8 TV Seasons That Earned Their 100% Rotten Tomatoes Scores

There are only a few seasons of TV which boast a perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes, but they’re worthy of this honor. Due to the quirks of the Rotten Tomatoes review aggregation system, a single negative review can rob a show of a 100% score. There are many critically-acclaimed seasons of TV that fall short of full marks, and relatively few which have achieved this rare feat over the years.

Some shows have multiple seasons with 100% scores, like The Wire, The Good Place and BoJack Horseman, but these are exceptions to the norm. Most shows can count themselves lucky to have just one season that achieves this level of success. Many great shows have been unable to claim this specific honor, so it’s worth celebrating when a show delivers a season of TV that is unanimously praised by critics.

8 Schitt’s Creek Season 6

Schitt’s Creek Saves The Best For Last

Schitt’s Creek season 1 has an underwhelming Rotten Tomatoes score of just 68%, but the show soon rebounded from this low point. By the sixth and final season, Schitt’s Creek had established itself as one of the funniest and most emotional sitcoms and TV. The final season delivers many of Schitt’s Creek‘s best episodes. More impressively, it delivers a pitch-perfect series finale that wraps things up with genuine emotion. Schitt’s Creek always managed to strike the perfect balance between comedy and character development, and season 6 exemplifies this approach.

Aside from the crowdpleasing finale, Schitt’s Creek season 6 has many other great moments. David’s troubled wedding planning, Moira’s Crow movie premiere and Alexis’ heartbreaking last night with Ted are all outstanding in their own ways, ensuring that the whole Rose family have their own highlights. Season 6 rallies to a memorable conclusion with a string of great episodes. Johnny and Roland’s pitch in New York, David and Patrick’s bachelor party and Moira’s final Jazzagals rehearsal show Schitt’s Creek at its very best before it takes its final bow.

7 Detectorists Season 3

The British Sitcom Brings Everything Full Circle

Detectorists is a hilarious British sitcom that deserves more love from an international audience. The BBC show follows two middle-aged friends brought together by their hobby of combing through the fields of east England with their metal detectors, and their foolish dreams that they could uncover a horde of Saxon-era treasure. Showing a middle-aged friendship is relatively rare for a sitcom, since so many seem hyper-focused on people in their 20s and early 30s. Detectorists doesn’t try to imitate these other shows, and its heartfelt exploration of its characters is much more compelling.

Detectorists reaches its peak in its third and final season. The show repeatedly teases the audience with the idea that there really is a large stash of buried treasure somewhere out there, hiding beneath Lancy and Andy’s feet. The ending delivers some gleeful payoff while showing that Lance and Andy have both grown enough as people to truly deserve their reward. After years of metaphorically burying their heads in the sand, Lance and Andy’s treasure comes from above, as they discover a magpie’s nest in a tree overflowing with ancient gold.

6 Mad Men Season 2

Mad Men Starts To Hit Its Stride In Its Sophomore Year

Mad Men is remarkably consistent throughout its seven seasons, and it’s hard to say where the show peaks. Season 2 is the only one which has a score of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, although the others aren’t far behind. The only outlier is season 1, which sits at 86%. This would be an outstanding success for many other shows. Season 1 takes a little while to get going after its brilliant first-episode reveal. Season 2, by contrast, hits the ground running and doesn’t let up until the very end. Don and Betty’s marriage is pushed to breaking point, Duck attempts a coup, and Peggy starts to get a foothold in the world of business.

Mad Men season 2 reveals more about Don’s backstory, as he meets with Anna in California. This trip to the West Coast also provides an early warning sign of Don’s volatility, and it allows the show to explore what the office is like in his absence. Mad Men season 2 has interesting storylines for all the major players, though, not just Don. Betty gains some more agency, Roger is put in the rare position of having something to fight for, and Pete steps up his scheming. The real star of the supporting cast is Peggy. The flashback to her time in the hospital is a well-timed gut-punch, and it allows Don to deliver one of Mad Men‘s most memorable quotes: “This never happened. It will shock you how much it never happened.”

5 Veep Season 4

Season 4 Finally Shows Selina As President

Veep creator Armando Iannucci first developed his style of political satire in Britain. Veep gives him the opportunity to zone in on all the quirks of American politics which don’t exist across the Atlantic. It’s no coincidence that the show focuses on the office of vice president, a position with no real British equivalent, often handed to one lucky loser in a presidential primary as a consolation prize. It’s also no coincidence that the best seasons of Veep all take place on the campaign trail. British general elections lack the pomp and scandal of American ones. Veep season 4 details the most memorable election in the show.

