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I've withdrawn a little this past year. Life and trauma etc. But I did watch some tv. 10 Sense8 I've fallen behind a little on my tv viewing this year, so I'm putting this at 10 more as a reminder to myself to loving watch it. 09 Marvel's Daredevil I kept up with the netflix marvel shows, but not much else in comic book tv shows. The new Daredevil season was good. 08 The Shivering Truth I don't know what to think about this, but whatever it is, I will be thinking it for a long time. 07 Nailed it! They make some cakes, but aren't good at making cakes. I wonder what will happen. 06 The Marvelous Mrs Maisel Another cheat here, season 1 was so good and from out of nowhere that I am shocked I haven't seen season 2 yet. But even if I had it would likely place around here. 05 Taskmaster A very strong line up made for some funny tv. One of my favourite shows, I want more of it. 04 Who is America? The highlight of this show was the art gallery lady who was game enough to go along with Baron Cohens character in the name of art. 03 The Chris Gethard Show This is a good show, sad it's gone but looking forward to whatever Chris moves on to next. 02 Black Mirror I couldn't say how much of Bandersnatch I have watched, but enough to have really enjoyed both the episode in itself and the gimmick. 01 Doctor Who Only ten episodes this year, but there were literally no bad episodes (one or two bad moments like the moral at the end of Kablam, but whatever). Consistantly good ratings also. The new doctor is brilliant and so are the new companions, one in particular.
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Dec 28, 2018 19:02
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Rarity posted:Fair point. I'm going to move the deadline on 6th Jan 00:00 PST. Any later and I'll be too busy with work to get everything written up for the countdown. Thanks Rarity, I definitely like pushing it to early January so I have a little more time to try to squeeze in a couple shows. Looking at my list there are too many shows I'm certain could make the top 10 that I just haven't had the time to get around to. Excited to see the results and find some gems like I always do. Levin fucked around with this message at 00:37 on Dec 29, 2018 |
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Dec 29, 2018 00:32
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6th January? Thank goodness, I desperately need to finish The Deuce but visiting with the family isn’t conducive to watching a show about 1970s porn and prostitution.
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Dec 29, 2018 00:43
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I barely watched any TV this year. It feels good, it feels... freeing. Good Place and Castlevania rule. No list from me. Have fun ya'll
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Dec 29, 2018 04:35
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I started to watch Ash vs. Evil Dead and by all accounts it should be trash. It is, but its also best series ever!
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Dec 29, 2018 09:10
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I did it, I finished my list. Of course now with the extended deadline, perhaps I'll be able to watch a couple more shows and change my list. But for now: Points of Order The Orville – I don’t think this should be counted as a 2018 show. A single episode that hasn’t even aired yet wouldn’t be enough to judge it on even if I watched it in time. So I’m considering the Orville season 2 to be fully a 2019 show, but I don’t make the rules. Travelers – Man Travelers why you always got to do this to me. I managed to squeeze in watching season 2 in time last year, but I can’t get to season 3 till January. So a show that definitely deserves a spot on my list is gonna be left out. But now that Rarity has extended the date till January 6, maybe I’ll be able to get to it. Voltron – Similar with Travelers, though it did air some other episodes in 2018 I could judge it on. Oh well sorry gang. Dishonorable Mentions Steven Universe – I can’t be bothered to check what 5 or whatever episodes cartoon network deigned to air this year. Westworld – 2 good episodes does not a good season make. Honorable Mentions Agents of Shield – First year it’s fallen off my list. Season 5 was good and this was the best half of it but it wasn’t my favorite and other shows were just better. I’m sure the full season 6 in 2019 will make the list again. American Crime Story – Good and interesting about a case I’d never heard of, but not on the same level as the first year. Reverie – I’m the only person in existence sad this was cancelled Bob’s Burgers – I love this show but it all blends together and its years and seasons don’t feel distinct. Bojack Horseman – Sorry Bojack barely missed the cut once again Killing Eve – Very cool new show, looking forward to where it goes from here. Ducktales – Really great remake of a beloved show And now for the list itself: 10. She-Ra – Biggest surprise of the year for me, it seemed to come out of nowhere and I watched it on a whim. It won me over very quickly. Really great characters and a compelling story. Probably needs a bit more work on demonstrating the stakes – neither of the warring societies have done a good job of feeling real besides the central characters. Otherwise though it’s excellent and I look forward to where it goes from here. Entrapta’s the best. 9. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend – A bit low on my list this year only because I wasn’t in love with the second half of season 3. The 8 month time skip in particular felt really awkward, as did the final episode. They did course correct very nicely at the start of season 4 and it’s been great. Though new Greg in the latest episode has me very wary and I hope they make him work in the show’s final episodes next year. 8. Marvelous Mrs. Maisel – As good as last season was this one was even better. The show is hilarious and the cast is amazing, Midge, her parents, and Susie in particular. I loved the episodes in the resort in the Catskills because I had never heard of anything like this and it seemed as bizarre and insane to me as it did to Susie. Next season with Midge’s possible big upcoming tour is very exciting. 7. Castlevania – I skipped this last year because 3 episodes was too short, and now I got to watch the whole thing at once. It surpassed my expectations. Episode 7’s fight scenes were amazing and saving Bloody Tears for the perfect moment was an inspired choice. 6. Better Call Saul – Saul Goodman has arisen at last! Show took its time getting there but it was worth it. The show handled the fallout of Chuck’s death extremely well and getting to see Jimmy become more and more shady was very enjoyable. I liked the Mike storyline a lot too, Werner was a cool addition. 5. 12 Monkeys – What an ending. The show was on fire from beginning to end this season. I have rarely seen a show have such a satisfying conclusion. I’ll miss it terribly, in particular Jennifer Goines one of the all time best TV characters. 4. The Expanse – Love how this show improves with each season. We’re really getting in to the crazy alien poo poo now. Thank god it wasn’t cancelled I wouldn’t have been able to take not getting to watch what happens next. 3. American Vandal – Cancelling this show is a loving crime. The fact that they managed to pull this off twice is incredible and I so wanted to see what they could do for a third season. Peter and Sam are such good protagonists. Maybe it wasn’t quite as good as season 1, but it was still hilarious and the mystery was intriguing. 2. The Good Place – This show is amazing. Season 2 ended with a mad and desperate race through the Bad Place and a successful plea to the Judge to give the humans a second chance. But then that premise lasts only a few episodes into season 3 and now we’re heading full in to tear down the system mode. It’s agonizing waiting for this to start up again as it looks like we are about to finally get some answers as to how the afterlife became so messed up. 1. A Series of Unfortunate Events – I’m so happy with this show. It’s by far the best book to film adaptation I’ve ever seen. Season 2 made the choice to give extended storylines to several characters, making their ultimate deaths all the more tragic. The Quagmires were great, Esme Squalor was delightfully terrible, the new guardians were all exceptionally useless, and Mr. Poe was more loathsomely incompetent than ever. The rise of the Self Sustaining Hot Air Mobile Home was one of my favorite television moments all year. It’s been grim and more grimness is coming next month. I can’t wait…
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Dec 29, 2018 18:08
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I'm glad it's not just me whose now probably years behind on a bunch of shows I like. Mrs. Maisel will undoubtedly be in the top 3 when I get around to s2, after binging s1 on an 8 hour transatlantic flight, but those are the breaks. Hopefully enough other people caught it to give it the love it assuredly deserves. 10. Colony After a bit of a disappointing 2nd season, this year was truly back on form, full of excitement and suspense. And it kills me I can't ever recommend the show to anyone, because what's the loving point now it's been cancelled. An utter shame. 9. American Vandal I thought the first season was more smart and entertaining than funny, but the second installment just felt better across the board. I love that I can call something based around poop and dick jokes 'smart', too. 8. The Chris Gethard Show So the first three shows on my list are all dead, I guess that says a lot about my taste. I'm really glad Chris got to end this on his own terms, though, and managed to bring the wildness of a cable access show to actual, real TV. Awesome achievement. 7. Glow First season was great, second season was great. Third season prediction? Also great. 6. People Just Do Nothing The earlier seasons were always the best, but a solid send off to a show that has managed to become a cultural phenomenon back in the UK. Rinse it. 5. Barry NoHo Hank is the best character on TV, fight me if you don't agree. 4. The Good Place I think this is the only active sitcom* on network TV that I'm not even a little bit bored of and wanting to move on from. * Brooklyn 99 and AP Bio are probably both still fine, we'll see how they fare in the new year. 3. Big Mouth I love how a show about uncontrollable, perverted, imaginary monster has somehow become the defacto 'growing up' experience. First season good, second season definitely better. 2. Taskmaster (UK) Didn't get around to watching this for years, then watched all 7 seasons in a row. Wife originally hated it, then fell in love with it. It's a great way for me to introduce her to UK people she wouldn't know otherwise, it's good bonding TV and it's a shame the US version was never going to quite get it. 1. The Americans Would feel wrong for it to be anything else.
