tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71960271734470987482024-03-13T06:06:13.970-04:00NoelivisionBrendan Noelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01355501477653448329noreply@blogger.comBlogger97125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196027173447098748.post-36192862795410263392016-10-01T09:00:00.000-04:002016-10-29T03:15:06.415-04:00September was a rough month. These 5 TV shows got me through it.Oh how irony always comes back to bite us. Here is something I tweeted on the morning of September 1:<br />
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
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The thing they don't tell you when you're a kid is that once you're an adult, September is the best month.</div>
— Brendan Noel (@BrendanDNoel) <a href="https://twitter.com/BrendanDNoel/status/771312390709272576">September 1, 2016</a></blockquote>
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Naturally, September 2016 turned out to be a pretty astoundingly shitty month for me. The short version is that I watched my job completely burn to ashes in the span of about three weeks, which is remarkable considering I spent ten months there thinking it was a pretty great place to work - until suddenly it wasn't. It was uncomfortable to work there knowing I was pretty close to escaping, and then <i>unbearably</i> uncomfortable after I gave my notice.<br />
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To be honest, if I hadn't had the distraction of fall TV premiere week and all of the rest of September's new TV offerings, I'm not exactly sure what I would have done with myself. Curled into the fetal position and cried maybe? Anyway, here are five TV shows that got me through a pretty brutal 30 day stretch.<br />
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<a name='more'></a><b><u><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Halt and Catch Fire</i></span></u></b><br />
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Hoo boy. There were times when this excellent third season of "Halt and Catch Fire" hit way too close to home. In fact the terrific seventh episode, "The Threshold" - probably the best episode "Halt" has ever done - in which Cameron finally lost hold of Mutiny when all the other shareholders outvote her in deciding to take the company public, aired right in the middle of me giving my two weeks notice at work and the company informing me I "no longer needed to finish out my time there".<br />
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Though it was a significantly more devastating version of what I went through, I empathized strongly with Cameron's vision for what Mutiny could be at its most powerful and effective form socially, as she was surrounded by people who were desperately greedy and wanted only to go for an instant cash grab without considering its long term impact on the network's beating heart of users. At the time I'm writing this, we don't yet know what the fallout of Cameron leaving Mutiny (at least temporarily) will be, or what taking Mutiny public will actually mean for Donna, Gordon, Bos, et al. Nor do I exactly know what my real next, non-temporary step is. But as long as I don't get married on impulse or find my way woven back into the web of Joe MacMillan, I'll know I'm making better decisions than Cameron.<br />
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<b><u><span style="font-size: large;"><i>One Mississippi</i></span></u></b><br />
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On the off chance that Tig Notaro, who I love, ever happened to see this, I would hope she doesn't take offense to what I'm about to say next but: Notaro's fantastic new Amazon series "One Mississippi," and the real life of Notaro herself, are a pretty good example of what an actual shitty couple of months look like. An autobiographical story about a woman returning home for her mother's funeral and then staying there to reconnect to her roots, the series managed to portray a protagonist who should have no reason to want to believe in the goodness of life and the world, and yet knows that the only hope she ever has for finding it again is returning to a place she deliberately left because she didn't fit in. Digging into her past isn't all fun and games, with Tig and her brother realizing their late mother had a secret other family for their entire adolescence, and Tig finally forcing her stepfather Bill to confront the reality that her uncle molested her as a child. But dammit if Tig doesn't end the first season on the best terms she's ever been on with the ever-icy Bill, with a renewed discovery of who she is and what she wants out of life, and realizing how we can at least pretend we know how to get through the days on this weird rock. For me, "One Mississippi" was both much needed dry laughs and <i>desperately</i> needed perspective.<br />
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<b><u><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Saved by the Bell</i></span></u></b><br />
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What the hell is "Saved by the Bell" doing on the list, you might ask? Well if you've been following me on Twitter, you know that I've been rewatching the entire "Saved by the Bell" Cinematic Universe, from Miss Bliss through to The College Years. Rewatching "Saved by the Bell" wasn't really an enjoyable experience, but if offered an important moment of clarity for me: at the times when I struggle to figure out what the hell adulthood is all about and I wish I could just go back to the carefree days of childhood, "Saved by the Bell" reentered my life as a harsh, glaring reminder that childhood - and all the powerlessness that comes with it - actually kinda sucks, and that nostalgia is the dumbest emotion.<br />
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<b><u><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Speechless</i></span></u></b><br />
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It's been a pretty good fall for new sitcoms thus far ("American Housewife" has not premiered yet, nor have some of ABC's other dire-looking midseason offerings) but "Speechless" is hands down the funniest of all of them. You would have a hard time telling that the pilot or second episode of this show was not actually a season 4 "Speechless" episode because the cast has gelled so instantaneously you'd think they had been doing this for years. "Speechless" is the rare example of a comedy where the main characters a) are funny, b) know they are funny, and c) the combination of A and B do not make the characters seem obnoxious. Sure there are things the DiMeo family does that <i>do</i> make them a little obnoxious and unlikeable, but you're willing to give them see leeway because life has obviously dealt them a few cards short of blackjack. But they respond to their setbacks with a sense of humour at its most charmingly sarcastic, in a way that reminds me of bantering with my own funny family. When life gave the DiMeos lemons, "Speechless" skipped right over the lemonade and found a way to make margaritas instead.<br />
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<b><u><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Superstore</i></span></u></b><br />
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And finally, we have the show that reminded me "hey, if you think <i>this</i> job sucks, remember when you used to work at Target Canada, one of the most poorly run corporations in the history of capitalism?" And yet through what is probably its most serious storylines yet - the entire Cloud 9 staff walking out because store manager Glenn was fired for having the basic human decency to give new mom Cheyenne maternity leave, against company policy - "Superstore" has retained all of its mundane joy and zest for life that made it so charming and likeable in the first season, even though its setting was ostensibly a pretty grim final resting place for a lot of the people who work there. Anyway, it's nice to see storylines on TV about unionizing and little guys standing up for what's right.<br />
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Man, was I asking for it.</div>
— Brendan Noel (@BrendanDNoel) <a href="https://twitter.com/BrendanDNoel/status/782012293076975616">October 1, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>Brendan Noelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01355501477653448329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196027173447098748.post-26464572112422144742016-08-06T10:00:00.000-04:002016-08-06T18:50:18.677-04:00The Daily Show with Jon Stewart ended a year ago today. It's time we all moved on.<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7f5-2EcHXlOr6kJmYk3yvxj0_NzgngsF3jBhEnB6D9VkEOiGABl09k36vOLeyUrZqhb_NO7R7hPxo1LPqjW98lQ-RhDu02Q5yQ9B0KTRmavZoMiH66KRrpDWi7oxWoDbZV-Eo5rXTcBU/s1600/dsc_3228.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7f5-2EcHXlOr6kJmYk3yvxj0_NzgngsF3jBhEnB6D9VkEOiGABl09k36vOLeyUrZqhb_NO7R7hPxo1LPqjW98lQ-RhDu02Q5yQ9B0KTRmavZoMiH66KRrpDWi7oxWoDbZV-Eo5rXTcBU/s320/dsc_3228.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"> Jon Stewart back behind a desk on <i>The Late Show with Stephen<br /> Colbert</i> on Thursday, July 21, 2016.<br />
<b> Photo Credit:</b> CBS</td></tr>
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It was a year ago tonight, on August 6, 2015, that Comedy Central aired the final episode of <i>The Daily Show with Jon Stewart</i>. I watched the broadcast from a Winnipeg hotel room feeling a profound sense of sadness and loss. It's now exactly one year later, and to be brutally honest, I kind of hope Jon Stewart never appears on television ever again.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>First of all, allow me to clarify my history with Jon Stewart: for many, many years, I was a regular viewer of <i>The Daily Show with Jon Stewart</i>. Watching it and the first ten minutes of <i>The Colbert Report</i> was a nightly ritual in our house before going to bed. I <i>loved</i> Jon Stewart's <i>Daily Show</i> like few other things before. And I've said many a kind word about Jon Stewart's <i>Daily Show</i> and how much it was capable of impressing me even at the points where I most felt like I had heard everything Jon Stewart's <i>Daily Show</i> was capable of telling me. In a list of<a href="http://noelivision.blogspot.ca/2012/12/year-end-2012-my-favourite-tv-episodes.html" target="_blank"> the best television episodes of 2012</a>, I praised Jon Stewart's September 19, 2012 episode which, of all things, actually found a reenergized comedic take on covering the hypocrisy of Fox News in its 13th year on the air. Seeing a live taping of <i>The Daily Show with Jon Stewart</i> will always be a treasured memory for me, if anything because I can say I was once in the same room as Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer, and that is awesome. Quite frankly, <i>The Daily Show with Jon Stewart</i> was a special and meaningful part of my life.<br />
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But the key word in that last sentence is "was". I admit that in Stewart's last few years on the program, my interest in watching <i>The Daily Show</i> every night waned, and picking the show back up full time didn't really happen for me until Stewart's final weeks on the air. I'm not sure I agree with the criticisms that Stewart seemed at a loss for energy - even if he said himself he was at a loss for energy, I never felt it blatantly translated to the screen - but I definitely agreed with the criticism that watching <i>The Daily Show</i> started to feel merely like I was being told what I already believed to be true and then congratulated for believing it.<br />
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Stewart's first return to <i>The Daily Show</i> this past December was a triumph, bringing much needed attention to a serious topic in an effortlessly hilarious way. I was thrilled by his return until I came to the sad realization that this guest appearance was the most attention <i>The Daily Show with Trevor Noah</i> had gotten since its premiere a little more than two months earlier. It only added to the profoundly unfair and widely held belief that Trevor Noah's version of <i>The Daily Show</i> was unfunny simply because rookie Noah, with a completely different comedic sensibility than Stewart, wasn't able to replace an all-time great comedian who took <i>years</i> to hone not only his own voice and that of the program he hosted, but also to find a loyal and passionate audience. I mean hey, why afford anyone patience anymore? Jon Stewart's <i>Daily Show</i> was obviously the exact same show in August 2015 as it was in September of 1999, right? Sucks to be Noah then, because he should have known that replacing TV legends never works. After all, whatever happened to that no-name with no-experience that NBC hired to replace David Letterman back in the early 90s?<br />
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Jon Stewart graced us with his presence again last week in a guest appearance on <i>The Late Show with Stephen Colbert</i>, which, fitting with this piece's frustrating theme of "can we just never learn to like anything new ever again without bailing out and going back to the things we knew we liked when things get tough and scary?", marked the return of Colbert's political pundit character from his Comedy Central show of yesteryear. I agree 100% that <i>The Late Show</i> has still never figured out its rhythms, but again, shows like these require time and patience, and to even reunite the Stewart-Colbert pairing sets a dangerous precedent for that show. Now anyone who tunes it will be disappointed by anything that isn't the old <i>Daily Show-Colbert Report</i> handoff even moreso than they were in the first year of Colbert's new show.<br />
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But that didn't seem to matter to journalists and critics in the last couple weeks, who took every opportunity they had to sing the praises of Jon Stewart (and God, this is the most I've ever in my life sounded like Sean Hannity and trust me, I <i>hate </i>myself for that, but bear with me) as their political satire saviour. I rolled my eyes at every new article published about Stewart's return, as though current events haven't been mocked on television since he left the airwaves. I winced at every "Jon Stewart slay queen YASSSSSS" tweet and retweet that came across my timeline.<br />
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But the final straw for me was this piece in The Guardian entitled "<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/24/jon-stewart-been-hard-without-you" target="_blank">Dear Jon Stewart - this year's been hard without you</a>". Allow me to express my biggest issue with this article, and with the praise of Stewart this week, in the form of this long-winded metaphor: say your best friend, who you had known for many years, was moving away, and now you feel like you have to try to make one of your other friends, who you also liked a lot, your new <i>best</i> friend. You honestly didn't think it would be the same, but you wanted to try anyway. And then it turned out your best friend leaving town meant that you suddenly got a lot more face time with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_Week_Tonight_with_John_Oliver" target="_blank">this other guy you knew pretty well</a>, and you realized you actually liked hanging out with him even better even if you didn't do it as often. And then like a year later, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_Frontal_with_Samantha_Bee" target="_blank">this new girl showed up</a> in homeroom and just blew the fucking roof off the place with how funny and smart she was and all you wanted to do was make her your best friend too and then the three of you could just hang out all the time together. And by the time that happened, your friend that moved away had come back to visit, and <i>that</i> actually became the thing that wasn't the same anymore. Maybe other kids at school thought it was a big deal that he was back, and you were happy for them that they got to see their old friend, but you had moved on and were maybe a little annoyed that the return of your old friend who was still telling the same jokes as he was last year was overshadowing your cool new friends whose awesomeness you wished the other kids in school could see the same as you did.<br />
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I'm not exactly sure if that Guardian piece is trying to be funny in its wistful reminiscence of a time when Jon Stewart was on TV four nights a week, but its author, David Ferguson, has things completely backwards. That piece is 99% longing for the good ol' days of Stewart's nightly critique of the Bush administration, something that is gone and isn't coming back, and one throwaway comment about how <i>Full Frontal with Samantha Bee </i>is the only show that currently reminds him of Stewart's old show. Jeez, talk about burying the lede! This <i>Full Frontal</i> show is great, you say? <i>Then tell me about that!!!</i> I am all for looking back on TV shows that are no longer on the air, certainly if they're shows that haven't gotten the level of praise or attention I think they're deserving of. But when we are giving up an opportunity to praise something as good and not-terribly-well-discussed as <i>Full Frontal </i>to write another "in praise of Jon Stewart" piece, which are starting to feel a little like a teenager writing "Mrs. Jon Stewart" with a heart around it on the front of their binder, we are losing sight of actual interesting and fresh conversation we can be having.<br />
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The same impulses that drive our desire to see <i>The Daily Show with Jon Stewart</i> back on Comedy Central four nights a week are the same impulses that drive us to see every TV show we once used to love get a nostalgic revival, which leads us to reap what we sow with 13 episodes of <i>Fuller House</i> on Netflix. And the people who don't like hearing that are probably the same people last week who were super stoked on seeing their old, familiar, safe TV friend again but who recoiled in horror at the idea that there was enough nostalgic desire for more Joey Gladstone in the year 2016.<br />
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We like Jon Stewart too much to fully understand that living in this world full time completely burnt him out. The reason he "abandoned" us right before the U.S. election cycle really kicked into second gear is because he knew he was too mentally drained to produce the quality show we expected from him. The utter giddiness he felt right as Donald Trump was announcing his presidential campaign was mostly due to the fact that he realized he could revel in its ridiculous ever so briefly and then disappear in a puff of smoke before he knew he would be resigned to calling out Trump's hypocrisy night after night, month after month until an election day that was still over a year away.<br />
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And if Stewart really was that concerned about his own well-being and the thought of letting down his audience with subpar material, kudos to him for recognizing that fact, taking care of himself, and leaving on a high note. And maybe all of the "ra ra finally we have political satire back again" last week doesn't faze Stewart in the slightest, but I have to wonder if it does when I see a headline like "Jon Stewart hopes to have his new HBO project ready by September," which, as I pointed out on Twitter, would be an interesting headline if it didn't feel like Stewart has no enthusiasm for this project. A project which, by the way, will be just as much a revival of <i>The Daily Show with Jon Stewart</i> as NBC's tribute to veteran sitcom director James Burrowes was a <i>Friends </i>reunion. But just like with the latter, entertainment journalism will have you believe the former to be true for the sake of clicks!<br />
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The reality, however, is that <i>The Daily Show with Jon Stewart</i> lives in the past and will continue to stay there. We can visit it whenever we want by watching old clips, but there will be no revival no matter how many billions of dollars Netflix wants to offer Stewart to try to re-sell us our memories. Jon would be the first to tell us that the idea that he is "necessary" in these times of political absurdity is almost as ridiculous as the toxic bile spewed at the Republican National Convention.<br />
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The irony in all of this is that I'm criticizing the media, and specifically David Ferguson, for contributing nothing new to the conversation by just rehashing Jon Stewart memories while only skating by his worthy successors in the late night landscape. It would be at this point that I'd wax rhapsodic about why Samantha Bee has been my saviour, my Jon Stewart, in a political season that has felt more distressing and made me more cynical than any campaign ever has before. But a) I have to save something to say about her show in my top 10 list in December, and b) you'd be much better served reading <a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/7/3/12076800/samantha-bee-full-frontal-tbs-review-brexit" target="_blank">this piece by Todd VanDerWerff at Vox</a>, who nails exactly what Bee has been doing to expand upon the groundwork laid for her by Stewart as well as her former fellow <i>Daily Show</i> correspondent John Oliver.<br />
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Seeing Jon Stewart again was nice I suppose, but it felt wholly unnecessary now that I spend every week waiting for Monday night and a new episode of <i>Full Frontal</i>. I've found someone new who scratches that particular itch in my life, and her name is Samantha Bee. I heartily endorse giving her a try and seeing if she relieves your own personal itchiness before you drone on once again about how great life was back when the pharmacy still carried the particular formula of Gold Bond powder you got so used to.Brendan Noelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01355501477653448329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196027173447098748.post-72591323666275955082016-07-13T03:45:00.001-04:002016-07-13T03:45:19.789-04:00My hypothetical 2016 Emmy ballot<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcjEBtG8CcNtu0N4EK8VdYzqWULWv0vsSpYjIFbohcwlT-7w-szb7fZihGcvNvm8I6PNzdTt5IwW5SpS26KMgWCEwu8TdF2Xk5hytgBHsnDc7UWwcfbBch03eeHXevEtGqYqsWv6BKCM4/s1600/68th-emmy-horiz-900x600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcjEBtG8CcNtu0N4EK8VdYzqWULWv0vsSpYjIFbohcwlT-7w-szb7fZihGcvNvm8I6PNzdTt5IwW5SpS26KMgWCEwu8TdF2Xk5hytgBHsnDc7UWwcfbBch03eeHXevEtGqYqsWv6BKCM4/s320/68th-emmy-horiz-900x600.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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In a stunning display of competency, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences actually managed to correct a long-standing error last year by finally awarding Jon Hamm with the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for his work on <i>Mad Men</i>. Dare I allow myself to believe they're capable of recognizing more overshadowed greatness this year and nominate some real dark horses instead of giving the same people a fifth or sixth trophy? Nonetheless, today I get to have <i>my</i> say in what shows, performances, scripts, and what have you should be held up as television's best. The <i>correct</i> list of nominees, with some picks that no doubt were entirely ignored during the last two weeks of voting, after the jump. (Look, I love ya Mark McKinney, but there's just no way.)<br />
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<a name='more'></a><b><u>Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series</u></b><br />
Louie Anderson for playing Christine Baskets on <i>Baskets</i> (FX)<br />
Noah Galvin for playing Kenny O'Neal on <i>The Real O'Neals</i> (ABC)<br />
Pete Gardner for playing Darryl Whitefeather on <i>Crazy Ex-Girlfriend</i> (The CW)<br />
David Alan Grier for playing Joe Carmichael on <i>The Carmichael Show</i> (NBC)<br />
Daniel Levy for playing David Rose on <i>Schitt's Creek</i> (Pop)<br />
Mark McKinney for playing Glenn Sturgis on <i>Superstore</i> (NBC)<br />
Sam Richardson for playing Richard Splett on <i>Veep</i> (HBO)<br />
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<b>My winner: Pete Gardner</b> may look like a casting achievement only, given the part was inexplicably originally played by Mad TV alum Michael McDonald, but he is so, so terrific three-dimensionalizing a role that was pretty bare-bones tasteless in the pilot.<br />
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<b><u>Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series</u></b><br />
Vanessa Bayer for playing various characters on <i>Saturday Night Live</i> (NBC)<br />
Donna Lynne Champlin for playing Paula Proctor on <i>Crazy Ex-Girlfriend</i> (The CW)<br />
Loretta Devine for playing Cynthia Carmichael on <i>The Carmichael Show</i> (NBC)<br />
Emily Hampshire for playing Stevie Budd on <i>Schitt's Creek</i> (Pop)<br />
Debra Lawrance for playing Rose Thomas on <i>Please Like Me</i> (Pivot)<br />
Noel Wells for playing Rachel on <i>Master of None</i> (Netflix)<br />
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<b>My winner: Loretta Devine </b>is a goddamn national treasure.<br />
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<b><u>Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series</u></b><br />
Amy Brenneman for playing Laurie Garvey on <i>The Leftovers</i> (HBO)<br />
Lea DeLaria for playing Carrie "Big Boo" Black on <i>Orange is the New Black</i> (Netflix)<br />
Regina King for playing Erika Murphy on <i>The Leftovers</i> (HBO)<br />
Rhea Seehorn for playing Kim Wexler on <i>Better Call Saul</i> (AMC)<br />
Alison Wright for playing Martha Hanson on <i>The Americans</i> (FX)<br />
Constance Zimmer for playing Quinn King on <i>UnREAL</i> (Lifetime)<br />
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<b>My winner: </b>Regina King already has an Emmy and I'm a socialist, so I'd vote for <b>Alison Wright</b> for the sum total of her fantastic work.<br />
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<b><u>Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series</u></b><br />
Alan Alda for playing Uncle Pete Wittel on <i>Horace and Pete</i> (LouisCK.net)<br />
Clayne Crawford for playing Ted Talbot Jr. on <i>Rectify</i> (SundanceTV)<br />
Noah Emmerich for playing Stan Beeman on <i>The Americans</i> (FX)<br />
Michael McKean for playing Chuck McGill on <i>Better Call Saul</i> (AMC)<br />
Richard Thomas for playing Frank Gaad on <i>The Americans</i> (FX)<br />
Martin Wallstrom for playing Tyrell Wellick on <i>Mr. Robot</i> (USA)<br />
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<b>My winner: </b>Rewatching the first season of <i>Mr. Robot</i> somehow gave me even <i>more</i> appreciation for the unique mania <b>Martin Wallstrom</b> brings to Tyrell.<br />
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<b><u>Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie</u></b><br />
Sterling K. Brown for playing Christopher Darden on <i>The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story</i> (FX)<br />
Connor Jessup for playing Taylor Blaine on <i>American Crime</i> (ABC)<br />
Wendell Pierce for playing Clarence Thomas in <i>Confirmation</i> (HBO)<br />
Joey Pollari for playing Eric Tanner on <i>American Crime</i> (ABC)<br />
David Schwimmer for playing Robert Kardashian on <i>The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story</i> (FX)<br />
Forrest Whitaker for playing Fiddler on <i>Roots</i> (History)<br />
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<b>My winner: </b>Among the <i>People v. O.J.</i> cast,<b> Sterling K. Brown</b> is second only to his partner on the prosecution.<br />
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<b><u>Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie</u></b><br />
Emily Bergl for playing Lilah Tanner on <i>American Crime</i> (ABC)<br />
Grace Gummer for playing Ricki Seidman in <i>Confirmation</i> (HBO)<br />
Catherine Keener for playing Mary Dorman on <i>Show Me a Hero</i> (HBO)<br />
Melissa Leo for playing Lady Bird Johnson in <i>All the Way</i> (HBO)<br />
Cristin Milioti for playing Betsy Solverson on <i>Fargo</i> (FX)<br />
Jean Smart for playing Floyd Gerhardt on <i>Fargo</i> (FX)<br />
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<b>My winner: Jean Smart,</b> I guess. I mean who else?<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie</u></b><br />
Kirsten Dunst for playing Peggy Blumquist on <i>Fargo</i> (FX)<br />
Felicity Huffman for playing Leslie Graham on <i>American Crime</i> (ABC)<br />
Riley Keough for playing Christine Reade on <i>The Girlfriend Experience</i> (Starz)<br />
Sarah Paulson for playing Marcia Clark on <i>The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story</i> (FX)<br />
Lili Taylor for playing Anne Blaine on <i>American Crime</i> (ABC)<br />
Kerry Washington for playing Anita Hill in <i>Confirmation</i> (HBO)<br />
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<b>My winner: Sarah Paulson</b>, in no easy feat, managed to find a performance that would wash the stench of "Studio 60" off of her and actually get me to see her as a terrific actress in a worthwhile project.<br />
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<b><u>Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie</u></b><br />
Bryan Cranston for playing President Lyndon B. Johnson in <i>All the Way</i> (HBO)<br />
James Franco for playing Jake Epping on <i>11.22.63</i> (Hulu)<br />
Timothy Hutton for playing Dan Sullivan on <i>American Crime</i> (ABC)<br />
Oscar Isaac for playing Nick Wasicsko on <i>Show Me a Hero</i> (HBO)<br />
Malachi Kirby for playing Kunta Kinte on <i>Roots</i> (History)<br />
Courtney B. Vance for playing Johnnie Cochran on <i>The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story</i> (FX)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner: OS-CAR I-SAAC </b>(clap clap clap-clap-clap)<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series</u></b><br />
Ava Acres for playing Young Rebecca Bunch in the "Josh Has No Idea Where I Am!" episode of <i>Crazy Ex-Girlfriend</i> (The CW)<br />
Danielle Brooks for playing Shannon in the "Indians on TV" episode of <i>Master of None</i> (Netflix)<br />
Anna Camp for playing Deirdre Robespierre in the "Kimmy Goes on a Playdate!" episode of <i>Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt </i>(Netflix)<br />
Gina Gallego for playing Mrs. Hernandez in the "Josh and I Are Good People!" episode of <i>Crazy Ex-Girlfriend </i>(The CW)<br />
Ariana Grande for playing various characters in the "Ariana Grande" episode of <i>Saturday Night Live</i> (NBC)<br />
Annie Mumolo for playing Jill Kwatney-Adelman in the "No Friend Left Behind" episode of <i>Lady Dynamite </i>(Netflix)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner: </b>I never would have thought <b>Anna Camp</b> had a performance like that in her<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series</u></b><br />
Christopher Abbott for playing Charlie Dattolo in "The Panic in Central Park" episode of <i>Girls</i> (HBO)<br />
Fred Armisen for playing Robert Durst in the "Kimmy Goes Rollerskating!" episode of <i>Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt</i> (Netflix)<br />
Deon Cole for playing Charlie Telphy in the "Charles in Charge" episode of <i>black-ish</i> (ABC)<br />
Larry David for playing various characters in the "Larry David/The 1975" episode of <i>Saturday Night Live</i> (NBC)<br />
Tracy Morgan for playing various characters in the "Tracy Morgan/Demi Lovato" episode of <i>Saturday Night Live</i> (NBC)<br />
Bradley Whitford for playing Magnus Hirschfeld in the "Oscillate" episode of <i>Transparent</i> (Amazon)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner: </b>It's really tempting to vote for Deon Cole but I'm going with <b>Tracy Morgan</b> instead, because that SNL episode is a beautiful welcome home for him<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series</u></b><br />
Richard Armitage for playing Francis Dolarhyde in "The Great Red Dragon" episode of <i>Hannibal</i> (NBC)<br />
Christopher McDonald for playing Judge Don Schakowsky in the "Bond" episode of <i>The Good Wife</i> (CBS)<br />
Denis O'Hare for playing Judge Charles Abernathy in the "Shoot" episode of <i>The Good Wife</i> (CBS)<br />
Clarke Peters for playing Det. Oscar Clemons in the "AKA Sin Bin" episode of <i>Marvel's Jessica Jones</i> (Netflix)<br />
Blair Underwood for playing Harry Dargis in the "Shoot" episode of <i>The Good Wife</i> (CBS)<br />
BD Wong for playing Whiterose in the "eps1.7_wh1ter0se.m4v" episode of <i>Mr. Robot</i> (USA)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner: BD Wong</b>, who almost literally disappeared into the character in an unrecognizable performance. Also, lol at this category: so barren and underwhelming that I nominated TWO "Good Wife" judges.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series</u></b><br />
Aidy Bryant for playing Alice Wittel in "Episode 2" of <i>Horace and Pete</i> (LouisCK.net)<br />
Natasha Lyonne for playing Nicky Nichols in the "Empathy is a Boner Killer" episode of <i>Orange is the New Black</i> (Netflix)<br />
Annet Mahendru for playing Nina Krilova in the "Pastor Tim" episode of <i>The Americans</i> (FX)<br />
Laurie Metcalf for playing Sarah Wittel in "Episode 3" of <i>Horace and Pete</i> (LouisCK.net)<br />
Sarah Steele for playing Marissa Gold in the "Unmanned" episode of <i>The Good Wife</i> (CBS)<br />
Lorraine Toussaint for playing Dana Adams in the "More than Words" episode of <i>The Fosters</i> (Freeform)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner: Laurie Metcalf</b>, my God does she own that entire third episode.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series</u></b><br />
Shiri Appleby for playing Rachel Goldberg on <i>UnREAL</i> (Lifetime)<br />
Kerry Bishé for playing Donna Clark on <i>Halt and Catch Fire</i> (AMC)<br />
Carrie Coon for playing Nora Durst on <i>The Leftovers</i> (HBO)<br />
Mackenzie Davis for playing Cameron Howe on <i>Halt and Catch Fire</i> (AMC)<br />
Taraji P. Henson for playing Cookie Lyon on <i>Empire</i> (Fox)<br />
Keri Russell for playing Elizabeth Jennings on <i>The Americans</i> (FX)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner: Kerry Bishé</b> became the improbable breakout star of <i>Halt and Catch Fire</i> and we are better for having her on our television sets.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series</u></b><br />
Steve Buscemi for playing Pete Wittel on <i>Horace and Pete</i> (LouisCK.net)<br />
Louis C.K. for playing Horace Wittel on <i>Horace and Pete</i> (LouisCK.net)<br />
Rami Malek for playing Elliot Alderson on <i>Mr. Robot</i> (USA)<br />
Scoot McNairy for playing Gordon Clark on <i>Halt and Catch Fire</i> (AMC)<br />
Matthew Rhys for playing Philip Jennings on <i>The Americans</i> (FX)<br />
Aden Young for playing Daniel Holden on <i>Rectify</i> (SundanceTV)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner: </b>I'm just gonna keep praising <b>Matthew Rhys</b> until the Academy actually wises up and reverses this embarrassing black mark. It was tempting to vote for Malek though<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series</u></b><br />
Anthony Anderson for playing Andre Johnson on <i>black-ish</i> (ABC)<br />
Jerrod Carmichael for playing Jerrod Carmichael on <i>The Carmichael Show</i> (NBC)<br />
Andy Daly for playing Forrest Macneil on <i>Review with Forrest Macneil</i> (Comedy Central)<br />
Tommy Dewey for playing Alex Cole on <i>Casual</i> (Hulu)<br />
Chris Geere for playing Jimmy Shive-Overly on <i>You're the Worst</i> (FXX)<br />
Randall Park for playing Louis Huang on <i>Fresh Off the Boat</i> (ABC)<br />
Jeffrey Tambor for playing Maura Pfefferman on <i>Transparent</i> (Amazon)<br />
Josh Thomas for playing Josh Thomas on <i>Please Like Me</i> (Pivot)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner: </b>Last year, I dismissed his nomination as a B+ performance purely in for name recognition. This year, <b>Anthony Anderson</b> is my winner. And if you watch <i>black-ish</i>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rA9QBZr8WEg">you know why</a>.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series</u></b><br />
Maria Bamford for playing Maria Bamford on <i>Lady Dynamite</i> (Netflix)<br />
Rachel Bloom for playing Rebecca Bunch on <i>Crazy Ex-Girlfriend</i> (The CW)<br />
Aya Cash for playing Gretchen Cutler on <i>You're the Worst</i> (FXX)<br />
Tracee Ellis Ross for playing Rainbow Johnson on <i>black-ish</i> (ABC)<br />
Michaela Watkins for playing Valerie Meyers on <i>Casual</i> (Hulu)<br />
Constance Wu for playing Jessica Huang on <i>Fresh Off the Boat</i> (ABC)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner: </b>This category is overflowing with riches and yet again and again I come back to <b>Aya Cash</b>, so fearless in how she embraced portraying the ugliness of Gretchen's clinical depression.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series</u></b><br />
Kenya Barris for the "Hope" episode of <i>black-ish</i> (ABC)<br />
Jerrod Carmichael and Mike Scully for the "Fallen Heroes" episode of <i>The Carmichael Show</i> (NBC)<br />
Liz Tigelaar for the "Biden" episode of <i>Casual</i> (Hulu)<br />
Rachel Bloom and Aline Brosh McKenna for the "Josh Just Happens to Live Here!" episode of <i>Crazy Ex-Girlfriend</i> (The CW)<br />
Aziz Ansari and Alan Yang for the "Parents" episode of <i>Master of None</i> (Netflix)<br />
Ali Liebegott for the "Man on the Land" episode of <i>Transparent</i> (Amazon)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner: Kenya Barris.</b> Seriously, I can't say enough good things about "Hope" as an episode of television. Also is this where I can progress-brag about the fact that I only nominated one white dude among a category of nine people? Women and people of colour are writing some damn good television and more opportunities need to head their way.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series</u></b><br />
Matthew Rhys for "The Magic of David Copperfield V: The Statue of Liberty Disappears" episode of <i>The Americans</i> (FX)<br />
Peter Gould for the "Nailed" episode of <i>Better Call Saul</i> (AMC)<br />
Kimberly Peirce for the "Play with Friends" episode of <i>Halt and Catch Fire</i> (AMC)<br />
Louis C.K. for "Episode 10" of <i>Horace and Pete</i> (LouisCK.net)<br />
Craig Zobel for the "International Assassin" episode of <i>The Leftovers</i> (HBO)<br />
Tricia Brock for the "eps1.8_m1rr0r1ng.qt" episode of <i>Mr. Robot</i> (USA)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner: </b>It's difficult enough for a TV director to effectively take us into the world of a television show. Now imagine a director being tasked with taking you into an entirely different world that defies reality, humanism, and the laws of physics. Yeah,<b> Craig Zobel.</b><br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Writing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special</u></b><br />
Robert Schenkkan for <i>All the Way</i> (HBO)<br />
John Ridley for "Episode Seven" of <i>American Crime</i> (ABC)<br />
Susannah Grant for <i>Confirmation</i> (HBO)<br />
Lodge Kerrigan and Amy Seimetz for <i>The Girlfriend Experience</i> (Starz)<br />
D.V. DiVincentis for the "Marcia, Marcia, Marcia" episode of <i>The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story</i> (FX)<br />
William F. Zorzi and David Simon for "Part 6" of <i>Show Me a Hero</i> (HBO)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner: D.V. DiVincentis</b> for the definitive<i> People v. O.J.</i> episode.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b><u>Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special</u></b><br />
Kimberly Peirce for "Episode Eight" of <i>American Crime </i>(ABC)<br />
Rick Famuyima for <i>Confirmation </i>(HBO)<br />
James Strong for "The Day in Question" episode of <i>11.22.63</i> (Hulu)<br />
Amy Seimetz for the "Blindsided" episode of <i>The Girlfriend Experience</i> (Starz)<br />
John Singleton for "The Race Card" episode of <i>The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story</i> (FX)<br />
Philip Noyce for "Night One" of <i>Roots</i> (History)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner: Kimberly Peirce</b> is given the difficult assignment of blending the resolution to an enormously emotionally, impactful cliffhanger from the previous episode with real-life interviews of gun violence victims, and she succeeds.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series</u></b><br />
Beth McCarthy-Miller for the "Hope" episode of <i>black-ish</i> (ABC)<br />
Todd Biermann for the "2016" episode of <i>Broad City</i> (Comedy Central)<br />
Gerry Cohen for the "Protest" episode of <i>The Carmichael Show</i> (NBC)<br />
Marc Webb for the "Josh Just Happens to Live Here!" episode of <i>Crazy Ex-Girlfriend</i> (The CW)<br />
Matthew Savile for the "Trifle" episode of <i>Please Like Me</i> (Pivot)<br />
Martin Jr. A. Pasetta for the "A Puppet Walks Into A Bar" episode of <i>Undateable</i> (NBC)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner: </b>The <i>Crazy Ex-Girlfriend</i> pilot is a stunning direction achievement, particularly in its opening musical number. <b>Marc Webb</b>.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series</u></b><br />
Joel Fields and Joe Weisberg for the "Persona Non Grata" episode of <i>The Americans</i> (FX)<br />
Heather Marion and Vince Gilligan for the "Klick" episode of <i>Better Call Saul</i> (AMC)<br />
Dhavi Waller for the "Play with Friends" episode of <i>Halt and Catch Fire</i> (AMC)<br />
Louis C.K. for "Episode 3" of <i>Horace and Pete</i> (LouisCK.net)<br />
Damon Lindelof and Nick Cuse for the "International Assassin" episode of <i>The Leftovers</i> (HBO)<br />
Sarah Gertrude Shapiro for the "Truth" episode of <i>UnREAL</i> (Lifetime)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner: Dhavi Waller</b> for the best <i>Halt</i> episode yet.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Limited Series</u></b><br />
<i>11.22.63</i> (Hulu)<br />
<i>American Crime</i> (ABC)<br />
<i>Fargo</i> (FX)<br />
<i>The Girlfriend Experience</i> (Starz)<br />
<i>The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story</i> (FX)<br />
<i>Roots</i> (History)<br />
<i>Show Me a Hero</i> (HBO)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner: </b>With only a couple notable exceptions,<b> The People v. O.J. Simpson</b> remains the television achievement of 2016.<br />
<br />
<u><b>Outstanding Television Movie</b></u><br />
<i>7 Days in Hell</i> (HBO)<br />
<i>All the Way</i> (HBO)<br />
<i>Confirmation</i> (HBO)<br />
<i>A Deadly Adoption</i> (Lifetime)<br />
<i>Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No</i> (Syfy)<br />
<i>A Very Murray Christmas</i> (Netflix)<br />
<i><br /></i><b>My winner:</b> <b>Confirmation</b>. Try to pinpoint where in this category I stopped nominating things seriously. I bet it isn't hard to tell!<br />
<i><br /></i><b><u>Outstanding Main Title Design</u></b><br />
<i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SQiQixsh3Y">11.22.63</a> </i>(Hulu)<br />
<i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzY3EaJTuJk">Crazy Ex-Girlfriend</a></i> (The CW)<br />
<i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9FocQK9L4Q" target="_blank">F is for Family</a></i> (Netflix)<br />
<i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYlCVjyDHo8">Lady Dynamite</a></i> (Netflix)<br />
<i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMbazYhGoQ4&t=42s">The Late Show with Stephen Colbert</a></i> (CBS)<br />
<i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLSH-81yT7s">The Leftovers</a></i> (HBO)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner: </b>A category I include every year just for fun! The unequivocal winner for me this year goes to the show whose main title sequence perfectly encapsulates the thematic undercurrent of the show: <b>F is for Family</b>.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Reality Competition Program</u></b><br />
<i>Chopped</i> (Food Network)<br />
<i>Face Off</i> (SyFy)<br />
<i>Last Comic Standing</i> (NBC)<br />
<i>Masterchef Junior</i> (Fox)<br />
<i>RuPaul's Drag Race</i> (Logo)<br />
<i>Top Chef</i> (Bravo)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner: </b>You know what, I really dug the last season of <b>Last Comic Standing</b>. Sure, the show can never decide whether it likes a structure of challenges and "I know I'm funnier than _____" showdowns or just head-to-head stand-up battles all the way to the end. But the judging panel was well balanced, with Roseanne Barr as the Randy, Keenan Ivory Wayans as the Paula and Norm Macdonald as something approaching a nitpicky Simon. And the show actually found a lot of decent, diverse up-and-coming talent. Just ignore that all of those people were pushed out in early rounds in favour of a pretty terrible final five!<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality Competition Program</u></b><br />
W. Kamau Bell for hosting <i>United Shades of America</i> (CNN)<br />
RuPaul Charles for hosting <i>RuPaul's Drag Race</i> (Logo)<br />
Cat Deeley for hosting <i>So You Think You Can Dance</i> (Fox)<br />
Anthony Jeselnik for hosting <i>Last Comic Standing</i> (NBC)<br />
Gordon Ramsay for hosting <i>Masterchef Junior</i> (Fox)<br />
McKenzie Westmore for hosting <i>Face Off</i> (Syfy)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner: </b>And speaking of<i> Last Comic Standing</i> figuring its shit out last year, an enormous part of its creative resurgence can be attributed to <b>Anthony Jeselnik</b>, who brought the perfect amount of dry, sarcastic and disinterested humour to the proceedings.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Variety Special</u></b><br />
<i>Demetri Martin: Live (At The Time)</i> (Netflix)<br />
<i>Hannibal Buress: Comedy Comisado</i> (Netflix)<br />
<i>John Mulaney: The Comeback Kid</i> (Netflix)<br />
<i>Lemonade</i> (HBO)<br />
<i>Tig Notaro: Boyish Girl Interrupted</i> (HBO)<br />
<i>Triumph's Election Special 2016</i> (Hulu)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner: </b>I never seriously considered picking the Hannibal Buress special purely on "I was there" bias. It also would have been easy to pick the riotously funny John Mulaney special. But <b>Boyish Girl Interrupted</b> is also freaking hilarious, and come on, Notaro does the entire back half of the show topless exposing her mastectomy scars. Nothing else can be the winner here.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Variety Talk Series</u></b><br />
<i>The Daily Show with Trevor Noah</i> (Comedy Central)<br />
<i>Full Frontal with Samantha Bee</i> (TBS)<br />
<i>Last Week Tonight with John Oliver</i> (HBO)<br />
<i>The Late, Late Show with James Corden</i> (CBS)<br />
<i>Late Night with Seth Meyers</i> (NBC)<br />
<i>The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore</i> (Comedy Central)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner: Full Frontal with Samantha Bee</b> and then an enormous gap until the show that comes in second.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Variety Sketch Series</u></b><br />
<i>Billy On the Street</i> (TruTV)<br />
<i>Inside Amy Schumer </i>(Comedy Central)<br />
<i>Key and Peele</i> (Comedy Central)<br />
<i>Nathan For You</i> (Comedy Central)<br />
<i>Saturday Night Live</i> (NBC)<br />
<i>W/Bob and David</i> (Netflix)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner: Nathan For You</b> continues to build and build and build and build, and you can't possibly imagine he can top an episode like "Smokers Allowed" or the tightrope walking stunt. But you just wait, he'll find a way to do it in season four.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Animated Program</u></b><br />
<i>Bob's Burgers</i> (Fox)<br />
<i>BoJack Horseman</i> (Netflix)<br />
<i>F is For Family</i> (Netflix)<br />
<i>Rick and Morty</i> (Adult Swim)<br />
<i>The Simpsons</i> (Fox)<br />
<i>South Park</i> (Comedy Central)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner: BoJack Horseman</b>, because it's a silly show about a cartoon talking horse and also one of television's two best depictions of a person suffering from depression (the other features characters who regularly partake in a beverage known as trash juice).<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Comedy Series</u></b><br />
<i>black-ish</i> (ABC)<br />
<i>The Carmichael Show</i> (NBC)<br />
<i>Casual</i> (Hulu)<br />
<i>Crazy Ex-Girlfriend</i> (The CW)<br />
<i>Fresh Off the Boat</i> (ABC)<br />
<i>Lady Dynamite</i> (Netflix)<br />
<i>Master of None</i> (Netflix)<br />
<i>Please Like Me</i> (Pivot)<br />
<i>Review with Forrest Macneil</i> (Comedy Central)<br />
<i>You're the Worst</i> (FXX)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner: black-ish</b> is hilarious, relevant, looks fantastic, sounds fantastic, and just about everything else that makes a show a no-brainer choice for a series that is "outstanding".<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b><u>Outstanding Drama Series</u></b><br />
<i>The Americans</i> (FX)<br />
<i>Better Call Saul</i> (AMC)<br />
<i>Halt and Catch Fire</i> (AMC)<br />
<i>Hannibal</i> (NBC)<br />
<i>Horace and Pete</i> (LouisCK.net)<br />
<i>The Leftovers</i> (HBO)<br />
<i>Mr. Robot</i> (USA)<br />
<i>Orange is the New Black</i> (Netflix)<br />
<i>Rectify</i> (SundanceTV)<br />
<i>UnREAL </i>(Lifetime)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner: The Americans</b>, once again, is the best available show in the category, edging out a stellar debut for <i>Mr. Robot</i>.<br />
<br />
<b>The nominations for the 68th Primetime Emmy Awards will almost certainly make me very, very angry tomorrow morning, Thursday, July 14, at 11:30am EDT.</b>Brendan Noelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01355501477653448329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196027173447098748.post-72832850568503678582016-02-15T23:32:00.001-05:002016-02-15T23:46:47.946-05:00Mediocre "Letterkenny" headlines a frustrating experience with Crave TV<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYkCZktAta3mxAq2-DB5umsKsBXBMf-ot9BGCEeZiopTc2JRePqlhvU2thv-WeXCAJczbv9-fyErp5ePr6PE5M15hEcf9GPi2W72U92KP7MGcS_k-cRGrNG5u8V6uEdKeP3kbhMs9cLF0/s1600/letter-kenny-_day19-june-18iden-ford_649.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYkCZktAta3mxAq2-DB5umsKsBXBMf-ot9BGCEeZiopTc2JRePqlhvU2thv-WeXCAJczbv9-fyErp5ePr6PE5M15hEcf9GPi2W72U92KP7MGcS_k-cRGrNG5u8V6uEdKeP3kbhMs9cLF0/s320/letter-kenny-_day19-june-18iden-ford_649.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;">The cast of the new Crave TV comedy "Letterkenny".<br />
<b>Photo Credit:</b> Bell Media</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i>(A caveat: I feel the need to preface this anytime I write about a Canadian series, particularly one about which I have a negative opinion : I do not begrudge any Canadian television show for being made; in fact its existence in at least one aspect makes me happy. More Canadian television needs to be produced outside of the CBC. I don't care right now if the programming is not top notch. I'm just happy someone is putting in the time, money, and resources to make it exist at all. More please, and stat.)</i><br />
<br />
It was around last Christmas when my brother asked me something to the effect of, "so I guess Shomi is the new Rogers thing now?" I really had no idea what he was talking about - somehow I had missed being inundated with television commercials for Rogers and Shaw's joint streaming video venture that had launched a month prior. It didn't help that my mother seemed convinced that Shomi was actually a rebrand of the Rogers On Demand service (it isn't, though Rogers sure did a good job of burying their VOD platform in service of Shomi).<br />
<br />
Before long though, commercials for Shomi and it's competitor, the Bell-owned Crave TV, popped up everywhere and it became all too easy for me to compare and contrast the services even without actually subscribing to them. Crave offered a deeper program catalogue even before signing deals for the HBO and Showtime libraries, for less than half the cost of Shomi, whose commercials seemed to always feature the same five popular series in every single commercial (i.e., the only ones they had streaming rights to). Neither service seemed "necessary," even as I recognized that I was basically spouting the Canadian version of, "but I already have Netflix, why do I need to subscribe to Amazon?". But they seemed harmless, and if the existing daily schedules of Bell's network and cable channels was deemed insufficient as an on-demand "Big Bang Theory" delivery system, Canadians were welcome to pay $4 a month for their hit.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a>That is...until Shomi started airing ads touting themselves as the exclusive Canadian home of CW programming like "Jane the Virgin" and "iZombie". Now leaving aside the ridiculousness of that concept given our household has at least three CW affiliates in its existing Rogers cable package, I was irritated that shows available on over-the-air broadcast television in the United States were trying to be sold to Canucks as part of a $9 per month SVOD service. It brought back PTSD from the days when the obscure Canadian premium cable multiplex Superchannel held hostage some of the most popular American basic cable shows, namely FX's "Sons of Anarchy" and TNT's "Rizzoli and Isles". If Canadian television was going to insist on coughing up a bastardized experience of watching American television rather than produce original content, all I was asking for was 1:1 distribution and release dates on programming. A TNT drama should air on a Bravo or Showcase, not The Movie Network or Superchannel. "Transparent" rights were sold to Shomi and I didn't think twice about it - streaming to streaming is fine by me. It reminded me of what is allegedly one of the CRTC's rules about simultaneous substitution: that Canadian feeds replacing American ones must be of equal or better quality than the original American feed. Canadians should not have to pay more for their entertainment just because someone arbitrarily decided that we would.<br />
<br />
It only annoyed me further when Crave TV decided certain shows that Bell Media had acquired the rights to would become exclusive to the service, in the same way that Yahoo Screen renewed "Community" to try to get people to be aware of the existence of Yahoo Screen. Crave's hilariously misguided first foray into this sort of exclusivity was the Showtime dud "Happy-ish," which was so dull, tired, unlikeable, unfunny, and so threatened to be a black mark on the resume of Philip Seymour Hoffman that it couldn't even make it to the second season that 99.9% of all premium cable shows that don't kill horses for the sake of realism are awarded.<br />
<br />
Given that TMN had firmly established itself as Showtime Canada anyway by airing just about every Showtime original series ever made up to that point (side note: how Superchannel managed to snatch the legitimately zeitgeisty-for-fifteen-minutes "Homeland" away from them is mind-boggling), it seemed like a bizarre way to annoy the handful of existing TMN and HBO Canada Subscribers who just wanted to watch Steve Coogan be the most boring sad white British man of all time. Crave now seems to be trying a modified version of this with "Billions," another Showtime property that is at least still getting linear broadcasts on the primary Movie Network channel in its Sunday 10pm timeslot - but whose episodes Crave is making available to subscribers the next day, perhaps as a way to encourage binge-watching. I've heard virtually nothing about "Billions" since it premiered save for a piece Emily Nussbaum wrote for The New Yorker today comparing it favourably to HBO's new 70s rock drama "Vinyl," so it remains to be seen if Crave will get any visible bump from this.<br />
<br />
It was around the time of the "Happy-ish" debacle, however, that Crave announced their first actual original series, and the first scripted series produced for a Canadian SVOD service: an adaptation of "Letterkenny Problems," a series of web shorts produced by Canadian actor Jared Keeso satirizing the small town hick life he experienced first hand growing up in Listowel, Ontario. The half-hour Crave series, simply "Letterkenny," was green-lit for six episodes with much of the cast reprising their roles, and the entire first season premiered on Super Bowl Sunday (February 7).<br />
<br />
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While Bell promoted "Letterkenny" in ample fashion, I'm not sure any of their advertising was very effective. Every ad I saw for the show featured entirely different characters in what appeared to be vignettes free of any context (turns out they are scenes taken directly from the series). I had no idea what the show was actually about, being unfamiliar with the web shorts, and nobody I asked seemed quite sure either - my dad was aware it was a satire of small-town Ontario life based on the creator's upbringing in Listowel, surely something he had read in the newspaper, but I had also gotten misinformation that "Letterkenny" was a sketch show.<br />
<br />
The clipped nature of the show, and the fact that some subsets of characters basically exist in their own confined universe, sure make it seem like a sketch show at times, but "Letterkenny" unwisely formats itself as a narrative sitcom largely focusing on farmers Wayne (Keeso, probably better known to Canadians as the star or Bravo's English-language adaption of the French-Canadian police drama "19-2") and Darryl (Nathan Dales, whose face you will recognize if you watch any of the American sci-fi shows that film in Vancouver for the tax breaks). Supporting characters include Wayne and Darryl's bar companions, a pair of dudebro hockey players, local churchgoers, and some weird goth teens known as "skids".<br />
