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

Oh right, I feel bad about not voting now! Yes the stages of grief structure is a really fascinating way to frame the story. I loved that the Naomi character is secretly the hero, and the claustrophobic feeling of living in Suzie's head the whole time.

Definitely worth continuing if you've started it as it really builds into something cathartic and earned with each building block. Have a hard time picking my favourite episode - the one showing Suzie's chaotic family is devastating, the Comic-Con one is awkwardly hilarious, and the ending is perfectly executed.

I also really enjoyed The Last Dance and have seen it in other year-end lists but barely even saw it mentioned on this site

That said, I don't think it'll make the top ten

Itll surely be top 3!

Was Talking Heads nominated?

(xpost) There was a big thread on The Last Dance on I Love Hoops.

The Last Dance: In Praise of One Lone Gold Hoop Earring

No song, last dance, sone jumping thru hoops

Completely missed that thread!

By my count, The Boys is the fifth (Aggretsuko, Umbrella Academy, I Am Not Okay with This, Kingdom) and last of our 77 shows to be directly based on a comic book or webcomic, though signs point to that number increasing drastically in 2021. Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson's long-running comic series - detailing the adventures of a government-backed black ops group of chaotic-good super-powered superhero hunters monitoring and censuring the more technicolor-clad and publicly-beloved lawful-evil supergroups - is known for its sadistic humor, graphic ultraviolence, withering cynicism, explicit sex and Chris Claremont-level team dynamics. The show appears to follow suit.

https://i.imgur.com/W8Cdt2y.jpg
#10 - The Boys (Amazon) - 104 points, 10 votes, 1 #1 vote, 7 top 5 votes
NB: Top Amazon
What's good on Amazon Prime Video

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Website
https://slate.com/culture/2020/09/the-boys-season-2-review-amazon-series-captures-2020.html
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/the-boys-season-2-tv-review

I dunno, man, it's really hard for me to imagine getting into anything Garth Ennis-related now that I'm no longer a teenager. To what extent does the show embody his baser impulses (i.e. tropes that someone in junior high would find awesome and edgy)?

watched both seasons during the q, and season 2 was much sharper and more compelling than the first, which was too consciously “dark and gritty”

lol, I have images turned off but clicking on Moka's image kind of answers my question, I feel.

The Boys really is top tier bingeable widescreen trash TV, with some surprisingly acute things to say about Celeb culture and modern elitism. I wouldn't be surprised if it finds itself the inheritor of Game of Throne's ratings in a few seasons' time.

To what extent does the show embody his baser impulses (i.e. tropes that someone in junior high would find awesome and edgy)?

It indulges those impulses with some regularity, but isn't governed by them.

Sex Education, the contemporary British-set and produced Netflix dramedy starring Gillian Anderson as a sex therapist and Asa Butterfield as her son, is by my count the fifth (We Are Who We Are, Never Have I Ever, I Am Not Okay with This, Big Mouth) and last show in the 77 with teenagers having sex at the crux of its story.

https://i.imgur.com/5IlR6Di.jpg
#9 - Sex Education (Netflix) - 106 points, 10 votes, 3 #1 votes, 6 top 5 votes
"I looked at some cheese and got an erection.": SEX EDUCATION on Netflix

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https://www.newyorker.com/culture/on-television/sex-education-season-2-the-doctor-is-in
https://www.rollingstone.com/tv/tv-reviews/sex-education-season-2-review-933181/

My #1, one of the best shows in years and years. Genuinely surreal, delightfully freewheeling in presentation and execution. Also, S2 stepped it up a whole gear from the already great first season. The opener is one of the best episodes of television I've ever seen

All the characters are great too, and there are so many awesomely bonkers conceits (the American high school in Britain, the only-two-teachers-and-guess-what, etc)

tried the pilot of this and didnt care for it. stick with it then eh?

You have to be ready for it to be...wrong, lol. Start with S2

Or the whole thing, knowing it gets better, ha

It indulges those impulses with some regularity, but isn't governed by them.

― chap, Tuesday, February 16, 2021 11:15 AM (ten minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

this is otm. the whole storyline with the deep in s2 does a pretty good job of walking this line (all those poor sea creatures haha)

boys was in my top 5. season 2 was at least 3x as good as season 1.

by my count the fifth (We Are Who We Are, Never Have I Ever, I Am Not Okay with This, Big Mouth) and last show in the 77 with teenagers having sex at the crux of its story.

