“Now sissy that walk.”

“Greedy” is a RUINED song.

What's astigmatism?

Ok, sure, huney.

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The bare minimum queen.

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Kimora Carey, TBH.

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You know you would’ve reacted the same waeé!

If you watched Season 9 of RuPaul's Drag Race, you're well aware of the gay dynamic duo that is Sasha Velour and Shea Couleé. Shall we revisit "Teets and Asky" real quick?

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Twitter: @marc_beth

"Is that...?"

Twitter: @marc_beth

"OH MY GOD! IS IT REALLY?"

Twitter: @marc_beth

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More importantly, who should take the crown?

Word of warning: If you aren't up to date with this season, you might want to walk away now because there are spoilers ahead!

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Got it? OK good, let's get started!

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Time to make some impossible decisions.

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Gentleman start your engines, and may the best woman win.

The season finale of RuPaul's Drag Race season 9 airs tomorrow, and I'm still coming to terms with everything that happened this season.

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The season has been a whirlwind, and I can't imagine what Ru has in store for the finale. To help mentally, spiritually, and emotionally prepare yourself for tomorrow's episode here's a recap of the top moments from season 9.

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When the queens realized they were in the presence of the one and only Lady GaGa.

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Alexis Michelle asking Tamar Braxton if she's ever seen an episode of RuPaul's Drag Race.

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America’s Next Drag Superstar talks about the night she won the crown and what could have been.

On Friday night, Sasha Velour beat Trinity Taylor, Shea Coulee, and Peppermint to be crowned America's Next Drag Super Star during the RuPaul's Drag Race Season 9 finale.

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She claimed the title thanks to a pair of soon-to-be iconic lip sync performances: first, a rose petal-infused rendition of Whitney Houston's "So Emotional"...

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Then she unmasked during a powerful interpretation of "It's Not Right But It's Okay," again, by Madame Houston.

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Thanks to a new Drag Race finale format where a spinning wheel decided who would lip sync which songs, there was a chance Sasha could have been asked to perform "Stronger" by Britney Spears instead of "So Emotional" — a possibility, she revealed on Instagram, she was also ready for.

"So emotional. So F*CKING EMOTIONAL 😭 😍 photo by @britterst moments before spinning the wheel of fortune (I had a completely different reveal strapped to my thigh in case I got "stronger"). Dress by @florencedlee (stoned and fringed by #houseofvelour), rose-bowl (aka wig) by @wigsandgrace, gloves by @wingweftgloves 👑💎"

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What do these 13 queens all have in common?

Trixie Mattel doesn't have any appearances until August 6th, which is allegedly when All Stars 3 ends filming.

Instagram: @trixiemattel

Adore Delano, who famously left All Stars 2 and was invited back for All Stars 3, doesn't have anything scheduled until August 19th.

Instagram: @adoredelano

Courtney Act has been booked solid for months and has shows 'til the end of August—with the glaring omission of July.

Instagram: @courtneyact

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Please pick your zodiac to see which drag queen you are.

Who knew Ru could be this harsh?!

Even if you've never seen an episode of RuPaul's Drag Race (which, if you haven't, get on it), you probably know the show's iconic line for when contestants get eliminated.

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It has everything: It's short, it rhymes, and it's a masterful directive.

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Especially when paired what RuPaul says to contestants who get to stay another week.

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Anyway, Twitter user phil recently discovered that in the captions on the Portuguese Netflix version of the show, "sashay away" is a little...harsher.

Twitter: @phi_lipi

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Show us your Charisma, Uniqueness, Nerve, and Talent, henny.

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Last year, the Academy's Twitter mistook Terrence Howard for Cuba Gooding Jr., but corrected it as well.

The Television Academy / Via Twitter: @TelevisionAcad

👀 👀 👀 👀 👀 👀 👀 👀 👀 👀 👀 👀 👀 👀 👀 👀 👀 👀 👀 👀 👀 👀 👀 👀 👀 👀 👀 👀 👀

Jade Schulz for BuzzFeed News

The lip sync is nearly excruciating to watch: Valentina, the breakout star of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 9, is up for elimination — and she’s hiding her mouth beneath a mask. Her opponent, Nina Bo’Nina Brown, is seemingly resigned to her fate, the usually captivating queen working her way through a lackluster performance. But a few seconds after Ariana Grande’s “Greedy,” begins to play, RuPaul asks the producers to stop the music. Valentina’s eyes are wide and desperate.

