The Best TV I Watched This Year, Part II
Teen sex, fame-obsessed siblings, white people in paradise, quirky murder mysteries, and the ongoing battle for Waystar Royco + some honorable mentions
Earlier this week, I shared my initial picks for the best TV I watched this year. I’m not sure what, if anything, my top 5 picks have in common with each other, but they all transported me somewhere interesting mentally, emotionally, and visually. A lot of them are about family, some about privilege, two deal with murder. There is quite a bit of sex, some of the best physical comedy I’ve seen in ages, and people telling one another to “fuck off” multiple times. At the risk of sounding like Nicole Kidman in those bizarre AMC Theaters ads: I laughed, I cried, my mouth hung agape. This is why we go to the movies watch TV.
Anyway, here are the top five best thing I watched on TV this year.
5) Sex Education (Netflix)
I am thoroughly convinced that if Netflix released new episodes of Sex Education weekly instead of all of them at once, this stellar, raunchy-but-sweet British series would be generating the buzz and acclaim it deserves on this side of the pond. Season 3 picks up at the start of a new term at Moordale with a new, young headmistress named Hope (Girls’ Jemima Kirke) who’s been hired to whip the school back into shape after a sex-themed student musical descended into chaos at the end of season 2. But beyond the sexual hijinks, Sex Education has blossomed into one of the best ensemble dramedies on television, allowing for not just open dialogue about sex and relationships but the messiness of life. Whether it’s sex therapist Jean (Gillian Anderson) expecting a baby and working through her own hang-ups with Jakob (Mikael Persbrandt), Maeve (Emma Mackey) dealing with her absent mother (Anne-Marie Duff), or Eric (series MVP Ncuti Gatwa) navigating his sexuality and identity abroad in Nigeria, this is a series rich with life and heart.
4) The Other Two (HBO Max)
After a lengthy two-year hiatus and move from Comedy Central to HBO Max, The Other Two returned in even finer, funnier form, following now slightly more successful siblings Cary (Drew Tarver) and Brooke (Helene York) as they continue playing second fiddle to both their megafamous brother Chase (Case Walker) and mother-turned-famous-talk-show-host Pat (the indispensable Molly Shannon). Creators Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider double down on not just the satirization of celeb culture & showbiz (there is a particularly hilarious episode skewering Hillsong, the hip celeb-friendly evangelical church, and its tattooed preacher Carl Lentz) but its depictions of and references to various facets of queer culture (including one involving dirty photos taken on a plane that had me in tears of laughter). It’s not that straight people (of which I am one, though super online and with lots of LGBTQIA+ friends) won’t get it or find myriad things at which to laugh (and there are lots), but it’s pretty refreshing to watch a series that so well and truly knows its core/intended audience and refuses to explain itself (or its references) to people outside that audience; in this case, straight people. But don’t get me wrong, it’s just fucking funny. Period.
3) The White Lotus (HBO Max)
I wrote at length about The White Lotus earlier this year and the ways Mike White exposes class division and white privilege in his excellent limited series that will somehow be returning to HBO for a second limited series in the near future. Though the show is also meant to be a bit of a whodunnit and whosdeadintheboxinthepilot, it is mostly an unsettling comedy about the anxieties of a bunch of wealthy, white people on vacation at a luxe Hawaiian resort where its staff—including gay, relapsed addict/hotel manager Armond (the fantastic Murray Bartlett)—is also on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Like its Hawaiian setting, The White Lotus feels otherworldly at times—like a purgatory for terrible rich people who don’t know how to be happy even when they have the absolute best of everything. It’s a compelling character study of people (especially Jennifer Coolidge’s alcoholic, grief-stricken Tanya) coming to grips with their lives and choices but not really knowing how or even really wanting to make the fundamental changes that would allow them to become better people. But it’s a delightful and damning series. Please see also: Enlightened.
