The 15 Best TV Shows of 2019

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Television in 2019 offered up sweet birthday babies and hot priests; exposed nuclear cores and examined injustices; giant octopuses and the king of edible leaves, His Majesty the Spinach. It was a year in which more than 500 original scripted series were estimated to air—a new record signaling a television landscape that’s more abundant but also more fragmented than ever.

With that in mind, this year’s “best of” list, like last year’s, tries to recognize shows that did specific things particularly well. Some were brand new; some have already been canceled. But most of them came into being because someone took a chance on an odd idea, a risky concept, or a distinctive voice. As the streaming wars heat up, none of these series feels like a safe bet, which is precisely what makes them so worthwhile to watch.

FAMILY SAGA: SUCCESSION, HBO

I spent significant pockets of time in 2019 trying to get people—colleagues, hair stylists, women innocently shopping for black turtlenecks—to watch . If Season 1 took a while to warm up to, Season 2 was masterful right out of the gate, in