The 20 Best New TV Shows of 2020

by Jason Dietz, Metacritic Features Editor – December 30, 2020

Above are the highest-scoring first-year TV series (including limited series) debuting in the United States between January 1, 2020 and December 31, 2020. Shows are ranked by Metascore (an average of grades from top professional critics on a 0-100 scale) prior to rounding based on scores as of December 29, 2020, and any programs with fewer than 7 reviews are excluded.

15 of 21 photo by Sabrina Lantos/FX

87 Mrs. America (FX on Hulu)

(#6) This nine-part "FX on Hulu" limited series about the 1970s campaign to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment finds Cate Blanchett making her American TV debut. She plays Phyllis Schlafly, the conservative activist (or gadfly, as she was oft-described in the press) who opposed the movement. But she's just one of a stellar group of actors that also includes Rose Byrne, Sarah Paulson, Elizabeth Banks, Uzo Aduba, Margo Martindale, James Marsden, Ari Graynor, John Slattery, Melanie Lynskey, Tracey Ullman, Niecy Nash, and Jeanne Tripplehorn.

“Brisk and unwilling to hand-hold, Mrs. America is extraordinarily attuned to the ideological and intersectional schisms within both the Second Wave and the emerging Moral Majority movement that the Catholic Schlafly helped bring to the political mainstream. But the miniseries is just as adept at humanizing these historical figures, particularly as vanguards beset with vulnerabilities and doubts. ... Mrs. America makes history come alive, in thoughtful and achingly real detail.” —Inkoo Kang, The Hollywood Reporter

Watch it on Hulu (9 episodes)

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