My Top Ten TV Of The Year 2023
We’ve already seen the shows of 2023 that I Gave Up on, couldn’t remember, or thought had Lost It, 40 to 21, and 20 to 11. So now, these are my favourites…
10 - Doctor Who (BBC)
It’s back, and back on form after the Chibnall years. Obviously with only three episodes to comment on (at time of writing) it’s hard to say where the return of Russell T Davies is taking us. Indeed I’ve been quite unkind online, suggesting that The Giggle was largely a compendium of things we’d already seen RTD do before, coupled with things we’d seen Steve Moffatt do before, and even some we’d seen Chris Chibnall do. But I have faith in RTD’s writing, and I am looking forward to Doctor Who - the favourite TV show from my childhood, leave us not forget - finding its way further up my TV of the year list this time next year. Let us see.
(For the record, over the years, I have ranked Doctor Who at: 2022: No 40, 2021: No 22, 2020: No 10, 2018: No 10, 2017: No 10, 2014: No 4, 2013: No 10.)
9 - Only Murders In The Building 3 (Disney)
Another return to form, after a second series which lost a little bit of focus, this was a splendid comedy drama that knew what it was about and got everything right. It had a memorable ear worm of a song (Which Of The Triplets Did It?) and spot on cameos (the Matthew Broderick episode, inc Mel Brooks, is a classic), with its three leads sparkling throughout.
8 - Ghosts 5 (BBC)
A perfect final series, made all the more outstanding when compared to its American counterpart, which the actor/writers among to be very politic in never mentioning ever in any podcasts or interviews. A little darker in tone than previous series, but still managing some outstanding comedy highspots. I can’t wait to see what they do next, rather trepidatious that it’ll be hard to produce anything as good as this. Which is, in case anyone’s forgotten, the best British comedy series of the last twenty years, and that’s official.
7 - Barry (series 1 - 4) (Now TV)
Frustratingly there’s been a final series of this which, though someone’s incompetence that’s not yet been fully explained to me, got pulled from Now TV before we had time to watch it. So I’m having to avoid TV reviews of the year which give away spoilers for series 5. On the plus side, hopefully we’ll get a chance to see it next year and it can appear in the Top Ten again then. As it is we’ve seen four seasons on one year, which is a treat. The blackest comedy to come out of America for years, and definitely one of the funniest. I confess I’d managed not to be that aware of Bill Hader until now. I know realise what a comedy genius he is.
6 - Boiling Point (vs The Bear) (BBC v Disney)
Here’s a tricky one, because everyone from TV critics to friends keep raving about Disney’s The Bear and I’ve only found it fair-to-middling so far (we’re still watching series 1). I think I have difficulty understanding why the chefs put so much effort into making food for a downmarket back street burger joint. However BBC’s Boiling Point is a different (forgive pun) kettle of fish. No film or show has taken me so convincingly into the surroundings of a working restaurant kitchen since, well, since the movie Boiling Point that this TV show is a spin off from. The drama is so tense, and can be down to just hoping someone doesn’t drop a plate, and it grips throughout. And I don’t know whether it’s just me, but my empathy-meter’s been off the scale with this show, it having me welling up more than any other show this year. For me Boiling Point beats The Bear hands down in all regards. I have yet to find anyone who agrees with me on this.
5 - Changing Ends (ITV X)
Only the second show this year for which we’ve braved the mess that is ITVX (the other being Nolly) to watch. ITVX, with its black screens that make you think it’s stopped, its ad breaks you can’t fast forward through, and its bizarre habit of playing a tiny bit of the show from before the ad break immediately after the ad break - oh and that thing where you can’t pause and rewind the credits so there’s always something you missed that you want to find out - all conspire to win it the prize of Worst Streaming Service. That and the fact that ITV have held these programmes to ransom, no doubt to give them a proper showing over the Christmas period so they can win all the prizes in the new year. Anyway, Changing Ends, as a comedy co-written by and co-starring Alan Carr, which description would have normally had me running for the hills. But it’s great. The star of it being the exceptional child actor Oliver Savell who, all being fair, should be destined for great things. But, being a child actor, you never can tell quite how it’ll all pan out.
