It’s that time of the year: holiday visits and visitors, annual Top 10 TV lists, and, tonight on NPR’s Fresh Air, my end-of-2015 debriefing with Terry Gross. Lists, links and holiday greetings follow…
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Today (Christmas Eve) on Fresh Air, I get to do one of my favorite things of the year: sit down for a casual chat about TV with Terry Gross, who’s put up with me on her program, one way or another, for 40 years now. If you’re reading this before 5 p.m. ET on Dec. 24, just tune to your local NPR member station to hear today’s Fresh Air. If it’s after that, just go to the Fresh Air website.
But if you want to be surprised by my Top 10, stop reading now. Otherwise, here it comes, along with my Top 10 new shows, and my Bottom 5 for the year. You’ll have to go to Fresh Air, though, to actually hear a sample of the worst show of 2015 – as well as my conversation with Terry about late-night TV, streaming networks, and other topics.
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Other TVWW critics already have weighed in with their votes for the year’s Top 10. Here’s mine:
Top 10 Shows
1) Better Call Saul, AMC
2) Fargo, FX
3) Justified, FX
4) Good Wife, CBS
5) Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Comedy Central
6) Mad Men, AMC
7) The Walking Dead, AMC
8) Louie, FX
9) Man in the High Castle, Amazon
10) Inside Amy Schumer, Comedy Central
(tie) Episodes, Showtime
My only comments are that, this year, there could easily have been a Top 20, or a Top 30. That’s how good TV has gotten, and how widely the wealth has been spread. The crap, too – but we’ll leave that list to some other website. TV NOT Worth Watching, maybe.
Except that, each year, to point out the bottom of the barrel seems a valid exercise. It’s totally arbitrary, because you could fill the list each year merely with Kardashians – but if something really sticks out, and leaves me wanting to shower once I’ve seen it, it gets a brief mention here, and that’s it. The higher the number, the worse the show:
Bottom 5 Shows
1) Sex Box, WE (pictured)
2) Truth Be Told, NBC
3) Wicked City, ABC
4) Dr. Ken, ABC
5) The Leisure Class, HBO [from Project Greenlight director Jason Mann]
Also, the Top 10 New Shows of 2015:
Top 10 New Shows
1) Better Call Saul, AMC
2) Man in the High Castle, Amazon (pictured)
3) Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst, HBO
4) The Grinder, Fox
5) Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll, FX
6) Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore, Comedy Central
7) Humans, AMC
8) Master of None, Netflix
9) Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, CW
10) Mr. Robot, USA
My Top 10 and Top 10 New Shows also were featured on Hitfix.
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And finally, thanks – to the readers, writers and editors of this site, for seeing us through an especially hectic and unstable year. Anyone who used the holiday guide to buy stuff, thereby giving us our percentage cut from Amazon, thanks again. And finally, to all you readers, thanks for the trust, the feedback, and the continued good will.
Happy holidays to all…