The brand isn’t just strong, it’s durable, with Kid Mero and Desus Nice moving operations of their Showtime late-night comedy series to the virtual space with enviable shoe walls and socially distanced humor that, to be honest, hums and roars like the show did when they were in studio together. It’s something Mero told us is a benefit of a long comedy partnership where the two only rely on each other for any kind of feedback. “No matter where you put us, audience, no audience, 20 people, 5,000 people, you’re still going to get the same kind of vibe. So it works in any format.” But will it work in book form? All signs point to yes with Desus & Mero pulling from a lifetime of experiences and lessons learned from their Bronx upbringing to create God-Level Knowledge Darts(out 9/22), a legitimately on-brand book that could comfortably live in either the comedy or self-help section.
We spoke to the comedy team about the book, stumping lawyers during legal review of the drug chapter, their differing POVs, and navigating life in lockdown. And with Donald Trump insinuating that he’d like to have Joe Rogan moderate a four-hour Presidential debate, we had to ask about what a Desus & Mero-hosted debate would look like.
I don’t know if you saw the news but apparently there’s some effort to get Joe Rogan to host a four-hour debate between Biden and Trump. You guys want to put your hat in the ring to host a debate? You want to go five hours?
Desus: Hell yeah! Hell yeah. Because every time you watch a debate, you have professional journalists and they’re very respectful. And they’re like, “Your time. Your time. You’ve gone over.” If me and Mero were there, it would be like, “Yo, shut the fuck up, my man!”
Desus: “Cut his mic off. Yo, my man, I will come up there. I will come up on that stage, keep playing with me.” It will be the first debate where one of the candidates is speaking you just hear, “yo, who’s mans is this!?”
Mero: I’ll go straight into the Dominican Dad Mode. I’ll take my belt off, I’ll be like, “Yo, I told you your time was the fuck up. Get away from the mic and let somebody else speak.”
Desus: “Yo, this nigga lying, your honor.” It’d be wild. It would be wild. Also, it’d be the only debate where they’re talking about fracking or something very important, and all of a sudden you just hear, “DER-EK JE-TER [Claps] DER-EK JE-TER [Claps].” We stop broadcasting the debate, we just talking about Yankee highlights. “Hey, Mero, remember Mike Mussina?”
Mero: Whoo. “Remember Tino Martinez? That guy, oh, that was a stud right there. Incredible field presence.”
Desus: “Oh, he had such a vision. Listen. Listen. When he was at bat it was epic.”
Yeah, I want that. It’s going to beat anything Rogan could do, anything anybody else could do. Let’s make that happen.
Mero: You know what I’m saying? Rogan would have to smoke DMT to get to our level if we went on there. He would have to do that, he would have to do whatever he does on his podcast, smoke ayahuasca before he does this shit to even touch what we’re doing. [Laughs]
I know they’re talking about wanting to drug test the candidates if they can actually make sure that whoever hosts it is high as fuck, that would be the way to go.
Desus: You see? They’re talking about drug testing the candidates. If we were hosting it, it’d be a cipher. It’d be the first debate that’s in a hotbox. Instead of just asking questions, we’re just standing around, we’re just passing the wild-l to Joe Biden. He’s passing it to Donald Trump, Donald Trump’s like, “What is this?”
Mero: [Trump impression] “Wow, it’s a presidential Kush. Wow. Some acid. Whoa.”
Desus: Biden’s like, “Whoa, you got me feeling like I’m back on the Amtrak. Whoa.”
Mero: We’re doing it all in a Buick LeSabre with a GoPro. That’s it. [Laughs]
With the relationships, kids, and the money stuff… Obviously, this book was written months and months ago. How do you think this all applies to now with everything in the new-new, post COVID world?
Desus: Speaking for myself, everything has kind of changed but the basics are the same. The thing with COVID is it’s made your reality different. Because now you could possibly get into an altercation with someone because they’re not wearing a face mask. That’s nothing I’ve ever had to worry about ever in my life. And it’s just kind of using what you were born and raised with in The Bronx and your life experience and just kind of applying it now. Things that might have mattered more before COVID don’t really matter now. I have a great sneaker collection but where am I wearing these sneakers to? I’m throwing on a brand new pair of Jordans to go get an Amazon package? That’s not fun. But yeah, this is the new reality.
Last time we talked, I asked you about sneaker budgets and setting the level. You said get a new pair when I write a big piece, and I do that now and there’s no point.
Mero: Instagram!
Desus: Yeah, but even Instagram is like… It’s not the same. The flex is gone, that’s the side effect of corona. It stole the flex.
It is. Mero, how is it affecting your family life and relationship and everything being at home?
Mero: Yo. Yo, you put it on the tee for me, bro. That’s why this book is so perfect, because you get two sides of everything almost, you know what I mean? Because our life’s like, we’re boys and we vibe super heavy but our lifestyles are different, you know what I mean? With the book, you get both sides of life essentially. So for me, it’s not about going out on dates and getting the right outfit together or whatever. It’s more like, yo, how are me and my wife going to keep from murdering each other while being on top of each other all the time? You know what I mean? Because a normal marriage is like, yo, you have your day, I have my day, we reconnect throughout the day or whatever. But now, it’s just 24 hours real world. Like Big Brother, we’re in the house all the time, 24/7 and it’s taught me a lot of patience and understanding, a lot more talking. You know what I mean?
So I want to say surviving the pandemic relationship-wise is just about communicating and not taking shit personally and understanding. Like, this is a weird situation and everybody’s reacting differently. My wife likes to go outside and go hiking and walking and jogging and this and that and she was losing her mind, getting stir-crazy. So I didn’t take any type of, “oh, I’m upset about something or I’m moody” or whatever… I didn’t take it personally. I was like, “I understand your life has been thrown off-kilter, mine has as well so we’re both going to be a little snippy sometimes.” And just understanding that and working together to get past that and not taking stuff personally.
Showtime
Like you said, you guys live different lives. What did you learn about each other and how you process things going through each other’s sections of the book?
Desus: I mean it was kind of stream of consciousness so it really felt like just talking to Mero or just a conversation.
You went back and forth or was it you did a section and then he had his section?
Desus: It was weird.
Mero: It was a list of self-help questions.
Desus: They just meshed together because we’ve worked together so much that it’s just kind of… We know each other’s vibes and we already know what it was. Other authors would have had to be in the room together so there’s some continuity. And we didn’t have to do that.
Mero: We worked in a Google doc.
Desus: I mean I don’t want to brag but the last time two different authors were able to get together and make a comprehensive book, it’s a little thing called the Bible. So that’s where we’re at. That’s where we’re at, right there. And that was 66 books, you know what I’m saying? We got one.
Mero: We got one so we got 65 more to go.
Desus: So I’m not saying but I’m saying, you know what I’m saying here, all right?
Hey, listen, I read 60 pages of your book and I want to keep going. I read 60 pages of the other book and…
Mero: You were like, “yo, where are we going here? What’s this sheep thing? What’s going on?”
Desus: Yeah, there’s plot holes, they’re talking to a lion in a pit, we don’t got nothing in our book like that.
What was the legal review like for this? The drug section was interesting, getting the allegedly-s in.
Desus: That email was hilarious because there’s so many things that had to be redacted from the book. And then just the emails where they were just like, “I don’t even know if this is a crime” or “what is this?”
Mero: What’s the statute of limitations?
I want to ask you guys a basketball question real quick. Giannis and the whole IG unfollow spree. As a Knicks fan, does that just get your hope up that this means he might be leaving the Bucks?
