This is a look at what I enjoyed the most on the ‘small screen’ this year, if that term can even apply anymore given the ridiculously high standard of programmes available across so many platforms.

As with last year this is a look at what I enjoyed watching the most this year and release dates may not be strictly adhered to (as I do in my film review). This in the main is because I find it even more impossible to keep up to date with the amount of shows on offer to us all.

Also, in what was a fairly average year for superheroes on the silver screen it seemed like a bumper one for the small screen.

1. Fargo (FX/CH4)

As far as I am concerned Fargo should be discussed as one of the greatest television series ever made. It is an anthology crime series inspired by the film by The Coen Brothers and written and created by Noah Hawley. Each series is its own completely separate story about crime in and around the town of Fargo with links between its characters and events for those keen to find them. There are also numerous references and homages to the entire catalogue of Coen films.

Season Four arrived on our screens this year and as with the other seasons it absolutely blew my mind with its sublime brilliance. Set in Kansas City between 1950 and 1951 it follows a battle between two crime syndicates trying to take control of the city. Chris Rock, in easily his best acting performance ever plays Loy Cannon, the head of a black crime family fighting against the mafia led by Jason Schwartzman’s Josto Fadda.

Over the course of eleven episodes that range between 39-62 minutes long we are treated to a gripping crime drama that features multiple fully fleshed out leading characters played by a superb cast including the already mentioned Rock and Schwartzman and Jessie Buckley, Ben Wishaw, Glynn Turman, Jack Huston and Timothy Olyphant.

I highly recommend the other seasons if you have not seen any as well.

2. Loki (Disney+)

Loki just managed to pip my next choice to the number two spot by virtue of it being exceptional all the way through its six episode run.

I have to admit that I was sceptical of Marvel’s plans to expand its Cinematic Universe to the realms of television series but given they have managed to fill out three of my top five slots you could say they have won me over!

Loki was continually inventive, featured some fantastic performances and landed an ending that was genuinely awesome as far as where it could take the entire universe. When you have the likes of Tom Hiddleston, Owen Wilson and Gugu Mbatha-Raw in lead roles you know that you are in safe hands but the real stand out and MVP of the show was Sophia Di Martino who played ‘The Variant’ brilliantly.

3. WandaVision (Disney+)

It was so very tough bumping this down to third spot but I felt that Loki maintained its consistency throughout its six episodes where as this was the tiniest bit inconsistent in its final few episodes of nine. But that is really splitting hairs.

WandaVision overall was an absolute delight. How do you take the grief of a super powered witch and her dead partner and turn it into one of the best shows of the year? You have your protagonist create an imaginary world based on the sitcoms she loved as a child giving you homages to the likes of Bewitched and Malcolm In The Middle with canned laughter and a whole lot of warmth. Add in a brilliant villain who gets their own theme song and some fantastic performances and you have an absolutely unique gem.

Elizabeth Olsen lead role here must have cemented her as one of the leading characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe whilst Paul Bettany delivers a fantastic swan song as Kathryn Hahn and Teyonah Parris announce their arrival to Marvel.

4. Invincible (Amazon)

Invincible is based on a comic by writer Robert Kirkman and artist Cory Walker. Kirkman is more famous for creating The Walking Dead but as far as my comic affiliations go Invincible is his masterpiece. How that would translate to a TV series I was unsure because Kirkman is not shy at portraying the violent results of superheroes powers and this was an Amazon cartoon with a pretty huge cast. Well I had absolutely nothing to worry about because what is on screen is probably one of the most faithful comic adaptations that you will see on the big or small screen and the creators did not pull a single punch.

The animation is so true to Walker’s original drawings it is uncanny and the voice cast is exceptional and includes Steven Yeun, J.K. Simmons, Sandra Oh, Zazie Beetz, Walton Goggins, Zachary Quinto, Mark Hamill, Clancy Brown and Jason Mantzoukas to name just a few.

5. Hawkeye (Disney+)

Between 2012 and 2015 when I was still buying comics regularly and had a ”pull list” at a local comic store, writer Matt Fraction and artist David Aja delivered what could be the greatest Hawkeye comic run ever made. It followed Hawkeye in his every day life when he was not avenging, introduced Kate Bishop as a fellow Hawkeye, featured a fantastic art style, featured issues from the perspective of Clint Barton’s deafness (including sign language in the panels), featured an issue from the perspective of Lucky the Pizza Dog and introduced the ’Bro’ goons. This six part Christmas mini series takes this comic run as inspiration including the bright purple suits and is absolutely fantastic.

