Forget the Mother of Dragons and say hello instead to the Daddy of Split Ends. With Game of Thrones receding in the collective imagination like a moderately oversexed bad dream, Netflix has unleashed a flesh-flashing fantasy blockbuster of its own. The Witcher is adapted from a mildly successful series of novels and a wildly adored video game sequence. It stars Henry Cavill as an anti-hero with a silver sword, perky pecs and ludicrous bleached hair. But does the world truly need to see Superman mucking about in a land of pointy-eared elves, orgiastic nobles and gloomy castles? Netflix is betting that the answer is an ambiguous Kessa! (“yes” in High Valyrian and don’t pretend you didn’t know).
The Witcher brims with drool-worthy special effects and a king’s ransom in bare bums. Such is its confidence Netflix has placed an upfront order for two seasons. And with Cavill, as the mighty mullet-ed Geralt of Rivia trousering a reported $400,000 per episode, the royal coffers at Netflix’s Sunset Boulevard HQ have been plundered with gusto. What could possibly go wrong?
A great many things, potentially. First of all, it is a very open question whether there is an appetite for a new Game of Thrones. Has a TV drama ever aged as quickly as Once Upon a Time in Westeros? As we look back on the global mania that preceded last spring’s eight and final season, it’s as if recalling a collective delusion to which we foolishly succumbed. GoT in the end nosedived in plausibility and indeed watchability. More than a few of us are embarrassed about having obsessed over it in the first place.
Was it, for instance, wise to invest so heavily in the plight of Daenerys Targaryen – which, criiiinge, I can still spell without having to look up – given the showrunners ultimately weren’t too bothered how things worked out for her? What, moreover, about the emotional energy staked on Jon Snow’s parentage, ultimately revealed to be Not Really That Big A Deal.
That’s before we touch on Game of Thrones’s problematic track record with sexual violence – and, indeed, its attitude towards the entire female gender. As Daenerys, Emilia Clarke has spoken of the pressure she was put under to go naked. She was required to do so, she was told, in order not to disappoint “fans” (a strange way to spell “pervs”). What was racy and edgy when GoT debuted in 2011 now looks distinctly old hat (by which mean rampantly misogynist).
So if The Witcher is counting on residual goodwill from the Game of Thrones audience, it may wish to think again (admittedly, its sex scenes are chaste compared to GoT’s). There is also the issue that the Netflix epic, as stated above, is based on the original novels by Andrzej Sapkowski rather than the more crowd-pleasing and action-packed video games. Rest assured the books are fantastic. They are, however, more in the sword and sorcery vein of Conan the Barbarian and Michael Moorcock’s Elric of Melniboné than in the post-Tolkien tradition in which Martin was operating.
Martin’s novels rejected Tolkien’s primness. They were, though, very Lord of Rings in their world-building and sheer scale. Season one of The Witcher is, by contrast, based on the first entry in Sapkowski’s sequence – a collection of short stories featuring the titular Geralt and full of exciting battles, dark folklore and arcane magic. That pulpy sensibility carries through to the screen, with each episode self-contained to a degree. What’s missing is the political sweep of GoT. That simply isn’t what early Witcher is about. Netflix has given us flashing steel and Cavill looked perpetually annoyed. That’s continents removed from to the backroom skulduggery that drew so millions to GoT.
The wider imponderable is whether, following the collective letdown we all went through with Game of Thrones, there is still an appetite for fantasy on the small screen. The Witcher isn’t the first to try to capitalise on the Westeros effect. Amazon has already been here with steam-punk fandango Carnival Row (with Cara Delevingne playing a fairy who, going by her accent, grew up a neighbour of Bono’s in South County Dublin). As has Netflix. With Dark Crystal: The Age of Resistance, it posed the question: what would Game of Thrones plus Jim Henson’s Muppets look like? Answer: boring and difficult to follow.
That’s just the first wave. Amazon has emptied Jeff Bezos’s loose change jar by sinking $2.5bn into a Lord of the Rings prequel. It is in addition lavishing millions on a multi-season retelling of Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time (a major influence on George RR Martin). Lord of the Rings will no doubt prove a hit. How many of these other shows count as a sure thing?
