Your Ten Favorite Shows Currently on Television

i still cant tell if i love or hate this show
it’s like the Kings have invented their own genre of that pretends so hard that it’s not cheese & then randomly is like SURPRISE! CHEESE!

the good wife was basically the same thing but stretched over longer

What really "impresses" me about it is how hard it swings, often in the same scene, from goofy wink-nudge shit to full-on serial child murder

yeah that’s def what keeps me watching

Binged both seasons of Jo Brand's 'Damned' over Thanksgiving. I was a massive fan of both the UK and US versions of 'Getting On,' so an edgy and well-written, excellently cast comedy about a children's protective service office that gets grittier in the second season couldn't have been more up my alley. Very sorry to see it didn't get renewed; I could watch another thirty of these.

Here's a pair of representative clips:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDzTAhXV9UM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdtWJ7FCSDw

Bailed out on Money Heist; it was intermittently diverting and I really liked a few of the characters, but hated some others (the main robber inside the vault was like a Spanish Hank Azaria) and it was taking forfuckingever to get anywhere.

Bonusfamiljen is great, though. About to start season 3, and apparently there'll be a fourth season in 2020.

How far did you get?

I've been stuck on Season 3 for a couple of weeks now after racing through the first two.

I finished episode 10 of Season 1, but once I found out that they weren't even going to finish the fucking robbery at the end of that season, that it was going to extend into Season 2, I said fuck this.

You should see what happens in season 3. It's taken the ridiculousness to another level. (Which is probably why I'm struggling to finish it).

Bearing in mind that I'm almost certainly forgetting several programs and that there's STILL plenty of narratives of interest releasing in December, including Hala (apple), Reprisal (hulu) and JOE PERA TALKS TO YOU (adult swim) - truly it is the time of peak TV - it's still December so it must be End of the Year List Making Time!

I'm choosing to skip (most of) the shows that I watched that released earlier than 2019 as well as 2019 shows that I either didn't enjoy, was uninterested by or actively loathe... though I could easily be coaxed into tallying those up too. Anyways, all that aside, here's what I watched and enjoyed most from 2019.

Top 13:
Chernobyl (HBO)
Succession (HBO)
Ramy (Hulu)
Patriot Act (Netflix)
Gentleman Jack (HBO)
Barry (HBO)
Desus and Mero (Showtime)
Veep (HBO)
Fleabag (Amazon)
Unbelievable (Netflix)
High Maintenance (HBO)
Catastrophe (Amazon)
Pen15 (Hulu)

Top 29:
Russian Doll (Netflix)
Last Week Tonight (HBO)
Late Show with Colbert (CBS)
Shrill (Hulu)
I Think You Should Leave (Netflix)
The Other Two (Comedy Central)
Blown Away (Netflix)
Corporate (Comedy Central)
Undone (Amazon)
The Mandalorian (Disney +)
Mr In-Between (FX)
63 Up (ITV)
Stath Lets Flats (Channel 4)
Rick and Morty (Adult Swim)
Portrait Artist of the Year 2019 (Sky Arts)
Damned (Channel 4; from 2016 to ‘18 but new to me)

Occasionally Very Good, Sometimes Even Great:
The Good Place (NBC)
LetterKenny (Hulu)
Silicon Valley (HBO)
Toys That Made Us (Netflix)
What We Do in Shadows (FX)
Broad City (Comedy Central)
Tuca and Bertie (Netflix)
Great British Baking Show (Netflix)
This Way Up (Hulu)
Better Things (FX)
Ink Masters (Paramount)
Living With Yourself (Netflix)
Jeopardy (ABC)

Hey, I bet you still haven’t seen:
America to Me (Starz, from 2018 but worth hunting down in 2019 as one of the best shows of this generation)

Still Need to Watch* or Watch More Of**:
Country Music* (PBS)
Dark* (Netflix)
Kingdom* (Netflix)
Stumptown* (ABC)
Dickinson* (Apple)
Euphoria* (HBO; I am kinda assuming this is gonna be terrible tho)
His Dark Materials* (HBO
The Act** (Hulu)
Big Mouth** (Netflix)
Killing Eve** (BBC)
Doom Patrol** (DC Universe)
SMILF** (Showtime)
When They See Us** (Netflix)
Lodge 49** (AMC)
Leavenworth** (Starz)
Sorry For Your Loss** (Facebook)
Temple** (Sky One)
Dollface** (Hulu)

Also Immediately on Deck:
The Accident (Hulu)
For All Mankind (Apple)
Frayed (Sky One)
See (Apple)
Servant (Apple)
Total Control (ABC Australia)
Upright (Showcase)

Are there more than 20 of you who would like to do a 2019 TV poll?

we're watching watchmen and i like it

i find the decision to gank this from an unwilling moore to be more than a bit gross
i'll likely come back to it in a year or three if it resolves intelligently as lindelof's inability to connect al the dots drives me crazy

I thought I liked Nancy Drew but I decided i don’t
turns out that i dont really gaf about ghosts and treasure

The Expanse (still only at the end of S2 tho)
Schitt's Creek (only in S3)
Fleabag (finished)

Watchmen is solidly good and occasionally great. Its ambition and attempts at dealing w/very ugly and vv American issues are admirable.

