Quick Look Ahead at returning shows in 2020:
The New Pope (#1 in 2017) - returns January
Curb Your Enthusians (#9 in 2017) - returns January
Better Call Saul Season 5 - returns February
Fargo Season 4 - returns sometime in 2020
Babylon Berlin (#2 in 2018) - returns sometime in 2020
5.) Bojack Horseman (NETFLIX - Season 6.1)
4.) Succession (HBO - Season 2)
Succession Season 1 was my top ranked show last year, with maybe the greatest run of episodes I've ever seen in its second half, starting with Kendall's failed vote of no confidence. Season 2 was more hyped - I've never seen a show grow in promotional value in a year like this one. And guess what, it was still fantastic as ever. Logan even more powerful. Machinations and moves upon machinations and moves, from Logan, from Kendall (with the ultimate knife-in-the-back moment in teh finale) from Shiv, from even Tom and Greg. The show was excellent, with such good acting and interplay between the characters. The show leaned more heavily on drama this season than comedy, but it remained harrowingly funny at times, particularly small side-plots like Connor's failed run for president and Tom and Greg's continued buddy-cop drama. The final episode, with everyone fending for themselves and back-stabbing each other around the dinner table on a private yacht was everything great about this show, which remains one of the most unlikely but awesome hits in recent years.
The show was more plot forward in this season, with so many more backroom dealings and simultaneous scheming. The new additions, especially Holly Hunter as the competing CEO, were all great, expanding the universe a bit from the first season's sole focus on the family. Sure, some things were a little too predictable and silly - more than anything Roman's tryst with Gerry. But even that was played more straight than just for laughs, showing Roman as someone who needs a mother figure, needs maturity to force him to grow up. The season ending, with Logan getting knifed out in public by Kendall, in a move that may have been coordinated between him and Shiv, was special, and sets the show up for potentially another great season to come.
3.) Watchmen (HBO)
I've read the comic. I actually enjoyed the movie. I had no real expectations for a Watchmen TV show, and that was before I realized it was something of a faux-sequel. And then I actually watched it and realized Damon Lindelof's Watchmen world was something truly incredible. It was about 5% too complicated and too weird a show to go any higher than this - the two shows ahead of it are pointedly based on real material. But compared to a show like Legion, Watchmen was perfectly weird, perfectly distinct, and perfectly special. The slow reveal of who Dr. Manhattan is, how it is all connected, how Manhattan's circular existence is the cause of so much of the pain: all of it worked. It ended with a flurry of reveals of how everything tied together, down to the flaccid baby squid attack in the first episode - the first sign that this show was something beautifully strange.
I only have two as-minor-as-possible quibbles with its brilliant first season. First, as already mentioned it was slightly too weird - even if a lot of the weirdness would be brought back around and explained by the season's end. Second,, while the show was not the same as the comic or movie, by the end of it, we had basically seen every key character, all with significant arcs, aside from Rohrsach. It started out something like Fargo - very much in the world but wholly different, but by the end took the Better Call Saul approach of being far more invovled in the source material than expected.
That all said, it was so good. The drama and direction were incredible. The acting was great. The plot itself was intricate, expansive, while also being so painfully and perfectly cultured to create a lasting throughline through the show. By the end, we had a masterpiece, one that surprisingly may not continue - at the very least probably won't with David Lindelof as its muse. There are some unanswered questions - such as what happens with Viedt, and if Sister Night does indeed inherit Dr. Manhattan's powers, but even if this is it, we have on our hands a true masterpiece.
2.) The Loudest Voice (Showtime)
My little line about The Loudest Voice was calling it the best horror show on TV, as it was mystifyingly scary to see Roger Ailes's rise, his hatred of minorities turn Fox News into a propaganda machine starting with Obama's election (more than it already was), and his final fall. The show was incredibly well made, even if the subject matter was about an institution that has led to so much pain and trouble in our country. The peerless way they showed Ailes slow devolvation from somewhat interested newsman into maniacal right-wing nut was horriyfingly engrossing. It is hard to call it entertaining, but when you put aside the subject matter and its very real world impacts, you are left with so many awesome performances, particularly Russell Crowe's scene-stealing performance of Roger Ailes.
The show was so incredibly well done that by the very end, when Murdoch's sons finally got to oust serial abuser Roger Ailes, you still cheered despite knowing it wouldn't really fix the corrective rot at Fox News. The Gretchen Carlson side of teh show was horrifyingly interesting to watch as well - watching a talented woman first be turned into a shill, and then work up the courage to rebel against a man who was able to run roughshod over people as powerful as Rupert Murdoch and sons for years. All in the name of ratings.Somehow, the world is getting a FOX News movie this year as well, but I am certain it won't be as engaging and enthralling as the best horror show on television in years.
