5 highest-rated Rotten Tomatoes 2023 TV shows

While 2024 is off to a strong start in the small screen realm, awards season has seen the celebration of the best shows from 2023 – but which series came out on top on Rotten Tomatoes? Here are the five highest-rated TV shows from last year.

Even while many of us were keen to head back to the big screen experience in 2023, TV still delivered the goods last year.

Shows such as Squid Game: The Challenge, Virgin River, and Invincible all had fans glues to their seats last year, with underdogs including Bodies and My Life with the Walter Boys sneaking in to snatch up viewers.

Over on Rotten Tomatoes, the final scores are now in – here are the 5 high-rated TV shows in 2023 in reverse order.

5. A Small Light – 100%

It might have flown under the radar for many, but limited series A Small Light comes in in fifth place in the highest-rated TV shows of 2023 on Rotten Tomatoes.

The show follows the real-life story of Miep Gies, who played a critical role in hiding Anne Frank and her family during the Nazi occupation in Amsterdam. Maintaining a flawless 100% score on the Tomatometer, A Small Light stars Bel Powley, Liev Schreiber, Joe Cole, and Ashley Brooke.

Mira Fox at The Forward said: “Highlighting non-Jews in the Holocaust is a delicate matter, and A Small Light is coming out at a time in which Holocaust revisionism is on the rise…without the Jews in question, perhaps we would never have heard of Miep and Jan.”

The series can currently be streamed on Hulu and Disney Plus.

4. Happy Valley Season 3 – 100%

UK national treasure Sarah Lancashire returned for one final outing as ill-fated copper Catherine Cawood in Happy Valley Season 3, ranking in fourth in 2023 TV shows.

Created by Gentleman Jack and Last Tango in Halifax writer Sally Wainwright, Yorkshire-based Happy Valley follows Catherine Cawood (Lancashire), a divorced police sergeant with two children. She is still trying to recover from the suicide of her daughter, which happened eight years before Season 1. The trauma all stems from Tommy Lee Royce (James Norton), who is back to try and finish Catherine off once and for all.

Peter Travers at ABC News wrote: “Even if Emmy stupidly refuses to cover this brilliant British crime drama in awards glory, don’t miss the final chapter in this groundbreaking series and Sarah Lancashire, the Category 5 hurricane of an actress who gives a performance for the ages.”

Also with an 100% rating, Happy Valley Season 3 can be binged on BBC iPlayer and AMC+.

3. Reacher Season 2 – 100%

Before it even reached its epic conclusion, Reacher Season 2 had already earned bronze medal position for one of the highest-rated TV shows in 2023.

Also with an 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, Reacher Season 2 follows the titular hero – now played by Alan Ritchson, not Tom Cruise – reuniting with his former army unit to unravel the mystery behind the murder of one of his previous colleagues. There’s action, there’s mystery, and there’s a week’s worth of cliff-hangers thanks to the TV show’s release schedule.

Eric Deggans at NPR called the series: “An entertaining ride that takes a compelling character through an adventure filled with wish fulfillment, fistfights, a dollop of romance and heroes crusading for justice.”

Reacher Season 2 is now available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.

2. Reservation Dogs Season 3 – 100%

In second place for the highest-rated TV shows of 2023 on Rotten Tomatoes is the third season of Reservation Dogs, in part directed by Next Goal Wins creator Taika Waititi.

For those who haven’t seen the show before, Reservation Dogs follows the lives of four Indigenous teenagers, called the Rez Dogs, in rural Oklahoma. Their friend Daniel, who dreamed of moving to California, died one year before the events of the show. Season 3 sees the gang coming across a conspiracy theorist named “Maximus.”

Dan Einav at The Financial Times commented: “The series too has matured into one of the very best of recent years… We might be left howling for more, but the show does a good job of teaching us the value of moving on.”

With an 100% Tomatometer score, Reservation Dogs Season 3 is currently available to stream on Hulu.

1. Invincible Season 2 – 100%

As should come as no surprise, the second season of superhero show Invincible blasts its way to pole position in Rotten Tomatoes’ highest-rated TV programs of 2023, with an ice-cool 100% certified fresh status.

In Season 1, fans meet Mark Grayson, a seemingly normal teenager except for the fact that his father Nolan is the most powerful superhero on the planet. Shortly after his seventeenth birthday, Mark begins to develop powers of his own and learns how to wield them with help from his father. In Season 2, Mark discovers he has a half-brother and must face all-out war with the Viltrumites.

In our five-star review, we said: “Invincible Season 2 wipes the floor with every other superhero show; it’s provocative, compulsively watchable TV that upends expectations on its own devastating terms.”

Invincible Season 2 is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video, which you can sign up for here.

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