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Dec 29, 2018 21:16
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10. Fear the Walking Dead: Kill off almost every single main cast member to start a zombie trucker show. 9. Making a Murderer S2: Kinda didn't have that much information I haven't read about before because I have been following it since the first season. 8: Altered Carbon: Tried to watch it but I was burned out on boring netflix shows. 7. Walking Dead: Killed off the main character and I'm down for them changing it from the comics and I like zombies so meh. 6. Archer: It was decent. 5. South Park: Good as always. 4. American Dad: Great as always. The Oregon Trail was pretty good. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGVhcB8qtE4 3. Better Call Saul: Still going strong, really great episodes yet again. The Mike stuff was kinda more interesting. 2. Its Always Sunny: The Mac finale was great, Frank's ending words really sell the episode too. The car episode for Dennis and the two parter for the football game was really good also. There was alot of other good episodes too, I really don't know how they are going to keep the show going. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3J6urFp8YZ0 1. Venture Brothers: Another great season that added even more questions after wrapping up a few. Maybe in a few years we will find out scare bear is hank or dean from the future. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h38d1HXwHtE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kIo66M6a6Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1jcXc4zjxE Tiger has desires too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vW2srK6zETw I'm hoping its the guy from Home Improvement! Not the main guy but the handy man, Al. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwplD1lAFwc Old school that's right, like men! edit: I realized southpark came out this year so I should have put that on here over like gold rush also and moved it around alittle. Tenzarin fucked around with this message at 15:09 on Jan 4, 2019 |
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Dec 30, 2018 03:07
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Okay here we go: I'm probably forgetting a ton of great shows, but whatever. My List: 10 She-Ra and the princesses of Power I didn't watch the original show and frankly that looked like marketing trash. But this new show has a lot of heart and is a fun adventure with likeable characters. It's kinda gay, but that can be a plus. 9 Riverdale This show has always been throwing everything against the wall, to see what sticks. That rhetoric wall is now so gross and sticky, that nothing falls down anymore. It's a weird mess, but it's sure something to look at. 8 Star vs the Forces of Evil I like the realization that institutionalized racism might be more evil than the symptoms. 7 The Orvile There was only one episode this year, but I'm confident in McFarlane here. He has a lot of heart in this little project of his. 6 Ducktales I like pretty much everyone of the the re-imagined characters. There a tons of funny nods at the old series and the countless books I've read. I'd say there is not enough Donald, but that was already a thing in the original show. 5 AP Bio A nihilistic rear end in a top hat who could have come straight from the IASIP-Universe comes into a community where most people are actually decent. Obviously, he tries his best to ruin them, but it doesn't really work out that way. It gets better the longer it runs. 4 The Good Place Still a fun romp through the dangers and concepts of philosophy. 3 Hilda This is a gorgeous animated series with a good sense of morale and characters who really try to do their best. If you have kids, try to watch it with them. 2 Chilling Adventures of Sabrina This is in all senses a great remake. It uses familiar characters and story elements, but re-imagines them in interesting ways. On a technical level, there is some great atmosphere, music and camera work involved. And I enjoy how ferocious Sabrina is. She does not want to give up her integrity. Also there's a lot of blatant Satanism, which is completely central to the plot. 1 Travelers A month ago I stumbled on the thread for season three, mostly because the title sounded interesting. So over this month I watched the first two seasons and enjoyed it quite a lot. Yesterday I started with season 3 and couldn't stop at all until I finished it at 3:30 am. This show, and especially this third season was incredible. It has surpassed Continuum as my favorite time travel show. My score might be a bit inflated because this was really recent, but screw it! This show managed to make the innocent everyday guy who isn't really involved with this time travel business the best character. That's unprecedented. Honorable Mentions: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend The show is nearing it's final episodes and is giving the audience the chance to slowly say goodbye to all those characters who are in a better position than at the beginning of the series. I do like that, but it doesn't really hit me emotionally any more. Brooklyn 99 It's really consistently funny. But nothing stood pout for me. American Dad Same reason. It's always sunny in Philadelphia The opposite reason. This show takes the sledgehammer approach. When it hits, it does a lot. Agents of Shield I still like those characters, but 90% of the show is shot in a bunker now. Dishonorable Mentions: Those shows have had a drastic drop to mediocrity. Steven Universe, Westworld, Legion, American Vandal Shameful Mentions: Insatiable It's a terrible awful show where every character is absolute poo poo. But for some reason it's incredibly watchable. Nobody should watch it. Shows which might be good, but not enough for me to bother watching before writing this: Black mirror cant cook creole bream fucked around with this message at 16:42 on Dec 31, 2018 |
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Dec 31, 2018 15:28
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Honorable Mention: Cloak and Dagger, Brooklyn Nine Nine, Cobra Kai, Shameless, Daredevil, The Americans, Agents of SHIELD, Ozark 10 - The Good Place (NBC): The best network sitcom in I don't know how many years. A pure joy to watch every week. 9 - No Activity (CBS All Access): Not sure how a show where pretty much nothing happens and 97% of the runtime is devoted to scenes of two people talking is funnier than everything else out there, but here we are. Cristin Milioti and Jason Mantzoukas stole the show this season and Jessica Alba has a guest appearance that must be seen to be believed. 8 - Killjoys (Syfy): Loved how the show kicked into a higher gear knowing that it's wrapping up next season. Loved it even more how they blew up the status quo completely heading into that final season. 7 - Waco (Paramount Network): Taylor Kitsch completely blew me away with his performance in this show. Never been a big fan of his before but this one changed that. He's unreal. And Michael Shannon is here doing very Un-Michael Shannon things like acting rational and calm. Weird. But good! 6 - Counterpart (Starz): Love everything about this show from the premise to design to shooting style and of course the performances. What's better than one JK Simmons? More than one JK Simmons! 5 - Vikings (History): Just keeps on growing in scale so much as it goes on that I'm not sure where it can logistically go from here. They managed to keep on just fine after the death of a main character integral to the show and have come out looking great. Can't wait to see where this one takes us next 4 - Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Amazon): Every bit as good as the first season. Deserves all the awards it has won and probably will still win. 3 - Condor (Audience Network): This is a little known show that is based on the same source material as the Robert Redford film 3 Days of the Condor. Political Thrillers are my favorite genre of anything and the previously mentioned film is one of my favorites. This series did it proud and left me wanting many more seasons. Looks like I'll get at least one, and hopefully more. 2 - Travelers (Netflix): Any other year and this season of Travelers would have easily been my number one pick. But we'll get to that in a minute. This season was full of twists I never saw coming. But at the heart of that were the great characters this show was built on. This is not a flashy scifi show, there's really not much that most people would associate with scifi. It's first and foremost about the characters and the relationships and that's what makes it great. But when it does get around to the actual mythology of the show it nails it. Like in the season finale that could have been one of the better series finales of any scifi show ever. But even then it still wouldn't have been the best series finale of the year as that is reserved for... 1 - 12 Monkeys (Syfy): What else can I say about this show? I think it might be my favorite scifi show of all time. Probably the best use of time travel I've ever seen any medium. And I'm going to throw out the scifi qualifier with this next one: Possibly one of the greatest and most satisfying series finales ever. I'm not sure how you can send a show like this off better. So many times, especially with genre shows, they fail to stick the landing and leave you underwhelmed. So many shows will tell you they have their story in hand and ending ready but obviously don't This one wasn't playing that game. It knew where it was going from the beginning and it was lucky enough to get there. Even though I felt like maybe this show never really got the eyes it deserved I'm happy that Syfy let them wrap it up on their terms. X-O fucked around with this message at 21:18 on Dec 31, 2018 |
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Dec 31, 2018 21:15
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Ok, here’s my #30-10: 30. Sorry For Your Loss 29. Brooklyn Nine-Nine 28. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend 27. Dear White People 26. Westworld 25. The Haunting of Hill House 24. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt 23. Superstore 22. Homecoming 21. Brockmire 20. The Deuce 19. American Vandal 18. Lodge 49 17. Succession 16. Killing Eve 15. Adventure Time 14. GLOW 13. BoJack Horseman 12. Sharp Objects 11. Kidding and here’s my final list: 10. Pose: Probably my favourite Ryan Murphy show, this mixed his outlandish style with a lot of soul and great performances. The ball sequences are so much fun. 09. High Maintenance: Mixed the excellent short stories of the first season with more personal stuff about the lead character and the creators’ real life relationship which fleshed out the show perfectly. Plus it was still as funny and strange as ever. 08. The Good Place: The early parts of season 3 faltered at times, but when the show is on, it’s still one of the best sitcoms on the air, which still finds time to insert intriguing philosophical concepts among the laughs. Plus, that latest episode probably bumped it up a couple of places by itself. D’Arcy Carden is amazing. 07. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel: Although some issues brought it down a little from the first season, the charm this season brings is still completely off the chain, and Rachel Brosnahan still gives one of the best performances in a long time. Let’s can Joel from now on please though 06. Big Mouth: I liked but didn’t love Nick Kroll’s puberty cartoon in the first season, so it was an excellent surprise to see it up its game so much this year. The gross-out humour and character arcs this season far exceeded last year, while David Thewlis as the Shame Wizard is an all-time great character. 05. Barry: Although some of the early episodes are a bit tepid, this show soon corrects itself with a fantastic darkly comic tone about the disappointment of trying to make it in LA and some utterly incredibly performances, especially from Bill Hader, who made me cry twice and totally deserved his Emmy. Plus as mentioned above NoHo Hank is incredible. 04. My Brilliant Friend: My favourite thing HBO have done in a few years, this Italian-language series is a wonderful, evocative illustration of growing up in its era, and the close friendship that bonds two girls. The cinematography and actors do an incredible job of translating the beautiful prose to a visual medium. 03. Better Call Saul: This is always such a hard show to place because it really is a show of two halves, with the Jimmy/lawyer side of a much higher quality than the Mike/criminal side. Still, this year the Jimmy side was better than ever and absolutely heartbreaking, while the Mike side was sometimes dull but made up for it with an extremely emotional finale. But that Jimmy side was seriously insane. Odenkirk gave us easily his best performance ever as Jimmy struggled without his main tether to morality, while Rhea Seehorn went from strength to strength as Kim, finding it harder and harder to stomach the events around her. The best season yet of maybe the best prequel ever. 02. Patriot: The most underrated-except-for-here show on TV returned for an incredible second season that ramped up the absurdism and darkness while still having strong moments for its wide cast of colourful characters and introducing new ones who were just as entertaining. Steven Conrad wrote and directed every episode solo with some of the tightest control and most memorable, amusing-yet-mournful set-pieces TV has ever seen. Please join me in praying for a renewal. 01. Atlanta: Season 1 was already pretty mind-blowing, but Robbin’ Season improved upon it in every way, providing a platform for some of the most memorable and atmospheric TV episodes in years while also having a strong season arc and being as bizarre and beautifully-shot as anything on the platform probably ever. Donald Glover and crew sharpened their skills, mixing classic sitcom scripting and incredible dramatic chops while also learning to lean on their greatest performer, Brian Tyree Henry (who has had a deservedly stupendous year) as Paper Boi. And of course, there’s Teddy Perkins, a hysterical and terrifying episode that will he talked about for a long time, and is shot to perfection by the show’s secret weapon, the impeccable Hiro Murai. It’s one of the only shows in recent years that can reasonably lay claim to being truly unique, especially cinematically, and I hope it gets all the freedom it needs to keep delivering truly remarkable and thoughtful TV. Thanks so much for reading or scrolling through my list! As a prize, here’s the 10 shows I thought really stank this year (sorry, fans!) 01. Ghosted 02. Chilling Adventures of Sabrina 03. Arrested Development 04. The Mayor 05. Legion 06. Stan Against Evil 07. Ozark 08. Roseanne 09. The Romanoffs 10. This Is Us
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Dec 31, 2018 23:56
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Thanks for the deadline push Rarity. Will allow to make a bit more of an effort post.