1/30 30. Homeland (season 1, 2011)
Few dead horses have been more flogged, but if you stretch your mind back enough, it is possible to remember a series with a fantastic premise that kept us guessing for 12 whole episodes. The question: had returning war hero Sgt Brody (Damian Lewis) been radicalised in a foreign jail cell? CIA officer Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) thought so, but she had plenty of problems of her own. I still think it would have been better if he’d detonated at the denouement. Twisty, compelling, briefly essential. (EC)
Showtime
2/30 29. Mum (2016-2019)
The slow-burning relationship between Cathy (Lesley Manville), a widow and mother of superhuman forbearance, and her late husband’s best pal Michael (Peter Mullan) elevated what could have been a run-of-the-mill suburban comedy into a beautifully composed portrait of friendship, grief and mid-life romance. (FS)
BBC
3/30 28. Handmaid’s Tale (2017- )
Hulu’s adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel, set in a pious patriarchal state, lost its way in the second series, but the first, which arrived a few months after Trump entered the White House, was a triumph. As Offred, Elisabeth Moss seethed under her mask of impassivity, while the rich palette gave us a dystopian nightmare as imagined by the 17th-century Dutch school. (FS)
Hulu
4/30 27. Money Heist (2017- )
Perhaps the trashiest show on this list, but trash of the highest grade, Money Heist is Netflix’s most popular non-English series, a hit across Europe and South America, with 34m accounts watching this year’s Part 3 in its first week of release. A mysterious mastermind known as The Professor gathers together a crew of misfit criminals to execute a robbery on the Royal Mint in Spain. Tense, funny, clever and often completely preposterous, La Casa del Papel has only been held back by its off-putting English title. (EC)
Netflix
5/30 26. Rick and Morty (2013- )
It unfortunately inspired some of the worst fans on the internet, but that shouldn’t detract from Rick and Morty’s inventiveness. Ostensibly a parody of Back to the Future, about the adventures of a young boy and his alcoholic, mad scientist grandfather, the cartoon uses its set-up to put its heroes in an endless number of frenetic, frequently insane situations. Blink and you miss a gag and two pop-culture references. (EC)
Adult Swim
6/30 25. The Returned (2012-2015)
This exquisite French series is about the dead trying to return to their old lives in a secluded mountain town dispensed with the usual gory zombie tropes, instead dwelling on the human instincts of these confused beings – specifically their desire to love and be loved – and the grief experienced by those they left behind. (FS)
Channel 4
7/30 24. Catastrophe (2015-19)
Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney were a masterful double act in this sitcom about a holiday fling resulting in an unplanned pregnancy. The pair’s attempts to build a life together yielded scabrous gags about sex and post-partum leakage, a cameo from the late Carrie Fisher and an underlying tenderness that resisted spilling into sentimentality. (FS)
Channel 4
8/30 23. Killing Eve (2018-)
A wicked cocktail of comedy and humanity, shock and gore, the first series of Killing Eve, written by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, was a subversive joy. Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer played, respectively, a spy and an assassin whose continental game of cat-and-mouse was a blood-spattered love story for the ages. Sadly, when Waller-Bridge handed off writing duties in the second series, the magic wasn’t quite the same. (FS)
BBC/BBC America
9/30 22. Borgen (2010-2013)
The Killing may have started the Scandi craze, but it aired in Denmark in 2007, so it doesn’t count for these purposes. Borgen was everything The West Wing wasn’t: a cliché-resistant drama that showed politics in grating reality, with plenty of plausible schemers in slick outfits and a wonderful central performance by Sidse Babett Knudsen as Birgitte Nyborg, the Prime Minister trying to balance principles with power. (EC)
DR Fiktion
10/30 21. Detectorists (2014-17)
Following the exploits of Lance (Toby Jones) and Andy (Mackenzie Crook), dedicated treasure hunters and members of the Danebury Metal Detecting Club, Detectorists was about people and their passions, community and camaraderie. It’s a wonderfully tranquil meditation on male companionship. (FS)
BBC
11/30 20. The Americans (2013-2018)
Where other series burn brightly and fade after a couple of years, FX’s Cold War spy drama took its time. Matthew Rhys and Kerri Russell, married in real life, shone as the Russian couple working as spies in suburban Washington DC. The tension built over six seasons to a magnificent finale, rewarding those who stuck with it. (EC)
Patrick Harbron/FX via AP
