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I’m a happy to see Ted Lasso get some love, I thought it made a really strong comeback in its last season.
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Jan 3, 2024 06:36
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Does this thread have a rule about not criticising other people’s choices?…….it does. poo poo.
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Jan 3, 2024 11:29
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Escobarbarian posted:Does this thread have a rule about not criticising other people’s choices?…….it does. poo poo. I mean, this snide comment aside, it doesn't make a lot of sense to critique someone else's list. It is a list of "shows I enjoyed and how much I enjoyed them". It's not like criticizing a list will make some retroactively NOT have enjoyed a show.
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Jan 3, 2024 18:00
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I think it's fine to have a bit of discussion so long as it isn't just being lovely? Like I thought Ted Lasso S3 was abysmal, but I'm not gonna call out someone for liking it, they already gave their reason for doing so and I appreciate reading people's thoughts.
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Jan 3, 2024 18:14
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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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One of the appeals of this thread for me is that we are talking about things we like. We don't have to agree with what the best shows are, but we can at least respect that we all like TV shows.
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Jan 3, 2024 21:00
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Escobarbarian posted:Does this thread have a rule about not criticising other people’s choices?…….it does. poo poo. my dude, lemme introduce you to a thread that partially helped save my sanity https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=4046084&pagenumber=43&perpage=40 i agree that the best of threads should be a safe space to gush about poo poo you like without blowback. i'm a certified, licensed, hater of popular poo poo and i hold back. go into that thread and let loose lol.
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Jan 3, 2024 21:57
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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.
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Jan 4, 2024 02:00
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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. I’m just glad you were able to get this thought out there, there were people out there enjoying it incorrectly and now they can know better
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Jan 4, 2024 02:15
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You may be taking this a little personally
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Jan 4, 2024 02:50
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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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Ishamael posted:new Doctor (played by Ncuti Gatwa) I've only ever seen him in Sex Education and Barbie. Is Real World Ncuti as equally queer as these characters and/or does he play the Doctor the same way?
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Jan 7, 2024 05:56
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Ended up watching Obliterated cuz of this thread. It owns. Surprisingly funny.
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Jan 8, 2024 01:23
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10. For All Mankind - At one time, this was one of my favorite shows on TV. I watched the first episode of this season, maybe I'll watch more at some point. I just feel like they are running in circles now. When I watched the first episode, I couldn't remember what happened to Danny, and then realized I really didn't care. I loved the retro alt-history aspect of it, and now it just feels like generic space show. The alt-history montage was the only highlight for me. 9. Ahsoka - This show was pretty bad. I really struggled to fill out my list, past the Top 5 this year. Maybe it was the strike, maybe peak TV is over? Thrawn was great in the Timothy Zahn books, here is an absolute moron. To be fair, most of the characters act stupidly at all times. It looked nice, I suppose. 8. Monarch: Legacy of Monsters - This show started out rough and slowly built up to better than average. The use of both Russell's was clever and worked well. I enjoyed the 1950s timeline quite a bit more, and frankly, would've preferred a show that was just those characters. I found the modern ones to be pretty annoying. 7. Ted Lasso - At one time, this was my favorite show. Full stop. Unfortunately, it really went out with a whimper. It wasn't so much the case that I didn't like the places the characters ended up, but everything just felt hugely rushed. Like they knew where they wanted everything to end up and just nosed the plane into the runway and called it a series. It still had some nice moments, Sunflowers would be in my top episodes of the series, but unlike the first two seasons, this one served up mostly mid-table episodes and a few howlers. We'll Never Have Paris comes to mind as a really poor effort. 6. Real Time with Bill Maher - Get off my lawn! Sorry, I'm an old Gen X goon and I really enjoy his humor. 5. Beckham - What if The Last Dance but football? Fantastic old footage, and a really nice mix of sport and entertainment/gossip stuff. They did a thing where they superimposed clips over the faces of people reacting to them. Fisher Stevens is a very talented director. Loved it. 4. Last Week Tonight with John Oliver - It's a little distressing that I learn about so many distressing issues from this show. For my money, Oliver is the one who picked up the mantle from John Stewart when he left The Daily Show. It's funny, but it's serious. 3. Loki - Hey, look, Disney can still make a good Marvel show. I adored S1 and was hoping S2 would at least be decent. It was! Very satisfying ending, I hope they have the courage/resolve to leave it alone. The art direction on this show was AMAZING from start to finish. 2. The Last of Us - Never played the game, but was intrigued enough to check it out even though I've been over zombie-type content for a long time. There was fantastic world-building, some moment of real terror, and enough of a unique spin on the standard zombie formula to make it really interesting. Left Behind, with flashbacks to a fateful night in a mall was a real standout episode. And yes, that episode. Long, Long Time loving wrecked me. What a beautiful episode of television. 1Succession - House of the Dragon showed us really disconcerting look at a drawn out death. It was troubling to watch because it was very realistic. Succession gave as the same thing for a sudden death. One of my favorite shows of all time and it stuck the landing. I enjoyed that the show never let you forget that they were all bad people. There were a million lazy ways out and the writers avoided all of them and the cast knocked it out of the park. A triumphant final season and finale. Also, Fisher Stevens second appearance in my Top 10! Bulky Bartokomous fucked around with this message at 03:43 on Jan 9, 2024 |
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Jan 8, 2024 01:56
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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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Okay I guess I'll fumble together a list Noteworthy: Cunk on Earth, Obliterated, Paul T. Goldman, The Curse, Jury duty, Hilda, The Bear, Silo, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off 10 One Piece A good adaption of the source material with some adequate streamlining. Some friends of mine were annoyed by every single deviation or missing character, but I felt it flowed quite nicely. 9 I Think You Should Leave A well written sketch show. Some of them didn't land, but some were uproarious. 8 Beef A nice little story about how some people are inherently broken and can't find happiness without self sabotage. The actors were great in this one. 7 The Last of Us The lead characters are well cast and they have some good scenery pictures and the effects are well done. The story was really close to the source material. 6 Barry This series just really hit some dark part of my humor and I'm sad that it's over, while it feels like it was time for this. 5 Pokerface This show has a fun murder of the week structure and the characters are delightful. 4 Mrs. Davis This story thrives on it's weird world building and it had me guessing what's going on there. It's really silly, but I loved it. 3 The Other Two Apparently the showrunners of this weren't really nice people to their staff, which makes this hit a bit too close to home, but this whole show was so incredibly good. It also has a silly funny parody cartoon world, which still feels realistic somehow. To this day it's one of the few shows I did a full rewatch off. 2 Frieren Beyond Journey's End A really fine adaption of a manga I've been following for years. The manga itself is great, but the adaption stays really close to it and improves it by adding gorgeous animation and a stunning soundtrack. 1 Blue Eye Samurai If you're hanging around here, you probably already heard of this show. It really is as good as everyone's saying! It's a tale of rage, revenge and self improvement. The battle scenes were so dynamic and the camera shots so fluid. This is a level of quality you can only reach with animation. cant cook creole bream fucked around with this message at 22:09 on Jan 15, 2024 |
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Jan 12, 2024 19:07
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Big Bad Voodoo Lou posted:Yesss! Join us on the party bus! It's a fun show I would never have given a chance if I hadn't heard good things about it. Everyone is a complete stereotype but they all have a character arc. And the music was legitimately awesome. There's always this scifi spy suspense-beat in the background and sometimes when scenes get ridiculous they start blasting party stuff. If you want silly bonkers fun with not the slightest bit of class, this is a good pick. cant cook creole bream fucked around with this message at 19:18 on Jan 12, 2024 |
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Jan 12, 2024 19:11
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Last year I definitely watched much less TV than I usually do. From summer on my attention span for visual media pretty much went away. There are a few shows I want to finish but I just don’t think I’ll be able to. Anyway, here’s what I have watched. 10. The Wheel of Time To be honest I barely remember this season. But I remember liking it enough to put it here. They have definitely accelerated some things so I think next season should be pretty crazy. 9. Reservation Dogs In fairness, this is probably too low. But I only watched three episodes so far. But those three were good enough to put it in my top ten. Still as wholesome as ever. 8. How to With John Wilson This crazy ride had to come to an end one day. This season wasn’t as good as the previous two for me, but still fun. 7. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia Back to form. Nothing stands out about this season but I enjoyed it. 6. Deadloch Australian detectives! The mystery was fun, and although I hated Eddie at the beginning, by the end she cooled down a lot. 5. The Bear Anxiety: The Show. I loved Cousin coming into his own this season. The Christmas episode was very stressful. Not as good as season 1 but still great. 4. What We Do In the Shadows The focus on Guillermo being a vampire was fun this season. And Colin Robinson was on point as always. 3. Beef Bad decisions. Everywhere. Everyone in this was such a piece of poo poo that seeing terrible things happen them was rewarding even when it was also heartbreaking. This one played with my feelings. 2. The Last of Us I thought I was sick of zombie stuff, but this was great. Emotional and tense in all the right ways. 1. Scavengers Reign I usually don’t go for animation, but I saw the trailer for this and was interested. I was blown away. An absolutely crazy show. Parts of me wondered what a live action version would be like, but it would be absolutely impossible to pull off. I really hope this gets another season.
