The Best TV of 2020

The gems in a less than stellar year.

We haven’t really seen the full effects of the pandemic on the TV industry yet. Some shows have tried to integrate it, others were cut short, but the overall stream of shows to watch hasn’t run dry just yet. It did however make this year a little trickier to put together, on account of shows like Succession not airing when they probably would have under ordinary circumstances. Looking at my media diary for the TV I watching this year drives home how much was coming out right before everything seemed to get put on hold. Regardless, there still enough I found myself drawn to and want to highlight, so let’s get into it:

Best TV

Honourable Mentions: Betty, High Fidelity, Small Axe — yes, I’m having my cake and eating it by mentioning it here in addition to including it on my favourite films of the year list — Star Wars: The Clone Wars, The Goes Wrong Show, The Trip to Greece

10. I Hate Suzie

aka Billie Piper goes sicko mode.

9. The Plot Against America

Lesser David Simon still has a way of feeling major, which these six episodes achieve even before the final hour takes on a more contemporary resonance.

8. What We Do in the Shadows

The first season was charming in the same way the movie was, albeit without being much more; this second season feels more confident in charting its own path, both for its various characters and expanding the mythology. Despite the latter, it doesn’t lose sight of the former, a smart choice considering the show has one of the funnier ensembles ever assembled.

7. Mrs. America

Miniseries in the modern TV landscape often seem like they would have been movies just ten years ago, but the midbudget infrastructure that used to support them just doesn’t exist now. As such they become Prestige TV that runs longer than the material can support. Mrs. America, on the other hand, is smartly structured to make use of the format, with each episode adopting a different POV and thus contributing to its nuanced portrayal of the era and Equal Rights Amendment. Cate Blanchett’s mannered performance leads a strong cast and the show is particularly smart in how it marries the depiction of Phyllis Schlafly’s victory to the ceiling she can’t break, the very same one that her political opponents are seeking to smash. The last shot, an homage to the Chantal Akerman film Jeanne Dielman is inspired.

6. Dare Me

Came to this very late in the year, though that factor was quickly negated by how this adaptation of Megan Abbott’s novel sinks its claws into you. The ecosystem of the small town, the school, its students and the wider connections to other factions under the microscope like family units and military recruiters is spirited and alive before the story gets under way, which grants it a sense of momentum and mystery that these types of show often aspire to, yet rarely achieve. Unfortunately cancelled by USA Network, and only just having found its way to Netflix in the US, it was a show that never managed to find its home, which makes the ten episodes we got even more special.

5. Dorktown: The History of the Seattle Mariners

Sports have never been all that interesting to me. Even as a kid who played football for a number of years, my dad was unable to get me to sit down and watch a full game. The Super Bowl intrigued me as a teen, if primarily for the spectacle of it all and every now and again, we got a free trial of ESPN. Only for a week or so, but it included ESPN America and I found that the one sport which held my attention more than others was baseball. What Jon Bois and Alex Rubenstein do here in their six-part serial is translate the history of the titular team into an never-ending series of graphs, charts and stats. Yet the traversal of the material becomes spectacle in its own right, by flattening everything, the highs and the lows of the team’s history become even more pronounced.

4. How To With John Wilson

Wilson’s discursive style to documentary filmmaking makes me believe that the spirit of Agnes Varda is still with us. While these six episodes aren’t much longer than the short films he’d been making — most of which you can find here: https://vimeo.com/johnsmovies — they remain just as tightly structured in retrospect, carefully assembled from Wilson’s need to be shooting footage while out and about. It is forever travelling in directions that are unable to be anticipated because Wilson himself isn’t expecting to go that way when he sets out, each episode’s title highlights the initial prompt. Yet you never feel as if he’s leading you astray, down a path that isn’t relevant to where he started. Instead, it’s the sign of a master at work, taking you on a journey that only he could.

