My List of the Top 10 Television Series of 2017

Continuing the tradition - just started two years ago - here is my Top 10 list for 2017,  from who knows how many series I've seen this past year on network television, cable, and streaming (Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Acorn):

Honorable mention (narrowly not making the list, for a variety of reasons):  On the list last year: Vikings was on my Top 10 list last year (that would be season 3).  Season 4 was excellent, but not quite as good in previous seasons.  (Season 5 has just begun, and I'm already liking it a little more than Season 4.) Returning in honorable mention: Chicago Fire is still superb, but still suffers from the limitations of network television.   Apples and oranges: Veep is still hilarious, but it's impossible to rank a comedy with dramas, so I put it here in honorable mentions. Same for the return of Curb Your Enthusiasm, which is in an hilarious class of its own. Closest runners-up: Twin Peaks: The Return (Showtime): sequels, especially broadcast years later, are always a difficult proposition, but Twin Peaks did this insanely well, literally;  Game of Thrones (Season 7) (HBO): best season so far, we finally got to see the dragons in action; Ozark (Netflix): an original, engrossing crime drama in an unlikely place; The Break (Netflix): top-notch Belgian noir, The Crown (Netflix): peerless drama of the first years of Queen Elizabeth II;  Mindhunter (Netflix) think Criminal Minds, unhindered by network mores

-> 17 December 2017 shoutout to Erased, a charming, very different kind of time travel series on Netflix, which I just saw last night.  It will definitely be on my Top 10 list next year.

-> 28 December 2017 I just finished streaming Travelers 2 - the first season was on my Top 10 list last year (2016) - Travelers 2 will surely be on my Top 10 list next year.

And now the Top 10:

10. 19-2 (final season, Acorn): back on the list from last year, one of the best cop shows ever on television; sorry to see it conclude

9. The Deuce (HBO): a gritty, in-your-face look at prostitution and the dawn of the porn industry in 1970s New York City, as only HBO can do it

8. Big Little Lies (HBO): sly, well-acted, delicious, brutal, and criminal

7. Four Seasons in Havana (Netflix): Cuban noir, based on four novels, about the exploits of detective with a secret life as a writer - you can't go wrong with this gem

6. Narcos (Season 3) (Netflix): 3rd year in a row on my Top 10 list, you can't beat the pace, the realism, and the sarcasm of the DEA-agent narrator

5. Dark (Netflix): there was a lot of time-travel on television in 2017 (12 Monkeys, Timeless, Time After Time, Somewhere Between, Outlander), but this German outing was the best, and wove at least half a dozen major paradoxes into the story

4. The Orville (Fox): the closest thing ever on television to the original Star Trek series, with some of The Next Generation on board with equivalent characters; and The Orville is often laugh-out-loud funny

3. Fauda (Netflix): a brilliant, riveting Mossad spy story, swat-team narrative, which treats Israelis and Arabs with almost equal sensitivity

2. Longmire (final season, 6) Netflix: this series just got better and better every every season, and saved the best for last with a truly satisfying story that tied up most of the loose ends

1. Sense8 (season 2) Netflix: telepathy is a relative rarity in science fiction, and Sense8 did it masterfully and memorably; destined to become a classic which will be watched for decades to come

See also My List of the Top Ten Television Series of 2015 and My List of the Top Ten Television Series of 2016

Longmire Season 6: Out From Under His Hat

Longmire certainly saved the best for its last season - 6 - which was better in every way than any of the previous seasons, including Walt Longmire finally getting out from under his hat, not just emotionally but physically, in lots of scenes in which he wasn't wearing that iconic sheriff's hat.

[spoilers ahead] ....

Whether his successor, daughter Cady aka Punk will wear a hat on the job at all remains to be seen, but probably not.  She'll also differ from her father in not getting into too many physical altercations (except maybe swinging a stake), and likely not shooting too much, either, but we'll need a sequel series to find out.

She'll have three able deputies - assuming she's elected - including Vic, which raises an interesting question.  She would find it very difficult to have a relationship with Walt if he continued as sheriff, because she can't bear to think of the danger of death he'll always be facing.  But how is Walt ok with that for Vic?

