I have a well-earned reputation as a person who watched a ton TV, but my viewing habits tend to be more wide than deep. I will watch the first episode or two of hundreds of shows every year looking for the stuff that really suits me, and even then it may take me months to get back to my favorites and watch the whole season. So there are several shows on this list that I finally caught up on this week, or still have a couple more episodes to go. Even with some shows still getting back on schedule from COVID-19 disruptions, followed by this year's historic WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes freezing the industry for nearly half the year, there was still just a ridiculous amount of TV this year, and I think probably more good and great stuff than most people could imagine.
1. Jury Duty (Amazon Freevee)
This was the surprise of the year, and not just because Amazon didn't believe in it enough to put it on their main streaming service and threw it on their free tier (formerly known as IMDb TV). The concept of doing a mockumentary sitcom about a jury trail, with one unwitting juror who thinks he's in a documentary about a real trial, is a dicey idea on paper, and it very easily could've felt like a prank or a cruel social experiment. Instead, a very funny cast (including James Marsden playing an oafish version of himself and trying to use his celebrity to get out of performing his civic duty) put Ronald in a variety of awkward situations where he consistently chose to do the right thing or treat others with kindness. So the final episode where the ruse was finally revealed wound up being a celebration of Ronald, who subsequently became friends with the cast and crew.
2. Succession (HBO)
The game show aspect of "Succession," the suspense over who would replace Logan Roy as the CEO of Waystar RoyCo, was always beside the point for me, just something to motivate the characters as they verbally spar and double cross each other. But Jesse Armstrong navigated that aspect of the show brilliantly as he decided to wrap up the show in 4 seasons before that power struggle could get repetitive, dropped the big plot-altering death surprisingly early in the season, and let the other characters scramble towards an appropriately ignominious conclusion.
3. The Fall of the House of Usher (Netflix)
The slept on 2013 movie Oculus is my favorite thing Mike Flanagan has done, but his five miniseries for Netflix over the last few years have been a really exciting and varied run. "The Fall of the House of Usher" in particular was a strange grab bag of ideas -- a roman a clef about the Sackler family that was far darker than either of the more straightforward miniseries about the Sacklers, a ruthlessly funny "Succession"-style satire of wealth, and an extended tribute to Edgar Allen Poe with names and characters and motifs from a dozen other Poe stories and poems stuffed into the tale of Roderick Usher.
4. Poker Face (Peacock)
A few weeks ago, Natasha Lyonne started popping up in some of those corny Old Navy commercials that countless celebrities before her have debased themselves in. I got over my annoyance quickly, though, because like Robert Downey Jr., Lyonne has made a comeback from hopeless addiction that would've been unthinkable 15 years ago. I would've been pretty happy if she never made anything after the first season of "Russian Doll," but a murder mystery show created by Rian Johnson is a hell of an encore.
5. Abbott Elementary (ABC)
The halo over "Abbott Elementary" has finally started to fade lately, at least in parts of Twitter, over one cast member's problematic standup material and a couple other actors' political positions. But the show has been firing on all cylinders with ratings, awards, critics, and public favor for the last two years straight. That kind of thing can't last forever, but at least onscreen, the show is still incredibly sharp and funny, and this year the Janine/Gregory will-they-or-won't-they story was handled really well, giving the audience a little of what it wants without completely playing into expectations.
6. Shrinking (Apple TV+)
I like Apple TV+ a lot -- it's got 18 shows on this list! -- but it's definitely a little embarrassing how few people actually watch Apple shows or know they exist, relative to the impressive casts and production values of their shows. John Oliver had a hilarious little tangent about it a few weeks ago that concluded with "Apple TV+: where celebrities go to hide." This year. Apple's biggest hit, "Ted Lasso," tapped out after only 3 seasons, but it feels like one of the streamer's new breakouts with the most potential was a similarly charming show from "Lasso" co-creator Bill Lawrence. It's hard to be surprised by any movie star doing TV these days, but it was a genuine shock that Harrison Ford starred in 2 series this year, and seemed to be actually having fun on one of them.
