Favorite TV Shows I've Seen In 2023

I've seen a lot, but not enough!

I still have not seen - Castlevania’s newest season, Invincible season 2, Gen V, Rick and Morty, Lupin Part 3, Hilda Season 3, The Bear, or Blue Eyed Samurai. I need to! I’m not going as in depth on the TV reviews as that’s a lot of plot to cover. But, these are the shows I’d recommend from 2023:

10. Only Murders In the Building Season 3 - While I always find the show enjoyable, it never quite reaches beyond charming sitcom. There’s nothing wrong with that and the cast is delightful, the mysteries are ridiculous and it never overstays its welcome. I don’t know how long the show will go on, but it’s fun to see the trio in action.

    Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez are three true crime podcasters who keep finding themselves wrapped up in Scooby Doo murder capers at their apartment complex. Mabel (Gomez) is struggling with her identity and being left behind as she has to leave the Arconia, the titular building. Oliver (Short) is pulling together his last musical after being involuntarily retired from the theater business. Charles Hayden-Savage (Martin) is struggling with the transition to the stage as a member of the cast.

    This season deals with the death of mercurial action actor Ben Glenroy (Paul Rudd), star of Oliver’s musical remake of Death Rattle. It’s all absurd and never pretends to be anything but. Meryl Streep co-stars as an undiscovered gem and potential partner for Oliver. A star studded cast, having a blast poking fun at a lot of absurdity in the entertainment industry.

    

9. Barry Season 4 - Bill Hader did not want anyone to labor under any delusions. His hitman, Barry Berkman, is a bad, bad person. He hurts the people he loves. He is a contract killer. He has anger issues, is abusive and suffers from a lot of mental illness.

   This season pulls you out of Barry’s head and shows you just how bad a person he really is. Manipulative, dangerous, clearly suffering from a lot of PTSD. A bad husband, a bad father, a bad friend and an even worse enemy. Barry goes to jail, continues to betray the people around him and has an eight year time skip where he gets even more paranoid and dangerous. Barry has an ending that warns against the deification of bad people.

   It was an uneven season, but I appreciate them trying to fully close the door on anyone wanted to find themselves in Barry Berkman. This felt like a direct response to shows like Dexter. The choice to strip away the comedy and the drama and just show the Horror makes it a jarring transition from the first three seasons. Sarah Goldberg (Sally), Henry Winkler (Gene), Stephen Root (Fuches) and Anthony Carrigan (NoHo Hank) all return for the last ride and are exceptional as always.

8. The Dragon Prince Season 5 - Aaron Ehasz (Avatar: The Last Airbender) and Justin Richmond pick up mantle from the Avatarverse, but never quite hit the highs of either of those shows in The Dragon Prince. They do continue their legacy of excellent children’s program that is suitable for kids of all ages.

   The magical land of Xadia is under threat from the ancient evil Aaravos and our band of heroes are in a race to stop him from being released from his prison. The show never treads new ground in terms of story, but continues to push for empathy and understanding. The villains are real people, with understandable motivations. The heroes are wrong and hurt people.

   Even taboos like dark magic aren’t off the table, but in a way that seeks to understand and make sense of taboos, not demonize them. Chosen one tropes are dissected, but never at the expense of the character or the story. If you’re a fan of Avatar, don’t let this one slip past you.

7. Ted Lasso Season 3 - Ted Lasso’s final season is a bit of a jumbled mess. The critical examination of sports culture, toxic masculinity and positivity and the power of growth feels a little unwieldy without Bill Lawrence’s experienced hand.

   Still, the show has compelling characters and a sweetness that rarely feels unearned. Jason Sudeikis is in the role of a lifetime as not as naive as he looks Ted Lasso. Brett Goldstein is still the series standout for me as Roy Kent, a former football star turned assistant coach.

   Some of the narrative threads around Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham) feel like serious character regressions, falling into old habits when her ex-husband Rupert (Anthony Head) takes over a rival club. Keely (Juno Temple), Roy and hot shot Jamie Tartt (Phil Dunster) have a love triangle that feels unresolved and overcomplicated. Keely’s trials as the head of her own PR firm also felt like too much story with not enough time.

   Too many characters needed too much screen time, the cast is still exceptional but would have done better with a pairing down of stories. Wonder Kid Nate Shelley’s (Nick Mohammed) redemption got a mixed reaction, but I felt it was an appropriate culmination of one of the longest running story threads in the show.

   Episode 6, “Sunflowers,” is a series standout. A night in Amsterdam where a lot of hard lessons are learned. Ted’s wild, drug fueled night isn’t quite the revelation of last seasons “Beard After Hours,” but it is still a fun take on a classic. The team having a pillow fight at the end is a nice callback and Roy and Jamie have one of their best episodes of the entire series. Even Rebecca’s one night stand is captivating. Goodbye, Ted.

