2020 TV shows: the best new TV shows to binge-watch

2019 gave us a new officially-highest-rated TV show of all time, according to IMDb. Chernobyl, the first co-production between Sky and HBO, dramatises the awful true story of the aftermath, reaction and cover up of the worst nuclear disaster in history.

Tense, gripping and horrifying, the show has been praised for its realism too. In fact, scenes were actually filmed in an abandoned power plant in Lithuania with the same reactor as the one that exploded at Chernobyl.

Not only did Fleabag Season 2 have the nation fawning over Andrew Scott’s Hot Priest™, it sparked a country-wide increase in sales of the pre-mixed Gin & Tonic cans the character swigs in the show, with Marks and Spencer reporting a 24% increase in sales after the drink was featured in the second episode of the season.

Wondering about the title? Writer and star Phoebe Waller-Bridge has revealed that while though the show isn’t autobiographical, the name comes from her family nickname: ‘Fleabag’.

Natasha Lyonne stars in this Netflix dark comedy about a woman caught in a time loop, constantly dying and re-living the same night in New York City. The show is as endlessly rewatchable as the night she’s reliving.

You’ll be adding the song that plays every time Lyonne’s Nadia ‘resets’, “Gotta Get Up” by American singer Harry Nilsson, to your playlists immediately. But others considered by the producers included "Not Tonight" by Lil' Kim, and "No Fun" by The Stooges.

Stranger Things just keeps getting better and better. Things have moved on in season 3 and, despite the series playing of nostalgia, there's no yearning for the characters how they were in season 1 and 2 – it's truly a delight to see how they've grown and changed. It's tense, it's colourful, it's achingly 80s and it's a must-watch

This hit new TV show follows the Roy family. They're owners of a big media company called Waystar Royco and everything is thrown into turmoil when the family patriarch, called Logan Roy, becomes ill. As you might expect, his power (and money) hungry children start to prepare for what will happen if their dad passes away. It's a satirical comedy with fantastic performances from the likes of Brian Cox, who plays Logan.

Acclaimed spy thriller Killing Eve returned for its second season this year, following a multi-BAFTA-winning first. In a cat-and-mouse game across the globe, Jodie Comer and Sandra Oh star as a psychopathic assassin and the MI5 agent on her case, who are both equally hunting, and obsessed with, each other.

Comer’s assassin, Villanelle, is rumoured to be named from a combination of "Villain" and the French word "Elle" for 'she' – meaning She-Villain.

There was a lot to love about Star Trek: The Next Generation, but what Star Trek: Picard does so well is it takes the best bits of TNG and spins a whole new story around them. As you'd expect, it revolves around Jean-Luc Picard, but in his later life after he's waved goodbye to Starfleet. He's enjoying a nice life in rural France with wine and a great dog (called Number 1) but then a mystery begins to unravel that sees Picard swept up on another space adventure, which involves Romulans, artificial intelligence and, his good old friend, Data.

A shy and insecure teen called Otis knows a lot about sex. Not because he's having lots of it, but because his mum is a sex therapist. This is why he teams up with Maeve to open a sex-therapy clinic at school, which then follows the stories of pupils who come to seek advice, about sex, of course, but also love, intimacy and all of the messy feelings that come with it.

This hilarious mockumentary is written by, and stars, brother and sister duo Daisy May and Charlie Cooper. It's based in a village in the Cotswolds and touches on what it means to be a young person in rural England – which most of the time just shows how boring it can be. The show has had great reviews and, after its first season, came back for another, a 40-minute special and now a third and final season, which landed on BBC iPlayer in March.

Mr Robot has been one of the most ambitious and tense shows to watch since it was first released back in 2015. And for anyone who thinks this is just a show about hacking, you couldn't be more wrong. This is one of the most watchable, fantastically-acted shows around right now with the fourth and final season really went above and beyond - the format of some of the episodes in this season were so ambitious we still haven't wrapped our heads around them.

Sure it's always a near-impossible task to end such a beloved TV series. And we won't give away the ending, but we will say it's a very pleasing and cathartic one for a change.

The Expanse could be one of our favourite TV shows of all time. It's science-fiction, dealing with the challenges that arise once humans have left Earth and begun to venture into the solar system, but it's so much more as well. It deals with friendship, love and a lot of politics to boot. That's why we'd recommend to everyone - not just space nerds.

The latest season is a change of pace. No longer are the main characters of the Roccinante just whizzing through the solar system, there are more and more worlds to discover and, as you'd expect, lots of ancient aliens, challenges and hardships to face.

When it first came out, everyone thought Better Call Saul would just be a fun Breaking Bad spin-off series. But over the past four seasons, the fantastic writing, beautiful cinematography and brilliant (brilliant, brilliant) acting has proved that Saul Goodman's story stands up even if Breaking Bad was never a thing. The series has done a great job at showing us the making of Saul Goodman and season five is already heating up to be one of the best. Episodes of the new season are currently being released weekly on Netflix.

In 1989, a jogger was assaulted and raped in Central Park. The case gripped New York, and five young black and Hispanic men, all aged between 14 and 16, were found guilty of the crime – even though they never committed it.

This emotional dramatisation of the events aired on Netflix to critical acclaim. The story is increasingly significant today. At the time, Donald Trump actively camaigned to bring back the death penalty to ‘punish’ the wrongly accused Central Park Five.

The Mandalorian is the first Star Wars live action TV show and it's already proved to be a big hit over in the US. Now Disney Plus has arrived here in the UK, we can find out what we were missing out on. And boy, have we been missing out. The Mandalorian is best described as a space western, following the story of a Mandalorian bounty hunter who comes across an unusual bounty. The acting is top, the directing is great and the music and visuals work perfectly together. Most importantly, it's a really fun watch – even if you're not that into Star Wars already.

When two children go missing in a small German town, an intricate puzzle ensues. This German language series is as good as anything else on TV right now - like its name suggest, it's dark and every character has some sort of sinister element to them.

The highly-anticipated new season of Westworld is here and it takes place immediately after the events of season two. If you need a quick refresher, then Dolores has escaped Westworld – along with a few other hosts. That means she's out in the real world of Los Angeles in 2058 where she's exposed to the harsh realities of life as a lower-class human after she befriends a man named Caleb. Meanwhile, Maeve finds herself in another park, this time one based on Italy during World War II.

Watchmen was first dreamed up by Alan Moore back in 1986, since then it's been adapted for the big screen and now for the small one - although, importantly, Alan Moore has famously had nothing to do with the adaptations.

The Watchmen TV show we're referring to here was released in 2019 and was created by Damon Lindelof, of Lost fame. We weren't sure about the first few episodes, but now the season is over we can confirm it's a brilliant, bonkers re-imagining of the Watchmen story (well, set after the original Watchmen story) full of mind-bending time travel, crazy twists and some fantastic performances.