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Television! Hooray!!!!!
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Dec 21, 2021 22:15
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I think including Inside is fine, although I’m personally not counting it.
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Dec 23, 2021 12:20
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Looten Plunder posted:2. The joy of this thread is in getting to shout about your favourites and hear about the hidden gems that you missed and we can only do that if you talk about why you've chosen the shows you have. You can write a sentence, you can write an essay, whatever you like as long as you write something. Any lists posted without reasons for their picks will not be counted in the final vote.
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Dec 23, 2021 22:34
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gently caress I forgot about can’t get you out of my head. I don’t think it’ll make my top 10 but what a fantastic thing it was. Love the rest of your list too
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Dec 24, 2021 11:09
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Great list, but The Crown s4 was 2020.
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Dec 26, 2021 09:35
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That’s a very cool list. But just wanted to remind you that the deadline for this poll is January 31st. Which is plenty of time for you to watch all of Succession. Just sayin. Also gotta admit I’m legitimately surprised that For All Mankind’s season 2 finale wasn’t enough for it to bump Always Sunny at least. The Ireland episodes were good but that dreadful roller rink episode was bad enough to ensure this season isn’t making it anywhere near my list.
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Dec 27, 2021 23:08
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I think the “run” alone would catapult the show into my list. I was crying my eyes out. There’s too much TV at the end of the year, Station Eleven has two more eps dropping on Thursday and season 4 of Cobra Kai drops on literally New Year’s Eve so I’m very grateful for the late deadline for this poll.
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Dec 28, 2021 00:16
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Jerusalem posted:The show was into its 10th Season when I decided to catch up on it and ended up zooming through those first 10 seasons in barely any time at all, it's a very easy show to watch and really, really loving funny. If you are able to find it anywhere, it's so worth catching up on, show has been consistently great for a crazy length of time. This except 13th!!!! It’s extremely bingeable, and although it’s had up and down seasons it’s never had any major drop in quality and some of the later seasons have been among the best. NieR Occomata posted:I ran this thread six times in a row? Jesus loving Christ We appreciate your service. Now post a list bitch!!!!!!!!
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Dec 29, 2021 09:53
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I’m not sure if Blindspotting will make my top 10 because I haven’t ranked things yet, but there’s a very good chance it will. What a great show.
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Dec 31, 2021 11:07
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I think we all know the score by now: Esco watches too much TV and then posts a huge loving list. Although I still haven’t topped 2019 for number of shows watched, I did manage to hit 150 easy, and a lot of those shows were extremely good. Invincible and WandaVision aren’t even here, and they were both killer. So, as with last year, I’m doing a top 50. Here’s the first half: 50. We Are Lady Parts (Channel 4) 49. Servant (Apple TV+) 48. What We Do in the Shadows (FX) 47. Ultra City Smiths (AMC) 46. Brooklyn Nine-Nine (NBC) 45. Making It (NBC) 44. Love Life (HBO Max) 43. Squid Game (Netflix) 42. Dickinson (Apple TV+) 41. Ten Year Old Tom (HBO Max) 40. Joe Pera Talks With You (Adult Swim) 39. PEN15 (Hulu) 38. Swagger (Apple TV+) 37. Pose (FX) 36. Black Monday (Showtime) 35. Impeachment: American Crime Story (FX) 34. Mr Inbetween (FX) 33. Creamerie (TVNZ) 32. Evil (Paramount+) 31. Snowpiercer (TNT) 30. Search Party (HBO Max) 29. Loki (Disney+) 28. Taskmaster (Channel 4) 27. Reservation Dogs (FX on Hulu) 26. Can’t Get You Out Of My Head: An Emotional History of the Modern World (BBC iPlayer) And now I start writing words: 25. Adventure Time: Distant Lands (HBO Max) - One of these episodes was an all-time great episode of my favourite animated show ever, and a near-perfect goodbye to its leads. The other was a pretty ok story about a side character. For some reason the latter was the finale??? 24. Never Have I Ever (Netflix) - A slight step down from the first season but still an excellent high school sitcom with an incredible lead performance. 23. Everything’s Gonna Be Okay (Freeform) - Criminally underwatched and sadly now cancelled, this was a peaceful oasis of a show even when the characters were all wildly stressed out. 22. Dave (FXX) - I still don’t understand how the worst rapper ever has made a show this good. Hilarious and poignant in equal measure. 21. Doom Patrol (HBO Max) - While not quite up to the standard of the first two seasons this was still bizarre and brilliant, with April Bowlby really coming into her own as the de facto lead of the season. 