Clockwise: “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” John Krasinski’s “Some Good News,” “The Queen’s Gambit” and “Tiger King” (photos: Netlfix, Youtube)
At this point, end-of-the-year “best of” lists are de rigueur. Whether it’s Vulture or Good Housekeeping, the best shows, podcasts or memes, there is a place and an audience for everything. As David Letterman discovered 35 years ago when he debuted his first Top Ten List, “Top Ten Words That Almost Rhyme with ‘Peas,’” we humans just love lists. They help us organize and manage reality.
But in a year where reality went completely off the rails, the standard “best of” tropes seem out of touch. When it comes to TV, “The Good Place” ended its story of four dead losers and a demon learning to become better people in January, and the ending was brilliant, but it might as well have happened in January 1820, it seems so long ago. “Modern Family” likewise finished its groundbreaking, 11-season run on Apri