From Killing Eve to The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel: Presenting the 10 Best Shows of 2018

This delightfully psychotic British series, which premiered on Netflix back in January, features one of my favourite performances of the year: Jessica Barden's Alyssa. The character is moody and wild and insecure and full of enough existential angst to power no less than three shows on The CW. As Alyssa, Barden grounds the plot by boldly exploring the messy, gritty aspects of life that young women endure day in and day out, from the uncomfortably funny (getting their periods at the worst possible moment) to making expert points about consent.

I didn't go into Maniac expecting to fall in love with it quite as much as I did. Cary Fukunaga's sci-fi drama is a dazzling, adventurous series about some beautifully flawed individuals, and boasts some of my favourite stars (Emma Stone and Jonah Hill). Whenever I thought the plot was spiraling out of control, when it pushed me right up to the ledge of wanting to press stop, it always managed to reel me back in with a fascinating new rabbit hole for its main characters, Annie (Stone) and Owen (Hill), to fall into.

GLOW takes characters who would be caricatures on any other show and turns them into complex, flawed, and realistic human beings. Season two digs a little deeper into the interior lives of each and every one of the women, while also moving the plot along in a realistic way (the evolution of Ruth and Debbie's friendship is a masterpiece all on its own). Heartbreaking scenes about cultural identity, sexuality, and racism, as well as familial strife and economic status, are all in the mix, giving us a more well-rounded idea of who these women truly are. Oh, and it's really f*cking funny.

Insecure's first and second seasons were fun; we're introduced to Issa, Molly, and Lawrence and get to know them a little, witnessing their very high ups and drastic downs. But season three, well . . . season three gets real. The laughs keep coming (I'll never forget Kelli getting tased at Coachella for as long as I live), but Issa Rae's HBO comedy takes advantage of how well we know and love these characters by now to really dig into their fears and raw vulnerabilities. The season's fourth episode, "Fresh-Like," is the perfect example of this, as it explores just how much Issa has transformed as a character as she goes on a walking tour of Los Angeles with Nathan (Kendrick Sampson). Later developments with his character in particular, specifically about his mental health, serve as yet another reminder that Insecure still has so much to show us.

One of the most compelling aspects of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel's first and second seasons is seeing a woman who miraculously has it "all" — a husband, two adorable kids, a comfortable lifestyle, and a stunning apartment — fall to pieces so completely and then put herself back together again with a vengeance. Unlike the fast-talking heroines of her WB hit, Gilmore Girls, Amy Sherman-Palladino is free to let Midge's mouth run at a million miles a minute, unencumbered by network censorship. Because of this, we get to see her raw, cathartic, electrifying stand-up sets in Greenwich Village and beyond, which help the former housewife find her purpose once again. She has a fire rageing inside those pastel skirt-sets, and it's a joy to watch.

Do I even need to put an explanation here? I mean, come on — who doesn't love this show?! (No, seriously, you need to tell me because I need to hunt them down and figure out who hurt them.) Both seasons exploded into the pop cultural consciousness this year, evolving into not simply a reality show, but an entire movement, honey. Queer Eye keeps things light with a steady stream of genuinely hilarious moments from the Fab Five — especially hair expert and Gay of Thrones star Jonathan Van Ness, whose animated quips and catchphrases have wormed their way into everyone's vocabulary — but it's also not afraid to broach serious subjects. It's basically your favourite makeover and home renovation shows rolled in to one, with an unexpectedly moving dash of cultural relevance thrown in. Even better? The combination works. Swimmingly.

There are so many things I could spend hours praising about Sharp Objects. To start with, Amy Adams and Patricia Clarkson's phenomenal acting had me agog at the end of each of the miniseries' eight episodes. As Camille Preaker, Adams gets gritty in a way we haven't really seen her before, casually swigging vodka as she drives around town late at night and literally slicing herself open to cope with the pain she's endured at the hands of her mother. Gillian Flynn's gritty, twisted story was expertly adapted, and the HBO drama's realistic depiction of mental illness and all the horrific ways human beings choose to cope is stunning.

Season after season, Jane the Virgin surprises me. Which is odd, in a way, since I've become so invested in The CW series that I feel as though Jane Villanueva and her family are an extension of my own; that's how connected to the characters I've become, which is a testament to the complex, fully-realised personalities that creator Jennie Snyder Urman has imbued within Jane, Xiomara, Rogelio, and yes, even Rafael. So often lighthearted shows with a romantic angle, like this one, are brushed aside for not being serious enough, or dark enough, or sad enough. But I think it's even more impressive that Jane the Virgin is able to have its audience wholeheartedly laughing at one scene, and then giving them a genuine reason to sob a few minutes later. This series also doesn't shy away from tackling real-life issues in a real-life way. Take Xiomara's abortion, for example. Or the way Jane processes grief after losing her husband. It might be full of pops of teal and bursts of magical realism, but Jane the Virgin has a hell of a lot more going on under the surface than most dramas on TV right now.

If you've seen Netflix's The Haunting of Hill House, then chances are it had you tearing up just as much as it made you scream at the top of your lungs (I speak from experience). Despite being a horrific tale of a family plagued by the malevolent ghosts of an evil, hungry home, the 10-episode series is also a deeply introspective meditation on grief and how far we go to protect the ones we love. This show is the definition of being so good, it's scary.

Watching someone be bad can be incredibly fun, and few people do bad better than Villanelle. Or should I say Oksana? Or Natalie? Regardless of whomever Killing Eve's charming psychopathic assassin (The White Princess's Jodie Comer) decides to be on any given day, she'll have you falling for her, head over designer heels, before you even realise she's slit your jugular. Of course, the true magic of BBC America's wildly addicting (and often hilarious) thriller, is that the good guys — or good woman, specifically — also get to be a little bad, the way the most interesting heroes always do. Sandra Oh's performance as Eve Polastri, the messy-but-brilliant MI5 operative tasked with tracking down Villanelle, is a revelation. Basically, if I could scream "WATCH KILLING EVE!" from my window every night without getting evicted, I would.