It’s truer in 2018 than it was in 2017, or 2016, or 2015: Any survey of the year’s best TV can only provide a tiny sampling of the finest the medium had to offer. The perception of this particular year is that it was one characterized by good, not great programming—to which the TV critics of The A.V. Club offer, as a rejoinder, the number of worthy shows that aren’t on the list below. Please spare us the reminders of those we didn’t include; their ghosts and the second thoughts they conjure are already plenty haunting. Instead, revel in a year of television that introduced us to infatuated assassins and fatuous scions of wealth, expanded the worlds of its comedies to previously inconceivable bounds, and gave the best show of the decade the ending (and the musical coda) it deserved. And while you’re at it, give thanks to the reconciling sisters and bewildered military veterans who kept their dramatic exploits from running over the 30-minute mark. You’ll be grateful for that extra time when you’re still discovering all of 2018’s best TV (and the one effervescent period piece from 2017 that missed last year’s voting deadline—though it surely has a laugh-out-loud anecdote about why it missed that deadline at the ready) in 2019, 2020, and beyond.
25. American Vandal (Netflix)
Sadly, there’s one outlandish miscarriage of justice that Peter Maldonado (Tyler Alvarez) and Sam Ecklund (Griffin Gluck) won’t ever get to the bottom of: Netflix shutting down the campus documentarians following American Vandal’s second season. At least they went down in a blaze of sophomoric glory, heading to the Pacific Northwest to crack open the case of a tony prep school living in fear of a scoundrel known only as the Turd Burglar. Although not as plainly uproarious as the show’s initial outing, season two went deeper on the things that elevated those phallic shenanigans, bringing its acute sense of characterization to bear on endearingly pretentious prime suspect Kevin McClain (Travis Tope), refracting its class commentary through basketball phenom DeMarcus Tillman (Melvin Gregg), and wrapping the whole saga in an extremely online package that’s the source of big laughs (what’s “Diapey” Drew Pomkratz hiding beneath all those pixels?), shocking twists (again—“Diapey” Drew and the pixels), and a damning critique that gives new meaning to the term “full of shit.” Take the hilariously grotesque/grotesquely hilarious cold open depicting the “brownout” as the final piece of evidence: American Vandal was No. 2 to no other true-crime parody. [Erik Adams]
24. Vida (Starz)
Starz’s Vida is as vibrant and all-encompassing as its title suggests: both a moving family drama and a bawdy big-city comedy, two frames through which executive producer Tanya Saracho explores grief, culture, sex, and class transition in East Los Angeles. The series has bucked convention at almost every turn, from taking a “less is more” approach to its runtime and episode count to making sure this Latinx-centered story is actually told by Latinx actors and writers. That latter move has led to one of the most nuanced immigration and gentrification stories ever told on TV, one that’s as sprawling as it is intimate. Vida straddles both sides of the hyphen in Mexican-American history, taking the current conversation beyond border disputes and narcocorridos. As the Hernandez sisters, Emma (Mishel Prada) and Lyn (Melissa Barrera) come to terms with their mother’s death and previously unknown (to them) queerness, Vida never lacks for story, humor, or insight—unlike some contemporary dramas that struggle to find enough plot to fill every overlong episode. The cast is also so full of standouts—from Prada as the exacting Emma to Ser Anzoategui, the magnetic non-binary actor who plays Emma’s stepmom, Eddy—that Starz might have its first program with built-in spin-offs. [Danette Chavez]
23. The Terror (AMC)
The Terror is masterful on pretty much every front. The show takes Dan Simmons’ novel—a mix of historical fact and horror fiction about a British expedition to find the Northwest Passage that’s stymied by ice and monstrous polar bear-like creature—and crafts something that’s not only scary and visceral, but also incredibly humane and scathingly political. On the surface, few shows this year looked better. The candle-lit nights and the barren arctic landscape are beautiful and oppressive in equal measure, and the visuals are used expertly to build the show’s slow, creeping feeling of dread. The story of the HMS Terror and HMS Erebus begins as a straightforward, though well-crafted, period piece, before the true nature of the show seeps into every episode and every character interaction. Once the ships are trapped, the monster out on the ice isn’t the real threat; it’s the people holed up together. Their bonds break; their trust and companionship begins to rot. In that slow descent into death for everybody—an unrelenting ride into the frozen heart of darkness—The Terror finds insights about the greed of man, and the disastrous effects of colonization and the continuous need for more everything. As always, we’re our own worst enemies. [Kyle Fowle]
22. Billions (Showtime)
The first two seasons of Billions were all about how the obscenely rich live in constant fear of losing everything—and behave accordingly, to society’s detriment. Season three, though, acknowledges how the rules of engagement have been changing in an America governed by a billionaire president. In one of this year’s primary plotlines, New York-based U.S. Attorney Chuck Rhoades (Paul Giamatti) suffered under a Justice Department appointee who preferred to punish poor, dark-skinned drug addicts rather than rule-breaking CEOs. In another, rockstar hedge fund manager Bobby Axelrod (Damian Lewis) took advantage of the laxer government oversight to pursue some shady funding, intending both to settle old scores and to fend off a new generation of investors who favor analytics over risk. As always, even as the circumstances changed dramatically for their characters, co-creators Brian Koppelman, David Levien, and Andrew Ross Sorkin kept the focus on the fine details of those characters’ jobs, in fast-paced, genuinely educational stories that attempt to explain the destructive thrashing of terrified titans, clinging desperately to whatever remains of their power. [Noel Murray]
21. DC’s Legends Of Tomorrow (The CW)
There are destructive forces at work in the world, pillars of darkness that threaten to tear down the spirit, fracture communities, and sour all life’s sweetness. Faced with such a force, the B-list superheroes of DC’S Legends Of Tomorrow did what all such teams do when an unconquerable foe rises: They fused, like Voltron, to become a giant, lethal version of a Tickle Me Elmo knockoff called Beebo who, by the way, was also once a Viking god. What makes Legends one of television’s purest giddy pleasures isn’t merely its willingness to take the weirdest, silliest, most entertaining paths onto which it stumbles—though it always does, and god bless it. It’s that all that silly weirdness springs from the emotional lives of its characters, a gang of rogues and misfits who’ve embraced the idea that they’re destined to screw things up for the better. In doing so, Legends Of Tomorrow has managed to succeed where so many other superhero shows have failed: It argues, most winningly, that people can’t be shoved into boxes marked “good” or “evil,” and that it’s utter foolishness to assume that a noble cause can’t also be a damned good time. [Allison Shoemaker]
20. Brooklyn Nine-Nine (Fox)
The cancellation of Brooklyn Nine Nine last spring seemed like just another example of why we can’t have nice things, until suddenly, like some kind of avenging multinational conglomerate angel, NBC swooped in and renewed the show. But whatever mercenary motives might have been involved, the fact remains that the comedy, then wrapping up its fifth season, is still an impressively solid half hour of television. It is undoubtedly hard work to create it, but the makers of Brooklyn Nine-Nine make it seem like crafting a long-running, high-quality sitcom is easy. Instead of showing signs of creative exhaustion, it’s the same reliable joke machine it’s always been. The cold opens are still the best on TV, with last April’s Backstreet Boys sing-along eventually garnering well over eight million views on YouTube. And the writers and actors have managed to master that uncanny alchemy that occurs when people on both sides of the character equation figure out exactly who their creations should be. It’s a relief to still be able to visit the show’s sweet, oddball version of Brooklyn, where the jokes are always noice, the Halloween heists are always top notch, and the Pontiac Bandit will always escape for another day. [Lisa Weidenfeld]
19. Homecoming (Amazon)
Let’s raise a glass to the half-hour drama! Trimming away any potential bloat, showrunner Sam Esmail’s decision to tell this story in smart and efficient 30-minute slices of narrative led to a creatively triumphant adaptation of the Gimlet media podcast, a 10-part series that nonetheless felt as much like a five-hour movie as anything in the TV medium. And what a story it was: a show that moved fast while never feeling rushed, that took its time unveiling its secrets without playing coy or indulging in cheap mystery-box trickery to delay the reveals. The two-part tale, split between the past (i.e., now) and the present (four years in the future), follows Julia Roberts’ Heidi as she optimistically runs a recovery and societal reintegration program for returning U.S. soldiers, only to drop the other shoe by showing her future self is working as a waiter in a ramshackle waterfront restaurant, with no explanation of what happened. The dogged investigator (an excellent Shea Whigham) working to discover what transpired between Heidi and a soldier in the program (Stephan James) functions as audience surrogate while we slowly peel back the layers of deception, finally arriving at an answer that deeply satisfies even as it sets up subsequent seasons. Mr. Robot was no fluke: Esmail knows how to draw a viewer in—and better still, has the talent to deliver once they’re hooked. [Alex McLevy]
18. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (The CW)
It only makes sense that the fourth season of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend runs an extended 18 episodes instead of its last two seasons’ 13. For one thing, this ridiculously ambitious hour-long musical-comedy-drama has one of the richest supporting casts on television, almost all of whom get their own turns in the show’s musical theater spotlight. This season, even Whitefeather & Associates—sorry, Mountaintop—functionary Jim (Burl Moseley) brings the house down with his (temporarily) liberating ’90s R&B anthem “Don’t Be A Lawyer.”
