Time to look at the top 10 best shows of 2019 and for the most part, 2019 was a very good year for television, we saw many shows give their swan songs and saw new additions to fill the void for the departing shows. In fact, honestly, as of the time I’m posting this, I’ve had trouble filling out my bottom 10 TV shows of 2019, I’ve been scrounging to find the worst TV shows out there, that’s how good of a year it has been.
And before anybody asks, I haven’t gotten a chance to watch Watchmen just yet and I know that’s going to be on several lists of the best of the year but unfortunately, vacations, the Steel City Con, and other things kept me from getting to it but I will try to watch it in the next week and give you my thoughts on it in the coming weeks.
So, without further ado, let’s take a look at my top 10 best TV shows of 2019:
10. Veep
After seven seasons, Veep came to a close in 2019 and did what Game Of Thrones really couldn’t do, finish out strong and maintain its’ quality over the course of its’ entire run ending with a very solid and entertaining final episode.
9. I Am The Night
The series is inspired by the memoir One Day She’ll Darken: The Mysterious Beginnings of Fauna Hodel, written by Fauna Hodel, documenting her unusual beginnings and the connection to her grandfather, George Hodel, a prime suspect in the infamous Black Dahlia murder mystery.
Fauna Hodel, a young girl who was given up by her birth mother, sets out to uncover the secrets of her past and ends up following a sinister trail that swirls closer to a gynecologist involved in the legendary Black Dahlia slaying.
The series’ main highlights are the striking visuals, which look impressive for a TNT series budget, and the excellent performances of Chris Pine and India Eisley, who gives a really solid breakout performance as Fauna Hodel, these two work off each other really well and they really are the strongest parts of the series.
The writing is solid but very formulaic and only just a slight nod up compared to the 2006 Black Dahlia movie from Brian De Palma, a little too predictable but it still works for what it is.
I Am The Night is an overall enjoyable miniseries with its’ highlights coming from the impressive visuals and its’ two leads, the rest of the cast including Connie Nielsen, Leland Orser, Yul Vazquez, Golden Brooks, Jefferson Maya and Jamie Anne Allman is good too and the writing is good, it’s an overall enjoyable miniseries that could’ve used a little more twists and turns to make it stand out on its’ own but the final result is more than enjoyable enough to recommend it.
8. Rocko’s Modern Life: Static Cling
Rocko’s Modern Life: Static Cling not only does a great job of paying homage to the original series right down to the animation nearly looking exactly like it did back in 1996 when the show ended but it was just as funny and as fresh as the original series was.
But not only that, it’s also fairly heartwarming and kind of touching in a way, a major plot point, which I’m not gonna spoil here if you haven’t seen it yet, is handled very well here and there are even some good life lessons and messages that a lot of people can relate to, especially with people kind of stuck in the 90s….such as myself…and it also has that same biting satirical edge that the series had when it comes to making fun of meta reboots and poking fun at modern day lifestyles.
When it comes to these Nick revivals, Hey Arnold! The Jungle Movie was a great finale for Hey Arnold! and Static Cling is a perfectly handled special that makes you feel like the show never left with comedy as funny as it was before as well as trying to teach some good life lessons and messages about the concept of change.
It’s definitely worth the over 20 year wait and should be watched on Netflix immediately if you haven’t already done so.
7. Invader Zim: Enter The Florpus
When it comes to reviving nostalgic things from the past, so far, Nickelodeon has been on a relatively hot streak, especially their revivals of their Nicktoons. Like seriously, the Nicktoon movies and specials they’ve been doing are really fantastic and all of them really do feel like the original show never ended in terms of the quality of animation, the writing, the voice work, 9 times out of 10 they really do feel like you never left these shows at all. Hey Arnold! The Jungle Movie was terrific, Rocko’s Modern Life: Static Cling was phenomenal, and Invader Zim: Enter The Florpus is friggin’ fantastic.
I absolutely loved this movie, not only did it do what the other two animated films did by making it feel like the show never ended, it’s picking up right where they left off with the same animation quality, writing, and voice talent but it’s still friggin’ insane and hilarious and I loved every single moment of it.
