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

Beef House is the first thing of mine to place (I may or may not have been the 1 top 5 vote) . Can't argue against "minor," but it did cause me to laugh hard enough to risk passing out at least twice.

https://i.imgur.com/WSim1tj.jpg
#52 (Tie) - Fargo (FX) - 25 points, 4 votes, 1 top 5 vote
We need a thread for the FARGO TV show yah? Oh, yah!

Trailer
Sample Clip
Website
https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/30/21495303/fargo-season-4-review-chris-rock

still haven't watched the latest season

Repair Shop my number one, a little tactically. My #2 (which I guess will win) is just better, easily one of the best things I've watched in years; but this been family lockdown viewing since the start of the year, and it's more like a place we hang out to chill at the end of the evening than a tv programme.
That sofa chatter some of the most comfortable memories I'll have when I look back on this strange time - yelling at repairees who aren't grateful enough, me repeatedly saying 'I should learn to solder', marvelling at Steve, wanting to hang with Lucia, shouting 'that's beneath you' when they do an easy fix on something ugly with skill and good grace, just enjoying the weird fakeness of the idyll.
(Also more coldly fascinated by the World War stuff that just keeps coming. The British fixation on it makes more sense to me when people bring in these mementos from their grandparents' wild adventures - life on hell island so dull & dim & unheroic compared to all the shot-down aircraft, shipwrecks etc that randos 80 years ago lived through)

never heard of repair shop but looks up my alley & p good

Right at the start of COVID, you couldn’t have a conversation without talking about death and Tiger King. So I guess we’ve taken at least one step. Until now.

https://i.imgur.com/k2RB8Jm.jpg
#51 - Tiger King (Netflix) - 25 points, 6 votes
most outrageously horrible human being featured in netflix's TIGER KING: MURDER, MADNESS, and MAYHEM

Trailer
Louis Theroux and Joe Exotic
Website
https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2020/04/netflix-tiger-king-is-an-ethical-trainwreck/609568/

ha, i started that poll thread but i could not vote for this.

this is definitely the best thing that came from tiger king mania: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzY64Qu8HHc

Tiger king was fun. Will always remind me of early quarantine.

Feels like ages ago yeah. Fun doc but when it became a sort of anti hero worship fest of the dude I lost the taste for it

The psychopathic documentary series this generation dictates, if not deserves. The moral indifference is quite something, but my god does it make for compelling viewing. Creates the good-bad sickness achieved by few documentary series. Didn't feel like there were any 'slow' episodes either. Voted for it.

Our last show for the day, Mindy Kaling’s teen dramedy Never Have I Ever, does the Netflix trick of keeping most of the trappings of the traditional network sitcom but also introducing PG-13 sensibilities and radically expanded cultural, racial and gender diversity. Also John McEnroe.

https://i.imgur.com/v8EbFim.jpg
#50 - Never Have I Ever (Netflix) - 26 points, 4 votes, 1 #1 vote, 1 top 5 vote
Never have I ever

Trailer
Sample Clip
Website
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/on-television/never-have-i-ever-reviewed-hotness-and-hotheads

just remembered the part of tiger king where the filmmaker let the park employees know that the jetski guy was an fbi informant lol

And here's today's updated wrap up.

