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I made my list today and already posted it on my food blog, so here it is. I ranked 13 shows in all: 13. The Righteous Gemstones, season 3 (HBO). I really should hate a show about an awful family of wealthy Southern televangelists, but it’s so hilarious and raunchy, with occasional moments of pathos, that watching them bumble and stumble was pure fun and joy. Think of The Righteous Gemstones as the sitcom version of Succession, with three adult fail-children desperately trying to lead the megachurch empire founded by their powerful, distant father. Nobody can sling profane insults as well as star and co-creator Danny McBride, except maybe Edi Patterson, who plays his oversexed, insane sister. Season 3 didn’t give us as much of the great Walton Goggins as Uncle Baby Billy, but nothing is perfect. 12. A Murder at the End of the World (FX). A murder mystery set in a remote Icelandic luxury hotel, interspersed with flashbacks about two “citizen detectives” who met online and embarked on a cross-country road trip to track down a serial killer. The common thread connecting these parallel stories is Emma Corrin’s character Darby Hart, a brilliant young detective, hacker, and daughter of a police forensic specialist. Oh yeah, and the show also threw in some stuff about the dangers of AI, complete with Clive Owen as an Elon Musk-inspired antagonist who still sucked a lot less than Elon Musk. 11. AEW Dynamite (TBS). Yes, this is my wrestling show. I lost interest and drifted away from watching All Elite Wrestling last year, but I think that was depression and anhedonia as much as some questionable booking decisions and overreliance on a few wrestlers to the detriment of others on the roster. This year brought me back into the fold, thanks to highlights like Orange Cassidy (a slacker inspired by Paul Rudd’s Wet Hot American Summer character, but still an awe-inspiring workhorse who wrestles brilliantly with his hands in his pockets), Danhausen (the “very nice, very evil” comic relief ghoul), and Timeless Toni Storm, who is doing the best character work I’ve ever seen in professional wrestling as an unhinged 1940s Hollywood star (think Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard), trading her native Australian accent for an old-timey Transatlantic one. Toni’s outrageous promos and interviews (all filmed in black and white, naturally) show she is as gifted an improv comedian as she is a wrestler, and her T-shirt-worthy catchphrase is “Chin up, tits out, and watch for the shooooe,” followed by her taking off a shoe and chucking it at people. She now has an obsessed fan-turned-assistant, Mariah May, which means AEW is actually going to do a pro wrestling version of All About Eve in 2024, and I am here for it. And here is my Top Ten: 10. Obliterated, season 1 (Netflix). This show is a cross between G.I. Joe, 24, and The Hangover, about a team of specialists from different military branches, led by a CIA agent, trying to save Las Vegas from terrorists armed with a nuke. It debuted about a month ago to zero fanfare, but it was loud, violent, horny, dumb, raunchy fun. It feels like something that would have aired on Cinemax during the glorious era when it was showing Banshee, Strike Back, The Knick, Jett, and Warrior, or something The CW would have loved to air if they could show drug use, profanity, and copious male and female nudity on broadcast TV. I never watched Cobra Kai, but plenty of people did, and it is from the same three showrunners. 9. Blindspotting, season 2 (Starz). My absolute favorite show of 2021 returned with Ashley (Jasmine Cephas Jones, who you may know as Peggy from Hamilton) doing her best to raise her son and keep her family together while her husband Miles (co-creator Rafael Casal) remains in prison. Blindspotting’s beautiful interpretive dance numbers and artful hip-hop-inspired spoken word asides continued, covering big, important social justice without ever feeling like plodding, ponderous lectures, or worse yet, homework. This show expertly balanced bleakness and dread with joy, humor, and love, and it felt really true to the experiences of Black and mixed-race families, despite me not being from one. Unfortunately, it was canceled, so we’ll never get to see Miles catching up with his pal Collin (the show’s other co-creator, the brilliant actor, rapper, and singer Daveed Diggs). This is why we can’t have nice things. But even if you don’t subscribe to Starz, watch the Blindspotting movie! The show is a spinoff of that 2018 movie, starring Diggs and Casal. 8. Perry Mason, season 2 (HBO). This season of the 1930s-set neo-noir legal drama was even better than the first, since the entire season focused on Perry Mason and Della Street’s canny lawyering, without an extended “origin story” for Perry (the always-great Matthew Rhys). The acting, writing, and production design were superb, and it looked like every dollar spent showed up on the screen. Unfortunately, possibly due to that high cost, it was canceled. Thanks, David Zaslav! 7. The Bear, season 2 (FX). One of the rare shows on my list that was actually popular. I think I preferred the first season, with the characters clashing and trying to make a struggling but beloved sandwich shop survive. Season 2 was all about opening their new fine dining restaurant in its place, but The Bear (the new restaurant) didn’t seem to be that different or special than dozens of other upscale Chicago restaurants, while The Beef, priced for the common man, had decades of history and loyalty behind it. Still, highlights of this season included the addition of the lovely Molly Gordon to the cast (catch her in Booksmart, Shiva Baby, and Theater Camp), an overwhelmingly tense Christmas episode packed with guest stars, and a feel-good redemption arc (I’m a sucker for those) for the super-annoying Richie, who finally found his purpose. 