Clarence Moye’s Top 10 TV Shows of 2023

Awards Daily’s Clarence Moye’s Top 10 TV Shows of 2023 range from unique takes on history to wonderfully risk-taking comedies to some of the best dramatic work on television in decades.

Before I launch into my top ten list of the best television I saw in 2023, I’ll give you a taste of the difficulty I had in narrowing my list down to ten. Typically, my Honorable Mentions include a handful of series. This year, I have a whopping nine titles that I couldn’t ignore as the year in television closes. In any other year, these series would populate the main 10. It doesn’t mean they’re inferior shows. Quite the opposite as many are excellent examples of the best in 2023 television. However, they didn’t resonate quite as strongly with me as other shows did.

Honorable Mentions

A Murder at the End of the World (FX)

The year ended with some of the strongest limited series of the year. FX’s A Murder at the End of the World took a creative spin on a traditional Agatha Christie detective structure by imbuing it with distinctly modern personalities and themes. Emma Corrin’s career-best performance anchors the series as she deftly navigates both her own damaged psyche as well as the death of an ex-lover. Corrin proves herself to be the real deal by putting herself miles away from her breakthrough performance as Princess Diana. Murder emerges as a whip-smart take on culture, artificial intelligence, and anti-social behavior.

The Fall of the House of Usher (Netflix)

Netflix’s The Fall of the House of Usher shows Mike Flanagan nearly returning to the brilliance of his debut Netflix limited series, The Haunting of Hill House. Here, he draws inspiration from the works of Edgar Allan Poe by meshing it with Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None. Is it morbid to watch a series to see exactly how its cast will die? Absolutely. Is that the fun of the series? Absolutely.

Love and Death (MAX)

The second take on the Candy Montgomery story, Love and Death goes deeper into the story and features strong work from its cast, led by the great Elizabeth Olsen who deftly navigates the melodrama and overtly comedic elements of the series.

Beef (Netflix)

Until it goes off the rails in the last two episodes (in my opinion), Beef‘s diabolical conflict between flawless leads Ali Wong and Steven Yeun reveals as much about their characters as it does about the audience and our engagement with the very dark comic material.

The Last of Us (HBO)

Admittedly, I came to The Last of Us late in the game. Honestly, I’m exhausted with the whole zombie genre. Technically, the creatures in the series aren’t truly zombies, but the vibe is the same. In this apocalyptic world, everything good seems doomed to die. Faced with extinction, humanity turns against itself. The themes are the same, but The Last of Us does feel of a higher order thanks to the love and care exhibited by the creative team.

Mrs. Davis (Peacock)

I’ll keep it simple: Betty Gilpin. This AI-influenced series offers strong writing and direction in an unwieldy and engagingly bizarre plot, but the unparalleled talents of Betty Gilpin anchor it all in a sorely needed sense of relatability.

Ted Lasso (Apple TV+)

Did Ted Lasso feel tonally schizophrenic throughout its final (?) season? There’s no denying that it did. However, the wonderful ensemble is difficult to ignore, even when the material at times betrayed them.

Yellowjackets (Showtime)

This show always felt as if any moment it could go horribly wrong. While I still enjoyed this sophomore season, it definitely lost its way by the end, oddly choosing to decenter the narrative from series MVP Melanie Lynskey and committing the ultimate sin of an ensemble television show by separating the cast in ways that defuse their fantastic chemistry. Here’s hoping season three brings things back in line now that some subplots appear to be resolved.

Daisy Jones and the Six (Amazon Prime)

I love Fleetwood Mac, and Daisy Jones gives us quite possibly the only look behind the music we’ll ever see on television or in film. The ensemble cast isn’t given enough to do, but that’s ok. This is really Riley Keough and Sam Claflin’s show, and they’re brilliant.

…and now my top ten.

10. The Crown (Netflix)

I had issues with The Crown‘s sixth and final season, but when it’s good, it’s oh-so good. British critics take issue with the series’s take on adult Diana (brilliantly played both physically and emotionally by Elizabeth Debicki), but I find Peter Morgan’s take refreshingly unique and compelling. Her tragic passing is handled with grace, and its aftermath (in a complex allusion to reality) threatens to overtake the legacy of The Crown. However, after some oddly paced and often dull Will and Kate sequences, the series brings it home with a brilliant finale that serves as a fitting farewell to Queen Elizabeth II by offering connections to her funeral and by honoring her commitment to the role.

