The Best TV Shows Of 2018 - Page 2 of 5

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20. “Forever”
Monotony can be a relationship killer as well as a narrative death sentence, but this new Amazon Prime comedy from Alan Yang and Matt Hubbard centers on the repetitive routines of long-term relationships without ever being boring. Part of its energy is owed to its central concept, which we won’t spoil here, but we’ll just say that it’s far more ambitious than previous work from Yang (“Master of None”) and Hubbard (“Parks and Recreation,” “Superstore”). But it’s ultimately the cast that makes “Forever” worth staying with; Maya Rudolph and Fred Armisen are married couple June and Oscar, a pairing that feels entirely real, as does June’s frustration with their rut and Oscar’s comfort in it. But like Yang’s “Master of None,” one of “Forever’s” best episodes is one that doesn’t focus on its main characters at all. In “Andre and Sarah,” we spend time with two realtors (Hong Chau and Jason Mitchell) in the early stages of flirtation. But like relationships, the real joy of “Forever” lies in its combining of the familiarity of a show about marriage and the freshness of its ideas and its gently humorous voice, making this one of the easiest series to commit to. – Kimber Myers

19. “GLOW”
The first season of this Netflix series from Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch took a few episodes to find its footing, but its second year feels confident enough to ably execute a diving crossbody like a belt-wielding champ. Based on a real-world women’s wrestling series, “GLOW” features a deep bench of characters, populated by the diverse wrestlers and the behind-the-scenes crew of the show, and it cares deeply about each of them – and we do too. Alison Brie’s Ruth is still at the show’s center, and the writers have a better handle on her prickly theater kid personality this time around, particularly in her relationship with former BFF Debbie (Betty Gilpin) in the well-executed episode “Work the Leg.” But its real heart continues to be the people that would be on the periphery of other series. “Mother of All Matches” gives voice to the experiences of Tammé (Kia Stevens), who tries in vain to hide her stereotypical Welfare Queen alter ego from her Stanford student son. “GLOW” isn’t afraid to deal with heavy issues like racism here, but there’s also a lightness to the series that makes it so much fun to watch, exemplified by “The Good Twin,” which gives us an episode straight from the show-within-a-show in all its schlocky, soapy glory. – Kimber Myers

18. “Sharp Objects”
Following the hit of “Big Little Lies,” HBO found another superstar package for “Sharp Objects”: director Jean-Marc Vallé, the novel’s author Gillan Flynn (the writer of “Gone Girl”; she also wrote or co-wrote multiple episodes), showrunner Marti Noxon (“Buffy The Vampire Slayer”) and star Amy Adams. And yes, “Sharp Objects” is uneven, otherwise, it would’ve likely cracked the top five, easily. The mini-series centers on an alcoholic, psychologically damaged reporter (Adams) who confronts the family trauma from her past when she returns to her hometown to cover the story of a grisly murder— it’s like returning to the scene of a crime that’s just as bloody and emotionally violent. With such a gift for visuals, music and emotional expressiveness, Vallé directs the hell out of the show—its evocative cinematography and porous editing flickering with the fluidity and ferocious interruption of memory and the wounds scarred over throughout the years. And Amy Adams is, well, Amy Adams, delivering another bruising tour de force performance (guaranteed she wins the Golden Globe in January and the Emmy September 2019). “Sharp Objects,” which also features excellent performances by Patricia Clarkson and Eliza Scanlen (in our breakthrough actors list), admittedly falters in its whodunit, serial-killer plotting (not to mention one of the most ill-advised spoiler tag scenes in a TV show ever), but its innate understanding of abuse, emotional injury, the lingering concussed nature of anguish, and the catharsis that rage and resentment seen through a feminine lens made for something truly special, unfortunate plot twists and all. – Rodrigo Perez

17. “Billions”
In some ways, “Billions” should be out of step with the times. At a time, more than ever after the tax cuts introduced a year ago, when the wealthy are continuing to fuck over the rest of us, it’s a show that’s set almost exclusively among the insanely wealthy and semi-sociopathic, and one that doesn’t exactly hate the lifestyles it depicts. And yet one of the miracles of Brian Koppelman and David Levien’s show is that it never feels tone-deaf or celebratory — in fact, one suspects it’ll be looked back on as perhaps the definitive show of the Robber Baron 2.0 years (we say perhaps only because of another show further up this list…). Season 3 didn’t quite have the relentless forward drive of its predecessor, but it remains the best plotted and paced drama on TV right now, and one that seems to have a bottomless well of fascinating characters to introduce, from Clancy Brown’s scenery-chewing Attorney General (basically what Jeff Sessions imagines himself to be when he closes his eyes) to Mike Birbiglia’s socially awkward Muskalike. Showtime has something of a tendency to run their shows way past the point when they should have ended naturally (Fun fact: “Homeland” is still on! For reals!), but as far as we’re concerned, “Billions” can keep going forever.

16. “The Haunting Of Hill House”
“The Haunting Of Hill House,” more than any very good show on this list, has quite a few bad things in it. Some of the performances (not, it should be said, the kids who are all excellent), a bit of the writing, most of the last episode. But it’s a mark of how good the rest of it is that “The Haunting Of Hill House” was still one of the TV events of 2018, and ranks so highly on this list. Mike Flanagan’s adaptation (or, if you ask some fans, evisceration) of Shirley Jackson’s seminal novel was that rarest of things: a genuinely scary horror series, with at least one instant classic of a horror icon in the Bent-Neck Lady, and a few all-timer jump scares. But it connected with so many because of the clever way it turned Jackson’s source material into a family drama, a sort of “This Is Us” with ghosts, and one that finds real thematic weight in the titular haunting, even for its occasional missteps. Combined with filmmaking that confirmed that Flanagan is one of the genre’s most talented (the craft in the amazing back-to-back high points of episodes 5 and 6 was something to behold), and it became one of the best ghost stories ever told on TV.