To see both Richard Steven Horovitz and Andy Bermann once again work off each other as Zim and Dib is great and they have so many hilarious moments in this together that, once again, really do feel like they haven’t been away this long, I mean this exchange alone is just perfect:
That alone made me laugh long and hard the first time I watched it and I remember laughing for about a good 45 seconds to a minute afterward, it made me laugh hard and there’s a ton of those moments all throughout the movie.
The animation, like I mentioned, is fantastic once again showing that it never really felt like it’s been 17 years since the last episode like it’s coming right after the last episode aired.
The writing is great with great comedy blended in with a surprising amount of emotional moments, especially between Dib and his family, which really did surprise me because you don’t really expect emotions to come out of a crazy show like Invader Zim and yet, they found a way to bring it in here really well. Right down to the ending, which I’m not gonna spoil at all but it’s one of the funniest things ever and it completely fits with what you would expect from this show.
What else do I even need to say at this point? Enter The Florpus is everything you could’ve asked for and thensome when wanting to see Invader Zim return, great animation, great voice cast, great comedy, great action, great writing, it’s just another winner from Nickelodeon’s reviving of their classic Nicktoons and it may just very well be their best movie yet so far.
6. Undone
UNDONE is a half-hour, genre-bending, animated series that explores the elastic nature of reality through its central character Alma, a twenty-eight-year-old living in San Antonio, Texas. After getting into a car accident and nearly dying, Alma finds she has a new relationship to time. She develops this new ability in order to find out the truth about her father’s death.
Would you believe that there are still people out there who still think animation is clearly for kids? And those people really need to have their heads checked and this show can definitely be a perfect way to get them to believe more in animation.
This is a really damn good show with fantastic rotoscoping animation reminiscent of A Scanner Darkly and Waking Life, great voice acting from a solid cast led by Rosa Salazar and Bob Odenkirk, and a surprisingly amount of strongly written storytelling, they do a great job of telling a very emotionally packed storyline with intriguing storylines and characters to work off of, and the visuals are absolutely fantastic to look at.
Undone is a series that keeps you invested on so many levels and it shows how incredible the power of animation can be, this is definitely one of the best shows of the year and it’s definitely worth the watch on Amazon, check it out and you will not be disappointed.
5. Stranger Things
In the summer of 1985 in Hawkins, the newly opened Starcourt Mall has become the focal point of the town, driving other stores out of business. Chief Jim Hopper is conflicted over Eleven and Mike’s budding relationship, while Joyce considers moving out of Hawkins for better prospects, leaving the state of the children’s friendships and her own relationship with Hopper in the air. However, strange power fluctuations trigger Will’s awareness of something otherworldly, and Eleven and Max sense something is off about the town’s residents, and despite having closed the portal to the Upside Down, fears that they are all in danger from it still.
With Game Of Thrones now officially over, Stranger Things has become the new it series to get into and the first two seasons were both incredibly well done and set a new bar for Netflix itself that this new season would have big shoes to fill to top what they did in the past.
And honestly, in my opinion, this is probably the best season of Stranger Things they’ve done so far, they keep getting better and better with every season and this year has some of the best episodes the show has done up to this point with great acting from all the cast, spectacular visuals, great tension filled moments, and that great nostalgic visual style that harkens back once again to 80s Spielberg, Stephen King, and John Carpenter.
Stranger Things continues to prove that after three seasons, they’re not letting the creativity die down, in its’ third season, the show still remains just as well made as it did in the first two seasons and moreso, this year. Everything about the show just works so well and it’s clear that right now, they’re not letting the overhype of the series overplay the show itself, there is still a lot that works on Stranger Things and hopefully, next season continues that tradition very well.
4. The Dark Crystal: Age Of Resistance AND Star Wars: The Mandalorian
Yeah, I’m cheating on this one largely because I just finally got to watching The Mandalorian this past week and…I’ll delve into that in just a bit but first let me talk about Dark Crystal.
Man, talk about making Jim Henson proud, somewhere he is smiling right now in heaven because this show is a friggin’ masterpiece on so many levels. I mean, just WOW, this is great.
On a technical level, this is fantastic, creating a nicely done updated look of the original movie that feels on the same level of Lord Of The Rings and Game Of Thrones in their attention to detail. The visuals are absolutely fantastic on a number of levels.
