The Best of the 10's - Danny's Best TV of the Decade!

THE BEST TELEVISION OF THE 2010's:


1. Breaking Bad

- The gold standard. Breaking Bad was the peak of peak TV - and though it premiered prior to 2010, it was also the first series to make binge-watching catch-up marathons a widespread cultural phenomenon. No series was ever more intense, more impeccably written or acted or saw through from beginning to end. This was the show that knocked, the king of kings.


2. Black Mirror

- An obscure British series that became a viral hit in America thanks to Netflix, Black Mirror is nothing less than the modern day Twilight Zone. No other streaming series has left me waiting in more anticipation for new batches of episodes. And what episodes they were - some of the finest TV installments ever produced, including the all-time-classic San Junipero. A thrilling, disturbing, must-watch sci-fi reflection of the times we live in.


3. Parks and Recreation

-The best sitcom of the decade, Parks and Rec was infinitely quotable, endearingly earnest, and laugh out loud funny. With an all-star cast and an all-star writing team, the show kept getting better and better, up to and including its phenomenal final season in 2015.


4. Game of Thrones

- No other TV series, ever, was more epic. GoT brought sprawling fantasy storytelling TV in a way that had never been seen before, and in doing so produced some of the greatest and most jaw-dropping moments in the medium's history. The last great water-cooler series, the end of Thrones marked the end of a TV era.


5. The Americans

- One of the all-time great TV dramas, The Americans never quite got the fan-following or the critical buzz it deserved. But the show will go down as a classic - a Cold War story that spoke to the troubles and tensions of that era as well as this one. The show was a slow-burn that you couldn't look away from, culminating in perhaps the greatest series finale in TV drama history.


6. Justified

- Speaking of all-time great finales, Justified also gave us one of the best ever. But more than that, the show was a deceptively layered drama filled with iconic characters and memorable locales. A modern Western that never skimped on the badassery, Justified was one of the true can't-miss series of the decade.


7. Community

- A series ahead of its time, Community was constantly on the verge of cancellation - even as it developed a passionate fandom that recognized it as one of the funniest and smartest shows ever. An episode of Community could be anything - and episodes of Community *were* everything. Six seasons and a movie (we still need that movie!).


8. Nathan For You

- Nathan For You is easily one of the strangest, darkest, and most hilarious things I've ever seen. Once you plug into the deadpan wavelength of Nathan Fielder, the only conclusion one can draw is that Nathan For You simply operates on a level of meta comedic genius rarely seen on television.


9. Penny Dreadful

- Those who stuck with Penny Dreadful through its three seasons of gothic Victorian horror were rewarded with one of the most mesmerizing, awe-inspiring, darkly poetic TV series ever made. The series gave us fascinating, re-imagined takes on classic monsters while also introducing Eva Green's iconic Vanessa Ives - tragically struggling with her literal inner demons. And that struggle, man, it made for some incredible TV.


10. Fringe

- The only show in my Top 10 that was *also* on my Best of the 00's list, Fringe started off really good, but ultimately became *great.* What started as a cool new take on X-Files monster-of-the-week procedurals evolved into an epic sci-fi saga that centered around an interdimensional war. The show got better and better as it got more ambitious, and ended up being something unique and unmatched - the decade's ultimate geek-out TV adventure.



THE NEXT BEST:


11. Twin Peaks: The Return

- What an unexpected blast of surreal brilliance this series was - a triumphant return to TV for David Lynch and Mark Frost, revisiting the cult-favorite TV series that had become a pop-culture sensation thirty years earlier. You never knew what Lynch and Frost had in store for you week to week, and that was part of the fun. In fact, it made for some damn fine TV.


12. Mr. Robot

- A series uniquely suited to this decade, Mr. Robot was a mind-bending show that functioned as both a more conventional cyber-thriller and as a meta-journey into the fractured psyche of its main character. Tackling modern political and social issues head-on, Mr. Robot was, ultimately, a bold look at the past decade and a call-to-arms to face the challenges of the next.


13. Brooklyn Nine-Nine

- Nine-Nine! After his incredible sting behind the scenes of Parks & Rec, Mike Schur went on to help create the other best sitcom of the decade - the still-going-strong (and somehow getting better with each season!) B99. Every year, the chemistry of the cast gets better, the joke-writing gets sharper, and I get increasingly annoyed that the great Andre Braugher still hasn't won an Emmy for this show.


14. Fargo

- This show should not have worked. The Coen Bros' cinematic classic did not seem to lend itself to a spin-off TV show ... but creator Noah Hawley proved that there were great stories to be mined from diving back into the snow-covered world of Fargo. And with Seasons 1 and 2 in particular, he gave  us some of the decade's best TV.


15. 30 Rock

- One more holdover from the previous decade - don't get me wrong, 30 Rock is one of the greatest sitcoms of all time. But I also would make the argument that it was just as strong, if not stronger, in the latter half of its run as in the first - producing multiple seasons of hilarity post-2010. Oh how I miss this show. I'm still trying to live every week like it's Shark Week.


16. Eastbound & Down

- Eastbound kicked off in 2009, but a few years later it would go down as one of the craziest, most boundary-pushing, most hilarious TV shows ever. Since the end of the series, we've seen the team of Danny McBride, Jody Hill, and David Gordon Green go on to produce so much great television - but this was really the show that started it all ... and the saga of Kenny Powers remains a comedy classic.


17. Boardwalk Empire

- With an incredible cast and an incredible pedigree of creators behind the scenes, this Martin Scorsese-produced, Prohibition-era crime drama showed the origins of organized crime in the United States - and in so doing showed us a lot about the origins of the world we live in today. Filled with memorable characters both real and fictional, this one was an underrated epic that demands to be binged.


18. Better Call Saul

- Breaking Bad set such a high bar ... it seemed like folly to try to follow it up with a prequel series. But never doubt Vince Gilligan and co. They've made Better Call Saul, in its own way, nearly the equal of Breaking Bad. The show tells a similar story of a good person's slide to the dark side, but it does so with a lighter touch and a more contemplative pace. In the end, Saul will be considered nearly the classic that Breaking Bad was.


19. Silicon Valley

- Incredibly spot-on at all times, always, Silicon Valley was a biting satire of the tech-world culture that has shaped so much of the last decade. Mike Judge again proved his comedic genius here, and the cast was so funny and so good.


20. New Girl

- Another great comedy series, New Girl was a joke-machine with some of the sharpest writing of any recent comedy. The main cast was so good and so funny, and the show did a great job at capturing elder-Millennial issues and anxieties.


21. True Detective

- While True Detective had a bit of a sophomore slump, it was absolutely killer in Seasons 1 and 3 - delivering a certain brand of gothic-noir crime-story I really hadn't seen on TV before (and certainly not done this well). Attracting A-list talent like Matthew McConauhey, Woody Harrelson, and Mahershala Ali - this show at its best was a tour de force.


22. Rick & Morty

- This infinitely creative animated series manages the impossible task of being both laugh out loud hilarious and a genuinely mind-bending sci-fi adventure that never skimps on the science-fiction. In fact, the show's willingness to go all-in on its crazy sci-fi conceits is part of what makes it a legend it its own time.


23. Review

- Hopefully, this under-seen Comedy Central series lives on forever as a genuine cult classic. It's one of the strangest, funniest, craziest shows I've ever seen. Andy Daly plays Forrest McNeil - a man who, for some unknown reason, is forced to host a TV show in which he *must* review any life experience that viewers ask him to. The result is a shockingly dark and daring comedy the likes of which may never be seen again.


24. The Good Place

- Set to finale in January 2020, it will feel like we're all in The Bad Place when this modern comedy classic comes to an end. The Good Place dared to bring high-concept, Lost-esque serialization to a sitcom - and it brilliantly mixed smart philosophical discussion with some of the best comedy writing around. That Mike Schur guy is pretty good.


25. Westworld

- In its twisty, time-jumping first season, Westworld rocked the pop-cultural landscape and set the internet on fire. And with good reason: it gave us some of the most compelling, thought-provoking, can't-miss sci-fi television of the decade. Its return in 2020 for Season 3 is easily one of my most-anticipated TV moments of the upcoming year.

