It’s rather difficult to wrap up 2020 in a few words. It was a painful, horrific year filled with tragedy that was occasionally punctured by some joy. Binge-watching new TV series (or revisiting old ones) helped many of us escape and cope throughout the year, finding comfort in the lives of fictional characters and their stories.
Despite everything, there were plenty of fantastic shows that lit up our TV screens, be it We Are Who We Are, The Great, or Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist. As the year winds down and we look forward to what will hopefully be a brighter 2021, we pulled together a list of our top ten new shows of 2020. Check out our staff picks below!
10. Love, Victor
After being booted off Disney+ for not being family friendly, Love, Victor found its way to Hulu in June. A spin-off of 2018’s Love, Simon, the Hulu show follows Victor (Michael Cimino) as he navigates a new school and the legacy that Simon left behind. Simon’s coming out story cleared a path for LGBTQ kids at Creekwood High to be themselves, but Victor isn’t Simon, and all coming out stories are different. Ultimately, that’s what Love, Victor is great at — confronting the narrative Love, Simon puts forth. Victor is Latino, his family is religious, and unlike Simon, he doesn’t know what his sexuality is from the get-go. While the show leaves its most interesting confrontation on a cliff-hanger, Victor is a more grounded protagonist, and Love, Victor explores more interesting issues than Love, Simon did. —Katey Stoetzel
9. Perry Mason
After The Americans, I will follow Matthew Rhys anywhere, and that includes the HBO remake of the 1950s detective series, Perry Mason. Set in the 1930s, the new series, which stars Rhys as the titular character, is an origin story tracing back to Mason’s days as a private investigator and what leads him to become a criminal defense lawyer. The series is compelling thanks to fantastic performances from Rhys, and a cast that includes Tatiana Maslany, John Lithgow, Shea Whigham, and Juliet Rylance. Then considering Perry Mason’s visual style and world-building, it propels the series to a striking new level in how well it balances style and substance. —Gabrielle Bondi
8. Never Have I Ever
Never Have I Ever is one of the most charming new series of 2020. It premiered on Netflix in April while we were all in lockdown and it was lighthearted, genuine, and heartbreaking to watch all at once. It was pretty much what I needed at the time. While the series, starring the breakout Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, was intent on delivering heartwarming comedy and complex dynamics between Devi and her mother, Never Have I Ever also handled grief in a surprisingly touching way. While Devi dove headfirst into the land of denial and selfishness, her friends and family tried to be there for her, but her journey was a singular one filled with hard truths and realizations about what was most important in life. All told, Never Have I Ever is a charismatic coming-of-age story about an Indian-American teenager who has yet to fully come into her own — but is learning as best she can along the way. —Mae Abdulbaki
7. High Fidelity
It absolutely pains me that we will not get a second season of Hulu’s fantastic series, High Fidelity. The series was a new gender-swapped adaption of Nick Hornby’s book, which was previously made into the well-loved 2000 film starring John Cusack as Rob. The indelible Zoe Kravitz took over the lead role of Rob, a record store owner who is struggling with her past failed relationships. A lover of top five lists, High Fidelity follows her as she revisits her top five relationships, culminating in a sincerely introspective, heartfelt, and often hilarious journey. It’s a real loss that we don’t get to spend more time with Kravitz’ iteration of Rob and the cast of characters that help make this show is one of the best of the year. —Gabrielle Bondi
6. I May Destroy You
Michaela Coel’s I May Destroy You is undoubtedly one of the most original and personal projects of the year. Coel pulls inspiration from her own traumatic experience with being drugged and raped and turns it into a deeply human story with an abundance of rich detail. Coel not only created the show, but co-wrote every episode, co-directed the majority, and starred as Arabella. While the series tracks Arabella’s experience with her assault and the attempts to receive justice or closure afterward, that isn’t the only thing on Coel’s mind. I May Destroy You is equally interested in Arabella’s friends, Terry and Kwame, and their own stories of sexual assault and questionable consent. The series doesn’t limit itself, occasionally jumping back in time, switching perspectives, and in the finale, constructing a bold and incredibly skillful exercise in empathy and storytelling. I May Destroy You is bursting at the seams with creativity and life, and is worth watching more than once to catch every thoughtful decision by Coel. —Beth Winchester
