My Favorite 2019 TV Watches

Hello!

This blog post is a bit overdue now that it's been one month into 2020 but better late than never :)

In 2019 we were blessed with some amazing TV and I was fortunate enough to be able to watch a small portion of them. Sadly I don't have all of the time in the world to watch everything that the internet is raving about (West World, Watchmen, etc), but below are shows that now have a special place in my heart. The ranking isn't very serious but it's a general gist of how I would rank them.

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10. Orange is the New Black (Season 7)

I have pretty fond memories of OITNB because I started watching it in the summer of 2015 with one of my good friends and we would binge this show together. I was first entranced by this show because I loved the story-telling and learning the background of all of the inmates. As the show went on, my friend and I stopped watching together and my interest started falling off. I didn't feel the same magic of the show that I felt in the beginning. However, I still continued watching as the seasons came out.

Season 6 reignited my interest of the show and season 7 kept it. During season 7, I remembered why I liked the show so much in the first place. The writers did a great job of incorporating the backstories of all of the main characters in the show so we can understand how their upbringing affected their behavior and their decision making. I love shows with dynamic personalities and character development. The political messages in the show were also prevalent and I thought it brought great awareness to the problems in our justice system, immigrant policies, and prisoner's rights.

The ending was definitely bittersweet with a dose of reality. My heart broke for some of the inmates, some inmates gave me hope, and I was straight up annoyed with some of them (I'm looking at you Piper). It was definitely an appropriate ending so it can highlight the severity of the issues they brought up this season. I'm sad that the show is over now but I'm left with closure.

9. The End of the F**king World (Season 2)

This show took me by surprise, which is why it earned a spot on my list. I didn't have much expectations going into it and I watched it on a whim. What got me about this show was the character development, the bond Alyssa and James had, and my own emotional attachment to them. At first I thought Alyssa was kind of annoying and James was up to no good, but as the series progressed, we learned that they were just trying to figure out how to process their trauma with little to no guidance and they eventually found comfort in each other. The end of season 1 broke my heart as we didn't know Jame's fate so I was excited to find out what's going to happen to the duo when season 2 was announced. It would have been okay if they didn't make a season 2 since I thought the ending of season 1 left a nice vague ending for the viewers, but hey if there's going to be a season 2 I'll take it!

Season 2 happens and we learn that more unfortunate events has happened for our duo and that there's an additional character who is more connected to them than they think. Similar to season 1, I thought the show did a great job at making us sympathize for our protagonists (especially James, my god that poor boy). I thought that Bonnie was an amazing addition to the show and highlights the affects of what happens when you don't treat your trauma and when you've been deprived of love your whole life. Even though she wanted to kill Alyssa and James the whole time, the more that I learned about her, the more I felt sorry for her. I really enjoyed this show, as grim as it may seem at times, but I thought it was a great example of dynamic characters and the benefit of emotional attachments in storytelling.

8. Silicon Valley (Season 6)

How can I not talk about Silicon Valley? It was one of the few shows that I willingly waited for each week (I love to binge shows). I also currently live in Silicon Valley, so it's kind of a requirement that I watch it. I was so sad that this was going to be the last season, but at least it was a good one. Filled with cliche tech bros, criticism/satire of tech life, witty one-liners, and of course our favorite Pied Piper founders. I loved the dynamic between each character and seeing how they made their tiny start-up into a large tech company. I thought the ending of the show was great and I'm generally satisfied with it. My favorite part about the finale was when they were doing their documentary at the end of the episode and the whole gang looked super old (even though it was only 10 years later) and Jared looked exactly the same as before. I demand that we get a prequel for Jared! We must know about his past and everything that he has gone through! So yeah, personally I think this is one of the funniest shows out there and I'll miss doing my weekly recap with my coworkers. ALWAYS BLUE.

7. The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (Season 2)

Okay, I will admit, this show is a guilty pleasure for me. It's not the best show out there, but dang I really enjoyed it. It's a little cheesy since their primary demographic is teenage girls and it's by the same people who made Riverdale, but hey at least it's a very aesthetic show with great production value. I really liked the twist they have on this show compared to the lighthearted sitcom that I use to watch as a kid. I love all of the "Hail Satans" and funny witch antics that we humans would deem as unholy. I became invested in Sabrina's journey of navigating through the human and witch world and her identity struggle of being half witch and mortal. I loved how confident and charismatic Sabrina is and how she constantly stands up to the misogyny she witnesses. I will also admit that this show does get pretty creepy at times with all of the demons and they did a good job at building suspense where needed. So yeah, this show isn't for everyone but I have no regrets watching it!

