The Best of 2016
Hi Everybody.
I saw the post about the Baldies and it made me wonder what everyone else in here has in their top 5s for the year. Also, feel free to expand to other categories (best performances, best soundtracks, best episodes, funniest moments, etc.). I'm going to meditate on it a bit before listing anything, but I figured I would toss it out there. So, what say you?
EDIT: If someone else has started a thread like this already and I missed it, I apologize. If that is so please let me know, I would like to find it and check it out. Thanks!
Comments
Tied for second would be Westworld, Stranger Things, Better Call Saul, and Atlanta.
An honorable mention would be Baskets. That was a pretty surprisingly entertaining show that picked up a few episodes in.
FARGO AND THE LEFTOVERS THIS YEAR!!! Bring on 2017.
I'll probably get back to this list later on.
1. Stranger Things
Just perfect. First time in years I binge-watched a show until 5 in the morning because it was just too good.
2. Game of Thrones
Jon Snow resurrection. Hold the door! The Hound resurrection. Battle of Winterfell. The Mad Queen.
Come on, this was a fantastic season!
3. Westworld
It was hard to find good reviews of the show that didn't force you to go down a rabbit hole of crackpot theorizing, something that I found quite annoying. But that's not the show's fault. Great acting, atmosphere, music, and, most importantly, themes.
4. Halt and Catch Fire
Mad Men in the computer industry of the 80s, but essentially, a love story. I loved the podcast Jim did with Eric.
5.1 House of Cards
Really came back this year in my opinion. Very, very dark towards the end. This one really benefits from viewers being able to binge over its weaker parts.
5.2 Better Call Saul
Sometimes dragging its feet, and a bit heavy on montages, it's just fun to be back in the Breaking Bad universe. I hope it will get much darker in season 3.
Haven't watched Narcos, The people vs. O.J, or Atlanta. I wasn't as disappointed by Mr Robot as Jim was, I thought it was alright. Best comedy this year was Silicon Valley, once again. Biggest disappointment of 2016 (in terms of TV shows) was X-Files. But the thing about the Baldies that I look forward to the most is getting recommendations for stuff I completely missed this year!
But from the things I watched this year, I enjoyed overall:
Atlanta
BoJack Horseman
Insecure
Better Call Saul
Westworld
Those are the ones I watched I remembered. I honestly was not really feeling Mr. Robot nor Game of Thrones this year.
1. Cubs Game 7 World Series
2 Darth Vader Hallway Scene
3. Game of Thrones Battle of the Bastards
4. Binging Stranger Things in 9 hours straight
5. Dave Chappelles SNL appearance
2. Atlanta
3. Halt and Catch Fire
4. Game of Thrones
5. People vs OJ
And Ted Danson hamming it up is infinitely watchable. See also: Bored to Death.
Atlanta - Paper Boi and Darius are my current favorite tv duo. Can't wait to see Donald Glover as Lando.
Better Call Saul - Villigan and co. made a riveting montage about post-it notes! What can't they do!
Americans - best soundtrack on TV? And they did something rare - have a well acted, well written, and interesting plot arc with a child character. And the Martha stuff was goddamn heartbreaking and terrifying.
Thrones - Last 15 minutes of the Door and first 15 of the finale stands up to anything on TV in a long time. Rest of the season was good too!
Halt and Catch Fire - one of my favorite casts on TV right now. And they pulled off a big time jump, which is hard to do. It could be cheesy, retconning late 1980s tech to attribute it to them, but it works.