Mero: Yes and no. We are lifelong Knicks fans so we’re going to hope, right? But that’s also like hoping that Batman is real, you know what I mean? We know it’s not going to happen but we’re going to pretend it’s going to happen because we’re riding that Knicks cocaine high that you ride every off-season as a Knicks fan. And then when the season actually starts and you’re… Last season was a perfect example, it was supposed to be Zion, KD, and Kyrie. We ended up with Julius Randle who has a spin move that never works. So…
Desus: Yeah. You know what? Being a Knicks fan… This might not be the right comparison. I feel like being a Knicks fan is like being the father of an ugly child, you love this kid and you will do anything in your power for this kid. But every now and then you walk to the park and you’re like, god damn, it’s not going to get better.
I grew up as a Yankees fan but I switched to the Orioles a few years ago. And it’s so different because you go from that mentality of watching every other team and being like, “in a few years, we’re gonna get him” to basically like, “oh, he’s leaving? Oh, HE’s leaving? Oh, he got traded?” I do miss that New York sensibility. I’m a Bulls fan too, so I still get that a little.
Desus: Well, what’s super weird is as Yankee fans, the Yankees have been kind of floundering lately and I’m just like, all right, season’s done. Forget it. Because if it’s not a World Series, why are we even doing this? I don’t care if they make the playoffs. And my other friends go, “Wow, you Yankee fans are jerks,” and I was like, “And proudly so, Sir. Proudly, sir.”
Mero: Yeah. You got people in the mentions like, “I’m a Pirates fan! I don’t even know what success is like! You guys go to the ALCS every year!”
Desus: I’m like, “Oh, Pirates fan? You have it rough? We haven’t been in the World Series since ’09!” They’re like, “No, you don’t even understand what you just said.” I was like, “’09! That was a long time ago.”
Mero: They’re like, “Sir, please. We haven’t won since 1922.”
But the Knicks balance it out.
Desus: Exactly. Imagine us if the Knicks won four championships in a row, you understand? We would not be able to be on Zoom because our heads would be so swollen. “Hey Mero, hey Mero. I’m Patrick Ewing, four rings!”
Mero: Yeah! You know that picture of Jordan where he’s with the rings [and his hand is] on his face? We would do that. That would be every cover for everything that we ever do.
Desus: Yo, every time we’d have an interview we’d stop to talk about the greatness of the greatest shooting guard ever in the history of basketball, John Starks. You want that? You want that? Huh?
I really don’t want that.
Desus: You want us to do a 10 minute retrospective about Derek Harper? Nah, you guys don’t want this. You guys don’t want that.
Again, I grew up as a Bulls fan living in Jersey so that era the mid-’90s with Starks and Greg Anthony and all those guys… Charles Smith.
Desus: That was one of the few times we saw real basketball as Knicks fans.
It was fun, but man, if you guys won even a playoff game, it was insufferable.
Mero: Bro.
I got into a fight once on the Circle Line, me and a bunch of kids in Bulls Jerseys throwing garbage at a bunch of kids in Knicks jerseys.
Desus: I love it. I love that. Yes.
Mero: We need that energy.
Desus: We don’t have that energy anymore. Now you leave Madison Square Garden, you think you’re leaving a funeral. People get in their Ubers and you just hear soft weeping, it’s just sad.
‘God-Level Knowledge Darts’ is out September 22. You can get your copy here and below you can check out an audio chapter preview from the book’s section on relationships –courtesy of Penguin Random House Audio — narrated by the authors.
After blowing the doors off of the Nuggets in Game 1, the Lakers looked to be headed for another breezy win as they took a 16-point lead in the third quarter against Denver in Game 2, but as the Nuggets proved multiple times against the Clippers, they will fight and claw to the end.
Denver would climb back to take a brief lead in the fourth quarter, but unlike the Clippers, the Lakers were able to respond and gut out a win behind some incredible shot-making and timely defense. As such, the series now shifts to must-win mode for the Nuggets in Game 3 to avoid a 3-0 deficit to L.A., and looking ahead to that tilt on Tuesday, here are our takeaways from Game 2.
1. Anthony Davis Bailed Out LeBron
This isn’t to bury LeBron, who was sensational early in the game, scoring 20 points in the first half, but the Hall of Famer struggled in the second half with just six points and some rough turnovers (six total in the game) that allowed Denver to stay in the game. Davis was quiet in the first half, but had 22 points in the second half, including the game-winning three at the buzzer to deliver the Lakers a Game 2 win and a 2-0 series lead.
That effort included the final 10 points of the game for the Lakers, all of which they needed to get a win as Nikola Jokic gave the same type of Herculean performance for the Nuggets.
Crunch-time, step-back trey to beat the shot clock.
It was maybe the one question people had of Davis — whether he could take the reins of a contender late and will them to victories — and he answered that emphatically in Game 2. It’s also exactly what James needs from a star partner, because there are going to be nights where he doesn’t have it to take over offensively, and Davis giving them that lift when LeBron couldn’t was the difference in Game 2. It’s not a knock on James in anyway, as that’s the case for any star in the league, but it’s more an affirmation of why Davis was the right guy for the Lakers to pair with LeBron.
2. Nikola Jokic Is A Big Game Player
Jamal Murray was the initial catalyst for the Denver comeback, but he started to run out of hero ball gas in the fourth quarter. As such, he turned things over to Nikola Jokic who was sensational in scoring the final 12 points of the game for Denver.
Jokic, over the past two years, has cemented himself as a tremendous big game player. He’s hit big shots, carried the Nuggets at times when they needed him two, and has shown up in just about every big game, with Game 2 being no different. He finished with 30 points, nine assists, and six rebounds in the 105-103 loss, but what he did offensively down the stretch showed his incredible versatility and his savant-like understanding of where to be and how to make a play at all times — as evidenced by his ridiculous tip-in of a blocked Murray three.
He hit threes, he had the tip-in, he hit that hook over Anthony Davis in the post that made the runner-up for the DPOY look like he had no effect. It was a sensational performance but one that saw Denver come up just short, and that has to be disheartening. At the same time, this is a Nuggets team that seems completely unfazed by what would normally be gutting losses. They get blown out and bounce back immediately. They lose a heartbreaker and do the same. I don’t expect anything different in Game 3, but this time they just might not have enough to overcome this 2-0 deficit.
3. The Lakers Have Some Tweaks To Make
The second half provided a lot of good film for Denver and I expect them to try and attack some things the Lakers gave them more in Game 3, which means the Lakers have a few tweaks to make. For one, they were way too willing to switch guards onto Nikola Jokic off the ball, which provides the star big man with an advantage he almost always wins against. When Alex Caruso or Kentavious Caldwell-Pope or Danny Green or whatever guard it was switched onto the big fella, the Lakers were in deep trouble. Sending the double at Jokic, the best passing big in the NBA (and maybe ever), leads to him finding the open man 10 times out of 10. Leaving him one-on-one is almost always a basket or a trip to the free throw line (or both). As such, the Lakers can’t be so quick to give Denver those switches when Jokic sets a screen off the ball, and I’d expect that to be a talking point for Frank Vogel ahead of Game 3.
On the other end, they were spectacular getting inside early in the game, but settled for a lot of jump shots late and struggled to get it going. Davis, of course, found his rhythm down the stretch and got them the win, but Denver did a good job of being active and showing bodies defensively, James, particularly, struggled late to get to the rim for easy baskets and fouls.
