The 20 best new TV shows of 2017

From film direc­tors mak­ing their small screen debuts to utter­ly bizarre ani­mat­ed come­dies, it’s been a roller­coast­er year for tele­vi­sion. In an attempt to make order out of chaos, we’ve put togeth­er this run-down of the best new shows released dur­ing 2017 (and for this rea­son Twin Peaks didn’t make the cut). Look­ing for some­thing to binge-watch over the fes­tive sea­son? This list is for you. Have we missed your favourite? Let us know what had you glued to the screen @LWLies

If you’ve ever want­ed to see Drew Bar­ry­more chow down on human flesh, this is the show for you. Vic­tor Fresco’s kooky sub­ur­ban com­e­dy-hor­ror didn’t sound like much on paper, but it’s actu­al­ly a whip-smart, incred­i­bly enjoy­able ride – thanks of course to Barrymore’s endur­ing charm, and the cast­ing of Tim­o­thy Olyphant as her well-mean­ing air­head of a husband.

Adapt­ed from Chris Kraus’ nov­el of the same name, I Love Dick blurs the line between fan­ta­sy and real­i­ty, square­ly sit­u­at­ing Kathryn Hahn’s Chris at the cen­tre of the sto­ry. The epony­mous Dick is played by Kevin Bacon, while Chris’ hus­band takes the form of Grif­fin Dunne, in this slow-burn dra­ma from Jill Soloway and Sarah Gub­bins. It’s got a breathy cadence that might not suit every palette, but it’s a refresh­ing­ly can­did por­trait of female desire and sensuality.

Mak­ing of a Mur­der­er gripped true crime fans around the world in 2015, so much so that Net­flix decid­ed to lam­poon its own suc­cess with a grip­ping new true-crime saga. Shot with the same poe-faced restraint of the orig­i­nal, Amer­i­can Van­dal is an impres­sive tes­ta­ment to see­ing a joke through to com­ple­tion, but also pro­vides a sur­pris­ing­ly per­ti­nent com­men­tary on the high school experience.

Long-time fans were left large­ly dis­ap­point­ed by Brad Silberling’s 2004 adap­tion of the beloved YA series, so Netflix’s new adap­ta­tion was a nice sur­prise. Fea­tur­ing Patrick War­bur­ton as state­ly nar­ra­tor Lemo­ny Snick­et and Neil Patrick Har­ris clown­ing around as the nefar­i­ous Count Olaf, it’s a fam­i­ly-friend­ly caper with some nifty tricks up its sleeve, designed to intro­duce the sto­ry to a new gen­er­a­tion of fans whilst retain­ing those who have loved the books for the past 18 years.

The series you didn’t know you need­ed in your life until it burst onto the scene last sum­mer, GLOW (that’s Gor­geous Ladies of Wrestling, FYI) rocked Net­flix like a hur­ri­cane. Ali­son Brie and Bet­ty Gilpin game­ly take on lead­ing lady duties whilst Marc Maron gives anoth­er sol­id per­for­mance as the slight­ly sleazy Sam Sylvia. The icing on the cake though? The fab­u­lous sup­port­ing cast of tal­ent­ed women, includ­ing Kate Nash, Britt Baron and Jack­ie Tohn.

2017 was anoth­er big year for Mar­vel tele­vi­sion releas­es, with Legion, Inhu­mans, Iron Fist and The Defend­ers all mak­ing their small screen debut. The Pun­ish­er was def­i­nite­ly one of the bet­ter ven­tures, in no small part thanks to Jon Bernthal’s pow­er­house per­for­mance as Frank Cas­tle. Bat­tling PTSD and the might of the US gov­ern­ment, it’s a super­hero series with­out any actu­al super­heroes – just shades of grey and the ​‘absolute pow­er cor­rupts absolute­ly’ mantra run­ning through its core.

Adapt­ed from the 2014 film of the same name, this col­lege-based com­e­dy fol­lows a group of stu­dents of colour at a pre­dom­i­nant­ly white school, who attempt to fight the social injus­tice that dom­i­nates their cam­pus. It’s a satir­i­cal look at race rela­tions, but more impor­tant­ly, it’s a per­son­al sto­ry told by a bril­liant cast, head­ed up by the fan­tas­tic Logan Brown­ing, who seems des­tined for great things.

Few shows have been able to real­ly cap­ture the true nature of puber­ty: that is, the sense of teenage malaise com­bined with an over­whelm­ing gross­ness that for some rea­son, every­one is afraid to talk about. This shared expe­ri­ence of hor­mone-fuelled rage, lust and humour comes to life in Nick Kroll and Andrew Goldberg’s ani­mat­ed series. Uncom­fort­able, out­landish and often­times dis­turb­ing, it’s one of the most painful­ly hon­est depic­tions of the teenage wilder­ness years, and does a sur­pris­ing­ly nuanced job of talk­ing about the frus­trat­ing­ly taboo sub­ject of female sex­u­al­i­ty too.

A har­row­ing account of organ­ised child abuse in Rochdale, Three Girls was based in fact, which only serves to make it all the more chill­ing to watch. Pow­ered by bril­liant per­for­mances from Max­ine Peake and its young leads (Mol­ly Wind­sor, Ria Zmitrow­icz and Liv Hill), it’s an unpleas­ant and effect­ing watch, but suc­ceeds large­ly due to the sym­pa­thy and and focus it places on the vic­tims rather than the abusers – some­thing that time and time again, the media fails to do.

