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Welcome everybody! We're back! Sorry for the delay. A new year of TV has almost concluded so it's time to find out what everyones favourite TV shows are. The TV landscape is more varied than ever, but there are still some pop culture juggernauts hanging around to battle it out at the top of the poll. Will Better Call Saul carry on Breaking Bad's great legacy? Will House of the Dragon have the same impact on our users as Game of Thrones? Will Apple take HBOs crown as the prestige TV king? All these questions and more will be settled! Join us in celebrating the best that 2022 had to offer in our Annual Poll. Deadline is 11:59PM US EST Friday 20th of JanVOTING RULES1. Every show you pick must have had a first time airing in its country of origin in full or in part during 2022. This could be a network show, a cable show, an online show, a TV movie (not movies from streaming services), it could even be a Youtube thing if you're down with what the kids are calling 'it'. 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. 3. If you want to list more than ten shows go for it but I'll only count your top ten. If you want to list less than ten shows then go for that too but I won't count it at all. If you don't want to rank your picks then that's fine as well but again, I won't count it. 4. Don't be a dick about other people's choices. This is a positive thread to celebrate the best of TV, not a place for people to get lost in an argument over which genre show in its third season poo poo the bed worst. If you want to be critical then take it elsewhere. 5. If you want to talk about spoilers in your post then by all means go for it but put a spoiler warning at the start of your list. 6. If you want to go back and edit your list after the fact then go for it, just shoot me a PM or post in the thread to let me know you have or I might not count it. Please ensure you edit your original post, don’t create a new list. I will periodically link user posts in the second comment of this thread. 7. Deadline for submissions is 11:59 on Jan 20th . I'll then do a live countdown of the final results some time after that at a time that suits the thread (that I'm able to do from the other side of the world.) To make the collation of results and the creation of the results a bit easier - I've created a Google Form that I'd really apppreciate you filling out in addition to posting your ballots in the thread. This isn't mandatory - the official ballots are the ones posted in the thread. Your votes will not count if they're not posted in the thread, it will just help me out greatly if you do in fact fill it out. The form can be found  hereThere you have it, it's as simple as that! Previous Polls TVIV Poll 2012: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3523734 TVIV Poll 2013: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3591552 TVIV Poll 2014: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3686396 TVIV Poll 2015: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3754622 TVIV Poll 2016: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3800289 TVIV Poll 2017: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3840812 TVIV Poll 2018: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3876499 TVIV Poll 2019: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3905825 TVIV Poll 2020: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3952217 TVIV Poll 2021: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3988330 TVIV Poll Best of the Decade: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3975091
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Dec 22, 2022 07:00
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Reminder in case you're bad at reading threads - If you could take a couple of extra minutes to also post your ballots on this Google Sheet to make it easier for me to collate the reasult, it would be greatly appreciated. https://forms.gle/9HpivZM3Q4foNDY69 Individual Ballots Jerusalem Hakkesshu Problematic Pigeon Ishamael Bulky Bartokomous Andrew_1985 timp Achillesforever6 BetterLekNextTime fancy stats TelevisedInsanity Big Bad Voodoo Lou bagrada Oasx Alhazred Escobarbarian Pillowpants Shageletic Chairman Capone ShakeZula Pan Dulce cryptoclastic Alhazred King Burgundy Leatherhead cant cook creole bream Meatgrinder Looten Plunder Shneak Open Source Idiom Mrbuddylee Yer Burnt CeeJee DarklyDreaming Raspberry Bang Looten Plunder fucked around with this message at 03:32 on Jan 30, 2023 |
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Dec 22, 2022 07:02
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Here's my Top Ten, click here to bypass all these  and jump straight to just the list!It was an incredible year for television, and a nightmare to put together this Top Ten list because there were so many great shows that I felt terrible about not including. Strange New Worlds almost made the list, a series that reignited my love for Star Trek after years of disinterest (and also got me watching the delightful Lower Decks). House of the Dragon was a very pleasant surprise after how truly wretched Game of Thrones had gotten in its last season. The Sandman was on track to make the list in its first half but the quality dipped (but was still good) in its latter half, though the Calliope special episode that came out later in the year was a hopeful sign of the high quality to come in Season 2. What We Do in the Shadows was a lot of fun as always but the competition was too stiff this year for it to make the list, and there were a bunch of interesting but flawed also-rans like Stranger Things, She Hulk (bad start, strong finish), Ms. Marvel (strong start, weak finish), Harley Quinn, Tokyo Vice, For All Mankind, and hell technically speaking The Expanse was a 2022 series too. But none of them made the top ten, and I hope this is a "problem" I face in 2023. https://i.imgur.com/j11fVLc.mp4 10. Raised by Wolves: I love this ridiculous, stupid, and sadly canceled show. Picking right up from the madness of the end of the first season, the second just keeps ramping up the crazy. Flying space snakes who love pumpkins, a deranged cult-leader who ate radioactive eyeballs and pretends the deadly heat emanating from his body is divine energy, a faceless child android going Jason Vorhees on a bunch of cultists, carnivorous mermaid aliens stealing babies, a wife who turns into a tree, Grandma tricking Mother into a full-body condom, robo-dad joining a fight club, million-year-old alien monk who snorts some tooth and turns into an alien wolf, more double-crosses than you can shake a stick at, upside-down T-Poses, and the casual reveal that Satan lives in the center of the planet. Canceled by cowards too scared to let a weird-rear end show like this exist, Raised by Wolves may not have been the best show of the year (and only pipped Strange New Worlds for me on the Top Ten because I knew there would never be another chance to vote for RWB) but it was frequently the weirdest, which is saying something in a year of truly surreal television. Phenomenally entertaining if frequently bewildering, I'm so sad we'll never get to see what happened to Mother, Father, Grandmother and the various idiotic humans (and Marcus!) blundering about in their way, and never again hear the truly wonderful opening theme song. All that is left is to Praise Sol for what we did get of this beautifully weird and strange show. https://i.imgur.com/5xflgCr.mp4 9. Only Murders in the Building: The pleasant surprise that was Season 1 and the relatively quick turnaround for Season 2 had me worried that this might be trying to capture lightning in a bottle twice. Happily, the sheer charm of the actors/characters carried the season through a few odd seemingly dropped plot-lines (and characters, the disappearance of Oscar gets one entirely inadequate single-line explanation) and a preponderance of red herrings. Deftly avoiding a number of points where the show could have easily taken the easy cliched route, it ended up delivering an extremely satisfying payoff to the mystery setup at the end of the first season... and of course created an intriguing setup for Season 3. Along the way, the show makes a number of amusing meta-jabs at the danger in presenting sequels, which could have come across as a little too cute/smug but again works because of the charm of the characters. The introduction of new characters is handled well, including avoiding the problems that usually come with bringing in a child actor (or worse, Michael Rappaport). But the show also did a great job of adding depth to some of the side characters from the first season, most especially "Bunny", with an episode dedicated to her that did a remarkable job of humanizing her and reminding of the significance of the tagline "Every body has a story." We also get added depth to our main cast, but the show never forgets it is a comedy even when dealing with some dark moments. "Charles" breaking up with his ex-girlfriend is an amazing scene in a season full of plenty of great comedic moments. The mystery works well too, with a very satisfying conclusion, providing the viewer with just enough information to piece together potential suspects while also withholding just enough that one extra revelation is enough to make everything click together. As a follow-up to Season 1, this season keeps the strong momentum going, but is a charming, funny, sometimes dark but more often optimistic quality piece of television in its own right, and just like last season I've been left wanting more. https://i.imgur.com/oi5hU6T.mp4 8. The Boys: The Boys continues to somehow spin gold from the straw that was Garth Ennis' terrible source comic books, still retaining all the blood, sex and gore while managing to avoid feeling like a 13-year-old edge-lord's weirdo power fantasy. But while there's plenty of sex and violence, what makes the show work beyond even the delightful parody of the superhero genre, celebrity culture, and exploration of the impact (and exploitation) of society, is the strong character work and excellent acting. Karl Urban's Butcher, the "anti-hero" of the series, is a gigantic piece of poo poo, is fully aware of that, and his refusal to change in spite of his self-loathing is equal parts frustrating and compelling. Jack Quaid's Hughie goes through a fascinating (if somewhat divisive) portrayal of how ideas of "masculinity" can completely gently caress everything up. Erin Moriarty's Starlight makes tentative, halting steps towards turning the machine that has sculpted her entire life back on itself, weaponizing her popularity. Laz Alonso as MM shows how trauma can damage even the seemingly strongest and most stable of us. Even Frenchie and Kimiko's somewhat lambasted plot-line shows the development of a tender and loving relationship between two damaged people who feel like they are doomed to hurt the ones they love. But the villains also get plenty of development too, from the hilariously pathetic Deep, to the trauma/mental health issues behind Black Noir's seeming stoicism, to Queen Maeve's despondent commitment to sacrificing herself to rid the world of what she sees as its greatest threat, to A-Train's stumbling efforts to rebrand himself crashing headlong into the openly embraced racism of the organization that makes him a star. But while all the above characters are great, and the inclusion of Jensen Ackles as Soldier Boy was utterly inspired casting, it's Antony Starr who again steals the show. His Homelander is an astonishing creation, an utter monster whose own past/upbringing explains so much but doesn't excuse the atrocities he commits. The narcissism, the instability, the clawing self-doubt he tries to hold down as things start to fall apart, the constant need for approval from people he simultaneously despises, it all makes for a volatile mix. Sure at times the show leans in a little too far on the Trump allusions, but Homelander's perfect surface level appearance, his powers, and his growing insanity make for a truly terrifying mix, which hits all the harder in the final scene of the season where he finally goes over the line and murders a protestor in full view of the public... and they cheer him for it, and he realizes once again that "I can do whatever the gently caress I want"... and his equally powerful child drinks in that message right alongside him. I worried that this show wouldn't be able to sustain the novelty of its first season, but after three seasons it remains one of my favorite shows, and I can't wait to see where they go next. https://i.imgur.com/xnxS4h6.mp4 7. We Own This City: This is all real. This all actually happened. I had to keep reminding myself of that as I watched this show, jaw often agape. The story of Baltimore's Gun Trace Task Force is the type of thing that a writer would be lambasted for being unrealistic if he'd made it up... but it all happened. The show is the creation of David Simon and George Pelecanos, working back together in Baltimore where the latter wrote for the former on the magnificent television series The Wire. That was a fictional story heavily based on Simon's own reporting days in Baltimore, but this is a true story heavily based on the work of reporter Justin Fenton, and as a "sequel" of sorts to The Wire it is compelling, fascinating, and deeply depressing. The naked corruption, the complicity of top police brass AND politicians, the sheer audacity that these police demonstrated makes the reason behind the show's title as clear as day. They did these things because they knew they could get away with it, and they didn't even do them well! Planted evidence, stolen money and drugs, openly working with drug dealers to take out rivals, brutality, bullshit arrests, home invasions... all while Wayne Jenkins was being touted as the poster boy of the modern police in Baltimore: a guy who supposedly looked down on brutality, who was honest as the day is long, who was a leader and an exemplar for other cops to follow, and yet his crimes were so blatant, so obvious, so ill-hidden if he even bothered to hide them at all. And like Capone getting done for taxes, it was arguably the blatant theft of overtime that finally did Jenkins in. Jon Bernthal's portrayal of Jenkins is remarkable, a loud-mouthed braggadocio who is clearly deeply insecure and desperate not only to belong but to be loved. But while he's the centerpiece of the show, the other characters shine too, in particular Jamie Hector as the mild, soft-spoken but deeply serious Detective Sean Suiter. The wrap-up of his plot-line was controversial - given the still contested cause of his real-life death, was it suicide (most likely) or murder, either pre-meditated or pure bad luck? - but Hector's performance was another reminder that he's capable of far more than just the dead-eyed Marlo Stanfield he portrayed so well in The Wire. Plenty of Wire alum show up in the show too, which is a treat, but there is no stunt-casting, the show is all about telling a story. A hosed up, weird, maddening story... but a true one. And while Simon et al couldn't resist a number of clumsy references to Trump (the story jumps back and forth in time, but is predominantly in the year leading up to the 2016 Election) there is little else to critique about this remarkable show. https://i.imgur.com/h8IHHGG.mp4 6. Peacemaker: I liked The Suicide Squad movie, and I liked John Cena in it. With that said, the idea of this being turned into a series seemed like a bizarre idea, even with James Gunn at the helm, but I figured why not give it a go... and thank God I did. Gunn had written the whole thing while holed up at home during COVID, and the result is a beautifully weird tv that is equal parts campy and deeply touching. John Cena - derided for years for being a robot built to sell merchandise to children - is a revelation and the longer time a TV series affords to explore a character allows him to add real depth to his Peacemaker character. He's gross and stupid of course, and funny, but there's a real sense of the horrible upbringing he was subjected to by his utter monster of a father - an excellent turn from Robert Patrick - and in spite of all his flaws, he's capable of growth and perhaps more importantly, introspection. His murder of Rick Flagg in the movie constantly haunts him, as does the death of his older brother at his own (unintentional) hands when they were children. His bluster is a front to try and project the idea of a "man" his terrible father instilled him, even though nothing is ever enough for that piece of poo poo, and as the series progresses he grows, his team become friends and by the end, perhaps even family. But it's not just a character piece, there's a great story acting as the foundation for all the comedy, some inspired musical choices (ESPECIALLY the opening theme, though the assault on the police station is great too), intriguing villains, a wonderful supporting cast, some laugh-out-loud moments even beyond the constant comedy, oddly touching bromances (including casual threesomes!) and some welcome plot twists. This series came as a complete surprise, a true delight near the start of the year that became appointment viewing. The season wrapped up in a way that felt like it COULD be complete but that there was potential for more to come, and happily a second season was quickly announced with Gunn again writing and directing the full thing. HBO Max has suffered after the Warner Brothers/Discovery merger, but thankfully it seems Peacemaker was not one of the casualties of either that or DC's continued struggles to produce movies that can match up to the success of Disney/Marvel's. Television remains their strong suit, and Peacemaker is probably the best of all of them. https://i.imgur.com/kFpGzgj.mp4 5. Andor: What if we made a Star Wars... but good!?!? This highly unusual premise for a Star Wars show was even more surprisingly approved of by the people at Disney, in spite of it running against the direction that The Book of Boba Fett and Obi Wan were following. Tony Gilroy got to sit down with a production crew and together they fleshed out a 2 season plot to lead in to the events of the Rogue One movie, with the first season covering the start of Cassian Andor's recruitment into the nascent Rebellion and the second season to cover the several year period between that and the start of the movie. What this meant was that the show had time, a coherent plot, thought out narrative, consideration of implications, and room for character development and the story to breathe. In short, the opposite of what we got from the Sequel Trilogy of films! Taking a more "grounded" approach (I mean, it's still Star Wars!), Andor allows plenty of time for events to marinate, and builds tension masterfully. Across its 12 episodes, it manages to introduce dozens of characters, some of whom only appear for 1-2 episodes, and never feel overly packed or underdeveloped. It travels from the industrial ship-breaker yards of Ferrix to the opulence (and