20 Best TV Seasons Of The 2020s So Far
Ben Sherlock is a Tomatometer-approved film and TV critic who runs the massively underrated YouTube channel I Got Touched at the Cinema. Before working at Screen Rant, Ben wrote for Game Rant, Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop. He's also an indie filmmaker, a standup comedian, and an alumnus of the School of Rock.
The 2020s have managed to end the Golden Age of Television. From the premiere of The Sopranos to the late 2010s, we enjoyed an incredible run of antihero dramas and TV shows that felt like movies: Breaking Bad, Mad Men, The Wire, The Americans, Six Feet Under, The Handmaid’s Tale. Throughout the early 21st century, television just got better and better. And then streaming came along and killed the whole thing.
Now, we’ve got seasons with less than 10 episodes, released two or three years apart, and they either get cancelled before a proper ending or they just have a terrible ending. Between Stranger Things and The Boys and Euphoria and House of the Dragon, it doesn’t feel like we’re living in a Golden Age anymore.
But there’s always great television getting made, even if you have to look a little harder to find it. Some 2020s shows have been consistently awesome, like Hacks and Andor and Abbott Elementary, while others have delivered stellar seasons in between the weaker ones, like The White Lotus and The Last of Us.
20 The Last Of Us Season 1
HBO’s adaptation of The Last of Us games may have stumbled in its second season, but the first season set a really high bar. Season 2 struggled to turn the multifaceted, nonlinear narrative of the second game into a TV show, but season 1 deftly translated the more linear, episodic story of the first game to television.
Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey recaptured Joel and Ellie’s father-daughter relationship, but brought a fresh perspective to the characters. Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin used the freedom of filmmaking to explore different characters and storylines, expanding on the themes and worldbuilding. It was a near-flawless adaptation, and then came season 2.
19 Abbott Elementary Season 2
Abbott Elementary got off to a promising start in season 1, but it didn’t really find its feet until season 2. In its first season, it played with a lot of familiar tropes from other mockumentaries and workplace sitcoms, but it had a lovable, well-matched ensemble with plenty of potential.
As with all the best second seasons, Abbott Elementary season 2 capitalized on what was working, rounded out the characters and their relationships, and settled into its own voice. Janine and Gregory’s will-they-or-won’t-they dynamic only got more intoxicating, and Ava continued to steal the show.
18 Squid Game Season 2
Between its flawed but fiercely original first season and its deeply disappointing third and final season, Squid Game hit its stride in season 2. Season 1 was a solid but simple satire of the one percent lording their power over the have-nots, but season 2 took it a step further.
In its second season, Squid Game explored a deeper moral complexity. As Gi-hun hunted down the Recruiter, he increasingly resorted to the kind of duplicitous tactics used by the people behind the Squid Game, so he became just as bad as them.
17 Slow Horses Season 3
There hasn’t been a single weak season of Slow Horses; every single year, the show knocks it out of the park. But season 3 arguably has the most compelling plot, the most exciting action, the most shocking twists, and the most personal stakes.
As soon as it’s established that Catherine Standish is being held hostage, Slow Horses season 3 puts its foot on the gas and keeps it there. The season keeps you guessing, and keeps pulling the rug out from under you, all the way to the finale.
16 Ted Lasso Season 1
For a series based on an advertising mascot, Ted Lasso turned out to be surprisingly profound. Jason Sudeikis adapted this character he’d created to promote Premier League matches on NBC Sports — a boorish American coach bumbling his way through English football games — into a half-hour fish-out-of-water comedy.
Ted Lasso ended up being exactly the show we needed to see in 2020: a wholesome, optimistic, feel-good tale about loving thy neighbor and killing with kindness. Although its later seasons have been hit-and-miss, Ted Lasso feels like a warm hug.
15 Reservation Dogs Season 3
Sterlin Harjo’s Reservation Dogs is easily the best coming-of-age show of the decade so far. It’s set within a very specific, massively underrepresented community, but it explores universal themes and emotions. It’s about four Indigenous teenagers living in rural Oklahoma, going through the things we all go through: grief, trauma, the messiness of growing up.
Every season of Reservation Dogs is a masterpiece — it’s a rare perfect TV series — but the third and final season is the shiniest jewel in its crown. It ended the show on just the right note.
14 Beef Season 1
Beef was such a huge hit, it was renewed for a second season and turned into an anthology show about darkly comedic feuds. Season 2 was good, not great, calling into question whether an anthology format is still the right way to go, but season 1 remains a gem.
Lee Sung Jin takes a simple concept — a universally relatable road rage incident — and just keeps escalating it for an entire season. Steven Yeun and Ali Wong fully sell just how frustrated these two people are in their lives, that they would dedicate so much time and energy to this petty disagreement. It’s dark comedy gold.
13 The Curse Season 1
On their own, Nathan Fielder, Emma Stone, and Benny Safdie have all made some really weird, dark, challenging stuff. Just look at The Rehearsal, Poor Things, Uncut Gems, Bugonia, Good Time, and, of course, Nathan for You. But when they put their heads together, they came up with something even weirder and wilder than anything any of them did separately.
The Curse can only be described as “cringe horror.” It’s cringe comedy so deeply discomforting that it borders on psychological horror. It’s as twisted and terrifying as it is hilarious. It’s not for everyone, but it’s unlike anything you’ve ever seen.
12 Hacks Season 5
Hacks is a rare show that just got better and better with each passing season. It hit the ground running with an incredible first season, but it managed to top itself every year before going out on a high note.
The fifth and final season of Hacks is an emotional rollercoaster. It brings the saga of Deborah Vance and her young ward Ava Daniels to a beautifully bittersweet conclusion, and has plenty of laughs (and plenty of tears) along the way.
11 Shōgun Season 1
FX’s reimagining of Shōgun is one of the most cinematic shows on television. It has the grand scale and epic battle scenes of a show like Game of Thrones, but in the feudal Japanese setting of a Kurosawa samurai movie.
But, no matter how big and action-packed the series gets, it never loses sight of the human beings at the center of the story. This is really a three-hander between a stranded British sailor, a Japanese warlord, and the translator caught in the middle.
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