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.

18 of 21 photo by Apple

89 Visible: Out on Television (Apple TV+)

(#3) Apple's five-part examination of television's checkered history of depicting LGBTQ characters (and real people, in the case of news and reality programs) features interviews with Lena Waithe, Neil Patrick Harris, Tim Gunn, Margaret Cho, Janet Mock, Ellen DeGeneres, and more.

“Visible intertwines politics and pop culture with intelligence and clarity. Like any good story, it has heroes, villains, triumphs, obstacles, conflict, and catharsis. It contains many messages at once, but there’s one that stands out across it all: Television still needs more LGBTQ stories, and it needs LGBTQ people creating them.” —Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya, A.V. Club

Watch it on Apple TV+ (5 episodes)

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