1. Atlanta (FX)
Like its time slot–mate, Pamela Adlon's Better Things, actor-rapper Donald Glover's half-hour "comedy in theory" drew a lot of inspiration from Louie, which threw out most of the sitcom's stifling rules and treated the medium as an auteur's laboratory. But the first season of Atlanta was such a profound, personal refinement of that sensibility that it shrugged off all reference points and became its own marvelous thing. No live-action TV series was as comfortable with deadpan discomfort, stoner ellipses, startling moments of surrealism, and beauty for its own sake (the magic-hour shots of Atlanta streets were enchanting). But the series is equally impressive as class- and race-conscious cultural anthropology that smuggled its politics into characterization and story.
2. The Girlfriend Experience (Starz)
This series about Christine (Riley Keogh), a Chicago law student and intern who moonlights as an escort to rich men, was theoretically a continuation of Steven Soderbergh's semi-satirical 2009 feature. But showrunners Amy Seimetz and Lodge Kerrigan pushed into much darker, more mysterious territory, creating a weekly half-hour equivalent to the sorts of existential head-scratchers that Antonioni and Bergman were making in the 1960s, equally intriguing as character drama, erotica/****ography, and psychological horror. The finale is one of the greatest single episodes in the history of television: endlessly rewatchable and fascinating.
3. American Crime Story: The People vs. O.J. Simpson (FX) and O.J. Simpson: Made in America (ESPN)
Nobody could have foreseen that one of the most exhausting and infuriating American criminal trials would yield not one but two classics 21 years later: a satirical yet humane scripted mini-series from Ryan Murphy, Larry Karazewski, and Scott Frank, and a deep-dish nonfiction novel for television from filmmaker Ezra Edelman.
4. BoJack Horseman (Netflix)
5. The Americans (FX)
6. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (The CW)
7. Stranger Things (Netflix)
8. Rectify (Sundance)
9. Horace & Pete (LouisCK.net)
10. Search Party (TBS)
http://www.vulture.com/2016/12/10-be...s-of-2016.html