But this is also Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’s final season to complete the series arc of Rachel Bloom’s reluctantly titular character, Rebecca Bunch, and, well, Rebecca is a lot. From the start, the series—from Bloom and Aline Brosh McKenna—has been about deconstructing audience expectations about how love, life, family, friendship, mental illness, an the occasional hardcore stalking spree are handled on the average television show. Not being, itself, remotely average, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend has maneuvered its heroine past various milestones (romantic obsession, multiple heartbreaks, therapy, a suicide attempt, prison) without ever forgetting that life never conforms to the glibly tidy resolutions of TV drama—or even a bewilderingly and consistently brilliant roster of original musical numbers. Rebecca Bunch’s journey of halting, backsliding, ultimately hopeful self-discovery might be ending after this season, but the show continues to assert that real life happy endings only mean more hard work, even with a song in your heart. [Dennis Perkins]
17. Succession (HBO)
On some level, you couldn’t craft a log line more out of step with the current culture than “Grotesquely wealthy family fights for power within and beyond their omnipresent conservative media empire.” But TV shows shouldn’t rise and fall by flighty “What We Need Right Now” pronouncements, and Succession’s satirical edge coupled with its fail-son generational dysfunction made it the ideal candidate for “Most 2018 Show.” Succession might have broke through because of its late-capitalist send-ups and the spectacle of rich idiocy, but its biting, fatalist examination of family dynamics would fit well in any era. Strip away the wealth and you still have a clan of squabbling children trying to impress and piss off the patriarch that gave them life. The Thick Of It’s Jesse Armstrong pulls no punches regarding his subjects’ failings, but somehow retains sympathy for the Roy family if only because “fucking up” still bonds all of humanity together. It’s why the nebbishy Cousin Greg (Nicholas Braun), who stumbles into his family’s power grabs with the grace of a sure-footed mountain goat, scans as an ideal audience avatar. Who isn’t horrified by everything in sight but continues to soldier on anyway, hoping that, at some point, it will all make sense? [Vikram Murthi]
16. Big Mouth (Netflix)
It’s rare for a show to have both a light touch and a stunning impact, especially when that show is mostly about boners and boobies and racing hormones. Rich in comic detail, bottomlessly raunchy, and overflowing with compassion (and, uh, a lot of other stuff), Big Mouth is unflinchingly honest about adolescent angst. Nick Kroll’s endless array of voices fuels the Netflix original series—now in its second season, with the third confirmed—but Big Mouth’s symphony of characters and perspectives allows the writers to explore anything and everything: the harmless pleasures of private masturbation, a pre-teen’s burgeoning bisexuality, the creeping fear that your juvenile moods spurred your parents’ split, even (with Planned Parenthood’s blessing) the essential health services provided by an organization some dismiss as “an abortion factory.” It’s so expressive of and empathetic to the panics of puberty, it’s almost a shame not to show it to actual middle-school kids. (But really, don’t show it to actual middle-school kids unless you want them to learn lots of new words and ideas.) Big Mouth is sweet, salty, and an utter smutty delight. [Emily L. Stephens]
15. One Day At A Time (Netflix)
In its second season, One Day At A Time continued the brilliant work it did in its first, telling timely, emotionally complex stories in a way that centers and inspires empathy. After struggling to come out in season one, Elena (Isabella Gomez) now comes into her own, her arc providing nuanced, sweet queer storytelling that is still a rare delight on television, especially when it comes to young Latinx characters. One Day At A Time can tell stories about PTSD, immigration, identity, loss, and grief in sharp ways that still manage to have so much heart, never becoming too steeped in the darkness but also not downplaying the seriousness of the issues it grapples with. Yes, it’s a feel-good comedy. But no it won’t just hold your hand and pretend the world is rosy. Justina Machado anchors the show with her consistently captivating performance, harnessing not only the comedic voice of the show but also some of its more dramatic underpinnings. Her six-minute monologue in the season finale is an acting and writing masterpiece, touching on all the depth and complexity of an imperfect but loving mother-daughter relationship with force. [Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya]
14. The Assassination Of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story (FX)
The first season of American Crime Story established an anthology series template: The People V. O.J. Simpson explored not the crime itself, but the circus that formed around it. The Assassination Of Gianni Versace takes a decidedly thornier and less spectacular approach to the same thematic material. Rather than indicting society by focusing on society, the series delves into the lives of the individual, often marginal people who were part of the lead-up to Versace’s murder—the Versace family, the gay men of Miami Beach, and, above all, the other victims of serial killer Andrew Cunanan. Darren Criss’ mesmerizing performance as Cunanan anchors the show, deconstructing the trope of the slick, charismatic gay serial killer and giving executive producer Ryan Murphy and writer Tom Rob Smith the room to use a reverse-chronological structure and lush visual storytelling to examine a plethora of under-considered, oft-ignored lives. In a roundabout, painful way, The Assassination Of Gianni Versace asks why nobody—not the media, not the police, sometimes not even their own families—cared that these people were gone. Much has changed in the years since Cunanan’s murders, but it’s hard to shake the central conviction of the series: We still haven’t. [Eric Thurm]
13. The Good Fight (CBS All Access)
After a solid first season (and a whole previous series that was also pretty good), the same was expected for The Good Fight’s sophomore season. But “solid” would be an understatement, as The Good Fight came back even more focused and determined (and funnier—the true secret to creators’ Robert and Michelle King’s success) than before. Season two got rid of the series’ weaker aspects fairly early—by wrapping up the Rindell family scandal plot and writing off Erica Tazel’s Barbara (who was pretty much set up to fail as a character in the first season)—making it easier to just strap in and enjoy the ride. The season focused more on the already strong ensemble, especially succeeding in introducing Audra McDonald’s Liz Reddick-Lawrence as a foil and friend (a “frenemy,” technically) to Diane Lockhart (Christine Baranski). And the show also made its more absurd aspects work extremely well—by which we mean Diane’s drug phase and, of course, all things “pee tape.” While the CBS All Access thing makes it harder to actually access the series, somehow The Good Fight feels like a sophisticated version of appointment TV. (Even with the “pee tape” stuff.) [LaToya Ferguson]
12. BoJack Horseman (Netflix)
Unlike its paunchy protagonist, BoJack Horseman shows no signs of wear and tear or dwindling relevance after five seasons. In fact, the newest episodes of Raphael Bob-Waksberg’s animated series offer its most sophisticated storytelling and scathing satire yet, as well as a career-best performance from Will Arnett, whose whiskey-ed voice remains the perfect timbre for despairing of celebrity culture. As usual, nothing and no one is sacred: not small-screen auteurs, journalism, or tech behemoths that are seemingly on the verge of achieving nationhood. But there’s never the sense that BoJack is merely scoring points with its skewering, though there is a point to everything, including the omnipresent visual gags. The show has always been taking shots from inside the Hollywoo(d) Hills/trenches, which made it the perfect forum for a discussion about serial abusers and reform. And in one of its most rewarding developments, that look at broader progress turned into a real step forward for BoJack. So yes, after five seasons, a cartoon horse remains one of the best examples of our flawed but ever-evolving humanity. [Danette Chavez]
11. Sharp Objects (HBO)
Some people complained that Sharp Objects moved too slowly, but that’s exactly what other people loved about it. Every Sunday night for eight weeks, the show offered a dark, humid tour of Wind Gap, Missouri, where actual monsters lurked closer than its residents could have ever imagined. Amy Adams transformed into our simultaneously reliable/unreliable guide into this Southern gothic madness, her reporter Camille steadily unwinding, sipping vodka out of plastic water bottles and trying to cobble facts together about the unexplained deaths of girls in her hometown. Camille had plenty of her own internal demons to fight, preparing her to take on the mysterious external ones coating Wind Gap’s falsely sunny exterior. The fact that Camille was living in the amusement park scare house of her childhood home only exacerbated the dangers in every corner, a place where motherhood meant the exact opposite of what it should have, where every organized detail of interior decoration hinted at a corresponding evil. Sharp Objects was a summer journey like no other, topped off by a mic drop of an ending that even startled those who’d read Gillian Flynn’s source novel; those who hadn’t had a hard time recovering. [Gwen Ihnat]
10. Barry (HBO)
Few shows this year had as tricky a tonal tightrope to walk as Barry. A dark comedy about a former Marine turned hitman who discovers an unexpected safe haven in an L.A. acting class, the show mines its humor from juxtaposing the actual life-or-death stakes of Barry’s hitman career with the figurative life-or-death stakes of the world of struggling actors. Yet while it’s a pitch-perfect L.A. satire with an unnervingly high body count, what really makes Barry work is its empathy. Co-creators Alec Berg and Bill Hader care deeply about the interior lives and emotional vulnerabilities of even the show’s goofiest characters—from Henry Winkler as a vain acting teacher to Sarah Goldberg as a big fish in a small acting class pond to Anthony Carrigan as a curiously friendly Chechen mafia member. Appropriately, however, it’s Hader’s flawless, Emmy-winning performance as the titular killer that best embodies the show’s off-kilter humanism. Barry is a show about getting in too deep and desperately trying to claw your way out of an ever-growing rabbit hole. And whether Barry is honing his Meisner technique or murdering someone at point-blank range, Hader makes that quixotic journey both hilarious and utterly heartbreaking. [Caroline Siede]
9. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Amazon)
After the one-and-done cancellation of Bunheads (and her even more frustrating experience on The Return Of Jezebel James), you could forgive Amy Sherman-Palladino for being a little gun-shy about diving into her next series. Instead, she doubled down on creating another fully realized universe of honest oddball characters, teleporting back to 1958 to give us a throwback Manhattan going through the growing pains of a new generation of stand-up comedy entering the zeitgeist. Enter into that disreputable world the Upper West Sider Miriam “Midge” Maisel (Rachel Brosnahan in an Emmy-winning turn), who separates from her businessman (and wannabe stand-up) husband only to drunkenly perform her own comedy set and realize she might have a real gift. With her aspiring manager (Alex Borstein) in tow, the show paints a relatable portrait of what it’s like to start at the bottom of a creative career, even as it created a distinctively idiosyncratic life for Midge—her workaday job, her early fumbling efforts at comedy, her tony Jewish parents (Tony Shalhoub and Marin Hinkle) mortified at her choices as a single working woman in an era and society that still frowned upon it. It’s an outsized story made honest and indelible through engaging performances, vivid visuals, and dialogue that proves Sherman-Palladino still excels at lacerating wit and rapid-fire patter. [Alex McLevy]
8. Lodge 49 (AMC)
Their characters may not have a firm grasp on the principles of alchemy, but the first season of Lodge 49 is evidence that series creator Jim Gavin and showrunner Peter Ocko have it down pat. While the delicate blend of elements is eclectic—quirky stoner comedy, SoCal surf’s-up vibe, a dash of magical realism, a pinch of Pynchon—the show’s appeal is easy to pin down: Who wouldn’t want to have a Lodge 49 to unwind in after a long day of selling toilets or temping in a warehouse? This is a hangout show, first and foremost; there’s a sliver of plot about the “true lodge” and its rumored mystical properties, but the richest pleasures come from the characters and their interactions. Wyatt Russell’s Sean “Dud” Dudley may have his sorrows (a maimed foot, a recently deceased dad), but he’s friendly and curious and eager for adventure as squire to plumbing product salesman and Knight of the Order of the Lynx Ernie (Brent Jennings). Along with his sister, Liz (Sonya Cassidy), Lynx philosopher Blaise (David Pasquesi), visiting dignitary Jocelyn (Adam Godley), and the rest, Dud is searching for some meaning in his life beyond the nine-to-five grind, but he’ll settle for a few beers with friends. Anyone who can identify should seek out Lodge 49 before it returns for a second season next year. [Scott Von Doviak]
7. Better Call Saul (AMC)
Much is made about Better Call Saul’s deliberate process of transforming Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk) into Saul Goodman, but the Breaking Bad prequel really seems to have cracked the formula for prestige-drama momentum circa 2018. The montages help, speeding Jimmy, Kim (Rhea Seehorn), Mike (Jonathan Banks), and their associates on both sides of the law through everyday tasks and outrageous schemes via glittering confections of split screens, needle drops, and sharp editing. But the show also hums along with an all-too-rare sense of when to switch gears (Tony Dalton’s arrival as the unhinged head the Salamanca hydra tossed up late in the season), rely on established patterns (Kim’s inability—rendered so poignantly, recognizably, and compellingly by Seehorn—to quit Jimmy or their shared love of the grift), or foreshadow its beloved predecessor (Mike committing a murder that eerily echoes his own). Most impressive in this age of lumpy, too-many-episodes-not-enough-story dramas: Season four’s management of its thematic fuel, with the characters propelled to the bitter end by their grief over the death of Charles McGill and a funhouse-mirror reflection of that loss in Gus’ (Giancarlo Esposito) and Nacho’s (Michael Mando) maneuvers around an incapacitated Don Hector (Mark Margolis). Gus’ grand plan has only yielded a shell of a super-lab thus far, but Better Call Saul was cooking high-grade shit all fall. [Erik Adams]
6. Pose (FX)
When you get your first glimpse of New York City’s 1980s ballroom scene in Pose, you wonder how this has never been a TV show before: the balls are intoxicating spectacle (especially with Billy Porter’s Emmy-worthy supporting turn as the emcee), an invitation to an LGBT subculture that offers all the drama, comedy, and heartbreak that fuels great television. But as the series expands, you realize that Pose could have never existed even five years ago: following three trans women of color (brought to life by MJ Rodriguez, Dominique Jackson, and Indya Moore) on their respective journeys through the world that discriminates against them and the competitions that empower them still (sadly) feels inherently radical, and Pose refuses to sand down the edges of this story or flatten each woman’s distinct journey. Instead, it positions the balls as a support structure for the women and men living in the midst of the AIDS crisis, elaborately realized moments of joy that fuel their desire to survive (or die thriving). The climactic ball is just as spectacular as the one that opens the season, but it comes with the weight of a half-dozen stories breaking new ground for queer narratives on TV, and transforms into one of the year’s most triumphant finales, a fitting end to an accomplished and deeply affecting debut season. [Myles McNutt]
