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After the eye strain, the greatest occupational hazard of being a TV critic is people asking what\u2019s good on television. It\u2019s a question I typically find impossible to answer on the spur of the moment, as a show will run out of my head as soon as a review is filed in order to make room for the next one. (I buy time by responding, \u201cWhat do you like?\u201d) It is only at this reflective season of the year that I can stop, look back and list them.<\/p>\n
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Our picks for this year\u2019s best in arts and entertainment.<\/p>\n
Every year, television has its ups and downs, its ebb and flow, depending on a host of reasons I will only ever vaguely understand. I will take this opportunity to say that there are way too many psychological thrillers on way too many platforms nowadays, but there are always more than enough shows to praise \u2014 and as always, I include only series that are new this year. Some are here because they deliver real surprises \u2014 not just plot twists and sudden revelations, but new directions and original formats. Others are here by dint of good old-fashioned storytelling, memorable characters and terrific performances \u2014 or just because they made me laugh.<\/p>\n
Here they are, in no special order.<\/p>\n
\u2018Hal & Harper\u2019 (Mubi) <\/p>\n
Lili Reinhart and Cooper Raiff in Mubi\u2019s \u201cHal & Harper.\u201d <\/p>\n
(Mubi)<\/p>\n
Writer-director Cooper Raiff\u2019s delicate drama looks at a brother and a sister \u2014 played by Raiff and Lili Reinhart both as adults and children, with no sacrifice of reality \u2014 made close by the early loss of their mother and the grief of their father (Mark Ruffalo, identified only as Dad). The sale of their old house and the prospect of a new sibling \u2014 Dad\u2019s girlfriend (Betty Gilpin, going from strength to strength) \u2014 sets things in motion. The dialogue avoids exposition, the silences say much. (Read the review.)<\/a> <\/p>\n \u2018The Lowdown\u2019 (FX) Ethan Hawke and Ryan Kiera Armstrong in FX\u2019s \u201cThe Lowdown.\u201d<\/p>\n (Shane Brown \/ FX)<\/p>\n In Sterlin Harjo\u2019s shaggy dog follow-up to \u201cReservation Dogs,\u201d the ever-evolving Ethan Hawke plays Lee Raybon, a raggedy Tulsa \u201ctruthstorian,\u201d citizen journalist and used-book dealer, looking into the apparent suicide of the oddball member of a powerful family. The series pays homage to noir film and fiction, even as it\u2019s too bright, mischievous and full of love to qualify as noir itself (though Ray does get beat up a lot). Politicians, land developers, white supremacists and Natives collide. The cast also includes Kyle MacLachlan, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Peter Dinklage, Keith David, Kaniehtiio Horn (the Deer Lady in \u201cReservation Dogs\u201d) as Ray\u2019s ex-wife and the marvelous Ryan Kiera Armstrong as his teenage daughter and eager accomplice. Look for X\u2019s John Doe as a purveyor of bootleg caviar. (Read the review.)<\/a> <\/p>\n \u2018Women Wearing Shoulder Pads\u2019 (Adult Swim), \u2018Common Side Effects\u2019 (Adult Swim), \u2018Oh My God \u2026 Yes!\u2019 (Adult Swim), \u2018Long Story Short\u2019 (Netflix) <\/p>\n 1 <\/p>\n 2 <\/p>\n 3 <\/p>\n 4 <\/p>\n 1. \u201cWomen Wearing Shoulder Pads\u201d on Adult Swim. (Warner Bros) 2. \u201cCommon Side Effects\u201d on Adult Swim. (Adult Swim) 3. \u201cOh My God … Yes!\u201d on Adult Swim. (Warner Bros. Discovery) 4. \u201cLong Story Short\u201d on Netflix. (Netflix) <\/p>\n Animation! \u201cWomen Wearing Shoulder Pads\u201d is a queer Spanish-language stop-motion comedy melodrama, set in the aesthetic world of a 1980s Pedro Almod\u00f3var film, involving the fate of the cuy, a South American guinea pig (pets? food?), and a struggle between two powerful women. (Read the review.)