20. The Other Two (HBO Max) - One of the best and sharpest Hollywood satires in a long time got even better this season while also having strong character arcs that pushed the leads forward in new and interesting ways. 19. Mythic Quest (Apple TV+) - Another great comedy with a big leap in quality and very good arcs for its main characters. Plus they managed to top last season’s flashback episode with that insane, Craig Mazin-written Longbottom ep. 18. The Beatles: Get Back (Disney+) - I mean it is actually like being in the room with The Beatles. They all seem so fuckin cool and this is just so delightful and a real joy. 17. It’s a Sin (Channel 4) - Perhaps Russell T. Davis’ strongest work ever, a heartbreaking and rage-inducing look at the AIDS crisis that still has plenty of moments of levity and joy. 16. MAID (Netflix) - John Wells brings his Shameless style to the story of a woman working her rear end off to escape an emotionally abusive relationship. A strong look at the injustices and frustrations abuse survivors can face, with an astonishing lead performance from Margaret Qualley, that also happens to be extremely entertaining. 15. Girls5eva (Peacock) - Of all the sitcoms to come from ex-Tina Fey show writers this is easily my favourite. Hilarious music industry satire with gut-bustingly funny songs and a perfect cast. 14. Yellowjackets (Showtime) - In ten years this is either going to be known as an all-timer or a beautiful trainwreck. But right now it’s suspenseful and intriguing and unbelievably well-written and cast. 13. Betty (HBO) - A really beautiful and underrated look at a group of female skateboarders in NYC. Although season 1’s aimlessness was killer the extra focus on story this season added so much humour and great character moments. Pouring one out for a show that deserved way more. 12. Mare of Easttown (HBO) - There is so much good here that I don’t mind overlooking the only-okay mystery side. So much fantastic character work, impeccably-scripted and performed. Jean Smart is loving awesome. 11. Hacks (HBO Max) - Very much struggled between this and the show in tenth place. Fantastic look at generational divides and how to stay relevant in comedy. And Jean Smart is loving awesome. Wait, did I say that already? okay, and now for the bit that actually counts!!! 10. The Underground Railroad (Prime Video) The most essential show of the year, it’s an absolute crime that Amazon dropped this all at once with so little fanfare when it really needed the space to breathe. Barry Jenkins’ sublime adaptation of the excellent Colson Whitehead novel follows an escaped slave on a magical realism-tinged journey through various representations of America’s complicated history with the race they enslaved. The storytelling is so human and powerful and evocative, the acting so moving, the images breathtaking - this isn’t just the most well-shot show of the year, but undeniably a contender for one of the best of all time. There were some minor pacing issues, but mostly this suffered because I tried to watch too much at once, when this show absolutely NEEDS to be savoured. Bezos!!!!!! 09. Only Murders in the Building (Hulu) True crime podcasting was so overdue for a roasting that this might actually be a little out of date, not that I care at all when a show is this good. What’s most impressive is that it actually also manages to be a legitimately engaging murder mystery on top of the pitch-perfect satire. A fantastic trio of lead performances and some really effective perspective changes throughout meant it always stayed sharp and interesting, while the mystery was very well-paced. Also it turns out Selena Gomez is a master of deadpan??? Steve Martin was away from our screens for too long and this was a wonderful way for him to return. 08. I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson (Netflix) The first season of this show was about as close to perfect as a sketch show has ever gotten, and this season is about 93% as good as that one, which means it’s still leagues above almost any other sketch show to ever exist. Robinson is still the master of confused belligerence and heightening social situations to unbearable degrees, but there’s so much more here, from the gut-bustingly funny Coffin Floppers to Ezra Koenig’s sloppy steaks soundtrack to Patti Harrison stealing the whole thing with her two appearances. Just….still one of the absolute motherfucking funniest shows I’ve ever seen in my entire life, basically. 07. How To with John Wilson (HBO) Nathan For You meets @whatisnewyork. I had no idea how this season was going to live up to the first, which was one of the most unexpectedly amazing pieces of TV of 2020, but in the end it equals it - perhaps not having as many moments where my mouth was agape with the sheer lunacy on display, but making up for it with more emotional depth and a series of truly insane revelations about John’s past. Made me cry at Avatar superfans on Christmas Day, which is just a wild loving sentence. One of my biggest laughs was during the end credits of each episode when I remembered the two new additions to the writing team this year were Adult Swim maniac Conner O’Malley and Orchid Thief author/Twitter’s official wine mom Susan Orlean. What a combo! 06. Blindspotting (Starz) Daveed Diggs may do a lot of corny poo poo, but he gets a forever pass from me for this franchise. This show - a continuation of the excellent 2018 movie, switching the focus to Jasmine Cephas Jones’ character as she deals with her boyfriend’s incarceration - is so profound and funny and experimental in all the best ways. It’s one of those shows where every frame is just bursting with this vibrancy, especially notable in the rap/dance segments, which are, simply put, extremely powerful and beautiful. Diggs doesn’t show up on screen but him and co-creator Rafael Casal (whose character still appears a whole bunch) make their unique presence felt in every scene. One of the great surprises of 2021, and one I cannot wait to see return. 