Alright, dummies. It took long enough, right? I was sick for a few days. It also just took abnormally long for me to organize my thoughts on my #1, for which I’ve set a certain precedent of detail at this point. “I dunno, I just really really liked it!!” wasn’t cutting it. And how to gush for 1000 words without spoilers?? Why had I made things so hard on myself?

Well, whatever, I wrote it. It took forever. I’m getting old. Are you not entertained, and so forth.

Also, 9 other shows. They were good too.

Alright, people. We’ve hit the home stretch. We’re into some seriously good shit now. Like, if any of these won the Emmy for Best Whatever, I would totally not riot.

Oh man! Just reading that made me want to go back and rewatch all of those. Especially <MOST RECENTLY POSTED SHOW>! That had some <QUALIFIER> story arcs and some <ADJECTIVE> <PLURAL NOUN><EXCLAMATION POINT>
On an unrelated topic, you may be surprised to learn that much of my blog this year was auto-generated by this cool program I built using all my viewing data and spit out seamlessly into HTML! <SELF-DEPRECATING JOKE>!

You asked for it, and here it is, the next best 23 shows. Wait, you didn’t ask for it? Well, that’s not my problem, pal. I dun watched em all, and wrote up this here crap about em. They were PRETTY good, definitely worth a watch, if you’re gonna watch 43 shows in a year. But don’t take MY word for it… take my words for it:

43

Rating

84

Man Seeking Woman

Season 3

Episodes

10

Featured Episode:

87

3×7

Bagel

I generally liked that they decided to shake up the formula a bit with a new long-term relationship arc. The dating life metaphors were starting to thin out, and adding the new dynamic opened up a few new ideas. Unfortunately it felt like it took a while to get a sense of Lucy as a character, and she never really seemed fully formed, even though she eventually did get some solid comedy bits.

42

Rating

84

Alias Grace

Season 1

Episodes

6

Featured Episode:

86

1×2

Part 2

I didn’t really get what the message was supposed to be, but I never really felt like the whole setup paid off. There was some stuff about subjectivity of the story teller, but the ambiguity of what actually happened didn’t really feel like it served any larger goals, and I was mostly left feeling kinda empty. Zachary Levi was fun tho.

41

Rating

84.3

American Gods

Season 1

Episodes

8

Featured Episode:

89

1×7

A Prayer for Mad Sweeney

Disclaimer: I have not read the book, but have some familiarity with the differences in the show. It sounded like it was strongest when it was inventing rather than adapting. Easily the two most compelling episodes were the ones that focused on Laura, who, from what I’ve heard wasn’t as prominent in the Gaiman novel. Shadow felt like an underdeveloped character, and frankly, and underdeveloped actor. There were a handful of cute moments between he and Ian McShane’s Wednesday, but much of their adventures felt long and plodding. We didn’t get enough time with the main antagonists, and never really got a sense of what the central conflict was until (kinda) the last few moments of the season. All in all, it was a season with a few cool ideas and few cool moments, but generally uneven execution, though an ending that leaves me curious about what’s to come next season.

40

Rating

84.5

Black Mirror

Season 4

Episodes

6

Featured Episode:

87

4×1

USS Callister

The Star Trek episode was pretty cool, and the rest were kinda varied. Crocodile felt brutal without serving any purpose, Black Museum felt like recycling a lot of ideas from previous seasons. Metalhead was kinda cool in its simplicity and strong execution.

39

Rating

84.7

Fargo

Season 3

Episodes

10

Featured Episode:

89

3×3

The Law of Non-Contradiction

Better than the first season, but not able to live up to the more interesting second. Carrie Coon was a bright spot in an otherwise fairly typical stumbling-into-crime story. While Coon’s Chief Burgle had a lot of great character moments, I was a bit disappointed that she never really had much actual impact on the story, as the finale left me a little disappointed.

38

Rating

84.7

Master of None

Season 2

Episodes

10

Featured Episode:

90

2×8

Thanksgiving

I’ve already talked about how I thought Master of None felt like an amateur rip-off– err, homage– of Louie. So I won’t go into that, but this season didn’t feel like a substantial step forward in that regard. That said, I appreciate his experimentation, and the fact that he’s unafraid to try new things. Unfortunately, I felt like those things were varied in success. The black and white premiere felt like a lame attempt to add gravitas. But what took me out of the episodes even more were the performances of actors well outside their wheelhouse, especially Aziz himself. The perfect example of him overextending himself was an extended shot at the end of one of the midseason episodes where he is bummed out that he’s falling for his married friend. The camera holds on him for minutes, as he fidgets and looks around awkwardly. A great actor could have crushed this scene; Louie CK would’ve muddled through clumsily, but knows enough tricks to make it passable; Aziz looked like his instruction was “fidget and look around awkwardly.” Aziz is funny, but he just doesn’t have the range to be all he wants his protagonist to be. The two strongest episodes were the ones with the least Aziz in them, especially the brilliant “Thanksgiving,” which chronicles a number of Thanksgivings through the life of one of his close on-screen friends, and how her family slowly comes to terms with her orientation. Sure, it was a bit of a leap that they only talked about that stuff at Thanksgiving each year, but it was a cool narrative device that worked well.

37

Rating

84.8

Star Trek: Discovery

Season 1

Episodes

9

Featured Episode:

89

1×2

Battle at the Binary Stars

Oh, what it might have been if Bryan Fuller had stayed on board? There were flashes of promise in the first handful of episodes, but it ended up being a bit of a mess overall. I was most disappointed by the time loop episode that was so clunky that it made me angry and want to go back and watch Cause and Effect instead. I was totally okay with the revamped Klingons, but they took a weird left turn in the middle, and then I guess they were supposed to be boring after that? I can’t see this version pulling in viewers to the premium subscription required CBS All Access.

36

Rating

85.1

Great News

Seasons 1/2

Episodes

19

Featured Episode:

91

1×3

Chuck Pierce Is Blind

Certainly a lot of notes from 30 Rock. Wacky female executive producing a TV show with even wackier co-workers. The main distinguishing feature is the overprotective mother intern played by the fantastic Andrea Martin. Not all the episodes work, just like was the case with 30 Rock, but the highs were so high that it could be forgiven, with a Noises Off style of spectacularly coordinated failures, and merciless deadpan from John Michael Higgins (Best in Show).

35

Rating

85.4

Broad City

Season 4

Episodes

10

Featured Episode:

91

4×7

Florida

What a roller coaster season of Broad City! Man, there were some great episodes and some SUPER dumb ones. But if nothing else, I hope bleeping out Tr**p becomes a thing.

34

Rating

85.6

The Affair

Season 3

Episodes

10

Featured Episode:

92

3×10

Episode 10

This season was enjoyable, but felt far less cohesive than the previous two. It felt more like a collection of episodes, some compelling, some slightly less so, but not like a full story. If the first couple seasons were about four troubled people who hurt themselves and others in unintended ways, this season was mostly about the challenges in healing. There were a number of satisfying moments to that effect, as the characters who sometimes frustrated us gained a measure of self-awareness, or those who relied too heavily on others began to find some self-reliance. Sometimes these transitions were great, sometimes they were clunky. But this show is nearly always able to buck expectations, and the extremely unexpected and beautiful season finale was one of the best examples of this. Instead of trying to wrap up all our core characters’ stories, it focused on a peripheral character in a completely different location, and it worked.

33

Rating

85.7

Sherlock on Masterpiece

Season 4

Episodes

3

Featured Episode:

92

4×2

The Lying Detective

Classic Moffat this season, in a number of ways. Firstly, is his compulsion to try and go bigger and more convoluted the deeper into a series he goes. No better example of this than the final episode of the season, whose crazy Saw hijinx felt so little like the grounded Sherlock we were introduced to in Season 1. Someone EVEN SMARTER THAN SHERLOCK OR MYCROFT?? STAKES RAISED!!! As clunky as his plots can be (especially the resolutions), no one can do quick, whip-smart dialogue with roller coaster character beats better. He’s a full subscriber to J.J. Abrams “It doesn’t matter what’s in the box” philosophy of story-telling, creating wondrous and intriguing mysteries, with very rare payoff. The first two episodes were just incredible examples of this, as it felt like he made it further and further into the episode before going completely off the rails, but then inevitably does spectacularly. But I’d argue in each case the journey was worth the disappointment at the end. Unfortunately, the can’t be said about the mess of a finale, which is why it really only earns a mid-80s score this season despite flashes of brilliance.

