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

Reading through last year's results just now made me feel a weird sort of breathtaking dread. It doesn't seem possible that some of those shows that I watched an entire lifetime ago (during the Normal Times) were actually only released in 2019. Really underscores how different my sense of time's passage was pre-pandemic.

Thank you both again for your efforts!

from last year's thread:

One more brief point before we start that we might as well call “the sic rule.” As your author is American, the listed provenance and linked website for each show is predominantly going to be for its streaming home in the United States, even when the show hails from elsewhere. Readers are strongly encouraged to provide links for their own local streaming options so that everyone can keep up.

Illegal

deets darra

I pay a fella who provided a login to an app that has all prime, netflix, disney content as well as all tv channels you could name, pay per view sports and premium sports channels

Also thousands of series boxsets and movies besides

Limetorrent anything else

Should i even admit that

BRB, asking Modest Mickey for u

fwiw i pay for a bevy of services and supplement the obscure and predominantly European/Asian/otherwise inaccessible programming with BtN which a lovely benefactor on ILX gifted me with and THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

I, for one, just submitted a ballot of 25 Quibi shows

opted out this time in remembrance of the only good tv show, lodge 49

Should i even admit that

Lookit, we pay for six different streaming services, PLUS we rent things full price from Curzon, PLUS we pay for a premiums Sky package, but if all of these services are not going to get me First Cow in a timely manner, well...

Also, thank you, Forks and Moka. This is an amazing amount of work to do.

I, for one, just submitted a ballot of 25 Quibi shows

a real quibhead wld have called them "25 quick bites." fake geek girl.

I was initially roped in by "We Are Who We Are"s insouciance, weirdness and joie de vivre but somewhere around the fourth episode it devolved into a vague and personal fantasy of representation and unmoored eroticism. The narrative lines got frayed and the story got muddled and some of the choices felt wrong, both logically and emotionally. The kids remained fun to watch but all the adult storylines and acting got worse and worse, especially kid cudi.

Anyways, for folks that don't know it: We Are Who We Are is the story of a group of teenage kids brought to a US base in Italy by their military families around 2015. It follows the kids attempts to engage their identities: as sexual beings, struggling for gender identification, building political and intellectual personae. Simultaneously, the adults struggle with similar issues, occasionally crossing into the kids' worlds. At heart, it's an unconventional and occasionally very queer young adult soap opera directed by Luca Guadagnino, best known for his Oscar-nominated film Call Me By Your Name, which also features a May/September love affair.

https://i.imgur.com/nYFlxCl.jpg
#77 (Tie) - We Are Who We Are (HBO) - 15 points, 1 vote, 1 #1 vote, 1 top 5 vote
Let us Anticipate "Call Me By Your Name"

Trailer
Sample Clip
Cast Zoom
Fanfic
Website
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/10/05/the-search-for-kindred-spirits-in-we-are-who-we-are-on-hbo
https://www.indiewire.com/2020/11/luca-guadagnino-we-are-who-we-are-season-2-election-2020-1234596312/

What a shambles

one vote eh

As a former military brat, I was vaguely interested in this show but given that I was basically the only teenager during the stretch when we lived on a military base I'm not sure how acutely it would speak to my experience of reading comic books alone in my bedroom.

it's a very social show, heavy on sex, depression and borderline personalities. it's also - as noted - a bit of a mess.

All of our 77s are tied with a single vote... but every single vote was a #1 vote! So people should definitely defend their choices!

Personally, having seen the entirety of WAWWA (or as it likes to style itself in its own credits, "WRWWR"), I can't really recommend this show to an adult viewer as the plot eventually flies completely off the rails. As prurient and abusive as it is, I think the intended audience is Euphoria teens.

nice graphics Moka. I caught an episode of We R who we R accidentally while channel surfing not realising it was the final one, and then realised I didn't need to watch anymore. I do like Guadagnino though so might give it another chance.

