Here’s what’s going on in the television world on Sunday, December 27th. All times are from the east.
Best choice
Death in 2020 (Netflix, 3:01, premiere): It’s been a good year, don’t you think?
Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones (from Black mirror) return to their special comedy roots with this flip-of-the-bird for the past year. Look for Zack Handlen’s review of this special, which features Samuel L. Jackson, Hugh Grant, Kumail Nanjiani, Tracey Ullman, Samson Kayo, Lisa Kudrow, Diane Morgan, Leslie Jones, Cristin Milioti, Joe Keery and Laurence Fishburne.
Wild cards
We’ve reached a point in this long, long year when most transmission options are a) festive or b) repeat. So for the remainder of 2020, we’ll highlight some of those festive things, but also some great shows or episodes of the year that you may have missed.
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The masked dancer (Fox, 8 pm, series premiere): This spinoff looks like an appropriate addition for 2020. The dancers are masked and celebrities will never be in it again.
Pen15 (Hulu): “It is easy to scoff at the extremely strange experience of puberty, an era that offers the kind of uncertainty and suffering that elementary school outcasts Maya (Maya Erskine) and Anna (Anna Konkle) endure by weight. Finding ways to balance that suffering – an accessible and bottomless comedy pit – with moments of growth, emotional depth and the occasional social triumph in ways that don’t signal a total overhaul is significantly more difficult … For a maturing comedy this is already it was quite bright, Pen15 it continues to provide quite identifiable growth pains, with a side of amateur witchcraft, in the most acute and recognizable way possible. ” Read the rest of Shannon Miller’s thoughts on our list of the best television shows of the year.