<br />
It was abundantly clear after watching just the first episode that "Letterkenny" was without a question a show that was going to be for "somebody". Small-town Ontarians are going to see themselves in this show and laugh at it, hence the success of the web series. It just so happens that I am not one of those people, however, and thus "Letterkenny" is pitched at a frequency a little too high for me to really understand. Sure, I understand what's supposed to be funny in this - the monotonous dialogue and the mildly unsettling "whatever happened to real men" type of jokes (in one of the show's "Letterkenny Problems" sequences that comprised the web series, Wayne describes a scenario where he's sharing a tent with a friend named George who decided that's the right time to tell him he wants to be called "Geo" from now on). It just doesn't happen to be funny to me.<br />
<br />
But regardless of that, there is a lot of laziness and sloppiness abounding in this, even for a show priding itself on being authentically crass. The first episode alone contains about two dozen uses of the word "fuck" and most of the time, the use of the word seems to be the sole joke of that particular line of dialogue. There's no letup to the language at all in the five episodes to follow, and eventually the swearing for the sake of comedy becomes the show's white noise, leaving it devoid of humour.<br />
<br />
Lowbrow writing carries into the third episode, the worst of the six and not coincidentally the longest of them at an excruciating 29 minutes, which is just one big fart joke with some references to "The Social Network" mixed in. Even as someone who loves that movie and was amused to recognize how spot on some of the line readings "Letterkenny" takes from the film are, it wasn't enough to save an episode too childish for its own good that really just droned on and on and on, with even the show's main character calling attention to how stupid and pointless everything happening was. And by the way, Keeso gets no points for allowing himself to say that on screen because the episode still happened.<br />
<br />
Perhaps most tragically, "Letterkenny" is at its funniest in short, two-minute post-credit sequences that have nothing to do with the 20-25 minutes that precede them. From a rapid-fire web-series style delivery of "Letterkenny problems" including a very funny joke about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, to the hockey dudebros' audition tape for "The Amazing Race," they constitute two of the only three times I can recall laughing at jokes in the show. And therein lies the problem for this show: it exists in the grey area between the kind of bad show that is offensive and painful and you wish would die (this is in no way that) and the kind of show that is innocuous and harmless but you're not sure why anyone bothered. I know exactly why people bothered to make "Letterkenny," but Keeso and co. needed a much clearer vision of who these characters were and what they would look like in a long-form narrative before expanding it from some silly little web shorts.<br />
<br />
So yeah, "Letterkenny" is not an especially funny show, and it troubles me to think that a not insignificant percentage of its audience will be upscale, urban Canadians who have $8 a month to throw at a SVOD service that isn't Netflix that will be laughing at the hicks rather than with him. And I can also say with certainty that "Letterkenny" was not a show worth the hassle of subscribing to Crave TV. I signed up for my free month shortly after midnight last night looking forward to finally figuring out what the hell the show was about, only to try to stream the first episode and have nothing happen. Between Safari, Chrome, and Firefox I could not get any episode of anything to actually start playing on my Macbook Pro (which I should admit was purchased in December of 2010, perhaps not that long ago but in terms of computer years means it's probably eligible to start collecting its pension soon).<br />
<br />
After trying to delete browsing history and cookies, turning off any adblocking or VPN extensions I had in any of these browsers, with no luck, I eventually admitted defeat and downloaded Crave's iPhone app, watching the first three episodes of "Letterkenny" on my phone before bed. The next morning, I still couldn't get anything to work so I decided to call Crave's technical support line. <a href="https://twitter.com/BrendanDNoel/status/699314538584248320" target="_blank">In a call that lasted 53 minutes</a>, the first 20 of which were spent on hold waiting for a representative (which I'm chalking up to the fact that today is a holiday in most of the country, otherwise eeeesh), I was only able to determine that whatever was causing the problem was the result of my crappy computer's processor, as a newer Windows laptop streamed the episodes just fine. Oh, and that logging in to the site on all three of the aforementioned web browsers in Crave's opinion constituted authorizing three of up to five devices on my account, so I had to boot my Firefox and Safari logins to be able to try streaming on the Windows laptop.<br />
<br />
Crave's tech support representative was fairly helpful (I believe his name was Edward?) and I appreciated that he understood I had at least an iota of technological acumen, but his solution was basically that I should go to Best Buy and spend $45 on Chromecast. It's a purchase I've been considering for a little while, but I'm not sure if I would feel good about the principle of spending that much money for a device that as of right now has only presented itself necessary for this one instance. Even if I'd run into the same problem trying to watch Netflix on my computer (I don't), Netflix has an app on my Sony Blu-ray player, as well as on Playstations and Xboxes and a myriad of other devices I might conceivably own. As far as I know, Crave has an Apple TV app and can be accessed on some newer Samsung smart TVs and that's about it - nothing for Roku, which a lot of people are choosing as their streaming entertainment center.<br />
<br />
Sigh. It was a weird afternoon. As Wayne himself of "Letterkenny" would say, this show and Crave TV as a whole ain't nothin' to get excited about.<br />
<br />
<b>All six episodes of the first season of <i>Letterkenny</i> are streaming now on Crave TV. The show will also eventually air on The Comedy Network, but no premiere date has been announced.</b>Brendan Noelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01355501477653448329noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196027173447098748.post-56984895658854661332015-07-15T15:52:00.000-04:002016-06-20T00:34:14.815-04:00My hypothetical 2015 Emmy ballot<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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If you recall last August, I was furious - legitimately furious - with the results of the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards, in which there were almost no original or inspired winners, and more statues were thrown at the overrated likes of Jim Parsons and Ty Burrell. I felt so hurt and betrayed I didn't even bother to dignify the telecast with any kind of writeup or even a review of my predictions afterward (it actually was slightly higher than normal, simply because of the repetitive voting patterns).<br />
<br />
And yet here I am again, with the 2015 Emmy ballots released online, pretending the Emmys are worth giving a damn about. But the reason I'm so excited about this post is because this is my chance each year to list my dream Emmy nominations and winners - the names that would be read out on the morning of Thursday, July 16 in a just world where enough Emmy voters were aware that "The Americans" is a weekly program created for television and broadcast over the airwaves for consumption by a mass viewership. I swear, it is. It's on every Wednesday night. On the television. This is an actual television program, hand to God. I'm not just making it up.<br />
<br />
So until the actual garbage nominations are released, allow me to put my fingers in my ears and say "la-la-la I can't hear you, here is the correct television". Join me after the break, won't you?<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><b><u>Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series</u></b><br />
Andre Braugher for playing Captain Ray Holt on <i>Brooklyn Nine Nine </i>(Fox)<br />
Hannibal Buress for playing Lincoln Rice on <i>Broad City</i> (Comedy Central)<br />
Tituss Burgess for playing Titus Andromedon on <i>The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt</i> (Netflix)<br />
Jaime Camil for playing Rogelio de la Vega on <i>Jane the Virgin</i> (The CW)<br />
T.J. Miller for playing Erlich Bachman on <i>Silicon Valley</i> (HBO)<br />
Steve Zissis for playing Alex Pappas on <i>Togetherness</i> (HBO)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner:</b> So torn here...I want to pick Tituss Burgess based just on how many times that character made me laugh, but it's "Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy," not "Funniest Supporting Actor". Therefore, <b>Steve Zissis</b>.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series</u></b><br />
Gaby Hoffmann for playing Ali Pfefferman on <i>Transparent</i> (Amazon)<br />
Carol Kane for playing Lillian Kaushtupper on <i>The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt</i> (Netflix)<br />
Amy Landecker for playing Sarah Pfefferman on <i>Transparent</i> (Amazon)<br />
Judith Light for playing Shelly Pfefferman on <i>Transparent</i> (Amazon)<br />
Melanie Lynskey for playing Michelle Pierson on <i>Togetherness</i> (HBO)<br />
Marsai Martin for playing Diane Johnson on <i>Black-ish</i> (ABC)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner:</b> <b>Judith Light</b> somehow manages to shine in a show full of terrific performances.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series</u></b><br />
Carrie Coon for playing Nora Durst on <i>The Leftovers</i> (HBO)<br />
Christina Hendricks for playing Joan Holloway on <i>Mad Men</i> (AMC)<br />
Charlotte Rampling for playing Jocelyn Knight on <i>Broadchurch</i> (BBC America)<br />
Yael Stone for playing Lorna Morello on <i>Orange is the New Black</i> (Netflix)<br />
Holly Taylor for playing Paige Jennings on <i>The Americans</i> (FX)<br />
Lorraine Toussaint for playing Yvonne "Vee" Parker on <i>Orange is the New Black</i> (Netflix)<br />
Samira Wiley for playing Poussey Washington on <i>Orange is the New Black</i> (Netflix)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner:</b> This is my "I get one tie because I can't cut down to 6" category, so you can imagine how difficult it will be to pick one standout here. But fuck it, gun to my head, it has to be <b>Carrie Coon</b>.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series</u></b><br />
Jonathan Banks for playing Mike Ehrmantraut on <i>Better Call Saul</i> (AMC)<br />
Christopher Eccleston for playing Rev. Matt Jamison on <i>The Leftovers</i> (HBO)<br />
Noah Emmerich for playing Stan Beeman on <i>The Americans</i> (FX)<br />
Frank Langella for playing Gabriel on <i>The Americans</i> (FX)<br />
John Slattery for playing Roger Sterling on <i>Mad Men</i> (AMC)<br />
Jussie Smollett for playing Jamal Lyon on <i>Empire</i> (Fox)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner:</b> Oh my god, that monologue <b>Jonathan Banks</b> gives is terrific. He deserves an Emmy for the sum total of that character.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series</u></b><br />
Pamela Adlon for playing Pamela in the "Bobby's House" episode of <i>Louie</i> (FX)<br />
Susie Essman for playing Bobbi Wexler in the "Knockoffs" episode of <i>Broad City</i> (Comedy Central)<br />
Tina Fey for playing Marcia in the "Kimmy Goes to Court!" episode of <i>The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt </i>(Netflix)<br />
Rita Moreno for playing Liliana de la Vega in the "Chapter Eighteen" episode of <i>Jane the Virgin</i> (The CW)<br />
Kelly Ripa for playing Kelly Ripa in the "Coat Check" episode of <i>Broad City</i> (Comedy Central)<br />
Emily Robinson for playing Young Ali Pfefferman in the "Best New Girl" episode of <i>Transparent</i> (Amazon)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner:</b> <b>Susie Essman</b> is so terrific and I don't want to chalk up the success of that performance solely to the show casting her well as Ilana's mother.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series</u></b><br />
Josh Charles for playing Coach Thompson in the "Last Fuckable Day" episode of<i> Inside Amy Schumer</i> (Comedy Central)<br />
Paul Giamatti for playing Juror #10 in the "12 Angry Men Inside Amy Schumer" episode of <i>Inside Amy Schumer</i> (Comedy Central)<br />
Jon Hamm for playing Reverend Richard Wayne Gary Wayne in the "Kimmy Makes Waffles!" episode of <i>The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt</i> (Netflix)<br />
Dwayne Johnson for playing various characters in the "Dwayne Johnson/George Ezra" episode of <i>Saturday Night Live</i> (NBC)<br />
Richard Kind for playing Mr. Lefkovitz in the "Kimmy Goes to School!" episode of <i>The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt</i> (Netflix)<br />
Bradley Whitford for playing Marcy in the "Best New Girl" episode of <i>Transparent</i> (Amazon)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner:</b> I laughed out loud at just about every single thing Richard Kind says in that "Kimmy Schmidt" episode but maybe that's more a writing achievement. Therefore, come on down <b>Bradley Whitford</b>.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series</u></b><br />
Raymond Cruz for playing Tuco Salamanca in the "Mijo" episode of <i>Better Call Saul</i> (AMC)<br />
Trevor Einhorn for playing Johnny Mathis in "The Forecast" episode of <i>Mad Men</i> (AMC)<br />
Michael J. Fox for playing Louis Canning in the "Red Zone" episode of <i>The Good Wife</i> (CBS)<br />
Robert Morse for playing Bertram Cooper in the "Lost Horizon" episode of <i>Mad Men</i> (AMC)<br />
Aaron Staton for playing Ken Cosgrove in the "Severance" episode of <i>Mad Men</i> (AMC)<br />
Courtney B. Vance for playing Clarence Parker in "The Lawn Chair" episode of <i>Scandal</i> (ABC)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner:</b> <b>Robert Morse</b>, because a "Mad Men" actor needs an Emmy and why not him?<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series</u></b><br />
Khandi Alexander for playing Maya Pope in the "Where the Sun Don't Shine" episode of <i>Scandal</i> (ABC)<br />
Alison Brie for playing Trudy Campbell in "The Milk and Honey Route" episode of <i>Mad Men</i> (AMC)<br />
Margo Martindale for playing Claudia in the "I Am Abassin Zadran" episode of <i>The Americans</i> (FX)<br />
Julianne Nicholson for playing Dr. Lillian DePaul in the "Blackbird" episode of <i>Masters of Sex</i> (Showtime)<br />
Kiernan Shipka for playing Sally Draper in "The Milk and Honey Route" episode of <i>Mad Men</i> (AMC)<br />
Lois Smith for playing Betty in the "Do Mail Robots Dream of Electric Sheep?" episode of <i>The Americans</i> (FX)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner:</b> I knew the second the episode aired - the second I watched the scene where her character dies - that if <b>Lois Smith</b> submitted herself in this category she would be my winner.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series</u></b><br />
Olivia Colman for playing DS Ellie Miller on <i>Broadchurch</i> (BBC America)<br />
Taraji P. Henson for playing Cookie Lyon on <i>Empire</i> (Fox)<br />
Tatiana Maslany for playing Sarah Manning and her clones on <i>Orphan Black</i> (BBC America)<br />
Elisabeth Moss for playing Peggy Olson on <i>Mad Men</i> (AMC)<br />
Keri Russell for playing Elizabeth Jennings on <i>The Americans</i> (FX)<br />
Abigail Spencer for playing Amantha Holden on <i>Rectify</i> (SundanceTV)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner:</b> It's hard to ignore a great performance that defines, and quite frankly elevates, the entire series around her - <b>Taraji P. Henson</b>.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series</u></b><br />
Jon Hamm for playing Don Draper on <i>Mad Men</i> (AMC)<br />
Terrence Howard for playing Luscious Lyon on <i>Empire</i> (Fox)<br />
Bob Odenkirk for playing Jimmy McGill on <i>Better Call Saul</i> (AMC)<br />
Matthew Rhys for playing Philip Jennings on <i>The Americans</i> (FX)<br />
Michael Sheen for playing Dr. William Masters on <i>Masters of Sex</i> (Showtime)<br />
Aden Young for playing Daniel Holden on <i>Rectify</i> (SundanceTV)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner:</b> HOW. HAS <b>JON</b>. <b>HAMM</b>. NEVER. WON. AN EMMY.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series</u></b><br />
Louis C.K. for playing Louis C.K. on <i>Louie</i> (FX)<br />
Nathan Fielder for playing Nathan Fielder on <i>Nathan For You</i> (Comedy Central)<br />
Chris Geere for playing Jimmy Shive-Overly on <i>You're the Worst</i> (FX)<br />
Jonathan Groff for playing Patrick Murray on <i>Looking</i> (HBO)<br />
Thomas Middleditch for playing Richard Hendricks on <i>Silicon Valley</i> (HBO)<br />
Jeffrey Tambor for playing Maura Pfefferman on <i>Transparent</i> (Amazon)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner:</b> What a tremendous performance in a challenging role, especially so late in his career, for <b>Jeffrey Tambor</b>.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series</u></b><br />
Aya Cash for playing Gretchen Cutler on <i>You're the Worst</i> (FX)<br />
Abbi Jacobson for playing Abbi Abrams on <i>Broad City</i> (Comedy Central)<br />
Ellie Kemper for playing Kimmy Schmidt on <i>The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt</i> (Netflix)<br />
Gina Rodriguez for playing Jane Villanueva on <i>Jane the Virgin</i> (The CW)<br />
Amy Schumer for playing various Amy Schumer fictionalizations on <i>Inside Amy Schumer</i> (Comedy Central)<br />
Constance Wu for playing Jessica Huang on <i>Fresh Off The Boat</i> (ABC)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner:</b> It's a shame the deep-rooted racism of the entertainment industry has kept <b>Constance Wu</b> from breaking out until now.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series</u></b><br />
Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer for the "In Heat" episode of <i>Broad City</i> (Comedy Central)<br />
Matt Kuhn for the "Fajita Man" episode of <i>Fresh Off The Boat</i> (ABC)<br />
Charlie Day & Glenn Howerton & Rob McElhenney for the "Charlie Work" episode of <i>It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia</i> (FXX)<br />
Heidi Schreck for the "Serviam in Caritate" episode of <i>Nurse Jackie</i> (Showtime)<br />
Alec Berg for the "Two Days of the Condor" episode of <i>Silicon Valley</i> (HBO)<br />
Jill Soloway for the "Pilot" episode of <i>Transparent</i> (Amazon)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner:</b> I cried laughing at <i>Fresh Off The Boat</i>'s "Fajita Man". Actual tears. <b>Matt Kuhn</b>.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series</u></b><br />
Daniel Sackheim for the "March 8, 1983" episode of <i>The Americans</i> (FX)<br />
Miguel Sapochnik for the "Hardhome" episode of <i>Game of Thrones</i> (HBO)<br />
Keith Gordon for the "Two Boats and a Helicopter" episode of <i>The Leftovers</i> (HBO)<br />
Phil Abraham for the "Lost Horizon" episode of <i>Mad Men</i> (AMC)<br />
Michael Apted for the "Fight" episode of <i>Masters of Sex</i> (Showtime)<br />
SJ Clarkson for the "40 Oz. of Furlough" episode of <i>Orange is the New Black</i> (Netflix)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner:</b> <b>Keith Gordon</b> for crafting a terrific building of suspense over a wonderfully tense hour of <i>The Leftovers</i>.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series</u></b><br />
Richard Shepard for the "Sit-In" episode of <i>Girls</i> (HBO)<br />
David Katzenberg for the "Barry Goldberg's Day Off" episode of <i>The Goldbergs</i> (ABC)<br />
Matt Shakman for the "Charlie Work" episode of <i>It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia</i> (FXX)<br />
Brad Silberling for the "Pilot" episode of <i>Jane the Virgin</i> (The CW)<br />
Dean Holland for "The Johnny Karate Super Awesome Musical Explosion Show" episode of <i>Parks and Recreation</i> (NBC)<br />
Jill Soloway for the "Best New Girl" episode of <i>Transparent </i>(Amazon)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner:</b> If any episode is a sheer directing achievement, it's "Charlie Work". <b>Matt Shakman</b> FTW.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series</u></b><br />
Joshua Brand for the "Do Mail Robots Dream of Electric Sheep?" episode of <i>The Americans</i> (FX)<br />
Gordon Smith for the "Five-O" episode of <i>Better Call Saul</i> (AMC)<br />
Robert King and Michelle King for the "Oppo Research" episode of <i>The Good Wife</i> (CBS)<br />
Damon Lindelof and Kath Lingenfelter for the "Guest" episode of <i>The Leftovers</i> (HBO)<br />
Erin Levy and Matthew Weiner for the "Time & Life" episode of <i>Mad Men</i> (AMC)<br />
Stephen Falk for the "You Also Have a Pizza" episode of <i>Orange is the New Black</i> (Netflix)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner:</b> <b>Joshua Brand</b>'s "Americans" script is so terrific it made Lois Smith's performance look easy.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Limited Series</u></b><br />
<i>American Crime</i> (ABC)<br />
<i>Cucumber</i> (Logo)<br />
<i>The Honourable Woman</i> (SundanceTV)<br />
<i>Olive Kitteridge</i> (HBO)<br />
<i>Wolf Hall</i> (PBS)<br />
<i>The Wrong Mans</i> (Hulu)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner:</b> I think the only one of these I actually watched in its entirety was <b><i>Cucumber</i></b>, which doesn't have a shot in hell at a nomination.<br />
<br />
<u><b>Outstanding Television Movie</b></u><br />
<i>Bessie (HBO)</i><br />
<i>BoJack Horseman: Sabrina's Christmas Wish (Netflix)</i><br />
<i>Nightingale (HBO)</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<b>My winner:</b> I'm so bad with movie and miniseries categories. Wouldn't it be funny if <b>the BoJack Horseman Christmas special</b> won this though?<br />
<i><br /></i>
<b><u>Outstanding Main Title Design</u></b><br />
<i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQvIR1oL1vE" target="_blank">BoJack Horseman</a> </i>(Netflix)<br />
<i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ytp8jv66co" target="_blank">Fortitude</a></i> (Pivot)<br />
<i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yD_kCKiSkoI" target="_blank">Halt and Catch Fire</a></i> (AMC)<br />
<i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PTNHQND6MA" target="_blank">The Leftovers</a></i> (HBO)<br />
<i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PTNHQND6MA" target="_blank">Transparent</a></i> (Amazon)<br />
<i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfuFo0Rr3FQ" target="_blank">The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt</a></i> (Netflix)<br />
<br />
My winner: The test of a great opening title sequence is if I never fast forward through it - and through 17 episodes of <i style="font-weight: bold;">Halt and Catch Fire</i> I have always anticipated its fantastic opening title sequence.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Reality Competition Program</u></b><br />
<i>The Chair</i> (Starz)<br />
<i>Face Off</i> (SyFy)<br />
<i>King of the Nerds</i> (TBS)<br />
<i>MasterChef Junior </i>(Fox)<br />
<i>Skin Wars</i> (GSN)<br />
<i>So You Think You Can Dance</i> (Fox)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner:</b> <b><i>The Chair</i></b>, period, full stop, no discussion required.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality Competition Program</u></b><br />
Curtis Armstrong and Robert Carradine for hosting <i>King of the Nerds</i> (TBS)<br />
Cat Deeley for hosting <i>So You Think You Can Dance</i> (Fox)<br />
Phil Keoghan for hosting <i>The Amazing Race</i> (CBS)<br />
Gordon Ramsay for hosting <i>MasterChef Junior</i> (Fox)<br />
McKenzie Westmore for hosting <i>Face Off</i> (SyFy)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner:</b> <b>Cat Deeley</b> has always deserved more love than she's gotten from the Emmys, even if they finally smartened up and started nominating her a few years ago.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Variety Special</u></b><br />
<i>Aziz Ansari: Live at Madison Square Garden</i> (Netflix)<br />
<i>Chelsea Peretti: One of the Greats</i> (Netflix)<br />
<i>Comedy Central Roast of Justin Bieber</i> (Comedy Central)<br />
<i>The Kennedy Center Honors</i> (CBS)<br />
<i>Key and Peele Super Bowl Special</i> (Comedy Central)<br />
<i>Saturday Night Live 40th Anniversary Special</i> (NBC)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner:</b> Regardless of how "funny" the <b>SNL special</b> was, I think it's hard to argue with what a feat it was.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Variety Talk Series</u></b><br />
<i>The Colbert Report</i> (Comedy Central)<br />
<i>The Daily Show with Jon Stewart</i> (Comedy Central)<br />
<i>Last Week Tonight with John Oliver</i> (HBO)<br />
<i>The Late, Late Show with James Corden</i> (CBS)<br />
<i>Late Night with Seth Meyers</i> (NBC)<br />
<i>The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore</i> (Comedy Central)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner:</b> Another full stop answer - <b><i>Last Week Tonight</i></b>.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Variety Sketch Series</u></b><br />
<i>Inside Amy Schumer </i>(Comedy Central)<br />
<i>Key and Peele</i> (Comedy Central)<br />
<i>Kroll Show</i> (Comedy Central)<br />
<i>Nathan For You</i> (Comedy Central)<br />
<i>Portlandia</i> (IFC)<br />
<i>Saturday Night Live</i> (NBC)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner:</b> The year of Schumer is in full swing - <b><i>Inside Amy Schumer</i></b>.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Animated Program</u></b><br />
<i>Bob's Burgers</i> (Fox)<br />
<i>BoJack Horseman</i> (Netflix)<br />
<i>The Simpsons</i> (Fox)<br />
<i>South Park</i> (Comedy Central)<br />
<i>Toy Story That Time Forgot</i> (ABC)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner:</b> <b><i>BoJack Horseman</i></b>, a silly little show that dared me not to love it with each new episode.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Drama Series</u></b><br />
<i>The Americans</i> (FX)<br />
<i>Better Call Saul</i> (AMC)<br />
<i>Empire</i> (Fox)<br />
<i>Mad Men</i> (AMC)<br />
<i>The Leftovers</i> (HBO)<br />
<i>Orange is the New Black</i> (Netflix)<br />
<i>Rectify</i> (SundanceTV)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner:</b> I still remember how blown away I was by season 2 of <b><i>Orange is the New Black</i></b> last summer. Funny that I've changed my stance on its categorization and I now think it's stupid that it's considered a drama even after it appealed.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Comedy Series</u></b><br />
<i>Broad City</i> (Comedy Central)<br />
<i>Fresh Off The Boat</i> (ABC)<br />
<i>Jane the Virgin</i> (The CW)<br />
<i>Louie</i> (FX)<br />
<i>Silicon Valley</i> (HBO)<br />
<i>Transparent</i> (Amazon)<br />
<i>The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt</i> (Netflix)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner:</b> Seven great shows, but <b><i>Transparent</i></b> is on another level.<br />
<br />
<b>The nominations for the 67th Primetime Emmy Awards will be announced tomorrow morning, Thursday, July 16, at 11:30am EDT.</b>Brendan Noelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01355501477653448329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196027173447098748.post-59944085554290264922014-12-31T03:58:00.000-05:002015-03-31T07:25:14.284-04:00Year End 2014: Started from the bottom now we're here<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The last two years in which I've written a TV top ten list (i.e., the only times I've ever done it), I ended the post with a question, or even a dare. The first one was "Whattaya got, 2013?" and holy shit, 2013 responded with perhaps the best year of television drama the small screen has ever seen. And then last year, I closed my top ten post with the suggestion, "Top that, 2014. I dare you." And dare <i>I</i> say that...2014 might have done just that. It's easier than ever to find quality shows with so many new outlets for programming, and that only makes it more difficult to parse down my ten to twenty favourite TV shows of the entire calendar year. But I've carefully selected the ten shows I feel represent the best in television for 2014. And those shows will appear to you by clicking the "read more" button below!<br />
<br />
<h2>
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-size: large;">#10. Mad Men<br />
(AMC)</span><br />
</h2>
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I feel super weird about this for a lot of reasons. The first is that "Mad Men" will probably forever and always be my favourite television show ever, so putting it in the number 10 spot is making my brain go "whaaa?" But I also feel weird about it because a part deep inside me knows that "Mad Men" is really only at number 10 because I just couldn't bear to ever leave this show off my top 10 list. Was the first half of its seventh and final season the show's all-time best run of episodes? I wouldn't say so, but saying that almost means nothing since even the weakest episode "Mad Men" has ever done was still probably like the third or fourth best thing that aired on TV that week. Were there really only nine TV shows in 2014 that I thought were better than it? For any other show, one that I had significantly less emotional attachment to, I'd probably admit that there weren't.<br />
<br />
But I can remember watching the season's second episode, "A Day's Work," and thinking that this was an all-time classic episode for the show because it juggles so many interlocking story pieces and characters over the course of the day, as Peggy endures a terrible Valentine's Day and Don bonds with a truant Sally. It just felt like the show at its best, maybe even "vintage" "Mad Men" even though current "Mad Men" is just terrific. It spoke to everything Don told me about nostalgia in the show's first season finale "The Wheel," about a twinge in our heart that takes us back to a place where we know we are loved. I'm so in love with this show and I don't know what I'm going to do with myself when it ends. I'm both impatient and relieved that we're still months away from the beginning of the end.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">#9. Nathan For You</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">(Comedy Central)</span></b><br />
<br />
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It seems that nobody commits to a televised comedy bit these days like Nathan Fielder does. His faux-reality show mocking the type of "please save my business!" shows you'd see on A&E, TLC, Bravo, or even Spike TV with something like "Bar Rescue" are usually pretty gut-bustingly funny, with Nathan's ideas always just so absurd when playing off the deadpan, unsuspecting business owner. More importantly, the joke is almost on the dweeby Nathan and his obviously terrible ideas, and never on the entrepreneur unless they unknowingly invite it (as was the case in the first season when Daniel the gas station owner told Nathan about <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vbCKava_JE" target="_blank">his family tradition of drinking a toddler's urine</a> to alleviate fear, and not even the ever straight-faced Fielder could keep it together).<br />
<br />
And then there are episodes like that gas station rebate scheme, where Nathan encourages the station to sell gas at rock bottom prices after a rebate, which must be claimed in person at the top of a mountain that is only accessible via a 90 minute hike. He's surprised when people actually want to try and claim this seemingly impossible rebate, but runs with the idea and rents a van to shuttle customers to the base of the mountain, devises a series of nonsensical riddles to locate the rebate box, and sets up tents for the three customers who want to spend the night on top of a mountain to save between $10 and $20 on gasoline.<br />
<br />
The equivalent episode from this year's stellar second season depicted Nathan trying to save a fledgling Hollywood souvenir shop by making passersby think a movie was being filmed in the store, casting a Johnny Depp impersonator to play the lead in the film, casting a worse Johnny Depp impersonator to make the first impersonator look better by comparison, and then casting unsuspecting tourists to play extras in the movie by having them buy large quantities of souvenirs with their own money. When the tourists tried to return the souvenirs or get compensated for their participation, Nathan had the Johnny Depp impersonator sign all of their souvenirs at a meet-and-greet session to make them both non-refundable and "priceless memories" for the tourists.<br />
<br />
From there, Nathan starts to get emails asking when this fake movie, "The Web," will be released, because they've excitedly told their friends and family that they'll be making their Hollywood debut. He consults his legal expert, a retired Los Angeles judge, who confirms for him that his actions constitute fraud and put him and the show's production at legal risk. As a loophole, Nathan decides to finish "The Web" by casting an actress as the lead of a romantic subplot, create his own "Eastern Los Angeles International Film Festival" and entering "The Web" as a short film that will compete only against a six-second YouTube clip of a man farting. He hires a script supervisor to act as a respected Hollywood peer to judge the film and give it an authentic industry seal of approval, protecting him from any legal action the souvenir shop customers might take against him.<br />
<br />
All in 22 minutes.<br />
<br />
My jaw was hanging open through the entire episode. I was amazed by its escalation within the budget and production schedule the show works under even more than how much it made me fall out of my chair laughing. Man, on second thought, do I have this show too low?<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">#8. Shameless</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">(Showtime)</span></b><br />
<br />
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<h2>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">While “Shameless” is a very funny show,
there are times when it’s tiptoeing of the line between silly and cartoonishly
surreal veers more towards the latter, resulting in unpleasant storylines with
Frank, Sheila, Sammi et al. But even flat, boring scenes where Frank creates an
illegal hot tent or Sheila tries to marry Roger Running Tree to adopt his
children couldn’t thwart an otherwise terrific season of “Shameless,” a year in
which the show fully surrendered to the absolute, rock bottom darkness that can
envelop even the most upwardly mobile Gallagher. Fiona had finally gotten
herself into a position to drag the family over the poverty line only to have
one douchebag brother, poor judgment, and some cocaine flush all her progress
down the toilet.</span></span></h2>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">And the thing is, I don’t even know what’s
left to say about Emmy Rossum: she consistently delivers one of the best
performances on television so it didn’t surprise me in the slightest when she
nailed the toughest role of her career to date. Most of her younger co-stars
did as well, as John Wells and his team of writers shouted “jump” and Jeremy
Allen White, Cameron Monaghan, Noel Fisher, and Emma Kenney all impressively asked
“how high?” When a show airs early in a year that turns out to be so rich with
great television, it can sometimes easily be lost in the shuffle when it comes
time to make top 10 lists in December. But the Gallaghers never left my mind
all year, and I can’t wait to see them again on January 11.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><b><span style="font-size: large;">#7. Please Like Me</span></b><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>(ABC2/Pivot)</b></span><br />
<br />
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I've always been intrigued by how Todd VanDerWerff at Vox has talked about his relationship with "New Girl," because he finds the show (or at one time did) very funny but admits he gives it more leniency at times because he identifies more with its themes of early-30s angst than people who are not also in their early 30s might. I really understood where he was coming from when I watched the Australian comedy "Please Like Me" from twenty-something writer/star Josh Thomas. There's an episode in the fantastic second season (from the stretch of the season's virtually perfect final six episodes) where Josh barricades his best friend Tom in his room and steals his computer and cell phone to get back at him for eating his beloved truffled mac and cheese. Much of the rest of the episode is Josh, Tom, and their friend Claire sitting on the floor of their shared house realizing that they are spending their day either committing to barricading someone in a room, or in Tom's case, pretending that he cannot come and go through his bedroom window as he pleases, all because he knows Josh is in a vulnerable state and doesn't want to give him yet another loss. By extension, they all realize none of them have any idea what they want in life nor what their respective next steps are.<br />
<br />
"Please Like Me" speaks to me personally in more ways than one, and it's almost certainly why it's cracked my top 10. But it's also absurdly funny at times - particularly when the gang all went to see Tom's high-school aged girlfriend act in her terrible school dance recital, where everyone's giggle fest becomes infectious and takes the viewer into the auditorium with them - to people of any age and in any life chapter. "Please Like Me" also spoke right to my weakness for two-person bottle episodes (even though, again, the Tasmanian wilderness cannot be a bottle) with the terrific "Scroggin'" that sent Josh and his mother on a camping trip following the suicide of her friend from the mental institution. I can definitively say that nothing about that experience personally speaks to me, but I loved it more than anything else in this stellar sophomore season of comedy.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>
#6. The Americans<br />(FX)</b></span><br />
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I spent a lot of last year's top 10 and second 10 lists starting off a show's entry with some variation of "show X drops a few places from 2012, but it's a still a really good show and its placement only speaks to what an overwhelmingly good year it was for television". I bring this up because <i>in</i> back-to-back overwhelmingly good years for TV, I feel it's worth mentioning that FX's "The Americans" is one of only two shows from my top 10 list to move <i>up</i> rather than down or fall out entirely.<br />
<br />
Alan Sepinwall summed up "The Americans's" year two leap pretty nicely by simply stating that the show did more of what was good in the first season and less of what was not as good. And what the show did well in the first season was tension of varying types, whether it's quiet, interpersonal marital and familial tension (which this show does better than almost any other on the air right now), or balls to the wall action violence tension starting from the season's very first episode where Phillip and Elizabeth's long time KGB friends are slaughtered in a hotel room along with their daughter.<br />
<br />
There are times when I wonder why this show doesn't get the kind of attention that something like "Breaking Bad" got in its "successful, but not yet earth-shattering" years. But I realize that it puts people off because it's <i>so</i> good at that first type of tension that it becomes all too real and painful and deep-cutting for a TV audience that prefers to watch "NCIS" over anything else. "Breaking Bad" played emotional tension terrifically, but probably not as well as its moments of "oh my god, they just blew half that guy's face off" tension. It's sad to think that "The Americans" might have the plug pulled on it before it really gets off the ground, so you can bet I'll be savouring every second of the upcoming third season. Please be nice to this show, FX, and please dear viewers, watch this amazing show so that FX doesn't need to choose between giving it pity renewals or a heartbreaking cancellation.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b><span style="font-size: large;">#5. Last Week Tonight with John Oliver</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">(HBO)</span></b><br />
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This is my third year doing a top 10 list
and the first in which I’m including a “late night” series. I established a
rule to not include shows that aired multiple times a week simply because it
would mean automatically surrendering a top 10 slot to “The Daily Show” for as
long as Jon Stewart was captaining the ship. I even held off last year putting
“Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” in my number 10 slot so as to recognize its
greatness regardless of whatever happened to Fallon when he moved to "The
Tonight Show" (his show has more or less remained the same, so no real regrets).<br />
<br />
But I have to make an exception for a superior debut year for HBO's "Last Week Tonight," a show that we've probably all forgotten premiered at the end of April amid lots of "but how is John Oliver going to differentiate this from his summer on 'The Daily Show'?" questions that seem ridiculous in retrospect. Because Oliver's weekly half hour quickly established itself as something unique and vital on television - a healthy, intelligent and strangely joyous outlet for deserved outrage based on impressively detailed research in long segments that took advantage of HBO's commercial-free model. For the first time in recent memory, television provided us with an extremely relevant and admirable watchdog service that shone a light on lesser known issues and invited us to get angry about them without ever feeling too cynical about our messed up world. Mostly, I think, because it balanced those sentiments of perplexed outrage with dancing space geckos, an all puppy Supreme Court, and Right Said Fred rewriting the lyrics to "I'm Too Sexy" about the president of Syria being an asshole. When "Last Week Tonight" deservedly wins a Peabody this spring, it will be one of the biggest no-brainers in the history of the awards.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>
#4. Transparent<br />(Amazon)</b></span><br />
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The funny thing is, I almost didn't watch "Transparent" in time to consider it for a place in my top 10 for the year. I had heard such high praise for it all through the fall but kept thinking back to the February before when I watched the original pilot posted on Amazon. I thought the series had enormous potential and applauded the hell out of Jeffrey Tambor for taking a role as complicated as Maura Pfefferman, but I found the kids pretty irritating and selfish (and I know, they were absolutely supposed to be) to the degree that picking the show up again and allowing myself to be consumed by its universe required more effort of me than just rewatching old episodes of "Parks and Rec" or something.<br />
<br />
But then I thought back to last year, when the morning after I published my top 10 list I sat down to watch Charlie Brooker's fantastic horror anthology series "Black Mirror". I've spent the entire year kicking myself for not including it in my top 10 and this year I was determined to not let anything with such potential slip away from me. Yet top 10 lists aside, I'm just so glad I finally watched "Transparent" because it is almost the definitive thesis on why I love television. Sure, it's a show specifically about transgender issues and sexual identity, which brings much-needed visibility to that community to a wider audience (even if it's only the small number of subscribers who watched the show on Amazon Prime). But more generally it's a show about relationships, many of which are in crisis and many of which are in the process of either rebuilding or finally being created after periods of being long overdue. I watch TV because I want to know how real people with real feelings and real difficulties face real problems. When the problems are this specific and give the voiceless a voice, it transcends being a great show and also becomes a necessary show.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b><span style="font-size: large;">#3. Broad City</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">(Comedy Central)</span></b><br />
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I had been doing some Comedy Central bingeing back in the early part of the year, watching some of their currently airing series as well as catching up on the first season of "Nathan For You". I was so impressed by their renaissance and very eager to tell my friend about all these shows I wanted her to watch, and yet the show I was probably the most enthused about (and knew she would like the most) likely made the smallest impression on her.<br />
<br />
But the relative, superficial unimpressiveness of "Broad City," perhaps the lowest concept comedy on TV (executive producer Amy Poehler's pitch to Comedy Central was likely just "they're friends in New York City and weird things happen to them and it's just really hilarious and I'm beloved comedian Amy Poehler so you will put this on the air"), is also what makes the show the year's best and funniest sitcom and one of the most impressive debut seasons for any show I've seen in quite some time. Now granted, Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson have been a comedy duo for quite some time, with "Broad City" originating as a web series on YouTube - albeit taking a different form from the current series. I still find it remarkable, though, how assured the two are in their comedic voice and the tone of the show. To my mind, it's the best first season of a sitcom since "Arrested Development," which is appropriate considering how much Ilana Glazer looks like Alia Shawkat's older sister.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">
#2. Orange Is The New Black<br />(Netflix)</span></b><br />
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"Orange is the New Black" was a show I liked a lot in its first season - as you may recall, it landed at #6 on my top 10 list last year. But it was a show that many people had poised to leap into the spot of "obvious successor to 'Breaking Bad' as the best show on TV," and I just wasn't prepared to get on board with that. Sure, it was obviously a good show, but it wasn't <i>that</i> good, was it?<br />
<br />
Well then I watched the entirety of the second season over the weekend it was released back in June, and screw that, you guys. I am fully on board the train now. The clear goal of the first season was to use Taylor Schilling's Piper as our audience surrogate into the larger world of the Litchfield Prison. And once the show got her story out of the way of all the other more interesting characters (save for some minor annoying L-plots involving Larry and his new girlfriend or whatever), "Orange is the New Black" was able to echo one of TV's all-time greatest dramas in "Lost" by having episodes parallel in-prison stories with a particular inmate at the center of them with flashbacks to their lives on the outside world showing us how they ended up where they are or what sort of person they used to be. It is a show that is both deeply committed to and caring of its characters, and writes them with authenticity and vulnerability. I mean, Poussey is not a character that on the surface tests will with the focus groups, but there was maybe nothing more heartbreaking in the entire second season of "Orange" than the flashbacks to her adolescence as a military brat, constantly having love ripped away from her when father decided to up and move. That's about as universal a disappointment and sadness as any of us can relate to. When you have characters like <i>that</i> in your television show, it's pretty difficult to mess it up.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>
#1. Review with Forrest Macneil<br />(Comedy Central)</b></span><br />
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I love when something sneaks up on me like
this – it happened last year to an extent with “Enlightened,” a show I had long
thought of only as “that weird thing with Laura Dern that comes on after
‘Girls’” before finally experiencing it firsthand. And it happened again this
year when very randomly in the middle of March, Comedy Central unleashed
“Review” to the masses, Andy Daly’s long-stuck-in-development-hell
show-within-a-show adaptation of an Australian series about a critic who
reviews “life itself” rather than food, books, or film.<br />
<br />
Now had "Review" maintained the level of quality it displayed in its first two episodes, the show probably still would have given me enough chuckles and proved itself different enough from other mockumentary type things to earn a place somewhere in my second ten list. I found it pushed the boundaries of familiar cringe-worthy comedy into some very funny places without really shifting into full gear. And then came episode three, entitled "Pancakes, Divorce, Pancakes" which proved that seemingly mild-mannered Forrest Macneil was willing to not only sacrifice his well-being for the sake of his television show, but actively destroy his own life for it. It was a dark episode that put a bigger pit in my stomach than the 30 pancakes put in Forrest's, and should not have been topped. But two weeks later, Forrest was assigned to review what it would be like to go to space - he invited along his ex-father in law and inadvertently killed him on the shuttle.<br />
<br />
Central to the show's narrative was the relationship between Forrest and the audience responsible for assigning him his reviews. It was clear part way through the season that the audience had realized Forrest was blindly committed to this premise no matter the cost to him personally, but it's interesting to see how they take advantage of him: they're not really being malicious, I don't think - it's more just that they've realized he'll do whatever they ask of him and are curious to see what would happen to him when placed in very abnormal circumstances. The audience at most is likely very ambivalent about what Forrest relates to them about the experiences he reviews each week - and yet by the end of the season, this show and these people by extension are all he has left. To them, Forrest isn't anyone but the guy on TV who does crazy things. He's just as much a character to them as he is to us, and it's a really insightful commentary on how we find validation in a world where we're constantly plugged in.<br />
<br />
Perhaps the most interesting (and/or disturbing) thing of all about this show is that I think you could create a fan edit of "Review" as a horror series and all you would need to do is replace the show's opening credits with that of "Black Mirror". Need I say more about why "Review" was the best show on television for 2014?<br />
<br />
<b>Other shows considered for a place in the top 20</b>: Black-ish, Brooklyn Nine Nine, Community, Enlisted, The Goldbergs, The Good Wife, Louie, The Middle, Moone Boy, Orphan Black, Parenthood, Parks and Recreation, Scandal, Silicon Valley, Trophy Wife, True Detective, Veep, You're the Worst.<br />
<br />
<b>Stay sharp, 2015!</b>Brendan Noelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01355501477653448329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196027173447098748.post-30434132515794193852014-12-30T22:52:00.000-05:002015-02-21T23:03:56.490-05:00Year End 2014: Close, but no cigar<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The annual best of the year series continues with a look at my "second ten" for the year in television. Much like with last year's second ten, almost all of these shows would be top ten worthy in a lesser year of quality programming, but given how many outlets we now get "small screen content" from, it seems unlikely we'll ever get another slow year. But hey, no complaining from me! (Just ignore any time I tweet about how hard it is to keep up with everything currently airing, like the two or three episodes of "Scandal" and "How to Get Away with Murder" currently sitting on my DVR which will be lucky to be watched even before they both return at the end of January).<br />
<br />
To the list!<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">#20. King of the Nerds</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">(TBS)</span></b><br />
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The best reality competition show on television also remains one of the medium's most hidden gems. In a TV landscape where the most superficial representation of nerd culture attains the small screen's biggest audience, "King of the Nerds" thrives creatively because of its refusal to pander to the broad, young-skewing, all-encompassing laughter-loving TBS audience. While I would rank the first season cast slightly above this year's, no nerd from the debut season holds a candle to Zack Storch, one of the most entertaining lunatics cast on a reality show this side of the E! network. And like in the first season, "King of the Nerds" once again made <a href="http://robhasawebsite.com/king-of-the-nerds-sprints-to-the-finish-and-faceplants-again-brendan-noel/" target="_blank">major miscalculations</a> in its season finale last spring, but the unrelenting self-aware fun and goofiness of this show make me so, so happy Curtis Armstrong and his team will get a third try in a few weeks' time.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b>#19. The Fosters</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b>(ABC Family)</b></span><br />
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I didn’t really find enough shows to round
out a full list of 10, but catching up on “The Fosters” over the summer really
inspired me to try and make a separate top 10, as part of all these year-end
lists, for “TV shows that make me feel good about the universe”. The
heartwarming and mostly authentic family drama is among the best things ABC
Family has ever aired, well written and with a pretty stellar young cast (I
watched all 32 episodes having no idea that star Maia Mitchell is actually
Australian).<br />
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<span lang="EN-US">Most importantly, this is a show I would
want my children to be watching. It oozes positivity in a way that never feels
like a treacly after school special, but rather an overdue outlet for a lot of
demographics that don’t currently have a voice on television (juvenile
delinquents, children in foster care, blended families, and teens questioning
their sexuality to name just a few). Among the themes it consistently
emphasizes are that differences should be embraced because they make people
special and offer opportunities for growth and learning; family is created by
love, not just by blood; and no matter how many times a person is kicked down,
there is always a hand to help you back up if we concede that trying to live
for ourselves alone is a fool’s errand. I’m just so, so happy this is something
that exists.</span><br />
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b>#18. Girls</b></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b>(HBO)</b></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjY6wBWI_UBYKlZao0nkITcW4LpjET8sOiMke8dhoIrZgheLH6z8dGOI0G7FoecuSxjOY7KuoUNbmhCXrQxR-lDXOUq6_sOKPUOZcvW0s3tl6tP5OEmb6sPllS5qe0oKGvRc-pdHncWII/s1600/girls-season-3-judd-apatow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjY6wBWI_UBYKlZao0nkITcW4LpjET8sOiMke8dhoIrZgheLH6z8dGOI0G7FoecuSxjOY7KuoUNbmhCXrQxR-lDXOUq6_sOKPUOZcvW0s3tl6tP5OEmb6sPllS5qe0oKGvRc-pdHncWII/s1600/girls-season-3-judd-apatow.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
There are critics who feel it's unfair that the second season of "Girls" has been underrated for taking some experimental (but ultimately all too fracturing, in my opinion) risks. And that doesn't change the fact that I love episodes like "One Man's Trash" or "Video Games". But the third season that aired earlier this year only reaffirmed for me that I was right to feel disarmed by the somewhat sloppier (in a bad way) tone of the show's 2013 run. By keeping a tighter narrative through-line with all of her show's characters, but particularly with Hannah and her relationship with Adam as they both prepared to enter uncharted professional waters, creator/writer/star/key grip Lena Dunham led an effective build to a very satisfying conclusion to the season (which for "Girls" means leaving most of the characters in varying states of misery), neither of which occurred when weekly sojourns into Patrick Wilson's home or Jessa's parents house upstate made Adam's sprint through Brooklyn via Facetime feel like a perplexing and uncomfortable denouement for season two (also in a bad way). I hope the show's creative juices are still flowing as we prepare to enter the fourth season.<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b>#17. The Chair</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b>(Starz)</b></span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPaL5D4-fHYYWsRDWGKaFILU_-NzctCkHtIqxUm2-AyIWyyPHNIRE_Cct3CtD1ISy0N41BgfE5fYysd2zBsapoKtKGuZABCrubNFwC-7-nSv9HNcs_vhJGlSEbyf0dNsiKsiNWYZSZ08M/s1600/Anna_Martemucci___Director_of__Hollidaysburg____6_.0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPaL5D4-fHYYWsRDWGKaFILU_-NzctCkHtIqxUm2-AyIWyyPHNIRE_Cct3CtD1ISy0N41BgfE5fYysd2zBsapoKtKGuZABCrubNFwC-7-nSv9HNcs_vhJGlSEbyf0dNsiKsiNWYZSZ08M/s1600/Anna_Martemucci___Director_of__Hollidaysburg____6_.0.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
