The Afterword

Musings on the byways of popular culture

Menu

Navigation

You are here: Home / Forum / Your favourite TV shows of 2023

Your favourite TV shows of 2023

by 109 Comments

Your favourite TV shows of 2023

No rankings – just a thread where you can tell your fellow AWers the TV shows you’ve watched and rated most highly during 2023 and they might like.

For the sake of brevity, with one or two exceptions I’ve excluded stuff I mentioned in the blog’s Best TV of the first half of the year thread (link at the bottom)

DOCUMENTARY

Once Upon a Time In Northern Ireland
Best show of the year by some distance for me. Amazing to think that all of this took place about 100 Kms from where I now live

NEW SHOW

Beef
Gen V

Diplomat
Silo
Last of Us
Dark Winds

RETURNING SHOW

Slow Horses

Lazarus Project

END OF THE LINE

Top Boy

Snowfall
Succession
Guilt

NEW/ONE-OFF DRAMA

Sixth Commandment

The Reckoning
Boat Story
Scrublands

COMEDY

Nolly

Two Doors Down (Hard to see this continuing following the death of
head writer, Simon Carlyle, Last series?
Rain Dogs
Colin from Accounts

FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Ferry

The Glory
Vortex

BELATED DISCOVERY

Mindhunter
Barry
Mr Inbetween

Bad Sisters
Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared

HAVEN’T YET SEEN BUT WILL

Crowded Room
Culprits
Burning Girls
Justified: City Primeval
Bosch Legacy

https://theafterword.co.uk/your-favourite-tv-shows-from-the-first-half-of-2023/

0

Comments

  1. Wow. I don’t watch much TV it seems. In the last few weeks I have started watching EastEnders again for the first time in about 20 years. Loads of people I don’t recognise but somehow reassuring that back in the square Cindy is once more messing up Ian Beale’s life and annoying Kath. Meanwhile there have yet again been some shenanigans between Phil and Sharon! Don’t know how long I will keep watching (perhaps not very long), but I think it’s better than Corrie these days. A low bar I know.

    Otherwise Masterchef in it’s various incarnations. Have started watching the new Frasier which is, um, ok. The TV show I have watched the most this year is the original Frasier series. It’s absolute genius, each episode like a brilliantly acted comic play, the cast is perfect (apart from Daphne’s family) and many episodes I can happily watch over and over again.

    • I’ve been rewatching the original Frasier as well. Loving it. I put together a recommended episode list cobble together from various review sources and personal choices (the x means I’ve watched it recently):

      S1 E22 x
      S2 E11 x
      S3 E16 x
      S4 E21x
      S5 E14x
      S6 E8x
      S6 E13x
      S8 E15x
      S6 E14x
      S2 E21x
      S3 E13x
      S2 E3x
      S8 E12x
      S4 E18x
      S11 E3x
      S5 E13x
      S9 E6x
      S3 E14x
      S7 E14x
      S11 E15x
      S5 E15x
      S2 E22x
      S5 E3x
      S10 E14x
      S10 E8 x
      S6 E10
      S7 E15
      S4 E12
      S11 E11
      S4 E1
      S7 E10
      S6 E17
      S1 E24
      S2 E23
      S1 E8
      S1 E16
      S3 E21
      S4 E3
      S4 E5
      S6 E22 & E23
      S7 E1
      S7 E12
      S8 E5
      S9 E15
      S7 E13
      S1 E21
      S10 E18
      S6 E19
      S7 E19
      S4 E7
      S8 E10
      S9 E8
      S6 E1
      S4 E6
      S3 E3
      S7 E7
      S2 E1
      S6 E14
      S7 E21
      S3 E9
      S1 E17

    • There’s a moment I’ve seen trailed from episode 10 of the reboot where Roz knocks on Frasier’s door and tells him “you look like crap”. It was the first time I laughed out loud after 9 episodes. The absence of all the original cast has sadly turned the show for me into little more than a Kelsey Grammer vanity project. It should never have gone ahead.

