The Best of December TV 2023 (i.e. After We Made Our Year-End Lists)
Photos Courtesy of Showtime and Disney+ TV Lists best of 2023
Every year, it seems that Best of the Year gets earlier and earlier—soon enough, we’ll be listing off our favorite shows in early November. But as it stands now, our cut-off is November 30th, so in order to make all of our Best of the Year lists (including our overall list, reality TV picks, K-drama list, LGBTQ+ shows, anime and animated lists, and more), a series had to air most of its episodes by that date. However, that hard deadline leaves some of the year’s best shows stranded, caught in the downtime between choosing the best stand-out programming of 2023 and looking ahead to 2024. So, we’ve rounded up the best of December TV; picking from outside the bounds of just series and reaching into performances, moments, and even casting choices, we’ve listed off our favorites for the month:
Percy Jackson’s Perfectly-Cast Trio
It’s been a long time coming, but Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series is finally getting the adaptation it deserves. From the jump, it’s clear that the most compelling aspect of Disney+’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians is the trio of characters at its center and the undeniable lightning-in-a-bottle casting of the young actors portraying them. In the ill-fated films, Percy and friends were each aged up seemingly in an attempt to compete with the other YA books and adaptations dominating the cultural conversation in the early 2010s. But here, Percy, Annabeth, and Grover are preteens in a dangerous world, played to perfection by Walker Scobell, Leah Sava Jefferies, and Aryan Simhadri. In just the first three episodes, Scobell perfectly balances the anger and pain within Percy, all while never letting go of the feisty and goofy tween vibe. Jefferies shines in Annabeth’s quiet planning and observation, portraying her ambition and strength against a backdrop of still-lingering mystery. And Simhadri’s dorky Grover is a delight, as he balances the inherent silliness of his character’s quirks, while delivering in the series’ emotional moments. It’s a delight to watch these three embark on a grand adventure, and for a story that has taken so long to finally make it to the screen in the form it deserves, there is truly no better trio to ground this epic and fantastical show. And even beyond that central trio, Percy Jackson‘s casting department deserves their flowers, especially for Jessica Parker Kennedy’s casting as Medusa. —Anna Govert
Imelda Staunton’s Captivating Performance in The Crown
Bringing the ambitious story of The Crown to a satisfying end was always going to be a challenge. Netflix’s six-season recounting of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II may have started as an exploration of the tensions between tradition, progress, duty, and sacrifice in one, admittedly extraordinary, woman’s life. Still, by the time its final credits rolled, it had become little more than a fancy soap opera. Captivated by the high drama of Charles and Diana’s marriage, the subsequent tragedy of her death, and the struggles of her sons growing up in the shadow of her absence, The Crown all too frequently forgot that it was meant to be a show about Elizabeth Windsor at all. And though the series’ final season brings its focus back to the queen eventually, it almost feels like too little too late. Or it would, save for one thing: the show’s final episodes finally give Imelda Staunton a chance to shine.
The third actress to play Elizabeth, Staunton was regrettably sidelined for much of her run during the show. But in The Crown’s final three episodes, which featured a flashback-laden hour focused on her relationship with Princess Margaret, a sweet episode that allowed us to see her bond with her grandson, and the series finale, in which Elizabeth reckoned with both the past and the future of the institution she’d given her life to serving, she was allowed to finally be the focus once again. Staunton is wonderful throughout, conveying a multitude of emotions through a raised eyebrow or a simple change in tone. She’s so fantastic, you’ll end up wondering why the show waited so long to give her the material she deserved. — Lacy Baugher Milas
For All Mankind‘s Out-of-This-World Fourth Season
This season, For All Mankind entered the 21st century on its alternate timeline, and relations with the Russians have returned to their frosty roots after a coup in the Soviet Union complicates the international partnership on Mars. It’s a testament to the show’s writers that it’s managed to keep the drama tense and engaging after four seasons spanning nearly four decades with only Joel Kinnaman’s Ed Baldwin, Krys Marshall’s Danielle Poole, and Wrenn Schmidt’s Margo Madison remaining from the first season’s characters. But it’s the introduction of Toby Kebbell as a lowly maintenance worker on Mars, along with the pairing of Aleida Rosales (Coral Peña), and Kelly Baldwin (Cynthy Wu), that continues to make For All Mankind worth watching through the Gore administration. —Josh Jackson
What If…?‘s Multiverse-Hopping Second Season
