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Coming in hot with a last minute submission- 10: Snowpiercer- Ended surprisingly well considering all the drama behind the scenes 9:Resident Alien-Tudyk continues to own the role, but I can't help but feel the plot is starting to spiral 8:Warhammer40k The Tithes- This will be hard to explain if you aren't already a fan of the franchise so I'll just say it does an amazing job showing the realities of life under an oppressive regime without being too heavy handed about it 7:Alone- Every year this show exists I'm putting it on here 6:The Creep Tapes- Yes as it turns out "POV Mark Duplass destroys you psychologically before killing you physically" was my exact jam 5:English Teacher- poo poo's hosed, let's all laugh together about how much it sucks 4:Batman Caped Crusader- The number 1 bullet point on my list of childhood nostalgia, refurbished and re-energized 3:The Penguin- With how dramatic it gets, it's easy to forget how fun this show also is 2:Fallout- This show was made for me and managed to fit in every single thing I've ever wanted in a show. Being an adaptation of a franchise I love ended up being a bonus 1: Shogun I seriously cannot imagine this being anything else
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Jan 18, 2025 18:21
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10. Interior Chinatown - Great concept, every episode had its own homage going on and was interesting recentering as events unfurled. 9. What We Do In The Shadows - Show has been stellar all along, no bad seasons, and ended great as well. 8. KAOS - Love mythology and thought this was a great modernization of the gods we know and loathe. Shame it's not getting a followup, but what we got was great. 7. Evil - Fun characters in a demony x-files setup, will definitely miss this crew. 6. FROM - Been enjoying this show despite the anxieties of others who subjected themselves to another four letter show, and this latest season really gave confidence it's going somewhere and that it has known where it is going while they made it. 5. Lower Decks - This is the best Trek since my previous favourite, Voyager. Only one of the nuTreks who understands what it means to be a Star Trek. 4. Doctor Who - More Doctor Who is always good. 3. Fallout - Expected to hate this as much as I hate Bethesda's take on the franchise, but it was actually really good. Watched it twice just for kicks, looking forward to New Vegas season. 2. Taskmaster - Don't think I'll ever get sick of this format, I've seen every english version multiple times by now, youtube just throws them in randomly no matter what I was watching before and it's rare I actually go out of my way to stop it. 1. The Curse - Just incredible evolution of the stuff Nathan Fielder seems interested in tackling. It was so uncomfortable and pointed at times, more pointy than many of his past ventures, and had some killer cinematography to boot. And just a bitter grimace like I smelled something bad, because I'm still annoyed at it, Grotesquerie takes the cake for some of the worst poo poo I ever subjected myself to in television. Such a miserable and tedious and pointless experience, terrible unlikable characters. Whole thing should've been one of the lovely American Horror Stories shorts that rank on the bottom of a season, and the most grotesque thing about it is that it not only was a whole season already, but they intend to make another. On a more positive note, I don't think I was considering what all counted as a TV show, and if I didn't already make my list, I'd find room On Cinema at the Cinema. This current season is already off to a great start at the Movie House, but the show is consistently hilarious and manages to find a new twist and turn to throw at us. I give On Cinema 5 bags of popcorn and ten tubs of soda, and a little half eaten pack of red vines that i ate half of because theyre good too.
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Jan 18, 2025 18:33
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I guess I'll put my two cents in for the list since I actually can scrounge together enough shows to make one for myself. I missed out on a good chunk of television in 2025 so there are a few shows like Shogun, the English Teacher, Baby Reindeer, etc. that are omitted not because I think they were bad, just that I don't have an opinion on them and may never depending on how I want to tackle the endless backlog of shows I want to watch. 10. Hacks The roast episode was good. Why are there no episode synopses on Wikipedia? 9. Interior, Chinatown This show kinda feels like how I felt about Reservation Dogs last year, except now there's space to put it on my list. Conceptually, I should love both shows, but there was just some disconnect with how the writing felt to me that I appreciated the show more than enjoyed it. I think the pacing was mostly the issue in this case; a 30-minute episode runtime would have made the episodes feel substantive rather than scant in my opinion. Still a good time playing with meta-narrative devices and talking about Asian-American experiences, just not great in my eyes. 8. The King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard World Tour 2024 - North American Leg Part 1 Now, to anyone reading this, I'm sure you're all asking yourself the same question - how can this possibly qualify for this list? Am I going to nominate Taylor Swift for her Eras tour next? Well, in my argument, this should be an easier qualification than the Jenny Nicholson video that was previously nominated. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard livestreamed and archived most of the shows on this part of their tour on their YouTube channel, making it essentially an online televised concert series, akin to a modern-age version of a PBS symphonic performance. These are some great jam band experiences (they really are the Grateful Dead for Zoomers) that you can listen to for hours and still have more content to come. You can find the playlist of videos here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tfm4okv47M4&list=PLjEpdah_kOgeswpsb6QCHK1LpOdEoLvWR 7. Fargo Getting back to giving traditional TV shows their due, I'll put Fargo again on my list because there wasn't much to unseat it (looking at you in particular, The Bear...), though it has dropped a few places on the list. I still like it, but I think my higher placement was due to a bit of recency bias and there being a good set of comedies at least this year that I tend to favor in my ratings. Don't need to say much more about this than I already have and I think all the convincing you can do to make someone watch this has been done. 6. Curb Your Enthusiasm Very strong finish to a legendary comedy and my favorite of the post-2011 seasons. Larry going back to rectify the Seinfeld ending with the overarching concept of the season (getting arrested due to voter suppression laws in Georgia) is a great concept for the final season of this show. RIP to the great Richard Lewis. 5. The Spectacular Failure of the Star Wars Hotel The argument presented under the KGatLW nom wasn't to denigrate this spectacular video. Nicholson manages to make a 4-hour long video easier and more compelling to watch than most people in Hollywood could making something half the length. To see Disney fail in such a public and grand manner is rare; the depth at which she cataloged it and Disney's attempts at damage control make me feel like there was a genuine cultural shift that this video catalyzed. It's good and important enough to justify being here on this list as well. 4. The Vince Staples Show The only issue I had with this show was that it's only 5 episodes long! Vince Staples has proved himself a generational talent with this show, Black Business being the highlight and one of my favorite episodes of TV of all time. Looking forward to season 2 and sorry for throwing up at one of your concerts last year Mr. Staples. 3. What We Do In The Shadows Another excellent sendoff to a slightly less legendary but still one of the best comedies of all time. Tim Heidecker was a welcome addition to the cast and the corporate shenanigans were a fun departure from the house set. I could have watched this show until it became unrecognizably bad but I'm glad it was sent out on a high note. 2. Fallout For as much as I liked The Last of Us TV adaption, I wasn't particularly compelled to list a narrative I've already seen as one of the best TV shows of 2023. Fallout's open-world nature pays off in dividends for the show, as that addresses the core issue and allows for three unique stories to be told within the framework of an existing IP. As cliche as it is, the show really did recapture your youth exploring the Capitol Wasteland or the Mojave Desert in a 3D Fallout for the first time (I won't acknowledge any posters whose first game was F4, of which there's probably a half-dozen on the whole website). Hope the showrunners of TLoU saw how well this was received (and the Bill episode) and get a little wild with telling stories in S2 that aren't 1:1 with the game. 1. The Curse Rectifying my omission of this from last year's list by rightfully putting it at #1 (though last year it wouldn't have beat Succession or Beef). A haunting depiction of gentrification and the society that creates it. If you don't like the ending, watch it again on psychedelics. And I think that about wraps it up! Looking forward to making the 2025 list as this year has already started strong with Severance's return. demostars fucked around with this message at 10:17 on Jan 21, 2025 |
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Jan 19, 2025 07:03
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10. The Gentleman (Netflix) This was a delight to watch. I've always been a sucker for Guy Ritchies suave, poo poo talking gangster flicks and this effortlessly translated to a really fun TV show that was a breeze to watch. 9. Special Ops: Lioness (Paramount) I don't know why I keep watching Taylor Sheridan shows, but I can't help myself. This was head and shoulders above the rest of his output this year with some genuinely impressive action sequences that you're not likely to see on the small screen again. 8. Fallout (Amazon) What a delightful adaptation of a video game franchise that screams "you should make a TV show from this" but at the same time contains countless potential pitfalls. Luckily, none of those pits was falled. The tone was perfect, the characters were fun, the case was spectacular and they did a great job weaving a TV story into a video game world. 7. Boy Swallows Universe (Netflix) Came out early in the year but it definitely deserves mention. Was stoked to see that this cleaned up at the Logies last year (Australia's version of the Emmys) and rightly so. A devastating crime story with some spectacular performances from the two child leads. 6. English Teacher (Hulu) By far the best pure comedy of the year. Sharply written, endlessly confident in itself with no Season 1 jitters. The show is sweet, without being eye-rolly and most of all, it's funny. Looking forward to a Season 2. 5. The Penguin (HBO) The Batman wasn't the best movie ever made but I've found myself defending it online more often than I'd like to admit because I feel it gets way too much unnecessary hate. This show did a good job further fleshing out the world and I thought it did a fantastic job of navigating the "lets make the bad-guy main character sympathetic cause he's our POV character despite the fact he's despicable piece of poo poo" problem that many shows of The Penguins ilk fall foul too. 4. Shogun (FX) FX is the loving best. How did a show of this scale and ambition get made at all, let alone by plucky little FX. Genuinely impressive and I'm glad it got the recognition it deserved. Would I have liked a little more blood to spilled and/or spectacle? Sure, but I'm glad that it appears the creators got to make the show they wanted to make. Curious how the hell they are going to handle Season 2, but that can wait for another years poll. 3. Say Nothing (FX) Did I mention FX is the loving best? What a spectacular show. Managed to tell a riveting story that spans decades with brilliant performances and casting. Navigated the tonal shifts deftly, starting with a rip-roaring, youthful, rebellious opening to the season with a cast displaying the idealogical passion that only a teenager/young adult is capable of, only to see those same characters 30 years later devoid of any of that with nothing but regret and sadness in it's place. All this bookmarked by the harrowing hunger-strike episode that is probably the best hour of TV i saw this year. 2. Industry (HBO) The show continues to barrel forward at a million miles an hour and I love every second of it. I'm glad it now seems to be getting the recognition it deserves. The creators show no signs of slowing down and it's amazing how they've managed continue to evolve the show, showing more sides to the characters we know, and introducing new ones that we feel we've known all along. Some genuinely impressive creative risks taken this year and they all paid off terrifically. Can't wait to see what's next. 1. Ripley (Netflix) Some of the most visually impressive stuff I've seen put to screen since Twin Peaks The Return. Absolutely stunning. Andrew Scott's performance was captivating and a great interpretation of a story we know and love that managed to be entirely faithful but utterly unique at the same time. Shout out to Fargo and The Curse which I voted for last year so won't vote for again. Also shout out to Slow Horses, The Bear, Black Doves, Get Millie Black, Nobody Wants This, The Comeback, Renfaire, Shoresy, The Agency, and probably about 10 other things I'm probably completely forgetting because I was terrible at recording down my watch history this year.
