In a year that saw many of us relegated to our homes for much of its duration, TV was an ever more powerful medium for connecting. There was no watercooler to gather around—well, there was, but the office had to be abandoned—yet each new premiere became a communal experience. The first weeks of quarantine produced Tiger King and a whole lot of rubber-necking at Joe Exotic as well as theorizing about murderous capabilities of one Carole Baskin. That gave way to the more intimate storytelling of series like Normal People and Ramy, which managed to heighten our isolation while also assuaging it. Amanda Peet gave us an unforgettable woman scorned in Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story, and Adventure Time returned from the brink to take us to Distant Lands in the middle of lockdown.
After years of prestige dramas pushing bleakness, the comfort watch became the order of the day. The Office and Friends were streamed endlessly (even as they made their way to new platforms), but soon, the comfort of these viewing experiences came from their unabashed earnestness rather than familiarity. Big-hearted series like Muppets Now, The Baby-Sitters Club, and Ted Lasso offered serious competition to reigning champs like The Great British Baking Show. Steven Universe Future, Kipo And The Age Of Wonderbeasts, and She-Ra And The Princesses Of Power also made empathetic narratives as compelling as puzzle-box shows like Westworld. The Queen’s Gambit was well-appointed escapism, while the boundless sketch comedy of Aunty Donna’s Big Ol’ House Of Fun turned Netflix into a sandbox for adults (from Australia). Though less ambitious (not to mention well-executed), reunion specials and table reads brimmed with coziness, and, in the case of The West Wing, even offered an engrossing theatrical reimagining of a popular episode.
But, with all the time in the world to catch up on Peak TV—or, at least, considerably more—we also challenged ourselves to seek out bold new stories and storytellers, and even question what makes TV, TV. We found restoration and vital discussion in Michaela Coel’s I May Destroy You, a profound exploration of abuse survivors, and let Steve James take us on a trip through the life-crushing bureaucracy and systemic racism of Chicago, a City So Real. Even though it premiered in January, BoJack Horseman’s swan song reverberated throughout the year, even as it excoriated how short the collective memory is when it comes to abusers. The fascination with true-crime documentaries remained, but I’ll Be Gone In The Dark and Seduced centered the victims instead of capitalizing on sensationalist headlines. And just as we were preparing for the holiday movie crush, Steve McQueen’s stunning Small Axe anthology, comprising five vibrant and varied films, stopped us in our tracks. Is it a TV series or a series of movies? Does drawing a line help our understanding of the two mediums, or does it merely elevate one above the other? And, when the series’ message resonates regardless, does it even matter?
The TV landscape in 2020 stood in stark contrast to our reality—expansive and intimate in ways we could only dream of in quarantine. But that didn’t prevent us from bonding over Beth Harmon’s wins or Joe Exotic’s takedown or the last hurrah of the Chicago Bulls. This year, more than any other in recent memory, it was difficult to distinguish between our favorite shows and the best shows. But The A.V. Club staff and contributors still took on the task, submitting ranked ballots of our top 15 shows to bring you the 25 best shows of 2020.
25. The Good Lord Bird (Showtime)
This year’s other rambunctious (a)historical epic (alongside The Great) is also one of the most tonally complex series of 2020. Based on James McBride’s novel of the same name, The Good Lord Bird centers on the last charge and days of abolitionist John Brown, but it’s far from a self-important death march. With Ethan Hawke donning the long whiskers of God’s Angry Man, what could have been another flat white-savior tale is instead a lively, ruminant examination of what it means to put action (sometimes lethal) behind words in order to effect real change. Irreverence courses through the limited series, from the cheeky framing of Brown’s divine calling to the depiction of Frederick Douglass as a superstar orator and tomcat. It’s an incredible showcase for Hawke, but this darkly comedic drama never loses sight of the cause—the quest for Black personhood, which is reflected in the plight of Onion (Joshua Caleb Johnson). For enslaved Black people like Onion, abolition was a matter of life and death, not a thought exercise to mull over cigars and brandy, nor a brick in a platform to launch a career. The Good Lord Bird offers this powerful history lesson in unimpeachably stylish form. [Danette Chavez]
24. Bad Education (HBO)
This year’s round of the “TV or film?” debate actually kicked off with Mike Makowsky’s and Cory Finley’s excellent Bad Education. The true-crime drama debuted to great reviews at the Toronto Film Festival, only to be picked up by HBO, and later, pick up an Emmy for Outstanding TV Movie. Hugh Jackman stars as Frank Tassone, a man who, in real life, embezzled millions of dollars from the Roslyn School District, a school district he’d help make one of the most competitive in the state of New York. Frank’s fall from grace is a steep one, and Jackman gives his all to the backsliding, internally gnashing his teeth at the entitled Long Islanders who expect him to lead even their most mediocre children to the Ivies. He’s just as incandescent when encouraging the source of his downfall, plucky teen reporter Rachel Bhargava (Geraldine Viswanathan), or contemplating a new life with Kyle Contreras (Rafael Casal). The wickedly funny Bad Education is a searing indictment of one man’s greed and hubris, as well as the encroachment of private interests on public institutions, and yet another surprisingly relevant entry on our list. [Danette Chavez]
23. P-Valley (Starz)
Katori Hall’s P-Valley moves like one of the dancers at The Pynk—assured in its skill, brimming with power, and daring you to look away for even a second. Adapted from one of Hall’s plays, the Starz drama is woman-led in front of and behind the camera, thanks to a marvelous cast (including standout Brandee Evans) and an all-female directing roster that includes Karena Evans and Kimberly Peirce. P-Valley is also distinct for its Mississippi Delta setting, fertile storytelling ground that nonetheless remains underexplored on TV. But the series homes in on an even more specific lived experience, that of Black women in the South, trying to forge a new path for themselves with nothing but lucite heels, tenacity, and sisterhood. As sensual as it is entertaining, P-Valley also takes a nuanced look at sex workers, highlighting their humanity in ways that eclipse even the profoundly moving Hustlers. Hall’s series entices viewers with a fantasy that it works just as quickly to shatter, only to reestablish it in the next episode—because there’s always someone new making their way into The Pynk. [Danette Chavez]
22. Joe Pera Talks With You (Adult Swim)
Summer suits Joe Pera. The second season of the comedian’s singular Adult Swim series is all about getting out: out into the great outdoors, out to the exotic locales of cosmopolitan Milwaukee, and out of its star’s head. Conner O’Malley rages, Alma Washington scowls, Gene Kelly makes a meal out of a gas-station fedora and accompanying sunglasses, and, in a moment that redefines “supporting performance,” Jo Firestone briefly takes over the show’s POV to give an impromptu primer on edible and non-edible plants. While working some impressive mid-season pivots involving marital strife and untimely death, Joe Pera Talks With You’s grasp on its senses of humor and wonder remains as rock-solid as Joe’s grip on the shopping cart as he traverses the grocery store freezer aisle’s gauntlet of temptations. Like a prized backyard bean arch, season two of Joe Pera Talks With You both blossomed in the sun and came together in several satisfying ways. [Erik Adams]
21. City So Real (Nat Geo)
The brilliance of City So Real, the five-episode docuseries from Hoop Dreams director Steve James, has nothing to do with intensity of focus. Like Chicago, the city on which it centers, this is a sprawling thing, ever-changing but always familiar. James anchors his series in the historic, chaotic 2019 Chicago Mayoral Race, a story he inextricably links with the murder of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald by then-Chicago cop Jason Van Dyke, and the Lincoln Yards development; all three make plain the interconnected nature of Chicago’s most pressing problems, so many of which have roots in systemic racism. Those big storylines make for riveting and vital television, but it’s the flashes of everyday life in its marvelous central city that push City So Real into the territory of the unforgettable. A dog walker smiles at his charges. A man looks at a horse and his whole face softens. A couple marries at city hall. The world shakes, but life continues. For all its many heartbreaks, this is a documentary overflowing with affection for humanity, ugly as we can be; if the old “city is a character” chestnut ever was true, it’s true here. [Allison Shoemaker]
20. How To With John Wilson
One of the year’s sweetest and strangest shows combines the esoteric beauty of an avant-garde documentary with the comic whimsy of a late-night TV “man on the street” sketch. Host and narrator John Wilson has apparently spent years obsessively recording and annotating his daily life in and around New York City. For How To, Wilson and his co-writers Michael Koman and Alice Gregory have assembled some of those video clips and observations into remarkable autobiographical journalism, presented in the form of self-help tips, delivered in a halting voice. Wilson has a knack for visual gags, drawing on his archive of images to find the perfect images of urban absurdity to illustrate—and sometimes undermine—his points. Whether he’s contemplating the deeper meaning of scaffolding, wondering why it gets harder for people to make friends as they age, questioning the reliability of his own memories, or documenting a city transformed by a pandemic, Wilson ultimately looks at life on a touchingly human scale, trying his best to put a hopeful spin on whatever horrors and wonders he captures within his camera’s frame. [Noel Murray]
19. The Last Dance (ESPN)
Jason Hehir’s 10-part docuseries filled a void for sports fans in this pandemic-stricken year, but it also made for some of the most engrossing television of the year. Cut from never-before-seen footage from the Chicago Bulls’ 1997–98 season, The Last Dance is situated in the gloaming of the dream team’s (no, not that one) NBA dominance, but it remains buoyant throughout, spiriting viewers away to the ’80s, when we got our first glimpse at the player who would redefine the game of basketball: Michael Jordan. Hehir’s series is structured like a sports drama, one rife with rivalry and talent, complete with a (sort of) in medias res opening and characters both off-color (Dennis Rodman), stoic (Scottie Pippen), and villainous (the Detroit Pistons). It’s also a true event series, probably one of the last, which, in a nice bit of symmetry, captures the final moments of the monoculture. The Last Dance’s dynamic storytelling doesn’t just make you nostalgic for “Repeat The Three-Peat” or Michael Jordan’s wizardry in the paint; it makes you yearn for community, for the sense that, for two hours at a time, we were all sharing an experience (though Chicagoans lay claim to all bragging rights). [Danette Chavez]
18. Big Mouth (Netflix)
