Best Shows of 2019

The ridiculous thing about TV right now is that there are a bunch of premium or streaming channels I don't have access to and there's still dozens more interesting shows available to me than I'll probably ever be able to watch. I'm not sure if that's good or bad.

Best of 2019

10. Broad City (Comedy Central)


Broad City has always taken place in a heightened reality, a somewhat idealized version of New York where a couple of youngish Jewish girls can have wacky adventures and harebrained schemes without ever having to truly worry about making rent or other real world issues. So I was a little surprised by how emotionally heavy the final episodes ended up being. Something that happens when you're youngish is you get opportunities, and sometimes those opportunities end up pulling you apart from people you love. The show was still funny as always, but it's clear Abbi and Ilana wanted to say something big about friendship with their final season, and they were totally successful.

9. The Mandalorian (Disney+)


I think we were all expecting a more standard peak TV prestige drama from The Mandalorian, so it was something of a pleasant surprise when it turned out to be kind of a classic episodic action/adventure show. Some of those episodes are better than others, but the fact that it actually has distinct episodes, and they didn't feel the need to bloat them all up with subplots to hit some expected minimum length, made it a lot more pleasurable to watch than some other franchise tie-in series I've seen. It looks nice for a TV series and has a solid mix of action and humor, and the whole cast is well selected and entertaining, although some actors felt like they were wasted a bit. I'm looking forward to more adventures of Not Boba Fett and Baby Yoda.

8. The Deuce (HBO)


At times the first couple seasons of The Deuce depicted prostitution and pornography as potentially enjoyable enterprises, but the third and final run dispelled that illusion by focusing more fully on the human costs of profiting from sex, especially on the young women who could be pressured or coerced into it. The show definitely still has an affection for a bygone period in New York's history, but it looks at everything through a more sober lens. Sometimes things come to an end for a reason. Shoving everything behind closed doors doesn't fix it, and a lot of these issues are still issues today. But it wouldn't be a David Simon show if it didn't show us the structural problems of the society we've created without sugarcoating them.

7. Steven Universe (Cartoon Network)


Something that I don't find difficult to admit is that cartoons made for children are a lot better than they were when I was a kid. Steven Universe is a science fiction comedy show that uses a story about a stalled alien invasion of earth to explain concepts like friendship, responsibility, legacy, and the complexity of gender and sexuality to people who might not totally understand it yet, without talking down or creating something that's unwatchable to an older audience. I wouldn't be surprised if more adults actually watch the show than kids, but I think it's great for either group. They wrapped up the main storyline this year, but the show lives on with an epilogue series that ages up the main character a bit and is continuing to address the psychological effects of everything he's gone through.

6. The Good Place (NBC)


As I've explained before, my 2019 list covers shows whose seasons ended in 2019. So while The Good Place's fourth and final season ends tonight, I'm talking about the third season right now. A good chunk of this season took place on Earth instead of in the afterlife, and while the writing is still sharp and funny, the show just feels less dynamic without access to all the weird tools and systems they've created for that setting. It's still good, but it gets better once the gang finds themselves back in the metaphysical plane. The stakes are raised dramatically at a certain point when the characters become responsible for much more than just their own fates. It's not quite the show at its best, but it's still pretty great to hang out with.

5. Barry (HBO)


Barry might seem like a comedy with its half hour running length and Bill Hader starring, but I didn't really get into it until I started seeing it as a drama with a really dark sense of humor. He plays a hitman who's tired of killing and decides to try his hand at acting. But of course, his old life as a killer keeps finding him again. I didn't think the second season was as strong overall as the first, but I have to give credit to the episode "ronny/lily", which is one of the best single episodes of a show in years. Just a sequence of comically tragic events and coincidences that you don't need to even have the full context for to enjoy. The supporting cast is very good, but Bill Hader deserves a ton of credit for his work in front of and behind the camera.

4. Mindhunter (Netflix)


This is me not being surprised that I really like a TV show about the FBI developing an understanding of and methodology for finding and stopping serial killers produced by and often directed by David Fincher. A lot of shows about law enforcement tend to lionize it despite its flaws, and Mindhunter isn't immune to that, but it does seem aware of the actual limitations of profiling, and the show is more about delving into the psychology of its main characters and the men they interview than the process itself. I thought the second season was better than the first because there was less set up and the story got the characters more personally involved in the subject they're pursuing. I'm torn about the show going on hiatus while Fincher tackles other projects, because I want more of it but I'm not sure how much I do if he becomes less involved.

