With more than 500 scripted series set to air in 2018, finding the TV shows that will change your life -- or at least your weekend -- is going to be harder than ever. That's where this ranking comes in. Just like 2017, I'll be pointing you to the best TV shows on right now so you'll have something to watch all year long.
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Before you yell at me for leaving outVanderpump Rules, please note that I'm assessing only episodic scripted programs here — so none of the excellent reality shows (like Queer Eye) or docuseries (e.g.,Wild Wild Country) that have aired this year are eligible. Also, to qualify, a show has to have begun a new season or made its U.S. debut during calendar year 2018. Either way, keep checking back, because I'll be updating and re-ranking this puppy frequently. To see what shows made the cut, and to see a photo of Zach Galifianakis getting stomped on by a baby goat, read on.
36. The X-Files (FOX)
Season 11. 10 episodes. The truth is out there, but are any non-completists? As someone who willingly sat through the Doggett years twice and even kind of liked the largely panned 2008 feature film, and would watch it again, for free, at the drop of a hat, even though it would only rank somewhere around the 190th best episode if compared against the original run, I'm in for however many installments of this still occasionally entertaining series Fox commissions. And there's still joy to be found here if you are a true or even lapsed believer, especially in the Darin Morgan episode, "The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat."
Season 1. 10 episodes. As I've been saying for years, any TV show with a soundtrack featuring both a deep cut off Sebadoh's Harmacy and "Leave Them All Behind" by the enormously underrated (and SEO-unfriendly) British rock band Ride should immediately win every Emmy or at least compel me to view it. This Netflix teen melodrama, set in a small Oregon town in 1996 and tracking the social flailings of a group of A/V clubbers and drama nerds, accomplished the latter, and I'm glad it did, because it reminded me of Freaks and Geeks, The Perks of Being a Wallflower and other depictions of angsty teens and the friends who pine unrequitedly for them. Sadly, Netflix opted not to renew it, likely cementing its cult status with other "canceled too soon" one-season wonders -- such as Freaks and Geeks
Season 3. 10 episodes. Let's pause for a moment to salute Ash Williams, the only Michigan-born horror character ever to cut off his own hand and replace it with a chainsaw, and who's played by the inimitable Michigan-born B-movie poobah and best-selling authorBruce Campbell. Ash is a legitimate national treasure whose weapon of choice deserves to be in the Smithsonian one day, and I can't be the only one who just decided that the National Treasure movie series should be rebooted with Campbell taking over for Nicolas Cage. Anyway, in Season 3 of this blood-soaked, slapstick continuation of The Evil Dead movie franchise, Ash slays a fresh batch of Deadites, duh.
Season 1. 10 episodes. Tracy Morgan returns to television as Tray Barker, an ex-con who returns to his Brooklyn neighborhood to find that it has been gentrified and that his ex-girfriend (played by the always awesome Tiffany Haddish) is now married and upwardly mobile. The horror! The humor is ratcheted up at the halfway house Barker is staying at, with Cedric the Entertainer and Morgan set up to play amiable foils
Anthology series. 10 episodes. More than two decades after the murders of these two rap superstars, the search for their killers has left us with little more than countless theories, shitty holograms, and, now, the first season of USA's promisingUnsolved franchise. Don't expect any The Jinx-like twists here, but their tragic, intertwined stories are compellingly told using multiple timelines, which track, roughly, the years leading up to Tupac Shakur's assassination in 1996 and Christopher "the Notorious B.I.G." Wallace's in 1997, the ensuing LAPD investigation into the latter (withWestworld's Jimmi Simpson portraying a stymied detective), and a mid-2000s task-force investigation (with team members played by Josh Duhamel, Bokeem Woodbine, and Wendell Pierce). WhileUnsolved doesn't reach the heights of recent season-long true-crime standouts FX's The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story or Netflix's Wormwood, the 10-episode tale's superb casting and occasionally zippy dialogue elevate it above straight procedurals like last year'sManhunt: Unabomber
Season 1. 10 episodes. Much of the buzz surrounding this lavish period piece, with episodes directed by Danny Boyle and written by Simon Beaufoy, has centered on Brendan Fraser's gonzo performance as a Stetson-wearing head of security sent by Getty Oil founder and family patriarch J. Paul Getty (Donald Sutherland) to negotiate the release of his kidnapped grandson. And Fraser certainly deserves the attention, because he's great. But if that's not enough to sway you to tune in, you can’t deny the ripped-from-old-headlines plot, which was also depicted in the much-discussed 2017 movie All the Money in the World, isn’t an inventive re-telling of a truly bizarre moment in the lives of the rich and famous.
