Jump to content

Rank your 2020 TV shows throughout the year


Corvinus85

Recommended Posts

  1. Dark Season 3
  2. Mrs America
  3. Defending Jacob
  4. La Casa de Papel Season 4
  5. The Good Fight Season 4
  6. Hollywood
  7. Lost in Space Season 2
  8. The English Game
  9. Altered Carbon Season 2
  10. Young Sheldon Season 3
  11. Outlander Season 5
  12. Grey's anatomy Season 16

I binged all three seasons in the past two weeks so I am full of impressions. It tickles my philosophical mind in the most interesting ways. It is so smart, intellectual but never pretentious. I have thoroughly enjoyed it. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Good

The Good Place (NBC)    Final Season (Weekly)

Dark (Netflix)     S1, S2, S3 (binge)

Upload (Prime) S1 (binge)

Star Wars: Clone Wars (Disney +)              S7 (weekly)

Westworld (HBO)             S3 (weekly)

Lost in Space (Netflix)    S2 (binge)

Penny Dreadful: City of Angels (SHO)       S1 (Weekly)

 

The Alright

Snowpiercer (TNT)          S1 (weekly)

I will be Gone in the Dark (HBO) (weekly)

Devs (FX)             S1 (binge)

Hanna (Prime)   S2 (binge)

Brooklyn Nine-Nine         S7 (Weekly)

Stumptown        S1 (weekly)

Beforeigners (Netflix)    S1 (binge)

The Outsider (HBO)         S1 (weekly)

 

The disappointing

Last Kingdom (Netflix)    S4 (binge)

Avenue 5 (HBO) S1 (weekly)

 

The started but haven’t bothered to finish

Handmaids Tale (Hulu)  S3 (binge)

The Great (Hulu)              S1 (binge)

Vagrant Queen (SyFy)    S1 (weekly/DVR)

               

The still watching / not finished              

The Alienist (TNT)            S2 (weekly)

Alone (Hist)        S7 (weekly)

Agents of Shield (ABC)   S7 (weekly)

The 100 (CW)     S6 (weekly)

Perry Mason (HBO)         S1 (weekly)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Leofric said:

Dark (Netflix)     S1, S2, S3 (binge)

Alone (Hist)        S7 (weekly)

Dark, haven't watched S3 yet. Current moods won't let me watch something that I need to pay that much attention to.

Alone, I binged seasons 1-6 this year so now watching S7 weekly just feels strange. I can't get myself to let a few episodes build up and binge them, I keep watching it even though I tell myself not to.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

One update:

  1. Star Wars: The Clone Wars – when it comes to series finales, this show is in the group that had exceedingly strong finishes. While the 3 arcs were not of the same quality, it was consistently strong on the visual side. Also, an amazing soundtrack.
  2. Kingdom (Korean Netflix show) - a highly entertaining second season. Maybe not as solid as season 1, but still excellent, with several good twists and turns. Interested to see how the story evolves.
  3. Dark - a pretty good final season, but even more convoluted than the preceding seasons. Not 100% neatly tied up, but overall a strong finish.
  4. Marvel's Agents of SHIELD - more ups that downs; a lot of fun moments, good endearing moments, interesting plot twists; these characters became very likable as the show progressed. It stuck the landing pretty well.
  5. Westworld – I liked it, mainly thanks to the show producing a interesting world. I continued to like the characters, too, though the plot was at times lackluster.
  6. Altered Carbon – not as good as first season and may be the last. A few choices diminished the characterization of the protagonist. It was still strong on the visuals, and I’m still intrigued about its universe.
  7. The Umbrella Academy - season 2 worked much better for me than season 1. I found most aspects about the show to have been improved. 
  8. The Last Kingdom – I was disappointed in how much it diverged from both books and history. I had too high hopes that this show could be more unique, rather than follow in the path of other shows. Alas, while still mostly fun, it may not be that special anymore.
  9. The Outsider – Had a very strong opening, then meandered somewhat, up until the last couple of episodes, which finished fairly well. Well-acted throughout.
  10. Beforeigners – An enjoyable dark comedy with an interesting premise, if the execution wasn't that strong. Most of the characters were fun.
  11. Homeland – an ok final season, but with some hard to believe and digest plot twists. I’m glad it’s over.
  12. Outlander – While still looking wonderful, the story this season was incredibly slow and boring, and its ending had some poor creative choices, to put it mildly.
  13. Star Trek: Picard - well this should have been better; slow start, strong build up, meh finale. It demands more exploration of the world. Patrick Stewart was strong, but I didn't feel much attachment to the new characters. Maybe that will improve next season. 
  14. Messiah – not bad, but I feel the mystery is better than the eventual answers; the show had a good dance between religious and secular themes, which I liked, but I can see how it could be controversial. (Edit: show's been cancelled)
  15. Locke & Key – an interesting premise, and great visuals; predictable season ending, and in the end not that compelling of a story.
  16. Warrior Nun - wooden dialogue, mediocre acting, generally bad visuals, failure for the cast to actually learn Spanish despite the setting, the occasional good moment, and crap cliffhanger ending. I don't care if it returns.
  17. The Letter for the King - on par with GoT season 8. Stuff happened because of reasons, character development was stunted. I suppose it has the excuse of being YA, but it was still mostly trash. It had the weirdest, slowest magical good v. evil duel I've ever seen, with no explanation whatsoever. 
Link to comment
Share on other sites

New additions in red.