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Jan 13, 2024 01:11
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This was a crazy year for good animated things. As I build my list I'm shocked at how much of the list they compose. Still haven't caught up on the second season of Pantheon though, so trying to get that done before I finish my list, just in case it still utterly rocks and I need to add another.
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Jan 13, 2024 10:30
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i would love to participate so my votes would count towards the official tally, but i only watched about 6 shows this year. a few of which are eligible by OP standards bc they had seasons this year, but i didn't actually watch the most recent seasons. there's no way i'm gonna be able to squeeze more shows in by the deadline, and i don't wanna force it, so i'm just gonna take some time to think about the few shows i did watch and post some words about them sometime this week.
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Jan 15, 2024 10:01
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I want to preface this by saying I watched a lot less TV in 2023 than I did in 2022. And that itself was a big step-down from the amount of TV I had been watching in years prior. I'm also not ashamed to say that a lot of my TV watching this year has been background "comfort viewing" like TNG, Betty la fea, and unfortunately Below Decks. So there are a lot of shows I had been meaning to watch but never got to (Silo, Party Down, Mrs. Davis, and Beef come to mind) which might have altered my ranking (or not, given the reception to the new For All Mankind). There also weren't any knockouts that really shot to the top like Station Eleven or Andor were for me last year. But that being said, here's my list: 10: Paul T. Goldman: The Curse almost went in this spot, even though, unlike the combined thread for them, I don't think there's a huge amount of similarity. But this was the first new show of 2023 I watched, and it's one that's stuck in my head throughout the year. It was bizarre, it drew me in, it kept having newer weirder twists, it didn't outstay its welcome, and it's all true! At least 95% true. Or 80% true.... 9: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: I didn't find it as strong as season 1, but season 2 of SNW still had far more hits than misses, and I admired that the cast and crew were willing to take so many swings for the fences and go in so many different directions. With all due respect to the fans of Lower Decks (which I'm just not a big fan of, though I did like the crossover episode) this is not only the best Star Trek show since the 90s renaissance, it's the most Star Trekky-Star Trek show, if that makes sense. 8: Poker Face: I'm hit or miss on Rian Johnson and I think a little bit of Natasha Lyonne can go a long way, especially as I think she has one acting mode, so I was a bit hesitant about Poker Face, but this show really blew me away. Along with Paul T. Goldman, it really stuck to mind all year, and together they really validated Peacock as a service that makes good shows, even if not many. A few episodes didn't quite hit, but the Subway, ILM, and barbecue themed episodes are all incredible. If there's one TV related memory of 2023 that really sticks to mind, it's my wife and I visiting relatives in New Hampshire in the winter, and watching Poker Face under a blanket together at night while a fire was going and a snowstorm outside. Great memory. 7: What We Do in the Shadows: A return to form after the previous season, this benefitted from the main cast being together after so much of Baby Colin Robinson and going beyond the storylines that didn't really come together for me last year, and I give it a lot of props for actually advancing the Guillermo storyline... in a manner of speaking. The hybrid animal and TV news episodes in particular justify the season alone. 6: I Think You Should Leave: I'm not really sure what else needs to be said about this. ITYSL is more of the same, but the same is so out-there and absurd, and the overall length so short, that I am happy to keep getting new chunks of this same every few years. 5: The Bear: I missed the first season when this aired, so I watched both seasons back to back when the second one came out. Probably the best cooking-related show I've seen, and also makes for a good pairing with The Menu. I agree the first season was a bit stronger (and I'll buck the trend and say I thought the first season had episodes much more stressful than the Christmas one) but it upholds its strengths and I like the range of character stories we've gotten. Looking forward to season 3 and I think between this, Andor, and Dropout, Ebon Moss-Bachrach had a breakout 2022-23. 4: Upload: It's almost criminal how underwatched and underdiscussed this show is, especially for something from the creator of The Office (I guess Space Force kind of drained a lot of his appeal). Forget the VR afterlife concept, just for the way the show depicts the real world - a depressing cyberpunk dystopia with corporations running rampant and the escalation of subscriber services and social media isolation - makes Upload one of the best satires of our rapidly declining social fabric. Not to mention, this season gave real character development to Ingrid, and Robbie Amell and Andy Allo have some of the best on-screen chemistry of any couple on TV. 3: How To with John Wilson: While not as strong as the first two seasons, the third and final outing still allows for John to indulge in the semi-voyeuristic, but also sympathetic and genuinely curious, looks at some of the most-out there, but also under-represented, groups in society. The episodes with the Titanic conspiracy theorists and electro-sensitives were standouts. There is something not only funny, but also really calming and curious about his little films, and I honestly got more emotional at his final signoff than any other scene on TV this year. 2: The Other Two: As with Upload, I'm really surprised that The Other Two never seemed like it really found a widespread audience (I know I only started watching it because I heard Drew Tarver promote it on Comedy Bang Bang). And like cant cook creole bream said above, the revelations about working conditions on this show make it a little weird to be praising so much. But I think this was the funniest narrative show on TV (a categoryt that saves it from competing with On Cinema or ITYSL), partly because of its ability to reinvent itself every season. Every cast member really fires, even though they're mostly doing different things, and still managing to make them all meld together. But this is a show I can easily see myself rewatching again from the start, and still being just as funny each time. 1: Succession: Everyone and their cousin has written everything there is to be about this show, so I'm sure I have nothing new to add, but I'll say the final episode was more stressful than anything on The Bear while also ending on a feeling of huge relief. I do think Succession is a great demonstration that there are ways to still talk about Trump and the surrounding media environment that never mention him or feature an analog of any sort and still feel fresh. And the Musk analog seems very prescient for following how Musk has helped torch his reputation among the wider public. Overall I think the best reflection and analysis of the modern US political-media environment in contemporary pop culture. Honorable mentions: -The Consultant -The Curse -The Great British Baking Show -On Cinema -Never Have I Ever -The Rig -Servant