6. The Good Place (Season 3)

Ah The Good Place is one of the few shows where I was immediately hooked after the first episode. It's funny, filled with plot twists, and character development. Season 1 was amazing, season 2 struggled a bit, and season 3 went back to amazing. Ah you just gotta watch it! I'm so sad that the next season is the last, but all good things must come to an end. I don't have too much to say aside from, WATCH THE GOOD PLACE.

5. Jane the Virgin (Season 5)

Another series finale! What makes Jane the Virgin so unique and memorable is simply because it's a take on a classic telenovela. I am personally a fan because I grew up watching Chinese and Korean dramas so I easily adapted to the telenovela format. Plus it's such a different show synopsis, like in what other show has someone ever got accidentally inseminated?! Then there's the betrayals, the love triangles, the secret identities, every dramatic thing that you can think of happened on this show! I loved it. This show is soooo much fun and talks a lot about the importance of family, staying true to who you are, and finding your passion. I was actually quite sad when I realized that the show was over (I didn't know this was the last season as I was watching it haha). I would recommend it!

4. Looking for Alaska

Oh man oh man, Looking for Alaska had me feeling some type of way. I was excited to watch it because I loveddd the book when I read it as a teenager so I was interested to see how it would be adapted on the screen. To be honest, I didn't remember a lot of the book while I was watching it so it was kind of like I was going through the story all over again (except that I knew the ending to the story). It started off kind of slow, enchanting us with the beautiful cinematography, witnessing the pranks they would pull, learning each character's view on philosophy, and it's all leading to the countdown that is presented at the end of each episode. Even though I knew what was going to happen at the end, it still took me by surprise. The acting was phenomenal and the last two episodes hit me like a ton of bricks. I cried and when I was done watching the series, I had to just sit there and think. The ending of the show posed a few questions that I have personally pondered myself and it gave me comfort that I wasn't the only one wondering the same thing. Yeah, this show wrecked me. But in a good way.

However I wouldn't recommend this show to everybody because some people don't like how unrealistic the dialogue is since they are very well spoken teenagers. I personally didn't mind it because it is the world that John Green made so I will respect that. I will admit that the build-up to the climax of the show was on the slower side, but I think the last two episodes make up for it. The show is more about the personal journey that each character goes through and how they cope with their situations. Yeah I don't want to spoil too much. Just watch it and let me know what you think!

3. Killing Eve (Season 1)

Ohhh my godddddd. Killing Eve is a masterpiece. I started watching it after Sandra Oh won the Golden Globe for her role of Eve and I had to see why (I loved Sandra as Cristina Yang on Grey's Anatomy by the way). Like seriously, this show is amazing. It has action, psychopaths, suspense, character development, comedy, strong female protagonists, and AMAZING ACTING FROM SANDRA OH AND JODIE COMER my god. Of course this show is amazing, it's written by Phoebe Waller-Bridge. The dynamic between Eve and Villanelle is so dang fascinating and I loveeee seeing them interact with each other in the show. Ugh I cannot get enough of Killing Eve. And I just have season 1 listed because I saw it on 2019 and saw season 2 in 2020 BUT SEASON TWO WAS AMAZING TOO. I can't wait for season 3!! Killing Eve is a much watch!!

2. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Seasons 1-3)

I loveeee Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Smart writing, quick dialogue, SUPER FUNNY, great great acting, interesting characters, brilliant cinematography, high production value, beautifuuuul sets & costumes, and more character development. There's at least one memorable scene from each episode and all of the episodes are just so dang good. I also love the premise of the show, a female stand-up comedian in the late 1950's? Sign me up! Each season just gets better and better too. I was so sad when I caught up by finishing season 3 because it means that we're probably going to have to wait another year for the next season. I even tried to not binge it so I could enjoy it for longer. Dang, after writing this paragraph I want to re-watch the show again (And I usually don't feel the need to re-watch things). But yeah, love love love this show and you should watch it!