1.  Dark (season 3)

2. Harley Quinn (season 1/season 2)

3. The Plot Against America

4. BoJack Horseman (season 6b)

5. What We Do In the Shadows (season 2)

6. The Good Place (season 4b). 

7. Evil (season 1)

8. The Alienist: Angel of Darkness (season 2)

9. Penny Dreadful: City of Angels (season 1)

10. Prodigal Son (season 1)

11. The Witcher (season 1)

12. Agents of SHIELD (season 7)

13. Roswell: New Mexico (season 2)

14. Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist (season 1)

15. Star Trek: Picard (season 1)

16. Stumptown (season 1)

17. Emergence (season 1)

 

It's nice that I haven't watched (at least not past the pilot - hi. See), anything I actually disliked.

Currently watching: The 100 - final season (weekly), Babylon Berlin, Perry Mason  The Last Kingdom, The Umbrella Academy (season 1, will continue with season 2), Upload (binge)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

New additions in red.

 

1.  Dark (season 3)- What can I say? One of the most unique TV shows ever. Brilliant, strange, dark (heh), atmospheric, epic, tragic, with such a complex storyline - which confused me quite a few times but always ended up making sense. Many SciFi shows have tackled time travel, with varying degrees of success, but Dark really took the concept to its logical ends and fully explored it as a plot device. Early on, I was still able to guess some of the twists, but the show managed to become more and more surprising and insane, in a good way, without sacrificing its logic or characterizations. And this is how you do a great bittersweet finale. I feel I will rewatch this one many times, because there are so many things you can notice the second and third etc. time.

2. Harley Quinn (season 1/season 2) - This animated R-rated comedy take on the DC universe and Batman's Gotham is one of the funniest  and wittiest shows I've watched in years. The writing, the animation and the voices are all excellent, and all the main characters are somehow incredibly likable. Season 2 has been even better than season 1 - while remaining as funny, it has kept resisting the temptation to end episodes on a joke and instead has let the dramatic moments sink in, too. Unless the finale is a huge disappointment, it deserves the #1 spot.

3. Babylon Berlin (season 3) - This show is incredibly compelling even though it's rather depressing, as it is about the Weimar Republic and all its social, political and economic problems that would lead to Nazis coming to power a few years later. I missed the night club live musical numbers from seasons 1-2, which felt like Cabaret on drugs, but season 3 replaced it with a movie set as the setting for a murder mystery, and n homage to the 1920s German expressionist cinema. I don't know how this show manages to be so deeply rooted in real life history while at times being so weird and almost surreal. The more realistic and darker storyline involving politics continued from season 2 and was just as heartbreaking.

4. The Plot Against America - David Simon's excellent mini-series based on Philip Roth's alternative history novel about a 1940s USA where a pro-Nazi president was elected. It's done in a really believable way, where the plot feels really realistic and as something that could have easily happened (and still could happen), and it's particularly chilling because things get slowly and gradually worse before people even realize they live in a Nazi country, and the story makes this brand of Nazism very recognizably American rather than a copy of German Nazism. 

5. BoJack Horseman (season 6b) - the show could have continued (it was Netfix's decision to end it with season 6, not the creative team's), but if it had to end, this was probably the best possible ending. Still, if they revived it,  I'd be overjoyed. This is one of my all time favorite shows and certainly one of the best and most unique shows in recent years. I don't know where I'd rank season 6 - certainly above seasons 1 and 2 and below seasons 5 and 4. Probably about the same as season 3. 

6. Upload (season 1) - I liked this Greg Daniels comedy much more than I expected. The main characters are very likable, and the show gets a lot of fun out of its premise of an extremely digitalized future including a digital afterlife, which, just, like real life, is very different depending on the purchase power, like an exaggerated version of the current way of life, with all its consumerism and differences between the rich and the poor. It's also one of the comedies with a main plot, and it ended on a cliffhanger that makes me impatient for season 2.

7. What We Do In the Shadows (season 2) - Taika Waititi's and Jermaine Clement's vampire comedy continued to be incredibly funny, and a few of the characters got developed more. Even better than season 1.

8. The Good Place (season 4b) - unlike BoJack, this show really needed to have a definite ending, and it was one planned by the creative team. Not all of season 4 was great, but the finale was amazing. 

9. Evil (season 1) - one of the best new shows this season. Big networks have surprised me by featuring some interesting and original shows like this. I already ranked it on the 2019 list, but the last few episodes aired this season and were all excellent, so the show will probably be even higher on the 2020 list. Unless they screw it up with season 2.

10. The Alienist: Angel of Darkness (season 2) -I really liked season 1 and I love the main characters and the atmosphere, but I liked this season better. There weren't that many surprising twists, but the story was more coherent, and I liked the focus on the main characters and the way the characters and their relationships were developed.

