The year is almost over, which means its “Best of” list season! Standard disclaimer applies, I can’t watch everything on TV nor do I try, so the picks below are based on my TV intake for 2018. Hence the reason they are completely arbitrary; however, that doesn’t mean they are any less agonized over. Without further ado, here’s what I deemed the best of the best in TV for 2018.
Best Show: Netflix’s GLOW
Season two of Netflix’s GLOW dropped this summer and I promptly binge watched it. When I finished, I watched it again, and then again. Why you might ask? Well, first of all GLOW features a cast full of badass complex female characters, but it’s also an inspiring story about transformation, one that really resonates with me. I can’t recommend this series enough, add this show to your watchlist and then watch it. Favorite episodes of season two: “Nothing Shattered” and “The Good Twin.” Production for its third season is currently underway.
Best New Show: BBC America’s Killing Eve
BBC America pulled a trojan horse move and slipped Killing Eve’s pilot episode on to my DVR, and boy am I thankful they did. With two women at its center, the show is a fresh take on the spy’s cat and mouse game. In those two central roles are Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer who absolutely kill it in every scene, pun intended. The 8-episode first season is available to stream on Hulu. The second season is set to drop sometime in the spring of 2019. Seriously give this show a go, it offers a nice balance of humor, murder, and international intrigue.
Best Show That Was Cancelled: SyFy’s Face Off
SyFy’s workhorse reality show Face Off concluded this spring and it went out on a high note, with a handful of talented makeup artists vying for the title of champion (and a FIAT 500). While I’m sad the series was cancelled, it’s also refreshing to be able to enjoy a show till the very end. The level of artistry and creativity only increased with every season and the delightful panel of judges remained mostly intact throughout the show’s thirteen season run. Prior to the airing of the series finale I wrote a farewell to Face Off.
Best Binge Watch: The CW’s The 100
For whatever reason Warner Bros. Television decided to have just one giant panel at NYCC featuring the following three shows: Blindspot, Manifest, and The 100. From a fan standpoint, I’m not sure this made any real sense, how much overlap do they have in fandom? No real clue, but as a fan of Blindspot I knew I wanted to attend that panel. However, when the panel schedule was released I hadn’t seen any of The 100, a show that I’d been meaning to watch for ages. Not wanting to risk being spoiled or missing out on the chance to fully appreciate the panel I already intended to sit through, I did the only logical thing – binge watch all five seasons, or 72 episodes, in the span of 12 days. I quickly became obsessed with the show. I loved the series strong Battlestar Galactica vibes, rich world building, and slew of complex characters. Season six is slated to air on The CW sometime in the spring of 2019, but the first five seasons are available on Netflix. Oh, and here’s some highlights from The 100 NYCC panel, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
Best Musical Moment: Netflix’s GLOW & The CW’s The Flash
This one is a tie between GLOW’s catchy original song / PSA “Don’t Kidnap”…
And The Flash’s easter egg to Smallville fans during this year’s Elseworlds crossover event:
Best Sight Gag: The CW’s Supergirl
Part of the fun of watching Supergirl is seeing all the normal everyday ways Kara uses her powers like lifting a couch up in the air to find a missing shoe, using her heat vision to finish cooking the Thanksgiving turkey, or reaching into the oven sans oven mitts because she can. But the show really had fun with her powers and dual-identity in the second episode of the current season, “Fallout” when she was stuck in lockdown at L-Corp with Lena and Eve and was unable to switch into Supergirl mode.
Best Dream Sequence: NBC’s Blindspot
TV shows love a good dream sequence; after all, it’s a fun way to get into a character’s psyche while also allowing the writers and actors to mix things up and break the rules already established. This year Blindspot totally delivered in the dream department in the season four episode “Everlasting”. Without giving too much away, we got to see Patterson kick ass, Jane and Weller “switch places”, and a homage to The Breakfast Club. Season five of Blindspot is currently airing on NBC, but you can catch the rest of the series, including the aforementioned episode on Hulu.
Best Performance: NBC’s The Good Place
As Janet, D’Arcy Carden has been a continual scene stealer in The Good Place, but in the fall finale of the third season, “Janet(s)” she was given the opportunity to really shine. She didn’t just play regular Janet and newly introduced Neutral Janet, but she was also tasked with playing all four core characters: Eleanor, Chidi, Jason, and Tahani. To learn what it was like to capture all the nuances of your co-stars’ characters and how this even more-bizarre-than-normal episode came to be, check out these interviews with Carden and Executive producer Michael Schur on EW.com, Vulture, and TVLine.com. The episode “Janet(s)” is currently streaming for free on NBC.com, watch it here.
Best Dialogue: Amazon’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
I literally just finished watching the second season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and even though I watched all of Gilmore Girls and Bunheads it never ceases to amaze me how much I enjoy the writing style and cadence of Amy Sherman-Palladino-created TV shows. The zingers, the banter, it just delights me to no end.
Best Holiday Episode: NBC’s This Is Us
Yes, This Is Us does all the holidays pretty damn well, but I gotta go with “Super Bowl Sunday” for this one. Okay, I’ll admit, “best” feels like a weird way to describe this episode, but I have a couple of reasons for giving it the top spot. 1.) The Super Bowl is a holiday in my family. 2.) While incredibly sad, this episode finally gave us the answer as to what happened to Jack. And 3.) this was the episode following Super Bowl LII, which for me as a Philadelphia Eagles fan, was one of the best days of 2018.
Best Show You’ve Never Heard Of: TBS’s The Guest Book
TBS has quietly amassed an interesting line-up of original comedies, from buzzy Search Party to the lesser known shows like Wrecked and The Guest Book. While I recommend all of the above, The Guest Book gets the spotlight here for it’s anthology-esque storytelling structure and bizarre sense of humor. Check out the first two seasons on TBS.com.
Best Water Cooler Moment: Netflix’s Black Mirror
Netflix dropped a trailer for a new Black Mirror entry on a Thursday, then it ended with a release date of the very next day so you better believe everyone in my office was abuzz with excitement at the news. Even better yet, “Bandersnatch” turned out to be in the style of a choose-your-own-adventure novel. So between the surprise drop and the seemingly endless ways to watch it, people were talking. Nothing like comparing your poor decisions and increasingly bleak endings to the choices and outcomes of your friends and family.
Best Surprise: TBS’s Angie Tribeca
In July 2017 Angie Tribeca was renewed for season 4, but it’s been almost radio silence since then. That is until the last week of December when TBS released a trailer promising a Season 4 Binge-a-Thon on Saturday December 29th and Sunday December 30th. While it sounds more like a “burn-off,” I’m still pumped for new episodes of Angie Tribeca especially after such a long wait.
Best Renewal: ABC’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. & NBC’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Fans of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. really had to sweat out renewal season this past May as ABC’s decision went down to the wire. Ultimately they renewed the series with a reduced episode order; however, the show wouldn’t return until summer of 2019. Okay, I could wait, but then Netflix started to cancel their Marvel shows and suddenly it felt like S.H.I.E.L.D.’s days were even more numbered than before. But then this November, seemingly out of the blue, ABC renewed the series for a seventh season!
Brooklyn Nine-Nine fans had even more emotional whiplash regarding renewals. FOX cancelled the comedy after five seasons, but then NBC swooped in and saved the day less than 48 hours later. Here’s how it all went down. And now I’m happy to report that season 6 of Brooklyn Nine-Nine will debut on its new night and new home on January 10, 2019.
What were your favorite series and TV-related moments of 2018? Sound off in the comments section below.
