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

binging succession twice in a row in the early days of the pandemic became my prayer to the world returning and not returning: wow this sucks, I’m afraid of outside, all I can do is sit and stare at this most garbage version of the elites of the world which maybe when all this is done we may grapple with somehow, surely this is it for folks like this, surely we will come together! As usual: very wrong about that! But the show is so funny!

5 votes eh?

After nearly eight years with The Guy, I’m deeply sad to see High Maintenance close shop, especially as well suited as it was to address the stressors of COVID NYC life. That said, Sinclair and Blichfeld have earned the opportunity to create new solo work. I’m excited to see what they do from here.

https://i.imgur.com/xSzAKos.jpg
#47 - High Maintenance (HBO) - 28 points, 4 votes, 1 top 5 vote
High Maintenance - Very good web-series. Discuss.

Trailer
Sinclair and Blichfeld Interview
Set Tour
Website
https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2020/02/high-maintenance-deeply-ethical-season-4/606427/
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/high-maintenance
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/30/magazine/new-york-tv.html

Thanks for the sidelist forks im v much a "still catching up on stuff from the nineties" typa guy

Since my ballot was only 3 items long, that top 5 vote musta been me.

Oh the rest of my own sidelist:

-King of the Hill (which I did sorta watch when it first aired but only because it was on between shows I paid full attention to and so I was denied its subtle, heartwarmingly-hilarious brilliance for twenty years)
-Knots Landing (started cranking through Dallas again in the midst of lockdown doldrums and thought I should simultaneously sample its companion, which I discovered to be a much better show and downright underrated for something that ran for fourteen goddamn seasons)
-Columbo (yes, I really did only see this for the first time in 2020 after finally finishing Rockford Files and looking for something similar to fill the hole, but although it's not actually all that similar I am now in love with it and with Falk on their own merits)
-The West Wing (am now a staunch neolib, come at me bro)

I didn’t do a sidelist, but watched and loved in 2020:

Hannibal
Rome (rewatch)
Channel Zero

I’m sure there were more. I loved Hannibal the most and wrote about it in a bit in the thread on here.

TBRR one of the primary criteria for pre-2020 tv watching in the past year has been 'does this series have a ludicrously-high episode count sufficient to carry me through until the goddamn plague has lifted?'

kept myself mostly busy with new shows and video games, so the one old show i watched during quarantine was the glorious halt and catch fire. i also watched a few old seasons of survivor.

As someone outside looking in (to Borough Park even) I certainly wouldn’t mind hearing from our own Jewish and orthodox-adjacent ILX community on how this show was received and experienced.

https://i.imgur.com/s6Ee4Jm.jpg
#45 (Tie) - Unorthodox (Netflix) - 28 points, 4 votes, 2 top 5 votes
HEY JEWS
Netflix Watch Instantly Recommendation Thread

Trailer
Sample Clip
Making Of
Website
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/on-television/unorthodox-reviewed-a-young-womans-remarkable-flight-from-hasidic-williamsburg
https://www.indiewire.com/2020/03/unorthodox-review-netflix-shira-haas-1202220615/

Surprised that this became the breakout surreal salaryman anime du jour for America but I guess you should never underestimate the power of Netflix.

https://i.imgur.com/TJrq6Uy.jpg
#45 (Tie) - Aggretsuko (Netflix) - 28 points, 4 votes, 2 top 5 votes
Netflix Watch Instantly Recommendation Thread

Trailer
Sample Clip
Website
https://www.polygon.com/entertainment/2020/9/1/21417399/aggretsuko-season-3-review-spoilers
https://recommendmeanime.com/anime-series-like-aggretsuko/

Unorthodox was in my Top 5 - I was expecting it to be a lot higher.

xp I also loved Rectify but didn't have room for it on my side ballot! Or for Justified! Or for Undone! For all of 2020's faults, it was probably the best tv-watching year of my life, discovered so many incredible shows

Ha I didn't think Aggretsuko would place. The third season took this show much further outside the bounds of Sanrio workplace animated sitcom, and I mostly liked where it went

i watched unorthodox, but i felt like it was a little slight. it was an interesting window into those hasidic communities, but besides the portrayal of the husband, it felt a bit surface level.