11. Penny Dreadful: City of Angels (season 1) - I'm enjoying so many things about this show - the characters, the setting, the atmosphere, the social and racial issues it tackles. I love it as a period drama/thriller from the 1930s. But I feel that all of it could work as well or better without the supernatural element, specifically the character(s) played by Natalie Dormer. Which means I have a problem with the basic concept of the show. (BTW, the show shouldn't be called Penny Dreadful at all - it has nothing to do with that show except for its creator. City of Angels is good enough as the title.)

12. Prodigal Son (season 1)- Another pleasant network surprise, it followed the semi-serialized format and combined case-of-the-week crime drama with an overall, far more interesting dysfunctional family drama/thriller involving the man character, profiler Malcolm Bright (an amazing Tom Payne)and his serial killer father in jail (also amazing Michael Sheen), the socialite mother and ambitious reporter sister. When the latter would become the focus of the show, it got much better and more exciting, as in the last few episodes and the explosive finale. However, I'm ranking it slightly below Evil because Evil was far more consistently interesting and entertaining, while Prodigal Son spent too much episodes of cases of the week.

13. The Witcher (season 1) - I don't know if it counts since the show was released last year, but it was late last year, so I'm adding it. I wasn't impressed by the first episode, but the show turned out quite enjoyable. It has quite a few flaws, though I wasn't as bothered by the chaotic timeline as most people seemed to. I haven't read the books or played the games (not a gamer!), but most of the stories were interesting, Yennefer is a really memorable character wit ha compelling story, I really like Henry Cavill as Geralt (though I didn't like him as Superman), and I like the fact that - in spite of the misleading Game of Thrones comparisons - the show is a very different brand of epic fantasy: unabashedly sword-and-sorcery without doing the "oh this a political pseudo-period drama for people who don't like fantasy" thing, not grimdark, not male gazey. Season 1 felt like a setup season, but the show has a lot of potential to get much better.

14. Agents of SHIELD (season 7) - The final season of the show was pretty good overall - not quite like the show at its best (as in seasons 3 and 4), but much better than seasons 5 and 6 for sure (I really wasn't impressed by either of those). It was entertaining, but I thought they wasted too many episodes on funny shenanigans, instead of something more substantial, and the main villain was underwhelming, just like in season 6. But the second half got much better, brought back some old characters and plots and gave them closure in a satisfying way, and had a few great episodes. The ending was mostly satisfying and appropriate for the show. Although, in many ways, it didn't really feel like final season as this is a show that could have gone on (and still could go on) if Disney wanted it to.

15. Roswell: New Mexico (season 2) - I liked season 2 better than season 1. I especially the flashbacks interspersed throughout the season, with many revelations about the past, and the ways it affects the characters in the present, and several of the characters had good character development and were much more likable and interesting than in season 1. I like that the show is so openly political, but it may be a bit on the nose a lot of times. The finale was slightly disappointing as the main drama was resolved early on and it spend the rest of the time setting up season 3.

16. Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist (season 1) - This show turned out to be quite a surprise, as its premise (a woman gains the power to hear other people sing their true feelings in the form of various popular songs) made it seem like a quirky musical comedy, but it turned out to be a warm musical dramedy, with emphasis on drama, that deals with issues including illness and loss of a parent,. In the time of grimdark and grittiness, it is rare to something that's so non-cynical and full of empathy and faith in humanity, and at the same time modern and diverse. Would be higher if it weren't for the love triangle at the center and the way it was developed in the last few episodes (some things rubbed me the wrong way).

17. Star Trek: Picard (season 1) - It is great to see Patrick Stewart back as Picard, and I really liked how the show handled his character and some others well-know Trek characters (particularly Seven of Nine). The new characters were also compelling, particularly Santiago Cabrera's Captain Rios. However, the plot had some issues, especially towards the end, and the finale was predictable in many ways.

18. Stumptown (season 1) - another enjoyable new ABC drama, this one based on a comic book. Gets ranked lower because it was mostly episodic, which is not really my favorite type of show. But it is fun, entertaining, smart, has enjoyable characters, diversity (including very non-stereotypical Native American characters and a great character with Down Syndrome, played without stereotypes that sometimes plague characters like that), Cobie Smolders is always fun to watch. 

19. Emergence (season 1) - another good new SciFi show on a network. Unfortunately, since it's on a big network (ABC) it got cancelled. I guess we can ignore the cliffhanger from the last couple of minutes - and the rest of the finale is a satisfying ending to the show.

 

Currently watching: The 100 - final season (weekly), Perry Mason  The Last Kingdom, The Umbrella Academy (season 1, will continue with season 2)...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

I won't copy paste the entire list with all the write-ups since it's right above on this page, and I have only one addition:

1.     Dark season 3

2.     Harley Quinn season 1 and 2

3.     Babylon Berlin season 3

4.     The Plot Against America

5.     BoJack Horseman season 6b

6.     Upload season 1

7.     What We Do in the Shadows season 2

8.     The Good Place season 4

9.     Evil season 1

10.  The Alienist: Angel of Darkness (season 2)

11.  Penny Dreadful: City of Angels season 1

12.  Prodigal Son season 1

13.  The Witcher season 1

14.  Agents of SHIELD season 7

15.  Roswell: New Mexico season 2

16.  Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist season 1

17.  Star Trek: Picard season 1

18.  Stumptown season 1

19.  Emergence season 1

 

...HUGE GAP

......

