The Trial of the Century, A Closer Look, and The Craziest Ex in West Covina: The Twenty-ish Best Shows of 2016

In 2016, there are relatively few things about television that are set in stone. When I compiled my top ten list back in 2015 I noted that there were over 400 scripted shows across TV's various viewing formats (A term labeled "Peak TV" in the industry). That number has only grown (455 scripted shows to be exact). Shows are no longer kept around or cancelled purely on their number of viewers. Nobody even knows for sure how many viewers shows on the various streaming platforms (notably Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu) get, because streaming sites don't have to share that information. When a show like Good Girls Revolt on Amazon is cancelled, all viewers and industry watchers know is that somehow the show did not please the online shopping giant.

All that being said, right now is one of the most exciting times to be a fan of television. Pretty much any platform that can produce original programming, is producing original programming. That means if you have very specific tastes when it comes to TV, chances are someone is creating something that caters to them. With so many options out there, it can be hard to know which shows to make time for, and which ones to skip. In some cases you might not even know a show or even a whole viewing platform exists.

With all of that taken into consideration, my list this year looks pretty different from last year's list in some key ways. First of all, instead of doing a Top 10 list with a "Runners-Up" section, I've decided to merge the two and just do a Top 20 list this year. With the massive number of options to choose from, narrowing the best shows down to a list of ten just wasn't realistic. List purists beware, there are a few rankings on my list where I have merged two equal quality shows with very similar concepts into one spot on the list. The list technically features more than 20 shows, but I assure you I only paired shows that have an incredible amount of similarity. The "Honorable Mentions" section I used last year will stay intact. I think it's a good way highlight shows that range in quality from "pretty good" to "great" for anyone who might be looking for something new to watch.

Now let's talk about what isn't on the list. You won't see last year's list makers: Parks and Recreation, The Mindy Project, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Master of None, or Jessica Jones. Parks and Recreation as mentioned in last year's list has concluded, while Master of None and Jessica Jones did not air new seasons this year. The Mindy Project and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt are still fantastic shows, but with the multitude of great shows out there, there wasn't room for everything. Regretfully I also had to leave great shows like ABC's masterful Agent Carter, strong new fall dramas Pitch and This Is Us, Amazon's dark-comedy trifecta One Mississippi/Fleabag/Catastrophe, OWN's powerful family drama Queen Sugar, HBO's stronger than ever Veep, and Netflix's out of the box Lady Dynamite off of my list as well.

What you will find are 20+ fantastic shows like nothing else on TV. Last year my list focused on shows that could only exist in this current state of TV. This year I tried to focus a little harder on shows with a very specific sense of voice. Not just stories that have never been told before, but stories that are being told in brilliantly creative ways. I love these shows, flaws and all. Disagree with my list? Write your own list, I'd love to read it!

**UPDATE** (12/31/16): After finally catching up on some things I had on my DVR there was one more show that I just couldn't leave off of my list. Surprisingly, to me, it was actually a reality show, which I would have never expected to be putting on my list. That being said, this show ended up being so good, I couldn't leave it off.

Honorable Mentions:

Catastrophe (Amazon)
One Mississippi (Amazon)
Fleabag (Amazon)
Lady Dynamite (Netflix)
Veep (HBO)
This Is Us (NBC)
Pitch (Fox)
Arrow (The CW)
Agent Carter (ABC)
Grey's Anatomy (ABC)
Scandal (ABC)
The Simpsons (Fox)
Frequency (The CW)
No Tomorrow (The CW)
The Ranch (Netflix)
Luke Cage (Netflix)
Speechless (ABC)
Madame Secretary (CBS)
When Calls The Heart (Hallmark)
New Girl (Fox)
Daredevil (Netflix)
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (Netflix)
The Mindy Project (Hulu)
Queen Sugar (OWN)
You're the Worst (FXX)
The Carmichael Show (NBC)
Life In Pieces (CBS)


21.) Survivor: Millennials Vs Gen X (CBS):

Reality television will never have the same impact for me as scripted TV, but when it's done well, it can be an entertaining look at how people behave when put in a situation where they have to rely on people they are simultaneously competing against. More often than not, Survivor is a show that doesn't live up to its potential. Despite having a ridiculously stupid theme, this last season of Survivor was arguably the best season the show has ever had. Alliances shifted on a weekly basis, every player was playing to win the game, and many of the players had surprisingly motivational journeys along the way. Most of the tribal counsel's were blindsides, or at least entertaining to watch. It's rare that a final three contains three players that actually earned their spot, let alone for two of those players to be very deserving of winning. The jury wasn't bitter, and actually crowned the right person as the winner (though one of the runners-up would have been a fine winner as well). This is what Survivor should look like. 