slums) of Coruscant, from underwater prison/labor camps to lovely Space Miami, from the Space Highlands to the Space Mujahideen. Cassian sees friends and enemies alike trod over by the Empire, is used by and uses others, takes part in a heist, gets to retire, goes to prison, breaks out, returns home, and sees firsthand the outbreak of revolution that a naive but inspired young rebel had extolled so passionately. All this as other characters live and breathe, undertaking their own little personal rebellions (or larger), living in fear, paranoia or dread. We see firsthand the impact of living under a fascist state like the Empire, but also those who thrive (or want to thrive) under that system. We see workers exploited, "police" corruption, the slow strangulation of individuality and culture, the horrible compromises made in pursuit of an ideal, the bickering in-fighting of the "good", the backstabbing and manipulations of the bad, the cold arithmetic of spymasters etc. It's not a perfect show, and not always the most subtle (A space communist literally gets crushed to death by money!) but by comparison to everything else Star Wars it's one of the best things since The Empire Strikes Back. The production quality is incredible, set design is masterful, costuming and hair superb, the direction and writing confident and secure enough in its ideas to allow improvisation (both physical and verbal) from its actors... ALL it's actors, extras included. It incorporates very good to great actors, with Andy Serkis a stand-out in his brief role, Genevieve O'Reilly bringing a sense of dread bubbling over towards panic beneath the perfect surface of Mon Mothma, Kyle Soller's revolting Syril Karn and his fascination with Denise Gough's repellant Dedra Meero, Fiona Shaw as Maarva, a woman rediscovering her spark late in life... but in particular the character of Luthen Rael steals the show, with Stellan Skarsgård as magnificent as always. Diego Luna does a fine job, deliberately portraying Cassian as NOT the biggest and most important person in any room, making the point that he is just one part of a greater whole that is being built. It makes for what feels like a living, breathing galaxy... albeit one far, far away and a long time ago. https://i.imgur.com/YeX10sZ.mp4 4. Atlanta: After a 4 year absence caused by COVID, Atlanta returned with its two final seasons both airing in 2022, a feast of new content that also marked the end of the show. Each season was very different despite keeping the often surreal, experimental tone of previous seasons, with Season 3 in particular trying something different before returning to "normal" (whatever that means for Atlanta) for Season 4. The results were mixed, and as odd as it seems to say, Season 3 "suffered" from a "problem" that most shows would kill for: every single episode was excellent. The trouble was, they mostly stood alone. While Earn, Darius, Paper Boi and Van appeared and had their adventures, every episode felt mostly detached from the other, not helped by every other episode feeling like something out of an anthology show, usually having little if anything at all to do with the main characters. Each episode was a delight, but nothing really seemed to hold together, despite an effort to bring everything together in the final episode where a seemingly alternate reality version of Van won't stop moving from one crazy scenario to the next in Paris. It didn't help that the season wasn't set in Atlanta either, with most US-based episodes being the anthology ones with other characters, while the main cast were moving through Europe on Paper Boi's headline tour (distinct from the supporting act he was doing for ANOTHER tour at the end of Season 2, adding to the confusion). So every week the quality was high, the episodes were enjoyable, the acting and especially the cinematography/direction were great... but it all didn't really hold together as a full season. It felt weird to complain because the episodes were so good, but there was something off. Then along came Season 4. The first episode, fittingly called "The Most Atlanta", was for the most part back to the Atlanta of the first two seasons. There was still all the surreal elements from season 3 and odd one-offs - Work Ethic! is a drat good episode, even better once you realize the context in which it was made, and The Goof Who Sat By the Door is a hilarious and beautifully constructed mockumentary about a black animator accidentally promoted to CEO of Disney who sets about making "the blackest Disney film ever made" - but the bulk of the show was once again about Earn, Van, Paper Boi and eventually in an exceptionally strong finish to the series as a whole, Darius. The sense of closure permeates the season: it's time to move on, to change, to try new things, to move on. Earn has long since moved past the crippling self-doubt and fear that he wasted his potential, even if The Homeliest Little Horse demonstrates to the viewer AND himself that he REALLY needs to stay in therapy. In Snipe Hunt he finds the courage to open himself up honestly and emotionally to Van and to talk about how much she and Lottie mean to him, which also marks the point where she finally sets aside her own fears that she is nothing more to him than the mother of his child. Paper Boi struggles with concerns over his legacy before finally embracing the fact that he can just be happy and relax wherever he wants to, that his success has taken him to a place where it's more important to pursue what brings him joy, even if that is as simple as fixing a tractor and hanging out on his farm and growing a shitload of weed. His past is always there, as shown in the hilarious Crank Dat Killer, but as Light Skinned-ed demonstrates, sometimes escaping really is as simple as just walking away from the petty small-minded bullshit. It's in It Was All a Dream where everything comes together. The final scene will likely be scrutinized, discussed, and argued about for years to come. But wherever you come down on it all, that final shot of Darius smiling in contentment as he (but not we) see whether Judge Judy is thicc... well it's just a wonderful way to end a wonderful series full of wonderful writing, wonderful performances, wonderful direction and cinematography and well... everything. What a show, and how I'll miss it. https://i.imgur.com/xIjACfI.mp4 3. Barry: Like Atlanta, Barry also had considerable time between its 2nd and 3rd season. It also made a triumphant return, with Barry's horrifying degradation happening slow and then incredibly quickly. Always a deeply disturbed person, the Barry of Season 1 and even Season 2 had at least been able to mostly keep up the facade of a relatively normal if slightly awkward human being. In Season 3 however, his decline rapidly demonstrates that he's even begun to lose the ability to realize what is an acceptable front to put up in front of others. This is mined for comedy, and it IS hilarious... but also insanely uncomfortable. Barry dictating a phone-call to his ex while shopping is an amazing scene, and just one of many to be found throughout the season. As the mask falls apart, the people in Barry's life react in wildly different ways, usually based around their own personal wants and needs. Henry Winkler's Mr. Cousineau's fear and rage turning into an unexpected career resurgence, Sally's ultra-controlling and self-obsessed show-running turning to rage when it's all taken away from her by a loving algorithm, NoHo Hank trying to save his nemesis-turned-lover from his in-laws, Fuches' doomed efforts for "revenge" as he ignores literal paradise multiple times... all of them get wrapped up in either trying to use Barry, to protect him or to take him down, and each of them suffer for it. All of these create a pattern of behavior that makes the viewer expect certain things. Barry is always going to "win" because people simply can't help but do the selfish thing, to try and take the law into their own hands or to exploit it or to take advantage of the deranged but VERY efficient killer. Which makes the end of the season hit so strongly. Robert Wisdom as Jim Moss, father of the detective slain at the end of Season 1, turns everything on its head not once but twice, as he refuses to let his baser instincts rule over his head. When made aware of Barry by Fuches, unlike all the other family members of various victims, he chooses not to take the law into his own hands. He hands over first Fuches, and when it seems he plans to orchestrate a plan to get Barry alone to try and kill him, he just repeats his earlier decision and actually uses the set-up as a way to get Barry into the hands of the police, caught dead-to-rights attempting to murder a man in cold blood. The set-up for Season 4 is fascinating, the show - like Atlanta - preparing to wrap up after 4 seasons and go out on a high note. Will Barry be in jail? A mental institute? Has Sally returned to Joplin to lick her wounds or because she's gotten a taste for killing and wants revenge on her ex after losing the avenue of her television show to do so? Will Mr. Cousineau's suspiciously altruistic ways crumble apart now that he's gotten his own revenge and his late success can only mask his selfishness for so long? How long can NoHo Hank and Cristobal last with no more muscle, no organization to speak of, no drugs etc to keep them in cash? I can't wait to find out, even if I dread the end of a show this well written, well acted, well shot, and perhaps most importantly of all so deeply, deeply funny. https://i.imgur.com/9bcAp0g.mp4 2. Severance: Some shows take a little while to find their form, others start strong and then fade, and then every so often a show comes along that just seems immediately 100% confident about exactly what it is and what it is trying to do, and it pulls it off flawlessly. Severance is one of those shows, with one of the strongest and most compelling first seasons of any recent show I can think of. It's a fascinating concept that it executes extremely well, raising all kinds of questions and offering just enough answers to satisfy while leaving the viewer wanting more. That's a dangerous balance to strike, shows like LOST reveled in weirdness raising intriguing questions that it really had no ability to answer, but so far at least Severance feels like a lot more thought and planning has gone into it. The premise is "simple" enough: a company has figured out how to divide the mind into two completely separate experiences. The "Outie" is the original person, who goes about their normal life. But the "Innie" is the one who goes to work and earns the money. The two cannot exist at the same time, every morning (or evening, depending on shift) the Outie shows up to work, hops into an elevator... and instantly finds themselves leaving work, a little tired perhaps but otherwise completely unaware of the 8 hours that just passed. Thus the Outie finds themselves getting to enjoy a work"free" life. They go out, they eat dinner, they go on dates, enjoy themselves, get a good night's sleep, head to work and... it's time to go out, have dinner etc again. For the Innie of course it's another matter. "Born" on a conference table in an underground office, the Innie can walk, talk, think, perform fine motor functions etc but they are effectively children. Every moment is spent at work. They "wake up" in an elevator, go to their office, work their bizarre job for 8 hours, get into the elevator and... "wake up" back in the elevator ready to go to work again. It's... hell. A life of nothing but work, no meals beyond the occasional snack or the even rarer celebratory brunch, and maybe a little "dance party" if you're lucky. The show explores this through several characters inhabiting a bizarrely large but empty "office" deep underground, doing work they don't truly understand, monitored closely by supervisors who act more like a schoolteacher and the Principal. Outside we largely only see one of the "Outie" versions, learning slowly the reasons that caused him to agree to be "severed" and live a half-life. The show is mostly concerned with the Innies, their growing resentment of the existence they never asked for, the discovery that their freedom to leave is entirely dependent on the goodwill of their "Outie" who they can never TRULY communicate directly with. Infantilized despite their adult bodies and the growing development of their own distinct personalities, they explore more of the truly surreal underground building that makes up their entire life, and we learn more and more about the bizarre world that skews so close to our own but just not quite. Everything builds up magnificently to an incredible final episode, revelations that change up the context of everything we have seen or thought we saw, and raises disturbing implications for where things will go next in future seasons. Every aspect of this show is phenomenally put together, and in any other year it would have been the Best Show of the Year. Hell, just the fact that it was in the conversation with the eventual winner just goes to show how good it was, and hopefully how good it will continue to be in the following seasons to come. https://i.imgur.com/eZ6zdsU.mp4 1. Better Call Saul: But nothing could beat Saul. One of the best shows on television wrapped up with an incredibly strong final season split into two parts with the laudable goal OF GETTING RHEA SEEHORN HER GODDAMN EMMY. The story of Jimmy McGill finally reached its resolution in a season that bridged the period from Jimmy McGill to Saul Goodman to Gene Takavic before coming to a final, beautiful conclusion. Everything is wrapped up beautifully, as all the various plot threads of the past and future come together, with a few brief dalliances in the Breaking Bad time-period to boot. For years, people asked when we were finally going to see Jimmy become Saul. It happened gradually, and even at points where he literally changed his name to Saul he was still obviously "Jimmy"... and then it happened all at once, following the brutal scene where Kim Wexler lays out all the reasons why she and Jimmy can't stay together, ending with the devastating line,"I love you too... but so what?" - the sudden transition from a miserable and lonely Jimmy to several years later and the loud and brash Saul Goodman obviously doing everything in his power to not have to be alone or have even a moment's instrospection for even a second was abrupt but incredibly effective. We didn't need to see his decline, we already knew all we needed to, and had years of Breaking Bad to see Saul at his worst if we wanted to. Some criticized the bulk of time spent on Gene Takavic in the lead-up to the final episode, but I personally loved it. Since Season 1 we'd seen the life Saul was reduced to after escaping Walter White's lethal orbit only in bits and pieces, and now we got it whole hog. Seeing how quickly Gene set aside his humble persona to play Jeffy for a fool demonstrated just how much of that persona we'd seen over the last six seasons was just that: a persona. Gene was still Saul, and his utter contempt and belief in his own superiority shone through until of course everything went wrong as of course it must. Because the show had always really been about Jimmy McGill, and seeing Gene become Saul again and revel in not having to hide right up until the moment when he finally cast that persona too aside and became Jimmy again was masterfully done. It all relied on Kim of course, the part that made Jimmy feel complete, the missing piece that he'd tried to pretend hadn't left a hole in him. That the series ends with the prisoners refusing to see him as anything other than Saul, and Jimmy and Kim sharing one last moment together in a call-back to the first episode of Season 1... well it was just an incredible capstone to an incredible series. And all of that barely scratches the surface of what happened this season! Lalo! Gus! Mike! Cameos from Jesse and Walt! Marie! Chuck! (gently caress Chuck!), Nacho! Carol Burnett! The way the silly nonsense of the Howard Hamlin scam came crashing headfirst into the very real lethal danger of the Salamanca/Fring feud. Howard's conclusion was stunning, and the callback when Kim makes her confession, as well as her breaking down on the bus was just extraordinary television, another magnificent performance from an actor who deserves every plaudit (and is getting her own non-Kim show with Vince Gilligan in the next couple of years!). This was a series that did comedy, terror and drama in equal measure and did them so, so well. It was meticulously made television, it looked beautiful, it was shot superbly, the acting and writing were at the top of their form. A show that seemed likely to be a half-remembered 1-2 season ill-advised cash-in on Breaking Bad ended up being magnificent television that was arguably better than the show that preceded it. It's done now, and it ended stronger than it had any right to. It was a close call for 2022, but Better Call Saul could not be denied. This was the Best Television Show of 2022. Jerusalem fucked around with this message at 03:22 on Oct 21, 2023 |
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Dec 22, 2022 07:07
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A simple version of my Top Ten without all the 10. Raised by Wolves 9. Only Murders in the Building 8. The Boys 7. We Own This City 6. Peacemaker 5. Andor 4. Atlanta 3. Barry 2. Severance 1. Better Call Saul
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Dec 22, 2022 07:07
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Some shows that aired for the first time this year - far from exhaustive but it's what I came up with: 1883 1899 A League of Their Own Abbott Elementary American Gigolo Andor Black Bird From Gaslit Irma Vep Jack Ryan Love Life Mo Murdeville Pachinko Peacemaker Pistol Reboot Roar SAS Rogue Heroes Severance Shantaram She Hulk Slow Horses That Dirty Black Bag The Afterparty The Dropout The English The House of the Dragon The Patient The Peripheral The Recruit The Rehearsal The Sandman The Staircase Tulsa King We Own This City Wednesday Welcome to Wrexham Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty
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Dec 22, 2022 07:19
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Hooray! Thanks for everything, Looten. Great list as ever, Jerusalem. Love that poo poo. Here’s a cool ranking engine I found earlier this year that may help people struggling with their order https://www.pubmeeple.com/ranking-engine I am making peace now with the fact this year is gonna be a repeat of 2015, with Andor beating Atlanta being this year’s “Jessica Jones beating The Leftovers”
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Dec 22, 2022 08:37
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Been looking forward to the thread for a while, I love reading people's lists. On my list are 24 tv shows that I would all feel deserve a top ten placing. But I'm going to have to make some hard cuts.
