Browsing Tag

The Leftovers

Best TV Shows of 2017

best-tv-2017

Another year, another pile of time spent watching way, way too much TV. With streaming services making big inroads and networks stepping up their game, audiences had more choice than ever before. We’ve sifted through the hours of television we watched to narrow down the shows that had the most impact on us this year.

The Good Place
I love that I have a network show on my list! We talk a lot about “prestige” cable dramas during this era of peak TV, but it was an NBC sitcom that left me wowed this year. The best part: it was a puzzle box series all along — we just didn’t know it! The season one finale (which aired in January) dropped a big twist (SPOILER ALERT): our beloved characters weren’t in the good place after all. Even more impressive than the shocking reveal: the second season has maintained the momentum by constantly re-inventing the show’s premise. Who would of ever thought that network that brought you Fear Factor would also air a show that regularly dives into deep existential and moral dilemmas? They even had a whole episode devoted to the trolley problem this year! –Jen

Big Little Lies
I found that this year was a return to appointment viewing. I watched each episode of Big Little Lies as it aired and found myself captivated. I read the novel several years ago and found it so unremarkable that I didn’t even remember who the “bad guy” was. But I thought that Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman and Alexander Skarsgard were equally amazing in bringing these flawed characters to life. Reese with her daughters was especially powerful. Director Jean Marc Vallee’s vision for this beautiful town full of gorgeous people made for a strong contrast between surface and reality. The darkness hidden behind closed doors ran deep on this show and it made me wonder more than once what I might be missing when I look around my own life. There were a dozen amazing moments in this series but none as captivating for me as the first episode with Reese and her daughters sitting at the piano. I’m not sure why they’re bringing a second season to life as I’m fully satisfied with Season 1. —Nicole

The Leftovers
This show ended up on my Worst TV list during it’s first season, so imagine my surprise when it was far and away the best drama I watched in 2017. It was audacious, surreal and moving — not to mention it delivered one of the most stunning shots I’ve ever seen on the small screen. For a show that I once complained was too bleak and dour, the end of the The Leftovers was surprisingly life-affirming. There wasn’t one episode in its 8-episode final stretch that I didn’t like — which is a weird thing to say about a season that featured everything from an orgy boat to a penis scanner to a heartbreaking cameo by Perfect Strangers sitcom star Mark Linn-Baker as himself. —Jen

Master of None
I really enjoyed Season 1 of Master of None and was delighted at how different Season 2 was. I’ll admit to also overusing “allora” while in Italy much like Dev to charming effect (though I’m pretty sure we were far less charming than we thought we were). What I loved about this season was the balls-out chances Aziz Ansari took with some of the episodes. Some worked so well like “New York, I Love You” which was so different from anything I’ve ever seen on TV before and yet so amazing. I also thought that the way he integrated the romance with Francesca throughout the season while gifting us with episodes like “Thanksgiving” was lovely and less inwardly-focused than Season 1. I’ve rewatched several of these episodes and expect to come back to them many times more. —Nicole

Better Things
Being a pop culture fan in 2017 meant struggling to reconcile one’s viewing tastes with the involvement of Hollywood’s sucktastic men. I really considered throwing away Better Things due to Louis CK’s participation in it, but the truth is this season, directed entirely by its co-writer and star Pamela Aldon, spoke to me like no other show had. The episode about her mom’s rapidly worsening dementia broke me, the speech about being a “super single” felt like it was speaking to my soul, and the scene where she rejects a male friend who tries to kiss her made me howl. Like the BTS drama surrounding the show itself, season two was messy, complicated and challenging. —Jen

You’re the Worst
Yeah, I know, it wasn’t a great season for You’re The Worst but even a mediocre season of this show brings laughs, darkness and entertainment. My feelings on the entire season can be encapsulated in one episode: “Dad-Not-Dad.” I loved the Sunday Funday brunch re-creation where Jimmy is out-snobbed, and found the La Bamba dad moment for Lindsay charming and funny. This episode also had the worst, cringe-y moment when Gretchen makes sweet, sweet love to her boyfriend’s ex-wife. Yuck – I hated that for her character. The leading pair continues to live up to the show’s name and are as-ever The Worst and although it seemed more aimless than other seasons, I appreciated that the scope of the show was more focused on the main characters. —Nicole

