We watch a lot of TV so here is the annual countdown of the best shows I saw this year. There are a few shows I’ve heard good things about but haven’t seen, and a few shows I only just started so I can’t rank. This is a rough ranking. The top two shows are basically tied. I couldn’t decide between them and could always reverse myself once they’ve had more time to sink in.
13. The Handmaid’s Tale. It was an improvement over seasons two and three, which spun their wheels while June kept almost escaping Gilead only to get pulled back again. Once she got out, The Handmaid’s Tale took a good look at how captivity changed June, and it wasn’t entirely for the better: She could sometimes use her fellow handmaids as pawns and raped her husband. I am looking forward to more of life outside Gilead and the eventual end of the republic.
12. Good Girls. I could have used a little more of this show before they canceled it, just to wrap some stuff up. It was starting to get into an enjoyable area of farce and examining how Beth’s relationship with Ruby could be toxic, and I thought there was more there to explore.
11. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. This show was a meaningful look at Sam Wilson’s character and establishing him as the new Captain America. I also liked everything with Isaiah Bradley. However, they could have fleshed out the problem with the repatriation council more, and I take some points off for the terrorist with the heart of gold. I guess you can get sympathy for bombing a hospital and almost killing a bunch of people on a helicopter if you have puppy-dog eyes.
10. Midnight Mass. It was an interesting look at the parallels between Catholicism and vampirism, and the idea that what might look like an angel to some people is really a malevolent vampire. But the Easter vigil episode, with parents making their kids drink the poison, was just too close to Jonestown for me to enjoy.
9. Get Back. It was astonishing to watch Paul McCartney bang out “Get Back” on the spot—he just, like, banged it out—during an idle moment during rehearsals. It was poignant to watch Paul tear up while observing “And then there were two” when it was just him and Ringo in the studio, not knowing they would be the only two left standing one day. This miniseries clarified a lot of mythology around the breakup of the Beatles: namely that it was much less rancorous than I’d heard, and that Yoko didn’t really seem to be bothering anybody. Ultimately, I thought Get Back showed four friends who, while they may have gotten exasperated and tired of hanging out together, were close enough that they could get to that point in the first place.
8. What We Do in the Shadows. Technically this show probably shouldn’t be on this list since I only include shows that aired during that year, and we’re not caught up yet. But I just have to say this show is a riot. It’s endlessly inventive. I’m rooting for Guillermo to get his vampire fangs, and I love everything with Colin Robinson.
7. American Crime Story: Impeachment. In telling the story of the runup to President Clinton’s impeachment, this show examined power differentials in a smart way in the episode when the FBI agents keep Monica Lewinski in a hotel room all day in an attempt to question her. She uses every stereotypically feminine tactic she can to get the feds off her back: She asks to go shopping, says she’s cold, has to keep using the bathroom, etc. Meanwhile, the agents invoke stereotypically male traits like anger and yelling to get her to talk (the lead agent puffs up in rage but knows he’s screwed) and only back off when Lewinski’s lawyer calls to curse them out. Beanie Feldstein was great as Monica and Sarah Paulson gave some humanization to Linda Tripp while also showing what a piece of work she was. I loved Clinton’s unbearably clever “depends on what the meaning of is is” deposition. I was amused and horrified how many right-wing figures from 1998 are still around today, from Brett “I Can’t Conduct Myself Like an Adult at My Job Interview” Kavanaugh to remoras like Ann Coulter and Laura Ingraham.
6. The Morning Show. Season two of The Morning Show was beautifully ridiculous by the end. Morning anchor Alex Levy (an operatic Jennifer Aniston), febrile with COVID-19 and “cancelled” by the public for her association with her disgraced costar, does a one-woman streaming show about surviving the pandemic, a mix of righteous assertion and Nixon-crying-about-his-mother–level self-pity. I enjoy the soapiness of this show as well as the implied message that if you want to cut off someone messy in your life, cut them off, but otherwise, you’ll have to own their messiness. I also appreciated the satire of the quickness of “cancellation” when Levy goes to bed a redeemed superstar after her cohost defends her against allegations of sleeping with her former cohost, then wakes up a pariah again after damning viral footage surfaces.
