Top 10 TV Shows of the Year

TV has pretty much been most of our salvation this year throughout the pandemic and muliple ongoing lockdowns, being stuck inside for months at a time and with most cinemas closed since March and only open briefly in the summer.

In 2020 we've had more streaming services enter the fray with the launch of Disney+ taking on the established titans of Netflix & Amazon Prime while the BBC has also produced some stunning shows of their own. In the US there is HBO Max and Hulu, while in the UK most their content appears on Sky Atlantic, and the fledgling Apple TV+ has continued to crank out quality if not quantity with all their original productions. As always spoilers below!

10. The Good Place

Created by Michael Schur

After 4 seasons and 54 episodes Michael Schur's 'The Good Place' finshed in January 2020 to almost universal critical and fan acclaim. After a stunning first season the show had some trouble keeping up the level of quality in seasons 2 & 3, however once it was announced season 4 would be the last and with the end in sight the scripting became tighter and the last season built to a very well received climax.

The Good Place is a very hard show to describe sometimes as its a fantasy comedy that deals with death, the afterlife, moral philosophy and ethics, yet the core main cast are so endearing and charming that we willingly follow them on their journey. Schur folds in many of his former Parks & Rec and Brooklyn 99 actors as guest stars like evil demon Shawn played by Marc Evan Jackon , Adam Scotts bad place demon Trevor, Jason Mantzoukas as malfunctioing AI Derrick and a scene stealing turn by Maya Rudolph as the interdimenionsal judge who our heroes spend most of the last season trying to convince that the current system of how you get into the good place is flawed and that they have a better idea. They don't but failure would result in the wiping out of all humanity and the judge starting humanity again.

Kristen Bell was the initial audience surrogate thrown as the jaded, cynical newbie to the new place who eventually rumbles at the end of season 1 that they've been in the bad place all season long. Ted Danson was never better as demon architect Michael who eventually bonded with the core 4 humans and as he worked with the longed to become human himself. William Jackson Harper's Chidi was the moral centre of the show always helping others and dealing with his own crippling issues of indecisiveness. Jameela Jamil & Manny Jacinto provided much of the comic relief as the mis matched former posh model and Floridian wanna be dancer/DJ/gamgster.

The undoubted breakout star of the show though was D'arcy Cardens amazing portrayal of Janet a good place AI that could answer any question you had and give you what ever you wanted within seconds, think of her as an interdimensional Alexa. As the series progressed she began a relationship with Jason (and created Derrick) and evolved like Michael to become more human, we also got to meet her bad place equivalent Bad Janet a black leather wearing, farting, sarcastic counterpoint to our regular Janet. As the seasons progressed we got many other Janet variations that showed off Cardens skill, but nothing compared to her emmy nominated performance in season 4's 'Janet's'.

In this ep it was literally the Janet show as Carden got to play 4 different versions of Janet onscreen against herself each with the characteristics of Eleanr, Chidi, Tahani & Jason, it was a comedy acting masterclass for which she should have won the emmy.

In a year of worldwide shit and negativity The Good Place was a breath of fresh air as it portrayed a positive message (much like Schurs earlier Parks & Rec) with likeable characters that wanted to be better people and was massively optimistic in its overall outlook on humanity.

9. Archer

Created by Adam Reed

After a COVID delay we finally got Archer Season 11 which saw Archer wake from his 3 season coma and find his place at a now well run agency under threat. In that time Cyril had buffed up and become a capable agent who takes lead on missions and Lana has married an older man she met only a month after Archer ended up in his coma.

The real strength to the season is showing how the team can be capable and confident without Archers influence and the whole ensemble gets a chance to shine while Archer struggles with his inital physical limitations and finding his place in the new team. That said the show fires on all cylinders and its not long before Archer is back to his dickish best.

8. Snowpiercer

Created by Jacques Lob, Benjamin Legrand & Jean-Marc Riochette (original graphic novel)

Based upon the 2013 film by Bong Joon-ho

TV show developed by Josh Friedman & Graeme Manson

The much delayed Snowpiercer TV adaptation finally made it to Netflix UK this year after a turbulent 3 years in development hell before it aired in the US on TNT, they were many stories of creative issues behind the scenes and even I thought 'why?" would they adapt this story into a TV format when the simple premise of the story is poor people fight their way throguh various classes to get to the rich people at the front of the train.

Despite all of the above and a plot twist (there is no Mr Wilford!!!) we can all see coming early on the show suceeds thanks to some great action set pieces, production design and the framing of the initial episodes as a murder mystery show. Jennifer Connelly takes the lead as Melanie Cavill the head of hospitality and voice of the train who while appears to be subservient to the first class passenegers we later find she is in fact running the train and could be responsible for the death of Wilford herself.