Miniseries. 4 episodes. Hayley Atwell may not have appeared as Agent Carter in Avengers: Infinity War, but as idealistic Margaret Schlegel in this four-part Kenneth Lonergan-scripted adaptation of E.M. Forster’s 1910 novel — co-produced by Starz in the U.S. and BBC in the U.K., where it aired last fall — she battles turn-of-the-century class bias and survives. (Thanos who?) Matthew Macfadyen, who rules on HBO’s Succession, co-stars as ye olde grumpy-pants widower and eventual love interest Henry Wilcox, whose Large Adult Son and other snotty children react negatively to the mismatched pairing. The plot is equal parts ridiculously convoluted (e.g., Margaret, who had befriended Ruth Wilcox prior to her death, inherits the titular stately manse, but Henry and his kids don’t tell her) and impossibly quaint (so many hats!) — which is to say that it’s binge-worthy escapist fare for anyone fond of British period pieces and actors you literally hope get cast in everything.
Miniseries. 4 episodes. This police procedural, which aired on Britain’s BBC Two in February and dropped exclusively on Netflix in March, stars Carrie Mulligan as a dogged, resourceful detective heading up an investigation into the seemingly random murder of a pizza delivery man in London. Not surprisingly, the clues soon point to a conspiracy of zeitgeist-y proportions — refugee crisis! visa panic! — but the series delivers enough plausible twists and solid acting moments, particularly by Mulligan (channeling Helen Mirren’s Jane Tennison), to make this an easy-peasy binge.
Season 1. 10 episodes. This high-concept sci-fi action series, based on the mindbending novel by Richard K. Morgan, requires both laser focus and suspension of disbelief to give in to its trashy charms. With a super-high budget -- its pilot episode is directed by Miguel Sapochnik of Game of Thrones' "Battle of the Bastards" fame -- providing the futuristic flash, AC dazzles and confounds right out of the gate, as we're introduced tothe concept of sleeving, a nutty process by which human consciousness can be transferred into another person's body. That's the ethically thorny way our super-soldier protagonist, Takeshi Kovacs, arrives 250 years into the future after his own "death," where he is promptly tasked by an ultra-wealthy hedonist with solving the murder of the ultra-wealthy hedonist himself. If you tend to roll with batshit sci-fi set-ups like this until they click, you'll stick around to see how it all ends and be pleased that you did so
Miniseries. 5 episodes. As the photo above clearly indicates, Benedict Cumberbatch gives a gonzo performance in this adaptation of novels about a hard-boozing and -drugging Brit coming to terms with his lifelong darkness.
Season 2. 8 episodes. Why, look who's back! It's your second- or third-most favorite quasi-fictional comic Pete Holmes, played by actual comic Pete Holmes. In Season 2, our Ritteresque protagonist continues up the long, humbling incline of success in the world of stand-up comedy, honing his inoffensive comedic stylings, exhibiting neuroses during hangouts with Artie Lange and Bill Barr, and engaging in roast battles with significant others along the way. It's all just humorous enough to keep you in its pasty, white thrall
Limited series. 10 episodes. I learned a few things by watching this stealth banger of a miniseries (which, in addition to the linear TV roll-out, is available in its entirety for Xfinity customers who've tacked on AMC Premiere). First, how did I not know that Jared Harris -- who stars as the beleaguered captain of the titular ship, which gets iced in, along with the doomedThe Erebus (captained by Ciarán Hinds' Sir John Franklin), while searching for the Northwest Passage in the 19th century -- is the son of the legendary Richard Harris? I am a rube, and deserve all the "duh!" comments this admission might generate. Second, Outlander and Game of Thronesactor Tobias Menzies, who plays a jerk-faced ship's commander, should be cast as an antagonist in literally every series. And finally, oversized CGI polar bears are freaking bananas.
