When it comes to the best-selling whiskey brands, Jameson ranks in the top three — only slightly behind Jim Beam in global sales. (Jack Daniel’s is the world’s best-selling whiskey by a solid margin.) That makes Jameson is the best-selling Irish whiskey in the world, and its legion of fans are every bit as vocal as those of Jim and Jack.
Jameson has nine core bottles available on the U.S. market. The beauty of the brand is that these are all easy to source nation-wide. They’re liquor store stalwarts, available on most shelves. They’re also all pretty dang affordable for imported whiskeys. The prices for these expressions mostly range from $30 to $70, with only one ringing in over $100.
We didn’t really have to consider price on this list — the bell curve here is pretty tight. So we stuck solely to flavor. Using that metric, there was a clear winner. Find out what it was below!
Jameson combined their classic triple-distilled Irish whiskey with cold brew coffee. The idea behind the expression is to help enhance the Irish Coffee experience. In this case, it’s a bit reversed. Instead of getting a small dose of Irish whiskey in a creamy coffee, you get a small dose of bitter cold brew in your whiskey.
Tasting Notes:
You’re hit with that cold brew up top with a nice bitterness, creamy vanilla, and mild nuttiness. The coffee really dominates the palate as hints of malt, nuts, vanilla, and slight oak peek through. The end is short, sweet, bitter, and warming.
Bottom Line:
Okay, this technically a “flavored” whiskey and maybe shouldn’t be on this list. But it is a new standard for the distiller and very enticing. Let’s put it this way, if this were a flavored whiskey ranking, it wouldn’t be anywhere near the last place.
Jameson is the classic tripled distilled Irish blend. The juice is a blend of single pot and grain whiskey. Those age in oak — primarily ex-bourbon barrels with ex-sherry thrown in too — until they hit that classic sweet spot.
Tasting Notes:
Notes of citrus, malts, and spice lead the way. The sip leans into the spice, adding layers of vanilla, nuts, and a hint of sherry woodiness. The end is short, sweet, and warm.
Bottom Line:
This is a go-to workhorse whiskey. You can shoot it, mix it, or just sip it over rocks in a big ol’ tumbler. Though we have to say, the classic highball of ginger ale, Jameson, and lime is a crowd-pleaser.
This is a fairly new release, having only hit the U.S. market in 2017. The process behind the expression is well-used. Jameson sends out barrels to local craft brewers in the Cork area (around the Midleton Distillery, where Jameson is primarily made) for those brewers to age their IPAs. Once those beers are bottled, the barrels are sent back to Midleton and filled with Jameson Irish Whiskey.
The result is an IPA-tinged whiskey for beer lovers.
Tasting Notes:
That signature Jameson nuttiness is there and accentuated by floral and citrus notes that do remind you of hops. The citrus leans towards grapefruit with a rush of wildflowers next to light woodiness. The fruit picks up on the end with a nice dose of spice and maltiness as it quickly fades out.
Bottom Line:
There’s a thinness to this one that leaves us wanting, hence its place on the list. It’s a great gift for an IPA lover though.
Aging stout in whiskey barrels has a long tradition in brewing. Then there’s the whole tradition of stouts in Ireland that go hand-in-hand with drams of Irish whiskey. So aging Jameson in whiskey barrels that held stout beer makes a lot of sense.
In this case, the aged juice spends an extra six months in the stout barrels, giving the whiskey that little something extra.
Tasting Notes:
Apple orchards and bails of hay mingle with almonds, spice, chocolate, and a hint of lemon oil. Dark chocolate and a note of spicy wood dance on the palate as creamy sweetness balances everything out. The end brings about a note of butterscotch next to a milkier chocolate texture that quickly drops off.
Bottom Line:
This is a very easy drinking whiskey that has enough depth for making solid highballs with fizzy water and plenty of ice.
This is a masterfully crafted blend of whiskey. The blend leans more towards the single pot still whiskeys than grain whiskey. The whiskeys are aged in a combination of ex-sherry and ex-bourbon for anywhere from eight to 16 years. Then, the juice is finished in an extra-charred ex-bourbon barrel, bringing about the “Black Barrel” moniker.
Tasting Notes:
Dark chocolate cut with creamy vanilla sits next to a rich and buttery toffee with a note of citrus. The palate amps up that vanilla with a dusting of Christmas spices and fatty nuts. The end is medium-length with the warm oak coming in late to say farewell.
Bottom Line:
This might be one of Jameson’s best cocktail mixers. In an old fashioned, Manhattan, whiskey sour, or boulevardier, this whiskey works really damn well. It also works as a sipper with plenty of ice in a pinch.
This is the first bottle from The Whiskey Makers Series, which dropped in 2016. The whiskey was developed by Jameson’s fifth-generation Head Cooper (barrel maker), Ger Buckley. The juice is aged new American oak, bourbon seasoned barrels, and Spanish sherry barrels before it’s married into the final product.
Tasting Notes:
Dried roses, ripe stonefruit, and soft cedar greet you. A hint of bourbon vanilla leads towards more of that fruit with a nutty, plummy, sherry-wood body that runs deep. The vanilla keeps on as a slight spiciness leads towards more charred oakiness and a hint more of the florals on the long end.
Bottom Line:
This is a hell-of-a-sip of Irish whiskey that really leans into the beauty of varied barrel aging. We’d recommend sipping this one with a little water to really let it bloom in the glass and then blossom across your senses.
Sticking with The Whiskey Makers Series, this expression is the creation of the Head Blender, Billy Leighton. The blending of whiskeys is the point of this expression, with Leighton utilizing single pot and grain whiskeys aged in ex-bourbon and ex-sherry. The juice is then bottled at a slightly higher ABV and is non-chill filtered.
Tasting Notes:
You’re greeted with big notes of fruit leaning toward tropical fruits with an interesting counterpoint of almost jammy sherry and oak. Creamy notes and sharp spices mingle with the fruit in the taste as an almost vinous hint arrives with more oak. The end is deliberate and long-winded, with the sweetness of the fruit slowly fading out while spicy oak notes blip in and out.
Bottom Line:
This is just really interesting and versatile. It works wonders in a citrus-forward cocktail. It’s also bold enough to drink on its own with a little ice or water.
This is more than just 18-year-old Jameson. It’s a masterful blend of hand-selected 18-year-old whiskeys aged in ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks. That juice is then married and finished in first-fill bourbon casks until it’s just right.
Tasting Notes:
This has a bold-yet-dialed-in nose, with bourbon vanilla, soft cedar, orange oils, rich toffee, and subtle spice. The taste delivers on those promises and adds in leather, hazelnuts, and a dusting of dark chocolate (especially with a little water). The end is slow and combines the cedar, toffee, and spice in a wonderful balance.
Bottom Line:
This is a very solid sipper that needs little more than a rock or a few drops of water. Yes, it’s pricy. But we’d argue that it’s worth it.
The final drop from The Whiskey Makers Series highlighted the palate of Midleton’s now-former Master Distiller, Brian Nation. The juice in the bottle is all about the distiller’s prowess and knowing how to “cut” the whiskey coming off the stills. That is, the distiller knows the right section of the new distillate to use as it pours off the stills to make the absolute best final product. In this case, those prime cuts were combined, aged, and bottled to make this whiskey.
Tasting Notes:
Brown sugar malts dance with summer florals, savory herbs, decadent marzipan, bright grapefruit, and a hint of peppery spice. The palate holds onto that caramel maltiness and counterpoints it with cinnamon, orange oils, and more of that almond-forward marzipan. The end is just the right length, with a focus on the orange oils and malts as it fades.