  2. Without repeating mid-year nominations:
    Secret Genius Of Modern Life (was the first series this year or 2022?).
    Am I the only one hoping for one of those “Extra” shows the BBC like to do:
    Secret Genius Of Modern Life – Extra Nerding

    2 recent ones from ITVx:
    Longest Shadow
    Crime (Irvine Welsh)

    New to me (found on iPlayer):
    Kin

        • Yes, both of them are good. Aiden Gillen in both and I will always watch something with him in it. Love/Hate early seasons have excellent performances from Robert Sheehan and Ruth Negga and a startling first screen appearance by Barry Keoghan. It has , perhaps unfairly, become the benchmark for all other Irish crime dramas. I liked Kin a lot. Good characters. Excellent turn by Clare Dunne as the central character and Charlie Cox does a very convincing Dublin accent. The production company who made it are in a bit of financial trouble but there seems to be talk of a third and maybe even a fourth season. My middle daughter is sharing a house just across the road from the house where the main family live, almost in the shadow of the Aviva Stadium.

    • Longest Shadow? Do you mean The Long Shadow? The one about the hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper? I watched that and though it was well made, I thought it was dragged out waaay too long (bit like the actual hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper in that respect). Had it been trimmed down to just four episodes instead of seven it would have been very excellent.

        • Yes, seven episodes was far too many for such a frequently told story (even though this did tell the story very well).

          And I can’t understand why the finale was so rushed, especially after such a long build-up. It was almost as if the show ran out of money/time and had to suddenly stop.

          • I think it is always a problem, particularly with episodic drama where there is investment in the “journey”, that the enjoyment is in the chase, the gradual build up of tension as the plot unfolds. The final denouement can easily feel drawn out past revelation or unsatisfyingly brief. Tying up loose ends often doesn’t have the satisfaction of the teaser for the next part.

      • Strange to watch as I was living round the area at the time and recall a group of us being stopped in our car and questioned, “where are you going etc.”

        Even stranger was driving down a street the next day that had been used in the filming. I’d seen a sign up earlier in the year saying the street was closed for filming but didn’t know what for.

  4. Defending Jacob had me hooked from the beginning and pondering whether the titular lad was innocent or guilty right up until the end. A good binge watch.

    I’ve started watching Archie, about Cary Grant. I’ve only seen the first episode. So far it’s pleasant enough without being particularly striking. However, Jason Isaacs is quite convincing as Grant and easy to imagine I’m watching the real thing (very different in that respect to Helena Bonham Carter in Nolly – while she was immensely enjoyable to watch, I was constantly aware I was watching Helena Bonham Carter, not once did she remind me in the slightest of Noele Gordon.)

    I agree with Jaygee, Once Upon a Time In Northern Ireland was the best programme I watched this year.

  5. I’m in agreement about Once Upon A Time In Northern Ireland. Worth the license fee for that alone this year. I’m also in agreement about Blue Lights, excellent cop drama.
    I thought the concluding episodes of Endeavour were superb television and probably my favourite ITV fare this year along with the new episodes of Unforgotten.
    On Apple+ I’ve been engrossed by For All Mankind and entertained by The Morning Show and Bad Sisters. Slow Horses of course is fabulous and I’ve just finished watching Lessons In Chemistry which I have no hesitation heartily recommending.
    I don’t seem to watch much comedy but Reservation Dogs on Disney+ is very fine TV indeed and is far more than just a comedy series. I dropped my subscription to Disney+ after watching the second series of The Bear as there was simply nothing on offer after that I felt I needed to see. I am tired of second rate MCU and Star Wars series and that appeared to be the only stuff left. Netflix similarly bit the dust. I don’t miss ether service tbh.

  6. Beef was great. Right up my street being black humour, inventive. Certainly seems to be a penchant with Koreans for the rather extreme approach.

    Poker Face similarly brilliant, similarly dark humour, rather wild and smart. Goes against the grain with separate stories each episode. It’s not realistic, it’s it’s own world.

    Days Of Us. Moving, powerful. Very well made version of a familiar story. A quest in a distopian world.

    Squid Game: The Challenge. This is the show redone as a real reality show, except the contestants don’t die this time. We’d have probably heard about it if they had. This is unbelievably tense. Occasionally goes a bit far in expoitation. Fascinating to see how people react, how they try to make it more humane for themselves.

    We watch a lot of the nice UK tv shows as well for something more cosy with their misery and murders. Unforgotten hits the spot. Sanjeev Bhaskar with his backpack permanently glued to one shoulder.