20.) The Flash (The CW) / Supergirl (The CW & CBS):

I can't justifiably list Supergirl or The Flash here without noting that both shows had their fair share of issues in 2016. The Flash suffered from a season long story arc that was a weak imitation of its very successful first season, a shift in tone that often made the show gloomier than it should be, and began its third season with the ill-conceived "Flashpoint" plotline. Supergirl spent all of season one and part of season two just trying to figure out what kind of show it wanted to be. That being said, when both shows are performing at peak levels, they are the best superhero shows TV currently has to offer. The Supergirl crossover episode "Worlds Finest" (which brought the Flash over to Kara's world) was one of the year's most fun episodes of TV, while The Flash episode "The Runaway Dinosaur" (Which saw Barry trapped in a dream-like reality known as the "Speed Force") was easily one of the best episodes of any show on TV this year. Both characters were also a lot of fun collaborating with their Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow cohorts in The CW's four part DC crossover, "Invasion." These shows seem to be heading in better directions than they started in at the beginning of the year, and Supergirl deserves a lot of credit for switching networks from CBS to The CW and becoming a better show in the process. 

19.) The Good Place (NBC):

It's hard to imagine a show created by Mike Schur (writer for The Office and co-creator of Parks & Recreation and Brooklyn Nine-Nine) that stars comedy veterans Ted Danson and Kristen Bell, not being a success. While the nine episodes that have aired so far in its first season are not enough to put it in "Top 10" range, The Good Place has quickly found a consistent comedic tone that makes it the most promising new show of the Fall. Like Parks and Recreation the show does an excellent job of examining what it means to make ethical choices, while also milking laughs from the absurdities of society (in this case the society of the afterlife). Eleanor's journey to become a better person resonates, because it is the journey of the human experience, that just happens to be taking place in a hilariously absurd setting. It might not be everyone's type of humor, but it's very reminiscent of NBC's comedy heyday, which is always welcome. 

18.) Broad City (Comedy Central):

Broad City, the absurd comedy about two millennials' adventures living in New York City, definitely isn't for everyone. The show's comedic sensibility is often odd, sometimes crass, and definitely out of the box. That's often the show's biggest asset. When a show is up for just about anything like this one is, then it opens up a whole new world of jokes and stories to explore. All of this is led by the battle tested friendship of Abby and Illana, whose chemistry drive the show and many of its jokes. In season three, the show was better than ever. Mundane situations such as going to the DMV, working at a co-op, or traveling to Abby's hometown of Philadelphia, become absurd adventures for the show's two heroines, while both characters also experienced emotional turmoil when meaningful relationships fell apart for them. 

17.) Brooklyn Nine-Nine (Fox):

Brooklyn Nine-Nine was bumped out of the top ten this year because it tried to take a more serialized approach, which got in the way of what the show does best. With the deepest and most across the board funny cast of any show on TV, Brooklyn is never better than when it gives those characters the freedom to bounce jokes off of each other. There are no weak links in this cast, and the writers over time have only gotten better and better at knowing how to best use each character. Four seasons in, it sometimes shows its age, but at this point the show is the equivalent of TV comfort food; always reliable and enjoyable. 

16.) The Night Of (HBO):

The story of a man who appears to be guilty of a murder he doesn't remember committing, The Night Of is a fascinating, if uneven, look at the justice system in America. Riz Ahmed gives one of the year's best performances as Naz, who slowly transitions from an naive college kid, to a hardened product of his time in jail, willing to do just about anything to survive. John Turturro is similarly excellent as an ambulance chasing lawyer who stumbles across this giant case after noticing that the evidence against Naz didn't quite add up. While the show is never quite able to recapture the intensity of its premiere episode, it is still an excellent look at how the justice and prison systems are deeply broken, as well as a compelling mystery. Despite it's occasional weak moments, The Night Of  is an ultimately fascinating show that does a decent job of examining the failures of the justice system in America. 