Veep season 4 sees the ensemble cast firing on all cylinders. Both Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Tony Hale won Emmys, but there are plenty of other outstanding performances. Sam Richardson’s lovable dimwit Richard Splett continues turning every one of his lines into a hilarious quote, and Hugh Laurie’s introduction as Tom James is perfectly designed to rub Selina Meyer the wrong way. The season ends with two of the show’s very best episodes. The C-SPAN style congressional hearing is brilliant, but it’s soon outdone by the season finale, which follows a frantic election night as the electoral college is split down the middle.

4 Fleabag Season 1

Fleabag’s First Season Was Hugely Influential

Fleabag only produced two seasons, but both of those seasons are rated at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s comedy-drama focuses on an unnamed woman reeling from her best friend’s death as she struggles to keep up appearances with her family and continue her small business. Fleabag is a masterpiece of raunchy humor, but its most revolutionary technique is its constant fourth-wall breaking. Of course, other shows have broken the fourth wall for comedic effect, but Fleabag uses it as a vital part of the character. She takes comfort in the artifice of a TV show, and it allows her to avoid the harsh realities of her life.

Fleabag‘s first season is supremely confident, and it’s impressive to see how such a trend-setting show starts off so fully-formed. The show was based on Waller-Bridge’s one-woman stage show, but adapting this for TV adds another layer to the wry character study. The season 2 finale is often cited as a perfect ending, but season 1’s final episode is just as powerful. After the intriguing twist of the first episode, the season finale reveals that the protagonist is partly to blame for Boo’s depressed state. This recontextualizes the entire season, as the reveal of the unreliable narrator makes her seem less sympathetic, less quirky, and more cynical.

3 Arrested Development Season 1

Arrested Development Flaunts Its Esoteric Style From The Beginning

Although Arrested Development ended on a sour note after moving to Netflix, the first three seasons are still hilarious. The sitcom is delightfully complex, with several different plot threads, densely layered callback jokes and an unbeatable ensemble cast. Ron Howard acts as the narrator to guide the audience through the mystifying tangle of the narrative, and he does so with biting wit. Arrested Development‘s dysfunctional Bluth family are introduced in a perfect first episode, as George Sr. is arrested and the family is thrown into turmoil. The rest of the first season upholds the same standard.

Arrested Development season 1 has many of the show’s best episodes. “Pier Pressure” features Michael’s ill-fated lesson to his son, “Justice is Blind” has Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ fraudulent lawyer and the season finale “Let ‘Em Eat Cake” shows George Sr.’s prison escape. The impressive thing about Arrested Development‘s first season is the way it delivers such memorable episodes while continually advancing the plot of George Sr.’s trial, Michael’s fraught love life and George Michael’s relationship with Maeby. Many of the show’s storylines carry over into the next two seasons.

2 Fargo Season 2

Fargo’s 1970s Crime Story Is The Show’s Best Season

Each season of Fargo takes place in a different era with a new cast of characters, so there isn’t much of a strong link to the Coen brothers movie beyond the location and the darkly comedic tone. After a strong first season, Fargo‘s second season took things back to the 1970s for a story about a young couple scrambling to cover up the hit-and-run that killed a member of the Midwest’s most notorious crime family. Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons prove that their real-life relationship translates into fantastic on-screen chemistry, and they are surrounded by a talented cast that includes Ted Danson, Jean Smart and Patrick Wilson.

Season 2 is probably Fargo‘s best season, with the show’s blend of breathtaking action and dark humor reaching its peak. So many of the characters in season 2 are unforgettable, like the silent killer Hanzee and the stone-cold sociopath Mike Milligan. These characters and many more are thrust into an intoxicating game of cloak-and-dagger, in which competing criminal enterprises engage in a frantic war right under the noses of the ill-equipped local police department. Season 2 has some of Fargo‘s most beautiful and most ambitious sequences, like the massacre at Sioux Falls and the thrilling shootout in the woods.

1 Only Murders In The Building Season 1

The First Season Of OMITB Sets Up A Compelling Personal Mystery

The first season of Only Murders in the Building breathed new life into the mystery genre. The lighthearted comedy and compelling mystery elements are perfectly balanced. It may explore a single case over the course of a whole season, but its tone is a throwback to an older era of mystery shows, such as Monk and Psych. Only Murders in the Building sees things through the lens of true-crime podcasts, and it delivers the same intriguing thrills. However, it also shows the real danger of crime, demythologizing the stories which people so often treat as popcorn entertainment. Mabel’s story is key to this.

Martin Short and Steve Martin have been working together for decades. Nobody anticipated that Selena Gomez was the ideal third partner their comedic duo had been waiting for. Her youthful perspective adds to the ramshackle charm of the group, but her character is vital in season 1. Mabel is the one who provides a personal link to the case of Tim Kono’s murder. Season 1 established the quirky dynamic of the trio from the jump, and it also sets up some of the show’s other key ingredients. Season 1 ends just like every subsequent season, with an astonishing cliffhanger that sets up the next mystery.