Finally, the Lakers probably need to find a few more minutes for Dwight Howard when Jokic is on the floor. It’s a difficult balance because Howard does have a tendency to be overly aggressive and pick up fouls (he had five in 13 minutes on Sunday), but he’s by far the most effective Jokic defender they have. He has to find the fine line between bringing that energy and aggression and picking up dumb fouls by trying to bully Jokic, but getting him up closer to 18 to 20 minutes would be ideal and some of that is up to Dwight not to get dinged with bad fouls.
The good news for L.A. is they managed to win a “bad” LeBron game — again, he had 26/11/4, this is all relative to the insane bar he has for himself. I don’t expect that to happen again, but the Nuggets did frustrate Kawhi Leonard in the last series into a lot more inefficient nights offensively than we’re accustomed to so they do have a good strategy for opposing star wings. The difference is this L.A. team has Anthony Davis, and while they have some adjustments to make to clean some things up from the second half, if their stars show up, they always have the advantage.
It’s been a rough year, and though the Emmy Awards are largely about escapism, there’s one annual segment that always brings us back to reality: the In Memoriam montage. We’ve lost more people than usual this year, with a pandemic that has no end in sight, some of whom made long-lasting impressions on television history. This year’s montage began with someone whose death is both very recent and which may alter the course of the future.
Host Jimmy Kimmel began with a brief tribute to Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Supreme Court justice who passed away on Friday at the age of 87. From there, Kimmel introduced singer H.E.R., who played a stirring cover of the Prince-written “Nothing Compares 2 U,” made popular by Sinead O’Connor. And from there, we were reminded of all the members of the industry that have left us since last year’s ceremony.
There were TV idols, like Regis Philbin, James Lipton, Jerry Stiller, Jim Lehrer, Robert Conrad, Bill Macy, Rip Taylor, and Caroll Spinney, the Sesame Street puppeteer who voiced Big Bird. There were performers who performed in both film and television, like Shirley Knight, Robert Foster, Brian Dennehy, Fred Willard, René Auberjonois, Buck Henry, Wilford Brimley, Diana Rigg, and Carl Reiner. There were movie stars who occasionally dipped their toes in television, like Max Von Sydow, Ian Holm, and Kirk Douglas. And there were those who largely worked behind the scenes, among them songwriter Adam Schlesinger, of Crazy Ex Girlfriend and That Thing You Do!, and filmmaker Lynn Shelton.
The montage even saved the final spot for a movie star: Chadwick Boseman, whose untimely death in early September sent shockwaves across the industry. They, and more, will all be missed dearly.
The comedic side of this year’s Emmys has been dominated by Schitt’s Creek, which won seven awards (including the acting categories and Outstanding Comedy Series) in a sweep. Many feel that this domination was well deserved, but it left fans of one show feeling rightfully conflicted. The series in question, The Good Place, also ended this year, so it would have been the best time for the beloved show to end an Emmy-less streak. This year, The Good Place was nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series, Lead Actor (Ted Danson), Supporting Actor (William Jackson Harper), and Supporting Actress (D’Arcy Carden), aaaand it took home… none of those awards.
In other words, the surreal sight that Ramy Yousef claimed to see may have been quadrupled for a show that brought great joy to many, and its fans aren’t having it. Sure, some of them are also quite happy for Schitt’s Creek, but they simply cannot understand why such an acclaimed and embraced series can walk away with zero Emmys. It’s sad! Maybe we really are in “The Bad Place”?
As happy as I am for Schitts Creek I am equally as gutted that The Good Place didn’t have the opportunity to win for its superb series finale. Mike Schur knew the complete story he wanted to tell and he nailed the ending. I cried and cried for hours #Emmyspic.twitter.com/SIKLalBMeg
Maybe the world wasn’t ready yet for TGP but that’s ok. People will appreciate it more over the years, I know that for a fact. A lot of great shows win awards but a lot of great shows don’t. Doesn’t make The Good Place any less perfect. Take it sleazy, TGP fam.pic.twitter.com/iVitvLA9Bh
Schitt’s Creek is one of those shows that just makes people feel comforted and good, and it deserved its #Emmys sweep tonight. I also wish The Good Place had earned Emmys during its run because it was brilliant and good too.
This night isn’t over yet, and we’ve still got the drama awards to cause more, well, drama. Check out the rest of our Emmy’s coverage here, and enjoy the evening.
The Denver Nuggets, as they’ve done so many times in these playoffs, managed to erase a 16-point Laker lead in the second half of Game 2 to come mere seconds away from evening the series at 1-1.
To get there, they followed the lead of Nikola Jokic who was a monster down the stretch, hitting just about everything including this running hook shot over Anthony Davis to give Denver a 103-102 lead late.
The Lakers would get a wide open Alex Caruso three-pointer that fell woefully short on the ensuing possession, but they got an offensive rebound and after Jamal Murray blocked a shot out of bounds, had 2.1 seconds to find a game-winner. The play they drew up sent the ball to Anthony Davis, who had carried them in the fourth quarter, and the big man hit a tough fading three-pointer as the buzzer sounded to rip the hearts out of the Nuggets.
It’s a sensational shot from Davis, who was able to get enough space off a LeBron James screen on Jerami Grant, who didn’t hear the switch call coming from Mason Plumlee. Nikola Jokic gave a good effort to challenge the shot, but it was just a hair too late and Davis got his shot off clean and found the bottom of the net.
Davis finished the game with 31 points on 11-of-24 shooting, hitting two of his four three-point attempts including that one at the buzzer. Nikola Jokic’s 30 points, nine assists, and six rebounds kept Denver close, with Jamal Murray dropping 25 of his own, but in the end the Lakers emerged on top and now have firm control of the Western Conference Finals.
Last Week Tonight won its fifth consecutive Best Variety Talk Series award at tonight’s Emmys, and host John Oliver pulled out the stops in the wardrobe department. Oliver exuded a nice blend of “virtual ceremony appropriate” and “awards ceremony” attire by staying casual-yet-formal in a plush-looking red hoodie. The results may make up for him neglecting to thank the object of his obsession, Adam Driver (who the host has described as both a “f*ckable redwood” and a “big unwashed buffalo”), during his short winner’s speech. The details often slip by during big moments, but he looked great.
Actually, the British comedian was keeping it real with a Liverpool F.C. sweatshirt, as fellow fans were quick to celebrate on Twitter. The confetti also provided a nice, festive touch in a time when we can sorely use some levity.
John Oliver winning an Emmy in a Liverpool hoodie is everything you need to see today. We’re massive.
Classic John Oliver. Casually winning an Emmy in a Liverpool hoodie. Never change. May football continue to be your Light in the Darkness, just as you are ours pic.twitter.com/TgGFhFZncv
Oliver actually kept his speech pretty tame, by his own standards. He kept it light, as people need to hear at an awards ceremony, and didn’t skewer anything. He did fervently hope (as we all do) that he can get back to speaking to a live audience as soon as possible. And since Oliver will definitely be on the air (unless the Earth explodes, which it might) for several years to come, that time will happen, sooner or later.
The Emmys may have started with a literal garbage fire, but things went extremely well for one group: the cast and creators of Schitt’s Creek. The beloved comedy bid farewell to the world by walking away with nine Emmys, including Outstanding Comedy Series and all four main actors. (Dan Levy himself also won for writing and directing, making so many speeches he eventually started apologizing.) Good for Schitt’s Creek! And bad for all the people at non-Schitt’s Creek shows who lost those coveted awards.
