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This was a weird year for me, not much I feel super strongly about, just a lot of stuff I thought was pretty good, so I was considering whether or not to even make a list, but heck I think I came up with a decent selection. Nearly made the cut - The Last of Us  I was a big fan of the video game back when it originally came out, and I think they nailed most of the important things in the translation to TV - good atmosphere, great casting, very evocative visual design, tonally consistent. I think it mainly just didn't feel AS impactful because of how closely they stuck to the original story, and the new elements they added weren't bad, but I don't think they were the strongest parts (minus the standalone episode). Mostly, I think it had some pacing issues - it didn't feel as much like a long arduous journey where two people got to know each other way more than they had planned for, and I think it could've benefited from being split into two seasons. I don't think that was a HUGE problem, but when it was over I was just kind of like underwhelmed despite it hitting all the right beats as best it could. The aforementioned standalone episode with Nick Offerman was very, very good and extremely well-acted, but in hindsight I do think it felt somewhat out of place slotting it in just as the main narrative had finally begun - I wouldn't take it out or anything, but it almost feels like it should've been its own movie or something, like it deserved better? Hard to really put into words, but there was something off there in terms of pacing. Special shout outs to Pedro Pascal - he endeared me to Joel as a character way more than the games ever did. 10) Silo  I'm something of a sucker for post-apocalyptic narratives, and this is one of the best ones we've gotten on TV for sure. Interesting setup, clever world building, very good cast, terrific set design - I don't have any major complaints. Rebecca Ferguson did a great job playing a character who was almost uniformly unlikeable without just being annoying or stupid. I maybe wish Tim Robbins' character played more of a part, because once he really got involved it gave the show a bit of a shot in the arm. They also managed to create really effective tension with regards to the long-term survivability of the silo - the episode where they had to repair the generator was definitely an early standout. Will Patton, who isn't an actor I'm super familiar with, also put in an incredible performance here - again, shame he wasn't in more of the show. In a year where we didn't get a last season of Snowpiercer for pointless bureaucratic reasons, this filled the spot nicely. 9) Welcome to Wrexham  Point one, I don't give a gently caress about soccer, never have. ESPECIALLY league soccer. But a friend who is a fan convinced me to give it a go last year, and since I like Always Sunny I figured why not at least take a look. Last season was quite good, but they really stepped it up this year - it's such a well-executed production that genuinely makes me understand how people get so invested in sports; in many places, it's just so baked into their local history and culture, and nothing illustrates this better than when they showcase events like the mining disaster from a 100 years ago, the fact that drat near everyone in the city has a personal relationship to the club, the amount of passion and love for their local community that is baked into going to see a game every week, etc. It's not something I ever really felt growing up, but I get to experience it vicariously through this show - it's a cliché, but the show really is not much about football, it's about the lives around it, and season 2 really hammers this home. Nothing but the utmost of praise for the episode that features Yma o Hyd, the Welsh folk song - they end an episode by going through the history of the town and the culture and what it means to the people there and intercut it with the crowd singing it before a game starts. Absolutely master class in editing right here. 8) The Fall of the House of Usher  I'll watch pretty much anything by Mike Flanagan, but this is one of his better works for sure. Each episode is dedicated to a specific character, each suffers a horrific fate based on a Poe story, it all works comes together very nicely at the end with a standout performance by Bruce Greenwood. If I have to point to anything, I feel like maybe the flashbacks were somewhat weak compared to everything else, even if they still served the narrative. I just kind of wanted to get back to the main cast - all of whom put in some incredible work here. Mark Hamill was especially great, playing a somewhat unique character for him who remained in the background for most of the story, but still left a crucial mark on everything and everyone. I had expected there to be a logical conclusion to everything from the outset, but no, it just dips into full magical realism by the end, and I think it's better for it. They tease several explanations for what is going on and who the Raven character is, but they smartly never go into full lore mode or provide much of a conclusion other than what is included in the original House of Usher short story, and some might find that unsatisfying, but it all worked for me. 7) One Piece  I will watch the occasional anime or read the occasional manga, but One Piece has always fully eluded me. I was extremely skeptical that the live action adaptation would be anything I was even remotely interested in, but I gotta hand it to them, they really pulled it off. It's a very funny, lively, and very positive show and while that is of course a very common thing in shonen stories, it's not something you get to see very often in high-profile streaming productions, especially ones with this level of financial backing behind them - thus it manages to carve out a somewhat unique position; it's not prestige, it's not based on a story I know, I don't even really know any of the actors in here - it's just a very enjoyable, very original story with fun characters and over-the-top villains that is extremely earnest without also being too cloying about it. It's Just A Good Time. And yeah, you have to give a lot of credit to Iñaki Godoy - the show definitely wouldn't work half as well without him. I have no idea what the future of this show is, I can't imagine they will get to adapt the whole story, but if nothing else they are making that new anime so I might just start watching that whenever it arrives - they got me to pay attention to and care about One Piece in a way I never have before, so kudos. 