| USA TODAY
One of the only breaths of the endless horrors of 2020 was the ability to escape to the different worlds available with a touch of the remote.
The COVID-19 pandemic changed everything in 2020, but much of our regular programming continued, as TV series filmed before the pandemic began (or those that resumed production during it, under strict security protocols) were aired. and transmitted, even if later or sooner than expected. And with movie theaters frequently closed, shows canceled and everyday life upset, there was comfort in the sameness of TV.
The best TV shows of 2020 were made for children and adults. The protagonists of the series were fantastic vampires or real-life cheerleaders. They showed us potential futures and silly versions of the past. They included miniseries and beloved shows making their last hurries. What they had in common was the ability to transport us out of this tragic moment, even for 30 minutes or an hour.
Amid the depressing news, frequent repetitions and presidential debates that most often dominated our TV screens this year, these were the 15 series that made 2020 a little better.
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15. ‘Your Honor’
Show time
Bryan Cranston is back to breaking evil (kind of) in this tense legal thriller. The Emmy-winning actor stars as a judge forced to go against his own morals when his son accidentally kills the son of a dangerous crime boss in a hit-and-run accident. Cranston continues to prove that he is one of the best living actors, helping to facilitate the series through traumatic scenes and depressing plot twists with the strength of his performance alone, contained most of the time and released when needed.
14. ‘Cheer’
Netflix
Launched in the old pre-pandemic times of January, “Cheer” took the story of a small team of Texas junior college cheerleaders to epic (and revolving) heights. From the filmmakers behind “Last Chance U”, the documentation revealed the unique, exciting and distressing culture of university cheerleaders and student-athletes for whom the rug is their world. Intimate, fun and emotional, “Cheer” is the best of sports stories and documentaries in one. Subsequent allegations against and the arrest of one of the students only make the series’ fun a little difficult.
13. ‘Quiz’
AMC
This miniseries stranger than fiction, about a scam scandal in the British version of “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?”, Was written and even more insightful. Starring Sian Clifford (“Fleabag”) and Matthew Macfadyen (“Succession”), “Quiz” is the real crime without murder and tragedy, a scandalous mystery that invites you to revel in its glorious absurdity.
12. ‘Babysitting Club’
Netflix
The rare children’s program with both adult and pre-teen entertainment, “Baby-Sitters” was a delightful surprise on a bleak summer. Effortlessly updating classic high school novels from the 1990s to the modern era, the Netflix series balanced the serious with the fool, with many jokes and a brilliant group of young stars.
11. ‘The Good Fight’
CBS All Access
A short season of “Fighting” is still a better TV season than most others. Although 2020 forced the end of legal drama after just seven episodes, Robert and Michelle King’s masterpiece brought a penetrating satire and engaging drama. The series featured great guest stars (from John Larroquette to “Good Wife” favorite Michael J. Fox) as its main cast (especially Delroy Lindo as Adrian Boseman) continues to deliver strong performances.
10. ‘Never, me, never’
Netflix
What differentiates Mindy Kaling’s teenage comedy, loosely based on her own adolescence, from the many competitors of the genre is the authenticity that radiates from newcomer Maitreyi Ramakrishnan as Devi. Devi is a great deal of contradictions, like most teenagers, and the series allows her emotions, particularly a fervent anger that relates her to narrator John McEnroe (yes, the former tennis star), to be displayed without shame. Funny and sincere, “Never” makes it to the top of the high school grades in just one fabulous season.
9. ‘Ramy’
Hulu
Creator and star Ramy Youssef improved the excellent first season of “Ramy” with a poignant and darkly funny Season 2. Becoming bigger, bolder and adding Mahershala Ali, a two-time Oscar winner, helped propel the new episodes to greater heights. Youssef proved to be an actor equal to Ali’s gravity, while Ali’s sheik Malik tries (somewhat in vain) to help Ramy become a better Muslim. Youssef and his skilled writers never fail to balance the series’ irreverent tone with a deeper subject.