One of them was Ramy Youssef, star and co-creator of Hulu’s Ramy, who started 2020 by winning the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy. He was also Emmy-nominated for actor and director, both of which he lost to Eugene Levy’s son. It’s a bad break, but he had a fun way of responding, showing the surreal thing that happens when you lose.
So…is that real? It was revealed earlier in the show that people are there with Emmy statues to give the winners in person (with hazmat suits). But it seems that the winners are such a secret that people are sent to every nominee, just in case? We guess? If that’s the case, then that’s a bizarre job, and it’s kind of cruel to the losing nominees. Of course, if that’s so, there are worse things going on right now than not winning an Emmy.
Among the upcoming Marvel shows coming to Disney+, including The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and She-Hulk (starring Tatiana Maslany), the most intriguing title is WandaVision. It’s a superhero show, starring Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch and Paul Bettany as Vision (and A Serious Man icon Fred “Sy Ableman” Melamed), but it’s also a ’50-style black-and-white sitcom. Think: the Marvel Cinematic Universe meets The Honeymooners meets Pleasantville. I have no idea what this show is, and I can’t wait.
“I don’t think that myself or Lizzie have ever been more surprised when [Marvel chief Kevin Feige] pitched the idea to us,” Bettany said about WandaVision. “He pitched this idea for a sort of six-hour movie that I would never [have thought of]… which is why he is the one earning the really big bucks. It’s so avant garde, and weird, and messed up, and then moves seamlessly into more familiar territory. But the place where it starts is so odd.” Also, Fred Melamed. Never forget about Fred (and Kitty from That ’70s Show).
Here’s the official plot synopsis:
The series is a blend of classic television and the Marvel Cinematic Universe in which Wanda Maximoff and Vision—two super-powered beings living idealized suburban lives—begin to suspect that everything is not as it seems.
Watch the first trailer above. WandaVision premieres later this year.
There are plenty of good TV series on Netflix. Arguably, too many, in fact. If you’re trying to figure out what to watch next, here’s a great place to start with a look at 65 of the best shows on Netflix right now (including some of the best Netflix original series). You can also find recent changes, including new seasons and removed shows, at the bottom of this list, while some of the most recently added entries listed first.
Even though this sports-centric docuseries was just released earlier this year, it already feels like a defining entry into the genre. That’s because over the course of 10 episodes, this show peers behind the curtain of one of the biggest sports dynasties in history: The Chicago Bulls, but it doesn’t take the path you might expect. The battles off the court, the complicated player relationships, the media’s influence, and the backdoor dealings of executives within the organization all come into play here, but the most gripping part of this series is how it humanizes a God-like figure in basketball for the generations that grew up in his shadow.
Netflix is giving this true-crime series a reboot which is good news for all the murder mystery junkies out there. UFOs, missing husbands, and a murderous French count still on the run are the highlights of the show’s first six episodes. Get your sleuth hats ready.
Bryan Fuller’s Hannibal is a perfect series to binge-watch, given that the ability to watch back-to-back episodes evens out some of the slow pacing. Hannibal is dark, macabre, and brilliantly creative, and while it has many of the same characters viewers know and appreciate from the movie/book series, it also has an entirely different and unique tone (some would even say better). The murder scenes are equally gruesome and gorgeous, the series’ long arc is as disturbing as it is engrossing, and the acting from Hugh Dancy, Mads Mikkelson, and Laurence Fishburne is superb. It’s a slow, morbidly addictive burn, and viewers must stick around for Michael Pitt’s Mason Verger in season two, if only for one of the most beautifully unsettling sequences ever seen on network television.
Has there ever been a sitcom as downright clever as Community? Aside from the gas leak year, Community was quicker than nearly every other comedy out there, with jokes flying fast but also taking seasons to reach a punchline. After getting caught with a phony degree, former lawyer Jeff Winger (Joel McHale) heads to Greendale Community College to get a legitimate degree. There he gets into increasingly hilarious hijinks with his Spanish study group. Between paintball wars, zombie outbreaks, and the increasingly ridiculous presence of Senor Chang (Ken Jeong), Community is never, ever boring. Quit living in the darkest timeline and get to watching.
Comedian Mae Martin stars in this feel-good dramedy series about a stand-up performer (named Mae), who falls for a young woman named George. Mae’s a recovering addict; George has just emerged from the closet. Sparks fly between the two, but Mae’s past drug use and George’s reluctance to come out to her friends and family threatens to break them up.
There are stories too bizarre, too mind-boggling to be true… and then there’s this seven-part docuseries. Cults, queer romance, exotic cats — this true-crime binge has it all. Is Joe Exotic, a gay, gun-loving conman running an exotic zoo out of his home in Oklahoma, a criminal or an American hero? Did animal rights activist Carole Baskin murder her husband and feed him to her tigers? Why are so many zoo employees missing limbs? These are just a few of the questions you’ll ask while watching this train wreck. Have fun, kids.
Good news: Narcos is back. Even better news: Mexico is basically an entirely revamped show, which means you don’t need to be familiar with past installments to enjoy the wild ride. Diego Luna plays the new big bad, a drug lord looking to expand his reach, while Michael Pena plays the fed tasked with busting his operation. Luna looks to be thoroughly enjoying playing the sleazeball gangster-type, and since this installment is set in the 1980s, expect plenty of decadence, a killer soundtrack, and a ton of cocaine.
Henry Cavill leads this fantasy epic based on a best-selling series of books and a popular video game franchise. The expectations are high, but they’re more than exceeded by Cavill, who plays a mutated monster hunter named Geralt. Showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich laid out for us the changes she made from page to screen, introducing key characters like the sorceress Yennefer and the destined princess Ciri early on, changes that take this show to the next level. It’s a cross between a police procedural and a Lord Of The Rings-style adventure. You’ll love it.
The only thing better than a series starring Paul Rudd is a show starring two Paul Rudds. The funnyman leads this new original series while playing a man named Miles, who seems pretty dissatisfied with his life so far. After agreeing to participate in a mysterious spa treatment that promises a better, more successful life, Miles is left with a practically perfect doppelganger intent on taking his life from him. It’s dark and weird, and did we mention the two Paul Rudds?
Director Ava DuVernay’s limited series about the wrongfully accused men in the Central Park Five case is an emotionally heavy reimagining of a truly tragic event in our history. The series sheds light on racial profiling and corruption in the NYPD as a group of young Black men are targeted for a heinous crime and put on trial with little evidence. It’s a gripping, heartbreaking retelling, but one that feels sadly relevant.
Saturday Night Live and Detroiters alum Tim Robinson creates and stars in this 15-minute sketch comedy series that is perfectly happy to offer up a few irreverent laughs without all of the post-comedy commentary that weighs down other funny shows in 2019. It’s a mixed bag of unconnected stories about toddler pageants and old men out for revenge and how Instagram has warped our social interactions in hilariously bizarre ways. What each of these skits has in common is Robinson’s particular brand of comedy and his unrivaled ability to make you laugh.
Ali Wong and Tiffany Haddish voice the stars of this animated comedy from BoJack Horseman artist Lisa Hanawalt. Wong plays Bertie, a 30-something songbird thrush with debilitating anxiety, a knack for baking, and a truly toxic work environment. Haddish plays her best friend Tuca, a loud-mouthed toucan who loves to party and hates the thought of settling down. The friends try to hold on to their single days, even as Bertie takes the next step in her long-term relationship and Tuca struggles to find her place in the world. It’s a more colorful, comforting world than BoJack, but it’s got the same great humor and surprisingly-thoughtful musings.