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Jan 15, 2024 19:27
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shows i watched this year but not the season's that aired this year: succession - seasons ~1.5 i know this is mostly the frontrunner in this thread and elsewhere in the zeitgeist of prestige tv. for a little bit of it, i was on board. but as i got into the halfway to 2/3rds point of season 2, i fizzled out. it felt like everything was going to keep repeating where someone gets close to the top and then some Unexpected Thing happens and the dynamics shift all over again with this big roller coaster ride i just didn't feel was realistic enough to keep me engaged. barry - season 1 i was convinced for a long time, with no real backup and just my gut intuition, that this show was undeserving of the hype. i had seen the first episode years ago around when it first aired and was unimpressed. but then i kept hearing buzz about it so decided to give season 1 a try. i was happy to be somewhat wrong about it overall; it was fine-to-good. some characters/situations were really boring and uninteresting or straight up bad for me, but there was a good amount of it that i felt intrigued by. basically every time barry was involved with the acting group, i was interested. and then it went back to the whole hitman thing and i was bored. i also hate noho hank. the finale was cool, and i went to start season 2 but basically immediately lost interest in the loop. shows i watched this year where the season i watched aired this year: the last of us - season 1 this is at the bottom of my list because, while it's a good/faithful/interesting recreation of the game, i already know all the story beats and there was basically nothing in the show to hold my interest enough to really intrigue me. the episode with ron swanson, the arcade episode, and the ones with the cannibals are the standouts. i forgot basically everything else that happened because everything's already solidified in my head from the narrative of the game. i'm definitely interested in season 2 and beyond, though. i think you should leave - season 3 the one show i was actually really anticipating returning (and the only show on this list where i didn't just watch the first season). i love quoting this with my friends and seeing all the memes and ways the absurd poo poo comes up naturally when you're having a regular conversation and a line from the show pops in your mind and you start laughing to yourself. everyone else has already said everything there is to say about it so yeah, it's great stuff. i'm so happy it exists. and i love telling people to watch it and then hearing that they tried it and hated it/didn't get it. blue eye samurai - season 1 someone at work brought this show up, and i had heard a bit here and there online about it. i figured it would be decent-to-good, but when i started watching, i was basically immediately hooked. it held my interest the entire time, and is the one show on this list where i couldn't wait to get home from work so i could just sit and watch. the main character was almost a cliche in the sense of being unstoppable in the name of their pursuit but was treated with enough depth to be satisfyingly unique. all the supporting characters contributed nicely to the narrative and kept things interesting. i like the zig zags the narrative takes a bit when you expect it to do one thing and instead it does another (no spoilers). i'll be a day 1 watcher of season 2. i really thoroughly enjoyed this a ton and am sad my list won't count bc i'd like to give it points. the curse - season 1 as of this writing, i still have 2 episodes to finish before i'm done with the season, but i've seen enough to declare bennie safdie a bonafide genius. during the first episode and a half or so, i was convinced the show was slow, weird, crap and too weird for me, but something compelled me to keep going and everything just clicked after a certain point. i almost stayed up way too late last night to finish the last two episodes but i would be a total zombie today if i did, so now i am just gonna race home and do nothing else but marathon these episodes for 2 hours and watch this poo poo show unfold. i can't wait to see what's gonna happen, and i will watch anything bennie safdie's name is attached to at this point. the above is all a bit vague and only talking about how i react to the story and nothing necessarily about how/why it works for me, so let me at least try and say something more concrete: the way the show examines these extremely vapid and self sabotaging characters is, as far as i've ever seen, such an interesting and (forgive me for using this phrase) "realistic" portrayal of just how hosed up people can be. i knew this show was special when bennie's character wakes up and realizes he took the keys from underage kids who he bought alcohol for and plays it up like he did them a favor. the amount of mental gymnastics going on in each character's head is just staggering and refreshing to see portrayed in this light. the soundtrack is excellent and fits the theme of the show, and the title card is always a joy to watch unfold when, in every episode, you know it's signaling/highlighting some hosed up turn of events.
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Jan 15, 2024 23:13
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10. Scott Pilgrim Takes Off Watched this on a whim and enjoyed it a lot more than I would've thought. It took an interesting approach that avoids a lot of the issues I had with the movie. 9. Taskmaster My go-to show for something light and fun to watch, the new year's eve special this year was excellent. 8. I'm a Virgo As usual with anything by Boots Riley, it's incredibly creative and unexpected and just a whole lot of fun. 7. Barry Much darker and less funny (which isn't to say it didn't have its moments- the prison scene with the assassins had me rolling) than previous seasons, but still really good. 6. The Last Of Us This is on my list on the back of 'Long, Long Time' alone. The rest of the show was pretty good, but the third episode was exceptional. 5. Game Changer (Dropout) I could've picked any number of dropout shows (the Wayne Brady episode of Make Some Noise is :chefskiss:), but this one probably takes the cake for me. This show keeps getting better and better. The escape room and the Shakespeare episodes were so good and so funny. 4. Party Down Its honestly incredible that it returned after 13 years and didn't miss a beat. Just a hilarious watch. 3. Fargo I know it hasn't finished airing, but the episodes that did air in 2023 are good enough to warrant its inclusion, imo. The needle drops have been perfect. 2. The Bear I really enjoyed the greater focus on the side characters this season, Marcus' trip to Denmark and everything Richie-related were exceptional. 1. Reservation Dogs I finally got around to watching this show this year and holy smokes, I'd been missing out. This season had a little bit of everything and I loved every bit of it (in particular, a very clearly Linklater-inspired episode that would've fit right into the Before trilogy).
