Category: Personal Thoughts

This year, there were five or six TV shows I absolutely loved, and then a handful more I enjoyed, but didn’t have as strong feelings about.  So even though this is (ostensibly) a food blog, I’ve been ranking my favorite shows of the year since 2018, and I’m not about to stop now!  Let’s do this.

10. Bosch: Legacy, season 3 (Amazon Prime Video) – This was the final season of an excellent, low-key neo-noir detective show that ran for ten seasons: seven as Bosch, and three as Bosch: Legacy (after title character Harry Bosch quits the LAPD and works as a private detective).  While the newer show felt like a way to trim back the cast and cut the budget, I still always enjoyed it, especially since it was filmed on location in Los Angeles and I have started recognizing locations on my L.A. trips.  Bosch and Bosch: Legacy never felt like blatant copaganda like so many other “dad shows,” and it helped that Titus Welliver played Bosch with world-weary gravitas and a reassuring hyper-competence and commitment to justice.  He always felt like an uncorruptible force for good in a corrupt city, even when faced with corrupt cops.  2025 also brought us a spinoff of a spinoff, Ballard, starring underrated actress Maggie Q as a different kind of LAPD detective specializing in cold cases, with Bosch and some of his supporting characters making guest appearances.  Ballard got off to a strong start as well, and I’m glad we haven’t seen the last of the Boschverse.

9.  Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, season 3 (Paramount+) – This season didn’t dazzle me as much as the previous two, but it remains my favorite Star Trek series of all time, with my favorite fictional boss of all time, Anson Mount as Captain Christopher Pike.  As always, this show excels at fun stand-alone gimmick episodes, and Patton Oswalt playing the most literal Vulcan ever was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen, but this season also delved into some straight-up cosmic horror.  I’m so glad we are getting two more seasons of this delightful cast.

8. The Bear, season 4 (Hulu/FX) – I really didn’t care for season 3 of The Bear, and it did not make my Top Ten list last year.  It felt like it was wearing out its welcome, treading water with its plot, and relying too heavily on big name guest stars and wacky side characters.  Luckily, the producers course-corrected, and this season reminded me why I liked it so much in the first place.  I’ve never worked in a restaurant, but I love them with all my heart, and I have nothing but respect for the hard-working, stressed-out people making my food.  The Bear captures that love and that stress like nothing else, and it was full of cathartic, feel-good moments that balanced out all the intensity and chaos.  If you feel the same way about restaurants and you’ve never seen this show before, what are you waiting for?

7. Plur1bus, season 1 (Apple TV+) – This was a new series from Vince Gilligan, creator of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, starring one of the best actresses I’ve ever seen, Rhea Seehorn from Better Call Saul.  Plur1bus delivered science-fiction, horror, drama, and very dark comedy.  It’s about an alien invasion, the end of the world (as we know it), and what one disagreeable woman does to cope, survive, and push back against the inevitable.  It’s also about grief, loneliness, and possibly an allegory for humanity’s overreliance on artificial intelligence (but not me, I hate that shit).  The story is told slowly and methodically, to the point where entire episodes pass and feel like not much is happening, but every episode leaves you with moral quandaries and thoughts about how you would react in such a situation.  It wasn’t always fun or pleasurable to watch, but it was engaging.  Gilligan sure knows how to tell a story, and Seehorn is one of our finest actors who deserves praise for this performance.  Season 2 is probably years away, and I have no idea where they are planning to go after that finale.

6. Daredevil: Born Again, season 1 (Disney+) – People might be surprised this wasn’t my #1 show, since I am probably the biggest Daredevil fan there is.  I was so happy that Marvel Studios revived this show as a continuation of the Netflix series that aired from 2015 to 2017.  Despite the Born Again title coming from a mid-’80s Daredevil story by Frank Miller and David Mazzuchelli, this new season was heavily inspired by more recent DD comics written by Charles Soule and Chip Zdarsky.  That said, this season moved slowly and seemed disjointed, possibly due to behind-the-scenes drama.  Despite the shocking status quo shift of the premiere episode, it felt like pieces were being moved into place to really slug it out in season 2.  But I am thrilled that Charlie Cox is back as Matt Murdock and Vincent D’Onofrio is back as Wilson Fisk, now mayor of New York City with his own brutal police force answering only to him, giving the show a real feeling of art imitating life.  The two leads even got a memorable “Pacino and DeNiro in Heat” scene in a diner.  (And if you don’t realize that there was a movie called Heat with both actors in it, that must have been a really odd sentence to read.)  I’m looking forward to the next season of Daredevil: Born Again going harder, to even darker places.

5. Death by Lightning (Netflix) – Maybe the most pleasant surprise of the year for me, a four-episode historical miniseries about the abbreviated presidency of ahead-of-his-time progressive James Garfield (the always-great Michael Shannon), his unscrupulous and unprofessional vice president Chester A. Arthur (the always-great Nick Offerman), and Garfield’s assassin Charles Guiteau (the always-great Matthew MacFadyen, the perfect person to play ambitious strivers and losers).  This is a fascinating period of U.S. history that even my high-level history classes mostly skipped over, so I learned new things, and it was much more entertaining and funnier than one might think.

4. Long Story Short, season 1 (Netflix) – Another pleasant surprise, an animated series about a Jewish family that bounced around between multiple decades and points of view, singling out specific moments and showing how people changed over time, for better and for worse.  It had so much heart, humanity, and humor, but there was also a strong sense of poignancy and wistfulness to all of it.  I related so much, even though my family was never observant.  This show introduced me to its creator, Raphael Bob-Waksberg, which led my wife and I to discover his previous animated series, Undone and the awe-inspiring BoJack Horseman, which was one of the funniest and saddest shows I’ve ever seen.  Few things have made me laugh harder, but it was also so insightful and spot-on about depression.  Long Story Short was great, and I recommend it, but I am so grateful that it led me to belatedly binge BoJack.