While I'll praise "King of the Nerds" until I'm blue in the face, there was no reality television experience this year that I found more satisfying than Starz' "filmmaking experiment" "The Chair," which pitted two first-time directors against each other as they each made a film using the same script. Thankfully, the rather pointless competition aspect of the show was almost an afterthought (shockingly, YouTube superstar Shane Dawson got more fan votes from the online poll than small indie filmmaker Anna Martemucci) and the pure, gritty, occasionally ugly side of making movies emerged, creating one of the most authentic and gripping reality/documentary projects since the early days of "Survivor". And as someone who watched Shane Dawson videos in my high school days and then naturally outgrew them (as one really should), there were fewer scenes of television in 2014 that felt more primally, schadenfraude-y amusing than executive producer Zachary Quinto's disgusted tirade against Dawson's film "Not Cool" (even if Quinto, who I'm really not a fan of, came off like a smug, holier-than-thou douche while doing so). Of all the show's in my top 20 for the year, this is far and away the one I'm hoping gets renewed for another season.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b>#16. Hannibal</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b>(NBC)</b></span><br />
<br />
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I'm going to echo what a lot of critics I admire have been saying about "Hannibal" since it premiered in the spring of 2013: it defies logic that this show exists in any form, let alone that exists on network television and is as good as it is. After a first season finale that flipped the roles of Lecter and his pursuer, "Hannibal" only grew more frightening but twisted-ly beautiful in 2014, turning the Hannibal/Will Graham cat and mouse game into a three act performance that culminated in such horrific and violent tragedy that still looked as utterly gorgeous as anything put on film in the decade thus far. And then there was the episode where TV's Michael Pitt cut off pieces of his face and fed them to Will's dogs, before slicing off his nose and eating that himself (but say "fuck" and the FCC will end you). NBC, please just tell me when the show is coming back on the air. I really don't care if you show it Sundays at noon after "Meet the Press" - we're past the point where a mainstream audience might get behind this orgasmic nightmare - nor do I care when you're airing "The Slap". Please just put it back on Friday at 10 soon so I can make the end of my week just a little bit more awesomely queasy.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">#15. Inside Amy Schumer</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">(Comedy Central)</span></b><br />
<br /></div>
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Fewer TV shows in 2014 proved themselves as necessary to cultural conversation as "Inside Amy Schumer" did with its continually hilarious dark examination of 21st century feminism. More so than in its first season, Schumer found a deft balance between expressing a bitter and even sometimes sinister resentment over the treatment of women in the entertainment industry (or like, in general) and joyfully mocking the exact types of character archetypes she's been expected to play for her entire career. As alluded to in my best episodes list, the season's second instalment ("I'm So Bad") touched on military rape, the fact that society shames women for nothing more than they shame them for their weight, and the controversially idiotic "are women funny?" question that kept popping up online for a few years - all in under 22 minutes. And Schumer's sketch show also provided me with three of my most viewed YouTube clips of the year - one in which <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wL9cV0-SuxY" target="_blank">the fictional Amy agrees to be the voice of a meerkat</a> in a new animated movie, the brilliant Aaron Sorkin parody <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDk5wDBR3hA" target="_blank">"The Foodroom"</a>; and a hilarious but bizarre narrative that charts <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnm5RtSaH74" target="_blank">the journey of a rather dumb woman who loves to give toasts wherever she goes</a>, as she is put on trial and executed for murdering her friend. What a shame that until this show, I thought of Schumer as only one of those tepid regulars on Comedy Central roasts.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b>#14. Looking</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b>(HBO)</b></span><br />
<br />
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I really didn't expect much from "Looking" when it premiered, other than being intrigued by default by any show about LGBT characters simply because there have been so few of them in the history of this medium. The show received not totally unfair comparisons to "Girls," primarily because Jonathan Groff's Patrick shared many annoying "white people problems" as that show's Hannah Horvath seems to, nor was it as funny as I expected it to be (even if HBO has very few legitimate "comedies" on the air right now). But creator Michael Lannan and his team of writers managed to turn many of them into touching three dimensional characters, particularly Murray Bartlett's Dom as he dealt with the specific difficulties of growing older as a gay man. While the show dropped the ball at times with characters like Agustin, who transcended being intentionally annoying and terrible and ended up really feeling like a waste of the show's limited running time, "Looking" really nailed relationships like the one between Patrick and Richie, whose elegantly simple showcase "Looking for the Future" is one of the five best episodes of television from the past year. And kudos to the quickly changing TV landscape for the fact that this is not the highest-ranked show in my top 20 with a gay protagonist.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">#13. The Leftovers</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">(HBO)</span></b><br />
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From the beginning, "The Leftovers" felt like a dangerous exercise on the part of HBO - not because I really doubted its quality with "Lost" co-creator Damon Lindelof at the helm, but because it seemed like it was gleefully defying audience expectations for "this kind of show". Yes, "The Leftovers" would be about a very strange phenomenon that claimed 2% of the world's population in a "sudden departure," but it was made clear from well before the show began airing that it was unlikely to be exploring the "why" of any of this. All the better, I say. As a quiet, depressing reflection on how we deal with our personal grief in relation to a shared trauma, "The Leftovers" excelled particularly when pausing what little overall "plot" there was to the series to spend an hour on a supporting character and delving into how they specifically were coping two years after losing loved ones ("Two Boats and a Helicopter" and "Guest" join the aforementioned "Looking" episode on the list of the year's five best TV episodes). And the season's penultimate episode, flashing back the day before the departure, highlighted who these people used to be and how hard the coming tragedy was going to hit them all, making it a wonderful payoff to the season-long gut punch that had preceded it.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">#12. Fargo</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">(FX)</span></b><br />
<br />
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While I think the Coen brothers' "Fargo" is a terrific film, I have no real sentimental attachment to the movie (or to the Coens as directors) since I only saw it for the first time about two years ago. That being said however, I understood wholeheartedly the skepticism some had when FX announced Noah Hawley, a screenwriter with credits both <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unusuals" target="_blank">good</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Generation_(TV_series)" target="_blank">bad</a>, would be adapting the film for (what was at the time) a miniseries. Instead, FX's "Fargo," now renewed for a second season, was all at once a unique and interesting "true crime" story that felt like a respectful tribute to the film and a tonal adaptation that didn't feel like just a copycat. And I can't tell you how much I <i>love</i> the choice for the second season to focus on Molly's father during his own time on the force in the 1970s (speaking of Molly, if "Fargo" had done nothing else than introduce us to Alison Tolman, the year's best new acting find, I would have loved the shit out of it).<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">#11. Rectify</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">(SundanceTV)</span></b><br />
<br />
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The second season of "Rectify," a show so quiet (or perhaps "noiseless") you might accidentally think you had muted your TV without realizing it, strangely suffered perhaps only because an increase from six to ten episodes made the story arcs feel like they wandered a little more than they should have (much as the end of Teddy and Tawney's marriage was emotionally powerful, it definitely felt a little too drawn out even for a show that carefully takes its time when telling any individual story). But otherwise, "Rectify" remains a compelling drama that certainly isn't for everyone, but with thoughtful writing and great performances for those who appreciate its commitment to rich storytelling.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b><i>#10.5. Too Many Cooks</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b><i>(Adult Swim)</i></b></span><br />
<br />
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A bonus entry! I know there are people who hate "Too Many Cooks," and to them I would apologize for getting the theme song re-stuck in their heads for the next two months. But I will not apologize for recognizing that "Too Many Cooks" is by far one of the most creative, funny, and original "things" of television not just to air in 2014, but ever broadcast anywhere by anyone. In a digital landscape where the boundaries and definitions of TV are constantly being challenged and reformatted by streaming video and even those weird, YouTube-only web series that somehow qualify for Emmy consideration, it is remarkable that there are still new avenues in which content is being offered and discovered. Even if that avenue is a disturbing, bizarre 11-minute viral video parodying the tropes and opening credits of various televisual predecessors, disguised by Adult Swim as an infomercial airing at four o'clock in the morning. Because I have to agree with <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/11/the-less-you-know-about-adult-swims-viral-sensation-too-many-cooks-the-better/382529/" target="_blank"><i>The Atlantic</i>'s David Sims</a> - we all went crazy for the absurd, relentless strangeness of "Too Many Cooks" for a week in early November, but can you imagine how terrifying it would be to randomly stumble across that at 4:00am, or how cool it would have been if the network didn't make it available anywhere online and we all had to stay up and stumble upon it ourselves after a friend told us about it? Especially considering anyone still watching Adult Swim that late is probably stoned out of their mind? In my opinion, to not recognize "Too Many Cooks" somewhere in my year end series would have been a rather large gap in discussing the small screen's achievements in 2014.<br />
<br />
<b>Next up:</b> *the* correct top 10 shows of the year. Completely and totally un-quibble-able.Brendan Noelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01355501477653448329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196027173447098748.post-7577996936168810632014-12-18T22:17:00.001-05:002014-12-18T22:20:17.953-05:00Year End 2014: My favourite TV episodes of the year<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
Do not adjust your picture, this is indeed a new entry over here on the ol' Blogspot! I continue a grand holiday tradition here at the blog (shut up, three years can be long enough for tradition) by kicking off my year end series for 2014 with a list of my favourite episodes of television from this calendar year.<br />
<br />
The list is extensive but still probably by no means definitive (I definitely slacked on keeping good tabs on it in the fall), but is still a reflection of some of the small's screen specific highlights over the last twelve months.<br />
<br />
<br />
The full list after the break!<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><b><span lang="EN-US">Favourite
TV episodes of 2014</span></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“Introduction
to Teaching” – January 2, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Community
– NBC<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">And order was restored to the universe with
just four simple words: “Executive Producer, Dan Harmon”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“Promises”
– January 2, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Parenthood
– NBC<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">In which Hank comes to the shocking
realization he may have been living his entire life with undiagnosed
Asperger’s. The heartbreaking performance from Ray Romano was tragically
overlooked.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“The
Big 5-0” – January 7, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Trophy
Wife – ABC<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">A hilarious and brilliantly written
escalation of madness befalls Pete on his 50<sup>th</sup> birthday. One of many
episodes that make me miss this show so much.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“Truth
or Dare” – January 12, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Girls
– HBO<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Adam, Hannah, and Shoshanna embark on a
bizarre if strangely nostalgic road trip to pick up Jessa from rehab. As funny
and cringe worthy as “Girls” gets.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“The
Punisher” – January 14, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Trophy
Wife – ABC<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">In a different TV universe, this episode
would have won Malin Akerman an Emmy for showing off Kate’s mature, parental
and legitimately disciplinarian side. But hey, let’s give one of TV’s worst
shows a fifth fucking gold trophy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“Cooperative
Polygraphy” – January 16, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Community
– NBC<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The study group confronts Pierce’s death
and examines their dynamics in one of the year’s best episodes of anything.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“House
and Home” – January 20, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">The
Fosters – ABC Family<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">In which we are introduced to Callie’s new
home at Girls United, one of the best parts of the series to date. Callie’s
home now, but luckily Daphne and company are still in her life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“Birthday”
– January 21, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">New
Girl – FOX<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">It’s sad that New Girl has become a show
where I can now put an episode of it on this list simply for being funny, but
here we are. Nick’s efforts to throw Jess the surprise party of her life were a
welcome reminder of what this show is capable of after a bumpy fall of 2013.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“The
Carpool” – January 22, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">The
Middle – ABC<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">“The Middle” offers another reminder that
it can be such a nice, sentimental show without beating you over the head about
it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“Pete’s
Airstream” – January 24, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Enlisted
– FOX<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Television has never hit on the subject of
PTSD quite so effectively, and especially not in what is otherwise a goofy
comedy about life on a military base.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“How
Your Mother Met Me” – January 27, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">How
I Met Your Mother – CBS<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">I didn’t want to punch this show and
everyone on it in the face when I was watching it. So there’s that. (But
seriously, Cristin Milioti singing “La Vie en Rose” was pretty spectacular.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“Muscles
Mirsky” – February 4, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">The
Goldbergs – ABC<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">This wasn’t really any more spectacular a
“Goldbergs” episode than what they do at their best, until a final montage set
to the relatively obscure (for this show, at least) “Kyrie” by Mr. Mister proved
Adam F. Goldberg actually has a sense of irony and/or subtlety.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“Exes”
– February 4, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">New
Girl – FOX<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Schmidt, Coach, and Winston generate some
interesting ways to woo ladies, as “New Girl” once again produces an actually
funny episode.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“The
Party” – February 4, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Brooklyn
Nine Nine – FOX<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">In which we are taken into the home life of
Captain Holt and his husband, and we learn that Holt truly is “the funny one”
in the relationship. Great work as usual from Andre Braugher – boy, February 4
sure was a good night for laughter!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“Ready,
Set, Robot Dodgeball” – February 13, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">King
of the Nerds – TBS<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The nerds build their own dodgeball playing
robots, and Zack’s meltdowns reach DEFCON 1. Is it January 23 yet?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“Iron
City” – February 16, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Shameless
– Showtime<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Probably the best episode of the series to
date and the peak of the careers for so many of the actors featured in it. Is
it January 11 yet?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“Looking
For The Future” – February 16, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Looking
– HBO<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">I said it in my Emmy ballot writeup – more
TV episodes need to just be two people having a conversation, exposing all
their vulnerabilities. What a phenomenal work of art.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“Incidentals”
– February 23, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Girls
– HBO<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Hannah lands a big interview with Patti
LuPone, who makes her think twice about Adam’s acting dreams. A very strong showcase
for the reliably good Lena Dunham and Adam Driver.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“Comrades”
– February 26, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">The
Americans – FX<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">“The Americans” begins its tremendous second
season with a heart stopping and horrific reality check for Phillip and
Elizabeth.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“Stolen
Phone” – February 26, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Broad
City – Comedy Central<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">In which Ilana dates an improv comic who is
ridiculously hot and unbelievably stupid and unfunny. This fucking show.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“Kaiseiki”
– February 28, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Hannibal
– NBC<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Rotting in his prison cell, Will discovers
the shocking truth that Dr. Lecter’s Soylent Green is PEOPLE!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“Flo”
– March 2, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Girls
– HBO<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Delving into the women of Hannah’s family
is unquestionably one of the best decisions Lena Dunham and “Girls” has ever
made.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“The
Frond Files” – March 9, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Bob’s
Burgers – FOX<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">A sort of “Treehouse of Horror” or “Trilogy
of Error” type episode is really only fitting for the spiritual successor to
“The Simpsons”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“The
Walk-In” – March 12, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">The
Americans – FX<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Another strong “Americans” episode that
focuses on Elizabeth Jennings’ conflict between mission and motherhood –
featuring the gorgeous final montage set to “Here Comes The Flood” where she
burns Emmett and Leanne’s letter to Jared. This show sure knows how to use a
Peter Gabriel song.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“Apartment
Hunters” – March 19, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Broad
City – Comedy Central<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">My God, that “Started From The Bottom” cold
open is still a regular watch for me on YouTube many months later. “I also have
some business with the bank...I’d like to cash these nickels, and I’ll take them
in quarters please, thank you so much.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“Pancakes,
Divorce, Pancakes” – March 20, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Review
with Forrest Macneil – Comedy Central<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">This is just THE<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> television episode of the year. The moment in which what appears at
first glance to be just a silly parody of reality shows becomes an incredibly
sad and dark intrusion into the decay of a man who could be any of our
neighbours. Bravo, Andy Daly. Bra-vo.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“Takiawase”
– March 21, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Hannibal
– NBC<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Until an episode from later on this list,
no moment on TV this year had me more on the edge of my seat than when Hannibal
Lecter cornered Beverly in his basement and gunshots burst through the dining
room floor above them. Ho-ly shit.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“Charges
and Specs” – March 25, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Brooklyn
Nine Nine – FOX<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The best work of the season for Andy
Samberg as Peralta is sent undercover in the first season finale.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“The
Last Call” – March 30, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">The
Good Wife – CBS<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Fuck the haters. I know there are people
who didn’t enjoy 42 minutes of Julianna Margulies’ lip quivering (and by
extension that it won her this year’s Emmy) but I thought she was fantastic
here. This episode also has the scene where Diane fires the random intern
crying about Will’s death, which was pretty badass even if self-indulgent on
the part of the show.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“Having
a Best Friend, Going to Space” – April 3, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Review
with Forrest Macneil – Comedy Central<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">In terms of horrifying but side-splitting
dark humour, there was no way “Review” should have been able to top the
existential crisis that was Forrest Macneil having to eat 30 pancakes in one
sitting. And then he killed his father-in-law on a trip to space. I love this
show so, so much.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“I’m
So Bad” – April 8, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Inside
Amy Schumer – Comedy Central<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Ripping off my Emmy ballot post again, an
episode that perfectly encapsulates what “Inside Amy Schumer” is – a powerfully
dark satire of 21<sup>st</sup> century femininity as seen by both male and
female gaze.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“The
Pontiac” – April 17, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Parenthood
– NBC<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">A fantastic finale that nicely balances the
good and bad feels of “Parenthood”. Jason Katims apparently knew the way to my
heart is through Richie Havens, and his cover of “The Times They Are
A-Changin’” scores a beautiful montage that closes a largely uneven season.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“The
Price of Free and Fair Elections” – April 17, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Scandal
– ABC<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">This is the show I kept waiting for
“Scandal” to become again after the season premiere. The show only works when
the “OMG” moments actually matter, and the third season finale finally
remembers that.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“A
Day’s Work” – April 20, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Mad
Men – AMC<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">It’s hard to say anything here other than
“classic Mad Men,” which is still about as good as TV gets. Seven to go...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“Martial
Eagle” – April 23, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">The
Americans – FX<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">In a just world, this would have been the
submission that clinched the Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series Emmy for
Matthew Rhys. Phillip ripping the pages out of the bible and screaming at his
daughter about how she respects Jesus but not her parents was so, so terrific.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“Governed
As It Were By Chance” – May 10, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Orphan
Black – Space<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">I wasn’t as in love with the second season
of “Orphan Black” as the first, but damn, when Helena corners Sarah in the
hotel room...more television needs to be legitimately terrifying.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“So
Did The Fat Lady” – May 12, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Louie
– FX<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">It is a travesty of epic proportions that
Sarah Baker didn’t even get nominated for an Emmy for her performance here.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“The
Strategy” – May 18, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Mad
Men – AMC<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">God, that last shot of Don, Peggy, and Pete
eating together at Burgerchef like a weird little family. I’m going to miss
this show so, so much.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“Waterloo”
– May 25, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Mad
Men – AMC<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">“Mad Men” remains the only show on TV that
could so something as bizarre and wonderful as Bert Cooper’s parting dance.
Bravo, indeed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“Optimal
Tip-to-Tip Efficiency” – June 1, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Silicon
Valley – HBO<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">I was not really on board with “Silicon
Valley” for its first seven episodes. Its season finale slapped me in the face
with its brilliantly childish but elaborately considered metaphor of a climax.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“Crate”
– June 8, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Veep
– HBO<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The scene where Selina and Gary just break
down cackling in the bathroom when they find out she’s going to become
president is a hallmark moment for the careers of both Julia Louis-Dreyfus and
Tony Hale. Just fantastic.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“Souvenir
Shop/E.L.A.I.F.F.” – July 8, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Nathan
For You – Comedy Central<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Don’t ever say Nathan Fielder doesn’t
commit to his premises. “Souvenir Shop/E.L.A.I.F.F.” is the greatest comedic
build on TV for the year, even more so than “Pancakes, Divorce, Pancakes”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“Two
Boats and a Helicopter” – July 13, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">The
Leftovers – HBO<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Kicking off “The Leftovers’” Trilogy of Sad
Character Studies with Father Matt’s valiant and risky attempts to save his
church. The roulette wheel scene might have been my most “edge of my seat” TV
moment of the year.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“Act
As If” – July 17, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Rectify
– SundanceTV<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">A trippy dream-like night for Daniel Holden
as he shoots at pigeons and stuff – it’s just another week in which “Rectify”
sneakily and quietly punches you in the gut.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“Dumb
Starbucks” – July 29, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Nathan
For You – Comedy Central<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">I actually didn’t love how much this
episode really only came together in post-production, but it’s hard to leave a
legitimately big pop culture moment for the year off this list when it’s
something as funny as this.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“Keys
Open Doors” – July 31, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">You’re
the Worst – FX<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Gretchen realizes she’s accidentally asked
Jimmy for a key to his place and the two worst people in the world begin to
wonder if they actually have feelings for each other.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“Guest”
– August 3, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">The
Leftovers – HBO<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The trilogy continues as Carrie Coon
emerges as one of the year’s brightest new stars on the small screen.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“Girls
Reunited” – August 4, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">The
Fosters – ABC Family<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The return of Daphne and co., hooray!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“The
Garveys At Their Best” – August 24, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">The
Leftovers – HBO<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Flashing back to the day before the Sudden
Departure reflects the quiet beauty of the ordinary in Mapleton and leads “The
Leftovers” to its best episode of the season.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“Constant
Horror and Bone Deep Dissatisfaction” – September 11, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">You’re
the Worst – FX<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Flashbacks show how Gretchen and Jimmy
first meet, and by extension, how they became the sad and miserable people they
never wanted to become. Beautiful stuff all around here.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“Episode
18 – Cuba Embargo, Miss America” – September 21, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Last
Week Tonight with John Oliver – HBO<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">A transcendent moment for “Last Week
Tonight” in which the show proves it’s not just a reliable place for comedy and
necessary cultural conversation, but a powerful watchdog in a country that
desperately needs one of those as well.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“Scroggin”
– September 23, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Please
Like Me – ABC2/Pivot<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Josh and Rose go camping in the mountains
and the two-person bottle episode (if the Tasmanian wilderness can be a bottle)
sucker in me fangirls all over the place. Also, Debra Lawrence singing the
show’s theme song was so great.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“Pilot”
– September 25, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">How
To Get Away With Murder – ABC<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">It has not yielded a great series, but the
“HTGAWM” pilot seemed to be setting up some intriguing storylines and interesting
character dynamics that had the potential to pay off.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“Bill
Hader/Hozier” – October 11, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Saturday
Night Live – NBC<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Maybe for 39 cents a day we can support SNL
writers to generate episodes like this on a weekly basis.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“Oppo
Research” – October 12, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">The
Good Wife – CBS<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The beginning of Alicia’s campaign for
state’s attorney has Eli and the team digging through her dirty laundry,
producing the funniest episode of the show’s fall run.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“Family
Takes Care of Beverly” – October 29, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">The
Goldbergs – ABC<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Wendi McClendon-Covey is seriously giving
the most underrated performance on television. Somehow she’s making it seem as
if she’s invented every hovering mother trope in the book because her energy is
just so electrically infectious.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“Cock
Magic” – November 19, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">South
Park – Comedy Central<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">“South Park” would be wise to remember more
often that straying from topical satire often yields the best episode of their
season.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“The
Trial” – November 23, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">The
Good Wife – CBS<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Cary’s fate is revealed (kinda) and Lemond
Bishop becomes a legitimate supervillain in a good kind of bonkers episode.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">“The
College Tour” – December 3, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">The
Middle – ABC<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
How many ways are there to say that the
quiet beauty of “The Middle” is its ability to be heartfelt and touching
without feeling treacly and prying emotions out of you?<br />
<br />
<b>Up next:</b> My second ten best shows for another strong year in television.</div>
Brendan Noelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01355501477653448329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196027173447098748.post-48243888066191218512014-07-15T22:25:00.000-04:002016-06-19T00:02:07.309-04:002014 Emmy nominations post-mortem: Ugh, Emmys, go wait in the car until we're done TV-ing<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiegvLCRPa1v0c_qJEbtMGNatqx0fbQsam_5agJoQ8quyJhLWFNuuf58JtVZdcAp1Xb3EBX3JPhjSusWs_TBegQM7QJ5k-IBJMMjtFP8KvBeu2OBTfvmaN_nlpjYlZ76T9avCWxuUYxkU/s1600/66th+Primetime+Emmy+Awards+Nominations+gZGbOLy7HLsl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="206" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiegvLCRPa1v0c_qJEbtMGNatqx0fbQsam_5agJoQ8quyJhLWFNuuf58JtVZdcAp1Xb3EBX3JPhjSusWs_TBegQM7QJ5k-IBJMMjtFP8KvBeu2OBTfvmaN_nlpjYlZ76T9avCWxuUYxkU/s1600/66th+Primetime+Emmy+Awards+Nominations+gZGbOLy7HLsl.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"> Mindy Kaling of "The Mindy Project" and Carson Daly of<br />
"The Voice" announce the nominations for The 66th<br />
Primetime Emmy Awards in North Hollywood on Thursday<br />
(July 10) morning.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
The most wonderful time of the year in television is that special Thursday morning in July when reporters and critics on the TV beat (at least the ones located on the west coast, where most television is produced) are awoken at 5 o'clock in the morning to hear two semi-famous television people read off most of the major nominations for the Primetime Emmy Awards. Some of these nominations are downright infuriating. Some of them are completely unexpected and pleasant delights. And the rest are somewhere in between, the recognition you'd expect to see but aren't jumping up and down about (partly because you're so tired).<br />
<br />
But after about an hour, you start to realize that those three categories don't really exist simultaneously - rather, they are the sort of "Five Stages of Emmy Grief" that one goes through when they are forced to process a prestigious voting body showering recognition on works of art they feel passionate about on a very limited amount of sleep. On Thursday I found myself turning into Comic Book Guy from "The Simpsons" and tweeting things like "Worst. Nominations. Ever." and "Really Emmys? Really," but with time to really take it all in I've realized that the nominations this year aren't really any worse than other years, nor should I continue to react with such haste in future years. The Emmys are at best a compromise, often paying dues to the quality programs that are simultaneously popular while tragically ignoring the ones that are not. Such is life. The process for nominating and organizing categories is so very, very broken, but this is not the place to suggest alternatives, nor am I the person to suggest them. What I am the person for is being annoyed and complaining or using too many exclamation points when I like things. Oh, and of course, what I hope is at least a vaguely knowledgable sense of the history, voting patterns, and other weird tics of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.<br />
<br />
So if you're down with that, let's go category by category for opinions, predictions, and other crap. And if you missed my hypothetical ballot from Wednesday, <a href="http://noelivision.blogspot.ca/2014/07/my-hypothetical-2014-emmy-ballot.html" target="_blank">click here</a>.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><b><u>Outstanding Comedy Series</u></b><br />
<i>The Big Bang Theory</i> (CBS)<br />
<i>Louie</i> (FX)<br />
<i>Modern Family</i> (ABC)<br />
<i>Orange is the New Black</i> (Netflix)<br />
<i>Silicon Valley</i> (HBO)<br />
<i>Veep</i> (HBO)<br />
<br />
<b>Defending champion:</b> <i>Modern Family</i><br />
<br />
This will really be the race to watch come August 25. Because there's a very important question that will dominate pundit predictions from now until the envelopes are opened not just in this category, but in a number of other major comedy categories as well: which show do Emmy voters like more - old favourite "Veep," or "Orange is the New Black," the buzziest new comedy to enter awards season since the debut year for "Modern Family" and "Glee"? At this point, I still don't feel entirely comfortable making an educated guess on this one, nor do I really care which one will actually emerge victorious since they're easily my two favourite shows in this category. But gun to my head, I'm picking "Orange," based pretty much entirely on the fact that "Veep" didn't add as many significant nominations this year as they could have. While they picked up a writing nod and Gary Cole entered the guest actor category, two nominations (in combination with a half dozen first time technical nods) that are nothing to sneeze at, "Orange" nabbed pretty much every nomination it could have in major categories save for Danielle Brooks (one of the most shameful snubs of Thursday morning, might I add). It got its easy nominations for Taylor Schilling and Kate Mulgrew, but with Uzo Aduba, Laverne Cox, and Natahsa Lyonne all getting nominated in the guest actress category, "Orange" feels like it's reached something resembling minor juggernaut status right out of the gate. And to me that feels even more significant than the impressive growth that "Veep" has shown over the last three years.<br />
<br />
Elsewhere, I'm not seeing any show with a shot at winning. Every year I try to argue that the "Modern Family" domination period is over, and while it hasn't proven true yet, this year I believe it more than ever: third consecutive year without a writing nomination, Ed O'Neill and Sofia Vergara falling out of their respective categories, etc. In the past it became easy to vote "Modern Family" on reflex because there were no new comedies premiering with any buzz, but "Orange" is definitely now that buzzier show. The peak of Louis C.K.-mania has passed, and if "Louie" couldn't win last year it won't win this year. Same story for "The Big Bang Theory": every year GoldDerby expresses utter bafflement that the show doesn't pick up nominations for writing or directing or for Simon Helberg (and by extension, their confusing of mainstream taste vs. quality) and when they get those nominations, roughly at <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOkufcf9tGo" target="_blank">the same time when Cleveland will get that Ikea</a>, I'll consider the show to have a fighting chance.<br />
<br />
One of the biggest surprises of all the nominations was "Silicon Valley" turning up here, a show that never really clicked with me until the season finale. They got two other major nominations - a writing nod for that aforementioned finale, which I won't quibble with, and a directing nod for their premiere that I probably would take issue with - but I'd be shocked if that's enough to leap past two of the most nominated shows this year.<br />
<br />
<b>Should Win:</b> <i>Veep</i><br />
<b>Will Win:</b> <i>Orange is the New Black</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<br />
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<i><br /></i>
<b><u>Outstanding Drama Series</u></b><br />
<i>Breaking Bad</i> (AMC)<br />
<i>Downton Abbey</i> (PBS)<br />
<i>Game of Thrones</i> (HBO)<br />
<i>House of Cards</i> (Netflix)<br />
<i>Mad Men</i> (AMC)<br />
<i>True Detective</i> (HBO)<br />
<br />
<b>Defending champion:</b> <i>Breaking Bad</i><br />
<br />
There's a similar two-way race in this category. The "Mad Men" domination period is in the rear-view mirror, as is the sheen of "House of Cards" being the first series produced for web television to get nominations last year. Weakened seasons certainly won't help the perennially nominated but win-less "Game of Thrones" and "Downton Abbey". That leaves "Breaking Bad" and "True Detective" the only real shows with any shot at the trophy. It's possible that the latter could get a surprise win, but I feel like it needed a supporting actress nomination for Michelle Monaghan or something else significant like that to bring it to the "1" level of "Bad" rather than the "1a" slot it currently sits in. It's a strange category because it has both the biggest chance of an upset occurring but is also probably one of the biggest locks of the night. I mean, "Breaking Bad" can't be beaten...can it?<br />
<br />
<b>Should Win:</b> <i>Mad Men</i><br />
<b>Will Win:</b> <i>Breaking Bad</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<br />
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<i><br /></i>
<b><u>Outstanding Variety Series</u></b><br />
<i>The Colbert Report</i> (Comedy Central)<br />
<i>The Daily Show with Jon Stewart</i> (Comedy Central)<br />
<i>Jimmy Kimmel Live!</i> (ABC)<br />
<i>Real Time with Bill Maher</i> (HBO)<br />
<i>Saturday Night Live </i>(NBC)<br />
<i>The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon</i> (NBC)<br />
<br />
<b>Defending champion:</b> <i>The Colbert Report</i><br />
<br />
Zzzzzz. If it weren't for "SNL," they could rename this category "Outstanding Talk Show". Don't get me wrong, I still love Stewart and Colbert, and Jimmy Fallon is probably hosting the best of all the boring late-night talk shows. But I'm impatiently waiting for the day that the Emmys remember that the category is <i>not</i> just called "Outstanding Talk Show," and maybe they should check out some of the other fine programs that submitted in this category like "Key and Peele," "Kroll Show," and "Inside Amy Schumer".<br />
<br />
And otherwise? Not an impressive field of nominees in the slightest. I still find it kind of strange and amusing that formerly irrelevant Jimmy Kimmel clawed and scraped his way over the last decade to the level of "Oh yeah I watch his viral clips online sometimes" with the best of 'em, but he's not doing anything on the level of Stewart, Colbert, and certainly not John Oliver (whose "Last Week Tonight" will be eligible next year and will absolutely be getting my much-coveted hypothetical vote). And I have no reaction other than bafflement at the Television Academy once again nominating "SNL," an incredibly hit and miss show (albeit by design), and "Real Time with Bill Maher," a show that I'm embarrassed I used to get enjoyment out of.<br />
<br />
Colbert broke 10 years of "Daily Show" domination last year, and with the Report about to end as the real Colbert moves into a bigger chair, I'd expect another win come Emmy night.<br />
<br />
<b>Should Win:</b> <i>The Colbert Report</i><br />
<b>Will Win:</b> <i>The Colbert Report</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<br />
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<i><br /></i>
<b><u>Outstanding Miniseries</u></b><br />
<i>American Horror Story: Coven</i> (FX)<br />
<i>Bonnie and Clyde</i> (A&E)<br />
<i>Fargo</i> (FX)<br />
<i>Luther</i> (BBC America)<br />
<i>Treme</i> (HBO)<br />
<i>The White Queen</i> (Starz)<br />
<br />
<b>Last won by:</b> <i>Behind the Candelabra</i>, from combined "Movie/Miniseries" category that was split this year<br />
<br />
In case you're not aware of how broken the Emmy nomination process is, especially when it comes to the miniseries and movie categories, three of the "miniseries" in this category are or were continuing shows. Yes, "American Horror Story" rebrands with a new storyline and new characters every season - but every fall, FX still airs a season of television whose title is partially "American Horror Story" and is produced by the same creative team and stars mostly the same cast. And because the fourth and final season of "Treme" only produced five episodes, they weren't eligible to enter themselves in the drama category as they've done in years past.<br />
<br />
And I mean...obviously that works out better for them...nominated is better than not being nominated. But it's just ridiculous that there's no consistency for the rules of eligibility in these categories. Networks cheat by submitting one season duds here all the time and sometimes pick up nominations (like Ashley Judd for playing a woman who was <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNj7lD2NIjU&t=45s" target="_blank">NOT CIA, she was a MOTHER, LOOKING FOR HER SON</a> in the classic cancelled ABC drama "Missing") and even infrequent wins (Emmy mascot Andre Braugher for "Thief," a rare FX failure in the mid-Aughts). From its debut on BBC One, "Luther" has always been intended as an ongoing series. So why is it that to the Academy, "miniseries" can be used interchangeably with "British series" whenever it so chooses? Former Outstanding Miniseries winner "Downton Abbey" fraudulently won in 2011, but at least had the decency and common sense to move to the drama category with its second season. And if "AHS" wants to continue to cheat here, it's frustrating that "True Detective" is submitted as a drama when it's using an identical format. There really needs to be a position within the Academy akin to slap bet commissioner, enforcing a fair playing field and issuing rulings on categorization.<br />
<br />
Anyway, end rant. Like I said in my hypothetical ballot post, I dropped the ball in terms of keeping up with the miniseries and movies of the last TV season. But I sure loved the hell out of "Fargo"!<br />
<br />
<b>Should Win:</b> <i>Fargo</i><br />
<b>Will Win:</b> <i>Fargo</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<br />
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<i><br /></i>
<b><u>Outstanding Television Movie</u></b><br />
<i>Killing Kennedy</i> (National Geographic)<br />
<i>Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight</i> (HBO)<br />
<i>The Normal Heart </i>(HBO)<br />
<i>Sherlock: His Last Vow</i> (PBS)<br />
<i>The Trip To Bountiful</i> (Lifetime)<br />
<br />
<b>Last won by:</b> <i>Behind the Candelabra</i><br />
<br />
Sorry, one addendum to the minis/movies rant: remember that whole "Treme couldn't submit as a drama with 5 episodes" thing? Well a similar rule applies to "Sherlock," which only produces three 90 minute episodes per year. So the Academy allows them to submit individual episodes as television movies because ????? Anyway, still nothing much to say. "The Normal Heart" will win and that's frustrating to this writer, who is in no way a Ryan Murphy fan.<br />
<br />
<b>Should Win:</b> <i>Sherlock</i><br />
<b>Will Win:</b> <i>The Normal Heart</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<br />
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<i><br /></i>
<b><u>Outstanding Reality Competition Program</u></b><br />
<i>The Amazing Race</i> (CBS)<br />
<i>Dancing with the Stars</i> (ABC)<br />
<i>Project Runway</i> (Lifetime)<br />
<i>So You Think You Can Dance</i> (Fox)<br />
<i>Top Chef</i> (Bravo)<br />
<i>The Voice</i> (NBC)<br />
<br />
<b>Defending champion:</b> <i>The Voice</i><br />
<br />
The usual suspects, although this has strangely become one of the harder categories to predict after so many years of "Amazing Race" domination. After seven straight wins, it was finally beaten by (what is to my understanding, the vastly superior) "Top Chef". It could have signalled a new day in Emmy reality land, but instead the award went back to "The Amazing Race" in the following two years. Then last year, Mark Burnett presumably lobbied hard enough to get them to vote for "The Voice". But I'm reluctant to once again try and usher in a new era because voters could just up and give the Emmy back to "TAR" out of their own amusement. In the words of Tracy Jordan, you've put me in a quandary, Jack Donaghy. A quandary.<br />
<br />
<b>Should Win:</b> <i>So You Think You Can Dance</i><br />
<b>Will Win:</b> <i>The Voice</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<br />
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<i><br /></i>
<b><u>Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series</u></b><br />
Louis C.K. for playing Louie on <i>Louie</i> (FX)<br />
Don Cheadle for playing Marty Kaan on <i>House of Lies</i> (Showtime)<br />
Ricky Gervais for playing Derek Noakes on <i>Derek</i> (Netflix)<br />
Matt LeBlanc for playing Matt LeBlanc on <i>Episodes</i> (Showtime)<br />
William H. Macy for playing Frank Gallagher on <i>Shameless</i> (Showtime)<br />
Jim Parsons for playing Sheldon Cooper on <i>The Big Bang Theory</i> (CBS)<br />
<br />
<b>Defending champion:</b> Jim Parsons, <i>The Big Bang Theory</i><br />
<br />
I'm not gonna sugarcoat this one: this is far and away the least impressive category of the entire show and one of the worst comedy lead actor fields I can ever remember (albeit, a fourth grader has been alive longer than I've been closely following these awards). You've got Cheadle and LeBlanc still hanging around, giving okay performances on bad shows, riding the pedigrees of their Oscar/former TV hit respectively. You have William H. Macy, the only "Shameless" cast member to benefit from the show's move from the drama categories to the comedy ones and easily one of the least impressive actors on the show (and often the center of the program's most annoying and unfunny storylines). You have respected Emmy favourite Ricky Gervais playing a pretty offensive caricature of a mentally handicapped man. And you have Jim Parsons, whose strange tics and fill-in-the-blanks style of performing I've grown tired of (and if you saw his awful hosting turn on "SNL" this year, you know that there's not much acting happening when Parsons is playing Sheldon). Emmy voters, however, don't agree. And I wouldn't dare have the audacity to bet against him.<br />
<br />
<b>Should Win:</b> Louis C.K.<br />
<b>Will Win:</b> Jim Parsons<br />
<br />
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<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series</u></b><br />
Lena Dunham for playing Hannah Horvath on <i>Girls</i> (HBO)<br />
Edie Falco for playing Jackie Peyton on <i>Nurse Jackie</i> (Showtime)<br />
Julia Louis-Dreyfus for playing Selina Meyer on <i>Veep</i> (HBO)<br />
Melissa McCarthy for playing Molly Flynn on <i>Mike and Molly </i>(CBS)<br />
Amy Poehler for playing Leslie Knope on <i>Parks and Recreation</i> (NBC)<br />
Taylor Schilling for playing Piper Chapman on <i>Orange is the New Black</i> (Netflix)<br />
<br />
<b>Defending champion:</b> Julia Louis-Dreyfus, <i>Veep</i><br />
<br />
A much strong category for the leading women of comedy, however, even if several of my personal preferences are missing - cough, Emmy freaking Rossum. I think it's a bit of a shame that Melissa McCarthy's movie success gets her auto-pilot nominations here, especially when it means her "Bridesmaids" co-star Wendi McClendon-Covey is snubbed for her outstanding performance on the debut season of "The Goldbergs". And that's after being booted from the category last year for Laura Dern (totally deservedly, HAVE I MENTIONED I LOVED ENLIGHTENED I DON'T THINK I MADE THAT CLEAR YET GUYS).<br />
<br />
There is clearly a queen of the castle here, and that's Julia Louis-Dreyfus. I have trouble seeing any scenario where she would be nominated in this category and not win. Taylor Schilling, the only newcomer and thus really the only other actress with a shot to beat her, is just fine (much better in the second season, however) but is she anybody's favourite part of "Orange"? That would be an enormous upset the likes of which I haven't seen before from the Emmys. This is a no-brainer pick if there ever was one.<br />
<br />
<b>Should Win:</b> JLD<br />
<b>Will Win:</b> JLD<br />
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<b><u>Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series</u></b><br />
Bryan Cranston for playing Walter White on <i>Breaking Bad</i> (AMC)<br />
Jeff Daniels for playing Great Man Will McAvoy, King of the Universe on <i>The Newsroom</i> (HBO)<br />
Jon Hamm for playing Don Draper on <i>Mad Men</i> (AMC)<br />
Woody Harrelson for playing Marty Hart on <i>True Detective</i> (HBO)<br />
Matthew McConaughey for playing Rust Cohle on <i>True Detective</i> (HBO)<br />
Kevin Spacey for playing Frank Underwood on <i>House of Cards</i> (Netflix)<br />
<br />
<b>Defending champion:</b> Don't make me relive it...Google it if you want.<br />
<br />
The year is 2014. Jon Hamm has still never won an Emmy for playing Don Draper.<br />
<br />
Sadly that's not Rod Serling's opening narration from a "Twilight Zone" episode. This is the most ridiculous shafting of such a terrific performer and will be an absurdly large black mark on the Television Academy if he never wins (which is looking increasingly likely). I'm not sure he did anything spectacular in the seven episodes that aired this year, but like that even matters - he deserves a freaking award for the sum total of that performance over the last eight years.<br />
<br />
Some people are pretending there's an actual competition between Cranston and McConaughey and that's just not happening, folks. McConaughey will win this in one of the biggest walks in awards history. In fact, I'm gonna go ahead and make this my annual "the other nominees should just stay home" pick for 2014. Cranston has three Emmys, but hasn't been on the stage since 2010. McConaughey is an Oscar winning movie star, and an idiotic feeling of inferiority to the movie industry is one of the reasons I hate so much about the things the Emmys choose to be. Also, did you see "True Detective"? That Matty McConaughey is good. Like, really good. #McConnaissance<br />
<br />
<b>Should Win:</b> Hamm <strike>and Buble</strike><br />
<b>Will Win:</b> All right, all right, all right<br />
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<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series</u></b><br />
Lizzy Caplan for playing Virginia Johnson on <i>Masters of Sex</i> (Showtime)<br />
Claire Danes for playing Carrie Mathison on <i>Homeland</i> (Showtime)<br />
Michelle Dockery for playing Lady Mary Crawley on <i>Downton Abbey</i> (PBS)<br />
Julianna Margulies for playing Alicia Florrick on <i>The Good Wife</i> (CBS)<br />
Kerry Washington for playing Olivia Pope on <i>Scandal</i> (ABC)<br />