    I think the other stuff was from previous years. Generally what stands out is the more bold, daring stuff. The White Lotus approach which you tend to find on streaming services. HBO often has the pick of the dramas I find. Quality not quantity. We started with Fargo season 5 but it’s all a bit too much this time. The earlier ones were better I think.

    • I enjoyed Poker Face for the same reasons. Took me a while to realise that it was pretty much the same as Columbo in that “we” know what has happened and the main character with a disorganised life but a brilliant mind works it out by observing unrelated things and finding patterns. Very funny too.

      • Loved Poker Face, especially the guest stars obviously enjoying themselves immensely.

        I agree with Diddley about SQ: TC. I’ve been riveted – just when you think the organisers can’t be any more cruel… ta-da! they turn up the dial (spoiler alert: the marbles). The glass bridge was easily the most tense TV in a long time.

        The only problem with it is that, practically without exception, I’ve found the American contestants (or, the majority of those taking part) insufferable. The Americans I’ve met have all been great people that I’d like to know better, but, presumably deliberately, the show has picked a group of Yanks who take this daft game show ridiculously seriously and insist on everybody else doing the same – the basketball coach/star who had a meaningless “inspirational” catchphrase for every occasion, and practically insisted on being the leader, was particularly irritating. The scene where he led the group in a prayer and the two British girls looked at each other, clearly thinking “This is well over the top, innit?!”, did make me laugh.

        I’m looking forward to the finale, but all the ones I wanted to win are sadly out.

          • Yes, I have, thanks. Skipped through the first few episodes (as with too many shows, it was too long/padded out), but the last couple were terrific TV. The US version was spoilt by having some OTT “celebrities” (no, me neither) among the mix, but Alan Cumming, being none more camp, was a fun host and looked right at home.

            I’ve surprised myself by giving these shows a go. Normally I wouldn’t watch a “reality” show if it was the only thing on TV. Maybe it’s because these are games (to some extent) rather than a “social experiment” (ugh!) like Big Brother, for example.

              • On his new podcast Richard Osman, a man who knows a bit about television, said the while the UK Traitors was very good the Australian one is a masterpiece. I haven’t seen a minute of either as I get the impression it’s beaded on deception and prisoner’s dilemma game playing, exactly the sort of thing to make me squirm with discomfort.

  7. Memory being what it is the following is potentially a sample of the things I enjoyed this year.

    Colin From Accounts. Grown up and still lovely..
    Shrinking (Apple TV). Excellent. Harrison Fors is clearly having a ball.
    Endeavour. As good as drama gets over many series.

  8. I enjoyed Silo quite a lot and the second series of Foundation.
    Bosch: Legacy continued with good storylines following on from the original Bosch series.
    I quite liked Jack Ryan too.
    My favourite performance of the year was David Haig as Archie Glover-Morgan in COBRA. I’m sure he had a whale of a time playing the part, investing the rôle with as much sneering venom as he could muster. Sadly he was in a supporting role. I was hoping Archie would manage to stage a coup and displace Robert Carlyle’s Robert Sutherland as PM at the end of the series, so we could look forward to him in the lead role in any further series.
    Someone should recognise the excellence of David’s performance and give him his own series, playing this rôle.
    Time to be put out to grass – Alexander Armstrong in Pointless which has become pointless.
    He’s a 21st century Hughie Green. For an allegedly educated man he appears to have an extremely limited vocabulary, trying to reduce the number of adjectives of approbation in the English language to just two words nice and fun, while I’m sure there is a parlour game to be had in guessing before each programme how many times he will use the word indeed.

    • Agree with you re Pointless. On the plus side, there has been no more of the half-arsed cod-surrealist banter between AA and RO since the latter left

      The Chase is much more like it

      • Can’t stand Pointless, even though the only time I see is when I turn over once The Chase finishes, ready for the BBC News. So that means I only see the final (which is more than enough).

        I know it’s licence fee money, but the prize is a ridiculously small reward for the amount of brain power you need to win. “What are you going to do with the £1,250 prize for remembering one near-unknown goal-scorer in the 1982 Milk Cup replay?” asks AA. “Erm, not much,” says Plucky Contestant 1, “given that we’ve got to split it between two of us.”

        And AA seems to say *exactly* the same things at the end of every episode. I know Bradley Walsh might not be everybody’s idea of a top TV host, but he definitely seems to ad lib and have a bit of off-script fun.

