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

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

NXIVM (/ˈnɛksiəm/) was an American sex cult that engaged in sex trafficking while claiming to be a multi-level marketing company. Based in Clifton Park, New York, a suburb of Albany, the group claimed to offer personal and professional development seminars through its "Executive Success Programs" of large-group awareness training.The company has been widely described as a cult,and was shown in court to have been a recruiting platform for a secret society called "DOS" in which women were branded and forced into sexual slavery.

https://i.imgur.com/k4eDKeX.jpg
#72 (Tie) - Seduced: Inside the NXIVM Cult (Starz) - 15 points, 2 votes, 1 top 5 vote
NB: Top Starz
❀ the cult of: ➥motivational speakers ➥life coaches ➥personal growth gurus ➥new-age charlatans ➥AWESOMENESS FEST

Trailer
Website
https://www.vulture.com/article/nxivm-docuseries-the-vow-seduced-uncover.html
https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/nxivm-keith-raniere-wellness-scam-sex-cult-848439/
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/27/nyregion/nxivm-cult-keith-raniere-sentenced.html

Thank you for the compliments upthread!

With baby and all that jazz I'm sorry to say that my time watching tv - even with the lockdown - was very low this year, so I didn't vote but this poll will surely serve me as a guide to catch up!

Death to strategic or challops voters

https://media3.giphy.com/media/3zpHYzhLV3ZzW/giphy.gif

https://i.imgur.com/c4iNJcI.jpg
#72 (Tie) - Oxventure Dungeons and Dragons! (YouTube) - 15 points, 2 votes, 1 top 5 vote
The incredible austerity of D&D in 1980
should i start playing D&D

Sample Clip
Website
https://www.theguardian.com/games/2019/nov/29/gamers-back-under-dungeons-and-dragons-spell

i made it about halfway through the nxiivm thing. i thought it was only gonna be 4 episodes which seemed about perfect but it just. did. not. end.

and another network made another doc about it too yikes.

fun art by moka

Though he came to acclaim as the co-creator of the seminal animated shows Dr. Katz and Home Movies, Loren Bouchard’s most undeniably successful work is the cartoon family comedy Bob’s Burgers. In 2020, BB notched its tenth and eleventh seasons and 200th episode.

https://i.imgur.com/5Vh9hhT.jpg
#71 - Bob’s Burgers (FX) - 15 points, 3 votes
Bob's Burgers

Comicon Talk
Sample Clip
Website
https://www.indiewire.com/2020/11/bobs-burgers-characters-watch-episode-200-1234597901/

also available on Hulu

I really should get around to watching more than a few episodes of BB at some point since Home Movies is an all-time classic.

I wonder if they would've made it to 200 episodes if they'd stuck with the original premise of a family of burger-slinging cannibals.

Not quite a website and not quite a streaming program, Jon Bois' 20020 represents something unique on our countdown: it’s the sole instance of (sort of?) interactive fiction that we voted in.

https://i.imgur.com/S35OA2t.jpg
#70 - 20020 (SB Nation) - 16 points, 2 votes, 1 top 5 vote

Website
https://www.sbnation.com/secret-base/21557878/20020-questions-and-answers
https://www.wired.com/story/20020-online-fiction-football/
https://www.dailyprincetonian.com/article/2020/11/review-17776-20020-jon-bois-futuristic-football-speculative-fiction

(on retrospect, i don't know that IF is as accurate a term to use here as "multimedia fiction" is, but I'd need someone who read the piece to confirm.)

OK

1. Why was I the only one to vote for She-Ra when I didn't even nominate it, HMMMM???? Famously I loved the last season despite being entirely indifferent to the everything that came before it -- the emotional payoff of my favorite character (also their haircut) turned me around completely on the series.

2. Who was the other Oxventure voter?! The campaign where they help their paladin through a series of trials is hilarious, if only for "Charismatic Cheat Friends".