..20.  The 100 season 7 -

This is probably the worst final season and worst series finale of all time. Worse than season 8 of GoT (which the showrunner, Jason Rothenberg, says he loved - and it shows, he did his best to outdo it!). Maybe the worst thing I've ever seen on TV (worse than season 4 of Arrow and seasons 7-8 of The Walking Dead, and Inhumans was lame but at least in a less offensive way). It's the kind of final season that retrospectively ruins the entire show and renders it un-rewatchable and feels like it was devised to spite and mock people for ever getting attached to the show and the characters. It's a pity - the show had some hick-ups before (in seasons 3 and 5 in particular) but seasons 2, 4 and 6 were really good. I loved season 6 and thought they were on the right track to finish the show in satisfactory way. It would've been so easy. Instead, they did all the worst things they could possibly do. It's been confirmed that the season was rewritten a bunch of times while they were filming it, and Rothenberg seems to have been mostly interested in using the final season as a vehicle to promote a prequel (which may not even get picked up), and punish the actors he had a grudge against (which is not the first time he's done it, but now he did it with the leads).

The whole season was a jumbled mess - a bunch of plot holes, a boring plot that was dragged out forever, main characters sidelined for most of the season, with the focus on the minor or new characters or the most boring storylines and one-dimensional villains, sideplots that went nowhere... and then, the last few episodes got even worse and felt like a crackfic: characters were so OOC they seemed like pod people, full-on character assassinations, one of the protagonists written out with a most insulting and pointless "arc" and death in the show and his importance to the other characters erased (because of the showrunner's grudge) which made the other characters look like sociopaths, seasons of development ignored, the main relationships that the show had built up and focused on for the first 6 seasons completely ruined - together with 90% of the themes, messages and emotional beats of the previous seasons... And then to top it all - the series finale with a Deux ex machina resolution that was the most absurd. horrible and misanthropic thing I've seen on TV and that negates even the show's premise, but was somehow presented as a happy ending.

It's impossible to explain just how bad the finale was without spoilers, so here it is - a show that was supposed to be about the survival of the human race in a post-apocalyptic world, about how far people would go to survive and protect their loved ones, ended with:

Spoiler

Some powerful aliens are introduced -they go around the universe and decide if various species are worthy or not, so if they aren't, they kill them all, and if they judge they are "worthy", they "transcend"... which is what happens to the human race, they lose their physical bodies and turn into something that looks like glowing Baby Groots and become parts of a "universal consciousness" with the aliens and get to live forever. But only the living can do it, those who are dead are dead and that's it. The protagonist isn't allowed to transcend for some stupid reason, but the aliens apparently give people a choice - they can come back and live the rest of their lives as humans. But they can't have any children. So, some 10 of them are left as normal humans in the end, and there's a cheesy scene on the beach where we're to think they're happy, but the human race will go extinct when they all die.

Basically, the aliens are Borg-meets-Q and go around committing genocide of various species. They've assimilated most of the human race and sterilized the rest. The human race is extinct. And the show doesn't even treat the aliens as villains, and that's supposed to be a happy ending, because humans are supposedly so terrible that the only way to stop wars and "do better" is if they are assimilated.

Dude must have been on crack when he came up with that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 hours ago, Annara Snow said:

..20.  The 100 season 7 -

It's impossible to explain just how bad the finale was without spoilers, so here it is - a show that was supposed to be about the survival of the human race in a post-apocalyptic world, about how far people would go to survive and protect their loved ones, ended with:

  Reveal hidden contents

Some powerful aliens are introduced -they go around the universe and decide if various species are worthy or not, so if they aren't, they kill them all, and if they judge they are "worthy", they "transcend"... which is what happens to the human race, they lose their physical bodies and turn into something that looks like glowing Baby Groots and become parts of a "universal consciousness" with the aliens and get to live forever. But only the living can do it, those who are dead are dead and that's it. The protagonist isn't allowed to transcend for some stupid reason, but the aliens apparently give people a choice - they can come back and live the rest of their lives as humans. But they can't have any children. So, some 10 of them are left as normal humans in the end, and there's a cheesy scene on the beach where we're to think they're happy, but the human race will go extinct when they all die.

Basically, the aliens are Borg-meets-Q and go around committing genocide of various species. They've assimilated most of the human race and sterilized the rest. The human race is extinct. And the show doesn't even treat the aliens as villains, and that's supposed to be a happy ending, because humans are supposedly so terrible that the only way to stop wars and "do better" is if they are assimilated.

Dude must have been on crack when he came up with that.

