Year-End Lists

Keith Uhlich: 10 Best TV Shows of 2016, as posted by The BBC

1. The Girlfriend Experience
2. The X-Files
3. O.J.: Made in America
4. Black Mirror
5. BoJack Horseman
6. The Fall
7. Better Call Saul
8. Game of Thrones
9. And Then There Were None
10. The Americans

Alan Sepinwall: 21 Best TV Shows of 2016, as published by Uproxx

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2010s • 2019 • 2018 • 2017]

1. Horace and Pete
2. The Americans
3. O.J.: Made in America
3. The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story
4. BoJack Horseman
5. Rectify
6. Atlanta
7. Veep
8. Fleabag
9. Better Call Saul
10. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
11. Halt and Catch Fire
12. Orange is the New Black
13. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
14. Better Things
15. Girls
16. American Crime
17. Transparent
18. Catastrophe
19. Game of Thrones
20. Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Sarah Begley: Top 20 Books of 2016, as published by Time Magazine

Fiction

1. The Underground Railroad
   Colson Whitehead
2. Another Brooklyn
   Jacqueline Woodson
3. Commonwealth
   Ann Patchett
4. Homegoing
   Yaa Gyasi
5. All the Birds in the Sky
   Charlie Jane Anders
6. Imagine Me Gone
   Adam Haslett
7. Swing Time
   Zadie Smith
8. The Trespasser
   Tana French
9. My Name Is Lucy Barton
   Elizabeth Strout
10. Here I Am
    Jonathan Safran Foer

Nonfiction

1. March

   Book Three
   John Lewis, Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell
2. Hillbilly Elegy

   A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis
   J.D. Vance
3. You’ll Grow Out of It
   Jessi Klein
4. Known and Strange Things

   Essays
   Teju Cole
5. Hidden Figures

   The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race
   Margot Lee Shetterly
6. Shirley Jackson

   A Rather Haunted Life
   Ruth Franklin
7. Lab Girl
   Hope Jahren
8. Kill ‘Em and Leave

   Searching for James Brown and the American Soul
   James McBride
9. The Constitution Today

   Timeless Lessons for the Issues of Our Era
   Akhil Reed Amar
10. Girls & Sex

    Navigating the Complicated New Landscape
    Peggy Orenstein

Daniel D’Addario: Top 10 TV Shows of 2016, as published by Time Magazine

[see also 2022 • 2021 • 2018]

1. The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story
2. The Girlfriend Experience
3. The Americans
4. Late Night with Seth Meyers
5. Atlanta
6. O.J.: Made in America
7. Better Call Saul
8. Veep
9. Speechless
10. Love

Stephanie Zacharek: Top 20 Movies of 2016, as published by Time Magazine

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2010s • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2015 • 2014 • 2013]

1. Moonlight
   Barry Jenkins
2. Paterson
   Jim Jarmusch
3. Loving
   Jeff Nichols
4. Elle
   Paul Verhoeven
5. Silence
   Martin Scorsese
6. Manchester by the Sea
   Kenneth Lonergan
7. Tower
   Keith Maitland
8. La La Land
   Damien Chazelle
9. Everybody Wants Some!!
   Richard Linklater
10. The Shallows
    Jaume Collet-Serra

Honorable Mentions

• Things to Come
  Mia Hansen-Løve
• Toni Erdmann
  Maren Ade
• Certain Women
  Kelly Reichardt
• Hell or High Water
  David Mackenzie
• The Nice Guys
  Shane Black
• The Fits
  Anna Rose Holmer
• 20th Century Women
  Mike Mills
• Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
  Glenn Ficarra and John Requa
• Hidden Figures
  Theodore Melfi
• Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping
  Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone

Dennis Cooper: 23 Favorite Poetry Books of 2016 (“in no order”)

[see also 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2015 • 2012]

• Two Teenagers
  John Colasacco
• Overpour
  Jane Wong
• Safe Space
  Jos Charles
• The Song Of The Dead
  Pierre Reverdy
• Avant Gauze
  Christine Friedlander
• Commotion of the Birds

