Best And Worst Of The 2017-18 TV Season

As another TV season ends, I've got some Netflix involvement in the rankings of my Best and Worst shows of the year, thanks to having finally joined that streaming service after such a long time of not being on it like everyone else. So, while the party typically don't stop till The Flash or the Agents of SHIELD walk out, it's time I put up the rankings and their reasonings, as has become my annual tradition.

As always, we're starting with the Bottom 5.

5. Jessica Jones

I admit, it's a tad unfair that I'm including the new season of Jessica Jones in this list, since I'm still only halfway through it as of this writing - only seven episodes out of thirteen. But those seven episodes are such a long, meandering mess, with almost entire episodes' worth of flashbacks to further disrupt the pacing, that it's become little more than glorified background viewing for me at this point. Even worse, there's no villain as memorable and despicable as Kilgrave, and it shows. Pretty much the only reason I want to finish now is so I can move on to the upcoming second season of Luke Cage as quickly as possible.

Not much of an excuse there, JJ.

4. The Magicians

I used to actually really like this Syfy show because I thought it was better than the original source material - Lev Grossman's grimdark "parody" of popular fantasy novels. This year, however, as The Magicians TV series outstripped the source material, it became painfully clear, for the first time, that the show really wasn't much better than the books. By this point, I really can't care for any of these characters, not even Quentin, whose depressed and disaffected and denied-all-the-love attitude was my main reason for relating to the show in the first place. Pretty much the only reason I'm not quitting the show entirely is because of the massive reinvention promised by this season's cliffhanger, but aside from that, I'm sick and tired of these poorly written millennial stereotypes.

Yeah, you heard me, Elliott. And frankly, you make me wanna gouge my eyes out.

3. Supergirl

Hard to believe this show, one of my favorites from last year - a previous Pinecone Award winner, too! - has fallen so hard from grace. Season 2, as far as I'm concerned, was Peak Supergirl for me, largely because of the lovely character development given to Mon-El and the naturally chemically effervescent Karamel ship. Unfortunately, it appears the writers have instead listened to Mon's haters this year, minimizing his strength (literal man-killing "omicron radiation," anyone?) and sinking Karamel in favor of the chemistry-free "SaturnValor" ship (and even worse, the highly problematic casting of Amy Jackson as Imra, or as I like to call her, "Superhomewrecker.") This, combined with an strong shift to visual and emotional darkness reminiscent of that of The Flash Season 3 (a season from which they still haven't fully recovered, and likely never will because of the neglect of Wally West and continued excessive focus on WestAllen), has made Supergirl now my least favorite Arrowverse show by far. Don't get me wrong, I still have my faves - Kara, Mon, Alex, Winn, J'onn, and all their actors (But especially my forever faves Melissa Benoist and Chris Wood.) But when multiple friends of mine in the fandom have quit watching the show because of the writers' betrayal, you know the show's in the toilet. Bringing in Stitchers creator Jeffrey Schechter for Season 4 might help because we'll get the very man responsible for Camsten hopefully helping reverse the damage this season's writers did to Karamel, but the antis are already working their evil magic on him, so that's got me super worried.

Kara, I love you, but without your better half, there's so much less sunshine in the world.

2. The Walking Dead

Not a surprise to see back in the Bottom 5 is another old favorite of mine - my least favorite show last season. Though they promised All Out War - specifically, an adaptation of that storyline from the Walking Dead comics - they really gave us yet another long, drawn-out, dreadful, piss-poor, horrible torture-fest of not enough going in the good guys' favor and too much going in the bad guys' favor. Even though the bad guys all but imploded in the end - and thank God too! - the very end of this eighth season of The Walking Dead denies us all proper closure, and is further proof that the writers have their heads firmly up Negan's ass at all times. Figuring in the death of one of my favorite characters, one whose death pretty much only pleases that bastard Scott Gimple and all the most hateful jerks in the fandom? I'm glad the ratings for this show have gone significantly down, and it's all Gimple's fault. But hey, Gimple's no longer going to be head writer going forward, so maybe this time next year, TWD won't be in the Bottom 5 again.

Pictured: the guy representing how much I'd love to personally assassinate Negan. Even though he never did himself.

