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

dress up gang was my #1. i love every second of it.

We just watched the first episode. Thank you guys so much for introducing me to it. It's amazing.

sic's summary re this season of Big Mouth is perfect. All that.

Ya, he summed up my thoughts much better than I am capable of.

Also can someone explain to me the humour in The Dress Up Gang? Because I totally did not get it.

my main problem with big mouth is that it's fuckin ugly

dress up gang mashes up the ironic and unexpected with wholesome and heartfelt feels; it is subversive in that it evokes leave it to beaver and a casual familiarity with nihilism and regular drug use. the presumed code of conduct throughout is humane but perverse and regularly unexpected. i think its genius but my partner doesn't get it at all! i'm not sure i can convince you if you're not seeing it.

thanks. i didn't hate it or anything – felt a vague understanding of what they were doing, but for me it just wasn't landing.

just catching up. wow, I really did not watch as much tv last year as it felt like! I started catching up on films that I'd missed that are now on tv, and rewatching old stuff.

Wow, I didn't even realize this much of the rollout had already happened! Glad that 'I Am Not Okay With This' did as well as it did. I loved it and I'm still bitter about no second season.

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.

we were losing it when the gang and Susan Sarandon were trying to chase each others' cars... then they got into a roundabout and I'm not sure anything can ever top it. Show keeps getting more bizarre, love it.

I'm still bitter about no second season.

nooooooooooooooooo.......

I'm still bitter about no second season.

nooooooooooooooooo.......

― FRAUDULENT STEAKS (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Saturday, February 13, 2021 6:27 PM

It got renewed for a second, then COVID happened, and Netflix pulled the plug on several shows they'd renewed, including I Am Not Okay With This. >:(

Yeah, Netflix was really quick to pull the plug on shows and blame COVID. I’m still pissed we won’t get one more season of GLOW, that was really turning into an exceptional show and Betty Gilpin was particularly killing it.

Good Aunty Donna example that starts bad, gets good, gets bad again, gets good again, etc

The opening of the season, with “everything’s a drum” was fantastic.

Yep

But they dont know when to stop imo

they don't know when to get into the kiln

*waves hand limply in front of face, looks around confusedly*

Everybody do the Chop Chop

Hulu’s British/Irish collaborative dramatic adaptation of the “it’s complicated” relationship novel Normal People catapulted its leads to stardom and struck an international nerve during lockdown. I’ve yet to see an episode; would one of our eight voters care to school me on what makes watching two pretty gen-z'ers fucking so compelling? I may have answered my own question.

https://i.imgur.com/gLeun2y.jpg
#15 - Normal People (Hulu/BBC) - 75 points, 8 votes, 6 top 5 votes
NB: Top Hulu
STUFF ON HULU

Trailer
’Creating Intimacy’
US Website
UK Website
https://www.vulture.com/2020/04/normal-people-hulu-review.html
https://www.npr.org/2020/04/29/847617296/normal-people-is-a-love-story-to-cherish

So overrated. I think maybe I'm slightly too old for it.

it had some interesting bits, but I kind of hated it

We bailed on Normal People after the first episode (if I'd watched a second, it could have been grounds for divorce - he really, really loathed it). But maybe it, er, took time to develop.

Nah it was all pretty draggy, albeit oddly watchable. I never grew to like the leads, particularly.

i was really impressed by the dude lead in normal people, he seemed like a real person in a way that most tv/movie performances don't

the woman lead was "good" too but in a more standard actory way

also it's really fun to go around saying "i just want to be normal people" in a terrible irish accent

i wanna live like normal people
i wanna do whatever normal people do

As the face and frontline of the gonzo YouTube channel All Gas No Brakes, presenter Andrew Callaghan deftly walks the razor-thin line between mocking, supporting and excoriating the insider-outsider subjects he and his team document. Whether at a NASCAR race, the launch of a NASA rocket, a Donald Trump Jr book launch or a furry festival, AGNB allows its subjects ample rope to hang themselves, leaning into the American tendency to talk beyond one’s means. And also to rap. Everyone wants to rap for some reason.

Following a much anticipated on-site video at the attempted Capitol coup, expect to see AGNB make the leap to television this year as an Abso Lutely / Tim and Eric-produced series.

https://i.imgur.com/qmISecP.jpg
#14 - All Gas No Brakes (YouTube) - 76 points, 8 votes, 5 top 5 votes
NB: Top YouTube, Top Unscripted
thread of youtubers whomst are not terrible

Las Vegas - January 29 2020
Minneapolis - May 30 2020
Marquette - July 18, 2020
Sturgis - September 4, 2020
Portland - October 3, 2020
Website
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/12/heroes-of-2020-all-gas-no-brakes/
https://news.avclub.com/all-gas-no-brakes-host-on-interviewing-conspiracy-theor-1844763234