5. GLOW (Netflix)
GLOW avoided the sophomore slump that plagued other sensational 2017 debuts like Legion and The Handmaid’s Tale, and it did so by diving deeper into the lives of its vibrant and vast cast of characters. Season two offered even more interpersonal growth between the gorgeous ladies of wrestling, with bonding between moms Debbie (Betty Gilpin) and Tammé (Kia Stevens), Justine (Britt Baron) leaving the pack and coming into her own, and Ruth (Alison Brie) and Debbie finally coming to terms with each other after a literal break in their faltering friendship. The fictional G.L.O.W.’s success allowed for increasingly intense matches, wholly ’80s TV mall promos, and best of all, an episode devoted entirely to the show-within-the-show (complete with canned laughter). As Brie’s Ruth has learned over time, becoming a Gorgeous Lady Of Wrestling might not have been on her ideal list of career opportunities, but any gig that allows you to push yourself, and express yourself creatively, all the while accepting you completely, is one to hang onto. And someone who not only totally gets you but appreciates you, like Sam (Marc Maron), may be a keeper as well. Rather than driving viewers to tap out, a second round with GLOW made future seasons with these theatrical wrestlers seem not only possible but also necessary. [Gwen Ihnat]
4. Killing Eve (BBC America)
On its surface, Killing Eve appears to be a good/evil standoff, but it offers so much more than that. Shepherded to TV by Fleabag’s Phoebe Waller-Bridge, the cat-and-mouse series features Jodie Comer as impossibly charming assassin Villanelle ,and Sandra Oh as the crafty MI5 operative on her tail, but the twists and turns of the chase seem to surprise even the characters themselves. Comer is a revelation as the chameleon-like killer with no qualms at all about taking down whoever she was paid to, until Oh’s spy brings up buried memories from her past. The chase in this explosive first season was Les Mis-like epic, the killer and the detective’s eventual confrontations over dinner or in a remote field anything but anticlimactic, only heightening the suspense between the two. Eve’s quirky and duplicitous co-workers and Villanelle’s paternal guide Konstantin (Kim Bodnia) added depth and an intriguing Russian subplot to the chase, but they never fully stole attention from the series’ magnetic fulcrum. Somehow, we rooted for both Villanelle and Eve, and even though they each admire a lot about each other, only one can ultimately prevail. [Gwen Ihnat]
3. Atlanta (FX)
The question on everyone’s minds ahead of Atlanta: Robbin’ Season’s premiere wasn’t whether Donald Glover could follow up that stellar first season, but rather how he’d do it. Glover and Hiro Murai, his director of choice, established a wildly inventive yet incredibly grounded sense of storytelling, which, combined with season two’s subtitle, meant every genre was fair game: drama, of course, but also horror, absurdist humor, surrealism, and bildungsroman. Robbin’ Season moves with the same fitful drive as its characters—Earn (Glover), Al/Paper Boi (Brian Tyree Henry), Darius (Lakeith Stanfield), and Van (Zazie Beetz)—languishing in bureaucracy one episode before cramming eight hours of errands and a lifetime of choices into a tense albeit muted finale that’s spectacular for the way it burrows into your consciousness. (Admit it, you’re also still wondering just how cold-blooded Clark County is.) Thoughtfulness combines with playfulness so there isn’t a single wasted opportunity; every narrative flourish has a purpose, especially if it’s part of someone’s undoing. Although the characters are scattered, the cast—which is now absolutely packed with standouts—is tighter than ever. Ultimately, Robbin’ Season doesn’t just top Atlanta’s first outing; it demonstrates growth from episode to episode. There’s no other show that could switch from the unsettling cautionary tale of “Teddy Perkins” (one of the best episodes of TV of the year) to a fantastic discovery about Drake without letting its audience down. [Danette Chavez]
2. The Good Place (NBC)
All other signs to the contrary, we must be living in the Good Place to get a sitcom as funny, smart, and endearing as The Good Place. In its second and third seasons, the show offered up a dizzyingly inventive array of stories, resetting its fundamental narrative in ever more ambitious and absorbing ways as it followed the afterlife adventures of four humans trying (and failing, and trying again) to learn how to be better people. It’s impossible to explain the arc of the narrative without spoiling massive plot twists (even from episode to episode), so instead let’s praise the talents who make this freewheeling exploration of life and how to live it: There’s the writers, who have all captured a unique tone that expertly balances absurdist wordplay, rapier wit, gonzo physical and visual comedy, and profound human drama; the actors (Kristen Bell, William Jackson Harper, Jameela Jamil, Manny Jacinto, and the dynamic duo of Ted Danson and D’Arcy Carden), who manage to pull off the high-wire act of goofball comedy and genuine pathos on a weekly basis; the set designers and effects teams that bring to life the best sight gags on television; and the sure hand of creator and showrunner Michael Schur, who has made a career out of building uncommonly decent places in which audiences can find a respite from the cruelty and coldness too often running through not just real life, but the rest of the TV landscape. What a wonderful world, where our protagonists are dead—and long may they live. [Alex McLevy]
1. The Americans (FX)
A TV show is not its ending. A TV show is not its ending. A TV show is not its ending. And with that out of the way: wow, what an ending. It would have to be, with all the work The Americans did to get there, and all the fuses it laid across six seasons of espionage drama: across tensions between married spies that were as fraught as those between Cold War superpowers, through familial bonds and friendships secretly colored by hidden loyalties, under a soundtrack of the most anxious hit songs of the ’70s and ’80s. The sixth season still held off on its biggest bang—and Noah Emmerich’s shining moment as duped G-man Stan Beeman—for as long as it could, but it was proceeded by a series of smaller detonations that shook the faith of Soviet sleeper agent Elizabeth Jennings (Keri Russell) and stirred her semi-retired husband, Philip (Matthew Rhys), back into action (albeit to spy on Elizabeth). It’s payoff like this that has persuaded so many other, lesser shows to chase the dragon of serialization; it takes a show of The Americans’ caliber to get that payoff while simultaneously tending to the complex dynamics under the Jennings’ roof, the global stakes of its macro conflicts, and a sense of characterization strong enough to make an antiquated mail-delivery device one of the most beloved members of its cast.
Until the very end, The Americans’ many disguises and aliases raised gripping questions about its characters’ true natures: Had they aligned themselves with a cause they were willing to kill themselves (and most of the world’s population) for? Was the disparity between the United States and the Soviet Union as pronounced as their respective citizens were led to believe? Could these people live with or without one another? Not every tantalizing query gets a satisfying answer, despite the show’s deeply satisfying conclusion; you’ll just have to spend the rest of your life agonizing over whether or not Renee is a spy. The Americans’ identity as the best show of 2018, however, was never in doubt. [Erik Adams]
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For one last time
FUCK YEAH THE AMERICANS
TUSK
The penultimate season of The Americans seemed like a misstep, as if the two-season renewal resulted in the showrunners saving everything interesting for the final season. And it seems like that’s what happened, as the final season is so much better and did a great job of wrapping everything up. Here’s hoping Better Call Saul can similarly cash in on seasons of buildup, which may be more difficult as it’s heading toward a pre-written future the audience already knows about.
It is kind of a funny coincidence that we got two prestige TV shows about professional assassins which blended comedy & drama. Personally, the tonal mix in Barry (mostly comedy with the occasional bit of drama) worked much better for me than in Killing Eve (mostly drama and with the comedy feeling more out of place to me). I suppose my distaste for the unprofessionalism of Lorne Malvo (why would anyone hire that guy?) in the first season of Fargo also carried over to Villianelle. Also, I don’t even remember what buried memories of hers came up! I haven’t kept up with the second season of Counterpart, where another professional assassin (of the government sponsored variety) is an antagonist, but it’s a shame to read in reviews that it’s not as good as the first.
Besides having bad opinions, please don’t also use words that you don’t know the meaning of. “Penultimate” does bot mean final or last.
Yes, I was referring to the second-to-last season, which wasn’t as good as the actually last season.
Um, TGGP does appear to know what “penultimate” means, as he or she is contrasting the last two seasons: the penultimate one and the final one.You, on the other hand, do not appear to know how to read carefully or respond appropriately.
If we get really technical, fathands said it does “bot” mean final or last, and who knows what “bot” as a verb means! Whatever it means, I’m sure it has something to do with Muphry’s Law.
Well, it seems you’ve just highlighted the username/comment synergy …
I mean puffy, bloated, or perhaps fat hands is a sign of opioid abuse… S/He might not have been thinking clearly.
Counterpart Season 2 started yesterday, so you can catch up on the whole one aired episode pretty easily.
Counterpoint is great. I order you to resume watching that series, stat!
You’re wrong lol
Penultimate means second-to-last, as I was referring to season 5 of The Americans. I hope we’re on the same page now.
Glow, Killing Eve and The Good Place have been the best TV of the year by far.
So so happy to see Lodge 49 in the top 10 🙂
Please spare us the reminders of those we didn’t includeThen don’t completely fuck up by not including The Magicians, pal.
Or The Expanse, for that matter.
Or Z Nation.
Yes!!
I think (I’m guessing – seriously out on a limb) for everyone on AV staff who would probably argue that it certainly is NOT an issue, the fact that Magicians and until recently The Expanse suffer from never-to-be-included on year end lists is due to their early year runs. The Magicians is coming up here again in January, and it probably will be forgotten again next year. (Not jinxing it. No jinxing!)But if AV does a top single episodes list for 2018, and Life in a Day doesn’t get a mention … I will be so upset, that I may pen an angry post at some point.
That was a jk that failed. My irk-itude at a Magicians omission was offset by seeing GLOW, Legends, and The Terror on the list.
Isn’t talking about shows that weren’t included the point of the comment section? Does the A.V. Club just want us to say “I concur” and that’s it?
I think they knew commenters sulking about omissions was inevitable, so they just preemptively took the piss.
Yeah.. They knew from excessive experience! A sound judgement, if you will.
Does the A.V. Club just want us to say “I concur” and that’s it? Pretty much, as this unfortunately been the MO of the kinjaverse lately, especially Splinter which just wholesale purged any commenter who dare criticize any of their opinions.
Nah, the big “dittoheads only” rule is still limited to Splinter.
No. No, I don’t believe the point of comment sections to is to talk about what is NOT in the above article.
talking about shows that weren’t includedThe A.V. Club
Huh?
Seems like they’ve grown tired of nagging — Pretty natural, if you ask.
Well, they need to provide us with lotion and gloves if they want us to tug the authors’ dicks.
I expect it to get ignored far and wide. The AV Club is the one place I thought I could maybe count on it not being overlooked. Especially now that it’s largely overcome its pacing issues it’s one of the most creative, witty, and well-told shows on TV.
That episode where Quentin and Elliot grow old made me cry like a goddamn emotionally well-adjusted yet traditionally manly man baby. The show’s able to punch on a lot more levels than it should be able to get away with.Looks like 2 of the writers put it on their ballots, so there’s hope it’ll still get the odd bit of attention next season.
Or, maybe, AV Club should consider watching more than the shows they review? Or even actually watch the shows they review?
What does the second-sentence even supposed to mean?
Or CASTLEVANIA.I’ll be over here alone on this hill, ready for war.
Yes!
That is a little more Io9 than AVC. I mean I loved Channel Zero No End House and this season was pretty good, but I know that’s not gonna show up anywhere besides Bloody Disgusting or something. I feel like The Magicians is almost amazing, but it’s just not right where I want it to be to reach that.
There was new Venture Brothers this year, as well.
Very epileptic!°
I agree entirely. It seems like Legends of Tomorrow took up the one spot for genre shows on this list — not that it didn’t have a great year as well! But “Six Short Stories About Magic” and “A Life in the Day” were both fabulous episodes, I’d say stacking up even better than Legends’ “Hedgehog Day”.
Yeah, this is more of the point — in that I wouldn’t say The Magicians is necessarily deserving of a place on the list of twenty-five best TV series over a whole season, but we also don’t have a place for “Best Episodes” (like “Best Film Scene,” separate from “Best Film”) since “A Life In The Day” may be the best episode of television not only this year, but in many years (YMMV of course).
There’s no episode title with “Hedgehog Day” in the series you’re referring to.
My apologies. Of course hopefully you all know I meant “Marmot Day”.
What’s a Marmot? And why do people celebrate it?°
It’s the sound of the ocean, or a word for Tuesday. I believe the answer to your second question is self-evident.
Seriously, did AVClub forget the whole purpose of lists on the internet. or just the purpose of the internet?
The shows that I already loved didn’t disappoint this season. Lodge 49 was a nice surprise, though I can understand how it is polarizing. But Barry is just damned incredible.
I love Lodge 49 and I’m glad other people do. It’s funny because it’s not particularly exciting and the acting is solid, but not hugely praise worthy. It’s just a really nice charming weird show and throwing Bruce Campbell in there sealed the deal for me. There’s just so much TV I try to reccomend it to people , but there’s nothing to say except- yup it’s really good and I enjoyed watching it a lot. Nothing really happens, Kurt’s Russell’s son is in it?
It’s one of several shows where I tell people. “I really liked it. Can’t say why, exactly, but I did.”
As someone who loves dark comedy, takedowns of shitty acting and Henry Winkler I just can’t get into Barry. I get that we need a sense of suspension of belief to really watch any fictional show, but I can’t go over how everybody just accepts awkward murderous weirdo Barry into their lives.
You mean… you don’t have a “Barry” in your life? I thought everyone did.
If I’m anything like Barry’s friends in the show, I’d be way too naive and oblivious to pick up on the very obvious signs.
I think it’s less oblivious and naive, and more self-involved (them, not you).
Bill Hader is BRILLIANT as Barry — sometimes just the look on his face makes my heart ache.
Agreed. He was fantastic.
Despite your warnings, I’m pretty sure middle schoolers are watching Big Mouth. Granted, parents are not having screening parties for them, nor should they. But they are seeing it, as they should.
