The thing about comics and television is that there is not a good app like Letterboxd for those mediums. So, I write a review of a movie on my phone on Letterboxd and then bring it here, mostly, and that’s how this site became mostly a movie review site.
But comics doesn’t have a similar app and I don’t feel the pull to review a 22 page comic like I would a movie. Nor do I usually want to review a single episode of television.
Television is such a quirky medium anyway. Someone on Twitter said Star Trek The Next Generation was amazing because it could have the best single hour of TV that decade one episode and the very next episode would be the worst thing you had ever seen in your life.
Please add to that shows from your own experience. Another one for me would be Doctor Who which can have an episode that burns into your soul and then an episode with farting aliens and trees that whisper to children that we should all be good to each other.
And, and, and, please note that in television the rotating batch of writers along with the limits in money, time and energy play a profound effect on the series along with the individual episodes.
Your science fiction show has no more money for the year? Better do an episode where the characters just box each other and nothing much happens with the main plot.
Those episodes can be great and integral to how we feel about the characters but they also exist to save some cash for the spend on the special effects in the finale.
Also, sometimes you get the Jane Espenson episodes of Buffy which are just stronger and funnier than most everything else. See also the Ronald D. Moore episodes of Star Trek and the Stephen Moffat episodes of Doctor Who.
That was a long way to go for me to say that here are some television series I liked in 2023. Most of them were consistently good for the entire season but even the good ones had highs and lows.
Beef – Eventually I’ll go back and get to the stuff that isn’t rising up from memory but Beef is at the top of my list for so many reasons. Those reasons are Ali Wong, Steven Yeun and David Choe who inhabited very specific types of terrible people.
Any show that takes Changing Lanes and then develops it over an entire season and gives us fully realized characters who are funny, desperate and achingly human is going to rocket to the top for me.
The Bear – I thought the ending of the first season of The Bear was just a bit too happy. I liked the show a lot but that ending didn’t fit. But it led to this amazing second season which improbably took everything from the first season and turned it up another notch.
As Emeril would say, “Bam.”
There is a four episode stretch in the second half of the season where every episode does something different and they all completely succeeded. It was high wire act for the ages.
Poker Face – American television has become a weird place because of streaming and changing sensibilities. But, yes, if you make a competent mystery show with great actress as the detective people will love it. I’m not sure this show could work in a different time in TV history because the economics wouldn’t let you make 10 little mini mystery movies set in different locations across the country. But Ryan Johnson, Natasha Lyonne and the fine folks at Peacock did it. It’s really great TV. Let’s do this for a decade.
Slow Horses: There are fewer story tropes I love more than an old guy on his last legs getting the job done right. This British spy series has Gary Oldman playing the rough, alcoholic old man who has seen it all and is now tasked with leading a collection of losers who are all one step away from getting kicked out of MI5.
Oldman is spectacular at everything and the show knows perfectly well what it can and can’t accomplish. And then it just hits a bullseye every time.
Reservation Dogs: This show about life on an Native American reservation in Oklahoma is perfect. More than anything else here this is the show I would probably tell you to stop what you are doing and just go watch it. Funny, sad, scary and knowing. A wonderful look into a world few of us ever see.
Ok we have hit the point where I have to consult my app to see what I watched and that seems like a good time to just throw some other things out there.
Most of these qualify as still great except for Picard season three which was a vast improvement over the first two seasons.
Picard, The Doctor Who specials (welcome back), Bob’s Burgers , Archer, Rick and Morty (All Still Great), Loki (Glorious Purpose).
Reacher: Reacher is a show where an episode ended with (spoiler) the good guy telling the bad guy he was going to throw him out of a helicopter. Either you are in for that kind of dad dumb justice tv or you are out. I am soooo in.
Here’s three more good ones: Star Trek Lower Decks, Star Trek Discovery and What We Do in the Shadows.
This was a good year! I wish I wrote more about television.
Dark Highways 
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