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Honorable Mention Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Brooklyn Nine Nine, Black Mirror, Vinyl, Girls and Ballers. 10. The Walking Dead If I hadn't stopped paying for HBO after episode 3 of West World I don't think TWD would still be in my list. If any episode of The Leftovers had aired it definitely wouldn't be. Still, it is event television and there are still some great stories to be told for Rick and company. The question is, what is the endgame for this show and can they maintain quality/interest until we get there? 09. Hawaii Five O This show can be a little stupid (especially when they get crazy with the lovely CG) but I love Hawaii enough that HD shots of Oahu are always welcome on my TV. It can also be a hell of a lot of fun, S7E8 Hana Komo Pae, and sometimes even smart, S7E9 Elua la ma Nowemapa. The ensemble cast is great and bonus points for starring Jin and Hurley from  .08. Colony My surprise of 2016. I've heard Josh Holloway is really cool/down to Earth guy IRL so I was hoping his new show would do well. The premise looked a little weak to me (I'm not usually big on generic Sci-Fi) but it is actually a very tense-thriller that uses the sci-fi angle sparingly with great effect. As an Iraq War veteran, I found the parallels to our own recent history to be smarter and better executed than I would have ever expected from a show about aliens on USA. Carlton Cuse has done it again. 07. Mr. Robot While I still like and respect the hell out of this show, it hit a bit of a sophomore slump for me and I can't put my finger on why. I didn't even watch season 2 until it was all done airing. Rami Malek continues to own, though, and I'm very happy for all the deserved recognition the cast and crew has gotten. 06. Silicon Valley Still my favorite comedy on TV. The cast and crew managed to essentially pull off resetting the show without making it feel tired or tedious. The cast of this show is amazing and they work off each other flawlessly. 05. Better Call Saul it's rare for a spinoff to walk the tight rope of being recognizably related to the original but so completely and gloriously its own cool thing. Just like last year, if this was my list of "best" versus "favorite" this show would be several slots higher, probably #2. 04. The X-Files A triumphant return to the small screen for Mulder and Scully. Yes, there were problems. Namely, where the hell is Carter going with the myth arc? Why did they bring back the wonderful Mitch Pileggi only to basically not use him? Still, it was wonderful to have Duchovny and Anderson back on the case and neither of them missed a beat. Home Again was a rock solid monster of the week episode and Mulder & Scully Meet the Were-Monster was as good as anything the show has ever done. Mainly though, I'm grateful that this happened because it inspired me to rewatch the show from Season 1. drat if this show wasn't great when it was at its peak. 03. Stranger Things Where do I throw my money to buy my seat on the bandwagon? I'm all in. As a child of the 80s this hit all the right notes for me and I loved every single thing about this show. The acting was also really top notch and wow, Wynona Ryder was fantastic. 02. The Man in the High Castle A late, late submission to my list (didn't even start Season 1 until last week. I wish I had gotten in on this sooner. I was a little skeptical how well Netflix could handle world-building on scale this massive. They certainly delivered though, in a most frighteningly good way. 1960s America re-imagined as a conquered shell of itself under Imperial Japanese and Nazi German rule comes to life in impressively grande scope and gorgeously intricate detail. That isn't to say there isn't wonderful substance under flashy exterior. This show consistently delivers anxiety-grade tension. Finally, the bad guy from A Knight's Tale and Crazy Eddie Sakamura from Rising Sun are in it, and they own. 01. Game of Thrones I have always really liked this show, somewhere along the way I even started to love it. It always lagged a bit on my "best" versus "favorite", though. Sure, it was big, and epic, and all that but I was never really dazzled in the ways that a show like The Leftovers does. I thought this season was going to be a lot of fun, for sure, but not really deserving of those Best Drama trophies it was piling up. I was wrong. Somewhere along this season, GoT started crushing them over the fence. Hold the Door was a masterpiece of editing and time-travel/dimensional story telling. No surprise it was directed by Jack Bender, who also directed The Constant for Lost. Oddly enough for as much I loved this season, Battle of the Bastards was a little bit of a letdown for me. Yes, the scope, cinematography, directing, editing where all there. Visually, it was top notch. That said, the story seemed a little predictable. And then we get The Winds of Winter.  This episode for me is as good as any single episode from any TV show I've seen. Story-telling at its finest. Music, acting, editing, directing it all came together in an absolutely glorious episode of television.
Bulky Bartokomous fucked around with this message at 00:59 on Jan 3, 2017 |
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Dec 17, 2016 14:48
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| # ¿ Apr 19, 2024 23:35 |
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This is why we can't have anything nice.
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Dec 21, 2016 17:10
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^^^ Great write up. You convinced me to watch San Junipero and boy am I glad you did. It was breathtaking.
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Dec 25, 2016 06:22
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Rarity posted:Thanks everyone for your thoughtful entries! Voting is now closed, I'm hoping to do the rundown of the results tomorrow evening Thanks for doing this, it is a lot of fun!
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Jan 3, 2017 16:00
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I can't believe how poorly Man in the High Castle did. I think it's amazing.
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Jan 5, 2017 03:58
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Escobarbarian posted:Didn't the only episodes to air this year drop super late? That's true. It didnt' come out until the middle of last month.
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Jan 6, 2017 04:36
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So I just finished Westworld and I fully support how this poll turned out.
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Feb 11, 2017 14:34
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