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2016 Television Top 10 Lists

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TheOddOne

Member
I have to give a big shout out to the newcomer The Good Place. It's still airing, but so far the show doesn't fall under the trope of stretching its main storyline endlessly. Give it a chance, it’s only 20 minutes and is more packed with good content.
 

Blader

Member
I saw the trailer for Insecure before Westworld a couple times and it looked extremely obnoxious, and like every other show that it said it wasn't.
 
It's on plenty of lists, just not top 10, and also not superior in every way. It's just easier to digest, less unusual. (and less interesting too, imo).

It's good though.

Atlanta was definitely more critically acclaimed, but it was not that unusual. The one thing Atlanta had going for it was it's social commentary that permeated throughout the series.

Insecure and Atlanta actually shared more similarities than differences.
 
I have to give a big shout out to the newcomer The Good Place. It is still airing, but so far the show doesn't fall under the trope of stretching its main storyline endlessly. Give it a chance, it’s only 20 minutes and is more packed with good content.

Yes, The Good Place is fantastic!

Some of the entries on that list I feel are a bit suspect. I love Better Call Saul, but season 2 was not as good as season 1. Not even close. A bit weird to put that on any list. I'd argue the same holds true for You're the Worst and Mr. Robot.

Stranger Things, Westworld, and Atlanta belong on every list especially as they are all first seasons and really its amazing how much better season 1s of new shows are this decade than in the past. When you think back to classics like Seinfeld, Star Trek TNG, Friends, etc the season 1s of those shows tend to be just really, really bad.

I DVR'd Insecure for my wife to watch but she says she has zero interest in watching what is probably a "depressing show", and I have zero interest in watching a show focused on a black single female. Both of us love Atlanta though and she's the one who got me to watch it, she loves Glover from Community. Probably a really tough show to market (Insecure).
 

olympia

Member
I'm surprised that Insecure is so lauded here. I find the show to be completely unremarkable. It's not horrible, but it's far from anything special, IMO.

High Maintenance is an under the radar show that I feel like a lot of people didn't watch that was really great. The distinct creative approaches to each episode are great and the character studies are very memorable.
 
Atlanta was definitely more critically acclaimed, but it was not that unusual. The one thing Atlanta had going for it was it's social commentary that permeated throughout the series.

Atlanta just feels more fresh to me; the way it's shot, the writing, the vibe of the whole thing, which isn't to say Insecure didn't have it's own fresh voice in it's own way, but the trappings felt much more generic to me. I still appreciated it quite a bit by the time the season ended.

I will say that I expected Atlanta to be much weirder considering some of the hype beforehand, but I'm pretty happy with what we got regardless.
 
A few more that posted today:

Variety (Maureen Ryan)
1. Jane the Virgin
2. Rectify
3. The People vs O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story
4. Black-ish
5. The Americans
6. One Mississippi
7. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
8. Atlanta
9. Insecure
10. Better things

Variety (Sonia Saraiya)
1. Atlanta
2. Silicon Valley
3. The Girlfriend Experience
4. Halt and Catch Fire
5. Fleabag
6. The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story
7. Better Call Saul
8. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
9. Insecure
10. BoJack Horseman

Slate (Willa Paskin)
1. The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story
2. The Americans
3. Halt and Catch Fire
4. Transparent
5. Atlanta
6. Better Call Saul
7. High Maintenance
8. Queen Sugar
9. Catastrophe
10. The Girlfriend Experience

Digital Spy (staff)
1. The Night Manager
2. Game of Thrones
3. The Missing
4. Humans
5. Westworld
6. Stranger Things
7. National Treasure
8. Happy Valley
9. Line of Duty
10. The Night Of

Also:

- Variety: The 20 Best TV Episodes of 2016
 
Atlanta just feels more fresh to me; the way it's shot, the writing, the vibe of the whole thing, which isn't to say Insecure didn't have it's own fresh voice in it's own way, but the trappings felt much more generic to me. I still appreciated it quite a bit by the time the season ended.

I will say that I expected Atlanta to be much weirder considering some of the hype beforehand, but I'm pretty happy with what we got regardless.

Weirdly enough, anytime Insecure was in business settings it had a The Office vibe going for it.
 

sohois

Member
I'm hopeful that the lack of Westworld is down to the journos correctly identifying it as mediocre and not just scheduling issues or something.
 
I need to stop procrastinating on this shit though, so many shows I haven't gotten around to yet. I haven't even seen an episode of Westworld yet.
 

Sanjuro

Member
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The show I am surprised to see on so many lists is The Girlfriend Experience. From memory it got kind of luke-warm reviews when it came out.
 

maxcriden

Member
Out of curiosity: the final season of Person of Interest hasn't aired here yet in the UK. Given that the previous seasons have included some of the best single TV episodes I've ever watched, is the complete absence of the final season a bad sign, or just grossly overlooked?

I'm glad I decided to watch Atlanta on a whim.

It was a great final season, and had some of the best episodes ever in the series. As with some other quality network shows, it just perennially does not seem to be the kind of show TV critics are interested in. I definitely wouldn't take its absence from these lists as indicating any lower quality, for me and I think many it was at least as good or in some cases better than some of the previous seasons.
 

Zesh

Member
I'm glad to see The Americans (FX) getting a lot of love on these lists. It's my favorite, and the acting, writing, and production of the show are superb. It's also nice to see Catastrophe (Amazon) get a mention.

