The Best TV Shows of 2015, Part Two

Lists are fun but ultimately largely arbitrary so here are the rest of the twenty five shows I liked a lot this year in somewhat coherent order leading up to my favorite show of the year. Why 25? #PeakTV, baby! Spoilers may abound.

10. HALT AND CATCH FIRE (AMC)

A show that I had high hopes for and that was very flawed in season one made a miraculous comeback in its second season. No longer trying to be a Mad Men clone, it became a strong character drama about creating online communities, an idea that clearly resonates with today. Mackenzie Davis and Kerry Bishe turned in strong performances as the heads of the online gaming company Mutiny as they struggle with keeping it alive as well as begin to discover what potential their company has. Relationships, both business and romantic, were pushed to breaking points throughout the season, creating masterful tension. Relegated to side characters, Scoot McNairy and Lee Pace both work better in diminished roles as they also began to contemplate their place in an increasingly technologically advanced world.

Key Episodes: “The Way In”, “Play With Friends”, “Kali”

9. THE AMERICANS (FX)

The Americans continued to slowly tighten the noose around it’s central character’s necks this season as they were forced to make increasingly difficult decisions which will undoubtedly begin to spin the end for our Soviet spies. Missions went wrong (but were spectacularly soundtracked and stylish, shout-out to the sequence set to Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain”) and tough revelations became necessary (their daughter Paige finally finds out what her parents are in one of the best episodes of the series) and the show only became more riveting because of it.

Key Episodes: “Do Mail Robots Dream of Electric Sheep?”, “Stingers”, “March 8, 1983”

8. LOOKING (HBO)

This beautifully shot romantic comedy-drama became even more visually stunning in its second season, kicking things off with a two minute long take of a drug-fueled cabal in the woods with all of its main characters. From there it dug more into the psyches of its characters, specifically Jonathan Groff’s naive Patrick Murray as they make sense of their lives and relationships. Patrick is convinced he has AIDS after sleeping with a man with a fiancee, reformed dick Agustin has a moving relationship with an HIV positive man, Dom deals with an open relationship, life goes on. Love, heartbreak, and self-discovery are explored equally and fitfully. The final episode of the series (at least before the series finale movie next year) mostly comprises of a well-shot argument but ends with our main character finding some type of solace. None of the characters are in great shape, but they’re getting there.

Key Episodes: “Looking For The Promised Land”, “Looking For Results”, “Looking For Truth”

7. THE LEFTOVERS (HBO)

This show is even more confusing, grating, frustrating, and annoyingly opaque in its second season and yet I love it even more. Having run out of book material, the show moved to a new town and added a new set of characters, all of which were as fascinating as the Garveys. The show continued to be grounded in complex, daunting human emotion as the characters continued to grapple with the absence of their loved ones in the wake of the Departure, or in the case of the town of Jarden, being spared by the Departure. The show even handled some experimental turns brilliantly thanks to its talented cast and a constant focus on the emotions present, even in the most bizarre of scenes.The show became a bit lighter too, trading in its somewhat histrionic opening sequence for a brighter one extolling what could be the mantra of the series: “Just let the mystery be.”

Key Episodes: “Axis Mundi”, “Lens”, “International Assassin”

6. HANNIBAL (NBC)

In its final(?) season, this serial killer drama went from full art house film to a meticulously paced adaptation of Red Dragon that added several twists not present in either Red Dragon or Manhunter. The results were spectacular, often turning the show into the goriest opera ever created. A story that’s been told twice on screen now (the first one of which is a masterpiece, the remake, not so much) should have felt stale but felt terrifying thanks to an unnerving performance from Richard Armitage and a tender performance from Rutina Wesley. The story of Frances Dolarhyde even managed to tie into Hannibal and Will’s end game in a breathtaking sequence that saw both characters confronting and coming to terms with demons in typical over the top and dreamlike Hannibal fashion in the last scene of the season.

Key Episodes: “Digestivo”, “…And The Woman Clothed In The Sun”, “The Wrath of the Lamb”

5. MR. ROBOT (USA)

Mr. Robot is the first piece of media that didn’t make hacking seem super lame. This show is almost too relevant (an offhand remark about the Ashley Madison hack in one episode was written before the actual hack) in looking at our internet-obsessed society run by greedy, monstrous billionaires. The look and directing on the show are already leagues above what one would expect from USA of all networks, but Rami Malek turns in a powerhouse of a performance of the anxious, drug-addicted hacker protagonist. One of the best unreliable narrators on television, Elliot Alderson made viewers themselves as paranoid as him as twists rattled his life and he begins to lose control of a reality that’s already barely there to begin with. It’s the best parts of Fight Club, American Psycho, and The Social Network extrapolated to their highest potential.

