I haven’t given any preamble before when I listed my top ten, but this year, I wanted to share a few things. I love doing top ten lists! Ranking television shows and movies, I get a thrill seeing how strongly people feel about their media, and I like seeing where I myself feel. Plus, there’s the incredible fun and frustrating aspect of arguing your point of view about what deserves to be on that list and wondering what on earth everyone else is thinking! This probably comes from the Oscars being my introduction into media as a serious art form (and this site back when it was Oscarwatch, giving me that introduction to serious debate about what should and should not win something).
That being said, the first few years doing a top ten list for this site I struggled to find shows to fill my last couple of slots. Not this year! This is the first year I really struggled with what my last few shows would be and also what was going to be my number one and number two. Any given day they could switch on me so I may end up regretting a ranking, but here is where I am at right now.
10. Harley Quinn
At first I wasn’t certain what direction they were going for this season. I was still laughing as much as I had done before but it felt off somehow. Then the finale aired and it all fell into place for me. Maybe because I binged the first two seasons catching up on the show a year ago (the only reason it was not on previous lists) and this year I watched week to week. But after seeing it all come together in the finale changed my perception and I realized its brilliance. Harley Quinn has always taken the DC Universe and done whatever it wanted with it, but it really delved into some of the personality of its famous characters and really played around with it. Pointing out different aspects of Quinn’s unhealthy view of relationships (beyond loving a murderous clown for so long) and showing how it hurts things with Ivy without knowing it. Ivy dealing with her being alone for so long and what that means to her being with someone. And that Bruce Wayne really needs psychiatric help with his obsession over his dead parents. All done with the crazy humor that the show has always done beautifully. (HBOMax)
9. The Owl House
This Disney Channel cartoon started with Luz, a teenage girl with so much positive energy, getting to fulfill a dream of going to a magical world to learn magic as she had always dreamed, with hilarious results. It’s now into an epic fight against bigotry and fascism, tackling depression, relationships, forgiveness and found family dynamics. All of this while also still having a teenage girl enjoy getting to learn magic and getting hilarious results. This show has been a delight and deeper than it had any right to be, and it is a shame it is ending so soon. (Disney Channel)
8. Chloe
Erin Doherty is wonderful here as Becky Green, a woman who follows her old best friend Chloe on social media, envying her life but even more wondering why Chloe shut her out years ago. Then when Chloe calls on the night that she takes her own life Becky starts to investigate and ends up getting involved in Chloe’s friends’ lives including Chloe’s husband Elliot. As she gets involved lines get blurred about why she is there and even she questions what she is doing. This takes on many different questions about perception of one’s lives, making connections, grief, and an engaging mystery. This was a wonderful miniseries that I hope more people find.
Besides Erin Doherty, a shout out to Billy Howle as Elliot, whose pain and demons come through in so many scenes while still never quite letting us know everything that is going on inside him.(BBC 1 and Amazon Prime Video)
7. Kaguya-sama: Love Is War
This show continues to be one of the most consistently best anime I have ever seen. The third season of our two determined high schoolers, Kaguya and Miyuki, trying to get the other to confess their love for each other continued with some major character progress being made. The great comedy beats and a three episode long finale built up the tension to a fantastic moment that needs to be seen after you have gotten through all three seasons. Believe me it is worth it! (Crunchyroll)
6. Severance
The idea of a company that lets you sever yourself from work and personal life completely was intriguing. That other aspects of the company and their agenda are unclear and even more bizarre is a great hook. But what makes this a great show is that it knows this “hook” isn’t the show’s real selling point. It is this wonderful cast living in this life. Watching these people just doing their jobs and then slowly starting to question what their life outside of work is really like, is what moves this show forward. Adam Scott is our center (and the only one we see seriously outside of work) but everyone in this show is given moments showing how even in a place where all reality is controlled there is something else they want.
