My top 20 television shows for 2016 is here.
Each year, I do a quarterly ranking of the 10 best television shows (all platforms, so many platforms) leading to an end of the year top 20. Here's January-March for 2017
1. Baskets (FX)
2. Superstore (NBC)
3. Girls (HBO)
4. Crashing (HBO)
5. New Girl (Fox)
6. All in With Chris Hayes (MSNBC)
7. The Good Place (NBC)
9. Portlandia (IFC)
8. Crazy-ex Girlfriend (CW)
10. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (FXX)
-Survivor, The Americans, Last Man on Earth and other shows just an episode or two down as of this writing will be considered next quarter. The second season of Love just dropped, I've yet to watch it (or Sneaky Pete or last year's Easy or Crashing or that Woody Allen show. I'm doing the best I can. What's that Amazon show about the tennis club? I haven't watched either season of that. There's a lot is what I'm saying. And there's something called Seeso now, it's a whole thing)
Baskets is in the Louie phylum for FX shows (Louis CK produces); a lot of the laughter comes from ennui (including the slapstick); if you miss the NBC version of the Office it's back and has better politics, it's Superstore and you should be watching it. The two HBO shows come next (lot of comedies here in the first quarter of the year) Girls is ending, Crashing is starting. New Girl isn't "back" or any similar headline, it's just consistently funny. A product of Trump's America is it's given real animating force to Chris Hayes's show. Ex-Girlfriend finished up an uneven second season with a pretty fair twist; the Good Place finished up its first with a great one. Portlandia's coming off its best ever season, this season has not reached those heights - and a nod to Sunny, still bringing good jokes year after year.
