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

The Great is still rolling out weekly on UK Channel 4 right now, so we’re only about halfway through, but I already loved it enough to vote for it. Like Bridgerton, it’s a “costume drama for people who don’t like costume dramas”, but unlike Bridgerton, it’s good.

Bridgerton is good and underappreciated on this board. I should have voted for it.

This thread moves too fast for me.

Okay, I’m gonna need a UK ILXor explainer for this one.

The thing about Mortimer and Whitehouse is that they both have bad hearts. Bob Mortimer had open heart surgery - he almost died - and Paul Whitehouse had less serious surgery, but they have both faced down their mortality and decided that the thing to do is go fishing and hang out with each other and talk about fishing and death in absolutely beautiful surroundings. Also, Bob falls over. And there's sometimes a dog.

Theyre also messers, very gentle and kind messers, i love them both

Whitehouse in particular just always strikes me as a huge soul

And... awaaaay.

that one looks enticing.

there's too much stuff to be able to watch it all

You gotta be ruthless

Finished the outsider tonight.

Not perfect but slick and performances were good and adults need their own stranger things sometimes

Lol catching up with all the shows. We just started Beforeigners. Ep1 - excellent start. Imagine it will show up sometime on the rollout

And between Beforeigners and Lupin, have convinced our teenagers that subtitles are acceptable... opens up the world.

thanks for the additional context, trishy

Abby McEnany’s Work in Progress - a comedy about a self-described suicidally depressed butch lesbian who falls in love with a trans-man half her age - was one of the more overlooked gems of 2020. No surprise: it came out at the start of the year, it’s stuck in the less-accessible-to-most Showtime ghetto, it stars mostly unknown actors (with some great strategic cameos) and the combination of OCD behavior-gender fluidity-suicide themes likely scared many folks off. It is a revelation nonetheless; deeply human and caring, willing to explore taboo subjects without preface, effortlessly inclusive, genuinely funny and remarkably well acted.

https://i.imgur.com/2wfbfDk.jpeg
#32 - Work in Progress (Showtime) - 41 points, 5 votes, 1 #1 vote, 2 top 5 votes
NB: Top Showtime
Your Ten Favorite Shows Currently on Television

Trailer
Sample Clip
Website
https://www.indiewire.com/2020/01/work-in-progress-abby-mcenany-interview-showtime-lesbian-lgbt-1202206057/
https://deadline.com/2020/01/work-in-progress-renewed-season-2-showtime-abby-mcenany-1202828565/

I punched out on Killing Eve two episodes into season two when Waller-Bridge took off and the sense that the train had come off the tracks became undeniable. Question for the seven fans who still count this among their favorites: what is keeping you on board?

https://i.imgur.com/EAdNksK.jpg
#30 (Tie) - Killing Eve (BBC America / BBC) - 41 points, 7 votes, 1 top 5 vote
These Drinks Is Vicious: The Killing Eve Thread

Trailer
Sample Clip
Website UK
Website US
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/10/arts/television/killing-eve-review.html
https://variety.com/2020/tv/columns/killing-eve-season-3-finale-review-1234622222/

feel like this show is gonna be in the 'worst show you stuck with to the bitter end' thread in future years. s2 was p bad and this was even worse imo. also old man shouting at clouds but by god it's so LOUD now!

bailed on Killing Eve this year, did not watch a single episode

Wow, surprised that finished so high. (Says one of the seven voters...mostly because I wanted a semi-full ballot; it was a really up and down season.)

Dark fans sound a lot like Peaky Blinders fans: people who are into it are really into it and asking them to describe what they like about it inevitably results in “I’d love to tell you but SPOILERS.” Something, something, time travel... I think? Can our seven votes provide non-spoiler hand signals on why we should watch this show?

https://i.imgur.com/zjel4sE.jpg
#30 (Tie) - Dark (Netflix) - 41 points, 7 votes, 1 top 5 vote
Dark: the German Netflix series that's like an amalgamation of Twin Peaks, Back to the Future, and X-Files (SPOILERS!)

Trailer
Theme Song
Website
https://dark.netflix.io/en
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/jun/27/dark-season-three-review-sci-fi-series-netflix

Started watching this and I liked the vibe, need to return to it

love season one of Dark. season two was ok. season three i bailed on, not because it was bad – but i was having a hard time keeping up and the overall tone was just so overbearing by that point... all things that could entirely been on me and not the show.

Season three of Search Party represented a leap to a new network, multiple new cast members (Cole Escola, Louie Anderson, Michaela Watkins) and a shift in tone that moved away from somewhat more subtle social commentary to direct parody. Mostly, it worked.

https://i.imgur.com/Ir39z31.jpg
#29 - Search Party (HBO) - 43 points, 6 votes, 2 top 5 votes
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
Sample Clip
Website
https://www.vulture.com/article/search-party-season-3-review-hbo-max.html

Thought season one of Search Party was pretty good, then season two started turning into something I wasn't into and we bailed halfway through. Then we started using the HBO Whateverit'scallednow app and decided to try again, pushed through the rest of season two...and then season three was great! I was psyched that the show had finally found its footing and looked forward to what was next!

