10. Dead Ringers

20 LISTS | 0 TOP SPOTS

“Vince Gilligan made a great show in Breaking Bad, then made an even better show about Breaking Bad’s comic-relief character played by the guy from Mr. Show. Toho rebooted Godzilla a few years back with Shin Godzilla and made a horror masterpiece, then rebooted Godzilla again this month with Godzilla Minus One and, somehow, made a second horror masterpiece. David Cronenberg and Jeremy Irons worked together to create the perfect erotic psychological horror film in Dead Ringers, then Alice Birch and Rachel Weisz gender-flipped it to create the perfect erotic psychological horror television show decades later. Sometimes, lightning does strike twice.

Dead Ringers is a success on every conceivable level, starting with the lead performances of Rachel Weisz as the eccentric twin gynecologists Beverly and Elliott Mantle — performances so distinctive and convincing I found myself talking about them to people as if they’d been done by two different actors. The scripts, by the best writing team on TV this year, respectfully but not slavishly incorporate elements from Cronenberg’s original while expanding into sensitive themes the film didn’t and maybe couldn’t touch. They also feature the most lacerating dialogue since Mad Men.

The ne plus ultra of the project is its second episode, an hour-long trip into hell via a dinner party held by the ghoulish pharmaceutical heir Rebecca Parker (Jennifer Ehle in the performance of her career) and her family and entourage of dead-souled sociopaths. (Observant readers will note they’re this list’s second batch of Sackler family stand-ins.) This isn’t just the best hour of TV made this year. It’s one of the best hours of TV made any year. Dead Ringers did that.

This is the show you’ve got to try. Clear time this holiday. Make an appointment. The doctors will see you now.” – Sean T. Collins, Decider

10. I’m a Virgo

20 LISTS | 0 TOP SPOTS

“Less than two months after the WGA went on strike and just a few weeks before SAG-AFTRA joined them on the picket line to protest their employers’ greed, the streaming arm of a megacorporation led by one of the world’s richest people unveiled a flagrantly anti-capitalist comedy series devised by radical rapper and Sorry to Bother You filmmaker Boots Riley. It’s a complicated partnership to parse, politically speaking. But from an artistic standpoint, Riley’s surreal allegory about a 13-foot-tall Black teenager (the great Jharrel Jerome) in Oakland is among the year’s boldest and most imaginative statements. Jerome’s Cootie is a folk hero for our times—a gentle giant whose sheltered upbringing makes him slow to realize that powerful forces within American society, chief among them a vigilante billionaire played by Walton Goggins, will always interpret a powerful Black man as a thug and a threat. Riley’s secret weapons are humor and humanism. His message may be militant, but he delivers it in a package cushioned by laughs, love, and a lively vision of liberation. Your move, Jeff Bezos.” – Judy Berman, TIME

9. THE Curse

23 LISTS | 0 TOP SPOTS

“You are not ready for “The Curse.” Even if you’ve kept up with the squirm-inducing black comedy’s first four episodes (all that have been released as of this writing), there’s simply nothing that can prepare you for the magnificent totality of Nathan Fielder and Benny Safdie’s diabolical creation. I’ve seen it — all of it — and I don’t feel ready to approach each hour again, hand in hand with the world at large. Call it cringe comedy, and you’d be right. Consider it torture, and I wouldn’t argue. But whatever it is to you, it’s incredible television for all. Steel yourself, as best you can.” – Ben Travers, IndieWire

8. Barry

32 LISTS | 0 TOP SPOTS

“Barry is one of the rare series that began its life as an excellent show, then managed to outdo itself with each new season. While the premise of a gun-for-hire looking to go straight has been done plenty of times before, everything about Barry was different: The comedy was darker (and funnier as a result), the violence was more brutal, and the drama felt more authentic. Co-creators Alec Berg and Bill Hader never put any limitations on the show or its characters, and weren’t afraid to experiment with the form. So while audiences tuned into the show’s fourth (and final) season expecting to see hitman turned actor Barry Birkman (Hader) get his comeuppance for all his misdeeds, what they got was something else entirely—including the time jump no one saw coming.” – Jennifer M. Wood, WIRED

7. Jury Duty

32 LISTS | 1 TOP SPOT

“For comic originality this year it would be hard to beat this mockumentary starring non-actor Ronald Gladden, a solar-panel contractor called for jury duty in a Los Angeles courtroom where everyone else is an actor doing improv.

