What I'm watching: February Update

Current Shows:

Wanda Vision (Disney Plus)-With such mind-boggling layers of symbolism, this is as if the world's best escape room writers were tasked with writing a sitcom that entrusts viewers to be active rather than passive participants in decryption. The series takes the viewer on a journey through various sitcom tropes on a decade-by-decade journey with underlying storylines dealing with grief, manipulation, and escapism as a form of evil. With all the painstaking detail that the prodution team implants its easter eggs, this is a sure contender for the most intricate show on television if not its most ambitious. I have little familiarity with the MCU but was able to peace most details together.

 

Great North (Fox)-It’s hard to tell much through two episodes, but the show isn’t off to a great start. It seems like it has the same boundless potential that any animated show begins with in the post-MacFarland/Groening era with the added pedigree of the cast (Will Forte, Nick Offerman, Jenny Slate) and the allure of a cool setting. But part of the problem is I’m not a Nick Offerman fan. Different stars have different comedic personas and the effectiveness of those personas is somewhat subjective. To me, he’s generally a manly man with no comment on any modern image of masculinity. When he sings the theme song dedicated to hard work, or espouses the value of waking up ridiculously early, and having birthdays devoid of emotion, there are characters who serve as reluctant foils to those plans but Offerman’s character (much like his trademark P & R character) doesn’t have that much commentary. One nice detail is the interracial marriage between Offerman's adult son (Forte) and an import from California (Dulce Sloane).

Call Your Mother (ABC)-Starring Kyra Sedgwick as Jean, it’s an old-school multi-cam sitcom that strives so hard to squeeze a peg into an outdated sitcom format of a round hole that it‘s almost adorable. The show is about an empty nest mother who moves to LA to be closer to her kids and simultaneously rediscover her identity aside from her kids. If you paid close attention, the two parts of that last sentence were complete opposites and that sort of clash of premises is rearing its ugly head quite haphazardly so far. In one episode daughter Jackie tells her mom Jean she feels neglected, and in every other episode Jackie is trying to get space from Jean like a cloying mother. Anywho, this is like Mary Tyler Moore if Moore found her Mr. Right, had kids, spent 18+ years tending to that whole thing, and came out on the other end looking for her new purpose in a spunky way. Based mostly on Sedgwick's charm, the show is mildly passable on the whole and has the occasional moment for an emotional payoff.

Call Me Kat (Fox)-A successor to "New Girl" in that it's a celebration of a woman owning up to her quirkiness and (by extension) her singleness. The problem is this character (Mayim Bialik) is written as over-the-top quirky for the sake of being quirky and the inauthenticity makes her, for lack of a better word, uncool. The show's breaking of the fourth wall

Mr. Mayor (NBC)-Another entry in the canon of Tina Fey and Robert Carlock that's a little more "30 Rock" than "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt." The humor is clever but skin-deep. Don't expect pathos-driven growth with the narrative highs of Kimmy, Titus and Jaqueline. At the same time, the show, set in the Mayor's office of L.A., has much less of an insider vibe. Show biz types celebrating the ordeals of being millionaires and running into network standards has gotten tired. As it's mostly episodic, the show lives or dies by the episode but it's hard to deny that the show hit a lot of home runs in the back half of the season.

Young Rock (NBC)-Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has cemented his status over the past couple decades as a lovable guy. He's a self-aware hunk of beefcake and he's been relegated to action roles but his public persona has been that of an ideal celebrity. He's often talked about running for president and, while I'm sure his reasons are more noble than Trump, the last thing I want to meditate on is another celebrity president. Unfortunately, the show unironically posits that Johnson (as himself) is the 2032 candidate for president and it reeks of of self-congratulations. There's a difference between most of us liking The Rock and The Rock making a show about how he got to be so likeable. The show is also only slightly self-aware to be effective enough commentary on the relationship between celebrity and cultural/political clout.

Fortunately, that's just the framing device. Through two episodes, it's basically just a typical adolescent comedy that could easily be called "It's not easy being a jock" as the 15-year-old Dwayne Johnson is twice the side of his peers. It's moderately charming.

If I picked the Emmys 2018-2019 (Comedy categories)

Comedy Shows: 
AP Bio
Arrested Development
The Good Place*
Marvelous Mrs Maisel
Miracle Workers
Trial and Error
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

"Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" and "Arrested Development" concluded their runs this year with the back halves of seasons that ran over two years. "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" is a more episodic show that lives or dies based on the quality of the episodic plot and it had a pretty high hit-to-miss ratio as it approached the end. "Arrested Development" started off clunky and didn't have as much stunt casting to rely on. Some might have even preferred the up-in-the-air status of things at the end of the fourth season, but the show managed to really focus on the labyrinthine plotting and organically earn its happy ending. Right after watching "The Good Place", I felt like the season dilly-dallied too long in Australia but looking back that seems like a minor blemish. The show world-builds like an adderrol-addled toddler playing with legos but it has such a plethora of quotable lines and pretty much every character on screen is memorable in some way.

Actor:
Adam Clayton-Holland, Those Who Can't
Daniel Radcliffe, Miracle Workers
Glenn Howerton, A.P. Bio*
Ramy Youssef, Ramy
Ted Danson, The Good Place
Tim Robinson, I Think You Should Leave

Howerton's transition from ensemble player in "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" to headlining his own show is the epitome here of how to retain popular elements of your screen persona and do something fresh with them: He's still a bit psychopath and unfeeling and is every bit the know-it-all as Dennis Reynolds but somehow it's just different. My runner-up here would be a close call between the TV veteran Danson and Ramy Youssef. Even though Youssef is playing a version of himself reading his own script (something that could lower the degree of difficulty) there's a lot that's affecting about his performance.

Actress:
Ellie Kemper, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidtt
Geraldine Viswanathan, Miracle Workers
Kristen Bell, The Good Place
Natasha Lyonne, Russian Doll*
Rachel Bloom, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
Rachel Brosnahan, Marvelous Mrs Maisel

It's hard to ignore Bloom, Brosnahan, Kemper or Bell because those shows are great female-driven comedies that put those actresses front and center. Brosnahan has had an incredible journey from the lower rungs of comedy actor obscurity so she's been quite rootable. Allison Brie is another great pick and I might have included here but I felt the second season of "Glow" was a fast turn towards boring and I'm not sure if she did anything new. Bell is a close-runner up here but Natasha Lyonne really dos an excellent job of channeling her low-filter id-driven screen persona and creating a comic lead out of it. Lyonne's character is so simultaneously kind-hearted and rude, watching her is an examination of  the more superficial elements of typical cordiality.

