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

Wow, surprised that finished so high. (Says one of the seven voters...mostly because I wanted a semi-full ballot; it was a really up and down season.)

― clemenza, Friday, February 12, 2021 7:36 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

I was one of the other Killing Eve voters & cosign this view.

It occurred to me that, with the possible exception of David Letterman, I’ve spent more time watching Alex Trebek than any other person on television. A few decades ago, Trebek self-consciously adopted a more parochial tone, often casually belittling or betraying an unconsidered sexist or ageist response to the contestants. It was clearly quizmaster schtick but it got stale as more contestants strayed from the atypical player profile. He reigned it back in a bit in his final years, but there was always a risk of being treated like a dolt if you dared an uneducated guess, especially if it regarded Canada.

All that said, his intonation, clarity and consistency were nearly flawless. That made it all the more jarring when, in the final clue of his final game and on a question that effected the likelihood of a potential winner, he flubbed by stating the question after a contestant’s mistaken guess and not allowing other players to buzz in. The producers rapidly set off an end-of-game signal but I'd never seen Trebek make such an error. It was a heartbreaking sign of just how much he had covered up how ill he really was and an astonishing testament to his consistency over the prior forty years.

I think Ken Jennings has been, thus far, an excellent host but it’s still a little jarring not to hear Alex’s voice every day. I actually miss him.

https://i.imgur.com/Jpr9VuW.jpg
#26 - Jeopardy (Syndication) - 51 points, 8 votes, 2 top 5 votes
NB: Top Syndicated Program, Top Game Show
Will that guy on Jeopardy ever lose?
Alex Trebek suffers 'minor heart attack'

Trailer
Goodbye to Alex
Ken’s First Game
Website
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/08/arts/television/alex-trebek-dead.html
https://jeopardylabs.com/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2021/01/08/alex-trebek-final-jeopardy-episode/

If S1 and S3 are your favorites, OL, maybe you just don't like when the show goes too dark?

I'd say that's accurate. S4 was basically a horror movie with some jokes sprinkled among the psychosis. I don't have an issue with darkness, but the tone of Search Party just wobbles way too wildly for me to hang with it. This season was just kinda bad vibes city without much of a point.

I think that people who don't watch Brockmire think they know what kind of a show it is, but it's not that kind of a show. It's romantic and warm and non-judgemental and funny. People should watch it.

Our lives are transient, but Jeopardy! is eternal

Two of television’s great comedic actors helped make our #25 a critical and popular hit but it missed me entirely. Six of you repped for Dead to Me; what’s it got going for it?

https://i.imgur.com/1EaBC6e.jpg
#25 - Dead to Me (Netflix) - 53 points, 6 votes, 3 top 5 votes
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
Sample Clip
Website
https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a32368562/dead-to-me-season-2-review/
https://www.vulture.com/2020/05/dead-to-me-netflix-season-2-review.html

I didn't vote and completely forgot that I watched Dead to Me this year. What it's got going for it imo is pretty much the awesome performances of the 2 leads, but those performances justify a placement (though this feels a little high). A great depiction of 2 idiosyncratic, seriously flawed and broken women finding solace in their friendship despite how different they are from each other. Expectations are not very high for future seasons as it is heading in some very ridiculous directions though

I was the #1 vote for Work in Progress. Honestly, I'm grateful that I even remembered to vote for it, as it was pre-pandemic, and I still have a hard time conceiving of anything pre-March as being a part of 2020. I can't do better than forks' description here: "deeply human and caring, willing to explore taboo subjects without preface, effortlessly inclusive, genuinely funny and remarkably well acted." Plus, one of the very funniest celebrity cameos that I've ever seen in anything (no,I wouldn't dream of spoiling it).

I was also one of the Killing Eve voters. I agree that there was a noticeable drop-off this season, but one great stand-alone episode (the one set entirely in Russia) and an effective final scene in the season finale kept my feelings for the show on the positive side.

I think I was also one of the top 5 votes for Jeopardy? forks' intro above is lovely, and echoes my sentiments pretty much exactly. I had been dreading Alex's passing since his diagnosis was first announced, but then he ended up passing away two days after my father died, at which point I was too numb to really even respond to the news. I wasn't watching much of anything during the week or so after that, but when I was ready again, having a bunch of Alex's final episodes stored up in my PVR was poignant, and possibly even a bit therapeutic--watching those last episodes infused with the weight of losing my father, and our collective loss of Alex, took me back 30 years to the experience of the many dinners my family would have, sitting on the couch in front of our TV trays while watching and playing along with Jeopardy.

i mostly voted for jeopardy because of the greatest of all-time tourney, which was truly riveting television.

