Like many trannies, I keep a media list on my bluesky every year. Here's a bit more details on my favourite things from this year.

The list is already in the FILMS post so I won't repeat it here. If you missed that one you can find it HERE. OK. On with the show. Today's words are about TELEVISUAL SERIESES.

Beforehand though - I want to note that this was maybe the hardest of these lists to put together. I struggled with a top 5 of games really bad but it was even worse for TV - missing out both Severance S02 and What It Feels Like For A Girl feels CRUEL. The full list is on the first of these roundups, but some other standouts that aren't in the below list that I recommend you watch include Wayward, Detroiters and Black Mirror S07. OK, on with the show.

TV SHOWS

5. Gen V (S02)

The Boys is a really good show. It came at just the right time, starting up just as Marvel fatigue was really setting in, and kind of hasn't let up since. The full tilt pivot into critique of the American right has kept it fresh, and every series manages to amp up the disgust-ometer, which is genuinely impressive when season 3 had an on-screen orgy.

Gen V is the 'College Spin-Off,' which had every chance of being basically rubbish. But series 1 was also great, introducing a lot of fantastic characters. I think the one thing about the Boys that is lacking is character archetypes - the titular Boys are kind of all cut from the same cloth, and everyone in Vought or the Seven are some kind of ubermensch sexual pervert. It works for the blunt instrument messaging, but it leaves a little to be desired elsewhere, which is probably why Frenchie and Kimiko stand out so much.

But Gen V focuses the lens on character drama (while still finding time for a bombastic action plot). And I think with series 2, it's ended up elevating itself from the series it span off from!

College is always a good setting for these kinds of things (there are like 50 american pie movies after all) and I am a bit of a sucker for teenage melodrama. So it all works really well on me.

And! It seems like it's wrapped up now! I admire that, too. Get in, 2 seasons, get out, wrap up the story with The Boys S05. Lovely. Manageable. Highly recommended.

4. Long Story Short

After Bojack Horseman ended, everyone who watched 7 years of Bojack Horseman said 'Well, what are the Bojack Horseman team gonna do now?'

The answer, apparently, is continue making you cry [laughing].

Bojack is kind of an impossible act to follow. It's one of the funniest animated shows of all time, up there with golden age Simpsons. Like that vaunted era too, it's heartful and gut-punching. It's a genuine work of genius.

Long Story Short isn't quite that good. Yet. But it comes absurdly close.

There are moments throughout this series that will hit very hard for queer people, for ethnic minorities, and, of course, for jewish folk, which is the core makeup of the family at its centre.

I don't think I can really do it justice here. Please, just go watch it. It's like 8 episodes of 20 minutes each, it's very short, it's so well put together, it's mind-boggling. Lovely series.

3. The Chair Company

'What if Twin Peaks was made by the I Think You Should Leave guys?' isn't something that should work. And yet. AND. YET.

Every scene in this show is cinematic maximalism. It jerks from absurdist hype-comedy to intense, creeping horror-drama at a pace previously thought impossible. It genuinely boggles the mind. You can be in tears laughing at a bit one second and then the very next have abject terror struck into your heart.

I will say there's not much more I can say here, it is a show that kind of defies description? It's a tough recommend because unless you're already bought into the ITYSL/Detroiters style this isn't gonna do much to persuade you, despite also having a compelling mystery. Give those shows a go first, and if you like them, try this out too. Can't wait to see what season 2 has in store. RBMC better watch out.

2. The Rehearsal

If you're in here, you're normal.

Nathan Fielder's continued exploration of human psyche bears greater fruit than ever before. I like The Rehearsal a lot - Nathan For You is really, really funny, but outside of Finding Frances it doesn't have a whole lot to say.

But The Rehearsal really does, while maintaining that comedy. Season 1 was a really interesting scope in on what it means to be a parent, the terror that accompanies it, and the weight one mistake can have on that responsibility. Season 2 is about something else, which I am going to cut under the end of the list to avoid spoilers. But suffice to say it had me thinking a lot about myself in a way that nothing else this year really did. Excellent television. Probably would have been number one, if it wasn't for the late entry of...

1. PLURIBUS

I mean, duh doy. New Vince Gilligan show with Rhea Seehorn in the principal role was always gonna sweep.

