And we continue onward, in a strong year for TV, with nine shows that were very good but just fell short of the top tier:
16. How To with John Wilson
Season 3
HBO
John Wilson voluntarily ended How To with this season, but it was a great run of episodes to go out on; I definitely think this season was stronger than season 2.
As usual, John’s initial concept for the episode gives way to meeting a number of strange people and to places far beyond the initial concept. For example, the season kicks off with “How to Find a Public Restroom,” with serves as both a commentary on the lack of publicly available restrooms in New York, and an odyssey that takes John to Hudson Yards and the suicide stairs; “The Hole,” an area of New York below sea level and not connected to the sewage system, and which seems largely forgotten by the city’s institutions; a guy turning a missile silo into a bunker; an actual bunker in DC; and Burning Man. And I didn’t even touch on the visit to the plastic surgeon who does Botox for bladders, which apparently is a thing.
And that’s just the first episode. “How To Clean Your Ears” leads John, with newly clean ears, to discover just how noisy New York really is, to try to understand how neighbors can live with one another and respect the other’s needs for peace and quiet in such a dense city, and ultimately to a community of people with Chuck McGill disease (the psychosomatic “electromagnetic sensitivity”). “How To Work Out” leads John to the idea that we’re all putting on public performances all the time, as well to as a body building show, a series of strange interviews, giving a talk at his old college, and a pumpkin-growing competition. “How To Watch the Game” somehow leads John to a convention for people who collect vintage vacuum cleaners and what the items mean to them. “How To Watch Birds” leads to an exploration of the truth and why people lie, and a shocking twist at the end– which may indeed be another lie. Series finale “How To Track Your Package” eventually leads to a cryogenics company and the community that’s formed from its customers.
It’s not just a strange and funny show, though. Wilson’s ability to find some of society’s oddballs, or people committed to fringe ideas, beliefs, and practices, also carries a real human element with it– as strange as the people are, John Wilson never mocks them, but usually comes to an understanding of the universal human desires and needs that lead them to those things, and makes a thematic statement of such. How To with John Wilson is a hard show to describe because of its odd nature, another slightly twisted documentary / reality series. But it’s a great show not just because it’s funny– in the jokes, the strange characters, and how consistently far-afield Wilson goes from his original premise. It’s a great show because through all the madness, tangents, and flights of fancy, Wilson still manages to say something about the human condition and to connect even the strangest people he meets to the universal traits and needs of humanity. We won’t get any more of it, but How To with John Wilson gave us three seasons of one of the most unique and fascinating shows on the air.
15. Shoresy
Season 2
Hulu
Another great season of this unexpectedly terrific Letterkenny spinoff (“unexpectedly” in the sense that the Shoresy of Letterkenny shouldn’t work as a main character at all, but this version works great). Shoresy’s promise to revamp the team and “never lose again” has continued to hold, as now the Bulldogs are in position to run the table and have the NOSHO’s first ever undefeated season. Shoresy and Sanguinet have to guide the team through a number of challenges– keeping them focused being the biggest one, whether the distractions are calendar shoots or puck bunnies or the “disease of more.” Or just that the American team in the league, the Soo Hunt, might just be good enough to knock them off. And that’s when Shoresy’s not dealing with an overly officious league office or an obnoxious YouTube kid reporter.
The show continues with the same rapid-fire banter and the thrill and camaraderie of sport that it’s known for, and it continues to work great, being very funny while still getting the audience invested in rooting for the Sudbury Bulldogs. And as another article I read pointed out, while the show doesn’t draw attention to this, it’s also inverted a significant element of the typical sports story dynamic, in that the team bosses and league officials, all the people in positions of power, are women. (The women also generally have their shit together much better than the men.) Whether or not that means anything to you, though, there’s no doubt that Shoresy continues to be a whole lot of fun.
14. Solar Opposites
Season 4
Hulu
13. Rick and Morty
Season 7
[adult swim]
I’ve never written about these two shows in tandem before, as obvious a conceit as that seems, but this was the year they were both so good I couldn’t really separate them in quality. And, hey, let’s talk about their approaches to replacing Justin Roiland.
Solar Opposites doesn’t even pretend to find a Roiland imitator for Korvo, instead hiring Dan Stevens– a brilliant choice; he has a great time with the character, and Korvo’s uptight nature perfectly fits a British accent.
Rick and Morty of course went the sound-alike route, and honestly, I forgot altogether that the voice actors were new so often that if I didn’t know about anything behind the scenes, I probably wouldn’t have known at all.
