Screen Rant's editorial team has assembled to share their top 5 picks for TV shows in 2017 - both new and ongoing. It was a great year for vegging out on the couch, with the return of Game of Thrones for an eventful seventh season in the summer, The Walking Dead bringing the braaains once more in season 8, and lesser-watched but more cerebral fare like Black Mirror, Mr. Robot and Channel Zero. We also got a brand new Star Trek show - Star Trek: Discovery, which has fans eagerly awaiting the second half of the season in 2018.The small screen was also overflowing with superheroes - from The CW's ever-growing collection of DC shows like The Flash, Supergirl, Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow, to new shows like Legion, The Gifted and Inhumans. The Agents of SHIELD recently returned and found themselves rudely displaced in both time and space, and Netflix pulled New York's heroes together to fight a new threat in The Defenders, as well as debuting a solo series for tortured antihero vigilante, The Punisher.Related: The Best Video Games of 2017It was certainly a busy year, and one that made it difficult to pick our favorites - but somehow, we managed it. Keep in mind that these aren't necessarily the "best" shows - just the ones that kept us gripped, and will have us coming back for more next year.This Page: Rob Keyes, Ben Kendrick, Kevin Yeoman and Sandy Schaefer
Rob Keyes
1. Star Trek: Discovery (CBS)
2. Rick and Morty (Adult Swim)
3. The Americans (FX)
4. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (ABC)
5. Vikings (History)
Honorable Mentions: Voltron: Legendary Defender (Netflix) and Legion (FX)
This year I fell off of Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead (but will binge to catch up soon) but other shows that had me gripped and excited came from the animation side with Archer, Voltron: Legendary Defender, and South Park joining the phenomenon that is Rick and Morty. And of course, nearly everything coming out of FX. I also really dug Dirk Gently and Marvel's The Punisher on Netflix who I hope as a long future within the MCU.
The biggest callout, and I can't stress this enough, is Star Trek: Discovery and how incredible this series is. It sits so far above expectations that it's hard to even put into words how exciting this series is. From its cast to how it's shot, to it's adult and mind-bending narrative that shares interesting connections to the shows of old. This is my most recommended series of 2017 and of 2018. Easily.
Ben Kendrick
1. The Leftovers (HBO)
2. Stranger Things (Netflix)
3. Star Trek: Discovery (CBS)
4. Twin Peaks: The Return (Showtime)
5. Doctor Who (BBC)
Honorable Mentions: Game of Thrones (HBO) and The Gifted (Fox)
Streaming providers and premium channels dominated my TV watching in 2017. I still DVR a few network TV shows; however, event mini-series and non-cable offerings provided the most rewarding (and binge-worthy) viewing of the year. The Leftovers wouldn't ever be described as "easy" TV watching, but in 2017 it was absolutely the most rewarding for me. I was interested in The Leftovers from the beginning but fell off ahead of the season 2 premiere - only to return later and outright relish every single episode. It's a bold TV series with magnificent performances, clear vision, and unparalleled intent. It will not be for everyone but, for viewers who never started (or quit) the show, it is worth finishing the ride.
In the shadow of a Star Trek film series that I have, overall, enjoyed, I wasn't craving a new Star Trek TV show (especially one that would be locked behind a CBS streaming platform). If I was ambivalent before, I became flat-out skeptical when Bryan Fuller exited the series. As a result, I was downright thrilled to discover that Star Trek: Discovery wasn't just a worthy extension of Star Trek canon, it delivered a thrilling blend of classic-series fan service and sharp reinvention - with a memorable cast of characters. Whether the show is able to carry that momentum forward into future episode sand seasons remains to be seen but the USS Discovery is off to a promising maiden voyage.
Stranger Things remains a standout and I was grateful for a return to the wacky world of Twin Peaks. Meanwhile, my ongoing favorite show, Doctor Who, delivered a solid sendoff season to a great Time Lord (Peter Capaldi) and cleared the deck for a fresh start (showrunner, companion, and female Doctor) that I could not be more excited to watch in 2018.
Kevin Yeoman
1. The Leftovers (HBO)
2. Mindhunter (Netflix)
3. The Good Place (NBC)
4. Halt and Catch Fire (AMC)
5. Twin Peaks: The Return (Showtime)
Damon Lindelof and Tom Perrotta delivered one of the best series finales ever with The Leftovers. But the final season of HBO's drama was more than a standout finale, it was a fantastic collection of short stories that added up to that glorious conclusion. At times heartbreaking and blisteringly funny ” Christopher Eccleston's reading of œThat's the guy I was telling you about, will never fail to elicit a huge laugh from me ” the series has been an emotional favorite for three straight seasons. And with a tremendous performance from Carrie Coon, The Leftovers easily took the top spot on my list of favorite TV shows of 2017.