Bottom Line:
This is just a fine bottle of booze all around. It’s also the last of its kind from former Head Distiller Brian Nation, meaning you should grab a bottle or two now — one for sipping with a little ice or water and one to stash away for later.
To truly appreciate Deftones’ legendary status in 2020, consider that they would’ve had an incredible year even if they released no new music at all. May would have brought the 20th-anniversary celebration of White Pony, their game-changing masterpiece of progressive, shoegaze, and trip-hop-inflected metal that bore an obvious imprint on two of the first quarter’s most acclaimed rock albums, Higher Power’s 27 Miles Underwater and Loathe’s I Let It In And It Took Everything. We would have likely also seen the third iteration of Dia De Los Deftones, the daylong San Diego festival whose curators’ massive reach previously allowed sensible lineups to be created out of artists ranging from Rocket From the Crypt, Vein, Hum, Future, Chvrches, Doja Cat, JPEGMAFIA, and Megan Thee Stallion.
But instead of simply taking a victory lap, Deftones went on another title run. Their ninth studio album Ohms arrived in September to the most thunderously positive reviews of their entire career, and it has already topped Revolver’s Best Albums list of 2020. In two weeks, the long-rumored Black Stallion finally sees the light of day, a full-on White Pony remix album featuring DJ Shadow, Mike Shinoda, Squarepusher, Clams Casino, Purity Ring, and Robert freaking Smith himself. It’s enough goodwill to make up for a couple of bum notes — the pandemic-induced shutdown of their planned tour with French metal giants Gojira and post-internet provocateur Poppy, as well as guitarist Stephen Carpenter’s rather, um, tone-deaf views on COVID-19 (amongst other things).
25 years after their debut Adrenaline, it’s worth taking a step back and appreciating how all of the above came from a band that spent even their commercial heyday getting browbeaten by a label that expected them to be Limp Bizkit or Papa Roach. Of course, bands like Deftones and their ilk already had enough trouble being taken seriously in the critical sphere — guys with goatees and dreads playing pointy guitars and turntables, hailing from cities like Bakersfield, Sacramento, Des Moines, and Jacksonville that were punchlines for New York and Los Angeles. Some of them actually dressed up like clowns.
I don’t know whether to blame Spinal Tap, Motley Crue, or just lingering anti-German sentiment, but when Americans see an umlaut, that cues the laugh track. But just say “nü-metal” out loud — “new metal.” From the jump, Deftones and their peers envisioned creating a novel form of metal completely divorced from a tired, blues-rock lineage that encompassed basically every form of popular guitar music to that point. The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, the Velvet Underground, Neil Young; these weren’t Deftones heroes, at least not publicly. From the jump, Deftones’ catholic tastes drew from quiet storm R&B, Bay Area funk-metal, The Cure and The Smiths, trip-hop, crate-digger rap, shoegaze, 4AD… at this very moment, most forward-thinking metal bands in the streaming era still sound like a lot like Deftones.
It’s been over 30 years since Chino Moreno, Carpenter, and drummer Abe Cunningham linked up at Sacramento’s C.K. McClatchy High School and created an embryonic version of Deftones; bassist Chi Cheng would join two years afterward, with keyboardist/turntablist Frank Delgado joining permanently during the making of White Pony. In the time since, Deftones’ consistency has made a deep dive somewhat forboding – the variance in quality between their consensus peaks (White Pony, Around The Fur, Ohms) and their less essential works (Deftones, Saturday Night Wrist) is shockingly narrow for a band that’s been as dependably productive over the span of 25 years. But for the unfamiliar, where to begin? There are usually two answers. One is to start with White Pony, although that recommendation has been compromised by Spotify’s unfortunate choice to feature the “reissue” version that begins with “Back To School,” an embarrassing rap-rock remake of the closing “Pink Maggit” that Maverick forced Deftones to make in order to juice what the label saw as underwhelming sales (Moreno claims he wrote it in a day just to spite them). But I’d personally recommend starting at the beginning and hearing them gradually accrue confidence to build on a foundation that was already solid from the start. For those who prefer a sampler, here’s one man’s choice of 30 Deftones songs — it’s hard to say whether they’re the best, but taken together, they’re a comprehensive overview of one the 21st century’s most rewarding bands.
30. “Pink Cellphone” (2006)
Deftones were supposedly fined a million dollars by their label for missing the deadlines on their 2003 self-titled. Its follow-up was an even bigger ordeal, as Chino Moreno struggled with addiction, divorce, and questioning his commitment to Deftones while completing the Team Sleep debut. Meanwhile, as Maverick continued to pressure the band after Deftones sold less than half of White Pony, the band cycled through song doctors, at least four studios, and a small battalion of producers, including Failure’s Ken Andrews, Ric Ocasek, Dan The Automator, and Bob Ezrin. The end result, Saturday Night Wrist, isn’t a particularly good Deftones album. Many think it’s their worst, though Moreno prefers calling it their “most fragmented” – and there’s evidence of a band exhausted enough to let their weirdest ideas take shape. For example, “Pink Cellphone,” a bizarre mix of old school hip-hop clatter, proto-EDM sub-bass, and deadpan guest vocals from Annie Hardy of Giant Drag… who spends the last 90 seconds relaying a monumentally disgusting theory about British dental hygiene that was cut from certain CD versions only to return on Spotify. Honestly, this probably isn’t actually one of Deftones’ best 30 songs, but definitely the one that most needs to be heard to be believed.
29. “Gore” (2016)
Gen X rock critics who grew up reading Rolling Stone have likely made a nerdy joke about how every U2 or R.E.M. album over the past 25 years will be hyped up as “their best since Achtung Baby/Automatic For The People!” and then casually dismissed by the next “return to form.” I suppose Deftones have reached that rarefied level, since the near-universal acclaim for Ohms has strangely come at the expense of its predecessor Gore, which wrestled the “best since White Pony!” title away from its own predecessor, Koi No Yokan. This is likely due to Moreno’s claims that Carpenter wasn’t fully engaged during the writing process of Gore and since he was there and I wasn’t, I gotta take his word for it. But nobody would’ve guessed that from hearing the title track (and really, anything from Side B), which pits Cunningham’s most daring drum rhythms with a chorus that pummels harder than anything they’ve done since Around The Fur, leaving the last minute for “Gore” to stagger in a pool of its own blood.
28. “Engine No. 9” (1995)
I once read that Madonna introduced Candlebox as “my grunge band” upon signing them to Maverick, and like most apocryphal stories I picked up from a mid-90s music magazine, the internet will not confirm whether it’s real. But I think about this every time Deftones talk about their time on the label, which mostly seems to involve getting berated at A&R meetings — “I remember [Maverick] sitting me down and pointing [out that] Papa Roach and Linkin Park had sold six million albums while [White Pony] hadn’t sold a tenth of that,” Moreno recalled in a 2010 interview. It’s likely that Madonna viewed Deftones as “my nu-metal band,” and expected them to put up Candlebox numbers, and in fairness, the fuck-the-pit-up Adrenaline highlight “Engine No. 9” gleefully smashes enough adolescent angst buzzers — Parents! Peers! Lyrical rap! — to make Maverick believe they were getting constantly robbed of a “Break Stuff.”
27. “Headup” (1997)
Korn’s self-titled debut transformed the state of alternative rock in the 1990s more than any album next to Nevermind and that still might be underselling it. Sepultura were one of the few veterans who welcomed metal’s latest “evolve or die” moment and thrived, tapping producer Ross Robinson, Korn’s Jonathan Davis and David Silveria, DJ Lethal, and Mike Patton (not to mention the Brazilian Xavante tribe) for their monumental 1996 album Roots. Max Cavalera and Deftones linked up a year later on “Headup” and its maniacal groove and call-and-response vocals make it a veritable Roots bonus cut, likely because Dana “D-Low” Wells would’ve wanted it that way. Wells was Cavalera’s stepson and a close friend of Moreno before he was tragically killed in a car accident in 1996 and the bridge pulls from some lyrics his family had found on a flier in his room. It’s an unusually cathartic and celebratory encomium for a fallen friend, and unfortunately, it would not be the last song of its kind that Moreno would have to write.
