EWB's Top 50 TV Shows of 2016: The Results

[GoGo Yubari]

Yeah, I get where the Buffy comparison comes from (use of the supernatural, quippy characters) but it's not an entirely fair one because Buffy post-season one is aiming a lot higher in terms of scale and Meaning. Like, iZombie doesn't have a "Passion"-level episode really and doesn't really need to. Veronica Mars is a much better comparison point, especially because it's the same creator/showrunner. Cases of the week juggled with good overarcing plotlines.

Agreed with Jimmy that The Night Of just didn't get enough eyes on it, maybe because it's most likely just a miniseries. Real good story, John Turturro is phenomenal in it.

Legends of Tomorrow has really found itself a bit, in that it's managed to embrace the inherent silliness of it without the humor feeling quite as dumb as it often did in season one. Mid-20's isn't a bad spot, though I wish iZombie and Night Of had finished higher than it.

and here comes the invoking of the One GIF Rule...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

24 (tie). Mr. Robot (40 points, appeared on five ballots) (Last Year: #23)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

24 (tie). Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (40 points, appeared on five ballots) (Last Year: #3)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

23. Lady Dynamite (42 points, appeared on three ballots) (Last Year: NR)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

22. Last Week Tonight (49 points, appeared on five ballots) (Last Year: #13)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

21. Agent Carter (51 points, appeared on seven ballots) (Last Year: #17)

 

Next Time, on EWB's Top 50 TV Shows of 2016: Tables. Tables are made so a person can sit down and do something. Or nothing. Any person can sit at a table, and if the table is large enough, many people. To make jokes, eat a meal, tell stories. Tables are for people to be together and share. And that is why tables are like Pied Piper. Grapefruits, postcards, hugs. These are things people share to connect, to come closer. To open up about ideas and things that make us feel alive, like air, ballet, amazing haircuts, weird countries, three-alarm chili, mountains, continents, the Earth, life. Life is beautiful and sad and hopeful and dangerous. So maybe the reason we share so much is because we understand that without sharing, we can't survive. And sharing is tables.

[LittleDaniel]

Lady Dynamite is one of the best television programs I have ever seen.  I am someone with a lot of anxiety that is now mostly managed.  When I binged this show, it managed to bring out my old levels of anxiousness just through the world they created.  For example, during one scene, two characters heads swell up to about 1.5 times their normal size for around ten seconds.  And it never gets commented on.  So you're thinking, "oh, this is going to be a thing.  Hmm, no one is saying anything about it.  Huh.  No one is acknowledging it at all.  Am I-am I seeing things?  Like their heads aren't that much bigger, they're not comically huge, so am I just seeing things?  Oh.  Well now their heads are normal.  Did I imagine that?  I need a Xanax."

So yeah, stuff like that coupled with the fragmented nature of the show (it was set concurrently before, during, and after Maria's mental breakdown) made me feel legitimately anxious when I watched it, and I'm not the only person I've heard that from.  Like, I've had scenes make me anxious before in other media, but this was a lasting anxiety.  

Oh, but the other shows are good too.  Haven't seen Mr. Robot yet, but this was the first grouping where I actually liked multiple shows.

[Josh]

YES, Lady Dynamite! Such a funny, ballsy show.

Last Week Tonight should have been higher.

[GoGo Yubari]

Kimmy Schmidt and Lady Dynamite are both in the same Netflix Black Hole for me where there's something weird about Netflix where even when I like the shows I have a really awful time actually binging them.

Last Week Tonight, and honestly most stuff from the Daily Show sphere of influence, lost my interest this year but that Fuck 2016 segment was so, so cathartic. It definitely has its values, even though pretty much the moment someone on here pointed out the repetitive joke structure I was like "ah yeah, fuck."

Mr. Robot was good this year but a little scattershot. It got a spot at the tail end of my 15 because when it was good it was great but I was definitely the "Eliot basically on his own isn't that entertaining" and there was a whole lot of Eliot on his own this year. Probably had my favorite new character of the year in Dom DiPierro, though.

Agent Carter So good. Should be back on TV this month, dammit, but no.

couple of shows in this next five where if you combined all of their appearances on this list since I first ran it you'd probably be over 15 and pushing 20...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

20. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (59 points, appeared on seven ballots) (Last Year: NR)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

19. Silicon Valley (62 points, appeared on nine ballots) (Last Year: #19)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

18. Supernatural (64 points, appeared on six ballots) (Last Year: #25)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

17. Full Frontal (65 points, appeared on seven ballots) (Last Year: NR)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

16. Supergirl (65 points, appeared on nine ballots) (Last Year: #35)

 

Next Time, on EWB's Top 50 TV Shows of 2016: Little known fact about the Nazis: their polling numbers within Germany, through the roof. Unbelievable numbers. Though also tragic.

[LittleDaniel]

Full Frontal has been great this year!

[Josh]

Full Frontal has become crucial. Very deserving of a high placement.

Always Sunny is a show I would probably talk about more if FX didn't prevent it from streaming until a year after air.

