best of 2019: TV

And now for my final "best of" list for 2019!  A few notes before I begin:

• Not all of these first came out in 2019, but that's when I watched them.
• These are in random order. 
• As always, your mileage may vary.

1. Love Death + Robots:  The 18 episodes of this series feature a wide variety of animation styles, ranging from realistic and gorgeous to more cartoony.  Like all anthologies, there are a few duds sprinkled here and there, but the episodes that work are fantastic.  My personal favorites: the brutally violent "Sonnie's Edge", the hilarious "Three Robots", and "Beyond the Aquila Rift", which I had a hard time believing wasn't live action.  (Netflix streaming)

2.  Carole & Tuesday:  Carole grew up in an orphanage and takes odd jobs to scrape by; Tuesday is the rich daughter of a politician.  The only thing they really have in common is a deep love for music.  When Tuesday runs away from home and meets Carole, they decide to form a band and sign up for a singing contest that's basically American Idol on Mars.  (Yes, really!)  The animation is pretty, the songs are gorgeous, and the friendship between Carole and Tuesday is touching.  I swear every episode moved me to tears at least once.  (Netflix streaming)

3. Fleabag:  The title character (her real name is never revealed; she's played by series creator/writer Phoebe Waller-Bridge, an astonishing talent) is a very emotionally messy woman grappling with the death of her best friend, her job running a guinea pig cafe, her nasty stepmother, and her attraction to a hot priest.  Funny, cringeworthy, charming, and complicated.  G, our friend R, and I binged both seasons in one day and it was a delight.  (Amazon Prime)

4. The Boys:  A group of superheroes known as The Seven are basically the Justice League, except for one not-so-tiny detail:  they're all deeply flawed, and the most powerful of them all, Homelander, is downright evil.  The Boys (despite their name, they do have one female member) are a group of vigilantes who are determined to take The Seven down.  Even if you've read the graphic novels by Garth Ennis, this is still worth watching because they've changed enough to keep it interesting.  Warning, though: it's incredibly violent, and the language could turn a sailor's hair white.  (Amazon Prime)

5. GLOW:  In the 1980s, there was a women's professional wrestling show called GLOW, which stands for The Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling.  This series is a fictionalized take following a motley group of women as they learn how to wrestle and cope with their unexpected popularity.  Perfect casting, the 80s fashions and music are phenomenal, it's funny with occasional painful moments (some of the moments between frenemies Ruth and Debbie made me wince), and it absolutely aces the Bechdel Test.  I love shows like this and #3 above that are willing to show women in all of their complicated glory.  Please note that I refrained from saying "GLOW-ry", except I just did so...yeah.  Sorry.  (Netflix streaming)


BONUS!  THE BEST THING ON TV THAT I'VE ONLY BRIEFLY SEEN:  Baby Yoda* from The Mandalorian.  The first time I saw a picture of him, I thought he was adorable, but when I actually saw him in motion, squeaking and moving his giant ears, I let out a noise that sounded like a tea kettle at full boil.  I have a reaction to him that is usually reserved for kittens, and if you know me at all in real life, you know that is major indeed.  I will confess (and have already done so to G, so don't bother narcing on me) that I watched the first episode without G because I wanted to see Baby Yoda so badly. (He only appears at the very end.)  But I have sworn to not watch any other episodes unless G is there too, and will content myself with the clips, GIFs, and pictures all over my Twitter timeline.

*Yes, I know he's not THE Yoda, seeing as The Mandalorian takes place after Return of the Jedi.  But nobody knows Yoda's species, and he is basically a tiny version of Yoda, so he's Baby Yoda until further notice.