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Dec 22, 2022 09:39
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Hello Everybody, Welcome to the annual "oh yeah that happened" game show and occasional TV show list of the year. First things first, an elephant in the room. G4 shutting down, last year, I was championing this revival of the video game channel, and a few hiccups (from business ethos, to bending the knee to reactionary YouTubers) ended what I thought was one of the best things going. I am still upset many of the shows like "invitation to party" never really got that reboot, but I hope people moved on to things like Dimension 20 on College Humor. I'm sure "do we need game journalists and Attack of the Show in 2022?" would be a debate for another day, but for now. Let's chat about my specialist area - game shows! For Game Shows this year, I got some good news and bad news - the bad news is that many shows I wanted to write about, thinking they "were new" are actually in their second season, things like "I Literally Just Told You" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vd23YFha-Kk Shows that were my favorites like "The Cube" didn't have a show that came out this year, but are launching soon. Speaking of, this year had a few "new formats" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaKmmIbL9KI "The Genius" is one of my favorite game shows ever made, it's not about social games or luck, but game breaking mechanics that give that "a-ha" moment. It was my biggest surprise this year to see it get rebooted in The Netherlands. Some things have changed, Garnets we're G-Coins, Bandage Man was "The Creator" but there was still plenty of game theory thrown around in a 45 minute program. It's not "better" than the original, but it's still "pretty good" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMNVQuNqmqc The traitors was "the hot new reality format" with one in the UK and another in Australia, and the Peacock version airing really soon. Currently, the BBC version is airing with Claudia Winkleman as the host as traitors try and play "Big Money Mafia" to win a few thousand pounds. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyAdK9FTmP4 Claudia Winkleman also had a quick and easy game show - "One Question" that I thought was very charming! Questions like "What is Blue?" Is met with "The color of Weezer's third album" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YC6ABc-QNY Bridge of Lies was also a really cool idea, where had to go through correct answers in a video maze with a cool ticking clock format, that is surprisingly an edge of your seat quiz show, with a really neat "industrial" look. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4XJXFBitM4 And also the return of "the big money game show" with Limitless Win, where contestants win INFINITY MONEY. As ant and/or Dec ask numeral based questions that determine the spaces up a. Prize tree, but with Price is Right rules applying where "one over is game over", but it's also home to the more iconic catchphrase - "that's a lifeline we will get back to that!" But, Like I said, we really didn't have much of a run in America in terms of game shows. But if you were wondering… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HG1DE4BfMXQ Bullshit made it's debut on Netflix, where you could win $1,000,000 getting questions wrong but making somebody believe you were right. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZiu5IhlVhA NBC rebooted the classic game show "password" with Keke Palmer fresh from "Nope" (and not that far from a Junipers Ranch on the studio tour) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZdjKKrMmaw And MSNBC's Alex Wagner hosted the reboot of "The Mole" set in Australia, and "borrowing" challenges from the Belgium version (albeit without jokers, but plenty of exemptions) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IYzF8Tii8s Speaking of Netflix, One of my personal favorites, Run for the Money, was a long standing game show in Japan where celebrities run against Agent Smith clones to try and win a million yen. This was adapted into "Cha$e" on Syfy in the 2000s and easily forgotten, but they decided to raise the stakes and increase the play zone and the amount of runners to make this a 5 episode "event" that I found just gripping. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXXe3qqw9ZQ Only Connect is in my "top 5 game shows" list every year, and I needed to just keep putting this in my list, even if it unfortunately didn't reach the Top 10 this year for the counter. This year marked an achievement as they had a majority of the teams be Trans and Non-binary, which in a very exclusionary (and slightly transphobic country, with the likes of JK and Lineham), it felt good to see them playing a game show they enjoy without any sort of angry letters and just positive vibes all around (the episode linked isn't the one in question, as I'm just pulling from YouTube and I'm sure it's on iplayer) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8NrMKd1OHo This year was also the best year for Jeopardy, with it's reign of Super Champs, from Matt, Amy and Mattea, being among the most iconic people in a tournament of champions. And that's not including a Second Chance Tournament, and the introduction to the new host of Jeopardy, Ken Jennings… and Mayim Bialik. I honestly was thinking of putting this in number one this year, but I figured this list is already lengthy enough as it is, and there are already plenty of "oh you forgot about" on this list. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPEnDuj6-yg If we were to make a "best game show" list this year, and if I really wanted to include some on my top 10 (I think I only included 3, and they are very special) the winner this year will be PRESS YOUR LUCK! Elizabeth Banks has made the best game show on television, hands down, the Whammy Animations have become mini slots, the prizes are one of a kind, and there have been really emotional moments this season, that made me actually cry and get invested in a contestant winning some serious cash and prizes, and as a guy who spends a good chunk of time that I'm desensitized to it all, it has the makings of just great television. With that long preamble about game shows, let's begin with the Top 10! 10) Reboot https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VC0tosYozso Reboot is from the people that brought you Modern Family but answers the question - "Can Johnny Knoxville actually act?". And the answer is yes. In the show, the daughter of a Sitcom star wants to make a reboot of a 90s sitcom with the original cast, with a parody of Hollywood at every corner, from the actress that leaves to be royalty, to the rounchy comedian that enters rehab to the child actor that becomes very sheltered from a post Disney Channel life. I thought the show was very funny but hardly got the attention from social media that I thought would've worked. 9) The Rehearsal https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fjPFt8cpic I was "this close" to give it to "How to With John Wilson" this year again, but Nathan won the count with the Rehearsal as the show starts out as one show, the "Nathan for You" Style self help awkward comedy hour, and by the midpoint of the series, unravels into a self-aware hellscape that wouldn't exist anywhere else, and you get that Dr Frankenstein "create the monster" horror story that is one of the greatest moments in TV this year. I still can't forgive the Chinese for inventing gun powder! 8) Welcome to Wrexham https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJYFASFtbc4 When I first heard they were doing a documentary with Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, I was thinking "comedy" and I was also thinking "oh they know Ted Lasso was big, and wanted to capitalize. But no, that's not the case. While there are plenty of Documentaries that came out this year (like White Hot and Pepsi, Where's My Jet?) Wrexham actually does what so many sports documentaries ignore - the heart. Ryan and Rob barely show up in the series and instead it's about the Welsh village and it's inhabitants and what this football team means to them for financial and for personal care. 7) What We Do in The Shadows https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rb2_eJUgog What We Do in the Shadows had a "good" year, it was mostly the "Baby Colin Robinson" season, but it did have so many comedy heavyweights deliver funny performances. This season was all about the vampire night club and Guillermo having a boyfriend, somewhat, and the perils it took to Nandor's relationship. My favorite episode was the parody of HGTV flipping shows featuring the Sklar Brothers, right down to the reveal of "this is not my house!". Also, shout-outs to Harvey Guillen for his voice role in "Nightwing" for having the best interpretation of my favorite superhero this year (beating out Titans and Gotham Knights) 6) Beavis and Butt-Head https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXVdTT1Sis0 It seems every decade or so, they attempt a reboot of "Beavis and Butt-Head", and unfortunately, it just never "lands" because the writing isn't exactly what it needed to be, or they just go straight for the slapstick or "fartknocker" and call it a day, but believe it or not - THE BEAVIS AND BUTTHEAD REBOOT IS GREAT! The Escape Room episode feels something straight out of the original run, but obviously has become very modern in it's design and it's music video viewing. It's one of a kind comedy makes this a can't miss show for anybody who needs something to watch on Paramount Plus besides Survivor and whatever Star Trek they are interested in. 5) Peacemaker https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mrr3UNALww Yes, James Gunn is the new creative lead for the DC universe, suicide squad was "mixed" but what I really enjoyed this year from DC Comics was "Peacemaker" and it's embarrassing protagonist played by John Cena who is just "trying to do the right thing, but fails". I consider it the "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" of comic book television, where you just know the worst is going to happen for peacemaker, but the breakout star is, of course, Eagle (e-glee) the Eagle. A nice send up to American Exceptionalism! 4) Star Wars: Andor https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKOegEuCcfw I understand Star Wars fans really love the Star Wars mythos, and will take anything as long as there is a lightsaber or x-wing or just mere mentioning of "Jedi Councils" and a brief cameo of Chewbacca. But as somebody who doesn't want the shiny keys in my face, Andor was a big breath of fresh air for me, that I have always wanted in a Star Wars series. It's in many ways just a political thriller in space, so you expect a Sorkin-style monologue, but instead, the pacing is surprisingly brisk, and the set dressing is not only there to be gawked at, it gives the planets we visit a personality and rewards the die-hards through just mere explanation of what the Senate acts like, and why democracy could fail. 3) The Boys https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elTgqUW-NYE Homelander memes aside, The Boys continues to be the best satire of capitalism and the superhero genre we are already feeling the fatigue of. Everything from a fake reality show to determine the next never of the seven, to a "Woke" Country Fair to be the most hamfisted way to give penance, tob the bizarre story of Jensen Ackles as Soldier Boy and just whatever you want to consider what "The Deep" is up to this time around. The best satire on television, and it's still only on Prime Video. 2) Taskmaster https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQ9uSgbOfMA Taskmaster, in theory, is a comedy show, but it's also a Game Show. The challenges and games just change every week and they hardly, if ever, duplicate. It's a panel show, kind of, in the comedians bantering and trying to plead to the Taskmaster to win points. This year saw a Streaming service with many countries airing, it saw the YouTube channel reach 1,000,000 subscribers, it also saw announcements of an Australian version in the works, there's also one in Quebec now! It celebrates all the many forms of comedy and art, from improv to slapstick to sketch to musical, that one season still delivers "something for everybody" and is still continuing to change and evolve, and have plenty of tie-in home games to pair with (and an app!) 1) She-Hulk: Attorney at Law https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7JsKhI2An0 I watched Thor Love and Thunder and thought it was "okay", I saw Ms Marvel and thought "this is cute, but it's still bleh", I couldn't get into the Guardians of the Galaxy holiday special, and I am sure I'm missing a few marvel TV shows and maybe movies this year. (Apologies to Shang-Chi) I honestly thought nothing was going to get me back into the MCU and then She-Hulk came around and won me over. The story revolves around Jennifer Walters, a Los Angeles D.A. who after an accident with flaming hot cheetos (and a blood transfusion) becomes She-Hulk. I'm already happy that the show is set in "Not New York City" and in the L.A. area I grew up in (even though it's MAAAADE IN GEORGIA) so a few locations and references make it really interesting. And minor references like the socal drought and the fourth wall breaking (which hasn't happened in any other MCU show, and hasn't happened in spider-man, and the only one I could think of at the top of my head was Deadpool) and the final episode of the season being the exact kind of screwball comedy I wanted in my Lawyer Show! And that concludes my top 10 this year, Game Shows we're great this year, but I couldn't give them a spot on my list, and shows like "Succession" and "Severance" as great as they are, I unfortunately did not see them this year, and felt I would be a big fat phony if i pretended to see them. I hope to see everybody in 2023, with more game shows and more clever shows.
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Dec 22, 2022 11:24
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Succession didn’t air a season this year anyways Some very cool mentions there! I also noticed and appreciated how inclusive the Only Connect teams have been this year. I only watch it with my mum so we’ll have like 5-6 eps to catch up on when I go home for Christmas tomorrow and I’m looking forward to it  love my personal cycle of barely know anything in the first round - am absolutely baffled in the second round - do ok on the wall - nail the missing vowels
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Dec 22, 2022 11:30
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That Home Makeover episode of What We Do in the Shadows really was incredible. The season was good, it was just up against SO MUCH great television this year! https://i.imgur.com/eOeS4XM.mp4
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Dec 22, 2022 11:43
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10) Winning Time I'm not a huge basketball fan, but Winning Time makes me wish I was. Unfortunately there's a time zone difference there that makes it impossible for me to watch any games live, but the pang remains, and between both The Last Dance and this, I feel like I have reached a greater understanding of what makes this game so much more appealing to me than other sports. Generally speaking, it's just a much more personal game, the natural charisma of the best players radiates off the court, and VISUALLY it's just beautiful and pleasant to look at in a way that other sports aren't. Winning Time is as much a period piece as it is about basketball, and although this often means that the styles and situations are greatly exaggerated, Winning Time leans into it so much harder than it needed to. It is a show that has gotten much criticism from the people who are actually in it WRT inaccuracies and villanization, etc. This is something I usually find bothersome about biopics in general, but Winning Time manages to somewhat circumvent this by being as heavily stylized as it is - everyone and everything is turned up to 11 all the time, it looks fantastic, it's insanely fast-paced, everyone in it is amazing - it makes a great case for how compelling it can be for humans to create narratives out of something that is as inherently anti-narrative as winning or losing a sports game. I don't know enough about NBA history to tie any of this into any real context, but it is legit exciting to watch, and everything is so larger than life that it's hard to forget that you should just take everything with a grain of salt and focus on how much fun you're having.  9) The Sandman I've been an appreciator of Neil Gaiman's works for many, many years, and have been of the belief that Sandman was largely unfilmable simply because its strengths don't really translate that well across mediums. After watching the first season of the Netflix production, I'm still not sure if I've changed my mind about that, but I am very glad that they made the attempt in any case. I was surprised by how closely the show stuck to the smaller details, like Dream's former lover who is now stuck in hell, as well as the entire adaptation of The Sound of Her Wings and Men of Good Fortune which was the highlight of the season for me - so well-translated to the screen and so full of the kind of emotion and otherworldly themes that the comic excelled at portraying. Unfortunately the whole season is not quite as strong as that episode, but the baseline is still quite high - my only real complaint is that visually it can be quite underwhelming with a lot of unfortunate CGI and green screen fuckery. Of the recent Gaiman adaptations such as Good Omens and American Gods, this one looks like the cheapest production, which is somewhat unfortunate as it is probably the one that needs the budget the most. Hopefully it is something that they can improve on in the (finally announced) second season, but I still loved my time with this show, despite the unevenness. Mostly importantly, the casting of every character is absolutely brilliant, and the show has more than convinced me that the people in charge know what they are doing and that they genuinely care about the original work, which is definitely not always a certainty.  8) Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Even as a big fan of the video game, I really wasn't expecting much from a Netflix tie-in anime that wouldn't even come out until almost two years after the game's launch. But credit where credit is due - they nailed it, and Edgerunners is the rare work that actually strengthens the appeal of its source material for me. It does such a good job of highlighting the strengths of the art and sound design of Cyberpunk, and although it doesn't tell a particularly original story, it does feel like a better introduction to the universe of Cyberpunk than the game was, as well as a most honest depiction of the core themes that the original RPG established some 40 years ago. Studio Trigger's absurd and distorted animation style is also a great fit for this universe, and it is clear from the getgo that the collaboration between the studios was very fruitful - you can recognize landmarks from the game/setting, most of the different visual and aural flourishes from the game also appear in here, right down to extremely minute things like UI design. There's so much detail packed into every shot and it just looks constantly gorgeous. As a whole, Edgerunners is definitely a case of style over substance for me, but I think it also makes a great case for how sometimes style can BE substance. You could easily tell the exact same story here with much less engaging visuals and atmosphere and you'd end up with something like the Netflix seasons of Ghost in the Shell or that Blade Runner anime that no one in the world watched. But thankfully that is not the case, and Edgerunners manages to showcase an absolute spectacle full of monstrous, but oddly endearing characters that are just trying to get by in a truly horrible world.  7) We Own This City The Wire is a great show, don't want to start this off by just talking about The Wire constantly, but it is somewhat unavoidable considering the pedigree behind We Own This City. The key difference here, however, is that We Own This City is based on entirely true events, and that does give the show a very different vibe from The Wire - especially when they bring in real footage, real people, real news stories that are still entirely fresh in your mind because this poo poo all just happened a few years ago. We haven't really had many shows that dissected the police as hard as this show does, especially in the wake of Black Lives Matter and the ever increasing inhumanity of the police force as their crimes continue to get so much more flagrant and cartoonishly evil. This prevalent systemic attitude of "gently caress you, got mine" is perfectly illustrated in Jon Bernthal's Wayne Jenkins as well as Daniel Hersl, who are true specimens of pure corruption. On the other side we have Jamie Hector as Sean Suiter, who imbues the ideal of a skilled cop who wants to do good but is completely unable to do so because of the systemic factors surrounding the politics of the force and the ever-expanding gulf between cops and regular people. The show does falter a few times, especially with regard to Wunmi Mosaku's civil rights' attorney, who comes off as somewhat ignorant and surprised at how bad things actually are, even though she by all rights shouldn't be. The worst tendencies of this comes to bear when she interviews a retired detective who goes on a giant speech about how much better everything was before the war on drugs that feels like it is read straight from a script that came out of the writer's personal blog. It's not even that it's necessarily wrong, but it also ignores the fact that none of this is new and we can't just gloss over how bad things used to be just because they're WAY worse now. Nevertheless, the show is intensely gripping, in huge part due to Jon Bernthal's excellent performance. It's almost a shame that it's a limited series, because although you can say a lot of things about how lib-brained David Simon can be at times, the way he constructs and presents a show like this is so far beyond any other type of crime procedural out there, and I wish we could have a show like this on the screen every single year just to continually remind us in the most well-executed way possible that ACAB.  6) Pantheon The second animated cyberpunk show on this list, which is something of a huge whiplash compared to Edgerunners, but nevertheless extremely good. There are many similarities between last year's excellent Invincible and Pantheon, in that they are both full 45-60 minute episode length prestige animated shows, and they are quite visually similar as well. I don't think there's any studio overlap there, but I'm glad that more shows like this are being made, because there are some things that just work better in animation than in live action, and I'd argue that this quite ambitious, religiously themed cyberspace conspiracy thriller is one of them. Almost immediately, Pantheon leaps beyond the typical sci-fi theme of "What if AIs were human?" into "What if AIs were gods?" and it evokes one of my favourite lesser known comics: Supergod by the now disgraced Warren Ellis - a story about how humanity discovers physical manifestations of gods and how that leads to the entire world entering into a theistic arms race of each nation wielding or creating their own god as if it was a nuclear device. Pantheon eventually goes in a similar direction, but the AIs themselves are a much more core part of the narrative, and it was a very smart move to emphasize that they all still have deep connections to their human lives. Pantheon ends up operating on a global scale that greatly belies its rather timid beginnings of a high school girl mourning her dead father. The series has a star-studded cast of voice actors, but the show also just lets them do relatively normal voices, so most of the cast ends up being unrecognizable - which is both refreshing and a somewhat odd choice, considering it must've been very expensive, and I don't get the sense that ANYONE in the world watched this show whatsoever - because who the gently caress even knows about any AMC+ originals. But I loved it - it has a full array of very strong character arcs that feel pretty nuanced considering how much they're intertwined with absurd conspiracies. Apparently a second season has been greenlit, but it wouldn't be the first time this year an already greenlit second season was cancelled on AMC+, assuming it happens. I'm preparing for the worst here, but either way I think the first season is very solid as a stand-alone story that leaves the door open for something greater in the future. I hope we'll see it happen.  