THE NEXT BEST

26.) American Vandal

27.) The Handmaid's Tale

28.) Vice Principals

29.) Sherlock

30.) Bates Motel

31.) Atlanta

32.) Orphan Black

33.) Louie

34.) Key & Peele

35.) The Goldbergs

36.) Stranger Things

37.) American Horror Story

38.) An Idiot Abroad

39.) Documentary Now

40.) Broad City

41.) Children's Hospital

42.) Terriers

43.) Portlandia

44.) The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

45.) Big Mouth

46.) Fleabag

47.) Barry

48.) Big Mouth

49.) Fosse/Verdon

50.) Veronica Mars
 

SPECIAL MENTIONS:

a.) 24: Live Another Day was a legitimately great season of 24. Jack Bauer was sorely missed for much of this decade.


b.) The Walking Dead's first season from 2010 truly kicked-ass. But the show's quick downhill slide made it hard to include on this list from a big-picture perspective.


c.) Riverdale was one of the most fun semi-guilty TV pleasures of the decade.


d.) The Righteous Gemstones had an incredible Season 1. I have a feeling this show will, in short order, be a modern classic. But it felt too early to include quite yet.


e.) The Flash, especially early on, provided some awesome comic book-inspired moments. I really loved the show when it first premiered.


f.) Watchmen was one of the most compelling new series of 2019. I'm still digesting it. It just barely missed making the list.


g.) Chernobyl was another show from 2019 that barely missed the cut. It's amazing television.


h.) Gilmore Girls: A Year In the Life was another one that just barely missed the list. A mostly-great return for one of my favorite series ever.

i.) Humans - when this show was on its game, it was genuinely amazing. It faltered at times but I really dug its look at AI.

j.) The Haunting of Hill House just missed the cut ... only one season and it took a few episodes to get great ... but when it was at its best it was truly fantastic.


SHOWS I NEED TO CATCH UP ON:

- Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Bojack Horseman, The Marvelous Ms. Maisel, Succession, The Magicians, Mad Men, The Crown ... and probably about 500 others!

THE BEST OF 2018 - The Best TV Of The Year

THE BEST OF 2018 - The Best TV Shows of The Year


- Hey guys - I'm back! While I'm no longer posting regular reviews here on the ol' blog, I'm still keeping it going as a forum to post on special occasions. And certainly, one such occasion is my annual set of BEST OF THE YEAR posts. And since I've not been writing regular reviews (save for the occasional quick take on social media), man, I've got a lot to say. So let's get right into it and talk about TV.


- 2018 was a really interesting year for TV. For the last few years, we've seen the balance of power in the TV world shift towards the big streaming services - not just in terms of overall volume of content, but also in terms of the likes of Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu having many of the industry's buzziest and most critically-acclaimed series. In past years, other than the occasional standout like Stranger Things, I'd often de-prioritize streaming series vs. those on more traditional networks. I'd clean out my DVR first, then get to whatever people were binge-watching on streaming. But this year, I definitely noticed a shift in my own habits. More and more, a lot of the best TV (not to mention movies - but that's a whole other discussion) was on streaming, and it felt like there was less and less on the major broadcast or cable networks that could compete. At the same time though, I think we are seeing some of the cracks show in Peak TV. It feels like we are still waiting for the next Breaking Bad-level phenomenon that is both a buzzy audience fave and a critical smash. And a lot of the big "next big thing" series that launched this year didn't quite meet expectations. I'm thinking about series like Altered Carbon, that promised to do for cyberpunk what Game of Thrones did for epic fantasy. The show was entertaining, but was more B-movie TV than prestige TV. I'm thinking about a show like Maniac, that seemed to promise a must-see, mind-bending journey from True Detective helmer Cary Fukunaga, featuring A-list talent Emma Stone and Jonah Hill. It was another mixed bag - an interesting but overindulgent series. And I'm thinking of a show like Castle Rock, which promised the ultimate take on the Stephen King connected universe, but which delivered an all-over-the-place story that had a couple of standout episodes (hello, Sissy Spaceck spotlight ep), but somewhat underwhelmed. And so while the Netflix's of the world could probably stand to reign some of their creators in a bit more, the opposite is probably true of many more traditional nets. They seem to largely be ceding the big, high-concept stuff to streaming - going for safer fare aimed at the older audiences still tuning in.

Anyways, we'll see how this all shakes out. There's way more content out there than anyone can possibly watch. I regularly hear about series - that people really like, and that have been out for a while - that I've not even previously heard of (and I'm pretty in the know!). How this is sustainable, I don't know. But I do think it's overwhelming. At the same time, it's all sort of fascinating. To see a show like The Haunting of Hill House become a viral, word-of-mouth sensation upon release ... I mean, when you think about the careful (and costly) marketing that goes into more traditional series, and then Hill House just drops out of seemingly nowhere and becomes the talk of the internet ... it's nuts.

- So here is my list of the Best TV Series of 2018. There was some amazing TV this past year. Some old favorites came to a close and some new shows rocketed to the top of my must-watch list. And of course, there's a metric ton of TV I've not seen - I'm behind on Mrs. Maisel and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. I need to watch Bojack Horseman. I still haven't seen The Crown. So with all those disclaimers out of the way ... here we go:



DANNY'S TOP TV SHOWS OF 2018:



1. THE AMERICANS

- The Americans has been near the top of my annual best-of lists since Season 1 ... that is, until 2017's Season 5, when it felt like it lost its sense of urgency and became way too much of a slow burn. So there was a question of whether the show could rally for its sixth and final season and go out strong. Personally, I felt confident that it could - because while Season 5 was a bit of a drag, it nonetheless set up a lot of dominoes for Season 6. And when you think about the talent both behind and in front of the camera on this show - well, I had a feeling they were going to give us something special for the final season. And give us something special they did. The Americans' final season was an absolute all-timer - one of the best final seasons of a prestige TV drama ever, culminating in a final episode that was arguably the greatest series finale of all time (and yes, I might even rank it higher than the lauded finales of shows like Breaking Bad, The Sopranos, and Justified). This is where the series' slow-burn pacing really paid off - the show would often tease a confrontation between Russian spies Philip and Elizabeth Jennings and an increasingly suspicious Stan Beeman, but always held back on blowing up the show to deliver it. That is, until the absolutely explosive finale - a wrenching episode of TV that brilliantly delivered on six seasons' worth of story and emotional payoffs. The acting on this series was so, so fantastic - Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell deserve all of the awards for their nuanced performances. As does the criminally underrated Noah Emmerich, who absolutely made the finale with his acting. Holly Taylor, too - as conflicted Jennings daughter Paige - went from token daughter character in S1 to heart-and-soul of the series by the show's end. The Americans had so much to say. It was a nuanced commentary on both what makes America great and what makes some resent it. But ultimately, it was both a critique of and a celebration of the American Dream. It was a show that was both of a specific time (1980's, Cold War America) and very much for our time. It was also a show about morality and about how far one can go in the name of a cause. And at what price for one's soul? The final season of The Americans cemented it, to me, as one of the Great TV Shows ever made. And yeah, I put that in all caps because it really was that damn great. If you've not seen it, you need to watch it. There will be a void in the TV landscape now that this show is done - but man, I won't forget the series - or its haunting, intense, poignant finale - not now and not ever.


2. AMERICAN VANDAL

- To sort of follow-up on the preamble above ... this era of Overwhelming TV is bound to have some unfortunate casualties, and one of those is, sadly, American Vandal. Somehow, despite being universally beloved by anyone who watched it, American Vandal got the axe by Netflix after two brilliant seasons. But guys: you have to watch this show. It's one of the funniest series I've ever seen, and also a spot-on satire of both true-crime documentaries and of high school life. Season 1 was absolutely brilliant, but I maybe liked Season 2 even more because it had even more depth and nuance in its portrayal of high school clique culture and classism. The location shifts in S2 to a prep school - and the mystery shifts to a mysterious prankster known as the Turd Burgler. It's crazy and absurd - but the show (and its high school sleuths) treat it all with absolute straight-faced sincerity. And that's what makes it all work so well. This show was amazing. I hope its creators get to do more comedy in this vein.


3. ATLANTA

- Speaking of dark comedy, Atlanta was so, so good in Season 2. And it had an unpredictability-factor that made it a must-watch, must-discuss each and every week. The cool thing about Atlanta is that an episode can pretty much be anything. And that means that we got all-time gems in S2 like the genius "Teddy Perkins," in which Darius (the hilarious Lakeith Stanfield) runs afoul of a creepy, Michael Jackson-esque musician and gets trapped in his house of horrors. Yep, for one episode, Atlanta became, almost, straight-up horror ... and it was awesome. Atlanta also pulls no punches when it comes to tackling issues of race, and that leads to moments like in "North of the Border", when Earn and his crew end up hanging with a bunch of low-key racist frat boys while on a college concert tour. It goes without saying, but Donald Glover is consistently fantastic here, as is Lakeith Stanfield, as is Brian Tyree Henry, as is Zazie Beetz. More, please.


4. THE GOOD PLACE

- The Good Place is pulling something off that's almost never been done: it's a half-hour sitcom (and a really funny one at that) that's also a high-concept, serialized sci-fi/fantasy series. Mike Schur and co are giving us a consistently funny show filled with hilarious characters (and the cast just gets more funny, more assured, and develops better chemistry with each passing episode). But they're also giving us a crazy plot filled with twists, fake-outs, and cliffhangers - one where I can't wait to see how things develop over the course of each season. When I think about the latter half of S2, and now S3, I think about how Jason Mendoza (as played by Manny Jacinto), has developed into a legendary comedic supporting character - delivering some of the most quotable lines on TV. I think about how D'Arcy Carden has done so much with Janet - going so far as, in a recent S3 episode, doing Janet as every other character on the show in a tour de force performance. I also feel like, as good as The Good Place has been - it's only just getting started. I can't wait to see where it goes.


