![]() ![]() I think The Americans, one of the very best series on TV, had a fifth season that stands up to inspection. A holding pattern doesn't have to be still and lifeless. And while I think that any "bridge season" for a serialized drama is a difficult one (see: Mad Men), that doesn't necessarily diminish the overall quality. Still an exceptional season, just different from the previous two. I've heard people say season three was "the worst" of the Fargo seasons. It's one of the oddities of the Power Rankings! - and a curse of the Platinum Age of TV - that a show can drop a few spots while actually proving its worth more convincingly by hanging in the upper echelons against the mad onrush of competitors. While I'm not completely done with its final season, the journey to the end has been magnificent. I was an early adopter of Halt and Catch Fire and spent a lot of time proselytizing about that first season to people who didn't listen. All the mojo is back in this current season, with smart writing, searing sendups of our society and some welcome humor. Robot was a disappointment, it was definitely less interesting and slower than the first, cutting into its momentum and taking it virtually out of the zeitgeist. While I wouldn't say the second season of Mr. Image Credit: Courtesy of Michael Parmelee/USA Network With magnetic performances from Maggie Gyllenhaal and James Franco and an ensemble cast littered with quality performances, The Deuce brings the grime of ' 70s New York to life and focuses on the toll of pimping and porn without crossing over into cheap titillation. George Pelecanos and David Simon have crafted a memorable, challenging, character-driven look at the birth of the porn industry along New York's 42nd Street in Times Square. The season moved crisply and paid off on a lot of the heightened tensions and myriad twists of the previous seasons. Dense and compelling storytelling, fascinating characters and a pull on its fan base unlike anything outside of The Walking Dead - it's a show you have to watch immediately. Fans of the first season will be happy, and a second solid season may convince others to jump in and discover the joys of the Upside Down.Įverybody wants a show like this. ![]() Credit the Duffer Brothers with avoiding a sophomore slump and delivering another clutch of fun episodes. More impressively for this second season is that Stranger Things was the odds-on favorite out of almost any overhyped returning series to take a creative tumble. It may have flaws - season one had plenty - but being highly entertaining and compelling can make up for a lot. First and foremost, Stranger Things is super fun to watch. The Leftovers looks at grief and faith like nothing else out there. It stands as a truly creative concept from inception to finish - often surprising, always dark, but cut through with weird humor. In a couple of months, you'll no doubt find this gem on any number of "Best of 2017" lists. What, you thought this was going to drop just because you haven't watched it yet? No chance. The number on the left is the current ranking, the one on the right was its previous ranking. In addition, some series that have completed their seasons can rise (or fall) even farther because of the constant re-evaluation of everything that marks the human condition of a critic.Īll hail the series that can hold the No. ![]() Also, some series are new - or newish - and they will rise or fall with the whims of further viewing. Of course, lots of dramas won't appear here that I have watched because they're not good enough to crack the list yet, which is the point of the whole thing in the first place. I'm not saying that will happen, but - spoiler alert - somebody has a really firm grasp on the top slot right now.Ī quick reminder: It's impossible to watch every show every week, and there will be some that I just haven't gotten around to watching yet (for example, Top of the Lake: China Girl), so they won't appear here. That's to allow for our Peak TV lifestyles wherein some of you haven't even watched The Wire yet, much less Mindhunter, which just came out on Netflix.Īnd while a full calendar year is a nod to everyone's limited time and the avalanche of incredibly great programming out there, it's also a welcome and fair parameter that could, in theory, allow a show to be No. Just a mental refresher, the main rule for the Power Rankings! is that a show has to have had its last episode within a calendar year of the latest list. And, as expected, there's been a surge of new content across many platforms. Such a good thing for the Power Rankings! And it's back in a big way as we swing around to the category that kicked off the latest reboot of these lists - essential dramas.Īfter introducing a cluster of various topics for the Power Rankings!, it was time to go back and see which new shows were going to slay the older shows and, conversely, which older shows were not going to give any ground to the newbies. ![]()
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