Supporting Actor:
Chris Redd, SNL
David Cross, Arrested Development
Mikey Day, SNL
Rob McElhenney, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Steve Buscemi, Miracle Workers*
Tony Shalhoub, Marvelous Mrs Maisel

One of my favorite characters on TV is Jason Mendoza but I think it's the way the character is written more than the actor. In contrast, Shalhoub is being fed the most stereotypical blather by Amy Sherman-Palladino and he still finds a way to turn it into something substantive. SNL nominations typically award people for having a hit political impression that catches but Redd and Day really deserve a lot of praise for doing a lot of the grunge work and carrying their weight so early in their careers. It's kind of a six-way tie between the four non-SNL guys with Buscemi taking it by a nose.


Supporting Actress:
Alia Shawkat, Arrested Development
Catherine O'Hara, Schitt's Creek
Kristin Chenoweth, Trial and Error
Juliette Lewis, Camping*
Lyric Lewis, AP Bio
Meredith MacNeill, Baroness von Sketch Show

This is a wealth of talent in this category with a wide range of variation. O'Hara has long been a fan favorite (and a real Emmy nominee this year) and you either love her or hate her snooty character on "Schitt's Creek" which is a testament to the actress. MacNeill is one of a very talented quartet but she really sticks out for her knack for physical comedy. Shawkat was the most dynamic character on "Arrested Development" this past season and you have to give it up for anyone who can simultaneously hold the affections of a septugenarian AND their first cousin. Lyric Lewis is one of a murderer's row of characters on "AP Bio" including a trio of teacher friends whose banter is so well-established they could convince the audience that pizza slapping is a thing. Lewis has slightly more sass than the others and plays best off of Durbin (Patton Oswalt). However, I'm going with Juliette Lewis who has been chugging along since getting Oscar nominated as a teenager, is wicked fun as a thorn in Jennifer Garner's side on "Camping."

Guest Star Actor:
Adam Scott, The Good Place
Jason Matzoukas, The Good Place
Jerry Minor, Those Who Can't
Joel McCrary, Trial and Error
Michael McKean, The Good Place*
Norm Lewis, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
Norm McDonald, The Orville

Lest you think Jason was a Season 2 presence, he appeared in the Season 3 finale to show off his refinement and help pump out babies. His delivery on the line "Hi, I'm Derek" is pretty much all he needs to be placed in this category. For those who need a refresher, McCrary was a judge with a prominent singing voice whose accident got him reduced to a near mute that only Peckers can here; Norm Lewis was the Broadway performer who introduced Titus to the Cats hoax; and McDonald is a member of the Orville's engineering staff who also happens to be an amorphous blob of slime (not making that up). Generally, a good one-off guest star is one who makes an immediate comic impression with something off-kilter that sticks out and McKean's worrisome apologeticness lends itself to some very good scenes.

[Update: Luke Kirby of Marvelous Mrs Maisel won this category]

Guest Star Actress:
Amy Sedaris, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
Elizabeth Alderfer, AP Bio
Maria Bamford, Arrested Development
Maya Rudolph, The Good Place*
Mindy Kailing, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Susie Essman, Those Who Can't
Tami Sagher, Russian Doll

I was so happy for Tobias to be able to hold on to DeBrie a little longer and I practically fell in love with Elizabeth Alderfer myself, so there are a lot of appealling choices. For those who can't recall, Susie Essman is a loud-mouthed hustler at Smoot High and Tami Sagher was the secretary to an Orthodox Rabbi who somehow manages to withstand Natasha Lyonne's patience for a good while. In terms of omissions, SNL hosts often go in guest categories but I didn't really think this was a stand-out season with any highlights in terms of who they bought in. Perhaps Emma Stone would be closest if this category weren't so packed. Maya Rudolph takes the cake here because not only is she a distinct comic character whose every line is quoteworthy, she looks like she's having tremendous fun being there.

[Update: Jane Lynch of Marvelous Mrs Maisel won this category]

Dialogue/Writing:
Arrested Development
BoJack Horseman
The Good Place*
Miracle Workers
Trial and Error*
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

I'm going to throw a bone to "Trial and Error" considering it didn't get picked up for Season 3 (who knows, it might get life elsewhere?) and give it a co-win. The sheer absurdity of East Peck really works itself nicely into much of the loopy dialogue (particularly Dwayne) and the show enjoys a lot of fun play off the motiffs. I can't leave "The Good Place" behind: I likely can take any random line and throw it in my twitter feed because it's just that consistently good. For "BoJack", I wasn't fond of the "Free Churro" episode and i thought the season didn't have as much significant movement, but the dialogue is always sharp and there were a few ambitious episodes like the one with four Halloweens or the Henry Fondle episode.


Theme Song/Title Sequence:
Baroness von Sketch Show*
The Big Bang Theory
The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
Lodge 49
Man in High Castle
Orange is the New Black

I didn't see the new "Man in High Castle"  or even know that the show was still running until I checked so that's nice for the theme song. "Lodge 49" is appropriately psychedelic. "Baroness von Sketch Show" just encapsulates who the four women are to the soundtrack of "Dancing Underwater" by Brave Shores

My Annual Top 12 Shows List

My Big Top 12 TV Shows of the Year has been an Annual Tradition since 2009

Credit: IGN

1. Daredevil (Netflix)-After giving up on season 2, I couldn’t have been more surprised by how transfixed I was here. In terms of technical elements, the color palate is carefully selected, and the fights are a combination of camera virtuosity and choreography that blows most CGI out of the water. Like Christopher Nolan’s films, the story easily transcends the trappings of the superhero genre with a villain whose relationship to his suit is transitive: A means to get things done and can be dropped if need be. The season wrestled with questions of faith and friendship (the bond between Murdoch and his two closest allies drove the show’s emotional push) with a villain (Vincent D’Onofrio) that could provoke genuine anger and fear in an era of superhero glut (not to mention the actual news) where it’s more common to see villains as showcases for actors to ham it up. And then there was Bullseye who took the complexity of the plot (he’s a doppelganger of sorts) to another level.

