British party leader Jeremy Thorpe was behind Western Europe's perhaps the most cunning attempted murder of modern times - clearly it will be a mini-series. Hugh Grant has never been so good here and the series portrays a homophobic time with heart, but without a trace of sentimentality.
Kim: agrees that Hugh Grant was brilliant but had more difficulty for the evading Norman. However, was very embarrassed to drink table wine in really small drinking glasses!
5. Game of Thrones (Kim's Fall)I know, I know. We're probably all a little tired of Game of Thrones by now. But from a perspective, it is impossible to come from what an epic tale of blood and fire it was anyway (at least the first six seasons). A winding and merciless family chronicle about family ties that might as well be brothers as stranglers.
Lydia: Endured only one and a half seasons of GOT. Too many people and places. Why does everyone look the same? Why do they talk so loudly to each other all the time? Why did everyone love it so much?
4. Silicon valley 2014 - 2019 (Lydia's fall)Takes place in the California tech paradise and follows a handful of unsympathetic nerds with a dream of decentralizing the internet, free of big corporate browsing. There is no backbone here that is not as flexible as rubber and all messages about "a better world" are really about breaking cloud buttons. Decade's quietest thing.
Kim: Haven't seen it. Getting a little scared by your description but also a little curious: the most fun of the decade, you say?
4. Halt and catch fire, 2014-2017 (Kim's fall)Computers and love! Ensemble drama at its best (apart from a swaying first season). Some tech nerds invent chat rooms and internet forums during the '80s technology-optimistic years. But the computers are not the thing, as one of the protagonists points out - they are just the thing that takes one to the thing. Halt and catch fire was a pretty overlooked gem with strong genealogy ties to Mad Men, though a few degrees warmer and with slightly more liked characters.
Answer: I haven't seen this one, but it's on the 2020 watch list.
3. Chernobyl 2019 (Lydia's fall)Swedish-directed Chernobyl is a hit. The villains are pretty villainous, but the biggest villain of all is the oppressive communist system they are pressed into. Power mechanisms, gray light, despair and Stellans Skarsgård's eyebrows are 100% convincing.
Kim: Canon series! Agree with everything but also want to mention the almost radioactive doomsday music. Definitely a top ten!
3. Mad Men, 2007-2015 (Kim's election)It's really a bit strange that this series for connoisseurs became so popular. Perhaps it was the elegant martini lunches and indoor smoking that appealed to many, but the heart of the series meditates on the human condition: the rings we choose to jump through to be loved for who we are - and then we are not even ourselves. Subtle and rock-proof drama about the soul's horror before the void.
Lydia: Nice and sad, slow and exciting - this one is in my top ten.
2. Girls 2012 - 2017 (Lydia's fall)“I think I can be the voice of my generation. Or at least a voice, for a generation. ”So says Lena Dunham's character Hannah in the television series Girls first episode and it's hard not to agree. The initial comparisons to Sex and the City came as a shame: these four friends' relationships are often anything but edifying, the replicas are syllabic and, although some seasons were a bit weaker, the whole thing is fantastic.
Kim: It feels like a failure to love Girls because of the formative experience it seems to have been to many. I myself was just depressed. Do they have to be so mean to each other?
2. Parks and Recreation, 2009-2015 (Kim's Fall)The tranquil life of park management in the small town of Pawnee in the state of Indiana is trickier than it sounds. Official Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) leads a bunch of lovely balls in the process of refining the city's parks. The hottest humor since Hasse and Tage, and with a joke-per-minute ratio that can compare with comedy guns like Veep and 30 Rock.
Lydia: Can't help but agree, nice and fun is not always a given combination, but Parks and rec does it best of all.
1. Succession 2018 - (Lydia's fall)"There is no one to like" is a phrase that can be said about many of the television series of the decade, but it is best suited to Succession, which has a wonderful gallery of adorable characters. After many years of great mistrust of the media and elite in the Western world, this drama comedy arrives in due course with its portrayal of a media magnet family inspired by the Murdochimperiet.
Kim: I KNOW that everyone says that season two is the best late sliced bread. I did not make it through the first section. There is no one to like!
1. The Leftovers, 2014-2017 (Kim's Fall)"If we can't have a sense of humor about you being the Messiah, we're going to have a problem."
The quote sums up this wonderfully cranky and beautiful series and its loaded play with religious symbolism and miracles. The title hints at the fact that two percent of the earth's population disappeared on October 14, 2011, and those who remain have to live with this difficult-to-understand fact. Max Richter's compositions will haunt the viewer and the acting is turned on perfectly.
Lydia: Lost the craving somewhere in the middle of season two. The idea is cruel, but the series is a little too slow and esoteric for my taste.