It’s 2017. And that means… all the 2016 TV is over! Guess who watched (nearly) all of it? That’s right, ME!

Here are the 65 shows I watched this year, and how they ranked in order of awesomeness.

New this year: Ratings. Rankings were based on the 0-100 ratings I gave each show independently. These were loosely based on the episode ratings I’ve been making this year (708 of them!), with modifiers for peak episode and strength of ending. One thing that will be clear from this is there isn’t too much gap between #15 and #50. Most shows were good but flawed. Only a handful were great, and fewer still were bad. And now you can see it with colors!

**UPDATE 1/3/2017: Added 4 shows that fell through the cracks: House of Cards, Prey, Love, London Spy

69  Flaked  46.7
Was actually drawn in initially by Will Arnett’s character’s backstory, an alcoholic trying to get clean and make amends for running someone over while drunk. But the show didn’t know what to do with it, and made the character more misunderstood and a victim of circumstance rather than actually troubled. The twist toward the end was almost interesting, if telegraphed a bit too early, and then immediately undercut by Arnett’s ego. There is an air of unearned self-aggrandizement to the whole thing that just completely loses whatever wheels it may have had by the end. You can avoid this one.

68  The X-Files 10  56.0
Ugh, I really didn’t like it, and I really wanted to. I will admit, I was probably holding it to a high bar, especially coming off of re-watching much of the original show. But how can you not! They just seemed BORED! Or sleepy? The actors just didn’t seem to give a shit, the plots were vacuous and awful. They had a decent Darin Morgan episode that did have its moments, but mostly just made me want to watch the better Darin Morgan episodes. All in all, it was nice to see them again, but I wish there had been more than the couple moments I actually enjoyed.

67  The Big Bang Theory 9/10  60.2
See my review for last season, which still mostly applies. It honestly feels like there are these moments, outside of the control of the writers themselves, that for whatever reason, be it momentary inspiration from one of the actors, an especially caffeinated day from the director… but against all odds, these moments just work. And brilliantly. A couple of my biggest laughs this year were to this show. One moment almost brought me to tears. And the other 98% of the content hurt me and made me feel ugly. I’m almost interested in this as a human experiment, to see how much torture I will put myself through for the glimmer of hope for one of those moments. This show isn’t good.

66  It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia 11  62.0

65  The Expanse  66.0
Man, I was hoping for a new space show I could dig into. The Expanse isn’t that. It’s based on some novels I haven’t read. Its style was 100% ripped from Battlestar Galactica, from sets to cinematography to a mysterious unseen enemy launching an unprovoked attack on humanity. But its real crime is being boring. They do a dreadful job at explaining the overly complicated politics of this universe, and what they do explain isn’t interesting. I don’t like any of the characters, or have any attachment to them, because the dialogue is stiff and terrible. That said, they finally put some of the pieces together in the finale that had been held apart for WAAAY too long, and it looks like maybe things will start happening? I’ll give it a few episodes next season to see, but it’s got a short leash.

64  Inside Amy Schumer 4  67.1
Unfortunately, it seems like Amy is either running out of material, or shortchanged her show to make her movie. A lot of recycled ideas, including an actual clip show as the finale. A CLIP SHOW. In 2016. Something a 9-year-old can put on YouTube. In an age of streaming, how is this even a consideration?

63  Brooklyn Nine-Nine 3/4  68.5
There were a bunch of brutal stinkers this season, but also a few gems. The witness protection plotline went nowhere and slowly. Pimento was a great addition.

62  11.22.63  70.2
Many times over the course of the show, including at the very end, I would just ask, “Why?”

61  Togetherness 2  70.9
Yeah… that finale was stupid, and I kind of didn’t like any of the characters by then anyway.

60  Portlandia 6  71.1

**59  House of Cards 4  73.5
House of Cards works the best when Frank and Claire are teammates. The ending felt like a bit of a mess.

58  Childrens Hospital 7  74.0

57  Colony  74.5
What if the New Caprica arc on Battlestar Galactica was an entire series? And Sawyer from Lost was Ellen Tigh? And the lady from Prison Break was.. Anders, maybe? Anyway, yeah, this show basically poses the same moral conundrums as that part of BSG, but does it a lot slower. All hail the alien (maybe?) overlords!

**56  Prey  74.6
Engaging, if well-tread material. Loved that John Simm and Philip Glenister were the individual leads for the two seasons. Really wish I could’ve seen them yelling at each other for nostalgia’s sake. Second season was a bit more interesting to me.

