Superstore Looks For Happiness in Lost And Found

It's a new year so I'm playing around with my recap formats. Basically from here on out the I Got Thoughts point form format I've been using will become the standard for all my recaps. This will increase my output (maybe) and hopefully increase post quality. So if this review looks different from normal, that's what's going on.

-It's been a long couple of Superstore-less months but they're over now. Lost and Found was a terrific welcome back as Superstore kicks off the second half of the season.

-Poor Amy. Superstore holds off on revealing what happened in the aftermath of her confession of unhappiness to Adam for most of the episode but the glimpse we get of her angrily on the phone with him is all we need to know things have deteriorated even further. Then when she randomly winds up with 906 dollars and after being talked into spending it on herself instead of worrying about others for once, she winds up being talked into spending it on the break room. Then just as she's at peace with that decision, it all goes away and she's left where she started. It's a rough ride, but a funny one.

-Amy being the one who takes care of everyone has been part of her character since the beginning of the show but Lost and Found cleverly shows the downside of her constant selflessness. She spends so much time thinking about others that she never thinks to think about herself, and when she does think about herself or do something for herself, it doesn't go over well. Telling Adam she wasn't happy was the biggest thing she's done for herself recently but the slow destruction of her marriage is taking an even bigger toll on her than before because she's not sure how to handle it. It's quietly heartbreaking and Amy's unburdening of everything onto Glenn at the end is beautifully played by America Ferrara.

-Jonah and Amy's Will They/Won't They had been leaned on quite a bit in the first half of the season but the writers wisely choose not to shoehorn it into their interactions tonight. Jonah is trying to help Amy because she's his friend and he wants her to do something for herself for once. There's no ulterior motive or secret longing behind it. It's nice.

-Mark McKinney is a treasure and Glenn's story of trying to cheer everyone up through clowning around and silly stunts was incredible the whole way through. From him ruining Mateo's new leather jacket with silly string (followed by accidentally offering Mateo an unending handkerchief) to Garrett making him dance and dance to his jealousy when Jonah starts playing along with his miming, each scene was a comic triumph.

-The best part of Glenn's story was probably his encounter with Dina though. Her callous takedown of him and monkeys as his monkey hand puppet slowly droops was brutally funny.

-Initially I thought Glenn's story might end with him realizing he was depressed and going on antidepressants, but Superstore went a bit more unexpected by tying his story into Amy's ongoing troubles. It's a beautiful tie-in that works beautifully. Glenn has spent the episode trying to figure out how he can help cheer up his employees, but all he really needed to do is be there for them and provide a listening ear. Amy has a lot of problems and going to that spa would have been a temporary fix. It turns out what she really needed was to talk to someone about what's going on in her life and let all that pain out. It's not going to fix her problems either but it eases the burden a bit.

-Kudos to the writers for having Amy talk to Glenn at the end instead of Jonah. If she had gone to Jonah, it would've felt forced. They're good friends but she's not ready to trust him with that part of her life, especially with her confused feelings. Glenn and Amy have a nice dynamic of mutual respect that doesn't get highlighted that often and hopefully their scene at the end will lead to more Glenn/Amy scenes in the future.

-Trick for doing a serious scene with no verbal jokes in a comedy where you're still mainly going for laughs: put one of the characters in a ridiculous costume. Glenn's outfit in the last scene was hysterical and provided a good visual to latch onto comedy-wise as the episode dove into more serious matters.

-Once you saw the new break room you knew it wasn't going to last. The only question was what would happen to it. I figured Amy would shut it down but the show twisted expectations by actually having her enjoy the new break room once Tate got out of her damn chair. Sandra improbably tracking down the owner of the 906 dollars and him being a nice guy who works with at-risk youth was a much funnier turn of events.

-Dina and Garrett both decide their sleeping together was a onetime scene but Garrett is clearly thrown off by the whole thing more than Dina is and her constant assertions that he's acting weird only make it worse. Garrett is at his best when he has no control over a situation and his eventual public meltdown was a great capper to that story, even if the whole thing felt kind of familiar. I'm excited to see where this not-romance goes.

-The Lost and Found lottery was a great piece of world building and a fun setpiece to kick things off with.

-906 is a beautifully specific number.

-I desperately want "Sometimes you get the giraffe and sometimes you get to wig" to become a recurring expression throughout the season. It makes total sense when you know the context but it's just wonderfully strange without it.

-I'm starting to get a bit worried about how the show is treating Sandra. She's the sad sack character who nothing ever works out for and that's funny right now, but the show should be careful that it doesn't cross the line over to "totally mean-spirited". Dina picking on Sandra for no good reason is one thing. The rest of the employees picking on her for no good reason is another. Their anger was somewhat justified tonight and funny, so I'm not super worried but it is something I'm looking out for. On The Office, the terrible treatment of Toby was funny when it was just Michael being disproportionately angry towards him but it became less funny in later years when no one wanted to be around or spend time with Toby. Of course Superstore's treatment of Sandra is more in line with Jerry from Parks and Rec than Toby but the writers of Parks and Rec were sure to give Jerry an excellent home and personal life to balance it out, which Sandra doesn't have yet.

-Best Interstitial: As funny as the kid casually breaking dishes because no one has tried to stop him is, I'm giving this one to the person who picked up bleach instead of Parmesan (Both next to each other with similar packaging because of course), then puts back the bleach directly with the Parmesan when they realize their mistake. It's something that gets funnier the more I think about it.

-"This letter clears parent company of responsibility in case of employee suicide". Aww, corporate cares.

-"They say laughter is the best medicine." "The best medicine is Penicillin. At least it used to be. With all these superbugs now we might all be dead in 10 years, so I guess laughter's as good as anything". Oh, Tate. What a guy.

-Welcome back Superstore. I've missed you.

The Good Place Has Some Decisions To Make In Chidi's Choice

It's a new year and I'm tinkering around with the format of my blogs to increase output (maybe) and hopefully quality. So I'm going to be using my I Got Thoughts point-form style of recap as the standard going forward for my episodic recaps. So if this review looks different from past ones, that's why.

-After going into the break (At the beginning of November! Thanks NBC.) with a ton of story momentum, The Good Place kicks off the first of the last 4 episodes of the season with a breather of a set-up episode. It's not filler by any means. We get some valuable insight into Chidi that should pay off at some point, clarify the dynamic between various characters in the wake of recent events and there's even a wedding, but it feels a bit minor compared to the past few episodes. That's totally fine though. Set-up episodes are necessary for shows like this and even if it wasn't the most exciting episode, it was certainly a funny one.

-With Real Eleanor back, Fake Eleanor (Our Eleanor) starting to realize in recent weeks how much her friendship with Chidi means to her, Michael deciding to help Our Eleanor, Tahani still being upset at Our Eleanor, Jason's growing bond with Janet and Tahani's discovery of Jason's true identity, all the relationships on The Good Place are in flux. It's kind of a mess and it gets complicated more tonight when Real Eleanor convinces Our Eleanor that she's in love with Chidi as Tahani comes to that same revelation but Chidi's Choice wades into that mess admirably and manages to sort everything out somewhat by the end.

-As the title suggests, we spend a lot of time with Chidi who has a choice to make. Well a bunch of them actually. It turns out Chidi is terrible at making decisions under any kind of pressure to the point where he literally died because he couldn't make a decision in time to step out of the path of a falling air conditioner. Chidi being indecisive is something that I'm not sure entirely vibes with his actions the past nine episodes (Though the show does kind of point it out) but it fits in perfectly with what's been established about his character. Of course the Chidi who always tries to do the right thing, can't tell a simple lie without being wracked with guilt for years, and made his life's work an impenetrable mess due to his constant revising is bad at making decisions. It just makes sense.

-William Jackson-Harper has been the stealth MVP of The Good Place since episode one and he gets a well-earned spotlight tonight with plenty of opportunity to showcase Chidi's two best comedic modes: crippling nervousness and stunned bewilderment. His series of confused "What?"'s that close out the episode are a comedic masterstroke.