1. Inhumans

Now that ABC finally did the right thing and cancelled this hot mess, we can finally, officially pretend this darkest hour of the MCU never happened.

Seriously. A coproduction between Marvel, ABC, and IMAX, and shit like this is where all the money went?

And now, the Top 5!

5. The 100

The one and only show to have made it into the Pinecone Awards every year since they began, The 100 is also looking to be the first-ever four-time winner as well. After the new apocalypse of Season 4's Praimfaya, Season 5 begins with a soft reboot, jumping ahead in time six years. Though there's far less of the world to inhabit now - the only safe places being in space, a single green valley on the ground, and the bunker under Polis - the new season has taken a different approach, spending entire episodes dealing with either Clarke and Madi in the valley and Bellamy and company up in space, or Octavia and Indra and all our old Skaikru and Grounder friends down in the bunker. It's a strangely Walking Dead-like approach, but here, it works because we're not following one or two characters for an entire episode. We're following a lot of people, and seeing them put through all the wringers, and it's proven some of the most fascinating viewing we've had on this show since the diabolical ALIE storyline in Season 3.

And here we see Clarke, that Mama Bear, with a little bit of red stripe like a throwback to her Wanheda days.

4. A Series of Unfortunate Events

I was able to finally watch the entire Season the First of this series in January, not long after joining Netflix for the first time. That first season was great because it adapted the first four books very faithfully, while incorporating the ongoing VFD mystery from the get-go not unlike the 2004 film (which still holds a special place in my heart.) But now, in Season the Second, we get ten episodes of such strong aesthetic variety (my favorite, though, is the Harry Potter-meets-The Hunger Games style of The Austere Academy, closely followed by the Art Deco Ersatz Elevator), and also more of the VFD mystery being unveiled with the early additions of Olivia Caliban and Jacques Snicket - bet you didn't see that coming! Though the new season does have its little flaws - The Ersatz Elevator gets a little too padded with Olaf's song and dance, and Mr. Poe feels a little awkwardly shoehorned into the plot at times where he wasn't there in the books - it's also very faithful to the books, and feels even more so like the second coming of Pushing Daisies, that I can't help but love what Snicket's given us.

Bit of a stretch to call Nero a villain, though - in this adaptation, they actually make him slightly nicer.

3. The Good Place

As always, I can never spoil exactly what makes this show super-duper fun, especially if you haven't started it yet.

If so, forking start already!

All I will spoil is that this shot ends Season 2. But it's evergreen for starting to watch any episode of this show.

2. Legends of Tomorrow

Rocketing its way up to the top of my Arrowverse TV series rankings now is this time-travel tale. Though Arrow won the Pinecone as recently as December 2017 due in large part to the presence of Michael Emerson as Cayden James, since then, Legends of Tomorrow has become the best of the bunch. And in this case, it's because of some new characters who've joined the show in the latter half of Season 3. I'm especially looking at my old fave Constantine, who's set to finally become a Legend himself as of Season 4, and also at Wally West, finally giving Keiynan Lonsdale the chance to be himself - and be awe and some - after months of neglect at the hands of the Flash writers. That, plus the season finale, in which Legends finally embraces its cheesiest awesome instincts and totally abandons the overdramatic shackles that plagued it from its beginning. Maybe a little too off the wall at times - like, really, telling teenage Barack Obama "Make America Grodd Again?" - but this will always be remembered in this house as the season of Mallus, John Noble (as himself, even!), Wally, Constantine, and of course, Beebo.

Do you accept Beebo as your Lord and Savior?

1. Agents of SHIELD

If I have to explain again why this is my favorite show, just check my Twitter page. It's practically a Daisy, Coulson, FitzSimmons, and Yo-Yo stan account anyway.

It's too bad we have to wait a year now for Season 6 in summer 2019 (!!!), but the fact that Season 6 is happening, it's a bloody godsend.

Daisy's gonna kick some names and take some ass. Though she's always got permission to take mine, of course.

And thus endeth, once again, my TV season rankings.

Till next time, Pinecones...

#FeedTheRightWolf

Remember: Denis Leary is always watching. Always.