12/30 19. The Leftovers (2014-2017)
The premise is one of the most intriguing in television: people struggling to come to terms with something called the “Sudden Departure”, a mysterious event in whichtwo per cent of the world’s population simply disappeared. Damon Lindelof and Tom Perrotta’s drama received iffy reviews at first, but its reputation grew through its second and final outings, with writing and performances that explored the full depth of the setup without losing the pervasive air of mystery. (EC)
HBO
13/30 18. The Crown (2016- )
The third series is a noticeable drop-off in quality, but for two series The Crown achieved a number of unexpected feats. It made viewers genuinely interested in the Royal Family, and not in a Prince Andrew “should they go to prison?” kind of way. With sumptuous sets and costumes and some excellent performances, especially Claire Foy as the young monarch, this remains the high-water mark of Netflix polish – proof that money can, sometimes, buy you love. (EC)
Netflix/PA
14/30 17. The Great British Bake Off (2010- )
Reports of the death of TV’s baking behemoth have been greatly exaggerated: despite host departures, a channel move and the off-screen antics of a certain perma-tanned judge, this big-hearted competition in which friendships are forged and adults weep over sagging soufflés remains the ultimate feel-good reality show. (FS)
Channel 4
15/30 16. The Trip (2010- )
Two men bicker over bottles of fine wine. Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon’s low-key, semi-improvised and implausibly funny tours of high-end European restaurants saw the pair’s insecurities deliciously laid bare as they discussed sex, ageing and ambition. Michael Winterbottom directed. (FS)
IFC Films
16/30 15. Happy Valley (2014- )
This Yorkshire-set, Bafta-festooned series gave us Catherine Cawood (Sarah Lancashire), a pleasingly complex, no-nonsense police sergeant up to her neck in rapists, murderers, addicts and the odd ailing sheep, together with some superbly earthy dialogue courtesy of writer Sally Wainwright. (FS)
BBC
17/30 14. Girls (2012-2017)
Without Girls there is no Fleabag or Adam Driver, and it would probably merit inclusion on those two facts alone. But Lena Dunham now attracts as much opprobrium as praise, and it’s easy to forget how new her breakthrough comedy felt in its naturalistic depiction of young women in New York. This was Sex and the City for people who spent more time on Instagram than at work, created by people the same age as those they were portraying. Its look and feel have cast a long shadow. (EC)
Rex Features
18/30 13. Sherlock (2010- )
Witty, inventive and dazzling to look at, Steven Moffatt and Mark Gatiss’s relocation of the Arthur Conan Doyle stories to the present day worked beautifully, as did the casting of Benedict Cumberbatch as the “high-functioning sociopath” Holmes and Martin Freeman as the put-upon army veteran Watson. While later series would drift, the first three were unbeatable. (FS)
BBC
19/30 12. Chernobyl (2019)
A five-part drama about a nuclear disaster in 1986 is not the most promising prospect for a night in with a bottle of wine. It is a tribute to the writer, Craig Mazin, and director, Johan Renck, as well as its cast, especially Jared Harris, that Chernobyl managed to be totally gripping, with frequent moments of stark, horrendous beauty. (EC)
HBO
20/30 11. Atlanta (2016- )
At first, the musician and comedian Donald Glover’s series about struggling rappers in Atlanta looked like a familiar, safe kind of sitcom about loveable losers. But it quickly evolved into something fresh: a smart, occasionally surreal examination of life at the margins of America, whose angry heart never spilled into preachiness or got in the way of the jokes. (EC)
AP
21/30 10. Love Island (2015- )
Who could have anticipated a dating show in which twenty-somethings sit around in microscopic swimwear would tell us so much about the human condition? Gaslighting, bromances, the complexities of “girl code” – Love Island delved beneath the spray tans and schooled the nation on modern manners. (FS)
Rex Features
22/30 9. Patrick Melrose (2018)
An electrifying study of addiction, trauma and the corrupting power of privilege, based on the autobiographical books by Edward St Aubyn. Benedict Cumberbatch played the feckless antihero grappling with his past and trying (and mostly failing) to be better than the wretched aristos that raised him. (FS)
Sky
23/30 8. The Vietnam War (2017)
Ken Burns’s epic 10-part documentary followed up his other conflict opuses, on The Civil War and The War, with a detailed story about Vietnam. Using new interviews from both sides as well as archive footage, the documentary shows in unrelenting detail a catastrophe that unfolded in slow motion. Some critics accused it of underserving the experience of the Vietnamese civilians. But it left viewers in no doubt that not only did the US leadership pursue it long after it was a lost cause, but they knew from the start it was unwinnable. (EC)
