5.) The Good Place (NBC - Season 1/2)
No surprise, the last time I had a show that was on a major broadcast network ranked anywhere near this high on any of my lists was another comedy that Michael Schur created. No surprise. Schur is the new master of network sitcoms mainly because he's added so many non-network touches. While Parks and Recreation became a masterpiece due to the unflinching optimism and heart of the characters, The Good Place became great due to the opposite. It is every bit as silly and irreverent and packed with jokes (including some Arrested Development-level visual gags and jokes), but here the characters are more gray, more selfish, and just as fun. The plotting is brilliant, from the reveal at the end of Season 1 that they were actually in the Bad Place, to the madcap nature of the first few episodes of Season 2 where evil demon Michael (Ted Danson at his best) re-sets them over and over again. We finally end with another great spot, with Michael now working with the four bad place humans, and the whole plan potentially unraveling. Plot is at often times the enemy to sitcoms, that have always been lagging behind drama in their move towards serialized storytelling, but The Good Place is actively challenging that. The episodes are called Chapters for christsakes. The acting on the show is great. Ted Danson is a National Treasure. Kristen Bell is slowly becoming one herself. The writing is punchy when needed, and silly when needed as well. Few shows have become such utterly joyous watching as the Good Place has.
4.) American Vandal (NETFLIX)
If you want to teach a class on how to make a true Mockumentary, this is the best example I've ever seen. Why? Never did anyone in it think it was a mockumentary, or realize the ludicrousness of what was going on, despite it being a long story about two sophomores investigating who drew the dicks. What made American Vandal so truly impressive was even when you remove the trappings of the mockumentary, it was a fantastic show about high school dynamics, in a year with a lot of them. The show's high school world was so filled with such memorable, great, small characters, like Crista Carlyle, the perfect girl slowly revealed to be a controlling gossip, to the cool teacher outed as a predator, to the teachers who immediately took sides and convicted the accused dick-drawer, to even the two documentarians, who had their own falling out that was played straight. The episode with the CSI-like examination of a house party might have been one of the best half-hours of TV about high school life ever. The actors, very few of them known or famous, fit that tapestry so well. The icing on this so very delicious, unexpected cake, was the tone that so brilliantly mirrored Serial, but in video format about a crime so stupid in its inanity to never not be funny. The lasting image of the show might just be the long running storyline of trying to prove the accused's innocence because he draws his prank dicks with hairy balls. Why? because the guys making the documentary beleived it, the school officials believed it to be valuable evidence. We all did. It made sense. Of course, who drew the dicks wasn't important; seeing how this documentary and crime impacted a high school world from teachers through officials to parents and children, was what made it special.
3.) Bojack Horseman (NETFLIX - Season 4)
Four years in, Bojack Horseman just gets better. It also gets darker, and wilder, and funnier and sadder. Bojack Horseman is falling further and further into what it set-out to be: a audaciously dark view of fame, of depression, or celebrity. The fourth season added in two throughlines that helped reshape the show once again, focusing on Mr. Peanutbutters run for Governor and then examining Bojack's past and future with the story of Hollyhock, his maybe daughter, and his mother. The show took more risks this season, having the first episode not include Bojack at all, and then the second only him interspersed with flashbacks of his mother's woeful upbringing. They had an episode where everyone was trapped uinderground in an earthquake. They had an episode set at various points in the future slowly revealed to be dreams from Princess Carolyn as she slowly comes to grips with her miscarraige. Darkness has pervaded Bojack Horseman from Day 1, but while earlier seasons (especially the 3rd) focused somewhat an surface issues like acceptance and celebrity and fame, this went more personal, and revealed a layer I didn't realize a show, nevertheless an animated comedy featuring anthropomorphic animals, could go, with more personal tragedy. Of course, it helps that the show remained wickedly sharp and funny, with the background animation gags at all time highs as they introduced more and more animal forms. Truly, I don't know how much darker the show can get without losing its comedic voice, but as it barrels toward that inflection point the show has only gotten sharper.
