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

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.

If you're a Coen brothers fan there's often some easter eggs in them which are nice to spot, but you’ll not lose anything by not having that awareness.

I'd rate 2>1>3=4, the Wizard of Oz episode bumped it up for me, absolutely gorgeous black and white cinematography. I wished they'd done the whole series in black and white.

might even be fun, if you're going to commit to the entire series, to watch by time period. so i think it would go: s4, s2, movie, s1, s3.

but if you just want to watch the best one, s2 is amazing... and s3 i think it pretty underrated and worth checking out.

i think season two had a song and a quote from a Cohen bros movie in every episode.

Great, I will definitely watch s2 and then if so inclined will proceed into the others.

fargo sucks and noah hawley is a hack

sorry I have to say this once per thread whenever that show is invoked

i've seen you repeat that a bunch, but to not belabor the point, why you feel that way?

you can point me to a thread if you don't want to spend too much time on it

to put it as succinctly as I can, hawley seems to "get" the coens about as well as twin peaks' other principal writers "got" lynch when he wasn't around to consult

TBF, I've never gotten the impression that Hawley was trying to 'do' the Coens.

I mean, he also made Legion, so whatever he is, it's not a hack.

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

― Vladislav Bibidonurtmi (Old Lunch), Wednesday, February 10, 2021 6:44 AM (seven hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Sex House is one of the top shows of the last decade and I don't understand why it's not universally recognized as a landmark of television

you've ruined me!

Simon otm re: Hawley and Fargo

Thought the first season of Fargo tried hard to emulate the film; the second, I'd say, much less so.

I guess. Maybe that's why the first season kinda sucked. At any rate, if you didn't stick around long enough to see Bruce Campbell's portrayal of Reagan, you're doing yourself a disservice.

I thought Reagan was really woven into S2 well. And--maybe I'm reading too much into it--thought the ending, with Mike Milligan relegated to a desk job, was some kind of comment on the dawn of the Reagan presidency.

Trying to remind myself this is the countdown thread, not a Fargo thread--it's just a show I like talking about.

I guess I'm in the minority, but I kind of preferred S1 to S2. I watched both recently (haven't gotten to the later seasons yet) and, while S2 was definitely well-done, I didn't feel as emotionally connected to it.

yah i liked s1 more as well. cant remember why at this point lol.

Kirsten Dunst made S2 the most memorable for me

fargo sucks and noah hawley is a hack

sorry I have to say this once per thread whenever that show is invoked

― stimmy stimmy yah (Simon H.), Wednesday, February 10, 2021 10:44 AM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

i agree

I liked 3 a lot more than the general consensus, prob bc I’m a huge sucker for both coon and thewlis (the macgregor stuff sucks but whatever)

Coon was fantastic, as she always is--best reason to watch S3.

McGregor stuff was fun at times, but way more po-faced than it would have been in a Coens movie

Maybe should do a poll on favorite Fargo character? Think I would favor Alison Tolman from S1.

Allison Tolman was really great, hard to choose between her and Martin Freeman in S1

glad this was a day off for forks, who has been working overtime running these polls

Run that poll! I think I know who'd vote for, but there at least five or six possibilities for me.

"who I'd"

we should appreciate him, his and Moka's efforts are pretty amazing

Aw, thanks! Back today though!

Before we start today, let’s address a side-poll: I asked folks to provide their favorite shows that they watched this past year that were not released in 2020 and we got a bumper crop of options. In fact, there were so many options that there was little overlap: only a handful of shows got two votes and nothing got three, so this became less of a “side-poll” and more of a way to present our broader viewing tastes beyond the current year’s offerings.

Here’s that list with current (mostly US) streaming options. Defend your watching!

The Americans (Amazon), Battlestar Galactica (Peacock), Better Call Saul (Netflix), Borgen (Netflix), Brockmire (2 votes - Hulu), Chernobyl (HBO), Chewing Gum (Netflix), Columbo (Peacock), Country Music (PBS, Hoopla, Kanopy), Detroiters (2 votes - CBS All Access/Paramount, Comedy Central), Documentary Now (Netflix), Don’t Forget the Driver (BBC2), Escape at Dannemora (Showtime), Euphoria (HBO), The Expanse (2 votes – Amazon), Fleabag (Amazon, BBC3), Grand Designs (Netflix), Halt and Catch Fire (Netflix), Happy Endings (Hulu), High Maintenance (HBO), Home (Channel 4), Homecoming (Amazon), I'll Have What Phil's Having (PBS), Killing Eve (Hulu, BBC), King of the Hill (Hulu), Knots Landing, The Last Man on Earth (Hulu), The Leftovers (2 votes, HBO), Lodge 49 (Hulu), Mad Men (AMC), Mickey Mouse (Disney +), Moyashimon (Crunchyroll), Mr. Robot (Amazon), Neon Genesis Evangelion (Netflix), On Cinema at the Cinema (Adult Swim), Patriot (2 votes - Amazon), Polar Bear Café (Crunchyroll), Rectify (Netflix), Skull-Faced Bookseller Honda-San (Crunchyroll), Southside (Comedy Central – Coming soon to HBO), Succession (2 votes – HBO), Summer Camp Island (Cartoon Network, now HBO), Taskmaster (Comedy Central, Channel 4), Terriers (Hulu), The Terror (Hulu), This Time with Alan Partridge (HBO, BBC), Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (HBO), TJ and Dave: The Series (Vimeo), True Detective (HBO), Utopia (Amazon), Wakakozake (Crunchyroll), West Wing (HBO), Why Women Kill (CBS All Access/Paramount)