3. Watchmen (HBO)


Watchmen does a great job of honoring the story and legacy of the original Watchmen comic while also recontextualizing the whole thing through the lens of America's ugly racial history. It's a sequel that takes place in the modern day, as a costumed police force in Tulsa responds to the thread from a masked militia group. The show does a smart job of creating a world that could exist after the world of the comic, finds good ways to bring back old characters and integrate new ones, and does all kinds of weird science fiction nonsense that I loved. It seems like this could be the only season we get, but it tells a full, satisfying story and we were lucky to watch it.

2. Succession (HBO)


Succession is a show about rich assholes all trying to fuck each other over so they can be the biggest rich asshole around. It's fantastic. The focus is mainly on Logan Roy, the founder and CEO of a massive entertainment company (think if Disney owned Fox News) whose health is failing, and his four ambitious children, who hop between supporting him and trying to stab him in the back as the constantly shifting situation calls for. The show is frequently laugh out loud funny while also being quietly devastating as you learn how one man's single minded drive and lack of empathy instilled the same traits in everyone who looks up to him. You always understand why they do what they do, even as you hate to see them do it. It's a microcosm of the capitalist system we live in that incentivizes personal gain regardless of the cost to others. Also, the entire cast is wonderful. I can't wait for season three.

1. Chernobyl (HBO)


Chernobyl is a show about multiple horrors. It's about the immediate horror of an unexpected disaster. It's also about the unseen horror of a disease that can spread without warning. It's also about the banal horror of a problem being made worse by human error and bureaucratic ineptitude. It's also about the quiet heroism about people who are willing to put their lives on the line to protect others from something that wasn't their fault. It's about the whole of human experience, our failures, our successes, and everything else that comes with a major event like this. It's not a fully accurate accounting of the Chernobyl meltdown and aftermath, but it's one of the best artistic depictions of a real event I've seen.

Delayed Entry

This is the best show that didn't air in 2019 but I didn't watch until then.

Adventure Time (Cartoon Network)

Adventure Time walked so Steven Universe could run. It actually took me a few years to get through the whole series, watching chunks of it in between other things. I love the goofy but cohesive art style, the dynamic between the two main characters, the way the story matures as they do, its silly sense of humor, the way it bounces between D&D inspired adventuring, developing its characters, exploring its long and sad history, and the moments where it gets truly surreal. I love the music, too. I'm jealous of kids who got to watch it growing up.

Best Shows of 2018

I'm not gonna lie, Marvel is taking up too much of my TV watching time. At some point I decided to watch everything that's part of the Cinematic Universe, and that's resulted in a lot of hours spent on shows that aren't that good. Hopefully the recent Netflix purge helps with that. For now, I stand by the shows on this list, but I wish I had spent more time watching series that other people seem really into.

Best of 2018

8. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (FXX)


One of the things I appreciate about Sunny is that even in its old age it's always trying new stuff. Some of the stuff they tried this season definitely didn't work, but a lot of it did. The most notable was Ripped Mac, which both recalled Fat Mac from back in season 7, but also played into the finale, which I won't spoil but which you might already know about because it was the most talked-about Sunny episode in years. As long as this show exists I'll keep watching it just to see the next weird thing they try.

7. Legion (FX)


Legion's second season was not as good as the first. The weirdness felt like it was for its own sake more often than before, and it was a little more difficult to track whatever main plot there was. Still, I like the show a lot. Interesting characters and performances, the weird scenes are still fascinating even when they ARE weird for its own sake, and I'm really curious where things are going.

6. The Last Man on Earth (FOX)


Unfortunately, this was the final season of the show, and it was canceled before we got to see where it was going. The gang's trip to Mexico provided plenty of the expected laughs and pathos, as well as a great suspense element as flashbacks showed the possibility of a danger they had no way of knowing about. You can definitely say there was a formula at this point, but it was a unique formula that almost always worked. I'll miss these goofballs and their hopes of making a new world in the devastation of the old one.

5. The Deuce (HBO)


The Deuce's second season made a big jump forward in time, to a period when the porn industry was really getting into full swing and New York's government was trying a lot harder to crack down on the city's seedy underground. As expected from a David Simon show, there's a ton of characters and story threads that are constantly being balanced like spinning plates, and they rarely if ever fall to the ground. Sometimes I like a show with a bit more focus, but there's rarely a moment with this show that I don't enjoy on some level.

4. The Venture Bros. (Adult Swim)


I'm absolutely shocked that there was a new season of The Venture Bros. and that I liked it a lot. Due to some weird behind the scenes stuff (the writers had less time last season than they thought, so the beginning of this one is essentially wrap-up for what was supposed to happen a couple years ago) they don't really have time to develop a clear through line, so it's less about the grand overarching story and more just developing the characters some more. That stuff is always great though, so it's hard to complain. It remains the densest animated series I've seen, and assuming another season is coming, I'm ready for the long wait to see what happens next.