32

Rating

85.8

Insecure

Season 2

Episodes

8

Featured Episode:

87

2×8

Hella Perspective

After being less than amazed by the first season, which I didn’t get to until this year, season 2 felt like a significant step forward in terms of maturity and complexity. Issa’s relationships with her work friend Frieda and her best friend Molly felt more relaxed and interesting, and had some really good chemistry. While there were still a decent number of gratuitous sex-as-drama moments, there was more to the romantic arcs this season than who-cheated-on-whom. The finale in particular had a number of scenes showcasing real growth and self-awareness in the characters that we hadn’t seen before. On top of that, a lot more of the dialogue had great comedic timing and laugh-out-loud moments.

31

Rating

85.9

Search Party

Season 2

Episodes

10

Featured Episode:

88

2×10

Psychosis

The second season, for quite understandable reasons, felt a lot more bleak and heavy than the first season. It still found moments to be ridiculous between the dread, but it was a different feeling show. Alia Shawkat’s performance was top-notch, though her supporting cast continues to gravitate a bit toward the cartoony for me. The finale was fantastic, yet again, leaving us to wonder what it means for a third season.

30

Rating

85.9

Glow

Season 1

Episodes

10

Featured Episode:

88

1×5

Debbie Does Something

It started out somewhat sad and uncomfortable, but it really starts to shine about halfway in, as we get to know the charming cast of misfits trying to put on an unconventional show. Alison Brie was great, in a slightly off-type, but mostly on-type role, but it was her best friend Debbie, played by Betty Gilpin (Nurse Jackie) who had the most moving and compelling character journey. Marc Maron was also entertaining, but was mostly just himself. I was also partial to Wolf Girl. As someone who never gave a crap about wrestling of any kind, this show did a surprisingly good job and getting me invested and excited when they (spoiler) put on a fun wrestling show. But it was mostly about the characters and relationships for me. A lot of fun.

29

Rating

86

Orphan Black

Season 5

Episodes

10

Featured Episode:

89

5×10

To Right the Wrongs of Many

While the series ended on a high note, often times the journey to get there was clunky and/or boring. I’m not sure why they kept relegating Helena to a convent or living on her own in the woods. There is such thing as too much of a good thing, but I don’t think we were there yet, and her character has always had the most potential to be mined, in my opinion. That being said, she was a big part of the endgame, and her pregnancy and relationship to Sarah were core pieces of a really interesting discussion on what it means to be a mother, or a daughter, or a sestra. While the series as a whole probably could have been compressed substantially to eliminate a lot of the repeated plot elements or incoherent villains, it will be the soaring character moments between these fantastic characters, brought to life by an extraordinarily talented Tatiana Maslany, that I will thankfully remember the most.

B.

28

Rating

86

Catastrophe

Season 3

Episodes

6

Featured Episode:

89

3×6

Episode 6

Pretty much the same formula at this point… they’re not doing anything to change it up too drastically at this point. It always teeters on the edge of being dark and serious, but stays just on this side so we can laugh at everyone’s misfortune. Because of where they positioned things this season, there was less playful banter between them, which was kinda one of the biggest selling points. But the really strong and emotional final episode was made even more so with its usage of Carrie Fisher, which I am not embarrassed to say made me tear up.

27

Rating

86.1

Stranger Things

Season 2

Episodes

9

Featured Episode:

88

2×6

Chapter Six: The Spy

In a lot of ways, the second season of Stranger Things felt like more of the same: it was also the same, but more. It certainly felt bigger, both in the threat, and the scope of the world (finally peeking beyond the town limits a bit.) The cast of characters also got two (arguably three, with Will being more of a presence) new additions. The downside to that was also that there wasn’t as much time to dig into all of them at the same level. Most notably Eleven, who really suffered from Gandalf syndrome and had to stay out of the action for most of the season because she’s OP. I also didn’t feel like the two newbies added much aside from a general “let’s shake things up!” vibe. But when the big train got rollin’ about halfway in, there were plenty of thrills and unexpected moments to get me totally on board. Again, the show delivers more on slight twists on old formulas rather than reinventing the wheel, but it executes with a bold confidence that delivers high entertainment value.

26

Rating

86.2

Bates Motel

Season 5

Episodes

10

Featured Episode:

87

5×5

Dreams Die First

This is a frustrating review to write. I watched all 5 seasons this year, and while the final season was enjoyable, it wasn’t at the same level as the fantastic fourth season. It was still good, but it was for obvious reasons just very different, and hard to really connect with anyone in the same way. I guess Dylan is kinda supposed to be that character, but I never connected well with him, in part because of the wonderbread actor who’s never really measured up to the people around him. That said, there were strong moments (no breath-taking ones), and they played out the end game in a satisfying, if somewhat on-the-nose, fashion.

25

Rating

86.2

Casual

Season 3

Episodes

13

Featured Episode:

88

3×4

The Sprout

While not quite as cohesive as the excellent 2nd season, there was a lot to like about Season 3. Unfortunately, the grumpy, mean, and just not fun Valerie wasn’t one of those things this season. I guess there was a bit of character growth and self-awareness gained by the end, but it really didn’t feel worth the journey to get there with her, and she just kinda brought the scenes down. There were solid plot twists, an adorable new supporting character in Alex’s cosplayer roommate, and probably the most interesting season for Laura yet. Also, Judy Greer and Alex made an adorable couple. I stand by my overuse of that word.

24

Rating

86.3

Review

Season 3

Episodes

3

Featured Episode:

88

3×3

Cryogenics; Lightning; Last Review

This was a really strange season to review. And not just because it’s called Review. But because it was three half-hour episodes, with commercials, so effectively just over 60 minutes of content. That’s easily the shortest season I’ve reviewed. But I definitely have to, because I only recently caught up on the first two remarkable seasons, and this is in effect rating the series as a whole. Plus, Forrest MacNeil wouldn’t back down from such a review challenge, so I won’t either. I’ll be honest, I was not initially intrigued by the premise at all, because it is very difficult to explain what the actual premise is. Basically, it’s a dark comedy about a ridiculous man who will tear his life apart for the validation of his faceless audience. It’s hilarious in its ludicrousness, and kind of sad and tragic at the same time. And the ending was just about as perfect an ending I could imagine for it, if a bit rushed. A worthy, short coda, to an extremely unique series.

23

Rating

86.4

Better Call Saul

Season 3

Episodes

10

Featured Episode:

89

3×5

Chicanery

It’s not only that it lacks the sense of tension and urgency of a Breaking Bad… it also comes short in direction and focus. For every emotionally fraught scene between Jimmy and his judgmental brother is a sequence that takes too long to go nowhere, like reestablishing a well-known rivalry between Gus and Hector, or ten minutes of taking apart a car to find a tracking device. There are too many pans on the stove for us to be invested in any one of them. Sorry, I take that back, I am invested in the relationships between Jimmy and Kim, and the one between Jimmy and Chuck. I’ve said it before: Mike, as cool a character as he is, shouldn’t be a part of this show. There is not enough of interest there to devote 33% of our time there, and it makes the entire venture feel disjoint. That said, there were enough of those good moments to make it still mostly a pleasure to watch this season.

22

Rating

86.4

American Vandal

Season 1

Episodes

8

Featured Episode:

88

1×7

Climax

While I might have gained another level of appreciation if I’d had any exposure to the true crime genre, American Vandal was still pretty entertaining in its own right. It had well-drawn characters, and unexpected turns, especially when the documentary in progress became a plot point itself, adding an interesting meta angle to the whole thing. It said some interesting things about justice and public perception, and was a lot more fascinating than it appeared on surface level with “Who drew the dicks?”

21

Rating

86.5

The Crown

Season 2

Episodes

10

Featured Episode:

89

2×4

Beryl

I found the second season of The Crown to be far more watchable than the first. It was much more focused on the characters and their relationships, and how those interact with the expectations put on them from their positions. My main quibble was that while there were some standout episodes focused on Elizabeth’s husband Philip and sister Margaret, Elizabeth herself didn’t get the same attention, and was left mainly to react to their misadventures. That said, Claire Foy did get some moments to shine in those interactions, and we would occasionally get extremely disarming moments when she let down her guard.

Alright! I can feel it, you’re itching for that tasty Top 20… those beauties are up next. Maybe tomorrow? Maybe in a week? I’m pretty unpredictable, so you best keep an eye out.