3. City So Real

While this is about Chicago in a macro sense, it never stops seeking to look deeper than that superficial, overviewing level. Steve James avoids getting sucked into the political grandstanding that so many of the potential mayoral candidates try to trade in, and remains focused on the constituents. The people. Originally four episodes depicting just the time period of the race that led to Lori Lightfoot’s election, James and his crew kept shooting through the pandemic, and thus the overall project becomes proof that placing faith in establishment Democrats will lead us nowhere and that if they won’t listen to what the people need, we should.

2. I May Destroy You

The bravest TV in god knows how long. Michaela Coel’s show about a writer trying to make sense of her life following sexual assault exists because she unfortunately experienced the same thing. But at the same time, it’s about so much more than that – race, social media, feminism, expectations of gender within society and life in London, to name just a few. Truthful without relying purely on the easy answers, thorny and provocative while having legitimate license to be so, bold in such a way that you can never truly anticipate where its going next. Coel’s Chewing Gum — which I was sure to catch up with after seeing this — shows a talent and promise in terms of the pictures she could paint, both with her words and central performance, but this is a whole other level and makes the promise of what she could next even more enticing.

1. Search Party

The long hold-up in airing this had me worried that the lightning-in-a-bottle thrill of the first two seasons would be lost to time. Instead, Search Party remains just as sharp and insightful with its chameleonic genre-shifting streak still taking the story of its central millennials looking for purpose further than they ever could’ve imagined. It would be rude to spoil that form the season adopts considering how much of the fun comes from the show’s ability to set-up what it’s morphing into next without giving its current game up. Just know that it is an absolute riot that makes full use of its central cast and that the long break between the second season and this one makes that fact even more miraculous. Parody can have a way of seeming outdated quickly, yet creators Sarah-Violet Bliss and Charles Rogers are so committed to making a show that works without needing to know exactly what they’re taking to task.

Best Episodes

Honourable Mentions: Better Call Saul — 5×08 — “Bagman”, Bojack Horseman — 6×15 — “The View From Halfway Down”, Brooklyn Nine-Nine — 7×11 — “Valloweaster”, Doctor Who — 12×05 — “Fugitive of the Judoon”, Star Wars: The Clone Wars — 7×09 — “Old Friends Not Forgotten”, We Are Who We Are — 1×04 — “Part Four”

10. High Fidelity — 1×05 — “Uptown”

This is a Parker Posey stan account and will remain as such until the end of time. This part of the book was never used for the movie, but the show makes use of it for an episode which can standalone from its season’s arc and it stands as the finest outing of another show cancelled too soon.

9. I Hate Suzie — 1×04 — “Shame”

Wherein the show turns essayistic without just jerking itself off. Also about a dick on public transport. (Trust me, both of these will seem clever once you’ve seen the episode).

8. Mrs. America — 1×05 — “Phyllis & Fred & Brenda & Marc”

Both breaks from the established format while also showcasing the multi-faceted concerns of the show in microcosm.

7. What We Do in the Shadows — 2×06 — “On the Run”

This is also a Matt Berry stan account. All hail Jackie Daytona, regular human bartender.

6. Dare Me — 1×05 — “Parallel Trenches”

Rashomon, but centered around cheerleaders.

5. Dorktown: The History of the Seattle Mariners — 1×05 — “The Age of Ichiro”

This is also a Ichiro Suziki stan account. “The Mariners are not competitors. They are protagonists.”

4. Search Party 3×05 — “Public Appeal”

The show firing on all cylinders while still managing to put the focus on why Dory is who, and how, she is. Her relationship with her parents depicted here pathologises in a way that makes further sense with each of her other’s.

3. How To With John Wilson — 1×04 — “How To Cover Your Furniture”

Will be thinking of where this episode goes whenever someone mentions Parasite to me. Won’t attach the image explaining why because it’s both a terrific moment, but also incredibly NSFW.

2. City So Real — 1×05 — “You Gotta Make It or You Gotta Take It”

The COVID-era document, at least as much as while we’re still living through it.

1. I May Destroy You — 1×12 — “Ego Death”

Taking control of your own narrative.

