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.