2. Sneaky Pete (Amazon Prime)-Created by Bryan Cranston and David Shore ("House"), "Sneaky Pete" built on a nail-biter of a first season and continued to find new ways to expand its core cast. As sacrilegious as it is to unfavorably compare "Breaking Bad" to an up-and-coming show, I'm going to go there: This show has a lot to offer that "Breaking Bad" didn't in terms of characters that are honest with themselves over exactly how evil they are and cop characters who don't fall under broad cliches. With the development given this season to Carly (Libe Bearer) and Taylor (Shane McRae), "Sneaky Pete" has earned its stripes as a family melodrama without losing site of the serialized con storyline. Jane Adams also provides great contrast as a psychic threatening to drive Marius/Pete crazy

3. Silicon Valley (HBO)-This show had a distinctive tone in its first season but it didn’t necessarily have a laugh-out-loud cadence with the exception of the twist ending at the end or the occasional gag like the “pros and cons of killing Blake” board). By the fifth season, the character beats are solid enough that the laugh-per-minute humor and overall plot are now on par with Mike Judge’s brilliant screen comedies. The fifth season is even more incredible considering that the group dynamic survived the departure of the show’s funniest stand-alone character Erlich Bachman (T.J. Miller) while characterization continued to march on with Richard developing a harder edge. The show treaded so much in tragedy initially that it’s refreshing to see Pied Piper net a win or two.

4. Crashing (HBO)-The adorably naive Pete Holmes continues his evolution into late adulthood as he finds himself further down the road towards his stand-up dreams and faces increased pressure to decide between personal integrity and fast money (not to mention, all the other dangers that come with being friends with Artie Lange). Also, he somehow lands a girlfriend that looks remarkably like his ex-wife (Lauren Lapkus) in an uncanny bit of casting. TV shows about comics playing themselves are a dime a dozen but few celebrate the joy of mutual creation and camaraderie as well as this, and fewer yet are as thematically thoughtful.

5. Another Period (Comedy Central)-Think “Downton Abbey” crossed with trashy reality show. The show has tremendous fun satirizing historic mores of the aughts and key figures: Sigmuend Frued’s misguided psychotherapy theories are turned into a cringey orgy; Scott Joplin (Cedric the Entertainer) becomes a fill-in for Kanye West;  Eleanor Roosevelt’s feminist leanings get turned into full-on seduction, and yes they even take a shot at sweet pre-teen Hitler because why not? This is a show that, more often than not, goes low-brow and doubles down on low-hanging fruit (lots of incest, an ugly duckling sibling, etc.) but it’s also supremely clever and boasts well-developed comic characters (even the incestuous ones).

Caption: Indiewire

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6. Maniac (Netflix)-The likely one-off season by genius director Cary Fukunaga (“Beasts of No Nation” “Sin Nombre”) takes place in a quasi-futuristic world (a la “Black Mirror”) emphasizing the disconnect between humans (friends are for sale here). A story of mutual healing of two damaged souls (Emma Stone and Jonah Hill) and unlikely friendship (sorry shippers!) becomes a trippy exploration of subsconscious desire, the elusive search for the magic silver bullet that will cure our problems, and the elasticity of trauma.

7. The Mick (Fox)-Lately, I’m finding myself measuring the quality of a comedy through an imaginary decibel meter that records my laughs. “The Mick” isn’t particularly innovative and it’s not even the only place on TV you can see Kaitlin Olson debasing herself, but that doesn’t take away how much I looked forward to this show every week before it’s unceremonious axing. The comedy works through the clash between the snootiness of spoiled children (Thomas Barbusca and Sophia Black-D’Ella) and their unfiltered white trash live-in aunt, but let’s not underestimate the wild cards in wildly overconfident Alba (Carla Jimenez) and Jimmy (Scott MacArthur) who is always dishing inappropriate wisdom to any takers.

8. Marvelous Mrs Maisel (Amazon Prime)-The challenge of following up a hit with a sophomore season that builds upward and maintains the novelty is not easy and “Maisel” came through. The second season had some refreshing location changes (I’ve never wanted to visit the Catskills so badly), a very organic new romance for Midge, bigger arcs for side characters (Joe becoming sympathetic? imagine that!), and a hinting that Midge could become a star down the road. Perhaps the smartest move of the second season was lampshading (particularly, through a frustrated coworker who’s wedding was ruined through Midge’s showboating) how Midge is annoyingly on all the time.

9. Trial and Error (NBC)-The uber-eccentric  small-town comedy traded in aloof bisexual professor John Lithgow for haughty socialite Kristin Chenoweth. Like before, there was no shortage of sight gags (shout out to whoever thought up the daily cannon ball), eccentric characters, and rare illnesses for Sheri Shephard’s character to contract. The podcaster who gets entangled into a love triangle with Josh didn’t do much for me but it allowed Josh to run and duck like Jack Tripper and it strengthened the romance between Carol Anne and Josh which was quite sweet. The show took a while to reach last year’s levels of sublime mania (perhaps the change from defending to prosecuting Lavinia midway broke up the flow?) but it finished strong enough to make this year’s list again.

Courtesy: NBC

10. The Good  Place (NBC)-Mike Schur’s hybrid ethical manifesto/long-form sitcom is still one of the best things on TV but the transition into the third scene took a dive in immediacy as the gang was stranded a little too long in Australia. Even off-episodes still had great content to offer and “The Ballad of Donkey Doug” and “A Fractured Inheritance” provided comic highlights as they combined the “Very Special episode” sitcom format with Jason and Tahini’s ridiculous back stories. Towards the end of the year the show started accelerating fast into game changing twists but unlike the first season, our preconceptions haven’t been shattered so it’s still holding steady.

Courtesy: Variety

11. Ozark (Netflix)-Much of the first two seasons here were spent squeezing the protagonist between various characters, capable of inflicting death or worse, who exact opposite demands on him like “Malcolm in the Middle” with psychotic thugs. The tension on this show has gone from satisfying to an adrenaline high but there’s a point when you start to wonder if credibility gets sacrificed. Don’t blame this show: It’s been the template of much of peak TV since “Breaking Bad” and “The Americans”: The more implausible obstacles your antihero is faced with, the better the show. “Ozark” has some great characters, even better acting, and a strong sense of place but it really started to distinguish itself towards the latter half of the season when Marty tried to actively look for a way out (as any sensible character would do) which made his moral conflicts so much more interesting.