I need to catch up with Aggretsuko, I really liked the first two series I watched

I have gone back and forth on this show a half dozen times and I think I am back again to “it’s good, if a little exhausting sometimes.”

https://i.imgur.com/776jmJD.jpg
#44 - Last Week Tonight (HBO) - 29 points, 6 votes
Hello, buglers! John Oliver has a weekly show, "Last Week Tonight"

Pre-COVID Trailer
Sample Clip
Website
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2020/11/john-oliver-last-week-tonight-2020-finale

it was good this year. danbury, ct is indeed a shithole.

wish I'd voted Jreg now

The secret Szechuan Sauce dried up a bit on this show as the creators got badly distracted with new opportunities but it remained (mostly) watchable to me.

https://i.imgur.com/d9FsAMK.jpg
#43 - Rick and Morty (Adult Swim) - 29 points, 8 votes
NB: Top Adult Swim
i'm mr meeseeks look at me rick and morty thread

Trailer
Sample Clips
Selling Shit Ironically but Seriously, We’re Selling Shit Here
Website
https://www.ign.com/articles/rick-and-morty-season-4-review

I know I should like Last Week Tonight, it's objectively well-made and it has covered really important political topics that get underplayed in traditional news, but I just find the guy off-putting for some reason, I guess my stance is I'm glad a lot of other people watch it

didn't vote for this season of r&m, but i dug "the vat of acid episode"

Okay, I’m gonna need a UK ILXor explainer for this one.

https://i.imgur.com/ufV6xI7.jpg
#42 - Mortimer and Whitehouse: Gone Fishing (BBC) - 30 points, 3 votes, 2 top 5 votes
fishing

Trailer
Full Episode
UK Website
https://mashable.com/article/mortimer-and-whitehouse-gone-fishing-ultimate-comfort-watch/
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/oct/02/mortimer-and-whitehouse-gone-fishing-mens-health-male-friendship

Heard this was great, but I didn't see it so not my place to explain. Imagine it's a bit like The Trip, but real(er).

wish I'd voted Jreg now

Aaargh, how was he not on the list?

Sometimes I quite fancy going back and watching The Fast Show. Bet it holds up okay

Though it didn’t make my final cut ballot, I really enjoyed Quiz. It’s a three episode, 2 ½ hour TV film directed by Stephen Frears (Dangerous Liaisons, The Grifters, Philomena) intelligently dramatizing the early 2000’s cheating scandal (or was it?) that rocked the original UK Who Wants to Be A Millionaire?
The great cast includes Matthew Macfadyen of Succession, Sian Clifford of Fleabag, Mark Bonnar of Catastrophe, Aisling Bea of This Way Up and Michael Sheen of everything.

https://i.imgur.com/5cqFJ9r.jpg
#41 - Quiz (ITV, AMC) - 32 points, 5 votes, 1 top 5 vote
NB: Top ITV
Rolling iPlayer and All 4 and iTVPlayer 2017-2018

Trailer
Sample Clip
Charles Ingram on WWtBaMillionaire
Website US
Website UK
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/28/arts/television/quiz-millionaire-amc-macfadyen-graham.html

ooh never heard of this, sounds interesting!

New Pope, same as the old Pope, different from the Young Pope.

https://i.imgur.com/18y0Up0.jpg
#38 (Tie) - The New Pope (HBO) - 33 points, 4 votes, 2 top 5 votes
hbo/bbc's the young pope w/ jude law and the new pope w/ john malkovich

Trailer
Sample Clip (yikes)
Website
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/12/arts/television/the-new-pope-review-hbo.html

lol you had to go straight to the marilyn manson scene as the sample clip

there are indeed many scenes without marilyn manson in this show, though it does make sense that malkovich's pope character would gravitate to someone like manson's performative transgressiveness while ignoring the actual abuse he commits.

here's the other, much less problematic cameo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XppefSOavY8

Sorry, but any pope-themed historical drama will always remind me of this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2xWQr4VaUA

it's not a period piece fwiw

Mortimer and Whitehouse Gone Fishing, two aging comedians going around the UK fishing, which admittedly sounds terrible. The Trrip isn’t a bad comparison, but without sounding trite feels a but more organic, less needle between them and less competitive.

It’s an acute examination of male mental health and wellbeing and dealing with mortality, both there own and the loss they’ve experienced. The scene where Bob Mortimer revisits his childhood home and talks about the loss of his father is devastating. It’s often hilarious too and looks absolutely gorgeous.

I haven't seen a second of it but "two nice men who have been hilarious and unproblematic in public for thirty years, hanging out together and talking" doesn't sound terrible

I have to assume Kingdom is less racist and classist and somnambulant than The Walking Dead, what else does it have going for it?

https://i.imgur.com/vwmj8pS.jpg
#38 (Tie) - Kingdom (Netflix) - 33 points, 4 votes, 2 top 5 votes
Netflix Watch Instantly Recommendation Thread

Trailer
Sample Clip
Website
https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/kingdom-season-2-netflix-review-a-zombie-show-that/1900-6417439/

probably not as good as the sad-macho MMA series of the same name

Or, like,

Yay, this show rules, and not just for the hats.

i wish i had more time to give it a chance. watched the first ep, but didn't get time to delve any further before tuning in my ballot.

As a guy who used to watch the Walking Dead, gave up on that, and loves Kingdom, I'd say the vibe is totally different -- the addition of political intrigue to the zombie formula is so much better than the soap opera boredom that took over TWD.