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Jan 16, 2024 01:15
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2023 was not a great year of TV for me, and I had to struggle a bit to fill out the list. First a few shoutouts. Cunk on Earth : was hilarious and would have made my list if it didn't technically come out in 2022. The Nevers part 2: I'm an ex-Joss Whedon fanboy, but his schtick is still very much my thing. A new showrunner came on while Whedon was outed as a terrible person and the show felt completely different. I didn't quite like it as much as previously, but it was good enough to mention. The Crown: I am mentioning this purely because of the banger cover of "Things Can Only Get Better". From: Season two felt frustrating and lacking, but From is still a good watch. Upload: Still very underappreciated and marketed poorly, not as good as the previous seasons though. Deadloch: Somehow The Kate's managed to make a comedy that wasn't funny, but as a detective mystery was not bad. 10. Such Brave Girls A dark comedy about trauma, done in a way that only the British seem to be able to. 9. The Wheel of Time When Wheel of Time was first announced, most fans of the books wondered how you could ever adapt the story to a TV format, and the answer seemed to be "You can't" and it was mostly a disappointment. Season two was much improved, with more realistic fan expectations the showrunners managed to adapt the most important parts of the books. There are still too few episodes, but that is how TV works these days. 8. Loki Loki season 1 was one of the more underwhelming MCU TV shows, with Richard E. Grant stealing the show while the rest of the cast just meandered. This season felt like things were getting into gear, a big emotional story where every episode felt like it was important, and the ending was the best for any MCU show. 7. Double Fine PsychOdyssey As part of a crowdfunding goal for the game Broken Age, developers Double Fine made a documentary called Double Fine Adventure showing the highs and lows of making a video game, it was a very good documentary. For Psychonauts 2 they decided to release a new documentary and it made the whole world wonder why anyone would ever want to make video games. The creation of Psychonauts 2 is shown in such honesty, both the good and the very bad. 6. What We Do in the Shadows Not quite reaching the highs of season 4, What We Do In the Shadows is still very good and mostly very funny. 5. Doctor Who Chris Chibnall's run as showrunner of Doctor Who was not well received, though I still think it was better than most of Moffat did with Matt Smith. But either way, Russell T. Davies came to the rescue with David Tennant returning as the Doctor. The three Tennant specials were all good and became increasingly better. I will admit that I was skeptical about Ncuti Gatwa as the new Doctor. A Doctor with a mustache? But the excellent christmas special proved all my fears wrong, and he is off to a great start. And maybe the show will come out more than every 2-3 years? 4. Lockwood and Co. A spooky show where ghosts suddenly appear and kids are the only ones who can see them, so they get trained for the incredibly dangerous task of destroying them. I know some people didn't like it, and automatically scoff at YA without ever experiencing it. But this was an underappreciated show. 3. Blue Lights A tv show about three probationary police officers in Northern Ireland, a compelling drama. 2. Ted Lasso We all know that story, when Ted Lasso first aired everyone loved it. Then the writers decided that instead of a funny show about a football club, they should scrap all the football, and focus on a bunch of minor characters nobody cared about, it was a disaster. I think many people were wary about the third and final season, but while it still had some issues with boring side-characters taking too much time it was mostly back to full form, telling funny and emotionally rewarding stories, and not being ashamed to admit that football is an essential background to the story. 1. Willow Willow started off a little slow, and I don't blame anyone who dropped it, but they truly missed out. Throughout 9 episodes the characters grew and evolved and by the end of the excellent closing scene you truly cared about all the characters and the overall story. In a time where prestige TV shows get shorter and contain more and more filler, Willow was truly unique and my favorite show of 2023. Oasx fucked around with this message at 19:57 on Jan 21, 2024 |
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Jan 16, 2024 09:01
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I'm so disappointed they're not going to make another season of Willow. It had plenty of flaws, but it felt like everybody was having an absolute blast making it.
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Jan 16, 2024 11:48
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I think it was probably the most promising of all the channel's originals. The characters were a bit broad, but by the end I thought they were very appealing.
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Jan 16, 2024 14:16
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Escobarbarian posted:Does this thread have a rule about not criticising other people’s choices?…….it does. poo poo. Man do I have a list for you! My television watching was once again a year based in reality TV (thanks, strikes!) The Emmys were last night and I've never seen an episode of Succession or The Bear. We do it differently here. _______________  TVIV Legacy Award: RIVERDALE “So if you happen to see that neon sign, some lonely night at the end of that long journey… pull over, come on in, take a seat. Know that you’ll always be among friends, and that Riverdale will always be your home. Until then, have a good night.” It wouldn’t be a TVIV end-of-year list without me shoehorning Riverdale into the rankings. The iconically so-bad-it’s-good show ended in 2023 with a final season that was… weirdly boring? Considering the previous season ended with a biblical meteor strike that was stopped by sacrificing the entire groups' superpowers (yeah they got powers, keep up) that resulted in them traveling back in time to the original Archie comics’ era. This season is mostly low stakes with a strong focus on regular degular high school junior drama—but obviously there’s room for one last serial killer subplot. I would watch each prior season’s episodes day-after like appointment television but went weeks during this season without watching an episode just to binge it at once and ‘get it over with.’ I didn’t expect Riverdale to be the show to end boringly–and quite possibly their worst season—but I’ll cherish the fun I had in TVIV posting about it. Charles Melton’s performance in May December proves these people have a long career ahead of them.  10. POKÉMON “When I really become a Pokémon Master, you’ll be with me, right?” This is another sort-of legacy selection. Pokemon is stealthily one of the longest running shows ever with well over 1000 episodes. It’s practically run uninterrupted since 1997. Until this year, when it ended. I’ve always had a memory of living in a world when Pokemon was on. As a kid I would watch recorded VHS tapes of episodes constantly. When I got older I would rush home from school to catch the latest episode airing in its afternoon timeslot. When the channel changed their scheduling I mailed them and begged to change it back. They actually did. I would discuss and debate episodes weekly on other forums. By Sun and Moon I phased out of the demo and checked back in when Ash Ketchum won a Pokemon League (this was literally breaking news on CNN) and started the final world champion tournament arc. The last slate of episodes from 2023 went full fan-service. Ash returned to traveling with Brock and Misty. Many past Pokemon returned, like Ash’s Pidgeot. We even saw Ash’s dad (in a silhouette). The stories of Ash, Pikachu, Jessie, James and Meowth ending truly feels like the last vestige of my childhood. It was nice to be nostalgic again.  9. LOKI “Do you think that what makes a Loki a Loki is the fact that we’re destined to lose?” While trying to write this blurb I realize that most of my compliments for Loki are about the first season. I would’ve been fine with another season of that—but S2 wasn’t—and now it’s lower on my list. It still has the most memorable art direction and production design on TV but the story was far less compelling. S1 felt like a universe-trotting adventure and S2 was pretty confined to an office with a paradoxical problem. This series is still carrying any interest in the multiverse for this godforsaken cinematic universe and it ends with Loki selflessly ascending a throne (he doesn’t want, for once) to hold together every timeline: “I know what kind of god I need to be.” Loki S2 closes the circle and has completely rehabilitated me from being a Loki (the character) hater. And we didn’t have to have Loki kissing another Loki discourse!  8. BLACK MIRROR “You don’t even bleed right.” Black Mirror is event TV. It doesn’t need to be good anymore, in fact it’s probably better if it’s a trainwreck. But not many other shows have you talking like it does and ranking each episode against each other. Joan is Awful has strong ‘ghost written by an MCU writer and meant to star Ryan Reynolds’ vibes. Way too meta without saying anything worthwhile. As a true crime consumer, Loch Henry Did a much better job at critiquing Netflix than whatever Joan is Awful was doing. Beyond the Sea is the best episode of the drop and gives Aaron Paul more to work with than Westworld did. Mazey Day… has an all-time stupid full moon reveal. And Demon 70 is a better Doctor Who episode than most of Chris Chibnall’s Doctor Who run. This season for sure jumped the soft speculative sci-fi shark but it’s not like we’re getting a lot of anthologies anyways.  