“This is a lip sync for your life — we need to see your lips. Take that thing off of your mouth,” RuPaul says.

Valentina, outrageously, declines. “I’d like to keep it on, please.”

Valentina removes her mask before attempting to lip-synch the song "Greedy" by Ariana Grande.

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RuPaul firmly reminds Valentina that the purpose of the lip sync is to see the performer’s lips. They stand off, and Valentina finally concedes. After she removes her mask, it becomes clear that the usually prepared and charming Valentina does not know the words to the song, a major disgrace in the world of RuPaul’s Drag Race. Her bombshell elimination goes down as one of the biggest upsets in the show’s history.

The show's first first-generation Mexican queen, who centered her immigrant identity and treated herself as nothing less than a superstar, had lost spectacularly in front of the world.

For many of us Latinx fans of the show, there was a sharp sense of loss at Valentina’s exit — her unapologetic Latinidad made her presence feel extra defiant and joyful in a political moment marked by grief and anxiety over DACA threats, ICE raids, the border wall, virulent racism, and anti-gay hatred targeting Latinxs, and especially Latinx queer people. The show's first first-generation Mexican queen, who centered her immigrant identity and treated herself as nothing less than a superstar, had lost spectacularly in front of the world.

But before her elimination, Valentina’s run revealed some ugly truths about the social world of RuPaul’s Drag Race — the abuse, anti-blackness, and anti-trans prejudice the fandom continues to struggle with; the illegibility, rarity, and threat of Latinx excellence on mainstream television; the tenuousness of racial and ethnic solidarity between queens of color and their fans; and the show’s double standard concerning who gets to define themselves as exceptional.

RuPaul’s Drag Race, often held up as an example of positive mainstream queer and racially diverse representation, has also inadvertently created an insider and outsider culture. Trans women, black queens, Asian queens, and big queens have all struggled with the show’s implicit bias, and Latin queens — specifically those with strong accents or those who speak English as a second language — are no exception.

RPDR’s otherwise groundbreaking inclusion of Puerto Rican queens, a nod to Latinx influence in drag ball culture, has not always been particularly sensitive. The so-called “Latin Queen edit” tends to show Boricua queens set to stereotypical salsa music at their loudest and most incomprehensible, opting for gags highlighting the language barrier, or moments when it becomes obvious that their cultural touch points don’t line up with the show’s American sensibilities. For example, Nina Flowers was eliminated from All Stars Season 1 for portraying La Lupe, which RuPaul warned would go over viewers’ heads. (Jinkx Monsoon, on the other hand, was praised for making a similarly risky choice with Little Edie.) Lineysha Sparx, one of the only Afro-Latinx queens to compete on the show, was similarly eliminated for portraying Celia Cruz in Season 5’s "Snatch Game."

Lineysha Sparx as Celia Cruz in Season 5's "Snatch Game."

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While their performances were not necessarily up to par with the other queens, the issue of celebrity impersonation for Latinx queens highlights the conundrum they face when making their "Snatch Game" choices: Impersonate a Latinx star no one will recognize, or fail to capture an American star on the basis of language and culture? Kenya Michaels’ depiction of Beyoncé on Season 4’s "Snatch Game," while crude, is an example of this conundrum. Her heavily accented English and interpretation of humor led to her elimination, after which she was subjected to a hamfisted “English translation” by Charo in the Season 4 reunion.

Drag Race has also often failed to represent Latinx culture beyond stereotypes and caricature. Season 5’s telenovela challenge in Episode 9 proved to be more an exercise in acting out racist stereotypes than succeeding at capturing the camp and humor of telenovela drama. The episode’s runway added insult to injury, when contestant Detox emerged in a pink mariachi suit and emitted totally meaningless approximations of mariachi gritos.

This is not to say that the show hasn’t allowed queens of color to succeed. Nina Flowers, BeBe Zahara Benet, Jujubee, Tyra, Raja, Alexis Mateo, and Yara Sofia were top queens of color in the early days of the show, and more recent standouts such as Bob the Drag Queen, Kim Chi, Adore Delano, and Bianca Del Rio still earn its top honors. Performativity and irreverence around taboo subjects such as gender and sexuality are historically part of the fun and craft of drag, and make the show accessible to mainstream audiences. But cultural factors, such as the race, education, and class privilege of the contestants, as well as cultural legibility and erasure, are beginning to shape the show into a space that can be hostile to a certain type of racialized outsider — a space both Nina Bo’Nina Brown and Valentina found themselves in during Season 9.

