The temperature has plummeted (to shockingly low depths here in Chicago, starting my annual ritual of wondering why I continue to subject myself to this weather), the holidays and 2020 are just around the corner, which means it’s time for that time-honored annual tradition: The Critic Best of List. 2019 was an interesting year for television, with more streaming services emerging (albeit none with any real notable offerings, aside from celebrities making exorbitant sums of money on subpar shows and a little baby alien winning the hearts of the world), network television further losing whatever small remaining piece of pop culture panache it might still hold, and the biggest series in the world ending its run with a largely panned final set of episodes.
But among all that, there were some great television shows. My initial list, which I’ve narrowed down to just ten, had around 50 shows on it. These made me laugh and cry (often over the course of watching a single entry on the list), managing to explore what makes us human through many different mediums. With wonderful writing, performances, direction, and characters, these shows were the best of the best in 2019. And, if you’ve followed my writing throughout the year, you might be surprised to see that the show I expected to be number one on this list is actually number two. It turns out that spending the past nine weeks watching masked vigilantes in Tulsa shook my list up at the last minute.
I’ve written about most of these shows at some point throughout the year, and I’ve linked to those pieces where I could – some pieces have season spoilers, so read at your own risk (if the piece is titled “Review,” it’s probably spoiling things). But I urge you to give these shows a look. They’re all wonderful.
10. Catastrophe (Amazon)
This incredibly funny and emotionally devastating series took its final bow in 2019, and what a bow it was. The premise of the series (American man on a business trip in London has a whirlwind affair with an Irish woman resulting in a baby and a decision to get married and try to stay together) transformed from a pretty standard sitcom premise into a deep, soulful study of marriage, family, friendship, and adulthood. From the brilliant minds of Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney, the final season manages to tie up the show’s loose ends (including addressing the death of the late Carrie Fisher, who played Rob’s mother in the series) while refusing to give us a pat “happy ending.” Rather, we see these characters grow even more, making the choice to stick together time and again as the going gets increasingly tough. Ultimately, Catastrophe refuses to sugarcoat the trials and tribulations of marriage and adulthood, while making sure we all know that with the right people by your side, even the worst moments can be managed.
9. Schitt’s Creek (Pop! TV)
I came very late to the Schitt’s Creek bandwagon, binging the entire series (it’s final season begins in January) this past year. But what a joyous experience. The series is hilarious, which I suspect you have heard from at least someone you know, as the series absolutely exploded into the national consciousness this year, but what makes Schitt’s Creek work comes down to one thing: its heart. Yes, it’s funny. Yes, the cast is talented. But the show has the biggest heart at its center. The Rose family has grown and changed over the seasons, becoming (almost) human. We now root for David to find love (which he does, in one of the year’s most heartwarming arcs). We want to see Moira Rose succeed in her career. We want Johnny to find his purpose (and spend more time with Stevie, because that duo is electric). And we want Alexis to figure out what she wants to do with her life and break the vapid mold people want to put her in. When you have characters you genuinely love in a comedy, it makes things all the more fun to watch. The best comedies of the decade have understood that the best comedy comes from a place of love and not one of nastiness. Schitt’s Creek is built on that same foundation, preaching a message of love and joy.
8. The Good Place (NBC)
If you had asked me at the start of the year where The Good Place would rank on my end of year Top 10 List, I would have guessed top five at least. Instead, I almost didn’t put it on the list at all, so shaky was the early portion of the show’s fourth and final season. But, combined with the excellent ending to season three, the final set of episodes that aired in 2019 brought the series back on course as it approaches its quickly approaching ending (the final episodes of the series will air in 2020). Sure, the first season of the series will likely go down as the show’s best, but once the show found its stride in season four, it returned to the high standards that made it a must-watch. While it still manages to teach us about philosophy (no small feat, as I hated that class in college), it has also managed to craft a set of characters we truly love. Most importantly, the show proves that, with the right people around you, anyone is capable of great things – even selfish dirtbags from Arizona.
7. Russian Doll (Netflix)
The news that Russian Doll is going to be back for a second season was a bit disheartening to me, as the first, which dropped on Netflix earlier this year, was the perfect contained arc. But even if dipping back into the mystical world of Russian Doll a second time ends up backfiring, we still have the first season, which managed to turn a well-known narrative (the Groundhog Day trope of living the same day over again) on its head. Each cycle brings new challenges for Nadia Vulvokov, as she attempts to discover just what (if anything at all) is causing her to repeat this day over and over, while also encouraging the audience to look for their own clues and figure it all out. There’s a lot to unpack in this series, but the journey further and further down the narrative rabbit hole gets more and more intriguing as you go. With a starring turn from Natasha Lyonne (who co-created the series with Amy Poehler and Leslye Headland) that finally crafts her unique set of skills to the perfect character, you never feel bored (the short, half-hour run time for the episodes also helps in that department). Every moment matters and you want to keep the binge going. While the season wraps itself up with a beautifully surreal moment that could easily end the series, I have to admit I’m interested to see if they can keep up the exceptional work in season two next year.
