10. Beef – Netflix
A TV show that perfected the art of unironic needle drops. An arms race of a TV show dedicated to showing the back-and-forth of two very neurotic, down-on-their-luck people. Steven Yeun controls every role he’s in, but to see Ali Wong step up to the plate and knock it out of the park as well means this show is a powerful two-hander. Sell the Tamago kids cause this show nailed it in one season. Sex, violence, church, start-ups, brooding mother-in-laws? This show’s got it all. Admittedly, I don’t think I’d like to see a second season. I’d like to leave things where they are. The awards say it all.
9. What We Do In the Shadows: Season 5 – FX/Hulu
I finally caught up on this comedy. Season 5 decided to get absolutely weird with it. Guillermo’s bizarre subplot about being a vampire and Colin Robinson’s semi-return highlighted some uncanny valley moments in a show that lives for that sort of thing. While the first four seasons have me in stitches, season five drives the nail in the coffin (pun intended) and solidifies every cast member as their own success.
8. Ted Lasso: Season 3 – Apple TV
So few shows actually stick the landing, let alone get to finish on their own terms, but “Ted Lasso” eventually got there. The enemies-to-allies storytelling really turned this show into a cult favorite. Season 3 expanded its world to tell more of Keely Jones’ life (which… an odd outing for sure), Colin’s sexuality, Roy’s future, Jamie’s home life, and more. Some story deviations felt earned, while others felt like padded runtimes.
From soccer cameos to fun big location shoots, this show knew how to spend its money. Somewhere in the middle, it meandered (maybe a few too many episodes) and lectured us about nudes somehow. Still, the show doesn’t miss a beat when it comes to side characters like Colin, Jamie, Trent, Sam, and even Danny Rojas. The show knows that as much as we like Sudeikis’ down-to-earth folksy mannerisms (and British people making fun of them), it was always about more than just Coach Ted. A tear-jerker, no doubt, albeit one that goes in a few strange directions.
7. Only Murders in the Building: Season 3 – Hulu Original
Whoever pitched this show to Martin Short, Selena Gomez, and Steve Martin nailed the casting perfectly. This trio feels like it has the energy to sustain itself over several more seasons. It helps that the show’s willing to dabble in musical theater lore or that they get some bonkers celebrity casting each season. I feel like just having Meryl Streep play a meager, unsuccessful actress who caught her big break is the kind of high a TV show dreams of. Every time she’s on-screen, I guffawed. The contrast from her to Paul Rudd and you have just beat after beat of hilarious self-serious acting.
Short, Gomez, and Martin have that je-ne-sais-quais that makes a sitcom endlessly watchable. Punchlines always land on this show, and the mystery never disappoints. Who could possibly make a television show that’s not just a murder mystery but also a musical, a broad comedy, and a sharp generational comedy? I’d recommend every single season of this show to people, no doubt.
6. Gen V: Season 1 – Amazon Prime
This show is what I wish X-Men would be. Take everything superpowers and wrap it up in teen angst, then multiply it by a satirical reflection of our own broken world, and you get “Gen V.” A show that has so much going for it: big budget effects, teen couples, a Hard-R sensibility when it comes to violence and sex. Coming from the “The Boys” world, it’s no surprise to see something like this.
For a show that sounds utterly raunchy, it’s willing to incorporate subjects like body dysmorphia (literally), disordered eating, mental health crises, and so much more. It also has MAGA stand-ins (that sound eerily like the Brotherhood of Mutants), exploding dicks, an invisible RA in an open relationship with a goat, and some classic YA-style social rankings. The way the show kills off what seems like its protagonist by the end of the first episode promises so much more. I genuinely can’t wait to see what happens next.
5. The Righteous Gemstones: Season 3 – HBOMax
Danny McBride’s bombastic humor finds its perfect outlet in this raunchy “faith-based” comedy that utterly skewers megachurches. The craziest part of this show is how it manages to cling to its heart, finding room in its already obnoxious chest to teach us all a lesson on forgiveness.
This season has some of its best story arcs that show us Eli Gemstone’s birthright, bring us Uncle Baby Billy’s Bible Bonkers, and BJ’s utterly unhinged semi-nude fight. Danny McBride holds it down as his boisterous, comic self, and John Goodman lends the show an air of gravitas it probably doesn’t deserve, but this show really belongs to the spouses: Keefe Chambers (Toni Cavalero), BJ (Tim Baltz), and Amber (Cassidy Freeman). Toni Cavalero might be my favorite actor on this entire show, and it already has such comedic giants. From swarms of actual locusts to game shows to NASCAR races to doomsday prepper compounds, there’s a taste of something for everybody. Is it weird I teared up at the end when the family drives a monster truck over furniture as a bonding activity?
