My Top TV shows of 2019 - 40 to 21

My Top TV shows of 2019 - Bubbling Under and numbers 40 to 21.

Way back in June I wrote a TV of the Year So Far, highlighting some hidden gems, and shows that were better than others (championing the underdog, as is my wont). A feature then, as now, was the shows that everyone talks about but you (or I) haven’t seen. Looking at everyone else’s TV of the year choices, I’ve seen fewer of theirs than ever, while having seen more myself than ever. How can this be?

(For the record, out of The Guardian’s Top 50 I’ve seen 21, The List’s Top 10 I’ve seen 6, Buzzfeed’s Top 41 I’ve seen 18, and The New Yorker’s Top 10 I’ve seen 2. NB we can’t see HBO/Sky Atlantic shows cos we’re on Virgin Media, hence no Chernobyl, Game Of Thrones or Watchmen.)

My god you can tell I had fewer comedy gigs than recent years, I’ve seen way too much TV. Seriously, I have never drawn up so big a list of TV shows that I’ve considered worthy of praise before (yes I watched shows that weren’t even good enough to merit a mention). So, for the first time, this year I’m presenting a full fledged TOP FORTY. Before which we have…

THE STAPLES - shows that are consistently excellent must-see TV every time, we never miss one: Only Connect, University Challenge, Richard Osman’s House Of Games, HIGNFY, Would I Lie To You. 

GUILTY PLEASURES - not necessarily at their peak, but somehow unmissable: Strictly, The Apprentice, Brooklyn 99, Bob’s Burgers.

BUBBLING UNDER

Not bad at all, but not in the Top 40

Stranger Things 3 (Netflix) - Belatedly realised I’d forgotten to include this in my list of shows that had Lost It, a few days ago. Possibly the worst victim of Sequelitis of the year, this truly was a parody of its former self and deserves to be put out of its misery.

63 Up (Channel 4, above) - Has us in tears every seven years and didn’t fail again this time. 

What We Do In The Shadows (FX) - Wish I’d liked it more, I probably will give it more attention when it comes round again.

*Guilt (BBC Scotland) - Because episode 1 was removed from iPlayer for no good reason for a few weeks, I only started watching this as I started writing this list. Bloody good writing (by Neil Forsyth) so far, one episode in.  *(See UPDATE below)

Sanditon (ITV, top) - Partly filmed in Clevedon, serving mostly to make those of us who knew the locations frustrated because of how they were being used. “They’re about to drive off the edge of a cliff” was said more than once. 

Gentleman Jack (BBC) - One of those stories (by Sally Wainwright) that might have been more exciting if it hadn’t been so tied to the true story it was based on.

TOP FORTY

40) Les Miserables (BBC) - Nicely done and told the story probably better than the musical.

39) Maniac (Netflix) - Very original, highly imaginative, but when it came to treading the fine line between experimental storytelling and inexplicable gibberish it tipped slightly over to the “huh?” side a bit too often.

38) The Unexplainers (BBC Wales) - Very silly fun by a comedian and bloke out of Goldie Looking Chain. If it’s online anywhere, check it out, it’s worth it

37) Anima (Netflix, above) - Shortest entry in the chart, a 15 minute music video written by and starring Thom Yorke out of Radiohead. Full marks to Netflix for commissioning something so left field. When they start funding work this good by not-already-famous creators it will be an even better thing.

36) Talking Pictures TV  - Some recurring shows, especially ITV’s Shadows from 1975, have had us watching every episode, and so many films have us racing to Google and Wikipedia daily. TPTV is our go-to background channel, especially first thing in the morning. The addition of the TPTV podcast has extended the empire to such an extent that, soon, they’ll be running adverts for viewers who are younger than 70.

35) Vienna Blood (BBC) - A bit like 1970s cheesy cop dramas with a buddy duo, a twist, a guest star, and a happy ending. With added period costumes and antisemitism. Good writing (Steve Thompson).

34) The Dublin Murders (BBC) - Kept getting a bit too complicated to remember where you were when you picked up after a break. I confess, for that reason, we couldn’t finish it. Good writing (Sarah Phelps) and original casting.

33) Gold Digger (BBC) - Good writing (Marnie Dickens), interesting twists, and a strong lead for a not-so-famous 50 something woman (Julia Ormond), which is to be commended.

32) The Victim (STV/BBC) - More original writing (Rob Williams), and original casting, which has been a hallmark of this year’s BBC drama (possibly by dint of having to save money on big name actors). 