#50 - Never Have I Ever (Netflix) - 26 points, 4 votes, 1 #1 vote, 1 top 5 vote
#51 - Tiger King (Netflix) - 25 points, 6 votes
#52 (Tie) - Fargo (FX) - 25 points, 4 votes, 1 top 5 vot
#52 (Tie) - Ghosts (BBC1, HBO) - 25 points, 4 votes, 1 top 5 vote
#54 - Strictly Come Dancing (BBC) - 25 points, 3 votes, 1 #1 vote, 1 top 5 vote
#55 (Tie) - Beef House (Adult Swim) - 23 points, 4 votes, 1 top 5 vote
#55 (Tie) - Desus and Mero (Showtime) - 23 points, 4 votes, 1 top 5 vote
#57 - A House Through Time (BBC2) - 23 points, 3 votes, 2 top 5 votes
#58 - The Repair Shop (BBC, Netflix) - 20 points, 2 votes, 1 #1 vote, 1 top 5 vote
#59 - GeoWizard Missions (YouTube) - 20 points, 2 votes, 2 top 5 votes
#60 (Tie) - Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts (Netflix) - 20 points, 2 votes, 1 top 5 vote
#60 (Tie) - Murder on Middle Beach (HBO) - 20 points, 2 votes, 1 top 5 vote
#62 (Tie) - High Fidelity (Hulu) - 19 points, 4 votes, 1 top 5 vote
#62 (Tie) - Ozark (Netflix) - 19 points, 4 votes, 1 top 5 vote
#64 - Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet (Apple +) - 18 points, 5 votes
#65 (Tie) - AEW Dynamite (TBS) - 18 points, 3 votes, 1 top 5 vote
#65 (Tie) - The Plot Against America (HBO) - 18 points, 3 votes
#67 - The Good Lord Bird (HBO) - 18 points, 2 votes, 1 #1 vote, 1 top 5 vote
#68 - Star Trek: Picard (CBS All Access) - 18 points, 2 votes, 1 top 5 vote
#69 - Dave (FX) - 16 points, 3 votes, 1 top 5 vote
#70 - 20020 (SB Nation) - 16 points, 2 votes, 1 top 5 vote
#71 - Bob’s Burgers (FX) - 15 points, 3 votes
#72 (Tie) - Oxventure Dungeons and Dragons! (YouTube) - 15 points, 2 votes, 1 top 5 vote
#72 (Tie) - Seduced: Inside the NXIVM Cult (Starz) - 15 points, 2 votes, 1 top 5 vote
#72 (Tie) - Taskmaster (Channel 4) - 15 points, 2 votes, 1 top 5 vote
#72 (Tie) - Teenage Bounty Hunters (Netflix) - 15 points, 2 votes, 1 top 5 vote
#72 (Tie) - Videogame Dunkey (YouTube) - 15 points, 2 votes, 1 top 5 vote
#77 (Tie) - Bluey (Disney +) - 15 points, 1 vote, 1 #1 vote, 1 top 5 vote
#77 (Tie) - Followers (Netflix) - 15 points, 1 vote, 1 #1 vote, 1 top 5 vote
#77 (Tie) - She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (Netflix) - 15 points, 1 vote, 1 #1 vote, 1 top 5 vote
#77 (Tie) - The Umbrella Academy (Netflix) - 15 points, 1 vote, 1 #1 vote, 1 top 5 vote
#77 (Tie) - We Are Who We Are (HBO) - 15 points, 1 vote, 1 #1 vote, 1 top 5 vote

never have i ever was cute

Neat results so far, lots of stuff I've never heard of. GeoWizard Missions and A House Through Time have particularly piqued my interest

Never Have I Ever WAS cute! Aaah Mindy is the best. The series really picked up in the last few episodes.

Never Have I Ever was my #1 vote. Idk why Netflix labels it comedy-drama instead of sitcom, since all scenes are played for the lols. Maybe because the writing is excellent and it's smart and poignant throughout?

there are definite dramatic undertones, what with her dead father and her strained relationship with her mother and best friends. tho i agre, it's no more a drama than scrubs was.

Kipo too low! Was my #6 so almost two top 5 votes.

One of the shows I watch with my 10 year old. Beautifully animated, a joy to watch and hard not to get caught up in Kipo's boundless optimism whilst still going to some dark places this season. Great finale too and deserves to become a modern day classic of animation.

― groovypanda, Tuesday, February 9, 2021 7:43 AM bookmarkflaglink

neat, always keen for good animation, will check out

― imago, Tuesday, February 9, 2021 7:44 AM bookmarkflaglink

groovypanda OTM, it's a beacon of light and hope. I will say that the animation in the last season was a lot worse than the first season -- I assume the studio had to crunch to finish the series.

