In a year that was mired by industry strife and strikes, anxieties flared both on and off the screen, for 2023 was the year that television left audiences in a cold sweat. The best of the year didn’t just pull at our heartstrings, but it played with our fears and sent us reeling into moments of existential dread while our anxieties soared to sky high levels that would have doctors concerned.
But in a good way.
The best example of this — and one of the best offerings of 2023 — was FX/Hulu‘s The Bear. In its second season, Carmy (the brilliant and soulful Jeremy Allan White) began renovating both his sandwich shop and its staff to create a fine dining experience. During the season, The Bear offered episodes that demonstrated pivots in character and story arcs that resonated with viewers. But it is the Christmas episode “Fishes” that impacted fans most. Once the credits roll, viewers are left with deeper insight into characters while carrying the memory of the episode with them like emotional baggage.
This year we also said goodbye to Max’s Succession, ending the series with Tom (David Matthew Macfadyen) on top as the rest of the Roy clan were left adrift. In addition to the God-tier level of performances, every episode kept audiences on the edge of their seat as each awful Roy sibling made a play for the Waystar RoyCo throne. Stellar performances from leads Brian Cox, Jeremy Strong, Sarah Snook, and Kieran Culkin paired with whip-smart scripts created emotional devastation every Sunday night.
But Succession wasn’t Max’s only prized offering. Throughout the year, Max continued to deliver prestige TV by making seemingly impossible possible: creating a video game adaptation that impressed both critics and fans rather than divide them. The Last Of Us merged high-end horror with emotional gut punches thanks to the acting prowess of its leads, Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsay.
Max’s Barry also came to a close this year, leaving fans of the…
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