Robin Wright for playing Claire Underwood on <i>House of Cards</i> (Netflix)<br />
<br />
<b>Defending champion:</b> Claire Danes, <i>Homeland</i><br />
<br />
Let's get right to the scolding - where the <i>fuck</i> is Elisabeth Moss? Again, the Academy turning on "Mad Men" in the last couple years is just so bizarre and wrong. And then there are the usual things to be annoyed about here - why is TV's best actress, Tatiana Maslany of "Orphan Black," not nominated? Why are Michelle Dockery and Robin Wright considered two of the six best actresses in television dramas? All strange stuff. But Julianna Margulies is back, so they got that right! And how strangely perceptive of the Academy to recognize that Lizzy Caplan absolutely belongs here. Go Emmys, in this one fleeting instance!<br />
<br />
I think that the Emmys are done with Claire Danes even though she has nothing to do with why "Homeland" sucks now. So who's the new queen of icy glaring? Probably Robin Wright - I didn't watch season two of "House of Cards" due to a lack of caring, but I hear she has a virtually unbeatable submission episode. Some think maybe it's Kerry Washington's time to shine, but I kinda feel like the "Scandal" buzz has gone in the opposite direction (that show's only other significant nomination last year, drama guest actor winner Dan Bucatinsky, didn't repeat). The only tough call for me now is...who do I <i>want</i> to win?<br />
<br />
<b>Should Win:</b> Lizzy Caplan (only because Margulies has a "Good Wife" Emmy already)<br />
<b>Will Win:</b> Robin Wright<br />
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<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie</u></b><br />
Benedict Cumberbatch for playing Sherlock Holmes in <i>Sherlock: His Last Vow</i> (PBS)<br />
Chiwetel Ejiofor for playing Louis Lester in <i>Dancing on the Edge</i> (Starz)<br />
Idris Elba for playing John Luther in <i>Luther</i> (BBC America)<br />
Martin Freeman for playing Lester Nygaard in <i>Fargo</i> (FX)<br />
Mark Ruffalo for playing Ned Weeks in <i>The Normal Heart</i> (HBO)<br />
Billy Bob Thornton for playing Lorne Malvo in <i>Fargo</i> (FX)<br />
<br />
<b>Last won by:</b> Michael Douglas, <i>Behind the Candelabra</i><br />
<br />
Time to blow through all these acting nominations I forgot to familiarize myself with. Thankfully, I saw the only performance in this category whose win I will recognize and tolerate. And I have to think the Emmys will feel the same way.<br />
<br />
<b>Should Win:</b> Billy Bob Thornton<br />
<b>Will Win:</b> Billy Bob Thornton<br />
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<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie</u></b><br />
Helena Bonham Carter for playing Elizabeth Taylor in <i>Burton and Taylor</i> (BBC America)<br />
Minnie Driver for playing Maggie Royal in <i>Return to Zero</i> (Lifetime)<br />
Jessica Lange for playing Fiona Goode in <i>American Horror Story: Coven</i> (FX)<br />
Sarah Paulson for playing Cordelia Foxx in <i>American Horror Story: Coven</i> (FX)<br />
Cicely Tyson for playing Carrie Watts in <i>The Trip to Bountiful</i> (Lifetime)<br />
Kristen Wiig for playing Cynthia Morehouse in <i>The Spoils of Babylon</i> (IFC)<br />
<br />
<b>Last won by:</b> Laura Linney, <i>The Big C: Hereafter</i><br />
<br />
"Hey! Kristen Wiig! She's in a miniseries? A comedic parody of soap operas that we have no familiarity with with and got very little attention from mainstream audiences, critics, or any other demographic that might influence our voting decisions? Well who cares, we remember her from all those "SNL" nominations! Let's vote for her her!"<br />
<br />
And that's how most actors get Emmy nominations.<br />
<br />
<b>Should Win:</b> Jessica Lange<br />
<b>Will Win:</b> Jessica Lange<br />
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<b><u>Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series</u></b><br />
Fred Armisen for playing various characters on <i>Portlandia</i> (IFC)<br />
Andre Braugher for playing Ray Holt on <i>Brooklyn Nine Nine </i>(Fox)<br />
Ty Burrell for playing Phil Dunphy on <i>Modern Family</i> (ABC)<br />
Adam Driver for playing Adam Sackler on <i>Girls</i> (HBO)<br />
Jesse Tyler Ferguson for playing Mitchell Pritchett on <i>Modern Family</i> (ABC)<br />
Tony Hale for playing Gary Walsh on <i>Veep</i> (HBO)<br />
<br />
<b>Defending champion:</b> Tony Hale, <i>Veep</i><br />
<br />
Another "Modern Family" man down as Ed O'Neill falls out (about time - you're next, Ferguson!) This is another tough call - there is perhaps no category with so many legitimate contenders to win. Burrell and Hale are previous winners, and Hale has a very strong submission episode that could allow him to hold down the fort here. Braugher getting the lone nomination for "Brooklyn Nine Nine" is disappointing, but not all that surprising. The Emmys always find him, even recognizing him for shows without any real fanfare like TNT's pretty great/wildly off-brand "Men of a Certain Age" a few years back. Could Adam Driver, who somewhat surprisingly entered the category last year, conceivably get a "Star Wars" bump? Of course he could. Conceivably. But there won't be an actual completed film to get him that bump, so I'm a little skeptical. Also, what up with Fred Armisen, yo? I mean I don't watch "Portlandia," a context in which I assume his comedic stylings make more sense. But still, slightly odd for him to get singled out (even after the show got a variety writing nod last year).<br />
<br />
<b>Should Win:</b> Andre Braugher<br />
<b>Will Win:</b> Tony Hale<br />
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<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series</u></b><br />
Mayim Bialik for playing Amy Farrah Fowler on <i>The Big Bang Theory</i> (CBS)<br />
Julie Bowen for playing Claire Dunphy on <i>Modern Family</i> (ABC)<br />
Anna Chlumsky for playing Amy Brookheimer on <i>Veep</i> (HBO)<br />
Allison Janney for playing Bonnie Plunkett on <i>Mom</i> (CBS)<br />
Kate McKinnon for playing various characters on <i>Saturday Night Live</i> (NBC)<br />
Kate Mulgrew for playing Galina "Red" Reznikov on <i>Orange is the New Black</i> (Netflix)<br />
<br />
<b>Last won by:</b> Merritt Wever, <i>Nurse Jackie</i><br />
<br />
This is another category with a few potential winners, unhelped by the fact that 2013 champion Merritt Wever is gone (fucking Emmys, she is the only part of the show still worth recognizing). I think I can say with some confidence that Bowen won't win, even with two awards under her belt. I also don't think that Chlumsky had a spectacular year on "Veep," and even with that show's slow upward trajectory she shouldn't have much of a shot. McKinnon is a slight wild card that I don't think was on anyone's radar for a real chance at getting nominated, and I would be surprised if she became the first "SNL" cast member to win in the modern era (I believe Phil Hartman once won a category that doesn't exist anymore for individual performers in variety shows).<br />
<br />
And then you have the three real contenders: Allison Janney of "Mom" (which people I trust assure me is better than I'd expect a CBS multi-cam sitcom to be) has four previous Emmy wins for "The West Wing" in both lead and supporting categories, and will also be up for her guest role on "Masters of Sex" at the Creative Arts Emmys. That's just a breadth of support nobody else in the category has and will make her really difficult to beat. Kate Mulgrew comes kind of close, in that she's a known Hollywood actress giving a great performance on a buzzy show. I'm not sure her "Voyager" days will necessarily qualify as a nostalgia boost, but it certainly won't hurt her.<br />
<br />
And strangely enough I wouldn't want to count out Mayim Bialik, nominated now for a third year running. This is the kind of performance I could easily dismiss as having no chance, but a lot of the story arcs on "Big Bang" this season were about the progression of both the emotional and physical relationship between Sheldon and Amy, much of which Bialik played really wonderfully.<br />
<br />
Also, the best part of researching this category? For years I believed that Janney was nominated for being the guest host in that "disaster show" episode of "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip", and thankfully I've been wrong all along. I mean that was the clear best episode of a very bad show, but the less awards attention it got, the better.<br />
<br />
<b>Should Win:</b> Kate Mulgrew<br />
<b>Will Win:</b> Allison Janney<br />
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<b><u>Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series</u></b><br />
Jim Carter for playing Charles Carson on <i>Downton Abbey</i> (PBS)<br />
Josh Charles for playing Will Gardner on <i>The Good Wife</i> (CBS)<br />
Peter Dinklage for playing Tyrion Lannister on <i>Game of Thrones</i> (HBO)<br />
Mandy Patinkin for playing Saul Berenson on <i>Homeland</i> (Showtime)<br />
Aaron Paul for playing Jesse Pinkman on <i>Breaking Bad</i> (AMC)<br />
Jon Voight for playing Mickey Donovan on <i>Ray Donovan</i> (Showtime)<br />
<br />
<b>Last won by:</b> Bobby Canavale, <i>Boardwalk Empire</i><br />
<br />
Okay let's start with a variety of protests. First off, go away Jim Carter. This is the most difficult category to break into and you're taking up a space for being British and having good posture. Also, if a nomination did have to go to a "Downton Abbey" butler to keep the earth from exploding, the obvious choice is Brendan Coyle. And while we're at it, go away Mandy Patinkin too. I have no desire to vote for an actor even as good as him for a season of television that randomly decided the character he played was now stupid.<br />
<br />
Then on the other end of the spectrum: I know this will make me sound terrible but I really don't like Aaron Paul's nomination here. He's of course always great on "Breaking Bad" but he got <i>so little to do</i>. He got so little to do even in the series finale, and I barely remember he was in the last eight episodes at all. "Breaking Bad" fell into a bad rut in the latter half of the series where the show would do something terrible to Jesse at the end of a season, and then we'd have to spend two to three episodes at the start of the next one getting him out of a catatonic state. In an eight episode stretch of episodes, that's not very much time to allow Paul to do things, and especially not when "things" are being chained in a Nazi dungeon until the last 20 minutes of the series.<br />
<br />
But Paul could still win, even after losing to Canavale last year. As could Peter Dinklage and Jon Voight. Dinklage feels the obvious right choice, delivering that great speech at the end of the episode where he requests a trial by combat. But then you have Golden Globe winner Jon Voight doing his Voight-y thing on the pretty awful "Ray Donovan". But eh. He's a legend of sorts. Also, I'm fairly certain he won't win, but I'm glad Josh Charles very deservedly returned to the category after a terrific season of "The Good Wife," in which [spoiler] and [spoiler] [spoiler] to [spoiler] their own [spoiler]. Also, he [spoiler] this season, which is obvious Emmy bait.<br />
<br />
<b>Should Win:</b> Josh Charles<br />
<b>Will Win:</b> Jon Voight<br />
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<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series</u></b><br />
Christine Baranski for playing Diane Lockhart on <i>The Good Wife</i> (CBS)<br />
Joanne Froggatt for playing Anna Bates on <i>Downton Abbey</i> (PBS)<br />
Anna Gunn for playing Skyler White on <i>Breaking Bad</i> (AMC)<br />
Christina Hendricks for playing Joan Holloway on <i>Mad Men</i> (AMC)<br />
Lena Headey for playing Cersei Lannister on <i>Game of Thrones</i> (HBO)<br />
Maggie Smith for playing Violet Crawley on <i>Downton Abbey</i> (PBS)<br />
<br />
<b>Defending champion:</b> Anna Gunn, <i>Breaking Bad</i><br />
<br />
Interesting mix of people here. Smith, Hendricks, and Baranski are perennial nominees, although Baranski was the only one to really get a good amount of material this year (and oh, did she get material). I obviously still love Hendricks and am still baffled as to how "Mad Men" is entering its seventh year of eligibility without one of its actors winning an Emmy, but this won't be her year sadly. Nor should it be Smith's, who is <i>fine</i> on "Downton" but this is also a nomination with roughly the same amount of thought put into it as the one for Betty White as reality host for "Off Their Rockers" (still a television program in the year 2014 - thanks, Lifetime!)<br />
<br />
Elsewhere, reigning champion Anna Gunn should be a lock to win again provided she submits "Ozymandias" (and I have a hard time imagining a scenario where either she or Cranston pick a different episode). Joanne Froggatt returns after falling out of the field last year, though this is at least understandable since a very bad thing happened to Anna this season which she and Brendan Coyle's Bates had to deal with. And then you have newcomer Lena Headey taking Emilia Clarke's slot, which I think makes sense for their respective bodies of work this season. "Game of Thrones" got 19 nominations, the most of any show, so I can't rule out that she has a shot to win. She's certainly a more dynamic presence than Clarke, but I'd still be a little surprised if she managed to beat Anna Gunn.<br />
<br />
<b>Should Win:</b> Christine Baranski<br />
<b>Will Win:</b> Anna Gunn<br />
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<b><u>Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or Movie</u></b><br />
Matt Bomer for playing Felix Turner in <i>The Normal Heart</i> (HBO)<br />
Martin Freeman for playing John Watson in <i>Sherlock: His Last Vow</i> (PBS)<br />
Colin Hanks for playing Gus Grimly in <i>Fargo</i> (FX)<br />
Joe Mantello for playing Mickey Marcus in <i>The Normal Heart</i> (HBO)<br />
Alfred Molina for playing Ben Weeks in <i>The Normal Heart</i> (HBO)<br />
Jim Parsons for playing Tommy Boatwright in <i>The Normal Heart</i> (HBO)<br />
<br />
<b>Last won by:</b> James Cromwell, <i>American Horror Story: Asylum</i><br />
<br />
Which "Normal Heart" actor will take the prize? It's going to be one of them, and Parsons seems to be the obvious choice since Emmy voters will never not vote for him. Again, this is a film I skipped because I'm really done with Ryan Murphy, but it's probably Parsons in front with Bomer as the possible spoiler. I expect "Fargo" to win a couple acting awards, but Hanks won't be one of them unfortunately.<br />
<br />
<b>Should Win:</b> Colin Hanks<br />
<b>Will Win:</b> Jim Parsons<br />
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<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie</u></b><br />
Angela Bassett for playing Marie Laveau in <i>American Horror Story: Coven</i> (FX)<br />
Kathy Bates for playing Delphine LaLaurie in <i>American Horror Story: Coven</i> (FX)<br />
Ellen Burstyn for playing Olivia Foxworth in <i>Flowers in the Attic</i> (Lifetime)<br />
Frances Conroy for playing Myrtle Snow in <i>American Horror Story: Coven</i> (FX)<br />
Julia Roberts for playing Emma Brookner in <i>The Normal Heart</i> (HBO)<br />
Allison Tolman for playing Molly Solverson in <i>Fargo</i> (FX)<br />
<br />
<b>Defending champion:</b> Ellen Burstyn, <i>Political Animals</i><br />
<br />
Lord, how the hell should I know? Could there be more movie stars in a single category than this one? Obviously not all movie stars are equal, though there is definitely a scenario where the highest-profile actresses like Bates and Roberts attract a good deal of votes but essentially cancel each other out. And in that scenario, could Allison Tolman - the least recognizable nominee but easily the best performance in the category, even if fraudulently considered "supporting" - actually come out on top? I certainly hope so, but it's a prediction I'd feel risky making with all the obvious star power in the category to distract voters. It will probably depend heavily on how she submits.<br />
<br />
<b>Should Win:</b> Allison Tolman<br />
<b>Will Win:</b> No guts, no glory - Allison Tolman<br />
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<b><u>Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series</u></b><br />
Iain B. MacDonald for "Episode Nine" of <i>Episodes</i> (Showtime)<br />
Paris Barclay for the "100" episode of <i>Glee</i> (Fox)<br />
Louis C.K. for the "Elevator Part 6" episode of <i>Louie</i> (FX)<br />
Gail Mancuso for the "Las Vegas" episode of <i>Modern Family</i> (ABC)<br />
Jodie Foster for the "Lesbian Request Denied" episode of <i>Orange is the New Black</i> (Netflix)<br />
Mike Judge for the "Minimum Viable Product" episode of <i>Silicon Valley</i> (HBO)<br />
<br />
<b>Defending champion:</b> Another travesty you can look up should you feel so inclined (please don't)<br />
<br />
These are not the six episodes I would have nominated, but I think I at least understand each nomination. Emmy voters love the cringeworthy "Episodes". Paris Barclay is a previous nominee. Apparently there's just something so spectacular about the way Gail Mancuso directs "Modern Family" episodes that she's able to beat Louis C.K. for a work of art that (deep breath, will not rage about that again). Anyway, Jodie Foster will win because she's a movie star and "Orange" is popular. And it's the great Sophia episode from season one, so there ain't nothin' wrong with that.<br />
<br />
<b>Should Win:</b> Louis C.K.<br />
<b>Will Win:</b> Jodie Foster<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series</u></b><br />
Tim Van Patten for the "Farewell Daddy Blues" episode of <i>Boardwalk Empire</i> (HBO)<br />
Vince Gilligan for the "Felina" episode of <i>Breaking Bad</i> (AMC)<br />
David Evans for "Episode One" of <i>Downton Abbey</i> (PBS)<br />
Neil Marshall for "The Watchers on the Wall" episode of <i>Game of Thrones</i> (HBO)<br />
Carl Franklin for the "Chapter 14" episode of <i>House of Cards</i> (Netflix)<br />
Cary Joji Fukunaga for the "Who Goes There" episode of <i>True Detective</i> (HBO)<br />
<br />
<b>Last won by:</b> David Fincher, <i>House of Cards</i><br />
<br />
Just like last year, the drama directing category could go any which way really. Tim Van Patten winning in 2011 might be an anomaly, but it means he can never be ruled out from winning ever again. If there was an episode of "Thrones" whose pure direction could hold up here, it would be "The Watchers on the Wall," though it's no "Rains of Castamere". Gilligan and Fukunaga got deserving nominations for the genre's flashiest shows, but I have a hard time really seeing anyone but Gilligan winning in this big, final juggernaut year for "Breaking Bad". Meanwhile, Evans got the courtesy nomination for "Downton" and I guess they felt they needed to nominate "House of Cards" here as well. Whatever.<br />
<br />
<b>Should Win:</b> Vince Gilligan<br />
<b>Will Win:</b> Vince Gilligan<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie, or Dramatic Special</u></b><br />
Alfonso Gomez-Rejon for the "Bitchcraft" episode of <i>American Horror Story: Coven</i> (FX)<br />
Colin Bucksey for the "Buridan's Ass" episode of <i>Fargo</i> (FX)<br />
Adam Bernstein for "The Crocodile's Dilemma" episode of <i>Fargo</i> (FX)<br />
Stephen Frears for <i>Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight</i> (HBO)<br />
Ryan Murphy for <i>The Normal Heart</i> (HBO)<br />
Nick Hurran for <i>Sherlock: His Last Vow</i> (PBS)<br />
<br />
<b>Last won by:</b> Steven Soderbergh, <i>Behind the Candelabra</i><br />
<br />
I've run out of worthwhile thoughts about miniseries and movie categories. To the predictions!<br />
<br />
<b>Should Win:</b> Adam Bernstein<br />
<b>Will Win:</b> Ryan Murphy<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series</u></b><br />
David Crane and Jeffrey Klarik for "Episode Five" of <i>Episodes</i> (Showtime)<br />
Louis C.K. for the "So Did the Fat Lady" episode of <i>Louie</i> (FX)<br />
Liz Friedman and Jenji Kohan for the "I Wasn't Ready" episode of <i>Orange is the New Black</i> (Netflix)<br />
Alec Berg for the "Optimal Tip-to-Tip Efficiency" episode of <i>Silicon Valley</i> (HBO)<br />
Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, & Tony Roche for the "Special Relationship" episode of <i>Veep</i> (HBO)<br />
<br />
<b>Last won by:</b> Tina Fey and Tracey Wigfield, <i>30 Rock</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
Crane and Klarik, roar grr rage.gif. Okay now that that's out of the way, really good category, as is usually the case for comedy writing. "So Did the Fat Lady" is a pretty tremendous episode of television, as is the kind of obscene brilliance behind what exactly the title "Optimal Tip-to-Tip Efficiency" is referring to. The "Orange" pilot isn't my favourite episode of the first season (I put the finale, "Can't Fix Crazy," on my fake ballot instead), and on the whole I think they could have submitted better in this category, but I'm glad the show is at least rightfully represented here. And it seems my opinion on the writing of "Veep" has finally coalesced with those of Emmy voters, with the show picking up a first nomination here that couldn't be more deserved. So long as "Episodes" doesn't win, there's no winner here that will disappoint me in the slightest. Strive for this more in the future, Academy.<br />
<br />
<b>Should Win:</b> Louis C.K.<br />
<b>Will Win:</b> Blackwell, Iannucci, and Roche<br />
<i><br /></i>
<b><u>Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series</u></b><br />
Vince Gilligan for the "Felina" episode of <i>Breaking Bad</i> (AMC)<br />
Moira Walley-Beckett for the "Ozymandias" episode of <i>Breaking Bad</i> (AMC)<br />
David Benioff & D.B. Weiss for "The Children" episode of <i>Game of Thrones</i> (HBO)<br />
Beau Willimon for the "Chapter 14" episode of <i>House of Cards</i> (Netflix)<br />
Nic Pizzolatto for "The Secret Fate of All Life" episode of <i>True Detective</i> (HBO)<br />
<br />
<b>Last won by:</b> Henry Bromell, <i>Homeland</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
Nearly as solid as its comedy counterpart, with "Cards" the "Episodes" parallel qualitatively. I'm not sure why Benioff and Weiss chose to submit the "Thrones" finale, which I think they thought would be received as cooler and more shocking than it actually was (the potential flaw in submitting few episodes, especially ones that haven't aired at the time the ballots are posted, but no flaw here - a nomination is a nomination). Those are really my only thoughts on this category, which Moira Walley-Beckett shouldn't have any problem winning. "Ozymandias" is one of the finest dramatic hours of television ever produced. Even the Emmy voters shouldn't be able to miss this one.<br />
<br />
<b>Should Win:</b> Moira Walley-Beckett<br />
<b>Will Win:</b> Moira Walley-Beckett<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie, or Dramatic Special</u></b><br />
Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk for the "Bitchcraft" episode of <i>American Horror Story: Coven</i> (FX)<br />
Noah Hawley for "The Crocodile's Dilemma" episode of <i>Fargo</i> (FX)<br />
Neil Cross for <i>Luther</i> (BBC America)<br />
Larry Kramer for <i>The Normal Heart</i> (HBO)<br />
Steven Moffatt for <i>Sherlock: His Last Vow</i> (PBS)<br />
David Simon and Eric Overmyer for the "...To Miss New Orleans" episode of <i>Treme</i> (HBO)<br />
<br />
<b>Last won by:</b> Abi Morgan, <i>The Hour</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
Yeah, cause I can totally pretend to have informed opinion on this one too. "Fargo" or "Treme" or GTFO.<br />
<br />
<b>Should Win:</b> Noah Hawley<br />
<b>Will Win:</b> Noah Hawley<br />
<br />
<b>Per tradition, The 66th Primetime Emmy Awards will render my predictions laughable in a live NBC telecast on Monday, August 25 at 8pm Eastern.</b>Brendan Noelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01355501477653448329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196027173447098748.post-54095326807312411732014-07-09T07:22:00.001-04:002014-07-09T07:29:23.738-04:00My hypothetical 2014 Emmy ballot<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
It's time for me to once again fill out a hypothetical Emmy ballot for the 2013-14 TV season! I always have fun doing these, but they can also create such a challenge in years where there's just so much good television (and these last two TV seasons have in no way been lacking for quality). So let's see where my preferences lie this year!<br />
<br />
Of course, you'll notice that when the actual Emmy nominations are announced tomorrow, they will look nothing like the nominations I've listed below. That's because the Emmys are BAD and WRONG, but such is life. Also, something odd happened this year in terms of categorization - two of my favourite shows, Netflix's "Orange is the New Black" and Showtime's "Shameless," have submitted themselves in the comedy categories after seasons in which both were unequivocally dramas. Initially I worried this would affect how many nominations I would give each, but I think instead I'm just going to ask you to disregard the "comedy" and "drama" split below entirely. After all, it is and always has been (for example) "Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series," not "Funniest Supporting Actor".<br />
<br />
Recognition ho!<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><b><u>Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series</u></b><br />
Andre Braugher for playing Captain Ray Holt on <i>Brooklyn Nine Nine</i> (Fox)<br />
Raul Castillo for playing Richie Donado on <i>Looking</i> (HBO)<br />
Noel Fisher for playing Mickey Milkovich on <i>Shameless</i> (Showtime)<br />
Timothy Simons for playing Jonah Ryan on <i>Veep</i> (HBO)<br />
Jeremy Allen White for playing Philip "Lip" Gallagher on <i>Shameless</i> (Showtime)<br />
Parker Young for playing Randy Hill on <i>Enlisted</i> (Fox)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner:</b> <a href="https://twitter.com/soniasaraiya/status/453269651259416577" target="_blank">This pretty much sums it up</a>.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series</u></b><br />
Danielle Brooks for playing Tasha "Taystee" Jefferson on <i>Orange is the New Black</i> (Netflix)<br />
Aidy Bryant for playing various characters on <i>Saturday Night Live</i> (NBC)<br />
Emma Kenney for playing Debbie Gallagher on <i>Shameless</i> (Showtime)<br />
Kate McKinnon for playing various characters on <i>Saturday Night Live</i> (NBC)<br />
Kate Mulgrew for playing Galina "Red" Reznikov on <i>Orange is the New Black</i> (Netflix)<br />
Amy Schumer for playing various Amy Schumer fictionalizations on <i>Inside Amy Schumer</i> (Comedy Central)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner:</b> <b>Kate Mulgrew</b>, and it isn't close despite how much I love all six of these actresses.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series</u></b><br />
Josh Charles for playing Will Gardner on <i>The Good Wife</i> (CBS)<br />
Peter Dinklage for playing Tyrion Lannister on <i>Game of Thrones</i> (HBO)<br />
Noah Emmerich for playing Stan Beeman on <i>The Americans</i> (FX)<br />
Vincent Kartheiser for playing Pete Campbell on <i>Mad Men</i> (AMC)<br />
Dean Norris for playing Hank Schrader on <i>Breaking Bad</i> (AMC)<br />
John Slattery for playing Roger Sterling on <i>Mad Men</i> (AMC)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner:</b> In a slightly overrated final stretch of episodes, I would give the win to the underrated <b>Dean Norris</b>.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series</u></b><br />
Christine Baranski for playing Diane Lockhart on <i>The Good Wife</i> (CBS)<br />
Erika Christensen for playing Julia Graham on <i>Parenthood</i> (NBC)<br />
Anna Gunn for playing Skyler White on <i>Breaking Bad</i> (AMC)<br />
Annet Mahendru for playing Nina Sergeevna on <i>The Americans</i> (FX)<br />
Kiernan Shipka for playing Sally Draper on <i>Mad Men</i> (AMC)<br />
Maisie Williams for playing Arya Stark on <i>Game of Thrones</i> (HBO)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner:</b> The fact that I never quite know where Nina's true allegiances lie is 50% in the writing, but 50% in the performance from the outstanding <b>Annet Mahendru</b>.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series</u></b><br />
Scott Bakula for playing Lynn in the "Looking Glass" episode of <i>Looking</i> (HBO)<br />
Jonathan Banks for playing Professor Buzz Hickey in the "Introduction to Teaching" episode of <i>Community</i> (NBC)<br />
Louis C.K. for playing various characters in the "Louis C.K./Sam Smith" episode of <i>Saturday Night Live</i> (NBC)<br />
Billy Eichner for playing Craig in the "Flu Season 2" episode of <i>Parks and Recreation</i> (NBC)<br />
Mike O'Malley for playing Burt Hummel in "The Quarterback" episode of <i>Glee</i> (Fox)<br />
Damon Wayans Jr. for playing Coach in the "Coach" episode of <i>New Girl</i> (Fox)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner:</b> Do you want to know why I still give "Glee," a show that is now watched by almost literally no one, shit? Because they do scenes like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smx_IzJP15s&t=1m9s" target="_blank">the one in "The Quarterback"</a> with Chris Colfer, Romy Rosemont, and <b>Mike O'Malley</b> that are just perfect, and they're capable of writing scenes like that all the time but choose not to. Dumb fucking show. Always a great performance from O'Malley. Between this and his writing work on "Shameless," and the fact that he crawled out of the comedy black hole "Yes, Dear," he's overdue for a significant Emmy.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Guess Actress in a Comedy Series</u></b><br />
Uzo Aduba for playing Suzanne "Crazy Eyes" Warren in the "Lesbian Request Denied" episode of <i>Orange is the New Black</i> (Netflix)<br />
Sarah Baker for playing Vanessa in the "So Did the Fat Lady" episode of <i>Louie</i> (FX)<br />
Laverne Cox for playing Sophia Burset in the "Lesbian Request Denied" episode of <i>Orange is the New Black</i> (Netflix)<br />
Nastaha Lyonne for playing Nicky Nichols in the "WAC Pack" episode of <i>Orange is the New Black</i> (Netflix)<br />
Ursula Parker for playing Jane in the "Elevator Part 2" episode of <i>Louie</i> (FX)<br />
Amy Sedaris for playing Pam in the "Apartment Hunters" episode of <i>Broad City</i> (Comedy Central)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner:</b> <b>Laverne Cox</b>, and anyone who disagrees is wrong. Plain and simple.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series</u></b><br />
Raul Esparza for playing Dr. Frederick Chilton in the "Yakimono" episode of <i>Hannibal</i> (NBC)<br />
Eddie Izzard for playing Dr. Abel Gideon in the "Mukozuke" episode of <i>Hannibal</i> (NBC)<br />
Robert Morse for playing Bertram Cooper in the "Waterloo" episode of <i>Mad Men</i> (AMC)<br />
Joe Morton for playing Rowan Pope in the "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" episode of <i>Scandal</i> (ABC)<br />
Michael Pitt for playing Mason Verger in the "Tome-wan" episode of <i>Hannibal</i> (NBC)<br />
Ray Romano for playing Hank Rizzoli in the "Promises" episode of <i>Parenthood</i> (NBC)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner:</b> It was only two days into 2014 when Hank broke down in front of Sarah, Adam, and Kristina over the realization that he probably had Asperger's and I instantly thought, "I can't wait until July when I can put <b>Ray Romano</b> on my fake Emmy ballot."<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series</u></b><br />
Gillian Anderson for playing Dr. Bedelia Du Maurier in the "Sakizuki" episode of <i>Hannibal</i> (NBC)<br />
Anna Chlumsky for playing Miriam Lass in the "Yakimono" episode of <i>Hannibal</i> (NBC)<br />
Allison Janney for playing Margaret Scully in the "Brave New World" episode of <i>Masters of Sex</i> (Showtime)<br />
Lisa Kudrow for playing Rep. Josephine Marcus in the "Icarus" episode of <i>Scandal</i> (ABC)<br />
Margo Martindale for playing Claudia in the "Behind the Red Door" episode of <i>The Americans</i> (FX)<br />
Carrie Preston for playing Elsbeth Tascioni in the "A Few Words" episode of <i>The Good Wife</i> (CBS)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner:</b> I think I was alone on an island for being greatly disinterested in the relationship between the Scullys, but <b>Allison Janney</b> played the hell out of Margaret's self-discovery in terms of sexuality and independence.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series</u></b><br />
Louis C.K. for playing Louis C.K. on <i>Louie</i> (FX)<br />
Andy Daly for playing Forrest Macneil on <i>Review with Forrest Macneil</i> (Comedy Central)<br />
Neil Flynn for playing Mike Heck on <i>The Middle</i> (ABC)<br />
Jeff Garlin for playing Murray Goldberg on <i>The Goldbergs</i> (ABC)<br />
Jonathan Groff for playing Patrick Murray on <i>Looking</i> (HBO)<br />
Jake Johnson for playing Nick Miller on <i>New Girl</i> (Fox)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner:</b> A show like "Review" requires a tremendously good script, but it also needs to work in tandem with an actor like <b>Andy Daly</b> who commits to it 100%.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series</u></b><br />
Malin Akerman for playing Kate Harrison on <i>Trophy Wife</i> (ABC)<br />
Lena Dunham for playing Hannah Horvath on <i>Girls</i> (HBO)<br />
Ilana Glazer for playing Ilana Wexler on <i>Broad City</i> (Comedy Central)<br />
Abbi Jacobson for playing Abbi Abrams on <i>Broad City</i> (Comedy Central)<br />
Wendi McClendon-Covey for playing Beverly Goldberg on <i>The Goldbergs</i> (ABC)<br />
Emmy Rossum for playing Fiona Gallagher on <i>Shameless</i> (Showtime)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner:</b> She's been overlooked every year for stellar work. This year especially, even submitting in the comedy side for an arc about a woman's dark, downward spiral, the failure to nominate <b>Emmy Rossum</b> will be a black mark on the Emmys.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series</u></b><br />
Bryan Cranston for playing Walter White on <i>Breaking Bad</i> (AMC)<br />
Hugh Dancy for playing Will Graham on <i>Hannibal</i> (NBC)<br />
Jon Hamm for playing Don Draper on <i>Mad Men</i> (AMC)<br />
Matthew McConaughey for playing Rust Cohle on <i>True Detective</i> (HBO)<br />
Mads Mikkelsen for playing Dr. Hannibal Lecter on <i>Hannibal</i> (NBC)<br />
Matthew Rhys for playing Philip Jennings on <i>The Americans </i>(FX)<br />
Michael Sheen for playing Dr. William Masters on <i>Masters of Sex</i> (Showtime)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner:</b> (First off, I'm limiting myself to one cheat on this ballot, in which a hypothetical tie prevents me from being forced to choose between Dancy and Mikkelsen.) I want to say Jon Hamm, only because it's ridiculous that he still does not have an Emmy for playing Don Draper. But I keep coming back to <b>Matthew Rhys</b> and how magnetic he is in the entirety of "Martial Eagle," particularly the scene where Phillip is ripping apart Paige's bible and screaming at her about respect (I question how much of Holly Taylor's reaction to that was really acting).<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series</u></b><br />
Lizzy Caplan for playing Virginia Johnson on <i>Masters of Sex</i> (Showtime)<br />
Julianna Margulies for playing Alicia Florrick on <i>The Good Wife</i> (CBS)<br />
Tatiana Maslany for playing Sarah Manning and her clones on <i>Orphan Black</i> (BBC America)<br />
Elisabeth Moss for playing Peggy Olson on <i>Mad Men</i> (AMC)<br />
Keri Russell for playing Elizabeth Jennings on <i>The Americans</i> (FX)<br />
Kerry Washington for playing Olivia Pope on <i>Scandal</i> (ABC)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner:</b> <b>Julianna Margulies</b> should return to the field based on the Florrick/Agos defect arc, and especially with an episode like "Hitting the Fan". I'm more confident it's the episodes from the back half of the season after [spoiler] got [spoiler] in the [spoiler] that <i>will</i> bring her back in.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series</u></b><br />
Constantine Makris for "The Walk-In" episode of <i>The Americans</i> (FX)<br />
Michelle Maclaren for the "To'hajiilee" episode of <i>Breaking Bad</i> (AMC)<br />
Michael Rymer for the "Mukozuke" episode of <i>Hannibal</i> (NBC)<br />
Mike Uppendahl for the "A Day's Work" episode of <i>Mad Men</i> (AMC)<br />
Michael Apted for the "Catherine" episode of <i>Masters of Sex</i> (Showtime)<br />
Cary Joji Fukunaga for the "Who Goes There" episode of <i>True Detective</i> (HBO)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner:</b> I never want to watch anything not directed by <b>Michelle Maclaren</b> ever again.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series</u></b><br />
Akiva Schaffer for the "Charges and Specs" episode of <i>Brooklyn Nine Nine</i> (Fox)<br />
Andrew Haigh for the "Looking for the Future" episode of <i>Looking</i> (HBO)<br />
Louis C.K. for the "Elevator Part 6" episode of <i>Louie</i> (FX)<br />
Jodie Foster for the "Lesbian Request Denied" episode of <i>Orange is the New Black</i> (Netflix)<br />
Jeffrey Blitz for the "Pancakes, Divorce, Pancakes" episode of <i>Review with Forrest Macneil</i> (Comedy Central)<br />
James Ponsoldt for the "Iron City" episode of <i>Shameless</i> (Showtime)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner:</b> <b>Jeffrey Blitz</b>, who plays such a big and overlooked part in the comedic build of "Pancakes, Divorce, Pancakes".<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series</u></b><br />
Lucia Aniello and Paul W. Downs for the "Working Girls" episode of <i>Broad City</i> (Comedy Central)<br />
Bruce Eric Kaplan for the "Flo" episode of <i>Girls</i> (HBO)<br />
Andrew Haigh for the "Looking for the Future" episode of <i>Looking</i> (HBO)<br />
Louis C.K. for the "So Did the Fat Lady" episode of <i>Louie</i> (FX)<br />
Tara Herrmann and Jenji Kohan for the "Can't Fix Crazy" episode of <i>Orange is the New Black</i> (Netflix)<br />
Andy Daly for the "Pancakes, Divorce, Pancakes" episode of <i>Review with Forrest Macneil</i> (Comedy Central)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner:</b> <b>Andrew Haigh</b>, for the reminder that more episodes of TV should just be two people having a conversation.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series</u></b><br />
Joel Fields and Joe Weisberg for the "Echo" episode of <i>The Americans</i> (FX)<br />
Moira Walley-Beckett for the "Ozymandias" episode of <i>Breaking Bad</i> (AMC)<br />
Steve Lightfoot and Bryan Fuller for the "Mizumono" episode of <i>Hannibal</i> (NBC)<br />
Jonathan Igla and Matthew Weiner for the "A Day's Work" episode of <i>Mad Men</i> (AMC)<br />
Sam Shaw and Michelle Ashford for the "Catherine" episode of <i>Masters of Sex</i> (Showtime)<br />
Shonda Rhimes for the "It's Handled" episode of <i>Scandal</i> (ABC)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner:</b> <b>Igla and Weiner</b>. When "Mad Men" is on fire, it's still hard for anything to top it in my eyes.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Reality Competition Program</u></b><br />
<i>The Amazing Race</i> (CBS)<br />
<i>Funny or Die's Billy on the Street</i> (Fuse)<br />
<i>King of the Nerds</i> (TBS)<br />
<i>So You Think You Can Dance</i> (Fox)<br />
<i>Survivor</i> (CBS)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner:</b> It's still one of TV's best kept secrets: <b>King of the Nerds</b>, a relatively cheap, TBS reality show that clearly has more love and care put into it than almost anything else on the small screen.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Variety Special</u></b><br />
<i>The Beatles: The Night That Changed America</i> (CBS)<br />
<i>Best of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon Primetime Special</i> (NBC)<br />
<i>Hannibal Buress Live from Chicago</i> (Comedy Central)<br />
<i>The Maya Rudolph Show</i> (NBC)<br />
<i>2014 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony</i> (HBO)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner:</b> This feels like cheating, but I'm going with the <b>Fallon special</b>. If only because the "Jimmy falls off the stool" joke that should never have worked once worked a lot.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Variety Series</u></b><br />
<i>The Colbert Report</i> (Comedy Central)<br />
<i>The Daily Show with Jon Stewart</i> (Comedy Central)<br />
<i>Inside Amy Schumer </i>(Comedy Central)<br />
<i>Key and Peele</i> (Comedy Central)<br />
<i>The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson</i> (CBS)<br />
<i>The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon</i> (NBC)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner:</b> There are only a handful of TV episodes this year I would call "perfect" so far. One of them is "I'm So Bad" from <b>Inside Amy Schumer</b>, which is such a dark, ballsy, hilarious examination of how women are persecuted by the male gaze constantly turning them into sex objects. I hope it gets attention in a field that is normally reserved just for Stewart, Colbert, and mostly-lifeless talk shows.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Miniseries</u></b><br />
<i>Fargo</i> (FX)<br />
<i>The Red Road</i> (Sundance TV)<br />
<i>Treme</i> (HBO)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner:</b> Boy, <b>Fargo</b> sure dodged the "True Detective" bullet, huh?<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Television Movie</u></b><br />
<i>Clear History</i> (HBO)<br />
<i>The Normal Heart</i> (HBO)<br />
<i>Sherlock: His Last Vow - Masterpiece</i> (PBS)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner:</b> <b>Sherlock</b>...because...I guess? (I really blew it this year with the minis and movies)<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Comedy Series</u></b><br />
<i>Broad City</i> (Comedy Central)<br />
<i>Brooklyn Nine Nine</i> (Fox)<br />
<i>Looking</i> (HBO)<br />
<i>Orange is the New Black</i> (Netflix)<br />
<i>Review with Forrest Macneil</i> (Comedy Central)<br />
<i>Shameless</i> (Showtime)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner:</b> There's just nothing on TV like <b>Review with Forrest Macneil</b>, much as I want to vote for "Broad City" so badly. (And reminder: this "OITNB" nomination is for season one, which I thought was good, not for season two, which I thought was amazing. Hence the non-vote.)<br />
<br />
<b><u>Outstanding Drama Series</u></b><br />
<i>The Americans</i> (FX)<br />
<i>Breaking Bad</i> (AMC)<br />
<i>The Good Wife</i> (CBS)<br />
<i>Hannibal</i> (NBC)<br />
<i>Mad Men</i> (AMC)<br />
<i>Masters of Sex</i> (Showtime)<br />
<br />
<b>My winner:</b> Six fantastic, engaging dramas. Once again, I'm drawn back to <b>The Americans</b>,<b> </b>a show a lot of people will discover in 10-15 years and wonder what rock they were living under when it was on.<br />
<br />
<b>The nominations for the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards will be announced tomorrow morning.</b>Brendan Noelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01355501477653448329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196027173447098748.post-50225637895788383682014-05-28T22:11:00.000-04:002014-05-28T22:11:28.173-04:00Upfronts 2014: BREAKING: Shows renewed, others canceled; some move time slots<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXQYO6boq2-ODcV7oaR_fjN3QvHskXXSOhX4-unKRcQt1vhh8rxfdh50JEl0H-8FsK3JVFIR1-cEmY1qw4430hlLpNi2dCGLxQgB1Erzvv351rqsUga8bojfd_22edItxrmo-DkeDKPXk/s1600/rs_1024x759-140516083648-1024-cbs-upfronts.ls.51614.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXQYO6boq2-ODcV7oaR_fjN3QvHskXXSOhX4-unKRcQt1vhh8rxfdh50JEl0H-8FsK3JVFIR1-cEmY1qw4430hlLpNi2dCGLxQgB1Erzvv351rqsUga8bojfd_22edItxrmo-DkeDKPXk/s1600/rs_1024x759-140516083648-1024-cbs-upfronts.ls.51614.jpg" height="237" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"> The cast of "The Good Wife" at CBS's upfront presentation<br />
on Wednesday, May 14, 2014. I've already forgotten what<br />
exactly Alan Cumming sang and danced to, but no doubt it<br />
was amusing.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Time for my annual long-winded, overly complicated, and of course very late blog post in which I outline the 2014 upfront presentations, in which all the major television networks (and The CW) present their new fall schedules in front of advertisers in New York City. Below, I'll be breaking down the new network schedules, occasionally including unfair gut reactions to non-representative cutdowns of not-for-air pilots or hypothesizing as to the success or failure of a lineup. And as usual, wherever possible, I'll be hyperlinking to a trailer for new shows whenever they are listed (and when their YouTube trailers are not geofiltered).<br />
<br />
Let's do this.<br />
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<a name='more'></a><b><u><span style="font-size: large;">ABC</span></u></b><br />
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Congratulations, ABC, on becoming the new NBC. By which I mean, congrats to ABC on becoming the fourth place network again. It's been awhile if I recall - not since the brief gap between "Millionaire" and the resurgence with "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives".<br />
<br />
The fall schedule for the Alphabet Network is not one that makes me confident they will escape the bottom as quickly as they entered it. It's weird, because ABC does legitimately have some of TV's biggest hits - "Scandal" has been one of TV's best-performing 10 o'clock dramas recently and has rightfully earned a promotion to an earlier hour. Though it dipped near the end of the season, "Resurrection" launched big back in March, drawing in more than 13 million viewers and a 3.6 rating in the demo. It's all the other timeslots, especially the cursed ones that are occupied by literally four or five different shows in a season, that poison every other drop in the well. And for the most part, ABC is doing nothing to alleviate the majority of its most problematic hours.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh37fNs66EgDMc1NdcBqv_rUkufTICNAqdo5kiq2Xu9foHisUvxexbvKqF9uHqJfW2d-P4Od4VPAiDWOg9nVkQrtxOp4_fZjF9c7s7aR6MxuGK_LHxZGXExE2wcMCFSv6JnjuT-IJ9CcXU/s1600/Selfie_a_l_FULL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh37fNs66EgDMc1NdcBqv_rUkufTICNAqdo5kiq2Xu9foHisUvxexbvKqF9uHqJfW2d-P4Od4VPAiDWOg9nVkQrtxOp4_fZjF9c7s7aR6MxuGK_LHxZGXExE2wcMCFSv6JnjuT-IJ9CcXU/s1600/Selfie_a_l_FULL.jpg" height="180" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"> "Selfie," Tuesdays at 8pm</td></tr>
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Monday will be exactly the same for the sixth straight year, with <b>"Dancing with the Stars"</b> and <b>"Castle"</b> back at 8 and 10pm respectively. Tuesday, though, will once again be a night consisting mostly of new programming. The night opens with comedy <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qJAPLypDnE" target="_blank">"Selfie"</a></b> at 8 starring Scottish "Doctor Who" fan favourite Karen Gillan in some sort of 21st century take on "My Fair Lady" (or, as I've been informed via Twitter, "Pygmalion" because if they're not singing it's not "My Fair Lady" and blah blah blah) about a woman who non-ironically learns that friending someone on Facebook isn't the same as friending someone in real life (actual pilot dialogue). Following at 8:30 is <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqrA3G4p9Fc" target="_blank">"Manhattan Love Story,"</a></b> about a couple who falls in love in the Big Apple. The big twist is that it will explore all their inner thoughts from the very beginning of the relationship, because leave it to ABC to drop the bomb that men and women are different. <b>"Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D."</b> slides back an hour to 9, with its competition now a new "NCIS" spinoff rather then the "NCIS" mothership, aka the #1 show on television. Closing the night at 10pm is the new drama <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LXp8W4wqyU" target="_blank">"Forever"</a></b> about an immortal medical examiner. If you saw Fox's "New Amsterdam" a few years back, you've seen this exact same show except with the main character in a different profession. I imagine Tuesday in the fall to do exactly what it did this past fall - "SHIELD" will be fine, the comedies will pull middling numbers in an unprotected timeslot, and the inevitably bland "Forever" will be lucky to air more than three episodes.<br />
<br />
The comedy block on Wednesday once again has old faithfuls <b>"The Middle"</b> and <b>"Modern Family"</b> anchoring the night at 8 and 9 respectively. The second season of <b>"The Goldbergs"</b> slides in at 8:30, finally joining the night it always belonged on, while the new Anthony Anderson/Laurence Fishburne family comedy <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IufXnZ3gSPc" target="_blank">"Black-ish,"</a></b> about an African American father concerned that he hasn't been passing on enough of his cultural background to his kids, gets the coveted 9:30 slot. Wait, a family sitcom airing after "Modern Family"? But "Black-ish" won't feature any twentysomething singles hanging out in bars or navigating the perilous world of dating! What sorcery is this? About damn time, Paul Lee, but this is still another badly titled ABC comedy and <a href="http://www.hitfix.com/the-fien-print/a-note-to-abc-stop-thinking-audiences-like-ironic-and-reclaimed-comedy-titles" target="_blank">HitFix's Dan Fienberg explains in this article why enough is enough</a>. Oh, and for some reason ABC decided they had nothing to put on at 10pm that would draw more viewers than <b>"Nashville,"</b> so congrats to its fans on the third season pickup.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDd3I6zDYzgnp-rgKRbs9CUT_dofMUd2j8-GxW7fR53cJppjtSoCCfNpaT0__8FE_Ap_CrULfiwggsjpmkFv49oocT6XH4UMomvfAB-bEdPG-46ZWJx-Dp-Xt3Uc5c6oJmHA7biQwT20s/s1600/140513135837-how-to-get-away-with-murder-abc-story-top.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDd3I6zDYzgnp-rgKRbs9CUT_dofMUd2j8-GxW7fR53cJppjtSoCCfNpaT0__8FE_Ap_CrULfiwggsjpmkFv49oocT6XH4UMomvfAB-bEdPG-46ZWJx-Dp-Xt3Uc5c6oJmHA7biQwT20s/s1600/140513135837-how-to-get-away-with-murder-abc-story-top.jpg" height="180" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: right;">"How to Get Away with Murder," Thursdays at 10pm </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Thursday night opens with - sorry, did I say Thursday? We don't call it that anymore. Instead it's SHONDAY! Or maybe SHONDANIGHT. In any case, all three dramas on this night come from powerhouse writer/creator Shonda Rimes and it looks as if the Alphabet has actually seemingly shored up a big problem hour that's been plaguing the network for decades now. By sliding <b>"Grey's Anatomy"</b> and <b>"Scandal"</b> an hour earlier to 8 and 9 respectively, making way for the new Viola Davis thriller <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGVpoXLeHTM" target="_blank">"How To Get Away With Murder"</a></b> at 10pm, the Thursday at 8 on ABC death slot that has killed every show (except briefly "Ugly Betty" and some occasional filler episodes of "Wipeout") since "Mork and Mindy" in the 70s should actually show signs of life in the fall. And again - ABC putting an existing show in that timeslot rather than condemn untested properties there to certain death? What demonry? And serious follow up question, why did ABC renew Paul Lee's contract rather than making Shonda Rhimes the network's new entertainment president?<br />
<br />
Friday remains mostly unchanged with <b>"Last Man Standing" </b>opening the night at 8, the oddly popular <b>"Shark Tank"</b> at 9, and <b>"20/20"</b> at 10pm. The new multi-cam comedy <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tI87XTpmpPE" target="_blank">"Cristela"</a></b> will air at 8:30, starring standup comic Cristela Alonzo as a woman trying to balance an unpaid internship at a law firm with her overbearing family. Ya know, credit where credit is due to ABC: they ordered three sitcoms for the new season about non-white families, almost single-handedly righting the racial disparity on the network in combination with Shondanight. But the trailer for this was bleak - and I wish I could actually like "Cristela" rather than wincing at its stereotypical jokes where characters at the law firm assume Cristela is the cleaning woman, putting my fingers in my ears and muttering, "Diversity on TV is a good thing, diversity on TV is a good thing..."<br />
<br />
Saturday night is college football, while Sunday night will remain exactly the same as it was this spring: <b>"America's Funniest Home Videos"</b> at 7, <b>"Once Upon a Time"</b> at 8, <b>"Resurrection"</b> at 9, and <b>"Revenge"</b> at 10pm.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzuKr4z3GlxOOtMp50wCIlfBX7OdraIKgDgRCB18GCrq1szWnEbQR8SJ6FdlynwTmpPSyEwzJxdNolAlQqqlT7hiGUHGkWiqjMJWXLg0ACwYT03p_QmKx7RRhBAjYDb3lt9ObagEl5kqM/s1600/PHOTO_Whispers-group.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzuKr4z3GlxOOtMp50wCIlfBX7OdraIKgDgRCB18GCrq1szWnEbQR8SJ6FdlynwTmpPSyEwzJxdNolAlQqqlT7hiGUHGkWiqjMJWXLg0ACwYT03p_QmKx7RRhBAjYDb3lt9ObagEl5kqM/s1600/PHOTO_Whispers-group.jpg" height="180" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"> Actual publicity still for a network TV show. <br />
"The Whispers," premiering at midseason</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>Premiering at midseason:</b> <b>"Marvel's Agent Carter,"</b> based on a short Netflix "Avengers" tie-in thing, will help fill the gap between "S.H.I.E.L.D." episodes in the new year (not a second of this has been shot yet, however). Felicity Huffman and Timothy Hutton star in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlIu0ak2nrw" target="_blank"><b>"American Crime</b>"</a> about a class/racially-charged murder trial. TV producing juggernaut Stephanie Savage will adapt Lily Koppel's novel <b>"The Astronaut Wives Club"</b> with such familiar faces as Odette Annable and Joanna Garcia Swisher. A Taiwanese family moves from D.C. to Orlando in the early 90's-set comedy <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6iKSTOx1fU" target="_blank">"Fresh Off The Boat,"</a></b> based on the memoir by celebrity chef Eddie Huang. Fairy tale themed musical <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HebCU8X34JE" target="_blank">"Galavant"</a></b> will take over for "Once Upon a Time" in January. Drama <b>"Members Only"</b> will follow a sophisticated Connecticut country club (and sadly will not be a show about jackets). A regular guy becomes the prime suspect in a murder case after finding a body in the generically-titled <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R469TYIWJYk" target="_blank">"Secrets and Lies"</a></b>. And an alien race gets us where we least expect it - OUR CHILDREN DUN DUN DUN - in <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6X9vTnb83U4" target="_blank">"The Whispers"</a></b>.<br />
<br />
<b>Returning at midseason:</b> "The Bachelor"<br />
<br />
<b>Not returning:</b> "The Assets," "Back in the Game," "Betrayal," "Killer Women," "Lucky 7," "Mind Games," "Mixology," "The Neighbors," "Once Upon a Time in Wonderland," "Suburgatory," "Super Fun Night," "Trophy Wife"<br />
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<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">CBS</span></u></b><br />
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As I mentioned last year, CBS always finds a fun way to shake up their fall schedule - mostly because the stability and cockiness that comes from being America's most watched network allows them to do whatever amusing thing they want to do, even if that means renewing "Rules of Engagement" for a 27th season and airing it on Saturday night, without risking a ratings drop.<br />
<br />
So this time around we have a fun new wrinkle that we haven't had to deal with before - back in February, CBS bought the rights to the first half of the NFL's <b>"Thursday Night Football"</b> package that up until now was only broadcast on cable television's NFL Network (and on local affiliates in the markets of the teams playing that week, preempting actual network programming to...I never really thought about it before, but probably the middle of the night just as preseason games do). Starting September 11, CBS Thursday night will be all football all the time, meaning their usual Thursday schedule won't start until October 30 (at which point the Thursday night games will only be seen on NFL Network, and the league will consider an option to renew the contract with CBS next year).<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSTEEnGpeYDQ0vm4MCoP-i2FIVgKMWp2J0vQbB1FBBi2gfd_nxxWGGPIDiiYC0uOPYHsOJUFGNNMGRnGiDJzxIOOiJSvgAk0pE7pMQmlDWfb1ezBsEeCIn3oeIsxhhnYAnU5ZSayGInjQ/s1600/scorpion_article_story_large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSTEEnGpeYDQ0vm4MCoP-i2FIVgKMWp2J0vQbB1FBBi2gfd_nxxWGGPIDiiYC0uOPYHsOJUFGNNMGRnGiDJzxIOOiJSvgAk0pE7pMQmlDWfb1ezBsEeCIn3oeIsxhhnYAnU5ZSayGInjQ/s1600/scorpion_article_story_large.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: right;">"Scorpion," Mondays at 9pm</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
That means <b>"The Big Bang Theory,"</b> the Eye's Thursday night launchpad for the last four years, will now start its season on Monday night at 8 (and will thus be the only Thursday night comedy to air year round next season), and possibly boosting the under-performing and reportedly underrated <b>"Mom"</b> at 8:30. CBS has cut back their Monday comedy commitment to just that first hour (the first CBS Monday lineup without two hours of comedy since the 80s), and so the new drama <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dU_hJscvdXU" target="_blank">"Scorpion"</a></b> about a genius who recruits other geniuses to solve the world's complicated problems will air at 9. But I choose to refer to it by the nickname Dan Fienberg, referenced above, lovingly gave it - "Katharine McPhee: Nerd Wrangler". In November, "Big Bang" will go back to Thursday and the 8 o'clock slot on Monday will be returned to the repulsively awful <b>"2 Broke Girls"</b>.<br />