Christina Applegate returns to TV with this grief-com about a woman trying to pick up the pieces after her husband is murdered in a horrible hit-and-run accident. Applegate plays the angry, grieving widow with equal parts humor and empathy while Linda Cardellini plays her sunny, optimistic best friend. The two meet in a grief group and navigate the challenges of moving on after loss while also solving a murder mystery. There’s no way you’ll know what to expect here, which is half the fun of watching.
Natasha Lyonne stars in this Groundhog Day-from-hell remake about a woman who’s forced to relive the last day of her life over and over again. It’s been done before, but this series stands out thanks to its mix of dark humor and a tinge of the supernatural. Lyonne is one of the often overlooked OITNB stars, but it looks like this series is giving her a chance to show off her comedic chops as her character, Nadia, endures a constant loop of partying, dying, then waking up to do it all over again. As bleak as the premise is, Lyonne manages to find a silver lining, a universal message that basically read, “The world is sh*t, let’s help each other out if we can.”
Superhero team-ups are a dime a dozen, but the TV adaptation of this award-winning comic series created by Gerard Way — yes, the lead singer of My Chemical Romance — feels wholly unique and thus, totally refreshing. The show follows the story of seven kids, all born on the same day to mothers who didn’t even know they were pregnant. They’re adopted by a mysterious billionaire and trained to use their supernatural abilities to fight evil in the world, but when they grow up, their dysfunctional upbringing catches up with them, and they’re left struggling to live normal lives. It’s all kinds of weird, which is exactly what the genre needs right now.
Kiernan Shipka stars in this witchy revival of a sitcom classic. This Sabrina Spellman is darker than what millennials are used to. As a half-mortal, half-witch, Spellman is an outcast with the magical community and the first season explores the cult-like fervor of magic users, their worship of Satan, and why Sabrina is being pressured to sign her name over to the Dark Lord. The show also tackles issues of romance, friendship, and sexism in clever, crafty ways and with season two newly released, expect things to get even more nightmarish for the Spellman clan.
The UK’s most popular new drama has made its way across the pond. The procedural thriller stars Game of Thrones’ Richard Madden as David Budd, a military vet turned police officer tasked with protecting a high-profile politician during a, particularly dicey time. There’s plenty of suspense and action to string you along, coupled with a vulnerable performance by Madden, who ditches his King of the North swagger to play a man conflicted by his past and his present duty to his country.
Mike Flanagan knows how to do horror, and his latest series for Netflix, The Haunting of Hill House, is proof of that. The show, like the book off which it’s based, follows the fractured Crain family as they try to make peace with their dark and twisted path. Of course, through some carefully-timed flashbacks, we see why the Crain siblings are so messed up: They lived in a haunted house as children, a house that eventually caused the death of their mother. There are plenty of frights to keep horror fans interested in this thriller, but the real point of this show is investigating trauma and its lingering effects. Makes sense that horror is the best way to do that.
Not enough people on the Internet have explained that BoJack Horseman is not what it might seem like. Not enough people raved that it was an often very funny, often very heartbreaking meditation on depression. It’s an animated sitcom about a washed-up horse, and somehow, it’s also an incredibly profound look at deeper themes. It’s amazing, but it may also leave you in a depressive funk for days afterward. Its fourth season even placed it among our best TV shows of 2017, and, thankfully, Season 5 is just as funny and sad as ever.
A throwback and love letter to the early 1980s movies of Steven Spielberg and John Carpenter, the Duffer Brothers’ Stranger Things feels both familiar and new. It’s about a boy named Will (think E.T.‘s Elliot) who is captured by a The Thing-like creature and trapped in a Poltergeist-like world. His mother (Winona Ryder) recruits the local sheriff to investigate Will’s disappearance. Meanwhile, Will’s dorky, Goonies-like best friends take to their bikes to do some sleuthing of their own and eventually befriend an alien-like girl with telepathic powers (the E.T. of the series). Season two continues that vibe as the show dives deeper into government conspiracies and alien monsters intent on wreaking havoc on small-town Indiana. It’s great PG horror/sci-fi, like the blockbusters of the early ’80s, and even if you didn’t come of age in the era, there’s something for everyone to enjoy.
The original UK The Office mainstreamed Ricky Gervais’ awkward, uncomfortable humor, while The Office diluted it (some), layered in one of sitcom’s greatest romances (for four seasons, anyway), and surrounded Steve Carell with a remarkable, quirky supporting cast. The first four seasons still stand as the best workplace comedy in American sitcom history, even if the final four seasons were increasingly mediocre — though the series did redeem itself in the end.
Witty, heartfelt, and funny, you’re not likely to find a more likable sitcom than Parks and Recreation. The first six episodes aren’t very good, but once they figured out what to do with Amy Poehler’s Leslie Knope, the sitcom began to thrive, thanks in huge part to its endearing supporting cast. Parks and Rec is blissful television, and a must watch for any fan of great sitcoms.
The series lost some of the mystique it had gained after its cancellation because Netflix’s season four wasn’t to everyone’s satisfaction — though it flowers with repeat viewings, especially with the recut version of it. Arrested Development still stands as one of the funniest, most inventive, and most influential sitcoms of the generation.
One of the best original shows on Netflix, this prison dramedy is a deeply human, funny, moving, realistic, progressive show about life and the bad decisions we’re all destined to make. OITNB humanizes the dehumanized, transforms labels — felons, thieves, murderers, embezzlers — into real human beings and reminds us that, even in prison, life isn’t put on hold. Life is being led. It’s a remarkably excellent series, and addictive as hell.
In its first season, Better Call Saul quickly put to rest any fears anyone might have had about a spin-off from arguably the greatest drama of all time, Breaking Bad (which sits atop this list). Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould return as showrunners, and they continue to bring the same level of complexity, intensity, and character development to Saul as they did for Breaking Bad. What’s most remarkable about the series, however, is that they managed to transform the Saul character into someone humane and sympathetic while staying true to the same character in the original series. Indeed, Saul is the most detail oriented and perhaps the smartest show on television, and one hell of an intense, suspenseful drama, which is all the more impressive because we know roughly where it will end up.
Ryan Murphy’s horror anthology on FX is an unpredictable tour-de-force that, when it sticks its landing, is one of the best shows on TV. The series chronicles truly terrifying, mind-warping plots across multiple seasons, connecting some, ignoring others. What grounds these outrageous storylines involving haunted hotels, murder houses, insane asylums, cults, and covens is the cast, most notably Jessica Lange, Sarah Paulson, and Evan Peters. Murphy relies on their visceral portrayals of individuals unhinged to sell this whacky, nightmare-inducing rollercoaster and sell they do.
At first glance, this bodice-ripper from Starz reads like the television adaptation of a dime-store paperback romance novel. It’s got time travel, sexy Scottish men in kilts, an arranged marriage, even a bit of witchcraft. But the show, starring Caitriona Balfe and Sam Heughan, elevates itself beyond those tropes, touching on everything from love and loss to the politics behind some of history’s most infamous conflicts. From the highlands to the French court, the series delivers awe-inducing visuals, career-making performances, and the kind of drama to keep you hooked.
Fred Armisen, Bill Hader, and Seth Meyers have created something truly unique with their riff on our culture’s obsession with docu-style TV series. The SNL alums mock the stylistic choices and subjects of other shows of its ilk, with episodes dedicated to everything from Grey Gardens to The Thin Blue Line. And the guest list for this thing is unbelievable.