Happy 2018, my TV-loving friends! I hope you got to see tons of great stuff in the last year. I sure did! To be exact, 899 TV episodes of things, for a total of 609 hours! Okay, not all of those were great, but 185 of them were. NUMBERS!

So, despite an actually reduced number of episodes watched from 2016, I was able to finish two more series this year (they keep getting shorter and shorter!), for a total of 71. A couple of them were bad, but most of them were pretty good. As usual, here they are, systematically scored and sorted based on a very scientific “awesomeness” scale. Thankfully I’ve been able to remove all the pesky subjectivity so prevalent in rankings like this, and lay it out to ya using pure truth values.

Here’s the first handful of shows as we slowly and painfully narrow it down to the Final 10, over the next few days. Maybe I’ll treat you all to a few more nifty stats from the ever growing database of TV knowledge, as we go.

71

Rating

60

New Girl

Season 6

Episodes

12

Featured Episode:

79

6×21

San Diego

It’s hard to give a detailed analysis of a comedy that has become not funny, but that’s what New Girl is. The same patterns continue: Schmidt/Nick scenes are magic, the rest is mostly crap. It’s a tricky situation, because you could lean into that strength, but risk running it dry from overuse. I’ll tell you one ingredient that certainly isn’t the cure: Megan Fox. I can maybe see what they were going for? That her expressionless, unemotional “acting” would read as sardonic? And there certainly were a couple moments that worked accidentally for that reason. But she and Nick had no chemistry, and her complication girl purpose was never even remotely believable. Fred Willard’s short cameo toward the end of the season, while amazing, was NOT quite enough to bump New Girl into the “worth watching” category.

And in the end, that means this once-Top-10 show is now in last place, even behind…

70

Rating

63.1

The Big Bang Theory

Seasons 10/11

Episodes

24

Featured Episode:

79

11×10

The Confidence Erosion

In lieu of another review making excuses for my watching this show, a compilation of short quotes from my episode reviews:

“Dear god Leonard is a baby.”

“Raj and Stuart’s adventures in babysitting? Pass.”

“Koothrappali storyline is stupid AF.”

“I laughed a couple times.”

“I really enjoyed that episode.”

“Boring.”

And, yeah, that’s a fairly representative ratio. Frequently the show will come SO CLOSE to a real moment, then get scared and make a dumb racist joke.

69

Rating

78

Colony

Season 2

Episodes

13

Featured Episode:

84

2×9

Tamam Shud

First half of the season was boring as balls. Then they shook things up, finally threw in some character progression and cool action, then closed it out with another yawn. Can’t really recommend grinding through the first two seasons of this fairly uninspired alien occupation story that spends most of its time stepping on your neck, just for those few glimpses of fun.

68

Rating

78.7

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Season 12

Episodes

10

Featured Episode:

84

12×10

Dennis’ Double Life

67

Rating

79

The Last Man on Earth

Seasons 3/4

Episodes

17

Featured Episode:

93

3×10

Got Milk?

It’s a show that was different and unique and now has run out of those ideas that made it unlike anything else on TV. Okay, I’ll amend that a tad: The success rate is just a LOT lower now. This year had a few absolute gems, like the episode that was focused entirely on a previously unseen character played by Kristen Wiig, with none of the series regulars. It was so bizarre and different from everything in the show up to this point, and was reminiscent of what they did all the time in the first season. But sandwiched between those cool departures are some really dumb and boring storylines, partly because babies don’t make shows MORE interesting, but mostly because the premise is starting to run its course. It’s time to end gracefully, show.

66

Rating

79.1

Doctor Who

Seasons 10/11

Episodes

13

Featured Episode:

85

10×11

World Enough and Time

I probably liked this season best of the Capaldi era, but it still suffered badly from the classic symptoms of Moffat: imaginative and intriguing setups, with resolutions that are at-best confusing, and at worst incomprehensible. There were two multi-episode arcs this season, both falling into that latter category, including, unfortunately, the season finale. What a mess and what a waste of a hugely unexpected return of one of my favorite villains. Pearl Mackie as Bill was a bright spot in the season for sure. I had never seen her in anything, but from the previews it looked like she was going to be a one-note comic relief companion. But while she did have some zingers, she brought a great amount of emotional depth and strength to the companion role. She had a fresh take on the Doctor/Companion relationship that livened up the show in a number of places. I am hopeful that Jodie Whittaker and Chris Chibnall will be the fresh take the series needs going forward.

Moffat’s final Christmas Special was pretty solid.

65

Rating

79.9

Marvel’s The Defenders

Season 1

Episodes

8

Featured Episode:

87

1×3

Worst Behavior

Man did I really want to enjoy this more than I did. I really did like the first three episodes, and how they interwove the characters we knew and tolerated (plus Jessica Jones) in their separate stories until they finally came together in a pretty cool scene. Then they started talking together, and everything went downhill the rest of the way. The Hand was boring when it was just a bunch of nameless ninjas, and it was also boring when it was five cackling villains with names, only the latter never even felt like a threat. I really wish they’d given Sigourney Weaver more to do, because she had the most interesting moments in the series, even if their grand vision never really was clear. Also: Can we have a team-up series with ONLY Matt Murdock and Jessica Jones solving mysteries? They had a good chemistry, when he finally stopped whining about not wanting to be a hero. Danny is the worst.

64

Rating

80

I Love Dick

Season 1

Episodes

8

Featured Episode:

84

1×5

A Short History of Weird Girls

Imma be honest here… I really didn’t get this show. It felt even more distancing than Jill Soloway’s earlier show, Transparent, in its off-putting, narcissistic characters and bizarre behavior. There were spots where I felt I could appreciate what it was going for, but most of the time I was just confused. Is the key takeaway that artists are full of shit?

63

Rating

80.1

Detroiters

Season 1

Episodes

10

Featured Episode:

87

1×5

Happy Birthday Mr. Duvet

This quirky comedy showed some promise with its offbeat buddy duo of hapless advertising producers. Feels a bit like Broad City with dudes, though that was already probably a thing before Broad City. Bosom Buddies? Anyway, their earnest haplessness is charming and cute. The season was pretty inconsistent, with a few gut busters immediately followed by a couple brutal clunkers bordering on offensive. But a fun diversion that has room to grow, if it’s not canceled.

62

Rating

80.8

Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later

Season 2

Episodes

8

Featured Episode:

84

2×7

Dance

More goofiness from the Wain/Showalter nutjobs. Lack of Jon Hamm made it fall short of the previous year’s “First Day of Camp”. Showalter’s Ronald Reagan from last season is joined by Michael Ian Black’s equally hilariously lame George H. W. Bush. These guys are so weird. It scratches a very specific itch, but it’s not exactly art.

61

Rating

81

Humans

Season 2

Episodes

8

Featured Episode:

83

2×3

Episode 3

Slightly more interesting than the clunky first season, but still nothing groundbreaking. The show comes close to an insightful exploration of the nature of consciousness and humanity, then bails out when it approaches a cool angle. The idea of Niska’s trial was really cool, then it farted out in favor of some stupid conspiracy plot. Beyond the fact that other sci-fi shows have tread this ground better, Humans just doesn’t really have anything meaningful or new to say to warrant the time invested in these characters and sci-fi trappings.

60

Rating

81.1

Broadchurch

Season 3

Episodes

8

Featured Episode:

87

3×1

Episode 1

The latest (final?) season of Broadchurch felt like a fresh direction and idea that kind of got bogged down under the weight of its own red herrings and lack of focus. They really went overboard in giving us so many shithead suspects that in the end I didn’t really care who did it, I wanted to see them all put away. There were some good moments to close out the Latimer family arc, but the season never really gelled for me.

59

Rating

81.2

13 Reasons Why

Season 1

Episodes

13

Featured Episode:

85

1×11

Tape 6, Side A

An interesting premise that never really paid off, and ended up being more teen drama than drama. In a time with some really great and insightful de-stigmatization of mental illness, the simplistic and reductive treatment from 13 Reasons Why may have done more harm than good. Sure, bullying is bad, but that is not the only lesson to be gleaned from all of the complicated issues touched upon in this show, which feels self-congratulatory in its message of “let’s all be nice to each other.” Watch Crazy Ex-Girlfriend instead.

58

Rating

81.4

Silicon Valley

Season 4

Episodes

10

Featured Episode:

89

4×8

The Keenan Vortex

I found much of this season to be boring as hell. A lot of the jokes are feeling old, and the story is mostly aimless at this point. That said, it did feel like it kicked into another gear in the last three episodes, especially the tightly crafted VR episode. The conflict felt fresh and interesting, and led to an interesting dynamic where Richard starts to lose it and causes his most fervent (and creepy) ally Jared to leave his side. We’ll see how a season without T.J. Miller will fare. I am frankly not optimistic.