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Jan 19, 2025 12:37
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TelevisedInsanity posted:8. Deal or No Deal I know we're not supposed to criticise other peoples picks but I need to ask, Why?! I don't know about the non-Australian formats of the show but what on earth do you see in the Australian Version? I do not understand the appeal of this show at all. Literally the first 25 minutes of the show are completely and utterly pointless and there is zero skill or strategy whatsoever. If low amounts go it all "Lets keep going, there is so much still on the board" and if all the high amounts go it's "well, we've come this far, we might as well keep going". There is no drama or stakes whatsover. Just start the show with 5 cases and be done with the rest.
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Jan 19, 2025 12:45
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Today's the last day and we're missing a couple lists, I'm noticing 
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Jan 19, 2025 15:38
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I'll extend the deadline to midnight PST just to be safe, I defaulted to my own timezone like an idiot when I probably shouldn't have anyway.
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Jan 19, 2025 15:50
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Throughout the decade-plus we’ve been running this poll, there is one undeniable fact that never changes: I will always, always, always watch too much television. I had remembered this year as being a little disappointing, yet when I did my final rankings I found shows I thought were a lock for the top 10 not making it in, such was the quality of the best shows 2024 had to offer. Watching a lot of TV means you have a big list, so please find ranked here 51-27, shows which did not reach the threshold for getting a blurb but which are all still very good. Note that it’s a top 51 because of a show that made it into the top 25 after I had already written everything except the top 10: 51. Girls5Eva (Netflix) 50. Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO) 49. True Detective: Night Country (HBO) 48. Fantasmas (HBO) 47. Feud: Capote vs. The Swans (FX) 46. Ghosts (US) (CBS) 45. Unstable (Netflix) 44. Ripley (Netflix) 43. How to Die Alone (Hulu) 42. Bob’s Burgers (Fox) 41. The Boys (Prime Video) 40. Snowpiercer (AMC) 39. Sunny (Apple TV+) 38. Cobra Kai (Netflix) 37. Only Murders in the Building (Hulu) 36. Ted (Peacock) 35. Bad Sisters (Apple TV+) 34. Say Nothing (Hulu) 33. We Are Lady Parts (Channel 4) 32. Royal Crackers (Adult Swim) 31. Cunk on Life (BBC Two) 30. House of the Dragon (HBO) 29. Colin from Accounts (Binge [some Australian service I guess]) 28. From (MGM+) 27. John Mulaney Presents: Everybody’s in L.A. (Netflix) Now we get to the saying-words bit: 26. The Penguin (Max) I thought this veered too close to typical uninteresting mob drama stuff occasionally, but the riveting performances from Farrell and Milioti, as well as a fascinating depiction of the titular character as an empty husk who somehow manages to talk his way out of anything, mean it still made it to the list. 25. Abbott Elementary (ABC) The currently-running fourth season has been a little mixed, but the third season, despite being affected by the strike, was superb. Still the best show on network TV. I love the podcast club. 24. Disclaimer (Apple TV+) Considering the insane pedigree of the people involved, I guess this could be considered kind of a letdown. But it was still an absorbing story with an excellent depiction of subjectivity, incredible visuals from two of the best cinematographers on the planet, and a wealth of moving performances. 23. Evil (Paramount+) One of the funniest and most bizarre shows of the past few years went out with a real bang, as the always-dependable Robert and Michelle King went whole-hog with the supernatural stuff, while giving us moving and satisfying ending arcs for the assessors and continuing to present wicked satire of various societal whatnots in many episodes. 22. Interior Chinatown (Hulu) Took a little while to get going, but ends up being a very funny look at the way East Asians are pigeonholed in Hollywood productions, and a legitimately hilarious meta spoof on police procedural cliches. While there are some great leads, I think the side characters really stole the show here - just a lot of extremely fun personalities. 21. Baby Reindeer (Netflix) The most brutal and painful show of the year by a wide margin, and the only show I can think of in my whole life where I had to take a break from watching it because it was too heavy for me to handle at that particular moment (2024 was not a great year for me!). Amazing performances and a hard-hitting look at stalking and sexual abuse, while writer and lead Richard Gadd (basing the story on his own experiences) did not sugarcoat his own role in the events. 20. Taskmaster (Channel 4) Every year recently Taskmaster seems to have one “pretty good” season and one absolutely fantastic season, and this year the latter was exceptional, with a hilarious group of contestants that complemented each other perfectly - the grouping of Jack Dee and Rosie Jones for the team tasks was a masterstroke. This year’s annual New Year Treat in the closing days of the year was also probably the best yet, with some amazing contestants I’d love to have seen in a regular series. 19. Clone High (Max) The first season of the Clone High revival was pretty shaky but found itself as it went on, whereas this season flew out of the gate fully-formed with hilarious episodes that came very close to capturing the magic of the original series. So of course it got cancelled right afterwards. Zaslav!!!!!!!!! 18. Penelope (Netflix) I’m sure this will be the least-watched show in my entire top 50, partly thanks to Netflix’s utterly bizarre decision to not release this in any territories outside of the US???? which as far as I know is the first time they’ve done that for a show that is a true Netflix Original. What the gently caress dudes. Anyway it’s a Duplass Brothers Productions joint following a young girl who runs away to try and survive in what appears to be a National Park. It’s a vibes-based show, for sure, but the vibes are immaculate, and it’s such a treat to watch Penelope (played by Megan Stott in a phenomenal lead turn) learn how to take care of herself in the woods, interact with the few people who come her way, and just appreciate the natural world around her. 17. Smiling Friends (Adult Swim) This show continues to be so ridiculously inventive and absurd, and this was easily the greatest season of an [as] show since Rick and Morty season 3. Just consistent madcap hilarity, great use of a wide variety of animation techniques, fast-paced episodes that never let up with the bonkers jokes and concepts…..it’s a hell of a lot of fun. 16. What We Do in the Shadows (FX) Everyone on SA who watches this show is always saying how so-and-so season was disappointing which makes me wonder if I’m the only person who actually likes all of it? Anyway this season was great as ever, some incredible standalone episodes and I thought the overarching office storyline was mostly funny as hell, and it provided a very satisfying conclusion to a very funny show. 15. English Teacher (FX) So Brian Jordan Alvarez turned out to be a rapey little psycho heading up a toxic friend group meaning I won’t cry if this season is all we ever get of this show. This season was still very good, though, a hilarious look at being gay in the Texas education system with a truly fantastic supporting cast. Don’t really wanna type much more about this one tbh but I liked it a lot and also gently caress that guy. 14. Game Changer (Dropout) Ok so this one is the late addition. I spent a lot of this month so far watching through this show (plus some Dimension 20) and it was excellent from the beginning but season 6, aka the one that actually aired in 2024, was on a whole nother level, absolutely unbelievably funny and ambitious and probably my favourite single season of a game show ever. It’s become clear to me that the main reason I struggled with getting into Dropout content from clips and stuff is that it really helps when you know the people involved, understand their personalities and dynamics, so watching the entirety of Game Changer meant that many of this season’s best episodes, such as Ratfish and the absolutely ingenious Bingo, hit so hard because they’re based around this group’s mannerisms, while other highlights like Beat the Buzzer showed off this team’s wildly impressive art department and manage to make incredible use of their studio space. I have no idea how they’re going to top this season, but seeing how I bought a year of Dropout, I’ll definitely be finding out, as well as catching up with many of the other shows on this service. I guess I’m one of those guys now, oops! 13. Pachinko (Apple TV+) The second season of Pachinko was just as moving and evocative as the first, and both timelines showing a Korean family’s struggle - during and after WWII, and then in the middle of the Japanese economic bubble - are full of touching and tragic moments brought to life by subtle writing, gorgeous direction, and a wonderful cast. Plus they somehow managed to top the already-best-of-the-decade title sequence from the first season, and I’ve genuinely watched the s2 opening something like 50 times lol it’s so good 12. Interview with the Vampire (AMC) I rewatched season 1 of this early in 2024 and realised I’d been underrating it dramatically, and the second season was just as good. Gothic horror is not really my bag usually but this radical reinterpretation of the classic Anne Rice text is so rich in just about every sense of the word (except the main one, about having lots of money), from the production design to the acting to the tragic romantic tone present in every scene. The season’s ending was a huge swing for the fences, but one I thought was so fascinating and exciting. Truly cannot wait to see how they follow it