Trailer screenshot
24/30 7. Black Mirror (2011- )
Charlie Brooker sent every other TV critic, or at least one of them, into a spiral of envy by proving not only that it was possible to cross over into creation, but to do so in style. Black Mirror’s taut near-future tales of techno-dystopia are almost always interesting, even if they sometimes fall short of their ambitions, as with the high-concept recent film, “Bandersnatch”. The best episodes, like 2016’s tour de force, “San Junipero”, are gripping examinations of human connection in a world where interactions are increasingly by screens. (EC)
Getty Images
25/30 6. Blue Planet II (2017)
The first of the Attenborough documentaries to speak directly of the human impact on the natural world, this kaleidoscopic ocean odyssey provided a visual feast of clam-cracking tuskfish, alien-looking pyrosomes and anthropomorphic dolphins, while reminding us how it could all be lost. (FS)
BBC
26/30 5. BoJack Horseman (2014- )
Only in a world of Netflix budgets can you imagine a concept as wild as BoJack Horseman’s getting off the ground. It’s a cartoon set in LA, ostensibly a comedy about celebrity, except half the characters, including its lead, are anthropomorphised animals. Halfway through its final season, which has been split into two, its initial zaniness has given way to something darker and more interesting. Lurid colours and visual wit dress one of the most humane explorations of depression, addiction and cycles of abuse. (EC)
Netflix
27/30 4. Fleabag (2016-19)
What began, in its first series, as an enjoyably acid-tongued portrait of modern womanhood became a fully fledged masterpiece in the second. Written by and starring Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Fleabag gave us perfectly calibrated scenes of familial dysfunction and sexual longing – the latter memorably culminating in the Priest’s simple, thrilling instruction: “Kneel.” (FS)
BBC
28/30 3. This is England (2010-15)
The first spin-off series from Shane Meadows’ 2007 film, about a gang of ex-skinheads from the Midlands, was set during the 1986 World Cup, and remains one of the great British dramas, depicting working class lives with humanity and humour. This is England ’88 and ’90 followed, both of them similarly infused with heart and soul. (FS)
Channel 4
29/30 2. Succession (2018- )
Said to have been a decade in the making, Succession is worth every minute spent on it. Brian Cox enjoys a dream of a late-career role as Logan Roy, the ageing media tycoon unwilling to relinquish control of his company to any of his ungrateful and talentless children. There’s oblivious eldest son Connor (Alan Ruck), troubled addict Kendall (Jeremy Strong), scheming daughter Shiv (Sarah Snook) and abrasive youngest Roman (Kieran Culkin), along with a host of hangers-on, partners and support staff. None of them seem to have the right stuff. It’s an intriguing set-up, but Succession is lifted by its script, performances, locations, costumes, music and direction, which place it firmly in a tradition of laughing at our rulers, where the mirth comes tempered with the knowledge that these are really the people in charge. (EC)
Graeme Hunter
30/30 1. Game of Thrones (2011-2019)
Yes, the final series went a bit weird. Maybe the final two series. A case could be made that the TV adaptation was never as emotionally resonant when it went beyond George RR Martin’s novels. The final series were only disappointing compared to what had come before, which was a fantasy on an unprecedented scale that managed to be grandiose without slipping into melodrama. An invented universe with necromancers, dragons, magic swords and ice zombies was notable for its plausible realpolitik. At a time when viewing tastes were meant to be becoming more atomised, Game of Thrones was global event TV, which made household names of the Starks, Lannisters and Greyjoys and provided a whole generation of English character actors with a regular income. (EC)
AP
1/30 30. Homeland (season 1, 2011)
Few dead horses have been more flogged, but if you stretch your mind back enough, it is possible to remember a series with a fantastic premise that kept us guessing for 12 whole episodes. The question: had returning war hero Sgt Brody (Damian Lewis) been radicalised in a foreign jail cell? CIA officer Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) thought so, but she had plenty of problems of her own. I still think it would have been better if he’d detonated at the denouement. Twisty, compelling, briefly essential. (EC)
Showtime
2/30 29. Mum (2016-2019)
The slow-burning relationship between Cathy (Lesley Manville), a widow and mother of superhuman forbearance, and her late husband’s best pal Michael (Peter Mullan) elevated what could have been a run-of-the-mill suburban comedy into a beautifully composed portrait of friendship, grief and mid-life romance. (FS)
