Year-End Lists

David Wiegand: 10 Best TV Shows of 2017, as published by The San Francisco Chronicle. This year it “includes only shows that premiered in 2017.”

[see also 2016]

• The Long Road Home
• The Handmaid’s Tale
• The Deuce
• I Love Dick
• Ozark
• The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
• The Vietnam War
• GLOW
• Legion
• One Day at a Time

Emily VanDerWerff: 18 Best TV Shows of 2017, “an 18-way tie,” as published by Vox

[see also 2021 • 2010s • 2019 • 2018]

• Better Call Saul
• Better Things
• BoJack Horseman
• Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
• The Deuce
• The Good Place
• Halt and Catch Fire
• The Handmaid’s Tale
• Insecure
• The Leftovers
• The Magicians
• Master of None
• Mr. Robot
• Nathan for You
• One Day at a Time
• Search Party
• Twin Peaks: The Return
• The Vietnam War

The second tier: 27 more shows I loved, in alphabetical order

• 12 Monkeys
• American Vandal
• The Americans
• Bates Motel
• Big Mouth
• Binging With Babish
• Black-ish
• The Bold Type
• The Carmichael Show
• Channel Zero: No End House
• The Chris Gethard Show
• The Crown
• Dear White People
• The Exorcist
• The Expanse
• Fargo
• Girls
• GLOW
• I Love Dick
• Samurai Jack
• Sense8
• She’s Gotta Have It
• Speechless
• Superstore
• Sweet/Vicious
• Vice Principals
• The Young Pope

Andy Greenwald: Top Ten TV Shows of 2017, as posted to Twitter

1. Twin Peaks: The Return
2. The Young Pope
3. The Leftovers
4. The Deuce
5. Glow
6. Mindhunter
7. Top of the Lake: China Girl
8. Insecure
9. The Good Place
10. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

San Jose Mercury News: Best TV Shows of 2017

[see also 2018]

1. Big Little Lies
2. Better Things
3. The Leftovers
4. The Handmaid’s Tale
5. Mindhunter
6. Feud: Bette and Joan
7. Game of Thrones
8. The Good Place
9. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
10. The Deuce

Esquire: Best TV Shows of 2017

[see also 2020 • 2010s • 2018]

1. Twin Peaks: The Return
2. Big Little Lies
3. The Handmaid’s Tale
4. The Good Place
5. The Leftovers
6. Master of None
7. The Deuce
8. The Vietnam War
9. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
10. At Home with Amy Sedaris
11. GLOW
12. The Crown
13. Mr. Robot
14. Better Call Saul
15. This Is Us
16. Mindhunter
17. Will & Grace
18. The Punisher
19. Legion
20. The Good Fight
21. American Gods
22. Game of Thrones
23. Feud: Bette and Joan
24. Girls
25. Riverdale

Noel Murray: 20 Best TV Shows of 2017, as published by The Verge

[see also 2020 • 2018]

• Twin Peaks: The Return
• Halt and Catch Fire
• The Leftovers
• The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
• Mindhunter
• Black-ish
• Better Call Saul
• Fargo
• The Good Place
• One Day at a Time
• Brockmire
• Feud
• Great News
• The Vietnam War
• Outlander
• Brooklyn Nine-Nine
• The Deuce
• Rick and Morty
• Stranger Things
• Survivor’s Remorse

David Bianculli: Best TV of 2017 (as aired on NPR’s Fresh Air)

[see also 2020 • 2019 • 2018]

1. Better Call Saul
2. Godless
3. Curb Your Enthusiasm
4. Fargo
5. Legion
6. Mindhunter
7. Black Mirror
8. The Americans
9. The Good Place
10. Big Little Lies
10. The Deuce
10. The Handmaid’s Tale

Entertainment Weekly: Best TV Shows of 2017

[see also 2016]

1. GLOW
2. Twin Peaks: The Return
3. Big Little Lies
4. The Good Place
5. Rick and Morty
6. Insecure
7. The Handmaid’s Tale
8. DuckTales
9. American Crime
10. Mr. Robot

Writing in The New Yorker, Emily Nussbaum provides this wisdom about lists:

Each December, I write a festive rant about my loathing for Top Ten lists. It’s always the same: lists are reductive, phony, anti-art. Online, they work first as clickbait, then as groupthink. They force critics to rate radically dissimilar projects—the epic, the dramedy, the sleek time-killer, the ambitious game-changer that doesn’t quite cohere—so that algorithms can crunch out a blandly universal must-see selection. I don’t like math, and if I knew anything about how numbers worked I wouldn’t have gone into arts criticism. Plus, I haven’t seen all the TV, and neither have you.

After some important caveats and context, she offers these favorite TV shows:

[see also 2019 • 2018]

1. The Leftovers

Runners-up, not in order

• The Deuce
• Broad City
• Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
• American Vandal
• Big Little Lies
• One Mississippi
• Search Party
• Lady Dynamite
• GLOW
• Claws
• Alias Grace
• Jane the Virgin

The Daily Beast: 20 Best TV Shows of 2017

1. Big Little Lies
2. The Handmaid’s Tale
3. The Leftovers
4. Better Things
5. Veep
6. Insecure
7. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
8. This Is Us
9. Girls
10. Jimmy Kimmel Live!
11. The Good Place
12. Search Party
13. American Vandal
14. Game of Thrones
15. One Day at a Time
16. The Deuce
17. Claws
18. The Good Fight
19. Will & Grace
20. The Real Housewives of New York City