Key Episodes: “eps1.0_hellofriend.mov”, “eps1.7_wh1ter0se.m4v”, “eps1.8_m1rr0r1ng.qt”

4. YOU’RE THE WORST (FXX)

You’re The Worst was almost not a comedy in its second season. Its exploration of mental illness with Gretchen could have and should have made the show dour and stop it dead in its tracks but instead the show worked its own sense of humor into a moving and nuanced depiction of mental illness. The show was funny as ever while also adding enough pathos to fill an entire episode sometimes (“LCD Soundsystem” is a gut punch from start to finish), while still being tightly plotted and further developing every other character as they became slightly better people. This year, this show was the best. I won’t even apologize for that pun because this show rules that much.

Key Episodes: “There Is Not Currently A Problem”, “LCD Soundsystem”, “Other Things You Could Be Doing”

3. MAD MEN (AMC)

There’s not much left to say about Mad Men that’s already been said but the last seven episodes of the series were as perfect and Mad Men-esque as possible. It took strange, yet affecting turns to get there but it eventually moved into a pitch-perfect ending: an image of peace and harmony imagined by Don either representing his transition into a spiritual lifestyle or maybe representing his co-opting of a movement into an advertisement. More importantly, Peggy ended up with Stan! A brilliant show with a brilliant ending.

Key Episodes: “Time And Life”, “Lost Horizon”, “Person To Person”

2. CUCUMBER/BANANA (Channel 4/E4)

I’m cheating here a bit by putting both Cucumber and Banana in the same spot, but they’re technicaly part of one big show and also my list, my rules, so! In a critical world where certain shows are complained about for not having straight characters (*cough* #7 *cough*), both Banana and Cucumber daringly defied heternormativity by having entirely queer casts. Cucumber is a fascinating look at an older gay man living in Manchester along with his friends and family while Banana is an anthology series that exists within the same universe as Cucumber that follows a different queer person every episode. Cucumber and Banana boast the most complex queer characters I’ve seen on television: some of them are good people, some make a lot of mistakes, some are monsters. They all feel incredibly human within both shows. My main argument for putting these two together is that they elevate each other when watched back to back: episode 6 of Cucumber is the most devastating episode of the series, but it leads into episode 6 of Banana, one of the most heartwarming of the series. It’s this willingness to explore different facets and moods with regards to queer characters that make these series incredible. Cucumber is reportedly a one and done series but there are so many more stories for Banana to tell.

Key Episodes (Cucumber): “Episode 1”, Episode 4”, “Episode 6”

Key Episodes (Banana): “Episode 2”, Episode 4”, “Episode 5”

1. SENSE8 (Netflix)

Characters singing karaoke together from different points around the world. Half of the cast participating in an orgy. A breathtaking montage of the entire cast being born. This is the first Netflix show that feels like something I shouldn’t be watching, an experiment. Is it perfect? Of course not, but the sheer scope and emotional meaning behind what it does in its best moments moved me more than any other TV show this year. The show hardly focuses on its own mythology and instead chooses to explore how the lives of these eight people around the world intersect as they begin to learn they are connected to each other spiritually, which is a bold and rewarding choice. The show often feels like eight shows at once, which only adds to the overwhelming effect of it. I can’t even begin to imagine where the show goes next but it will be exhilarating to find out.

Key Episodes: “I Am Also A We”, “What’s Going On?”, “Demons”

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

AGENT CARTER (ABC)
ANOTHER PERIOD (Comedy Central)
ARCHER (FX)
ASH VS. EVIL DEAD (Starz)
BLACKISH (ABC)
BOB’S BURGERS (FOX)
BROAD CITY (Comedy Central)
CASUAL (Hulu)
CATASTROPHE (Amazon)
COMEDY BANG BANG (IFC)
COMMUNITY (Yahoo! Screen)
DAREDEVIL (Netflix)
DEUTSCHLAND 83 (Sundance)
DOCUMENTARY NOW! (IFC)
EMPIRE (FOX)
FARGO (FX)
GAME OF THRONES (HBO)
GIRLS (HBO)
INSIDE AMY SCHUMER (Comedy Central)
IZOMBIE (The CW)
JANE THE VIRGIN (The CW)
LAST WEEK TONIGHT WITH JOHN OLIVER (HBO)
LOUIE (FX)
MAN SEEKING WOMAN (FXX)
SHAMELESS (Showtime)
SILICON VALLEY (HBO)
THE CARMICHAEL SHOW (NBC)
THE FLASH (The CW)
THE JINX (HBO)
THE LAST MAN ON EARTH (FOX)
TOGETHERNESS (HBO)
TRANSPARENT (Amazon)
VEEP (HBO)
WE BARE BEARS (Cartoon Network)