55  Marvel’s Daredevil 2  75.0
Daredevil is at its best when it’s focused on the conflicts within Matt Murdock’s complicated life. When Frank Castle is working to convince him his life wouldn’t be so hard if he let go of his moral hangups and just kill the bad guys. When former lover Elektra pulls on him to stay out late chasing criminals in costume instead of preparing for an important case. Daredevil isn’t a flashy superhero with gadgets or a thunder hammer, so his strength is how much he really cares for and is a part of his community. It’s about his relationship with the Catholic Church, and reconciling that with what he does. It’s about long marathon single-shot fist fights where a masked man grows more exhausted with each punch and fall. Season 2 did not give us as many of these human moments as Season 1. I personally really missed Claire, who was a great ally who challenged and grounded Matt so many times in the first season. The romance plot it had did feel shoe-horned in, with no real chemistry or believability. The first conversation between Frank Castle, aka The Punisher, and Matt was much anticipated, since I knew the fundamental difference of opinion going in. But no real interesting ground ended up being tread. Neither side really made any good points, just spouted off some well-worn dogma. Then there was The Hand. Oh, The Hand. What was your motivation? Why so many similar ninja fights? I had no idea what anyone was fighting for at the end. Why was the Blacksmith plot even there? Could you have given Frank Castle an arc? I found myself strongly pulled into this show at times, but a lot of the time feeling disappointed, wishing the substance would match the style.

**54  Love  75.1

Couldn’t really get on board with a romance between two people I really didn’t like at all. Felt really artificial at many points. Bright spot was overly-cheery aussie Claudia O’Doherty, who was just delightful.

53  Man Seeking Woman 2  75.3
Unfortunately, Season 2 wasn’t nearly as inspired or hilarious as the first. This season did actually have TWO female-centric episodes, but both were about half as good as the one from S1.

52  New Girl 5/6  76.4
Basically the new normal for New Girl: Great banter that occasionally gets dragged down by dumb storylines. Give me 30 minutes of Nick and Schmidt just talking and I’m happy.

51  Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress  76.7
My fears came true in the end. The male character, who was whiny and lame, and in dire need of a heroic journey, got to be the hero in the final act, and the best character, who was a woman, ended up powerless against the villain, and in need of rescuing. Halfway through this series, I would have been up front singing its praises for its strong female protagonist, but it just fell on its ass in the second half. If that’s not enough, the interesting premise and story arc absolutely didn’t pay off either, as we got explosions and carnage without any good motivation or point to any of it. Not to mention a final minute unexplained deus ex machina that didn’t make sense, and you have a show with a ton of promise, but ended up being mostly a letdown. That said, there were some killer action scenes and unexpected twists throughout, a female protagonist who is very funny, strong, and has agency through the first 2/3 of the season, so I got a lot of enjoyment from watching it, even if I was let down by the end.

50  The Walking Dead 6/7  77.2
This is the first time in 6 seasons The Walking Dead has slipped out of the top 20. And man did it slip. I wonder how much of this year’s issues have been in trying to preserve the grand scale of the Negan storyline from the comics. Because the first half of the year was 8 episodes leading up to his introduction, and the second half was establishing him as the biggest asshole in the show’s history. Like throwing episodes at it would make him seem more important. But my reaction, and I think the reaction of other viewers (the ratings have dropped for the first time in the show’s history), is one of Negan fatigue. I get it. He’s the worst. The creators don’t need to bludgeon us over the head with it. (See what I did there?) And it’s also possible the strict 8-episode arc structure may lead to that too. It kinda makes sense from the macro level to have a clearly delineated arc for each of those stages in this story. But the problem is: there just isn’t that much story there! It’s stretched to within an inch of its life. And then this season they’ve tacked an extra 30 minutes onto FOUR of the episodes!! WUT? That behavior seems to imply they thought they had so much story it wouldn’t fit in the conventional schedule. Or maybe the network is like “this is our most profitable show. Fill up some more space between the ads, please, but we’ll still call it a regular 8 because a contract says it needs to be 8.” And of course, the one big event that was gratuitous and over the line, but necessary to do because the comics did it and we wouldn’t want the comic nerds to be mad. I’m hoping the show can course correct and find its way again. Because there were a few shining moments in the darkness this year, and I think they can be that again.

49  The Girlfriend Experience  77.2
Definitely appreciated this show more than enjoyed it. Interesting character study, even though she spends most of the time with a blank stare. But the dichotomy of her character: she hates being around people, so she turns to sex work, is fascinating. The finale was also fascinating in how brazenly un-finale it felt. It was almost determined to not touch any plot whatsoever but provide a thematic denouement instead.

48  Silicon Valley 3  78.4
Some of the plotlines this season were spot-on, others infuriating in the stupidity of seemingly rational decision-makers. Overall, I feel like the show is running out of steam.

47  Outcast  78.7
Really cool pilot and setup; uneven execution. Not enough of our protagonists actually working together as partners before they start acting like idiots. Chunky plotting and a very anti-climactic ending brought the show down a few notches.