3. The Lowdown, season 1 (Hulu/FX) – This felt like one of those rare shows that was made just for me, a neo-noir about a tenacious Tulsa “truthstorian” (not professional enough to consider himself a journalist) investigating the conspiracy behind a wealthy, eccentric, reclusive man’s suicide (or was it?).  The mystery aspect of this show was terrific, and there was plenty of humor and local flavor to keep it fun.  It is my favorite thing I’ve ever seen Ethan Hawke in, Keith David was great as always, and Kyle MacLachlan continued his streak of playing chilling villains.  Best of all, The Lowdown introduced me to its creator, Sterlin Harjo, which led us to belatedly binge his previous show Reservation Dogs, a slice-of-life series about four indigenous teenagers and the other colorful characters on an Oklahoma reservation.  I highly recommend both shows.  If it helps sell Reservation Dogs, the closest thing I can compare it to is Atlanta, which should come as high praise.  Skoden!

2. Andor, season 2 (Disney+) – Probably the most important show of the year, and maybe the best thing to ever come out of the Star Wars universe.  Definitely the most mature and sophisticated.  I liked the first season of Andor when it aired in 2022, but season 2 improved on it in every way possible.  More than ever before, it felt like a product of our time and a necessary panacea for the dread, unease, and lack of hope so many of us have been feeling lately.  It was an epic saga about how people can fight fascism, both separately and even more effectively together, and it was full of rousing speeches, daring escapes, and heroic actions.  It leads directly into the events of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and many of my readers already know that movie leads directly into Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, so the events of Andor are pretty important.  But I swear, Andor is the perfect show for people who don’t like Star Wars, and you can watch it alone without seeing all the other movies.  That’s my solemn promise to the skeptics and haters!  It isn’t wacky space hijinks for kids.  It’s a story about life and death, authoritarianism and rebellion, media manipulation and how truth can be subverted and perverted, the struggles and sacrifices that freedom requires.  It’s about doing what we can when we can, making hard choices, and how small actions of courage and defiance can end up doing exponential amounts of good.

1. The Pitt, season 1 (HBO Max) – This was far and away my favorite show of the year, a medical show about one intense, traumatic 15-hour shift in a busy Pittsburgh hospital emergency room.  Despite the stress, danger, blood, and gore, it was a soothing show to watch because it was “competence porn,” focusing on brilliant, skilled, compassionate professionals working as a team to heal patients and save lives, despite being understaffed, underpaid, and underappreciated.  While it strains credulity that so many crazy events could happen in one hospital shift, it made for compelling drama, and each new crisis led to more moments of character development where we got to know and care about the doctors and nurses.  It was amazingly well done, but it makes sense, because it came from John Wells, the showrunner of ER and The West Wing, and starred ER mainstay Noah Wyle, who spent 15 seasons on ER going from hapless medical student to seasoned attending physician.  He plays a completely different character in The Pitt, where he is even more of an experienced, world-weary doctor who has seen it all, but is hampered by PTSD.  You might end up with some PTSD of your own after binge-watching season 1 of The Pitt, but it is so worth it, especially with season 2 dropping in January 2026.  You won’t regret it.  (Also, one of my friends, an actress, showed up as a patient!  Congratulations, Julia!)  By the way, we loved this show so much that we binge-watched all 15 seasons of ER too.  No regrets there either!

Here are all my past lists, because I’m sure all of you care so much what I think about things:

Top Ten TV Shows of 2024
Top Thirteen TV Shows of 2023
Top Fifteen TV Shows of 2022
Top Twenty TV Shows of the Decade (2011-2021)
Top Ten TV Shows of 2021
Top Twenty TV Shows of 2020
Top Twenty TV Shows of 2019
Top Ten Movies of 2019
Top Ten TV Shows of 2018
Top Ten Movies of 2018 

Did anyone else feel like this was a relatively slow year for television and an even slower year for movies?  I watched several new shows and got into some old ones, but I wanted to boost the signal on my ten favorite TV shows that rose above the rest in 2024.  What were your favorite TV shows this year?  Take a look at my list first, but then let me know yours!

Two brief notes, before we begin:

• Normally Fargo, season 5 would have made the list, but it mostly aired in late 2023, and only the final three episodes aired in 2024.  As a result, I did not rank it this year, but it did make my Top Ten TV Shows of 2023.
• English Teacher, season 1 would have made the list, until I read this Vulture article from December 17, 2024, about the behavior of the show’s creator and star.  I can no longer recommend or even watch the show in good conscience.

Finally, here we go!

10. Interior Chinatown, season 1 (Hulu) – This was such a pleasant surprise!  It’s a twisty crime show, a parody of Law and Order, and a deconstruction of Asian-American identity, especially in terms of assimilation and representation.  But it was also something more — something far weirder and harder to explain.  I always appreciate metafiction, breaking of the fourth wall, and stories that confound your expectations, ending in complete different genres than they began.  If you are patient and willing to suspend your disbelief, this might be a show for you.  Also, it was nice to see Chloe Bennett from Agents of SHIELD again, even if I kept thinking she looks like Aubrey Plaza in every shot.

9. Curb Your Enthusiasm, season 12 (HBO) – It helps that my brother, my wife, and I started binge-watching this show for the first time in late 2023, catching up just in time to watch the series finale when it aired in April 2024.  The cantankerous curmudgeon Larry David is a comedy genius who elevated two sitcoms to legendary status: Seinfeld and Curb.  After finally getting around to watching Curb, it was clear Larry was the brains of the operation and the creative force behind Seinfeld back in the ’90s, with how hacky Jerry Seinfeld’s stand-up has always been, and how bitter and humorless he seems these days.  Larry (on TV and in real life) might be an anhedonic altacocker, but he can spin laughs from the most awkward, unpleasant situations and create lasting catch-phrases and hilarious situations like nobody’s business.  Even though I still have all 12 seasons and 24 years of Curb fresh in my head, the final season that aired in 2024 did not disappoint or drop the ball.

8. Mr. & Mrs. Smith, season 1 (Amazon Prime Video) – I am a giant Donald Glover fanboy.  I’ve seen him live twice — performing stand-up comedy in Miami Beach in 2012, and holding a sold-out arena in the palm of his hand as Childish Gambino earlier this year in Tampa.  He is The Man, so I was going to watch and enjoy this show no matter what.  It will be interesting to see if it continues, and if so, if he’ll be back.  I was more intrigued by the larger world that was hinted at than most of the “missions of the week,” but I don’t want to say too much to spoil anything.  Like Glover’s previous show Atlanta (which I absolutely loved), it was often strange, but understated at the same time, creating a very unreal-feeling reality.

