ILX's Best Television of 2020 Poll / VOTING AND CAMPAIGNING THREAD / Voting Ends After January 29, 2021

Shit, nobody nominated Future Man season 3!

That was only last year!?!?

My ranked ballot's ready - do you want it numbered or unnumbered forks?

Numbered is good

Ta, voted

nine ballots! why not take this inauguration day and think about television? i know i am!

Just caught up on S3 of Corporate (the first episode of which was so, so good). Any other recommendations? There's a ton on this list I haven't heard of and I'm keen to fit a couple more things on my ballot. Dark comedies or chilling dramas especially welcome.

For my part, I'd suggest Dead to Me to anyone who didn't watch, or hasn't at all. Just a two-season investment and it's a great blend of introspective dialogue and kind of hysterical plot devices. Plus, Linda Cardellini is just the best.

Love her in Freaks and Geeks and Mad Men, will have to look into that.

tangent, you need to watch the dress up gang
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuePaFHcVFc

oh wow totally forgot about dead to me s2

Ranking is tricky this year. Some great shows had really off seasons (looking at you Noah Hawley grrr). Some shows I bet I'm the only person who votes for like Picard lol.

that's ten ballots. why not put yours in the post this morning!

Putting together my ballot now (but probably not sending for another week). I like fork's ranking system because I thought two shows last year were excellent, three shows very good, and then a bunch of other stuff ok

surprisingly, the side poll is quite difficult to narrow down to 5!

fyi the predominant feeling I get when I vote in these polls is that I watch too much fucking TV

dude, it was a pandemic year

tangent, you need to watch the dress up gang

Already on it from one of your former recommendations! Need more dark comedy recommendations - I'm currently watching nothing!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA0Td89Xf7E

dress up gang gonna be top 3-5 range for me for sure.

i forget if you saw Brockmire? That's as dark as it gets. No baseball knowledge necessary.

Guess I know what I’m watching tonight

"comedy" shows that I watched from 2020 that I will rep for: All Gas No Brakes, Aunty Donna, Brockmire, Close Enough, Corporate, Desus and Mero, Dream Corp LLC, Dress Up Gang, Forky Asks a Question, Ghosts, High Maintenance, How To with John Wilson, Kim's Convenience, Last Week Tonight, Looney Tunes Cartoons, Mandy, Mythic Quest: Raven's Banquet, PEN15, Ramy, Rick and Morty, Search Party, Staged, Ted Lasso, Three Busy Debras, What We Do in Shadows, Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse, Work in Progress

the cream of those would be AGNB, Brockmire, Corporate, D&M, Dress Up Gang, High Maintenance, How To, Looney Tunes, PEN15, Ramy, Staged, Ted Lasso, What We Do in Shadows, Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse, Work in Progress.

Brockmire, Corporate, Ramy and Work in Progress are all incredible and have dark, dark hearts.

Thank you for the fine-tuned list! Lots of those on mine already but I'll see what I can get through before then. I watched the first season of Brockmire on your mentioning it, but didn't return for whatever reason, though I liked it enough (and baseball is the best). I will get around to it, though probably not before voting.

I probably don't need to do this here, but I just want to take a moment to rep for Action Button. Tim Rogers has been grinding his idiosyncratic critical lens for 20 years, and if you look through that lens, you will see an Aleph-like kaleidoscopic view of the history of video games. If you're put off by the length of his videos, a stranger on Youtube has kindly excerpted 8 minutes of him talking about Dark Souls, which I think is a useful microcosm of His Whole Deal:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1cLzU2U5Nk

Which is to say nothing of his poignant-yet-ironic personal digressions, his being born stupid and never dying hungry, and so forth

his entire project is fascinating to me

15 votes now! It's a very mannered collection thus far and could definitely use your voice to even out some of the current peaks and valleys... so vote why dontcha? That way when we run the poll winners you'll have a right to complain when a youtube you've never heard of wins.

Submitted! Having now actually pored over the list, I realize I haven't seen hardly any 2020 shows (which is in keeping with my general tendency of experiencing media a minimum of 3-5 years after everyone else). At the very least, I need to get on Work in Progress after realizing that I know someone in the cast.

it's among my fave things from last year for sure so yeah, watch it! and thanks for putting in a ballot!

even out some of the current peaks and valleys

Only part I disagree with. Everyone should vote but also they should vote for the very unexpected current #1* that me and at least one other voter put high on the list because that would rule

*I don't KNOW know it's #1, but in my heart, I believe

heh, i appreciate your passion but my enjoyment in this poll comes from a clearer awareness of what the board as a whole has been watching and enjoying this year, which is why I would like EVERYONE to vote. We all had a shitty covid year to lesser or greater extent and at least 95% of us spent it watching television. So let's talk about it!