12. Disenchantment (Netflix)-Matt Groening mined the genre of futuristic tropes for an anachronistic playground in “Futurama”, and he does the same here with medieval Europe. The visual details are rich in a way that humor can be mined out of all the Easter eggs in the backdrop. John DiMaggio doesn’t do much with King Zog to make him interesting but the rest of the cast is pretty solid and like Groening’s two other creations, there’s already an array of solid side characters. To give an idea, Zog’s second wife is a salamander who talks like Eva Gabor and one of the red shirt knights is named Mortimer the Expendable.  It’s not a finished product yet but it’s a good bet that this show will get significantly richer in future seasons.

Honorable Mention:
Baroness von Sketch Show, IFC-These four seasoned ladies continue to kill it with innovative sketches that vary by length and consistently deliver fresh and original commentary on human nature. Meredith MacNeill, in particular, is a great physical comedian who will bend and contort in any which way for a laugh. 
BoJack Horseman, Netflix-#1 last year, "Bojack" felt like it was treading through familiar beats to some extent but there were several positive developments to show character growth including BoJack maintaining a relationship with Hollyhock, going through both ends of the #metoo movement with a determination to cure himself of alcoholism. and holding down a job (harder than it looks for BoJack). The show found avenues for everyone's arc to continue to be worthwhile five seasons in (although Dianne has a ways to go, we'll be pulling for you next season).  On the humor front, it was hard to top Henry Fondle and on the experimantation front, the show batted one for two in my book (the episode with four Halloweens was the season's MVP to me although some prefer "Free Churro") 
Camping, HBO-Co-written by Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner, this show feels like a spiritual successor to "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolff" if the party size was doubled and extended to an entire weekend camping trip. Jennifer Garner stars as Kathryn, an uptight mother in a sexless marraige, who's good graces belie her deep insecurities. Juliette Lewis plays the free-spirited Jandice who is the perfect foil to Kathryn's facade and the season is a slow burn to watching Kathryn unravel. In between these two are a ragtag group who collectively demonstrate that adulting isn't always as complete a process as it seems.
Derry Girls, Channel 4/Netflix-This Irish import found a distinctive voice (quite literally with the thick brogues) and plot format rather quickly. It's rooted in a strong sense of place and a point of view that adolescence is cruel but has moments of rose-tinted nostalgia here and there.
Impractical Jokers, TruTV-On the surface, this looks like four goofballs laughing too hard at their own shennanigans, but this show involving four Staten Island men daring each other to say and do absurd things with strangers involves highly skilled improv packaged in a format that encourages edge-of-your-seat escalation.
Me Myself and I, CBS-A family comedy starring recent SNL alum Bobby Moynihan and John Larroquette that has two things going for it. The gooey morality fables found in the TGIF sitcoms of old, and labyrinthine Sienfeldesque plotting that takes place across the past, present and future of a man's life. Unfortunately the sitcom was cancelled but burned-off episodes are available online. 
Orange is the New Black, Netflix-One of the best ensemble shows in the television history, there are high points and storylines that work in every season. The new dynamic with the two fueding sisters and the moral shading of the guards based on their varying stopping points to a sadistic game of fantasy prisoner were this year's highlights. The tour de force that had the power to get the audience angry enough to want to take action (hello criminal justice reform bill?) was the show's focus on the trial of Tasha "Taystee" Jefferson in all its rawness. The show might have cracked the top 12 if it didn't feel like such a hard reset from last season. 
Rise, NBC-The show was flawed by a protagonist who had such tunnel vision in directing his school play that he was willing to put a not-yet-out gay student in the crosshairs of his conservative family, deny the primadonna her lead role, and screw with the football team's winning formula for the sake of his precious vision. And that's to say nothing of the dues-ex-machinas that continually saved him. But what can I say, somehow this show really worked for me. It hit the right timbre in its emotional relationships (think "Glee" without the whiplash) and has a very strong sense of economically margainalized Red State America
Succession, HBO-There’s not much to write here beyond “spoiled rich family schemes and quibbles and schemes some more” and it’s a lot of fun. A murderer’s row of character actors—Jeremy Strong, Matthew McFayden, Kieran Culkin, Brian Cox, Alan Ruck—lend slightly different shades of nasty to their characters and they’re largely attending a lot of formal events where they’re acting inappropriate.

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Netflix-The 4th season regained some of the mojo that the show has had with it's stronger runs when the characters had a consistent thru-line. Kimmy's three supporting characters have come out of the gate more self-assured: Titus had a more definite arc forward in contrast to Jackie's newfound stability. Meanwhile, Lily had much more opportunity to be a wild card that could break an episode open on the humor front as she caused a sexual revolution in nerdom in "Kimmy Breaks the Paradigm." And Xanthippe made another appearance! If the show had more than six epsiodes, it could have really found a groove.

Others Shows I Watched That Didn't Make the List:
9-1-1, Fox*; 13 Reasons Why, Netflix; ACS: Versace, FX; Adam Ruins Everything, TruTV; Alex Inc, ABC*; AP Bio, NBC*; Arrested Development, Netflix; Barry, HBO; Billy on the Street, Lyft; Big Mouth, Netflix; BoJack Horseman, Netflix*; The Break with Michelle Wolff, Netflix; Brockmire, IFC; Comedy Knockout, TruTV, Corporate, Comedy Central*; Casual, Hulu%; Camping, HBO; The Cool Kids, Fox; Corporate, Comedy Central; Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, CW; The Flash, CW; Derry Girls, Channel 4/Netflix; Electric Dreams, Amazon%; Empire, Fox*; Family Guy, Fox; Gifted, Fox; Glow, Netflix; God Friended Me, CBS; Good Girls, NBC; Great News, NBC; It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, FXX; I Feel Bad, NBC%; Jack Ryan, Amazon*; Jessica Jones, Netflix; Kidding, Showtime%, Killing Eve, BBC; Last Man on Earth, Fox;  LA to Vegas, NBC; Last Week Tonight, HBO; Late Night with Seth Meyers, NBC; Lost in Space, Netflix; Modern Family, ABC; Mom, CBS; No Activity, CBS All-Access; Once Upon a Time, ABC: Queer Eye, Netflix*; Mozart in the Jungle, Amazon; Norm McDonald Has a Show, Netflix; Real Time with Bill Maher, HBO; Schitt's Creek, Pop TV; Sick Note, Netflix; SNL, NBC; Superstore, NBC; Timeless, NBC%;  A Very British Scandal, Amazon;  Westworld, HBO%

*=Considered for honorable mention
%=Didn't see more than one or two episodes

Capsule Reviews: Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Killing Eve, and Ozark

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (Season 4A)-

Some of the most memorable episodes of the show came out in this bite-sized six episode sample: Specifically, the one where Lily turns a tech conference into an orgy and Lily goes toe to toe with her late lover's daughter for her inheritance (I guess Carol Kane is the MVP).