05. For All Mankind (Apple TV+) The first season of Ronald D. Moore’s alt-history space race drama - the secret star of Apple’s streaming launch - started off a little dry, before slowly gathering steam, leading into an emotional, intense crescendo of a finale, paying off several character arcs in incredibly satisfying ways. This season, it did that exact thing again, but even better. This is such a heavily plot-based show that it can be difficult to talk about without getting into specifics, but essentially almost every single character’s storyline is so layered and emotionally resonant and well-paced. One of the things I really like about this show is how despite being a sci-fi where our spacefaring exploits far exceed what we’ve done irl and getting pretty god damned dramatic at times it remains extremely grounded and realistic. It’s hard to get THIS intense without it becoming a little melodramatic or overwrought, but they pull it off exceptionally well. There is one major exception, one storyline that is really extremely bafflingly bad, but it is so separate from the vast majority of the show that it hardly matters. The finale of this season is the hardest I cried at any piece of media in 2021, and even several months later I’m astonished at how well they pulled off these perfect emotional climaxes. God! This show is so underrated! Watch this loving show! 04. The White Lotus (HBO) I took a break in between writing the last entry and this one in order to sleep and generally not burn myself out. One of the things I did was go back and look at my old rankings, and my 2013 list had a part in my Enlightened blurb where I call Mike White “one of TV’s only auteurs” or some such thing which is adorable both because of me still thinking the auteur theory was a thing and because of the sheer amount of TV writer-directors we’ve had since. But when The White Lotus - White’s first TV project since Enlightened ended over eight years ago - dropped, and dominated the cultural discourse for a few weeks, it became clear that he was still one of TV’s most singular and interesting creators, and that his voice had been sorely missed. Approached by HBO to create a miniseries that could easily adhere to COVID filming protocols, White penned a wildly funny and razor-sharp satire of the ultra-rich, set in a Hawaiian resort that in real life costs in the realm of five figures a night and populating it with hilariously horrible vacationers - and long-suffering staff - played by some of the best character actors in the game. There are so many instantly memorable characters in this show, from Murray Bartlett’s chirpy and frustrated resort manager to Jennifer Coolidge’s grieving daughter to Sydney Sweeney’s sullen teen to Jake Lacy’s absurdly entitled newlywed t-ok enough of that now, while the slow descent into more tragic territory and surreal filmmaking meant we were always kept on our toes. Usually I dislike when a miniseries gets made into a continuing series due to popularity (Big Little Lies season 2, anyone?), but in this case, I’m just so happy we’re getting more Mike White so soon. He really deserves it. 03. Ted Lasso (Apple TV+) The first season of Ted Lasso is one of those minor miracles that came along at just the right time and enchanted us all when we needed it the most. A classic underdog sports story that also served as an ode to kindness and solidarity with a fantastic set of characters, it really deserved all the acclaim and statues it - along with co-creator and star Jason Sudeikis - picked up. The show could easily have sustained this style for the rest of the planned three seasons without any drop in quality, but the writing team - led by Bill Lawrence, always the best at mixing hilarious sitcom work with poignant, emotional drama - chose to instead shoot for the moon with a messy but ambitious and in the end far, far stronger season, which may have had some mild lows but which had some truly phenomenal highs. If Ted Lasso season 1 was a show about how kindness is enough, season 2 is a show about “but is it, though?”, especially in the context of a professional sports team. So ruthlessly interrogating a premise that had served them so well was a risky move, but the addition of therapy and trauma to the show’s key concepts paid off in spades, and mixed with what was there already so well that while it questioned Ted’s kindness it never, ever cheapened it. It also affected me personally - my dad, who loved this show so very much, died in September, and the first episode that aired after his death was about dead fathers in a way that really helped me process my grief, and still having more of his favourite show (I’m not kidding - we actually read out Lasso quotes at his funeral, mixed with Parks and Rec and The Phil Silvers Show quotes) to watch helped me feel a little closer to him when him being gone was still hitting me the hardest. Yet it wasn’t all gloomy, as the show also became a much better joke delivery system, and several characters really came into their own. But the highlight of the season, the storyline it will go down in history for, is Nate’s arc, an equally (to borrow a quote from earlier in this list) heartbreaking and rage-inducing look at how deep trauma can really run, portrayed brilliantly by season MVP Nick Mohammed. We also got a couple of one-off episodes due to Apple extending the episode order RIGHT as the season was all plotted out, and while inserting them in between other episodes and interrupting the arcs may not have been the best decision I personally thought they were both classics. This season didn’t work for some people, and I have to respect that - not everyone is down for ambitious messes like I am. But I can’t even begin to describe just how happy this show made me, and how sad I am that my dad never got to finish this incredible season of television. 