Ten Honorable Mentions in Television for the best of 2019

Every year I do a top 12 list (check the label) for the best of the year in television and add an extra top 10 honorable mentions. Through thick and thin, I've done this list for 12 straight years and treated it with the gravity as if I'm announcing the Nobel Prizes. This year, I thought I'd separate the honorable mentions and give them their own entry for space reasons. Perhaps, also the readers can best absorb ten entries at one time.

Source: Den of Geek

American Horror Story: 1984 (FX)-As if the homage to the horror films of the 1980s wasn’t enough, the deluge of aerobics, side pony tails, synthesizer music and whatever else to set the place and time with the delicacy of a sledgehammer. But, hey, I dug the series’ cheekily self-referential tone and strong sense of place. Like other versions of AHS, the series is guilty of overpopulating its villains but there was a surprisingly strong thru-line to keep the narrative engaging and a couple genuinely bitching heroines worth rooting for.

Black Mirror (Netflix) -Charlie Brooker's prescient sci-fi anthology set in some unspecified near future continues to stay fresh and kinetic in its 5th season. That there were only three episodes is a source of complaint but each episode is relevant in multiple ways to our technoscape (isn't talking to the bastards who made your technology when it blows up on you the ultimate vicarious fantasy?) and meticulously crafted (all the little foreshadowings show up on rewatch).

Bless the Harts (Fox)- The first animated Sunday night entry in Fox to earn a second season renewal since "Bob's Burgers", this take on red state lower class working families would be in danger of being seen as a condescending parody of it weren't so sweet. The characters (a single mother, daughter, serious boyfriend and live-in mother) are all fully-formed comic creations and they bounce off each other well. The show also gets extra mileage out of a most amusing passive-aggressive rivalry between two grandmas (one played by guest star Mary Steenburgen showing off a previously unseen vicious side)

Source: Variety

Derry Girls (Channel 4/Netflix)-Of the many shows featuring teenagers I saw this year, few were as funny and fewer captured both the gut-wrenching awkwardness and carefree joy as this entry. The show is also a wayward family sitcom as the bickering family members of three generations keep the show lively.  Set in Northern Ireland at the heat of the IRA’s disruption in the 1990s, the show is rooted in a strong set of place and time. The season finale in which James traded an unstable mother for the continued awkwardness of being a boy in an all-girls school made no sense (nothing ever does with James' situation) but it was an earned emotional coda.

Disenchantment (Netflix)-This appeared in my top 12 last year based on potential and while it needs to round it still needs to round its lead characters, it has the visual richness and blink-and-you’ll-miss-it humor that made “Futurama” so rewatchable. Additionally, it’s a positive sign for the show’s world-building that Luci, Derek, and Oona got appropriately TGIF-ish (but not too cheesy) special episodes of the week.

Source: The Verge

Good Omens (Amazon)-The juxtaposition of minute details and unaware characters with unimaginable cataclysms was something I’d missed since…well..a few months earlier when “Miracle Workers” was on the air. That’s ok, we can never get enough apocalyptic comedy and the British whimsy (mostly in the tradition of Douglas Adams) approach is always welcome. The series is adapted from a Neil Gaiman book about a lowly angel and demon who violate their bosses’ orders to prolong the end of days. Because the book is so dense, the miniseries has the deck stacked against it in terms of delivering digestible entertainment because of all the exposition-oriented hurdles. Still, the series does an admirable job and the sweet odd couple of David Tenant and Michael Sheen is quite sweet. 

The Other Two (Comedy Central)-A wayward exploration of the effects of sudden viral fame, “The Other Two” has the sharpness in dialogue that is reminiscent of “30 Rock” with a tinge of family sitcom sweetness. The show is about a YouTube sensation modelled after Justin Bieber but it wisely focuses on the lives of the four cogs in his support system: The overly eager manager (Ken Marino), the menopausal mom seeking her positivity (Molly Shannon), and the two flailing adult siblings who had performance aspirations (Helene Yorke and Drew Tarver). The fact that the two adult siblings are supportive and not bitter of their brother gives the show a requisite gooeyness that places it on the list.

Source: Hollywood Reporter

The Orville (Fox)-When this show premiered, there was a very understandable chorus of bafflement by critics. Copying the Star Trek universe so closely that it bordered on copyright infringement, spending a lavish budget without any pay off on special effects, and straddling the most awkward line between comedy and drama screamed like a Seth McFarlane vanity project. But towards the back half of its second season, the show cemented itself as a show that offered something the Star Trek universe was lacking: A remedy to the stuffy atmosphere that permeated Starfleet (particularly in TNG).  It seems much more natural that the crew members would drink alcohol and play pranks on each other, doesn’t it? So think of Orville as a version of TNG with characters who are a little looser. The drama is still there. The science is really there. And occasionally there’s a belching contest. No biggie.