2.) The Deuce (HBO - Season 1)
I don't know if my expectations for a new show had ever been higher, but to see David Simon (and not to be forgotten George Pelacanos by his side) at the helm of a gritty period piece about Urban Americana was irresistible. Thankfully, the show lived up to every expectation. Obvious disclaimer, there is a lot of nudity and graphic sex in the show. It is about the rise of the porn industry justaposed with New York City's long, tenuous relationship with prostitution. But outside the trappings of such tittalation and you still have a incredible show, weaving a Wire-like tapenstry of gray characters across a beautiful set. From the prostitutes, each with their won grievances and drivers, to the pimps slowly seeing their importance reduced as prostitution made its way indoors, to the mob, to the brilliant twins played by James Franco trying to involve themselves, to the police. Every segment of The Deuce's world was spectacular.. Much like a season of The Wire, the show started with a slow burn before it really got going, but when it finally reached its crescendo, man was it special. Drawing up rich characters shouldn't be so difficult given the ample airtime TV shows get, but David Simon can make it seem so simple. Even Franco's lesser 'evil' twin became an incredibly rich and entertaining character by the seasons end, usurping his straight-laced brother in the criminal world. Seeing the cavalcade of ex-The Wire stars was also a thrill, especially the small roles, perfected by Anwar Harris's (Slim Charles) deli man. I am so excited to see where Season 2 goes.
Just like the Wire, it made you ask a lot of questions and rethink your opinions on what is normally seen as a seedy underbelly element. Seeing the humanity and at times drive of many of the prostitutes made you wonder if it should be legalized so they can get more protections. Seeing the rise of porn at a time when it was glamourized and could get willing participants, you do wonder if it offered a better life than roaming the streets for its actresses. For New York as a whole, you wonder how it ever left that world behind given the complicit police and the mob having their fingers in the pie. And through it all you wonder if it mattered. The Deuce asked a bunch of questions, and just the The Wire, it left most unanswered, allowing viewers to draw conclusions from its deep, beautiful tapestry it wove. Shining a light on the prostitution and porn world is, arguably, a step-up from the drug world, but just as corrupt, almost as interesting, and showed that Simon has an art for creating and driving powerful, complex female characters as well. In a time where the standard length of a show seems to be 10-13 episodes, and few shows have the material to fill those orders, I was so saddened The Deuce only got 8. It created a world I want to spend more time examining and watching.
1.) The Young Pope (HBO)
I think The Young Pope was the first show I watched this year, or at least the one that premiered the earliest in the year. I mentally pegged it far up the list then. Over the year so many came and went, and none reached the highs that The Young Pope did for me. The first year I did this in 2014, I put Fargo #1, an unexpected pleasure. Same with last year in The People v. OJ Simpson. The fun trend continues, as The Young Pope was just a masterpiece of entertainment. The best part of The Young Pope is how quickly it turns expectations upside down. The show starts with Jude Law's Pope Pius XIII addressing the crowd for his first address, telling them they should embrace masturbation, sex outside marraige, abortion, gays. Of course, this is a dream sequence. We then go to actual Pope, and he demands to have a Cherry Coke Zero for breakfast. At this point, you think 'Oh, I get it, this show is about a hip, brash Pope.' And then the show begins.
The Young Pope is fantastic for many reasons. The most lasting for me honestly was the soundtrack, a haunting, perfect mix of trap, folk and EDM. Next comes Law's performance as Pope Pius XIII, filled with the perfect amount of smarm and arrogance, making his scenes where he acts so deliciously condescending so brilliant. Having him interact and always be a step ahead of Voiello, or Sofia, the marketing lead, or even the leader of Greenland, was a source of never-ending joy. The scenes were just packed with wicked joy. Third on the list of features that made The Young Pope special was probably the cinematography. The airy way it was shot, with so much light enveloping the Vatican, making it seem like all a dream. And fourt was the subversiveness of the plot, with the Young Pope showing himself to be a staunch conservative wanting to return the church to an age centuries ago, and his older opponents (Voiello being the absolute best) wanting to move forward. I never really thought that a political drama of the modern church would work, but it did so brilliantly.