15.) Underground (WGN America): 

Part 12 Years a Slave and part The Great Escape, Underground tells the highly entertaining and often emotionally powerful story of a group of slaves that make a run for the Canadian border, the loved ones they left behind, and the people on along the Underground Railroad who help them. Most impressive among the cast are the two leads Aldis Hodge and Jurnee Smollett-Bell, who both give exceptional performances. Smollett-Bell in particular gives a fantastic performance as Rosalee a somewhat naive house slave who grows into a fighter over the course of the journey. The "prison" break aspect of the show is often exciting, but never in a way that undermines the fact that the show is set against the greatest tragedy in American history. For so much of history, art was used as a weapon to portray slaves and African Americans as unintelligent and animalistic. The brilliance of Underground is that it constantly portrays its heroes as clever, intelligent, and genuine human beings. It's also worth noting that this show has one of my favorite opening credit sequences of any show currently on. 

14.) Black-ish (ABC) / Fresh Off the Boat (ABC):

Black-ish and Fresh Off the Boat represent what ABC's comedy department is doing so well right now: cultivating cleaver, diverse, and socially relevant family comedies. While ABC has many many shows that fall under the "family comedy" banner, these two are the funniest and most thoroughly developed of the bunch. They feature caring, but flawed fathers, and mothers who are both nurturing and successful at their careers. Each show has hilarious grandparents who are perfect for at least one solid joke per episode. Constance Wu and Tracee Ellis Ross are constant joke machines that elevate their respective shows.  Most impressively, both shows have overcome the greatest challenge facing any family comedy: hiring child actors who are exceptionally talented. Personally I find Fresh Off the Boat to be the more consistently laugh out loud funny of the two shows, but Black-ish often tackles socially relevant topics in a way that is unlike any other show. The Black-ish episode "Hope" was arguably the most socially relevant episode of TV all year. 

13.) Search Party (TBS):

Imagine the Scooby Gang as a group of self-obsesses millennials living in New York City (minus the dog) and you've got a decent description of Search Party. Alia Shawkat plays an aimless woman, who finds meaning in investigating the disappearance of a former college acquaintance. As the mystery becomes more complex, she drags her friends into her obsessive search for the truth and asks them to do increasingly dangerous things to help her. The show does a fantastic job of building a compelling mystery around a case that is not at all what it appears to be. It's also a portrait of a generation that is in many ways is so desperate to finding a meaningful way to live, that they will sometimes ascribe meaning to things that really aren't very meaningful at all. I'm a sucker for "normal person turned sleuth" stories, and Alia Shawkat leads an exceptional cast in what is an often fun and suspenseful tale. 

12.) Superstore (NBC):

After pretty much eliminating comedy from their line-up, Superstore became NBC's attempt to reignite their once highly regarded comedy brand. The show got off to a slow start, but by the end of season one it was starting to resemble a lot of the great NBC comedies from the past decade. It has the "work family" theme and office politics of a show like The Office, the heart of a show like Parks and Recreation, and the absurd sense of humor of a show like Community. While Superstore has yet to reach the high standard set by those three shows, it has carved itself out in the TV landscape as a hilarious workplace comedy with a unique voice. That it resembles those shows doesn't mean it is imitating them. Superstore is creating it's own comedy language as it progresses along, which has made it stand out. The cast is deep and hilarious, without any weak links in the bunch. Like Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Superstore is a reliably funny, and heartwarming show that I find myself looking forward to above most other shows every week. 

11.) Late Night with Seth Meyers (NBC) / Full Frontal with Samantha Bee (TBS):

While cable news found themselves almost baffled as to how to cover admittedly the strangest Presidential election ever, the "aww shucks we're just your friendly neighborhood Nazis" group self titled the "Alt-Right," and pretty much anything else going on in American politics in 2016, the late night talk show hosts were primed and ready for the fight. With the exception of a couple of useless Jimmys, late night talks shows are a broad range of comedy/satire vets who refused to normalize ridiculous things like PEOTUS Trump's Twitter rants, or rise of the racist self titled "Alt-Right." Chief among those late night hosts are Seth Meyers, the former SNL and "Weekend Update" anchor, and Samantha Bee, a long time The Daily Show correspondent. Meyer's "A Closer Look" segment takes a critical look at current political events, in a way that is both hilarious and enlightening. Bee's show features many similar segments, which often focus on the absurdity of what is going on in American politics. Whether or not you agree with their politics (I don't always), both have turned their shows into sources of social relevance, such as Meyer's recent call for the media to stop lazily normalizing the term "Alt-Right" or Bee's many segments that focus on putting a human face on the Syrian refugees seeking asylum in America. 

