5. “The New Yorker Presents”
With due respect to its competitors, the New Yorker is almost certainly the most venerated and hallowed magazine in the world. It’s now over 90 years old and its format has remained true to its origins, even if it has grudgingly, if sparingly, embraced newfangled inventions like photography. Few would have thought that the magazine would embrace something as gauche as a TV series, let alone one on a streaming platform, but “The New Yorker Presents” turns out to be a perfect fit for the high-to-middlebrow Amazon brand, as well as a pretty successful, if somewhat lightweight, extension of the New Yorker brand. It’s unique in the TV landscape in being a half-hour magazine show, mixing documentary elements (both peeking inside the magazine and with short films from big names including Steve James, Alex Gibney, Jonathan Demme and Lucy Walker), animation, essays, comedy sketches and short fiction films. It’s a bit hit and miss —particularly with the comedy offered, which adheres to a long tradition of the New Yorker’s humor by not being very funny (if you assumed that these sketches might involve, say, Paul Giamatti in a fat suit playing Balzac, you would be 100% correct)— and the show sometimes feels like it’s hampered a bit by the half-hour format, never able to really dig into its weightier subjects in the way that, say, a 10,000 word article in the mag might. But the breeziness also becomes a virtue, the breadth and variety of subjects and tones and media feeling utterly refreshing: in the age of binge-watching, it’s the exact opposite of sitting through ten hours of dirge-y drama like “Hand Of God” or “Bloodline,” and we hope it sticks around for a while as a result.
4. “One Mississippi”
Tig Notaro was already a beloved comic’s comic when she took to the Largo stage in August 2012 and performed a set that described what she called her ‘worst year,’ one that took in near-death from a bacterial infection, her mother’s death, diagnosis of cancer in both breasts and a break up. The show was instantly described as one of the best stand-up sets ever performed, and it’s perhaps no surprise that “One Mississippi,” co-created by and starring Notaro, draws heavily on that time. The show brings on some hefty talent to join her —Diablo Cody co-created the show, Nicole Holofcener directs the first three episodes, and Louis C.K. exec produces— but the show is inextricably composed in Notaro’s voice, and that’s undoubtedly a great thing. Notaro plays Tig, a DJ who returns to her Southern hometown when her mother dies. It’s as good as any show has ever been at capturing that experience, the mundanity and banality of grief and its aftermath, and the tight focus (the first season was just six episodes) is a real benefit at a time when so many shows end up feeling bloated. Notaro’s very particular dry, melancholy humor is the dominant force here, but one of the best things about the show is the way that her voice isn’t the only one here: the supporting cast are terrific, especially John Rothman giving a lovely performance as stepfather Bill. It’s low-key stuff, and arguably closer to a drama with jokes than a comedy, but it’s nevertheless beautifully observed, utterly honest and extremely moving.
3. “Catastrophe”
We’re constantly being told that the rom-com is dead. And to be fair, the box office in the U.S. for “Bridget Jones’ Baby” and some others would seem to bear that up. But if the genre is dead in the movies, it’s very much thriving on TV, and “Catastrophe” might be the best current example. Picked up by Amazon from Channel 4 in the U.K., it’s created by and stars American stand-up Rob Delaney and “Pulling” writer/actress Sharon Horgan, who play an American businessman and an Irish teacher in London who have a brief fling, only for Sharon to get pregnant from one of their encounters, which leads Rob to move across the Atlantic and attempt to make a go of it together. It’s foul-mouthed, legitimately sexy and capable of joyous meanness in places (“I just wish one bad thing would happen to her… maybe she got arrested for tax fraud or if her dad got caught with child porn or something, just to knock the smug out of her,” Sharon wishes of a friend at one point), but more unusually also makes you invest not in a “will-they-won’t-they” but in the ups and downs of a couple built on relatively sound foundations. The whole cast are great (including Carrie Fisher as Rob’s mother), but it’s Horgan and Delaney who make the show: the latter’s a little stiff as an actor, but the palpable chemistry between the two completely papers over any cracks that might show. The second season wasn’t quite as perfect as the first, but is still so good that we can’t wait for the already-commissioned third and fourth.