Valentina, 26, raised as James Andrew Leyva in Bell, a 90% working-class Latinx city in Southeast Los Angeles, had only been performing professionally in drag for 10 months when she joined the show. She introduced herself to the world in a beatnik ensemble, and described her drag as “very dramatic, very theatrical, and always very Latina.”

A particular feeling of loss and mourning can define certain aspects of the first-generation immigrant condition — the more assimilated you become, the more the culture and language that created and shapes you slips away. To survive the daily lived effects of cultural alienation, a middle identity emerges, one too “American” to connect to the origin country and too “Other” to connect to “Americanness.”

A few of Valentina's runway looks: mariachi, traditional Catholic Latina bride, and Maria Felix.

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So when Valentina stepped onto her first runway in a mariachi charro suit in front of guest judge Lady Gaga and said with a wink and smile, “I’m Valentina; I’m from East LA, and I’m repping Mariachi Plaza,” she was doing something much more radical than showing where she was from and what she was about. Her visibility in that moment as an unapologetically Mexican-American contender gave her audience a nationally televised moment to see Latinx culture represented as a thing of beauty, desire, and pride. But most stirringly, we saw her proudly represent East LA, the historically Latinx side of town, in a look that called back to Boyle Heights’ Mariachi Plaza — a neighborhood currently under siege in the fight against gentrification — on a show shot in and shaped by West Hollywood, home to wealthy and mostly white gay men.

From her first look representing her hometown to her Maria Felix tribute look in Episode 5, Valentina showed that she was unafraid to draw inspiration from deep cuts in vintage Latin-American culture. Valentina’s representation of vintage Latina icons from the ’60s, ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s thrilled fans who clocked her references. Her dramatic clumped lashes paid homage to singer-actresses of the ’80s, like Verónica Castro and Lucía Méndez; her brushed curls recalled elegant Spanish balladeer Rocío Dúrcal; her morena glamor and big smile echoed telenovela actor and ex-Timbiriche pop group member Bibi Gaytán; her waist-length mane evoked famously long-haired singer Daniela Romo, all powerful divas the anglophone RuPaul's Drag Race fandom scarcely knows. For people raised watching Telemundo and Univision with our abuelas, or reading ¡Hola! or Vanidades, her looks were emotional moments of validation and visibility in a climate where queer Latin culture is erased and disappearing.

One of these moments occurred in Episode 5. Valentina brought icon Maria Felix to life on the faux-fur-themed runway. This look was all about elegance and drama, her hair brushed back to emphasize an extravagant serpent necklace, seemingly modeled after the Cartier necklace worn by Felix, the legendary Mexican Golden Age actress of the ’50s and ’60s. Felix’s mythic beauty is preceded only by her reputation as a fierce, enigmatic diva who had the audacity to turn down anything that did not meet her impossibly high standards, including Diego Rivera, Hollywood, and its smitten American (white) leading men.

But a fan-favorite look — Valentina’s wedding gown for the “White Party” challenge, a portrayal of a traditional Catholic Latina bride inspired by her mother’s wedding video, complete with the elaborate floral peinetas and the mantilla veil — spurred a moment of emotional recognition in Latinx fans. There was no spitfire here, no spicy Latina, no criminal or maid or uneducated immigrant as the butt of a language barrier joke. She emerged as a frontrunner performing a Latinidad other Latinxs could recognize.

On the basis of her performance as a contestant, Valentina was second only to Chicago’s indomitable Shea Couleé, having never landed in the bottom two — until of course, the night she was eliminated.

RuPaul has said that the show is successful and accessible to all because it is more than a reality competition: It’s about the tenacity of the human spirit. The show’s success has garnered the host two Emmy awards. Queens reveal vulnerable details about themselves and their personal struggles, from abuse to drug addiction to living with HIV, and watching them emerge triumphant from the pain of the past is not only great television, it’s an inspiration to millions of fans coping with their own struggles.

