The 20 Best New TV Shows of 2017

by Jason Dietz, Metacritic Features Editor – December 27, 2017

Above are the highest-scoring first-year TV series debuting in the United States between January 1, 2017 and December 31, 2017. 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.)

10 of 22 photo by Michael Yarish / Netflix

79 One Day at a Time (Netflix)

(#10) Of of 2017's unlikeliest success stories, this Netflix sitcom is a remake of Norman Lear's 1970s multi-generational family sitcom (originally starring Bonnie Franklin). The new One Day at a Time boasts several surprises. The first is that the family at the center of the show this time is Cuban-American, with a talented cast led by Justina Machado (Six Feet Under) and Rita Moreno. And the second is the involvement of Lear himself as a producer: It's the first series for the now 95-year-old TV legend since the 1990s.

The last surprise: It works. Critics liked it upon its debut almost a full year ago, and they still like it now, with many including it on their year-end top 10 lists. A second season launches in January.

“Well, they only had to remake a jillion TV shows from yesteryear to finally get one exactly, perfectly right. Not only is Netflix’s reimagined “One Day at a Time” a joy to watch, it’s also the first time in many years that a multicamera sitcom (the kind filmed on a set with studio-audience laughter) has seemed so instinctively comfortable in its own skin.” —Hank Stuever, The Washington Post

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