The Best TV of 2018

Not as exciting as last year, but that doesn’t mean there was a complete dearth.

Perhaps that’s a result of living in a post-Twin Peaks world, though more likely is because how many of the previous few years’ most promising shows either fell into slumps (Legion, Jessica Jones and The Handmaid’s Tale to name three). Other shows like Better Call Saul or Bojack Horseman was still rewarding, just unable to reach the heights of previous seasons, in the case of the former, the more it begins to deal with Breaking Bad characters rather than Jimmy and Kim, the less interesting it gets. Much like the world of comics, it can be incredibly difficult to get to everything, though I’d argue my only notable blindspot of the year for TV is Succession. If nothing else, this year has taught me to be ruthless when deciding a show is longer worth sticking with, in particular this helped with cutting ties to many comic book shows. At the same time, it also implores you to appreciate what should be most valued, what you believe to be the cream of the crop; my interpretation of this is below.

 

Just two honourable mentions when it comes to series, Mosaic, which is also an app, and something that I wrote on at time of release –– https://letterboxd.com/matt_sibley/film/mosaic-2018/ –– and Runaways, which proved itself to be the best comic series with its second season, now the kids have actually run away, the writers dig into that central conceit and how difficult it is to fully cut ties. The show is both drastically different to the original run as written by Brian K. Vaughn and a completely different kettle of fish to the Rainbow Rowell/Kris Anka/Matthew Wilson run currently being published, yet the variance in these approaches shows how the concept can be tackled in a multitude of ways. In the show’s case, it’s opted to spend more time with Pride than may have been expected, but the groundwork laid in the first season allows their individual and collective story to carry the weight of what it’s like for them when both their family units and The Pride itself begin to crumble around them.

And now, the list:

 

 

10. One Day at a Time

Continues in its goal of updating  a classic multi-cam by dealing with more contemporary material without forgetting the origins of its form. Conveys the true spirit of the original, even when it occasionally falters in bringing up the issues, which is the most important thing for an adaptation to do. We do not deserve Rita Moreno.

 

 

9. Killing Eve

Phoebe-Waller Bridge can do anything and I hope she gets to make everything she feels like making. A season of television that’s engaging enough via the performances of its two leads alone, everything else thrilling and funny and macabre about it was just a bonus. A show that had it, and one that remains to be seen as to whether it still does now she’s left in other hands. At least we got these eight episodes.

 

 

8. GLOW

Arguably Netflix’ most successful season in terms of narrative development, taking all of the pieces carefully built up over the first season and running with them, deepening the ensemble as it goes. Even with how impressive she was in the show’s first year, I wasn’t expecting work this strong from Betty Gilpin, who commands all of the big dramatic scenes asked of her, in addition to stealing some of the quieter ones. Clever and self-aware –– yes, there’s a difference –– about the possible critiques, always one step ahead and ready for the reversal to hit you where it counts be it, gut, throat or funny bone.

 

 

7. Barry

Such a well constructed and succinct story can be found within the first season of what sprung from Bill Hader’s mind, that’s it can be difficult to imagine where it could go from here. Never pulls its punches, nor its shots; deftly funny throughout and capable of balancing this with the heavier material that gradually rises to the surface as the season progresses. Didn’t know that he had this in him, and that’s true of both his contributions to the writing, the series’ direction and his lead performance. Props to Henry Winkler for going for it each week as well.

 

 

6. American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace

Houses one of the year’s most interesting structures, running the clock back to offer further looks, while holding on to a dire sense of inevitability all the same.

 

 

5.  The Little Drummer Girl

Florence Pugh will be one of the greats, a brief thing I’ve already written on the series:

https://letterboxd.com/matt_sibley/film/the-little-drummer-girl-2018/

 

 

4. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Delightful screwball comedy that arguably got better because its plotting became more aloof, and Amy Sherman & Daniel Palladino opted not to rush through the various stages of Midge’s rise. Understand why people have taken that to be less of a focus on Midge, but unlike other shows where their impetus for their creation becomes obscured by tangential plotlines, the pace and sharpness of the rat-a-tat dialogue means that nothing in this show drags and the material is elevated by the various directors finding dynamic ways to translate this from script to screen. A show that isn’t breaking the boundaries in terms of what it’s choosing to depicting, but one that’s sure to see all involved pushing themselves in an effort to continually up the antics.

