Bob's Burgers: Season 5
At last, I've caught up with Bob's Burgers. It's a great show! But I've got very little to say about the fifth season that wasn't covered when I talked about Seasons 3 or 4 a while back. This is a show that started out strong, but still took a few years to hit its peak. And here we are, still riding that sustained peak. Will it find another level in Season 6? Will it begin to show some signs of age? I mean, animated sitcoms have broken standard longevity scales entirely. At six years of age, Bob's Burgers is older than most shows on TV, but still in its relative infancy compared to Family Guy and South Park and, of course, The Simpsons.
The Leftovers: Season 2
The critical consensus is that The Leftovers got just so much better in its second season. I understand that, but I don't necessarily personally agree. Then again, I absolutely loved this show the first time around. That first season burned through the entirety of the show's source material - Tom Perrotta's 2011 novel - and as a result the creators had completely free reign here in year two. The result was a significantly weirder Lost-like run with scattered points of view and all kinds of supernatural stuff at play. I dug the hell out of it. Whether or not a third season will happen is unclear; the show's ratings are horrible, and it isn't clear that the show has a path forward from its second season finale anyway. Still, here's hoping for a third - and final - season.
Red Oaks: Season 1
Dang. Transparent aside, has Amazon made a genuinely "good" TV show yet? Red Oaks was a half-decent ten-episode take on 1980s comedies. You've got a kid coaching tennis at a country club. His friend is a fat stoner. His girlfriend is a smoke show, but he hits it off so well with the offbeat girl who happens to be the daughter of the owner of the country club where he works. His father is a Jewish stereotype who wants him to become an accountant like him. I dunno, the show was fine, but none of it really felt memorable in any way. Isn't that a pretty damning indictment? Especially of the first season of something?
Scream Queens: Season 1
This went about as well as I should have expected a Ryan Murphy comedy-horror series to go. At the very least, watching this allowed me to finally ignore American Horror Story from the very beginning instead of ditching another season of that mess halfway in. Like everything Ryan Murphy has created, this show had some absolutely hilarious moments inconsistently scattered amid a whole slew of nonsensical plots, terrible writing, unintentionally cringe-worthy scenes, and inconsistent tonal shifts. It was a bad show, is what I'm saying. But still one I'm glad I watched. I think.
Trailer Park Boys: Season 8
Seems like a seven-year hiatus did everyone some good! This was easily my favorite season of Trailer Park Boys since Season 4. Everyone was a little fatter and older, but it's an impressive feat that they got essentially the entire original cast back together; we've seen how hard that can be for shows like Arrested Development. Then, of course, this show ain't that one, and these actors absolutely are not Michael Cera, Jeffrey Tambor, Will Arnett, et al.
Moonbeam City: Season 1
Here's another middling-at-best offering from Comedy Central. This one is an Archer knock-off with a beautiful 1980s aesthetic. Honestly, the look of the show was all that kept me watching for the first few weeks. By the very end of its first season, Moonbeam City seemed to have figured out its voice a little bit - more Will Forte, less Rob Lowe - but it had also been banished to a time slot of 1:00am and there's almost no way it sticks around for Season 2. Eh, oh well. Not a big loss.
You're the Worst: Season 2
Here's one of the biggest "sophomore steps forward" I saw on TV this year. Last season, You're the Worst was little more than a romantic comedy with some staunchly anti-rom-com lead characters. The premise was essentially, "here are two shitty people way too fucked up for traditional relationships - aren't they perfect for each other?" Season 2 didn't grind the same plot through the gears, though; it decided to explore what would happen if one of these characters came down with an elongated episode of substantial, crippling depression. Strong stuff! And props to the show as well for really fleshing out its to major supporting characters, giving each of them legitimate season arcs that had nothing to do with one another or the two leads.
The League: Season 7
Seven years ago (wow!) when I first heard about The League I assumed the worst. A comedy about fantasy football? Nope! Imagine my surprise - it's probably documented on this blog - when The League turned out to be one of the most legitimately funny shows on television with a deep and talented cast. At any rate, here in its seventh and final season, I think The League finally sank lower than my original expectations. There's nothing wrong with running a low-stakes comedy like this one right into the ground, but it's still never pretty when such a thing happens.
South Park: Season 19
I don't think I'll ever stop watching South Park as long as its on TV, which is why it's so nice to see the show turn in a second straight non-terrible season. I liked last year's more than this one, but this one was just fine. A little sporadic and less nuanced than some of the all time great South Park episodes, but solid all the same.
Transparent: Season 2
Overrated? Absolutely. But Transparent is still a pretty good show that got even better in its second season. Season 1 was largely concerned with Maura, her transition, and the reaction of those around her to that transition. In Season 2, Maura almost takes a back seat to her own children, whose messed up love lives dominate a number of A- and B-stories throughout the ten episode run. A great show, all in all - but perhaps the only such show on all of Amazon Prime's streaming service.
Fargo: Season 2
Dynamite second season that lived up to and in many ways surpassed the first go-round. I'd say more, but everyone reading this has either already seen Fargo or knows they need to do so. Get out there! Go! This show is just terrific.
Trailer Park Boys: Season 9
At long last, I'm caught up live with Trailer Park Boys, which really just means that going forward I'll only have to watch one season a year. Will I finally be able to differentiate seasons, given the gap between them? Or will a non-binging approach only serve to further the idea that this show is really only "kinda good" at best? Probably the latter! Anyway, this ninth season was about as good as the eighth - which, again, was better than a number of the previous ones!
The Man in the High Castle: Season 1
Oh, Amazon. Transparent is a breakout success and Catastrophe is a tight little comedy in its own right, but holy shit - where are the quality hour-long dramas? This one's a high concept adaptation from a book in which the United States lost World War II and is currently administered by the Japanese on the West Coast and the Germans everywhere east of the Rockies. It had its moments, but never really grabbed me. Still arguably the best drama Amazon has ever put out. So, there's that!
Homeland: Season 5
It could be a byproduct of my binging, but I didn't love this season of Homeland. Last season felt like a reboot of sorts and a return to glory for the show, but this one just felt a lot more like 24. I want to be invested in the adventures of Carrie and Saul again, and I want Quinn to do more than knock vigorously on death's door for an entire season. Holy shit, pal. Retire!
Jessica Jones: Season 1
It took me a little while to get into it, but I was pleasantly surprised by Marvel's latest. I never got into all of the Marvel comic adaptations - liked The Avengers and one of the Iron Man movies, but always felt a little overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of the studio's output. But this was good! And not super Marvel-y. Like, way darker than most Marvel stuff. And better! I'll check out Season 2.
The Affair: Season 2
I love this show. I think it's one of the most overlooked series in the wide open TV landscape right now. It's a soap opera and murder mystery told from alternating points of view. I'm running out of steam and don't have much more to say, but yeah - check it out.
Happy 2016 everybody!
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