When I started making top ten lists, I split up the top ten between dramas and comedies for essentially two reasons. The first is that I find it impossible to directly compare a comedy and a drama in terms of quality. They have such different goals. Plus, I tended to favor the dramas. In other words, I knew I'd probably end up with 8 dramas and 2 comedies or some lopsided amount of dramas. Secondly, there were really that many shows I thought deserving of a top ten. I didn't want to ignore 8 comedies or even the 3-4 dramas I wanted on a top ten. I thought they should all be recognized. (If you're wondering why I didn't do a top twenty, same fear: I felt like I might have 15 dramas and 5 comedies)
This might have gone differently if I had started top ten lists this year. I could very easily have made a top ten combining dramas and comedies - though with extremely difficulty still in comparing the two. I don't know what's different, but I used to be able to roughly guess what a top ten show looked like. I'd label the shows I was certain were a top ten show and then see how many top ten shows I had and I usually ended up with 15 for both genres. Then I'd struggle to cut it down to 10. This year, I did the same and... ended up with like 5 shows. Not sure if my standards are greater, or if TV just hit a boom a couple years ago.
With that said, I ultimately decided to stick with this format, because surprise surprise comedy ended up with over 10 comedies that I thought deserving of a spot once I went past my initial impressions. Dramas? Well that's for tomorrow.
#10 - Bob's Burgers (Fox)
Sample episode: "Taking of Funtime One Two Three"
I will present to you a hypothetical on why Bob's Burgers is on this list. I value peak over consistency. A B show with A episodes and C episodes would stand a better chance at making this list than a B show with all B episodes. Neither are likely to make my top ten list and rarely do television shows present me with that specific problem, but I made an exception for this rule with Bob's Burgers.
That's not to say they don't have any A episodes. The episode above is one such example. It just has about the same amount of A episodes as most comedies considered for this list, and they did it with less episodes. But its weakness is also its strength. In 2018, Bob's Burgers aired 24 episodes and there was maybe one or two weak episodes. Bob's Burgers is remarkably consistent. It's always a good show, sometimes a great one. This is pretty much the definitive family show for me. All the characters are nice, the family is extremely supportive of each other, and the closest thing the show has to a wet blanket is H. Jon Benjamin sighing and commenting on how stupid everything is, which is GREAT.
#9 Corporate (Comedy Central)
Sample episode: "Casual Friday"
"It's another day at heartless, multinational corporate hellhole Hampton DeVille where junior executives-in-training Matt and Jake are at the beck and call of tyrannical CEO Christian DeVille and his top deputies, brown-nosers John and Kate."
Given the channel it's on and its viewership numbers, most people probably haven't heard of this show. I didn't think I could provide an adequate description and I think whoever wrote that in Wikipedia did as fine a job as I would. Corporate is not for everyone. It's a very dark show and I mean that literally. It's like all black, grey, and blue. The episode above is "Casual Friday" and the place goes into chaos because one character actually dresses casual for it. It's that type of show. The highlight is easily Lance Reddick, who plays the CEO. Watch him in this Funny or Die skit, which predated the show by a few years, and if you enjoy that, you'll enjoy him in this show. It's basically the same performance.
#8 Bojack Horseman (Netflix)
Sample episode: "Showstopper"
Bojack is a victim of its own success. I don't mean the character, though it applies there too. I mean that I know what Bojack at its best and I think the most recent season was not Bojack at its best. I'm not sure if any of the episodes from this season would make my own personal top ten Bojack episodes.
But it's still Bojack Horseman. My above paragraph is only necessary because Bojack finished 4th last year. It finished 5th the year before. The fundamental nature of Bojack Horseman the show is such that I imagine it will have a difficult time for the next few seasons without just repeating itself. Bojack must always be struggling, must always do something self-destructive. It's a pretty clear pattern at this point. While I still love the show, I'm not sure it will ever get back in the top five because of this. Happy to be proven wrong though.
Cool note: Bojack Horseman's 4th selection in my 4th year of doing this makes this the only comedy that has been on my list every time. Two other shows were on my list for three straight years. Broad City took the year off. The other show is in my honorable mentions.
#7 Barry (HBO)
Model episode: "Loud, Fast and Keep Going"
It feels like Barry deserves to be higher, but unfortunately two things kept it at a very reasonable 7. The first reason is that it took legitimately three episodes to set up the premise. The premise is that a hit man wants to stop being a hit man and turns to an acting class. To not get into too many details, but they basically need a reason for him to stay in the same city so that he can attend the same acting class in order to make the premise work. Thus, it took about three episodes in order to get the characters where the show wanted them in order to make the comedy they wanted.
The second reason is that the show is only eight episodes. This was probably not an option, but I think it would have worked better if they essentially had an hour and a half pilot episode. Because the third episode still felt like part of the pilot. Nonetheless, the show's last three episodes are all great. If you didn't know Bill Hader was a hell of an actor by now, where the fuck have you been? He's perhaps giving the best performance of his career and Henry Winkler is just delightful in this.
#6 American Vandal (Netflix)
Model Episode: "The Dump"
American Vandal should have been a global phenomenon. It's just way too hard of a show to sell. It's impossible to tell people to watch the show without sounding like an idiot. Season one was such a perfect, impossibly good season that it was foolish to even make a second season. I mean where could they possibly go from there?