3. The Little Drummer Girl (AMC)


I can't really say I'm surprised that one of my favorite directors (Park Chan-wook) made an adaptation of an acclaimed novel by one of my favorite authors (John le Carré) and that it turned out well. There's nothing too unique about this spy thriller (to be brief, Israeli spies hire a British actress to infiltrate a Palestinian terrorist cell), it's just exceptionally well put-together. The story is a bit unpredictable, the acting (especially Michael Shannon and Florence Pugh) is fantastic, and Park's directing is up to par for his career.

2. The Good Place (NBC)


The Good Place's second season is one of the most daring and exciting I've seen a sitcom produce. After the twist at the end of the previous season, it was easy to see how they could repeat the formula with a few little twists. Instead, the show constantly invents new status quos and throws them out as soon as it has another cool idea. The writers realize that stagnation is the death of comedy, and when you have a whole afterlife to play with, there's no reason to drain every concept you have until its lifeless. The ensemble cast remains great as their chemistry grows and they get deeper into their characters. I guess it's worth mentioning that as I'm writing this, the third season has already concluded. But that happened in 2019, and I'm writing about TV that had its season finish in 2018. Sometimes this stuff gets weird.

1. Better Call Saul (AMC)


I'm not sure what else I can say about the team behind Breaking Bad and now Better Call Saul. They're masters of this stuff, and they knocked it of the park again. Mike's story continues to do more work establishing how the things that were already in place when Walter White arrived came to be, and it has at least one surprising turn that makes it memorable. Jimmy's story continues to be a bit more vibrant though, exploring territory that isn't quite as familiar. What I'm really curious about is how close we're going to get to Breaking Bad's beginning before the show concludes. At least one more season is coming!

Delayed Entry

This is the best show that didn't air in 2018 but I didn't watch until then.

Oz (HBO)

I partly watched Oz because it was the last show from Alan Sepinwall's book The Revolution Was Televised (a good overview of the most important TV dramas from the late 90s through the 00s) that I hadn't seen. Oz was interesting both as a cultural artifact as well as a show by itself. The cast is full of actors who have gone on to more prominent roles since, and the ways it diverges from the writing structure pretty much every other serialized drama uses are fascinating. It has recognizable character arcs and storylines that run through seasons, but rather than giving each one a few minutes of attention every episode, it's more willing to focus on specific stories for long stretches and ignore others until its time to revisit them. The show occasionally strains credibility - if any real experimental prison unit had anywhere close to the murder rate of Em City's, there's no way it wouldn't be shut down - but it was nonetheless intriguing throughout.

Best Shows of 2017

A few shows I've been watching for a while had down or least unexciting seasons in 2017, but for the most part it was a great year for TV, with several new series that really impressed me.

Best of 2017

10. Review (Comedy Central)


Review's third and final season was very brief, but it was a perfect send-off for a series that was much more fascinating than I really expected when I gave it a shot. Right up to the end they kept coming up with new ways for Andy Daly's Forrest MacNeill to torture himself, putting his obsession with doing his job over every other concern he should have. You really just have to see it for yourself.

9. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (ABC)


This was maybe the biggest surprise of the year. From the beginning, S.H.I.E.L.D. has been the dutiful television branch of the Marvel Cinematic Universe that cleans up the scraps of story left by the movies and does competent but bland espionage action every week. Things were different in season four, when they finally abandoned the pretense that they were really "connected" to the movies and focused on three tighter story arcs instead of a single meandering thread. It resulted in what was quite easily the show's best season, recalling what works about the Whedon TV formula with smart plots, strong character drama, and twists that really stick the knife in. I don't know if I would tell anyone they really need to watch this show, but that season alone made the years of investment worth it.

8. Samurai Jack (Adult Swim)


Samurai Jack returned after many years to finally conclude the tale of his defeat of Aku and return to his own time. The show matured along with most of its audience, becoming more violent and bittersweet as it introduced a couple of new concepts but focused mostly on creating a proper ending for the series and its characters. I thought the climax could have used a bit more time to breathe, but it was a really good show with some of the best animated sequences you'll ever see on TV.

7. Rick and Morty (Adult Swim)


Rick and Morty's fandom really seemed to boil over into full on insufferable, ashamed-to-be-associated-with-some-of-these-people mode in the last couple years, but the show itself is about as good as ever, mixing razor sharp humor with wild sci-fi ideas and bitterly human moments at a crazy pace. It continues to be formally experimental in eye-opening ways, and a few of these episodes are easily among the most memorable half hours of entertainment to come along in a while.

