The Emmy nominations are scheduled to be announced tomorrow, which means today is when I traditionally plop my own accounting of the best television released during the eligibility period that’s largely adheres to the broadcast network season. Another longstanding component of this yearly post is that my offering of a disclaimer: Although I’m a fairly thorough consumer of televisual art, there are loads of shows I didn’t get to or didn’t polish off their full seasons before this exercise came due. If an acclaimed series isn’t here, it’s reasonable likely that I was errant in my self-appointed duties. Even more than my other efforts at citing excellence in groups of ten, this is a highly personal list rather than what I would consider to be more definitive and comprehensively researched.

Even so, I’m prepared to argue for the greatness of the shows that follow, especially those towards the top of the list.

#1 — Dying for Sex (FX). Michelle Williams is extraordinary in the lead role of this limited series. Dying for Sex strikes a delicate balance between wrenching drama and comedy that needs to be bleak, edgy, and warm all at the same time, and Williams’s perfect performance serves at the unerring metronome of it all. In adapting a podcast about a woman with terminal cancer who spends her waning days exploring her own sexuality, Kim Rosenstock and Elizabeth Meriwether elide mere salaciousness to emphasize the character’s reclamation of her own being, especially the body that is betraying her. Jenny Slate is fantastic as a friend who takes on the caregiver role, and there are also splendid supporting turns by David Rasche, Rob Delaney, and Sissy Spacek.

#2 — Somebody Somewhere, season 3 (HBO). It’s such a precious gift that this small-scale, lovingly observed show lasted three seasons, especially on the network that has been degraded from the class of television to a repository of desperate replications of past successes. The third season of Somebody Somewhere was probably its best. While staying focused on the growth of Sam (the wonderful Bridget Everett), it made room for all of the characters to have deep, moving moments. I’m especially partial to the lovely performance of Tim Bagley as Brad.

#3 — Abbott Elementary, season 4 (ABC). It feels like Quinta Brunson’s workplace sitcom is starting to be overlooked by critics and other media writers. It remains head of the class, though, expertly building strong comedy around its well-established characters and offering pertinent commentary on gentrification, budget constraints, and other challenges for a modern public school. The creators of Abbott Elementary worked overtime to make it a true showcase season for Janelle James as Principal Ava Coleman, and the actress hit every beat they laid out for her.

#4 — Elsbeth, season 2 (CBS). It’s a glorious age for offbeat mystery solvers on television, particularly those who stylistically borrow from the gold standard that is Columbo. In its second season, this spinoff created by Robert King and Michelle King took full advantage of having twenty episodes to play with. Elsbeth demonstrates that broad-appeal television can still be rascally and inventive; the inspired Chicago riff in the season finale is the showiest example. Carrie Preston is consistently delightful in the title role while still always signaling the character’s shrewdness.

#5 — The Diplomat, season 2 (Netflix). Allison Janney drags a giant map into an empty ballroom and for the next few minutes The Diplomat is television as good as it gets. In general, it was a terrific second season for the geopolitical whirlwind created by Debora Cahn. There were only six episodes, but they were dense with tension, intrigue, and perfectly chosen details. Keri Russell lead performance is a cyclone of intellect and artfully deployed profanity.

#6 — The Studio, season 1 (Apple TV+). I should probably acknowledge that I’m an easy mark for the studio, given that I’ve long obsessed about movies and the people who make them. This Hollywood satire, created by Seth Rogen and bevy of collaborators, probably skews a little too insinder-y at time and it can sometimes flip from energetic to antic. Still, it’s packed with jokes that land and cameos that are perfectly staged, and Rogen pulls it all together with a fine performance of a person at war with himself.

#7 — Evil, season 4 (Paramount Plus). Here we have the Kings again, bringing their thrillingly warped horror series to a reluctant but satisfying conclusion. In particular, the four bonus episodes they were gifted by their corporate overloads after cancellation are wonders of narrative cleverness and agitated meta commentary.

#8 — The Four Seasons, season 1 (Netflix). Tina Fey and two of her 30 Rock writers, Lang Fisher and Tracey Wigfield, rework Alan Alda’s 1981 film The Four Seasons into a compelling and effective television series. With unerring instincts, they determine what story elements should be preserved and which ones would benefit from a little finessing. In a cast of ringers, Colman Domingo and Kerri Kenney-Silver are standouts.

#9 — St. Denis Medical, season 1 (NBC). Justin Spitzer brings the same keen sensibility that elevated Superstore to this comedy about a Oregon hospital. Co-created with Eric Ledgin, St. Denis Medical navigates its medical setting carefully but also takes advantages of the charged dynamics in the environment, whether from problematic patients or strains from people with markedly different expectations about whether they sit in the org-chart hierarchy.

#10 — A Man on the Inside (Netflix). Michael Schur maintains his status as the kind humanist of modern television with this sly comedy about aging wrapped up in a gentle whodunit. It’s a pleasure to see older actors, such as Sally Struthers, Susan Ruttan, Margaret Avery, and the always great Stephen McKinley Henderson, given the rare chance to do substantive work. It’s clear, though, that the shows main reason for being is to further Schur’s mission of reminding audiences that Ted Danson is a national treasure.

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