<\/a> <\/p>\n \u201cCommon Side Effects\u201d is a semicomical thriller with heart, centered on a mushroom with curative properties and pitting its discoverer against the pharmaceutical-industrial complex; Martha Kelly fans will be happy to find her here as a DEA agent. (Read the review.)<\/a> <\/p>\n \u201cOh My God \u2026 Yes!\u201d is an Afro-futurist, surrealist, girlfriends-in-the-city superhero comedy \u2014 like the Powerpuff Girls, grown up, earthy and Black \u2014 featuring humanoid robots, anthropomorphic animals and gayliens (the preferred term for gay aliens). (Read the review.)<\/a><\/p>\n And \u201cLong Story Short,\u201d from \u201cBojack Horseman\u201d creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg<\/a> is the sweet, melancholy, satirical, silly, poignant, hopeful, sometimes slapstick cartoon tale of a normal middle-class Jewish family; the world it portrays is (mostly) ordinary, but the drawings make it extra-special. (Read the review.)<\/a> <\/p>\n \u2018Demascus\u2019 (Tubi) Okieriete Onaodowan in Tubi\u2019s \u201cDemascus.\u201d<\/p>\n (Jace Downs \/ AMC Networks)<\/p>\n In this Black science-fiction comedy about the search for identity and purpose, Okieriete Onaodowan plays the title character, propelled into alternative visions of his life and self by an experimental virtual reality gizmo that \u201cfollows the path of your conscious and subconscious impulses.\u201d The settings change along with him \u2014 into a relationship reality show, a \u201csad Thanksgiving\u201d domestic comedy, a setting out of \u201cOne Flew Over the Cuckoo\u2019s Nest\u201d \u2014 as supporting actors (Martin Lawrence among them) become different people around him. (Read the review.)<\/a> <\/p>\n \u2018Pluribus\u2019 (Apple TV) Rhea Seehorn in Apple TV\u2019s \u201cPluribus.\u201d<\/p>\n (Anna Kooris \/ Apple TV)<\/p>\n I find Vince Gilligan\u2019s take on \u201cThe Invasion of the Body Snatchers,\u201d in which a virus from outer space turns nearly all of humanity into one giant, contented, cultish hive mind, more interesting than compelling, but it\u2019s interesting enough, and comes with a great performance by Rhea Seehorn<\/a> as one of a dozen earthlings immune to the bug \u2014 jealous of her discontent, standing up for her right to be angry. This is a slow series, yet never a boring one, and Seehorn, in a kind of one-woman-versus-everyone show, is electric even when nothing much is happening. (Read the review.)<\/a> <\/p>\n \u2018The Studio\u2019 (Apple TV) Clockwise from left: Ike Barinholtz, Kathryn Hahn, Chase Sui Wonders and Seth Rogen in Apple TV\u2019s \u201cThe Studio.\u201d<\/p>\n (Apple TV+)<\/p>\n Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg\u2019s breakneck farcical ode to the motion picture business (in which they do very well). Rogen stars as a new studio head, promoted from below, dealing with bad ideas (a Kool-Aid movie), big egos, and his own insecurities and need to feel appreciated. Episodes take place at the Golden Globes, a fundraising dinner and a Las Vegas trade show, with Ike Barinholtz and Kathryn Hahn on his team, Bryan Cranston as his boss \u2014 reminding you he was on \u201cSeinfeld\u201d and \u201cMalcolm in the Middle\u201d before he became Walter White \u2014 and Catherine O\u2019Hara (brilliant, naturally) as the woman Rogen replaced. (Read the review.)<\/a> <\/p>\n \u2018North of North\u2019 (Netflix) Anna Lambe in Netflix\u2019s \u201cNorth of North.\u201d<\/p>\n (Netflix)<\/p>\n A sweet small-town romantic comedy, set (and filmed) in Canada\u2019s northernmost territory among the Indigenous Inuit people. A luminous Anna Lambe stars as the 26-year-old mother of a rambunctious 7-year-old, tied to a narcissistic husband and resentful of her mother, a reformed alcoholic and former bad girl; she dreams of something more, even if it just means hauling large items to the dump. Mary Lynn Rajskub plays the cheerful, credit-grabbing town manager whose assistant she becomes. Love and a family secret will arrive from the south. The beaded parkas are gorgeous. (Read the review.)