From left: ‘Atlanta,’ ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine,’ ‘Arrested Development’
Courtesy of FX; Courtesy of FOX; Courtesy of Netflix
As these Power Rankings! go, one thing has been pretty clear: The dramas have set their hook in me, and the last installment totally stole the place where comedies were supposed to be. As those dramas come fast and furious and get better and better, it’s been a little too easy to hit the snooze button on comedies. And, of course, what passes for comedy in the 30-minute arena often also qualifies as drama, so there’s been some crossover (and will continue to be).
But yes, the comedy Power Rankings! are overdue. So let’s get to it. I will only say that the best way I could handle the fact that “dramedies” often play in the 30-minute space and that many of my favorite comedies are not, in fact, ha-ha laugh riots was to include whatever I considered a comedy here while being open — like with HBO’s Barry — to have some appear on both lists.
A couple of reminders: Series are eligible if they premiered within a year of this list. It’s impossible to watch every show every week, and there will also be some that I just haven’t gotten around to watching yet (for example, the second season of Netflix’s Dear White People which, based on previous love, would have easily made this list, and Comedy Central’s Corporate, which I just haven’t got around to watching — Peak TV, people).
Also, this sentiment I noted in the last Power Rankings! still holds and is a useful reminder: What I’m liking about the current iteration of the Power Rankings! is that it combines a kind of hybrid formula that serves two purposes rather well. First and foremost, it’s a tally (in order, as all good lists should be) of the best series currently out there in the endlessly vast and streamable TV universe. But secondly, the new nature of the list and the world we live in allows for interest-based fluctuations.
And that seems as realistic as anything we do here. Meaning, while the upper echelons of the rankings hew very sternly to the notions that A) these are the best shows on television in the last year and B) the top five positions are particularly bloody, there’s also room in the rankings to let series rise and fall (and even drop off) based on how much interest they can maintain over a year; how they are affected by the vagaries of mood and moment (and even weather — some shows are clearly of the snuggle-up-and-deep-dive-while-it’s-chilly variety).
OK, let’s do this.
All hail the series that can hold the No. 1 ranking the longest. Below you will see two sets of numbers: The number on the left denotes the current ranking; the number on the right is the previous ranking (a “0” means it wasn’t ranked).