168 Best Movies & Shows Released in 2017

The eponymous catastrophe follows a brief affair between Rob, a New York executive, and Sharon, an Irish teacher, during his business trip to London. She discovers her pregnancy after he returns to the US and decides to keep the baby. He eventually returns to London and hilarity ensues, while he navigates his new life in Britain, and she struggles to adapt hers to an uninvited and hopeless American.

Honest and spit-take funny, the show was a big hit on British TV and now made its transition to American and worldwide audiences. “Forty-nine percent autobiographical”, it was created, written, and produced by Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney, who met on Twitter in real life, as well as starring Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney as, you guessed it, Sharon and Rob, the show's main protagonists. A product of the love of two very funny people, Catastrophe is the quintessential 21st century rom com.

Genre: Comedy, Romance

Actor: Ashley Jensen, Carrie Fisher, Daniel Lapaine, Mark Bonnar, Rob Delaney, Sharon Horgan

Director: Ben Taylor, Jim O'Hanlon

Rating: TV-MA

You're the Worst is the story of the relationship between Jimmy and Gretchen, or lack thereof. Jimmy (Chris Geere) is a smart but insensitive British novelist, a lone wolf with an excess of confidence. Equally smart and self-involved, Gretchen has clinical depression and a distinctive self-destructive streak. They meet, they have sex, she steals his car. As you do.

What ensues is, to some extent, a classic will-they-won't-they comedy between two very cynical but often likeable people with a lot of humor drizzled on top. The electric chemistry between the two leads is topped off by their two weirdo sidekicks: Edgar, a war-veteran who suffers from PTSD, and Lindsay, a self-proclaimed “hot awesome sex fox” who married a nerd for money.

Written and created by Stephen Falk, one of the writers and producers for Orange Is the New Black and Weeds, You're the Worst acts as if it cares about the standards of the genre, but, especially in season two, it also deals fearlessly with the subject of Gretchen's mental health, which some have called the best explanation of clinical depression on television ever. Thanks to its witty writing, You're the Worst will likely start off as the perfect watch-two-episodes-over-dinner-every-night series, until the plot sucks you in and you find yourself so hooked that you can't watch anything else.

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance

Actor: Andrew Daly, Aya Cash, Chris Geere, Desmin Borges

Rating: TV-MA

This excellent legal drama starts with a successful partner losing her retirement savings to a Ponzi scheme. The person accused of running the scheme is the father of her newest junior associate. They both find themselves out of options and join a black-run firm that specializes in police brutality cases. 

From legal questions that start on Reddit and 4Chan to trying to find a Trump supporter in the firm, The Good Fight is relatable without being cringy. Everything is believable, including the characters and the arcs.  The Good Fight feels like Suits or The Good Wife, but it also feels much better. It's sharper.

Genre: Drama

Actor: Christine Baranski, Cush Jumbo, Delroy Lindo

Rating: TV-MA

It may have never reached the heights of popularity that other prestige antihero dramas of its time did, but The Americans stayed true to itself for six incredibly consistent seasons. In the vein of "real" spy shows and films, it's much more deliberately paced, with the bulk of the drama taking place not through shootouts or technical wizardry but through the gradually fraying relationships between characters and their respective beliefs. As the Cold War stretches on for Philip and Elizabeth Jennings (played by real-life couple Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell), the former begins to feel increasingly drained by all the violence he's committed, wishing for a mundane American life; while the latter maintains a steely dedication to her mission, which also puts her loved ones in harm's way. Throughout The Americans' run, it creates a stunningly detailed tapestry of both Soviets and Americans agents giving themselves over to causes that they still don't fully understand. But perhaps even more so than a story of loyalty to one's nation, it becomes a story about the constant demands of marriage and of making connections in a dangerous world despite the risk of betrayal. It never announces its themes loudly, but by the end the weight of these characters' isolation and disillusionment is unlike anything else you could experience on TV.

Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller

Actor: Costa Ronin, Holly Taylor, Keidrich Sellati, Keri Russell, Margo Martindale, Matthew Rhys, Noah Emmerich

Rating: TV-MA

What would you do if 2% of the world's population disappeared without any apparent reason? This haunting human catastrophe is the premise of the HBO series The Leftovers. Starting three years after the event (dubbed the “Sudden Departure”), it homes in on small town coming to grips with the ramifications of this question, particularly police chief Kevin Garvey, played by Justin Theroux, who inadvertently finds himself at the center of it all.

For some inexplicable reason, it is relatively unknown compared to other HBO shows but this has to change. It is innovative, has an amazing Max Richter soundtrack, as well as a stellar cast, including Liv Tyler and an outstanding Carrie Coon. Created by Damon Lindelof and Tom Perrotta, whose 2011 novel the show is based on, The Leftovers is a must-watch mixture of grim and gripping, but also beautiful, engrossing television!

Genre: Drama, Fantasy, Mystery

Actor: Amy Brenneman, Carrie Coon, Christopher Eccleston, Justin Theroux, Kevin Carroll, Margaret Qualley, Regina King, Scott Glenn