A very close second to last season’s brilliance – this saw the lateral-stylings of Jon Robins, the carefree madness of Joanne McNally, the timid & good-natured earnestness of a Dracula-costumed Nick Mohamed, the borderline incomprehensible logical leaps of Sophie Willan,
Deadloch
Every now & again a show comes up out of nowhere and takes you places you never expected – and this crime/comedy centred around a serial killer in a Tasmanian lesbian haven town absolutely kept us guessing. Gloriously rough, and
Ted Lasso
What a piece. This started off as a straight sitcom about a fish-out-of-water soccer coach brought in to close the team down as a revenge ploy by a spurned ex-wife… but by god did it transform into something different. The
Taskmaster – Season 16
Holy shit. I was well-acquainted with the format of Taskmaster, and my earlier forays into watching it had left me feeling it was amusing enough but really nothing too amazing. But Season 16 changed ALL of that. Maybe it’s partly
I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson
Honestly, I don’t remember how I came by this. Or, much of what happened in it. But I *do* remember staring at it open-mouthed trying to work out what I’d just seen an earnestly and urgently messaging half my comedy
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel – Season 5
By this point we’re into character-driven drama, but the cast and writers bring their all to the final season and leave it all out there to tie up the story. A couple of self-indulgent conceits follow the retirement and closing
Avenue 5 (both seasons)
I was drawn to this by Armando Ianucci’s involvement, and intrigued by Hugh Laurie’s presence (plus supporting case – Zach Woods, Rebecca Front, and Josh Gad as a low-rent Jack Black). While the first couple of episodes struggled to figure
Barry
Well, this was unusual – initially a very oddly positioned seemingly-sitcom about an ex-veteran now turned hitman, who gets engaged by some comically bad criminals to perform an assassination only to get himself accidentally enrolled in an acting class and
The Muppets Mayhem
Sure, it’s never gonna be “original Henson”, but this Muppet spinoff was the first post-buyout iteration I actively *liked* – a real return to the Muppets just “being fun” rather than being funny. The celeb cameos all felt a lot
Dead to Me – Series 3
I’ll be brutally honest and say I don’t remember specifics on this one – it’s the ongoing story of a couple of women thrust into friendship through some death & treachery, with layers of secrets at work and some ludicrous