Due to extended amounts of Quarantine and a sudden lack of new movies, I watched a lot of TV this year. Turns out you can watch a lot of television when your Spring Break is 6 months long. And, dang there’s been a lot of quality television both released and consumed in the unusually dismal year that we call 2020.
This isn’t a Top Ten List, like my Film Lists will be, this is just a brief reflection on everything I feasted my eyes and ears upon. There are good shows, there are bad shows, rewatches, new to me, and a lot in between.
The Office
Since it was announced that The Office would be leaving Netflix at year’s end, I knew that I needed one more viewing before it came at the cost of Peacock with ads. This was probably my 10th time watching through the show, but it was only my 2nd or 3rd time subjecting myself to the nonsense that is Season 9. Here are my main takeaways:
- The show was dying even before Steve Carrell left. Season 6 has some high spots (Scott’s Tots) but it’s, overall, the start of the shows tumultuous decline. The same goes for Season 7. There are some highlights, I’d argue more than in Season 6, but the show is clearly running out of gas as its characters and set-ups start to stale and quickly.
- Season 8 is better than either Season 6 or 7 in its first half. Once we get passed the Christmas, Pool Party, and Trivia episodes it all quickly goes downhill. The writers never knew what they wanted for either Andy or Robert California and it shows.
- Season 9: We do not speak its name. Pure trash except for the final two episodes.
Parks and Rec
Parks and Rec is one of the most consistently “good” shows. It’s funny, it’s social relevant, and its characters are constantly moving and growing without ever having to break the premise. This show only gets better. It’s just as funny and fresh with its final season as it is with my favorite season, 5. I haven’t seen this as much as The Office but it’s definitely my #2 most watched show.
Community
I’m a simple man, I like comedies produced by NBC.
I’d only seen Community once before about two or three years back. This show is nothing short of brilliant. It takes wide swings and is a hilariously new comedic experiment in every episode. That being said, this is the least consistent of any show. It has the highest highs when its comedic experiments work, but it also has the lowest (and cringiest) lows when it doesn’t.
Brave New World
One more NBC show, I promise.
This was to be Peacock’s flagship drama. It is not. Instead, it’s a lackluster Westworld knockoff. Brave New World does do some interesting work in adapting Aldous Huxley’s dystopian novel but the influence of Westworld is impossible to ignore. NBC very clearly patterned their aesthetic off of HBO’s and this show says nothing that HBO hasn’t also said more eloquently. I love Alden Ehrenreich and I really hope he starts getting better material than this.
Westworld– Season 3
Speaking of Westworld, the long awaited third season released shortly before Quarantine began. I dug it, but not as much as the previous two seasons. It just hasn’t stuck with me in the way that Season 1 gripped me and Season 2 captivated. The elements of strong characters and good plot were all there, but Season 3 just didn’t have the magic that I anticipated.
Lovecraft County
And speaking of HBO shows that just didn’t do it for me…
What a misfire this was. Lovecraft Country started with one of the boldest and most well-constructed pilots for a show of this kind that I’ve ever seen, but this show went downhill in episode two and never stopped. Lovecraft Country bit off far more than its premise or its episode lengths could chew. By episode 5, the main characters felt like spectators to their own television show and the heart had long been lost. There’s a helluva lot of plot, but little in the way of gripping character.
Peep Show
The longest running series in British television history, Peep Show is iconic across the pond. I don’t remember how I discovered it a few years back, but it quickly became one of my favorites too. Stylistically and tonally it’s somewhere between Seinfeld and It’s Always Sunny. Shot in the 1st person, it’s also incredibly bizarre to watch. It’s hilarious though, and the show that brings out the most verbal laughs in me. Not just the breathing out your nose kind, but the deep, pause the TV because I can’t here kind.
Tiger King
Who didn’t watch this? Coming in at week two of quarantine this movie dominated the conversation for weeks. That being said, I doubt I’d think so highly of it if I were to watch it again. I’m glad I was aboard the hype train but I don’t think there’s any real substance here.
The Mandalorian
Season 1 of The Mandalorian was good, Season 2 is great. Filoni and Favreau’s second term behind the wheel has delivered some of the boldest and most exciting content since the franchise began. Soured from The Rise of Skywalker, I’m glad that Mando is here to get the galaxy far far away back on track, at least until we get Rian Johnson’s trilogy.
The Clone Wars
I decided to finally watch The Clone Wars before its final season earlier this year. I’d seen the movie as a kid and watched the first season or so but outgrew it in middle school. I’d heard that it got better later on down the road and so I decided to give it another shot.
The latter seasons of this show are near perfect. The Clone Wars is nothing short of bold. Once it decides to mature around season 3 it develops into a terrific show. There are surprisingly deep commentaries on warfare, politics, and the internal struggles of its many leads. The last season is no exception, delivering a 4-episode finale that’s on par with the likes of The Empire Strikes Back and The Last Jedi.
New Girl
Most of my friends watch New Girl. It was inevitable that someday I would come around to it. Quarantine helped me blow through my usual rotation fast enough that I needed something new to watch. New Girl was it. This show is funny. It has funny characters, funny dialogue, and funny set-ups. However, I find it somewhat bland in the character development department. The motivations of Jess and Co are repetitive and characters like Winston and CeCe get the short end of the stick when it comes to development. The first three or so seasons were fun but I found the last three and a half to be somewhat of a chore.
The Boys
This was everything I wanted Lovecraft Country, Brave New World, and Westworld to be. The Boys is brutal. It pulls no punches, literally. There is incredibly relevant political commentary and depictions of the (often negative) power of social media and false narratives. The Boys distills many of our major problems during the Trump admin and creates a powerful narrative for its characters through this lens.
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
It makes me uncomfortable how much dialogue is crammed into a single episode of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. The show’s creator, Amy Sherman-Palladino, is known for having unusually long scripts. She crams character dialogue into every shot, every corner, and every mouth. Not a second of this show is wasted in stagnation. The characters are vibrant, funny, and widely dynamic. This quickly became one of my favorites.
What We Do in the Shadows
Always save the best for last. Same as with The Mandalorian, season 1 of this show was good, season 2 was great. The first season took a lot of its premises and comedic notes from the film (which I adore), but didn’t always feel like it warranted its own existence. Season 2 firmly established the show as its own entity. This show is funny, period. It swings for the fences with its premises and delivers some of the most bizarre success I’ve ever witnessed on the small screen. The episodes Colin’s Promotion and On the Run are fantastically original. They are the perfect example of this show telling stories which only it is capable of telling.
Collin Willis 