5. BROOKLYN NINE-NINE

- I'm going to move this one up substantially on my 2018 list vs. where it's been in the past. Don't get me wrong - I've been a B99 fan since Season 1. But I honestly feel like the show reached a level of comedic brilliance in 2018's Season 5 that it had never hit before - at least not this consistently. The show was quite simply firing on all cylinders this past season, producing a string of classic, hilarious episodes. The whole cast is so great, but once again I'm just going to single out Andre Braugher. Not to beat a dead horse, but it's insane that Braugher has not been an annual Emmy winner for his portrayal of Captain Raymond Holt. He's one of the funniest characters ever on TV, period. Anyways, it was quite the rollercoaster when this show was cancelled by FOX - right as it was coming off a series-best season - only to then get picked up by NBC for a Season 6. But a cool side effect of all the drama was that, it seems, a lot of people *finally* got on the B99 bandwagon and started binge-ing the show. Good! This show is toit!


6. BETTER CALL SAUL

- Better Call Saul, when it's at its best (which is usually), is pretty damn amazing. Vince Gilligan and co are geniuses, and every time you think there's no way to milk more story out of the transformation of Jimmy McGill into Saul Goodman - they find ways to twist the narrative knife just a little more and deliver Breaking Bad-level "holy $&%#" moments. Personally, I missed the presence of the irreplaceable Michael McKean after the events of Season 3. But ... the show did a bang-up job of delving deeper into the relationship between Jimmy and Kim (a better-than-ever Rhea Seehorn), as well as slowly amping-up the presence of Breaking Bad big bad Gus Fring, whose shadow loomed over the entire season. This led to some really cool stuff with Mike, now in Fring's employ. I loved everything having to do with Mike working to get Fring's secret drug lair built. My only hope here is that the show heads towards its finale sooner rather than later. Breaking Bad always had a major sense of urgency to its storytelling - Saul is starting to feel, just a little, like its trying to stretch things in order to fill out six seasons worth of content. My longshot hope is that there's only one more prequel season, and then one final epilogue season that takes place post-Breaking Bad. Now that would be exciting.


7. WESTWORLD

- Okay, I know a lot of people were down on Westworld in Season 2. But come on - while the season had its ups and downs, it also delivered some of the best individual episodes of TV I've ever seen. Yes, the show still has a macro issue of figuring out what it is. And I'll acknowledge that the week to week plot this season could meander - it got too confusing for its own good at times, and certain characters (Delores, The Man In Black) felt directionless after their fantastic S1 arcs. That said: Westworld delivered some of the best standalone eps of sci-fi TV since the days of "The Constant" from Lost. I mean, "Kiksuya" - you know, the episode all about Ghost Tribe member Akecheta? - that was holy-$&%# good. Same goes for "The Riddle of the Sphinx" - a jaw-dropping flashback episode that focused in on the mystery of James Delos. Westworld can be a frustrating show, no question - but when it can deliver episodes this memorable (and when it's got knockout performances from the likes of Thandie Newton, Jeffrey Wright, etc.), it's still a must-see (and one of the year's best) in my book.


8. BIG MOUTH

- So just recently I've gotten aboard the Big Mouth bandwagon, and I am now sort of obsessed. This show is just so ... freaking ... funny. And in a year with no new Rick & Morty, this filled the void nicely (and as I say that, I'm picturing the show's grotesque Hormone Monster appearing over my shoulder and whispering "yeah it did."). Big Mouth is hilariously, almost shockingly vulgar at times - but it's also a very sweet, sincere animated comedy about the trials and travails of a bunch of middle schoolers going through puberty. It's actually sort of amazing to me the balancing act the show manages to pull off - it tackles very tricky issues, like consent, with intelligence, but also is not afraid to get completely weird and random to get a big laugh. The voice work on the show is also so good - Nick Kroll just kills it playing a variety of characters. John Mulaney is hilarious, and Jesse Klein is too. But I have to give a special shout-out to Jenny Slate as awkward nerdy girl Missy. Slate makes Missy so consistently funny and such a consistently amazing character - she almost steals the show away from everyone else (and her conversations with imaginary Nathan Fillion - oh man). Anyways, this is one of Netflix's 5,000 recent originals so people (like me) are still discovering it. But add this one to your list.


9. BARRY

- One of the breakout new series of 2018, Barry was a showcase for the immensely talented Bill Hader - a guy who is absolutely hilarious, but who also has legit dramatic chops. Barry is a great vehicle for Hader because it's a dark (i.e. pitch black) comedy that isn't afraid to deliver moments of genuine, nightmarish terror. I mean, it's about a hitman trying to leave that life behind and pursue his newfound dream of acting ... so the premise is inherently dark. But Season 1 genuinely shocked me a few times with the places it went. This can be a seriously &%$#'ed-up show. And that, I think, is what put Barry over the top for me - it was wholly unpredictable. Just when it lulls you into thinking you're watching a sweet show about an awkward dude trying to turn his life around - the show reminds you that, nope, Barry is that but he's also a stone-cold assassin when he needs to be. This show is not messing around, and it's going to be very, very interesting to see where it goes in Season 2.


10. THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE

-  As always, it was a tough decision to narrow down my Top 10. There were a few shows I wanted to include for various reasons, but ... I'm giving this final slot to Hill House, because it had a string of episodes that were just off-the-charts good. Hill House is, I think, one of the best Season 1's, pound for pound, that Netflix has yet released. It takes a few episodes to really get rolling, but by the time I got to Episode 3 ("Touch"), I could sense that this was shaping up to be something special. By the time I got to  Episode 5 - the creepy, mind-bending tour de force that is "The Bent-Neck Lady" I was all-in. What an episode of TV. Now, I could write paragraphs about why I didn't love the ending, etc. But I want to focus on the fact that Hill House was one of the best seasons of horror TV I've ever seen. It was a moving family drama, a poignant story about addiction and love and loss, and also a creepy af ghost story. Creator Mike Flanagan really showed me something here (though, hey, I've sung his praises since Ouija 2!) and he's 100% a person to watch. No question: Hill House was one of the most memorable and affecting things I watched in 2018.



The Next Best:


11. HUMANS

- Man, I wanted to put this one in the Top 10 because it's such a cool, endearing, underappreciated show. Seriously - whenever I meet a fellow "Humans" fan I get way too excited and immediately commence nerding out about the show. But yeah, there's a reason why Humans has been steadily producing a stream of breakout stars - from Black Panther's Letitia Wright to Crazy Rich Asians' Gemma Arterton. It's a great show filled with talented actors, and often I wonder if it does Westworld one better when it comes to its science-fiction take on robots becoming sentient and trying to co-exist with often hostile humans. Anyways, Season 3 was by far the best season of Humans yet - it raced right to the brink of robot-human war, and had some very intriguing twists and turns. Sure, the show throws in a bit too much CW-ish soap opera at times, but it never skimps on the sci-fi. Bonus: it's got the coolest opening credits sequence / theme music in the biz. If you love sci-fi stories about robots and AI as much as I do, then you need to be watching Humans.


12. WHO IS AMERICA?

- Back in the day, I was convinced (and still am!) that Da Ali G Show was one of the most brilliant pieces of comedy I'd ever seen. So it was pretty damn exciting that Sacha Baron Cohen was returning to TV with a surprise Showtime series, that would again see him go undercover as a motley crew of fake characters designed to fool unsuspecting targets. This felt like the show we needed in the age of Trump, and in many ways, it delivered on its promise. There were segments that were absolutely jaw-dropping - some unspeakably dark and messed-up, some more silly and random. At the same time, there were certainly some segments (and even whole characters) that sort of bombed. But nonetheless, the show was perhaps *the* conversation-starter of 2018. And while some may now reject Cohen's shock-TV sensibilities, I more than welcomed the return of his unique, brazen brand of brilliance.


13. KILLING EVE

-  I was late in checking this one out, but very quickly became a big fan. I had heard about how good Sandra Oh was on this show, but man, I was not prepared for Jodie Comer as the oddly lovable psycho-killer Villanelle. Comer kills on this show (in more ways than one), and is already on my list for all-time great TV villains. I loved the way the show never took the easy way out with her and made her too much of an antihero - she was a villain through and through (just one that you can't help but root for). And the cat and mouse, Batman/Joker-esque relationship with her and Oh's Eve was full of great moments, including a jaw-dropper of a finale. This show - with its mix of action, oddball humor, great characters, and slowly-unraveling mythology definitely helped to fill the Orphan Black-sized void in my TV viewing diet.