 

 

3. Sorry for your Loss

Never expected that something airing on *checks notes* Facebook Watch would ever end up on a best of year list, but that’s the power of Elizabeth Olsen and the rest of this ensemble, which includes Janet McTeer and Kelly Marie Tran. Threads a difficult needle of emotional outburst and required reset without falling into an easy formula, and gradually begins to involve more than just Olsen’s Leigh in the healing process. Also goes to the show the effectiveness of a half-hour drama, something which TV is sorely lacking in (though shoutout to Vida and This Close).

 

 

2. Atlanta

A show so elastic it can be anything it wants to be week in, week out. Donald Glover is giving the performance of his life, and even then, he’s being outshone by performers like Brian Tyler Henry. For that reason, even better than the first season because it proved so willing to focus on the rest of the ensemble, from “Barbershop” to Van’s episodes, one of the most radical and engaging shows that is never just what you think it’ll be.

 

 

1. The Americans

Like anything else was going to claim my top spot when it went out on a season this strong. Shows can have a habit of dipping in their penultimate season when they know they’re on a finite amount of time pre-conclusion, and that was true of this too, but it managed to bounce back with one of its most tense run of episodes. Which is really something after how well Joe Weisberg, Joel Fields and all involved in writing and behind the camera have managed to craft a show built around Cold War tensions from the outset. Of course, that was never the thing at the show’s core, said space was reserved for the marriage of Philip and Elizabeth. Could it survive what was being asked of each of them, when it was originally something asked of them for the purposes of work? In the end, it manages to answer that without being too resolute in how it gets to that conclusion, pushing them as far they could go prior to that moment. The chain of dominoes keeps on tumbling over, and everyone realises too late. An end to an era, of television, of criticism, without sign of anything that could genuinely fill the void this leaves behind.

 

Best Episodes

Going for five honourable mentions here, because the list (which you’ll find at the bottom of this piece) I’d kept over the year was harder to cut down: One Day at a Time – 2×13 – “Not Yet”, Brooklyn Nine-Nine – 5×14 – “The Box”, Forever – 1×06 – “Andre and Sarah”, The Deuce – “2×06” – “We’re All Beasts”, Bojack Horseman – 5×02 – “The Dog Days Are Over”.

 

And the list:

10. Homecoming – 1×08 – “Protocol”

Sam Esmail reveals the reason for the formal gimmickery, finding a way to tie it to the narrative structure. Showing the transformation in of itself shouldn’t constitute a spoiler when this disconnected from context, but with that information, that look on Julia Roberts’ face contains ever greater multitudes.

 

 

9. Barry – 1×07 – “Loud, Fast and Keep Going”

“Why did you say that?”

The things we can’t take back.

 

 

8. Killing Eve – 1×05 – “I Have a Thing About Bathrooms”

Whatever happens to this show in the future quality-wise, its first season will always be remembered for the first time it put Jodie Comer and Sandra Oh in direct confrontation/conversation.

 

 

7. GLOW – 2×08 – “The Good Twin”

How do you bounce back from the explosive emotional climax between the two main parts of your ensemble? Well, in the case of GLOW, you make an episode of the show within your show, filled to the brim with wrestling, ads, sketches and even a charity-drive music video parody, and have it be one of the most delightful half-hours of television aired this year. Not a reset by any means, more a cap for this era of the show, as the two episodes that followed began to set-up where it was heading next.

 

 

6. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel – 2×09 – “Vote for Kennedy, Vote for Kennedy”

I adore this shot, I adore this show.