up. 11. My Brilliant Friend (HBO) Seemingly doomed to remain one of the most underrated shows of the past several years, this adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s exceptional Neapolitan Novels went out on a high, bringing the final (and probably the best) of the books to life in superb detail, and giving viewers more of a look into the ever-enigmatic Lila’s brain than ever, without destroying her inherent air of mystery. This whole show was such an engaging and emotional look into the lives of two friends growing up in post-war Italy, never anything less than keenly-felt subtle perfection, with an amazing Max Richter score. Stop sleeping on it tbh! And finally, of course, The Bit What Actually Counts. So many great shows have already appeared, so what does a show have to do to possibly make it into the top 10? What will take home the gold? And, more importantly, how sad will Jerusalem get when he realises none of these are Slow Horses?? (sorry J-Ru) Let’s begin:  10. The Bear (Hulu) Boy, when a highly acclaimed show drops a lesser season, people just lose their loving minds, huh? There was so much complaining not only here in TVIV but all over the internet about how this season sucked, was a waste of time, etc, and a lot of it was extremely ridiculous. To be clear, this is definitely the least good of the seasons so far, staunchly refusing to conclude any of the storylines it set up and ending with a very self-satisfied finale. But before that I still enjoyed the vast majority of it, from the symbolic dreamscapes of the premiere to the misery of episode 3 to the heartfelt genius of the Tina episode to the stressful two-hander of episode 8 - it was still as well-made and written as ever. If the fourth season ends up continuing this trend and becoming too pretentious, maybe I’ll be less generous to this one, but for now I still think it was mostly great, great TV. Also I understand this is considered a hot take but y’all are wild for getting so mad about the Faks, they were consistently hilarious and John Cena’s role was amazing, I loved it.  09. A Man on the Inside (Netflix) Michael Schur has consistently been one of our greatest television creators for almost 15 years now, and after the existential madness that was The Good Place this seemed to be sort of a step down conceptually, with Ted Danson infiltrating a retirement community on behalf of a PI to find who is robbing senior citizens of their belongings. But while it may not be asking The Big Questions in the same way his previous show was, it was still a moving and profound depiction of aging, portraying many issues that face older people in a way we don’t see too often in television. But while it excelled at that side of things it was also still a sitcom first, and it provided a great many belly laughs throughout, as well as having a first-class comedic ensemble, with Schur giving Danson another of his best roles ever, casting B99 alum Stephanie Beatriz in a very different yet equally great role as the director of the retirement community, and filling the retirees out with a murderer’s row (I’ve been using that term for a long time and only just thought to Google it and find out what it means - baseball stuff!) of fantastic character actors. It’ll be interesting to see if Schur and Danson are able to keep this going through another season with a new case, as so much of the show’s success felt tied to its location, but I’ll certainly be tuning in to find out.  08. Laid (US) (Peacock) There might be some recency bias going on with this one because it only came out in December but oh man did I have such, such a good time watching through this show. Adapted from an Australian series by Don’t Trust the B creator Nahnatchka Khan, Laid stars EEAAO’s Stephanie Hsu as a young woman learning that all of her previous sexual partners are dying in the order she slept with them. This is a great story concept on its own, and my understanding from Idiom is that the original show largely plays it for laughs, but this version uses it as a fantastic launching pad to examine Hsu’s character’s messy romantic history and struggle with personal growth in a way that ends up very effective. But, just like I said about the last entry, this is still a comedy first and it’s a very very very darkly funny one, with several fantastic jokes and many gasp-worthy moments throughout. And the dynamic between Hsu and Zosia Mamet’s true crime-obsessed best friend character is one of my favourite depictions of friendship in any show of recent times - they have such a fun and loose and easy chemistry that I just loved watching.  07. Fallout (Prime Video) I had a fair amount of trepidation going into this show - my experience with the Fallout video games isn’t too massive, but New Vegas is one of my favourite games ever, and so superbly-written in every way, that I was very skeptical a show could not only live up to that level but also balance the very specific tone of outlandish violence, bizarre satire, and post-apocalyptic human drama in the way the franchise does so well at its best. Thankfully, the creators made so many great decisions, from centring the story around 3 characters in different factions, ensuring they captured every part of the vast world, to having a fantastic cast - Walton Goggins is always great, Ella Purnell is the perfect actress to depict the wide-eyed naiveté of a Vault-dweller exploring the surface for the first time, and the legendary Kyle MacLachlan, well, proved once again why people like me put “the legendary” before his name. The production design was on-point throughout, while the humour captured the spirit of the games very well. The writers also took some big swings towards the end of the season, from inserting several flashbacks to before the bombs fell, to filling in lore questions that had remained unanswered for almost three decades, yet somehow managed to make them work perfectly and feel completely thematically appropriate to the wider franchise. The next season looks to be taking viewers into New Vegas, and I’m no longer wary but instead very excited to see how they will handle this location and the characters within. Especially Fisto. Fisto or we riot!  06. Somebody Somewhere (HBO) There was a point where I was thinking how much this show had improved every season, and I realised suddenly that I might actually be totally wrong - the show had stayed the same, but it was my connection to the characters that had changed, as I grew to love them more and more the longer I spent time with them. The most down-to-earth, grounded, and fully human show of the past few years, this slice-of-life story about a group of friends in Kansas, centred around Bridget Everett’s forty-something Sam, really deserved more than these three seasons, especially given how cheap it must have been to make, but I’ll still treasure the 21 episodes we got. In the final season it finally confronted Sam’s loneliness, a major element in the background throughout the show, and it was simultaneously touching and tragic as she faced up to how her low self-worth affected her ability to enter into a relationship, while her best friend Joel learned how to be more assertive in his marriage while having to come to terms with how his husband’s issues with his daughter meant he may never get to achieve his dream of having a child of his own. The ensemble was as funny and heartwarming as ever, as well - Sam’s sister Tricia is low-key one of the funniest TV characters of the decade so far, and it’s nice to see a friend group with so many LGBTQ+ characters that isn’t centred around drama or tragedy. This show was a real gem, and while I’m sad it’s over, I think it ended just about perfectly - I cannot imagine the final scene lasting even one frame longer.  05. Mr. & Mrs Smith (Prime Video) I’ll always be excited for a new Donald Glover joint, but I certainly had questions about this one going in. Why make an adaptation of this property specifically? Did the departure of initial co-creator and co-star Phoebe Waller-Bridge spell trouble? Can Esco think of another question for the rule of threes? (no) Of course when it dropped I stopped giving a poo poo about any of that stuff because it was clear that Glover and showrunner Francesca Sloane had a firm grasp on the material, creating a super funny action comedy which also served as a humourous look at relationships. Building on the concept of the original movie - this time, they are assassins assigned to pose as a married couple in order to carry out hits, rather then a married couple unaware that the other is also an assassin - it did a great job of mixing the episodic and serialised storylines, with the one-job-per-episode style leading to some incredible guest turns from actors like Paul Dano, Parker Posey, and Ron Perlman. But the real star of the show was Waller-Bridge’s replacement, PEN15 alum Maya Erskine, who elevated the role of Jane by bringing so much comedic timing, sexiness, and vulnerability to the table, outclassing even the wickedly talented Glover at just about every moment. While the show got a second season renewal, the finale left things up in the air for the John and Jane we got to know, leaving us unsure whether or not Glover and Erskine will return (all we know so far about season 2 is that the failson fron Anora will be in it), but whatever the case, I’ll be on that poo poo as soon as it drops.  04. Hacks (Max) There was a lot of ink spilled when this season beat out The Bear for best comedy series at the latest Emmy Awards, much of which revolved around stuff like “they actually gave best comedy to a comedy, hooray!!”