EWB's Favorite TV Show 2020: The Voting Thread

[GoGo Yubari]

Previously, on EWB's Top 51 TV Shows of 2019:

 

boy, what a year! What a year, what a year. What a year, the year was. 2020, that was this year. And now here we are, nearly at the end of it, and so we come together as EWBers to compile lists of our favorite TV shows we watched this year. And there were definitely TV shows this year, in spite of many delays due to global catastrophe!

THE RULES:

1. You will be drafting a list of (up to) your top fifteen shows of the year. Voting, of course, goes like so; list the shows from 1 to 15, the show you listed at 1 gets fifteen points, the show you listed at 2 gets fourteen points, and so on. That being said, if you didn't watch fifteen TV shows (or fifteen TV shows you actually liked enough to vote for) feel free to just leave the rest of your ballot blank once you run out. That is totally valid! Ballots with one or two shows count just as much as ballots with all 15! It's free real estate!

2. This is a list for your favorite TV shows of 2020, and by that I mean that every show you vote for must have been airing new episodes in its country of origin. For example, multi-time list qualifier My Hero Academia aired new episodes in Japan this year so it's eligible! And conversely, The Good Place started its final season in 2019 but finished it in 2020, so it's also eligible even though January 2020 feels like it was two years ago now!

3. Shows don't necessarily have to be scripted comedies or dramas. Reality TV, both competitive and non-competitive? Eligible! Documentaries? Eligible, and I'm assuming at least one is a lock to qualify this year! News satire shows, like recent EWB's Favorite Show institution Last Week Tonight? Eligible!

4. But there is an exception; no wrestling (ignoring, obviously, scripted series about wrestling, not that there are any eligible this year to my knowledge). That stuff will all be in the wrestling awards, if there is one this year.

5. And finally, you don't need to tell me you've edited your list up until I post saying that voting is closed, because that's when I'll start tallying everything. Then if you really, really want to make a change you should probably let me know, and I may or may not allow it. 

AND DON'T FORGET BEST NEW CHARACTER IF YOU'RE INTO THAT SORT OF THING: It's that fun side event that a couple people vote on every year, limited to characters who made their debuts as full-fledged characters on either a new or returning TV show this year! All you have to do is add something like "Best New Character: (character name)" at the end of your ballot for the new character you enjoyed the most this year! (And as a potential clarifier depending on how things go; portrayals of historical figures on fictional/scripted TV shows are fair game, actual real people on non-fictional shows like documentaries or reality TV will not.)

The past winners up to this point are: Bob Newby (Stranger Things), Nora West-Allen (The Flash), and thanks to a three-way tie, Robin Buckley (Stranger Things), Nadia Vulvokov (Russian Doll), and Baby Yoda (The Mandalorian)!

ALSO: I imagine this is going to be a peculiar year because of the pandemic and general stress and shows getting delayed, and as a result I will be keeping the nominations window open until at least Christmas Eve, if not until the end of the month outright. Again, don't feel like you have to announce if edits are being made to your list unless you're doing it after I say the voting's closed, and in that case it's probably going to come down to whether I've tallied your ballot yet or not. No guarantees! Thanks for reading, and I'm looking forward to tallying the ballots (mine will go up once it won't just get absorbed into this post).

[Roster Depth Sicko No. 2]

I'm glad I'd already put my list together.

1. The Boys
2. The Mandalorian
3. Brooklyn Nine Nine
4. The Good Place
5. The Umbrella Academy
6. Money Heist
7. Gangs of London
8. Prodigal Son
9. Taskmaster
10. Criminal: UK
11. The Queen's Gambit
12. Sex Education
13.Dead To Me
14. Upload
15. The Show That Goes Wrong

May alter the order a bit but I think those'll be the shows I pick barring someone reminding me of something amazing.