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Jan 1, 2019 02:56
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2018 was a weird year for so many reasons, not least of which is I finally decided I couldn't ignore politics anymore after a lifetime of apathy, and spent a lot of time with the news of all flavors. I discovered podcasts and came to terms with the idea that even if I live to 110 there's literally not enough time in the world to consume all the various hobby & entertainment content I have on my backlog, let alone anything new that comes out. At least while maintaining any semblance of a real life and family. And new stuff is just exploding across the board for all interests so it won't get any easier. It doesn't help that I planned on finishing up some shows I'd started this past long weekend but instead I started a handful more. Honorable mention: Terrace House is fascinating but so far it seems like it is just a Japanese Real World. She Ra is fun and good but not for me, I gave it a try because I remembered liking Nimona, and He Man was the bomb in the 80s. I liked Preacher season 3 a lot better than 2 but the tonal whiplash doesn't quite click as well as it does in other, slightly more grounded, shows like Patriot and Fargo. There's also a long list of shows I know would dominate my list if I got around to them, like Twelve Monkeys is extremely my poo poo but I didn't keep up with it on sy fy and only rarely sub hulu. Finally, The Orville and Star Trek Discovery. I counted season 1 in 2017, I'll count season 2 in 2019 if they make the list. Anyway, these are the top 10 shows I enjoyed the most in 2018. Not saying that they are the best quality (by far in some cases), just that I really enjoyed watching them. I can watch and enjoy almost literally anything, but genre shows usually get a boost from me since they combine my interests and have expanded stuff in other media that I can get into it if it really piques my attention. 10. Survivor - still watching with my Grandfather. The latest season was pretty good with some players who were fun to watch and root for, and we like seeing the craft work on the competitions and puzzles. Some variety on the locations would be nicer but I get why they can't do Survivor: Antarctica or Survivor: Detroit. After umpteen seasons it may still only make the list because without it, once the season is done, Grandpa flips between Storage Wars and Duck Dynasty instead. Though we did discover the Smithsonian Channel for some more interesting documentaries recently. Regardless, we never miss a season, and this show is only behind American Horror Story and office favorite Big Bang Theory for water cooler talk at work. 9. Riverdale. I didn't want to list this but its just so watchable, over the top and fun. I always hate the Cheryl character archtype in shows but I don't think I've ever been as surprised and pumped by a hell yeah moment as when she ran away but immediately came back with her bow and arrows. 8. Titans. A last minute addition as I decided to get the DCU trial and marathon it rather than continuing any shows already on my DVR. I never watched or read Teen Titans. I think this take on it feels like a cross between the Arrowverse shows and the netflix marvel shows. I'm way behind on Gotham, I thought it would be closer to that show, but Hawk & Dove showing up in episode 2 and the Doom Patrol in episode 4 really sold me on this one. Titans also reminds me of my favorite DC tv show, Constantine. I know, I need to watch Legends of Tomorrow. I thought I'd finish this during the trial then cancel but I found myself watching because I wanted to see what happened with the characters next rather than just to beat the subscription. 7. Killing Eve. Like Patriot, a show I never would have noticed if not for all the praise in the chat thread here. It immediately caught my focus and attention. I really enjoyed watching these characters and not knowing what would happen next. Even if I did accidentally have something big spoiled for me by a tumblr post. 6. Cloak & Dagger. This one barely wins out over the massive pile of superhero shows I watched this year. I didn't get far enough in Daredevil or JJ season 2 for them to qualify, didn't resub hulu for Runaways 2 yet, and Agents of Shield didn't do it for me this year. But I did follow this one week to week. I really liked the vibe and characters. The main two did a great job, though its down a few slots on the list because they shoved the main actress's take on Come Sail Away into the finale and it didn't fit at all in my opinion. It was fun seeing a N'awlins setting. 5. Critical Role. I was torn on including this since I mainly listen to the season 1 podcast on the road but I'm also keeping up with season 2 between the stream and youtube so I think it counts. Nerdy rear end voice actors playing D&D. I thought I'd discovered a new genre and tried watching other people's streams but nope CR just does it that well. Mainly thanks to Matt Mercer who not only voices all the non player characters but comes up with good stories and cool combat set piece models while being open to every crazy idea his players have. Dude needs to come up with a different terrifying roar for his sphinxes/dragons/manticores/goliaths though. 4. Patriot. Not as good as season 1. As someone who loves a good tv intro or outro that catches the mood of the show and instantly sets the tone, train song was perfect for it. The beastie boys song was good but didn't feel right to me. That said the characters were still great, especially Red Forman and the main dude and his buddies. Downsides besides the beastie boys were the underused law enforcement members, with several new ones introduced which spread everyone a bit too thin. 3. Legion. I'm only 3/4 through season 2 and I hear it gets worse but with what I saw it's still in my top 10 for the year. Don't know why I haven't gotten back to it, maybe I'm waiting for the blu-ray so I can rewatch from the start at this point, or maybe I don't want to dislike it if it does go bad. Either way Noah Hawley takes chances and is great and I'm looking forward to watching seasons 2+ of Fargo when I can get around to it. Casting Aubrey Plaza was inspired. The show is quite a trip and is up there with shows like Mr Robot and Lost where they grab my full and complete attention when watching, which is hard these distracting days. The Bolero Sequence from season 1 episode 7 still has me in awe each time I rewatch it. Its on youtube but I'm not linking it due to spoilers and it being just loving weird, in or out of context. 2. Brooklyn 99. Great cast, consistently hilarious. Thank you NBC for saving it. This cold open pops up on the front page of reddit often and I always watch it again each time I see it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffyKY3Dj5ZE 1. The Good Place. I don't know how they can keep it up. I don't like the main cast as much as I like the ones from B99 and Parks and Rec but the story beats are on another level. I wonder if they are moving fast towards a determined end or if they have plans that will keep things crazy for several more seasons or if they are making it up as they go or what. I'll definitely keep watching to see if they stall out or can keep the balls in the air. Incredible show. Janet is the best. And basically from here out I will give anything Michael Schur puts on tv a try based on his name alone. bagrada fucked around with this message at 18:09 on Jan 1, 2019 |
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Jan 1, 2019 17:58
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10. World War Two (Youtube) - This is a weekly documentary covering the events of WWII in real time. It's really fascinating to dive into it at such depth and Indy Neidell is great at presenting the stories without them getting boring. It's currently only three months in and the episodes are short so it's not too difficult to catch up. Also a huge shout out to The Great War which is the same but for WWI which I actually enjoy more but I'm five years behind so I can't speak for their 2018 episodes. 9. Taskmaster (Dave) - Season 7 of Taskmaster managed to capture lightning in a bottle by finding the perfect cast of comedians to take on Greg Davies's insane tasks. Everyone brought something good to the table whether it was James Acaster's ever increasing anger, Jessica Knappett's foghorn impression, Rhod Gilbert being completely insane, Kerry Godliman boshing through everything and Phil Wang's wang. 8. Survivor (CBS) - The granddaddy of reality shows has always been up and down each season based on casting but David vs Goliath was one of the strongest seasons they've ever had with the perfect combination of likeable characters and bold, successful plays. THEY DID A VOTE SPLIT ON A MINORITY VOTE  7. The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (Netflix) - I was very resistant to watching this because I have nostalgic feelings for the original and any cat that doesn't talk is #NotMySalem but I'm glad I relented. It's a very dark and twisted show but I love it for being fearlessly woke. Also, Chance Perdomo is like a perfect version of a young Chiwetel Ejiofor. 6. GLOW (Netflix) - This year the show stepped up a gear by expanding the focus on its supporting cast which led to most of its best storylines like Bash's issues with his sexuality and Welfare Queen's relationship with her son. Plus they did an actual episode of GLOW and it was amazing. 5. Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (Netflix) - I enjoyed the first season of this but felt it lacked the narrative thrust to really stand out but season 2 was a huge improvement by quickly breaking from the guardian/disguise of the week formula to introduce intrigue upon intrigue. Nathan Fillion was also a very welcome addition as the suave and confident Jacques Snicket. 4. The Good Place (NBC) - Ladies and gentlemen, as evidence I submit to you this gif of a broken down Chidi making chilli:  3. Sense8 (Netflix) - I love my dead gay show. The finale event was everything I wanted it to be. Everyone showed up, everyone got a happy ending and at the end they all had an orgy. When shows have unashamedly feelgood endings it often comes off as shmaltzy but Sense8 has always been a celebration of human connection so it felt entirely earned. 2. Queer Eye (Netflix) - I binged through both two seasons on a comedown and I cried my eyes out far too often. The new Fab Five are my heroes and I want to spend the day just hanging out shooting the poo poo with them. I love how that the makeover focuses on the internal as much as the external and that they make time for important conversations like Karamo's fear of being pulled over by cops, Tan's ignorance of transgenderism and Bobby's issues with the Church. This is the most positive expression of masculinity I've ever seen represented on television and for tnat I adore it. 1. American Vandal (Netflix) - gently caress YOU NETFLIX. Ahem. After an astounding freshman season that looked like it couldn't be followed American Vandal followed it up by going bigger and bolder. The story of the Turdburgler is magnetic from the first grisly reconstruction of the Brownout. From there it introduces its cast of characters slowly before ramping up for a second half full of shocks and reveals. The mystery is as compelling as in the first year and they still have more to say about the experiences of teenagers and the way they interact with the modern world, all of which leads up to an ending full of pathos. And then they get cancelled by Netflix execs because they're all a bunch of doodooheads.
