The 20 Best New TV Shows of 2018 (So Far)

by Jason Dietz, Metacritic Features Editor – June 27, 2018

Which newcomers on the small screen have impressed reviewers the most during the first half of the year? Above, find the highest-scoring first-year TV shows (and miniseries) debuting between January 1, 2018 and June 27, 2018. Only shows with at least 7 reviews from professional critics are included.

19 of 21 photo by Larry Watson/HBO

90 #2: The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling: Season 1

Like most Judd Apatow works, it may be a bit overlong—in this case, nearly five hours, split by HBO into multiple nights. But given how beloved and influential the late comedian Garry Shandling was, you probably won't want to spend any less time with him.

Apatow's miniseries chronicles Shandling's childhood, personal life, and career—from stand-up to Tonight Show guest host to star of his own groundbreaking cable comedies It’s Garry Shandling’s Show and The Larry Sanders Show (on which Apatow served as a writer and producer)—supplementing footage with new interviews with Shandling's colleagues and friends, including Jerry Seinfeld, Sarah Silverman, Jim Carrey, Sacha Baron Cohen, James L. Brooks, Conan O’Brien, Jay Leno, Jon Favreau, Kevin Nealon, and Bob Saget.

“Zen Diaries often loses focus, or gives excessive time to clips that seem extraneous. But it’s easy to forgive, because Apatow’s affection for his subject is so palpable, and so contagious, and because in the scattered collage of film and photos and affirmations and jokes it pinpoints the truth Shandling was looking for. ... The power of Zen Diaries is that it allows you to share, for a few hours, a sense of what that must have felt like.” —Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic

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