Category: TV Reviews

Top Ten TV-Shows of 2023

Bella Ramsey as ‘Ellie’ and Pedro Pascal as ‘Joel’ in HBO’s THE LAST OF US — PHOTO: HBO / Liane Hentscher.

The long-awaited (and very late, sorry) list of the top ten TV or streaming shows of 2023 is finally here! I watched a lot of excellent shows in 2023, and I loved a great many shows that couldn’t land a spot on this list, such as Shrinking, Silo, Black Mirror, and Hijack. But, in the end, there are only ten spots on this list, and, well, there are some outstanding series here that just had to be on the list. Speaking of which, let’s now finally get to that very list.

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Families Like Ours (2024) | REVIEW

Paprika Steen and Nikolaj Lie Kaas in Thomas Vinterberg’s FAMILIES LIKE OURS — PHOTO: Per Arnesen/TV2.

Series created by Thomas Vinterberg.

Dogme95 co-founder Thomas Vinterberg has had quite the career. He burst onto the scene with his sophomore effort, the Cannes-darling and Danish classic The Celebration, and, though he struggled in the early 2000s overseas, he rebuilt his career on home soil with Submarine and The Hunt, the latter of which was a particular international success critically and with awards bodies. In the mid-to-late 2010s, he took another stab at filmmaking overseas with Far From the Madding Crowd and Kursk (with the Danish drama The Commune sandwiched in between the two). Then, at the very beginning of the 2020s, his binge-drinking dramedy Another Round took him to new heights as he not only accepted an Oscar and a BAFTA for the picture but also became the first-ever Danish filmmaker to be nominated for Best Director at the Academy Awards. Now, he has turned to TV, as he has crafted a television series about the calamitous potential of climate change that works as an eye-opener and much more. For me, it’s been one of the most interesting shows of 2024.

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The Penguin (2024) | REVIEW

Colin Farrell and Cristin Milioti in THE PENGUIN — PHOTO; Macall Polay/HBO.

Created by Lauren LeFranc (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.).

There has been no shortage of superhero television or streaming shows in recent years. Following several years in which superhero shows were mostly CW series for DC Comics, Netflix’s Marvel universe, or ABC entries, we’ve been overwhelmed with a variety of different series with the rise of Netflix competitors. There are so many shows on Prime Video, Max, or, especially, Disney+ that can scratch that itch for you as a comic book fan, and, frankly, it’s been hit or miss for most audiences, with Prime Video’s The Boys easily being the biggest success with fans and critics alike. Now, however, the long-awaited The Batman spin-off series titled The Penguin has finished its run (or first season, in case it gets picked up for another season) on Max, and not only is it a great show, it may actually be the new gold standard for superhero series connected to big screen entertainment.

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2024 TV Highlights Thus Far, Pt. 3 | Review Compilation

(L-R, top row) HOUSE OF THE DRAGON (Max); THE ACOLYTE (Disney+); THE BOYS (Prime Video).
(L-R, bottom row) THE BEAR (Disney+/Hulu); THE RINGS OF POWER (Prime Video); SUGAR (Apple TV+).

In the final of the three previously announced ‘2024 TV Highlights Thus Far’ review compilation articles, I take a look at some of the most high-profile series of the year, including two dueling fantasy shows, but also an underseen Apple TV+ gem with a plot development you have to see to believe.

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2024 TV Highlights Thus Far, Pt. 2 | Bite-Sized Reviews

(L-R, top then bottom) DARK MATTER (Apple TV+), BABY REINDEER (Netflix), TRUE DETECTIVE: NIGHT COUNTRY (Max), and CONSTELLATION (Apple TV+).

All five shows were definite recommendations in the first (of three) ‘2024 TV Highlights Thus Far’ review articles. They were all shows that I expect to end up on plenty of top 10 lists at the end of the year. This second part is a little bit different. Although, yes, I expect one or two of these to have enough critical appreciation for them to land on plenty of top 10s, the vast majority of part 2’s series weren’t home runs. They are highlights because I found something about each and every one of these series to be really effective, but not all of these are series that I’d easily recommend to friends and family. In fact, some of these shows even disappointed me from time to time, but I think there is enough in every one of these shows to merit them being singled out and discussed. In this part, among other things, I’ll be discussing two Apple TV+ series both of which revolve around parallel universes and the existence of multiple different persons of the same character. 