It takes a lot to set new standards for animated comedy maximalism during the same calendar year when Rick And Morty met Jesus Christ aboard a space-time Snowpiercer that represents Dan Harmon’s cherished Story Circle. That would require something like, oh, adding anxiety mosquitos and The Gratitoad to your menagerie of fantastic hormonal beasts while also telling stories in a dystopian future timeline and staging a one-off crossover with the other painfully funny streaming show where the creators reenact their own adolescence. Frankness is Big Mouth’s primary gear, and in 2020 it was especially unembarrassed about letting its ambition show, whether it was eschewing the familiar confines and sign gags of Bridgeton Middle School for the season-opening sleepaway camp arc or running all its fraying relationship threads through a half-hour unambiguously titled “A Very Special 9/11 Episode.” And that’s all without mentioning Jenny Slate passing Missy Foreman-Greenwald’s mic to Ayo Edebiri, a storyline that proves nothing says “maturity” like a changing voice. Big Mouth has always been about the inevitability of change; in its fourth season, it showed that growth only accompanies change through earnest commitment—whether that’s to the graceful redressing of a casting gone wrong or a character’s constipation-induced delirium. [Erik Adams]
17. The Baby-Sitters Club (Netflix)
Ann M. Martin’s The Baby-Sitters’ Club book series created an enduring universe for middle-school readers who couldn’t get enough of the friendship between headstrong Kristy, shy Mary Anne, artistic Claudia, and fashionista Stacey. In Netflix’s delightful adaptation, not only are the girls perfectly cast—with Alicia Silverstone and Marc Evan Jackson making compelling appearances in parental roles—but series creator Rachel Shukert wisely adds modern issues to the show’s retro feel, making it more relevant than ever. Many of the classic plotlines are familiar: Stacey’s diabetes, for example, as well as her crush on an older guy in “Boy-Crazy Stacey.” But while Claudia still fights with her sister in “Claudia And Mean Janine,” their grandmother’s past in an internment camp brings to mind the cruel immigration policies of the Trump administration. In “Mary Anne Saves The Day,” when the young sitter has to take her charge to the hospital, she finds the strength to insist that the doctors and nurses use the proper pronouns for the trans little girl. These vital updates made The Babysitters’ Club an enjoyable must-watch for middle-school family viewing; fortunately, a second season is on the way. [Gwen Ihnat]
16. Harley Quinn (DC Universe)
What was obvious from the moment Harley Quinn premiered was that the DC Universe-turned-HBO-Max series, which follows the off-kilter Miss Harleen Frances Quinzel (Kaley Cuoco, successfully shedding any residual Big Bang gloss), was the most graphic offering in the Batman-related animated oeuvre. Season one focused solely on Harley’s revenge against Joker (Alan Tudyk) and established the former sidekick as a supervillain in her own right. 2020’s season two picked up with Harley living her dream—Joker, the Justice League, the Legion Of Doom, and Gotham as a whole destroyed. “This is what I’ve always wanted,” a content Harley tells pal Poison Ivy (Lake Bell), “anarchy and sushi.” But even as Harley rested on her laurels without a Big Bad, Harley Quinn did not. Instead, the series examined the surprising reverberations of a Gotham power vacuum and entered into an impressively nuanced exploration of the Harley-Ivy relationship. Instead of playing up a potential Ivy-Harley romance for headlines just to have Ivy go through with her wedding to Kite Man (Matt Oberg), Harley Quinn allowed for heart to shine through its mile-a-minute joking and lightyear-a-minute cursing. [Patrick Gomez]
15. Betty (HBO)
To simply describe Betty as an expansion of Crystal Moselle’s 2018 film Skate Kitchen is to radically undervalue just how creatively transformative the series became in growing beyond its source material. While the film’s Altman-meets-Linklater sensibility is undeniably compelling, Betty takes everything that worked there and deepens it, mining rich veins of pathos, weighty social drama, and penetrating character study in equal measure. The young women navigating New York City’s male-dominated skateboarding subculture feel both idiosyncratically authentic and instantly relatable, which is testament both to the bond of their collective relationship and the inspired performances of the core group: Dede Lovelace’s Janay, Nina Moran’s Kirt, Ajani Russell’s Indigo, Racehlle Vinberg’s Camille, and Moonbear as the perpetually camera-wielding Honeybear. The intimacy of the storytelling and the relaxed hangout vibes suffusing the narrative belie the often heightened tensions lying just below the surface of these soulful skaters; there may not be any one central plotline (save for the steadily growing bond between five people who didn’t really know each other at the start, Kirt and Janay’s friendship notwithstanding), but there’s never a sense that the daily tribulations endured by our charismatic protagonists, no matter how fleeting, are anything less than riveting. [Alex McLevy]
14. Small Axe (Prime Video)
The resilient and vibrant history of London’s robust West Indian community finally got the overdue artistic treatment that it deserved with Steve McQueen’s lovingly crafted anthology, Small Axe. Through the series’ five installments, the Oscar-winning filmmaker crystallized elements of the Black immigrant experience in stories that range in tone and timing, balancing sobering looks at the long fight for justice in installments like the 1960s-set Mangrove with moments of unfettered joy at an ’80s house party, courtesy of the light and lovely Lovers Rock. While Small Axe’s abiding beauty can be attributed to many things—like McQueen’s clever camera work in each turn or stellar performances from the likes of John Boyega and Shaun Parkes—the factors that render this series a masterpiece are ultimately patience and a storyteller’s lived experience. By allowing his collection of works room to properly breathe and flourish, McQueen not only confirmed that these deeply human tales are worth telling, but that he has some of the best creative instincts in the business. [Shannon Miller]
13. Better Things (FX)
Like Sam and her girls, Pamela Adlon’s Better Things continues to deepen with age. Each of the women at the heart of the show faced new, emotional challenges in season four, growing, exploring, and contending with precisely what that means for a 50-year-old actress, a nearly 20-year-old hostess, a high schooler, and a now middle schooler. Insecurity, anger, and forgiveness took center stage this season, with Sam in particular meditating on the cost and comfort of resentment. There are big moments in the show, punch-the-air comebacks and dressings down that episodes like the fantastic “Batceañera” revel in, but it’s the quiet, reflective shots that linger and give Better Things its weight: Duke’s words of comfort to Rich in “Steady Rain,” Frankie and Sam’s peppermint ice cream in “High Man. Bye Man.” and the season’s closing shot of the girls, happy together at the beach. It’s easy to overlook a quietly confident series like this one, but watching these characters—and especially the young actors playing Max, Frankie, and Duke (Mikey Madison, Hannah Alligood, and Olivia Edward)—continue to come into their own provided some of 2020’s most compelling and rewarding TV. [Kate Kulzick]
12. Pen15 (Hulu)
It’s easy to poke fun at the exceedingly awkward pubescent experience, an era that delivers the kind of uncertainty and suffering that middle-school pariahs Maya (Maya Erskine) and Anna (Anna Konkle) endure by the pound. Finding ways to balance said suffering—an accessible and bottomless well of comedy—with moments of growth, emotional depth, and the occasional social triumph in ways that don’t signal a total overhaul is significantly harder. While new friendships, love, and divorce caused invariable shifts in the duo’s close-knit bond, Maya and Anna continue to show up for each other during the milestones that mattered most, like when your new boyfriend (who is going through his own metamorphosis) dumps you after your big theater debut. With season two, Pen15 co-stars and co-creators Erskine and Konkle synthesized the complicated business of growing up without sacrificing the cringeworthy synergy that makes these two best friends work. For a coming-of-age comedy that was already rather brilliant, Pen15 continues to deliver all-too-relatable growing pains, with a side of amateur witchcraft, in the sharpest and most recognizable ways possible. [Shannon Miller]
11. Ted Lasso (Apple TV+)
Before it premiered, Ted Lasso was a punchline of Peak TV: Had the race for content gone so far that Apple would green-light an adaptation of an (entertaining) Jason Sudeikis NBC Sports commercial? But when it premiered in August, well into the COVID-19 pandemic, Ted Lasso was rightly hailed as the perfect show for a difficult moment. Transformed into a deep ensemble with the help of Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence, the series combined the wit and wordplay of Sudeikis’ ad with the thrill and camaraderie of a sports drama, and redefined Coach Lasso as a beacon of positivity and belief. And yet, it’s important to recognize that Ted Lasso’s hype is not solely the result of “pandemic goggles.” It stands as one of the year’s finest comedies regardless, as each character is allowed to grow and show vulnerability without ever losing their ability to be funny. With a concept that could be played for satire, Ted Lasso took the riskier path of grounding itself in the belief that good people doing good things can drive a comedy series. And while that choice undoubtedly struck a nerve, Ted Lasso will resonate just as well when we catch up with AFC Richmond again under (hopefully) better circumstances. [Myles McNutt]
10. Never Have I Ever (Netflix)
Never Have I Ever stands out in a TV landscape brimming with successful teen shows, thanks to its protagonist, a 15-year-old Indian American girl. On paper, it appears to be a regular dramedy, wherein Devi’s biggest concerns are fitting at school and hooking up with the hot jock she has a crush on. But the show, co-created by Mindy Kaling and Lang Fisher, has several surprises in store, starting with tennis player John McEnroe as the narrator of Devi’s story. It reels audiences in with a fun coming-of-age narrative, only to tug at heartstrings with a moving premise about grief and loss. The Netflix series offers a smorgasbord of amusing and nerdy teens with their own personal, relatable challenges. Underneath a cool, Gen Z vibe, the show’s strength lies in its portrayal of the Indian American Vishwakumar family, a perspective still rarely shown on-screen. It explores the community’s culture, rituals, festivals, food without being explicitly loud about it. Newcomer Maitreyi Ramakrishnan delivers a breakout performance as Devi, especially in scenes with her strict mother, Dr. Nalini (Poorna Jagannathan). Their intense, fraught relationship heightens the emotions without losing the charm and comedic joys of Never Have I Ever.[Saloni Gajjar]
9. The Great (Hulu)
Call it the long-simmering revenge of Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette, but the latest exhilarating trend in historical fiction is to depict history not as it literally happened but as it might have felt to those living through it. On the heels of Apple TV+’s inventive Emily Dickinson series, Hulu’s The Great centers on another teenage girl who would go on to have a major impact on history: the Prussian-born 19-year-old princess Catherine the Great (Elle Fanning). Shipped off to Russia to marry the boorishly cruel Emperor Peter III (Nicholas Hoult), Catherine starts toying around with the idea of throwing a coup. And while The Great plays fast and loose with historical truth, creator Tony McNamara deploys the irreverent, darkly comedic tone he honed while co-writing The Favourite to pointedly illuminate the terrifying realities of 18th-century Russian life. (When a maid notes that she spent her evening avoiding rape, Catherine casually replies, “Same.”) Hilarious, demented, and sometimes surprisingly moving, The Great carved out its own unique place amongst this year’s historical series. All anchored by a captivating turn from Fanning and some absolutely bonkers, career-best work from Hoult. Huzzah! [Caroline Siede]