26. “Minus Blindfold” (1995)
At this point, there are exponentially more people who preemptively deny that Deftones are a rap-metal band than there are people who still believe that they are one. Real heads though, we can admit that Deftones totally were a rap-metal band — witness Chino getting on his “scientific lyrical miracle” shit with “Engine No. 9,” or their cover of Ice Cube’s “Wicked” with Korn or, sigh, “Back To School.” But it’s this Adrenaline underdog that proves Deftones were really onto something even in their earlier, more guileless days, doing the lord’s work of seeing the Judgment Night soundtrack as a conversation starter, aligning Lollapalooza and Smokin’ Grooves until Ozzfest could finish the deal.
25. “Elite” (2000)
Deftones’ first and only Grammy nomination came in 2001, and despite the Academy’s notoriously conservative tastes, the one throwback thrasher on White Pony got the nod for Best Metal Performance. That “Elite” actually won will never be the biggest shock of the 43rd Annual Grammy Awards — recall this was the year where an unbeloved Steely Dan album bested Kid A and The Marshall Mathers LP. But as much as “Elite” rips (dig the vocoder on the bridge!), I don’t think even Deftones believe it should’ve won over “Wait And Bleed.”
24. “Urantia” (2020)
Chino’s the artsy weirdo trying to make Deftones into a synth-pop act and Stephan Carpenter is the “metal guy” — this is the narrative that plays out publicly on every Deftones album despite Chino’s constant attempts to correct it. And it’s just so easy to apply to a song like “Urantia,” which kicks off with a piston-picked thrash metal riff before veering off into a vast, pastel-hued chorus. But lest we forget, Moreno recently pointed out that Around The Fur was his favorite Deftones album and Carpenter claimed he was listening to Depeche Mode’s Ultra on repeat throughout its creation — “Urantia” might not remind too many listeners of Around The Fur, but try to telling that to the guys who made it.
23. “Tempest” (2012)
Deftones have undeniably altered the sound of modern alternative rock and have maybe one just-OK album to their name in 25 years. Yet they will forever be denied the same level of tastemaker appeal of their heroes because their latter-day albums are still capable of soundtracking auto-erotic action scenes in Fast And Furious. For me, that’s a feature, not a bug — Deftones have long proven that they can make eerie, electronic art-rock, but would Vin Diesel ever load up his guns to a Radiohead song?
22. “The Spell Of Mathematics” (2020)
In the lead-up to Ohms, Deftones talked about the importance of returning to “The Spot,” a Sacramento studio/crash pad that they hadn’t occupied since Chi Cheng’s accident in 2008. Even if they refer to their early, formative hangout sessions together as “jams,” they never made anything that would remotely qualify as “jamband-esque” until “The Spell Of Mathematics,” the loose and luxurious centerpiece of Ohms that tails off into a literal human percussion circle — a dozen of their friends, including local Death Grips/Hella madman Zach Hill, all letting the groove ride as they snap their fingers together. Not the sort of thing they could’ve done last time they were making music at The Spot, but Deftones have been around long enough to earn their “if it feels good, do it” moment.
21. “7 Words” (1995)
“Y’all don’t know what it’s like / Being young, middle class and white” — these were the words of Ben Folds, a wealthy white man from Chapel Hill known for “ironic” piano-pop covers of “Gin & Juice” and a song with an “ironic” chorus of “give me my money back, you bitch.” Folds’ nü-metal baiting “Rockin’ The Suburbs” might be the worst alt-rock single of the 2000s, but it at least laid bare the classism frequently baked into superficial criticisms of the genre, whose artists and fans were quite often not male, not white, and from the most downtrodden parts of America. I’d expect Folds had a song like “7 Words” in mind, given its chorus is “SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK IT YOU B*TCH.” Yes, Moreno wrote this song when he was 16 and it’s about the exact thing you’d expect a teenage skate-punk of color to write about: how much they hate cops. The title refers not to George Carlin, but “you have the right to remain silent,” which they’ve righteously waived for 25 straight years — “7 Words” continues to show up in Deftones setlists and I doubt 2020 has changed their minds.
20. “No Ordinary Love” (2000)
Whether or not Deftones’ cover of “No Ordinary Love” is actually good is sorta besides the point. Here’s a metal band with every incentive (and often, direct orders) to relive their rap-metal past doing a straightforward rendition of a Sade song – at least a decade before loudly proclaiming one’s affinity for Sade became standard operating procedure for cool bands. In fact, with tracklists featuring Duran Duran, The Cure, The Cars, The Smiths, Japan, Cocteau Twins, and Sade, one could argue that Deftones’ cover compilations were Pitchfork 1980s lists in chrysalis. But they also contain Helmet and Drive Like Jehu covers, so naturally, their take on “No Ordinary Love” disturbs the aquatic, soothing production of the original with depth charges of detuned guitars, turning the devotion of the lyrics into something more unsettling. For the record, it’s a great cover.
19. “Mascara” (1997)
As to be expected with a popular band going strong into its third decade, Deftones concerts are frequently Date Night for couples who’ve aged alongside the band and maybe have matching White Pony ink. But it’s not “7 Words” or “Elite” that’s liable to kill the vibe; it’s the one that culminates with a mantra of “it’s too bad you’re married to me.” Latter-day Deftones albums are rife with Chino Moreno’s more lurid romantic dreams — his most brutally honest song about commitment actually shows up very early in their catalog. “I hate your tattoos / and your weak wrists / but I’ll keep you,” Moreno mutters over the desolate, desiccated lurch of “Mascara,” an Around The Fur fan favorite that airs out the resentments and self-loathing that can fester underneath a love you want to last forever.
18. “Korea” (2000)
In the parlance of Dia De Los Deftones headliner Future, “The Cocaine & Stripper Joint.” While White Pony is a celebrated realization of Deftones’ heretofore-subdued art-rock ambitions, this debaucherous and sorely underappreciated deep cut reminds us it was also borne of a lot of drugs, sex, and druggy sex. Bonus points for the bridge where Frank Delgado’s record scratches sound like someone trying to scrape the last bit of blow off a mirror in the champagne room.
17. “Rosemary” (2012)
I recently came across a Facebook group that coined the term “accidental shoegaze” — an imperfect but useful rubric to consider bands who evoke some of that genre’s classic tropes (heavily processed, swirling guitars, cooing, textural vocals) without being able to pass even the most lax purity test — i.e., Deftones’ preferences for clean production, maxed-out vocals, and cargo shorts. I can think of an album’s worth of material that can make the case for Deftones as the greatest accidental shoegaze band of all time and “Rosemary” would undoubtedly be its centerpiece. Quite possibly the slowest Deftones song ever made, just shy of the longest (that honor goes to “Pink Maggit,” “MX” isn’t really 37 minutes) and certainly the most swoon-worthy, if “Rosemary” is what happens when these guys accidentally make shoegaze, imagine if they committed to do it on purpose.
16. “Teenager” (2020)
For most of White Pony’s first half, Deftones have made an impressive leap from Around The Fur that’s both incremental and logical — the choruses are bigger and brighter, the song structures are more adventurous, but they’re still a band based in drop-C chunk and Moreno’s vaporous, searching melodies. And then “Teenager” happens, where Moreno coos in falsetto about a crippling high school crush over Delgado’s skittering drum patterns and almost nothing else — no bass guitar, no live drums, and the only guitar is an acoustic sample looped throughout. Deftones never tried something so overtly emo (at least in sentiment) ever again, nor did Moreno’s actual electro-pop side project Team Sleep. Then again, this is a song about a crippling high school crush — it’s not a feeling you can ever really capture twice.
