Hello folks! 2020 has been a crazy year, and now that it’s over, we here at Reel Heels wanted to share our favorite tv shows and movies with you. In this post, you’ll get to read about my 15 favorite shows. Of course, there are a ton of television shows, and I don’t get to watch everything so if your favorite show was left out, don’t worry, there is a good chance that I haven’t watched it or am working to catch up. So with that in mind, let’s get to the list!
15: Tiger King
Oh, Tiger King. What a simpler time it was when we all watched Joe Exotic and Carole Baskin and their big cat rivalry. While this isn’t the greatest thing ever made by a long shot, it was certainly one of the most entertaining and wide spanning pieces of media this year due to the real life drama and half baked criminal ideas presented here. This docuseries provided some comfort at the beginning of the pandemic because as crazy as our world had become, it couldn’t be quite as crazy as it was for these characters.
14: Perry Mason
HBO’s gritty reimagining of the classic 50’s show certainly isn’t your grandfather’s version of Perry Mason, because this one certainly goes to a darker place than its predecessor. Matthew Rhys, Tatiana Maslany, Stephen Root, and John Lithgow all give fine performances, but I couldn’t help but feel that this was a season long pilot episode given how many threads ultimately don’t matter to the resolution of the story. With that said, I enjoyed it and am curious to see where a second season would go now that we got where we needed to be.
13: Saturday Night Live
One of the reasons I’m ranking SNL up here is because they were able to pull off multiple at home episodes in the early stages of the pandemic. They were thrown a curve, and were able to pick up and still produce some solid shows. Another reason is that this year featured a number of great hosts: Adam Driver, Chris Rock, Bill Burr, John Mulaney (twice), and the always great Dave Chappelle among others. While there are always sketches that miss the mark, there were some pretty solid ones as well. And now that Jim Carrey gave Biden back to the cast and Alec Baldwin should* be pretty much done with Trump, maybe we can get back to utilizing the existing cast a little more than in the past few years.
12: Fargo
After three years away from our televisions, Fargo returned for a fourth season. While the comeback wasn’t quite as glorious as many of us had hoped, there were still some fun moments and generally good casting (personal favorites included Ben Whishaw as Rabbi Mulligan, Timothy Olyphant as Dick “Deafy” Wickware, and Glynn Turman as Doctor Senator. Fargo always knew how to have great character names). While some felt Chris Rock and Jason Schwartzman weren’t quite up to the task, I thought they were both generally solid. My biggest criticism of the season was that there wasn’t a real moral center trying to work against the criminal element (previous iterations in the Fargo world: Molly and Lou Solverson, Gloria Burgle, and the movie original, Marge Gunderson) and that gave us no one to really get behind throughout. While this season wasn’t as great as Fargo can be, there was still enough that I enjoyed it, and if there is a season 5, I still believe it can deliver.
11: Brooklyn Nine-Nine
This season of Brooklyn Nine Nine had many standouts. A year long Halloween heist, a marvelous episode with JK Simmons, Vanessa Bayer being the nicest dirty cop of all time, the bachelor party of the Pontiac Bandit, Adrien Pimento having a Memento storyline, and Captain Holt having a badass 80’s movie career. Of course, the biggest moment of the season is the pregnancy and birth storyline of Jake and Amy’s baby. This show is still one of the funniest and best sitcoms on tv, and I’m hoping there is more Nine Nine in our futures soon.
10: Rick and Morty
The first half of the latest season of Rick and Morty aired in 2019, with the back half coming in 2020. This featured some of the classic Rick and Morty hijinks we know and love, such as the story train literally turning into an ad for a story train toy, which they said was available for purchase but actually wasn’t, a world populated by Alien-esque facehuggers, a Star Wars type episode, and the highlight, the vat of acid episode. You never know exactly where a Rick and Morty episode is going to go, but it’s always something fun and exciting. Hopefully we have a shorter wait for the next season as opposed to usual, but who knows!
9: BoJack Horseman
This season of BoJack was split in two halves, which made it longer than usual, but it certainly didn’t make it diminish in quality. This show has always been able to toe the line of humor and sadness extremely well, going from one to the other at the drop of a hat. I know it’s redundant to say at this point, but it is truly amazing that a show about a horse who is a washed up tv star is one of the most poignant, thought provoking shows on tv that is constantly underrated. The last three episodes (The View from Halfway Down in particular) were some of the best episodes I saw all year.
8: The Boys
So I was a little late to this show and watched both seasons this year, but I’m only discussing the second season here. The Boys is a fascinating look into a world where superheroes are real and they are terrible people who abuse their powers and are uninterested in actually doing good, outside of scoring points with the media and the general population, while a team of non super powered people (the Boys themselves) try to stand up against them. It’s also one of the most profane, vulgar, violent, and hilarious shows I can remember watching in recent years. The cast is great with Karl Urban playing the leader of the Boys, Billy Butcher, and Antony Starr playing our universe’s Superman with a galaxy’s worth of issues, Homelander. This show may not appeal to everyone, but I found it to be a bloody good time, and if you like superheroes and don’t mind a rated R take on them, check out The Boys.
