A Year in Review: The 10 Best TV Shows of 2019

In 2019, Netflix released more original programming than the entire industry did in 2005. New streaming services debuted this year – Apple TV and Disney+ – with more to come in early 2020, kicking off the so-called streaming wars. Comedies dominated, the first "Star Wars" TV show debuted, and many shows that defined this era of Peak TV came to an end (we said goodbye to "Broad City," "Game of Thrones," "Transparent," "Veep," "Orange Is the New Black," "Catastrophe," "Fleabag," "The Deuce," "Mr. Robot" and more). With that chapter in TV history possibly coming to a close, 2019 welcomed a handful of new programs that will likely forecast what is to come ("Watchmen," "The Mandalorian," "The Morning Show").

Below is a list of the 10 best TV shows that aired in 2019. Some old, some new, some deeply weird and some intensely funny but all were an integral part of making the year what it is. There were so many shows to pick from that this list that in some cases it feels like omitting a show is a slight against it. That's not the case (make sure to see honorable mentions!) and the top 10 could change on any given day. Nevertheless, below are the best programs of the year, at this moment.

10. "Chernobyl" Season 1 (HBO)

The limited series "Chernobyl" was an unexpected powerhouse of a TV event. The tense six-episode series shed light on one of the biggest man-made disasters in the history of mankind. A gripping and intense story that grabbed headlines in the 80s but the tragic event's small details escaped the news and what is highlighted here. The way in which truth and facts can be ignored proved to be horrifying that an actual nuclear meltdown. With its brilliant cast (Stellan Skarsgard, Jessie Buckley, Jared Harris, Emily Watson), Craig Mazin found a vital way to tell the Chernobyl story.

09. "True Detective" Season 3 (HBO)

In its third season, "True Detective" made quite the rebound after critics and fans trashed the pulpy sophomore installment of the popular anthology series. Here, Mahershala Ali (who gives the best performance on TV this year) and Stephen Dorff play Arkansas detectives, Wayne and Roland, respectively, who spend decades getting to the bottom of what happened to a brother and sister who went missing on Halloween day, 1980. With excellent direction from filmmaker Jeremy Saulnier ("Green Room," "Hold the Dark"), who helmed the first two episodes, the third season of the moody and eerie crime drama is meditative, expansive and engrossing, thanks to two grounded and lived-in performances from its leads.

08. "Big Little Lies" Season 2 (HBO)

The return of "Big Little Lies" didn't satisfy everyone, with many taking issue over David E. Kelley's writing, especially with the courtroom scenes in the back half of the season. (And let's not forget that HBO vs. Andrea Arnold drama.) But for all of its misgivings, the show's second season proved to be yet another showcase for its stars. "BLL" is a soap opera with some of the best working actors living today. Zoe Kravitz and Laura Dern both get more to do this time around (but Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman and Shailene Woodley are still wonderful) and the series is only boosted with the addition of Meryl Streep, who gives her best performance in years. Not everything worked this time around, but the show made the case for a sequel and if nothing else, we have this incredible clip of Dern's Renata Klein.

07. "Pose" Season 2 (FX)

"Pose" might be the most radical show of 2019. In its second season, which starts with a time jump from the mid-80s to early 90s, the show decided to do away with a number of its Season 1 characters – the white men and women (Evan Peters, Kate Mara and James Van Der Beek) who orbited the core cast who are fixtures in New York's ballroom scene. It was a wise choice to nix them as they felt like they were on a different show, only dipping in-and-out of "Pose." Season 2 allows the series to focus on trans women and gay men of color as they faced the peak of the AIDS crisis and the commodification of their art, thanks to Madonna's smash single "Vogue." It also featured the episode of the year, a heartbreaking and beautiful one that pays homage to a secondary character in a truly unique way while also celebrating the birth of lip-syncing.

06. "Too Old to Die Young" Season 1 (Amazon)

A singular show from a singular creator. Nicolas Winding Refn's "Too Old to Die Young," which he co-wrote alongside comic book writer Ed Brubaker, is a show of its time, somewhere between a feature film and a streaming program but also outside of both those things. It follows Martin (a restrained Miles Teller), a disgruntled Los Angeles cop intertwined with the city's underbelly that extends to a mystical drug cartel in Mexico. That's only really getting at about one-eighth of what "TOTDY" is about. The show is a vibe and anti-entertainment (scenes that should take just a few seconds play out for minutes on end at a hair-pulling pace) with NWF giving into his worst and most deprived tendencies that offer the best results: A 12-hour car chase into the California desert as Barry Manilow's "Mandy" soundtracks the adventure, a jaw-dropping twist, and an incredibly creepy Billy Baldwin are just a few examples of what makes the show spurring. "TOTDY" came-and-went with little promotion from Amazon; a perfect encapsulation of the show itself.

