Top 77 Television and Streaming Video Series of 2019

Aww, forgot to vote for it (I skipped the yt list in noms), but yes, I enjoyed that h/t lj

His recently concluded mission across Europe might be even better btw

I keep meaning to watch this Wales thing because people keep saying it's amazing and I can't quite fathom how it could be amazing

The first few eps of this were good but my interest level waned after that.

https://i.imgur.com/XlNAuBy.jpg
#73 - Jessica Jones (Netflix) - 20 points, 3 votes

Marvel's Jessica Jones

Jessica Jones on Netflix

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DBKS2qH51I

booooooooooo

xp If the opening theme music doesn't get you maybe don't bother. It will though. And then twenty minutes later you'll watch a man with a Go Pro using a broken bridge to cross a torrent, with nothing but sheep fields on all sides, as he narrates his own plight

watched and enjoyed season 1 but never felt compelled to go back for 2 + 3.

I would like to think the Marvel TV experiment crashed and burned so badly because the series were all so obviously mediocre and poorly paced, but I'm sure it had more to do with the Disney takeover / launch of Disney+.

Ainori is amazing for (amongst many other things) showing all the grittier seams of the production of a romantic reality TV show. Invariably the production crew are dragged into episodes and the whole thing has this slightly lurid manic insomnia offset against genuinely eye-opening documentary about harrowing topics from around the globe. One part of Ainori: Asian Journey sees the seven romantic hopefuls participating in performing operations on children in a hospital without power.

Apologies in advance btw - tt and I will probably be responsible for quite a lot of the content today. We shall return to our scheduled suggested programming tomorrow!

Tom’s paranoiac outbursts about phantom farmers in Mission Across Wales really made the whole series for me. The absurdity and difficulty of the challenge makes an already interesting reflection on the Welsh countryside genuinely tense and hilarious.

So was JJ season 3 improvement on season 2? I thought 1 was good but too long, 2 was meh and too long, haven't had much incentive to watch 3.

xxp lol, i had almost posted a snarky "one couple has gamed the bottom end of the poll" comment but opted for the better part of valor

And yeah, quite (xps). This Ainori season is the first time I've seen Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan etc) portrayed with any degree of depth...in anything, really. As a bunch of wonderful Japanese losers are being pried to fall for each other

JJ season 3 was all right, definitely an improvement on season 2. Didn't vote for it, but 73 is probably an appropriate placement.

Gutted I forgot to vote for Geowizard

https://i.imgur.com/TmLntrs.jpg
#72 - The Witcher (Netflix) - 20 points, 4 votes

The Witcher on Netflix: more like Dork Three Jackdaws

The Witcher on Netflix

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndl1W4ltcmg

(final post about Ainori I swear) the current season is doing similarly wonderful things in East Africa - they are game for any experience, any complicated historical message, anyone's house if they take a shine to them. nothing is sanitised (literally)

glad i decided to vote, since one of mine was for Too Old To Die Young. I posted these on the relevant threads:

I'm five episodes in now and I think it's really strong. the manner in which the five leads are all operating in vv different ways on paths of revenge for those who have been wronged is pretty interesting and the whole series being specifically from the very first scene about the violent effects of broken and/or evil men is pretty timely to say the least.
I saw someone online refer to episode 2 as basically Tarkovsky doing "Narcos" and that seems pretty otm, i mean obv not Tarkovsky-level but miles better than any of the bullshit in Narcos. Points to the show for clearly being super contemptuous of the police dept -- i love the Wolf of Wall Street style of Hart Bochner's homicide squad.

William Baldwin is insane in this. and James Urbaniak's villain in episode 5 was one of the most despicable creations I've seen in a long time. Miles Teller makes for a better blank slate than Ryan Gosling.

― omar little, Thursday, June 27, 2019 12:05 PM (three months ago) bookmarkflaglink

I finished Too Old To Die Young, which for all its promotion may as well have not even existed. I’m still marinating a bit on its themes but as a show that is at least partially devoted to the fascism of the police and features one character whose purpose seems to be visiting unholy vengeance upon men who hurt women, i appreciated it. It was extremely slow in a way that might try the patience of some (I do think the pace was a legitimate artistic choice and it didn’t bother me) and it almost literally lost the plot at the end but it had some incredible moments and I’m amazed that Amazon went anywhere near it. It was very on the nose but also just refreshing in that sense, and another legitimate choice.

― omar little, Friday, August 2, 2019 1:30 PM (two months ago) bookmarkflaglink

you'd imagine it would work well as a bit of prestige for Amazon, too. I recognize that any show being touted as "groundbreaking" needs to prove it, and yet i think it really did some interesting shit. i'm not really a Refn apologist per se but this was the type of programming i would like to see more of on streaming, which should have more room for such experimentation.