7: The Clone Wars
This is another show I caught up on during the pandemic, but will again only be reviewing the final season. After a six season run on Cartoon Network that ended in 2014, most people probably assumed that we had seen the last of The Clone Wars, but Disney+ gave us a seventh (and final) season, and thank goodness that they did because this was one of the best pieces of Star Wars content we had ever had. The first four episodes introduce and focus on The Bad Batch, who will be getting their own spinoff on Disney+ soon, the next four follow Ashoka Tano in her days since being expelled from the Jedi order, and the final four give us the events of Revenge of the Sith from the point of view of Ashoka and Captain Rex, along with some other familiar faces. Honestly, if those four episodes were a movie, they would have ranked very highly on my movie list as well. It’s no secret to Star Wars fans that Dave Filoni has been making some amazing content (more on him later), but he certainly gave us a fitting ending to what turned out to be one of the greatest additions to the Star Wars universe.
6: Schitt’s Creek
This is another series I caught up on during quarantine, and certainly one of my favorites. There isn’t much I can say about this show that hasn’t been said already, especially following its sweep at this year’s Emmy awards, but it’s an amazing feat for a show to go from a low budget, small cast show like this to one of the most talked about and acclaimed series in recent memory. That’s in large part to the performances of the cast (Catherine O’Hara and Eugene Levy are long-time favorites of mine, and Dan Levy is certainly on the rise as well), and the way they can combine humor and heart. Not many shows can have a happy ending as happy as this one did, but it certainly is a show that left its mark on its fans and the tv landscape in general.
5: The Good Place
It seems so long ago in this Jeremy Bearimy of a year that the final four episodes of the Good Place aired, but we had the conclusion of one of my favorite sitcoms in recent memory, and what a conclusion it was. From the stellar performances by the cast (Kristen Bell, D’Arcy Carden, and William Harper Jackson are all so wonderful, and lets not forget tv legend Ted Danson) and surprise cameos (Timothy Olyphant! Nick Offerman! Lisa Kudrow!) to the typical great humor and contemplations on ethics and philosophy, these four episodes were as strong as any in the show’s run. While it was sad to see this show come to an end, it was as satisfying a finale as any show I can remember. This is a show I am going to miss, but I’m very thankful for the run that it had. Take it sleazy.
4: What We Do in the Shadows
The final inclusion of shows I caught up on during quarantine, What We Do in the Shadows was my favorite of that list that was eligible for inclusion. Inspired by the Taika Waititi film of the same name, it follows a group of vampires who live together. The first season was already really great but this season went above and beyond. This show has one of the funniest ensembles on television, with any of the five main characters making a claim for the funniest character on the show at any given moment. Personal favorite episodes include Colin’s Promotion, The Curse and Nouveau Theatre des Vampires, but the absolute peak this season was On the Run, which introduced us to Jim the Vampire and Jackie Daytona, regular human bartender. This series is absolutely worth watching, so if you haven’t seen it yet, add it to the list immediately
3: The Last Dance
In a time where the pandemic had shut down sports across the country, ESPN gave us a gift by moving up its 10-part documentary series about the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls, and for two hours every Sunday for five consecutive Sundays, it was the best thing on television. It gave us a comprehensive look at Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, Phil Jackson, Steve Kerr, other key members of the Bulls during the 90’s, and the players and teams that stood in their way to six championships. MJ is my personal GOAT (with LeBron a close 2nd), and this series showed how his competitiveness drove him to greatness (and how he still holds a grudge with any slight, real or perceived). If you are a sports fan, a basketball fan, or even just a fan of great television, make sure you watch this soon. You will be glad you did.
2: The Mandalorian
SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. Season 1 of the first live action Star Wars television series was something that captured the hearts and minds of people across the country, but season 2 took that and went the next step with it. We had so many great moments connecting the universe, such as new characters (Timothy Olyphant once more!), characters from season one (Cara Dune! Fennec Shand! Moff Gideon!), our first live action look at characters from the animated series (Bo-Katan! Ashoka Tano! The name drop of Thrawn!), and characters from the original trilogy (Boba Fett! R2-D2! LUKE SKYWALKER!). We got more info about our existing characters, such as Baby Yoda is actually named Grogu! In addition to all the fan service, we just got a compelling space western with gratifying action scenes, heartfelt emotion, humor, and everything else a great Star Wars story should be. Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni are both doing amazing work with these characters and this universe, not to mention all the other directors and crew and the actors who bring this show to life. Wherever we go in season 3, I am more than happy to go along for the ride.
1: Better Call Saul
My top show of the year belongs to Better Call Saul, the spin-off to one of the greatest shows ever, Breaking Bad. It’s amazing to say, but Saul is in the rarified class of spin-off that is as compelling as the original show, and if you knew just how highly I think of Breaking Bad, you’d realize what a compliment that is. Bob Odenkirk continues to shine as everyone’s favorite criminal lawyer, and of course Jonathan Banks and Giancarlo Esposito are amazing in their roles as well, but this season belonged to Rhea Seehorn, who I felt gave the single best performance on tv this year. The final half of episodes this season were as good as anything I remember seeing on tv in a long time, with Bad Choice Road being a particular standout. When all is said and done, Better Call Saul will go down as one of the greatest (and least appreciated) television shows of all time.
So there you have it! My top 15 shows of 2020. Admittedly there are a few I didn’t get to that I have heard are very good (The Queen’s Gambit, The Crown, Ted Lasso, Dave), and there were some shows I watched that don’t qualify (Fleabag being the most prominent), but hopefully you enjoyed this list. We may disagree on rankings but that’s totally ok! Make sure to check out my movie rankings, along with Jason’s tv and movie rankings. Until next time, stay safe, and enjoy whatever it is you enjoy!