8. Schitt’s Creek (Pop TV)
In typical Canadian fashion, Schitt’s Creek didn’t arrive with a bang but rather a polite, quiet hello in 2015, gradually building its fanbase to include enough Emmy voters that it swept the comedy category at the 2020 ceremony for its sixth and final season. The series itself followed a similar trajectory, taking its time to evolve the formerly wealthy Roses—dad Johnny (Eugene Levy), mom Moira (Catherine O’Hara), son David (Dan Levy), and daughter Alexis (Annie Murphy)—beyond their self-centered ways and expanding their family to fully include much of the show’s titular town. Most of the character growth occurred during the series’ middle seasons, but that allowed co-creator and mastermind Dan Levy to spend most of season six simply playing in the world they’d created. The result is more traditionally sitcom-y than prior seasons, but Schitt’s Creek never lost its signature heart, particularly when dealing with Alexis’ long-distance relationship with Ted (Dustin Milligan). And even when it culminated in a “the whole town pitches in to throw a wedding” finale trope, the series continued to subvert sitcom norms in a way that left sentimental fans and cynical critics alike praising the happy ending. [Patrick Gomez]
7. The Queen’s Gambit (Netflix)
The Queen’s Gambit is a biographical portrait so detailed, it’s hard to believe that it wasn’t about an actual person. But Anya Taylor-Joy’s portrayal of chess champion Beth Harmon is both completely fictional (based on Walter Tevis’ novel of the same name) and entirely believable. Beth is a taciturn young orphan with addiction issues who also happens to be a chess wunderkind, and these two elements of her life vie for control throughout the series, as writer/director Scott Frank and editor Michelle Tesoro skillfully make the chess matches riveting even for viewers who wouldn’t know a King’s Gambit from a Sicilian Defense. Beth’s brave and often lonesome climb is gripping to witness, aided by meticulously detailed mid-century décor, from her modest Kentucky home to period-perfect opulent hotel rooms in Las Vegas, Mexico City, and Russia. Her ensembles also get more glamorous the higher she rises in the chess ranks, often in stunning black-and-white outfits that echo the game that rules her life. Though surrounded by compelling supporting performances from Marielle Heller, Moses Ingram, and Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Taylor-Joy commands every single scene as Beth, so that we can’t help but cheer her on as she learns to control her demons as well as the chess board. [Gwen Ihnat]
6. Better Call Saul (AMC)
Better Call Saul has been so consistently excellent, and for so long, that it’s easy to forget just what a miraculous balancing act the show pulls off, season after season. The series has always foregrounded the volatile push-pull of the relationship between Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk) and Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn), but season five managed to reshape that relationship yet again. Tony Dalton’s superb turn as the charismatic Lalo Salamanca sparked enjoyably fraught storytelling that has pulled every character into his orbit (culminating in the finale’s show-stopping nightime assassination attempt on his compound) and the ongoing power struggles involving Nacho (Michael Mando) and Gus (Giancarlo Esposito)—the former’s seemingly doomed efforts to escape this criminal underworld, the latter’s Machiavellian manipulations intent on conquering it—remain as magnetic as ever. But Kim and Jimmy’s respective plunges into very different high-stakes gambles are where this penultimate year shined, and set up a riveting dichotomy between his inevitable transformation into Saul Goodman and her self-determined demolition of her successful and stable career. Their parallel arcs have become the two sides of the show’s febrile narrative coin: one tragically foretold, and the other thrillingly, unpredictably unknown. [Alex McLevy]
5. The Good Place (NBC)
The Good Place was in a constant uphill battle to outdo itself. Following its stunner of a season-one finale, it was unclear if the show would be able to top or even match the level of surprise and originality it harnesses early on. But again and again, The Good Place surprised. It helps that it has one of the best comedic ensembles in recent television. Part Philosophy For Dummies and part hangout comedy in Hell, the show finishes its run with a bang, sticking the landing on big romantic moments, big dramatic ones, and running gags all at once. Its very human characters—Eleanor Shellstrop (Kristen Bell), Chidi Anagonye (Jackson Harper), Tahani Al-Jamil (Jameela Jamil), Jason Mendoza (Manny Jacinto)—are deeply flawed real people even in their most heightened moments. Its nonhuman characters are every bit as complicated, including not-quite-a-robot, not-quite-a-girl Janet (D’Arcy Carden) and reformed demon Michael (Ted Danson), who similarly undergo transformations over the course of the series that have huge payoffs in the final episodes. The Good Place believes in and allows room for growth, and its final season is full of hope, a rare and hard-to-pull-off feat for what’s technically dystopian television. [Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya]
4. What We Do In The Shadows (FX)
For many, if not most people, 2020 was a year marked by a forced confrontation with stasis and decay. So, of course, the most comforting, funniest sitcom of 2020 is about generally comfortable, already-dead people who barely leave their house and have to occupy themselves with an endless string of inane bullshit. What We Do In The Shadows fully leveled up from its first season, largely because the cast has such a fine grasp on the characters. (In particular, Harvey Guillen’s Guillermo.) The show has settled into an ensemble and world strong enough to produce a bunch of instant classic episodes with simple premises, including “the one where Colin Robinson gets a promotion,” “the one where they go to a Super Bowl party,” or, of course, “the one where Laszlo runs away to become a bartender and high school volleyball coach in New Jersey.” Perhaps most remarkably, one of the funniest episodes of the season is built entirely on a spam chain email, something that sounds idiotic and paper-thin at first but that manages to escalate into a truly hilarious climax. Somehow, What We Do In The Shadows dove so deep into the mundane it came out feeling fantastical again. [Eric Thurm]
3. BoJack Horseman (Netflix)
During its six-season run, Raphael Bob-Waksberg’s animated tragicomedy BoJack Horseman put its characters —and, let’s face it, viewers—through quite the emotional wringer. The second half of the final season was no different. BoJack (Will Arnett) settled into his new life as an acting coach just as his past came back to haunt him with much-needed but dark consequences, leading to a phenomenal penultimate episode that battles season five’s “Free Churro” for the best outing ever, while Diane Nguyen’s (Alison Brie) struggles with depression and self-identity made for a deeply moving storyline. BoJack never shied away from witty social commentary and poking fun at Hollywood—er, Hollywoo—sorry, Hollywoob—setting. Yet, these final eight episodes were more reflective, allowing the characters to grow, including lovable goofs Todd Chavez (Aaron Paul) and Mr. Peanutbutter (Paul F. Tompkins), as well as Princess Carolyn (Amy Sedaris), who finally got the happy ending she deserved. The last scene between BoJack and Diane on the rooftop is an accurate culmination of their friendship and the show’s poignancy, one that has engulfed BoJack Horseman not only in season six but throughout its existence, making it one of the most remarkable television shows of the decade. [Saloni Gajjar]
2. Mrs. America (FX on Hulu)
As disheartening as it can be to watch, Dahvi Waller’s Mrs. America finds poignancy, truth, and a warning in a political defeat. The star-studded limited series is a spirited retelling of the second-wave feminist push in the 1970s for the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, which is still languishing in state legislatures nearly 100 years since it was first introduced to Congress (albeit in a different form). Cate Blanchett leads the series as the onerous reactionary Phyllis Schlafly, who changed the face of modern politics from inside her kitchen. Blanchett’s performance borders on unnerving embodiment—she channels Schlafly’s zeal at the podium and in the parlor, where she commands an army of volunteers, making the quieter moments that much more dissonant. But with directors like Captain Marvel’s Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, the series just as frequently casts a spotlight on the members of the National Women’s Political Caucus, including Gloria Steinem (a pitch-perfect Rose Byrne), Betty Friedan (Tracy Ullman, who finds the vulnerability in The Feminine Mystique author’s brashness), and Shirley Chisholm (the always inspiring Uzo Aduba). Mrs. America is an accomplished account of a seismic shift in the culture wars, told with style and pathos in equal measure. [Danette Chavez]
1. I May Destroy You (HBO)
Where some series add a new chapter to TV’s ongoing exploration of abuse and reform, Michaela Coel’s I May Destroy You hosts a singular conversation on sexual violence and the path to healing. The HBO series is a deeply personal work for the multi-hyphenate, which lends it a great deal of power, but Coel isn’t interested in monologuing. In its important and nuanced discussion on victimhood (imperfect and otherwise), trauma, and recovery, I May Destroy You makes room for all manner of survivors, including male victims who are too often stigmatized. Even more impressively, the series gives interiority and vibrancy to all of its characters, refusing to define them solely by what happened to them. And Coel establishes herself as one of the most consummate storytellers out there, building the series from the inside out—she gives a bravura performances as Arabella, moving effortlessly from impishnness to devastation to rage, taking from a scene just as much as she brings to it. I May Destroy You even provides its own compelling look at Black British life, from navigating adolescence in predominantly white schools to the house parties that can break out into colonizer discourse. Despite the tacit promise of its title, I May Destroy You is one of the most life-affirming series of the year. [Danette Chavez]
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I think this is the first time I can remember where I probably watched only 1/3 of the shows on an AVClub year best TV list. Which I’ll just pretend is because there simply is so much good (and not so good) TV out there now. But I can’t argue with any of these choices (well, anyone who follows my posts knows my thoughts on Schitt’s Creek and bafflement towards how beloved it’s become outside Canada). And after complaining in the TV episode list that I May Destroy You was once again ignored, it’s great to see it at the top here.
The volume of content has become overwhelming. I’d never heard of half these shows, and don’t live under a rock.
I hadn’t heard of a number of them either–and I try to at least keep aware of what’s out there (and obviously, something I’ve been able to do even more so this past year with the pandemic…)
Everyone reads Best Of lists like this and thinks, “and they didn’t include [favorite show here]?” I have several of mine own ideas, but I’m going to avoid that, and just say this:If 2020’s Best Of TV doesn’t have Better Things as the runaway leader in first place, it must have been one f*cking motherf*cker of a good year of TV. At least that’s one thing that 2020 delivered.
