TV keeps getting BETTER

Television this year pushed the envelope further than it ever has before, whether it was ripping stories from the headlines (from art-imitating-life source material) or testing network television boundaries, we saw a lot more of what we haven’t, with grea

10 Feud: Bette & Joan

Yet another of television master Ryan Murphy’s babies, Feud is an anthology series following famous celebrity battles over the years. The first is Bette Davis vs. Joan Crawford, played by powerhouses Susan Sarandon and Jessica Lange, respectively. Beautifully capturing the Hollywood of 1962, from costumes to the lecherous studio bosses. Feud fell under the radar in a year of with great television, but its message is timeless and topical: don’t underestimate a woman who is good at what she does.

9 The Deuce

Taking on 1970s New York City and the world of prostitution, creator David Simon’s latest for HBO is his best since The Wire. The series doesn’t flinch from showing a lot of skin and a lot of backstory behind the oldest profession in the world and how it fought to survive the infamous police crackdown of the period. Maggie Gyllenhaal gets a regular role that manages to showcase her unique charm, while James Franco challenges himself yet again as a pair of warring twins in his best role since that time he was trapped between two mountains. Apologies to Tommy Wiseau.

8 The Good Place

With an effortlessly diverse and hilarious cast, including Ted Danson, Kristen Bell, William Jackson Harper, Jameela Jamil and Manny Jacinto, every character strikes an endearing and witty note. Even though the show is set in The Bad Place, we root for Eleanor, Chidi, Tahani and Jianyu because they bring viewers to The Good Place with their constant shenanigans. Each 23-minute episode is filled to the brim with a sense of fantasy rarely seen in network comedies.

7 Chewing Gum

Born in the same vein as Fleabag and Catastrophe, Chewing Gum is not afraid to place the hilarity of real life on a pedestal. Creator Michaela Coel writes and stars in the series as 20-something Tracey, a virgin longing to dispose of her v-card. The only problem is that she’s religious, as is her boyfriend. The show casually breaks the fourth wall, commenting on everything from race to sex. Take, for example, this laugh-out-loud one-liner, in which Tracey ruminates on kissing white men: “It’s just that they’ve have got really small lips, and they can’t embrace the challenge of lips like mine, and then they try and compensate for their lack of lips with the tongue.”

6 The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Amy-Sherman Palladino’s latest series gets it right in every sense. Following the titular Midge Maisel, a perfect 1950s Manhattan housewife who stumbles into being an aspiring stand-up comic, each episode of the first season is consistently funny and tops the one before it. Nailing the requisite Sherman-Palladino charm, confidence and quick-witted dialogue, star Rachel Brosnahan is a mustsee, as are Alex Borstein as her mentor/manager and Tony Shalhoub as her by-the-book father.

5 Big Little Lies

There are so many details that made Big Little Lies the most talked-about series of the year, from the music to the sweeping California views. But there are brains to this beauty, which featured a powerhouse cast, including Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Laura Dern, Shailene Woodley, Zoe Kravitz and, not to be outdone by his female counterparts, Alexander Skarsgard. Tackling domestic abuse, rape and class, the meat of this show went beyond the murder mystery at its core. With seven slick episodes, Witherspoon and Kidman co-produced a dessert of a show. And just when you thought you couldn’t have too much of a good thing with the series renewed for a second season, there’s reason to keep faith: Andrea Arnold (Fish Tank, American Honey) is set to direct each new episode, with David E. Kelley continuing writing duties.

4 American Gods

Neil Gaiman’s 2001 novel American Gods has been long beloved, but like Stephen King’s The Stand, it’s never been considered prime for adapting. But leave it to super-producer Bryan Fuller (Hannibal, Pushing Daisies) to lend his adaptation its own unique nuance, with stunning visuals, an unparalleled cast (including Ian McShane, Crispin Glover, Gillian Anderson and Kristin Chenowrth), and a willingness to test boundaries when it comes to sex and violence. The series follows Shadow, recently released from prison only to discover that his wife has been killed. As he flies to the funeral, he finds himself seated beside a man named Mr. Wednesday, who warns him there is worse to come. Featuring countless characters, each with their own narrative, American Gods is fun but never chaotic, campy but never messy, and explicit but never exploitative.

3 Master of None

In its second season, Aziz Ansari’s Master of None is more self-assured in just about every way, but most of all in its storytelling. While paying homage to classic cinema, it comments on topical issues ranging from the woes of online dating to sexual harassment at work. Key episodes that ignited many cultural conversations included Lena Waithe’s masterful “Thanksgiving,” in which we see her settle into her sexuality over the years in the presence of her family; “New York, I Love You,” in which several narratives intersect in small but profound ways; and “Religion,” in which Ansari’s Dev introduces his cousin to pork.

2 Better Things

Pamela Adlon’s Better Things and its honest portrayal of how painful and sacred the relationship between mothers and daughters can be feels like a gift passed down through generations, because while its message of love is one we’ve heard before, it’s never felt so familiar. Having directed and starred in every episode this season, co-written with frequent partner Louis C.K. (who has been let go from the series since being accused of sexual misconduct), this remains very much a woman’s work. Quietly beautiful in every brushstroke, from the dynamic between Adlon’s Sam and her daughters to Sam and her friends, and Sam and her mother, Better Things dwells on the moments in everyday life that shape us. With such a goal in mind, nothing on television this year has felt so real.

1 The Leftovers

In its final season, The Leftovers accomplished something television rarely does: striking a chord so deep in its viewers as to leave them in tears by each episode’s end while questioning all of the choices that led them to where they are now and where they might be in the future. Its a program that forces its audience to ask a painful series of what ifs while simultaneously being entertained and engaged in a gripping plot and beautiful cinematography. In this sense, it is both an epic poem and a symphony of raw emotion, extracted not only from Tom Perrotta’s source novel and from the series writers, but from its cast. Carrie Coon, playing a mother who invests every iota of her energy into either finding her way back to her missing family or filling the void they’ve left, is a standout. She’s all nerve, much like the series itself. In the end, we realize The Leftovers wasn’t a meditation on religion, so much as it was an examination of belief, faith and hope in a broken world – timeless themes that feel especially relevant today. The Leftovers is not just the show of the year, but of the decade.