I gave up on the show several seasons ago but that does sound like an awful finale that has little to do with the show I watched.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Updates:

  1. The Boys – another great season, with excellent character development, and as strong as ever in satirizing our modern cultural values. There were some moments of lazy writing, but not enough to diminish my enjoyment of it.
  2. Star Wars: The Clone Wars – when it comes to series finales, this show is in the group that had exceedingly strong finishes. While the 3 arcs were not of the same quality, it was consistently strong on the visual side. Also, an amazing soundtrack.
  3. Kingdom (Korean Netflix show) - a highly entertaining second season. Maybe not as solid as season 1, but still excellent, with several good twists and turns. Interested to see how the story evolves.
  4. Dark - a pretty good final season, but even more convoluted than the preceding seasons. Not 100% neatly tied up, but overall a strong finish.
  5. Marvel's Agents of SHIELD - more ups that downs; a lot of fun moments, good endearing moments, interesting plot twists; these characters became very likable as the show progressed. It stuck the landing pretty well.
  6. Westworld – I liked it, mainly thanks to the show producing a interesting world. I continued to like the characters, too, though the plot was at times lackluster.
  7. Lovecraft Country one more episode to go; the sum of its parts is not as great as some of its parts; the episodes were up and down in quality, but the good ones were really good.
  8. The Umbrella Academy - season 2 worked much better for me than season 1. I found most aspects about the show to have been improved. 
  9. Altered Carbon – not as good as first season and now cancelled. A few choices diminished the characterization of the protagonist. It was still strong on the visuals, and I’m still intrigued about its universe.
  10. Brooklyn Nine-Nine – I’ve returned to this show this summer, re-watching and then watching all the new stuff; season 7 was released earlier this year; it was good and fun for the most part, but this kind of show deserves a longer season; I didn’t like the Holt premise in the early part, I feel it stretched belief more than anything this show has done
  11. The Last Kingdom – I was disappointed in how much it diverged from both books and history. I had too high hopes that this show could be more unique, rather than follow in the path of other shows. Alas, while still mostly fun, it may not be that special anymore.
  12. The Outsider – Had a very strong opening, then meandered somewhat, up until the last couple of episodes, which finished fairly well. Well-acted throughout.
  13. Beforeigners – An enjoyable dark comedy with an interesting premise, if the execution wasn't that strong. Most of the characters were fun.
  14. Homeland – an ok final season, but with some hard to believe and digest plot twists. I’m glad it’s over.
  15. Raised by Wolves – Ridley Scott is not the showrunner, but he is EP, and his influence is apparent; an interesting premise, but as the story progressed it started to feel a lot like Scott’s Prometheus/Alien universe. Only a couple of the characters were good.
  16. Outlander – While still looking wonderful, the story this season was incredibly slow and boring, and its ending had some poor creative choices, to put it mildly.
  17. Star Trek: Picard - well this should have been better; slow start, strong build up, meh finale. It demands more exploration of the world. Patrick Stewart was strong, but I didn't feel much attachment to the new characters. Maybe that will improve next season.
  18. Lucifer – a fun show; I binged the whole thing a few months ago, and Netflix released a batch of new episodes in August; I feel the show peaked somewhere around the end of season 2 and parts of season 3. The newer stuff is mostly meh. 
  19. Messiah – not bad, but I feel the mystery is better than the eventual answers; the show had a good dance between religious and secular themes, which I liked, but I can see how it could be controversial. (Edit: show's been cancelled)
  20. Locke & Key – an interesting premise, and great visuals; predictable season ending, and in the end not that compelling of a story.
  21. Warrior Nun - wooden dialogue, mediocre acting, generally bad visuals, failure for the cast to actually learn Spanish despite the setting, the occasional good moment, and crap cliffhanger ending. I don't care if it returns.
  22. The Letter for the King - on par with GoT season 8. Stuff happened because of reasons, character development was stunted. I suppose it has the excuse of being YA, but it was still mostly trash. It had the weirdest, slowest magical good v. evil duel I've ever seen, with no explanation whatsoever. 
Link to comment
Share on other sites

One addition to my list, but since I realized the OP said we could add older shows too, preferably in another list, so I'll add other, older shows I've watched.

2020 shows (except for The Witcher, but it came out in late December)

Great:

1.     Dark season 3

2.     Harley Quinn season 1 and 2

3.     The Haunting of Bly Manor - Less of the kind of horror that you usually see, more of a Gothic romance, this is a beautiful, sad atmospheric show, occasionally creepy, but more of a ghost-love story full of metaphors about grief, memory, trauma, love, death, loss

4.     Babylon Berlin season 3

5.     The Plot Against America

6.     BoJack Horseman season 6b

Excellent:

7.     Upload season 1

8.     What We Do in the Shadows season 2

9.     The Good Place season 4

10.  Evil season 1

11.  The Alienist: Angel of Darkness (season 2)

Pretty good:

12.  Penny Dreadful: City of Angels season 1

13.  Prodigal Son season 1

14.  The Witcher season 1

15.  Agents of SHIELD season 7

16.  Roswell: New Mexico season 2

17.  Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist season 1

OK:

18.  Star Trek: Picard season 1

19.  Stumptown season 1

20.  Emergence season 1

....

....HUGE GAP

...

Absolutely awful:

21.  The 100 season 7 - probably the worst final season ever, ruined the entire show

 

Older shows or seasons I've watched this year

Great

1.     Peaky Blinders (seasons 1-2) -  I'm starting season 3. Great actors, great characters, great atmosphere an music. I love it.

2.     Orange is the New Black (almost finished season 4) - This show was classified as comedy with the Emmys? OK, it is a comedy-drama, and can be very funny, but the storylines of many of the characters are heartbreaking, and season 4 gets particularly intense and even tragic. Lost-style flashbacks for a different character in each episode is used really well.

Really good:

3.     Kingdom (season 1 - season 2 will be added to the above list so I will take it down from this one then) - really well done and entertaining South Korean political period drama with zombies, with very engaging action scenes.

