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So much like I spent most of 2017 watching all of X-files, I spent a lot of 2018 watching shows that were not from 2018, some by only a few years, others by many. So keep in mind this is just the top 10 of shows I watched that even qualify for the list, so some of them might be a wee bit questionable. I'm especially annoyed with not being able to vote for Manhunt: Unabomber due to it being a 2017 release. 10: The Blacklist (S5)  This show has gone completely off the rails. From a relatively simple premise of a master criminal with all the contacts agreeing to turn informant for the FBI for personal reasons, the show has stacked twists, turns, reveals, shocking betrayals and shifting morals to the point that it's both very difficult to follow and impossible to predict. But through all this confusing morass of spy cliches, there is one constant: James Spader. Spader is perfectly cast as Reddington, and I essentially live for the moments where he goes into a completely unrelated strange anecdote in the middle of a serious scene. I would not be surprised in the least if some of those were ad-libs. He's a true joy to watch ramble, and I'll miss the show, which seems to be entering its endgame, once it's gone, simply because I will miss on my usual dose of Reddington Rambles. 9: Iron Fist (S2)  This one wins "Most Improved". Iron Fist S1 was by far Netflix Marvel's weakest show, tied with Defenders. The only thing that kept it afloat were truly excellent side characters in Ward Meachum and Colleen Wing, who got precious too little screen time in a show focused on intensely boring bad kung fu and stupid drama involving The Hand. Danny Rand was the anchor around the show's neck, from a bad performance by Finn Jones, to a completely unlikable personality, to an inability to have the titular Iron Fist do any kung fu in a kung fu show. Season 2 is an improvement on every level. Much better fight choreography, much less obnoxious editing that lets you actually follow what's going in a given scene, giving Danny an actual character arc for us to latch onto, more interesting villains with less confusing motivations, further development of the supporting cast, actual twists that aren't boring predictable nonsense, and some goddamn actual fun. Ward Meachum is my favorite TV rear end in a top hat and his rocky attempts to recover from an entire life of being a horrible scumbag are one of the most interesting things in any of the Marvel shows. Danny trying to be smart and prevent a gang war by brokering peace between gangs is an interesting approach and it's nice to see a superhero show where someone's default position isn't to just be a complete loving Cop. Season 2 of Iron Fist wasn't without its flaws, but it proved that a show can genuinely improve from one season to the next, and I'm sad we'll never get a follow-up on the absolutely delightful end of season teases we got. 8: Castlevania (S2)  Let's get one thing out of the way right now: this show has absolutely terrible animation. It doesn't reach the lows of early 90s anime where they'd have giant pans across the screen where nothing moves while someone monologues off screen, but there's a lot of very bad looking movement, stuttering motions, obvious CG with a bad filter on it, etc. But you don't watch this show for the action, anyway. At least I hope not. This show manages to squeeze genuine drama, horror, and humor out of a game series that is at its best confusing anime bullshit and at its worst just a bunch of movie cliches thrown at a wall to see what sticks. While it's hardly a straight adaptation of the source material, it manages to keep what's compelling and fun about Castlevania while telling a well structured story with ups, downs, twists and buckets of blood. While many complained that season 1 just felt like a teaser for an actual show, the doubled episode count of season 2 allows them to tell a fuller story, introduce new characters without making the show feel crowded, and have interesting conflicts between various characters' philosophies. And yes, there's still a fair bit of violent monster slaying action to be had if that's what you came to see. But most of all, the show has a strong emotional core. Everyone in the show feels like a real person, even the viking vampires and "devil forgemasters". Warren Ellis' writing may not be everyone's cup of tea, and some of his more annoying tics certainly show up in this series, but honestly, any move away from the usual cliches that Anime is constantly guilty of is a win for me. This show doesn't have any goddamn panty shots or jokes about someone's cooking or any of that insufferable garbage. The bad guy isn't defeated by someone being stubborn, nobody talks about their secret techniques. If this show's runaway success heralds a future where more anime is written by people who think anime is dumb garbage, I'm all for it. 7: The Curious Creations of Christine McConnell (S1)  A creepy gothic baking/sewing/arts-and-crafting show that's also a weird sitcom with creepy puppets, weird ghosts, raunchy humor and tons of creativity. This show's structure is essentially perfect, with the DIY segments featuring Christine showing off her amazing skills being broken up by silly sitcom segments featuring her and the puppet cast getting into various shenanigans. The Jim Henson company takes care of the puppeteering and creature design, and boy does it show. From a ghost that lives in a mirror to an embalmed cat from the days of the great egyptian empire, the show is full of weird, offbeat gothic characters. Christine's DIY segments are truly fascinating, and it's amazing to see someone take a bunch of random junk and turn it into works of art right before your eyes. Despite all the charm, there are 3 main problems I have with this show that keep it from being ranked a bit higher. Firstly, the segments where Christine creates amazingly