The voice cast is stacked, I mean, REALLY stacked. You’ve got Taron Egerton, Anya Taylor-Joy, Nathalie Emmanuel, Eddie Izzard, Helena Bonham Carter, Caitrona Balfe, Toby Jones, Gubu Mbatha-Raw, Lena Headey, Alicia Vikander, Hannah John-Kamen, Natalie Dormer, Mark Strong, Theo James, Jason Issacs, Simon Pegg, Awkwafina, Benedict Wong, Harvey Fierstein, Andy Samberg, Keegan Michael-Key, Mark Hamill, Bill Hader, Sigourney Weaver, I mean, my god, they packed on a huge cast big time and they all for the most part do really well fitting their roles nicely.
The story is very engaging and entertaining, the writers do an incredible job of continuing the story of the original film while also creating a new mythos and storytelling to give it new life.
The action is very good, the show finds a great pace of blending serious moments with more lighthearted moments, it all just comes together so well.
The Dark Crystal: Age Of Resistance is a massive achievement on so many levels as far as TV shows go, as far as building on a classic film in The Dark Crystal, creating new worlds, fun characters, great action, great visual flair, great storytelling, great voice work, this is one of the best shows of the year, if not, the decade, this is definitely a series that is well worth the watch and you’re really missing out if you haven’t watched it yet.
With The Mandalorian, a lot of those same compliments can be made for what this show does for Star Wars. The entire series does a fantastic job of breathing a new world and feel into Star Wars with this spaghetti western type of vibe to it.
Pedro Pascal as The Mandalorian is absolutely terrific, he doesn’t really say a whole lot and you never see him with the mask off but he can create so much emotion and acting without even showing off his face.
And yes….Baby Yoda is fucking awesome, man. It’s not only a nice effect but the little guy is just so lovable and fun to watch whenever he’s on screen, it’s hard not to enjoy it. The moment you see Baby Yoda riding by in his space stroller and Mandalorian has this look like “what the fuck?”, I was hooked:
https://twitter.com/i/status/1198415698965471232
So, yeah, cheating on this one putting both of these together but in a way, they are kind of both the same, creating new universes and storytelling in the worlds of Dark Crystal and Star Wars that weren’t really there before or hardly ever mentioned.
3. Euphoria
Euphoria follows a group of high school students through their experiences of sex, drugs, friendships, love and trauma.
Man, what a odd but hauntingly beautiful show this is, from the moment the first episode ended, I was hooked in a good way, this is an absolutely brilliant show and one of HBO’s best original shows in a long time.
Zendaya is really good in this as is the rest of the cast, Hunter Schafer is absolutely fantastic, her chemistry with Zendaya throughout the show is excellent, the rest of the cast is great, you’ve got Maude Apatow, Eric Dane, Angus Cloud, Alexa Demie, Jacob Elordi, Barbie Ferreira, Storm Reid, Algee Smith, and Sydney Sweeney all delivering great performances throughout.
The stories are very engaging and the writing is great, there are great moments that are not only great to watch but they are also very hard to watch, the second to the last episode of the season has a subplot centering around Zendaya’s character Rue falling into a deep depression, alternating between manic episodes and an unwillingness to do anything, even urinate. And the scenes where she’s struggling to go to the bathroom are so uncomfortable and yet so well done that you really do feel a lot of emotional impact from these types of scenes. This is a show that is not afraid to take chances and go for it and you have to admire it for it.
The show also has a nice visual style to it, the cinematography is incredible, and the music is incredibly well done.
Imagine if MTV’s Skins remake actually worked, you know, that god-awful Skins remake MTV did that got everybody pissed off, Euphoria is what happens when you do it the right way, this is one of my favorite TV shows of the year and the best show HBO has done in years, a hauntingly beautiful very odd, well-acted, well-shot, well-written series that keeps you wanting to come back for more with each episode and I’m really looking forward to see what the second season has to offer.
2. Tuca & Bertie
Tuca & Bertie follows “the friendship between two 30-year-old bird-women who live in the same apartment building, Tuca, a cocky, care-free toucan, and Bertie, an anxious, daydreaming songbird.”
