My 2018, part 5 – Top 12 TV dramas

And finally, the heavy stuff. It’s of course a while since I saw some of these now, and I have a really tough time trying to not be biased towards the ones fresh in memory (I momentarily put Daredevil on top for that reason, but I’m pretty sure that could have gone for any of the top five or so.) What’s there is my best guess without rewatching stuff back to back. Your mileage will vary.

Finally, also note that this is obviously a list based on subjective enjoyment. I’m under no illusion that from an objective standpoint, Handmaid’s Tale isn’t tons better than Happy! … But it is a tad too emotionally draining for me to _enjoy_ it more than the zany adventures of hobo cop & his hallucinated pegasus vs. the mob and the demon Santa.

You can find my earlier lists of what entertainment I consumed in 2018 here (comedies), here (films), here (books) and here (comics).
First, some honourable mentions in alphabetical order: 12 Monkeys, The Americans, Bodyguard, Castlevania, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, DC’s Titans, Gotham, Homeland, Imposters, Iron Fist, Mayans M.C., Ozark, Sharp Objects, StartUp, Star Trek: Discovery.

Also on the shortlist of shows I’m fairly optimistic for but haven’t seen any of, which I believe aired new episodes or premiered this year: Animal Kingdom, Bosch, The End of the F***ing World, Harlots, Homecoming, The Innocents, Killing Eve, Knightfall, Les Misérables, The Oath, The Orville, The Path, Poldark, Santa Clarita Diet, Succession, Tell Me A Story, The Terror, Troy: Fall of a City, UnREAL. Any word on which of these to prioritise should I ever find the time (or, even more helpful, which to remove from the list and forget about) would be greatly appreciated! I’m sure at least some of them would have made it onto the top 12 if I’d had the chance to actually see them.

12. Jessica Jones

Not in the league of its first season, sure, but I never really expected it could be (it’s tough to top Kilgrave), and still find myself markedly in the enthusiastic fan crowd for Marvel’s Jessica Jones. Somehow both faithful to the original comic and distinctly different at the same time, I’m eagerly awaiting the (sadly) final third season.

11. Mary Kills People

This show impressed me — I didn’t really expect it to be in my top 12 list, but when compiling it, I found I remembered it more fondly than many shows I believe myself to be a lot more into. Building quite effectively on the first season, the second season sees Mary come more to terms with her own motivations and (perhaps) obsessions in her clandestine euthanasia operation, and provides solid, gripping and rather emotional drama all the way.

10. The Handmaid’s Tale

If Mary Kills People is not a show to watch if you want to relax with some light entertainment after work, The Handmaid’s Tale can really only be watched on a sunny Saturday morning when the birds are chirping loudly enough for you to not quite succumb to its horrid dystopian bleakness. But damn if it isn’t good.

9. Counterpart

I’m genuinely saddened at the cancellation of this, but thankfully, the second season did bring quite a lot of plots to their conclusions (at least to a point), so it won’t be too unsatisfying as a final ending upon rewatch. And I definitely will rewatch it. In an absolutely splendid cast (Nazanin Boniadi, Harry Lloyd and Olivia Williams in particular need to be mentioned by name), J. K. Simmons still stands out to the point where it’s a crime he’s not swimming in awards for this excellent dual performance. An identity thriller, a spy drama, cold war alternate history, high concept science fiction, Counterpart was somehow incredibly grounded and incredibly ambitious at the same time, and even with my ridiculous amounts of TV to watch, this is one I’ll miss in next year’s calendar.

8. Altered Carbon

Another high concept science fiction show about identity, loyalty and mysteries galore. Not nearly as polished and grounded as Counterpart, and a great deal more uneven, this still edged out on top for me due to the sheer amount of fun brought on by Chris Conner’s A.I. hotel host “Edgar Poe”. His every scene had my wife and I both grinning in delight. I also really enjoyed the detective story-style wrap-up and the resolution with the main villains. The nature of the series requires, I suspect, a largely new cast of both actors and characters for the second season, but I’m more intrigued than concerned — they’ve earned some trust after the first season. And Joel Kinnaman can be enjoyed on Amazon’s excellent Hanna adaptation in any case.

7. Billions

I don’t know a thing about high finance, but I must admit, I never expected a character drama about the machinations of the .1% to be this gripping. With every character being ridiculously clever and well-informed about, well, everything, the dialogue is as erudite and clever as any show out there (excepting, as ever, Mrs. Maisel), with line after line feeling exquisitely crafted for just the character speaking it. If you love cynical intrigue, this is the show for you.

6. Happy!

Considering Grant Morrison wrote the source material, Happy! isn’t all that zany, but that might be the only context in which that statement rings true. An alcoholic ex-cop goes on a killing spree against the mafia, looking for a missing girl. Because the missing girl’s imaginary friend (a flying blue unicorn pegasus voiced by Patton Oswalt) told him she needs him. Oh, and there’s a demonic hobo Santa, and the entire season uses almost exclusively Christmas music as the score. If you never saw HBO’s brilliant Oz, you might not be aware of how good Christopher Meloni is yet, but go see Happy! and find out.

5. The Man in the High Castle

Continues to be excellent. Great characters, great (well, horrific, but you know what I mean) setting, a plot that always feels like it is moving forward even while it takes its own good time doing so … If you haven’t checked out this “the Axis won WW2” alternate historical drama (though with a small but growing science fiction twist), you’re really missing out.

4. The Expanse

I really need to get around to the books, because this show is amazing. Somehow it manages both to be a tight little character drama about a small crew of people, and a vast solar system-wide epic about the entirety of humanity. And it excels at both. If the slow burn of the mystery-fuelled first season put you off but you otherwise felt interested, you might want to give this a second look.  Beyond a doubt the best space saga I’ve seen since Battlestar Galactica. Thank goodness Amazon saved it for another season.

3. Westworld

The high concept reveals of the first season were of course tough to follow, but somehow, the second season only dipped ever so slightly even so. Thoroughly clever, deep and exciting, the year did have some episodes that felt a bit slower and less interesting, but overall I’m still incredibly excited about everything Westworld does. (And Jimmi Simpson, as always, is mesmerizing.)

2. Daredevil

The second season was a bit hit and miss, but with the third (and sadly now final) season, Daredevil might actually have topped its original run. Vincent D’onofrio is back Wilson Fisk, and (of course) steals the show, but somehow not at the expense of the core cast. Even the new characters introduced are interesting and memorable. I do perhaps feel that their take on a new villain (not to be named for spoiler reasons) is a bit too similar to Billy Russo on the (excellent) sister show The Punisher considering they’re in the same continuity and aired only months apart, but if that’s the only gripe I have, you can hopefully tell I don’t really have any. This season was everything I wanted it to be, as good as anything the MCU has ever produced on the big screen (and, speaking as a huge fan of the MCU, dare I even say better than most of it), and if the cast and continuity are not resurrected by Disney down the line (which doesn’t look likely, but isn’t completely impossible), it’s a huge loss.

1. Better Call Saul

I would never in my wildest hopes have thought it when it was announced, but I think I might be enjoying Better Call Saul just as much as I did Breaking Bad. The slow but relentless evolution of Jimmy into Saul is somehow both inevitable and surprising at every turn. In the ridiculous embarrasment of riches that is the modern American TV prestige drama, the story of the little lawyer who could (but perhaps shouldn’t) keeps being the one I look the most forward to, week after week. That’s higher praise in itself than any trite compliment I can try to craft here, so I think that’ll be the statement I end the list on.