adorable things skip just a few too many steps to be useful as instructins for the viewer, which is a shame. You can certainly follow along with what she's doing, but good luck trying to reproduce any of her creations or anything like them. They're more like "inspiration" than instructions, and of particular note, she never even gives you recipes for the food she makes, focusing more on the decorative side of things. This is good for pacing, but annoying for someone like me who actually bakes. Secondly, the show has a bit of a tone issue. There's a lot of simple Addams Family type offbeat jokes, like Christine visiting her grandmother at the graveyard and having a hand stick out of the grave to eat some of the chicken, but there's also weird sexual humor and outright murder going on in the show, and it doesn't really work with the carefree 90s sitcom vibe that the rest of the program has. I understand this dichotomy is no accident, but hopefully they'll find a better balance in season 2. And third of all, the season is just too short! 6: The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (S1)  I predict a lot of people will place this show a lot higher on their lists. This witchy tale of teenage emotions is an extremely stylish and visually creative romp, full of gore and monsters that would be at home in a Guillermo Del Toro as well as the heights of "church goth" fashion. The show manages to mix your typical teenage drama sort of structure with insane satanic madness and have it feel natural instead of a distracting clash. There's a very heavy-handed but well done criticism of patriarchy and religious orthodoxy woven into each episode's absurd supernatural plot, which elevates things from feeling a bit too gratuitous. Everyone is perfectly cast in the show, and each character is well rounded, even the one-dimensionally villainous ones. Definitely one of the more creative shows that came out in recent years, and one that would absolutely not have aired just 15 years ago. The main reason I only like this show instead of love it is that for all its subversive satanism and weirdness, it still has far too much CW in its DNA for my personal tastes. Also, for a show which has so many satan worshipping protagonists, who's right and who's wrong in a given situation is always far too clear, and it would behoove the show to blur the lines a bit more often. But of course that goes hand in hand with the CW-ness of things. Also why the heck did they switch Zelda and Hilda's names around? 5: Luke Cage (S2)  Pour one out for a real one.  While a lot of people were divided on season 1 of Luke Cage, it was my personal favorite of all the Marvel Netflix seasons. Though Season 2 is a bit darker and less goofy, which is a definite negative in my book, it was a very strong followup that had an amazing arc for its protagonist. Much like season 1, this season had shades of the wire(no pun intended), where each villain's perspective is just as valid and explored as the protagonist's, and you come to see that they're all victims of a system that doesn't leave a way out for marginalized people. Bushmaster's probably one of the most interesting villains in a Marvel product in a long time, in the sense that if he cared just a little more about collateral damage he'd probably be a protagonist. The performances in this show are just amazing, the fights are satisfying, the music is legit, and the general sense of style is just awesome. I'm really gonna miss Mike Colter as Luke, because even when he's angry and bitter and not likeable, you really want to root for him. This show's lighting, soundtrack and cinematography create the clearest mood I've ever seen in a televised product, and I would honestly would've watched 8 seasons of this show just to hang out in Harlem with these characters. My main complaint with this season is that season 1 focused heavily on the sins of Luke's preacher father, only for this season to just brush over those horrible deeds and paint Luke as in the wrong for not wanting to accept his father's attempts to reach out. A lot of parents maybe don't deserve forgiveness just because they ask for it, and if you're going to redeem a character like that you need to put a bit more work in, in my opinion. Not a big deal, I understand what they were going for, but it was a little clumsy. The Godfather tribute ending was a really ballsy direction for the show to go in, and it's really awkward that this is where we'll leave our protagonist now that the show's been cancelled by idiots in boardrooms. 4: Brooklyn 99 (S5)  I was late on the Brooklyn 99 train, but if someone had told me Andre Braugher was in it I definitely would've been on board from the start. Season 5 suffers a liiiiittle bit from the problem all sitcoms tend to get where every character conflict is completely smoothed out and everyone's a big family who'll always stick together for no reason other than they've been in a sitcom for 5 years, but it's still one of the funniest shows out there. One of the things I consistently enjoy about the show is that despite its sitcom budget, it isn't afraid to actually do police procedural stuff once in a while. They do shoot at bad guys and go undercover and all that good stuff, it's not all sitting around the station cracking lovely jokes while an overloud laugh track plays (PS I love that the show doesn't have a laugh track, death to all laugh tracks). Andy Samberg and the rest of the cast are all just great in their roles, and I really do love all these characters. Boyle and Terry are particularly hilarious characters and I'm impressed that they keep coming up with new ridiculous aspects of their personalities to explore. I'm not sure how much story there is left to tell (It honestly feels like Jake and Amy's wedding was put off an entire season for no reason other than to stretch out character arcs a bit more), but I'm still delighted they got renewed. I just hope Madeline