For me, it was The New Pope, The Good Lord Bird, What We Do in the Shadows, Better Call Saul, and BoJack Horseman. 5 absolutely terrific shows. Also liked Raised By Wolves, Harley Quinn, The Great, Mrs. America, The Plot Against America, The Queen’s Gambit and the last third of Star Wars: The Clone Wars’ final season (typical for The Clone Wars). And I will throw Adventure Time: Distant Land’s Obsidian out there as one of my favorite episodes of the year. Muto and his team regained their footing after Adventure Time’s relatively lackluster final season.I also watched Devs, which was your typical Alex Garland production in that it was fascinating but couldn’t quite wrap itself up in a satisfying manner. Rick and Morty had some solid outings, but I somehow lose interest in it more and more every season. Maybe now that the production team is on a better schedule that will change.Oh, yeah—dishonorable mentions to Westworld, Star Trek: Picard, and Star Trek: Discovery. Westworld completed its transformation from a pretentious, convoluted slog to a fifth-rate sci-fi production with a high budget that contains all of Jonathan Nolan’s weaknesses and none of the strengths seen in his other work (especially his previous show, which I consider to be his best work). Kurtzman-era Trek is as awful as it ever was. Even TNG and DS9 had their weaknesses for sure, but they were more than just endless sound and fury. Not a great year for sci-fi from what I’ve watched. Lower Decks made me laugh more than I expected, though it is still not the Trek franchise living up to its potential by any means.Overall, a pretty damn great year for tv. It will be interesting to see how next year is impacted by COVID. The most memorable part of it for me was the absolutely massive resurgence of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Somehow, it felt like it had been somewhat forgotten aside outside of its fanbase. It didn’t inspire more shows of its type after it ended. Its deeply troubled spin-off The Legend of Korra was a drop in the bucket in the 2010s ainmation landscape compared to the juggernauts that were Adventure Time, Steven Universe, and the rest. But putting it on Netflix this spring brought its popularity back through the stratosphere. That makes me quite happy—it completely deserves it.
“Westworld completed its transformation from a pretentious, convoluted slog to a fifth-rate sci-fi production with a high budget that contains all of Jonathan Nolan’s weaknesses and none of the strengths seen in his other work”That is a damn fine assessment of the show’s decline, if I do say so myself.Although I loved Lower Decks (I know you weren’t negative about it, to be clear, just a bit lukewarm) as it was a) consistently funny, b) surprisingly action packed, and c) clearly written by and for people who legitimately love Star Trek for/because/in spite of its many quirks.
Agreed – Season 3 just stripped out anything interesting about the series:Fun mix of wild west grit and sci-fi tech? No, let’s just do generic shiny Singapore office parks. Clear stakes and life-and-death peril for most characters? No, let’s just make everyone immortal and have them fight a sphere.
Fun cross-genre covers of Radiohead songs? No, let’s just do generic BWAAAMP action movie sounds.Anthony Hopkins? Nah, don’t need him either.
I fell off after Season 1, which I enjoyed. S2 worth a watch or no?
I did actually like Lower Decks more than I let on. It is by far the best of the new Trek shows. It really hit its stride in the back half.
Lower Decks was by far the best Trek series this year, or any year in a long time. I’d say Lower Decks and the Orville are the best Trek shows since DS9 went off the air.
“Lower Decks” is not a good show (the DNA of the series is fatally flawed), but I give it credit for ending the season MUCH better than it started.I hope it continues and is at least consistently entertaining. But genuinely good (or at least great) is beyond its reach.
My kid and I have been working our way through Korra for the last few weeks and man… it’s not without its flaws but I think that primarily it was a victim of being just a smidge too early. In 2012-2016, there was no way that they were going to be able to tell the story they were trying to tell on a TV-Y7 rated show airing next to Spongebob Squarepants, there was no way that Adult Swim could have afforded the production values they expected to have, and nobody was plowing the kind of money into streaming animated content necessary to give them a plausible home anywhere else.(Of course the counter-argument is that if it had launched now, Korra would have had two amazing seasons before being summarily cancelled by Netflix for no obvious reason.)
The production values for Book One were outstanding! For me, though, it’s clear that the series was a little out of their comfort zone. It required even tighter writing and a nuanced approach to its mature themes, neither of which were their strong points. They found their footing in Season 3, a little too late to be relevant. I’ve said this elsewhere, but I would love to see a remake of Korra, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood style.
God, that would be amazing. I honestly don’t even think S1 and S2 need that much polishing: a little more detail about the politics of both Republic City (the Equalists were popular! There was probably a reason for that!) and the Water tribes (if it ever got mentioned before S2 that Tonraq was a chief I missed it) would go a long way.
That’s basically exactly what happened. The first season got extended halfway through production when Nickelodeon decided they wanted more, but didnt greenlight a season 2 until the first season aired and was extremely successful. Then they doomed the show by taking it off tv mid season 3 because it was too mature. I’m sure there are behind the scenes machinations we will never know, but it always felt like a victim of execs not knowing what to do with it.
Oh, and a strong second on Star Trek: Picard. I am not hugely picky about “shows I watch in order to make 30 minutes on an elliptical trainer pass by faster” but I got four episodes in before giving up out of sheer boredom. For all that they made a big deal out of Michael Chabon writing it, you would have thought that they could have come up with something a little more interesting than Battlestar Galactica with the serial numbers filed off by way of a ship’s crew that made Babylon 5: Legends of the Rangers look like compelling TV.
They tricked me into actually thinking it would be good. The few good points were the return of the old TNG cast members. Otherwise it’s just Discovery with a fresh coat of paint.
Yeah, the first episode made it seem like they might be going somewhere interesting with it, but then they… didn’t. At all.
I’m very excited to see what new ways Westworld season 4 will appear to be a promising turn in a different direction only for it to decline into familiar pseudointellectualism and dorm-room caliber philosophical musings.
As an aside, what do you feel that Garland hasn’t wrapped up well? I personally haven’t seen Devs or The Beach, but I only think of Sunshine having a weak ending- whereas Annihilation & Ex Machina are some of my most favourite finales in film.
And “Dredd” had a basically perfect back third and finale for the B-movie thing it was doing, while still nailing the resolution to Anderson’s story arc in the denouement.The ending of “Devs” seemed . . . I dunno. The way I can best describe it without spoilers is that the show was an episode or two either too short or too long. It’s definitely worthwhile if you’re a fan of Garland’s work, though.
Very interesting choices that I mostly agree with! I personally thought AT: Obsidian was super pandering and fan service-y and didn’t do anything that hadn’t been done on the show proper but with less humor and charm (that said I am glad people are liking these specials, they just don’t feel like Adventure Time to me,) and while rushed I loved the original series finale.I would also posit that Westworld has always been a bad show made by people who have no clue how to unspool a story, and now we’re onto their tricks just as they are completely running out of them
The first two seasons of ST:D >>> ST:TNG. Of course, now we are to the season where TNG got good and the tide is turning.
That’s an extremely low bar, and one I probably don’t agree with. No Discovery episode has come close to The Measure of a Man.
There were like three good episodes those first two seasons and all centered on Data in some way. (the Lore episode, the Moriarty episodem and Measure of a Man – I don’t know episode titles, sorry). Those three are allvery good and much better than the average quality of ST:D, but the average quality of ST:D’s first two seasons is world’s better when you include all the dreck of those first two seasons. My real point was give it time to grow. People treat it as if they forget how bad early seasons of the prior shows were. Actually, I would go so far as to say the first two seasons of ST:D are better than the first two seasons of any prior Trek other than TOS.
It was a different era of tv back then. In the modern landscape, being awful for 3 straight seasons isn’t going to cut it.
It’s a good thing they have had no awful seasons then,
Every season so far is a massive flop wrapped up in slick 21st century production values.
Strongly disagree.
I tried to get into Picard, but gave up after two eps. Just so slow, hopeless, and dark.
Biggest omissions for Top 25 imho would be:* Raised By Wolves – Best original pure scifi show in at least 10 years.* Aunty Donna – Goofy sketch comedy weirdness joy when we needed it most.* Dave – Lil Dicky proves he got some real acting chops. Big laughs, big heart.(Probably a few shows I forgot that debuted in 2020, cuz this year felt like 3 years..)Good list overall, but I’d say Bojack deserves #1 spot for sure.
I’d add The Undoing as well. Just wrapped that up a couple of days ago.
I was so pleased to see a second season order for Raised by Wolves. I was so engaged by the story, characters and world building.
Well, it looks like I have a few series to catch up on and channels to maybe sign up for a free trial, binging, then dropping. I can’t imagine anything being better than I May Destroy You, though. It was phenomenal.
Yay! Not a slideshow! Thank you, thank you, thank you! I actually read it!
I was so happy about that too. Of course, I feel like I need some Mucinex considering how many times Mr. Mucus popped up (advertising works!).
came here to say the same damn thing.
Honestly thought I’d managed to mess up the configuration for a minute!
Has anyone else visiting this site on mobile been getting full-screen ads with no way to click away or remove them for a while now? Just about every time I’ve visited The AV Club for maybe a month, I’ve been unable to read a single article because a full-screen ad for some shit blocks out the entire screen and there’s no way to get rid of it. The website is completely unusable. I had to refresh and try a bunch of different articles maybe a dozen times just so I could post this comment.I’ve been coming to the AV Club for a long time, and I know things have badly gone downhill here for a while, but honestly this may be the most bafflingly incompetent website design I’ve ever seen. If this isn’t fixed soon, I’m going to stop coming back, and I know I’m not alone.TL;DR Fix your shit you incompetent fucking cunts.
At this point I’m resigned to this site’s slow, terminal decline. The actual writing is still generally fine, but once again, venture capital destroys all.
I am holding out hope that as Defector becomes more and more successful and proves that an employee-run cooperative model can succeed as opposed to the rotting husk of Kinja, maybe AVClub’s writers/editors will jump ship and go independent themselves.By the way, subscribe to Defector!
I’ve been getting that too, but only on mobile (on my laptop it’s fine). It’s super annoying though, because I so often like to read an AV Club article while I’m waiting for something, like a bus or an appointment, and yeah, the site is virtually unusable on my phone.
Works fine in Vivaldi’s mobile browser, as long as the ad blocker is turned on. I figure if they want my eyeballs they can fix their shit, then I’ll turn it back off.
Oh yes. Thank you for reminding me to complain bitterly about that. It sucks.
I was, for a while (except they were blank, so I didn’t even get a tantalising glimpse of whatever new product the algorithm had decided would improve my empty, vacuous flesh-life) and then it just… stopped happening and went away.So, persevere, fellow sufferer?
I’ve been having it off and on – I use Chrome and find switching to Desktop Site mode gets rid of it, even if it makes the site a little more clumsy to read. But sometimes it’s just not worth persevering with.
A combination of uBlock Origin and a piHole make the site mostly usable, although that stupid sign-up-for-our-newsletter popup is still the bane of my existence here.
I can’t even comment on mobile anymore. Once I get passed the ads, it turns out I can never even stayed logged in because even when I allow cross-site tracking, there’s something up with Kinja that it just won’t let me post. Which is all the better, I guess. I spend to much time on these dinosaur sites anyway.
Yep. I go out of my way to view on desktop and not my mobile feed. Reading on mobile is unintelligible at this point.
This entity has ALWAYS had a shitty tech issue of one kind or another.
