The 20 best TV shows of 2019 so far, according to critics

Critic score: 93%

Audience score: 53%

What critics said: "The Magicians has done something I have never experienced on a show before: It gave me a chance to grieve." — io9

Critic score: 94%

Audience score: 92%

What critics said: "There are enough hallucinogenic thrills in Legion's third season to keep the rest of it from falling apart, even as time travel threatens to force the characters to do that very thing." — The Ringer

Critic score: 94%

Audience score: 94%

What critics said: "With all the riches of the vampire myth in literature, folklore, art and cinema to plunder, What We Do In The Shadows is visually arresting, smart and witty." — Financial Times

Critic score: 95%

Audience score: 60%

What critics said: "It's my firm belief that The Good Fight would be the most meme-d show on television if more people were watching it." — Vulture

Critic score: 95%

Audience score: 88%

What critics said: "Feels like a finely-tuned, precision-crafted Web series, with potent little zingers stitched into every exchange — along with the occasional sledgehammer." — Boston Globe

Critic score: 96%

Audience score: N/A

What critics said: "It's harder now to ignore, watching the early episodes of Season Two, that Big Little Lies is offering up some of the best psychological storytelling on television." — The Atlantic

Critic score: 96%

Audience score: 77%

What critics said: "Everyone is either a fool, a knave or a monster in HBO's hilariously scabrous political satire starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus. After seven seasons, Veep ends its run with its sharp teeth fully intact." — NPR

Critic score: 96%

Audience score: 87%

What critics said: "The most glorious thing about Pose remains unchanged: At its heart, it's simply a family drama. The family is one its characters built themselves, in a world where love can be scarce." — RogerEbert.com

Critic score: 96%

Audience score: 91%

What critics said: "DuVernay makes an effective artistic choice by filming much of this through a blue filter, so that the boys' world is enveloped by a Kafkaesque indigo gloom from which they — and the viewer — can find no escape." — Newsday

Critic score: 96%

Audience score: 98%

What critics said: "With renewed interest in the 33-year-old disaster has come a curious sense of moralizing proprietorship — which makes you wonder what, exactly, people are getting from the miniseries." — BuzzFeed

Critic score: 97%

Audience score: 81%

What critics said: "The writing is rich and layered, the references are topical ... and 'Ramy' explores topics and themes that feel quietly revolutionary." — Detroit News

Critic score: 100%

Audience score: 55%

What critics said: "The fake documentary skewers the pretentiousness and earnestness of documentarians, as well as the fact that people are willing to utter the most ridiculous and self-incriminating statements when facing a camera." — Washington Post

Critic score: 100%

Audience score: 67%

What critics said: "Tuca & Bertie is raucous, heartfelt, surreal, and distinctly female." — AV Club

Critic score: 100%

Audience score: 69%

What critics said: "To its major credit, Better Things simply refuses to make concessions to the classic sitcom form ... Sometimes the more mirthful stuff is jammed in a script's nooks and crannies." — Wall Street Journal

Critic score: 100%

Audience score: 84%

What critics said: "[Los Espookys] successfully captures the feeling of living in two spaces simultaneously that is often common to anyone juggling multiple selves within their identity — like immigrants, say, or artists." — Vox

Critic score: 100%

Audience score: 88%

What critics said: "Comedies can often feel strained at this advanced age ... That doesn't happen here. If anything, the series feels more in a groove than it did when it was young and new and still surprising." — Rolling Stone

Critic score: 100%

Audience score: 89%

What critics said: "The unique excellence of the second season is how adroitly Hader and co-creator Alec Berg find ways to raise the stakes for Barry while keeping the show's tone darkly amused." — Vanity Fair

Critic score: 100%

Audience score: 97%

What critics said: "Season 2 is a towering accomplishment, proving what many have suspected since her debut: Waller-Bridge is operating on a higher plane, and she's kind enough to take the audience along with her." — Indiewire

Critic score: 100%

Audience score: 98%

What critics said: "Dark's second season more than delivers on the series' characteristic and circuitous time-travel action." — Polygon