Season 2. 13 episodes. Has it really been two-and-a-half years since the first round of adventures with our favorite Netflix-distributed Marvel superhero? Can anyone even remember what 2015 was even like anymore? Jessica is up to much of the same stuff she was in Season 1: surveilling dirtbags, drinking too much, expressing pent-up rage. Only now, post-Kilgrave's gaslighting, she's (reluctantly) attempting to understand who she is and how she acquired special powers. As with many Netflix dramas with 13 episodes, the series drags in the middle and makes you say, repeatedly, "Again with 13 episodes? Come on, 10 would have been so much better!" but you'll never stop watching and they know it, so you may as well just succumb to the talents of Krysten Ritter, Carrie-Anne Moss, and new addition Janet McTeer.
Miniseries. 10 episodes. Based on the Lawrence Wright book about the events that led up to the 9/11 attacks, this gripping miniseries stars Jeff Daniels and Peter Sarsgaard as duelling FBI and CIA investigators.
Anthology series. 9 episodes. The second iteration of Ryan Murphy's true crime anthology is not nearly as mesmerizing as The People v. O.J. Simpson, maybe because it doesn't have David Schwimmer saying "Juice" repeatedly. Still, this one, which focuses on what led the serial killer Andrew Cunanan (played by Darren Criss) to slay the fashion designer (Édgar Ramírez, with Penélope Cruz, pictured, as his sister, Donatella) in 1997, is a fascinating study of a total psycho who loved cheesy dance music and should appeal to fans of, well, American Psycho.
Season 1. 10 episodes. If you really miss The Wire and are sick of gritty series about urban decay all being set in Baltimore, here's your new favorite show.
Season 2. 8 episodes. After a transitional first season on HBO, which followed its cultish run as a web series, this light comedy, about an unnamed dude (played by epic-bearded series co-creator Ben Sinclair, pictured) who delivers weed via a bike, returns to form.
Season 4. 6 episodes. In the six new episodes that make up the first half of this reliably chuckle-inducing comedy's final season, Kimmy confronts the spectre of Richard Wayne Gary Wayne (Jon Hamm), gets called out for being overly friendly at work, and finds her beloved backpack.
Season 1. 10 episodes. What's better than one J.K. Simmons? TwoJ.K. Simmons. (Plus scene-stealer Harry Lloyd.) This inventive sci-fi spy series from writer Justin Marks (The Jungle Book) focuses on a career UN paper-pusher (Simmons) who gets swept up in interdimensional intrigue when his "counterpart" from a parallel universe (also Simmons) jumps through a portal and disrupts diplomacy between the two worlds. It gets mind-bendier from there
Season 2. 13 episodes. The relentlessly grim, yet completely compelling, dystopian drama drops a bigger set of similarly emotionally draining episodes.
Season 3. 10 episodes. Can the dysfunctional Baskets family survive going into the rodeo business together? Can the rodeo survive them? And what of patient, put-upon Martha? The answers, my friend, are blowin' in the Bakersfield wind, along with the scent of Juggalo-cooked Arby's curly fries. If you know what I'm talking about here, you'll love this season.
Season 1. 8 episodes. Stefon is nowhere to be found in this dramedy created by Bill Hader and Silicon Valley showrunner Alec Berg in which theSNL alum plays an assassin who realizes he wants to be an actor. Easier said than done.
Season 5. 10 episodes. A light comedy about a 40-something (Sutton Foster) pretending to be a millennial so that she could land a job in book publishing is completely preposterous in the best possible way. No one does a George R.R. Martin parody as well as Younger.
HBO
13. Westworld (HBO)
Season 2. 10 episodes. HBO's Lost-ian puzzle show about sentient robots did its best this season to perplex, confound and bewilder, even more than the last. But the second installment of Westworld will make way more sense if you view these ten episodes as a single story, rather than trying to figure out what it's all about on an episode-by-episode basis, like I definitely did in a scarily obsessive way
very skilled and weird assassin known as Villanelle (played by Jamie Comer).