5. Upload
Upload took us by surprise this year and managed to explore a science-fiction future without immersing itself too deeply in a single genre. Upload is digestible and fun, with relatable characters and problems, and topped with a major twist. Even as the characters explore the repercussions and challenges (as well as advantages) of having an accessible afterlife, the immense gap between the wealthy and poor rings almost as loudly as it does today. Even if the show is campy at moments, Upload is the show that flew under the radar this year, undeservingly. Hopefully its reach expands as we head into its second season. —Amanda Reimer
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4. Normal People
Book-to-TV adaptations are easy to come by these days, but rarely does one succeed so well in translating and expanding upon the source material’s strengths. Hulu’s Normal People gathered the talented directors Lenny Abrahamson and Hettie Macdonald to adapt Sally Rooney’s millennial Irish romance, and it paid off exceptionally well. Rooney’s novel told the on-again-off-again entanglement of Connell, an intelligent jock struggling with anxiety, and Marianne, a privileged young woman, alternately ignored and abused at home. These characters are not remarkable on the page, but the performances of Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar-Jones, with the intimate direction and skilled writing of the episodes, makes these characters memorably unique. The specificity of Connell’s and Marianne’s psychology makes them universally appealing and relatable, while the staging of every romantic encounter between them helps us understand the connection they share, and why it is so hard to sever. —Beth Winchester
3. The Queen’s Gambit
The Queen’s Gambit will be known for two things — Anya Taylor-Joy’s riveting performance, and for making chess cool again. Each chess game is as exhilarating to watch as any game in any other sports movie; perhaps even more so. As Beth spirals in her dependency on drugs and alcohol, the show explores the rise and fall of child prodigies, making her final showdown between the older, more experienced player Vasily Borgov (Marcin Dorocinski) all the more thrilling. The show is certainly not without its issues — Beth’s friend in the orphanage, Jolene (Moses Ingram), falls into the magic Black woman trope too easily, and while Beth is praised by the elite chess players of Russia, all of which are male, the show never addresses the Russian women players who watch Beth go up against the men from the sidelines. Still, The Queen’s Gambit certainly captures the world’s attention, making it one of the year’s most compelling dramas. Oh, it also proves one more thing — Harry Melling needs more romantic lead roles. —Katey Stoetzel
2. The Haunting of Bly Manor
The Haunting of Bly Manor took a different approach to tell its haunted house-style ghost story. Instead of relying on scares and darker tones, as it did with its 2018 predecessor The Haunting of Hill House, Bly Manor chose to focus on a foundation of love and regret. Helmed once again by creator Mike Flanagan, the sequel series centered on a British estate and its mysterious curse. Bly Manor had a noticeably lighter tone, working cohesively with its fairytale narration. Ghosts played a big part in the series, but it’s the strength of the cast’s acting that dominated the screen. Victoria Pedretti returned to lead the sequel and her natural charisma added layers to the role of Dani. Boasting talents like Oliver Jackson-Cohen, T’Nia Miller, Rahul Kohli, and Amelia Eve, to name a few, Bly Manor shines as a strong character-driven drama that just happens to have ghosts in it. —Justin Carreiro
1. Little Fires Everywhere
Based on the book by Celeste Ng, Little Fires Everywhere is a poignant exploration of motherhood — what it is to be a good mother, the wildly different meaning it takes on for women, the effects of race and the inequity it fosters, and how that shapes and affects the lives of women of color vs. white women. It also brings up arguments surrounding biological children and adoption, all while dealing with generational trauma and how that can influence someone despite how hard one tries to do things differently from one’s mother. Starring Kerry Washington and Reese Witherspoon, both of whom give fantastic, powerhouse performances, Little Fires Everywhere is replete with nuance, depth, and evocative emotion. The series doesn’t always offer straightforward answers to the questions it poses, but it navigates the complex lives of its two leading characters with thoughtfulness. —Mae Abdulbaki
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