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Closing the night at 10pm is <b>"NCIS: Los Angeles,"</b> moving out of the post <b>"NCIS"</b> timeslot on Tuesday it's occupied since it premiered in 2009. Instead, the 9pm Tuesday slot will be filled with the new spinoff <b>"NCIS: New Orleans"</b> starring Scott Bakula and CCH Pounder, followed by <b>"Person of Interest" </b>at 10pm. Wednesday will also remain mostly stable, with <b>"Survivor"</b> and <b>"Criminal Minds"</b> back at 8 and 9 respectively, leading into <b>"Stalker"</b> at 10pm (no trailer link so as to preserve my feeling of cleanliness). The show stars Dylan McDermott (who clearly saw the writing on the wall for "Hostages" and jumped right at a new CBS pilot) as the lead detective of an LAPD division that focuses on stalking incidents. Because if there's one thing CBS Wednesday needed more of, it's misogyny and other forms of abuse towards women.<br />
<br />
When football vacates Thursday night, "Big Bang Theory" and <b>"The Millers"</b> will retain the 8pm hour. Why "The Millers," a show retaining less than half its "Big Bang" lead-in (high though it may be), is still getting that prime real estate is baffling, but then again so is CBS's idea of comedy. Speaking of which, hallelujah, praise the lord, <b>"Two and a Half Men"</b> will pollute the airwaves for the last time next year. It's followed at 9:30 by the new Boston-centric family comedy <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkElzRC_GDk" target="_blank">"The McCarthys"</a></b> starring Laurie Metcalf and Tyler Ritter. The comically bad trailer should immediately earn a place in the Overused Punchline Hall of Fame with dialogue like "Well that took a turn" and "I'm sorry, he backed me into a corner" after randomly blurting out surprising information immediately after telling it to someone in secret. Also, its extremely outdated homophobia would be alarming if I wasn't so sure this show will fail. And yes, <b>"Elementary"</b> is back at 10pm.<br />
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Friday sees just one minor shakeup: while <b>"Hawaii Five-0"</b> and <b>"Blue Bloods"</b> hold on to the 9 and 10pm slots respectively, 8 o'clock will welcome veteran reality show <b>"The Amazing Race"</b>. Some "Race" fans are concerned their favourite show has been "sent to Fridays to die," but I think they fail to realize that Sunday and Friday are basically both retirement nights on CBS - once you go there, you don't really come back into the middle of the week. If "Race" was able to survive eight years on Sundays, God knows how many it will last on Friday. It will also now avoid the every other week NFL doubleheader delay that always makes its start time in the fall unpredictable.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMcA-yLlagBw5S9NZcd0P5WlYwpAF22v9Tm4FyzSwCj9X0n4VwzSUyx3-KUG5rRxzuOYZN4KKN76The3dPRFONOJylVfGJfvwtKZAQMO8IbIstxXcN1R72UVMEk-XMxbhU1YJyxe2nTlA/s1600/cbs-presents-trailers-for-madam-secretary--extant--ncis-new-orleans-more.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMcA-yLlagBw5S9NZcd0P5WlYwpAF22v9Tm4FyzSwCj9X0n4VwzSUyx3-KUG5rRxzuOYZN4KKN76The3dPRFONOJylVfGJfvwtKZAQMO8IbIstxXcN1R72UVMEk-XMxbhU1YJyxe2nTlA/s1600/cbs-presents-trailers-for-madam-secretary--extant--ncis-new-orleans-more.jpg" height="211" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"> "Madam Secretary," Sundays at 8pm</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Which of course brings us to Sunday, as Saturday remains a night for repeats and <b>"48 Hours Mystery"</b>. <b>"60 Minutes"</b> kicks things off at 7 (or more realistically, as soon as football is over), as always, while the new drama <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cX-vZysWRVw" target="_blank">"Madam Secretary"</a></b> takes over the vacated "Race" slot at 8. The circumstances under which the Tea Leoni character becomes the new U.S. Secretary of State seem pretty ludicrous, but the show has a good cast and I hope it finds its legs quickly, becoming a rare "accidentally good CBS show". Kinda like the show that follows it, <b>"The Good Wife"</b> back for its sixth season at 9. <b>"CSI"</b> vacates its Wednesday timeslot and moves to the Sunday 10pm hour.<br />
<br />
<b>Premiering at midseason:</b> Vince Gilligan's <b>"Battle Creek"</b> makes its much anticipated debut in 2015. Joining it will be a remake of <b>"The Odd Couple"</b> with TV's Matthew Perry and TV's Thomas Lennon. In addition, "CSI" will vacate its Sunday 10pm timeslot sometime in the new year to make way for the poorly-titled, Patricia Arquette-led spinoff <b>"CSI: Cyber"</b>.<br />
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<b>Returning at midseason:</b> "The Mentalist," "Mike and Molly," "Undercover Boss"<br />
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<b>Not returning:</b> "Bad Teacher," "The Crazy Ones," "Friends with Better Lives," "How I Met Your Mother," "Hostages," "Intelligence," "We Are Men"<br />
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<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">The CW</span></u></b><br />
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The CW - a broadcast television network in its ninth year of operations! Crazy right?<br />
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Yeah, still not watching anything on this glorified network version of ABC Family, as I remain not a pre-teen girl. Let's get this over with.<br />
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<b>"The Originals"</b> will move to the Mondays at 8 slot to try and anchor what's long been a dead-ish night for The CW (if you ignore the fact that every night on The CW only averages about a million viewers and thus is dead in perpetuity - oh, whatever). This leads in to <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nikSJFokWm0" target="_blank">"Jane the Virgin,"</a></b> a weird new dramedy based on a Spanish telenovela about a young woman who, defying any actual real-world logic, accidentally gets artificially inseminated during a routine checkup. And how crazy is this - the biological father is the successful, playboy businessman douche she had a crush on in high school.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTQWzYV73hI6PaeqCXdofnnvaewf1eCKuOK_JbihbBmr3Q87S3p1W9OGhmlAiISRGOKS1lyOZEchxQyfa26KWLqvd9LMF8T6JauYAcmnmvZPe-H-UcU9yAiVhZmHJ5fhaIoBj8-Sq-rm8/s1600/arrow-the-flash-standalone-pilot-stephen-amell-grant-gustin-cw.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTQWzYV73hI6PaeqCXdofnnvaewf1eCKuOK_JbihbBmr3Q87S3p1W9OGhmlAiISRGOKS1lyOZEchxQyfa26KWLqvd9LMF8T6JauYAcmnmvZPe-H-UcU9yAiVhZmHJ5fhaIoBj8-Sq-rm8/s1600/arrow-the-flash-standalone-pilot-stephen-amell-grant-gustin-cw.jpg" height="198" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: right;">"The Flash," Tuesdays at 8pm</td></tr>
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Before the return of <b>"Supernatural"</b> at 9pm on Tuesdays for its tenth - tenth! - season will be The CW's big new superhero series (their only other new one this fall) <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yj0l7iGKh8g" target="_blank">"The Flash"</a></b> with Grant Gustin reprising the role he began last season on "Arrow". Speaking of <b>"Arrow,"</b> it's back on Wednesdays at 8 leading in to <b>"The 100"</b> at 9pm. <b>"The Vampire Diaries"</b> and <b>"Reign"</b> both retain their 8 and 9pm timeslots respectively on Thursday, as do <b>"Whose Line Is It Anyway?"</b> and <b>"America's Next Top Model"</b> on Fridays. The CW does not program even reruns on Saturday or Sunday nights because wait holy shit are we still talking about The CW?<br />
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<b>Premiering at midseason:</b> The Rob Thomas/Diane Ruggiero show <b>"iZombie"</b> will finally answer the question, "will I actually watch a show on The CW, even for one episode?" (I might watch Gronk on "Whose Line" if I hear it's unintentional comedy galore, but don't hold me to that). There's also something called <b>"The Messengers"</b>. Whatever.<br />
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<b>Returning at midseason:</b> "Beauty and the Beast" (because ?????)<br />
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<b>Not returning:</b> "The Carrie Diaries," "Nikita," "Star Crossed," "The Tomorrow People"<br />
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<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Fox</span></u></b><br />
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Hooray! The return of craziness to the Fox fall schedule! When "The X Factor" debuted in September 2011, the perennial problem of Fox having to make insane scheduling changes in January to accommodate the return of "American Idol" went away. But Simon Cowell left "The X Factor" a few months back, finally giving Fox an out to cancel the low-rated, critically panned "Idol" imitation. Now that being said, Fox has learned its lesson - it released only one schedule for the fall, without any post-baseball changes or a January follow up to include "Idol". But that will make for fun, wacky press releases in November or December (if that's your idea of fun - it's certainly mine!)<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"> "Gotham," Mondays at 8pm</td></tr>
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On Mondays, Fox looks to pick up a bit more of the steam it generated last fall with <b>"Sleepy Hollow,"</b> one of the few legitimate breakouts of the 2013-14 season/bright spots on the Fox schedule. "Sleepy" is back at 9, as the network believes their highly-anticipated Batman prequel <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0d1zpt6k5OI" target="_blank">"Gotham"</a></b> will self-start at 8pm. It's not a horrible move, but it is odd considering anyone who followed what happened to "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." can already plot the entire first season trajectory of "Gotham": it will premiere very well, certainly above ten million viewers; its ratings will then taper off through the rest of the fall when people realize a superhero show that doesn't have access to the forms of the superheroes people care about isn't worth their time; it will end the season averaging between five and six million viewers; and it will earn a second season renewal because even if five to six million viewers wasn't a hit on the currently pathetic state of the Fox network, it would have been seen as too much trouble by the network to so quickly cancel a show that began the year with that much buzz and promotion.<br />
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Tuesday remains mostly unchanged, with <b>"New Girl"</b> and <b>"The Mindy Project"</b> retaining the 9pm hour. But at 8 sees the first of two weekly airings for the new reality show <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3fu7j02Mks" target="_blank">"Utopia,"</a></b> some sort of cross between "Survivor" and "Big Brother" where people try to build a new society but weak people are voted out I guess? The people on social media who call it "Kid Nation for Grownups" aren't wrong to do so.<br />
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Wednesday begins with the new season of <b>"Hell's Kitchen,"</b> followed by the depressing new drama <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPEI4CnAC4c" target="_blank">"Red Band Society"</a></b> following doctors, nurses, and patients in the pediatric ward of a hospital. Even if the show is great, I don't expect this to be a spectacularly high-rated night - much as some people love to cry at "Grey's Anatomy," kids with cancer and such will likely be a bridge to far.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: right;">"Gracepoint," Thursdays at 9pm</td></tr>
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On Thursday, the ever-resilient <b>"Bones"</b> leads into <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9IWvbbZPZc" target="_blank">"Gracepoint,"</a></b> the American remake of last year's fantastic ITV murder mystery "Broadchurch". David Tennant returns to the role of the lead male detective, while Anna Gunn of "Breaking Bad" takes over the role of Ellie Miller portrayed by Olivia Colman, who was showered with critical praise and every award given for British television acting for her performance. The trailer for this looked very odd and I'm hoping that a) I can step back and try to view this independently from "Broadchurch" and b) the reason the trailer looked so odd to me was either just because I was recalling the way everything looked on "Broadchurch" and comparing "Gracepoint" to it negatively for little reason, or that the trailer was just edited poorly. I do have faith that I will find this to be at least an enjoyable companion to "Broadchurch," especially considering writer Chris Chibnall and director James Strong are returning in the same roles. The "whodunnit" ending, however, is being changed, and it obviously remains to be seen whether it will play as satisfyingly (and if Gunn is able to sell that ending by living up to an incredibly high standard set by Colman) as the original did.<br />
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Friday welcomes the return of <b>"Masterchef Junior,"</b> a show that was beloved by my Twitter feed last fall and I might need to actually devote some time to in September (maybe - again, don't hold me to that). Another presumably low-rated hour of "Utopia" follows at 9pm. Saturday will be college football, and Sunday sees a slight overhaul to the long-running "Animation Domination" lineup in that it will now only be 60% animation. <b>"The Simpsons"</b> and <b>"Family Guy"</b> remain at 8 and 9, while one of the funniest new comedies of last season, <b>"Brooklyn Nine Nine,"</b> takes over the 8:30 slot and new multicam comedy <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZSe7V02oLI" target="_blank">"Mulaney,"</a></b> starring and based on the comedy of former "SNL" writer and stand-up John Mulaney slides in at 9:30.<br />
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In addition, Fox's NFL Sunday post-show "The OT," which exists basically only because Fox constantly had football interruptions pre-empting episodes of "Futurama" and "King of the Hill" in the 7 o'clock hour in the early 2000s, has been shortened to a half hour to make room for the excellent <b>"Bob's Burgers" </b>at 7:30. And if you're wondering why this plan troubles me, re-read the Fox network history lesson at the beginning of this paragraph.<br />
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Sigh. New tagline idea: "Fox - so much never learning from mistakes."<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"> "Backstrom," premiering at midseason</td></tr>
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<b>Premiering at midseason:</b> Fox has renewed its long running anthology series "House MD: But This Time a Different Profession" for a new season, now called <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgPUO2XlcA8" target="_blank">"Backstrom"</a></b> with Rainn Wilson playing the titular misanthropic police detective. Seth MacFarlane offers yet another animated series with Southwest family comedy <b>"Bordertown"</b>. Lee Daniels' hip hop family drama <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBzu_jKLJek" target="_blank">"Empire"</a></b> will star familiar faces like Terrence Howard, Taraji P. Henson, and Gabby Sidibe. <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JC2Nn0lPmfc" target="_blank">"HIEROGLYPH!"</a></b> will be something Egyptian, and may not actually be spelled in all capital letters and with an exclamation point. Will Forte plays the last man on earth in the new comedy <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_xNvdptsXY" target="_blank">"The Last Man on Earth"</a></b>. And Zachary Knighton helps "Happy Endings" go six for six in getting its regulars back on TV with his new midseason, might-not-ever-actually-air comedy <b>"Weird Loners"</b> (which also stars Becki Newton, who starred in Fox's last barely-actually-aired comedy "The Goodwin Games" last summer).<br />
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<b>Returning at midseason:</b> "American Idol," "The Following," "Glee"<br />
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<b>Moving:</b> "American Dad," to TBS<br />
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<b>Not returning: </b>"Almost Human," "Dads," "Enlisted," "Raising Hope," "Rake," "Surviving Jack," "The X Factor"<br />
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<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">NBC</span></u></b><br />
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When I wrote my upfronts blog last season, I hypothesized that with returning hits like "The Voice," loud newcomers like "The Blacklist" (ding ding ding) and "The Michael J. Fox Show" (lol), and two weeks of Winter Olympics coverage to alleviate their midseason "Voice"-less slump in 2013, it was entirely possible that maybe - just maybe - NBC would finish the 2013-14 TV season in first place among the advertiser-coveted demographic of adults 18-49. And for the first time since "Friends" went off the air 10 years ago, that's exactly what NBC did. But more importantly, even stripping away the two weeks of Olympics coverage, NBC still ended the season in first place. That's remarkable considering people used to question a few years ago how long it would take before Comcast turned NBC into a cable channel.<br />
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And so I go into this season with a similar amount of faith. No, I'm not going to call a "Michael J. Fox Show" success like last year only to be proven completely wrong - but I am predicting this very boring schedule full of very boring shows will once again put NBC on top. And believe me, it makes me sad that the viewer-less but quality driven NBC of the mid 2000s is basically gone, no longer a network capable of leaving "Chuck," "Community," and "Friday Night Lights" on the air for five seasons, or "30 Rock" and "Parks and Recreation" on for seven. It makes me even sadder that in the new year, not a single half hour comedy is scheduled to air on Thursday night, which probably hasn't happened since the early 80s pre-Must See TV schedule with shows like "Fame" and "Buck Rogers".<br />
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But those circumstances bring to mind a few thoughts: I begin with a quote from British sitcom "Peep Show" that I think has accurately described the life support era of "Comedy Night Done Right" the last few seasons:<br />
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<i>"You're gonna get us killed for the sake of your legacy! Stop it, you're not fucking Blair!"</i><br />
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Again, sad to see NBC Thursday night comedies being dismantled. But CBS has not only successful taken over that night in the ratings (dating back to the early 2000s "Survivor" and "CSI" one-two punch) but has also managed to replace NBC as the destination for Thursday night laughs (also in terms of ratings - still always more laughter on NBC). And what's interesting is that nobody seems to be talking about what I feel might be the new home for comedy on NBC - Sunday nights after the football season. Fox still has their Animation Half-Domination lineup there, and "The Simpsons" and "Family Guy" still do well among younger male viewers. But I don't see "Brooklyn Nine Nine" or "Mulaney" really taking off there, which could, if not fertilize the Sunday comedy turf for NBC, at least not do anything to kill the grass the way "Big Bang Theory" always made it impossible for the peacock to really build audiences on that night (of course, it also didn't help that "Community" was basically impenetrable to new audiences by late in its second season). It seems like a perfectly fine place to run the final season of "Parks and Rec" and maybe something like midseason comedy "Mr. Robinson" that only has a short episode order. Because when the alternative is Donald Trump or "American Dream Builders," the bar to clear is looooowwww.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: right;">"State of Affairs," Mondays at 10pm starting in November</td></tr>
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But the night by night breakdown: Monday remains completely unchanged for the first 10 weeks of the season, with <b>"The Voice"</b> back for its two hour performance show at 8 and hit drama <b>"The Blacklist"</b> at 10pm. In mid-November (apparently the 17th, but there's no way that can actually be locked down yet), "Blacklist" will cede the timeslot to the new drama <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlPJVmeA3t8" target="_blank">"State of Affairs,"</a></b> starring Katherine Heigl as a breaking-all-the-rules CIA agent who works closely with the President of the United States (Alfre Woodard) because she's also her mother-in-law, and their fiance/son respectively was killed in some sort of terrorist altercation before the start of the series. On the theme of boring, think of "State of Affairs" as "Boring Homeland," even though many viewers have already lost patience with "Homeland" itself.<br />
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Another hour of "The Voice" begins Tuesday night at 8pm. Following it is the new comedy <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyIuHEfNmYM" target="_blank">"Marry Me"</a></b> from "Happy Endings" creator David Caspe, where "Endings" star Casey Wilson and Ken Marino as a long-time couple trying to put their relationship back together after Wilson freaks out that she hasn't been proposed to yet - right as Marino is down on one knee ready to surprise her with an engagement in front of all their friends. The second season, a miraculous renewal for a show starring David Walton, of <b>"About a Boy"</b> lands at 9:30 leading into to <b>"Chicago Fire"</b> at 10pm. Seems like a decent night except for that middle hour; see remember when I said I had faith NBC's new shows being boring but competent successes? That was really only the dramas I was talking about - because seriously, when was NBC's last <i>hit</i> comedy? In any case, "Marry Me" will be a middling semi-hit for 22 episodes and then crash and burn the second it's moved away from "The Voice". It's also at this point I express utter bafflement that NBC let go of "Growing Up Fisher" which was averaging a 1.7 in the demo, far exceeding the averages for "Parks and Rec" and not far behind its lead in "About a Boy".<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7zu4yAZlyQusdLP23u3DKrWZAIYZVknjlxddg7UOa5TnPJKH2pF0-8HqRnkZf2-maLSSKl1MqEw398lydKRsQHS1PRkp5u5WZk9iLuaabOSGYqKxab_Dxoe8OMWmBPmiYPyq07SWoE04/s1600/la-et-st-upfronts-2014-nbc-picks-up-constantine-mysteries-of-laura-and-a-to-z-20140508.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7zu4yAZlyQusdLP23u3DKrWZAIYZVknjlxddg7UOa5TnPJKH2pF0-8HqRnkZf2-maLSSKl1MqEw398lydKRsQHS1PRkp5u5WZk9iLuaabOSGYqKxab_Dxoe8OMWmBPmiYPyq07SWoE04/s1600/la-et-st-upfronts-2014-nbc-picks-up-constantine-mysteries-of-laura-and-a-to-z-20140508.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"> "A to Z," Thursdays at 9:30pm</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
On Wednesday, get this - Debra Missing will play a police detective who's - wait for it - ALSO A MOM, so crazy - on the weirdly titled drama <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkN7P08_oYM" target="_blank">"The Mysteries of Laura"</a></b>. Back in the 9 and 10pm slots respectively are <b>"Law and Order: Special Victims Unit"</b> and <b>"Chicago PD"</b>. Moving to Thursday, the dismantling of Must See comedies begins with <b>"The Biggest Loser"</b> as cannon fodder against Thursday Night Football/"Big Bang Theory" at 8pm. We will still briefly have some comedies on this night, with Kate Walsh as a judge who - get this - is ALSO A DRUMMER AT NIGHT - in <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lF3vxmJsDIk" target="_blank">"Bad Judge"</a></b> at 9. At 9:30, Ben Feldman of "Mad Men" and Cristin Milioti of "HIMYM" play lovestruck Andrew and Zelda in "How Ginsberg Met Your Mother" (NBC prefers we call it <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FKlRDYy_7o" target="_blank">"A to Z"</a></b> because haha, their names start with those letters, how crazy). <b>"Parenthood"</b> returns at 10pm for its final 13 episodes before ceding the timeslot to <b>"Allegiance,"</b> aka "The Boring Americans," in the new year.<br />
<br />
I would also be remiss not to mention that a few days after an airing in the extremely coveted post-Super Bowl timeslot, "The Blacklist" will move to the Thursday 9pm slot in February to become the night's new anchor, booting "Bad Judge" and "A to Z" elsewhere ("why not Sunday?" he asked again). This will pit "Blacklist" against ABC's "Scandal," one of the most watched dramas on TV, but as AV Club television editor Todd VanDerWerff noted on Twitter, the ratings war is usually won by the show with more procedural elements, meaning everything's theoretically coming up Spader.<br />
<br />
Friday opens with <b>"Dateline NBC"</b> at 8pm, leading into its genre hours with <b>"Grimm"</b> back at 9 and a new television adaptation of <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPE2oBnzROY" target="_blank">"Constantine"</a></b> at 10pm. You can bank on that 10pm hour eventually going back to "Hannibal" in 2015, and other midseason genre fare waiting in the wings. Saturday will be reruns, and Sunday will of course be <b>"Sunday Night Football"</b>. The Sunday lineup for 2015 has yet to be decided.<br />
<br />
<b>Premiering elsewhere at midseason:</b> Land of Oz-centric <b>"Emerald City"</b> will eventually earn a place on Genre Friday. "Office" alum Craig Robinson becomes a cool music teacher in <b>"Mr. Robinson"</b>. The B in Apartment 23 plays a 60s era lady astronaut in comedy <b>"Mission Control,"</b> which also stars Jonathan Slavin and Malcolm Barrett and thus seems to exist solely to resurrect the Phil and Lem characters from "Better Off Ted". Recently discovered comedic treasure Elisha Cuthbert plays a gay woman adopting a baby with her straight male friend in Ellen DeGeneres-produced, multi-cam comedy <b>"One Big Happy"</b>. Ellie Kemper plays a young woman readjusting to life after escaping a cult in Tina Fey and Robert Carlock's <b>"The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt"</b>. They also presumably still have miniseries <b>"The Slap,"</b> a remake of an Australian show about what happens to a community when a parent slaps another's child at a birthday party.<br />
<br />
<b>Returning at midseason:</b> "The Celebrity Apprentice" (we'll believe this when we see it), "Hannibal," "Heroes: Reborn" or whatever it's called, "Parks and Recreation"<br />
<br />
<b>Not returning:</b> "Believe," "Community," "Crisis," "Dracula," "Growing Up Fisher," "Ironside," "The Michael J. Fox Show," "Revolution," "Sean Saves the World," "Welcome to the Family".<br />
<br />
<b>The 2014-15 network television season officially begins Monday, September 22.</b>Brendan Noelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01355501477653448329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196027173447098748.post-23162254648677387772014-03-16T19:33:00.002-04:002014-03-16T19:35:54.129-04:00Hey, where'd you go?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
Of my four or five dedicated readers, I'm guessing at least one of them has been wondering, "hey, didn't this blog used to be updated regularly or something?" The answer to that questions is: yes, kinda.<br />
<br />
And it still will be! But now, probably even less often. I'll still likely be posting Emmy predictions/analysis or whatever here, and my year end lists, and anything else I deem should be filed under "old man yells at cloud" rather than actually published somewhere where people could accidentally see it. But I'm also focusing on some writing ventures elsewhere at the moment. For the past six weeks, I've been covering a really fun reality competition show on TBS called "King of the Nerds" for <a href="http://robhasawebsite.com/" target="_blank">Rob Has a Website</a>. Here are the links to the blogs I've written:<br />
<br />
- <b>Episode 3:</b> <a href="http://robhasawebsite.com/is-zack-a-villain-kotn-brendan-noel/" target="_blank">"King of the Nerds": 5 Reasons Why Zack Belongs in the Reality Villain Hall of Fame</a><br />
- <b>Episode 4:</b> <a href="http://robhasawebsite.com/the-5-poison-numbers-of-king-of-the-nerds-brendan-noel/" target="_blank">The 5 Poison Numbers of "King of the Nerds"</a><br />
- <b>Episode 5:</b> <a href="http://robhasawebsite.com/a-debatably-low-key-week-on-king-of-the-nerds-v3-brendan-noel/" target="_blank">A Debatably Low-Key Week on "King of the Nerds"</a><br />
- <b>Episode 6:</b> <a href="http://robhasawebsite.com/titanic-missteps-in-the-king-of-the-nerds-penalty-box-kotn-brendan-noel/" target="_blank">Titanic Missteps in the "King of the Nerds" Penalty Box</a><br />
- <b>Episode 7:</b> <a href="http://robhasawebsite.com/pay-your-respects-at-the-king-of-the-nerds-memorial-service-brendan-noel/" target="_blank">Pay Your Respects at the "King of the Nerds" Memorial Service</a><br />
- <b>Episode 8:</b> <a href="http://robhasawebsite.com/king-of-the-nerds-sprints-to-the-finish-and-faceplants-again-brendan-noel/" target="_blank">"King of the Nerds" Sprints to the Finish - And Faceplants (Again)</a><br />
<br />
And in the meantime, I'll be blogging periodically about TV over at the new <a href="http://postshowrecaps.com/" target="_blank">Post Show Recaps</a>. Come check us out!Brendan Noelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01355501477653448329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196027173447098748.post-57757854137288696332014-01-26T20:59:00.000-05:002014-01-27T02:39:44.957-05:00A(nother) rant against Global, and my frustration with the current landscape of Canadian television<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"> The stars arrive Sunday (January 19) night for "Global <br />
Presents The 20th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards <br />
Live Asterisk".</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
If you happened to have stumbled across these parts this time last year, you might remember me laying in to Global TV, truly a perfect shining example of Canadian television, for absolutely shitting the bed with regards to their telecast of the 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards. For viewers like myself watching on the east coast, the first 40 minutes of the broadcast (or roughly one third of the show) were spent watching a rerun of an ancient home renovation show called "From the Ground Up with Debbie Travis" while Global flashed a crawl on the screen telling us the SAG Awards would start soon*<br />
<br />
<i>(*Just as soon as the network frantically tries to figure out why they were not getting a signal of the show into the country).</i><br />
<br />
Well this year, in a horrifying feat of spectacular trainwreckery, Global managed to outdo themselves. Now credit where credit is due, they did manage to air the entire show this year (or so I am led to believe), which might make those two hours the most successful broadcast in the network's history. But this year they decided to air the show on a delay of 24 hours - the awards were presented, and aired on American cable channels TBS and TNT, last Saturday (January 18) night, while Global opted to air the telecast on Sunday (January 19) night.<br />
<br />
Leaving aside the fact that, as someone pointed out to me on Twitter, E! carried a live red carpet pre-show on the Saturday night anyway (someone high up in an office at a Canadian broadcaster really did just decide at some point that we're all stupid and everyone else has run with that idea for years if not decades), the decision to delay the show by a day is really baffling to me. The idea was tossed around that Global didn't want to compete with CBC's broadcast of "Hockey Night in Canada," but to me that's a much preferable form of ratings competition than CTV's Sunday night broadcast of the NFC championship game. Global said in a statement that they were delaying the SAG Awards to air them on a night that was more convenient for their audience - which either means they felt it was more convenient to ensure their audience they would see the entire show this year (not a good reason in any way to delay the telecast), or decided that because we as idiots are used to seeing such an event on a Sunday night (or that there are more of us around to mindlessly gawk at them), we won't mind that the winners will have been known for 22 hours beforehand.<br />
<br />
Global's continued butchering of the SAG Awards is just one symptom of a larger problem for Canadian TV nerds like myself, and it's this: yes, we get all (or at least most) of the programming we know and love - but we have no way of watching it in a non-bastardized form.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a>See, there's this thing you and I are both on right now called the internet. It contains pretty much all the information and knowledge in the entire universe. Information like press releases or Wikipedia articles listing the winners at the 20th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards, or live streams of questionable legality for TBS and TNT to watch the 20th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards as they actually were happening.<br />
<br />
It also contains official websites or other program listing services that tell us when certain television shows air new episodes in the United States. And of course, it also contains peer-to-peer downloading services that give people anywhere in the world access to these programs literally minutes after their first broadcast.<br />
<br />
In short: it is 2014. There is no getting around that. There's no way to hide that from us. We live in the future - not our actual future, but the way "the future" was described to us at Epcot. All forms of entertainment are available to us at our fingertips. All information is accessible to us in countless media at all times.<br />
<br />
And so it no longer becomes viable for Canadian broadcasters to think they can get away with the following two scheduling strategies concurrently:<br />
<br />
<b>a) </b>Without having to subscribe to premium cable services like The Movie Network, HBO Canada, and Super Channel, you will be able to see the majority of your favourite American-made TV shows, surrounded by the comfort of knowing the advertising you see during those shows will contain familiar ideas such as "Patriotism can be defined almost exclusively by a love of Tim Hortons and NHL hockey," and that watching your favourite shows on Canadian channels supports local jobs and the industry as a whole<br />
<br />
<b>b)</b> We reserve the right to air these shows whenever we want. Occasionally, they will air a day earlier than they will on the American network and that will be kind of fun for you. But they might also air later in the week because we own the rights to two different American shows that air at the same time but on different broadcasters. In that case, you will be asked to wait for them. Sorry, we know you love "NCIS" on Tuesday, but that's when "Glee" is on. "NCIS" is now on Wednesday. Sorry, you'll have to wait a day. No, no, don't go check to see what's on CBS, also available nationwide, on Tuesday nights. That's definitely not the "NCIS" you know and love airing at the same time as "Glee". Please don't record those shows at the same time. After all, it's 1991. Such technology does not exist. Hey, what's that red dot? Oh look, now it's over there! Woah, what's happening? Better go find out - we'll see you back on Wednesday for a never before seen episode of "NCIS"!<br />
<br />
Canadian TV, you don't get to decide that you will subsist only on American-made entertainment, producing such a small amount of original programming that your upfront presentations (i.e. presenting which American shows you have bought the rights to for next season) is picketed by ACTRA, and then tell us how to watch them. And for a technologically dependent college student like myself who doesn't have a television at school and thus relies on watching TV online, you can't expect me not to have figured out how to watch literally any TV show or movie for free whenever I want. And I know that someone like me doesn't affect your profits, in the way that we learned that HBO knows you steal your friends' HBO Go passwords and they don't care because it doesn't cost them any revenue. But it does affect my perception of your services, which at this point is nothing more than "annoyingly incompetent and inconsistent middleman".<br />
<br />
For example, Global's broadcast history of "Parenthood" this fall has basically turned into a guessing game. NBC moved the show out of a long-held Tuesday at 10pm timeslot into the same time on Thursday nights. That space, however, was staked out by CBS' "Elementary" last fall and has a higher priority to Global. So for the first few weeks of the season, Global was airing "Parenthood" on Friday nights. I watched the show Thursdays on NBC because...I wanted to, so why would I wait? After a while, Global moved the show, along with other NBC Thursday night shows "Sean Saves the World" and "The Michael J. Fox Show" to Wednesday nights. This meant they now aired the day before the first-run broadcasts in the U.S. So I started watching "Parenthood" on Wednesday, because again...why would I wait?<br />
<br />
Now you might think that was a rare bit of praise for the network from me. But then something really weird happened. The first new "Parenthood" of 2014 aired January 2 on NBC, but that episode did not air on Global at all that week. Nor did the episode on January 9. Or January 16. Or January 23. With "Parenthood" now off the air until the Olympics conclude on February 27, it appears Global has intentionally delayed the airing of these episodes (and replaced with weird, cheap Canadian equivalents of shows you'd probably find on the already cheap Investigation Discovery) to have something to air in February while the networks of the CBC airs the Winter Olympics.<br />
<br />
Excuse me, but I feel the need to raise my voice.<br />
<br />
IN WHAT UNIVERSE IS ANYONE IN THIS COUNTRY WATCHING ANYTHING BESIDES THE WINTER OLYMPICS WHILE THERE ARE WINTER OLYMPICS ON?<br />
<br />
And what makes it even more inexplicable is that it isn't like Global has done this with all their programming as part of some nefarious plan to try to make you choose between bobsledding and "Bones" (which they would lose <i>hard</i>). They are only doing it with "Parenthood". And again, it isn't like they have no room on the schedule - otherwise they wouldn't be spackling with reruns of things like "Border Security" or "Howie Do It".<br />
<br />
And even our cable channels, with far less original programming, have fallen into similar traps. For the past 10 weeks I've enjoyed the new Bill Lawrence sitcom "Ground Floor," airing in simulcast on TBS in the United States and The Comedy Network in Canada. At least until December 26, when that night's episode of "Ground Floor" did not air because Comedy had committed to airing nothing but reruns of "The Big Bang Theory" (which at this point I'm almost certain has the same powers as oxygen or water to the bodies of Canadians) all day Christmas and Boxing Day. And the next week's episode didn't air either for a similar marathon that consumed all of New Year's Day and January 2. At that point, the Canadian broadcasts were two weeks behind and I wasn't going to just pretend the internet didn't exist and I could't just torrent those episodes.<br />
<br />
Similarly, the TBS competition series "King of the Nerds" just returned for its second season on Thursday nights. Problem is, we don't have access to TBS ever since their local Atlanta signal split off from the national feed and now all their programming needs to be picked up by local channels. So sorry, Slice, but I'm not waiting for you to air "King of the Nerds" on a delay of six days just because I live in a country that decided to do that. When TBS acquired "Cougar Town" from ABC, Citytv kept airing the new episodes last year. This year, it has disappeared from Canadian airwaves entirely, so I continue to torrent them because I have been conditioned to expect new episodes. If you're still not entirely comprehending how the world works, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet" target="_blank">read up</a>, networks.<br />
<br />
And I don't feel like my argument is invalidated by any claims of "no one's telling you you have to torrent things" or "you are statistically insignificant in the eyes of these broadcasters". Yeah, both of those statements are true. I'm not even necessarily saying that these problems I'm having should be enough of a reason for them to change their ways. What frustrates me the most is that I want more than anything to be able to have a TV watching experience that is completely legal, creates jobs in a Canadian entertainment industry, and promotes a competitive economy and no one is able to offer me that. I'm getting watered down scraps that I'm expected to stitch together to create something resembling an entertainment experience, and I hate that I'm expected to be okay with that.<br />
<br />
I don't feel like I'm helping anyone by watching Canadian television in its current form. On the contrary - I'm encouraging apathy and complacency. I'm encouraging an employment landscape, that in its most grand form south of the border is already incredibly tough to break into, to resist growth and the production of quality content because it's easier to just show what other people have done. And sure, American programming airs everywhere in the world - you will see just as much of it on British TV. But the output of any one of BBC One, ITV, or Channel 4 would easily kick the ass of the combined original scripted output of Global, CTV, and Citytv.<br />
<br />
Probably what bothers me most is that they're doing it in such a half-assed way. If you're going to just blatantly mirror an American network's schedule, just own it. Decide that Global is NBC, CTV is CBS, Citytv is Fox, etc. etc. Don't make people hunt around for stuff because you all decided to be lazy and cheap in the most annoying way possible. Because sure, while I'm very aware that I can just watch the Buffalo feeds of the American networks, a surprising number of people aren't and just stick with your bullshit.<br />
<br />
And so if I had it my way, the choices for these Canadian broadcasters would be as follows:<br />
<br />
a) The aforementioned "just decide which American network you want to be, and then call yourself [network name] Canada"<br />
<br />
b) Go the route of the CBC and ditch all American shows and actually program a week's worth of Canadian content. And they're doing that as a government entity - so don't tell me it's too hard or give me any other bullshit about how it's unfeasible.<br />
<br />
But if I've learned anything from watching TV in this country, it's that I don't get things my way. I get what I get and am expected to ignore the idea of alternatives. Which is ironic, because I'm pretty sure Global could maintain their same quality of broadcasting if they were operating out of a Burger King.Brendan Noelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01355501477653448329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196027173447098748.post-62997918968401827242013-12-31T19:44:00.001-05:002015-05-15T21:35:23.850-04:00The thrilling conclusion to "My 25 Favourite Episodes of TV"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
Look, regardless of how rough some of these posts have been (and some of them are <i>rough</i>), I'm not gonna pretend I'm not at least happy with myself that this project I started six months ago has actually reached its completion. It took longer than expected, as evidenced by this post's publication on New Year's Eve, but it's finished. 30,000+ words on 25 shows across all six major networks, a few more cable channels, and even spanning two continents. And at least in terms of the show I picked for this final entry, I think I've saved the best for last.<br />
<br />
<b>After the break</b>: We will all learn the reason for compensation.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i>Mad Men</i>, "The Suitcase"</span></b><br />
<b>First aired on AMC Sunday, September 5, 2010</b><br />
<br />
<i>"I always assumed that, but it turns out it's true." - Trudy Campbell</i><br />
<br />
So what do you say of the episode about which all the words have already been written?<br />
<br />
Well I'll start by saying that this "25 Favourite Episodes" project was only ever intended to declare my 25 favourite episodes of TV, not count them down or rank them from 25 to 1. <i>Survivor</i>'s "Girls Gone Wilder" is not my least favourite episode on this list simply because it was the first one I wrote about, nor would last week's "Dee Reynolds: Shaping America's Youth" likely rank among my top 5.<br />
<br />
I also don't think I'm necessarily saying that "The Suitcase," the seventh episode of the fourth season of "Mad Men," is my all time favourite episode of television. But I can tell you that I did intentionally leave it for last. I mentioned last week my assumption that this would be the hardest entry I had to write on the entire list simply because "Mad Men" contains a lot of layers and symbolism that deserve a proper essay, so perhaps I left it last not out of any preference but just to set myself up in a United States vs. Soviet Union type situation. I'm just not exactly sure in this case whether this writeup is the gold medal winning Soviet Union team at the 1976 Olympics in Innsbruck, or whether I'm the underdog United States at the 1980 Lake Placid games ("Do you believe in miracles? YES! Brendan Noel has written a semi-competent piece about 'Mad Men'!").<br />
<br />
But here's what I think I am ready to declare: I feel weird saying this as someone who loves and has loved a lot of TV in my life, but I'm pretty sure "Mad Men" is my all-time favourite show (perhaps rivalled seriously only by "Enlightened"). And what makes it so great is that it goes so far beyond "layers" or "deeper meanings" - it's that freaking <i>everything</i> has a second, third, and fourth meaning, and you can watch episodes countless times over and still interpret things entirely differently than you had before. Maybe, if they're crazy enough, there are still words to be spent on even its most exhaustively analyzed hour.<br />
<br />
Case in point: would you like to read about how this episode is basically "The Sixth Sense"?<br />
<br />
If you knew what it was like to die, or be dead, would you fear it more or less? I found it hard not to watch "The Suitcase" and feel like the moment at which Peggy walked back into her office, with Don working in his while everyone else runs out of the building before getting roped into pitching more Samsonite commercials, a jet engine crashed into the 37th floor of the Time and Life Building, killing Don and Peggy. As soon as Peggy walks back out into the hallway, everyone has vanished except for Don. Some of the lights have shut off in the office, giving a place she knows so well just the slightest dark haze. She keeps "talking" to other people, but it's never real - Mark is over the phone, Duck is in an inebriated state, etc. The only way she can ever truly get out of the building is if Don escorts her - and when they are out among real people, no one really acknowledges their existence. Now at this point I'm taking the "they were dead the whole time" cliche a little too far by trying to get into the rules of the paranormal, but it does feel remarkable how really <i>alone</i> Don and Peggy are, at least for the night, in this bottle show.<br />
<br />
For the entire episode, Don dreads a piece of news he already knows - Anna Draper is dead, having succumbed to her cancer. After he and Peggy fall asleep together late into the night, he is awoken by a transparent, ghostly image of Anna holding a suitcase. She smiles at him before walking out of his office, and out of his life forever. When he finally calls Anna's niece Stephanie in California, he apologizes for not getting back to her sooner and asks if Anna had wanted to talk to him. Stephanie tells him, "You know, she wasn't really there." The version of "the afterlife" Don seems to believe in is the traditional view of Heaven - a separated, communal holding room that everyone joins when it's their time to go. But the night he got to spend as a ghost seems to have taught him that not all death is equal, and in some senses is a limited experience. Maybe we don't all go together, or at least not with everyone we want to - but we go with those in closest physical proximity, and if we're lucky, one of them will be someone who knows us.<br />
<br />
Peggy Olson knows Don Draper, and "The Suitcase" is almost a series of vignettes about their relationship. Every time she comes back in to his office, Don's changed his tune - he's disappointed, then annoyed, then apologetic, then in hysterics, then heartbroken. And from working as his secretary (which she reminds him of when he asks if she knows when <i>his</i> birthday is), Peggy has learned how to handle all sides now. He can tear her down and make her cry, but it's not gonna put her in the fetal position or stop her from going back to Don's office later to listen to a recording of Roger Sterling dictating his ridiculous memoirs. Even if she knows him as "Don Draper," she still knows who this guy is and what makes him tick just as much as Anna did.<br />
<br />
And with her passing, and Don's feeling that he's lost the only person who really knows him, "Dick Whitman" has passed with her. There's so much talk of and allusion to death in this episode even beyond Anna, with Don and Peggy sharing stories of watching their parents die in front of them and Don talking about the yokel kid in Korea, terrified of the idea of air travel, screaming "Man wasn't meant to fly!" It's a suggestion that perhaps there's a higher purpose to staying where we are - that wherever we are, it's where we're meant to be. Anna is, after all, in California, the promised land for just about every character on "Mad Men". Everything there is always better, but it's not a place for permanent stay. It's an escape, a last resort - a final resting place, literally and metaphorically.<br />
<br />
But with death comes the idea of rebirth. Even if Don doesn't realize that Peggy has come to know him so well in their five years working together, he knows it's time to start filling a void that has spent years occupied by Anna. If everything you had in your life was invested in one person, and suddenly they were gone, you too would be torn apart. And so Don has decided to leave the door open, ready to let someone in uninvited and unannounced. For the time being, anyway. He likely closed it again the next day, or maybe even later that afternoon. Don Draper does not rebirth: he resets or regenerates, "freshening up" like he does before all of his co-workers come in for the day to cover up the rot. His is a dying species, an entity who we saw this past season is doomed to repeat the history he never learns. It makes it all the more likely that while the ghostly image of Anna has walked away from Don for good, it's far from the last time she will haunt him.Brendan Noelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01355501477653448329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196027173447098748.post-91721645132824882472013-12-16T23:40:00.002-05:002014-01-08T22:59:38.059-05:00Year End 2013: Cream of the crop in a big harvest<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
Wow. Wow, wow, wow.<br />
<br />
That's my reaction to the year in television. There were so many good new and returning shows that cutting down my list of favourites into hard lists of 10 and 20 was so much more difficult than I could have imagined. I mean, it's one thing for there to be just so much great stuff on. It's completely another to consider that I have a show in my top 10 that <i>isn't in English</i>. If you had told me that would be the case on January 1, I never would have believed you in a million years. But I guess that's a good sign that I'm expanding my horizons to at least try and keep track of it all.<br />
<br />
I closed my top 10 of 2012 post by asking "Whattaya got, 2013?" Well here's what they got. And it's incredible. My top ten shows of the year after the break.<br />
<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">10. Bob’s Burgers </span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">(FOX)</span></b></div>
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I considered just writing “Tina Belcher” and moving on to
number nine, but I’ll try to pad this out a bit more: I’m gonna level with you
– when I sat down to make this list, I never would have imagined “Bob’s
Burgers” would have been my highest ranked “comedy” for the year. But there is
something about this show that really makes me laugh even when I’m not actually
watching it. Almost everything happening on “Bob’s Burgers,” and to the
Belcher family, is funny, and for the most part they know it. But the show’s
completely deadpan style is unlike almost any other animated comedy, reminding
you of that friend who’s always the funniest person in the room and thus
impossible to make laugh. I really like H. Jon Benjamin’s extremely deep voice
as Bob, and the way he uses it to express incredulity and only ever raises it
in exasperation is very well considered. It’s probably why the same voice
coming out of Sterling Archer never did much for me – too angry and douchey for
me to really appreciate it. In 2013, “Bob’s Burgers” did a lot of good work
expanding its universe and while it will never reach the same level of cultural
impact, it feels more than ever like a very worthy successor to “The Simpsons”
as a heartwarming, ridiculous, and side-splittingly funny First Family of
cartoon comedy.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">9. The Americans </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">(FX)</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiO5_LGCAraM09d3AUHLxTc8_RzpJEUC36kpZrNNuDg7wP3IfV7137SHV6swqWj3qpJfm1TPEaaLpijpYfyhSkMG0YYtWDPS8reMtXsTIPueoDXznnHxj-Ooivjmh7sGZ4SGw5l01Xcag/s1600/TheAmericans-Keri-Russell-Matthew-Rhys.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiO5_LGCAraM09d3AUHLxTc8_RzpJEUC36kpZrNNuDg7wP3IfV7137SHV6swqWj3qpJfm1TPEaaLpijpYfyhSkMG0YYtWDPS8reMtXsTIPueoDXznnHxj-Ooivjmh7sGZ4SGw5l01Xcag/s320/TheAmericans-Keri-Russell-Matthew-Rhys.jpg" height="216" width="320" /></a></div>
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What’s impressive about “The Americans” is how amazingly
Keri Russell, Matthew Rhys, and the great Noah Emmerich keep the show together
in spite of occasional head scratching moments in terms of logistics. Why does
it seem to flip back and forth every week between Elizabeth and Phillip as to
who was more doubting of their mission and the Motherland? Isn’t the “the spies
could be living right next door” thing a little too literal here? It often
didn’t matter when that trio was on screen, with Rhys and Russell trying to
sort through the complications that would naturally arise when two people in
such close proximity develop a relationship of any kind within what is really a
sham marriage. Which is to say nothing of their very real children who they
have real feelings for, and how much they’re really ruining the life of
Emmerich’s Stan by needing to eliminate or otherwise gaining hold of his most
trusted allies (Phillip posing as “Clark” and marrying Martha to further
infiltrate the FBI is among the most despicable things done on TV this year). For
me, the most exciting thing about “The Americans” is how well set up they are
for a future full of devastation and heartbreak on the level of something like
“Breaking Bad” – these people are all so close and none of them really
understand how badly they’re hurting each other. And when it all comes out, I
can’t wait to be there.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">8. </b><b>Masters of Sex </b></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">(Showtime)</span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfPlvPXLdE9DNRfQMqLCh8h9mqlzX9DHCqulPMqGJPmlYMALtvQykaZXR9q2PK39u50HWrPzNKdiDn-p_A6A1EK4fMudwyjTvKpguE2ROAcn7JeyZRtWx7CHCD7ejoSN_BeUf-U0uhMGY/s1600/TV-Masters_of_Sex-030f9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfPlvPXLdE9DNRfQMqLCh8h9mqlzX9DHCqulPMqGJPmlYMALtvQykaZXR9q2PK39u50HWrPzNKdiDn-p_A6A1EK4fMudwyjTvKpguE2ROAcn7JeyZRtWx7CHCD7ejoSN_BeUf-U0uhMGY/s320/TV-Masters_of_Sex-030f9.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
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I had a different Showtime series in my top 10 list last
year – “Homeland,” which so quickly became a show I didn’t really care about in
the slightest that it makes me sad. And it has me worried for what may
eventually come of a third or fourth season of “Masters of Sex,” one of my
favourite new dramas of the year and a show that feels so incredibly off brand
for its network. Someone on Twitter recently mentioned that every Showtime
series is basically either amazing or terrible, and “Masters of Sex” certainly
falls into the former category. But it’s so good in such a quiet, introverted
way that a story like this wouldn’t normally be told. There’s enough sex that
it’s not sexy in any way, a marked difference from the Showtime I’d expect to
try and add unrealistic and historically inauthentic scandal and twists to the
story. Michael Sheen is fantastic when subdued and heartbreaking when allowed
to open up (Bill’s breakdown at the end of “Catherine” and his refusal to let
Virginia look at him is one of my favourite moments of the year in television).