And just as I post that, another one of my top shows appears! Career-best work from the two leads, and a show that always stays funny and believably human even when its plot looks, as it frequently does, like it might soon veer off into ridiculousness.

If you weren’t watching the impeccably filmed, cast and acted British monarchy soap opera and comedy of manners The Crown, your mother probably was.

https://i.imgur.com/ieOrYXK.jpg
#24 - The Crown (Netflix) - 54 points, 8 votes, 2 top 5 votes
But Will There Be Corgis? Thread Where We Discuss Netflix's THE CROWN

Trailer
Sample Clip
Website
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/17/arts/television/the-crown-history-season-4-netflix.html
https://www.elle.com/culture/movies-tv/a34823816/the-crown-season-4-controversy/

Alex Garland, of Ex Machina and Annihilation fame, is known for his didactic, tech-heavy, convoluted, slow-paced and bleak sci-fi. Presumably hoping to replicate their success with Noah Hawley, FX gave him a seven-hour mini-series that I have yet to try. Can any of our nonet of voters convince me to give it a go?

https://i.imgur.com/kfsZvcT.jpg
#23 - Devs (Hulu) - 56 points, 9 votes, 2 top 5 votes
A thread for Devs, the new Alex Garland show on FX/HBO (with SPOILERS)

Trailer
'Devs' Is A Show About 'Everything'
Website
https://www.rollingstone.com/tv/tv-reviews/devs-review-fx-hulu-alex-garland-958979/
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/devs-explained-creator-alex-garland-breaks-down-fx-hulu-drama-1288022

Lol at doing a Moka-on-Grimes and giving The Crown the single minute it deserves

Devs was mostly leaden pretentious nonsense with a few good ideas and nice visuals. A shame because I usually quite like Garland.

DEVS was pretentious nonsense, but it was also Absolutely My Shit

Shoutout to Alison Pill's brilliant icy-warm performance

I voted for Devs, but it was the bottom entry on my ranked ballot. It balanced out as a net "enjoyed", but the characterisations felt stiff and unengaging.

Sonoya Mizuno was pretty wooden, but I thought everyone else was fine-to-great

The second season of the 90’s nostalgia cringe comedy with a twist - co-creator thirtysomethings Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle play semi-autobiographical 13 year old versions of themselves and no one seems to notice they’re clearly not teenagers - got darker, better and more ambitious. Seven more episodes are still on the way at a date TBA.

https://i.imgur.com/V3zcB6P.jpg
#22 - PEN15 (Hulu) - 59 points, 8 votes, 3 top 5 votes
STUFF ON HULU
https://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=77&threadid=85089

Trailer
Sample Clip
Konkle, Erskine and Peretti
Website
https://ew.com/tv/tv-reviews/pen15-season-2-review/
https://www.vulture.com/article/pen15-hulu-season-two-review.html

Devs was fine bottom-half-of-my-ballot fodder. I could tell from early on it was going to be vaporous nonsense but it was easy on the eyes. Something about the 'secret actual name of the show you don't learn until the end' + 'name of earlier Garland project' = 'DO U SEE WHAT WE DID THERE' formulation made it all seem a bit like an elaborate attempt at a clever joke.

Pen15 was def in my top 5. Just excellent empathetic cringe comedy.

Expanse fans are probably the most avid supporters of a currently going sci-fi show around. The buzz from everyone I’ve talked to is pretty standard: give it a season to warm up and you’ll be fully hooked. But what is the secret sauce behind a show that four voters put in their top five? School us, space nerds.

What are Expanse hive called anyway? Rock Hoppers?

https://i.imgur.com/Zgjnmcu.jpg
#21 - The Expanse (Amazon) - 60 points, 5 votes, 4 top 5 votes
Is anybody else watching The Expanse?

Trailer
Sample Clip
Website
https://www.thrillist.com/entertainment/nation/the-expanse-season-5-review
https://www.reddit.com/r/TheExpanse/

the school play arch season two of pen15 builds to was up there with anything I saw on tv last year, sublime

I'm there with you; super happy that they decided to get ambitious and build toward a setpiece instead of "MY PERSONAL MOMENT"
all the theater kid shit hit so squarely true and honestly observed, especially the techie/actor divide.

every year, i think the same thing: man there's so much fuckin tv to watch

also I mention the back end of pen15 as a good deal of the first half of the season is a brutal acid test for how much social and emotional discomfort the viewer is willing to contend with bc jfc