02. Station Eleven (HBO Max) It is extremely unlike me to put a show that hasn’t even finished airing its first season this high up on my list, or even on my list at all. I’m pretty sure I’ve never done it ever. But the seven episodes of this show we got in 2021 are just……operating on such a high level that I can’t bring myself to put it any lower. Yes, it’s a post-apocalyptic story where the apocalypse was caused by a flu BUT if you can get past that you’ll find an absorbing narrative about the power of art and community. Creator Patrick Somerville (adapting an acclaimed 2014 novel) previously wrote for The Leftovers, and it’s clear he’s taken some lessons (as well as a few writers) from his old boss Damon Lindelof, as the mix of continuing present-day narrative and character-based flashback episodes works so perfectly, and the hints towards supernatural spookiness are just enough to stay intriguing without dampening anything. It’s also completely gorgeous, with Atlanta’s Hiro Murai setting up a beautiful eerie visual style, and has so so many fantastic actors, including Mackenzie Davis in the first role worthy of her talents since HaCF ended four years ago. I haven’t been able to shut up about this show for the past week and a bit, but I regret nothing. I’m so stoked for the last three episodes and I have every confidence they’ll wrap it up beautifully. edit they did and now it’s here 01. Succession (HBO) (quick note that this entry, unlike the others, contains some mild spoilers) NEVER IN DOUBT. Jesse Armstrong’s ruthless examination of the family at the head of a Murdoch-esque media dynasty, filled with hysterical black comedy and affecting family drama, was already easily one of the best shows on TV, sweeping the 2020 Emmys and deserving every drat trophy, and the two-year wait for this third season, following up on an exciting, mind-blowing s2 finale twist, was a brutal one. The wait was worth it - this is, in my opinion, not just the best season of the show so far, or of all of 2021, but it’s in the running for one of the best TV seasons ever to air on HBO, the network that has produced a great many of the best TV seasons of all time. Smarter, funnier, and more powerful than ever before, every single week felt like I was watching an instant classic unfold before my eyes, and this became the first show in years to be a legitimate rival to Better Call Saul for the title of best show on television. Honestly, I was tempted to just leave it there and let the hyperbolic language speak for itself. I mean, it’s not like there aren’t thousands upon thousands of other people singing this show’s praises everywhere you go, right? But let’s dive further. Perhaps the single greatest achievement of Succession is how it presents a show where almost every single character blatantly deserves the guillotine, yet still manages to make you care about them and their storylines. I can’t even begin to describe what an impossible tightrope this is to walk, yet Armstrong and co manage it by focusing on trauma and parental abuse. The Roy siblings are all insufferable pieces of poo poo, but they were created this way by their monster of a father, whose influence looms large over them at every moment even when he’s not in the room or even the same country as them, and Kendall’s desperate attempt to wage war against him only amplifies this. So it’s a drama about generational abuse that goes behind-the-scenes in the world of people who hold true power. Sounds stuffy as poo poo! Which brings us to the show’s second great achievement, managing to present all this in a package that is frequently hilarious and contemporary. It’s always been unbelievably funny - when your creator used to write for The Thick of It and also co-created Peep Show, that’s gonna happen - but this season upped the comedy game not just in the one-liners and insults, already the best on TV, but with some incredible comic storylines that nonetheless fit perfectly, such as Logan’s UTI. I mean, this is a show where accidentally sending a dick pic to your dad is not just the climax of a three-season character arc, but the most perfect and fitting possible climax to said arc. How the gently caress is something like that even possible? The final great achievement is that this show has in my opinion both the best set of characters AND the best cast of any show currently running. Logan Roy is a menacing and brutal pile of poo poo, and Brian Cox embodies every aspect of his heinous personality. Kendall is so pathetic and tragic, and Jeremy Strong’s somewhat worryingly dedicated acting style makes him such an electric and powerful presence. Roman is like a weird disgusting rear end in a top hat puppy dog, and Kieran Culkin nails every single one of his mannerisms (the dude’s physical acting this season was INSANE). Shiv is the most entitled and blinkered of them all, and Sarah Snook portrays her hypocrisies and frustrations brilliantly. Tom is a manic loyal wounded idiot, and Matthew Macfayden might currently be the funniest person on the show, only rivalled by his best scene partner Nicholas Braun, who continues to play Cousin Greg’s bumbling naivety perfectly while also nailing his turn to the dark side. Alan Ruck continues to give the best performance of his career as eldest Roy sibling, and the most ignorantly privileged of them all, Connor. And this isn’t even everyone! Far from it, in fact! One of my biggest issues as a TV watcher is how high I can set expectations in my mind, but Succession managed to not only meet those expectations but absolutely smash through even the highest ceiling of quality I could have imagined and cementing itself as an all-timer, as well as HBO’s best show since The Leftovers. It is just so superb in every single way, and I cannot wait to see what a seemingly drastically different fourth season will look like. This is why I love this medium. Now gently caress off. Escobarbarian fucked around with this message at 10:24 on Jan 18, 2022 |
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Jan 2, 2022 11:45
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Looten Plunder posted:If your nominating the TV show, and the TV show aired in 2021 then it's fine (although it would be odd to nominate a show you didn't watch) Only the movie aired in 2021, but it was edited into a TV version. That’s why he’s asking if it counts.
