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

Run that poll! I think I know who'd vote for, but there at least five or six possibilities for me.

"who I'd"

we should appreciate him, his and Moka's efforts are pretty amazing

Aw, thanks! Back today though!

Before we start today, let’s address a side-poll: I asked folks to provide their favorite shows that they watched this past year that were not released in 2020 and we got a bumper crop of options. In fact, there were so many options that there was little overlap: only a handful of shows got two votes and nothing got three, so this became less of a “side-poll” and more of a way to present our broader viewing tastes beyond the current year’s offerings.

Here’s that list with current (mostly US) streaming options. Defend your watching!

The Americans (Amazon), Battlestar Galactica (Peacock), Better Call Saul (Netflix), Borgen (Netflix), Brockmire (2 votes - Hulu), Chernobyl (HBO), Chewing Gum (Netflix), Columbo (Peacock), Country Music (PBS, Hoopla, Kanopy), Detroiters (2 votes - CBS All Access/Paramount, Comedy Central), Documentary Now (Netflix), Don’t Forget the Driver (BBC2), Escape at Dannemora (Showtime), Euphoria (HBO), The Expanse (2 votes – Amazon), Fleabag (Amazon, BBC3), Grand Designs (Netflix), Halt and Catch Fire (Netflix), Happy Endings (Hulu), High Maintenance (HBO), Home (Channel 4), Homecoming (Amazon), I'll Have What Phil's Having (PBS), Killing Eve (Hulu, BBC), King of the Hill (Hulu), Knots Landing, The Last Man on Earth (Hulu), The Leftovers (2 votes, HBO), Lodge 49 (Hulu), Mad Men (AMC), Mickey Mouse (Disney +), Moyashimon (Crunchyroll), Mr. Robot (Amazon), Neon Genesis Evangelion (Netflix), On Cinema at the Cinema (Adult Swim), Patriot (2 votes - Amazon), Polar Bear Café (Crunchyroll), Rectify (Netflix), Skull-Faced Bookseller Honda-San (Crunchyroll), Southside (Comedy Central – Coming soon to HBO), Succession (2 votes – HBO), Summer Camp Island (Cartoon Network, now HBO), Taskmaster (Comedy Central, Channel 4), Terriers (Hulu), The Terror (Hulu), This Time with Alan Partridge (HBO, BBC), Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (HBO), TJ and Dave: The Series (Vimeo), True Detective (HBO), Utopia (Amazon), Wakakozake (Crunchyroll), West Wing (HBO), Why Women Kill (CBS All Access/Paramount)

I asked folks to provide their favorite shows

I read that as "I asked forks..." I thought we maybe had a problem here.

I was one of the two Detroiters votes. Easily as funny and unpredictable as I Think You Should Leave and I wish I had caught on to it sooner. Comedy Central grossly mistreated it (possibly because it cost more than like 2 dollars to make?).

Speaking of slightly abstract comedy shows, ADBOHoF came on corny and overdone on first dosage but it won me over with a skewed sort of chicken fat: the heavy schmaltz of overdoing a joke with a million gags until it collapses under its own silliness. YMMV but anyone who liked I Think You Should Leave or Detroiters and quit this after one episode should maybe try again.
My fave bit remains the Ellen sketch.

https://i.imgur.com/1CprlZW.jpg
#49 - Aunty Donna’s Big Ol’ House of Fun (Netflix) - 26 points, 5 votes
Aunty Donna

Trailer
Sample Clip
Website
https://tv.avclub.com/aunty-donna-s-big-ol-house-of-fun-is-a-pure-dose-of-sk-1845616957

torn about this show

The non-2020 show I discovered in 2020 but stupidly left off my list is actually a show which had a new season in 2020 but which I also stupidly left off the nominations list (but also I still haven't finished the final season so fair enough): The Clone Wars. Good enough to swing me from 'psssh, WGAF about a Star War' after seeing Rise of Stinkwalker to being borderline obsessive about a Star War. It singlehandedly makes the prequel era a compelling and fertile narrative space, which I would've thought next-to-impossible.

