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Post by otherscott on Dec 13, 2023 7:30:28 GMT -8
The lack of compiler is hurting things on the TV side as well. Fortunately I feel like there's a pretty straight forward consensus 1st place with Succession. I imagine there's a competition between The Bear, The Last of Us and Reservation Dogs for second place.
I actually have more of my top 10 together than usual at this time this year, but For All Mankind, which has been a staple of my list, is currently still running and I want to make sure I catch Poker Face at some point and the channel its on has made that pretty inconvenient up here in Canada.
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Post by ThirdMan on Dec 13, 2023 12:56:30 GMT -8
Scott, I watched Poker Face on-demand (with brief station commercials) off of CityTV. Mind you, I have Telus Optik in BC, and I'm not sure what cable packages are offered in your part of the country (or if you even have cable at this point). At any rate, PF is a lot of fun!
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Post by Jeremy on Dec 13, 2023 17:43:44 GMT -8
I'm curious to see how Poker Face holds up as a consensus choice, as the reviews were glowing, but it's not as easily accessible as some other TV shows. (Even in the US, it's only on Peacock, which is like our sixth- or seventh-biggest streaming service?)
I think I'm about ready to put together a Top 10 for the year, especially as some of the shows I'm currently watching (e.g. Fargo, For All Mankind) are only airing part of a season this year (with the conclusions in early 2024) and I'm not sure how to properly judge those on an annual list.
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Post by Jeremy on Dec 21, 2023 6:46:43 GMT -8
Should have my "best TV shows" piece up soon, but for the moment, here are my Top 10 TV Episodes of the year, listed alphabetically by show:
The Afterparty - "Hannah"
Barry - "it takes a psycho"
The Bear - "Forks"
Blue Eye Samurai - "The Tale of the Ronin and the Bride"
How to with John Wilson - "How to Watch Birds"
The Last of Us - "Endure and Survive"
Mrs. Davis - "A Baby with Wings, a Sad Boy with Wings and a Great Helmet"
Poker Face - "Exit Stage Death"
Reservation Dogs - "Deer Lady"
What We Do in the Shadows - "Local News"
My pick for worst show that I watched this year is History of the World Part II, followed by Secret Invasion. As always, I don't usually watch bad TV shows all the way through, or else this contest would be more competitive. (I did consider watching the full season of Velma, but ultimately could not make it past the horrendous first episode.)
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Post by otherscott on Dec 21, 2023 11:49:28 GMT -8
I don't do a good job tracking my favourite episodes, but if I had to pick one I will say "Fishes" from The Bear just to be slightly contrarian to Jeremy. I will also say I don't think this season of How To With John Wilson is going to get all that close to my top 10, but I did very much enjoy "How to Watch Birds."
The worst show I attempted to watch this year was Season 2 of Heartstopper. I remember thinking Season 1 was cute enough that I'd give season 2 a try but this season was nails on the chalkboard painful through 3 or so episodes and I had to stop. Just cloyingly cutesy with very basic teenage and LGBT conflicts thrown in for conflicts sake. I'm not sure if the show got worse or I was just in a different headspace for this season compared to the first one.
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Post by ThirdMan on Dec 21, 2023 14:40:02 GMT -8
Should have my "best TV shows" piece up soon, but for the moment, here are my Top 10 TV Episodes of the year, listed alphabetically by show: Barry - "it takes a psycho" The Bear - "Forks" The Last of Us - "Endure and Survive" Poker Face - "Exit Stage Death" Reservation Dogs - "Deer Lady" What We Do in the Shadows - "Local News" Yeah, these are all very good episodes. That WWDitS ep in particular was hilarious. |
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Post by Jeremy on Dec 21, 2023 17:06:56 GMT -8
WWDitS didn't enamor me quite as much this season, but there's always at least one episode each year that leaves me in stitches. Hopefully the upcoming season (confirmed to be the last) finishes the show strong.) I don't do a good job tracking my favourite episodes, but if I had to pick one I will say "Fishes" from The Bear just to be slightly contrarian to Jeremy. I will also say I don't think this season of How To With John Wilson is going to get all that close to my top 10, but I did very much enjoy "How to Watch Birds." I think I liked the last season of How To more than most people, though I conceded it can't quite top the freshness and spontaneity of Season One. In general, I'm impressed we got three seasons of this weird li'l show and am glad they let John Wilson end it on his own terms.
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Post by otherscott on Dec 22, 2023 6:10:28 GMT -8
I actually also thought this was a reasonably good season of How To as well and not really much of a drop off certainly from the last season. I've just never been enamoured with the style of the show (and I feel the same way about Nathan Fielder's stuff). I'm a scripted TV person first and foremost, and if I liked documentaries more I would watch more of them.
That being said, the show was certainly memorable and I'm also glad HBO let John Wilson do this thing for as long as they did. I hope they're able to find an outlet for him that produces a bit more of an audience because he's clearly very talented.