14. THE HANDMAID'S TALE

-  Season 1 of The Handmaid's Tale blew me away last year ... but getting through it took a toll. The show was so bleak and harrowing (especially given its unsettling parallels to current real-life politics), that it took me a long time to hit play on Season 2. And when I did, I found the same visually-stunning, incredibly-acted series that I'd praised in Season 1. Elizabeth Moss is, again, amazing - and I liked the expanded scope of the storytelling that shined a spotlight on characters like Alexis Bleidel's Emily. I think, perhaps, that S1 was so much of a gut-punch that getting an even darker, bleaker S2 almost felt like too much. Nevertheless, this remains a high mark of quality TV, and a constant reminder of what our not-so-implausible darkest timeline could look like.


15. THE LAST MAN ON EARTH

- Everyone (rightly) got up in arms about Brooklyn Nine-Nine's cancellation this year - but let us not forget the other painful casualty of FOX's show-slashing in 2018, that being the often hilarious and brilliant Last Man On Earth. Unfortunately, unlike B99, there was no last-minute renewal for Last Man. Even worse, this past season ended on a huge cliffhanger (!!!) that will remain unresolved. And worse still, the show was cancelled after making a remarkable creative comeback in Season 4. After a bit of a slump, the show rallied in Season 3 and was back to full strength in its final season - with sharp writing, some of the funniest banter on TV, and a totally amazing (and totally underappreciated) lead performance from Will Forte - who should have won all the Emmys for his funny-af work on this series.


16. THE GOLDBERGS

- Yes, The Goldbergs is what I call comedy comfort food, but what makes it great is that it combines aw-shucks sweetness with genuinely inspired jokes and comedic dialogue. The show can be saccharine, but it's also sharp-as-hell - it's one of the most quotable comedies on TV. And the show was really killin' it in Season 6 - with classic episodes like the one about Barry's Bachelor Party - an ep that rang particularly true after having just planned my own brother's bachelor celebrations. So please, don't dismiss the Goldbergs as a run-of-the-mill sitcom. It's schmaltzy but also doesn't skimp on the comedy. An underappreciated gem.


17. AMERICAN HORROR STORY: APOCALYPSE

- Well, this was a huge surprise. I've bailed early on the lat few seasons of AHS - the last one I really got into was Hotel. And when Apocalypse began, I almost bailed again. The season's first two episodes were campy and awkward. As the story - about a bunch of people trapped in a bunker following apocalyptic disaster - was initially set up, I assumed this would be a not-so-good season of a show whose quality can vary wildly. But soon enough, the season did a 180. It morphed into a gleefully insane epic that brought back characters from Coven and Murder House, and wove a grand unifying season of AHS that was chock full of comic book-y awesomeness. In fact, for all the crazy places the story went, this ended up being a surprisingly coherent season of AHS. And it was filled with an all-star cast of AHS all-stars to boot. This was hugely fun.


18. CRASHING

- I liked Season 1 of Crashing, but Season 2 really upped the show's game and got really, really good. This biographical comedy about comedian Pete Holmes working his way up the stand-up comedy ladder got funnier and more ambitious in S2. It had some fantastic guest appearances from people like Bill Burr and Artie Lange. I also really liked the introduction of Jamie Lee as a new love interest / foil for Pete - her character Ali was a strong addition to the series. Highly recommend this show.


19. RIVERDALE

- This one is hard to talk about in any rational sense. Is Riverdale a good show? I'm honestly not sure. Is Riverdale the most entertainingly insane show on TV? Hell yes. Somehow, Season 3 has been the show's craziest yet. I can't even describe the main plotline coherently, except to say it's about a Dungeons & Dragons-like game called Griffins & Gargoyles that turns teens into culty murderers and is part of an evil Hiram Lodge master plan to rule Riverdale and its populace. I ... think the show's writers know what they're doing? Or they're just doing some really hardcore drugs. I don't know. But one thing is clear: if you're not watching Riverdale, you are seriously, seriously missing out.


20. GLOW

- I marked GLOW as one to watch last year. I enjoyed Season 1, but felt like there was further room to improve in Season 2. And the show did definitely improve. It got a little meatier - grappling (see what I did there) with issues like sexual harassment and gender politics. It gave a little more nuance to the central Ruth/Debbie relationship. And it had a little more fun with the wrestling of it all as well. I'd still love to see the show more fully embrace its pro-wrestling backdrop - it's such a unique world that I'd still love to see explored a bit more. But even so, the so is highly watchable thanks to a combination of humor, style, and a great cast. Alison Brie knocks it out of the park in each and every episode.


21. PREACHER

- I'm a huge fan of the Preacher comics, and Season 3 of Preacher captured more of the tone of Garth Ennis' modern classic series than ever before. This season doubled down on the kind of dark, out-there humor that made the books a cult favorite - and the way in which it adapted the "All in the Family" story arc was really well done. At the same time, the show has carved out its own identity. Case in point: Ruth Negga as Tulip O'Hare. Negga has taken an already-iconic character and made it her own - she's a force of nature on the show and is the lynch-pin of a kick-ass cast.


22. NEW GIRL

- New Girl is an all-time comedy fave, and I really thought it was done following Season 6. But lo and behold, we got a surprise S7 that wrapped up the show in a less-rushed fashion, and got to fully explore the Jess-Nick relationship and bring it to a satisfying end point. I really liked this final season! It had some super funny episodes, and man, this cast was just so great together. Jess, Nick, Schmidt, Winston - they're some all-time great comedic characters. I will miss this show.


23. THE CHILLING ADVENTURES OF SABRINA

- The new kid on the Netflix block is off to a really fun start. Sabrina recreates the anything-goes vibe of its sister series Riverdale while going a bit darker and grittier and, um, Satanic. I was surprised at how all-in this series goes in this respect - it doesn't shy away from getting into some pretty, well, evil territory - and hey, that's really cool. And yet - the show still manages to somehow be uber charming and witty and funny all the same. It's a tightrope walk, but the show seems intent on walking it (rather than just going off the rails all the time like Riverdale). I'm curious how this show evolves and if it has staying power, but I seriously dug the overall tone and vibe of the show. My main complaint: the episodes are too long. A show like Sabrina does not need 1 hour plus episodes!


24.  PORTLANDIA

- Another favorite that bid farewell in 2018. It felt like the time had come - as the hopeful hipster age of Portlandia felt sadly obsolete in our current, more dire era. But this show kept the dream of the 90's alive and well for eight seasons - and while the show didn't always hit a homerun with its sketches, its best bits were often instant-classics. Even in its final season, there were a few random sketches that just killed it - like an absurdist take on escape rooms, or a series about online dating featuring Rachel Bloom. Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein were truly a match made in hipster comedy heaven. Fred is everywhere these days, but I hope we see more of Carrie in the years to come - she was an unexpected comedic powerhouse on Portlandia and I'll miss her on my TV.


TIE: 25. LEGION

- Legion occasionally lost me in Season 2, but its highs were uniquely awesome. Creator Noah Hawley is a master of acid-trip surreal storytelling - and from the first crazy dance number on the S2 premiere of Legion, you knew you were once again in for a ride. Now, I think the show got a bit lost in its own labyrinthine ideas in S2 - there were stretches in the middle part of the season that felt nigh-incomprehensible. But the show rallied late-season and delivered one hell of a finale - it was enough to get me legit excited again about the series and about Season 3.

TIE: 25. DISENCHANTMENT

-  Here's a show that got off to a solid start - but that I'm VERY excited about going forward. Disenchanment launched with sky-high expectations - after all, it was the first new series from Matt Groening since Futurama. I was lucky enough to see the first look at the show this past summer at Comic-Con, and the clips killed with the audience in the room. When I actually got to see the full episodes, things proved a bit more uneven. The voice-cast was amazing, but the jokes occasionally fell flat, and some of the characters didn't 100% pop in the same way they did on Futurama. That said, the more I watched of Disenchanted, the more I liked it. By the end of S1, I was a big fan. The show grew on me, the humor began to really click, and I became excited by the possibilities of the series. Well worth a watch, says I, if you're a Simpsons or Futurama fan.


