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.

Sym-Bionic Titan

I was honestly pretty surprised when I learned that Sym-Bionic Titan was not renewed after watching the final episode on Saturday. It just seemed obvious that with crap like Star Wars: The Clone Wars coming back for a fourth year, there would be enough kids who liked it to give it a second. Sure, kids don't always have the best taste in their entertainment, but I couldn't see how they wouldn't enjoy this show. And it apparently was fine in the ratings, despite being moved from the desirable Friday night time slot to earlier on Wednesdays, and then finally dumped to 9:30 in the morning on Saturday for the last three weeks of its run. I guess I should have seen it coming with all that bouncing around, but I was still disappointed, the show apparently not having enough of a presence in the toy market.

Titan was the latest, and perhaps now the last show by creator Genndy Tartakovsky, whose work has matured along with myself, all the way from childhood favorite Dexter's Laboratory to now. His art style hasn't changed all that much, although the quality of the animation sure has - some of the work done on this show is easily among the best I've ever seen on a weekly cartoon. The character designs are a bit more grown up if still distinctly Tartakovsky's, and the mix between hand drawn work and well-integrated computer elements is top notch. Occasionally the show is truly stunning, mostly in the action sequences, whether they're focusing on a giant robot fighting an alien monster or just a guy running through the city to keep up with a bus. The use of color in particular is always good. It's just a joyful show to look at.

And story-wise, it's solid. It's still a show made with young teens at the oldest in mind, so they can't get too dark or complex with it, but I was still impressed by some of it. The core cast is solid. Brian Posehn's Octus is a cool take on the super intelligent robot who struggles with some human concepts, Lance is kind of a typical badass loner but has a well fleshed-out background, and Ilana is a good female character without resorting to obvious ways to establish that. The high school stuff was generally the kind of irritating high school stuff you always see on TV, though they do throw in a few surprises by making archetypes like the gorgeous head cheerleader and huge, brainless jock into likable, interesting characters.

The other side of the show involves the whole aliens-who-escape-war-and-hide-on-Earth-where-they-fight-monsters-with-robots thing, which unfortunately ends up being a whole lot of set up with no payoff after the whole cancellation issue, but was cool enough while it lasted. There were a couple flashback episodes that showed life on the main characters' home planet before the series started which were definitely among the best the show did, allowing a departure from the secret high school super heroes thing. Even though most episodes ended with a fight against some alien threat, the actual story arc of the season focused more on the group's struggle against various government agencies with various ideas of how to approach them as a new presence on Earth, which unlike the grander plot, did manage to see some sort of conclusion by the end, even if it wasn't really a final one. Still, they did create a story with a beginning, middle, and end, even if it wasn't the whole story they wanted to tell. It helps ease the disappointment of not getting to see the series continue a little. I just wish the market for kid-friendly action and science fiction entertainment was less focused on selling them toys.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Season 3

The most common feeling I had as the third season of this show was winding down was that I couldn't even remember why I ever liked Star Wars. And that's a pretty bad thing to be thinking about one of your favorite film series. The Clone Wars is not completely terrible - it looks pretty nice, and there will occasionally be a well crafted action scene, and it will sometimes pay homage to a classic moment from Star Wars or just another old adventure movie which can be fun. But I just find it a drag to turn it on every week, not knowing if it will be tolerable or just completely irritating. There was enough of the former to keep me watching through three seasons, but now that I'm working forty hours a week and have to get the most out of my free time, a half-tolerable show based on a favorite property is not nearly worth it. I now feel that a show is only worth my time if I'm actually excited to see a new episode every week, and there are a number of series that don't fit that bill that I'll be dropping as their latest seasons end this Spring. The Clone Wars is the first.

I just don't identify with hardcore Star Wars fans, I guess. I get no joy out of a universe expanding to the point where it's unrecognizable, or seeing every possible idea from the movies being revisited even if it makes no sense, or learning the origins of every single god damn bit character from the movies that happened to be alive when the show takes place. And some of the original stuff is even worse. Ziro the Hutt returned this season, and watching him and his mother and his interspecies girlfriend was an exercise in seeing how much a cartoon could make me wish I was dead in just 22 minutes. There was a little story arc where Obi Wan and Anakin visited a planet where a family of extremely force sensitive people talked to Anakin about his destiny and all of this nonsense and I felt like I was watching a direct to video fantasy film you'd find buried under stacks of The Land Before Time sequels at the rental store. The show has no real direction, it's basically an anthology series of vaguely Star Wars-related story ideas rather than something that actually has a goal to accomplish. It's filler, a way for kids who think light sabers are awesome to pass time, and there is really no reason in the world for me to watch it, so I won't anymore.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Season 2

I have to admit this show's come a long way since the execrable movie that kicked it off. It's still not great, and rarely even better than decent, but at least it's not plain bad anymore. They've found some sort of groove and realized what sorts of stories will work for both kids who like shiny lightsabers and grown up dorks like me. There's less goofy crap and more simple yet respectable stories and homages to classic movies from all sorts of genres and periods in cinema. The main characters aren't as annoying, they've been introducing villains that pose an actual threat, and in some cases, like the stellar second half of the season finale, they actually pull off something pretty darn cool.