4. The Last of Us – HBOMax
Oh, man. Where do I even begin with this one? One of the best story-driven videogames ever meets the ticking-clock creator of “Chernobyl”? The game’s original creator comes on as a co-creator. Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey? Everything about this show has the markings of greatness on it before it shot a single frame. High expectations, no doubt, but those of us who knew the game knew audiences were in for a kick, but even knowing the ending, we still got a brutal awakening.
The show matches most of what the game provided by delving into quieter moments among the more apocalyptic sequences. It still delivered some pulse-pounding action bits, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not afraid to sit back and examine the sadness surrounding such a world. I’d have to say the bottle episode “Long, Long Time” had me in absolute tears, choked up, sad but happy. It completely changed the way I think about Nick Offerman. Season 2 will likely take two years at least before it hits but season one was more than enough to think about.
3. Reservation Dogs: Season 3 – FX/Hulu
This show has always felt special. Its unique sensibilities and comedic unflinching look at life on the reservation just felt like a once-in-a-lifetime look at an under-seen corner of the world. The show started as a comedy, but it’s never been afraid to deviate and tell us more dramatic tear-jerker stories, and this final season really opens up. While our protagonists undergo their own journeys, this season offers the Elders of the reservation something to talk about. A short walk down memory lane told us the horrific story of Deer Lady. A dazed-and-confused-esque episode showed us the fun ramblings of the elders.
This show crossed every ‘t’ and dotted every ‘i’ by resolving Elora’s fatherhood (with a near-perfect cameo from lovable Ethan Hawke), bringing peace to Rita, and even bringing back Lily Gladstone! “Reservation Dogs” has some of the most humbling and down-to-earth characters with some grand mythology and a little bit of teenage sarcasm. Who else would plan a heist episode to rescue a confused elder when they could simply sign him out at the front desk? I’m sad to see it go, but lord, I can’t wait to see what any of these cast members do next. Watch out for Devery Jacobs, who wrote and directed a few episodes over the course of the show, who’s just getting started. There are big things in her future.
2. Blue Eye Samurai: Season 1 – Netflix
This show came out of nowhere for me. Netflix’s anime division now runs at a brisk pace, happily churning out some hits, some misses, and everything in between, but when I checked out this show, I was utterly astounded. A bi-racial samurai hunts down her white father in a country that’s banned all foreigners so she can kill him. There’s a cocky samurai hellbent on regaining his honor, a hands-less noodle cook determined to make a name for himself, a ruthless Danish warlord hiding from Japanese authorities, and a princess on the run from an arranged marriage.
Everything about this show pops. The animation. The character moments. The action. Not a single beat feels wasted, and the samurai revenge story gets a new life when seen from this perspective. Our protagonist, Mizu, undergoes an absolute beating on her path to revenge. She fights all manner of crazed assassins, an army of archers, and legions of gangsters. One episode is just a straight-up dungeon crawl to face the final boss set to Japanese pop punk and covers of Metallica. This show is not afraid to show gore and violence. At times, the graphic sexuality (and depravity) distracts, but whatever spark of darkness “Game of Thrones” first gets captured here, only this show gives more life to all of its characters. There’s a tragic backstory episode in this season that made this show almost the number-one show on this list.
People slept on this show, and I cannot beg you enough to go check it out. Anime fan or not, this show has everything.
1. The Bear: Season 2 – FX/Hulu
Holy crap. What a show. What a dream. What an absolute legend. Just when I thought it couldn’t get any this show ups the ante. Yes, there’s the ticking clock and pressure cooker of opening a restaurant (even as the show acutely reminds us that restaurants live and die on razor-thin margins), but this season, the show actually takes a moment to chill out. Marcus’ trip to Copenhagen, Tina’s flourishing in cooking school, and Richie? Who could forget Richie’s episode? Hands down the best episode of television I watched all year long with a Taylor Swift needle drop that had me belting at the top of my lungs.
This season tries to deliver some good things for our characters even as the house of cards builds up around them. Marcus masters his craft and learns to live for himself a little bit. Tina goes out for karaoke with the other young classmates from her cooking school. Ebraheim feels like he’s getting left behind when they make the restaurant classy, only to discover he was wrong. It’s clear Carmy’s trying to break the cycle of restaurant abuse, and it’s working so well on everyone but himself. We see him want something new for a few tiny moments, and for a brief few moments, it’s so beautiful. Of course, “The Bear” wouldn’t be “The Bear” without something crashing down, literally and figuratively, so even though our heroes win, somebody gets a loss.
