My 20 Favorite Television Shows of 2017

It's that time of year again.  You know the drill by now, so say it with me folks: There's Too Much TV.  In an effort to spread the wealth a little bit more when it came to my media consumption, last year I made a conscious decision to not play the Peak TV game and try to watch less new TV.  I've continued that effort in 2017, watching a total of 100 shows in full, which is still a ton, but less than the 115 I watched in 2016 and the 125 in 2015.  I've gotten more ruthless about quitting shows that don't move the meter for me, and I felt less inclined to watch a show I don't like simply because TV Twitter loves it.  So if you're feeling imprisoned by the Too Much TV era, I recommend watching less.  It's very freeing!

The one issue that became a bigger deal in 2017 was the glut of streaming shows.  Everyone has joked about it in the past, but this year it really did seem like there was a new Netflix show premiering every Friday.  On top of that, there's all the content coming out on Hulu, Amazon, Crackle, and whatever new streaming network decides to sprout up -- it all amounts to alot of shows having their entire seasons dropped in an instant.  I can handle tons of weekly shows, but that streaming dump model doesn't work well for me, a person who can't really binge a whole season of a show in one sitting.

For that reason, this was the first year where there were a handful of shows that I just wasn't able to get to in time to be considered for this list, and they were all from streaming services.  That's what happens when these services populate like rabbits and you let their content pile up until the end of the year.  Even without those few shows being eligible, there's a wonderful array of television on display in the list below.  2017 proved once again that TV is the best subcategory of pop culture.

The rules: Shows are considered for this list based on the episodes they aired in 2017.  This is a pretty plain and simple rule for cable dramas, where full seasons usually air within a single calendar year.  However, it gets slightly messy when considering network shows, which usually air the first half of their season in the fall and the second half starting January of the next year.  So something like, say, The Good Place would be judged based on the second half of its first season (which aired at the beginning of the year) and the first half of its second season (which started in the fall of this year).  As for what constitutes a TV show, anything that airs on, you know, a TV station counts.  But shows that air exclusively on streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon count too.  Last year I made the note that YouTube webseries didn't count, but with the growing popularity of YouTube Red, that distinction can't hold.  But don't expect any YouTube Red shows on here, because I didn't watch any of them.

My 20 Favorite Films of 2017

When it came to movies, 2017 was more wide than deep.  There were a ton of good films, and what was refreshing is that the type of good films we got was so varied.  There were multiple big budget blockbuster films that were good, a ruminative sci-fi epic, outside-the-box horror films, Classic Hollywood films that don't get made anymore, a gritty exploitation piece, and charming indies.  But there weren't as many outright excellent films.  I'm proud of my top 20, but I'd say that only that two of these films are five star achievements, whereas last year had more than twice that.

Of course, it could be that I just haven't seen the masterpieces yet.  As always, I must issue the caveat that since I'm not a big fancy critic, I don't get access to the movies that are released at the very end of the year for extremely limited screenings, in order to qualify for the Oscars.  That includes major contenders like Phantom Thread and The Post, but also foreign films like Thelma that weren't easily accessible during the year.

Still, even with those caveats, it was a good year to be a cinephile.  Here's to another year of movies!

The rules: As long as a film got an official release in 2017, it was eligible for placement on this list.  This is an important thing to remember, since some of the films that appear in my top 20 premiered at film festivals in 2016, but didn't get released in theaters until this year.  And in the case where a film got no theatrical release, then a VOD debut in 2017 will make it eligible.

My 20 Favorite Albums of 2017

Peak TV has been a frequent term thrown around for the past few years to explain the overwhelming amount of content there is out there for consumers.  Maybe we should start talking about Peak Music as well.  The sheer amount of music available has been stressful for longer than it has been for TV, but this year in particular felt even more like there was just too much music from favorite acts and acclaimed newcomers to keep up with.  There are albums that I would have certainly gotten to in previous years, but I just couldn't this year.  Such are the concessions we must make as culture lovers in the year 2017.

If there was one narrative that dominated music -- or at least one that music critics tried to push the hardest -- it was the return of mid-2000s indie rock.  Bands like Arcade Fire, LCD Soundsystem, Dirty Projectors, Fleet Foxes, Grizzly Bear, The National, and Wolf Parade all made albums in 2017, some after a long absence, and all with varying levels of success.  It seemed like many of these bands were even trying to reckon with their place in the current conversation.  The zeitgeist may have partially moved past this brand of indie rock, but as somebody who grew up on the stuff, it was a mostly pleasant return.

And in the mainstream, rap had another major year.  To the dismay of many purists, rap is the new pop, with the branch of "mumble rap" experiencing unprecedented radio play and streaming numbers.  Songs like Post Malone's "Rockstar" and Lil Uzi Vert's "XO Tour Llif3" hit #1 on the Billboard charts, and it seemed like every month there was a new rap sensation of a similar vein that was capturing the ears of the wider public.  Regardless of how you feel about those songs (I'm not particularly crazy about either of the aforementioned tracks), it's nice to have rap of any classification get this kind of recognition.

So no matter which corner of the music world you chose to focus on, there was alot to chew on this year.  Let's celebrate all it had to offer.

The rules: Things are a little interesting this year.  Going by my usual criteria, the window of eligibility would be anything released between January 1, 2017 and now.  However, one of the biggest albums of this year was actually digitally released early at the very end of 2016.  So in order to still be able to recognize this record, I'm making the distinction of including things physically released in 2017.  Otherwise, everything is the same as usual.  This list can include albums, mixtapes, EPs, and anything in between.

50 Great Songs From 2017

On December 29th, my "20 Favorite Albums of 2017" list drops, but there's so much good music out there that one list couldn't fully represent what the year had to offer.  It's hard to make an album that's consistently great from start to finish, especially in an age where individual songs are given more and more importance.  So this list is intended to pay lip service to some great standalone songs.  All of these come from albums that won't be on my top 20 list, either because it's a great song on a mediocre album, or one on an album that's good but not quite good enough to crack the top tier.  So, without further ado, here's a list of fifty standalone songs, listed in alphabetical order (I limited myself to one song per artist):