10.) BoJack Horseman (Netflix):

BoJack Horseman at it's best, is a wildly clever and inventive comedy, that also focuses on the artificial happiness of fame, the dangers of substance abuse, and how fear can cause us to push others away. The third season of the show was more uneven than the previous season, but at its best, the show was radically different than any other comedy on TV. The episode "Fish Out of Water" which featured almost zero dialogue and beautiful visuals, was a poignant homage to the silent film era, that arguably belongs in the discussion as the best episode of the year. "The Best Thing That Ever Happened" is a brutal bottle episode in which BoJack destroys his personal and professional relationship with long time friend and agent Princess Carolyn. "Stop the Presses" is a surprisingly creative episode that revolves around BoJack's phone conversation with a customer service representative at a newspaper he receives but never subscribed to. "That's Too Much, Man" and "That Went Well" are heartbreaking reminders that our actions affect those who look up to us the most. It's not all doom and gloom though. The show features an astounding number of hilarious sight gags, and a surprisingly well crafted "Updike" joke. What other show do you know where character actress Margo Martindale plays character actress Margo Martindale, a criminal on the run from the police? 

9.) Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (The CW):

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is just your run of the mill story about a successful lawyer who has a nervous breakdown, moves across the country to pursue a man she dated at summer camp as a teen, and expresses her feelings through musical numbers. As a musical, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend creates an astonishing number of original songs. Each episode features around two or three "Weird Al" style music videos that parody anything from classic musicals (Dreamgirls, The Music Man, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, etc.) to specific pop artists (Beyonce's "Lemonade", Shakira, the Spice Girls, etc.) or genres (Rap battles, "girl power" country anthems, 80s ballads, etc). That the show produces so many original songs, and that so many of them are actually funny, is impressive enough. That's only half the story. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is also a hilarious comedy with a clever (if at times odd) sense of humor, which actually acknowledges its heroine's (creator/star Rachel Bloom) mental health issues and takes them seriously. The show never lets Rebecca off the hook for her unhealthy obsessions, but it rightly never demonizes her for them either. The song "JAP Battle" (in which Rebecca goes toe-to-toe with her childhood rival in a rap battle) is one of the best moments of any show this year, and that's just one of many great moments the show had to offer in 2016. 

8.) Happy Valley (Netflix):

Good crime dramas are hard to come by these days, which makes UK import Happy Valley a rare gem in the TV landscape. Sarah Lancashire is the heart of the show as Catherine Cawood, a veteran police officer who keeps the peace in her small hometown of Calder Valley. Unlike many recent crime dramas Cawood doesn't solve crimes through Holmesian deductions or high tech CSI work, she's simply a good, consistent, cop who knows her town like the back of her hand. It's a refreshing approach to crime solving that American networks (namely CBS, but there are other offenders) could benefit from taking a look at. Layered into crimes that Catherine finds herself solving (many of which she stumbles upon as a side effect of her usual case work, as they are not in her department) the show layers in a tragic backstory for our heroine, that does more to speak to her character than to over-dramatize the storylines. Catherine is hard, cause she has to be, but gentle when the job calls for it. The show isn't overly dramatic, and you won't find any absurd plot twists here, but it's an extremely compelling crime drama that features one of 2016's very best acting performances.

7.) American Crime (ABC):

Easily network TV's greatest drama in 2016, American Crime's second season featured a complex story revolving around the alleged sexual assault of a high school boy, and the ripple effect that it has on an entire community. Over the course of the season, the show explores the treatment of rape/assault victims, cyber-bullying and the dangers of cyber-vigilantism, racial divisions, unequal treatment of of women and minorities in the workplace, gun violence, homophobia, human sexuality, and stigma that surround those with mental health issues. Not only does the show touch on those topics, it handles them with a care, respect, and diligence that is rare for any television show network, cable, or otherwise. Part of the reason those topics are handled with such care, is that the deep cast of talented actors is doing such exceptional work. Lili Taylor and Regina King are outstanding as mothers willing to got to any lengths to protect their children, and Connor Jessup gave the breakout performance of the year as a teen who spirals out of control after allegedly being raped by a fellow student at a party, and then being subsequently bullied for taking his accusations to the police. That's to say nothing of the many other great performances featured on the show. Episode seven of the season was one of the most heartbreaking and shocking hours of television this year. That this show aired on a basic network is honestly baffling, but this is the kind of drama that networks should be trying to make.