Silicon Valley is pretty routinely satisfying.

[Your Mom]

I HATE Always Sunny so much! Everything else in that set is awesome though

[GoGo Yubari]

It's Always Sunny was a show I really liked and then stopped watching and never started back on, which is a goddamn shame because where I stopped was before The Nightman Cometh. Someday. Someday.

Silicon Valley had a good season, though not as good as season two. Mostly because I'm really, really wary of where this season ends; there's a little bit of an Entourage-y feeling to it that I can't fully put my finger on. Still, it's really fucking funny.

They'll Never Stop The Simpsons Supernatural!

Full Frontal was my favorite of the Jon Stewart Influence tree of shows this year. I didn't always agree with it, but the jokes are really sharp in pretty much every direction. And holy shit, pretty much everything they did about Ted Cruz was absolutely beautiful. Still, post-election I'm at a pretty low level of desire to watch it right now, for a big mix of reasons. I'll be back within a couple months, probably.

Supergirl is one of the most-improved shows of the year. Second half of season one really leans into how good an actress Melissa Benoist is and season two is utilizing the whole cast a lot more efficiently than they did before. Like, Wynn is actually an enjoyable character now! Crazy that they managed to get to that point.

[Benji]

Speaking of IASIP, the latest season comes to Netflix tomorrow.

[RPS]

Holy shit RuPaul's Drag Race made this list. 

Dying inside. 

[MalaCloudy Black]

Of that part of the list, Supernatural and Supergirl are kinda unknowns for me. I've seen a lot of Supernatural, but it was a case of "it's on TV in the TV room on my college campus" so I sorta hatewatched it. Supergirl I keep meaning to start and then.. never do. There's already too much TV as it is, I'm loathe to start something new when I know I've got other stuff that I could be catching up on.

[The DBZemon King]

17 hours ago, GoGo Yubari said:

It's Always Sunny was a show I really liked and then stopped watching and never started back on, which is a goddamn shame because where I stopped was before The Nightman Cometh. Someday. Someday.

Silicon Valley had a good season, though not as good as season two. Mostly because I'm really, really wary of where this season ends; there's a little bit of an Entourage-y feeling to it that I can't fully put my finger on. Still, it's really fucking funny.

They'll Never Stop The Simpsons Supernatural!

Full Frontal was my favorite of the Jon Stewart Influence tree of shows this year. I didn't always agree with it, but the jokes are really sharp in pretty much every direction. And holy shit, pretty much everything they did about Ted Cruz was absolutely beautiful. Still, post-election I'm at a pretty low level of desire to watch it right now, for a big mix of reasons. I'll be back within a couple months, probably.

Supergirl is one of the most-improved shows of the year. Second half of season one really leans into how good an actress Melissa Benoist is and season two is utilizing the whole cast a lot more efficiently than they did before. Like, Wynn is actually an enjoyable character now! Crazy that they managed to get to that point.

If you're an IASIP fan, you'll thoroughly enjoy the seasons to come. Can't rec the show enough.

[Josh]

I have come to enjoy Always Sunny, but I have to admit I had to push through the early seasons (and my misgivings with occasional episodes along the way.) Plus, I am not finding the replay value in the episodes the way I do with other comedies I enjoy.

[LittleDaniel]

Never been a fan of Always Sunny.  It's much like Archer for me where I get why people find it funny. but it just doesn't work for me.

[Benjamin]

Every time I catch IASIP on TV, it's always the episode where Danny DeVito has lost his memory. 

[Your Mom]

I've seen like 5 episodes and I wish I could lose my memory of them  

[Mx. Canadian Destroyer]

10 minutes ago, Benkid Cratchit said:

Every time I catch IASIP on TV, it's always the episode where Danny DeVito has lost his memory. 

Yeah, are you sure you're remembering this correctly?

[GoGo Yubari]

sorry about the delay but also not sorry because I'm glad we got some good discussion of shows we like/bagging on shows we don't in. Like old times! But now I'm more awake and less busy than yesterday so let's finish the road to the top ten.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

15. Orange is the New Black (72 points, appeared on eight ballots) (Last Year: #28)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

14. Atlanta (80 points, appeared on nine ballots) (Last Year: NR)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

13. Veep (81 points, appeared on seven ballots) (Last Year: #22)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

12. Agents of SHIELD (83 points, appeared on ten ballots) (Last Year: #9)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

11. The Walking Dead (87 points, appeared on thirteen ballots) (Last Year: #16)

 

Next Time, on EWB's Top 50 TV Shows of 2016:  Oh, you have Hitchcock. Murder on the Titanic! "Who did it? Who cares? We're drowning!"

[Monkey D. Lars]

Will Prison Break make the list next year? 

Seeing all these shows makes me realise I need to watch more TV. 

[MalaCloudy Black]

Confession: I still haven't even started OITNB.

Same with Atlanta. 

SHIELD was aight.

Veep was stellar, as always.

I haven't watched TWD since like, season 3, and I feel like I haven't really missed anything. The show's up to about the point where I quit reading the comics too, so whatever.