2023 was a revealing year for what I like to think of as the television class divide.
For those who aren’t familiar with the term (probably most of you, as I just made it up five seconds ago), the television class divide refers to the difference in TV shows that are typically watched and discussed online by avid pop-culture fans – think Fargo, The Bear, or The Last of Us – and TV shows that are watched and consumed by the broader public – NCIS, Chicago Fire, The Good Doctor. If you’re reading this article, your TV tastes are probably more inclined towards the first group, but chances are a number of people in your life fall more into the second group.
The divide doesn’t get talked about much, but even allowing for the decline in network TV ratings, it’s as wide as ever. The final season of Succession prompted more thinkpieces than just about any other show this year, yet the much-ballyhooed series finale drew under 3 million viewers across all platforms. Meanwhile, the lowest-rated episode from this past season of Young Sheldon, a show with almost no discernable cultural footprint, drew 6.7 million viewers. The deluge of coverage for Succession drew just a fraction of the traffic.
I bring this up because events in recent months have put the gap between the “old” broadcast TV shows and the “new” cable/streaming shows in perspective in a most unusual way. The twin Hollywood strikes by the writers and actors – resulting in a combined nine months of work stoppage -impacted TV production across the board, but at acutely different speeds. Broadcast networks, which typically produce new seasons and episodes a few weeks before airing, were left without new fall season programming, and had to rely on reruns and imported shows. Cable and streaming services, which typically produce entire seasons several months before airing, were afforded a wider berth, and their irregular airing schedules – TV shows can often run for a year or longer between seasons – makes their production issues less noticeable. (At least for now; there may be a smaller crop of “Emmy bait” shows than usual in spring 2024.)
I’ve been thinking about the television class divide a lot lately, amid discussions about AI and streaming residuals and other things that will doubtlessly have some unknown impact on entertainment in our rapidly changing world. Amid the multiple strikes and negotiations in the face of a changing industry which signals that the era of “Peak TV” is at last drawing to a close. It’s not yet clear how (or even if) broadcast networks will fully recover from such lengthy hiatuses, nor is it clear how streaming services will continue to flourish in an industry of rising prices and excessive bundles. It feels like a lot is about to change, and soon. Whether it’s a change that benefits the online nerds or the offline normies remains to be seen.
For now, though, I’m proud to be a nerd.
Here are the ten best TV shows of 2023.
10. Star Trek: Picard
Yes, it’s heavy on references and unapologetic fanservice. But unlike some other recent sci-fi brand extensions (hello, Obi-Wan Kenobi), the third and final season of Picard earns its way into the heart of the Star Trek pantheon, serving less as a placeholder than a grand send-off to a saga that began with The Next Generation‘s premiere back in 1987. Reuniting nearly all the TNG characters onscreen for the first time in twenty years, and paying tribute to the parent series while resolving several lingering plot threads, Picard reminds us why these characters have endured so long (and in what is arguably the most popular iteration of the franchise). It’s also just a fun and engaging season of sci-fi television on its own, telling a well-paced, serialized story that delivers the thrills without skimping on characterization. A mission that’s well worth embarking on, and boldly so.
9. A Small Light
A quiet, minimalist, yet ultimately effective WWII drama that hits its mark without feeling exploitative. Telling the story of Miep Gies, the woman who risked her life to hide Anne Frank and her family from the Nazis, A Small Light tells a story of pain and defiance, made more effective when we know the outcome. Bel Powley shines in the central role as a woman stuck between the country she loves and the family she must protect, and the show does not shy away from the harrowing world that she and her husband inhabit. Takes some time to get going, but it’s ultimately one of the best under-the-radar dramas of the year.
8. The Afterparty
It was a strong summer for Christopher Miller, who not only scored a hit as co-writer of Across the Spider-Verse, but brought back his Rashomon-style whodunit series for a second season that upped the game on the first. Through ten episodes, The Afterparty unspools a murder mystery across a variety of perspectives, and delights in paying tribute to a multitude of cinematic styles and directors. From film noir to found footage, Wes Anderson to Alfred Hitchcock, each episode’s homage feels perfectly on point, while the season as a whole crafts a mystery as good as any page-turner. (It’s also strikingly funny – few TV scenes this year had me laughing as hard as Elizabeth Perkins’ deadly serious recitation of the lyrics to “MMMBop.”) Sadly, the show was axed due to low viewership, but for two seasons, The Afterparty was a blast from any perspective.
7. Scavengers Reign
An engrossing animated series set on a mysterious and often deadly world, Scavengers Reign is a dark and provocative story that disturbs and fascinates in equal measure. As we follow multiple stranded explorers, each trying to find some way off this mysterious planet, the series unveils a seemingly endless variety of imaginative alien creatures, where seemingly serene events can turn harsh and violent at a moment’s notice. Limiting dialogue for long stretches, the show relies heavily on its immersive atmosphere, yet still produces several characters worth investing in. A triumph of sci-fi that deserves a second season.
6. How To with John Wilson
After three all-too-brief seasons, John Wilson brought his strange, quirky, endearing, and hilarious meditation on life and the insights we can glean from its most menial mundanities to a close, with a final run of six episodes just as compelling as the twelve that preceded them. Whether he’s learning how to watch birds, clean ears, or track a package, Wilson’s quiet misadventures always lead to unexpected and eye-opening places, and his escapades perfectly skirt the line between script and documentary. The last few episodes take a metatextual turn, exploring the nature of fame and programming, leading to some of the show’s most impactful observations since the Covid-themed finale of Season One. A fond farewell to this show, as we look forward to what new and bizarre programming Wilson brings us next.