7. The Diplomat (Netflix)
Aaron Sorkin lost the ability to consistently write good television around the time he left "The West Wing" (and has just occasionally managed to make good features since then), but "West Wing" writer/producer Debora Cahn's "The Diplomat" retains a bit of that genre of light political dramedy while managing to be its own thing, refreshingly free of overbearing Sorkinisms. Keri Russell and Rufus Sewell have a wonderfully curdled chemistry as a troubled power couple, and Michael McKean is one of the most strangely true-feeling fictional POTUSes I've ever seen on a TV show.
8. What We Do In The Shadows (FX)
This year FX had a pretty good miniseries adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic Great Expectations that co-starred Matt Berry. And it was cool to see him do some real dramatic acting for once and confirm that I can take him seriously in a role if it's not comedy. But I'm also very glad that he's so thoroughly committed to doing some absolutely ridiculous comedy about vampires.
In April, I made a list of my 33 favorite TV shows of the 2020s so far with "What We Do In The Shadows" at #1, and the show hasn't lost a step in five seasons, hell of a run.
9. Julia (Max)
Over the last few years, there have been a ton of shows that are period pieces about fictional women trailblazing in unlikely professions ("GLOW," "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel," "Physical," "Lessons In Chemistry") -- all shows I enjoy, but they often make wonder if there was some actual existing woman who did impressive things in the same field whose story they could've told instead. That's one reason I really like "Julia," which is a really loving but complex portrait of Julia Child (created by a "Maisel" producer, Daniel Goldfarb, actually). It speaks to how perfect Sarah Lancashire is in the title role that I think she's eclipsed Meryl Streep's very good performance as the same person just over a decade ago. Kelsey Grammer rebooted "Frasier" this year in a depressing new series with none of the co-stars that Grammer played off of so well in the shows that made Frasier Crane such a staple of network TV. Meanwhile, two of Grammer's best scene partners, David Hyde Pierce and Bebe Neuwirth, are doing something much more worthwhile on "Julia."
10. Minx (Starz)
"Minx" is one of those "Physical"-type shows I mentioned about a fictional woman who becomes the famous founder of a feminist pornographic magazine in the late '70s, but I think this show just has so much more fun with its characters than most other shows in this style. Ophelia Lovibond and Jake Johnson are great leads, and play characters who are pulling their magazine in such opposite directions that you can really believe that they made something special and unique together. Also, in an era when shows are constantly getting canceled too soon, and the creators usually say they're talking to other networks and trying to get picked up, "Minx" was the rare feelgood story of a show getting axed by HBO Max and then landing at Starz.
11. Warrior (Max)
"Warrior" had an even better story of escaping cancellation -- the first two seasons were on Cinemax just before it ceased producing original series, and then it jumped to Max for the third season. Based on a concept Bruce Lee pitched in 1971, "Warrior" is an wild west martial arts saga that takes place in 1870s San Francisco, and I didn't think I'd ever see consistently amazing fight choreography like this on a weekly series.
12. I Think You Should Leave With Tim Robinson (Netflix)
I don't "binge watch," it's just not how I like to consume television. But each season of "I Think You Should Leave" is shorter than a 2-hour film. So I wound up watching season 3 all in one go, partly because it rules and partly because I knew that so many friends and people I follow on social media would be referencing "the driving crooner" or the zipline for months.
13. Servant (Apple TV+)
It makes sense to me that the horror genre is a relatively small niche on television, and the successful shows that do exist are often miniseries or anthologies -- it's hard to sustain the tension and mystery of a great horror movie over multiple seasons without exhausting the premise or simply putting the characters through too much. But "Servant" threaded that needle brilliantly for four seasons and kept me guessing right up until a satisfyingly surreal finale, Lauren Ambrose and Nell Tiger Free really should have won awards for this show.
14. Shining Vale (Showtime)
Horror comedy has a slightly better track record than straight up horror on TV, but "Shining Vale" feels unique in that it functions pretty well as both horror and comedy. I loved the way the first season of the show brought the story to a climax, and then the second season pivoted from there very cleverly to change the situations of all the characters. It became a much funnier show as Courtney Cox went into an asylum after attacking Greg Kinnear with an axe and Kinnear lost his memory.