The show is coming back re-branded as 'The New Pope', likely without Law in such a prominent role, but The Young Pope did enough in that one season to be a lasting show for a while. It was on its surface a meme generator like few others, with Law's electric performance delivering cutting one-liners and snaps (or even Diane Keaton's Sister Mary, with her 'I'm a Virgin... But this is an old shirt' T-Shirt). But if you look deeper it was a masterpiece of film-making, a close to one of contained storytelling, with a long list of characters that spanned ages, positions of power, and even languages. I thought it had a chance to be at the top when it finished in March, and as the year went on nothing overtook it.
4.) American Vandal (NETFLIX)
If you want to teach a class on how to make a true Mockumentary, this is the best example I've ever seen. Why? Never did anyone in it think it was a mockumentary, or realize the ludicrousness of what was going on, despite it being a long story about two sophomores investigating who drew the dicks. What made American Vandal so truly impressive was even when you remove the trappings of the mockumentary, it was a fantastic show about high school dynamics, in a year with a lot of them. The show's high school world was so filled with such memorable, great, small characters, like Crista Carlyle, the perfect girl slowly revealed to be a controlling gossip, to the cool teacher outed as a predator, to the teachers who immediately took sides and convicted the accused dick-drawer, to even the two documentarians, who had their own falling out that was played straight. The episode with the CSI-like examination of a house party might have been one of the best half-hours of TV about high school life ever. The actors, very few of them known or famous, fit that tapestry so well. The icing on this so very delicious, unexpected cake, was the tone that so brilliantly mirrored Serial, but in video format about a crime so stupid in its inanity to never not be funny. The lasting image of the show might just be the long running storyline of trying to prove the accused's innocence because he draws his prank dicks with hairy balls. Why? because the guys making the documentary beleived it, the school officials believed it to be valuable evidence. We all did. It made sense. Of course, who drew the dicks wasn't important; seeing how this documentary and crime impacted a high school world from teachers through officials to parents and children, was what made it special.
3.) Bojack Horseman (NETFLIX - Season 4)
Four years in, Bojack Horseman just gets better. It also gets darker, and wilder, and funnier and sadder. Bojack Horseman is falling further and further into what it set-out to be: a audaciously dark view of fame, of depression, or celebrity. The fourth season added in two throughlines that helped reshape the show once again, focusing on Mr. Peanutbutters run for Governor and then examining Bojack's past and future with the story of Hollyhock, his maybe daughter, and his mother. The show took more risks this season, having the first episode not include Bojack at all, and then the second only him interspersed with flashbacks of his mother's woeful upbringing. They had an episode where everyone was trapped uinderground in an earthquake. They had an episode set at various points in the future slowly revealed to be dreams from Princess Carolyn as she slowly comes to grips with her miscarraige. Darkness has pervaded Bojack Horseman from Day 1, but while earlier seasons (especially the 3rd) focused somewhat an surface issues like acceptance and celebrity and fame, this went more personal, and revealed a layer I didn't realize a show, nevertheless an animated comedy featuring anthropomorphic animals, could go, with more personal tragedy. Of course, it helps that the show remained wickedly sharp and funny, with the background animation gags at all time highs as they introduced more and more animal forms. Truly, I don't know how much darker the show can get without losing its comedic voice, but as it barrels toward that inflection point the show has only gotten sharper.