4 - The Traitors (UK & US + Australia) (BBC)
For a show that’s a rollercoaster ride of emotions, the sensation of watching the US version after the British version, then following that up with the Australian version, takes you through as many ups and down in itself. We blitzed each of these when they came around, giving us a January of Claudia, a spring of Alan Cumming, and an autumn of Rodger Corser. Claudia is of course excellent, and experiencing the format for the first time with her was a perfect combination. It’s a great reality game show and we loved it.
Then came the US version, which totally lost it in a couple of ways. Firstly Alan lacked the amiability-hiding-a-sharp-wit of Claudia, coming across instead as a little distant and occasionally creepy (in a Vincent Price haunted house way, not necessarily a bad thing). Secondly we’d already seen the games the US contestants played, which deflated it slightly. But the worst aspect of the US Traitors was their choice of contestants. Whereas the UK version had normal people from everyday jobs, to whom a viewer could relate, in the US edition more than half of them were former contestants from other reality shows. So not only were they superficial, uber-confident, over-groomed, botoxed and bronzed rich people, they didn’t feel like real people. It was impossible to care who would win, only to hope in vain that there was some way every one of them could lose.
As a refreshing treat, the autumn’s Australian Traitors not only had a different location and an all-new line up of games, but its contestants were all real people, from regular lines of work. Added to this, some had been especially well chosen, including people with backgrounds in law and policing, and, outstandingly, a psychic who (spoilers) distinguished herself by being fantastically bad at predicting who were Traitors. All went together to give us a version so good that, when the UK’s second series comes out next month, it has its work cut out to compete. The US outing will be lucky to get a second run commissioned I should imagine.
3 - Colin From Accounts (BBC)
Brilliant comedy from Australia, just a pure joy. Harriet Dyer and Patrick Brammall have a perfect screen chemistry that it would be hard to contrive. I think it’s no coincidence that all the comedies that have made my list are by writer-performers (from Bill Hader to Cat Sadler, Gbemisola Ikumelo to Bridget Christie, to the casts of Ghosts and Inside No9) and perhaps that’s the best way to get great comedy. I hope a second series is as good as the first.
2 - Poker Face (Now TV)
I wasn’t the only person to describe it as Columbo meets The Incredible hulk. And if it was only as good as that sounds it’d be great. As it turns out, a combination of Rian Johnson’s writing and Natasha Lyonne’s TV presence and comedy chops, taking the crime-of-the-week premise that TV seemed to have stopped doing in the streaming age, giving it retro credits, and doing it not as a “whodunit” but as a “whydunnit” (where you see the crime committed, then you wonder how she’s going to solve it), with contrived catchphrases (“Bullshit”) coupled with a quirky not-quite superpower, ends up making one of the best and most entertaining TV shows for years. The only shame is that we can’t get 22 episodes a year like they used to do in the 70s. I shall relish, and rematch, the few we get. Joyous.
1 - The Gold (BBC)
Neil Forsyth created the excellent drama Guilt a few years ago, whose later series were never as good as its first. But this miniseries, retelling the true story of the Brinks Mat bullion robbery, knocks spots off his previous work. Its greatest success has been not just its creation of characters who seem real, but are frequently elaborations upon or amalgamations of their real life counterparts, though he uses that device well. No, Forsyth’s great success in The Gold has been the shoe-horning in of great Shakespearian-level speeches into the middle of dramatic scenes, which elevate the drama to grandiose heights and manage not to hold the action up at all. But afterwards you’ve left thinking, wait a minute, the copper wouldn’t pause and give you a two minute reminiscence about his life in the services thirty years ago right in the middle of when he’s supposed to be getting his coat on and going to chase after a bad guy. But they do. It’s speech after speech, as if David Mamet and Samuel Becket were having a competitive monologue-off, all in the middle of a driving drama about some naff second-string suburban criminals accidentally pulling off the biggest bullion robbery in history. A triumph in TV playwriting that I’m happy to know we’re still capable of making.
Thanks for reading, now go and buy some of my books!
Kev F, December 2023
PS: The TV Channels credited are the channels on which I saw the shows. Now TV includes shows from HBO, Peacock, FX and others; a couple of BBC shows originate with Stan in Australia; Disney shows include Star originals; and there are shows which will be shown on different channels at different times. And, yes, I know that Jimmy Savile one was made by ITV, but if they didn't show it they don't get the credit.
My Top TV of... 2021 2020 2019 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2015 • 2014 • 2013 • 2011 • 2009
My Books and where to get them:
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