-Ted Danson gets a lighter workload this week but he plays Michael's growing frustration with Chidi's indecisiveness perfectly. Michael and Chidi is probably my favourite pairing on the show. They have a really odd dynamic that I just can't get enough of. The scene where Michael gets drawn into Chidi's overthinking when he begins considering the idea that the soulmate system might have been totally thrown off while Chidi just melts down is a highlight.

-Tiya Sircar continues to make complete and utter perfection both compelling and kind of funny and Real Eleanor continues to be a beam of pure goodness. When she realizes that Our Eleanor cares for Chidi, she acknowledges that it's an awkward situation and you can tell she feels weird about it, but she also encourages Eleanor to go talk to Chidi and get it all sorted out rather than be jealous or catty. It's nice.

-Also nice? Eleanor and Tahani genuinely bonding and being friends even when they realize they both think they love Chidi. The Good Place could've used the reveal of Jason's deception to further the wedge between the two but while Tahani is justifiably angry, Eleanor is able to win her over. It's an excellent example of how far Eleanor has come. Her willingly trying to make amends with Tahani and salvage their friendship would have been unthinkable at the beginning of the series but it seems perfectly in character now.

-So Chidi and Tahani bonding a few episodes back did come up again. I was starting to think the show was just going to forget about that. Of course now it seems like that story existed so they could throw Tahani into the love triangle with Chidi and the Eleanor's for an episode and have it make sense but that's fine. It doesn't weaken the previous story, though Tahani suddenly deciding she doesn't love Chidi weakens this one. Why even have her in the mix? Oh well.

-Eleanor suddenly deciding that maybe her soulmate is actually Jason came a little too out of left field for me to work but it does make an odd amount of sense. We still don't know how Jason got into The Good Place. Maybe he was supposed to be Eleanor's soulmate. But Eleanor has grown a lot since the start of the show and Jason has not. There's no way Eleanor would seriously consider Jason as her soulmate now. It seems like a contrivance designed to make the end where she tells Chidi she doesn't love him in a romantic way seem more feasible (Also come on. She totally loves him in a romantic way). Yeah it doesn't take long for Eleanor to realize she doesn't love Jason but it's just weird.

-Jason and Janet getting married also comes out of left field but unlike Eleanor deciding that she loves Jason it makes perfect sense. Jason has been attracted to Janet from the start and him being kind to her during her rebooting phase is justification enough to have a fully restored Janet decide to marry him.

-The wedding sequence at the end with Jason's sleeveless tux, Eleanor and Tahani both objecting before deciding to just roll with it, and Jason's attempt to feed Janet cake was definitely the funniest part of the episode. I wonder if Jason's new marital status is going to play into how he winds up staying in the good place when he's inevitably discovered (I'll be shocked if Michael still doesn't know by the end of next episode).

-Poor Chidi. Even when he's finally ready to make a decision, he doesn't get to make a decision.

-So again, this wasn't the best episode of Good Place but it was still a quite good one. I'm very glad the show is back in my life for a couple more weeks.

-Seriously though. Chidi's closing "What?" to the sight of newlyweds Jason and Janet dancing? Incredible.

Man Seeking Woman Fulfills It's Premise In Futon

It's a new year which means I'm tinkering around with my formats in hopes of increasing my writing output. What this means for regular readers is I'm making my "I Got Thoughts" point-form format the standard on all my recaps because that's the direction things were heading in anyways so why not embrace that? I'm hoping that shift will allow me to get in more recaps of more shows (though regular coverage of more than the five or so shows I currently cover regularly seems unlikely) and also allow focus on more non-recap blogs. For non-regular readers, this is probably all nonsense so let's get down to business.

-Throughout it's first two seasons, Man Seeking Woman was largely confined to the perspective of it's main protagonist, Jay Baruchel's Josh Greenberg. Sure a couple times of year we might focus on Josh's sister Liz (Britt Lower) or best friend Mike (Eric Andre), but as the titular Man, Josh had our focus most of the time as he navigated his way through the nebulous world of dating in your late-20's. This meant that the majority of the women Josh dated throughout the show were more one-dimensional plot device for whatever aspect of dating Baruchel and company wanted to ridiculously exaggerate that week than actual character with a perspective of their own (The two major exceptions being Josh's ex Maggie in season 1 and love interest Rosa in season 2). This was mostly fine when Josh was jumping from relationship to relationship, but with season 3 changing focus to Josh being in a long-term relationship, keeping things to his perspective would've gotten very problematic very fast. Thankfully the writers recognized this and give the majority of the episode to newcomer Lucy (Katie Findlay), immediately establishing her as Josh's equal in this crazy world and someone worth rooting for.

-My primary experience with Findlay so far was from How To Get Away With Murder in which I spent the majority her time on the show annoyed with her character so I was a little apprehensive when I heard she was joining the cast of Man Seeking Woman as essentially the co-lead. My doubts were immediately squashed in the first sequence though as we follow Lucy through a horrible day that becomes a pretty good one after her first date with Josh. Findlay is instantly endearing, playing Lucy as the same kind of down-to-earth neurotic goofball Josh is. By the time she's silently threatening the friend she tried to kill to keep quiet (which sounds less endearing and goofy than it was) I was thrilled that she'd be around for the entirety of the season.

-Findlay and Baruchel also have terrific chemistry, which is a must if they're going to focus the season around them. We don't hear anything that happens on her first date with Josh, but what we see is instantly appealing and you can see how this date would make a day that included being set on fire and attacked by a puma a good one.

-The idea of a boyfriend who overstays his welcome in a shared apartment as a metaphor for illegal immigration is a clever one, but it's also an analogy that falls apart once you actually start thinking about how ridiculous the comparison is so the "Apartment Illegals" sequence fell kind of flat by the time border security has been erected around Lucy's apartment. It's a good stab at being topical certainly but there isn't really a strong point to ground the sequence in so it feels empty. The bit about Josh not speaking the language (of The Bachelor) was pretty great though, and the great chemistry and natural bond between Josh and Lucy really sold the moment when she decides to move in with him despite her roommates protests (It's dangerous, there's drugs there and they really haven't been dating that long, the other great joke of the sequence).

-The rest of the episode which shows how Josh's apartment becomes Lucy's apartment before finally becoming Josh and Lucy's apartment fares much better. The sequence of Lucy turning into Walter White and dropping all of Josh's belongings into Sulfuric Acid is a good bit that grows funnier and more absurd as it escalates. Like all the great Man Seeking Woman sequences it takes a relatable emotional truth (Lucy wants to her impress her judgmental former roommates but she also wants to feel more at home in the apartment she moved to on a whim at the expense of Josh's identity) and amplifies it to ridiculous extremes until Lucy is trying to actively kill her sweet former roommate who accidentally walked in while they were dismembering Josh's old futon. Findlay's casual callous delivery of "If the currents don't get her, the sharks will" as Robin jumps into the river to avoid being shot (again) is a thing of beauty.

-One of the advantages of having two leads this season is we understand both sides of the Josh and Lucy conflict. If Lucy was a one-off character, we'd be on Josh's side as his home is invaded and changed beyond recognition and less importantly, he becomes an unwitting accomplice to attempted murder. Because we see these events from Lucy's point of view though, the situation becomes a much more emotionally scenario about the difficulty of co-habitation and the episode becomes richer as a result.

-How did it take them until season 3 to make Mike a cult leader? The moment Liz started warning Lucy about how dangerous and charismatic Mike can be, I realized how obvious and brilliant that move was. Also, whoever decided that Mike's cult compound should be in Guy-ana deserves a massive raise.

-After being in a relationship of his own last season and having that not work out so well, Mike is back to his old "Bros before Hos" ways. There are really only so many variations that Man Seeking Woman can do on the "Mike gets in the way of Josh's relationship" story but they still can pack a punch. The key is that Mike always really wants what he thinks is the best thing for Josh, but what he thinks is the best thing tends to be the opposite even if it is very alluring.

