The Best TV Shows I Watched in 2017

First off, I didn't see everything on the tube (tubes? flat screens? tiny flat screens?) this year. How could I? How could anyone? With programming -- good, hell, excellent programming -- coming at us from all directions, we have to pick and choose, and there's going to be some gold that gets left by the wayside. Here are the 10 shows that had the most impact on me last year, the ones I found the most exciting, the most entertaining or just the plain old most fun. And leading that list, as I mentioned in my 2017 movie roundup, is the most memorable, mind-bending thing I've seen on any screen in a good long time...
Twin Peaks: I expressed my love for David Lynch and Mark Frost's brazenly strange masterpiece in my movie recap, but there's one more thing I wanted to mention. Many (all?) returning TV shows get some mileage out of nostalgia for the earlier version, but I've never seen a show draw so much sheer emotional power from the passage of time as "Twin Peaks." The original series aired more than 25 years ago, and most of the cast hasn't been very busy in the meantime. That means we witnessed the site of characters we last saw in high school (at least) now firmly planted in middle age, with all the pining for days gone by -- both from them and us -- that implies. For me, one of the simplest but most powerful -- even devastating -- moments in the entire series was when former bad boy Bobby Briggs (Dana Ashbrook) stood in the sheriff's office in his police uniform and stared at the box of evidence relating to the long-ago murder of his girlfriend, Laura Palmer. It's hard to put into words, but the expression on his face, of sadness, of wisdom, of regret and most of all, of of time moving on, had as much of an impact on me as anything involving Dale Cooper, Gordon Cole of the "This is the water..." guy. "Twin Peaks," at its best, has always found magic in the combination of the bizarre and the mundane, and this scene proved the small, normal moments of life are as spellbinding as the weirdest of the weird stuff.

American Vandal: Just finished this one, and I cannot express how good it is. It's a mockumentary about spray-painted penises that spoofs "Serial" and "Making a Murderer," sure, but it's also much more compelling than either of those shows, a hell of a lot funnier and, while we're at it, one of the best looks at the taxonomy of a high school I've ever seen. If you've got Netflix, watch it. Now.

Feud: I've never much cared for Ryan Murphy's other shows, but I am a huge fan of old Hollywood (as this blog should've hinted at by now), so I was curious -- if cautious. Thankfully, the wife wanted to watch it, and I tagged along. What I worried would be nothing more than a camp screech-fest turned out to be an insanely entertaining look at showbiz legend and lore.

Legion: Until "Twin Peaks" hit the air, this show had the lock on the strangest TV series to earn my love in 2017. It's still great, and proof of how imaginative the super-hero concept can be if someone with a vision (in this case, Noah Hawley) takes the reins. Visually amazing and conceptually daring. Can't wait to see what comes next.

Silicon Valley: The thing about "Silicon Valley" is it's not just one of the funniest shows on TV, it's also one of the most tightly plotted. This season, where Richard tried to invent a new Internet, was no exception, and watching our heroes fail and succeed over and over was as suspenseful as any drama. I'll miss having T.J. Miller as the show's designated id, but this cast is strong enough that I don't think I'll miss him much.

Mindhunters: One of the smartest, most mesmerizing shows I've seen in a while, avoiding the usual cliches of serial killers by going back to the time when that term was first coined. The whole cast is great, including the actors playing the various killers, but Johnathan Groff holds it all together playing an average, nice, normal guy who plenty bubbling just under the surface.

At Home With Amy Sedaris: The wife and I have been fans of Amy Sedaris since her days on "Strangers With Candy," so we had high hopes for this spoof the Martha Stewart-type craft programs. Thankfully, those hopes were met -- and exceeded -- by the bizarre yet cheery concoction Sedaris and company came up with. It's funny, consistently imaginative and weirder than you'd guess. A lot weirder. A lot.

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: My favorite sitcom had a very strong season this year (it's twelfth!), kicking things off with "The Gang Turns Black," a musical episode that actually had some surprising things to say about race and privilege (and "Quantum Leap"). The season also included "Hero Or Hate Crime," one of the most astonishing episodes I've seen, pushing the boundaries of what you can say on TV to arrive at the startling (but sincere) moment when Mac admits he's gay, and, what's more, admits he's happy to say so. It's amazing that a show about such horrible characters is offering one of the most insightful, oddly hopeful look at life in these United States.

Black Mirror: Strong season for Charlie Brooker's tech-nightmare "Twilight Zone." I'd say "Hang the DJ" and "USS Callister" (shown above) were the standouts, but all of the episodes were pretty good, and a few even offered semi-happy endings.

Game of Thrones: It was a bit uneven, like all seasons of "GOT" tend to be, but this is the one that really cut loose, with all the characters meeting, the dragons finally being unleashed and all the pieces put on the board for the final season. It's not the most subtle show on the air, but when it delivers the good, it really delivers the goods.

Runners up: "Curb Your Enthusiasm" (great to have Larry back, but a little too much "Hamilton"), "Veep," "Stranger Things" (that dance at the end was my favorite part), "Fargo" and a whole lot of other stuff I've forgotten.