SPECIAL MENTIONS:


a.) CONAN

- 2018 marked the end of an era for Conan O'Brien. After decades of hosting a late night talk show, Conan did his final traditional-format episode for TBS this year. He'll be back in 2019, but with a new half-hour format that will focus on comedy bits and remotes, and (presumably) eschew the usual monologues and guest interviews. While I'm excited to see the evolution of Conan's series, I have to admit it's also sad to see his tried and true late-night format end. Conan is one of my comedy and entertainment industry heroes - I've watched him for years, am a former Late Night intern, and liked the fact that Conan seemed so reverent of the old-school style of late night show. Sure, his humor has always tried to put a unique, absurdist spin on the format - but there was still, behind it all, an ongoing tribute to late night TV and the likes of Johnny Carson, etc. I loved the way Conan brought a wink and a sense of self-deprecation to his monologues. And I loved the interviews with Conan regulars like Jeff Goldblum, Marc Maron, Patton Oswalt, Aubrey Plaza, Will Ferrell, and Norm McDonald. That said, Conan has of late found an amazing forum for his comedic sensibility with his travelogue specials. Conan's been doing these for years dating back to the NBC days, but they've become a regular event on TBS and they're always gold. In 2018, Conan did specials from Italy and Japan - and both were instant classics. The Japan special might be one of my favorite things on TV from 2018 - it was drop-dead hilarious. So I definitely look forward to more travelogue specials, more offbeat remotes, and more absurdist sketches that will, perhaps, hearken back to the golden-era Late Night days. Conan's 2019 return is going to be a TV comedy event, no question. But I'll still pour out a proverbial glass for the end of an era - Conan's long tenure as TV's best, funniest, and often most underappreciated late night TV talk show host.


b.) SUPERGIRL / THE FLASH / DC on the CW

- You guys probably know that I'm a huge DC Comics nerd, and so I consider shows like Supergirl and The Flash to be great comfort-food TV - they are basically my adult version of Saturday morning cartoons. That said, my patience was definitely tested with these two series heading into their summer 2018 season finales. (as an aside: I don't watch Arrow, am behind on Black Lightning, and couldn't get into Legends - and yeah, I know people love it now!). I love a lot of things about Supergirl and The Flash - they exude charm, they embrace a lot of the comics' more out-there concepts, and they both have a ton of heart. At the same time, these shows - at their worst - can be a drag. Forced to run for 22+ episodes per season, both series continuously saddle themselves with season-long villain arcs that seem constantly stretched out to their breaking point by season's end. It makes the shows repetitive and frustrating - and that's not even getting into the templates that they strictly adhere to that are par for the course with the DC TV series (ex: the constant "balcony talks" - inherited from Smallville - that pop up on every. single. episode.). So I was on the verge of a "break-up" with DC TV ... but decided to give both Supergirl and The Flash one more chance going into their new Fall 2018 seasons. And I've got to say - both made admirable comebacks. Supergirl doubled down on political allegory in its new season - and while heavy-handed at times, it's a welcome change from the constant romantic soap-operatics that weighed down the previous season. The Flash, meanwhile, surprised me with how fun its "Barry-and-Iris'-daughter-from-the-future visits the present" storyline has turned out to be - and XS is yet another uber-charming addition to the Flash cast of characters. So, I'm still onboard with these series. They're comfort-food, like I said. But I will be watching to see if both shows can attain even higher heights as their current seasons roll on. With these legendary characters, the sky should be the limit.


INDIVIDUAL AWARDS:



The Best TV Heroes of 2018:


1.) Akecheta - Westworld

2.) Eve Polastri - Killing Eve

3.) Sabrina Spellman - The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina

4.) Cordelia Goode - American Horror Story: Apocalypse

5.) Princess Bean - Disenchantment



The Best TV Villains of 2018:


1.) Villanelle - Killing Eve

2.) Aunt Lydia - The Handmaid's Tale

3.) Father Faustus Blackwood - The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina

4.) Noho Hank - Barry

5.) Herr Starr - Preacher



The Best TV Anti-Heroes of 2018:


1.) Barry Berkman - Barry

2.) Niska - Humans

3.) Tulip O'Hare - Preacher

4.) Madison Montgomery - American Horror Story: Apocalypse

5.) Delores - Westworld



Best Actress in a Comedy:


1.)  Alison Brie - GLOW


Runners Up: Kristen Bell - The Good Place, Zooey Deschanel - New Girl, Carrie Brownstein - Portlandia,



Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy:


1.) D'Arcy Carden - The Good Place


Runners Up: Stephanie Beatriz - Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Melissa Fumero - Brooklyn Nine-Nine



Best Actor in a Comedy:


1.) Bill Hader - Barry


Runners Up: Donald Glover - Atlanta, Will Forte - The Last Man On Earth, Andy Samberg - Brooklyn Nine-Nine



Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy:


1.) Andre Braugher - Brooklyn Nine Nine


Runners Up: Manny Jacinto - The Good Place, Joe Lo Truglio - Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Lakeith Stanfield - Atlanta



Best Actress in a Drama:


1.) Keri Russell - The Americans


Runners Up: Elizabeth Moss - The Handmaid's Tale, Sandra Oh - Killing Eve



Best Supporting Actress in a Drama:


1.)  Jodie Comer - Killing Eve


Runners Up: Thandie Newton - Westworld, Kate Siegel - The Haunting of Hill House, Rhea Seehorn - Better Call Saul



Best Actor in a Drama:


1.) Matthew Rhys - The Americans


Runners Up: Bob Odenkirk - Better Call Saul, Dan Stevens - Legion



Best Supporting Actor in a Drama:


1.)  Noah Emmerich - The Americans


Runners Up: Jeffrey Wright - Westworld, Jonathan Banks - Better Call Saul

THE BEST OF 2017 - The Best TV Of The Year

THE BEST OF 2017 - The Best TV Shows of The Year


- First, a preface: I didn't really blog in 2017, and it was both a relief to pull myself away and sad to not churn out my usual movie reviews like I'd done in years' past. I made a decision to focus less on writing reviews, and more on my screenwriting - and I think that was the smart decision. At the same time, not writing full-length reviews of the movies I loved, the movies I hated, and the movies I was dying to talk about - well, it was hard, and my brief thoughts on social media didn't quite feel like enough. In any case, I'm going to use this year's Best-Of's to talk about some the things I loved this year that I didn't get to write about as I usually would have. So if you've been missing the reviews, buckle up. 

- Now, let's talk TV. Clearly, 2017 was a stressful, even deeply traumatic year for many. There's no getting around the fact that the Trump presidency (which I still can't believe is a real thing) had a profound effect on all pop-culture. 2017 therefore brought with it a number of TV shows (and movies, and music, and comics, etc.) that either directly or indirectly addressed the fears and concerns that many have about the current direction of our country. Yes, there was still a lot of pure escapism out there - and we needed that in 2017, too. But we also needed content that tackled our political climate head-on - and we got that in many forms as far as TV goes: from the just-one-step-removed-from-2017 dystopia of The Handmaid's Tale to the strong feminist messages of shows as diverse as Broad City and Supergirl. Certainly, late night TV series like Colbert and Kimmel - not to mention SNL - felt newly urgent and necessary. In the midst of this already-stormy atmosphere, the string of sexual harassment accusations that snowballed throughout the Fall and Winter exposed a lot of ugly truths about the entertainment industry. The #MeToo movement shed a lot of light on the ugliness that had long pervaded the business, and finally, there was a long-overdue reckoning for many serial harassers, abusers, and worse. As someone who loves TV and movies, it was disturbing to see just how deep the rot ran - not just from the actual abusers, but from those who placated and enabled them - individuals and corporations alike. The positive side of this, however, is that we finally seem to be turning a corner where abuse and misbehavior from those in power will not be tolerated. In 2017, we increasingly saw new and different voices emerge on and behind the camera. That will only continue if the industry as a whole is open, inclusive, and welcoming to new and diverse talent. And *that* will only happen if there's zero tolerance for harassment of women or others. 

- Politics aside, the growth of streaming really pushed the industry in new and bold directions this past year. Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu all took bold chances on series that never would have made it to air ten years ago (when TV series were still expected to fit nicely into pre-defined, well-established genres). Anything is possible now, creatively, in TV - and that's brought us minor miracles like the insane and avant garde Twin Peaks: The Return, or the deceptively layered comedy of Nathan For You. Of course, the downside of this is that there is literally no way to watch everything. There's no way to even watch just the good stuff - there's way too much of it. Netflix alone delivered a ridiculous number of great series this year - some of which I binged, some of which I've not yet gotten to, and many of which I likely never will. There are whole corners of the TV landscape I've not touched (hello, Netflix Marvel shows), and as you can probably tell ... I watch a lot. I still need to watch Mindhunter. I still am way behind on the brilliant Crazy Ex Girlfriend. There is great TV coming from all directions.

- So here is my list of the best of 2017 - a crazy, insane, often nightmarish year that (thank god) produced some incredible, memorable art and some damn fine TV.


DANNY'S TOP TV SHOWS OF 2017:


1. TWIN PEAKS: THE RETURN

 “We are like the dreamer who dreams and lives inside the dream, but who is the dreamer?”