BBC
3/30 28. Handmaid’s Tale (2017- )
Hulu’s adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel, set in a pious patriarchal state, lost its way in the second series, but the first, which arrived a few months after Trump entered the White House, was a triumph. As Offred, Elisabeth Moss seethed under her mask of impassivity, while the rich palette gave us a dystopian nightmare as imagined by the 17th-century Dutch school. (FS)
Hulu
4/30 27. Money Heist (2017- )
Perhaps the trashiest show on this list, but trash of the highest grade, Money Heist is Netflix’s most popular non-English series, a hit across Europe and South America, with 34m accounts watching this year’s Part 3 in its first week of release. A mysterious mastermind known as The Professor gathers together a crew of misfit criminals to execute a robbery on the Royal Mint in Spain. Tense, funny, clever and often completely preposterous, La Casa del Papel has only been held back by its off-putting English title. (EC)
Netflix
5/30 26. Rick and Morty (2013- )
It unfortunately inspired some of the worst fans on the internet, but that shouldn’t detract from Rick and Morty’s inventiveness. Ostensibly a parody of Back to the Future, about the adventures of a young boy and his alcoholic, mad scientist grandfather, the cartoon uses its set-up to put its heroes in an endless number of frenetic, frequently insane situations. Blink and you miss a gag and two pop-culture references. (EC)
Adult Swim
6/30 25. The Returned (2012-2015)
This exquisite French series is about the dead trying to return to their old lives in a secluded mountain town dispensed with the usual gory zombie tropes, instead dwelling on the human instincts of these confused beings – specifically their desire to love and be loved – and the grief experienced by those they left behind. (FS)
Channel 4
7/30 24. Catastrophe (2015-19)
Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney were a masterful double act in this sitcom about a holiday fling resulting in an unplanned pregnancy. The pair’s attempts to build a life together yielded scabrous gags about sex and post-partum leakage, a cameo from the late Carrie Fisher and an underlying tenderness that resisted spilling into sentimentality. (FS)
Channel 4
8/30 23. Killing Eve (2018-)
A wicked cocktail of comedy and humanity, shock and gore, the first series of Killing Eve, written by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, was a subversive joy. Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer played, respectively, a spy and an assassin whose continental game of cat-and-mouse was a blood-spattered love story for the ages. Sadly, when Waller-Bridge handed off writing duties in the second series, the magic wasn’t quite the same. (FS)
BBC/BBC America
9/30 22. Borgen (2010-2013)
The Killing may have started the Scandi craze, but it aired in Denmark in 2007, so it doesn’t count for these purposes. Borgen was everything The West Wing wasn’t: a cliché-resistant drama that showed politics in grating reality, with plenty of plausible schemers in slick outfits and a wonderful central performance by Sidse Babett Knudsen as Birgitte Nyborg, the Prime Minister trying to balance principles with power. (EC)
DR Fiktion
10/30 21. Detectorists (2014-17)
Following the exploits of Lance (Toby Jones) and Andy (Mackenzie Crook), dedicated treasure hunters and members of the Danebury Metal Detecting Club, Detectorists was about people and their passions, community and camaraderie. It’s a wonderfully tranquil meditation on male companionship. (FS)
BBC
11/30 20. The Americans (2013-2018)
Where other series burn brightly and fade after a couple of years, FX’s Cold War spy drama took its time. Matthew Rhys and Kerri Russell, married in real life, shone as the Russian couple working as spies in suburban Washington DC. The tension built over six seasons to a magnificent finale, rewarding those who stuck with it. (EC)
Patrick Harbron/FX via AP
12/30 19. The Leftovers (2014-2017)
The premise is one of the most intriguing in television: people struggling to come to terms with something called the “Sudden Departure”, a mysterious event in whichtwo per cent of the world’s population simply disappeared. Damon Lindelof and Tom Perrotta’s drama received iffy reviews at first, but its reputation grew through its second and final outings, with writing and performances that explored the full depth of the setup without losing the pervasive air of mystery. (EC)
HBO
13/30 18. The Crown (2016- )
The third series is a noticeable drop-off in quality, but for two series The Crown achieved a number of unexpected feats. It made viewers genuinely interested in the Royal Family, and not in a Prince Andrew “should they go to prison?” kind of way. With sumptuous sets and costumes and some excellent performances, especially Claire Foy as the young monarch, this remains the high-water mark of Netflix polish – proof that money can, sometimes, buy you love. (EC)
