DJariya

I forgot to add another one to my list. This show would probably rank Top 5 for me for 2020.

I'm sure most of you never heard of it and never even considered watching it. It's called "For Life" and it's currently in it's 2nd season on ABC.

I binged the 1st season on Hulu over 2 1/2 weeks and I'm currently caught up with the 2nd season. This is from the creator of The Last Ship and Without a Trace.

Basically it's based on the life of Isaac Wright, a man who was wrongly convicted of being a drug dealer. He learned to become an attorney while in person and got his law license and was able to get himself free. The show follows his journey. The character's name is Aaron Wallace played by Nicholas Pinnock, a UK actor. He is exceptional in the role. The 2nd season follows his life outside of prison and trying to start his own practice and help people while re-adjusting. This was originally developed as a cable drama, but apparently 50 Cent, who is an EP, helped get it greenlit on ABC. He also guest starred in a few episodes in season 1. It's not a cookie cutter lawyer show. It's actually a pretty well written character drama. Timothy Busfield and Joy Bryant are co-stars. The season 1 villain was pretty awesome.

Season 1 has an 86% score on Rotten Tomatoes with a 91% audience score.

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/for_life/s01

SteveA

I agree about For Life. Pinnock does a really good job portraying a character that's had a lot of crap dumped on him in his life. You can feel his pain.

dino88

Better Call Saul
Fargo
The Good Lord Bird
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Industry

Outside of those, I'm having a hard time remembering what actually aired this year. The best 2 shows I watched this year were Patriot and Perpetual Grace, LTD.

dex14

Shit... Curb was in 2020, wasn’t it. I’ll add that too.

skatefan20

During this work-at-home / stay-at-home transition, been busy binging on old series (Downton Abbey, Amazing Race, Sanctuary) and recently Christmas movies.

1. EVIL (CBS) - last 3 episodes of season 1, anemic in the ratings but best show on CBS
2. Corporate (Comedy Central) - got dark at times, this workplace comedy went out strong. Thank you Jake Weisman and Matt Ingbretson
3. The Good Fight (CBS AllAccess) - shortened COVID season, that standalone premiere was bonkers. Love Ms. Baranski

the rest of my favorites:
Outlander (STARZ) - mixed feelings on that season finale though. oof
Sanditon (PBS)
Normal People (Hulu)
Ted Lasso (Apple)
The Great (Hulu)
Schitts Creek (CBC)
The Amazing Race (CBS)
What We Do in the Shadows (FX)
The Windermere Children (PBS)
Flesh and Blood (PBS)

Guilty pleasure:
Worst Cooks in America - Alton Brown making his debut

lwhy?

Ted Lasso
Teenage Bounty Hunters
Dave
Mythic Quest: Raven's Banquet
Never Have I Ever
Sex Education
The Mandalorian
The Challenge
The Last Dance

RichC2

I thought about it a bit more and I guess these would actually be my choices:

How To With John Wilson
The Good Place
Ted Lasso
Schitts Creek
Dave
The Great
...virgin river (its so bad and stupidly watchable.)

Ayre

I binged over a dozen series beginning to end .... all of them old.

Only watched 6 new shows, so I guess 5 are my favorite.
The Queen's Gambit
The Boys
Umbrella Academy
Upload
Star Trek Discovery

Disliked:
The Crown

LorenzoL

The only new show that I watched this year was The Mandalorian S2 and I loved it.

I watched past seasons of Castle and The Mentalist.

professor chaos

The Boys
The Queen's Gambit
The Expanse
Bojack Horseman
Dark
Schitt's Creek
The Great
Rick and Morty

Honorable Mentions: Doom Patrol, Mandalorian, Dead to Me, Dave, Killing Eve (disappointing season but Jodie Comer is still fantastic), The Good Place, The Last Dance, The Undoing, Umbrella Academy, Devs, Upload

Need to catch up/rewatch Better Call Saul

PhantomStranger

I was hoping someone would mention Corporate. Easily the consistently funniest show on the air over the past couple years. Truly laugh-out-loud funny. A hilarious satire of a corporate office with a fantastic cast. There are few other comedies in its ballpark these days as entertaining.

Came across it by accident when MTV2 of all places ran a marathon.

eXcentris

In no particular order:

I May Destroy You
The Queen's Gambit
Kalifat (Caliphate), (Netflix, Swedish series about the radicalization of young Muslim females, from the point of view of 3 women)
Wild Wild Country (had never seen this docu or heard of these events)
The Mandalorian
Better Call Saul
Small Axe (Anthology): "Mangrove"

The Questyen

Wild Wild Country came out in 2018 but yes it was a great doc.

eXcentris

Yeah, I guess I cheated since it's a favorite of 2020 but not made in 2020.

SteveA

Off topic a bit here, but eye-opening to know you never heard of it. Nothing against you, and probably because of your age or where you live. But in Oregon, at the time, it was absolutely everywhere, on the news, day in and day out for months. There were even people I worked with who joined the Rajneeshis and wore red shirts to work every day. And don't get me started about salad bars. It was a great doc, but more like a memory jog for me.

clckworang

It's funny that this documentary comes up because I actually finally watched it this year as well. It was great, and while I feel like I heard a little about it at some point, it was relatively new to me. I can see where it would be a huge regional news piece.

eXcentris

I figured out why I'd never heard of this. Most of it happened at the beginning of the 80's when I was teaching on an island (Seychelles) in the Indian Ocean. No internet, no tv, practically no newspapers aside from the local one (in creole and mostly "socialist" news).

keany

I loved Sex Education and Killing Eve, very well done