. This is….not entirely unfair, but kind of missing the point. Part of the reason for Hacks’ win was, although the second season of The Bear was the one eligible for the awards due to air dates, voters would have had the less strong third season fresh in their minds while casting their ballots. The other main reason is because this season of Hacks was really, really loving good. The second season seemed like a natural end point for the show - I think it was written that way because everybody involved assumed some Zaslav bullshit was incoming - but the way they brought Jean Smart’s legendary comedian Deborah Vance and her millennial writing partner Ava Daniels back into each others orbits didn’t feel strained at all, and the season gave us a lot more fantastic showbiz satire as Deborah dealt with her career resurgence and finally went after her ultimate dream. But the power balance between Deborah and Ava has always been both the core conflict and the heart of this show, and this season stretched that dynamic in new and interesting ways, before setting up an even more fascinating one going into the upcoming fourth season that I cannot wait to see. What seemed to me like an unlikely renewal led to the best season of Hacks to date, and it’s hard to argue that that Emmy win wasn’t wildly well-deserved.  03. Shrinking (Apple TV+) This is the show that bounced around my list the most while making it, always in the top 5 but occupying every space except #1 at one point or another. Even now I’m unsure if this is the right spot for it, but any kind of silly fretting would ignore the wider point which that this was just an excellent season of TV, another Bill Lawrence classic that reminded us why he’s one of the best TV comedy creators in history. The arc of this show also reminded us how good Lawrence is at pivoting - the initial concept of “grieving therapist tells his patients how stupid their first-world problems are!!!” was kind of dreadful, yet it sprinted away from that idea almost immediately, and by the end of the first season was one of those delightful hangout sitcoms Lawrence does so well. There is still some “Jimmying” - where Jason Segel gets too involved in his patient’s lives in a way that would make any actual therapist scream - but it’s now presented in an amusing and charming way rather than mean. The second season was a perfect blend of comedy and pathos in, again, that classic Lawrence way, with a huge amount of laugh-out-lines mixing extremely well with poignant and resonant emotional arcs. But as good as the writing is, it would be nothing without the absolutely incredible cast. Segel is always dependable and good but often outshone by most everyone else in the cast, especially Jessica Williams, Michael Urie, and of course Harrison Ford, who remains far funnier in this role than anyone could have thought possible, while also having some real tearjerker scenes in this season as his character deals with his worsening Parkinson’s. But even with all of this being so good, what really made this show earn its placement was those final minutes of the season finale, which caught me completely off-guard and had me sobbing like a baby, while being a perfect climax to one of the season’s key arcs. All hail Bill Lawrence! May he continue to light up our screens with cathartic dramedy for years to come.  02. Shōgun (FX) I feel like anyone who thinks any other show besides Shōgun is going to win this poll is kidding themselves. The second TV adaptation of the James Clavell novel was critically beloved, swept the dramatic awards at the last Emmys, got a two-season renewal despite being intended as a miniseries, and has rightfully been on almost every list posted. In fact, its quality has been discussed so much by so many that I really don’t know what I can bring to the table here. Despite all this, it took me absolutely loving ages to watch it - my ADHD got real bad this year, and I struggled to watch any show that I couldn’t have a second screen going for, which meant foreign-language TV was a no-go for a long time. Finally in December I sorted myself out and caught up with many non-English language shows, including this, and….I mean yeah. It was intensely good television. The first and most obviously good thing about this version of the story was that it chose not to center the narrative around John Blackthorne and his “stranger in a strange land” POV but made him just one part of an ensemble while giving the more evocative material to the Japanese characters. And oh man, what characters they were! Toranaga, the Regent beset upon on all sides and relying on his strategic mind to find the narrow path to victory. Yabushige, the scheming, disloyal, and amazingly rubber-faced lord. And the story’s emotional core and strongest performance, Anna Sawai as Mariko, a woman from a disgraced family who has to balance her loyalty to Toranaga, her attempts to translate between him and Blackthorne as diplomatically as possible, and her strong wish for death. All of these characters, plus many more, had strong, evocative, wonderfully-paced arcs that intersected beautifully. This was also a very beautifully-shot action show, with several tense, exciting sequences, yet impressive as they were these would usually pale in comparison to the phenomenal human stories. This was never more clear than it was in the season’s climax, which hinged not upon swordfights and bloodshed but upon one character’s iron will. I know almost nothing about Japanese history, and so there was one reveal towards the very end of the finale that absolutely blew my mind, radically changing how I saw one main character and recontextualising their actions throughout the season in every way. It was truly unbelievable storytelling. I have no idea how the second and third seasons of this show will pan out, especially as they have no more source material to work from, but it’s very clear that these creators have earned any and all trust I can give them. I mean, just great, great stuff. Jesus loving christ.  01. Industry (HBO/BBC One) I don’t care how long it takes I am going to get yall motherfuckers watching this show. Industry managed to fly under the radar for its first couple of seasons - it was a co-production, so HBO didn’t tend feel the need to promote it as much, and tended to put it in the dead zone Monday slot. But then a bunch of strikes happened, shows for delayed, and the show that filmed in the UK and didn’t suffer from strike action suddenly got that primo Sunday night slot for season 3. And oh BOY was it ready to make the most of that extra exposure, delivering its smartest, most exciting, confident, and wide-ranging season yet, and continuing to mix the ruthless mockery of the worst of capitalism with the explorations of youth, sexuality, and power (and of course how inherently intertwined the latter two are) in a way very few shows have ever matched. If I needed to give a very basic description of this show to get people interested I would say something like “it’s Succession x Skins!!!!”, but that would come nowhere near adequately describing the thematic complexity and kinetic excitement of Industry at its best. So the basic premise is that Industry follows a bunch of graduates who begin internships at the prestigious investment bank Pierpoint, with leads ranging from the daughter of a wealthy publishing tycoon to the working-class boy who made something of himself to the wickedly intelligent American who faked her credentials, and over the seasons it has gone from “just” a critical and wickedly funny examination of the cut-throat finance industry to a portrayal of how that industry sinks its claws into media, politics, green energy, and just about every other thing you can imagine, shaking up its premise as it goes and bolstered by electric performances and a pulsating score. This third season also got far more ambitious in its storytelling, at times echoing The Leftovers or Station Eleven with superb character-focused episodes that still moved the season along nicely (especially with the season’s fourth episode, a deep dive into belligerent trader Rishi that rivalled the Safdie Bros’ work for sheer chaotic intensity), while adding some excellent new characters, most notably the nothing-knower himself, Kit Harrington, as the CEO of a green energy startup with familial ties to the British aristocracy. This show is so smart that honestly trying to talk about it makes me feel like a dimwit with a limited vocabulary, but it’s just so good, dense with anti-capitalist sentiment, moving emotional turmoil, and political intrigue, but also just an insane amount of fun to actually watch. This season felt like it was written to be the last one, like they didn’t expect a renewal and so went all-out on blowing up the show and making huge moves, but luckily the extra exposure it got paid off beautifully, with viewership up significantly and the show scoring a fourth season renewal. It’s a great example of why shows should be allowed the time and room to grow in the streaming era, and best believe I (and Idiom, and others) will be bothering as many of you as we can to give this fantastic, intelligent, electric show a shot in the hope it will continue to grow. While there were a lot of great shows this year (I mean, poo poo, I’ve just listed them!), this was the only one that gave me that same feeling I got from a Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Leftovers, Succession, Severance, etc where I was just so so excited to get a new episode every single week and I would devour it first thing Monday morning. My only regret is that I underrated this so much in its previous seasons and that it took me a rewatch before this one premiered to truly see its value. So, stop reading this drat thread and go watch this show right now! Do it! Aaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ok that’s my list thank you for reading  I’m sorry it took me so long. I can’t wait for another year of discussing TV with you all, and seeing if anything can beat Severance for my favourite show of 2025. Peace!
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Jan 19, 2025 19:53
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gently caress I forgot Mr & Mrs Smith. It even has my favourite Nazi joke of all time in it. poo poo. If Industry ranks that high for you I will definitely give it a go.
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Jan 19, 2025 20:07
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Looten Plunder posted:6. English Teacher (Hulu) I wouldn't hold your breath on this one.