15. “Hexagram” (2003)
For a self-titled album, Deftones found a band struggling to figure out who they truly were in 2003. The experiments were modest compared to those of White Pony, as were the hints of retreat back to their rawer, noisier past. There is nothing tentative about its opener “Hexagram,” which darts from a maxed-out, shrieking waltz into a bonkers chorus where all five members seem to be recreating the tollbooth scene of The Godfather in different time signatures — a promise of an abrasive, “freak out the squares” album that unfortunately never came to pass.
14. “Swerve City” (2012)
Each new Deftones album brings a slate of extremely badass and allusive song titles – “Xenon,” “Xerxes,” “Battle-Axe,” “Bloody Cape,” “Goon Squad,” and many other deep cuts that aren’t here on this list that bear no indication of what the song sounds like or is really even about. And then there’s the riff on Koi No Yokan’s opener — I don’t know how they could’ve called “Swerve City” anything else.
13. “Bored” (1995)
Rock music rarely evolves as the result of brilliant bursts of invention — it mostly occurs when bands break down arbitrary boundaries between their influences. Given what came after, it can be hard to remember “Bored” initially being viewed as state-of-the-art genre-blending in 1995, the product of an era when impressionable teenagers could absorb Helmet, The Cure, and Dr. Dre simply by watching MTV for fifteen minutes. Revisiting Adrenaline 25 years later, the guitar tones are hella dated, Moreno is still finding his footing as a vocalist and there are unfortunate lyrical lapses — but anyone who wants to understand the true essence of Deftones can just start at the beginning.
12. “Acid Hologram” (2016)
We’ve talked about drugs a lot so far — mostly weed and cocaine, perhaps some speed during the Saturday Night Wrist era, lots of alcohol throughout. For the most part, Deftones embody the usual side effects of these intoxicants — paranoia, irrational excitability, delusions of grandeur, fits of mania. But leave it to the one song with “acid” in its title to be only time they’ve ever gotten trippy. The retroactive critiques of Gore tend to focus on Carpenter’s absence and the presumptive, resulting lack of tr00 metal, without recognizing how the prismatic, effects-heavy layering of “Acid Hologram” opened up possibilities Deftones honored by with the psychedelic overtones (“The Spell Of Mathematics,” “Genesis”) littered throughout the more-beloved Ohms.
11. “Genesis” (2020)
In the grand scheme of things, Deftones’ Nick Raskulinecz Trilogy has to be considered a massive success. From Diamond Eyes through Gore, they were a band that gracefully endured tragedy and terrible writer’s block with renewed vigor and clarity, ready to reestablish themselves as vital contributors to popular metal rather than elder statesmen that could coast on their immeasurable influence. That said, there was always something missing in the production — too clean, too maxed out — that with Ohms bringing Terry Date back to produce, they finally said the quiet part out loud. Unlike every other Deftones opening track, “Genesis” does not immediately go the f*ck in, letting a synthesizer drone for 52 seconds. There’s a lot going on in this track but the one sound that sticks out to me is what happens before Carpenter busts out a nine-string riff that could literally flatten the entire earth. It’s the simple click of Abe Cunningham’s drumsticks that honors their promise of getting back to the old way of doing things — five guys in a room, all fully engaged.
10. “Sextape” (2010)
Chino Moreno, on the meaning of Around The Fur, “I picture fur as being very glamorous and very beautiful. But around the inside it’s skin. And it’s ugly. So it’s somewhat of a metaphor for the music.” Ever get so drunk you fall asleep on your arm and suffer nerve damage? That’s his explanation of Saturday Night Wrist. Dude has a way of accidentally writing phrases that sound extremely sexual, so kudos to him for outright giving a very sexually suggestive song the title “Sextape.” But while the term “sextape” itself brings to mind something corrupted, cheap, and exploitative (granted, having a video of two women making out underwater raises the same question of the Around The Fur and Saturday Night Wrist covers, i.e., did Deftones think the clip was subversive, evocative, or just hot), “Sextape” itself is the most unashamedly sensual and enveloping Deftones song, holding back on any of their usual metallic defense mechanics disturbing the oceanic groove.
9. “Knife Prty” (2000)
The “New Rock Revolution” of the early 2000s was not-so-subtly framed as an actual revolt, ostensibly bringing sex, drugs, and the real New York City back to rock ‘n roll after years of suburban nu-metal, surly post-grunge, and emasculated pop-punk dominating the charts. I can only assume no one in Meet Me In The Bathroom had listened to White Pony centerpiece “Knife Prty” — if Maverick had their way, “Back To School” would result in millions of sheltered kids hearing the best Jane’s Addiction song Perry Farrell never wrote, an ode to sexual bloodsport blatant enough to make Lou Reed blush.
8. “Diamond Eyes” (2010)
After an unprecedented four-year break between albums, Diamond Eyes confronts the absence of Chi Cheng in a most brutal way — by recreating the 2008 car crash that put him in a coma for the next five years. Yet, brutality and beauty rarely exist on their own in Deftones songs and “Diamond Eyes” features some of the most evocative imagery of the band’s career: a broken windshield recalls “diamonds rain[ing] across the sky,” souls realigning in due time, a Meshuggah-inspired eight-string guitar recreating a jaws of life. Perhaps the band assumed that Cheng would’ve wanted his tribute to slam as hard as anything he made with the band, but when I saw them play “Diamond Eyes” at a celebration of their 30th year of existence, Chino was too choked up to make it through the chorus.
7. “Feiticiera” (2000)
Only one thing’s for certain when Deftones open up their masterwork White Pony — “F*CK I’M DRUNK!” For the next three minutes, “Feiticiera” is all sudden plot twists and key changes, with Moreno’s perspective changing with seemingly every line. Is he a hostage? Is this a kidnapping or role playing? Is this “Be Quiet And Drive (Far Away)” recast as a horror story? Why is this song named after a Brazilian fitness model? (A: “the name itself is some Brazilian name that I read in a magazine and just liked.” Possibly related: Joana Prado of “In Shape With Feiticiera” posed for Brazilian Playboy three times, including its best-selling copy of all-time). Everything that would get fleshed out on White Pony gets introduced here: post-hardcore riffs turned into pop, a head-on collision between violent and sexual impulses. But most of all, the narrator on “Feiticiera” is in a state of surrender, ready to let their darkest fantasies take them wherever they lead.
6. “Minerva” (2003)
In hindsight, Deftones is commonly acknowledged as the band taking its first L – merely going gold after Around The Fur and White Pony went platinum, met with cautiously positive and indifferent reviews rather than raves or even confusion. But flashback to May 2003 and there’s Deftones debuting at No. 2 on Billboard, still their highest to date. And that’s because we only had “Minerva” and Deftones’ most unapologetically soaring and populist chorus — “AND GOD BLESS YOU ALL!” For four and a half glorious minutes, we could imagine a very real possibility that Deftones would spend the rest of the year, and maybe even their career, going toe-to-toe with Foo Fighters, or at least judging from the video where they soundcheck to an empty desert landscape, headlining Coachella. And then everyone pressed play on “Hexagram” and heard a band that would lose its first battle, only to win the Loudness Wars years later.
