How Good Are the ‘Good’ TV Shows? Our Ranking
Looking for some good television? You’re in luck — there are a ton of “good” shows on the tube.
We have good cops, good doctors, good omens, good places, and — of course — good wives. But how good are these shows anyway?
We’ve ranked nine of them from good to great below.
The Good Cop
(Netflix)
This comedy was a hit with neither critics nor viewers — Netflix canceled it after one season last year — but it at least featured Tony Danza as the paroled ex-cop father to a straight-laced NYPD lieutenant played by John Groban. There are worse combos, right?
Good Girls
(NBC)
This NBC dramedy tracks the criminal careers of three suburban Detroit moms who rob a supermarket to make ends meet. And when Mad Men’s Christina Hendricks, Parks and Recreation’s Retta, and Parenthood’s Mae Whitman are involved, you know it’s going to be a fun ride.
Good Behavior
We’d follow Downton Abbey’s Michelle Dockery to any TV show, and we still think this TNT drama — in which she played an ex-con con artist trying to get her life back together — deserved more than just two seasons.
The Good Doctor
(David Bukach/ABC)
Bates Motel’s Freddie Highmore plays an autistic surgical resident in what’s probably the biggest and best medical drama since Grey’s Anatomy, another ABC show. The Good Doctor was a passion project for actor Daniel Dae Kim, who bought the rights to the South Korean original back in 2013.
Good Omens
Yes, this Terry Pratchett adaptation show doesn’t premiere until May, but with cast members like Michael Sheen, David Tennant, Jon Hamm, Nick Offerman, and Frances McDormand (voicing God, no less), how could this Amazon show be bad?
Good Trouble
(Freeform/Beth Dubber)
Now that the fosters of The Fosters are all grown up, this Freeform spinoff can really push the envelope of gender politics, sexual politics, and — yes — politics politics. Callie (Maia Mitchell) is a clerk for a conservative judge, and Mariana (Cierra Ramirez) is a programmer for a tech company rife with toxic masculinity, so the drama is always turned up to 11.
The Good Place
A simple premise — a woman erroneously gains entrance to heaven — has become one of TV’s most imaginative shows. Plus, the NBC comedy has solidified the star status of Kristen Bell and Ted Danson and introduced breakout stars such as William Jackson Harper, Jameela Jamil, and D’Arcy Carden.
The Good Fight
This CBS All Access drama centers on three brilliant women working for a black-owned Chicago law firm in an era when racist ideologies have somehow become normalized, so you can imagine the storylines are incisively relevant. For our money, The Good Fight is outranked only by its predecessor…
The Good Wife
(CBS)
Hailed as network TV’s “last great drama,” this CBS show mined current affairs for captivating legal quagmires and earned Emmys for stars Julianna Margulies and Archie Panjabi and guest stars Martha Plimpton and Carrie Preston.
