1. Task

This crime drama starring Mark Ruffalo as gone-to-seed cop Tom Brandis, allocated a dangerous new assignment in Philadelphia, certainly wasn’t for the faint-hearted. But if you could handle the all-pervasive air of impending catastrophe, it was a fine, gritty, twisty procedural centred on stick-up merchants, biker gangs and the grim ramifications of the fentanyl trade. An intense downer, in the best possible way.

2. Pluribus 

With Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul behind him, there were huge expectations for showrunner Vince Gilligan’s new drama – but he has pulled off a spectacularly original sci-fi story. Carol (the brilliant Rhea Seehorn, for whom the show was written) is a miserable novelist who is immune to an alien virus that takes hold of 99.9% of the world and turns them into a happy hive. As Carol tries to “save” the world, the show morphs into a sharply funny social observation and a psychological thriller that hums with existential dread. As per Gilligan’s works, trust and patience are rewarded – thanks in part to those hypnotic opening montages – and each episode racks up more questions that you’re happy to wait the whole series to find answers to. It’s a good job that season 2 has already been commissioned.

3. Severance 

Following up on the stunning cliffhanger finale of this creepy workplace satire’s first season was always going to be a difficult feat. But this second outing managed to move past the novelty of a clever premise, featuring employees mentally “severed” into two personalities so that their workplace incarnations are ignorant of their personal lives and vice versa. What emerged were love stories that were touching, troubling and had a flair for wrongfooting the viewer, the show’s creepiest scenes ever and a terrifying guest spot from Gwendoline Christie that’s not just a strong contender for the show’s most memorable moment, but possibly one of her defining roles.

4. The Studio

Seth Rogen’s sitcom about a Hollywood film studio broke records for the number of Emmys it won, and with good reason. Despite being stuffed with brilliant celeb cameos, its core cast outshone them, oozing astonishing comic flair as they rattled through one side-splitting farce after another. The show’s embrace of its subject matter extended to a soundtrack of big-band-style skittering drums reminiscent of the golden era of Hollywood and artfully directed episodes whose camerawork included one filmed in an elaborate single-take shot (while the episode’s plot is about a filmmaker trying to get an elaborate single-take shot).

 

  1. Andor 

 Probably the best and certainly the most universally appealing of the many additions to the Star Wars universe in recent years, this Rogue One prequel may have had the usual fantasy trappings, but was also a stirring meditation on oppression and resistance. And dropping in the year of Donald Trump’s second coming, it felt particularly poignant and potent. It starred the excellent Diego Luna as Cassian Andor, a thief and scavenger whose home planet has been rendered uninhabitable by the Galactic Empire. Andor is a natural leader, but he’s also a cynic; sceptical of revolutionary idealism. How does such a man turn into a freedom fighter, willing to risk everything for his cause?

What we said: “Even when it’s in a lighter mode, Andor is Star Wars for grown-ups. This rebellion is a serious business.”

 

Bolu
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Boluwatife Adesina is a media writer and the helmer of the Downtown Review page. He’s probably in a cinema near you.