6. Goosebumps Season 1 - By the end of episode one, I was mildly amused. By the end of episode three I was hooked. Alongside the Nickelodeon reboot of Are You Afraid of the Dark? and Mike Flanagan’s Midnight Club, young adult horror television is in the midst of a renaissance.

   The show adapts a lot of notable R.L. Stein books from his book series while building an overarching narrative where new to town school teacher Nathan Bratt (Justin Long) is possessed by the ghost of Harold Biddle (Ben Cockell). Biddle was a classmate of the children’s parents and he wants revenge for their hand in his death.

   The kids all go to a party at Biddle’s old house just before Bratt moves in and they take home cursed items that allow the stories to play out before tying back in to the main plot. The end breaks down a little bit, the world building isn’t quite developed enough for the scope they aim for.

   I wouldn’t say this is a classic, but it is a good family oriented horror comedy with some surprising moments. Anytime a gang of kids are solving a mystery, you need a compelling group of kids. Here, the kids are all excellent.

• Isaiah (Zack Morris. No, I’m not kidding) is a star quarterback injured in a big game.

• Margot (Isa Briones) is an estranged friend and neighbor with some unresolved feelings with Isaiah.

• James (Miles McKenna) is Isaiah’s best friend, a rich kid with no structure.

• Isabella (Ana Yi Puig) is a neglected student who trolls her classmates viciously online.

• Lucas (Will Price) takes after his daredevil father and is a social outcast in the small town.

5. The Last of Us Season 1 - I played the video game, I liked it. I think it got a little overrated, but still, a fantastic game. The TV series? Same issue. It is good, with moments of greatness.

   Pedro Pascal turns in another solid performance as Joel, a mercenary in a zombie infested wasteland. Bella Ramsey (Hilda, Game of Thrones) stars as Ellie, a young woman Joel must escort to a group known as the Fireflies. Ellie, you see, is immune to the fungal infection turning people into monsters. Monsters we very rarely see, nor fear.

   The Last of Us focuses a lot of the horrors of humans and uses the Cordyceps infected too sparingly for me. A lot of the relationship building between Joel and Ellie is rushed because we don’t have the quiet times where they are alone. We don’t get to see them under duress from the afflicted who will violently kill them if they make a sound. But they still have a compelling dynamic and the two leads are up to the task.

   They make a few logistical changes and flesh out the Bill and Frank backstory in a change for the better, but overall this is the same drama sans the joysticks. While this Walking Dead meets Mandalorian tale is going to resonate with a lot of people, I still wish we could get an adaptation of Clementine and Lee.

4. The Fall of the House of Usher Limited Series -Mike Flanagan is the biggest name in horror television, with four limited series on Netflix ranging from okay (Midnight Club/Bly Manor) to GOAT Status (Hill House/Midnight Mass). Midnight Mass remains his greatest work, but this adaptation of some of Edgar Allan Poe’s biggest works is a return to form after the middling Midnight Club.

   It stars Flanagan-verse mainstays like Henry Thomas, Carla Gugino, Zach Gilford, Samantha Sloyan, Rahul Kohli, Ruth Codd, T’Nia Miller, and wife Katie Siegel. Newcomer to the world of Flanagan, Mark Hamill, is near unrecognizable as Usher Family attorney Arthur Pimm. Much of the series best work comes with Bruce Greenwood’s Roderick Usher facing off against Carl Lumley’s C. Auguste Dupin.

   Each episode deals with the death of one of Roderick Usher’s many children before he and his sister Madeline, played by both Willa Fitzgerald and Mary McDonnell, face the consequences of their generations spanning crimes. Carla Gugino gets a lot of attention as the mysterious Verna. I found both Fitzgerald and McDonnell’s portrayal of Madeline Usher, COO and iron fist ruler of business and family life, to be the most compelling.

   Flanagan’s take on “The Masque of the Red Death” and “ThePit and the Pendulum,” were series highlights for me. It was also fun to see how he would wind the disparate pieces into a cohesive narrative.

   The show is also a critique of capitalism. Here, the show is less even. Mike Flanagan is never shy about interjecting his thoughts on cultural and political issues in America. The overarching plot is that Roderick Usher made a deal with a dark God to be bulletproof at the cost of his legacy.

   The show tries to give a measure of remorse or consequence, but what it does get right is how the rich and powerful don’t care about the impact on their kids or the world, their greed only matters so long as they get theirs.

   For the most part, the show is successful. The messaging is clunkier than Midnight Mass and the reworking of the source material is less successful than Haunting at Hill House. While we never get to those heights, this is much more my speed than American Horror Story or any number of horror backstories that seem to proliferate media right now.

