Remember when TV was something you had to actually schedule your time around? Back when a show was broadcast once and if you missed it, your only chance of catching up was hearing the breakdown in the playground? No, just me? Well, in any case, TV has come a long was since then, and is it even accurate to call the shows that stream online as "TV shows", how many even watched them on a TV? Anyway, enough existential discussion over the nature of TV, here are 10 of the best TV time sinks we've watched this year.
Midnight Mass
Horror drama Midnight Mass came from the same people who made The Haunting of Hill House and ...Bly Manor, and has all of the same tenderness and spookiness. It centres around a man who has returned to the isolated island community he grew up in after being released from prison, following a drunk driving incident in which he killed somebody. As he arrives at the island, so too does a young priest who reinvigorates the faith of the island’s Christian population, but bizarre events follow – some miraculous and some terrifying. Although the show, as a supernatural horror piece, does feature some more standard horror fare of gore and creepy creatures, its greatest horror moments come from its human characters and their mob mentality, through which it explores the corruption and abuse that can seep into organised religion. However, why Midnight Mass works so well is that it celebrates faith as well as critiquing it. Characters’ individual experiences with faith are explored without bias, with sympathy for its religious and non-religious characters, even the characters who fall prey to corruption through religion being ultimately portrayed with nuance and understanding. Despite at first glance potentially seeming more like a campy supernatural horror, Midnight Mass is also a sensitive and thoughtful consideration of what it means to be human.
Katla
Icelandic mystery drama Katla is visually arresting enough to carry the show even if its story wasn’t as captivating as it is. Set a year after the eruption of the Katla volcano began, the few people remaining in the nearby town of Vik are trying to live and work in the area, despite persistent clouds of ash continuing to billow out of the volcano onto the town. Under the volcanic ash, the people and the landscape lie under a perpetual dark grey covering, giving it an almost dystopian atmosphere. As people thought to be lost, dead, or far away start emerging from the nearby glacier, caked in ash and with no memory of where they came from or what happened to them, questions arise as to what the volcano may have awakened. The show draws inspiration from fact and fiction, blending science, religion, and folklore. Although the enjoyment of most mysteries relies on solving them, the mysteries in Katla feel all the more powerful when left unsolved, with several theories floating around such as biological disturbance caused by a meteor and changeling stories from Icelandic folk tales. In many ways the show is less about finding the origin of these ‘changelings’ and more about exploring the reactions they provoke in the community they have returned to, which is investigated in both chilling and heart-breaking ways.
The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula
Drag competition Dragula is a breath of fresh air to the staleness of what RuPaul’s Drag Race has become. As hosts the Boulet Brothers state each episode, they will not be judging the contestants on their personal drag because “drag is art and art is subjective”. This is a far cry from the totalitarian dictatorship of Mama Ru and her my-way-or-the-high-way fascist state of drag (I’m joking but I’m also not). Dragula is also all the more interesting for being a specifically horror-based drag competition, often being a more welcoming place for unconventional drag and from there, for demographics that are more marginalised in the modern drag community such as nonbinary and female performers, and people whose drag also lies outside of more binary gender margins. Some aspects of the show are a tad tacky, like the horror shorts that begin and end each episode but if you don’t like your drag to be tacky then I don’t know how to help you. The looks each week are intricate, stunning, and disgusting, with enough reality TV cattiness to keep things nasty. If you grew tired of frack-happy RuPaul and her sickly sweet drag race, I’d recommend Dragula as a far better alternative.
You
Love it or hate it, You season 3 was a hot topic this year, and in my opinion, rightly so. Although morally dubious, its borderline-camp scripts and its actors’ delivery (especially Penn Badgely as enjoyably insane Joe Goldberg) make it so entertaining you can’t be bothered to care. There are several things in life that are made better by analysis, but You is not one of them, it is best enjoyed on a very surface level. It sort of falls into the same category as Gossip Girl or Desperate Housewives – being too good at being ridiculous and trashy to really be ridiculous and trashy (if that makes sense). Season 3 saw stalker/serial killer/”nice guy” Joe back at his usual fun and games but this time with the lovely Victoria Pedretti as his equally unhinged wife, Love, alongside. The show is as demented and out of pocket as it’s always been, providing more of what its audience loves. The character of Love especially was a fan favourite, and it was enjoyable to see her get more screen time to rival Joe at his own game. You is not some cerebral piece of media that will enrich your life but despite – or because – of that, it’s still a riveting watch.
