20 Best TV Shows of 2016

Source: HBO/Netflix/FX

On many levels, 2016 was utter sh*t.

In politics, here in the UK, we had Brexit. In the U.S., Trump. And across the globe, a rising tide of hate and fear.

On a cultural level, we had to say goodbye to a huge number of beloved and talented artists, the likes of which we may never see again - David Bowie, Prince, Harper Lee, Gene Wilder, and Alan Rickman, to name but five(!).

Thank God, then, for television. That may be slightly flippant, but the small screen sat in the corner of the world's collective room, a shining beacon in the darkness. As things got worse, TV only got better.

2016 continued the era of Peak TV, with more shows than ever before, and more great shows too. It's impossible to keep up, as the conversation zipped from Making A Murder (actually released in December) to Stranger Things to Westworld and everything in between.

Some shows had a year off (miss you, Fargo), others suffered a sophomore slump (Mr. Robot was good, but not great). Some I've not seen (I promise I'll watch The Americans one day soon), and others, like Netflix's The OA, I can't decide if I love or hate (or both). Others still I've probably just forgotten about. Even with all that, narrowing it down to 20 was tough.

These, then, are the best TV shows of 2016.

20. Preacher

Preacher, the acclaimed comic run from Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon, is one of those properties long thought to be 'unfilmable'. From its commentary on religion to a character called Arseface for very literal reasons, and a whole host of violence, gore, and weirdness within, it often seemed unlikely it'd ever make it to the screen.

Enter Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, who, along with Sam Catlin, did exactly that. Everything outlined above transferred from page to screen, although with a few differences.

They took their time with the story of Jesse (Dominic Cooper), keeping him in small town America for the entirety of Season 1. It may not have totally meshed with the comics, but it did mean we got to know these characters better (with Ruth Negga's Tulip and Joe Gilgun's Cassidy both standouts).

The pacing was off at times, but mostly the show was fun, strange, and often outrageous. Praise the Lord, then, that it has a second season to come, which should be even better than the first now they can get on the road.

Best Episode: Sundowner

19. New Girl

Sometimes, you just need a good hang.

Now that New Girl is in its sixth season, it's not really getting the recognition it deserves (if it ever did, which I'm not sure of).

The show may not reinvent the wheel, but few sitcoms - especially traditional network ones - are as fun to spend time with as this.

Thanks to scheduling around Zooey Deschanel's pregnancy, the entirety of New Girl's fifth season aired in 2016, as well as the first half of Season 6. Both have been utterly hilarious, keeping a show that could've went stale feeling fresh, especially by bringing Hannah Simone's Cece into a bigger role and recognizing that Lamorne Morris' weirdness as Winston is its secret weapon.

Every episode is packed with jokes, but amongst the laughter, you come to care about all the offbeat characters within too. It may not be as edgy as some of its competitors, but for a comedy with humor and heart, there's not much better, making this the perfect hangout sitcom.

Best Episode: Landing Gear

18. Luke Cage

Luke Cage was, like its Netflix/Marvel stablemate Jessica Jones, an entry into the superhero genre that managed to be about much more than its crimefighting, enhanced powers trappings.

Luke Cage the series, much like the character's comic origins, owed a lot to the blaxploitation films of the 19070s. Showrunner Cheo Hodari Coker, a former music journalist, mixed that with 90s hip-hop and placed it in the real world of 2016, one in which racial prejudice still exists, black men are killed by police officers, and there are movements like Black Lives Matter.

Cage isn't just a superhero, he's a black superhero, and that's important to the plot and its characters. And oh what characters they are. From Simone Missick's Missy Knight to Alfre Woodard's Mariah Dillard, the show has the best cast of any superhero TV show and uses most of them to good effect.

A great conflict between Mike Colter's Cage and Mahershala Ali's captivating villain Cottonmouth builds to a head, and while the second half of the season - which puts Erik LeRay Harvey's Diamondback at the center of the battle in Harlem - isn't anywhere near as strong, it's still an excellent series overall. Sweet Christmas indeed!