When a murder occurs in EP 1 Layton a former detective who is a 'tailie' (someone who rushed the train when it departed and is kept under armed guard at the tail of the train) is offered a chance to solve the murder and improve the conditions for his people. Layton is played by the superb Daveed Diggs of 'Hamilton' fame and he commands every frame of the screen when is present.

The show succeeds well on expanding the original movies discourse on the socio-economic politics in a post catastrophic world and the TV format works well giving us more time to focus on the inner workings on the train's society while occasionally throwing in a massive set piece where everyone has to band together to keep the train running. In a frost frozen world if the train stops everyone dies, yet no one has still explained why a constantly moving train was a good idea to keep the last vestiges of humanity alive?

As the season built to its climax Melanie was exposed as a fraud and just as her trial was taking place a 2nd train called 'Big Alice' appears out of nowhere docks with Snowpiercer and the envoy its none over than Melanies long thought dead daughter Alexandra.

Season 2 will be intriguing as it introduces a 2nd train with the very much alive (yet still to be seen) Mr Wilford set to be played by the always killable Sean Bean and it will be great to see the power dynamics between the two different trains and the envitable betrayals on both sides that will occur.

7. Cobra Kai

Created by Robert Mark Kamen

TV Adaptation by Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz & Hayden Schlossberg

I was late to the Cobra Kai party and completely ignored its initial run on Youtube Red back in 2018 despite a colleague banging on about how good it was probably because I was never that big a Karate Kid fan in the first place. I liked the initial concept of the show that after the big fight from the original film where the villain Johnny Lawrence loses we catch up with him 34 years later and see how that was a pivotal point in his life just as it was Daniel La Russo.

Still I ignored the show as the initial trailer didn't grab by attention and I wrongly thought that the show looked cheaply made and was not much more than a series of fan service shorts, boy was I wrong.

It took a pandemic (and several more recommendations) and the show being bought by Netflix (Season 3 trailer above) for me to give the show a try and I inhaled both seasons of the show in less than a week.

It is a glorious love letter to the 1980's and by making the villian of the original film the hero of the show it switches the roles making Daniel a little bit of a dick and giving our sympathies fully to the down on his luck Johnny. There is great use of the original films scenes to remind us of key events and how Cobra Kai is subverting those expectations while also gleefully nailing the 1980's tone better than many other attempts, it feels real because its the same actors from the original movies.

We have a 2nd generation including Daniel and Johnny's own kids and the story is nothing if predictable but its so entertaning on the way to the obvious conclusions you do not care. Of course Daniels daughter will be start a relationship with Johnnys star student and then his son, so we get to mix the original good and bad, hero vs villian storyline with a few more shades of grey in this show. None of the characters are truly bad that is until Martin Kove's John Kreese arrives to shake up the characters at the end of season 1, although Jacob Bertrands Hawk is a massively unlikeable dick in season 2.

Despite some questionable acting from the younger cast the show works and we even begin to see some hints of a reconciliation between Johnny & Daniel as season 2 progresses, the introduction of Kreese gives them a shared enemy despite Johnny's best attempts to help him.

Season 2 concludes with an a tour-de-force episode that starts with an almost 15 minute fight brutal fight scene between the two sensei's students that ends with Johnny's best student Miguel seriously injured and in hospital. The final scene teases that might see Elizabeth Shues Ali Mills character make an apparance in S3 especially as she is no longer in The Boys.

6. The Queens Gambit

Written by Walter Tevis

TV Adaptation by Scott Frank & Allan Scott

Again a show I ignored on its initial release - a 7 hour mini series about chess? no thanks, but once again the amount of postive recommendations from around the internet forced me to finally check it out.

Set in the 1950's / 60s's this is the story of Anya-Taylor Joys Beth Harmon, an orphaned who we follow on her journey from playing a janitor in the orphanges basement to the biggest chess tournaments in the world. Having never played chess or had any interest in it the show successfully bypasses the technical aspects of the game (though I'm told if you are a player its all technically correct) be the sheer force of the acting and Taylor Joy's performance, the expression on her face tells you how the match is going and the reaction shots of her usually outfoxed opponents tell you how good she really is.

This is just as much a show about chess as it is a young girls journey on dealing with addiction to drugs and alcohol which begins with young Beth being medicated at the orphange which allows her to visualise the chess moves in her head, without any stimulants although she is still a formidable player she needs that chemical dependency so function in every day life.

