This year’s Emmy nominations are on the verge of being announced, so I’m maintaining a longstanding tradition by using my digital platform to tout ten shows from the TV season just passed. As usual, I’m adhering to the eligibility window delineated by the Television Academy. The other commonality from previous years is that I must acknowledge that there are all sorts of acclaimed television entries that I didn’t get around to watching or finishing. This is my very personal list, and I know it has gaps. One of the reasons I’m certain of this shortcoming is that the first season of the runner-up for best of the year cited below would have absolutely made the cut for last year’s tally had I caught up to it then. With that note of humility presented, let’s begin.

#1 — Pluribus, season 1 (Apple TV). Vince Gilligan’s follow-up to the great Better Call Saul is a sharp drama of moral complexity with some sci-fi trappings. He wisely enlists Rhea Seehorn to take the lead as one of the very few people on Earth who is left out when an alien hive mind captures most of humanity. Pluribus is largely — and thankfully — uninterested in getting into the whys and hows of its premise and instead explores the contours of free will. The storytelling is moody and patient, and the text is rich. Surprising no one who paid attention to her on Better Call Saul, Seehorn is superb. The show is heady and mischievously entertaining at the same time. It looks, feels, and resonates like nothing else on television.

#2 — The Pitt, season 2 (HBO Max). This medical drama had a fantastic inaugural season, and it only get better with its second set of episodes. Even as I’ll admit that the single-day, real-time conceit still arguably packs a few too many incidents into a single shift, the writing and character work is strong enough to forgive the flaw. And when the choice works, as with the extended waits endured by patients in distress, the design of The Pitt enhances the authenticity of the storytelling. The whole cast is terrific, with the actors who were playing their first day on the job in season one doing an especially nice job showing how the characters have grown more comfortable while still sitting on the early part of their learning curves.

#3 — Widow’s Bay, season 1 (Apple TV). Created by Katie Dippold, Widow’s Bay mixes horror and comedy with remarkable skill. The series owes a clear and slyly acknowledged debt to the classic work of author Stephen King, and it does right by its scarier elements. The overarching mystery is satisfying, and the creators know how to use individual episodes, as evidenced by the Halloween send-up and a flashback to a foundational dark time in the town’s murky history.

#4 — The Lowdown, season 1 (FX). Sterlin Harjo solidifies his standing as a spinner of great television fictions about his Oklahoma home. His follow-up to the masterful Reservation Dogs is a pulp detective novel doled out across eight episodes of scruffy, colorful doings. Ethan Hawke is a roughshod wonder in the lead role, playing scraped-up ringmaster to a procession of memorable supporting performers, including fine work by Keith David, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Ryan Kiera Armstrong, and an utterly wonderful Tim Blake Nelson. The Lowdown exalts in its ragged edges.

#5 — Shrinking, season 3 (Apple TV). The balancing act of Shrinking involves staying true to the agonizing strain of getting through the trials of life while also standing as a genially enjoyable hang-out comedy. The characters are now so well-defined that they generate conflict and warmth seemingly with the ease of a set of perpetual motion machines. There’s also enough craft at play to ensure that the show earns its affection.

#6 — St. Denis Medical, season 2 (NBC). This sitcom uses its hospital setting well. Even as the stories revolve around general workplace and interpersonal issues that are common enough to be relatable, the creators never falter in exploiting the specifics inherent to a medical organization at a time when the healthcare system seems always on the verge of needing its own emergency care.

#7 — Alien: Earth, season 1 (FX). If creator Noah Hawley’s pass at the lore that’s spawned ceaselessly from director Ridley Scott’s fabulous 1979 feature about the unfortunate circumstances faced by the passengers of the Nostromo isn’t as impressively inventive as his work on Fargo, there’s still an agreeable tangle of ideas at play in this science-fiction series. The episode of Alien: Earth that pays explicit tribute to its most esteemed predecessor is a standout.

#8 — Abbott Elementary, season 5 (ABC). Quinta Brunson’s keen understanding of what makes for effective sitcom storytelling continues to buoy Abbott Elementary as it moves into a phase of being a venerable — and perhaps underappreciated — part of the television landscape. The joke writing remains strong, the social commentary is restrained yet effective, and the whole cast operates with seasoned confidence.

#9 — The Diplomat, season 3 (Netflix). Plausibility isn’t always the most valued attribute in the narrative of The Diplomat, but that almost doesn’t matter. There’s still pleasure in watching intelligent, passionate people bang off each other as they navigate geopolitical nightmares. It also stands valiantly as a showcase for the vast everything that Keri Russell can do with a character.

#10 — Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, season 1 (Paramount Plus). I’ll admit that I’m rounding up to get the latest Star Trek offering into my top ten. Although this mash-up of Trek fundamentals and teen-soap melodrama is enjoyable, it’s also still finding its footing. I’m inclined to celebrate it because the series has raised the ire of professional grousers from the right-wing of the political spectrum who get apoplectic any time a story isn’t centered on a stalwart white man at the active diminishment of everyone else in the vast, diverse world. The show’s trigger-finger cancellation at the hands of the ghouls who’ve taken over Paramount doesn’t bode well for the future of this space franchise that has a longstanding commitment to progressive ideals. Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is a novel addition to the mythos, and it deserves better than it’s getting. Besides, the show has Holly Hunter flopping around her captain’s chair like a restless kid and Paul Giamatti giving an grandly oversized villain performance as Nus Braka. That’s the stuff of great television.

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