In Mindhunter, Jonathan Groff plays Holden Ford, a character based on the real-life John E. Douglas (the inspiration for Jack Crawford in the Hannibal series). The series itself is based on the origins of an actual behavioral science unit in the FBI used to study serial killers in the 1970s and 80s. Ford is a young FBI Agent who takes a keen interest in psychology which, in turn, grows into an interest in the psychology of sequential killers. It’s a fascinating exploration into the origins of what now seems commonplace, a science that has inspired dozens of police procedurals. What’s more interesting here, however, is that while Ford is studying serial killers (all of whom are based on actual serial killers from that era), Ford develops his own obsession with serial-killers that mirrors the obsession serial killers have with their victims. It’s engrossing and fascinating. The series comes from Joe Penhall and executive producer David Fincher (who also directs several episodes), and fans of Fincher’s Zodiac will appreciate Mindhunter for its same attention to detail, and the same dedication to character and research over surprising twists and reveals.
If small-town murder mysteries full of camp and supernatural phenomenon are your thing, well then why wouldn’t you watch (or re-watch) Twin Peaks? The series, crafted all the way back in the ’90s by David Lynch, is a cult-favorite and for good reason. With Kyle MacLachlan playing Special Agent Dale Cooper, a poor schmoe who’s called in to investigate the murder of homecoming queen Laura Palmer, he’s met with more than he bargained for. Conspiracies theories and otherworldly beings, time travel, and dwarves in red business suits soon follow. The original series may have ended with cliffhangers and unexplained plot-holes, but with the more recent Showtime revival, now’s as good a time as any to catch up on all the strange events that seem to plague this sleepy town.
This Tina Fey-produced sitcom — which was originally supposed to air on NBC before the network agreed to give it to Netflix — is as dense and irreverent as 30 Rock, but it’s also immensely life-affirming. It’s funny, fast-paced, chock-full of pop-culture references and maybe the easiest Netflix original series to binge-watch. And, like 30 Rock, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt also includes a lot of fun — and unexpected — celebrity cameos and pop culture references throughout its four seasons.
Currently, the highest-rated scripted series on cable television, The Walking Dead is an up-and-down show. When it’s good, it’s phenomenal; when it’s not, it can be a slog (especially in the earlier half of the series, when Frank Darabont was showrunner). Greg Nicotero does fantastic FX work, and the series is particularly compelling because no one — no matter how high they are listed in the credits — is safe from the zombie apocalypse, and the showrunners seem to relish in killing off cast members (other than the almighty Rick Grimes). Some of the binge-watching value, however, is lost because it’s so difficult to avoid being spoiled to plot points of one of the most talked about series on TV. Nevertheless, unlike almost any television drama, up until the sixth season, The Walking Dead improved with age, Beware of the cliffhangers, however, in season six, and a precipitous fall off in quality thereafter.
Although the original trial took place 20 years ago, and despite the fact that anyone watching the series already knows the outcome, The People vs. O.J. Simpson somehow remains a tense, suspenseful watch. Buoyed by incredible performances (the season was nominated for over 20 Emmy Awards, winning 8), The People vs. O.J. Simpson recreates the events following the murder of Ronald Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson and recasts them in the light of what we know now. In its second season, the shows moves focus on the assassination of design legend Gianni Versace by Andrew Cunanan. While not as strong as the amazing ensemble in Season 1, Season 2 boasts memorable portrayals of conflicted, complex figures by Darren Criss, Penelope Cruz, Édgar Ramírez, and (surprisingly) Ricky Martin.
Sherlock is the best iteration of the Sherlock Holmes ever to air on television. The British series from Steven Moffat stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, and despite the fact that it has been updated, it brilliantly captures the same spirit of Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic stories. It’s fast-paced, engrossing, brilliantly acted, often very funny, and frequently tragic.
Intimate, funny, warm and kind, Master of None confidently tackles issues of sex and race from a perspective original to mainstream television. Creator, writer, and star Aziz Ansari loads the sitcom with smart observations and wry humor, and when it comes to dating as a thirty-something, Ansari just gets it. Sweet, sentimental, but never sappy, the mold-breaking Master of None may be the most thoughtful and well-considered dating sitcom on television.
Packed full of hairspray, ’80s nostalgia, leotards, and neon eyeshadow, 2017’s GLOW surprised us all with a comedy about a group of unconventional women wrestling with stereotypes in and out of the ring. Led by Alison Brie and Marc Maron, the show is both a subversive commentary on issues of gender equality and sexism, and a raucous imagining of what goes on behind the scenes of an adult women’s wrestling league. In other words, it’s a damn good time. Brie carries the series, playing a struggling actress forced to take a “role” in this televised nonsense, but she’s by no means a heroine. In fact, it’s her battle to find her character and herself (while making amends for her bad behavior along the way) that’s so entertaining. Well, that and some good ol’ fashioned body slamming. Season two focuses the spotlight on the supporting cast as the women ready for their television debuts and contend with sexual harassment and misogyny in the workplace.
Riverdale is a dark teen comedy based on characters from the Archie comics. It mixes in elements of a conventional teen drama — romance, small-town life, and the high-school ecosystem — with a compelling, adult murder mystery. The series takes place in a small-town with a 1950s vibe (despite being firmly set in the present) where a high-school teenager is found dead under mysterious circumstances that implicate much of the community as suspects. Riverdale is powered not just by the mystery, but by characters who are instantly likable (Betty, Veronica, and Jughead are all standouts) and easy to invest in. The mystery is so incredibly intriguing that it’s almost impossible not to get wrapped up in it as the storyline guides us through numerous red herrings. It’s a madly addictive series, occasionally campy, and just self-aware enough not to take itself too seriously.
5 seasons, 22 episodes + interactive film | IMDb: 8.8/10
It cannot be stressed enough how amazing Britain’s Black Mirror is. It’s severely biting social commentary about the current and future technological age in the form of twisted, dark Twilight Zone episodes. It’s an incredible (and incredibly short) four seasons of television, and episode for episode, perhaps the best series on this list. Watch one episode, and you’ll be hooked.
Netflix’s original series Dear White People builds on the foundations laid by Spike Lee’s drama of the same name. The show kicks off during the aftermath of an event that happened in the film – a blackface party held by a white fraternity on a fictional college campus. Sam, a radio personality and student at the school, covers the fallout for her listeners and serves as a pseudo-narrator to all the goings-on at school. There are brief moments of humor and plenty of satire, but watching these kids deal with racist learning institutions and police brutality and ignorance from the privileged peers feels uncomfortable real and relevant. It’s a must-watch, not only because the acting is superb, and the storylines are rich, but because you’ll probably learn something you didn’t know but should.
Rectify is maybe the best series on television that no one watched. Aden Young, in a soulful performance, plays Daniel Holden, a man locked up and put on death row nearly 20 years ago for raping and murdering his girlfriend. However, DNA evidence has come to light that casts doubt on his guilt, so the court system has no choice but to release him. Is he actually guilty? Or is he innocent and misunderstood? That’s the question at the heart of the series, and the question the people in his small town, including his family, have to ask themselves. Is this man we’re letting back into our family a murderer and a rapist, or is he the kind, thoughtful man he appears to be? Rectify is a beautiful show about appreciating life that manages to perfectly straddle the line between bleak and hopeful, and quietly features some of the best performances on television.