5. “Hole In The Earth” (2006)
From all accounts, Saturday Night Wrist was the end result of the most difficult and divisive recording process Deftones would ever endure. So perhaps everyone was too drained to talk Moreno out of getting all meta on the bridge and airing out the band’s dirty laundry: “I hate all of my friends / They all lack taste sometimes.” Indeed, the fluttering waltz beat and “Heaven Or Las Vegas” guitar lead suggests Chino’s attempt to make an actual Cocteau Twins song, and it keeps getting shut down by the piledriving drop-D riff on the chorus. In other words, a quintessential Deftones song, an artistic stalemate leading to explosive alchemy.
4. “My Own Summer (Shove It)” (1997)
“Best Side One Track” will be an eternally entertaining bar game for music geeks as long as the album format exists, but I like to get more specific — S1T1 on a sophomore album where a previously slight band lets you know within the first few seconds that they are not f*cking around — “Silent Shout,” “Planet Telex,” “An Introduction To The Album.” If only YouTube reaction videos existed for “My Own Summer (Shove It)” – in the years following Adrenaline, Deftones paid their dues opening for bands like Korn, White Zombie and… KISS, and I imagine they learned the importance of making an immediate impression. Do not underestimate how much work went into the snare hit that introduces Around The Fur — Abe Cunningham claims he used a different snare on every single song. The verses presage the dank, dub-metal of Massive Attack’s Mezzanine and all of their weed-fueled paranoia gets frighteningly actualized on the chorus; 90% of the video looks terribly dated, but at least having them play on an ice floe surrounded by live sharks works as a concept. Over the past 20 years, Deftones have expanded upon the art-metal template set by White Pony to great acclaim, but there’s a reason that a wide swath of Deftones fans and even Moreno himself holds Around The Fur in even higher regard – “My Own Summer” is what happens when a young band starts to realize the extent of their own confidence and there’s no way they’ll ever make it again.
3. “Change (In The House Of Flies)” (2000)
And now, a word about Deftones’ music videos: meh. Mostly consisting of serviceable performance clips and half-realized abstract art pieces, Deftones’ filmography has never felt commensurate with their mighty catalog. There’s one major exception and it’s not “Back To School,” even if you can argue that it’s their most successfully executed concept. “Change (In The House Of Flies)” wouldn’t have been served by a video of Deftones simply playing along in an interesting-looking studio space; it’s too slow, too tense. In Liz Friedlander’s gorgeous and spot-on treatment for a very sexy, very sinister song, Deftones are mingled amongst wasted models in a Hollywood Hills estate that looks part Eyes Wide Shut, part The Ice Storm, part Boogie Nights. They blend in with their surroundings, but don’t quite belong, as none of the band members seem to be acknowledged by anyone they’re playing for, with Friedlander occasionally cutting away to them jamming out alone in the living room. Leading up to White Pony, Deftones were living out their teen dreams on houseboats in Sausalito and recording in the same studio where Rumours was made, but they were also driving producer Terry Date mad by indulging in marathon sessions of Tony Hawk Pro Skater. No matter how much Deftones immersed themselves in rockstar excess, they were still just a couple of guys from Sacramento and the “Change” video held true to the song’s themes of unnerving voyeurism — of feeling a witness to physical and moral decline even as a participant.
2. “Digital Bath” (2000)
All I knew about cocaine in 2000 were things I picked up from albums like Be Here Now or Tusk or Billy Joel’s “Pressure” – i.e., it was only accessible to rich assholes and it made them even bigger assholes. I didn’t even know how someone would acquire it — it was hard enough to come across shwag weed and wine coolers while growing up in suburban Pennsylvania. If the cover art and title of White Pony weren’t overt enough about Deftones’ vices, there’s “Digital Bath” – the blinding sheen of the production, the numbing tingle of Delgado’s drum programming, the part where Carpenter’s guitar ruptures and the rush kicks in… look, I’m not saying that cocaine even really needed much of a sales pitch. In a literal sense, the subject matter of White Pony is insect metamorphosis, kidnapping, bloodletting, and, in the case of “Digital Bath,” a woman being lured into a bathtub and electrocuted. But really, as far as what White Pony and Deftones were about, it’s the chorus — “I feel like more.”
1. “Be Quiet And Drive (Far Away)” (1997)
Where are Deftones in 2020 without “Be Quiet And Drive (Far Away)”? If, say, “Mascara” or the title track served as Around The Fur’s second single instead, perhaps Deftones soldier on as a respected cult act that never escaped the shadow of Korn. Maybe they try to make White Pony anyway and Maverick is even less supportive, unaware that an audience exists for Deftones’ more melodic and sensitive side. There’s nothing else on their first two albums that does more than simply imply their professed love for The Smiths or The Cure, and even “Be Quiet And Drive” itself doesn’t sound much like either of them (not even that one Ross Robinson-produced Cure album where they tried to sound like Deftones). But it showed that Moreno truly understood why songs like “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out” or “Just Like Heaven” hit different — when bands are otherwise dedicated to all-consuming miserablism, the stakes are inconceivably high for the outlier love songs, where one car ride or one night together can counterbalance the otherwise hopeless state of existence. If not, what’s the point of it all? And so this is the song that had to top this list — it’s the reason we can make one in the first place.
Deftones is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
There are plenty of good TV series on Netflix. Too many, in fact.
It’s a good problem to have but if mindlessly scrolling through streaming platforms is taking up too much of your time these days, and, well, we’re here to help. We’ve curated over 65 of the best shows on Netflix right now (including some of the best Netflix original series) and we’ll be updating them regularly, adding new seasons, removing expired titles, and dropping the latest offerings you’ll want to add to your queue. If the goal is to constantly be binge-watching great TV, you’re in the right place.
You don’t need to love chess to get obsessed with this drama from Scott Frank. That’s because the board game is just the setting, the battlefield where all the real maneuverings and suspense take place. Anya-Taylor Joy and her mesmerizing stare are front and center here as she plays Beth Harmon, an orphan and chess prodigy whose quest for greatness is only eclipsed by her life-destroying addictions. It’s a coming-of-age story wrapped disguised behind pawns and Sicilian defense tactics and it’s one of the most captivating, thrilling series to land on the streamer in a long time.
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 and the show dispelled any worries that it couldn’t keep up its cliffhanger-heavy intrigue with a second season that saw Applegate and Cardellini involved in a new, just-as-illegal cover-up.
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. In season two, that means time-jumping to the 60s, starting doomsday cults, and seriously f*cking with the assassination of JFK. 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 with a season two storyline that put Sabrina in a darker version of Hogwarts and explores her familial ties to Lucifer. The show’s latest installment sees her teaming up with Satan’s mistress — that isn’t a dig, she’s literally working with Lilith — to balance her duties in hell with the pressures of teenage life. It’s all weird, gothic, Craft-like nonsense and it’s addicting to watch.
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 just the best series on Netflix, Breaking Bad is the best series of all time. There’s no debate about that. Unless you’ve caught onto the Better Call Saul hype. Then there might be a debate to be had. Still, this series proved what a dramatic powerhouse Bryan Cranston was and launched the b*tchin’ career of Aaron Paul, two good reasons to give it a re-watch — or a first watch. No judgment.
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 it’s just never left that list, not in its fifth or final sixth season, which ended as poignantly and darkly funny as you’d expect it to.
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 continued that vibe as the show dove deeper into government conspiracies and alien monsters intent on wreaking havoc on small-town Indiana while the show’s latest season let its magnetic young cast grow up a bit, giving them more complicated villains to fight and a Soviet conspiracy to uncover. 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 version of The Office mainstreamed Ricky Gervais’ awkward, uncomfortable humor, but the American version of the comedy series succeeded mainly because it diluted that (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.
