THE BEST OF 2019 - The Best TV Of The Year

THE BEST OF 2019 - The Best TV Shows of The Year

- So, wow - it's the end of the year, the end of the decade, the end of the world (almost! maybe?!) - and so, as is tradition, I'm here to provide my list of the best of this past year in a number of pop-culture categories - starting with TV. I'll preface by saying that, in the interest of HOW MUCH there is to talk about - we've got best-of-2019 posts, BEST OF THE DECADE (!) posts, etc. - I'm going to aim for brevity in each of this year's Best-Of blog posts. I know, going against my very nature ... but hey: evolve or die, people.

So let's talk TV. 2019 was again a year of WAY TOO MUCH TV. Streaming services everywhere, each with tons of CONTENT ... so much of it seemingly aimed specifically at me. I mean, man, I remember the days when young sci-fi nerd me had basically *one* good show to watch (The X-Files) and a couple of not-as-good shows. Now, there's a whole DC Universe streaming platform with nothing but DC Comics shows and THAT DOESN'T EVEN INCLUDE WATCHMEN. Sorry for shouting so much ... I have a lot of pent-up blogging in me that has been screaming to get out. But yeah, there was a time, not that long ago, where I felt like I could reasonably watch pretty much all of the good stuff. Well folks, that day is now very much in the past. I've only just started Succession. I've not yet seen Bojack (it's on my list ... but, man, my list is super long ...). I am but one man, and I can only watch so much.

2019 did, I think, feel like the end of an era though. Game of Thrones was the last great water-cooler TV show. With that having ended, we're left with a lot of content that nobody is watching at the same time. It's a constant state of "no spoilers, please." It's kind of sad. It's so funny though how it's weirdly refreshing that The Mandolorian on Disney Plus is doing one episode per week - it's great. Please get on the bandwagon, Netflix and Amazon. Great pop-culture is meant to be carefully consumed and digested. It needs time to simmer. There needs to be that weekly period of speculation and discussion and theorizing and debate. If we do fully lose that, then I think we will have lost an essential element of the peak Peak TV era that may now be sunsetting. On a similar note, 2019 was also a year of a lot of *very, very good* shows but few truly great ones. The 2018 end of The Americans left a bit of a void, I think. Nothing this year got me quite as hyped as the final season of that all-time classic. But a few things did come close ...



DANNY'S TOP TV SHOWS OF 2019:



1. MR. ROBOT

- Season 1 of Mr. Robot was lightning in a bottle. It was an incredible season of TV ... but the show couldn't quite sustain that momentum through Seasons 2 and 3. But man, the fourth and final season of this mind-bending, twisty, punk-rock show somehow re-captured that lightning. Mr. Robot - like main character Elliot Alderson - could sometimes have multiple personalities. Was it a cyber-thriller? A meditation on mental health and the suffocating pressures of the modern world? A Lynchian mind-%$&#? A meta-narrative about reality vs. fiction? Well, Season 4 struck the perfect balance between all of those things - delivering pulse-pounding intrigue, deep dives down the rabbit hole that is Elliot's mind, and jaw-dropping twists that turned the entire series on its head - making us question everything that had come before. The hype is real about how good Rami Malek was on this show - he gave a captivating, often surreal performance that went to some very deep and very dark places. Christian Slater was similarly great as Elliot's "protector" - the role of a lifetime for one of my favorite-ever actors. Carly Chaikin as Darlene was the unsung star of the series - a punk rock icon who gave the show its sardonic, badass edge. And Portia Doubleday was similarly great as Angela, the girl next door who increasingly became a tragic figure - lost to the tidal wave of Evil. And, oh, I of course have to mention BD Wong as White Rose - an enigmatic villain with a mesmerizing backstory. What an all-time great final episode this show delivered. What a crazy ride it was.


2. FOSSE/VERDON

- In college, a screenwriting professor had us all watch Bob Fosse's autobiographical film All That Jazz. It blew me away, and really opened my mind towards movies that I might have previously considered outside of my comfort zone. So I was really eager to see this new take on the Fosse story, and I was not disappointed. The series got better with each episode. It had capitol "A" ACTING from Sam Rockwell and Michelle Williams. It brilliantly weaved back and forth in time and painted an incredibly affecting picture of two creative partners who were both the best and worst things in each others lives.


