With 2017 coming to a close, there are a lot of reasons to feel not-great about the year. But if you focus solely on pop culture—and on television specifically—this has been a banner year for diversity, with a ton of the year's most beloved shows so far focusing either on women or non-white protagonists (just look at the Emmy noms and winners). Progressive wins aside, Peak TV is very much here to stay. There is so much good television happening, but we've whittled our list down to the true essentials of the year.
American Gods
Bryan Fuller—previously of Hannibal and Pushing Daisies fame—is pretty much incapable of making anything other than visionary, joyously eccentric, singular television, and his Starz adaptation of Neil Gaiman's beloved fantasy novel is no exception. Ravishing, visceral, and exquisitely beautiful, American Gods chronicles the brewing war between Old Gods (based on mythology) and New Gods (based on contemporary obsessions like celebrity, money, and technology), through the lens of a grief-stricken ex-con (Ricky Whittle) who becomes bodyguard to a mysterious conman named Mr. Wednesday (Ian McShane).
Buy Season 1, $13, amazon.com. Stream
Alias Grace
The year’s second Margaret Atwood adaptation seemed to get lost in the peak TV shuffle, which sees a new show drop on Netflix every week. But make time for this six-part miniseries, a searing criticism of patriarchal society (sound familiar?) embedded within a real-life murder mystery. The faithful adaptation pulls straight from Atwood's book, a fictionalized account of an 1843 double homicide in Canada centered around the "celebrated murderess” charged with the crime—a young Irish immigrant and servant girl named Grace Marks. Her story grabs hold from its opening sequence, which depicts Grace (an excellent Sarah Gadon) assessing herself in a mirror as she recalls the conflicting reports of her personality described in the press through the years, mimicking each description with her face as her voiceover asks, "How can I be all these different things at once?" It’s an astounding piece of acting, and an irresistible promise of what's to come. —Julie Kosin
Watch on Netflix.
Better Call Saul
Season 3 of Breaking Bad’s tragicomic prequel got off to a moderate start even by the slow-burn standards of BCS, with Jimmy (Bob Odenkirk) seemingly stalled in his journey from decent guy to sleazeball Saul Goodman. While the introduction of Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito) injected a little adrenaline early on, and Rhea Seehorn’s fascinating Kim continued to expand her role, it took until the midway point for the season’s masterful arc to really become clear, as Jimmy’s feud with his once-beloved elder brother Chuck (Michael McKean) builds toward a stunningly dark conclusion.
Buy Season 3, $15, amazon.com. Stream
Big Little Lies
Co-produced by stars Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman, HBO's high-pedigree miniseries initially looked like a delicious combo of catty suburban satire and brutal murder mystery. But as the series developed, its characters deepened—Witherspoon as the queen bee struggling for control, Kidman as the best friend whose seemingly charmed life belies an abusive marriage, Shailene Woodley as the new mom in town running from a trauma in her past. Big Little Lies became a thrillingly rich character drama, the twists of its plot paling in comparison to the shifting dynamics between complex women who, crucially, have each other's backs.
Buy Season 1, $14, amazon.com. Stream
The Bold Type
One of summer’s most unexpected pleasures was Freeform’s fresh, gutsy and all-around delightful dramedy about three young women fighting to establish themselves in the magazine business. At a time when too many shows default to the tired “frenemy” dynamic in lieu of actual female friendship, the bond between The Bold Type’s Jane, Kat, and Sutton is a breath of fresh air. Plus, the show consistently bucked expectations, exploring sex, politics, and professional life with an absence of cliché and a rare lightness of touch.
Buy Season 1, $10, amazon.com. Stream
The Crown
The second outing of The Crown could’ve so easily faltered following a near-flawless first season, and a slow start—three episodes recounting a rocky period in Elizabeth (Claire Foy) and Philip’s (Matt Smith) marriage as scandal envelops his secretary’s family—felt like cause for concern. But the show bounced back and then some in the ensuing seven episodes, balancing the fascinating highs and lows of the second decade of Elizabeth's reign with Philip’s back story and the hypnotic chemistry between Princess Margaret (Vanessa Kirby, criminally underused) and her future husband, the photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones (a slinky, devastatingly sexy Matthew Goode). We just wish we had more time with this standout group before a new cast, led by Olivia Colman, steps in for Season 3. —Julie Kosin
Watch on Netflix.