8. ‘Ted Lasso’
Apple TV +
Apple’s stupid and moving series about a football coach who goes to London to lead a football team is one of the most surprising series of the year. Jason Sudeikis transformed a shrunken character created for a commercial into one of the most captivating on TV. “Lasso” is ostensibly about football, but the comedy focuses on the important and authentic relationships between Ted and his co-workers, and what it really means to be part of a team. There aren’t many TV shows that are brave enough to be so blatantly sentimental.
7. ‘The Queen’s Gambit’
Netflix
Chess has never been as sexy as when Beth Harmon, by Anya Taylor-Joy, moves her pieces across the board. The young actress offers one of her best performances in this fantastic series about a female chess prodigy in the 1960s who dominated the sport while struggling in particular against addiction. The evocative show is wonderfully crafted, with engaging scripts, beautiful costumes and scenery and a strong support cast.
6. ‘Schitt’s Creek’
PopTV
Compared to all those Emmy awards, a spot on this list will not be as exciting for the cast and creators of “Schitt’s”, who made history by snatching comedy categories in September, when the series won nine awards. But the sixth and final season of the cult comedy was at the same time a superb ending to the sweet sitcom and just another big television season by co-creators Dan and Eugene Levy. In a year of so many tragedies, no series has celebrated love, happiness and family more than “Schitt”.
5. ‘BoJack Horseman’
Netflix
Another series with a departure that was both impressive and profound was Netflix’s animated black comedy about an old Hollywood horse. Insightful to the end, the final season thoroughly examined BoJack’s (Will Arnett) flaws and their effect on those he claims to be concerned about. For a convincing anti-hero like Tony Soprano or Don Draper, a not-so-happy ending was what BoJack deserved.
4. ‘Upload’
Amazon
Call him a spiritual cousin of NBC’s “The Good Place”. Amazon’s dramatic comedy by “The Office” co-creator Greg Daniels takes place in the not-too-distant future in which mankind has figured out how to carry human consciousness into a digital afterlife. This great cloud-based beyond is not exactly paradise, it only serves to highlight the vast inequalities and problems with humanity back on Earth. This sci-fi concept is based, if you will, on a beautiful romance at the center between a charged soul (Robbie Amell) and his earthly angel and customer service representative (Andy Allo). The series is shocking and sweet in the best possible way.
3. ‘What we do in the shadows’
FX
FX’s vampire mockumentary was very funny in its first season, but in the second it reached new heights of hilarity. From Laszlo to Matt Berry posing as a bartender named “Jackie Daytona” to “energy vampire” Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch) revealing the power of his new promotion, the series was an embarrassment of comic riches. “Shadows” offered more laughter in just one episode than smaller comedies could achieve in an entire season.
2. ‘The Great’
Hulu
Hulu’s historical drama, heralded as an “occasionally true story”, is silly, satirical and sometimes really profound. Elle Fanning and Nicholas Hoult are wonderful as the Russian Catherine the Great and her stupid husband, Pedro III. Created by Oscar-winning writer “The Favorite”, “Great” is a stronger comic piece, which celebrates its well-meaning heroine and takes every opportunity to tear his hypocrisy and egocentric naivete to pieces. Made in strong, bright colors and sometimes graphic violence, the series is sumptuous and deliriously funny.
1. ‘I can destroy you’
HBO
Dark, disturbing, but triumphantly forged, this miniseries examines consent, love and commitment to a nuance that is not only missing from other TVs and movies, but in many real-life situations. Creator, co-director and star Michaela Coel (“Chewing Gum”) is an absolute force like Arabella, a drugged and raped woman who struggles first to remember her attack and then to live with the reality of it. “Destroy” succeeds in this delicate area without ever feeling exploitative, exciting or banal. If it were only in Arabella’s story, the series would be great, but the way the script gets mixed up with the stories of her friends, who face similar but different tragedies and problems, adds complexity and richness to the narrative. Grabbing to the point of discomfort, “Destroy” is the most transcendent series of the year.