Today marks the beginning of our annual Year in Review. Over the next two weeks, we’ll be looking at all the best and worst of the year, with a few topics in between. And just as we’ve done since 2010, we’re matching the size of each of these lists to the last two digits of the year. In 2014, we gave you 14 of the best, worst and whatever. This year you’ll get 15 choices for each topic.
This works out especially well for the first list, my assessment of the year in television. 2015 was a great year for television. But it was also a full year of television. It was perhaps the most year of television in the history of the medium.
It’s been so full that while compiling this list, I’ve encountered more blind spots than I’m comfortable admitting. There are a number of shows that I missed. I’m sure these will show up in the comments. I’m several seasons behind on The Walking Dead, but I’ve heard that there’s a renaissance happening for Rick Grimes. I didn’t make it more than a few episodes into the new season of Doctor Who, so I missed out on Maisie Williams. The Leftovers has shown up on a lot of year-end lists, which is a show that I gave up on very early on last year. And I doubt Bill Simmons reads my columns, but he would be disappointed to hear that I’m not watching either The Affair or Homeland at the moment.
This makes me feel like a lazy TV critic, until I inspect the massive list of television that I have consumed this year. Putting together a list of 30 great shows wouldn’t have been half as hard as cutting the list down to 15. But I’ve done it. Here it is, for your reading pleasure and discussion: The 15 Best TV Shows of 2015.
15. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (The CW)
This show represents my best hope to become the next Cougar Town. As in, a show that starts out with a pretty bad title and weak premise only to transcend and become something completely different entirely. For now, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend rides very high on the performance of Rachel Bloom. She’s manic, sweet and occasionally breaks out into hilarious musical numbers. It sneaks onto the list because it’s wildly entertaining and full or potential. I just hope that bloom and her co-creator Aline Brosh McKenna (The Devil Wears Prada) find ways to keep it fresh when it returns in 2016.
14. The Flash (The CW)
The word I would use to describe the entire crop of DC Comics shows — this includes Flash, Arrow and now Supergirl — is confidence. They are so confidently made that even when things get weird, it usually works pretty well. In its second season, The Flash has really hit its stride. The cast continues to be a lot of fun, the crossovers with Arrow have been less of an obstacle for The Flash’s writers room and they’ve cranked up the wild DC villains pipeline. This year we got both a mind-controlling gorilla and a half-man, half-shark. And a new love interest for Barry Allen. Team Patty Spivot, all the way!
13. Humans (AMC)
Sam Vincent and Jonathan Brackley’s series about anthropomorphic robots called “synths,” who live and serve in the homes of people in the not to distant future, is one of the shows that caught me off guard this year. It started very slowly, but my curiosity (and perhaps a little android fever from the excellent film Ex-Machina) kept me in the game. I’m glad that I stuck with it, as it has really great momentum down the home stretch of its first season. Both Gemma Chan and Emily Berrington are excellent as two of the synths. And The IT Crowd’s Katherine Parkinson and Mr. Selfridge’s Tom Goodman-Hill turn in strong performances as the humans that end up entangled in their story. The show, which was a big hit for the UK’s Channel 4, has already been picked up for season two and honestly, it’s the kind of world that I could live in for well beyond another season.
12. iZombie (The CW)
The simple logline for Rob Thomas’ iZombie is that it’s “Zombie Veronica Mars.” And that’s true in the best possible way. Rose McIver has all kinds of Kristen Bell charm as Liv, an undead medical examiner who solves crimes by eating brains. From the opening credits — which are the best on television — this show always brings a wonderful energy, even if it’s mostly just a procedural. It’s McIver who drives the show forward, but a strong supporting cast that fill in the gaps wonderfully. It was a charming show with a fun premise in season one, but this year brought a season two in which it’s caught an excellent rhythm, delivered compelling multi-episode narratives and I suspect still has some tricks up its sleeve.
11. Broad City (Comedy Central)
There are a few shows on my list that are in the “Repeat and Random” category. Much like the “Binge Watch” category, these are shows that can be easily consumed in big chunks. The difference being that a show like Broad City can be consumed repeatedly, with episodes at random. This is what has made South Park great over the years. Any time you find it on, no matter what episode is rolling, you can jump right in and enjoy. The adventures of Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer are the kind that can easily be enjoyed, whenever, wherever, in all their hilarious and disturbing glory. There’s even an episode in season two that features Kelly Ripa and Alia Shawkat that might be one of my top 5 episodes of television all year.
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