Best of 2023 - Television

Today I come to you all with my top 5 tv shows of 2023. I have to admit that there is a good amount of high quality, well regarded tv I have not yet finished this year. I have yet to see shows like "Loki", "Andor", "Ghosts" and "Big Mouth" yet. I'm sure there are a bunch of other shows that I have missed too. But I have seen some good stuff this year and today I want to give you all a peek at how I view television.

At 5 I have the third and final season of "The Other Two". This show is criminally underrated and should not have been cancelled. It is one of the best written and funniest shows on tv. Helen York and Drew Tarver play their characters to perfection. Molly Shannon is an absolute delight, and she got to really stretch in this final season. Ken Marino was great. The young actor playing the famous brother grew up and had a nice story arc about the ills of fame and social media. I have not seen a show that is this meta and funny and perfectly of the time. The whole musical episode was amazing. When York's character quits her job and no one can see her, brilliant. The whole thing with Tarver's method acting boyfriend, chef's kiss. "The Other Two" is destined to become a cult classic. This show is going to do major work on streaming. It will find its audience and I feel like people will talk about it like I do about "Happy Endings" now. "The Other Two" is a show worth checking out.

At 4 I have season three of "The Righteous Gemstones". McBride and company keep finding ways to make dark humor the best humor to watch on tv. This season was incredible too. We got Walton Goggins back as Uncle Baby Billy. Be it his game show idea or him wearing a big clam shell and singing at the pool, he is amazing in this role. We got the struggle of Goodman trying to leave the church to McBride. We also got some backstory from those two, which was nice to see. We got Kelvin, Adam Devine, finally showing his love for Keef. It may have taken the whole season, but damn it paid off. But the best of the best was Edi Patterson as Judy. We learned a whole lot about her this season and Patterson was masterful at pulling all this off. From her tour to the stuff with her husband BJ, Tim Blatz, it all worked to perfection. I cannot wait for season four to come out.

At 3 I have "Jury Duty". I don't know how they were able to pull off such an elaborate prank revolved around jurors, but they did and it was a joy to watch unfold. This show took a real chance. Anything could have derailed the show at any second, but they were able to maneuver around any way of the "hero" finding out what was going on the whole time, until the end. James Marsden played an asshole version of himself, and it worked. A guy made chairpants, and it worked. Another guy and girl did a thing called "soaking", and it worked. A lawyer had one of the worst presentations I've ever seen, and it worked. They were able to pull off this wild prank, all the while not making our "hero" look like an idiot. If anything, he held it together better than any of us would have and I was stoked to see it all get revealed to him and for him to take home a cash prize. I hope they leave this show at one season because it is perfect.

At  2 I have season two of "The Bear". I didn't think they could top season one, and they didn't, but they made a great companion piece to one of the best shows on tv. This season gave us episodes that focused on the individuals that work together at the restaurant. Edibiri's character took us on a food tour of Chicago. Richie had to get knocked down before rising to the top. Fak had to do his magical repairs. Abbi Elliot's character got the job as the marketer for the restaurant and is having a baby. We even got the episode that showed Jeremy Allen White's character family at their worst. That episode has amazing cameos as well. "The Bear" continues to shine as the best show about food on tv. It is better than any cooking show or cooking based competition show. The food looks delicious, the acting is top notch and the direction is a thing of beauty. "The Bear" rules. But it is not my top show of the year.

At number 1 I have "The Last of Us". This show is a work of art. It is brutal. It is realistic. It is dreadful. It is violent. It is relentless. And I couldn't take my eyes off the screen when we watched. This show is truly one of a kind. Pedro Pascal is perfectly cast. Bella Ramsey is just as good and a perfect counterpoint. The Nick Offerman episode is, quite possibly, the best written, directed and acted episode in the history of television. Melanie Lynskey is a bad, bad lady in her episode. The episode with the deaf boy and his brother gives us hope, only to smack it out of our faces in the end. And as mad as I was at Joel for lying to Ellie in the season finale, it made me even more excited to see them deal with it in season two. "Last of Us" is an achievement unlike any other on television. They took this weird video game and made one of the best tv shows to ever exist. I am so pumped for season two.

