Clockwise from bottom left: The Bear (Photo: Chuck Hodes/FX), Beef (Photo: Andrew Cooper/Netflix), Succession (Photo: David Russell/HBO), The Last Of Us (Photo: Liane Hentscher/HBO) Graphic: Karl Gustafson
Not to point out the obvious, but this was a historic year for television. The industry was, of course, shaken up—and grounded to a halt—because of the writers’ and actors’ strikes. But we also, as viewers, had to say goodbye to some remarkable series (Succession and Reservation Dogs are merely two of many biggies that spring to mind), welcome some refreshingly original newbies like Beef and Mrs. Davis, and return to the worlds of shows we already love, including our choice for last year’s best series, The Bear. Now, without further ado, The A.V. Club presents the 30 top shows of 2023. (To be considered for this list, a series simply needed to air a new episode this year.) And here’s sincerely hoping that 2024 offers a similar breadth of genres, tones, laughs, feels, surprises, and creativity.
29. Scott Pilgrim Takes Off
Scott Pilgrim Takes Off | Official Trailer | Netflix
Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World is a pretty perfect cult film based on a perfect graphic novel. So did it need an animated revival after all this time? Well, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off squashes doubts about its existence by the end of episode one, which presents a massive twist to the well-known story. The show isn’t from the perspective of Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) fighting Ramona Flowers’ (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) many exes. Instead, Ramona uses his disappearance and the search for him to connect with her former partners, get closure, and finally figure out who she is. It yields an entertaining, cathartic, and unexpected perspective on a world we thought we already knew. It helps that the entire cast from the film is back for the show, with Mae Whitman’s voice performance a particular knockout. And best of all, Science Saru Studios’ animation is vivid and stunning. [Saloni Gajjar]
Oughta be able to find a place for Fargo even though season just started. It’s shaping up to be a doozy.Nice to see Poker Face up there. I almost got Mrs. F. to watch some old Columbos with me. Oddly enough we watched a “Quincy, ME” on Antenna TV or some such channel and she liked that. She is crushin’ on Sam/Robert Ito – who is now 92 years old!!!
I’m in the midst of a Beef rewatch, and it’s amazing how good it is. It might be even better the 2nd time, knowing what it’s all building up to. The characters all make mistakes, but it’s so easy to understand where they’re coming from and why they behave the way they do.
RIP Perry Mason. You were too good for this world. I hope you really are on a farm upstate for series cancelled prematurely, where you can play with Mindhunter.
While I generally champion animation in any context, I do believe Scavengers Reign deserved a spot on here, as it’s one of the most interesting and strangest sci-fi stories I’ve ever seen, with the most believable (and truly alien) alien planet ever rendered. I’m glad Scott Pilgrim made it on here at least, but I do also want to shout out Blue Eye Samurai for being just an absolute blast, as well as Fionna and Cake for being so much more than an Adventure Time spin-off needed to be. I am also partway through Pluto and it is pretty great so far
Came here to champion Scavengers Reign as well. It really is a mind altering take on alien life. Creeped me out more than any big budget live action sci-fi movie/show has done since I was a kid.
Scavengers Reign was soooooo gooood. Just creepy and uncanny and unearthly in amazing ways, and the voice acting was so much better than I expected it to be. Wunmi Mosaku and Alia Shawkat’s characters had me crying.
The biggest problem I had with Scavengers Reign was it was recommended to me as a sci-fi. It is, but it’s more sci-fi/horror, like Alien. There’s bio-horror, there’s body horror, there’s the isolation.. I’d argue it’s more horror than sci-fi. Also the comments that’s it’s a fully realised alien world that so strange and, well, alien to ours. I honestly didn’t get that. If anything I was seeing the influences from nature on Earth that the creators of Scavengers Reign had. Creatures that seem both plant and animal. The plants that mimic animals to get their protection. The symbiosis. Almost everything has an analogue on Earth, just with more legs, which is what I thought was cool – but all evidently carbon-based (humans could eat them) in an oxygen rich atmosphere. No silicate life forms. There’s a telepath, sure, but there was even a Lovecraftian creature straight off the pages of Watchmen. Scavengers Reign was good. But the lack of humor didn’t help, and none of the characters were really likeable, so it’s hard to recommend as a piece of entertainment. And as to whether you’ll find it interesting enough, well your mileage may vary.
