The 25 Best TV Shows of 2016

Making a Best of TV list in 2016 feels weird. If you and I made a list of our favorite TV shows—maybe even a list of TV shows we watched this year—it’s entirely possible that there wouldn’t be any overlap. We’ve been approaching this fracture point for years. Each year, the number of scripted television shows increases as Netflix et al bulk up their programming and more traditional outlets respond in kind, and more than ever, we’re at the point where watching TV is an entirely subjective experience. There’s so much TV—and more importantly, so much good TV—that you can, and only have time to, watch what really speaks to you. Picking out your favorite TV shows has become like listening to music—and no one’s playlists are ever identical. There are some shows that spoke to a larger amount of people though, that transcended this culture of curation to become universal favorites. 

Aside from 2016 being the year that TV fractured pop culture, it was also a year defined by noticeable progress in terms of inclusion and representation. More voices than ever were heard on TV, from the astonishing recontextualizing done by The People v. O.J. to the harsh meta-comedy of Britain’s Fleabag to Donald Glover’s surrealist view on hip-hop dreams and the black experience in Atlanta. The small screen this year was pleasingly rich and diverse. That made assembling this list damn near impossible—but that’s a problem we’ll always be happy to have.

Related: Must Watch TV Shows of 2017

Network: Netflix

Starring: Mike Colter, Simone Missick, Alfre Woodard, Mahershala Ali, Theo Rossi, Rosario Dawson

While Daredevil’s second season did a brilliant job of bringing Frank Castle into the MCU, Luke Cage was the show that felt more complete. After Mike Colter breathed life into Luke Cage during Jessica Jones, it made sense for Netflix and Marvel to capitalize on the calm hero, especially during a time when the Black Lives Matter movement is so important. A bulletproof black man rocking a hoodie and doing right by his people? He was bound to be called the superhero many needed, but the show was deeper than that. Luke Cage felt more like a love letter to those of us who love ‘90s hip-hop and comic books equally, and did a killer job of letting the women in the series do the damn thing. We came for Luke Cage’s abilities, but stayed for the way that Misty Knight (Missick), Claire Temple (Dawson), and Black Mariah (Woodard) slayed. —khal

Network: Amazon

Starring: Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Sian Clifford, Jenny Rainsford

You gotta love a show that makes men cry this much. Male crying is the show's comic relief, but the heartless core of the series is a woman nicknamed Fleabag, played with perfect comedic flair by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who also created the show. Fleabag's nickname goes unexplained, but if you want to know who she is, look no further than this apt self-description: "I'm a greedy, perverted, selfish, apathetic, cynical, depraved, morally bankrupt woman who can’t even call herself a feminist." Fleabag sure is a messy bitch, but her comi-tragic chaos is less isolating than, say, Lena Dunham's in Girls, or even Aya Cash's in You're the Worst. While all three shows feature young, sexually liberated female leads trying to figure out their lives, Fleabag feels immediately different. It may be the uniquely British flavor of humor—dry and direct—or the way this selfish bitch holds your hand through the series, regardless of how much of a trainwreck it is. As she picks up one guy after another, gets in tiffs with family members, and half-assedly runs her guinea pig-themed bakery in London, Fleabag saves the biggest laughs just for us by looking directly into the camera, as one would with a best friend, and delivering killer one-liners and crass jokes. —Kristen Yoonsoo Kim

Network: FX

Starring: Pamela Adlon, Mikey Madison, Hannah Alligood

If you loved Pamela Adlon’s work as Louie’s unrequited love interest on Louie but didn’t check out her show Better Things, you’re a fool. FX is slowly becoming the best damn television channel in America, and these left field curveballs that they keep rolling out is the reason why. Similar to Louie, Pamela modeled the show after her real life (complete with her English mother and single mother of three lifestyle), but instead of trying to go auteur like Louis C.K., who co-created the series along with writing and directing some of the episodes, Adlon contained her weirdness in a semi-linear story that not only dealt with family relationships, but issues with sexism, ageism, and many more -isms. Still, it was never preachy. Better Things was chock full of crassness, but also true-as-hell lessons that can only be learned by actually living and surviving life with an inquisitive, sideways glance thrown at everything. —khal

Network: NBC

Starring: Jerrod Carmichael, Amber Stevens West, David Alan Grier, Loretta Devine, Lil Rel Howery, Tiffany Haddish