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Jan 3, 2019 12:01
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Rarity posted:10. World War Two (Youtube) - This is a weekly documentary covering the events of WWII in real time. It's really fascinating to dive into it at such depth and Indy Neidell is great at presenting the stories without them getting boring. It's currently only three months in and the episodes are short so it's not too difficult to catch up. Also a huge shout out to The Great War which is the same but for WWI which I actually enjoy more but I'm five years behind so I can't speak for their 2018 episodes. How in the hell did I not know about this?! I watched The Great War for years and I swear they haven't mentioned it.
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Jan 3, 2019 15:22
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IRQ posted:How in the hell did I not know about this?! I watched The Great War for years and I swear they haven't mentioned it. It's been posted in Couch Chat multiple times as well 
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Jan 3, 2019 15:38
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One episode of The Deuce to go and I can write my list. Also holy poo poo The Deuce is good.Rarity posted:10. World War Two (Youtube) - This is a weekly documentary covering the events of WWII in real time. It's really fascinating to dive into it at such depth and Indy Neidell is great at presenting the stories without them getting boring. It's currently only three months in and the episodes are short so it's not too difficult to catch up. Also a huge shout out to The Great War which is the same but for WWI which I actually enjoy more but I'm five years behind so I can't speak for their 2018 episodes. Oh my God I haven't heard of either of these but they sound incredible.
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Jan 3, 2019 22:33
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Jerusalem posted:One episode of The Deuce to go and I can write my list. Also holy poo poo The Deuce is good. It's really cool. For the Great War as well as the weekly episodes they do biographies of important figures, Q&As, featurettes on weapons and vehicles and various other specials as well.
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Jan 3, 2019 22:44
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 10. Venture Brothers - Just barely squeaking onto the list because I didn't know The Detectorists actually aired in 2017, I give this show the nod over other shows with higher highs but lower lows because it made such good use of the lengthy time between seasons. They produced an incredibly consistent and well-written season in which most of the characters achieved some measure of growth and success not just in their individual lives, but within the wider relationships of the groups they work within. Yes there was some backsliding in places (Rusty tossing aside his one actual incredible scientific achievement in favor of a - unknown to him - virtual reality orgy) but overall every character develops in welcoming ways: particularly The Monarch but PARTICULARLY Hank, who gets the final scene of the season in a pitch-perfect moment that encapsulates a lot of what I love about Venture Brothers: people change and grow, but they also stay true to themselves as people.  9. Westworld - Season 1 was one of the best shows of the year, absolutely gripping and fascinating with an incredible performance by Anthony Hopkins but also most of the rest of the cast. Season 2 unfortunately, while still extremely good in individual parts, failed to quite hold together as a cohesive whole. There is unfortunately a sense that Season 1's success, despite the pedigree of the writer and the giant budget they were given, came as a surprise and they didn't really have anything concrete in mind for season 2. The attempts to recapture Season 1's "hidden" jumping about in time is best realized in Bernard's damage preventing him from differentiating past and present, but largely feels like a carbon copy of what was done so innovatively in Season 1. Individual performances (particularly Jeffrey Wright and Ed Harris) are great but none of it quite hangs together or meshes well. The most welcome new addition is Zahn McClarnon (Hanzee from season 2 of Fargo) and the brief story of his own remarkable journey through the timeline of the park culminating in a beautiful moment of escape. There is still plenty there to enjoy and hope for what season 3 might bring, but the signs are there that things could go South pretty quickly.  8. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia - 13 seasons going strong and this bizarre, hilarious and disgusting show continues to surprise and delight with the unexpected. One of the big appeals of the show has been that the writers have so strongly resisted the urge to improve their characters or blunt their edges. But in spite of that, the reason this season made my list is because the writers actually DID attempt that this year, albeit in typically gross-out fashion with the characters acting almost purely in their own self-interest. The result was an oddly sweet and touching season in which characters supported and encouraged each other (sometimes) even if for mostly the wrong reasons. The Superbowl episode picking up on Philadelphians' belief in their own inescapably "trashy" nature but reveling in a brief moment of triumph for themselves as a city; Dee being accepted and rewarded as a leader by the group for helping them achieve their goals; Mac and Charlie facing up to the unresolved issues of being bullied as children in one of the most hilarious scenes I've ever seen. But the most incredible and oddly "Un-Sunny" moment was also the best, as the final episode played up all the usual gags before ending in a frankly incredible and visually/emotionally stunning dance number by Mac as he sought to come out and express himself as a gay man to his father. Some might say it was TOO sensitive and beautiful for this show, but given how unique it is in the context of this show, it feels earned and all the more wonderful BECAUSE it is so different.  7. Legion - The first season of this show was a revelation, seemingly an indication that Noah Hawley could do no wrong after his first two incredible seasons of Fargo were followed by such an incredible season of a completely different show. But there did seem to be some impact on the (still high) quality of Fargo Season 3, and burnout seems to have followed through to season 2 of Legion. Perhaps it was inevitable after such a stunning debut, but this season had the same issue as Westworld did where a series of interesting and well-handled individual scenes didn't translate into a cohesive whole. Perhaps the biggest sin was the reduced presence of standout Aubrey Plaza, who dominated season 1 but is largely shunted aside in this season. The 1-2 episodes that focus strongly on her are the best, especially her resurrection episode, but for most of the rest of the time she (and Jermaine Clement) are sidelined and barely seen. Her replacement as the physical form of Farouk this season is Navid Negahban who is actually fantastic, but he carries a very different energy to the manic, quickly burning-out junkie that was Lenny in season 1. The confrontations between David and Farouk are handled in a fun and interesting way (dance-offs, music videos, static face-offs surrounded by vibrant animation etc) but where the season is really let down is the abrupt ending and complete change in the status quo to setup for season 3. People act out of character, subplots go nowhere or are suddenly "resolved" without any actual resolution (Jean Smart is criminally underused) and people make decisions that are completely without logic (far beyond the understandable lack of logic people often display). It actually feels like a large chunk of the story is missing, either due to edits or rewrites. Hawley is fantastic, but he needs to pick either Legion or Fargo and stick with it. Trying to run both shows is negatively impacting on both.  6. Doctor Who - Jodie Whittaker was inspired casting and all the promotional material looked amazing, so I was pretty thrilled to watch this latest season of Doctor Who despite some trepidation about the prior quality of the work of new showrunner Chris Chibnall. Now that the season has completed (the final episode aired New Year's Day of 2019) I can safely say my hopes and fears were largely realized. Chibnall, despite delivering one of the best single seasons of a British drama series in Broadchurch several years ago, again proved that when it comes to Doctor Who he has interesting ideas but an issue when it comes to resolutions (ironically, the New Year's Special was called Resolution, and it had arguably the best one of the season). Interesting threads and potential subplots were abandoned or ignored in favor of a familiar episode-by-episode "twist". Episodes that seemed to be going to a particular destination ended up somewhere close but not quite the same. This was compounded by the editing of the show, which at times was sublime but also frequently made mistakes common to a first year film student. So why rank it so high? Because the characters were amazing (Yaz was sadly the weak link, through no fault of Mandip Gill's), the group dynamic was beautifully realized, the cinematography was a step above anything done in the previous 10 seasons, there were great guest actors (Alan Cumming was a sensational ham), and the show was happy to tackle some pretty controversial subjects (Civil Rights era Alabama and the partition of India most notably). Most importantly though, Jodie Whittaker was absolutely brilliant in the title role and brought a fresh, optimistic and overall joyful take on the Doctor in direct contrast to the often glum or repressed/depressed Doctors who preceded her. With any luck, the season and its high ratings were strong enough to grant Chibnall the confidence to be a surer hand at the till, but aware enough to close up the very real issues with the pacing, editing, writing. Of course we won't know till 2020, as despite its success the BBC won't be airing the new season until next year. But I've had longer waits for Doctor Who before, and as long as they keep making the show, I'll keep watching.  5. Preacher - Season 2 of this show was a big letdown, but thankfully Season 3 was largely a return to the form of the first season and really upped my enthusiasm for the next one. Still suffering the AMC curse of sticking the show into a single location, these limitations were handled far better this year. Returning to Jesse's traumatic childhood home, his powers not functioning and his girlfriend's life bound to his hated grandmother, the show really drove home the claustrophobia and frustration of being trapped in a place you have outgrown and don't want to be, surrounded by people whose only connection to you is by blood. Each of the main three cast were given plenty to do, particularly Cassidy who had a fantastic subplot with a fellow vampire and lover with a horrific secret. The absurdist humor remains present (a subplot of Hitler and well-intentioned shotgun victim Eugene being fugitives from Hell is particularly well done) with just enough genuinely unsettling horror to keep the monstrous characters of Grandma, Jody, The All-Father and even God from becoming purely comedic roles. Jesse's inevitable reunion with Genesis leads to an incredibly cathartic if self-destructive moment and returns Herr Starr to the role of central antagonist where he belongs. All the pieces are in place for a hell of a season 4, hopefully one more in line with this one than season 2.  