Comedy rapper Lil Dicky parlayed his celebrity, skills and connections for a starring role in an FX niche signature specialty: the overly-personal, half-hour bio-comedy with elements of magical realism.

https://i.imgur.com/vL8vY3V.jpg
#69 - Dave (FX) - 16 points, 3 votes, 1 top 5 vote
Your Ten Favorite Shows Currently on Television

Trailer
Sample Clip
Sway in the Morning
Website
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/on-television/the-vulgarity-and-vulnerability-of-dave
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/02/arts/television/dave-lil-dicky.html
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/may/26/lil-dicky-dave-burd-interview-sitcom-jewish-rapper

Sorry ILX, but I am never gonna watch a show starring Lil Dicky

your loss

everyone keeps telling me that it's a good show but yeah it's hard to get past the lil dicky of it all

the linked sway in the morning freestyle prob shouldve placed in 77 top tracks list (2019) also imo

Next up is the eighth official television spin-off of the Star Trek universe (The Orville notwithstanding) and the second to spotlight the beloved Next Generation Captain Jean-Luc Picard.

https://i.imgur.com/nL8lL1q.jpg
#68 - Star Trek: Picard (CBS All Access) - 18 points, 2 votes, 1 top 5 vote
NB: Top CBS All Access
Star Trek: Picard
There's a guy in my office wearing a Jean-Luc Picard Tie. What action should I take?

Trailer
Sample Clip
Website
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/23/arts/television/star-trek-picard-review.html

20020 was my #2. Unbelievable storytelling and synthesis of fact and speculative fiction. Boot it up on your phone and get scrolling. Jon Bois is the best

I'd call it less interactive fiction than...like...a website that's also...a story? That you scroll through at your own speed?

With video bits and visualisations?

Uh, I'm pretty certain that the Jon Bois thing has been on my 'read this when you've got a spare day' list for, like, multiple years?

Oh okay, never mind, it's the sequel to that, sorry.

I really should get around to watching more than a few episodes of BB at some point since Home Movies is an all-time classic.

Bob's Burgers is one of those shows that's never not enjoyable but also never really feels compulsory. My own feeling is that there's a vital spark in Dr. Katz and Home Movies which isn't really there. But maybe it's just that there's a shtick to Bouchard's work that I'm now on my third time seeing. Certainly the performances in BB are great.

I mean, just from my cursory viewing of BB it seems to be lacking the 'funny people just loosely riffing in the recording booth' vibe of the former two, but I could be wrong.

Ethan Hawke on reading The Good Lord Bird:

The magic trick that author James McBride does by telling the story through 14-year-old Onion's point of view is he lets you laugh about it. He writes the humanness into it, as opposed to kind of a political angle. It's not self-serious, and yet it's full of tremendous heart. ... McBride finds a way to make it a healing experience to look at systematic racism, the wit of his writing is so compelling. And so when I finished it, I just felt hellbent on a mission that getting this story into our culture so that it's easier to talk about some of these things.

https://i.imgur.com/V8KiBnW.jpg
#67 - The Good Lord Bird (HBO) - 18 points, 2 votes, 1 #1 vote, 1 top 5 vote
ethan hawke is john brown and daveed diggs is frederick douglass in the showtime miniseries THE GOOD LORD BIRD

Trailer
Sample Clip
Website
Desus and Mero Interview
https://time.com/5895308/good-lord-bird-showtime-review/

Our second back-to-back book-to-prestige-TV-miniseries adaptation is a too-of-the-moment alt-history Philip Roth novel imagining what 1940’s America would have become if Charles Lindbergh became president. Spoiler: it's fascist.

https://i.imgur.com/p3MirEE.jpg
#65 (Tie) - The Plot Against America (HBO) - 18 points, 3 votes
Philip Roth - Where to begin?
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
Tuturro, Ryder and Boyle discuss antisemitism and eugenics
Website
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2020/03/plot-against-america-hbo-review

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!