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I'm making a Top Twenty this year instead of a Top Ten, mostly because there's a lot of good tv out there right now. For the purpose of this poll, just count the top ten though. 20. Anne (with an E) Absolutely charming. I know a lot of people would be put off by the gloomier pallet and the tendency to acknowledge the darker side of life, but if anything I think this makes the story of rosy cheeked orphan Annie even rosier. The dirt under the nails and threats of cholera just makes the story more Dickensian, basically, and if people only want cod threatening bullshit in their kids shows they can all flap off and watch those terrible Lemony Snicket starring those young bright smudges who can't act worth a drat. *cough* The kids of Anne (with an E) are all pretty amazing, actually -- particularly Anne. The actress moves so quickly between gormless kindness and a flighty haughty quality it's absolutely breathtaking. The other kids aren't slouches either, and Geraldine James provides excellent support as Anne's adoptive aunt. The show also has a lovely golden hue to it, and the entire thing is really quite magical and nostalgic looking. Shouldn't have ended on a cliffhanger, but whatever, I'm overjoyed that there'll be more. 19. Search Partry It's funny, and the inevitable escalation from murder mystery to thriller to serial killer drama is going to be a wonder to behold. (Also, TBS does great comedies. The Detour is hilarious, People or Earth is lovely, and Wrecked's second season ruled after they finally moved on from being a Lost parody. Consider this to be a blanket endorsement of their original comedies, with Search Party singled out as being the greatest.) 18. Shut Eye Gypsy mob runs a group of fake psychics, one of them develops actual psychics powers. Much better than that sounds. Now in it second season, the show takes the time to finally develop a mythology, while also taking the time to show the lead character slow con himself into thinking he's not the spineless fool he really is. Pretty compelling, though perhaps without the funny/nasty bite of last year's season. 17. Superstore I think the show is surprisingly bleak for a network comedy, in a way that makes it a better American adaptation of The Office than the one we ended up getting. Sure there are the typically overblown "comedy types" floating around the edges of the narrative (Dina, for instance, isn't what you'd call well-observed), but everyone's largely still grounded at this point, and the sheer amount of heart that the show is pushing makes it a lovable. That the entire cast are working dead end jobs, and are doomed to fail at everything they set out to do is what stops the show going over the edge. (That's also where the "bleak" part of the show sets in.) That the frequent cutaways to the travails of a recurring cast of silent extras are still relatable three seasons is probably my favourite thing about the show. 16. American Gods Very pretty, very clever, but oh so slow. The frequently gorgeous set-pieces or lovely flashes of dialogue don't hold a candle up to the fact that -- at eight out of ten episodes -- this season is clearly unfinished thanks to behind the scenes drama. The conclusion is fast, but it's rushed, and fails to polish off half the floating plot threads present in this season. (STARZ has had this problem a lot over the years, see: Ash vs Evil Dead Season Two; Black Sails Season One).Maybe a second season will come along to fix this, maybe not, but it's a shame either way. 15. American Vandal Funny, but not blisteringly so. A mockumentary that makes fun of the way teens inflate minor incidents into national dramas is an old joke, but convincingly employed here thanks to well observed performances from a cast of unknowns. The real test will be replicating that. 14. Big Little Lies Great music, great acting, and a murder mystery that's crushing in its inevitability. 13. Emerald City So loving pretty, but with a more than decent story to hold it together, with a powerful climax. Certain early moments that didn't click on first watch held together incredibly well on the rewatch. Vincent D'onofrio's Wizard is an impressive and clever interpretation of the Wizard Of Oz's jovial conman, but Joeley Richardson's overly Oedipal Glinda steals the show. 12. Fortitude Not popular, but I liked it a lot. The show's slow movement from drama to mystery to sci-fi to horror has been pretty masterfully done over the years. Really gruesome, and far pacier than last season. Hopefully it'll get a third season to close off loose ends, but I'm not holding my breath. 11. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend The show's funnier than it's ever been, and more touching. More moving too -- Rebecca Bunch's arc has reached a climax that's been years in the making, and the impact upon arrival speaks a lot to what a slow buildup can achieve if properly managed (and mitigated by other, smaller climaxes). The way the show can turn seemingly irrelevant jokes into characterisation always gets me, and at three years the show still seems to be able to find new wells to draw from in order to push its character studies onward. So why isn't it higher? If there's anything about this last half a season that's dragged the show down for me, it's the songs. Though still funny, they're frequently irrelevant to the drama of the show., and I honestly don't find them as catchy as I once did. 10. No Offence Paul Abbot is the writer that makes me want to write. He can take the kitchen sink drama and blow it up to the national scale (State of Play) or bring it down to being small and personal (Shameless). Here, he takes of the police genre, and for its second season continues to impress with bawdy, witty, characterful writing that finds the individuality and humanity within his subjects while also telling breakneck paced stories about 9. The Deuce It's good, but in a tough gristly way that holds you back from easy sentimental involvement. (David Simon's version of The OC would be a laugh riot of ironic appreciation.) You do end up caring, in the end, but because of a holistic compassion rather than our of any kind of purely aesthetic (or anaesthetic) motivation. Some stunning performances, shot glamorously and unglamorously. Maggie Gyllinhall continues to find a second life on television, with a fantastic performance -- and though not as good as in The Honourable Woman, that blonde wig is going to be a more iconic look for her. Franco struggles to be as effortless in front of the camera, but his direction is excellent. 8. The Sinner Nothing is ever as good as those opening ten minutes, but what could be. It's a methodical why-done-it about self-inflicted misery that made me cry a lot. The solution isn't clever so much as it's inevitable, but it all works really well. Proves that the words "career best from Jessica Biel" aren't the backhanded compliment you'd think they were. 7. Nathan For You It's Nathan For You. What else do you want? Okay, okay. The formula's wearing thin, and the Antony Napoli stuff this year really started wearing on my suspension of disbelief. But it's still good.People will point to that final episode as an example of the show still doing new things but I'm not that impressed -- that was a story without an ending, where a new, tangential ending be manufactured. It's the rest of the stuff that still completely and totally works. 