My 30 Favorite Television Shows of 2020
“Sometimes, words aren’t enough.”
The other lists in my Best of 2020 series so far have only gone to thirty entries one time: with tweets. For the most part, the year was a subdued one on the cultural front, so there wasn’t a whole lot of rounding up necessary. With television, though (aside from the networks), everyone was pretty well stocked up for series during the time of COVID. It’s 2021 that might cause some hiccups. But 2020? One of the best years for television in some time!
This left me with some honorable mentions, like Andy Greenwald’s Briarpatch, Rob Corddry’s Medical Police, Dave Chang’s Ugly Delicious, Issa Rae’s Insecure, Rob McElhenney’s Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet, and Austin Winsberg’s Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist. Shoutouts are also due to Saturday Night Live’s “Del Taco” sketch, CNN’s coverage of the 2020 election (complete with a big board (credit Decision Desk with the official call, though)), and the NBA Bubble, which wound up being the best sports event of the year.
It also left me reflecting on how television often served as a retreat during 2020. When there was no opportunity to travel the world, the stories in our homes allowed us to do so anyway. For me, this involved a massive revisiting project of my all-time favorites, but it also involved so many fun specials and traditions that wouldn’t have happened otherwise. Would we trade them for no pandemic? Of course. But we needed to make the good from the bad somehow.
Happy Endings and Parks and Recreation both doled out stellar pandemic reunion episodes. Euphoria and High School Musical: The Musical: The Series returned for holiday specials. Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure and Hawaii Five-0 came to an end. We went to space three times (Avenue 5, Space Force, The Right Stuff), each with more middling returns than the last. Nick Jonas coached an all-time great first-year team on The Voice. The Muppets came back, Mickey Mouse came back, Jane Lynch came back, the Animaniacs came back. The floor turned to lava, Ryan Seacrest forced his way back to our televisions, cooking competitions spread the floor, and Disney’s Animal Kingdom opened up its gates to everyone streaming Disney Plooos at home.
These all happened to us at home, but it couldn’t have been more appreciated. In a year where so much was uncertain, it felt nice to know who’d be there for us, week after week and Netflix binge drop after Netflix binge drop. While some on this list have since departed, they will not soon be forgotten. And the rest will be loved for years to come.
30. High Fidelity
Hulu’s High Fidelity is one such example of a show that departed us in 2020. However, it was also a show we were introduced to in 2020, when it debuted back around Valentine’s Day. I wrote plenty about it for my #96 entry on The Television Project: 100 Favorite Shows, but I’ll say some more again here. Zoë Kravitz is delightful to hang out with, especially when her misguided misanthropy is scored to a killer soundtrack. As for Jake Lacy and Kingsley Ben-Adir, they’re some of the most charming romantic leads of the year. And the Parker Posey episode was a clear standout!
29. Down to Earth with Zac Efron
Nothing was purer on television in 2020 than Zac Efron traveling the world and learning about scientific facts that most of us know already. He partnered with Darin Olien to discover more about sustainable living and the ways we can behave to keep our planet safe (while still keeping the onus on mega-corporations who poison for profit). The best moments of Down to Earth came when Zac taught us about science we didn’t know, leading him to pensively graze his hand along water and mutter, “Sick!” under his beanies.
28. Late Night with Seth Meyers
There were tons of big talk show moments in the year. Jimmy Fallon went down some slides, John Krasinski brought out the good news, Conan O’Brien prepared to say farewell, and Elmo said hello. Ultimately, the best news came from Amber Ruffin, who debuted The Amber Ruffin Show on Peacock. While it hopefully represents the talk show of the future, Late Night with Seth Meyers had the advantage of being in a groove and being on for the entirety of 2020. Plus, it helped that Seth Meyers’ turns at home were delightful, made all the better by the mid-2000s SNL cast lending their voices to some recurring characters on “A Closer Look,” like Will Forte’s sea captain. We’ll see what Ruffin can do with a full year, but for now, Seth still has the best show.
27. Lovecraft Country
If we were evaluating the year in television based on singular episodes, the pilot of Lovecraft Country, “Sundown,” is unquestionably one of the year’s best. It set the tone for a bombastic, impeccably detailed sci-fi/horror/adventure series. Ultimately, that’s what we ended up getting, albeit in a manner more episodic than expected. The final product was just vastly more discordant than the promise of the premise. Still, a show that sees Jackie Robinson smack a shoggoth with a baseball bat and Jurnee Smollett twist and writhe her way around a haunted house is one that helped make HBO a power player during the early autumn. The Spoilers! podcast had some great recaps, too!