Two years ago, TBS showed off the first look at Close Enough, JG Quintel’s follow-up to Regular Show with a more adult feel than Regular Show, and naturally I got hyped because I loved Regular Show and to see what Quintel’s style of comedy can be like in more adult form…
…but that show has yet to debut and that may have been attributed to TBS’ animation block falling apart but we’ve been waiting for two years now and I really don’t know what it’s not here yet. It’s a shame because the show does look really good, seemingly looking like a more adult Regular Show. One day hopefully we see it but why am I bringing that up here?
Well, because while we wait for Close Enough to come out, we can at least take comfort that right now there is pretty much an adult Regular Show style animated series out there right now and that is Tuca & Bertie.
Wow, what a fun show this was. Now, truth be told, I’ve yet to watch Bojack Horseman yet (don’t worry, I’m getting the Blu-Ray box set coming out at the end of the month from Shout Factory) but this is done by the same team behind Bojack Horseman with Lisa Hanawalt, the production designer on Bojack, as the show’s creator and this show is friggin’ hilarious.
I love this show so much, there is just so much about this show to admire from the great voice work by Tiffany Haddish and Ali Wong as the title characters to the stylistic and impressive animation to the great humor, this is just such a fun, fun show.
In addition to Haddish and Wong, the rest of the cast is great, you’ve got Richard E. Grant, Taraji P. Henson, Nicole Byer, Steven Yeun, Reggie Watts, Awkwafina, Michelle Dockery, Jenifer Lewis, Tig Notaro, Laverne Cox, Tessa Thompson, Jane Lynch, and Isabella Rosselini among it.
The animation is nicely done looking like a nice mix of Bojack Horseman as well as Regular Show while also trying to establish its’ own unique style to it.
The humor is also uniquely different from the style of Bojack Horseman, which supposedly goes for more darker humor, this one has this chipper attitude to it with more emphasis on the slapstick style humor but it’s not afraid to have serious moments, once again, like Regular Show did.
Again, I like the blending of comedy and more serious stuff like adult anxiety among other things and it’s done very well where it never feels like one side is overstepping the other.
Tuca & Bertle is a nice mixing of Bojack Horseman, Regular Show and even some Broad City as well with excellent animation, great humor and a stellar voice cast which makes for one of 2019’s best shows easily. This is definitely a show that’s more than worth the watch and is one of Netflix’s best shows in recent memory and they’ve been on a roll for a while now.
and the #1 best TV show of 2019 is…
True Detective
Mahershala Ali plays the lead role of detective Wayne Hays, while Stephen Dorff plays his partner detective Roland West. The season marks Pizzolatto’s directorial debut, with the series creator dividing up directing assignments with Jeremy Saulnier and Daniel Sackheim. Pizzolatto also serves as the showrunner and sole writer of the season, with the exception of the fourth and sixth episode, which he co-wrote with David Milch and Graham Gordy respectively.
The first season of True Detective was one of the best television shows of 2014 and creating some of the best performances of Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson’s careers and bringing out a well told and beautifully directed mystery series that we haven’t seen done as well since the original Twin Peaks.
The second season, despite the great performances by Vince Vaughn and Taylor Kitsch, really fell flat when it came to its’ story and mystery, both of which failed to live up to the hype of the first season.
So with this third season coming nearly four years after the previous season, there’s a lot of wonder if the wait was well worth it and the show has found its’ way again and after watching much of the season, with the season finale to come this Sunday, I can honestly say that this has definitely brought the show back to its’ form of the first season.
Everything about this season brings the series back to form with the cast led by yet another fantastic performance by Mahershala Ali playing the main detective here but also includes solid performances by Stephen Dorff, Carmen Ejogo, Scoot McNairy, and Ray Fisher.
The directing is really good with creator Nic Pizzolatto making his directorial debut on the fourth and fifth episodes and the writing is well done with Pizzolatto at the head for much of the story creating a nicely handled mystery that was missing from the second season.
While it’s not as great as the first season, True Detective season three is a mass improvement over the lackluster second season boasted by a strong mystery and great acting led by Mahershala Ali and barring some unusual twist that the finale could suck, this season could finally be the trend that turns True Detective around.
Those are the best shows of 2019, now here’s a quick rundown of all the honorable mentions:
Green Eggs & Ham — Spectacular animation, a great voice cast led by Michael Douglas and Adam Devine, and managing to take a Dr. Seuss classic and make an entertaining and funny 13 episode series out of it and make it work, you have to give a lot of kudos to the people behind this show for creating what might very well be the best Dr. Seuss adaptation ever made.