Often, RuPaul diagnoses the queens’ issues as their “inner saboteur,” a voice of self-doubt that prevents them from reaching their full potential. This idea stems from RuPaul’s own brand of new-age spirituality mixed with a pro-capitalist-bootstraps message, which he talks about at length on his podcast What’s the Tee? By trying to help the queens transcend that which holds them back, however, he can sometimes end up discounting the daily realities of systemic oppression, mental illness, and trauma. While a queen overcoming a confidence issue makes for great television, deeper, more serious battles with long-term mental health issues don’t always translate well to the screen.

While a queen overcoming a confidence issue makes for great television, deeper, more serious battles with long-term mental health issues don’t always translate well to the screen.

This all came to a head in Season 9. While Nina Bo’Nina Brown openly grappled with paranoia and depression, much to contestants’ frustration, Valentina seemed unflappable, immune to other contestants’ criticisms and mind games, exhibiting the kind of mental strength, even delusion, that RuPaul seems to champion as the mindset necessary for success. Focused, confident, and positive, she garnered the judges’ consistent praise, creating tension between herself and the other contestants. As we watched the competition and its social pressures slowly get to Nina, one kind of outsider, we could not see it get to another — Valentina.

But there were clues that it had. In Episode 2, Valentina earnestly reveals to Aja that she prays to a Virgen de Guadalupe candle, calling the indigenous Mexican virgin figure her drag mother. The response in the room is chilly — we see several queens’ baffled reaction, and then the episode cuts to white alpha queen Trinity Taylor’s commentary, “You crazy, bitch! That is some crazy shit.” Cue the Latin Queen edit: “kooky” mariachi-style music played over the interaction, highlighting the very early moment in the season that Valentina is inscribed as Other by her peers for her cultural practices, in the very same episode in which she is picked last for the cheerleading team group challenge.

As the season progressed, the jealousy toward Valentina seemed to intensify. When Valentina is compared to Linda Evangelista by the judges, Aja’s apparent jealousy gets the best of her when she “aggressively compliments” Valentina (a takedown now made famous in meme culture) on Untucked, the behind-the-scenes show filmed between the main runway challenge and the final judgment of the night. Valentina does not retaliate, but rather continues to focus on her own performance and do her best — a choice that will later be criticized as cold by her fellow contestants.

Aja aggressively compliments Valentina after another successful runway walk.

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In Valentina's final episode, the infamous “Your Pilot’s on Fire,” we see Valentina and Nina, the show’s outcasts, get paired by default after the other contestants quickly pick their teams for the television pilot challenge and ice them out. As a result, they both seem quiet and down throughout the pilot planning. Valentina’s usual preparation and perfectionism are nowhere to be found, as she goes along with Nina’s suggestions and trusts that everything will be okay. Viewers on social media reduced her behavior to laziness, but there’s a chance something else might have been up.

The two eke out a disastrous pilot, and can’t even watch their footage when it’s played for the judges on the runway. Valentina pulls together a beautiful Lupe Vélez–inspired matador look for the club kid couture runway theme, and while it succeeds in originality as a high-fashion piece, it fails to find a cultural touch point with the judges, who prefer to see more literal interpretations of the ’90s NYC subculture. It is here that we see the Latin queen double standard count against Valentina: While she is required to be extra-fluent in the show’s American pop culture references, the show and its viewers do not have to be accepting or even aware of hers.

While Valentina is required to be extra-fluent in the show’s American pop culture references, the show and its viewers do not have to be accepting or even aware of hers.

Start your engines, and may the best woman win.

Is it January yet?

It's only been 174 days since Sasha Velour petal'd her way to the top to become America's Next Drag Superstar on the last season of RuPaul's Drag Race...

Yes, I've been counting like I'm stuck inside a jail.

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...............But let's be real, it feels like it's been ETERNITY since we've seen Mama Ru and Step-Mama Michelle raise and eat their queens on the runway.

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BRB, choking on my breakfast.

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The best television in a year that has sometimes felt like a cultural and political nightmare.