That is it for tv. Come back tomorrow for my top podcasts of 2023. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Ty Watches "The Last of Us" Episode 3 "Long, Long Time"

Spoilers for anyone that has not seen the third episode of “The Last of Us”

We have started to watch "Last of Us" in my home. Many people have told us to watch and we are finally doing it. This show is incredible, but my goodness is it depressing and too close to reality. I fully believe something like this could happen, especially after how unprepared we were for COVID. I find myself depressed at times watching it because it feels too real. All that aside, the show is very well done, well written and well acted.

The first two episodes were a great way to get us into this universe, I guess it is based off a video game I have never played, but the third episode was something special. I had heard from the same people telling me and my wife to watch that this was the episode that would get us, both in good and bad ways. I also saw all the headlines when it initially aired and the hype was through the roof for me. The third episode exceeded my own personal hype, and then some.

This was a magical hour of television. I was in awe of what I was watching. I could not believe how they achieved their goal, and then took it even further. When the episode finished I told my wife that it was the best thing I have seen on tv in my entire life. We are two days removed from watching it and my feelings have not changed.

Nick Offerman played this doomsday prepper who wasn't going to leave his home when everything went down. He had a plan and he stuck to it. He had a fence around his property, he set up booby traps, he got what he needed to survive and he was living a quiet life by himself. Four years into everything a man trips and falls into one of his traps. Murray Bartlett, from "The White Lotus" and "Flight of the Conchords", played Frank. He was the person that fell. Bill, Offerman's character, helps him when he realizes he isn't infected, and expects him to leave by that night.

Frank ended up staying for the next 16 years. They fell in love. They had ups and downs like every couple. They showed each other things they had never seen before. They helped each other do things they had never done before. They made friends over the radio, most notably with Joel and Tess, the two main people from the Boston Quarantine Zone. They took care of one another. They exercised together. They painted and kept a garden together. They painted and played piano together. When Bill gets shot, Frank tends to his needs. When Frank grew ill, not infected, that needs to be said when talking about this show, Bill took care of him. They had this wonderful life together in this crazy time that this show and video game created. They found each other and they made it work. They seemed destined to find each other.

I was watching the episode and I couldn't believe how well they were showing true love. This is love. There are going to be fights, squabbles and arguments. Those will be resolved and laughed at later in life. There are going to be times when one partner has to take care of the other. They showed this masterfully in this episode. Couples are going to have their own personal preferences and styles and the way they showed them melding together was tremendous. I have never, in my life, seen a better version of true love portrayed on any medium. This was perfection.

This hour-long episode made me feel things I have never felt while engaged in pop culture. I laughed, I sobbed and I felt like it ended the best way it could have. My wife and I were puddles of emotion when it was over, but we loved what they had done. My wife can cry pretty easily at stuff like this, but it takes a lot to get me. This one got me and held me the entire time. I was consistently wiping tears from my face. My wife went through a ton of tissues. I was moved by this episode. This was perfection.

I do not know that anything will ever live up to what "Last of Us" did with their third episode. Shows like "Breaking Bad", "Better Call Saul", "The Simpsons" and "The Wire" may end up being better overall in the long run, but this episode of "Last of Us" might be the greatest episode of television that will ever exist. Even if you don't want to watch the show, or are a superfan of the video game and don't want to see a tv show about it, watch this episode. This is not in the video game, this is its own separate story and it is a masterclass in tv making history. My wife and I both said, and my dad for that matter as well, that Murray Bartlett and Nick Offerman, and the writers of this episode, should win every single tv award that they possibly can for this. This was a masterpiece and I am so thankful and grateful that I got to see.

What an absolutely wonderful hour of tv. Wow, just wow. My hat is off to you all. Thank you. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.