Didn't Air in 2019:
Sharp Objects (#18)
Wild, Wild Country (#15)
Arrested Development (#14)
Unsolved: Murder of Tupac & Biggie (#13)
Trust (#12)
Narcos (#10)
American Vandal (#6)
Better Call Saul (#5)
Babylon Berlin (#2)
Not as good in 2019:
iZombie (#20)
I held on to keeping it for a long time, but the problem around iZombie is while it never stopped being fun, it didn't really get any better, while a lot of other shows did or start running before it started. It's a miracle iZombie got four seasons and they tried to look into quite interesting things, but their good ideas never translated into actual good quality (a problem I have with a show still ranked).
Brockmire (#19)
It may be un-PC to admit, but I just frankly think the show was a lot more interesting with depressed, drunk Brockmire than sober Brockmire. Also, I didn't like having the kid and Brockmire apart fro so much - similar to my issues with Season 2 placing Jim and Amanda Peet's character apart for most of it. These are fixable problems, and even if I don't think it is Top-20 worthy, I definitely will watch the show whenever it does come back.
My Next Guest Needs No Introduction (#16)
Simply put, the guests weren't as interesting in its second season. I was hoping we would people that Dave actually knows (which is what happened with, say, Tina Fey or Howard Stern in teh first season), but instead got guys that it almost seemed NETFLIX foisted upon Dave.
Killing Eve (#9)
Some things just don't need a second season. I didn't think Killing Eve was one of those things after its first season, but after seeing Season 2, it was pretty clear there was a lack of ideas at some point. The chemistry between Vilanelle and Eve was still magic, but the show as a whole just lacked the drama and interest that its first season did.
20.) Big Little Lies (HBO - Season 2
If not for just how good watching Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman act together, this probably doesn't make the list. The show never needed a second season. It shouldn't have been made, but in the end it might have been made because Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon were open to doing it, and somehow Meryl Streep agreed. The story was paper-thin - it never explained why they didn't just confess and probably would get away with it - but man were those courtroom scenes between Kidman and Streep just so incredible. Streep will get the accolades, but Nicole Kidman more than held her own. Also, have to throw one out for Laura Dern's Renata character getting to play the aggrieved successful wife. Watching her bash her husbands train-set was as cathartic and exciting as anything. Big Little Lies hit some amazing highs in its second season, just sadly there weren't enough of them.
19.) Alternatino (Comedy Central)
This is probably the least watched of any show on my list, but I truly wish it was more watched and got more press than it did. I didn't watch Arturo Castro in his few comedic roles prior to this, so it took a while to get over David Rodriguez Orejuela from Narcos S3 being a sketch-comedy star, but he is damn funny, damn smart, and created a great show to satirize everything from the hilarious internal rivalry between various Central American nations (early favorite was the spoof Guatemala Tourism Ad in the second episode) to the way Americans think of Latinx people. Some of the more general sketches were drop dead funny as well. What was interesting was the additive of repeat sketches and storylines interspersed through the season that spoofed a satirical version of Arturo Castro the actor. I hope it comes back, and I hope Arturo Castro's brain-child gets more love. He's already been hired to act in a network sitcom, but I hope we get more of his smart, sharp worldview in teh sketch comedy area.
18.) The Good Place (NBC - Season 3/4)
Ok, I realize that most people will have it higher. The Good Place remains a solid watch, and I have never once even considered stopping watching it - especially as it will end early in 2020. That said, while I have so much respect for the tireless work Michael Schur put into the show, the never-ending machinations in teh plot, the setting and re-setting of the stage, has felt really tiring. The idea of a comedy show - and it has always been true to comedy - examining one of life's great existential questions was genius, but it was always a bit too on the nose, adn after a while just became slightly tiring. The performances and writing and laughs are too good to stop watching or avoid, but there certainly is a part of me that wishes it wasn't so plot driven or ended earlier.
17.) What We Do in the Shadows (FX - Season 1)
A lot of people didn't watch the TV show tale of three vampires dropped into Staten Island in a world where vampires exist but just live right along-side humans. Enough did that it will be back, which is great because I can't wait to see what happens next with Nando, Laszlo and Nadja. The show is funny precisely because of how straight it plays it all, that these are just three vampires who are failing at everything they do, unable to assimilate despite their best efforts. The comedy mined was from situation, but played so damn well. The brief glimpses we got into the vampire world, be it the never-endingly hilarious idea of human 'familiars' (people that want to be vampires) or the vampire-only club in meat-packing - beset with the Exsanguinator and the rest - was so great. It is great to watch genius creators like Jemaine Clement in this case take on truly ludicrous ideas, play them straight, fill them with just enough comedy, and let it percolate into something special.
16.) The Righteous Gemstones (HBO - Season 1)
This was 2019's version of The Young Pope, a show that started out satirizing organized religion, but ended up moving to a more curious, introspective view. That said, this was far more a true comedy than the Young Pope was, with every line from Baby Billie or Judy Gemstone being just golden about halfway through. Yes, the show was an outward critique of the mega-churches that dominate so much of southern christendom in the US, but by the end it was actually espousing how faith can bring people closer together, whether through remorse, forgiveness, or honest to goodness prayer as we saw in teh last episode. Of course, its hard to think about such deep thoughts when you have Danny McBride palying the best version of himself, Adam Devine playing a more dick version of his Pitch Perfect character, and of course everything Baby Billy did.