05. "Watchmen" Season 1 (HBO)

"Watchmen" might be the series we look at 10 years from now and realize that it's the show that kicked off this new era of television. Damon Lindelof's "remix" of the beloved graphic novel is one of the most fascinating and enjoyable TV shows of the year; no easy task. His follow up to "The Leftovers" is unexpected and unlike anything before, taking the original 12-issue series and turning it on its head, making something fresh and new while speaking to our current political climate. It's the most un-superhero superhero piece of intellectual property that has existed, managing to explore race, sexuality, the police force and the painful history of America. "Watchmen" also features stellar performances from its unusual cast (Regina King Jean Smart, Hong Chau, Jeremy Irons, Don Johnson, Tim Blake Nelson, Yahya Abdul-Mateen) who inhabit a lived-in strange world that is parallel to ours. There's plenty of smart writing about the "Watchmen" TV show out there and encourage anyone reading this list to seek it out.

04. "Succession" Season 2 (HBO)

The best dramas are comedies and the second season of Jesse Armstrong's "Succession" proved to be the darkest and most tragic comedy of 2019. After a fantastic first season, the return of the show felt more insular with members of the Roy family at complete odds as their conglomerate Waystar Royco tried to prevent a coup and avoid a media disaster. For all of the Tom (Matthew Macfadyen) and Cousin Greg (Nicholas Braun) shenanigans, Shiv's (Sarah Snook) laser-focused ambition and Roman (Kieran Culkin) and Gerri's (J. Smith-Cameron) bizarre new connection, "Succession" Season 2 solidified the show's core is between Kendall (Jeremy Strong) and his father Logan (Brian Cox). "Succession" underlined that it is a show full of characters you hate to love as they climb over each other to avoid being the boar on the floor.

03. "Mr. Robot" Season 4 (USA)

I've yet to see the series finale of "Mr. Robot" so its placement is tentative. Regardless of how Sam Esmail finishes his accomplished hacking drama, the fourth and final season remains one of the best things to air in 2019. After pausing the show while star Rami Malek filmed "Bohemian Rhapsody," for which he won an Oscar, Esmail directed 10 spectacular episodes of the conspiracy thriller "Homecoming" on Amazon starring Julia Roberts. Upon returning, both Malek and Esmail have been in top form, turning out some truly stunning visual sequences (a nearly entire episode without dialogue) and a lot of well-earned twists. "Mr. Robot" has been building since its 2015 debut and its two-hour series finale ought to come with a satisfying payoff that could go down in TV history.

02. "Fleabag" Season 2 (Amazon)

The second and apparently final season of "Fleabag" became a cultural juggernaut this year; easily one of the most lauded shows of 2019. In just six 30-minute episodes, creator/writer/star Phoebe Waller-Bridge's demented love story about a young woman falling in love with the so-called hot priest (Andrew Scott) captured audiences unlike any comedy in recent years. It is a testament to PWB's writing and her charm, creating a show about redemption and faith. But "Fleabag" Season 2 is so elevated; in its writing, direction and characters (the show has a wonderful supporting cast that includes Olivia Coleman as Fleabag's stepmother, Sian Clifford as her sister Claire and Bretty Gelman as Martin, Claire's piggish American husband).

01. "PEN15" Season 1 (Hulu)

Hulu had a boom this year with small comedies, including "Shrill," "Ramy" and "Dollface." But it's "PEN15" that is not only the best of the streamer's offerings but the best thing to debut in 2019. While certain audiences are constantly delivered fanservice from Hollywood, which turns out several superhero movies and franchise blockbusters each year, the small and deeply weird "PEN15" felt like my Avengers. Taking place in the early 00s, the comedy stars Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle, who created the series alongside Sam Zvibleman, as 7th-grade versions of themselves. The gag here is that the adult women are acting as young teens and with actual young teens. But the duo are incredibly gifted performers who nail a specific era that has yet to be fully depicted in TV and film. Maya and Anna are two BFF geeks, stressing out over AOL Instant Messenger screen names, first kisses, wild fashion choices and bullies. Each of the 10 half-hour episodes in "PEN15" Season 1 is fully lived-in and authentic and feels like you're seeing someone's Live Journal entry from acted out on screen. The comedy is also smart enough to not be all about nostalgia, touching on some radical moments that are relevant today, including racism, divorce, and female friendships.

Honorable mentions: "Mindhunter" Season 2 (Netflix), "Killing Eve" Season 2 (BBC America), "Better Things" Season 3 (FX), "Euphoria" Season 1 (HBO), "Undone" Season 1 (Amazon), "When They See Us" Season 1 (Netflix), "Stranger Things" Season 3 (Netflix), "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" Season 3 (Amazon), "Servant" Season 1 (Apple TV+), "Mrs. Fletcher" Season 1 (HBO), "The Other Two" Season 1 (Comedy Central), "Dickenson" Season 1 (Apple TV+), "Ramy" Season 1 (Hulu), "The Righteous Gemstones" Season 1 (HBO), "The OA" Season 2 (Netflix)