Not that I didn't have things to complain about. Because the show is kid friendly, not every plot handles some of the dumbed down elements as well as the others. Just things like the sort of logical holes in alien cultures that would never allow them to survive long enough for the Jedi to meet them, and isn't justified as well as other similar science fiction shows because the main audience doesn't care enough to think about it. And when some leaders make bad decisions and miss obvious information, it's easy to wonder how the republic lasted this long before Palpatine took it over. Not that he's immune from some terrible ideas of his own. Also, it's hard to root for the good guys when they spend so much time protecting him. Just screw up and let him die, idiots! You'll save the whole Jedi order! For now I'm going to keep watching though, to see if the upward trend in quality continues, especially since there's a very sad dearth of competent genre television right now.

Star Wars: Clone Wars

Clone Wars is good in all the ways that the current Star Wars: The Clone Wars is not. It doesn't aim so obviously at children. It's tightly focused, imaginative action and fun instead of generally boring and loaded down with a moral message they spell out for you at the beginning, and only actually get across half the time. It represents the excitement the franchise is capable of and actually seemed to serve a purpose instead of screaming "cash in". And it's honestly more enjoyable just to look at than the newer series or even the prequel movies themselves with their millions in computer effects. Honestly, the only thing the makers of the new show have done better than this is cast a less annoying actor for Anakin. Made by Genndy Tartakovsky and the Samurai Jack team, Clone Wars takes a similar art style and applies it to something the creators loved, a fictional universe that at the time was still in the process of being worn down the nub it stands as today. I don't want to overemphasize here, but it's simply the only good thing I've seen the franchise do on film since 1983.

Over two seasons, Clone Wars jumps from place to place and showcases various characters fighting against the switcheroo menace that now dominates the series. The first block is twenty bite-sized, three minute chapters that sort of tell a story but mostly just explore some cool things that could happen during such a war, with standouts like an utterly silent mission carried out by a special forces clone team and Mace Windu taking down a large group of droids by himself, mostly without even a lightsaber. The second season is about the same in running length but divided into fewer, larger chunks, and is more plot-based in nature. After depicting Anakin's knighting ceremony, it jumps forward to near the end of the war when his hair has become a full-blown mane and shows some events that lead directly to the third film, like Chancellor Palpatine's capture and the encounter that turns General Grievous from a menacing badass into a wheezing, moustache-twirling braggadocio. All in all, it's fairly remarkable looking for televised animation and generally pleasant to watch. The DVDs are stupidly out of print right now, but they can still be found and are worth tracking down if you want to rekindle your affection for some of these characters.

Samurai Jack

Samurai Jack was an interesting show, because it was made to be watchable by kids but still has a lot that someone older can enjoy, if they appreciate classic action cinema. I watched it again recently, and it still mostly holds up, especially later on. It's chock full of unique character designs, interesting landscapes, impressive fight animation, and homages to great moments that most kids probably wouldn't recognize. Like most Cartoon Network originals, it only lasted a few years, and never really built much on the story after the initial set up, but most episodes are enjoyable. There's a lot of variety, as they mix equal elements of science fiction, fantasy, and martial arts, with plenty of further tangents like a film noir episode starring a robot with feelings.

Genndy Tartakovsky has had his hands in lots of animation, and you can tell his involvement by a focus on visual humor and storytelling over a lot of dialogue, and Jack is sort of the epitome of that as any sort of verbal interaction often takes a backseat to constant action. It can get monotonous if you watch it in big chunks, but as a twenty minute diversion it can be fun to just turn your brain off and watch some bright colors flash around. The art has a unique style, with almost no outlines, and it has a very flat look, but still manages to have dynamic scenes with some creativity. They do a lot of screwing around with split screens and slow motion, with the balance of style and substance leaning heavily towards the former. The quality of the art also improves pretty drastically over the course of the series; it's hard to detect when you're just watching it through, but seeing some of the first episode again after getting through the third season was pretty jarring. Genndy hasn't really done anything since Star Wars: Clone Wars, the superior hand drawn predecessor to the current computer generated series, but I'm interested in whatever comes next.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Season 1

The first twenty two episode chunk of Lucasarts' continuing struggle to milk the Star Wars name for all its worth is considerably better than the film that preceded it, which isn't saying very much at all. Still, as a weekly, quickly-digested dose of competent action, it's pretty decent. It's still peppered with annoyances, but their relative infrequency and the plot working better to push twenty minutes instead of a whole movie make it much more tolerable. The droids are still dorky and not funny, but they're not making asses of themselves at every available opportunity, and Ziro the Worst Idea Ever is limited to a couple minutes in an otherwise decent finale instead of being a major villain throughout, although that could be a problem for next season. They also managed a way to make Jar Jar Binks even worse, after I had nearly come to terms with his idiocy - make his character model ugly as sin, replace his actual voice actor partway through the season with an even worse imitator, and make his bumbling, unfunny antics the linchpin of several episodes' stories. Impressive.

I could keep going with mistakes and screw-ups, and probably will, I just want to make it clear that unlike the movie, I mostly enjoyed or at least tolerated the series. Star Wars is still an interesting setting to me, so even if what's actually happening is silly or doesn't really make sense, I can usually handle it. The show is more aimed at kids anyway, even though they're going to start airing these episodes on Adult Swim soon. Each episode tries to have a moral, which can be grating but fine enough, and there are some multi-episode story arcs that are often pretty decent. There's some inconsistency in the art and animation, with some characters and even entire episodes looking kinda bad, though they're getting the hang of doing a decent light saber duel at least. I'm really not a big fan of the art style, although by this point I've gotten used to it. Only children and big Star Wars fans need apply, but it's not terrible.