57

Rating

81.9

The Walking Dead

Seasons 7/8

Episodes

16

Featured Episode:

86

8×4

Some Guy

Well, after its painful bummer of a Season 7a, Walking Dead is incrementally becoming less sucky each half-season. It’s still nowhere near the levels it was at its peak, but it’ll occasionally get interesting, like meeting the weird trash people, or our cowardly priest trying to save Negan’s soul. But even when the show isn’t grinding us down mercilessly, it’s more often than not re-treading ground it explored more compellingly in previous seasons, and it just feels like it’s mostly out of gas. Time to end?

56

Rating

82

Back

Season 1

Episodes

6

Featured Episode:

84

1×4

Episode 4

Man, was I excited to find there was a new show starring the Peep Show boys, David Mitchell and Robert Webb! Unfortunately, it’s not their brainchild, and is a kinda muddled dramedy that didn’t quite go beyond awkward comedy fare. It had flashes of hilarity in between a plot that just kinda floundered. Also, what a fucking stupid title.

55

Rating

82.2

Veep

Season 6

Episodes

10

Featured Episode:

90

6×1

Omaha

It was fine. I laughed at times, but it feels like it’s running out of juice.

54

Rating

82.4

Love

Season 2

Episodes

12

Featured Episode:

86

2×2

Friends Night Out

It was kinda cool.

53

Rating

82.5

Homeland

Season 6

Episodes

12

Featured Episode:

86

6×11

R Is for Romeo

Not quite up to the resurgent season last year, but still had some thrilling moments, and Quinn’s arc was pretty good.

52

Rating

82.6

The Tick

Season 1

Episodes

6

Featured Episode:

83

1×3

Secret/Identity

The pilot was not encouraging, but the next 5 episodes were actually fairly entertaining. He was definitely #NotMyTick, as his energy was decidedly different than that of the brilliant 90’s cartoon, but Peter Serafinowicz eventually charmed me with his own brand of slightly dim enthusiasm. I was irritated for a couple of episodes by Arthur, another obvious protagonist taking forever to team up with The Tick, but directly addressing that by referencing Joseph Campbell’s call to adventure made me forgive them. This Tick was more violent, but also had slightly more nuanced characters, like the villanous Miss Lint, who only commits crimes to get her adoptive father to accept her, or Arthur’s sister Dot, who begs Arthur not to get involved with The Tick’s quest, while secretly earning some extra cash by patching up mob thugs that The Tick is beating up. It definitely doesn’t work consistently, but the occasional full belly-laugh and oddly moving character relationship made me not regret giving this reboot a chance, despite my initial skepticism.

51

Rating

82.9

Last Week Tonight With John Oliver

Season 4

Episodes

30

Featured Episode:

87

4×21

Episode 110

50

Rating

82.9

Mindhunter

Season 1

Episodes

10

Featured Episode:

83

1×2

Episode 2

I sincerely appreciated the unique and experimental vision from this David Fincher offering. The show had a knack for subverting expectations, and making the viewer feel uncertain and occasionally uncomfortable. I think where it succeeded the most was in the tension-filled conversations between our FBI psych squad heroes and the sequence (or later “serial”) killers. One of the points that is driven home (with the help of very strong performances) is that these are people, not some cartoonish fantasy of “evil”. What was fascinating to me as well as to Agent Ford (Jonathan Groff) is what was the thing that went differently for them to make them do the things they did. I know it was impossible to expect all the answers, but I felt like the show had the briefest start of the conversation on it, then bailed to go off in another direction. And while the three leads were all very good, the actress who played Ford’s girlfriend was just terrible. It was actually painful to watch their scenes together. But there were enough character nuggets and story threads to say overall I enjoyed the show, even if it kind of ended the season in a bit of a mess.

49

Rating

83.1

Girls

Season 6

Episodes

10

Featured Episode:

88

6×3

American Bitch

A surprisingly solid final season to a show that’s been heavily uneven over the years. While the characters still had their share of infuriating self-absorbed moments, there were at least glimpses of maturity interspersed as well. Structurally, I appreciated the fairly unconventional way they did the finale over the last two episodes. It was kind of finales for the group and Hannah individually. It worked, even if multiple cathartic moments felt coincidentally timed together. I’ll also mention one of my favorite episodes of the series, a bottle episode featuring The American’s Matthew Rhys. While the writing was certainly over par for this installment as well, his performance was just magnetic and fully realized. Some of his speeches were up there with McConaughey in True Detective. Almost made the season for me.

48

Rating

83.2

HarmonQuest

Season 2

Episodes

10

Featured Episode:

88

2×1

The Quest Continues

I was pretty happy that Dan Harmon and as-of-between-seasons ex-wife Erin McGathy agreed to work together on the 2nd season of this animated D&D adventure. It brought back good memories of their podcast glory days (which McGathy has not yet returned to), especially when once-frequent-guest-and-now-major-motion-picture-star Kumail Nanjiani made his glorious return for the season finale. As was the case with the first season, the episodes are very uneven, because of the crapshoot nature of the improv ability of celebrity guest stars, plus the kind of random nature of improv in general. Best guests: Patton Oswalt, Janet Varney, Jason Mantzoukas, Elizabeth Olsen, Kumail Nanjiani.

47

Rating

83.4

The Deuce

Season 1

Episodes

8

Featured Episode:

85

1×7

Au Reservoir

I wanted to be excited about the latest TV project from The Wire creator David Simon, but The Deuce takes a LONG time to gain any momentum, and never really ended up grabbing me in the same way. He uses a lot of devices familiar to fans of The Wire… exploring the systematic aspects of both the criminal enterprise and how it entwines with the police force; creating at times painfully human portraits of people from many angles of the industry. In this case that industry is the prostitution and pornography industry instead of the drug trade, but the legal and moral questions surrounding them are similarly complicated. James Franco served as what is starting to feel like an overplayed TV trope: playing identical twin brothers. This year alone we saw that from FX’s Baskets, FX’s Fargo, and HBO’s The Leftovers (sort of). In none of those shows did it feel like a thematically important conceit, and more a reason to entice an actor, and the same was the case here. While it came slowly, there were interesting story and character arcs in the later few episodes that finally left me feeling invested, but overall it wasn’t the same powerful juggernaut The Wire was in its prime.

46

Rating

83.6

Preacher

Season 2

Episodes

13

Featured Episode:

87

2×6

Sokosha

I had high hopes for the premise of Season 2 after a somewhat uneven setup in Season 1. Unfortunately, while the first episode paid off the promise of the wacky road trip of the vampire, mind-controlling preacher, and bank robber all in search of God, but then they land in New Orleans and it goes back to being uneven. Honestly, I think the biggest problem with the show is they have no idea what to do with Ruth Negga’s Tulip. Her whole arc in the first season was about getting the boy she likes to come back to her, which narratively just didn’t have enough beats to be interesting at all. She has even less to go on in this season, while the men have their own adventures that give them agency. Conversely, Cassidy the vampire, is the comic relief, and is much better as a supporting character, commenting sarcastically on other people’s problems. So having him deal with his own heavy problems take him away from his strengths as well, which were the big bright spots of Season 1 for me, and were dulled slightly this season. This show takes big swings, and sometimes they hit, and sometimes they miss. Sometimes they work too hard to offend just for the sake of offending a la South Park or Family Guy, which I don’t respond to much, but sometimes their out-there shit works, and those moments are pretty great, like the chemistry between Eugene and Hitler in hell. So, keep watching, if you’re ready to be frequently thrilled but frequently bored. 🙂

45

Rating

83.8

Runaways

Season 1

Episodes

8

Featured Episode:

86

1×3

Destiny

I was in a slightly uncomfortable place with Marvel’s Runaways, due to my inclination to rag on all those book readers complaining about how a show adapted one of their favorite things. The Runaways comic book series was one of my favorite things, so I had high hopes for this Hulu production. And it was a serviceable update for TV. The main teenage squad had the right look and tolerable acting skills. The biggest departure was in the deeper treatment of The Pride, the group of shadowy villains that were mostly flat evil in the comics, here presented with more nuance and backstory, which I appreciated. At the front of that group was the complicated James Marsters (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) character, whose performance was a lot more muted than Spike, but was compelling all the same. The biggest shortcoming for me was just the overall lack of “fun” that was one of the tentpoles of the comic for me. The dialogue isn’t nearly as crisp or witty, and the pacing feels way too sluggish. Sadly this is the one series that is straddling the year boundary, with its final two installments of S1 in January, so I’m judging it without having the whole season’s shape yet, but based on the couple bits of clunky fightin’ action I’ve seen so far, I doubt the climactic showdown will be enough to move the dial too much.