Wuntch finally loses her job for all those times she groped Holt. 3: Daredevil (S3)  Sorry this list is so Marvel-heavy, people who inexplicably don't like superheroes! It's not my fault we live in Peak TV. Daredevil was Netflix's first and most popular show, and I'm really glad that it got to have something like closure before being canned. While Wilson Fisk was the villain of season 1, season 3 is all about the rise of the Kingpin. Gone are the justifications for his actions, the certainty that he's doing awful things in pursuit of a noble goal. Gone is his relatable flawed humanity. We're in the presence of a complete monster who has had 2 years to do nothing but plan his rise to power and his vengeance. D'Onofrio is as captivating as ever as Fisk, and he definitely steals the show from Charlie Cox, to the point that a lot of Cox's solo scenes have a mental Kingpin yelling at him just so they could cram more D'Onofrio in there. Bullseye is introduced as a secondary antagonist this season and has a bunch of amazing scenes as well. This season is gritty, dark, emotional, silly, comic-booky, and uplifting all at once. The character conflicts feel raw and believable instead of contrived like in some of the other recent Netflix Marvel offerings (Jessica Jones Season 2, what the gently caress happened?), and while Matt spends a lot of time away from his supporting cast, they're given a lot to do in his absence and the show expertly weaves a bunch of disparate yet related plotlines together. There's an episode near the end of the season that focuses on Karen Paige's backstory, and it might be my favorite episode in the entire series. This season has a very famous one-shot extended fight sequence that must be seen to be believed, and it honestly makes all the fights in Iron Fist and Luke Cage look like crap in comparison. The people who worked on this show put a ton of effort into every aspect of it, and this show absolutely did not deserve cancellation. But unlike its fallen brethren, it got to go out on a very high note. 2: Hilda (S1)  I'd like to say I don't usually watch children's cartoons, but that'd be a lie. I can recommend Hilda to people who aren't embarrassing manchildren, though, because it is a genuinely delightful show. The gorgeous animation, fun character designs, creative worldbuilding, clever humor and intelligent characterization all combine to create an experience that is enchanting and touching. This show doesn't assume the kids watching will be dummies, doesn't fall into the obnoxious cliches so many cartoons I watched as a kid had, and has positive messages for people of all ages. My personal favorite thing about the show is Hilda's mother. While she worries about Hilda and wants her to fit in at school and other normal motherly concerns, she isn't in a condescending, fun-killing adversarial relationship with her daughter like so many other moms in cartoons. She has Hilda's back, 100%, and never discourages her from being a weirdo who talks to monsters and goes on crazy adventures. She's a single mom and sometimes things are hard for her, but she's still a very good mother and it's just great. This show is bursting with imagination, emotions and cleverness, and I recommend it to children of all ages. 1: Bojack Horseman (S5)  Bojack Horseman might be the best show ever put on television, as far as I'm concerned. While a lot of people had issues with this season because it featured Bojack backsliding into bad behavior after making progress in season 4 and featured the show very unsubtly criticizing itself (along with prestige television in general), I thought season 5 was just as strong as season 4, if not moreso. "Free Churro" is one of the best episodes of television I've seen in many years, and it's essentially a half hour long monologue delivered by Will Arnett. This show manages to be incredibly funny and incredibly poignant at the same time, and I will never understand how they manage that balancing act. The characters keep evolving from season to season without ever departing from the core of what makes them who they are, and I can never predict where the show's going to go next. The show's relentless satire of Hollywood culture and American culture at large never gets old for me, and this season had it in spades, tackling #metoo in the most absurd way possible, commenting on how quick we are to forgive celebrities who do unforgivable things, dealing with opioid addiction, the societal effects of idolizing rear end in a top hat protagonists in prestige dramas, all while doing masterful character work with its ever-growing cast. Speaking of which, Pickles Aplenty the pug might be the character find of the year. This season was at times sickening, heart-wrenching, gut-busting, melancholy, bittersweet, and basically every other emotion you can think of, and I can't believe how great a job it does of holding itself together despite constantly splitting up its cast and running such an emotional gamut. I'm a broke 30-something teetotaler nobody from Canada, so why do I relate so much to a 54-year old washed up celebrity horse alcoholic from California? I love this show. Lurdiak fucked around with this message at 06:59 on Dec 28, 2018 |
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Dec 28, 2018 06:57
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| # ¿ May 10, 2024 03:22 |
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Rarity posted:Conversely we must also recognise TVIV's Biggest Hipster, the goon who ignored the most of this year's top hits. BSam has had a grip on this title for the last two years but he blew it all by voting for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and in his place the new winner is... Lurdiak! Somehow it feels wrong to be voted top hipster despite having 3 Marvel shows in my list.
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Jan 9, 2019 01:07
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