The Best TV Shows of the Year

We’ve done the Best Characters, the Best Scenes, the Best Episodes, and it’s now time to say goodbye to 2015 for good with the overall “Best TV Shows of the Year.” This is the first year that I can honestly say TV was significantly better than the movies, and the movie lover in me is sad to admit that…

Second Runner-Up: Homeland…The fifth season was almost as good as the 4th season set in Afghanistan. By going to Berlin (the first American show to be filmed there), the show explored timely topics of Syrian refugees, ISIS-linked European terrorism, and a hacking scandal that put the focus on a real debate between civil liberties and safety. But the weird thing about “Homeland” is that the better it gets, the less attention it receives and even though the 4th and 5th seasons have been by far the best ones, they’ve also been the least rewarded by critics’ groups.

First Runners-Up: Game of Thrones/Outlander/Vikings…It was a great year for historical epics (some real and some fantastical). If the competition weren’t so strong, any of these three would definitely be in the top ten.

10. Most Creatively Improved: The Leftovers/South Park…”The Leftovers” went from a dull first season that was trying too hard for dramatic “credibility” into a nimble, surprisingly excellent show that was the best exploration of the unknown this year. Likewise, “South Park” is a show I quit regularly watching more than a decade ago, but by having a season long theme of political correctness, the show delivered its funniest and most cutting satire in years. Standalone, but inter-connected episodes about Kaitlyn Jenner acceptance (“Stunning and Brave”), attitudes towards policing (“Naughty Ninjas”), the war on reality (“Safespace”), fear mongering of immigrants (“Where My Country Gone?”), and the gentrification of South Park all flowed seamlessly into the season’s real target: a Matrix-esque world of sentient ads that can pass themselves off as people. The idea that political correctness may be a form of gentrification and the politically correct may just be pawns of a corporate culture is every bit as thought-provoking as any drama this year.

9. Best Pulp: Banshee…By this point, you’ve either experienced the most exciting show on television or you haven’t. “Banshee” is B-movie pulp created by an A-grade novelist (Jonathan Trooper who normally writes books like “This is Where I Leave You”), and that juxtaposition is what makes the show so well-crafted, from the cast of colorful characters to the nail-biting action sequences like this year’s heist on a crooked army base.

8. Most Underrated Historical Fiction: Hell on Wheels…Six seasons in, AMC’s Western is finally the show it was always meant to be. And it turns out that the story of America’s railroad system—-either built or opposed by Native Americans, former confederate soldiers, Indian-hating Union soldiers, freed slaves, Irish immigrants, Scandinavian psychopaths, hostile Mormons, and Chinese laborers—-is really the story of America itself.

7. Best “Reality” Show: Nathan For You…So this isn’t really a reality show so much as a comedy where he helps small businesses in inspired and often hilariously elaborate ways, but the people’s reactions are real. Not since “Borat” has an ace comedian gotten this much mileage out of interacting with real people. Special mention to the ambiguous Nathan himself, who is equal parts angelic helper and devilish mischief maker.

6. Best Allegory: Fargo…The second season travels back to 1979 where the mom and pops of America were facing threat of extinction by corporate conglomerates, even in crime syndicates. I didn’t like the last two episodes of the season that much—-mostly Hanzee’s unrealistic decision to betray the Gerhardts—-but there’s no denying that this perfectly captures an America that feels like it’s spiraling out of control (Jimmy Carter’s “moral malaise” speech) only to turn to Reagan’s “optimism” that may be even worse. Funny as hell, beautifully shot, suspenseful, and with perhaps the year’s best cast.

5. Best Spin-Off: Better Call Saul…To call this show the best spin-off since “Frasier” is both accurate and a back-handed compliment. Equal parts hilarious and suspenseful, “Saul” has the best friendship on television—-cool senior citizen hitman Mike and the titular huckster—-and finds ways to tweak even little moments with surprise. With the man soon to be known as “Saul Goodman,” we’ve found a character worthy of Mark Twain: a con-man struggling for legitimacy before realizing that the legitimate world is even more of a scam. When the small-time lawyer Jimmy McGill realizes there’s no reason to even want respectability, it’s equal parts heart-rending and thrilling since we know we’re witnessing the birth of the iconic “criminal lawyer.” A man who seemed to actually play by right by his clients…even as he was helping them break every law in the book.

4. Best Send-Off: Justified…I never thought I would miss the backwoods of rural coal country Kentucky, but I’m sad to see Harlan County go. Even if the hero was never the big draw of this series, the colorful, sympathetic villains (like anti-hero Boyd and Sam Elliot’s marijuana mogul), masterful dialogue, and vividly drawn supporting cast were truly hard to say goodbye to. It helped that they did it with a pitch-perfect series finale that took my top spot for “best episode of the year.”

3. Best Surrealistic Experience: Man Seeking Woman…Hilarious and dream-like, this shockingly ignored series (few people have even heard of it, let alone seen it) takes dating situations literally—-a blind-date with an actual troll or being set up by your mom with an actual robot—-without ever making them feel cheap or gimmicky. Well made, emotionally compelling, and always surprising, this show has more to say about dating in 2015 than Girls, Masters of None, and Broad City combined.

2. [Tie] Best Medical Shows, Ever: The Knick and Getting On…In my opinion, there has never been a truly great doctor show, but all that changed in 2015 with the best medical comedy ever made (Getting On) and the best medical drama ever made (The Knick). “Getting On” manages to be the worthy heir of the BBC’s version of The Office, and actually a lot better since it mingles more laugh-out-loud laughs with scathing critiques about medical ethics and hospital “business.” While “The Knick” is the richest, most well-made drama on television, and the rare show working on that extra level: the characters don’t just have depth, they have ideologies.

What I loved is the way that the character’s ideologies—-the empathy-less Dr. Gallinger’s WASP supremacy theory, Dr. Algernon’s awakening black consciousness, and addict breakthrough-seeker Dr. Thackeray’s desperation to “cure” drug addiction so he can cure himself—-shape them and reveal more about them than they realize. The series has rich production values, honeyed cinematography, “alive” editing and musical score, and the season finale featured the most shocking scene of a series this year. I have seen shows flirt with that idea, but “The Knick” is the first one to actually do it. And I think that says it all. [Note: I went back and forth on these two being the number one pick or the actual number one pick, so take this as a recommendation that all three are equally worth watching.]

1. Best Realism: Show Me a Hero…Although any show in the top 5 could just as easily be the best of the year, I picked “Hero” because I think it should be shown in every Civics class in America. It follows the fight over a housing project getting built in a conservative Yonkers neighborhood, and the political turmoil that follows. There’s a real “All hell’s breaking loose” vitality behind the protester scenes, but the series reminds you of Simon’s too-true core belief: America is shaped by the blowhards and chest thumpers, but things only get done by the bureaucrats. An open-endorsement of political “insiders” who actually get things done rather than reformers who can’t is a subtly subversive viewpoint to take in 2015.