I think parents who do that should be shot. The whole fun of a show like this is it’s absolutely something kids that age should see but it should be something they’re excited to watch “secretly,” like it’s something bad or naughty or some shit. Will be far more effective that way rather than the “woke” mom and dad who want to be the coolest about everything and not let Jimmy and Susie figure out the wider world of fun, dirty stuff on their own in a relatively protected way.
I tried a few episodes of both The Americans and The Good Place, but couldn’t get into them. The Good Place should really be up my alley as an absurdist, philosophical comedy, but it felt like a very broad mainstream sitcom to me, especially the extremely annoying Eleanor character.
The Americans overreliance on people doing stupid things for sex got annoying really fast. When the umpteenth supposedly highly trained counterintelligence expert naïvely went in some dark alley with a good looking person who they had met 10 minutes before, I gave up (this was 5 episodes in the first season or so). Also it seemed to be trying to be hard to be edgy, like the series BoJack stars in the new season.My favourites:The End of the Fucking World (less is more)
GLOW (Betty Gilpin and Alison Brie are tv’s best comedy duo)
Better Call Saul (great even without Michael McKean’s Chuck, although the best episode was the one he returned for)
BoJack Horseman (didn’t reach the dizzying heights of last season, but that’s probably my favourite season of any tv show ever)Maniac (unlike The Good Place, this philosphical, absurd comedy did work for me.)And Silicon Valley had a mediocre season, but the Mike Judge directed penultimate episode ‘Initial Coin Offering’ which made fun of both cryptocurrency and multinationals playing local governments off each other for factory and office locations was excellent.
I made this mistake with The Good Place. I only watched a few episodes and didn’t really get into it. I went back to it months later and saw the light. It really clicked around the 4th or 5th episode for me.
I caught on to TGP right away, but it ups it’s game, like you said, around the 4th or 5th episode. SUCH a great show. Doesn’t talk down to the audience. They deal with Chidi’s philosophy speak by basically saying, “Either you get it, or you don’t, and if you don’t, it’s cool, you can still follow.”
I liked the first season, but was truly impressed with the second season. Season 3 so far has been a step down. Still good, but it’s definitely flailing a bit.
The Good Place, being a continuous story, gets much better as it goes on. Eleanor becomes less annoying by episode 4 I think.Outside the first show you listed as your favorites you seem to share tastes with me. I would recommend Barry as it is an excellent HBO show.
You’re doing yourself a major disservice by not finishing the Americans. I’ve never seen a show that so accurately reflects how people weigh options, make decisions, and are forced to reconcile with those very human, very understandable decisions. It’s been a while since I watched the first season, but at that point (when Directorate S and the prospect of unrecognizable sleeper agents was just coming to light), I didn’t find it unbelievable that a lot of the blowhard beaurocrats or deeply lonely intelligence agents or whoever would fall prey to the Jenning’s wiles. But also, sex and the power or balance that stems from it is—moreso than the rest of the show—a major theme in the first season. They’re doing a lot of work putting together the Jennings’ characters and trying to get you to understand how they work; if something as intimidate and powerful as sex is just work for them, how alien are these people, and what is bubbling underneath all the exposed flesh and repression? Basically—The Americans is hands down the best show of the last decade and if you quit after five episodes you’re only hurting yourself.The Good Place is fun, but there’s no reason it should be getting all the accolades it does.
Those are really odd takes on The Americans and The Good Place. I’m intensely curious as to what “very broad mainstream sitcom” or sitcoms The Good Place resembles, in your opinion; I’ve seen my share, and can’t remember any of them rehashing the trolley problem. And if “The Americans overreliance on people doing stupid things for sex got annoying really fast”, you might want to avoid real life, where people do stupid shit in order to get laid all the time. At the highest levels of government, even! I’ll endorse the rest of your list, although I found The End of the Fucking World to be a bit more “sometimes, less is less.” It just seemed a bit lightweight for what was supposed to be dealing with some fairly heavy issues, and I found myself wishing that there was a spin-off with Gemma Whelan’s character so that we could see more of her.
I don’t mind that people did stupid things for sex, but it did get tiring that Elizabeth and Phillip had a 100% success rate with their seduction. (I can only think of the one exception).The show is amazing, but that strained credibility after awhile.
It just seemed a bit lightweight for what was supposed to be dealing with some fairly heavy issues
In my opinion it deals with those issues really well, especially the relation between Alyssa and her dad, but in a very indirect “show, don’t tell” way. It’s English people we are dealing here with, after all. I really love that. It’s also what makes Wes Anderson’s movies hit me harder than many straightforward tearjerker.
“I’ve seen my share, and can’t remember any of them rehashing the trolley problem.”He made it through 2-3 episodes and that happened in the second season…so, that comment makes no sense.
They’re odd takes because he’s a pseudo-intellectual moron like the overwhelming majority of people on this shithole of a site.
Never mind you’re one of those pseudo-intellectual morons too. DAE Parks and Rec is too “irritatingly saccharine.” God you’re a miserable fuck aren’t you.
I find it interesting that you think The Americans had unrealistic situations but thought that The End of the Fucking World, which had a couple of insane weirdos steal a car, murder a serial killer in self-defense, and of the main characters shot by police, was believable.That’s not a dig, as we’re all entitled to our own opinions. I’m just curious.
The End of the Fucking World
Agreed, this should have made the list!
Especially with absolute garbage like Crazy Ex-Girlfriend on there.
I’m curious what it is about The Good Place doesn’t work for you. I’ve enjoyed it for the most part, but it just gets too schmaltzy at times and ends up feeling like a Disney Channel show trying to punch above its weight. It’s starting to feel like when they wanted to put some distance between Parks and Rec and The Office and did so my making the former irritatingly saccharine.
I think it’s two things. The first one is that it is one of those shows that clearly telegraphs its jokes. I guess that’s what gives it it old school sitcom feel. I prefer shows that are funny without their being obvious jokes in it.Another thing is that I hate the type of humour where someone does or says something wrong and then for some reason can’t/doesn’t admit it. And with The Good Place that’s basically the entire premisse. I also can’t stand Fawlty Towers, which also relies heavily on that type of humour, while I love Monty Python.
Without giving too much away, the telegraphing of jokes serves two purposes. First, it lulls you into a certain place before pulling you in a very different direction. Second. when you get to the end of the first season, some of the jokes that look one way come off very different. You will want to then rewatch the entire season over again to pick up on those subtleties. Giant shrimp and frozen yogurt (and flying) are worth reconsidering, FWIW.Then again, with so many good options, you would not be wrong to move on. It is just the Good Place tends to have a rather passionate fan base (including me).
Maybe you just have no sense of humor and it’s your fault and not the shows. Get. The. Fuck. Over. Yourself.
“A Disney Channel show trying to punch above its weight.” Holy shit! That’s exactly it. Michael Shur’s sitcoms have gone from realistic settings with people who change due to the consequences of their actions (The Office), and become cartoonier with each new series.The reason it feels like a broad, mainstream sitcom (surface level philosophical inquiries aside) is that all the characters talk in the same voice. It’s like a Kevin Smith movie. Eleanor, Chidi, and Tahani all overreact to every situation. Despite being completely different characters with different motivations and outlooks, they all do the same high school-drama-student acting. They’ll overreact to something, and then as an aside tell themselves say “That’s not how I really feel. Why did I say that?” Ted Danson is the only one delivering a different energy, but that sort of lazy writing still comes out of his mouth.I can’t stand The Good Place, and I don’t understand why people think it’s funny or clever.Forever did the same idea better (although the leads’ chemistry wasn’t quite there), and actually engaged with its philosophical concerns beyond a simple acknowledgement that they exist.
For real. I really like Shur, but he’s losing his magic (or he just really needs Greg Daniels to get the best out of him). Forever made much better use of its weird premise and treated characters like regular ol’ messily unique humans so the emotional stakes had some heft. I remain intrigued by the potential in TGP and can enjoy some of the throwaway jokes, but if it’s just gonna be more of this what-if-Kant-but-Funko-Pop? garbage I’m jettisoning myself. I refuse to watch a repeat of Parks and Rec’s Candyland-ass final season.
Mr Greg Daniels, the single person — or is something like “Greg Daniels of the world”?°
Def a clone army of former King of the Hill producers.
Holy shit! That’s exactly not it. Enjoy going through your life as a smug, cynical asshole. I’m sure you’ll find yourself fulfilled. Go fuck yourself
You’re a dink.
I don’t mean this personally, but..ahem, you’re dumb. About the Americans. You could not be more wrong.
Fair enough. I’m not going try and make excuses for The Americans or The Good Place and suggest they get better if you stick with them- both were amazing right off the bat, imo- so if you couldn’t get into them, you couldn’t get into them. Maniac was nowhere as good as I wanted it to be, but I am a fan of Better Call Saul and GLOW.
I am not sure where you stopped with the Good Place, but it’s constant changing of the status quo and unique voice increase over the series’ run.
I’m glad there are others who are confused by rapturous praise The Good Place gets. It’s really nothing special at all. And it’s not that funny.
I liked The Americans a lot, but it did get ridiculous how often Elizabeth and Phillip’s honeytraps worked. They are very attractive, yes, but aren’t some people going to be faithful to their partners or flat out uninterested? Hotties strike out too.
I lost interest when the Americans killed Elizabeth and Phillip’s boss in Moscow in his home. So they wanted to kill CIA officer who organised that. First they make a lot of fuzz about how careful and professional is and well, the guy just ordered a high level KGB officer to be killed in him home, so he’s probably on high alert. Then Elizabeth goes to his usual bar and it takes her 2 minutes to chat him up…
Phillip got rebuffed during one of his attempted seduction schemes. I found this more believable than having Elizabeth get turned down by a man.
I liked The Americans a lot, but it did get ridiculous how often Elizabeth and Phillip’s honeytraps worked. They are very attractive, yes, but aren’t some people going to be faithful to their partners or flat out uninterested? Hotties strike out too. Uh, remember Young-Hee Seong’s husband, Don? He resisted Elizabeth’s (aka, Patty’s) advances and what did she do? She tricked him into thinking he DID sleep with her AND convinced him she got pregnant (and then Philip convinced Don Patty killed herself) ?
Hands-down, one of the meanest things Elizabeth did to anyone on that show. Elizabeth destroyed that entire family.
Before this year I’d never watched one episode of The Americans – I have a friend who kept telling me I seriously need to watch this show. Earlier this year I tried to get into it – and couldn’t make it past the first few episodes and I stopped watching. Once this same friend told me how good the last season was – I said okay I’ll force myself to power through it and I did… by the time I got to second season I was hooked. From that point – I power binged watch all 6 seasons in a little less than a month – what an unbelievable show. Now I hate I watched it so fast because now its all over. 🙁
I, too, binged all six seasons in about a month this fall and became addicted to the adrenaline hit delivered in nearly every episode! Wish I would’ve paced myself a bit but I think it’s a great show to binge — if I’d watched it in real time, I might’ve given up during some of the slightly duller stretches (glad I stuck around for Paige to redeem herself!). Definitely one of the all-time best finales episodes I’ve seen, up there with Breaking Bad and Six Feet Under.
The Good Place is easily bullshit. It might be more creative, it might have some visual gags or philosophical implications, but it is a by-the-numbers bullshit television comedy. It’s so light it should be the popped version of kernels. To put this as something better than, for example, Better Call Saul, is just absurd and sort of infuriating.But what is the AV Club? “We cover our asses, demonize the people everyone hates (with vigor!), and then give an award to a bullshit, light comedy because it stars a woman and a black man.”
You accuse The Americans of trying too hard to be edgy and list End of the Fucking World and Maniac in your tops????!!! Talk about two of the try hardest shows on TV… I also have doubts about your viewership. Most people seduced by the Jennings were civilians, not trained assassins.Or, to be more internet about it: Your opinion is bad and you should feel bad for it.
That’s the difference between absurdist comedy and a spy thriller.
The Good Place takes a few episodes to get really good, and it’s not really until the first season finale that it goes to the next level.
You might be one of the dumbest people on the face of the planet but you’ve somehow convinced yourself you’re an intellectual. People who bitch about obviously great tv and movies are among the worst filth on this shit heap of a planet. Fuck off
The Legends on the AV Club best of TV list?! As Dr. Martin Stein would say, “Astonishing!”It’s not a perfect show – the special effects will vary due to limiting series budget – but it’s the closest thing to the weekly live-action Justice League series I never knew I wanted. It’s the Time Tunnel with superhero shenanigans and screw-ups. And it’s just pure fun and enjoyment.Praise Beebo!