4. The Deuce - David Simon and George Pelecanos' recreation of 1970s Time Square is even better in season 2 than the first. While the utterly brilliant original theme has been replaced, "This Year's Girl" is a pretty great consolation prize. Even though more characters than ever get not only speaking roles but their own subplots, everything feels more efficient and refined. The tighter pacing makes everybody feel part of a living, breathing world: albeit a disgusting, litter-fueled one. The time-skip (1977 compared to season 1's 1971) helps lend the established cast an easy familiarity. Everybody knows each other, they're all part of their sordid little world, looking for money/freedom/an escape from the everyday. The parallel plotlines move in and around each other smoothly, characters dipping in and out from one to the other when necessary or just running side by side without ever touching. At the center of it all though is the growing legitimacy (and therefore money) of the sex trade: for some it is a welcome chance to rejoin society, for others it is a horrifying sign that their own time is passing. Some want to clean it up, some want to make it the new normal, others just want things to stay the way they've always been. The central character by pure force of her performance is Maggie Gyllenhaal's Candy, but for me the most fascinating was Gbenga Akinnagbe's Larry Brown. Both are looking to get off the street and into films: Candy behind the camera, Larry in front. Larry looks the part of a deadly, hulking pimp but it is clearly an act and he doesn't have the "heart" for it. The way he lights up when acting, the adorable scene of him walking down the streets of New York enthusiastically trying to remember lines from a film, it is a delight to watch. But there are so many other great characters played by great actors: Chris Baurer, James Franco, Gary Carr, Lawrence Gilliard Jr (thank God the former D'Angelo gets to stick around more than a season and a bit like he did in The Wire), Emily Meade, David Krumholtz, Anwan Glover, Ralph Macchio (seriously!) and Method Man just to name a few. Seeing a period of time where pornography aimed for and almost achieved mainstream acceptance is both bizarre and depressing, especially as Candy and her crew reach the apex of their creative achievement only to (with great excitement) start eying up the burgeoning video-tape industry. Season 3, the final, will take place in the 80s at the height of the AIDS crisis when porn was making a huge amount of money but absolutely all creativity and concerns with legitimacy had been thrown completely out the window. Just how the characters (who survive) will deal with this will be depressing I'm sure, but I also can't wait to see it.  3. The Good Place - Last year when this show incorrectly was selected as the best show of the year instead of Twin Peaks, I thought it was probably time to catch up and see what all the fuss was about. While I still know the objective fact that Twin Peaks should have won, I can certainly see why this show was getting raved about. Thankfully season 3 kept up that quality, and also continued the theme present in seasons 1 and 2 of taking about a dozen potential single things that could easily carry an entire season by themselves and just running through them in short order. Season 2's theme looked like it was supposed to be Michael attempting to perfect his project only for that to quickly get turned on its head. Season 3 looked like it was going to be about the characters back on Earth with another chance to get things right, then turned into an interesting look at doomed people trying to help others and then suddenly went... well, Janets is one of the weirdest episodes of a particularly weird show I have seen this year, and that's a year that had Legion in it! Every member of the small but perfectly formed cast are great, but D'Arcy Carden as the robot* who has by sheer force of attrition become a fully formed person in her own right is a standout. The season ended with a pretty interesting setup for season 4 which I don't doubt it will quickly overturn, and the wonderful thing is that I won't be mad, because wherever they go instead is probably going to be utterly enthralling as well. * Not a robot   2. Better Call Saul - Bob Odenkirk's Jimmy McGill hits rock bottom in an incredible season where every single thing he does is overshadowed (like Jimmy's entire life) by his sainted brother Chuck. He can't escape, no matter what he does or where he goes Chuck remains an unshakeable presence. Which makes the big climactic scene of the final episode so incredible, as Jimmy appears to FINALLY confront and address the elephant in the room and deliver a heartfelt, tearjerking speech about what his brother meant to him. The scene that follows is heartbreaking for a completely different reason and yet the latest in a giant stack of reasons why Rhea Seehorn as Kim Wexler deserves every award there is and a whole bunch of money to boot. Meanwhile, this beautifully shot show continues to unfold the background setup for Breaking Bad, and while some find the Mike and Gus scenes intrusive, I find them as fascinating as I did in that other show. They also serve as a useful breaking up of Jimmy's own narrative, and the slow and inexorable drive towards Jimmy's life intertwining (even tangentially) with Gus's drug empire is fascinating to watch unfold, like a slow-motion carwreck where you know what the result MUST be but keep hoping that somehow, some way, there will be an escape. I kinda wish this show could just continue forever, dealing with the day to day of the lives of Jimmy, Kim, Mike, Gus and hell even Howard. It's just so well made. Watching it is an endless pleasure.  1. Atlanta - I don't know how Donald Glover does it. Any of it. Because he can do anything. He can do everything. And he does. Seemingly effortlessly (which probably means it takes a hell of a lot of effort) he expertly executes writing, comedy, acting, music. I'm incredibly loving jealous. The first season of Atlanta had a lazy, meandering feel to it which mirrored Earn's own stymied potential. Season 2 feels a lot more fractured, which again makes sense as the show mostly abandons the idea of Earn as the central character and spends a lot more time with the other characters in addition to Glover's. Each story feels almost self-contained outside of some bookended episodes which show Earn's fear of falling to the wayside of his successful cousin Paper Boi and ending up like the Uncle who never lived up to his great potential. Almost every episode could be argued as the best of the season for all kinds of different reasons. It's so well-written, well-acted, well-shot, well-scored etc, it almost seems unfair that any other show has to be considered against it. Even if episode 6 didn't exist, I'd still have listed Atlanta as the best show of the year. But it does. Teddy Perkins is one of the most unsettling, deeply disturbing things I have ever seen in my life. It elicits in me the same kind of response I felt when I first saw The Shining. Everything is just wrong, and it is a chance for the talented Lakeith Stanfield to shine in an episode almost entirely to himself. It is the best episode of television of the year, on the best show on television in the year. Nothing else in 2018 came close. Jerusalem fucked around with this message at 22:23 on Jan 10, 2019 |
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Jan 4, 2019 06:36
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I actually thought The Detectorist's final season came out in 2018, I only just noticed it actually aired in 2017 (originally in Britain at least) sorry - I assume I need to replace it with something else?
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Jan 4, 2019 06:39
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Jerusalem posted:I actually thought The Detectorist's final season came out in 2018, I only just noticed it actually aired in 2017 (originally in Britain at least) sorry - I assume I need to replace it with something else? Fraid so. In happier news, there's actually still three eps of the Good Place S3 left!
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Jan 4, 2019 07:32
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Will update it before the 6th, sorry!
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Jan 4, 2019 08:15
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1. Deutschland 86 S2 My big discovery from this year. I'm a sucker for media based around the cold war time period with spies and stuff. Good music design, fantastic acting, great characters, just a fantastic show. 2. Killing Eve S1 The first show of this year (2019) to really grab me. Eve and Villanelle are such good characters!! 3. The Expanse S3 This show is THE GOODS!! Fantastic characters and great effects. Love having Miller back even if it's only for a short amount of time. 4. Supernatural S13 The boys are still fighting the good fight. This show is like a really good hug to me and I still love it in 2018. 5. Preacher S3 This show is special. 6. Legion S2 I love the interpretation of David & Farouk's powers and the story is just weird and wonderful, of course like all comic book poo poo it had to go into a battle but I still enjoyed it a lot 7. The Magicians S3 Everyone on this show is a fuckup but I love Queen Margo the Destroyer 8. Daredevil S3 Finally, Marvel manage to make something decent after the turds that were Iron Fist, The Defenders, Big Dude and Jessica Jones S2 9. American Horror Story: Apocalypse I think they finally got their groove back with this one (though they were on track with Cult after the trash that was Roanoke) 10. Atypical S2 Wholesome and funny show about a family. Oh and the main character has autism. Everything else I saw from 2018 wouldn't make my top 10 (Maniac, the other Marvel series), this list would probably be a lot different if I was caught up on all my shows (Atlanta, Brooklyn 99 & The Americans would be in there for sure). bowmore fucked around with this message at 09:16 on Jan 4, 2019 |
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Jan 4, 2019 08:30
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bowmore posted:
quote:3. 3. If you want to list less than ten shows then go for that too but I won't count it at all.
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Jan 4, 2019 09:02
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cant cook creole bream posted:You might want to find something for the last two places though. *edit* done bowmore fucked around with this message at 09:16 on Jan 4, 2019 |
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Jan 4, 2019 09:04
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I updated my list, dropping off The Detectorists, moving everything below it up a place and putting Venture Brothers into the #10 spot. Sorry for the screw-up, Rarity!bowmore posted:1. Deutschland 86 S2 I only got halfway through the first season of Deutschland 83 but always meant to catch up. Without giving away any spoilers, is 86 a whole new story or a continuation of 83? Jerusalem fucked around with this message at 23:07 on Jan 4, 2019 |
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Jan 4, 2019 23:02
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Jerusalem posted:I updated my list, dropping off The Detectorists, moving everything below it up a place and putting Venture Brothers into the #10 spot. Sorry for the screw-up, Rarity!
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Jan 5, 2019 00:33
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I was so tempted to add Ash vs. Evil Dead to my list, but I don't have time to see latest season before deadline. Oh well. In other news, The Orville is probably the best series of all time. Definitely the gayest space show by far. 