6. Legion (FX)


FOX has been having a nice of run of success with its X-Men related output lately, and Legion might be my favorite thing they've done. It's a superhero story as a psychological drama. In the comics, David Haller is the son of Professor X. In the show, there are no real references to any well-known mutants to be found, but the character is intact as a mentally unstable, powerful mutant who isn't sure where his abilities end and his hallucinations begin. The show is really more of a horror series than anything else, with some truly unsettling moments as the characters fight to survive some truly bizarre situations. It stands apart from other X-Men adaptations as something truly unique.

5. The Good Place (NBC)


The new comedy from the Parks and Recreation brain trust takes place in "The Good Place", the place good people go when they die, based on a complicated point system. The problem in the first episode is the new arrival and protagonist, played by Kristen Bell, knows there's no way she shouldn't have been sent to "The Bad Place", and from there begins a whole series of complications and screw-ups that drive one of my favorite new comedies in a long time. The Good Place is ambitious, smart, and hilarious, and is story focused in a way that makes compulsive watching easy if not unavoidable. And the cast is diverse and brilliant, particularly Ted Danson as Michael, the architect of the neighborhood the show takes place in. He might be the lifetime sitcom MVP.

4. The Deuce (HBO)


David Simon's new show is a return to what he does best - rich, complicated examinations of systems of crime and neglect that inevitably end up hurting the vulnerable the most. It's about the intertwined industries of prostitution and pornography in 1970s New York, as the former is pushed behind closed doors and the latter starts gaining mainstream acceptance. The ensemble cast is reliably excellent, as is the writing, which takes time to explain how things work and why they're terrible and won't be fixed without being preachy or unnatural. There's a lot of sex in this show, but it feels illustrative rather than titillating. When you know how the sausage is made, you don't want to eat it as much.

3. Better Call Saul (AMC)


In some ways, I think Better Call Saul might be better than Breaking Bad. I don't want that to be taken the wrong way, because there are things that Breaking Bad did that no other show can do as well, and that Saul doesn't really try. But it can do subtler, smaller storytelling in ways that show this team doesn't need Breaking Bad's excesses to make one of the most consistently riveting dramas on TV. The rivalry between Jimmy and Chuck is one of the most heartbreaking family conflicts I can remember, and Mike getting himself intertwined with Gus and the cartel, knowing where that eventually goes, is always great stuff. And what the heck is going to happen to Kim? God this show is fun.

2. The Leftovers (HBO)


The Leftovers' third and final season (déjà vu) brings the story to a close in a way that satisfied, bringing more comparisons to Lost, Damon Lindelof's other show about mysterious, unexplained events. It's all a matter of perspective. While people expected certain things from Lost that the creators never intended to give them, it seemed clear from the outset that the focus of The Leftovers was how the strange disappearance of 2% of the population affected the people who remained, and not the disappearance itself. That was driven home here, as the characters struggle to find some catharsis or really anything to latch onto, as they reel from further events that spun out from the results of the "rapture". The final season was raw, emotional, devastating, and hopeful from beginning to end.

1. Twin Peaks: The Return (Showtime)


There was some trepidation about what to expect from David Lynch's return to the world of Twin Peaks for the first time in 26 years, and his first major work behind a camera in 11. Does he still have it? Will it be too familiar? Too different? The answers to those questions are yes, no, and no. Twin Peaks still resembles the old Twin Peaks, but it feels appropriately twisted. Evil has been running free for decades, and the advanced aging of the many returning cast members illustrate the toll it has taken on this world. It's like Lynch got to make an eighteen hour long movie and could do whatever the hell he wanted with it as long as it tied into a story that didn't get a proper ending the first time. There are a few moments of comfort and familiarity, but the show is frequently challenging, even frustrating, and often very experimental. It won't work for everyone, but as a fan of most of Lynch's filmography, I loved the hell out of it. I'm not sure I've ever seen anything as ballsy as that ending. Also, Kyle MacLachlan kills it. I'd love to see another season, or really anything else David Lynch wants to make.

Delayed Entry

This is the best show that didn't air in 2017 but I didn't watch until then.

The Last Man on Earth (FOX)

I'm now caught up on this show, and while it didn't quite land on the top 10, it's also another one of my favorite new-ish comedy series. Will Forte stars as Phil Miller, an oddball of a man and one of only a few who seem to be immune to a virus that wiped out almost all life on the planet (spoiler, the title of the show is quickly shown to be inaccurate). The whole cast is good, but it's really Forte who drives the thing. The show actually takes its premise quite seriously, and it has its share of effective dramatic developments and careful consideration of what would follow the near-extinction of humanity. But taking that story, and putting this character at the center, is so weird and brilliant and funny. Will Forte should have gotten his own show a long time ago.

