MY Top TV of 2015

Good Lord, this list was hard to make. Ranking TV is damn near impossible. But I noticed some trends when making this list that were reflective of my TV taste and viewing in 2015:

- Most of my TV excitement is centered around brand new series or limited-run/mini-series.
In general, I start to slightly fatigue on a show once it's past, like, its 3rd season.
- Comedies are outpacing dramas.
The half-hour form is really flourishing right now, especially with more indie film directors coming to TV. Even beyond the half-hour dramedies, there are so many more comedies that I wanted to include on my list than dramas. Most of the new ambitious dramas that are trying to emulate the prestige dramas of his Golden Age of Television just aren't that good. We're bored of the male anti-hero already, y'all! And then the new dramas that are actually well-written are often kind of boring. I blame Breaking Bad for breaking TV. But yeah. In general I found myself being drawn to shows that seemed new and fresh, which leads me to...
- Diversity!
Under this list I included a list of my favorite new TV characters of 2015, and spoiler alert!: there aren't any white guys in my top 10. Yay! Lots of good black characters and complicated female characters and Asian males and Latinos. Keep it coming!

With that being said, I also noticed that:
- I'm in the process of slightly paring down the list of shows I watch (at least the old ones).
I'm definitely trying to watch as few network shows as possible. They're just not as good; and the network model of 22 episodes a season is way too big to sustain when you're watching a show that you only slightly enjoy. That leads me to:
- There are few shows that I actually get really excited about watching.
When I'm binging a show, I can sit and watch 5-10 hours a day and not nitpick when a show is slightly becoming a slog. But I noticed this year that I really had to force myself to watch new episodes of certain shows (even one I loved like Mr. Robot, especially later in the season), and I let them sit for a couple of days before I finally got around to them. I need to evaluate which of these shows are actually good and challenging and which ones aren't actually worth the time and effort.

So, yeah, anyway! Here's my Top 20 List:

1. The Leftovers
2. Transparent
3. Mr. Robot
4. Fargo
5. The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst
6. Master of None
7. Mad Men
8. You're the Worst
9. Show Me a Hero
10. UnREAL
11. Broad City
12. Jane the Virgin
13. Rectify
14. Catastrophe
15. Looking
16. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
17. Orange is the New Black
18. Inside Amy Schumer
19. Silicon Valley
20. Halt and Catch Fire
Runners-Up/Honorable Mentions: Please Like Me, Review, Marvel's Jessica Jones, Fresh Off the Boat, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
Older Shows That I Still Love/Like but Can't Get Excited About Enough to Put On My Top 20 List Anymore: Hannibal, Parks and Recreation, Justified, The Americans, Game of Thrones, Shameless, Veep
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Best New TV Characters of 2015:

1. Taraji P. Henson as Cookie Lyon, Empire
2. Constance Wu as Jessica Huang, Fresh off the Boat
3. Rami Malek as Elliot Alderson, Mr. Robot
4. Shiri Appleby as Rachel Goldberg, UnREAL
5. Titus Burgess as Titus Andromedon, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
6. Bokeem Woodbine as Mike Milligan, Fargo
7. Oscar Isaac as Nick Wasicsko, Show Me a Hero
8. Krysten Ritter as Jessica Jones, Marvel's Jessica Jones
9. Regina King as Erika Murphy, The Leftovers
10. Wagner Moura as Pablo Escobar, Narcos
11. Aziz Ansari as Dev, Master of None
12. Kevin Caroll as John Murphy, The Leftovers
13. Ellie Kemper as Kimmy Schmidt, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
14. Constance Zimmer as Quinn King, UnREAL
15. Kirsten Dunst as Peggy Blumquist, Fargo
16. Melanie Lynskey as Michelle Pierson, Togetherness
17. Sharon Horgan as Sharon, Catastrophe
18. Rachel Bloom as Rebecca Bunch, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
19. Cherry Jones as Leslie, Transparent
20. (TIE) Julia Garner as Kimberly Breland, The Americans and
(okay, fine, a white guy) Vincent D'Onofrio as Wilson Fisk, Marvel's Daredevil
I also would have included:

- Helen McCrory as Madame Kali, Penny Dreadful (but technically introduced in 2014) and 

- Ben Mendelsohn as Danny Rayburn, Bloodline (but I didn't get past episode 3, so I would probably be cheating including him without seeing his whole arch)

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More Lists!!
Other Dramas I Watched: The Fall, American Horror Story: Freak Show, Parenthood, House of Cards, Downton Abbey, Better Call Saul, Marvel's Daredevil, Penny Dreadful, Deutschland 83, True Detective, Narcos, How to Get Away With Murder, The Man in the High Castle, The Walking Dead, Empire, The Wiz Live!, The Good Wife, Manhattan, American Horror Story: Hotel, The Knick, The Returned, Making a Murderer
Other Comedies I Watched: Togetherness, Girls, New Girl, Louie, Bojack Horseman, Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp, Difficult People, Bob's Burgers, Casual, Scream Queens, The Last Man on Earth, Getting On, The Mindy Project
Reality Shows I Watched: The Celebrity Apprentice, RuPaul's Drag Race, So You Think You Can Dance, Big Brother (and Big Brother Canada), Project Runway (and Project Runway All-Stars), America's Next Top Model, Survivor, Top Chef

The Only Truly Terrible Shows I Watched This Year: House of Cards, True Detective

Show I Still Need to Watch: Rick and Morty (Almost got through my whole list! Damn!)

Shows I Dropped in 2015:
- Community and Orphan Black (used to love them but didn't bother with new seasons)
- Nashville, Scandal, Brooklyn Nine-Nine (I'm trying to purge myself of a lot of my network shows that I don't really care about that much and require way too much effort because of 22-episode network orders)
- Archer and Portlandia (I've been behind for years, and I just decided it was just fine to let them go)
- Bloodline (could only get through 3 or 4 episodes)
- Masters of Sex (gave up this year with only 2 episodes left - my saddest breakup this year, as it was a top-5 show for me 2 years ago. Why do almost all Showtime shows eventually get bad? What's the deal there?!)

Shows I Need to Catch Up on but Probably Won't Get Around To: American Crime, Wolf Hall, Broadchurch season 2, Red Oaks, Bessie
Shows I'm Legitimately Considering Dropping: How to Get Away With Murder, Empire, American Horror Story, New Girl, Manhattan, The Good Wife (especially if it keeps on going with different showrunners), The Man in the High Castle (that season 1 was pretty terrible, but I was interested enough in the world to keep watching. Hmm..)
Shows I'm Tempted to Drop But Probably Won't: Downton Abbey (spoiler alert: I already watched it, but if this wasn't the last season I would have totes been done), The Walking Dead

Other Notable Shows I Didn't/Don't Watch: I made a huge list last year that's unchanged, but this year I can add Sense8, Grace & Frankie, Humans, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, Documentary Now, Into the Badlands, Flesh and Bone, Ash vs. Evil Dead, The Grinder, iZombie, W/Bob & David, Project Greenlight, The Last Kingdom, Wayward Pines, Ballers

2016 Shows I'm Most Looking Forward To: One Mississippi, Big Little Lies, Codes of Conduct, Taboo, The OA, The Night Manager, Vinyl, The Get Down,  The Girlfriend Experience, 11.22.63