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Jan 5, 2019 01:21
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Welp another year in the bag and I'm sure as gently caress not any wiser. Thanks again Rarity for being the hero we need but don't deserve. I wish I could provide a better informed list but there are a lot of shows I know could make the cut that I just wasn't able to get to yet such as: Patriot (loving shameful I know), Happy, The Americans, GLOW, Barry, Riverdale and The Deuce. I'm a bad TV watcher. Honourable mentions: Star vs the Forces of Evil, Maniac, Altered Carbon, Disenchantment, Steven Universe, Adventure Time, Brockmire, and Letterkenny. 11. Joe Pera Talks With You - Adult Swim "So you're telling us that there has been an ongoing war in North America for nearly 60 years between Canadian humans and rats and nobody's even talking about it...we have to do the musical about this, gently caress Hello Dolly." This show started out as a pair of specials titled Joe Pera Talks You to Sleep (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trfHP5LHVNY) and Joe Pera Helps You Find the Perfect Christmas Tree. The series was created by and stars Joe Pera as a choir teacher for a school in Michigan. It's really hard to pin down or describe the show as there's nothing else quite like it. It follows the mundane day to day experiences of his character but does so in a thoughtful, funny and heart warming way. The highlight episode of the first season is when he takes over the announcements at his church to tell them about the transformative experience he had discovering of the song Baba O'Riley by The Who. 10. Big Mouth - Netflix "That, was, beautiful, no notes!" Nick Kroll's absurd romp through adolescence maintained form in it's sophomore season. With a stellar cast of voice actors and some surprisingly catchy music sequences what's not to love about this show? Maya Rudolph as the Hormone Monstress continues to be the stand out character for me. 9. Bojack Horseman - Netflix "Hello, I am Bojack Horseman, obviously you know who I am..." I wish i found Bojack less relatable because I don't like what that says about me but I have to give the show credit for making me think about that and become invested in the character. The show continues to set itself apart from other animated series by pushing the boundaries with the subject matter they explore and episode formats they try such as Free Churro this year. 8. The Good Place - NBC "Oh dip" I had concerns about the show's ability to continue to reinvent itself and keep up the quality from the first two seasons. While there were episodes I didn't enjoy as much I think it finished strong and I'm excited for season 4. I only wish we could have gotten a Janet version of Michael! 7. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia - FXX "Shh, shh, shhhh. It doesn't matter. It's okay, you're in the Ranger Rover now, All is well." I don't get it, thirteen seasons and the gang continues to knock it out of the park. They gave us the best response to all-female reboots AND another Boggs contest, amazing! I honestly can't pick a favourite episode from the new season. I was impressed with Rob McElhenney's physical transformation and think the performance in the finale was incredible. 6. High Maintenance - HBO "You wanna hit this?" "Yeah" A strong second showing for a show I could have just written off as a stoner comedy. This is one of the most beautifully shot and sincere series currently airing. All the stories they tell feel intimate and personal. I was excited for them to go deeper into the character of The Guy this season and look forward to the next. Bonus fact, Ben Sinclair's cameo in Maniac is great! 5. Animals. - HBO "You're seriously a Sandler man over a Carey man?...Who are you?" A criminally overlooked show that went out with a bang this year! While I'm sad to see it go I think it did a great job putting an exclamation mark on the series. It was fun to see them bring human Phil and Mike into the show. All the guest cameos and voices were awesome. I think the trial episode begging the question who is better, Adam Sandler or Jim Carey, was spectacular. 4. The Venture Bros. - Adult Swim "Oh nightly nurse Cindy Murray Abrams you are my Waterloo" Always worth the wait and leaves me wanting more. I love that the show never seems to rest on its laurels. Each season builds on the last and never feels formulaic. 3. Westworld - HBO "It's been a long time Will...longer than we thought." I went in believing it wasn't possible for the second season to live up to the first and while I feel that was the case I still really enjoyed it for the most part. The visuals, performances and music are what really sets it apart. 2. Atlanta - FX "Every now and again, people just want to have a good time." Masterpiece, I honestly can't think of a single flaw. It feels subversive while also telling hard truths. Hiro Murai might be the best director of his generation. This show led me to one of my favourite movies of the year starring Lakeith Stanfield, Sorry to Bother You! 1. Legion - FX "I am, I am Superman, and I know what's happening..." Dan Stevens is one of the most talented actors working in television today. I recall a lot of people being critical of how the season ended but I honestly loved it and am looking forward to the new season more than any other show. The soundtrack kicks loving rear end and they do a great job with all the covers. The dance sequences and other scenes used to animate or illustrate David and Farouk's powers are brilliant. I'm really sad to see Jermaine Clement and Jean Smart go but I think Navid Negahban was an amazing addition to the cast. Levin fucked around with this message at 08:17 on Jan 5, 2019 |
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Jan 5, 2019 06:07
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Corte posted:Honourable mentions: Star vs the Forces of Evil, Maniac, Altered Carbon, Disenchantment, Steven Universe, Adventure Time, Brockmire, and Letterkenny. I loved Joe Pera Talks With You as well, and it narrowly missed being in my top 10 shows (along with Legends of Tomorrow). But add it to your honorable mentions rather than keeping it as #11, or your list might not end up counting at all.
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Jan 5, 2019 07:23
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Big Bad Voodoo Lou posted:I loved Joe Pera Talks With You as well, and it narrowly missed being in my top 10 shows (along with Legends of Tomorrow). But add it to your honorable mentions rather than keeping it as #11, or your list might not end up counting at all. Listing more than ten is fine: Rarity posted:3. If you want to list more than ten shows go for it 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. If you don't want to rank your picks then that's fine as well but again, I won't count it.
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Jan 5, 2019 07:42
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That’s a great list. I really wanna watch Pera but there still aren’t any subtitles for it 
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Jan 5, 2019 09:05
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10: Travelers Still one of the smartest shows on TV, doing all they can on a tiny budget with good writing and performances. 9: The 100. Season 5 was a return to form after two mediocre seasons. A show like this is as good as its villains and Ivana Milicevic and William Miller were fantastic as Diyoza and McCreary. Can't wait for season 6. 8: Altered Carbon. I'm really happy an ambitious show like this got made and feel obliged to mention it. Sure, a lot of things could have been better but you can't make such a future world perfect on a TV budget. Kovacs getting out of the VR torture place was the biggest gently caress Yeah scene of the year for me. 7: The Terror Terrifying even before the horror monster shows up, the gradual descent into madness and death of the crews is a real nightmare to see. You just want to reach through the screen and knock some sense into them to run the gently caress away from those ships and the idiots who command them. 6: Riverdale My weekly dose of insanity and mayhem. This show defies description but I'm here for it with the help of the Sex Archie podcast to help me out to figure out what the gently caress I just watched and to make sure it was not all a dream. 5: The Expanse Given a new life by Amazon, this would have been a great final season as it upped the ante with the stakes, the space fights and the Avasarala swearing. Both Elizabeth Mitchell and David Strathairn were fantastic additions to the already great cast and I hope to see them again. 4: The Americans So many great shows have dropped the ball in coming up with a satisfying ending, a victim of their own ambitions in setting up things and not being able to finish them all. And here, the Americans pulls it off in a way that was unexpected given its grim storylines. No one gets a happy ending by any stretch but at the same time everyone has a chance for happiness in their futures and they deserved that. 3: Killing Eve Jodie Comer is just astonishingly good as a character unlike anything you've ever seen. I almost wished it was not Sandra Oh starring too who will take a bunch of awards that should have been Comer's to win. Oh's Eve is great but Villanelle is just on another level in every way. Also worthy of mentioning is David Haig who seems like another Steve Fleming / Inspector Grim type but veers completely in another, delightful direction. 2: Legends of Tomorrow Ah, the Time Idiots. How far we've come since the time of the Hawks and Rip Hunter stinking up the ship. It's a supremely silly show with a better grasp of its characters then any other superhero show at the moment. So you can get scenes where Matt Ryan's Constantine has a heart felt conversation with a cat about how his life is so screwed up even a time machine cannot fix it. And it's not silly, just good character development. 1: The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel From the very first scene this just bursts out of the TV on a quality level unlike anything else. Every take seems to last for 5 minutes with a thousand lines of dialogue and the camera floating through everything like that shot from Goodfellas. They actually have the same steadicam operator as Scorsese on the show. Sets, costumes, everything is so marvelous I wanted it to go on forever. Rachel Brosnahan continues to amaze while everyone else seems to get a little more to do then last season. The season is kind of all over the place and everyone will have things they believe should have taken up less time (for me that would be Paris and Abe at work) so other things could have had more (Susie and the thugs, the department store) to make it even better. But none of that changes the sheer quality that Mrs. Maisel brings, the best show of the year.
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Jan 5, 2019 14:22
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I'm not getting to Travelers in time after all so my list will stand. Sorry time bros
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Jan 5, 2019 14:42
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Regy Rusty posted:I'm not getting to Travelers in time after all so my list will stand. Sorry time bros It's alright, some benevolent time traveler will override you to fix your mistake.