-There aren't a ton of huge laughs in the cult section of the episode but Eric Andre throws himself into Mike-as-cult-leader with a furor that single-handedly make the segment succeed. The "drink the vodka-spiked Kool-aid shots" bit at the end once the compound is "infiltrated" by Lucy is also terrific, as is Mike showing up later back to normal and gravely admitting that things went bad at Guyana with no details or explanation.

-Man Seeking Woman doesn't go for heart-warming very often but the ending shot (minus the tag) of the two vanity plates with Josh and Lucy's name marking their apartment as we hear the two happily showing off their new futon was a well-earned moment. Dating is hard but being in a relationship is much harder. The two are probably going to have bigger obstacles to face than a messy apartment, but as long as they can keep finding ways to compromise and come together, the end result will be worth it.

-Also Mike not believing something like a futon could exist was my favourite small joke of the episode.

-I doubt I'll write about Man Seeking Woman every week but my TV schedule is still pretty light so I'm happy I was able to do it here. This is a great show and while this episode wasn't perfect, it made me very excited for the season ahead.

Import Gems: Borderline is The Office Meets Border Security

One of the cool things about Netflix is that it has quite the collection of terrific foreign shows that you've never heard of just waiting to be discovered. Import Gems is a new feature where I'll be highlighting some of these shows, all of which are available on Netflix (Or at least Netflix Canada) for your viewing pleasure. For the first installment, we'll be looking at Borderline, a British retroscripted mockumentary created by Chris Gau and Michael Orten-Toliver

When I fired up the first episode of Borderline on a whim the other night, I groaned a little when I realized it was a mockumentary show. Now I don't mind the mockumentary format- where everything is filmed "fly on the wall" documentary style with camera confessionals for the characters to express their thoughts- but it's pretty well-trodden territory at this point and it's hard to do something new with it. Add in that Borderline was a workplace comedy about people making the best at a mundane job (Here, airport border security at the fictitious Northend Regional Airport) with a boss no one respects and by midway through the first episode, I was ready to write the show off as a clone of "The Office", though I did think it was a fairly clever and funny clone. I kept watching though and quickly realized I wasn't giving Borderline enough credit. The elements (The format, the mundane job, the awkward boss, the wacky co-workers, the charming "normal" leads with the slow-burning flirtation, the slice-of-life plots) were nothing new but they kept developing and playing out in ways that I didn't expect, finding new life, nuance, and humour in old standbys. By the end of the second episode I was hooked, and when the 6-episode season ended I no longer thought of Borderline as just an Office clone. It was a lot more than that.

A lot of the charm of Borderline comes from how it's scripted. The show uses a technique called retroscripting, which is a form of improv where actors are given scene descriptions and make up their own dialogue as they move the story along. That gives the dialogue and most of the jokes a loose, natural feel that makes it seem like a genuine border security reality show, albeit a ridiculous one. It also allows the punchlines to genuinely sneak up on you. I was surprised by how often I was caught off-guard by a joke, even in scenes where I knew a joke was coming. The real impressive thing about the retroscripted approach though is that you would never know how much of it was improvised if you didn't look that up. Where a lesser comedy can be driven off the rails without a real script to serve as a backbone, Borderline feels controlled and focused throughout. Occasionally a joke won't mesh with the established narrative but the lines are so funny it's barely even noticeable.

Another benefit of the retroscripting approach is that without a full script to rely on, the actors have to look inward to create distinct characters full of depth and surprises. Chief Inspector Proctor (Jackie Clune) and Agents Tariq Mansoor (David Avery), Andy Church (Liz Kingsman), Clive Hassler (David Elms), and Grant Brodie (Jamie Michie) could feel like stock character types but they seem like real people with feelings and inner lives. Proctor is a boss that makes her employees feel uncomfortable and brings her personal problems to work, but Clune also gives her a lot of frustration and resentment about her life that deepens the character. Tariq and Andy are the Jim Halperts of the show, putting up with the insanity around them but Tariq is also an aspiring DJ who is constantly shocked by how much he doesn't hate his borderline job and Andy puts up with and partakes in the silliness but she's also an adult woman who knows exactly what she does and doesn't want, which pays off dividends throughout the season. Grant is introduced as the bigot of the team (He's unaware of what profiling is until he's informed he does it every day) but is shown trying to be aware of his prejudice and shows himself to be the heart of the group by the end of the season, and nervous, awkward Clive steals every scene he's in with his desperation to be part of the group. The improvised dialogue helps build a natural chemistry and sense of camaraderie within the ensemble that really resonates as the season goes on.

The strong character work and the loose feel of Borderline also work well with the storytelling of Borderline, which gets a lot of mileage out of it's podunk airport setting. From the first episode, which details the team getting a directive from head office to keep an eye for anything "Out Of the Ordinary" which seems an awful lot like racial profiling, the show isn't afraid to dive into every aspect of border security with sharp wit and a bit of insight. The show quickly establishes Northend as one of the smallest, least busy airports in the U.K., which helps keeps the stakes low, justifies a lot of the goofing off we see, and adds a sudden dramatic heft to a late-season episode where the airport gets it's first ever asylum seeker. Even when the plots are broad and sitcommy, like an episode where no one remembers Clive's birthday, Borderline is able to put a nice twist on it (Clive's birthday is partially forgotten because a beloved airport employee Tariq and Andy have no memory of has died, which gives the episode two stock plots that intertwine and pay off in interesting ways). The episodes all standalone but there is a nice subtle bit of serialization throughout the season which pays off nicely in the last couple episodes. Even the inevitable Will They/Won't They between Tariq and Andy is nicely handled. Their bond is played as less of an epic love story and more of a slowly growing flirtation that culminates in a way I wasn't expecting and was very pleased by.

Ultimately though the real secret weapon of Borderline is the very thing that made me apprehensive when I first started watching it: the mockumentary format, specifically the use of narration. Each episode of Borderline is held together by ongoing narration by Ralf Little setting up what we're about to watch or summarising the scene, adding authenticity to the faux-reality show we're watching. Initially I wasn't paying much attention to the narration, figuring it was superfluous until I began to realise there was often a significant disconnect between what was actually happening on screen and how the narration was contextualising it. The characters might be acting ridiculous but the narration frames their actions as totally normal and sometimes even commendable with little judgement on how they're acting (Which makes the times when it does judge comic highlights). In the second episode for example Grant detains an attractive woman for a bit so he can get to know her personally while the narration keeps praising him for how dedicated he is and what a thorough job he's doing with his interview (It does note when he gets her phone number at the end that. It's the classic mockumentary trope of a character's words being contradicted by their actions taken to new heights. Even when the narration is accurately describing the situation, it's done in a way that only heightens the absurdity, like when Mark Addy is detained for being what the narration calls "suspected of being on Game of Thrones". It's an ingenious way of ringing every possible drop of comedy from the scene and it breathes new life into the mockumentary format.

So yeah, on the surface Borderline is the kind of show you've seen many times before and there's nothing terribly new or innovative about it. If you stick with it though and pay attention to the remarkable acting and storytelling on display, you'll find yourself constantly delighted and surprised time and time again by how it makes use of it's familiar parts. Its simpleness is really a deception and it's a lot deeper and funnier than you might expect. It's a show that can be finished in a couple of hours but those couple of hours will stick with you long after you finish watching. It probably won't ever reach the popularity of The Office (both British and American) versions but if it did, it'd certainly be deserving of it.

Kenny Sage's Official Best Of The Rest Of TV List For 2016, Yo!

A few days ago I published my Top 12 list of what I considered to be the best of television in 2016. It was very difficult trying to narrow down all the great TV I watched this year into a Top 12, but after a lot of thought and effort put into the list, I'm happy with the 12 I landed on. However because there was a lot of great TV that aired this year and my list wasn't ranked anyways, I decided to make a second list of the 15 shows that almost made my Best Of list only to get cut for some reason or another. "The Best Of The Rest Of TV List" as I call it. Could I have just added these 15 shows to my original list and went for a Top 27? Sure but where's the fun in that? Should I have posted this list before my actual Best Of list to avoid confusion? Maybe, but it's too late to do anything about that now. Just a reminder before we get to it that the list isn't ranked, and it is completely subjective so if my opinions don't match your own, that's totally cool. Alright without further ado, you've seen the "Best Of", now meet the "Rest Of".


