I’m sticking with my now longstanding tradition of commemorating the Emmy Nomination Announcement Day Eve by assembling my own list of the best television programming from the prior season. As always, I’ve tried to stick with those shows that were eligible for Emmy voters to select. Another dependable recurring feature is me feeling perturbed about everything that seems to be likely contenders for this list, by reputation or my own favorable inclination towards the creators involved, that I didn’t get around to watching by the time I had to peck out these words. That caveat offered, I’m very happy with this set. I especially can’t imagine anything else would have displaced my top pick.

#1 — Reservation Dogs, season 2 (FX on Hulu). The series presided over by Sterlin Harjo was already the best thing TV had going for it, and then it actually improved in the second season, growing richer and more varied in its depiction of the Indigenous American experience. Reservation Dogs is relentlessly inventive its brutally honest and warmly funny storytelling. The whole cast is terrific, but Devery Jacobs established herself as the true standout among the group. And she earned a writing credit on one of the year’s best episodes, too.

#2 — Poker Face, season 1 (Peacock). Created by Rian Johnson, Poker Face is essentially a modernized Columbo with Natasha Lyonne stepping in for Peter Falk, a rapturously perfect casting decision that justifies the series all on its own. Like Johnson’s bigscreen efforts that twist well-worn genres into Möbius strips, the show delivers utterly logical, hidden-in-plain-sight surprises at every turn.

#3 — Abbott Elementary, season 2 (ABC). Quinta Brunson’s sitcom is like a blessed oasis in otherwise moribund terrain of broadcast network television. It displays a mastery of sparking situation comedy from firmly set characters, all while leaving room for gently pointed commentary about governmental abandonment of public schools. Through it all, Abbott Elementary dependably delivers delight.

#4 — Better Call Saul, season 6 part 2 (AMC). The spinoff of Breaking Bad that arguably wound up the better, more interesting series ended its run in elegant fashion, including a wonderfully wise upending of all reasonable expectations about when the earlier part of that narrative would play its last scenes. That Better Call Saul has never won a single Emmy is an indictment on the award-giving body’s judgment.

#5 — Fleishman Is in Trouble (FX on Hulu). Adapted from the fantastically entertaining comic novel of the same name by Taffy Brodesser-Akner, Fleishman Is in Trouble is a smart, prickly, stealthily revelatory work. Brodesser-Akner wrote all the teleplays for the limited series, and she cunningly mirrored the novel’s narrative tricks rather than the more common approach of duplicating them imperfectly in the different medium.

#6 — Somebody Somewhere, season 2 (HBO). Somebody Somewhere built on a strong introductory season by deepening the characters and adding more nuance to the conflicts while maintaining its tart tone. The meta-tributes to departed cast member Mike Hagerty were among the loveliest moments of the television year.

#7 — Succession, season 4 (HBO). The Shakespearean viciousness of the Roy clan reaches its logically icy conclusion. If the extreme swings of fortune sometimes proceeded with too much of metronome steadiness, the caustic brilliance of the dialogue and fearless conviction of the acting overcame any plot rigidity.

#8 — Evil, season 3 (Paramount+). I’m clearly prepared to follow this beautifully bonkers show to the ends of the Earth, which indeed seems like a likely destination for this blood-soaked and demon-buffeted sorta-procedural.

#9 — The Last of Us, season 1 (HBO). Adapted from the video game of the same name by Craig Mazin alongside Neil Druckmann, the original designer of said digital diversion, The Last of Us is better than most of its ilk because of the shrewd way it commits to episodic storytelling. “Long, Long Time,” the third episode, might be best single hour of TV this year.

 

#10 — Only Murders in the Building, season 2 (Hulu). Only Murders in the Building was still utterly charming as it impressively extended the story without feeling forced. It’s truly amazing how often Selena Gomez manages to be the funniest performer in a scene giving the comedy legends she’s standing between.

My top ten lists for previous seasons can be found by clicking on the “Top Ten TV” tag.