The 20 Best New TV Shows of 2016
Below are the highest-scoring first-year TV series debuting in the United States between January 1, 2016 and December 31, 2016. 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.)
HBO launched two new comedies in October. The one with the established star (Sarah Jessica Parker's Divorce) failed to impress critics. But the one with the newcomer blew them away. In development for three years, Insecure is the creation of actress/writer Issa Rae, who is best known for her web series Awkward Black Girl, along with veteran writer and former Comedy Central host Larry Wilmore.
Set in the usually unseen-on-TV South Los Angeles, the dramedy finds Rae having trouble fitting in with both her white co-workers and her successful black friends. Rae appears to be just the second African-American woman (following Wanda Sykes over a decade ago) ever to create and star in a TV comedy series, and the resulting show is both fresh and funny (and comes with one especially sticky earworm that you'll be singing to yourself at inappropriate moments).
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