Also lots of positive representation going on with Legends. Sara and Constantine are bisexual, Mick is a reformed (sort of) criminal, Nora Dahrk is a witch, Zari is a Muslim, Ava is a clone from the future, Charlie is a magical shapeshifter, Gideon is an AI, and Ray and Nate are nerds. But all its characters are treated with respect and dignity. Well, except for Gary.
Gary will get his due someday. And let’s not forget Ramona, first East Asian co-star in an Arrowverse show.I would have fitted LoT’s contribution to the LGBTQ landscape in my earlier comment too but yours suffices.
Counterpoint: It is a perfect show.
Hee hee okay. I’ll concede to that, Legends is https://gfycat.com/loneeducatedboaconstrictorAlso if ever Ms. Shoemaker needs to take a night off from a review, can you be her substitute Ms. Ferguson?
Of course.
Pry it from my cold dead hands. (You’d be great.)
Oh I love your reviews too, Ms. Shoemaker! I mean no offense – and I love that they’re being done at all.
None taken!
For real. TGP may be the most brilliant half hour on TV, but Legends may be the most unadulterated fun 45 minutes on TV every week. The midseason finale could’ve only been written on more blow than an 80s wrestling locker room.
I saw that episode an hour ago. Your metaphor is very much on point.
More like The Just OK Place if you ask me. I don’t get all the critical jizzing for that show
Speaking of The Terror, there’s an issue of Alpha Flight where Crozier was turned into a super villain called Pestilence. See what happened was that in the Marvel Universe, Crozier had a magic potion that put him into suspended animation and was buried after everyone else thought he was dead. A century of this combined with being buried in a “Place of Power” made him insane and gave him magic disease powers.
GLOW is the best Netflix original show by a country mile if you ask me (granted I’ve not yet seen Bojack)
BoJack’s better overall, GLOW was better this season.
GLOW is fantastic. Bojack is wonderful as well. I mean it’s a series of misery but it’s still cool to watch.
You must.
Dear White People!
I actually liked Dear White People. It’s like the show was speaking directly to me.
Oh i love it, and I’ve shown/recommended it to friends who can be racially insensitive and not only did they laugh/cry/love but also really learned a lot and honestly have changed certain tendencies.
The second season was a total snoozefest.
Glow is the second best show on this list only behind Atlanta.
through 2 seasons, Kang is bored by Bojack. But I’ve watched each season of GLOW at least twice. Kang fucking loves those ladies. The tone, the period, the humor, the acting, the heart… it’s a goddamned delight
Glow is good, bit it’s not great.
BOJACK!!!!! Seriously that show is so freaking good, but obviously very different from Glow.
“pose” is such groundbreaking TV and one of my favorite seasons this decade, its a shame that a lot of people won’t touch it because ‘ugh ryan murphy’.
That’s pretty much why for me. I may get to it, but the Ryan Murphy barrier is tough to climb for me, just like even with a warm critical reception and a new director and sensibilities, Bumblebee still has to shake off a decade of Michael Bay stench.
Really happy to see Legends on the list! Hooray!
I didn’t watch anything more entertaining than Maniac this year. It knew it was only going to be one season and acted accordingly. Created an amazing bizarre world to tell its story in, and so many great performances.
I actually preferred the (radically different) Norwegian original. It aims lower, but more consistently hits the target. Owen was just so dull, except when he got to be that weirdo Icelandic person. Emma Stone’s character was better done, but other shows have done grieving better (including one Justin Theroux finished recently!).
I haven’t seen the original, but I will say that Jonah Hill does a very good job at playing a paranoid schizophrenic person
He mostly just seemed dull & listless, which could fit a heavily medicated person, but we see that he’s just been flicking away his medication (something that’s never explained, as he participates in a drug trial to get better).
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Overall I mostly enjoyed Maniac but holy fucking shit did I want to throttle the writers for shit like that! I could not for the life of me understand his fucking motivation. Take. Your. Goddam. Meds. Take the TRIAL meds. What did he want? How did he think he would get it? The writing on Maniac was its weakest element. Kinda infuriating, actually….
It was as if they were aware of the trope of people not taking the meds prescribed for mental disorders but gave no thought as to WHY someone might do that, and then just forgot about it.
Maniac was bad
Yer bad!
I got up the next-to-last episode and just quit. That show was pretty much half filler, with a bunch of sub-plots that didn’t add to the overall story-arc at all.
i almost quit at the same moment, when —— SPOOIIIILER ALERT —— Jonah Hill turned into a Hawk and flew to fantasy land and got zapped, and Emma Stone just got in the evil witch’s car and left … and then none of that was ever really elaborated upon in a meaningful way. I was almost angry at my TV. The transition of Jonah Hill’s Post Malone character running away with the waitress, having 7 kids and then just walking out the window and turning into a hawk was so poorly done and meaningless. Total waste of everyone’s time and disrespectful towards the audience’s attention and the characters themselves. What a load of shit. Maniac told its story poorly.
Other annoyances:- Justin Theroux turned in probably the worst performance of his career.- Emma Stone’s dad was a trash compactor, or then he wasn’t, or something. – Jonah Hill’s character had no real arc, he mumbled through a botched drug therapy trial and then accepted his eventual fate at the institution until his MPDG arrived in the final episode to whisk him off into roadtripland. Have fun with the future emotional labor there, Emma.- What a shitty show.
Yeah, I was pretty pissed about the whole “walks out the window trying to commit suicide and turning into a hawk bit,” but when I got to end of that episode I was like, “OK, only two episodes left. Maybe they’ll start tying things up.”No, we get Jonah Hill as some sort of Icelandic general or something talking about aliens?I NOPE’d right the Hell out of there.
I forgot the Icelandic official/alien episode happened after the walks-out-the-window-and-into-a-hawk episode. Not sure if that speaks more towards my poor memory or the fact that the order and meaning of the fantasy sequences was totally inconsequential to the overall story. I guess I’ll just pin it on Maniac sucking, and leave my eroded brain out of it.
The order of the fantasies in the original Maniac is fairly arbitrary (as it’s a more episodic show, with the serialized “reality” being less emphasized than the goofy fantasies), but one thing I liked was how clearly it was the product of the (very immature) mind of the protagonist. In the Netflix adaptation it seemed more like Somerville and/or Fukunaga just playing around.
The Icelandic character was the only time Jonah Hill was at all interesting on that show, which is really an unacceptably low ratio for one of the leads (who also served as our introduction to the show).
damn i thought theroux was MVP!
It could still be the worst performance of his career, depending on one’s estimation of the rest of his career and the rest of Maniac!
The resolution of Emma Stone getting in the car was even worse than you remember: she’s given the choice of staying in fantasy land (with the simulation of her sister) or leaving. Her sister urges her to move on, but she takes GERTIE’s offer to stay. Then GERTIE reveals that, psych, her sister won’t actually be there, she’s just going to be stuck as one of GERTIE’s McMurphys. So she changes her mind and says she wants to leave and GERTIE just lets her.Insofar as I can defend the rest of the show, Theroux performed as a very silly character who was at least more interesting than Jonah Hill. And the dad had merely decided to zone out inside of some contraption until at the end it’s revealed that he’d decided to get out of it. The lack of explanation for that change is more understandable for a minor character who wasn’t going to get much screentime, but then I’m also fine with the epilogue to Little Sister, which some viewers thought needed some sort of more explicit catharsis to justify (which seems to be the logic behind the therapy in Maniac!).
this moment: “Her sister urges her to move on, but she takes GERTIE’s offer to stay. Then GERTIE reveals that, psych, her sister won’t actually be there, she’s just going to be stuck as one of GERTIE’s McMurphys. So she changes her mind and says she wants to leave and GERTIE just lets her,” pretty much defined what a terrible show Maniac is. Consistent character motivations are nonexistent, as are the stakes. Anytime a plot point appears to reach a crisis moment, it’s thrown away. Honestly the show should be deleted. The best I can say is there are some REALLY fun aesthetic choices in set design, etc., especially in the parts that take place in the real world. I guess that’s enough for some audiences.
I was super bored by the first episode. I thought, “I should give it at least one more, since the first episode was all set-up.” But then I figured, “nah.”
I really liked the black comedy and solid sci-fi story mix in Maniac.
Maniac was fine, but Homecoming did the whole “streaming show with movie stars that’s entirely directed by a visionary auteur and happens to be about damaged folks in a mysterious drug trial” thing much better.
Yay! All of my faves are in this year (with The Good Place, The Americans, Killing Eve, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and BoJack Horseman occupying my top five).With The Americans and House of Cards at an end, Game of Thrones leaving next year, and Better Call Saul peaking at its fifth season, have we hit a slump on peak TV? Sure, Stranger Things and The Handmaid’s Tale are keeping the viewership alive. But we haven’t had the same amount of excitement as that time when big TV dramas like Mad Men, HoC, GoT, and Breaking Bad are simultaneously dominating the landscape.
Game of Thrones hasn’t been an especially good show since season 4.
Yep. The drop in quality since they stopped hewing to the source material has been dramatic—not because it would be impossible to improve on GRRM’s novels, by any means, but because the showrunners haven’t even tried to match Martin’s nuance or ambition, settling for loud, empty spectacle and inane plot twists like “Sam discovers that there is a mountain of volcanic rock on a volcanic mountain!”
Speaking of Sam and adherence to the books, I know a lot of book readers were upset that they left out Jaime’s reveal about Tysha. But I liked Shae’s cynical take: a woman who’s just survived an attempted sexual assault isn’t going to immediately hop into bed with another guy. Unfortunately, the show botched that by having Gilly do just that with Sam.
Yeah, that’s one of the adaption changes in the earlier seasons that I defended pretty zealously. Not only did Shae have a good point, but the Tysha reveal wouldn’t really have made dramatic sense given the earlier changes in Tyrion’s storyline.In the books, the reason why the Tysha reveal makes sense is because it reveals the roots of Tyrion’s current predicament: because his father deceived him into thinking the love of his life was a whore, he became unable to tell the different between real love and false affection, which is why he couldn’t tell that Shae was just a gold-digger who would ultimately betray him. But on the show, Tyrion doesn’t have that problem; Shae was genuinely in love with him and they could’ve had a life together, but Tyrion insisted on staying in King’s Landing to play the Game of Thrones instead, which gave his father the opportunity to coopt her and turn her back into a treacherous whore. So the Tysha reveal doesn’t add anything to the story; it’s just a different, unrelated time when Tywin did the same thing to his son that Tyrion is already mad at him for doing with Shae.And the arc the showrunners replaced it with is actually pretty well considered: it becomes the story of how Tyrion was so obsessed with proving himself the intellectual equal of his father and the other scheming bastards in King’s Landing that he let his true love wither, and couldn’t even bring himself to escape the dungeon without first satisfying his curiosity about why his father hated him so much.Which is why it’s such a shame that in more recent seasons the writers seem to have given up on making smart, nuanced changes like that in favor of shallow nonsense like “They guy who kills the old lord gets to be the new lord by default.”
“They guy who kills the old lord gets to be the new lord by default.”
I’m not a Trekkie, but I believe the phrase for that is a “Klingon promotion”.
“Shallow nonsense”.
Exactly. I’m not into fantasy, so I resisted GoT for a long time, but when I started watching it turned out to be a great political thriller with some fantasy elements thrown in. But once the show got past Martin’s source material it became dragons and White Walkers all the time. It doesn’t help that the roles of two of the weaker actors, Kit Harington and Emila Clarke, got more important over time.
Kit Harington and Emilia Clarke have more talent in their middle fingers than you have in your entire, self-important head. Cunt.
Ha! IKnewIt
Muh nuance.
Season 6 of thrones is easily one of the strongest IMO.
Better than season 5, but worse than every preceding season. Davos knows basically nothing about Jon, or even that resurrection is possible, but he demands that Melisandre revives him? Sansa declines to tell Jon about the Vale sending reinforcements for no good reason? Jon stupidly abandons the battle plan, getting huge numbers of his followers killed, and is then proclaimed “king” despite being a bungler in addition to being a bastard who ALSO swore to the gods to hold no titles? All of Ramsay’s bannermen stay loyal despite him being an obvious psychotic that even Roose knew was undermining their position (up to the moment Ramsay killed him and the rest of his family)? Euron openly admits to being a kinslayer and is declared king? The bastard Sand Snakes (who had in the previous season shown their ineptness) somehow seize Dorne by just killing Doran Martell and his bodyguard? Cersei refuses a trial by the Faith and blows up the Sept (one of the holiest locations to the dominant religion in Westeros), and all the smallfolk who’d been up in arms about the degenerate royals ruling them do nothing? She even gets declared queen despite no longer having a descendant of the last king over which to be regent, or any hereditary connection that we know of to any previous ruler? Arya is told that she’s “truly no one” after just continuing to defy the Faceless Men’s rules? It’s a seemingly endless parade of stupid which seems good only in comparison to the previous nadir of a season. There’s a lot of money put into spectacle, but the spectacle previously had some thought behind it.