  New Poems
  John Ashbery
• Calamities
  Renee Gladman
• In the Empire of the Air

  The Poems of Donald Britton
  Donald Britton
• George Washington

  Poems
  Adam Fitzgerald
• Olio
  Tyehimba Jess
• Witch Hunt
  Juliet Escoria
• Cheer Up, Femme Fatal
  Kim Yideum
• Poem Without Suffering
  Josef Kaplan
• Certain Magical Acts
  Alice Notley
• Alien Weaving
  Will Alexander
• Night Sky With Exit Wounds
  Ocean Vuong
• The City Keeps

  Selected and New Poems 1966-2014
  John Godfrey
• Burn Book
  Felix Bernstein
• Come In Alone
  Anselm Berrigan
• Shorthand and Electric Language Stars
  Stephanie Gray
• Invisible Oligarchs
  Bill Berkson
• Marys of the Sea
  Joanna C Valente
• The Age of Reasons

  Uncollected Poems 1969–1982
  Ted Greenwald

Nicole Brenez: 5 Best Films of 2016, as submitted to the Sight & Sound Poll

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2010s • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2015 • 2012]

• Blanche
  Marc Hurtado
• Bangkok Joyride
  Ing K
• Welcome to Madagascar
  Franssou Prenant
• I Will Pay for Your Story
  Lech Kowalski
• Hinterlands
  Scott Barley

This list contributes to:

• Sight & Sound Poll: Top 30 Films of 2016

Sasha Frere-Jones: 100 Favorite Albums of 2016. See his spreadsheet for color codes and tiers; we’ve separated anything highlighted with “fire engine red,” which means “an exceptional thing.” Otherwise, albums are listed chronologically.

[see also 2022 • 2018 • 2017 • 2015 • 2014 • 2013 • 2012 • 2011]

exceptional

• Blackstar
  David Bowie
• Drawn with Shadow Pens
  Yves De Mey
• Anti
  Rihanna
• Untitled Unmastered
  Kendrick Lamar
• Second Love
  Emmy the Great
• Sunwatchers
  Sunwatchers
• MM3
  Metá Metá
• Lemonade
  Beyoncé
• A Moon Shaped Pool
  Radiohead
• Coloring Book
  Chance The Rapper
• Interventions
  Horse Lords
• elseq 1-5
  Autechre
• Works
  Abul Mogard
• Puberty 2
  Mitski
• Emotions and Math
  Margaret Glaspy
• Wood / Metal / Plastic / Pattern / Rhythm / Rock
  75 Dollar Bill
• Wildflower
  The Avalanches
• Prima Donna
  Vince Staples
• Femenine
  Julius Eastman
• Private Energy
  Helado Negro
• T.C.R.
  Sleaford Mods
• We Got It From Here… Thank You 4 Your Service
  A Tribe Called Quest
• Mannerlaatta
  Mika Vainio
• Flink
  Air Cushion Finish