2) Only Murders in the Building (Hulu)
This gentle but occasionally grisly little comedy/mystery arrived so fully-formed and sure of itself that it felt like slipping on your favorite tweed coat or wooly sweater each week. Set mostly in a well-appointed, grand apartment building on the Upper West Side called the Arconia, Only Murders in the Building reunites legends Steve Martin and Martin Short and adds a deadpan Selena Gomez to the mix. The rest of the cast is peopled mostly with theater icons (Jayne Houdyshell! Jackie Hoffman!) and some crucial supporting players like Nathan Lane, Jane Lynch, Tina Fey, and the always welcome Amy Ryan. While the mystery itself is full of twists and turns, the real joy of the show is watching its three leads bounce off each other in hilarious and surprising ways (especially Martin Short who can take lines about having just “dips for dinner” and turn them into pure art). The costume and production design makes the show feel like a cross between a New Yorker illustration and the tweedy Agatha Christie novels of old redone for the 21st century. And while the series features some of the best physical comedy I’ve seen in years (i.e. Steve Martin wrestling with an elevator to max comedic effect), it also had a lot of other moments of genuine brilliance, including a deeply moving episode from the perspective of deaf character Theo (played beautifully by deaf actor James Caverly) told mostly through silence and subtitles. It’s just one of many ways Only Murders in the Building succeeded in capturing not only laughs but heart as well. I am eagerly awaiting my return to the Arconia for another mystery next year.
1) Succession (HBO Max)
As if I’d choose anything else for my number one spot. Succession is quite simply the best show on television by a mile, and it’s really not even close. People love throwing the word “Shakespearean” around, but Succession went full Shakespeare and maybe even Greco-Roman tragedy in its outstanding third season. The Roy family split into feuding camps this season, following Kendall’s (an always excellent Jeremy Strong) explosive press conference at the end of season two. Part of the immense pleasure of watching Succession is sifting through not just the Roy family’s shifting alliances to one another but their heavily armored emotional states. By the end of this season, all four Roy children’s armored has been cracked open. What so many viewers—especially those who grumbled online that “nothing is happening this season”—didn’t realize until season three’s shocking last few minutes is that the chinks in Kendall’s, Roman’s, and especially Shiv’s armor were already there from past seasons. The final few minutes were simply the last battering ram.
Brian Cox continues to find new levels of villainy and fatherly disgust in patriarch Logan while Jeremy Strong also found even new levels of despair and emptiness in Kendall. But for me, this season belonged to Kieran Culkin’s Roman and especially to Matthew Macfadyen’s much maligned Tom. Culkin has long gotten many of the Succession’s best and funniest lines, but this season exposed much more of not just Roman’s vulnerability but Culkin’s; his physicality was crucial to conveying Roman’s emotional swings. In particular, his final few moments spent on his knees after a season of peacocking in front of his father and potential investors was shattering. For his part, Macfadyen—who is operating on another tier this season—has turned Tom into a Midwestern Machiavelli by way of Roman emperor Nero. His portrayal of a desperate, hollowed out man with his nose pressed against the glass of the C-suite, begging anyone—including his inattentive wife, Shiv—to acknowledge him has been fabulous to watch. The quiet desperation turned cold-bloodedness right at the last second…EMMY AWARD BABYYYYY
What a privilege and pleasure it is to watch a series so consistently and outstandingly pay off week after week and season after season. It’s a testament to what long-form television storytelling can do when it’s done right. Jesse Armstrong has created nothing short of a masterpiece of the medium.
Honorable mention - I Think You Should Leave season 2 (Netflix)
The good: pretty much all of it but especially the burger sketch, Dan Flashes, the use of the phrase “cosmic gumbo,” the weirdness of the tables sketch, and of course:
The bad: not enough episodes
Honorable mention - Nine Perfect Strangers (Hulu)
The good: Melissa McCarthy & Bobby Cannavale’s insane chemistry! Michael Shannon singing “You’re the One that I Want” from Grease! Lots of drugs! Good cast!
The bad: Nicole Kidman’s murky Russian accent, Ben Falcone’s part, pretty much everything they did to treasure Regina Hall, how the show dropped a lot of story threads
Honorable mention - Impeachment: American Crime Story (FX)
The good: Beanie Feldstein’s Monica, Sarah Paulson’s Linda Tripp, Billy Eichner as Matt Drudge, the production and costume design
The bad: the constant timeline-jumping which made the show hard to follow, Sarah Paulson’s fat suit/prosthetics, not enough Edie Falco as Hillary, the obvious name-dropping of political figures who are still fucking everything up today
Honorable mention - Annie Live (NBC)
The good: Celina Smith as Annie, “Easy Street,” the staging and choreography, NBC adding a live audience, Nicole Scherzinger back-phrasing for her life
The bad: Harry Connick Jr.’s bald cap which did, in fact, look like he was hiding Voldemort on the back of his head
***
Oh and sorry to all Mare of Easttown stans. I didn’t get to it this year, but I feel certain I will watch it next year and love it. But I still do not understand what Wawa is. Call me when you want to talk about Casey’s Gas Station pizza though.
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Happy Holidays! Drop me a line if you’d like.
-Emmy