This is my customary end of the year list post. I usually do best books, but this year I am going to the best TV shows I have watched this year. Some of them were even adapted from books! That gives us one more reason not to read books, we can wait and watch when the show comes out.
First Place - The Man in the High Castle (Prime): I like history. I like time travel and alternate universes. I don't really like science or fantasy fiction. But I am starting to like Philip K. Dick more than ever. He is the only science fiction writer I have ever enjoyed reading.
The Man in the High Castle is history, time travel and alternate universes baked fresh from the kiln fired up right after WWII. It is based on Philip K. Dick's book of the same name. I started reading the book after I finished the show which is on Amazon Prime. The show is told from a different perspective than the book. The creators and the actors have kept it engaging, charismatic and it leaves us wanting more. Incredible performances all around. I am particularly impressed by Rufus Sewell who steals the show. A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. If you are a history buff with a weakness for alternate universes, this one is for you.
The Underground Railroad (Prime): What if the underground railroad was a real subterranean railroad transporting slaves to the free lands up north ? Based on Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer winning novel of the same name, Barry Jenkins' poem of a show is a hard-hitting portrayal of the ambitious and risky flights to freedom undertaken by slaves from southern plantations in the mid 1800s.
Them (Prime): Amazon Prime has more authentic shows about black people than Netflix. While it has garnered many negative reviews from critics, I liked the period aspect of Them and how it shows a family of four who moved to Compton from the Carolinas battle the duel evils of racism and supernatural evil. Are they one and the same?
Patriot (Prime) : If Wes Anderson was making TV shows, Patriot might be it. Maybe writer-director Steven Conrad is Anderson's brother from another mother. Patriot is about a spy, who cannot be identified as a spy, whose day job is at an industrial piping company in Milwaukee, who also moonlights as a folk singer as an antidote to his stress - the level of which would have killed any other person. It is serious and comedic at the same time. It also reminds me of Asian black comedy crime dramas where periods of silence are abruptly offset by loud action, then all goes quiet again in the next minute and the protagonist carries on with whatever mundane daily task he might have been doing - like sharpening a pencil or reading a bus time table.
The Serpent (Netflix): The exquisitely shot, directed, edited and acted crime drama, The Serpent, follows the notorious criminal and serial killer Charles Sobharaj. Sobharaj was our version of Clyde, of the Bonnie and Clyde fame. There were several Bonnies in the real Sobharaj's story, although in this TV version, Bonnie is Marie-Andrée Leclerc . When I was a kid back in India, Sobharaj was captured and jailed for a brief time in Tihar jail from where he escaped using one of his ingenious schemes. It was great to see re-creation of sixties and seventies, going down the hippy trail in Asia on the tail of a notoriously manipulative psychopath. The production design and casting are on point.
Kim's Convenience, Seasons 1-4 (Netflix) : The best Korean show ever to be made by North Americans. Set in Toronto, it tells the story of a four member Korean-Canadian family who owns a convenience store. While it is light, natural, funny and this is the most realistic portraiture of an Asian immigrant family I have seen on TV.
Harlan Coben series on Netflix: For quick binge-able crime drama, just like the Harlan Coben paperbacks you might pickup from the airport kiosk, the TV shows adapted from Coben's novels are eminently binge-able, no matter what the language. I started with Safe, proceeded to The Five and The Stranger - all produced in U.K, before moving on to The Innocent (Spanish), Gone for Good (French) and The Woods (Polish.)
Midnight Mass (Netflix) : Midnight Mass is an atmospheric series. It gives me the vibes of Netflix's show Messiah, a favorite of mine which Netflix canceled after the first season. Maybe due to religiosity, which is a cornerstone for both the shows. If you are in the mood for some dark moody horror with depressive undertones that rounds things off with a fiery apocalypse, too specific I know, then you might want to give Midnight Mass a try.
You (Netflix): How does a serial killer who is a book store manager ingratiate himself into high society and find his prey? Watch YOU for the answer. Based on the books by Caroline Kepnes, the protagonist could be called Dexter with a literary bend of mind. Addictive.
If I Hadn't Met You (Netflix): I will take time travel and alternate universes in any language. Si no t'hagues conegut is a Spanish Catalan series, a love story in disguise of a time traveling trope - that's what I fell for.
Other honorable mentions because I am too lazy to write.
The rest of my best on Amazon Prime you have probably not watched, yet.
- Hotel Beau Sejour (Belgium) : Supernatural crime drama with the protagonist murdered, caught up in an after-life limbo, trying to find her killer.
- Unforgotten (U.K) : British crime series starring Nicola Walker and Sanjeev Bhasker.
- The Living & The Dead (U.K): Victorian era super natural of a farmer-scientist trying to prove the existence of after-life, starring Colin Morgan.
- Intruders (BBC America) : Stars Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown before she was famous. Supernatural.
The rest of my best on Netflix you might have watched already.
- Delhi Crime (India): Best Indian crime drama ever.
- Clickbait : Crime thriller set in the U.S, but Melbourne stands in for U.S west coast.
- The Chair : If you have always wondered what happens in academia and what do these professors, especially the ones who teach languages do, The Chair is a quick and easy watch.
- How To Sell Drugs Online Fast Seasons 1-3 (Germany) : Real life Breaking Bad about the true story of a teenage German entrepreneur. Engaging and funny.
- Never Have I Ever Seasons 1-2 : Teen drama. Mindy Kaling takes a look at the troubles and travails of teenage angst, through her protagonist, first generation Indian American teen, Devi Vishwakumar
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