After a short, six-episode first season run, NBC was wise to give Jerrod Carmichael a second season of The Carmichael Show, a sitcom that harkens back to All in the Family and is woke enough to be a beacon of truth in Trump’s America. Always one to stay topical, Carmichael had his second season delve into everything from Bill Cosby’s sex scandal to cheating, prejudice, and more with an ounce of humor for every two ounces of real talk. With a hilarious cast that includes the timeless David Alan Grier and the captivating Tiffany Haddish, who I hope gets a little more to do in season three, this is the kind of smart, unapologetic show that will have a lot of impact on a major network over the next four years. Don’t know about you, but we’re here for it. —khal

Network: HBO

Starring: Riz Ahmed, John Turturro, Bill Camp, Amara Karan, Michael Kenneth Williams

If we were ranking The Night Of on the pilot alone, it’d be right at the top of the list. The limited series opened up with a tight, thrilling, ominous episode before turning into the Warriors with a 3-1 lead. The show still became a damning and exacting look into the flaws of the criminal justice system peppered with macabre humor, but its late-season treatment of Chandra (Karan) was so off-base it damaged the integrity of the entire show. Homegirl goes from promising young attorney to love-makes-you-engage-in-felonies dumb in a swift, heavy-handed attempt by the writers to shake up the trial. And that misstep is a damn shame because John Turturro, stepping in for the deceased James Gandolfini, turned in an excellent performance, oozing both sleaze and empathy. Riz Ahmed also expertly pulled off the transformation from nervous college student in over his head to hardened criminal, regardless of whether he killed Andrea. We don’t want to say it was all for naught, but a 73-win season only means so much when you don’t bring home the ‘ship. —Ian Servantes

Network: Netflix

Starring: Maria Bamford, Fred Melamed, Mary Kay Place

I don’t exactly want to admit that the television character I related to most this year was Maria Bamford playing a vaguely fictionalized version of herself post-nervous breakdown, but I’m not going to deny it either. The Netflix sitcom centers on comedian Bamford as she moves back to Los Angeles from her small hometown in Minnesota after six months of recovery from bipolar disorder. The timeline bounces back and forth between Maria’s greyscale recovery, technicolor breakdown, and current, daylight-saturated Los Angeles existence, where she’s struggling to get her career back on track while making sure she cares for her mental health. I know: it sounds incredibly dark. But Bamford (along with showrunners Pam Brady and Arrested Development’s Mitch Hurwitz) is deft at taking the depiction of mental health seriously while being incredibly funny. With cameos from Mark McGrath (yes, the guy from Sugar Ray), Sarah Silverman, and John Mulaney, Lady Dynamite is both manic and relatable. Plus, it introduced the best GIF for general use of the year. To be honest, writing this blurb just makes me want to rewatch it all over again. —Kerensa Cadenas

Network: HBO

Starring: John Oliver

It’s easy to take the piss out of all the Monday morning pop culture writers clamoring to invent new ways of saying “John Oliver Eviscerates Major Political Figure.” It’s even encouraged. Seriously. I encourage you to do it right now. But all well-earned jokes aside, Oliver’s presence in 2016 has been a beacon of, well, not exactly hope, but resilience? Something like that. That’s why I damn near did some Tom Cruise couch-jumping when Oliver literally eviscerated (sorry) 2016 by detonating those putrid numbers inside a massive stadium for his final Last Week Tonight of the year, sending us all into this terrifying new chapter with exactly the right mindset: Everything is fucked, but there’s still a chance to build something fresh. To do so, we’re gonna need to support peeps like Oliver as they work hard to keep our heads in the game. The first step? As Oliver urged in his last HBO deep-dive of 2016, it’s simple but taxing: Refuse to normalize an Apprentice presidency. Thanks for the weekly sanity, John. —Trace William Cowen

Network: Comedy Central

Starring: Ilana Glazer, Abbi Jacobson, Hannibal Buress

It's rare for a show so buzzed about upon its debut to keep its momentum three years in, but Broad City still feels as fresh as it did on day one. I might even dare to say the show was better than ever by this third season's latter half. It's been months since we last saw Broad City on air, but it's one of those comedies you can put on and watch over and over again (though, let's be real, it hurts too much to revisit the Hillary Clinton episode now). Season 3 of Broad City started with the usual shenanigans between our girls Abbi and Ilana, including one transcendent episode where they pretended to be each other, but it really picked up around the halfway point. We finally saw Abbi's strange sexual tension with Trey manifest—say WHAT?—and even weirder than that, Ilana catch some feels after a breakup with Lincoln. Those types of plot lines signaled a change in Broad City—as the show becomes more lived-in, they’re able to not just deliver one-off episodes, but tell stories rich with history. All these third season misadventures led to the amazing two-parter finale, which included a failed birthright trip to Israel, a very New York subway experience, and one bonkers flight that involved decoy period panties, extreme tampon hunting, and accidental terrorism. It was all batshit wild, just how we like it. —Kristen Yoonsoo Kim

