It was, as we’ve discussed already, a great year for movies (The 25 Best Films Of 2018). It was perhaps a less great one on TV, at least on the surface. There were more scripted shows than ever once again, but with some heavy-hitters skipping a year, and a few high-profile disappointments (Hi, “The Romanoffs!”), it was hard not to feel that the ageless TV vs. film debate came out of 2018 with a point on the movies board.
READ MORE: The Best Cinematography Of 2018
But all that said, if the thrill of the Peak TV years has perhaps worn off, there were still hours and hours and hours of greatness across multiple networks and genres in 2018. Some great shows got even better. Some new arrivals produced debut seasons that were among as promising as any in recent years. And there were surprises and hidden gems galore. Maybe it was a great year for TV, now we think about it.
READ MORE: The Worst Films Of 2018
Below you’ll find The Playlist’s 25 favorite shows of 2018, from Facebook-hosted grief dramas to animated satires to kids-on-the-run to existentially-wracked hitmen and more. Take a look at the list below, and let us know your own highlights in the comments.
Click here for our complete coverage of the best and worst of 2018.
25. “Sorry For Your Loss”
Facebook did, or had revealed, a lot of really terrible shit in 2018. In fact, maybe they should give up the day job and just make TV full-time because, on the evidence of their first major scripted drama, it’s going to bring a lot more good into the world than, you know, making your relatives more racist and enabling genocide. Created by playwright Kit Steinkellner, “Sorry For Your Loss” (which we swear one day we will learn not to call “Sorry To Bother You” first time around) focuses on Leigh (Elizabeth Olsen) who’s lost her husband while still in her 20s, and is not dealing with her grief particularly well, causing all kinds of issues with her family. While the show, like all Facebook Watch’s content, is strictly PG-13 stuff, it doesn’t remotely feel like network TV: the writing’s smart, sensitive and never soapy, and the direction (largely by “End Of The Tour” helmer James Ponsoldt, but also featuring Hannah Fidell and Allison Anders) incisive. But this is driven by performances at its heart, and they’re all tremendous: Olsen hasn’t been this good since “Martha Marcy May Marlene,” and the likes of Janet McTeer, Kelly Marie Tran, Jovan Adepo and Mamoudou Athie are all sublime in support too.
24. “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” Season 5
There was an (admittedly) brief moment last spring where it looked like season five of “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” may be its last. However, NBC came in to save the day ensuring at least a sixth season for one the most consistently funny ensemble comedies on air. It’s customary for sitcoms to peak anywhere between their second and fourth season and it’s a downright rarity for it to be at its best five seasons in and yet “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” defied expectations in more than one way by delivering their strongest season to date. The entire cast remains hilarious and Andre Braugher is still giving the greatest comedic performance currently on air, with the entire ensemble settled into a needed familiarity that grants the plots a warmth that might be devoid in a show simply interested in getting the laughs. “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” is undoubtedly hilarious but what has made it so engaging to watch for super fans up until now and what made the uproar over its short-lived cancellation so passionate is just how much we care about these characters and their relationships – Ally Johnson
Fox Executives “Really Happy” ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’ Was Picked Up By NBC https://t.co/HZXhnewyNW pic.twitter.com/tiKLALCQCd
— The Playlist ???? (@ThePlaylist) May 14, 2018
23. “Better Call Saul”
It seems likely at this point that “Better Call Saul” will never be the landmark, game-changing show that its predecessor “Breaking Bad” was. Things have just moved on too fast — it’d probably be hard for even “Breaking Bad” to make the impact it did ten years in the current climate, and that was a series that was far showier and attention-grabbing than the slow-burn of its spin-off. But that doesn’t mean that “Better Call Saul” isn’t great. In fact, there are times where we think it might be even greater. We’ll concede that the show suffered a little this time around for the loss of Michael McKean’s Chuck, and it does suffer from prequel syndrome in places (we’re not sure we really needed to see how Gus’s lab was built, as welcome as it was to see David Costabile’s Gale again). But the show remains as heartbreaking, subtle, and complex a drama as we have on the air, a slow-motion Arthur Miller tragedy to the bloody Shakespeare of “Breaking Bad.” We suspect it’ll be taken for granted until it’s gone.
22. “The Assassination Of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story.”
We’ll be totally honest here: we struggle a bit with Ryan Murphy. He clearly has a hungry audience for much of what he does, but in general, we find shows like “American Horror Story” and “Feud” to be nails on a blackboard. But like “The People Vs. O.J. Simpson” before it, “The Assassination Of Gianni Versace” was a gem, in part because it put Murphy’s vision second to that of writer/showrunner Tom Rob Smith, the man behind the superb “London Spy” a few years ago, and did an equally good job here. The show works because like ‘O.J,’ it takes an unexpected approach to the case: whereas that show focused on the attorneys, ‘Versace’ focuses largely on the killer, Andrew Cunanan (a revelatory Darren Criss). It’s a defiantly sad and soulful show, one with more in common with Gregg Araki than a true-crime drama in many ways, and steering into the queerness of the subject matter, in ways evocative of both Murphy’s prior work and Smith’s, is what made it stand out for us so much this year.
21. “The Chi”
It’s been clear since she first emerged that big things were coming from Lena Waithe, but few who loved her seminal “Thanksgiving” episode of “Master Of None” were expecting her first TV drama to be such a clear successor to “The Wire.” And yet it makes perfect sense in a way: her sprawling drama about the inhabitants of the Southside of Chicago shares a lot in common with that — a deep sense of humanity, a keen voice, and a sense that this is a story told from within, rather than outside, a community (“The Wire” is obviously superb, but it’s definitely one to be filed under journalism rather than lived experience). It is not, as yet, a show that can match David Simon’s for quality — it’s too shapeless in places, still finding its feet. But it’s also an incredibly bold, confident piece of work that makes us entirely sure that it’ll only grow and grow with time, especially with as talented a cast as this (Jason Mitchell’s turn should have gotten much more attention from Emmy voters and the like).