6.) Mom (CBS):

In this list I've described Brooklyn Nine-Nine as being something similar to comfort food, and said that Superstore is one of the sitcoms I look forward to most each week, but there's better and more enjoyable sitcom on TV than Mom. In it's fourth season Mom still has a sharp and hilarious sense of humor thanks in no small part to comedy veterans Allison Janney and Anna Faris. Bonnie and Christy Plunkett's mother/daughter banter is one of TV's most consistent sources of laughs. The show has also developed a strong bench of supporting characters (played by Mimi Kennedy, Jaime Pressly, and Beth Hall) that it smartly calls on to create a strong support system for the Plunkett's, while never allowing them to get in the way when the story needs to give all of its focus to Bonnie and Christy. Where the show really excels is in the way it balances tragedy with comedy. The show earnestly addresses serious topics such as Jill (Jaime Pressly) dealing with having outlived her mother who committed suicide when she was girl, or Christy's emotional turmoil over the idea of her past example potentially leading one of her kids down the same path, while also being able to find humor in dark situations. In the episode, "Sticky Hands and a Walk on the Wild Side," the group takes a hilarious trip to Canada to smuggle black market maple syrup across the border, in an attempt to avoid processing their feelings over a friend and fellow alcoholic who died from a drug overdose. The episode not only features some of the best jokes of any episode the show has done, it also features a moment in which the women have an AA meeting on the side of the highway to process their feelings about their friends death. It's one of the most quiet and humbling moments of any show in 2016, and a perfect example of why Mom is such an excellent show. 

5.) iZombie (The CW):

From vampires to superheroes, The CW isn't lacking in "genre" shows with a supernatural (funny enough the name of another genre show on the network) twists. The best of those shows, and frankly any genre show on TV, is the hybrid zombie invasion/crime procedural, iZombie. In its second season, the show only became increasingly better, by slowly losing its reliance on a strict procedural format, and allowing the story to naturally develop it season/series long story arcs. The show made a lot of wise decisions, including allowing Clive to be brought in on Liv's secret. As a detective, there's a certain point where Clive begins to look bad at his job if he can't figure out that something is odd about Liv. Where iZombie benefits is from the mistakes that it's creators made with their past series, Veronica Mars. While that show was excellent, it's second and third season hit multiple stumbling blocks. iZombie has so far done an excellent job of avoiding those same mistakes, which gives the creators a change to tell wildly imaginative and complex stories, without having the show fall apart. The greatest complement I can give iZombie is that it is incredibly good at what it does, and what it does is wildly different than anything else on TV. The season two finale, "Salivation Army" was a thrilling homage to the classic "escape the zombie horde" trope, that ended up being one of the most fun and adventurous episode of the year. On top of that Rose McIver not only does some fantastic acting as Liv Moore, but she also handles the many personalities Liv must take on, without making any of it seem cheesy. 

4.) The People V. OJ Simpson: American Crime Story (FX):

The People V. OJ was arguably the TV event of 2016. While it clearly didn't top my list, the show was easily one of the finest pieces of storytelling this year, television or film. The beauty of the show is that it takes a story about a case, to which everyone know the outcome, and turned it into a tense and suspenseful viewing experience. The power of the show is how it encapsulates the vast number of themes that this case represented in real life. It depicts a Los Angeles (or United States really) that was in racial turmoil, a case with such a huge celebrity component that it changed forever the way court cases are reported, opposing sides who both believed they were fighting for what was right even as their personal lives were torn apart, a case that would forever change the handling and importance of DNA evidence, and in the middle of it all the murder of two human beings. Sarah Paulson, Sterling K. Brown, and Courtney B. Vance all deservedly won Emmy awards for their performances on the show, with Brown giving what I would argue is maybe the greatest performance of any actor on any show this year. Episodes like "Marica, Marcia, Marcia" (which depicted the many personal attacks made against Marcia Clark as a woman during the trial), "The Race Card", and "A Jury in Jail" were near perfectly crafted episodes of television. If this goes down as the greatest show of the year, I may not agree, but you'll hear no complaints from me either. 