There’s an excellent YouTube video exploring why silicon based life is likely extremely rare, and why we should mostly expect life (as we know it) to be carbon-based in most circumstances:I think it’s one thing to, like Stanislaw Lem, point out that alien life might be fundamentally unknowable and another thing to argue that it won’t resemble any life we already have on earth, or won’t follow many of the same rules.
Cool. I only mentioned silicon-based life because it would have been an example of something truly alien to us. There are probably other examples. I still think Scavengers Reign was good, just probably not for the reasons others seem to think it’s great.
Biology is science. And this show was nothing if not obsessed with biologic systems. And, for the purists, it had spaceships and robots too! I’m not a likeability person. I’m an “is this character compelling” person. I agree some weren’t drawn as deeply as I would have liked, but I really enjoyed seeing Levi’s evolution from mechanical AI to some other heightened type of hybridized being. Ultimately I think every character faced the same need to let go of what was and embrace what was next, even if it wasn’t what they’d expected or hoped for. That said, the whole undertaking is definitely vibe-forward.
You take that back! :)But seriously, for every small creature that turned into a balloon, there was another creature that wanted to plug itself into our belly button, or turn us into The Last of Us rejects, or dissolve us with acid. So many of the biological systems existed mainly for the bio-horror and body horror aspects I mentioned. And judging by people’s comments of being “creeped out”, it looks like it worked.
(Sorry for the double reply. Kinja didn’t like me trying to reply to your greyed-out comment the first time.) And yes, Levi had the most interesting arc – and had to go
missing for a good few episodes for that to work. Azi probably had the
next best arc, but for everyone else they kinda ended up the same at the
end as they were at the start. Or dead. But at least they’re mostly all
together now, which I guess is another example of connection that the
show beat over our heads every possible moment. Honestly,
sometimes I wondered if the show runners originally wanted to make a
point-and-click adventure game with all the “rub this creature on this
creature to solve this puzzle” moments. I would have preferred less time
spent on that and more time spent on making more characters more
compelling. But yeah, other than that, good show.
Human castaways as invasive species on a gorgeous, treacherous, bizarrely symbiotic planet? YES PLEASE. I don’t know why, but animation really misses me most of the time but this thing plugged into my love for the Moebius books. I took my time, rather than binging, to let the experience stretch out a bit. Easy top 5 for the year.
I guess no one at the AV Club has an Apple TV+ subscription any more. While maybe not mind-blowing television, shows like Silo, Shrinking, Slow Horses and Platonic should have merited inclusion.
Indeed they were far better than some of the shows in the list and they are not the only one. Very mediocre list of “good taste” signaling for a certain audience.
Baffles me how many people out there are just missing out what should be considered thee place for well-produced, prestige TV simply because anytime Apple TV+ is mentioned the common response is just “lol Apple TV+ who?? xD”. It’s like for whatever reason people don’t expect a trillion-dollar company to be able to produce a TV show.
It’s become my go to subscription service. There are some better shows on other services but AppleTV+ has the most good shows in one place right now, some of which are just excellent.
I’m saddened that This Fool on Hulu continues to fall by the wayside. Two seasons with 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, but too few reviews for them to certify it fresh. They’re on the cusp of third season renewal. I highly recommend it to anyone, especially those who enjoyed Corporate on Comedy Central.
I don’t know how they knew that casting super-nice guy Ronald in Jury Duty would make the whole ridiculous thing work, but it really did. Talk about an everyday hero
Literally the whole thing hinged on him. Other cast members could have been dropped (not that I didn’t love each of them) and the show sitll would have worked. But Ronald basically is the show.
I haven’t watched most of these, and I have watched many not mentioned here. I only wanted to say that The Last of US’ third episode (I think it is the one mentioned in the slide) is the best episode of anything this year, period. Bye.
Out of the grays with you! Yeah, the tale of Bill and Frank was easily the most beautiful and heartbreaking piece of genre TV this year. Possibly many years.
Gotta agree about One Piece. Not only did they get the story and characters right, but the sense of humor, fun and adventure communicated through everything from the camera angles to the performances and special effects. This live-action adaptation wasn’t just good. It was really good.
This Fool, Righteous Gemstones, Class of ‘07 (with Emily Browning), Extraordinary, Twisted Metal, Justified, House of Usher, Unstable, Jury Duty, Swarm, Killing It, and Silo belong in the list some where.
