Year-End Lists

The A.V. Club: The 25 Best TV Shows of 2020

[see also 2021 • 2010s • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016]

1. I May Destroy You
2. Mrs. America
3. BoJack Horseman
4. What We Do in the Shadows
5. The Good Place
6. Better Call Saul
7. The Queen's Gambit
8. Schitt's Creek
9. The Great
10. Never Have I Ever
11. Ted Lasso
12. PEN15
13. Better Things
14. Small Axe
15. Betty
16. Harley Quinn
17. The Baby-Sitters Club
18. Big Mouth
19. The Last Dance
20. How To with John Wilson
21. City So Real
22. Joe Pera Talks with You
23. P-Valley
24. Bad Education
25. The Good Lord Bird

Inkoo Kang: The 10 Best TV Shows of 2020, as published by The Hollywood Reporter

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2015 • 2014]

1. My Brilliant Friend
2. Mrs. America
3. P-Valley
4. I May Destroy You
5. The Crown
6. The Good Lord Bird
7. Visible: Out on Television
8. What We Do in the Shadows
9. Harley Quinn
10. On the Record

Honorable mentions

• Big Mouth
• The Boys
• Cheer
• Dave
• The Good Fight
• The Queen's Gambit
• Schitt's Creek
• Unorthodox
• We Are Who We Are
• Work in Progress

Angelica Jade Bastién: Top 10 Shows of 2020, as published by New York Magazine’s Vulture

[see also 2019]

1. I May Destroy You
2. Veneno
3. Harley Quinn
4. City So Real
5. BoJack Horseman
6. P-Valley
7. The Good Lord Bird
8. The Third Day
9. A Teacher
10. Dare Me

Kathryn VanArendonk: Top 10 Shows of 2020, as published by New York Magazine’s Vulture

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2019]

1. I May Destroy You
2. The Good Lord Bird
3. City So Real
4. How To with John Wilson
5. What We Do in the Shadows
6. Mrs. America
7. P-Valley
8. The Crown
9. The Baby-Sitters Club
10. The Great

AllMusic: Best Albums of 2020

[see also 2023 • 2021 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2015 • 2014 • 2013 • 2012 • 2011]

• Power Up
  AC/DC
• There Is No Year
  Algiers
• Whole New Mess
  Angel Olsen
• Cha Cha Palace
  Angelica Garcia
• Howells: Missa Sabrinensis
  Bach Choir, David Hill, and BBC Concert Orchestra
• YHLQMDLG
  Bad Bunny
• Shortly After Takeoff
  BC Camplight
• Workaround
  Beatrice Dillon
• Rough and Rowdy Ways
  Bob Dylan
• Blue Hearts
  Bob Mould
• Manger on McNichols
  Boldy James / Sterling Toles
• B7
  Brandy
• Your Life Is a Record
  Brandy Clark
• Skeletons
  Brothers Osborne
• Mahler 4
  Carolyn Sampson, Minnesota Orchestra, Osmo Vanska
• 3.15.20
  Childish Gambino
• Ungodly Hour
  Chloe x Halle
• Be Water
  Christian Sands
• Rose in the Dark
  Cleo Sol
• England Is a Garden
  Cornershop
• Sex, Death & the Infinite Void
  Creeper
• Ohms
  Deftones
• Future Nostalgia
  Dua Lipa
• Schubert: Symphonies, Vol. 2 – Nos. 2 & 6 & Overtures in the Italian Style
  Edward Gardner and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
• Alive in the Wilderness
  Endless Field
• When Love Speaks: Choral Music by Owain Park
  The Epiphoni Consort and Tim Reader
• Fetch the Bolt Cutters
  Fiona Apple
• Shore
  Fleet Foxes
• Dialogues On Race, Vol. 1
  Gregg August
• Women in Music Pt. III
  Haim
• Petals for Armor
  Hayley Williams
• Edna
  Headie One
• Warnings
  I Break Horses
• Who Sent You?
  Irreversible Entanglements
• Big Conspiracy
  J Hus
• Reunions
  Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit
• A Written Testimony
  Jay Electronica
• What's Your Pleasure?
  Jessie Ware
• Who Are You?
  Joel Ross
• Years
  John Anderson
• Healing Is a Miracle
  Julianna Barwick
• Descendants of Cain
  Ka
• Loom
  Katie Gately
• Mordechai
  Khruangbin
• Kidbug
  Kidbug
• Splid
  Kvelertak
• DISCO
  Kylie Minogue
• Chromatica
  Lady Gaga
• Song for Our Daughter
  Laura Marling
• Lianne La Havas
  Lianne La Havas
• Miss Colombia
  Lido Pimienta
• Walking Proof
  Lilly Hiatt
• Don't Shy Away
  LOMA
• Private Lives
  Low Cut Connie
• 2020
  Magik Markers
• That's How Rumors Get Started
  Margo Price
• Sibelius Symphonies No 4 & 6
  Hallé & Sir Mark Elder
• Silver Ladders
  Mary Lattimore
• Un Canto por México, Vol. 1
  Natalia Lafourcade
• Motherhood
  No Joy
• SOURCE
  Nubya Garcia
• Magic Oneohtrix Point Never
  Oneohtrix Point Never
• Tallis: Spem in Alium; MacMillan: The Forty Part Motet: Vidi Aquam
  ORA Singers
• Set My Heart on Fire Immediately
  Perfume Genius
• Punisher
  Phoebe Bridgers
• I Disagree
  Poppy
• Alter Ego
  Prince Royce
• Jancevskis: Aeternum
  The Mixed Choir of Riga Cathedral Choir School and Jurģis Cābulis
• Sawayama
  Rina Sawayama
• RTJ4
  Run the Jewels
• Feral
  RVG
• Róisín Machine
  Róisín Murphy
• Untitled (Rise)
  Sault
• Shabrang
  Sevdaliza
• We Are Sent Here by History
  Shabaka and the Ancestors
• Heart's Ease
  Shirley Collins
• color theory
  Soccer Mommy
• Ash Wednesday
  Andrew Nethsingha and The Choir of St. John's Cambridge
• Traditional Techniques
  Stephen Malkmus
• Wild Wild East
  Sunny Jain
• SODO Pop
  Supercrush
• The Slow Rush
  Tame Impala
• Folklore
  Taylor Swift
• The Album
  Teyana Taylor
• Imploding the Mirage
  The Killers
• Little Dominiques Nosebleed
  The Koreatown Oddity
• Microphones in 2020
  The Microphones
• Shall We Go On Sinning So That Grace May Increase?
  The Soft Pink Truth
• The New Abnormal
  The Strokes
• After Hours
  The Weeknd
• Aranjuez
  Thibaut Garcia
• It Is What It Is
  Thundercat
• Rakka
  Vladislav Delay
• Blue Eyes, The Harlot, The Queer, The Pusher & Me
  Waylon Payne
• Endless Space (Between You & I)
  Winter
• Mind Hive
  Wire
• if You Feel
  Xavier Omär
• L'Ère du Verseau
  Yelle
• Heaven to a Tortured Mind
  Yves Tumor
• Listening To The Music
  Zephaniah OHora

