Enlarge / TV stepped in to fill the pandemic-fueled gap in new movie releases with a broad array of entertaining series. (credit: Photo collage by Aurich Lawson)
Warning: This story includes major spoilers for the series finale of The Good Place. Although we’ve otherwise done our best to avoid spoiling anything too major, please note this list includes specific references to The Mandalorian, The Flight Attendant, Lovecraft Country, The Boys S2, Star Trek: Lower Decks, and The Queen’s Gambit, among others.
This was the year that going to the movies suddenly became a rare event. As we observed in our roundup of the best films in 2020, “The pandemic has ransacked reliable sources of new films, like theaters and film festivals. And any number of major titles we may have looked forward to on January 1, 2020 (from Dune to Top Gun) have instead chosen to push back by at least 12 months.” Fortunately, TV was there to pick up the slack and keep pandemic-weary viewers entertained at home with more quality content than ever before—much of it from streaming platforms rather than traditional broadcast television.
It’s a trend that has been building for some time, but the streaming wars are now in full swing. Just two broadcast offerings made our year-end list, although CBS’ streaming platform, CBS All Access, made its mark with two of its Star Trek franchise programs. Netflix dominates with nine entries, followed by HBO/HBO Max (5), Amazon (3), and Disney+/ESPN+ (2), with Hulu/FX getting a category all its own. Heck, even YouTube gets a nod this year with Philadelphia Sixers Matisse Thybulle’s series of videos documenting life in the NBA bubble.
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