7. Hey! (EW) (YouTube) – The most obscure thing on this list, Hey! (EW) is a free, short, weekly Internet show where comedian/raconteur/former professional wrestler R.J. City interviews different AEW wrestlers, sometimes for just ten minutes at a time, but usually (hopefully) longer.  Sometimes they stay completely in character, sometimes they “break kayfabe” and reveal a bit of their everyday personalities, and sometimes they threaten him.  R.J. is one of the funniest people out there — quick and sarcastic with a razor-sharp wit, and excellent at improv — and he is constantly needling these wrestlers, forcing them to break character, cracking them up, challenging them, or pulling them along in weird and inspired conversational directions.  He is also a writer and producer behind the scenes at AEW, using his encyclopedic knowledge of classic cinema to shape and mold some of my favorite storylines (including a feud between female wrestlers Toni Storm and her protégé/betrayer Mariah May, inspired by Sunset Boulevard and All About Eve).  I love how Hey! (EW) pulls back the curtain on the wrestling business and sets some of that seriousness aside, but it wouldn’t work without R.J. City.  He is better at his job than any of the big name talk show hosts and funnier than the vast majority of professional comics.  Plus, he also trash-talked the tired, washed-up, MAGA-supporting Undertaker, so he gets even more cool points from me.

6. X-Men ’97, season 1 (Disney+) – A nice introduction to radical politics disguised as superhero action and melodrama, with plenty of rousing moments for all your favorite characters.  As a teenager, I gave up on the original ’90s animated series after the first season, but I appreciated how modern, relevant, and allegorical these new stories were (as X-Men stories should always be), while still fitting perfectly into the original continuity.  Even if you’ve never seen a previous X-Men cartoon or any of the movies or read any of the comics, you could probably watch this first season of X-Men ’97 and get everything.  If you did grow up with the original animated series (which was responsible for shaping and forming the sexuality of a bunch of people I know, and probably people you know too), rest assured that X-Men ’97 is definitely written for that same audience, only paying respect to the fact that we are adults now.  It went hard at various points — harder than it had to, and props to the creative team for that — but I appreciated them writing with grownups in mind and remembering that the X-Men don’t uphold the status quo like other superheroes, but fight the good fight against it.  “The name is Gambit, mon ami.  Remember it.”

5. Fallout, season 1 (Amazon Prime Video) – Usually post-apocalyptic shows are so dour and dire, but Fallout was ridiculously fun by blending much-needed, tension-breaking humor with all the action and horror.  I’ve never played the video games, but I have a feeling I would like them, since I loved the first season of the show so much.  The retro-futuristic aesthetic and 1950s soundtrack differentiated Fallout from so many similar stories, and the actors brought their A-game.  Kyle McLachlan already played one of my favorite TV characters of all time (Special Agent Dale Cooper on Twin Peaks), and Walton Goggins has played at least a couple of them (Boyd Crowder on Justified and Uncle Baby Billy on The Righteous Gemstones).  They were great here too, but Ella Purnell knocked it out of the park as the lead — sweet, innocent, wide-eyed, and naïve, but able to fend for herself and kick ass as needed.  Okey-dokey.

4. The Girls on the Bus, season 1 (Max) – This light, refreshing dramedy about four female reporters covering a presidential campaign was so much fun in an ugly, exhausting election year.  I am a sucker for stories about crusading journalists solving mysteries and uncovering corruption, and while The Girls on the Bus served up plenty of that, it also focused heavily on the female friendships.  Melissa Benoist (best known as Supergirl) was delightful as always, and my favorite actress of all time (and celebrity crush), Carla Gugino, brought the gravitas as the most experienced and successful political journalist.  By the way, I met her this year and told her my wife and I loved this show.  It’s a damn shame it was already canceled, ending with at least one major unresolved plotline, but don’t let that stop you from giving this show the chance it deserves.

3. Everybody’s in L.A., season 1 (Netflix) – The late-night talk show is such a tired, outdated format, but this show proved it could be fun, hilarious, and even exciting by shaking up the ancient formula.  Find a great host (John Mulaney, one of my favorite stand-up comics ever), surround him with celebrities who are either funny or have good stories (not just there to hype their latest projects), also interview regular people who have interesting jobs or are experts in unique fields, bring on cool bands playing their beloved hits, show off a truly singular American city in remote, pre-taped segments, and film the whole thing live.  I’ve been lucky enough to travel to L.A. for work a few times now, and I marked out for some of the hyper-specific local references that I actually GOT.  It made me feel like an honorary Angeleno!  I believe Mulaney will be hosting more talk shows for Netflix in the year to come, so I’m glad this wild experiment was so successful.

2. Sugar, season 1 (Apple TV+) – This was 100% my shit: a stylish neo-noir set in gorgeous Los Angeles, starring a protagonist who is a morally upstanding, noble, empathetic hero — the kind of character who does good because he is good.  Private detective John Sugar transcends the pantheon of two-fisted, hard-boiled film noir gumshoes, many of whom are morally ambiguous antiheroes.  Instead, I’d rank him alongside the aforementioned Dale Cooper, Superman, Captain America, Captain Christopher Pike, and even Ted Lasso, all uncomplicated good dudes.  I could watch mensches like this all day — protecting the innocent, standing up to bullies, and throwing down when someone pushes them too far.  Just be forewarned: Sugar has a pretty major twist that may have been spoiled for you already, but if you don’t know what I’m talking about, I implore you to watch the show without researching anything about it beforehand.  I’m begging you to take my word for it, and you’ll have a much richer experience.

1. Bad Monkey, season 1 (Apple TV+) – This was also 100% my shit: a fun, sunny crime comedy set in Key West, Miami, and the Bahamas, based on a novel by one of my lifelong favorite writers, the legendary Miami Herald columnist and crime fiction author Carl Hiaasen.  Like his contemporary, the late, great Elmore Leonard, Hiaasen excels in writing likable, down-on-their-luck protagonists and hilariously stupid, occasionally vicious criminals.  Bad Monkey was a blast — a great mystery that kept us guessing and laughing, thanks to showrunner Bill Lawrence (of Scrubs and Ted Lasso fame).  The entire cast was on point, but Vince Vaughn as the loquacious lead has never been better, and the otherworldly Jodie Turner-Smith needs to be cast as Storm in a GOOD X-Men movie right away.

