This article originally appeared on Complex.com
One of the biggest, if not the biggest, stories in Hollywood for 2020 is without a doubt how COVID-19 shifted the entire game. Most of the impact was felt by the film industry, for sure; while movies have been released, the potential box office destroyers (No Time to Die, Black Widow, Mulan, etc.) that should already be out got their release dates pushed back, sometimes more than once (we'll see what happens to Tenet). The TV industry felt it as well—with the rona touching down in early spring, a number of shows with active seasons had to truncate their series orders to accommodate for the missing episodes (Riverdale), while others split up their seasons or took different routes to fill in space (One Day at a Time, Black Monday). That said, there was more than enough heat hitting the plethora of streaming services and TV channels at our disposal.
The game's also shifted; 2020 saw the debut of HBO Max and Quibi debuting, with new streaming channels like Peacock set to further give you a grip of TV shows you have to then figure out how to fit into your schedule. That point might be moot, honestly, given that the cream of the crop seem to still be residing on HBO, FX, and other top-tier stations. Or they are just making more heat than your average network. Whatever the situation is, we've seen some of our favorite series make triumphant returns, slept-on shows continue to get slept-on (even with a loud minority in tow), and others series really finding ways to cut through the chatter of a system that can see the release of whole-ass TV seasons dropping damn near on a weekly basis, although some behemoths might average a new season of a show damn near every other day.
No matter what your viewing habits are, we know that, at the halfway mark for 2020, the Complex Pop Culture squad assembled the best TV shows that have aired this year.
16. 'Devs'
Network: FX
Season: 1 (Mini-series)
Where to Watch: FX on Hulu
People come to television in search of many different experiences. There’s the hangout show; most typically a comedy, it involves characters hanging out and shooting the breeze. There’s the prestigious show; which often features a high-profile actor or creator with weighty material that feels Important. However, when it comes to FX and Hulu’s Devs, the show is far more of a, shall we say, mood or experience than it is anything else.
Entirely written and directed by sci-fi wunderkind Alex Garland (Ex Machina), Devs can be exceedingly difficult to explain, but I’ll do my best to do so without giving the whole thing away: The show focuses on a Silicon Valley tech company named Amaya, whose development team (get it?) is working on a secret project at the behest of CEO Forest (Nick Offerman). Lily Chan (Sonoya Mizuno) is drawn deeper into the mystery of the project after the sudden and inexplicable suicide of her boyfriend, who had just started a new role with the team.
This is about as straightforward as Devs gets, as it soon turns into a weighty treatise on free will, determinism, and the evils of corporate greed. If you’re excited by any of those themes, congrats, you’re going to absolutely love Devs. The show never lacks in ambition, diving deep into big ideas and concepts. It’s not a passive show either. Instead, it rightfully demands your attention with every beautifully composed shot. Far and away the best-looking show to have aired in 2020, the visuals of Devs frequently evoke Kubrick in their framing and staging. Additionally, Garland manages to make the well-worn landscape of San Francisco feel as alien as The Shimmer did in Annihilation. The show isn’t without its fits and spurts, however. It’s purposefully methodical in its intentions and storytelling, which means this deliberate pace certainly won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. If it is yours, however, Devs offers a singularly unique experience that is exactly what we need from our stories.
The thing with mood-based television is that its success ultimately comes down to whether or not you’re willing to take a specific journey with a very purposeful creator. For those willing, following Garland down his rabbit hole will find a new Wonderland, one you’ve likely never seen before. So many of the show’s moments have lingered in my mind long after airing, beautifully imprinted like a tapestry adorning a wall. That is to say: Perhaps Devs isn’t so much an experience as it is a feeling.
12. 'What We Do in the Shadows'
Network: FX
Season: 2
Where to Watch: FX on Hulu
It is an exceedingly difficult challenge to successfully adapt a film to a television series. Unless you’re a place like HBO—who has the money to pump into shows like Westworld—these projects frequently lose their cinematic spectacle when translated to a smaller screen. The same can’t be said for FX’s film-to-television version of What We Do in the Shadows. If anything, the show is stronger—and funnier—by letting its central premise sprawl unfold across a few hours.
As I’ve previously discussed, the second season of Shadows was when the show really found its stride. Well-acquainted with the show’s core vampire group of Nandor (Kayvan Novak), Laszlo (Matt Berry), and Nadja (Natasia Demetriou) Guillermo (Harvey Guillén) as Nandor’s familiar and caretaker; and energy vampire Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch) the sophomore season goes further, introducing shamans, zombies, ghosts, trolls, and witches—all with hilarious results that feel like natural extensions of an inherently supernatural show.
The other half of the continued expansion is the show’s dedication to providing strong, standalone moments for individual characters. The real standout involved Matt Berry’s Laszlo absconding from the group’s Staten Island home after the return of an old rival. Laszlo then relocates and takes on a ‘human’ disguise just by...placing a toothpick in his mouth and renaming himself “Jackie Daytona.” In most other comedies, this plot would likely be regulated to a more minor role. However, in Shadows, it takes center stage and provides a showcase episode that’s inspired and stupid, but never not funny.
This balance is the core of what makes Shadows so brilliant to behold and so fun to watch. Sure, characters are often dumber than a sack of dirt, but the show is consistently intelligent in how it executes its jokes on behalf of those characters. It feels like there’s so much left for What We Do in the Shadows to sink its teeth into—and I’m certainly eager for whatever hilarious absurdity awaits us next.
1. 'Better Call Saul'
Network: AMC
Season: 5
Where to Watch: AMC
Better Call Saul seemed like an underdog. The Breaking Bad prequel/spinoff arrived with a healthy amount of skepticism—understandably so! Vince Gilligan had just delivered a deeply satisfying conclusion to the story of Walter White, so why tempt fate a second time? Especially with a character who was, for the most part, around to be comedic relief as the states got increasingly darker and more dramatic?
Well, Season 5 of Better Call Saul certainly made fools of us all.
Don’t get me wrong, while I’ve been a fan of the Peter Gould and Vince Gilligan show since it started (and have certainly done my fair share of advocacy for those prior seasons on this very site) but Season 5 elevated itself into a whole new stratosphere, landing in a certain rarefied air few series can hope to achieve. Saul has always functioned as a somewhat bifurcated product. On one side, you had the lawyer aspects of the show, exemplified by Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk) and Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn). The other functioned as more of the dedicated Breaking Bad prequel featuring Mike Ehrmantraut in his early days of working with Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito).
While the early goings of the show saw a slight crossover between the two halves, they largely stayed apart...until Season 5 essentially ran the two into one another like a high-speed collision. The resulting show was explosive—both literally and figuratively. Jimmy’s full transition into Saul Goodman puts him directly into the wake of some unsavory characters and dangerous positions, all of which eventually spilled out into his home life with Kim. On the subject of Kim, Rhea Seehorn’s performance has always been superlative—but Season 5 saw her elevate her acting time and time again. It was already a shame she’s not been nominated for an Emmy, but it’ll be nothing short of negligent if she’s not among the awards pool this go-round. Other highlights included the Vince Gilligan-directed “Bagman,” which solidified itself in the same breath as Breaking Bad classics like “Fly” and “Ozymandias.”
On the other side of the fifth season, there’s now no doubt Better Call Saul is absolutely worthy of the legacy Breaking Bad left in its wake. We never should have doubted Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould, as it’s clear they’ve managed to capture lightning in a bottle for a second time. The scrappy underdog has victoriously emerged as a full-grown beast. Underestimate it at your own peril.