44

Rating

83.9

iZombie

Season 3

Episodes

13

Featured Episode:

88

3×9

Twenty-Sided, Die

I’ve said it about previous seasons, and it still holds true: the procedural half of this series is the weakest. The difference is becoming more dramatic as the central conceit of that part runs really dry. They are running out of “personalities” for Liv to inhabit. Dungeon Master isn’t a personality. I have a feeling that they might already have decreased proportionally the amount of the episodes that are focused on the murder investigation piece, but that just makes them even more paper-thin and uninteresting. Why not do one every two or three episodes instead? Stick to the more compelling season-arc stories for most of the episodes. It still has its macabre sense of humor, and complex (sometimes overly so) network of players, rivalries, and statuses (who’s currently a Zombie?). Bonus points for completely upending the entire world/mythology, and I’m curious to see where it goes from here.

Alrighty folks, you did great scrolling through that tall monolith of shows. I’ll give you a breather, so long as you come back tomorrow, ‘kay? We’ll swap a bit of quantity for a bit of quality, and give you just 23 slightly better shows, how does that sound? Cool? Cool.

Well, here it is. The Top 10.

Not sure if I have anything that profound to say about my rankings this year. If you’d like to see my usual self-deprecating rant excusing my rankings for being completely wrong, check out last year’s Top 10. (And they are definitely wrong, as evidenced by Atlanta’s Golden Globe victories Sunday night. (Side-note: You should definitely watch Atlanta. My issues with it aside, it’s a groundbreaking show that is at least worth the conversation.))

The one thing that strikes me about this year’s group is how much more “middle” it feels like there is this year. 40-50 of the shows in the middle fell into the category of “pretty good” if minorly flawed or inconsistent. Many of those shows had “excellent” episodes. But when it comes to the week-by-week excitement and anticipation to get to the next episode, it mostly fell to these 10 shows below. (Well, different kind of excitement for those streaming shows.) Does that mean I regret watching the 700 or so other episodes of TV from those shows? Not at all! The whole fun of it is the digging through the muck for those magical gems of episodes. Just because these shows strung more of those gems together doesn’t mean the others were less worthwhile. And your gems will probably look different than mine. Maybe you’re more after the clever plot twist than the cathartic character moment. Or maybe you’re more fascinated by a real housewife than a fake horse man.

But here are ten shows that had more of those gems and fewer of those turds than any other I saw last year. They were more consistent, did bigger and bolder things with the medium, and induced more of those involuntary emotional thingies: you know, the tears and the laughs. Should I reward them for causing me to lose control of my face? Probably not, but here we go anyway.

Let me start by saying that the nod to Chris Carter in this ranking was completely accidental, and not meaningful in any way. If I’d been stacking the deck at all, I would have placed this at rank 13, but the cards fell where they fell. (Never afraid to mix metaphors.)

I gave this season a big boost in total rating due to its fantastic finale. This series struck a perfect balance of story and character, spending much of its five-episode limited run dealing with the consequences of a thirteen-year abduction of a young woman on her family and friends. There is a police investigation element to it, and while there are developments in the story, and things we slowly learn about her thirteen year disappearance, it never devolves into cheap gotcha twists, but feels organic and truthful to the characters. The final episode was clever in how it created tension but also gave us answers in a natural and unforced way, as well as shining a light on character aspects. An unconventional opening credit sequence, great performances, and a shocking but earned ending all put the icing on one of the most satisfying and intelligent police dramas I’ve seen in a long time.

Whether or not to include Gravity Falls was the most agonizing I’ve done over the rules of my rankings. Because network shows are naturally split so that in a calendar year you will have the final half of one season, followed by the first half of the next, including partial seasons has been a natural staple of my rankings for years. But what if a cable show airs nothing but the first two episodes of its season in December? Should I rate them alone, independently of the remainder of the season? I don’t particularly like that. So, like with The Affair this year, I decided that I would rate a show only if it aired a season finale during that year, so I could either rate that season as a whole (including the previous year’s start), or just the half season if there was another first-half in the fall. Seems reasonable.

Enter Gravity Falls. It had its 2nd (and final) season finale in February of 2016. That was the only episode it aired this year. The 2nd season started in August of 2014. That’s right, this season had nearly two years of episodes previous to this year. Still, it technically follows the rule? But I didn’t start watching the show at all until this year. I watched both seasons in 2016, including this year’s finale. (Series finale.) If I had watched Season 2 last year, would I have held off in rating its 19 aired episodes, to wait for the finale to air in the next year? I’m not sure. Am I bending the spirit of the rules to include a two-year-old show because I liked it so damn much and want to include it in my ratings while I can? Maybe. That may have to be guilt I’ll have to be ready to live with. Hopefully I won’t be judged too harshly in the next world.

Okay, back to Gravity Falls: Loved it. It’s hilarious. For adults. Like, to an extent that I don’t think kids would actually like it all that much. Here’s some of the voice talent:

Regulars: Kristen Schaal (MVP), Linda Cardellini.

Recurring: T.J. Miller, J.K. Simmons, Nick Offerman, Will Forte.

Guest-stars: Nathan Fillion, Patton Oswalt, Jonathan Banks, Mark Hamill, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Justin Roiland, Louis CK, John Oliver, Jon Stewart, Larry King, Coolio.

That’s right, Coolio. Like, this shit is not dicking around.

While Season 1 was bogged down too much by Dipper’s boring and trope-y quest to win over the girl, that storyline ended early on in Season 2 in a really surprisingly adult and natural manner, and they were free to explore more interesting territory, and also allow the girl to be a three-dimensional character in her own right. The show continued that trend of exploring adult themes (not sexual, just grown up), the ultimate example being the show’s best episode, A Tale of Two Stans, which was not only a hugely pivotal moment in the ongoing mythology of the series, but also a complex and emotional story up there with the best of your prestige dramas.

Throw on top of that really fun and creative supernatural elements, some legitimate scares and creepy villains, a strong story arc that plays out in a EPIC 3-part finale, and you have one of the more enjoyable and memorable TV experiences out there, cartoon or not. Recommended for anyone out there who likes fun things.

Much like The Leftovers last year, Game of Thrones shone brightly when finally free of the shadow of the books. I mean, I don’t think we truly know yet how much of this season was based on what Martin gave them at this point, but the show felt much less handcuffed than in the sullen Season 5. Most of the complaints I’ve heard about this season was it didn’t feel like Game of Thrones anymore with too much “fan service.” My interpretation of that complaint is there wasn’t enough pain and suffering for this to really be Game of Thrones. And sure. We finally got a number of things we wanted as an audience, which nearly never happened in any of the previous seasons. But by the same point, we’ve got to get moving to a resolution soon, right? So unless the end of the series is going to be that we lose every character we’ve invested in and care about, something has to start going right. And the way they are executing on that is just exciting and fun to watch. And honestly, even though those things did happen, we still managed to lose a fair number of well-liked characters this year, so it wasn’t all coming up roses, either! (Roses? See what I did there?)

While the typical big battle Episode 9 was awe-inspiring, if a bit trite and predictable structure-wise, the finale was one of the best episodes ever. I still listen to the gorgeous music from the haunting and jaw-dropping opening scene. And the way they moved all the pieces around in surprising ways, and left us anticipating what will come next season more than the series ever has before… gives the show a unique and hopeful place in my TV dreams for 2017. Go Dany Go!

This show feels the least authentic when it’s Jimmy being an asshole to Edgar. Based on all his character arcs to this point, dipping into that well again and again feels cheap and dishonest. Now that the negatives are out of the way: Edgar’s storyline was fantastic this season. (Did I mention I ❤ Edgar?) We finally got a well-deserved full episode focusing on him and the topical issues he has to deal with with the PTSD and VA struggles. A very moving and thoughtful examination of his character at the level of Gretchen’s depression in Season 2. On that note, I was happy they chose to follow her trying to deal with that, but it was also frustrating how terrible her therapist was. Lindsay is still the worst, though they really pushed how far we would still go along her shit this season. And while there was a bit of less compelling moves in the Jimmy and Gretchen relationship, I loved their drama in the last arc of the season, followed by the biggest oh shit cliffhanger. Talk about an emotional roller-coaster. And while it wasn’t popular, I got a kick out of the Vernon/Paul bonding episode. They have such a strange but compelling chemistry. Oh, and his podcast!!! Fantastic.