The action sequences were top notch (episode 3 I am looking at you) but most importantly the banter between Jeremy Renner and Hailee Steinfeld as Clint and Kate is warm and endearing just as it should be. The supporting cast is also fantastic with Florence Pugh and Linda Cardellini returning to the MCU and Vera Farmiga, Tony Dalton and Fra Fee making their first appearances.

As with Loki and WandaVision it truly felt like an essential story in the MCU and also one that makes Kate Bishop and Yelena Belova characters we all want to see more of.

6. Mythic Quest Everlight & Season 2 (Apple)

Mythic Quest is the only show in my top ten that is not a brand new show and it is also the only one that was in my inaugural list last year. This year they released a one off special called Everlight that featured narration from Anthony Hopkins and a nine episode second season that matched the brilliance of the first season.

One of the special things about this show is their innovative approach to their episodes. Season One featured a quarantine show and an episode called Dark Quiet Death which I called one of the single greatest episodes of TV last year and was seemingly unrelated to the wider story of the show. Well this season they did it again with an episode entitled ‘Backstory!” which was equally as brilliant.

I highly recommend getting an Apple subscription for a month to watch all of these shows!

7. Mare of Easttown (Sky Atlantic/HBO)

Mare of Easttown is a seven episode mini-series whose focus is on Detective Mare Sheehan’s (Kate Winslet) attempts to solve the murder of a teenage girl in a small town.

Of course any good show could not be that simple. Mare is divorced, lives with her mother (Jean Smart), daughter (Angourie Rice) and her grandson (Izzy King). She is still struggling with the grief of her son committing suicide and trying to fend off his recovering addict partner’s attempts to get custody of their son. She also has the possibility of new romance with author and lecturer Richard (Guy Pearce) and a new partner hot off solving a big case in Colin Zabel (Evan Peters).

The show has an intriguing and labyrinthine story and some fantastic performances. Kate Winslet is always brilliant but it is probably Evan Peters performance that had the most impact on me.

8. Only Murders In The Building (Disney+)

From one murder mystery show to an entirely different type of murder mystery show! Only Murders In The Building is a ten part comedy show where three residents of an exclusive tower block in Manhattan try to solve the murder of another resident in the building. The group create their own podcast that follows their exploits and each episode loosely acts as an episode.

Steve Martin who is co-creator with John Hoffman is a genius when he gets things right and boy does he get this right. His character is a reclusive has been actor whilst old friend Martin Short plays a Broadway producer with a tendency to overstretch. Selena Gomez completes the triumvirate as someone whose connection to the buildings previous residents links her to the crime.

As a group the three characters play off each other brilliantly and the show is genuinely laugh out loud funny. As with Hawkeye it also features a deaf character and a deaf episode that generates some brilliant silent movie humour.

9. Bo Burnham: Inside (Netflix)

Some people might argue this is a film but I am going to say it is a television special. Inside is an eighty-seven minute long musical comedy special that Bo Burnham wrote, shot, edited, produced and starred in during the pandemic and is set entirely in his home.

The show features songs and skits about his day to day life, climate change, social movements but most importantly his deteriorating mental health over the course of the pandemic and his isolation. Starting clean shaven, alert and positive Bo seems to deteriorate both physically and mentally ending bearded, forlorn and negative. It is either a stunningly brilliant performance or someone being painfully honest on screen about their mental health.

It also features hilarious and brilliant songs that mock popular culture and the internet as well as ones that make serious points in light hearted ways.

Anyone interested in a lesson in how to shoot and edit could also get a great deal out of analysing this work.

10. Masters Of The Universe: Revelation (Netflix)

This series was delivered in two parts each featuring five episodes running at approx. twenty-five minutes each. Both times Netflix released episodes for the show I watched them in one sitting which is a sign of how much I enjoyed this show.