American Crime (ABC): The second season of John Ridley's anthology drama American Crime (not to be confused with American Crime Story) was one of the most fascinating shows of the year, a sweeping, nuanced look at sexuality, rape, race, gender, class, school violence, and cyber-vigilantism among other things. The season told the story of two schools and a community thrown into disarray when a basketball player at an elite private school accuses a teammate of raping him at a party, an incident that turns out to be more complex than it initially seemed, Connor Jessup and Joey Pollari are terrific as the two boys at the centre of the season, and they're surrounded by an all-star group of performances from the likes of Felicity Huffman, Regina King, Lili Taylor, Timothy Sutton and more. A series of twists and turns throughout the season keep things interesting. The season also utilized several interesting and daring storytelling techniques throughout the season, including a stunning mid-season interpretive dance sequence that highlights the many themes of the story and an episode that intercuts the action with interviews of Columbine survivors, LGBT victims of bullying and the mother of a gay son who committed suicide to devastating effect. The willingness to be bold with the story it told makes the second season of American Crime a must-watch for sure.

Better Things (FX): The show that came the closest to making the "Best Of " list, Better Things was one of my favourite new comedies of the year. Co-created by Louis C.K. and Pamela Adlon, Adlon stars as Sam Fox, a divorced actress balancing looking for work with raising her three daughters Max (Mikey Madison), Frankie (Hannah Allgood) and Duke (Olivia Edward). The show is an honest, unflinching look at the ups and downs of motherhood and being a woman through a series of Louie-esque vignettes. Max, Frankie and Duke (particularly Max, who is the oldest daughter) all cause Sam a lot of grief and anger and hurt but at the end of the day, there is a genuine believable love between them. The kids are believable and can be irritating, but in ways that feel true to life. Sam's relationship with her own mother Phyl (Celia Imrie) is also on display, adding another dimension to the show. Of course Better Things is very funny too, with all kinds of great moments and insights in every episode. The show feels like a spiritual successor to Louie, but it's also very much its own thing and I'm excited for more of it.

Black Mirror (Netflix): An episodic anthology show like Black Mirror where every episode is a new story in a new world is always going to be something of a mixed bag. That's just the nature of anthology shows. That being said, I greatly enjoyed the majority of the 3rd season (The first one produced specifically for Netflix) with only one episode that outright didn't work for me (The mind-melting VR madness of Playtest). From the "Social Media Popularity as caste system" world of Nosedive to the "Twitter abuse meets X-Files" thrills of Hated In The Nation, there was always something interesting to latch onto about the ways we use and are used by technology. Black Mirror also almost made my "Best Of" list for one episode alone, San Junipero. What starts as a simple love story between two women in the 80's turns into one of the most emotionally profound and beautiful things I've seen all year, plus it's one of the rare Black Mirror entries that offers something close to hope. It's astounding, and though the rest of the season never matches it, it's still well worth a watch.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine (Fox): It's easy to overlook Brooklyn Nine-Nine. The ensemble clicked so quickly and the show got so good, so fast that it's easy to take it's consistency for granted. Even if it's not the most daring or creative show on the block though it's still a show I look forward to spending time with every week. Sure, Andre Braugher snapping from monotone stoicism to unbridled rage/excitement isn't as rare or fresh as it use to be but it's still consistently funny every time (A 4th season moment of him yelling "BONEEE!" is one of his finest line deliveries ever). We know the characters so well at this point that we can guess how they'll react in most situations, but the show still finds moments to surprise us too. The show is also trying new things too as it gets older. It dabbled in heavy serialization in the back half of season 3/first bit of season 4 with exciting and funny results, adding some actual stakes to the show while still keeping it mostly light. Brooklyn Nine-Nine has been around for a while at this point, but it's in no danger of growing stale anytime soon.

Game of Thrones (HBO): The 6th season of Game of Thrones was it's most thrilling yet for one simple reason: for the first time ever book readers and show watchers were on mostly equal footing. With the majority of material from the released books covered, season 6 began diving in earnest into uncharted territory, revealing things both expected/suspected (A couple of major twists concerning Jon Snow) and surprising (A Hodor reveal I honestly never saw coming that wrecked me). The show still had it's flaws, mainly concerning the unrelenting terribleness of Ramsay Bolton and the dullness of most Greyjoy-related material that doesn't involve Yara, but a bunch of strong moments throughout the last two incredibly great episodes in particular helped to show why Game of Thrones became so popular in the first place. Bring on season seven!

Galavant (ABC): Galavant, a medieval musical comedy created by Tangled writer Dan Fogelman with music from Alan Menkin and Glenn Slater was a weird little gem of a January burn-off show that shouldn't have got a second season but somehow pulled it off. The first season about a heroic knight Galavant (Joshua Sasse) trying to get his groove back after his love Madalena (Mallory Jansen) chooses the bumbling put powerful King Richard (Timothy Omundson) was flawed, but charming and brilliant in spots (Particularly with it's sympathetic portrayal of Richard) and the second season found the show zeroing in on what worked and hitting it's stride. Richard is betrayed by Madalena and his right-hand man Gareth (Vinnie Jones) and decides to pal up with Galavant, setting up an incredibly rewarding redemptive arc for Richard as he becomes a true hero over the course of the season. Meanwhile as Galavant tries to get back to his true love Isabella (Karen David), the show throws in a bunch of amusing and inventive obstacles that subvert and play with medieval tropes. From an evil sorcerer who's also a wedding planner to a kingdom that's found a primitive version of democracy to a bunch of giants and elves who are all the same size to a soft-shoeing personification of Death, Galavant is loaded with creativity, great jokes, and a bunch of catchy and occasionally affecting songs. The show didn't make it to a third season, but the second season tells a complete compelling story that's great enough to ease the pain of cancellation a little.

The Good Place (NBC): The Good Place started out as a simple fish out of water story, albeit told on a cosmic level. Eleanor Shellstrop (Kristen Bell) dies and is sent to the good place, a paradise reserved for the cream of the cream of the crop. The only problem is there was a mix-up and Eleanor isn't actually the perfect person neighborhood Architect Michael (Ted Danson) and her fellow residents think she is and doesn't belong there. So Eleanor enlists her ethics professor "soulmate" Chidi (William Jackson-Harper) to try and learn how to be a better person before she's caught and sent to the bad place. The Good Place has greater ambitions than that initial promise though and has grown into a story about unfair systems and what makes someone a "good person". There's plenty of jokes to go along with the ethics and examinations of morality though and the cast is full of stand-outs particularly Danson's Michael, who loves humanity but doesn't understand it. With four episodes left in the first (and hopefully not last) season, The Good Place is a warm, winning delight that grows better and more inventive by the week.

The Grinder (Fox): The Grinder was too good, too clever, and too creative to last, joining the ranks of many a great show cancelled only after a season. The first part of the season established the show's premise and template nicely. Dean Sanderson (Rob Lowe) starred for many years as Mitchard Grinder in the hit legal drama "The Grinder". When his show ends, a visit to his brother Stewart's (Fred Savage) family in Boise, Idaho becomes permanent when he decides to become a real lawyer and join the family law firm despite having no actual experience, much to the bemusement of Stewart and the delight of their father Dean Sr. (William Devine). These first episodes show Stewart adjusting to Dean as he gives terrible advice to Stewart's children, casually abuses his celebrity and tries to use TV logic (Like winning arguments with the phrase "But what if it wasn't?") in real world situations with amusing results. In 2016 however, the show really hit it's stride thanks to a very serialized arc about a TV-esque conspiracy hitting the firm just as Dean gives up being The Grinder which deconstructs the show's own premise in amusing ways. Meanwhile the show was chalked full of insider meta jokes about how TV and the TV business works. For all the loopiness though, the show never lost sight of the heart of the story: the relationship between Dean and Stewart. Even as ratings dropped and cancellation seemed nigh, The Grinder refused to simplify it's storytelling or dumb things down for the audience (Save for an episode where they made fun of doing something like that by indulging in a classical farce plot). It might have doomed the show, but nothing can take away from the greatness of the one season we did get. The Grinder rests.