Justified didn’t do it for me, I hate to say. Original Justified is in my top 2 shows of all time. I was disappointed in the reboot/sequel. Olyphant was amazing as usual, and I liked the addition of Aunjanue Ellis. The rest of the supporting cast was good as well, including the side stories with the other detectives. I hated the villain. Too one-note with no depth or development. And they shoe-horned in Raylan’s daughter and didn’t give her much story or reason for being there.I hate to gripe about anything in the Justified universe, but this wasn’t up there for me, in comparison to what I know the show can achieve when it’s firing on all cylinders.
the last of us is literally just a rushed retelling of the game cutscenes, but worse – except for Frank’s town, the one episode they took a risk and explored new territory. i really don’t get everyone’s praise, I think people just love Pedro right now.
Where the hell is NCIS?!!?But seriously, all of a sudden there are very good live action adaptations of both an anime and a video game. Maybe the gods wanted to give us a treat before darkness engulfs the world in the next couple of years.
I’m glad to see Mrs. Davis on here because I sometimes feel like the only person who watched it. The final episode was so powerful and I think about it regularly.
Yes, was coming here to say the same thing. Wife and I loved it, the mix of action and comedy and drama (well, not that much…but there was some!) was so well done. Reminded me of “Preacher”. Not too many shows can hit all those different notes.
why is succession so overrated; when there are shows like Barry and Reservation Dogs. It’s not bad but it’s not that good. Edit: or freaking severance as someone pointed seriously it’s not even on the list
I think you’ll find that since season one of Severance was released in 2022 it doesn’t really belong in a list titled “The 30 best TV shows of 2023″ Succession was a great show. Not as good as Reservation Dogs, but it was much better than Barry in my book. Opinions vary, I guess.
I loved the first two seasons of Succession, but two episodes in to the third and I stopped enjoying it, these were awful people treating others terribly and it started affecting me negatively. Which is weird I know as that describes the first two seasons as well, but out of the blue I just felt like I didn’t want to spend any more time with these characters.
62 Comments
Oughta be able to find a place for Fargo even though season just started. It’s shaping up to be a doozy.Nice to see Poker Face up there. I almost got Mrs. F. to watch some old Columbos with me. Oddly enough we watched a “Quincy, ME” on Antenna TV or some such channel and she liked that. She is crushin’ on Sam/Robert Ito – who is now 92 years old!!!
I’d forgotten Poker Face was this year. Might be my favorite show of the year then. I think Rian Johnson has found his niche.
I was surprised too but it debuted January 2023.
I’m in the midst of a Beef rewatch, and it’s amazing how good it is. It might be even better the 2nd time, knowing what it’s all building up to. The characters all make mistakes, but it’s so easy to understand where they’re coming from and why they behave the way they do.
Not bad. Dark Winds should have been top 10, and Perry Mason, Righteous Gemstones and Jury Duty are sorely missing. And the Bear should have been #1.
RIP Perry Mason. You were too good for this world. I hope you really are on a farm upstate for series cancelled prematurely, where you can play with Mindhunter.
While I generally champion animation in any context, I do believe Scavengers Reign deserved a spot on here, as it’s one of the most interesting and strangest sci-fi stories I’ve ever seen, with the most believable (and truly alien) alien planet ever rendered. I’m glad Scott Pilgrim made it on here at least, but I do also want to shout out Blue Eye Samurai for being just an absolute blast, as well as Fionna and Cake for being so much more than an Adventure Time spin-off needed to be. I am also partway through Pluto and it is pretty great so far
Came here to champion Scavengers Reign as well. It really is a mind altering take on alien life. Creeped me out more than any big budget live action sci-fi movie/show has done since I was a kid.
Scavenger’s Reign is truly special and so much better than some of these shows.
Scavengers Reign was soooooo gooood. Just creepy and uncanny and unearthly in amazing ways, and the voice acting was so much better than I expected it to be. Wunmi Mosaku and Alia Shawkat’s characters had me crying.
The biggest problem I had with Scavengers Reign was it was recommended to me as a sci-fi. It is, but it’s more sci-fi/horror, like Alien. There’s bio-horror, there’s body horror, there’s the isolation.. I’d argue it’s more horror than sci-fi.