Like Tina Fey and Robert Carlock's other project, 30 Rock, there seems like an unspoken centrifugal force in this universe that wants to keep its four principal characters from finding any sort of permanent comfort. Kimmy switches projects from working at a start up to writing a childrens book and Titus goes from executive producer of The Capist to high school drama teacher to landing an acting gig. Titus as a showbiz personality is more conducive to the gig economy while Jackie and Kimmy are being whiplashed a bit more inorganically to fit the template. Still, knowing what I'm in for at this point leads to easier suspension of disbelief.

The shortened season feels like I just got an appetizer-sized portion than a full meal which is why it might not make my top ten.

Killing Eve-I can understand why this show is a critical darling and I wanted to like it too. It was slick and stylized; it offered an engaging and tight plot; and an even better lead. Sandra Oh's Eve Polastri doesn't have an overriding gimmick (like say, autistic in The Good Doctor, an a-hole in House, or victim in Jessica Jones) but she's pretty intriguing in a lot of subtle ways: As an Asian-American in a man's field, she's a fish out of water in more ways than one; she's outspoken but not in a way that feels inorganic, and she's legitimately uneasy because she is not field-tested.

On the other end of the spectrum is a psychopathic serial assassin who's meant to be a doppelganger. She's an intriguing villain but like Francis Underwood in House of Cards, she does so much bad that you start getting invested in wanting to see her punished. The problem is the show doesn't really treat her like a serial killer. Either that or they have massive strokes of stupidity when trailing her. In one episode, Eve's colleague follows her into a nightclub unarmed without even calling for back up. Later on, they go after her without even carrying any weapons? The last episode I watched featured our heroine twice facing our villain unarmed without defensive measures. Villanelle's colleagues are equally ridiculous around her.

As far as I can tell, the show isn't about catching a killer as it is exploring Eve's relationship with the killer. She was singled out in-universe for her fascination with Villanelle and the show's overtones are a bit Hitchcock/Cronenberg. The scenes with Eve and her colleagues meeting Villanelle face-to-face recall the Seventh Seal without the ghastly imagery: facing death personified. 

However, it sure is awkward when the rest of the show aims for a more gripping form of realism.

Ozark (though Episode 8)-Shows like Breaking Bad, House of Cards, and The Americans have led to a popularization of the notion that great TV is about characters being irrationally ordered to do impossible things from all sides. 

Take Ozark as an example:

A) The cartel holds Marty Byrde responsible for the Snells when its pretty nonsensical to think that Byrde can control a pair of criminals who are often hell-bent to doing the polar opposite of what would be prudent.

B) Wilkes (along with cartel pressure) wants the Byrdes to single-handedly change the voting of the entire Missouri legislature by upending nearly every other player in the state. 

C) Meanwhile one unchecked agent, Petty, is abusing his power in every conceivable way to make life impossible for the Byrdes. Petty's demand of Rachel to get dirt on Marty is pretty impossible to fulfill if Marty's not saying anything

D)  On top of that, there are a number of wildcards like an ex-pastor who suddenly turn murderous, because of course he does. Rather than think strategically, he instead makes a superfluous demand --he wants his son back in less than 24 hours or else Wendy is dead-- which isn't realistic considering the speed of bureaucracy. 

The tension on this show has gone from satisfying to an adrenaline high. At what point, however, does the show's credibility cancel out any gains? The second season is imminently watchable because watching characters maneuver out of tight situations is as hard to turn away from as an explosion or fight scene or juicy romance. But could the show be made better if it wasn't based on contrivances? As sacrilegious as it is to take shots at the above-mentioned shows, I blame the effect of the three shows above for setting such a template and having the flaws in those shows go unexamined.

Another question at stake is the intrigue of the anti-hero which has played out in many shows including the ones listed above. Through several of the episodes, Marty made the flimsy justification (overtly or tacitly) that he was protecting his family but what about the costs to other people's families? How would FBI protection not protect his family? It wasn't until the very end of Breaking Bad that Walter White came to terms with his selfishness. The Americans had a pair of complicit anti-heroes coming to terms with it in opposite ways which remained something that enriched the show greatly in later seasons.

Marty started out this season as a zombie of sorts: He turned his moral barometer off and retained a tunnel vision on his goal imagining his river boat casino would liberate him. The more interesting version of the show has come in the past couple of episodes as he started to veer off his original course with acknoweledgement to the consequences for Wyatt, Julie, and Rachel (the only characters worth caring about when this show is at its least interesting).

I'm on episode 8. Let's see where this show ends up.

Last Minute Emmy Wish List in the Comedy Categories

Here are some last minute predictions for the Oscars in the comedy categories using only shows I've seen. Seven shows get nominated in the comedy category and in the writing and directing categories the shows generally go to specific episodes. In this case, I listed overall writing and directing and then picked twelve episodes I really liked in hopes of picking them up. On the drama side, I don't really have many hopes except hoping that Bates Motel gets honored and that Aubrey Plaza gets a supporting nod in Legion.