Network: HBO

Starring: Thomas Middleditch, T.J. Miller, Zach Woods, Kumail Nanjiani, Martin Starr

Though some comparisons to Entourage are valid, Silicon Valley is far richer in the way it depicts success. Even if the show's core group attains it, nothing is ever easy, and nothing ever tastes as sweet as it looks. With “The Uptick,” the finale of Silicon Valley’s third season, the show managed to bring Richard and company full circle without copping out. The episode, echoing the closing moments of the pilot, brings the Pied Piper team right back to their scrappier beginnings with a move that could easily be blasted as formulaic were it not for the show’s increasingly shrewd sense of identity. Instead of hitting viewers in the face with an obvious writers’ ploy meant to conveniently reset the show for a breezier season four, Alec Berg (who also directed the episode) wraps things up so satisfyingly, you’d be forgiven for thinking this was actually the series finale. And that’s exactly why I’m stoked as hell to see where Silicon Valley goes next. —Trace William Cowen

Network: HBO

Starring: Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Tony Hale, Matt Walsh, Anna Chlumsky, Reid Scott, Timothy Simons, Gary Cole

Senator turned Madam President, recounts, wrong poll predictions, dumb men drunk with power, scandal, cover-ups—Veep ghostwrote this year’s farce of an election. And once again, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and the crew were brilliant in the show’s fifth season. Veep is The West Wing on a dust mission. This is the only way to explain Selina Meyer’s narcissistic character and the cast of disrespectful, conniving, crude degenerates that do her bidding. The moment in the fourth episode of this last season, when Selina finds out she lost the election—in the middle of her mother’s funeral—is the most ridiculously amazing scene in television this year. The humor is dark, vulgar, and always perfectly timed. Selina might not be able to win an election, but expect JLD to win yet another Emmy in a runaway. —Angel Diaz

Network: Starz

Starring: Riley Keough, Paul Sparks, Mary Lynn Rajskub

A few minutes into The Girlfriend Experience, you can’t help but think: is this working? Co-created by indie masterminds Amy Seimetz and Lodge Kerrigan, the eerie drama stars Riley Keough as Christine Reade, a law student who acquires an internship at a prestigious law firm. Struggling with money, Christine learns that her friend Avery has been escorting and soon finds herself entering into a world of deception, loads of money, and desire. What makes the show special is its clinical and cold approach to storytelling. There isn’t a moment of The Girlfriend Experience where you don’t feel a chilly distance to Christine, the world of monochrome office spaces, hotel rooms, and restaurants she frequents. This allows the show to creep up on you, to take a hard look—without judgement of gross fetishization—at the world Christine decides to enter. She’s not naive, she’s not guilty, and she’s just as repulsed by the men she sees as she is curious. The Girlfriend Experience is one of the strangest and most complex portrayals of sex and desire on TV now. So to circle back, the answer to that first question is most definitely yes. —Eric Eidelstein

Network: ABC

Starring: Anthony Anderson, Tracee Ellis Ross, Marcus Scribner, Marsai Martin, Yara Shahidi, Miles Brown

This year, black-ish capped off a stellar sophomore season that began in 2015, maintained momentum, and continued through to the currently airing Season 3. But it's one episode from this past winter that exemplifies why black-ish leads the sitcom pack—and why its future is ultimately more exciting than its great 2016. In February, the show exhumed the Very Special Episode sitcom trope for a genuinely moving half-hour that refracted recent civil unrest with the Johnson family reacting to the verdict of a fictional police shooting. As with every episode of black-ish, the issue was attacked on all perspective fronts: generational divide, race, class, youth, optimism, cynicism. Months before writing that episode, creator Kenya Barris told me, "We are not really doing a Black Lives Matter episode... but it will affect them some way. We will have something that is tangential to that topic, because it’s part of their lives." The show is nuanced and restrained enough not to go chomping at the bit after source material, but as with reality, current events always rear their heads in even the most comfortable of homes. Kenya and Co. took their time and waited for their window, and our patience was rewarded with an episode like "Hope" that made the industry stand up and salute. —Frazier Tharpe