As a child I adored He-Man toys and begged my mum to take me to the 1987 Masters of the Universe movie starring Frank Langella and Dolph Lungren. Even as a six year old I was disappointed. This show however is everything that six year old would have wanted. There are plenty of twists and turns to the story which is not afraid to take some bold and brave decisions. Teela (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Evil Lyn (Lena Headey) are actually given the lions share of the first half of the story and it was almost a shame when He-Man (Chris Wood) and Skeletor (Mark Hamill) took centre stage again.

Lead writer and story editor Kevin Smith has also overseen some very funny moments including one featuring ‘Fisto’ that had me in stitches (clearly I am still a child on the inside).

Other Worthy Mentions

The Wheel Of Time (Amazon)

I really enjoyed Amazon’s big fantasy epic despite a few clunky issues. The CGI may not always have been top tier but Rosamund Pike and Daniel Henney were amazing at holding the core of the show together and making us believe in the world being created. There are some other actors in the core group of leads who hopefully will grow with the show.

I have not read the books so I can not speak to its authenticity for fans of Robert Jordan but I was intrigued enough by what I saw to both want more of this series and to add the books to my list of millions to read!

Jupiter’s Legacy (Netflix)

It seems as though I was in the minority in enjoying this series and Netflix certainly were not happy with the results with it already cancelled. But I really enjoyed this show.

Eight episodes that were not dragged out and managed to tell us two storylines. One in the past similar to King Kong where our heroes find a mysterious island that imbue them with powers and the other in the present similar to Watchmen where young and old superheroes with conflicting values face off against a diabolical supervillain scheme.

At least if you have not had the pleasure of this show you can go into to it knowing you only have the commitment of eight episodes and an unresolved cliffhanger.

Sharp Objects (Sky Atlantic/HBO)

Sharp Objects is a show that we recorded in 2018 and after three years of trying to persuade my better half that we should watch it I gave up and watched it on my own over the course of two evenings. To be fair to my significant other she felt that it would be too grim and depressing and she was partially right. It is grim and it is depressing. But it is also gripping and has the possibility of hope until that final credits sequence pulls the rug away again.

The story follows Amy Adams reporter, who traumatised as a child has to return to her home town to investigate a child murder that reminds her of her early trauma. Self harm and alcoholism feature heavily.

Amy Adams, Eliza Scanlen, Chris Messina and Patricia Clarkson all give fine performances in a series directed by Jean-Marc Vallee who tragically died the day before I wrote this at the age of 58.

Ghosts (BBC)

Prior to this year I had never watched an episode of Ghosts. This year I have watched all eighteen episodes of the three available seasons and the two Christmas specials. The fact that you could log into the iPlayer one morning and have seen all of those by the end of the day makes me want to suggest you should do the same right now if you have not already. In fact I became aware that there is also a US remake of the show and am considering tracking it down to see if it is as good.

The show follows Alison (Charlotte Ritchie) and Mike Cooper (Kiell Smith-Bynoe) who inherit an abandoned country home called Button House. Whilst refurbishing it Alison has an accident that results in her seeing and being able to communicate with all of the ghosts that ’haunt’ the mansion. The entire show is charming, warm and eminently funny throughout.

Bosch (Amazon)

I could not leave out the show which I have probably spent the most time with this year. I had heard many good things about this police procedural over the years and this was the year it delivered its seventh and final season. So now was as good a time as any to start it?

At the time of writing I have completed the opening six series and have seen the first episode of the final season. That means I have watched sixty-one episodes of Detective Bosch (Titus Welliver) and his partner Jerry Edgar (Jamie Hector) try to take criminals down in Los Angeles. I also feel as though I have watched Maddie Bosch grow up this year as actress Madison Lintz was fifteen at the start of the show and I have watched her age seven years this year!

Clearly the show is good enough to have kept me watching but I still would not wholeheartedly recommend it. It is certainly better than your average episode of the week police procedural but it is neither as gritty and daring as The Shield or as smart and clever as The Wire. If however you have seen both of those brilliant shows and want something a bit lighter then this is worth a watch.

What’s Next?

There are so many TV shows that I want to catch up on. The following are some on my watch list but feel free to let me know your thoughts on the above or anything that I should watch next year:

• Succession
• Scenes From A Marriage
• White Lotus
• The Terror
• The Witcher (season 2)
• F is for Family (season 5)
• Final Space (season 3)
• The Book of Boba Fett
• All things Marvel and Star Wars due next year