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Looten Plunder posted:3. If you want to list more than ten shows go for it (in fact, it's encouraged) 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. This rule is a bummer because I think I only watched 9 decent shows this year
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Jan 17, 2024 08:49
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10. The Changeling I admired this more than I liked it. I appreciated the general vibe it created of this dark, moody, misty New York City with secrets around every corner, but wish it hadn't disappeared up its own magical realism rear end too often. 9. Silo This is a prime example of a 10-episode streaming series that would have been a much better 2-hour film, however I really dug the set design and worldbuilding, and the ending - which subverts the established true-false binary of the world beyond the Silo and instead presents an unexpected third result - was surprising enough that I'll watch the next season. (Personal irritant: obviously this is based on a self-pubbed YA series from a decade ago, and modern YA is a genre which is inherently designed to appeal to teenagers so it's all about how The Man Is Controlling You, but in the wake of COVID-19 & Qanon it would be much more interesting if the "truth" in this show had turned out to be "yeah the outside world is legit dangerous, the authorities generally just want what's overall best for society, and the people whispering to you about conspiracy theories are unstable whackos.") 8. Mrs Davis I absolutely loved The Leftovers so I wanted to like this more than I did, but it veers too far towards the comedic and whacky for my liking. Still a fun series, and I'll take something unusual that doesn't quite come together over something generic that succeeds in a workaday sort of way every time. Special mention to the excellent chemistry between Betty Gilpin and Jake McDorman, and to Chris Diamantopolous' fantastically, deliberately (I think) bad Australian accent that wanders between New Zealand and South Africa and suits his ridiculous character perfectly. 7. Beef Good fun comedy drama and, barring Squid Game, probably the best original content Netflix has put out since the mid-2010s, but still not something I felt very more-ish about (in contravention of their business model) and lost a bit of goodwill in the extremely contrived final episode. Steven Yeun is fantastic in everything he does, though. 6. Hijack Sometimes you want to watch a deeply artistic and multi-layered drama about family trauma that will win a swag of Golden Globes; and sometimes you want to watch a very dumb thriller about Idris Elba trying to talk his way through a plane hijacking. Hijack was good dumb fun. Basically like if in Die Hard, the slick coked-up shithead who tries to negotiate with Hans Gruber and gets shot in the head was the main character. 5. The Last of Us A lot of nerds have set far too much store in the ~story~ of this video game, which - when adapted to the screen - goes to show that the best video game stories are sort of middle-of-the-road in other mediums. This is a perfectly faithful adaptation and therefore an adequately entertaining apocalypse thriller TV show. (My personal beef was that - as with Silo in the wake of COVID-19 - it lazily maps traditional dystopian imagery onto a world which just doesn't match up. When there really are flesh-eating fungus monsters outside the walls of your city, hand-wringing about fascism feels a little beside the point.) 4. Scavengers Reign This may be cheating a bit because I haven't finished it, but I can't imagine them not sticking the landing. A truly unique and special accomplishment. 4. The Bear Just a really good, solid show. The standout in this season is Fishes, the Christmas flashback episode - when it started my girlfriend (who has a small family) said "see this is what I really envy about people who have big families," and me (who has a big Irish Catholic family) made a neutral noise. Suffice to say that by the end of the episode I was vindicated. Fantastic performances by Jon Bernthal and Bob Odenkirk. 2. Succession Little I can say about this that hasn't already been said. What I really admired in the season, above all else, was the episode in which Logan unexpectedly dies. I am annoyed I was spoilered about this beforehand (via - of all things - a segment on an ABC News breakfast program which was about avoiding spoilers, thanks very loving much) but it's still an incredible piece of art. The actor that sticks in my mind in that scene is not any of the kids, but rather Matthew McFayden playing Tom, estranged from this family but nonetheless obliged to inform them that their dad's life is hanging in the balance and holding his phone up for them to impart last words to a man that he can already see is gone. 1. Barry I'm in awe that they managed to turn this quirky little elevator pitch of a comedy into something this dark and serious. Brilliant conclusion to one of the great shows of the last 10 years.
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Jan 21, 2024 10:18
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Surprised ABC Australia that much of a showing, including shows I've never heard of despite the fact that I work for the ABC edit - it actually didn't, I should learn to read stats properly freebooter fucked around with this message at 13:59 on Feb 22, 2024 |
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Feb 22, 2024 13:40
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