I have no interest in figuring out what is happening . Looking for clues and what not. I just want to see where we go next with these characters.(Apple TV+)
5. Better Call Saul
I was worried with the first half of the final season being too much of a building and not certain I liked the pay off. Then the second half aired and I realized I never should have doubted this creative team. The moment that didn’t work for me ended up being perfect for where these characters needed to end up. Giving Rhea Seehorn a perfect episode to show off Kim at her lowest was emotionally devastating to watch. Plus a pitch perfect finale that equaled the quality of Breaking Bad while keeping it very much in the tone of what Better Call Saul was all about. (AMC)
4. Andor
Despite the first three episodes feeling like we were falling into clichéd characters, and me being bored stiff, I kept with it and I am glad I did because it is one of the most thoughtful examinations on what it is like living in a fascist state. The sense is no one is safe no matter what the situation. There is a claustrophobic feel permeating the show–from a small room where someone is being questioned to an open field on a sunny day. From a powerful member of the Empire elite security bureau to people just going about their day, no one is safe. This results in characters fighting a sense of real dread about what will happen to them (even with those where we know what will happen). Watching these individuals at different levels of power is what really makes this something special. Not just fighting in the dirt; we see expert manipulations in corridors of powers. The compromises that are made makes you feel for them in a way that Star Wars hasn’t done in a while. Even Stormtroopers actually seem threatening, and not just punchlines about not being able to shoot! (Disney+)
3. My Dress-Up Darling
For a show that could have simply been about fan servious putting its heroine in different fetish cosplay outfits (which, yes, is a part of it) this was truly one of the sweetest shows of the year. Gojo is dedicated to learning the art of Hina dolls from his grandfather but because of that focus feels out of place with his fellow high school students. Until Marin, a popular girl, catches him making Hina doll clothing at school and begs him to help make a cosplay outfit for her because she is terrible at sewing. The two of them have little slices of life adventures as he makes outfits for her while she shows him the anime she loves to help make the outfits. They are able to share their passions together and through it a sweet connection is born. Marin is such a fun character who gets embarrassed by the randomest things and is just a genuinely nice, fun person, and her inner thoughts about “I wuv Gojo” is the most adorable thing ever! (Crunchyroll)
2. Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal
I have had more adrenaline running through me watching this show than from any action or horror movie. Watching the journey of Fang and Spear as they continue their attempts to survive in a brutal world, experiencing new kinds of dangers that dig deeper than before into human greed and cruelty and the poison of vengeance, left me breathless each week. Still, with almost no dialogue, you feel the horror of what these characters experience and, in some cases, have to cause to protect those they care about. Plus a bittersweet finale had me almost crying. With just two seasons, it is already a contender for one of the greatest animated shows ever.(Adult Swim)
1. Irma Vep
Olivier Assayas is not a filmmaker I have been particularly into. Clouds of Sils Maria was so far the only film of his I have loved, and I haven’t even seen his original movie version of Irma Vep. Yet this show was utterly sublime to me. I will admit a general love for films/shows about making films/shows but the detail and crafting decisions for this show really stood apart for me. The almost plotless narrative watching the filming of the show within a show with flashbacks to the original black and white filming moments as well. Then the scenes of the cast and crew on their own. Throughout this the views of where art is going and has been, how fame and relationships (both romantic and friendship) can affect oneself in personal and professional life. This is exemplified in our two leads.
First, Vincent Macaigne as our Olivier Assayas stand-in shows him as neurotic, full of regret and doubt and just a pain to work with, and that Assayas is not interested in making himself look good. He acknowledges that he has done good work but is uncertain where that places him in the creative world overall and going forward. He is petty and vindictive at times yet can be incredibly insightful about his characters and gives great advice to his actors. He shows a creative individual with all the quirks (good and bad) that come with being in that world.
Alicia Vikander as Mira is breathtaking, with her desire to do more with her career beyond making comic book films, and getting over a very complex break up. She is a woman who knows her craft and what she wants to do with her career but is just finding the best way to do it. She is confident in that regard and it is only her personal life she has doubts about. It doesn’t define or control her; it is something she knows she has to work on.
We also get how a person can inhabit a character in so many different ways that even leads into the fantastical. This could have gone too far but it is wonderfully crafted and the surrealness in those moments are done so beautifully with no real explanation that it feels like the right thing to do in that moment of the show. Plus, at the end you even get one of the best cameo moments in a show ever. This show delighted and surprised me on so many levels, and kept me thinking about it in ways that brought such enjoyment to me. I hope more people seek it out. (HBO)
Honorable Mentions: House of the Dragon, Only Murders in the Building, We Need to Talk About Cosby, Spy x Family, Call of the Night, The White Lotus, Chainsaw Man, Hacks