26. Into the Unknown: Making Frozen II
This is definitely more of a Dave Wheelroute pick that probably won’t end up on most other television fans’ lists. However, I loved Frozen II and I was completely fascinated by the Disney Plooos documentary about how it came to be, as it took us deep into the Disney Animation studio. The story was strung along with startling honesty, considering the filmmakers openly admitted to not knowing what the point of the story should be or even what the climactic moment should be. All this with just months until the film’s premiere! Coupling this with some cheerful footage of the talented cast recording some lovable songs and Into the Unknown was one of Disney’s better under-the-radar all-at-once drops.
25. Middleditch & Schwartz
Thomas Middleditch and Ben Schwartz have long been touring together with their self-titled improv shows that see them riff on the barest of concepts tossed out by audience members. Its first season stretched just three episodes on Netflix, but each was brimming with hilarity, including one moment that might be the most perfectly satisfying one in improv history. A must-watch for the biggest comedy nerds.
24. DuckTales
Speaking of Ben Schwartz, he also maintained an impeccable role as Dewey on DuckTales. Sadly, it was announced that the current season of DuckTales would be its last, but it will still put up an admirable run of original storytelling that is on par with the cartoons of Disney Channel past. Their 2020 stories spanned Ragnarok, Frankenstein, Santa Claus, and more, while also continuing to flesh out the Duck family tree (Daisy comes to play and Della develops further) and the greater Disney cartoon universe (the Rescue Rangers, Gosalyn Waddlemeyer). It’ll be gone too soon, but it’s primed for a high-quality conclusion in 2021!
23. Mrs. America
Like High Fidelity, Mrs. America was another show I wrote a full essay about for my ninetieth entry on the countdown. As another Hulu show, it was a reminder that the FX on Hulu experiment is going to be a fruitful one. Cate Blanchett was the obvious candidate for miniseries star on this one, but the hardware went to Uzo Aduba, who delivered one of many impeccable performances. My personal favorite was Rose Byrne as Gloria Steinem! It was a treatise on the history of the Equal Rights Amendment with some funky aesthetics to help it go down smoother.
22. Bob’s Burgers
Another year, another spot for Bob’s Burgers on the list of the best television shows. It’s such a consistent player that always manages to lay on sweetness and sardonic witticisms in equal measure. Plus, due to the fact it is an animated series, it was not delayed by the pandemic, meaning we received our favorite Belcher family holiday installments on time. When people told you to look for the good in 2020, Bob’s Burgers was one of the clear avenues to follow.
21. The Great
Back to Hulu, The Great was a surprising hit in 2020. I thought Dickinson would be the last anachronistic, satirical period series to make a sizable impact on the small screen. Yet, The Great came to the emerald streaming service in May with entirely deserved fanfare. Chronicling Catherine the Great (portrayed with brilliant empathy by Elle Fanning) and her attempts to murder her husband, the craven frat boy Peter III (played with rousing rapidity and a crooked smile by Nicholas Hoult), The Great managed to levy quick-paced humor with thrilling drama and set pieces grounded in profound stakes. The Great could go anywhere from here, but it also helps reinforce that coups should only be on television. Those GOPers suck just as much as Peter does. No Huzzahs belong to any of them. Only Huzzahs for Catherine and Phoebe Fox as Marial (because she was also quite funny).
20. Aunty Donna’s Big Ol’ House of Fun
Whenever people do their “Shows to Anticipate” their lists, there’s really no accounting for something like this. Down under Australia, the Aunty Donna sketch group has been popular for some time. But their venture into Netflix territory was truly unexpected and became one of my surprising favorites of the entire year. Their Big Ol’ House of Fun is comprised of just six, bite-sized episodes, but each is packed with ingenuity, silliness, and rule-breaking at every turn. Plus, the theme song is catchy as hell. Aunty Donna’s Big Ol’ House of Fun is one of the year’s best variety shows — easily.
19. Normal People
Normal People is yet another 2020 Hulu series I’ve written about for The Television Project already. Like High Fidelity and Mrs. America before it, though, there will be no season two. Instead, the Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar-Jones starrer told the Irish tragi-romance story it intended to tell (from the original Sally Rooney novel) and wrapped everything up. Still, it was a deserved breakout hit in the year with a kind of vulnerability possessed by few series. Not to mention, Mescal and Edgar-Jones are among the most magnetic performers in recent memory.