[GoGo Yubari]

1. Better Call Saul
2. BoJack Horseman
3. What We Do In the Shadows
4. The Great
5. The Plot Against America
6. Search Party
7. Agents of SHIELD
8. The Queen's Gambit
9. Stargirl
10. The Boys
11. Fargo
12. Lovecraft Country
13. The Good Lord Bird
14. Legends of Tomorrow
15. The Outsider

BEST NEW CHARACTER: Catherine (The Great). The work Elle Fanning does keeping her character consistent and entertaining is incredible, both because she has to match some excellent scene partners but also because The Great basically veers from dark comedy to palace intrigue to period romance and she's the only one who really has to

(Honorable Mentions: Beth Chapel (Stargirl), Doctor Senator (Fargo), Montrose Freeman (Lovecraft Country), Beth Harmon (The Queen's Gambit), Onion (The Good Lord Bird))

[Ruki]

1. The Good Place

2. B99

3. The Owl House

4. Mandalorian

5. The Boys

6. Bojack 

7. Umbrella Academy

8. Kipo

9. Ted Lasso

10. Steven Universe Future

11. Space Force

12. Lovecraft Country

13. My Hero Academia

14. What We Do In The Shadows

15. Agents of Shield

 

[LittleDaniel]

Does Jackie Daytona count as a new character?

[Moses Julep]

1. Better Call Saul

2. Normal People

3. Bojack Horseman

4. Ramy

5. How To With John Wilson

6. The Plot Against America 

7. Ted Lasso

8. The Good Place

9. High Fidelity 

10. Mrs America

11. Devs

12. Never Have I Ever

13. I May Destroy You

14. The Crown

15. Ozark

Still have a few shows that I hopefully get to see...

 

 

 

Edited December 17, 2020 by Moses Julep
17 December: Perry Mason removed, How To With John Wilson added. Wonderful, wonderful!

[GoGo Yubari]

15 minutes ago, LittleDaniel said:

Does Jackie Daytona count as a new character?

I am so tempted to say yes but I realize that that way lies madness so I can't.

I can say, though, that Jim the Vampire would very much count as a new character.

[Ruki]

Was Watchman this year?! Shit

[K]

x

[GoGo Yubari]

2 hours ago, Rukaru Shida said:

Was Watchman this year?! Shit

Oh, sorry, Watchmen was not this year. Final episode aired December 15th. @Moses Julep will have to replace that one.

[Moses Julep]

21 minutes ago, GoGo Yubari said:

Oh, sorry, Watchmen was not this year. Final episode aired December 15th. @Moses Julep will have to replace that one.

Oh man life is a blur. I'll replace it. 

[Benjamin]

1. Bojack Horseman
2. Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts
3. The Good Place
4. DC: Legends of Tomorrow
5. The Last Kingdom
6. Fresh Off the Boat
7. Insecure
8. The Crown
9. F is for Family
10. The Plot Against America
11. Better Call Saul
12. Wizards: Tales of Arcadia
13. Hollywood
14. Kim's Convenience
15. Supergirl

Okay, so there was another show that ended in 2020 that I had to place above the Good Place, unfortunately. Kipo was just so ruddy wonderful. I love my list, by the way. You all should follow it 

Other 2020 shows I watched in no particular order that I wrote for some reason:

Spoiler

Blood of Zeus (ruddy horrible), Space Force (also ruddy horrible), Sneakerheads (ditto), Home Game (hit and miss sports documentary show), History 101 (fun but not very educational documentary series), Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich (everybody was watching this 😕 ), Dirty Money (WAAAAY better than season 1), Batwoman (season 2 might be better!), Ratched (this way not good at all), The Flash (I seriously don't even remember what happened, was this the Cicada season?), mixed-ish (eh, it was okay), Last Week Tonight (still really good and going strong), Criminal: United Kingdom (super underrated, wish more people would watch it!), grown-ish (watching it more for completion sake, but it's got its ups, too), Hip-Hop Evolution (it's not really telling me much that isn't already known, but still kind of fun), #blackAF (not as good as black-ish, unfortunately), Brooklyn Nine-Nine (still good but just not as good as it used to be), Schooled (sad I don't have space on my list for this), Modern Family (honestly just kind of glad its done), Tiger King (wtf was happening in March), black-ish (it's really good still, glad I picked it back up), Avenue 5 (has the potential for so much more!), The Last Dance (loved it, but so sad can't keep it on my list), Cheer (super good cheerleading documentary, way better than most sports docs), Messiah (what a mess), The Boys (meh, season 1 was a lot better IMO), the Goldbergs (def number 16)

Finished Better Call Saul and it definitely deserved a spot in my top 15. The Boys less so. Hoping to finish two Amazon shows before 2020: Hunters and Upload, both look interesting and might get a toe in.

