Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Locked thread
NieR Occomata
Jan 18, 2009

Glory to Mankind.

What is the TVIVer’s Poll?

Essentially, it’s a super poll. Inspired by DivisionPost’s link to HitFix’s Annual TV Critics’ Poll, I decided at the spur of the moment five years ago to replicate the situation with the posters in TVIV. Anyone who posts in TVIV is free to submit a top ten list of their favorite shows in the year 2017, in reverse favorite order starting with 10 (their least favorite) and ending with 1 (their most favorite) in one post. Submissions are open right now, as you're reading this, and will remain so until the end of December, midnight PST January 1 (aka New Year’s Day). The poll will then be closed, Rarity “and I” will total up the results, and post them a couple of days later.

We will assign ten points to your submission’s favorite show-the number one slot-nine to second favorite, etc etc etc down to one point for the number ten slot. The total number of points accrued will give us an aggregate favorite shows list as chosen by TVIV in 2017.

:siren: RULES YOU MUST loving FOLLOW READ THIS READ THIS READ THIS: :siren:

1) Every item on each person's top ten list must have aired in part or in full in the calendar year 2017.


This should go without saying, but just to be clear: as long as your show (if it's a show; miniseries, webseries, "on-demand" series (think Netflix and Hulu series) and TV movies are also open to be picked- maybe you really loved Mudbound, whatever, I don't judge.) aired at least one episode in 2017, it's available. If you pick a show for the top ten slot which has aired two seasons in 2017, but you're only picking it for one of those seasons, clarifying which would be much appreciated, but not necessary. (I'm thinking specifically of The Walking Dead season 7 vs. the first half of season 8). Conversely, if you pick a show which has aired two seasons in 2017 and you're picking both seasons, clarifying that you're picking both would also be much appreciated, but not necessary. To be clear, this doesn't affect placement or tabulation, but I think it's interesting to know what specific seasons of television people like and dislike (Survivor seasons 34 and 35, for example).

2) This isn't PYF. Please write up something about the shows on your list- why you picked them, what you loved and hated about the season, whatever, just don't do a bare list.

This isn't negotiable; simple, bare-bones lists won't be counted. (It doesn't have to be a massive screed; a sentence or two after each selection is fine. Just write something.) It's really boring anyways, and this thread is also meant to foster discussion. Obviously, discussing what you loved about a season of a show requires discussion of that season, and that means spoilers, and I don't want to wade through a CIA document so feel free to spoiler all you want. Obviously, this also means that if you read this thread you should be expecting spoilers, and don't meta-mod or whine about being spoiled in a thread that explicitly has to discuss spoilers in order to function effectively.

:siren: :siren: :frogsiren: WARNING: YOU CAN AND WILL BE SPOILED ABOUT ANY SHOW THAT'S AIRED IN 2017. PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK. :siren: :siren: :frogsiren:

3) Don't be an annoying shitbird about other people's lists.


Obviously discussion about the qualities of specific TV seasons that have aired is accepted and, in fact, encouraged, but don't bring this thread down with an annoying bitchy flamewar about That Show You Hate. I'm speaking specifically about flaming people who list Girls (actually, Girls hatred is pretty much non-existent nowadays. Did you know that Girls aired this year? It was its final season, too, surprisingly), Steven Universe, or Adventure Time on their lists. Actually if you're gonna argue about cartoons designed for Literal Children, take my free advice and just not post. Literally nobody cares. If it gets real bad I'll lock the thread, so don't be stupid. Obviously everyone's lists are gonna be subjective as hell so imagine a giant IN MY OPINION written in bold and underlined before everyone's lists.

:frogsiren: 4) I can’t believe I have to make this rule but here we are. You HAVE to have ten shows on your list. No more, no less. It HAS to be in order from 10 to 1. 10, in this case is your LEAST FAVORITE SHOW. Repeating again: 10 IS YOUR LEAST FAVORITE SHOW, ASCENDING IN FAVORITISM TO 1 BEING YOUR FAVORITE SHOW OF 2017. It HAS to be numbered. You CANNOT list two shows within the same submission and expect your submission to be counted, even if they are complimentary shows. You MUST post your submission in comprehensible English. You MUST post your submission in one post. You cannot violate any of these rules and we will not count your submission or even link it if you don’t. NONE OF THESE RULES ARE NEGOTIABLE. :frogsiren:

The by far biggest headache for both Sophia and I four years ago when running this poll was people being unable to count to ten and/or being super special snowflakes who decided to submit all hosed up orders to their show. It got a whole lot better two years ago, where pretty much only the obvious joke submissions broke the rules, which you know whatever. It's pretty much become "not a problem" but still, don't want it to become one again, so....follow the rules. It's not hard. It's an ascending order top ten list.

For clarification, honorable mentions are allowed and if you really really want to do a top 25 or something ludicrous like that, you can. Only the top ten is going to be counted, though, and that top ten has to conform to the above rules.

:siren: 5) HERE IS HOW EDITING YOUR SUBMISSIONS WORKS. :siren:

When y’all submit your polls, I will periodically be pulling your posts and end up hyperlinking all of them in the post right below this one. Then, Rarity and I will pull from my hyperlinked list that I’ve made to compile all of your submissions into an Excel document. YOU ARE FREE TO EDIT YOUR SUBMISSIONS AT ANY TIME. But- and this is important - before you edit your submission - CHECK THE SECOND POST TO SEE IF YOUR POST HAS BEEN HYPERLINKED. If it has, YOU MUST EDIT THE POST THAT HAS BEEN HYPERLINKED. That’s what we’re going to pull from to compile your points and it makes our jobs, again, much much easier if you do that. Then, please pm me or Rarity (we both have plat), post in the thread that you’ve edited your submission, or- best option- do both. Please make sure to do this, we will be compiling literally dozens of submissions in a week and we’re just two guys and we WILL miss your edit if you don’t tell us you’ve edited it and then we’ll both feel bad because we’ve slightly misrepresented the data.