6. Fargo, season 5 (FX). Maybe I will have to rank this higher or lower, since there are a still few episodes left to go. It was definitely the best season of Fargo since the first two, and for those who don’t know, it is an anthology show, so every season has a different concept and cast. Juno Temple, who annoyed me on Ted Lasso before that show itself started to annoy me, is fantastic here as a Minnesota housewife with a dark secret. The great Jennifer Jason Leigh is outstanding as an awful woman you start to root for when you see all the men she is up against, and she dusted off the wonderful Transatlantic accent she used in my favorite Coen Brothers movie, The Hudsucker Proxy. Joe Keery is perfect as a vicious little snake who would be right at home on Justified, and I never forgot he was a bully in the beginning of Stranger Things before his face turn. Jon Hamm taps into all the darkness he exhibited in Mad Men and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt as one of the most loathsome antagonists in recent memory, a “Constitutional sheriff,” preacher, rancher, murderer, and violently abusive husband. Even if this season wasn’t as good as it was, I would still keep tuning in just to see him (hopefully) get owned at the end. 5. Party Down, season 3 (Starz). Bringing shows and their casts back years after they ended is a gamble that doesn’t always work. Twin Peaks: The Return was a masterstroke. So were the final movies we got of Deadwood and The Venture Bros. that wrapped up loose ends and gave us a little more time with characters we got to know and love. Justified (a 2023 release!) let me down. Party Down, on the other hand, did not. This delightful sitcom about bumbling Los Angeles party caterers and Hollywood hangers-on felt like it picked up right where it left off over a decade ago, and in the intervening years, Adam Scott, Ken Marino, Jane Lynch, and Megan Mullally all became bigger stars (and Ryan Hansen and Martin Starr should have). I’m so glad they were all willing to return, and even though I missed Lizzy Caplan and her fantastic chemistry with Adam Scott, Jennifer Garner more than made up for it, fitting into the dynamic like she had always been there. No other show made me laugh so hard this year, and it even delivered some “HELL YEAH!” moments. We were lucky to get this reunion, even if it only delivered six half-hour episodes. I hope everyone involved had as much fun as I did and decides to keep the party going. 4. Succession, season 4 (HBO). I don’t think I could say anything about Succession that other TV reviewers, pop culture critics, journalists, and scholars haven’t already run into the ground. My wife and I came to it late and binged the entire series earlier this year, just in time to watch the final episode in real time, as it aired. It was a wild ride, with some of the best acting I have ever seen, all in service of some of the most odious characters ever created. I already felt like a class warrior long before sampling this show, and it did not disabuse me of any of my preconceived biases against rich people, that’s for sure! And still, Succession humanized almost all of them along the way, to the point where I rooted for many of them at different points, despite how awful they all were, to each other and in general. That’s a testament to great writing and acting, and Succession delivered plenty of both, especially in its final season. 3. Poker Face, season 1 (Peacock). This was an easy show to love, with a timeless concept: Las Vegas cocktail waitress Charlie Cale is on the run from some pretty bad people, so she travels around the country, getting caught up with strivers and lowlifes, and inevitably, people get murdered while she’s around. Thing is, she’s a human lie detector, so she always figures out who did it, and the drama and suspense come from how she brings them to justice. It’s a modern-day Columbo formula, but substitute in rumpled Natasha Lyonne, one of the most naturally funny actresses out there, for rumpled Peter Falk. It also helps that the creator is Rian Johnson, writer-director of some really fantastic movies, most of which have a mystery element: Brick, The Brothers Bloom, Looper, Knives Out, and Glass Onion. 2. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, season 2 (Paramount+). This show remains my favorite Star Trek series of all time, and it is equally perfect for people who love Star Trek with all their hearts and people who think Star Trek is boring. It balances self-contained episodes with serialized story arcs, all anchored by a charming and likable cast playing people who are good at everything and just plain good. This season, the show experimented with a crossover with an animated Star Trek series I do not watch, as well as a musical episode. Yes, both worked. Last year I called Anson Mount’s Captain Christopher Pike the best fictional boss ever. He still is, but now I also have a really terrific boss who belongs in the same rarified company. (Also, I met Anson Mount this past year. Really cool guy, for the five seconds we got to interact.) 1. Warrior, season 3 (Max). This season felt like a gift, since season 2 aired on Cinemax back in late 2020, and I didn’t even discover the show until I binged both seasons on Max in 2021. I wasn’t sure if the action-packed martial arts/Western/historical drama would ever return, but it came back with a bang and even added the great Marc Dacascos to the cast. Unfortunately, then it was canceled — one more fantastic decision from Max/Discovery/Warner Bros./David Zaslav! But whatever showrunner Jonathan Tropper does next, I’m there. After Banshee and Warrior, he has totally earned my loyalty. Big Bad Voodoo Lou fucked around with this message at 23:53 on Jan 28, 2024 |
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Jan 2, 2024 02:03
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| # ¿ May 9, 2024 21:33 |
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I would be thrilled to discuss anything from my list, as long as it doesn't turn into personal attacks.
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Jan 3, 2024 18:37
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Escobarbarian posted:haha but it’s not about hating the show in general! I thought Ted Lasso s1 was great and 2 was superb. But then 3 was maybe the largest nosedive I’ve ever seen from a show I previously enjoyed. My wife and I loved season 1, enjoyed season 2, and only got two episodes into season 3 before realizing we weren't feeling it anymore and letting our Apple subscription lapse. For me, it started to feel like the focus had shifted to every other character, no matter how minor, except the charming title character that had drawn me in originally.
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Jan 4, 2024 03:48
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Shageletic posted:Ended up watching Obliterated cuz of this thread. It owns. Surprisingly funny. Yesss! Join us on the party bus!
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Jan 8, 2024 03:18
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