Beef House my first vote to place, I think I heard about this on ILX, it aspires to be absolutely nothing other than what it is but it is about as well-made an example of the thing that it is as you can imagine

have not thought about it between the time i finished watching it and today, and never will again

I mean 'note-perfect fake sitcom with bizarre & OTT digressions' is a thing T&E do very well, but they'd already done it several times over before Beef House and it works better in bite-sized chunks IMO (imagine how much impact would be lost if Too Many Cooks had been turned into a series, as a non-T&E example).

But yeah, it was funny and fine for what it was but disappointing only inasmuch as it seemed like a step backwards rather than a broadening of the palette.

Oh I've never really watched anything by them before so I have no sense of this

Ha ha, oh wow. I can't imagine this being my first exposure to their work. Well, you're in for a treat if you choose to dig deeper. Expect things to get real weird.

I cant work out why I didnt vote for Bobs Burgers, I watch it all the time.

I haven't even heard of more than a half dozen of these shows, am definitely out of it

I can understand not getting into Bob's Burgers because it's very silly and low-stakes. But it's maintained its quality amazingly well eleven seasons in.

Yeah its one of those comfort shows you watch with a hangover/eating tea. Like old Simpsons.

Fargo was good in the first few seasons. I will watch this season too but I haven't heard as many great things about it

btw if you liked this show I strongly recommend Mercier as a kid from Israel who wants to become Parisian in Synonyms, where he does some outrageously good acting. Tons of full frontal nudity from him too if that's your thing.
― That's not really my scene (I'm 41) (forksclovetofu), Monday, February 8, 2021

I really liked the film and him in it, it was hard to believe it was his first acting experience

same here. it took me multiple episodes to place him! he's gonna have a hell of a career.

I watched the first episode of the Chris Rock Fargo and bailed; discussion on the thread mostly suggests I did it right. The actors are so great though!

Fargo S2 > S1 >> S3 >>>>>> S4 (we bailed after 2 episodes)

The problem I think with S4 of Fargo is Hawley had been doing Legion for so long it leaked out into the production. There were loads of gloomy dark shots with green tinges, shots down hallways, weird ghosts for no reason, oftn painfully slow pacing.

And Jason Schwartzman I feel was badly miscast.

There is one really good ep that riffs off Wizard of Oz that I did really like.

The Mindy Project has been a comfort show over the last few years so I will check out Never Have I Ever

Just watched one of the Geowizard Missions video series - great stuff! Youtube had recommended me his geoguesser videos but the Missions one are way more up my alley

We watched a couple of episodes of Bluey last night because of this thread. It was great. We laughed a lot.

in my head beef house and sex house are the same show even though I watched both and know they have nothing in common

Sex House definitely superior. I still try to push that on everyone I can (the name sometimes makes it hard sell).

i goddamn loved the OZ episode of Fargo, and i didn't mind the aesthetics (appreciated the old gangster photos). i thought Schwartzman and the nurse were perfect, but didn't really dig Rock; overall it was decent. made it onto my ballot, but it might be the worsts of the 4 seasons. 2>>>3>>1>4

We're in the same place: that's my ranking too, but I also voted for 4. (Actually, the further away I get from 1 and 3, I might rank everything except 2 more or less the same. The second season dwarfs the other three.)

Haven't watched the fourth season (and nothing I've heard has me champing at the bit to rectify that) but otherwise that's my ranking, too.

Have never seen Fargo. Based on the love here for season 2 can I skip right to that or do I need to see season 1 for character depth or something? Or is it total anthology

you can definitely watch it on its own

there are connections between seasons 1 and 2 (and probably 2 & 4, tho i haven't seen 4 so i can't say what those are), but they're not essential to understanding and enjoying s2

The connections between the seasons (and the movie itself) are so incredibly tenuous as to be virtually nonexistent imo. It's essentially an anthology series of season-long stories.