If I haven’t hyperlinked your submission- feel free to do whatever. Delete your original post, and resubmit under a new one, edit it- WHATEVER. Don’t care.

The simple, concise summary to what I just wrote: If you’re editing your submission- are you hyperlinked? EDIT THAT POST. No? GO HOG WILD DUDERS.

In that same vein, please please check 1-2 days after you submit to make sure that I’ve hyperlinked your post. If I haven’t, it might be that neither Rarity nor I have counted your submission and that would be a real bummer to you. I will be hyperlinking in chronological order so if I “skip” you that’s a good warning sign. Then bother me, I’ll make sure to get it fixed.

If you change your username in between when you submit and when we count up the votes, please also let us know, we’d like to attribute to each poster accurately and it’s also a good check if me and Rarity are all like “who the gently caress is GOD HATES NIGGERS and why does he like Duck Dynasty so much” and suddenly you’re all like “I go by Inoffensive Username now. Got an e-wife and children I gotta settle down from my SA Anarchist days.”

6. NEW RULE: TV Show seasons are only considered once ever (unless they air episodes for the first time over multiple years, like seasons of The Walking Dead or most broadcast network TV shows) and only for their first-run airing no matter whether or not Americans can see it.

This is an incredibly rare edge-case, but basically applies specifically to The Young Pope Season 1 (which had its first run airing last year in Europe and had its first American broadcast of that same season this year). The Young Pope Season 1 will air in its entirety in 2016, then air in its entirety on HBO in 2017. The Young Pope Season 1 is only eligible to be voted on for 2016 and not 2017, and not both 2016 and 2017. First-run airing is the only thing that counts, period. (If you didn't understand a word of what I just wrote then none of this applies to you and you're free to ignore it.)

Winter End Television Schedule

If you want to set up a schedule for television that's airing up until the end of December, I highly recommend checking out pogdesign. It allows you to make your own personalized tv schedule, and all it requires is an email address and the five minutes or so it takes to pick your favorite tv shows.

Archives:

TVIV Poll 2012: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3523734
TVIV Poll 2013: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3591552
TVIV Poll 2014: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3686396
TVIV Poll 2015: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3754622
TVIV Poll 2016: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3800289

Top Fifty TVIV Shows of 2016

I went to last year’s thread and pulled the top fifty shows from last year, removed the ones that didn’t air in 2017 for whatever reason, and listed them for you so you won’t forget any of the more “culty” shows that aired this year. Everyone thank Rarity because this was her idea. THANK HER.

1. Stranger Things
2. Better Call Saul
3. Mr. Robot
4. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
5. Game of Thrones
6. The Americans
7. The Good Place
8. Bojack Horseman
9. Steven Universe
10. Veep
11. Black Mirror (series 4 is supposed to premiere in "2017")
12. The Expanse
13. Preacher
14. Survivor
15. You're The Worst
16. iZombie
17. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
18. Silicon Valley
19. Halt and Catch Fire
20. Vice Principals
21. The Get Down
22. Supergirl
23. Sense8
24. Z Nation
25. Brooklyn Nine-Nine
26. 12 Monkeys
27. Lady Dynamite
28. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
29. The Magicians
30. Colony
31. Last Week Tonight
32. Shameless
33. Broad City
34. Jane the Virgin
35. Bob's Burgers
36. Falling Water
37. American Dad
38. American Crime
39. Search Party (season 2 airs late November 2017)
40. Orange is the New Black
41. Talking Smack
42. Travelers
43. The Chris Gethard Show
44. RuPaul's Drag Race
45. Lucifer
46. Kingdom
47. Killjoys
48. Skam
49. Mozart in the Jungle (season 4 airs early December 2017)
50. Legends of Tomorrow

Shows That Aired in 2017 That You Might Have Forgotten About

Based off Rarity's suggestion four years ago of a list of "Good Shows that came out in 2013", I've decided to rename this list and differentiate its aims slightly- instead of a list of "good shows", it's just a list of shows that, as you're making your list, you might've forgotten about because they either aired early in the calendar year, weren't or aren't popular in TVIV while they were/are airing, or both. I can add to this list as the thread goes, so if you have any suggestions let me know.

13 Reasons Why
Alias Grace
American Gods
American Vandal
At Home With Amy Sedaris
Back
Baskets
Better Call Saul
Big Little Lies
Big Mouth
Catastrophe
Crashing
Dear White People
Detroiters
Feud
gently caress Scientology
GLOW
Halt and Catch Fire
I Love Dick
Insecure
Iron Fist
Lady Dynamite
Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events
Man Seeking Woman
My Brother, My Brother and Me
Neo Yokio
Nirvanna the Band the Show
PATRIOT
Playing House
Queen Sugar
Red Oaks
Review
Riverdale
Santa Clarita Diet
SMILF
Sneaky Pete
The Defenders
The Deuce <---- WATCH THIS ONE
The Get Down
The Tick
Tin Star
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later


A Note


In case you couldn't tell from the numerous times I used her name previously, Sophia (who used to run the thread alongside me for the first three years) had the good sense to quit this garbage heap of degenerates masquerading as a webforum, so Rarity graciously stepped up to the plate and will be replacing her for data wrangling. As always, I'm extremely grateful for the assistance, being a professional moron and all-around stupid rear end in a top hat. Anyways, any congratulations and thanks go her way and any complaints go mine; it's pretty much always my fault.

NieR Occomata fucked around with this message at 20:11 on Nov 16, 2017

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

NieR Occomata
Jan 18, 2009

Glory to Mankind.

