19. Limitless (CBS)
And now we are back to the “CBS dropped every drama that I loved” hour. The whole “drug” angle of Limitless still served to make me a little uncomfortable, but Jake McDorman’s Brian Finch was so likeable and any show with Colin Salmon playing a recurring role is a good thing. Limitless was almost as much of a superhero show as Supergirl was in its first season, it was owned by CBS, and the ratings were decent, but, alas, it was cut short. Definitely one of the biggest cancellation bummers of 2016. I’m glad, though, that we had one good season to watch.
18. Lucifer (FOX)
Show of hands. Who expected Lucifer to suck before it aired?
Yes, Lucifer is only very loosely based on the DC/Vertigo title of the same name, but here was the surprise: It’s actually really, really good. The cast, led by Tom Ellis as the handsome devil himself, really has fun with the material, and the interactions between Lucifer Morningstar and the other characters — be it Chloe, Trixie, Maize, Amenadiel, or “Detective Douche” — are priceless. This is definitely an underrated gem and one you should really consider watching.
17. Marvel’s Luke Cage (Netflix)
I’ve been a fan of Marvel’s Luke Cage character ever since buying a handful of Power Man and Iron Fist comics in the early 1990s. It’s so great that Luke got the TV series he deserved in 2016. Mike Colter’s performance was a highlight of Jessica Jones last year (Jessica didn’t air in 2016, so it’s not on the list of best TV shows of 2016), and talents including Alfre Woodard and Mahershala Ali solidified that this was a first-class effort, much like a lot of Marvel’s Netflix output. One of my favorite elements of the series, however, was Simone Missick’s Misty Knight… more of her, please! In any event, this show was very well done, and I can’t wait to see more Cage in The Defenders.
16. iZombie (The CW)
Like Lucifer, I was a little skeptical when I first heard about the deviations this show would have from the source material. Fortunately, the casting gods gave great gifts with this cast, led by Rose McIver, and TV series creators and showrunners Rob Thomas and Diane Ruggiero-Wright have concocted this perfect mix of procedural, continuing drama, comedy, zombies, sci-fi, and wonderful, wonderful puns. It’s an overlooked gem on The CW lineup.
15. The X-Files (FOX)
Sometimes, a revival of a series misses what made a show special before. I was more excited than anyone for Heroes Reborn, for example, and sadly that one seemed to take what made Heroes special, step on what they brought back, and forget to put it back into the toy box. In the case of The X-Files, it was pretty much more of the same series that aired for 9 years, with a nostalgic feel of Vancouver which was present in the original show’s early years. Like the original X-Files, not every episode was a winner; but, considering it gave us “Mulder and Scully Meet The Were-Monster,” which stands up as great next to the best episodes of the original show, it was all worth it. Hopefully Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny will be available for more and soon.
14. Timeless (NBC)
This NBC show appeals to my love of most things time-travel, and is helped by a very likable core cast which includes Matt Lanter, Abigail Spencer, Malcolm Barrett, and Goran Visnjic. This series takes its alternate time periods very seriously, and while it’s still silly that the ship looks like the CBS Eye, it’s still one of my favorite new entries for 2016.
