This year, Met Radio is taking part in the time-honoured tradition of the year-end top ten list. Throughout the month of December, Met Radio staff and volunteers will be sharing their personal pop culture favourites from the year gone by. Visit the website every Monday, Wednesday and Friday to check out our best of 2023!
Hey everyone! I’m Karen the Technical Director at Met Radio and occasional contributor to Movie Mixtape. In the same vein as my list last year, I’m here to talk about some TV shows I watched this year. I wanted to do a list of season three’s in 2023 but many of my shows either ended or did not get or have a third season this year. So I pivoted my idea. I realized this year I watched quite a few final seasons–some planned or were recently cancelled. I’ll be a bit nicer to some shows that were axed unexpectedly…some.
Karen’s Top Ten TV Show Finales (from best to worst)
Succession
An HBO staple since 2018, Succession concluded after a four-season run. It followed the cutthroat battle between the Roy siblings and family, a fictional media and entertainment conglomerate. They fight to be the next CEO after the family patriarch, Logan, suffers a stroke. This show featured a great cast, cinematography and dialogue. It delivered a gut-punch finale that felt like a suitable conclusion for the show. The opening credits have a beautiful orchestral score and was one that I never skipped. I will miss the Roys.
Ted Lasso
After hearing so many good reviews about this AppleTV+ original, I finally caved and watched it last year and really enjoyed it. I did not expect myself to enjoy a sports comedy/fish-out-of-water type of show. It was a very wholesome show that had a good balance between cheesy feel-good moments and more serious issues such as mental health. I still cannot believe this show stemmed from an ad. I really wished it could go on for another season or two, but it’s one of those shows that really lives up to the quote, “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.”
Sex Education
A comfort teen drama comedy from Netflix with a classic four-season-long “will they or won’t they” between the show leads Otis and Maeve. This show had a unique premise: two teenagers starting a secret sex therapy clinic at their high school to give advice to their student cohort and of course earn money. This final season I wish we didn’t introduce so many new characters and some plotlines felt very rushed. I wish this show got another season to wrap up some plotlines for the main cast a bit better, but I still loved following the growth of our main character over the years. Aimee’s arc is still one of my favourites, if you know, you know. I will still miss this show.
Owl House
Fan-favourite animated fantasy series from the Disney Channel wrapped up the show in a three-part third season, the final airing in April. Similar to many fans of the show, I wish this show got the full treatment instead of a three-part conclusion. I enjoyed learning about the lore and enjoyed its refreshing representation of the LGBTQ+ community without having plotlines revolving around their identities. I still feel the writers did an excellent job wrapping up the series despite the creative restraints they had.
Shadow and Bone (unexpected)
After a two-year wait for season two, this fantasy book series turned TV series was unfortunately cancelled this fall. Even in the first season, I enjoyed the plotlines of “Crows” better than our leading star-crossed lovers, Alina and Mal. This season I felt that sentiment even more strongly. I still enjoyed learning the backstories of our characters this season, and the ending was clearly set up in the hopes of another season. Fans are upset by the cancellation, with a change.org petition gaining traction. I’d love this show to continue on a new platform if possible!
The Last Kingdom
Sort of. The BBC-turned-Netflix historical fiction series wrapped up last March, however, this year the series concluded with the film, “The Last Kingdom: Seven Kings Must Die.” The film delivered an action-packed ending despite missing a few characters from the original series. There was a bit of a time and plot jump from the TV series ending, which was the norm between seasons, but as this was a feature-length film, it felt very rushed, and I did not like the pacing. I wasn’t a fan of what felt like a sudden character personality change between the previous season and the film that didn’t make sense to me. I felt like the original series wrapped the show a bit better than the film.
How I Met Your Father (unexpected but expected)
This show is another recent cancellation after a short two-season stint on Hulu (or Disney+ for Canadians!) I deemed this show the Lizzie McGuire revival we may never get and was not surprised this show was cancelled. As a spinoff to “How I Met Your Father,” I felt it didn’t get as much love as the original series. The humour and the cast dynamic didn’t quite mesh as well as the original cast. That being said, this season I felt we were starting to get to know the friend group and really enjoyed seeing Hilary Duff as a lead in a TV series again. I do think fans of the shows lucked out that we got some cameos and fun references to the original show and a certain arc paid off.
Gossip Girl 2021…(unexpectedly?)
Also included on my list last year, I really wish this reboot took off, and yet it did not deliver. Social media is so different from when the original took place, and I always felt the show didn’t take advantage of that. Revealing who Gossip Girl was from the start was quite a plot twist, but it really took away a core mystery of the show. The ending of season two felt like it could be an ending for the whole series so I applaud the writers. XOXO, RIP.
Barry
Barry’s final episode took place the same night as Succession so that must’ve been a sad night for HBO fans. Similar to Ted Lasso, I had heard about this show and was intrigued by the plotline of a killer who wants to pursue acting. I enjoyed the dark and clever humour of the show, but I wish the series’ ending had some more comeuppance with their characters. I have heard fans enjoyed the show’s conclusion, some may say, “Oh wow.”
The Idol…..
The most infamous HBO series on my list. Hearing behind-the-scenes coverage of the production of this show felt even more chaotic than the “Don’t Worry Darling’s” press cycle. When the show was first announced in 2021, I was excited to see a show collaboration between The Weeknd and (pre-season 2 of “Euphoria” and “The Idol”) Sam Levinson. Hearing the behind-the-scenes problems and rewriting and the re-shoots I got worried. Hearing the early reviews, I got worried. I watched the show, and it was not the dark satirical take on the music industry I was hoping it’d be. The show had two staples of Levison, beautiful cinematography and many unnecessarily sexual scenes. After seeing photos of what the show might’ve been had the original director, Amy Seimetz, not stepped down, I am disappointed for what the show could’ve been. I do applaud the acting chops of Lily-Rose Depp given the huge shift this show took.