And plain and simple, this is just the best work of a career that’s already pretty
impressive for the great Lizzy Caplan.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">7. Hannibal </span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">(NBC)</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ2m3VyT0cG2-MYaCR_ajbUP-tvxIFIZ3fniZxSK8vDBhqjkz-g2pmkOpgowcTrYVxyFuY70VI1Tl2vhe4p4r10PqXUlgrlOmtze6WDTT7e2nZxb7DsxkOeWj0f7DaK66SENmNXYICClQ/s1600/0404F_HannibalMadsMikk_70p.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ2m3VyT0cG2-MYaCR_ajbUP-tvxIFIZ3fniZxSK8vDBhqjkz-g2pmkOpgowcTrYVxyFuY70VI1Tl2vhe4p4r10PqXUlgrlOmtze6WDTT7e2nZxb7DsxkOeWj0f7DaK66SENmNXYICClQ/s320/0404F_HannibalMadsMikk_70p.jpg" height="212" width="320" /></a></div>
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There are often times when I see someone put into words
exactly what it is about a television show that propels it to the next level of
greatness for me, but for whatever reason <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I</i>
just can’t find them myself. Such an instance was back in June when I was
listening to the co-hosts of the “TV On The Internet” podcast make predictions
in the drama categories for the upcoming Primetime Emmy awards. They arrived at
“Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series” and conversation turned toward
Mads Mikkelsen as NBC’s titular “Hannibal” when AV Club television editor Todd
VanDerWerff voted for him on his fake ballot. Fellow AV Club TV critic David
Sims agreed and finally verbalized the one remaining thing about this show that
really had me in awe that I hadn’t really thought about before: “Can you
believe it’s 2013 and someone has a fresh take on the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">HANNIBAL LECTER CHARACTER?!</i>” Just as co-host Libby Hill said “I
know!” I found myself saying the same words. Mads Mikkelsen’s take on the
classic character is so creepy and intense, and he straddles such a fine line
between “cultural differences” and “legitimate psychopathy” that makes for a stellar
performance I never would have imagined seeing on network TV, even on a Bryan
Fuller show. While “The Following” made my “worst of” list for how little it
cared about how violent it was, “Hannibal” never made you forget for a second
what the cost of doing business was for Will Graham and co. Dark, disturbing,
but ultimately meaningful – and as a result, infinitely powerful.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">6. Orange is the New
Black </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">(Netflix)</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR7BlHl0ECJUFnY6ZdGIdMrYlM6GRIUIBoL923ZADwydZWdzMO9UsmcbDwxDI69dYAli3eYKuJikYgZN33IBUGTKX9LtLBKYwlG56B4qKWm8jZ5hwBt0iLwzKxEjD3y3Qzxa7S9bYHUDc/s1600/orange-is-the-new-black1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR7BlHl0ECJUFnY6ZdGIdMrYlM6GRIUIBoL923ZADwydZWdzMO9UsmcbDwxDI69dYAli3eYKuJikYgZN33IBUGTKX9LtLBKYwlG56B4qKWm8jZ5hwBt0iLwzKxEjD3y3Qzxa7S9bYHUDc/s320/orange-is-the-new-black1.jpg" height="207" width="320" /></a></div>
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Here’s a show that really only needed to be half as good as
it was to make it on this list. Bottom line, you will see people talk to each
other on “Orange is the New Black” that you will not, and frankly cannot, see
talk to each other on almost any other show. Think about it – when was the last
time four black women had a conversation on a television show? And those
conversations and the stories of who these women were and how they ended up in
this prison together were fascinating examinations of the things that can bring
people together as much as it can tear them apart. It was also a pretty severe
critique and condemnation of the American prison system, with almost no
sympathetic characters on that side of the aisle and very quickly shutting up
my assumptions that “Orange is the New Black” would be “Oz, but with women
instead”. Even with its fantastic moments of devastation and heartbreak, I love
the points of triumph even more – and the moment where they merged, with the
inmates listening to Larry’s radio interview and finding out what Piper Chapman
really thinks about them, is without a doubt one my favourite moments in the
medium for 2013.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">5. Rectify </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">(Sundance
Channel)</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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When it comes to slow TV, “Rectify” is about as
sssslllllooooowwwww as it gets. Telling the story of a seemingly wrongfully
convicted man finally released from prison after more than a decade, creator
Ray McKinnon and Aden Young, the actor who brought Daniel Holden to life (or
something to that effect), really put you in that mindset of
just...how...slowly...the time can pass. But of course, slow isn’t a bad thing
when it’s done intentionally. And slow also means incredibly well considered
with a lot of time for self-discovery of the adult life Daniel has basically
never had, and the frankest of conversations about religious, spiritual, and philosophical
themes that have probably ever been put on television. Rounded out with
fantastic performances by Abigail Spencer and Adelaide Clemens, “Rectify” was without
a doubt my favourite new show produced this side of the Atlantic this year.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">4. Mad Men </span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">(AMC)</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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“Mad Men” is coming off a great season. There, I said it.
But it’s coming off a very different kind of season than its ever done. There
has almost always been, at least for me anyway, a sense of instant
gratification with “Mad Men,” wonderful, hilarious moments in every episode
that make the majority of the hours in season five immediate classics. Season
six was a much slower build with a dud episode or two, and it wasn’t until its
final two hours – the brilliant Vincent Kartheiser showcase “The Quality of
Mercy” and season finale “In Care Of,” the lens that you really have to view
the entire season through – that everything really locked into place. It was
the kind of storytelling I hadn’t prepared myself for with “Mad Men” up to this
point, and it’s been difficult grappling with the idea that while 2013 was
probably the year I least enjoyed the show, it might be the best it’s ever
been. A marathon run of classics in season five earned “Mad Men” my #1 spot in
2012, and while the sixth season needed a bit more sorting through, you can
never take away from it episodes like “For Immediate Release” or “The Better
Half”.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">3. The Returned </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">(Sundance Channel)</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg37UB12BZtn-fmppT4_OUKkRlcdx66OT-qmsorwOyoijDf1Hubs2nKHgm3f4s46covZJJ4Z5kAyd_4f_p7cYOMTZCCFx0Hk692vqYRV3UWoJvqeRpkNDvVfiwkgDE8PmkexZGxPbd2eSg/s1600/the-returned-episode-1-jean-claude-lother-00086-lst115018.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg37UB12BZtn-fmppT4_OUKkRlcdx66OT-qmsorwOyoijDf1Hubs2nKHgm3f4s46covZJJ4Z5kAyd_4f_p7cYOMTZCCFx0Hk692vqYRV3UWoJvqeRpkNDvVfiwkgDE8PmkexZGxPbd2eSg/s320/the-returned-episode-1-jean-claude-lother-00086-lst115018.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
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I briefly touched on this when I listed “Julie” as one of my
favourite TV episodes of the year, but there is something about “horror done
right” that is very close to my heart. I wouldn’t consider myself a horror
expert or an aficionado of the genre by any means (or for any film genre,
really) but I’ve just seen enough horror movies that are complete garbage to become
really excited when I see one that I like. Leave it to Sundance, with some of
the year’s best shows, to acquire this outstanding French drama series about
the people of a small town whose loved ones suddenly come back to life. Dead
for days, months, years...and then back with no explanation. I feel like I’ve
been complaining for a while now that the idea of the “zombie drama” needed to
be killed and buried before it can reanimate and eat our brains. But “The
Returned” did one even better – with the dead back just as they were in life, the
show examined purely emotional and psychological horror better than anything I
can remember seeing in a long time, really killing the established perception
of “undead” once and for all. Gone are the relentless blood and guts of “The
Walking Dead,” replaced with terrified, disbelieving expressions of a mother
who is simultaneous relieved, elated, shocked, and frightened beyond belief to
see the teenage daughter who died months earlier back in her kitchen making a
sandwich. “The Returned” has such a strong command of its mundane but
unsettling atmosphere, and it’s the most legitimately scared I’ve been by any
visual medium in quite a while. I wasn’t necessarily resistant to
foreign-language shows previously, but this definitely tore down any wall I
might have had up against them. In 2014 – “Borgen,” baby!<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">2. Breaking Bad </span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">(AMC)</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid9a2qQWAueLYS5ygd_dgk4T83olOvkjqmUMFkYfpNAdZh-H0Hfp6rWv5Noht_1KrUGKcBXKHP2Lc7zbr0bBusEerC1aiDAaSVBDNrnIrkmlJZ5oY5Nx8KO5qz3jRWGI2FlM2-46w69aQ/s1600/breaking-bad2.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid9a2qQWAueLYS5ygd_dgk4T83olOvkjqmUMFkYfpNAdZh-H0Hfp6rWv5Noht_1KrUGKcBXKHP2Lc7zbr0bBusEerC1aiDAaSVBDNrnIrkmlJZ5oY5Nx8KO5qz3jRWGI2FlM2-46w69aQ/s320/breaking-bad2.png" height="208" width="320" /></a></div>
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Lord. How many times in the eight weeks that “Breaking Bad”
was on the air in 2013 did an episode end with a heart-pounding climax, cut to Vince
Gilligan’s executive producer credit, followed by me saying, “Oh fuck you!” at
my television or laptop? Of all the shows on this list, the conclusion of
Walter White’s metamorphosis was easily the most tense – “Breaking Bad” was
never really a show that felt like it was holding too much back on the
audience, so when there was no reason that certain characters couldn’t know
Walt’s secret or couldn’t just be shot in the head and buried in a hole along
with barrels of drug money, Vince Gilligan and his writers were able to let
loose even beyond what was done in previous seasons. In the big “25 Favourite
Episodes” project I’ve been writing on my blog this year, I listed season three’s
“One Minute” as an obvious standout. That was roughly two months before “Ozymandias”
was released to the masses, immediately cementing itself as one of dramatic
television’s greatest hours ever and the absolute peak of a phenomenal farewell
run for one of the so-called “golden age’s” biggest and loudest
representatives.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">1. Enlightened </span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">(HBO)</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdLZ2cPgipiZQD372_jvCbXpzeJQ57yZfBoZGdIh_HO2CvDmD2jdFtwRssWt47MTgZzjPMefpG45WJmOFUsZRz97RLwrczyppUEUluv7VW8_v3KEab2QLBeOOpo1IT87DhOaig2XgK0us/s1600/2013-03-04-enlightened.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdLZ2cPgipiZQD372_jvCbXpzeJQ57yZfBoZGdIh_HO2CvDmD2jdFtwRssWt47MTgZzjPMefpG45WJmOFUsZRz97RLwrczyppUEUluv7VW8_v3KEab2QLBeOOpo1IT87DhOaig2XgK0us/s320/2013-03-04-enlightened.jpg" height="198" width="320" /></a></div>
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I have already written about <a href="http://noelivision.blogspot.ca/2013/03/review-hbos-enlightened-is-best-show.html" target="_blank">why and how much I loved “Enlightened”</a>.
And I’ve already written about what a <a href="http://noelivision.blogspot.ca/2013/03/an-open-letter-to-netflix.html" target="_blank">terrible decision</a> it was, financially and
artistically, for HBO to cancel the show. So instead, I’m just going to
remember how much fun I had watching these 18 episodes in the span of about 52
hours back in early March. I’m going to remember how in a strange way, wherever
I find myself, hearing <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjjF7Dxi3L0" target="_blank">this music</a> will somehow take me “home”. I’m going to
remember watching the entire second season in a single sitting, staying up past
six in the morning because for the first time maybe ever, there were no ifs,
ands, or buts about it – I absolutely <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">had</i>
to know how Amy Jellicoe’s story came to a close. I wasn’t going to sleep until
I saw it. I couldn’t. I was too engaged in a weird, mesmerized way that I never
could have imagined happening with this show or any show. To rip off Ryan McGee
once again, as someone who self-identifies as “spiritual” rather than “religious,”
“Enlightened” made me feel something bigger than myself. And there was just so
much relentless optimism in it, most of it about the beauty and power of the ordinary
that for it to get through so powerfully to me, cynic of all cynics at times, was
a real kick in the ass. It stands tall as an incredible triumph for the small screen,
and art in general, and the best show on television for 2013.<br />
<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Other shows considered for a spot in the top 20:</b> “30 Rock,” “Arrested Development,” “Brooklyn Nine Nine,” “Cougar
Town,” “Downton Abbey,” “Girls,” “Go On,” “Happy Endings,” “It’s Always Sunny
in Philadelphia,” “Parenthood,” “Scandal,” “Shameless,” “South Park,” “Suburgatory,”
“Treme,” “Trophy Wife,” “Wilfred”.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>Top <i>that</i>, 2014. I dare you.</b></div>
Brendan Noelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01355501477653448329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196027173447098748.post-19264689501158912962013-12-13T15:01:00.003-05:002013-12-13T15:01:52.448-05:00Year End 2013: A great year for TV still has some black marks<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgibOnx0YOWj4Iuir3E41tyulmDX-DCPh11S3LiB8SiTxD2JODazGVEKMhyphenhyphenIvJPYijxKQwait6q9Vn4DIVy4xq8Gx7w-JEey89Bcu9yebq8eLkONpKynnq18G1vRliR5q1ehJafKXV8BWk/s1600/Everything's+The+Worst+Liz+Lemon.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgibOnx0YOWj4Iuir3E41tyulmDX-DCPh11S3LiB8SiTxD2JODazGVEKMhyphenhyphenIvJPYijxKQwait6q9Vn4DIVy4xq8Gx7w-JEey89Bcu9yebq8eLkONpKynnq18G1vRliR5q1ehJafKXV8BWk/s1600/Everything's+The+Worst+Liz+Lemon.gif" height="180" width="400" /></a></div>
<i><b>Year end caveat:</b> I watch TV. Some shows I like. Some shows I don't. You might disagree. That's okay. Some good shows I don't watch or haven't caught up on. They won't be on my top 20 list. Some shows are too bad for me to even bother with. They won't be on my worst of list. Some shows I love ("30 Rock") didn't air long enough in the calendar year for me seriously consider giving them a spot in a very, very good year for television. I hope I'm not offending you. We cool? Cool.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
I think last year I got a little carried away with my "worst of" list, so this year I've made a conscious effort to cut down what I think were the 10 worst/most disappointing shows I watched (even if only briefly, but left a lasting bad impression). The list is unranked, presented only in alphabetical order, because even someone as cynical as I feels no need to spend any more time determining which of these shows is worse than any others.<br />
<br />
Snark after the break...<br />
<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Dads </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">(FOX)</span></b></div>
<!--EndFragment--><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheJoDyt7zAi57dEzV0N6TbENwEsFVI4QlSIk-PHWgMb9hmGvfKOCihMniiW8srILLK0dUPuSHt9MFKixkUGP3HYcNKdnYwW4hd3vPBfBLGuHDvejBd7WuZ2zEOX8EdKC28hKeCoNGvnew/s1600/dads-fox.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheJoDyt7zAi57dEzV0N6TbENwEsFVI4QlSIk-PHWgMb9hmGvfKOCihMniiW8srILLK0dUPuSHt9MFKixkUGP3HYcNKdnYwW4hd3vPBfBLGuHDvejBd7WuZ2zEOX8EdKC28hKeCoNGvnew/s1600/dads-fox.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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While there are no rankings in my 10 worst shows of the
year, “Dads” (which I somehow stuck with for three episodes) easily made for my
most unpleasant viewing experience of 2013. Yes, it’s ridiculously offensive on
a number of levels and egregiously unfunny all the same. But two things in
particular really baffle me about this show: one, it really did look like
amateur hour in every poorly framed shot, oddly paced scene, and randomly
inconsistent scene transition – if this hadn’t come from people who previously
worked on Seth MacFarlane shows (albeit, not live action ones), I probably
would have imagined the creators walking into “The Big Time Hollywood Talking
Picture Store” and buying a “My First TV Show” kit. Second, I was never able to watch “Dads” without
thinking, “Isn’t this exactly the kind of boring, stupid show that people who wrote
for ‘Family Guy,’ ‘American Dad,’ and ‘The Cleveland Show’ would have hated and
mocked to no end?”<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Do No Harm </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">(NBC)</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtiyO0MidbGwNMN_zDZEWk8zVKCXd4ho_lZHbihG7zaGR_0Ir8ngwE4brmc5umWjinI6d_ALsH3yM0JmWcak8j5w7BXRIj3MxMo6heUuTr6LXkasWRjeKUpggMyWPpcaTNCF8byOqrvQ4/s1600/DoNoHarm_620_020113.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtiyO0MidbGwNMN_zDZEWk8zVKCXd4ho_lZHbihG7zaGR_0Ir8ngwE4brmc5umWjinI6d_ALsH3yM0JmWcak8j5w7BXRIj3MxMo6heUuTr6LXkasWRjeKUpggMyWPpcaTNCF8byOqrvQ4/s1600/DoNoHarm_620_020113.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
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When it comes to “worst of” lists, some critics try to play
fair and only include shows they watched every episode of. Fortunately, only
two episodes of “<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq9ScLuvEMPThpR4NyxJTKHUwIf4xHVcAKPeQ6N-vZVM4xkhTIP1IBHJjr5GHJzzZweSjW0dUUUuCoJRaL6yNytg7m2hIBpXlUKiPqFF8M_lTTFvo-6xynzEuRpvlym-WanW-AHbhg0__6/s1600/Do-No-Harm-poster02.jpg" target="_blank">Dr. Face Hands</a>” ended up airing on NBC and I consider watching
one of them to be a passing grade on my part. Oh “Do No Harm,” perhaps the most
ridiculous show this past winter’s “crazy awful network genre show
extravaganza” offered up. Every night at 8:25, he becomes...some guy who’s kind
of a partying creep? Who also got to deliver the pilot’s insane closing line,
telling a small child to watch out for his stuffed monkey because “monkeys have
been known to eat their young”? WHAT?!</div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Following </span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">(FOX)</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu6b2u-GIDhsqpi94emdmWjJzYMmLJncKIMbFs8Tzis6WYXxW8inJEbL6EWqmNobruk705NpCCO6jAHU5Y5lj-_mch57tmN7p8w1pPwrw_yZKdrnMC7e-uTnYGD_nQFwimO-9_BF3-t1o/s1600/TheFollowing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu6b2u-GIDhsqpi94emdmWjJzYMmLJncKIMbFs8Tzis6WYXxW8inJEbL6EWqmNobruk705NpCCO6jAHU5Y5lj-_mch57tmN7p8w1pPwrw_yZKdrnMC7e-uTnYGD_nQFwimO-9_BF3-t1o/s1600/TheFollowing.jpg" height="221" width="320" /></a></div>
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Hmm. On second thought, maybe <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">this</i> was my most unpleasant viewing experience of 2013, because
boy, did two episodes of “The Following” make me feel terrible. Here’s “The
Following” translated into the intended reaction of the viewer: “Who’s this
person? Hope they don’t die, I guess, even though I have no reason to care
about them. Well maybe we’ll start to learn—oops, they’ve been murdered in an
unsettlingly gruesome fashion. Wait a minute – the killer was YOU?! But you
were one of the good ones!” “The Following” was lazy, unimaginative garbage that
didn’t give a damn what it did to anyone on it. As a result, its relentlessly
disturbing violence was completely empty and perfunctory. And trying to make
the show seem "intelligent" with such deep, esoteric Edgar Allen Poe references
as “Quoth the raven, nevermore” only led to embarrassing spiels of faux
academia in which serial killer Joe Carroll was said to be “speaking to [his
followers] through Gothic romanticism” and taking advantage of “the pathology
to today’s Internet techno-bred minds”. Which, if you weren’t aware, has
“created a new vacancy in our humanity”. So bad, I committed it to memory.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Glee </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">(FOX)</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF67IxIvgSNtr-tVPRzsmOe990L8kIpCN-ut6Qnu91w4nbFmnIHZmqqZv_4-VbAw7I2X71zpZz6cRooJWev2AQHstDX_2Gy6Lb2SKot2qv_R0aQt2G_5vdj_vTrKqf_9j4_60DpwXe12k/s1600/glee-shooting-star.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF67IxIvgSNtr-tVPRzsmOe990L8kIpCN-ut6Qnu91w4nbFmnIHZmqqZv_4-VbAw7I2X71zpZz6cRooJWev2AQHstDX_2Gy6Lb2SKot2qv_R0aQt2G_5vdj_vTrKqf_9j4_60DpwXe12k/s1600/glee-shooting-star.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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Look, “Glee” is “Glee”. It’s dumb, schizophrenic, lazy, and
self-indulgent to ridiculous extremes. This is well established and there
really shouldn’t be any reason for me to put this back on my “worst of” list.
But “Glee” insists on scraping the bottom of the TV barrel again and again,
this year with a genuinely offensive “school shooting” episode, which was not
actually a school shooting but rather an attempt to wring emotions out of
viewers through the tears of young people who repeat over and over how much they love the glee
club and that its members are their family. And so I will insist on pointing
out exactly how bad “Glee” can still be, even if no one pays it any attention
anymore. Special subtraction to Sue Sylvester claiming there was no
lesson to be learned from the death of Finn Hudson – on a night when the line between
that character and the actor who played him was very blurry, there is
absolutely a lesson to be learned from what happened to Cory Monteith.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">How I Met Your Mother </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">(CBS)</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjApgZzJcs8Q09riND44yIpzRjTwXpZR_Nbt4k_ow06GRE7QOL8ZX3g1lgg-eEiddFhMVeJ2mcMc4wbYBYHqDN1Exh5nYc4vCX1jUtemjP-ruB4YmvuSxSrvt24Nf1pfxuRSFV69kL_XTo/s1600/how-i-met-your-mother-final-season-promo-who-will-ruin-the-wedding.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjApgZzJcs8Q09riND44yIpzRjTwXpZR_Nbt4k_ow06GRE7QOL8ZX3g1lgg-eEiddFhMVeJ2mcMc4wbYBYHqDN1Exh5nYc4vCX1jUtemjP-ruB4YmvuSxSrvt24Nf1pfxuRSFV69kL_XTo/s1600/how-i-met-your-mother-final-season-promo-who-will-ruin-the-wedding.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
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I have nothing new to say about the excruciating shell game
“How I Met Your Mother” has become these last few years. Somehow, though, I
left it off last year’s “worst of" list. I’m not going to rehash the show’s
larger issues (I’ve already done that <a href="http://noelivision.blogspot.ca/2012/01/how-i-met-your-mother-state-of-sitcom.html" target="_blank">here</a>), but specifically in 2013, “HIMYM” decided
to use a 56-hour wedding weekend between two characters who are completely
unlikeable and ill-suited for each other as the primarily location for its
final season. Creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas claimed it would be a
sparingly used framing device to tell stories about Ted and the mother
in the future, and to fill in blanks from the past. Instead, the mother was
left out of at least five consecutive episodes (and most of the show’s run this
fall) in favor of stupid, unfunny, out-of-character wackiness at the Farhampton
Inn. While the show frustrates me enough in given episodes that I still
threaten to quit on it this close to the end, I started and I’m finishing. 12
more episodes and “HIMYM” is done. Then, I will pretend “How I Met Your Dad”
doesn’t exist and in ten years I’ll revisit some of the show’s good early
episodes and also pretend that the show was cancelled after season 2 so “The
Class” could begin a long and storied run on CBS.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Million Second
Quiz </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">(NBC)</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdNxGnAIY2ks4HcmyXQ0LB51STCPdnjIqvBw-Fh_bzqfE9zEewf8_6lPp0L6jjCTVW0e5nYueo0TjQhQydettFAD-HMFb4xq8rGt4o_2iCoqx6-sYf7GCzOGM6acsjVCJZT-SGVl9asy4/s1600/0911-million-second-quiz-630x420.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdNxGnAIY2ks4HcmyXQ0LB51STCPdnjIqvBw-Fh_bzqfE9zEewf8_6lPp0L6jjCTVW0e5nYueo0TjQhQydettFAD-HMFb4xq8rGt4o_2iCoqx6-sYf7GCzOGM6acsjVCJZT-SGVl9asy4/s1600/0911-million-second-quiz-630x420.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
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You will find fewer people more forgiving of a fairly weak
game show than I. But I would have had to at least understand how “The Million
Second Quiz” was played before I could have ever considered liking it. With half
the game played out on second screens, NBC forgot to put any thought into
making the first screen an enjoyable experience with any continuity. It’s as if
the conversation at the network played out like this: “You know what would be
an awesome game show?” “All big money, suspense-driven game shows from the last
15 years combined into one Frankensteined trivia battle?” “That’s what I was
gonna say! Do you think the contestants should sleep in weird futuristic sleep
pods in the middle of Manhattan sponsored by Subway, rather than us not being
cheapskates and offering proper hotel accommodations with bathing facilities
and any sense of privacy?” “Duh, what do you think?” In trying to create a game
that would be all things to all people, “The Million Second Quiz” became a game
that was nothing to no one.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Modern Family </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">(ABC)</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDlrTHtiDi0q1nTxS4Qt7uMO2AHykq1XMI3vpHnJPJP59eNfaaROxTuF4lXNZIy5JXceXc2juCunXfiXusT6dENYY5oUd44dO3NFgjmi9uSWfl2KbmSW9rY2ND2xyHcWxsELNOAlNKylI/s1600/modern-family-season-5-cam-alex.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDlrTHtiDi0q1nTxS4Qt7uMO2AHykq1XMI3vpHnJPJP59eNfaaROxTuF4lXNZIy5JXceXc2juCunXfiXusT6dENYY5oUd44dO3NFgjmi9uSWfl2KbmSW9rY2ND2xyHcWxsELNOAlNKylI/s1600/modern-family-season-5-cam-alex.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
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I’m not a fan of “Modern Family” anymore, which began with
some creative drive behind it that went missing in its second season. But even
if I was a fan, I hope I would be perceptive enough to realize that 2013,
particularly the fall run, has been a down year for the show. It continues to use
recurring guest stars like Fred Willard, Rob Riggle, and Nathan Lane as
crutches, and they’re almost as transparent of walking joke machines as the
regulars. Trying to write characters that are funny people is really dangerous,
and the creators of “Out of Practice” and “Back To You” just aren’t up to the
challenge. If “Modern Family” were a three wall, multi-camera sitcom shot in
front of an audience, I would probably be much more forgiving of it. But in its
actual, basically nonsensical format, it feels like it’s trying to pull one
over on me. I’m still watching, but really not sure why other than the show
only requiring 20 minutes of my week. It will take a pretty significant
creative resurgence to keep me with the show next season, and nothing the show
has done for the last few years gives me any reason to expect that will happen.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Ready for Love </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">(NBC)</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijzEz5Adaz1tlMl-5Vf97eFaWpKvR65NEbbG8NYwmscSo_UQO78hFRt84BLnzLDuMYsIl4AvRgR3F0xOFrG_EiREpf66hi8WrxdQ1ygN8hqrzMB3QctLOmi4Wvaisny8_PyZr00q27gks/s1600/1802265.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijzEz5Adaz1tlMl-5Vf97eFaWpKvR65NEbbG8NYwmscSo_UQO78hFRt84BLnzLDuMYsIl4AvRgR3F0xOFrG_EiREpf66hi8WrxdQ1ygN8hqrzMB3QctLOmi4Wvaisny8_PyZr00q27gks/s1600/1802265.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
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You know what’s wrong with dating? Girls. Dumb girls, man.
Thankfully, we had “Ready for Love” to point that out to us. When relationships
fail, it’s never the man’s fault. Men are perfect, and now it’s up to women to
rise to their level. They needed some help though, so relationship experts were
brought in to remind the women not to be bitches, because men won’t like them.
In the world of courtship according to “Ready for Love,” men are prizes that
women must vie for. Rounding out this disgusting, misogynistic mess was a
competition format, involving elevators raising women up and down almost as if
props in a showroom (which would make them...objects...huh), that made about as
much sense as the rules of “The Million Second Quiz”. In a world where torture
porn like “The Following” succeeds, I was very pleased to see the rather large
audience for “The Voice” soundly reject this form of emotional torture porn.
And if I were Donald Trump watching this show nine years after hiring host Bill
Rancic as my first “Apprentice,” I would have wished I’d hired Kwame instead.
It was all Omarosa’s fault anyway!!! #KwameGotScrewed<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Walking Dead </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">(AMC)</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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Since I couldn’t wait to express my disappointment with last
week’s mid-season finale, I explained <a href="http://noelivision.blogspot.ca/2013/12/the-walking-dead-tosses-aside-its.html" target="_blank">here</a> why I really don’t like this show
anymore, and why I’m finally done.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Under the Dome </span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">(CBS)</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhcESoBJm8IbrndgyqL-47L-njHvzRWyyznRHNQwY92y7mP06N8cfjWVQsCLxkl02dol7ru55He2kWxz-5riXQCP0X4N6sVQfl1CloZO-wQt9ULn7cXCmILom2icG6O8rSdlWtFC1RHnM/s1600/o-UNDER-THE-DOME-facebook.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhcESoBJm8IbrndgyqL-47L-njHvzRWyyznRHNQwY92y7mP06N8cfjWVQsCLxkl02dol7ru55He2kWxz-5riXQCP0X4N6sVQfl1CloZO-wQt9ULn7cXCmILom2icG6O8rSdlWtFC1RHnM/s1600/o-UNDER-THE-DOME-facebook.jpg" height="202" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I can’t remember the last time a show like this fell so easily
into the trap of “we can do anything we want if our characters are just
complete idiots”. When a giant glass dome drops onto your town and you have
neither any idea why it happened nor any way to contact the outside world, you’d
think there would be mass panic over how to ration a limited food supply and conserve
vital supplies. Instead, it was almost as if business went on as usual, with
the dome only amplifying melodramatic stories (don’t get me started on Junior
kidnapping the girl and keeping her in the bomb shelter) that, again, don’t
make any sense considering in theory, the entire world has changed for these
people. “Under the Dome” is entirely shiny objects being dangled in front of a
good show that might actually deal with the problems of being randomly detached
from society at large. But the issues of society at large are perhaps the last
thing this show is concerned with.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Monday:</b> The best of the best in an outstanding year for television</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
Brendan Noelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01355501477653448329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196027173447098748.post-69062907871058457462013-12-12T00:22:00.000-05:002013-12-12T00:22:39.947-05:00Year End 2013: What just missed the cut, or, the 10 best shows of basically any other year<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR99R2FKyhUUR-qV5RF4_VL1B5Qx1HnYMkH3muwarBT-hT-MeaSxwqaXMocYGAKKgo9LbPPphBTdYn2ogNd49qRc8JPzkIW8i204jFV8MLnewj-aDD_tmF27cIQY5tkPJ6fTy5pGJSrYM/s1600/BEST-2013-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="198" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR99R2FKyhUUR-qV5RF4_VL1B5Qx1HnYMkH3muwarBT-hT-MeaSxwqaXMocYGAKKgo9LbPPphBTdYn2ogNd49qRc8JPzkIW8i204jFV8MLnewj-aDD_tmF27cIQY5tkPJ6fTy5pGJSrYM/s200/BEST-2013-.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<i><b>Year end caveat:</b> I watch TV. Some shows I like. Some shows I don't. You might disagree. That's okay. Some good shows I don't watch or haven't caught up on. They won't be on my top 20 list. Some shows are too bad for me to even bother with. They won't be on my worst of list. Some shows I love ("30 Rock") didn't air long enough in the calendar year for me seriously consider giving them a spot in a very, very good year for television. I hope I'm not offending you. We cool? Cool.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
I feel better knowing that actual paid critics had just as tough a time cutting down top 10 and 20 lists as I did this year, since it leads me to believe a) I didn't miss very much, and b) this was such a phenomenal year for the small screen that all the shows in today's "second ten" list would absolutely be top 10 shows in a year that lacked for more quality shows. Good thing the outstanding freshman class of 2013 was <a href="http://www.hitfix.com/whats-alan-watching/screen-actors-guild-awards-nominations-favor-the-familiar-over-the-new" target="_blank">properly recognized by yesterday's Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations</a>, right guys?<br />
<br />
My 20 through 11 positions for 2013 after the break. For comparison's sake, <a href="http://noelivision.blogspot.ca/2012/12/year-end-2012-missed-it-by-that-much.html" target="_blank">here's my second ten of 2012</a>.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">20. Zach Stone Is
Gonna Be Famous </span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">(MTV)</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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When I reviewed this bizarre little Bo Burnham comedy back
in May (and did a pretty spectacular job at predicting its long life), I noted
that nothing about “Zach Stone is Gonna Be Famous” was particularly new and
original. But as the critic mantra occasionally goes, what something is about
is much less interesting than how it is about it. A show whose central
character is this unlikeable has to be really funny to maintain my interest,
and though the moments were sometimes few and far between, “Zach Stone” paid
off with some screamingly funny moments in its 12 episode run last spring. And
because Zach was an actual human being and not just a sketch of a jerk kid in
your high school, he was usually able to show the side of himself that was
damaged and vulnerable while realizing that didn’t mean he was entitled to
total forgiveness every time he did something stupid and careless. And the way
that effectively ramped up over the course of the entire season is perhaps my
biggest disappointment that the show isn’t coming back – I could really tell
that Burnham and co. were finding the show’s second gear right as MTV pulled
the plug. Oh well. That’s showbiz, and thankfully we all have a
brand new Bo Burnham stand up special to enjoy on Tuesday.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">19. Parks and
Recreation </span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">(NBC)</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2aQ_Bb9TPGprsu9vdEiMJ2XO5ZvP0LZjqkAms2ZqoN6XJZz_Z4frLDlfn1QgJq5bI80I-tvRLrE4SSGgrM90kqkmgPhFSvWiCZCd15r8-6C7fepGtSqd_ZvNcoNoJVbTI-SiBnCFZ-f0/s1600/18183691.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2aQ_Bb9TPGprsu9vdEiMJ2XO5ZvP0LZjqkAms2ZqoN6XJZz_Z4frLDlfn1QgJq5bI80I-tvRLrE4SSGgrM90kqkmgPhFSvWiCZCd15r8-6C7fepGtSqd_ZvNcoNoJVbTI-SiBnCFZ-f0/s320/18183691.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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“Parks and Recreation” was #3 on my list last year (based
primarily on the strength of the season four episodes that concluded the
“Leslie runs for city council” arc), and it remains one of TV’s best comedies.
It is not, however, a show I really look forward to watching anymore. For the
most part, I enjoy it in the moment while never waiting for it all day Thursday
in the way I did during the third and fourth seasons. I could write a whole
separate piece on the determination of Mike Schur and his writers to ruin this
great show by making the unbearable asshole that is Councilman Jamm (remember
what I said about “Zach Stone” and comedic un-likeability?) not only the main
characters’ primary antagonist but also such a central component of pretty much
every government story. But in the interest of staying positive, I’ll simply
close by saying that the competent auto-pilot mode “Parks and Rec” is currently
in is still a far more pleasant viewing experience than watching something like
“Modern Family” circle the drain.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">18. Veep </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">(HBO)</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDMV3GLahmo0vFJ-sDJWfdCCIzqe0S1wB41VhBbbedOv7RbwcVyBY8WXteMXgN5CP3lbeOGu6D1UbI4dYZ-esY586cQ6AjPMs25l3sAlHw6tWlP_50YjCCblHSaLFSRZQYZs6YW7JjWaE/s1600/Veep-Episode-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDMV3GLahmo0vFJ-sDJWfdCCIzqe0S1wB41VhBbbedOv7RbwcVyBY8WXteMXgN5CP3lbeOGu6D1UbI4dYZ-esY586cQ6AjPMs25l3sAlHw6tWlP_50YjCCblHSaLFSRZQYZs6YW7JjWaE/s320/Veep-Episode-2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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“Veep” moves down a few spots from last year, but don’t let
that fool you – it’s just a tough, tough year for good TV and out of context, the
numerical placement here for “Veep” does not reflect how much better it got in
its second season. The show remained just as funny, knocking some episodes like
“Signals” out of the comedy ballpark entirely. But one of my biggest problems
with the first season that I otherwise mostly enjoyed (if, some weeks, only as
a mildly amusing intermission between “Mad Men” and “Girls”) was that the show
had no soul, and this year “Veep” got one. Where last year’s finale showed us
how Selina used authentic emotion for evil to manipulate her image, this year
we saw what real human emotions felt by Selina Meyer looked and felt like in appropriate
contexts, and that the actions of her office had consequences beyond bad PR.
For the first time, “Veep” had real stakes for more sympathetic characters
instead of just being a show about this kinda doofy lady who was Vice President
and the wackiness that ensued from that situation. By the time the show reached
its “arc” of sorts at the end of the season where Selina was offered the chance
to run for President and what that meant for her and the entire staff, it had
become the kind of show that was able to effectively portray the wants and needs
of those characters – a stark difference from the aforementioned crocodile
“Tears” that closed the show’s run in 2012.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">17. The Middle </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">(ABC)</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrFuzHWllYoqMy7d6Bs8rXs1hCeUgHCL4QJsm5r1QegPWa8_XV6ht3YFJVTfol0JaYZxq1Yw043lD7kePGYducsyaSp0l0STuHSfRNM5Kn2yRklYOXSoJ7f5bOmNjN_557E9bhdXwruSo/s1600/960.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrFuzHWllYoqMy7d6Bs8rXs1hCeUgHCL4QJsm5r1QegPWa8_XV6ht3YFJVTfol0JaYZxq1Yw043lD7kePGYducsyaSp0l0STuHSfRNM5Kn2yRklYOXSoJ7f5bOmNjN_557E9bhdXwruSo/s320/960.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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“The Middle” stays exactly where I had it last year, which probably
also does not rightfully reflect that this has been another strong year for one
of TV’s best comedies, probably the best one on the air right now about a
family that isn’t a cartoon (more on this in my top 10 list). But such is the
life “The Middle” chose – goofy, charming, and ultimately life-affirming, all
fairly noiseless traits in such an oversaturated TV landscape. Did you know
this show aired its 100<sup>th</sup> episode back in October? Were you aware
this show existed at all? There are critics who say “The Middle” is the best
show of 1997 and they’re not wrong, nor is that a slight against it – it is at
face value, after all, one half of the first single camera comedy about a
semi-dysfunctional family to really find success, Fox’s “Malcolm in the Middle”
back in 2000. In a time of fewer network comedies that share its DNA and without
an enormous slew of original comedies on cable to chip away small percentages
of the public’s attention (TBS’ “Ground Floor,” which I’ve been enjoying these
last few weeks and also feels like the best new show of 1997, is in a similar
boat), this probably would catapult from “solid if not spectacular 8pm anchor
for ABC’s comedy night” to “fairly sizeable hit”. Oh well. I always enjoy
watching this show, even if the capacity in which I watch it often feels like
“my own little secret”.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">16. New Girl </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">(FOX)</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1MZRxA1mc4tnzqFyIOEZFLME8NpOO2iB3uA117e8PaTiaRBxDdgLvfrk1S53KpWxVkp_EPGjzBo_r-q-cvgKdNNnFyC7KYGOdKtZf5TcAIhsCLcjOPdgmgUVxaazUFiJpuTx8HhF8LeM/s1600/NG_Ep306-Sc45pt_0012.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1MZRxA1mc4tnzqFyIOEZFLME8NpOO2iB3uA117e8PaTiaRBxDdgLvfrk1S53KpWxVkp_EPGjzBo_r-q-cvgKdNNnFyC7KYGOdKtZf5TcAIhsCLcjOPdgmgUVxaazUFiJpuTx8HhF8LeM/s320/NG_Ep306-Sc45pt_0012.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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One more time, “New Girl” drops a few spots from last year
and that is a reflection only of the fact that I watched a lot more stuff this
year, and that 2013 will be remembered as a great year for drama and not
comedy. Still, it must be acknowledged that while I don’t think “New Girl”
necessarily made “the leap” that we talk about in terms of decent comedies
finding their footing in a second or third season (which some critics feel did
happen), 2013 was a much more consistent year for the show overall. Funnier,
richer, and with deeper exploration of character, the second season of “New
Girl” was able to take Nick Miller, a guy I really didn’t like or understand,
and turn him into one of my favourite characters on TV (and possibly also a
glimpse at my future self). That’s enough to make it one of my favourite
comedies of the year, even discounting the show getting a much better handle on
who Jess Day is and what makes her funny, and what Schmidt looks like in a
semi-functioning relationship. The fall episodes have been rockier in terms of
plotting, but I’ve still loved the 5-10 minutes every Tuesday when I get to
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">15. Top of the Lake </span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">(Sundance Channel)</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_xEjJS2g_R1cVacRBYxiXFV9L-nihojPnbq4nyeM5mqdslF3WUYIlpuBYrJix2dDPYZtrm0xB7jTZoBzsIo5r76AXkjJ3ScPV63XIvTb2Mgv4qg1bDse2xVLMLEqVYS9cDFWccs7k3M0/s1600/2632555-low_res-top-of-the-lake.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_xEjJS2g_R1cVacRBYxiXFV9L-nihojPnbq4nyeM5mqdslF3WUYIlpuBYrJix2dDPYZtrm0xB7jTZoBzsIo5r76AXkjJ3ScPV63XIvTb2Mgv4qg1bDse2xVLMLEqVYS9cDFWccs7k3M0/s320/2632555-low_res-top-of-the-lake.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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So first of all, Sundance Channel – where’d you come from?