18. Love Life
Another romantic miniseries that has already earned my attention, Love Life is still the only scripted, narrative HBO Max series I’ve explored. But boy am I glad I did! Anna Kendrick has such a winning charm and personality; she was perfect to helm her own series! I appreciated the vignette-style storytelling, the varied kinds of love represented, the 2012 period elements, and the return of Kingsley Ben-Adir! He’s such a sweet romantic lead! I recommend Love Life if HBO Max is a streamer you just have to have.
17. Brooklyn Nine-Nine
The second tenure of Brooklyn Nine-Nine on NBC was slightly more uneven than its first, but the A- tier of Brooklyn is certainly still worthy of inclusion on the list. It remains one of the most thoughtful and inclusive network comedies to ever exist, while still finding room to reach new creative heights during 2020’s seventh season. Vanessa Bayer’s guest arc, Adrian Pimento’s memory loss, the return of the Jimmy Jab Games, Amy’s pregnancy story line. All of these were fun elements of the seventh season, but the ninth episode, “Dillman,” which features J.K. Simmons is the zenith. When a glitter bomb destroys evidence and fingers point across the precinct, it unfurls an episode of Brooklyn at its finest. Here’s hoping it can still reckon with some must-discuss issues regarding policing in 2021.
16. The Crown
Even though it may seem to be a likely contender for my Television Project list by this point (I’m still in the sixties), The Crown did not actually crack the top one hundred. Had I seen season four before compiling the list, though, it certainly would have. The first three seasons of The Crown were quite good, but just lacking that special pizzazz it needed to become one of the all-timers. Enter Gillian Anderson’s Margaret Thatcher and Emma Corrin’s Diana! Everything Diana in season four was pure, unadulterated gold (her entrance is one of the ace character intros of all-time) and it clearly set up The Crown for an incredible run to wrap up its story in the near future.
15. Run
I truly don’t know if I have any more words to write about Run. Briskly paced and expertly acted, it’s an underrated show that I loved back in the spring. If you’d like to read more about my affinity for Run, please check out any of the following:
You Should Be Watching: Run on HBO
If I Was the Only One Who Voted for the Emmys, Vol. 2
14. The Mandalorian
About halfway through 2020, I was hit with a pang of nostalgia that whispered to me, “You miss watching The Mandalorian every week with your friends.” It’s true. The surprise hit of 2019 was a show about a masked bounty hunter and his Baby Yoda son, traversing the outskirts Star Wars universe. As such, I was highly anticipating its return in the autumn of 2020, where it veered far away from the outskirts and deposited its characters directly into the main timeline of the Star Wars films. That’s the synergy of canon, baby! Ultimately, The Mandalorian pulled off another balancing act of adventure-of-the-week storytelling with a culminating narrative surrounding the characters we met along the way. Except for Timothy Olyphant’s stunning Cobb Vanth character, who appeared just once! It’s my only note!
13. Curb Your Enthusiasm
Another year, another standout batch of ten Curb revisits from Larry David. I found season ten to be an improvement over 2017’s ninth season, which is quite a testament, considering the long-awaited L.D. return was well-regarded all on its own! But by orienting the season around the arc of Mocha Joe and the spite stores, Curb Your Enthusiasm was able to thrive all over again thanks to the simplicity and the new entry into a cultural lexicon. Throw in a killer Jon Hamm episode, a Timothy Olyphant cameo, and the “side sitting” moniker and you’ve got one of the best seasons for a stalwart comedy. Twenty years and counting!
12. The Queen’s Gambit
On Vulture recently, Bilge Ebiri said that Riz Ahmed is the most interesting actor to look at. I think Riz is definitely interesting to look at, but the belt has to go to Anya Taylor-Joy for me. Everything about her look is captivating and so much of the story of The Queen’s Gambit was told through her porcelain eyes and her flickering smiles across the chess board. What seemed to be a Cider House Rules/Little Princess-esque story that would be stuffy, droll, and filled with monochromatic beiges instead turned into the most thrilling sports television series in some time. The rise of Beth Harmon through the chess world made for an unexpected smash hit miniseries with a heartwarming welcome that was more than welcome against the potential for trauma. On top of it all, The Queen’s Gambit was dotted with sumptuous production design and symbolic costume choices. Just impeccable work all around, really. I’m glad 2020 could at least be a year when this was Netflix’s biggest breakout hit.
