Television and cinema have had no shortage of tales of drug-addled, sexed-up, yearning, lonely teens, but none took the genre as far as creator and executive producer Sam Levinson, who concocted a superheated melodrama filmed on sets that could be pulled apart to enable stylized lighting and acrobatic, at times omniscient-seeming camerawork.
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While the series is a study in how epidemics are allowed to spread for expedient political reasons, the script’s depiction of official corruption, class inequity, and the triumph of superstition over science might prove scarier for American viewers than the brilliantly staged, flesh-munching action scenes.Īlthough it’s destined to be known as “The Season With the Hot Priest,” the second go-round of Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s fourth-wall-breaking psychological comedy was an exponential improvement on its predecessor, focusing more sharply on present-tense moments of interaction between characters and hurtling through its plot so confidently that the whole thing felt like the product of a creative self-dare: “How perfect can I make this?” It’s set in the late-17th century, where an emperor has gone ghoul but his advisers keep his transformation a secret so they can execute a secret takeover of the realm. The hands-down winner of this year’s Best Show You Never Even Heard Of trophy, this South Korean import from writer Kim Eun-hee and director Kim Seong-hun might be the best use of the zombie genre for social satire since George Romero’s original Dawn of the Dead. The series is also a technical marvel, seamlessly blending old-school puppetry, miniatures, and silent-era sleight-of-hand with the latest in digital compositing. The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (Netflix)ĭirected by Louis Letterier (the Transporter films) and developed by Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews, this continuation of Jim Henson’s 1984 cult classic built out the story to allow for political and theological satire that will intrigue and amuse adults while flying over the heads of most kids (who probably shouldn’t be watching anyway because of the violence and scariness). A touching and ultimately life-affirming meditation on age, death, evolution, and forgiveness, the film doubles as a piercing final statement by Milch, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and is unlikely to write any more scripts.Ĩ. Turning the merciless passage of time to its advantage, this long-delayed revisiting of David Milch’s prematurely canceled Western was set ten years after the final episode and wove brief, soundless flashbacks into its story line so deftly that if seemed as if the town itself were doing the remembering. Pennbaker’s Company-cast-album documentary, with original music, and a spoof of The Artist Is Waiting that gave guest star Cate Blanchett one of her most iconic roles. Documentary Now’s third season was its most audacious, with creators Bill Hader, Fred Armisen, Seth Meyers, and Rhys Thomas exploring new parodic terrain the highlights were a send-up of D.A. Sherman’s Showcase is a variety series from Bashire Salahuddin and Diallo Riddle, presenting a long-running African-American-dominated variety series set in an elaborately detailed showbiz universe adjacent to the one we know. Sherman’s Showcase and Documentary Now! (IFC)Ĭatnip for pop-culture obsessives, both these series were labors of love that could only have existed on IFC. Maybe you’ll even find time to watch them before 2021.ġ0. But all of them are significant additions to the TV canon. Some of these shows you’ve probably seen others you may have never even heard about. In an era where there’s simply too many great shows to watch, their picks reflect the staggering wealth of choices that were available to audiences in 2019, from the delightful and the captivating to the beguiling and the flawless. Thank goodness, then, that we have four.īelow, Vulture critics Matt Zoller Seitz, Jen Chaney, Kathryn VanArendonk, and Angelica Jade Bastién count down their ten favorite shows of the year. After a year that saw, conservatively speaking, a bajillion shows jockeying for pole position on our screens - not to mention all those newcomers from Apple and Disney’s streaming sites - it’s long past time to admit that no one person can keep up with everything worth watching. Is television going to slow down anytime soon? It sure didn’t in 2019. Photo-Illustration: Vulture and Courtesy of Network