9. Schmigadoon! (Apple TV+)

In its second season, Schmigadoon! parodies musical theater of the 1970s. To say that I loved this season is to reveal how much I love musical theater of the 1970s. All of the in-jokes and song references fully landed with me, and I was dazzled by the astoundingly great performances of the cast, particularly Dove Cameron who delivers an authentically marvelous take on the lovable mania of Liza Minelli.

8. Shrinking (Apple TV+)

I didn’t know it at the time, but a handful of television shows dealing with grief and letting go would help me adjust to what 2023 would bring in my personal life. Shrinking manages to explore sensitive topics with grace and, most importantly, a great deal of humor. It’s a lovely show that, as many of my favorite shows of the year, boasts a peerless ensemble cast.

7. The Gilded Age (HBO)

There will be much eye-rolling at my inclusion of this series. I simply do not care. The Gilded Age season two finds a more consistent balance throughout its second season even if it lacks the extravagant highlights of its first season. Modern audiences scoff at period-specific concepts such as social restraint, reserved or seemingly banal dialogue, and deceptively simple plot points. But The Gilded Age excels at delivering key moments of American customs and history through those atypical and deceptively simple script moments. All hail to Carrie Coon, the queen of this fantastic ensemble.

6. The Other Two (MAX)

We’ve talked a great deal about The Other Two, a series so silly and unrealistic that it’s impossible to not laugh. I will miss its deft blend of live action comedy using comic beats traditionally seen in animation. Time will be kind to this infinitely rewatchable series.

5. The Righteous Gemstones (HBO)

It’s rare to see a television series get better with each season, but The Righteous Gemstones manages to do just that by doubling down on the eccentricities of its characters. Plus, in season three, it seems to wholly embrace comparisons to HBO’s own Succession, making the series a brilliant and deeply funny comparison piece. Series MVP Edi Patterson continues to astound with her brilliant comic timing and ability to imbue the outlandish character with true pathos. She is the real deal and gives the greatest comedic performance of 2023.

4. Dead Ringers (Amazon Prime)

Everything in Dead Ringers feels brilliantly cinematic. Perhaps that’s one reason why audiences seemed to cool on the challenging series. They’re simply not accustomed to interacting with television in a way that most viewers engage with great art house cinema. With below-the-line crafts (production design, cinematography, etc) accentuating the story in brilliant ways, Dead Ringers excels thanks to the astounding performance from Rachel Weisz as twin gynecologists. By building each character in completely unique ways, Weisz manages to give one of the best performances of 2023 in television or in film. And the Television Academy ignored her.

3. Fargo (FX)

I’d cooled on Noah Hawley’s Fargo a few seasons ago, but the strong advance word on its fifth outing and that outstanding ensemble brought me back. Thank God I came back. Fargo season five is Noah Hawley’s masterpiece. It’s tense, darkly funny, and absorbing in ways all great television should be. With Juno Temple and Jon Hamm both giving world-class performances, Fargo season five is the best limited series of 2023 — a brilliant piece of pulp fiction that blessedly sticks the landing in ways that echo and honor the Coen Brothers’s unique tonal and thematic sensibilities. Brilliant. Unsparing. Entertaining. Perfect.

2. The Bear (FX)

I was a latecomer to The Bear season one, which I considered strong television (perhaps not totally worthy of all of the extravagant praise heaped upon it online). For me, season two blows the roof off the joint in every way. The performances feel lived-in in ways that echo the best documentaries, and the story fully balances the drama and, most importantly, the comedy this time out. While the entire second season offers a full buffet of wonderful moments, two individual episodes — “Seven Fishes” and “Forks” — can stand along the best films we saw all year. Plus, I’m a sucker for a Taylor Swift needle drop. This series is tops on my list for a rewatch to allow time to marinate in it.

1. Succession (HBO)

There’s nothing new to say about HBO’s Succession that hasn’t already been said many times. For me, nothing else could top my favorite 2023 television because it so specifically speaks to grief (“I pre-grieved”) in a year where I lost my own mother. The similarities end there, but each episode of the series finale season offered truly brilliant and unforgettable water cooler moments. The series taps into political, cultural, and familial anxieties so well that it almost feels cruel to inflict its narrative upon us when reality so closely mirrors it. Still, there wasn’t a better television series in 2023, and there wasn’t a better single episode of television than “Conner’s Wedding,” an outstanding hour of television that achieved the impossible — it humanized those we long considered soulless monsters. Succession will not soon be forgotten.