Josh’s Favorite TV Series of 2023 — Part One!

I’m excited to kick off my Best of 2023 lists with this, my list of my favorite TV series of 2023!!

There was a lot of great TV in 2023, and I watched a lot of it… but even so, as always, there were plenty of shows I wanted to see but didn’t get to.  These include, but aren’t limited to, The Beef, Mrs. Davis, American Born Chinese, Reservation Dogs, Fargo season 5, Black Mirror season 6, Barry season 4, Schmigadoon season 2, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel season 5… and lots more!

Of the shows I did see, I’d like to give honorable mentions to The Afterparty season 2 (which was a surprisingly fun and clever expansion of what I’d assumed was a fun one-and-done show), Star Wars Visions season 2 (which had an array of wonderfully beautiful animated shorts from studios across the world, including Aardman Studios, the company responsible for Wallace and Gromit!!), and Platonic (which mined tremendous comedic fun from reuniting Neighbors co-stars Seth Rogan and Rose Byrne as long-time friends with an incredible ability to wreak havoc in one another’s lives).

And now, my list of my favorite TV series of 2023:

20. Invincible season 2 part 1 — This was one of my favorite shows of 2021 and it’d be higher on this list if we’d gotten a complete season, instead of just a four-episode half-season (plus the great Atom Eve special).  Nevertheless, it’s still an incredible show!!  It explodes the entire idea of a superhero TV show, taking classic concepts and turning them on their side.  These stories are all told through an adult prism; this world has ultra-violence and flawed characters who don’t always make the right choices.  I was a huge fan of the comic book series, and I absolutely adore this animated adaptation on Amazon Prime Video.  If you enjoy superhero stories and you haven’t yet seen Invincible, check it out!  (Click here to read my review of the first half of season 2.)

19. Reacher season 2 — This show is big dumb fun (sort of like its main character) — I wish it was better, and at the same time I really enjoy watching every episode!  This second season is based on the twelfth Reacher novel by Lee Child, Bad Luck and Trouble; it’s a terrific choice for the adaptation, as it’s a thrilling mystery/adventure that involves Reacher’s old army team of Special Investigators.  (“Don’t mess with the Special Investigators!”)  I loved those characters in the book, and they’re skillfully brought to life on the show — they’re a great addition to the mix.  The show is exciting and with it’s got good, bone-crunching action.  I wish the actor who played Reacher was better, and every time the show diverges from the book’s sharp plotting it tends to be for the worse (it feels like the plot of the book could have filled five-to-six episodes, and they felt they had to stretch the show to fill eight).  But nevertheless, the show is great fun to sit back and enjoy!  (My full review of season 2 will be coming soon.)

18. SmartLess on the Road — This was a surprise!  I’m a big fan of the SmartLess podcast, starring Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, and Sean Hayes, and this documentary series — filmed as they took their podcast on the road last year — is tremendous fun!!  The first half to two-thirds of each episode follows the threesome’s antics as they hang out in their hotel rooms, dressing rooms, planes and buses, while the final chunk of each episode contains a generous array of clips from their live performance(s).  The three guys are so funny together; it’s endlessly enjoyable watching them hang out and ceaselessly taking the piss out of one another.  And, of course, it’s a pleasure watching them chat with their podcast’s guests, such as Will Ferrell, Conan O’Brien, David Letterman, Andy Richter, Matt Damon, Kevin Hart, Jimmy Kimmel, Jennifer Aniston, and more.  This was a ton of fun!  (Click here for my full review.)

17. Disenchantment season 5 — Matt Groening and Josh Weinstein’s animated fantasy comedy/adventure series came to a conclusion this year, and I was totally satisfied by how it all wrapped up.  I’m grateful Netflix allowed this show to run for five full seasons and that Mr. Groening & co. were able to tell this story.  Disenchantment centers on Bean (voiced by Abbi Jacobson), the stubborn, hard-drinking princess of Dreamland, and her two close friends, the elf Elfo (Nat Faxon) and the demon Luci (Eric André).  Much of the show has centered on Bean’s conflict with her evil mother Dagmar (Sharon Horgan), a cruel sorcerer who has long attempted to take over the kingdom.  Disenchantment tells an epic story, filled with various fantasy kingdoms and bizarre locations, each of whose leaders have competing schemes and plans; it’s also a wonderful character story that digs deep into Bean, Elfo, and Luci, and takes all three on a compelling journey.  The show is a fun fantasy adventure that is also, always, very funny.  I’m sad it’s over.  (Click here for my review of season five.)

16. History of the World Part II — I never had any hopes or expectation that there would be a sequel to Mel Brooks’ 1981 film History of the World (Part 1).  That Part 1 was always a joke!  It’s pretty crazy that, forty-two years after Part 1, we’d be blessed with History of the World Part II!  Overseen by comedians Nick Kroll, Ike Barinholtz, and Wanda Sykes, along with David Stassen and the great Mel Brooks himself, History of the World Part II was a delightful eight-episode Hulu mini-series.  This concept arguably works even better as a mini-series than a movie.  I enjoyed watching an episode or two at a time, and then coming back later.  If this had been a two-hour movie, my attention might have waned, but as short twenty-to-thirty minute episodes, I thought this worked great and kept me entertained.  When the show was really cooking, I found it uproariously funny.  Some of my favorite sketches were the story of Jesus as a Curb Your Enthusiasm episode (with Nick Kroll playing Judas as Larry David), and the Council of Nicaea, in which a bunch of white Christians decide how to rework the story of Jesus more to their liking.  (Two great Jesus sketches!  And there’s actually three, because I haven’t mentioned The Last Supper Sessions, a version of Peter Jackson’s recent Get Back Beatles documentary, with Jesus and his apostles as the Beatles.)  I also loved the sketch in which Kumail Nanjiani plays a man pitching the Kama Sutra to publishers; Alexander Graham Bell getting the first crank call; Shakespeare’s writer’s room; and Jack Black as a singing Stalin.  (I laughed a lot at that Stalin CCCPR joke.)  This was a great show!  I hope we get a Part III!!  (Click here for my full review.)

Thanks for reading!  C’mon back soon for part two of my list!

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