The end of the year is rapidly approaching, and I am so fucked with the amount of shit I have to do. Not just from a writing perspective but from a work perspective and a personal life perspective. Yet, this is the time when everyone releases their lists, and while I wait till mid-January to post my Top 10 Films list cause that’s when the last of the 2023 heavy hitters will hit Phoenix, I’ll give you my list of the Top 10 television programs I watched this year with five honorable mentions. It was a typically strong year for television, with two forever classics ending, the return of several heavy hitters, and the introduction of some seriously innovative new shows. Here are my favorites:

10. Telemarketers (HBO)

I watched an abnormally high number of docuseries and reality programming this year, but far and away, the most compelling was the Danny McBride and Safdie Brothers-produced Telemarketers. What starts as an outrageous expose of the wild working conditions of a telemarketing center, captured on camcorder by former telemarketer and series co-creator Sam Lipman-Stern, soon turns into a thrilling and unpredictable true crime case of fraud, corporate greed, and really shitty cops. It also features the best TV character of the year, reality or fiction, in Pat Pespas, a heroin-addled telemarketing superseller turned passionate but incompetent private investigator.

9. The Curse (Showtime)

Ranking this on my list was extremely difficult because only half of the episodes have aired, but I knew it had to be here. In an age where even the best television seems familiar, Nathan Fielder and Benny Safdie‘s The Curse is totally its own thing, never predictable and always uncompromising. Certainly not everyone’s cup of tea, the messy love child of two of the industry’s most provocative and unconventional auteurs brings cringe comedy to fictionalized television in a way I haven’t seen since that Lisa Kudrow show The Comeback. Fielder and Safdie are great, but Emma Stone is the clear standout here, delivering some of her most nuanced work as an absolute dumpster of a human being.

8. Jury Duty (FreeVee)

Speaking of new shows doing something different, Jury Duty, not to be confused with the unwatchable Pauly Shore movie, plays sort of like The Rehearsal-lite in that it’s a reality show that tricks its target while never really hinting at or asking more profound questions about human behavior like that show. It’s also much less mean and uncomfortable, which is great for most audiences who don’t want to offer up a part of their soul for entertainment. The show follows a fictional crime that a fictional jury tries in a fictional court. Everyone involved is a little-known or unknown actor, except the jury foreman, Ronald Gladstein (possibly the nicest man in the world), whose honest, unplanned reactions to staged chaos made for some of the best TV of 2023.

7. How to with John Wilson (HBO)

One of television’s most under-seen and undervalued masterworks of the past three years, How to With John Wilson follows the POV of a neurotic New York City comic equipped with a video camera as he tries to search for deeper meaning in ordinary, everyday tasks by shooting and compiling 30-minute segments from hundreds of hours of footage. The third and final season of six episodes saw John explore the horror of public toilets, Titanic conspiracy theorists, cryogenics nerds, dirty cops, and more. The series finale ends up in Phoenix, Arizona, of all places, where John’s investigation of pipe organs leads him to Organ Stop Pizza as well as one of the most terrifying human beings ever captured on film.

6. The Bear (FX/Hulu)

Getting into The Bear, FX’s most celebrated show since maybe ever, took me two tries. I first attempted to binge the first season during my bout with COVID-19 back in the summer of 2022. All the shouting, chaos, and Chicago Southside posturing made me want to puke my guts out, so I promptly gave up on the show four episodes in. After hearing everyone I respected fawn over the show, I gave it a second shot and ended up loving it. As good as the first season was, the second season was even better, taking narrative risks akin to other notable FX dramedies like Atlanta and Reservation Dogs. The cast is universally exceptional, inhabiting very complex characters seemingly effortlessly. Jeremy Allen White and Ayo Edebiri are both phenomenal as the leads. Still, I was most impressed by Ebon Moss-Bachrach‘s work as resident fuck-up Richie who gets a shot at redemption in the show’s finest episode.