Best Shows of 2016

Of the ten shows on my list last year, eight had their final season or just took 2016 off. Eight! That left me scrambling to come up with a list, especially since I didn't jump on many new shows to compensate. So there's a few shows here I feel strongly about, and several more than I like and haven't written about before.

Best of 2016

10. Daredevil (Netflix)


Daredevil is a messy show. It's more violent than it needs to be, and the supporting cast can often feel wasted, and the plotting is fairly inconsistent. But as Luke Cage (sorry) showed us, there are definitely worse alternatives. Daredevil has been Marvel's most consistently good comic over the last fifteen years, and the show doesn't reach that standard, but it's a fun adaptation of the darker depictions the character has had, and it has some of the best action scenes of any regular TV series I've seen. The second season added the Punisher and Elektra as foils to Matt Murdock, and while both stories had their ups and downs, their coexistence kept the show's energy high and its tone varied. Not every show needs to be great to be worth watching.

9. Todd Margaret (IFC)


Todd Margaret is sort of a hybrid of American and British comedic sensibilities that works really well. After the apocalyptic ending of the second season I wasn't expecting a third, but it shakes up the formula in a really clever way and gets a lot of comedy out of its half-rebooted premise. David Cross says this was definitely the last season, but I think he's there's another series coming with a similar concept (Cross + England = comedy gold), so I'm looking forward to that.

8. Agent Carter (ABC)


I watch and enjoy Agents of SHIELD, but I don't think it really benefits from having 22 episode seasons. Even the 13 episode Netflix seasons might be a bit long based on the amount of story they come up. Agent Carter is in the sweet spot with 8-10 episodes. Or it was, because it got canceled. I can understand why the show never built a big audience, but the fact that it was an enjoyable, charming, 1940s sci-fi spy action series starring a woman (who was great) was incredible, and I wish there were more series that idiosyncratic.

7. Broad City (Comedy Central)


I've seen Broad City described as something like the female equivalent of Workaholics, but the fact is it's actually better. Abbi and Ilana are a great classic odd couple, with their clashing personalities making their friendship richer and the show's solid emotional core. They're also hilarious, and I would watch them try to work their way through any awkward situation they care to imagine. The third season wasn't the show's best, but it was still very good.

6. Bob's Burgers (FOX)


For my money, Bob's Burgers is easily television's best current traditional family sitcom. The three kids are generally the standout characters, but the parents are great too, avoiding the cliches of moron husband and shrewish wife. The voice cast is wonderful, including the great names they get for guest voices, even for roles that might easily be forgotten without the right character quirks and performance behind them. The show seems like it should be getting long in the tooth at this point, but I still enjoy it every week it's on.

5. Decker Unclassified (Adult Swim)


Decker Unclassified is televised continuation of Decker, a webseries which was a spin-off of On Cinema at the Cinema, another webseries which was itself based on On Cinema, a podcast satirizing bad movie podcasts. So there's a weird lineage here, a lineage that helps explain what Decker Unclassified is. It's a spy show starring fictionalized versions of Tim Heidecker and Gregg Turkington playing special agents Decker and Kington, with intentionally-unintentionally terrible writing, acting, and production value. It's great and terrible and great because it's terrible. If that sounds interesting, check it out.

4. Stranger Things (Netflix)


I think Stranger Things has some problems. It's eight episodes long but doesn't have much more story than the average two hour 80s movie it's paying homage to, so things feel stretched. Characters often willfully withhold information for no real reason, or fail to change much over time and feel like they're stuck in place. But the core of what it does is so fun that I enjoyed it a lot anyway. The kids are generally great. The horror and sci-fi elements are well done without being too alienating. The period style isn't totally accurate, but works as a pastiche for what's obviously an homage coming from a good place. And the theme music is great. It's got flaws that I hope they improve in season two, but I kind of love it anyway.

3. Game of Thrones (HBO)


So they finally did it. The sixth season of Game of Thrones surpassed the books it's based on in the story, and it makes no apologies about that. Characters die, stories continue, battles are fought, events transpire that readers did not already have knowledge of. It was a new experience, and an interesting one. Part of me wishes I had gotten to read some of these things first, that I had more detail in my mind for what was happening on screen. But part of me also enjoyed being surprised by the show consistently. The show has the same strengths and weaknesses it always had - it's great at big moments, and not quite there on connecting those moments with quieter scenes and meaningful character work. There are two seasons left, and I'm eager to see what happens next.