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Jan 19, 2025 20:23
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2024: the year of Spy Shows, set in London. And I've watched pretty much every one despite some of them not being very good. Day of the Jackal was especially bad, ruining a perfect premise. And if we're not spying in London we're in 1940s-50s Europe. Some honorable mentions, some of which may have made it if I'd finished them instead of watching another spy show: -Interior Chinatown -Delicious in Dungeon -Outer Range and The Old Man final seasons 2 -Lioness (if Trump invades Mexico this show is to blame) -Evil -Penguin (outside two marvelous performances where was not enough to enjoy) -True Detective (same thing here) -Agents of Mystery (shame it was so short although with the kind of effort made to create the adventures this makes sense) -The Boys continue to entertain but not excite 10:Renegade Nell A fun little show with Louisa Harland, the best Derry Girl. One thing that kept it fresh was none of the heroes really knew why they got these superpowers, it was just the Fates at work. Even if they wanted to explain why there was no exposition to give. 9:The Agency No one in this show playing a CIA agent is really believable as such, they are all so striking and impossible to look away from. After waiting for years for the French original to be available anywhere I'm even more be interested to watch it now after seeing this first. 8:The Diplomat Another spy show, Keri Russell and Rufus Sewell still play of each other brilliantly with Rory Kinnear also giving a great performance in a character that seemed shallow and (despite being the PM) mere scenery 7:Black Doves Spy show number 3 and the best of the bunch. Or at least the most fun with everyone enjoying a lovely Christmas. Unless you are one of the dozens of background characters killed but they don't count. Ben Whishaw gives one of the best performances of the year. 6:Monsieur Spade If this had a better ending it would probably have ended up higher. But the vibes, like Ripley, of 1950's Europe are immaculate. 5:Masters of the Air After waiting so drat long it had a lot to prove. And it mostly lived up to expectations, providing the epic scope a prestige show like this requires. This was also the year of Austin Butler who is just so charismatic you'd jump into a plane headed for certain death with him. 4:Skeleton Crew Star Wars AND kids in the same series? That did set off some alarm bells as these two things have been done terribly wrong more than once. But SC was delightfully entertaining with great child actors and an excellent Jude Law. Starting out the show in a place that literally was cut off from any of the trilogies is a brilliant move to avoid the crushing weight of canon and allow the show to have some fun. 3:Ripley Such a brilliant piece of work, the vibe this gave of 1950s Italy was just enthralling. 2:Arcane I did not get to put season 1 on the first place it deserved in the year it came out and it would have been number 1 if not for Shogun. It's absolutely a decline in quality from season 1 but it was still so compelling, no other show made me lean forward to the screen as much. I can still jump to any scene and just marvel at the visual spectacle. 1: Shogun Not much to add what was already said. An absolute masterpiece from an unexpected remake, showing FX still got what it takes.
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Jan 19, 2025 20:42
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I completely forgot that Pachinko S2 and Cobra Kai S5 came out this year. I guess if I forgot them they don't deserve a place in my top 10? Or is that victim blaming?
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Jan 19, 2025 21:28
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Idiom you have less than 8 hours c’mon!!!
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Jan 20, 2025 00:20
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I'm unfortunately stuck phone-posting and won't be able to finish my list before the deadline, but I'll probably post it tomorrow anyway to contribute to the thread and if my votes aren't tallied then that's fine. (this isn't a subtle request for further extensions or anything, just in case) Great list Esco! Industry ranked very highly for me in 2024 as well.
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Jan 20, 2025 00:31
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Yeah, love everybody's lists and discovering shows I literally never would have known existed. Really enjoyed yours Esco, I promise as soon as I am done belatedly catching up on The Americans I will start belatedly catching up on Industry! But everybody else has to promise to watch Slow Horses too 
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Jan 20, 2025 00:34
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Arist posted:Reviewing some of the older lists to add more information to the spreadsheet and... huh. How do I list this? I think it's kind of stretching it to list the UK and Australian versions together, and while I haven't watched Deal or No Deal Island I'm fairly certain it's fairly different to the original concept as well. If you want me to quickly choose, pick Australian. I don't think it will get any points TBH. Looten Plunder posted:I know we're not supposed to criticise other peoples picks but I need to ask, Why?! For Deal or No Deal, it's just random luck. Deal or No Deal Island is really a challenge show with a dramatic luck element that doesn't matter until the end. UK version, much like the US version is just focused on building a narrative out of mostly nothing and it stretched for time... When casting and the game works, it actually is slightly intense, even for a random lottery. The Aussie version, plays into the noise of the US version, with the jargon from the UK version into something that is literally about 20 minutes of television, equal time to that of jeopardy and wheel. So you get this sped up version of the show. "This is Joe from Melbourne, he's a teacher, he just got engaged and wants money for a wedding in Disney World" Boom, done. We don't need to elaborate any further, we might chat with the fiance who is also there, but now the show speeds through, so when something like $9,450 becomes the offer. You finally get that game show tension when $40,000 and $50,000 are on the board still. So you see some resemblance to a real drama, where the sure thing is relative to the narrative ("that's enough for the flights, do you want to stop?") the top prize being just $100,000 is high enough stakes, but not enough that if the top prize goes you don't stop watching. They devised a really clever board and got good casting to give those (somewhat small) dreams. New Car, Vacation to Japan, gamer wants a computer and new setup, etc. It's still loud and noisy, but given the pacing, it just goes very fast. Which is more welcoming for a game show binge (and I like bring one of the few weirdos here at TVIV that love all game shows and reality shows) (A TL;DR version - it plays as fast as somebody who does the board game version) TelevisedInsanity fucked around with this message at 00:57 on Jan 20, 2025 |
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Jan 20, 2025 00:39
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surprise surprise i only managed to make it through 2 episodes of shogun in an entire week. it's 5:22 pst right now, there's ~6.5 hours before midnight and 8 more episodes at around an hour each. maybe i can 1.25x speedrun them? can i wait until 11:59pm and count it if it's good enough before i've actually finished it?
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Jan 20, 2025 01:24
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Don’t 1.25x it that’s against every law
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Jan 20, 2025 01:24
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ShoogaSlim posted:maybe i can 1.25x speedrun them? Oh my loving God no don't do that  You're not gonna make it in time, don't force it, it's an incredible show and you should take the time to drink it all in and then curse yourself for not having finished it in time to add it to your Top Ten most likely in 1st place where it belongs.
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Jan 20, 2025 01:27
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if i watched it at 1.25x and actually paid attention the whole time, i'd argue it's probably better than what some voters for the golden globes do when they're likely scrolling on their phone with a show that they're kinda paying attention to plays as background noise. not gonna do that tho, i'm enjoying it so far and i'm just gonna start now and make it the rest of my night to watch as much as i can
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Jan 20, 2025 01:28
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Here's my list. Apologies for the delay, I'll fix up entries #11, 10, 9 and #5 ASAP. Thanks to Arist and Esco for leniency and the kick up the arse, respectively. Notes: - The main notable absence is Shogun, which I couldn't find time to finish. It's a pretty good show though, even if the opening credits are some generic rear end poo poo (don't come @ me). - I've put a lot of thought into this list, but tbh after about the 20th entry or so these are all of largely equal quality to me. (Barring one or two notable exceptions.) Pretty much each of the shows does something in an exemplary way, and is well worth checking out. - Best thing I watched in 2024 not from 2024: HBO/BBC's Trigonometry. - Oh and special shout out to the best anthology series out there right now: the Torchwood radio plays. They don't count for obvious reasons, but they're an excellent series of horror/comedy/drama/whatever stories with a clear leftist, queer perspective, based around one of the dumbest television shows of all time. This year we had a really gross musical take on The Enigma Of The Amigara Fault, a version of The Walworth Farce that was about alien adduction, and Sorcerer starring Welsh truckies. They're excellent and I love them to pieces. 25. Based On A True Story (2) The murder podcast show is more a fun soap than a meaningful satirical critique, and there's a slight whiff of queer baiting when it comes to the way the serial killer "seduces" Chris Messina, but it's fun and I had a good time watching it.  24. Get Millie Black This came at the tail end of what was one of HBO's worst ever years, and carries with it some of the pock marks and scarring that pretty much all its other productions suffered from. The editing is coarse, the subtitling is racist, and in an absolutely stunning move there's an entire, full season subplot that was added to the show through ADR, seemingly for the most godawful loving reasons. But -- and this is where television lives or dies -- the scripts here are actually good, starting in a place that's very typical of current era BBC TV (Boring British Crime TV) before sliding off into something nervier and more complicated. Tamara Lawrance is great as the self-destructive Millie, and is able to navigate the genre convolutions of the script very well, but first time(?) actress Shernet Swearine is *stunning* in a difficult supporting role. Again, for me, television lives and dies in how caught up in emotions I find myself, and I felt this thing very strongly by the end. Also it's fast paced and generally respects your time, which is what these short run shows are *meant* to be like even if they so very frequently are not.  23. The Red King A strong example of YA fiction from Toby Whithouse, which attempts to merge Wicker Man folk horror with a narrative about police reform. Nothing here is unexpected, even the slightly miserable final triumph of liberalism in the face of meaningful anti-police critique, but the scripts have typically strong dialogue and structure, and the characterisation is as complex as I'd expect from Whithouse.  