Television has changed a lot in the last decade. While network television still brings in millions of viewers for sitcoms, police procedurals, and dramas, those are almost like eye candy for fans of the small screen. Instead, HBO has found several rival channels to challenge their 20-plus year reign for truly epic, critically acclaimed television.
Netflix, Hulu, HBO, Amazon Prime Video, Starz, and more have started to convince some people that the best stories told are on the small screen and not the big screens, with television rivaling anything Hollywood is putting out in theaters today. 2019 was no different, and IMDb has provided a list of the 10 best TV shows of 2019. While certain shows have high scores from user votes, IMDb also compiles a list of top shows based on page views. This exclusive and definitive data is only available on IMDbPro and is updated throughout the year. Here are the top 10 shows of 2019, according to IMDb.
YOU
Initially released in 2018 on Lifetime, You picked up critical acclaim but a small audience. However, when it moved on over to Netflix, over 40 million people streamed the first season of the show, and the second season will hit this year, just after Christmas as a Netflix original series instead of a Lifetime series.
Based on the novel You by Caroline Kepnes, You is about a serial killer played by Penn Badgley who owns a bookstore. When he falls in love with a customer (Elizabeth Lail), he starts to manipulate her into falling in love with him.
SEX EDUCATION
A second Netflix series on this list of the best television shows of 2019, according to IMDb, is Sex Education. This show's greatest weapon is none other than X-Files alumni Gillian Anderson as Dr. Milburn, a sex therapist who is very frank and blunt about all aspects of sex.
However, the show itself is based on Otis Milburn, the good doctor's son, who is almost traumatized by his mother's openness compared to his own social anxiety. When Otis finally opens up and starts his own sex advice business for students, things take a turn, and the entire series turns into a heartfelt and excellent high school tale.
PEAKY BLINDERS
Moving over to BBC, Peaky Blinders is next on the list of the best television shows of 2019, according to IMDb. The series premiered in 2013 on BBC Two, and by 2019, the fifth season moved over to BBC One. The good news for fans is that there are two more seasons planned for the popular series.
This is a crime series following the Shelby crime family after the end of World War I, loosely based on the real-life Peaky Blinders youth gang of the same period. Cillian Murphy takes the lead in this series, which has also featured names like Tom Hardy, Adrien Brody, and Paddy Considine.
THE WALKING DEAD
Every year there is talk from fans about The Walking Dead dropping in quality, and with those complaints come signs that the show is slowing down. While ratings might be down, The Walking Dead is still one of the most-watched shows on television and in 2019, ranked seventh according to IMDb for the year's best TV shows.
This included the second part of season 9, where the main protagonist Rick Grimes left the show and the first part of season 10, where The Whisperers started a war with the survivors.
BLACK MIRROR
Back to Netflix, Black Mirror ranks next for the year's best television shows, according to IMDb. This year saw season 5 hit, and it only consisted of three total episodes, although Bandersnatch hit on Dec. 28, 2018, and many people continued to watch that episode into 2019 as well.
Black Mirror is similar to Twilight Zone except that it mostly ignores fantasy and deals with hard sci-fi and the fear of technology in society. The three episodes in 2019 included one over virtual reality gaming, the second over social media and privacy laws, and the third about an AI doll.
THE BOYS
There are two television shows on the list of the best of 2019, according to IMDb based on comic books — and neither based on Marvel or DC heroes. In The Boys, Amazon Prime Video adapted the Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson comic book series about a group of black ops vigilantes who protect the world from superheroes.
The Seven is this world's version of The Justice League, but they are mostly self-serving, egotistical jerks who only act as superheroes to make money for them and the company that finances them. On the other hand, The Boys have no powers and still take it upon themselves to kill any superpowered being who gets out of control.
THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY
The second comic book adaptation on this list is on Netflix and is about seven people who have superpowers, raised by an arrogant and narrow-minded genius, to be heroes. However, as adults, they went their separate ways, and all have serious problems both emotionally and psychologically.
In The Umbrella Academy, when their "father" dies, Number 3 returns years after disappearing, still as a child, and tells his family that the world will be destroyed in a matter of days if they don't do something to stop it. The comics themselves were created by Gerard Way of the band My Chemical Romance, and artist Gabriel Ba.
STRANGER THINGS
The third season of Stranger Things came out in 2019, and fans continued to flock to this love letter to the '80s as the story of what haunts the town of Hawkins, Indiana, rose and threatened to overtake the entire community. The kids are all getting older, and some have become more famous with roles in Godzilla: King of The Monsters and IT.
While the story isn't quite as fresh as it was in season 1, this is still a show that gives fans everything they want, from great monsters to a solid mystery, an excellent cast, and fantastic pop culture references from the era of excess. The next season is currently in development.
CHERNOBYL
The one TV series on this list that will likely surprise many people is Chernobyl. It is the one that many mainstream television fans have never even heard of. It was a miniseries that aired on HBO in association with Sky UK. and told the story of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster of 1986.
The film was about the people who caused the disaster, including some lesser-known names, and the efforts of the government to cover it up. The drama was also as close to a real-life horror story as you can get as it also featured the firefighters responding to the scene and the aftermath.
GAME OF THRONES
If you just read the Internet, the final season of Game of Thrones was the worst ever. The truth is, when a show gets as big as GoT, it is impossible to please anyone with the final season of the series. Game of Thrones had fewer episodes in the last season, all longer than regular episodes.
The plan was to make every episode like its own short feature film. However, with fewer episodes, there was less time to wrap up all the stories comfortably, and it seemed the season rushed from one plot point to the next to the end. Fans complained, but most didn't care as it ranked as the best television series of 2019 according to IMDb users regardless of the complaints.