5) Black Bird I initially began watching this because the premise was so similar to the now-cancelled Mindhunter - it was essentially pitched to me as a pseudo-successor, a show about profiling serial killers. Well, although it is serial killer themed, that is also a far cry from what the show actually is - which is a pretty intimate story about a somewhat small-time criminal looking into a mirror and seeing the absolute darkest universe version of himself in Larry Hall, unquestionably the star of the show. I had only seen Paul Walter Hauser in Cobra Kai of all things before checking out Black Bird - nothing could have prepared me for the absolute heights of acting that this guy is capable of. The whole show revolves around the character of Larry Hall, and it would pretty much all fall apart if he wasn't as good as he is. Although it is based on a true story, Hauser is so good at masquerading his true nature that you never quite know if this guy is locked up by accident or if he actually did the things he is accused of. Much like the main character of James Keene, you start to build a rapport with him - he is clearly extremely mentally unwell and most likely a horrible person, but there are things you can empathize with in his life, where you ever so slightly begin to think that you understand him and his circumstances. The show also lets you experience detailed looks into his past, directly showing events that let you form natural connections in your brain and go "oh, this is why this man is the way he is". But then at the end of the series, the rug is pulled out from under you, and both you and James get to see the fully unmasked version of Larry Hall. A legit skin crawling performance that I will probably never forget. The show also features one of the last appearences of the great Ray Liotta - a somewhat eclectic performance that is nevertheless very warm and loving, and helps both ground and juxtapose the familial relationships between James and Larry. This is one that will stick with me for quite a while.  4) The Rehearsal I watched the Rehearsal on a whim, never having seen Nathan For You, mainly on the strength of how much I liked How To With John Wilson. What a journey this was. Maybe the most emotional I have felt about a TV show this year - so many ups and downs and incredibly wild and funny and depressing moments being thrown at you constantly. After finishing it, I went back and watched the entire run of NFY, and while that show is, as a whole, a much funnier watch, it also made it patently clear just how much The Rehearsal is a natural extension of the extremely specific type of thing that Nathan Fielder wants to do with his shows. That being, showing what people are really, truly like on the inside in a way that scripted television could never do. The insanely weird idiosyncrasies and pet peeves we have that make no logical sense, the horrible opinions that we usually keep to ourselves, the way we argue with the people closest to us that no one else gets to see. Nathan takes a more direct role as a facilitator in this show by getting even closer to his "subjects" than he has before, and it raises so many questions about the nature of reality television and the privacy of thought, but he nonetheless manages to get through it all without coming off as a manipulative monster - because 99% of the time, he is just letting people be themselves, on their own, without any regret on their part. Nathan Fielder is truly a creator unlike any other, and we can only be thankful that he somehow convinced HBO to let him produce this fever dream of a show.  3) Andor As a long-time Star Wars fan that almost called it quits because of how loving unbelievably bad Rise of Skywalker was, I wouldn't have imagined that we'd get to this point just a few years later. In many ways, Andor fulfills a great deal of the potential of Star Wars as a storytelling framework - when you think of Star Wars, everyone knows what the stakes are, what the visual symbols mean, what purpose the equipment and starships and costuming represents - this is all stuff we have internalized because of how ubiquitous the franchise is. And because of how strong that backdrop is, you can tell all kinds of different stories within this framework without having to do the legwork to establish an entirely new universe - this is something the old EU understood with games like Dark Forces and TIE Fighter, but that the Disney Star Verse has been mostly lacking, until now. Now, I'm not of the opinion that Andor is a perfect show. I think the opening arc is quite slow and it took me a while to get fully invested in the story (I still think the lost sister stuff is Actually Bad and the show would have been better off without it) - but once we got to the spectacle that is the Eye of Aldhani, I was fully bought in. Special shout-outs to Stellan Skarsgård who might have been my favourite performance this year, really illustrating how much of a master of his craft he truly is. I think people are making a mistake when they say that "Andor is good because it isn't like Star Wars" - something that I think is not only wrong, but fundamentally missing the point. I also really love The Mandalorian as a show, and I think it is a testament to the potential of Star Wars that these two shows can focus on different tones, methods of storytelling, and an entirely different set of themes, while still fitting into the same universe. Andor feels like the key ingredient they've been missing that proves that you can essentially do any kind of genre story you want within Star Wars, as long as you are actually dedicated to basic ideals like honest storytelling, skillful direction, strong performances, and excellent writing. It sounds obvious, and yet it has still been a massive challenge for Disney to pull this off without loving up at least one of these parts. And heck, they even kind of hosed up their first attempt at Andor with Rogue One, which is a movie that I don't really like at all. The highest praise I can give Andor is that it simply nails so many of the ideas, themes and tones that me and my IRL friends have injected into our own Star Wars RPG sessions over the past 20 years. It feels like a special, personal treat to actually see this sort of dynamic on screen with the budget and craft to actually pull it off at the scale that it deserves.  2) Atlanta I started watching Atlanta from the beginning this year, around the time when season 3 came out. As such, the show has stayed in my mind for the entire year, and I'm kicking myself for not getting to it sooner. It's insane that we got TWO seasons of a show THIS good in the SAME year. Absolutely ridiculous. Season three is a bit divisive amongst fans, but honestly, I don't get it. It's very different and very out there, but what they're doing is still so core to what the show has been doing since the beginning - almost effortlessly illustrating how absurd modern racial relations are and how equally absurd daily life can be if you just take things one step further than reality allows. There are so many episodes that will go down here as some of the best poo poo I've ever seen on TV - Three Slaps, The Goof Who Sat By the Door, Tarrare, etc. The show is so good at mixing comedy with heart-pounding anxiety in a way that few other shows are capable of, and even at its worst it is never not some of the most enticing and memorable storytelling of this decade. I wish the show wasn't over, but at the same time, it's an incredible gift that we got it in the first place. I'm intensely curious to see if Donald Glover can continue to produce something that is anywhere near as good as Atlanta, because it also feels like one of the most personal shows in recent memory and anything else just couldn't have the same heart - but we'll see!  1) Severance From the very first episode, I could tell that Severance was basically made for me. At its core, Severance is about the existential horrors of mundane life - how our identity and humanity is subsumed by both the social and societal requirements to devote most of our lives to menial tasks that have no real meaning or benefit outside of getting paid. It is a show that gets incredible mileage out of a very simple concept and yet is also extremely restrained when it comes to placing its characters and concepts into a greater context. Everything is kept very small scale, very matter of fact, very dry - in keeping with the corporate nature of the show's setting. It is SO good at setting up its universe and the different personalities within, and how it all begins to unravel just as soon as its been established. Every character is worth dying for, particularly John Turturro, whose relationship with Christopher Walken has to be one of the sweetest things I've seen in ages. Severance is a show I just want to stew in. Every second is precious. I want to know what the hell is going on, and yet I actually don't because I know the questions are more satisfying than the answers. Every week I was on the edge of my seat and knocked the gently caress on my rear end after every cliffhanger. Everything that happens in the show directly feeds into another element, it's extremely economical and zero time feels wasted - special shout outs to the show's incredible intro for both featuring the show's excellent score and leitmotif, but also completely nailing what being severed feels like. This is a show that just fully encapsulates what can make long-form TV so much more compelling than film, and why simple, high-concept ideas are often more compelling than grand scale productions. Severance feels like a lost J.G. Ballard novel or something and it not only executes its concept perfectly, it also makes you very, VERY hungry for more, and I can't loving wait. Until next time,  Special shout-outs: Better Call Saul - An obviously fantastic show, but not my favourite season and since I know it's going to be high on everyone's lists, I'd rather highlight other things. Raised by Wolves - A show I loved, but it's honestly diminished by the fact that it's never going to be finished. Snowpiercer - This season just wasn't as strong as the last one, but Sean Bean is still a hoot. The Boys - I find myself not really remembering this season as strongly. It was good, but think I just got sick of the constant in-fighting. Barry - Great show, no real complaints, but it just hasn't stuck with me for the majority of the year. Not sure why. It maybe feels like it should've ended, but then it didn't. She-Hulk - Largely good, but a bit too eclectic and it was as if they couldn't find a core narrative to stick with, so I'm not sure what to really take away from it in the end. Wellington Paranormal - Not its strongest season, but it was a great show and I'm glad it got to run as long as it did. What We Do in the Shadows - Mostly very good, but I wasn't too into the young Colin Robinson stuff. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds - Very nice return to form for Star Trek. Not anything to get super excited about, but it was just very solid and I have high hopes for the future. Cabinet of Curiosities - One of, if not the best, horror anthology shows in my opinion. It was close to making the top 10. Interview with the Vampire - Very solid first season! Covers most of the stuff that was already covered in the movie, though, and some of the original additions are a bit iffy. But still a fun watch. Hakkesshu fucked around with this message at 08:25 on Dec 23, 2022 |
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Dec 22, 2022 14:31
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drat Hakkesshu, that's a great list! I'll definitely check out Black Bird, your write-up makes it sound like something I'd love.
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Dec 22, 2022 23:29
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Here are my honorable mentions: 15. George and Tammy (Showtime). An acting master class from the great Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain as troubled country music icons George Jones and Tammy Wynette, two incredible songwriters and performers who loved each other as best they could. The miniseries isn't over yet, but it has been excellent so far. I'm really impressed that Shannon and Chastain, two of my favorite actors, are doing their own singing. 14. Fleishman Is In Trouble (FX on Hulu). Taffy Brodesser-Akner adapted her own first novel into this miniseries, and it is depressing, but beautifully written. The Fleishman in trouble seems to be the newly divorced doctor dad navigating dating apps and single parenting in Manhattan, after his wife completely disappears. But when the focus shifts to his best friend (played by the wonderful Lizzy Caplan, who is also the narrator), we learn he might not be the only Fleishman in trouble, and that every divorce -- every story -- has at least two sides. There is one episode left, and I have a good feeling it won't disappoint. 13. The White Lotus, season 2 (HBO Max). I enjoyed this season, with horrible, attractive rich people on vacation at a Sicilian resort, more than the first season in Hawaii. Most of the characters really were awful, but because the show opened with the discovery of a body and a mention of "a few" more deaths, I enjoyed it the most for the murder mystery aspect, figuring out who would kill and who would be killed, searching for clues and crafting theories that might have been more interesting than the way things actually played out. Season 1 was more about racism, classism, and colonialism, but this season focused more about sex (especially the transactional nature of sex), infidelity, and the mind games people play with their partners and themselves. Anything about infidelity and cheating makes me feel really depressed, but I appreciated that I felt real tension during the finale episode, waiting for everything to go wrong. Even if I didn't love the show like some of these others on my list, I give it props for making me feel anything at all and giving me a chance to speculate between episodes. 12. Reacher, season 1 (Amazon Prime Video). This show about a former military police investigator embroiled in small-town intrigue reminded me of two of my all-time favorite shows: Justified (although Reacher isn't nearly as clever and witty) and Banshee (although Reacher isn't nearly as badass). Still, I enjoyed the hypercompetent protagonist solving mysteries and owning the corrupt local yokels. I've never read the novels this show is based on, but my father and my father-in-law both love them, which speaks volumes -- no pun intended. 11. Our Flag Means Death, season 1 (HBO Max). I didn't expect to like a show about pirates, especially when I found out it was supposed to be a comedy. But then it turned into an unlikely romantic comedy, and it became the feel-good show of 2022, like Ted Lasso and Schitt's Creek in previous years. If you don't like it at first, I can't say I disagree with you. But especially now that you don't have to wait for a new episode every week, hang around until Blackbeard shows up, played by New Zealand actor-writer-director Taiki Waititi. That's when the show gets good and will become great. And now for my Top Ten list: 10. She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, season 1 (Disney+). I'm definitely feeling Marvel Studios burnout, y'all. This show definitely wasn't perfect, but it edged the charming Our Flag Means Death out of my Top Ten because it stars one of my favorite actresses, Tatiana Maslany, playing one of my favorite comic book characters, Jennifer Walters, a mousy lawyer who becomes the big, green, fun-loving, sexy superheroine She-Hulk. This show did its best to delve into some of the weird legal issues that would come up in a world of superheroes and supervillains, crazy future technology, unnatural powers, people being snapped out of existence and coming back to life en masse, and so forth. It did provide a nice view of the "Marvel Cinematic Universe" from the point of view of regular people trying to deal with the weirdness. I just wish it had more weight to it, even though it's a superhero show and a comedy at that. It seemed clear to me that the writers' room was more comfortable writing about Jen's relationship woes and trouble with men than the legal stuff, which is totally fine. Those parts really fleshed out her character and mattered in the end. But everything felt so rushed, when they could have developed the other characters more, extended entire scenes, and given everything a chance to breathe and matter. Longer episodes would have helped with the pacing, but maybe it came down to budget issues. I'm sure you've already heard about the second-to-last episode, in which my favorite Marvel character shows up and reminds us how awesome he is. Then the season finale is super-fun and joyful, and it probably pissed off all the right people. I know it's a big ask, but if you can binge through the whole season, you will probably enjoy it. Episodes are short (I argue too short), so it should be an easy binge. 9. Andor, season 1 (Disney+). The least-"Star Warsy" Star Wars thing I've ever seen, and also one of the best. The show's tone is grim and bleak, the pacing can be slow and ponderous, and there isn't a lot of comic relief to break up all that darkness, but there are definitely moments of catharsis and hope that make it all worthwhile. It is a prequel to a prequel, set a few years before the events of the Rogue One movie, which in turn is set right before the first Star Wars movie, Episode IV: A New Hope. Andor is all about the rise of fascism and authoritarianism in the form of the Empire, and how regular people -- not Jedi knights, not members of a special family -- can stand against it. It wouldn't be spoiling anything to tell you that Andor's highlights include a daring heist, a heart-pounding prison break, and a brave, brutal uprising in the streets, plus a handful of rousing monologues and heartfelt speeches. But if that doesn't sound "Star Warsy" enough for you, there is also a cute, cool, and loyal new droid and a visit to "Planet Miami." 8. Peacemaker, season 1 (HBO Max). Christopher "Peacemaker" Smith was introduced in James Gunn's The Suicide Squad movie, which I liked much better than the previous article-less Suicide Squad, but still didn't love. As a result, I wasn't expecting much from this show, but it went a long way toward redeeming Chris, a violent, macho, immature jerk. By the end, he was still a violent, macho, immature jerk, but he dealt with his daddy issues and learned how to function on a team, make friends, think for himself, and do the right thing. It was a really interesting deconstruction of toxic masculinity and childhood trauma, with plenty of raunchy humor and gory violence to keep it from ever feeling too serious or weighty. I'll argue to anyone that pro wrestler-turned-actor John Cena is one of the greatest comic actors out there. He really made us hate, laugh at, and care for the deeply problematic Chris. But the highlight of the show was Freddie Stroma playing Vigilante, a bizarre adaptation of one of my low-key favorite DC Comics characters. The guy stole every scene he was in and made you root and cheer for a very weird and unsettling character. So James Gunn made a super-fun and funny show, and now he's in charge of all DC movies and TV shows moving forward. I feel like they may finally be in the right hands after Peacemaker. Also, the show has what is probably the best opening title sequence of all time. You'll never want to skip it because it's infectious in every possible way, and you'll notice new little details about it every time. 7. The Afterparty, season 1 (Apple TV+). A really clever and entertaining show that's a murder mystery, but also a comedy. A group of old friends attend their high school reunion, followed by an afterparty at a famous classmate's house. Someone ends up dead, and a police detective arrives to interview all the attendees, since everyone is a suspect. But the structure is so cool: every episode is a different interview, so you see the same events play out as flashbacks from multiple perspectives, filling in the gaps for the audience so we get a clearer picture of the evening's events. And even cooler, every episode is also a different genre, depending on which unreliable narrator is telling the story, so we get a rom-com, an action movie, a musical, and more. It wrapped up the loose ends in an extremely satisfying way, and yet somehow, we're getting a second season! 