Feud: Bette and Joan
With its first run, Ryan Murphy's latest FX anthology series, Feud, proved it's about more than catty, ripped-from-the-headlines adaptations of famous beefs. Chronicling the infamous rivalry between silver-screen stars Bette Davis and Joan Crawford in the twilight of their careers, the season boasted two of the year's strongest performances in Susan Sarandon and Jessica Lange and consistently went beyond the surface to probe the insecurities and human tragedy behind the Hollywood legends.
Buy Season 1, $15, amazon.com. Stream
Dear White People
A sharp-tongued and devastatingly insightful satire about the dynamics of race in so-called liberal settings, Dear White People is a triumphant TV translation of the Sundance breakout from 2014. Adapted by the movie's writer-director Justin Simien and featuring a few returning cast members, the show takes place at a predominantly white Ivy League college where radio host Sam (Logan Browning) stirs controversy when she debuts a show taking aim at white privilege. Following the interweaving lives of several students on campus, the show features an array of powerhouse directors, including Moonlight's Barry Jenkins, and an innovative format that ensures no two consecutive episodes ever feel quite alike—each installment taking on a distinct visual style according to its POV character.
Watch on Netflix.
The Handmaid’s Tale
As you're doubtless sick of hearing by now, The Handmaid's Tale is the most frighteningly timely story of 2017, despite being based on Margaret Atwood's 1985 novel. Set in a dystopian near-future in which America has fallen under a fundamentalist dictatorship and women's rights have been abolished, Offred (Elisabeth Moss) fights to survive and maintain her sanity while enslaved as a "Handmaid" in the household of a military commander. In an era where sexual assault and anti-abortion rhetoric have reached the highest office in the land, the show is at times near-unbearable to watch because it's so close to the bone—but it's also very simply one of the most cinematic, articulate, and exquisitely-performed dramas of the year.
Watch on Hulu.
The Keepers
As Netflix's buzziest true-crime docuseries since Making A Murderer, The Keepers had some big shoes to fill. Those shoes were filled, and then some, by this haunting chronicle of the decades-old unsolved murder of a nun which may or may not have been covered up by the Catholic Church. Though the murder mystery is extraordinarily gripping, it's the compassion with which director Ryan White tells her story—through conversations with family, friends, journalists, and government officials—that gives The Keepers its stunning power.
Watch on Netflix.
The Leftovers
Wildly ambitious yet emotionally specific, Damon Lindelof's high-concept HBO drama bowed out with a characteristically exhilarating season that bewildered in all the best ways. Beginning with the spontaneous disappearance of two percent of the world's population—a freak incident taken by some as religious, others as apocalyptic—the show used Tom Perrotta's novel as a jumping-off point for its thrilling exploration of faith, dread, and how people bear loss that should be unbearable. There's a power to the show that's hard to encapsulate in words, and this evocative final run cemented The Leftovers as one of the Peak TV greats.
Buy Season 3, $20, amazon.com. Stream
Legion
Fargo creator Noah Hawley’s superhero adaptation set in a psych ward is technically in the X-Men universe, but has very little to do with the blockbuster world of the movie series. Playing on the ambiguity of whether its protagonist David (Dan Stevens) is suffering from schizophrenia or developing superpowers, Legion is one of the most surreal, daring, visually innovative new shows of the year.
Buy Season 1, $15, amazon.com. Stream
Mary Kills People
Think of this Canadian Lifetime drama as a less blood-soaked, more ethically-grounded Dexter, starring one of the year's most compelling new female leads. Caroline Dhavernas gives a fascinating performance as Mary, a doctor whose side hustle—providing off-the-books assisted suicide to terminally ill patients—begins to blur uncomfortably into her daily life. The show's savvy, complex moral drama is laced through with perfectly-pitched black humor, and despite fairly low ratings, its critical acclaim was enough to score a Season 2 pickup, so this is the perfect time to catch up.
Buy Season 1, $7, amazon.com. Stream
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Amy Sherman-Palladino's vivid and vivacious new Amazon series brought all of the quirky, fast-talking, subtly feminist spirit you know and love from Gilmore Girls, but thrown into the context of a sumptuously0rendered 1950s New York. Rachel Brosnahan gives a star-making central performance as the title character Midge, a housewife who puts all her energy into propping up her much-less-talented husband, an aspiring comic—until her perfectly constructed world crumbles overnight, and she realizes she has a knack for standup herself. One of the year’s truly unmitigated pleasures.