When hearing the title for the first time, or seeing the ironically girly marketing material for Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, you might not expect that the creators would cite Breaking Bad as their top influence when making the show. Described by Rachel Bloom as a “bubbly Walter White,” you can quickly see the parallels in this slightly delusional, self-centered female anti-hero: a character like we’ve never seen before on TV. When we meet her, Rebecca Bunch has unrealistic dreams about where her life should be, finds her self unsatisfied in her mundane and unexciting existence, and makes a rash decision to reclaim some youthful ideal of happiness.

Rebecca’s lack of self-awareness can be painful to watch, as it often was with Walter White. In the first half of Season 1, the show really basked in the awkwardness of her obsessively shoehorning herself into the life of Josh Chan, without admitting to herself or her friends that that’s what she was doing. On top of some freshman season issues with direction and pacing, this kept a truly innovative, at times hilarious, musical comedy from being as strong and consistent and enjoyable to watch as the Top 20.

2016, however, saw the show elevated to another level. Rebecca became a bit more hilariously awkward instead of painfully awkward. The songs, which took a bit of a dip at the end of Season 1, were high in both musicality and humor in Season 2. But most importantly, the cast of supporting characters was fleshed out and allowed to carry some of the dramatic and comedic weight. Where Rebecca’s misadventures in romance cast a cynical eye on “true love,” we are given a sincere, adorable, and unexpected couple that was an immediate hit among the show’s rabid fan base.

Rachel Bloom has an amazing knack for layering interesting complexity in characters that seem at the outset like they are two-dimensional or throwaways. Just when you think “aw, I’ve seen this plot device before”, as the opening sequence suggests, it turns out to be a lot more nuanced than that. She has a way of playing with the viewer’s expectations, kind of teasing you because she knows what you think you want as an audience member, and then she will pull the rug out and show you why maybe that thing isn’t good for anyone, and might not be as satisfying as you thought.

Similarly, she plays with the idea time and again of the characters as people challenging those things that seem like the “most important” things to them at any moment, and trying to take stock of the things you have, and what are going to be the things most helpful to pushing you forward, which all of our characters deal with in different ways. It’s a show that is very psychologically smart, and defiantly uses the term “crazy” to really discourage such easy pigeon-holing and encourage examination of what drives people to make whatever choices they do, even if those choices are sometimes unhealthy for them in the long run.

I’ll close by saying I found out literally an hour ago the show was renewed for a third season, which is super-exciting, especially considering that no one watches it! Well, most of my friends do, I meant more on a macro scale. If you’re not, you should be.

Well, this was the season (Season 4) I felt The Americans grew into the praise it had been getting for years. I’ve always felt the “spy” stuff was the least compelling stuff on the show, and this year they really did a great job of letting the characters be front and center. There weren’t a huge number of twists and turns, but they really lingered on the emotional consequences of each one to an almost uncomfortable degree. But especially this season, it’s that “consequences” piece that sets The Americans apart from other “spy” shows. (As you can tell, I am hesitant to call this a spy show, even though they are spies, and they do “spy things.”) But character deaths on The Americans are very rare, and are felt deeply, and not used purely for shock value and then discarded. A lot of screen time was dedicated to the potential exposure of one of their long-term “assets”, and a lesser show would have taken the easy way out and just had them killed off in a “shocking” way. But this show recognizes that our characters were human beings, and aren’t cavalier about throwing those they’ve tricked to the wolves, or won’t potentially be affected themselves by a long-term relationship, even if it is based on lies. The respect the show has for the humanity of all its characters, and not treating them simply as chess pieces in a political game with casualties, has really impressed me.

My only issue in rating this show so highly is that its peers at the top generally had more content. The six half-hour episodes basically constituted the equivalent of a long movie. But it was a strikingly unique, dark, quirky, self-aware, heartbreaking, and hopeful six episodes. It’s fairly unusual for me to be drawn in so quickly and dramatically as I was by this show’s distinctive voice and personality. The device of having the main character talking directly to the character had a similar effect as that of Frank Underwood in House of Cards, in allowing us to connect more personally to a character who was often dishonest, and rough around the edges. But in Fleabag, they are more capable at mining the device for laughs, as she bounces back and forth with effortless comic timing between internal and external voices, pointing out the ridiculousness of people and situations. I’m sure there was some influence from the long-running British show Peep Show, which also masterfully used the often conflicting inner monologue that let the audience know about the awful things the character was thinking as they were trying to seem like a normal human being. The device does pull back a bit after the first episode, in which it is used heavily to back-handedly introduce us to her world and characters. But the arc of the season is dramatically strong, and we get a strong mix of great comedic moments and extremely powerful and raw character beats.

I was a bit nervous going into the third season of BoJack Horseman. I felt like the first couple seasons had juiced the characters and relationships beautifully, but right up to the point where I felt like it had repeated itself once or twice. They were still powerful moments, but it was a warning sign that maybe they had said all they really had to say with this character. Also, shows can sometimes get in their own heads too much after finally being noticed, like BoJack was after its groundbreaking second season. They can try to do exactly the same thing that made people like it previously, or sometimes go the other route, and try too hard to do something completely different that doesn’t really fit the show. BoJack ain’t those shows.

Season 3, while not perfect, had maybe an even more stellar follow-up to its previous stellar season. A few episodes in the middle felt a little wheel-spinny, but those were offset by a different few episodes that were as near perfection as they come. BoJack, unlike any other show in recent memory, masterfully interweaves quick, razor-sharp, laugh-out-loud comedy with deep, sincere, introspective character beats. While it is tempting to say none of the characters really change, I think they do, albeit slowly, and maybe not exactly in the direction they are trying to. In fact, that change is a favorite theme of the show, at times explicitly, and there is much debate between the characters whether such change is possible.

Finally, on top of those ingredients, which existed in Season 2, but were refined and given even stronger life in Season 3, what I thought really made BoJack stand apart this season was its greater ambition in experimenting with structure and storytelling format. This is where it felt the most to me like Community at its peak, where certain episodes felt completely different than the episode before it, and the stylistic choices were not just stunts, but chosen for a reason that fit where the characters were, or were trying to speak to a message or a theme in a different way. This season really scratched that same itch as a Community in a lot of obvious ways: Community had a sort of surreal, absurdist, and somewhat cynical vibe, following characters who had all kind of failed in one way or another to get where they were, and struggle to redefine themselves. It would also weave back and forth between over-the-top hijinks, densely constructed visual gags and easter eggs, and grounded character moments.

What I admire about both is as crazy and usually hilarious as the comedy could be, it would always be there to serve the characters first. If you didn’t buy into their hopes and fears and flaws and desire to change, then none of it would work. Community was never really as dark as BoJack, however. You can sometimes get whiplash from how quickly you go from complete despair to maybe the funniest animal/celebrity pun you’ll hear all year. It’s this strong dichotomy and unpredictability and experimentation into topics that you really don’t see explored too much on even the more serious dramas that make BoJack Horseman completely unlike any other show before it. Oh, it’s also a cartoon.

After a somewhat aimless beginning in Season 1, this gem of a show has only continued to get better and better. While the backdrop of the tech industry in the 80’s serves as a useful framework and art direction, it’s the development of our core characters, their relationships, and their ideas, and how all of that evolves that make this show riveting, fascinating, and heartbreaking. One of the most potent scenes for me was one where they had very clearly and strongly established the points of view of a number of characters we cared about; their motivations were known, and we could easily see each of their points of view, none were clearly wrong, but their ideas conflicted. The argument was raw, painful, but inevitable. On paper it would have sounded like a dull board room meeting, but it was masterfully constructed, with no contrivance, just good people you desperately wanted to make things work, but knew just couldn’t. It was easily the most tragic moment for me on TV this year, but just highlighted a season full of meaty character moments, happy reunions, painful misunderstandings, and a whole host of other drama that can go along with trying to create something alongside the people you care most about. I am more than thrilled that it’s been given a fourth and final season to wrap things up.