Other notable series include David Fincher's Mindhunter, which put such a fascinating twist on the usual police procedural that it's worth watching over and over again ” provided you can handle Cameron Britton's deeply unsettling performance as serial killer Ed Kemper. Meanwhile, The Good Place continues to live up to its title, while Halt and Catch Fire was second only to The Leftovers in terms of powerful finales. And any list in 2017 wouldn't be complete without mentioning Twin Peaks, which, whatever you thought of it, still made for one hell of a viewing experience.
Sandy Schaefer
1. Riverdale (The CW)
2. Dear White People (Netflix)
3. Stranger Things (Netflix)
4. Master of None (Netflix)
5. Twin Peaks: The Return (Showtime)
Honorable Mentions: Star Wars Rebels, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Many of my favorite TV shows this year are highly stylized, yet focus on very relatable issues. Riverdale takes the charmingly goofy world of Archie Comics - a universe where 1950s archetypes can cross paths with everything from zombies to Predator - and turns it into a wonderfully ridiculous blend of teen soap opera, murder mystery noir, and B-movie influences that explores timely issues of family, identity, relationships - and most importantly, Jingle Jangle.
Dear White People adapted the look and style of the original movie - as well as its concerns about how racial politics shape our identities - to create an even more entertaining TV series about life at an Ivy League college where students seem to subsist on Whedon-esque banter. Stranger Things likewise dug deeper into the interior lives of its characters in its second season, broadening its standalone mythology yet still working as a 1980s/90s pop culture pastiche. Master of None also spread its wings further in season 2, delivering short film-like episodes that ranged from an Italian Neorealism love letter to the best coming-out narrative in recent memory.
Finally, in a year as crazy as 2017, it was easy to relate to Dale Cooper/Dougie Jones' surreal odyssey in Twin Peaks: The Return - a TV revival that went full David Lynch in the most glorious way.
Molly Freeman
1. Big Little Lies (HBO)
2. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Amazon)
3. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (The CW)
4. The Good Place (NBC)
5. Marvel's Runaways (Hulu)
Honorable Mentions: American Vandal (Netflix), Brooklyn Nine-Nine (FOX), One Day At A Time (Netflix)
As a fan of female-fronted television, 2017 was another good year in many ways - though bad as well, considering the cancellations of MTV's Sweet/Vicious and FOX's Pitch. Still, HBO debuted what was originally a limited series in Big Little Lies, which is a fantastically complex drama about female friendships, complicated family dynamics, and domestic abuse. It's wonderfully acted, and beautifully done, but with such a satisfactory ending, I'm dubious about HBO bringing the series back for a second season. On the other end of the spectrum, Amazon's The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is a rich and hilarious period comedy about a burgeoning comedienne who launches her career from the ashes of her (seemingly) failed marriage, and unbeknownst to her Upper West Side Jewish family.
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is now in its third, and strongest season to date, tackling mental health with more honesty and compassion than any show I've seen since E4's My Mad Fat Diary - plus The CW dramedy employs musical numbers in every episode that are both emotionally compelling and laugh-out-loud funny. NBC's The Good Place, meanwhile, delivered the single greatest twist on TV of 2017 (and perhaps even of the last five years), which has managed to elevate the show in its current second season. Lastly, Hulu found a perfect balance between two of my favorite genres, superhero action and teen drama, with Runaways - which is building to a fun and exciting first season finale. Plus, this year was excellent for new and returning sitcoms with Brooklyn Nine-Nine and One Day at a Time, as well as Netflix's parody of true crime documentaries with American Vandal, which delivered a hilarious and surprisingly true-to-life look at high school.
All in all, there was a great deal of TV released in 2017 - some of which I missed and will hopefully catch up on in the early part of 2018 - and generally something for everyone. For me, I was pleased by all the fresh new concepts and ideas explored, especially those with female-fronted and/or diverse main casts.
Andrew Dyce
1. Black Sails (STARZ)
2. GLOW (Netflix)
3. Twin Peaks: The Return (Showtime)
4. Marvel's The Punisher (Netflix)
5. The Good Place (NBC)
It seemed too much to hope that even a show as accomplished as Black Sails could deliver a final season free from a stumble or two, let alone a finale that could satisfy more than it left unfulfilled or hunger for more. Yet the showrunners did the impossible, with a final season that topped itself scene after scene, right down to a final episode that I'll carry with me for the rest of my life. A finale shaped like a dagger I knew was coming, and was, in hindsight, the stroke of an expert hand. There was no other way to end the series, and none better. Now, more than ever, that's praise given only to the very best.
While we're at it, I'll tip my hat to STARZ for the other parts of its dramatic hat-trick: the always polished Outlander, and the gleefully weird American Gods (mainly for giving me Ricky Whittle, the Shadow Moon I didn't know I needed).