But this isn’t an “achievement in replacement voice casting” ranking for either show. Solar Opposites didn’t lose a step with Roiland gone, still as funny as ever, with a lot of sci-fi adventurousness– even if Korvo and Terry start the season trying to tamp that down and be Normal Guys With Jobs for the Pupa’s sake. There’s some particularly terrific and clever plotting in “The Birth-A-Day Present,” and “The Stockiverse Ray” is the kind of concept for a sci-fi episode I wouldn’t have thought about but totally makes sense.
Solar Opposites takes its usual ventures outside the Opposites’ lives, too: There’s another Wall episode, and another episode following Glen, the neighbor the Opposites shot into space. The ship’s onboard computer AISHA even gets a featured episode as she ventures outside of the ship (I don’t remember how that works, but I assume it does) to start dating.
Rick and Morty, meanwhile, seems to have its old spark back. While there is an important runner through the season of Rick trying to track down the Rick Prime who killed his wife– and actually attempting to deal with his feelings around that loss, never mind the futility of revenge in general– it’s a lot more fun because by and large we’re back to clever and high-concept episodes, rather than that season 3-4 period of Rick being depressed and everybody yelling at him for being an asshole.
Among the better concepts: Rick attempts to swap minds with Jerry to prove a point, but ends up in a situation where we have two what might best be called “half-Rick, half-Jerry”s (see the photo above). The season finale’s concept of a hole that shows you your greatest fear is very well executed from both a plot and a character standpoint. Rick giving Summer an “attribute slider” is also something that seems like such a good idea I’m surprised the show didn’t use it before, even as the episode ultimately takes an entirely different direction. And in one episode, Rick actually dies on purpose to go to the afterlife and figure out how to harness it an an energy source.
Really, the only one I didn’t care much for was “Rise of the Numbericons: The Movie,” because it largely felt to me like “Let’s just do a Transformers riff but with letters and numbers instead of Autobots and Decepticons,” even considering that it is a callback picking up a story that was hinted at all the way back in season 2. But that said, the season on the whole was still very strong, and the return of Evil Morty– and Rick’s attempts to find closure on some of his many issues– were very satisfying as well.
Solar Opposites continued the high level of play it’s established throughout its run, and Rick and Morty was the most fun it’s been since season 2– maybe even season 1– and that’s why they’re both on here.
12. Letterkenny
Season 12
Hulu
Letterkenny‘s final season ended up being the best of the Hulu seasons. I think the knowledge it was the show’s last allowed the writers to give the season some more focused overall plotting– and an overall plot fitting for a final season.
The big running throughline of the final season is that several of the hicks are getting dissatisfied with their current lives and exploring the possibility of change. Squirrelly Dan is spending more and more time with the Mennonites. Katy just got back from a trip to Mexico and is wondering if a more permanent move there is in order. Even Wayne is feeling pressure from Rosie to move; she’s out on Vancouver Island and finding she’s much happier with life there than in Letterkenny.
But the biggest story is Daryl’s, as after feeling disrespected by the other hicks one too many times, “Dary” starts hanging out with the degens. Which, of course, can seem fun at first, until you see the kind of activities they get up to on a Saturday night.
Ultimately, of course, despite the distaste for degens and the hard feelings Wayne is having about Dary’s seeming betrayal (never mind the hard feelings about how everyone else is expressing interest in moving on), Wayne puts together a posse and rescues Dary, because when a friend asks for help, you help them.
We get some callbacks to the show’s earliest episodes, too, whether that’s Wayne and Tanis reminiscing about the donnybrook between the townspeople and natives in season 1, Pastor Glen and the skids trying to conceive of a new app after reminiscing about the success of Fartbook, or Stewart once again trying to throw a rave at the Ag Hall.
Letterkenny was still as funny as ever, and with the best stories it’s had since probably season 8, if not earlier, including some genuinely sweet moments (few things delight me in stories like dopey guys, in this case Reilly and Jonesy, trying to do something genuinely heartfelt). And in the end, it turns out, sometimes you don’t need to change your life; you just need a little break from your routine. Or, in Stewart’s case, you need to try something you’ve already done, but do it right this time.
This was a funny and big-hearted season for Letterkenny to say goodbye to us. Not that it’s strictly the end: Jared Keeso has a deal with Crave to make more episodes of Letterkenny spinoffs (including Shoresy), and at some point we’ll learn what those other shows will be.