Jane the Virgin

Since it premiered in 2014, Jane the Virgin has been my go-to salve. Watching it is like taking a warm bath or talking to the friends and family you trust. That became especially useful in the chaos of 2017. The show went through some massive changes over the past year, especially with the death of a major character. But it was still Jane the Virgin: fun, silly, and heartrending. It’s a show built to feel like home. Every week, I am still excited to hang out with my friend Jane and her family. —Alanna Bennett

The CW

The Good Place

2017 has frequently felt like being in the "bad place" — thankfully, the show that gave us that term has been a thrillingly unique, endlessly entertaining distraction. I was hooked on The Good Place from the start, but the Season 1 finale that aired in January was a total game changer. Suddenly, this cute, quirky show announced itself as a subversive mindfuck that successfully fooled the vast majority of its audience. And Season 2 has continued to deliver on that promise, with a commitment to constantly resetting the rules. The cast — Kristen Bell, William Jackson Harper, Jameela Jamil, Manny Jacinto, Ted Danson, and D’Arcy Carden — form one of the best ensembles on television, and the consistently fresh material lets them stretch from week to week. It’s rare to find a series that’s this hard to predict, and even rarer to find one that is also warm, funny, and charming. —Louis Peitzman

NBC

RuPaul's Drag Race

Mea culpa: Prior to this year, I hadn't watched RuPaul's Drag Race for the insanely snooty reason that my husband and I didn't get its channel, the LGBT-themed network Logo, in HD. But for Season 9, the Emmy-winning reality competition show moved to the HD-friendly VH1, so we finally tuned in — and I felt immediate regret that I hadn't been watching this fabulous hour of TV so much sooner. Within days, I was obsessed, binging through past seasons during the week to tide me over until Season 9's latest episode every Friday night, when I could obsess over the sudden downfall of Valentina, lament the unrelenting defeatism of Nina Bo'Nina Brown, and marvel at the buoyant virtuosity of dynamic duo Shea Couleé and Sasha Velour.

First and foremost, this show is just great television. Dramatic surprises and delightful moments abound, and the sheer creativity exuding from every padded, tweezed, and contoured inch on the queens' bodies is a deeply heartening blast of glamour, talent, and skill. That would be true in any year, but to have this indefatigable celebration of queerness sashay into my home as the world began to feel so unrelentingly harsh and inhospitable — well, reader, when I say that RuPaul's Drag Race saved my life this spring, please know that I mean that with all of my gay, glittery heart. —Adam B. Vary

VH1

Black-ish

There’s something really comforting about seeing a black family thrive on television week after week despite living in a country where we constantly feel like we're under attack. It’s a weekly reminder of our resilience and ability to find joy and laughter, when we lean into each other, no matter how dark things get. No matter how terrible the world outside the Johnson household is, they always have each other, and for 30 minutes every Wednesday, I too, felt like I could lean on them for guaranteed laughter and a good dose of black-ass family life which, when you’re living alone, is especially appreciated. When I see the Johnsons, I see bits of my family and the families I grew up around and I’m comforted by the inside jokes and familiar life lessons. Whether they’re playing a super competitive game of black monopoly, deciding between going to private school vs. public school, or dealing with microaggressions from white coworkers – I felt seen. When Black-ish is on, my black-ass life, and that of the people I love, feels like it matters, even if only for 30 minutes. —Sylvia Obell

Eric Mccandless / ABC

Big Little Lies

Big Little Lies is the show I am most thankful for this year. When it premiered in February, I already knew it would be great. It starred exclusively Hollywood heavyweights, who spent a considerable amount of time jogging on the beach in pretty California blue light, posturing about class, and foreshadowing murder. It was bound to be thrilling. What I didn’t know going in, though, was just how much Big Little Lies would touch me. But the show was both gripping and haunting in the ways it navigated the overarching threat men pose to women — and in the ways those women alternately pull apart and bind together on their own. It premiered just after the Women’s March, so it was timely. But it was also timeless, grounded in character and feeling that stretch so far beyond the political confines of 2017. This is a show that’s going to stick with me. I can tell I’ll be revisiting this season whenever I need it, for years to come. —A.B.

HBO

The Handmaid's Tale

That Hulu's adaptation of The Handmaid's Tale is excellent is not a secret; it dominated the Emmys, winning eight, including Outstanding Actress in a Drama for its star, Elisabeth Moss, and the prestigious Outstanding Drama prize (the first time a streaming service has won in the Emmys' most important category). So we fans are not in some niche cult, desperately trying to convince others to watch our show. Yet because of The Handmaid's Tale's transgressive material — which mirrors the current sense of dread evoked by the Trump presidency's contentious relationship with the rights of people of color, immigrants, Muslims, and women — watching the show's first season was an arduous pleasure. No, we do not live in Gilead, the show's fictional world, but it does feel like some of our lawmakers may aspire to, and that doesn't feel good at all.