I suspect the content was too much for the corporate suits. I mean the extreme anti-cop stuff and the sexual content, i can see some cowards in the board room insisting that they completely ignore its existence. I'm sure they were perfectly cool w/the violence.

― omar little, Friday, August 2, 2019 3:40 PM (two months ago) bookmarkflaglink

i think episodes 5 & 8 were very much peak Refn. i *almost* want to call 5 a masterpiece. it really goes some places.

― omar little, Tuesday, August 6, 2019 1:29 PM (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

There really aren’t too many good pieces on this. Most of the reviews I’ve read have been snarky negative pieces from sub-A.V. club types who don’t seem willing to engage with it on its own terms; lots of “LOL nothing happens, style over substance” opinions which I guess just tells me even more than before the very specific pace at which streaming-era TV is supposed to move allows no room for negotiation and that when a show arrives with some actual fervent opinions about America and violence they don’t even register (not that this hasn’t always been somewhat the case with film and TV, cf ppl taking Starship Troopers at face value etc etc). Anyway this is a very admirable bit of filmmaking, imperfect as it is.

― omar little, Sunday, October 6, 2019 1:40 PM (four months ago) bookmarkflaglink

it really does feel like the first post-The Return series, even if the production timeline almost certainly doesn't allow for that to be true

Xps Sorry, ulysses! We always compile our ballots separately and usually try to engineer them afterwards so they’re a bit less similar. Still, if it means more people end up watching esoteric British YouTube...

Thanks for the Too Old to Die Young write-ups, omar. It sounds genuinely weird - I will have to check it out.

i enjoyed witcher - i don't think it's great television or anything so this is a great spot for it but it's a good guilty pleasure better made than the Xenas and whatever of yesteryore which it gets lots of comparisons to

goes w/o saying that the Cliff Martinez score for TOTDY is outstanding.

tangent: lol, no need to apologize; the whole point was to bring in divergent viewpoints! I was just amused that anyone looking at your ballots would immediately say "well THEY'RE living together..."

https://i.imgur.com/7OnHnbc.jpg
#71 - Infinity Train (Cartoon Network) - 25 points, 2 votes

The New Adventures of ILXor: The Animated Series Poll voting and campaigning thread

Infinity Train on Cartoon Network

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXPZzXeGD6s

there are so many fucking shows

Always on the lookout for new animated shows that are good and not too pandering. What's this like?

i watched two episodes and liked it but got hung up on the glaring and unavoidable fact that it is meant for children and the script reflects that. i may need to retry.

they just wrapped "book 2" btw!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9livZeXARWU

my sneaking suspicion is that I would've been much better off if i had this to watch instead of Silverhawks as a kid but my window of enjoying this stuff is closed until i am watching it with a kid.

I do not particularly like Refn but Amazon tried so hard to bury TOTDY I remain tempted to watch it.

Oh no I just remembered I forgot to vote for the final season of Jane the Virgin! Was it on the list? I hope it shows up.

NARRATOR: But she had forgotten one thing...

https://i.imgur.com/NeYUhjy.jpg
#66 (Tie) - Truthpoint (Adult Swim) - 25 points, 3 votes

OK, which one of you is @BARTSIMSON_REAL?

Truthpoint on Adult Swim

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKUQwgNkc1c

go ahead. keep screaming "Shut The Fuck Up " at me. it only makes my opinions Worse

— wint (@dril) March 10, 2018

Ahaha sorry everyone

This is obviously shit but I absolutely love it. Derek is so damn funny

It's the best sort of fiasco. Well, not the best - Tim and Gregg have that on lockdown - but a worthy pretender. *presses toilet effect button*

here's an equally subtle bookend

https://i.imgur.com/E6VFKUm.jpg
#66 (Tie) - The Boys (Amazon) - 25 points, 3 votes

What's good on Amazon Prime Video

The Boys on Amazon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06rueu_fh30

Derek is an absolute master of improvised weirdo irony. Dril is just... This show is all-out chaos.

Hated this

if i ever am in the mood for brainless, testosterone-fueled ultra-violence, maybe i'll give this a shot.

https://i.imgur.com/zyiZCg0.jpg
#66 (Tie) - Rick and Morty (Adult Swim) - 25 points, 3 votes

i'm mr meeseeks look at me rick and morty thread

Rick and Morty on Hulu

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rw6BrzB1drs

if i ever am in the mood for brainless, testosterone-fueled ultra-violence, maybe i'll give this a shot.