James Marsden is a laugh riot playing himself as an egomaniac star. After the hoax was revealed, the two became friends, catching the merry prankster vibe that makes the Amazon Freevee series such a fun ride through the jury system.” – Peter Travers, ABC News

6. Poker Face

49 LISTS | 0 TOP SPOTS

“An old-school show from new-school talent. Glass Onion writer/director Rian Johnson teamed with Russian Doll creator/star Natasha Lyonne for a delightful, clever throwback to Seventies TV mystery dramas like Columbo and Banacek. Each episode starts by showing us a murder being committed, then dials back to reveal that Lyonne’s Charlie Cale — a woman with the uncanny ability to recognize when someone is telling a lie — was lurking on the periphery during the earlier scenes. She solves the crime each week, of course, and in the process proves that the only problem with the standalone procedural format is that people stopped making them this well.” – Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire

5. Reservation Dogs

53 LISTS | 6 TOP SPOTS

“Despite the explosion of new stories and forms over television’s last decade, “Reservation Dogs” instantly stood out for its singular perspective and tone. Co-created by Taika Waititi and showrunner Sterlin Harjo, the FX coming-of-age comedy began with a confidence that only deepened over a three-season arc that concluded earlier this year. Centered on four Native teenagers still grieving the loss of their close friend to suicide, “Reservation Dogs” slowly widened its scope into a longitudinal study of community in small town Oklahoma. Its final season featured flashbacks and even ghosts to incorporate history into the show’s ever-broadening scope, revealing the origin story of the mythical Deer Lady (Kaniehtiio Horn) and the ways prior generations dealt with similar problems. But “Reservation Dogs” ultimately came down to figures like Bear (D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai) and Elora (Devery Jacobs) — teenagers on the precipice of the rest of their lives, learning to live with uncertainty through the support of their loved ones.” – Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone

4. Beef

60 LISTS | 2 TOP SPOTS

“The Netflix dramedy Beef, created by Lee Sung Jin, begins with an experience familiar to anyone with a driver’s license: a moment of road rage. As down-on-his-luck contractor Danny Cho (Steven Yeun) pulls out of his spot in a home improvement store parking lot, he almost hits an SUV; the driver, overwhelmed entrepreneur Amy Lau (Ali Wong), responds by flipping him off. Incensed, Danny pursues Amy through the streets of Los Angeles, where the two of them destroy property in an affluent neighborhood and go viral in the process. A trivial standoff devolving into chaos is Beef in a nutshell: a series that deftly examines what happens when people dissatisfied by the state of their lives channel that pain in another direction, warranted or otherwise. With career-best work from Yeun and Wong, whose despondent characters have far more in common than they’d ever care to admit, Beef is a compelling and relatable snapshot of existential malaise. If Lee’s up for another season of Beef, I’d happily go in for seconds.” – Miles Surrey, The Ringer

3. The Last Of Us

69 LISTS | 8 TOP SPOTS

“If we are truly at the end of days, what better way to dissociate from reality than to lean into another realm toward a world where society has collapsed under the terrifying cordyceps fungus that turns people into walking zombies? Ultimately, it would always be the heart-wrenching and vast “The Last of Us.” Created by  Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann, the drama series delivered some of the most breathtaking hours of television this year. The show follows Joel (Pedro Pascal), a rage-filled man who lost his only daughter at the beginning of the apocalypse. On a quest to reconnect with his brother, he’s become the reluctant caretaker of a teen girl named Ellie (Bella Ramsey), who may hold the key to the fungus’ antidote in her blood. Like Druckmann’s video game upon which the show is based, the framework of “The Last of Us” works like an apocalyptic road adventure, as Joel begrudgingly tries to keep himself and Ellie alive. But the core of the series is much more intricate than that. Mazin and Druckmann often echo the past. In the pilot, we see Joel’s life with his daughter before it was destroyed. His memories contrast against a wide-eyed Ellie, who has never known a different way of living. While Ramsey and Pascal deliver incredible performances, “The Last of Us” isn’t afraid to turn its spotlight on an expansive ensemble, people also desperate to make a life in uninhabitable conditions. From Sam (Kevin Woddard), the deaf boy whose infection devastates Ellie, to Bill (Murray Bartlett) and Frank (Nick Offerman), whose displays of love and vulnerability made for one of the best television episodes in recent years, the series is a goldmine of humanity. The real world often appears to be teetering on the edge of something disastrous, but “The Last of Us” captures what’s so beautifully raw about being human.” – Aramide Tinubu, Variety