Taylor Joy is a mesmeric onscreen presence and I would be massively surprised if she isn't nominated let alone win the Emmy for 'Best Actress' for 'The Queens Gambit'

5. Gangs of London

Created by Gareth Evans

Sky have a patchy record of producing their own quality shows despite the money they usually throw at them but from Gangs of London opening scene I was hooked. If you start your show with a man being dangled off a skyscraper then being set on fire its a fairly big mission statement and Gangs of London easily makes claim to being the most violent show of 2020.

This is in no small part to the creative team behind the camera spearheaded by The Raid's Gareth Evans splitting directing duties with Corin Hardy & Xavier Gens and if you want great action scenes you leave Evans to do what he does best.

Initially I wasn't sold on the idea of the show and anything involving gangsters and London in recent memory will be overshadowed by comparisons to the work of Guy Ritchie and I was expecting lots of horrible 'Mockney' stereotypes and typically terrible gangster vernacular.

The story begins with the head of the Wallace crime family (Colm Meaney) being murdered by some Welsh travellers who have no idea who he is, this creates a power vacuum in London destabilising the fragile alliance that holds the captials criminal gangs together. Many worry that Sean Wallace (Joe Cole) the heir apparent is not savvy enough to run the business and is too focused on revenge.

Where the show really succeeds is painting a multifaceted portrait of the various different ethnicites that make up Londons criminal underground from the Wallace family's Irish roots, Albanian mafia and Kurdish freedom fighters, Pakastani drug cartels and Welsh travellers, its not just all white wanna be gangters like the majority of Richies stereotypical output.

The standout show of the season is episode 5 which fills in the side story between episodes 2 & 4 where we follow the story of Darren the young traveller who is on the run and hiding out after killing Finn Wallace in the first episode. A group of Danish hitmen are sent out to kill Darren and pretty much everyone else in the Wales by the end of this episode. Evans directs a masterful siege episode where the seemingly unstoppable team of mercenaries wipe out anyone and everything to get to Darren, the action in this episode is next level and just confirms that Evans is the best working action direcor in the world currently.

The breakout star of the show is Sope Dirisu's Elliot Finch an undercover cop who works his way into the Wallace organisation as an enforcer for Sean and becomes part of his trusted inner circle after saving his life. His introduction and peformance in an early bar fight scene is breathataking and as the episodes go by and we learn more of his backstory especially when we discover he is an undercover cop, he becomes more and more the co-lead and focus of the show. Throughout the series even once learning he is undercover you are never quite sure if he is fully on the straight and narrow once he develops a relationship with one of the gangs daughters and bonds with her son. In the season finale Elliot goes on step further and in a shocking twist kills Sean and is recruited by a shadowy organistation setting up season 2 with Elliot firmly as our lead character.

4.) Ted Lasso

Created by Bill Lawrence, Jason Sudeikis, Brendan Hunt & Joe Kelly

Arguably Apple TV+'s show of the year on paper this show should never had worked. Developed from an advert Sudeikis did for NBC's coverage of English Premeier League Football in the states he portrayed a one note typical American who knows nothing about English fooball or culture and there was nothing in those initial sketches that suggested a 10 episode run on Apple TV+. Thankfully Ted Lasso is one of the warmest and best comedies of the year and you can see producer Bill Lawrence's fingerprints all over the show and it reminds you of his previously great show 'Scrubs'.

Ted Lasso (Sudeikis) and his colleague coach Beard (Brendan Hunt) are tasked to take over struggling fictional premier league team Richmond United despite having no previous experience managing a 'soccer' team. We learn early on that the hiring of Lasso is all part of a plan to get the team relegated orchestrated by chairwoman Rebecca Welton (Hannah Waddingham) to get revenge on her ex-husband and former owner Rupert Mannnion (Anthony Head).

In the hands of lesser performers and writers this show could have been cringworthy, embarassing and completely predictable, but just like the best episodes of Scrubs despite being a comedy the show is not afraid to take a dramatic moment like when we find out Teds reason for taking the job in the first place.

What makes the show work is Sudeikis's affable performance despite a constant barrage of abuse from day 1 and the whole stadium calling him a wanker. However his innate goodness and positivity begin to spread to all around him from the boardroom to the pitch, initially most of his players hate him especially fading star Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein) and cocky upstart Jamie Tartt (Phil Dunster)

The show works so well as almost every character on the show has a well written character acr, Ted slowly wins over everyone he encounters with his positive ways, Chairwoman Rebecca eventually realises her mistake and belatedly works with Ted. Special mention goes out to Juno Temple's character slightly aging model Keely Jones who begins the show as just the reguarly cheated on girlfriend of Jamie Tartt before taking control of her career and starting a new relationship with Roy towards the end of the season. Kitman Nathan (Nick Mohammed) goes from the butt of the players jokes to becoming intergral to Ted's learning of the game and offically becoming a coach at the end of the season.

