In a pretty uneventful year which we shall never, ever speak of again, there was some truly marvellous television broadcast. And also occasionally we had the time to binge watch stuff that's actually been airing for many seasons but gliding under the radar for many reasons.
So, to end the year on a frivolous note (an arbitrary listing of ultimately non-important stuff) but also a non-frivolous note (television, stories about other people, the arts and culture never being MORE important in keeping us entertained and distracted from the hellfire raging outside), here's my Top Thirty TV Shows of 2020...
30 Charlie Brooker's Antiviral Wipe - BBC
At 30 not necessarily because 29 other shows were better, more that I'd just like to get talking about Coronavirus and Brexit out the way early tbh. Charlie Brooker returned and made us realise what Black Mirror's success has come at a cost of. Not that we can blame him, but the Little Englander in me misses the days of Cunk and Shitpeas wanging on about unimportant stuff. A reminder of simpler times!
29 Friday Night Dinner - Channel 4
28 Grace and Frankie - Netflix
Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda continue to earn their 'Must Be Protected At All Costs' status in this (now six season long) gem of a sitcom, giving voice to an unconventional take on elderly ladies' lives in the traditional sitcom format. If they do decide on a spin off after the forthcoming final season, they could do worse than give June Diane Raphael who plays the exasperated and exasperating Brianna her own show.
It's not just the incredible plot (based on a true story of a woman suspected of making up rape accusations) that sets this mini-series apart, but the three core performances from Merritt Wever, Toni Collette and Kaitlyn Dever. It's not exactly Christmas feel good viewing obviously, but is well worth a watch for how it twists your sympathies backwards and forwards as new info is revealed and how the system deals with vulnerable women in good and (mostly) bad ways. I'd watch anything Wever is in now, based on this performance alone, which probably explains why I stuck with 'Run' until the bitter end!
26 The Good Place - Netflix
Although it was probably cursed to never be able to live up to THAT season one finale twist (which I still won't spoil despite it being more than long enough ago for you to have either watched it or read about it), The Good Place did more than a good job of wrapping up its run. And to be honest, the finale probably is far more touching now given what we've all been through in the year that followed its final airing in January. A sweet, silly, heartfelt show about relationships, life, death and everything in between whilst also giving the world the most entertaining Philosophy 101 tutoring we didn't even know we needed at the time!
25 The Masked Singer - ITV
Yes I'm deliberately transitioning from life, death, everything and Philosophy 101 into The Masked Singer, the most ridiculous, bonkers show on earth. Take over the top costumes, the likes of which haven't been seen since Animal Kwackers (look it up and see why Gen X was always going to be fucked up), clues to the singers' identity that wouldn't be out of place on 3-2-1, panelists convinced that Beyonce and Justin Bieber would be happy to spend several weeks in a glorified aircraft hangar in Zone 6 and then a genuinely exciting unmasking that gets the audience (and you at home) screaming 'Take It Off!' only to see Teddy Sheringham and Alan Johnson unmasked after all that!
It's also a show that simply has to be made for the domestic market - have you tried watching even the US version and having the tension build up to reveal someone you've never seen in your life before. Not even Rita Ora can drain its pure primetime joy. It also gave us this genuinely great performance by a Girls Aloud singer in a giant, regal bee costume.
24 Pennyworth - Amazon StarzPlay
Not everyone is a fan of the too-numerous comics-to-tv genre I know, but I've got a high threshold for them. Despite that even I was sceptical we needed a series about Batman's butler Alfred before Bruce was born. We've been there before with tv shows unable to use the more famous characters saved for the movies so only tangentially related to the comics you want to see on screen in the first place. However, Pennyworth may also have been pitched as 'We'd like to re-do The Avengers (no, not those ones) and The Saint but realise they'll never get picked up so let's throw in a few Batman references'. What you get is an evocative swinging 60s caper vibe that really does a great job of capturing the sometimes-bizarre plot and atmosphere of those classic shows.
Jack Bannon gives a charismatic turn as the title character (whisper future Bond?). Also, Paloma Faith is in it and she is tolerable!
So the 90's are so far in the past now that you can make generational flashback murder-mystery dramas out of them now, I'm afraid! White Lines takes the hedonism of the Ibiza scene and twists it into something dark and mysterious. Sadly cancelled after the one season, it wraps up solidly enough to tie up all the mysterious loose ends it needs to. Even if it sadly means we won't see more of Daniel Mays' star turn as hapless ex-DJ turned small time dealer, Laura Haddock as the woman in the centre of it all, or Nuno Lopes with his shirt off.
