FAVORITE SHOWS OF 2020
Did anyone else watch more Netflix this year than usual? Heck, I even subscribed to a free trial of Apple TV to watch Ted Lasso…then kept it in order to watch The Morning Show.
As someone who isn’t terribly into “Netflix and Chill,” I certainly did my fair share of it this year.
Here are my favorite shows of the year. I’d love to hear from you - what were yours?
OVERALL FAVORITES
SCHITT’S CREEK
This show was brilliantly done - specifically in the areas of character development and painting a picture of the type of world that we want to live in…where people are kind, and genuinely good.
Everyone who recommended this show recommended giving it a couple of seasons; I would agree with this advice. I was all-in by season 2.
After you finish all of the episodes, watch the final look-back in which the actors talk about their experience on the show. Be sure to grab a box of tissues as you do.
Thank you, Jenny, for telling me about this show!
TED LASSO
Like Schitt’s Creek, Ted Lasso paints a picture of the type of world that we want to live in. It reminds us of the idea that humans are, at their core, good.
It’s heartwarming, well-done, laugh-out-loud-funny at times, and a show that will almost certainly boost your mood. It’s also very much a show about leadership.
Thank you, Amber, for telling me about this show!
GUILTY PLEASURES
While I don’t love and typically don’t use the term “guilty pleasure,” I can’t think of any other way to describe these two.
EMILY IN PARIS
With short episodes and only one season, it’s easy to fly through this series. The show has gained a great deal of attention - both positive and negative - the negative being primarily based on the self absorbed nature of Emily’s character (and the ways in which it reflects the self-absorbed nature of Americans), the negative portrayal of the French, and the ways in which Emily makes no attempt to learn anything about french culture or language while she’s there.
I did a deep dive on the heaps of criticism in Friday Favorites a couple months back. For this post, I’ll simply say that if you can watch it through the lens of entertainment versus through the lens of TV critic, it’s quite delightful.
GIRLFRIEND’S GUIDE TO DIVORCE
This show, though also absurd in some ways and problematic in others, was strangely addictive…one of those that led me to stay up too late, with my iPad in bed, to watch a couple more episodes. Despite its flaws, I couldn’t get enough.
CHEESY YET ENDEARING
SWEET MAGNOLIAS
This show is, at its core, about friendship and sisterhood. It felt joyful to watch during a year when most of us have had very little in-person time with our soul sisters. I especially loved the women’s tradition of “pouring it out” each week (brilliant)!.
VIRGIN RIVER
This is worth watching for the scenery alone, even if some of the scenes are a little hard to take. That said, the characters are lovable and the show remains fairly light-hearted, up until the end of the second season.
