The original post: /r/television by /u/EitherAfternoon548 on 2024-12-31 12:38:55.

I’ve always been more of a film guy, but over the past year I’ve decided to branch out and watch more tv. So I thought I’d place my thoughts here.

Not including the episodes from shows I’d started previously like The Boys, series I’ve started but not yet finished, like Game of Thrones, Mad Men, For All Mankind and Euphoria, I’ve seen eight tv shows from beginning to end this year.

  1. Ted. I’m a casual fan of the Ted movies but man this series just elevated all that worked about those movies to another level. It threads a delicate line of almost being too silly to take seriously, but it was a good enough start for the series that I’ll gladly watch what comes next.
  2. Mr Inbetween. Pretty excellent little series. “Socks are Important” is an all timer of an episode. Maybe it’s due to the fact that I’ve spent so much time in Australia but the series has an almost uncomfortable level of “realness” to it due to how familiar and down to earth it is. Surprisingly excellent action set pieces for such a small show.
  3. Longmire. Probably the most inconsistent series I watched this year. From the tail end of season 2 to the start of season 5 this was some of my favourite television I’ve watched all year. But the start is pretty slow going, taking 18 episodes to really build up the storytelling momentum that takes us through the rest of the series (side note seasons 1&2 feel like one long 23-episode season). And the final two seasons have episode lengths that average at over an hour long, with a middling feature length finale.
  4. Eastbound and Down. I watched all three of Danny McBride’s HBO comedy series this year, watching them in reverse order so I ended up watching this last. It’s iconic sure, but Kenny Powers is probably the most mean-spirited of McBride’s characters. But man, was that final season a home run.
  5. True Blood. The first show I started watching this year all the way back in January. Such a blast of a series, even if it had a middling final two seasons I had too much fun with all the characters for it to sour my view of it too much.
  6. Game of Thrones (seasons 1-4). Before the New Year came in I managed to binge season 4, and my impression is that the series is… pretty good. Amazing moments. But none of the episodes really stand out that much. Maybe that’s faint criticism, as it’s all really good, but it all feels like one big movie rather than a tv series. There are episodes where we get brief parts of some narrative thread completely unrelated to any of the other narratives, and we don’t get any resolution to this at all. Reminds me a lot of True Blood in a way. There are exceptions, Blackwater and The Watchers on The Wall are episodes totally devoted to one storyline and takes place in one setting.
  7. The Righteous Gemstones. Came for Cassidy Freeman, stayed for the whole damn family. Probably my favourite family to hang out with on TV this year, so excited that season 4 is only a few months away. I plan a rewatch before then and now that I’m more used to McBride’s brand of humour my opinion of it will probably only go up. This and True Blood were probably my favourite casts this year
  8. Vice Principals. Only slightly edges ahead of TRG because of just how perfect it, probably in large part due to the fact that it was written and planned out as one 18 episode long story. I was well and truly in tune with McBride’s sensibility by the time I got to watching this and every crass uncomfortable bit of humour landed.
  9. The Sopranos. Isabella. Funhouse. Employee of the Month. Fucking Pine Barrens. Whitecaps. All Due Respect. The Blue Comet and Made in America. Every season you get two or three of the greatest episodes ever made for the medium. Oof madone. Expected just a straightforward mob-drama with some dark humour but was blown away with a story filled with odd, powerful dream sequences and existentialist philosophy.

Favourite episodes. 

Pine Barrens (The Sopranos)

The Blue Comet (The Sopranos)

The Righteous Will See Their Fall

Socks Are Important (Mr Inbetween)

Funhouse (The Sopranos)

Timebomb (True Blood)

That’s Amorte (Rick and Morty)

The Union of the Wizard and the Warrior (Vice Principals)

Some you Give Away (One Tree Hill)

Season Four FinaleAssassination Run (The Boys)

Ashes to Ashes (Longmire)

Everything is Broken (True Blood)