Best Episode: Manifest

17. The Night Of

Airing in summer, The Night Of was a more than suitable replacement for the True Detective-sized hole in HBO's programming schedule. Although a more straightforward crime drama than that series (Season 1, anyway, since I'll happily pretend 2 didn't happen), it's an easy show to get sucked into and obsess over.

Indeed, that's what The Night of does immediately, with an absolutely fantastic pilot episode that'll have you hooked in no way, and eager to find out what happens to Naz - the protagonist wonderfully played by Riz Ahmed (what a year he's had, by the way).

It all unspooled over eight tightly packed episodes, which took us on a deep dive into the criminal justice system and what happens to people when they're in prison. We see big changes in Naz, too, with Ahmed changing performance and physicality, making us question whether he really is innocent. But, since we see how much the system chews him up, it's not really the point.

Best Episode: The Beach

16. Catastrophe

The second season of one of TV's most well-observed sitcoms aired in April in the U.S. (it quietly snuck in at the back-end of 2015 in the UK), meaning its place here can be justified. Well, that, and because in its second season it continued to be one of the funniest and sharpest comedies around.

Kicking-off with a time jump, we go past the pregnancy and straight into parenthood. Season 2 provides a close look at how having a child changes a relationship; the different pressures and stresses, how tempers can shorten, but the love and bond only get stronger.

The series is an unflinching look at adult relationships, from the repeated arguments to awkward fumbles, and it manages to do that in a way that feels more real than many shows manage. It couples that with some pitch-perfect humor (as you'd expect from creators and stars Rob Delaney and Sharon Horgan), and plenty of warmth too.

Best Episode: Episode 2

15. Fleabag

Fleabag is one of the most surprising TV shows of 2016, and one of the very best to come out of the UK too.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge adapted her own one-woman stage play into this BBC/Amazon co-production, in which she stars as a woman (we never learn her name) trying to navigate life while dealing with immense grief and guilt.

Waller-Bridge is astoundingly good, giving one of the most open and honest performances you'll see all year. The show itself deftly handles both its comedy and drama aspects, with Waller-Bridge herself easily able to shift gears between the two.

With its fourth-wall breaking the audience was let in on the act, serving as a companion for Fleabag to tell her secrets and make witty asides to. It also had an excellent supporting cast, including the likes of Olivia Colman (who should really be in everything) and Hugh Skinner, and was an intimate, often tough-to-watch portrayal of life and grief.

Best Episode: Episode 4

14. Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life

Gilmore Girls had been off-screen for nine years, so could the Netflix revival work? TV reboots rarely recapture the magic, and with a rabid fanbase to try and appease, they had a hell of a job on their hands.

Thankfully they had creator Amy Sherman-Palladino on-board, who, after missing the seventh and final season (which was not well received by fans), got to end the show on her own terms.

Set over the course of one year and four 90-minute episodes, there are some flaws with A Year In The Life. Rory's arc in particularly is problematic, and not just because she's a terrible freelance journalist. The Stars Hollow musical lasts forever, and a few characters don't get the time they deserve (we need more Paris and Lane, dammit).

But, then, it was such a joy to be back in Stars Hollow. They nailed the feel of the show and had a huge emotional through-line with the death of Richard Gilmore (Edward Herrmann sadly passed away in 2014). We get to see pretty much everyone again, even briefly (Paris manages to steal every scene she's in), and Lauren Graham and Kelly Bishop remain the MVPs, bringing some of their very best work to the series yet.

Best Episode: Fall

13. Daredevil

Daredevil Season 1 was a huge success, so much so that Netflix altered their plans and, pushing back Luke Cage and Iron Fist, brought us another installment earlier this year.

Season 2 didn't have the looming specter of Vincent D'Onofrio's Wilson Fisk over it (not for most of its run, anyway), and the Hand wasn't quite a suitable replacement.

