Also noteworthy: Bobby Kennedy for President (Netflix), The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling (HBO), Dirty Money (Netflix)

Jeff Daly / Fx

Crime Drama: The Assassination of Gianni Versace, FX

Ryan Murphy’s second season of American Crime Story considered the 1997 murder of the fashion icon in Miami, re-creating a sordid and shocking crime through scenes of striking, decorative beauty. Édgar Ramiréz and Penelope Cruz played Gianni and Donatella Versace with compelling restraint, allowing Darren Criss’s spooky Andrew Cunanan the spotlight.

Also noteworthy: The Looming Tower (Hulu)

Guy D’Alema / FX

Weird TV: Atlanta, FX

The sophomore season of Donald Glover’s dramedy layered surreal imagery (a bathtub alligator) over wacky hijinks (Fasnacht) over a low-simmering, omnipresent feeling of frustration and danger. The monsters in the series manifested as fans, woodland maniacs, and Teddy Perkins, but they captured a sense of the systemic anxieties that accompany being black in America.

Also noteworthy: Lodge 49 (AMC), Westworld (HBO)

John P. Johnson / HBO

Tragicomedy: Barry, HBO

The lines between comedy and drama have eroded almost beyond recognition at this point, but Bill Hader and Alec Berg’s bittersweet series about a reluctant hitman (think Ferdinand the Bull with a Glock 19) who finds his sense of purpose in acting class tended toward wacky, with undertones of real pathos.

Also noteworthy: Forever (Amazon Studios)

Netflix

Empathetic Cringe Comedy: Big Mouth, Netflix

An ongoing question is how such a disgusting, bodily fluids–fixated cartoon about puberty can also be so unfailingly sweet. The second season of Nick Kroll and Andrew Goldberg’s Netflix series dove into the subject of sex education, offering up a Bachelor-style primer on basic contraception methods and a heartfelt defense of Planned Parenthood. Oh, and the Shame Wizard.

Also noteworthy: SMILF (Showtime)

Netflix

Topical Comedy: BoJack Horseman, Netflix

The fifth season of Raphael Bob-Waksberg’s animated satire was among its finest yet, tackling the topic of sexual harassment and abuse in Hollywood—and the timely question of forgiveness—with a degree of grace and thoughtfulness that no other series has yet managed to employ.

Also noteworthy: Black-ish (ABC)

Netflix

Dropped casually by Netflix at the beginning of January, this co-production with Britain’s Channel 4 offered up a quirky, heartwarming, visually distinctive romance between a runaway teenager and a wannabe serial killer that had a total running time of less than three hours.

Also noteworthy: Room 104 (HBO)

Colleen Hayes / NBC

Philosophical Comedy: The Good Place, NBC

Ever since it tipped its hand at the end of Season 1, Mike Schur’s zany comedy about the afterlife has turned its attention more thoroughly to the question of how to be good. In its third season, which sent Eleanor (Kristen Bell) and company back to Earth (and gifted viewers with Swole Chidi), the show has been as endearing and as thoughtful on the subject of morality as ever.