And god damn it, Jim Dickens’ country song is catchy.
11. Telemarketers
Miniseries
HBO
A project decades in the making, Telemarketers began when creator Sam Lipman-Stern simply started filming the shenanigans at his teenage workplace. After dropping out of ninth grade, Sam got a job at Civic Development Group (CDG), which was a telemarketing fund-raising firm raising money on behalf of various police-related charities and funds… ostensibly. It turns out the vast majority of the money just gets kept by CDG executives, with only ten percent or so making it to the funds in question. The documentary starts with the crazy work shenanigans: CDG hires the kind of people who can’t get other work and won’t ask too many questions, and they’re happy to run a wild workplace full of ex-cons who are drinking and using or even dealing drugs on the job as long as they’re still making sales.
But eventually Sam gets pushed into looking into the nature of CDG and how much money they’re actually giving to the charities in question. He’s pushed in part by the man pictured above, Patrick J. Pespas. Pat is an ace salesman at the company despite having a criminal record and being a heroin addict (at one point, we actually see him nodding off during a call– and he still closes the sale).
But Pat’s got an innate decency and a crusader streak in him. He quickly befriends Sam, and eventually tells him his research into CDG has revealed that they keep the vast majority of the donations they solicit for themselves (“themselves” being the two pairs of brothers at the top of the company). Ultimately Pat pushes Sam to work together to uncover the truth about these “charity fundraiser” scams and expose them. Pat is the real heart of the documentary, as well as its most charismatic and captivating character, and without his tenacity and insistence, the investigation might never have gone on as long as it did– extending into the modern day, after CDG has been shut down but many other companies serving similar functions popping up in its place, finding more and more loopholes to get around the laws.
The documentary takes place over nearly two decades– from Sam’s original workplace films in 2001, to Sam and Pat’s final attempts to resume the investigation and reach the halls of power with their findings, in 2020– and it takes some unexpected, potentially heartbreaking twists along the way, while also exposing just how rotten this telemarketing industry is, how many of the police unions who use CDG and similar companies are in on the scam, and what they’ll do to protect their money machine. Telemarketers is a thrilling exposé that also unearths the kind of unexpectedly delightful character who only exists in real life and great fiction.
10. Jury Duty
Season 1
Amazon Freevee
And speaking of delightful people unearthed by an oddball quasi-documentary… Ronald Gladden was such a great fit for Jury Duty that I’ve already seen people surmise he must have been an actor and the whole thing was a put-on. I have no evidence for that, though.
The premise of Jury Duty is simple: One ordinary man is asked to be part of a documentary about jury trials… while the whole trial is fake, everyone else involved in it is an actor, and the goal is to see just how much outlandish shit Ronald will put up with and how far the rest of the cast can push things with him.
Ronald Gladden ends up being a great fit for this because he’s very empathetic and accepting of other people and game for anything. He’s able to roll with the outlandish situations, the ridiculous people– not least of whom is James Mardsen, as a really pompous douchebag version of himself– and tries his best to help wherever he can, whether that’s stepping up to be the jury foreman or doing his best to fulfill the increasingly outlandish and bizarre personal favors the other jurors ask of him.
The twists and turns of the “case” and of the other jurors’ behavior are a hoot– Marsden is, of course, particularly delightful in his role– but what’s really remarkable is how Ronald never seems fazed by any of it. No matter what’s going on, he does his best to fulfill his responsibilities as jury foreman, to make sure none of the facts of the case go overlooked, and to offer advice, a helping hand, or anything else he can do with the various, and ridiculous, problems his fellow jurors encounter. Genuinely hilarious and with a warm heart at its core, Jury Duty was a delightful surprise.
9. American Auto
Season 2
NBC
A massive, massive jump in quality from season 1, which had some individual elements that suggested a potentially really good show, but that hadn’t brought those elements together to realize its potential. Everything clicked in season 2, with a season-long plot, very funny situations, more specific writing for the characters, and greater use of Jon Barinholtz as Wesley, channeling a similar “eager and sincere yet still stupid and obnoxious frat bro” energy as he did as Marcus on Superstore. He even gets a legitimately heroic moment this season! In a just world, Barinholtz would be a legitimate Emmy contender for his performance here.
Creator Justin Spitzer and the writers seemed to really dial in on what makes their cast of characters tick and the kind of jokes and stories that work best for this show. I don’t know if it was the overarching plot they worked with or just a better understanding of the cast and better tailoring the comedy to the performers, but it worked really great. (Those performers also include Harriet Dyer, Tye White, Michael Benjamin Washington, Humphrey Ker, and X Mayo.)
