![\"Photo](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/634\/2016\/08\/5374200948_539b10fb1c_z-e1472675347414.jpg\")
<\/a>2016\u00a0is coming to a close. And while there are a lot of reasons to be happy that we\u2019re saying goodbye to this year, let\u2019s not forget that this wasn\u2019t a terrible year in every area. True, we might be skipping toward the apocalypse. But at least there were some fun diversions along the way.<\/p>\n
My post for the best movies of 2016 will be coming later. I hope to have it up before the new year, but the fall has been so busy that I\u2019m behind on movies. There are a few I need to see before I put the list together, but I have a few days to make that happen over the holiday break. In the meantime, I wanted to post a list of my favorite non-movie items of the year. These are the TV shows, books and other items that captured my attention in 2016 and, in many cases, were better than some movies I saw. It was a good year for consumers of media; I\u2019m looking forward to seeing how 2017 tries to top it.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n 1.) Hamilton<\/strong><\/p>\n I first listened to the soundtrack for Lin-Manuel Miranda\u2019s acclaimed musical in January. Since then, I\u2019ve played it at least once a week. It\u2019s all I listen to when I write. I\u2019ve studied the annotated lyrics in \u201cHamilton: The Revolution.\u201d I watched the PBS documentary. I\u2019ve listened to \u201cThe Hamilton Mixtape.\u201d I\u2019m planning on reading Ron Chernow\u2019s biography of the founding father over the holiday break. It\u2019s been a long time since I\u2019ve been this obsessed with a work of art. I would put \u201cHamilton\u201d above any narrative experience I\u2019ve had this year, including the best movies. And, like most people, I still haven\u2019t seen it on stage.<\/p>\n \u201cHamilton\u201d is one of the most densely layered, brilliant works of art\u00a0I\u2019ve encountered. Even on my first, casual listen, I was swept up in how enjoyable Miranda\u2019s mixture of hip-hop, jazz, R&B and showtunes was. On subsequent listens, I came to appreciate the sprawling, epic narrative. The way Miranda draws drama and laughs from politics, history and family tragedy. The way he packs so much information into the lyrics that hip-hop is the only way you could tell the story in one night. The themes and motifs that repeat at just the right moment to drive a sledgehammer into your heart. Reading the annotated lyrics has only taken me deeper down the rabbit hole as I\u2019ve seen how deftly Miranda plants Easter eggs that pay homage to everything from the history of America to the founding fathers of rap. It\u2019s such a perfect, involving experience that I almost can\u2019t imagine what will be waiting for me when I eventually get to see it on stage (probably still a long way off). It\u2019s at once an energetic, moving character piece; a thrilling experiment that brings history to vivid life; a celebration of diversity and America\u2019s best ideals; and a call to inspiration and service for a generation entering troubled times. And it\u2019s all the work of collaborators who are the best in the game, the brainchild of a man who is both a true genius and one of the most enjoyable geeks to follow on Twitter.<\/p>\n I need to stop writing about \u201cHamilton.\u201d My wife has asked me to stop talking about \u201cHamilton.\u201d But as I finish this list, I think I might need to put the soundtrack on.<\/p>\n The Hamilton soundtrack is available for purchase and streaming on a variety of platforms. Tickets for Hamilton are available for the price of your firstborn.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n 2.) O.J.: Made in America<\/strong><\/p>\n If you had told me in January that 2016 would feature two must-see films about O.J. Simpson, I would have laughed you out of the room. As a teenager during the \u201cTrial of the Century,\u201d I feel like I\u2019m still suffering from media overload. And yet, filmmakers twice found a way to revisit the whole sordid story in fresh, compelling and relevant ways.<\/p>\n The best was Ezra Edelman\u2019s five-part, nearly eight-hour documentary for ESPN. It\u2019s so good that critics are fighting about whether it\u2019s to be awarded\u00a0as a\u00a0TV show or film (it premiered at Sundance and played in a few theaters before being broadcast on ESPN), probably so they can jockey for their chance to write about it. Having watched it over the course of a week on my couch, I\u2019m not including it in my movie list,\u00a0although it would fit near the top if I did.<\/p>\n Edelman\u2019s exhaustive film chronicles O.J.