For anyone who made it this far, here are my lists from previous years:

Top Thirteen TV Shows of 2023
Top Fifteen TV Shows of 2022
Top Twenty TV Shows of the Decade (2011-2021)
Top Ten TV Shows of 2021
Top Twenty TV Shows of 2020
Top Twenty TV Shows of 2019
Top Ten Movies of 2019
Top Ten TV Shows of 2018
Top Ten Movies of 2018

It has been just over a week since Netflix released the seventh season of Somebody Feed Phil, the food and travel show starring Phil Rosenthal, who your parents may know as the creator of long-running TV sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond.  Phil is not a trained chef, and he would be the first person to admit he isn’t a cool or edgy dude.  The appeal of his show is just that he’s a nice, enthusiastic, funny fellow who loves to eat… not unlike your friendly neighborhood Saboscrivner.  Somebody Feed Phil shares Phil’s enjoyable and entertaining visits to unique and iconic restaurants in cities around the world, and the show always highlights the people who cook and serve the meals that Phil eats with such joy and enthusiasm.  It’s feel-good TV that leaves you hungry, but also happy, with a little more hope for humanity.

And in Season 7, Phil finally visited Orlando!  It was an absolutely lovely episode about “The Real” Orlando, eschewing the theme parks and tourist traps, focusing instead on the wonderful locally owned and operated restaurants that enrich and empower our diverse, cosmopolitan, tolerant community.

• Crocante
• Hinckley’s Fancy Meats
• La Femme Du Fromage
• Domu
• Se7en Bites
• Banh Mi Boy
• Sampaguita Filipino Ice Cream
• Deli Desires (he didn’t go there or mention it by name, but I’m convinced he was eating their whitefish sandwich on a bialy back in his hotel room at the end.)

Happy New Year, stalwart Saboscrivnerinos!  We survived another year, and zoning out at night with escapist entertainment is one of my keys to survival.  Just like with food, I always like to recommend TV shows that I enjoyed, especially since they aren’t always the most popular, zeitgeisty shows, and the non-canceled ones could use more eyeballs on them.  So here we go with a list of my 13 favorite shows that aired in 2023, from lowest to highest:

13. The Righteous Gemstones, season 3 (HBO).  I really should hate a show about an awful family of wealthy Southern televangelists, but it’s so hilarious and raunchy, with occasional moments of pathos, that watching them bumble and stumble was pure fun and joy.  Think of The Righteous Gemstones as the sitcom version of Succession, with three adult fail-children desperately trying to lead the megachurch empire founded by their powerful, distant father.  Nobody can sling profane insults as well as star and co-creator Danny McBride, except maybe Edi Patterson, who plays his oversexed, insane sister.  Season 3 didn’t give us as much of the great Walton Goggins as Uncle Baby Billy, but nothing is perfect.

12. A Murder at the End of the World (FX).  A murder mystery set in a remote Icelandic luxury hotel, interspersed with flashbacks about two “citizen detectives” who met online and embarked on a cross-country road trip to track down a serial killer.  The common thread connecting these parallel stories is Emma Corrin’s character Darby Hart, a brilliant young detective, hacker, and daughter of a police forensic specialist.  Oh yeah, and the show also threw in some stuff about the dangers of AI, complete with Clive Owen as an Elon Musk-inspired antagonist who still sucked a lot less than Elon Musk.

11. AEW Dynamite (TBS).  Yes, this is my wrestling show.  I lost interest and drifted away from watching All Elite Wrestling last year, but I think that was depression and anhedonia as much as some questionable booking decisions and overreliance on a few wrestlers to the detriment of others on the roster.  This year brought me back into the fold, thanks to highlights like Orange Cassidy (a slacker inspired by Paul Rudd’s Wet Hot American Summer character, but still an awe-inspiring workhorse who wrestles brilliantly with his hands in his pockets), Danhausen (the “very nice, very evil” comic relief ghoul), and Timeless Toni Storm, who is doing the best character work I’ve ever seen in professional wrestling as an unhinged 1940s Hollywood star (think Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard), trading her native Australian accent for an old-timey Transatlantic one.  Toni’s outrageous promos and interviews (all filmed in black and white, naturally) show she is as gifted an improv comedian as she is a wrestler, and her T-shirt-worthy catchphrase is “Chin up, tits out, and watch for the shooooe,” followed by her taking off a shoe and chucking it at people.  She now has an obsessed fan-turned-assistant, Mariah May, which means AEW is actually going to do a pro wrestling version of All About Eve in 2024, and I am here for it.

10. Obliterated, season 1 (Netflix).  This show is a cross between G.I. Joe, 24, and The Hangover, about a team of specialists from different military branches, led by a CIA agent, trying to save Las Vegas from terrorists armed with a nuke.  It debuted about a month ago to zero fanfare, but it was loud, violent, horny, dumb, raunchy fun.  It feels like something that would have aired on Cinemax during the glorious era when it was showing Banshee, Strike Back, The Knick, Jett, and Warrior, or something The CW would have loved to air if they could show drug use, profanity, and copious male and female nudity on broadcast TV.  I never watched Cobra Kai, but plenty of people did, and it is from the same three showrunners.

9. Blindspotting, season 2 (Starz).  My absolute favorite show of 2021 returned with Ashley (Jasmine Cephas Jones, who you may know as Peggy from Hamilton) doing her best to raise her son and keep her family together while her husband Miles (co-creator Rafael Casal) remains in prison.  Blindspotting’s beautiful interpretive dance numbers and artful hip-hop-inspired spoken word asides continued, covering big, important social justice without ever feeling like plodding, ponderous lectures, or worse yet, homework.  This show expertly balanced bleakness and dread with joy, humor, and love, and it felt really true to the experiences of Black and mixed-race families, despite me not being from one.  Unfortunately, it was canceled, so we’ll never get to see Miles catching up with his pal Collin (the show’s other co-creator, the brilliant actor, rapper, and singer Daveed Diggs).  This is why we can’t have nice things.  But even if you don’t subscribe to Starz, watch the Blindspotting movie!  The show is a spinoff of that 2018 movie, starring Diggs and Casal.

8. Perry Mason, season 2 (HBO).  This season of the 1930s-set neo-noir legal drama was even better than the first, since the entire season focused on Perry Mason and Della Street’s canny lawyering, without an extended “origin story” for Perry (the always-great Matthew Rhys).  The acting, writing, and production design were superb, and it looked like every dollar spent showed up on the screen.  Unfortunately, possibly due to that high cost, it was canceled.  Thanks, David Zaslav!