4.     The Tunnel (seasons 1-2) - this version of the Danish/Swedish Bridge premise - in this version, it's UK and French detectives - had interesting plots - a lot of it touching on EU politics - and great performances by  Clémence Poésy and Stephen Dillane (in a role as different from Stannis as possible). I don't know how it compares to the original, since I haven't seen it, but I think I like it better than the US/Mexico version.

Mostly good:

5.     Orphan Black (entire show) - I binged this one earlier this year. Tatiana Maslany is amazing, the show is always entertaining, and there are several interesting and likable characters, but the plot gets convoluted and more and more ridiculous after season 1 and there's tonal dissonance between the funny main character's storyline and all the other ones.

6.     Penny Dreadful (entire show) - I was OK with season 1, really liked season 2 and most of season 3, and Eva Green and Rory Kinear were fantastic. But the ending was a huge disappointment. I know it was cancelled, but they still could've done something better.

7.     Teen Wolf (season 4) - Season 4 was the best of this show, which has likable characters and mostly good seasonal plots, but has problems with continuity between seasons, constantly dropping supporting characters and forgetting about them, and terrible writing for pretty much every romance.

Not so good:

8.     Wynonna Earp )season 3) - the first 2 seasons of this fantasy/horror comedy-drama that doesn't take itself too seriously were a lot of fun, with likable characters. But the plot of season 3 really went off the rails, even for this show's standards, and I didn't like whatever they were doing with some of the characters, so I've dropped it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
  1. Dark Season 3
  2. Mrs America
  3. Blood of Zeus Season 1
  4. Defending Jacob
  5. La Casa de Papel Season 4
  6. The Good Fight Season 4
  7. Hollywood
  8. Lost in Space Season 2
  9. The English Game
  10. Altered Carbon Season 2
  11. Young Sheldon Season 3
  12. Outlander Season 5
  13. Grey's anatomy Season 16

Will be adding new ones as I finish them. But first Blood of Zeus - I have thoroughly enjoyed it and as a fan of Greek mythology, I was completely bought.

The Boys, Away, Lovecroft country and Raised by the Wolves coming next...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  1. Dark Season 3
  2. Mrs America
  3. Blood of Zeus Season 1
  4. Defending Jacob
  5. The Good Fight Season 4
  6. La Casa de Papel Season 4
  7. Lost in Space Season 2
  8. Lovecraft Country Season 1
  9. Hollywood
  10. The English Game
  11. Altered Carbon Season 2
  12. Young Sheldon Season 3
  13. Outlander Season 5
  14. Grey's anatomy Season 16

So, LC started amazingly well. That first episode was perfect. In every aspect. It showed both the racism and the horror absolutely well. After, not so much. I am still thinking about Tulsa race massacre and I think it should have been incorporated better into the story. That said, in many ways, I feel ashamed for not knowing so much about what has been happening in USA throughout 20th century.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

New additions in red.

2020 shows (except for The Witcher, but it came out in late December)

Great:

1.     Dark season 3

2.     Harley Quinn season 1 and 2

3.     Babylon Berlin seasons 1-3 - I've decided to move this one up one place, because I binged all 3 seasons this year, and while season 3 was really good, I wouldn't place it above Bly Manor - but the entire show so far deserves to be higher.

4.     The Haunting of Bly Manor 

5.     The Plot Against America

6.     BoJack Horseman season 6b

Excellent:

7.     Upload season 1

8.     What We Do in the Shadows season 2

9,     Kingdom seasons 1-2 - I watched both seasons of this excellent Korean zombie drama this year. Season 2 was stronger than season 1, with more compelling personal and political drama and some twists, while the action scenes were as great as in season 1.

10.     The Good Place season 4

11.     Evil season 1

12.     The Alienist: Angel of Darkness (season 2)

Pretty good:

13.  Penny Dreadful: City of Angels season 1

14.  Prodigal Son season 1

15.  The Witcher season 1

16.  Agents of SHIELD season 7

17.  Roswell: New Mexico season 2

18.  Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist season 1

OK:

19.  Star Trek: Picard season 1

20.  Stumptown season 1

21.  Emergence season 1

....

....HUGE GAP

...

Absolutely awful:

22.  The 100 season 7 - probably the worst final season ever, ruined the entire show

 

Older shows or seasons I've watched this year

Great

1.     Westworld (season 1) - I've finally found the time to start this show., which I had heard talked about so much - fortunately, nothing spoilery. Season 1 had a really compelling storyline and mysteries, and it all came together well. I guessed a few of the big twists - the breadcrumbs were there - but not the final and arguably biggest ones, at the very end of the finale. If seasons 2 and 3 are as good, this will be high on my 2020 list.

2.     Peaky Blinders (seasons 1-2)

3.     Orange is the New Black  (up to season 5)

4.     12 Monkeys (season 1) - the first half of the season didn't grab me so quickly - but everyone said the show takes some time to get great. I really liked the second half of season 1, and the first couple of episodes of season 2 have been excellent.

