THEY KEPT US WATCHING
It’s too early to predict who will win the big streaming wars of the coming decade (which is supposed to bury us alive in subscriber-based content), but I like HBO’S chances lately.
If the launch of HBO Max in 2020 expands on the sort of decisively outstanding quality the network demonstrated with its 2019 premium-cable slate, then Apple TV+ and Disney+ will definitely have some catching up to do.
(In Canada, HBO Max content will be broadcast on CTV channels and stream on Crave.)
That’s another way of noting that half of my list of the year’s best TV shows aired on HBO, followed by three shows from Netflix, one from Amazon Prime and just one broadcast network offering.
It’s hard for consumers to pay for all this TV, I realize. I simply look for the best shows — and here they are.
1
Watchmen (Hbo/crave)
I’m as surprised as anyone to see Damon Lindelof’s adaptation of the 1980s graphic novel topping this list, but it continues to take my breath away, with its bracing vision of racism, mask-wearing, vigilantism and superheroic qualms in a skewed-reality America. Even if you think you can’t stand any more comic-book stuff, you need to be watching this one — if for no other reason than the great performances from Regina King, Jean Smart and Jeremy Irons.
2
When They See Us (Netflix)
Ava Duvernay channelled 30 years of rage and injustice into this strikingly corrective and long overdue dramatic account of the Central Park Five, who as young men were wrongly accused of (and coerced into confessing to) a vicious attack on a jogger. There are strong performances throughout, especially Jharrel Jerome’s Emmy-winning, achingly transformative turn as Korey Wise, whose incarceration was longest and most brutal.
3
Unbelievable (Netflix)
What I liked most about this powerful eight-episode miniseries — based on investigative reporting from Propublica and The Marshall Project — is how effectively it steers us away from the typical true-crime fare with a vital example of how empathy can improve police work. Toni Collette and Merritt Wever are outstanding as two Colorado detectives zeroing in on a serial rapist, leading them to a victim (Kaitlyn Dever) whose case was botched by an egregious inability by male detectives to listen and understand. 4
Succession (Hbo/crave)
Love them or just love to loathe them, there is no denying that the Roy siblings held us in their grip during the insanely watchable drama’s second season. As heirs to a Rupert Murdoch-esque media baron (Brian Cox, who is delicious as a cruel paterfamilias), they’re locked in a power tussle. Although I’m uncomfortable with the idea that we collectively fixated on a show about one-percenter problems while our planet baked and the wealth gap widened, I do relish the next round of Boar on the Floor. 5
Gentleman Jack (Hbo/crave)
If this list had been due six months ago, Sally Wainwright’s wonderfully wry yet emotionally charged period drama about Anne Lister, an uninhibited 19th-century English noblewoman, would be at the top. That’s especially true when I think of Suranne Jones’s rollicking, knockout performance as Lister, who is frustrated by her society’s restrictive disdain for women who run their own business affairs, as well as their own lesbian affairs. It’s a ferociously enjoyable story. 6
Fleabag (Amazon Prime)
The show I used to beg people to watch became everyone’s favourite this year, as creator and star (and now Emmy winner) Phoebe Waller-bridge returned with a long-awaited second season of her dramedy about a woman who is utterly human in the way she experiences ups and downs and processes her feelings of grief and guilt. As a bonus, Wallerbridge gave the world Hot Priest (Andrew Scott), who is now a universally acknowledged sex symbol — which means there’s a little fleabag in each of us. 7
This Is Us (NBC)
Some viewers are exhausted by creator Dan Fogelman’s ever-expanding, ever-swervy, ever-tear-inducing family drama, but I think it gets better all the time. Episodes that aired in
2019 (parts of seasons 3 and 4) featured particularly moving stories in the Randall (Sterling K. Brown) and Beth (Susan Kelechi Watson) branch, the tense arrival of baby Jack (and glimpses at his future) and a bigger sense of where all this is headed. The show’s central idea has never been more relevant: Where there is openness, a family can include any and all.
8
Chernobyl (Hbo/crave)
I gave creator Craig Mazin’s gripping miniseries about the 1986 nuclear-plant disaster in Ukraine a rave review back in May, but I figured people would find it too depressing to actually watch. Wrong. Turns out we couldn’t be more primed for a story that, at its core (ha-ha), is about the systematic abuse of power and the various ways that government officials can lie and obfuscate. Even at its goriest or most infuriating, Chernobyl is artfully structured. Nuclear experts nitpicked the miniseries factually, which missed the point. The lessons are very much intact.
9
Dead to Me (Netflix)
Creator Liz Feldman’s dark comedy about two women (Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini) who meet in a grief support group is a master class in the study of narrative momentum and anxious build toward an inevitable yet almost unthinkable reveal. Both Applegate and Cardellini are in peak form in this series, navigating the show’s range of emotions, from smart humour to despicable acts. Along with all that, Dead to Me is a great example of why our culture invented the binge-watch in the first place. It’s a lot of fun.
10
Leaving Neverland (Hbo/crave)
I believe Wade and James. I know that drives diehard Michael Jackson fans to apoplexy (and they truly aren’t a pleasant bunch to argue with), but there it is. Dan Reed’s four-hour documentary looks past Jackson’s courtroom entanglements and directly into the eyes of two men who very frankly (if belatedly) tell us what happened to them as boys. Best to also watch Oprah Winfrey’s followup special,
After Neverland, a revealing and thoughtful question-and-answer session held in a theatre filled with men who have all experienced sexual abuse.
HBO
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