6. The Righteous Gemstones, season 2 (HBO Max). Another show I fully expected to hate, and did at the very beginning, but ended up really enjoying. We binged both seasons back to back, but only season 2 aired in 2022. It's a comedy about a family of wealthy televangelists in South Carolina, and how hilariously screwed up they all are. The widowed patriarch (John Goodman) is detached, disapproving, and paternalistic, the eldest son (co-creator and showrunner Danny McBride) is ambitious but overestimates his competence and intelligence, the middle daughter (comedy secret weapon Edie Patterson) is sexually inappropriate and practically feral, and the youngest son is... not-so-secretly gay, but doesn't realize it? His plots are a bit of a comedy vacuum, but the rest of the show had us howling with laughter. And then the great Walton Goggins is in it as their scheming Uncle Baby Billy, a former Christian music child star, now in his 60s after squandering countless opportunities and wasting most of his life. I never had any patience for McBride's loudmouthed Southern jackass characters, but his humor totally grew on me, so much so that we even went back and binged Vice Principals, his previous show that he and Goggins starred in together. That's a more uncomfortable watch, but also entertaining. 5. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, season 1 (Paramount+). This is it, folks. My favorite Star Trek of all time. Better than the current Discovery (which I also enjoy) and any of the previous, beloved series. Discovery season 2 introduced the core trio at the heart of Strange New Worlds (so I would recommend watching at least that season too): Ethan Peck as Mr. Spock, Rebecca Romijn as Number One, and Anson Mount, one charming and handsome dude, as the best fictional boss ever, Captain Christopher Pike. With his empathy and emotional intelligence, Pike is my favorite Star Trek captain of all time, and he really makes the show. Strange New Worlds perfects the formula of exploring, making contact with alien races, solving problems, and bonding with the crew that has made Star Trek endure through the decades. If you have ever been skeptical, or you think Star Trek is boring, or you don't get what all the Trekkies love but wish you did (as I have through much of my life), this is the show for you. It's pure joy -- fun, optimistic, hopeful, feel-good entertainment about the smartest, bravest, kindest, most heroic people doing their best and being their best. 4. The Bear, season 1 (FX on Hulu). As much as I love restaurants (which is A LOT, considering I review them in a blog), I've never worked in the restaurant business, or any food service or hospitality jobs. A lot of my friends have, though, and I have the utmost respect for the people who cook and serve me. I realize it's a hard job, but no show has ever shown a more realistic look at life in a restaurant kitchen than The Bear, about a fine dining chef who returns to run his family's dumpy Italian beef sandwich restaurant in Chicago after his brother commits suicide. The show is so stressful. You feel it when the kitchen is slammed with orders, when co-workers yell and scream at each other, when family fights, when egos clash. Chefs and kitchen staff have told me how accurate it all is, and I feel even more awe toward them. But on top of the gripping, gritty drama, the show also made me really hungry for Chicago-style Italian beefs (I like mine with hot giardiniera but not dipped), and also for spaghetti. If you know, you know. 3. Atlanta, seasons 3 and 4 (FX on Hulu). Donald Glover hasn't proven me wrong yet. I've been a fan since he his earliest Childish Gambino mixtapes and his days as a young writer on 30 Rock, where he gifted the world with "Werewolf Bar Mitzvah." I quit watching Community around the same time he left the show, I saw him perform stand-up live in 2012, I've listened to all his albums more times than I can count, and I've loved Atlanta from the beginning, which seems like a long time ago (2016, drat!). This year we got two seasons, after a few years with none, and they were remarkable. There were several stand-alone episodes that felt like experimental short films, that were always interesting even when they didn't include the four central characters. And when we caught up with Earn, Alfred, Darius, and Van (played by four of my favorite actors: Glover, Brian Tyree Henry, the effortlessly cool LaKeith Stanfield, and Zazie Beetz), it was like spending time with old friends. Season 3 had the crew hanging out in Europe, but I preferred seeing them back home in the ATL in Season 4, exploring its secret passages and endless parking garages, avoiding angry old white ladies and deranged Tyler Perry analogues, navigating family squabbles and Black-owned sushi restaurants, going to therapy, and forming complicated revenge plots. The show is over now, but it went out on top. There was funny Atlanta, surreal Atlanta, and even scary Atlanta, but never any mediocre or bad Atlanta. 2. Severance, season 1 (Apple TV+). The less you know when you watch this show, the better experience you will have. It's complicated and sometimes confounding. It's a workplace drama, a dark comedy, a mystery, dystopian science fiction, and existential horror, all at once. It has some of the best acting, writing, and directing I've seen this year. It sucked me in, had me on the edge of my seat with clammy-palmed tension, and made me feel extremely uncomfortable at times. But I see that as a good thing, the fact that it made me feel any strong emotions at all, when so much entertainment is designed to be bland and banal, disposable and empty. I am notoriously bad at maintaining a healthy work-life balance, so Severance hit me hard. I guess I'm the target audience, and I doubt I'm alone. Don't read anything about it, don't watch any teasers or trailers, just watch it before some fool spoils it for you. You can get a free week trial subscription for Apple TV+, and I swear you'll binge it within the week. Then keep it long enough to squeeze in The Afterparty and Ted Lasso, too. 1. Better Call Saul, season 6 (AMC). You knew this was coming. The final season to one of my favorite shows of all time, which was a prequel/spinoff of another one of my favorite shows of all time, and they stuck the landing. They wrapped up everyone's story arcs and/or set them up for Breaking Bad in the perfect possible ways. There were moments of extreme tension balanced by cathartic humor, shocking deaths, and plenty of wild plot twists as details set up over the course of two long-running shows, some over a decade old, finally paid off. The last few episodes flashed forward to events that took place after Breaking Bad, which I think many of us were waiting for the entire time, to learn the final fates of Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman/Gene Takovic and our beloved Kim Wexler, played by the best drat actress on television, Rhea Seehorn. They both broke bad, did some terrible things, and had even more terrible things done to them. In the end, I think they both redeemed themselves, but in ways that would have been hard for anyone to predict. I'm sure most people reading a list of some nerd's favorite TV shows of the year have already watched all of Saul, but if you haven't, it's never too late to start. You definitely won't be sorry. Big Bad Voodoo Lou fucked around with this message at 16:40 on Dec 25, 2022 |
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Dec 25, 2022 09:32
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A phenomenal list!!!!! I hadn’t even heard of George & Tammy but it sounds real good, and I’m down for anything that reunites Shannon and Chastain after how good they were together in Take Shelter
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Dec 25, 2022 11:46
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Escobarbarian posted:A phenomenal list!!!!! I hadn’t even heard of George & Tammy but it sounds real good, and I’m down for anything that reunites Shannon and Chastain after how good they were together in Take Shelter Thank you! It's a new six-episode miniseries on the Showtime. And I had never heard of Take Shelter, so thank you for that!
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Dec 25, 2022 16:30
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Yeah, great list! Another reminder to me that I need to check out The Righteous Gemstones too!
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Dec 25, 2022 20:45
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Jerusalem posted:Yeah, great list! Another reminder to me that I need to check out The Righteous Gemstones too! Thank you! We clearly have similar tastes, and I love how detailed your reviews are every year. I usually browse the SA Forums on my phone, but when I came to your latest list up-thread, I had to save it for when I was sitting in front of an actual computer monitor to do it justice (and save my eyes). Worth the wait.
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Dec 25, 2022 20:59
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I totally forgot Righteous Gemstones was this year, gently caress. I guess I’ll excuse its omission due to it having less Uncle Baby Billy in season 2.
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Dec 25, 2022 22:29
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I'm still trying to cram a few more shows in before the end of the year. Started Atlanta, Pantheon looks interesting. We'll see what I get through, last year Station 11 bumped its way onto my list last minute. I'm not including Station 11 this year because I preferred the earlier episodes but it did end well. A notable absence from my list is Survivor, I haven't been able to watch that or Big Brother since my Grandfather passed away last year. We watched almost every season together since the beginning, plus a few other reality shows, rooting for our favorites and rolling our eyes at the sad piano played up for tv moments. Even the dumbest show was fun, and I may have to hunt down Mountain Men to see what happened to some of those guys. Anyway, here's my initial list, I may change it up or add more detail later: 10. Rings of Power (Amazon Prime). I didn't want to rate this one on the list but it beat the remainder of the new shows I watched this year. It's been discussed to death on these boards so I'll just say I'm disappointed by a lot of the choices they made but it was a beautiful show with some moments that did land (and a bunch that didn't). I hope they improve as they go, take the more constructive criticism to heart, and complete the series well. If nothing else it finally got me to buckle down and "read" (audiobook) The Silmarillion after umpteen years of being a Tolkien fan. 9. House of the Dragon (HBO). Retaining some hate from how the first show ended, I wanted Rings of Power to trounce this show, but it grew on me and was pretty good overall. I've been a lifelong dragon nerd and I'm not sure about how they are used in this series but the cast did very well and I'm curious to see what they do in the future. It needs a new theme song, they should call this one the prequel to Fire & Blood and start back with a new show when they return, keeping the cast etc. Paddy Considine was great, Matt Smith made me forget The Doctor. The younger cast switches were a bit jarring but they did well with it. 8. Archive 81 (Netflix). This was our water cooler show at the office earlier this year. A guy is brought in to restore found footage of a documentary a grad student filmed in a NYC apartment building that burned down in the 90s. It has its creepy moments and questions of sanity and kept us on our toes. The show was based on a podcast which is the only place to turn now that it has been canceled, alongside so many other good shows this year. 7. Reacher (Amazon Prime). I just started watching this one while sick a few weeks ago, I didn't feel like doing anything else so I let youtube shorts unspool at me and a bunch of them turned out to be clips from this show's pilot. With all the realistic dark dramas these days, sometimes its just fun to watch a protagonist brute force his way through unfair situations and get to show an easy earned confidence and competence. 6. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (Paramount+). A welcome return to form after several strange new JJ Abrams movies and series like Discovery and Picard. It's nice to have a more classic show with a solid base cast and modern fx. To be honest I'm still watching this season but it has already made a dent in my list and I'm looking forward to finishing it out as I haven't heard it went off the rails or anything like some other shows have. 5. From (Epix). It's all I ask for in a Lost type show. Lots of weird stuff happening, a good cast, suspenseful episodes. It had better get some more seasons to explain this poo poo but even if they don't it's a fun watch, mashing up zombies, mystery boxes and the trapped cast. So far it's looking good for a season 2 next year. 4. Peacemaker (HBO). This is a great show and Gunn and Eagly make the most of it. John Cena is there too and fearless in his role. Lots of great music though I'd like to see Gunn and Waititi both ease up on the soundtracks a bit, even if I am their target audience for it. HBO is massacring shows over there but with this show being good enough to get Gunn the head job for DC films going ahead I think its a safe bet we'll see more. 3. Andor (Disney+). I'm still more of a fan of the jedi and spaceship battles I grew up on but since those mostly haven't been done well for a few decades I'll take what I can get, and surpringly this was a good get. It really highlights that there's room for more types of shows than the cookie cutter expected ones and I hope it opens the way for a Doctor Aphra series. This felt more like a collection of movies than a tv show and worked best watched in segments imho. Great cast, great music, and its promising that they have a planned 2 season arc and will hopefully get to play it out without too much interference. 2. Sandman (Netflix). Longtime fan of the comic, it was the first "adult" one I ever read, jumping on at the end of Brief Lives and quickly catching up with the trade paperbacks. This adaptation has a few moments I don't agree with but I'm glad Neil held out for the control he had and did such a good job with it. The whiplash of episode 5 into 6, and 7-10 being a contained story, confused a couple of people I convinced to watch it but overall they agreed it was very well done. The bonus episode 11 dropping later with two self contained stories confirmed they know what they are doing, and I hope no Zaslav/Warner Bros/Netflix politics get in the way of playing out an adaptation of the full series of the same quality or better. 1. Severance (Apple+). I've mentioned before I love shows with building dread or tension and an earworm of a soundtrack that matches the mood. For instance Rubicon, most of Mike Flanagan's horror shows, the Take Shelter movie mentioned above. This nailed that vibe. This is just the music not the main title sequence, which is also very well done but I only watched it the first episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-_SX5MheDI
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Dec 26, 2022 17:08
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Honorable Mention - Jack Ryan - It does everything that it is supposed to well, but sometimes the realism is almost too good, in that it portrays the real-life intel stuff can be boring at times. Still, Krasinski is great and perfect choice for the role. 10) The Amazing Race - This season was fun in that I actually would've been happy with any of the Top 4 winning. What I'm saying is that they did a good job finding likable teams. I have a soft spot for this show because it's one of the only shows both my Mom and I watch. 9) Real Time with Bill Maher - 90% of the time I agree with Bill and think he's funny, 10% of the time I think he's out of his mind and vehemently disagree with him. And that's okay. He has interesting guests, including some I really don't like. And that's okay. Actually, it's more than okay, it's a great thing! 8) Cobra Kai - This show was way better than it had any right to be, but it does feel like we're running out of steam a little. It is still a lot of fun though and balances self-awareness without getting too cute with it. 7) For All Mankind - This show is a fun mess sometimes. Still, it hits more than it misses and I'm a sucker for alt-history. 6) Last Week Tonight with John Oliver - I wish I could make everyone watch this show. 5) Stranger Things - 2022 was a season of comebacks and Stranger Things is back, baby! I was never really that down on this show, but drat, this season was as good as anything this show has done. 4) The White Lotus - Always sad to check out of the White Lotus. I was worried that this show might struggle to avoid just repeating the same thing with new characters and in a new place, but I had nothing to worry about. I enjoyed the shift from class issues to relationship issues and jealousy and honesty because it kept things fresh. The cast was once again perfect from top to bottom, and I enjoyed the multiple dead bodies twist to keep the "who died" thing fresh. Some of my friends felt it was a little too slow, but I found it be a perfectly paced, exquisite slow burn building up to an inferno by the last episode. Can't wait for Season 3. 3) House of the Dragon - Game of Thrones is back, baby! Although I did not hate Season 8, I wasn't super excited for this show and didn't watch it when it came out immediately. But finding myself in a show hole I decided to check it out and it was one of my favorites of the year. This show didn't suffer from having to tell too many stories and tie them together, and, as a result, it got to tell a more intimate GoT tale in superb detail. There was more drama and tension at HOTD's dinners, weddings, and funerals in this show than most of the big GoT battles. The shot of Vhagar rising out of the rain was as cool as anything as I saw on TV this year. The other thing that bears mentioning is that the show took the creative risk of replacing actors that had really grown on the audience and were throwing fastballs. It worked. The show didn't skip a beat during the line change. Impressive stuff. 2) Better Call Saul - A victory lap for one of the greatest shows in TV history.....surely this is a mistake at #2?!?!? Based on the totality of the series body of work, BCS is better than my #1, pick, yes. But based solely on the episodes that aired this year, we have ourselves one of the biggest upsets in Bulky's TV list history...... 1) Andor - Star Wars is back, baby! Going to see ESB and ROTJ are some of my earliest memories. In high school, I rediscovered my love of Star Wars and used to play West End Games: Star Wars RPG with my friends along with every video game LucasArts spit out. During that time period, Obi-Wan became my favorite character. I was so disappointed by the Kenobi series, I nearly lost interest in Star Wars to the point where I didn't really have any interest in watching Andor. With White Lotus over and having nothing else to watch I decided to give Andor a try. The best way I can describe it is that for me, Andor brought one of the Star Wars RPG supplements to life. The supplements were small stories, a complete set of missions with characters and objectives that didn't involve the "big" events of the movies or the "big" characters. They were just small stories in this incredibly well-crafted universe. I found the writing and production values to be so much higher quality than Kenobi (and to a lesser extent Boba Fett) that I struggle to comprehend that they were both made by the same company. This was Star Wars for grown-ups and it was magnificent. To me there is plenty of room in the Star Wars universe for all sorts of stories to be told and it's all still Star Wars because of the common elements that ground it all together. What an unexpected delight this was. It's even got me digging around in the basement for my old Star Wars RPG books. Pure magic. Bulky Bartokomous fucked around with this message at 00:50 on Jan 27, 2023 |
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Dec 28, 2022 15:48