I just keep forgetting I'm watching it and get confused when it doesn't have KJ APA and Cole Sprouse in it.

Nancy Drew xpost

the annoying thing about 2019 tv is that my favorite shows were divided among over 15 different networks. watching all of them required a cable plan AND separate subscriptions to eight different services AND the occasional torrent for international stuff. it's just not sustainable.

Stuff I Liked A Lot This Year:
Chernobyl (HBO)
Ramy (Hulu)
Fleabag (Amazon) (Season 2 only)
The Expanse (Amazon)
Bosch (Amazon)
Billions (Showtime)
Letterkenny (Hulu) (Seasons 1-4 only; I bailed eventually)
Killing Eve (Hulu) (Season 1 only)
Bonusfamiljen (Netflix)

Stuff That Was OK:
Stumptown (ABC/Hulu) (stopped watching when I let my Hulu subscription lapse)
Evil (CBS)

Stuff I Fucking Hated:
Succession (HBO)

oh yeah Bosch is tight, but i still haven't watched past S3.

i'm limited by my Amazon/Netflix/HBOGO access. i sometimes try to catch up to shows much later if they arrive on one of those options.

Are there more than 20 of you who would like to do a 2019 TV poll?

― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Monday, December 2, 2019 4:45 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

i would definitely be down, gonna need to jog my memory about what i actually did watch this year

me too

id do

what the hell is Ramy

Oh, Ramy is fucking hilarious.

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

i am down for a poll!

I'd definitely vote in a poll

Looking forward to the new Expanse next week to provide some relief on the day the UK likely shoots itself in the head

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DemM7UGmIg

^ interesting for the periods where it changes a lot, and for the periods where it doesn't change.

also has a few things that didn't really make it to uk.

i had to look up a bunch of these. I had no clue what NCIS, Cold Case or Chasing Amy are.

Judging Amy.

first ep of Goliath S3 is tremendous

lmao I chronicled this earlier but I thought it was so bad it made me quit the show on the spot

oh man i loved it. quaid so deliciously evil. they've always had these cartoonishly malevolent villains.

and... ileana douglas!!!! this show has always had such incredible women in it.

"looks like the nut business is swingin..."

There's so much about this that reminds me of Breaking Bad. The southwest desert locations, the inventive camerawork, the mile-wide surreal streak, the cartoonish villains, the selfishness and venality, the beating pulpy noir heart. It's got better/stronger/more interesting women in it. I guess the big difference is that it's good guys/bad guys rather than a 'conflicted' lead and I have to say it's fucking refreshing. I love Billy Bob so much. 'I'm going to sue your ass in Blackwood County, you bet your ass I will'. GO OFF KING

mrs fletcher is good, the porn stuff is a lil reductive but otherwise all the characters are really strong in their own way imo idk im digging it a lot

okay, let's do this.
Best TV/Web/Streaming Series of 2019 - Poll Nominations Closing January 5

using a Showtime trial and I’m getting into On Becoming a God in Central Florida

not everything is clicking for me a couple episodes in, but the deeply cynical turn that happens early in the series is amazing and Kirsten Dunst is killing it

Started the end of the fucking world.

I don’t know. Why would he want to kill this girl who likes him?

Obvs thats kind of a dumb question. But he seems less plausible psychologically than the girl. Her performance is honestly quite good.

Work in Progress on Showtime's first episode was really good. Like really really good! I'm kind of excited by how good it is out the gate.

they should probably change the title

probably; it appears to refer to the hero's journey but it comes off sounding confused.
it's very sharp.

Just started the BBC 2 show "Mum"
Expect I'll knock out all three seasons before Monday.
Why didn't anyone tell me about this? It's very well written and beautifully acted; perfect domestic dramedy theater.

oh and the second episode of work in progress cements it as a wonder for me; love what it's doing in every way.

(or is Mum considered uncool in the uk for some reason)

I haven't seen Mum but it's on my list. Annoyingly the pan-BBC search that powers iPlayer won't find it so i have to use the A-Z listing.

Tonight I watched the first episodes of both Shrill and Work in Progress and both were fucking excellent, and both weirdly had small parts for Julia Sweeney, looking exactly the same in each one.

i knocked out all three seasons of mum pretty quick; if you like Shrill and Work in Progress, you'll love mum

All three are great!

I can't be bothered to google, so what's Work In Progress, and where can I watch Shrill?

Work in Progress is a dark comedy on Showtime:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ai8TD3aFn8M

Shrill is on Hulu