Still, while it got a little bogged down with them and, to a less extent, Elektra, it still delivered on so much of what made the series great. Season 2 was a very dark look at being a superhero, complemented by some of the best fight scenes you'll see on any screen.

Charlie Cox was better this time around, as were most of the supporting cast, while Jon Bernthal finally gave us a definitive take on The Punisher. Those first four episodes were brutal, breathless, and brilliant, even if the rest didn't quite match-up.

Best Episode: New York's Finest

12. BoJack Horseman

BoJack Horseman should be just one of the weirdest shows on TV, and little else. And while it's certainly weird - the series focuses on the life of a talking horse and his friends who range from human waste to a pink Persian cat - it's also one of the funniest, smartest, and deepest shows around.

Netflix's animated sitcom continued to go from strength-to-strength in Season 3, which put BoJack on the Oscar trail for his star turn in Secretariat. Even just on that level, it gave us a witty, well-judged satire on the annual awards season nonsense.

It operated on many more levels, though, taking us deeper into BoJack's past and present psyche. How he screws up relationships, the people around him, and any chance he might have of being happy. It's a serious mediation on fame and depression, it just also happens to be an absurdly hilarious one too, and it gave us one of the absolute greatest episodes of the year.

Best Episode: Fish Out Of Water

11. Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley continues to be the best HBO series you're (quite probably) not watching. The show averages less than 2 million viewers per episode, which is something of an outrage gives that's a tenth of what The Big Bang Theory pulls in, and as 'nerdy' sitcoms go, this is at least 10 times funnier.

Mike Judge's tech satire scaled some new heights in its third season, once again taking us on a rollercoaster ride that looked like it was going to end in disaster for Richard and the Pied Piper team.

In the end, the show gave a delightful twist by letting the team win (for now), but it was getting there that was really fun. The dynamic between these actors is superb, with an easy chemistry and they all know how to bounce off each other, which is where some of the real joy of the show comes from.

From the well-observed industry jokes (tabs vs spaces) to mocking Dinesh's new jewelry ("You're making it worse, Django... Unchained!), or just the sight of two horses having sex, it found humor in every way possible this year.

Best Episode: Meinertzhagen's Haversack

10. Stranger Things

TV's buzziest new show of 2016, and one of the many great offerings from Netflix this year, Stranger Things arrived in July as perfect summer viewing.

The eight-episode series was effortlessly beable, as its setup and then unraveled the mystery of the disappearance of Will, the emergence of Eleven, and the creepy of Upside Down.

Nostalgia definitely played its part, with the series riffing on the likes of Steven Spielberg, Stephen King, and John Carpenter to great effect. But it was also much more than just a memory-trip. It featured one of the strongest casts of the year, a fact made more impressive given most of the main ones were children, with newcomer Millie Bobby Brown particularly great.

El was a fantastic protagonist, a cocktail of superpowers, emotions, and wonder ready to burst, the relationship between the kids perfectly observed, and the mystery satisfying enough to keep us wanting to watch the next episode.

Best Episode: The Body

9. Westworld

Even before anyone outside the cable channel had seen an episode, Westworld was being billed as HBO's next big thing, the new Game of Thrones, the show that would 'save' a network in need of another major hit.

Westworld, thankfully for HBO and us viewers, certainly delivered. The pilot episode did a stunning job with its world-building, introducing us to this world of robots, guests, and the people who make it all happen.

From there we were off on a journey that piled mysteries on top of riddles, wrapped them in enigmas, and served it all up with a side of sex, violence, and Shakespeare.

Pretty much the entire cast was in top form, from Anthony Hopkins' thoughtful musings and monologuing as Dr. Ford, to Thandie Newton's fiery Maeve, and best of all Evan Rachel Wood's seemingly sweet Dolores. It looked great too, with sweeping vistas contrasting with cold labs.

It all could've stuck in the web it was spinning, but creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy handled it deftly, with a finale that entertained, excited, resolved threads, and setup plenty more for Season 2. HBO's next big thing, indeed.

