What I did not appreciate until I sat down to watch the first episode a few weeks ago is that Teenage Bounty Hunters is a straight-down-the-line banger, an uncanny and ecstatic intersection of all the things I like best in a TV show. I knew it had been well received earlier this year, and I knew it was abruptly canceled and people were upset. So when it comes to Teenage Bounty Hunters, I am just a smoldering pile of love and admiration and deep, mournful regret. That way, if the show gets canceled, at least I know I did my best. One is the sadness of knowing I could’ve been loving this show this whole time! And I’d been missing out! The other reason is I really, really love throwing a little obsession party for fantastic stuff - I tweet about it too much, I write ridiculously thrilled reviews, I bug all my friends to watch it. There are two reasons I feel bad when I miss the boat on a really great TV show. Thankfully, in the age of streaming, it’s never too late to catch up.
So consider this our makeup exam, a last-ditch effort to illuminate some of the new (or newish) shows that made 2020 a little more bearable, the ones we wish we’d showered more praise on back when they first hit our radars. This is our eternal struggle in Vulture TV Land, where we attempt to keep you apprised of the year’s best televisual offerings as they occur, but some inevitably slip through the cracks.
Even when you do hear tell of an intriguing new series, chances are good another equally intriguing series will pop up to shove it out of your brain before you’re able to follow up on it. The never-ceasing fire hose of new TV is a double-edged sword: It means that even in a pandemic year, when productions were delayed, we were never without new stuff to watch - but it also means it’s all but impossible to keep track of the hidden gems amid the nonstop deluge. Photo-Illustration: Vulture, Apple TV+, Netflix and HBO Apologies to Ted Lasso, Teenage Bounty Hunters, and Betty for not showering praise on them when we first had the chance.