22. Laid (1) A woman discovers she has a really bad STD, in a far better adaptation of an Australian show than the original ever hoped to be. I like Nahnatchka Khan's writing, which is breezy and morbid, Zosia Mamet and Stephanie Hsu own independently and even more so together. Lots of fun cameos, well worth checking out.  21. The Second Best Hospital In The Galaxy (1) As far as joke-dense comedies go this is possibly too dense, blasting through reams and reams of sci-fi world building, characterisation and a lot of wry humour in just eight twenty minute episodes. But it's an absolute blast to watch something burst onto the scene with this many loving ideas, particularly given how many successfully stick to the wall. Plus it's got a fun voice cast. 20. Game Changer (7) Easily the best, most inventive think Dropout's been making. It's charming, it's lovely, and made with an eye towards making the players feel as comfortable as possible -- even while doing absolutely ridiculous things to them, which is impressive. I appreciate a show that prioritizes safety while showing you can still make things that are ridiculous, shocking and fun.  19. Thou Shalt Not Kill Possibly the most obscure thing on this list, Thou Shalt Not Kill is an (Australian) Indigenous miniseries comedy drama roadtrip desert chase thing that's both very fun and obstinately anti-authoritarian in ways that speak to me. Some of this is a bit daggy -- the opening and closing voice over, some vaguely rubbish stuff in terms of gender policing, and the loose structure to the early episodes that leans a bit too closely to "it's a four hour movie", but I was pleased that it shook most of this off by the third episode, transforming into something fun, subversive and authentically working class. Plus there's a full episode homage to Road Games and a very silly choral soundtrack. It's not quite like anything I've seen before -- except Road Games, obviously -- but it makes it work. Good stuff. 18. Mr & Mrs Smith (1) This just owned. It's stylish, and fun. 17. Say Nothing Strong and moving story about IRA resistance against British Imperialism, with thrilling action scenes and well constructed episodes. At some point this lost me, though, and I can't tell you why. There's something slightly cold about it that I found increasingly distanced by. But like most things in this list it's a great show I'm happy to recommend to anyone. 16. The Way Michael Sheen and Adam Curtis team up to tell a science-fiction-fantasy-dystopian-horror story about a Welsh mining town that bites off far more than it can chew in just three episodes. It doesn't all work, and I think its treatment of race plays into some reactionary ideas about foreigners coming in and stealing jobs from good hard working salt of the earth dinky die diggers humble valley welshmen, but I still think it's kind of shocking the Tories let anything like this through. Compelling, and basically a who's who of welsh actors.  15. One Day Romance fiction is hard to get right. This stakes its entire claim on getting it right and does. I won't lie, I'm not fully convinced by Leo Woodall, though he's absolutely right for this part. Ambika Mod, on the other hand, is a loving stud and a half, and has already wracked up an impressive array of well chosen projects and performances in a very short career. I want her to have an amazing career. 14. Interior, Chinatown I'm copying and pasting from another thread, so forgive me: quote:The way INT. CHINATOWN was billed to me was "extra realises he's an extra on SVU, takes over narrative. And it's got a lot of that, true. But I'd argue that's just a feint for the actual premise, which is to dramatise a paleontology of Asian American influences in American television. I remain unconvinced by the ending, though I've not had a chance to go back and remember why. But the style and performances are strong throughout, and I appreciate that it's a high concept show that doesn't really talk down to its audience. (The voice over is surprisingly subjective and misleading, IMO.)  13. Ripley A mean, cold adaptation of Highsmith's novel that throws the morality of the lead's minority stress -- if that even what he's truly struggling with anymore -- out the window in favour of considerations of Ripley as a bleak, emotionally calcified psychopath. It ticks through its thriller mechanics with a strong sense of inevitability, and is boosted by some gorgeous formal decisions, not the least to shoot the entire thing is stark, digital black and white. I'm not one overly persuaded by aesthetics -- no judgement -- but the choice is compelling, in that it makes every shot feel aspic-ed, as calculated and dead as a daguerreotype.  12. Industry (3) One of my favourite shows. Weirdly I think this is the season with the weakest ending, in that it's the least mean and featured the least amount of Harper tearing the chunks out of the various people in her life, but I do like how clear eyed it remains about its very cynical characters and their flaws, and that its constantly pushing its cast forward.  11. Queenie  10. Fantasmas 60% sketch comedy, 40% brechtian comedy drama that wants you to know how flimsy and silly everything is. Gorgeous production design, with a fun idea or weird joke around every corner.  9. Mary & George Brutally cold and criminally unlooked at.  8. Disclaimer I both do and don't see the flaws here -- it opens with the insistence that it's going to fool its audience ("Do not get distracted by narrative form and tone") and then proceeds to withhold specific pieces of information from the audience in a way that seems motivated to intrigue and distress the audience, depending on whether they are, or are not, being played by it. I've seen the effect of this be quite upsetting for viewers, in that this is a story that's obviously about mob violence while also not necessarily being for people who've being on the receiving end of that violence, though I think this ultimately threads the needle on that one I reckon viewers reactions are going to vary considerably. What I don't think is ambigious is the strength of performances involved -- all excellent, best ensemble of the year -- or the cinematography, or the way Cuaron finds ways to depict the slippery nature of memory and subjectivity. Everything in this is "too much", from the expressionistic lighting to the slightly overripe imagery and blocking. This ends up being just enough.  7. My Brilliant Friend (4) Tough watch. I've always said that "soap" is the fundamental building block on which television is made, though to call this a soap is probably not quite right. But there's something thrilling about a show almost completely erasing all the genre elements that power most modern television and to just tell a no-frills story which needs to live and die on the power of its characters and their psychology. Is it a bit more melodramatic than usual this season? Sure. Did it earn most of that by just reflecting the brutality of the world? Absolutely. Weirdly reminds me of Alan Moore, in the way that this show can lay out some really complicated ideas and psychologies in the most simple, straightforward terms without feeling reductive. That's a real talent.  6. Evil (4) + (5) Suprisingly funny and... if not scary, then strikingly uncanny... Evil managed to balance its razor sharp combination of tones all the way to the finale. I've spilled enough digital ink on this one already, but I love it, I love the characters, I love the really silly plots and the way they're both based in something true and so utterly ridiculous that their "we've got to check the pixels" approach to pseudo-science doesn't really matter. The X-Files for the post-truth era, with a similar crack-pinged thinking that slowly infected The Good Wife/Fight (for the better).  5. Pachinko (2) I could describe this as Apple's multi-national epic concerning the fickle nature of love and life, the inevitability of economic precarity and the human struggle to cope with hardship. But to me this is the story of one overly obstinate but mostly decent woman and all the idiot arseholes that are constantly trying to suck her into their gravity wells. Even by the standards of Apple shows this is particularly gorgeous show, though my main point of notice is the way the season depicts the bombing of Nagasaki -- an event so cosmically damaging that it fractures the show's typical structural beats. This show is sadly not renewed at the time of writing and increasingly looks like it won't be. This is a deep shame.  4. Expats The last sensible entry on this list. Lulu Wang's Expats is probably the most straightforward example of 2024 'doing' prestige television in a straight down the line, no-nonsense way, while also actually having the chops to back that up. Don't let the out of focus shot above fool you, this is incredibly gorgeous, emotionally heady and vibrant piece of media that, IMO, also has enough to say that justifies its overall runtime. The way the story pulls further and further out on its initial set up, while also managing to root its shifting concerns in a stable understanding of character and narrative continuity, is deeply impressive to me. Second best ensemble cast, after Disclaimer.  3. Davey & Jonsie's Locker (1) Wonderfully cheap and proud of it, Davey & Jonsie straddles the line between fun, dumb Canadian show aimed squarely at teens and [adult swim]-esque stoner pisstake of the self same thing. I watched it through the lens of the latter and had a wildly fun time. Cheap to the point of pride, dumb to the point of genius, and with some very well constructed episodes, this show seems like it was an absolute blast to make. It's also got some great, well constructed episodic writing. I found it incredibly easy to get caught up in what it's doing. At the time of this writing this show has not been renewed, which sucks, because it would have cost Hulu absolute loving peanuts to make. What the gently caress is wrong with the world?  2. The Curse Excellent. On one level this is thoughtful, meaningful, chewy television that sets its bar high and expects its audience to meet it where it's at. On another level it's a highly elaborate, deeply considered ten hour act of cinematic trolling. It's an absolute game of brinksmanship, a push-pull between these two impulses that roped in some of the most exciting people working in film right now and then dared the audience to blink first. IMO it was elevated even further by the extensive and fascinating accompanying press tour, which took Nathan Fielder's deadpan public performance art to a level that I just wasn't expecting it to get. The only reason this isn't higher is because I value the traditional structures of television over something like this -- which doesn't fully use the medium to its advantage, probably on purpose -- but if you had a gun to my head and asked me to name the absolute very best thing in this list, it would be The Curse.   1. Royal Crackers (2) This is going to seem like a really dumb choice, but I'm going to own it: I genuinely think that Royal Crackers -- much like my other dumb weirdo choice above, Davey & Jonsie's Locker -- produced some of the best stand alone comic episodes of television this year. But I want to go further and say that for what is, to all intents and purposes, a show that advertised itself as a typical [Adult Swim] piece of nonsense stoner trash, this second season of Royal Crackers managed to eeke out some genuinely moving, emotional storytelling without sacrificing its pitch perfect sense of stupid humour. If anything it doubled down on that, generating some genuinely exciting narrative divergences and unexpected genre shifts. This was the single most exciting television show I watched this year. I wish more goons would give this show a chance, because despite the deliberately cruddy art style and distanciating aesthetic there's something genuinely heartfelt here. Plus there's just a sheer passion for making fun art that I can't help but respect. Open Source Idiom fucked around with this message at 02:23 on Jan 21, 2025 |
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Jan 20, 2025 02:21
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Escobarbarian posted:A great list This is a great list.