3.) Atlanta (FX): 

Atlanta is pretty hard to describe in a lot of ways. On the surface it's the story of a down on his luck man named Earn (creator/star Donald Glover) who becomes his rapper cousin's manager in an attempt to make a living and provide for his daughter. In reality the show is much more complex than that. This show feels like a piece of Donald Glover put on the screen. Earn's adventures often lead him into increasingly absurd and comically tragic situations, and often Earn's only defense against what life throws at him is that he's aware enough of his situation to point and laugh. Atlanta is a comedy, but not in the traditional sense. It can be deeply dark, and yet somehow find the humor in the darkest situations. What's so fascinating about Atlanta is that the show feels like Glover took a piece of himself, and put it on the screen for everyone to see. I was a big fan of Glover's writing work on 30 Rock and his acting work on Community, but this is Glover writing and acting on a level that is beyond anything he has ever done before. There arguably isn't a show more uniquely individual to it's creator, and that makes Atlanta a rare find. 

2.) Halt and Catch Fire (AMC):

In it's first season, Halt and Catch Fire, a frequently good, and occasionally great show. By it's second season it had developed into a consistently great show. When it's third season aired this year, it somehow took another leap in quality to become the greatest drama on TV. Where many dramas equate dramatic twists and turns with quality, Halt wisely cashed in on three seasons worth of character history to create an often slow burning and quiet drama. That's not to say that the show is lacks suspense or powerful dramatic moments. The boardroom scene in "The Threshold," in which Donna and Cameron's disagreement over Mutiny's direction results in them both calling for a vote to oust the other from he company, was arguably the most tense moment of any show this year. The way Donna and Cameron's partnership eroded over the course of the season was one of the most tragic developments on any show, while Cameron's development of an almost "mama bear" like defensiveness of Gordon, whom she had previously all but hated, was one of the most endearing developments of the show. These characters know the best and worst sides of each other, and some of TV's most powerful moments this season were when these characters found themselves in the same place as one another, forced to confront that fact. The final four episodes of the season constituted the best run of episodes of any show this year, and even gave the show a fantastic direction to head in for its final season. 

1.) Jane the Virgin (The CW):

There's really not a whole lot to say about this show that I didn't say when it topped my list last year. Jane the Virgin is an often hilarious satire of the telenovela genre that is also TV's most earnest, genuine, and heartfelt comedy. Gina Rodriguez is still giving TV's best acting performance, balancing the comedic and dramatic demands of the show with ease, and the rest of the deep and talented cast is still at the top of their game (including the best narrator on TV). Jane's wedding to Michael was one of the most touching and romantic moments on TV (full of fantastic moments like Jane's abuela telling her that all of her hopes and dreams moving to America were being realized in that one moment, or Michael taking lessons form Alba to be able to say his wedding vows to Jane in Spanish). The third season has taken even more creative risks. Jane lost her virginity to her husband Michael, and the show thoughtfully focused on how Jane had made her virginity such an important part of her identity that once she had lost it she felt like she had lost a part of herself. The show is also unafraid to take creative risks. Season three's fall finale was an episode that paid homage to the storytelling style of Alfred Hithcock, and while the show's tone and style might seem incongruent with the works Hitchcock, it made for one of the most inventive and fun episodes of TV all year. That the show has produced 51 episodes without a single dud, is beyond impressive, especially considering how many different themes and storylines the show is juggling at any given time. There's simply no better show on TV. 

"Arrow" and "The Flash" Midseason Review

Of all of the insanely powerful and deadly enemies that the Green Arrow and The Flash have had to go up against on their respective shows, the greatest enemy to both heroes have faced so far on the runs of their shows has been maturity. Barry Allen (The Flash) has a dangerous habit of fixing personal problems by time traveling, thus exposing the entire universe to new dangers, and changing the lives of people around him in irreparable ways. Oliver Queen (the Green Arrow) has trust issues so deep that his secrets and lies have led to the ruin of relationships, friendships, and the death of friends, family members, and innocent bystanders. In both cases, whenever these heroes indulge in their worst qualities, the shows they are on suffer thematically and narratively. If The Flash's "Present" and Arrow's "What We Leave Behind" are indicators of where those respective shows are going, the future may be much brighter for both shows.