- No one knew anything about what the new Twin Peaks would be - and it could very easily have been a disaster. After all, how many recent TV reboots and resurrections have tanked and been creative failures? But Twin Peaks felt different from the start. For one thing, it felt like the show had unfinished business: the original series (which I binged through last year in anticipation of the return) suffered through an uneven second season that saw its co-creator and creative mastermind - the great David Lynch - exit the show. The original also ended on an infamous cliffhanger that begged for some sort of resolution. And man, did we ever get resolution in The Return - but not anything like what we thought, and not anything like what what anyone could have anticipated. Twin Peaks: The Return was just so gloriously original and unique. As good as so much TV is these days, a lot of "Peak TV" does still feel beholden to certain formulas and conventions. In the age of internet hyper-scrutiny, we like our serialized TV told in airtight installments - we want everything neatly laid out and we want the pieces of every show's puzzle to fit together just right. We want shows that make us feel clever by justifying our fan theories and making us feel like we see the big picture. Yeah ... David Lynch was having none of that. Each week, he and co-creator Mark Frost gave us a hyper-concentrated burst of pure, unfiltered Lynchian alchemy. This was serialized TV, sure - with dozens of interweaving subplots, a cast of hundreds, and a labyrinthine mythology involving ancient spirits, mystical lodges, and evil doppelgangers. But it was also abstract, deliberately dreamlike, maddeningly obtuse, and amazingly artistic. I absolutely could not wait to watch each week's new episode. There were some draggy sections, sure, and some moments where it felt like Lynch was quite simply trolling his audience. But that was part of the fun. This wasn't some finely-tuned, made-by-committee pop-culture designed to inspire Twitter hashtags - this was just sheer creativity unleashed. It was messy at times, but frequently it was absolutely mind-blowing. And in that way, it became more fun to talk about than any other show - because the rabbit hole that Twin Peaks invited viewers to follow Lynch and Frost down was endless and full of infinite possibility. No one who watched will ever forget the nuclear blast (literally and metaphorically) of Episode 8 - one of the greatest, most jaw-dropping episodes of TV ever made. In one hour, Lynch gave us a Twin Peaks creation myth that was awe-inspiring, eye-popping, and just plain badass. The show also gave us so many incredible performances - first and foremost from the amazing Kyle McLachlan. McLachlan was iconic as Agent Dale Cooper on the original series - but here, he was transcendent. He was the embodiment of evil as "Mr. C," drop-dead hilarious (and oddly moving) as the child-like Dougie Jones, and finally - after a long, almost interminable wait - back in damn fine form as the returned Agent Cooper. I could go on and on about the cast and the characters. The returning Andy and Lucy - the heart and soul of Twin Peaks. Harry Dean Stanton, still kicking around, still amazing. Miguel Ferrer in his final performance, clearly having a ball playing off of Lynch's hard-of-hearing FBI boss. The haunting presence of the Log Lady. That Michael Cera scene - oh my god, that Michael Cera scene. Naomi Watts as Janey-E - does anyone do Lynch better than Naomi Watts? Again, I could go on and on. But I'll stop here and simply say: Twin Peaks was the best, most riveting, most mind-expanding, scariest, funniest, most haunting, most mesmerizing TV of 2017. Nothing else was even close. 

2. GAME OF THRONES

- I know, people have very strong opinions about Game of Thrones. And many people seem to have been not 100% pleased with this latest, penultimate season. But ... come on. What show inspired more conversation, what show had us on the edge of our seats, what show delivered more sheer epicness than GoT in 2017? After years and years of set-up, Season 7 was all payoff, and hot damn, it was glorious. I won't go into all the things that made this season so great, but I'll just say that this year was like watching all of my grade-school notebook doodles come to life. Dragons, ice zombies, zombie ice dragons! What more does one need?

3. NATHAN FOR YOU

- One of the most brilliant comedies in the history of TV. Period. This season cemented Nathan For You's place in the cannon, and showed that Nathan Fielder will pretty much do anything to make a great episode of TV. On its surface, Nathan For You is a semi-reality-based comedy in the vein of Ali G or Borat - Nathan (playing a hilariously exaggerated version of himself) interacts with real people, trying to improve their business and their lives via insanely complicated schemes that are patently absurd, yet always conform to a twisted sense of logic. But more so than that - and here's where things get deep - Nathan For You is a very dark comedy about finding human connection. About going out into the world and putting yourself out there, about flailing away and trying to make your existence mean something. I know, that sounds like a lot. But if you don't believe me, just watch this season's tour de force, movie-length finale - in which Nathan accompanies a 70-something acquaintance on a cross-country mission to track down his lost love. It's a weird, awkward, hilarious, yet deeply affecting odyssey that might just be the series' greatest moment. 

4. THE HANDMAID'S TALE 

- Talk about intense. The Handmaid's Tale was almost suffocating in its deeply resonant tale of a near-future gone horribly awry. The series has a methodical, slow-burn pace - but that only serves to emphasize its focus on the little moments that mean everything in the oppressive, dystopian nightmare the show presents. It's the subtle looks on the face of star Elizabeth Moss - who turns in an incredible performance that is among the year's best. It's the small victories, as when Alexis Bleidel's character briefly goes off-the-rails and, for a moment, gets the release, the freedom, the euphoria of being able to stick it to the Man. The writing on this show is truly something else - the way it slowly reveals this world's backstory (and does so with disturbing echoes of our own reality), the way it contrasts the often subdued onscreen action with the sharp, witty inner monologue of Moss' Offred. This was the timeliest, most urgent show of 2017 - but was also just great TV, period.

5. BATES MOTEL

- Talk about going out with a bang. Bates Motel had its ups and downs over its five-season run, but after a creative comeback in Season 4, the show absolutely knocked it out of the park in its fifth and final season. Freddie Highmore plunged new depths as the hanging-to-his-sanity-by-a-thread Norman Bates, and Vera Farmiga killed it (as always) as the now-deceased (but still very-much present) Norma. The one-two-punch of Highmore and Farmiga was consistently amazing - maybe the best acting duo on any TV show this year. And the show deserves credit for going dark and not flinching in taking Norman's story to its logical conclusion, even while cleverly subverting the story we know from Psycho. Bates Motel was often underrated, especially given just how great it got in its final two seasons. Watch it if you missed it!

6. BETTER CALL SAUL

- As Better Call Saul moved closer chronologically to the events of Breaking Bad, so too did the series' quality continue to reach for the very high bar set by its predecessor. This year, Saul was quite simply amazing. Not only did it benefit from the re-introduction of Gus Fring - still as intimidatingly sinister as ever - but it also brought its long-simmering brother vs. brother storyline to a fitting, emotionally gutting end. Not enough praise can be sent in the direction of the great Michael McKean. As many wonderful, iconic characters as he's played through the decades, Chuck McGill might be his crowning achievement. Watching McKean and Bob Odenkirk go at it was one of the true TV pleasures of the year. 

7. VICE PRINCIPALS

- I can't get enough of the powerhouse creative combo of Danny McBride, David Gordon Green, and Jody Hill. Everything they do is comedic gold, and everything they do pushes boundaries in amazingly hilarious, shockingly dark ways. This was undoubtedly true of Vice Principals, which this year delivered its second of two planned seasons and continued to evolve the show's story in wonderfully insane and unexpected ways. McBride, Green, and Hill have a gift for using pitch-black humor to deconstruct the fragility of the male ego - they did it in Eastbound & Down with the irredeemably depraved Kenny Powers, and they did it here with the slightly more layered characters of Neal Gamby and Lee Russell (brilliantly portrayed by McBride and Walton Goggins). The result was a comedic whirlwind that often had me rolling in laughter or my jaw on the floor in shock. I can't wait to see what these guys do next.

8. THE GOOD PLACE

- I've always loved high-concept comedy, and The Good Place is delivering an amazing mix of Parks & Rec-esque humor with a big, crazy, serialized story that's managed to deliver some legitimately jaw-dropping twists. What's more, the show just keeps getting better. Season 1 kept you guessing, finishing off with one of the year's best (and most meme-worthy) cliffhangers. Season 2 has impressed me by sharpening the comedic chemistry, making characters like Jeanyu/Jason and Janet some of the most reliably hilarious and quotable characters on TV. Meanwhile, Kristen Bell is 100% killing it, and Ted Danson has somehow mastered the art of being genial and endearing one minute, and scary and upsetting the next minute. But yeah ... when was the last time a show was this funny AND thought-provoking AND well-plotted? This show has gone from good and interesting to legit forking great. 

9. LEGION 

- The thing about Legion is ... it still feels like it could get a lot better. Season 1 was occasionally uneven, occasionally frustrating - but man, when it was on its game, it was holy-$&%& incredible. I can't wait to see what it can be now that it's gotten its sea legs. But I have faith. Creator Noah Hawley is a genius, and he delivered, via Legion, some of the most memorable sequences I've ever seen on TV. That silent-movie action montage from the penultimate S1 episode? That was straight-up next level. I saw it play again at the show's Comic-Con panel to a packed crowd, and the scene was even more thrilling the second time. And the show is helped by its stacked cast. Dan Stevens is a unique actor who perfectly portrays a mix of everyman likability with barely-restrained madness. And Aubrey Plaza on this show is just ... I mean, who knew that April Ludgate could be this scary-good? It's almost easy to forget that this is a Marvel mutant show - but here, that's just the icing on the cake.

