Popverse's best TV shows of 2023

It's the end of the year as we know it... and you know what that means (beyond us feeling fine) - it's time for our Best Of lists! Now yesterday the Popverse team shared our favorite movies of the year. Today, it's all about the small screen (whether that's a literal TV, your tablet, or even your phone).

Of course, yadda yadda, Best Of lists are personal and subjective... yours may be different (and if it is, let us know in our Best TV of 2023 survey)... it's good to disagree about these things. So if you want to share your thoughts, leave a (polite) comment below and tell us what your Best Of 2023 list includes.

As for us, here is the Popverse team's Best TV of 2023...

Poker Face

Yes, Peacock’s big show of the year is very much just Rian Johnson and Natasha Lyonne doing Columbo cosplay, but the real question is: what’s wrong with that? Judging by the first season, the answer is “very little,” with the show’s good humor, cynicism, great list of guest actors, and Lyonne’s irrepressible presence providing a near-unbeatable experience week after week. Peter Falk would’ve been proud. - Graeme McMillan

I, like many, really did enjoy Poker Face. It’s a good reminder that sometimes television doesn’t need to be stellar or complicated to be a good time. Bring back the murder mysteries! Give us more Natasha Lyonne! Let’s do more TV like Columbo. We could certainly use it. - Tiffany Babb

One Piece

For years, there have been arguments about the decision to turn anime into live action series. Turning one of the most popular, and undoubtedly successful anime and manga series into a live action show felt risky given the reputation of live actions series in the past. That being said, the One Piece live action series on Netflix did a great job of capturing the spirit of the characters, delivered stunning visuals, and really found a way to bring all those fun, fantastical moments that were so well animated, into a live action setting without looking or feeling overdone. -Veronica Valencia

Succession

So much of the final season shouldn’t have worked, for so many reasons — not least of which was getting rid of Brian Cox so early; a risky choice that paid off far better than could have been imagined — but the final season of the beloved HBO comedy-drama proved to be a surprisingly moving, thrilling ride as the show finally lived up to its title with a fidelity that few might have expected. (And with perhaps the most satisfying ending, even if it didn’t seem so at the time.)-Graeme McMillan

Rise of the Pink Ladies

Is Rise of the Pink Ladies a good television show? Not technically. Is it a decent amount of fun in a year where I didn't watch too much new TV? Sure. It’s the frothy silly musical attempt to make Grease more modern, and it has its own cheap charm. I guess what really has gotten this show to stick in my mind is the fact that I think it could have gotten legs. It had good songs, great choreography and a (mostly) charismatic cast. But unfortunately the rug was pulled out from under the show with a quick cancellation and the hasty exit of a main actor (look up the ridiculous photoshop deal that haunted their last episode). The songs were catchy, it was earnest, and it was fun. -Tiffany Babb

Gold Rush

My personal winner for this year is a Discovery show called Gold Rush. It’s been around for 13 years, but as a cord cutter I discovered (get it!?), it on MAX and promptly binged it all. Ardently #TeamParker this reality show is the thing I have given more hours of my life to consuming (outside of, perhaps, buddy reading the Grishaverse in order with our Marketing Co-Ordinator Illianna Gonzalez-Soto). It certainly is going to appear as a strange bedfellow among my colleagues choices this year. I invite you to deep dive into Gold Rush and defy you not to hit me up (@AshleyVRobinson), when you find yourself bingeing it for reasons you can’t quite understand. -Ashley V. Robinson

The Summer I Turned Pretty

What a year for Jenny Hanh! XO Kitty and The Summer I Turned Pretty were cute, fun, and messy, and you best bet I ate those shows up. The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 2, like season 1, is the definition of summer vibes, and I really enjoyed watching all of the family dynamics play out. -Veronica Valencia

The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart

Sigourney Weaver was, is, and will forever be a force of nature in her acting performances. The mostly-forgotten 2023 series The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart shows her at the height of her powers, holding tight to this stunning character of prickly matriarch June Hart on an Australian flower farm. If you need comparisons, this is Yellowstone in all the ways that matter (and it’s not the western bits). -Chris Arrant

Fall of the House of Usher

I am late to the Mike Flanagan game, but it has welcomed me into is velvety arms like found family – and his newest series, The Fall of the House of Usher, is stunning in showing how wrong a family can be. This gothic fusion of Edgar Allan Poe’s stories into a modern-day narrative is the bookend to 2023’s Barbie in how a classic piece of nostalgia can be lovingly turned into something new and unique, without forgetting why you loved it in the first place. Poe purists will decry this series for everything it isn’t, but Flanagan’s Fall of the House of Usher thrives on taking those chances to tell a story not weighed down with the past like rocks in your pocket but instead uses these past stories to tell a richer story. -Chris Arrant

The Fall of the House of Usher came out to slap everyone across the face who has been sleeping on my fellow Canadian Bruce Greenwood (a great Batman voice, if you’ve never watched Batman: Under the Red Hood!), and season four of For All Mankind were particularly inspiring to me on the narrative side of the television conversation.-Ashley V. Robinson

As the year wind downs, it's time to look back and all you've read and watched. Popverse has picked the best movies, best comics, and best TV shows of the year.

But who really cares about what we think? This year, we had you vote for your best movies, best comics, and best TV shows of the year too. Check the lists and mix and see if you agree with our (and your) top choices of the year!