Dickinson

Destined to take its place amongst such teen TV classics as My So-Called Life and Freaks and Geeks, this series is fresh, original, gorgeously loopy -- and absolutely enchanting. Hailee Stanfield makes a mesmerizing Emily Dickinson, all hemmed-in outsize longings in an era when women weren't supposed to feel such things, particularly for same-sex best friends engaged to one's brother. But Sue and Emily have an undeniable spark, and watching them inhabit one of the most joyful queer relationships ever depicted on the small screen is one of Dickinson's distinct delights. When Sue and Emily don a dead acquaintance's male clothing to sneak into a no-women-allowed Amherst lecture, the two are so electrically happy to experience a few moments of freedom together that they dance around the room, elated. "Why would men want to bar women from learning?" wonders Sue. "Maybe they're afraid if we figure out how the world works, we'll take over," returns Emily.

Later, what they learn about volcanoes in said lecture comes back to bear, as Sue tells Emily that she can relate to that kind of earth-shattering explosion -- and shows her, in a transcendently sexy scene that depicts Emily having her first orgasm. Didn't expect that in a drama about Emily Dickinson, did you? The teens of Dickinson talk to each other in modern speech ("What up, Emily?"), they throw a riotous house party with opiates, makeout sessions, and twerking, and they're rebellious and bursting with energy in a way that feels genuine. We all know how Emily's story is going to turn out -- she died a recluse with a trunk full of poetry no one even knew she was writing -- but it sure is a delight to meet her as a teen with her whole life ahead of her.