tv 2016: final notes

You won’t find a Top Ten here, but I did want one more post to summarize all of those previous posts.

I don’t have a #1, nor do I have a #2. But my two favorite shows of 2016 are The Americans and Rectify. The latter in particular is ready for streaming, as it finished its run last week.

The following are shows that would make a Top Ten (or whatever) if I did such a thing. They aren’t as good as the top two, but good enough (the ones in bold are particular favorites):

Atlanta, Fleabag, Happy Valley, Jane the Virgin, Mr. Robot, Orange Is the New Black, Outlander, Penny Dreadful, Shameless, Soundbreaking, Stranger Things.

That's 13 shows, and none of them were on HBO. It's not that HBO is no longer the home of good TV, but they aren't the only place to find things in 2016. Netflix had the most shows among the 13, with 3.

Special mention goes to The 100. This was a series with great promise, and I don’t think it has squandered it all (some have given up). I look forward to the upcoming season as much as I do any other show. But they made a crucial, tin-eared mistake midway through last season, and while the end of the season did a bit to mend things, the screw-up made the fix bittersweet at best.

This video is the epitome of spoilers, so if you haven’t watched through Season 3 but intend to at some time, do not watch this video. This observation is completely unscientific: the video below has 53,262 as I type this. A similar fan reaction video for Season 3 Episode 7 has three times as many views. (Among other problems with this conclusion, there are multiple reaction videos for both scenes). It should also be noted that after Season 3 Episode 7, many hardcore fans were vehement in claiming they would never watch again. So it is quite possible that many people who would have locked in to the following scene were no longer watching.