I mentioned in my previous post that the comedies may have arguably been better than the dramas. I'm not sure if that's true or not, but I found myself having tougher cuts. I found more shows were worthy of a top five and a top ten than there were spots to fill. Most of the honorable mentions legitimately belong on this list, but I just didn't have room.
#10 It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia - FXX
Model Episode - "The Gang Turns Black"
There is no better testament to the quality of this list than It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia being the tenth show. I promise you. It got the tenth spot mostly because it would be weird if one of my favorite comedies of all time didn't make this list while having about the same quality as it usually has. It's not a perfect measure, but I don't think the 12th season was appreciably worse than the 11th season, and the 11th season placed #4 last year.
Either you're in or you're out at this point. It's been 12 seasons and until recently it was on Netflix for the past 5+ years. It was not hard to figure out how to watch the show. Most people reading this are probably internet savvy and have interacted with people who praise the show. So if you've gone on this long without deciding to watch It's Always Sunny, well you're probably not ever going to watch it. That's fine. I think you're missing out, but I understand the time value of picking your shows. For people who do watch it, I probably do not have to sell you on this ranking.
#9 Vice Principals - HBO
Model Episode - "The Union of the Wizard and the Warrior"
Danny McBride and the writing team evidently filmed both the first and second seasons back-to-back before the first season ever aired. They planned out a two season show, filmed it, and then the first season aired. This was rather surprising to me when I learned that. I watched season one and came away without much of an opinion on it. I liked Walton Goggins hamming it up, but as for the show? It was fine. The second season was like a show responding to a mild response to the first season and improving mightily. But... the show wrote and filmed season two before there was even a response to the first season. Like I said, I was surprised when I found that out.
There's much more emotional grounding in the wackiness that occurs this season. They delve deeper into Gamby's psyche and Goggins is able to provide some shading to Lee Russell as well. Plus, they got a classic whodunit, which provides a central mystery to the second season. This is just a well done dark comedy. I also enjoyed the focus on character - as outlandish as the two main characters can be - showing the two main characters respond differently to adversity. I'm not going to spoil, but I'll just say that on a character level, it was pretty great where they took the characters. In hindsight, it's clear that season one was part one of the story - and setup isn't as interesting as when the action happens (and you get action aplenty in the final two episodes of this season)
#8 Master of None - Netflix
Model Episode - "Thanksgiving"
A tough show to place on a list such as this because of its inconsistency. On the one hand, episodes like "Thanksgiving" were among the best any television had to offer, providing a completely unique and engaging story that you can't see anywhere else. On the other hand, boy did a lot of this season just not work. Francesca is not a well-rounded character whatsoever. There's more chemistry in the first episode with Dev and his failed love connection than there is between Dev and Francesca. It really drives a lot of the season down. Dev getting a job as a food host also mostly didn't work that well.
But when they had a fantastic episode, it was among the best there was in 2017. When I'm looking at shows and what to place on this list, I tend to focus on peak more than overall consistency. That's why Master of None's second season made this list despite probably being worse than a few shows not on the list. Because it had a much, much greater peak than a B+ level show usually does.
#7 The Good Place - NBC
Model Episode - "Dance Dance Resolution"
This was not as tough to rationalize as Master of None, as The Good Place had arguably zero weak episodes in 2017. Keep in mind that I'm grading only episodes that aired in 2017, so we got the thrilling conclusion of season one and the batshit insanity of what happened at the beginning of season two. There was a few episodes there in a row where I wonder "how in the fuck will they keep this up" and they kept answering that question with great episodes. It's slowed down a bit since then, but I have complete faith in Michael Schur and the writing team to surprise us again at some point.
I'm going to make this one shorter just because I'm avoiding spoilers since this is a show particularly prone to spoiler ruining fun so I can't exactly specifically explain plot points I loved.
#6 American Vandal - Netflix
Model Episode - "A Limp Alibi"
I spent the first episode too confused as to how it was so good to appreciate what I was watching, so the second episode "A Limp Alibi" is really when I fell in love with this improbably fantastic show. There's no reason this show should be as good as it is, and it certainly falls squarely under the "I'm really doubting that can even come close to matching this in the second season." But wow. I'm going to avoid talking in detail for two reasons mainly. The first is that it's fucking impossible to try and explain how this show is good in a way that doesn't make you sound insane. The second and much more minor reason is spoilers.
So go watch the show and find out who drew the dicks and yes that is an example of how I sound insane when I say it is good.
#5 Review - Comedy Central
Model Episode - "Co Host, Ass Slap, Forgiveness, Helen Keller"
This is all the way down to #5 for a very simple reason. It aired three episodes. This is the highest I could reasonably justify putting it. This is a stacked year for comedy. While all three Review episodes were straight A quality, nearly every comedy on this list did manage to make three A quality episodes. I'm giving Review extra points for making EVERY episode a straight A and telling a perfect conclusion to a show that did not appear to need a third season. I mean I wanted a conclusion, but it wasn't strictly necessary.