Season four will, um, very pointedly not be making it onto my 2021 ballot.

Brockmire never strived for subtlety but its final season was particularly unhinged. Taking a bold prognosticatory leap into an apocalyptic future, the show yoked Jim Brockmire with the task of being a single-parent empty nester and the new commissioner of the MLB. Predictions of the end of the world unfortunately came true a bit earlier than expected, making this acidly funny show a bit of a bummer. Even so, the acting and writing were as crisp as ever and, for me at least, this was an entirely satisfying end to one of the most unique, hysterical and criminally under acknowledged shows of the past five years.

https://i.imgur.com/TweiJdG.jpg
#28 - Brockmire (IFC) - 47 points, 6 votes, 2 top 5 votes
NB: Top IFC
BROCKMIRE the recently concluded IFC comedy series with hank azaria, baseball, amanda peet, baseball, tyrel jackson williams and baseball

Trailer
Sample Clip
Website
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/18/arts/television/review-brockmire.html
https://tv.avclub.com/hank-azaria-and-amanda-peet-on-brockmire-braids-and-m-1842363742

This year’s bubble season, the first with I-guess-he’s-okay co-host Matt Lucas, mostly served pretty well as the escapist tranquilizer it was meant to be. Then it didn’t (#JusticeforHermine), leading to one of the more anticlimactic finals yet.

https://i.imgur.com/s7ng0Bz.jpg
#27 - The Great British Bake Off / The Great British Baking Show (Netflix, Channel 4) - 47 points, 9 votes, 1 top 5 vote
NB: Top Channel 4, Top Reality Show
On Your Marks, Get Set, Baaaaake! A Thread for Great British Baking Show / Bake Off & all of its sundry delights

Trailer
Website US
Website UK
Hermine is Cooking
https://www.salon.com/2020/11/27/great-british-baking-show-bad-hermine-controversy/
https://www.avclub.com/c/tv-review/the-great-british-baking-show/season-11

brockmire is something that's firmly in my wheelhouse, not sure why i haven't watched. will fix soon.

i loved the original brockmire video on funny or die too

I was interested in Work in Progress because Abby McEnany is a Chicago improv performer who I've seen on stage a bunch of times (maybe you too, Old Lunch?). But I don't have Showtime.

Thought season one of Search Party was pretty good, then season two started turning into something I wasn't into and we bailed halfway through. Then we started using the HBO Whateverit'scallednow app and decided to try again, pushed through the rest of season two...and then season three was great! I was psyched that the show had finally found its footing and looked forward to what was next!

Season four will, um, very pointedly not be making it onto my 2021 ballot.

I watched S3 and S4 back to back recently (since I can now watch HBO Max via Roku), and I actually preferred S4. There was some fun moments in S3, and I especially liked Michaela Watkins and Louie Anderson, but some elements of the courtroom comedy just seemed a little stale. I found S4 more compelling and unpredictable.

If S1 and S3 are your favorites, OL, maybe you just don't like when the show goes too dark? My wife liked S1, but bailed after S2 because the show got "too murdery." I think the show definitely walks a tightrope between frothy social comedy and edgy psycho-drama, and the balance doesn't work all the time, but I like the mix.

Wow, surprised that finished so high. (Says one of the seven voters...mostly because I wanted a semi-full ballot; it was a really up and down season.)

― clemenza, Friday, February 12, 2021 7:36 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

I was one of the other Killing Eve voters & cosign this view.

It occurred to me that, with the possible exception of David Letterman, I’ve spent more time watching Alex Trebek than any other person on television. A few decades ago, Trebek self-consciously adopted a more parochial tone, often casually belittling or betraying an unconsidered sexist or ageist response to the contestants. It was clearly quizmaster schtick but it got stale as more contestants strayed from the atypical player profile. He reigned it back in a bit in his final years, but there was always a risk of being treated like a dolt if you dared an uneducated guess, especially if it regarded Canada.

All that said, his intonation, clarity and consistency were nearly flawless. That made it all the more jarring when, in the final clue of his final game and on a question that effected the likelihood of a potential winner, he flubbed by stating the question after a contestant’s mistaken guess and not allowing other players to buzz in. The producers rapidly set off an end-of-game signal but I'd never seen Trebek make such an error. It was a heartbreaking sign of just how much he had covered up how ill he really was and an astonishing testament to his consistency over the prior forty years.