Watch Season 1 on Amazon Prime. Stream
Master of None
Aziz Ansari's semi-autobiographical Netflix comedy followed up its confident first season with a more formally adventurous run. Whatever your feelings on Dev's divisive will-they-won't-they arc with Italian beauty Francesca, it's impossible to deny the strength of the season's standalone episodes: one chronicling a series of Tinder-era first dates with painful insight, another focusing on Denise's (Lena Waithe) coming out story, and a third moving away from Dev entirely to tell the stories of a few everyday New Yorkers.
Watch on Netflix.
The Punisher
Jon Bernthal’s grief-stricken vigilante Frank Castle was an instant standout in Daredevil’s second season, and his solo show is one of the most compelling and satisfying Marvel/Netflix efforts yet. Through Castle’s efforts to finally avenge the murders of his wife and children, The Punisher tells an effective horror story about the military and the dual trauma suffered by veterans: first the combat, then the homecoming. Bernthal’s soulful performance anchors the show, and he’s backed up by a rich supporting cast and sharp, emotive writing from creator Steve Lightfoot (Hannibal).
Watch on Netflix.
Queen Sugar
Season 2 of OWN's family drama—about the three Bordelon siblings and their late father's sugarcane farm—manages to improve upon its standout first, incorporating pressing current issues with a focus on nuances, from tender moments between a recovering addict and her son to a candid portrayal of trauma following a young black man's run-in with a cop. Queen Sugar is unafraid to tackle the reality of this complicated family's life with honesty, and that's why it's one of the most important, relevant shows on TV right now. —Julie Kosin
Buy Season 2, $30, amazon.com. Stream
Stranger Things
When a show becomes a phenomenon as swiftly and unexpectedly as Stranger Things did last year, the risk of a sophomore slump is high. But the Duffer brothers exceeded every expectation with a second season that delivered all the nostalgic thrills you could want, but focused less on the mysteries of Hawkins and more on the emotional dynamics of the show’s now-beloved cast. The slow development of Hopper (David Harbour) and Eleven’s (Millie Bobby Brown) father-daughter relationship was flawless, as was the addition of Sadie Sink’s Max, the expanded role of Will (Noah Schnapp), and the glorious redemption of Steve (Joe Keery).
Watch on Netflix.
Silicon Valley
HBO’s pinpoint-precise sendup of tech culture has never really had a bad run, but its fourth season made a few bolder character choices that paid off, deviating slightly from the show's well-worn patterns. With Richard (Thomas Middleditch) veering into morally dubious territory for the first time after years of thankless decency, the group dynamics shift in ways that are as unexpected as they are funny—Jared's (Zach Woods) unwavering loyalty to Richard is tested for the first time, while T. J. Miller's Erlich makes a startling exit and Kumail Nanjiani gets a glorious spotlight episode in which Dinesh briefly becomes CEO of Pied Piper and immediately transforms into a douche. For a show that has often risked repetitiveness—the gang gets a break, then either gets screwed over or self-sabotages, rinse and repeat—this felt like a crucial season.
Buy Season 4, $15, amazon.com. Stream
This Is Us
Having already become the major network success story of 2016, NBC's heartstring-tugging family drama returned even stronger following its winter break. Focusing on Sterling K. Brown's Randall was the best move Dan Fogelman and his writers could have made; the character's quiet spiral into a nervous breakdown was played with devastating precision, as was his nuanced dynamic with his terminally-ill biological father (Ron Cephas Jones). The cracks beginning to show in Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) and Rebecca's (Mandy Moore) way-too-perfect marriage also made things more gripping, layering on the heartbreak as the show continues to dance around Jack's mysterious death. Season 2 expanded on and enriched these storylines, capping off its 2017 run with three powerful episodes focusing on each of the Pearson siblings through some of the most trying moments of their lives.
Buy Season 1, $15, and Season 2, $20, amazon.com. Stream
Emma Dibdin is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles who writes about culture, mental health, and true crime. She loves owls, hates cilantro, and can find the queer subtext in literally anything.