15. Cunk On Earth (Netflix)
Diane Gordon has been playing Philomena Cunk on British television for a decade, but American viewers got their first taste of her absurd journalist character when Netflix released "Cunk On Earth." A huge amount of TV comedy, from "SNL"'s Weekend Update to "The Daily Show," is driven by the humor in someone saying ridiculous things in an authoritative news anchor voice, but Gordon as Cunk really takes that concept to some wonderfully absurd new heights.
16. Shoresy (Hulu)
I watched the Canadian cult comedy "Letterkenny" more than any other show this year -- in fact, I watched all 11 seasons in the last few months, just in time for the 12th and final season coming out this Christmas. I didn't think I was going to enjoy the spinoff the first few times I saw creator/star Jared Keeso play Shoresy on "Letterkenny," where he's kind of a shrill, repetitive joke character. But Shoresy is incredibly likeable and weirdly vulnerable on "Shoresy," in some ways a more conventional show that "Letterkenny" was but one that really makes you root for these goofy hockey players.
17. The Other Two (Max)
The week that "The Other Two" finished its run with its Season 3 finale, The Hollywood Reporter published a report about human resources complaints against creators Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider that made it sound like they were the same kind of mean, desperate fame-chasers that they made their show about. It was a depressing revelation because "The Other Two"'s finale really stuck the landing and let those characters see how selfish and caught up Hollywood they'd become, while still remaining a viciously funny show business satire.
18. Party Down (Starz)
"Party Down" was doing a different kind of send up of aspiring stars in Hollywood over a decade ago, and the show's first two seasons have aged really well as perennial favorites, and the revived third season did not disappoint, even without all of the original stars in every episode. Ryan Hansen and Martin Starr are still one of TV's greatest odd couples, and Zoe Chao was my favorite of the new additions to the cast.
19. The Bear (Hulu)
One of the most refreshing things about "The Bear" when it debuted last year, something you might not even have noticed until someone else point it out, was that it was a show full of drama and friction between friends, family, and co-workers, but there was a complete lack of romantic storylines, even in a cast full of young attractive people and one burgeoning sex symbol. So Season 2 immediately giving Carmy a love interest made me roll my eyes, but it didn't do much damage to the show's charm, although it was weird to realize that Ayo Edebiri is extremely funny in everything else she's been in but mostly very earnest on "The Bear."
20. Billions (Showtime)
"Billions" and "Succession" aren't really very similar shows at all beyond being about wealthy, powerful people in tall New York City buildings who are based on obvious real life public figures. But I understand the comparisons, and also enjoyed watching the shows go in completely opposite directions, both tonally and in terms of storylines, over the last few years, and felt bad that "Billions" once again felt like the bridesmaid when both shows aired finales a few months apart. Paul Giamatti is getting Oscar buzz again for The Holdovers, but none of his roles have brought me as many hours of entertainment as his seven seasons as Chuck Rhoades.
21. Hilda (Netflix)
I'm so used to Netflix canceling great shows that I kind of assumed that one of my family's favorite animated shows, "Hilda," was done after two seasons and a movie. So we were really surprised and delighted last week when this little show, about a blue-haired girl and her pet "deerfox" going on adventures in a Scandinavian fantasy world, came back for one more satisfying final season.
22. The Great (Hulu)
One of the funny things about me being a writer who watches a ridiculous amount of TV is that my wife is a more voracious reader than me, she reads over 100 novels every year. "The Great" is actually one of her favorite shows of the last few years, but she hasn't even watched the third season yet because she's just been more of a reading groove the last few months. The recent news that Nicholas Hoult will be playing Lex Luthor in an upcoming Superman movie delighted me purely because of how hilariously and pathetically evil he is on "The Great."
23. Dead Ringers (Amazon Prime)
I don't know if I would put this in the hall of fame of TV shows that were better than the movies they were based on ("M*A*S*H," "Buffy," "Friday Night Lights"), but it was really fucking good, definitely at least as good as David Cronenberg's 1988 film of the same name, with one of the best dual performances I've ever seen by Rachel Weisz.
