My Favorite TV and Music of 2020
I think it’s probably safe to say that a lot of us spent more time enjoying art in 2020 than we have in a long time. Those long days of quarantine and isolation were much, much easier with the comfort of possible escape surrounding us. I’ve already written about my favorite books of the year, and I thought it was time for me to also show some respect to my favorite music and TV of the year. So, here goes:
TV
Favorite:
My favorite television series of 2020 was Ted Lasso. For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, it’s essentially about a random American football coach who’s asked to coach a major soccer team overseas. It sounds preposterous, and it sort of is. What makes this show so wonderful is its kind, good protagonist. Ted Lasso the person is a less complicated (and dare I say nicer) male version of Leslie Knope. The series is full of goodness and redemption and compassion. It’s easily my favorite show of the year—and jumps into all-time consideration. It’s the show I needed.
Nine Others:
Schitt’s Creek, which is another show about goodness, ended its run with another strong season. This has been my favorite show for quite a while, so it was nice to see it go out with such a good season. It’s impossible to watch this show and not feel better about humanity.
Unorthodox, Normal People, The Good Lord Bird, & Devs are four excellent miniseries that I enjoyed getting lost in. These four are about as different as different can get, but each one truly moved me.
Little America delivered inspiring, affecting episodes of stories about immigrants. This is a gem I hope people discover in the coming months because it’s certainly worthy of attention.
The Haunting of Bly Manor isn’t as good as its predecessor, but few things are. Still, this was a tenderly told horror series that made me feel. I’d watch series like this one all day if they were out there.
The Good Place continued to impress me, and its final season was just as good and funny as the ones that came before it.
The Great British Bake Off is too good for us, and we don’t deserve it. Yet, it survives, and I’m grateful for it.
Honorable Mention:
The Handmaid’s Tale frustrates me oftentimes with the way it repeats its plot, but the finale for the latest season was the best hour of the TV of the year. So, even if the season had its problems, I’m overlooking them.
Speaking of good episodes, the second-best episode of TV this year was “Mouse of Silver” from The Midnight Gospel. It’s a beautiful exploration of death—and what it means to live.
MUSIC
Favorite:
My favorite music of the year was NPR’s Tiny Desk concert series. In a year that was so private and isolated, it was nice to be able to experience “live” music in some way. There are excellent (new and older) concerts from some of my favorites like Chance the Rapper, Cigarettes After Sex, Tyler Childers, Summer Walker, Erykah Badu and—well—I could go on and on. The one I couldn’t get enough of was Mac Miller’s, which was taped shortly before his death in 2018. There’s some otherworldly magic going on in that Tiny Desk. I honestly bet I’ve listened to it a hundred times. I miss Mac Miller. He was a genius.
A few others:
Sturgill Simpson put out two volumes of bluegrass music, and those have pretty much been all I’ve listened to since their respective releases. Volume 2 of Cuttin Grass is the best, but that’s largely because the songs are recuts of the classics from my favorite album, A Sailor’s Guide to Earth.
Waxatachee’s album Saint Cloud is fire. The title song is one of my favorite song of the year. The whole record’s great.
Fleet Foxes’ Shore is pure magic. It’s perfect for just escaping this world and getting lost in music heaven.
Not to go on too much about my appreciation for Mac Miller, but his posthumous album, Circles, dropped at the start of 2020 and continues to leave an impression on me.
John Moreland’s LP5 is another winner from one of the most under-appreciated, in my mind, singer-songwriters we have.
Jazmine Sullivan’s song “Lost One” is probably my favorite song of the year. There’s some pain in those lyrics for sure, and it comes through hard.
Frank Ocean released a couple of good singles, “Dear April” and “Cayendo.” I await the new album.