3. Harley Quinn Season 4 - Adult animation is a tricky business. Blue humor is great when done well. Juvenile when done poorly. Harley Quinn walks the tightline between zany and ennui the best of any animated American show since Bojack Horseman.

   Kaley Cuoco stars as Quinn, the broken ex of Gotham’s greatest villain, the Joker (Alan Tudyk). Tudyk also does heavy lifting as Clayface and a number of minor side characters like Calendar Man. Lake Bell plays Poison Ivy, Quinn’s best friend turned lover and rising superstar in the ranks of DC’s supervillains.

   The show continues to develop Ivy and Harley’s romance while throwing new wrenches in the relationship. Harley can’t find an identity, working with the Bat Family to fill a leadership role as Bruce has gone to prison. Ivy is the new CEO of the Legion of Doom, trying to break out of the role of pawn for Lex Luthor (Giancarlo Esposito).

   The show is at its best when Harley and Ivy are together. This season felt a little messy, with the principal found family (Harley, Ivy, King Shark [Ron Funches], Clayface [Tudyk again] and Dr. Psycho [Tony Hale]) completely splintered. A lot of time is spent developing Batgirl (Kaley’s little sister Brianne Cuoco) and Harley’s relationship and it causes the early part of the season to drag.

   Once the threads come together, the show continues it’s reign as the new torchbearer of Batman: The Animated Series. I am glad to see that the show will continue and I hope for more fun side adventures like the Valentines Day special we got earlier this year.

2. Poker Face Season 1 - Rian Johnson rarely misses. Poker Face also rarely misses. While Knives Out played it straight while teasing out a mystery, Poker Face is much more like Columbo. We know who did it and how, it’s about seeing Natasha Lyonne’s Charlie Cale use her amazing ability to detect any lie to pull apart the stories she’s being told.

   The show opens with Charlie, a drifter who has settled into a Las Vegas trailer park community, trying to figure out what happened to her friend Natalie (played by In the Heights/Orange is the New Black’s Dascha Polanco). Natalie was murdered by her husband Jerry (Michael Reagan) and then he committed suicide, but too much of the story doesn’t add up and Charlie starts pulling at the threads.

   When she finally figures out what’s going on, she confronts casino boss Sterling Frost, Jr. (Adrian Brody). Frost walks out on the balcony and falls to his death, sparking right hand man Cliff LeGrande (Benjamin Bratt) to give chase. The show follows Charlie as she avoids Cliff’s pursuit and stumbles into murder after murder, trying to find justice for the victims.

   Not every episode sticks the landing, “Time of the Monkey” in particular felt muddled, but a murder’s row of guest stars and some of the most clever writing in TV history really push this show forward. The ground is laid for a second season, but Johnson wisely wraps up all the story lines before dangling a new one before the audience.

   “Rest in Metal,” guest starring Chloe Sevigny and The Mountain Goat’s John Darnell as a one hit wonder struggling to catch lightning in a bottle once again is a standout episode. While slinging merch for the band Doxxology, Charlie starts to suspect that the drummer’s accidental death at a show might not have been an accident.

   “The Orpheus Syndrome” allows Nick Nolte and Lyonne to put some of the finest work in recent TV history. Nolte guest stars as an aged out practical effects wizard who blames himself for the death of an actress many years prior. When the truth comes out and Arthur is poisoned, Charlie can’t rest until the truth comes to light.

   Poker Face allows Johnson to pay homage to so many pieces of the entertainment industry while calling to task those that would exploit artists. Ron Perlman haunts Charlie as the elder Frost, who she fears for her role in his son’s death. Bratt’s Cliff LeGrand, the cat in this game, keeps the pressure mounting and provides the tension that makes the season long arc work.

   Sometimes, the show stretches your suspension of disbelief so far beyond the breaking point it is immersion breaking. The stakes are always high, but Charlie’s supernatural ability to recognize “bullshit” is enough. I don’t need to see her survive multiple near death experiences. But this show is also a love letter to classic murder mysteries and that is definitely a trope, so I can’t fault the team for the nostalgia dip. I just hope that the moments in an upcoming Season Two are more restrained.

1. My Adventures with Superman Season 1 - I don’t particularly care of Superman. I also think shows that go for kindness and sweetness too often tread into Hallmark movie territory. My Adventures with Superman is sweet, kind and Superman at his best. The show borrows heavily from anime, much in the same way Avatar and Castlevania did before it.

   MAWS re-envisions the DC classic as a Shonen-style with heavy slice of life interspersed. Jack Quaid stars as Clark Kent/Superman, a far cry from Hughie Campbell. He’s struggling with a big secret as the newest intern at the Daily Planet. He’s not just a farm strong country boy who has moved to the big city, he’s also the mysterious new superhuman trying to keep Metropolis safe.

