Looking back: the best TV of 2017

Sinner, Netflix ★★★★★

A normal woman, sitting on the beach with her husband and small child, is suddenly overcome with the urge to stab a strange man with the knife she was using to peel fruit for her kid. What? Why?

Netflix's 'why dunnit' was a captivating thrill ride, and a murder mystery turned on its head.

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Crazy Ex-Girlfriend season three, Netflix ★★★★★

Hilarious and depressing in equal measure: the third season of musical comedy Crazy Ex-Girlfriend on Netflix has been one of the stand-out shows of the year.

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Godless, Netflix ★★★★★

Revenge, bloodshed, and shoot-outs: Downtown Abbey’s Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) transformed herself in Netflix's nasty new wild-west feature, Godless. Here in 1880s New Mexico, in a dying mining town in the Deep South, hairy criminals rush about, there's a feminist movement a-brewin'.

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The OA, Netflix ★★★★★

The OA was a surprise announcement from Netflix, and a stand-out hit this year. The creepy eight part sci-fi show Follows the story of blind twenty-something Prairie Johnson (Brit Marling) who returns to the community in which she grew up after seven years missing, with her sight mysteriously restored. Some hail her a miracle, others a danger, but no one knows for sure as Prairie won’t talk to the FBI or her parents about where she's been...

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GLOW, Netflix: ★★★★★

Big hair, big biceps and even bigger attitudes. Mad Men star Alison Brie dazzled in this Netflix comedy about female wrestlers. GLOW was another funny, refreshing and gloriously pro-women show that stood out this year.

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David Attenborough's Blue Planet II, BBC One ★★★★★

Darling it's better down where it's wetter: Blue Planet II was another outstanding documentary by national treasure David Attenborough. Welcome under the waves, where the BBC uncovered a dazzling, rich spectacle of underwater life, through never-before-used camera techniques and imaginative exploration. This year's documentary was applauded by many for highlighting the heartbreakingly fatal damaged caused human pollution and global warming.

Watch on BBC iPlayer

Broken, BBC One ★★★★★

Sean Bean stared in the eight part series Broken on BBC One as an abused Catholic priest struggling to help desperate, poverty-stricken families.

Bean played Father Michael, a Catholic priest serving a run-down inner-city parish in the north, a troubled soul haunted by flashbacks of abuse. After mass one day, he meets Christina, a mother of three who works at the local betting shop (cue another star, Anna Friel). She has no money and three mouths to feed. She borrows from money from the till. She punches her manager in the face.

It was an outstanding and important TV show, reflecting the general misery this year seems to have brought with it.

Buy the box set on Amazon

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Amazon Prime ★★★★★

Amazon Prime – I think we can all agree – isn't a scratch on Netflix. And yet, incredibly, unexpectedly and with some trepidation, it is our job to tell you that The Marvellous Mrs. Maisel would be a perfectly good reason to start paying for the streaming service.

The new comedy marks a return for Amy Sherman-Palladino, the creator of the heartwarming, small town show Gilmore Girls – and there are plenty of similarities to be spotted by fans. Like it's forerunner, The Marvellous Mrs. Maisel is laugh a minute, female centric, delivered at a hundred miles an hour, and shines brightly with positivity, girl power and wit.

Watch on Amazon Prime

Broadchurch Season 3, ★★★★★

Following a disappointing season two, ITV's mystery detective drama Broadchurch arrived bursting with English charm, a completely new case, and a return to the excellent form of season one.

Detectives Olivia Colman and David Tennant were joined by Julie Hesmondhalgh, who played a 49-year-old single woman who is brought into the police station having reported a rape that happened to her following a friend's party.

Buckets of sarcasm, lots of heart, a magnificent mystery and a commentary on modern day attitudes to rape. What's not to love?

Watch on NOWTV

Big Little Lies, Sky Atlantic ★★★★★

Dark murder-mystery drama Big Little Lies came with A-list Hollywood celebrities Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon, and this year proved not only that TV is finally taking over from film, but that female lead dramas were as good as, if not better, than anything the less fair sex could produce. Big Little Lies – based on Liane Moriarty's bestselling novel of the same name – was a runaway success this year.

Buy on Amazon

Anne with an E, Netflix: ★★★★★

Spirited Anne (spelled with an E) is the 13-year-old heroine of Canadian writer Lucy Maud Montgomery's famous 1908 book, which brought long words, big dreams and plenty of hi-jinks into childhood reading. This Netflix adaptation of the story of one orphan breathing life into a sleepy Canadian community made for a charming, heart-warming eight hour series. It was not only sweet, and great for all the family, but daring enough to talk about the gritty realities for a young woman coming of age (we mean periods) without a fuss. Brilliant.

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Doctor Foster, BBC One ★★★★★

Stingingly sharp and terrifyingly edgy, the first season of Doctor Foster scooped up armfuls of awards and was the UK's highest-rated drama of 2015 for good reason.

Writer Mike Bartlett brought an outstanding, gruelling season two that was both a William Congreve inspired melodrama and a brilliant revenge thriller.

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The Handmaid's Tale, Channel 4: ★★★★★

The best TV show of the year.

Offred (Elisabeth Moss) starred in the American Streaming service Hulu's adaptation of Margaret Atwood's Booker-winning 1985 novel The Handmaid's Tale. It was breathtaking. Brilliant. Startling in its aggression. Even Margaret Atwood was said to be taken aback by the power of the show; in particular a scene in the Red Centre (where fertile women are indoctrinated in the ways of the new order) in which the group of women lay blame and shame a gang-rape victim for her ordeal.

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Mindhunter, Netflix

David Fincher – the director of Benjamin Button, Social Network and the incomparable House of Cards – is returned to TV this October for a mind-bending, dark Netflix drama following two FBI agents who set about trying to understand how serial killers are wired.

It was high energy, intense, and an outstanding thriller that wowed the critics.

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Alias Grace, Netflix ★★★★★

Netflix's Alias Grace offers a horrifying look at the real circumstances of a woman called Grace Marks. In the 1840s Marks was an Irish immigrant who arrived in Canada with no money and a recently deceased mother to boot.

It was a hard year for Alias Grace to come out, as it was always going to be compared to the other Margaret Atwood adaptation of the year, Handmaid's Tale, but – in many ways – Alais Grace offered a scarier look at the treatment of women.

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