**46  London Spy  78.7

I really liked a lot of this, but the ending felt so contrived.

45  HarmonQuest  79.3
This series was born out of the regular Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying campaign played on the Harmontown audio podcast. That campaign was a major draw for the podcast audience, with its instant rockstar dungeon master Spencer, plucked from the podcast’s live audience in its second aired episode. His drole, confident, dramatic, and deadpan stylings and detailed world-building were a huge hit with both audience and Harmon himself. Guest stars on the podcast would get guest characters in the elaborate campaign, and could play along with comedic and improv skills, while Spencer would handle all the intimidating rulebook and dice stuff. So the story would go delightfully off the rails with the strong personalities who took quite joyfully to the improvised characters. The show they started producing shortly after (so actually quite a while ago) has the same people, various guest stars, and later quite good animations layered over the audio. However, it also has much more of a “produced” feel which frankly sucks quite a bit of the magic out. There are very few tangents, quite numerous and often hilarious on the podcast, much less intoxication, much tighter editing out of things that might slow down the story or not fit neatly into a half-hour adventure. On the whole, however, the guests seemed to have fun and added a fresh flavor to each episode. The adventure was enough by-the-numbers to fit neatly into a ten-episode arc, with enough space for player choice to at least make it seem like their actions mattered. I think the ideal format would have been to extend the episode length by maybe ten minutes, and leave in ten minutes of the random questions and fumbling around that made it feel more natural and less polished.

44  Westworld  79.4
This may be the most controversial show I’ve ever had to rate. It’s certainly the show that the most people I know are watching, and there is a whole spectrum of opinions on it. Clearly, from my ranking, I wasn’t too keen on it. It’s probably the show I’ve thought the most about, partially because I’ve been prodded into many conversations about it, and asked to justify my lukewarm reaction to it. In short, it was an interesting show that evoked almost no emotional reaction from me at all. I didn’t care about any of the characters, and so I wasn’t invested in their stories. It was difficult to be invested in their stories, when you only got tiny pieces of them dispensed in unclear order, that only really came together in the final hour (mostly.) Did I appreciate the puzzle elements to the show? Sure, a bit. It was a bummer that the answers were unavoidable on the internet in the form of accurate fan theories, but they were also decently telegraphed, so it was clearly encouraged to work them out ahead of time. So their reveals not only felt anti-climactic, but also delivered with such a build-up and hoopla that my reaction every time was “yeah, okay… and?” The revelations never felt satisfying or really worth all the work to get there. They do connect to the larger story, but I don’t think in a significant enough way to justify the 9 hours of abstraction and story soup to get there. That said, there were finally some viscerally enjoyable bits to the final hour, and I am intrigued by what’s to come next season. Also, some really great acting, breathing more life into the characters than was on the page.

43  The Fall 3  79.7
Pretty strange final season. In some ways, felt superfluous, because very little further plot really needed resolving. It served more as a character study to help explain some of the actions and motivations we’d seen from the first two seasons. Almost like a full season’s worth of resolution. Probably overkill, but with some strong and emotional character beats.

42  Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt 2  80.1
Far more uneven than S1 for me. The increased presence of Lillian and her anti-gentrification plot was tedious. Each return of one of Kimmy’s bunker mates immediately sucked the life out of the show, because they didn’t have anything interesting to do with them, and they were just naive in a not funny way. Jacqueline’s native american backstory took more of a forefront this season, and while I’m not sure it deserves all the offensiveness outrage I’ve seen online, it mostly just wasn’t funny, and really just made her character kind of confusing. Are we supposed to find her “attempts” at reparations sympathetic, or hilariously misguided? They really just landed somewhere in the middle, making those scenes just fall flat. There were a handful of episodes (7-9) that were just brilliant both in humor and construction. Jacqueline’s rivalry with a fellow gold-digging alpha-mom looked at first like old hat, but that character was so deconstructed and unpredictable that their scenes together were sometimes amazing. Kimmy’s strongest character moments were when some of the cracks began to show in her bubbly personality, and Tina Fey’s turn as her night-drinking shrink was a clever and run way of digging into that. Finally, Joshua Jackson. That is all.

41  Black Mirror 3  80.4
Wildly uneven. Mostly more of the same this season, with two exceptions: “Hated in the Nation”, which felt more like an X-Files episode with a Black Mirror twist– and “San Junipero”, which felt like Black Mirror turned on its head. For my money, the best episode they’ve done yet.

Also, “Nosedive”, which heavily “borrowed” the main conceit from a much more interesting episode of Community. Come on, think up your own dystopian futures, Brooker.

Next time, we’ll hit up 21-40!