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.)

6 of 21 photo by Mark Hill/HBO

85 Watchmen (HBO)

(#6) It's the best TV show of 2019, period, in the eyes of many critics. Lost's Damon Lindelof takes Alan Moore's comic book series (previously adapted into a 2009 feature film), moves the story forward several decades, and turns it into something wholly original. The HBO series is set in an alternate-history, present-day United States in which superheroes have been outlawed, the internet doesn't exist, Robert Redford is president (yes, Redford actually appears in the series), and the country is facing major racial unrest. Regina King, Don Johnson, Jeremy Irons, Jean Smart, Frances Fisher, Tim Blake Nelson, Tom Mison, and Louis Gossett Jr. star, while Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross provide the music. Lindelof continues to state that he has no plans for a second season, but given the show's hit status and the huge demand for content in this era of increasing competition among the streaming services, you can never rule out a return.

“A lavish, transfixing epic, a potent but rarely heavy-handed metaphor for race relations in America and a showcase for one of the greatest actors of her generation, Lindelof’s Watchmen is also a shrewd encapsulation of the perils that might await a society obsessed with superheroes.” —Judy Berman, Time

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