This one probably won’t come as a surprise to anyone who knows me. Pretty sure I’ve raved into the ear of nearly everyone who would listen to me about the beauty that was Rectify this year. Not since Breaking Bad has my choice for #1 been so easy.

Now, I know some of you who haven’t seen either may be tempted to confuse it with the other “-tify” show, Justified. While yes, they do have similar titles, they couldn’t be more different. Justified takes place in Kentucky; Rectify, Georgia. Justified’s protagonist is a charming, intelligent southern man who’s had some misunderstandings with the law; Rectify’s Daniel Holden… well, those things, but doesn’t wear a hat. While Justified has a strong over-arching plot, its main draw is the whip-smart dialogue and comedic timing; Rectify has nearly no shootouts. Justified was the first show in my memory to go out on its own terms, and finish with its strongest season; Rectify was the second.

Okay, fine, I appreciate your patience in going through that little game with me. There are definite parallels that can be made between the two. But Rectify definitely had a very different voice, style, and message. It was certainly much smaller in scale. It was mainly about how a family copes with a major traumatic event: how to coexist with a town that looks down or feels sorry for you, the unseen strain it can place in the relationships. And most importantly how to heal, whether its finding spirituality, putting your faith in others, or just asking for help.

I wasn’t sure how they show would go on this season after where they left us last year. But I think Daniel’s new setting worked amazingly well, both from a character and narrative perspective. There was a lot of empathy and an almost The Wire-level exploration of well-meaning people who were trying to get their life back on track. And Daniel’s exasperation with feeling apart from everyone else led to one of the most moving and emotional scenes on the show, and acted as a climactic point in his character arc, and one told just so vividly and believably.

I also liked how this season was almost an 8-episode denouement. It allowed space for all the characters we’d grown to care about really come to terms with their new lives. Some things worked out superficially better than others, but every character had an arc, and found a way to find some measure of peace in their lives. While Season 3 really did much of the heavy lifting plot-wise, Season 4 was able to close out the story in a satisfying way that didn’t feel like it had a big bow on it.

Rectify is a show that has never been afraid to take its time. It won’t plow through plot points like a Justified. It will sit with the pain or the love or the tension its characters are feeling. But somehow it never drags. It is beautifully shot. The music is sparse, but extremely moving and affecting when that’s what the scene calls for. It masterfully weaves between sadness, relief, and hope, and will sneak attack you with a moment that will make you lose your shit laughing because it was so unexpected yet perfect for that moment.

It’s hard for me to explain the hope and joy I felt week after week for a show about a man who was released after 19 years on death row. It is such an unimaginable and heartbreaking situation, and sounds like a real bummer. And at times it can be sad, for sure. Maybe that’s what makes it such a great story, that someone who has been through that much, lost so much of their life, might actually find a way to be a full person again. I also give a lot of credit to Aden Young, who gives such a weighty and measured performance, and really makes us care, and feel his disorientation from being back in the world. He finds the perfect balance of gentle and weary, with a dry sense of humor, and just the slightest glint of danger. Our investment in Daniel as a person makes the trials and triumphs of his long journey were so compelling and meaningful, made us cringe, or laugh, or cry with joy.

The four season journey came to a marvelously watchable end last year, and that why it’s my unreserved pick for top show of 2016.

Fun fact: 11 of last year’s Top 20 Shows aired zero* episodes this year. That thinned out a real strong herd of TV, and to be frank, left us with fewer great shows this year. While this is still a strong group, they aren’t at the same level as last year, where I had a legitimately had a hard time narrowing a huge field to only 20.

*The Affair aired only the first 5 episodes of Season 3 this year, so I decided to push that season as a whole into 2017.

Fun twist to start Season 2, then we’re thrown right back into the same witty banter covering up the craziness of their lives. No other show can navigate so deftly between holy-shit real and stressful situations and sarcastic tomfoolery than Catastrophe. The attempts to give interesting (yet brief) storylines to some of the supporting cast felt a bit trite and uninspired, but they still added laughs where needed.

While the main appeal of Broad City is still the frenetic energy of the insane misadventures of a couple of young New York ladies, Season 3 tried to venture out a bit more from Abbi and Ilana’s comfort zone to challenge them in new ways. We got to explore Abbi’s past a bit (Tony Danza!!), and Ilana for the first time (in the show) had to deal with relationships she had kind of taken for granted start to break away. While the shenanigans and over-the-top social commentary continued to break ground creatively and have me rolling on the floor, both actresses/writers managed to bring more depth and a wider range of emotion sprinkled through the season, resulting in what I thought was the best season yet. Kudos.

Not since American Horror Story have I seen a show so unapologetically wild and insane. Not all of it worked, but even when it didn’t I applauded the effort. Dark, engrossing, and often hilarious, Preacher has a unqiue tone and style which combines sci-fi and pulp. There’s not a lot of optimism to be found, but it’s a hell of a fun ride, especially thanks to Joseph Gilgun (Misfits) as the extremely likable and charismatic vampire sidekick.

Casual Season 2 built on the fairly dull base it had constructed last year, and really started digging into the characters in new and interesting ways. The main characters started spending more time outside of their weird family unit and finding fresh storylines to take part in on their own. Alex got to do more than sit around and whine. (He got to go out, make stupid decisions, THEN go home and whine.) Val also got to get out of her shell and have some actual fun for herself. The season really had a nice progression to it, finally finishing with its best episode yet, a delightfully dark and hilarious episode that brought the whole family back together in a wholly unexpected way.

A really fascinating documentary about not only the intricacies of the trial and media circus around it, but of the man, and the trajectory that led him to do what he (most likely) did. It also does a fantastic job of weaving in what was going on in the black community and comparing and contrasting to OJ’s life, and finally to where we were as a society when the trial starts. The episode about his Vegas shenanigans after the trial was a bit messier, and could’ve done a better job at painting a picture (as it did so well in the first 4 eps), but overall it was an extremely tight, compelling, and illuminating piece of television.

Half of the appeal of this highly addictive series is the totally spot-on 80’s movie vibe of the whole project. Not only are the hair and makeup and costumes and props perfectly designed, but the camera style, credits, music, direction, all recreate with startling authenticity delightfully retro 80’s scifi flicks. The special effects are obviously CGI elements, but are seamlessly integrated in the same style, so you could with some stretch of the imagination believe they were physical effects. While the painstaking detail of the homage shows a lot of love for that specific time and genre, a lot of the tropes from that period are established and subverted. Characters who seem like the same two-dimensional caricatures we’ve seen a hundred times take a sharp turn and become something else. The nagging mom who just “doesn’t get it” is actually really good at listening and being there for her kids. Throw on top of that just a lot of fun and fast-paced sci-fi storytelling with maddeningly irresistible cliffhangers, and a nearly flawless cast, and I’ve got one of the most entertaining (if somewhat fleeting) TV experiences of the year. Watch it.

While the first season showed stretches of promise, and was maybe a bit heavy-handed with its feminist presence, season 2 let Peggy just let her awesomeness be the message. Gone are the cartoony macho Mad Men-esque co-workers, and in their place are characters with their own interests and agendas, which rings a lot more believable and compelling. On top of that, the two scary villains were both women and also great. This season’s arc felt tighter and more interesting, and the ensemble really clicked in a way it didn’t quite last year, surrounding a very strong lead. The only quibble I had was the fairly anticlimactic resolution to the season arc, but for me that didn’t take much away from a very enjoyable season, with an incredible and unexpected musical number.

Combining the kind of slow-burn tension of a Breaking Bad with the wit and charisma of Tom Hiddleston, and you have an extremely compelling British spy drama. Throw in a layered villain performance from Hugh Laurie, and a brilliant Olivia Colman as a very capable and pregnant investigator and handler, and you’ve got a very unique TV experience. If they had been able to maintain the kind of subtle tension and character interactions from the first 4 eps through to the end, it may well have ended up in my top 3 this year, but a couple missteps made it a little more generic than I was initially hoping for. Hugh Laurie began twirling his mustache, and Tommy Hidds (as I call him), starting making silly mistakes, and a seemingly interesting character ended up not much more than a typical Bond girl. But even in the slightly disappointing final episodes, there were still some genuine thrills, holy-shit moments, and emotional rides I enjoyed taking. It just didn’t quite live up to the promises it had made.