Not gonna lie. I plum forgot that Better Call Saul aired a season this year. I watched and loved it when it happened, but that was before I bought a house in the middle of a pandemic. I could have sworn that was 2019.
I spent a while before season six came out wondering how they’d wrap up ‘BoJack Horseman’s story, considering their feints towards redemption versus BoJack’s truly reprehensible behaviour. I didn’t think they could find an ending that seemed right, but in the end I reckon they did. There’s understanding for BoJack, and recognition of his struggles, but there’s also a clear condemnation of his actions and a series of consequences that feel justified, if not necessarily proportional. Still, the part where Hollyhock cuts BoJack out of her life completely – while I absolutely understand her decision – is such a punch to the gut.
I’d also add:
The Shivering Truth Season 2
Taskmaster New Zealand Series 1
Corporate Season 3
Dummy Season 1
Medical Police Season 1
Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet Season 1
The Kemps All True
Aunty Donna’s Big Ol’ House Of Fun Season 1
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy Vs The Reverend
Upload Season 1
Miracle Workers Season 2
Three Busy Debras Season 1
Archer Season 11
Search Party Season 3
Reno 911! Season 7
At Home With Amy Sedaris Season 3
Code 404 Series 1The first six especially were fantastic this year.
Yes yes yes to ‘The Kemps All True’, a brilliant mockumentary from those Spandau boys.
It also works as a great companion piece to the Bros (straight but still hilarious) documentary ‘After The Screaming Stops’.
Rhys Thomas nails those kind of shows.
I just finished rewatching Medical Police and man, the finale is hard to watch in the US.
It really hit me that Mythic Quest actually came out this year as I keep thinking it being from 2019. In that case, yes, absolutely, Mythic Quest should be on this list as it that was one hell of a journey.
Thank you for recommending Mythic Quest. I just binged the whole season today, great show.
I watched season one of Miracle Workers and was, for the most part, unimpressed and ready to give up on it. I’m so, so glad I didn’t, because season two was just fantastic, and made much better use of a great cast.
I know what you mean, the first series was okay but nothing that special (which is odd as I’m a big fan of Simon Rich normally) but the second season really was a massive step up.
Has there been any news on a third season of Miracle Workers? I’m excited to watch more of it.
I will second The Shivering Truth and Aunty Donna
Not a sports fan but I absolutely loved The Last Dance – It brought back so many memories of my childhood when basketball and the Chicago Bulls were kings of the world. Engrossing and amazing.Loved The New Pope. Some of the funniest television I’ve watched in years.Loved Star Trek Picard and Discovery. Both were fantastic.Mandalorian has been a hell of a lot of fun.
no Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., no list
The show mostly received B/B- grades throughout its run. Not surprised it didn’t make it.
Loved that final season! It really became it’s own thing. Going to miss those characters a lot.
Dave on FX was probably my favorite show this year. Surprised (actually not surprised) it wasn’t on this list.I really enjoyed Tales From the Loop and I Am Not Ok With This. The Outsider may not have been my favorite but I looked forward to it every week. And this is where we can agree to disagree but I thought the final season of Homeland brought it back to pretty much it’s height. Ok, maybe not to the level of the first season but it definitely felt like a solid ending to a pretty solid (and yeah, inconsistent at times) series.
huge call on dave. a show that SHOULD be terrible, but is remarkably charming and warm.
After the first episode, I kind of thought “eh, Atlanta with white people” but man, was I wrong.And I should’ve added Ramy to my list. I really like Ramy.
Definitely a great call on Dave. It most certainly deserves to be on the list.
I had no idea what Dave was about when someone recommended it to me, but by the end it was my favorite show of the year, edging out Ted Lasso.
Haven’t watched Ted Lasso yet but it’s on my list.
Scrolled down until I found someone mention I Am Not Ok With This – what a nice little gem of a show.
I’d also throw in The Umbrella Academy, which I just caught up with/finished. Great followup to the intriguing first season, and I can’t wait for the third to see what that green cube is.
My only problem with I Am Not Ok With This is that it was too short! I’ve tried to get into the Umbrella Academy but it’s just not hitting me right. I’ll give it another shot though.
I really thought I was going to love Dave, but I watched the whole season and was just left with a bad taste in my mouth. Overall, I feel like the tone was way off (dead serious exploration of mental illness in the black community vs. special effects based diarrhea joke?) and that the Dave character didn’t make any fucking sense. It just didn’t make sense . . . overall. What characters said and then did was constantly hypocritical, but not in a way that told us about who they were, but in a way that seemed like the writers didn’t have a good grasp on who any of these people were. The weirdest thing was having his dick be treated as both a hilarious running bit but also a serious dramatic issue.
Overall, it had some strong moments (like the aforementioned mental illness episode) but I just feel like it sold itself as something it’s not.
“The weirdest thing was having his dick be treated as both a hilarious running bit but also a serious dramatic issue.”
What, um, are you talking about?
It definitely sold it self as something it wasn’t, but I had the other take…it was much better than I thought it was going to be! I thought it was going to be Whitelanta and it really was its own thing imho.
The supposed “film vs tv show” debate does not really interest me, but pretending Bad Education was a TV show is just being deliberately obtuse.
I understand putting Small Axe here. But Bad Education? Really? Just because it got bought by HBO? Come on. That’s the sort of thing I know is complete trolling, but it still gets me. Twin Peaks Season 3 is a TV show. Bad Education is a film. Words mean things!
I was thrown by that entry as well. It’s a TV movie. Those have been a thing for forever. I don’t recall TV movies being eligible in the past, but maybe I’m wrong.
Yeah! It sure ain’t “blurring the lines between TV and movies”, it’s just a movie that HBO bought distribution rights for. It’s not a radical formal experiment, it’s just a movie.
Several docuseries also, which seems a little bs to me as well.
So many of these haven’t made it across the Atlantic, or probably wouldn’t travel well, anyway, but a year of living streamingly has left us with rich pickings, and I was surprised that Mae Martin’s Feel Good didn’t make the grade. It was easily up there with the best for me – so funny, tender and raw, while we were also blessed with Anthony (a devastating imagining of the future of a victim of racist murder if he had lived) and the return of The A Word (about a child with autism) as well as Staged, an ingenious series of video calls between David Tennant and Michael Sheen as they try and conquer the isolation of lockdown with plans for a future production. Despite the format, the chemistry between the two, along with nicely-judged cameos, was a joy. The Small Axe films started out really well, but I thought they petered out and the last one, Education (screened last night) was mainly one long lecture. But I also loved the continuing The Good Fight along with Better Call Saul and the most recent season of Ozark. The Queen’s Gambit was a welcome late entry, as well, a real dark horse, and much enjoyed. Schitt’s Creek, however, you can keep. Having loved Levy and O’Hara since their SCTV days, I gave this a try and was shocked at how hackneyed and laboriously unfunny it was, with vacuous 2D characters uttering tiresomely precitable lines. I struggled through the first season to give it a fair go, and didn’t laugh once.
I’ll have to try The A Word again. I watched some of the first season not long after my own son was diagnosed and I found parts of it incredibly sad. The scene of the parent watching their son standing alone in the school playground still haunts me.
I’m surprised The Crown is not listed, since it’s been consistently highly rated by critics and fans alike, including the AV Club. Though there’s been criticism concerning its historical accuracy, so has many similar series listed above. Overall, it’s a compelling watch beyond the UK.
I haven’t seen all the shows on this list, so I won’t say my choices are better than yours.That being said… The Mandalorian and Lovecraft Country are missing.
Lovecraft Country was kind of a proper mess, but I think the three or four episodes that did work, worked really well. I think it deserved a spot on the list.
LC really didn’t advertise itself well. If they had announced it as each episode is a model of a traditional horror movie (haunted house, shape shifter, aliens, scary racists, secret societies, national treasure copycat, curses, etc) the audience would have been able to appreciate it better. The show really was an anthology that had a long running story throughout. I didn’t catch on until episode 4 and by that time I was confused as hell. And to give it one more credit that isn’t mentioned here, it had the best cast I’ve seen in a while. There was no dead weight at all.
I agree the cast was amazing, Wunmi Mosaku was definitely the breakout star for me, but that was also because her character had a lot more complexities then Leti and Tic.Still perplexed they mishandled the two spirited indigenous character so poorly, but hopefully the can make amends for it if there’s a second season.
Yes I was blown away by Wunmi too. I hope she’s in a lot more stuff because she was the best part of LC to me.
Wunmi Mosaku has been a really solid character actor in the UK for a few years now (in things like The End of the Fucking World, Black Mirror, and Luther) and it’s great to see that she’s started to get some recognition in the US. One of these actors who immediately makes things better.
Counter point: It was soap opera levels of lip-quivering, staccato-breathing melodrama from some of the best actors working today. All of them deserved better than what they got. And it committed the ultimate sin of bringing in characters for the purpose of representation only to score some woke points which was clear in how quickly these trans/two-spirited/queer characters were then unceremoniously killed off or disappeared. I really wanted to love that show, and definitely loved the pilot, but it just couldn’t hold its weight. The Watchmen tackled the ugly history of america’s racial animus much more deftly and with less to be desired. These are just my opinion.s
“the audience would have been able to appreciate it better.”
Some of audience appreciated it fine as it was.
“The show really was an anthology that had a long running story throughout.”
No, it wasn’t, because an anthology cannot, by definition, have a long running story throughout.
Hot Take: Lovecraft Country is quite poor
The Mandalorian is a mediocre show, though this season was certainly better than the last.
Speaking of animation, the Clone Wars cartoon had superior writing, easily. I don’t quite get The Mandalorian’s positive reception.
Mrs. America would probably be just as high on my list as that show was a true powerhouse of a whole. I’m still struggling to understand how the hell it was snubbed as hard as it was by the Emmys, but it is what it is.For me, Perry Mason would also be pretty prominent on my list as that really came out of nowhere to be an absolutely stunning show. Also now I get to think about film noir shows without having to remember Penny Dread- Damn it all, now I remember how atrocious it was.
Any other year and Mrs. America would have swept. Watchmen was just that good though, and timely too (not that Mrs. America wasn’t, especially after RBG).Uzo Aduba did deservedly win though, so it wasn’t a complete snub.
As long as What We Do In The Shadows was in the top 5, I’m fine with this list.
Obviously no one could have planned for what 2020 ended up being, but WWDITS and Ted Lasso are in my top 2 for the year solely because they’re funny and light hearted. For this year, I couldn’t handle watching people suffer and those two shows brought me nothing but good feelings.
Ted Lasso was an unexpected and very welcome highlight of the year for me.
I guess it shouldn’t have been too surprising that such a positive show worked so well, considering that Bill Lawrence is involved. As a massive fan of Scrubs, you can see similarities with both shows’ outlook on life.