        Pointless is the epitome of the rigid, old-style quiz shows that really ought to have stopped by now.

        • I still like both of them – although I watched an old one the other day and the bantz between Osman and Armstrong was a bit toe curling. Like when the boss makes a weak joke, you laugh out of politeness (which is nearly an anagram of pointless!).

    • I still like Pointless now and again. I think it is a brilliant format, perhaps mortally wounded with Richard Osman leaving though. For me Armstrong is brilliant at what he does. Those who feel it has run it’s course are not obligated to tune in.

      As for the prizes I think the BBC have limits as to what they are allowed to award unlike commercial stations. It’s also quite quaint to see people getting excited about winning 1000 quid which would barely pay for their trip to London for the recording (the Beeb may well cover that though). Think I saw it get up to 17 grand once though which was quite exciting

  9. From what I remember:

    Agree with those who have mentioned Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland, Blue Lights, and Colin From Accounts. I loved the second series of The Bear. The second series of Jimmy McGovern’s Time wasn’t quite as magnificent as the first but was still brilliant television.

    Oh, and, of course, Succession. Fantastic stuff.

  10. I’ve just have my Virgin telly box fixed and I’m sure I saw an advert for Slow Horses on ITV 4 or something which would be handy as I don’t have Apple or whatever it was on

    • I’m replying to my own post because I’m stupid and I need an eye test. Slow Horses is only available on Apple TV which apparently I or someone in our house has. Which is nice. The books are ace.

  11. I have spent ages going through Succession and nearly gave up due to the horrendously unlikable characters. But I am on the final stretch now and it has become something I thoroughly enjoy.

    I don’t get a lot of the business deal storylines but “twas forever thus. Even in Dallas, when JR bamboozles Cliff Barnes, I had very little idea why or how.

    In Succession, lots of shareholder meetings with dozens of lawyers in tow are convened at the drop of a hat and ridiculous things occur. The beef I have with Logan Roy is that I haven’t seen enough of the charm and/or the business acumen that he is meant to have. All he seems to do is shout “fuck off!”.

    • I watched a reality tv programme called 007: Road To A Million in which contestants, in pairs, had to complete dangerous James Bond related tasks. I usually can’t stand reality TV shows (I tried The Traitors after my brother raved about it, but couldn’t be bothered with watching more than half an episode). The reason I watched 007: Road To A Million was cos The Guardian wrote a really scathing review of it, giving it one star and citing Brian Cox’s hammy hosting, as a Blofield type character, as the worst thing about it. So I was curious. Turned out The Guardian review was nonsense. It was actually pretty entertaining. The tasks the contestants were given really were quite demanding. Climbing up mountains, dealing with alligators etc. Plus a fair bit took place in Puglia. I enjoyed it. No one won the million, alas. And Cox was barely in it and not embarrissingly hammy at all. (He doesn’t know how to pronounce Modigliani correctly though. Or Taranto.)

  13. I caught up with Colin From Accounts this year as well. A curious one as you feel it’s a perfect thing, neatly wrapped up, but a part of you craves more.
    I also watched Severance, which featured in last year’s roundup. I thought it was the best new thing I’d seen in years.
    Welcome To Wrexham is propaganda worthy of Leni Riefenstahl, but that makes it extremely compelling viewing.
    I expect it’s down to effects becoming cheaper, but there have been a lot of “high concept” comedies lately, like The Good Place, People Of Earth and We Are Not Alone. One I liked a lot this year was Extraordinary, about a young woman who lives in a world where everyone has superpowers except for her.
    You could moan that returning favourites Black Mirror, Inside No 9 and Rick and Morty aren’t as great as they used to be or you could admit that when they flex their muscles The Last Weekend (the one with the bath), Demon 79 (the one with the guy from Boney M) and That’s Amorte (the one about Rick’s special pasta) are top hole episodes of television.
    Equally, while I tired a little of the formula of Poker Face as the series progressed, the episode Escape From Shi* Mountain (the one with Joseph Gordon-Levitt) was gripping and the last episode had me ready to go around again..
    On the other hand, two that came back for one last swing but only hit fresh air (for me) were Justified with City Primeval (to be honest, I thought Justified lost its way during the last series proper) and Futurama.
    Per a recent thread, I watched Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads? properly for the first time this year (I had seen the one about avoiding the score in the England v Bulgaria game before). Good thing too, as it would have been wasted on me when I was young.

