The Best TV Shows of 2018

"What do you mean you haven't watched [insert any show here]?"

We don’t know if you know, but, umm, there’s a lot of TV being made.

jk. Not only do we know you know, but we’re certain much of the anxiety you feel today can be directly attributed to all the people telling you how you have to watch all these shows, and now.

It’s impossible to keep up. Some of these shows don’t even sound real. Like, what is Bosch and how are there four seasons of it? And what is this thing on Netflix called The Kominsky Method that was just nominated for (*checks notes*) three Golden Globe awards?!

Anyway, all of this is to say we can’t have been expected to watch all the TV before ranking our faves. But rank them we have! I apologise in advance for not having watched the latest season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel or the last eps of The Americans. That doesn’t mean the shows below don’t deserve to be celebrated for doing amazing things in 2018. You have to watch them all, and now.

Honourable Mentions:

Homecoming (Amazon Prime Video), Better Call Saul (Foxtel), The Good Fight (Stan), Bojack Horseman (Netflix), Arrested Development (Foxtel), Brooklyn Nine-Nine (SBS/Netflix) and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (Netflix), with an honourable mention to Hannah Gadsby’s world-devouring, paradigm-shattering stand-up special Nanette (Netflix), and Westworld (Foxtel), if only for this Wu-Tang Clan/Shogun mash-up:

Now, onto the Top 10!

10. Big Mouth

Watch it on: Netflix. The filthiest show on television is also somehow the sweetest, and in Season 2, Big Mouth grew up (but not too much) to focus more on shame, female puberty, growing up gay and depression. There was also a naked musical sequence about body positivity and Maya Rudolph’s Hormone Monstress saying "bubble bath" in various pleasing ways.

9. Killing Eve

Watch it on: ABC iView. There’s so much to like about Killing Eve. There’s Sandra Oh, your fave, as an unpredictable and wily MI5 agent. There’s Jodie Comer, your new fave, as an even more unpredictable and wilier assassin. And there’s showrunner Phoebe Waller-Bridge (AKA Fleabag), providing this delicious cat-and-mouse procedural a uniquely female lens. Mostly, it earns a place on this list for the following GIF:

8. Barry

Watch it on: Foxtel. Another assassin. This time, Saturday Night Live’s Bill Hader is the hitman, and he’s trying to exit the profession to chase his dream of becoming an actor. In the process, Hader gives one of the year’s funniest but also most heartbreaking performances, for which he earned an Emmy. Henry Winkler also won an Emmy for playing Barry’s teacher. Maybe next year Noho Hank can get some love?

7. Counterpart

Watch it on: SBS on Demand. They finally cast J.K. Simmons as the sexy espionage agent we always knew he could be. (Correction: they cast him as two sexy espionage agents.) Besides that nugget of info, go in to Counterpart knowing as little as possible (mostly because the premise makes it sound ridic).

6. GLOW

Watch it on: Netflix. GLOW wrestled with #MeToo in Season 2, as Ruth (Alison Brie) was cornered into a distressing casting couch situation. Meanwhile, Debbie (Betty Gilpin) plumbed greater emotional depths as her life continued to fall apart, while ever-chipper Bash (Chris Lowell) faced devastation. This, all in the series based on the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling of the 1980s (in a season where we got to see an entire, outrageous episode of the show-within-a-show). I was knocked-out by its achievements.

5. The Good Place

Watch it on: Netflix. This season took place in Australia and, in case you hadn’t noticed, we really appreciated that.

4. Maniac

Watch it on: Netflix. I was a great admirer of Maniac’s audacious storytelling, its masterful filmmaking, its bold performances, but above all, its many diverse wigs. Now, please enjoy this dance scene with no additional context.

3. Sharp Objects

Watch it on: Foxtel. There were a lot of nightmarish movies this year, from Mandy to Suspiria to Hereditary. But the only thing that actually gave me nightmares in 2018 was the final scene of Sharp Objects, the limited series starring Amy Adams as a troubled journalist investigating a series of murders in her old home town. Wounds are reopened, literally and figuratively, and it all builds to a chilling final line followed by the most horrifying montage of the year. So, good luck with that.

2. Succession

Watch it on: Foxtel. Of all the years to root for a disgustingly wealthy New York family as they squabble for power, yeah, this wasn’t it. That just doubly proves how good Succession’s first season was, as it highlighted the grotesque and Machiavellian power plays of the "fictional" Roy fam with unblinking dark comedy, (It was created by Veep’s Jesse Armstrong and partly directed by Adam McKay of The Big Short and Anchorman.) Special mention to the failing-upwards duo of the year, Cousin Greg and Tom.

1. Atlanta

Watch it on: iTunes. Television’s strangest show got even stranger. (Two words: Teddy. Perkins.) And yet, Atlanta remains a visceral and deeply affecting show about real, human desperation, with Donald Glover’s Earn spending the whole second season slowly realising what he needs to sacrifice if he wants to make that money. Zazie Beetz, Brian Tyree Henry and Lakeith Stanfield’s Van, Alfred and Darius, respectively, all go on spiritual journeys themselves, through the increasingly horrifying terrain of the Peach State. Fact is, the only reason this gets nominated as a comedy at award shows is because they don’t have a category for "Nightmarish Phantasmagorias of the Hip-Hop Industry". Either way, call it robbin’ season, because Atlanta just stole this whole damn list.

Header Image: FX / HBO / Netflix