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.)

12 of 22 photo by Patrick Harbron/Netflix

79 Mindhunter (Netflix)

(#12) One of Netflix's buzziest newcomers in 2017, Mindhunter counts House of Cards's David Fincher among its producers. (He also directs multiple episodes.) A sort of proto-procedural, the crime drama from writer Joe Penhall (The Road) stars Jonathan Groff and Holt McCallany as FBI agents who attempt to solve murders with advice gleaned from interviews of imprisoned serial killers. The 1979-set series also stars Anna Torv, and is based on the real-life work of FBI profiler John Douglas, who was the inspiration for the Jack Crawford character in the various Hannibal Lecter books as well as for Jason Gideon on Criminal Minds.

“It’s a head trip, a cerebral consideration of all the terrifying things that can go wrong inside the minds of murderers and men.” —Willa Paskin, Slate

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