The 10 Best Shows of 2023

First I devoured Bonnie Garmus’ bestseller, then I ate up the lovely limited-series adaptation starring a luminous Brie Larson as Elizabeth Zott, a visionary chemist who channeled her genius into TV stardom on a cooking show when thwarted by sexism in the academic workplace of the 1950s. Lewis Pullman was equally affecting as her ill-fated soulmate in a tragicomic fable that provided a perfect recipe of wisdom, humor and Dickensian social concern. The rare show that devotees of Bon Appétit and Scientific American could enjoy together.

Few shows have left us wanting more than the Peabody and AFI award-winning comedy from FX about life in an Indigenous Oklahoma community, seen through the eyes of four restless and irreverently appealing teens. In only three seasons, Dogs grounded its whimsical, sometimes surreal storytelling in an authentic world too rarely seen on TV, honoring its elders and their traditions while empathizing with the aggravations, frustrations and wanderlust of youth. I’ll miss it.

… and Ghosts. These sparkling network sitcoms experienced the opposite of a sophomore slump. ABC’s Abbott (with Quinta Brunson) delivered a weekly master class in heartfelt ensemble comedy, while CBS’s spirited Ghosts left us haunted and worried that one of the side-splitting spooks had been “sucked off” to the afterlife. No!

Bristling with vindictive anger while brimming with originality and startling depth of character, the limited series Beef depicted a perilous feud that begins with an impulsive act of road rage between two characters at very different personal crossroads. Brilliantly and sensitively played by Steven Yeun and Ali Wong, these antagonists meddled in each other’s messy lives, making terrible decisions and spiraling from a darkly satirical comedy of bad manners into a potentially tragic exploration of race, class and ambition.

No lie, Rian Johnson’s (Knives Out) throwback to Columbo-style crime-solving breathed fresh, funky new life into the mystery-comedy genre. Natasha Lyonne was a raspy delight as Charlie, a scruffy drifter blessed with an infallible BS detector. Like an R-rated Jessica Fletcher, she kept stumbling across murders that might have gone unnoticed if the perps (played by A-list guest stars) had just kept quiet. What a hoot.

… and Star Trek: Picard. Marvel and Star Wars get the hype, but no fantasies delivered out-of-this-world entertainment better than Trek’s spinoffs. Picard’s finale reunited the august admiral (Patrick Stewart) with his Star Trek: The Next Generation chums for a rollicking adventure with a nostalgic kick. Strange New Worlds took risks that paid off with a terrific musical episode and a crossover with the animated Lower Decks. This franchise is prospering.

If not for Miep Gies, Anne Frank’s diary might have been lost to history. The remarkable woman who helped hide the Franks from Nazis in an Amsterdam annex was portrayed by the incandescent Bel Powley in National Geographic’s harrowing and heartbreaking eight-part historical drama. This instant classic infused heroism with terror and multifaceted humanity, including Liev Schreiber’s movingly restrained performance as Otto Frank, Miep’s employer and sole survivor of the camps.

This is how you go out with a bang. The fourth and final season of HBO’s blistering and painfully hilarious drama of dynastic conflict within a high-profile media family made the bold move of killing off manipulative patriarch Logan Roy (Brian Cox) in the third episode. From there, it was a riveting battle royale among the unruly Roy sibs until the ironic climactic twist that satisfied only the viewer, who had learned to hang on every profane word in this bitter saga where business was always personal.

Not since the earliest days of The Walking Dead has a horror show worked our emotions as rigorously as HBO’s gripping dramatization of a high-end video game that only betrayed its origins in rare moments of mass carnage. Whenever the focus fell on lone wolf Joel (Pedro Pascal), grudgingly escorting teenage Ellie (the remarkable Bella Ramsey) through a grim landscape of fungus-spreading monsters and combative humans, this dark and violent odyssey found poignant dimension in the memorable stories of the survivors they encountered along the way.

When performing an impossible task like distilling the best shows of the year to a mere 10—or in this case, fudging it to 12—I tend to lean into those that simply brought me the most pleasure and that I couldn’t wait to share with others. Top of that menu is Season 2 of the FX-produced The Bear, an emotionally lacerating dramedy about an embattled family restaurant in Chicago.

This year, the theme was renovation and renewal—not just of the eatery into a fine-dining establishment, but of the staff, including celebrity chef Carmy “The Bear” Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White), his sous chef Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) and their loyal but fractious coworkers. They all went on a journey of self-discovery, finding new purpose in their calling to service. The tone was less downbeat, more hopeful. And the flashback Christmas episode, introducing members of Carmy’s family, including Jamie Lee Curtis (his mom) and Bob Odenkirk (his uncle), provided a feast of family dysfunction. Unforgettable.