The Top 20 Shows of 2015

Here's a late holiday gift for everyone- TV recommendations!

It was kind of an odd year in that four of my top five shows are new. I'm not sure if that indicates a influx of great material or a decline in the quality of more established shows. 

Another interesting trend- we have to get all the way to #8 before there's a scripted show with a traditional, "I feel good about rooting for this person" character. I kind of thought the era of antiheroes had passed. Guess not.

But before we get to the good stuff, a little housekeeping:

HONORABLE MENTION 

(or shows that I haven't finished watching the full seasons of so they can't go on the list, but that I couldn't just leave off entirely):

Togetherness
Jessica Jones
Catastrophe

Hart of Dixie

CAVEAT ALERT

Shows I have not seen yet and suspect might make the list if I had seen them:

Fargo

Man in the High Castle

The Jinx

And now for the list. As usual, results are in reverse order for maximum suspense.




20. The 100- This sounded like your standard post-apocalyptic "hot teens stranded on the burnt-out husk of planet Earth 97 years after a nuclear-bomb devastated it" series. Sort of "90210" meets "Lord of the Flies." And for a while it was that series. But in season two, the show decided to embrace its inner darkness. Has there ever been a CW show that included one major character straight up murdering another major character she loved so he wouldn't get tortured AND murdered? Or a show in which a major character spends about six tension-filled episodes hiding in an enemy bunker, hiding and plotting a way to get his peeps inside? Or one where a former president becomes a cult leader who (mostly unsuccessfully) leads his minions across a desert of land mines? Or a show where our two "heroes" let radioactive air into a secure location to intentionally kill almost everyone inside, including a bunch of preschoolers? I don't believe there has been one. This show's soul is dirty and I kind of love it. (CW)

19. Kroll Show- Rather than explaining the joys of this lightly serialized sketch comedy show starring Nick Kroll (which sadly ended this season), let me just recommend this episode of Wheels, Ontario. (Comedy Central)

18. Justified- It wasn't the strongest season of the series (still miss ya, Mags). But the long-simmering friend or foe feud between Kentucky-based U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens and former cult leader/current drug dealer and murderer Boyd Crowder finally came to a satisfying conclusion. (FX)

17. Scandal- For pure roller coaster twistiness, there's still nothing better than an hour of watching these black hats claim to be white hats. (ABC)

16. Supernatural- No point in repeating what I've already said here. (CW)

15. The Good Wife- if you can get past the Kalinda split-screen ridiculousness (and I understand if you can't), there are still many joys to be had, among them sparkling work from Christine Baranski, Alan Cumming and Michael J. Fox. Plus, Julianna Margulies is so good, she makes you forget that she's kind of turned into the bad guy of the series. (CBS)

14. Key & Peele- Another Comedy Central sketch show that ended this year. Not the best season of the series. But when they offer us this gem about Terries, you know they've still got it. (Comedy Central)

13. Arrow- It's a trend!  Yet another series that has not been as strong this year as it was in its first few seasons. Nonetheless, the Oliver-Felicity material sparkles and the flashback scenes this year are infinitely more interesting than last season. But please, no more Lazarus Pit. (CW)

12. Project Greenlight- This reboot of the Matt Damon/ Ben Affleck "give a newbie the chance to make a movie" series nailed the formula: Terrible choice of director + personality conflict with producer + limited film budget + movie star faux pas = an awful movie AND great television. (HBO)

11. Game of Thrones- Confession time. After watching the pilot, in which a kid is tossed out a window because he saw a brother and sister getting very cozy, I said "not so much for me with this show." I would occasionally tune in for a buzzed-about episode like Eddard Starks's goodbye or the Red Wedding. But it wasn't until this season that I finally committed. And I'm glad I did. Most of the season was thoroughly entertaining, even thrilling ("Hardhome" anyone?). Yes, there were episodes that dragged or reminded me of what put me off in the first place (Sansa's wedding night). But I'm still in. For the Watch. (HBO)

10. Inside Amy Schumer- Relentlessly inventive (but NSFW). Proudly feminist (also NSFW). Knife-sharp satire (do I even need to say it?). This season was more than just funny. It was fearless. (Comedy Central)

9. Silicon Valley- Was this comedy about a bunch of twenty-somethings fumbling their way through a tech startup funnier than the first season? I don't know about that. But it had this. And this.  (HBO)

8. The Flash- There were so many things this show could have gotten wrong. A superhero with a pretty bland power- he's really fast. A villain who has...the same exact power. Entering the schedule as a spin-off to a series with much darker themes. Lots of time travel. Turning Ed into a bad guy. And yet somehow, the mashup worked. Amazingly, the best material had nothing to do with superpowers and everything to do with exploring what defines family. (CW)

7. Life Below Zero- The only reality show on this list. Part of the pleasure of the series about people who live and work in the harshest parts of Alaska is enjoying it while cuddled cozily on your comfy couch. But most of it comes from marveling at the bold reckless will of people who choose to live solitary, dangerous lives because they don't feel as alive any other way. Also, Sue's a hoot. (National Geographic Channel)

6. You're The Worst- The first season of this show about self-involved, cynical, ruthlessly unromantic Angelenos Jimmy and Gretchen dipping their toes in relationship waters was caustic fun. This season went to an unexpectedly dark place as Gretchen first tried to fight off, then succumbed to the demons of depression. At times, the funny seemed to disappear completely. But the desire to see these two emotional trainwrecks find their way back to each other (even if they maybe shouldn't) never did. (FXX)

