My Top 10 Favorite TV Shows of 2023

I’m excited for this list to return for it second year! We typically watch a short show at lunch and a longer show at dinner, and I’m amazed by quality of television in the modern era. From well-written half-hour comedies to epic cinematic dramas, I’m grateful for the many hours of entertainment provided by TV producers.

Honorable mentions: I Think You Should Leave (season 3), The Other Two (season 3), The Mandalorian (season 3), Warrior, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Mythic Quest, Shrinked, The Last of Us, Animal Control, Shadow and Bone, Dollhouse, Beef, The Resort, Based on a True Story, Ahsoka, Gravity Falls, Upload, The Great British Baking Show, Killing It, Lupin, For All Mankind, Unstable

Top 10

I tried to rank these, but I don’t even know where to start. They’re all excellent shows, and most of them are quite different from each other. I eagerly wait future seasons of all of these shows. I’ll just share them in no particular order and my favorite aspect of each.

• Survivor (seasons 44 and 45): I can’t–and don’t–hold back my love of Survivor, and every season would make this list, especially with some of the innovations and excellent casting in the new era. But these two seasons were even better because they’re paired with such a good podcast (On Fire) by Jeff Probst and friends.
• Ghosts (seasons 1 and 2): We watch a lot of short, charming comedies, and I’d put Ghosts at the top of the list right now. Season 3 is right around the corner!
• Poker Face: I love the whodunnit twist in only debut show on my list: You know exactly whodunnit and how they dunnit, but you don’t know how the lead character will figure it out.
• The Bear (season 2): Within a short season, The Bear has 2 of the best episodes of any show this year, one of which I can never watch again and the other of which I’d like to watch again every year.
• American Ninja Warrior (season 15): Some big format changes made this year’s ANW top-10 material, especially the head-to-head races.
• Welcome to Wrexham (season 2): A docu-series in the top 10? Yes, Wrexham is just that good.
• The Afterparty (season 2): This murder-mystery party presents each episode through the lens of a different characters, in a movie genre specific to that character. I don’t know how long they can keep it up–eventually they’ll run out of genres, right–but I’m in as long as they can make it last.
• Ted Lasso (season 3): The final season of Ted Lasso was a little longer than expected, both in terms of episode length and the number of episodes–but this was a great thing. In a way, it felt like two seasons in one, as there were a number of narrative arcs that didn’t wait until the last episode to pay off.
• Succession (season 4): Finally, a season of Succession where things actually happened! I say that partially in jest, as this is a show that works incredibly well when nothing changes. Then, suddenly, everything changes, and it still works just as well.
• Only Murders in the Building (season 3): Who knew that adding music to a show would make it even better? I loved this musical season, and both Paul Rudd and Meryl Streep were fantastic additions.

What were some of your favorite, most memorable, and most bingeworthy shows of 2023?

Here’s the 2022 list.