\u2019s spectacular rise and fall, from his youth and college football days to his post-acquittal life and subsequent prison term. Even if you lived through the trial and watched every moment of court coverage, there\u2019s likely still something new here. It takes two episodes to even get to the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, and by then you know you\u2019re watching one of the year\u2019s most important works of art. While meticulously covering O.J.\u2019s early life and career, Edelman also sets up the context of the tragedy to come, showing how the the entire trial and acquittal were rooted in a culture of racial strife, police brutality, celebrity worship and media exploitation. American culture created the perfect storm for the murder trial to ooze out of, and many of the things that contributed to that toxic event are still swirling in our atmosphere (and, it could be argued, contributed to our political climate). And yet, even as he spins a broad tale of distinctly American wretchedness, Edelman never loses sight of the human lives at the center of this tale. He lingers with purpose, but never with exploitation, on horrific crime scene and autopsy photos to repeatedly remind us of the tragedy of lives lost. And he ensures to also linger on O.J.\u2019s post-acquittal spiral into irrelevance and self-parody, culminating with his arrest and incarceration. This is one of the best looks at American culture I\u2019ve seen, filtered through a tale so garish you want to look away but so absurd that you can\u2019t.<\/p>\n \u201cO.J.: Made in America\u201d is streaming in three parts on Hulu and available on all digital and physical platforms.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n 3.) Stranger Things<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cStranger Things\u201d appears to have been created by a Netflix algorithm designed to exclusively target my generation. Anyone who was a kid in the \u201980s likely started salivating as soon as they laid their eyes on this eight-episode first season, which appeared to mix the early works of Steven Spielberg and Stephen King in a blender, seasoned with a liberal dash of John Carpenter. From its Amblin-esque aesthetic to the homages to everything from \u201cHalloween\u201d to \u201cDungeons and Dragons,\u201d this was the best film we never got to see as kids.<\/p>\n But homage only goes so far, as we saw with J.J. Abrams\u2019 \u201cSuper 8.\u201d \u00a0And as I watched the first episode, the question nagged about whether I truly liked what I was watching or if I was just having my nostalgia stroked by the Duffer Brothers.<\/p>\n By episode two, the questions evaporated. \u201cStranger Things\u201d is compelling, compulsively watchable television. The Duffers spin a creepy, moving story of lost kids, gruesome monsters, other dimensions and shadowy government conspiracies that moves at a bullet\u2019s pace. The show not only gets great mileage from established actors like Winona Ryder, David Harbour and Matthew Modine, it also has one of the great child casts of anything ever, particularly in Millie Bobby\u2019s Brown\u2019s mysterious and creepy Eleven and Gatan Matarazzo\u2019s adorable, very funny Dustin. Even what initially appeared to be the show\u2019s weakest link\u00a0\u2014 a subplot involving the town\u2019s teenagers\u00a0\u2014 ended up working well, with Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton and Joe Keery creating one of the most likable love triangles of some time. The show had a knack for introducing and resolving its mysteries quickly, and the Duffers are masters with atmosphere and tension. And it wasn\u2019t only children of the \u201980s who caught on; when your show becomes a meme for its title font alone, you know you have a smash hit on your hands. And while its success made season two inevitable, there\u2019s a part of me that\u2019s afraid returning to something so delicate could be very dangerous.<\/p>\n Was \u201cStranger Things\u201d the smartest or most ambitious show of the year? Probably not. But it\u2019s the only one I blew threw in a week, sitting down to watch three or four episodes in a row just so I could see how it turned out. It\u2019s the TV equivalent of losing hours on the couch with a good book, and even if I have some trepidation, I still can\u2019t wait to return to the Upside Down.<\/p>\n Season one of \u201cStranger Things\u201d is streaming on Netflix. Season Two is expected to air in late 2017.