7. The Bear, season 2 (FX).  One of the rare shows on my list that was actually popular.  I think I preferred the first season, with the characters clashing and trying to make a struggling but beloved sandwich shop survive.  Season 2 was all about opening their new fine dining restaurant in its place, but The Bear (the new restaurant) didn’t seem to be that different or special than dozens of other upscale Chicago restaurants, while The Beef, priced for the common man, had decades of history and loyalty behind it.  Still, highlights of this season included the addition of the lovely Molly Gordon to the cast (catch her in Booksmart, Shiva Baby, and Theater Camp), an overwhelmingly tense Christmas episode packed with guest stars, and a feel-good redemption arc (I’m a sucker for those) for the super-annoying Richie, who finally found his purpose.

6. Fargo, season 5 (FX).  Maybe I will have to rank this higher or lower, since there are a still few episodes left to go.  It was definitely the best season of Fargo since the first two, and for those who don’t know, it is an anthology show, so every season has a different concept and cast.  Juno Temple, who annoyed me on Ted Lasso before that show itself started to annoy me, is fantastic here as a Minnesota housewife with a dark secret.  The great Jennifer Jason Leigh is outstanding as an awful woman you start to root for when you see all the men she is up against, and she dusted off the wonderful Transatlantic accent she used in my favorite Coen Brothers movie, The Hudsucker Proxy.  Joe Keery is perfect as a vicious little snake who would be right at home on Justified, and I never forgot he was a bully in the beginning of Stranger Things before his face turn.  Jon Hamm taps into all the darkness he exhibited in Mad Men and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt as one of the most loathsome antagonists in recent memory, a “Constitutional sheriff,” preacher, rancher, murderer, and violently abusive husband.  Even if this season wasn’t as good as it was, I would still keep tuning in just to see him (hopefully) get owned at the end.

5. Party Down, season 3 (Starz).  Bringing shows and their casts back years after they ended is a gamble that doesn’t always work.  Twin Peaks: The Return was a masterstroke.  So were the final movies we got of Deadwood and The Venture Bros. that wrapped up loose ends and gave us a little more time with characters we got to know and love.  Justified (a 2023 release!) let me down.  Party Down, on the other hand, did not.  This delightful sitcom about bumbling Los Angeles party caterers and Hollywood hangers-on felt like it picked up right where it left off over a decade ago, and in the intervening years, Adam Scott, Ken Marino, Jane Lynch, and Megan Mullally all became bigger stars (and Ryan Hansen and Martin Starr should have).  I’m so glad they were all willing to return, and even though I missed Lizzy Caplan and her fantastic chemistry with Adam Scott, Jennifer Garner more than made up for it, fitting into the dynamic like she had always been there.  No other show made me laugh so hard this year, and it even delivered some “HELL YEAH!” moments.  We were lucky to get this reunion, even if it only delivered six half-hour episodes.  I hope everyone involved had as much fun as I did and decides to keep the party going.

4. Succession, season 4 (HBO).  I don’t think I could say anything about Succession that other TV reviewers, pop culture critics, journalists, and scholars haven’t already run into the ground.  My wife and I came to it late and binged the entire series earlier this year, just in time to watch the final episode in real time, as it aired.  It was a wild ride, with some of the best acting I have ever seen, all in service of some of the most odious characters ever created.  I already felt like a class warrior long before sampling this show, and it did not disabuse me of any of my preconceived biases against rich people, that’s for sure!  And still, Succession humanized almost all of them along the way, to the point where I rooted for many of them at different points, despite how awful they all were, to each other and in general.  That’s a testament to great writing and acting, and Succession delivered plenty of both, especially in its final season.

3. Poker Face, season 1 (Peacock).  This was an easy show to love, with a timeless concept: Las Vegas cocktail waitress Charlie Cale is on the run from some pretty bad people, so she travels around the country, getting caught up with strivers and lowlifes, and inevitably, people get murdered while she’s around.  Thing is, she’s a human lie detector, so she always figures out who did it, and the drama and suspense come from how she brings them to justice.  It’s a modern-day Columbo formula, but substitute in rumpled Natasha Lyonne, one of the most naturally funny actresses out there, for rumpled Peter Falk.  It also helps that the creator is Rian Johnson, writer-director of some really fantastic movies, most of which have a mystery element: Brick, The Brothers Bloom, Looper, Knives Out, and Glass Onion.

2. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, season 2 (Paramount+).  This show remains my favorite Star Trek series of all time, and it is equally perfect for people who love Star Trek with all their hearts and people who think Star Trek is boring.  It balances self-contained episodes with serialized story arcs, all anchored by a charming and likable cast playing people who are good at everything and just plain good.  This season, the show experimented with a crossover with an animated Star Trek series I do not watch, as well as a musical episode.  Yes, both worked.  Last year I called Anson Mount’s Captain Christopher Pike the best fictional boss ever.  He still is, but now I also have a really terrific boss who belongs in the same rarified company.  (Also, I met Anson Mount this past year.  Really cool guy, for the five seconds we got to interact.)

1. Warrior, season 3 (Max).  This season felt like a gift, since season 2 aired on Cinemax back in late 2020, and I didn’t even discover the show until I binged both seasons on Max in 2021.  I wasn’t sure if the action-packed martial arts/Western/historical drama would ever return, but it came back with a bang and even added the great Marc Dacascos to the cast.  Unfortunately, then it was canceled — one more fantastic decision from Max/Discovery/Warner Bros./David Zaslav!  But whatever showrunner Jonathan Tropper does next, I’m there.  After Banshee and Warrior, he has totally earned my loyalty.

For anyone who made it this far, here are my lists from previous years:

Top Fifteen TV Shows of 2022
Top Twenty TV Shows of the Decade (2011-2021)
Top Ten TV Shows of 2021
Top Twenty TV Shows of 2020
Top Twenty TV Shows of 2019
Top Ten Movies of 2019
Top Ten TV Shows of 2018
Top Ten Movies of 2018

I’m a lifelong comedy nerd.  Growing up in the ’80s and ’90s, The Simpsons, Woody Allen, Mel Brooks, Eddie Murphy, The State, Ghostbusters, the Marx Brothers, Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis’ Justice League International comics, Tom Lehrer, Bugs Bunny, The Tick, Laurel and Hardy, Spike Jones, Seinfeld, and a dog-eared book of corny old Henny Youngman one-liners helped mold and shape my sense of humor.

