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(This review contains mild spoilers. Few specifics are given, but events are alluded to)

After True Detective completely squandered all of its good will from year one, all eyes were on Fargo, the second of last year’s extremely successful one-off seasons. Instead of shifting locations like True Detective, Fargo took an arguably more drastic turn by setting its second season in a different time period altogether. By transplanting to 1979, the series was able to introduce a whole new cast, visual style, story, and soundtrack. And yet, the whole thing still felt like a Fargo story should.

But what, exactly, is a “Fargo” story? That such a description can exist at all is credit to the work of showrunner Noah Hawley. Despite the lack of any actual input from the Coen Brothers, Hawley has absorbed and internalized all things Coen and managed to create a series overflowing with the essence of their storytelling. At this point, Fargo is defined by happenstance, misunderstandings, and human error. It always involves well-meaning people who get in over their heads, but beyond these criteria, the rest is free to shift and change.

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The narrative around South Park this year is that it has had a resurgence, finally creating something hilarious and relevant after a few years of obsolescence. I have to assume that many of the people saying this did not bother to watch the previous season, which was arguably stronger than this year and also flirted with season-long continuity. In either case, it’s nice to see a show like South Park, which was once dangerous enough to inspire religious protests but has since become an American establishment, finally making headlines again.

Really, though, South Park succeeded so strongly this season by leaning into a subject that appears to have been irritating many people who have been too afraid to speak up about it: politically correct culture and it’s current adoption by the self-righteous. In the age of Twitter, when everybody is self-branding by what they decide to say online and tweet out, there’s a seriously negative trend toward co-opting the discrimination and abuse of minorities as a way of showing off one’s own worldliness. That’s not to say that social justice is bad; it’s important to try to step out of one’s own shoes and consider the viewpoints and treatment of others that are often invisible to us. But when that cause is used to insult and belittle people who are unwittingly un-PC, or attack comedians and writers for using un-PC subject matter to get across well-meaning points, it stifles necessary dialogues and creates a schism.

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What is reality television? The genre that started life on MTV with The Real World and grew insanely popular with Survivor has morphed into shows like Keeping Up With the Kardashians, Duck Dynasty, and Here Comes Honey Boo Boo. These latter shows star “real” people, in that the leads are playing themselves, but feature scripted scenarios with improvisation rather than true real-life stories most of the time.

One of the most fascinating things about Nathan For You, Nathan Fielder’s brilliant comedy/social experiment/magic trick, is the way that the show is always aware of it’s reality, as well as its artificiality. The fact that there is a camera crew present in each scene is never lost, and explains why so many of Nathan’s subjects are willing to go along with his patently absurd ideas. But the subjects themselves are absolutely real, and the way that they react to Nathan’s plans with attempts at optimism (for the cameras) makes for a lot of the show’s humor.

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(This review begins without spoilers, before delving into some of the finer details of the season below. There is a spoiler warning midway through, so feel free to read the beginning of this article without any worries)

Halfway through season 2 of The Leftovers, I wrote this article detailing the improvements that the series writers had made over the initial season. At the time, I wrote that “The Leftovers has proven to be one of the most fascinating shows on television,” but that “those who want a clear, concise, central narrative, or who desire answers to all of their questions, should stay far away from The Leftovers.” Since then, HBO has aired the remaining five installments of the season, and my opinion on the season as a whole has only risen. Not only is this still a fascinating series, but its second season may be one of the all-time great seasons of television.

It’s also worth noting that my comment about a “clear, concise central narrative” is only a half-truth now. One of the biggest surprises this year is how brilliantly all of the various plot-threads DID manage to come together. Stories that would have been just fine staying mysterious or disconnected have actual purposes that tie into a greater whole and are paid off beautifully at the end of the year. Somehow Damon Lindelof, Tom Perrotta, and their team of writers manage to pull this off despite sticking to a singular character POV for nine of the ten episodes, keeping us wholly engaged in the moment while building a more serialized arc in the background. It’s a structural miracle, giving the viewer several complete, immensely satisfying story arcs while still leaving The Departure itself as a mystery.

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