6. Barry (HBO)
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: A former assassin attempts to get out of a life of crime by becoming an actor, only to get pulled back in by the Chechen mob. The first season of Barry, which premiered in 2018, was enjoyable but didn’t pull me in the way the second season did. Boy. What an arc. Bill Hader proves he’s just as viable as a dramatic actor, taking Barry on an emotional journey I didn’t think was possible when I first started the series. However, the best part of the show’s second season is its ability to fully integrate the series’ sensational supporting cast into more of the action. Anthony Carrigan and his mobster NoHo Hank are the clear breakout stars of season two, lulling us into a humor induced trust of the character before showing us just how dangerous he could be. Stephen Root continues to impress as the morally ambiguous Fuches, keeping Barry under his thumb as Barry desperately tries to escape. Henry Winkler is just great, full stop. And Sarah Goldberg helps turn the typical “girlfriend character” into something else, allowing us to see deeper into Sally’s past and the darkness within. And I haven’t even gotten a chance to talk about the episode where Barry goes toe-to-toe with a seemingly feral pre-teen girl with insane fighting skills. This show has a little bit of everything, but it never loses sight of the humanity of its characters. They’re strange and fun, but never caricatures. There’s room for laughs but we always know the other shoe is about to drop. It’s just plain good television.
5. BoJack Horseman (Netflix)
BoJack Horseman is a show about pretty much everything you wouldn’t expect from a cartoon starring anthropomorphized animals: depression, addiction, surviving abuse, dealing with the scars of family expectations, and living through great loss. I know, sounds like a fun show! But, despite taking on some of the heaviest topics on television, BoJack is also one of the funniest shows you’ll see. Because even among its darkest moments, the show continues to thread the most important of elements: hope. There’s always hope that a character will grow and learn from their mistakes. There’s always someone there, ready to lend a helping hand to get them over the seemingly insurmountable obstacle. In the first half of its final season, things got particularly bleak for several of the characters, but that darkness was tempered with humor and hope. And a hell of a lot of fun puns (reading the background images in the series is an exercise in pausing fast enough to catch it all – which you probably can’t). I love BoJack, and I’m going to miss it like crazy when it drops its final episodes next month. But, I can’t wait to see if hope will carry us through this final difficult stretch and get us across the finish line.
4. Succession (HBO)
The characters on Succession are awful people. All of them. But they are also the most interesting, complicated, and, dare I say, fun bunch of characters you’ll find on TV at the moment. I wrote a spoiler-free piece (linked in the show title above) that delves into why season two of the series is even better than season one. Give it a look. Then spend some time with the Roy family – at this time of year, it might be nice to see that spending time with your own family isn’t all that bad.
3. Unbelievable (Netflix)
I wrote a spoiler-free piece (linked above) about the utter brilliance of Unbelievable, the Netflix miniseries that dramatizes a real life serial rape case that brings together two distinctive detectives (played here by the excellent Merritt Weaver and Toni Collette), as they try to piece together the large scale investigation. It’s an incredible look at how the police can get it right when dealing with rape victims – and a harrowing look at just what happens when they get it wrong. In addition to Weaver and Colette’s great work, the series’ other stand out is Kaitlyn Dever, who plays the rapist’s first victim, who is re-traumatized by a pair of detectives who don’t believe her story. It’s a hard series to watch, but one that is so well-made and wholly necessary viewing for those who can handle it.
2. Fleabag (Amazon)
What is there to say about the transcendent second season of Fleabag that hasn’t been said already? Honestly, I don’t think there’s a lot left to unearth, at least from a critical standpoint. One of the best reviewed (my review, linked above, was an absolute rave) shows of the year that took off like a shot in the pop culture landscape, sparking memes, turning Hot Priest into a household name, and nearly sweeping the 2019 Emmys (which shocked this critic almost as much as it did Phoebe Waller-Bridge – as it’s still stunning when the Emmys “get it right”), Fleabag was The Show of the year. Building on the show’s excellent first season, season two narrows the narrative focus to two elements of Fleabag’s life: her relationship with her sister (played by the excellent Sian Clifford) and her doomed relationship with the family priest (Andrew Scott, who shows us the confused humanity behind a character that could have been one-note). As Fleabag’s confidants, we are with her every step of the way, watching as she makes misstep after misstep, cheering when she finally gets what she wanted, crushed when we realize that this season isn’t going to have a happy ending. I loved this season of television, but it was the season’s final scene that sealed it as one of the all-time greats for me. Everything in that moment is so human, so true to life, so hard. But it is also beautiful and full of love. Not something you expect from a comedy, but Fleabag is so much more than that.
1. Watchmen (HBO)
For months, I was convinced that Fleabag would be my number one show of the year. Then I watched the first episode of Damon Lindelof’s Watchmen and it became clear that I had found a late-breaking winner of 2019. There is so much to love about the first (and possibly only) season of Watchmen. For one, it took existing IP and actually improved on the source material. By tying this new chapter in the Watchmen story to the racist history (and present) of America, it makes the story take on a new resonance. It is awesome to see some of our favorite past suited heroes again, and learn where life has taken them post-squid attack. But it is even more exciting to meet the new heroes and villains of Lindelof’s world.
To get to know Angela (the ridiculously talented Regina King), Wade (Tim Blake Nelson, crushing it in a complex performance), and Cal (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, whose part is more than meets the eye) is the real joy of the series. In a world where studios are gobbling up any and all IP they can get their hands on, there’s something extra special about a series like this making its way to television. This is a show where silence is just as celebrated as a shoot-out. Where the humanity of the characters is never overshadowed by the mask they might wear (hell, it’s a show where the reasons one might wear a mask is essential to its make-up). Please give this show a look, even if you have no background in the graphic novel. Even if you are sick of superheroes. This is a series that is magical, heartbreaking, complicated, and incredibly human. It’s the best damn superhero story I’ve seen in years. And it’s just plain great television.