Season 5. 7 episodes. If you'd bet me that this show would get worse without the quips of Erlich Bachmanto add some stoner spice, you'd owe me money. (You probably do anyway, so pony up via whatever the latest Venmo-esque sensation is.) Anyway, the show is humming along without T.J. Miller's banished bro. The new main "villain" (that's in quotes because every character on this show, even loveably weird Jared, is a villain) is Bachman's Newman-like nemesis Jian Yang, he of "Not Hot Dog" fame. Will the rest of the gang overcome his shenanigans? Are there douchebags in the tech industry?
YOUTUBE
10. Cobra Kai (YouTube Premium)
Season 1. 10 episodes. Ralph Macchio and William Zabka re-team for the revival series you didn't know you needed. The action picks up three decades after the events that ended the first The Karate Kid movie, and life has not been kind to poor Johnny following Daniel-san's crane kick to the face. Binge on, binge off.
NETFLIX
9. Dear White People (Netflix)
Season 2. 10 episodes. The second go-around of this dramatic comedy series from Justin Simien is a lot like Season 1, only with scene-stealing guest appearances by Tessa Thompson and Lena Waithe, and a plot that focuses more on the secret societies that power Winchester.
NETFLIX
8. Sacred Games (Netflix)
Season 1. 8 episodes. A principled cop investigates a vague threat to Mumbai after receiving a long message recorded by an underworld kingpin.
Seasons 1 and 2. 16 episodes. Told over 16 episodes, which were split into two seasons when they debuted in Germany last fall, this bingeable mystery co-created by Run Lola Run's Tom Twyker and based on a series of novels introduces us to combat soldier-turned-homicide detective Gereon Rath (played by Volker Bruch) as he attempts to navigate around various forms of corruption and deal with his own PTSD during the wacky Weimar Republic days. Very important: As with the time-travel series Dark and, really, any foreign show, make sure to watch this with the subtitles turned on or you'll be subjected to the unintentionally comical dubbing.
Season 1. 10 episodes. This series, about a media empire headed up by a Murdoch-ian mogul with a bickering brood, is like The Big Shortcrossed with Billions -- which makes sense if you consider that Adam McKay is an executive producer and it depicts the gleeful machinations of the megawealthy.
Season 4. 10 episodes. We're getting closer and closer to the time period where Walter White first contacted Saul Goodman on Breaking Bad, and the action is heating up.
Season 3. 12 episodes. The only thing that would make this Showtime drama any more like Face/Off, the beloved 1997 action movie starring John Travolta and Nicolas Cage, is if Paul Giamatti and Damian Lewis switched faces. The glee with which they fuck with each other, sans face-swap, is at the same level of intensity, and it's just as much fun to watch.
Season 6. 10 episodes. By jumping ahead four years to September 1987, a few months ahead of the looming Washington Summit meeting between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, The Americans is setting itself up for a sure-to-be-killer conclusion. The final season finds Paige grappling with her new double-life as a Russian agent, Philip out of action and focused on making the travel agency work, and Elizabeth being, well, Elizabeth. Will there be a happy ending? My Russian-made crystal ball says, "Nyet."
Season 2. 11 episodes. After a long break, during which creator Donald Glover went off and played Lando Calrissian, Atlanta comes back even stronger in its second season, subtitledRobbin' Season. There's higher stakes for everyone involved, but isn't that always the way?
Season 2. 13 episodes. This spin-off of The Good Wife, which focuses on Christine Baranski's fed-up Diane Lockhart but also featuring some top-tier co-stars (e.g., Cush Jumbo, Audra McDonald, Delroy Lindo), delivers the solid procedural legal action everyone craves, while also offering intelligent outrage and eye-rolling over our current political climate. This season, lawyers are being hunted and everyone's on edge, yet the show handles it all with the appropriate amount of gallows humor. Is the world ending? Maybe! And if it is, The Good Fightwants you to grab a martini, take a swig, and enjoy the ride into the apocalypse.
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