― ooga booga-ing for the bourgeoisie (voodoo chili), Monday, 10 February 2020 17:47 (three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

this was a weird season, didn't vote for it. but it was still funny even when it ventured a bit too far up its own ass.

only the snakes episode lived up to the towering highs of season 3.

a good show whose risible fanbase makes this low slotting feel more deserved than it is

I didn't follow the nominations thread, so I'm curious what the criteria were for this poll. How was "series" defined: anything with multiple episodes? Also, I assume it had to air at least one episode in 2019, but are you voting just for the 2019 episodes or for the series as a whole?

Wow, the concept of Rick and Morty feels like a thing from the past for me, did not know it was still on

As mentioned at the top of the nominations thread: "Any series of three or more episodes qualifies as long as at least one of the series' episodes has premiered somewhere in the world in 2019. Acceptable nominations: YouTube/Twitch streamers with a recognizable episode to episode continuity whether fictional or presentational, webseries, streaming series, cable series, game shows, news shows, animation, talk shows. Not acceptable nominations: sports, concerts, one-off documentaries or films, music videos."

Bearing in mind the quality of prior seasons is admittedly kind of unavoidable but these votes should have been cast in the name of the quality and enjoyability of episodes released in 2019; a vote for Riverdale today is not a vote for season one.

Meant to say, thanks forks and Moka for putting this together.

Will have to check out this Shadows thing then ty

― imago, Saturday, February 15, 2020 6:22 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Jamie Demitriou’s real and on screen sister Natasia is in What we do in the shadows as well and brilliant in both.

I did a bit of complaining about avoiding long rollouts and then completely missed the entire rollout of this :)

Delighted that Russian Doll won. One of the greatest TV experiences of my life.

Can't quite get my head around the idea there'll be another season. Felt the same way about the OA, and while this season of OA was *so* insane and nonsensical that I didn't feel moved to vote for it in this poll, I was all the same glad it existed and glad I watched it.

Genuinely curious to know if the detractors would be more or less put off by The OA based on how the season/series ended.

Too Old To Die Young
Barry
Schitt's Creek
Mindhunter
The Expanse
Fleabag
Kingdom
Glow
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

These were not ranked but I think other than the somewhat spotty S2 of TMMM they all achieved what they set out to do pretty perfectly. If forced to pick a favorite it would be difficult, though Schitt’s Creek is probably the one I’d watch again most readily, and its avoidance of turning towards any darkness is pretty welcome. Also I think the most unexpectedly moved I’ve been this year was everything involving Stevie, cf her stage performance and her reaction to David’s “big news”.

oops and Watchmen as well (id also say that was occasionally spotty but the heights were very high)

Yes, watching both Stevie and David evolve from cynical and low-stakes (although deeply-amusing) partners-in-snark to people pushing through anxiety and fear to discover rich new chapters in their lives has been...hoo boy, emotionally-involving, to be sure.

mine

1. Russian Doll
2. Fleabag
3. Catastrophe
4. Chernobyl
5. Euphoria
6. I Think You Should Leave
7. Sex Education
8. Repair Shop
9. When They See Us
10. Queer Eye

my ballot

I Think You Should Leave
Succession
Lodge 49
Russian Doll
Fleabag
Bojack Horseman
Watchmen
Barry
The Good Place
What We Do In The Shadows
Tuca & Bertie
Catastrophe
Veep
Undone
Legion

My ballot, roughly in order of preference:

Schitt's Creek
Joe Pera Talks to You
The OA
On Cinema at the Cinema
Russian Doll
Doom Patrol
Mindhunter
Mr. Robot
True Detective

My ballot:

1. Perpetual Grace, Ltd.
2. BoJack Horseman
3. Yorkshire Walks
4. On Cinema at the Cinema
5. Fleabag
6. Chernobyl
7. Gentleman Jack
8. Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing
9. This Time With Alan Partridge
10. Years & Years

Thanks so much to the poll-runners, and Moka for the friggin great images! I'm going to have to check out Russian Doll now.

My Ballot:

Money Heist
Dark
Fleabag
Russian Doll
What We Do in the Shadows
The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance
BoJack Horseman
Tuca and Bertie
Mindhunter
Black Spot
Stranger Things
Great British Baking Show

I'm astonished that there were no other votes for my #1, Money Heist. Maybe if it didn't have that stupid title, the original much better title is La Casa de Papel (The House of Paper), as the heist is set in the Royal Mint, where they take the workers hostage in order to print money. Not a grim & gritty gangland heist thing, it's a little bit more of a caper, and we're obviously meant to be on the side of the robbers although they do plenty of questionable things to make it quite morally ambiguous; the performances are great with plenty of strong female roles. So y'know, if you've seen everything else here, check it out.

Thanks to forks & moka!