2. “Fleabag”
Like “Catastrophe,” “Fleabag” is a U.K. import, and like “Catastrophe,” it’s a frank look at relationships in London in 2016. And it might somehow be even better: despite having only debuted last Friday on the streaming service (having rolled out on the BBC over the summer), it already feels settled in as one of the network’s very best shows, and indeed one of the best comedies of the year. It’s based on the stage play by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who also stars as the title character, a young woman on the brink of 30 grieving the deaths of her mother and her best friend while trying to keep her business, a tiny, empty cafe, afloat, and generally get her shit together. It’s not wildly original in premise —indeed, it comes across tonally as the closest thing to a sort of British equivalent of “Girls.” But it’s almost immaculately executed, its taboo-brushing gags about anal sex and the like draw laughs, but its always undercut by a sense of profound unsettlement and darkness that really flowers in the final few episodes. Which makes it sound like a bleak watch, but it’s not: it’s consistently funny (much more so than anything else Amazon have aired so far), but every laugh is built on, or attempting to mask, Fleabag’s guilt, self-loathing and struggles with expectations. It’s a remarkable performance from Waller-Bridge, and she’s matched by a great supporting cast including Jenny Rainsford, Bill Paterson, Olivia Colman and, best of all, Sian Clifford as her brittle sister. By the time it reaches the end, you’re much more moved than you thought you might be at the beginning. Pray for a second season.
1. “Transparent”
If you follow our TV coverage, it probably isn’t going to be a huge surprise that “Transparent” is in our number one slot. It’s topped our list of the best TV shows for the past two years, and a preview of Season 3 (which debuts tomorrow) suggests that it’s on better form than ever in the new run. We apologize for the lack of shocking counter-intuition, but we don’t for the pick itself, because “Transparent” is a phenomenal show —it’s better made, written and acted than almost anything else on television. Created by former “Six Feet Under’ showrunner Jill Soloway, based on her own experiences of having a parent transition genders, the show follows the Pfeffermans, a well-to-do Jewish L.A. family who are turned upside down when their patriarch (Jeffrey Tambor) reveals that he identifies as a woman. Her three children (Amy Landecker, Jay Duplass and Gaby Hoffman, all phenomenal) each have their own sex and gender issues to deal with, as well as a deep self-absorption, and over the two seasons to date, we find that the roots go back even further into Pfefferman history. Some find the characters too selfish and dislikable to get on board with, but if you just give a little, you’ll get so much, with a cast (also including the great Judith Light and Kathryn Hahn) that bring to life eminently human characters that are capable of giving and receiving more love that you could imagine. It’s smart, moving, beautifully made (Soloway being joined by guest directors including Andrea Arnold and Marielle Heller), thought-provoking, compassionate, and yes, important. It’s undoubtedly the crown jewel in Amazon’s collection.
Initially, our plan was to watch every Amazon pilot that’s aired so far, but our plan was hampered when we discovered that once the pilot season wraps up, Amazon takes the shows off the service unless they get picked up. That means that early attempts like a TV version of “Zombieland” and an “Onion” show starring a pre-“Transparent” Jeffrey Tambor are almost impossible to find, so we ended up keeping it to series that were picked up and have aired full series. That means no “The After,” from “The X-Files” creator Chris Carter (which was picked up but scrapped), no gun-business satire “Cocked” from “Manhattan”’s Sam Shaw, no Civil War drama “Point Of Honor” from “Braveheart” writer Randall Wallace, and no “Edge,” directed by Shane Black.
We also didn’t include a couple of shows that are still in limbo — Whit Stillman’s “The Cosmopolitans,” which may yet continue two years after the pilot debuted, and Jean-Pierre Jeunet-directed “Casanova,” which had more scripts ordered but hasn’t been given the greenlight as yet. And we didn’t include shows which are yet to air —’60s sexism drama “Good Girls Revolt,” Giovanni Ribisi vehicle “Sneaky Pete,” fantasy comedy “Highston,” spy thriller “Patriot,” the Christina Ricci Jazz Age drama “Z,” F. Scott Fitzgerald adaptation “The Last Tycoon” or Woody Allen’s imminent “Crisis In Six Scenes.” But we will be updating this list as more shows debut.
Disagree with our rankings? Just let us know how you’d stack them up in the comments.