When ranking the best TV of 2023, I have to mention once again that, while I’ve done better than years before in TV watching, there are still some major titles missing from this list. I do plan to get around to shows like Shrinking, Abbott Elementary, Reservation Dogs, and The Righteous Gemstones, but that day is not today. Judge the following list accordingly.

Runners-Up (in Alphabetical Order):

• Barry
• Beef
• Big Mouth
• Blue Eye Samurai
• The Buccaneers
• The Crown
• Harley Quinn
• I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson
• I’m a Virgo
• Invincible
• Monarch: Legacy of Monsters
• Only Murders in the Building
• Silo
• We Lost Our Human
• What We Do in the Shadows

10. Star Wars: Visions

2023 was an up-and-down year for the Star Wars universe, with a weak third season of The Mandalorian and uneven reactions to Ahsoka. But Disney wisely returned to perhaps its greatest property from the galaxy far, far away with a second season of Star Wars: Visions. This go-around, the anthology series expanded from Japanese animation studios to studios from around the world. What makes Visions so memorable is that it plays into the true potential of Star Wars: the unlimited number of stories to be told, with or without the Skywalker family. The show utilized incredible, varied animation styles in episodes like Sith and Journey to the Dark Head, giving the spotlight to studios worth recognizing. I’m ambivalent on the future of Star Wars films and TV shows, but I sincerely hope Disney continues to invest in more diverse stories in Star Wars: Visions.

9. The Other Two

Setting aside the unexpected end of The Other Two, and the reports around its creators, the show went out on a perfect note, ending as one of the best comedies of the year. The Hollywood satire got weirder and funnier in season three, with standout episodes like Cary and Brooke Go to an AIDS Play and Brooke Gets Her Hands Dirty. That The Other Two managed to blend character and situational humor with scathing critiques of the entertainment ecosystem proves that it’s worthy of being mentioned along with the best of the genre. Every bizarre piece of pop culture news that broke in 2023 feels like it could have been ripped from an episode of the show, whether it be something involving Cary, Brooke, Pat, Chase, Streeter, or any of the show’s other demented creations. For life to imitate art so perfectly is perhaps the greatest compliment to give a Hollywood satire, but that’s the level of excellence that The Other Two warrants.

8. Scott Pilgrim Takes Off

Bryan Lee O’Malley’s comic already had a stellar adaptation from Edgar Wright in 2011, so why “remake” something that already worked so well? Turns out Scott Pilgrim Takes Off had more to say not just about its eccentric characters, but on the nature of relationships and youth. By centering the series more on Ramona Flowers, the show allows itself to explore each of her seven exes, and simultaneously tell smarter and sillier stories. It’s an adept piece of adaptation that uses its anime style to go to some undoubtedly weird places, each just as surprising and poignant as the last. I have no idea if more episodes of Scott Pilgrim Takes Off will come, with or without the same voice cast, but I’ll be more than happy to tag along for the ride.

7. The Curse

The Curse is perhaps the most twisted dark comedy on television since, well, Nathan Fielder’s last project. And while the show may share some similarities with The Rehearsal, Fielder and Benny Safdie’s scripted project is very much its own thing. An inky black comedy about home improvement television slowly and smartly morphs into an examination of the kind of demented personalities that flock to the format. Emma Stone continues her winning streak, naturally playing Whitney’s naivete around the harm she continues to perpetuate in the New Mexico community, and each new revelation of her character is a twisted delight. The same could be said for Fielder’s Asher, who’s somehow a sillier and more menacing figure but no less misguided. With The Curse, the journey may be predictable to some degree, but the bumps along the road are some of the year’s best.

6. The Last of Us

I knew very little about The Last of Us before I began watching the show – never played the games, never read about the premise or story – but was quickly won over by everything it became. (I’ve since played both games.) Yes, showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann mostly followed the structure of the game, but the detours provided just as much drama and character development as the source material. Of course, it helps when you have the massive budget to pull of the special effects and production design of a post-apocalyptic world, where every detail is beautifully rendered and executed. Whether future seasons continue to faithfully adhere to the developments of the games or not, The Last of Us is an exciting piece of adaptation that touches on profound themes that gamers and non-gamers can enjoy.