11. BoJack Horseman
Speaking of unexpected things about Netflix in 2020, might it interest you to know that BoJack Horseman aired its final season less than a year ago?! It’s crazy, but it’s true as one of the greatest animated series ever made took its final bow in January on the streamer. Part of me is undeniably sad to be regaling BoJack for the final time on one of these lists, but the other part of me is emotionally satisfied with the conclusion of the story. We dabbled in BoJack’s patented silliness along the way, but the climax of the show was marked with existential horror and the finale was infused with the crushing reality that the best parts of our lives are the most devastatingly impermanent. BoJack Horseman went out on top. Thanks for being Netflix’s best ever original series.
10. How To with John Wilson
How To with John Wilson is the argument in favor of weekly releases. It became one of the most talked-about under-the-radar (thanks, Yogi Berra) series of the year, thanks in large part to the word of mouth that spread for six weeks as it unfolded on HBO. Executive produced by Nathan Fielder (of the brilliant Nathan for You) and starring John Wilson, How To might have an argument for being the defining show of 2020. It sent Wilson on six rabbit holes during the first season, as he explored seemingly banal topics, like “how to put up scaffolding” and “how to cook the perfect risotto.” Quickly, these ideas lead to outlandish pockets of New York, New Orleans, Miami, and more cities, where people elongate their own genitalia, make conversation at a spring break party, and invite people into their homes during a pandemic. Yet, like Nathan for You always managed at its best, How To still manages to strike a perfect chord of sweetness. Every frame may not be a painting, but they are art.
9. Never Have I Ever
Mindy Kaling is no stranger to exceptional television. The Office? Mount Rushmore material. The Mindy Project? One of the greats. Four Weddings and a Funeral? Solid hang. Never Have I Ever? One of the best new shows of 2020 and one of Netflix’s best original comedies ever. The openness and vulnerability of the show, while still managing to be a deeply funny (“…had to be on my best behavior” comes to mind), is so refreshing. It’s scarcely cynical and always thinks the best of its characters, due in large part to Kaling’s collaboration with Lang Fisher; they blend well together. Furthermore, it represents a richness of diversity, both among the characters and among the dynamics they share with one another. There’s a viable love triangle here! While John McEnroe’s narration was a fun twist on the series, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan is the undeniable breakout star.
8. Jeopardy!
Sadly, the legacy of Jeopardy! in 2020 will revolve around the passing of longtime host Alex Trebek. That’s not to say it shouldn’t. Trebek was every bit the giant of television as Regis Philbin (another homie we lost in 2020) was and it would’ve been bizarre had the long-running trivia series not paid proper homage to him. But while Trebek’s final episodes were certainly a moving experience, Jeopardy! also ranks this highly for its January tournament, “The Greatest of All-Time.” This series pitted Ken Jennings against James Holzhauer and Brad Rutter to determine who reigned supreme. The speed and ferocity with which they answered the questions (some of which were four-step questions involving monikers, mathematics, and Roman history — all at once!) is still breathtaking to me. It was the greatest sport I saw all year because nothing roused me as much as when Jennings bet exactly what he needed in Final Jeopardy to top his aggressive competitors. Seriously, that tournament alone vaulted this into a top ten television show of the year.
7. Fargo
Fargo is one of the greatest television dramas ever made, so of course its latest season cracked the top seven of the list. The sprawling ensemble crime syndicate series saw two mob families (the Cannons and the Foddas, hah) go to war with one another, while mixing in a homicidal nurse, conflicting U.S. Marshals, a studious observer, two vigilantes, a rabbi, and Andrew Bird. The prologue was roughly forty minutes long in episode one (and it introduced us to a character named Banjo Rightway), so yeah, things got pretty messy. But by the time Fargo was ready to pay blissful homages to The Wizard of Oz, A Christmas Carol, and Looney Tunes, I was all in and welcoming the storytelling they innovated all their own. Some of the best performances of the year! Really great stuff! Fargo is always dope!
6. Dash & Lily
Well, folks, it finally happened. The Netflix algorithm caught up with my user profile. There’s no other way a series could have been made that revolved entirely around a fairy tale rom-com set during Christmastime in New York City. Hell, cheerful rom-coms and Christmas-centric series are already so rare on television, there really wasn’t a precedent for Dash & Lily. Throw in a soundtrack that includes The Pogues and Nat King Cole and the Jonas Brothers (who also cameo) and you have a show that was tailor-made for me; there’s no other way around it. Not only was it one of the new shows I loved the most in 2020, but it was one of the only new shows watched all the way through — twice! Dash & Lily was sweet perfection when we all needed it most. (Benny forever.)