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Jan 20, 2025 02:38
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Literally didn't even know that 80% of these shows even existed, and I mean that in a good way, it's one of the great things about this thread, learning about some great shows that I'd otherwise have never heard of.Open Source Idiom posted:there's an entire, full season subplot that was added to the show through ADR, seemingly for the most godawful loving reasons. What!?!  I gotta know more about this!
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Jan 20, 2025 02:39
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It's been a few years since I've watched enough new shows to make one of these lists. This year was chock full of fun murder mysteries and spy thrillers, though, which are evidently my poo poo. I always kinda knew that, but putting this list together really drove it home for me. 10. Taskmaster - This might have been higher, but I binged through all of the show this year in a couple of weeks and I can't quite separate out what bits are actually from this year's seasons so to be fair I'm keeping it at number ten. 9. Batman: Caped Crusader - A nice spiritual successor to the original animated series. 8. Bad Monkey - I know some people may have issues with the Vince Vaughn of it all, but I thought it worked for the show and the mystery was fun. Plus, it inspired me to finally read some of Carl Hiaasen's books. 7. Shardlake - I hadn't actually heard of this show until someone else put it on their list, but I immediately checked it out and binged through it in a weekend. It's always fun to have a murder mystery outside of the typical settings. 6. Only Murders - I'm a little worried that the increasing number of guest stars will eventually smother the show, but it's still such a treat to see Martin Short, Steve Martin, and Selena Gomez interacting and (eventually) solving murders together. 5. The Diplomat - The overarching plot stretches credulity at times, but it's always a treat to watch Keri Russell do anything espionage-adjacent. 4. Black Doves - A spy thriller and a murder mystery all rolled into one. This show's basically laser-targeted at me, so its placement at four speaks more to what I thought of the shows above it. 3. Bodkin - I thought this was a fun twist on the true crime podcasters in over their head premise. The mystery is solid, and it's a fun contrast between the decent if ineffective podcasters and the investigative journalist willing to do whatever it takes to get the story. 2. Slow Horses - Another show I only got to this year, what a fantastic black comedy and spy thriller. Watching Gary Oldman run circles around all of the amateurish plotters in MI5 and Slough House is excellent. 1. Shogun - I want to say I don't know what to add to what's already been said, but even that's getting redundant at this point. An absolute masterwork.
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Jan 20, 2025 02:50
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Jerusalem posted:What!?! These are kind of big spoilers, but: Get Millie Black establishes itself early on as typical missing girl crime story with various intersectional concerns, which is solid and dependable stuff, but also deeply deeply loving boilerplate as far as current era television goes. However, it quickly turns out that the lead character is actually an insanely self-destructive human being who's decided to self-sabotage as punishment for her failure to protect her sister when she was younger, and who's fundamentally blinded by her inability to fully understand her sister's transition. Not in a strictly transphobic way, I want to emphasise, it's just Millie was traumatized by her cruel and extreme separation from her family during a period before her sister, Hibiscus, transitioned. As a result Millie's brain has become calcified by the trauma, and she's sort of stuck with an identity that's halfway between a lot of different things and not entirely stable as a result. This is then catalysed by a case that involves a missing boy, which triggers a whole bunch of feelings in her that she goes to greater and more extreme lengths to manage. The result is a character who's passionate and motivated and caring, but who's also self-destructive and deeply flawed and very easy to read as kind of lovely rather than broken if obstinately moral. My read is that this just didn't test well with audiences, who thought she was offputting and unlikable rather than fascinating and moving, so they took a bunch of scenes and just threw in tonnes and tonnes of ADR'd dialogue about a previous case involving another missing boy that *also* hosed her up and drove her to an even greater point of crisis. Every single one of these scenes are about this earlier, weird, hosed up case that Millie was involved in, and half the cast seemingly has an opinion about this, but the content is entirely contained to these exchanges. For some reason they've decided to develop this as an actual plot line that unfolds over the five episodes, with little hints and developments followed by big dramatic scenes where people argue about the morality of the situation, but the scenes, like I said, are all done in ADR and then really clumsily inserted into the show. So maybe once or twice an episode the action will completely stop to have these strange, often two or three minute exchanges between the actors where the editing makes sure to never focus on their mouths, and their voices sort of float over the top of the action in the way poor ADR tends to. I've no idea what the content of these scenes original was either, because they don't seem important to the plot. They could have been random feints at realism the way these shows do, where the leads are talking about ordering take away, or perhaps they're alternate takes of much shorter scenes where characters talk about how they're going to interrogate suspects or whatever. It's both weird and weirdly unnecessary.
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Jan 20, 2025 03:08
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Coming in to list the 10 shows I watched this year (toddlers amirite?) and add to the overwhelming consensus. TVIV 2024 10. For All Mankind Well, they keep making this and I keep watching it. Lucky for it I didn’t watch eleven shows… 9. The Three Body Problem I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this but expect it to fall off as the seasons continue. This is the peak. 8. Wolf Hall Captain Winters makes a surprisingly great Henry. It probably would have gotten higher but I need to finish the series. 7. Rings of Power This is a great prequel to the movies, not so much the books. My eye isn’t good enough to notice how much cheaper the costuming is than in the films, so stuff like that doesn’t bother me. The soundtrack and visuals are a vibe, though, even if the story is kind of meh. 6. Masters of the Air More and more, I think the thing that made BoB so special and let the characters resonate was the inclusion of the interviews of the real survivors before each episode. The characters in The Pacific and Masters of the Air just don’t resonate as well as the characters from Band of Brothers. Still enjoyed this for its own thing even if it is hard to feel down on it being compared to one of the best. 5. The Boys I do not understand how chuds keep  finding out the show is making fun of them and yet here we are. 4. Invincible It got weird but I think I like it. 3. House of the Dragon The cast is a lot of this show and it was fun to find ways to get the younger actors and Paddy back. More flashbacks, please! 2. Fallout I had high hopes for this given the involvement of the showrunners, and I was not disappointed! A wonderful homage to the games and especially the West Coast trilogy of games. I can’t wait to see more New Vegas! 1. Shogun This is prestige TV. A show just firing on all cylinders: casting, costuming, art direction, cinematography…shocking twists and stunning visuals, easily my favorite show of the last decade. Sorry, Chernobyl, Shogun is my new best friend. I think this also says something about my tastes that my top three shows from this millennium are all single season affairs: The Terror, Chernobyl, and now Shogun! The only downside is that I can already tell execs are gonna get the completely wrong message and miss the amazing attention to detail in every category and just simplify the show’s success to “subtitles make people watch the screen instead of their phones!”
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Jan 20, 2025 03:30
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Toxic Fart Syndrome: My favorite shows are all single season like The Terror The Terror Producers: You know we made a second season! Toxic Fart Syndrome: My. favorite. shows. are. all. single. season. like. The. Terror. Open Source Idiom posted:It's both weird and weirdly unnecessary. Holy poo poo that does sound bizarre!
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Jan 20, 2025 03:55
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I would love it if they canned Shogun season 2 after winning All The Awards just to show how dumb award categories are
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Jan 20, 2025 04:05
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Shogun season 2 might beat the bear for best comedy
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Jan 20, 2025 04:12
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Vegetable posted:I would love it if they canned Shogun season 2 after winning All The Awards just to show how dumb award categories are Run it in the comedy/musical category like The Bear ^^^ gently caress beaten
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Jan 20, 2025 04:13
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Goddamit, I forgot about Mr and Mrs Smith too. That definitely should have had a spot on my list.
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Jan 20, 2025 04:55
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Put a song in Shogun 2 so they can nominate it for best musical.
