With a finite number of hours in the day to watch television, one can feel there will never be enough time to watch everything the critics, social media, our coworkers, friends, and family say we need to see.
It's not just a feeling. We now know it for a fact: There were an estimated 455 scripted TV programs in 2016. And you just can't see them all.
To sit down and name the 10 best shows of the hundreds that aired and streamed this year is a herculean task. So for this list of 2016's best shows, we reflected on all the well-written, superbly acted, and beautifully shot shows of the year (that we were able to check out) and added one more criterion to mix up the selections just a bit: Was it not only good, but surprisingly so?
That means shows that usually populate year-end lists like this — such as AMC's "Better Call Saul," FX's "The Americans," and HBO's "Silicon Valley"— won't appear here as we expect them to be exemplary.
With that in mind, here are 2016's 10 best TV shows:
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10. “Mozart in the Jungle” (Amazon)
"Mozart in the Jungle," a show about a New York classical music orchestra that was called "niche" when it first debuted, has proven itself season after season to be about so much more. Its newly released third season is no different. The orchestra has fallen apart and its talented musicians have embarked on their own personal journeys. Amid beautiful international settings, we see just how broad this show can get. At the same time, it's grounded in the comedy of bringing these lost souls back together to create beautiful music. Tremendous acting from Gael Garcia Bernal, Bernadette Peters, and Malcolm McDowell give this series the extra edge.
9. "The Crown" (Netflix)
A show about the early years of Queen Elizabeth's reign may not appeal to everyone, but it really brings an unexpected intimate and grounded feel to her life, her marriage, her family obligations, and her role in an evolving England.
8. "The Night Of" (HBO)
An especially timely show as the American criminal justice system is itself on trial, "The Night Of" plots the arrest of Nasir (Riz Ahmed), a young Muslim man suspected of brutally murdering a young white woman after a night of sordid sex and drugs. It seems like an open-and-shut case, but an ambulance-chasing attorney, played by the talented John Turturro, has a gut instinct that there's more to the story. The show plods slowly at a hypnotic pace as more information about the night in question, Nasir, and the victim comes to the light.
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