Such an odd, funny, but effectively strategised and peculiarly affecting series: I spent the first half of it convinced I was being lured into some terrible trap by the folks behind Little Miss Sunshine, led to empathise with a character who may or may not wind up unmasked as among the worst people on the planet, and wondering why one of the great actors of her generation (Claire Danes) was so prominently billed and so conspicuously sidelined. Some way into its closing hour, I sincerely started to believe it had started to circle the mysteries of the universe, and was this close to solving one or two of them. Terrifically acted by a handful of our best and brightest, with summery Tim Orr lensing that mitigates against this plot's harsher edges, it's one of the few shows of the streaming era to have fully absorbed the lessons of Six Feet Under, and possibly even something as notable as Transparent for heteros, with characters who get both messier and more interesting the closer this camera studies them.
39. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia S16 (Netflix)
A little rushed this year - they're all so busy with other things now! - but as funny as ever whenever it clicked; they remain undefeated as the best ensemble in the business.
38. Black Mirror: Beyond the Sea (Netflix)
Sometimes a streaming service affords a skilled director time and space enough to knuckle down with interesting actors, and you can think about forgiving the profligacy elsewhere. Brooker's script is a hotchpotch of nods and references (it's 2001 and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Face/Off, basically film-bro central), but John Crowley puts it on a low, careful simmer, metabolises some of the borrowing, and gets the drama to work on a human level. (He takes the nerd out of it, in other words.) Three nicely calibrated, unshowy performances help: with his plaid shirts and craggily all-American profile, MVP Aaron Paul bears a newfound resemblance to China Moon-era Ed Harris, which is a steadying boon. Maybe not one for the Broadcast Hall of Fame - I sort of guessed where it was heading, while enjoying watching these people puzzle it all out for themselves - but it earns a compliment that is increasingly hard to bestow on extended episodes of streaming TV drama: it justifies its own running time.
37. The Kemps: All Gold (BBC4; iPlayer)
"You can't have a Spandau Ballet movie without Spandau Ballet music."
"Some people might prefer it."
I was enjoying this even before Perry Benson recurred as Ross Kemp (not that one). Like the Bros doc that inspired them, these specials make you feel kindlier towards performers you may not necessarily have had time for back in their pouting pomp. You'd never catch Duran Duran doing this.
36. Last Week Tonight with John Oliver S10 (HBO Max; Sky Comedy, NOW TV)
Hilarious how much more relaxed this show has become since a grown-up was elected President again - while still doing everything it possibly can to avoid a rerun of 2016.
35. Platonic S1 (Apple TV+)
The year’s second couple-derived comedy, after the delightful BBC import Colin from Accounts, to namecheck When Harry Met Sally while centralising microbrewing. Especially genial example of hangout TV: an excuse for Seth Rogen to mistreat e-scooters while laughing that buoying, Fozzie Bear-like laugh of his, and for he and Rose Byrne to crease one another (and thereby us) up on a semi-regular basis. Sometimes TV is as simple as inviting people you like into your living room.
34. I Think You Should Leave S3 (Netflix)
Is it getting saner, or is it just that the world around it is slipping only further into the insanity it depicts?
33. Unstable S1 (Netflix)
One of the year's pleasant surprises: almost a model of the straight-down-the-line, enjoyably funny, three-and-a-bit-star sitcom. It's hardly breaking new ground - its set-up is dads-and-lads all over again - but the dad is played by one of the great comic actors of the past 30 years, and Rob Lowe's timing and hair alike remain aspirational. (Somewhat amazingly, Netflix have given it a second season.)
32. Reboot S1 (Hulu in the US; Disney+ here)
Came late to this - by the time the screeners arrived on this side of the Atlantic, Hulu had already pulled the plug - but it offered Episodes serious competition as the sharpest behind-the-TV-scenes comedy since The Larry Sanders Show. Of course it couldn't run longer than a season; it was giving too many secrets away.
31. The Power of Parker S1 (BBC1; iPlayer)
Sharply realised Britcom that regards the early 1990s as a hangover from the excesses of the 1980s, and boasts a superlative villain in Conleth Hill’s Martin Parker, a peacocking wheeler-dealer brought low by the sisters he’s been two-timing. Sian Gibson spars effectively with Rosie Cavaliero as the Silvikrinned avenging angels and – alongside co-writer Paul Coleman – distributes hearty laughs around an excellent ensemble: Sheila Reid as a lusty retiree and Abby Vicky-Russell as Parker’s underengaged secretary are among the beneficiaries.
30. Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing S6 (BBC2; iPlayer)
In the 2004 motion picture Harold and Kumar Get the Munchies, David Krumholtz has a throwaway bit in which he posits Katie Holmes' nude scene in The Gift as the anti-Holocaust. Gone Fishing is, I think, the anti-Brexit: the best of us. Protect Bob Mortimer at all costs; wrap him in cotton wool and bubblewrap between series if you have to, but protect him at all costs.