31) Trust Me (BBC, above) - Probably the most unusual second series of a drama that I can remember, given that all they’d kept was the name, the hospital setting, and the writer. Everything else changed. Very good writing (Dan Sefton) and original casting.

30) Cheat (ITV) - While Harry & Jack Williams were writing the disappointing Baptiste for the BBC, they were show running this much better psychological drama for ITV (written by Gaby Hull). 

29) Dark Mon£y (BBC, above) - Another bit of BBC original writing (Levi David Addai) and casting, and location filming which managed to make Kidderminster look like London. Sad to say, not the highest ranking Hollywood paedophilia story in this year’s TV.

28) Giri/Haji (BBC) - A little on the epic side, so a challenging show to keep up to speed with. Oh yes and it’s half in Japanese. Another BBC triumph of original writing (Joe Barton) and diverse casting (come on, when did you see more than one Japanese actor in a UK TV show, never mind 20 plus?).

27) The Capture (BBC) - Another one of the BBC dramas characterised by strong original writing (Ben Chanan) and a cast full of new faces. Wins the prize for best twists I think, but loses points for the ending that looked like it had been changed at the last minute to allow for a sequel.

26) Schitts Creek (CBC/ITV/Netflix) - We were late to the party with this, only starting to watch it this year. The first series is blindingly good, the second gets patchy. Binge viewing can be so unfair to long-running series. However the light touch of this very well-handled Canadian comedy deserves tons of praise, even if it ends up not setting the world alight.

25) Russian Doll (Netflix) - Very good fantasy story, the best original twists and turns of the year, though it clearly found the plot a little hard to resolve and ended in a flurry of bonkers. 

24) Whodunnit (ITV 1975, above) - An oddity, discovered on Youtube, and really enjoyed. There’s the best part of three series online and, casual racism and sexism aside (and panelists smoking and drinking as they talk, who remembered that was a thing?), they’ve aged well and are brilliantly entertaining. To my mind it would work as Saturday night TV in 2020. If I’m being picky, they lost it in 1976 when they put a member of the public on the judging panel and lost the Patrick Mower/Anoushka Hempel double act. Which is something I bet nobody’s given much thought to for 45 years.

23) Back To Life (BBC) - Suffered from having so similar a title to Ricky Gervais’s After Life and being on at the same time, but this whupped the Gervais show’s ass. Co-written by and starring Daisy Haggard (with Laura Solon) it was buried in the schedules and I don’t know anyone else who saw it. Very strong comedy drama.

22) Good Omens (Amazon) - Clearly a hard book to adapt, and some bits had suffered from the passage of time (ie ideas that were totally original in 1990 had since been done in books & shows like Preacher, slightly stealing Good Omens’ thunder). Patchy and variable, but entertaining and fun, with Tennant and Sheen’s best comedy turns of the year.

21) Years And Years (BBC, above) - I totally forgot about this when I was awarding my prize for ‘Hast Thou Got Crops In Jethro?’ Show of the year, that being the TV show that shoehorns public information and social messages in under the guise of drama. Maybe because the genius that is Russell T Davies does it so well. But looking back I’m remembering the messages (racism/homophobia/totalitarianism is bad & looking after each other is good) more than the moments, of which there were many. From the deaths to the double crosses, the brilliant out-of-the-box futurology and the slightly-too-optimistic wishful thinking moments (the biggest of which was when the whole world, being shown the dreadful things happening in internment camps, turns against the government. I’m sure RTD has noticed that, in the real world, the first has actually happened and not been followed by the second), a triumph of storytelling, only slightly undermined by the “ok, ok, we get the point” polemics.

*UPDATE - Guilt (BBC Scotland) - Because I didn't get to watch this until after I'd composed my list (thanks to episode one, the only one we hadn't recorded, being removed from iPlayer for no obvious reason, then returning a week or so later) I couldn't consider it properly. Having just finished all 4 episodes, it definitely qualifies for best thriller writing, and could have even made my Top Ten had there been time to let it settle in. It wins extra points for being the only BBC Scotland show I've seen this year that was actually made in Scotland and stars Scots. 

Which brings us to my Top Twenty TV of 2019. Stay tuned…

Top TV of 2019 - Lost It, Also Rans, & Hast Thou Got Crops In Jethro?

Kev F Sutherland, as well as writing and drawing for The Beano, Marvel, Doctor Who et al, runs Comic Art Masterclasses in schools, libraries and art centres - email for details, and follow him on Facebook and Twitter. View the promo video here.