Also the comments that’s it’s a fully realised alien world that so strange and, well, alien to ours. I honestly didn’t get that. If anything I was seeing the influences from nature on Earth that the creators of Scavengers Reign had. Creatures that seem both plant and animal. The plants that mimic animals to get their protection. The symbiosis. Almost everything has an analogue on Earth, just with more legs, which is what I thought was cool – but all evidently carbon-based (humans could eat them) in an oxygen rich atmosphere. No silicate life forms. There’s a telepath, sure, but there was even a Lovecraftian creature straight off the pages of Watchmen.
Scavengers Reign was good. But the lack of humor didn’t help, and none of the characters were really likeable, so it’s hard to recommend as a piece of entertainment. And as to whether you’ll find it interesting enough, well your mileage may vary.
There’s an excellent YouTube video exploring why silicon based life is likely extremely rare, and why we should mostly expect life (as we know it) to be carbon-based in most circumstances:I think it’s one thing to, like Stanislaw Lem, point out that alien life might be fundamentally unknowable and another thing to argue that it won’t resemble any life we already have on earth, or won’t follow many of the same rules.
Cool. I only mentioned silicon-based life because it would have been an example of something truly alien to us. There are probably other examples.
I still think Scavengers Reign was good, just probably not for the reasons others seem to think it’s great.
Biology is science. And this show was nothing if not obsessed with biologic systems. And, for the purists, it had spaceships and robots too! I’m not a likeability person. I’m an “is this character compelling” person. I agree some weren’t drawn as deeply as I would have liked, but I really enjoyed seeing Levi’s evolution from mechanical AI to some other heightened type of hybridized being. Ultimately I think every character faced the same need to let go of what was and embrace what was next, even if it wasn’t what they’d expected or hoped for. That said, the whole undertaking is definitely vibe-forward.
Biology is science.
You take that back! :)But seriously, for every small creature that turned into a balloon, there was another creature that wanted to plug itself into our belly button, or turn us into The Last of Us rejects, or dissolve us with acid. So many of the biological systems existed mainly for the bio-horror and body horror aspects I mentioned. And judging by people’s comments of being “creeped out”, it looks like it worked.
(Sorry for the double reply. Kinja didn’t like me trying to reply to your greyed-out comment the first time.)
And yes, Levi had the most interesting arc – and had to go
missing for a good few episodes for that to work. Azi probably had the
next best arc, but for everyone else they kinda ended up the same at the
end as they were at the start. Or dead. But at least they’re mostly all
together now, which I guess is another example of connection that the
show beat over our heads every possible moment. Honestly,
sometimes I wondered if the show runners originally wanted to make a
point-and-click adventure game with all the “rub this creature on this
creature to solve this puzzle” moments. I would have preferred less time
spent on that and more time spent on making more characters more
compelling. But yeah, other than that, good show.
First I’ve heard of this – looks very interesting indeed.
Human castaways as invasive species on a gorgeous, treacherous, bizarrely symbiotic planet? YES PLEASE. I don’t know why, but animation really misses me most of the time but this thing plugged into my love for the Moebius books. I took my time, rather than binging, to let the experience stretch out a bit. Easy top 5 for the year.
Where’s The Fall of the House of Usher?
I guess no one at the AV Club has an Apple TV+ subscription any more. While maybe not mind-blowing television, shows like Silo, Shrinking, Slow Horses and Platonic should have merited inclusion.
Indeed they were far better than some of the shows in the list and they are not the only one. Very mediocre list of “good taste” signaling for a certain audience.
Every show on Apple+ – I enjoy well enough when watching and then I forget I even watched a week later.
The Godzilla show is pretty good… but, same
Slow Horses. Yes.
Baffles me how many people out there are just missing out what should be considered thee place for well-produced, prestige TV simply because anytime Apple TV+ is mentioned the common response is just “lol Apple TV+ who?? xD”. It’s like for whatever reason people don’t expect a trillion-dollar company to be able to produce a TV show.
They have a subscription, but unfortunately the only thing they watched was The Big Door Prize.
The second season of Foundation too.
It’s become my go to subscription service. There are some better shows on other services but AppleTV+ has the most good shows in one place right now, some of which are just excellent.
Slow Horses was great.
Slow Horses is a masterpiece.
I’m saddened that This Fool on Hulu continues to fall by the wayside. Two seasons with 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, but too few reviews for them to certify it fresh. They’re on the cusp of third season renewal. I highly recommend it to anyone, especially those who enjoyed Corporate on Comedy Central.