Normal People

https://www.yourprops.com/movieprops/original/yp_58777dd6c69943.96294778/Southland-Tales-Teen-Horniness-Is-Not-A-Crime-CD-1.jpg

^otm

Maybe it's because I watched Sex Education first, but I feel like Never Have I Ever only got good once it moved away from truly belonging on that list

couldn't tell ya why i didn't vote for sex ed season 2. probably because otis was totally insufferable the whole year (i know, for plot/character reasons, but still)

With the bloom of novelty off the Baby Yoda rose, The Mandalorian dug deeper into its fan service bag this year, providing jumping-off spots for a few new shows, an uncanny valley Luke Skywalker cameo, a revolving roster of guest stars, expensive looking CGI, some impressive set pieces and all the other obvious trimmings that this chambara inspired space-oater could carry. Mostly it held together... though two seasons in a row of the guy who never takes off his mask taking off his mask in the final episode is getting a little silly.

https://i.imgur.com/OfLdTjR.jpg
#8 - The Mandalorian (Disney +) - 115 points, 15 votes, 2 #1 votes, 5 top 5 votes
NB: Top Disney +, Top Sci-Fi
Star Wars: The Mandalorian

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https://www.indiewire.com/2020/12/the-mandalorian-review-season-2-finale-1234605624/
https://thedisinsider.com/2020/12/18/mandalorian-season-2-review/

Normal People
― Well *I* know who he is (aldo)

haven't seen normal people, but doesn't it start when they're in high school?

The book does, at least.

the show does too

lotta voters into teen sex and comic books, i for one am shocked

i may stand corrected here; the actors were in their twenties at least.
sure, throw it in the cuddle puddle if you wanna.

Here’s me (slightly edited) from early January in the Netflix thread: My gf binged Queen's Gambit and I joined her cold for the last episode. I couldn't help thinking that part of the reason that this show caught the zeitgeist so squarely is that it represents an impossible and impossibly of-our-time fantasy: a flawed woman makes her way to the apex of her industry based on talent, merit, a strong support system and immense hard work and, on meeting the glass ceiling, is confronted by a group of gatekeeper men who treat her dismissively at first but then ultimately deferentially acknowledge everything she's done to get there and more or less apologize for not taking her seriously. I'm not sure I've ever seen a television story climax that way.

https://i.imgur.com/vLgWfc0.jpg
#7 - The Queen’s Gambit (Netflix) - 141 points, 20 votes, 5 top 5 votes
Netflix Watch Instantly Recommendation Thread

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NO REVERSE GEAR
Website
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-fatal-flaw-of-the-queens-gambit
https://www.motherjones.com/media/2020/12/monsters-of-2020-the-queens-gambit/
https://quillette.com/2020/12/04/the-hustler-and-the-queen/
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/always-lived-castle-one-month-queens-gambit/

lol Quillette - really?

frankly, i was unfamiliar with them. I thought that article made some interesting (if occasionally unwittingly so) points about how the masculine lineage of the hustler differs from this modern manifestation.

throw it in the cuddle puddle

gross

Thought at first that Queen's Gambit was just kinda boilerplate time-killing prestige tv with v good performances but not a lot of heft. It gradually won me over, though, partly on the level that forks delineates. It may be fantasy to an extent but it's engaging to watch high-level competitors ultimately demonstrating kindness and respect towards those they've been trying to savagely destroy.

Speaking of which, this recent NYT piece calls it ”the new nice television”: anti-cynical, reasonably low-stakes dramedy that presents good people being rewarded for their good efforts. That’s a little reductive when applied to Ted Lasso imo. It’s a program that absolutely looks insipid on first glance but, once you’ve knocked out the first episode, you’ll likely see its undercurrent of sadness and loss. For all the cookie-baking and “ding-dong-darn” homilies, Lasso is at heart about the bravery and strength required to meet real hardship and overcome it without irony or disassociation. That requires broad shoulders and a gentle touch, both of which Sudeikis has in spades.

https://i.imgur.com/5oBcp41.jpg
#6 - Ted Lasso (Apple +) - 150 points, 16 votes, 2 #1 votes, 8 top 5 votes
NB: Top Apple +
But Is It on Netflix? - Streaming Video Service Thread: Hulu, Amazon Prime, Apple TV+, Disney+, Peacock, YouTube TV, AT+T Watch, Philo, Playstation Vue, HBO Max, HBO Now, Facebook Live and many more

Trailer
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An American Coach in London (2013)
Website
https://www.theringer.com/tv/2020/8/14/21367994/ted-lasso-apple-tv-jason-sudeikis
https://ew.com/tv/tv-reviews/ted-lasso-on-apple-tv/
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/11/arts/television/ted-lasso-great-north-review.html

I just watched Ted Lasso and holy shit, what a show

It's basically "what if Parks and Recreation was a prestige drama"

Was going to say, contrary to the line of thought that suggested the Trump years would lead to a resurgence in gritty, no holds barred horror, the exact opposite thing seems to have happened, at least on TV.

Ted Lasso seems to have picked up the baton directly from Schitt's Creek only you didn't have to wade through like 3 seasons before it actually got really good.

ted lasso was.....fine

Surely when historians look back on this year, it will be remembered as the one in which Rick and Morty fever hit the dubious peak of "Rick and Morty but it's Star Trek."

This is entirely unfair to Lower Decks! I've said this before, but it's easily the Trekkiest of the new batch of Trek series.

I'm three episodes into Mandolorian, when does it get good?