Everyone's Top Ten Lists:

1. Tiggum
2. Big Bad Voodoo Lou
3. cant cook creole bream
4. achillesforever6

NieR Occomata fucked around with this message at 17:44 on Nov 21, 2017

Rarity
Oct 21, 2010

~*4 LIFE*~
Oh boy oh boy oh boy, we are back for another exciting year of televisual delights. With more content providers than ever before being determined to hurl short bursts of audio/video productions down our eyeballs we are set for perhaps the widest open field TV IV has ever seen. The absence of Westworld this year leaves a gaping hole at the top of the rankings and all the contenders want to taste that prize. Are you excited? I'm excited. But only because I know the Leftovers is going to do terribly (bank it). That's right, join myself and Toxx as we take you on this wild journey to celebrate the year that superhero TV fell off a cliff, the year that Jaden Smith made an anime, the year that all your favourite actors turned out to be sex fiends.

Join us to celebrate the year that was 2017!

Escobarbarian
Jun 18, 2004


Grimey Drawer
seeing how leftovers never does as well as it should my personal pick is for TWIN PEAKS: THE RETURN to win this year. if it doesn't we'll definitely know for sure that goons are monsters

Rarity
Oct 21, 2010

~*4 LIFE*~

Lick! The! Whisk! posted:

1) Every item on each person's top ten list must have aired in part or in full in the calendar year 2016.

...

:siren: :siren: :frogsiren: WARNING: YOU CAN AND WILL BE SPOILED ABOUT ANY SHOW THAT'S AIRED IN 2016. PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK. :siren: :siren: :frogsiren:

...

Repeating again: 10 IS YOUR LEAST FAVORITE SHOW, ASCENDING IN FAVORITISM TO 1 BEING YOUR FAVORITE SHOW OF 2016.

:thunk:

NieR Occomata
Jan 18, 2009

Glory to Mankind.

man way to bust my balls rarity

i'll go fix that

In other news I'm really interested to see how 2017 shakes out. it's a pretty wide-open year and I would say there's no real frontrunner besides Twin Peaks and maybe Handmaid's Tale, leaving The Leftovers, One Of The Best TV Shows Ever Made Of All Time, to possibly place high/grab the number one slot. Going through the 2016 list the biggest impression on me was how many shows ended or didn't air in 2017 from 2016, and the ones that did had a distinctly lower level of quality than from 2016 (Mr. Robot, Fargo, etc). It's a really, really interesting year for the list; personally speaking, I have like 5 shows i know for a fact will be on there and then everything else will be in flux.

nate fisher
Mar 3, 2004

We've Got To Go Back
Master of None, Halt & Catch Fire, The Leftovers, and the Patriot are all fighting for my number 1 spot. This is going to be a tough list.

Escobarbarian
Jun 18, 2004


Grimey Drawer
Twin Peaks and Leftovers will absolutely be my top 2, and it's more likely than not Patriot will take the third slot. gently caress TV ruled this year

bagrada
Aug 4, 2007

The Demogorgon is tired of your silly human bickering!

Ugh so many good shows I haven't gotten around to yet. And so many shows from last year's list were good this year but may not be in my top 10 because they weren't as surprising or fresh as they were last year (Stranger Things was my #1 last year but didn't stand out as much this year). Patriot, Twin Peaks and Legion are in my top 5 for sure. I loved Leftovers but I also binged all 3 seasons in a row for the first time so I'm not sure I can separate this year's from the rest.

Off the top of my head and from your reminder lists, note to self to refer to later when I get back to this in a month, in no particular order: stranger things, mr robot, good place, survivor, travelers, lucifer, american gods, patriot, tick, twin peaks, legion, orville, discovery, leftovers, brooklyn 99, dirk gently, mindhunter, punisher, glow, sense8 & a handful of others to try to watch yet.

Expanse season 2 isn't streaming anywhere yet is it?

Rarity
Oct 21, 2010

~*4 LIFE*~

bagrada posted:

Expanse season 2 isn't streaming anywhere yet is it?

Pretty sure it's on UK Netflix, can't say for US.

I've been keeping a copy of my list on the go for about 4 months now, there's been that much good TV this year that I've had to make sure I remember everything.

achillesforever6
Apr 23, 2012

psst you wanna do a communism?
Man I think this will be the first time I won't put AOS at the number 1 spot, though its still probably going to end up as either in the 2 or 3 spot

Tiggum
Oct 24, 2007

Your life and your quest end here.


The Magicians was in tenth place but I just watched the first four episodes of Happy! and I had to change my vote. The first season of The Magicians was absolute garbage that no one should watch. The second season was pretty great. It's really dumb, but if you enjoy the genre of "idiots loving everything up" then you'll love it. It's basically what would happen if, instead of pure-hearted children, the humans who came to save Narnia were a bunch of terrible adults.

10. Happy!
Detective Stabler from SVU turned up to 11, kicked off the force, and now he's a hitman. He's got the same approach to alcohol, drugs and violence as Sterling Archer, and the same apparent inability to die from any of them (which he openly acknowledges). He's also got a tiny blue unicorn hassling him to save some girl, and the entire world is horrendously hosed up. It's brutally violent, it's weird and disturbing, it's very funny.

9. The Tick
I was worried I wasn't going to like this because of how much I liked the old live-action series with Patrick Warburton, but Peter Serafinowicz is great and this show is great. The only real problem with it is that they broke the series up into two halves and won't give us the second half till next year.

8. The Expanse
I'm not as big a fan of this as some people, but it is really good. I haven't read the books and I'm a bit worried that the space-magic stuff might overtake the more human/political aspect of the plot, but so far it's kept on the right side of that.