I think Ken Jennings has been, thus far, an excellent host but it’s still a little jarring not to hear Alex’s voice every day. I actually miss him.

https://i.imgur.com/Jpr9VuW.jpg
#26 - Jeopardy (Syndication) - 51 points, 8 votes, 2 top 5 votes
NB: Top Syndicated Program, Top Game Show
Will that guy on Jeopardy ever lose?
Alex Trebek suffers 'minor heart attack'

Trailer
Goodbye to Alex
Ken’s First Game
Website
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/08/arts/television/alex-trebek-dead.html
https://jeopardylabs.com/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2021/01/08/alex-trebek-final-jeopardy-episode/

If S1 and S3 are your favorites, OL, maybe you just don't like when the show goes too dark?

I'd say that's accurate. S4 was basically a horror movie with some jokes sprinkled among the psychosis. I don't have an issue with darkness, but the tone of Search Party just wobbles way too wildly for me to hang with it. This season was just kinda bad vibes city without much of a point.

I think that people who don't watch Brockmire think they know what kind of a show it is, but it's not that kind of a show. It's romantic and warm and non-judgemental and funny. People should watch it.

Our lives are transient, but Jeopardy! is eternal

Two of television’s great comedic actors helped make our #25 a critical and popular hit but it missed me entirely. Six of you repped for Dead to Me; what’s it got going for it?

https://i.imgur.com/1EaBC6e.jpg
#25 - Dead to Me (Netflix) - 53 points, 6 votes, 3 top 5 votes
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
Sample Clip
Website
https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a32368562/dead-to-me-season-2-review/
https://www.vulture.com/2020/05/dead-to-me-netflix-season-2-review.html

I didn't vote and completely forgot that I watched Dead to Me this year. What it's got going for it imo is pretty much the awesome performances of the 2 leads, but those performances justify a placement (though this feels a little high). A great depiction of 2 idiosyncratic, seriously flawed and broken women finding solace in their friendship despite how different they are from each other. Expectations are not very high for future seasons as it is heading in some very ridiculous directions though

I was the #1 vote for Work in Progress. Honestly, I'm grateful that I even remembered to vote for it, as it was pre-pandemic, and I still have a hard time conceiving of anything pre-March as being a part of 2020. I can't do better than forks' description here: "deeply human and caring, willing to explore taboo subjects without preface, effortlessly inclusive, genuinely funny and remarkably well acted." Plus, one of the very funniest celebrity cameos that I've ever seen in anything (no,I wouldn't dream of spoiling it).

I was also one of the Killing Eve voters. I agree that there was a noticeable drop-off this season, but one great stand-alone episode (the one set entirely in Russia) and an effective final scene in the season finale kept my feelings for the show on the positive side.

I think I was also one of the top 5 votes for Jeopardy? forks' intro above is lovely, and echoes my sentiments pretty much exactly. I had been dreading Alex's passing since his diagnosis was first announced, but then he ended up passing away two days after my father died, at which point I was too numb to really even respond to the news. I wasn't watching much of anything during the week or so after that, but when I was ready again, having a bunch of Alex's final episodes stored up in my PVR was poignant, and possibly even a bit therapeutic--watching those last episodes infused with the weight of losing my father, and our collective loss of Alex, took me back 30 years to the experience of the many dinners my family would have, sitting on the couch in front of our TV trays while watching and playing along with Jeopardy.

i mostly voted for jeopardy because of the greatest of all-time tourney, which was truly riveting television.

And just as I post that, another one of my top shows appears! Career-best work from the two leads, and a show that always stays funny and believably human even when its plot looks, as it frequently does, like it might soon veer off into ridiculousness.

If you weren’t watching the impeccably filmed, cast and acted British monarchy soap opera and comedy of manners The Crown, your mother probably was.

https://i.imgur.com/ieOrYXK.jpg
#24 - The Crown (Netflix) - 54 points, 8 votes, 2 top 5 votes
But Will There Be Corgis? Thread Where We Discuss Netflix's THE CROWN

Trailer
Sample Clip
Website
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/17/arts/television/the-crown-history-season-4-netflix.html
https://www.elle.com/culture/movies-tv/a34823816/the-crown-season-4-controversy/

Alex Garland, of Ex Machina and Annihilation fame, is known for his didactic, tech-heavy, convoluted, slow-paced and bleak sci-fi. Presumably hoping to replicate their success with Noah Hawley, FX gave him a seven-hour mini-series that I have yet to try. Can any of our nonet of voters convince me to give it a go?

https://i.imgur.com/kfsZvcT.jpg
#23 - Devs (Hulu) - 56 points, 9 votes, 2 top 5 votes
A thread for Devs, the new Alex Garland show on FX/HBO (with SPOILERS)

Trailer
'Devs' Is A Show About 'Everything'
Website
https://www.rollingstone.com/tv/tv-reviews/devs-review-fx-hulu-alex-garland-958979/
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/devs-explained-creator-alex-garland-breaks-down-fx-hulu-drama-1288022

Lol at doing a Moka-on-Grimes and giving The Crown the single minute it deserves

Devs was mostly leaden pretentious nonsense with a few good ideas and nice visuals. A shame because I usually quite like Garland.