2. The Venture Bros. (Adult Swim)


Six seasons in and the show is as good as ever. After the Gargantua-2 special wrapped up a lot of long-term storylines, the season proper is a bit of a refresh, as the family moves to a new headquarters in New York and quickly begins piling up new problems and distractions for them to tackle. The series has always been a hodge-podge of genre influences, but super heroes take more prominence here, as the Ventures have trouble with the neighborhood Avengers/Justice League hybrid, and The Monarch starts dressing as a Green Hornet knock-off to go after his enemies in the Guild. It's the same mix of zany plotting and humor it's always been, and I'll continue waiting however long it takes for the creators to return to the wonderful world they've been creating for the last decade-plus.

1. Better Call Saul (AMC)


In its second season, the Breaking Bad spin-off continued to wring more great material out of the backstories of two supporting characters than I thought anyone would be capable of. Jimmy realizes being part of a large law firm might not be his thing while his relationship with his brother gets more complicated and heartbreaking, while Mike finds himself slowly getting pulled further and further into New Mexico's criminal underworld. Obviously Bryan Cranston's work as Walter White was fantastic, but this show proves that it was just part of the entire team's ability to put together a show that is consistently original, beautiful, and enjoyable.

Delayed Entry

This is the best show that didn't air in 2016 but I didn't watch until then.

Friday Night Lights (NBC)

I don't usually go in for shows about sports or family and relationship drama, but there were enough voices saying Friday Night Lights rises above that I gave it a shot. It has its ups and downs, with the latter being exemplified by a pretty weak second season that ignores the show's core charms in favor of easier sensation. On balance though, it's a great drama about being true to yourself and giving everything you have to what you're passionate about. The cast is wonderful, especially Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton as the central married couple, and Taylor Kitsch as the burnout running back you can't help but love. I finally understand why he's been given so many chances in major movies. It has as much heart as any show I've ever seen.

Best Shows of 2014

Now that I only use this blog to post these lists instead of writing on it all the time, I find that the TV list comes more down to "shows I want to write about" than "shows I objectively think are the best". At least, this is what sticks out to me when I look back on the year of television. It's what I really remember watching.

Best of 2014

9. Tim & Eric's Bedtime Stories (Adult Swim)


Tim and Eric have always been halfway between bizarre sketch comedy and some sort of horrible David Lynchian nightmare, so it was fun to watch them embrace that second aspect of their work. Some episodes of Bedtime Stories don't even have jokes at all, focusing instead on dark (but still oddball enough to obliquely be considered comedy) story concepts in a Twilight Zone sort of way. Other episodes are just straight comedy, and it's best to think of it as them applying their style to slightly longer-form television and really seeing where their minds will take them. It's often not a very nice place.

8. Doctor Who (BBC)


I was looking forward to seeing the first "old" Doctor of the new series, and I was not disappointed. It's Doctor Who, so of course there's some weak episodes, and I was a bit put off by the Doctor's new habit of insulting his companion Clara's appearance. But that character became a real strength for the show this year as her relationship to the Doctor changed significantly as a result of his regeneration, and her courtship with new character Danny Pink was also a huge asset. After they got on a roll, the show had a string of episodes as strong as anything I've seen the series do, and I liked the renewed focus on good individual stories over convoluted season-long plots that never end up anywhere good. I'm looking forward to more adventures through space and time.

7. Community (NBC)


I don't know if Community truly belongs up here, but just the fact that they took a show that was basically dead, brought back the original creator, lost two main cast members, and ended up with something that didn't suck, that was actually quite good, is pretty amazing. It's not up to the heights of the first three seasons at their best, but damn it, it was Community again. We'll see how the new season on Yahoo works out, but I'll always remember what they pulled off in their last year on NBC.

6. The Legend of Korra (Nick)


Despite weird manipulations and bumbling by Nickelodeon, the crew of one of the best animated action series in years managed to put out not one, but two seasons of their follow-up to Avatar: The Last Airbender in 2014. They were the better two seasons of the show, up there with the best in the whole franchise, and a great way to say goodbye to this setting, if that's what we end up doing. Korra's central characters are older than Avatar's, and that comes through in the story, which is ultimately a more mature tale about growing up and learning you have to face your own troubles before you are able to help others, and that kicking someone's ass isn't always the answer. Not that kicking ass doesn't work once in a while, as the action scenes in these two seasons are up there with anything you'll ever see on TV. It's also great to see a prominent same-sex romantic relationship come to pass in something kids might see.

5. Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey (FOX)


I'm afraid Neil deGrasse Tyson will become too big for his own good. He's a great ambassador for the value and wonder of science, but he doesn't know everything, and sometimes it seems like he thinks he does. His talents are perfect for Cosmos though, his homage and successor to his mentor Carl Sagan's old series about all the wonders of molecules, galaxies, and everything in between. A lot of what you'll learn in Cosmos is stuff all adults should probably know already, but the fact that Tyson and his crew are still bringing people that information in a smart and accessible way is great, and I love how they directly confront some of the bigger human obstacles in the way of progress. At its best, Cosmos captures the awe and wonder I feel at the real size and possibility of the universe and humanity's future in it, and I think it should be required viewing for anyone with the smallest curiosity about life as we know it.

4. Boardwalk Empire (HBO)


The sense of history in Empire's final season is inescapable, as it closes in on some people, opens up possibilities for others, and brings ultimate closure to far too many. They only got eight episodes and had to skip past several years of juicy gangster dealings, but I feel like we ultimately got everything we needed. Empire isn't quite the epic of crime, family, and politics it wanted to be, but it did an admirable job of working with what it had and providing some great characters and unforgettable moments. A great deal of those moments involve people getting shot in the face, but a lot of times that's how these things went.

3. Game of Thrones (HBO)


A Storm of Swords is my favorite book in the series, and the fourth season of the show mostly adapted its second half, so of course I liked it a lot. However, they also showed a greater ability to change and shift characters and stories around where needed, which is great, because they're going to need it as they go forward into the more recent books. Not every change totally worked, especially one unfortunate sort-of-rape scene that came off worse than the original material, but on a more general level, they're doing a great job of turning a humongous epic into a manageable episodic story, without really making it feel any smaller. One of the most purely enjoyable shows to just watch from week to week.

2. True Detective (HBO)


Coming right in the middle of the McConaughey renaissance (the McConaissance), True Detective used his and Woody Harrelson's skills to their full extent to craft a great, haunting Gothic-noir-mystery-detective THING that defied easy definition and got at the heart of the struggle between good and evil. It covers years of an investigation into a series of strange killings in Louisiana that end up getting connected with a chain of Christian schools, references to an obscure forgotten city (which got me and many others to read The King in Yellow), and a whole lot of problems for the two leads. It will be hard for the unrelated second season to recapture the magic of the first, but we'll always have the lead performances, Cary Fukunaga's great direction, and the flat circle of time to think about.

1. Rick and Morty (Adult Swim)


Rick and Morty is a show about a brilliant old man with a drinking problem who brings his simple-minded but good-hearted grandson with him on trips to other dimensions for various ends which usually end up only serving him. That right there is enough for a good Adult Swim show, but Rick and Morty is definitely something more, already on the same level in my estimation as The Venture Bros. and possibly higher. There's a ton of imagination in every single episode. It will surprise you with story resolutions that are more disturbing than what they could easily get away with, and then follow that up by turning it into something that really profoundly affects the characters. It's sometimes a story about a failing marriage, and mines that for real emotion rather than simple laughs. It's also extremely funny every single week. I laughed out loud multiple times in every episode. That just doesn't happen, you know?

Delayed Entry

This is the best show that didn't air in 2014 but I didn't watch until then.

Prime Suspect (BBC)

The gritty British detective drama that I assume is the basis for the DNA of every British detective drama that followed. Over the course of over a decade, Helen Mirren played Detective Jane Tennison, one of the best realized characters in television. She's a brilliant detective, but also a flawed one; a good person, but also a flawed one. We see the arc of her career in a way you usually don't in a TV show, and along the way she investigates some truly unsettling and cleverly twisty crimes. The double length format is a bit of a slog at times, but if you watch Prime Suspect you watch the maturation of television as a medium. There aren't usually easy answers.

Best Shows of 2013

The list of shows I watch has slowly dwindled in size as many series have been ending while I've been slower to add new ones. Combine that with a few previously excellent series taking dips in quality, and 2013 wasn't the best year for TV in a while. Still, everything on this list kept me thoroughly entertained and engrossed.

Best of 2013

8. Treme (HBO)


There were multiple shows that ended in 2013 in ways that drove home their themes and big ideas gracefully, like 30 Rock and Spartacus, and Treme was one of the better ones. The show has never gotten a fair chance from a lot of people because it wasn't and never could be as propulsive as The Wire, but it's still a completely effective drama that shows how a city stuck in a horrible situation worked to pull itself together, and that there's still a lot of work to be done. There's only five episodes to this fourth and final season, but they're among the best five in the show's whole run.

7. The Venture Bros. (Adult Swim)


Even including last Halloween's special episode, the fifth season of The Venture Bros. was only around for five hours. Still, Doc and Jackson once again proved they're making the best animated series on television. I just know there will be enough of it. Every new direction they go in reveals even more history and interesting new characters, and there just isn't enough time in the world for two guys to get every last drop of fun they could out of it. All this while it's amazing how much they usually manage to cram into about 22 minutes of air time. The hour-long premiere essentially feels wasteful for not getting its story across in half that time. I like The Venture Bros., is what I'm saying.