Netflix/PA
14/30 17. The Great British Bake Off (2010- )
Reports of the death of TV’s baking behemoth have been greatly exaggerated: despite host departures, a channel move and the off-screen antics of a certain perma-tanned judge, this big-hearted competition in which friendships are forged and adults weep over sagging soufflés remains the ultimate feel-good reality show. (FS)
Channel 4
15/30 16. The Trip (2010- )
Two men bicker over bottles of fine wine. Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon’s low-key, semi-improvised and implausibly funny tours of high-end European restaurants saw the pair’s insecurities deliciously laid bare as they discussed sex, ageing and ambition. Michael Winterbottom directed. (FS)
IFC Films
16/30 15. Happy Valley (2014- )
This Yorkshire-set, Bafta-festooned series gave us Catherine Cawood (Sarah Lancashire), a pleasingly complex, no-nonsense police sergeant up to her neck in rapists, murderers, addicts and the odd ailing sheep, together with some superbly earthy dialogue courtesy of writer Sally Wainwright. (FS)
BBC
17/30 14. Girls (2012-2017)
Without Girls there is no Fleabag or Adam Driver, and it would probably merit inclusion on those two facts alone. But Lena Dunham now attracts as much opprobrium as praise, and it’s easy to forget how new her breakthrough comedy felt in its naturalistic depiction of young women in New York. This was Sex and the City for people who spent more time on Instagram than at work, created by people the same age as those they were portraying. Its look and feel have cast a long shadow. (EC)
Rex Features
18/30 13. Sherlock (2010- )
Witty, inventive and dazzling to look at, Steven Moffatt and Mark Gatiss’s relocation of the Arthur Conan Doyle stories to the present day worked beautifully, as did the casting of Benedict Cumberbatch as the “high-functioning sociopath” Holmes and Martin Freeman as the put-upon army veteran Watson. While later series would drift, the first three were unbeatable. (FS)
BBC
19/30 12. Chernobyl (2019)
A five-part drama about a nuclear disaster in 1986 is not the most promising prospect for a night in with a bottle of wine. It is a tribute to the writer, Craig Mazin, and director, Johan Renck, as well as its cast, especially Jared Harris, that Chernobyl managed to be totally gripping, with frequent moments of stark, horrendous beauty. (EC)
HBO
20/30 11. Atlanta (2016- )
At first, the musician and comedian Donald Glover’s series about struggling rappers in Atlanta looked like a familiar, safe kind of sitcom about loveable losers. But it quickly evolved into something fresh: a smart, occasionally surreal examination of life at the margins of America, whose angry heart never spilled into preachiness or got in the way of the jokes. (EC)
AP
21/30 10. Love Island (2015- )
Who could have anticipated a dating show in which twenty-somethings sit around in microscopic swimwear would tell us so much about the human condition? Gaslighting, bromances, the complexities of “girl code” – Love Island delved beneath the spray tans and schooled the nation on modern manners. (FS)
Rex Features
22/30 9. Patrick Melrose (2018)
An electrifying study of addiction, trauma and the corrupting power of privilege, based on the autobiographical books by Edward St Aubyn. Benedict Cumberbatch played the feckless antihero grappling with his past and trying (and mostly failing) to be better than the wretched aristos that raised him. (FS)
Sky
23/30 8. The Vietnam War (2017)
Ken Burns’s epic 10-part documentary followed up his other conflict opuses, on The Civil War and The War, with a detailed story about Vietnam. Using new interviews from both sides as well as archive footage, the documentary shows in unrelenting detail a catastrophe that unfolded in slow motion. Some critics accused it of underserving the experience of the Vietnamese civilians. But it left viewers in no doubt that not only did the US leadership pursue it long after it was a lost cause, but they knew from the start it was unwinnable. (EC)
Trailer screenshot
24/30 7. Black Mirror (2011- )
Charlie Brooker sent every other TV critic, or at least one of them, into a spiral of envy by proving not only that it was possible to cross over into creation, but to do so in style. Black Mirror’s taut near-future tales of techno-dystopia are almost always interesting, even if they sometimes fall short of their ambitions, as with the high-concept recent film, “Bandersnatch”. The best episodes, like 2016’s tour de force, “San Junipero”, are gripping examinations of human connection in a world where interactions are increasingly by screens. (EC)
Getty Images
25/30 6. Blue Planet II (2017)