This season of The Flash, has revolved around "Flashpoint" and the consequences and threats that have arisen from Barry's choice to once again go back in time and try to save his mother from being murdered by The Reverse Flash. Last week's DC crossover event "Invasion" did a decent job of trying to move the show past that creative mistake, and "Present" was the show's first chance to move in a different direction. For the most part it was a success. Barry finally learned a little bit about who Savitar is and why he's on Barry's earth. He's supposedly the first ever speedster who received his powers from the Philosopher's Stone, and is essentially to The Flash what Apocalypse is to the X-Men universe. Savitar was alerted to Barry's growing power by "Flashpoint" and  seeing him as a threat, has decided to wage war against Barry.

When presented with multiple opportunities to fall back into old habits, Barry ultimately resisted the urge. His first smart move was going to Jay Garrick for help figuring out how to handle Savitar. Barry has a tendency to try to go it alone when he runs into a problem, and the fact that he reached out to Jay is a sign that we might be dealing with a more mature Barry Allen now. Even more telling is that when Barry accidentally travels to the future and witnesses Iris's death, he listens to Jay's advice that the future he saw is just one possibility, and to live in the present, because trying to fix the future will only cause more trouble like "Flashpoint" did. Instead of traveling into the future again, Barry decides to take his relationship with Iris in a big direction by buying them an apartment to live in together. This is the most hopeful sign of growth we've seen from Barry (and frankly the show's writers) all season.

Similar to The Flash, Arrow's "What We Leave Behind" helped point the show in an interesting direction, and show the growth of it's main hero. Through flashbacks, and some present detective work by Oliver, Felicity, and Felicity's detective boyfriend Billy, we learn that Prometheus' vendetta against Oliver and company is somehow connected to Justine Claybourne, a name Oliver "checked off" his list back in his early vigilante days. Though the episode strongly points to an illegitimate son of Claybourne's as the identity of Prometheus, the show is still careful to not show us Prometheus without his mask. In an attempt to hunt Prometheus down once and for all, Oliver falls into a trap in which he kills a kidnapped Billy who has been dressed to look like Prometheus.

The Oliver of the past four seasons probably would have kept this secret from Felicity, so many secrets he has kept from her before. Here, it was refreshing for Oliver to be completely honest with Felicity about every detail of what happened. Arrow is at its worst when these characters are arbitrarily lying to each other. This gave Felicity a chance to take Oliver's word at face value and understand not be burdened with the pain of Oliver lying to her on top of the pain she is already feeling over Billy's death. I'm sure the issue will come up again, and cause tension, but there's much more room for growth with these characters by addressing it in this way.

Both episodes ended with a juxtaposition of both tragic and surprisingly happy revelations. On The Flash, Prometheus' prophesies about the tragedies that will befall Team Flash, and Barry's knowledge that one of those tragedies is Iris's impending murder, set a very somber tone going into the hiatus. That being said, the show purposefully chose final scenes that ended with happier moments like the group acknowledging Wally's Kid Flash status, and Barry and Iris moving in together. Arrow ended with just about everyone on the team's life in shambles. Evelyn's betrayal of the group led to Oliver murdering Billy, Felicity mourning Billy's death, Curtis being attacked and having his marriage fall part, and John being arrested for the false military crimes he is accused of committing. All of that would seem like a definitively depressing ending were it not for the last minute revelation that Laurel is possibly not dead, seeing as Oliver walks in on her standing in Team Arrow's fortress. What any of this means for the future of these shows is a mystery, but both shows seem to be heading in promising directions.

Other Thoughts:

• At the end of last week's DC crossover, John stood on stage receiving praise from the President for his actions in saving the world. So saving the world doesn't earn you a pass on fake military crimes? Why did John run the risk of attending the press conference in the first place?
• Getting Evelyn's betrayal out of the way early in the episode was smart. She's too boring of a character to spend more time than necessary on.
• A fun little Christmas moment was the way Caitlin used her powers to make is snow, but using her powers makes her an evil villain, so maybe not the smartest choice.
• Wally stepping in to save Barry from Savitar begs the question, why did Savitar restore Wally's "Flashpoint" powers if he fears other speedsters gaining enough power to rival him?
• Savitar said someone on Team Flash would betray the group. There are some pretty plausible candidates. Caitlin, since one of Savitar's followers told Killer Frost that Savitar had big plans for her. Savitar could have ulterior motives in activating Wally's powers, knowing he will betray the group in the future. HW is still a bit of a wild card, though having a Wells character betray the group for a third season in a row seems like tired storytelling.
• As far as anyone in the multi-verse has been aware, "Flashpoint" didn't prevent Laurel's death, so how she appeared standing in front of Oliver at the end of the episode is quite a mystery. She could in theory be a figment of of Oliver's guilt ridden imagination. Maybe her sister Sara found a way to save her through her time traveling antics, though I doubt that based on Sara's claims that she knows better than to do something like that. Plus, had Sara saved her, it probably would have erased Laurel's death, not restored her to the current timeline in a way that would surprise Oliver.
• I always liked Laurel as a character, but the show never knew how to properly use her, so if she is back, hopefully they put her to better use this time.
• Oliver notes that the technique Prometheus used against him was a move Oliver himself learned from a woman in Russia. Susan had a bottle of vodka with Russian writing on it, and has been investigating Oliver's time in Russia. The show is obviously hinting that Susan somehow has a connection to his past in Russia.