Originally based on a superhero comic series by My Chemical Romance co-founder (and current DC Comics writer/editor) Gerard Way and artist Gabriel Ba, “The Umbrella Academy” is a culty, dark genre dramedy following the misadventures of a large family of supes. It has roots in the slightly off-kilter family dynamics and surreal plots of Grant Morrison’s Doom Patrol, which provided the main bones for the television show “Doom Patrol.” Pop will eat itself.

https://i.imgur.com/U9Q0fJD.jpg
#77 (Tie) - The Umbrella Academy (Netflix) - 15 points, 1 vote, 1 #1 vote, 1 top 5 vote
Netflix's Umbrella Academy, adapted by Steve Blackman from a comic book written by Gerald Way and drawn by Gabriel Bá

Trailer
Sample Clip
Website
https://www.vulture.com/2020/07/the-umbrella-academy-season-2-takes-a-trip-to-nonsenseville.html
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/umbrella-academy-review-1304947

images are beautiful as always, moka

umbrella academy felt like a decent bit of low-stakes popcorn entertainment in the first season, my interest in seriously waned as it went along. i didn't watch the second, but i'm happy to hear compelling reasons why i should.

i know a lot of people seemed pretty passionate about it (or at least annoyed that it wasn't officially nominated) in the voting thread

She-Ra originated in the mid-80’s as a fantasy fighting toy line and supporting cartoon series that gender-flipped the phenomenally popular He-Man and the Masters of the Universe line; both series feature prominently in the excellent season 1 documentary episode of Netflix’s Toys That Made Us if you’d like to learn more.

Indie comics creator wunderkind Noelle Stevenson helmed the 2018 reboot of She-Ra as a teen-friendly, non-gender hierarchical and explicitly queer rethinking of the character that’s lasted for five seasons and ended this year.

https://i.imgur.com/SyScRbc.jpg
#77 (Tie) - She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (Netflix) - 15 points, 1 vote, 1 #1 vote, 1 top 5 vote
There doesn't seem to be a dedicated thread for Netflix's She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (SPOILERS!)

Trailer
Catradora
Website
https://www.rollingstone.com/tv/tv-features/she-ra-reboot-netflix-queer-creator-interview-1013623/
https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/how-noelle-stevenson-drew-her-life-in-comics
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netflix_and_LGBTQ_representation_in_animation#She-Ra_and_the_Princesses_of_Power

amazing graphics and documentation for each of the picks. thanks forks & moka. looking forward to the rollout.

Followers is a Netflix developed J-drama soap opera that uses social media as a central fulcrum for the plot… and that’s all I know about it! Perhaps the person who voted for it can say more?

https://i.imgur.com/9mjRddx.jpg
#77 (Tie) - Followers (Netflix) - 15 points, 1 vote, 1 #1 vote, 1 top 5 vote
Netflix Watch Instantly Recommendation Thread

Trailer
Website
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2020/02/27/tv/followers-tokyo-netflix/

Umbrella Academy is definitely one I would have voted for if it had been on the nominations list. Second season was an improvement on the patchy first one.

beautiful work, Moka

didn’t vote for it cause it wasn’t nominated originally but umbrella academy’s second season was much, much better than its first. would’ve ended up somewhere in the upper middle of my ballot I reckon

xpost or er what groovypanda said

it should be noted that votes for shows that weren't nominated - as long as they premiered three or more new episodes in 2020 - were accepted in the spirit of full inclusion.

Umbrella Academy is definitely one I would have voted for if it had been on the nominations list. Second season was an improvement on the patchy first one.

Yeah, second season had less emo origin story stuff and a lot more forward motion as a story. In our house we affectionately call it Fisher-Price Watchmen.