3. VERONICA MARS

- "A long time ago, we used to be friends ..." - and a long time ago, Veronica Mars was one of TV's most underrated cult-classics-in-the-making. It was an ahead-of-its time mystery series with razor-sharp wit, expertly-plotted mysteries, a kick-ass cast of characters, and one hell of a theme song to boot. Cut to years later - and, amazingly, the show is back - via Hulu - and delivers its best season since the seminal S1. This return to the neo-noir beachfront town of Neptune, CA had it all - a multi-layered mystery, expertly-penned banter, satisfying character arcs for new and old faces a like, and some truly jaw-dropping moments that left me stunned. It was great having V Mars back in 2019.


4. THE RIGHTEOUS GEMSTONES

- I long ago became a full-fledged member of the cult of Danny McBride, Jody Hill, and David Gordon Green. These guys have produced some of the most brilliantly ridiculous and hilariously dark comedy of the last fifteen years - from The Foot Fist Way, to Eastbound & Down, to Vice Principals, and now ... The Righteous Gemstones. This is just a wickedly funny satirical look at a family of evangelical celebrity preachers - that dares to go places that no one else but this warped trio would go to. Few comedies are able to truly shock me, but McBride, Hill, and Green never fail to leave my jaw on the floor.


5. FLEABAG

- How to describe Fleabag to the uninitiated? It's sort of like Curb Your Enthusiasm, but more female, way more British, far less improvised (i.e. not improvised), and with a much deeper emotional core. Okay, so maybe the Curb comparison doesn't 100% work. So really, you just have to watch it. You just have to realize that it's writer and star Phoebe Waller Bridge putting her biting sense of humor and knack for great characters on your TV screen. It's a character getting into ridiculous situations and then getting out of them in brilliantly hilarious ways. It's just really, really good and I highly recommend it. 


6. WATCHMEN

-The funny thing is ... it took me a good couple of episodes to warm up to Watchmen. I mean, it's Watchmen! Only a pseudo-sequel to the greatest comic book ever written, on HBO, with a big budget and top-notch cast and ... I mean, if this wasn't an immediate A+ ... And it took a little while, but by the time we got to Episode 6 - a stunning flashback episode that took one of Alan Moore's biggest comic book mysteries and re-invented in a surprising and jaw-dropping fashion - well, I was all-friggin'-in. Watchmen took a little time to find its footing, but the back half of the season delivered one holy-$%&#-this-is-good episode after another. And as a bonus, the show was a super-cool experiment in multimedia storytelling, with the Peteypedia website dropping weekly bits of series lore that were a legitimately awesome supplement to the episodes. I know Alan Moore can't be proud - but he should be.


7. TRUE DETECTIVE

- I know that S2 of True Detective lost a lot of people (me included), but I'm glad I gave S3 a shot at the beginning of the year. The show got its groove back, delivering a gritty American Gothic mystery that harkened back to the superlative first season. S3 was brimming with atmosphere, danger, suspense - and anchored by two incredible lead performances from leads Mahershala Ali and (in what has to be his best turn ever) Stephen Dorff. The show used the first season's time-jumping conceit to great effect, creating an epic, decade-spanning mystery that kept me on the edge of my seat until the very end.


8. BROOKLYN NINE-NINE

-Don't call it a comeback. Saved from cancellation hell by a last-minute NBC pick-up, B99 was back and better than ever in 2019. Somehow, the show seems to improve with age - the writing just keeps getting sharper, the cast's chemistry keeps getting better, and the show, somehow, was totally hitting its stride in Season 6. It's seriously a national travesty that the great Andre Braugher has not yet won an Emmy for his work on this show. He's made Captain Holt into one of the greatest and funniest sitcom characters of all time.


9. CHERNOBYL

- Well, I was late to the game on this one ... but, no question, Chernobyl is just a masterful piece of storytelling. It's also one of the scariest and most disturbing piece of content I consumed in 2019 - painting a downright nightmarish picture of one of the most dangerous man-made disasters in history. The cast is excellent. The writing is really smart. And it speaks a lot to modern day issues -  showing how denial of the truth in the name of pride and politics can lead to catastrophic disaster.


10. THE SOCIETY

- An underrated gem of 2019, The Society may have come off like just another YA sci-fi series, but it had - seriously! - some of the best and craziest and most jaw-dropping storytelling of any TV show this year. The Society was Lord of the Flies meets Lost meets The West Wing - a teen drama that dared to go dark, to get political, to give us some of the best and most binge-worthy cliffhangers of any show I've seen in years. Netflix is churning out so many series these days that it's hard to keep track - too many get lost in the shuffle. But don't let that happen with The Society. This is one of Netflix's best.