Man Seeking Woman (FXX): Man Seeking Woman is possibly the most surreal show on television. The characters and how they react to situations are grounded in reality (With the occasional exception of Eric Andre's Mike) and the basic story (Josh Greenberg tries to find love with the help of ultra bro best friend Mike and sensible-ish sister Liz (Britt Lower) but the world and the context of the situations are anything but. In one episode Josh tries to bond with his girlfriend's friends but can't relate to their shared experience of being stalked by a slasher movie villain in a cursed cabin they insist on revisiting. In another Liz has a fling with a married man: Santa Claus. In one of my favourite episodes of 2016, Josh is rejected by a girl he's been nice to and so makes a literal law that you have to date anyone who's nice to you. The rules of the world around Josh, Mike, and Liz vary from segment to segment (For the most part, each episode is a series of loosely connected sketches) but they remain the same in any situation, which helps give you something to connect to, even when the sketches aren't landing. The result is a very funny show with a lot of fresh insight about dating and trying to define yourself in your late 20's.

The Night Of (HBO): I'll be honest. I totally forgot about The Night Of until I saw it on a different Best Of List. Which is why it didn't make my Best Of List. That's not to say it was bad or forgettable or anything. It was terrific, a tense, atmospheric crime drama that carefully followed a murder case and accused killer Nasir "Naz" Khan (Riz Ahmed) through every step of the legal system, showing how stacked it can be against someone without a lot of means to defend themselves. John Turturro was also terrific as John Stone, the ambulance chasing lawyer who stumbles into the case of a lifetime. The show stumbled a bit when it got to the ending which felt a bit too clean in a few parts, but was engaging all the way through. In the end there was just too much good TV for The Night Of to stick in my memory, but now that I've remembered it, I'm definitely planning a rewatch soon.

South Park (Comedy Central): The 20th season was certainly it's most ambitious as it went all in on serialization to tell a 10-episode story about Kyle's unassuming dad Gerald becoming a notorious internet troll, Denmark developing a tool that would make everyone's internet history public in retaliation to trolling, how we treat each other online, a brewing civil war between boys and girls, and the U.S. Presidential Election which was being manipulated by member berries, nostalgia-obsessed fruit trying to bring things back to the good old days. Unfortunately the story got thrown for a loop when Donald Trump was elected president, forcing Matt Stone and Trey Parker to retool things to a degree. As a result, the member berries disappeared from the narrative after episode 8 and the boys/girls clash got mostly downplayed leaving the trolling storyline to carry the brunt of the narrative weight. The results were a bit underwhelming and hurt the season as a whole, but there was still a lot of great moments and clever satire (Particularly with the Member Berries) to make it an overall great season for South Park.

Speechless (ABC): Speechless could have been a treacly and overly-saccharine show about an inspiring lower-class family coping with their oldest son's cerebral palsy as best as they can. Instead it's a smart, irreverent, honest and very funny show that's well on its way to becoming one of TV's best (It mainly missed the main list because of how early in it's run it is.). Micah Fowler is a revelation as J.J. who doesn't let small things like being wheel-chair bound and unable to verbally communicate keep him from being a typical girl-obsessed, popularity-chasing, snarky teenager. The rest of the DiMeo family- Minnie Driver fierce yet careless in most non-J.J. matters matriarch Maya, John Ross Bowie's laid-back, fine with being an idiot Jimmy, Mason Cook's soulful, earnest and geeky Ray and Kyla Kennedy's very intense, very competitive Dylan- are equally well-defined, as is J.J.'s full-time aide Kenneth (A delightful Cedric Yarbrough). Speechless definitely goes for heart-warming sentiment when it tries, but is also happily content to undercut the sappiness with a clever plot turn. Also the ongoing shambles of the DiMeo house is one of the best running gags of the year (A list written on the wall during the Halloween episode can still be seen there 5 episodes later).

Stranger Things (Netflix): Stranger Things took some of the best parts and themes of 80's cinema (Particularly classic Spielberg and John Carpenter) and mixed them all together to make an incredibly fun, incredibly entertaining story that payed homage to the greats, while standing on it's own quite nicely. Winona Ryder and David Harbour both gave great performances as the main adult characters in the story but the real stars were the kids at the heart of things. Talented child actors are hard to find but Stranger Things struck gold with Finn Wolfhard (Mike), Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin), Caleb MacLaughlin (Lucas), Noah Schnapp (Will) and especially Millie Bobbie Brown as the ET-esque Eleven, who all came across as believable and were able to step up to the plate acting-wise whenever needed. Stranger Things was the most unexpected treat of the summer and I'm definitely stoked for whatever the Duffer Brothers have in store for Stranger Things 2.

Superstore (NBC): I had no expectations for Superstore when it debuted. Comedy had been mostly flailing at NBC for a few years now and even the alright stuff wasn't lasting long. But I checked out the first couple episodes and found myself quickly won over by it's interesting characters, compelling setting and funny stories. The show grew better and more confident by the episode and the second season has been a real treat so far. I finally started to feel like I had found a worthy successor to The Office, one of my favourite shows of all time (Though we still got a ways to go before Superstore gets to that level). If the rest of season 2 (and hopefully season 3) is as strong as it's been so far, Superstore is a shoe-in for a spot on next year's best of list.

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (Netflix): Another show that came incredibly close to making the "Best Of List", the second season of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (And the first one actually written and produced for Netflix) was deeper, weirder, and even more joke-packed than the first. If the first season was about Kimmy learning to confront and move beyond her bunker experience, the second is about her learning to deal with the deeper traumas and resentments that are keeping her from truly moving on. Meanwhile Titus finds himself in a committed relationship, Jacqueline tries to reintegrate herself into rich life to help her family and Lillian fights gentrification. Their stories all weave together and take unexpected turns throughout the season leading to an emotionally cathartic conclusion that sets the stage for season 3 nicely, while still feeling satisfying on it's own. Guest Stars like Fred Armisen, Anna Camp, and Tina Fey all fit into the world perfectly and enrich the story. There's also such a wealth of great jokes, quips, songs, visuals and background gags that each episode demands to be watched at least five times to catch them all.

And with that, Kenny Sage Talks TV, Yo! is officially done with list-making for 2016. Thank God.

I Got Thoughts on Timeless: The Capture Of Benedict Arnold

-The Capture Of Benedict Arnold was the mid-season finale of Timeless. So naturally George Washington stopped by, the stakes got driven up a lot and we ended on a big cliffhanger.

-So David Rittenhouse was an actual person who was a member (and eventually President) of the American Philisophical Society and first director of the United States mint. He was a clockmaker, though he probably didn't found any kind of nefarious shadow government. Reading up about him though, you can kind of see why Timeless chose him to be the founder of their sinister conspiracy group. His interest in things like astronomy and invention, plus his history with people like Benjamin Franklin and John Adams makes him the perfect candidate for a Historical Sci-Fi show like this.

-Midway through the season and I'm honestly still not that interested in Rittenhouse. We know more or less what they are now (A shadow government who has manipulated history to their interest and wants control) and understand the threat we pose, but it's still hard to be very interested in them, Shadow group wants to control the world isn't exactly the most original or compelling thing out there, though the whole "tyranny disguised as democracy" thing has a lot of potential if they start digging into that philosophy. Hopefully the second half of the season will dig more into modern day Rittenhouse and what they're actually trying to achieve with all the time machines they're so interested in. The best villains are those where you can understand what they want and where they're coming from and Rittenhouse is lacking that right now.

