My 20 Favorite Television Shows of 2019

Loyal fans have been waiting for a whole year to get to this day.  Not to see my actual list, but to hear me chronicle my crippling addiction to television and see whether or not I was able to limit myself to following less than 100 shows this year.  Well I've got some bad news for you: if we're counting the shows I watched every airing episode of this year, that number reached 102.  I know, I really thought I was going to meet my goal in 2019.  And I was so close!  I know I said this last year, but I really am quitting more shows and not starting more altogether, they just keep making more of them every year.  Those numbers simply can't be beat.

One thing I've noticed with my list this year is that it feels a little different than previous years, and I can't tell if that's due to a change in my taste or a change in the trend of what gets made.  But I will say this year there's less Very Serious Drama For Very Serious People (your Mad Mens, your Americans) and more stuff, especially in the top 10, that might make you say "huh"?  The idea that great TV comes in all shapes and sizes is a mantra I've repeated alot over the years, and we would all do well to remember that as the landscape transforms a bit in the next decade.


The rules: I hope you haven't gotten in the habit of skipping this part because there's a bit of a change this year.  Any show whose season premiered on or after December 13, 2019 won't be eligible for this year's list and will be saved for next year.  This was put in place to deal with the increase of streaming networks dropping whole seasons close to the end of the year without any regard for my personal well-being.  So please don't yell when you don't see The Expanse, Runaways, or You on this list.  If a show premiered before December 13, 2019 then any episodes that aired between January 1, 2019 and December 31, 2019 are considered for its ranking.  Confused yet?

Honorable Mentions (25-21)
Few things provided more joy and laughs than The Other Two (Comedy Central), a hilarious show about two siblings failing at life.  Without the involvement of a certain creative force who shall not be named, Better Things (FX) still flourished as one of the loveliest, most soulful shows on air.  Far too many true crime procedurals have a hint of exploitation and sensationalism, but by telling a story of a rape case that focuses on the victim, Unbelievable (Netflix) serves as a fantastic corrective.  Primal (Adult Swim), a wordless animated action miniseries, is another masterclass of storytelling from Genndy Tartakovsky.  Though it got off to a rough start, the first season of For All Mankind (Apple TV+) eventually grew into a moving, rich character drama.

20. Jett (Cinemax)

With shows like Banshee and Quarry under their belt, Cinemax has been the unsung hero of preserving retro pulp novel storytelling, and they gave us another great entry into that collection this year with Jett.  The show follows a former thief (played by Carla Gugino) who gets out of prison and is forced back into the world of crime.  So it's a pretty classic setup, but they execute it with impressive style and skill, populating the world with a bevy of intriguing characters and perfectly pacing out its twisty story over the length of the season.  Like all Cinemax shows, Jett seems to have flown under the radar in this crowded landscape, but if you're a fan of crime stories, you won't want to miss it.

19. Mindhunter (Netflix)

TV has been known as a writer's medium for so long that it would seem unbelievable if even five years ago you told someone we would get a season of a show where three episodes were directed by David Fincher, two were directed by Andrew Dominik, and four were directed by Carl Franklin.  Mindhunter has always been a direction-first show, and season two was a masterclass of framing, pacing a scene through shot selection, and conveying ideas solely through visual information.  Though the writing wasn't the star, it chugged along confidently as well, balancing the interview style of the first season with a longform case about the Atlanta murders in the early 1980s.  This doesn't seem like a show Netflix has high on its marketing priority list, but it's one of the best they've got right now.

18. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (CW)

For its three previous years, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend pulled off the difficult feat of being a musical comedy about mental illness and did it with nary a misstep, and in its final year it gave itself an even more arduous task: telling a story about people ultimately becoming better and more stable.  The storytelling rulebook might say that's not dynamic enough to work, but in execution it felt so profound for these characters whose neuroses we've witnessed for hours finally get a handle on them.  That the show did so while still providing multiple great songs per episode is why it's one of the best of its generation.

17. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Amazon)

The third season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel was pretty light on drama, so it compensated by upping its game on the pleasure delivery front.  The ratatat screwball dialogue, the detours to gorgeous locales, the candy-colored sets and costumes, the intricate music and dance interludes -- most of what we've come to love about Amy Sherman-Palladino's latest bubbly creation was there in full force.  And though it threatened to fall apart many times this season, like its headstrong protagonist, it managed to always avoid teetering over the edge.

16. Barry (HBO)

In its second season, Barry definitively made the point that it's not a show about an ultimately good man who does bad things, but a bad man who can't quite come to terms with the fact that he's bad.  Showcasing incredible performances from Bill Hader and Sarah Goldberg, and delivering wild stylistic detours -- the surreal, hilarious "ronny/lily" being one of the year's best episodes -- season two operated with the finesse and command of its hitman protagonist.  Barry might be a bad man, but watching him wrestle with that fact makes for deeply compelling television.

15. Pose (FX)

Most shows in Ryan Murphy's orbit fall off of a cliff in their sophomore year, but Pose only seemed to blossom this year.  Its second season was even more joyous and special than the first, ironing out some of its previous unevenness and gaining confidence in its storytelling.  The electrifying ball scenes continue to be one of the most singular things on television, but its moving story about marginalized people trying to eke out a bit of happiness in their corner of the world is just as potent.

14. Lodge 49 (AMC)

To watch Lodge 49 is to give yourself over to a rhythm that you're probably not used to.  In an age of high premise and even higher speed television, the now-cancelled Lodge 49 was a complete 180.  In its second season, the show locked even more into its lackadaisical vibe as it continued to tell its story about spiritually adrift twins Dud and Liz, still reeling from the death of their father.  And though it spun out in weird and funny ways, it remained grounded by its moving themes of finding community and meaning in an increasingly isolated and capitalist world.  Following along with it ended up feeling like being a part of a secret society too.  Its powerful aura will be missed.

13. The Magicians (Syfy)

My aim was to finally write a blurb about The Magicians that didn't mention Buffy, because it's a terrific show that stands on its own, but they don't make it easy for me.  Like its spiritual cousin, the fourth season of The Magicians was a transitional year, where the long term arc didn't always hold together, but it still had so many individual moments of greatness.  It's times like these where it helps to have such a large utility belt, where sheer entertainment and genre playfulness can make up for some shaky storytelling.  Even when it's a little off its game, The Magicians is still satisfying television.

12. The Good Fight (CBS All Access)

Now that tentpole series like Star Trek Discovery and The Twilight Zone exist on the service, more people are aware of CBS All Access, but there still aren't enough eyes on The Good Fight, which feels like its languishing in relative anonymity.  In its third season, the Good Wife spinoff continued its playful, engaging storytelling that feels unlike anything else airing right now.  The show skillfully blends old-school procedural legal drama with a new-school political flair and formal experimentation (including, in this season, animated musical interludes that break up the action in each episode).  At this point, The Good Fight is so consistently a blast that it has surpassed its predecessor.

11. Broad City (Comedy Central)

The hilarious New York adventures of Abbi and Ilana came to a close after five wonderful years, and the final season served as an excellent victory lap.  It gave us episodes as funny as some of the show's best, like "Bitcoin & the Missing Girl," but it also had a surprisingly emotional undercurrent about the duo coming into their own as adults.  Broad City was always going to go down as one of this decade's best comedies, but season five further solidified the show's place in the canon.

10. Mrs. Fletcher (HBO)

When you watch the amount of television that I do (too much, please help) it's hard to be truly surprised by anything.  Which makes it even more special when something like Mrs. Fletcher comes around.  The show's elevator pitch premise -- a middle-aged mom suffering from empty nest syndrome becomes addicted to porn -- and marketing made it seem like a one-note, quirky indie movie translated to TV.  Thankfully, the show is so much more than that.  How far and wide the series' empathy spreads over seven episodes is stunning, expanding from its one-woman story to include a handful of fascinating and complex characters.  "Don't judge a book by its cover" is a hoary sentiment at this point, but sometimes it's helpful to remember with a show like Mrs. Fletcher.

