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I initially thought I would have a hard time filling out a top ten (gaming has massively outpaced TV-watching for dominance of my idle time), but after looking over a list of shows that aired this year I realized that all those jokes about 2020 being several years long must have been true, because I ended up with plenty of shows to spare! Honorable Mentions: Archer - A shaky start gave way to some vintage-quality episodes Blindspot - Never a truly great show, but an enjoyable action series that stuck the landing on its final season Lucifer - Rarely have I seen a show benefit more narratively from going to shorter, more serialized seasons. Medical Police - Honestly I mostly liked this show because it reminded me of Childrens Hospital, even though they are of course two completely different shows 10. Westworld – I loved the direction the show took this season, expanding its scope beyond the limits of the park to show that most of mankind is trapped in the same kind of technological hell as the hosts, and in the process created a very interesting brand of banal dystopia. Plus they actually made me care about Maeve's storyline! 9. The Great – A fun, light historical romp that was elevated greatly by the performances of Elle Fanning and Nicholas Hoult. 8. The Good Place – The latter half of the final season aired this year, and was as funny and heartwarming as I had come to expect from the show. Not to mention a final episode that was essentially perfect. 7. DC's Legends of Tomorrow – I love these time-traveling goofballs, and the increased prominence of John Constantine has only made me enjoy the show more. 6. Harley Quinn – Discovered this show when it moved to HBO Max, and it's safe to say the first season would have been on my list last year if I'd been a DC Universe subscriber. Fortunately, the second season was at least as good. 5. What We Do in the Shadows – Probably the best pure comedy on television at the moment, they absolutely killed it in their sophomore season. Kind of weird that they just stuck a backdoor pilot for a show about a regular human bartender in the middle there, but it still worked. 4. The Magicians – A fantastic final season to a show that got better year after year. And capped off with an excellent series finale. 3. Marvel's Agents of Shield – See above, pretty much. The final season was basically a loving long-form tour through the show's history, and the finale was note-perfect. 2. The Mandalorian – This show just has the right recipe for the things that made Star Wars capture my heart when I was young, and mixes serial and episodic storytelling better than just about any show on television. 1. Better Call Saul – For my money this spinoff has surpassed its parent series, and that was only further solidified this year. My least favorite part of BCS over the years has been its continued focus on the cartel storyline (which felt like just a perfunctory Breaking Bad shoutout), but this season even made that storyline work for me in a big way. Bob Odenkirk and Rhea Seehorn both deserve to be showered in awards the same way Cranston was, but even if it never happens they firmly established themselves as powerhouses this year.
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Dec 29, 2020 04:16
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That's a very strong Top 10, and not just because it's frequently similar to my own
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Jan 22, 2021 05:50
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