Another year of television in the can and while it certainly isn’t a banner year for streaming, there was a good deal of really worth while storytelling. I haven’t seen everything, but I’ve seen a lot. I never saw the hockey show.

10. Poker Face

While not quite as seamless as its nearly perfect first season, Poker Face Season 2 is pretty great once you get past the first two shitty episodes. I know. Starting off this article as a real bitch. I’m sorry, folks. But Cynthia Erivo playing three…maybe four characters was somehow over-the-top and underwhelming at the same time. It’s impressive on paper, but shoot me, I just didn’t think it was a very nuanced or compelling performance. 

The Katie Holmes episode, where she’s married to Gustavo Fring, was even less entertaining. That one was a bit of a crawl and had me wondering if the season was gonna be a giant dud. 

Thankfully, the show finally found its footing when Rhea Perlman, John Mulaney and Richard Kind showed up in Episode 3. From that point on, it didn’t stop kicking ass all the way to the finale.

One of the season’s biggest strengths was its range. Even more so than its previous season, these episodes bounced effortlessly from cute to silly to extremely serious, and sometimes plain old tragic. Tonal shifts are always difficult for a show to pull off, but Poker Face mostly nails them. 

Patti Harrison also guest starred this season and left a massive impression, stealing scenes with a  wonderfully chaotic character who felt like new territory for the show. 

It sucks that this series got cancelled. At this point, most procedural television still standing is Dick Wolf ass garbage, and Poker Face was doing something genuinely fun and interesting in a television genre that’s stale as week old bread. Long live Natasha Lyonne! 

Best Episodes: “Whack-A-Mole” (2×3), “Sloppy Joseph” (2×6) and “The Sleazy Georgian” (2×8).

(Streaming on Peacock)

09. Task

This is one of those rare television miniseries that still manages to surprise you with a seventh-inning shake-up, even when you were about 99 percent sure you knew exactly where it was headed.

On the surface, Task plays like a cops-and-criminals procedural. Underneath, though, it’s really a story about forgiveness. Sometimes painfully so. And despite all the gunfire, murder, and people bleeding out all over the place, it can also be unexpectedly tender.

Mark Ruffalo stars as a former priest turned cop, now drowning in family drama that’s pushed him straight into alcoholism. He buries himself in his work as a way to avoid confronting a whole lot of personal guilt he’s clearly not equipped to deal with. The case he’s working involves another desperate family man, a trash collector turned soft-edged criminal played by Ozark’s Tom Pelphrey, who starts robbing a gang of meth dealers along his garbage route. What could go wrong? A lot. Things go spectacularly wrong, culminating in the kidnapping of a little boy.

The series comes from the creator of Mare of Easttown, and while it stumbles a bit in how it handles some of its key female characters, it’s mostly engrossing and powerful television. That’s thanks in no small part to the sheer amount of life this remarkably strong cast brings to the material.

Task is a slow burn and absolutely won’t be for everyone. But the final three episodes, out of seven total, completely soar. The finale in particular is a tremendous piece of television.

Best Episodes: “Vagrants” (1×5), “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a river” (1×6) and “A Still Small Voice” (1×7)

(Streaming on HBOMax)

08. Death by Lightning

I’m sure many of you reading this have a giant Succession-sized hole in your little television heart, and that’s exactly why Death by Lightning might be your next obsession. It’s a four-episode, probably not very historically accurate but absolutely satirical period piece set in the late 1800s.

The series centers on the very strange write-in election of President James Garfield at the 1880 Republican Convention. Garfield is played perfectly by Michael Shannon, and people basically rally behind him because of a speech he wrote for another candidate he was supporting. Half the series follows Garfield, a genuinely good man not seeking greatness. The other half follows Charles Guiteau, a deeply awful man who is very much seeking greatness. Matthew MacFadyen plays Guiteau, and he’s hilarious in a way that’s more Greg than Tom. 

Guiteau becomes convinced that his path to glory is hitching himself to Garfield’s presidential ticket. When he’s rejected, he instead sets in motion a successful plan to assassinate Garfield in broad daylight, a mere 120 days after the election. History is fucking nuts, kids. 

The whole thing feels like a less vulgar and maybe slightly less sharp version of Succession dressed up in period costumes, but it still lands its punches. At its core, this is a story about wealthy, ambitious white dudes behaving badly and attaching themselves to whatever opportunity might get them more money or more power. While the dialogue stays period-appropriate, the insult punctuation and comedic timing feel very modern.

