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Want to see a show that’s worth your time? Use our biannual must-see list to make sure you don’t miss a winner. It was the year when Succession, Reservation Dogs and Barry ended in total triumph, and the royal hit The Crown headed for a tragic end. The murder mystery Fargo staged a comeback to its previous artistic heights, and Meryl Streep made Only Murders in the Building funnier than ever. Jamie Lee Curtis did a stunning guest star stint on The Bear, and The Golden Bachelor became the season’s biggest out-of-nowhere smash hit — by taking the love lives of people over 50 seriously. Here are our picks of the year’s greatest TV shows.
Barry
The smart, funny and scary show about a hit man (Bill Hader) transformed by the acting class of a has-been actor (Henry Winkler, 78) got way scarier in its fourth and final season, brilliantly directed by Hader. Lots of dark comedies these days let the viewer off easy emotionally — we laugh off the darkness. But Barry seriously confronts us with moral issues, as the lead character faces the fact that what he’s done is nobody’s fault but his own, and Winkler’s character takes fate into his own bloody hands. Where to watch Barry
The Bear
Shameless star Jeremy Allen White reached a new level of fame with the story of Carmy, a neurotic restaurateur who’s recovering from his brother’s death — and maybe not recovering from his own demons. But he and the staff of his ambitious, imperiled eatery wrestle with their demons heroically, and guest stars ratcheted up the drama to unprecedented heights for the second season of The Bear. Bob Odenkirk, 61, equaled his Better Call Saul excellence as Uncle Lee of Carmy’s mom (Jamie Lee Curtis, 65), and Curtis’ plate-hurling, car-crashing-into-the-house scene at a family dinner was one of the wildest, finest moments of the TV year. Where to watch The Bear
The Crown
The sixth season of the ultimate royal soap opera kicks off with Prince Charles (Dominic West, 54) and Diana (Elizabeth Debicki) enjoying their first post-divorce summer — the latter in the early throes of a romance with Dodi Fayed (Khalid Abdalla). After these four episodes, in which Imelda Staunton, 67, again aces the role of Queen Elizabeth II, no drama in previous excellent seasons can match the riveting spectacle of Diana’s tragic, emotionally tumultuous last days. Where to watch The Crown
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