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

I liked The Outsider, even if some of the middle episodes felt padded.

Couple of my votes im suprised didnt place at least in the lower ranks: Discovery, Raised by Wolves

Thanks for this, Forks and Moka!

(A reminder that the Umbrella Academy is, if not the moral victor, at least in the moral top 50)

much appreciated forks & moka, you guys deserve many days off from ilx polls

Thanks. I'll try and vote next time!

yes, thanks! really enjoyed reading this thread

Yeah, thanks forks and moka, and thanks for encouraging me to vote even though I think I only had 6 things on my ballot!

Thanks for the poll, enjoyed that. I'm still so out of it--I haven't heard of (not "I haven't seen"--haven't heard of) six of the top ten shows. I watched a lot of TV through the pandemic, but half of it was re-watching favourites from start to finish. Can we post out ballots here?

please do!

I submitted twice--I think this was the final version:

1. Small Axe
2. The Last Dance
3. Better Call Saul (S5)
4. Mrs. America
5. Ozark (S3)
6. Modern Family (S11)
7. A Teacher
8. Homecoming (S2)
9. Fargo (S4)
10. Killing Eve (S3)

Catching up:

1. Homecoming (S1)
2. Mr. Robot (all seasons)

That's really a list of everything I watched--I only left off one show. But even at #10, I enjoyed some of Killing Eve's weakest season so far.

My #1 for catching-up should have been Modern Family, which I forgot. Ups and downs, but enjoyed it the whole way.

Yes, thanks, forks and moka. A very good poll.

Work in Progress (Showtime)
Dead to Me (Netflix)
I Am Not Okay With This (Netflix)
Jeopardy (Syndication)
Beef House (Adult Swim)
Killing Eve (BBC America)
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark (HBO)
The Outsider (HBO)
The Crown (Netflix)
Matt Baume’s Culture Cruise (YouTube)

Best New-to-Me: Fleabag (Amazon)

Thanks, forks and moka!

i wish i had watched Plot Against America before the poll. after reading the description up thread i wound up marathoning it not long after. would def had given it a high ranking on my ballot.

That british guy is incredibly annoying and has zero range and i hate him in everything, will not watch him

ime this is the thing in which he is most consistently well-used. often a little goes a long way, but the overall tone of this supports him being one-fifth of the ensemble.

also the episode where he's the lead, in S2, is one of the best of the series.

thanks forks and moka as ever!

deems is thinking of "matt berry," while the guy in wwdits is a similar, but far superior actor named "bat berry." i can see why he's confused.

MATT!

I haven't been exactly in love with other Berry performances but 'Bat!' makes me laugh every time, what can I say.

the extent to which matt berry is better in this than any of his other roles is almost incalculable tbh

Ok, maybe

My "catching up" was five seasons of friday night lights in a month, the show is a complete miracle and almost certainly the best ever made

One of my re-watches: Top 5 for me, definitely.

have no interest in football or sports in general but liked that show

It is a show about discussions happening on your way out the door of the house, mostly, and i have never had a fictional character sold to me as completely as the angel matt saracen for whom i would kill irl

10 #1s! Time I got around to watching it. Great poll, thanks organizers!!

yeah I have put it off for many of the reasons assuaged in this thread will be watching this week, thanks so much for forks and moka! Beautiful thread and countdown!

watched a couple of episodes of I May Destroy You today after reading this thread, don't really understand it yet but it is interesting

1. The Last Dance
2. Murder on Middle Beach
3. How to with John Wilson
4. Dave
5. Seduced: Inside the NXIVM cult
6. Dead to Me
7. Flight Attendant
8. Somebody Feed Phil
9. I know this much is true
10. The Plot Against America
11. The Vow
12. My Lottery Dream Home

side poll:
Chernobyl
Happy Endings
Brockmire
I'll Have What Phil's Having

Everyone here loves it so much, I’m afraid to say I liked it less as it went along.

Xpost to Dan there.

Johnny - Chernobyl is goddamn amazing eh?

wildly good

i forgot another side poll show i watched and really liked in 2020 (prob forgot cuz this was pre-pandemic) - horace & pete

I heard that was kinda of a bummer?

fair to say that; id call it a tragedy prob

it's good and funny and very much a bummer

Thanks for the kind words! I can’t take much credit here! Forks was the one doing most of the heavy lifting in this poll.