I love good comedy, and I specify “good,” because there is so much bad comedy out there.  Too much, really.  Comedy is one of the hardest things to write and perform well,  so I have the utmost respect for the writers, actors, and stand-up comics who make me laugh, especially because laughing is such a better alternative to crying and/or screaming.  These days we need all the help we can get to not cry or scream.  I know I do.

I especially love stand-up comedy, so here is my list of my favorite stand-up specials to come out in 2022:

9. Patton Oswalt: We All Scream (Netflix).  Oswalt is one of my all-time favorite stand-ups and the last comedian I saw live before the pandemic struck, back in February 2020.  I always root for him as a fellow nerd who made good, but We All Scream meandered a bit too much for me.  It wasn’t as tight or focused as some of his previous specials, but I’m so happy he has found happiness in his life again after losing his first wife, and that he’s still doing what he does — almost an elder statesman of stand-up at this point.

8. Jerrod Carmichael: Rothaniel (HBO Max).  I wasn’t super-familiar with his work before, but this was a very bold, brave, heartfelt, and personal performance leading up to a huge moment.  If you’re going to watch it, please don’t read anything about it first, because almost every reviewer spoils it.

7. Atsuko Okatsuka: The Intruder (HBO Max).  I wasn’t familiar with her at all and still have no idea where she came from.  We just clicked on this randomly, and Okatsuka was silly, clever, and likeable.  I look forward to whatever she does next.

6. Lil Rel Howery: I Said It.  Y’all Thinking It.  (HBO Max).  This was just joyful.  Rel is a comedian who doesn’t set out to be some kind of bold truth-teller or a combative curmudgeon.  He just brings infectious enthusiasm to his stories and anecdotes, like a less obnoxious Kevin Hart, and it was delightful.  I enjoyed this special a lot more than his previous one, Live in Crenshaw.

5. Neal Brennan: Blocks (Netflix).  Another bold and fearless performance.  If there’s one thing I can’t stand about comedy, it’s “angry alpha bro” stand-ups who come out with a heel stage persona and try to be acerbic and confrontational, punching down and reveling in being bullies.  Brennan isn’t a bully by any means (unlike what his former collaborator has become), but I loved how confrontational he got at times here, discussing some big issues from his own life and life in general while being unafraid to alienate the audience.

4. John Gondelman: People Pleaser (Amazon Prime Video, Tubi).  Another new name and face for me, but I just liked the guy immediately.  He’s such a mensch!  Loves his wife, doesn’t punch down or go for shitty cheap shots, clever wordplay, good crowd work, terrific payoff at the end.  Whatever he does next, I’ll be paying attention.

3. Catherine Cohen: The Twist…?  She’s Gorgeous (Netflix).  This was as much a musical cabaret show as a stand-up performance, and I was enrapt.  Cohen’s stage persona is an attention-craving Millennial diva caricature, somehow sexy, raunchy, and deeply neurotic all at once.  Accompanied on the piano by unsung hero Henry Koperski, this was the kind of lounge act I’ve loved ever since I was a kid, even though they didn’t exist by the time I was born and haven’t made much of a comeback since then.  She’s a true star in the making, and I hope to see her perform her bawdy, melodramatic musical comedy live some day, before she gets too popular to keep playing in small, intimate cabaret venues.

2. Kyle Kinane: Trampoline in a Ditch (YouTube).  This was a recorded version of the tour set I saw Kinane perform in Orlando in 2018.  He has such a great deep voice, and he’s one of the best storytellers in the comedy game.  He is a self-proclaimed “dirtbag” who nevertheless seeks out the joy and wonder in everyday life.  A story he tells about taking his mother to a bowling alley left me in tears at the live show, and I was so glad it was included in this recorded version.  Yes, the link above leads to the entire show, completely free.  You’re welcome.

1. Tom Papa: What a Day! (Netflix).  As a performer, Papa is so cool, even though his stories about marriage and fatherhood are anything but cool.  He does everything Jim Gaffigan and Mike Birbiglia do on stage, only smoother, faster, and more effortless-looking — and don’t get me wrong, I like those gentlemen too, and I’ve seen Gaffigan live twice.  I discovered Tom Papa from his “Out in America” segments on the late, lamented Live From Here radio show (a reworking of A Prairie Home Companion that made it much more music- and comedy-focused and in touch with modern sensibilities, but was unfortunately another victim of the pandemic).  Papa has a few other stand-up specials, and each one is a breath of fresh air and well worth seeking out.  His stories may be about the mundane trivialities and annoyances of middle age, but his delivery is anything but mundane.

Welcome back, stalwart Saboscrivnerinos!  Every year I make my dozens of readers wonder why they should seek television and movie recommendations on a food blog, but let’s face it, not that many people seek restaurant recommendations here either.  So let’s get on with it!

15. George and Tammy (Showtime).  An acting master class from the great Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain as troubled country music icons George Jones and Tammy Wynette, two incredible songwriters and performers who loved each other as best they could.  The miniseries isn’t over yet, but it has been excellent so far.  I’m really impressed that Shannon and Chastain, two of my favorite actors, are doing their own singing.

14. Fleishman Is In Trouble (FX on Hulu).  Taffy Brodesser-Akner adapted her own first novel into this miniseries, and it is depressing, but beautifully written.  The Fleishman in trouble seems to be the newly divorced doctor dad navigating dating apps and single parenting in Manhattan, after his wife completely disappears.  But when the focus shifts to his best friend (played by the wonderful Lizzy Caplan, who is also the narrator), we learn he might not be the only Fleishman in trouble, and that every divorce — every story — has at least two sides.  There is one episode left, and I have a good feeling it won’t disappoint.

13. The White Lotus, season 2 (HBO Max).  I enjoyed this season, with horrible, attractive rich people on vacation at a Sicilian resort, more than the first season in Hawaii.  Most of the characters really were awful, but because the show opened with the discovery of a body and a mention of “a few” more deaths, I enjoyed it the most for the murder mystery aspect, figuring out who would kill and who would be killed, searching for clues and crafting theories that might have been more interesting than the way things actually played out.  Season 1 was more about racism, classism, and colonialism, but this season focused more about sex (especially the transactional nature of sex), infidelity, and the mind games people play with their partners and themselves.  Anything about infidelity and cheating makes me feel really depressed, but I appreciated that I felt real tension during the finale episode, waiting for everything to go wrong.  Even if I didn’t love the show like some of these others on my list, I give it props for making me feel anything at all and giving me a chance to speculate between episodes.  