    • Extraordinary was good fun and, like you, I really enjoyed it. While Justified City Primeval was better than I thought it would be, it’s not a patch on the original

      • I’ll certainly moan that Inside No 9 is not as great as it used to be. I watched the last series out of loyalty, but that’s me finished. I thought it was very poor, with an undercurrent of “Aren’t we clever?” that wasn’t justified by the episodes themselves.

        I think Reece and Steve are great, and the show has featured some terrific TV, but maybe it’s run its course.

        The new Justified has passed me by – too many shows on too many streamers/networks makes it hard to remember where and when things are on – but I’ll check it out. The original show was largely great.

  14. Few late ones from me

    Culprit (Disney) excellent heist movie

    Fisk (NF) second series of Aussie comedy really hits its stride. If you liked Colin from Accounts, you’ll like this. Other recent Aussie shows that are well worth checking out include Black Rain and King of the Cross

    Moving (Disney) – Quirky (and very gory) Korean superhero show – apparently the most expensive in the country’s history. If you can get past the sappy love sto.ry in the early episodes and the horrible dubbed dialog (no Korean language option available), you’ll really enjoy this.

    The Other Black Girl (Disney) a sort of 30-minutel version of Jordan Peele’s Get Out offset tby he comedic possibilities of publishing industry pomposity.

    • I binged an Aussie show recently. One Night. (The title, not the duration of my binge.) Starring Jodie Auckland Whittaker. Four old school friends get together when one of them returns to Sydney after having run away to London following you-can-guess what. On her return she finds out that her friend has written a book about the incident. The actress playing the writer (I should look it up really) was very good. Whittaker doesn’t manage to convince me for some reason. The series was ok, nothing special, interesting enough.

      Talking of binges, I also watched Hijack on account of reading about it here somewhere (this thread, probably). Starring Idris Elba. I thought it was really, really crap – crap plot, dialogue and acting – and yet strangely addictive. I think maybe the cliffhanger endings were responsible for that.

      • @Gary

        Re Aussie shows – have you seen Rake with Richard Roxborough as a dissolute barrister? Very, very funny. May well give One Night a go as the Ocker TV industry seems to be having a bit of a purple patch at the mo

        Was in two minds about whether or not to watch Hijack but having just got a six month free deal from Sky will give it a go as it features in a fair few best show of the year lists. While I thought it was pants, Severance was a surprising omission from some lists – especially given the great reviews it got was

  16. A hamper already in the bag and no mention of Happy Valley? For shame. It was broadcast right at the start of the year but set a very high bar for the rest of the year’s programmes to reach.

    • Great show.

      Reason why it didn’t get mentioned that much is it got covered pretty comprehensively in the post for the first half of the year.

      Sarah L fans will be happy to learn Series two of the splendid Julia
      will soon be starting on Sky

  17. The show I enjoyed the most in 2023? Reacher. It didn’t overpromise, or try to be anything it wasn’t. Excellent Ronseal television.

    Beyond that? I have 3o minutes of comfort tv most afternoons, with a cookery show by a fella named Adam Liaw – The Cook-Up. Everyone seems nice, and if I could get all the ingredients, I could take a realistic shot at most of the dishes.

    I enjoyed the latest season of Van Der Valk, which again is like Reacher. You’re unlikely to be surprised, the acting is competent or good, and the plot’s enough to keep you guessing.

    My wife enjoys shows with unrepentant assholes as main characters, and I just can’t watch them. I’m finding more and more I’m drawn to easier tv – what USA Network in the US called Blue Sky TV – preferably with a dash of humor and likeable main characters.

  19. Watching Archie over the holiday period. I think it’s better than most of these biography style dramas that tend to be fairly generic. Maybe a bit too much Dyan Cannon, but she is an Executive Producer and probably knew him better than anybody

    • I just watched that. Based on Cannon’s book of the same title. I thought both leads did an excellent job. Overall I found it a bit light and superficial, nothing revelatory or memorable, but pleasant enough.

      As biopic series go, not a patch on last year’s Pammy & Tom, mind.

      • I was unaware of the extent of his childhood trauma that naturally stayed with him throughout his life. Still have one episode to watch, Isaacs is indeed excellent despite bearing very little physical resemblance to CG.

Leave a Reply