Network: AMC

Starring: Dominic Cooper, Ruth Negga, Joseph Gilgun, Ian Colletti, W. Earl Brown

All praises due to AMC for giving Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg the room to be great. After several failed attempts to adapt the iconic, critically-acclaimed comic book series Preacher to the small screen, it was Rogen and Goldberg who finally managed to do it. And their approach was effectively unorthodox—in essence, their first season of Preacher was a prequel to the events that take place in the comic. Instead of attempting to pull a panel-for-panel recreation of the hilariously gory series, one that was unafraid to question the very heart of religion, they used it as a template to bring these conversations to life. The world Preacher created took some getting used to for viewers, but it was worth it for anyone who stuck it out. Now, season two comes with the promise of a rousing adventure, so the last thing you want to do is sit this one out. —khal

Network: HBO

Starring: Evan Rachel Wood, Jeffrey Wright, Thandie Newton, Ed Harris, Anthony Hopkins

To say that I don’t fuck with HBO prestige dramas is a deep understatement. But when I first watched the premiere of HBO’s much-hyped and even more delayed sci-fi western drama, I was shocked by how much I immediately liked it. Created by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, Westworld takes place in Westworld—a futuristic “amusement park” made for the upper crust of society. A paradise sans consequences inhabited by human-like androids called hosts, the park allows its guests to quite literally have the lay of the land—they can fuck and fight, maim and murder, drink and drive (well, drink and ride horses at least). The brunt of this lawlessness falls on the hosts, who have been condemned to lives of repetitive storylines and torture. What happens when they begin to hold on and remember the years and years of trauma they’ve suffered? Things get pretty fucked up. While Westworld at times bit off more than it could chew, it was a fascinating look at both the park’s behind the scenes politics and the gradual awakenings of the hosts, bolstered by a handful of stunning acting performances (Thandie Newton the MVP). It’s a mess of twisted timelines, literary references, and Radiohead covers, ultimately about the disconnect of what humanity might actually mean to us. —Kerensa Cadenas

Network: Netflix

Starring: Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown

Who would have thought that in the dead heat of this summer, one of the year’s most surprising, feel-good hits would be lurking in your Netflix queue? The success of Stranger Things is one of those unexpected things that in hindsight makes so much sense. The nostalgia of the show, derived from an incredible soundtrack and a heavy helping of Spielberg homages, is what hooked viewers. But beyond that, the show told an exhilarating, engaging story of a body-snatching monster, a gifted but vulnerable child, and the group of whippersnappers caught between them. Stranger Things captured the carefree danger of ‘80s adventure movies, but was also a poignant look at family, parental love, and growing up. No show was more immediately lovable this year—and if you need proof, go Google “Barb.” Almost half a year after Stranger Things’ debut, there’s still a lively conversation online surrounding one of its most minor characters. —Andrew Gruttadaro

Network: HBO

Starring: Emilia Clarke, Kit Harington, Peter Dinklage, Lena Headey, Maisie Williams, Sophie Turner, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau

An abundance of misery. Critical backlash. A season-hiatus cliffhanger that left no one convinced. When you play the game of serialized dramas, you live by the end game, or you die. Game of Thrones entered its sixth season with the winds of controversy at its back. But watching David Benioff and D.B. Weiss successfully chart a course towards the sprawling epic's end without George RR Martin’s maps to guide them was more satisfying than Ramsay Bolton's death.

To be fair: not everything worked. It's not that Jon's resurrection went exactly as predicted that made it a disappointment—just look at how affecting the R+L=J theory played out onscreen was even though we'd all guessed that years ago—but not once across the season did the narrative validate his death, short of freeing him from the Night's Watch. Arya and Daenerys found themselves idling during mid-season yet again. But the ends justified the means. The universe is contracting, multiple storylines and once-satellite characters are headed for a collision course, the mere potential and possibilities of which are exhilarating. Hodor held the door. Jon and Sansa held their family down. Arya has her name. Cersei has her crown, at the expense of all of her children. The dragons and their mother are headed west. Culminating in a thrilling, all-around validating finale, the pride of contemporary HBO soars on, stronger than ever. —Frazier Tharpe

