Over the past five days, we’ve ranked and written about all 101 TV shows that we watched in 2019. For your convenience, we’ve assembled those rankings into this single post. If you want to access the write-up for any particular show, just click on the header link above that set. Here are the rankings in full: Read More
And here we are. After a week of ranking every single TV show from 2019, we finally come to the end. In case you missed it, here are links to the prior posts:
#s
101-76
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75-51
#s
50-31
#s
30-11
10. Watchmen (HBO, Season 1). I don’t
think this is a perfect show. It’s sprawling, and tracking its complicated
mythology can be a little exhausting. But in raw mathematical terms, I’m not
sure any TV series in 2019 delivered more moments of flat-out greatness than Watchmen. This is a massively impressive
show, full of gorgeous imagery and exhilarating technique. It’s also a work of monumental
ambition, seeking to reframe a traditional comic-book narrative as a commentary
on the contemporary evil of white supremacy. Whether it’s especially meaningful
as a political document is an open question, but what’s undeniable is how
self-assured Watchmen is, how
effortlessly it develops its own cinematic language. Plus, it’s funny; this is
a show that features a powerful flashback episode investigating the rise of an
anti-Ku Klux Klan vigilante, yet it also makes room for Jean Smart lovingly
caressing a giant blue dildo. Nothing else on television in 2019 had more to
say, and nothing else said it so boldly. Read More
Our countdown of every 2019 TV show continues! For prior installments, check out the links below. And honestly, you can pretty much rearrange all of the shows in this post in any order you want, because they’re all kind of great:
30. Game of Thrones (HBO, Season 8; 2017
rank: 13
of 108). Gulp. OK, let’s get this out of the way: The last episode of Game of Thrones was bad. Or, rather, the
last half-hour of the last episode was bad; the much-maligned finale concluded
with an appalling whimper that arguably betrayed the uncompromising ferocity that
was the series’ signature. Here’s the thing, though: The first half-hour of the finale featured some pretty terrific stuff,
including perhaps the most
stunning image the series has ever produced. And leading up to that finale,
Season 8 as a whole, while uneven, was filled with killer material. Its second
episode, which found its characters grimly preparing for the deadly battle to
come, is one of the finest hours the show has ever produced, full of humor and tenderness
and hard-won camaraderie. And even if Game
of Thrones’ ultimate destination was disappointing, its journey was always
full of marvelous sights and sounds: an armada of fires blinking out one by
one; a deadly game of hide-and-seek in a dusty library; a giant dragon
mournfully cradling a fallen rider; Carice Van Houten’s eyes; Maisie Williams’
face. It’s undeniable that the conclusion of this show left a bitter aftertaste.
There’s also no denying that, along the way, it routinely delivered images and
scenes we’d never before seen on television. Read More
We’re counting down every show we watched in 2019. For prior installments, check out the following links:
50. Modern Love (Amazon, Season 1).
Like with any anthology, Modern Love
is less a cohesive series than a collection of hits and misses. Sure, there’s a
vague thematic throughline about the complexities of contemporary romance—whether
between tech-savvy millennials, weary gen-Xers, or dogged boomers—but it doesn’t
add up to much beyond, “Love is complicated.” Still, the series’ economy is
impressive; each episode clocks in at roughly 30 minutes, and each manages to
tell a complete story. It’s also beautifully cast, and when it hits—such as when
it tracks the separate relationships of Catherine Keener and Dev Patel, or when
it spends a wonderful evening in the hospital with Sofia Boutella and John
Gallagher Jr., or when it follows the ups and downs of a bipolar Anne Hathaway—it
plays like gangbusters. That other episodes are less successful feels
appropriate; after all, who gets love right on the first try? Read More
![[whispers] That's the Mandalorian.](https://moviemanifesto.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/TV-of-2019-Mandalorian-1024x680.jpg)
We’re counting down every TV show that we watched in 2019.
If you missed Part I, you can find it here.
Also, a gentle reminder that this list isn’t a bell curve; going forward, I
mostly liked pretty much every show that appears.
75. His Dark Materials (HBO, Season 1). I get why HBO wants to repeat its Game of Thrones magic, and I get why they chose to adapt Philip Pullman’s trilogy, a fantasy series that’s loaded with intrigue and imagination. The resulting series, at least one season in, is perfectly cast, visually impressive, and maybe just a little bit workmanlike. Some of that may be a function of Pullman’s first novel, which spends a lot of time on world-building before really getting to the good stuff in book two. Still, thus far, His Dark Materials is missing that spark of creativity, that joie de vivre. To be clear, there’s plenty of good stuff: Dafne Keen (from Logan) is terrific as the spunky and inquisitive lead, sparring beautifully with Ruth Wilson’s conflicted zealot; Lin-Manuel Miranda is aces as a gunslinger; there are armored bears. But there’s a disappointing caution to the show that’s restricting its potential. Here’s hoping it takes more chances in Season 2. Read More