6. The Son It's a multi generational saga about oil rights that I didn't think was boring. Drawing as much from Dynasty as it does from Dances With Wolves, at its core The Son is a morality tale about structural abuses between various different minorities, and the way that people who suffer from institutionalised abuses will always find an outlet for their own aggression. The season's climax is powerful and surprisingly nasty (at least until I found out that Kevin Murphy -- the grand castkiller of Defiance fame -- was behind the show), and promises some great material for future seasons. I'm particularly excited by the prospect of future seasons incorporating a third timeline into events, following Brosnan's granddaughter in 2012, though it'll be a shame to lose Zahn McClaren in the process. Oh, and despite what early reviews claimed, Pierce Brosnan is surprisingly good in the show (though he's no conflicted anti-hero, he's a straight-up villain). 5. Girls The goon favourite returns for a final round. By which I mean, yeah, if your didn't like it early on, you'll still not like it, but if you do then it's still more of the same. It's an excellent black comedy starring absolute fuckups who are closer than ever to maybe sorta (hey can I borrow ten bucks?) getting their lives together. It's also a great example of a well constructed final season, with characters big and small getting clever little goodbyes throughout the season -- some loving and forgiving, some appropriately ironic and nasty (Shoshana thinking that getting new friends is the same thing as growing up being a particular highlight). I'm excited for whatever Dunham creates next -- I'm going to say that she's a strong creative talent, and leave it at that. 4. Futureman Funny as gently caress, with well shot action sequences and a great deal of 80's homage. The bottle episode (not technically, but whatever) where the crew have to break into James Cameron's house should probably go down in history for being one of the best in the genre. It's basically really excellent popcorn television, made by people who are both good at making the stuff and very aware of how television works best. (In a way that, I think, echoes what happened with American film in the 70's). 3. Mr. Robot I'm going to preface this by arguing that this is really Season 2, Part 2. I got pretty disappointed in the show's second season, not because it was bad (it wasn't) or hard to follow (it was a little, but that's irrelevant). My problem with the second season is that I don't think the second season had an ending. The entire thing was one twelve episode long liminal experience, as we watched the main characters transition from being in a weird place of uncertainty to a place of even greater uncertainty. It was disturbing, and frequently thrilling, and I can absolutely see what the final was trying to do with its final scene, but I don't think it was a strong enough final save to make the season work. This season makes that season work. it's clever, climactic, and absolutely thrilling. The midseason pair of episodes -- the single take episode, and the one that cut almost constantly -- are an impressive duo that supply much needed catharsis to a show that was at risk of completely spinning out into complex ambivalence. (That the show was doing this deliberately makes this even more masterful, tbh.) Throw in some great chilly camerawork, powerful acting and some neat twists, and you've got yourself a classic season of tv. 2. Twin Peaks It's an art film, and I can't pretend to have a holistic explanation for even half of it, but the experience of watching was insane. I think The Return makes an incredible case against binge watching -- arguments about this series being an 18 hour movie I think completely miss the point. I think what made this season work is that no-one, but no-one -- including most of the actors involved -- knew anything about what the show was going to be from week to week. No screeners, no previews, no binging. Nothing. The sense of community and collaboration achieved by the simultaneous viewing experience was 90% of the appeal here for me. Anyone who caught up later, either by binging or even replicating the slow watching pattern of the original airing, is missing out. Oh, and Lynch plays with duration masterfully. The show is slow, yes, but deliberately paced, and with something to say about that slowness. Beyond his choices being used to create some very powerful anticlimactic moments, to me this season of television is very much about being methodical, and taking things as they come -- and when they come. A lot of what Lynch doesn't like about the modern world seems to be the speed at which life travels now, and ever present need for immediate gratification. It's a little conservative, sure, but it's fascinating to see a modern television show produced under this kind of an impulse. Oh, and to balance out the grumbling, there are tonnes of little gags throughout -- like Berenice Marlowe taking ten minutes to silently leave a scene, or Kyle McLauchlan apparently spending a real-time week staring at a pair of shoes (between episodes). It's funny, it's scary, it's Twin Peaks. 1. Patriot I'm going to wax pretnetious for a moment here, but I think the show holds up against this approach. On one level Patriot is a black comedy about spies and clandestine ineptitude, and it's certainly a very funny one. On another, it's a blinding satire about bureaucratic red tape, that pulls a number of clever and surprising comparisons between what must be one of the most boring jobs on earth -- pipe manufacturing -- and one of the dirtiest -- the spy game. Along the way the show touches on institutional confusion and corruption, the deadening way bureaucratic structures grind down on human beings by failing to account for human error, and the institutional structures of the American It's also about just how hard it is to move an object from A to B. On another level, the entire thing is absurdly well structured, fitting together in a way that emphasises the Kafkaesque qualities of the plot. Everything gets paid off, everything clicks, and even the fight scenes are incredibly strong and come together with an impressive mechanical precision. The fourth episode -- in which the lead must complete a number of tasks while carrying an unconscious man on his back, scored to the electronic nagging of his phone's calendar-- is an absolute masterclass in satirical film. It's loving brilliant, basically, and criminally under watched. Open Source Idiom fucked around with this message at 06:05 on Jan 8, 2018 |
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Jan 8, 2018 04:35
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| # ¿ Apr 23, 2024 08:38 |
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