Best Episode: The Bicameral Mind

8. Atlanta

Donald Glover may be the most talented multi-hyphenate working in pop-culture today. The writer-cum-actor-turned-rapper-cum-movie-star-cum-funk-singer-cum-show-creator-director-writer-and-star turned his hand at a number of projects this year and proved he has the Midas touch.

Nowhere was this more evident than Atlanta, Glover's personal passion project that aired on FX this fall? Described as Twin Peaks with rappers, it follows Glover's Earn - a college dropout - as he attempts to help his cousin's burgeoning rap career while navigating his life and trying to redeem himself with his family and girlfriend.

It showcased a slice of life rarely seen on screen, and in more depth and detail than anywhere else. It brought its characters, in particular, Paper Boi and Vanessa, to life, and the city too. It was a close study of black lives, race, gender, and class. Hugely funny, poignant, and at times completely surreal, no show took more risks this year (it gave us a black Justin Bieber), but it certainly reaped the rewards.

Best Episode: B.A.N.

7. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt was my favorite new TV show - and favorite sitcom period - of 2015. Brightly coloured, super weird, and a ridiculous amount of fun, it was impossible not to join in with lead Ellie Kemper's megawatt smile.

With Season 2, they not only repeated the trick but made it even better. The story continued Kimmy's transition into normal life after her time in the bunker and continued to use her fish-out-of-water nature for comedy.

It wasn't just played for laughs, though, as the show gave an affecting analysis of the PTSD she was suffering from, perfectly marrying the serious with the silly. It made for a poignant throughline, building towards a hugely emotional climax.

And, along with the way, there so many jokes: visual gags, jokes that advance the narrative, others that pause the show, ones that payoff previous episodes of this year, and last, ones that payoff in the future, some that are just delightfully random, and a few brilliant moments of meta-humour. Its joke rate was astounding, and it's amazing it found room for anything deeper, let alone made it as important as the comedy.

Best Episode: Kimmy Meets A Drunk Lady

6. Orange Is The New Black

After its third season, which, while not bad, failed to reach the standards of the previous two, it could've been questioned what Orange Is The New Black had left. As one of Netflix's first original series, it could've settled into more mid-tier level, much like House of Cards (which is still good, but nowhere near the heights of Seasons 1&2).

Instead, OITNB came back stronger than ever, with Season 4 the show at its most surprising, its darkest, and, yes, its best.

Litchfield becomes overcrowded, the prison is run for-profit, and the guards work harder than ever to dehumanize the inmates. The show uses this to find new strengths, using all of its expanding cast to tell stories that are horrific, tragic, scary, and also, on occasion, utterly hilarious. Not many shows can come close to having so many fleshed-out characters that demand our attention and empathy, and none with such diversity.

Season 4 ran parallels to real life, mirror the Black Lives Matter movement and providing a scathing commentary on the prison system. Within that, and this own unique world its created, it delivered its most powerful and heartbreaking run yet.

Best Episode: The Animals

5. Black Mirror

Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror is a deliciously dark creation, using technology that, if not available, feels like it's not far off, and playing on our fears to deliver a satire that's all too real (indeed, plenty of Black Mirror's predictions have come true, some even scarier than the Prime Minister f**king a pig).

With a move to Netflix, Brooker's imagination was given even more scope to run free. A longer series, a bigger budget, and the best season of the show to date.

It hopped across different genres, from horror to thriller to comedy to romance, and while it's an anthology with different actors in every episode, there was very much a coherent feel to it all.

Brooker's twisted genius, aided by some top acting and directing talent, manages to shock, scare, and challenge the way we think about technology and humanity. And yet, in its strongest episode, also give a surprising amount of hope as well.

Best Episode: San Junipero

4. Planet Earth II

Sure, I've just gone through 16 of the best shows of the year, which are scripted to provide great characters, intense drama, and wonderful humor. But you know what beat all of them this year? Real f**king life!