While I wouldn't say American Vandal's second season is as good as the first, I think it's about as good as it could possibly be. I don't know that there was a way to improve on this season, because it's got a self-limiting premise. The first season's tagline was "Who drew the dicks?" The second season's is "Who is the Turd Buglar?" This show's greatest strength is that they actually care about the mystery. Well, that and that they nail the mockumentary format.
#5 Big Mouth (Netflix)
Model Episode: "Dark Side of the Boob"
I watched Big Mouth's first season earlier this year, and thus have no idea if it would have placed on my top ten last year. Just decided to write it off too soon. It happens. Once I watched the first season this year, I made sure I wasn't going to forget to watch the second season in time. John Mulaney and Nick Kroll have a good comedic relationship, in case you haven't watched Oh, Hello or any of their openings for the Spirit Awards. Big Mouth is no exception.
Big Mouth is a show that I think would be good to show to kids going through puberty. It's too dirty to be shown in schools, but it's freely available on Netflix, so I'm sure kids going through puberty are watching the show. Some people are probably freaked out about that, but the show clearly strives for comedy AND to be educational on these topics. The highlights of this show are still the Hormone Monster, played by Nick Kroll, and the Hormone Monstress, played by Maya Rudolph. Watch this show for Rudolph if for no other reason.
#4 Dear White People
Model Episode: Chapter VIII
Congratulations to DeRon Horton, who appeared in both American Vandal's second season and Dear White People. I liked Dear White People's first season, but it was very clunky in a lot of parts. It reached a high most shows do not, hitting its stride in the middle of the season, but the rest did not live up to a particular incident that colors the whole season.
The second season has one of my favorite episodes of 2018, if not my favorite, when it has two characters in a room for pretty much the entire episode. They have a 25-30 conversation and it's great television. The show was just much stronger in this season. The show has always dealt with complex issues, but it was just better written in this season.
#3 The Good Place
Model Episode: Janet(s)
The Good Place did not have an appreciably better third season than the first two seasons. I placed the first season 6th and the 2nd season 7th in the past two years. The first season is a consequence of the show only airing about 9 episodes in 2016 and the ending of the first season, which I had not reached, kind of changed the game. Last year, The Good Place was in a ridiculously stacked year, full of shows that have ended or didn't air an episode in 2018.
No such issues this year. The Good Place is still constantly changing as a show and I can't explain why without spoiling it. But you should definitely be watching this show. I won't say anymore for fear of accidental spoilers.
#2 GLOW
Model Episode: Mother of All Matches
Unlike The Good Place, which I felt had a similar quality to its last few seasons (if not arguably weaker in fact), GLOW was a huge improvement over the first season in my opinion. I'm not saying it was bad. Indeed, it was only left off my list last year entirely because 2017 comedy was incredibly stacked (Nathan for You, Review, Rick & Morty, Broad City, Master of None - literally none of these shows aired a single episode in 2018 for various reasons).
In "Mother of All Matches," GLOW truly makes one of the hardest episodes of television to watch, but in the best way possible. Starting with that episode, GLOW pretty much nailed the rest of the season's episodes too. They had about seven straight great episodes in a row, with maybe one exception.
#1 Atlanta
Model Episode: "Teddy Perkins"
Atlanta is a show that changes what type of show it is from week to week. It can shift easily from being a horror film (Teddy Perkins), a coming-of-age period piece (FUBU), a road trip buddy comedy gone wrong (North of the Border), or a tale between a couple (Helen). You don't know what you're getting when you start an episode of Atlanta.
That makes it sound like a show that is wildly unpredictable and in some ways it is, but the show still has Earn being a manager for Paper Boi, with Van as the sort of love interest, and of course Darius being Darius. It's not that confusing of a show to follow despite the fact that the tone constantly changes. That's why this is #1. Because it has achieved the difficult task of being unpredictable but not with that pratfalls usually associated with an unpredictable show.
Honorable Mention
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia - The was the other show that was on my list for three years running. Ultimately, the show had two outright bad episodes out of 10 and I couldn't really say that about any shows on this list. The finale was excellent.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine - I wanted to include this, I did, but I had to give the nod to Bob's Burgers over B99. I'm unfortunately holding it against the show that they had less episodes and I felt a few more "duds," which is kind of unfair because I still enjoy watching a dud episode of B99.
Insecure - Insecure has taken a weird approach to storytelling since it has just eight episodes. Just too many pointless detours in plot that end up not mattering at all. Good finale kept it in the honorable mentions.
Casual - I'll give a shout out to Casual, which kept me entertained as a solid, but unspectacular show for four seasons.
Archer - Archer is changing its setting and tone for each new season and that's admirable, but I think it's well past its prime. I do give it credit for being different at least.
Blackish - Very solid, very consistent network comedy that only suffers because it's hard for a network comedy to make a list such as this.
Alright, that is my top ten for comedy. I am hoping I can write my top ten drama tomorrow, though I am definitely not guaranteeing it will get done. So if you're here tomorrow and it's not up, well this is your warning of that possibility.
Showing posts with label American Vandal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label American Vandal. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 26, 2018
Sunday, January 7, 2018
2017's Top Ten Comedies
I doubt that you have been on the edge of your seat awaiting my top ten, but this top ten is severely delayed. I originally planned to post this two days after my top ten dramas, which was a little over a week ago. Well I hadn't written a word when Thursday night rolled around because I forgot about it. The weekend, New Years Eve, and New Years Day were all out for drinking reasons. During New Years week, I felt under the weather most of the week, which ended up affecting me more than I thought as I found myself tired all the time. But better late than never.
#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.
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.
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