The supporting cast is outstanding. Nick Offerman plays Chester A. Arthur, a slimy, sausage-, liquor-, and boobies-obsessed thug who eventually becomes president. Bradley Whitford shows up as the opportunistic, sharp-tongued realist Senator James Blaine. Shea Whigham is also excellent as the plotting, diabolical, and deeply narcissistic Senator Roscoe Conkling.

The only real miss is the flagrant underdevelopment of Betty Gilpin’s “wife” character. Her character has a name but it might as well be “Garfield’s Wife”. Gilpin is a fantastic actress, and she’s clearly doing everything she can with a role that mostly exists as a narrative device. It’s a frustrating blind spot in an otherwise sublime series.Still, Death by Lightning is wonderfully funny, consistently fascinating political satire that knows exactly when to peace out. In an era where most shows overstay their welcome, the television equivalent to a single night guest is quite refreshing.

Best Episode: “Destiny of the Republic” (1×4)

(Streaming on Netflix)

07. Adolescence

The most ACTING of the year came from Netflix’s four-episode British miniseries Adolescence. That might sound like an insult, but it is and it isn’t.

Everyone in this series is operating at an absurdly high level, from co-creator and actor Stephen Graham, to the brilliant young discovery Owen Cooper, to the quiet powerhouse that is Erin Doherty. This is performance-forward television in the most literal sense.

Each of the four episodes unfolds in a single, unbroken take, in real time, capturing different moments in the aftermath of a young boy’s arrest for the brutal murder of a female classmate. Episode one follows his apprehension inside his family’s home. Episode two centers on the detectives interviewing students at his school. Episode three is an absolutely chilling therapy session between the boy and a forensic psychologist. Episode four jumps forward a year, depicting the boy’s family gathering for the father’s birthday, and the void the tragedy has left in their lives.

Because of the limiting structure, there’s a lot of unexplored moments that might have provided additional context and, arguably, emotional relief. The series stumbles slightly in its second episode, but the other three are truly excellent pieces of television. Perhaps it’s because the acting was so exceptional they thought it would carry the whole narrative.

Adolescence refuses to give you closure. It lingers in your mind, almost impossible to shake. 

Best Episode: “Episode 3” (1×3)

(Streaming on Netflix)

06. Pluribus

The most fascinating, infuriating, and polarizing science-fiction show to come out since that Star Trek show where a gay couple exists. JK but seriously, Vince Gilligan’s new Albuquerque-set series has one of the freshest premises in years.

A group of space nerds discovers a coded message drifting through space that turns out to be the formula for converting human consciousness into a single, massive hive mind. Once the first human is infected, the world collapses in a matter of hours. Everyone falls in with the hive. Except Carol Sturka.

Carol, played by the always-amazing Rhea Seehorn, who my buddy once did improv with, is a medium-famous romance novelist and possibly the most cynical person ever to walk the Earth. Somehow, she’s the last individual left among a planet of hive-mind humans, and she is not thrilled about it.

The show is a slow burn, to put it mildly, but its nine-episode first season contains some of the most brilliantly written moments of television this year. Carol joins our streaming age’s great tradition of iconic TV protagonists who are obnoxious, self-obsessed, and an absolute fucking nightmare to be around.

She’s also extremely relatable, which may be the scariest part of the show. 

Best Episodes: “We Is Us” (1×1), “Charm Offensive” (1×8) and “La Chica o El Mundo” (1×9)

(Streaming on AppleTV+)

05. Severance

The most anticipated watch of the streaming year was Severance’s brave return to Apple TV+ after three whole goddamn years since last season. I guess everything that could have gone wrong with production went wrong.

There were strikes involving both writers and actors, plus persistent rumors that creator Dan Erickson and producer-director Ben Stiller could not agree on the show’s narrative trajectory. Things reportedly got so tense that Beau Willimon was brought in, who Gemini 3 is telling me is best known for developing House of Cards with David Fincher. None of this inspired confidence while we waited. And waited. And waited. And fucking waited. 

Three years later, Season 2 finally arrived. While not quite as sharp or taut as Season 1, it delivered a consistently fascinating ten-episode ride from start to finish. The show still features some of the most compelling performances on television, paired with corporate satire so bizarre it occasionally veers off into Tim Robinson territory.

I can’t wait for Season 3…which isn’t expected until THE GODDAMN FUCKING SUMMER OF 2027 FUCCCCCKKKKKK! WHAT THE FUCK ARE THESE GUYS DOING?!?!??

Best Episodes: “Woe’s Hollow” (2×4), “Attila” (2×6) and “Chikhai Bardo” (2×7)

(Streaming on AppleTV+)

04. The Lowdown

Writer-director Sterlin Harjo won my heart with his extraordinary, deeply affecting three-season comedy Reservation Dogs. So when I heard his follow-up was a neo-noir murder mystery starring Ethan Hawke as a bumbling, would-be Philip Marlowe, I was all in.