Network: HBO

Starring: Lena Dunham, Alison Williams, Jemima Kirke, Zosia Mamet, Adam Driver

Let’s ignore, for a second, how annoying and problematic Lena Dunham has been in 2016. And let’s ignore how Girls had lost steam in recent seasons, falling into a malaise of loathsome characters bouncing off but never fully away from each other. Let’s instead focus on how Season 5 had bars and leaves promise for the upcoming final season. Hannah and Co. have finally, truly begun drifting apart, and that has inspired growth. Girls is still a show about fucking up your way through your 20s, but those fuck-ups have become less infuriating and, frankly, funnier than they’ve been in years. And speaking of years, Girls brought back Charlie for an outstanding, Marnie-focused standalone episode that chases the “one that got away” trope before driving a heroin needle right through it. If Dunham can keep up this good will, we might just have to be excited for whatever project she has next. —Ian Servantes

Network: AMC

Starring: Bob Odenkirk, Jonathan Banks, Rhea Seehorn, Michael McKean

After two seasons, are we any closer to finding that definitive moment when Jimmy McGill becomes Saul Goodman? Sort of. In the superb second season of Better Call Saul, we got to see more of Saul’s influence, from the flashiest of office suits to the true extent of Slippin’ Jimmy’s creep mode. With the Sandpiper case being the life and death of Jimmy’s evolution from a lawyer working out of a nail shop to rolling with the big dogs—well, that and what it did to his relationships with his brother Chuck and his friend/sometimes lover Kim—the seeds are set for another season of slow burns and beautiful cinematography. Do we know when more Breaking Bad characters will ease their way into the series? Not at all. But truthfully, Better Call Saul can take all the time in the world it needs to let things play out; waiting has been a helluva ride. —khal

Network: None (Broadcast on louisck.net)

Starring: Louis C.K., Steve Buscemi, Edie Falco, Alan Alda, Jessica Lange

If you thought Louis C.K. had creative freedom at FX, Horace & Pete makes Louie look like it was trapped in network hell. The comedian’s self-funded project uses the shackleless medium of the internet (the episodes don’t adhere to uniformed run times) to spend an entire season inside a Brooklyn dive bar. And no, we’re not talking about the Williamsburg joint where transplants rave over $3 beers. Horace & Pete’s is a family-owned watering hole for tenured locals to drown their sorrows and take the piss out of each other. The latter will bust you up, but it’s the former that comprises the heart of the show. 

It’s natural to glorify a business that’s stayed in the family for generations, but in reality, the bar is been a place of misery, where spousal abuse was tolerated for too long and mental illness has been ignored. Horace (C.K.) and Pete’s (Steve Buscemi) fight to hold onto the place is an exercise in humans’ complacency towards the familiar, but their sister Sylvia (Edie Falco) knows the truth: the rotting walls need to be torn down. Horace & Pete is heavy shit, and often a downer to watch, but the writing is too impeccable to turn away from. Only a show this unconventional could make a family feud so fully realized. —Ian Servantes

Network: FX

Starring: Keri Russell, Matthew Rhys, Holly Taylor, Keidrich Sellati, Noah Emmerich

While some series begin to slow down or suffer in quality after a couple of seasons, The Americans is the rare show that only gets better, smarter, and increasingly devastating as it progresses. In its fourth season, The Americans continued to excel in being both a tense spy drama and a more pensive piece that complicates our conceptions of marriage and family. Elizabeth and Phillip Jennings, played by Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys, dealt with the ramifications of “coming out” to their teenage daughter. Not only did they have to learn how to let her in and build an honest relationship with her, but season four of The Americans also showed the twosome growing jaded, tired of the demands of their Mother Russia: befriending and betraying friends, acquiring a weapon that could lead to horrific consequences, and, in the season’s most shocking plot, Phillip and Elizabeth had to figure out what to do with an asset who Phillip couldn’t help but care about. 

Then there was something else Season 4 accomplished. Right in the middle, as the action was peaking, the show decided to take a huge time leap, a risky effort that has ruined shows in the past (see the recently canceled Masters of Sex). But what the break ended up doing was give us an ever richer season. Despite all of these complex and layered stories, The Americans never loses itself and, at the end of the day, manages to be one of the most insightful period dramas of our time. Mad Men level. —Eric Eidelstein

Network: USA Network

Starring: Rami Malek, Christian Slater, Carly Chaikin, Portia Doubleday, Stephanie Corneliussen, BD Wong

After the breakout first season of Mr. Robot ended with two twists—one the audience saw coming, and one they definitely did not—and the unmitigated destruction of the country’s financial foundation, the bar was set incredibly high for Season 2. The show struggled to meet those expectations out of the gate. The slightly obfuscated storyline of Elliot being in prison mired the first half of the season too much for its payoff to work, and at times it felt as though the show was more interested in what was happening in Elliot’s head than in the actual world. But once the hooded hacker returned to Manhattan, Mr. Robot kicked into high gear and delivered show-stopping episode after show-stopping episode. While the first season placed utmost importance on the hack, Season 2 revealed that that was just step one in Elliot and fsociety’s (and really, Mr. Robot’s) plan. Everyone is in deep now, and the ever-elevating stakes make for thrilling viewing. 