Season four of Pamela Arlon's comedy-drama study of three generations of women and girls continues to get more confident the longer it progresses. It's paced like nothing else on tv at the moment, where characters might just be hanging out and talking about stuff that isn't going to be paid off later, not foreshadowing some great truth, but that gives you emotional insight into the well-rounded characters created - who sometimes are spiteful, frustrating or upsetting for the sake of it but have each others' backs. None of which especially sells it as a comedy I have to admit, but it's genuinely one of the funniest and sweetest shows airing right now. The New Orleans-based stand-alone episode being one of the highlights of the year.
21 All Creatures Great and Small - Channel 5
A remake. A 'deliberate feel-good nostalgia-drama' to please the housewives. Airing on Channel 5. None of which ticks many of my 'must see tv' boxes I have to admit. But this is such a well made, acted, shot drama that you can't help fall for it. Samuel West is a stand out as Siegfried - almost making you forget Robert Hardy's original. Channel 5's only crime is not ordering more of the first season (hopefully they'll rectify it for season 2). The Beeb dropped the ball by not commissioning this (and perhaps explains the shows only downside - the absence of the seminal theme tune). Throw in a guest stint by the late Dame Diana Rigg and you get an idea of the quality on offer. Heart warming feel good tv at its best (with a touch of sadness to get the tear ducts flowing) - exactly what this year needs, let's be frank. And the recent Christmas special was exactly what you'd hope it would be.
20 Stargirl - Amazon Prime
As near a 'new Buffy' as we're likely to get anytime soon. Incorporating some of the more obscure DC Comics characters as far back as the 1940's, Stargirl was a fun exploration of the well-worn generation differences trope just with super powers and mortal enemies thrown in for good measure.
19 Work in Progress - Sky Comedy
At the start of the year everyone was probably in a much better place to watch a comedy about a lesbian who decides to postpone her suicide for 180 days after her therapist dies in her session. Doesn't sound like a barrel of laughs, but the bleak, absurd premise is just the start of a great character study of a queer woman and her queer friends. Abby McEnany writes and stars in the semi-autobiographical take on why we keep going in the bleakest of circumstances - but does so in a wryly comic way. That gay characters in a comedy are finally allowed to do daft, stupid, but nuanced things rather than be absolute basket-cases or saints, is just so refreshing.
18 Great Pottery Throw Down - Channel 4
Along with Strictly and Bake off there were few shows this year that you would say we absolutely _needed_ - The Great Pottery Throw Down was one of these for me. Rescued by Channel 4 (or perhaps just taken out of contractual hiatus a required number of years after Bake Off left the Beeb), Bake Off's pottery cousin was the feel good shot in the arm we all required before we get the real shot in the arm we need. The advantage this show has over Bake Off is that we can appreciate far more whether something is well done, rather than rely on Paul and Prue telling us it tastes good. Also - pottery is literal alchemy - it's just astounding how clay can make so many different forms - and learning what oxides would produce what colours was fascinating. Thankfully renewed with a fourth season on the way in a few weeks to save us all over again! Bring on The Crying Judge!
A lot of attention was on Sex Education season two as to whether the lightning in a bottle from the premier season was still there or if it was destined to be a bit...limp. The writers wisely expanded the reach of the show to focus on more of the supporting characters, with Aimee Lee Wood in particular being allowed time to shine with a tricky storyline. Gillian Anderson is as excellent as ever, but the young cast all step up to those levels. Sex Education is already proving to be as fertile a ground for young UK talent as Skins was before it - hopefully it'll have the stamina to stay around for some time yet.
Continuing where the first season left off (literally), The Boys - the last comics adaptation on the list I promise! - was as irreverent to your traditional comic tv reimagining as to the source material itself. It remained as violent and sick as season one but also stopped short of some of the more 2D elements of the Garth Ennis-penned comic it was based on. Sometimes it didn't quite work (several attempts to humanise members of The Seven other than Homelander) felt a bit premature in the scheme of the series but more often than not it worked - especially removing more of the sexist aspects of the comic. Plus - lots of exploding heads!
I would watch anything Billie Piper stars in, let's just make that clear from the off. Her trajectory from bubble-gum pop teen to beloved actress is basically a couple of steps away from Youngest National Treasure We Have. True, the premise of a young pop star/actress whose career is derailed when a compromising phone video goes viral, isn't a massive stretch (minus the video obviously!) but the emotional twists and turns required for the role certainly calls for a strong performance. Each episode is loosely based around the stages of grief and cleverly shot and produced to reflect each. The show, often humorously, demonstrates the hypocrisy at play in the media holding women to completely different standards to men. It also resists a neat and tidy ending for a far more thoughtful one. Whether there should be a season two is debatable, but another series starring Piper and co-written by Lucy Prebble would be great.
