I know you monsters love a list, so here it is — the Top 10™ TV shows of 2018, based on nothing more than my (admittedly impeccable) taste. Apologies to the many excellent series that didn’t make it, including Pose, Random Acts of Flyness, Lodge 49, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Jane the Virgin, Howards End, One Day at a Time, Barry, Dear White People, The Good Place and BoJack Horseman. It was a terrible year in so many ways, but on screen, it sparkled.
10. Sharp Objects
This HBO limited series, based on Gillian Flynn’s debut novel and set in a sweat-soaked Missouri town, wasn’t the most likable show of the year, but it’s one of the few that I rewatched in its entirety, mostly thanks to Jean-Marc Vallée’s hypnotic directing. I keep rewinding images from Sharp Objects in my head: teenage girls on roller skates looping through empty small-town streets; a ceiling fan pushing hot air around a motel room. Amy Adams is great, too.
9. GLOW
Thankfully, still a total joy in its second season. GLOW is a show about a short-lived women’s wrestling series that aired on UHF in the 1980s, but it uses that narrow slice of the entertainment industry to illustrate how hard it was — and in many ways, still is — for women to see their creative visions realized. The late installment that was a full episode of the show-within-a-show was just *chef’s kiss.*
8. My Brilliant Friend