Jury Duty and the US Ghosts to me were the two funniest shows of the year
Jury Duty was, surprisingly, feel-good tv that wasn’t maudlin or cutesy. I also think it deserved a spot.
I don’t know how they knew that casting super-nice guy Ronald in Jury Duty would make the whole ridiculous thing work, but it really did. Talk about an everyday hero
Literally the whole thing hinged on him. Other cast members could have been dropped (not that I didn’t love each of them) and the show sitll would have worked. But Ronald basically is the show.
Jury Duty and Paul T. Goldman are in the same neighborhood. Great shows that break reality/documentary rules in ways that keep you watching.
I haven’t watched most of these, and I have watched many not mentioned here. I only wanted to say that The Last of US’ third episode (I think it is the one mentioned in the slide) is the best episode of anything this year, period. Bye.
Out of the grays with you!
Yeah, the tale of Bill and Frank was easily the most beautiful and heartbreaking piece of genre TV this year. Possibly many years.
of anything you’ve watched but yeah it was pretty good.
Reservation Dogs was #1 of the year for me. Such a great, lovely show.
And “Deer Lady” to me was the best TV episode of the year
that’s a tie with Barry for me (Severance as well)
Severance was 2022.
Gotta agree about One Piece.
Not only did they get the story and characters right, but the sense of humor, fun and adventure communicated through everything from the camera angles to the performances and special effects. This live-action adaptation wasn’t just good. It was really good.
It’s absolute trash.
This Fool, Righteous Gemstones, Class of ‘07 (with Emily Browning), Extraordinary, Twisted Metal, Justified, House of Usher, Unstable, Jury Duty, Swarm, Killing It, and Silo belong in the list some where.
Justified didn’t do it for me, I hate to say. Original Justified is in my top 2 shows of all time. I was disappointed in the reboot/sequel. Olyphant was amazing as usual, and I liked the addition of Aunjanue Ellis. The rest of the supporting cast was good as well, including the side stories with the other detectives. I hated the villain. Too one-note with no depth or development. And they shoe-horned in Raylan’s daughter and didn’t give her much story or reason for being there.I hate to gripe about anything in the Justified universe, but this wasn’t up there for me, in comparison to what I know the show can achieve when it’s firing on all cylinders.
the last of us is literally just a rushed retelling of the game cutscenes, but worse – except for Frank’s town, the one episode they took a risk and explored new territory. i really don’t get everyone’s praise, I think people just love Pedro right now.
Or… not every has played the game.
Where the hell is NCIS?!!?But seriously, all of a sudden there are very good live action adaptations of both an anime and a video game. Maybe the gods wanted to give us a treat before darkness engulfs the world in the next couple of years.
Justice for Fargo and Slow Horses, please
I’m glad to see Mrs. Davis on here because I sometimes feel like the only person who watched it. The final episode was so powerful and I think about it regularly.
I enjoyed it immensely, especially just how unafraid it was to run with a crazy plot.
Yes, was coming here to say the same thing. Wife and I loved it, the mix of action and comedy and drama (well, not that much…but there was some!) was so well done. Reminded me of “Preacher”. Not too many shows can hit all those different notes.
why is succession so overrated; when there are shows like Barry and Reservation Dogs. It’s not bad but it’s not that good. Edit: or freaking severance as someone pointed seriously it’s not even on the list
I think you’ll find that since season one of Severance was released in 2022 it doesn’t really belong in a list titled “The 30 best TV shows of 2023″
Succession was a great show. Not as good as Reservation Dogs, but it was much better than Barry in my book. Opinions vary, I guess.
I loved the first two seasons of Succession, but two episodes in to the third and I stopped enjoying it, these were awful people treating others terribly and it started affecting me negatively. Which is weird I know as that describes the first two seasons as well, but out of the blue I just felt like I didn’t want to spend any more time with these characters.
Succession is rated right where it should be.
No Our Flag Means Death!?
I forgot about The Other Two since it moved to Max. I thoroughly enjoyed it in its first season on CC. I’ll have to catch up.
Surprised its included here. This last season was so broad and unfunny. It was like a different show.
Aw that’s too bad.
We just finished ‘Lessons in Chemistry’ and thought this was one of the best series this year. Why is it not mentioned?