Best TV of 2023

[dougo]

About a month ago, I remembered that I still hadn't posted my ranked list of favorite TV shows from 2023. I posted last year's list before the end of January, so I'm not sure why I didn't get around to it earlier than April this year. But then I thought of a few shows that I really wanted to check out before making my list, so I watched those... then I kept remembering more shows to watch... eventually I realized it might take me to the end of the year to watch everything from last year, so I had to draw a line somewhere! So here we are.

Not a lot to say about this list. Putting them in total ranked order is overly precise, because they're so hard to compare—not just because of the wide variety of genres, but where do you put a show like The Last of Us that has high highs and low lows, versus a uniformly mediocre show like The Walking Dead: Dead City? Well, scroll down to see (spoiler: right next to each other). Really, everything on this list has something to recommend it, it just becomes diminishing returns as you get toward the bottom.

1. Scavengers Reign
2. Succession S4
3. Barry S4
4. Full Circle
5. Beacon 23
6. Slow Horses S3
7. Reservation Dogs S3
8. Survivor S45
9. Star Trek: Lower Decks S4
10. Silo
11. The Gold
12. Foundation S2
13. The Devil's Plan
14. The Bear S2
15. Special Ops: Lioness
16. Mrs. Davis
17. Beef
18. Jury Duty
19. The Afterparty S2
20. Blindspotting S2
    
21. Loki S2
22. Survivor S44
23. The Mandalorian S3
24. Claim to Fame S2
25. Poker Face
26. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds S2
27. How To with John Wilson S3
28. Great Expectations
29. Anne Rice's Mayfair Witches
30. Dark Winds S2
31. A Murder at the End of the World
32. That '90s Show
33. Abbott Elementary S2
34. The Wheel of Time S2
35. History of the World, Part II
36. Black Mirror S6
37. Big Brother Reindeer Games
38. The Curse
39. The Continental: From the World of John Wick
40. The Idol
41. Monarch: Legacy of Monsters
42. Hijack
43. Our Flag Means Death S2
44. Big Brother S25
45. House of Villains
46. What If...? S2
47. Buddy Games
48. Star Wars: Visions S2
49. The Last of Us
50. The Walking Dead: Dead City
51. Star Trek: Picard S3
52. Daisy Jones & the Six
53. For All Mankind S4
54. Invincible S2A
55. The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon
56. Bodies
57. Endeavour S9
58. Yellowjackets S2
59. Unstable
60. The Fall of the House of Usher
61. Last Week Tonight with John Oliver S10
62. Primo
63. The Challenge: USA S2
64. SmartLess: On the Road
65. 100 Foot Wave S2
66. Squid Game: The Challenge
67. Ahsoka
68. Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty S2
69. Velma
70. Shrinking
71. Swarm
72. Command Z
73. Extrapolations
74. Telemarketers
75. Secret Invasion
76. Fear the Walking Dead S8
77. Sweet Tooth S2
78. Lessons in Chemistry

Here are just a few of the shows from 2023 that I wanted to watch but didn't get around to:

• Beckham
• Blue Eye Samurai
• City on Fire
• Copenhagen Cowboy
• Cunk on Earth
• The Diplomat
• From S2
• Love & Death
• Party Down S3
• Platonic
• Spy/Master

Let me know if there's more I should put on the queue!

Comments

[kazmat]

So is there a cutoff line where you stop recommending that show to others?
Also, I didn't even know they made a Mayfair Witches tv show. Huh.

[dougo]

I meant it when I said everything here has something to recommend. But without knowing the audience, I'd probably put the line around 43.