5. Barry
It was a strong year for TV conclusions, and Barry was no exception. The fourth and final season of this series had a few missteps (notably a lengthy “epilogue” that felt underwhelming in the face of what had come before), but its concluding arcs for Barry, Fuchs, NoHo Hank, and the rest of the show’s colorful cast made for riveting and often disarmingly funny drama. As fate and the authorities closed in on the central characters, the show grew darker and colder than ever, and while some late-season developments felt a little rushed, the show wrapped things up with a figurative and more than one literal bang. As in prior seasons, Bill Hader and co. delivered outstanding onscreen work, and the comedy remained just on point as the drama. (All hail the rocket launcher scene.)
4. The Last of Us
We’re in the midst of a video game adaptation boom, with cinematic versions of Sonic the Hedgehog and Super Mario Bros. cleaning up at the box office. And with video games growing more complex and sophisticated in recent years, it was only a matter of time before they began leaving their mark on the small screen as well. HBO’s The Last of Us is, if not the best Hollywood adaptation of a gaming franchise, the best example thus far of how television can unlock the potential of the medium. Based on the acclaimed game set in a post-apocalyptic zombie world, The Last of Us follows Joel (Pedro Pascal, in what was certainly his best “fatherly” action role on television this spring) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey, in one of the year’s breakout performances) as they forge their way across a deadly landscape where the zombies aren’t half as dangerous as other human survivors. With a great cast, suspenseful storytelling, and some terrific effects, the series was unflinching in its depiction of horrors both physical and internal. But it also captured the intimacy of human connection, the need for companionship in a world that fractures everything and everyone within it. The light moments in the series keep it watchable, while also making the darker scenes feel even harsher in comparison.
3. Blue Eye Samurai
No animated series in 2023 tapped into the potential of the genre quite like Blue Eye Samurai, a tense, bloody, sprawling narrative set in feudal Japan. Featuring one of the year’s most fascinating new protagonists – a young biracial woman named Mizu (Maya Erskine) who disguises herself as a man and cuts a violent path through her home country on a quest for revenge – the series resonates very well on a character level. But its true strength is in its animation, boasting a vivid palette of colors and textures, as well as action scenes finely honed to knock your socks off. Dynamic fight sequences, brutal yet gorgeous, make for some of the most exhilarating television of the year, combining elements of John Woo and John Wick with a dollop of The Raid. The finale is a bit of a letdown, as the series shifts abruptly away from a satisfying conclusion in order to set things up for Season Two – but in the face of the show’s triumphs, that’s forgivable, especially if it means more of the series to come.
2. The Bear
Hulu’s decision to again release all episodes of The Bear in one go remains baffling – this is a show that, with all its high-tension storytelling and stress-inducing camerawork, is probably best watched with some decompressing space between episodes. Regardless of how you approach it, however, The Bear remains one of the most taut and effective shows on television, and it hit new heights in its second season as Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) and his team of chefs scrambled to open the restaurant of their dreams. Across ten nail-biting episodes, The Bear tells a story of commitment and fight-to-the-finish determination, with characters who each find their own will to keep going despite the odds. The cast is top-notch, from White as the lead to Ayo Edebiri as his protege, and especially commendable work from Ebon Moss-Bacharach as rough-hewn Cousin Richie, who’s revealed here to be more complex and layered than his gruff Chicago attitude would suggest. Stark, funny, and poignant, The Bear was among 2023’s most thrilling TV experiences.
1. Poker Face
I’m not one who regularly watches crime procedurals (see my comments on the “TV class divide” up top), and while the era of streaming-induced über-serialization has grown exhausting, I don’t particularly gravitate to standalone hourlong dramas in general. But Poker Face, the delightful crime drama from Rian Johnson, deserves special commendation as not just a great TV show, but a refutation to the argument that the best TV dramas require minimal formula and heavy continuity from week to week. Although there is light continuity running through the first season, which sees protagonist Charlie Cale (a stellar Natasha Lyonne) on the run from a crooked casino boss, each episode follows a standard, quasi-anthology formula, one evoking Columbo and other quirky crime dramas of yesteryear, in which we watch the leadup to a murder, then engage with Charlie as she uses her powers as a human lie detector to catch the culprit.
The setup is simple, but each episode offers an entertaining new story, with a well-constructed inversion of a standard mystery (swapping out the “whodunit” for a “howcatchem”) and funny, creative writing. The look of the show, established by Johnson in the pilot, is imposing and immersive, and the stunt casting (performances run the gamut from Adrien Brody and Tim Meadows to Nick Nolte and Hong Chau) couldn’t be better. It’s rare to see a show with such a traditional, almost retrograde formula fire on all cylinders, but ones that do deserve commendation. Poker Face is compulsively watchable, whether you’re checking out one episode at a time or marathoning the whole season on a lazy weekend. It’s a barrel of fun that’s better than it has any right to be, and the best show of 2023.
Honorable Mentions
Beef, Fargo, Mike Judge’s Beavis and Butt-Head, Mrs. Davis, A Murder at the End of the World, Reservation Dogs, Schmigadoon!, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, Unicorn: Warriors Eternal, What We Do In the Shadows
Critically Touched 