Daily Times

‘Atlanta’ – a comedy hero for our times: Donald Glover shines as Earnest “Earn” Marks, a Princeton drop-out back in his hometown, trying to start his life over as a hip-hop manager. Glover’s brainchild Atlanta stands as the most ambitious, outrageous, surreal and riotous thing to hit TV all year.

Earn runs wild with his rapper cousin Paper Boi as well as stoner philosopher king Darius, who’s always up for a baked debate about whether Malcolm X is secretly still alive or why black people don’t know who Steve McQueen is. Atlanta digs into sex, money, race and fatherhood with truly fearless flair. As a big Community fan who’s been memorising Glover’s facial tics since Troy met Abed, I thought I already had a clear idea what a genius this guy is. I didn’t. Here’s to Season Two – Atlanta can’t rise again fast enough.

‘The People v OJ Simpson’ – American Crime Story’ – the ultimate Hollywood murder trial, kicking off Ryan Murphy’s American Crime Story franchise with a tale of celebrity psychosis: America’s favourite football jock turns out to be a psychopath coddled by a starstruck legal system. No matter how well you might think you already know the story, The People v OJ Simpson is a whole new experience, with out-of-nowhere career performances from John Travolta, Courtney B Vance, Sarah Paulson and yes, David Schwimmer. With the ESPN OJ doc Made In America as a crucial companion piece, it hits home because all America’s darkest national obsessions seem to be lurking in here somewhere.

‘Stranger Things’ – stranger Things spoke to the Barb in all of us – and for some of us, that’s a lot of Barb. It became the year’s word-of-mouth sensation; what initially seemed like a harmless Eighties nostalgia trip ended up an emotional powerhouse. A group of comic-geek kids into the X-Men and Dungeons & Dragons, try to solve the mystery of what happened to their missing friend, in small-town Indiana circa 1983. They meet a strange, silent and bald girl named Eleven who loves frozen waffles but harbours a few secrets of her own. With its perfect cast, ‘Stranger Things’ was more than just another supernatural thriller because it got the details of geek friendship so right. And to put the conceptual cherry on top of this Snappy’s Snack Shack slushie – welcome back, Winona.

‘Black Mirror’ – the scariest twist of Black Mirror: It looked less and less like science fiction as the year went on. The British anthology horror series blew up in its third season, focusing on dystopian technology scenarios that seem so terrifying because most of them feel like no more than 10 minutes in the future. Especially the “Nosedive” episode, where all your personal interactions get a Yelp-style one-to-five star rating. ‘Black Mirror’ makes you a little less fascinated in scrolling through your phone and a little more curious about the people walking around you.

‘Full Frontal With Samantha Bee’ – a year ago, when there were still nine Supreme Court justices and zero presidents who’d hosted reality shows with Meat Loaf, we had no way of knowing how vital a role Samantha Bee would serve in the daily shitstorm of 2016. But as soon as she debuted Full Frontal in February, Bee came in swinging and never let up, proving herself the realest voice in fake news. Even more than her fellow Daily Show alum John Oliver, Bee doesn’t mince words, “Let’s just have a Supreme Court vacancy for a year because some chinless dildo wants a Justice who will use his gavel to plug up your abortion hole.” Keep raging, Sam. It’s going to be a long 2017.

‘The Americans’ – there’s never been a spy thriller anything like The Americans, which just keeps tightening the emotional screws. A nice suburban home in the Eighties is haunted by the family secret: Mom and dad are Soviet spies. Their high-school daughter knows the truth. The FBI agent next door doesn’t… yet. Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell are superb as the couple bonded by espionage as part of their sexual chemistry. And no TV drama uses music so brilliantly – the season-finale moment with Leonard Cohen’s “Who by Fire” hits even harder now.

‘Game of Thrones’ – like Jon Snow himself, ‘Game of Thrones’ rose from the grave. Now that the TV version has lapped George RR Martin’s books, it’s hitting new heights – the Battle of the Bastards was its most spine-chilling, blood-gushing pageant yet. Danyaerys gets back in touch with her unchained inner dragon. Arya steps out of the House of Black and White a deadlier warrior than ever.