7. MONARCH: LEGACY OF MONSTERS “Miracles should be terrifying.” Godzilla Minus One was my favourite movie of 2023. I’m a regular in the kaiju movie thread. I saw all of the Monsterverse movies on opening weekend. This show was made for me and the reason I finally used my 3 month Apple+ trial. So far the Monsterverse hasn’t really nailed their human stories or characters but this is the closest they’ve gotten. The plot is split between the mid-century where Monarch is formed and 2015 after the events of Godzilla (2014). The former has a great trio of characters with amazing chemistry. The latter less so, but the family dynamics are so messy that it’s intriguing anyway. It’s also nice to finally get some lore behind Monarch, an ambiguous corporation involved with giant monsters across these movies but without a real purpose. The highlight of the show is obviously the glimpses of Godzilla and the other monsters we get and the worldbuilding that’s adapted to their existence. A visit to Tokyo at the beginning of the show had Godzilla evacuation bunkers, anti-kaiju weaponry and taxi drivers yapping about monster attack false flags. Now pay up for some actual monster fights @Apple.  6. RUPAUL'S DRAG RACE “I’m quitting drag. You’re welcome.” 14 seasons of Drag Race aired around the globe last year. I think I watched 4? But there’s always time for the original recipe. Season 15 moved to MTV and it’s exactly what that dying rear end channel needed. It’s definitely the most fun in years. It’s easy to write this off as a drag goddess Sasha Colby coronation but (most of) this cast was still competitive enough to be memorable—and surely contenders if they’re dropped in any other season. If you want to get into Drag Race but don’t know where to start: this is a perfect baby’s first option.  5. THE OTHER TWO “Thanks for making me look like full dogshit to the world tonight.” We are in a TV comedy crisis. Everything that’s calling itself a comedy is deeply serious. The Other Two’s writing gave us the rapid fire jokes we desperately needed. The Other Two was a fantastic satire on various strains of entertainment through the Dubek family: Cary as an actor, Brooke as a manager, Pat as an Oprah-esque deity, and ChaseDreams as a popular white teenager with no talent. Recognizing they’re deeply flawed and need to get out of the “industry” makes for some hilariously absurd sequences like Simu Liu on a date with Molly Shannon in a fake Times Square Applebees, Brooke disguising herself as an old woman to break into her ex’s apartment that then catches fire, and a Broadway play about AIDS that lasts for three days. The best joke of the season was about a glob with no speaking role being Disney’s first openly queer character. Two weeks later, Pixar’s Elemental released in theatres with its first nonbinary character—a blob of water that had no lines. Ironically, this was the last season because the showrunners got exposed as toxic employees the day the last episode dropped. You cannot write a better ending.  4. SURVIVOR “If I don't win the game I'd rather be voted off first. It's a complete waste of time if you aren't the sole survivor. Excuse me for being honest!” I guess this is for both Survivor 44 and Survivor 45 but I mostly mean 45. I liked 44 a lot less than the consensus. It had a ridiculous amount of twists and a cast of background characters edited out for the stars of the season. 45’s episodes expanded to 90 minutes with the strikes and it should be the blueprint for Survivor in the future. Literally every aspect was an improvement. Less twists, better edits, and a group of really fun players that are trying hard but playing badly: my social strategy favourite. 45 also introduces the most iconic new player in years: financial analyst Emily Flippen. After two decades it’s still fascinating to see a clinical and cynical player completely ruin their chances of winning in the first 5 minutes, but realize their social ineptitudes and actively change as a person to reverse fate. And it worked.  3. ATTACK ON TITAN “See you later, Eren.” Now we answer the age old question: is it possible to make the top ten airing only one episode in the calendar year? Attack on Titan seems to think so. This final season aired its first episode in December 2020 and concluded nearly three years later on November 19, 2023. The end credits of the series being a potential sequel hook makes this situation even funnier. I hated the last chapter of Attack on Titan when it dropped in 2021. It borderline ruined the series for me, at least enough for me to not interact at all with it beyond that moment except for closing out the anime. I was dreading this episode but perhaps the march of time has rehabilitated how I feel about the conclusion. That one rewritten conversation between Armin and Eren did a hell of a lot. The wait was worth it for the animation alone — possibly the best I've ever seen. It was pretty hard for me to follow in the manga since every titan was black and white. I hope the animators can get a deserving rest after all this (lol yeah right).  2. THE LAST OF US “Swear to me. Swear to me that everything you said about the fireflies is true.” The after The Last of Us premiered was the most fun water cooler moment in years. It felt like a secret I had been holding onto was revealed, and I could finally say “see, I told you!” This is now the holy bible for video game adaptations. I honestly think this may be the best way to consume the game’s plot and characters if you don’t want to experience the tension of sneaking around blind mushroom zombies in a flooded hotel basement. The Last of Us had the best TV episode of the year in 'Long, Long Time,' an episode that takes a forgettable side character from the game and rewrites him into one of the most touching stories of gay partnership I’ve ever seen. But the success of the show wouldn’t be at all possible without the astronomical demand to recreate Joel and Ellie in the flesh. Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey’s performances do just that. I already know Kaitlyn Dever as Abby in S2 is going to join the pantheon.  1. BEEF “Next time someone honks at you, maybe let it go.” It’s very hard for me to be surprised by a completely original show. When I first saw the trailer for Beef I thought "this movie looks good!" but then I saw 'limited series' and in typical Netflix fashion I got the ick. Not everything needs to be a ten hour story!! Beef gets the one conditional pass though. Phew, what a loving journey. It's so satisfying to see these people escalate from petty grievances to life-ruining actions and have to sit in the surreal aftermath of their consequences—absolutely perfect character arcs. Steven Yeun was unsurprisingly great but I didn’t expect Ali Wong to have the dramatic chops to pull this role off as well as she did. It sucks that controversy has soured the aftertaste of Beef to the point where I don’t need a 2nd season.
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Jan 17, 2024 02:49
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Shneak posted:Man do I have a list for you! Love those gifs! Shneak posted:We even saw Ash’s dad (in a silhouette). Why was Professor Oak standing in the shadows?  When CNN literally put up a breaking news story I saw it on my phone and said out loud,"Holy poo poo, Ash won a Pokemon league" without thinking, and the people in the room I was with actually cheered to hear the news. That's how you know something has REALLY permeated the pop culture consciousness I guess! Shneak posted:1. BEEF I'm probably going to regret asking, but what is the controversy? 
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Jan 17, 2024 03:36
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Looten Plunder posted:3. If you want to list more than ten shows go for it (in fact, it's encouraged) but I'll only count your top ten. If you want to list less than ten shows then go for that too but I won't count it at all. This rule is a bummer because I think I only watched 9 decent shows this year
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Jan 17, 2024 08:49
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I think the Beef controversy is mostly about one of the cast members being a huge piece of poo poo? I don’t think it sours the show as a whole. Anyway now Fargo is over I can begin making my list!!!
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Jan 17, 2024 11:46
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Fargo ended so goddamn strong, it's gonna have to be an incredible year of television for it not to make my 2024 list.
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Jan 17, 2024 11:58
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Escobarbarian posted:I think the Beef controversy is mostly about one of the cast members being a huge piece of poo poo? I don’t think it sours the show as a whole. It feels unfair to let the 2024 part influence you with regards to Fargo. The finale was amazing, but it felt like the show was dragging it's heels a bit to much last year.
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Jan 17, 2024 12:09
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I disagree with every part of that post tbh! I’m not gonna be putting it on my 2024 list anyway.
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Jan 17, 2024 15:25
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Escobarbarian posted:I disagree with every part of that post tbh! So you didn't like the finale? 
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Jan 17, 2024 17:39
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poo poo!!!!!!