<\/a> <\/p>\n \u2018The Pitt\u2019 (HBO Max), \u2018Adolescence\u2019 (Netflix) <\/p>\n 1 <\/p>\n 2 <\/p>\n 1. Noah Wyle and Tracy Ifeachor in HBO Max\u2019s \u201cThe Pitt.\u201d (John Johnson\/HBO) 2. Owen Cooper and Stephen Graham in Netflix\u2019s \u201cAdolescence.\u201d (Netflix) <\/p>\n These two series do their work in real time, making space for naturalistic acting and a special kind of pressure. \u201cThe Pitt,\u201d whose 15 episodes are set in a hectic Pittsburgh ER over a 15-hour shift puts Noah Wyle<\/a> back in scrubs, herding (with Tracy Ifeachor) a large cast of doctors, nurses and student doctors. Cases include electrocution, drowning, overdose, scurvy, sickle cell anemia, a nail in the chest, a fastball in the eye and gallstones, with all the personal drama one expects from a hospital show. (Read the review.)<\/a> <\/p>\n The tightly focused, brutally intimate \u201cAdolescence,\u201d surrounding the arrest of a 13-year-old boy (Owen Cooper) for murder, unveils its unconventional mystery in four discrete episodes, each executed in a single tracking shot. A field day for actors, it earned Emmys for Cooper, co-creator Stephen Graham<\/a> as his father and Erin Doherty as a child psychologist. (Read the review.)<\/a> <\/p>\n \u2018Dope Thief\u2019 (Apple TV), \u2018Deli Boys\u2019 (Hulu) <\/p>\n 1 <\/p>\n 2 <\/p>\n 1. Brian Tyree Henry, left, and Wagner Moura in Apple TV\u2019s \u201cDope Thief.\u201d (Apple) 2. Saagar Shaikh, left, and Asif Ali in Hulu\u2019s \u201cDeli Boys.\u201d (James Washington\/Disney) <\/p>\n Drugs are bad, but they fuel a lot of television. (I mean the plots; I wouldn\u2019t know about the productions.) These two very different series feature heroes in over their heads, caught between cops and a cartel. \u201cDope Thief\u201d gives Brian Tyree Henry (Paper Boi on \u201cAtlanta\u201d), as a man robbing low-level drug dealers dressed as a DEA agent, his first starring role, which would be sufficient for me to recommend it sight unseen \u2014 but it is excellent, seen. (Read the review.)<\/a> <\/p>\n In \u201cDeli Boys,\u201d an old-fashioned comedy of Idiots in Danger, Asif Ali and Saagar Shaikh play temperamentally opposite Pakistani American brothers who inherit what they believed to be a chain of convenience stores but turn out to be the front for their father\u2019s cocaine empire. Poorna Jagannathan is marvelous as their beloved, fearsome Lucky Auntie, who knows the score. (Read the review.)<\/a> <\/p>\n \u2018Ludwig\u2019 (Britbox) David Mitchell in Britbox\u2019s \u201cLudwig.\u201d<\/p>\n (Colin Hutton)<\/p>\n In this Cambridge-set dramatic comedy-mystery, irascible David Mitchell, of \u201cPeep Show,\u201d \u201cUpstart Crow\u201d and \u201cWould I Lie to You?\u201d fame, plays an awkward, isolated genius with little practical experience of the world, drawn right into it when he winds up impersonating his missing twin brother, a police detective. A professional puzzle-maker, he\u2019ll turn out to be good at the job, though he calls a medical examiner\u2019s report a \u201chow-did-they-die test,\u201d and, moving in with his sister-in-law, he\u2019ll learn something about the benefits of family. Properly moving, and very funny. (Read the review.)<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After the eye strain, the greatest occupational hazard of being a TV critic is people asking what\u2019s good…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167979,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[99934,99935,16337,41394,971,146,28838,28292,85,46,20550,99936,5399,81274,1529,5458,8443,411,1661],"class_list":["post-167978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-aesthetic-world","tag-cast","tag-child","tag-dad","tag-doctor","tag-entertainment","tag-episode","tag-father","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-mother","tag-noir-film","tag-outer-space","tag-owen-cooper","tag-review","tag-series","tag-television","tag-tv","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} <\/p>\n
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