Congratulations to us! We have once again survived a year of “content,” and yet another etch on the sliding scale between what used to be short- and long-form filmed storytelling, and whatever this medium is en route to becoming. And hey, bonus round: we did at least a sixth of it without twitter.
And how we managed to do all of this in the midst of the implosion of the digital boom period, the end of the Streaming Wars, and the theoretical “peak” of “Peak TV,” well, who knows. The companies that produce these shows lost their entire ever-flippin’ minds this year, to an even greater degree than whatever manner of mania prompted them to sink unrecoverable costs into content production for years in the first place. It’s premature to call anything the last of anything, but this might be the beginning of a change of how any of this even works.
Here are my nominations for the best series of the year.
#1: Better Call Saul
The meticulous, yet somehow effortless, daring of BCS cannot be understated. As an expansion of the Breaking Bad universe it eclipsed its forebear several seasons ago and now leads the entire conversation; there are things Saul does routinely well that Bad never even attempted, while (and here comes the heresy) almost everything Bad did well, Saul can do with one hand tied behind its back. (And the show’s MVP, Rhea Seehorn, is frequently doing them backwards and in high heels.)
The slow build to the season’s jaw-dropping middle break — which saw the somewhat-more-“moral” violence of its lead characters, Jimmy and Kim, become tangibly violent-violent in the shooting death of Howard Hamlin — was then easily outpaced by the exquisite formal, thematic, and narrative construction of the final brace of episodes. Shit, they even had Carol Burnett, and she was awesome. Every single person for the rest of time who says that prequels, as a premise, do not work, is going to be forced by law to asterisk that statement with this show.
Or possibly…
#2: Andor
I’m aware that I carry a pretty heavy Star Wars bias that was going to push relentlessly for me to put Andor at number one. I’m also aware that it’s entirely possible that it’s not not number one. Andor is, for all intents and purposes, perfect: there isn’t a single thing wrong with it. Everything it sets out to do, it does, and does at a level of artistic quality higher than anything we’ve seen from Lucasfilm since its purchase by Disney. (Even The Last Jedi, which I love, has its somewhat club-footed approach to act structure and pacing.) And yes: you’d have to go as far back as The Empire Strikes Back to see the last time Star Wars was this eye-opening in its potential.
Andor is vibrant and absorbing in a way that the oldest of the old Star Wars fans (like me) probably intuitively understood was possible, but had never seen executed before. It reshapes and strengthens the entire legendarium’s worldview on politics and power so dramatically that it’s hard to imagine ever going back to Muppet Baby Star Wars ever again. In the end, that’s Andor‘s only crime: it shows how spectacularly underserved we’ve been, since Disney+ launched three years ago. It’s going to be a cold 2023 without it.
#3: Reservation Dogs
One of the great marvels of television right now — this piece is the best description I’ve seen so far as to why — unfurled a second bracket of perfect, gem-like small stories. Each operates independently within the framework of the series structure, and yet each contributes to a whopper of a sense of overall narrative over time. Principal characters and side characters are all regularly centred; each performance glows. The Cheese episode is particularly special (Marc Maron’s guest role deserves an Emmy), but pay attention to Danis Goulet’s episode 4, regarding the way the community comes together around an elder’s death. It’s stuffed with nuance, specificity, and tells its story on ten or fifteen different levels — you know, the way an actual community works.
It’s frankly life-affirming that a show this good exists, and Paulina Alexis is giving my favourite performance on television right now, fuck.
#4: The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power
So as it turns out, prequels are dominating this list, and they’re all doing it by doing a variation of the same thing: having the courage to treat their respective sandboxes as spaces for characters and stories that have to be compelling on their own terms, rather than because of whose grandmother they’ll end up becoming or which adventure hook they’ll have to plug into, from a trilogy we saw twenty years ago. The Rings of Power entered the year as the series I’d have bet on as the least likely to succeed (and, regardless of its ultimate achievements, let’s not kid ourselves: the finance and brand whitewashing around it is pretty gross). But there’s little point denying: on a creative level, they nailed it.
The most visually superb fantasy or science fiction series ever made, and a hearty antidote to both the Grimdark Cinematic Universe(s) and the moral malaise that comes with same, Rings of Power plays as fast and loose with its sources as The Lord of the Rings films did with theirs, squashing about 2,000 years of the Second Age into what will likely be (by the end of season 5) a year and a half. It doesn’t really matter, because what matters is telling a story we can invest in, and incessant, canonical time-jumps kind of get in the way of that. (Cough.) Rings of Power‘s craft is sublime; the new characters (particularly the Harfoots) can more than hold their own with the legacy icons; and the tale is thrilling in the telling. Clever hobbits, to climb so high!
#5: Peacemaker
Speaking of shows I’d have bet against, the elevation of the least compelling component of James Gunn’s Suicide Squad sequel somehow became the first breakaway hit of the year, and arguably Gunn’s finest (and most James-Gunniest) work to date: a blisteringly funny and astonishingly heartfelt exploration of a bent-up yobbo finding his found family, breaking away from his (racist) actual family, coming to terms with his shit, and saving the world. It’s… terrific? And it has John Economos being pecked in the asshole by a gigantic, potentially-sentient eagle? Enjoy running DC, Mr. Gunn. You have my full confidence.
The one that isn’t on here: Severence
Apple TV+ re-negged on the whole “free 1-year subscription with a new device purchase” thing with me a year or so back; I am not going to be subscribing to their service to watch this show! I hear it’s great! I suppose I could pirate it. It’s a little weird to live in an era when “subscribe to my bullshit streaming service” is the sole option outside piracy to watch a zeitgeist-y anything. But see the top of this post re: where that kind of thinking has gotten them.