This was my (admittedly strategic) #1. It’s a difficult and frustrating show to recommend in some ways because it features some of the best writing and acting on television, is deeply emotionally engaging, remarkably uplifting and equally enjoyable watching for a six year old or a sixty year old... but the first two seasons include over a hundred seven-minute episodes about a group of animated dogs that are only available on Disney+. There’s understandably serious barriers to engagement but I promise you they are worth overcoming. If Bluey was on Netflix, I guarantee it would have rated in this year's top ten.

https://i.imgur.com/TO5dvDR.jpg
#77 (Tie) - Bluey (Disney +) - 15 points, 1 vote, 1 #1 vote, 1 top 5 vote
Bluey - Spectacular Australian kids cartoon (in the US on Disney +)

Trailer
Sample Episode
Website
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/on-television/bluey-the-coronavirus-and-the-weirdness-of-little-kids
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/01/arts/television/bluey-cartoon-dog-australia.html
https://geekmom.com/2019/09/12-reasons-why-you-will-love-bluey/
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/nov/21/bluey-how-australia-fell-in-love-with-a-cartoon-blue-heeler-puppy-and-her-family

do want to see that

Videogame Dunkey is a comedy YouTuber focused on video games and game-adjacent culture who produces fairly complex and rigorously produced videos. He recently took a meta heel turn toward the dark side of content and his channel now navigates between creative shitposting and game reviews.

https://i.imgur.com/RQLedlZ.jpg
#72 (Tie) - Videogame Dunkey (YouTube) - 15 points, 2 votes, 1 top 5 vote
game-related lolz of some fashion

Thank You Dark Souls
I’m Done Making Good Videos
Best of 2020
Website
https://www.polygon.com/2020/12/7/22160005/dunkey-youtube-among-us-minecraft-trending

never know how to feel about comparing YT vids and scripted shows on the same list, but dunkey is always solid and his recent cyberpunk video is basically the ur-text on the subject as far as i'm concerned

And now a dark girl-power soap opera dramedy on Netflix about a pair of teens with guns.

https://i.imgur.com/NzPMIzz.jpg
#72 (Tie) - Teenage Bounty Hunters (Netflix) - 15 points, 2 votes, 1 top 5 vote
Netflix Watch Instantly Recommendation Thread

Trailer
Sample Clip
Website
https://deadline.com/2020/10/teenage-bounty-hunters-canceled-netflix-one-season-1234591514

Taskmaster is a panel comedy show hosted by British actor Gregory Davies in which celebrities are tasked with executing unlikely feats of legerdemain as part of a pseudo-reality show. Reggie Watts acted as a host for the single season US adaptation in 2018; 2020 saw its tenth successful season in the UK.

https://i.imgur.com/rIoCDIX.jpg
#72 (Tie) - Taskmaster (Channel 4) - 15 points, 2 votes, 1 top 5 vote
Rolling UK Comedy Thread - "Ricky Don't Lose Larry David's Number

Trailer
Full Episode
Website
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/oct/15/taskmaster-review-a-delightfully-daft-diversion-from-the-world

It looks like I'm the Mayor of the Umbrella Academy? I watched both seasons last year, but even if I'd seen the 1st in 2019, I wouldn't have scored it as highly in that year's poll.

It's an adaptation that thrives the further it gets from the source material - everyone in the first season might as well have nametags that say "I dealt with a profoundly unpleasant upbringing by <fucking off to the moon for 4 years / becoming Batman / destroying trust in the life I created / getting fucked up on literally anything to hand / time-travelling past where I had to deal with it / dying horribly / pushing it ALL DOWN INSIDE>" - no-one's entirely shaken that off in the second season, but it begins by throwing them all far away from each other, and seeing what orbits they fall into when they return. When they first all stand in the same room again, one of them asks "I know this is impossible, did we all get sexier?", and they did*, the actors and the writers both seem more comfortable in the roles - plus they all have better hair*

Oh yeah, what's it about? 20ish years ago, 43 children were born on the same day in exceptional circumstances. One man adopted as many as he could get his hands on (7) and raised them as a superhero team. Things went variously off the rails, and the first season starts with them gathering after his death. The second season involves being stranded in different parts of the 60s, assassinations, (unrelated) tragic Swedish assassins, and the threat to the nuclear family. But, mostly, it's about the emotional moire whenever two of the family are trying to come up with the same solution to the same problem.