9. Dickinson (Apple TV+)

When the trailer first dropped for Dickinson, one of Apple TV+'s four launch shows, it was met with immediate bewilderment and ridicule by people who thought this Hailee Steinfeld-starring, millennial re-imagining of Emily Dickinson's life looked like one of those fake shows you'd see inside of 30 Rock.  But it turns out that the show itself was already a million steps ahead of the internet snark brigade.  Dickinson pulled off the impressive feat of existing at the exact midpoint between irony and sincerity in its funny, delightfully strange first season.  Blending a period setting with modern vernacular, anachronistic music cues, and surreal flights of fancy; the show feels like a bold work of pop collage art in the vein of Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet.  Here's a sample of what I'm talking about: there's a scene in the second episode where Emily's getting fingered while a Hailee Steinfeld voiceover of one of Dickinson's poems plays over it, while Mitski's "Your Best American Girl" plays on the soundtrack.  It's that kind of swooning romance mixed with melodrama mixed with genuine stylistic flair that makes the show so special.  Elsewhere, it expects you to laugh at the absurdity of a leaked nudes subplot in this setting but also buy into the earnestness of the emotions in the storyline.  Dickinson is a daring and deft highwire act, and the world needs more art that's this idiosyncratic.

8. The Society (Netflix)

Netflix produces so much content -- particularly generic teen content -- that it's hard to tell from the outside what separates one from the other.  Unless you're in the weeds with Netflix's content slurry, it could be easy to miss a gem like The Society.  At first, this show about a town where everyone but the teenagers mysteriously disappear, feels like an algorithmically generated amalgamation of Lord of the Flies, Lost, and The 100, but it quickly comes into its own.  The show grows more confident in its character writing and world building, and it's not afraid to go to dark places in its exploration of how communities are rebuilt from the ground up.  The Society feels like one of the few Netflix shows that actually benefits from a binge watch, allowing you to devour its tantalizing mysteries and turns at a rapid clip.

7. Big Little Lies (HBO)

In the middle of Big Little Lies season two, an investigative piece on Indiewire dropped that confirmed the suspicions that many had while watching the first few episodes: some funny business was going on behind the scenes.  And the funny business was that control of the season was essentially wrestled from director Andrea Arnold's hands with very little communication about what was going on, leading to reshoots and hasty post-production reworkings.  It's awful what happened to her and it's haunting to know that we'll never get to see what a great, distinctive director like her really wanted to do with the material, but I honestly think the season managed to be a triumph anyway.  With the whodunnit aspect of season one out of the way, season two is essentially a long string of falling action, which gave it space to really ruminate on shared female trauma and how people heal.  There's this magical frequency that the show operated on this year where an ineffable sense of connection ran through every moment.  It may be a controversial opinion but it's one I'll stand by: the second season of Big Little Lies is better than the first.

6. Legacies (CW)

Is there any show on the air having more fun than the CW's Legacies?  Despite the fact that it's a spinoff of The Vampire Diaries (which I saw one season of) and The Originals (which I've never seen any of), effusive recommendations from my Twitter timeline led me to catching up on the show right in time for its second season, which is off to a rollicking start so far.  Operating like a weirder, sexier Harry Potter set in the Mystic Falls universe, the show is a full-throated celebration of what seems to be a dying style of television.  Wildly entertaining monster-of-the-week stories, a cast of vivid and distinct personalities, bonkers cliffhangers -- all of these things are still possible!  And Legacies proves that every week, functioning with a seemingly endless supply of creative energy.  Toss any preconceptions aside and enjoy.

5. Orange is the New Black (Netflix)

On my music year-end lists, I often write about the phenomenon of older bands who are so consistently great that people get inured to their greatness and are distracted by the hot new thing.  Orange is the New Black, I fear, fell victim to a similar fate.  The show's transition to Litchfield's max security prison in its fifth and sixth seasons may not have reached the peaks of its early years, but the show's deft structuring, boundless ambition, and tonal range still made it one of TV's most impressive series.  I heard so many people this year say "Oh, I stopped watching that show a few years ago" which is a shame, because the final season was a lovely cap on a show so gigantic it seemed like an impossible task to wrap it up in a satisfying way.  But season seven did just that, telling complex stories about the prison industrial system and all the different lives that get caught up in it.