6) Loki  I've had my ups and downs with the MCU, but I think overall I'm more positively inclined towards in than most people. But even I can't deny that it has been a rough few years post-COVID for the company, just not being able to kickstart their many next chapters following Endgame, either due to sheer incompetence or due to matters out of their hands like the whole Jonathan Majors Situation. But, well, Loki season 2 was a really nice surprise. I liked the first season a lot, but this ended up being one of the best MCU things in my opinion, and asserted Tom Hiddleston as not only the best actor in the MCU, but also Loki as the best character. The show keeps the amazing production design of the first season, but goes in a slightly different direction with the story in season 2. The show has often been compared to Doctor Who, and this is very accurate - so you can almost say that season 1 feels like a Russel T. Davies season, while season 2 feels like one of the good Matt Smith seasons. And they lean more into Loki being basically a time lord too with the whole "Glorious Purpose" concept - but frankly this is much better than most Doctor Who seasons. Ke Huy Quang is a very welcome addition to the cast, and Jonathan Majors, despite everything, is a legitimately great actor and does a much better job here than he did in Ant-Man 3 earlier this year. It's a shame how he sucks rear end IRL and that does impact the show to a certain degree, but it didn't stop me from having a great time here. For all the complaints that the MCU is way too interconnected and requires too much external knowledge to enjoy any given thing, Loki as a series does manage to tell a mostly self-contained story with a great, great ending. I don't know if Loki will return, but it's also totally okay if he doesn't, because you probably couldn't have a better conclusion. 5) Righteous Gemstones  gently caress, I can't believe I forgot to put this in the list. Absolutely one of the best comedies of the best decade, and season 3 might've been the best one yet. It had everything - smut busters, the gemstones building golden murals of themselves, Baby Billy, literally everything BJ said or did, Uncle Baby Billy, everything building up to a biblical reckoning in the finale, Judy and BJ in the bath, the Redeemer, Kelvin and Keefe, and of course, Uncle Baby Billy and his Bible Bonkers. The ending is also terrific and if the show decided to end it here I would have zero issues with it. Thankfully it isn't ending, but still, just such a fun show that also manages to be dramatic without ever forgetting how absurd and awful these people are. 4) The Bear  I didn't watch this last year, I was somewhat unconvinced that I would enjoy a show about a restaurant, but they definitely got me when I binged it earlier this year. Hard to say exactly what stands out here - the cast is great, it's well shot, it's extremely well-paced, but it isn't as if there's much plot - it almost has the sensation of watching a theater play, where it's 90% purely about the dialogue and character interactions and almost nothing else matters. Many things has been said about the Christmas episode, but it is absolutely one of the most harrowing episodes of TV I've watched. It's a shame that Jon Bernthal doesn't get to be in more of the show for obvious reasons, because he really crushes it here, as does Jamie Lee Curtis. I do have some reservations about the overall message of the show - mostly because I think fine dining is something of a scam and them treating it as the ultimate end goal for a chef and restaurant worker to develop their skill I feel lacks the introspection that you usually get from the rest of the show - but I also expect that to develop more in the next season when their restaurant will no doubt crash and burn horribly. Ebon Moss-Bachrach is among the great living character actors, glad to see him finally get the recognition he deserves. 3) The Curse  The Rehearsal was one of my favourite shows last year and I've become such a Nathan Fielder stan that I'll watch anything he does. Since the show isn't over yet, I'm not fully sure how I fully feel about it, but it has definitely been a roller coaster of an experience. The Curse is a show where basically nothing happens, but it still feels like you've climbed a mountain once you get to the end of an episode. I don't think it's a stretch to say that they're trying to evoke David Lynch in a lot of aspects of the show's storytelling, but not in a way where it just feels like they're ripping him off. It's just - weird characters who say weird things and something always feels strange and uncomfortable in ways you can't always pinpoint. It's an amazing looking show too with lots of incredibly creative and very memorable shots that will stick with me for years, and I can't wait to see how it all wraps up. Emma Stone is putting in the performance of a career here, and while Nathan obviously is not a master thespian, the character of Asher feels specifically tailored to him and he does a great job of playing the most annoying person you will ever meet. Someone in the show thread said that watching the Curse is like watching a horror movie where the monsters are the main characters but the scariest thing about them is how much they suck, which I think is a great encapsulation of what the show is about. Hope it ends well! Edit: Wow, that was an ending. I don't think it moves the show up or down for me, but it was a hell of a ride. 2) Succession  The final season of Succession is easily its best, despite Brian Cox not being in most of it. Killing off Logan Roy that early in the season was a bold move, but in hindsight it was the smartest thing they could've done. That creative choice reduced all the characters to their base instincts and ended up highlighting what the show does best - constant backstabbing. You also begin to see genuine character growth and how it's almost immediately curtailed because none of these people actually have the capacity to evolve. The wedding episode where they hear the Big News is absolutely fantastic, the funeral episode is loving fantastic, the finale equally so. Amazing show - it's rare that we get such good endings too, but it really feels like everyone ended up exactly where they should within the context of the narrative, which is a rare thing to be able to say. 1) Frieren: Beyond Journey's End  Also not a show that has finished airing yet, but one that I fell in love with almost immediately. I'm a