1.) Chernobyl (HBO)
I knew Chernobyl was great when I first watched it, but be it second screen or just the dense plot, I didn't fully understand it the first time. I then saw so many people I respect call it incredible, so I watched it again with devoted attention (on a plane) and I have to say: it was truly incredible. Yes, it is dark, but aside from a few scenes dealing with medical patients, it isn't horrific. We don't see the actual impact moment of the explosion, just the lead-up and the aftermath.
Here's a weird take on Chernobyl - it actually is a damn uplifting show. In the face of such fascist, totalitarian rule (e.g. all the 'Soviets couldn't have built a bad reactor' stuff) a group of scientists, career politicians, and hundreds of poor volunteers worked together to save permanent global catastrophe. If anything, it showed the power of humanity if they can work together and sacrifice for the greater good.
The amazing characters the show painted was staggering, be it the spectacular casting, writing and performances of our three 'leads' in Valery Legasov, Boris Scherbina and Ulana Khomyuk (the only one not based on an historical figure). The career beaurocrats were swimmingly toxic. The workers who messed up to lead to the catastrophe were painted so unrelentingly beaten by the Soviet mindset. The whole show was so well constructed.
Ou of all the shows I';ve ranked #1 over the years (Fargo S1, Veep S4, People v. OJ, The Young Pope, Succession S1), this is probably the hardest one to rewatch, and the least 'entertaining' in teh traditional sense, but there is an argument that it is the best. It is a historical drama, but takes all the small moments - be it the people who didn't want to leave Chernobyl, the human trauma of using coal workers to pick up pieces of graphite one-by-one, to the mercy killing of dogs, to so much more. So much of TV in 2019 was negative and pessimistic - which led to a lot of great shows - and nothing came close to Chernobyl in its effectiveness.
The New Pope (#1 in 2017) - returns January
Curb Your Enthusians (#9 in 2017) - returns January
Better Call Saul Season 5 - returns February
Fargo Season 4 - returns sometime in 2020
Babylon Berlin (#2 in 2018) - returns sometime in 2020
5.) Bojack Horseman (NETFLIX - Season 6.1)
Bojack went the route of Breaking Bad or Mad Men, splitting its final season into two parts. It gives us more episodes than a conventional Bojack season (16 vs. 12), but the wait for the second half is going to be excruciating after how good the first half still was. It was probably even darker than it ever had been before, with all characters in various states of disarray. Most notably, seeing Bojack actually work through rehab was a beautiful touch, getting deeper into his dark, deep demeanor. The other characters also all found themselves in darker positions than in the past, with Mr. Peanutbutter realizing he too is depressed, Princess Carolyn overwhelmed with caring for her child. Todd even getting a darker plot arc with the introduction of his parents. The show was still riotously funny, but it was amazing to see how naturally it could go to its natural dark concluding point.
The sight gags, the small background jokes, the sharpness, all of that was still there. THe show portends a truly great ending season, where I do hope they lean a bit more on the comedy side of the equation, but Bojack has been so easily able to toe the line between comedy and drama. The best thing the show did in the season was make everyone take their situation seriously. Bojack actually improving through rehab. Mr. Peanutbutter throwing away his happy-go-lucky shield. All of it. Its hard to call a show with so many sight gags and jumor as raw, real and socially relevant, but here we are.
Succession Season 1 was my top ranked show last year, with maybe the greatest run of episodes I've ever seen in its second half, starting with Kendall's failed vote of no confidence. Season 2 was more hyped - I've never seen a show grow in promotional value in a year like this one. And guess what, it was still fantastic as ever. Logan even more powerful. Machinations and moves upon machinations and moves, from Logan, from Kendall (with the ultimate knife-in-the-back moment in teh finale) from Shiv, from even Tom and Greg. The show was excellent, with such good acting and interplay between the characters. The show leaned more heavily on drama this season than comedy, but it remained harrowingly funny at times, particularly small side-plots like Connor's failed run for president and Tom and Greg's continued buddy-cop drama. The final episode, with everyone fending for themselves and back-stabbing each other around the dinner table on a private yacht was everything great about this show, which remains one of the most unlikely but awesome hits in recent years.
The show was more plot forward in this season, with so many more backroom dealings and simultaneous scheming. The new additions, especially Holly Hunter as the competing CEO, were all great, expanding the universe a bit from the first season's sole focus on the family. Sure, some things were a little too predictable and silly - more than anything Roman's tryst with Gerry. But even that was played more straight than just for laughs, showing Roman as someone who needs a mother figure, needs maturity to force him to grow up. The season ending, with Logan getting knifed out in public by Kendall, in a move that may have been coordinated between him and Shiv, was special, and sets the show up for potentially another great season to come.