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Jan 17, 2024 17:45
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Welcome, everyone, to TV’s biggest night! No, not that one from the other day with the jerks who hate Better Call Saul, but the night Esco posts his TV GOTY list! I managed to be a tiny bit restrained with the shows I watched this year - by which I mean I only watched around 150 shows instead of closer to 200 - but there were still a lot of great things that I feel lots of feelings about. Starting off, as ever, with 50-26 presented without comment, because I’m not quite mad enough to write that much: 50. Never Have I Ever (Netflix) 49. Copenhagen Cowboy (Netflix) 48. Solar Opposites (Hulu) 47. Summer Camp Island (Cartoon Network) 46. Primo (Amazon Freevee) 45. Ten Year Old Tom (Max) 44. Minx (Starz) 43. The Great (Hulu) 42. Dark Winds (AMC) 41. The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House (Netflix) 40. Shrinking (Apple TV+) 39. Abbott Elementary (ABC) 38. Barry (HBO) 37. Hilda (Netflix) 36. Clone High (Max) 35. Dave (FXX) 34. Somebody Somewhere (HBO) 33. Royal Crackers (Adult Swim) 32. Unstable (Netflix) 31. Pantheon (Prime Video, but only in Aus/NZ, for some reason, this show was really done dirty) 30. Jury Duty (Amazon Freevee) 29. Slow Horses (Apple TV+) 28. Pluto (Netflix) 27. One Piece (Netflix) 26. Dead Ringers (Prime Video) Wow! There were some in there I thought would be much closer to the top 10, especially those final two. What a year! Now I’m gonna start writing words because everything from here on deserves to be spoken about : 25. The Fall of the House of Usher (Netflix) I spent a lot of September-November this year ignoring most TV in favour of Long rear end Video Games, and when I started catching up with stuff this is one I left until quite near the end, having not really cared about Mike Flanagan stuff since Hill House. However, this ended up being my favourite work of his to date! Very spooky with an excellent set of characters and solid set-pieces and eat the rich thematic material. 24. Blue Eye Samurai (Netflix) I don’t know what I can add to the effusive praise around this show. It’s unbelievably beautiful, gorgeously-animated, well-paced, and has an amazing voice cast. I didn’t love the writing quite as much as many here, but I’m still very much looking forward to season 2. 23. What We Do in the Shadows (FX) I’ve been up and down on WWDITS for a little while, but this was my favourite season in years. Utterly hilarious and ridiculous while having a very strong backbone in Guillmero’s storyline. I’ll be sad when it ends but I think six seasons is the perfect run. 22. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Prime Video) Maisel ended its run with its best season since the first, and a great reminder of why I fell in love with this show to begin with. Effortlessly funny with solid arcs for its leads and flash-forwards that many had issues with but I thought were great! Very pleased this found its footing again and went out on close to a high. 21. Blindspotting (Starz) I didn’t love it quite like I did in its impeccable first season, but this was still a poignant, powerful, and frequently funny as hell look at how imprisonment affects people and a character study of this Oakland family. The cancellation is a freakin crime!!!! 20. Taskmaster (Channel 4) This has been a comfort food mainstay for many for a long time now, but it near enough topped itself this year. The first season aired was very, very funny, but the second (which I was lucky enough to accept a taping for the premiere of….grammar?) was absolutely incredible, easily one of the all-time great seasons of the show, with such a wonderful eclectic collection of contestants who worked very well together. 19. Carol & The End of The World (Netflix) This was a real last-minute surprise. Netflix wouldn’t stop bothering me about this one before it premiered, and I like Martha Kelly so I thought I’d give it a shot…..and I was treated to an incredibly moving depiction of inertia in the face of apocalypse. A strong mix of one-off episodes and an emotional central arc, mixing sadness and beauty as well as any show this year. 18. Scavengers Reign (Max) Wait, you’re telling me the creepiest show of the year was a bloody cartoon??? This sci-fi show about a group of astronauts stranded on a mysterious and frequently hostile planet was remarkably effective, both due to its excellent Mœbius-inspired visual style and its depiction of a disconcerting world that doesn’t play by any known human rules. 17. Deadloch (Prime Video) I knew nothing of Australian comedy duo The Kates before this show premiered, but I’m now a big fan. Both a humorous sendup of small town crime dramas and also a damned good example of one, this series got over some irritating characters with a lot of great jokes, a genuinely good murder mystery, and a strong feminist bent, perfectly-pitched. The highlight of an otherwise kinda poo poo year for Prime Video. 16. The Last of Us (HBO) I’m a big fan of the two TLOU games and was so excited for whatever Craig Mazin did after Chernobyl, and this show gets a million things right, from the perfect casting to the visual style and insane effects to the gorgeous atmospheric music to knowing when it just needed to take from the game’s script verbatim. However, a couple of underwhelming diversions from the source material and my dislike of how they handled the climactic moments in the finale stopped this from making my too 10. 15. Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake (Max) I was sorta wary about the idea of an Adventure Time continuation, especially after it had already had two great endings, but Adam Muto and co proved my worries unfounded with a funny, powerful, meta expansion of the universe. From the strong arcs to the beautiful storyboard work, this came close to the best of the original show, and I legit can’t wait for more. 14. Paul T. Goldman (Peacock) I’ve known Jason Woliner was a genius for a minute (Eagleheart s3 is still probably my favourite Adult Swim thing ever) but this was still a huge surprise for me. A jaw-dropping, gut-busting, heart-rending look at one man’s capacity for delusion that never stopped surprising or delighting me. There are ethical questions one could ask, for sure, but I don’t think the titular subject would give a poo poo about any of them. A wild and awesome way to kick off 2023. 13. Mrs. Davis (Peacock) Babe wake up new Damon Lindelof dropped! One of my favourite creators took on the mentor role for this wild and bizarre look at technology, conspiracy, and theology, starring a never-better Betty Bet-I mean Gilpin, with some truly raucous set-pieces and nutso, intelligent twists and ideas. Very silly, very smart, very good. 12. The Curse (Showtime) My most-anticipated new show of the year did not loving miss, turning out to be a dark and unnerving look at gentrification, narcissism, and reality TV, with an unbelievable lead performance from Emma Stone and equally incredible work from co-creators Nathan Fielder and Benny Safdie. A little too much wheel-spinning at times, but the standout moments were exceptional, and the finale is going to be hard to beat for the greatest TV episode of 2024. 11. How To with John Wilson (HBO) I’m very sad we won’t be getting more of John Wilson’s bizarro docudramas, but this was a phenomenal way to go out. Just as funny, strange, willing to go off on random tangents, and skilled at depicting the weirdest poo poo in NYC as before, plus with one episode that calls the whole show into question in hilarious ways and a very beautiful finale. Finally, here we are at the top 10, aka the ones that actually matter for this poll! In a year full of gold, these were the cream of the crop, the crème de la crème, the Besten der Besten, the….good…..telly things. How excited I am to tell you of these! 10. Party Down (Starz)  Over the years, we’ve had a trillion TV revivals. We’ve had ones that were terrible, ones that were admirable but overall tepid, ones that did something totally different, but very rarely if ever do you get one where it feels like no time has passed in between and the show remains the exact same as before. Thankfully, that’s exactly what happened with this unbelievably great revival of Party Down. Partly this is to do with the premise, where the fact that some of the struggling LA caterers still haven’t made it in Hollywood makes it even more tragically hilarious. But even ignoring this, the writing was just so on-point, the cast so able to slip back into their roles, the new characters fitting into the universe so well, the parties/concepts so clever and funny just as in the original show, that…..I feel like this sentence got away from me, but basically this was just as phenomenally funny as the original show and I’m so happy we got these six episodes. Starz, I am begging you for more! 09. Scott Pilgrim Takes Off (Netflix)  While I do like the Scott Pilgrim movie a whole lot, I am an even bigger fan of the graphic novels, and I was really pumped that the entire cast of the movie had been brought back for an animated show that seemed to follow the original story more. And I was very excited when the first episode did a very good job of this! And then….wait….what? What just happened????? Needless to say they took the show in a completely new and unexpected direction that I absolutely adored. The extra focus on Ramona was extremely welcome, and I loved how it remixed the character pairings and created some very funny new material out of people who had never really interacted in the franchise before. And then when