THIS. GoT used to be ‘The Wire with Magic’. Now it’s just Shut The Fuck Up Here’s Some Dragons. Still entertaining, because well, Dragons. But it definitely feels like it’s being written from an outline more than an actual script at this point.
THIS. GoT used to be ‘The Wire with Magic’. Now it’s just Shut The Fuck Up Here’s Some Dragons.
Literally LOL. That’s a pretty perfect way to describe it.
Literally not lol. That isn’t an accurate description of Game of Thrones at all. The Wire was a commentary on life in urban America. Both shows have ensemble casts and a political dimension to them. And Aidan Gillen was in both of them. The similarities stop there.
I’m pointlessly going to take the time to respond to every last one of your trite “criticisms” that are really just annoying nit picks. 1. It’s a hail mary on Davos’ part and not that insane a guess considering what he’s seen Melisandre do. He knew Jon well enough to know he was honorable and that Stannis respected him greatly. 2. She doesn’t fully trust Jon. The end. Not that hard to comprehend. Why do I keep reading this dumbass “criticism”. 3. Jon didn’t act rationally after he watched his brother get murdered with an arrow. DAE what a moron? Jesus Christ. I don’t think the Westerosi value battlefield tactics as much as they do simple bravery. They gravitate to Jon because he’s the only capable leader available to them. They don’t really care about his blood line. 4. DAE no one would ever follow an evil person? There is no historical precedent for such a thing. There’s literally a scene of him terrorizing that maester into submission. Not that much of a stretch to assume he’s done the same thing to his other followers. 5. Again, why does this assumption of the purity of noble lines matter? The Ironborn don’t seem like the type to care about kinslaying. And don’t even try to cite some book passage that counters this. The show is not the goddamn books.6. The same as points 3 and 5. People will follow anyone who is capable of enacting some kind of vision. 7. The Small Folk are clearly powerless to do anything. I don’t think Cersei goes about commiserating with them on a regular basis after that riot in Season 2. Again, she’s the only person in a position to claim authority. Hereditary nobility is easily manipulated and it was throughout history. 8. Pretty sure he just meant she’s a capable assassin now. He clearly respects her so he lets her go. You’re literally just looking for stuff to criticize. The fact that critics and general audiences still enjoy the show should be an indication that you’re just wrong but I know there’s no convincing you. Enjoy your miserable life of hating things with obvious merit.
What has Davos seen Melisandre do? Birthing a shadow baby is the one thing I recall. That and being wrong about Stannis becoming king and the effect of sacrificing Shireen. Resurrecting a dead person is whole different kettle of fish from killing a living person.Sansa has requested the assistance of the Vale knights, who are going to help Jon’s forces regardless of whether she trusts him. What kind of distrust would make it sensible for her to lend him such military assistance but not tell him she’s helping him in that way? Was she expecting he would get killed before they arrived? In that case a rout would be likely, and the Bolton forces would be able to concentrate their numbers against both sets of enemies separately at different times, which is the best possible outcome for them.The Free Folk may value bravery over strategy, but they typically lose against smaller forces of Westerosi. The Westerosi do value strategy, because those who’ve practiced it have defeated their enemies over the long course of Westerosi history.Ramsay isn’t simply “evil”. Tywin can be called that. Ramsay is unreliably evil, dangerous even to his allies, in a way that Tywin was not. Offing Ramsay in favor of anyone else is to the advantage of all his vassals.The Ironborn may not seem like they care as much about the purity of noble lines, but Balon Greyjoy led them (despite being repeatedly defeated) because of that noble line. Euron, as his brother, is the next male in line. The Dornish don’t even have the excuse of the Ironborn tradition of a kingsmoot.
The smallfolk were shown capable of attacking the royal family (forcing them to flee back to their castle), killing a High Septon they disapproved of and then electing one of their choosing. This is the show being inconsistent with its own characterization of them.Were you not paying attention to the content of Arya’s training at the House of Black & White? It wasn’t just “being a capable assassin”. And he specifically says she has become “no one”, not “a capable assassin”, even though abandoning her identity is what she hasn’t done.I don’t hate seasons 6 & 7. They aren’t as bad as season 5, and while they’re stupid, the focus has shifted so much to spectacle that I just have to shrug it off. But the writing is still stupid.
I wouldn’t argue with that. But we can’t deny its (still) ever-growing popularity.
Yes it has. You’re just an asshole.
Due to Kinja’s limits on embedding, there are multiple comments from me you could be responding to. Are you affirming (against my denial) that Game of Thrones has been an especially good show since season 4?
Handmaid’s Tale ended terribly. The reason it was snubbed was because this season sucked away everything great that was set in the first and is basically Hunger Games: Ladies Revolt edition.
I’d watch that.
You can. It’s called The Hunger Games.
Never heard of it.
If anything Katniss is more reluctant than season two June. It’s actually a pretty apt comparison, since both Katniss and June start off their stories just wanting to survive. They become more concerned about society being a mess, but they always prioritize saving their families over fixing society.
Sure. That’s because the show is a YA version of The Handmaid’s Tale.
Even if that was true, so what? YA is awesome. If you won’t read something just because it’s YA, you’re the one with the problem.
Not everything needs to be lowest common denominator crap. Atwood’s novel is decidedly not, but the show is becoming it.
If you think YA is “lowest common denominator crap” then you are either misinformed or sexist (people love to hate things aimed at teenage girls). Either way, I’m not here for it.
Well he comments here so he’s definitely a smug douchebag.
You actually meant “caring about family” is more of a “YA” thing than “Adult”?
No it didn’t.
Yeah it does seem like tv drama is slumping… I blame HBO and the cable networks, I guess, because they just haven’t been able to reproduce those highs from the 00s. Netflix has produced some alright stuff…but I can’t help but think that their production budgets and the 10-episode seasons put too much of a constraint on what they are able to do. I can’t imagine them producing anything better than say Stranger Things, but I guess time will tell.
Stranger Things is a rather low bar.
No it isn’t. As I’ve already said you’re just a fucking asshole. Get it into your fucking head.
Again, I don’t know what “it” is that “isn’t” because I don’t know which comment you’re replying to.
TV isn’t slumping. You’re just an asshole.
You must encounter a lot of those throughout your day.
I think we’ve gone from an era when there were only a few universally decreed Big Time Prestige TV Shows and we all knew what they were. 10 years ago it was Breaking Bad, Mad Men, The Sopranos, Game of Thrones, and The Wire. Nowadays the depth of quality on TV has never been greater so it’s really hard for four or five “big” shows to hog the limelight like they used to.
Succinctly put. Well said.
It is still peak TV, only more varied this time. And I think networks are having a hard-time selling newer shows because the audience’s taste have become varied and unpredictable.Looking back at the Emmys, its top category have gone from ‘pretty predictable’ to ‘fucking unexpected’.
There is too much content now, so everything seems watered down and nothing is “appointment” television. There will never be another The Sopranos style show that captures everyone’s attention, no more discussions around the water cooler. Shoot, soon most people won’t even have access to the same shows. Once Game of Thrones and Walking Dead (to a lesser extent) go off the air that’s it. Peak TV hasn’t hit a slump, we’ve transcended it.
I’m a fan of science fiction and genre shows. In the past year or so you had The Expanse and Nightflyers on Sy-Fy; The Handmaid’s Tale on Hulu; Man in the High Castle and Electric Dreams on Amazon; Black Mirror, Maniac, Stranger Things, and Altered Carbon on Netflix; American Gods on Starz; Star Trek Discovery on CBS All Access; likely something on network TV; and I bet a bunch more I’m just forgetting about. I actually had to make a list to make sure I didn’t forget about anything I couldn’t watch immediately. That list is getting longer, not shorter, and I find myself getting seasons behind on stuff I wanted to watch.
Ten years ago I wouldn’t have missed any of those shows. Today I can’t keep up. I doubt there will be a show again that catches the zeitgeist, but that doesn’t mean the quality of shows has gone down. There’s a ton of great shit out there, it’s just that your friends and family are probably watching something else.
Yes, I guess it gives “negative vibes” but the word is: Oversaturation.
“Prestige cable show” is on the wane as a concept. TV is getting more and more niche, which is great if you have niche tastes (it also seems great for people with very broad CBS tastes). But it does mean there are fewer shows everyone is talking about.
Agreed. I keep talking about all these amazing shows, but only a few people are talking about it (I’m happy that The Good Place is getting a following since its debut in Netflix). I shared Killing Eve to my friends, but it seems that it is not their kind of show.
If you haven’t, you should really try Patriot on Amazon. It’s a tough ask these days, but I’d say you have to at least get through the fourth episode of Season 1. If you’re not intrigued after that, it’s cool.
Yeah, OK so maybe this season’s How To Get Away isn’t exactly its best (wait, for 2018 are we supposed to consider this season so far, or last season’s second half, or both?) but Viola Davis remains compellingly watchable in it. And kudos to Liza Weil as well. And, heck, I just love this GIF that so perfectly says “That’s it – I’m done with you”
It’s a highly entertaining show, but it is not the kind of show anyone calls “great.” It’s too much of a ridiculous soap. (Which is why it’s as amazing as it is).
I know, I know. But it wouldn’t be the first time a ridiculous soap made this Best Of list. In fact I’d hazard a guess that the first season of this show probably did make the list.
see also:
The Terror and Homecoming way too lowPose and GLOW way too highOtherwise solid list.
You gave As to nearly every episode of The Terror and it’s not even in the top 20? I still haven’t gotten over that show. Literally the biggest disappointment in entertainment coverage and awards this year to me has been the constant snubbing of such a masterful series. The late-in-the-season dialogue between Crozier and Fitzjames discussing their brotherhood is one of the most human and heartfelt scenes I’ve seen on television.
No The Haunting of Hill House????? WTF???? Snubbed by Golden Globes and now the AV Club. I didn’t watch anything better on tv last year. Am I taking crazy pills, here????
No love for The Deuce?
Yeah, this season was great!
Ignoring The Expanse is frustrating. But I loved seeing The Americans at the top position. That final season was something else. And, The Terror is really the only other show I paid serious attention to this year and happy to see it included as well.
I think in terms of new television, Homecoming and The Terror should be No.2 and No.1 respectively, at least in my book.My list goes as follows:1.The Terror2.Homecoming3.Killing Eve4.Patriot s25.A Very Secret Service S26.19837.A Place Beyond the Universe8.Netflix’s She-Ra9.Cells at Work10.Devilman CrybabyA lot of great television this year, and especially in the animation front even though I enjoyed more live action shows than animation shows this year
Oh I loved A Place Further Than the Universe. Apart from the high school girl main cast, it felt like the most unstereotypically anime show ever. Many tears were shed in the last episodes.I’ve been meaning to watch Cells at Work. It looks like good edutainment – and there’s a real doctor who reviews each episode on YouTube.
I agree on The Terror ranking being too low (which is why whenever I write a list like this its not a ranking list) as I thought it was among the best series around. Devilman Crybaby was great I never thought I’d see a series like it produced but Netflix did it.
I knew Crybaby wasn’t going to make the list, but it pleases me to see it getting love in the comments anyway.
I had wondered how they’d go about updating the original for the 2010s and Yuasa did NOT disappoint, both in terms of modernizing the story in a way that still carried emotional heft and visually making it memorable both for spectacle and horror (the final showdown between Akira and Ryou is still pound for pound one of the best action sequences I’ve seen all year.)
I really don’t understand how Patriot gets so-often overlooked. The writing and the acting are fantastic. That episode where he beats up the short cop, then gets the guy from HR in on the action, and that final scene from the fight with the car door had me rolling.“Get the normal one!”
everything about that show is bizarrely delightful…genuinely mystified how it somehow failed to find a place above the line…
I think Patriot suffers from the viewing public’s default setting of FOMO (and also Amazon not promoting it). It’s a difficult show to describe to people. I think what I’ve landed on is that it takes familiar ingredients and serves them in an original way. For example: we’ve seen violent robberies via a tracking shot (True Detective Season 1). Patriot’s like, “but what if we also had the protagonist narrate his internal monologue during that scene, and the narration was done via an original folk song?”
