10. “London Spy”
Brilliant and woozy, with a tone similar to what might happen if you ate a lot of cheese before bedtime then fell asleep reading John Le Carre, “London Spy” is an utterly singular proposition. Seeming authentic in the low-level desperation and disillusionment of contemporary spy games (beautifully embodied by an achingly sad turn by the great Jim Broadbent) but summoning a dreamlike quality (which is where Ben Whishaw‘s trademark steady soulfulness comes in), it’s also a surprisingly melancholic grief movie, a story of potential true love ended before it could really be fulfilled and of how little we can ever really know about each other. Notably, the central love affair between Whishaw’s ex-addict screw-up and the brilliant but doomed young MI6 agent Alex (Edward Holcroft) is a gay relationship that’s treated refreshingly as just a thing that happens to be part of this story. Also featuring nice supporting turns from Charlotte Rampling, Mark Gatiss, Clarke Peters and James Fox, the BBC show, with all 6 episodes written by “Child 44” author Tom Rob Smith and directed by Jakob Verbruggen, is remarkable for its gauzy, dissociative mood, rendering it utterly distinctive from any espionage drama we’ve ever seen.
9. “Better Call Saul”
It would have been easy for “Better Call Saul” to be a sort of “Breaking Bad” volume two in the way that many spin-offs have simply replicated the tone of their originals, usually to little effect. But instead, Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould’s show is to its predecessor what “Lou Grant” was to “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” —an utterly distinct departure that quickly proved to be more than worthy. Much lower key and less pulpy than its predecessor, the show’s second season has grown even further in confidence, with the relationship between Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk) and lawyer Kim Wexler (the wonderful Rhea Seehorn) moving to the forefront, while his sibling rivalry with Chuck (a tremendous Michael McKean) simmers away in the background. A valid criticism is that the show sometimes feel like two jammed into one: Mike’s adventures with the cartels rarely overlap with Jimmy’s antics. But it’s so exquisitely written, performed and directed, and so finely honed and carefully plotted, that getting two shows in one feels like we’re being spoiled.
8. “Game Of Thrones”
So the High Sparrow (Jonathan Pryce) is boring as bricks, Jon Snow (Kit Harington) had a reanimation as wholly predictable as his father’s death was completely unexpected, and the leaping-between-lands-and-storylines-to-cover-massive-gaps-in-logic aspect is getting a bit transparent. Still, “Game of Thrones” is one of the best things on TV and one of the last bastions of the week-by-week, appointment viewing model. Bestriding the Sundays of the summer months like a Colossus and dominating water-cooler chit chat come Monday, the show may have begin to outstrip and deviate from George RR Martin‘s source novels (bless him, no one can type that fast), but as an example of a multi-stranded storytelling with so many moving parts, it’s unparalleled. That said, some episodes have been better than others (you can find all our recaps here) —the memorable Hodor moment from Episode 5 “The Door” marks it out, while the return of The Hound and reemergence of Bronn as well as the appearance of Ian McShane all made last Sunday’s Episode 7 one of the strongest, suggesting season 6 is shaping up for a big dismount.
7. “Catastrophe”
Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney’s relationship sitcom (in which they also star as the couple afflicted with each other) is so goddamn funny and mean that it’s easy to forget how clever it is. But the opening episode, indeed the opening scene of season 2 of the Channel 4 show serves as a brisk reminder as such, pinging through a selection of standard sitcom clichés (she’s pregnant and doesn’t want sex; he does; they fight; he storms out) in such a way that feels fresh and then ending with coup de grace surprise when their toddling son walks in on make-up sex. We understand then that this isn’t the same pregnancy from season 1, but several years later. Encompassing new challenges —Sharon’s difficulty bonding with the new kid and making new adult friends; Rob’s attraction to a co-worker; their friends’ separation; their families’ awfulnesses— the show remains as caustic as ever, while also over its short 6-episode format deepening into a much more character- than situation-based comedy. Horgan and Delaney are again exceptional, displaying total fearlessness in delivering often deeply unflattering observations, and yet maintaining an utterly irresistible combative chemistry that makes them, God help us, aspirational.
6. “Silicon Valley”
It’s been 3 seasons now, so we can safely say we’re through the most problematic period, but it must be said that Mike Judge‘s “Silicon Valley” is the kind of show that we kept expecting to become bad at some point. It’s a classic self-contained sitcom premise (a bunch of self-defeating geek archetypes in the Valley develop a piece of software that might catch on) that could easily have burned through its initial topicality and interest and become a sort of “Big Bang Theory” by now. But instead, the tightness of the writing, the rounded characterization (well played by Thomas Middleditch, TJ Miller, Kumail Najiani and the increasingly essential Martin Starr) and the sharp authenticity of the insights into the arcane (read: dull) world of online tech development have consistently defied expectations. Week in and week out, “Silicon Valley” delivers the funny while also taking the overall plot arc in surprising but never unbelievable directions. We’re only three shows away from the end of the 2016 run and don’t want to tempt fate, but at this stage we have faith that a season that saw the sudden massive expansion and equally sudden massive contraction of the operation still has even bigger surprises in store.