How to describe The Night Of? The double-sized premiere and double-sized finale were fantastic, and then they stuffed 6 half-baked episodes in the middle. Oversimplified a bit, but that’s certainly what you’d see in my episode ratings. The opening 2 hours was a dark, compelling journey of a Pakistani-American college student from a working class family on an adventure filled with so much tension and foreboding, but also hope and optimism. Obviously, it doesn’t go well, and then it becomes a deep dive into the seemingly boring minutia of the criminal justice system, a la The Wire. Enter the heroic but laughed at public defender, played marvelously by John Turturro. His character was the one constant draw through a less subtle parade through prison cliches and legal maneuvering that bogged down the middle episodes. I have no idea why Turturro’s character’s battle with eczema was one of the more compelling storylines through that middle arc, but it felt inspired. And the finale managed to really kick the show back in gear and pull together a satisfying ending, even if they kind of did a disservice to one of the more interesting and seemingly capable characters in the process, in order to service the plot. (I docked it a couple points for that, FYI.) Certainly worth a binge, where the middle chapters won’t feel as drawn out as they did week-by-week.

Veronica Mars meets Girls? Ugh, I hate it when people do that. But it’s close. Four millennials, led by Alia Shawkat (Arrested Development) try to find an acquaintance of theirs from college who has gone missing in New York City. It’s one part private detective story, one part character study (what is missing in Dory’s life that makes her so invested in this?), one part comedy (her friends are self-involved millennial types.) A very unique blend of styles, sometimes cringe-worthy, sometimes super intense. And Alia is quite impressive in this complex role. Top it off with an intense and shocking finale, and it was one of the bright surprises of the year.

This show certainly came out of nowhere, but did not go unnoticed in its premiere season on USA. One of the most critically acclaimed shows of the year, Mr. Robot is understated, atmospheric, and places an emphasis on a realistic portrayal of hacker culture. It’s also one of a number of shows that delves in a sympathetic and unique way into the realm of mental illness, as our main character deals with anxiety, a drug problem, and other psychological symptoms. Their wink-to-the-camera “homage” of another work (that I leave intentionally vague to avoid spoilers) I didn’t fully buy into, partly because I didn’t like that other work, and partly because I didn’t feel like it served the story all that much. But a superbly crafted series with great direction and a compelling story.

Like Inside Amy Schumer, I also binged both seasons early this year, and felt that Season 2 carried on the momentum it had gained at the end of the first with a distinctive voice and great comic timing. The central relationship between Ilana and Abbi is funny, touching, and at times confusing (in a good way.) Hannibal Buress makes me crack up every time. The “pegging” episode was one of the most perfectly-crafted half-hours of comedy in recent memory.

My biggest gripe with Season 1 was that it didn’t stray far enough from the original source material and build its own identity. Season 2, which takes place 30 years earlier, manages to keep the same quirky/dark feel without relying on the same archetypes and story beats. In fact, it would’ve been difficult to make a show more distinctive and unique than Fargo Season 2. It took a number of established tropes of the original film and first season and even the genre as a whole, and twists them in all sorts of new and unusual ways. The bizarre but amazing deus ex machina toward the end of the season was completely out of left field and somehow completely appropriate. The finale was both touching and unexpected yet expected. Patrick Wilson made a fantastic young Keith Carradine. The cast was all pretty fantastic, but the highlight was a slightly delusional housewife searching for meaning, played by a wonderful Kirsten Dunst. I was turned off a bit by the mob war stuff, which did serve more as a backdrop putting things into motion for the more interesting characters, but still went on a bit too long for my taste.

While still nearly as funny as the first season, You’re the Worst pushed new storytelling ground and took some real risks this season, that really gave it more weight. I really don’t want to say too much more about it at risk of revealing too much. But we got to dig deeper into all of the characters and their particular brand of problems. It was good seeing Edgar break off and find something for himself, because he is the least worst of them all. Aya Cash was fantastic in a turn for Gretchen. Lindsay is the worst and the best. The most bold and daring comedy this year.

Not sure what profound things I can say about this season. All the strengths of Season 1 were taken to a new level in Season 2. Highly imaginative concepts, a pointed effort to avoid expected formula and shatter expectations. But in typical Harmon fashion, Rick and Morty never (well, hardly ever) does insane for insane’s sake. It’s always to serve the characters. The addition of big sister Summer (Spencer Grammer) to the majority of the galaxy-faring adventures was a welcome one, not only for a better gender balance, but also for adding a fun new perspective and story possibilities. But mostly, Season 2 was just freaking hilarious.

Hey, another show I didn’t watch in 2014, but made it onto the 2015 list! Season 1 floundered quite a bit figuring out what direction it wanted to go in, but the last three episodes of that season were quite good, making me optimistic for a strong season 2. It was even better that I could have… optimisted? Season 2 flipped the script, and made it about the women. The nerd boy fantasy girl and the nagging housewife from Season 1 were now running the show, and we follow them running a startup tech company. Kerri Bishé, who I don’t think was even in the opening credits for Season 1, was now arguably the main character, and crushed it (to borrow a term I kinda loathe). The two male “entrepreneurs” from Season 1 went on a journey to discover their place in a world that turns out, didn’t really need them. I’m oversimplifying a tad; they still had plenty of screen time, but the challenges that the characters faced this season were substantially more compelling, and had me totally bought in all season long. Best feminist computer series in recent memory.

Well, in what turned out to be the final season, Defiance went out on an exceptionally strong note. The ramifications of the end of Season 2 were largely emotional ones, that added great new and interesting conflict between Nolan and Irisa. In addition, we’re given the best villain on the series to date, who raises the stakes by offing some people I’d been hoping would get offed for a while. His arrival also sets into motion some fantastic morally questionable choices by everyone’s favorite morally questionable Tarr family, and ultimately one of the best-constructed hours of TV. Basically, this season, the chaff was cut, and the strongest characters and actors were given great conflicts to deal with, resulting in some really really good scenes and moments and episodes. And while I would’ve liked to see what was next, it ended in a way that was pretty satisfying.

Speaking of feminist shows in nerd genres… Jessica Jones is the cursing, drinking, screwing P.I. that would make Jack Nicholson in Chinatown envious. I really really don’t want to say too much here, because part of the joy for me of the series was knowing next to nothing about the characters going in. The first episode feels like a straight detective show with a few odd things going on, and you try to put together the clues as it slow burns over the first 6 or 7 episodes before you understand the full history of it all. So, I’ll just say, trust me, this is not the Marvel superhero show you’re used to. And David Tennant is in it. And he’s great. And forget about the B– in Apt 23. Though James Van Der Beek plays himself in this as well. (Not really.)

It’s a pretty rare thing these days for a show to go out on its own terms; it’s even rarer for such a show to go out at its creative peak. Justified is that pink unicorn, ending its strong 6-season run with arguably its best season yet. It turns out Justified was like the original Star Trek movies with its even-number pattern, so it was a smart move to produce an even number of seasons. While the weaker third and fifth seasons began to choke on their intricate web of characters, feuds, and extended history, the final season wisely kept a tighter focus on the central characters, only adding more into the mix if it was going to serve that story, and not bog it down. What resulted was a finely crafted arc that acknowledged the long history of the characters without relying on that history to populate an infinite number of betrayals and loyalties. Which isn’t to say that betrayal and loyalty were not strong themes this season. But each such decision came with weight and clear reasons, and ultimately felt earned. In fact, my favorite choice they made this season was a pivotal twist that was both completely unexpected yet perfect for that character. (And by twist, I don’t mean the cheap Shymalan or Fight Club variety, but the kind that pulls the plot forward in a completely unexpected direction.) Top it off with a finale just about as perfectly appropriate for that show as any I’ve seen, and you’ve got one of the finest final seasons (or any other seasons) of all time.

As I finish gushing about the near-perfect final season of Justified, it is of some note that it had been my aim for about eleven months to crown it as my #1 of the year. It was awesome to see it go out on such a high note, and I was thrilled and excited to be able to give a proper send-off to some of my all-time favorite characters with a well-deserved top spot in 2015.

It wasn’t until I re-watched The Leftovers with my family over the break that it kinda dawned on me what a special, unusual, and meaningful season of TV that was. It was a meaty beast that begged for making connections, and unpacking meaning from its dense imagery for days and weeks after.

Apology section

These shows were on my list, probably would have been good, but didn’t get prioritized for viewing (to completion) this year. In italics are the shows that were on last year’s Top 20.

That’s it for this year. Hope you found my flawed analyses interesting. Feel free to comment with your own contrary opinions or additional insights. I like hearing what other people got out of TV this year, which will surely be different than my own experiences. What shows added appreciably to your 2015?

Happy New TV Year!