2. The Bear

78 LISTS | 17 TOP SPOTS

“When the second season of Christopher Storer’s high-tension culinary pseudo-comedy dropped, much of the buzz focused on “Fishes,” with its onslaught of A-list guest stars and distressingly accurate depiction of being trapped around a holiday dinner table with a combustible family. That “Fishes” was probably my fourth or fifth favorite The Bear episode of the season — certainly behind the Ebon Moss-Bachrach-centric “Forks,” Ayo Edebiri’s Chicago restaurant crawl in “Sundae” and the Copenhagen-set showcase for Lionel Boyce — is a testament to how good the show has gotten. Oh, and don’t get me wrong. Jeremy Allen White is still great on The Bear, but credit to the creative team for realizing that this is a show that works best as a true ensemble and not as a star vehicle with some meaty supporting roles.” – Daniel Fienberg, The Hollywood Reporter

1. Succession

82 LISTS | 32 TOP SPOTS

“Five years after Logan Roy (Brian Cox) suffered a stroke and catapulted his children into a cutthroat, internecine battle for control of the family business, his son Kendall (Jeremy Strong) was struck with a profound and crushing moment of clarity: “He made me hate him, then he died.” In its miraculous final season, Succession laid bare the calamitous effects of Logan’s parenting style on Kendall, Shiv (Sarah Snook), Roman (Kieran Culkin), and Connor (Alan Ruck) by giving the siblings the one thing they thought they wanted: Freedom. Prior to Logan’s astonishingly abrupt death in episode 3, creator Jesse Armstrong brought the Roy family together for fleeting moments of connection. “Holy s–t, did dad just say a feeling?” scoffed Kendall, after a somber Logan bemoaned his children’s absence at his birthday party. Was that “I love you” Logan offered his children in the purple glow of the karaoke bar real, or was the Roy family patriarch just feeding their starved hearts a few crumbs of affection to keep them from tanking the GoJo deal? Probably. Even once their formidable father was gone for good, the Roy children clung stubbornly to his toxic playbook, turning every interaction with one another into a negotiation — for power, for loyalty, for validation that they were, in fact, serious people, no matter what daddy said. Offering sufficient praise for Succession’s unparalleled ensemble is an impossible feat, but I’ll treasure Ruck’s wistful performance as Connor, an insider perpetually on the outside — and the only Roy child who almost understood that vying for Logan’s love was a zero-sum game.” – Kristen Baldwin, Entertainment Weekly

Full List:

Rank	Film	Lists	#1	Avg Rating	L%	#1%
1	Succession	83	32	2.94	87%	44%
2	The Bear	78	17	3.87	82%	24%
3	The Last of Us	69	8	4.48	73%	11%
4	Beef	60	2	5.02	63%	3%
5	Reservation Dogs	53	6	4.14	56%	8%
6	Poker Face	49	0	5.59	52%	0%
7	Jury Duty	32	1	6.14	34%	1%
8	Barry	32	0	4.92	34%	0%
9	The Curse	23	0	5.77	24%	0%
10	Dead Ringers	20	0	6.08	21%	0%
10	I'm a Virgo	20	0	6.38	21%	0%
12	The Fall of the House of Usher	18	0	7.75	19%	0%
13	Somebody Somewhere	15	0	5.05	16%	0%
14	Gen V	14	0	6.90	15%	0%
14	The Other Two	14	0	6.04	15%	0%
16	Happy Valley	13	0	5.44	14%	0%
17	A Murder at the End of the World	11	0	7.00	12%	0%
17	Fargo	11	0	5.00	12%	0%
19	Abbott Elementary	10	1	5.68	11%	1%
20	Scavengers Reign	10	0	6.33	11%	0%
20	Shrinking	10	0	6.57	11%	0%
20	Star Trek: Strange New Worlds	10	0	6.00	11%	0%
20	Slow Horses	10	0	7.60	11%	0%
24	The Diplomat	9	2	4.20	9%	3%
25	Mrs. Davis	9	1	5.17	9%	1%
26	Loki	9	0	8.06	9%	0%
26	Silo	9	0	7.00	9%	0%
28	Blue Eye Samurai	8	0	6.40	8%	0%
28	Swarm	8	0	7.80	8%	0%
28	I Think You Should Leave With Tim Robinson	8	0	7.19	8%	0%
28	Party Down	8	0	8.33	8%	0%
28	For All Mankind	8	0	5.17	8%	0%

Lists Included 95

R Rank
L Total number of lists where the film was selected as one of the top 10 films of the year
AR Average position on ranked top 10 lists
#1 Total number of lists where the film was selected as the best film of the year
L% Percentage of total lists where the film was selected as one of the top 10 films of the year
#1% Percentage of mentions where the film was selected as the best film of the year