Credit: Deadline.com

Best Comedy

Good Place

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Trial and Error

The Real O’Neals

Lady Dynamite

Schitt’s Creek

Those Who Can’t

BoJack Horseman

Directing

The Good Place

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Trial and Error

Dirk Gentley’s Whollistic Detective Agency

I Love Dick

Brockmire

Writing:

Dirk Gentley’s Whollistic Detective Agency

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia

The Good Place

BoJack Horseman

Trial and Error

Brockmire

Lead Actor:

Hank Azaria, Brockmire

Randall Park, Fresh off the Boat

Pete Holmes, Crashing

Eugene Levy, Schitt’s Creek

John Lithgow, Trial and Error

Andy Daly, Review

Lead Actress:

Lily Tomlin, Grace and Frankie

Maria Bamford, Lady Dynamite

Kathryn Hahn, I Love Dick

Constance Wu, Fresh off the Boat

Kristen Bell, The Good Place

Amanda Peete, Brockmire

Ellie Kemper, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Supporting Actor:

Danny DeVito, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Fred Melamed, Lady Dynamite

Sam Waterson, Grace and Frankie

Kevin Bacon, I Love Dick

Tituss Burgess, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Ted Danson, The Good Place

Supporting Actress:

Martha Plimpton, Real O’Neals

June Diane Raphael, Grace and Frankie

Lauren Lapkus, Crashing

Mary Steenburgen, Last Man on Earth

Jayma Mays, Trial and Error

Catherine O’Hara, Schitt’s Creek

Guest Actor:

Adam Scott as Trevor, The Good Place

Daveed Diggs as Perry, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Ray Liotta as Paulie Fiuccillo, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Stephen Tobolowsky as Jack Barker, Silicon Valley

Aasif Mandvi as Parshwall, Another Period

John Gemberling as John Hancock, Making History

Guest Actress:

Cheri Oteri as Cattie Goodman, Those Who Can’t

Annie Mumulo as Jill Kwatne-Adelman nee Kwatne, Lady Dynamite

Christine Rose as Josie Davis, Trial and Error

Ramona Young as Allison, The Real O’Neals

June Dianne Raphael as Eleanor Roosevelt, Another Period

Sandy Martin as Mac's mom, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Annual 12 Best Shows of the Year List

This hasn't been a particularly productive year in terms of keeping up my blog, so it's helpful to briefly discuss why I have still been blogging for such a long time. Considering a few professional writers I know stopped blogging after they became published elsewhere because it's difficult to maintain content on multiple platforms, it does seem like at the very least, I can't logistically  put my very best content on this blog if I'm writing for other places. 

Contrary to popular belief, I don't write here to build a fan base. If you came here and are a fan, thank you (donate if you want!). My blog is used to showcase my writing for people that make their way over here, to develop ideas, to test promotional strategies and on rare occasions: Because there's something I just want to write. My 12 best shows of the year is strictly for me. It's literally something I think about every time I write a TV show: Will this show make my top 12? It pushes me artistically to broaden my horizons as a viewer and pushes me critically as well. I also just want to highlight what I think is great TV.

1. 11.22.63, Hulu  (Season 1)-This TV show recalled the work of Frank Darabont (not the "Walking Dead" era, of course) in telling a historic fable that retains its sense of sepia-soaked nostalgia without shying away from the era's darker elements like the casualness of domestic violence or the disenfranchisement of immigrants that could partially show how someone like Lee Harvey Oswald could fall through the cracks in the first place. Through it all, the show plays with all the logistical tropes of a loopy time-travel scenario (essentially, going down all the roads of the Hitler Time Travel Exemption with Kennedy's murder) and centers around a romance (with Sarah Gadon) and fragile alliance/friendship (with George McKay) that's played with utterly convincing sincerity by James "my life is a perpetual art experiment" Franco of all people. Between this, "Timeless", "Agent Carter", and "The Man in the High Castle", 2016 was a good year in television for sun-drenched nostalgia and the year's best show took this on with a singular vision.

2. People v. OJ Simpson, FX (Season 1)-Rarely has a docudrama aired on TV like this with so little wiggle room in the imaginations of its viewers (or, at least the portion who was alive in 1995): If you made the choice not to live under a rock back then, the events of the OJ Simpson trial were simply an inescapable part of daily life. With so much of this history so ingrained in our collective consciousness, it's a wonder at all that a narrative with any sense of suspense or discovery can be crafted at all. But "People v OJ Simpson" doesn't just do that; It weaves together found art to tell what might be the definitive tale of present-day Americana with explorations on the self-imposed tensions around race, our national obsession with celebrity, the fallibility of public opinion, and the curious way fame has a way of magnifying mistakes (although the show got admittedly clunky when trying to posit Robert Kardashian as a lesson in irony). Sarah Paulson, John Travolta, Courtney Vance and Sterling Brown are excellent as lawyers dead set on winning with varying degrees of moral integrity and at the hollow center of it all is OJ Simpson (played with a childlike misunderstanding of his own actions by Cuba Gooding Jr) who ultimately turned out to be the least important part of the equation.

3. BoJack Horseman, Netflix  (Season 3)**-BoJack is rolling in the animal-based puns and
pathos with more self-assurance and ambition than ever before. BoJack's depression is portrayed with such a level of realism that it wouldn't be surprising to know that a mentally-ill person could find comfort here. BoJack's universe continues to expand with the recurrence of his castmates and the reintroduction of Kelsey Jannings (BoJack's efforts to repair this relationship made for 2016's most popular and dissected episode). This is also a great year for Todd, who discovered he was asexual (quite possibly the most underrepresented sexual subset on TV), and for BoJack discovering who his real friends are: It turns Sarah Lynn was really reliable after all (while she was in the "alive" category) and Dianne had a nice moment or two. If the show didn't botch the ending, it would have topped the list.

4. Lady Dynamite, Netflix (Season 1)-My initial difficulty with this show wasn't because there was nothing like it on TV but because I saw traces of nearly everything else on TV: The cutaways of "30 Rock", the awkward attempts at social justice statements from "Master of None", the use of a comedic veneer to mask trauma that's shown on "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt", the fourth-wall randomness of "Man Seeking Woman", and the feminist celebration of woman as proudly dysfunctional adult from "Broad City." Within a couple episodes, however, Maria Bamford and crew are able to master all these tricks and weave them together into a coherent tone. At its heart is Maria Bamford as Maria Bamford (I know that comedians playing themselves is as old as time, stick with it): A modern-day Mary Tyler Moore if Moore's neuroses were slightly more severe and had clinically-defined labels that she wore on her sleeve.

5. The Good Wife, CBS (Season 6)-To be fair, I never watched a single episode before this year. Once I caught it on a domestic flight, I was immediately hooked and have since been gobbling up the last three seasons when I'm looking for a dependable dose of intellectual excitement. Rarely have I encountered a procedural with such purpose beyond going through the same rote motions. Rarely have I ever seen characters whose intelligence and sense of conviction can come across on screen so well without resorting to blatant Sorkinist cheats.

