(programming note: I’m not doing a favorite Film list this year, as the pandemic closed the theaters and I just didn’t watch enough new movies to compile a good list. Got caught up on a lot of classic films, though.)

I love that American television is becoming more like British television – shorter seasons and fewer of them. I’d rather shows left us wanting more than drag on past their expiration date. The miniseries (rechristened “limited series”) is in vogue and we’re in a time of great experimentation.

All of the shows in my list below are either new or one-and-done. My favorite returning show, Better Call Saul, probably merited inclusion but I’ve written blurbs about it for several years now. I’m excited to talk about new stuff!

1. The Great (Hulu). Elle Fanning and Nicholas Hoult are fantastic in this hysterical retelling of the rise of Catherine the Great. If you enjoyed last year’s film The Favourite as much as I did, you’ll love this show from that film’s co-writer Tony McNamara. It’s flagrant in its rewriting of history, so don’t expect a history lesson, but it succeeds on every level as a comedy and a tale of political intrigue.
2. Giri/Haji (Netflix/BBC). The most criminally underlooked show of 2020, Giri/Haji (Japanese for “Duty/Shame”) was dumped by Netflix in January and received little attention from audiences or critics, before being cancelled just as a second season was about to go into production. I found it riveting. It’s a tale of a Japanese police detective who comes to London looking for his brother and has an affair with his London partner (the always excellent Kelly Macdonald). It’s a pulse-pounding crime thriller and a moving look at the families we make for ourselves and the families we leave behind.
3. Ted Lasso (AppleTV). I subscribed to AppleTV Plus just to see what critics were going on about and was well-rewarded (you can get it free for a week, plenty of time to binge this show). This is the story of an American football coach who takes a job as a coach of an English Premier League soccer team despite knowing nothing about soccer. It’s a terrific comedy, an exciting underdog sports story, and a heartwarming series about how one genuinely good person can elevate the lives of people around them. If you’re looking for a pick-me-up in these dark times (even if you’re a soccer hater like me) then this show is for you.
4. The Queen’s Gambit (Netflix). This was a popular show that got a lot of media coverage so I probably don’t need to tell you about it. This was the most meticulously well directed and edited show of the year, and Anya Taylor-Joy did a fantastic job conveying lots of emotion with very limited dialogue.
5. Lovecraft Country (HBO). A horror tale where the most bone-chilling scare is white supremacy, Lovecraft Country managed the careful tightwalk of balancing trenchant social commentary with magic and monsters. A perfect companion piece to last year’s Watchmen (both dealt significantly with the 1921 Tulsa Race Riots), HBO proves that it’s still the king of comic book stories for smart people.
6. The Good Lord Bird (Showtime). Ethan Hawke is luminous as militant abolitionist John Brown, whose raid on Harper’s Ferry served as a grim preamble to the Civil War. Hawke gives a legendary performance – bellowing Bible verses at the top of his lungs one second and conveying deep soulfulness the next. He portrays John Brown as a flawed man whose own whiteness and dogmatism blinds him from truly understanding his freed-slave comrades, but he dies for them all the same. (Side-note: the worst thing about this show is Ethan Hawke’s contact lenses. Why can Hollywood special effects bring dead actors to life and take us to realistic alien worlds, but they still can’t give a brown-eyed actor blue eyes? And why, lacking this technology, didn’t they just portray John Brown with brown eyes? Do we even know his actual historical eye color?)
7. Teenage Bounty Hunters (Netflix). Another sadly overlooked gem (it was not picked up for a second season), this series follows twin sisters who take after-school jobs catching fugitives. It hilariously lampoons rich Southern suburbanites while still having empathy for all of its characters.
8. Devs (Hulu). This limited series from Annihilation and Ex-Machina director Alex Garland explores an intellectual area of science fiction that I can’t describe without spoiling, but suffice to say I found it phenomenally interesting and each episode stuck in my head for days. A perfectly atmospheric score, incredibly eerie and beautiful set design, and confidently off-kilter direction make this one of the most compelling shows of the year. It does have some flaws that kept it lower on my list, notably a boring central character and a weak finale.
9. The Plot Against America (HBO). David Simon (creator of The Wire) adapts Philip Roth’s novel of an alternate history where Charles Lindbergh becomes president in 1940 and a wave of anti-semitism takes hold in America. Very depressing in showing how close we were to Nazi Germany in many ways, and clearly a biting commentary on more recent political events. Zoe Kazan in particular shines in a stellar cast.
10. The Flight Attendant (HBO Max). Kaley Cuoco is excellent as a flight attendant with a drinking problem who wakes up next to a dead body in Bangkok. Funny and suspenseful, this show has a strong North by Northwest vibe (several episodes have nods to Hitchcock). I especially loved the surrealist dream sequences as the protagonist’s mind keeps dragging her back to the scene of the crime.

I also quite enjoyed (in descending order): Mrs. America, Bojack Horseman, The Mandalorian, Better Call Saul, I May Destroy You, Normal People, Tales from the Loop, High Fidelity, Dracula, Quiz, Killing Eve, Westworld, Rick and Morty

Best prior-year show that I watched in 2020 and now want to retroactively add to my 2018 and 2019 lists: Derry Girls.