it all finally came full circle they not only added in the extra emotional intelligence I felt the movie had nixed but actually surpassed it, creating a layered and emotional tale of regret and denial. An absolute winner of a show, and one that, unexpectedly, I would be really happy to see a continuation of. In a list with way more animation than usual, this still ended up being my favourite. Hooray for drawings what move! 08. The Other Two (Max)  There have been a million examples of the entertainment industry satirising themselves over the years, but I think this has to be one of the best. The Other Two had already been a funny and cutting look at Hollywood and fame in its first two seasons, but in the third and final year it truly cut loose, becoming more ridiculous, and yet also more accurate, than ever. No matter what subject this season tackled - from method acting, to awards bait, to celebrity couples, to “doing good”, to child stars aging, to the perils of being in public when famous, to god knows how many more - it did so in the most brutally hilarious way, taking absolutely no prisoners and never being anything other than stupidly funny. The pre-finale reveal that the creators were exactly the kind of people the show would rag on - egotistical figures who treated their writing staff like absolute poo poo - was very disappointing, but it didn’t affect just how funny and, in the end, surprisingly poignant the finale was. 07. Fargo (FX)  I admit, before this season aired, I had kind of lost faith in Noah Hawley. Legion after season 1 was mixed at best (and frequently quite bad), while Fargo s3 was kinda more fun to think about than to actually watch and s4 often felt like a waste of talent that didn’t go anywhere and where the only truly great episode was almost totally separate from the rest. Thankfully, this was a huge return to form for both Hawley and the show, with great writing and very timely and effective themes. Fargo always has best-in-show casts, but even by that metric this one was phenomenal, with Juno Temple and Jon Hamm leading a stellar cast of performers, from legends like Dave Foley and Jennifer Jason Leigh to newcomers like Richa Moorjani and Joe Keery, all of whom absolutely excelled. But the real greatness of the season was in the fact that it got back-to-basics - just being really funny and entertaining and suspenseful and weird in that classic Fargo way - while also having a lot to say on right-wing religious figures, debt, abuse of women, and family in a way that felt like a perfect reaction to the past several years of Western society. This season ended on an image that was in many ways the polar opposite of the s3 finale, and if we never got any more of this show, would be a wonderfully optimistic note to end on. Hawley I love you again!!!!!! 06. Beef (Netflix)  I talked a bit in my last entry about how Fargo s5 was a reaction to the last few years of living in the Western world. While this show isn’t quite as wide-ranging with its themes, it really digs deep into a core one - people are so fuckin angry these days, right? Whether because of political divides or petty insecurities, we seem to live in a world where our rage is often encouraged and seen as righteous, and where that can lead to it coming out more frequently and in more damaging ways. I can’t think of a piece of media that has dug into this idea better than Beef. A show about a minor road rage incident with wildly over-the-top consequences, Beef is first and foremost an astute look at what causes this kind of anger, with extremely good dual character arcs expertly-performed by Steven Yeun and Ali Wong, both of whom truly deserved their recent Emmys. But what elevates it to greatness is the way it blends a variety of disparate tones - sometimes it’s a serious drama, sometimes it’s a hilarious comedy, sometimes it’s a genuinely tense thriller - while making it all feel absolutely natural. Creator Lee Sung Jin has expressed an interest in continuing the show, and while it did end pretty perfectly, I also really hope Netflix use the stack of Emmys they just got as an excuse to give us more. 05. Poker Face (Peacock)  Heavily serialised storytelling has been the trend for a hot minute now, to mixed results. While long-form storytelling is one of the things that make TV so great, it is hard to argue against the idea that shows that remember the concept of the individual episode - like the top 3 of this list, for example, spoilers!!!! - are the strongest and make for the best television. But there’s still so, so many shows, especially on streaming, that ignore this and try and stick to the “ten-hour movie” bullshit. Which is all to say that there was an audience crying out for high-quality episodic television, and hey! Rian Johnson and Natasha Lyonne were here to deliver in spades. The stated aim of this show was to bring the Columbo style to a modern audience, and it’s absurd just how well it succeeded. Every week, Lyonne’s character - Charlie Cale, a former cocktail waitress on the run with an uncanny ability to tell when people are talking poo poo but, importantly, not why - runs into a murder as part of the odd job she’s taken on, one where we have seen the culprit committing the deed from the beginning and are waiting to see how she figures it out. While as with all episodic series the quality can vary, the unbelievable guest stars, hilarious character work, satisfying denouements, and sheer electric charisma from Lyonne made this a joy to watch every single episode. This show’s just a loving blast, mixing retro sensibilities with a modern tone so perfectly, and I really hope we don’t have to wait too long for more. 04. I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson (Netflix)  Comedy, and especially sketch comedy, can be a very subjective thing. What people find funny can vary so drastically from person to person, and I know plenty of people who don’t find this show funny, don’t understand it at all, and find it incredibly off-putting and annoying. I understand this, and respect this, but it’s also very important to note that this opinion is completely wrong and that they are idiots. When I watched the first season of this show, I was already sure it was my favourite sketch show of all time. Two seasons later, when they’ve managed to capture that same lightning in a bottle three times now? There’s no doubt about it. Tim Robinson’s style of humour gels so well with mine it’s almost shocking. When a sketch hits - which is far, far more often than not - it is like he has dug inside my brain, found the funniest possible way I would think of to play something, and put it on screen. It’s so impressive that even on the third season they are still coming up with ideas that work this well. The Driving Crooner! The suits and ties feed me lies!! The eggs!!! 55 burgers 55 fries 55 tacos!!!! I actually want to go to Haunted House more than Aqua!!!!! The wall is his ground!!!!!! Sketch comedy is one of the hardest things to write, and that this show keeps knocking it out of the park over and over and over again - complimented by the best guest stars in the business - is almost unbelievable. I hope this show runs for 55 seasons. 03. Reservation Dogs (FX on Hulu)  I’ve already talked a whole bunch about episodic vs serialised storytelling in this post, but the really great thing about the medium is when you can have episodes that work as individual units but together end up as more than the sum of their parts and tell a powerful story. Mad Men and The Leftovers are two examples of shows that have excelled at this concept, and after this third and final season I think Reservation Dogs can be added to that list without any complaint. What an incredible bunch of episodes, all of which built on each other to give viewers a powerful narrative about the history of oppression, how traditions can be passed on, and generational transitions. I started off mildly skeptical of the adoration this show was getting at the beginning, but over its run it has proved itself over and over again as not just a milestone in indigenous representation but one of the greatest shows of the last decade. In the last two seasons I thought the show was often inconsistent, mixing classic episodes with more tepid ones, but this time around every instalment was a winner. The Deer Lady episode was a compelling and disturbing look at abusive American Indian boarding schools, the flashback episode was not only a hysterical Dazed and Confused homage but the Rosetta stone for the entire season, the Elora’s dad episode was both an amazing look at parental figures who can’t live up to anything and the best thing Ethan Hawke has done since First Reformed or maybe even Before Midnight, and the finale was a beautiful and stirring look at the community this show had built up over three remarkable years. What a beautiful and special piece of television. Kinda hosed up to think there’s two shows above it on this list. 02. The Bear (Hulu)  There’s a thing that happens with truly great TV where the first season is really good but then the second season, after they’ve had some time to learn what works and what they want to focus on, absolutely shoots off into the goddamn stratosphere, operating with ultimate confidence and earning their acclaim several times over. It’s one of the main ways you can tell if a show is really worth the time, but even then, it rarely goes as well as it did here. The Bear season 1 was already in my top 5 for 2022, but season 2 did such a superb job of continuing and elevating the story that I knew as soon as I saw it there was no way it wasn’t going to be in second place on this list. The ingredients were already all there - a fantastic concept, the perfect cast, excellent character dynamics - and the second season knew how to blend and simmer them perfectly for maximum effect. Not only was the overall storyline of the team trying to make the perfect new restaurant extremely well-done (or rare/medium rare, if that’s what you prefer [it should be]), but there were plenty of incredible individual dishes that ended up as some of the best episodes of the year. How many shows can do a flashback episode with a trillion high-profile guest stars and have it not only feel completely natural but be a highlight of 2023? And that’s without even getting into the other specialties, like some heartwarming progression for this set of characters (especially the main trio, who are all icons and correctly won Emmys for their superlative performances [and those were for the first season! not even this legendary poo poo!], the most sumptuous needledrops on TV, and a whole bunch of delectable filmmaking that led to one of the most satisfying and delicious experiences of the year that even the somewhat coriander-tinged romantic interest couldn’t take away from. Cooking metaphors! Lasagne!! Pizza!!! 