The best non-2020 series I saw was Rectify, which was as nearly-perfect a show as I've seen, from beginning to end. Performances, writing, tone...just beautiful, wouldn't change a thing. I wish the preacher from Deadwood would create some more stuff, knowing he had this in him.

the Ellen sketch was good tho yeah

I caught up with Homecoming. S1, good, especially the unique use of appropriated soundtrack music from famous films (The Conversation, All The President's Men, etc.); S2, increasingly farfetched but worth watching. I should have added Modern Family to my catch-up list--liked it pretty much from start to finish.

anyone who liked I Think You Should Leave or Detroiters and quit this after one episode should maybe try again

hmm this is exactly me

When these guys (Aunty Donna) are on, it's some of the funniest shit I've seen in my life, but I feel like the quality is hit and miss

like, completely in my wheelhouse in theory, but also...not the highest hit-rate

they did collabs with two of my favourite Youtuber gangs (both of whom I voted for) - Fairbairn Films and I did a thing - both of which are funnier than them imo. Aussie Youtube is the best

(I mean that the gangs are funnier, not the collabs)

I was wondering who was enjoying Rectify for the first time xps

I also have just watched all of Clone Wars with my son and am now rewatching The Mandalorian with him (I watched it last year he didn't) and he absolutely lost his shit when [ REDACTED ] turned up in an episode in Season 2

glad to see a couple people dove into the leftovers during the most leftoverian time to discover the most needs-to-be-watched show of the last decade or so

during the most leftoverian time

I rewatched S1 in the first few weeks of the pandemic--totally.

Who would've imagined in 1993 that the lead voice on the Tommy Boy novelty hit Supermodel was anything more than a one-hit-wonder? Instead that track serves as the first apex of a now 40+ year career of international stardom that's sparked the greater mainstream acceptance of drag as genre.

https://i.imgur.com/z9VmqMN.jpg
#48 - RuPaul’s Drag Race (VH1) - 27 points, 5 votes, 1 top 5 vote
NB: Top VH1
'...and DON'T *bleep* IT UP!' -- the RuPaul's Drag Race thread
Shante, You Stay! Polling The Greatest 'RuPaul's Drag Race' Queens

Trailer
Sample Clip
Website
https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-52576336
https://www.vulture.com/tv/rupaul-s-drag-race/

binging succession twice in a row in the early days of the pandemic became my prayer to the world returning and not returning: wow this sucks, I’m afraid of outside, all I can do is sit and stare at this most garbage version of the elites of the world which maybe when all this is done we may grapple with somehow, surely this is it for folks like this, surely we will come together! As usual: very wrong about that! But the show is so funny!

5 votes eh?

After nearly eight years with The Guy, I’m deeply sad to see High Maintenance close shop, especially as well suited as it was to address the stressors of COVID NYC life. That said, Sinclair and Blichfeld have earned the opportunity to create new solo work. I’m excited to see what they do from here.

https://i.imgur.com/xSzAKos.jpg
#47 - High Maintenance (HBO) - 28 points, 4 votes, 1 top 5 vote
High Maintenance - Very good web-series. Discuss.

Trailer
Sinclair and Blichfeld Interview
Set Tour
Website
https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2020/02/high-maintenance-deeply-ethical-season-4/606427/
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/high-maintenance
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/30/magazine/new-york-tv.html

Thanks for the sidelist forks im v much a "still catching up on stuff from the nineties" typa guy

Since my ballot was only 3 items long, that top 5 vote musta been me.