Really good:

5.     The Tunnel (seasons 1-2) 

Mostly good:

6.     Orphan Black (entire show)

7.     Penny Dreadful (entire show) 

8.     Teen Wolf (season 4) 

Bad:

9.     Wynonna Earp )season 3) - made me drop the show

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  1. Dark Season 3
  2. The Crown Season 4
  3. Mrs America
  4. Blood of Zeus Season 1
  5. Defending Jacob
  6. The Good Fight Season 4
  7. La Casa de Papel Season 4
  8. Lost in Space Season 2
  9. Raised by the Wolves Season 1
  10. Lovecraft Country Season 1
  11. Hollywood
  12. The English Game
  13. Altered Carbon Season 2
  14. Young Sheldon Season 3
  15. Outlander Season 5
  16. Grey's Anatomy Season 16

Raised by the Wolves had incredible premise, strong cast, stunning visuals and yet, it narratively failed. Sci Fi can be complex without being incomprehensible. Dark is one of those examples where your mind is bent to the points of breaking but still you find some sense. Here, it just lacks any sense. 

The Crown was amazing. Strong performances by Gillian Anderson and Emma Corrin made sure to make the 1980s very interesting when it comes to the Buckingham Palace. There were a lot of great moments and between the music and the wonderful cast, this one continues to excel.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
  1. Dark Season 3
  2. The Queen's Gambit
  3. The Crown Season 4
  4. Mrs America
  5. Blood of Zeus Season 1
  6. Defending Jacob
  7. The Good Fight Season 4
  8. La Casa de Papel Season 4
  9. Lost in Space Season 2
  10. Raised by the Wolves Season 1
  11. Lovecraft Country Season 1
  12. Hollywood
  13. The English Game
  14. Altered Carbon Season 2
  15. Young Sheldon Season 3
  16. Outlander Season 5
  17. Grey's Anatomy Season 16

I like chess, although I am not a great good player. But, this is what we needed this year. A sense of victory, a joy of overcoming the personal trauma and crisis. Truly great! 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, Mladen said:
  1. Dark Season 3
  2. The Queen's Gambit
  3. The Crown Season 4
  4. Mrs America
  5. Blood of Zeus Season 1
  6. Defending Jacob
  7. The Good Fight Season 4
  8. La Casa de Papel Season 4
  9. Lost in Space Season 2
  10. Raised by the Wolves Season 1
  11. Lovecraft Country Season 1
  12. Hollywood
  13. The English Game
  14. Altered Carbon Season 2
  15. Young Sheldon Season 3
  16. Outlander Season 5
  17. Grey's Anatomy Season 16

I like chess, although I am not a great good player. But, this is what we needed this year. A sense of victory, a joy of overcoming the personal trauma and crisis. Truly great! 

I'll be surprised if everyone doesn't have this at least top 3. Other than what we do in the shadows, nothing else comes close for me. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

A few shows to add

  1. The Boys – another great season, with excellent character development, and as strong as ever in satirizing our modern cultural values. There were some moments of lazy writing, but not enough to diminish my enjoyment of it.
  2. Star Wars: The Clone Wars – when it comes to series finales, this show is in the group that had exceedingly strong finishes. While the 3 arcs were not of the same quality, it was consistently strong on the visual side. Also, an amazing soundtrack.
  3. Kingdom (Korean Netflix show) - a highly entertaining second season. Maybe not as solid as season 1, but still excellent, with several good twists and turns. Interested to see how the story evolves.
  4. The Mandalorian - it may not be perfect, but it's damn good Star Wars. Visually it is the best show right now on TV.
  5. Dark - a pretty good final season, but even more convoluted than the preceding seasons. Not 100% neatly tied up, but overall a strong finish.
  6. Marvel's Agents of SHIELD - more ups that downs; a lot of fun moments, good endearing moments, interesting plot twists; these characters became very likable as the show progressed. It stuck the landing pretty well.
  7. Westworld – I liked it, mainly thanks to the show producing a interesting world. I continued to like the characters, too, though the plot was at times lackluster.
  8. The Umbrella Academy - season 2 worked much better for me than season 1. I found most aspects about the show to have been improved. 
  9. Altered Carbon – not as good as first season and now cancelled. A few choices diminished the characterization of the protagonist. It was still strong on the visuals, and I’m still intrigued about its universe.
  10. Barbarians - I appreciated their attempt at historical accuracy, between the Latin speak, and pretty good costumes, but they also stumbled in places; the story and characters were ok, but nothing really mesmerizing. 
  11. Brooklyn Nine-Nine – I’ve returned to this show this summer, re-watching and then watching all the new stuff; season 7 was released earlier this year; it was good and fun for the most part, but this kind of show deserves a longer season; I didn’t like the Holt premise in the early part, I feel it stretched belief more than anything this show has done
  12. The Last Kingdom – I was disappointed in how much it diverged from both books and history. I had too high hopes that this show could be more unique, rather than follow in the path of other shows. Alas, while still mostly fun, it may not be that special anymore.
  13. Lovecraft Country the sum of its parts is not as great as some of its parts; the episodes were up and down in quality, but the good ones were really good.
  14. The Outsider – Had a very strong opening, then meandered somewhat, up until the last couple of episodes, which finished fairly well. Well-acted throughout.
  15. Beforeigners – An enjoyable dark comedy with an interesting premise, if the execution wasn't that strong. Most of the characters were fun.
  16. Homeland – an ok final season, but with some hard to believe and digest plot twists. I’m glad it’s over.
  17. La Révolution - a familiar fantasy story of monsters vs people wanting to change the system but with the setting of late 18th century France. However, for all the lofty eulogies, epic music, and good visuals, the show felt small, the story confined in a bubble, without really wishing to explore the actual lead up to the French Revolution.
  18. Raised by Wolves – Ridley Scott is not the showrunner, but he is EP, and his influence is apparent; an interesting premise, but as the story progressed it started to feel a lot like Scott’s Prometheus/Alien universe. Only a couple of the characters were good.
  19. Outlander – While still looking wonderful, the story this season was incredibly slow and boring, and its ending had some poor creative choices, to put it mildly.
  20. Star Trek: Picard - well this should have been better; slow start, strong build up, meh finale. It demands more exploration of the world. Patrick Stewart was strong, but I didn't feel much attachment to the new characters. Maybe that will improve next season.
  21. Lucifer – a fun show; I binged the whole thing a few months ago, and Netflix released a batch of new episodes in August; I feel the show peaked somewhere around the end of season 2 and parts of season 3. The newer stuff is mostly meh. 
  22. Messiah – not bad, but I feel the mystery is better than the eventual answers; the show had a good dance between religious and secular themes, which I liked, but I can see how it could be controversial. (Edit: show's been cancelled)
  23. Locke & Key – an interesting premise, and great visuals; predictable season ending, and in the end not that compelling of a story.
  24. Warrior Nun - wooden dialogue, mediocre acting, generally bad visuals, failure for the cast to actually learn Spanish despite the setting, the occasional good moment, and crap cliffhanger ending. I don't care if it returns.
  25. The Letter for the King - on par with GoT season 8. Stuff happened because of reasons, character development was stunted. I suppose it has the excuse of being YA, but it was still mostly trash. It had the weirdest, slowest magical good v. evil duel I've ever seen, with no explanation whatsoever. 
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's been over a month since I updated this. New additions in red.