The Good Place Review: "...Someone Like Me as a Member"

The problem with not being an actual TV critic, is that I'm not in the loop on a lot of what is going on in the industry. So when the post-episode previews for The Good Place said that new episodes would not be back until January, I was surprised. That means that "...Someone Like Me as a Member," is essentially a mid-season finale, and as such it was a bit of a mix of reliable humor and reverting to bad habits.

While The Good Place has had small hiccups in its storytelling over the course of this first season, the show has consistently been a great source of smart humor that has mostly been missing from network TV since shows like 30 Rock, Community, and Parks and Recreation left the air. Adam Scott's guest turn as Trevor, a demon who runs the Bad Place, was pure comedic gold. Scott proved that he is excellent as the "nice guy" on Parks and Recreation, but it is nice to see him play opposite that character in Trevor who is a smug jerk (It's worth noting that this is not the first time Scott has played this kind of role, but this is an excellent example of how he can excel at it). The running gag of having all of "fake" Eleanor's excuses for her behavior on earth be overshadowed by the hardships that "real" Eleanor (Tiya Sircar) overcame in her lifetime, was great. Unlike Tahani, "real" Eleanor is completely humble about her good deeds, and therefore is an even better comic foil for "fake" Eleanor. Speaking of Tahani, like all of the supporting characters, she was mostly underutilized, but her disgust at the supreme judge's name being "Sean," was one of the episode's funniest moments.

As far as the storyline of the episode goes, the show reverted back to a lot of bad habits that it had early in the season. Namely, not having any idea what to do with the supporting characters. Chidi being fascinated by "real" Eleanor makes sense, because she was his intended soulmate. Only time will tell what that means for the recently blossoming romance between Chidi and Tahani. Jason and Janet had a nice bonding moment (or as close to a bonding moment as either of those characters can have), but it kind of came out of nowhere. The show also continued to rely on its formulaic use of flashbacks. Here, we got a series of vignettes of times in Eleanor's life when she refused to become a part of an established group. The show vaguely hints that this has something to do with Eleanor's parents getting divorced, but overall the flashbacks are ineffective because there's very little motivation behind them. Trevor even pokes holes in Eleanor's divorce excuse later in the episode by pointing out that she's far from alone in that experience.

Unfortunately the episode also chose to pair Tahani and Michael, without giving either character anything to really do. This was a mistake the show made a lot in the early episodes. Tahani and Michael work well together when Tahani is trying to impress Michael, but he is in a bad mood. They were a great pair in the episode where Tahani's retirement party for Michael, keeps reminding him of how horrible the next chapter of his life will be, or even in last week's episode where Michael inadvertently revealed how frustrated he was with Tahani through his lie detector cube. Without that dynamic, the pair becomes arguably the least effective part of the show, as was the case here. It's a shame because Michael has been excellent in the last few episodes of the show. Still, the good outweighed the bad, as it always has with this show.

Other Thoughts:

• We didn't get to learn a whole lot about "real" Eleanor, but I could definitely see her becoming a full time part of the show. 
• There wasn't a lot of interaction between Chidi and "fake" Eleanor, but the moment when he assured her that he was still on her team was nice. 
• How the confrontation between Michael and Trevor over "fake" Eleanor will play out remains a mystery until January, but I think it's safe to say we'll probably meet Sean at some point. 
• Tahani finding out about Jianyu/Jason's secret was bound to happen at some point. She may be vain, but she isn't stupid. Michael and Trevor came up with a reason for why both Eleanors got mixed up when they went to the afterlife, but that explanation did nothing to explain how Jason somehow became mixed up with a completely different person when he died.