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n 4.) TV (The Book): Two Experts Pick the Greatest American Shows of All Time<\/strong>\u00a0by Alan Sepinwall and Matthew Zoller Seitz\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n While movies have always been my go-to artistic medium, in recent years I\u2019ve been delighted at how great television has become at spinning memorable stories and creating complex characters. As \u201cBreaking Bad,\u201d\u201dFargo,\u201d \u201cTrue Detective\u201d and other shows have captured my attention, there have been few better guides than Alan Sepinwall and Matthew Zoller Seitz. The two are some of the best writers and critics tackling any medium, but their knowledge of television history and its potential as an art form has made them stand out in this new Golden Age of the tube.<\/p>\n So it\u2019s only fitting that the two former colleagues should be the ones to \u00a0compile a canon of the 100 best American shows of all time. The duo does it with wit, intelligence and insight\u2026but not, thankfully, with brevity. This is a deep-dive into great television that takes its time, with expertly crafted essays about each program. The two aren\u2019t snobs; \u201cThe Simpsons\u201d mingles with \u201cThe Sopranos\u201d and \u201cThe Wire,\u201d and the two make room for \u201cThe Office,\u201d \u00a0\u201cFriends\u201d and even \u201cSpongeBob Squarepants.\u201d The recent deluge of great television means that the book does feature many recent titles, but Sepinwall and Zoller Seitz don\u2019t neglect the medium\u2019s groundbreakers and hall-of-famers. Archie Bunker, Lucille Ball and Marshall Dillon are well-represented, and the tome even takes the time to single out the medium\u2019s best miniseries, movies and filmed plays.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t let the writers\u2019 internet pedigrees fool you. This isn\u2019t a collection of bite-sized overviews or click-bait masquerading as journalism (followers of the writers know not to expect that). The book opens with a 20(ish)-page debate between the two as they hash out their picks for the top 5. Past their \u201cpantheon,\u201d they don\u2019t skimp for words for a majority of entries, making this an deep read for those who love TV. But it\u2019s no stuffy tome; Sepinwall and Zoller Seitz are fantastic, fun writers, and devouring their essays is a great deal of fun. In the coming years, as television continues to make its mark, I assume we\u2019ll see more scholarly works about the medium. But it will be hard to top the work done by these two.<\/p>\n TV (The Book) is available for purchase.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n 5.) The People vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s tempting to think that \u201cO.J.: Made in America\u2019s\u201d deep dive rendered Ryan Murphy\u2019s miniseries from earlier in the year obsolete. And yet, rather than cancelling each other out, the two work as fascinating complements, shedding light on different facets of the story and giving us a bigger picture about something we thought had already been reported to death.<\/p>\n In Murphy\u2019s 10-episode miniseries, O.J. (a fantastic Cuba Gooding Jr.) is pushed to the side in favor of spending time with the lawyers who would be at the center of this circus. In each episode, he pushes in on different aspect of the trial, whether it\u2019s the sequestered jurors, Johnnie Cochran\u2019s decision to play the race card or, in the best episode, letting a never-better Sarah Paulson humanize Marcia Clark. In the process, Murphy and his directors cleared plenty of room for nearly every actor to give some of the best performances of their careers, from John Travolta\u2019s bizarre take on Robert Shapiro to Courtney B. Vance\u2019s Cochran, who\u2019s overflowing with misguided passion. But the best work was done by Paulson and Sterling K. Brown, as Chris Darden, who both brought dignity and humanity to individuals who became punch lines after the trial.<\/p>\n \u201cThe People vs. O.J. Simpson\u201d could have been a tawdry, campy and tasteless joke. Instead, every episode was riveting, tragic and absurd. Like \u201cMade in America,\u201d it shined a light on one of the most notorious and bizarre moments in American history and reminded us that its tendrils are still flowing through our culture today.<\/p>\n The People vs. OJ Simpson is available to purchase in a variety of formats and is rumored to be coming to Netflix in 2017.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n 6.) BoJack Horseman<\/strong><\/p>\n Once again, one of the deepest shows on television is a cartoon about a talking horse. In its third season, \u201cBoJack Horseman\u201d found new ways to explore existential despair with humor and insight, delivering its most ambitious, funny and bleak season yet. BoJack (Will Arnett) starts off riding Oscar buzz for his work in \u201cSecretariat,\u201d but over the course of the season, he finds that awards won\u2019t bring happiness.