This miniseries you co-produced with the BBC was your first major step into the
scripted programming game and while emotionally powerful and beautifully shot,
it’s probably still not as good as the two shows you aired next (more on those
later). But calling “Top of the Lake” my least favourite Sundance original this
year is whatever the opposite of damning with faint praise is (“praising with
loud scorn”?) because holy crap, of all the shows this year that my eyeballs
looked forward to seeing every week, this one is right at the very top. As a
boring and woefully uncurious person about the world around me, “Top of the
Lake” makes for one hell of a New Zealand tourism ad, with the on-location
production making use of enormous mountain ranges, wide-open natural spaces,
and of course the sprawling bodies of water referenced in the show’s title. But
what happens in front of them is just as good, as Elisabeth Moss (still
Emmy-less, because the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences is a joke and I
don’t know why I still expect good things from them as often as I do) plays a
detective who returns to her hometown to locate a missing girl and discovers so
much more. With fantastic supporting performances from Holly Hunter and Peter
Mullan, among others, “Top of the Lake” was a hell of a good way for Sundance
to not only put their foot in a very crowded doorway, but to shove everyone
else aside as well.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">14. Orphan Black </span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">(Space)</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Again – quirky, weird, dark Canadian mystery/sci-fi (but
also not sci-fi) show with the greatest performance I’ve ever seen from an
actor I, nor anyone else, had never heard of before it premiered – where’d this
come from? And really, this one’s all about Tatiana Maslany, baby. Sure, this
is a fairly interesting premise with some cool twists and wacky stuff, and
that’s certainly a notable writing achievement. But “Orphan Black” needed a
Tatiana Maslany to make it this watchable and compelling rather than just
another...let’s say “Nikita,” which I’m hoping for my sake is a logical
comparison even though I don’t watch it. Maslany could do this show alone and
make it great – and she kind of already does that after all, playing at least
seven identical clones all with distinct styles, personalities, and drives (and
never taking the easy way out of having one of the clones just be a version of
herself – Sarah, the most “normal” clone and our entry point as an audience,
has Maslany putting on a rather impeccable English accent). Her co-stars,
though, like Jordan Gavaris and Maria Doyle Kennedy offer great support to an
actress who, again, really doesn’t even need it. Without Maslany, “Orphan
Black” certainly doesn’t hold my interest in any way – so it’s an added bonus
that everyone else is working so hard in, and succeeding fairly well at, trying
to reach her level. Now if you’ll excuse me, all these proud feelings about such
a good Canadian series has gotten something in both my eyes.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">13. Broadchurch </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">(BBC
America)</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV6H_2LKWrmDesm75hvHWJFC1HhC_fLpDgcq3IO1tJbdjQ1io9Sz25D0CrR04xSf7x20Te0qEZNiZBzUQ2xBkc4pwYittuhJnJIxDAmXZqamBXRLG1pj8nn9FUsxGTBCQ46tF7XI-djqM/s1600/broadchurch_ep1_39.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV6H_2LKWrmDesm75hvHWJFC1HhC_fLpDgcq3IO1tJbdjQ1io9Sz25D0CrR04xSf7x20Te0qEZNiZBzUQ2xBkc4pwYittuhJnJIxDAmXZqamBXRLG1pj8nn9FUsxGTBCQ46tF7XI-djqM/s320/broadchurch_ep1_39.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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To continue the trend of “where’d (he/she/that) come from,”
I present “Olivia Colman, dramatic actress”. As I wrote in my review back in
August (it’s not very good, please don’t look for it) my familiarity with
Colman was only as a comedian working with Britain’s famous Mitchell and Webb
comedy duo: a sketch player for TV’s “That Mitchell and Webb Look” and radio’s
“That Mitchell and Webb Sound,” and playing Mitchell’s love interest in their
sitcom “Peep Show”. And in watching ITV’s “Broadchurch,” screened this side of
the Atlantic on BBC America and Showcase and also featuring a woman
investigating a crime in a beautiful looking place (now seaside England) like
“Top of the Lake,” I kept being blown away by what a different side I was
seeing of her. Watching all eight episodes in one sitting only exacerbated the
devastation she feels, in the best work of Colman’s career, when she learns the
truth about the murder of young Danny Latimer. Focusing less on whodunnit and
more on why whodunnit mattered to the people of Broadchurch, the series it was
named for was one of a handful of shows in 2013 that proved the serialized
mystery drama not only still had gas in the tank, but was ready to haul ass
from Nome to Cape Canaveral without a bathroom break. Between this and her 2011
film “Tyrannosaur” with David Bradley, playing a character not totally
dissimilar to DS Miller, it was “Olivia Colman Week” in my house. And folks, I
wish every week was “Olivia Colman Week”.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">12. Moone Boy </span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">(Hulu)</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGBqX6c6XZnJzeY9sar9Zh82GbAhZ_u6wo2fY9YJIjlLeCQ7sQDhRPP75JFYs_R6L1Rg3-5HyqSq8tdChKJuokanvFadheGBeUdKGHDDsq4GAby6Nv0Z77vbwc4GNCDvDgBDpKnOVBRrw/s1600/Chris-O%E2%80%99Dowd.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGBqX6c6XZnJzeY9sar9Zh82GbAhZ_u6wo2fY9YJIjlLeCQ7sQDhRPP75JFYs_R6L1Rg3-5HyqSq8tdChKJuokanvFadheGBeUdKGHDDsq4GAby6Nv0Z77vbwc4GNCDvDgBDpKnOVBRrw/s320/Chris-O%E2%80%99Dowd.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Hey, why the hell not: Hulu – where’d you come from? Okay,
that’s actually not fair. Hulu had nothing to do with the production of this
fantastic comedy from Chris O’Dowd that, as AV Club writer Phil Dyess-Nugent
succinctly put it, “makes you nostalgic for the small town Irish childhood you
never had”. But credit to Hulu that apparently all of the actual television networks
and channels in the Americas, even ones like BBC America dedicating themselves
to giving us the best in British broadcasting, either saw no value in airing
this hidden gem or let it slip between their fingers. With O’Dowd starring as
Sean Murphy, the slickly dressed imaginary friend of 12-year old Martin Moone, “Moone
Boy” carried a hilarious innocence the likes of which I can’t recall seeing in
any other recent show. The Moones remind me a lot of the Hecks, and “Moone
Boy’s” relatable and inviting dreariness certainly reminds me of “The Middle”. But
its charming naivety is really the only thing stopping me from calling “Moone
Boy” “basically the Irish version of ‘The Middle’ with a much purer core,” and
it’s why it finishes a few spots higher. I’ve been waiting a while on a second
season, and I can’t wait to have this one back next year.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">11. Game of Thrones </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">(HBO)</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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The HBO epic is coming off a third season that was wildly
popular and easily their best to date. I expected big things for it at Emmy
time, and was partially right even if they didn’t end up with the big win I
thought they deserved (no disrespect to “Breaking Bad”). Thing is though, I
think this is as high as I can go for “Game of Thrones”. Epic, medieval fantasy
with slight tinges of romance and other-worldliness are great in the ten hours
a year I watch them. But with my own personal biases against the genre, it’s
just never a show I’m going to be able to stir up much passion for. It’s not
“Game of Thrones,” it’s me. And I hope placing the show this high on the list
in an attempt to recognize how well it pulls off such a grand endeavor for
television, shooting on location in multiple European countries with a huge,
talented cast and a sizeable amount of special effects, properly acknowledges
how good I think this show is despite the fact that I will probably never like
it enough to be able to put it in my top 10. But that’s okay. If you are more
taken with “Game of Thrones” than I am, I encourage you to cheer it on as if it
were your child playing in a non-competitive youth soccer league. I’ll be right
beside you, only sitting in a collapsible chair while on my phone and occasionally
looking up when my kid says, “Look at me!” so I can say “Yes, I see you, that’s
very nice!”<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Tomorrow</b>: Time to dwell on the negative with the year's worst shows.</div>
Brendan Noelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01355501477653448329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196027173447098748.post-59245486118320986512013-12-11T03:59:00.002-05:002024-02-18T02:58:37.414-05:00Year End 2013: My favourite episodes of the year<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_ZNP6pRGORQsrZG-n9nfnripN-1qrCEIERAf8vzNFJrqm8Y-lx-Bv4jAUvb0UVCm9LqI9fWS8oJoAzODAwYAv1dy2ttYOd-e7NzFYJA-EdgGZkv3kFVRBx8SofuR61ce-cnONOzmo3QM/s1600/Best-of-2013-Logo-422x312.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_ZNP6pRGORQsrZG-n9nfnripN-1qrCEIERAf8vzNFJrqm8Y-lx-Bv4jAUvb0UVCm9LqI9fWS8oJoAzODAwYAv1dy2ttYOd-e7NzFYJA-EdgGZkv3kFVRBx8SofuR61ce-cnONOzmo3QM/s320/Best-of-2013-Logo-422x312.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<i><b><br /></b></i>
<i><b>Year end caveat:</b> I watch TV. Some shows I like. Some shows I don't. You might disagree. That's okay. Some good shows I don't watch or haven't caught up on. They won't be on my top 20 list. Some shows are too bad for me to even bother with. They won't be on my worst of list. Some shows I love ("30 Rock") didn't air long enough in the calendar year for me seriously consider giving them a spot in a very, very good year for television. I hope I'm not offending you. We cool? Cool.</i><br />
<br />
Well I was all ready to enjoy a nice, relaxing February when I looked at my calendar and saw it was December. Good lord, I feel like I just did year end lists, and now it's time for them again.<br />
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Last year, I broke down my year end stuff into four categories over four weeks: favourite episodes on December 10, my second ten shows that didn't make the cut for my top 10 list on December 17, my list of worst shows of the year on Christmas Eve, and finally my top 10 on the final day of 2012. This year, I'm going to be doing the same but likely without sticking to those dates. My second ten list is already finished and I will probably post that tomorrow rather than dragging it out a week for no reason.<br />
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So first up, here are my favourite TV episodes of 2013!<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><b>“Fowl Play/Date” – January 6, 2013</b><br />
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<b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>Happy Endings – ABC</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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Alex has a racist parrot who dies while she's at "Rom-Com-Con". Can you believe this show didn't catch on?!?!</div>
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<b>“Cabin” – January 8, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>New Girl – FOX</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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Schmidt pronouncing "crack cocaine" is hilarious - luckily, Nick and Jess' hunting trip is just as funny.</div>
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<b>“The Key” – January 13, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>Enlightened – HBO</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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Amy Jellicoe's quest to bring down Abaddonn begins with a visit to...Dermot Mulroney? "Go with it," said Mike White. I listened, and I was rewarded as always.</div>
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<b>“One Step Forward, Two Steps Back” – January 15, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>Parenthood – NBC</b></div>
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Kristina sticks up for Max's vending machine obsession, another good highlight for Monica Potter and the rehabilitation of her character in a season full of them.</div>
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<b>“Chinese Chicken” – January 23, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>Suburgatory – ABC</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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The dads of Chatswin start a band with a passion for Barenaked Ladies covers. It's horrifying and hilarious all the same.</div>
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<b>“A Goon’s Deed in a Weary World” – January 24, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>30 Rock – NBC</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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In a classic moment of goofy "30 Rock" heart warmth, Liz Lemon's staff pulls together for a mass resignation to allow her to meet her adopted children at the airport - who are basically just mini Jenna and Tracy.</div>
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<o:p> </o:p><b>“Jimmy Kimmel Sucks!” – January 24, 2013</b></div>
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<b>Jimmy Kimmel Live! – ABC</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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Matt Damon finally gets his revenge on Jimmy Kimmel ten years in the making with a cavalcade of stars on hand to finally confess how they really feel about the late night host.</div>
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<b>“Chapter Eight” – February 1, 2013</b></div>
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<b>House of Cards – Netflix</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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Frank Underwood returns to his alma mater, and the myth and legend we've come to know finally becomes the man we've been waiting to meet.</div>
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<b>“Follow Me” – February 2, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>Enlightened – HBO</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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Amy learns how to twit, discovering the new social experience is electronic in a classically wrongheaded Amy Jellicoe voiceover.</div>
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<b>“The Clock” – February 6, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>The Americans – FX</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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In their second mission (to us), Phillip and Elizabeth use the life of a teenager as a bargaining chip, as viewers realize the line is not where they expected it to be.</div>
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<b>“Nobody Likes Babies” – February 7, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>Scandal – ABC</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
Oh, you know, THE U.S. PRESIDENT SUFFOCATES SOMEONE WITH A PILLOW. And I like that "Scandal" has ridiculous episode titles like this.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>“One Man’s Trash” – February 10, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>Girls – HBO</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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I'm still trying to figure this one out - but damn, it's a mesmerizing short film the likes of which I've very rarely seen before.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>“The Ghost is Seen” – February 10, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>Enlightened – HBO</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Hands down 2013's best episode of television, in which Mike White's Tyler stops existing and starts living with the help of Emmy nominee Molly Shannon.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>“Valentine’s Day IV” – February 13, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>The Middle – ABC</b><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
Axl and his buddies' "Boss Co." business endeavour becomes a proxy breakup service in the days leading up to Valentine's Day, leading to one of the show's more strangely touching moments in the beginning of Sue and Darrin's relationship.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>“Christoph Waltz/Alabama Shakes” – February 16, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>Saturday Night Live – NBC</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Probably the most consistent show of the season - and really, can any of us tell which JaMarcus brother is the adopted white virgin?</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>“Flirting with Time” – February 19, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>Cougar Town – TBS</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Flashbacks to how the Cul de Sac Crew all met make for the best episode of the season.</div>
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<b>“Ben and Leslie” – February 21, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>Parks and Recreation – NBC</b><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
Considering this is my least favourite "Parks and Rec" wedding, it's safe to say "Parks and Rec" throws a damn good wedding.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>“Video Games” – February 24, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>Girls – HBO</b><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
Hannah and Jessa spend the weekend upstate in another of "Girls'" mesmerizing short films, breaking down exactly how different the two friends are.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>“Cascading Failures” – February 24, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>Shameless – Showtime</b><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
It's just gut punches all around as Fiona discovers Frank's ultimate betrayal, while Ian and Mickey get straightened out. All the feels, as the kids say.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>“Clear” – March 3, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>The Walking Dead – AMC</b><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
A slow, almost meandering episode that well documents the mundanity of post-apocaltypic life, and portrays the heartbreak and inhumanity of the world with a subtlety not seen in any other episode of this mostly awful show.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>“A Long Way From Home” – March 3, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>Shameless – Showtime</b><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
Fiona goes to court to challenge Frank for custody of her siblings, a beautiful hour for a show whose rough exterior often sands itself away to reveal a deep warmth for family.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>“Agent of Change” – March 3, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>Enlightened – HBO</b><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
Amy becomes the change she wants to see in the world by changing herself, costing the livelihoods of many of her friends in the process, in a perfect ending for what will someday be regarded a "gone too soon" classic.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>“Double Down” – March 5, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>Go On – NBC</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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I don't remember this episode very much anymore, but I do know it involves Julie White's character getting a sexy new girlfriend who works in an independent bookstore. And the main reason it's on this list? Suzy Nakamura seeing them kiss and saying "What I'm feeling is becoming more".</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>“Trust Me” – March 6, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>The Americans – FX</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Phillip and Elizabeth's double lives put Henry and Paige in harm's way in one of the season's best episodes.</div>
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<b>“Justin Timberlake” – March 9, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>Saturday Night Live – NBC</b><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
"Hey Stefon, I haven't seen you in a while!" "I know. This job writing for 'Smash' is killing me."</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>“Duty and Honor” – March 13, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>The Americans – FX</b><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
Much as "The Americans" never quite seemed to settle on whether Phillip or Elizabeth was more committed to the Motherland, flashbacks to a young Phillip's blossoming relationship with a fellow agent give us good reason to understand his conflicting allegiances.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>“Quick Hardening Caulk” – March 19, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>New Girl – FOX</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Nick becomes something of a self-sufficient adult man, which turns Jess on in hilarious fashion.</div>
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<b>“Episode Four” – April 1, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>Top of the Lake – Sundance Channel</b><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
How this episode didn't win Elisabeth Moss an Emmy is baffling, her best work on the screen in 2013 and probably since "The Suitcase".</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>“Promos” – April 4, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>The Office – NBC</b><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
With the documentary about to finally be released, the employees of Dunder Mifflin contemplate life in the limelight in an episode that reminds us, "Oh yeah, these characters used to be real people on a good show."</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>“Aperitif” – April 4, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>Hannibal – NBC</b><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
A dark, haunting series opens with an uncomfortable (in the best way possible) episode that establishes realistic stakes for gruesome violence (unlike that Fox show with the serial killers).</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>“Have Love Will Travel” – April 9, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>Cougar Town – TBS</b><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
A finale in which Chick finally meets Tippi Hedren puts a pretty fantastic bow on a season that dealt with mortality in a much funnier way than most comedies typically do.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>“Intro to Felt Surrogacy” – April 11, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>Community – NBC</b><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
Poor, misguided season four of "Community". This was the only episode in 2013 I liked all that much (no, the body swap episode was not that good).</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>“She’s Got Game Night” – April 12, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>Happy Endings – ABC</b><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
Of the many hats Jane Kerkovich-Williams wore in the three seasons of "Happy Endings," needlessly competitive Jane Kerkovich-Williams might be the best Jane Kerkovich-Williams. And that's a high bar to clear. God I hope Eliza Coupe's new USA comedy is funny. Mostly though, I just miss "Happy Endings".</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>“Apocalypse Meow/Stray Dogs” – April 17, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>Suburgatory – ABC</b><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
The second season sure had its flaws, but there was nothing the finale could have screwed up enough to erase my love for Lisa Shay's meowing cat version of "Eye of the Tiger".</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>“And Now His Watch Is Ended” – April 21, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>Game of Thrones – HBO</b><o:p></o:p><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/uEpZjDEo0yE?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<br /></div>
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<b>“Signals” – April 21, 2013</b></div>
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<b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>Veep – HBO</b><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
"Ma'am, you need to make like a snake and get on that airplane."</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>“Always There” – April 22, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>Rectify – Sundance</b><br />
<br />
What does a man do when he's given the chance to start trying to get back the last 10 years of his life? The disquieting, sensational premiere of "Rectify".</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>“For Immediate Release” – May 5, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>Mad Men – AMC</b><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2g0XUa3OwzWrFHLyWCNs5zU7GWHs7EW_Jxwdd7JrOa_ZYv0r9ymPtLwwzpZxlQjYfsVT7xQ2COyDzygd0kNgRvsV8QHi_e2QuAWaHlJfJKshWXKaWKGNjmX69TF9y5mHYXdqn31xzczw/s1600/PETE-FALLS-DOWN-THE-STAIRS.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2g0XUa3OwzWrFHLyWCNs5zU7GWHs7EW_Jxwdd7JrOa_ZYv0r9ymPtLwwzpZxlQjYfsVT7xQ2COyDzygd0kNgRvsV8QHi_e2QuAWaHlJfJKshWXKaWKGNjmX69TF9y5mHYXdqn31xzczw/s320/PETE-FALLS-DOWN-THE-STAIRS.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>“A.A.R.M.” – May 9, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>The Office – NBC</b><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
Glimpses of the potential a very different post-Steve Carell "Office" could have had are highlighted in a classic Jim/Dwight pairing. Just ignore all the stuff about Andy trying out for "American Idol".</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>“Man with a Plan” – May 12, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Mad Men – AMC</b><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU048pBGFtMp08a5ZkcFSN1Yty-KbiZV_uNvKuksHJjq_5UIXatBk72eoXw9GidFYKenczGqcMafSEpnMOAaq-iXtPR0qXpz5w2Rs9c4NzBSKbndPcXZJNlN_2hMWxbe0AvB3-ReUiGoE/s1600/a_560x375.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU048pBGFtMp08a5ZkcFSN1Yty-KbiZV_uNvKuksHJjq_5UIXatBk72eoXw9GidFYKenczGqcMafSEpnMOAaq-iXtPR0qXpz5w2Rs9c4NzBSKbndPcXZJNlN_2hMWxbe0AvB3-ReUiGoE/s320/a_560x375.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>“The Ditch” – May 15, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>The Middle – ABC</b><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
The Hecks are not always good people. But no one needs to know that. Perhaps the most laugh-out-loud funny episode of the season.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>“Finale” – May 16, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Office – NBC</b><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
It was time for the show to end - but it was nice knowing they were always capable of properly sending it off into the sunset, even years too late.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>“Fromage” – May 16, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Hannibal – NBC</b><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
NBC Exec 1: "A musical episode? Sounds...weird, but fun!"<br />
NBC Exec 2: "Hey guys, talking about another delightful 'Smash' episode?"<br />
NBC Exec 3: "Nope, 'Hannibal' is doing a big music-based episode."<br />
NBC Exec 2: "Ha ha, good one guys!"<br />
NBC Exec 4: "We're serious."<br />
NBC Exec 2: *Spit take*</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>“Ben Affleck/Kanye West” – May 18, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Saturday Night Live – NBC</b><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Crafty NBC YouTube account prevents embedding, so <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rj-wYWMdWNk" target="_blank">here's the direct link</a> to an amazing farewell for a classic "SNL" character.</div>
<br /></div>
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<b>“The Graduation” – May 22, 2013</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Middle – ABC</b><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
Axl finally graduates, terrifyingly realizing he's now an actual adult, in an amazing season finale that sums up all the comedy and emotion this show employs at its very best.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>“A New Start,” "A New Attitude," "Señoritis," "It Gets Better" – May 26, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Arrested Development – Netflix</b><br />
<br />
The four standout episodes of "Arrested Development" season four, focusing on Tobias, Gob, Maeby, and George Michael respectively, provide the biggest comedic and structural payoffs in a season whose whole is greater than the sum of its parts.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>“The Better Half” – May 26, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Mad Men – AMC</b><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
Why the hell not.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuPhMrS1byN9Ys3xfRAcTtCpmoTmWsAyEGDdTMnqXJvt-g7ift9Enewr_GrbRbvCkVBiiHnngydyiHr2Jqg5ZyoAUdN1K3brurns07tfGa9NYlm9HfBh59e6UD3CHwMdcGzMUpbBxKiyA/s1600/H7eFilY.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuPhMrS1byN9Ys3xfRAcTtCpmoTmWsAyEGDdTMnqXJvt-g7ift9Enewr_GrbRbvCkVBiiHnngydyiHr2Jqg5ZyoAUdN1K3brurns07tfGa9NYlm9HfBh59e6UD3CHwMdcGzMUpbBxKiyA/s320/H7eFilY.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>“The Rains of Castamere” – June 2, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Game of Thrones – HBO</b><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
Duh. But I won't torture you with any visual reminders. No one needs that.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>“Favors” – June 9, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Mad Men – AMC</b><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
I probably shouldn't .GIF this one. Mostly because similar to "The Rains of Castamere," I don't want to go looking for the .GIF of Sally Draper seeing what Sally Draper sees in this episode.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>“The Quality of Mercy” – June 16, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Mad Men – AMC</b><br />
<br />
The mystery of Bob Benson finally unravels in a fantastic showcase for Vincent Kartheiser.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>“Savoureux” – June 20, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Hannibal – NBC</b><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
God, that's a beautiful-for-all-the-wrong-reasons final shot of Will Graham in jail and Hannibal Lecter looking at him through the bars. Seriously, can you believe this show wasn't horrible?</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>“In Care Of” – June 23, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Mad Men – AMC</b><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
Don confessing his whorehouse upbringing at the Hershey meeting is maybe the best work of Jon Hamm's career. Wow.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>“Zach Stone Is Gonna Be An Actor” – June 27, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Zach Stone Is Gonna Be Famous – MTV</b><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
"And how would you like your eggs?"</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>“Bora Bora Bora,” "Tall Men With Feelings" – July 11, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Orange Is The New Black – Netflix</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The inmates dream of life outside the prison. Be careful what you wish for. The sequence of everyone listening to Larry's radio interview, devastating or uplifting depending on who's listening, is one of the best things I watched all year.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>“Blood Money” – August 11, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Breaking Bad – AMC</b><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
It gave us 2013's most memorable TV quote: "If you don't know who I am, then maybe your best course would be to tread lightly."</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>“Newsnight with Will McAvoy” – August 11, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Newsroom – HBO</b><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
Do not adjust your monitor. This is real life. Because this near real-time, show-within-a-show-focused episode is everything "The Newsroom" should be (and, God forbid, should strive to be in a hypothetical third season) instead of stupid Sorkinian girls yelling at each other about "Sex and the City" fan fiction in a laundromat.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>“Confessions” – August 25, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Breaking Bad – AMC</b><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/8UUD3zyu7Ek?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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<b>“The Gang Broke Dee” – September 4, 2013</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia – FXX</b><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
Kaitlin Olson is just awesome. And oh my God, Dennis' absolutely horrifying realization at the end of the episode that he wasn't in on ANY of it is played amazingly by Glenn Howerton. Great way to start what was a very solid season.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>“Ozymandias” – September 15, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Breaking Bad – AMC</b><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
I said it before, I'll say it again - if I ever see anything on TV more exhilarating than "Ozymandias," it's gonna be an interesting rest of my life. It's a testament to what a strong year this was that this is my second favourite TV episode of 2013.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>“Rafi and Dirty Randy” – September 25, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The League – FXX</b><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
I think HitFix's Dan Fienberg put it best by saying this episode "really scratched an itch I didn't realize I had".</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>“Mac Day” – October 2, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia – FXX</b><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
Setting aside the fact that "Sunny" can occasionally produce an episode with this much emotion behind it: predictable as it was, I don't think I laughed harder at anything else on TV than the climax of "Mac Day". RIP, Country Mac.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>“Informative Murder Porn” – October 2, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>South Park – Comedy Central</b><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
"South Park" has an odd tendency to base episodes around weird pop culture tics that are either wildly outdated ("Insecurity") or niche-y, here poking fun at Investigation Discovery's library of shows focusing on domestic murders. But those episodes often end up being their funniest.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>“The Scavenger Vortex” – October 3, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Big Bang Theory – CBS</b><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
Boy, the last time I enjoyed an episode of "The Big Bang Theory" before this one was...I couldn't even tell you. New character combinations with people who actually like each other was a much welcomed break from the show's typical output these days.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>“It’s Handled” – October 3, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Scandal – ABC</b><br />
<br />
With maybe one exception, no other show on TV right now can give you a moment like "twice as hard, half as far". I was 80% of the way there on "Scandal" at the end of season two - this was the final 20%.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>“Fort Night” – October 6, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Bob’s Burgers – FOX</b><br />
<br />
Much like "South Park," the best episodes of "Bob's Burgers" just let the kids be kids. And with Andy and Ollie on board along with Aziz Ansari and Molly Shannon, this Halloween adventure makes me very nostalgic for a kind of childhood that I didn't even really have.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>“M.E. Time” – October 8, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Brooklyn Nine Nine – FOX</b><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<strike>Mary Elizabeth Winstead (or is it Ellis? I never remember which is which, you know what fuck it)</strike> The Waitress from "It's Always Sunny" plays a medical examiner whose sex fetish is death. And Jake Peralta really, really enjoys that. Also, Chelsea Peretti leads a chant of "Black people CAN sell drugs!" and that's just great comedy, people.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>“League of Denial: The NFL’s Concussion Crisis” – October 8,
2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Frontline – PBS</b><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
A look into pro football brain injuries so gripping and heartbreaking that it a) scared NFL-imprisoned ESPN away from the project before it aired, and b) actually placebo effect'ed me a headache.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>“The Social Network” – October 8, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Trophy Wife – ABC</b><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
What on the surface looks to be another run-of-the-mill sitcom story about kids sneaking out actually becomes a very interesting identity crisis for a woman who's too old for the kids but too young for the adults in her life.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>“Keaton” – October 22, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>New Girl – FOX</b><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
This is the weirdest idea for an episode ever - Schmidt's mother sent a letter to him posing as Michael Keaton and his friends periodically revisit the ruse to help out of slumps - and it totally works because "New Girl" is the only show that could make it work.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>“The 100<sup>th</sup>” – October 23, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Middle – ABC</b><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
Orson celebrates its centennial in a fitting, representative 100th episode celebration of the little show that could.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>“Let’s Be Mad Together” – October 24, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Parenthood – NBC</b><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
The "Kristina for mayor" arc is put on hold, with Kristina and Max learning to accept that sometimes, when life deals you a bad hand, all you can do is find someone to feel with. Great stuff.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>“Catherine” – October 27, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Masters of Sex – Showtime</b><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
Bill and Virginia both have...parental issues. One far more tragic than the other. Outstanding performances from Michael Sheen and Lizzy Caplan.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>“Camille” – October 31, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Returned – Sundance Channel</b><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
A teenage girl comes back from the dead and the results are scarier and more haunting than any work of art centred on "zombies" could ever dream of being.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>“The Kremps” – November 12, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Goldbergs – ABC</b><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
The Goldbergs get new neighbours, and "The Goldbergs" finally quiets down into a show about heart instead of sore throats.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>“Everything’s Coming Up Mellie” – November 14, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Scandal – ABC</b><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
Again, "Scandal" knowing the way to my heart with a "Simpsons" parody title. Poor, poor Mellie Grant, says I. The exact opposite, many others would say.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>“Julie” – November 14, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Returned – Sundance Channel</b><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
I'll talk about this more later...but I feel like effective horror is so rare that it's such a thrill for me to actually witness. That scene in the dark at Julie's apartment building...good lord.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>“A Song of Ass and Fire” – November 20, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>South Park – Comedy Central</b><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
Trilogies on this show can be pretty hit and miss - but in full "Game of Thrones" parody mode, a big Black Friday arc makes for the best episodes of a fairly uneven season.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>“Turkey in a Can” – November 24, 2013<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Bob’s Burgers – FOX</b><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
The Belchers celebrate Thanksgiving by solving a good old fashioned MYSTERY as to who keeps ruining Bob's turkeys. Also, Gene and Linda write and perform the world's first Thanksgiving song, which is as great as I wanted it to be.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>“Rustle Feathers” – December 4, 2013</b><br />
<b>Survivor: Blood vs. Water – CBS</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p><br />
Every time I think I'm out - THEY PULL ME BACK IN! Okay, I didn't watch the season up to this point, but when CBS just decided they didn't care who they spoiled and advertised the return of "Survivor's" dreaded "purple rock tiebreaker" during their Thanksgiving football coverage, I had to jump in to see a moment not seen on the show in almost twelve years. And it delivered. Hayden Moss, king of kings.<br />
<br />
<b>"Phallic Victories" - December 8, 2013</b><br />
<b>Masters of Sex - Showtime</b><br />
<br />
Hitting the road with Dr. DePaul, Virginia proves she knows how the game is played in what I hope will make for a very good Emmy submission episode for Lizzy Caplan.<br />
<br />
<b>"Twas the Night Before Christmas...Or Twas It?" - December 10, 2013</b><br />
<b>Trophy Wife - ABC</b><br />
<br />
Well ABC knew what I wanted for Christmas. Sorry, Stephanie Tanner, but my new favourite cover of the Ace of Base classic "I Saw The Sign" is now performed drunkenly by Malin Akerman, Marcia Gay Harden, Michaela Watkins, and Bradley Whitford.<br />
<br />
<b>Tomorrow:</b> What just missed the cut in an absurdly tough year?</div>
</div>
Brendan Noelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01355501477653448329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196027173447098748.post-76092603941788694202013-12-02T02:09:00.004-05:002013-12-02T16:22:56.809-05:00"The Walking Dead" tosses aside its crutches, but it's still not ready to bear weight<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr91jZ1EJzV1Qz7Nx0Oh10TC0ald-o9ICxitGgUGL46faMErRwAATBFp-JnV7MowSOEs_y-eboWk7YWJX-kVHgsZAbABfWg4akgXfY_aHadzMZVXvV0bM4kejtMs183uEmXLTSYJ4pdwg/s1600/The-Walking-Dead-Season-4-Episode-8-Video-Preview-and-Sneak-Peek-Too-Far-Gone.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr91jZ1EJzV1Qz7Nx0Oh10TC0ald-o9ICxitGgUGL46faMErRwAATBFp-JnV7MowSOEs_y-eboWk7YWJX-kVHgsZAbABfWg4akgXfY_aHadzMZVXvV0bM4kejtMs183uEmXLTSYJ4pdwg/s320/The-Walking-Dead-Season-4-Episode-8-Video-Preview-and-Sneak-Peek-Too-Far-Gone.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"> If someone could please cast David Morrissey in something<br />
good again to wash out the taste of The Governor, that'd be<br />
great. Paul Abbott, are you still sure you don't want to do<br />
another season of "State of Play"?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
For a long time, I've been trying to figure out how exactly the writers of "The Walking Dead" realize that title is a metaphor for the characters who inhabit its world. Aside from its literal reference to the zombies, you get the sense showrunner Scott Gimple and the team he oversees writing the biggest, baddest show on mighty, prestigious AMC think it's enough to ride the idea that the show's main characters might as well be walking corpses as well. In reality, I think a lot of people (myself included) have realized the title is a lot more meta than they realize, considering how much of tonight's mid-season finale "Too Far Gone" I spent trying to remember anyone - and I mean, literally just one person - on this show I care about in any way.<br />
<br />
"The Walking Dead" was a show I really, really enjoyed in its first season, even if I was able to recognize it was a show I enjoyed only as a guilty pleasure. These were just some people trying to stave off the weekly zombie attack. Did I know their names? Nope, but that was largely because no one really ever said them. In life after zombies, your name didn't matter, and I was on board for that. Excluding the legitimately good pilot episode, "The Walking Dead" as it was back then never felt to me like a show that wanted to be more than people running around shooting and stabbing the undead. It was a show largely void of any ambitions and while in theory that made it an outlier on what was at the time a quality-driven AMC, it never really surprised me that the show was easily their most popular.<br />
<br />
Sometimes I think more shows should settle. And even though that makes me feel weird, I'm gonna continue to say it. For reasons I can't really explain, I watched the entire first season of the Cinemax drama "Banshee" last spring, and the faster I realized it was only gonna be a show about a guy who solves his problems through punching, the more I was able to enjoy it. "Banshee" wasn't trying to be one of the best shows on TV. I don't think it was even trying to be the best show on Cinemax, the similarly punch-heavy "Strike Back". Similarly, there are parts of "Boardwalk Empire" I really enjoy, but too much of the show felt like clutter I didn't really care about for me to stick with it into the second season. And one of the things I read about that show that really stuck with me was the idea that "Boardwalk," and its creator Terence Winter, wouldn't be satisfied until it was <i>the</i> best show on television.<br />
<br />
All of which is to say I find it kind of confusing that after a first season whose ratings more than doubled that of AMC's second most watched series "Mad Men," "The Walking Dead" became a lot more ambitious without realizing that this new kind of audience the channel had acquired outside of their boutique shows didn't really care about that. And through now three and a half seasons, unable to develop a group of characters that never felt designed to develop, it has only become laughable that Gimple and co. expect me to care about anyone on this show simply because the events of tonight's episode happened to them. Even the ones we've known the longest, like Rick and Corral. Just as blood and explosions don't automatically equal drama, time spent with a person doesn't automatically equal love and appreciation.<br />
<br />
Take good ol' Brian "Don't Call Me The Governor" whatshisface, finally extinguished at least eight episodes too late, and after wasting the last three of them for a deceptive "redemption arc" that now certainly doesn't mean anything going forward. For reasons unknown, he survived last season's abysmal finale, the conclusion to a 16-episode story that was set up very well in the fall 2012 episodes, stumbled along in its spring 2013 episodes, then concluded much like the alternate ending to "Casablanca" shown on "The Simpsons". The question mark leaves the door open for a sequel, and as we've all been discussing recently regarding the idea of a sequel to "It's a Wonderful Life," things will always be better if they just keep going.<br />
<br />
Then there's baby Judith, seemingly killed tonight as everyone raced to escape the prison. We saw her bloody, empty car seat, and so did Rick and Corral, breaking down at the continued dwindling of their already tragically decimated family. But I suppose we didn't see the body, and it's possible she's still alive somewhere. And my God, that makes me want to put my hand through the TV. Sure, when it comes time to quickly escape the prison, maybe carrying the baby in the heavy car seat is impractical, though certainly not more impractical than taking the time to remove her from it at all. And if it turns out Beth or whoever did do that for no good reason just so this show could manipulate us into feeling sad about a dead baby, seriously, fuck these people (if I needed any confirmation that this show is absolutely not for me and my quitting on it was long overdue, it's that internet commenters are less concerned with the disgusting consequences of Judith possibly being alive than they are with being right about predicting that she's alive, or at the very least, claiming they were not duped by the show if it does happen).<br />
<br />
And yet of all the terrible, stupid things that happened on tonight's mid-season finale (which included the little girls abandoning the baby in the first place just because Carol once told them shooting guns at stuff is important, and the absolutely horrible performance from Andrew Lincoln overemphasizing every beat of what could have been a non-terrible, understated monologue about coexistence), perhaps the thing that infuriated me the most was that I walked away from tonight's episode believing that it was Maggie who had delivered the final blow to the Governor. Why is that? Well for one, the overwhelming nihilism of the show wouldn't give me any reason to believe that Maggie hasn't reached a point where she would kill the man who beheaded her father. But it was also because the actress they cast to play Lilly, the woman who became the Governor's love interest in the last two episodes, looks so much like Lauren Cohan and apparently no one noticed or cared about this at all. It's one thing to try to get me to care about people and fail. It's totally another to spend episode after episode desperately trying, then to suddenly stop trying to distinguish your boring characters in any way and just ride an attitude of "zombies, fuck it".<br />
<br />
In watching "Too Far Gone," I accepted fairly quickly that whatever was coming wouldn't satisfy me. Either the prison was going to win or the Governor was, and neither one of those outcomes was going to knock the show out of inertia like it desperately needs. Both crutches were ultimately eliminated, but what remains problematic is that "The Walking Dead" still hasn't proven itself a series that's ready to bear weight on its broken legs. For a show with this many characters, this much action, and so much "happening," "The Walking Dead" might be TV's least interesting show right now.Brendan Noelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01355501477653448329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196027173447098748.post-23772592492656917772013-11-21T09:08:00.000-05:002013-11-21T18:26:26.311-05:00The penultimate edition of "My 25 Favourite Episodes of TV"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhghBGbwMpNhrW6EwHlxAMD8B0CwDS9pxbh79vXY0VqGnMBIoevjwJy-8VKNeQYsyQWvupfeH0Yn8Yy3dmmobUSVFrLSNU474pRmd7iGwDrckcgWMHG2RCgE7GFxrCJLbAyosca1UKUuKo/s1600/top25_blog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhghBGbwMpNhrW6EwHlxAMD8B0CwDS9pxbh79vXY0VqGnMBIoevjwJy-8VKNeQYsyQWvupfeH0Yn8Yy3dmmobUSVFrLSNU474pRmd7iGwDrckcgWMHG2RCgE7GFxrCJLbAyosca1UKUuKo/s320/top25_blog.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Two left to go and I've run out of preamble. To the writeup!<br />
<br />
<b>After the break</b>: A long awaited sequel is finally unearthed!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i>It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia</i>, "Dee Reynolds: Shaping America's Youth"</span></b><br />
<b>First aired on FX Thursday, November 11, 2010</b><br />
<br />
<i>"I don't have time for your shit, you dumb dickbags!" - Dee Reynolds</i><br />
<br />
When "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" was first being developed, absolutely nothing had been written for the show's only female character, Deandra "Sweet Dee" Reynolds. At the time Kaitlin Olson came in to read for the part, she was given some Dennis lines in the script for season one episode "Charlie Has Cancer" to rehearse with. Olson loved the character she thought was Sweet Dee, and was disheartened to find out that the Sweet Dee in actual scripts was basically a buzzkill. Glenn Howerton admits that the character was "underwritten" and had yet to be developed into anything beyond a free pass for the three male leads (all good friends and the show's creators and writers) to get away with doing terrible things simply because someone on screen was acknowledging they were awful people.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLdn900rhmQ4syWAV8v-VNMZBHqPHZOFfZVV_8BtPM66ujCi2DtnnwG7xPW5926H0C_CAvIiZftydNIPI1d0zwCX7s_18yHID6OAb-kNY6Q3IeoYUuJ4nlduD2E4JVtlPwffCEf6fqTRM/s1600/627.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLdn900rhmQ4syWAV8v-VNMZBHqPHZOFfZVV_8BtPM66ujCi2DtnnwG7xPW5926H0C_CAvIiZftydNIPI1d0zwCX7s_18yHID6OAb-kNY6Q3IeoYUuJ4nlduD2E4JVtlPwffCEf6fqTRM/s320/627.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
And credit to Howerton, Charlie Day, and Rob McElhenny for not only realizing that writing such a character is a horrible trap for a comedy (or any genre really), but also seeing from Olson's audition that the Dee Reynolds in their scripts needed to match the one on screen. And the Dee Reynolds as played by Kaitlin Olson was not going to be someone who took any shit from three guys just because she was a woman.<br />
<br />
"Dee Reynolds: Shaping America's Youth" is both a dire warning to all American citizens and a tremendous episode from "Sunny's" sixth season, uproariously funny and perhaps the first time that Sweet Dee moves out of "just as terrible as everyone else" territory and onto the level of "blowing the guys out of the water with how awful she is". In the grander spectrum of terrible "Sunny" behaviour, nothing on this show for me will ever top the gang being confronted by a mugger and the guys pushing Dee into the attacker and then running away. So perhaps it's just the guys' less aggressively scummy storyline in this episode, the product of artistic and cultural ignorance rather than ignorance of anyone else's feelings or wellbeing (and the fact that Charlie is legitimately trying to do good for the Juggalo kid at Dee's school), that tips the scales in Sweet Dee's favour this time around.<br />
<br />
But even so, it's pretty wonderful to watch Dee begin substitute teaching her theatre class with the announcement that the regular teacher has died, bursting into crocodile tears only to announce that was her demonstration of what Jon Lovitz would call "ACTING!". Again, the Sweet Dee of earlier seasons was just as bad as Mac, Charlie, and Dennis and she knew it, but was at least trying to restrain herself from all her worst impulses to go along with their schemes (obligatory reminder that Paddy's Pub once sold liquor to minors and justified this decision by watering down the drinks). To see her evolve into a Sweet Dee who would lie about someone being dead is kind of awesome, especially in a week when <a href="http://variety.com/2013/tv/columns/sarah-silvermans-bad-career-move-being-as-dirty-as-the-guys-1200834142/" target="_blank">a critic at one of the most revered entertainment publications</a> is terrified by Sarah Silverman's simultaneous raunchy standup material and vagina.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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But let's also talk about "Lethal Weapon 5," the cinematic masterpiece this episode is most fondly remembered for (this is still a show whose target demo is bros, not that there's anything wrong with that). Making intentionally bad art is pretty easy, but those who do it well really nail it (I'm thinking of all the terrible "TGS" sketches seen on "30 Rock"). And Mac, Dennis, and Charlie's unofficial sequel is epically but hilariously bad. Easily the funniest moment of the episode comes in the movie's final action scene where Dennis and Frank's big fight sequence is interrupted by Dee walking into the back alley to take the garbage out, having no idea what's going on around her. Just a few weeks ago, we saw "Lethal Weapon 6" and I had completely forgotten that the blackface/character change gag happened in the fifth instalment as well. And Frank's sex scene, which may or may not have actually been pornographic, is easily the greatest love scene in film since Tommy Wiseau had sex with that girl's belly button in "The Room".<br />
<br />
By design, "Sunny" is a pretty hit and miss show because if you're not onboard at the start of an episode, it's not waiting around for you to navigate through all that traffic and finally get to the station - it's leaving you behind and won't be coming back until the next week. But God bless 'em, it's one of a handful of shows currently on the air that feels like it's not just staying the course in its old age, but constantly learning from their mistakes and evolving from what long felt like a prototype of a TV show. And this episode works so well because it feels like a reflective essay on everything Day, Howerton, and McElhenny had learned in six years about how to write an actual television show with actual characters played by real actors. Sweet Dee was not just a slightly modified version of a real person in the way that Charlie, Dennis, and Mac were written to be alter egos of the actors who played them, nor was Olson an actor who was part of a group of three friends who gave themselves their own TV show and wrote what they knew. And while knowing how to do "good bad" (or maybe "bad good"?) might seem easy on the surface, I think it takes a lot of knowledge and experience from good writers and performs to create something that feels as authentically terrible as "Lethal Weapon 5". If "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" is a college screenwriting program, "Dee Reynolds: Shaping America's Youth" (and the character of Sweet Dee by extension) is an A level master's thesis.<br />
<br />
<b>Odds and ends:</b><br />
<br />
- Mac's "Lethal Weapon 5" notes, during the screening: Charlie should have been cut from the film completely (I protest on the ground that Charlie Day wearing the wig of a Hans Gruber henchman is a hilarious visual gag), and his reaction to everyone laughing at their shitty movie is "It's playing, its playing!"<br />
<br />
- I've missed the show's full opening sequence, which has been shortened in recent seasons. And shortened in a way where you never forget it's been cut down<br />
<br />
- "Dee Reynolds: Shaping America's Youth" was written by David Hornsby, known to "Sunny" viewers as poor Rickety Cricket, a former priest whose life has slowly been left in shambles by The Gang over the course of nine seasons<br />
<br />
- Yelling is usually not funny in and of itself, one of my biggest pet peeves in any medium. But boy does Charlie Day buck the hell out of that rule, and placing him in a role where he thinks he has authority gives him a lot of opportunities to raise his voice<br />
<br />
- If you've never seen this show, know that Dennis points to "White Chicks" as a very tasteful example of "reverse black face," so yeah, that's what we're dealing with<br />
<br />
- Dave Foley is excellent playing a school official, much like he currently does on "The Middle" - great readings from him include "I would never, and I emphasize, never give it to someone I just met" and "Please don't bathe the students"<br />
<br />
- Mac thinks Darth Vader was black<br />
<br />
- Funniest line of dialogue in the episode: the students in Dee's class brought to Paddy's Pub to watch "Othello" are told not to tell their parents but just think about how cool it is to be in a bar underage. One of them says they've been in bars before and another says "Uh, I've been in *this* bar before." So yes, I'm choosing to believe he was a customer in the aforementioned season one episode, "Underage Drinking: A National Concern"<br />
<br />
- One of the notes I wrote down when I watched this episode a week ago just reads "So offensive to everyone" and I think that's a pretty great note to end on<br />
<br />
<b>Next week</b>: The end is here. And intentional or not, I saved perhaps my favourite of all 25 episodes and easily the hardest one to write about for last. But this episode has everything: quiches, stingrays, CLIO awards, a Japanese woman screaming at her daughter that she can't go to a sleepover...okay, it has one of those things.Brendan Noelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01355501477653448329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196027173447098748.post-23941771825820053022013-11-10T19:09:00.001-05:002013-11-10T19:11:28.405-05:00Week 23 of "My 25 Favourite Episodes of TV"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
We're winding down here and I think I'm becoming more satisfied with these entries as I go along. Some of today's post was pre-written many months ago, as it was originally intended to be the first one I started this little series with. And there's a marked difference between what I wrote then and what today me turned that into. The goal was to develop my skills as a writer by forcing myself to just write about lots of different things, and I think I saw for the first time today that maybe it's actually happening. But as always, I report, you decide.<br />
<br />
<b>After the break</b>: I've never told anyone I like this episode, not even Scruffy!<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i>Futurama</i>, "The Luck of the Fryrish"</span></b><br />
<b>First aired on Fox Sunday, March 11, 2001</b><br />
<br />
<i>"Your brother may be missing but his crap sure isn't" - Mrs. Fry</i><br />
<br />
For three years, I kept telling
myself that at some point, when I wasn’t so busy, when I had free time, when I
felt like just having a good laugh, I would watch the new episodes of
“Futurama” that have been airing since Comedy Central revived the show. And when it was cancelled for the second time back in early
September, I still hadn’t gotten around to watching any of them. Which is kind
of odd, because it’s a show I really, really love. Maybe I was concerned that
the new episodes would change the way I look at the show in some way, which I’m
already quite happy with. Its satirical depiction of life in the year 3000 was
occasionally quite biting and always very, very funny.<br />
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Yet when it came to picking an
episode for this list, only two came to mind, and it was because of the
sentimentality behind them. The first was “Jurassic Bark,” which closes with
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTWouZA4IWI" target="_blank">the devastating scene</a> of Fry’s dog Seymour sitting outside Panucci’s Pizza from
the day Fry disappears, through the seasons and years, waiting for Fry to come
back, until the day he dies – set to Connie Francis’ “If It Takes Forever”. <o:p></o:p></div>
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And the other was “The Luck of the
Fryrish,” which ended up winning out with me by a nose. Like most “Futurama”
episodes, it’s hysterical from beginning to end, even with its gut punch of a
conclusion. And the two aspects that I think elevate it above “Jurassic Bark” is
that Fry’s motivation here is not really petty as Bender’s seems to be in that
episode (more on this a bit later) and it gets to lampoon a slightly different
era of the 20<sup>th</sup> century. “Jurassic Bark” returns to the late 90s and
tries to mine a good deal of comedy from territory that was already explored in
the first episodes of the series. However the family feud here between Fry and
his older brother Yancy is set in the 1980s, and it allows for a series set a
thousand years in the future to make some really goofy jokes about a slightly
different period of more recent culture – every now and then, the phrase “Rock
us, Dukakis!” still pops in my head, and I usually can’t watch “The Breakfast
Club” without finding myself saying “Man, I can’t wait until I’m old enough to
feel ways about stuff” at least a dozen times, or laughing just a little bit at
the soundtrack.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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It’s also always really fun
(well...for us, not for Fry) when we get glimpses of Fry’s family, and we can
see firsthand the type of absurd neglect that made him not all that sad to
learn he wouldn’t be returning to the year 2000 anytime soon. And one of the
best things about this episode is it very subtly submits the idea that Fry has
done so many great things that his family and friends from the 20<sup>th</sup>
century will never know about. Fry bemoans the fact that Yancy-as-Fry went to
space and “now [he’ll] never get there” before Leela reminds him that he went
there that morning for donuts, among countless other times that Planet Express
has traversed the galaxy delivering packages. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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In his old life, Fry was mocked
mercilessly for dreaming of going to outer space, and if I saw the crudely
drawn picture displayed in this episode with the caption “Phillip Fry, age 20”
I would probably understand where they’re coming from. But in addition to space
travel being so common in the year 3000, Fry is too simple and sweet for him to
ever come to the realization that he proved everyone he loved wrong by doing
something that would blow their minds, and it makes his victory so much more
powerful – because it’s for him and only him.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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But of course, the real emotional kicker
in “The Luck of the Fryrish” is Fry’s realization that even in a family where
he’s misunderstood and ignored, family always loves you, even when it seems
they don’t really like you or notice if you’re gone. More importantly, no
amount of being ignored by your family can blind them to your potential. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Determined to stop Yancy from
continually stealing his more colourful personality away from him, Fry sets out
to Yancy’s grave to take back the seven-leaf clover that made “Phillip J. Fry”
the greatest success story of the 21<sup>st</sup> century. And the inscription
on the gravestone leads him to realize just how wrong he was about what Yancy
thought of him: “Here lies Phillip J. Fry – named for his uncle, to carry on
his spirit.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Fry always knew that Yancy was
jealous of him. And really, it would have been hard for Yancy not to want
anyone else’s identity considering he never had one of his own – a name passed
down from generations, the same exact look as his father, etc. But Fry couldn’t
realize the admiration and respect behind that jealousy until he witnessed the
physical evidence of a human being, who translated his same drive and passion
for life into great success, that Yancy named in his memory. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
Though Fry might not have ever been
a billionaire business mogul or the guitarist in a rock band, Fry has still
accomplished much more greatness than he realizes and it makes for a really
beautiful ending where both Phillip J. Frys end up in parallel. When Fry was
frozen on December 31, 1999, his family realized quickly he was missing and
considering he never came back, they must have eventually concluded that he was
dead. Phillip J. Fry II was named to carry on the spirit of the original
Phillip J. Fry, but he was also named to finish a life that was never
completed. Yancy passing on that name acknowledges this unrealized potential and
most importantly, it confirms for Fry that no matter how much they fought, how
much it seemed his brother hated him, Yancy gets the last word in their
relationship, and it’s, “I always believed in you.” And really, Fry needed to
hear that a lot more than if it had been a simple “I love you”. Love between
family members is unconditional – it exists whether you realize it or not. Respect
is a much more powerful feeling because it fluctuates, and it’s certainly never
unconditional.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Never more happy to be wrong in his
life, Fry leaves the clover behind and kneels at his nephew’s grave with tears
in his eyes, as Bender and Leela head out of the cemetery to Simple Minds’
“Don’t You (Forget About Me)”. And that, folks, is about as perfect an ending
to anything I’ve ever seen.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisMHUQKm3aP6gCn6cXI4bTHWwg1eZiDM-Vp0Z1rzaTZMQDNCrwJ9LZqzPWb_caT7FcyxFbq8UfKPxgs2EQzdH5LD_yRVknxoxt6Bm2RqZQ9hQn9Wj-VOBeW3Pigj-XLaudAAY_oOTbRoI/s1600/The_Luck_of_the_Fryrish.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisMHUQKm3aP6gCn6cXI4bTHWwg1eZiDM-Vp0Z1rzaTZMQDNCrwJ9LZqzPWb_caT7FcyxFbq8UfKPxgs2EQzdH5LD_yRVknxoxt6Bm2RqZQ9hQn9Wj-VOBeW3Pigj-XLaudAAY_oOTbRoI/s320/The_Luck_of_the_Fryrish.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Last week I talked about closing
moments that reshape the entire preceding episode, so the question that needs
to be asked here (glossed over earlier) is this: knowing how “The Luck of the
Fryrish” ends, does Fry come off as an asshole in his accusations of Yancy? I
don’t feel that he does. Fry is certainly wrong, but his perspective, like all
things with a sibling, is only his own and it doesn’t necessarily reflect fact.