The Next Best:


11. BARRY

-  Barry is a show about an assassin who just wants to be an actor ... and somehow, it works. It's funny and also intense and also often just insanely entertaining. When I think about Season 2 of Barry, I mostly keep coming back to its fifth episode ... aka one of the craziest episodes of TV I've ever seen. In it, Barry runs afoul of a seemingly ordinary suburban dad, who turns out to be a low-key Taekwondo master. The two proceed to have an episode-length battle across town that just escalates and escalates and produces insane moment after insane moment. It's a perfect encapsulation as to why Barry is the bomb.


12. GAME OF THRONES

- I could write pages upon pages about Game of Thrones' epic, flawed, controversial final season. But I'll say this: while I didn't love how it ended, I great enjoyed the journey to get there. I don't know ... this show became so big and had so many moving parts that it was hard for me to look at with too over-critical of an eye. What I mean is: it was clear going into the final season that the show had *a lot* of ground to cover in a very short time, and that we were going to be getting the big story beats - one after another - rather than the deep dives and methodical plotting we'd at times gotten from the show previously. And those big story beats gave us, I think, some all-timer moments. I mean ... Arya by-god Stark and The Night King. Classic. Epic. Applause-worthy. The final season gave us a couple more of those big moments that no show did better than this show.


13. THE MANDALORIAN

- The Mandalorian just really, really works for me. If Star Wars (especially the OG trilogy) is in many ways a space-western, then The Mandalorian doubles down - giving us a classic stoic cowboy hero who rides into town after town, reluctantly serving up some old-fashioned justice. Except this cowboy wears space-armor, travels from planet to planet, and protects Baby by-god Yoda from all manner of scum and villainy. The series has had some flat episodes, but man, when it works it works - and it delivers some endearingly old-fashioned one-and-done storytelling with a Star Wars tinge. And also: that score! Amazing.


14. BROAD CITY

-  What a great final season Broad City had - including but not limited to one of the best final episodes of a TV comedy I've ever seen. Funny and heartwarming and with a lot to say about growing up and adulting and the entire Millennial experience, Broad City went out on a high note that cemented it as one of the defining comedies of this decade.


15. BIG MOUTH

- Big Mouth takes perverse glee in being as filthy as any show has ever been, ever. But what makes this lovingly gross look at the trials and tribulations of puberty so good is that: a.) it's really really smart, b.) it's really really funny, and c.) at it's core, it's one of the most painfully truthful looks at adolescence ever put to screen. Some of the show's biggest laughs come from its most absurd and out-there moments, but what keeps me binge-ing is what lies beneath (cue the Hormone Monster making a snappy joke at my expense).


16. THE HANDMAID'S TALE

-  Season 3 of Hulu's signature series started out, well, pretty slow. But in its second half, it got really really good and took the series into some very dramatic places. June is now a full-blown freedom fighter, and her underground railroad of sorts leading kids out of Gilead led to an emotionally-packed season. Similarly, the rising tensions between Serena and Fred reaches a boiling point - and it's fascinating to see the two at odds. I definitely wouldn't mind if the overall pace of the show picks up in S4 - but there's no doubt it delivered some scary-good drama in S3.


17. THE GOOD PLACE

- At some point, the weighty plot of The Good Place became, perhaps, a bit overwhelming - and the jokes suffered for it. But even so, The Good Place remained (and remains, until its series finale in early 2020!) one of the best overall comedies of the last ten years. There were meditations about morality, incredibly-quotable dialogue, and a killer cast. It's going to feel like we're all in The Bad Place when this one is gone.


18. CRASHING

- An underrated series through and through, HBO's Crashing channeled the humor of comedian Pete Holmes into a very funny, surprisingly deep series about one man's journey through the wild and crazy world of stand-up comedy. Crashing was up and down in S2, but 2019's third and final season was consistently great - bringing the fictionalized Pete's story to a messy yet satisfying end.


19. THE DARK CRYSTAL: AGE OF RESISTANCE

- This unlikely prequel to the 80's Jim Henson kid-movie classic was a visually-stunning, unabashedly geeky, whimsical adventure that was a delight to watch through and through. The show picked up as it went - once a lot of the complex world-building was out of the way, it could focus on just being a good, old-fashioned bit of epic fantasy fun. And again, the visuals were flat-out eye-popping - the combination of muppetry and CGI creating a world unlike any other we've seen on TV.