Oh the rest of my own sidelist:

-King of the Hill (which I did sorta watch when it first aired but only because it was on between shows I paid full attention to and so I was denied its subtle, heartwarmingly-hilarious brilliance for twenty years)
-Knots Landing (started cranking through Dallas again in the midst of lockdown doldrums and thought I should simultaneously sample its companion, which I discovered to be a much better show and downright underrated for something that ran for fourteen goddamn seasons)
-Columbo (yes, I really did only see this for the first time in 2020 after finally finishing Rockford Files and looking for something similar to fill the hole, but although it's not actually all that similar I am now in love with it and with Falk on their own merits)
-The West Wing (am now a staunch neolib, come at me bro)

I didn’t do a sidelist, but watched and loved in 2020:

Hannibal
Rome (rewatch)
Channel Zero

I’m sure there were more. I loved Hannibal the most and wrote about it in a bit in the thread on here.

TBRR one of the primary criteria for pre-2020 tv watching in the past year has been 'does this series have a ludicrously-high episode count sufficient to carry me through until the goddamn plague has lifted?'

kept myself mostly busy with new shows and video games, so the one old show i watched during quarantine was the glorious halt and catch fire. i also watched a few old seasons of survivor.

As someone outside looking in (to Borough Park even) I certainly wouldn’t mind hearing from our own Jewish and orthodox-adjacent ILX community on how this show was received and experienced.

https://i.imgur.com/s6Ee4Jm.jpg
#45 (Tie) - Unorthodox (Netflix) - 28 points, 4 votes, 2 top 5 votes
HEY JEWS
Netflix Watch Instantly Recommendation Thread

Trailer
Sample Clip
Making Of
Website
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/on-television/unorthodox-reviewed-a-young-womans-remarkable-flight-from-hasidic-williamsburg
https://www.indiewire.com/2020/03/unorthodox-review-netflix-shira-haas-1202220615/

Surprised that this became the breakout surreal salaryman anime du jour for America but I guess you should never underestimate the power of Netflix.

https://i.imgur.com/TJrq6Uy.jpg
#45 (Tie) - Aggretsuko (Netflix) - 28 points, 4 votes, 2 top 5 votes
Netflix Watch Instantly Recommendation Thread

Trailer
Sample Clip
Website
https://www.polygon.com/entertainment/2020/9/1/21417399/aggretsuko-season-3-review-spoilers
https://recommendmeanime.com/anime-series-like-aggretsuko/

Unorthodox was in my Top 5 - I was expecting it to be a lot higher.

xp I also loved Rectify but didn't have room for it on my side ballot! Or for Justified! Or for Undone! For all of 2020's faults, it was probably the best tv-watching year of my life, discovered so many incredible shows

Ha I didn't think Aggretsuko would place. The third season took this show much further outside the bounds of Sanrio workplace animated sitcom, and I mostly liked where it went

i watched unorthodox, but i felt like it was a little slight. it was an interesting window into those hasidic communities, but besides the portrayal of the husband, it felt a bit surface level.

I need to catch up with Aggretsuko, I really liked the first two series I watched

I have gone back and forth on this show a half dozen times and I think I am back again to “it’s good, if a little exhausting sometimes.”

https://i.imgur.com/776jmJD.jpg
#44 - Last Week Tonight (HBO) - 29 points, 6 votes
Hello, buglers! John Oliver has a weekly show, "Last Week Tonight"

Pre-COVID Trailer
Sample Clip
Website
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2020/11/john-oliver-last-week-tonight-2020-finale

it was good this year. danbury, ct is indeed a shithole.

wish I'd voted Jreg now

The secret Szechuan Sauce dried up a bit on this show as the creators got badly distracted with new opportunities but it remained (mostly) watchable to me.

https://i.imgur.com/d9FsAMK.jpg
#43 - Rick and Morty (Adult Swim) - 29 points, 8 votes
NB: Top Adult Swim
i'm mr meeseeks look at me rick and morty thread

Trailer
Sample Clips
Selling Shit Ironically but Seriously, We’re Selling Shit Here
Website
https://www.ign.com/articles/rick-and-morty-season-4-review

I know I should like Last Week Tonight, it's objectively well-made and it has covered really important political topics that get underplayed in traditional news, but I just find the guy off-putting for some reason, I guess my stance is I'm glad a lot of other people watch it

didn't vote for this season of r&m, but i dug "the vat of acid episode"