In no particular order and I may be forgetting some. TV is so complicated now. And when years start and stop is anyone's guess.
SOMEBODY SOMEWHERE (Max)
RIPLEY (Netflix)
ENGLISH TEACHER (FX-HULU)
HACKS (Max)
SLOW HORSES (Apple)
MR. and MRS. SMITH (Prime)
PACHINKO (Apple)
MY BRILLIANT FRIEND ( Max)
THE BEAR (FX-HULU)
BAD SISTERS (APPLE)
Several of these shows did not have their best year, but overall I still liked them enough to put them here.
What about yours?
18 comments:
The ones from your list we've seen are SOMEBODY, SOMEWHERE, MY BRILLIANT FRIEND, HACKS (all of which would make my list), and MR. & MRS. SMITH (which wouldn't, though I mostly liked it).
I'm predisposed to like HACKS, but HBO/Max keeps playing games with how much they'll let HBO subscribers/non-Max'ers see it. Likewise with Showtime/Paramount + with THE AGENCY.
Among my favorites have been WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS (FX), THE CLEANING LADY (amusingly on Fox) , ELSBETH (CBS), ST. DENIS MEDICAL (NBC) trembles on the edge of being very good, ANIMAL CONTROL on Fox, WILL TRENT on ABC, CHILDREN RUIN EVERYTHING on CW, HBO: THE FRANCHISE, THE PENGUIN, and probably one other slipping behind other memories.: MGM+: THE EMPEROR OF OCEAN PARK, and catching the final episodes of PENNYWORTH finally; Starz: THREE WOMEN, SWEETPEA is a maybe so far (Starz quietly dumped three fine series in 2023, alas: RULE THE WORLD, BLINDSPOTTING and SHINING VALE). Public broadcating syndication item and Chinese import THE THREE BODY PROBLEM was pretty solid. (THE THREE TARIFF PROBLEM will probably not follow.)
That's me above, if there was any doubt...using Alice's computer, which is slightly less funky than my cheaper laptops...though this one will randomly go into audio distortion for at least several minutes at a time. O Brave New World, to have such creatures in it. PBS: NOVA, FRONTLINE, FINDING YOUR ROOTS, PROFESSOR T, DI RAY, AUSTIN CITY LIMITS, no doubt others I'm letting slip. And comedy/chat shows (and PBS documentary chat miniseries THE ROOTS OF COMEDY), COLBERT and AFTER MIDNIGHT (CBS), JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE (ABC, and stepping up his game over the last year or so,--my friend April noted not too long back, "Well, you know he has kids now."), HAVE WE GOT NEWS FOR YOU with Roy Wood et al. (US edition) (CNN), SETH MEYERS and SNL (NBC), LAST WEEK TONIGHT (HBO), THE DAILY SHOW (Comedy Central/P+).
A cut below most of these have been reasonably good dramatic series such as 911, LAW & ORDER, TRANSPLANT (no longer imported from Canada), FIRE COUNTRY (Jerry Bruckheimer's people doing a typically better job of action soap than the YELLOWSTONE folks do, though lacking fleeting nudity), and so on.
I'll also give at least a borderline nod to the FX series THE OLD MAN, as well as their ENGLISH TEACHER...I will try to catch up with MY BRILLIANT FRIEND, things were more chaotic when it first rolled out on HBO.
And I've enjoyed SOMEBODY, SOMEWHERE from its premiere.
Honestly, I'll knock it off after this...but Starz also wrapped up the very fine HIGHTOWN in 2024. MGM+'s HOTEL COCAINE was similarly good.
Myself in Bizarro World would pick FOX & FREINDS; in the real world, not if you held a gun to my head..
A lot of these I have never heard of. We are living in different worlds now. But I don't have STARZ or MGM
I didn't know HBO wasn't MAX.
ST. DENIS MEDICAL - we watched the first few episodes, but it ...wore thin. Even David Alan Grier and Allison Tolman weren't enough.
THE OLD MAN series two was barely watchable here after the far superior series 1.
We don't have Apple+ or Disney+ or Hulu or Peacock, so any shows on those networks are not seen here.
We do have HBO/MAX, Paramount+/Showtime, Starz, Britbox, Acorn, MHz Choice, PBS Masterpiece/Walter Presents, Netflix, Prime.
I liked the first season of THE OLD MAN too but heard the second wasn't great so I didn't try it. MHz always seems tempting as does STARZ.
HBO and Max are the same corporate structure, but Warner Discovery wants us to subscribe to both separately as much as they can weasel us into it these days. Not too long ago, those with HBO subs through cable got Max for free. Not so much now (hell, it's been years since HBO and Cinemax were sold as a unit by Verizon, and an irritating day that was indeed, as Cinemax still had some interesting series at that point.
Well. for example, if you have your local Fox broadcast station, the new 3td season of THE CLEANING LADY starts soon, and I believe you can see previous episodes on demand if your apartment cable gives you that, or on Disney streaming, since they own the Fox Broadcasting concession these years.
Starz, as noted, has dropped a lot of their best stuff, but being able to see it in archive isn't a bad dead. You'll note I put THE OLD MAN on the borderline, along with the likes of the current LAW AND ORDER...I don't think it's terrible, but it isn't as impressive as the first season. Now, LIONESS is terrible.
ST. DENIS MEDICAL isn't as good as some of the series it's trying to emulate, most obviously THE OFFICE, but it has its moments. Again, why I give it an Improving grade.
I'll never say MHz isn't at least woth the look, but I've never tried to pick it up since they dropped the free streaming and the broadcast network aspects. Spoiled by all the no extra charge access. One of the networks I took care of at TV GUIDE.
Or even a bad deal (at Starz).
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