BEST NEW CHARACTER: Kipo Oak (Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts) - And there isn't even any debate about it 

[DFF]

@GoGo Yubari - quick question, how long as you leaving this open? Aware that The Expanse returns on the 16th Dec and, if previous seasons are to go by, it will likely make my list if submissions are still eligible by then. 

 

Provisional list - NOT COMPLETE. 

01. The Good Place 
02. Better Call Saul 
03. Star Trek: Discovery
04. The Mandalorian
05. Supernatural 
06. After Life
07. The Expanse 
08. The Last Dance 
09. The Alienist 
10. Star Trek: Picard 
11. The Stranger
12. Criminal: UK 
13. All or Nothing: Tottenham 
14. Legends of Tomorrow
15. The Sinner: Jamie 
 

EDIT - Added The Expanse. 

[tristy]

I spent most of this year re-watching stuff I had missed in years prior, like The Man in the High Castle. Or watching stuff that was this year, but wasn't even good (looking at you, The Vow). Or running through multiple years of content on some YouTube channels (Funhaus). So my list is extremely short compared to previous years. COVID didn't help things, either.

1. I'll Be Gone in the Dark
2. Desus & Mero
3. The Plot Against America
4. Away
5. Upload
6. Superstore
7. McMillions

That's it. That's all I got. 😑

[Mx. Canadian Destroyer]

1. What We Do In The Shadows
2. The Crown
3. Better Call Saul
4. Ted Lasso
5. Queen’s Gambit
6. Taskmaster
7. Fargo
8. The Great
9. The Good Place
10. Ozark
11. The Plot Against America
12. Killing Eve
13. The Boys
14. The Mandalorian
15. How To With John Wilson

 Best New Character: Catherine (The Great)

@GoGo Yubari is The Witcher technically a 2019 show as it came out December 20?

[Josh]

1. The Good Place
2. The Mandalorian
3. Fargo
4. Lovecraft Country
5. What We Do in the Shadows
6. Taskmaster New Zealand
7. Taskmaster
8. Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
9. The Flight Attendant
10. The Goes Wrong Show
11. Brooklyn Nine Nine
12. Dicktown
13. Staged
14. Taste the Nation with Padma Lakshmi
15. The Repair Shop

Best New Character: Doctor Senator (Fargo)

Edited December 23, 2020 by Josh Mulaney

[GoGo Yubari]

6 hours ago, DFF said:

@GoGo Yubari - quick question, how long as you leaving this open? Aware that The Expanse returns on the 16th Dec and, if previous seasons are to go by, it will likely make my list if submissions are still eligible by then.

Christmas at the earliest but potentially the end of the month. You've got time.

1 hour ago, Mx. Canadian Destroyer said:

@GoGo Yubari is The Witcher technically a 2019 show as it came out December 20?

Yeah. It's the kind of show I'd consider making an exception for except it got enough votes last year to not only qualify but I think make the top 15.

also thanks to everyone @-ing me with questions. I'm not poring through the actual voting lists until I actually start tallying so there might be things I miss.

[gunnar hendershow]

Alright, getting this done

1. The Good Place
2. Better Call Saul
3. What We Do in the Shadows
4. The Queen's Gambit
5. The Mandalorian
6. Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!
7. Brooklyn Nine-Nine
8. My Hero Academia
9. Akudama Drive
10. Alice in Borderland
11. The Great British Bake-Off
12. Superstore
13. Last Week Tonight
14. Westworld
15. Somebody Feed Phil

Best new character: Sayaka Kanamori (Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!)

As always, my 2020 list will be much more comprehensive in like 2022. I'm just always so behind.

[arwrestling]

1. Schitt's Creek
2. Hollywood
3. Dead To Me
4. Drag Race
5. Little Fires Everywhere
6. The Good Fight
7. Drag Race Canada
8. Trickster
9. The Circle
10. The Crown
11. Harley Quinn
12. Next in Fashion
13. The Conners
14. The Good Place
15. Tell Me A Story

[Roster Depth Sicko No. 2]

Goddammit how did I leave Taskmaster off?