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The best TV shows of the year so far

By Verne Gay, Newsday
Published: July 1, 2016, 5:37am

The year is half gone (already). So what did TV have to show for it? Thankfully, I am happy to report, plenty. Here’s a list of notables from the first six months, in order:

1. “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story” (FX): Regular readers already know my passion for this, so no reason to restate. The best series on TV this year.

2. “Game of Thrones” (HBO): Absent a classic text as road map (George R.R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire”), showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss still turned out a magnificent, intelligent, beautiful, gut-wrenching sixth season.

3. “The Americans” (FX): The fourth season, which ended earlier this month, was the best season yet because it located something that eluded it the first three — verisimilitude yoked to real-world paranoia.

4. “black-ish” (ABC): This is, or was, the season of “black-ish” — the season to make tracks, the season to make noise (its “Black Lives Matter” episode) and the season to win Emmys. Expect nods for best comedy, best actor (Anthony Anderson) and best actress (Tracee Elliss Ross).

5. “American Crime” (ABC): This John Ridley anthology just picked up a third season, and while the second had its faults, those did not include “unprovocative,” “unimportant,” “uninteresting.” The best series on the commercial broadcast networks at the moment.

6. “Outlander” (Starz): Sing me a song of a lass who is gone, and find me a better fantasy-historic series on TV. Anywhere. The second season (now ongoing) has it all, including great hair, costumes, accents, settings (back in England) and best of all, Caitriona Balfe.

7. “Jackie Robinson” (PBS): This April film by Sarah Burns and David McMahon was the finest film ever on Robinson, and one of the year’s best programs.

8. “Better Call Saul” (AMC): Indisputably better second season than first, “Saul” continues to explore a deeper, richer, more compelling human character than “Breaking Bad” fans ever thought possible.

9. “Veep” (HBO): Even without creator Armando Iannucci, “Veep” — now under David Mandel as showrunner — continues to find ways (and means) to be funny, smart and freakily relevant.

10. “Greenleaf” (OWN): Oprah returns to the (small) screen in this excellent, thoughtful, absorbing series about faith and family.

11. “Lady Dynamite” (Netflix): Either a triumph or a disaster — I’m not sure which — I still love star Maria Bamford, who’s one of the most original comics living. Her wonderful, strange, vulgar, funny series is unlike anything anywhere.

12. “Catastrophe” (Amazon Prime): Sharon Horgan (she’s English) and Rob Delaney (he’s American) play a married couple living in London, having babies, talking dirty to one another and otherwise appearing — despite all appearances — to be a very real couple.

13. “Orange Is the New Black” (Netflix): Two words: Blair Brown (who joined this season). This Netflix staple in its fourth season continues to find new ways to reinvent itself while remaining utterly true to what it has always been, and always will be — the exploration of human lives that most of us never imagined we’d explore.

14. “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” (Netflix): The sophomore season was good to “Kimmy,” which feels a little more like what you’d expect from superstars like director Tristram Shapeero (“Community”), producer Robert Carlock (“30 Rock”) and of course Ellie Kemper — which is to say smart, effortless and entertaining.

15. “O.J.: Made in America” (ESPN/ABC): Director Ezra Edelman takes a subject we all thought we knew and still discovers something fresh and important to say, notably about race (and racism).

16. “The Carmichael Show” (NBC): The black “All in the Family” may be glib, but it’s not entirely wrong either. Star Jerrod Carmichael does occasionally have that put-upon indignation that fired up Michael Stivic, and there’s a whole lotta Edith in Loretta Devine’s Cynthia.

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