Forrest MacNeil is a delusional host of a meaningless program that he has convinced is more important than it is. In fact, it's his whole life. You really need to watch the first two seasons in order to understand that, but Comedy Central is next to FX in making their programs inaccessible without paying for it, which... fair enough, but in the golden age of streaming TV, people just are just going to skip the show instead of pay for it. I was just going to recommend watching it on Hulu except it appears that is no longer the case. Ugh I'm sorry for those who didn't get to watch it.
#4 Bojack Horseman - Netflix
Model Episode - "Time's Arrow"
One thing I really appreciate about Bojack Horseman for the purposes of this list is that it's really great episodes - and really great episodes are an essential part of how I form this list - are really obvious when looking at the episodes because they all seem to knock you on your ass. "Time's Arrow" in particular - I just can't imagine anyone not being hit hard by that episode. This is mostly a comedy, but then there's episodes like this where you have a greater than average chance of cutting onions while watching the episode. If you were affected by the penultimate episode of season three - I won't spoil, but if you watch it, you should know the event I'm talking about - well I was hit much harder by the penultimate episode of season four. Goddam.
Anyway, Bojack Horseman is another example of a show that really shouldn't work as well as it does when you look at it on paper. But it straddles dark comedy, silly comedy, pun comedy, and unbearable sadness and depression really well. This obviously could only exist in cartoon form and I kind of appreciate that.
#3 Broad City - Comedy Central
Model Episode - "Witches"
In reality, I could have picked five different episodes. There's a great episode about their origin story, which is the first episode of the season. They conclude it with a celebration of their friendship which gives Broad City nice bookend episodes. There's also an episode where "Ilana can't orgasm in Trump's America" is a literally accurate headline for what the episode is about. I mean if you read that headline and you're not in, don't watch Broad City because it's not for you.
For whatever reason this was my favorite season of Broad City. I'm not sure I can tell you it was the best, although I am literally telling you it was the best in my opinion. I just have not quite been in tune with Broad City fans in the past so I'm not sure if that's the popular consensus. But I really loved this season.
#2 Rick and Morty - Adult Swim
Model Episode - "Pickle Rick"
Much like Broad City, I could have picked any number of episodes, but I have to give it to the episode where the creators make its main character a pickle for nearly the entire episode. It's an insane episode and probably not the best of the season, but I admire the audacity too much not to put it in my model episode.
There are two responses to my ranking, which are probably "Ugh why does everyone love this show" and "Ugh why is it not #1?" and I'm not sure there's many who are in between those reactions. I slightly am, although it is worth pointing out that the vast majority of the latter response, statistically speaking, do not watch the #1 show. Which brings me to....
#1 Nathan for You - Comedy Central
Model Episode - Finding Frances
With most model episodes, I intend to give you a portrait of what makes that show great. It's also usually the best episode of the season, although not in all cases. "Finding Frances" is why this show is on this list. This season is seven episodes long, but the seventh is "Finding Frances," and it's the length of a feature length film, which is fucking incredible if you've ever seen this show. It's not easy to imagine this show as a feature length film. Until you've seen Finding Frances.
Once again, Nathan Felder is somehow able to use real people's responses to his deadpan suggestions and create a narrative of a lonely person at the center of it. How in the fuck he does that, I will never know? But Nathan Felder is genuinely a character in this show. An awkward, sympathetic, hopelessly lonely character who just wants to make friends and find love. If this show sounds improbably more profound than a docu-reality series should be, well you're right. It doesn't make sense. That's why it's the number one show for me.
Honorable Mentions
Brooklyn Nine-Nine - This was my 11th show. Ultimately, B99 has a few too many forgettable episodes to place on this list and not quite enough "peak" but that's not a knock on the show. By my ridiculous standards, it's nearly impossible for a network comedy to fall on this list.
You're the Worst - This sure fell from grace. I didn't think the 4th season was bad, but it was a definite downgrade from seasons past. Part of the drop has to do with the amazingness of the shows around it, but it played its part in it for sure.
Silicon Valley - I'm in a perpetuating cycle with Silicon Valley at this point. I didn't place it in my top ten the first year, and I'm not really finding the show topping it self so I find it hard to justify placing it in a top ten. Either way, it was going to be impossible for Silicon Valley to find it this year. But I will give it a shout out because it's the best show that's never made my top ten.
Insecure - I definitely think this show suffered from not having as clear of a narrative structure as the first season, but most importantly, its down here because everything else raised their standard around it.
Glow - Ultimately, this was felled by the fact that I only really considered two episodes of this "really great" and those were the wrestling episodes. If I could have put it in the top ten, I would have, I just couldn't justify it to myself over these other shows.
Catastrophe - Going over the honorable mentions just makes me realize what a fucking impossible task this was. I fully intended to include this in my top ten at some point, but look at these shows! Plus, there's only six episodes and I kind of penalized it for that.
Veep - I finally caught up to Veep! And it probably put in its worst season yet. Go figure.
Sorry for typos and poorly written sentences. I wrote the majority of this rushed and will go over it after I post it to fix mistakes, but you first time readers get my ALL of my mistakes right off the bat. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it.