Sweet/Vicious
People talk a lot about shows that aired “before their time” like My So-Called Life or Freaks and Geeks, both of which probably would have thrived had they premiered a few years later than they had. But Sweet/Vicious has the bittersweet tradition of not being years ahead of its time, but mere months. Just before the Weinstein scandal upended Hollywood, MTV canceled this smart, zeitgeisty teen drama that was the embodiment of the #MeToo movement. Though the premise of the show (two college girls take justice into their own hands by becoming vigilantes who track down sex offenders) sounds like it could be a downer, Sweet/Vicious was filled with a surprising amount humour and warmth. I miss it a lot. —Jen

Handmaid’s Tale
I had so much anticipation built up for one of my favourite books from a favourite author that I devoured this series in real time. The occasional night where my better half wasn’t around to watch live forced me to pretend during a second viewing that I was seeing the episode for the first time. (I even set up an elaborate second recording so that the PVR wouldn’t reveal my duplicity!) The season delivered everything I hoped for and I came to appreciate the second viewing each week. The episodes were tense and I walked away each week terrified and furious. I kept looking at what was happening in the real world and thinking that the Handmaid’s Tale made it feel sickeningly relevant. I didn’t mind the slight deviations from the book in the interest of building in a lead in to the second season. While Elizabeth Moss was utterly convincing as Offred, I found Alexis Bledel as Ofglen devastating. “The Bridge” is the episode that I come back to when I think of the series. It carried all of the emotions of the series and that tiny bit of hope that we need to keep us coming back. —Nicole

Jen’s Honorable Mentions: Orphan Black, The Bold Type, Review, Chewing Gum, iZombie

Nicole’s Honourable Mentions: The Good Fight, Girls, The Americans

Jennifer Lawrence is Your Entertainer of the Year

Jennifer Lawrence has been named the 2015 Entertainer of the Year by EW.
Jennifer Lawrence has been named the 2015 Entertainer of the Year by EW.

-Entertainment Weekly just named Jennifer Lawrence Entertainer of the Year. Not surprising — and much deserved (I assume it was a close race between her and Chris Pratt). You know what this means, right? The 2015 best-of lists are starting! It really is the most wonderful time of the year…

-Meanwhile, Jennifer Lawrence elevated all of our #squadgoals by hanging out with Adele and Emma Stone last night.

-Usually Ryan Gosling and Brad Pitt standing next to each other would make for a banner day, but their bad hair is too distracting to fully embrace the yum.

-In today’s ‘Hollywood Has Run Out of Ideas’ news: Kevin Bacon will star in a Tremors TV show, and  Tom Cruise is in talks to star in a reboot of The Mummy.

-In other Cruise-adjacent news, Katie Holmes and Jamie Foxx are still a thing, in case anyone cares.

Kaley Cuoco tattooed an ill-advised giant bug on her back to cover up her ill-advised wedding date tattoo.

-A 7-year-old schooled the Star Wars cast on trivia during Jimmy Kimmel‘s last night.

-The best part about THR’s actors roundtable was that it taught me that Mark Ruffalo‘s first acting gig was on Canadian drama Due South!

-Geek gods/awesome human beings Felicia Day and Jonah Ray just signed on to the Mystery Science Theatre 3000 reboot.

-There’s a Friday Night Lights musical happening and Scott Porter is playing Coach and Mae Whitman is publicly petitioning for a part and I need to move to LA right now!

-Apparently the CW has given up on ratings since it’s ordered more Crazy Ex-Girlfriend which has been coming in as low as 0.2 in the demo. (My guess is they just don’t have anything else to pair Jane the Virgin with.) They also ordered more iZombie — but not a full season, which is a shame. That show is like the network version of Jessica Jones (in a good way).

Gwyneth Paltrow‘s kids get to eat at places like The Lion on the regular and now I hate my life.

Sherri Shepherd has been ordered to keep paying child support for the baby she had via surrogate — even though she wants nothing to do with the child and claims her ex only went ahead with the pregnancy plans to wring money out of her. Ugh, that poor kid.

Justin Bieber has pulled out of a series of appearances this week due to “personal reasons.”

-I really like Sepinwall’s new article on the advantage of episodes vs. serialization on TV.

-Set your DVRs: Robert Downey Jr and Chris Evans will assemble on Jimmy Kimmel tonight.

-I’m not gonna lie; I spent way too much time examining Kylie Jenner’s face in the first photo of this feature.

-This is a great piece on season 2 of The Leftovers, which has somehow managed to win me back after I gave up on the first season by getting really, really weird. As the writer of this piece tweeted, it’s like they said “What if Lost could be super weird & fucked up & not write to act breaks & not worry about ratings?”

-I didn’t even know Samantha Bee had a new show coming out but I’m so in!

Adam Pally plays house with an unstable one-night stand in the Night Owls trailer.