(The life, right?!)
Here’s a peek at their online conversation about their favorite shows of the first half of 2018.
Kristen’s No.
Illustration by Cranio DSGN for EW
10:Queer Eye
KRISTEN:Can you believe it, Darren?
We’re already halfway through the year!
Which brings me to the No.
Gavin Bond/Netflix
10 show on my list:Netflix’sQueer Eye.
(Or streaming down my face.)
Darren’s No.
Cartoon Network
10 is a different kind of entertaining escape.
That’s a collective running time of roughly half aWestworld.
Kristen’s No.
Netflix
Moving on to my No.
isThe End ofthe F***ing World.
Darren’s No.
Robert Trachtenberg for EW
9 isQueer Eye, for all the reasons you’ve stated and more.
The fantastic new cast (All hail Bobby Design!)
), my No.
Fox
8 is the brand new NBC seriesBrooklyn Nine-Nine!
Long may it reign!
Darren’s No.
Lisa Labinjoh/BBC America
On a much less hopeful note, Im tempted to call my No.
But it’s the opposite of a bummer!
This is thrilling, moving, ludicrously beautiful brain-vegetable TV.
YouTube Red
You WILL weep for the walrus.
Kristen’s No.
7:Cobra Kai
KRISTEN:Oh man, animals in peril.
Saeed Adyani/Netflix
That is always a tough (but necessary) watch.
There is no obvious segue from the death of the planet to my No.
and “Bosh!”
Michele K. Short/HBO
Darren’s No.
7:Dear White People
DARREN:What delights we owe to reboot culture!
7 is a deep sequel to a generational classic film, while my No.
George Kraychyk/Hulu
7 is an expansive variation on a recent movie.
Kristen’s No.
6:Barry
KRISTEN:Wow, is 2018 the year Hollywood finally cracked the reboot code?
George Kraychyk/Hulu
(Don’t answer that.)
6 show on the list:HBO’sBarry.
Darren’s No.
Comedy Central
6:The Handmaid’s Tale
DARREN:I’ll talk (spoiler alert!)
but first I have to sing the peculiar praise of my No.
But the bathtub-full-of-pain extremity always feels grounded in compelling you-are-there tension.
Laurie Sparham/Starz
Elizabeth Moss' suffering has reachedPassion of the Christlevels.
It’s the best horror show on television.
Kristen’s No.
Colleen Hayes/NBC
5:The Handmaid’s Tale
KRISTEN:Tension is the operative word.
5 on my list.
Darren’s No.
Elizabeth Fisher/CBS
5:Corporate
DARREN:My No.
But, like, funny 9/11 jokes!)
alongside cheerful absurdity (aBlack Mirrorparody that doubles as a lacerating critique ofBlack Mirrorfandom).
Patrick Harbron/CBS
It was little-seen, but the connection blessedly ordered a second season.
Catch up now, people!
Kristen’s No.
BBC America
4:Howards End
KRISTEN:Huzzah for second seasons of little-seen shows!
It is the stuff that TV critic dreams are made of.
Darren’s No.
John P. Johnson/HBO
They went to Hell!
They went between Heaven and Hell, to Maya Rudolph’s office!
They went…well, somewhere else, precise location coming in season 3!
Jeff Daly/FX
No show makes me laugh harder, think deeper, or laugh harder about deep thinking.
Kristen’s No.
There are days when it beats our current reality, amirite?
Guy D’Alema/FX
hey give Christine Baranski all the Emmys.
Darren’s No.
3:The Good Fight
DARREN:We’ve done it, Kristen!
We’ve reached TV-critical parity!
3 is alsoThe Good Fight.
This show deserves a golden shower…of Emmy awards!
Kristen’s No.
2:Killing Eve
KRISTEN:Ba-dum-bum!
Now I’m really intrigued, because I was thinkingGood Fightwould be your No.
(If it isLost in Space,you’re dead to me.)
Anyhow, moving on to my No.
2:BBC America’sKilling Eve.
Darren’s No.
2:Barry
DARREN:Lost in Spaceis number 1 onalist, but notthislist.
(Quite the opposite!)
2 pick, allow me to signal-boost a show you’ve already praised.
I figuredBarrywas a one-joke sketch concept, “a hitman taking acting class.”
But the show takes acting SERIOUSLY.
The hilarious Hollywood striving leading into a sincere, Shakespeare-soliloquizing portrait of the actor’s tormented art.
Kristen’s No.
I hope he and Barry stay friends in season 2.
Well, Darren, we’re at my No.
Darren’s No.
In its incandescent second season,Atlantaconjured up a new kind of event TV.
Hope they’re okay settling for first place.