   Alice Lee’s Lois is impetuous, head strong and risk voracious. The creators drew heavily from Margot Kidder and Christopher Reeves interplay from 1978’s Superman. Jimmy Olsen (Ishmel Sahid) is a youtuber focused on alien conspiracy theories. The dynamic of the trio is undeniably the appeal of the show. Olsen becoming a third wheel as Lois and Clark’s romance deepens. The action and animation are engaging and exciting.

   This is entry level stuff, but much like Netflix’ Hilda, when done right it is undeniable. My favorite works of art tend to borrow from the greats that came before them and reshape that work into something new. When I looked back over the year and thought of what shows I was early anticipating, MAWS was at the top. Harley Quinn and Superman became appointment TV, but we were both more invested in Clark’s adventures with his friends.

   A lot of criticism is lobbied at the weaker supporting cast, and that is accurate. As the show continues to flesh out the world, I suspect this will, eventually, go down as the greatest Superman series ever. At least for me.

Honorable Mention:

Sex Education Season 4 - The show felt a little aimless in the final season and the will they/won’t they of Otis and Maeve was tired before this season started. Overall, one of the better coming of age TV shows.

Beef - I found myself losing interest before the show ended, but still a fantastic character study on two people who lose themselves in rage and depression.

From my friend Nikki Mack, who I’ve known since my second year of college.

Nikki and I have shared notes on media for over twenty years. Her husband may or may not show up on another day with some music knowledge.

Top TV shows of 2023: Nikki Mack

5. Unstable: A quirky comedy about a rich, smart, mentally unstable dad, Ellis (Rob Lowe) and his relationship with his grown son, Jackson (John Owen Lowe - Yes! Actual father and son!).

As Ellis’s business struggles to come up with a world-changing technology to save the planet from the stupidity of humanity, he must also win back the trust and love of his son who became distant after the death of his mother. The show is cute, and light-hearted, and goofy, which is appreciated in this day and age of doom and gloom and zombies. It’s not winning any awards, but I recommend a watch, if for nothing else than the performance of Sian Clifford, who plays snarky/sarcastic better than anyone I’ve ever seen. Luckily it was renewed for season 2, so we can look forward to a few more goofy laughs in 2024.

4. Based on a True Story: Ever wondered what it would be like to see two people so down on their luck that they are willing to befriend a serial killer in order to start a true crime podcast to make a little extra cash? No? I guess that is actually pretty specific, but regardless, that’s what you’ll get with this dark comedy starring Kaley Couco and Chris Messina. If you’re wondering if these are protagonists you can root for, no, no they are not, but enjoy this interesting take on, not only the absolute obsession our society has with True Crime, but how far people will push their morals to get ahead in life.

3. Platonic: As the name alludes, this show is about Platonic friendship and love. Starring Seth Rogan and Rose Byrne. See two friends reconnect after years apart due to the age old issue of one friend marrying someone who the other disapproves of. As they rekindle their friendship, there will be partying, laughs, drugs, jealousy, and bickering, but at the end of the day, you love this friendship and love the laughs this show will bring. Also, you’ll find yourself really in the mood to kick scooters. Just watch, you’ll see.

2. The Last of Us: A zombie show for people who hate zombies. Seriously, the scariest part of this show isn’t the zombies, it’s the dystopian nightmare world the characters have to live in afterwards. Honestly, it gets a little too real when you imagine living in a collapsed society where medical treatments, food, housing, and transportation are not readily available things to be had anymore. Not only that, but there is a virus turning people into ever-living mushroom zombies?

Don’t go out at night. In fact, don’t go out at all... well, unless you have Pedro Pascal with you.

1. Shrinking: Honestly one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. It has soul-crushing sadness followed by tears of laughter. Starring Jason Segel and Harrison Ford, this show follows Jimmy (Jason Segel) a year after his wife dies in a car accident. He is struggling to pull himself out of his depression, and once he decides to try, he finds he has his work cut out for him to regain his daughter's love, become a better therapist to his patients, and win the approval of his dad-like mentor, Paul (Harrison Ford). If you love a comedy with heart and reality, I cannot recommend this show enough.

*Honorable Mention*

Beef: Although I’d never re-watch this show, I must say that the absurdity and originality of the show puts it in the top for the year, if for nothing else than to experience something new. Starring Ali Wong and Steven Yeun, you are thrown into a world with two people on “opposite sides of the tracks.”

Amy (Ali Wong) is a rich business woman with a seemingly perfect house, spouse, and child. Danny (Steven Yeun) lives in a run down apartment with his brother and struggles to find work in construction, which he seems to know little to nothing about anyway.

These two meet under stressful circumstances, and nothing but rage follows. Enjoy this strange and interesting ride with two of the most unlikeable characters on TV. You’ll root for no one, and you’ll like it.