6. Orange is the New Black, Netflix (Season 4)**-In an era where your average high-profile TV includes an Oscar winner or two, "Orange is the New Black" is still the medium's strongest ensemble. As such, so many balls are being juggled in the air, that there are always going to be plots that will strike the viewer. This year, Soso and Poussay's relationship along with Pennsatucky's liberation from Coates were among the strongest in my eyes, but there were a lot of directions the writers went in that got traction. While I maintain that the season finale resonated with social activists because of erroneous connections, it's good to know that people draw inspiration from the show in whatever ways they see fit. Although cruel guards (have we forgotten "Pornstache" already?) are relatively familiar territory for this show and "Orange is the New Black" seemed relatively unaware that Season 4 was not a particularly new shade of evil, Brad William Henke made a memorable villain as Piscatella nonetheless.

7. Another Period, Comedy Central (Season 2)-For me, “Another Period” is proof positive that with a couple tweaks, a show can really grow on you. During first season, I thought the show was broad and -- because I had trouble finding anything likeable about the two sisters who anchored the show -- quite cruel. The second season has benefited from a grand karmic leveling with the girls being upstaged by Harriett Tubman and Hortense, along with Chair being a serious threat to Dodo's power upstairs. Of course, Blanche still isn't getting any human dignity from Peepers or the universe in general, but here's hoping she channels her inner craziness enough to flat-out stab him soon. The increased maneuvering for power and the *gasp* hidden Belacourt family secret(s) has posited "Another Period" more in line with the upstairs-downstairs class drama (likely "Downton Abbey") it's made to skewer with a more American twist. One jarring thing about the show is its mix of humor. It takes a while to appreciate because the jokes are so intricately plotted, yet there is no limit on how low-brow these guys are willing to go for a joke. Watching this meticulously crafted blue humor delivered by some of the straightest men on TV-- stoic Victorian personalities like Peepers (Michael Ian Black) and the adorably naive Garfield (Armen Weitzman)-has been one of my biggest guilty pleasures this year.

8. Those Who Can't, TruTV (Seasons 1 and 2)-This is an entry in which my head is telling me that it’s absurd to rank this show ahead of some 55-60 other TV shows I saw this year, but my funny bone simply can’t resist. From Denver-based comedy trio Grawlix (Ben Roy, Andrew Orvedahl, and Adam Clayton-Holland), "Those Who Can't" looks at secondary education through the world of three lazy teachers enabled by a dysfunctional school administration. The show is striking in how confident it is of its comic tone right out of the gate and how deeply it dives into that joke no matter how dumb or smart it is. The characters come fully-formed and what’s underlooked is how the episodes have an escalating complexity in their plot that leads to a eureka moment akin to “Seinfeld” (although that’s admittedly a pretty lofty comparison to make). The show also boasts a lot of supporting roles with unsung actors including Sonya Eddy as the off-again on-again principal, Mary Lynn Rajskub as a loopy drama teacher, Rory Scovel (full disclosure: I have no idea who he is and don’t even want to check his IMDB page to find out he’s not particularly Quinn-ish in real life) as a touchy-feely principal, and Maria Thayer (who looks like she’s having the time of her life here) as a librarian desperate to fit in.

9. Shut Eye, Hulu (Season 1)-A breezy noir that has explores the world of psychics with a little bit

of magic, hypnotism, and gypsy mafia culture for good measure. Jeffrey Donovan plays a variation of his character from "Burn Notice": level headed under pressure and always thinking two steps ahead. Donovan plays a former magician Charlie Haverford who reluctantly operates as middle management under a mother-and-son mafia threat. Charlie's ambitious wife (KaDee Strickland) wants to stake out a bigger piece of the pie for herself by going after a wealthy mark. From there, the narrative spirals in all sorts of directions as the couple juggles all sorts of external threats while keeping law enforcement at bay, doing damage control on a drug overdose on their premises, and trying not to let a lesbian tryst with a hypnotist (Emmanuelle Chiriquí) threaten their trust in each other.

10. The Good Place, NBC (Season 1)-The always-game Kristen Bell helms one of the year’s most ambitious sitcoms as a self-absorbed slacker of outrageous proportions who accidentally ends up in Heaven and has to bluff her way through it with the aid of an ethics professor. Helmed be Mike Schur (“Parks and Recreation” “The Office”), the show has a very self-evident sense of fun exploring surprisingly deep moral conundrums under a comic guise while doing an excellent job at building a world. Ted Danson is one of TV’s best characters as a nebbish celestial architect from above constantly fretting over his creation and newcomer D’Arcy Carden is a wonderful bundle of contradictions as an android personal assistant who takes every command too literally. Who knows how long the show can keep up these cliffhangers, but so far, it’s a great ride.

11. American Horror Story: Roanoke, FX (Season 5)^:  "American Horror Story" best functions as a supernatural whodunit of sorts: A regular Joe with a healthy dose of skepticism gets thrust into something otherworldly, and the exact nature of the evil perpetrator is revealed to them (and us) over the course of the season. The first season executed this to a T but the first season was just a house in LA with a bunch of ghosts. It didn't have the same potential for fun as a 1950s asylum or a tourist trap freak show. On the other end of the spectrum, the show became overloaded with excessive plotlines and camp as it set its sights higher. The second season alone had an evil Nazi doctor, a sadistic nun, some freaky form of beasts out in the woods AND a malicious monsignor who all just coincidentally happen to be doing their dastardly deeds in the same cul-de-sac of horrors.

Season Six was a return to form with the best of both worlds: Set within the context of the haunted ground of Roanoke’s Lost  Colony and the racially-tense modern day backwaters of North Carolina, this season exudes a great sense of place while maintaining the scale of a tightly-wound  narrative.

12. Schitt's Creek, Pop TV (Season 2)-Co-created by Eugene Levy and son Daniel (who's apparently semi-famous or, as we like to say, famous in Canada), the show centers around an obscenely rich family with stunted adult children (Levy and Annie Murphy) being stripped of all their assets and being forced to move to a backwater town. The show initially was watchable but didn't really deliver on its potential of a small-town comedy with characters eccentric enough to be engaging. It also didn't help that central character David (Levy) was mostly a sad sack whose lone emotional M.O. was cosmopolitan disgust at his surroundings. In fact, the show's only real source of delight in the first season was Stevie  (Emily Hampshire) bringing David back to reality.