5. Mad Men- It would have been impossible to live up to the hype and anticipation of the end of this iconic series about an ad agency in the 1960s. Wisely, creator Matthew Weiner didn't even try. Instead, in the final season he often went for smaller, more intimate moments: A lunch where Peggy considers starting a business with Joan, Pete locating his spine during a meeting with an officious private school principal, Peggy roller skating around the old, empty office while drinking with Roger, Betty getting her diagnosis, Don telling daughter Sally that she's much more like her parents than she'd like to think. In fact every scene between Don and Sally. They didn't quite stick the landing (that Coke thing felt a little too slick) but the the ride was well worth it. And we got this indelible image of Peggy Olson in all her glory. (AMC)

4. Better Call Saul- I was really worried it wasn't going to work. Taking a fun but tertiary character from one of the most well-regarded shows of all time and spinning off a series for him was a risky proposition. But somehow it did work. By setting the show back when Saul Goodman was aspiring attorney Jimmy McGill, years before he became the amoral laughingstock who would serve as Walter White's consigliere, the writers gave the prequel an unexpected lightness. But that didn't mean they couldn't still bring the throat-clenching heartbreak, as when former cop Mike Ehrmentraut reveals to his daughter-in-law the depths of his failure as a man and as a father. (AMC)

3. Documentary Now!- This was the most pleasant, unexpected surprise of the year. SNL vets Seth Meyers, Bill Hader and Fred Armisen (the latter two star) have put together this gently tweaking mockumentary of famed documentaries. Whether taking on "The Thin Blue Line," "Grey Gardens,"  the Vice documentaries or "History of the Eagles," each episode nails the vibe of the original.The most amazing part is how they manage to perfectly recreate the tone and look of the original docs, while both delicately skewering and honoring them. The best of the lot is the two-part season finale, " Gentle and Soft: The Story of the Blue Jean Committee," which traces the rise and fall of a one-hit wonder soft rock band. When it was over, I felt a wispy melancholy, wishing the (completely, hilariously fictional) duo could somehow mend fences. (IFC)

2. Last Week Tonight- The emergence of this show in the wake of Jon Stewart's soul-crushing departure reminded me of a moment from a kinda well-known movie series. All praise to John Oliver for filling the void and providing much-needed comedy catharsis in the face of the endless river of sewage that is today's politics and news environment. No disrespect to Trevor Noah or the new incarnation of Stephen Colbert. But the person who has taken the throne and who most consistently and satisfyingly punctures the hypocrisy of so many current events stories these days is the bespectacled leader of a church called Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption. It wasn't a surprise that Oliver was so funny and scathing. What was unexpected was how his show managed to break real news and do serious investigative journalism under the guise of humor. His 15-20 minute topical deep dives were like comedic mini-episodes of "60 Minutes." By the way, which of those two shows got an exclusive sit-down with Edward Snowden last year? (HBO)

1. Mr. Robot- I came to this show reluctantly. That was partly because it was made available on USA's website for about a month before it aired. Somehow that gave it a whiff of neediness for me. I also just had doubts that the network known for lighter fare like "Covert Affairs," "Burn Notice" and "Royal Pains" (all of which I liked) could pull off an intense hacker conspiracy thriller. But on the recommendation of several people I respect, I finally checked it out.

Man, did I miss the boat with my preconceptions. Not only did the show turn out to be like nothing else on USA, it was like nothing else on television. First off, "Mr. Robot" may be a hacker conspiracy thriller if you want to boil it down to a TV Guide description. But that only scratches the surface of this disorienting, challenging, emotionally exhausting mindfuck of a show.  And obviously based on its ranking here, that's a compliment.

The show centers on Elliot, a worker bee at a large internet security company by day and a hacker by night who is seduced into joining an anarchist collective called "fsociety" bent on destroying a massive company called ECorp (or "Evil Corp" as he calls it). But as the series progresses, almost everything we believe to be true about the story, including the motives of the hackers, the motives of the targeted company leaders, the actual nature of the hack, the true identities of several major characters and even the sanity of our protagonist, is called into question.

At one stunning, thrilling point late in the season, Elliot turns to us, the viewers, accuses us of being in on a conspiracy to get him and shoves the "camera" away. And even more amazing, his actions kind of make sense in context. 

Some have criticized the show for being a retread of "Fight Club," but those folks are missing the point. Yes, the show clearly used that film as part of its inspiration. But it doesn't try to hide that fact. In fact, it makes it obvious, so obvious at some points that it becomes clear that the homage element may just be one more twist in the maze and not the buried treasure many thought it was.

Through it all, Rami Malek as Elliot grounds everything in believability, taking a character that could have been an impenetrable cipher and giving him humanity and pathos even as he behaves in ways that most of us might find um... off-putting. Christian Slater, finally getting to star in a series that wasn't cancelled mid-season, takes advantage of the opportunity. And there are some delicious moments from Michael Cristofer (come back to me, "Rubicon"!), B.D. Wong and my favorite, Stephanie Corneliussen as Joanna, a stone cold corporate wife who makes Lady Macbeth seem like Donna Reed.

I have absolutely no idea where this show is headed but I can't wait to get back on the ride. (USA)