<\/p>\n \u201cBoJack\u201d so ably tackled the topics of depression and addiction in the past that I was worried a third season of it might feel repetitive. But the show\u2019s writers find new ways to disillusion their hero, approaching it from new angles and giving it surprising heft. The show continues to have one of the deepest benches of supporting characters, and in particular Todd (Aaron Paul), Princess Caroline (Amy Sedaris) and even Mr. Peanutbutter (Paul F. Tompkins) have their own complex journeys to take. But the show is not just a slog. It finds fantastic uses for its guest stars, including Angela Bassett, Weird Al Yankovic, Jessica Biel, Candice Bergen, Fred Savage, Greg Kinnear and more. It\u2019s an ambitious show, and a nearly wordless episode where BoJack visits and undersea film festival is one of funniest and most innovative episodes of anything all year. And it ladels on giant laughs along with the angst; no show is as good with a pun as \u201cBoJack Horseman.\u201d It\u2019s a funny, absurd, animated take on Ecclesiastes<\/a>, and I absolutely love it.<\/p>\n \u201cBoJack Horseman\u201d is streaming on Netflix.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n 7.) \u201cOut of Sorts: Making Peace With an Evolving Faith\u201d by Sarah Bessey, \u201cHow I Changed My Mind about Evolution\u201d by BioLogos, and National Geographic\u2019s \u201cThe Story of God with Morgan Freeman\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n This was a year in which I re-thought a lot of things in regard to faith. It was a year in which I disassembled many things and re-examined them. In many ways, I\u2019m still reassembling my faith and wrapping my brain around what I believe. I think that\u2019s good and necessary; it\u2019s something we should do every few years.<\/p>\n Much of the impetus for this re-examination came from writing about National Geographic\u2019s miniseries \u201cThe Story of God\u201d for this site. As part of the channel\u2019s promotion for the broadcast, bloggers from throughout Patheos wrote about the views of their religion through the show (you can find the final one here<\/a>, along with links to the rest). From there, I began re-thinking exactly where I stood on evolution and creation<\/a>, and found the BioLogos organization to be an encouraging resource, particularly its latest book \u201cHow I Changed My Mind About Evolution,\u201d which features essays from Christians who have had to address many of the same issues. And in the midst of all this upheaval, which only got more difficult after the election, Sarah Bessey\u2019s \u201cOut of Sorts\u201d was a reminder that doubt is not to be run from but engaged, and that a shift if faith doesn\u2019t mean an abandonment of the church.<\/p>\n It\u2019s easy to let these doubts discourage us. But I finished 2016 with my faith feeling more vibrant and alive than before; I look forward to seeing how it continues to evolve in 2017.<\/p>\n \u201cOut of Sorts\u201d and \u201cHow I Changed My Mind About Evolution\u201d are available for purchase. \u201cThe Story of God with Morgan Freeman\u201d is available to rent on a variety of digital services. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n 8.) Westworld<\/strong><\/p>\n The first season of HBO\u2019s science fiction thriller is one of the most technically ambitious and thematically audacious programs I\u2019ve ever seen. It\u2019s imperfect, too often moving in frustrating circles instead of pushing forward with motivation. And yet, when it works, few things on television are more arresting. Growing up around the time \u201cJurassic Park\u201d hit theaters, I was a Michael Crichton fan. He was a writer fascinated by technology and loved to tackle the dilemmas it posed through pulp fiction. His 1970s film of \u201cWestworld\u201d was a prototypical \u201cJurassic Park,\u201d probably best-known for inspiring the classic \u201cItchy and Scratchy Land\u201d episode of \u201cThe Simpsons.\u201d<\/p>\n Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy\u2019s take elevates Crichton\u2019s material, tackling not only questions of technology ethics but philosophical ruminations about what it means to be human. In its best moments (anything with Thandie Newton, Anthony Hopkins or Jeffrey Wright), it\u2019s provocative, shocking and troubling. Even its more flawed elements (Evan Rachel Wood\u2019s arc) found moments of poignancy and insight once the cards were revealed. The show is one of the most beautiful to look at and if its narrative is flawed, I\u2019d rather have something ambitious that doesn\u2019t always worked than something lazy that\u2019s watchable. The first season righted itself in time for its finale, which revealed the\u00a0preceding episodes to be a prologue for the actual series to come. It might not arrive until 2018, but I cannot wait.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n