Joe Pera Talks with You
Fleabag
Watchmen
Desus & Mero
Barry
Chernobyl
Last Week Tonight
Jeopardy!
Pen15
What We Do in the Shadows
Veep
The Mandalorian
Mindhunter
Documentary Now!
Brockmire
Broad City
Good Place

everything I voted for placed so I guess I’m a very simple man. Thanks so much to forks and moka, most enjoyable and joyful poll in recent memory!

xp Really enjoyed the first season of Money Heist but then they started to drag it out too much in S2 and gave up half way through S3 as it was just too ridiculous (even for a show that had already taken ridiculousness to an extremely high level)

yeah i wouldn't go to it for true crime vibes... i often get annoying by ridiculous plot turns in thrillers but i just thought this was lots of fun.

Stath Lets Flats
GeoWizard - Mission Across Wales
On Cinema at the Cinema
Kiwami Japan
Veep
Ainori Love Wagon: Asian Journey S2
BoJack Horseman
Terrace House: Tokyo 2019-2020
I Did a Thing
Truthpoint
Jon Bois/SB Nation - Chart Party
Tantacrul on Music
Contrapoints
You Suck At Cooking
Jreg
It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia
South Park

Sex Education would have probably been my #1 or #2 if I'd seen it a week earlier.

If you like the Youtube stuff I managed to get into this poll, you should check out my unplaced selections. There's some good stuff in there, trust.

South Park included because the first 6 episodes of the recent season were brilliant. Episode 7 was a typically irritating piece of on-purpose disingenuous transphobia to put the PC babies' noses out of joint; consider me triggered enough to have not watched the rest of the season yet. I probably will. For all that they're occasionally revolting, Parker & Stone are operating at their peak around now

a typically irritating piece of on-purpose disingenuous transphobia

uh yeah ... a reminder of why I don't watch South Park.

thanks to this poll, I started watching (lol) the HBO Watchmen ... whoa. I totally see why y'all voted for it.

:(

the show is good / messy in an interesting way -- would have been just as enjoyable (if not more so) if it was not Watchmen-branded

Honorable mention acting award of the year goes to Meryl Streep on Big Little Lies. This season wasn't good enough to nom or vote for, and I'm fairly 'meh' on Streep in general but this was probably my favorite performance of hers. I was incessantly infuriated every time she was onscreen. A supercut of her scenes is highly recommended if you can find one. Also Laura Dern had a whole lot more to do this season and was v v good. If you're looking for high-quality performances in a show that doesn't quite gel or fully satisfy as a show, you could do worse, is what I'm saying here.

heh, that show is set where my family is from, and apparently is fairly "authentic" in terms of personality types, so I have been avoiding it, much the same way that my friends who work in tech don't watch Silicon Valley.

any of you ever watch...

tientsin mystic
couples therapy
are you the one (season 8)?

(xpost) Damn, somehow I missed Big Little Lies, too. S2 wasn't as good as S1, but--mostly because of Streep--it would have been third on my list.

Almost done w Too old to die young. It’s very good... possibly even better than twin peaks... well it makes more sense anyway lol

Discovering Ainori from this poll and it is INCREDIBLE thanks everyone!

watched chernobyl, fuck wildly good; it was written on a scene-to-scene level impeccably

Let the party begin. A new season of Tuca and Bertie is coming to Adult Swim in 2021. @aliwong @TiffanyHaddish @lisadraws pic.twitter.com/dmR9yUaTMz

— adultswim (@adultswim) May 22, 2020

some good news!

Excellent news

v positive

Sad ending to the Terrace House saga, didn't know about this
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/17/arts/television/terrace-house-suicide.html

has been one of the biggest stories in the pro wrestling world this year, which is saying something. she had a very bright future, was one of the first women to perform at the january 4 tokyo dome show, the biggest annual event in japanese wrestling.

the one thing that stuck out to me before 'the truth' came out was how much faith TH fans seemed to have that the show was more authentic, less scripted than american reality TV. like maybe it's presented with more subtlety and ridiculous camera cuts so people assume it's more documentary-like, and general weebishness drives american fans to think japanese products don't lie like the american ones do

i checked in on the TH subreddit a lot after it happened and while there weren't any "she deserved to die" posts there was a massive amount of "[i wasn't the biggest fan of her]/[she was in the wrong in the laundry incident]/[she should've behaved better]... but she didn't deserve the abuse." like it's still reality tv, it's still bullshit, it shouldn't take someone dying for people to learn it's a presentation and shouldn't be taken at face value. dumbass wrestling fans seemed to get that immediately.

*less ridiculous camera cuts, ykwim

*.....fewer

More polls should include a link to the winners at the bottom of the thread so it's easy to find.
Top 77 Television and Streaming Video Series of 2019

it's not the bottom anymore