Don’t kill your TV

The 10 best shows of 2016

There’s too much good TV for anyone to watch all of it. But I watched my fair share, and these 10 series are the best I saw all year. 

10. Search Party
An ensemble comedy crossed with a riveting mystery thriller, this oddity from TBS (yes, TBS) was a welcomed surprise. The supporting players ooze with charm and add lightness to the sometimes pitch-black plot developments, but Alia Shawkat is perfection as the obsessive, good-hearted but deeply flawed heroine. 

9. The People v. OJ Simpson
Despite some painfully clunky historical irony (mostly involving Kardashians) and peak Travolta insanity, FX’s limited series depicting the circus that was the OJ trial wisely dialed in on Marcia Clark, Johnnie Cochran and Christopher Darden. With sharp writing and stellar performances from the three leads, it ultimately managed to humanize a trio that had long been relegated to punchlines.

8. Stranger Things
To so blatantly capitalize on nostalgia can be forgiven when it’s this much fun. Netflix’s out-of-nowhere ’80s pastiche turned summertime binge-watchers upside down with its ragtag blend of charming children, supernatural suspense and a welcome Winona Ryder comeback. Extra credit for a bitchin’ opening title sequence and earworm of a score. 

7. Better Call Saul
When Bob Odenkirk showed up in the second season of “Breaking Bad”—playing the kind of absurd, fast-talking sleazeball you’d expect in a “Mr. Show” sketch—no one could have predicted how essential he’d become to that show. But the fact that the same character, and Odenkirk’s nuanced performance, soulfully anchors a spin-off whose quality and heart matches anything in the Peak TV era is nothing short of a miracle.

6. Atlanta
Donald Glover’s strange and wonderful FX series about friends on the rise in the Atlanta hip-hop underground is a true original. Whether getting high on a raggedy outdoor couch, holding court at the second-best VIP section in the club, or politely suffering the slam poetry of a rich, white asshole at his lavish Juneteenth party—I’m happy to hang with these characters.  

5. Veep
Visionary creator Armando Iannucci left the show and the reins were handed to newcomer David Mandel, yet “Veep”—minute-for-minute the funniest show on television—not only didn’t miss a beat, it actually got better. Julia Louis-Dreyfus remains a national treasure, and no comedy in the universe has a deeper bench. Next season’s challenge is a tall order: how to satirize a political system that has become too absurd to be believed. 

4. Broad City
HBO’s “Girls” so desperately wanted to be the voice of the millennial generation that its lead character literally said those words out loud in the pilot. But Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer appeared on the scene with their stoner hijinks and general badassery and snatched the mantle without even trying. The soul of the show is friendship, and the third season uncharacteristically delved into some of the messier, more painful aspects of navigating life with a platonic soul mate—without sacrificing any of the usual hilarity. Yass queen, indeed.

3. Game of Thrones
​Hodor held the door in one of the most touching and visually inventive sequences the show has ever presented. Zombie Jon Snow led an attack on his former home in a visceral gut-punch of a battle. Cersei, eternally the show’s best character (props to the flawless, magnificent Lena Headey), settled family business in a stroke that puts Michael Corleone to shame. Who knew leaving George R. R. Martin’s source material in the dust would be the best thing to happen to HBO’s golden goose?

2. BoJack Horseman
Not since the heyday of “The Simpsons” has a television show (animated or otherwise) weaved a richer tapestry of intelligence and heart with a relentless barrage of laugh-out-loud jokes. Yes, it centers on an anthropomorphic horse who’s a washed-up sitcom actor. But it’s also the most heartfelt examination of depression, loneliness, substance abuse and existential despair you could find anywhere in popular culture. The saga of BoJack’s former protégé Sarah Lynn, at turns hilarious and devastating, was the most affecting thing I saw on television this year. 

1. OJ: Made In America
The way this 8-hour documentary from ESPN examined the external forces that shaped the psyche of OJ Simpson, and shed light on his capacity for a brutal double murder (whether you believe he committed it or not), was fascinating in itself. But the way it presented the chase, the trial, the verdict and the aftermath against the backdrop of decades of racial injustice in Los Angeles—even if you’d thoughtfully considered those parallels before—was stunning in its meticulous detail and clarity. Even though it could (and should) win an Oscar, its widest reach was on television, and nothing else on the small screen in 2016 came close to matching its quality.

For more from Matt, read his review of “Atlanta.”