So often discussion regarding trans men and women gives everyone a voice except trans men and women themselves. Netflix takes what shouldn't be a bold, rare move but sadly is, and gives the community a platform to talk about their own experiences and histories. The parallels between 'trans discourse' today and 'gay discourse' in the 80's and 90's are made very clear here, as is the media's role in perpetuating the myth of 'transwomen as predators' so commonly used against the community today by left and right wingers alike. Actor and writer Jen Richards in particular articulates really well the perpetuated garlanding of awards given to straight men 'playing' transwomen such as Eddie Redmayne and why this is harmful and also in this clip puts into context some of the misogynistic arguments unfairly levied at transwomen. A really enlightening watch.
The second season of Pen15 really got a chance to dig into the two lead characters (played by writers/co-creators Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle) so much so that you often forget the 30+ year old actors are playing teenaged hyper-realised versions of themselves. There's a complete innocent charm to this coming of age tale with some stand out episodes (such as when they believe (hope?) they have developed witch powers, take leading roles in the school play and struggle with boys in essentially every episode). A unique, refreshing comedy that doesn't take itself too seriously but takes growing up very seriously indeed.
11 Gangs of London - Sky Atlantic
Quite often now, seasons of prestige drama are stretched out at least 3-4 episodes too long and as a result nothing much can seem to happen from one episode to the next. You definitely can't accuse Gangs of London of this. Early on you realise that each episode has at least one cinematic-level massive, violent action piece - the pinnacle of which being The One at the Country House - where describing it with mere words would never do it justice. There's also The One with The Hot Butcher, The One in the Office, The One with the Makeshift Torture Chamber and The One at the Abattoir - which makes it all sound like a mirror universe version of Friends. Sure it's unnecessarily violent at times but as often it's absolutely necessarily violent. It gets all a bit too twisty-turny at the end, which is a shame as a more straight forward ending may well have put it in the Top Ten - but I guess they realised they'd need a plot for season two after all.
Top notch casts don't always translate to great drama but, in this case, Mrs. America easily succeeds. Cate Blanchett got most of the plaudits as the baffling, full-of-contradictions Phyllis Scholarly but any of Rose Byrne, Uzo Aruba, Sarah Paulson, Tracey Ulman or Margot Martindale could have easily carried the series from their perspective. Focused on the birth of women's rights in the States it deftly showed the various perspectives of the women who fought for the cause and, in Schlafly's case, bizarrely fought against it. Unlike most historical dramatisations though, it took time to dig into the women's motivations rather than caricaturing them. Most interesting was the tension shown between women's rights and black rights (and also whether they are intersectional or separate) which is still rife to this day and also evident in the feminist movement against transwomen. In short, Mrs. America was a fascinating insight into a period of American history but also gave you plenty to consider about today. Cracking opening titles too!
Thankfully, we're already talking about Steve Pemberton and Reese Shearsmith's dark comedy anthology as a national treasure. Each series has given us masterclasses in how much can be done with the half hour comedy turn. Even with this, the fifth season, they found ways to shock and surprise, even if by now you are well-trained to be looking for the horrific twist that will come near the end. Highlights of this season were 'The Referee's a..' (where the referee being a...isn't what you think, 'Misdirection' which gives multiple examples of its title and 'Thinking Out Loud' a perfect Covid half hour of individual webcam chats that all come together dramatically at the end. If they just had 'cleverly put together' in their favour then they wouldn't feature so highly, the fact that they are by turn humorous, tragic and hilarious by turn just makes Inside No. 9 all the more special.
8 What We Do In the Shadows - BBC iPlayer
We can point to What We Do In the Shadows whenever anyone argues against another needless remake/reimagining of film or tv properties that really don't seem ready for such a remake. WWDITS takes the concept of the film, inept, pathetic vampires living in edge of city America film a documentary, and runs with it with a brand new cast. And whilst season one paid a bit too much homage to the original, this year the vampires really took flight (sorry) with a Matt Berry cry of 'BAAAAT!' Berry is the stand out but the whole core cast (and astute casting of guest appearances including Mark Hamill Himself) tip the show into the classic category. It's the Hamill-featuring episode which is the standout here, with Berry going deep undercover as Jackie Daytona Regular Human Bartender. And by deep undercover we mean jabs a toothpick in his mouth and becomes 'unrecognisable'.
There's a couple of shows on this list that are pretty difficult to review without spoiling what makes them so good in the first place, one's still to come and one is Devs. It's probably best to say 'talented IT programming guy gets accepted into a hyper-secretive, but much-sought-after role which isn't anything like it seems' and leave it at that. Except to say its some of the best shot television of the year and Nick Offerman definitely doesn't play to type.
6 Lovecraft Country - Sky Atlantic
5 The Mandalorian - Disney+