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Post by Jeremy on Dec 24, 2023 7:05:20 GMT -8
I don't watch many documentaries either, but I like trying to figure out how much of each How To episode is scripted vs. reality. Similar vibe to Fielder's The Rehearsal, which has fun blurring the line, and presumably The Curse (which I need to check out). Trying to figure out which show is getting the most end-of-year love for 2023. It appears to be either Succession or Reservation Dogs (some critics are even cheating in this regard). Though neither of these shows will be in my own Top 10, as I did not watch the former and did not love the latter. |
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Post by Jeremy on Dec 25, 2023 7:11:18 GMT -8
Merry Christmas to those who celebrate! And a Happy Monday to me. My piece celebrating the 10 Best TV Shows of 2023 is now live. |
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Post by ThirdMan on Dec 25, 2023 14:12:36 GMT -8
I keep putting off watching Blue Eye Samurai, as I'm not generally into samurai/feudal Japan-based fare. But I plan to watch it in the new few weeks. I suspect my Top 10 would draw more from your Honorable Mentions list, as I am usually pretty constant in my affections with long-running cable TV shows. I'm also not so much into the "faux-reality" of shows like, say, The Rehearsal, which I found really tedious (I might have the same experience with How To, should I give it a look). Still need to give The Afterparty and Jury Duty a look, though.
Anyways, of the shows I saw, my Top 10 would probably be (in alphabetical order):
Barry
The Bear
Beef
Fargo
The Last of Us
Poker Face
Reservation Dogs
Scott Pilgrim Takes Off
Succession
What We Do In The Shadows
Now, I didn't thoroughly love all of the series mentioned above -- I just "quite liked" some of them -- but I think they're all of a reasonably-consistent quality to warrant placement on a list such as this. And if I suddenly remember something I forgot about, I'll make the necessary adjustments.
Honourable mentions: Rick and Morty, Only Murders In the Building
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Post by Jeremy on Dec 25, 2023 15:46:36 GMT -8
Yeah, I'm not much for samurai-based fare either*, but Blue Eye Samurai just really drew me in. It was even in contention for my #1 spot, until that somewhat disappointing finale knocked it back a peg. I'm just amazed by Netflix's animation department, which consistently turns out some of the best-looking shows on TV, from Arcane to Green Eggs and Ham. And Blue Eye Samurai takes full advantage of its visual palette. It does... also take advantage of uncensored nudity, which can be annoying but doesn't feel quite as gratuitous in its efforts as some more famous premium-cable shows.
Over the years, I've come to favor shows that have strong debuts (or in some cases, strong finishes) over long-running shows that just continue to do what they've done well in prior seasons, like WWDitS. That's not to knock the long-running shows, but it's nice to see newer shows debut confidently and do fresh and interesting things each year. (Plus, I'd get kind of bored writing about the same shows in my Top 10 year after year.)
That said, you've got a solid Top 10 there; I'd say that Beef was probably my #11 pick; it only lost out on a spot due to some pacing issues that kind of interrupted the show's momentum.
*I plan to finally watch Seven Samurai at some point in 2024. Stay tuned for what will surely be a totally non-controversial opinion on it.
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Post by Jeremy on Dec 26, 2023 14:46:34 GMT -8
Not sure why it's taken me this long, but I finally corralled all my "Best/Worst of the Year" lists (both for TV and movies) together under one tag, called Year End Lists. Now you can easily find all my year-end pieces dating back to 2015 on one page. Feel free to relive the old days, or criticize my tastes from several years ago, whatever. |
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Post by otherscott on Dec 27, 2023 5:16:37 GMT -8
Call me a little skeptical that Peak TV is coming to an end any time soon. After all, people have been declaring Peak TV dead ever since Peak TV started. The very reason it’s called Peak TV is because John Landgraf’s (the FX president) theory was the amount of shows that were being produced couldn’t go any higher and was about to go into a decline. I believe this was back in 2013, right before Streaming hit.
This year alone, I’ve watched quite a lot of TV and pay attention to see what I should watch next, and Jeremy has one show in his top 10 I haven’t heard of, and another one that I had just barely heard of.
Blue Eyed Samarai I have heard a lot of good things about and I plan to watch it next. It felt like there was an avalanche of shows in the last couple months of the year (especially from Netflix) that are all of pretty high quality and it was tough finding time to catch up with all of them.
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Post by Jeremy on Dec 27, 2023 11:17:03 GMT -8
I think Landgraf made his prediction in 2015, right as streaming had really flourished as an alternative to cable. In retrospect, that was right before the real TV boom - streaming services spending insane gobs of money on whatever shows they could get their hands on ( this story is particularly indicative of the time we were living through just a few years ago) and fans basking in an era where a show getting prematurely cancelled had become the exception instead of the rule. 2021 and 2022 have seen more TV shows produced than ever before, but a lot of that can be seen as a response to Covid-era bottlenecking. Landgraf's more recent prediction (that 2022 was the all-time peak) seems more likely, especially following the strikes and the increasing costs of TV production (reflected in the ever-mounting subscription prices and ad tiers). Regardless, it will probably be some time till we start noticing a substantial difference in the quantity of new TV produced, especially since getting 400-500 shows a year is still quite a ton, and there will always be plenty of shows that we can't seem to make time for. |
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