Like so many snarky, embittered Santa Clauses, TIME’s critics are busily making our year-end lists right now. As in past years, I’ll be counting down the 10 best series and episodes of the year next month, and I’ll probably generate a few bonus lists to post here at Tuned In around the holidays. (TIME book critic Lev Grossman writes about his own list-making process here.)
The particular challenge in doing a list like this for television is that TV series are ongoing works, not completed ones. That is, if a movie critic really loves Moneyball, there’s no danger that Moneyball is suddenly going to start to suck in late November and December.