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This seemed like a really good year for TV, and narrowing down a list was tougher than I thought. But here are my Top 10 for 2022! 10. Undone – Season 2  This is a rotoscope-animated show about a woman whose mind keeps slipping out of time and space, questioning reality and trying to change the past. While I enjoyed the first season I felt like they didn’t take advantage of the animated nature of the show enough. They definitely picked up the slack this time, and had a lot of fun, trippy visuals to enjoy alongside Rosa Salazar’s excellent and natural performance. Also, more Bob Odenkirk on this list is always a good thing. Undone tackled the same kind of story as Russian Doll did in Season 2, but did so in a more coherent and interesting way. There’s a kind of limited physicality to the performers that makes it clear they were filmed in a small space, and some of the performances are better than others. But I think that the positives outweigh the negatives, and the whole thing was really interesting and enjoyable to watch. 9. Only Murders In The Building – Season 2  In Season 2 of OMITB, our neurotic podcast hosts are in the limelight themselves as they are scrutinized for a murder they (probably) didn’t commit. I wasn’t sure they could continue the charm of the first season, but the winning performances and light touch of the writing kept the whole thing feeling bright, fun and easy to watch. The beginning of the season was a bit clunky as they moved the pieces into place, but a series of fun misdirects and interesting twists brought it all around for a satisfying conclusion. I am not sure if they can keep this effervescent fun going for another season, but if they can I will keep watching. 8. After Party  The concept at the core of After Party is excellent – as each suspect is interviewed about a murder at a high school reunion party, they tell their side of the story in a different genre. One suspect lives an action movie, another recounts a musical, another sees the world as an animated adventure, and so on. This is a killer collection of B-level comedians, who all get a chance to shine in their respective episodes. Ben Schwartz and Ilana Grazer stand out, and Dave Franco makes an excellent douchebag millionaire. Some of the episodes are stronger than others, but it is a really fun and binge-worthy premise that lives up to its concept. 7. Reservation Dogs – Season 2  A group of Native American teens deals with the death of one of their friends and the varied problems and pressures of small town and reservation life. This one I just caught up on in December, and I was lucky enough to be able to watch both seasons together. What an outstanding show, and what a great cast. They walk a great line between comedy and drama, and both aspects of the show hit so well. It runs the gamut, from literal life-and-death terror on the road to a Spirit Guide who is stuck in a porta-potty, all in one unlikely package. The kids on the show are outstanding and all deserve to be stars in their own right, and it is great to see some classic Native actors like Wes Studi and Zahn McClarnon have fun with some crazier characters than we have seen them play before. Some episodes are stronger than others, and I wanted a bit more comedy in this season, but overall it was excellent. The writers clearly know the intricacies of small town life, Native life and the challenges of both. This specificity is key to the success of the story, and elevates the narrative from cute and whimsical to real and lived-in. A real triumph. 6. The Bear  Carmen, a top-level chef, moves back to his hometown to take over his brother’s struggling sandwich shop after his brother commits suicide. He struggles with finances, his personal loss and a restaurant staff who don’t want to change. At first I thought I was going to bail on this show, because the level of stress in each episode is just off the charts. These characters are all stretched thin, ground down and angry at the world, and it can be a lot. But after a couple episodes I was able to see that the actual meat of the show (no pun intended) was the exploration of the themes of grief, connection and family that they are dealing with. Richie may be the most unpleasant character that I have ever loved. What a terrible guy, I can’t wait to see more of him. Oliver Platt is also a great bit of color to the cast and elevates the episodes he is in. Probably the best praise I can give the show is that there is an episode that is one actual unbroken shot, and it is one of the most tense, heart-pounding and engaging things I have seen on TV. And it isn’t even the best episode. 5. Peacemaker  Ultra-macho patriotic hero “Peacemaker” is recruited into a secret task force to help deal with a mysterious threat known as Project Butterfly. This show was probably the biggest surprise of the year, since I didn’t expect big things from a side character in a mid-level superhero movie. But James Gunn and John Cena did an excellent job creating a complex and interesting character out of this seemingly one-note hero. Besides being actually, legitimately funny, there were some incredible emotional moments that were hit along the way, and some exciting and engaging action scenes as well. The entire ensemble was great, but special praise should go to Danielle Brooks as Adebayo and Freddie Stroma as Vigilante. These two provided the heart and the sociopathy, respectively, that helped keep the show balanced and showcased the different sides of Cena’s Peacemaker. 4. Barry – Season 3  Hitman and wanna-be actor Barry navigates his dual world with increasing difficulty, as all of his relationships begin to fall apart under the strain of his double life. What an achievement this season was. Barry has always been funny with a dark edge, but the comedy grew pitch-black this season as Barry slipped into the abyss and couldn’t find his way out. There were so many amazing scenes in this season, but several have stuck with me ever since. Barry calmly explaining how he would terrorize the TV executive to his horrified girlfriend, the intense and insane motorcycle chase scene, and the dream where Barry is standing on the shore waiting for something alongside all the people he has killed. All top TV moments, and all in one season. The ending was shocking and outstanding, and I love being in the position of having no idea how things will end. 3. Stranger Things – Season 4  The now-teens of Hawkins Indiana are terrorized by a creature from the Upside Down that can invade their dreams and destroy them from within, and must find a way to fight back and defeat this evil while discovering where it came from. Stranger Things had an amazing first season, and the next two seasons had various moments of excellence mixed with some big missteps. But this season they really fired on all cylinders, and created arguably their best season yet. The Duffer Brothers have a great handle on big cinematic moments, and they really pulled out all the stops this season. This is less a season of TV than one huge movie, and they did a great job of giving each character a moment to shine. The star of the season has to be Sadie Sink, who put in an amazing performance in Episode 4, probably the single best thing to come out of Stranger Things so far. As the story has moved along, they have leaned less and less on the 80s nostalgia and embraced the horror elements that are at the base of their concept. Their spin on Nightmare on Elm Street was a great new twist, and with it they created one of the most exciting and bingeable series of the year. 2. Severance  A group of employees in a mysterious company have chosen to separate their home lives from their work lives by dividing their brains into two sections, neither of which has any insight into the other side. It was a very close call to put this at the top spot, because this was an astounding achievement of storytelling. To take such a strange scifi concept and turn it into a compelling human drama wrapped in enticing mystery is a real masterstroke, and shouldn’t have worked. But it was one of the most compelling things I have seen in years, deftly weaving together science fiction craziness with personal stories of grief, love and loss. The finale, in which our characters’ plan starts to come together, was one of the most stressful, exciting and exhilarating pieces of media I have ever seen. Adam Scott anchors the show so well, and so effortlessly, it’s easy to miss what a great job he is doing. The subtle differences between his Innie and Outie personas are a great look into the severance process and how it works, and as the story unfolds we get to see why he has made the choices he has, and why it may have been a mistake. The show is very funny as well, but in a super dark and disturbing way. The dance party and the waffle party were both unforgettable for different reasons, and hard to explain to anyone who hasn’t seen the show. I have no idea if this concept can sustain into the future seasons, but if the first season is any indication we will have an amazing ride ahead of us. 1. Better Call Saul – Season 6  Jimmy McGill finally completes his transformation into sleazeball lawyer Saul Goodman, while in the future we see the final fate of his sad-sack disguise Gene Takovic. It doesn’t get much better than this. When you imagine a dramatic TV show, this is what you hope you will get. Vince Gilligan and team have shown that they truly know their craft by creating 2 satisfying endings for 2 very different shows, and both will stick with you. There were so many big moments this season, it is hard to single out individual scenes to praise. But I think the common element in all of them were the top-level performances. Howard Hamlin, Nacho, Gus and Mike all had their fitting endings, but the stars of course were Bob Odenkirk as Saul and Rhea Seehorn as Kim. I could heap praise on these two performances all day and not have it be enough. But two scenes have stuck with me. The first is the scene where we finally see Saul as his full, Breaking Bad-era self. He is the guy we remember, he is sleazy and womanizing, he has his earpiece in and never stops hustling. But now we can see what is actually happening, and it recontextualizes every single scene we have ever seen him in. This is a man in pain, who is hiding from his past and filling his life with loud, brash nonsense to make sure he never ever has to face the abyss at the center of himself. And, of course, Kim Wexler on the bus. When every single terrible moment comes crashing down on her at once and she literally can't take it anymore. I don't know that I have seen a better performance in anything, ever. There were a lot of great things this year, but this was the perfect ending to a great story, filled with great writing and great performances. What else can you ask for? Ishamael fucked around with this message at 17:06 on Dec 29, 2022 |
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Dec 28, 2022 18:07
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10) The Boys (Amazon Prime) The Boys continues to occupy the narrow central zone of a Venn diagram comprised of sharp satire of corporate entertainment, exploration of toxic masculinity, and extreme cartoon violence. When it nails all three, as it did this past season, it's thrilling, thought-provoking, and wildly funny. 9) Murderville (Netflix) Sometimes, I don't want to watch something that makes me think or feel anything other than pure goofiness. Murderville scratches that itch perfectly. Each guest star brings their own unique vibe to their episode that colors everything into its own unique brand of silliness: Conan uses his comedy chops to escalate everything to absurdity, Sharon Stone counters everything with deadpan seriousness, and Marshawn Lynch is Marshawn Lynch. Will Arnett and company somehow manage to contain the chaos that unfolds into an actual murder mystery plot, even when things start to drift hilariously off course (see the accusation scene at the end of the Christmas Special, as Arnett barely keeps it together at the wild guesses the guest stars leave him with). Murderville is smart enough to know how best to deliver something very, very dumb. 8) The Old Man (FX) There's something oddly satisfying in seeing cool stoner dude Jeff Bridges transform into a ruthless badass assassin dude. The action scenes are staged and shot in a way that emphasizes the physicality and desperation present in fights a man who is an expert in killing people but is also like 70+ years old. It's not just taken for granted that our hero has still got it. The fugitive-on-the-run is almost always way more interesting than the hunters hunting him, but here John Lithgow and Alia Shawkat's characters are just as magnetic and fun to watch as they navigate their tricky histories and goals. The rhythms of TV can make sustaining the tension and suspense of a thriller across an entire season tough, but The Old Man abides. 7) The Afterparty (Apple TV+) Both an engrossing mystery and an engaging comedy. It's just as fun putting together the clues as it is watching its cast of knuckleheads cast themselves as action heroes and musical geniuses in their own retellings of the night's events. Sam Richardson as an unlucky supernerd who thinks he is a romcom protagonist but winds up in his own Kafka-esque nightmare of proving his own innocence is a highlight, as is Ben Schwartz as the world's most self-confident loser. 6) Peacemaker (HBO Max) A confession: I have not seen a non-Batman DC movie in a very long time, but Peacemaker was right up my alley. Each episode barrels forward, brimming with energy barely-constrained by the relatively-short runtimes, yet there's always time to slow down for some quiet, genuinely-affecting character beats. The worst thing about this show is the skip intro button that pops up during the opening credits. What sort of monster would click that? 5) Barry (HBO) When you have comedy as dark as this, it's hard to know where the comedy ends and the tragedy begins, an effect that is unnerving in the best possible way. The music-less highspeed chase, Sally's rise and fall, the universe trying and failing to get Fuches to settle down on a farm with an attractive girl who is bizarrely into him, NoHo Hank watching some dude slowly construct a blow gun with which to shoot him, Gene fleeing from a ridiculous amount of dogs...the way Barry veers between wacky comedy and some real dark poo poo yet never feels tonally inconsistent is amazing. 4) Stranger Things (Netflix) The worst thing you can say about the most recent season of Stranger things is that it was a lot. But the best thing you can say about it is that...it was A LOT. Just pure wear-your-heart-on-your-sleeve maximalism. The humor, the horror, the action, the colors, the music (especially the music), the crosscutting between, like, five or so different climactic confrontations, made this season well worth the wait and has me legit pumped for the final season, hopefully coming this decade. 3) Slow Horses (Apple TV+) The whole show could just be Gary Oldman farting in his office and it would still probably make my list. The rest of the cast aren't slouches either, but Oldman's performance as the washed-out, burned-out (or is he?) spy Jackson Lamb anchors the show so well it's hard to imagine any of it working without him. It's fun watching a bunch of spies who are just a bunch of bickering screw-ups trying to overcome even bigger screw-ups committed by the people who are supposed to be the ones really in charge. It's a classic underdog story, just with the safety and security of the British people on the line. 2) Atlanta (FX) I would have thought these last two seasons were too surreal, too imaginative, too funny, and just plain too good to be real, but I don't see thicc Judge Judy anywhere, so it must have actually happened. Wild. 1) Severance (Apple TV+) 9 episodes of absolutely loving wild television.
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Dec 28, 2022 22:03
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I’m surprised that Station Eleven hasn’t appeared on any lists yet since it technically counts; I know it’s a goon favorite and the last I’ve nearly finished compiling all the 2022 shows I’ve watched, now I just need to rank them and gently caress is that hard! timp fucked around with this message at 15:48 on Dec 29, 2022 |
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Dec 29, 2022 15:38
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Hakkesshu posted:3) Andor Glad to see I'm not the only who felt this way. West End Games for life!
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Dec 29, 2022 19:29
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timp posted:I’m surprised that Station Eleven hasn’t appeared on any lists yet since it technically counts; I know it’s a goon favorite and the last It probably should have been #5 on my list but as I mentioned I preferred the earlier episodes and it was on my list last year, so I'm leaving it off this year.
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Dec 29, 2022 19:32
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Honourable mentions/got bumped: The Rings of Power 10. Dimension 20: A Starstruck Odyssey It could've gone to any of their campaigns really, the college humor folks have a great thing going with their dungeons and dragons shows. They've managed to tell engaging stories in between the extremely dumb bits. 9. What We Do In The Shadows I think the latest season was an improvement over the last, where I was beginning to worry that it was beginning to wear out its premise. The payoff for the running property brothers joke was excellent. 8. Defunctland I'm don't know off the top of my head if they released enough episodes for this to be considered as series, but gently caress it. Just a bunch of deep-dives into shows and properties that I haven't thought about since I was a child. Their Disney channel theme episode is just a genuinely great documentary. 7. Taskmaster I will never tire of watching comedians making asses of themselves/occasionally being absolute legends. 6. Andor This is the only Star Wars TV show that I've seen and I was sold on the fact that it's just a well-made genre piece set in space (huge bonus points for not being a barrage of references and cameos). It's just a well told, well acted story. 5. The Bear I love Anthony Bourdain and his novels, and this did a great job of capturing the sort of chaotic energy I pictured from the kitchens in his writing. Stressful and captivating in equal measure. 4. Severance What a great, weird show. It was a bit of a slow build for me, but once it got into its groove, I couldn't take my eyes off it. It helps that it's all beautifully shot. 3. Barry Hoo-boy, what a dark turn this season turned out to be. Still excellent and frequently very funny, but man, some absolute gut punches in there. 2. Station Eleven Just an extremely beautiful story about people finding purpose and community in the face of societal collapse. A welcome breath of fresh air when everything else is just prepper fantasies. I will find a way to vote for this next year as well. 1. Atlanta I was tempted to rank season 3 and 4 separately, with both landing in the top 5 (like 1st and 4th, respectively. Season 3 was probably not exactly what a lot of people were looking for after the long hiatus, but I think a lot of the stand-alone episodes will hold up as some of the best in the series. Of course, season 4 came in and blew down the door with that classic Atlanta flavour. "Smells like the manager mean as hell" still pops up in my head every time I see a Popeyes. fancy stats fucked around with this message at 04:22 on Jan 8, 2023 |
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Dec 31, 2022 07:06
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Honorable mentions All of these shows could easily have made it to my top ten in a weaker year, but with as much good tv as there was they didn't quite make it. But I liked them enough to have them mentioned. What We Do in the Shadows After the disappointing 3rd season, this show was back in full form. Highlights include the Home Improvement episode and Laszlo and Nadja's wedding song. From "From the executive producers of Lost" aren't exactly words that strike me with confidence. Partly because I don't imagine that the executive producers had much to do with what made Lost great, and partly because many shows have tried to be the next Lost, and they all failed. Despite all that, From succeeds and has a lot of Lost vibes, but it is its own show. Rings of Power While House of the Dragon was wallowing in gratuitous sex/violence, and going several episodes with nothing happening, Rings of Power was trucking along and just told a good story. It was flawed certainly, but ultimately good. The highlights were the Elrond and Durin scenes, whenever the two characters were together on screen it was pure magic. Sprung Greg Garcia decided that My Name is Earl was so nice that it deserved to be made twice. And so we have Sprung, which is incredibly similar in plot and feel, but that isn't a criticism, Sprung was a nice and cozy show, even if it wasn't quite as good as the show it was emulating. Killing it A heart-warming story about Jillian G. and Craigory murdering snakes in the swamp. Upload The first season was one of my favourite shows of 2020, and while the second season was also very funny, it wasn't quite as good as the first one. Panhandle Luke Kirby (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) plays an agoraphobic man who hasn't left the house since his wife was murdered. With the help of a traffic cop, he tries to solve it while dealing with his issues. This show is good and has some fun characters, but the highlight is Kirby's great acting. Derry Girls My favourite show where I am also constantly trying to translate Irish slang. This was the last season with the girls from Derry, and it's a show I plan on coming back to for years. The actual Top Ten 10. Andor Andor almost didn't make it to the list, a Star Wars show that doesn't feel like Star Wars, and possibly the first Star Wars live-action project that doesn't revolve around the events of a 45-year-old movie. I almost feel bad for Diego Luna, every single recurring character on the show has a lot more debt than Cassian Andor, even the droid. 9. Moonhaven The cancellation of Moonhaven was one of the great injustices of 2022 tv. It feels like everything is going grimdark these days, even Star Trek, so it was nice having a genuinely optimistic science fiction show on tv. Dominic Monaghan was in his best role yet. 8. Murderville Get a bunch of funny people, and let them react and improvise in absurd situations. The funniest thing on tv this year. 7. The Good Fight The Good Fight started off as a fairly serious legal drama but quickly became increasingly absurd. While the sixth and final season turned it down a notch, it was still just all-out craziness. I will truly miss The Good Fight in my life. 6. Ms. Marvel The feel-good show of the year. Iman Vellani is the best Marvel casting since Robert Downey JR. Everything involving Kamala, her family, and her friends were just about perfect. Some of the middle episodes dragged a little, but nothing that made me love the shows less. 5. She-Hulk It's hard to be unbiased against this show, the sheer fact that it made chuds super angry is enough reason to like it. But it was also a fun legal comedy and had some great characters, with Madisynn being the breakout star. 4. Prehistoric planet A great-looking documentary focusing on dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures. It's just nice seeing dinosaurs depicted well, that isn't an awful disaster movie. 3. Severance Everyone else has described this show better, but just a great compelling mystery. 2. The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey Samuel L. Jackson plays Ptolemy Grey, a 91-year-old man with dementia. He gets offered a treatment that will give him all his memories back for a short amount of time, but it will only work once. I've been raving about this show for a long time, this is by far Jackson's best role ever. 1. This is going to Hurt A drama, comedy, and horror story about working as a doctor in the NHS. Nothing this year affected me as much as the events of this show.