7. Gotham
Everyone seems to hate this show and I don't really know why. It's great. It's the Batman setting but before Batman, so it's still got all the crazy, over-the-top personalities but no Batman to get in their way. I normally don't like origin stories because they're just telling me things I already know instead of giving me a new story, but this is how you do an origin story right - by fully committing to it instead of jamming it into the middle of your "main plot".

6. Riverdale
This show is actually pretty similar to Gotham, just without so much violence. It's still got the over-the-top characters and the extreme drama. There's also a podcast called Sex Archie that recaps every episode and is great.

5. WWE NXT
Wrestling is like a super-hero soap opera with cool stunts performed live, and NXT is the best WWE show. It's so much better than the "proper" WWE shows it's ridiculous. My favourites at the moment are Billie K and Peyton Royce, because the men's division is kind of bland right now and the tag teams don't really have much of a story going on. The big problem with the show is that the best characters inevitably get promoted to the other shows, so you get periods where they have to build things back up from basically nothing.

4. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
I like the books, I like the first TV adaption, and I like this version. And none of them really have anything to do with each other, they just slapped the name on completely unrelated ideas. This is a show about bumbling idiots who just happen to be in the right place at the right time for a bunch of apparent coincidences to set things up so that they somehow win. It's hilarious.

3. Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events
I've never read the books, but this show has made me tempted to. Patrick Warburton is great and his narration is the best part of this show. But the rest of it's great too. It's got this faux-grim tone that really appeals to me, where the bad things happening are played up to such a degree that it's impossible to take them seriously, and even though the narrator is telling you constantly that it's not going to work out well for the protagonists in the end you still kind of don't believe him and are surprised when things go badly.

2. The Good Place
This show doesn't sound very good and I think it's pretty much impossible to sell it effectively. It's a sitcom about a bad person who accidentally ends up in heaven when she dies, but it's actually so much better than that. I'd say that if you haven't seen it you should watch an episode or two. If you're not sold, read the plot synopsis on Wikipedia and see if you think it's worth giving it another shot.

1. 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown
Jimmy Carr is really funny and I love comedy panel shows, and I like playing along. I'd never watch the normal, non-comedy version of the show, but it's a great format for giving comedians something to do while they interact on TV. If you like comedy panel shows you should give this one a shot because it's one of the best.

Tiggum fucked around with this message at 13:46 on Jan 5, 2018

Big Bad Voodoo Lou
Jan 1, 2006
10. Big Little Lies, Season 1
I only watched this show because my wife was interested in it. I realize I'm not the target audience for it, and I fully expected to hate it. In fact, I hated most of the characters throughout the first few episodes, but it grew on me along the way, and I was pretty emotionally invested by the end. So with that in mind, the show more than accomplished what it set out to. It's a soapy miniseries about wealthy, bougie Monterey families helicopter-parenting their young children, but it turned out to be much deeper than it started out as. It revealed new layers to all the characters, even the unlikable ones, while leading toward a cataclysmic finale through clever use of flash-forwards. It was structured similarly to Season 1 of True Detective, if that helps get anyone any more intrigued. Nicole Kidman did career-best work here, Shailene Woodley showed depths I didn't think she was capable of, and I empathized with Adam Scott's put-upon, underappreciated husband character the entire time. Even Reese Witherspoon, Zoe Kravitz, and Laura Dern, whose characters annoyed me throughout the season, more than redeemed themselves in the end, which was hugely cathartic. It's only seven episodes, so it won't take up too much of your life. I'm pretty sure you'll end up agreeing with me and liking it far more than you ever thought possible.

9. Big Mouth, Season 1
John Mulaney might be the funniest person alive, to the point where his presence even makes Nick Kroll tolerable for me. This Netflix cartoon was the funniest thing I saw all year. It's raunchy and certainly not for everyone, but it was a spot-on look at the mysteries and horrors of puberty, and very relatable and familiar. The animation was pretty ugly, but my wife and I laughed nonstop through the whole thing, which neither of us expected to do. And even if I'm not a big Kroll fan, he was fine here, alongside some of my favorite people in the voice cast: Mulaney, Jessi Klein, and Jenny Slate.

8. Better Call Saul, Season 3
Mike! Gus! Poor, sweet, earnest Kim! That courtroom episode with Chuck versus Jimmy! That finale! This show feels like it was on a long time ago, but the pacing seemed to pick up this season, and the acting was incredible, as always. There isn't much I can say that others won't articulate better, but I honestly believe this show is starting to get better than even Breaking Bad was.

7. Master of None, Season 2
Even better than Season 1 in some ways, it was great to spend more time with Dev, although I missed Rachel (Noel Wells) and was sad they broke up at the end of the first season. I know Aziz Ansari might rub some people the wrong way, but I've been a fan for many years, since before Parks & Recreation, and I love this brilliant, heartfelt, deeply personal show he and Alan Yang created. The trip to Italy with "Big Bud" Eric Wareheim was the funniest, but the best episodes were the "Thanksgiving" episode he and Lena Waithe won Emmys for, and the episode that followed several completely new, unfamiliar characters through a night in New York that ended up tying together for everyone and giving them all happy endings. This show also ended up being prophetic with Dev's boss and friend, beloved celebrity Chef Jeff (Bobby Cannavale) being outed as a creepy predator and bringing Dev's career down with him.