5. Reservation Dogs (FX/Hulu)

While The Bear is a more critically acclaimed show, my heart belongs to Reservation Dogs, a funny, intelligent, and so goddamn moving exploration of life on an Indian reservation seen through the eyes of four teens. These characters are richly drawn and played very well by four young actors, but even the most minor characters in this universe come across as three-dimensional, each rich enough to lead their own shows. While the third and final season, which aired this past fall, isn’t technically the best of the series (see Season 2), it ends on such a perfect note that sums up the purpose of the entire show. Expect to see Devery Jacobs, who plays Elora, perhaps the most compelling of the four teens, popping up in many projects moving forward.

4. Abbott Elementary (ABC)

Look, network sitcoms are certainly not in their prime in 2023. Every time one that’s really good comes along, we can’t stop saying, “It’s the last great network sitcom!” Well, I am saying that Abbott Elementary is the last great network sitcom: a wickedly sharp, non-stop laugh machine that never settles for low-hanging fruit and creates deeply nuanced and relatable characters along the way. Featuring a solid cast led by series creator Quinta Brunson and featuring maybe the funniest character on television – Principal Ava, brilliantly realized by comic Janelle James – Abbott Elementary manages to be a throwback to another era of television without ever feeling old hat or antiquated. Not an easy task at all.

3. The Righteous Gemstones (HBO)

Laugh for laugh, The Righteous Gemstones was the funniest show I saw all year. Expertly balancing foul genital humor with genuinely affecting drama, the latest Danny McBride/Jody Hill collaboration had its finest season yet this year that saw the family of megachurch televangelists truly put on trial for their sins. The show isn’t merely a critique on the characters that inhabit it but a surprisingly thorough investigation into the motives and emotional interiors of why real-life folks would become these holier than thou carnival barkers. Also, Baby Billy’s Bible Bonkers is the best idea ever for a show.

2. Beef (Netflix)

The most pleasant surprise of this year in television was the absolutely brilliant tonal balancing act that was Beef. Have you ever had beef with someone? Like your neighbor or your mom or maybe even a total fucking stranger? Unless you’re reading this article from a desktop computer in prison, I doubt you’ve had beef like the two central characters in Korean director Lee Sung Jin’s Beef. Ali Wong and Steven Yeun deliver extraordinary work as two assholes on opposite sides of the financial spectrum, who randomly cross paths at the worst possible time leading to a road rage incident that, over the course of a year or so, eventually leads to dozens of lives being forever ruined. Beef is diabolically funny, inventive, and incredibly insightful.

1. Succession (HBO)

I’m really sick of writing and reading about this show, so I’ll just say this – It’s the best television achievement to come along since The Sopranos. End of story.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

Barry (HBO)

Just missing the Top 10 by a hair, Bill Hader‘s contract killer dramedy dropped the ball a bit in its farewell season that felt far too rushed and forced in comparison with the rest of teh show.

Fargo (FX/Hulu)

Like The Curse, this was another one that was hard to place because I’m less than halfway through the season. However, based on the strength of the first four episodes of Season 5, this is the best the crime anthology series has been since Season 2.

I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson (Netflix)

I can hear the groans of all the hippest of folks reading this but let’s be serious – this is the best sketch comedy on television currently, but like any great sketch show, A+ consistency is totally impossible. Season 3 wasn’t nearly as punchy or seamless as the previous two seasons. I counted five sketches that flat-out just didn’t work.

Poker Face (Peacock)

Columbo starring Natasha Lyonne as herself but she’s psychic when it comes to bullshit detection. One of the most purely enjoyable programs on this list and featuring a surplus of satisfying guest star turns.

Somebody Somewhere (HBO)

I’ve been told by Midwesterners that this show understands them and their home on a real Alexander Payne level. While I am not from the Midwest, I’m able to tell this is a show about very realistic and likable characters just trying their best. Bridgett Everett is a phenomenon and Jeff Hiller is as delightful as ice cream for breakfast.