There is a visceral thrill in watching IMDY in that Michaela's is the sort of voice who hitherto has never had the chance to make TV shows. There is a minute to minute triumph in the mere fact of its existence.

Thanks to the poll runners - How To with John Wilson sounds fascinating and I will check it out, had never heard of it prior to now.

Excellent poll, many thanks to forks and Moka. Here's my weighted ballot.

1 I May Destroy You
2 The Queen's Gambit
3 Schitt's Creek
4 Unorthodox
5 The Great
6 The Undoing
7 The Crown
8 Ghosts
9 The Great British Bake-Off
10 Only Connect
11 Us
12 Rupaul's Drag Race
13 Roadkill
14 Giri/Haji
15 Small Axe
16 Dracula
17 Portrait Artist Of The Year
18 Quiz
19 Devs

Thanks organisers, was a lot of fun to read - maybe I'll vote next year!

Thanks to forks & moka! My short ranked ballot:

1. Action Button (YouTube)
2. All Gas No Brakes (YouTube)
3. Devs (Hulu)
4. What We Do in Shadows (FX)
5. Normal People (Hulu)
6. The Queen’s Gambit (Netflix)
7. Lindsay Ellis (YouTube)
8. Jeopardy (Syndication)
9. Videogamedunkey (YouTube)

Favorite thing I watched last year not from last year: Halt and Catch Fire

THANK YOU FORKS AND MOKA! sorry i couldn't chat during the festivities, was barely keeping up w/ work etc.

here's my ballot! (weighted)

Action Button (YouTube) - Link
Ted Lasso (Apple +)
All Gas No Brakes (YouTube) - Link
What We Do in Shadows (FX)
How To with John Wilson (HBO)
Avenue 5 (HBO)
Search Party (HBO)
Devs (Hulu)
Corporate (Comedy Central)
The Dress Up Gang (TBS)
High Maintenance (HBO)
AEW Dynamite (TBS)
RuPaul’s Drag Race (VH1, Netflix)
Schitt’s Creek (Netflix)
Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet (Apple +)
The Eric Andre Show (Adult Swim)
The History of the Seattle Mariners (Youtube) - Link
Patriot Act (Netflix)
PEN15 (Hulu)
Ramy (Hulu)
Star Trek: Lower Decks (CBS All Access)
Lovecraft Country (HBO)
20020 (Web Only - SB Nation) - https://www.sbnation.com/secret-base/21410129/20020/
Aunty Donna’s Big Ol’ House of Fun (Netflix)
Canada’s Drag Race (Crave/BBC)

Old shows, all first watches in 2020 I think (Utopia may have been late 2019, i can't remember):

1. The Leftovers (WOW WOW WOW how did i miss this)
2. Neon Genesis Evangelion (2 eps left now!)
3. Utopia (2013)
4. Lodge 49
5. Detroiters

also this thread reminded me to watch the seattle mariners thing and it's so good and i love that team so much more than i already even did ughhhh

I May Destroy You (HBO)
How To With John Wilson (HBO)
What We Do In The Shadows (FX)
The New Pope (HBO)
Better Call Saul (AMC)
Mrs. America (FX/Hulu)
Bojack Horseman (Netflix)
The Boys (Amazon Prime)
The Queen’s Gambit (Netflix)
Jeopardy (syndicated)
The Mandalorian (Disney+)
The Last Dance (ESPN)
Lovecraft Country (HBO)

I only watched one new old show in 2020 and that was the incredible and beautiful Halt And Catch Fire

Was pretty absent for most of this poll but just got around to looking at the list properly and decided to give How To With John Wilson a go. I'm yet to read everyone's comments because I want to watch the whole thing first, but the first episode was literally a masterpiece. Like Chris Marker meets All Gas No Brakes.

get excited it gets better

I can't even imagine! This is the most excited I've been about a use of the visual form in a while.

I finished off Worzel Gummidge, what's that German word for nostalgia for a place you've never been? Lots of that.

Sehnsucht? Weltschmerz? Neither of those are quite right.

Omg the music choices in How To With John Wilson are killing me. So simultaneously hilarious and affecting.

i look forward to your response on the scaffolding

That's kind of what I was talking about! Sometimes the humour is absolutely pitch black, shockingly so, but the show also has such incredible compassion for its topics and subjects that the humour is somehow never too much. And yet it's still the funniest thing I've seen in years. Such rewatch value too. It would be impossible to catch everything on the first go!