12. Reacher, season 1 (Amazon Prime Video).  This show about a former military police investigator embroiled in small-town intrigue reminded me of two of my all-time favorite shows: Justified (although Reacher isn’t nearly as clever and witty) and Banshee (although Reacher isn’t nearly as badass).  Still, I enjoyed the hypercompetent protagonist solving mysteries and owning the corrupt local yokels.  I’ve never read the novels this show is based on, but my father and my father-in-law both love them, which speaks volumes — no pun intended.

11. Our Flag Means Death, season 1 (HBO Max).  I didn’t expect to like a show about pirates, especially when I found out it was supposed to be a comedy.  But then it turned into an unlikely romantic comedy, and it became the feel-good show of 2022, like Ted Lasso and Schitt’s Creek in previous years.  If you don’t like it at first, I can’t say I disagree with you.  But especially now that you don’t have to wait for a new episode every week, hang around until Blackbeard shows up, played by New Zealand actor-writer-director Taiki Waititi.  That’s when the show gets good and will become great.

10. She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, season 1 (Disney+).  I’m definitely feeling Marvel Studios burnout, y’all.  This show definitely wasn’t perfect, but it edged the charming Our Flag Means Death out of my Top Ten because it stars one of my favorite actresses, Tatiana Maslany, playing one of my favorite comic book characters, Jennifer Walters, a mousy lawyer who becomes the big, green, fun-loving, sexy superheroine She-Hulk.  This show did its best to delve into some of the weird legal issues that would come up in a world of superheroes and supervillains, crazy future technology, unnatural powers, people being snapped out of existence and coming back to life en masse, and so forth.  It did provide a nice view of the “Marvel Cinematic Universe” from the point of view of regular people trying to deal with the weirdness.  I just wish it had more weight to it, even though it’s a superhero show and a comedy at that.

It seemed clear to me that the writers’ room was more comfortable writing about Jen’s relationship woes and trouble with men than the legal stuff, which is totally fine.  Those parts really fleshed out her character and mattered in the end.  But everything felt so rushed, when they could have developed the other characters more, extended entire scenes, and given everything a chance to breathe and matter.  Longer episodes would have helped with the pacing, but maybe it came down to budget issues.  I’m sure you’ve already heard about the second-to-last episode, in which my favorite Marvel character shows up and reminds us how awesome he is.  Then the season finale is super-fun and joyful, and it probably pissed off all the right people.  I know it’s a big ask, but if you can binge through the whole season, you will probably enjoy it.  Episodes are short (I argue too short), so it should be an easy binge.

9. Andor, season 1 (Disney+).  The least-“Star Warsy” Star Wars thing I’ve ever seen, and also one of the best.  The show’s tone is grim and bleak, the pacing can be slow and ponderous, and there isn’t a lot of comic relief to break up all that darkness, but there are definitely moments of catharsis and hope that make it all worthwhile.  It is a prequel to a prequel, set a few years before the events of the Rogue One movie, which in turn is set right before the first Star Wars movie, Episode IV: A New Hope.  Andor is all about the rise of fascism and authoritarianism in the form of the Empire, and how regular people — not Jedi knights, not members of a special family — can stand against it.  It wouldn’t be spoiling anything to tell you that Andor’s highlights include a daring heist, a heart-pounding prison break, and a brave, brutal uprising in the streets, plus a handful of rousing monologues and heartfelt speeches.  But if that doesn’t sound “Star Warsy” enough for you, there is also a cute, cool, and loyal new droid and a visit to “Planet Miami.”

8. Peacemaker, season 1 (HBO Max).  Christopher “Peacemaker” Smith was introduced in James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad movie, which I liked much better than the previous article-less Suicide Squad, but still didn’t love.  As a result, I wasn’t expecting much from this show, but it went a long way toward redeeming Chris, a violent, macho, immature jerk.  By the end, he was still a violent, macho, immature jerk, but he dealt with his daddy issues and learned how to function on a team, make friends, think for himself, and do the right thing.  It was a really interesting deconstruction of toxic masculinity and childhood trauma, with plenty of raunchy humor and gory violence to keep it from ever feeling too serious or weighty.

I’ll argue to anyone that pro wrestler-turned-actor John Cena  is one of the greatest comic actors out there.  He really made us hate, laugh at, and care for the deeply problematic Chris.  But the highlight of the show was Freddie Stroma playing Vigilante, a bizarre adaptation of one of my low-key favorite DC Comics characters.  The guy stole every scene he was in and made you root and cheer for a very weird and unsettling character.  So James Gunn made a super-fun and funny show, and now he’s in charge of all DC movies and TV shows moving forward.  I feel like they may finally be in the right hands after Peacemaker.  Also, the show has what is probably the best opening title sequence of all time.  You’ll never want to skip it because it’s infectious in every possible way, and you’ll notice new little details about it every time.

7. The Afterparty, season 1 (Apple TV+).  A really clever and entertaining show that’s a murder mystery, but also a comedy.  A group of old friends attend their high school reunion, followed by an afterparty at a famous classmate’s house.  Someone ends up dead, and a police detective arrives to interview all the attendees, since everyone is a suspect.  But the structure is so cool: every episode is a different interview, so you see the same events play out as flashbacks from multiple perspectives, filling in the gaps for the audience so we get a clearer picture of the evening’s events.  And even cooler, every episode is also a different genre, depending on which unreliable narrator is telling the story, so we get a rom-com, an action movie, a musical, and more.  It wrapped up the loose ends in an extremely satisfying way, and yet somehow, we’re getting a second season!