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2024 TV Highlights Thus Far, Pt. 1 | Bite-Sized Reviews

(L-R, 1st row, then 2nd row) SHOGUN (FX / Hulu), RIPLEY (Netflix), FALLOUT (Prime Video), MR. AND MRS. SMITH (Prime Video), and Presumed Innocent (Apple TV+).

You don’t really understand it when you’re a kid, but, boy, it really feels like time flies by as you get older. When you’re stressed or overworked or even just have more important things on your mind, it can be difficult to find the time to do what you want to do before it feels like you’re too late. This is, in part, why I started doing these review compilation posts sometimes containing bite-sized reviews about shows or films that I feel like I still need to talk about, even though I missed out on the moment right after the release. If you read my website frequently, then you know that I’ve recently posted two backlog/catch-up compilations for last year’s TV series. With that out of the way, I now want to focus on some of the shows of the past seven or eight months that I really want to give you my thoughts on. Today, I’ll focus on some of the shows that I think are the very best of the year thus far, including, but not limited to, a video game TV-adaptation and an incredibly stylish reimagining of an iconic Patricia Highsmith story.

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2023 TV Catch-Up / Backlog: The Greats | Bite-Sized Reviews

(Clockwise L-R) Natasha Lyonne in POKER FACE (Peacock / SkyShowtime), Harrison Ford and Lukita Maxwell in SHRINKING (Apple TV+), Carla Gugino in THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER (Netflix), FOR ALL MANKIND (Apple TV+), and THE BEAR (Disney+ / FX).

Just like with the previous edition of Additional Bite-Sized Reviews, the point of this post is to function as a review compilation, if you will, of some notable 2023 television series that I’ve either just caught up with or which I never found the time to write about when they were released way back when. For this post, I have specifically highlighted five of the past year’s best shows. For quite a few of these, I had initially intended to write extensive, long reviews, but time flew by and now I just feel the need to get my thoughts out there on some of my favorite shows from 2023.

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2023 TV Catch-Up / Backlog: The Mixed Bags | Bite-Sized Reviews

(L-R) The Changeling (Apple TV+); Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (Apple TV+), The Crown (Netflix).

In this edition of Additional Bite-Sized Reviews, the point of this post is to function as a review compilation, if you will, of some notable 2023 television series that I’ve either caught up with in the last few months or which I never found the time to write about when they were released way back when (i.e. my review notes backlog). For this post, I have specifically highlighted three shows from the past year that didn’t fully work for me, even though I liked a fair bit about them.

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Alice & Jack (2024) | REVIEW

Andrea Riseborough and Domhnall Gleeson in Alice & Jack.

Series Created by Victor Levin.

In the last weekend of January, the full season of Alice & Jack, a British series soon to be released later this February on Channel 4 in the UK and in March on PBS in the US, was released on Denmark’s DRTV (the Danish Broadcasting Corporation’s online streaming service), which was a relatively big surprise to me. Created by Destination Wedding and 5 to 7 writer-director Victor Levin but directed by Hong Khaou and Juho Kuosmanen, the romance-drama series starring Domhnall Gleeson, Andrea Riseborough, Aisling Bea, Aimee Lou Wood, and Sunil Patel tells the story of two on-and-off lovers over the course of years as they struggle with relationships, parenthood, heartache, and poorly timed love. For six episodes, we follow them through their lives from 2007 all the way up to this current decade.

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Loki: Season Two (2023) | REVIEW

Tom Hiddleston as Loki in Marvel Studios’ LOKI, Season 2, exclusively on Disney+. © 2023 MARVEL.

It’s no secret that since the launch of Disney+ required Marvel Studios to produce a litany of superhero series, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been in a bit of an identity crisis, which is also partly due to how the Marvel films in the post-Avengers: Endgame era haven’t always felt like they were pushing the overarching story forward in exciting ways that also spoke to its characters and their growth. There are always exceptions — like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 on the film side or Wandavision on the streaming series side — but Marvel Studios has lately been feeling like it’s been stuck in mud, with the release of the star-studded but already forgotten Secret Invasion, which crash-landed, being a notable attempt that failed to really find an audience or audience excitement. Because of all of this it feels really good to be able to say that Loki: Season 2 is a return to form for Marvel — it’s a great show and one of the very best things that’s been put out by Marvel Studios since the release of the outstanding Avengers: Endgame.

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