6. Parks and Recreation (NBC)


It might be because I don't watch enough new shows, but I think Parks is still the best comedy on TV right now. The entire cast is full to the brim with talent and clearly enjoys working with each other, as they constantly find new spins on old relationships and hidden details that delight when discovered. "Leslie works in the council" might not be quite as compelling a throughline as "Leslie runs for council", but they still find a lot of ways to poke fun at modern politics and get some solid bits of comedy and real meaning out of the concept. I'm still not sure when the show's ending, and I have the feeling it might be soon. If that's true, I'm glad to keep watching it while it lasts.

5. Mad Men (AMC)


It's only through association with the dazzling fifth season that the sixth seems a little disappointing in comparison. But while I'm glad the show is finding out where it wants to go and extremely perturbed by the decision to chop its final season into two halves, I'm still really enjoying it while it's on. Great writing, great acting, great humor, and plenty of surprises still left with unexpected plot shifts and an unending supply of new layers to discover in the characters.

4. Justified (FX)


I like how each season of Justified is able to develop its own unique little personality while still fitting into the grander ideas at work in developing one of the most fascinating depictions of crime and law in modern television. Justified was more subdued in 2013 than it was in 2012, slowly building a D. B. Cooper-esque mystery while a web of danger and suspicion wraps tighter and tighter around those in the center. It's the kind of season you can only get after a few years of buildup, as all the pain in these characters pasts comes back even stronger for some of the show's very finest moments. It might be the show's best, when all is said and done.

3. Boardwalk Empire (HBO)


While Nucky is still Boardwalk's closest thing to a central figure, season 4 was definitely all about the supporting cast. Chalky White, Richard Harrow, and the entire Chicago subplot got a lot of focus this time around, and it was generally to tremendous effect. The Al Capone scenes have always had a certain weight behind them because he's probably the show's best known real-life figure, and there was a lot of strong moments as his life as one of America's most infamous criminals began to really get going. It looks like we won't be seeing a lot of that though, because HBO's announced that the fifth season later this year will be the show's last. It's surprising, because the show is still so good and there's a lot from the period they haven't gotten bored with. And a lot of what happened this year was among the most gripping and tragic stuff I've seen in crime television. They've still got it, and they want to end things when they're still riding high.

2. Game of Thrones (HBO)


I mentioned before that this season would be adapting (a large part of) my favorite book in the series, and I was excited to see them depicted on screen. And good lord did they ever pull it off. One scene in particular made history with the impact it had on unfamiliar viewers, especially on social media, and besides it being one of my favorite moments in the pop meta-culture of the year, it was just a damn good scene, getting everything right it needed to to match the feeling of reading it for the first time. And while it's great that they're nailing the big plot points that every fan of the books knows, it's also great that the show totally works on its own too, looking at the continuing warm reception from almost everyone who sees it. Not everything was great - the Theon scenes kind of went nowhere a lot, and the very end of the season finale was dull after the exciting cliffhangers in the first two seasons. But it was still one of my favorite things to watch last year.

1. Breaking Bad (AMC)


Well of course this was going to be at the top of my list. How could it not be? It's the final fucking season of Breaking fucking Bad. Possibly the best final season of a great show ever made. The writers wrote! The directors directed! The actors acted! The cinematographers cinematographied! I actually wouldn't have minded an ending that was a bit more daring and unexpected, but once in a great while, what a story needs and what the audience wants to see actually kind of line up, and it works out for everyone. I'll always remember Breaking Bad for its dark humor, its electric cast, its razor-sharp tension, and the utterly human drama at the heart of it all. One of the all-time greats.

Delayed Entry

This is the best show that didn't air in 2013 but I didn't watch until then.

The Thick of It (BBC)

The Thick of It is probably the most realistic depiction of modern politics ever seen on television while being devastatingly funny the entire time. The casts rotates a bit but is generally pretty solid, and they play a group of people who hate each other, hate the government opposition, hate the citizens of Britain, and basically hate everything else while they're at it. Almost every episode is about some stupid crisis about nothing that shouldn't be happening snowballing into even worse scandal as their sorry attempts to cover it up or apologize get ruined by even stupider mistakes. It's like a symphony of human garbage. I watched it because one of the regulars, Peter Capaldi, is the new star of Doctor Who. I think it's brilliant casting - just replace the caustic Scottish foulmouthed wit with caustic Scottish sci-fi gibbering and you're pretty much there.