Unfortunately Richmond suffer a narrow loss on the last day of the season relegating them despite Rebecca and Ted being on the same page and all the players being behind Ted at the end. However this sets up the season 2 arc where I'm sure Ted will get the team promoted but I forsee a boardroom battle where Rupert regains control of the club putting Teds future in danger to set up the already comissioned season 3.

3. Ozark

Created by Bill Dubuque & Mark Williams

Always criminally underrated critically and thought of as a Breaking Bad clone Season 3 of Ozark proved once again it is the heir apparent to Breaking Bad while being much funnier and consistently one of the best dramas on TV.

Ozark is the story of the Byrde family Martin & Wendy (Jason Bateman & Laura Linney) and how Marty's job as a money launderer for a Mexican drug cartel puts his family in danger as they relocate to the Ozark's to prove to cartel head Omar Navarro (Felix Solis) that he should not kill them for Marty's partners ripping him off in the first episode of season 1.

Their initial plan of buying up local businesses and laundering through them does not go smoothly with many of the locals proving much more intelligent that the Byrdes give them credit for and young crime protege Ruth Langmore (Julia Garner) begins working for Marty. It doesn't take long before the Byrdes are caught up in all kinds of additional issues with the warring Langmore and Snell crime families in Missouri, as the first two seasons progress we see Wendy taking more of a role in the business and wanting to expand their operations while Marty is planinng how they can get out from under the cartels and escape back to a normal life.

In season 3 Wendy and Marty reguarly plot against each and go behind eah others backs with their machinations even both openly bribing their same therapist, Wendy meets and gets closer to Navarro while Marty gets kidnppaed and interrogated by Navarro while initially agreeing to cut a deal with the FBI. All of this is compounded by the arrival of Wendy's bi-polar brother Ben Davis who begins a relationship with Ruth then goes off his meds while creating chaos everywhere and the constant threat of Darlene Snell and the remaining Langmore's creep in the background.

Everyone is brilliant in Ozark, but Julia Garner has won the best supporting actress Emmy 3 years in a row for her stunning portrayal of Ruth Langmore with every expletive that comes out her mouth a work of art. Ozark is compltely unpredictable and unlike many successful shows Ozark will end with a 4th and final series next year.

2.) The Boys

Created by Garth Ennis & Derrick Robertson

Adapted for TV by Eric Kripke

What if all superheroes were grown in a lab by the government without their knowledge and off camera were largely psychotic rapists and murderers? Well who would police these superbeings? Thats the pitch for The Boy's based on Garth Ennis's classic graphic novel series and in the hands of Supernatural creator Eric Kripke the show subverts the superhero genre to great and usually bloody effect.

Karl Urban's Billy Butcher leads 'The Boys' a black ops funded team who recruit Hughie Campbell (Jack Quaid) to his team when Hughie's girlfriend is accidentally nonchantly by superhero A Train (think the Flash, but a twat). Butchers main target is to take down 'The Seven' the premier superhero team manged and grown by multinational corporation Vought.

As we learned in season 1 Homelander (Anthony Starr) leader of The Seven and a murderous Superman spoof raped Butchers wife Becky and then she disappeared only for us to discover in the season finale she is alive and well and raising Homelander's son in secret unbeknownst to both Billy & Homelander until they both find out in the finale.

This breaks massively from the source material where the superbaby kills Becky in childbrith and Butcher has to beat the foetus to death with a lampstand, yes even somethings still won't get filmed even on streaming, so with Homelanders bastard son still alive season 2 took us on a different journey that ultimately ended in the same place with her son accidentally killing her while trying to protect her from Homelander in the season 2 finale, this means Butcher still has the same motivation to hate 'Supes' that he had in the graphic novels and by the end of season 2 many of the storylines have lined up once again with the orginal story.

What makes the show better than the source material is that all the characters be it 'The Boys' or the 'Supes' are all layered well developed characters where as the supes were one note cliches in the comics.

We delve much more into the backstory of Frenchie and The Female in season 2 and we continue the on-off relationship between Hughie and Annie (Starlight from The Seven). Special shoutouts go to two of the outstanding villains in the show, firstly the gender-flipped nazi Stormfront (Aya Cash) using the power of social media to carve out a niche for herself in the Seven before we discover her Nazi origins. By gender-flipping the character the writers enable Stormfront to have a relationship with Homelander which even he shies away from once he learns she is a Nazi.