IndieWire: The Best Documentaries of 2020

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2010s • 2015]

• All In: The Fight for Democracy
  Liz Garbus and Lisa Cortés
• Athlete A
  Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk
• Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets
  Bill Ross IV and Turner Ross
• Boys State
  Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine
• City Hall
  Frederick Wiseman
• Collective
  Alexander Nanau
• Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution
  Nicole Newnham and James LeBrecht
• Dick Johnson Is Dead
  Kirsten Johnson
• Gunda
  Viktor Kosakovskiy
• Mayor
  David Osit
• The Mole Agent
  Maite Alberdi
• 76 days
  Hao Wu, Weixi Chen and Anonymous
• The Social Dilemma
  Jeff Orlowski
• Time
  Garrett Bradley
• The Truffle Hunters
  Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw

Elisa Gabbert: The Best Poetry of 2020, as published by The New York Times, "several collections that I wasn’t able to write about in full or otherwise feel deserve more attention"

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021]

• African American Poetry

  250 Years of Struggle & Song
  Kevin Young (editor)
• Arena
  Lauren Shapiro
• Cardinal
  Tyree Daye
• Emporium
  Aditi Machado
• Inheritance
  Taylor Johnson
• Music for the Dead and Resurrected
  Valzhyna Mort
• My Daily Actions, or The Meteorites
  S. Brook Corfman
• Wicked Enchantment
  Wanda Coleman

The Atlantic: The 15 Best TV Shows of 2020. See The Atlantic for how each entry "impressed us by excelling in a specific arena."

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021]

• PEN15
• I May Destroy You
• The Crown
• Normal People
• How To with John Wilson
• The Queen's Gambit
• The Last Dance
• Insecure
• Dare Me
• Hard Knocks: Los Angeles
• Mrs. America
• Ted Lasso
• Selling Sunset
• Taste the Nation with Padma Lakshmi
• BoJack Horseman

Also noteworthy

• Never Have I Ever
• The Great
• Little Fires Everywhere
• My Brilliant Friend
• Cheer
• Dead to Me
• Stumptown
• Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich
• Emily in Paris
• Million Dollar Beach House
• The American Barbecue Showdown
• The Good Place
• Schitt's Creek

David Sims: The 10 Best Films of 2020, as published by The Atlantic

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2019 • 2018]

1. First Cow
   Kelly Reichardt
2. Small Axe: Lovers Rock
   Steve McQueen
3. The Nest
   Sean Durkin
4. I'm Thinking of Ending Things
   Charlie Kaufman
5. Mank
   David Fincher
6. Nomadland
   Chloé Zhao
7. Bacurau
   Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles
8. Tenet
   Christopher Nolan
9. Never Rarely Sometimes Always
   Eliza Hittman
10. Da 5 Bloods
    Spike Lee

This list contributes to:

• Village Voice Film Poll: Top 50 Films of 2020

American Songwriter: Top Albums of 2020 in no particular order

[see also 2023 • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2015 • 2014 • 2013 • 2012 • 2011]

• Fetch the Bolt Cutters
  Fiona Apple
• By the Fire
  Thurston Moore
• Never Will
  Ashley McBryde
• Letter to You
  Bruce Springsteen
• Nowhere Near Done
  Ray Scott
• What You Gonna Do When The Grid Goes Down?
  Public Enemy
• Leave What's Lost Behind
  Colony House
• Songs to Break Up To
  Wild Rivers
• Folklore
  Taylor Swift
• Saint Cloud
  Waxahatchee
• Amends
  Grey Daze
• Bridges
  Mickey Guyton
• Colores
  J Balvin
• Highway Angels... Full Moon Rain
  Jimmy LaFave
• Arm in Arm
  Steep Canyon Rangers
• Wild World
  Kip Moore
• iimini
  Bongeziwe Mabandla
• Starting Over
  Chris Stapleton
• Gaslighter
  The Chicks
• Wake Up, Sunshine
  All Time Low
• RTJ4
  Run the Jewels