Despite a few rocky episodes to start, Disney+’s multiversal, almost-anthology, animated series finally hit its stride and delivered some unforgettable episodes during Season 2. What If…? has always been a delight, but Episode 4’s Mad Max-esque road race on Sakaar was incredibly fun, especially with Iron Man at its center. Episode 5’s twist on The Winter Soldier was moving and appropriately intense, featuring a perfectly flirty dynamic between Captain Carter (Hayley Atwell) and Black Widow (Lake Bell) alongside Rachel Weisz’s return as a more twisted and evil Melina. And in Episode 6, What If…? brilliantly told a story featuring an original Indigenous character, where nearly the entire episode was spoken in languages other than English (Mowhawk and Spanish, to be exact). Hell, the series even got Cate Blanchett to reprise her role as Hela in a redemptive twist on Thor Ragnarok‘s villain. While not every episode was a winner (and sometimes the choices of what stories they choose to tell seem odd, to say the least), What If…?‘s second season is still a daring and fun nostalgia trip down different memory lanes than what we remember of the MCU’s history. Its relatively low stakes adventures are a fun watch, and its advent calendar release schedule was a highlight of this December’s TV season. —Anna Govert
The Curse’s Cringe Horror
On its face, not much happens in a given episode of The Curse. Whitney (Emma Stone) and Asher Siegel (Nathan Fielder) are a married couple trying to get an HGTV reality show greenlit in order to raise the value of homes they’ve purchased in the relatively unknown community of Española, New Mexico. However, despite its mundane setup, the series makes for one of the most uncomfortable watches in recent memory—a potent blend of pitch-black humor and anxiety-provoking social situations where a doomed couple hurtles toward self-inflicted disaster. In short, it feels like exactly what you’d expect from a collaboration between Nathan Fielder and Benny Safdie, embodying the latter’s command of making you cringe out of your skin and the former’s ability to endlessly escalate situations until you’re on the verge of a panic attack. Emma Stone’s performance as a ghoulish, hypocritical property developer rounds out this nightmare trio. Any premise can captivate given proper execution, and here, a voyeuristic camera and woozy synths elevate every detail of this slow-motion car crash, making for something that’s simultaneously tough to look at and equally difficult to avert your gaze from. —Elijah Gonzalez
Slow Horses’ Fantastic Third Season
Based on the book series by Mick Herron, Slow Horses is one of Apple’s best; it deserves the type of fanfare and awards recognition that Ted Lasso and Severance have both received, and it’s depressingly silly that it continues to fly under the radar for many. Season 3 picks up a year after the death of an MI5 agent known to have stolen classified documents, with the Slough House team itemizing old MI5 records that are being moved to a decommissioned Cold War bunker for storage. It’s a thankless job, a punishment really, and everyone knows it, especially River Cartwright (Jack Lowden, who continues to be a compelling leading man and the perfect complement to Gary Oldman’s Jackson Lamb). But when Slough House’s office administrator, Catherine Standish (Saskia Reeves), is kidnapped by a rogue group looking for the file that led to the agent’s death, the series quickly kicks into high gear as the team races against the clock to try to save Standish’s life. The third season offers a well-balanced story that flies by as clues are uncovered, surprising motives are revealed, and the members of Slough House prove that they might be f–kups, but they’re not totally without merit. Slow Horses is an underdog story of the highest caliber. —Kaitlin Thomas
Doctor Who‘s Delightful Holiday Special
The closing months of 2023 have been a fantastic time to be a Doctor Who fan, with four new special episodes airing between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the return of fan-favorite David Tennant in a brand new role, and the debut of new Doctor Ncuti Gatwa. But while the series’ trio of 60th anniversary specials deftly explored a new kind of ending for the show’s central character (a happy one), it’s the Christmas installment that points the way to an exciting new future for the franchise. Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor is instantly mesmerizing, boasting a devastating smile and enough charisma to power the TARDIS all on its own.
Fresh off of Fourteen’s still-in-progress self-actualization in Donna Noble’s backyard, this is a version of the Doctor who is more centered, confident, curious, and fun than any incarnation we’ve seen on our screens in some time. And his inaugural adventure, which also marks the return of former showrunner Russell T. Davies, kicks off a new era by going back to the basics of what has made the modern reboot of the franchise so successful: snappy dialogue, ridiculous monsters, an awful lot of running, and a friendship that feels as big as the universe. — Lacy Baugher Milas
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