AMC’s 80s-centric tech drama is a seasons-long look behind the invention of the World Wide Web and the tech boom that came to define that era. Lee Pace plays Joe MacMillan, a smooth-talking salesman who worms his way into more than a few tech ventures over the course of four seasons. He’s joined by a couple of married computer engineers and a gifted programmer (Mackenzie Davis) in his bid to control (and make money off) the invention of the internet. Even if the more technical aspects of this series fly over your head, watching this kind of tangible human drama play out amidst a backdrop of Silicon Valley start-ups is more than enough reason to watch.
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 however and it’s got an unbelievably watchable cast in Jason Bateman, Michael Cera, Will Arnett, Jessica Walter, and David Cross. Seriously, you can’t go wrong here.
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 and eventually the New World, 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 guestlist 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.
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 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. 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 Sherlock Holmes ever to air on television. There, we said it. 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, 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 and the show’s third season felt like it was setting up a satisfying conclusion to the rich story these women share. Unfortunately, it looks like the pandemic has taken that away from us too.
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) five seasons of television, and episode for episode, perhaps the best series on this list boasting a wide-ranging list of talent and digging into some heavy sh*t with increasingly futuristic sci-fi storytelling. Trust us, 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. It’s a shame Marvel’s deal with Netflix ended because the show’s third season was a masterclass in how to act like a tortured hero from Cox and it set up some interesting storylines we’re still dying to see play out.
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 three seasons-run but it always provides an unfiltered, refreshingly honest look at trauma, its aftermath, and choosing to do better. 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 show’s first season before pivoting to flesh out the character’s backstory and family ties in its two follow-up installments. 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 diarrhea 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) and it manages to seamlessly blend roughly-accented melodrama with historical events so everything feels timely and modern.
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. And because the show has committed to exploring Elizabeth’s length reign, we’re treated to different versions of these characters throughout their lives. In season 3, Olivia Colman picks up the crown while Tobias Menzies plays Prince Phillip and Helena Bonham Carter comes on board as Princess Margaret.
The Great British Bake Off (and this slightly retitled American version) is guilty pleasure binge material for so many that it’s no wonder it shows up here. If I watch other cooking shows to travel to exotic places and vicariously experience strange foods, GBBS is kind of the opposite of that. Its strength is that it’s goofily charming. And we’ve become so accustomed to camera-hogging reality villains and performative not-here-to-make-friendsing that a show featuring charming grandmas and shy Brits is really a breath of fresh air. It almost works more like a mockumentary than a cooking show.
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 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 finale.
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. The show finally started to get the critical attention it deserved in later seasons so rest assured, the quality of humor and storytelling never drops with this one — nor does the outlandish verbiage of its leading lady.
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.
Recent Changes Through November 2020:
Added: Hannibal, Pose, Unsolved Mysteries, The Last Dance, Halt & Catch Fire, Great British Baking Show
Removed: Mad Men, Happy Valley, iZombie, Happy, Parks & Rec, Living With Yourself
Learning how to make your own potato chips sounds like a daunting task. It’s not, but that’s part of the appeal. Everyone thinks it takes tremendous effort. First, there’s the matter of slicing potatoes paper-thin without losing a finger. Then there’s the whole frying-in-boiling-oil aspect. Make these from scratch without sustaining significant injuries and you’re a legend.
With a whole new wave of lockdowns starting, now is as good a time as any to master making chips. The only specialty kitchen tool you need is a mandolin, which you can get easily for around $20. Besides that, you need a heavy-bottomed pot or wok to fry in, or a deep fryer, if you have one. The rest is pretty low-impact, albeit a little time-consuming.
In the scheme of “foods you can make at home which are insanely cheap to just go out and buy,” chips are actually way easier than making your own fries. And the rewards are equally high — especially when you create distinct flavors via spices. Follow our recipe once and you’ll have this snack in your permanent repertoire to trot out any time you want to impress folks.
I’m using Queen Anne’s because that’s what I have in the kitchen at the moment. You can also use Yukon Golds. You want a potato that’s both not too starchy and not too waxy. That being said, if you want to experiment, have at it!
Method:
Zach Johnston
The first step is to wash your potatoes. I washed three but I ended up using only two.
Next, I added the cold water and vinegar to a large bowl. The vinegar is a key ingredient at this step. It helps to draw the starches out which then helps the chip get nice and crispy when it fries.
If you want to make salt and vinegar chips, use a 1:1 ratio of water to vinegar. Then you’ll just need to add salt once the chips are cooked.
I like to halve my potatoes. It just makes for easier slicing on the mandolin. They’re easier to handle and generally come out a little more even the whole way through.
I place my mandolin on its thinnest setting, balance it over the bowl, and start slicing. It takes less than a minute to slice through two potatoes.
Zach Johnston
I then place the bowl in the fridge for about 2-ish hours. I’ve let them rest for an hour before and they were fine. Some recipes say they should rest overnight but I’ve never had the patience for that.
After about two hours, I fetch the bowl from the fridge. I set up a kitchen towel-lined baking tray and layer the raw chips as close to a single layer as possible. I then use another towel to press down on the wet chips to draw out as much of the water as I can. You can do all of this with paper towels, by the way. You don’t have to get all the water out, just as much as you can without mushing the raw chips.
Zach Johnston
Step 2: Fry The Potato Chips
Zach Johnston
Ingredients:
1.5 liters/50-oz. Neutral Oil
Salt
Method:
Zach Johnston
I get my wok on the flame and pour in the bottle of oil. I’m using sunflower oil but you can use peanut or canola, too.
Once the oil has reached 350f/175c, we’re ready to fry.
I gently drop the raw chips into the oil using the skimmer spoon about 15 to 20 at a time. You want to make a full layer but avoid complete overlap.
I use the skimmer to keep the potato chips moving around the oil. Industrial potato chip friers use metal paddles for this. The point is to keep them moving so they don’t stick or burn. There’s a very narrow window from them being done to crisp to burnt, so you need to stay focused.
The sweet spot for removing the chips from the oil is then the edges just start to brown. Remove the chips to a wire rack for cooling and oil leeching. Hit them with salt immediately. If you want, you can go wild here with flavor. Our editor uses a mix of mustard powder, onion powder, and black pepper. Paprika always works well, too.
Once seasoned, the chips will continue to brown on the rack until they’re golden. I end up making three batches — taking around 15 minutes in total.
Step 3: Serve
Zach Johnston
Once cooled, I transferred the chips to a basket for munching. Truth be told, I was snacking on these chips the whole time I was frying them too. They were freaking delicious. Imagine a chip that’s thinner than a Kettle Chip but with more heft than your average industrial Lay’s.
It’s just the right amount of chip and it nails that perfect balance of crunch and salt. Full disclosure, I ate the whole basket for my lunch. I regret nothing.
There’s a reason you find yourself returning to old shows you’ve rewatched half-a-dozen times already. It’s 2020, we’re living in what we can only assume is Hades’ personal playground. We need to feel something good, and familiar favorites guarantee that sense of comfort, connection, and home. So instead of questioning why you’re on your ninth viewing of the Emmy award-winning comedy Schitt’s Creek, just enjoy the ride, and maybe mark down some of these episodes in case you need that quick hit of serotonin before getting on the phone with your pandemic-denying uncle.
Here are the best, feel-good episodes of Schitt’s Creek.
15. “Friends & Family” (Season 3, Episode 12)
Pop TV
The Story: David and Patrick prepare for opening day at Rose Apothecary but David’s plans of a “soft launch” are quickly derailed. Meanwhile, Moira has a surprise gift for the family, and Alexis and Ted accidentally smooch at the office.