*apart from the 50 year old man trapped in a teenage body

This is not entirely representative, but nothing is

https://www.facebook.com/nxonnetflix/videos/593359904876663

Taskmaster seems like the kind of thing I'd profess to avoid but might actually enjoy if I was made to watch it

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!

The 2020 Gummidge episode was the best yet - hope he gets to make the covid-cancelled one, and as many more as he likes (inc zero), when it’s safe to do so.

I built myself a fort and watched the whole season of HTWJW and I suggest everyone else does the same.

Ha, that was fast tangent! Fav ep?

Oh god I couldn't even say. Every episode has so many highlights! Baby, the refs' dinner, the 'designed' scaffolding... The visual poetry is amongst some of the best I've ever seen. Really hope he gets to make more. :)

it's renewed for the second season and was pretty rapturously critically reviewed; i think he gets to do this for awhile.

Hooray! Next for catch-up viewing: I May Destroy You.

you... might wanna pace that one a bit. It may destroy you.

Started Dead to Me on my sister/brother-in-law's recommendation, not realizing at the time it placed here. First two episodes, so-so.

watched most of the mariners youtube thing, its good; wouldve been downballot somewhere for me

you... might wanna pace that one a bit. It may destroy you.

Oh god...don't know if I'm ready. Currently watching It's a Sin and I can barely handle it.

Mariners and Dead To Me both very much on my ballot. Speaking of which, hang on...

Sex Education (Netflix)
All Gas No Brakes (YouTube)
Dead to Me (Netflix)
What We Do in Shadows (FX)
GeoWizard Missions (Youtube)
AEW Dynamite (TBS)
Tiger King (Netflix)
The History of the Seattle Mariners (Youtube)
I Did a Thing (Youtube)
Fairbairn Films (Youtube)
Never Have I Ever (Netflix)
Bojack Horseman (Netflix)
Corporate (Comedy Central)
Work in Progress (Showtime)
The Eric Andre Show (Adult Swim)
The Dress Up Gang (TBS)
The Queen’s Gambit (Netflix)
We Are the Champions (Netflix)
Emily in Paris (Netflix)
PEN15 (Hulu)
Love Life (HBO)
The Great British Bake-Off (Netflix, Channel 4)

I've started watching History of the Mariners. The bit early on where they say "who cares, baseball is boring" got me laughing out loud. So did the team's brilliant scheme of resizing the batter's box.

Just finished HTWJW myself. Ah man. Incredible

cough cough where are you watching it?

i can think of 'one two three' places you can see 'movies'

The finale murdered me but I think the refs' dinner is the Oscar pick sequence

Glad everyone is loving HTWJW. I watched it just after voting and it definitely would have been very high on my ballot otherwise. The background shots throughout are just wonderful and the celebrity cameo in the first episode was amazing, especially as it's not even referenced and I was left wondering whether he even realised until later who it was

cough cough where are you watching it?

It's coming to Sky Atlantic in the not too distant future

We cough coughed the first episode to check it out, and it really was quite something. I'm not sure the husband will be into it. He does not like uncomfortable comedy.

We also found ourselves watching twenty minutes of Congo last night on Film 4 just because they talked about it in The Dress Up Gang.

I was doing a mental inventory last night of all the shows where I'm waiting for new seasons:

Better Call Saul - first on most lists, I suspect.
Big Little Lies - think there's another one on the way.
Atlanta - caught up in time.
Ozark - one more, then call it a day, please.
Stranger Things - I'll watch because I'm come this far; not excited.
Killing Eve - ditto.
True Detective and Homecoming - in development, I believe.
Dead to Me and Flack - indifferent, but I'd continue.

You all are the best for alerting me to the existence of the Dress-Up Gang. I am not much of a comedy watcher nowadays but I could watch 10 seasons of that show and hope somehow they can produce more of it (I know it was a minor miracle the show even aired)

Also, I May Destroy You was as good as 10 #1 votes suggests

Thanks to ILX for getting me to watch Giri/Haji, which was fucking amazing!