I watch a lot of TV. Honestly, maybe too much. That’s certainly a possibility; I won’t discount it.

I track everything that I watch on my Trakt, both movies and TV shows - I know that a lot of “movie people” use Letterboxd but its nonexistent support for TV shows turns me off. I watch more TV than movies at this rate. The social aspect of Letterboxd doesn’t really appeal to me either - though I suppose that me posting this blog post implies there’s some desire for recognition on my end.

So here’s the top 10 shows that I watched this past year. I realize that 2023 is over a month gone now, and “year in review” in February is late as hell, but deal with it. This blog is brand new and I don’t want to wait another year to do this for 2024. Note that this isn’t exclusive to shows that came out in 2023 - there were a few shows here that were on my backlog that I had been looking forward to watching that came out in previous years. Shows that note a specific season here specifically indicate that I watched that season in 2023 - it’s an ongoing show that released that specific season in 2023.

In no particular order:

Better Call Saul

Better Call Saul

I started watching Breaking Bad in the winter of 2022 and then followed that up with Better Call Saul in 2023. Maybe the former just appealed to my sense of humor more, but I enjoyed seeing Jimmy get up to his hijinks more than I enjoyed following Walt and Jesse. Being a prequel show, it has the luxury of working within a preestablished universe but also being constrained by that. However, I think that Better Call Saul does a stellar job of explaining how a honest lawyer evolves into the lying, morally dubious, and outlandish character that Walt and Jesse meet. Following in the footsteps of its predecessor, it has impeccable character moments that stand with the best of them. I knew that Better Call Saul was well regarded going in, and it did not disappoint.

Severance

Severance

Severance took a while to click for me. The set design is fantastic, and it makes the most of its 8 episodes of the first (and so far only) season with a tense, tightly plotted, unsettling experience that leaves the viewer guessing. In the beginning it was almost too unsettling and disorienting to where I couldn’t get into it, but when everything came together at the end, it was well worth it. Season 2 is in production now, and I really want to see where they go from here. I don’t often say “holy shit” verbally when watching something because I typically watch things alone, but I remember saying that when I watching Severance and everything clicked.

The Owl House

The Owl House

A lot of the time, I watch shows that have a relation to something I’ve watched previously. Most common among these are sequels, prequels, and spinoffs, as well as other shows set in the same extended universe (Star Wars, Marvel, and Star Trek come to mind). Other times it’s because I liked what the cast and crew did previously. Other times, it’s on the recommendation of either someone I know, or someone whose opinion I trust (for example, some YouTube channels deal with this stuff, so I’m kind of plugged in a bit into what’s going on in the world). The Owl House fulfilled the latter two boxes for me when I started watching in April 2023. I’ve been a fan of Alex Hirsch’s work ever since Gravity Falls, so seeing that he was involved with this show (and that a lot of the rest of the crew, including creator Dana Terrace, were also involved with Gravity Falls) gave me a promising sign that piqued my interest. I’d heard about the show going in because of the hype surrounding the show later in its run, and it wasn’t lost on me that I was starting the show right as it was airing its final episode. So I did already go in with high expectations. I’m personally wary of having high expectations - one of my personal mantras is one I picked up from the tech YouTuber Marques Brownlee (MKBHD), that “expectations are the thief of joy” - so I try to go into things with a neutral and open mind, or at least as neutral and open as I can. I’m not immune to hype cycles, and I’ll be the first to admit that.

And yet, The Owl House completely blew away my expectations. My sky-high expectations, were, somehow, exceeded by what on the surface was just another kids’ show on Disney Channel, but at its core is a story about accepting who you are, bursting at the seams with heart and charm. It might sound like I’m laying it on a little thick, and to be honest I might be, but it’s rare that I’m this emotionally impacted by a show. I can get invested in a show just like the rest of them, but normally that takes time (for example, I teared up when I reached the end of Adventure Time, but that took time for me to grow attached to the characters) - for this show to accomplish that in just under a week is astonishing. I cried at the end - that doesn’t happen often. For a few days after I finished the show, I just had to emotionally recover from it a little, and I wasn’t really ready to watch anything else just yet.