gonna vote next week after finishing the new pope (which is so so good)

i've avoided New Pope till now; i was literally just reading a description of the first season that caught my eye. Two of the only things i genuinely don't care about are the hierarchies of the catholic church and the british aristocracy. We have similar tastes VC; do you think i'd dig it?

oh don't get me wrong -- i want everyone to vote too! i just want them all to agree with me

xp

trust me, i have no particular affinity for papal palace intrigue haha, but the show makes you care, mostly because the character of voiello is so enmeshed in vatican politics and he's such a fascinating and watchable figure. the show also portrays the vatican as a arcane enclave of weirdos, whose backward prejudices and petty grievances have a massive affect on the beliefs and happiness of millions worldwide.

the young/new pope is gloriously unsubtle, hammering home the conflict between the sacred and profane with hilarious absurdity. beautifully shot in ways that intentionally evokes the renaissance-era artwork that adorns the vatican walls. one of the unique elements is how it undercuts moments of true beauty with broad humor, and it exists in a heightened magical realism plane with lots of symbolism and some truly bizarre left-field elements. (there are also subtle hints in the new pope that the show might take place in the future)

forks, i think it might be a bit on the all-over-the-place side for your tastes. if you don't like the first few episodes of young pope (at least watch until THAT needle drop before his first homily to the cardinals, which i think is in episode 5, though you'll probably be able to figure out if the show is for you before then), then it's just not for you.

i think it is certainly a show for bradnelson lol

okay, will dip my beak in at some point. thanks for taking the time to game out your thoughts!

ha no prob. weird that there's no thread for it, gonna fix that now.

i loved season 1 still need to watch season 2

If it were possible to send in a bottom three that would lose those shows five points each and FP those that nominated them then Id do that and it would be dracula, three times

lol, i'll note that if it places

but vote anyway!

I have that as my #1

Second ep of Dracula was great, third would have been good if they’d done a fourth that went into a sexy sci-fi future without making any other changes

Second ep of Dracula was great, third would have been good if they’d done a fourth that went into a sexy sci-fi future without making any other changes

thanks, PHONE

great post vc! I really liked both The Young Pope and The New Pope

I've actually watched enough telly this year to submit something approaching a worthwhile ballot. Will get on it.

Hard agree with how bad Dracula was. Dreadful bollocks.

tick.jpg

Voted, thanks forks. I started a thread about my number 1 show, I May Destroy You, and I wrote about it there.

I liked xyzzzz__’s conclusion on it, bolded part is it in a nutshell.

I think I liked that it resisted any kind of takeaway. There was some painful processing of experience, but ultimately stuff got done -- that she needed her rapist to take away her writing block I realise quite a brutal expression of what it is to do stuff, sometimes -- life goes on and we keep muddling through the disaster.

A reminder that the second season of The Umbrella Academy came out last year and you should all vote for it, or watch it then vote for it.

ballot sent

I sent mine! Despite the vertigo!!

indeed you did! So we are at a total of 46... definitely enough to do a 77 but 7 less than last year. Any final takers before I put this to bed?

I just submitted a last-minute ballot.

takin' it!

Okay, closing it up. 47 total ballots with 162 shows receiving at least one vote.

Oh no oh no! I forgot!

Despite imago's repeated reminders... Going to fire one across now (or, in fifteen minutes) but completely understand if you can't accept. :(

Fucks sake forks, a bit of a warning wouldnt have gone amiss lad

I"m okay leaving this open for the night but I'd like to close in the morning.

It is 7am EST. I think forks should be able to accept haha

xp lol

okay, i took BOTH of the last minute ballots, so we're up to 49 ballots and 165 shows receiving at least one vote and a decent looking top 77 where we are out of single vote territory at #75 and every single #1 pick makes the countdown! Yay me for figuring out a way to make this balance where those boxes were ticked!

depending on moka's schedule, we can likely get this up the week after or two weeks after we finish the album poll in the upcoming week. then i'm done with this shit for awhile; it's a surprisingly time-consuming gig!

your effort is appreciated forks

moka's too

It isn't surprisingly! My god

But the effort is stupendous and I'm so grateful

lol I forgot this was happening

I've only now discovered a show going the last few years Id've nommed/voted for if I knew about it sooner called Superstore. By one of the Office writers, basically its what if The Office, but Walmart. I'd never heard of it.

Keep seeing that on my Netflix splash page - will check it out

Superstore is IMMENSELY FUNNY

And quite subversive! A lot of really good current worker's politics and a great representative cast.

Yeah, I've watched a few episodes and now I'm saving it up.

we're roughly on track for a next week rollout here btw

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ILX’s Top 77 Television and Streaming Video Series of 2020

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