Top 10 TV Lists For 2020

BECAUSE WE NEED THEM

In the olden days the network television season ran from September to May. There were re-runs during the summer, but those days were for roller skating on the sidewalk and bickering with your siblings. So if you missed an episode, tough luck. Families planned their evenings around their favorite TV shows. Everyone watched Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom on Sunday nights and if you were lucky you got to stay up late enough to watch Carol Burnett. You would laugh but you only understood about 25% of what was happening. It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.

It was the 1970s.

Soon enough we had basic cable TV, MTV, and subscription channels that showed R rated movies without the swear words cut out. Then it was on to VCRs and video stores, and you could tape a show you were going to miss! Amazing. Shortly thereafter arose the DVD and along with it…

The Birth of Netflix

Three DVDs at a time. No late fees. They showed up like lightning in your mailbox. You filled your queue with all the movies and TV shows you’d missed while pregnant, giving birth, and changing diapers (perhaps not universally applicable). You were an early adopter and you never looked back.

Not too many years later Netflix added something called “streaming”. It was free with your DVD subscription and was mostly movies nobody wanted to watch and grainy pictured old TV series. You paid it little attention, though did raise an eyebrow when your 10-year-old daughter watched the entire series Soap while home with a head cold.

But it caught on. And spread. Across the internet debates arose as to the quality of streamed content, the various platforms offering it, and suggestions that it was killing both network TV and movies. You read articles about which streaming services were too expensive, which ones had the best movies, which snagged the rights to your favorite TV shows. You considered trying YouTube TV.

And then the dumpster fire pandemic hellscape of 2020 happened. You stopped arguing about TV. You were stuck at home most of the time and realized that every single streaming service had more content than you could ever watch and your only question (televised entertainment question, that is) became WHAT SHOULD I WATCH NOW?

And that is how 2020 became the Year of Top 10 TV Lists. TV series, movies, genres, different platforms, you need to know what’s worth watching. And we here at Movie Rewind are going to do our part. We will tell you what we like and where to watch it and conveniently compile links to those lists right here on this page for easy reference. Luckily for you I have been watching excessive amounts of TV for YEARS. Let’s get to it.