-Garcia Flynn meanwhile has become a much more compelling antagonist then he initially seemed. Forcing our heroes into a team-up with him is a great way to show the ultimate reason why Flynn is different from our team and needs to be stopped. Yes our team knows Rittenhouse is a threat and yes they want to stop them but our team believes in helping and protecting innocent people and Flynn doesn't. His confession to Lucy that he plans to leave his family after he saves them because of how much he's changed in his quest to destroy Rittenhouse is powerful and provides some key shading to his actions. He knows what he's doing is wrong on some level but he decided a long time ago that the ends justified the means so if he has to shoot a child so be it.

-The scene with John Rittenhouse was a solid "creepy kid says creepy things" scene but the character really becomes interesting now that Lucy has stopped Flynn from killing him. If Timeless is about anything beyond romping through time, it seems to be about the choice and free will. Lucy won't let John die even if his survival does mean Rittenhouse continues because he's still an innocent kid who could very well make a different choice. Flynn doesn't have to alienate himself from his family but he makes that choice every time he relies on extreme methods to carry out his mission. Connor Mason had good intentions but chose to get in bed with Rittenhouse and is now forced to threaten someone he greatly admires for them. I'm hoping we return to John Rittenhouse at some point down the road because I'd like to see Lucy's instinct to protect him pay off, but even if he does follow in his fathers footsteps, it'd still be interesting.

-Also it's a shame that David Rittenhouse got killed so soon because he made a massive impression with his short amount of screentime. The idea that Rittenhouse was the brainchild of one man becomes much more plausible after you meet David and see his sinister charisma in action. The way he marvels at the modern-day gun and quietly decides to reverse engineer it hints at an incredibly fascinating character that we'll probably never get to explore further. Even though I knew he was probably going to die, he oozed such menace that at various points I thought maybe he would kill Flynn.

-Flynn knows the identity of Jessica's killer. This is a smart storytelling decision because it makes Flynn's survival valuable for Wyatt. They've also built up Wyatt's pain over his wife's death so well that it's believable that he would agree to team up with Flynn if it meant figuring out who killed her.

-Rittenhouse knows Rufus has been messing with the recordings, which is good because it was straining both credibility and the narrative purpose of the tape recorder for him to just turn it on and off whenever. It also creates a handy dilemma for the mission this episode, which looks pretty terrible for Rufus whether or not he messes with the recording.

-The scene where Wyatt gets Lucy to go along with the plan to team up with Flynn was mostly good but the math seemed off when Wyatt predicted they'd save hundreds of people. Wiping out a nefarious group that's been manipulating history for over 200 years would save more like thousands, right? Eh, small quibble.

-Bigger quibble: Are they really going to handwave away Flynn randomly murdering Cornwallis like that?! I hope not.

-Kudos to Timeless for immediately revealing what was in the letter the Rittenhouse Key opened. Got to love quick pay-offs.

-The Benedict Arnold stuff was fine. I enjoyed how they just let him be a casual asshole about everything, but also did try to humanize him a little and dig a bit into why he'd ally with Rittenhouse. I'm sure his death was cathartic to anyone who was bugged that the real Benedict Arnold basically got away consequence-free as the show points out. Also it'd be a shame if we never got to see George Washington again. He made a strong impression in his three minutes of screentime.

-Agent Christopher survived the mid-season finale, but I'm still concerned for her long-term survival, especially now that we've been introduced to her wife (LGBT characters, especially women don't exactly have the best survival rate on TV dramas.) and have more reason to care about her as a person. I loved that dinner scene with her, her wife and Lucy though which did more for Denise as a character than the previous nine episodes combined. The scene where we learn Agent Christopher is terrified that she could lose the people she loves without even knowing it like Amy's mom was also great and is a nice way to show that someone besides Lucy is worried about the smaller scale potential ramifications to history that these missions seem to cause.

-Flynn kidnapping Lucy is something I assume will be resolved by the end of next episode but it does make for a good cliffhanger. Flynn has spent most of this season convinced that Lucy was going to come around to his side at some point and now it looks like that definitely isn't happening. So that should complicate their dynamic a ton. Also we might finally get to see things like the inside of the Mothership and where Flynn gets his endless supply of goons.

-Solid episode from a show that's been a pleasant surprise this season. Can't wait to see where we're going when we come back in January.

Kenny Sage's Official Best TV of 2016 List, Yo!

It's that time of year where all the respected television critics and other assorted randos put together their lists celebrating the best TV of the year, and for the first time ever, I'm joining those randos. That's right, I'm jumping into the "Best Of List" game with my own list on what I believe to be the best TV of 2016. So a couple things to note before we jump in:

-This list is not ranked because I feel rankings are irrelevant and distract from the purpose of a "Best Of" list. Also it was hard enough narrowing my list down. I didn't want to add to that by ranking what I did have. All shows are listed alphabetically. For what it's worth, if it was a ranked list, The Americans would be at the top (The fact that the alphabetical format puts it at the top anyhow is a happy coincidence).

-This list is Top 12 instead of 10 because I've always found 10 to be an arbitrary number for ranking things. Plus once I settled on the Top 12 I couldn't bring myself to cut anything else and it's not a ranked list anyways so I figured why not 12?

-This list, like every "Best Of" list ever is entirely subjective, informed by my opinions and what I watched. I watched a lot of television this year but I didn't come close to watching everything out there. If I had gotten around to watching stuff like say Halt and Catch Fire, Queen of Sugar or Horace and Pete (The top three things I wish I had gotten around to watching this year), there's a strong chance this list would be different. So if you don't agree with my list, then that's cool. I'm just a guy with a blog. My word is hardly the final one. Feel free to make your own list.

-There were a lot of shows I wanted to put on the final list that didn't make a cut. Those shows will be featured on a "Best Of The Rest Of" list that will be published a few days from now (fingers crossed). So look forward to that.

-Anyways, enough pre-amble. Let's get to the list already!

The Americans (FX): The Americans is both the best show on television barely anyone watches and the best show on television period. A stunner of a period drama about two deep cover Soviet agents (Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell doing some of the best work of their careers) in 80's Washington who find the marriage and family they made as part of the cover has become very real, the 4th season (Of what was announced this year to be a six season run) may have been the best yet. As the weight and human cost of the work they do begins to seriously take it's toll on both Philip (Rhys) and Elizabeth Jennings (Russell), the first half of the season builds an increasing amount of dread both from the threat of their secrets being revealed and the deadly biological weapons they're tasked with obtaining before a second half that brings down the threat of exposure without losing the sense that the end is approaching. A number of long-simmering storylines come to inevitable yet still devastating conclusions and multiple long-time regulars die or leave but none of it feels like shock value. Beyond the greatness of Rhys and Russell, there is also constantly great work from the likes of Noah Emmerich (As Stan, the Jennings FBI Agent neighbor), Allison Wright (As Martha, The FBI secretary Philip married as part of an assignment), Costa Ronin (As Oleg, a KGB embassy officer who is starting to waver in his belief to the cause) and many more. As Paige, the teenage daughter who's struggling to come to terms with the truth about her family she learned last year and trying to manage the fallout of an impulsive decision she made to tell her pastor, Holly Taylor is giving one of the best Prestige Show Teenager performances on TV.  Dylan Baker is also present this season to bring some welcome levity as William, another Soviet agent who resents how much he's sacrificed for the cause and his presence adds a lot to the story. Ultimately it seems like The Americans is destined to be one of those shows whose greatness isn't truly appreciated until years from now when it's long over, but it's not too late to start watching now and let the methodical dread-filled thrill ride overtake you.

