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  No explanations. No apologies. These are the lists and they ARE definitive.  Top Ten Films 10. The Last Duel (Scott) 9. Halloween Kills (Green) 8. No Sudden Move (Soderbergh) 7. Cry Macho (Eastwood) 6. West Side Story (Spielberg)  5. The Dig (Stone) 4. Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar (Greenbaum) 3. CODA (Heder) 2. Bergman Island (Hansen-Løve) 1. The Lost Daughter (Gyllenhaal) Top Ten Television Shows 10. Invasion (AppleTV+) 9. Evil (Paramount+) 8. The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills (Bravo) 7. Ghosts (CBS) 6. Maid (Netflix) 5. It's a Sin (Channel 4 in the UK, HBO Max in the US) 4. Couples Therapy (Showtime) 3. Succession (HBO) 2. Mare of Easttown (HBO) 1. The North Water (BBC Two in the UK, AMC+ in the US)

It's never easy to end a TV show, especially a long-running, beloved show like Mom . "My Kinda People and the Big To-Do," the last episode of Mom that aired May 13 on CBS, was a good episode. It was maybe even a great episode. But was it a satisfying series conclusion? No, not really. But we're getting ahead of ourselves. Before we talk about what didn't happen in the episode, let's talk about what did happen.  The episode begins at an AA meeting, as many episodes have. The ladies - Bonnie, Tammy, Jill, Marjorie, & Wendy - all share. They're all happy and in good places in their lives, much to the annoyance of newcomer Shannon (played by Melanie Lynskey, independent film mainstay whose sitcom credits include Chuck Lorre's Two and a Half Men ). Bonnie wants to help Shannon, as she had been helped by others when she too was new to the program, and even chases Shannon in the rain when she leaves the meeting. Later in the episode, we see Shannon...

Muppet fans have been begging Disney to put The Muppet Show on Disney+ since the streaming service started back in 2019. It's finally happening on February 19, when all five seasons will be available to watch! While the first three seasons got DVD releases when I was a kid, the final two seasons have never been officially released until now, so it's very exciting ("officially" is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that season).  To many fans, the variety series which originally aired from 1975-81 remains the high point of the franchise, which has since grown to include numerous feature films, specials, other TV shows (including the not very good Muppets Now ), internet videos, and much more. I'm sure there are folks out there who know of Kermit, Miss Piggy, and the rest, but aren't really sure why they are famous. The answer to that question is The Muppet Show - the wacky brilliance of Jerry Juhl's writing combined with Jim Henson and Frank Oz and Jerry Nel...

As I mentioned in my list of the ten best shows of 2020 , there was a lot of great TV this year. So, I've decided to list some of the best episodes of the year, to spotlight some shows that perhaps weren't strong enough overall to make the other list, but that had a really good episode.  10. "In the Belly of the Whale" ( Hunters episode one of season one, Prime Video) This show premiered back in February, which feels like a lifetime ago. But I liked it! It definitely won't be everyone's cup of tea, but you'd know whether or not it is by watching the 90-minute first episode, which is probably the high point of the series (it gets very twisty toward the end). Al Pacino is in it! 9. "Elizabeth, Margaret, and Larry" ( Curb Your Enthusiasm season ten episode eight, HBO) Curb Your Enthusiasm has done ten seasons in twenty years, and when the latest premiered, I thought it was stale and out-of-touch, a poor imitation of its former self. But the back ...

Was 2020 an unusually great year for television, or did I just watch more things than I usually do? Probably the latter, but I had an exceptionally hard time choosing just ten shows to spotlight for this list. So, before I get into my picks, here are a few that I wish I could have included as well: I May Destroy You, A Teacher, The Great Pottery Throw Down, Dead to Me, Never Have I Ever, Love Victor, The Masked Singer, Love Life, B Positive  and Search Party.  10. The Undoing (HBO)/Big Sky (ABC) David E. Kelley has had a pretty busy fall, between miniseries The Undoing and his new drama Big Sky . I can't really say whether I find Big Sky to be a particularly good show, but I've seen every episode so far and haven't given up yet. The two shows are actually kind of inverses of each other; one a prestige premium cable miniseries with movie stars that turned out to be pretty pulpy, the other a lowly network show that's slowly letting more and more substance seep in. From...

There are few actors working today who I consider to be more talented than Annaleigh Ashford. If the name isn't familiar, let me enlighten you. Annaleigh Ashford has been in several Broadway musicals, including Kinky Boots . She won a Tony Award for playing a wannabe ballerina in You Can't Take It With You . She deserved another Tony for an entirely different but also very funny display of physicality as the titular canine in Sylvia . She proved her dramatic chops with a moving performance as Dot and Marie in a 2017 Broadway revival of Sunday in the Park with George . She broke up all of Helena's lines in a production of Midsummer Night's Dream in Central Park and refitted them into a brilliant comedic mosaic that had the audience in stitches. Apart from her extensive stage work, she appeared for four seasons of the Showtime series Masters of Sex . She had a terrific supporting part in the excellent recent movie Bad Education . And she was reported to be in talks for t...