6. The Righteous Gemstones, season 2 (HBO Max).  Another show I fully expected to hate, and did at the very beginning, but ended up really enjoying.  We binged both seasons back to back, but only season 2 aired in 2022.  It’s a comedy about a family of wealthy televangelists in South Carolina, and how hilariously screwed up they all are.  The widowed patriarch (John Goodman) is detached, disapproving, and paternalistic, the eldest son (co-creator and showrunner Danny McBride) is ambitious but overestimates his competence and intelligence, the middle daughter (comedy secret weapon Edie Patterson) is sexually inappropriate and practically feral, and the youngest son is… not-so-secretly gay, but doesn’t realize it?  His plots are a bit of a comedy vacuum, but the rest of the show had us howling with laughter.  And then the great Walton Goggins is in it as their scheming Uncle Baby Billy, a former Christian music child star, now in his 60s after squandering countless opportunities and wasting most of his life.  I never had any patience for McBride’s loudmouthed Southern jackass characters, but his humor totally grew on me, so much so that we even went back and binged Vice Principals, his previous show that he and Goggins starred in together.  That’s a more uncomfortable watch, but also entertaining.

5. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, season 1 (Paramount+).  This is it, folks.  My favorite Star Trek of all time.  Better than the current Discovery (which I also enjoy) and any of the previous, beloved series.  Discovery season 2 introduced the core trio at the heart of Strange New Worlds (so I would recommend watching at least that season too): Ethan Peck as Mr. Spock, Rebecca Romijn as Number One, and Anson Mount, one charming and handsome dude, as the best fictional boss ever, Captain Christopher Pike.  With his empathy and emotional intelligence, Pike is my favorite Star Trek captain of all time, and he really makes the show.  Strange New Worlds perfects the formula of exploring, making contact with alien races, solving problems, and bonding with the crew that has made Star Trek endure through the decades.  If you have ever been skeptical, or you think Star Trek is boring, or you don’t get what all the Trekkies love but wish you did (as I have through much of my life), this is the show for you.  It’s pure joy — fun, optimistic, hopeful, feel-good entertainment about the smartest, bravest, kindest, most heroic people doing their best and being their best.

4. The Bear, season 1 (FX on Hulu).  As much as I love restaurants (which is A LOT, considering I review them in this blog), I’ve never worked in the restaurant business, or any food service or hospitality jobs.  A lot of my friends have, though, and I have the utmost respect for the people who cook and serve me.  I realize it’s a hard job, but no show has ever shown a more realistic look at life in a restaurant kitchen than The Bear, about a fine dining chef who returns to run his family’s dumpy Italian beef sandwich restaurant in Chicago after his brother commits suicide.  The show is so stressful.  You feel it when the kitchen is slammed with orders, when co-workers yell and scream at each other, when family fights, when egos clash.  Chefs and kitchen staff have told me how accurate it all is, and I feel even more awe toward them.  But on top of the gripping, gritty drama, the show also made me really hungry for Chicago-style Italian beefs (I like mine with hot giardiniera but not dipped), and also for spaghetti.  If you know, you know.

3. Atlanta, seasons 3 and 4 (FX on Hulu).  Donald Glover hasn’t proven me wrong yet.  I’ve been a fan since he his earliest Childish Gambino mixtapes and his days as a young writer on 30 Rock, where he gifted the world with “Werewolf Bar Mitzvah.”  I quit watching Community around the same time he left the show, I saw him perform stand-up live in 2012, I’ve listened to all his albums more times than I can count, and I’ve loved Atlanta from the beginning, which seems like a long time ago (2016, damn!).  This year we got two seasons, after a few years with none, and they were remarkable.  There were several stand-alone episodes that felt like experimental short films, that were always interesting even when they didn’t include the four central characters.  And when we caught up with Earn, Alfred, Darius, and Van (played by four of my favorite actors: Glover, Brian Tyree Henry, the effortlessly cool LaKeith Stanfield, and Zazie Beetz), it was like spending time with old friends.

Season 3 had the crew hanging out in Europe, but I preferred seeing them back home in the ATL in Season 4, exploring its secret passages and endless parking garages, avoiding angry old white ladies and deranged Tyler Perry analogues, navigating family squabbles and Black-owned sushi restaurants, going to therapy, and forming complicated revenge plots.  The show is over now, but it went out on top.  There was funny Atlanta, surreal Atlanta, and even scary Atlanta, but never any mediocre or bad Atlanta.

2. Severance, season 1 (Apple TV+).  The less you know when you watch this show, the better experience you will have.  It’s complicated and sometimes confounding.  It’s a workplace drama, a dark comedy, a mystery, dystopian science fiction, and existential horror, all at once.  It has some of the best acting, writing, and directing I’ve seen this year.  It sucked me in, had me on the edge of my seat with clammy-palmed tension, and made me feel extremely uncomfortable at times.  But I see that as a good thing, the fact that it made me feel any strong emotions at all, when so much entertainment is designed to be bland and banal, disposable and empty.  I am notoriously bad at maintaining a healthy work-life balance, so Severance hit me hard.  I guess I’m the target audience, and I doubt I’m alone.  Don’t read anything about it, don’t watch any teasers or trailers, just watch it before some fool spoils it for you.  You can get a free week trial subscription for Apple TV+, and I swear you’ll binge it within the week.  Then keep it long enough to squeeze in The Afterparty and Ted Lasso, too.

1. Better Call Saul, season 6 (AMC).  You knew this was coming.  The final season to one of my favorite shows of all time, which was a prequel/spinoff of another one of my favorite shows of all time, and they stuck the landing.  They wrapped up everyone’s story arcs and/or set them up for Breaking Bad in the perfect possible ways.  There were moments of extreme tension balanced by cathartic humor, shocking deaths, and plenty of wild plot twists as details set up over the course of two long-running shows, some over a decade old, finally paid off.  The last few episodes flashed forward to events that took place after Breaking Bad, which I think many of us were waiting for the entire time, to learn the final fates of Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman/Gene Takovic and our beloved Kim Wexler, played by the best damn actress on television, Rhea Seehorn.  They both broke bad, did some terrible things, and had even more terrible things done to them.  In the end, I think they both redeemed themselves, but in ways that would have been hard for anyone to predict.  I’m sure most people reading a list of some nerd’s favorite TV shows of the year have already watched all of Saul, but if you haven’t, it’s never too late to start.  You definitely won’t be sorry.

For anyone who made it this far, here are my lists from previous years:

Top Twenty TV Shows of the Decade (2011-2021)
Top Ten TV Shows of 2021
Top Twenty TV Shows of 2020
Top Twenty TV Shows of 2019
Top Ten Movies of 2019
Top Ten TV Shows of 2018
Top Ten Movies of 2018