I asked folks to provide their favorite shows

I read that as "I asked forks..." I thought we maybe had a problem here.

I was one of the two Detroiters votes. Easily as funny and unpredictable as I Think You Should Leave and I wish I had caught on to it sooner. Comedy Central grossly mistreated it (possibly because it cost more than like 2 dollars to make?).

Speaking of slightly abstract comedy shows, ADBOHoF came on corny and overdone on first dosage but it won me over with a skewed sort of chicken fat: the heavy schmaltz of overdoing a joke with a million gags until it collapses under its own silliness. YMMV but anyone who liked I Think You Should Leave or Detroiters and quit this after one episode should maybe try again.
My fave bit remains the Ellen sketch.

https://i.imgur.com/1CprlZW.jpg
#49 - Aunty Donna’s Big Ol’ House of Fun (Netflix) - 26 points, 5 votes
Aunty Donna

Trailer
Sample Clip
Website
https://tv.avclub.com/aunty-donna-s-big-ol-house-of-fun-is-a-pure-dose-of-sk-1845616957

torn about this show

The non-2020 show I discovered in 2020 but stupidly left off my list is actually a show which had a new season in 2020 but which I also stupidly left off the nominations list (but also I still haven't finished the final season so fair enough): The Clone Wars. Good enough to swing me from 'psssh, WGAF about a Star War' after seeing Rise of Stinkwalker to being borderline obsessive about a Star War. It singlehandedly makes the prequel era a compelling and fertile narrative space, which I would've thought next-to-impossible.

The best non-2020 series I saw was Rectify, which was as nearly-perfect a show as I've seen, from beginning to end. Performances, writing, tone...just beautiful, wouldn't change a thing. I wish the preacher from Deadwood would create some more stuff, knowing he had this in him.

the Ellen sketch was good tho yeah

I caught up with Homecoming. S1, good, especially the unique use of appropriated soundtrack music from famous films (The Conversation, All The President's Men, etc.); S2, increasingly farfetched but worth watching. I should have added Modern Family to my catch-up list--liked it pretty much from start to finish.

anyone who liked I Think You Should Leave or Detroiters and quit this after one episode should maybe try again

hmm this is exactly me

When these guys (Aunty Donna) are on, it's some of the funniest shit I've seen in my life, but I feel like the quality is hit and miss

like, completely in my wheelhouse in theory, but also...not the highest hit-rate

they did collabs with two of my favourite Youtuber gangs (both of whom I voted for) - Fairbairn Films and I did a thing - both of which are funnier than them imo. Aussie Youtube is the best

(I mean that the gangs are funnier, not the collabs)

I was wondering who was enjoying Rectify for the first time xps

I also have just watched all of Clone Wars with my son and am now rewatching The Mandalorian with him (I watched it last year he didn't) and he absolutely lost his shit when [ REDACTED ] turned up in an episode in Season 2

glad to see a couple people dove into the leftovers during the most leftoverian time to discover the most needs-to-be-watched show of the last decade or so

during the most leftoverian time

I rewatched S1 in the first few weeks of the pandemic--totally.

Who would've imagined in 1993 that the lead voice on the Tommy Boy novelty hit Supermodel was anything more than a one-hit-wonder? Instead that track serves as the first apex of a now 40+ year career of international stardom that's sparked the greater mainstream acceptance of drag as genre.

https://i.imgur.com/z9VmqMN.jpg
#48 - RuPaul’s Drag Race (VH1) - 27 points, 5 votes, 1 top 5 vote
NB: Top VH1
'...and DON'T *bleep* IT UP!' -- the RuPaul's Drag Race thread
Shante, You Stay! Polling The Greatest 'RuPaul's Drag Race' Queens

Trailer
Sample Clip
Website
https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-52576336
https://www.vulture.com/tv/rupaul-s-drag-race/

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!