“The Bear” has always been a show about our deepest humanness. Whether it’s endearing Tina to us or making us laugh with Fak instead of at him, it’s always made the impossible possible. The Richie episode alone speaks volumes about his character. They’re all a little adrift without Mikey, and learning to live without him feels like a betrayal, but each day, Marcus, Tina, Ebraheim, Richie, Fak, and Carmy power through. All of this comes into focus through the rather star-studded flashback episode. Bringing back Jon Bernthal but adding in Gillian Jacobs, John Mulaney, Sarah Paulson, Bob Odenkirk, and Jamie Lee Curtis as the members of this deeply unwell family puts it all into perspective. Here Carmy becomes the little brother he truly is. Here, we see the root of the Berzatto family’s mental health troubles. Much like the one-take episode in season one, where everything goes horribly wrong, season two ups the ante not by doing it in one take but by constantly edging the audience in a terrifying back-and-forth of tension and release. John Mulaney’s prayer might be the single most soothing and nerve-wracking scene in this show, as the whole thing hangs on a knife’s edge.
People always talk about the stress of “The Bear,” but I can’t talk enough about the compassion of this show. I’m sure you’d be inclined to avoid it after seeing memes about the high stress, the ‘yes chefs,’ or the Jeremy Allen White thirst traps, but please, please, please watch “The Bear.” It has something to tell us about how we’re all hurting, how we’re all a little messed up, and how we should all try to love each other. We are all the porcupines from time to time. We’re prickly, even though we want to be loved.
Honorary Mentions:
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel – Amy Sherman-Palladino finally gets to land the plane after years of creating and never quite ending on her own terms. This final season has some time gaps and mostly concerns itself not with how every character ends up but with how many of these relationships are maintained. By ending Suzie and Midge’s friendship, we get to see the point of the show was always about these two women.
Harley Quinn: Season 4 – The first couple of seasons really drilled down on the DC universe with a Community-level sense of meta-humor and wit. With the glass ceiling officially broken, the corporate antics of Ivy make the satire strong. That side of the story works well, but Harley’s confusing turn as a hero sort of chews up more emotional antics. That they keep making seasons of this show is always wild to me, given the churn of creative forces at DC in general. This might be the best thing to come out of DC.
The Fall of the House of Usher – Lush visuals, rich dialogue, and horrifying death scenes all fit the hallmark of Mike Flanagan. There are so many elaborate deaths and gruesome scenes, but they’re all stacked against such top-notch performances. It’s a literal murderer’s row of talent onscreen. Flanagan really has it out for opioids and families like the Sacklers. This mini-series would’ve ranked top ten if the top ten list wasn’t so stacked to begin with. I wish I could watch these episodes on a movie screen; they were so beautiful. While Edgar Allen Poe’s work felt shoehorned on occasion (the poetry mostly), it still carried that dramatic flair that Flanagan is known for. As a capper on his Netflix career, I’d call this a win.
Swarm: Season 1 – From the minds of Donald Glover and Janine Nabers (“Atlanta”) comes this comedy so dark I didn’t quite know when to laugh. By combining fandom obsession and serial killers, this show has a lot to say about fan culture (much of which I agree with.) Still, it is a show that goes out of its way to legitimize its own story by making up a 60-minute episode that had me convinced for a full half-hour that there was a real ‘Dre’ who stalked and murdered her way as close as she could get to a celebrity star.
Yu Yu Hakusho: Season 1 – How do you take one of the world’s biggest-known anime and bring it to life? An exercise Netflix is one-for-one on (success? “One Piece.” Failure? “Cowboy Bebop”). Netflix isn’t going to stop, but compared to “One Piece,” this anime feels like small fries. Only five episodes long, it crammed in my favorite tournament arc of any anime and rushed the characters through some arcs. The wigs in this were atrocious, but to be fair, I don’t know how you’d do a faithful interpretation in the first place without getting totally weird. Still, the actors really captured the spirit of the characters, and the show honed in on what made the anime great. Fight sequences rock. The effects were alright. At a mere five episodes, one hour each, I liked it.
Loki: Season 2 – How to put an end to time-travel hijinks and somehow walk the line of having to maybe write Jonathan Majors Jr. out of all Marvel properties? A worthy question but one that season 2 manages to hit. It’s clearly a crown jewel in Marvel’s TV division, as the effects of this one felt fully realized. The cast is having the most fun with it, and ultimately, it makes the hardest choices. I liked the ending for its visual imagery (the timeline becoming a time tree) and for its deft writing out of Loki.
Attack on Titan Finale Pt. 1 and Pt. 2 – Good god, this show can be bleak. Broken into two different movies released six months apart from each other, the world’s most popular anime finally gets an ending. While it’s strayed significantly from its easy origins, this show maintains the kind of terrifying vision it has always had, just on a bigger budget. I think I genuinely cried to see all of humanity slowly getting crushed underfoot by an army of titans. Say goodbye to most of your favorite characters because it’s rare that anyone survives a show like this. To stick the landing on a show like this? Pretty impressive, and also really messed up.