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Jan 5, 2019 20:10
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Man am I glad the deadline for this was extended. Let's get this over with, I've got some poo poo to say. ----- 10.) Riverdale Riverdale is...uneven. Or at least it is for most people. Me, I seem to have a life-endangering inability to smell trash, so I just keep on hooting and hollering "gently caress you, it's a good show" to all the ironic fans that keep popping up to say "Wow, the writing on this is awful, I love it." I would offer this observation, however: The reason Riverdale gets away with as much as it does, in spite of its million inconsistencies and its conveniently ignorant characters, is because it has a strong thematic backbone with an unsurprising appeal in these terrifying times: Children struggling to survive the callous actions of their parents and the other adults that would presume to look out for them. "Survive" is a good word: corruption and darkness seem to have an iron grip on this town, and victories against it rarely come without heavy prices. Many of these kids even take on the more toxic characteristics of their elders, even as (and perhaps because) they rebel against them. Coincidentally, you could argue that they act (and look) five years older than they're supposed to be, forced to mature quicker than they should. It usually feels like Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and his crew plot this show with dartboards and vodka, but in the end, they know what they're doing. And what they do on the surface is pretty sick. The second half of last season careened into Archie-flavored knockoffs of Single White Female, Goodfellas, Scream, The Candidate, Rebel Without a Cause, and Silence of the Lambs—sometimes even in the same breath. And it ended hard: with Hiram Lodge, the bastard love child of Dick Cheney and Michael Corleone, firmly in control of the quaint town of Riverdale with his wife installed as a puppet mayor, prepared to suck its resources dry. Where do you go from there? How about a True Detective season 1 riff that satirizes the Dungeons & Dragons Satanic Panic of the 80s while throwing in a whole lot of Shawshank Redemption (right down to casting a Bob Gunton lookalike as the warden!) and a bit of Django Unchained? Confused? You won't be after you catch up with Riverdale! 9.) GLOW Season 1 of GLOW did exactly what it needed to do: It took a simple story of two best friends finding their way back together (sort of) after a seemingly unforgivable betrayal, and used it to set up a cast of characters that could grow and strengthen the show for years to come. It was slight, but it was warm, sweet, and funny; a perfect light binge. So with the setup painlessly out of the way, Season 2 steps things up with a narrative that's a lot heavier and more ensemble-centric. The stakes are a lot bigger now that we know these people, and the result is a show that goes from "warm" to "intense," "sweet" to "big-hearted," and "funny" to "loving hysterical." It also takes an occasional creative leap that pays off handsomely: "The Good Twin," which is a half-hour episode of the wrestling show-within-the-show, is one of the funniest things you'll see this year involving a goat, a voodoo priestess, and a kidnapping PSA in the style of USA for Africa. And what makes it more impressive is that it follows "Nothing Shattered," which is almost as emotionally raw as some of the strongest episodes of shows further down this list. GLOW broke out exactly the way you'd hope a show in its second season would. If it builds on its momentum, expect this to rank a lot higher next year. 8.) Sharp Objects Confession: This is a DNF. I got through two episodes, loved them, but had to let it go due to emotional exhaustion, swearing to pick it back up by the end of the year. That never happened, but it seems borderline criminal to not acknowledge how immaculately and creatively directed this was by Jean-Marc Vallée, not to mention the astonishing turns from Amy Adams and Patricia Clarkson. The two episodes I've seen are soaked in gothic, sun-fried atmosphere, setting up not just an intriguing, disturbing mystery but a character that I could (in theory) watch Adams do all day. I might not know how this story ends yet, but the way this story begins is undeniable. When I'm done, I'm sure my only regret will be that I wasn't able to rank this higher. 7.) Barry It's a resonant character study of an emotionally broken yet terrifyingly capable veteran (Bill Hader in a revelatory performance) trying desperately to piece his sanity and morality back together. It's also one of the sharpest satires of the Hollywood mindset to come along in years, presenting a cast of side characters that represent some of the worst this industry has to offer while still feeling real, relatable, and even pretty likable. It also has NoHo Hank. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzRUMgrXx70 I mean, what more do I need to say here? 6.) Everything Sucks! Frankly, if it wasn't for this show, I'm not sure I would've bothered with the list this year. Nothing against it, I love doing these things. It's just that my life's been changing all of the sudden, and I don't have as much time for writing and TV as I usually do. But this show got a pretty visceral reaction out of me, even though it got some bad heat from these parts for fairly respectable reasons—the first few episodes make the mistake of doubling down hard on 90s nostalgia porn, giving people the impression that it's the only thing the show had to bank on. I was able to push through it (mostly because I'm a sucker for 90s nostalgia porn) and as it turns out, I found that there was a lot more to the show. And since I'm not getting any more of it, I'd like to take this opportunity to eulogize it once and for all. I'll spare you as much of a "Sir, this is a Wendy's" confessional as I can, but a lot of my love for Everything Sucks is personal, and I kinda have to go into it. I didn't come of age in the show's era of 1996; the early aughts were more my time. But like the show's protagonist, Luke O'Neil (Jahi Di'Allo Winston), I was shy, creative, obsessed with movies, and a total hopeless romantic in high school who was desperate to get a girlfriend. It wasn't that I wanted sex; well, obviously I did, but I was a little more innocent than most other people and my brain kind of reframed it as a need for emotional intimacy and, yeah, validation. I grew up and realized, on my own, that this was kind of lovely in its own way, and that's pretty much a big part of what Everything Sucks! is about. His first day of high school, Luke meets Kate (Peyton Kennedy) in the A/V Club and falls head over heels for her, as you do when you're a straight 14-year-old guy and you meet a beautiful, friendly girl your age. They bond while he fixes her video camera, and Luke makes a plan to ask Kate out. What he doesn't know is that Kate is starting to realize that she might be attracted to other girls—something that scares the poo poo out of her, considering they all live in a remote northwestern town pre-Matthew Shepard. So when Luke does ask Kate out, she says yes—partly because she feels like she should at least try dating a guy, partly because Luke did one of those grand gestures that seem so romantic on the surface it behooves a person to not leave the guy hanging like this. Antics happen, and Kate, Luke, and Luke's friends Tyler and McQuaid end up drawing the wrath of the school's famed Drama Club after their sets for the big play are accidentally destroyed, forcing Luke to make a peace offering: Instead of doing a play, he'll bring in the A/V Club and direct them in a movie. This all takes about four episodes to happen; pacing wasn't this show's strong suit. But the dynamics that come into play afterward tenderly explore the so-called "point" of human connection, the various ways and reasons it happens or dissolves, and why one form of connection (romantic) isn't better or worse than another (platonic). The show becomes more of a "friend-mance" as Luke is forced to come to terms with his crush's sexuality, and how she comes to matter in truly important ways as his world starts to fall apart around him (for reasons that have very little to do with Kate). You probably didn't need a teen show set in the 90s to do that, but the nostalgic factor gives the proceedings a unique air of middle-aged reflection rather than youthful immediacy, setting it far apart from your Riverdales and 13 Reasons Whys of the landscape. It, uh...it hit me pretty loving hard. And while I stopped talking it up here shortly after Netflix's cancellation, it's still something I end up eventually pushing onto my close friends. The series ends on one of the meaner cliffhangers in recent memory—as mean as you can get without main characters appearing to be in mortal peril, really—but an ultimately appropriate one that kind of reinforces its ultimate point. Pain and awkwardness will always show up just as you think everything's going to work out, it says in its final moments. But from all that's come before, the implication is that it'll be the people around you that get you through it...and maybe it doesn't really matter if you're making out with any of them on a regular basis. 5.) American Vandal I'm not sure whether to thank Netflix or flip it off for canceling this show. On one hand, the seams were starting to show—the season was less funny overall, Peter doesn't seem to have learned from his mistakes in the first season, and casting slightly more recognizable actors like Taylor Dearden was starting to strain the immersive brilliance of its true-crime parody. Maybe it was ultimately better to leave us wanting more. On the other hand, what it lost in laughs it made up for in perception, delivering pitch-perfect observations about the complicated nature of high school popularity, how social media has changed things for both worse and better, and the ways adults constantly bully and demean the children they're supposed to look after in the name of "what's best." American Vandal had a stellar second season, and even if it's better to leave them wanting more, by God, that doesn't change the fact that I want more. I'm sure whatever Tony Yacenda and Dan Perrault do next will be outstanding, but this...this was something very special. Maybe it deserved to decline before we lost it. 4.) The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Much of what was true then remains true now: Rachel Brosnahan is amazing as Midge Maisel, Amy Sherman-Palladino is a hell of a writer, and this show looks and feels like nothing else on TV, delivering a pure burst of happiness with each episode. Joel, humbled by his discovery of his wife's stand-up career, moves away from last season's role as schmuck ex-husband and into something more supportive and friendly; something that could be unfairly redemptive if Michael Zegen didn't sell his character's quiet self-loathing and admiration for his ex's talent so well. Tony Shalhoub, however, breaks out as the quiet star of the season during its Catskills arc; his impromptu walk-in on his daughter's stand-up performance, and the panic-ridden set that follows, is an absolutely legendary scene, provoking howling blackout laughter amidst the clear emotional devastation. Like GLOW, Mrs. Maisel's second season is basically "more and better," and even when it feels overstuffed it always seems to overdeliver. 3.) Bojack Horseman I've written about this show so often that I don't know what else I can do except point to "Free Churro" and declare that if Will Arnett doesn't get an Emmy for that thirty-minute monologue it'll be forever illegitimate. 2.) Homecoming In a perfect world, this and the next entry on my list would've tied for first as they do two very different things equally well. Homecoming, a little side project for Mr. Robot creator Sam Esmail as he puts together its fourth and final season (Esmail directed every episode of Homecoming but is not credited on any scripts—Micah Bloomberg and Eli Horowitz run the writer's room, adapting their popular podcast of the same name), is a taut 10-episode, 5-hour thriller that moves in, hits hard, and gets out quick with each well-structured episode. Julia Roberts leads the cast in what is arguably the best performance of her long, storied career, backed up by a top-of-their-game supporting cast including Stephan James, Bobby Cannavale, Shea Whigham, Hong Chau, Alex Karpovsky, and Jeremy Allen White. It goes to some insane and perhaps absurd places, but it never feels goofy; it's paranoid and dangerous in some of the best traditions of classic thrillers. Speaking of which: Esmail chooses to sample scores from those thrillers in place of an original score of the show's own, but rather than make it feel like more of a pastiche, it does a great job of highlighting our expectations of the kind of big evil corporation at the center of this narrative, making it all the more devastating when they're subverted by showing us an evil that's far banaler and more twisted than we could possibly dream up on our own. Esmail's making himself comfortable in Hollywood. Glad he's here to stay. 1.) Cobra Kai Mr. Miyagi says, "Balance is key." Not just in karate, but in life. A follow-up to the Karate Kid trilogy from the creators of the Harold & Kumar series and the writer of Hot Tub Time Machine from the perspective of Johnny Lawrence could've and maybe should've come off like bullshit hipster revisionist fan fiction. But Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, and Hayden Schlossberg did their homework, presenting an eminently believable portrait of two middle-aged men who can't move past their glory days; one because he's weighed down by a lifetime of abuse from parents and teachers, another because his financial success and family's well-being is literally tied to it. This is more complicated than "Johnny good now, Daniel-san evil." They're both flawed, broken people who still manage to do plenty of good while quietly passing their damage onto their children and/or pupils. People who don't realize how much they need each other to heal and move forward; after all, "balance is key." This is an astonishingly heavy and complex dramatic gauntlet for any TV show to throw down, let alone a genre show, let alone a freakin' Karate Kid follow-up, and so-called washouts William Zabka and Ralph Macchio step the gently caress up in response. It's also goddamn hysterical at times as well, with amazing gags such as the dick drawings on some of Daniel's billboards ("We blow the competition away!") and the sudden full-frontal assault on a girl that's been picking on one of Johnny's pupils (Nichole Brown). The kids are great too: Xolo Mariueñda is a hell of a find as Johnny's unexpected charge Miguel, while Mary Mouser (as Daniel LaRusso's daughter Sam), Tanner Buchanan (as Johnny's son Robby), Jacob Bertrand (as one of Miguel's best friends) and Brown each do strong supporting work with great, involving arcs of their own. And the groundwork laid for season 2 suggests it's got nowhere to go but up. Can't wait. ----- Thanks for doing this, Rarity! I'm sorry it's not up to my usual quality (like I ever had a usual quality, wakka wakka), but I'm always happy for an opportunity to look back on the year and plug some of the stuff I've been loving. Here's to another great year for the glass tit!