If you're unfamiliar, Vince Gilligan is the creator and showrunner of both Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, with Seehorn playing the deuteragonist in the latter show. BrBa and BCS are, of course, well cited as some of the best TV ever made, and you're not gonna find a dissenting opinion on that from me.

Gilligan's shows are masterfully tense stories and Pluribus is no different, this time swapping the hard-boiled criminal underworld with science fiction, which he'd previously dabbled with as an X-Files staff writer.

Pluribus is most impressive for doing so much with what you could call 'so little' (despite the oftentimes large scale of the project). While the standout moments of Pluribus are the impeccably choreographed actions of the Others, the real joy of the show is picking apart and interpreting meaning of its smallest moments - the choices the Others make, the peculiarities of their speech, each acting as a tiny clue to a larger mystery.

A mystery that, realistically, is mostly solved. Unlike Severance, AppleTV's other big scifi mystery story, Pluribus isn't particualrly interested in holding its cards that close to its chest. The Others are joined together by a radio frequency and are following a biological imperative to spread that joining to more people, both terrestrially and beyond the stars.

Most of those details are laid out early on, some in small details in scenes, some plainly in dialogue. Instead, Pluribus focuses its attention away from any mystery and towards Carol, the loneliest woman on Earth.

I've seen the show described as slow as a result, and I'll be honest: I think it's a worthless critique. Not to 'back in my day' but a show taking time to firmly establish a character, their life and motivations, used to be considered very good writing. Hell, Breaking Bad does this! While the first episode is a lot ofbombast (like Pluribus), the following few episodes are much more slow and considered. I think it's easy to forget that the unbearable tension that permeated much of that shows latter half was only made possible by being slowly ratcheted throughout. Pluribus's first season is that ratcheting, the establishment of a ticking clock that will end in Carol getting joined if she can't stop it.

Season 1 sets the table. after that, that's when the fun begins.

Which is of course not to say this show is anything less than stellar in this series. It's perfect filmmaking. Photography that puts everything else on screen to shame. Small touches laid in wait to pay off later, my favourite being the gravestone Carol lays for her wife in episode 2, the inscription on which is not shown until the final episode - when Carol has moved on from the grief.

If you're not watching Pluribus, you should be. This is my top recommendation on this list for a reason. It's a masterwork. Can't wait to see where it goes.

---

HERE BE THE REHEARSAL SPOILERS

OK, so The Rehearsal season 2 is about neurodivergence in the airline industry, specifically in respect to autism. Early on in the series, Nathan pulls up the airline pilot subreddit, where he sees many people talking about their autism and how you should never get a formal diagnosis, as it will require you to disclose it to the aviation authority and could lead to you losing your license.

As is probably obvious, the kind of people predisposed to wanting to fly a plane are also the kind of people to be pretty autistic. But the FAA guidelines on neurodiversity are so woefully outdated that autism is considered a flight risk, and so getting a formal diagnosis can lead to pilots being stripped of their ranks. For many pilots this would also mean a loss of livelihood.

Nathan himself begins to question his own neurology. Anyone paying attention to Fielder's previous works will have noted very autistic overtones in much of the 'Nathan' character (how much of that is acting and how much is his real personality is, much like the rest of the persona, is very much up for debate). In one episode, he takes an autism diagnosis test, with many of the questions he has to answer shown on screen. I found it very challenging to answer these questions 'correctly,' which is to say, to know which of the answers indicated neurotypicality.

Long time readers will have probably cottoned on to my own autism. It's not something I've directly talked about on this blog, but it's pretty evident in a number of the posts - and if you're a bluesky follower you'll have seen I talk about it every now and again.

I'm not formally diagnosed. I don't really want to go through that process. There's no real benefit to doing so, it would be a piece of paper certifying that I am indeed the great autismo. Unlike ADHD and other neurodivergences, there's no medication that can relieve any symptoms here. But I've still felt guilty about not doing so. Like by not being formally diagnosed, I'm not really autistic.

This series made me reevaluate that perspective. It was really useful in knowing I'm not alone in reticence to be diagnosed. In the past, taking 'sample' diagnosis tests has upset me (including one for ADHD, which. maybe i should get tested for that one. I like the zoomzoom drugs), and knowing that there are other people out there who don't want to have that piece of paper was reassuring.

That includes Nathan himself, who, after taking the test, refuses to pick up the results before going on to perform The Miracle Over The Mojave.