5. What We Do in the Shadows
In an age where many comedies also feel the need to tackle thematic brilliance (this is not a bad thing), it can still be refreshing sometimes to have a comedy that aims to simply be as funny as possible. What We Do in the Shadows exists clearly in the lineage of joke-a-minute comedies, buoyed even further by unimpeachable performances across the board. Throw Nandor into a Dream Team jersey, give Guillermo an insane arc of Van Helsing-nature, and turn Jackie Daytona into a rallying cry for all-time and you’ve got one of the clear standouts from television in 2020. It’s responsible for most of the year’s biggest small-screen laughs.
4. Better Call Saul
This was the year when Better Call Saul not only made the leap into the all-time television pantheon, but it was also the year when it finally became evident that the series was better than Breaking Bad. I’m not frequently a fan of prequels, but Better Call Saul is so clearly a cut above. The downfall of Jimmy McGill into Saul Goodman is as arresting and devastating as ever, but this year, Kim was roped into matters even more. Her encounter with Lalo in “Bad Choice Road” was the most tense scene in television this year and that includes the subsequent episode’s nerve-wracking Nacho set piece.
3. The Haunting of Bly Manor
The Haunting of Hill House, Mike Flanagan’s horror miniseries on Netflix that loosely adapted the original Shirley Jackson story, was one of my favorite television series of 2018. Therefore, it makes sense that The Haunting of Bly Manor, Flanagan’s anthology-based follow-up, would also rank highly. I was immediately captivated by the Victorian recreation of the original Henry James and enraptured by some of the ace Hill House actors returning to the fray, namely Victoria Pedretti and Oliver Jackson-Cohen. But while it might seem like a horror show about dolls on the surface, it goes far deeper than that, investigating trauma, regret, redemption, and sacrifice. It’s one of the most beautiful and pensive series in recent memory.
2. Ted Lasso
Every single piece about Ted Lasso waxes about the disbelief that comes from a successful show about a character from commercials. I will not indulge this anymore because the pedigree behind the Apple original was obviously talented from the get-go. Bill Lawrence created it, after all! He created one of the best comedies ever made! Scrubs! We need to stop acting surprised about this. The only thing that surprised me is how highly it ranked, but it makes sense. I was immediately won over by its hopeful optimism, in tandem with its practical, plucky attitude that understood the world cannot be conquered by cheer alone. Jason Sudeikis has never been better than he is as the football coach transposed to the United Kingdom to become a football coach and the rest of the supporting cast (Hannah Waddingham, Brett Goldstein, Nick Mohammed, and Juno Temple are the standouts) elevated this series to one that makes me so happy to reflect upon and remember. I couldn’t stop watching it when I eventually caught up with it and Ted Lasso became the best comedy to debut since The Good Place.
1. The Good Place
Speaking of The Good Place, it returns to its spot atop the list commemorating the best in television! I ranked it as number one in 2018 and it is number one again for 2020. Sure, it only aired a few episodes in 2020 and was done by January. Yes, the majority of its fourth season came in 2019. But the denouement of The Good Place was so perfect that it wouldn’t feel right to put it any lower on the list. It had one of the greatest series finales of all-time (one I’ve watched innumerable times since it aired, growing teary-eyed every time), in that it paid proper homage to the characters and actors we’d grown to love so much over its four seasons. It’s going to be sad moving forward with these lists, now that The Good Place has ended (I’ve been doing these for four years, which is the exact amount of time that the Michael Schur series ran for), but I’m really happy to commemorate it here all the same. To everyone who helped make this show perfect all the way throughout and one of the best shows ever made (something I never could have anticipated back in 2016 when I felt myself drifting away from networks and reluctantly indulged the NBC afterlife), I thank you. And I hope this paragraph can be some small reflection of how The Good Place will always be a part of me. The antidote we all needed this past year.
Some stats on representation in this list:
Netflix (9)
HBO, Hulu (4)
NBC (3)
FX, Disney Plooos (2)
Apple TV+, ABC, Fox, AMC, HBO Max, Disney Channel (1)
Read more from the Best of 2020 series:
My 20 Favorite Books I Read in 2020
My 20 Favorite Podcasts of 2020
See also:
My Favorite Television Shows of 2017
(#1 was Master of None)
My Favorite Television Shows of 2018
(#1 was The Good Place)
My 75 Favorite Television Shows of the Decade
(#1 was Community)
My 20 Favorite Television Shows of 2019
(#1 was Game of Thrones)