6. Riverdale, Seasons 1 and 2
I have loved comic books my entire life, but I never went through an Archie phase. I knew the characters through the cultural zeitgeist, but certainly didn't expect much from the show. I only gave it a chance after reading a profile piece about the showrunner, playwright and comic book writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, a lifelong Archie fan who seemed to be treating the show as a labor of love, and the culmination of everything he ever wanted to accomplish in his life to date. His enthusiasm is infectious, as I ended up loving it from the get-go and still do. It is shot beautifully, with incredible use of colors, and it probably has the most attractive cast on television. It's soapy, campy, trashy, and over-the-top ridiculous, but in this depressing and scary year, it turned out to be the comfort food (or perhaps junk food) that I never realized I needed. Watch out for Lili Reinhart, who plays tenacious good girl Betty Cooper. She is an incredible actress who is definitely going to be a breakout star. She acts circles around the rest of the younger cast, speaking volumes with her facial expressions. It's also refreshing to see the strong and true friendship between Betty and Veronica, who would definitely be rivals or frenemies on almost any other show, but here they have each other's backs at all times.

5. Stranger Things, Season 2
Another sophomore season that improved on the original in many ways. They doubled down on what worked and gave us more: more monsters, more character development, more great interplay (between Hopper and Eleven and Dustin and Steve!), and remained funny, scary, touching, and exciting the entire time. Winona Ryder had more to do, Noah Schnapp became the MVP among the excellent kid actors, I liked the ambiguity of Paul Reiser's character more than Matthew Modine's unambiguous villain in Season 1, and then there was Bob. Oh, Bob.

4. Mindhunter, Season 1
This was a SMART show. I wouldn't expect any less from David Fincher, who directed the first two and last two episodes. The whole series had Fincher's visual signature and fit in well with his style. Zodiac remains my favorite of his films, and they go together perfectly. I appreciated that the show didn't go out of its way to show you the grisly crimes as they happened. It was unpleasant enough hearing about them, but I would not have appreciated a gratuitous gore-fest. I liked protagonist Holden Ford a lot early on -- loved his enthusiasm and eagerness to learn, before the work definitely started warping and corrupting his soul. The interplay between Ford and his older partner Bill Tench was awesome, especially when you think early on that Tench is going to be a hardass who works against Holden making discoveries, but he sees Holden's ideas have potential and goes along with it, subverting our expectations. It was a pleasure to have more Anna Torv, too. She was so amazing in Fringe, and she was my choice to get cast as Captain Marvel, but I was more than happy to have her on this show, serving as the voice of reason in a world of violent and obsessive men.

3. Game of Thrones, Season 7
A lot of fans complained about the shorter season, and how events seemed rushed. I loved this season because we finally got long-simmering plots and characters who had never met, or hadn't seen each other since the first season, coming together. The whole time, we've been wondering what would happen when Jon, Daenerys, and Tyrion got together in a room, or when Sansa and Arya would reunite, and we got those huge payoffs. I don't think anyone expected we'd get the ultimate RPG party/superhero team-up with Jon Snow, Jorah Mormont, the Hound, Tormund Giantsbane, Beric Dondarrion, Thoros of Myr, Gendry, and Ser Davos Seaworth embarking on the stupidest, most unnecessarily dangerous mission ever. The final episode was a treat too, with almost every named character together in one place. Was it perfect? No. But it was the most enjoyable season in a long time for me, just due to everyone's paths and destinies converging.

2. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Season 1
What a revelation! I came back to edit my list to include this show, now that the full season has dropped on Amazon. It's pure joy -- clever and hilarious. I love the snappy dialogue (this is my first time watching an Amy Sherman-Palladino show), the setting of New York in the '50s, all the Jewish culture and humor, the history of stand-up comedy and censorship -- all stuff I love, like it was made for me. And watching Rachel Brosnahan as the lead is like watching a star being born. She is incredible, and her career is only going to skyrocket from here. She's also exceptionally beautiful, and she carries herself with such maturity and confidence, I can't believe she's only 26. I would have guessed she was closer to 36 for sure, but I mean that only as a compliment. This show does everything right, and I suspect the mostly young, mostly male forum members would still really dig it if they give it a chance.

1. Twin Peaks, Season 3
I got into Twin Peaks long after it aired -- in the fall of 2009, right around the time I got married. I was instantly obsessed, started the previous TVIV Twin Peaks thread that we closed down right before this new season began, and was beside myself with sadness when Season 2 ended on that cliffhanger. Watching Fire Walk With Me was a harrowing experience that lacked the charm and comic relief of the show, and didn't provide much closure. I never thought we'd get any more, especially 26 years later (they were so close with "See you again in 25 years!"), so it felt like a dream come true, or a present tailor-made for me. And it turned out to be the most fascinating show of the year -- a true mystery that you could never predict from week to week what you would see. I didn't love the abstract episode 8 as much as most other people did, and all the stuff with Dougie went on too long for me, but it was such an unexpected gift to see some of the familiar and beloved characters one last time, get wrap-ups and even some happy endings for their stories, and expand the mythology of the original series and movie. Kyle McLachlan absolutely killed it playing at least three distinct characters, and the eventual return of the real Agent Cooper was my favorite moment of this entire lovely year. And then we got that ending, which I didn't see coming and I'm still not thrilled with, but I guess I should not have been surprised. Nothing is perfect, and in fact most things in life are going to be dreadful, but those fleeting moments of brilliance, happiness, humor, and heart along the way make it all worthwhile. drat fine show. Kudos to McLachlan, Mark Frost, and especially David Lynch for bestowing this gift upon us. Twin Peaks was not only my favorite show of the year, but my cultural event of the year, like discovering the Hamilton original cast recording was in 2016.

Big Bad Voodoo Lou fucked around with this message at 22:08 on Dec 30, 2017

Jerusalem
May 20, 2004

Would you be my new best friends?

Escobarbarian posted:

seeing how leftovers never does as well as it should my personal pick is for TWIN PEAKS: THE RETURN to win this year. if it doesn't we'll definitely know for sure that goons are monsters

To think I was worried that maybe television had finally caught up to Twin Peaks, only for season 3 to once again set the bar impossibly high. What a glorious show.