5. Bluey

Any release of new Bluey episodes is a cause for celebration, whether it’s a full season or the twelve episodes we got in 2023. Though the new batch perhaps wasn’t as formally ambitious or creative as previous installments, the show still managed to keep up its warm and insightful tone that it’s cultivated since its inception. There’s an unquantifiable joy to every episode, like in the sports-focused “The Decider”, but the show also knows how to effectively pull at the heartstrings in unexpected ways, like in the all-timer “Onesies”, “Turtleboy”, and also somehow “The Decider”. Great television finds ways to depict real life experiences in new and thoughtful ways, regardless of how familiar they are. It’s a miracle that a show about talking dogs can do so, while appealing to adults and children alike.

4. How To with John Wilson

Part of the magic in How To with John Wilson is in its manic unpredictability, how an episode can ostensibly be about one thing and rapidly morph into another thing entirely. Consider the “How to Watch Birds” episode, beginning as its title might suggest, but slowly becoming a meditation on truth. Throughout all six episodes, Wilson’s camera continued to capture New Yorkers, their animals, and their stuff, blissfully unaware of his existence and lost in their own moments. But through his incisive voiceover narration, Wilson juxtaposed these banal moments to create an improbable mixture of hilarity, sadness, and profundity. It may be sad to see How To with John Wilson go after only three short seasons, but Wilson decided to end the show on top, before running out of ideas. Nevertheless, the show had a profound impact on me, making it impossible to not see random people and occurrences and wonder how Wilson could possibly spin a narrative around them. If nothing else, How To showed that television can be just as weird, creative, and profound as its artists make it, and for that, we should all be thankful.

3. Succession

What more can you really say about the final season of Succession, which supplanted itself as one of the greater TV shows of the decade, earlier this year? Jesse Armstrong didn’t try doing anything wildly uncharacteristic in his show’s swan song – unless you count *redacted’s* unexpected death in episode 3. Rather, he continued to show his bleak worldview of the ultra-rich, while still striking the perfect blend of drama and comedy. But the characters whom we’ve come to know and – love seems like a bit of a generous term, but what the heck – all went through the ringer once again, in their own unique and fascinating ways. There will likely be imitators in the wake of the success of Succession, but there may never be another show quite like it.

2. Welcome to Wrexham

For some reason, I was blissfully unaware that a second season of FX’s docu-series Welcome to Wrexham would be released. Nevertheless, season two continued to do what worked so well the first time around, by exploring the inner lives not only of its central football club, but the people in and around it. Whether its focus was the autistic fans of Wrexham, the mining disaster in Gresford in 1934, or the immensely talented women’s team, the show extracted real, authentic stories from the most unexpected places. And when it wasn’t doing that, it had the riveting drama of the club as they sought promotion to the National League. I was caught off guard at first when the show came back this year, but I looked forward to new episodes with eager anticipation every week in a way that was almost unmatched in 2023.

1. The Bear

No show in 2023 took as big of a leap forward in quality as season two of The Bear – which is really saying something because the first season was excellent. The show became less about how hard it is to get by, and more about the difficulties in pursuing perfection, in unique and unexpected ways. Each episode utilized its spectacular cast, including standout episodes featuring Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Lionel Boyce, and Liza Colón-Zayas. Creator Christopher Storer found beauty and resonance in taking a run-down beef shop and transforming it into a fine dining destination, and the messy people caught at the center of it, never better personified than in Jeremy Allen White and Ayo Edibiri. I’ve never worked in a restaurant and I’ve never lived in Chicago, but I always found the struggles in The Bear universal, because it shows the terrible burden of having a dream, in all its terrifying, satisfying ways.