The Manifesto watched 93 different TV shows in 2018, and over the past five days, we’ve ranked and written about them all. 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
Beginning this past Monday, the Manifesto started ranking every TV show that we watched in 2018. We’re wrapping things up today with our top 10. If you missed the prior posts, you can access them here:
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10. Better Call Saul (AMC, Season 4; last year: 8 of 108). As Better Call Saul inches closer and closer to the events of Breaking Bad, it becomes increasingly endangered of being swallowed by its predecessor’s shadow. So it’s kind of amazing that the show remains as consistently good as it is. Or maybe it’s “shows”; this has really become two series in one, with one following Mike Ehrmantraut as he solidifies his fateful partnership in crime with Gus Fring, and the other tracking Jimmy McGill’s long slow slide into legally sanctioned amorality. The Mike material is stuff that we’ve seen before, and while it’s executed with patience and panache, it can’t help feeling like a perfectly constructed echo. Jimmy’s descent, on the other hand, is the heart of the show; even though we know the sad destination, the journey remains fascinating, as Better Call Saul continues to pave his road to the dark side with thrilling complexity and ambiguity. Bob Odenkirk continues to do great work, and he’s matched in Season 4 by Rhea Seehorn, who’s turned Kim Wexler from a one-note love interest into a quietly tragic figure of misguided optimism. Eventually, Better Call Saul will have no choice but to finally rip off the band-aid and abandon Jimmy McGill for good. But for the time being, his fall keeps reaching new heights. Read More
We’re ranking every TV show that we watched in 2018. For prior installments, check out the following links:
30. Forever (Amazon, Season 1). What
if you ascended to Heaven, only to discover that Heaven is boring? That’s
essentially the premise of Forever, a
strange, unpredictable, occasionally frustrating, often wonderful show starring
Maya Rudolph and Fred Armisen as a married couple slated to spend eternity living
in the same comfortably boring house; they’re supposed to be content, but they
gradually realize that contentment is the opposite of fulfillment. Running a
tidy eight half-hour episodes, Forever
can nevertheless be listless in its storytelling, and its conclusion lacks the
personal and thematic clarity that it clearly desired. But the show is still
powerful and surprising, exploring human connection in ways both intimate and
sweeping. The obvious high point is the sixth episode, a bottle installment
starring Hong Chau and Jason Mitchell that exists entirely on its own yet
boldly advances the series’ textured portrait of relationships and regrets. It
may not last forever, but you’ll be thinking about it for a long, long time. Read More
Our rankings of every 2018 TV show continue below. For prior installments, check out the following links:
50. Legion (FX, Season 2; last year: 29
of 108). Following a fascinating first season that attempted to turn
standard superhero entertainments inside out, Legion feels a bit too self-important in its second go-round, too
focused on touting its originality without actually advancing a compelling
story. It also marginalizes its greatest asset—Aubrey Plaza’s magnificently
off-kilter performance—while simultaneously padding out the season with a
number of episodes that never really go anywhere. Still, this remains a
staggeringly impressive show, with bracing technique and a bold command of
lighting, framing, and music. The storyline doesn’t always work, and as gifted
an artist as Noah Hawley is, he’d be well-served to tighten things up going
forward. But even when it’s nonsensical, Legion
always offers something to see. Read More
We’re ranking every TV show that we watched in 2018. If you missed Part I, you can find it here. And remember: Despite their relatively low appearance on the year-end rankings, these shows are still pretty good.
70. Jack Ryan (Amazon, Season 1). There’s
nothing fancy about Jack Ryan, a
hunter-killer thriller starring John Krasinski as Tom Clancy’s heroic CIA “analyst”—previously
played on the big screen by Alec Baldwin, Ben Affleck, and of course Harrison
Ford—and Wendell Pierce as his no-nonsense boss. It’s a taut, plotty procedural
about smart good guys trying to catch smart bad guys. In 2018, there’s
something a little icky about yet another story of dastardly Islamic terrorists
scheming to cripple the United States, and despite a nuanced portrayal from Ali
Suliman as the big bad, Jack Ryan
often feels like a coarse campaign ad for foreign-policy hawks. But the show is
best viewed through an apolitical lens, and as a suspense piece, it mostly
works, with well-choreographed action scenes and a smartly paced story. Unlike
its protagonist, Jack Ryan isn’t going
to save the world, but it can provide an enjoyable distraction from it. Read More