Zaggitz
Jun 18, 2009

My urges are becoming...

UNCONTROLLABLE

I got a new job at the tail end of last year and 2017 itself has been so goddamn chockful of long rear end video games that I barely had time to watch TVs. I haven't even watched ten shows this year!! This will probably be my first year not submitting a list as a result. :(

But I hope Crazy Ex GIrlfriend and Vice Principals do well!!!!

NieR Occomata
Jan 18, 2009

Glory to Mankind.

Jerusalem posted:

To think I was worried that maybe television had finally caught up to Twin Peaks, only for season 3 to once again set the bar impossibly high. What a glorious show.

have you seen...the leftovers

Rarity
Oct 21, 2010

~*4 LIFE*~

Zaggitz posted:

I got a new job at the tail end of last year and 2017 itself has been so goddamn chockful of long rear end video games that I barely had time to watch TVs. I haven't even watched ten shows this year!! This will probably be my first year not submitting a list as a result. :(

But I hope Crazy Ex GIrlfriend and Vice Principals do well!!!!

What kinda pansy attitude is this, there's still 6 weeks of 2017 to go. Plenty of time to start a binge :colbert:

Regy Rusty
Apr 26, 2010

Rarity posted:

What kinda pansy attitude is this, there's still 6 weeks of 2017 to go. Plenty of time to start a binge :colbert:

Don't worry I talked him into it

IRQ
Sep 9, 2001

SUCK A DICK, DUMBSHITS!

Rarity posted:

What kinda pansy attitude is this, there's still 6 weeks of 2017 to go. Plenty of time to start a binge :colbert:

Yeah and so much stuff is stopping for the year right around now. I'm going to try to get through HACF because I suspect it'll go on my top 10.

Zaggitz
Jun 18, 2009

My urges are becoming...

UNCONTROLLABLE

Rarity posted:

What kinda pansy attitude is this, there's still 6 weeks of 2017 to go. Plenty of time to start a binge :colbert:

It turns out I've watched exactly 8 shows this year, so thankfully I only need to squeeze two in for a full list.

Jerusalem
May 20, 2004

Would you be my new best friends?

Lick! The! Whisk! posted:

have you seen...the leftovers

Looking to get caught up on it now that my schedule is a little clearer :)

Also gonna hold off on submitting anything till season 2 of The Crown releases, since that was a real surprise find for me last year and I really want to see how they handle the Suez Canal.

Escobarbarian
Jun 18, 2004


Grimey Drawer
There's still so much coming/returning before the end of the year. Search Party, Runaways, Godless, She's Gotta Have It, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Easy, The Crown.....

cant cook creole bream
Aug 15, 2011
I think Fahrenheit is better for weather
10. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
It's funny, I guess.

9. Vice Principals
It really picks up in the last 3-4 episodes.

8. Bojack Horseman
It ended on a slightly positive note.

7. Brooklyn Nine-Nine
It's a good feeling to see a workplace comedy where people actually like each other rather than being miserable all the time. Michael Schurr is good at that.

6. iZombie
Same old pretty zombie dorks.

5. Riverdale
This show is the cheesiest poo poo and everyone is the most intense person ever. I don't actually know if the show is in on the joke, or if it is sincere.

4. American Dad
I'm amazed how hilarious this show is after all those seasons. The writers are actually good at exploring absurd scenarios.

3. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Way better than any other Marvel show. (Fight me!) Aida was such a cool character. And they did the whole Hydra parallel dimensions thing way better than the comics.

2 Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
Season 2 felt a bit off, because the show tried to pretend to be about love. Now it's back to psychological trauma and mental illnesses. The show finally came full circle and is actually honest now. In season 1 Rebecca spends a long time until she finally realizes that all of this is about Josh. But now in season 3 she finally figured out that it isn't. She was so hung up on several layers of self delusion. So in some sense she was right the first time. I've been saying that since early season 1 and it feels good to finally see a breakthrough.
I still really really love this show and I legitimately think it might help people who have similar mental problems.

1 The Good Place

While I really love Crazy-Ex-Girlfriend, I have to admit that the top spot will go to this.
Season 1 was kinda fun. But season 2 is downright amazing. They basically crammed a whole season into the first episode. And then things get fast. The new group dynamic is nice. And Jannet is the best.

cant cook creole bream fucked around with this message at 22:29 on Jan 14, 2018

achillesforever6
Apr 23, 2012

psst you wanna do a communism?
So here is my list of mainly dumb comic book shows, a wrestling show, and two prestige dramas/black comedies.

10 The Defenders
Yeah it was dumb ninja schlock and its awful how much they focused on Danny Rand, but eh I love dumb schlock and hopefully future shows will be better

9 Preacher
Has the AMC problem of them going to one place and sticking there for a season and some really bad characterization decisions with Tulip and Jesse, but it was all made up for with the Saint of Killers and Herr Starr; hope Season 3 will be even better.

8 My Brother My Brother and Me
As someone who got into these sweet McElroy brothers late last year, I was pumped to see their show, though worried that the madcap improv charm of the podcast would be lost on TV. Thankfully my worries were gone as soon as I finished the first episode, while formatted different from the podcast, the TV show has all the great jokes and humor that only the McElroy's can bring to the table.

7 Legion
Just a mindfuck of a superhero show with great visuals and a really solid cast and writing.

6 NXT
After Takeover Orlando early in the year the NXT brand did basically a reboot in presentation and a roster overhaul and the year of 2017 has been really good with some of the most solid booking and wrestling seen in years. Seriously after a really anemic 2016, it was amazing to see the turnaround where things actually mattered, I hope the brand keeps its pace for 2018 and years to come.

