The Fien Print’s No.21-30 Best TV Shows of 2014 – ‘Penny Dreadful,’ ‘Good Wife’ and more

Happy 2015!

That must mean that it's time to wrap up my Best of 2014 coverage, right?

In case you've forgotten…

My TV Top 10 for 2014:
10. “Game of Thrones”
9. “Shameless”
8. “Hannibal”
7. “The Americans”
6. “Rectify”
5. “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver”
4. “Mad Men”
3. “Orange Is The New Black”
2. “Review”
1. “Fargo”

And My Second 10 for 2014:
11. “Transparent”
12. “True Detective”
13. “Bob's Burgers”
14. “Boardwalk Empire”
15. “Veep”
16. “Louie”
17. “The Knick”
18. “The Honourable Woman”
19. “Silicon Valley”
20. “Girls”

So now, let's get down to business with my previously promised Third 10 of 2014.

But first, a couple preambles…

First, you'll notice here that if you go to my HitFix Critics Poll ballot for New Series, you'll see that “Jane the Virgin” didn't make my New Series Top 10, but here it's moved ahead of a pair of shows that were on that ballot. I submitted my ballot on December 1 and the consistency of the winter's last three episodes moved it up for me. A number of shows have shifted around from No.11-30 since I first drafted that list in late November. It's entirely possible, as I've already hinted elsewhere, that if I made my rankings again, “Transparent” would push up into the Top 10, but we're not gonna get into that.

Second, I probably could have gone at least 10 more deep, but what silly person makes a Top 40? I mean, 30 totally makes sense, but 40? That's crazy. Just as the last few of my Top 10 and the higher shows in my Second 10 were interchangeable, a few of the shows at the bottom of my Third 10 and some of the shows that I listed for my Fourth 10 (no commentary there, just an out-of-order listing) are interchangeable. That's just how it goes.

Thirdly, there is, as I so often like to say, so much good stuff on TV. Yes, I might get my jollies from making fun of the low-hanging fruit of crap like “Mixology,” but you'll notice that my Year End listings have been much more heavily weighted towards positivity, that's because I like to make sure that I leave folks with recommendations, some enjoyable stuff that they might have missed to catch up on if your DVR ever somehow finds itself miraculously clear.

Check it out… No.21-30 for TV's Best of 2014.

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