Never heard of 80% of these shows. The only one I agree on the list is Ted Lasso and I would put it in the top 5. I also liked Defending Jacob, particularly after seeing The Undoing, basically the same story but done badly.
No Lovecraft Country? Y’all raved about that show every week.
I May Destroy You was so fucking amazing, still reflect on it often. I’m sure anyone else who has also experienced sexual violence, that final episode was wow. I wish I could get more people to watch it, so they know that there is no right or wrong way to heal from ones own trauma.Also ‘We Are Who We Are’ I thought was a pretty tremendous show.
I’ve been wanting to watch this, but have problems with sexual assault stories (like, there’s no way in hell I could watch Netflix’s Unbelievable). You think I May Destroy You would be okay for someone like me or nah?
Also a victim here, heart feels for you, it captures the dissociative aspect of what it’s like to be triggered etc very well. It did leave me feeling bewildered about some of my own destructive behaviour as a way to cope, so that was sort of triggering or emotional, more so than any very brief images it depicts of the assault.But maybe hold off on watching if you’re still very raw in your healing, because it brings up a lot of intense and accurate feelings 🙂
If those types of stories just make you uncomfortable, I’d encourage you to watch it. If it’s more personal than that, maybe not.
This show literally gave me a name for an experience that happened to me in my 20s and that name I learned is “rape”. Sooooo it was A LOT. Just . . . a lot. It might be worth protecting your psyche.
I was happy to see the inclusion of Ted Lasso and Joe Pera Talks to You in this list. This year, I especially needed those large doses of unflappable positivity in my TV viewing.
What a nice surprise to see The Baby-Sitters’ Club on the list. It’s not prestige TV but it is a pleasant and progressive watch, with its teenage characters being goodhearted folks doing their part for others. I kept putting off Never Have I Ever so I’d better get to it over the holidays. Same goes for What We Do In The Shadows and Ted Lasso.
Saying this makes me feel insane but:
How did Saved By The Bell not rank here? It was shockingly funny and the best trans representation I’ve ever seen. It actually got me to watch Peacock of all goddamn things.
Yeah I was… not surprised, but a little disappointed that it didn’t make the list. I haven’t seen a good portion of the shows listed, but I just finished the SBTB run and it was SO much better than I could’ve hoped. First ep… yeah, this is ok. By the middle, i was like “You know this show is actually… REALLY GOOD?” And by the end of the last I was just sad that there were no more eps.I guess when you put a bunch of 30 Rock/The Good Place writers on something, there’s a pretty high floor of quality you can expect, and they knocked it out of the park. Also, I know he doesn’t do a lot of acting, but Mario Lopez was really great in this. I did find Zack and Kelly to be the most poorly written characters though, in relation to the original.
My only lingering question is… what happened to Elizabeth Berkeley’s teeth?
Kudos for placing both Joe Pera Talks with You and How To with John Wilson on the list (though personally I’d place them even higher). There’s a bit of a kinship/similar vibe between the two shows, as well. Love this kind of stuff.
Why is there a movie in this?
There wasn’t too many shows I watched this past year, new and old, but the one that I really looked forward to was I May Destroy You. All I can say about that show is What? and Wow! The complexities of the characters were sometimes great and sometimes frustrating. But that’s how (your) friends act when they are going through something devastating in their life. Man sometimes that show felt like a fever dream on where it wanted to take us.
Well…Peak TV is definitely a thing of the past at this point. I’m oh so happy I spent my quarantine with The Criterion Channel instead.
Daybreak, which I know a lot of people dumped after its trite first two or three episodes, and I am not okay with this were both really fun. I would take off the two bottom shows, and maybe what we do in the shadows, for these.
I’ve gotten old and out of touch. I’ve never even heard of 1/2 these shows; others just vaguely. I’ve watched exactly three of them. Guess I have some watching to do.
Maybe? I haven’t heard of most of them and I don’t mind at all. Nothing here inspires me to go grab a show I don’t currently have on my watch list. I’m going back to my Plex to watch more of my collection of old stuff – currently binging The Six Million Dollar Man, House (again) and QI (yet again).
When I was a kid the local ABC affiliate ran reruns of 6MDM every Sunday morning. Seems like the Bigfoot episodes were on all the time.
Devs should be on this list.
Bad Education is not a TV show, it’s a movie. I would swap that out in favor of We Are Who We Are, Dark, The Mandalorian, or Perry Mason.
Cate Blanchett leads the series as the onerous reactionary Phyllis SchlaflyThat word, “onerous”, does not mean what you apparently think it does.
Onerous, odious…whatever it takes.
Needs Oderus Urungus.
Well obviously!RIP AV Club Undercover.
For me The Queen’s Gambit was hands down the best show of the year. It is like “Rocky” but with chess. Good Lord Bird was second. Better Call Saul is probably the best regular series, and will be until done. The last of prestige TV.Disagrees- I just never really got the trend as treating cartoons as quality TV. Yeah, was the Simpson’s really funny back in the day? Yeah. I always laughed when South Park was on, and the subject matter was always timely too..but did I ever think of them as “best shows”? No. And like someone else on here, I never really got “Schitt’s Creek”. It is amusing and a pretty good comedy, but people acting like it is some new classic? Meh. I think people sometimes confuse “pretty good” with “great”, especially in down years where nothing else really grabs you.
I think The Queen’s Gambit was a little too straightforwardly obvious for me to put it at the top of my list, but it was very well done and consistently enjoyable, and one of the rare plot-driven TV shows that didn’t feel like it was a bit too long.I more or less agree with you on Schitt’s Creek (though I haven’t watched the final season yet). That said, on the question of cartoons – Bojack Horseman is a million miles away from South Park – it’s more similar to something like Mad Men, except it’s both funnier (often in ways that wouldn’t work if it wasn’t animated) and much heavier, usually at different times but sometimes simultaneously. I cannot recommend it enough (with the caveat that it takes a half dozen episodes or so to really start showing its strengths).
I get that criticism with The Queen’s Gambit..it was almost a little old fashioned in its story beats. There was nothing all that wild in it, there was very little sex, no violence or nudity. It just told a good story very well. It honestly could have come out 20 or 30 years ago and no one would have batted an eye. it almost stands out just by being so straightforward and that it is fictional, since it basically has all the hallmarks of being a biopic.
I enjoyed the heck out of the Queen’s Gambit. I spent the first few eps terrified that it was gonna take a weird orphanage/sex abuse turn, and once it was clear that it wouldn’t, it really took off. BUT… the last ep was just a little too tidy, wasn’t it? Like EVERY single person from her life shows up to help her, just when she needs it most? Even though she was basically shitty to every one of them. And I know the show went out of their way to not paint Jolene as the “magical black person” character, but she still really came off that way.And obviously the last match had to end that way, and I’m not sure how else it could have ended, but it just seemed kind of a given from the very start.
Someone once said The Queen’s Gambit is a live-action adaptation of a sports/shonen anime, and it absolutely is. And as much as I loved it for the direction, aesthetic, and Anya Taylor-Joy’s anchoring performance, I retroactively loved it more once I re-framed it as that.
I agree the last episode was tidy..but sometimes an old fashioned “Rocky” story is what is needed. And I do know about the “magical black person” trope, but considering all of her friends were like that and they wanted to have some POC in it, I think you have to let it slide, as where else would you put them? They can’t be the soviets and it was set in the 50’s and 60’s
Your snobbery about animation is a terrible, terrible take.When “Simpsons” was good (decades ago), there was nothing funnier on TV. NOTHING.The medium doesn’t rob it of that achievement.
The joke construction was sublime. Is there a reason why animation can’t be considered great tv outside of personal bias? Is The Illusionist not a masterpiece? Based on….two shows? It is a bizarre take.
It’s a garbage take that most of civilization left behind in the 90s.
I get disliking overrated, shallow shows like Attack on Titan….but I completely disagree that animated shows cannot be great. Most other people apparently do too, going by the Avatar: The Last Airbender resurgence this year.
Woa woa woa, let’s leave Attack on Titan out of this!
I like Attack on Titan a lot…but it is one of those shows that throws twists out there merely for their own sake.
I used to say things like “I’m just not really into animation” but after watching Harley Quinn and She-Ra this year I am doing a total 180 on that take. I’ve never watched a show as quickly as I did the She-Ra reboot. I am very picky about how the animation looks though, like the caricature-like animation in Big Mouths to me is unpleasant to look at, and the animal heads on people bodies in Bojack also somewhat inexplicably creeps me out. I had dismissed animation as basically being cartoons for a while, but after She-Ra I will not be making that mistake again.
Even if one doesn’t want to watch ‘kid’s shows’ (which ignores the distinction between kids’ shows and family shows), animation’s far too broad a medium to dismiss outright.
meh, it is my opinion
It is. But it’s not at thoughtful, considered, mature or sophisticated opinion. It’s dismissive and small-minded. I think you’re missing out on tremendously high quality storytelling as a result. I recommend you try to move past this.
Up to you!
Animation is a medium, not a genre.
Ted Lasso, Perry Mason, What We Do in the Shadows, Queen’s Gambit, How to…with John Wilson, The Mandalorian.Some of my favorite TV this year was either heartwarming, light, aspirational, or just a fun action show. Perry Mason was the darkest, but it was also…good about humanity at times. I needed that.I’ve watched so much TV this year. I can hardly remember it.
Fuck I’ve still got to watch Perry Mason. It’s one of several shows I’m yet to catch up on. It’s been a a weird busy year.
I resisted it for a bit. I didn’t want another “grim/humanity sucks” show. I was in such a bad mental space when it aired, but I ended up tuning in for an ep. And it’s not as grim and dark and horrible as I had thought. Sure, it’s grittier than the ‘50s show, opening how it does, but it’s uplifting and downright triumphant at times. Weirdly positive about humanity in about as many ways as it is misanthropic. Without spoiling anything, it was comforting to see people go out of their way—well and truly give everything—to help someone. Plus, the cast is terrific.
I get that for sure.I was super pumped ahead of it airing but with having had to spend the past year reporting on the pandemic and everything (though our country is in a good place comparative to the US and Europe), the past few months have left me with little emotional energy to watch much of anything new. I’ve got a stack of new TV to watch, yet outside of Mandalorian and Star Trek, I’ve basically been just churning through classic Simpsons and 90s/Early 2000s Law and Order.
Classic Simpsons is very, very addictive. I can’t tell you how many times that show has gotten in the way of me catching up on other shows
this is how I feel about Doctor Who, modern and classic!
