20 Best New Shows of 2020

"Players start off isolated in an apartment, and with their online interactions as their only means of any communication. The players use a social media platform called The Circle."

Genre: Reality competition

Investment: 12 episodes, 44–63 minutes (plus the 2 UK seasons which are much better)

Must-watch if you like: Big Brother and Catfish meets Black Mirror

"After an unusual event, whip-smart computer coder Zoey Clarke magically begins to hear people's innermost wants and desires through popular songs."

Genre: Comedy / Musical / Drama

Investment: 12 episodes, 43–44 minutes (season 2 premiers Jan 2021)

Must-watch if you like: This is Us, over the top musical numbers

"In post-World War II Hollywood, aspiring actors and filmmakers will do almost anything to make their showbiz dreams come true."

Genre: Period / Drama

Investment: 7 episodes, 44–57 minutes (miniseries)

Must-watch if you like: Stories about the film industry

"A cocaine shipment makes its way to Europe, starting from the moment a powerful cartel of Italian criminals decides to buy it, to its journeys through Mexico, to its shipment across the Atlantic Ocean."

Genre: Drama

Investment: 8 episodes, 48-66 minutes (miniseries)

Must-watch if you like: Narcos, shows about drug trade

"After being sexually assaulted in a nightclub, Arabella's life changes irreversibly and she is forced to reassess everything, including her career, friends and family."

Genre: Drama

Investment: 12 episodes, 28–35 minutes (second season unlikely)

Must-watch if you like: Millennials and trauma

"Quiz tells the story of Charles Ingram, a former British army major, who caused a major scandal after being caught cheating his way to winning £1 million on the game show 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?'"

Genre: Drama

Investment: 3 episodes, 46-54 minutes (miniseries)

Must-watch if you like: Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, A Very English Scandal

"Two androids are tasked with raising human children on a mysterious virgin planet; as the human colony threatens to be torn apart by religious differences, the androids learn that controlling the beliefs of humans is a treacherous and difficult task."

Genre: Sci-fi / Drama

Investment: 10 episodes, 42–55 minutes (renewed for season 2)

Must-watch if you like: Ridley Scott, BSG, hard sci-fi

"Onion, a newly freed teenager, joins abolitionist John Brown on a holy crusade to end slavery and finds himself part of the famous 1859 raid at Harpers Ferry."

Genre: Period / Dark Comedy

Investment: 7 episodes, 46–57 minutes (miniseries)

Must-watch if you like: Ethan Hawke, historical dark comedy

"An alternate American history during World War II is told through the eyes of a working-class Jewish family in New Jersey as they endure the political rise of Charles Lindbergh, who captures the presidency and turns the nation toward fascism."

Genre: Drama / Alternate history

Investment: 6 episodes, 60 minutes (miniseries)

Must-watch if you like: The Wire, Man in the High Castle,

"Set in 1932 Los Angeles, the series focuses on the origin story of famed defense lawyer Perry Mason, based on characters from Erle Stanley Gardner's novels."

Genre: Period / Drama

Investment: 8 episodes, 56–64 minutes (renewed for season 2)

Must-watch if you like: The Americans, the original Perry Mason, detective neo-noirs

"A Hasidic Jewish woman in Brooklyn flees to Berlin from an arranged marriage and is taken in by a group of musicians — until her past comes calling."

Genre: Drama

Investment: 4 episodes, 52-54 minutes (miniseries)

Must-watch if you like: short and well directed miniseries

"Following the intertwined fates of the picture-perfect Richardson family and an enigmatic mother and daughter who upend their lives. Set in Shaker Heights, Ohio in the 1990s."

Genre: Drama

Investment: 8 episodes, 53-66 minutes (miniseries)

Must-watch if you like: Big Little Lies

"Atticus Black joins his friend Letitia and his Uncle George to embark on a road trip across 1950s Jim Crow America in search of his missing father."

Genre: Drama / Supernatural horror

Investment: 10 episodes, 53-68 minutes (not yet renewed for season 2)

Must-watch if you like: Get Out, Watchmen, the works of H.P. Lovecraft

"Small-time football coach Ted Lasso is hired to coach a professional soccer team in England, despite having no experience coaching soccer."

Genre: Comedy

Investment: 10 episodes, 29–33 minutes (renewed for season 2 and 3)

Must-watch if you like: Barry, Bob Ross, soccer, optimism

"Mrs. America tells the story of the movement to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), exploring how one of the toughest battlegrounds in the culture wars of the '70s helped give rise to the Moral Majority and forever shifted the political landscape."

Genre: Period / Drama

Investment: 9 episodes, 43–54 minutes (miniseries)

Must-watch if you like: political period dramas

"The team behind the biggest multiplayer video game of all-time is tasked with building worlds, moulding heroes and creating legends, but the most hard-fought battles don't occur in the game -- they happen in the office."

Genre: Comedy

Investment: 10 episodes, 24-35 minutes (renewed for Season 2, delayed by COVID)

Must-watch if you like: Silicon Valley, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Community, or if you work in video games