4. PEN15 (Hulu)

We've finally reached the point where the early 2000s has its time to receive the nostalgia spotlight, and Hulu's PEN15 feels like the first show to maximize the potential of this fertile ground.  The show's co-creators Anna Konkle and Maya Erskine also serve as the stars, where they play 13 year old versions of themselves in middle school, while the rest of the actors are actual teenagers.  A lesser show would coast on the sight gag of two adults playing against a bunch of kids, but PEN15 has actual jokes as well.  It explores the weird, gross, and humiliating aspects of adolescence with a hilarity and specificity that eventually makes you forget the central gimmick.  And just when you're content with it being a great comedy, it also becomes surprisingly earnest and emotional, giving one of the best explorations of teen girl friendship since My So-Called Life.  It may have appeared to be a one-note show at first, but PEN15 has legs.

3. The Deuce (HBO)

Those who are scholars of David Simon's output -- The Wire, Treme, Generation Kill -- know that he does not go easy on the viewer.  He simply sees his stories through to their logical end; the tragedies are true and the victories are hard won.  Simply knowing this still doesn't prepare you for the searing emotions you'll feel once you're deeply submerged into one of his teeming worlds.  The Deuce chronicled the rise and fall of the porn industry in the late 70s and early 80s, but it also served as a vision of a certain slice of New York City at the time.  And by the final season, the money had dried up and moved out West, the cost of exploitation proved too much for these aging bodies, and AIDS was running rampant throughout the community.  Despite all of that, the show was too brimming with life to feel like a slog.  The Wire may always be Simon's shining achievement, but season three of The Deuce is arguably his best ending.

2. Looking For Alaska (Hulu)

The adaptation of John Green's seminal 2005 young adult novel has been a long time coming, getting stuck in development hell while fans watched one proposed film adaptation after another come and go, leaving many to assume it would just never happen.  It turns out the story just needed to gestate until the right format came along.  The rise of streaming services opened Hollywood up to the idea of presenting it as it should have been all along: an eight-episode, self-contained miniseries.  Hulu's Looking For Alaska strikes a complicated balance.  First, it's a wonderfully engaging hangout show, diving deep into the colorful world of Culver Creek boarding school, with its dense tangle of characters, traditions, and internal rules.  But it's also a wrenching tragedy, all the more so because of the way it invests in these people and the answers they're searching for.  If you're a fan of the book, you get to see a near-perfect adaptation of one of the best coming of age novels ever written, one that stays true to the spirit of the book and expands upon it in all the right ways.  And if you're not, you get to experience it for the first time and be blown away by how graceful and moving it is.

1. Succession (HBO)

At the beginning of its second season, Succession became something of an internet sensation.  Some of that came from Twitter's need to fill the vacuum of television watercooler discussion in the wake of Game of Thrones ending, but it's mostly that the show was so fantastic that it warranted the real estate it took up online.  Though Succession's first season was excellent from early on -- anyone who tells you otherwise is a fool -- season two somehow found another gear.  Often it felt like the show was operating in such a delicate sweet spot that it didn't feel real.  How could a series be so wickedly entertaining and also building such an intricate scaffolding of operatic tragedy?  How could it have such a deep roster, where it constantly felt like a new player was jockeying for position as the biggest scene stealer?  Sometimes we need a show like Succession to come around, shake us out of our complacent stupor, and remind us what the medium is capable of.  Hats off to TV's number one boy.


Well, that wraps things up for my best shows of 2019 list.  I love reading other lists, so feel free to share yours in the comments.  Or if you want to share your thoughts on my list, then you can do that too!  To see a complete inventory of all the TV I watched this year (with even more rankings), you can find it on this Google Doc.

Previous lists
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013