Tim Rogers - the inquisitive, obsessive, former YouTube reviewer for Kotaku and possessor of a self-professed painfully eidetic memory - never met an idea that he couldn’t expand upon. Having left Kotaku at the end of 2019 to start his own video game review and development hub, ActionButton.com, Rogers has since released a total of five heavily-produced YouTube reviews over the past nine months. The shortest (for Pac-Man) is three hours, the longest is six and concerns a 1994 Japanese-only dating sim called Tokimeki Memorial. This kind of content defines niche entertainment, but I'd go so far as to say that a love for video games isn't required to appreciate an Action Button review. You just have to love a specific sort of neurodivergent enthusiasm. For those of us who have embraced Rogers' wildly specific and deeply personal digressions and remarkable shaggy dog anecdotes, each new review offers an entire week of viewing and insight into a truly unique mind. In the words of his own memorable sign-off, Rogers was born stupid but he will not die hungry.

https://i.imgur.com/7YmcFDy.jpg
#20 - Action Button (YouTube) - 61 points, 6 votes, 3 #1 votes, 3 top 5 votes
thread of tim rogers content (do not read if you hate tim rogers)

210 Minutes about Doom
Shopping for Furniture
Website
YouTube
Twitch
https://www.slashfilm.com/the-quarantine-stream-action-button-reviews-video-games-on-youtube-unlike-anyone-else-reviewing-video-games-on-youtube/

TRUCK HECK

I love the expanse so much.

Tim just reading the names of old Namco arcade cabinets is pure poetry

pic.twitter.com/S2CwNITXHD

— Tim Rogers out of Context (@108minusContext) January 23, 2021

The new season of Big Mouth dropped in December, making me wonder how many voters were specifically excited about the show’s work for 2020 and how many just generally liked the franchise. Episode synopsis suggest the new season is more of the same surprisingly sophisticated animated comedy takes on teen gross-out topics (constipation, hand jobs, periods, jerking off) that got it eyeballs in the first place, but I’d like it if a fan could let us know if the quality has dropped off at all?

https://i.imgur.com/MbAqetD.jpg
#19 - Big Mouth (Netflix) - 64 points, 7 votes, 1 #1 vote, 4 top 5 votes
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
Sample Clip
Website
https://tv.avclub.com/big-mouth-season-4-shatters-friendships-and-feelings-t-1845736134

trainspotting Tim’s hair variations the last six months has been my truest passion

top 20 is where shows become fair game for the gasface right

i can't peel that tangerine for you man, you gotta make your own call

FX’s six hour+ miniseries about the glory days of second-wave American feminism boasted a frankly outrageous cast (Cate Blanchett, Rose Byrne, Uzo Aduba, Margo Martindale, Tracey Ullmann, Elizabeth Banks, Sarah Paulson, Niecy Nash, Jeanne Tripplehorn) and AAA movie production values.

https://i.imgur.com/3bEduUP.jpeg
#18 - Mrs. America (Hulu/BBC) - 66 points, 9 votes, 3 top 5 votes
Mrs America (2020) - Hulu/BBC

Trailer
Sample Clips
US Website
UK Website
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/14/arts/television/mrs-america-review.html

Glad to see that--I posted about it a few times during its run and thought I was the only one watching.

Lovecraft Country featured JJ Abrams and Jordan Peele as exec producers, a strong predominantly black cast, music by Raphael Saadiq and a daring reimagining of the Cthulhu mythos through a reclamatory lens. HBO successfully hyped it as a replacement for Watchmen and a cultural must-see event, but not everyone agreed.

https://i.imgur.com/dGSSEvL.jpg
#17 - Lovecraft Country (HBO) - 67 points, 11 votes, 2 #1 votes, 2 top 5 votes
LOVECRAFT COUNTRY

Trailer
Sample Clip
Website
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/13/arts/television/lovecraft-country-review.html
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/on-television/the-missing-melodrama-of-lovecraft-country

Okay, as before, I gotta get a run in and will drop off the last one for the day now along with an updated list. We can finish this off on Monday and Tuesday.

Criminally underwatched, almost entirely critically ignored and very nearly not released at all, The Dress Up Gang is the brainchild of California-based comedians Cory Loykasek and Donny Divanian. Alongside a stellar troupe that includes Frankie Quinones, Brent Winbach, Kirk Fox and (surreally) Andie MacDowell, The Dress Up Gang belongs to the same style of slow and kind comedy as the work of John Wilson and Joe Pera; anybody who loves those two should give this a few episodes. It’s destined to be a cult hit but it desperately deserves better.

https://i.imgur.com/fM3UwbA.jpg
#16 - The Dress Up Gang (TBS) - 71 points, 8 votes, 1 #1 vote, 4 top 5 votes
NB: Top TBS
I just wanted to say, I really cherish our friendship: A Thread for Dress Up Gang - TBS Television Show and Online Comedy Troupe

Trailer
Finding Frankie Part 1
Cute House
Molly Bro
Website
https://loudandclearreviews.com/the-dress-up-gang-interview/