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Jan 5, 2019 20:56
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DivisionPost posted:10.) Riverdale
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Jan 5, 2019 23:03
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The best TV show I watched in 2018 was probably my rewatch of Twin Peaks: The Return, and the best TV show I watched for the first time in 2018 would probably be Future Man, but there were still some pretty good shows that actually came out this year, too. 10) Castle Rock (Hulu) This is on here primarily for episode 7, "The Queen," a mind-bending, deeply moving tour-de-force for Sissy Spacek. It towers over the rest of the season, which was very Stephen King-ian in its flaws--a great hook and creepy setup that slowly loses steam as it tries to figure out where to go and how to end. Still, it had some amazing individual pieces, including that episode, the crazy bed-and-breakfast couple, and the prison massacre, even if they don't entirely come together.  9) The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Amazon) Effortlessly charming and beautifully constructed and shot.  8) Wild Wild Country (Netflix) There were a lot of true crime docs this past year, but only this one really grabbed my attention. It just seemed so crazy for a series of events that I had never heard about. The filmmakers also secured interviews with people on multiple "sides," giving it a more well-rounded perspective that other true crime docs.  7) Patriot (Amazon) Bone dry in the best possible way.  6) GLOW (Netflix) A big improvement over an already-great first season. The one episode that's just the show-within-the-show is real good, but the preceding episode set in the hospital was even better. The no-holds-barred argument between Ruth and Debbie was as loving real as it gets and totally worth the simmering tension slowly building between the two.  5) Bojack Horseman (Netflix) If you're not watching this show you can barf me a river, fartbag!  4) Homecoming (Amazon) A lovely, paranoid fever dream.  3) American Vandal (Netflix) gently caress YOU NETFLIX THIS WAS ACTUALLY THE BEST TRUE CRIME DOC AND IT WASN'T EVEN REAL  2) Atlanta (FX) Every adjective you can use to slap on an advertisement for a TV show, like "Original," "Daring," "Engrossing," etc., unironically apply here in full. The Teddy Perkins episode alone could be an Oscar-winning short film.  1) Barry (HBO) Takes what could be a goofy, high-concept plot and finds something raw and human lurking amid the hitman hijinks and showbiz satire. The scene with Barry and his Marine bud in the car was the most tense I felt all year, and the final line is both soul-crushing and absolutely hysterical.
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Jan 5, 2019 23:36
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10. Archer (FXX) I continue to enjoy this iterative comedy show, even though I don’t think they’ve made a new joke in ~4 seasons. Really liked the gimmick this season and am super stoked for an Alien rip-off for the final season! 9. SNL 44 (NBC) The long-running comedy staple has had some tough departures in recent years, but long-time cast members keep things trucking along. Jost and Che finding their stride in Update helps, but the program that started ~fake news~ is starting to feel redundant. The show started moving away from politics, but the Cold Opens remained Baldwin-heavy. 8. John Oliver (HBO) Probably the most high-profile of the Jon Stewart alumni (who kept the format), he continues to lampoon topics that the media misses, being both comical and informative. 7. The Great British Baking Show (BBC/Netflix) Simple and enjoyable, this is an easy binge or background show. Calming and predictable. 6. Neebs Gaming (Youtube) Half-Let’s Play and half-machinama, this channel has become a staple of my media diet. Their Ark and Conan series are updated weekly, and their less regular series like Human Fall Flat or Scrap Mechanic always make me laugh. So far, this channel has nudged me into buying Ark, Subnautica, GTA5 on PC, and I’ve ended up binging through most of their back catalogue. This is my new “get home, decompress” show after work. 5. Doctor Who (BBC) Doctor Who has always been a lady. Bringing her acting chops from Broadchurch, Jodi Whitaker brings new life to the longest-running sci-fi series while remaining true to the character’s legacy. 4. Nailed It! (Netflix) Nicole Byer is a national treasure and one of you single assholes needs to give her some dicccccccc! 3. The Expanse (Syfy) The best sci-fi since  on TV, and this elevates beyond that cultural touchstone by having a plot already arced out! Fantastic characters, amazing world building, and beautiful effects make this a must watch! Amazon may be a blight on our age, but at least they saved this show.2. The Last Kingdom (Netflix) If c.2006 Ridley Scott decided to make a tv show: this would have been it. Amazing cinematography, wonderful acting, and a historic setting make this my favorite multi-season period piece. The way they handle the passage of time and development of characters is more like a film than a show. The main character’s arc is becoming slightly repetitive, but it’s excusable to fit him into historic events. 1. The Terror (AMC) I’m a sucker for 19th century sailing films and shows, so this was a treat! A phenomenal cast featuring Jared Harris, Tobias Menzies, and Cirian Hinds produces amazing drama. The costumes and sets looked like they were from a film. I am a little disappointed with the supernatural twist, I kind of felt the same way about this that I felt about Hereditary: the acting and writing were too good for  just a horror film/show. Absolutely amazing, and if you have strong willpower, you can write off the supernatural elements as the demented delusions of a lead-poisoned crew!
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Jan 5, 2019 23:43
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Honorable Mentions - American Dad, Superstore & Will & Grace are all consistent sources of laughs for me. Maniac... I got halfway through and just haven't managed to finish. Legion, you were... good but confusing. Dr Who was solid but not exceptional. American Vandal S2 had a lot of poo poo to deal with, but didn't deserve to be cancelled. Mad as Hell is still great. American Horror Story Apocalypse Started so strong, but then had so many useless flashbacks. 10 - Hilda - A great little kids animation filled with whimsy & care. If I had kids I'd make them watch this and hope they'd take some great little life lessons away from Hilda. If you liked Gravity Falls & Over the Garden Wall but want a more grounded and gentler approach, this is for you.  9 - Handmaid's Tale - Still an hour of misery continually forced down our throats. But with an increased focus on Alexis Bledel & Serena Joy (You'll never make me like her), it was gripping Tv. Still gotta give props to Aunt Lydia for her continued amazing presence. Whenever she's on screen, you can't look away. HOWEVER the final scenes of S2 had me yelling BULLSHIT.  8 - Nailed It - Nicole Byer is an absolute gem who makes this show some great light-hearted entertainment. Whenever she gets thirsty over some of the male contestants, it's a very "Same girl... same" moment in our house. Sometimes contestants do okay, or they get creative, or sneak some alcohol and it's absolutely relatable tv. I'm sure we've all been there at some point and 'Nailed it"  7- The Block - Being an Aussie in the UK, I was perplexed by UK 'renovation programs' which I honestly thought were 1990s reruns until seeing the "Created in 2018" in the closing credits. After this shocking revelation, I had to watch more of the terrible UK renovation shows, (60 minute makeover, House Doctor, Great British Interior Design Challenge) with my British housemates exclaiming that their (hideous) work was 'just lovely'. Getting on my high horse, I then had to inform my housemates that their interior design programming was generally poo poo and that I'd show them something better. What followed was 3 months of The Block in our flat watched at least 3/4 times a week. Sure it was padded out as gently caress and there was useless drama created by the producers, BUT the actual interior design was NICE! Terrible winners though.  6 - Black Mirror: Bandersnatch - This is the future of entertainment and I am HERE FOR IT!  5 - The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina - I tuned into this to see if it was good. And over a weekend I was done. It was good. Very good. Forget everything you knew about Melissa Joan Heart's constant misadventures and misfires with her glittery finger and say hello to a gloomy AF setting where the only cheer comes from Sabrina's attitude. There's a lot of satan worshipping, an unexpected orgy and more cannibalism than I expected. The only thing I kind of wanted to see return was the sassy cat. But it's a very watchable show. One day I'll continue Riverdale S2... but not today.  4- Pose - Ryan Murphy's best shows are ones that he sets up and leaves them to work. The worst Ryan Murphy programs are the ones where he is actively involved in every episode and it becomes a whirlwind of chaos. Thankfully POSE is more of the former. Set in NY during the 80s this program focuses on Queer PoC who would usually be marginalised, and through a wide range of characters, share their joys and defeats. While this could easily become a misery-fest (Looking at you Handmaid's Tale), Pose also celebrates the joyous side of queer life.  3- Legends of Tomorrow After a terrible first season, LoT knew what it wanted to be and WENT for it. It's quite frankly the best superhero tv show with more time travel and magical creatures. Oh and they summoned a magical giant 'tickle-me-elmo' stand-in called Beebo. Beebo wrestled a demon before destroying him in a heart-shaped explosion. Wait, come back! You have to watch this show!  2- The Good Place - Look, what hasn't already been said about this show? It's great. Get on board or get the fork outta the way.  1- RuPaul's Drag Race - This show monopolised more of my time than I'm willing to admit. From launch parties to home viewings to pub viewings and then the subsequent Reddit threads & Lee Dawson's RuCaps this program has monopolised more of my mental capacity than what is normal or healthy. And I love it. From All Stars 3: Ben DeLaCreme being amazing, Thorgy rightfully calling out the challenge structure & being eliminated and the BS Jury twist, we got an ok winner in Trixie. Then in Season 10 it was a strong cast with some great challenges which fizzled out towards the end. Finally, All Stars 4 has burst back onto our screens with more GIFable moments. It's a lot of queer tv subverting traditional primetime tv and I love it. 
Andrew_1985 fucked around with this message at 04:03 on Jan 6, 2019 |
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Jan 6, 2019 01:14
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