Squid Game
The Korean horror drama that took Netflix (and the world) by storm, we've already talked pretty extensively about Squid Game. It's safe to say that Hwang Dong-hyuk's decade-long journey to bring the show to life was well worth the perseverance. Now the most-watched Netflix original of all time, the drama consumes the audience's attention through tense, death defying games mixed with a genuinely thought-provoking and deftly portrayed anti-capitalist central theme. I was completely shocked when this Saw-lookalike's message didn't turn out to be paper-thin. Desperate characters doing desperate things, exploited by a bored elite. I would also like to extend my thanks to the show for gifting us with a being of pure innocence and kindness in the form of Abdul Ali (Anupam Tripathi). I feel like we're owed an entire show dedicated to that character. All in all, Squid Game's ending faltered for some people, but the plot and characters were engrossing from start to finish.
Invincible
An adaptation of the 2003-2018 run of comic books published by Image Comics, Invincible was the prime superhero show to watch this year. A lot of it feels like a by-the-book superhero story, with its plucky main character (whose name seems cruelly ironic at times) learning how best to use his powers for good. For the most part, that's what it is, elevated largely by entertaining dialogue and exceptionally creative characters. Its own commitment to its tropey aesthetic is played with as the series goes on, in the form of some disturbing developments and an entirely out-of-left-field level of gore. It had a very viewer-friendly, digestible structure, with eight hour-long episodes grouped together by one of the most viscerally sinister overarching plot points I've seen this year. I'm a big fan of the hour-long episode format, especially for 'monster of the week' shows like Invincible. It gives enough time for the audience to become invested in the enclosed subject matter of the episode, whilst also allowing for series-long character relationships and sub-plots to develop organically. J.K Simmons delivers a phenomenal vocal performance — by once again speaking exclusively in his own voice. I'm being facetious but it's true — and the show takes a clever approach to subverting the cliches of the genre. Season two cannot come soon enough.
WandaVision
I feel… somewhat icky, about adding WandaVision to this list. I wasn't a big fan of a sizable amount of the show's story beats. The second half of WandaVision, particularly the finale, is exhaustingly 'Marvel'. Quirky jokes, a one-dimensional main villain, and a final confrontation that I swear I've seen a dozen times before, the entire second half was mostly just, egh? But I cannot ignore the fact that the first half of the season consisted of the most unique, atmospherically intriguing, and mind-bending moments in the MCU to date. The suburban dream works perfectly as Wanda's happy place. Seeing the cracks in her delusion break through the upbeat and often vapid tone of her 50s, 60s, and 70s sitcom life inspires all sorts of emotional responses, from mirth to an uncanny-valley style of existential horror. In many ways Wanda is the villain of her own story, but an immensely sympathetic one. Who doesn't feel like escaping every now and then? And damned be the consequences. That idea is at the heart of Wanda's characterisation as a classical tragic hero. Even the later episodes are able to redeem themselves somewhat with their portrayal of the destructive power of her grief. Although it doesn't quite live up to its potential, WandaVision is the best of the Disney+ Marvel shows.
Brassic
This is a real underappreciated gem. My brother first alerted me to it last year, and after watching the first episode I binged both seasons in a little over a day. Season 3 was released in October, and I’m so disappointed I’m only now getting to watch it. Brassic follows petty criminals Vinnie" O'Neill (Joe Gilgun)and his friends as they try to keep cash in their pockets – often with little success. The lovable rogues live in the fictitious northern town of Hawley, and as someone who has lived in many quaint country villages, I really relate to their experience. Even though it presents some absolutely ridiculous plot points, the show has far more heart than you’d ever expect. The sincerity and honesty with which this show deals with issues like mental health and family is exceptionally emotional – far more so than you would ever expect. Please don’t let this show pass you by without giving it a watch.
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