Then I got distracted for three months, or I didn’t have Hulu, or something. Anyway, I watched all eight episodes over November and can safely say that while wildly different in tone, this series is just as clever and effective as Reservation Dogs.

The Lowdown takes place in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where a prominent local figure, played by Tim Blake Nelson, appears to have blown his head off. Or did he??? Maybe it was murder!!! Used-bookstore owner and professional loser Lee, played by Hawke, certainly thinks so, falling  ass-backwards into a conspiracy involving local politicians, land developers, neo-Nazis, an actual witch, and tribal gangs.

The show takes most of the pilot to find its footing, but once it does, the remaining episodes fly by. The already excellent material is elevated by a prestigious supporting cast including Kyle MacLachlan, Keith David, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Tracy Letts, Dale Dickey, and even Peter Dinklage for an episode.

It has real The Long Goodbye energy, and when I compare you to Elliot Gould, that’s a good thing! 

Best Episodes: “Dinosaur Memories” (1×3), “This Land?” (1×5) and “The Sensitive Kind” (1×8)

(Streaming on Hulu)

03. The Righteous Gemstones

Ever since his debut film The Foot Fist Way back in 2006, writer, director, actor, and comedian Danny McBride has gotten better and better at honing his very specific brand of comedy. I call it Enlightened Southern Raunch.

Nineteen years later, he has elevated that style into an art form so potent that a show featuring an armada of grandpa dicks can also make you tear up from its poignancy.  It works because, as goofy, foul, and lewd as his characters are, they are extremely well-developed and full of contradictions. They contain multitudes. And they are all a family. And brother, we only get one of those.

The Gemstones are multimillionaires whose patriarch, played by John Goodman, and now-deceased matriarch built their empire through a franchise of outlet-mall megachurches spread across the South. Their three adult children, played by McBride, Edi Patterson, and Adam DeVine, are entitled assholes who have never worked a real day in their lives, unless you count preaching like their daddy or shuffling through low-stakes, low-responsibility church jobs.

The fourth and final season may not be the show at its sharpest, but it delivers plenty of highs and a series finale so satisfying that even Jesus himself would tolerate it. 

Best Episodes: “Prelude” (4×1), “He Goeth Before You Into Galilee” (4×4), and “That Man of God May Be Complete” (4×9)

(Streaming on HBOMax)

02. The Chair Company

What a delightful mind fuck this turned out to be. Seriously. What the fucking fuck was this?

It’s a paranoid suburban thriller about a real estate developer whose chair breaks during a presentation. He’s so humiliated by it that he convinces himself the chair company is part of a massive conspiracy to discredit and destroy him. Which sounds insane. Except he turns out to be completely right.

What follows is an accidental descent into a sprawling conspiracy involving prescription drugs, shell companies, and faulty chairs.

The Chair Company is absurd, hilarious, deeply uncomfortable, and unmistakably Tim Robinson. If you like him, you’ll like this. If you don’t, you won’t. Easy. 

Best Episodes: “I won. Zoom in.” (1×5), “I said to my dog, “How do you like my hippie shirt?”” (1×7) and “Minnie Mouse coming back wasn’t on my bingo card.” (1×8)

(Streaming on HBOMax)

01. The Rehearsal

Without question, the best television of the year wasn’t a show so much as the most inventive, outrageous series of publicity stunts ever attempted within the medium. The Rehearsal already had a dynamite first season, but Season 2 somehow ups the ante with a bizarrely noble, occasionally moving premise: every rehearsal is designed, whether directly or indirectly, to help commercial airline pilots communicate better in the cockpit and prevent crashes.

Nathan Fielder builds a full airport replica, casts hundreds of extras, and even creates a fake airline-themed reality singing competition to teach pilots how to critique each other. In the season’s best episode, “Pilot’s Code,” he reenacts major moments from the life of hero pilot Chelsey “Sully” Sullenberger, including being breastfed by giant puppets on stilts while wearing an adult diaper. It’s perhaps the funniest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.

It all crescendos into a jump-out-of-your-chair, jaw-on-the-floor ending that will leave you shaking your head in disbelief. It may or may not be a comedy, depending on your criteria, but it’s easily the most astonishing thing I’ve seen on television, perhaps ever? 