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Jan 20, 2025 04:57
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1. Shogun Close to the perfect show. Reminds me of 70s and 80s blockbuster tv like Roots, Thorn Birds, and... Shogun 2. Hacks Two women in very different phases of life learning from each other. Who was the moron who said women "just aren't funny"? 3. Interior Chinatown Close to awesome. Ambitious, heartfelt, and surprisingly enjoyable action. 4. Mr and Mrs Smith Catchy, pretty, great leads having a ton of loving fun. 5. Fargo Back to form. Missed this show. 6. Ludwig David Mitchell plays a version of himself, solving mysteries with the power of puzzles. 7. Somebody Somewhere The brutal loneliness of small town America vs. the power of found family. Touching. 8. Fallout Keeps the new trend of good videogame adaptations alive. Silly, gross, and nails the Vault vibe. 9. Disclaimer Nice to see Kevin Kline is still weird. Cohen plays a nuanced, er, jilted husband. 10. Game Changer Spiritual successor to Whose Line? Sam says try watching without laughing. Honorable Mention: Ripley-pretty The Bear-angsty Taskmaster-Junior especially Lower Decks-snarky Industry-pulpy The Curse-cringey Agatha All Along-campy MrBuddyLee fucked around with this message at 12:42 on Jan 20, 2025 |
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Jan 20, 2025 05:25
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right at the buzzer ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  6. Mr. McMahon Threw this on randomly one night while bored. I didn't expect it to hit a nostalgia nerve as hard as it did, and I really enjoyed taking the proverbial trip down memory lane. I grew up heavily influenced by wrestling as a cultural phenomenon and the personalities that, coincidentally, have a vibe overlap with a lot of the music i grew up with and still consider part of my identity today. The Ultimate Warrior is Thrash Metal, The Undertaker is Death/Doom Metal, Stone Cold is Hardcore Punk. One of the coolest things about watching through McMahon was learning more about the NWO days and how WCW wound up overtaking WWE for a short run. As a kid, I was heavily devoted to WWE and I couldn't fathom defecting to the enemy side. I mean, for all I knew, WCW was the cheap knock-off and obviously I had very little conceptual awareness of the competing business model. I also, ignorantly believed that Degeneration X was cooler than NWO. Looking back, I realize I was kinda lame for my choices. But that's ok because all kids are lame and wrestling is pretty lame, too. I'm astonished it's seemingly more popular now than ever before? But it'll never have the same impact and buzz that it had in the Attitude Era. I'm also, oddly, somewhat grateful that wrestling is still considered important by some people and that it's a way for people to vicariously live their excesses through the personalities and spectacle of it all. Oh yeah and I guess the show also had to do with McMahon being an IRL sunuvabitch. I wasn't so invested in that, and I'm sure he's an undignified jackass, but it was interesting to see things from a business perspective as an adult whose life is very much centered around bizniz these days. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  5. Shogun I'm adding it anyway! There are no rules that I had to have watched the whole thing! Even just 3 episodes in (I took people's advice and decided to not rush) you can viscerally feel the production value in this so much that it actually kind of slips away and you're left with pure immersion. I'm never great with political dramas because I very quickly lose track of names and factions and alliances, but the ending of episode 3 had so many emotional moments that none of that stuff mattered. It sweeps you up in its world building that things are felt very deeply even for a dumbass like me who can barely keep track of what's going on. Super excited to finish this and kick myself for not catching it all when it first aired like I told myself I would. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  4. The Penguin Recency bias has me feeling pretty firmly that The Batman is actually the best Batman movie that's ever been released. The other movies have the unfortunate disadvantage of having time work against them to reveal their flaws. When I first started The Penguin, I was at first a little disappointed that the production value was noticeably lower than the movie. My heart sank, and it reminded me why it's typically very hard for me to get invested in television over movies. Thankfully, I stuck with it, and the characters and world building grew on me. It might be cliche, but I like that they paint the antagonist in a morally ambiguous light. I mean, obviously, he's a villain who does Terrible Things, but it's not for no reason, and the show does a good job of making you feel like you can understand what would bring someone to be the way they are. Cristin Milioti is also a really refreshing inclusion with her own depth, and there's a satisfying tug of war between her and Oz throughout. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  3. Interview with the Vampire I literally put on the first episode of IwtV season 1 while sick one week expecting to let it play for a bit while I doze off on the couch. As a huge fan of the 90s movie, I expected this to be some CVS dollar-bin remake of the movie I held in such high regard (even though the movie itself is a pretty cheesy rendition of the original novel). But, I was pleasantly shocked at how much I enjoyed its unique and updated take on the story. There are so many shows I've watched one season of, felt like I got the point, and never bothered to keep going. Barry, Succession, and Search Party are all recent examples that come to mind. IwtV Season 2 was something I was actively looking forward to, and watched very excitedly. I loved seeing the section of the original story fleshed out in more detail and with more stakes. The whole show is rich with atmosphere and drama without ever really crossing the line into making me want to roll my eyes or feel like I couldn't recommend it to a friend who'd think it was corny because it deals with vampires and romance. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Baby Reindeer  I'm personally offended by everyone I've ever talked to IRL who said they started watching this but couldn't finish because they heard episode 4 was too unpleasant to watch. That being said, I obviously can understand if someone wants to avoid such a heavy topic if they have a personal experience with abuse. For those who don't, I think the show handles it in a really mature way that serves the whole narrative without being exploitive or cheap. I assumed I knew what to expect when I first started this show, but by the time it was over, there are so many other elements to grapple with that ends up creating an incredibly layered story while maintaining focus on a central theme. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. The Curse  The final two episodes of this miniseries aired in January of 2024, and of the few shows/series I've ever watched front to back, this is definitely in the top five (this, Lost, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, and maybe something else I can't think of the moment). I was totally and completely unconvinced that this was going to work for me when I first started it. In fact, I only started it because I heard it was agonizingly cringe and I wanted to gawk at it. Little did I know, it was slowly pulling me into its orbit, and before I knew it, I was totally hooked. It's unique and creative method of storytelling with its voyeuristic and uncomfortable style just works so drat well for me in this setting with these characters. I simultaneously want more of this style and to extend the world of this show to new characters and situations, but I also want it to never be revisited again and exist as this strange little parable of greed, self interest, and performative humanity. I wound up listening to the soundtrack for this just driving around and sitting at my desk and doing the dishes thinking about all the long shots focusing on an awkward interaction between the characters being complete pieces of poo poo. I love it. ShoogaSlim fucked around with this message at 08:08 on Jan 20, 2025 |
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Jan 20, 2025 07:55
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E: It's a good thing I'm not counting the votes cause I'm dumb as poo poo and don't know how to CTRL-F lol
demostars fucked around with this message at 09:17 on Jan 20, 2025 |
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Jan 20, 2025 08:41
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ShoogaSlim posted:right at the buzzer So much effort but and you didn't list 10 shows 
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Jan 20, 2025 12:55
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Arist posted:I added some lines to the rules to clarify the "no radio" and "you can list as many or as few shows as you want" guidelines Arist posted:
i understood these posts and wording changes to mean that this thread is now adopting a similar rule to the Games thread where you can have fewer than 10 entries and they'll still count. the Games thread specifies that it needs to at least be a list of 5, which is a requirement i copied for the Movies thread, and there were a handful of submissions with only 5 movies listed that counted toward the final tally.
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Jan 20, 2025 18:55
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Rules:
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I'll leave it to Arist to police as they've taken over this year but personally I hate it. a) it throws out the math and b) if someone hasn't watched enough TV to make a Top 10 I don't think it's fair that the worst show someone watched that year gets 5x the points that the 10th best show from someone who watched 100 shows gets.
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Jan 20, 2025 22:34
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i don't see how it throws out the math. a 6th place vote gets the same amount of points whether you have 10 picks or only 6, you just don't also get to contribute fewer points for what would have been your picks from 7 thru 10. as for "fairness," i think that's obviously subjective. if a ton of people voted for Show X as their tenth best show out of the 200 shows they watched in a year, it's still their least favorite in a list of ~ten. it'll still get more points overall than the one show i listed at number 6 which was my least favorite of the shows i watched this year that nobody else voted for at all anyway  i think it's a little gatekeepy to suggest that only people who have watched every series released in 2024 are eligible to have their opinion count. i guess you could make an argument that voting is restricted to hardcore TV enthusiasts only, a group i'm certainly not in, but i'd counter that it doesn't mean that it makes my enjoyment of The Curse any less valid than its place on other lists. ultimately, i don't care if my list counts or not, i liked writing about my picks, and without a deadline i might not have bothered at all. edit: just checked to make sure i wasn't the only one, and i'm not. there are at least two other lists with only 8 or 9 picks. another person with a list of 10 mentioned they only watched 10 shows that year, meaning their last pick is still the "worst" thing they watched in comparison to someone else who watched much much more tv than just 10 shows. i'd like to think it's ok to have a list smaller than 10 picks but still more than 5 to make sure you have some exposure to the medium without just watching one thing and throwing 10 points at it. ShoogaSlim fucked around with this message at 23:06 on Jan 20, 2025 |
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Jan 20, 2025 23:03
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| # ? Nov 17, 2025 00:13 |
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I believe only like four people submitted less than 10 and I'd guess most of them only bothered to rank shows they actually like so I don't have an issue with it, personally.
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Jan 20, 2025 23:08
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