Wednesday: Season 1 – A flash in a pan? A fun version of a beloved classic? Who knew that ‘Wednesday Addams Solves a Crime’ would be on our bingo cards of fun TV shows? It’s YA at its best with spooky love triangles, fun versions of horror movie tropes, and Jenna Ortega’s most unique performance ever. The dance scene is, in fact, super meme-worthy, but the whole show feels cut from a different cloth. We’ll see where this goes.
Barry: Season 4 – What happens when a comedy stops being a comedy? Especially one so bleak and terrifying as “Barry”? In hindsight, you can feel the comedy slowly stripping away from each season marginally more and more, year after year. The final season has to pay the piper and answer many of its questions or risk seeming too weird. So naturally, there’s a time jump, and we’re left to decipher how these characters continue their lives after the events of season 3 with literal YEARS between them. Turns out the answer is bleak and the darkness that was hidden by all the funny Hollywood jokes gets center stage. I breathed deeply at the end of this, unsure of what to feel, honestly. This show was always going to give us dark answers. It’s not afraid to revel in misery. Still, the ending feels… right for what this show is about. Don’t expect more jokes. Simply anticipate answers.
Disappointments:
Krapapolis – I hear the joke. I see the joke. I get why it’s objectively funny. I couldn’t quite get myself more than a chuckle. Dan Harmon’s jokes work and I love the ancient Greek versions of modern-day problems I just felt like it didn’t quite find its footing. If they make a season 2, I bet it’ll add a character that balances everything out much better. Comedies like these tend to balance well in their second run.
A Murder At The End Of The World – Did I watch the same show as everyone else? This whodunit set in Greenland featuring a cadre of wealthy tech geniuses, hackers, and social advocates felt both underbaked and overbaked at the same time. The most exciting part of this show was the previous timeline revealing Bill and Darby’s budding relationship as they amateurly solve murders. In the modern timeline, the clues add up at first, then fall apart to long monologues about climate change, rampant greed, or overly dramatic flourishes that feel like writing tricks more than any actual character-building. I wanted to like this one so much, I really did, but I ended with mixed feelings overall.
Strange Planet – Man, anachronistic comedy, has to hit or not hit. Something about this show felt off. The pacing. The punchlines. The visuals. I love the web comic, and I truly hope this show refines itself over time, but I did not make it past the pilot episode. Maybe something about the wordy dialogue being a constant punchline to our everyday lives just tired me out.
Shows Missed:
I’m A Virgo
Poker Face
Cunk on Earth?
Scavengers Reign
Succession
Scott Pilgrim Takes Off Season 1
I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson
The Curse
American Born Chinese
Queen Charlotte
You
Ahsoka
One Piece
Mrs. Davis
The writer’s strike was the great equalizer this year, and the whole board has been wiped clean. Some shows are going to get to stay, like “Abbott Elementary,” and some were wiped clean. The strike was the perfect opportunity for networks, streamers, et al.. To cut back on their content spending and drill down on cheaper options that audiences enjoyed. Remember the reality TV craze after the 2008 writer’s strike? Hello Netflix. This means fewer risks on TV shows, fewer jobs for writers, and fewer TV shows in general. For the consumer, that sounds great! There’s already such a plethora of shows, to begin with, and so many streaming services it feels impossible to keep up with.
Streaming services in 2024 may shrink but only marginally so. The streaming wars continue despite Disney’s ever-increasing market share. I anticipate 2024 is the year Disney will sunset Hulu and move everyone on Hulu over to Disney+ (a mixed bag, but if I get my FX content, I’ll probably remain happy.) Netflix will slim down its TV offerings to more high-dollar, high-profile versions of its most popular hits but shows on the margins of success beware: it’s a razor’s edge to cancellation. Maybe evangelize a little more for the shows you think people are ignoring. Anticipate more stand-up specials and more reality shows, and prepare for long waits between these marquis shows.
“The Last of Us” must take an entire full year to shoot, let alone edit and produce effects. Maybe “The Bear” can deliver another season, but everything on the table got pushed back with the writer’s strike. “Abbott Elementary” will finish out the back half of its season and go on break for the summer. There’s simply too much time between the writer’s strike and WHEN these shows are supposed to go on the air. There will be a ~semi~ noticeable gap for fans of big-budget shows, and that’s what the writers intended.
The actual terms of the writer’s strike? More guaranteed episodes. More guaranteed residuals (in streaming.) So, naturally, it’ll slim down the number of shows there are per service but increase the minimum number of episodes per show. Which, mixed bag that it is, still offers somewhat of a choice to the consumer. TV isn’t going anywhere despite what people say. TikTok can’t replace the water-cooler effect of a good show like “The Last of Us” or “Stranger Things.” The binge model will continue despite protestations from the older generations. Life, as we know it, continues in a very familiar fashion, so don’t expect the world to change overnight after such a seismic shift in the industry. However, be watchful; you’ll notice more time between seasons, more episodes, fewer shows, and each show will be more of a marketing event. It makes the return of your favorite show that much more special.