I loved 1983 and A Very Secret Service season 2. Also, Babylon Berlin and Elite and they are all on Netflix but require you to read the captions.
The best single episode of television this year is, by far and very easily, Norm MacDonald Has a Show – Jane Fonda. It’s an (North) American treasure!
I need a docuseries exploring how wildly the quality of the show fluctuates. The David Spade and Letterman episodes are excruciating, while most of the others are a-okay, especially when the guest is a woman. Is he drinking all those Red Bulls to stay on top of the Xanax? It’s not working.
I didn’t find any of them “bad” per se, but Letterman was nowhere bear as good as it should’ve been. The Judge Judy episode was shockingly good. Keaton and Billie Joe were unsurprisingly great. Chevy and Lorne were predictable trainwrecks of ego. But my goodness that Jane Fonda episode is perfection. It’s the perfect .ix of playfulness and flirtation with true adoration and adulation. I came out of it loving Norm more for it, but more importantly, seeing Fonda as he sees her, which was the entire point. She’s amazing.
The claim the ending of a serialized show is not the show is a way of dismissing the fact (not opinion,) the ending is indispensable to assessing the serial as a whole. It’s special pleading to make excuses. Yes, most serials fail at the end, which is why one should be wary of serialization as an artistic choice. It is primarily a commercial choice, about hooking a steady audience.
Solid list EXCEPT for the omission of Snowfall Season 2.
I should probably watch the terror.
Agreed – it’s the best thing I’ve ever seen on TV
You should, it’s great.
It goes without saying, but The Americans finished strong and cemented itself as the best show of the 2010s, bar none. And that finale? My god, the garage, the train, the call to Henry, the long dread of that final drive—absolute perfection. I like The Good Place plenty, but I’ll never understand why people consider it in even the top twenty of the year for any of its seasons. It’s perfectly fun, entirely disposable television that I think will largely be forgotten after it wraps up.
Strong agree about The Americans, strong disagree about The Good Place.
Can you expand on that? Like I said—I like the show! It’s very entertaining and the Philosophy 101 is fun for people familiar with the concepts/probably at least interesting for folks unfamiliar. My favorite part of it all is definitely the zany plotting and how, since the second season, there’s been a tremendous forward momentum. Beyond that, I have a hard time caring about characters who are largely one or two personality traits that can be riffed on ad infinum. The plotting also makes it very difficult to develop them further, what with any character development they’ve undergone getting wiped every season. It’s a little irritating to watch the gang learn functionally the same lessons over and over again out of necessity. Michael and Janet are a little exempt from these beefs—but they’re also open to entirely new ones. Michael’s arc is more complete, but we basically got the equivalent of a montage to justify his reverse-heel turn to a good guy. I buy him as he is now, largely due to Ted Danson being amazing, but scrutinize for even a second and it falls apart. Janet’s development is… inconsistent, I guess? The only thing that’s really changed about her is her ability to deviate from her programming, but that means she’s suddenly just a joke vessel who’ll say almost anything for no reason other than for us to laugh and say “oh, Janet.” There’s also the Jason love, which makes almost no sense 300 years after first being introduced, and is basically just a big dumb checkov’s gun that serves little purpose other than some eventual drama but still hangs over tons of scenes. So… I don’t know, I guess I just don’t understand why I’m supposed to be salivating over this show. It definitely sets itself apart, but that’s not really enough in a vacuum for it to be the second best show of the year. Especially since the 3rd season has largely felt like a decrease in quality on almost all fronts.
I guess it’s just a matter of what resonates with us individually. I mean, from what you’ve written, it seems that you are “getting” the show just fine, but somehow it registers as an “okay” to you instead of the “Holy shit, this is amazing” that it registers as for most of us. I think part of the difference is your quibbles with character development. The character development makes perfect sense to me, given what we know of their individual natures as well as the various resets they’ve endured. If that development seems strained or inconsistent to you, well… I guess that’s your read on it and we’re probably just not going to see eye-t0-eye on this show.
Thanks for the response! I guess my question is just… why is it “holy shit!” for you? Like what elevates it to that level for you? That’s the question that no one seems to be able to answer for me and it’s the reason why I have that sneaking suspicion that it’s going to be looked back on fondly rather than one of the sitcom greats. Novelty is the word I’m looking for, I guess.
Well, to begin with, I’m already a huge fan of Schur’s ensemble comedies. The man just seems to have one of the best eyes in the business for putting together a perfect cast, and he has a knack for (as has been repeatedly mentioned) making comedies that are surprisingly…kindhearted, I guess? Take those features and mash them together with something as high-concept as this series, which is essentially “moral philosophy for dummies, the sit-com,” and I dunno… it just hits all the right buttons for me. It’s both smart *and* clever, funny on levels both high- and low-brow, and warm. I suppose if I had to sum it up as briefly as possible, I’d say it’s like Arrested Development without the cynicism. And that right there is telling, because I’m a deeply cynical person, so it takes work to make me not gag at something so sincerely optimistic.
The train scene was so suspenseful and then such a relief and then the saddest thing that show has ever done all in one. Holy SHIT. The look on Philip’s face when he saw Paige, WOW.
AND THEN WITH OR WITHOUT YOU COMES BACK IN. Oh man, perfect use of that song.
I’m glad The Good Place exists today, and not 15 years ago. If it had been a hit TV show back then, the sheer number of insufferable people who would be overusing “Holy Forking Shirtballs” on a daily basis would’ve infuriated me to no end, and probably would’ve turned me off from ever giving the show a fair shot.
Probably my top 10 would look something like:1. Big Mouth2. Lodge 493. Schitt’s Creek4. Crazy-ex Girlfriend5. Killing Eve6. The Good Place7. GLOW8. Marvelous Mr. Maisel9. Pose10. Barry
Upvoted for Schitt’s Creek, maybe the most underrated sitcom going
Clearly meant Mrs. Maisel (embarrased!).
aka The Meh Mr and Mrs Maisel bur Marvelous Tony Shalhnoub, Alex Borstein and others
You need some BoJack on that list.
So no Maniac or Man in the High Castle?
Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Gauntlet. Any new MST3K is good MST3K for me.
Better Call Saul has got to be higher, top three for sure
its unfortunate counterpart is not on this list seeing as its one of the best shows going and much better than many of those on this list.also missing: big mouthozark
Big Mouth is on the list–#16.
Typical liberals, not including Last Man Standing, or the best drama of 2018 – Hannity, a show about bloated buffoon of a man trying desperately to hold on to both his dignity and an America that never really existing but failing miserably with both. You never give conservatives a chance, do you?
Seriously. I guess God Didn’t Friend them….I’ll just leave…
Can’t disagree with these picks, though most of my favorites are far too low. I also think both GLOW and The Good Place stumbled a bit in their most recent seasons, so I’d move them toward the bottom of the list.
Agreed with this list and thank you for including LoT in it. Next to the Americans finale, this was my favorite TV moment of 2018. #praisebeebo #whythef^&!not
Including Legends of Tomorrow makes me forgive any other possible omissions on this list. It is particularly amazing the show is still going as strong as it is, given the cast turnover the last couple of years (Sara, Mick, and Ray are the only original team members left, and even new members like Nate, Wally, and Kendra have left the ship). Like Mick, I find the change unsettling, but it seems like it keeps things fresh. Sara and Mick and Ray should never leave the team though.
This season, with Zari leading the B-team so often, had me envisioning a long-term ending where Sara retires and Zari takes over the Waverider.BUT NOT FOR LIKE 5 YEARS DO YOU HEAR ME CW
Zari could be a good captain. But I never want Sara to leave the Legends
oh, no. this is like an endgame/series finale thought.
I could accept that. Sara certainly deserves to ride into the sunset with Ava at some point (once the show wraps up, hopefully in the very distant future)
Baffeled that nobody has brought up Haunting of Hill house, which, although it did not finish on a high note, had some of the best episodes of this year.
I really like this list its a good cross section of the TV landscape though a few things are out of my wheelhouse as something as subjective as this often are. Some person favorites that are not on the list I would say GLOW which was even stronger then last season, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina which was surprising in how dark it went, The Haunting of Hill House which surprised me to find it was genuinely scary, The Magicians which is one of the best genre aware series in years, and Luke Cage and Iron Fist second (and final) seasons were both great.
GLOW’s on there…looking forward to the next season; glad they’re changing to location and upping the stakes a bit.
Ya I missed it lol, also I noticed after the editing window closed it was on the header image too… opps…
The Americans shouldn’t be number one. Season six was very good, but definitely not the best of the year. In my opinion Atlanta and Bojack Horseman were the best.
I didn’t get the love for Sharp Objects. It had all the trappings of a great show (source material, cast, direction, HBO), but was a total slog. An eight hour miniseries that could’ve been easily told in a 2 hour movie.
Even worse it shared the same time slot as Succession which was far superior.
Succession being immediately dismissed by critics while Sharp Objects got praised was a huge mistake. The opinions started flipping after the first five or six episodes but it was already too late.Sharp Objects should have squeezed episodes 1-6 into two episodes and kept the last two. It just puttered around forever until it finally grew the nards to fly off the handle, by which point I was tired of it.
Correct which is why I still contend it should’ve been a movie
Sharp Objects was a complete mess and a disappointment. I find it interesting that it’s only #11 here after it got almost uniform ‘A’ episode grades while it aired.
Think people were blindsided by Amy Adams that they didn’t see the quality of the show.
1. The Terror
2. Atlanta
3. Succession
Too bad the list doesn’t encompass ALL TV series accessible through internet streaming. The best series I saw in 2018 (on the short list for the best series I’ve EVER seen) was the series “My Ajusshi” (My Mister) out of tvN in Korea. Which unfortunately appears to now be beyond our reach since AT&T killed off the Asian TV streaming site ‘Drama Fever’. Now all that’s available are brief clips on Youtube, the (excellent) OST soundtrack, and reviews & recap descriptions of the best series you didn’t watch.
i’m really going to miss American Vandal. that was a series that Netflix should bring back at some point as an In-house project if no one else picks it up.
Cobra Kai!
OK, maybe not in the top ten, but way, way better and more fun than perhaps it had any right to be.
I actually think Cobra Kai could have been a lot better than what we got. But all things considered, it ended on a note that made me want to see more
The only element I disagree with is mourning the loss of American Vandal. It was a great show and a wonderful send-up of true crime docs. But it was also likely to lead to diminishing returns quickly. Sometimes 2 great seasons of a show are better than on-going seasons forever. American Horror Story would be a good example of going on past its prime.
Look, you guys can do what you do, but if you don’t reference High Maintenance, The Venture Bros., Patrick Melrose, Random Acts of Flyness or The Expanse, well, what’s the point?
High Maintenance should definitely be on here. 2nd season was great!
Did I scroll over the Haunting of Hill House completely? That was seriously the best show of 2018.
*sees ‘The Americans’ listed as the top show of the year.*WOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooaahhh!WOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooOOOOOOAAHH!
My personal number one would be Barry, which managed to both make me laugh very hard and made me an emotional wreck (I can’t get that scene in the car with his military buddy out of my head). One Day at a Time continues to be a shining example of a very old school sitcom format while The Good Place is like nothing else I’ve ever seen. I’d also have to talk about a group of SyFy shows like The Magicians, 12 Monkeys, Wynonna Earp, and Killjoys. I don’t know if any of them are consistently great shows but they’re fun.
Barry sitting at #10 is proof that I don’t need to read any more AV Club rankings ever again.
Glad season 2 of American Vandal got some love. I honestly enjoyed it more than the first season. The final line of the penultimate episode was one of my favorite TV moments this year.
If Will Arnett doesn’t get an Emmy for “Free Churro”, I riot.
Completely agree about The Americans. We can add this to all the awards it has earned over— oh yeah, I forgot. Stupid award shows.
Bodyguard – BBC (on netflix as well)
I place The Americans on the same pedestal that The Wire and newer Battlestar Galactica are on.
“Shows I Love that My Friends Won’t Watch”
I was going to boo that comment, but it’s true: I love all three of those shows (one of them is my favorite of all time) and NONE of my friends watched them (or will watch them).
On your ballots, High Maintenance and Bob’s Burgers scored higher than Vida and American Vandal. Why aren’t they on the list?
