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.)

15 of 22 photo by David Lee/Netflix

77 She's Gotta Have It (Netflix)

(#15) Prolific as he may be, Spike Lee had never created a television series—until this fall. His first small-screen venture is a present-day update of his debut film: 1986's She's Gotta Have It. Lee directs all 10 first-season episodes, which revolve around a Brooklyn-based artist (DeWanda Wise) and her three suitors, played by Cleo Anthony, Lyriq Bent, and Anthony Ramos, with the latter taking the role played originally by Lee himself—Mars Blackmon, who subsequently went on to appear in a series of Nike commercials.

“The show stands as a textbook example of how major filmmakers can and should adapt their work for television: by not trying to rewrite the rules of another medium, but by finding a way to make their signature style flow through those rules.” — Todd VanDerWerff, Vox

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