A man can't survive on drama alone, and few performances top the comedic powerhouse that is GLOW's Alison Brie - selflessly shining in all the ways that get missed, but matter most. I'll forever thank Showtime for Twin Peaks: The Return, my weekly reminder that having absolutely no idea what a TV show has in store for its audience is Heaven (and Part 8 will stick with me for all time). And since The Good Place had its first season finale in 2017, I can give it the credit it deserves for rewarding my honest interest like no show has before, or probably will again.
Finally, it's Marvel's The Punisher that convinced me Netflix's 'binge' model could do more harm than good. Because everyone - everyone - should be talking about this show, every week, for months, from top to bottom. A comic book series that speaks for overlooked veterans. A drama that lets Ben Barnes steal scenes his cartoon villain on HBO's Westworld could only dream of. And of course, the star chemistry of Jon Bernthal and Ebon Moss-Bachrach - the best superhero 'twosome', in this viewer's opinion, that our current trend of adaptations have produced.
Hannah Shaw-Williams
1. Channel Zero: No-End House (Syfy)
2. Legion (Syfy)
3. Black Mirror (Netflix)
4. Mindhunter (Netflix)
5. American Gods (Starz)
This was a difficult list to put together, because 2017 was a great year for TV - especially for unique, creative, thought-provoking, and downright weird TV shows. Channel Zero is one of the year's most criminally under-seen TV shows, and No-End House was a notable leap upwards from the already high bar set by last season's Candle Cove. To say anything about the plot would be a spoiler, but if you love fascinating concepts, slowly unravelling mysteries and profoundly creepy imagery, this is one show you definitely need to check out.
Legion might just be my favorite take on the world of the X-Men, standing out in the increasingly crowded genre of cookie-cutter superhero shows by being unlike any superhero show I've seen before. Anthology series Black Mirror remains as fantastic as ever, with "USS Callister," "Crocodile" and "Hang the DJ" earning their place among the series' best stories. Mindhunter was pure David Fincher: tightly scripted, tense as a tripwire, and with an outstanding lead performance from Jonathan Groff.
Finally, American Gods was a worthy adaptation of my favorite Neil Gaiman novel, with strong performances all around a beautifully crafted world of old and new gods.
Alex Leadbeater
1. Twin Peaks: The Return (Showtime)
2. Bojack Horseman (Netflix)
3. Stranger Things 2 (Netflix)
4. The League of Gentlemen (BBC)
5. Better Call Saul (AMC)
Honorable Mentions: A Series of Unfortunate Events (Netflix), Love (Netflix)
Twin Peaks was phenomenal, pure and simple. I'm a big Peaks fan as is, but The Return was something else: funny and scary, meaningful and silly, it's pure Lynch in such an uninhibited way it's impossible to not get sucked in. I can't express my joy much better than I did in my piece on why it makes sense (which I stand by), but would add that its spine-tingling resolute cliffhanger of an ending still hurts months later. Oh, and it's not a movie, no matter what Sight & Sound say.
The rest of my picks are for the majority Netflix Originals (Better Call Saul drops weekly on it here in the UK), which in one way shows my limited TV consumption (inevitable when you see nearly every film on general release) but also highlights just how ruddy good they've gotten (and how average Game of Thrones was). Bojack Horseman has always been sublime in its weirdness and pathos, but this year it went for something more earnest and maybe even hopeful that completely destroyed me. Stranger Things (as I wrote at length) got over the first season's nostalgia recreation obsession and delivered something akin to Stand By Me. An Better Call Saul's slowburn got slower and burnier while really moving things forward (although I would say I prefer Season 2).
The late, non-Netflix addition is The League of Gentlemen, which returned for a three-part miniseries this Christmas that was both a pitch-perfect recreation of the original run and a Brexit-hued update, all the while really being about the innate futility of resurrecting an old TV show.
I still have to watch/finish: Mindhunter, Godless, America Vandal, Fargo (S2 was my show of 2016), The Leftovers, Black Mirror (although USS Callister was an all-timer) and who knows what else, so I'm expecting a lot of this to change.
Stephen Colbert
1. Star Wars Rebels (Disney XD)
2. Legion (FX)
3. Better Call Saul (AMC)
4. Stranger Things (Netflix)
5. Voltron: Legendary Defender (Netflix)
Honorable Mentions: Game of Thrones (HBO) and Trollhunters (Netflix)
2017 was a crazy year for my TV watching, and I was only able to commit to watching a few shows in their entirety, but I have a long list of partially watched shows that I look forward to digging into (I'm looking at you Godless, Mindhunter, The Punisher, and Black Mirror).
While Star Wars Rebels may not have lived up to the peak later seasons of The Clone Wars early on, it has only gotten better with time, and 2017 has seen a number of amazing episodes, including an appearance from Obi-Wan Kenobi and the perfect final chapter for Darth Maul's story. With season 4 heading into the final half in 2018, expectations couldn't be higher for the show (or the future of Star Wars animation).