5 Punisher
Call it recency bias, but Punisher is probably my favorite of the Marvel Netflix series, mainly in its ability to take a very hard character to do right like The Punisher (who is often relegated to being a ugly power fantasy for cops and MAGA chuds) but it passes with full colors in this tale of a broken man trying to kill those that ruined his life. Nothing is glamorous in this show, its ugly and mean, but there is still heart to it and its refreshing to see a show say how hosed up the CIA and PMC's are.

4 Better Call Saul
I like this show more than Breaking Bad and its great we are finally seeing how Jimmy finally turns into Saul, whats amazing about this show is you'd think the season finale would have been the episode where Jimmy finally tricks Chuck into having a meltdown for everyone to see, but the fact that happens in the middle of the season is amazing. Michael McKean 's performance was one for the ages and its unfortunate that he didn't really get an award recognition for it. Chuck is one of the most fascinating and detestable characters ever put on TV and his slow downward spiral ultimately tragic in how he brought it up on himself.

3 Twin Peaks
I must confess I never watched the original Twin Peaks, all I knew about was from clips and pop culture osmosis, most people would think I would be hopelessly lost trying to parse this show, but no I more or less had a good handle of what was going and I loved solving the rubix cube of a plot with each episode adding a new wrinkle to figure out. Overall just a masterclass of acting from Kyle MacLachlan who will snubbed at every award show this year. I hope there is a season 4, just because how fun it was to watch it here and to see how else Lynch can gently caress with his audience.

2 Agents of SHIELD
I know its dumb to put this over most of the shows listed here, but it is my personal tradition and dumb list. I thought the idea to break up the season into several arcs/"pods" was a ingenious way to get around the problem AOS (and a lot of other superhero shows) have been having with pacing. Each of these pods served a purpose, but they didn't all exist in vacuum with there being a key element (the Darkhold) that acted as the connecting tissue that kept the show from falling apart at the seams. Lots of great character developments and its always nice to see Jon Hannah given something to do and his role as a mad scientist that means well was great. Another thing that makes me appreciate this season was that it also wasn't afraid to say that HYDRA are Nazis so gently caress em unlike Marvel Comics which was doing a big event about Captain America being a Nazi. So yeah overall highly recommend watching this show/season.

1 American Gods
Yeah the show that unseats Agents of Shield for me is an adaptation that I never though I would see be made because of all developmental hell it went though. What was even surprising was how faithful (heh) this show was to its source material, Bryan Fuller really showed respect to Gaiman's novel and updated a lot of the dated stuff or made some of the more boring aspects of the book way more intriguing. It was delightful for instance to seeing like 24 different versions of Jesus and Coming to America segments were all beautifully done. Ian McShane as Mr. Wednesday was perfect and Gillian Anderson as the pop culture shape shifter Media was a delight. This show deserves all the stars and money in the world so I can at least get 4 more seasons of it.

EDIT: poo poo I forgot that MBMBAM came out this year so I'm going to make The Tick a HM

achillesforever6 fucked around with this message at 18:48 on Nov 20, 2017

BSam
Nov 24, 2012

Hey, you stole most of my list

IRQ
Sep 9, 2001

SUCK A DICK, DUMBSHITS!

Futureman is a really fantastic show that is just squeaking in at the end this year, everyone be sure to watch it before you do your lists.

NieR Occomata
Jan 18, 2009

Glory to Mankind.

Apparently Black Mirror is not premiering this year, and is thus ineligible for Top Ten 2017. I'll update the list to reflect this, but I just want to make clear that any list that includes Black Mirror won't be accepted.

Zaggitz
Jun 18, 2009

My urges are becoming...

UNCONTROLLABLE

I have now officially watched ten 2017 programs. I will try to squeeze in a few more because Futureman sounds like itll be extremely my jam.

cant cook creole bream
Aug 15, 2011
I think Fahrenheit is better for weather
After watching that show this week I feel sorta bad for not including Futureman somewhere in there.
I know I could edit my entry, but :effort:.

NieR Occomata
Jan 18, 2009

Glory to Mankind.

:siren: IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT :siren:

Black Mirror season 4 DOES have a release date, and that release date is December loving 29th. Because it just barely gets in under the wire, and expecting everyone to both watch six hours of television and write a top ten list in two days is unreasonable, rarity and I have agreed to extend the deadline a week, from Jan 1 to Jan 8 2018. Yes, this was solely done because of Black Mirror and its absurdly loving dumb as hell release date that technically qualifies it for consideration this year,combined with the fact that that show typically places high on people's lists and I don't want people to have to feel like they're either cramming for a final or feel like they have to cheat and place BM on their list due to their reactions to past episodes or seasons.


So yeah. Everyone gets an extra week.

Rarity
Oct 21, 2010

~*4 LIFE*~
My planned list is in ruins.

RUINS

:negative:

Escobarbarian
Jun 18, 2004


Grimey Drawer
pfffffffft

IRQ
Sep 9, 2001

SUCK A DICK, DUMBSHITS!

I saw en episode of Black Mirror once. It was british af.

Rarity
Oct 21, 2010

~*4 LIFE*~

IRQ posted:

I saw en episode of Black Mirror once. It was british af.

Dude, watch Black Mirror

IRQ
Sep 9, 2001

SUCK A DICK, DUMBSHITS!

Rarity posted:

Dude, watch Black Mirror

Does it get less british?

Rarity
Oct 21, 2010

~*4 LIFE*~

IRQ posted:

Does it get less british?

Yes. Season 3 especially cause of moving to Netflix

IRQ
Sep 9, 2001

SUCK A DICK, DUMBSHITS!

Rarity posted:

Yes. Season 3 especially cause of moving to Netflix

Apparently the one I saw was season 3, San Junipero, cause people here were raving about it.

