10.) Hacks (Season 1, HBO Max)
Jean Smart is just brilliant. She'll forever be in my good graces for her role in Fargo Season 2 and then Watchmen. One of her other roles is still to come, but in this she just owned that role of being an aging comedian just perfectly. Smart showed impressive comedic chops throughout, but more than that she showed an acidic wit that was just so perfect for the character she was portraying. The story of an aging comedian trying to hang on to relevant was better told from the angle of the comedian and also the young upstart who was questioning if that earlier success mattered. The show around Smart was quite good, and Hannah Einbender is a future star (was cool to realize she is Laraine Newman's daughter!) but this was a role Jean Smart was born to play. Just it should be said a ton of roles fit that description, from Mafia boss, to acerbic grandmother - but aging comedian absolutely is on that list now.
9.) Maid (NETFLIX)
I write this in groups of five, and what I'm quicky realizing with this set of five is how innately sad and depressing some of these shows are. Maid takes the cake for depressing storyline, with a woman with child navigating the awful social safety net in America while fighting for custody against her emotionally abusive partner, and doing a lot of cleaning of houses. I mean a lot. But behind this veneer of depressing tapestry is a truly beautiful show. Margaret Qualley is brilliant as the titular character, bringing so much to every scene. The baby is one of the best baby actors I've ever seen - unendingly cute. Even if the secondary characters are done well - including Andie McDowell as the mom. The show is unendingly real, about the difficulties of women in distress, of trying to make it on your own. The one gimmick they had of the running bank balance was both on the nose but a really stark visualization of just how tough this is. Like a few shows in this group of five, realness is beautiful too.
8.) Pose (Season 3, FX)
Honestly, Pose should be considered Ryan Murphy's masterpiece (well Pose, or People vs, OJ). He took a truly horrific era for a marginalized community, presented it with realness, pathos and empathy throughout and turned out a truly tremendous show that ended with more optimism than usual. Now the 'than usual' is improtant, because the show was still largely depressig, with AIDS becoming a more and more real concern of the LGBTQ community in what was now the 90s, but the family atmosphere that started from the show's inception carried through still. It's always hard to judge final seasons that are very clearly known to be final seasons, because it becomes just a endless stream of goodbyes and sendoffs and big moments, but Pose kept it lowkey at times too with small wins. Ultimately, I am more than happy I watched this incredible show to learn more about this undeserved culture, and see so many incredible performances play out with such emotional resonance. For that, thank you Ryan Murphy.
7.) It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (Season 15, FX)
To some degree, getting just eight episodes was a bit sad, but man they packed so much incredibleness in those eight episodes. The four parter in Ireland was a masterpiece mostly for seeing Charlie immediately almost awaken from a 15-year slumber when meeting his long lost dad. From Mac's coming out two seasons ago to this, Sunny continues to do somber and real moments so well. It also does farce - everything about the Monkey beer, and Mac putting 'purple' as the place he wants to go and seeing Dennis go to 10 was just beautiful, as was the period episode in the 90s with Dennis having to watch Frank bang a whore to learn about the 'business'. Honestly, the last few episodes in Ireland, from everything around Mac trying to find god and Dennis and Frank's inability to have a father son moment was all just a great set-up for Charlie's amazing realization that not having a dad scared him. The show is a comedy, and its comedy is golden, but seeing Charlie scream in the rain "I needed you to pick me up" was far more heartbreaking and dramatic a moment than Sunny has any right of being.
6.) Mare of Easttown (HBO)
It's been a while since HBO did a nice old who-dun-it miniseries that has, I'm hoping, no real chance of coming back. In past year's we had The Night Of and further back True Detective, but Mare of Easttown might have been the best because I never really cared who killed and/or kidnapped girls (funnily I had a friend who called the final killer like a quarter way through the season...). No, I just wanted to live withi the world of Easttown. Kate Winslet was great, Jean Smart even better but even the kids, the bit characters, the series of random perfectly cast northeastern Pennsylvanians with such great accent. The show so well peeled back the layers on Mare's upbringing and how it effects everything she does. She was a great character in a show of them, never open or closed enough to fail. The show was fantastic as a miniseries, the type of show HBO is just so good at pulling off.