So why watch this damn thing if it's just dystopia porn for the Trump era? Sure, there are The Handmaid's Tale's merits: high-quality storytelling, its stunning direction, and its moving, intelligent performances. And for those of us who love Margaret Atwood's 1985 novel, it's exciting to see her world rendered.

Honestly, though, those qualities wouldn't be enough if the show didn't also offer hope. Watching The Handmaid's Tale, there are constant reminders that American resistance is alive, well, and loud — and not an underground whisper network, as it is in Gilead. Frankly, it's a relief!

More important than showing that we're not actually living in a fascist state, though, is The Handmaid's Tale's representations of dissent. In the figures of June (Moss); her best friend, Moira (Samira Wiley), who in the season finale escapes to Canada, which in the show (and perhaps in real life) seems like heaven; and June's husband, Luke (O.T. Fagbenle), who is already in Ontario, we can see the beginnings of the end of Gilead, which, as book readers know, will fall at some point. And then there's the resistance among the handmaids themselves, who find levers to be defiant in large (June's departure in the season finale's cliffhanger) and small ways (their silent, collective refusal to stone to death one of their own, also in the finale). To quote June, "They should have never given us uniforms if they didn't want us to be an army." The Handmaid's Tale is not a downer; it's edifying, thrilling, and necessary. —Kate Aurthur

George Kraychyk / Hulu

Insecure

In its second season, Insecure continued to be one of the most relevant shows to city-living young, black adults in the country. Whether depicting that "hoetations" after breakups aren't always as glamorous as some might imagine or demonstrating the professional struggle of moving up in the corporate world when you're black, the show's characters felt like they could be your friends or, at least, people you know. While watching Issa, Molly, and yes, Lawrence, make one bad decision after another caused me to go on rants like someone's black grandma in some of my own friend groups, it also allowed my friends and I to reflect on how we handled experiences similar to those depicted on the show. In a year where the news of the day consumed so much mental and emotional space, the opportunity to reflect on personal growth through the growth as well as the insecurity of the show's characters, was a blessing as a young, black woman working in a newsroom. —Kovie Biakolo

HBO

Sweet/Vicious

Sweet/Vicious finished out its first and, so far, only season in January, meaning that it slides into year-end lists just under the wire. But, in my opinion, any list would be remiss not to include it. Following two college girls who team up as vigilantes to take on rapists on their campus, the Sweet/Vicious was both timely and — in the world of 2017 — ever so slightly before its time. It also handled its subject with a thoughtfulness that has been, historically, unfortunately rare on TV. The show also had a beautiful female friendship at its center and some great comic good vibes that could have changed the superhero conversation if MTV has opted to renew the show. I loved Sweet/Vicious. I miss it. And I hope someone, somewhere, gives it another chance. —A.B.

MTV

The Real Housewives of Atlanta

When the world is a mess, I’m looking to escape into something that’s even more of a mess, and BOY did Season 9 of The Real Housewives of Atlanta deliver. Each episode packed as much drama as a Trump tweet. Not only did the ladies come with regular drama in the form of divorces, career pursuits, and housing battles, but it also dropped two of the franchise's biggest scandals: a proposed threesome between two cast members and a husband, as well as a big revenge, date-rape lie, and cover up. If your head is reeling from reading that last sentence, it should be. There were so many lies in play that every time the women all came together for a dinner, Twitter was in a frenzy. One minute, text message receipts were being handed out at dinner like homework, the next we were getting iconic GIFs like “Who said that?!” And then — during a record-breaking, four-part reunion — we were gifted with a rare truth reveal that snatched wigs across the globe and resulted in the firing of Phaedra Parks. It was such a mess that I could literally think of nothing else every Sunday night, and for that I am grateful. —S.O.

GIPHY via Bravo

The Bold Type

The Bold Type drew me in with a simple enough formula. All I really needed was a group of young women friends, navigating love and life and work in New York City while wearing some truly fantastic jumpsuits. I was an easy sell. And when I sat down to watch the pilot this summer, I was pleasantly surprised: This wasn’t just a show I’d watch in my bed as a personal guilty pleasure, it was one I could actually recommend to my friends. It was actually trying in its attempt to be woke, and in many ways, it was succeeding. The show still has room to grow, but the raw materials for something great are all there. And it’s a delight. —A.B.