Why It’s On This List: This episode marked a turning point for the family and it came in the form of a behemoth painting that refused to shrouded by the motel’s pocket-sized bedspreads. The portrait solidified what most of the Roses already knew — their old life was over — but instead of mourning that fact, they welcomed it with soft launches and educational accomplishments. Sure, Moira expected the opening day of Rose Apothecary to be “a modest little vigil” offering “defeatist” discounts, and the large ground this VIP event grew was not Gwyneth Paltrow-approved, but to see the family come together for David’s big day was heartwarming (even if that kiss between Alexis and Ted made sampling small-batch colognes extremely awkward).
14. “The Hospies” (Season 5, Episode 8)
Pop TV
The Story: Stevie and Johnny head to the Regional Hospitality Awards where Stevie hopes to take her relationship with motel critic Emir to the next level. Back in Schitt’s Creek, Moira helps Jocelyn hold auditions for Cabaret, and Alexis has her eye on the lead.
Why It’s On This List: There’s no way watching Alexis perform the title track off her critically-reviewed, limited reality series “A Little Bit Alexis” didn’t make you roll on the floor with the LOLs, but even putting that banger aside, this episode gave us a couple of beautifully bonding moments between Stevie and the Rose family. First, was her emotional breakdown to Johnny backstage at the Hospies after Emir ended their relationship (who wouldn’t want to be comforted post-breakup by Eugene Levy and his eyebrows?). But the sweeter therapy session came thanks to Moira, who gave Stevie the lead in Cabaret and imparted some life advice in the process — though, she did keep the wine.
13. “The Bachelor Party” (Season 6, Episode 11)
Pop TV
The Story: Stevie plans a joint bachelor party for David and Patrick that includes an escape room adventure with the entire Rose family. While Johnny anxiously waits for a business-making call, Alexis worries she’s lost her mojo.
Why It’s On This List: Sure, it would’ve been lovely to see what David’s desired “Tahitian Dolphin Cruise” entailed, what we got from this episode was marginally better. The entire Rose family, trapped in a room with archaic, treasure-hunting memorabilia forced to work together to escape. It’s the perfect environment for everyone to work out their respective issues — which they mostly do — and, bonus, it’s also a great excuse for Moira to loquaciously loose her sh*t and Alexis to harness her globe-trotting, woman of mystery past.
12. “Bob’s Bagels” (Season 2, Episode 5)
Pop TV
The Story: Alexis is sick with a cold, and Moira must tap into her maternal side to take care of her while Johnny tries to dissuade Bob and Roland from launching a bagel shop.
Why It’s On This List: If everyone followed the Moira Rose-version of quarantining, this pandemic would’ve been over a while ago. As it stands though, there’s nothing funnier than watching the Rose family matriarch recounting that time their maid started frothing at the mouth in a water taxi while she locks the group in a separate hotel room and whispers that she’s sorry. But Moira comes around and subsequently shares a moment with her daughter that’s heartbreakingly sweet, despite how uncomfortable Moira seems with her realization that she does, in fact, have motherly instincts.
11. “The Incident” (Season 6, Episode 2)
Pop TV
The Story: An embarrassing habit from David’s past returns thanks to the stress of wedding planning, and Moira’s newfound love of social media only makes it worse.
Why It’s On This List: As stressful as David’s “nighttime oopsie-daisies” are for him, they’re great comedy fodder for this episode as a whole. Not only is “adult bed wetting” a story we just haven’t seen TV yet, but how Moira responds to it — with motherly concern, an accidental live stream, and a hurried cover-up — take some of dread and shame out of it. It’s really good storytelling that uses humor to make something seem less scary.
10. “The Hike” (Season 5, Episode 13)
Pop TV
The Story: Patrick plans a romantic hike with David that doesn’t go as smoothly as planned while Johnny finds himself in the hospital after his chest pains cause Moira, Roland, and Stevie to panic.
Why It’s On This List: Yes, this episode did end with a swoon-worthy proposal from Patrick, but the more intimate moment came when David, who complained about the outing from the time he realized they wouldn’t be touring English rose gardens, like Notting Hill. After Patrick injures his foot, David nurses him back to health, encouraging him to keep going and thanking him for planning their special day. And romantic confessions under duress becomes a theme of the episode after Johnny starts having chest pains, prompting Moira to shout her devotion in the E.R. waiting room and Stevie to have an emotional breakdown over the thought of losing her business partner. Nothing like some heartburn and a rogue stick to make you realize what you have, right?
9. “Open Mic” (Season 4, Episode 6)
Pop TV
The Story: Moira is forced to keep a secret while Patrick and David scheme ways to bring more business to Rose Apothecary.
Why It’s On This List: Watching Moira wrestle with being “encumbered by emotional cargo” over her discovery of Roland and Jocelyn’s big baby news might mark the more humorous moments of the episode, but anyone with a heart melted when Patrick broke out that guitar during the store’s open mic night and crooned an acoustic version of a Tina Turner banger to his true love, David.
8. “Surprise Party” (Season 1, Episode 12)
Pop TV
The Story: Johnny enlists David, Alexis, and Roland’s help in planning a surprise birthday party for Moira.
Why It’s On This List: The build-up to the bash featured some of the shows most iconic jokes — watching Moira trying to stage a coup against Jocelyn when she believed the mayor’s wife was failing in her duty to help those kids with “troubled mouths” being one — but the event itself and how the entire town came together to give Moira a special memory felt like the kind of thoughtful storytelling Schitt’s Creek would become known for. There was heart behind the humor, and we saw that in this episode.
7. “Finding David” (Season 2, Episode 1)
Pop TV
The Story: David (and his bag) go missing so the Rose family bands together to bring him back home.
Why It’s On This List: We’re still not sure if Moira’s hysterical outburst over the news that David had stolen Roland’s truck and fled the motel was a motherly concern for her son or the fear that her mother’s crocodile bag might never be returned, but it was still nice to see the group come together to rescue David from that Amish life.
6. “Grad Night” (Season 3, Episode 13)
Pop TV
The Story: Alexis readies for her graduation night while David plans to celebrate his birthday alone and Moira tries to score a solo.
Why It’s On This List: When the episode begins it seems like the Roses will veer off in completely different directions. David wants to celebrate his birthday — a date both of his parents have forgotten about — by himself; Alexis doesn’t want anyone to see her walk across a stage in an unflattering black robe; Johnny has to man the desk at the full-to-capacity motel, and Moira plans to steal the spotlight during a planned Jazzagals concert. But by the end of the half-hour, David and Patrick have had their first kiss and admitted their feelings for each other while Moira has made a moving gesture for her only daughter, on a night that marks a turning point in Alexis’ storyline.
5. “The Olive Branch” (Season 4, Episode 9)
Pop TV
The Story: David is still a needy mess after putting his relationship with Patrick on hold while Alexis and Moira clash over their separate applications for a town grant.
Why It’s On This List: There are a lot of small moments in this episode that tug on the heartstrings — Johnny’s failed gift to Stevie, Alexis’ pitch to Moira — but the crowning achievement has to be David’s romantic gesture to mend his relationship with Patrick. We won’t pick favorites (any Tina Turner rendition is a worthy musical moment), but there’s something beautiful about watching David, someone who’s so conscious of how he comes off to other, sacrifice his pride to show the man he loves just how committed he is to their relationship.
4. “Singles Week” (Season 4, Episode 12)
Pop TV
The Story: Patrick makes a big declaration to David after being inspired by Alexis’ “singles week” festivities.
Why It’s On This List: The arrival of baby Schitt, Moira’s time as a stressed-out doula, and Patrick’s love confession are highlights of this episode but the romantic relationship that takes the spotlight here is Ted and Alexis. The two had been dancing around each other all season, but to see Alexis finally own up to her feelings for the goofy vet was a defining moment in terms of her character growth. And no one, not even John Hughes, could’ve scripted that kiss at the cafe better.