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Dec 31, 2022 12:08
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Guillermo Del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities I just really like horror anthologies. They might be uneven, but most of them still ,manages to include some gems and this anthology absolutely delivered with the Viewing and Inside. Both had a distinctive style and was totally bonkers. Evil  Evil continued to be totally insane and not being overly concerned about delivering a coherent story. If you want a story that make sense this is not a show for you, but if you want have some fun you should check it out. She-Hulk  Because it showed that Marvel's not above making fun of themselves and sometimes experiment a little. That should be encouraged. Love, Death+Robots  Another anthology. It's also uneven, but overall the general input was really strong. Jibaro alone justifies it being on this list. Andor  Finally a good Star Wars show. A show that really portray how authoritarian and oppressive the empire was. How it worked and how it didn't work. What it was like for people that wasn't jedis, princesses or cool space smugglers to live under it. Unlike a lot of sci-fi shows about authoritarian shows it also shows a real understanding about how things works, that it's not possible to have clean hands while fighting oppression and that what oppressive states really achieve when they try to control people too much is that they become radicalized. The Bear  Cousin! Just a really good written show with great actors and directors. Harley Quinn  Both the best and most progressive tv show about super heroes this year. Villains are actually reformed, socialist policies implemented in Gotham and Billy Bob Thornton is accidentally killed. Our Flag Means Death  I didn't have high hopes with this one. But then it turned out to be a really heartwarming queer drama where people sometimes got brutally killed. His Dark Materials  It's really rare to see a show, especially a fantasy show, really nail the ending but His Dark Materials absolutely did. Which is even more impressive since the last bit of the story is where Bill Pullman goes really weird. A war to kill god, a journey to save the souls from limbo and weird elephant-giraffe hybrids that uses seed pods as roller skates. Not only did the showrunners include all the weird poo poo that others would've toned down or cut, they actually made it work. Raised by Wolves  Too weird and beautiful to last, now gone, like tears in the rain. Scott barely had anything to do with it and yet it feels like it belong right beside Alien and Blade Runner. It certainly was better than Prometheus and Covenant where he was directly involved. The Sandman  That this show even exists is a minor miracle. Even more it seems like the showrunners actually gets what the comic is all about, which is why they confidentially can an episode in the middle of the season which is just two people talking with each other and it's the best and most memorable episode of 2022.
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Dec 31, 2022 13:34
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What on earth happened with the paragraphing there. Also is that an actual ranked list? Cos if so probably would help to include numbers e: for some reason the titles were showing up at the end of the previous paragraph on the app but they're not on the actual website Escobarbarian fucked around with this message at 18:13 on Dec 31, 2022 |
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Dec 31, 2022 16:59
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Welcome to the list by that guy who never shuts up in Couch Chat. I came very close to equalling the most shows I’ve watched in a year this time - over 180, only trailing 2019 by one or two. When you watch and love this much, it’s impossible to list everything you actually liked without just wasting everyone’s time, but there’s definitely so many more shows that deserve shoutouts, from Andor to Heartstopper, Winning Time to Wrexham, Taskmaster to We Own This City to Harley Quinn to…..well, you get it. First here’s the bottom half of my top 50: 50. The Outlaws (BBC One) 49. Welcome to Flatch (FOX) 48. The Boys (Prime Video) 47. Bad Sisters (Apple TV+) 46. The Righteous Gemstones (HBO) 45. House of the Dragon (HBO Max) 44. Babylon Berlin (Sky One Germany) 43. Russia 1985-1999: TraumaZone (BBC iPlayer) 42. The Patient (FX on Hulu) 41. Never Have I Ever (Netflix) 40. Avenue 5 (HBO) 39. Cunk On Earth (BBC Two) 38. Undone (Prime Video) 37. Russian Doll (Netflix) 36. I Love That For You (Showtime) 35. Peacemaker (HBO Max) 34. Servant (Apple TV+) 33. Sort Of (CBC) 32. Euphoria (HBO) 31. Stranger Things (Netflix) 30. The Afterparty (Apple TV+) 29. P-Valley (Starz) 28. Documentary Now! (IFC) 27. Pachinko (Apple TV+) 26. Somebody Somewhere (HBO) Now where I start to write some poo poo: 25. Rap Sh!t (HBO Max) Issa’s Rae’s follow-up to Insecure was in my opinion almost immediately superior, with a far more interesting concept and a fantastic use of social media UI in its storytelling. 24. Hacks (HBO Max) One of 2021’s best new shows made its already thorny as heck central relationship even rockier while continuing to be a great examination of aging in the comedy scene and generational divides. 23. Only Murders in the Building (Hulu) The plotting may have been messier than in the first season, but the comedy and interplay between the leads was as charming as ever, and the guest stars were incredible. 22. Ghosts (CBS) Significantly funnier than the British original, with a great cast who bounce off each other wonderfully. 21. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (Paramount+) The best Star Trek has ever been, in my opinion. Excellent episodic storytelling and an extremely loveable crew. I hope it runs for a long time. 20. Players (Paramount+) I have no interest in League of Legends, but the character work in this show (from the American Vandal creators) is genuinely fascinating, and it lovingly mocks the eSports scene perfectly. 19. Mo (Netflix) I like Ramy but oh boy did Ramy’s friend top him hard with this one. A hilarious and sobering look at the life of a Palestinian refugee in Texas, and one of the best Netflix originals in ages. 18. What We Do in the Shadows (FX) Wasn’t a big fan of the third season but OH BOY did I find this one to be a huge return to form. Gave us many of 2022’s biggest laughs while also having, to me, the most interesting storylines to date. Hey, Laszlo, guess what? This show rules. 17. Primal (Adult Swim) Genndy Tartakovsky is simply a master of animation, and this season improved on an already killer first, with some big risks and longer-form storytelling all of which paid off in spades. 16. Ziwe (Showtime) The best and funniest talk show on the air. Ziwe’s confrontational style - a mix between a hilarious parody of black rage, and, you know, actual justified black rage - is endlessly entertaining, and it’s always a blast to see how each guest reacts. 15. Better Things (FX) A perfect farewell to easily the most underrated show that has made my list every single year and yet none of you ever watch it smh. So many arcs were brought to near-perfect conclusions, and I still cannot think of a better depiction of motherhood. 14. Search Party (HBO Max) Even for a show that switched genres every season, it was impossible to predict just how batshit they took things in the final episodes. A fantastic satire with incredible guest turns. 13. A League of Their Own (Prime Video) Despite the fact it’s a little more trite than I prefer my dramas, this won me over completely thanks to a perfect tone and exceptional cast. D’Arcy Carden in this show redefines luminescent. 12. Abbott Elementary (ABC) The best network sitcom in years. The focus on an underfunded public school adds enough of a spin on the Office/Parks formula to make it feel fresh, and it has a great set of characters portrayed by a brilliant cast. Quinta Thee Brunson!!!!! 11. The White Lotus (HBO) While this season may not have quite reached the giddying heights of the first, it was still hugely successful, an absorbing and wild battle of the sexes with some of the year’s funniest moments. and now the list! my favourite shows of a very very good year for TV. each one of these, for me, did something truly special that helped it stand out in such a crowded market, and I hope I can encourage you to check out some of the deeper cuts. 10. High School (Amazon Freevee)  Tegan & Sara are musicians I admire more than enjoy - I really like The Con, but have never fully gotten into any of their other albums - but this show is such a superb and subdued look at a queer coming-of-age story. The twins give absolutely incredible, lived-in performances, and their caregivers are played with such wonderful warmth by Cobie Smulders and Kyle Bornheimer. Clea DuVall has a bright future as a director. 09. Irma Vep (HBO)  This was a big question mark for me for the year. Olivier Assayas, a director I like but don’t love, making a miniseries out of his 1995 movie - which is good, but not great - starring Alicia Vikander, an actress I’ve found decent, but never superlative. Luckily, this was a total joy - a hilarious and sharp satire on the state of modern cinema, a great character piece, and a fascinating look inside Assayas’ mind as he blends the original movie and his life since, particularly his marriage and divorce to its star Maggie Cheung. And Vikander feels so free in a role in a way I’ve never seen from her before, giving one of the best performances of the year. Silly, sexy, thoughtful, and surprisingly unpretentious - we’ve have it all! 08. Fleishman is in Trouble (FX on Hulu)  I was a huge fan of Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s debut novel when it hit shelves in 2019, and she adapted it just about as well as possible here. Purportedly the story of a doctor having to stop his quest to lay pipe all over Manhattan after his mean ex-wife abandons him and their kids, this is the jumping-off point for so many thoughtful ruminations on the trap of domesticity, the unfairness of gender expectations, and our ability to make ourselves the hero of our own story no matter the evidence to the contrary. The cast was absolutely perfect - special shoutout to Claire Danes and Lizzy Caplan (if this is why she couldn’t do the Party Down reboot, I’m sorry, but it was loving worth it) - and it’s a very successful example of adapting a book to screen, with an excellent visual style courtesy of the best work Valerie Faris & Jonathan Dayton have done since Little Miss Sunshine which no way that movie was not half my lifetime ago now ABSOLUTELY gently caress OFF 07. Reservation Dogs (FX on Hulu)  This remains very much a show of two halves for me. Some of the episodes were very similar to season 1, where I enjoyed them well enough, but didn’t quite get the praise lavished upon them. The rooftop episode and the group home episode are just not that interesting I’m sorry. But when there’s a great episode - and the majority of this season was great - it is PHENOMENAL, and this season’s lean into the short story style meant so many different characters and corners of this world got their moment in the sun. Every character down to the smallest bit part feels so well-realised, and only a handful of other shows can pinball between hilarious and heartbreaking with such panache. If season 3 continues in this vein, it could easily find itself topping my list. 06. The Rehearsal (HBO)  Nathan Fielder is one of the most fascinating and idiosyncratic people working in any creative field today, but absolutely nothing could have prepared us for this project. The initial concept - get people to rehearse moments in their life they’re anxious about in a fully controlled environment - is already something remarkably batshit, and that first episode was funny and bizarre enough to earn the show a place on this top 10 alone. But what truly elevates it to masterpiece-level is the overarching storyline that begins in the second episode, with Fielder successfully pivoting to see his craziest idea through to the bitter end. This show resembles nothing more than my absolute favourite movie, Synecdoche, New York, in its obsession with control and blending of performance and reality, and the mystery of how much of what Fielder is doing falls on either side will be a topic of discussion for years. 05. The Bear (Hulu)  This show is absolutely electric. It’s lightning in a bottle. I originally dismissed it because the premise - guy from the world of fine dining returns home to run his dead brother’s sandwich shop - felt a little cliched, and I associated Jeremy Allen White in Chicago too much with Shameless, The Show That Would Not loving End. Thanks to some positive words from goons, I ended up getting back to it right before it blew up, and I couldn’t be happier that I did. I’ve never worked in a kitchen but I have had a couple of kitchen-adjacent jobs, and the depiction of that environment is so on the money, capturing the intensity and stress perfectly. The filmmaking is kinetic and frantic, suiting the material to a T and culminating in an instant classic one-take episode that I will never forget. Every character is a delight (even, or especially, when they’re being huge pieces of poo poo), but the core trio of Carmen, Sydney, and Richie are just incredible, each one of them one of the best characters and performances in a stacked year. Every single moment of this show is just so beautifully-realised - in a very short time its world felt more alive than most shows can manage over multiple seasons. In the end, this show actually is like a good beef sandwich - it’s not highbrow, but it is so well-made on every single level that it remains one of the most satisfying experiences of its kind you can have. 04. Barry (HBO)  The second season of Barry - released all the way back in 2019, jesus! - was incredible, but one episode stood out as especially great. Fans will know that this was “ronny/lily”, a surreal and broad episode that could have easily broken the show had it not been operating on such a high level. This season didn’t have anything like that, but the biggest compliment I can give it is that it took the surreal, unsettling feeling that permeated that episode, and spread it out across an entire season, bringing an already superb show to new heights. This season was still funny as hell, but oh man, it is dark, dark, dark. If season 4 does end up the last, this is definitely that third quarter of the Dan Harmon circle, bringing each character face-to-face with the trauma and demons inside. Slowly but surely Bill Hader has become one of the best filmmakers working in the TV space, with the use of wide shots and long takes - inspired not by the usual suspects, but by European directors like personal fave Roy Andersson - absolutely unparalleled. Every main cast member is giving very likely their best performance ever - Hader and Sarah Goldberg, of course, but even Hollywood mainstays like Henry Winkler and Stephen Root are reaching new heights. And the season was just stuffed with fantastic lines and scenes, including one of the best chase scenes I’ve seen in years. Every season of this show has improved so dramatically against all odds, and I am so excited to see what Hader and co bring to the table next. 03. Severance (Apple TV+)  If there’s one thing I’ve learned from over ten years of these polls, it’s that goons love the shiny new thing. This has resulted in placements both good - is anyone going to argue that Chernobyl didn’t deserve the top spot in 2019? - and extremely sus - if you know, you know - but overall is a great thing that hopefully leads more people to check out deserving new shows. If the lists posted so far are any indication, Severance has a great chance of hitting that top spot this year, and it honestly deserves it. This isn’t just the best TV debut of the year, but one of the best first seasons ever made, excelling on every possible level and immediately becoming the best show on the best streaming service of the decade so far and presenting an exciting future for lead director.....Ben Stiller?? Starting off with an intriguing original sci-fi concept - employees of a corporation undergo a procedure to separate their work and non-work memories, leading to essentially two selves, one for leisure and one who never leaves the office - Severance instantly proved it was something special with incredible characters, a strong sense of humour, a unique visual style, and an enigmatic tone, while the twists and reveals just kept coming. On a pure psychological thriller level, I think it’s one of the best shows in years, but what makes it truly worthy of the acclaim is the excellent character work underlying everything, from the examination of grief to the little rebellions to one of the most tender love stories of the year. This show was an absolute triumph in every way, and were it not for two of the best shows of all time ending on a high this year, it would be number one with a bullet. But let’s talk about those two shows. 02. Better Call Saul (AMC)  Not having this at the top feels so, so weird. I have swapped the top two in my mind probably close to fifty times, and eventually had to just tell myself to shut up and write. In my mind, they are tied. So here’s the first of those shows - the final season of the best part of the most acclaimed television universe of the past 15 years. Weirdly, I find this one of the hardest to write about, because what can I say? With season 5, it had already fully cemented itself as the best show on TV and better than its predecessor. This year, it brought itself to just about the best possible conclusion I can imagine. It is so bizarre to look back and think that Gilligan, Gould, and co almost had Jimmy’s transformation occur at the end of that messy, confused first season. Reversing that decision - and changing the transformation into a long, slow process - was the smartest thing they did the whole show, with the scenes directly before and after the change the best TV moment of the year, the perfect culmination of the show up until then. This first part of the season, covering the continuing adventures of Jimmy, Kim, and our cartel buddies, was as gorgeous and tense and funny as anything the show had given us since. The second part had a much harder job, finishing off not just the story of Jimmy and Kim, but an entire universe, and the fact it managed to do so so well without taking away from the core emotional arc, or falling into fanservice, is commendable. And where Breaking Bad stumbled slightly in its closing episodes, Saul absolutely soars, giving us one of the most satisfying finales ever. Bob Odenkirk continued to top himself with his raw open wound of a performance, while Rhea Seehorn just, gave the best performance on TV. Again. Like every year this show has aired. This was the perfect ending to one of the best shows ever made and an absolutely phenomenal season. How on earth do you top that?? 01. Atlanta (FX)  Well, you air two phenomenal seasons, that’s how. In the end, that was the defining factor in the placement of the top two. Donald Glover’s Afro-surrealist masterpiece returned after a longer break than most shows - literally four full years, thanks in part to shooting on location all over Europe making it harder to resume production post-COVID - and the break had given them time to write not just the third but also the fourth and final season, which were shot together and released in the Spring and Autumn. The seasons are wildly different, but also fit together the same way seasons 1 and 2 did to create a show of two halves - the first was about the struggle and the hustle, while this half is frequently a mediation on fame and success. I’m gonna talk about each season separately. Season 3 will always be remembered as the outlier and “controversial” season, not just for its European setting but for devoting almost half of the episodes to one-off stories without our regular cast, all dealing with the general theme of “the curse of whiteness”. I absolutely understand people’s frustration - this is one of the best sets of characters in any show, and not getting as much of them as usual did hurt a bit. But upon rewatch, free from the burden of expectation, I realised that these episodes are all great in their own way, from the haunting Three Slaps to the utterly absurd satire of Rich Wigga, Poor Wigga. Much better than the sub-Twilight Zone comparisons people make. But the episodes dealing with the European tour are still the highlight - the characters remain as incredible as ever, and their journey through so many different kinds of racism is consistently engaging, whether it’s Darius dealing with gentrification, Earn struggling with The Netherlands’ blackface obsession, or a tripping Alfred learning some hard truths from the best TV guest star of the year. This isn’t the best Atlanta season, but I also don’t think it’s the worst, and this season alone would have earned it probably the third or fourth place spot. Season 4 is Atlanta but even more. Returning back to the titular city, this season is similar to the first two, but even better - funnier, more emotionally resonant, more visually stunning, and even more daring. The premiere alone is one of the funniest and weirdest TV episodes of the decade so far, and almost every other episode that followed met that standard in its own way. Atlanta is the master of the collection of short stories style of show I mentioned way back in my Rez Dogs blurb, and in this season alone we got a gut-bustingly hilarious Tyler Perry deconstruction, an unnerving look at rural life, a tender and beautiful family outing, a different and much more raucous family outing, and a stirring examination of pettiness. And this time, the one episode we spend away from the main cast might be the best one - a fake documentary on the production of “the blackest movie ever made” (if you don’t already know, I don’t know how you would guess) that became a classic within seconds of airing. Every single episode of this season would have been a highlight of any other season, and I haven’t even spoken about the finale, which as with Saul was pretty much the best possible finale for this particular show. And this one had the better final shot. Just one of these seasons would have been enough to propel this show well into the top five, but both together? Nothing else stood a chance. I’ve been a fan of Donald Glover since I was 18 years old (32 now, for reference) and my new University friends showed me Derrick Comedy sketches on YouTube. I started watching Community when it premiered because of Donald Glover, and following his success has been a pleasure, but it was only with Atlanta that I felt he had truly created something special, and that it managed to stay so funny, beautiful, and surprising throughout - especially considering the long, long break - and then go out on a high, is nothing short of a miracle. This is as good as TV gets.