Exec produced by Steven Soderbergh and written, directed, and created by Scott Frank, who wrote Logan and Out of Sight, Godless, is equal parts a feminist Western and s a show about fathers and sons. The series is set in the 1880s in the small mining town of La Belle, where nearly all of the town’s men have died in a mining accident. Enter Roy Goode (Jack O’Connell), a charming gunslinger on the run from the mentor he double-crossed, Frank Griffin (Jeff Daniels), who — along with his crew out desperadoes — had already murdered everyone in another small town for harboring Goode. The series ultimately pits a town of mostly women against a brutal, merciless outlaw gang. Scoot McNairy, Thomas Brodie-Sangster and Sam Waterston play lawmen, but the standouts in Godless are Downton Abby‘s nearly unrecognizable shotgun wielding pioneer woman Michelle Dockery and Merritt Wever, a bisexual woman all out of f–ks to give. It’s a tremendously good series buoyed by beautiful cinematography, poetic language, a few great shoot-outs, and fine performances from the entire cast. It’s one of the best Netflix series of 2017.
Daredevil is unquestionably the best superhero series of all time. It has the addictive qualities of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but it’s darker and more intense than any of those films. It’s harsh, with brutal eye-popping fight sequences. It has an excellent cast (led by Charlie Cox as the title character) with tons of chemistry, and nails the tone of the source material.
Television’s all-time best political drama The West Wing is Aaron Sorkin at his absolute best, working with one of the finest ensemble casts in television history. The show wavers after the fourth season (when Sorkin left), but it picks back up in its final season (with Jimmy Smits and Alan Alda). Here’s a celebration of the greatest fictional President of all time to get you warmed up for it.
The animated, coming-of-age comedy from Nick Kroll is full of familiar voices and even more familiar life problems. Centered on a group of pre-pubescent friends, Kroll voices a younger version of himself, a kid named Andrew who’s going through some embarrassing life changes like inconvenient erections and strange wet dreams and bat-mitzvah meltdowns. All these traumatizing and hilarious happenings are usually caused by Maurice, Andrew’s own Hormone Monster (also voiced by Kroll) who takes pleasure (literally) in abusing the poor kid. As painfully accurate as the show is, if you’re lucky enough to be removed from that angst-ridden era of life, you’ll probably appreciate the humor in all of it.
As an episodic series, Jessica Jones occasionally falters in its first season. Jones is a private detective with certain special powers, but the series doesn’t put her P.I. talents to much use, instead focusing on one storyline surrounding the big bad, Kilgrave (David Tennant) for the entire 13 episodes. Tennant’s character, however, is the best reason to watch the series — he’s captivating yet repugnant, alluring yet vile — and the themes of rape and domestic abuse resonate loudly. Unfortunately, when Kilgrave is not onscreen, the series drifts, and that’s especially apparent in Season 2. Krysten Ritter’s title character is too often dour and sarcastic, robbing the series of some much-needed levity. Still, it’s a captivating, thematically-rich series that covers ground no other superhero series would dare to explore, and while that doesn’t make it the most entertaining Marvel series, it is the bravest and most unique among the Netflix originals.
In theory, American Vandal sounds silly and sophomoric, and it is, but it’s also a genuinely brilliant, incredibly clever, smartly written satire of true-crime documentaries. It plays just like any other true crime docuseries — interviews, investigations, multiple suspects, and numerous conspiracy theories — only the crime here is not a murder. In its first season, it’s a high-school student who has been accused by the school board of spray painting dicks on 27 cars, a crime that threatens his ability to graduate. It’s a brilliant whodunnit that just happens to also be the best parody of 2017, and it even took home a Peabody Award. The show’s follow-up season trades dick picks for explosive diarhhea which is just as fun, if not ten times as gross.
Maybe the wittiest, pop-culture rich drama ever, Gilmore Girls has nevertheless managed to hold up incredibly well over the years. It’s a great show to watch with a new generation of television viewers, it’s a great show to watch while bingeing on food, and it’s a great show to re-watch many times. The relationship between single mother Lorelai and her daughter, Rory, never gets old.
A young boy is found dead in a seemingly idyllic small town, and the detectives charged with solving the case turn up twist after twist in tracking down the murderer. Despite its familiar premise (see also: Twin Peaks, The Killing), Broadchurch relies on its ensemble cast — specifically the impeccable David Tennant and Olivia Colman — to keep viewers caring after each red herring is tossed back into the ocean. The first series centers on the hunt for the killer while the second is on both the suspect’s trial and a reopened case from the past, but they both don’t let up in intrigue. A word of warning, though: This isn’t one of those TV dramas you should binge even if you want to. It gets heavy and emotionally exhausting, and unrestrained streaming kinda negates the effect of the show’s mysteries.
Set in the afterlife, The Good Place sees a lazy, entitled selfish, Arizona woman Eleanor Shellstrop (Kristen Bell) enter into “Heaven” only to discover that — due to a mixup — she was incorrectly assigned. With the help of her new friends and, Shellstrop endeavors to be a better person and earn her place in Heaven. In the early goings, the high-concept premise feels like it’s going to run out of runway, but Mike Schur (Parks and Recreation) continually finds new directions to take the show and the characters, as the show humorously and sweetly tackles an array of moral dilemmas before arriving at a surprising twist ending. It’s a charming, clever and delightful series with a freshly-imagined approached that only improves as the season progresses and new wrinkles are explored, while Ted Danson is his usual remarkable self. It’s a fantastic comedy, one of the best TV shows on network television in recent years.
The long-running Showtime series understands better than any other drama on television what it’s like to be poor in America. Set in Chicago, Shameless follows the lives of the Gallagher family as they struggle beneath the poverty line to make ends meet. The family is afflicted with alcoholism, drug addiction, mental illness, poor decision-making skills, and the kind of terrible luck that so often follows poor families, but they’ve also got each other, their resilience, and a determination to break the cycle, but in Shameless, impoverishment is the boogeyman that always comes back, hilariously and heartbreakingly.
Another British import, Peaky Blinders is roughly the Netflix UK equivalent of HBO’s Boardwalk Empire, taking place in the same time period and covering similar terrain. Peaky has one thing that Boardwalk does not, however, and that’s the piercing, intense Cillian Murphy. The show also features Tom Hardy as a phenomenal recurring character debuting in season two (along with Noah Taylor).
At once intimate and sweeping, The Crown presents an inside view of the ascension of Queen Elizabeth II, played by Claire Foy, and the first few years of her reign. John Lithgow is featured as the indomitable Winston Churchill, struggling with the ignominy of age at the end of his career. Churchill’s support and mentorship of Elizabeth, despite his limitations, creates an important emotional center around which various historical events turn. Elizabeth’s relationship with her husband, Prince Phillip (Matt Smith) is also wonderfully explored; his role as consort is one that he by turns delights in and rebels against. The production spared no expense in painstakingly recreating the physical environments and rigid protocols that constrained and defined the royal family. The challenges posed by modernity and the post-colonial period are filtered through the Palace’s political structure, in which despite her role, Elizabeth’s personal needs and wishes are continually subsumed to protocol and appearance. This series will appeal to anyone who enjoys costume drama, but it is also a fascinating exploration of the post-WWII period and the development of a monarch who managed to maintain and even expand the popularity and stability of the British Monarchy against significant odds.
Bloodline is engrossing, so much so that somewhere along the way, you may find yourself wondering if you skipped an episode. You’ll start in on episode 7, fall into a trance, and wake up somewhere around episode 10, wondering what happened to the last four hours of your life. Ben Mendelsohn will hook you immediately, but after four or five episodes into season one — once the pieces begin to fall into place — the story will sweep you along toward the dark and sickly satisfying end, capping the season off with four of the best episodes in the short but stellar history of Netflix’s original programming. Unfortunately, the following seasons — while still a fine TV — don’t live up to the first.