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Jan 7, 2022 19:38
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You better because that’s a fantastic list and I’d hate to see it not counted
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Jan 9, 2022 17:50
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Hey, Looten: after a lot of umming and ahhing I decided to move Station Eleven from #5 to #2, which means Ted Lasso, The White Lotus, and For All Mankind all moved down a spot. I was hesitant about changing it because my placement was based on the 2021 episodes, but it wrapping up so well really does help elevate everything that came before, and my favourite episode (7) aired in 2021 anyway. Holy poo poo I love Station Eleven so much
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Jan 18, 2022 10:28
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The Adam Curtis thing is called Can’t Get You Out of My Head. I’m not sure where you got that other name from.
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Jan 20, 2022 23:32
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If you’re jonesing for more Superstore-style comedy the creator has a new NBC show called American Auto that started in December. I’m really digging it so far.
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Jan 27, 2022 23:42
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Really cool list! But yeah you should replace Peacemaker to make sure your list is counted 
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Jan 31, 2022 18:44
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Chairman Capone posted:9: Servant lmao this is an extremely great and accurate description. love your list, although Nine Perfect Strangers was more of an amusing hatewatch for me
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Feb 1, 2022 00:21
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Homie what is going on
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Feb 12, 2022 00:09
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Really cool start!!
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Feb 22, 2022 03:14
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Oh wow I definitely expected Mare to be higher
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Feb 22, 2022 03:33
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I gotta go to bed but I’m loving these quotes and pics so far! Yellowjackets hooray! Looking forward to catching up tomorrow
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Feb 22, 2022 03:45
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Thank you so much for all this Looten!!!! Really cool top 20 and a phenomenal top two it really was a pretty good year for TV huh
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Feb 22, 2022 09:14
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It’s not a bad idea but you don’t have to phrase it like you’re trying to shame Looten for it
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Oct 23, 2022 18:47
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Who posts in a forum dedicated to TV and can’t even watch 10 TV shows in one calendar year anyway
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Oct 24, 2022 08:01
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It’s not gatekeeping, what on earth
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Oct 29, 2022 07:16
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I don’t think it’s a terrible idea, but I also think you’re being pretty OTT about it on behalf of people who can’t watch ten television shows in a whole year yet still want to participate in a poll about TV from that year which is a subsection of people I can hardly imagine even existing, and think you perhaps don’t know what the term ‘gatekeeping’ actually means.
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Oct 29, 2022 07:42
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Sorry you guys are only allowed to say you agree or disagree otherwise you’re hurting their feelings or something idk
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Oct 31, 2022 13:14
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Dude I just said that because of how you got so annoyed at the concept of a counter-argument in your last post to me. Like you just wanted me to agree with you and not have any other opinion. I usually think you’re a good poster but you’re being intensely weird in this thread, are you okay?
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Nov 1, 2022 00:54
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I’m not putting it again, it’s not really fair to other shows imo
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Dec 6, 2022 17:29
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I’d like to help to ensure we don’t get a delay like last year’s. Lemme know if I can do anything.
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Dec 8, 2022 10:52
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imo 10-13 episode seasons should not air over multiple years. schedule your poo poo better, television!
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Dec 9, 2022 16:13
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They’re allowed. A bunch of us had The Last Dance on our list in 2020
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Dec 11, 2022 19:31
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How goes things?
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Dec 20, 2022 10:08
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