Freeform

Game of Thrones

In its seventh season, Game of Thrones was one of few shows that managed to completely cut through the relentless news cycle. While one might think the cycle's propensity for contentious topics could affect how viewers consume the show (especially given its proclivity for portraying violence), the show actually became a welcome escape. And in this escape, rooting for a dragon's fire breath to destroy an army felt entirely satisfying in Episode 4, "Spoils of War."

The intelligence of the show has always been its ability to showcase complex characters and sometimes obfuscate our understanding of good and evil, right and wrong. But this season, the show also leaned into a big-picture understanding of what a fight for humanity looks like when it is not only among groups of people, but between humans and a darker force. Considering this and the endless theories the show spurs, GoT continued to do what fiction does best — allow us to imagine. In such a year as this one, that is a gift. —K.B.

HBO

Jeopardy!

It'd been years since I'd watched this nightly quiz show institution with any regularity, but a few rather major things happened in my life this year: One, my husband and I adopted our newborn son; two, we started going to bed at 10 p.m.; and three, we both realized quickly that if we wanted to have anything approaching restful sleep, we couldn't watch anything too heavy and/or depressing after 8:30 p.m. — not so easy to do in 2017.

Enter Alex Trebek and his merry band of nerds. After 33 years on the air, the pleasures of Jeopardy! — from testing your own mastery of erudite trivia to judging the contestants' questionable fashion sense — should be manifest. To that list, I would only add that watching a show rooted in the celebration of hard facts has been a soothing balm in a year in which the the very idea of factual information has been inexplicably under assault. —A.B.V.

NBC

The Real Housewives of Dallas

Not one of the more beloved Real Housewives installments, the first season of The Real Housewives of Dallas came and went without much fanfare. To be fair, it couldn’t always match the drama of some of its sister series, but RHOD’s aims were simpler: assemble a strong cast and have them fight over fake dog poop. Even those who enjoyed the first season, however, would admit that Season 2 wins the Housewives award for Most Improved. Perhaps it was the addition of no-nonsense voice of reason D’Andra Simmons and pink dog food purveyor Kameron Westcott, or maybe it was just that the show had settled into itself. The fun and the fights both seemed more organic and compelling: The estrangement and reconciliation of BFFs Brandi and Stephanie was Housewives at its best. And LeeAnne remains a star, a fiercely opinionated former carnie who wouldn’t let a bout of flesh-eating bacteria get in her way. When will your fave? —L.P.

Bravo

American Vandal

I would not have expected that, in 2017 of all years, what I’d really need was a show in which everyone says the word “dick” three times a minute. But when I sat down to watch American Vandal, I came to realize that a whole lot of dick jokes was exactly what I needed. How brilliant was it to take the true crime style of Serial, The Jinx, and The Keepers and use it to solve the mystery of who spray-painted 27 dicks on faculty cars in a high school parking lot? It’s so genuine that at some point it clicks past dick jokes and you really do just need to know who drew those dicks. In 2017 in particular, who knew a bunch of graffiti genitalia could give way to a fascinating meditation on character? Who amongst us hasn’t met a Dylan Maxwell or an Alex Trimboli? —A.B.

Netflix

BoJack Horseman

Listen, this is a perfect show. It's been a perfect show since it premiered in 2014 and introduced its unique blend of trenchant Hollywood satire, sublime cartoon silliness, and profound existential drama, all set in a world in which an anthropomorphized horse-man named BoJack (Will Arnett) could be a faded '90s sitcom star plagued with severe insecurity and enormous self-importance. For Season 4, BoJack somehow managed to deepen its affecting portrait of depression and unhappiness — largely through BoJack's mother Beatrice (Wendie Malick) — without tipping headlong into total despair. (Season 3 did, and brilliantly, but one season of unrelenting bleakness is plenty.)

The show also explored how a catastrophically unqualified person — er, in this case, a golden retriever named Mr. Peanutbutter (Paul F. Tompkins) — somehow manages to become a frontrunner candidate for major elected office. That might feel too on the (adorably cold and wet) nose, even for 2017, if BoJack didn't take it to some wonderfully absurd places — like Mr. Peanutbutter's ex Jessica Biel (voiced by Biel) becoming drunk with power after a fundraising party falls into an underground sinkhole, leading her to set Zach Braff (voiced by Braff) aflame.

Well, OK, that may be the most 2017 storyline. —A.B.V.

Netflix

Werk.

This is RuPaul’s world and we’re just living in it.

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reddit.com

THE TIME HAS COME.

Spill the tea, squirrel friends.