Thursday, December 15, 2016

I'm Sure You'll All Agree

From Samantha Bee to 'GOT,' here's the best of 2016 TV

7 comments:

Jeff Meyerson said...

I'm guessing whoever wrote this is very young and has no idea of how good or bad television was in the past. Unless they lived through it as we did, there is no way they can make a definitive statement like the title of the article.

1. "Atlanta's rap scene" - no chance I'd watch one second of it, however good
2. Fleabag - "If you're a young, single woman..." - I'm not.
3. The People vs. O.J. Simpson - Not now, not ever.
4. This is Us - surprise, a show that I actually like. It is not sappy the way I expected.
5. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend - "The best show to watch with your girl group" says it all.
6. The Crown - haven't tried it
7. Insecure - not for me. Even the promos annoy me.
8. High Maintenance - I know nothing about it.
9. Samantha Bee and John Oliver - absolutely two of the best shows on television, period.
10. Rectify - Jackie watched the first series or so but gave it up. I didn't watch.
11. Outlander - not for me in any form.
12. Stranger Things - this would definitely make my list. Can't wait for season two.
13. Jane the Virgin - wrong demographic.
14. Better Things - I know nothing about it.
15. Game of Thrones - I've tried several times, but so far, can't get into it.

Conclusion - I'm old, and get off my lawn!

Unknown said...

There are a couple on there that I never heard of, but I do agree about a couple of them.

Steve Oerkfitz said...

Sorry Jeff but I love Game of Thrones and detest This Is Us.
Liked but didn't love Stranger Things.
Like John Oliver.
Most of the others just don't appeal to me.

Cap'n Bob said...

Never heard of most, never watched any.

Todd Mason said...

FLEABAG is pretty clever, but not brilliant. Worth seeing.

ONE MISSISSIPPI is brilliant.

RECTIFY is pretty close to brilliant, at least.

INSECURE and CRAZY EX-GIRLFRIEND are both very, very good in spots, and just OK in others. Curate's egg sitcoms.

John Oliver and Samantha Bee's hostility to Jill Stein is profoundly stupid. Oliver works the same joke a little too often. Otherwise, I generally like the shows, as I do ADAM RUINS EVERYTHING and the now-vanished NO, YOU SHUT UP.

BETTER THINGS is a good sitcom, much as YOU'RE THE WORST and DIVORCE are good sitcoms. STAN AGAINST EVIL is a more profoundly goofy but even better sitcom with a strong horror component; ASH VS. THE EVIL DEAD a bit less good, but fun enough. SEARCH PARTY so far almost as good a suspense/sitcom hybrid, if a bit too sweeping in its statement about Millennials.

TIMELESS is also a good kind of goofy.

I've yet to watch ATLANTA or THE CROWN. The new season of MOZART IN THE JUNGLE mostly pleasant so far.

Todd Mason said...

I've found both QUARRY and HAP AND LEONARD very enjoyable and if not quite what their literary sources are, then certainly running close enough behind.

Managed also not to see more than a minute of THIS IS US or STRANGER THINGS so far.

JANE THE VIRGIN does have a knowingly horrific premise, and seems amiable, though I've never watched it for more than ten minutes.

GRAVES might be the best of the conventional sitcoms to premiere this season, though it does have its pat moments. Sela Ward and Nick Nolte as essentially Laura and George W. Bush with a bit more gravitas and a more acute conscience lead a very good cast. BERLIN STATION, the other new dramatic series on Epix, seems solid.

Todd Mason said...

Of all the series I watch on Sundays. the one that I never watch till the others (particularly SHAMELESS, MASTERS OF SEX, DIVORCE and GRAVES, and usually LAST WEEK TONIGHT--frequently or usually catching THE SIMPSONS, the amusing SON OF ZORN and THE CIRCUS in whole or in part) are done is WESTWORLD. That show has some brilliant acting in it, and then there's Anthony Hopkins, who demonstrates he can underact as hammily as he overacts. The scripts are mired in Profound Dumbness, but still manage to be interesting enough to see where they drag the cast, notable for their participation previously in some of the best television so far...in series such as ONCE AND AGAIN and BORGEN and HOMICIDE: LIFE ON THE STREET. And then one watches a scene with Ed Harris and Hopkins, and one is reminded of the difference between good actors and really not good ones. One is very glad to see Thandie Newton.