While comic book properties, particularly in the X-Men franchise, are finally being brought to the big screen in ways that defy traditional genre conventions with movies like Logan, Legion did the same thing on the small screen. The show was visually stunning, cerebral, and very well written. Some of the most re-watchable TV I've seen recently.
Better Call Saul is clearly doing something different from Breaking Bad but has already established a compelling backstory and sympathetic descent into crime for Saul Goodman, AKA Jimmy McGill. Likewise, Stranger Things 2 is an evolution from what came before in a way that almost puts it into a new genre altogether, but it kept the heart of the first season and made its excellent cast a fixture in pop culture.
Netflix has been doing some excellent work in animation, particularly in its partnership with Dreamworks. Shows like Voltron: Legendary Defender and Trollhunters are great examples of how animation doesn't have to sacrifice quality storytelling or deep lore for a more childish or humorous tone. The shows have something to offer for all ages, looking absolutely amazing in the process.
Patrick Sklar
1. Star Trek: Discovery (CBS)
2. Legion (FX)
3. The Punisher (Netflix)
4. The Good Place (NBC)
5. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (The CW)
Honourable Mention: Doctor Who (BBC)
Was this an incredibly good year for the portrayal of mental illness on television, or do I just not watch enough TV? The answer is, of course, both.
I've been a mild Trekkie my whole life, but even I was surprised with how much I loved Star Trek: Discovery. Its highest points were the episodes that could easily have slotted into any other Star Trek series - and I'm looking especially at you, œMagic To Make The Sanest Man Go Mad - except that they were written with a kind of intelligence that Star Trek has too often lacked.
Meanwhile, Legion's musical sequences were some of the highlights of the year. My favourite, at the series' peak, was set to a piece famously written in the grips of madness, and it showed, in the best possible way. The Punisher, too, used music to great effect, but mostly I wanted to talk about how that show has a scene in it that is so violent, even I - a noted lover of violence! - had to turn away from my screen. The Good Place is even better this season than the last, as is Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. I'm in a good position to know with the latter, because I marathoned the entire series up until its hiatus over about two weeks. It just keeps getting better.
Also, I hope all but one particular person involved with Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency gets to work together again someday soon.
Emily Manuel
1. Mr. Robot (AMC)
2. American Gods (Starz)
3. The Good Place (NBC)
4. The Exorcist (FOX)
5. The Leftovers (HBO)
In a TV landscape so saturated with prestige shows that employ shocking twists in place of narrative, Mr. Robot remains the rarest thing of all: a genuinely unpredictable, challenging, painstakingly constructed story that serves character above all else. But that's to be expected from Sam Esmail. Also expected was the impossibly wonderful combination of three of my favorite storytellers: Neil Gaiman's American Gods as adapted by Bryan Fuller (Hannibal) and Michael Green (Kings) was the perfect response to the nightmarish turn our world has taken.
The biggest surprises of my year were The Good Place - a sharply funny but warm-hearted sitcom that is constantly reinventing itself - and The Exorcist. Who could have predicted that a TV adaptation of a classic horror film would be one of the most sincere, inclusive shows of 2017?
Like American Gods and The Exorcist, The Leftovers' final season dealt with huge questions about faith, grief, and humanity on an individual level, and was all the more affecting for it. The Leftovers went out as it came in, which makes its aching, tender final episode one of the greatest finales I've ever seen.
Michael Kennedy
1. The Leftovers (HBO)
2. Stranger Things (Netflix)
3. Black Mirror (Netflix)
4. The Good Place (NBC)
5. Better Call Saul (AMC)
Honorable Mentions: Bates Motel (A&E), Channel Zero (Syfy)
Between the offerings on broadcast, cable (basic or premium) and streaming, the small screen continues to be an embarrassment of riches for anyone looking to watch memorable characters participate in fascinating stories. Topping my list is the excellent final season of The Leftovers, one of HBO's best dramas to date. Was what Nora told Kevin in the series finale true? Ultimately, it doesn't really matter, as the journey to that ending was nearly flawless. Over on Netflix, while some have argued that Stranger Things season 2 wasn't as good as season 1, I enjoyed it on an equal level, and yes, I even liked "The Lost Sister." Season 3 can't get here soon enough.
Barely squeaking into 2017 was Black Mirror season 4, and thankfully, the latest round of (mostly) dark and twisted episodes from the mind of Charlie Brooker proved to be just as thought provoking and captivating as past batches. Leaving the subscription service realm, The Good Place surprised and delighted me with just how enjoyable it's been to watch, and also how delightfully wicked its ingenious concept of an afterlife has turned out to be. On the more dramatic side of commercial TV, there's Better Call Saul, which I'm increasingly convinced will end up just as transcendentally good as Breaking Bad by the time all is said and done.