22. Such Brave Girls
One of the perils of the streaming era is that there’s simply more quality television out there than anyone could feasibly hope to watch in a 365-day period. So don’t feel bad if you’ve never actually heard of the Hulu comedy Such Brave Girls — just take this as an invitation to please fix your life immediately. But, to be clear, this isn’t a show for the faint of heart. A bleak, biting, often deeply uncomfortable story of a dysfunctional pair of sisters beset by mental health crises, financial woes, relationship dramas, and the emotional malaise that often goes hand in hand with figuring out the person you’re supposed to become; it’s chaotic, brutally honest, and frequently unhinged in all the best ways.
In its second season, the show takes even bigger swings, allowing its characters to unapologetically be the absolute worst versions of themselves in subplots that range from cruel to cringe. Real-life siblings Kat Sadler and Lizzie Davidson deftly navigtate the combative, occasionally hateful, but strangely moving bond between their onscreen counterparts without forcing either character to fit into the pre-determined boxes a lesser series might require them to, and the gloriously messy result is a series that feels unlike virtually everything else on TV at the moment. – LB
21. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
It’s true, the shining star in Paramount+’s larger Star Trek universe got a little tarnished this year. Yes, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 was pretty uneven towards the end, what with that terrible documentary-style episode and the one where half the main crew got turned into Vulcans and subsequently became huge jerks for no real reason. Yes, there was often a frustratingly uneven sense of pacing throughout. And yes, the season’s larger arcs (literally everything involving Captain Batel’s condition) were repeatedly sidelined in favor of adventure-of-the-week style antics that didn’t always tie back to the show’s larger themes. And yet, despite these flaws, it seems important to acknowledge that most of this season was actually pretty great.
The “Space Adventure Hour” Holodeck murder mystery. The creepy, almost unnameable evil at the heart of “Through the Lens of Time.” Ortegas getting stranded on an alien planet with a Gorn, a la Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “The Enemy.” These are genuinely great episodes — all for different reasons — which once again shows us the depth that this series is capable of when it tries. Successfully balancing weekly adventures and ongoing character subplots that frequently mix in fan favorites from The Original Series era is no small feat, and the fact that Strange New Worlds so frequently makes it look so effortless while having to serve so many masters is something I suspect a lot of us have begun taking for granted. If you ask me, any show is allowed a few clunkers when the bulk of its offerings are this strong. – LB
20. Peacemaker
How do you follow a universally-praised blockbuster reboot of the world’s first superhero? If you’re James Gunn, and only if you’re James Gunn, the answer is obviously “With another season of Peacemaker.” Further, anyone who wasn’t Gunn would have probably used Peacemaker as little more than an expansion of the new DCU from Superman and as set-up for the sequel Man of Steel. While some of that does appear in Peacemaker’s second season, in cameos from the Justice Gang and Lex Luthor as well as the introduction of the planet Salvation, Gunn keeps the attention on the show’s main cast, including its Z-list protagonist.
Peacemaker season 2 uses comic-book multiverse shenanigans as a tool to challenge the maturation Chris Smith (John Cena, showing remarkable range) underwent in season 1. Offered the chance to simply go to a reality where he is adored by the public and loved by his family, Smith can avoid the hard work of repentance and reconciliation before him. Adding to the complex character work is a fantastic supporting cast consisting of Jennifer Holland, Danielle Brooks, Freddie Stroma, and more, as well as a heavy dose of superhero humor. Peacemaker will never challenge the Man of Steel as an A-list hero, but in the hands of James Gunn, he’s just as compelling and complex. – JG
