My Top TV of 2018. We've already seen the Runners Up, ones that Lost It this year, and the winner of the Hast Thou Got Crops In Jethro prize (
here). So who's made the chart?
26) A special mention for
The Apprentice, only cos I was in it. It's a staple, and one we enjoy. But one of the genuine best TV shows of the year? Sorry Lord Siralan.
25)
Disenchantment (Netflix)
Matt Groening’s fairytale animation erred on the side of fairytale telling and kept forgetting to keep the comedy in there, especially towards the end. No Futurama, but fun.
24) Peaky Blinders (BBC, on Netflix)
We came to this a few years after everyone else and, three seasons in, now understand what everyone was going on about.
23) The Good Place (Netflix)
Seasons 1 and 2 were excellent, but season 3 is less so. These charts are hard to compile when you watch all three win the same year.
22) Vanity Fair (ITV)
An excellent new adaptation, getting the most of the comedy and drama in Thackeray. Definitely wins best 19th Century period drama of the year.
21) Mum 2 (BBC)
Still brilliant, a quiet comedy gem that will be a delight to revisit for years to come.
20) Inside No 9 (BBC)
A fourth excellent series may not have been as strong as their earlier ones, but the live Halloween episode earns them a place in anyone’s chart.
19) Preacher 3 (Amazon)
Suffering a little from the spend-a-season-in-one-location trap that made Walking Dead so boring, Preacher still has more novel ideas than most shows. And I did love the comics.
18) Feud: Bette & Joan (FX/BBC)
The first of four shows in my chart made by FX, which I didn’t realise until I double-checked. They are punching above their weight. These award-winning impersonations were to die for.
17) Upstart Crow 3 (BBC)
After a year doing Shakespeare with the Socks, I still remain the person who admits liking this series. Ended on a bit of a downer, but hopefully the Christmas episode will save it.
16) Black Mirror 4 (Netflix)
Diverse, dark, and wearing its big budget on its sleeve, these dystopian sci fi stories did what I wish Doctor Who would do. A few too many had the same “brain thing stuck to the temple” theme to them, but that’s a small quibble for such amazing imaginative fiction.
15) Better Call Saul 3 (Netflix)
And then nothing happened. Such mastery of the screen, to be able to spin so little action out so well, but by golly they do. Sooooooo well.
14) Handmaids Tale 2 (C4/Hulu)
Not getting any lighter, and still doing things in TV storytelling that no-one else has done, an adaptation of a 30 year old book continues to amaze.
13) The Crown 2 (Netflix)
It suffers from being on at the start of the year. If it had just been on, I’d probably put it at number one. Being divided into such perfect stand alone films this will be a delight to revisit. As it is, let me join the BAFTAs in not giving it the praise it deserves by squeezing it out of the top ten.
12) GLOW 2 (Netflix)
Such good fun, and continuing to mine the characters of its wide range of diverse characters, the lady wrestlers are better TV now than lady wrestlers can possibly have been in real life.
11) Talking Pictures TV (Freeview channel 81, Virgin channel 445)
It’s not a show, it’s a channel and if I haven’t raved about it to you yet, just corner me at a party sometime. Showing old films, largely British, it became our have-on-in-the-background channel this year. We wake up to it, fill gaps with it. And, every now and again, watch an entire movie on it. The best wallpaper on TV, and the channel that’s had me going to Google most often to find out whatever happened to the actor we’re looking at.