20. THE BOYS

- The Boys took one of the most insane, darkly-satirical comic books I've ever read and, amazingly, gave us one hell of an adaptation. This look at superheroes-gone-wrong maintained the in-your-face tone of the original Garth Ennis comics, while also updating the characters a bit to be relevant for 2019. The result was one of the best Amazon series to date.


21. DEADLY CLASS

- Let me pour one out for this sadly cut-short series that, had it not been prematurely cancelled, could have become one of the all-time greats. This stylish adaptation of the Rick Remender comic book series - about a school for young assassins - did a fantastic job of bringing the book's punk-rock sensibilities to the screen. The cast was uber-talented, the storytelling was compelling, and the soundtrack rocked and rocked hard. Oh what might have been.


22. RICK & MORTY

- This would probably be higher on the list if we'd gotten more than the handful of episodes we got in 2019, but I will say that this pop-cult phenom came out firing on all cylinders at the end of 2019 - with a string of amazing episodes that showcased the series' spot-on humor and intense commitment to never skimping on the sci-fi. The hype for this show can sometimes get out of control, but in many ways it's well-deserved. There's nothing else on TV like Rick & Morty.


TIE: 23. STRANGER THINGS

- I had mixed feelings about Season 3 of Stranger Things, but ultimately, it comes down to that final big moment where the theme song of The Neverending Story saves the day. I mean, that alone ... that's the kind of thing that Stranger Things does so well. It's nostalgia, it's childhood wonder, it's fan-service, it's ridiculous - it's the kind of stuff that, when done right, I'm a huge sucker for. And there was enough done right in S3 that I couldn't help but continue to geek out for Stranger Things.

TIE: 23. BLACK MIRROR

- The abridged Season 5 of Black Mirror didn't quite live up to the series at its best, but it still delivered some pretty cool, thought-provoking installments. I thought "Striking Vipers," the episode about two men who find companionship via a VR videogame, was really well done. It smartly examined modern masculinity, and intriguingly explored the possibilities of reinventing and finding oneself in a virtual world. I also really liked "Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too" - the Miley Cyrus episode about a pop star replaced by an AI designed to approximate her. This was a fun and surprisingly poignant episode. Black Mirror has raised the bar so high - but it's still an absolute must-watch.


24. SILICON VALLEY

- The final season of Mike Judge's tech-world satire was, IMO, a return to form for a series that, at times, seemed to go to the same wells over and over again. But with the end of the series' run in sight, Judge and co. delivered a tighter, higher-stakes, and more consequential narrative than we've seen from SV in a while - including a fantastic final episode that picked up ten years later with an Office-style mockumentary. Overall, the final season just felt funnier and more energized - and it served as a reminder that, when on its game, Silicon Valley was one of the best comedies of the decade.


25. THE GOLDBERGS

- You know what? Give it up for the Goldbergs. The show had one of its funniest seasons ever with Season 6, with some truly on-point joke-writing and some deceptively emotional moments. The Goldbergs might be a little old-fashioned in its sensibilities, but it's old-fashioned in the best way possible - it's sitcom comfort food that mixes spot-on pop-culture references with very good joke writing and the occasional, sneakily-heartwarming moment to boot. 


Just Missed the Cut:

- Russian Doll
- G.L.O.W.
- Doom Patrol
- Swamp Thing
- His Dark Materials
- Good Omens
- The Umbrella Academy
- The Other Two
- Riverdale
- American Horror Story: 1984
- Documentary Now


INDIVIDUAL AWARDS:


The Best TV Heroes of 2019:


1.) Elliot and Darlene Alderson -Mr. Robot

2.) Arya Stark - Game of Thrones

3.) Sister Night - Watchmen

4.) The Mandalorian - The Mandalorian

5.) Veronica Mars - Veronica Mars



The Best TV Villains of 2019:


1.) The Homelander - The Boys

2.) Whiterose - Mr. Robot

3.) Aunt Lydia -The Handmaid's Tale

4.) Campbel -The Society

5.) Ms. Coulter - His Dark Materials



The Best TV Anti-Heroes of 2018:


1.) Barry Berkman - Barry

2.) Billy the Butcher -The Boys

3.) Saya - Deadly Class

4.) Crowley - Good Omens

5.) Adrien Veidt - Watchmen

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