Cre­at­ed by David Shore and Bryan Cranston, Sneaky Pete slipped past many a radar in 2017, but it’s more than worth mak­ing time for. Gio­van­ni Ribisi plays a con-man who takes on the play of the cen­tu­ry when he steals the iden­ti­ty of his for­mer cell­mate, but quick­ly finds him­self embroiled in a whole heap of new trou­ble. Fea­tur­ing Cranston in an excel­lent vil­lain­ous role and Beloved Char­ac­ter Actress Mar­go Mar­tin­dale, it’s a black com­e­dy with a pleas­ing amount of bite.

We’re cheat­ing slight­ly by includ­ing The Good Place, as it’s actu­al­ly on its sec­ond sea­son, but hav­ing under­gone a near-enough reboot at the out­set and only becom­ing avail­able to UK audi­ences this year, it’s worth men­tion­ing. Kirsten Bell plays against-type as a repel­lant woman try­ing to con her way into Heav­en, whilst the always charm­ing Ted Dan­son proves a nice foil as an angel who’s not all he seems to be.

Spike Lee’s work over the past few years has been a lit­tle incon­sis­tent, but he struck gold in 2017 when he adapt­ed his own 1986 film of the same name for the big screen. Fea­tur­ing a lumi­nes­cent DeWan­da Wise as Lola Dar­ling, the show was a breath of fresh air in what’s been a fair­ly demor­al­is­ing year for women.

Bill Dubuque has a bit of a che­quered past when it comes to films (he was respon­si­ble for The Accoun­tant and A Fam­i­ly Man, as well as The Judge) so Ozark was a pleas­ant sur­prise. Star­ring Jason Bate­man (who also direct­ed a hand­ful of episodes) as a mild-man­nered finan­cial advi­sor indebt­ed to a Mex­i­can car­tel, Ozark quick­ly unfold­ed into a messy game of cat and mouse, with career-best turns from Bate­man and Lau­ra Lin­ney, who plays his long-suf­fer­ing wife.

James Fran­co did dou­ble duty in HBO’s lat­est for­ay into 1970s NYC (Vinyl didn’t do too well for them in 2016), play­ing twin broth­ers Vin­cent Mar­ti­no and Frankie Mar­ti­no. A slick but sur­pris­ing­ly grit­ty look at the seedy under­bel­ly of one of the most famous cities in the world, The Deuce took a dive into the emerg­ing porn busi­ness as well as the mob, but suc­ceed­ed large­ly on the strength of Fran­co and Mag­gie Gyllenhaal’s performances.

Fresh from helm­ing the 2016 Gilmore Girls reunion, Amy Sher­man-Pal­ladi­no turned her atten­tion to a new com­e­dy series this year. A peri­od com­e­dy-dra­ma about a Jew­ish house­wife who dis­cov­ers her tal­ent for stand-up com­e­dy when faced with an unex­pect­ed divorce, it’s smart, con­fi­dent, and effort­less­ly charm­ing. It might not be real­is­tic, but a bit of escapism is more than wel­come – par­tic­u­lar­ly when its star (Rachel Bros­na­han) is such a delight.

It’s been quite a while since we last got our mitts on a new Ther­oux series, but 2017 hailed the return of everyone’s favourite par­ka-wear­ing doc­u­men­tar­i­an. Dark States saw Louis trav­el back to the USA (source of so much mate­r­i­al for him over the years) and inves­ti­gate hero­in addic­tion in small-town Amer­i­ca, pros­ti­tu­tion in Hous­ton, and Milwaukee’s high homi­cide rates. All three instal­ments were har­row­ing, offer­ing no easy answers, but a fas­ci­nat­ing insight into how the US gov­ern­ment con­tin­ues to fail its more vul­ner­a­ble citizens.

2017 was a killer year for Nicole Kid­man (see The Killing of a Sacred Deer, The Beguiled) and her turn in Jean-Marc Vallée’s Big Lit­tle Lies was no excep­tion. Joined by Reese With­er­spoon, Shai­lene Wood­ley and Zoe Kravitz, she formed part of a for­mi­da­ble female alliance in the afflu­ent Cal­i­forn­ian sun­shine. Things could have very eas­i­ly lapsed into melo­dra­ma, but sharp wit and a pleas­ing­ly weighty script kept view­ers com­ing back for more.

Per­haps no show on the air­waves dom­i­nat­ed the head­lines in 2017 like The Handmaid’s Tale. Run­ning par­al­lel to an increas­ing­ly absurd Trump pres­i­den­cy, the show was a faith­ful ren­der­ing of Mar­garet Atwood’s 1985 nov­el, har­row­ing and haunt­ing with a stand­out per­for­mance from Eliz­a­beth Moss.

Plen­ty have tried and failed to adapt Neil Gaiman’s nov­els for the screen, but in 2017, Starz man­aged to do it. Trip­py, bold, and unapolo­get­i­cal­ly vio­lent, Amer­i­can Gods was every­thing Gaiman’s orig­i­nal promised and so much more, thanks large­ly to a stel­lar cast and the involve­ment of Bryan Fuller and Michael Green.

A fas­ci­nat­ing insight into the ori­gins of crim­i­nal pro­fil­ing came cour­tesy of David Finch­er, who made his first for­ay into tele­vi­sion with Net­flix. An unset­tling but end­less­ly engross­ing char­ac­ter study, shot with Fincher’s usu­al cin­e­mat­ic flair, it flips the cam­era around and avoids becom­ing a voyeuris­tic ser­i­al killer dra­ma by focus­ing instead on Jonathan Groff’s Hold­en Ford – a naïve but tal­ent­ed FBI spe­cial agent.