Best of 2023 television 

We have not paid television much attention in the last few months.

So, this is as good a time as any to look at the best TV shows of 2023. Succession sits comfortably at the top. The series finale brought Logan Roy’s miserable life to a tragic end earlier than most viewers expected, leaving plenty of episodes for the writers to explore the consequences of the billionaire’s death on his dysfunctional family.

With its final season, Succession secured its place as one of TV’s best-written shows. The jury is still out on the final season of Barry. Barry Berkman, the hopeless assassin who tried and failed to escape his violent past in favour of a new life as a Hollywood actor, got his just desserts.

Finally forced to grapple with the consequences of his actions, Barry makes one final stab at finding redemption in the eyes of the friends and family he betrayed. Some have dubbed this last season the funniest of the entire series.

Regardless of your opinion, you can’t deny that Barry was unique, and avid fans will miss it. The TV landscape has given us very few noteworthy tragic comedies. Speaking of tragedy, Still: A Micheal J. Fox Movie on Apple TV takes a surprisingly funny look at Michael J. Fox’s life. Once America’s biggest star, Fox’s Parkinson’s diagnosis derailed his career dramatically.

Fans have always treasured every appearance the actor makes on screen. They received David Guggenheim’s documentary with open arms. Beef is anxiety-inducing. In the first episode, Danny Cho cuts Amy Lau off while backing out of a parking lot. She does not hesitate to flip him off. What begins as a mild instance of road rage morphs into a full-blown war between the struggling handyman and the wealthy entrepreneur as they attempt to ruin each other’s lives.

Like Barry, Beef uses Cho and Lau’s shenanigans to highlight the internal turmoil that plagues most people. The Bear is what Succession was when it first aired years ago, a gem so bright it dominates every TV- related conversation you encounter. Go online right now and ask people what they are watching. Someone will inevitably ask you if you have seen The Bear, and once you say no, they will hail the restaurant drama as the best show to emerge from 2023. Critics have used terms like ‘hypnotic’ to describe the series.

Meanwhile, audiences are still buzzing about The Last of Us several months after the first season aired. The show broke the video game curse when it hired Pedro Pascal to play Joel, a violent, jaded bounty hunter guiding a young girl with a secret across a post-apocalyptic landscape littered with the undead.

Craig Mazin, who adapted the video game for the small screen, is also responsible for Chernobyl, which explains the engaging character drama we got. We can end on Jury Duty, a reality show where an ordinary citizen is summoned for jury duty.

However, everything is fake. The case is fiction, and his fellow jurors are actors. Jury Duty sounds silly, but it succeeds because everyone knows the truth, except for the unsuspecting citizen.

And that should do it for 2023. Honorable mentions include Dave, Blue Eye Samurai, Poker Face, The Fall of the House of Usher, and I’m a Virgo.

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