3. “Happy Anniversary” (Season 2, Episode 13)
Pop TV
The Story: Johnny and Moira celebrate their anniversary with an awkward dinner date while Alexis mulls over attending a party she wasn’t invited to.
Why It’s On This List:Schitt’s Creek loved to end their seasons with some kind of celebratory event that brought everyone together, so of course, the party at Mutt’s barn made for a feel-good moment, but it’s what happened before — when Johnny and Moira defended Roland, Jocelyn, and the town to their elitist friends — that earned a supportive fist-pump from most fans.
2. “Meet The Parents” (Season 5, Episode 11)
Pop TV
The Story: David plans a surprise party for Patrick but learns some distressing news after inviting his parents from out-of-town.
Why It’s On This List: Schitt’s Creek raised the bar for how LGBTQ relationships were presented on screen and it’s the episode that cemented the show’s status as a model for gay romance done right. There was conflict — Patrick hadn’t come out to his parents yet and David’s party forced that confrontation — but instead of dwelling on the dark, heavy implications of Patrick’s fear and uncertainty, the show reaffirmed his relationship with David and gave everyone who’s dealt with that same “coming out moment” a relatable, heartwarming experience.
1. “Happy Ending” (Season 6, Episode 14)
Pop TV
The Story: David and Patrick get married as the Rose family bid farewell to Schitt’s Creek.
Why It’s On This List: Okay yes, there are plenty of heartbreaking moments in this episode. Goodbyes are never easy and even when they’re written as exceptionally as this finale was, they still suck. But the show managed to balance those sadder moments with truly joyous ones, like when the family worked together to give David his dream wedding despite terrible circumstances or when Moira broke down at the altar while dressed in full pope-couture. Even more importantly, the show gave each character a believable, earned, and hopeful ending, setting them off on new adventures but reminding us all that Schitt’s Creek would forever be their home — and ours.
On Saturday night Mike Tyson fought Roy Jones Jr., but their big bout was almost upstaged by the preliminary “undercard” fight, which found Slam Dunk champion Nate Robinson taking on YouTuber Jake Paul. Those who assumed a guy mostly known for controversial social media posts wouldn’t stand a chance were wrong: Paul wound up triumphant over Robinson, scoring a first-round knockout. The fight produced an onslaught of memes and jokes, with people making fun of the former Knicks guard for losing the matchup so quickly. Despite this, musician Rick Ross opted to show Robinson some love.
“We still f*ck with you Nate,” the Maybach Music rapper said in a video he shared to his Instagram story. “Everything good, n***a. We know you play basketball, n***a, you ain’t bought. Somebody tricked you into getting that check, we still f*ck with you.” The next day, Ross continued to support Robinson, writing, “But this what I want you to do, Nate,” he said. “I want you to still go get you a 50-piece WingStop and find a way to enjoy the day. All the memes going on. Everybody face down, ass up. I get it, I get it. But Nate, you went in there and got you a check, just look at the positive.”
It’s been three months almost to the day since Chadwick Boseman passed away, and Sunday, November the 29th would have been his 44th birthday. Marvel went all out, even changing the opening Marvel logo on Black Panther, the only solo he got to make, into an all-T’Challa affair. But they weren’t the only ones. Family and friends, including many colleagues from Marvel and elsewhere, honored the late thespian by filling social media with remembrances on what would have been a big day.
Kevin Boseman, Chadwick’s brother, didn’t refer to him by name, but it was clear what his post — an image of white flowers, with the caption “Today is a good day to give someone their flowers” — was referring to.
Fellow Black Panther cast member Lupita Nyong’o paid tribute.
Viola Davis, who can soon be soon alongside him in the August Wilson adaptation Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, wrote, “Happy birthday in Heaven, Chadwick! You are still so alive to me!! I love you.”
Other people in the entertainment industry wished the late actor well, too.
Things have been rather quiet for Tekashi 69 since the release of his album Tattle Tales, which arrived back in September. The project failed to meet the rapper’s lofty expectations, peaking at only No. 4 on the Billboard charts. Nearly three months later, the rapper lands in the headlines once again, but not because of his music. It’s because a video shows him taunting boxer Gervonta Davis at a club in Miami recently.
Tekashi was at the nightclub along with his girlfriend and a small entourage. At some point, he and Gervonta run into each other and the encounter produces quite the awkward moment. A bit later, Tekashi can be seen throwing money at the boxer in what looks like an attempt to taunt him. Another clip shows him yelling at Gervonta, but the loud music drown out his words. But no fight ever breaks out and they eventually go their separate ways.
Gervonta seemed to respond to the situation shortly after in a pair of Instagram posts. The first one seemed to call the rapper “Snitchk” and the second post read, “You get hit for just being around a mf… but who am I!”
The incident occurred less than two weeks after Hulu premiered a surprise documentary on Tekashi 69 entitled, 69: The Saga Of Danny Hernandez.
It’s been two years to the day when Netflix cancelled Daredevil, their beloved TV version of Marvel’s vision-impaired superhero, thanks to a rights kerfuffle that also wiped out Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and more. The deal was that Marvel Studios, which had more or less relocated to their parent company’s streamer, Disney+, would not be able to launch any movie or TV content involving the character for two years. Well, those two years have elapsed, and the show’s legions of fans were quick to demand a reboot.
Marvel decided to make one of the best TV shows ever, with themes of faith, murder, and morality. Filled with Emmy worthy performances, beautiful cinematography, and just kick ass stuntwork. It deserves another shot. #SaveDaredevil@Kevfeigepic.twitter.com/kyDZMOTnVE
On Sunday, Daredevil advocates took to Twitter, launching a hashtag, #SaveDaredevil, meant to inspire the comics giant to bring it back. “Marvel decided to make one of the best TV shows ever, with themes of faith, murder, and morality,” wrote one supporter. “Filled with Emmy worthy performances, beautiful cinematography, and just kick ass stuntwork. It deserves another shot.”
The post and the hashtag went viral, and though people are pushing for a return of the original cast and crew, it’s not clear if that’s possible two years later. After all, while a fan’s love may be eternal, actors and crew members have bills to pay, and they may not be available to return. The show, which ran for three seasons from 2015 to 2018, starred Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock, a blind lawyer who moonlight as a masked vigilante who can use his heightened senses to take on crime. The character was previously turned into a big budget movie back in 2003, starring Ben Affleck as Murdock.
Every great quarterback has a great wide receiver to compliment them. Montana and Rice. Brady and Moss. Now there’s Patrick Mahomes and Tyreek Hill. The Chiefs duo have become the most dangerous combination in the NFL, with Mahomes dropping insane deep balls perfectly into Hill’s arms while he speeds away for highlight touchdowns. When these two get clicking, they’re pretty unstoppable.
On Sunday, in the Chiefs matchup against the Bucs we saw this combo on display when Tyreek Hill had not one, but two long touchdown catches, as he tore the Bucs defense to shreds. He even topped the second touchdown off with a backflip into the endzone.
It’s almost mesmerizing to watch this happen to NFL defenses. Hill’s speed allows him to escape even the NFL’s fastest corners and with Mahomes arm he can place it perfectly in Hill’s arms so he doesn’t have to break stride. This performance against Tampa led to 200 yards for Hill in the first quarter alone. That stat sounds insane right? Well, it also puts him in territory for history. 336 yards is the NFL record set by Flipper Anderson in 1989.
Getting nearly 350 receiving yards sounds impossible, but with Mahomes tossing up the ball to someone as speedy as Hill it certainly feels like something that he can accomplish. The thing that might come between Hill and history isn’t the ability, but instead the Chiefs getting too large of a lead and pedaling off.
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