01. Succession (HBO)  I mean, what the gently caress else could it have been? Jesse Armstrong’s satire about an ultra-rich family in control of a media dynasty has been a clear all-timer since the second it premiered, and I was super excited when it was announced it would end with this fourth season, knowing it was exactly the kind of show that knew when not to outstay its welcome. But even that couldn’t have prepared me for what an exceptional season this was, how a show that had already catapulted itself into the upper echelons of TV history managed to top itself once again and go out on an absurd high, how it managed to bring its central storyline and several character arcs to immensely satisfying conclusions, and how it managed to be funnier and more devastating than ever in the process. I’ve avoided spoilers in the rest of the list but this one is impossible to talk about without mentioning the biggest surprise of the season, so here is da warning! After a couple of episodes of the core three Roy siblings trying to thrive away from their domineering father, the death of Logan in episode 3 was an absolute work of genius, sending the arcs spinning off in new and exhilarating ways and bringing the show back to the promise of the title. Seeing the sibs drawn back into Waystar’s orbit with the promise of more power was intoxicating, and it cannot be overstated how much Jeremy Strong, Kieran Culkin, and Sarah Snook were up to the task, and how frequently the writing did their dedication justice. But even beyond these electrifying storylines the show managed to do right by every other member of the cast, from major players like Matthew Macfadyen’s Tom Wambsgans and Alexander Skarsgård’s Lukas Matsson (sorry I just love both those names so much) to someone as minor as Logan’s assistant/final lover Kerry who has some amazingly sad and wickedly funny moments. And I don’t know that any show has ever done as good a job at mixing the personal and political, with major world events being shaped and manipulated by the characters’ grudges and whims in a way that is both infuriating and totally fathomable. Gonna get a little personal here at the end - I am someone who both had an abusive father figure and also understands and detests the impact the 1% of the 1% have on the world, so this is almost the ideal show to appeal to me. But even ignoring my personal bias towards the concept, it is still amazing just how well this show played its hand at every possible moment, how it could make it obvious that the lead characters are despicable people while still making you feel sympathy for the fact they clearly never had a chance, and how it could mix the savage scorn and wicked parody with genuine pathos and empathy. This show spent a lot of time walking on a million tightropes without ever stumbling, and ended with an all-timer finale, and a climactic moment that felt like the entire show had been leading up to it. No matter how many paragraphs I wrote, I don’t think I could express how impressive and moving I found the final season of Succession. What the gently caress else could have topped this list? That’s all I can do for now, but before I stop and probably fall over, I want to thank you all for reading and Looten for keeping it going these past few years. This remains my favourite medium, and I am so grateful to have this space to talk about all the shows I loved. I can’t wait to see what 2024 has in store! Escobarbarian fucked around with this message at 23:29 on Jan 17, 2024 |
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Jan 17, 2024 23:25
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Hell of a list, and just to reiterate the often-made point that it's remarkable how confidently and strongly Succession landed their finale. For a show that I felt was already stretching a bit thin in season 3, to deliver such a strong final season and such an incredible finale episode was nothing short of remarkable. Every year I meant to start Reservation Dogs and just never got around to it, but it's done now so there's no excuse not to catch up on the whole thing. Also I really have to watch the second season of The Bear, but I gotta be in the right headspace for it. Season 1 was fantastic but incredibly tense/anxiety-inducing and my understanding is that Season 2 just ramps that up even further.
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Jan 18, 2024 00:17
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might reactivate my netflix subscription that i just canceled to watch beef and maybe scott pilgrim e: and *maybe* i'll bother finishing succession since everyone seems to be singing its praises
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Jan 18, 2024 00:50
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Beef absolutely rules and Scott Pilgrim Takes Off was a delightful surprise, definitely worth catching both, particularly Beef.
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Jan 18, 2024 02:03
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So much to watch and I'm not caught up on everything I want to. So sorry to things I didn't get a chance to see which I'm sure are great, like Fargo! Maybe a few of these animated titles would have fallen a bit if so. Or maybe not! Honorable Mentions. A lot of these were really close to the list but may have just been edged out by things like my preference for feel good over tense or miserable, despite how much I enjoyed them: Upload, For All Mankind, Beef, Pluto, The Last of Us, One Piece, Foundation, The Legend of Vox Machina, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, The Bear, The Devil's Plan, Slow Horses, Silo, Deadloch, Last Week Tonight 10 - Spy X Family - The premise for this continues to have a lot of mileage left for telling fun, quirky, feel good stories that put a smile on your face. 9 - Reservation Dogs - Great cast. I love seeing them in other things, like Echo, which it seems many of them ended up in. 8 - Star Trek: Lower Decks - I feel like this just continues to get better. It would be the best Star Trek in ages if not for the other one on this list. 7 - Hilda - After a two year absence the third season dropped with a bang. Still fantastic. I loved the further exploration of the world and these characters. 6 - Poker Face - What is not to love? This Columbo reboot is firing on all cylinders. I hope they keep making this forever. 5 - Star Trek: Strange New Worlds - This is not only the best Trek in years. But honestly, it is trying hard to become the best of all time. If this is allowed to run its course, it could get there. 4 - Loki - What an amazing journey for this character. What a satisfying conclusion to this story. 3 - Frieren: Beyond Journey's End - I didn't know this existed until someone put it on their list. So thank you! I did not know I needed a story of a long lived elf outliving her party after they defeat the big bad and the ways in which she grows and changes over long time scales. But I did. I normally don't love montages in tv shows, but Frieren makes exceptionally good use of them to show us moments from the passing time. It is great. 2 - Pantheon - Wow. The saddest thing about this entry, which is one of the greatest sci fi things I've ever watched, is how few people will ever see it due to the network fuckery. If you have any interest at all in well told science fiction stories do yourself a favor and try to find a way to watch this. This is a complete tale, told in 16 episodes(8 per season). The heights that they stretched for by the end of the second season were just crazy. And it all landed fantastically. 1 - Scavengers Reign - This could not have been more made for me if I made it myself. Back when the original short came out I was already a huge fan. When it was announced they were making it into a series my hype level was off the scale. I was afraid it would get canned before it released due to all the things going on at the network, but thankfully it made it across the finish line. Despite my incredibly high hopes and expectations for this, it exceeded them all. I don't know that I've ever seen anything else like this on TV. It is not only the best thing I watched this past year, but it is certainly in the running for one of my favorite things ever.
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Jan 19, 2024 11:18
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