Best of 2018: TV Shows
There were 495 scripted television shows airing this year. These are the indisputable absolute best.
Honorable Mentions: Bojack Horseman (Netflix); Insecure (HBO)
No Money, Mo’ Problems.
The single reason Blake Bortles and the Jacksonville Jaguars are having a terrible season.
Waaaay better than True Detective.
You can’t always get what you want and when you do it’s sometimes still not good enough…But the only thing worse is watching someone else get it. Word to Roger Sterling.
Back from a year-long hiatus in which Donald Glover conquered the world. This show somehow got even weirder and ballsier. I have never related more to an episode of TV than the trials Paper Boi endures while trying to get a haircut.
The final season of one of the most consistently great dramas of this decade. The show creators used the larger backdrop of espionage and geopolitical conflict to examine how decisions at the top of the chain inflicted mental and physical damage on the cold warriors who (sometimes) chose to fight these battles. The psychological turmoil caused by years of making the least bad choices finally took their toll. (Keri Russell probably smoked enough cigarettes this season to send a North Carolina tobacco farmer’s kid to Duke.) The series finale may not have ended the way many fans expected but the final 10 minutes pays off with an emotional gut punch six years in the making.
Some of the best shows subvert expectations associated with portrayals of well-worn archetypes such as a the cool, detached hitman. But what if that hitman were depressed and socially awkward and deep down a people pleaser?
It’s true that shows teach you how to watch them and that is certainly the case with Succession. Those viewers trained to attach themselves to a protagonist to root for may not enjoy this show. Because none of these people are particularly affable. No matter. I still found myself invested in their fates and laughed frequently at the intentional and accidental humor their lives provide. A family comedy/drama in the vein of Arrested Development or King Lear.
From the fascinating mind and twisted sense of humor of Pheobe Waller-Bridge comes this funny, dark, psychological thriller about an international assassin and the intelligence officer assigned to track her down.
A podcast turned half hour drama (rare) that recalls the paranoid movies of the 1970s. The sense that you are being acted upon by larger and more powerful forces just out of sight pulse throughout the show. (Fans of Mr. Robot may notice similar beats since both were created by Sam Esmail). The show features great performances by Julia Roberts and Stephan James, who plays Walter Cruz, a member of a group of veterans who come to the Homecoming facility as they transition into civilian life. Of course, things aren’t as they appear and over the course of 10 wonderfully shot and directed episodes it becomes increasingly clear why.