29. The Gallows Pole S1 (BBC2; iPlayer)
Shane Meadows once made genial, knockabout big-screen comedies about dads and lads and blokes in chipshops, and then pivoted to making heavy-hitting state-of-the-nation addresses. A little of both, The Gallows Pole forms a characteristically lively riff on Ben Myers’ 2017 novel about the true-life misadventures of the Cragg Vale Coiners, 18th century weavers and farmhands who, lacking two pennies to rub together, collectivised to fashion knock-off currency. Meadows’ semi-improvised style shocked or alienated those expecting polished Downtonisms, but he is as ever tremendous on community, and how people rally round common causes. Between trippy glimpses of horned “stag men” (seen grooving in Bond-girl silhouette under the end credits), these three hours set the present in vibrant, funny, instructive conversation with the past. More please, BBC – even if you have to clip a few coins of your own to fund it.
28. Time S2 (BBC1; iPlayer)
Another BBC primetime offering that could have benefitted from an enhanced budget and a few more episodes - but which proved potent enough to seize the attention while it lasted. Jimmy McGovern gained a co-writer in Helen Black, and continued to balance conflict with supreme empathy, as proximity to others granted the show's heroines renewed insight into their own struggles.
27. Disco: Soundtrack to a Revolution (PBS; BBC2, iPlayer)
Strikes several neat balances: it takes the phenomenon of disco more seriously than many did at the time, without losing sight of the fact many of these songs were fun, joyous, sources of both escape and – in certain cases – liberation. The soundtrack is all killer, no filler: “Rock Your Baby” and “Rock the Boat”, “Stayin’ Alive” and “I Will Survive”. And by pirouetting nimbly between the recollections of key acts and keen aficionados, the series begins to reposition disco as its own, short-lived civil rights movement: a million man (and woman) march, albeit one carried out on the spot, often shirtless and always under a gleaming mirrorball.
26. History of the World – Part II (Hulu in the US; Disney+ in the UK)
I Think You Should You Leave S3 was all well and good, but did it restage Judas's betrayal of Jesus as an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm, complete with JB Smoove and Richard Kind cameos? No, it did not. That was by some distance the funniest comedy idea of 2023; among the runners-up would be having Trotsky come up with the 2005 motion picture Wedding Crashers; forcing Ike Barinholtz and Nick Stoll to spend eight episodes competing for the title of Mel Brooks' favourite son; and casting David Duchovny as Howard Cosell. I would also willingly watch a full season of the spoof Shirley Chisholm sitcom "Shirley!".
25. The Romantics (Netflix)
Caveats: yes, it's almost wholly authorised history. Yes, you have to be aware it's not a history of Indian cinema per se, rather a history of modern Bollywood, as reflected through the ups and downs of one studio and one dynastic family. In short: it's far from the whole picture. But it's a swooningly pretty, immensely engaging, superbly edited one, with most of, if not all, the right faces, clips and lines of inquiry. May all our authorised histories be this sharply composed - and this gorgeous to pore over.
24. Boom! Boom! The World vs. Boris Becker (Apple TV+)
The ever-industrious Alex Gibney interviews Boris Becker twice: first in 2019, as his subject’s financial woes became apparent, then in 2022, shortly before Becker was sentenced for breaching the Insolvency Act. In the former, Becker retains traces of the leonine golden boy of yore; in the latter, he appears pallid and fraying, like a tennis ball battered beyond recognition. Gibney argues that Becker, like many champions, believed in making life difficult for himself; in matters of money, however, he stretched himself too far. The road to HMP Wandsworth – as Gibney notes, not so far from Wimbledon – is enlivened by this filmmaker’s tremendous facility with archive. Many clips here you just won’t have seen, and even the familiar Centre Court action has been punched up for the purposes of stronger storytelling; those aces zip past us anew. But there are situations in life – cheating on loved ones, ducking fiscal responsibilities – where even a 100mph serve can’t rescue you.
23. Atlanta S4 (Disney+)
Its own thing to the last, and all the better for that.
22. The Good Fight S6 (CBS All Access; Paramount+)
Not the most explosive of send-offs, in the end: Covid and cast changes seemed to stall the show's momentum, and the post-Trump relaxation that has benefitted John Oliver gave the writers here slightly less to pick over and wrestle with. Always bold and intriguing, often surprising, and superbly played, nevertheless; a smart and witty companion in the midst of chaos. I fear we could be in for a reboot as soon as autumn 2024, reconvening exactly where the first season began.
21. Tour de France Unchained S1 (Netflix)
Man alive, the sports docs this year. Within the overarching yellow-jersey narrative of Le Tour's 2022 edition, the eight episodes of this French-produced series locate multiple smaller stories: individual stages and battles, the competition between and within teams, the generational shifts amid a mercilessly onrushing peloton. As viewers of ITV4’s expert daily coverage will know, this race has always provided great spectacle, but here it’s mined for multilayered, revealing, often bruising life experience. Marvel at the altitude these cyclists ascend to over each day’s racing – and brace for impact whenever they fly over their own handlebars.
Shows 20-1 can be found here.
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