5. Kevin Can F*ck Himself. This was a clever satire of all those sitcoms where a beautiful, competent woman is paired with a doofus man. In the laugh-tracked sitcom world, it seems like the husband is having harmless fun at his long-suffering wife’s expense, but it turns into something darker when you look at it as a drama through the wife’s eyes. I’m curious as to where they are going with this show.
4. The White Lotus. One thing I like about TV is that I get to judge fictional characters, and I don’t have to feel bad about it because they’re not real people. So it was fun telling Jake Lacy’s hotel guest that he was acting like an ass in not letting go of his grievances about the lesser room he got on his honeymoon, but also criticizing the hotel manager for not doing the very reasonable thing and giving him a refund for the hotel’s mistake. The White Lotus was a thoughtful and entertaining look at what destruction even well-intentioned people leave in their wake when they’re careless. The young hotel guest has admirable ideas about economic fairness, but they get the hotel employee thrown in jail. The grieving woman (a perfect Jennifer Coolidge) has good intentions to help the masseuse start her own business, but ends up stringing her along and walking away without a second thought.
3. WandaVision. It’s one of the highest concepts in TV in a long time: A superhero works out her grief following the death of her brother and boyfriend by transforming a whole town into the idyllic suburb she always wanted to live in, and imagines herself as part of family sitcoms through the decades. What a subtle, versatile performance by Elizabeth Olsen as the Scarlet Witch, my favorite superhero (tied with Storm). As a TV viewer, I appreciated the show’s view of grief, as well as the formal daring. As a comic reader, I loved the show’s take on the notorious plotline of Wanda’s children, and the looks at the Vision, Agatha Harkness and fan favorite Monica Rambeau. I do take a few points off for Wanda ensorcelling a whole town against their will to salve her grief (most people just ho to a support group) but it looks as if upcoming Marvel movies will address this.
2. Succession. Dammit, I should have recapped this show this year! There’s been some discussion the last few weeks about whether Succession, marketed as a drama, is really a comedy, since its characters are mostly in stasis and go back to the status quo the next week. I agree about the stasis, since the Roy children keep trying and failing to succeed father Logan as CEO, but I find this sad rather than funny. You could say it’s sitcom-like for the show reset to the status quo after the company escaped legal consequences for the cruise ship rape scandal, but isn’t it ultimately depressing? Sure, this can be the funniest show on TV, but the Roy children are trapped in tragic cycles. Kendall is an addict who has alienated himself from much of his family and can neither defeat nor escape his father. Shiv had a semblance of an independent life but once she fell back into Waystar Royco’s orbit, she immediately lost her scruples and had nothing to show for it, with her father openly mocking even her victories. And poor Roman Roy. In a subtle, disquieting performance, Kieran Culkin plays Roman as using jokes and nasty insults to mask the reality: He’s been physically and emotionally abused by his father. There was some movement in the plot in the series finale, as the kids teamed up to take control of Waystar Royco, only to be betrayed by their mother and the neglected and treacherous Tom (a great Matthew McFadyen). (And I loved the scene at the wedding when Tom was offering Greg power in exchange for his soul. The way the candles were shining balefully at the exact right moment right after sunset was satanic.) Despite the dark comedy, parental abuse is at the heart of Succession, and there’s nothing funny about that.
1. Mare of Easttown. I came for the Delco accents but stayed for the characters and story. It was an embarrassment of acting riches, with Emmy-winning performances by Kate Winslet, Evan Peters and Julianne Nicholson. The murder and kidnapping dramas were interesting but for me, the best part was the exploration of a community’s ties between people that can bind them together or tear them apart. Mare is a lifelong resident of Easttown and her knowledge of the people of that community gives her the ability to solve Erin’s murder. The flip side is that when she discovers her best friend Lori has been hiding the truth from her—Lori’s son killed Erin—it tears her apart. This is powerful, and when Mare forgives Lori for this, and forgives herself for her son’s suicide, it’s even more powerful.
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