The 4 best TV shows of 2020+

Of the quadrillion options of entertainment available to spend your precious free time on, I recommend these 4 shows right to the top of your list

I grew up on the TV. Whether it was watching cartoons or playing video games, the television has always been quite central to my world. Nowadays, I probably spend more time on my tiny portable rectangle, but I definitely have a soft spot for the big and not particularly portable rectangle in my living room.

After finishing one of the best episodes of television I have ever seen last night (“Connor’s Wedding,” the third episode of the final season of Succession - it left me speechless) - I was inspired to write an article about some of my favorite recent TV shows, because they’re so freaking good. There’s so much these days to consume, so I feel like recommendations are quite useful so we don’t waste our time getting invested in a show that ends up feeling like a giant waste of time.

I’m also a huge TV snob. But when I like something, I really like it. And these four shows are fantastic, far and away the best I’ve seen in the last wacky 3 years. So without further ado:

1. Succession

When you start this show, you’ll hate everyone in it. They’re just terrible. An extremely rich family, loosely based on the Murdoch family of the Fox empire, acting entitled and awful and selfish and delusional to everyone around them. If you’re like me, you’ll ask yourself - why do so many people recommend this show? I don’t get it.

But keep watching. Please.

Slowly, you’ll start to actually care about these horrible people - mostly due to the writing, which is absolutely brilliant, the way it is filmed, which feels voyeuristic and intimate, like we are getting to see something we aren’t supposed to - the struggles and dynamics of the men and women behind the curtain, controlling so much of our world.

And the acting. Oh man. The aforementioned “Connor’s Wedding” felt so authentic and real that it gave me flashbacks of a similar situation I found myself in my actual life. I wanted to throw an Emmy at everyone. The main cast is so incredibly fleshed out they start to feel like part of your world. The supporting cast adds to the absurdity of the situations everyone finds themselves in. The cast is sublime.

It is gut-bustingly funny at times. I have laughed more strongly during this show at some of the absurd and hilarious situations in this show than any other show. It is incredibly moving at times. The emotions from the actors are so real and raw that you feel them. It is deliciously ridiculous, a train-wreck that you can’t keep your eyes off of and you must know what happens next.

It’s an incredible, brilliant show. Once you get into it, all you’ll wanna do is rave about it to anyone who will listen.

2. The White Lotus

White Lotus is also a show about the rich and how detached they are from the rest of the world, but with a much different focus. Taking place in a luxury hotel called “The White Lotus” (filmed at the Four Seasons Hotel in different locations), the general storyline of each season follows a number of families and their interactions with the hotel staff, the city they are in, the resort amenities, and each other.

What makes this show brilliant is the creator, Mike White (who, fun fact, was a runner up on Survivor one season), has such keen observations of the human condition. There are no real protagonists, the characters are messed up in their own ways, and even though they are somewhat absurd people, they are very real - and as they go through their individual journeys, you can see their hypocrisies and bad habits and insecurities and hangups all play out in very real ways, making what might seem like caricatures at first glance feel relatable.

It’s highly amusing throughout, but with a deeper layer - each of the characters journeys is satisfying and almost a learning experience to better understand what it is to be human. The cinematography is also next level, with amazing shots of the exotic locations that can create a sense of foreboding and awe.

Highly, highly recommended.

3. Severance

I love satire, I love sci-fi, and I love exploring dystopian futures like Black Mirror does. The concept of Severance is essentially a highbrow Black Mirror episode - there’s an experimental program where someone can quite literally separate their work lives and their home lives, and so they never actually experience working anymore and enjoy their life. Sounds great, right?

Except, of course, for the severed personality, who essentially only exists in the work world. And in this bizarro work world, is made to do strange, mysterious tasks while grappling with the betrayal of their outside personality essentially imprisoning them.

The tone of Severance is one of silliness, with a slightly creepy satire of work life and the meaninglessness of it all - coupled with suspense and mystery of the characters trying to grabble with their reality and what is really going on at this company. The performances are great with an all-star cast, and the writing is clever and keeps you guessing. But the real star is the whole concept and execution, the mystery, the suspense - the finale had a sequence that made me jump out of the sofa and yell at the TV, it was so intense, in a brilliant way.

4. Devs

Topical and relevant, Devs is almost better as a show where the less you know the better it is. I will spoil a tiny bit of the concept just to explain - Alex Garland, the creator of this show, also is the writer and creator of one of my favorite movies Ex Machina, which explores artificial intelligence in a humanoid form and its relationship with people. He appears to have a deep understanding of the subject and explores the implications - and while it is in somewhat of a fantasy / sci-fi way, it is rooted in understanding of the technology.

This show is about AI when applied to… Well, everything. The Language Learning Models powering the contemporary AI tools we use, extrapolated into something much larger. The arc of the show is very satisfying and thoughtful, asking and answering questions that all of the best sci-fi tend to ask and explore, like what is consciousness? What do you do with a technology so incredibly powerful it changes how we perceive the world?

Good, heady sci-fi is not especially common, so this was a treat to watch, and not a huge investment since it is only 8 episodes.

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I may in the future do an article on my top 5 favorite shows ever - but if I think about it, it’s hard to top these 4 shows, even though they are quite recent. It’s just a testament to how incredible television is these days. If you also enjoy any of these shows, I would love to chat about them with you :)