2.) The Deuce (HBO - Season 1)
I don't know if my expectations for a new show had ever been higher, but to see David Simon (and not to be forgotten George Pelacanos by his side) at the helm of a gritty period piece about Urban Americana was irresistible. Thankfully, the show lived up to every expectation. Obvious disclaimer, there is a lot of nudity and graphic sex in the show. It is about the rise of the porn industry justaposed with New York City's long, tenuous relationship with prostitution. But outside the trappings of such tittalation and you still have a incredible show, weaving a Wire-like tapenstry of gray characters across a beautiful set. From the prostitutes, each with their won grievances and drivers, to the pimps slowly seeing their importance reduced as prostitution made its way indoors, to the mob, to the brilliant twins played by James Franco trying to involve themselves, to the police. Every segment of The Deuce's world was spectacular.. Much like a season of The Wire, the show started with a slow burn before it really got going, but when it finally reached its crescendo, man was it special. Drawing up rich characters shouldn't be so difficult given the ample airtime TV shows get, but David Simon can make it seem so simple. Even Franco's lesser 'evil' twin became an incredibly rich and entertaining character by the seasons end, usurping his straight-laced brother in the criminal world. Seeing the cavalcade of ex-The Wire stars was also a thrill, especially the small roles, perfected by Anwar Harris's (Slim Charles) deli man. I am so excited to see where Season 2 goes.
Just like the Wire, it made you ask a lot of questions and rethink your opinions on what is normally seen as a seedy underbelly element. Seeing the humanity and at times drive of many of the prostitutes made you wonder if it should be legalized so they can get more protections. Seeing the rise of porn at a time when it was glamourized and could get willing participants, you do wonder if it offered a better life than roaming the streets for its actresses. For New York as a whole, you wonder how it ever left that world behind given the complicit police and the mob having their fingers in the pie. And through it all you wonder if it mattered. The Deuce asked a bunch of questions, and just the The Wire, it left most unanswered, allowing viewers to draw conclusions from its deep, beautiful tapestry it wove. Shining a light on the prostitution and porn world is, arguably, a step-up from the drug world, but just as corrupt, almost as interesting, and showed that Simon has an art for creating and driving powerful, complex female characters as well. In a time where the standard length of a show seems to be 10-13 episodes, and few shows have the material to fill those orders, I was so saddened The Deuce only got 8. It created a world I want to spend more time examining and watching.
1.) The Young Pope (HBO)
I think The Young Pope was the first show I watched this year, or at least the one that premiered the earliest in the year. I mentally pegged it far up the list then. Over the year so many came and went, and none reached the highs that The Young Pope did for me. The first year I did this in 2014, I put Fargo #1, an unexpected pleasure. Same with last year in The People v. OJ Simpson. The fun trend continues, as The Young Pope was just a masterpiece of entertainment. The best part of The Young Pope is how quickly it turns expectations upside down. The show starts with Jude Law's Pope Pius XIII addressing the crowd for his first address, telling them they should embrace masturbation, sex outside marraige, abortion, gays. Of course, this is a dream sequence. We then go to actual Pope, and he demands to have a Cherry Coke Zero for breakfast. At this point, you think 'Oh, I get it, this show is about a hip, brash Pope.' And then the show begins.
The Young Pope is fantastic for many reasons. The most lasting for me honestly was the soundtrack, a haunting, perfect mix of trap, folk and EDM. Next comes Law's performance as Pope Pius XIII, filled with the perfect amount of smarm and arrogance, making his scenes where he acts so deliciously condescending so brilliant. Having him interact and always be a step ahead of Voiello, or Sofia, the marketing lead, or even the leader of Greenland, was a source of never-ending joy. The scenes were just packed with wicked joy. Third on the list of features that made The Young Pope special was probably the cinematography. The airy way it was shot, with so much light enveloping the Vatican, making it seem like all a dream. And fourt was the subversiveness of the plot, with the Young Pope showing himself to be a staunch conservative wanting to return the church to an age centuries ago, and his older opponents (Voiello being the absolute best) wanting to move forward. I never really thought that a political drama of the modern church would work, but it did so brilliantly.
The show is coming back re-branded as 'The New Pope', likely without Law in such a prominent role, but The Young Pope did enough in that one season to be a lasting show for a while. It was on its surface a meme generator like few others, with Law's electric performance delivering cutting one-liners and snaps (or even Diane Keaton's Sister Mary, with her 'I'm a Virgin... But this is an old shirt' T-Shirt). But if you look deeper it was a masterpiece of film-making, a close to one of contained storytelling, with a long list of characters that spanned ages, positions of power, and even languages. I thought it had a chance to be at the top when it finished in March, and as the year went on nothing overtook it.