1. Fleabag (Seasons 1 & 2)

And here we are at number one. Of course it is Fleabag. Fleabag has been winning all of the awards lately and for good reason too! When I was done watching Fleabag, I was OBSESSED. I couldn't stop thinking about it. Now I mentioned witty and smart writing in the previous shows, but this show is the ultimate example of of witty and smart writing. This is seriously one of Phoebe Waller-Bridge's best works (that I have seen so far). I love the relationship between Fleabag and Claire, I love seeing Fleabag navigate through several romantic relationships, I love passive-aggressive godmother, I love the hot priest, I love Hillary, I love the twist of finding out Fleabag's secret, I love all of the one-liners, I love everything about this show. To me, this show is perfect and I don't have anything bad to say about it. I've seen people say that they can't stand Fleabag as a character, but in that case I say skip to season 2 because hot priest. Yeah, that's all.

But another big reason why I adore this show is how she addresses grief. One of the reasons why Fleabag does what she does is because she doesn't know how to deal with the grief of losing her mother and her best friend in season 1. There's this one line in season 2 that hit me. Fleabag goes "With all of the love I have for her. I don't know where to put it now." I thought that one line really concisely represented the feeling of grief so well. You have all of this love for this person that's not here anymore, so what do you do with it? I've never watched anything that described grief just as well as Fleabag has. So yeah I've re-watched Fleabag 3 times, I will probably re-watch it again because I always notice something new, and I've seen her one woman show when a recording of it was showing in the theaters. You gotta watch this show and make your own opinion.

Honorable Mentions:

I decided to have an honorable mention section because there was amazing shows that I didn't watch in 2019 but I still wanted to talk about anyways. Here they are!

1. Sharp Objects

Sharp Objects was my biggest recommendation of 2018. Oh god this was so dramatic and kept me at the edge of my seat for the whole second half of this show. I was so hooked that I had to watch the last 4 episodes all together even though it meant staying up super late on a weeknight. But I haaaad to know what happened and how it ended! The ending was the best show ending that I have ever seen, my jaw dropped when it happened. The beginning of the show was a little slow but it built over time until it seemed like you were running and couldn't stop. It's dark, suspenseful, mysterious, and perfect. Highly recommend. After watching this show, I watched Gone Girl because I wanted to see more work by Gillian Flynn and it was also amazing.

2. True Detective (Seasons 1 & 3)

I watched True Detective after I watched Sharp Objects because I needed more mysterious and dark shows. I was told to skip season 2 so that is what I did. Season 1 was amazing and season 3 was great. Phenomenal acting from the protagonists in each season and kept me wondering the whole time. I remember being slightly dissatisfied from the endings though, but it didn't ruin my overall experience with the show though. Would also recommend.

3. This is Us

All abroad the feels train for This is Us! This is Us is one of the other few shows that I'll keep up with a weekly basis. It's really hard to describe this show because it sounds so ordinary, but when you watch it you'll understand why everybody is watching this show. It is currently on season 4 and for hopefully many more seasons. I think the reason why people love this show so much is because you grow to really care about the characters and have an emotional attachment to them so you would want to see what happens with them. The only thing is that the dialogue sounds too perfect at times, but I don't mind it much. Watch this show if you wanna feel some emotions.

4. Mind Hunter

Another great detective show! What makes Mind Hunter stand out from other shows is that it's based on real serial killers and it shows the beginning of using the technique of profiling. It is really fascinating and I enjoyed watching the two seasons on Netflix. It gets placed in honorable mention though because season 2 took so long to come out and we don't know when season 3 will be coming out since the director has a bunch of other projects going on so it is hard to keep the excitement up for this show. It is seriously super well done though.

5. My Hero Academia

It's been a while since I've watched anime and my god I got hooked to My Hero Academia. There were times where I intended on watching one or two episodes but I ended up watching 8. I just love it so much because it's so uplifting and it's a good reminder to not give up on your dreams. I also love Deku because he's such a likeable protagonist. I'm quite behind on season 4 though so I need to catch up.

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Okay that's my list! I'm thinking about making a movies list too but we shall see. I think I prefer the TV format more, but I do really enjoy movies and 2019 had some fantastic movies.

Until next time, my friend

Amanda