Steven Universe — A show that has continued to have such a strong power in terms of great animation and storytelling, the end of the original series as well as the movie and its’ miniseries, Steven Universe Future, continues to show that Steven Universe has evolved into an animation masterpiece that deserves to be up there among the ranks of Gravity Falls and Avatar: The Last Airbender in terms of the best animated shows of all time.
Russian Doll — Russian Doll follows a young woman named Nadia on her journey as the guest of honor at a seemingly inescapable party one night in New York City. She dies repeatedly, always restarting at the same moment at the party, as she tries to figure out what is happening to her.
That premise alone is awesome, I’m just a sucker for time traveling premises and this is a show that’s just right up my alley and it definitely works on so many levels.
Natasha Lyonne, who really is having a career renaissance in this decade with Orange Is The New Black and now this, is incredible in this, she’s great and for a show like this that focuses on having the same situations happening but with different tones each time, her various acting ranges works really well to fit the flow of the story, the rest of the cast works just as well but this is Lyonne’s baby all along, this is her show.
The writing in this show is great combining great comedy and drama while also creating a nice blending of time travel elements and a good mystery to tell its’ story. Imagine if Groundhog Day met Search Party, that’s basically what you have hear and it works really well, maybe a lot more than Search Party does.
Russian Doll can join the ranks of House Of Cards, Orange Is The New Black, GLOW, Santa Clarita Diet, and Disenchantment as one of Netflix’s finest accomplishments in terms of its’ original series, this is an all-around winner headlined by Natasha Lyonne’s strong performance and a great story with good mystery and time travel elements to keep you invested in what’s going on, this is not only a fantastic series but right up there with True Detective as one of 2019’s best shows.
Barry — A series I just discovered this year, HBO has yet another winner here with Barry, not only is it a great hilarious dark comedy with standout performances from Bill Hader and Henry Winkler but it’s also a really good murder mystery too that keeps you on the edge of your seat with every episode. If the first two seasons are any indication, this is definitely on its’ way to becoming HBO’s next great series.
High Flying Bird — Remember when Steven Soderbergh said he was going to retire from filmmaking after 2013? Oh, thank god that he didn’t mean it because man, the dude has been putting out a lot of great stuff since then, Logan Lucky was great as was last year’s Unsane and now we have this movie, which is yet another winner for Soderbergh.
I really enjoyed this movie a lot, once again Soderbergh tests the limits of what you can do filmmaking wise by making this movie using a Iphone8 Smartphone of all things, like he did with Unsane, and yet, it looks completely flawless like it was made with actual film itself.
But not only do you the great direction of Soderbergh but you also have the writing of Tarell Alvin McCraney, who wrote the 2016 Oscar winning Best Picture, Moonlight, and that film’s star Andre Holland also wrote the story and stars in the film and it’s a freshly written and enticing look at the dealings of professional sports and also done in a very creative and unique way.
Holland gives a really good performance in this as does the rest of the cast, especially Melvin Gregg, who got his start with Vines and was actually one of the funnier Vine creators out there at the app’s peak…
…in addition, you have Zazie Beetz from Atlanta and Deadpool 2, Kyle MacLachlan, Zachary Quinto, Bill Duke, a really good cast giving these really good performances to work with.
Whenever you hear people say that Netflix’s movie output is inferior compare to their series output, it is kind of true but High Flying Bird is one of the rare Netflix movie pickups that not only works but really works, this is a very creative, very engaging movie that combines Soderbergh’s unique directing style with a great script that blends comedic and dramatic situations nicely with a great cast to go along with it. This one is definitely an early contender for the best of the year list for sure.
Pose — Honestly, I was afraid that this show’s novelty would wear off after the second season as most of Ryan Murphy’s shows do but Pose really has come into its’ own in season two making it stand out as one of FX’s strongest shows out there right now.
Game Of Thrones — Yes, I know a lot of people hate the ending, I didn’t, and I will freely admit that Game Of Thrones didn’t live up to the expectations in its’ last season but at the same time, there was still a lot of great stuff in the last season that it would’ve been hard for me to not put this in the honorable mentions list.
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