Best of TV 2019 10. BH90210 (Fox) What an unexpected delight this show was. While the original Beverly Hills, 90210 was before my time, I found plenty to enjoy in this funny and shiny reboot. The premise sees the cast playing fictionalized versions of themselves preparing to reboot the '90s teen drama that made them famous. Their willingness to poke fun at their images made for a great satire of celebrity culture. 9. The Great British Bake Off (Channel 4 in the UK, Netflix in the US) In its tenth year, this show is old news. Nothing new or surprising can be evinced from this format. So why on Earth did this season nearly bring me to tears multiple times? I don't have an explanation, I just know how it made me feel. Perhaps it had something to do with this crop of contestants, but the nicest reality competition there is made for some for most pleasant viewing experiences of the year.  8. Mrs. Fletcher (HBO) Based on the Tom Perrotta novel, Mrs. Fletcher charts...

When Hollywood stopped making big screen romantic comedies after the '00s, there was an entire group of actresses who were forced to pivot their careers to something else. Kate Hudson, Sandra Bullock, Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Aniston, Reese, and Drew Barrymore were all members of this group. Today's news that Drew Barrymore's daytime talk show has been picked up and will premiere in fall 2020 has got me thinking about the career choices these actresses have made since the death of their genre. Reese moved into prestige vehicles on the big screen and mainly on the small screen these days. Sandra Bullock appears in far fewer movies than she did fifteen years ago, but when she does pop up it's mostly in prestige fare. Cameron Diaz retired from acting entirely. Kate Hudson, well I already wrote a thing about what Kate Hudson did. Nearly all of these women have started lifestyle brands or companies, following in the footsteps of the Empress of Celebrity Lifestyle Brands, Gw...

THE 9TH ANNUAL TIMMYS TELEVISION AWARDS The Timmys annually honor the best in television from the past season. Here are the nominees from the 2018-19 television season (winners are in bold): Best Comedy Series: Dead to Me (Netflix) Schitt's Creek (POP) Santa Clarita Diet (Netflix) The Kids Are Alright (ABC) Fleabag (Amazon Prime) Best Drama Series: Killing Eve (BBC America) Succession (HBO) This Is Us (NBC) Homecoming (Amazon Prime) Good Girls (NBC) Best Actress in a Comedy Series: Phoebe Waller-Bridge - Fleabag Christina Applegate - Dead to Me Linda Cardellini - Dead to Me Drew Barrymore - Santa Clarita Diet Catherine O'Hara - Schitt's Creek Catherine Zeta Jones - Queen America Best Actor in a Comedy Series: Timothy Olyphant - Santa Clarita Diet Michael Douglas - The Kominsky Method Eugene Levy - Schitt's Creek Ted Danson - The Good Place William H. Macy - Shameless Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series: A...

Top Ten Television Shows of 2018 10. Escape at Dannemora (Showtime) I wasn't planning on watching Escape at Dannemora, but I'm glad I did. We already knew that Ben Stiller was talented at directing more than just comedy (yes, I'm standing up for The Secret Life of Walter Mitty)  and he certainly delivers with this 7+ hour miniseries about a 2015 prison break. The pace is deliberate, slow, and it's exactly what this kind of material needs. It features great performances by Benicio del Toro and Paul Dano as the inmates who escape and an unrecognizable Patricia Arquette as the woman who helps them.  9. Love Island (ITV2 in the UK, Hulu in the US) Reality shows rarely make my top ten list, but when one becomes as much of an international sensation as Love Island , my interest is piqued. The fourth series of the British dating competition show managed to do just that by being an utterly insane exaggeration of every dating trope there is. Trash TV at its finest! ...

WARNING: SPOILERS FOR ALL OF SHARP OBJECTS TO FOLLOW  Sharp Objects , the HBO miniseries based on the Gillian Flynn novel, concluded its eight-episode on Sunday night with a killer installment that included one heck of a twist ending: Amma (Eliza Scanlen) is the person responsible for the killings that Camille (Amy Adams) was sent back to Wind Gap to report on. This series was a lot of things; a slow-burn mystery, an intense character study, and depiction of self-harm, a showcase for terrific actors, a perfect vehicle for Jean-Marc Vallée's trademark dynamic editing style. And there is a lot I could say about it, but for now, I want to focus on how Flynn, Vallée, and Marti Noxon subvert expectations about the characters we think we know, and how easy it is to do so because of societal assumptions about women. The set-up of Sharp Objects  is close to perfect. Camille Preaker is a deeply damaged woman with problems with alcohol and a p...