At the end of season 1, CEO Katherine (Ana Gasteyer) put her job on the line to save the jobs of the rest of her team, with a promise to raise the stock price after a scandal where the company may have (did) cover up their knowledge of selling defective auto parts. Katherine and the team have to navigate the crisis while also launching another moonshot to try to save her job– the Pika, a car that can be sold for $10,000 new. (Do they have it yet? No. Does Katherine insist they can develop it? Yes.)
Among the adventures therein, and the hilarious screw-ups the C-suite’s out-of-touchness get themselves into, involve not only the press tour, but the Payne annual young designers contest at a local elementary school; a demand from a group of younger employees that Payne stop contributing to anti-abortion politicians (naturally, the group tasked to write Payne’s abortion policies are all men); a dealer event where Katherine and the rest have to sell dealers on the Pika; and the death and funeral of Payne Motors founder Franklin Payne, Wesley’s grandfather, and the farce of the team navigating the Payne heirs’ desire to sell their shares (which flips back and forth between “don’t sell because it’ll tank the stock price” and “we found a buyer at a high enough price that you should, in fact, sell”).
Like so many shows that came out of the branches of The Office tree (although, oddly, not Superstore, Spitzer’s last show), American Auto needed a season to work out the kinks and dial in on where it could be potentially great. And the creative team responded in season 2 like gangbusters, making this a worthy successor to Superstore for Justin Spitzer. Sadly, the quality of comedy on display was still not enough to get the ratings needed to save the show. But we’ll always have this season of American Auto, the best network sitcom of 2023.
8. Party Down
Season 3
Amazon Prime
All right, admittedly, it wasn’t quite at the quality of the first two seasons. But it was still quite good. (I mean, “at the quality of the first two seasons” would be an automatic top-3 spot here.) We only got six episodes with the return of the Party Down gang– and minus Lizzy Caplan, sadly– but there was still a lot of comedy in those episodes, as the rest of the gang is back with two new caterers in tow– Tyrel Jackson Williams (Charles on Brockmire) as aspiring influencer Sackson, and Susan Song as the new chef Pam, whose approach to cuisine reminds me of this Dilbert cartoon.
The pilot sets up Kyle’s return to Party Down, as his franchise-action-movie role gets nabbed away from him thanks to social media and someone sharing Karma Rocket’s performance of “My Struggle” in the season 2 finale. Henry is working as a high school drama teacher and needs the extra money for alimony. Roman and Ron, of course, wouldn’t fit in anywhere else. (Leave it to Ron to finally buy Party Down Catering outright right before the pandemic– requiring a bailout from Constance to stay in business.)
A studio executive and movie producer, Evie (Jennifer Garner), takes a shine to Henry– particularly after Party Down caters her actor boyfriend’s surprise birthday party and he shows up with another woman. (The boyfriend, Jack Botty, is played by James Marsden, putting him on today’s article twice.) She ends up just hanging out at the team’s events for a few episodes, which is the kind of “Why is she always there?” question a nerd might ask that’s easily answered with “Have you seen the typical level of professionalism at Party Down Catering?”
The show even uses the limited run to explore what’s been going on in everyone’s lives away from Party Down. Lydia’s daughter Escapade has become both successful and surprisingly well-adjusted (although Kaitlyn Dever has been replaced with Liv Hewson– but they’re both great, so I don’t mind), and Lydia hires Party Down to throw a prom-themed promotional event for her latest movie, hoping to give Escapade at least one slice of a normal teenage upbringing (albeit that she is 23 now). And the season finale takes place at the afterparty for Henry’s drama class’ spring play opening night.
The show suffers a bit from losing Lizzy Caplan’s dynamite chemistry with Adam Scott, and Jane Lynch and Megan Mullally aren’t in it nearly as much as we’d hope. And not every episode is a winner– the third episode, where Ron takes a job catering a symposium for an alt-right group, does surprisingly little with the premise. And the new cast members aren’t as well-integrated as they could be– particularly Song, as Williams gets some better storylines in the second half of the season. But by and large, the writing is still as sharp as ever, Ken Marino is still a physical-comedy genius, the original cast is perfect, and it’s close enough to the level of the original Party Down to be well worth the time.
Come back tomorrow for the seven best shows of 2023!