Escobarbarian
Jun 18, 2004


Grimey Drawer
Black Mirror is a good show but people still talking about it like it's as good as it was pre-netflix IRKS me

Rarity
Oct 21, 2010

~*4 LIFE*~

Escobarbarian posted:

Black Mirror is a good show but people still talking about it like it's as good as it was pre-netflix IRKS me

Season 3's hit to miss ratio was on par with the first 2 seasons for me :shrug:

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Senerio
Oct 19, 2009

Ooh! Are we messing with Adora?



#10: A Series of Unfortunate Events – Netflix – “Look Away!” I have never seen, read, or played anything related to this series when this series had been released, but upon the announcement, a couple of friends shanghaied me into watching this, and I am glad that they did! I enjoyed every minute of it! The three of us watched it together, and then I departed the room while they talked spoiler talk. Patrick Warburton does the work of his life as Lemony Snicket, and I really like the rest of the cast too, but he’s the standout.

#9 DC’s Legends of Tomorrow – CW – “Sometimes, we screw things up for the better!” So, Season 1 of Legends was garbo, but they realized that, and corrected their mistake for Season 2, and Season 3 is continuing that trend. The show is genuinely one of my must-watch shows of the year, and I have been keeping up with it very closely since season 2. Crisis on Earth-X, the recent crossover, was the best superhero movie of the year by far.

#8 Voltron: Legendary Defender – Netflix – “That’s our sharpshooter!” Voltron Legendary Defender was quite a fun show. If season 2 had been the only release this year, it would’ve ranked higher, but Season 3 was very clearly cut in half, and it and Season 4 (which also released this year) came out disjointed as a result. That all said, it is still a great show. Lance has quickly become one of my favorite characters, with his goofy attitude acting as a cover for his massive insecurities. Hopefully the future seasons are as great as Season 2 was, and I have high hopes for the future of this show regardless.

#7 Talking Smack – WWE Network – “AJ Styles believes the earth is flat” I’m the wrestling guy, I gotta put at least one wrestling show on here! RIP Talking Smack, one of the greats. In 2016, WWE split up its roster into two brands, RAW, and Smackdown Live. After Smackdown, General Manager Daniel Bryan, Correspondant Renee Young, and various wrestlers had an after-show involving Daniel Bryan trying his damnedest to get fired, wrestlers getting to be themselves, and other fun stuff. It survived until partway through 2017, Vince cancelled it. It airs after Smackdown-branded PPVs, but it’s not the same. We’re supposed to get one this weekend, and we’ll see if they bring back the dream team, but I doubt it.

#6 Neo Yokio – Netflix – “It’s more of a midnight blue.” I don’t see this on anyone’s list, which tells me that NOBODY here deserves a big toblerone.

#5 Crazy Ex Girlfriend – CW – “This is my movement!” It’s still a great show, but it hasn’t reached the heights of late 2015 again. That said, I still genuinely love this show and it’s still got really good music. My favorite this year has to be ‘The End of the Movie’ with its relatable morals that ‘Real Life isn’t a movie’ and ‘never bang your ex-girlfriend’s da-a-ad.’

#4 Miraculous Ladybug – TFOU in France – “Simply the best!” Season 2 began with the shocking reveal that Gabriel Agreste, the man the entire audience knew was Hawkmoth, was in fact Hawkmoth, and things have not stopped from there. Each episode has been pushing forward, as opposed to Season 1 which was primarily spinning its wheels except for like 3 episodes at the very end of the season. Show is still good, and I am excited for its Netflix release in December 2017 Winter 2014 Spring 2018.

#3 Fiasconauts – Youtube – (Too many amazing quotes to just pick one) Fiasco is one of the best tabletop games that I am not good enough at roleplaying to play, but I get to experience it through the Easy Allies. The remnants of the former GameTrailers meet up once a month to play a game of Fiasco, and it’s always a riot. Each episode takes a comparatively normal setup (The latest one: you’re going to a Pen Show, a convention about pens!) and runs it straight off the rails (A different episode: Turns out the small town is actually replacing its citizenry with robots.) I genuinely laugh each time and highly recommend you check it out on their youtube channel!

#2 GLOW – Netflix – “It’s a soap opera!” I’m the wrestling guy, I had to put a wrestling show SOMEWHERE on here. GLOW is a story based on the real life promotion, the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling. It is about the fictional wrestlers coming together to learn how to wrestle, the director, who is only doing this to get his crazy movie idea filmed, and the wrestling fan bankrolling the whole thing. The story is funny and sweet in places. The wrestlers (excluding Kia Stevens, who is an actual wrestler, in the main cast) are great cameos in this, and the ending left me wanting more, so I am glad they have confirmed Season 2 will be happening.

So what can top a wrestling show for me? It’d have to be a little weird, and quite possibly just a little wild.

#1 Star vs the Forces of Evil – Disney XD – “andhisnameismarcodiaz” Star vs the Forces of Evil is my favorite show currently on television, and if you told me that right after I saw episode 1 I’d have laughed in your face. The story of a Magical Princess from Another Dimension and the ordinary human boy she hangs out with has been a wonderful show, and the episodes leading up to the Season 2 finale have been great. Despite starting out as an oh-so-wacky comedy, it went on to tackle more dramatic topics, such as racism and xenophobia. The series came to a head in its season 3 premiere, and by premiere I mean a 2 hour movie called “The Battle for Mewni” in which Star confronted every antagonist set up to date and began implying where the show would go. Recently the next portion of Season 3 aired, and while it started a little weak in my opinion, it has led to some very interesting ideas and there are many ways it could go from here. If it continues the quality it started with, it may possibly see itself on the top of the list again next year.

  • Locked thread