sucker for anything swords and sorcery-related, especially anime, being a huge fan of series like Berserk and Lodoss War, and it has been a long, LONG time since we've had a good fantasy anime that A) is not an isekai and B) stands tall alongside the greats of the genre, but I think Frieren manages it. With the caveat that I have no idea where it goes, but people have told me enough good things about the manga that I'm confident they won't mess it up too bad. Frieren is a story about what happens after you go on your big classic RPG quest to beat the evil demon king. You are lauded as heroes, the realm is at peace, so what's next? Frieren, the character, is an elf, blessed with long life, so the ten years she spent on that journey was just a pebble in the pond. She has lived for hundreds of years prior to beating the demon king and will probably live for hundreds of years after, so why was that period of her life so important? With all her companions growing old and/or dying, she goes on a personal journey to find out what the people in her life really meant to her, with a few new companions tagging along. It's a somewhat slow-paced show that lingers on the existential and the importance of finding joy in what you have before it's gone - very different vibes from most popular anime, especially within the realm of fantasy. There is action here and there, but Frieren is such a powerful mage that there's no real sense of danger; yet this again helps inform her character and her attitude towards the world around her. If you're a hugely powerful near-immortal, how do you not just become a mega introverted sociopath? You can also catch hints of vampire and other immortal type narratives and such in here, but it doesn't dwell on the depressive or the "woe is me how cursed am I to live so long." It's a show with a very positive outlook that also then gets occasionally subverted when something threatens the party, creating a very appealing dichotomy that keeps the show from becoming too sedate. It's also just beautiful to look at and the music is equally evocative. This show came largely out of nowhere for me, but I really, really love it. Delicious in Dungeon is another fantasy manga that has very different vibes, but nonetheless feels somewhat in conversation with Frieren, and the anime adaptation of that starts next week, so as the kids say: We're so back. Shouts out: Yellowjackets: I love this show but it was largely more of the same and I'm a bit wary about how it'll go without Juliette Lewis Cunk on Earth: Very funny, very good, she should get to do one of these every year until the end of time. Vox Machina: A step up from the first season, characters are less annoying and the plot actually gets going. Warrior: I'm amazed we got a third season, and while it wasn't the strongest of the three, it's still a really drat good show and I'm sad it won't continue. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Fun show, maybe a bit TOO fun, kinda whiplashy from week to week between the war crime episode and the musical episode, but it's still good. Star Trek: Lower Decks: IMO, the best currently running Star Trek show, very well-written, very funny, feels like it's really hitting the right notes in terms of comedy vs. drama. Castlevania Nocturne: You can feel the writing not being as strong as previous seasons, but it was still a great looking show and setting it during the French revolution was a clutch move. Gen V: Decent spin-off, I wish it was a bit more its own thing rather than trying to hit the same overly cynical notes as The Boys, but I still enjoyed it. Foundation: I didn't love the second season, but I still largely enjoy this show - overall the second season was definitely stronger for having a lot more Jared Harris. Pluto: Fantastic adaptation of a great manga - though it has the same problem as the original story which is that the buildup is like 18000% better than the denouement. This was close to hitting #10. Winning Time: This was on my list last year, still a good season but they fumbled some of the Jerry Buss stuff and the really unceremonious cancellation ending was a huge bummer. Mobile Suit Gundam: Witch From Mercury: Another show that got the short end of the stick, should've gotten another season, the end felt like a rushjob. Rick and Morty: Very solid post-Roiland offering, a few clunkers but one of the better seasons of the show. Always Sunny: Show's trucking along, still good - Charlie eating the expired Turtles pies is still probably the hardest I've laughed this year. Vinland Saga: Very good adaptation of a very good part of the manga, though I think the manga is still just a better version of the same story - more people should watch this show. It could definitely end up in my top 10 on any other day of the week. Perry Mason: Great show, killed too soon. Would kill for this to just run for like 15 seasons, but alas. Wheel of Time: Solid, maybe a bit unmemorable, but I still enjoy it. Scott Pilgrim Takes Off: Nice surprise, quite funny, great subversion of the original movie/comic. For All Mankind: I think it's better than season 3 so far, but we'll see. Still like this show despite how absurd it is. Ahsoka: Not great, but perfectly solid and it looked great. Ray Stephenson was a treasure and he absolutely killed it here. RIP. What We Do in the Shadows: A return to form after a somewhat uneven season 4. Gave us Nandor De Laurentiis. How To With John Wilson: Fantastic show, though S3 was maybe the weakest one. Sad to see it go, would've loved to get one of these a year for the next 10 years. Hakkesshu fucked around with this message at 10:01 on Jan 22, 2024 |
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Dec 31, 2023 15:38
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| # ¿ May 10, 2024 16:35 |
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I had to amend my list to put Righteous Gemstones on there, all due respect to Baby Billy's Bible Bonkers. Sorry The Last of Us, I feel like a drat fool for completely forgetting about Gemstones.
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Jan 2, 2024 14:51
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I think it's fine to have a bit of discussion so long as it isn't just being lovely? Like I thought Ted Lasso S3 was abysmal, but I'm not gonna call out someone for liking it, they already gave their reason for doing so and I appreciate reading people's thoughts.
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Jan 3, 2024 18:14
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