I don’t watch nearly enough TV to be an authority on a “Best Of,” but I’ll take this time to say I really dislike shows taking years off and the death of regular schedules. I really missed a lot of my favorites, including Game of Thrones, Stranger Things, Mr. Robot, Mindhunter, Broad City, and more. There was a few good stuff (Atlanta, BCS, The Americans) but overall 2018 lacked for me.
Broad City was canceled, no? I was thinking Abbi and Ilana were going to start working on other projects.
Final season is airing in January, I think.
Sweet; hate that it’s going away…kinda got overshadowed by Workaholics.
House on Haunted Hill was the best show of 2018. –
In Succession Cousin Greg is even more of a scheming little shit than he is a hapless fuck-up. He for sure told Logan that Kendall would be looking for some Special K(thinking that what he wanted from the bachelor party request). Logan’s goons supplied it to the fired busboy. Total setup.
The Haunting of Hill House, you mean?
No. I’ve been watching the Vincent Price film, its 1999 remake and the ramake’s 2007 sequel in 30 minute increments and telling my self it is a new tv show
Not gonna complain about omissions because each to their own I guess but I swear there’s literally zero coverage on Forever (Maya Rudolph and Fred Armisen’s new amazon series not that recent procedural with mr fantastic) which I thought was pretty special and had the kind of pedigree to get some reviews on here or something :/ . Are people watching it because I’m scared it’ll just wind up being cancelled and forgotten about with the globes nominating the leads in will & grace and murphy brown revivals over Rudolph’s excellent performance and not giving it any form of spotlight to build some much needed hype.
No Gotham or Doctor Who…
This rather lengthy list is missing The Expanse, and is therefore illegitimate.
I wish AVC had reviewed Succession.
I literally have never watched any of those shows, nor have I watched almost anything that is on TV right now. The only show that I watch with any regularity is Doctor Who. Other than that, it’s the news, Rachel Maddow, and occasionally Graham Norton and Stephen Colbert. That’s about it.
I feel you. I just don’t give a shit about peak TV.
Was there a 2017 list? And did Counterpart make that one because the first of it’s 10 episodes showed in December last year and the rest in the beginning of 2018?I NEED ANSWERS!
Its so odd, I do consider myself a popculture junkie to a point but at the same time, I literally have only seen 1 episode of 1 show on this list. Maybe that will be my new years resolution, watch more tv.
Well there’s hundreds of TV series on right now so current best-of lists will be more difficult to encompass series that everyone will have seen. Not to mention differing interests in shows for people.I myself only watch two shows on this list.
Patriot, Get Shorty and Happy! Should all be on here. Especially over anything from the CW and CBS lol.
I feel sorry for Glover trying to follow up season 2 of Atlanta.
I don’t like anything on this list.
I can tell based on your choice of shows that this was written by mostly straight people. Probably majority white men.These shows are all so so so painfully straight. My gay peers probably haven’t heard of 50-60% of this list. /sigh.It’s hard to describe, but our culture just cannot seem to create accessible media for LGBTQ people.
I dunno, I’m gay and there isn’t much I would add to this list. Shangela being robbed of the crown was high drama but a little inside baseball for this crowd.
Please spare us the reminders of those we didn’t includeYes I will. Because a severe lack of Daredevil or The Expanse squarely categorizes this list as some ol’ bullshit.
Does anyone actually watch Atlanta? It seems designed to be critic-bait, but I don’t know anyone who actually is excited about it/talks about it at the watercooler. None of the comments here discuss it – a low showing for supposedly the 3rd best show of the year.
Fun note: To watch all of these shows would cost about $157/mo plus tax and fees – or, assuming a three-month season, about $474 total. That averages to $19/season.Make of that what you will.
I guess I remain the rare exception as someone who found these seasons of BETTER CALL SAUL and BOJACK HORSEMAN to be disappointing and overrated.My favorite shows of the year so far, not counting stuff I haven’t seen yet or finished:Who Is America?, Detroiters, Barry, Santa Clarita Diet, A.P. Bio, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt Other shows I like that I wish got more AV Club love: F Is For Family, Corporate, Superstore, Trial and Error, BrockmireI also wished Bob’s Burgers was on this list, but on season 9 I’m not that surprised it’s not. The Good Place is also on my list, but not quite as high as AVC’s. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is on my list at roughly the same place. American Vandal is higher on my list. Still have to finish this season of GLOW and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. (Mrs. Tragedy says this season is the best thing Amy Sherman-Palladino has done, and she’s seen all of her work many times, so I’m looking forward to it.)
The ultimate SJW list!And what the fuck are you still doing defending The Good Place as some kind of high-art, deep, greater than all others except one television show?
I watched a surprising amount of “The Terror” convinced that it was all building up the them finding Victor Frankenstein and a twist reveal that the series was … I guess you’d call it a prequel to the framing device of the novel “Frankenstein.” Maybe they’d find Victor in the middle of the season, there’d be one episode that was basically a condensed version of the novel where he tells his story in flashback then dies, and the rest of the season would be the crew killing, escaping, or coming to terms with the monster.
Now that I know it isn’t, I kind of want someone to make that.
(Obviously I had no idea it was based on a non-“Frankenstein” novel or had any basis in historical fact)
okay, so I won’t bitch about what I wish you’d found space on your list for since you asked politely that we not…& I already did over on the ballots thread where it seemed fairer anyway…but in the same spirit of seasonal courtesy…how about you cover black lightning again…?pretty please with a cherry on top…?
“Into the Badlands” is better than DC’s Legends of Tomorrow and seems to be a show that no one knows about (myself included, until it popped up on Netflix’s recommended a month ago). It’s like Game of Thrones meets post apocalyptic Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Second season is a little off, but still a great show that I can’t believe never gets mentioned.
Well, at least with “The Americans” ending, I can finally stop hearing about how “amazing” that wildly overrated trifle is. Holy crap, in the era of Peak TV, “The Americans” isn’t even in the conversation with actual quality series.
Like a lot of peak-TV era prestige shows it got away from what it was good at (the spy stuff) to try to make A Profound Point About Society (the family stuff). Also, far too many music-video segments (I actually think ‘With Or Without You’ ruins that train sequence–far too on-the-nose and in general I’ve tired of the over-reliance on Spotify playlists to score tv/films). But unlike a lot of contemporary shows it did end strong, and only somewhat overstayed its welcome.
I only saw 4 out of 6(?) seasons. I never hated it, I always liked it, but always felt it was, at best, “pretty good.” A step above, say, middling misfires like “Copper”, but far from the top shelf. Even in the age of the anti-hero, it’s hard to get invested in a show where you wish constant death on the the protagonists in literally every single moment of every episode.
You’re a retarded cunt. Kill yourself and your edgy opinions.
Blasphemer. Off with your head!
A/V Club Disclaimer: This list was created prior to watching “My Brilliant Friend”.
I watched all of Barry and mostly liked it but I struggled to entirely connect. In the article it says the show had to walk a tone line and with all due respect I found it DEEPLY flawed for this reason. I don’t think it succeeded to walk that line AT ALL. I can’t tell if the show wants me to find Barry amusing or scary or toxic or a parody or… what the fuck. In the lead up to the show Hader talked about his personal L.A. history influencing the character. He had very mixed feelings about the industry and his place in it and… it just felt like Hader’s own feelings of reticence and uncertainty infected the show in a bad way. It’s like the show wants to make a satirical thematic point about the industry but lacks the clarity of message necessary for that kind of satire.
My list 10-1:LoveWild Wild CountryBrooklyn Nine-NineThe Good PlaceBig MouthKilling EveSharp ObjectsBarryBetter Call SaulEscape At Dannemora
I was impressed by how much Love improved over its run. The ending was perfect
Was there a more indelible moment on TV this year than what Elizabeth saw as their train began to pull away from the platform?
No Expanse? This list is worthless…
Something must be wrong with my computer as Joe Pera Talks With You is not on this list
1) Atlanta2) Better Call Saul3) Homecoming4) Barry5) Killing EveIMORunners up: Mrs. Maisel, ManiacIt’s been a good year for TV.
I just don’t get the love for Legends Of Tomorrow. I have it being as bad as Gotham. Both shows are weird and the characters are inconsistent and continue to make the same stupid mistakes. Both are full of cringe.
Vikings seriously how is this show not on this list? I gave up on the DC shows, while LoT was probably the best of the bunch it still wasn’t doing it for me it was overly cheesy at times. As far as comic book related shows go I’d say Agents of Shield, Daredevil and Sabrina are better. Sabrina was a pleasant surprise, it has moments of Harry Potter, Charmed and a lots of “Hail Satan” IMO it deserves to be on this list more so than LoT
In this day and age, I find there are so few moments where I gasp at the TV. But when the train pulled away from the station in the Americans and Elizabeth looked out the window? I actually shrieked in surprise – I think THAT really says something about the show. It wasn’t a shock ending just for the sake of being shocking, it really fit the narrative.
How you missed the third season of Man in the High Castle, is beyond my comprehension. It is so, so, so, so compelling and great!
I think I watch too much TV but I’ve only seen 10 of these, that’s not a criticism but a reflection of how much good TV is available.
Glaring lack of The Expanse on this list. Seriously, remove something like Legends of Tomorrow (tons of fun, sure, but nowhere near the caliber of storytelling, directing and strong characters of The Expanse) and pop it in right there. Kudos for always giving love to The Americans though. And, I just started Killing Eve and I’m loving it so far!
I haven’t been able to find out any information on the next season premiere date for The Expanse. It’s making me nervous.
Here is the real list: https://www.metacritic.com/feature/critics-pick-the-top-10-best-tv-shows-of-2018
Swap Ms. Maisal and American Vandal for the correct list.
I’d probably add The Last Kingdom, The Innocents and Dynasties to this list. Also I do think that Daredevil series 3 has been the best out of all the Netflix MCU series so far.Could have been better: Star Trek: Discovery, Altered Carbon, Happy!, Lost In Space and Maniac.
Peak TV is clearly over. This list is shit.
I can’t believe AVC would overlook both Danny Boyle’s excellent TV debut Trust, and a stellar Benedict Cumberbatch performance as Patrick Melrose.Otherwise, decent list.
Killing Eve at number 4? You mean the clichéd riddled mess which is a good TV Series in the same way that Gotti works as a good crime film. They introduce characters just to kill them off. The main antagonist is laughably terrible in her “oooohhhhhhh I’m a spoopy psychopath, look at me I’m like a high school student trying to act like the Joker.” The main protagonist is laughably incompetent.Killing Eve at number 4 and no mention of Miss Sherlock? -****
I would also add Derry Girls to this list, which is now on Netflix US. A great comedy about 4 teenage girls (and a guy) growing up in Northern Ireland during the Troubles.
‘Sharp Objects was a summer journey like no other, topped off by a mic drop of an ending’For ‘mic drop of an ending’ read ‘a desperate attempt at shock value to try to salvage this inane, underwritten show’
I see no love (or even a hint at noticing) two other shows worth mentioning: Berlin Station and Counterpart, two shows I’m loving right now and NO ONE is reviewing them.
I still haven’t seen the last series of The Americans but am looking forward to it, despite the fact that, no matter how much you raved about it, the penultimate series was dour and downbeat, with none of the crackling tension of previous series.Also, I’m surprised to see The Good Place so highly rated. I loved the first two seasons, but am finding this one hard going, as I can’t work out what, exactly, is at stake. With Janet and Michael robbed of their powers, it’s all a bit pedestrian and aimless, which is something the last two seasons could not be blamed of.
Why wasn’t my last reply approved? I can’t find it at all. I was just mentioning my favorite shows in it.
I am sorry, but Legends of Tomorrow is not a great show. It is nowhere near even good. It is one thing to say, “low rated irrelevant show decides to say F-it! and is going down swinging by becoming a straight up comedy, and we like it”..it is another to claim that this is anywhere near “good”. It is not even the best CW superhero show..LOL (Flash is) I have no idea if Bebo hypnotized critics or what, but one funny bit does not make a show suddenly a top 25 show. Bebo was funny..the rest is an unwatchable mess.
I would have put The Handmaid’s Tale on here. There were some really striking episodes and I like the complexity of characters like Aunt Lydia and Serena Joy.
i really got into succession and it got really good that i just keept watching all the episodes back to back ….aaaannnnd then the season ending sucked , the choice they took and what happened i just couldnt agree with but i will give it a try i guess when the new season eventually comes out it earned that much