And of course no show would be complete without Giancarlo Eposito as the shadowy villain Mr Edgar the head of Vought industries, Gus Fring the chicken man himself is defintely pulling all the strings as we discover throguhout the show.

By the end of season 2 Stormfront has been killed (we think?) and exposed by her Nazi past being posted on social media, also Maeve threatens Homelander with exposing his role in the crashed plane from season 1 unless he leaves everyone alone and we end with a fragile truce of mutually assured destruction.

The big twist is finding that long term opponent of Vought Congresswoman Victoria Neuman is a supe herself and she has been responsbile for all the heads exploding throughout the seasson, though we still have no idea of her motivations. Hughie and Starlight finally get back together but Hughie tired of the bloodshed decides to leave The Boys and work somewhere where he can make a difference like starting a job working for Congresswoman Neuman, oh dear Hughie I don't think the job's going to go well or last long!

What we know for season 3 is that longtime Supernatural alumi Jensen Ackles will be joining the cast as Solider Boy, The Boy's take on Captain America the first supe made by Vought and I imagine there will be much more story given than the source material again and many many Supernatural in jokes for us to enjoy

1. The Mandalorin

Created by John Favreau & Dave Filloni

Baby Yoda has a name, Boba Fett returns and Timothy Olyphant plays yet another Marshall, its fair to say that the 2nd series of the Mandalorin has exceeded all expectations of Season 1 and walked the line perfectly between fan service and new ideas.

The season 1 finale ended with Mando and Grogu (yes, thats Baby Yoda's name so deal with it) escaping the attack by Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Epositio, claiming 1st and 2nd villian spots this year) and travelling off to search for Grogu's people with Mando promising to deliver him to his own kind.

The usual complaints with season 1 were that the episodes were too short (never a bad thing leaving your audience wanting more) and that they followed an episode of the week format that became slightly repetitive in that each week Mando travels to a new planet looking for help and has to help someone defeat an enemy before getting some new information and moving on. However as fans of the wider Star Wars universe we want to spend time in this universe and the introduction of characters for only one episode pays off later when they team up with Mando again.

Some of season 2 highlights have to be the return of Boba Fett who reclaims his armour from Mando, the introduction of Ahsoka Tano (who already has her own spin off series), the kidnapping of Grogu by Moff Gideon and the daring rescue where Mando teams up with Boba Fett & Bo-Katan to save Grogu in the season finale.

Spoilers for the finale below.

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Are you sure... I mean its been all over the internet by now

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Well okay then... in the midst of being surrounded by a squadron of dark troopers a lone x-wing lands aboard Moff Gideons cruiser, a figure in a dark cape wielding a green light saber and black clothed hand...

In an invertion of the scene from Rogue One its only bloody a CGI de-aged Luke Skywalker coming onboard cutting a swathe of destruction through the platoon of dark troopers and force crushing them into oblivion. This is prime Luke Skywalker only a few years removed from the end of Jedi who is a Jedi master and takes absolutely no shit saving the day.

But then the emotion in the scene where Mando removes his helmet as he says goodbye to Grogu and hands him over to Luke is off the chart, the scene is channeling ET and I doubt there was a dry eye in many houses at this tender scene that closed the episode.

And theres more a post credits sting sees Boba Fett and Fennec Shand return to Jabba the Hutts palace on Tattoine where they kill everyone including Return of the Jedi's Bib Fortuna and now Fett seems to be the new boss of Tattoine with Shand at his side as a title reveals 'The Book of Boba Fett:Coming December 2021. Yes, another Star Wars spinoff show and this one is most defintely the Boba Fett show!

Where does that leave Mando know, it seems inconceivable that the show will no longer have Grogu in it and I'm assuming he will have to return to Mando's side at some point in season 3. Perhaps we get to see the scene where a young Ben Skywalker kills Lukes students but somehow Grogu survives and has to be reunited with Mando.

Mando looks like he is going to get caught up in the politics of ruling Mandalore and a potential clash with Bo-Katan seems on the cards after Moff Gideon manipulates Mando into taking ownership of the Dark Saber meaning Bo-Katan has to defeat Mando to claim it.

If even half of Disney+new Star Wars content is as good as this season of the Mandalorin I honestly don't think people will care too much about new Star Wars movies when they can tell many more longform stories that are interconnected MCU style over multiple shows truly creating a Star Wars universe, no pressure on Jon Favreau then!