I’m in the Bad Education is a movie camp, because it was a movie. In its place, I recommend a little bit of excellent trash on Hulu called “The Horny Teacher Show.” It’s a show that glorifies a horny teacher and hot student hooking up while bookending it with pseudo concerned warnings about said behavior. And boy oh boy is it HOT!No mention for DAVE?!!!!!!!!!!
the fact that i actually googled “the horny teacher show” and found nothing but porn, smh
You’re welcome!
My personal ballot (Could change in the coming weeks depending on how A Teacher ends)1. Joe Pera Talks With You2. How to with John Wilson3. Better Call Saul4. Ramy5. Mrs. America6. Bojack Horseman7. What We Do in the Shadows8. P-Valley9. We Are Who We Are10. The Plot Against America11. Fargo12. The Boys13. Lovecraft Country14. The Haunting of Bly Manor15. A Teacher
My list with the disclaimer that I only (only!) have YouTubeTV, Netflix, HBO Max, Disney+, and Amazon.1. Joe Pera (Adult Swim)2. Better Call Saul (AMC)3. How To With John Wilson (HBO Max)4. What We Do in the Shadows (FX)5. The Good Place (NBC)6. The Boys (Amazon)7. Perry Mason (HBO Max)8. I Am Not Okay With This (Nexflix, rip)Haven’t gotten around to Mrs. America or the Plot Against America. With over 70 million American out there willfully voting for an overt autocratic racist I just didn’t have the appetite for any kind of mirror gazing through pop culture.
The Good Place ended this year!? It feels like way longer
Whenever I feel someone praise The Good Place, I feel like we weren’t watching the same show. It’s not terrible or anything, but the jokes often don’t land, the characters can be pretty flat, and the writing overall is more aimless and inconsistent than people seem to give it credit for. Also, Simone deserved better.
corporate, dave and perry mason are notably missing. mason in particular really surprised me and became real appointment viewing.also bad education rocked but putting it on this list is insane.
Did anyone else automatically shrink their browser window before realizing it’s NOT the dreaded slideshow?!
P.S. ““the one where they go to a Super Bowl party”… Ahem!! That’s a Superb Owl party you’re talking about…
I’d be interested in seeing people’s lists of best TV of the year but including older shows that they just got around to. A number of the above shows would definitely be on my list (plus Season 2 of The Mandalorian and the final season of The Clone Wars) but my wife and I finally got around to watching Justified this year and if I’m making a list of the best TV that I watched in 2020 it is unquestionably top of the list.
I’ve been enjoying The United States Of Tara, which never seemed to have a huge cultural footprint when it was on. The interesting thing about it is how laidback it feels, despite inarguably heavy subject matter. I think it might benefit from coming out a little before the real prestige TV era, when shows didn’t feel like they needed high stakes all the time.
My other 2020 older TV discovery is Only Connect, a British quiz show with 15 or so seasons (sorry, “series”) available on YouTube. Very brainy, but also pretty laidback with a fun host.
I am still very much a Justified fan.
Me. too – and I still miss it.
Last year, I watched Deadwood and Justified back-to-back, and then the first season of The Unicorn premiered immediately afterward. Very good run.
It’s not a very old show but I watched Crazy Ex-Girlfriend earlier this year and…damn. I’ve been a fan of Rachel Bloom’s since “Fuck Me, Ray Bradbury” and I am so glad she got to realize her vision. I don’t even like like musicals but I’ve been recommending the show to everyone who will listen. It’s fucking hilarious, it has something to say about mental health, the songs are catchy and hell, and Vincent Rodriguez is very easy on the eyes.The one I watched this year that didn’t get a lot of attention was a K-drama called Itaewon Class. Basically, a teenager gets his life ruined by a rich CEO and the CEO’s son and spends the next 15 years trying to bring the two of them down. It’s a little melodramatic in places but you really root for the main characters and the ending is just deeply satisfying.
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is legitimately one of the most audacious TV shows of the last decade and everyone should watch it. I’m also not typically into musicals but this is probably in my top 10 all time TV shows.
I finally just watched the last season of Future Man, on Hulu. Damned if it wasn’t just about perfect the entire series. I’m impressed so much by how they maintained such a consistent tone, funniness, and just overall level of writing over the entire run. It truly is one of the few things I have ever watched that I literally had no idea where the story is going from one moment to the next.
The actual old show I finally got around to watching was Avatar: The Last Airbender. I’m not a huge cartoon fan, I’m on record as being scared of anime due to childhood trauma, and I don’t really like kid’s entertainment. But damned if it didn’t hook me, and HARD. Just phenomenal writing, nuanced, smart, playful, INSANE character development. I felt legitimately sad when I finished it, something I haven’t felt in a long while.
I finally got around to watching Halt and Catch Fire, and am seriously kicking myself for not watching that sooner. It was immediately followed by The Americans, which blew my mind in ways I didn’t know was still possible. Watching a real life couple, playing a fake couple, pretending to be a real couple, maybe actually falling in love, was incredible. I mean, Keri Russel and Matthew Rhys were just breathtaking to watch.
Halt is actually still on Netflix, unlike Mad Men. Wish more people would get around to watching it….
Laszlo became a bartender in Pennsylvania. Because it sounds like Transylvania, thank you very much.
Here’s the rest of the top 40, assuming I understand the methodology correctly:26. Insecure
27. Normal People
28. The Boys
29. Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts
30. Vida
31. High Fidelity
32. The Crown
33. One Day at a Time
34. Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!
35 (tie). I Hate Suzie/The New Pope
37. She-Ra and the Princesses of Power
38. Dispatches From Elsewhere
39. The Good Fight
40. Dead to Me
I don’t necessarily think it’s a top-25 pick—though it would be in my own personal top 10 for the year, easily—but the Saved by the Bell reboot was WAAAAAYYY better than I could have hoped. I guess given the pedigree of the showrunners, and the reboot of a show I still have a lot of affection for, should have made me more optimistic. But they really pulled off a high-wire act of acknowledging all the weirdness of the original and incorporating it into a modern comedy.
My only gripe was basically the writing for some of the original characters, mostly Zack and Kelly, seemed a little out of character for them. But besides that, the show was aces.
This is a good list, but personally I’d add Josh Thomas’s Everything’s Gonna Be Okay. I thought it was just a beautiful dramedy that was so well cast and acted.
My brilliant friend is no doubt top 5 shows this year and i hate suzy was really really good.
I quite liked two of last year’s shows that I got around to this year:Locke and Key and Evil So much potential in CBS’ Evil. It swerved into near-farce with the arrival of Goat-Man but the high-wire act might pay off. Mike Coulter and Katja Herbers are so good. There’s a thing that all TV is adjusting to, and I think Evil is a good example. Some of these shows are being plotted out by old-school, very gifted craftspeople, sure, but I suspect that many/most in the industry are still thinking in terms of 23-26 episodes per season. Season One of a new show (unless its on Pay Cable) rarely feels like a complete season. Evil’s cliffhanger felt very much like a mid-season break so much so that this (pandemic caused) two year hiatus is going to be a shock. Kristen Bouchard’s four daughters are such a great and integral part of the show, how are they going to handle a two year time jump? Even a one-year time jump seems like a crime. CBS should go all-in and give it a 20-some ep order per year.
Evil is goddamn silly, but I liked it a lot. Like, I rewatched it recently, and there’s this marked shift within maybe two-to-three episodes of the pilot where it just decides to go for it. And it works! Mostly! (I will never accept how stupid the AR/VR stuff is. That technology is…what?)But Kristen Bouchard is maybe my favorite network TV heroine. Her pulling a knife on Townsend made me fall in love a bit, the way she deals with her sleep paralysis demon was inspired, and the ending was a fascinating twist. The pandemic’s given me an interest in and appreciation for network TV. I’ve started watching Blindspot and enjoying it for what it is. Pure entertainment, the kind of stuff you can watch right before bed. Where you’ve already brushed your teeth but aren’t ready to sleep yet.Another show that I like but only because it’s weird like Evil is Manifest. It’s not good, exactly, but…it’s watchable? Like Lost if it were sillier? It’s entertaining.The Rookie is pure copaganda. I should hate it. But I…don’t? I like the cast, and I’ve taken to just trying to pretend it takes place in a fantasy world. Middle-Earth Los Angeles 2019.
The Halloween episode of Evil, with the creepy little ghost girl telling a very creepy story, for me was when it took off
I think Evil wants to be a three-person-team X-Files where the comedy episodes and “serious” episodes are happening concurrently. I’ll give Manifest a try. I had to look up its status, and was happy to see it’s getting a third season.
I haven’t seen season 2 of Evil yet, but I watched the first one this year and really enjoyed it. It’s definitely got a network vibe, but what sucked me in was, surprisingly, the way it showcased family, marriage, and parenthood. Despite everything else that all felt so REAL that it grounded it for me and made the stakes feel real. Plus, I enjoy the Mulder/Scully dynamic no matter what form it comes in.
Evil Season Two probably won’t be out until next October – if we’re lucky. (They’ll likely want to do another Halloween episode as 2019’s was a standout.)They’re filming S2 now, though.Here’s a goofy-ass preview the cast did on Zoom
Evil was surprisingly good. The cast is amazing.
I’m surprised to say this but:Stargirl
May as well be consistent and continue my stan for Cinemax’s Warrior.Equal parts Peaky Blinders, Kung Fu Hustle and Kung Fu, the show has a stylish look, unexpected character twists and THE best fights scenes on TV.Plus the soundtrack is insane! Where else can one hear hip hop in Cantonese outside of mainland China? Fortunately, the show just got picked up for Season 3 on HBO Max. On the downside, that means I’ll have add one more subscription to the list…
I’ve only seen a few of these so can’t fully comment, but there must have been a show that could go on here rather than “Never Have I Ever”. And I assume Work In Progress wasn’t on there because it started airing in 2019.
Never Have I Ever is fantastic. Throw out Harley Quinn
Devs? Warrior Nun? Dispatches from Elsewhere?Really glad to see Never Have I Ever crack that Top 10 though. Good stuff.
Was Warrior Nun amazing?
I liked Warrior Nun a lot, though I felt like it had a ton of potential that it squandered at times. The world building and mythology were great and most of the characters were well drawn, interesting, and backed up by good performances, but the plot meandered a lot, especially early on, and a few twists/developments felt rote.But it really picked things up near the end of the season, and they set up its second season in a few really intriguing ways.
Took several episodes to get going but finished very strong. Good story.
Dispatches from Elsewhere was great up until the final episode.
My wife agrees. It ruined the whole thing for her.
Legends of Tomorrow, especially for Tala Ashe as both Zari Prime and Zari 2.0
Whom do you like better: Zari or Zari 2.0?
