RANKED: The 20 best TV shows of the year so far, according to critics

Barry Wetcher/HBO

Riz Ahmed on the HBO limited series “The Night Of.”

Summer isn’t the TV wasteland it used to be.

This used to be a time when fans could catch up on shows they missed via reruns, but we have streaming services for that now.

It also used to be the season when networks aired shows that wouldn’t have a chance during the proper fall/spring schedules, but now it’s the time for critically acclaimed shows like Lifetime’s “UnReal” and HBO’s “The Night Of.”

But are the summer shows hotter than what we’ve seen so far in 2016?

Metacritic keeps track of a curated group of critics, assigns each review a number according to how positive or negative it was, and then creates a weighted average score for each show.

We looked at how this year’s offerings stack up on the scores, and you’ll likely be surprised by what missed the cut. (Sorry, “Game of Thrones” and “Mr. Robot.”)

Here are the 20 most critically acclaimed TV shows of 2016 so far, according to Metacritic:

20. ‘Roots’ (History)

Score: 83

19. ‘Penny Dreadful’ (Showtime)

Score: 83

18. ‘The Dresser’ (Starz)

Score: 84

17. ‘Full Frontal with Samantha Bee’ (TBS)

Score: 84

16. ‘American Crime’ (ABC)

Score: 85

15. ‘Outlander’ (Starz)

Score: 85

14. ‘Lady Dynamite’ (Netflix)

Score: 85

13. ‘Better Call Saul’ (AMC)

Score: 85

12. ‘Orange Is the New Black’ (Netflix)

Score: 86

11. ‘Broad City’ (Comedy Central)

Score: 87

10. ‘UnReal’ (Lifetime)

Score: 87

9. ‘Catastrophe’ (Amazon)

Score: 87

8. ‘Casual’ (Hulu)

Score: 88

7. ‘Veep’ (HBO)

Score: 88

6. ‘BoJack Horseman’ (Netflix)

Score: 89

5. ‘Silicon Valley’ (HBO)

Score: 90

4. ‘The People v. OJ Simpson: American Crime Story’ (FX)

Score: 90

3. ‘The Night Of’ (HBO)

Score: 90

2. ‘The Americans’ (FX)

Score: 95

 

1. ‘OJ: Made in America’ (ESPN)

Score: 96

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