American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson (FX): I'll be honest. When it was announced that the first season of American Crime Story would be tackling O.J. I thought the whole thing would be a glorious disaster. Ryan Murphy (creator of such often self-indulgent messes as Glee and American Horror Story) tackling O.J.? Even with Murphy and frequent collaborator Brad Falchuck taking a backseat to show developers Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszweski, my expectations were low (Although I was still going to watch it). So I was stunned by how good the series wound up being. Using Jeffrey Toobin's The Run Of His Life as a jumping-off point, Alexander and Karaszweski wove a complex tale about race, class, gender, celebrity, and the rise of the 24-hour news cycle among other things. Each episode is anchored around a key moment from the case like the Bronco chase or Marcia Clark's perm or the Mark Fuhrman Tapes, providing a clear focus for all the ideas on display to swirl around. The series is full of strong performances (with the exception of whatever John Travolta was trying to do with Robert Shapiro), with Sara Paulson, Sterling K. Brown and Courtney B. Vance in particular standing out as Marcia Clark, Christopher Darden, and Johnnie Cochran, bringing much needed humanity and insight to figures that have become fairly caricatured over the years. Even the odd tangents like the scenes of the young Kardashian sisters getting their first taste of fame work in the context of the greater story going on. Ultimately American Crime Story brought new life to a story that seemed like there was nothing left to tell (It wasn't even the only great TV project about O.J. released this year!) and that's truly remarkable.

Atlanta (FX): Is there anything Donald Glover can't do? He's funny, he can act, he can write, he can definitely rap, and he can create and star in a pretty damn good television series too. Atlanta is unlike any TV show in recent memory. The show has no set structure or template and doesn't follow any typical TV comedy rhythms (If it follows any rhythms at all). Donald Glover stars as Earn, a basically homeless Princeton dropout trying to make money and provide for his ex-girlfriend Vanessa (Zazie Beetz) and their infant daughter, while managing his cousin Alfred "Paper Boi" Miles, a local rapper trying to make a name for himself. This basic premise is used to support what's essentially a series of fascinating, unpredictable and often hilarious (though the show feels no need to constantly be spouting jokes) short stories about being black, poverty, the Hip-hop world, and life in Atlanta. Fire up an episode of Atlanta and there's no telling what you might find within. You might see Paper Boi facing off with a very black Justin Bieber or Earn trying to take Van for a nice dinner with no money or Paper Boi's right-hand man Darius (Keith Stanfield) getting in trouble for bringing a dog-shaped target to a shooting range or a whole episode of a fake talk show on a fake BET-network. Through it all, the well-defined characters keep the whole thing grounded and believable, even with ridiculous gags like an invisible car or a punk kid in whiteface popping up when you least expect them. The result is a viewing experience that sticks with you long after the season has ended. TV could use more shows like Atlanta.

Better Call Saul (AMC): Breaking Bad, one of the best TV dramas of all time was in many ways a horror story. An ordinary man turns out to be a monster but doesn't realize what a monster he is until he's ruined the lives of everyone around him. Better Call Saul, a spin-off/prequel focused on the early days of amoral attorney Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk) and seasoned enforcer Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks) is more of a tragedy and that tragedy helps set itself apart from it's predecessor for a show that's really come into it's own this year. Jimmy McGill is a lawyer whose efforts to be a good person and do the right thing are blocked at every turn by forces ranging from Jimmy's brother Chuck (Michael McKean), an accomplished lawyer who suffers from a psychosomatic sensitivity to electromagnetism and a deep-seated resentment of Jimmy to Jimmy's own instincts to take ethical shortcuts and play fast and loose with the truth. We know eventually he'll become the sleazy Saul Goodman and wind up in exile to Omaha following the events of Breaking Bad, but Jimmy doesn't and the knowledge of the destination makes the journey that more heartbreaking. Odenkirk brings depth and dimension to Jimmy that Breaking Bad only ever hinted at and Rhea Seehorn stands out as Kim Wexler, Jimmy's friend and love interest who finds her professional life tied to Jimmy's for better and for worse. For people who loved Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul gives plenty of focus to Mike too as he finds himself drawn into the orbit of the Salamenca's and on a road that will lead to a certain chicken man. Jimmy's stuff is just as compelling though and Better Call Saul excels at making  potentially boring sequences like Jimmy acting out at work, or spending hours at a copy shop for a scheme into brilliant setpieces. The show has also maintained Breaking Bad's sense of humour, which it uses for great effect. The second season builds to a climax similar to the second season of Breaking Bad, but with a much different conclusion that highlights the difference between Jimmy McGill and Walter White. Better Call Saul may never reach the heights of Breaking Bad, but it's a must-watch experience all the same.

Bojack Horseman (Netflix): One of the most emotionally rich, surprisingly dark and existential shows on TV is also an uproarious satirical animated comedy about a washed-up 90's sitcom actor who is also a horse (Well horse/human hybrid but same diff.). If you've never seen Bojack Horseman or stopped watching during the rockier early episodes before it coalesced into something special, the above sentence probably sounds absurd, but it's absolutely true and the third season proved to be the darkest and funniest season yet. If the second season of Bojack made it seem like he had finally hit rock bottom, Season 3 proved there was a lot more bottom to go as Bojack's quest for an Oscar nomination/happiness led to him finally alienating the people closest to him. This season contained maybe the best episode of television this year in Fish Out Of Water, an almost completely silent episode that sent Bojack to an under the sea film festival best described as "Lost In Translation Meets Looney Tunes" in the best way possible. Other highlights included a period piece set in the good ol' days of 2007, a nuanced and sensitive take on abortion issues, an episode-long phone conversation with guest star Candice Bergen trying to talk Bojack out of canceling his newspaper subscription, Todd starting an Uber-esque service targeted at women that quickly goes awry, the return of Character Actress and Fugitive Margo Martindale and a season-long joke about Mr. Peanutbutter buying hundreds of spaghetti strainers and waiting for them to pay off that has the best pay-off imaginable. Through it all, Will Arnett, Aaron Paul, Amy Sedaris, Allison Brie, and Paul F. Tompkins bring their characters to life with expert precision and the beautiful animation ensures that every scene is crammed with more jokes than you'll ever manage to find. Bojack Horseman can seem offputting at first glance, but under the surface is a treasure trove of narrative and comedic riches just waiting to be discovered.

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (CW): When it debuted last fall, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (One of the two shows on the list I constantly talk about on this blog) was pleasant and charming, but didn't seem that essential or sustainable. A quirky musical comedy about a successful lawyer who drops everything to move from New York City to West Covina, California after a chance encounter with her ex-boyfriend from camp 10 years ago who's moving back there? OK sure. I enjoyed it but figured it would run out of steam fairly fast. In 2016 though, Creators Rachel Bloom (Who also stars) and Aline Brosh McKenna began to dig deep into ideas of addiction, depression, mental health, feminism, self-worth, personal happiness, creating narrative and the complete fabrication of Rom-Coms and showed just how deep and rewarding the show could be. Rebecca Bunch (Bloom) is a self-obsessed anti-hero but we root for her anyways because we understand where she's coming from. She's surrounded by people who are equally easy to root for, even when they're being despicable. The show can veer from comedy to tragedy back to comedy in an instant without skipping a beat. It's lovingly crafted and the world is built out in such a way that even the smallest character like the local bar owner or the grocery store checkout clerk feels like a unique individual. The songs are also brilliant and dabble in every genre and style of music imaginable from Broadway to Country to Beyonce to Spice Girls to 80's Power Ballads to 90's Pop Punk and everything in between. With ratings consistently low and the premise as ridiculous as it is, it seems unlikely that the show will last past season 2, but no matter how long it's run Bloom and McKenna have truly created something special and 2016 was when it got to fully show off how special it was.

Jane The Virgin (CW): The other show I constantly talk about on this blog, Jane The Virgin might be the most consistently great network show on television, which is remarkable considering how small a target it has to hit every week. A comical family show that's a spoof of the telenovella formula, but also an actual telenovella with tons of crazy plot twists including criminal family members, secret twins, stolen identities, and egregious product placement? It's a hard needle to thread but somehow "Jane" pulls it off week in and week out. As Jane (Gina Rodriguez) navigates her way through motherhood, co-parenting, grad school, criminal masterminds, famous fathers, marriage, brushes with tragedy, family secrets, and the lost of her virginity, the show always keeps the focus on the characters, which manages to anchor the show in reality, even if that reality is heightened. Three seasons in and the show still has plenty of narrative tricks up it's sleeve. They don't always work (Last season featured a multi-episode plot where Jane's father was kidnapped by a stalker that was a little too ridiculous) but the show hits way more than it misses, which is impressive this deep into it's run. It's also a very optimistic and joyful show, which is something you don't see enough of on TV these days. There's always a chance that eventually this show will go totally off the rails, but I have a feeling that as long as it runs, "Jane" will continue to be a fixture on my "Best Of" list.