Best Episodes: “Pilot’s Code” (1×3), “Kissme” (1×4) and “My Controls” (1×6)

(Streaming on HBOMax)

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Hacks

Not Hacks’ best season but Jean Smart and most of the rest of the cast is great. Dance Mom especially is great. (HBOMax)

Pee Wee as Himself

A heartbreaking but soulful documentary on the absurdly talented and recently departed Paul Reubens. (HBOMax)

The Studio

While it’s a very entertaining show, I certainly don’t love it as much as most viewers appear too. While it’s a fun watch with some really good laughs, it lacks the hard-edged genuine humor of similar Tinseltown takedowns like Altman’s The Player and Cronenberg’s Maps to the Stars. It has a fun cast and that oner episode is fantastic. (AppleTV+)

MY FAVORITE PERFORMANCES

Ike Barinholtz in The Studio

The funniest member of The Studio’s illustrious ensemble, Ike Barinholtz has been underrated and underused for so long it’s wonderful to see him finally get his shot. 

Owen Cooper in Adolescence

The best child actor discovery of the year, awards darling Owen Cooper sends chills down your spine as Jamie Miller, a little kid accused of murdering his classmate.   

Erin Doherty in Adolescence

As the forensic psychologist tasked with the unnerving job of evaluating Jamie’s mental health, Doherty brings so much restraint and quiet power to this woman. Her chemistry with Cooper is absolutely off the charts, making for the best episode of the series. 

Janelle James in Abbott Elementary

Can’t even remember where I’m at in this show, but one thing for certain is that no matter the season, Janelle James plays to win. She’s the funniest thing to happen to Network television since that Dairy Queen commercial where the lady runs into a plate glass window. 

Emilia Jones in Task

While Mark Ruffalo and Tom Pelphrey give masterful, challenging performances, the real standout is Emilia Jones as Pelphrey’s teenaged daughter who becomes the official babysitter for the kidnapped son of a meth dealer. It’s all in her face, paragraphs of pain, fear, heartache and resentment towards her uncle. 

Matthew MacFadyen in Death by Lightning

It was a real Sophie’s Choice here between MacFadyen and Michael Shannon as James Garfrield, but I had to go with who makes Death by Lightning the acidically funny and aggressively modern period piece it is. The great Matthew MacFadyen supplies most of the humor and levity for being such a canker sore to society. He’s basically doing Greg here. 

Rhea Seehorn in Pluribus

As Carol Sturka, Rhea Seehorn manages to take such a prickly, unfriendly and miserable human being and make us care about her. She’s one of the best actors of our time.

Trammel Tillman in Severance

I knew from the very first episode of Severance that the best character on the show was Seth Milchick. No one else even comes close. One moment he’s all smiles and positivity, the next he’s a cold, impenetrable wall. Tramell Tillman imbues him with this intense, tightly controlled energy that’s endlessly fascinating to watch.

This season, we finally got to see new layers of the ultimate middle-management man. Milchick is a company cheerleader, sure, but his loyalty starts to crack when Lumon won’t let him be his chirpy, well-read, verbose, creative, and let’s face it, gay self. Here’s hoping Milchick is the one who finally burns Lumon to the ground.

Joseph Tudisco in The Chair Company

Tim Robinson shows are always unconventional, but they’re also uncannily precise with their casting, and Joseph Tudisco might be the ultimate example of that. Formerly a background actor with multiple “truck driver” credits to his name, Tudisco plays one of The Chair Company’s most intriguing characters: Mike, a bouncer at a breakfast café by day and a corporate spy by night.

He gets some of the best lines on the show and delivers them with utter perfection, but it’s really his face that does all the work. Something none of these ultra-talented method actors can quite pull off, it’s a sunken, world-weary face that reflects all the bullshit he’s clearly endured over the years. Get this guy an Emmy.

The Ensemble of The Righteous Gemstones

Tim Baltz, Tony Cavalero, Adam DeVine, Cassidy Freeman, Skylar Gisondo, Walton Goggins, John Goodman, Valyn Hall, Danny McBride, Edi Patterson, Greg Alan Williams

I was going to put up Edi Patterson as Judy Gemstone, but then I stopped myself. Even though she’s arguably the best part of the show overall, she wasn’t quite the standout of Season 4. Then I considered Walton Goggins as Baby Billy Freeman, but that opens the door to explaining why I didn’t choose him for The White Lotus, which would require a whole separate rant about why that character ultimately didn’t work for me there. I didn’t want to do that.

So I’ll just say this: the entire ensemble of The Righteous Gemstones deserves recognition. More than any other show this year, it boasts the most seamless and rock-solid cast from top to bottom. Nearly every actor and character here could be the star of their own series, but together they bring this foul family to life.They play off one another beautifully, each performance enriching the other, making them not only funnier but more lived-in and surprisingly complex. With The Righteous Gemstones, Danny McBride has assembled one of the best casts ever to grace television.