On top of it all, Mr. Robot remains one of the most daring shows on television, both visually and narratively. One episode this season began as a ‘80s stylized sitcom, complete with parody commercials, a “Too Many Cooks”-like theme song, and a cameo from Alf—and it totally worked. —Andrew Gruttadaro

Network: HBO

Starring: Issa Rae, Yvonne Orji, Jay Ellis

Everybody in this show ain’t shit for one reason or another and that’s life, right? We all ain’t shit every once in awhile. Playas fuck up, too. Pussies be broke and shit. Like, dudes just be wantin’ to hit, too; they don’t want a relationship. With Insecure, Issa Rae and her team did an exceptional job making every character lovable, while being totally unafraid to also make them problematic. Insecure is about growth through struggle, strife, love, and friendship. It’s about life. It’s also one of the best debuts since Reasonable Doubt. Rae made us love her by resenting Lawrence, then flipped everything on its head in the finale, prompting viewers to record their reactions to Lawrence’s #TeamPetty behavior like it was the last play of the Super Bowl. How many times do we have to prove that we can make cinema too? Shouts to Issa Rae for holding us down and staying true. —Angel Diaz

Network: HBO

Starring: Ben Sinclair

A television program that sympathizes with drug users and their dealer: oh, the humanity! For real, though, the humanity. High Maintenance is the most humanizing show on television. Through the eyes of a nameless weed pot known only as The Guy, viewers are brought into the most intimate spaces of the diverse, eccentric, and neurotic people who populate New York City: their apartments. Everyone in the city—the Muslim students, the new parents, and the middle aged swingers—are just trying to get by, and sometimes that means smoking weed. Judgment is withheld even for those with “asshole” as their contact name. (Max, the closest thing to a villain from the web series, gets a redemptive arc in the series premiere.) The HBO comedy won’t have you feeling left out if you weren’t up on the digital shorts, though. There are enough Easter eggs for the day-one fans and hilarious but enough heartwarming character tales for the newbies to keep everyone satisfied. —Ian Servantes

Network: FX

Starring: Donald Glover, Brian Tyree Henry, Lakeith Stanfield, Zazie Beetz

"I had a dream I ran Atlanta." Donald Glover utters those words to open STN MTN/Kauai, the Gangsta Grillz mixtape with DJ Drama that stands today as, low-key, his best project. That line and the intro that follows is a meta-acknowledgment that he doesn't run Atlanta's rap scene, not with the magnitude of his peers at least. But in 2016—the year Donald Glover arrived on all accounts—he finally realized he didn't need rap to put on for his city. Instead, Glover put his EGOT-level talent front and center with the boldest show of the year: a sitcom that denies situational form, a drama that defies an arc or stakes. Hell, one of the leads is a struggling rapper and the show barely features any Entourage-esque industry trappings.

Atlanta is, in its magnificent simplicity, about being black, a concept still woefully underrepresented on television. And Glover, on his first TV creation armed with a team of newbies (some of the best episodes are written by his brother, Stephen; the cinematography was done by music video director Hiro Murai) refreshingly executes his vision without anything resembling a structure. He's billed it as “Twin Peaks for rappers,” but what we've really got is the ATL Twilight Zone. A Justin Bieber who looks the way he sometimes acts, an episode set entirely in the club, or a mad-cap, balls-to-the-wall Chappelle Show one-off revival that takes aim at transphobia, faux tolerance, identity appropriation, and Black Lives Matter in one half-hour. Glover is reupholstering TV, and with brevity to wit and humor that doesn't depend on familiarity (but soars even higher if one does indeed relate). My personal favorite episode featured the rapper Quavo making his acting debut in a scene-stealing cameo; I wouldn't be surprised if the hiatus between Season 2 finds more rappers pleading for a similar look. The dream became reality. —Frazier Tharpe