10. BROOKLYN NINE NINE

-  I debated including a couple of different, more-than-worthy series in the #10 slot - but ultimately I went with B99 because it's been that damn good this year. The show was funny from Day 1, but in Season 5 it's funnier than ever. The cast is 100% firing on all cylinders, the show is hitting a storytelling stride, and the back-and-forth banter on the show is consistently making it 30 Rock levels of quotable. I could go through each cast member and extol their virtues, but for now I'll just single out Andre Braugher. The man has made Captain Holt into one of the funniest-ever TV characters, no exaggeration - and he was funnier than ever this year. How has Braugher not won an Emmy for the superlative work he's done here? In any case, S5 has to me cemented B99 as worthy to stand alongside the likes of The Office, 30 Rock, Parks and Rec, etc. as one of the best sitcoms of the last twenty years.


The Next Best:

11. FARGO

- Season 3 of Fargo perhaps did not match the soaring heights of Seasons 1 or 2, but it was still damn good TV. So many stand-out performances: Carrie Coon was phenomenal, and her standalone episode that focused on her going to LA was a classic. Michael Stulhbarg, Ewan McGregor, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, David Thewlis ... And how about all the great Coen Bros. tributes, including that scene in the bowling alley with Ray Wise playing the role of otherworldy sage? Noah Hawley and team did the impossible with this series, and once again delivered a must-watch TV event. 

12. AMERICAN VANDAL

- Brilliant. This Netflix Original mockumentary was a pitch-perfect send-up, both of true crime stories like Serial and of life in high school. Mashing up the two was a stroke of genius, and the show's intelligence and attention to detail was matched only by the many, many times it made me laugh with its ingeniously lowbrow sense of humor (the show got more comedic mileage out of the word "dicks" than anything else ever). 

13. RICK & MORTY

-  Season 3 of Rick & Morty was a long time coming, and expectations were huge - in the interim, the show became a real pop-culture phenomenon, with T-shirts in Target and everything. But Seasons 1 and 2 were so brilliant ... I don't know if S3 100% matched them episode for brilliant episode. But the highs of S3 were high - some amazing installments that continued the show's penchant for mixing crazy, random humor with legit-genius sci-fi concepts and surprisingly dark pathos. Pickle Rick was hilarious. The space spa episode was darkly brilliant. But the high point was "The Ricklantis Mixup" - a next-level episode that presented a dystopian world populated solely by Ricks and Mortys. That one was proof positive that Rick & Morty is still more than capable of being the best thing on TV when it brings its A-game. 

14. THE AMERICANS

-  Even an occasionally sluggish season of The Americans is better than most other stuff on TV. Season 5 was a pretty slow burn, heavily focused on the psychological ramifications of Philip and Elizabeth finally and fully bringing daughter Paige into the secret spy fold. And man, there was some amazing stuff here. Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell continue to put on an acting clinic with each episode. Holly Taylor began to show some real depth as Paige. And Noah Emmerich continues to probably be the most underrated actor on TV, making Stan Beeman - the FBI Agent with a heavy weight on his shoulders - into one of TV's most reliably great supporting characters. I am confident that this one is going to up the ante for its upcoming final season.

15. REVIEW

- It's a testament to how genius Review is that I'm ranking it so highly despite it airing only three episodes in 2017 - a surprise final season (truly a gift from the TV gods) designed to wrap up the series. And man, will I miss this show (I already do). Following our intrepid Life Reviewer Forrest MacNeil - so brilliantly played by Andy Daly - down a nightmarish rabbit hole was one of the true comedic pleasures on TV these last few years. I could write a whole essay just on this, but the way in which the series wove its main premise - a goofy show-within-a-show about reviewing life experiences - into a meta-narrative about one man trapped in a sort of nightmare purgatory, forced to ruin his own life in the name of making good TV ... well, it was just a staggering work of dark-comedy genius. I give this show ... five stars.

16. MASTER OF NONE

- I absolutely loved the first season of Master of None. S2 was a slightly more mixed bag for me - occasionally, I felt it veered slightly into pretentiousness (especially with regards to the at times too-melodramatic romance between Dev and Francesca). But even so, S2's best episodes were absolutely among the series' best. In particular, some of the one-off's that took the focus off Dev were brilliant. In fact, "New York, I Love You," a series of three vignettes about NYC life - featuring a diverse and eclectic cast of characters - was one of my favorite TV episodes of the year. Same goes for "Thanksgiving," which deservedly got writer and star Lena Waithe an Emmy. 

17. SHERLOCK

- Back at the beginning of 2017, Sherlock delivered three new movie-length episodes that comprised its long-awaited fourth season. While the first, "The Six Thatchers," was decent if not remarkable, the second and third installments were absolute barn-burners, culminating in an incredibly epic finale dubbed "The Final Problem." Benedict Cumberbatch has created an iconic version of Sherlock Holmes, but S4's MVP was perhaps the consistently excellent Martin Freeman as Watson. The twisty finale delivered some shocking moments - an all-time great episode for the celebrated series.

18. MR. ROBOT

- It will be hard for Mr. Robot to ever top its all-timer Season 1 - and some fans tuned out after S2 felt like a slightly dragged-out retread. But after a year-and-a-half break, the series returned in 2017 and really delivered - smartly focusing less on trying to trick the audience, instead honing in more on Elliott's fractured psychology and his fragile relationship with his alter ego, Mr. Robot. S3 saw the show get more overtly political than ever, sketching its version of Trump's ascension to make his unlikely rise part of the Dark Army conspiracy. It also upped the great Grace Gummer's role, giving her some fantastic scenes - and introduced Bobby Cannavale as a colorful Dark Army fixer. The season gave us a memorable one-take episode that presented a thrilling office-set action shoot-'em-up, and a finale that ranks as one of the series' best-ever episodes. Rami Malek continues to do amazing work on this show. And I'll also give a shout-out to the show's two leading ladies - Portia Doubleday and Carly Chaikin. Both are criminally underrated.

19. WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER: TEN YEARS LATER

- Did we really need more Wet Hot American Summer? Probably not. Will I ever *not* be super excited for more comedy from The State crew? Hell no. While I don't know that these Netflix TV continuations will ever match the pound-for-pound genius of the original Wet Hot movie (one of the funniest films ever made), they are very, very good in their own right, and Ten Years Later delivered some huge laughs. The cast only got bigger and funnier with additions like Adam Scott and Alyssa Milano. But the core State crew of Michael Showalter, Michael Ian Black, David Wain, Ken Marino, Joe Lo Truglio, etc. is what makes this series so brilliant. These guys get absurdist comedy like no one else. 

20. CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM

- First, let's say for the record that Curb is one of the greatest TV comedies of all-time. Like Top 10 great. So like every comedy fan, I was chomping at the bit for more Curb following a pretty, pretty long hiatus (like several years long) between seasons. And while the new Curb season at times faltered - and there was at times an extra cringe-factor to Larry and Jeff's shenanigans, given their advancing age and the current climate - there were still plenty of moments of brilliance to be found here, and still plenty of new, brilliantly-realized observations that will be quoted and re-quoted endlessly. This season taught us about "foisting," about "outfit-trackers," and about the power that comes with sitting at the desk vs. on the couch. And I do have to give a special shout-out to some of the supporting players who make Curb so funny ... every interaction, for example, between Richard Lewis and Larry David is comedic brilliance, for example. Or how about the great Bob Einstein as Marty Funkhauser - consistently one of the best things about Curb? What a genius. 

21. BROAD CITY

- Broad City has such a unique voice and comedic sensibility - it's always a pleasure to visit this world and get into the minds of Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson. The two are completely fearless in the quest for laughs, and in a post-Trump World, Broad City emerged as one of the boldest comedies on TV, hitting back at Trump (whose name is bleeped out whenever it's mentioned) as only Ilana and Abbi can. This year the show gave us everything from a trip to Florida with Fran Drescher to an acid-trip animated episode. Still one of the freshest, most original, funniest shows on TV. 

22. THE LAST MAN ON EARTH

- I had dropped off of this show for a while, and binge-watched earlier this year to catch-up. While things had stagnated for a while, they *really* picked up in the second half of Season 3, which aired in the early part of 2017. Suddenly, you had Kristin Wiig in fine form, you had Chris freaking Elliott, and you had the show just clicking and delivering its funniest episodes since Season 1. Ultimately though, I give so much credit for this show's hilarity to the amazing Will Forte. The guy is just a machine on this series - as the overeager, serially annoying, habitually lying Tandy, Forte delivers great, hilarious performances week in and week out - aided by the sharpest writing the show has seen in a long time. If you fell off of this one as I did, catch-up is highly encouraged. 

23. RIVERDALE

- It's tempting to call Riverdale a guilty pleasure, but I'm not sure there's anything all that guilty about it. I mean, this show knows *exactly* what it's doing - namely, giving us an awesomely atmospheric mash-up of 1950's Archie Comics whimsy, neo-noir Veronica Mars-esque mystery, and addictively soapy CW teen drama. This is all helped by a great cast, and by second-to-none production values that make every episode look amazing. The show pops visually like few others - the colors, the lighting - all perfect. And the way the show rides such a delicate line tonally - it's all just gloriously absurd. This show shouldn't exist, let alone be this good.