Based on a Spanish telenovela, Jane the Virgin plays more like a brilliant but genial satire of conventional telenovelas. Gina Rodriguez plays the virgin here, who is impregnated through an accidental artificial insemination. Matters are complicated, however, because she has to break the news of her pregnancy to her deeply religious family, as well as her fiancé, with whom she has never had sex. Jane also develops feelings for another man who just so happens to be the baby’s father. It sounds like a premise that could not sustain itself beyond 5 episodes, but the writing is so good and the characters so delightful that Jane never gets bogged down by its premise. It’s a genuinely delightful, heartwarming show, and Gina Rodriguez lights up the screen every second she is on it.
Fox’s comedy about a quirky girl who moves in with three male roommates quickly evolved from a pretty straightforward premise to become one of the best shows on TV. Zooey Deschanel plays Jess, a teacher who’s forced to room with three other guys, Nick (Jake Johnson), Schmidt (Max Greenfield), and Winston (Lamorne Morris) after she discovers her boyfriend’s been cheating on her. For the next seven seasons, the gang grows to become close friends — getting married, having babies, experiencing sympathy PMS, and getting stuck in Mexico, among other disasters. Still, it’s the chemistry between the four mains that makes every outlandish episode work.
House Of Cards, Netflix’s first major foray into original programming, is worth every cent of its $100 million production budget, featuring searing performances, a droll sense of humor, slick writing, engrossing plot-lines, and Kevin Spacey chewing the face off the scenery. The first season is phenomenal, but the show rapidly goes downhill through its six seasons with some sparks of life in scattered seasons, with the final season focused on Robin Wright’s Claire Underwood being cluttered at best.
Michael C. Hall is absolutely terrific as a blood spatter analyst for the Miami police department who moonlights as a serial killer and tries to keep his two lives separate. There’s a great opening season, a fantastic fourth season, and in between the two, a couple of decent ones. Do yourself a favor, however, and don’t bother with Dexter‘s final four seasons. It’s a testament to how good the first and fourth seasons were that it still gains a place upon this list, despite a deeply disappointing final season.
A musical series about a woman who leaves her prestigious job in Manhattan to follow an ex-boyfriend to a small town in California, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is like no other show on a show on television. The premise is not unlike that of Felicity, but the tone is unique: Quirky and hilarious on the surface, but dark and subversive underneath. As co-creator (along with Aline Brosh McKenna) and star, Golden Globe winner Rachel Bloom provides catchy songs with irreverent lyrics that offer dark meditations on depression, insecurity, and the challenges of balancing careers and love lives. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is funny, feminist and infectious.
Once the Wachowskis’ underappreciated sci-fi series establishes its characters, there’s at least one profoundly moving moment in every episode. Sense8 is rich with brilliant ideas, and, though they’re not always executed with perfect logic, the chemistry between the characters is undeniable. It’s impossible not to root for them, to feel and experience their ups and downs, their confusion and heartbreak, and, most of all, their love. The Wachowskis first foray into television is at once romantic, life-affirming, and thought-provoking.
It’s rare that older women get a chance to shine on a half-hour comedy series, but if your stars happen to be Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda, you’d be insane not to have all the action center on them. Grace and Frankie follows the pair as they discover that their husbands have been carrying on an affair with each other. The news throws life into chaos, forcing Grace and Frankie to room together and pick up the pieces. Along the way, there are family squabbles, online dating drama, and a battle over the ladies’ organic lube company but at the heart of the show are these two women who bond after a devastating ordeal and support one another during a time of change and growth. Did we mention organic lube? There’s that, too.
Travelers is a sci-fi series co-produced by Netflix and a Canadian television network Showcase starring Eric McCormick (Will & Grace). It’s a light sci-fi drama about people from hundreds of years in the future whose consciences are sent back to the present day to take the place of others who are already about to die. They’re sent back, a la Terminator, to prevent a bleak future from taking place. In the present day, this group of people is tasked with missions to prevent the future dystopia from happening, but they also have to acclimate into the lives of their host bodies. It is a quintessential Netflix show: Easy-to-binge, madly addictive, fun as hell, and immediately engrossing. While it certainly borrows heavily from other sci-fi shows and movies, it does an excellent job of shaking it up and bringing fresh life to the genre.
A remake of a 1970s sitcom produced by 94-year-old iconic television producer Norman Lear, One Day at a Time manages to not only match its predecessor but miraculously improve upon it. This new version centers on a Cuban America family headed by a single mom (Justina Machado) raising three kids with the help of her mom (Rita Moreno). It’s broad jokes and laugh track feels somewhat out of place on the streaming service, but the jokes still land and more importantly, the characters connect in an honest way as they attempt to live on a modest nurse’s salary and maintain their Cuban heritage while adapting to modern progressivism (much like Fresh Off the Boat). It’s more poignant sitcom than it is funny, but it’s a warm, loving look at difficulties of single parenting that resonates as much today as it did in the ’70s.
Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara star in this Canadian sitcom about a wealthy family forced to scale down their extravagant lifestyle with hilarious results. Levy plays Johnny Rose, a rich video-store magnate who loses his fortune when his business manager fails to pay his taxes. O’Hara plays his wife, Moira, a former soap opera star who, along with her husband and their two pampered children, must move to a town called Schitt’s Creek. Johnny bought the town as a joke when the family had more money than they could spend, but now, the town and its residents serve as a comedic wake-up call for a guy who has problems rooting himself in reality. Levy is brilliant in this thing and it’s a damn shame the show is so overlooked by American audiences. Let’s change that.
Ryan Murphy’s fashionable ’80s drama imagines the rise of the world of ball culture. Murphy focuses on warring houses in the scene, painting a myriad of queer portraits about gays, lesbians, and trans warriors, forging their own path amidst bigotry and hatred in New York City. There’s couture, there are catfights, and there’s plenty of vogueing, but there’s also nuanced, heartfelt portrayals of figures who paved the way for the acceptance of this fringe community.
The Emmys are virtual this year, thanks to a certain little pandemic, and planning it has been tricky, to say the least. Only a handful of people, chiefly host Jimmy Kimmel, are actually present at a large auditorium. Everyone else, including the many nominees, are at home, each having had to set up one of the 137 equipment care packages mailed all over the globe. There are a million moving parts, and therefore a million things that can go wrong. It didn’t take long for something unexpected to happen.
By “not long,” we mean about 12 minutes. Following our host’s surreal opening monologue, which spliced in what looks like last year’s audience to give the illusion of a packed crowd, Jennifer Aniston swung by to hand out the night’s first award. She and Kimmel did a labored bit about sanitizing the awards envelope, which involved Kimmel burning it in a trash can while Aniston waited with a fire extinguisher. And, well, things got a bit out of hand.
Jennifer Aniston putting out a fire that won’t knock down on live TV is the best thing I’ve seen this year. #Emmyspic.twitter.com/JhuYZ9dFMj
Not too out-of-hand, mind you. The fire raged but briefly before Aniston snuffed it out, and they declared Catherine O’Hara Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for Schitt’s Creek. But though things, as of this writing, have mostly gone as good as they could have, it’s hard not to imagine a literal garbage fire as a metaphor, or some grim omen of things to come. Buckle up, we’re in for a bumpy ride.
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: TNT) 
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Dark!Rey stan
JOHN OLIVER HAS A LIVERPOOL FC SWEATSHIRT ON DURING HIS EMMYS ACCEPTANCE SPEECH 