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Dec 31, 2022 18:12
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Escobarbarian posted:Welcome to the list by that guy who never shuts up in Couch Chat. I came very close to equalling the most shows I’ve watched in a year this time - over 180, only trailing 2019 by one or two. When you watch and love this much, it’s impossible to list everything you actually liked without just wasting everyone’s time, but there’s definitely so many more shows that deserve shoutouts, from Andor to Heartstopper, Winning Time to Wrexham, Taskmaster to We Own This City to Harley Quinn to…..well, you get it. First here’s the bottom half of my top 50: I’d be interested to see your whole list
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Dec 31, 2022 18:34
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Pillowpants posted:I’d be interested to see your whole list Sure! Here you go: https://pastebin.com/wdeXz75d Disclaimer that nothing past the top 50 was ranked properly besides my initial go through the ranking engine so a lot of it might not be accurate to my actual thoughts but definitely the stuff on the very bottom is exactly where it deserves to be
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Dec 31, 2022 18:40
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I always look forward to this thread to see what I've missed during the year. Lots of great lists so far with excellent descriptions.
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Dec 31, 2022 20:45
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Great list Esco, though I didn't make it my TOP show, I am in awe of just how strongly Atlanta nailed its finish, and the sheer confidence on display in both the seasons they put together... hell, even the fact they threw out two seasons in the same year in the first place!Escobarbarian posted:06. The Rehearsal (HBO) I've heard people rave about The Rehearsal but never really felt the need to check it out until I read this line 
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Jan 1, 2023 00:16
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The Rehearsal is an incredible show. Truly one of a kind.
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Jan 1, 2023 04:31
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Top Shows 2022 Honourable Mentions Minx – Fun and frothy. I hope the HBO Max Cancellation doesn’t mean the already filmed Season 2 disappears. Heartbreak High – Fun, over-dramatic Australian teen drama. To be honest, the most unrealistic part is that the students don’t wear uniforms. Umbrella Academy – Most of the characters are dumb and selfish. Then they have superpowers and the world ends. Every season. I’ll say the Sloane romance was one of my favourite parts of this season. Ms Marvel & She-Hulk – Ms Marvel was cute and felt too over-stuffed. She Hulk was pretty decent but had a few dodgy moments. Kind of wish they went further with SheHulk vs incels. Mad As Hell – After 15 years (8 years?), Shaun Micallef’s delightful Australian satirical news program finally ended. Bluey – After buying presents for family I finally gave this show a watch. At 7 minute’s it’s quick & easy. It’s a delight. The show brings joy to kids & tips for parents. Star Trek Brave New Worlds – It’s great to have a sci-fi show with an interesting cast that doesn’t default to one character every episode (Michael). ---- 10 - Abbott Elementary – The reason this show is having success it because it’s honest and funny. There are so many little touches that are too real. As a teacher I can identify with so many of these little moments or character stereotypes. Sadly, I think I’m a bit similar to Jacob. 9 - Archive 81 – Sadly another victim of the Netflix cull. Really loved this little mystery show. I would have loved another season or two. It had echos of Ringu/The Ring and at times had me quoting Brenda in Scary Movie. Is the podcast the show is based on worth listening to? 8 - What We Do In the Shadows – It was great seeing Guillermo finally get a bit more power in the vampire dynamic. There were some great plots with the Vampire Bar, Guillermo’s family, Nandor’s genie (The wife plot…. Ehh), Colin Robinson growing up. But the best part was Laslo getting the house renovated on a HGTV program. Absolutely perfect. gently caress I love that episode. 7 - Station 11 - – So I was watching this late at night whilst I was coming down with Covid after being infected at a small NYE Party. Wouldn’t recommend the Covid part. But the flashback panic all rang a bit too true and tied into my own neurosis. Apart from the kiddie cult, I enjoyed seeing a post-apocalyptic world that wasn’t walker dominated. Kind of want a copy of the graphic novel too…. 6 – Heartstopper – As a cis gay man who was a closeted teenager during the early 2000s, this sort of story wasn’t even a possibility when I was growing up. But here we are 20 years later. It’s saccharine, heartfelt and a bit real. A cute romance for queer teens. 5 - The Sandman I honestly wasn’t expecting to enjoy this, but I was really drawn into this series. Dream is still a jerk, but a flawed protagonist is always preferable. I think Death was my favourite character. So many great episodes that shine in this series. 4 - RuPaul’s Drag Race: All Stars 7 – There’s been a glut of RuPaul’s Drag Race this year. Long gone are the days when you’d get one season a year. There have been highs (Spankie Jackzon on Drag Race Down Under S2) & lows (Seemingly endless weeks of Season 14). But by and large All Stars 7 was a standout. An all-winners season without weekly eliminations. It was a joy to see amazing Drag Queens given a platform to perform. The weaknesses of the format were plain for all to see (The awful, awful scripted challenges), but the queens shone through. Now, if they can put some more quality instead of quantity into this franchise, that’d be great. 3 - Derry Girls – Sadly the end of this lovely little show. But at 3 seasons and a handful of episodes, Derry Girls goes out on a high. Between the 90s setting, constant shenanigans, comedy and fab 90s soundtrack I’m sad to see this go. 2 - The Resort – My favourite little surprise of the year. A disconnected couple goes on a holiday and after an accident one of them hyper-focuses on solving a mystery of a young couple who went missing from the area in the early 2000s. It gets a bit bonkers and I loved it. This was a great self-contained season of television that went a bit crazy from time to time. 1 -Stranger Things – It was best of times, it was the blurst of times. Watching Part 1 of this at 4am in hospital after surgery was surreal. But this show had a massive impact on the zeitgeist of 2022. Who would have thought this show would make Kate Bush popular again? I’m looking forward to the finale in 2024… The Russian plot was probably the shakiest of them all, but it was great having the group broken up so everyone got a moment to shine.
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Jan 1, 2023 14:51
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Andrew_1985 posted:Is the podcast the show is based on worth listening to? That depends. As a fan of the podcast I found the tv show to be mostly bad and a pale imitation of the podcast. But someone who watched the show first might not care for the weirdness of the podcast. Based on the ending, the tv show was going to be completely different than the podcast after the first season. So I highly recommend the podcast, but they’re pretty different.
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Jan 1, 2023 16:45
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Caveat: I’ve been on a movie kick for most of the year and since my oldest keeps me up late, I have minimal time for TV or movies. The Boys Honorable Mentions: The Boys, We Own This City, Handmaids Tale, Jack Ryan, Only Murders in the building– all of which I haven’t caught up with yet. 10 million Little Things: I love James Roday – he can make me angry, laugh, cry etc better than anyone else. 9. The MCU TV Shows; Between the Two TV special presentations, Ms. Marvel, and She Hulk – the TV shows were better than the movies this year, but I have to give it to Ms. Marvel for bringing my X-Men MCU introduction that much closer. 7. Afterparty – This did the Murder Mystery/Comedy combo a lot better than anything else I’ve seen -so much so that I marathoned the show during an all nightery. 6. Peacemaker: Who would have thought that one of the reasons I stopped watching professional wrestling would turn out to be as funny as Cena. 5. Walking Dead; There’s so much that can be said for this show – and a lot of it is deservedly negative, but this show managed to fix all of its issues and really shine in the last 3-4 seasons. And we’re getting spinoffs to tie up loose ends. 4. Blockbuster; I’ve got a soft spot for retail store comedies as they bring about a nostalgia for days when I wasn’t forced to adult 24/7. This was no different. 3. Let The Right One In: The original and remake movies are some of my favorite vampire movies ever made, and this is significantly different but it’s the first show in years I tried to watch live just because I was so excited. 2. Bel Air: Reboots have been pretty terrible lately, but watching this was just…wow. I always thought the original should have been more drama and less comedy based on the circumstances, but this was really well made. 1. All of us are Dead: This is everything I’ve ever wanted out of a zombie show – and my first foray into Korean TV.
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Jan 2, 2023 05:55
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Man I’m glad this thread has survived as long as it has. Ed: @Looten Plunder: thanks for taking over for me/Rarity. Especially Rarity since she did most of the work when I was OP anyways.
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Jan 2, 2023 09:58
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I love this thread and I'm already making another list of shows that I didn't get to before now, but I'm really looking forward to getting into: This Place Rules From 1899 The Patient Minx House of Dragons Tokyo Vice How To Black Bird Irma Vep And speaking of lists, I have another one for the shows I couldn't jam into my top ten list. Apparently there were more than 300 shows that premiered for the first time in the first SIX MONTHS this year. An insane year for content, but I had to mention these also amazing shows that are definitely worth watching: White Lotus Interview With A Vampire Mo High School After Party This Flag Means Death Murderville Physical We Need To Talk About Cosby We Own This City This Fool Now the real list, here we go: 10. Gaslit A recounting of the insanity that swirled around the Watergate breaking and fallout, it somehow continued to just keep blowing my mind in how absolutely hosed up and dark and hilarious everything got. With career defining performances from a murderers row of amazing actors, Dan Stevens, Julia Roberts, Betty Gilpen, chewing thru not only the cruelty and madness of the Nixon presidency, but also larger thoughts on loyalty, and love, and how that can be absolutely twisted to break you. It also has some of the sneakily best written dialogue of the year. Shea Wigham gives perhaps the most indelible performance of the year as the insane and captivating G Gordon Loddy. 9. Atlanta Feels like I have nothing else to say that someone else hasn't done a better job already. Though I haven't ever connected emotionally as fully as other people have with its characters, it's film making bonifides, its use of the episodic format, the cleverness and intention with its structural experiments, has pushed the TV drama forward all on its own. 8. Peacemaker A few months after watching the show, what sticks with me isn't the fast-paced and hilarious dialogue, the killer action scenes, or sci fi inventiveness, it's John Cena breaking down and crying. The secret power of this show depicting hosed up super heroes is emotional honesty, delivered in swift punches and relentless combos. These characters struggle with struggles that we all have, the struggle to be taken seriously, the struggle with toxic family, the struggle to forgive and be forgiven, while also wrapping it up an excellent action yarn perfectly wrapped up by season's end. A rare thing on TV. 7. The Bear Anxiety inducing in a way that I haven't seen captured as well since Uncut Gems, it's also an uplifting story of picking up yourself from a horrible senseless tragedy, leavened with deep humor, and examinaing ambition, and what we owe to each other. Next level directing and acting good enough to stop all that for a simple monologs centered directly on the actor's face. 6. Somebody Somewhere 2022 has been wonderful for TV in a lot of ways, but what excites me most is that the parameters of it have expanded enough to embrace diverse stories that for some dumb reason haven't been explored yet. I could have put Mo in this slot, or This Fool, or High School, or one of the other dramadies that were simultaneously hilarious and profound. But this show about an unhappy 40 something year old woman trying to fit into strictured Kansas suburbia is the one that has left the greatest impression. It doesn't matter how little I might share with the lead, her dealing with loss, and unrealized dreams affected me on a real level that feels fairly universal. We've all dealt with this poo poo. And the show seems cognizant about it, not dwelling in the sadness or futility, but like it's characters, ready to bear it as just another thing you have to deal with. This show seems wise, and creates a funny and nuanced crew of characters whose increasing interactions seem to underline the shows main theme, the power of being together. 5. Reservation Dogs As seen by the other lists, this show is killing it. And it's focus this season on its expanded cast of characters was a fantastic choice, now filtering the tragic-comic adventures of teenagers with adult views on family and redemption. I was a goddamn mess by the end of the season. 4. Barry Do I like this show this much because of how much I loathe Dexter? Maybe the thing that still rankles the most after it had its sputtering end is its sociopathic need to have its main character avoid the consequences of his own actions. Season 3, seems to exist to ensure that didn't happen. Barry, finally got what was his and it turned what was TV's funniest show to also at times, its most dramatically effective. There doesn't seem to be any guard rails for this show, but here's hoping they keep up this quality for Season 4. 3. Severance A triumph of sci social commentary and a show so assured its shocking, it's a showcase of top tier writing an directing. Other people have covered this so all I'm gonna say is this is one of the best first seasons of anything I've ever seen. 2. Better Call Saul Another show that is rightfully getting its plaudits here. I actually came to BCS as a viewer who stopped watching the show after the 3rd season. No particular reason why, but at times I was grateful for it as I dov3d back into the show with a vengeance, and utterly found it impossible to stop at one episode just so I could see the next. But what I also found was that it was almost as hard to watch more than a few episodes in a row. Because each episode was so dense, so heady, so weighty, that I found myself fuller than after a buffet. So much happened in its 6th season that I'm still reeling from it. A swan song sason that could stand with some of its best season, maybe the most rare thing you can see on TV. 1. Andor How is this show my number one, in a year of BCS, Severance and Reservation Dogs? It doesn't take as deep a character study as other shows on this list, it doesn't fill an episode with enough twists and turns that you need a minute to take it all in, it doesn't wow you with its inventive story or narrative risk. What it does set out to do over its dozen or so episodes is tell you a tale as polemic, as political, as the diagetic in story voice memos calling for revolution. REVOLUTION in bright capitalized letters, slashed across the boundaries of episode ends, not content to let the contours of the hour drama stop i5self from essentially creating three different movies, with increasing levels of reward as a result. I'm a fan of this stuff, grand stories spread over dozens of characters telling a story of humanity and the struggle to remain human. And every line, every acting choice, every directorial trick and sci fi bit of world building, was aimed at that. This show was a message, a riotus series of introductions and paid off climaxes, that had me cheering and weeping within moments of each other. This just FEELS new, and that's why it's my number one. Shageletic fucked around with this message at 14:34 on Jan 2, 2023 |
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Jan 2, 2023 13:58
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