And the grand finale: my picks for the 14 best shows on TV this past year.
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It isn’t an easy assignment to nail down the best comedy and drama series from the past year when a record number of submissions are on the ballot in the era of Peak TV(!). But as many options as there are out there, the old case for quality defying quantity rings true, which brings me to my final Emmy Dream Ballot: picks for the top awards representing a solid mix of cutting-edge shows spanning both streaming and broadcast cable.
OUTSTANDING COMEDY SERIES
- Atlanta (FX)
- Better Things (FX)
- Broad City (Comedy Central)
- Get Shorty (Epix)
- GLOW (Netflix)
- The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Amazon)
- One Day At A Time (Netflix)
Behind My Ballot: With three of my nominees riding high on superb second seasons, the myth about the ‘sophomore slump’ has (almost officially) been busted. The first is Atlanta, which took it’s innovative, non-linear approach to storytelling even further in it’s second outing. With each installment standing on it’s own as something of a capsule episode while still serving the greater narrative arc of each character, Donald Glover & Co. continued to carve out the world of the southern urban experience to nearly flawless effect.
Better Things, got even—yes—better as the series found it’s footing and hit it’s creative stride. Led by the invaluable Pamela Adlon, it’s one of the best written, directed and acted shows bar none, evoking both laughter and tears all within a span of 30 minutes. The same can be said of One Day At A Time, a surprisingly smart, well-crafted and richly realized multi-camera sitcom that fires on all cylinders in every gem of an episode.
Then there’s Broad City, which evolved in it’s fourth season from a screwball comedy to a formidable commentary on Millennial life in NYC by exploring darker themes and the psychology of it’s leading ladies. As Abbi and Ilana got older and (slightly) more mature, the show mined the gallows humor that comes from growing pains bookended by the origin story and evolution of it’s core friendship. In the process, it hit the creative bull’s eye from beginning to end.
Finally, a trio of new shows round out the category after coming out of the gate strong. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is completely original in both its premise and production, with whip-cracking dialogue, fully fleshed out characters beautifully inhabited through standout performances and production values that take it all to another level. Get Shorty, meanwhile, is one of the best movie-to-TV show adaptations to hit the airwaves, with a creatively satisfying expansion of the film’s world that hilariously lampoons the Hollywood experience as much as it shows love for it. And GLOW, the scrappiest of the three, entered the ring with a quality right-hook and got even better as the season went on.
Almost a Contender: Barry; Black-ish; Curb Your Enthusiasm; Mom
OUTSTANDING DRAMA SERIES
- The Americans (FX)
- The Crown (Netflix)
- Game of Thrones (HBO)
- The Handmaid’s Tale (Hulu)
- Killing Eve (BBC America)
- Stranger Things (Netflix)
- This Is Us (NBC)
Behind My Ballot: I’ll start at the beginning, which also equates to a spectacular ending. In it’s final season, The Americans proved more than ever why it’s been regarded as one of the best shows of the past decade with a searing, edge-of-your-seat run that rivaled the most incredible swan songs in the TV canon. Perfectly realized on every level—especially in it’s meticulous storytelling detail—the show’s layered nuance and slow burn rollout over six seasons culminated in a stunning batch of episodes that put every character’s fate up for grabs and resolved the journey of it’s anti-hero leads in unexpected yet fully satisfying ways. Zigging where other series would zag, this tale of a marriage within the swirl of 1980’s post-Cold War espionage is long overdue for serious recognition.
Following an ending with a beginning, Killing Eve is the only first season newcomer to make my cut and for very good reason. By far the most surprising and entertaining new show out there, the highly stylized series is savvy, sassy and smart, balancing dark humor and deep drama within an anything-but-standard cat-and-mouse narrative framework that’s anchored by riveting, expert lead performances by Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer.
Four of my nominees are also due to reap the rewards of great second seasons that built on the foundation they laid last year. This Is Us hit new dramatic heights as the circumstances behind Jack’s death were revealed, affectively reverberating in the show’s past and present day portrayals that the production rose to the occasion of on every level. The Crown also expanded it’s universe in its second outing, which I found much more watchable than the first thanks in large part to placing the intriguing historical dramatizations of Philip and Margaret’s sordid private lives front-and-center, while fellow Neflix series, Stranger Things, continued to be a master class in the pitch-perfect marriage of nostalgia and sci-fi/fantasy. And while I found there to be some narrative missteps in the latest run of The Handmaid’s Tale (only the first 10 episodes are eligible), the quality of the show in both craft and performance is still by far one of the best of the rest.
That leaves Game of Thrones, which returns to the race after airing outside of last year’s eligibility period. Stunningly cinematic in it’s scope and story, things really heated up as winter set in with high dramatic stakes in each episode, as the cast of primary characters finally intersected against a backdrop of looming evil and an undead dragon—making it an always-worthy nominee.
Almost a Contender: The Deuce; The Good Fight; Westworld