The series highlights the weirdest and most wonderful elements of the animal kingdom and natural world, with a number of moments better than many scripted shows could match: racer snakes chase baby iguanas across a beach; the beautifully bizarre mating parade of the flamingos; a jaguar hunting a caiman in the jungle; a pride of lions trying to take down a giraffe in the desert; an arctic wolf being outrun by a herd of caribou; a bowerbird stealing items for its nest to impress a mate, including a plastic heart, only to discover the female is actually a male.

It's ridiculous, tension-filled, at times unbelievable TV - and it's all real. Of course it has some help: it's brilliantly edited, incredibly shot using groundbreaking technology, given a soaring score by Hans Zimmer, and, best of all, soberly narrated by certified national treasure (and person whose life I'd most loved to have lived) David Attenborough, who ensures to acknowledge the importance we play in protecting and prolonging this world, and the dangers facing it.

Best Episode: Citiesies

3. Better Call Saul

Any concerns about the need and/or quality of Better Call Saul should have disappeared after the first season. After the second, they should've been completely obliterated.

It'll always draw some comparisons to Breaking Bad, and it may not top that show. But it doesn't really need to. Better Call Saul, while very much connected to Breaking Bad, manages to be its own thing entirely.

It's a slow burn character study, a flip from the propulsive narrative of twists and turns that took Breaking Bad rollicking forward towards greatness. Season 2 continued this, coloring Bob Odenkirk's Jimmy McGill with more shades of Saul, but not making the transition just yet.

Taking its time is one of the series biggest strengths - it has one shot where others would have at least two, it lingers on one scene when others would've screamed past it. The other is its characters. Season 2 brought Kim and Jimmy closer together, dissolved the latter's relationship with brother Chuck to rich dramatic effect, and fleshed-out Mike much more than he ever was on Breaking Bad.

Odenkirk's take is a marvel, but all the cast produce stellar work. With some dazzling cinematography and a tight script, it may be a Breaking Bad spin-off, but it's something special in its own right as well.

Best Episode: Nailed

2. The People V O.J. Simpson

Ryan Murphy's creative output comes at an incredible rate, giving us the likes of Glee, American Horror Story, and Scream Queens over the past few years. The merits of each can be debated, but he produced his best work to-date this year with The People V O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story.

The first of a new anthology series (the next season will tackle Hurricane Katrina), it was a dramatic retelling of one of the biggest celebrity scandals and criminal trials in modern history.

Much of the drama already existed, but Murphy, along with writers Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, crafted a meticulously plotted, incredibly compelling legal drama that served not only as a retelling of the story but a darkly comedic satire on celebrity culture.

Despite showing events of 20 years ago it still felt timely and relevant, finding important messages about race, gender, wealth, and the judicial system. The acting talent across the board only elevated this, humanizing the figures involved, from Sterling K. Brown to Courtney B. Vance and, best of all, Sarah Paulson's tour de force as Marcia Clark.

Best Episode: Marcia, Marcia, Marcia

1. Game Of Thrones

Much like with my Best TV Episodes of 2016 list, while most other shows here moved up and down constantly (and I'll still think I've made a mistake or two after the event), Game of Thrones was always number 1.

There's a bias there because it's by some distance by a favourite show on television. But Season 6 more than justified that, and its place here (Season 5, for example, did not get the #1 spot).

The show moved closer to its endgame and produced a season that was as thrilling as anything that's come before, albeit with some key differences: it moved at a faster pace, and the good guys tended to win.

It still had some big surprises up its sleeve, though, especially as book readers and Unsullied viewers were, for the most part, on equal footing as it moved beyond the source material. It featured some incredibly visceral battles, which it obviously excelled at, but was just as great in its quieter moments too.

It all built to that stunning finale - the best season finale the show's produced - and along the way left us stunned, broke our hearts, and made us stand and applaud.

Best Episode: The Winds Of Winter