Is the year halfway over already?
Just kidding, 2020 willneverbe over.
We could all use a little more Pa in our lives, especially now.
Credit: LARA SOLANKI/NETFLIX; Warrick Page/AMC/Sony Pictures Television; Patrick Harbron/CBS
Though the series opens with a mystery who set fire to Elenas big, beautiful house?
by the end, the only question is why someone didnt burn her world to the ground sooner.
8.Devs(FX on Hulu)
What is the nature of human existence?
Everett Collection
The limited series is almost impossible to explain, but its electrifying to experience.
This yearBrooklynbrought us a new baby, a major death, and one very daring doggie rescue.
Silly and aspirational, ridiculous and thoroughly humane,Brooklyn Nine-NineisParks and Recreationby way ofPolice Squad!.
Suzanne Tenner/FX
3.Search Party(HBO Max)
Can a lie become the truth through repetition and sheer force of will?
Thats the question at the center of the dark (really dark) comedys third season.
2.The Good Fight(CBS All-Access)
What really happened to Jeffrey Epstein?
Eduardo Castaldo/HBO
and silent, almost palpable dread.
(No one can make a simple greeting Hey, guys!
sound more ominous.)
SHOWTIME
Argue all you want about whetherBetter Call Saulis better thanBreaking Bad(it is).
In 2020, this show is the best game in town.
DARREN’S LIST
10.Columbo/Comfort TV
Imagine a cop show where the policeman never carries a gun.
Netflix
I want to go to there!
Worth the subscription to a less-heralded streaming service, and pray to Darkseid for a third season.
which makes its deep sorrow and palpable rage even more invigorating.
6.Bojack Horseman(Netflix)
I struggled a bit with the closing half-season of this great showbiz cartoon.
Bojack (Will Arnett) saw old mistakes come back to destroy him.
Could the final act have been a bit sharper?
I’ll always wonder, butBojacks on this list for a reason.
Its been that kind of year, frankly: A bad time for everything, television included.
We’ve been living in that hour all year.
Co-creator Pendleton Ward previously launched the ever-delightfulAdventure Timeinto the kid cosmos.Midnight Gospelis all that plus a philosophy degree.
Ward was inspired by Trussell’s podcast, which is where much of the dialogue actually comes from.
Yet the series has a magic that goes beyond those Frankenstein-ish origins.
Every second brings a new funny-freaky visual, while the woozy conversations make big ideas feel positively cozy.
Kristen has already perfectly praised our mutual #1, so I only have one thing to add.