In the second season, we had a David-Stevie relationship that was as fresh as ever, but it also helped that giving the kids jobs enabled their rough edges to be sanded off every so slightly while Moira (Catherine O'Hara) went in the opposite direction. She became more overtly aloof which drew more out-loud laughter from me. The TV landscape is shifting more toward soft-laugh dramedy and Moira's absurdist demeanor keeps "Schitt's Creek" out of that trap. There was also a greater sense of familiarity with the characters that enabled the show's character-based humor to shine more. I enjoyed the sweetness of David and Steevie's evolution alongside each other, but I also found myself suddenly becoming enamored with Twyla's tangential  blabbing, Jocelyn's eternal reservoir of patience and  Bob's creepy intrusions into  Johnny's space. Like "Another Period," this show had one of the best sophomore season spikes I've ever seen.

Honorable Mentions:
Agent Carter, ABC-This action show really nails down the aesthetics and feel of a 1950' action serial but delivers it with a knowing wink. It never failed as a straight-up action story while simultaneously keeping the subversive meta-commentary in the picture.
Billy on the Street, TruTV*-Billy Eichner's refusal to abide by pedestrian social norms as he grills contestants on minute pop-culture details isn't just hilarious, it's also incredibly creative. Look at how Escaping Margo Robbie's moment satirizes the zero-sum game of staying on Hollywood's A-list or how the "This is Olivia Wilde, aren't you hideous in comparison?" segment satirizes the way tabloids encourage us to worship celebrities.
Casual, Hulu**-For a show tonally stuck between drama and dramedy, "Casual" managed to be one of the most engaging programs on TV without a net of laugh-inducing moments to fall back on. If it hadn't lost steam around the last three episodes, it would have made the list again. Why it doesn't just take the leap into "drama" like the recently-concluded "Parenthood," I'm not sure. 
Dirk Gentley's Holistic Detective Agency, BBC-There was some criticism that this wasn't particularly faithful to the source material, but if the source material is as non-linear as Douglas Adams, what would have been the point? This show was one of the most unique television entries and I understand how it could be a your-mileage-may-vary type of series, but it managed to keep me engaged enough in its narrative to keep me involved in the story's endgame. Within an eclectic ensemble of characters, there were enough winning storylines to smooth over any rough patches.
Fresh off the Boat,  ABC**-Nahnatchka Khan continues to use her immigrant experience (though from a different part of the Asian continent) to consistently provide a mix of aw-shucks moments, subversive humor and 90's nostalgia each week. Although this is typical sitcom fare, few sitcoms are as consistently inventive on a weekly basis.
Grace and Frankie, Netflix*-Move over young'uns. Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda can still out-act the Julia Louis-Dreyfuses and Lena Dunhams of the TV world with their hands tied behind their backs. The second season was more of a lateral move narrative-wise than a stakes-raising season. Some of the big developments like Grace's new relationship or Frankie's business idea splattered with a thud but the new directions the show has taken have been interesting nonetheless.
Gravity Falls, Disney-An extremely rare breed of children's show that can be enjoyed straight by adults rather than the way Pixar likes to layer kid-friendly comedy (with references only adults can get). The difference with "Gravity Falls" is that you find yourself rooting for the kids and laughing on their level. The show's strong conclusion was an indication of just how far Dipper and Mabel have come as people and into our hearts. That last sentence was corny, I know, but this show has a way of eliciting those kinds of sentiments.
Late Night with Seth Meyers, NBC-The late night wars were a particularly cut-throat battle for eyeballs this election season, and Seth Meyers' unexpected ascension to must-watch commentary was great validation for those who watched him on Weekend Update and always admired his edge. As the Trump campaign got more ridiculous, Meyers just said "screw it" to fair and balanced and pummeled Trump with every "A Closer Look" he could come up and never surfaced for air until a somber post-election concession speech.
Silicon Valley, HBO^-Mike Judge's show is about how Murphy's Law is always conspiring against America's latest incarnation of the rags-to-riches myth in dot com start-ups. It's a different type of show with less emphasis on the characters' personal lives and more about them as a single (and rarely functional) work unit. This season, Stephen Toblowsky's deceptive billionaire provided the show with its best nemesis to date.
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Netflix**-Like "Grace and Frankie" this show didn't raise the stakes, but not all great TV has to make the narrative more intense from season to season. Kimmy and Dong didn't turn into Kimmy and Dong 2.0, for example, but that doesn't take away the merit of the interesting directions the show took. Having Tina Fey play a character again is just showboating, but there were plenty of positive developments with Titus's new romantic relationship being key among them.


**=Made my top 12 last year
*=Made my honorable mentions last year
^=Has made my top 10 or top 12 before  (Silicon Valley here and American Horror Story here) 
To give you an idea of how deep the field was, here were the other shows I saw this year (many of which were very good, but just didn't make the cut):

Adam Ruins Everything, TruTV; America's Got Talent, NBC; Archer, FX; Atlanta, FX; Braindead, CBS; Conan, TBS; The Characters, Netflix; Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, CW; Daredevil*, Netflix; Difficult People*, Hulu; Documentary Now!, IFC; Falling Water, USA*; Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, TBS; Flaked, Netflix; The Get Down, Netflix; The Great Indoors, CBS; Grinder, Fox; Haters Back Off, Netflix; Idiot Sitter, Comedy Central; Impractical Jokers, TruTV; It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, FX; Last Man on Earth, Fox; Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, HBO; Lost and Found, Netflix; Mad TV, CW; Modern Family, ABC; Mozart in the Jungle; Amazon Prime; Night Manager, AMC; One Mississippi, Amazon Prime; The Path, Hulu; Plebs, Hulu; Preacher*, AMC; Real O'Neals, ABC; Saturday Night Live, NBC; Search Party, TBS; Small Business Revolution, Hulu; Sing it Off, Pop TV; Son of Zorn, NBC; Strange Calls, Hulu; Supergirl*, CW; Speechless*, ABC; South Park, Comedy Central; Superstore, NBC; Time Traveling Bong, Comedy Central; Timeless, NBC

The asterisk means I didn't get around to watching the full run because in the case of most of these, I wasn't intrigued. In the case of "Supergirl," I watched it out of order.