and lows (Marvel’s Inhumans).
BEST 1.
GLOW
Women dress like spandex cartoon characters and pretend to fight each other.
Erica Parise/Netflix; Karen Neal/ABC; George Kraychyk/Hulu; Suzanne Tenner/SHOWTIME
They barely know how to wrestle.
They live in a runty motel up in the Valley.
Their director is a fading B-cult never-was.
Erica Parise/Netflix
Their producer is some Malibu millionaire, his robot carries cocaine.
The star was on some soap opera awhile ago.
He’s almost right: It’s the silliest, smartest, greatest TV event of the year.
Suzanne Tenner/SHOWTIME
He’s assembling the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, and the wonder ofGLOWis how generously it builds its ensemble.
by pushing them to the hyperbolic extreme.
ButGLOW’s genius is how the goofy, candy-crazy grandeur of the whole endeavor becomes an empowering triumph.
Hilary Bronwyn Gayle/HBO
These women are building a community and declaring ownership over their own selves.
She’s matched by walking revelation Betty Gilpin, who plays Ruth’s best friend/nemesis/costar Debbie.
“It’s like I’m back in my body,” she says.
Colleen Hayes/NBC
“I’m using it for me, and I feel like a goddamn superhero.”
Like any true work of art,GLOWseemed uncannily tapped into deep ley lines of 2017 culture.
The women’s struggle on the outskirts of Hollywood caught the #MeToo drumbeat early.
Adult Swim
(Here’s a whole superteam of Wonder Women!)
But like any true work of art,GLOWcreates its own specific context.
It climaxes with Debbie climbing to the top rope of the wrestling ring, preparing a final flying move.
Anne Marie Fox/HBO
The climax is the jump, thrilling as any moment from any sports movie.
BEST 2.
Twin Peaks
The world spins, the stars turn, the young grow old, the logs turn gold.
George Kraychyk/Hulu
Co-creators David Lynch and Mark Frost didn’t recreateTwin Peaks.
They sent their ’90s cult phenomenon global like a pandemic, or a religion.
It wasn’t just his story.
Disney XD
Nothing seemed important but everythingfeltimportant.
A new generation rose, talking strangely as young people always do, speaking of penguins and house arrest.
There were sequences unlike anything television has ever seen, mysteries to ponder for a lifetime.
Eric McCandless/ABC
It defied logic and made perfect sense.
The best dreams always do.
BEST 3.
Michael Parmelee/USA Network
BEST 4.
The Good Place
Spoiler alert: Heaven is Hell.
All the imprisoned souls are played by stellar actors who make their characters seem all-too-humanandarchetypal.
Matt Dinerstein/Fox
William Jackson Harper’s flop-sweating Chidi is a tormented superego.
Kristen Bell’s Eleanor is both a careless nihilistandthe voice of reason.
Extra credit goes to D’Arcy Carden, brilliantly deadpan as chipper godbot Janet.
FX
BEST 5.
Rick and Morty
BEST 6.
In the process, they seemed to rediscover themselves, older and no wiser.
MATT SQUIRE/CRACKLE
The emotional stakes were high, and the exuberant energy was intoxicating.
This was a party you wanted to be invited to.
BEST 7.
Nathan Congleton/NBC
The Handmaid’s Tale
When I think of 2017, I’ll think of Elizabeth Moss' face.
Moss' June don’t dare call her “Offred”!
But I’ll follow Moss wherever she goes.
Marvel/ABC
BEST 8.
DuckTales
Generations have risen and fallen since Disney’s ducks started talking.
You anticipated that this Disney XD reboot would be another rehash of nostalgic IP.
What you got was a complete floor-to-ceiling refurbishment.
Like few reboots ever do,DuckTaleshas cleverly reconsidered the source material.
The three nephews are actual separate characters.
Their mom Della is a missing ongoing mystery.
All hail Kate Micucci’s Webby Vanderquack, the kid I want to be when I grow up.
BEST 9.
Look elsewhere for cheap platitudes, but look closer for real hope.
Somebody’s gotta.
BEST 10.
But the current run ofMr.
Robotis a thoroughly modern masterpiece, a fairy tale about the secret internet identity that destroyed the world.
WORST 1.
APB
This was the year for a show about a swaggering cult-of-personality billionaire taking over the government.
But either of those shows should have been, like, darkly comic horror satires.
A true point-missing drama, and failed propaganda for everything ruining the country this week.
WORST 2.
WORST 3.
Snatch
And now for the years worst reboot, a synthetic rehash of Guy Ritchies already synthetic underworld opera.
Hell, compared to the newSnatch, the originalSnatchwas freakingGoodfellas.
Did I mention Ed Westwicks performance as a Cuban (suuuuure) gangster?
WORST 4.
Megyn Kelly Today
SummersSunday Night with Megyn Kellymerely produced the years second-worst Vladimir Putin interview.
(Top honors to you, Oliver Stone!)
I am kinda done with politics for now, is how Kelly introduced her new series.
Nuts to that, Kelly!
Free the beast within!
Love her or hate her, you didnt expect to be bored by her.
WORST 5.
Few strange shows have ever been so boring.
Few series ever felt so limited.