The first of the Attenborough documentaries to speak directly of the human impact on the natural world, this kaleidoscopic ocean odyssey provided a visual feast of clam-cracking tuskfish, alien-looking pyrosomes and anthropomorphic dolphins, while reminding us how it could all be lost. (FS)
BBC
26/30 5. BoJack Horseman (2014- )
Only in a world of Netflix budgets can you imagine a concept as wild as BoJack Horseman’s getting off the ground. It’s a cartoon set in LA, ostensibly a comedy about celebrity, except half the characters, including its lead, are anthropomorphised animals. Halfway through its final season, which has been split into two, its initial zaniness has given way to something darker and more interesting. Lurid colours and visual wit dress one of the most humane explorations of depression, addiction and cycles of abuse. (EC)
Netflix
27/30 4. Fleabag (2016-19)
What began, in its first series, as an enjoyably acid-tongued portrait of modern womanhood became a fully fledged masterpiece in the second. Written by and starring Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Fleabag gave us perfectly calibrated scenes of familial dysfunction and sexual longing – the latter memorably culminating in the Priest’s simple, thrilling instruction: “Kneel.” (FS)
BBC
28/30 3. This is England (2010-15)
The first spin-off series from Shane Meadows’ 2007 film, about a gang of ex-skinheads from the Midlands, was set during the 1986 World Cup, and remains one of the great British dramas, depicting working class lives with humanity and humour. This is England ’88 and ’90 followed, both of them similarly infused with heart and soul. (FS)
Channel 4
29/30 2. Succession (2018- )
Said to have been a decade in the making, Succession is worth every minute spent on it. Brian Cox enjoys a dream of a late-career role as Logan Roy, the ageing media tycoon unwilling to relinquish control of his company to any of his ungrateful and talentless children. There’s oblivious eldest son Connor (Alan Ruck), troubled addict Kendall (Jeremy Strong), scheming daughter Shiv (Sarah Snook) and abrasive youngest Roman (Kieran Culkin), along with a host of hangers-on, partners and support staff. None of them seem to have the right stuff. It’s an intriguing set-up, but Succession is lifted by its script, performances, locations, costumes, music and direction, which place it firmly in a tradition of laughing at our rulers, where the mirth comes tempered with the knowledge that these are really the people in charge. (EC)
Graeme Hunter
30/30 1. Game of Thrones (2011-2019)
Yes, the final series went a bit weird. Maybe the final two series. A case could be made that the TV adaptation was never as emotionally resonant when it went beyond George RR Martin’s novels. The final series were only disappointing compared to what had come before, which was a fantasy on an unprecedented scale that managed to be grandiose without slipping into melodrama. An invented universe with necromancers, dragons, magic swords and ice zombies was notable for its plausible realpolitik. At a time when viewing tastes were meant to be becoming more atomised, Game of Thrones was global event TV, which made household names of the Starks, Lannisters and Greyjoys and provided a whole generation of English character actors with a regular income. (EC)
AP
Fantasy, we should recall, has been here before. In the late Seventies, in the wake of Star Wars, the genre was swept up in an unlikely gold rush. Conan the Barbarian, The Beastmaster, Krull, Hawk the Slayer, Dragonslayer, Ladyhawke, Labyrinth, Willow and more lay enthusiastic siege to cinemas. The majority flopped. Hollywood eventually concluded mainstream audiences had no desire to see oddly dressed outcasts huffing and puffing in public (at least until The X Factor came along).
The impact first of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings and then of Game of Thrones suggested that tastes have changed. Yet both had vast pre-existing fanbases. The Witcher is popular – but nowhere near the scale of Tolkien or George RR Martin.
The other lesson is that a breakthrough on television is often a matter of happenstance that can seem to have dropped from the clear blue sky. Looking back, I find it incredible that shows such as Breaking Bad – about a teacher suffering terminal cancer who turns to drug dealing – or Game of Thrones itself would chime with viewers. Each was lightening captured in a bottle.
The same could be said of this year’s must-see drama, season two of Succession. Who’d have imagined a scorched-earth comedy focused on the domestic travails of a Murdoch-esque media dynasty, from one of the creators of Peep Show, would be 2019’s biggest smash? It was the hit nobody saw coming, whereas The Witcher – so calculatingly calibrated in its grittiness and murkiness to be the next Game of Thrones – may succeed only in disappointing.