24. STRANGER THINGS 2

- Like so many others, I was all aboard the Stranger Things hype train last year. I loved everything about the show, from the spot-on theme song to the great characters to the pitch perfect homages to all things 80's pop-culture. And like everyone else, I was 100% psyched for more. Now I did *like* Season 2, but as a whole I'm not sure that it worked anywhere near as well as S1. Rather than take big bets, S2 felt like a lot more of the same, at its worst, descending into self-parody. At it's best though, Stranger Things still delivered a rush of nostalgia-fueled adventure like few other series. And the characters are so likable, it's hard not to root for them or for this show. But next time, I'd like to see a genuine expansion of the mythology and of the show's world (hinted at in the divisive, Eleven-centric Episode 8 ... which I really liked, but definitely felt shoehorned-in), and less so a greatest hits remix.

25. THE STRAIN

- I again debated what to put into this final slot, but I wanted to mention a show that was, for four seasons, a genuine pulpy pleasure. Now don't get me wrong, there were plenty of moments in the show's run when things got outright bad and hard-to-watch. But those of us who persisted were rewarded with a legitimately pretty-awesome final season that was a satisfying conclusion to this insanely over-the-top horror/action series. The show had a lot of fun characters, but let's face it: the reason to watch The Strain was for its villains - and it had one the most awesomely evil TV villains ever in Nazi vampire Thomas Eichorst, played with the perfect degree of theatrical over-the-topness by Richard Sammel. Eichorst's decades-long rivalry with Holocaust survivor Abraham Setrakian came to a thrilling conclusion in The Strain's final few episodes - and overall, the show had that rare gift - a pretty great final season. 



SPECIAL MENTIONS:

a.) SUPERGIRL / THE FLASH / ARROW / LEGENDS OF TOMORROW - "Crisis on Earth X"

- I have long and complicated thoughts on the CW's slate of DC Comics series. I still keep up with The Flash (though it struggled mightily with its plotting in S3), and the hot-and-cold Supergirl just barely missed out on making the list above. The fact is, these shows all have likable casts and a great spirit that captures the essence of the DC Comics source material in a way that the movies, of late, have not. And at their best, The Flash and especially Supergirl can deliver great TV when they bring their A-game. But these shows get absolutely killed by the fact that they are still forced to churn out 22 episode seasons. It's too much, and there are too many diminishing returns - and way too many draggy storylines that take *forever* to wrap up, and that struggle to deliver satisfying pay-offs. And the shows still get too wrapped up in endless will-they-or-won't-they romance plotlines that, too often, fall prey to the CW's bag of CW cliches ("what are you keeping secrets from me?!"). That said ... as mentioned, these shows *can* deliver, and when they do, they often deliver big. Case in point - the absolutely terrific "Crisis On Earth X" four-part crossover event, which did a big, comic-book-worthy epic and really knocked it out of the park - with tons of humor, heart, and exciting action. Crisis On Earth X was so good that it actually, I think, helped to actively make the big-screen Justice League look even weaker by comparison. More, please! 

b.) BETTER THINGS

- I have such mixed feelings about this show. I was fully onboard previously, but this past season was very up and down. At its worst, the show comes off, to me, as just plain miserable. Sometimes, it seems, it lacks perspective on just how cloying and awful its characters come off. But at its best - in particular, when it finds rays of light amidst the darkness, it can be fantastic. Case in point: was on the verge of dropping this show, until the Season 2 finale, "Graduation," which gave Pamela Aldon and her cast the rare moment of fun, really got be back rooting for this series and its talented cast and crew.

c.) ORPHAN BLACK

- There is so much to like about Orphan Black. At its peak (I'd say Season 2), it really was one of the best series on TV - exciting, unpredictable, and featuring an astonishing and star-making central performance from Tatiana Maslaney. I loved what this show stood for - the way it championed diversity, individuality, and strong female characters. Speaking of which, I loved the characters - Sarah, Cosima, Helena, Alison - so great, each of the cloned "sestras" brought to unique life by the amazingly-talented Maslaney. But as much as I loved the show, it just lost all momentum by the time it got to its fifth and final season. The plot had become a convoluted mess, and the show seemed to lack a real reason for being, with barely any narrative drive left. It thrived only when it gave us those great little character moments that made the show so likeable. Still, I was sad when it ended, and the show gave us a solid-enough finale that provided closure and gave the characters a well-deserved send-off. 

d.) GLOW

- Here is the show that I think has the most room to improve in Season 2. I liked Season 1 all the way through, but felt it really came together and gelled in those last couple of episodes (therefore why it just missed the cut of my Top 25). Now that the beginnings of the GLOW federation have been established, there is a lot of fun to be had in showing the behind-the-scenes goings on of the organization, and a look at all the stranger-than-fiction stories around the world of professional wrestling. The cast is great, all the potential is there - this is most definitely one to watch in 2018.

e.) HUMANS

- I don't know if this should be categorized as a guilty pleasure or not, but I sort of love Humans - the British import sci-fi series that airs here in the US on AMC. It does some things shockingly well (looking at what might happen were human-like robots designed for servitude to suddenly become fully sentient), and does some things sort of clumsily (somehow all the major world events of the show center back to the one main family and their goofy teenage kids). But there's enough nerdy-awesome stuff here - and enough fun characters - to keep me eagerly coming back for more. Also: best/coolest opening credits sequence on TV outside of Stranger Things. 

f.) BLACK MIRROR

- I'm adding this one in as a last-minute addition. As I write this, I've just binge-watched through Season 4 of the seminal anthology series, and it did not disappoint. While I don't know that any one episode matched the A+ highs of last season's Nosedive or San Junipero, S4 still contained some truly great television that re-affirmed this series' status as the modern-day Twilight Zone. I think my favorite was the premiere - a darkly funny, edge-of-your-seat exciting riff on Star Trek, VR, white male privilege, gamer-gate, tech, and about five other things. A new batch of Black Mirror episodes always feels like an enormous treat - it's almost hard to believe that there's a sci-fi anthology like this that exists and that's actually this good. More, please!


INDIVIDUAL AWARDS:


The Best TV Heroes of 2017:

1.) Agent Dale Cooper - Twin Peaks: The Return
2.) David Haller - Legion
3.) Eleven - Stranger Things
4.) Gloria Burgle - Fargo
5.) Jon Snow - Game of Thrones


The Best TV Villains of 2016:

1.) "Mr. C" - Twin Peaks: The Return
2.) The Shadow King - Legion
3.) The Night King - Game of Thrones
4.) V.M. Varga - Fargo
5.) Irving - Mr. Robot


The Best TV Anti-Heroes of 2016:

1.) Neil Gamby and Lee Russell - Vice Principals
2.) Rick Sanchez - Rick & Morty
3.) Jughead Jones - Riverdale
4.) The Hound - Game of Thrones
5.) Mr. Robot - Mr. Robot


Best Actress in a Comedy:

1.)  - Kristen Bell - The Good Place

Runners Up: Pamela Aldon - Better Things, Ilana Glazer - Broad City, Abbi Jacobson - Broad City


Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy:

1.) D'Arcy Carden - The Good Place

Runners Up: Kristen Schaal - The Last Man on Earth, Kristin Wiig - The Last Man on Earth, Edi Patterson - Vice Principals


Best Actor in a Comedy:

1.) Danny McBride - Vice Principals

Runners Up: Aziz Ansari - Master of None, Will Forte - The Last Man on Earth, Andy Samberg - Brooklyn Nine Nine


Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy:

1.) Andre Braugher - Brooklyn Nine Nine

Runners Up: Walton Goggins - Vice Principals, Manny Jacinto - The Good Place, Ted Danson - The Good Place


Best Actress in a Drama:

1.) Elizabeth Moss - The Handmaid's Tale

Runners Up: Keri Russell - The Americans, Lena Heady - Game of Thrones, Vera Farmiga - Bates Motel, Carrie Coon - Fargo


Best Supporting Actress in a Drama:

1.)  Aubrey Plaza - Legion

Runners Up: Alexis Bleidel - The Handmaid's Tale, Naomi Watts - Twin Peaks: The Return, Laura Dern - Twin Peaks: The Return, Grace Gummer - Mr. Robot, Mary Elizabeth Winstead - Fargo


Best Actor in a Drama:

1.) Kyle McLachlan - Twin Peaks: The Return

Runners Up: Freddie Highmore - Bates Motel, Rami Malek - Mr. Robot, Bob Odenkirk - Better Call Saul, Matthew Rhys - The Americans, Dan Stevens - Legion, Bob Odenkirk - Better Call Saul


Best Supporting Actor in a Drama:

1.)  Michael McKean - Better Call Saul

Runners Up: Jermaine Clement - Legion, Michael Stuhlbarg - Fargo, David Thewliss - Fargo, Noah Emmerich - The Americans