Original Zari is my favorite Legends team member, other than Sara Lance, who as captain I consider in a separate categoryBut I did not hate how things ended with the Zaris last season, with Zari 2.0 now representing as the team member, and obviously feeling the weight of living up to her amazing, heroic, no-bullshit previous incarnation
I actually like Zari 2.0 better. I like Zari, but she seemed pretty standard superhero fare. Zari 2.0 is different, and seems like a good change of pace.
I’m worried if and how the coexistence of the Zaris will be resolved by the show’s end, whenever that will be.
AV Clubbers might want to look into getting some kind of cohesion when it comes to reviewing and championing shows. Of the 25 declared the best of the year roughly half were reviewed episode by episode. The rest received pre air reviews, no reviews, or mentions in other article formats.
In terms of review grades “I May Destroy You”s 10 episodes had 6 “A” grades and 4 “B” grades.
Whilst the completely unmentioned “Lovecraft Country” got 8 “A”s and 2 “B”s.
A bit odd that all of the comments that present a gripe about Schitt’s Creek being on this list so far are from those that gave up on the show in season 1. Which was FIVE years ago. Trust me, I get it. There’s so much to watch these days, it’s hard to stick with a show that doesn’t hook you from hour one. That being said, this review is for *this season*, and for those of us that stuck with the show and watched it grow into one of the most heartfelt comedies on television, season 6 was an amazing pay-off and and deserves all the accolades (yes, even that wild Emmy’s night).I’m grateful for these end-of-year lists. I’ve become overwhelmed in recent years with the sheer amount of content out there that I just lose sight of the real quality out there and get buried in (not-great) Netflix recommendations from my Twitter timeline. That being said, I doubt I’ll watch anything better during my upcoming catch-up than I May Destroy You. Months later, it still sticks with me.
I share your overwhelmed feelings but with music instead. Yearly lists may be too limiting but I’m also a working person now whose free time is too limited to listen to everything possible, especially from years past.
My gripe with Schitt’s Creek being on this list is specific to Season 6 – by this point, all the cynical edge has been sanded down. It was good, don’t get me wrong, but Seasons 1-3 were far superior.
I’m so happy Joe Pera Talks With You made the list. That was my favorite show/discovery of quarantine. It is a very special show and very much desereves to be on this list. My number two is probably Lovecraft Country even though it was pretty sloppy. I loved the Great as well. Pretty good year for TV!
Never Have I Ever picking John McEnroe as the narrator was so ridiculously perfect, speaking as someone who grew up with no! turning off the TV! during tennis!The ending almost made me cry, and that’s as close as I get to crying in shows, so…. Damn. I liked The Mindy Project, but this is so much more.
And now Dark has had it’s final season without a mention from the AVClub. Truly a reason for weeping.
Wow I’m very surprised that of this list I’ve only watched Mrs. America, Harley Quinn, Schitts Creet, and The Good Place. A lot of the lower ones I’ve never even heard of.Personally my list would have included She-Ra, Teenage Bounty Hunters, Little Fires Everywhere, Feel Good, Trial By Media, The Boys, Dead to Me, The Haunting of Bly Manor, and The Wilds. All of those I wanted to watch pretty much in one sitting.
FOH WITH YOUR LIST #1 AH AH AH
That final scene between Diane and Bojack was the best written anything I’ve ever experienced in any form of media.
thanks for posting this, haven’t watched it since it was released in jan and just…wow. god i loved this show.
Seriously. It’s somehow better with just the sound, at least in terms of appreciating it’s writing. Like the sort of thing that you’d hear listening to a table read of a contextless vignette for professional screenwriters, but then it’s revealed that it was actually taken from a well-known, beyond reproach play. And then you realize the entire show was like that. Jesus christ.
okay but The Crown just had its best ever season
I was hyped for Mrs. America (what a cast) but I just couldn’t get into it. Looks like I need to watch The Great, Ted Lasso (pirated of course, I’m never buying Apple+) and someday…What We Do in the Shadows.
I hope more people watch The Good Lord Bird. Ethan Hawke is unrecognizably phenomenal playing this crazy John Brown. And for a comedy, this was a surprisingly more dramatic year for Pen15, and so may great small moments sneak up on you. Naturally, The Good Place and Better Call Saul are always money, but we were totally charmed by sweet new shows like The Baby Sitter’s Club and Never Have I Ever.
One show I was delighted by, has the distinction of airing its debut, sophomore, and final seasons all within one calendar year, and it’s kind of bizarre that Netflix didn’t give Kipo and the Age of the Wonderbeasts time to find an audience before burning through it, and it gets lost in their back catalogue forever. It has so much heart.
Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts was amazing.
I’d have to throw in “The Trip to Greece”; “Perry Mason”; “I Know This Much is True” and “A Wilderness of Error”
Why in the living fuck is Stargirl not on the list?
There seems to be a problem. I’m getting an article without Lovecraft Country in it? That can’t be right. Must be a glitch somewhere.
So glad to see Joe Pera on here! Discovered it during the early days of lockdown (from a recommendation in this very comment community!) and it became one of the most quotable, re-watchable shows in our house ever since.The humor and wit has such a unique voice its like they’ve almost created a whole new style. I don’t know what else to compare it to. And the more you watch you get how fully realized the humor and storylines are, catching things on re-watch that you may have missed, and just terrific character development.Just talking about it, I can feel my soul growing back.
I will never get why reviewers liked so much in “I may destroy you”.
I found it awful. I found the lead awful, they way she played the role? awful.
The story awful. Ok I will stop typing awful.
But most of it I never got this show was about survivors. I actually got the feeling the show was hating these people, I mean the victims. Cause they were all despicable but still victims of abuse.
Oh well, awful!!
I would never expect it on a U.S.-based list, especially since Hulu is dragging its feet bringing the final season stateside, but This Country wrapped up a spectacular run this year. Normally I would have zero faith in the American remake that’s currently in production – I don’t see how the humor would translate well – but with Paul Feig behind the wheel…. maybe?
I’m not a comic guy or a cartoon guy but holyshit was Harley Quinn great.
Am I the only one who thought I May Destroy You was a under-cooked mess that artistically (note: I’m not saying thematically) failed at the vast majority of it’s goals? All of the write-ups seem like they’re reviewing the idea of the show and not the actual show that was put on TV. Because, despite wonderful ideas and intentions, I May Destroy You, the 10-hours of TV show, is bad.
The ultimate narrative of the show, as based on the final scene, is horrific: getting raped makes you a better person. Arabella is a terrible person in episode one — way behind on her generous deadlines, borderline abusive to her friends (which continue through the series: see Terry’s birthday party), irresponsible, and selfish. It’s a GREAT choice, because she still does not deserve to be assaulted. No one does. But Arabella getting assaulted begins a journey where she ultimately finds redemption, a successful career, and healthy friendships. This is bullshit. People who are assaulted and traumatized have NO RESPONSIBILITY to spin this horror into a good thing. I cannot imagine how it must feel to see this and think, “why didn’t I use my trauma to improve my life like Arabella did?” It is actively insulting and obliterates any nuance the show began with. It is also a cliche of Hollywood trauma narratives— the one thing everyone pretends this show isn’t.
Because all of the “nuanced discussion” in this show is… not nuanced in the actual show. The think pieces about the show are nuanced. But the show is a directionless mess. Combine shoe-horned arcs (“oh, we forgot to talk about trans issues, so let’s have Terri date a trans man in the PENULTIMATE EPISODE”), and weird, half-assed detours into the racial politics of global warming and medical statistics, and this show lost all the momentum it began with in the last 6 episodes. Arabella’s friends are all flat, poorly-drawn stick figures (remember when Terry, despite a series-long arc of trying to protect Arabella, buys her a SOLO FUCKING PLANE TICKET TO ITALY?), who only exist to push the plot forward. The production design and metaphors are groan worthy (they seriously did angel and devil costumes for Halloween?). After an entire episode of struggle, a drunken Arabella literally gets magically fixed by showing up at her therapist’s house after not seeing her for like, 5 episodes. And yet the show literally cuts over the scene where Arabella tells her mother what happened to her.
The writing is often so lazy that one of the best potential scenes in the series, a scene every single dramatist would salivate to write, is just SKIPPED over. If the show wasn’t about the entire fallout of this trauma, fine. But this is, to me, an inexcusable omission. It would have been a lot more appropriate than the endless scenes about “deadlines.”
When did we forget that a show can have a worthy theme without being a worthy show, or that an idea can be great without great execution? I May Destroy You did a phenomenal job sparking discussion. That discussion is wonderful, the show is not. This is a list of the best TV shows— not the best think pieces— but if you’re going to argue that it is, at least base your argument on what the show actually says, not what you perceive it was trying to say.
Am I alone in thinking “The Eddy” on Netflix was among the best shows of the year?
“Colonizer discourse”. lol…
Midnight Diner.You’re welcome.
Terrible list.
Two of my favourite shows from this year that weren’t on the list are Taskmaster and Aunty Donna’s Big Ol’ House Of Fun.
For Taskmaster, I think it’s the type of show that still worked during a pandemic, still managing to provide some truly batshit insane moments. Take, for example, one contestant coming up with the idea of trying to fill an egg with helium to try and get it to fly. (It goes as well as you’d expect.)As with Aunty Donna’s Big Ol’ House of Fun, I was afraid that it would be tamer than the trio’s regular humour, but I was reassured when it took only 45 seconds for Mark Bonanno to say “cum”. It serves as a great jumping-on point for people who want to check them out more.
Tiger King. I know we’d all like to forget this, but deep down, you know you want to. 2020’s first big smash, if nothing else, that INSANE mini-series got us through the first leg of the quarantine. Dave.Tonally similar to Netflix millennial comedies like “Master of None” or “Love,” I enjoyed this FX series because it felt a little like dropping Woody Allen into the middle of Hustle & Flow.
Too bad no one thought to give a shout to This Is Us, which a lot more than Sterling K. Brown Emmy noms and a box of Kleenex.
‘The fascination with true-crime documentaries remained, but I’ll Be Gone In The Dark and Seduced centered the victims instead of capitalizing on sensationalist headlines.’This is partially incorrect–I’ll Be Gone in the Dark centered on Michelle McNamara and Patton Oswalt; the victims were an afterthought. The main plot was whether or not McNamara would be able to use her financial and social privileges to finish her book. It was a mess and a wasted opportunity of a series. Seduced, on the other hand, by focusing on victims rather than people who had been deeply invested in the leadership of NXIVM was a necessary rejoinder to HBO’s weirdly credulous documentary The Vow. (I would not be surprised if the second part of The Vow defends some of Keith Raniere’s actions or ideas.)