24. The Idol (HBO)
There was negative chatter around Abel Tesfaye and Sam Levinson's HBO series long before it aired, and as a skeptic of both "Euphoria" and a lot of The Weeknd's music, I joined the chorus of negative reviews when "The Idol"'s first couple episodes aired. I gotta say, though, it kinda grew on me, and I think the comedic element of the show is a lot more deliberate than it got credit for, I was definitely laughing with the show more than at it. I mean, this is a show about a skeevy cult leader named Tetris (okay, it's Tedros, but I love that sometimes when people say his name it sounds like 'Tetris'), full of great supporting performances by people like Jane Adams, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, and Rachel Sennott. It's got Hank Azaria saying "Mike fucking Dean, his vibe is what is needed!" in a silly Hank Azaria voice and, later, a cut to Mike Dean playing Black Sabbath's "Paranoid" on a grand piano.
25. The Afterparty (Apple TV+)
Each episode of "The Afterparty" features a different character's memories on the night of a murder from their perspective, stylized as a different genre. It's an inherently silly, hit-and-miss concept, but man, Paul Walter Hauser gave maybe the funniest performance I saw in 2023 in a film noir-themed episode.
26. Lucky Hank (AMC)
27. Only Murders In The Building (Hulu)
28. Letterkenny (Hulu)
29. High Desert (Apple TV+)
30. Blue Eye Samurai (Netflix)
31. Heels (Starz)
32. Justified: City Primeval (FX)
33. Starstruck (Max)
34. Reservation Dogs (Hulu)
35. The Consultant (Amazon Prime)
36. Killing It (Peacock)
37. The Changeling (Apple TV+)
38. Rap Sh!t (Max)
39. Barry (HBO)
40. Daisy Jones & The Six (Amazon Prime)
41. The Righteous Gemstones (HBO)
42. UnPrisoned (Hulu)
43. Last Week Tonight (HBO)
44. Harley Quinn (Max)
45. Schmigadoon! (Apple TV+)
46. A Murder At The End Of The World (FX)
47, The Curse (Showtime)
48. Miracle Workers: End Times (TBS)
49. Captain Fall (Netflix)
50. Workin' Moms (Netflix)
51. The Morning Show (Apple TV+)
52. Somebody Somewhere (HBO)
53. Wolf Like Me (Peacock)
54. Fatal Attraction (Paramount+)
55. I'm A Virgo (Amazon Prime)
56. Fisk (Netflix)
57. Silo (Apple TV+)
58. Based On A True Story (Peacock)
59. Ted Lasso (Apple TV+)
60. Dave (FXX)
61. Our Flag Means Death (Max)
62. Bob's Burgers (Fox)
63. Invasion (Apple TV+)
64. Spencer Sisters (The CW)
65. Platonic (Apple TV+)
66. American Auto (NBC)
67. The Mandalorian (Disney+)
68. Saturday Night Live (NBC)
69. Invincible (Amazon Prime)
70. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Amazon Prime)
71. The Gilded Age (HBO)
72. Children Ruin Everything (The CW)
73. School Spirits (Paramount+)
74. Lessons In Chemistry (Apple TV+)
75. Mayfair Witches (AMC)
76. For All Mankind (Apple TV+)
77. Hello Tomorrow! (Apple TV+)
78. Fired On Mars (Max)
79. National Treasure (Disney+)
80. The Problem with Jon Stewart (Apple TV+)
81. Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies (Paramount+)
82. Will Trent (ABC)
83. Never Have I Ever (Netflix)
84. Loki (Disney+)
85. Transatlantic (Netflix)
86. Welcome To Flatch (Fox)
87. Good Omens (Amazon Prime)
88. The Last Of Us (HBO)
89. Extrapolations (Apple TV+)
90. Ghosts (CBS)
91. Mrs. Davis (Peacock)
92. Hijack (Apple TV+)
93. Ahsoka (Disney+)
94. Liaison (Apple TV+)
95. You (Netflix)
96. Gen V (Amazon Prime)
97. Yellowjackets (Showtime)
98. The Legend of Vox Machina (Amazon Prime)
99. The Witcher (Netflix)
100. Breeders (FX)
