My 2017 Year in Review listed the top books, movies and television programs watched in 2017 with longer write ups of those lists being published … well, now. Here are the top television programs I watched last year, complete with a couple honorable mentions.
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
seasons 1 & 2
Watched on: Netflix
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend has been on my radar ever since the good people at Pop Culture Happy Hour exclaimed their praise for it. I didn’t watch it until a couple of my friends started raving about it in our group chat.
Crazy Ex is a musical comedy about Rebecca Bloom, a lawyer who moves from New York to California to chase a guy she briefly dated at summer camp in her youth. Despite the title and premise, this show has everything I could ever want in a show: meta comedy, empowered women who are friends, adorable dudes and really, really catchy songs. I love it even at its worst.
The Expanse
season 1 & 2
Watched on: *ahem* hrmmm …
The Expanse is based off the book series of the same name by James S. A. Corey, the pen name of Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck. While, at this point, my experience with the books was touchy at best, I somehow got the urge to watch it in my final months in New Zealand. So I watched it when I settled into my new home in the U.S.
The Expanse follows the crew of the spaceship Rocinante, the sole survivors of an ice hauler that was destroyed while investigating a stranded ship in the orbit of Jupiter. They attempt to discover the mystery behind the ice hauler’s death, and fall into a conspiracy that spans the entire solar system. The Expanse is fast-paced, addicting and features awesome characters you can’t help but fall in love with.
GLOW
season 1
Watched on: Netflix
A fictional retelling of a real event, GLOW is about women who start wrestling in the 1980s. The central characters are best friends whose friendship is ruined because of an affair, and then almost fixed because of wrestling. So we have a complicated relationship between two women, feminist leanings, a period drama in the 1980s and engaging characters. For me, the only thing it’s missing is an 80s-themed sci-fi setting. I didn’t even mention how much I love the music (by the way, I love the music).
The Good Place
season 1
Watched on: Netflix
Michael Shur, the creator of Parks and Recreation and Brooklyn 99, takes a turn at the philosophical and surreal with The Good Place. Eleanor Shellstrop is dead and accidentally placed in the good place instead of the bad place. She must pretend to be a good person in order to stay.
The Good Place has the whimsical art direction that calls to mind Pushing Daisies. Complete with lovable characters and an ongoing theme that being a good person takes work, I saw the whole thing in a single day. I had spoiled the Big Reveal in the final episode for myself before I even watched it, but that did not detract from my experience. Like his other shows, Shur’s latest gets bonus points for re-watchability.
Stranger Things 2
Watched on: Netflix
Stranger Things 2 continues to call back to 1980s Stephen King novels. Like all sequels, it is not as strong as it’s prequel. The first half is slow, carried by the character’s navigating their real world problems, with a sudden spike in interest happening after the new staff at the science lab get involved. We finally see Will interacting with his friends, and then we don’t see enough of Eleven (we may never see enough of Eleven). The unexpected fan favorite is awarded to Steven Harrington, who grows out of his douchebaggery and becomes the unwitting babysitter to a litter of adventurous adolescents.
Honorable Mentions
Game of Thrones, season 7 | I don’t watch Game of Thrones for a myriad of reasons I won’t list here. I watched the latest season (without watching anything else, using my knowledge from cultural osmosis to carry me through) because I heard about the Danaerys Targaryan/Jon Snow ship becoming canon, and I wanted to see that play out. While that by itself was disappointing, the rest of the show was pretty good.
The Crown | My mom and I don’t have a lot in common in terms of pop culture preferences, but we can agree on period dramas. The Crown is one such drama. Episodic and epic in nature, The Crown details a life and times of Queen Elizabeth II shortly before and after her ascension to the throne.
This is Us | To be honest, I wouldn’t have picked up this show if my roommates weren’t such big fans of it. But now we watch it every week, them more religiously than me, and I enjoy watching the drama play out. It’s pretty masterful, the fact that every episode has some sort of Big Dramatic Reveal that keeps the viewers surprised and wanting more. It’s only an honorable mention because I haven’t seen every single episode so far, just what I catch with my roommates.
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