TV Rankings

Need proof that the COVID-19 pandemic is over? I only watched 108 TV shows last year.

OK, I’m kidding, at least on the first part. But as the omicron variant rages and hospital admissions soar troublingly toward their 2020 levels, it’s vaguely comforting to know that television remains, well, there. I’m not interested in (or capable of) qualitatively comparing an entire year of an artistic medium against past annuals, but quantitatively speaking, TV is still a powerhouse. Sure, my total of 108 shows looks a tad inferior compared to the 124 I watched in 2020, but I still think it’s a pretty healthy (i.e., unhealthy) figure.

Were all 108 series good? Of course not. Were most of them watchable? Pretty much. The ensuing list, which will be revealed over the course of the next five days (concluding with the top 10 on Friday), is decidedly not a bell curve; once we reach the top 70 or so, we’re pretty much in “I’m glad I saw that” territory. That, of course, doesn’t make these rankings any less infantile, which is also what makes them fun. So clock out, strap in, and turn on your streaming device of choice as we explore the vast and varied year that was. Read More

This piece is for the cheaters. Over the past five days, we’ve ranked 124 different 2020 TV shows, grouping them into 12 different tiers and eight different columns. Obviously, we encourage you to read all of those, but if you’re feeling lazy and just want to see the complete rankings, then here you are. (To visit the particular piece for each tier, just click on the header.) Read More

We’re nearing the end of our countdown of every TV show of 2020. If you missed the prior installments, you can find them at the following links:

#s 124-110 (tiers 12 and 11)
#s 109-85 (tiers 10 and 9)
#s 84-61 (tiers 8 and 7)
#s 60-41 (tiers 6 and 5)
#s 40-31 (tier 4)
#s 30-21 (tier 3)

Tier 2: The honorable mentions
20. Away (Netflix, Season 1). For a series about space travel, Away is oddly narrow in scope. There are only a handful of major characters, and roughly half of its action takes place inside the cramped confines of a shuttle. This isn’t necessarily unusual, but what makes the show worthwhile is the depth that it slowly acquires. Each of its first five episodes digs gently into the lives of one of its astronauts, lending them their own particular shading while further complicating the fraught, zig-zagging relationships among the various crewmembers. It’s a fairly conventional approach that nonetheless pays surprising dividends, as does the way the series cuts between perilous cosmic missions—space-walks, retrieval tasks, etc.—and the ground-bound bickering of the command center, where worried engineers attempt to solve problems from millions of miles away, exhibiting both ingenuity and impotence. Hilary Swank is solid as the nominal lead, but no one character really dominates the proceedings, and that feels right, seeing as Away is a show about global cooperation and professional teamwork. It’s a little corny, sure, but it’s executed with terrific steadiness—a precisely calibrated mixture of melodrama, panache, and warmth. Netflix has already cancelled the series, to which I’ll reply with one of my favorite quotes in cinema: Come back. Read More

We’re continuing with our ranking of every TV show of 2020. For prior entries, check out the following links:

#s 124-110 (tiers 12 and 11)
#s 109-85 (tiers 10 and 9)
#s 84-61 (tiers 8 and 7)
#s 60-41 (tiers 6 and 5)
#s 40-31 (tier 4)

Tier 3: Are we sure this isn’t the top 10?
30. Mrs. America (FX on Hulu, Season 1). The premise sounds suspiciously like bothsidesism: Mrs. America explores not only the women who fought to pass the Equal Rights Amendment, but also the women who mobilized against it. But this series doesn’t purport to be an apolitical piece of storytelling, even if it proceeds with consummate rigor and exceptional detail. What animates Mrs. America isn’t so much the struggle of the women’s liberation movement (though that’s surely part of it) but the more abstract process of political organizing. It examines how the pursuit of a common goal can transmogrify into a squabble over competing interests, and how advocacy can splinter people apart as well as bring them together. Structurally, the show is astute, with each episode focusing on a specific character while gradually deepening the larger schisms at work. It’s buoyed by a top-flight cast, led by Cate Blanchett (who owns the series’ final, most devastating image) but also featuring Rose Byrne, Uzo Aduba, Sarah Paulson, and a characteristically wonderful Margo Martindale. If Mrs. America isn’t always satisfying, that’s because dissatisfaction is baked in to the zero-sum game of contemporary politics. It recognizes, with dispiriting clarity, everyone’s equal right to be disappointed. Read More