3.) Watchmen (HBO)
I've read the comic. I actually enjoyed the movie. I had no real expectations for a Watchmen TV show, and that was before I realized it was something of a faux-sequel. And then I actually watched it and realized Damon Lindelof's Watchmen world was something truly incredible. It was about 5% too complicated and too weird a show to go any higher than this - the two shows ahead of it are pointedly based on real material. But compared to a show like Legion, Watchmen was perfectly weird, perfectly distinct, and perfectly special. The slow reveal of who Dr. Manhattan is, how it is all connected, how Manhattan's circular existence is the cause of so much of the pain: all of it worked. It ended with a flurry of reveals of how everything tied together, down to the flaccid baby squid attack in the first episode - the first sign that this show was something beautifully strange.
I only have two as-minor-as-possible quibbles with its brilliant first season. First, as already mentioned it was slightly too weird - even if a lot of the weirdness would be brought back around and explained by the season's end. Second,, while the show was not the same as the comic or movie, by the end of it, we had basically seen every key character, all with significant arcs, aside from Rohrsach. It started out something like Fargo - very much in the world but wholly different, but by the end took the Better Call Saul approach of being far more invovled in the source material than expected.
That all said, it was so good. The drama and direction were incredible. The acting was great. The plot itself was intricate, expansive, while also being so painfully and perfectly cultured to create a lasting throughline through the show. By the end, we had a masterpiece, one that surprisingly may not continue - at the very least probably won't with David Lindelof as its muse. There are some unanswered questions - such as what happens with Viedt, and if Sister Night does indeed inherit Dr. Manhattan's powers, but even if this is it, we have on our hands a true masterpiece.
2.) The Loudest Voice (Showtime)
My little line about The Loudest Voice was calling it the best horror show on TV, as it was mystifyingly scary to see Roger Ailes's rise, his hatred of minorities turn Fox News into a propaganda machine starting with Obama's election (more than it already was), and his final fall. The show was incredibly well made, even if the subject matter was about an institution that has led to so much pain and trouble in our country. The peerless way they showed Ailes slow devolvation from somewhat interested newsman into maniacal right-wing nut was horriyfingly engrossing. It is hard to call it entertaining, but when you put aside the subject matter and its very real world impacts, you are left with so many awesome performances, particularly Russell Crowe's scene-stealing performance of Roger Ailes.
The show was so incredibly well done that by the very end, when Murdoch's sons finally got to oust serial abuser Roger Ailes, you still cheered despite knowing it wouldn't really fix the corrective rot at Fox News. The Gretchen Carlson side of teh show was horrifyingly interesting to watch as well - watching a talented woman first be turned into a shill, and then work up the courage to rebel against a man who was able to run roughshod over people as powerful as Rupert Murdoch and sons for years. All in the name of ratings.Somehow, the world is getting a FOX News movie this year as well, but I am certain it won't be as engaging and enthralling as the best horror show on television in years.
1.) Chernobyl (HBO)
I knew Chernobyl was great when I first watched it, but be it second screen or just the dense plot, I didn't fully understand it the first time. I then saw so many people I respect call it incredible, so I watched it again with devoted attention (on a plane) and I have to say: it was truly incredible. Yes, it is dark, but aside from a few scenes dealing with medical patients, it isn't horrific. We don't see the actual impact moment of the explosion, just the lead-up and the aftermath.
Here's a weird take on Chernobyl - it actually is a damn uplifting show. In the face of such fascist, totalitarian rule (e.g. all the 'Soviets couldn't have built a bad reactor' stuff) a group of scientists, career politicians, and hundreds of poor volunteers worked together to save permanent global catastrophe. If anything, it showed the power of humanity if they can work together and sacrifice for the greater good.
The amazing characters the show painted was staggering, be it the spectacular casting, writing and performances of our three 'leads' in Valery Legasov, Boris Scherbina and Ulana Khomyuk (the only one not based on an historical figure). The career beaurocrats were swimmingly toxic. The workers who messed up to lead to the catastrophe were painted so unrelentingly beaten by the Soviet mindset. The whole show was so well constructed.
Ou of all the shows I';ve ranked #1 over the years (Fargo S1, Veep S4, People v. OJ, The Young Pope, Succession S1), this is probably the hardest one to rewatch, and the least 'entertaining' in teh traditional sense, but there is an argument that it is the best. It is a historical drama, but takes all the small moments - be it the people who didn't want to leave Chernobyl, the human trauma of using coal workers to pick up pieces of graphite one-by-one, to the mercy killing of dogs, to so much more. So much of TV in 2019 was negative and pessimistic - which led to a lot of great shows - and nothing came close to Chernobyl in its effectiveness.