Oh I voted for this. The only journalist

After a rocky start, Raphael Bob-Waksberg and Lisa Hanawalt’s “depressed cartoon horse show” became a critical darling and one of the best reviewed shows on television. Bojack Horseman ended in 2020 with an eight episode drop of the final half of the sixth season that explored its lead character’s post-fame life and struggle with self-immolation.

https://i.imgur.com/FMZZVXC.jpg
#13 - Bojack Horseman (Netflix) - 83 points, 11 votes, 1 #1 votes, 4 top 5 votes
NB: Top Animation
Let's talk about BoJack Horseman, the new Netflix animated series (starring Will Arnett, Alison Brie, Amy Sedaris, Aaron Paul, etc)

Trailer
Crew Conversation
Website
https://www.indiewire.com/2020/01/bojack-horseman-ending-review-season-6-finale-spoilers-1202207270/
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/01/opinion/bojack-horseman-final-season.html
https://time.com/5774893/bojack-horseman-finale-recap-review/
https://www.vulture.com/2020/01/bojack-horseman-series-finale-death-explained-analysis.html

I didn't think S6 ended that strong tbh

agree that the first half of s6 was better than the second, but it was still a satisfying ending with some beautiful moments

the bit where Herb disappears is pretty iconic maybe yeah

Bojack not at its peak is still better than most other TV, so I voted for this

i was really impressed by the dude lead in normal people, he seemed like a real person in a way that most tv/movie performances don't

― na (NA), Monday, 15 February 2021 15:14 (fifty-nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

This took off so strongly in the UK that it shocked me, and everything was focused around this guy's performance (and his sex appeal, which someone else will have to disect tbh)

I'll go back to why it taking off shocked me- he is absolutely sensational as a contemporary rural irish guy of that type (ok, itself a little idealised but nevertheless) gawky, confident, awkward outside his comfort zones. I really didnt expect a UK audience to appreciate it (and the feedback everywhere was for the details as well as his thighs in GAA shorts) but perhaps it translated only so far and it just didnt carry as far as the states?

I didnt even watch all of it (the story as a whole was a bit painful emo for me) but i tried to catch his highlights and imo there wasnt a better acting performance anywhere all year

/morbs

Id seen him on stage a few months before and he was good in a bad role so i had an eye out for him after

/morbs

his thighs in GAA shorts

Oscar-winning director Steve McQueen’s Amazon/BBC-produced five-part anthology series Small Axe has proven challenging for critics to pigeonhole. Though each is thematically connected and every episode’s story informs the other conceptually, they could just as easily be viewed as separate short or full-length films, which has led to the LA Film Critics Associations voting for the collective series as the best movie of the year. It’s rare praise and the only obvious analogue is Kieslowski’s Ten Commandments series The Dekalogue. Good company indeed.

https://i.imgur.com/g0AhyG2.jpg
#12 - Small Axe (Amazon, BBC) - 92 points, 11 votes, 3 #1 votes, 4 top 5 votes

Trailer
Preview
Steve McQueen Interview
US Website
UK Website
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/10/movies/small-axe-review-steve-mcqueen.html
https://www.vox.com/culture/21563837/small-axe-review-amazon-mangrove-lovers-rock-red-white-blue-mcqueen
https://www.npr.org/2020/12/10/944992387/steve-mcqueens-small-axe-tackles-the-personal-and-political
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/nov/15/small-axe-review-steve-mcqueen-triumphs-with-tales-of-britains-caribbean-history
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/11/30/the-sensuality-and-brutality-of-steve-mcqueens-small-axe

xp well afaict from my twitter feed at the time, they p much did, like

My #1, primarily for "Education" and "Lover's Rock."

tv showrunners: "my tv show is actually a 10-hour movie"
movie directors: "my 6 movies are actually a tv show"

What really is a movie or a tv show when you think about it, an aesthetically-pleasing stamp collection could be either imvho

For the purposes of polls and lists, at least, I've given up on that line.

Schitt’s Creek’s transition from obscure Canadian comedy to Netflix hit is due to equal parts greater audience exposure, a willingness to embrace more complex and humanistic stories, and a deft hand at inserting modern sexuality into sitcom tropes without apology. The series closed on an up note in 2020, winning seven Emmys, leaving Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara in their third (fourth?) act as international stars and Dan Levy as a gay icon.

https://i.imgur.com/jzO1PTE.jpg
#11 - Schitt’s Creek (Netflix) - 100 points, 12 votes, 6 top 5 votes
best Schitt's Creek character

Trailer
Cast Conversation
Website
https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2020/01/schitts-creek-season-6-is-an-ode-to-unexpected-love/605245/
https://www.vulture.com/2020/04/schitts-creek-series-finale-recap-season-6-episode-14-happy-ending.html
https://www.advocate.com/television/2020/3/25/threesomes-marriage-kids-schitts-creek-depicts-modern-gay-couple