The Owl House has it all - stellar character development, tightly plotted storytelling, a wonderful fandom, LGBTQ+ representation, a message with heart, a cast and crew that clearly gave it their all, great humor, and more. It’s probably my favorite show of the year. While it’s not a perfect show (in my opinion, nothing ever is), it’s a crowning achievement, especially so given the conditions under which the crew had to end the show thanks to Disney only granting the crew a compressed third season of three specials due to a lack of faith in the creative process. That the show managed to stick the landing this well is a monumental achievement. Nevertheless - The Owl House is a fantastic show all by itself, regardless of the circumstances of its creation.

Succession

Succession

Succession won at the Emmys this year which was no surprise to me. HBO has a track record for putting out fantastic dramas - Game of Thrones, The Sopranos, etc. all have their place in pop culture and Succession is another one of their hits. I didn’t get on the train for this show till right after it ended, continuing my streak from The Owl House of starting critically acclaimed shows right after they end. But Succession was fantastic, watching a group of awful rich people tear each other down in their struggle to get to the top. Each of the Roys are fantastic characters that go beyond just being cardboard cutouts and imitations of real life people. Waystar Royco is obviously a stand-in for the Murdochs’ Fox, but my god it was satisfying to watch this show. To quote from my thoughts that I wrote after I initially finished watching the show:

I can’t tell whether it’s character development or extreme avoidance of character development, but whatever it is, it goddamn works.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (Season 2)

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Strange New Worlds continues to be the best of the currently airing Star Trek shows. It encompasses that episodic Star Trek goodness with all the production value of modern Star Trek. I was already impressed by the stellar Season 1, and I was mildly concerned about whether the show would continue that hot streak. By god, they did. The combination of a charismatic and compelling bridge crew with fantastic storytelling strikes again. Season 2 is more ambitious than the first season, with a sense of experimentation around the entire season. Each episode has a specific “mission” - courtroom episode, comedy episode, musical episode, time travel crossover, and so forth. And yet Strange New Worlds manages to make it all work in a coherent manner that strengthens the season as a whole, providing insightful commentary on current issues in a way that Star Trek is so fond of doing. If The Next Generation is the show that defined Star Trek in the 80s and 90s, Strange New Worlds fulfills that function in the 2020s with an iconic crew, iconic stories, and an iconic ship.

Foundation (Season 2)

Foundation

I’ll be the first to admit that I haven’t read Asimov’s Foundation - so my impressions of the show aren’t colored by how accurate an adaptation this is to the original book. And by all accounts, it isn’t the most accurate adaptation. Normally that would bother me, but somehow Foundation in its second season makes it work. The original stories developed for this series are absolutely stellar and kept me on the edge of my seat. In season 2, the Empire and Cleon stuff continues to be the highlight of the entire show, stepped up a notch this season, combined with a much more compelling storyline for the rest of the cast. Apple TV+ seems to have established itself at this point with a niche in standout sci-fi television, between Foundation and For All Mankind (more on that show later).

Invincible (Season 2)

Invincible

One of my friends referred to Invincible as “Marvel with gore” but I think that fundamentally undersells what’s going on here. The second season of Invincible continues the fantastic storytelling that the first season began, and I don’t know where the show will go next - I’m excited to find out. I’m invested in Omni-Man and Mark and Atom Eve and Debbie and everyone else - I appreciate that these aren’t perfect characters, but people with room to grow. To be honest, in an era of “superhero fatigue” thanks to the overwhelming dominance of the Marvel Cinematic Universe of the past few years, Invincible is some of my favorite superhero content out right now. Not that I don’t have a soft spot in my heart for the MCU, but the crew of Invincible is putting out some great stuff. I’d just like to see an upgrade in the animation department - Season 2 is a bit of an upgrade from Season 1’s animation that at times felt constrained by the budget, but the shows ambitions don’t feel like it’s fully being expressed by the animation on screen.