stayed with me

• Third Law
  Roly Porter
• Don’t You
  Wet
• Negative Space (1981–2014)
  Meyers
• On the Quakefish
  SUGAI KEN
• The Last Panthers
  Clark
• A Cosmic Rhythm with Each Stroke
  Vijay Iyer & Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith
• Felder (Fiepblatter Catalogue #4)
  Jan St. Werner
• No Burden
  Lucy Dacus
• Expecting
  Tashi Dorji & Shane Parish
• Fluid to the Influence
  Chris Abrahams
• Love Streams
  Tim Hecker
• Possible Mountain
  ROM
• Crab Day
  Cate Le Bon
• ASS
  Jochen Arbeit, Günter Schickert & Schneider TM
• Plant Cell Division
  You’re Me
• The Impossible Kid
  Aesop Rock
• Colliding Contours
  Driftmachine
• Will
  Julianna Barwick
• Steamroom 29
  Jim O’Rourke
• Hero
  Maren Morris
• Black Terry Cat
  Xenia Rubinos
• Stranger to Stranger
  Paul Simon
• (((WHITE NOISE)))
  Boobs of DOOM
• Big Day in a Small Town
  Brandy Clark
• 99.9%
  KAYTRANADA
• The Glowing Man
  Swans
• Entities Inertias Faint Beings
  David Toop
• The New Breed
  Jeff Parker
• Freetown Sound
  Blood Orange
• Telefone
  Noname
• Interior Architecture
  M. Geddes Gengras
• Prayer and Resonance
  Unearth Noise
• Sweatbox Dynasty
  TOBACCO
• 2845
  Convextion
• Hazel
  Aethenor
• The Sun’s Tirade
  Isaiah Rashad
• 1992
  Princess Nokia
• Goodbye to Language
  Daniel Lanois
• Schaum
  Jan Jelinek & Masayoshi Fujita
• Skeleton Tree
  Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
• Departed Glories
  Biosphere
• Atrocity Exhibition
  Danny Brown
• Fio da Memória
  Luisa Maita
• A Seat at the Table
  Solange
• III
  Innercity Ensemble
• VLSI
  Monolake
• The Future of Discipline
  Hanno Leichtmann / Valerio Tricoli
• COW / Chill Out, World!
  The Orb
• Cashmere
  Swet Shop Boys
• Deepak Verbera
  Botany
• Disclosure
  Kassem Mosse
• You Want It Darker
  Leonard Cohen
• Big Baby D.R.A.M.
  D.R.A.M.
• Front Row Seat to Earth
  Weyes Blood
• Bottoms Revenge
  Faka
• Frozen Geometry
  Casino Versus Japan
• Yes Lawd!
  NxWorries
• Hubris Variation
  Ricardo Villalobos & Oren Ambarchi
• New Teeth for an Old Country
  Jay Glass Dubs
• Michael Gordon: Timber Remixed
  Mantra Percussion
• Greek Composers of Electronic Music in Sci Fi Soundscapes
  various artists
• Chronology
  Qasim Naqv
• The Whispering Awakening
  Streiber
• Factory Photographs
  Hexa
• Hubris
  Oren Ambarchi
• A Pine Tree Shilling’s Worth of Willie Lane
  Willie Lane
• The Weight of These Wings
  Miranda Lambert
• On Dark Silent Off
  Radian
• LP1
  Mirko
• Con-Struct
  Conrad Schnitzler & Pyrolator
• Taking into Account Only a Portion of Your Emotions
  Pinkcourtesyphone
• Swimming in Light
  Mike Majkowski
• Wonderland
  Demdike Stare
• The Feudal Spirit
  Rob Noyes
• Ground and Figure
  Sendai
• The Labyrinth of the Straight Line
  Cindytalk

The Playlist: 30 Best TV Shows of 2016

[see also 2023 • 2010s • 2018]

1. Atlanta
2. The Girlfriend Experience
3. Rectify
4. Transparent
5. The Americans
6. BoJack Horseman
7. Togetherness
8. Fleabag
9. The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story
10. Girls
11. Stranger Things
12. The Night Of
13. Search Party
14. Silicon Valley
15. Westworld
16. The Good Place
17. Orange is the New Black
18. Catastrophe
19. Game of Thrones
20. Jane the Virgin
21. Broad City
22. Baskets
23. Halt and Catch Fire
24. Black Mirror
25. Horace and Pete
26. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
27. London Spy
28. The Crown
29. Lady Dynamite
30. The Night Manager

Little White Lies: 25 Best Films of 2016

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2015 • 2012]

1. Everybody Wants Some!!
   Richard Linklater
2. Julieta
   Pedro Almodóvar
3. Embrace of the Serpent
   Ciro Guerra
4. Paterson
   Jim Jarmusch
5. Knight of Cups
   Terrence Malick
6. Love & Friendship
   Whit Stillman
7. Sully
   Clint Eastwood
8. Arabian Nights
   Miguel Gomes
9. Midnight Special
   Jeff Nichols
10. Heaven Knows What
    Ben Safdie and Joshua Safdie
11. The Assassin
    Hou Hsiao-Hsien
12. Chi-Raq
    Spike Lee
13. Things to Come
    Mia Hansen-Løve
14. No Home Movie
    Chantal Akerman
15. Further Beyond
    Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor
16. Son of Saul
    László Nemes
17. Kate Plays Christine
    Robert Greene
18. Anomalisa
    Charlie Kaufman & Duke Johnson
19. Cosmos
    Andrzej Zulawski
20. Rogue One
    Gareth Edwards
21. The Neon Demon
    Nicolas Winding Refn
22. Fire at Sea
    Gianfranco Rosi
23. Hail, Caesar!
    Joel & Ethan Coen
24. High-Rise
    Ben Wheatley
25. The BFG
    Steven Spielberg