Michelle Drown’s Year in Review
Senior Editor Michelle Drown and Arts Contributors Pick Favorite Stories from 2018
As is par for the course nowadays, 2018 saw heaps of shows available on the small screen, many of which we wrote about within these pages. To save you time wading through the flotsam and jetsam, T.M. Weedon, Maggie Yates, Josef Woodard, and Michelle Drown offer up their favorite television viewing experiences of the year. Happy watching!
T.M. Weedon
Dear White People
Dear White People (Netflix) — Dramedy satire that explores race relations as it follows African America college students at an Ivy League school.
Patrick Melrose (Showtime) (Limited Series) — Benedict Cumberbatch stars as a decadent aristocrat from a dysfunctional upper-class English family.
Kidding (Showtime) — Jim Carrey takes viewers to the limits of control without shortchanging viewers on laughter and tears along the way.
Big Mouth (Netflix) — Nick Kroll’s animated adult sitcom about two seventh graders navigating their way through puberty.
Little Drummer Girl (AMC) (Limited Series) — Adaptation of John Le Carre’s novel about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict of the late 1970s.
Homecoming (Amazon) — A taut psychological thriller from Sam Esmail (Mr. Robot) that revels in ratcheting up the paranoia and suspense.
Wild Wild Country (Netflix) (Limited Series) — Documentary series about controversial guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and his cult of followers in Oregon in the 1970s.
Forever (Amazon) — A high-concept domestic dramedy starring Maya Rudolph about intimacy and partnership, where mundane choices have cosmic consequences.
Bodyguard (Netflix) — An edge-of-your-seat political thriller starring Game of Thrones’s Richard Madden.
Lodge 49 (AMC) — Wyatt Russell plays Dud, a lost, fearful, failure who finds redemption with the fraternal Order of the Lynx.
Maggie Yates
Killing Eve (HBO) — A crime thriller with a tantalizing blend of camp and noir.
RuPaul’s Drag Race (VH1) — Now in its ninth season, this show sees a bevy of gender-bending beauties competing for title America’s Next Drag Superstar.
The Good Place (Netflix) — Ted Danson and Kristen Bell star in this fantasy comedy about a woman sent to Heaven by mistake and so tries to redeem herself.
Haunting of Hill House (Netflix) — Based on Shirley Jackson’s horror
Atlanta (FX) — Donald Glover’s comedy/drama of cousins navigating the Atlanta rap scene.
Sharp Objects (HBO) — Adapted from Gillian Flynn’s book, Amy Adams stars in a glumly captivating performance lined with booze and sarcasm.
BoJack Horseman
BoJack Horseman (Netflix) — Animated adult comedy about an alternate world where humans and animals cohabitat.
Michelle Drown
Bodyguard (Netflix) — An edge-of-your-seat political thriller starring Game of Thrones’s Richard Madden.
Agatha Raisin (Acorn TV) — A PR professional leaves London to start a new life in a quiet village but soon finds herself the town sleuth when murders abound.
Will and Grace (Hulu) — The 10th season is as funny as ever with Will, Grace, Jack, and Karen up to their usual highjinks.
The Man in the High Castle (Amazon) — The third season of Frank Spotnitz’s adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s eponymous novel is as spellbinding as ever as the Greater Nazi Reich and Japanese Pacific States engage in their tenuous truce.
Mr. Robot
Mr. Robot (Amazon Prime) — Sam Esmail’s series is as sharp and dark as ever as cybersecurity engineer Elliot (Rami Malek) continues to thwart Evil Corp.
Unforgotten (PBS Masterpiece Mystery) — A gripping series about two London detectives who solve cold cases.
A Very English Scandal (Amazon) — Hugh Grant and Ben Whishaw star in this miniseries about the 1970s scandal involving Liberal Member of Parliament Jeremy Thorpe and his lover Norman Josiffe.
Josef Woodard
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (CBS) — Politcal, comedic talk show hosted by Colbert
The Romanoffs (Netflix) — Anthology drama of contemporary stories of people who believe they are descendants of the Russian Royal family.
Sharp Objects (HBO) Adapted from Gillian Flynn’s book, Amy Adams stars in a glumly captivating performance lined with booze and sarcasm.
Barry (HBO) — Bill Hader stars as a reluctant hitman in dark comedy series.
Maniac
Maniac (Netflix) — TV’s strangest, trippiest, and most biochemically fantastical love story this year.
Forever (Amazon) — A high-concept domestic dramedy starring Maya Rudolph about intimacy and partnership, where mundane choices have cosmic consequences.
The Tale (HBO) — Reality reinterpreted is the central operating mode in this chilling, truth-fueled saga.
Babylon Berlin (Netflix) — Explores Germany’s Weimar Republic; a portrait of a city, nation, and world on the precipice of something supremely horrific — WWII.
Atlanta
Atlanta, Season 2 (FX) — Donald Glover’s comedy/drama of cousins navigating the Atlanta rap scene.
David Letterman: The Next Guest Needs No Introduction (Netflix) — David Letterman channels his still-burning desire to converse with important people into the unique relaxed format.
