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.

4 of 21 photo by Robyn Van Swank/HBO

82 I'll Be Gone in the Dark (HBO)

(#17) A sensitive examination of twin tragedies elevate this HBO true-crime series above its peers. The years-long hunt for the mass murderer dubbed the Golden State Killer was an obsession for the late author Michelle McNamara, who chronicled her investigation in a blog and in the 2018 nonfiction best-seller I'll Be Gone in the Dark (which was completed after her sudden death in 2016 by her husband, Patton Oswalt, and several other writers). Both McNamara's life and the serial killings that so absorbed her are the dual subjects of this miniseries from Emmy winner Liz Garbus (What Happened, Miss Simone?) that features narration from Amy Ryan.

“The series is a fitting companion to McNamara's bestseller, but it's also a sprawling meditation on loss — loss of life, loss of the person you used to be — and of the secrets that haunt us. ... The power of her work, and of the series that is her legacy, is that Michelle McNamara helped forge a path for survivors — including her own family — to walk into the light. To speak, at last, and shatter the silence.” —Mary Elizabeth Williams, Salon

Watch it on HBO Max (6 episodes)

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