Loki (Season 2)

Loki

The first season of Loki left me a bit disappointed. I was sold a buddy cop comedy spanning the multiverse with Tom Hiddleston and Owen Wilson, but what I got instead was a show that dared to ask tough questions about loving yourself and the predestined path we’re set on, with all of the trappings of the MCU setting up its future to boot. Not that I didn’t like what season 1 served up, but I wanted the buddy cop comedy too. Season 2, on the other hand, delivered on what I was missing from season 1 - it adheres closer to the investigative buddy cop comedy that Season 1 seemed like it would be at the beginning, without dropping the emotional stakes that made season 1 so great. Ke Huy Quan is a great addition to the main cast as OB. It delivers on the final evolution of Loki’s character that has been in motion since Thor in 2011, and manages to have emotional stakes and a solid end point in a post-Endgame era where Marvel seems to be going for mass-market comedy laughs and increasingly convoluted setups for its next films above all else. While the future for the MCU is cloudy at the moment, Loki is one of a few bright spots.

Adventure Time: Fionna & Cake

Fionna & Cake

I debated putting all of Adventure Time on this list: the original show, the Distant Lands specials that were released on Max (formerly HBO Max), and the Fionna & Cake sequel. But I felt that would be too much, taking up 3 slots here when I had purposely limited this post to 10 to prevent it from getting too long. This show’s greatest weakness is being part of the infinite Adventure Time universe - Fionna & Cake assumes a familiarity with characters, story beats, and ideas that Adventure Time established over its long original run - I thought I was getting a spinoff, but what I got was an explicit sequel instead.

However, I realized while watching that this continuity with Adventure Time is also Fionna & Cake’s greatest strength - it has the opportunity to deliver on some of the most compelling story threads that Adventure Time didn’t have the chance to fully complete, and it does in resounding fashion by continuing and wrapping up the story of Simon, the (former) Ice King, one of Adventure Time’s most poignant characters. It takes advantage of the audience’s familiarity with the world to deliver emotional beats reminiscent of the original Adventure Time, only enhanced with the additional story runtime that a serialized format provides.

My favorite part of Fionna & Cake is how it takes advantage of its universe to tell a fantastic multiversal story. While the concept is all the rage right now, from the most recent bits of the MCU to Into the Spider-Verse and its sequel Across the Spider-Verse, Fionna & Cake does a fantastic job of making these multiversal shenanigans mean more than “ooh look, it’s something different” - it’s all core to the narrative, themes, and character development of each episode. How these universes differ from the “prime” Adventure Time universe is not just something to gawk at - it’s something that drives the characters and impacts their decisions. I also appreciate that Fionna & Cake has grown up with Adventure Time’s audience to tell a more mature story that the former would have struggled to do.

For All Mankind (Season 4)

For All Mankind

For All Mankind continues to deliver on the idea of a near-future realistic space utopia. I originally got into the first season of this show (and the subsequent seasons kept me watching) because of the retro-futuristic take on what would have happened if the Space Race never ended with the Apollo 11 moon landings. Season 4 ditches most of the trappings of retro-futurism because it’s essentially in our future with a colony on Mars. However, the fact that For All Mankind has become less of an alt-future story is not a bad thing - it’s still a character-driven story with a core message: hope in humanity and our development amongst the stars. I grew to love the questions and problems that this season poses for the viewer, not just “space exploration good”. People are complicated, and For All Mankind’s cast in season 4 tackles that with a fantastic slate of recurring and new characters this season. There are only a few true villains in this show - most people are more complicated than that. And it’s not just the space stories I appreciate - I appreciate what’s going on back on Earth just as much as I appreciate what’s going on at Happy Valley on Mars.