And like your viewpoint on a sibling, sometimes it spends a long time stuck in
the past. Fry is still relatively young, albeit probably a little older than I
am, but my take from the flashbacks is that Fry had not yet moved out of his
parents’ house and had probably never shaken the sense of sibling you get from
actually living with them. Both in our 20s, my older brother by five years and
I haven’t lived together for quite a while and naturally our relationship has
matured and changed as a result. We have more common interests, slightly more
intellectual conversations, and I certainly don’t remember the last time we got
into a “fight”. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Fry and Yancy only had that relationship technically in death, but
it’s a testament to their distinct legacies of greatness that they got a very
rare and special chance to bury the hatchet – or in this case, the clover.<span style="color: red;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Odds and ends:</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
- I really love the transitions between Fry's childhood and the present day (or "i.e. the future" as the episode points out). Going from the spaceship being flung off baby Fry's mobile to the Planet Express mid flight is kind of hypnotically beautiful, and the final transition from newborn Phillip J. Fry II to astronaut Phillip II on his gravestone is pretty tremendous</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
- Fry’s mom lets his dad name him - she picked dinner last
night</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
- “I’ll have a horse Coke.” “Horse Pepsi okay?” “Nay.” It’s
the little things. Speaking of "Futurama" being the master of dumb jokes, I like whenever they tweak turns of phrase to fit the futuristic setting, as in Leela telling a happy Bender, "Well, someone's in a good mode".</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
- The manhole covering the entrance to Old New York features the characters of the Fox animated comedy "The PJs," in reference to that show's opening title sequence. In response, Fry was animated into an episode of "The PJs" as a missing person on a carton of milk. High five, Fox cartoon comrades.</div>
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<br /></div>
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- Wisconsin did indeed win the Rose Bowl 17-9 on January 1,
2000, as Mrs. Fry claims in flashbacks<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
- Things Fry always wanted to do in Manhattan but was afraid
to: yell “Howard Stern is overrated,” knock a payphone off its hook, jaywalk. Memories of Fry’s old neighbourhood: the bench where he
found some old shirts, the fire hydrant the kids would light on fire in the
summer, the corner where a guy with a bushy beard handed out a poorly Xeroxed
Socialist newsletter one time</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
- An especially stupid Fry moment: “71<sup>st</sup> Street?
Never heard of it. Downtown could be in any direction.” Walk one block, Fry. On a related note, Fry, Bender, and Leela arrive at the Newkirk Avenue subway
station, which according to my research puts Fry’s childhood home in the
Brooklyn neighbourhood of Midwood. The gag of Fry’s house being a complete shit hole in the
past just as in the future is great, but probably doesn’t need Bender hanging a
lamp on it with the “Father Time really took its toll on this place” line</div>
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<br /></div>
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- Fry hides the seven leaf clover in the "Breakfast Club" soundtrack vinyl sleeve inside his "Ronco Record Vault". Ron Popeil had previously guest starred on the show as one of "Futurama's" many celebrities as heads in jars, so I like this hat tip. Seems odd that it's basically just a safe with a fancy logo on it, but I suppose that's the joke. An even better joke, and one that "The Simpsons" and "Futurama" always pulled off so well is Fry's "I still remember the combination! (turns dial)...three!"</div>
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<br /></div>
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- When Leela posits that the seven leaf clover might have disintegrated during the 1000 years that Fry was frozen, he is skeptical because "everything else in here held up okay." Bender: "Except 'Sports' by Huey Lewis." Zing!</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
- One of the show’s <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R57srwbYzV4" target="_blank">best lines ever</a> from Billy West as an aging
British rocker in Phillip II's band "Leaf Seven": “Phil came in, right? Strummed out this tune, yeah? And I said,
that’s a number one record.” Perfect delivery. "Leaf Seven," incidentally, was "known for their hypnotic rhythms, driving
bass lines, and memorable hooks." Fry: “That’s what I’m known for!”<br />
<br />
<b>Next week</b>: What's that, you say? There are only four "Lethal Weapon" movies? Think again.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
Brendan Noelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01355501477653448329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196027173447098748.post-56013133151053885092013-11-02T20:00:00.000-04:002013-12-25T21:14:39.607-05:00Week 22 of "My 25 Favourite Episodes of TV"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
Swap out week! Yes, I ditched "How I Met Your Mother's" "Slap Bet" (and even managed to take a swing at in this week's post, always a good sign for anything I write) and substituted this episode, which like a few others on this list, is one no one has ever heard of. They tend to be the ones I like best...maybe this project should have been "25 Most Obscure Episodes of TV That I Love, Now Shut Up". But hey, that's the kind of ridiculous 20/20 hindsight that really powers today's entry.<br />
<br />
Another thing: I try to include photos in all of these posts, but this is one I had trouble with. According to my Google image search, there are about two still images of this episode on the entire internet. You'd also be surprised to hear that ten year old posts from ABC's press site don't hold up so much anymore. So enjoy this monochromatic 2,000+ word slog.<br />
<br />
<b>After the break</b>: I push for a classic sitcom character to go ghost hunting.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i>Miracles</i>, "The Battle at Shadow Ridge"</span></b><br />
<b>Unaired on ABC - Scheduled to air Monday, April 14, 2003</b><br />
<b>First aired on VisionTV Friday, November 21, 2003</b><br />
<br />
<i>"It weighed the same in death as it did in life. No spirit left his body."</i><br />
<br />
How much patience do you give a new television show?<br />
<br />
It's a question that network executives seem to struggle with all the time. Nobody's particularly interested in charity cases, but sometimes it seems entire networks are made up of nothing but. Fox, for example, is stuck with a Tuesday night comedy block whose ratings are so anemic that they just gave a back nine order to alleged comedy "Dads," a show averaging less than four million viewers a week. Kevin Reilly has insisted we stick with it in the hopes it will get better (seriously, he's only hoping, he doesn't know much further than we do), but three torturous episodes were all I could take. And the few stubborn critics on my Twitter feed who are sticking it out don't seem all that enthused yet.<br />
<br />
Now what if I told you that six months from now, "Dads" would be one of the most beloved shows on TV? I'm not saying it would be the #1 show, but it would be a fairly popular show - maybe something to the effect of the slow build "The Big Bang Theory" had in its first few years. What would cause that to happen? Well given its current state, the show would need to undergo a fairly dramatic overhaul - like ditching all of its current characters, plots, and giving Brenda Song back to "Scandal". That seems unlikely, though, so perhaps they could introduce a Poochie-esque character that America could fall in love with? Hey, it's happened before. "Family Matters" aired 11 episodes before introducing Steve Urkel, and suddenly it was decided the show was actually about...the neighbour. "Sure, why not? In fact, we'll retroactively insert him into previous cold opens for syndication. Boom. Problem solved." And the show is a huge hit.<br />
<br />
Now I don't know what the ratings for "Family Matters" were like in those first 11 episodes, but let's say hypothetically they were bad. Dismal. Worthy of cancellation. And ABC pulled the plug sometime before episode 12 introduced us to Stefan Urquelle. The amount of money all and sundry would have been giving up would be enormous, nine seasons worth of profits in first run broadcasts and decades of royalties from syndicated airings. We're talking the television production equivalent of Don Draper blowing the Hershey account for SC&P.<br />
<br />
Which, strangely, enough, brings me to a fun, bizarre, dark, fun, creepy, wacky, fun show that ABC was nice enough to put on the air for six Monday nights in the winter of 2003: "Miracles". (Look, they would have loved to have shown more, but "Living with Michael Jackson" doesn't rerun itself, you know.)<br />
<br />
So there's this guy named Paul, and he investigates modern miracles for the Catholic church. And he's feeling pretty down because every time someone thinks they've seen a miracle, it turns out that there's a perfectly normal explanation. All those bodies in the graveyard aren't perfectly preserved saints! They've just been soaking in nutritious apricot preservatives for 140 years. Better luck next time, Father.<br />
<br />
Feeling lost - that "maybe we're on our own down here" - Paul takes some time off, when his mentor calls him up asking to look into a boy in a small Arizona town who is supposedly able to heal people with the power of hugs ("Miracles" was the most feel good show on TV, except for all the times when it absolutely wasn't). And it's true, this kid can heal people - at his own expense. Every time he hopes someone feels better soon, he takes times off his own life. And when a distracted Paul drives his car in the path of an oncoming train, little Tommy Ferguson dies saving his life. Paul sees his blood form into the words "God is Now Here," and finally, he's seen a miracle.<br />
<br />
Paul takes his findings back to the church, but he doesn't have any proof, so nothing happens. Paul quits, finds out his dear Poppi never called him about any kid in Arizona, and is approached by a mysterious man named Alva Keel to team up and fight ghostly, supernatural devil crime with.<br />
<br />
Which leads me to my thesis: do you <i>know</i> how popular "Miracles" would have been if Paul and Keel had to help Steve Urkel get ghosts out of the Winslow's house?!?!<br />
<br />
Okay fine, not really. (But come on, ABC owned the rights to all those characters, no? And we already have <a href="http://wpmedia.o.canada.com/2013/05/steve-urkel-gif-15.gif?w=680" target="_blank">this GIF</a> that suggests what Urkel would have looked like in this amazing crossover.)<br />
<br />
There are only 13 episodes of "Miracles," and I've marathoned my way through them a few times in the last 10 years. And something that always strikes me about it is how lopsided the show's general setting tends to be. In the first six episodes, Paul, Keel, and third musketeer Evelyn tended to stay in the greater Boston area where their ghost busting organization "Sodalitas Quaerito" is headquartered. Episode two, "The Friendly Skies" takes place at Boston's Logan Airport. "The Patient" is also Boston set, and no one seems to travel too far outside the Northeast in "Little Miss Lost". There's a slight detour in Michigan for "The Bone Scatterer," before we're back in Massachusetts and New York state for "Hand of God," the last episode to air before ABC cancelled the show.<br />
<br />
And it's such a shame that just as it was taken off the air, a switch flipped and "Miracles" became something of a more rural, or perhaps folksy, show. It starts in "You Are My Sunshine," when Paul's ex-girlfriend (Anna Gunn!) lives in a creepy old house whose dark energy turns Paul into a jealous psychopath, and continues with episodes like "Mother's Daughter," set heavily in Pennsylvania's Amish country, and "Saint Debbie," which while not technically rural, is set in a small town and decidedly less urban than the six aired episodes.<br />
<br />
But it's "The Battle at Shadow Ridge," the show's eighth episode, where "Miracles" starts to feel like the kind of show that would have played in Peoria. It was the sixth produced episode, and had ABC aired the episodes in production order rather than shuffle them the way they did (third episode "The Friendly Skies" became the second, while actual second episode "The Ghost" fell down to number 11), the audience still might have been gone by the time this one aired. Maybe I just so love the episode's unapologetic strangeness and goofiness, but it does strike me as odd that this wasn't an episode where both the producers and the network said, "We need to air this very quickly - the audience needs to see that this isn't just a show about flashes of scary faces and demons possessing the handicapped."<br />
<br />
It's not that the early episodes contain no positivity - despite its scenes of demons possessing the handicapped, "The Patient" is an hour in which it's made very clear to Paul that while he faces seemingly overwhelming darkness, there <i>is</i> good on "the other side" too. But the revelation that Raina Bauer had been dead the entire episode is just creepy and unsettling enough that the final thought, as it were, doesn't land as well as maybe it should. It ultimately leaves Paul with questions in a way that "The Battle at Shadow Ridge" provides answers and puts issues to bed. It tells an uplifting and fairly accessible story about someone who didn't get to say goodbye to the people he loved the most, and while ghosts are also creepy and unsettling, we're clued into what's really going on, and the fact that this ghost means no harm, far sooner than with Raina. Henry Tucker, Paul, Keel, and we the viewers are always on the same, wet, see-through page throughout, and while I would never say "The Patient" pulled the rug out from under the viewers (a metaphor I'd reserve for far worse shows like the constant cock-teasing on "How I Met Your Mother"), episodes in which a piece of information revealed at the very end will change the way I watch the episode a second time through are never my favourite.<br />
<br />
<i>(This probably makes it sound like I would hate the "Lost" pilot on a rewatch solely because I know how the series ends, but that's not what I mean - I'm talking about something like the season four finale of "Breaking Bad," a thrilling exciting episode the first time that will now distract me in future viewings all because that one final shot of the Lily of the Valley plant in Walt's backyard has me trying to piece together how he managed to get it to Brock, especially considering "Breaking Bad" was a show that had always previously shown us how Walt put a plan together, even if it failed miserably. Also, <a href="http://noelivision.blogspot.ca/2013/07/week-7-of-my-25-favourite-episodes-of-tv.html" target="_blank">I did not hate the "Lost" pilot upon rewatching</a> it.)</i><br />
<br />
"The Battle at Shadow Ridge" is also, without question, the funniest hour of a show that at first probably didn't think comedy could work for it (which is so strange because something like this needs to be able to have fun once in a while). So perhaps it's due to the sheer size of the episode's guest cast, each with their own bizarre ghost lights encounter in Shadow Valley, that odds were at least enough of the characters would hit. But I don't think there's a single one of them that doesn't work, from the slightly douchey ATV couple in the woods, the Circle Mart guy who has the paranormal drill down by now, and of course the Jacobson kids and their Virginia accents. You would probably be hard pressed not to identify with or recognize someone, anyone, in this episode, even if it's the impatient file clerk who makes an active point of telling Paul and Keel that she won't be helping them go through records. When the writers said that they always intended the supernatural stories to play against the mundane backdrop of everyday life to connect with the audience more, this is the kind of episode where I think it really translated from page to screen in the way they intended for the version of the show that 15 million people would have watched every week.<br />
<br />
Do I blame the creative team behind "Miracles," including series creator and one of my favourite Twitter follows Richard Hatem, for what in retrospect seems like a bizarre way to arrange the show? Not necessarily, thought it's sort of a half and half split between "not knowing who was really behind those decisions at the time" and "there has been acknowledgement that ABC did shuffle some episodes around and joking or not, the serialization needed to be reworked slightly." Such a joke came from executive producer David Greenwalt in the DVD commentary for "The Friendly Skies," which as previously mentioned, bumped the second episode down to 11th in the air order. This necessitated moving a good deal of the intro of "The Ghost" to "The Friendly Skies," and Greenwalt claimed it "screwed up all [their] plans to correctly serialize the series". So with any show, there were network notes and decisions were made that maybe weren't exactly what the creative team wanted.<br />
<br />
And of course, it's also wrong for me to assume that episodes were produced in the order they were intended to air. Just because "The Battle at Shadow Ridge" has the production number of 106 doesn't necessarily mean Hatem and co. planned for that episode to air sixth. And really, "The Battle at Shadow Ridge" could have aired fairly early in the run of the show, provided it was more clearly established up front that the new job Paul was taking would require a good deal of travel (obviously he knew he was getting in to some freaky shit, but <i>Michigan</i>?). I can see why more of the "on the road" episodes might have been saved for later if the writers assumed Keel might put off the audience had he immediately begun dragging Paul across the country busting ghosts.<br />
<br />
But man, I wish the ABC audience had gotten a chance to see this one. In broadcast order, "The Battle at Shadow" ridge is conveniently positioned right after what turned out to be the only mythology arc "Miracles" got to do, where Paul discovers that Keel had been keeping information from him regarding his mysterious connection to the six people who saw "God is Nowhere" in their blood (I call it an arc only because the anger and tension brought out in him by Anna Gunn's haunted house of alleged infidelity in "You Are My Sunshine" does draw on what he feels is Keel's dishonesty from the previous episode). And considering some "Evelyn plans her son's birthday party" scenes were entirely cut for time, I can't imagine why it would be a problem to air this one third or fourth.<br />
<br />
But at least it exists. As do 12 other episodes of this crazy, stupid, wonderful show, and sometimes that feels like the real miracle. I don't necessarily think leaving the show on the air long enough for this one episode to air would have started a complete turnaround for this show's long-term future, but I think it's a much more representative episode of what "Miracles" eventually became and would have continued to be in subsequent seasons. With a strong, relatable story about human connection and a surprisingly respectful examination of casual American spiritualism, it's one of my biggest disappointments in all of television that ABC turned out the lights before the stars of "The Battle at Shadow Ridge" got to tell us about the night they each saw them.<br />
<br />
<b>Next week</b>: I made you cry about Edna Krabappel. Prepare for more tears over a Matt Groening cartoon.<br />
<br />
P.S. Did I do this? (Yes.)<br />
<br />
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<br />Brendan Noelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01355501477653448329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196027173447098748.post-23804895119453152452013-10-26T20:00:00.000-04:002013-10-27T04:46:06.438-04:00Week 21 of "My 25 Favourite Episodes of TV"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGlX_cEA5Qk1KVxD3dkNsj6jf-aVdvwSTCRItDKBiwwd9h9vchV6q02SzDqu5hX7Zyd0cnud8DFjniSr0ZXXlo8LINBUSuM7AKkMdGBCSjbDjCC8UfbYDY2Bw_NlMR6IX7dZZWoOJKpt0/s1600/ENR01232012_Top25-full-logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGlX_cEA5Qk1KVxD3dkNsj6jf-aVdvwSTCRItDKBiwwd9h9vchV6q02SzDqu5hX7Zyd0cnud8DFjniSr0ZXXlo8LINBUSuM7AKkMdGBCSjbDjCC8UfbYDY2Bw_NlMR6IX7dZZWoOJKpt0/s1600/ENR01232012_Top25-full-logo.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
I might be violating the spirit I intended for this list, in that I shouldn't hastily make changes based on anything that has just recently happened. But that's what I'm doing today. And part of what makes me okay with is that A) when I really think about, I think I like today's episode better than the one I originally intended to write about, and B) even if I had written about the episode I intended to, I could have told you a different episode was actually my favourite tomorrow.<br />
<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>After the break</b>: I am going to make you sad about a cartoon character, dammit.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i>The Simpsons</i>, "Bart the Lover"</span></b><br />
<b>First aired on Fox Thursday, February 13, 1992</b><br />
<br />
<i>"And so let us part with a love that will echo through the ages."</i><br />
<br />
Procrastination has finally actually helped me by allowing me to put my head on straighter.<br />
<br />
This entry was intended to go up last Friday, and would have been about the fourth season episode "Lisa's First Word". It's a funny half-hour with some all-time classic "Simpsons" gags, like Bart's nightmare of "From now on the baby sleeps in the crib! / Iron helps us play! / Hello, Joe!" and his resulting repetition of "Can't sleep, clown'll eat me!". School work got in the way unfortunately, and it was delayed a week. I had hoped to write about it today.<br />
<br />
And then I woke up this morning to the news that Marcia Wallace, who has played Bart Simpson's fourth grade teacher Edna Krabappel since the series' second episode in 1990, had died on Friday, just a few days short of her 71st birthday.<br />
<br />
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As it tends to do, Twitter began to share suggestions for some of Wallace's best work on the screen, including episodes of "The Bob Newhart Show," some of her classic game show appearances, and of course episodes of "The Simpsons" in which Krabappel took centre stage. Two of the episodes most recommended were "Special Edna," a 2003 episode in which Bart nominates Mrs. Krabappel for the "Teacher of the Year" award and in turn wins her and the family a trip to Disney World in Florida, and 1997's "Grade School Confidential," in which Bart discovers and subsequently exposes a scandalous relationship between Mrs. Krabappel and Principal Skinner (which ends in a pretty beautiful sequence where the two barricade themselves in the school and the police's attempts to chase them out with music and bright lights actually create <a href="http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130701181542/simpsons/images/6/66/Grade_School_Confidential_97.JPG" target="_blank">a romantic atmosphere</a> in which they share a dance).<br />
<br />
But of course the most recommended was the quintessential Edna Krabappel showcase, season three's Valentine's Day episode "Bart the Lover," in which Bart Simpson, stuck in after-school detention for a month, discovers his teacher has placed a personal ad and responds to it using the name of the 28th President of the United States and the face of "Mr. Hockey" himself, Gordie Howe. It's a sad, depressing, even occasionally nasty episode, given what we see of how lonely Krabappel is and the ignorant glee Bart initially takes in his ruse. But it's also one of many "Simpsons" episodes that radically three-dimensionalizes a character that was created simply to populate a world that the titular family could realistically live in and interact with. The Simpsons needed a neighbour, so we got Ned Flanders. Homer needed a boss at work, so we got Mr. Burns. And Bart needed a teacher, so we got Mrs. Krabappel.<br />
<br />
The thing is though, is that despite Springfield, and in turn the universe of "The Simpsons," being so realistically filled with hilarious recurring characters, no one at Fox ever told the writers to make those characters realistic people (thanks to a strange and unusual deal that executive producer James L. Brooks made before production began in 1989, the Fox network is not allowed to give "The Simpsons" any notes on the direction of story lines or the like - all they have to listen to and comply with are censor notes from the Standards and Practices department). They can introduce as many Ned Flanderses and C. Montgomery Burnses and Edna Krabappels as they want and have them say nothing other than their respective catchphrases of "Okily-dokily!", "Excellent!", and "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLNkbRvraho" target="_blank">Ha!</a>", but nobody was ever going to make them do episodes like "Hurricane Neddy," "Rosebud," or "Bart the Lover". That's all great storytelling and thoughtful characterization, and it makes the show such a richer environment that most other cartoons never would have come within ten feet of. (For further evidence, I point you to the scene in which Ned Flanders calls up Reverend Lovejoy with a religious dilemma and his reaction to Helen passing him the phone says so much about their relationship, and how many times Ned must call Lovejoy at home in any given day - even in just the third season).<br />
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What makes "Bart the Lover" all the more impressive is that even though we can, of course, see a lot of visual acting in Mrs. Krabappel's face courtesy of the animators, I can still hear all of her sorrow and regret come through just in Wallace's performance (a performance that won her an Emmy - sometimes they get stuff right). I wouldn't have done it under normal circumstances, but with her passing obviously on my mind, I spent parts of the episode with my eyes closed just listening to her speak. Just hearing the representative work of everything she gave to that character for almost 25 years. And when I got to the scene at the end where Bart slips the final letter from "Woodrow" under Edna's door and she runs outside shouting, "Wait! Don't go!" it started to feel like some dust was coming in to the room. Given the built-in limitations, the ability for a performer to humanize a cartoon character is one of the most impressive things this TV nerd has the privilege of witnessing.<br />
<br />
Self-awareness of its tropes, and the cultural landscape it exists in, makes "The Simpsons" smarter than the average <strike>bear</strike> cartoon. It also apparently launches the episode's B-story, in which Homer starts depositing money into a swear jar after his frustrated attempts to build a dog house fall on Todd Flanders' impressionable young ears (his "freakin' ears" even, to reference a callback to his impressionability in season seven's "Bart Sells His Soul"). Wikipedia claims the subplot was inspired by criticism that the show had been trending more vulgar, and I think it does a really good job of showing the audience that it a) could listen to them, and b) was so much more than any of the show's detractors assumed it to be (under different circumstances, this would segue into a lengthy paragraph in which I rant about how my relatives, who have never seen "The Simpsons," are so incredibly ignorant and wrong to hate the show and think it's stupid). It also features a good deal of dumb, angry but well-meaning Homer, the best kind of Homer.<br />
<br />
"Bart the Lover" is everything "The Simpsons" can do at its absolute peak. It's funny, thoughtful, and touching, but all in a way that is reactive to realistic feelings of disappointment and aimlessness. It knows how to toe the line between cartoonishness and humanity, and it does so confidently and considerately. And now, it's a loving tribute to a brilliant comedic actress and a venerable member of "The Simpsons" family. So it feels only right to end on an excerpt from the last letter penned by "Woodrow" (in this case, a collaborative effort by the entire Simpson family) to Mrs. Krabappel:<br />
<br />
"Dearest Edna, I must leave you. Why, I cannot say. Where, you cannot know. How I<br />
will get there, I haven't decided yet. But one thing I can tell you: any time I hear the<br />
wind blow, it will whisper the name, 'Edna...'"<br />
<br />
Rest in peace, Marcia.<br />
<br />
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<br />
<br />
<b>Odds and ends</b>:<br />
<br />
- A tip of my hat to Jon Vitti, whose 25 writing credits on this show include "Bart the Lover" and another episode that was a contender to be my "Simpsons" entry for this list, "Lisa's Substitute". He may in fact be my all-time favourite writer. Of anything.<br />
<br />
- According to executive producer/showrunner Al Jean, Wallace had completed recording a number of episodes that are still to air (and from what I gather, none have been left incomplete as a result of her passing) so she'll still be appearing on the show for at least a little while. Afterwards, the show will retire the character, and Mrs. Krabappel will take to standing in the background of large crowd scenes with Troy McClure, Lionel Hutz, and Lunchlady Doris. That being said, Krabappel was always an instrumental part of any story that involved Bart at school, so he will probably need a new teacher at some point. I could see them pulling the "South Park" move and deciding to finally move all the kids up a grade to make the transition less awkward, but to take Lisa, Janey, Ralph Wiggum, et al. out of Ms. Hoover's class and put them with a new teacher as well seems unnecessary<br />
<br />
- <b>Pause for a moment of particular bleakness</b>: this has me very concerned about future cast members dying as the show is still producing new episodes. Krabappel was the only character Wallace regularly voiced so this is manageable by the writers, but what if anyone from the regular cast just suddenly died tomorrow? There are six main cast members on the show - four of them play Simpson family members, and the other two are Hank Azaria and Harry Shearer, who each play about a dozen regular supporting characters<br />
<br />
- Given how much I disliked my grade school experience, one of my favourite things about "The Simpsons" is their absolute disdain for and mockery of the public school system. And man, the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9il_AO8D7Wo" target="_blank">black and white film strip</a> that opens this episode, in which a boy named Jimmy has a nightmare where he comes to regret wishing he could live in a world without zinc, is such a perfectly hilarious sendup of the kind of educational short film we would occasionally watch<br />
<br />
- Bart ends up in detention after killing the class' pet fish by destroying their tank with a yo-yo, which have become all the rage at Springfield Elementary School after a presentation by a company called "Twirl King". Of the many fads that swept through my first eight years of school, which included marbles, trading cards, and miniature hockey, yo-yos were never one of them. I think my age group just missed them by a couple years - I remember my brother, who is five years older than me, had one<br />
<br />
- <b>The continuing mysteries of Clancy Bouvier</b>: Little is known about Marge Simpson's late father, who I believe has only ever appeared in two episodes of the series. The most significant of these was season six's "Fear of Flying," in which Marge's phobia of air travel is revealed to have been caused by her childhood discovery that her dad was not a heroic pilot like everyone claimed, but rather an apron-wearing flight attendant ("stewardess" is the word Marge chooses). In "Bart the Lover," she introduces the idea of the swear jar to Homer by revealing that Clancy served in the Navy for some period of time and came back with quite the sailor mouth. "It almost cost him his job as a baby photographer," Marge explains in one of the episode's funnier throwaway lines (Marge gets a lot of those)<br />
<br />
- One of the episodes' best jokes is Bart re-appropriating the drunken ramblings of Homer's love postcard (sent to Marge from his trip to the Duff brewery) in one of Woodrow's love letters to Edna. "Truly, yours is a butt that won't quit."<br />
<br />
- "Fiddle dee dee! That will require a tetanus shot!" is my new favourite way to suppress an outward expression of pain or frustration. Thanks, Homer!<br />
<br />
- Todd Flanders used to watch "Davey and Goliath," but he thought the idea of a talking dog was blasphemous<br />
<br />
- I can't really explain why, but ending the episode with Gordie Howe's stats just feels so right. Maybe today in particular, I'm just looking for something in "Bart the Lover" to explicitly be a tribute and that's where I'm landing<br />
<br />
<b>Next week</b>: Ghost lights, haunted gas stations, and wacky Southern accents! It's the only episode on this list that technically never aired.Brendan Noelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01355501477653448329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196027173447098748.post-43164984920380632002013-10-12T01:38:00.000-04:002013-10-12T01:42:28.840-04:00Week 20 of "My 25 Favourite Episodes of TV"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
A brief notification of a swap out: I have eliminated "How I Met Your Mother's" "Slap Bet" from this list and substituted in one of the episodes I mentioned <a href="http://noelivision.blogspot.ca/2013/08/week-13-of-my-25-favourite-episodes-of.html" target="_blank">here</a>. I still like "Slap Bet," but I don't think I have much to say about it other than "How is it a show that is now so miserable once gave us an episode so funny?" so I don't think it warrants a full writeup. And if you've been reading these posts with any regularity, you know the bar my writing has to clear to be published is low.<br />
<br />
On to today's entry, which is regrettably the only episode on the list of a non-American show. I know. I suck. I will try to become more cultured in the future, and also watch more TV episodes that aired before 1990.<br />
<br />
<b>After the break</b>: They'd only been gone one night, but somehow the town seemed different. Smaller.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><b style="font-size: xx-large;"><i>Spaced</i>, "Gone"</b><br />
<b>First aired on Channel 4 Friday, March 30, 2001</b><br />
<br />
<i>"Must be strange being a woman. All that power." - Brian Topp</i><br />
<br />
In some ways, "Gone" is the last normal episode of "Spaced" that Simon Pegg and Jessica Hynes (or as she was known at the time, Jessica Stevenson) ever wrote. The final two episodes of the second series deal with Marsha's discovery that Tim and Daisy have been faking a relationship during their entire stay at 23 Meteor Street (all because <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Op1TJQbP8dU" target="_blank">some dumbass</a> accidentally put "professional couples only" in her classified ad) and the resulting fallout. They present one final conflict for all the characters in Marsha's rash decision to sell the building, send certain characters into brighter prospects, and reassure others that they're exactly where they're meant to be. But even in our happiness that Daisy has decided not to leave Tim and the gang, we realize that Tim and the gang are all still leaving <i>us</i> no matter who stays and who goes. So the closest thing I can think to compare "Gone" to is that one, great last night you spend with your friends in the summer between high school and college. Everyone's happy for themselves and for each other to start an exciting new chapter in their lives. But at the same time, it's also kind of nice to just pretend that one great last night of being carefree, idiot children isn't the last one at all.<br />
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Which makes it only fitting that the thematic runner of "Gone" is maturity manifesting itself as immaturity. The episode begins with straight up immaturity, as the male characters bemoan their love lives - Sophie breaks her date with Tim because she has to work late and he immediately assumes she's sleeping with her boss, Brian complains that Twist is in "a mood" - and saying a lot of sexist bullshit that young guys say, with Tim commenting that women have two faces and Brian claiming that women will get on the same menstrual cycle if they spend enough time with each other. Tim's been hurt before by Sarah, the woman who threw him out of her life in the pilot episode, and Brian is dating Twist, who is awful, so it's not totally surprising they're not in very good places when it comes to their love lives.<br />
<br />
But over their 24 minute (to us, anyway) drug and alcohol-fueled adventure in the thrilling nightlife of Camden, Tim gains an appreciation for women that he didn't have before, even though he doesn't seem to realize it. His relationship with Daisy over the 14 episodes of "Spaced" often felt like an older brother reluctantly letting his dorky little sister tag along with him and his pals, sort of like a nicer, grown up version of Axl and Sue Heck on "The Middle". The only main character who had a relationship just with Daisy before the start of the show was Twist, who Tim hates. Again, Tim is right to hate Twist because she's the worst, but she and Daisy seem to be the two characters he has the least respect for and I don't think it's a coincidence that they're women (he probably doesn't have much for Marsha either, but at least Tim a) wouldn't consider her on the same level because she's older and b) knows enough to fear her). This isn't malicious on Tim's part - just childish. Had "Spaced" depicted the versions of these characters that were ten years older, he wouldn't have still been this sexist idiot He-Man Woman Hater. It's not that he hates women in the version we get, either. He just doesn't understand them because he still hasn't completely grown up.<br />
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Pegg once said in an interview that Tim and Daisy were always going to end up together and envisioned a moment where they realized they loved each other. I'm not sure if he meant that the scene in question wasn't one that ever actually happened on the show, or was something to be saved for a third series that was never made. But I'd like to think that scene happens in this episode when Tim, Daisy, and the college kids have their big, pretend, "act like you're in an action movie" shootout. It's also probably the moment that Tim realizes (or will later realize he realized, like so many things in life) that women can do anything men can and vice versa - for all the cliched differences between the sexes, what Tim and Daisy share and like about each other has nothing to do with what's in their pants. Sorting through these differences has, as mentioned, been done to death and there's no new ground being covered here on that front. But the fact that it's executed as "all Tim wants is a girl who will play finger guns with him, and she's right there" is kind of a brilliant examination of how Tim matures. It's the first step in the transition from Tim Bisley the overgrown adolescent who thinks Daisy's childhood dream to become Elvis was stupid because "he's a bloke," to Tim Bisley the man. It's kind of beautiful in the dumbest, funniest way possible.<br />
<br />
Being a comedy, the last two episodes of "Spaced" that I described previously aren't depressing, humourless episodes solely about self realization and growth. But in some ways this does sort of feel like the last night before the first day of the rest of Tim and Daisy's lives. It's an emotionally solid, incredibly funny episode that makes you yearn for whatever you consider to be "the good old days". In the stew that is "Spaced," "Gone" is, as Daisy would say, the good shit.<br />
<br />
<b>Odds and ends:</b><br />
<br />
- God, Jessica Hynes steals this episode. I think she has some of the funniest moments in the entire series, but because "Gone" is so much about the evolution of Tim, it's worth mentioning how well she plays Daisy tripping. In fact, I'm going to check the DVD set now to see if there's a full version of her singing "Let Me Be Your Teddy Bear"<br />
<br />
- There are really only two other stories happening in this episode outside of Tim and Daisy's night out and their run-in with the youths, and they're extremely minimal: first up, Mike loses Daisy's dog Colin and enlists Brian's help in finding him, only for Colin to randomly return right as Tim and Daisy come home. The other is just one flashback scene where Marsha tells Daisy about her past attempting to become an Olympic athlete, which ended when she was hit by a car. She ended up marrying the driver, who also introduced her to alcohol in order to numb the pain from her accident. It's a sad, depressing story but you can't help but laugh at anything Julia Deakin says in that thick accent she used to play the character. It's also a great use of the self-referentialism and reflexivity of "Spaced" in the way that Daisy brings up the subject to Tim (Daisy: "You know what Marsha told me the other day?" Flash back to Marsha: "I was gonna be an Olympic athlete, you know." Cut back to Tim: "What's that got to do with anything?" Flash back to Marsha: "I'll tell you!") and the transition from Marsha wondering where she might have ended up had she not had her accident to the TV where a much nicer looking and pleasant sounding Deakin is shown to be a television anchor<br />
<br />
- To invite another "Middle" comparison, Tim's relationship with Sophie reminds me a lot of the episode "A Birthday Story" where Axl has to reconcile the idea that while his manager at the movie theatre is really hot, it's not enough to make up for how dumb she is, so he can't like her. Dad Mike is proud of his son for maturing enough that personality has prioritized itself over physical appearance when it comes to his romantic interests. Here, Tim seems so blinded by Sophie's physical appearance and only that that he doesn't really consider Daisy to be a romantic prospect (not that Daisy's unattractive)<br />
<br />
- The finger gun shootout is great evidence that there should never be an American adaptation of "Spaced". I believe it's in the DVD commentary for this episode specifically (the new, 2008 commentaries) that director Edgar Wright says so much of the show is about these weirdos in South London acting out the things they see in American movies, and naturally that angle would be lost if it were to be presented through the system that makes American screen productions<br />
<br />
- Peter Serafinowicz returns as Duane, the douchebag who started dating Sarah after she dumped Tim. He and Tim sort of squaring off, with Tim pushing the idea on him that Sarah is working late in the same way he assumes Sophie is, is very funny, eventually escalating into what Liz Lemon would describe as a "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0ba-cmLO_0" target="_blank">talking like this</a> contest". Duane discovering that Tim has left his car keys at the bar also leads to Serafinowicz repeating a line he had previously spoken as the voice of Darth Maul in "The Phantom Menace": "At last I will emerge as the victor. At last I will have revenge".<br />
<br />
- Tim has told Sophie so much about Daisy. What sort of things? "Well," Sophie tells Daisy over the phone, "you're friends...you share a flat...and your name's Daisy."<br />
<br />
- "There's been a misprint on the cover of one of the new issues." "Which one?" "'Total Cult.'"<br />
<br />
- I like that Mike is so immersed in his military life that he's forgotten the 12-hour clock<br />
<br />
- I would watch a play called "Absolute Bollocks"<br />
<br />
<b>Next week</b>: Daddy.Brendan Noelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01355501477653448329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196027173447098748.post-31201497937994666142013-10-04T22:48:00.000-04:002013-10-04T22:48:57.721-04:00Week 19 of "My 25 Favourite Episodes of TV"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
It's too bad that I went into watching this week's episode with as much trepidation as I did. But given some of this show's more recent offerings in this vein, I think I had reason to worry about how will this would hold up. But then I started watching it, and it all just fell away. I was right back there enjoying it just as much as I did the first time. I remembered why this episode was not any of the ones that tried to one up it. And if that's not reason to put this on the list, I don't know what is.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b><br /></b><br />
<b>After the break</b>: If this show doesn't rebound in its new season, my tears will be real today.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i>Community</i>, "Modern Warfare"</span></b><br />
<b>First aired on NBC Thursday, May 6, 2010</b><br />
<br />
<i>"I thought it was paint but I'm just bleeding. Talk about luck!" - Jeff Winger</i><br />
<br />
At the end of the last entry, I described this week's episode as an original that towers over all of its successors or imitators. But to compare "Modern Warfare" to the numerous high concept parody episodes that "Community" did afterwards is actually something of a disservice to one of the funniest and most well-plotted half hours of TV in this decade so far. While second season episodes like "Basic Rocket Science" and "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas" went so far up their own asses committing to a specific parody that they became very, very lost, "Modern Warfare" emphasizes its actual story and uses action movies tropes to colour the proceedings. It felt as though someone had an idea for the Greendale campus to compete in a merciless paintball fight for priority registration and these allusions were integrated (or more often, applied and deconstructed) through the development of the script, rather than creator Dan Harmon saying, "Let's do an 'Apollo 13' parody". Here, there is no specific parody and it is such a better episode for it.<br />
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"Modern Warfare" also offers an interesting and delicate way to handle the sexual tension between Jeff and Britta that really did need some kind of development. Ever since "Community" realized that Britta was the worst and would mock her endlessly because of that, the study group was also sure to comment on her and Jeff's obvious flirtation so as not for the show to legitimately fall into a cliched "will they, won't they" arc with them. Here, they're called out on it (and really how annoying they're being about it) but the way it's "dealt with" so to speak during the paintball fight and away from any other members of the study group, and uses Abed as the only one to sense that the vibe is off, was both a good way to subvert expectations about their relationship and the correct way to have Abed's obsession with all tropes of pop culture bleed into real life.<br />
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On the subject of good character use, I appreciated the way the episode uses Troy and Shirley to at least bring up the idea of race as a trope of this sort of movie. While it's more blatantly addressed in the "Epidemiology" episode where Abed tells Troy, "be the first black guy to make it to the end," I liked that Troy suggesting to Shirley that the study group might already be the last seven players left in the game and the two of them should team up to turn on them was met with her disapproval because "that would be great PR for the black students" (and right on cue to mock the stereotype, Troy gets shot with a paintball and becomes the first member of the group eliminated). Rewatching "Modern Warfare" also made me yearn for these season one days where Señor Chang was in a position of power and was thus a much better foil for the study group than in any of the future seasons where had his lost his job and gotten a new one as a professional cartoon character. His reading of "Critical Media Literacies and Politics of Gender, bitch!" as his proof that he's a student and thus eligible to compete is great and it's a shame the show dropped the ball on that character so hard so suddenly.<br />
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Do I think Harmon "chased" this episode in those aforementioned pale imitators? Hard to say for sure. If an episode like "Basic Rocket Science" aired in the third season when "Community" was first starting to show some cracks I think I would more confidently agree with that idea. While the second season had some "trying too hard" outings like that, it was still consistently great, and some of <u>those</u> high concept episodes like their fake clip show "Paradigms of Human Memory" are fantastic. But then again, the third season also contains "Remedial Chaos Theory," a sign that they could still write that kind of episode at that point in the series' run without pandering to what they thought the fans would want. I do think the writers understood that a collection of references rather than one specific parodical recreation would allow them to craft a better story. But "Modern Warfare" is still considered one of, if not the best episodes the show has ever done, and I'm not sure I blame them for feeling confident they could do a more head-on parody that would be a) just as funny, and b) give them the freedom they needed to make sure their plotting wasn't being drowned out by a James Horner-esque score and slow motion sequences.<br />
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It certainly made for more inspired episodes in that era, which is more than can be said for the trial and error experimentation of the fourth season. When the parodies didn't work back then, at least the characters on screen weren't telling us they were doing something cool. Anyway, I've moved away from the positives of "Modern Warfare" and into the negatives elsewhere. This episode = A+. Read some of the quotes below as an example of how damn funny it is.<br />
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<b>Odds and ends:</b><br />
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- When and if time travel is invented, I'd like to take this episode back to May 6, 2004 and show it to everyone at NBC enjoying their "Friends" finale parties. "This is what you'll be airing exactly six years from now. I'm gonna love it, but know it will be watched by a tenth of your current audience"<br />
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- I know that Jeff's "Write some original songs!" insult to the glee club members after they're shot out of the tree is a fan favourite line, but I think I actually prefer when Jeff, Troy, and Abed shoot the chess team and Jeff says, "And tell the drama club their tears'll be real today."<br />
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- Once again, Joel McHale doesn't know how to properly say "Starburns," as seen in <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jo7TcBi9ChA" target="_blank">this promo</a>. Emphasis on the "star," not on the "burns".<br />
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- While I, like Jeff, enjoy the sound of scheduling all my classes on a Monday and taking a six day weekend, I don't really understand how someone could do that. Granted I don't exactly know how community college operates educationally, but it still seems tight.<br />
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- Britta: "Shirley, I'm gonna win that prize for you and your boys." Shirley: "That's nice." Jeff: "Shirley, I'm gonna win that prize, but not for you and your boys." Shirley: "That's less nice."<br />
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- Jeff: "I mean I'm all for winning, but let's not resort to cheap ploys." (*immediately takes his shirt off*). See, "Community"? You used to know how to do this! Save us Dan Harmon, you're our only hope!<br />
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- I miss the Troy and Abed end tags, or at least really good ones like this where Troy keeps re-recording his message to Abed that he'll meet him at the flagpole in 10 minutes. Jeff: "Hey Abed, your girlfriend will meet you at the flagpole in 10 minutes."<br />
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- My brother just reminded me that Joel McHale starred in the unaired pilot for a U.S. remake of "The IT Crowd". <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVuR4NxdaxI" target="_blank">This</a> is all I can find of it still on YouTube, so behold the horror.<br />
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<b>Next week</b>: Let's travel across the pond for a night in beautiful, metropolitan Camden.Brendan Noelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01355501477653448329noreply@blogger.com