Yep, very happy to see The Americans getting the recognition it deserves; easily one of my favorite shows at the moment. It's been great throughout its whole run.

I need to check out Atlanta; it's on a lot of these lists.
 

Vyrance

Member
First off, let me say thank you for not spoiler tagging the lists. I never understand why people do that.

I need to start watching a lot of those shows, especially Bojack. That one seems to be on just about everyones list. Really need to start watching The Expanse as well.

I'm actually a bit surprised that Game of Thrones didn't make more lists. I think that just had its best season yet. But I guess that just speaks to the quality of television that is going on right now. So that's good.
 

reKon

Banned
GoT and Silicon Valley should have been on more lists. Season 6 was ridiculously better than 5 to the point that you would have thought they fired all of the previous writers.. I need to check out the Americans and Atlanta.

Edit: nvm better call saul is on there plenty
 

marrec

Banned
I'm hopeful that the lack of Westworld is down to the journos correctly identifying it as mediocre and not just scheduling issues or something.

Yep. It's good fun Sci-Fi with pacing and plotting issues.

At moments is utterly brilliant, but most of the time it's... mealy.
 

Parch

Member
Westworld is alright, not sure I'd make it top 10. I fail to see the appeal of Mr. Robot completely. Dumb show IMO. Totally agree Bojack and Better Call Saul should be there.

Where's Gotham? Lists need more corny and a lot less american propaganda drama.
 

marrec

Banned
Westworld is alright, not sure I'd make it top 10. I fail to see the appeal of Mr. Robot completely. Dumb show IMO. Totally agree Bojack and Better Call Saul should be there.

Where's Gotham? Lists need more corny and a lot less american propaganda drama.

Mr. Robot is pretty, everything about it is pretty. But it's also a lot smarter than most shows on TV and the "twists" (if you have to call them that) all make sense within the world it's built.

It's in my top 10 for sure, but I can understand why it wouldn't make others lists.
 
It was an amazing year for TV. Surprised to see the night of in some of the lists and it was probably my least favorite show I watched all year.
 

Parch

Member
Mr. Robot is pretty, everything about it is pretty. But it's also a lot smarter than most shows on TV and the "twists" (if you have to call them that) all make sense within the world it's built.
You say smarter, I say edgy trying way too hard to be cool. Blech.
 

WaffleTaco

Wants to outlaw technological innovation.
Needs more Game of Thrones honestly, there's nothing like it on TV with the production and spectacle and twists.
 
Edgy literally means nothing.

Bojack is edgy.

It had a pop star singing a song about getting an abortion with lines such as:

"I'm a baby killer
Baby killing makes me horny
Aliens inside me
Gonna squash it like Sigourney"

or

"I hope and pray to god my little fetus has a soul
Because I want it to feel pain when I eject it from my hole"

That's the definition of edgy.

It's also one of the funniest things I've ever seen and I was in tears gasping for breath laughing at this shit.
 
Is there some reason why Westworld doesn't feature on more of the lists? Like it came out to late to be included?
It's a garbage show would be my hypothesis.

The fact that it even appears at all just shows the undeserved cachet HBO still has.
 
Glad for The Americans, probably best show on television. You guys should give The Crown a chance, I know the premise seems meh but it really surprised me, great production.

I watched the Rectify pilot today and it was...okay. I'm gonna try and finish season 1 asap. But out of curiosity, does it get better in the later seasons?
 

Venture

Member
So I guess I need to try watching BoJack Horseman again. I only saw the first half of episode one but didn't understand what's so special about it. Not that it was bad or anything. Just seemed like typical Adult Swim fare.
 

Solo

Member
It's a garbage show would be my hypothesis.

The fact that it even appears at all just shows the undeserved cachet HBO still has.

You have some unique tastes when Westworld is garbage yet you're watching The Vampires Diaries Season 8. To each their own though.
 
Glad for The Americans, probably best show on television. You guys should give The Crown a chance, I know the premise seems meh but it really surprised me, great production.

I watched the Rectify pilot today and it was...okay. I'm gonna try and finish season 1 asap. But out of curiosity, does it get better in the later seasons?

It doesn't "get better", it just gets more fleshed out in every way, which is all you can ask for from a show like this.
 

Blader

Member
I think Game of Thrones actually had its best season this year, but the fact that its in its sixth season makes it seem like a less attractive pick compared to much newer or lesser-known shows.
 
So I guess I need to try watching BoJack Horseman again. I only saw the first half of episode one but didn't understand what's so special about it. Not that it was bad or anything. Just seemed like typical Adult Swim fare.

The first...hrm...4 or 5 episodes of Season 1 are pretty funny, but otherwise nothing amazing. What happens though is that the first couple episodes the show seemed to be finding it's feet and wondering what it wanted to do. Come the second half of the season, they figured it out and figured it out hard. The 2nd season and 3rd season are fucking tremendous television. It stops being a silly random comedy and instead becomes an incredibly dark comedy that has the most realistic depiction of depression I've ever seen in a TV show.
 
The first...hrm...4 or 5 episodes of Season 1 are pretty funny, but otherwise nothing amazing. What happens though is that the first couple episodes the show seemed to be finding it's feet and wondering what it wanted to do. Come the second half of the season, they figured it out and figured it out hard. The 2nd season and 3rd season are fucking tremendous television. It stops being a silly random comedy and instead becomes an incredibly dark comedy that has the most realistic depiction of depression I've ever seen in a TV show.

A Moral Orel trajectory?
 
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