2020 shows (except for The Witcher, but it came out in late December)

Great:

1.     Dark season 3

2.    Normal People - absolutely amazing and beautiful realistic character drama that really makes you feel for and root for the two mains and their relationship

3.     Harley Quinn season 1 and 2

4.     Babylon Berlin seasons 1-3 - I saw all 3 seasons this year. it's a place higher than if I just counted season 3, which was great but not as great as season 2.

5.     The Haunting of Bly Manor 

6.     The Plot Against America

7.     BoJack Horseman season 6b

Excellent:

8.     Upload season 1

9.     What We Do in the Shadows season 2

10.    Perry Mason season 1 - great performances, engaging characters, a compelling mystery and great atmosphere of the 1920s US

11,     Kingdom seasons 1-2

12.     The Good Place season 4

13,     Evil season 1

14.     The Alienist: Angel of Darkness (season 2)

Pretty good:

15. The Umbrella Academy season 2 - a marked improvement from the first season. The show was always fun, but the characters are much more likable now and the family dynamic much better done, and they fixed most of the issues from S1.

16. Love, Victor season 1 - this sequel to Love. Simon improves on the movie by looking at the "coming of age story of a gay teenager" from a different angle and with a protagonist from a different background. 

17.  Penny Dreadful: City of Angels season 1

18.  Prodigal Son season 1

19.  The Witcher season 1

20.  Agents of SHIELD season 7

21.  Roswell: New Mexico season 2

22.  Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist season 1

23. The Mandalorian season 2 - the show is fine and has many charms - classic Western tropes in space, many references and fanservice for both casual and hardcore Star Wars fans, and of course, a cute muppet baby - but it's pretty overrated. Like that Emmy Best Drama nomination... that's a bit too much.

OK:

24.  Star Trek: Picard season 1

25.  Stumptown season 1

26.  Emergence season 1

....HUGE GAP

Absolutely awful:

27.  The 100 season 7 - the worst final season ever

 

 

Older shows or seasons I've watched this year

Great

1.     The Haunting of Hill House - after this and Bly Manor, I'll watch anything Mike Flanagan makes from now on

2.     American Crime (all 3 seasons) - I would love more of this anthology show, which tackles so many painful issues of contemporary USA - from issues of race, class, sexuality, to addiction, abuse, sexual assault, to modern slavery, from various POVs and letting the audience make judgments about the characters. 

3.     After Life (season 1) - one of the rare dramedies that's as great as a comedy and as a drama, both hilarious and beautifully touching. I will be adding it to the above list when I finish season 2. 

4.    Westworld (season 1 - will be adding it to the above list if I finish seasons 2 and 3 by the end of the year)

5.     Peaky Blinders (seasons 1-2)

6.     Orange is the New Black  (seasons 1-6)

7.    12 Monkeys (season 1)

Really good:

8.     The Tunnel (seasons 1-2) 

9.    Succession (season 1) - I still don't know why this show is classified as a drama at Emmy's, it's a black comedy more than anything

Mostly good:

10.     Orphan Black (entire show)

11.     Penny Dreadful (entire show) 

12.     Teen Wolf (season 4) 

Bad:

13.     Wynonna Earp )season 3)

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...