 

 

5. The Little Drummer Girl – “Episode 3”

The terror of performance, performance as terror. Fiction and reality becomes intertwined and impossible to separate. A vicious circle with no easy way out, round and round we go; getting further lost in ourselves as true identity becomes stripped away.

 

 

=3. Sorry For Your Loss – 1×05 – “17 Unheard Messages”/1×06 – “I Want a Party”

A pair. The first is one of the most devastating episodes this side of Buffy‘s “The Body” that provides a spotlight to the many conflicting thoughts whizzing around inside Matt’s (Mamoudou Athie) head in the weeks preceding his death, the second as a whole is a decidedly lighter affair, though not before the title card. The cold open which precedes, just pushes in and holds on Lizzie Olsen’s face, as she talks about what she’s just learned in the episode prior. The two deserve to be remain linked, for this in-micro, and the macro-effect of showing how much emotions can ping-pong about under the duress of grief, which is really the show’s thesis. Getting better can happen, but it’s not a straight shot from sad to happy.

 

 

2. The Americans – 6×10 – “START”

Maybe there’ll come a day when I can hear U2’s “With or Without You” without wanting to break down, but all I know right now is that it’s on the work playlist, so once every few days it all comes rushing back. A show like this was never going to end in a bevy of gunfire coming from all sides, a confrontation in a parking lot was all it needed to ramp up the tension to levels the body is unequipped to handle. Spent some time talking with a friend about this the other day, and it’s a scene which shouldn’t work at all, the show could’ve so easily fallen apart at the penultimate hurdle for resting so much of its emotional crux and plot on this big moment, yet somehow Noah Emmerich gets it across the finish line, even when so much of the scene asks him to be passive.

And then just when you think you’ve made it through to safety, then comes the heartbreak, the shock, the surprise; the everything that can be found on Keri Russell’s face as the frame of the outside world whizzes by.

 

 

1. Atlanta – 2×06 – “Teddy Perkins”

To say much about this episode would spoil it. Though know that it’s one of the richest experiences to be sought out from this year, and that’s before you cotton on to what’s going on with the title character in a metatextual sense. This top 10 could’ve just been the Atlanta series ranked, but this is the only episode that could be at the top.

 

 

 

And just as a post-script, the running list I kept through 2018 of each and every episode that stood out to me at the time of viewing:

 

Runaways 1×10, Great News 2×11, The Good Place 2×10,2×11. The X-Files 11×04, One Day at a Time 2×04, 2×11, 2×13, SNL Natalie Portman, American Crime Story 2×04, 2×05, Atlanta 2×01, Counterpart 1×07, Love 3×05, 3×07, 3×12, Atlanta 2×02, iZombie 4×04-4×05, Atlanta 2×04, Barry 1×01, Brooklyn Nine-Nine 5×14, Atlanta 2×06, Legion 2×02, The Americans 6×04, Killing Eve 1×03, Legion 2×04, The Handmaid’s Tale 2×01, The Americans 6×05, Dear White People 2×08, Barry 1×07, Killing Eve 1×05, The Americans 6×07, Barry 1×08, Agents of Shield 5×22, Vida 1×01, Killing Eve 1×08, The Americans 6×10, Lost in Space 1×06, The Handmaid’s Tale 2×11, Glow 2×02, 2×04, 2×05, 2×06, 2×07, 2×08, Pose 1×06, Cloak and Dagger 1×06, Sharp Objects 1×05 Better Call Saul 4×01, 4×02, Sharp Objects 1×07, Insecure 3×03, Forever 1×06, Bojack 5×02, Sorry For Your Loss 1×02, 1×05, 1×06, 1×09, Better Call Saul 4×10, The Deuce 2×06, Little Drummer Girl 1×02, The Deuce 2×09, Homecoming 1×08, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend 4×05, Little Drummer Girl 1×03, Doctor Who 11×06, Little Drummer Girl 1×06, The Marvelous Ms. Maisel 2×03, 2×09, Doctor Who 11×09, Runaways 2×07, 2×11