Lady Dynamite (Netflix): Lady Dynamite is the kind of show where it's hard to explain the appeal in mere words but I'll give it my best shot. Created by Mitch Hurwitz and Pam Brady, Lady Dynamite is a loosely-autobiographical comedy about Maria Bamford (Who stars as herself) trying to get her life and career back on track following six months being treated for bipolar disorder. The show jumps between the present, the past as we see the events that led to a major breakdown and an inbetween period as we see her living with her parents while attending recovery in Duluth. It's a hilarious, surrealist romp with no 4th wall, the kind of show where Patton Oswalt will keep breaking character to advise Maria against using stand-up as a storytelling device, John Ridley and the Lucas Brothers will debate if the episode about race actually made any compelling points and the theme song is an out-of-nowhere spoof of Blaxploitation films. It's the kind of show where Maria's pug Bert might casually talk to her and give advice, her well-meaning but completely ineffectual manager Bruce (A brilliant Fred Malamed) might write a song about a Seamen-loving shark or accidentally ship a ton of T-Shirts with her face to child soldiers in Sudan and every predatory force in Maria's life past and present happens to be named Karen Grisham. Through it all Bamford guides us with a manic smile, and though the show threatens to come apart at the seams sometimes it always manages to stay on track right to it's powerful conclusion. The result is a bold show that manages to stand out among the many great Netflix comedies.

Orange Is The New Black (Netflix): The 3rd season of OITNB was lighter and less-focused than the first two but ended on a foreboding note that led to it's best season yet as things got dark for the ladies of Litchfield. As the privatization of the prison led to both an influx of new inmates and a host of new, more brutal and malicious guards, the show continued to make excellent use of it's large ensemble to tell moving stories about trying to maintain your humanity in a system that constantly denies it. One-time lead Piper (Taylor Schilling) became as unlikeable as she's ever been as her attempts to maintain control of her "Prison Panty" empire led to serious consequences and the accidental creation of a white supremacist gang, but as always the best moments of the season belonged to the women around Piper. From Taystee becoming Caputo's assistant to Pennsatucky trying to deal with being around the guard who raped her last season to Maria and Blanca making a play for power to Yoga Jones falling under the sway of celebrity inmate Judy King and the privilege that comes with her to Poussey and Soso's adorable romance to Alex and Red trying to keep schizophrenic inmate Lolly in line after a traumatic event, there was plenty to latch onto this season. The show also continued it's attempt to create empathy for almost every character (Save for captain of the guard Piscatella and a couple of his more sadistic guards), which adds many layers to the building conflict. The season builds to a tragedy that's horrible on every level but feels like it was sadly inevitable and the season ends on a powerful note that will leave you begging for season 5.

Rectify (Sundance): As of this writing, there is still one episode of Rectify left to air and there's a chance the episode will be totally underwhelming and end the series on a bum note, but it's an incredibly small chance. Even if the finale winds up being a disappointment (And again, I doubt it), it would not be enough to knock Rectify's beautiful final season off my list. The last season of Rectify finds former death row resident Daniel Holden (Aden Young giving one of the best performances on TV) living in Nashville in a program designed to help former convicts reintegrate into the world. The trauma of all he's been through is still with him though and season 4 confronts the idea of he'll ever be able to move past this trauma head on. Meanwhile back in Paulie, as the truth of what really happened on the night Hannah Dean (the girl he was convicted of raping and murdering) died comes ever closer to finally being unraveled, Daniel's family find themselves confronting the idea of moving on and finding their own freedom. The show is methodically paced as ever, which allows you to really be drawn into the world of Paulie and find the beauty in the smallest moments. The cast includes such standouts as J. Smith-Cameron, Abigail Spencer, and Clayne Crawford, and really enough can't be said about Young's performance as Daniel (A sequence in the penultimate episode where he listens to a tape of himself describing being sexually assaulted in prison might be one of the best things to air on TV this year). No matter how Rectify wraps up, I'm definitely going to miss it.

Westworld (HBO): OK, if The Americans were at the top of a ranked version of this list, Westworld would be at the bottom. I've moved it on and off the list more times than I could count before ultimately deciding to put it on. Chances are I'll keep moving it on and off the list even after it gets published. Of all the shows on here, Westworld is certainly the most flawed. The first season introduced a complex, fascinating world and conceit (An amusement park populated by robot hosts who slowly become aware) but then seemed content to tease out endless mysteries and twists instead of fulling embracing it's premise, consistently keeping the audience at a distance and making it hard to figure out what exactly the show was trying to say until the very end. Many of the twists were also easily guessable, which made it kind of frustrating when they kept putting off the reveals It's a show that can't be really appreciated on more than a basic level until it's watched twice, which isn't ideal for any show. Despite that though, as I sat to watch the finale, I realized that I had become incredibly invested in what was going on. The show was messy and somewhat impenetrable but also ambitious and beautiful and daring in a way I could appreciate and even if the journey was occasionally tedious, the conclusion came together stunningly, setting the stage for what could be a brilliant season 2 as long as creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy stop playing games. As the park's oldest host, Delores, Evan Rachel Wood gave an incredibly complex and involved performance (The kind that will look even better on rewatch). Thandie Newton and Jeffrey Wright gave equally stunning performances as Westworld madam Maeve and head programmer Bernard, respectively. Again, Westworld wasn't perfect (The show somehow wasted Anthony Hopkins, despite giving him plenty of screentime), but it was fascinating and compelling in ways that are going to stick with me for a long time and that's why it ultimately made my "Best Of" list.

You're The Worst (FXX): The third season of You're The Worst had a tough act to follow to say the least. After a brilliant second season that provided an honest, stunning look at grappling with depression, season 3 with a broader, looser, shaggier story about family and looking for meaning and happiness in life couldn't help but suffer a bit in comparison. But even if it didn't frequently hit the heights of the second season (Though multiple episodes including one totally focused on Edgar and his struggles with quitting his PTSD meds cold turkey), the third season was still excellent, telling a darkly funny, frequently melancholic story with plenty of interesting twists and turns along the way. Even if the awful behavior of Jimmy (Chris Geere), Gretchen (Aya Cash), and Lindsay (Kether Donohue) plus the significantly less awful behavior of Edgar (Desmin Borges) isn't quite as fresh as it once was, the characters still manage to surprise us as Gretchen goes through therapy for her depression, Jimmy has an unconventional grieving process following the sudden death of his father, Lindsay struggles with a pregnancy and a husband she's starting to realize she might not want and Edgar goes off his meds and starts finding new ways to cope with PTSD. The show continues to be daring too with it's structure. Beyond the Edgar-focused one mentioned above, one episode focuses completely on side characters Paul and Vernon, while another utilizes a series of long single-takes and another completely focuses on three arguments between the three main couples. The show continues to be hilarious too from an out-of-nowhere Mad Men homage to Lindsay demonstrating her unique brand of mindfulness to Vernon's continued desire to be heckled. The ending of season 3 also ties the season together beautifully, ending on a devastating note that promises lots of possibilities for season 4. Wherever the show goes, I will be awaiting it eagerly because You're The Worst is simply the best.

And boom, that's my "Best Of List" for 2016. Thanks for reading it. It was hard to put together (There's just too much great television) but I'm glad I did it. It was a strong year for TV (As we'll see when my list of the shows that almost made this list comes out) and I have hopes that next year will be equally strong. Anyways I hope that this list might inspire you to check out some of the shows you might have missed this year. I know I'll be doing that. Anyways until my next post (whenever that is), keep watching TV and talking TV.