I guess Vic might try to be more cerebral, like Cady, but that's not really Vic's style.  Or maybe Vic will retire, too, but I can't quite see that, either. Well, at least the Ferg is well on his way to becoming a top-notch lawman, and Zach's sharp and tough, too.  Still, it's a little hard to see how this future sheriff's office will work, and that's testament to how hard it will be to replace Walt's, which was so good, despite and because of all the turmoil.

The Cheyennes were also better this season than before for all kinds of reasons.  It was great to see Mathias and Walt working together most of the time, instead of at odds.   Henry is also better as Walt's closest friend and ally, where he belongs, rather than lying to him for whatever good reason  in the previous season.  And even Nighthorse had his best season, coming to Walt's aid in the trial, and even being almost heroic at the end.

Longmire was a wonderful modern-day Western, a worthy successor to Cade's County, and at this point in a class of its own as a narrative for our time, in a beautiful but inevitably dangerous place where few of us actually live but we all inhabit metaphorically.

Great acting by Robert Taylor, Katee Sackhoff, Lou Diamond Phillips, Cassidy Freeman, Adam Bartley, A Martinez, Zahn McClarnon, Barry Sloane, and good to see Dylan Walsh, John Doman, and Peter Weller in short but powerful threads too.

See also Longmire Season 5 on Netflix

24 Legacy 1.3: First Big Card Revealed

The first big card was revealed in tonight's 24 Legacy 1.3.   The question is whether anything revealed this early is real or valid.  Sceptic that I am - especially regarding 24 plot structure - I'd say not.

That's why I didn't believe for a moment that Nilaa, Senator Donovan's chief assistant, was in with the terrorists, or even with the hacking, if the two were separate,  She as villain was much too easy, much too soon.

And I pretty much feel that way about Donovan's father, Henry.  He clearly was responsible for the hack, to the point of trying to pin it on Nilaa.   But I'm thinking he doesn't want a multi-pronged terrorist attack.  I mean, sure, it could help his son't campaign, but that still seems like going a little too far to believe.

Of course, part of the problem is that Gerald McRaney has been playing bad guys in high places, even in government of late, right?  He did that in House of Cards, and in Longmire he's a big businessman or rancher (I forget) who goes bad.  So it's easy to think he's a big bad guy in 24 Legacy.

But I don't think I'm buying.  Which leaves open the always intriguing question of who on the inside is doing this - helping set up and maybe even run the terrorists?  I have no idea, yet, except that in 24 fashion, it's bound to be a shock.  And while we're getting there, my favorite secondary plot development tonight was the kid not dying in high school, and Amira (with Kathryn Prescott's strong performance), managing to get into the ambulance with him, to make sure he does, if need be.

See also 24 Legacy 1.1: Dammit! I Liked It ... 24 Legacy 1.2: Heroes and Villains

Longmire Season 5 on Netflix

Just finished binge-watching Longmire Season 5 on Netflix, where it was better in most ways than in its first three seasons on A&E and the fourth on Netflix, which is saying a lot, since those first four seasons were outstanding.

In what follows, I'll talk in generalities for the most part, in case you haven't yet seen Season 5.  But if you've seen none of Longmire at all, you might want to move on from this review, at least until you've seen the first four seasons.

Netflix allows for stronger language, which suits the characters well.   The relationships among the characters also flourish in this new environment and narrative, which offers some of the best confrontations, coming to terms, and fallings apart we've seen in the series.

Among my favorites -

• Walt and Henry about Hector, in a stand-out knock-down scene
• Vic and her loyalty to Walt, an inspiration to see
• Walt and Nighthorse - indeed, the evolution of their relationship is surprising and surprisingly satisfying yet realistic

Speaking of surprises, the fifth season has a good gallery of villains, local and national, mostly unexpected.  Some of these percolate through the season, others come on in the last few episodes, and if I have any complaints about this fifth season, it's that it introduces a crucial villain a little late in the story.   And the ending itself - well, it maybe leaves us hanging with at least one life-and-death situation, and one just missed true-love engagement, too many.

But the idea of such cliffhangers is to whet our appetite for another season, which Netflix will be providing, and I'll be watching, disappointed only that this sixth season will be the final season for this fine and unique series, unless yet another venue picks it up.