Source: Den of Geek

Russian Doll (Netflix)-Natasha Lyonne's protagonist here is such a sweetheart, her id-driven M.O. doesn't come off rude but more exposing the superfluous of polite banality. The show could have done more to get viewers invested in the actual logistics of the Groundhog-Day-like time loop or eliminated all the technobabble about it altogether. However, on the level of a woman (and later, a stranger/friend) seeking growth and being forced into it, the show was genuinely moving.

Source: Den of Geek

What We Do in the Shadows (FX)-I was going to go with “Baroness von Sketch show" in this slot until I saw this on another end of the year list and saw the name Jermaine Clement as one of the creators (Jojo Rabbit’s Taiki Waititi is also on the creative side). While not up there with “Flight of the Conchords” in relatability, it’s a bizarre trip about four vampires clashing with modern-day Staten Island that has a surreal brand of humor that occasionally knocked me straight over.

And for reference, here's all the shows I watched at least one episode of in 2019. If they have an asterisk, that means exactly one episode (minus the top 12):

Abby’s (NBC), Adam Ruins Everything (TruTV), Almost Famous (ABC), Archer (FX), Baroness von Sketch Show (IFC), Big Mouth (Netflix), Card Sharks (ABC), Castle Rock (Hulu), Carmen Sandiego (Netflix), Carnival Row (Amazon)* Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (CBSAA), Corporate (Comedy Central), Crashing (HBO)*, Chernobyl (AMC)*, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (CW), Dollface (Hulu), Documentary Now (IFC), Final Space (TBS/Netflix)*, Fresh off the Boat (ABC), Futureman (Hulu), God Friended Me (CBS), Good Girls (NBC), Grand Hotel (ABC), Hot Date (Pop TV), I-Land (Netflix), I Think You Should Lave (Netflix), Perfect Harmony (NBC), Politician (Netflix), Sex Education (Netflix), Schitt’s Creek (PopTV), Shrill (Hulu), Society (Netflix), Superstore (NBC), Sunnyside (NBC), Those Who Can’t (TruTV), Thirteen Reasons Why (Netflix), Undone (Amazon Prime), Umbrella Academy (Netflix), Will and Grace (NBC), Yellowstone (Paramount Network)

American Horror Story: 1984 Review

As I start to utilize YouTube more, it's becoming increasingly easy to post here. This is my review of American Horror Story 1984. AHS is one of the most unpredictable and strange creations on television and occasionally it works, so it's ripe for commentary.

My Week in TV II: American Crime Story, Crashing, Superstore, Another Period

American Crime Story-House by the Lake
The main draw of this show was watching innocent, sweet Darren Criss try his hand at playing a cold serial killer. So far this show lacks any sort of thru-line except Criss’s character himself. Last week, “Random Killing” centered around the killing of a notable real estate magnate presented with little context as for the “why.” Andrew Cunanan was analyzed so little that it felt like we were meant to accept him as simply a deranged man without rhyme or reason. Did we make more progress into figuring out what makes him tick this week? Not yet, but the season is long enough that we have reason to think that the show will at least attempt to mine that territory.
In the interim, this week was a thrill of a ride that seemed unpromising at the first commercial break because it seemed like the episode tipped its hand early. These episodes seem most fun when those around Andrew don’t know he’s a serial killer so I wasn’t sure why I wanted to keep watching once that was done with. I even turned off the episode at that point, but when I returned a couple days later, I realized how wrong I was.

The episode resumed into a tense hostage situation with Andrew taking his reluctant friend/lover- and witness to the murder number one – on the road with him. Why doesn’t David scream for help and run for cover at the diner? Why doesn’t he wait until Andrew is sleeping to make a phone call? All we can say in the wake of David’s tragic end is that hindsight is 20/20.

Like past episodes, the series does an excellent job of spotlighting the tragic nature of living in this community regardless of whether they’re being hunted by a serial killer or not. The way they seek love on the DL makes them more vulnerable to being taken advantage of and the errant looks of passersby invites suspicion no matter what.

Another Period-The Olympics
This show has haphazardly thrown every famous person Helen Keller to Harriett Tubman to Sigmeund Freud to Thomas Edison to Scott Joplin into the circle of the Bellacourts regardless of plausibility. It reeks just a little of stunt casting but that’s generally a complaint to make when such stunts aren’t effective. In these cases, the intersection of the famed historic book cutout with the Bellacourts has presented an opportunity for pointed social satire: Like musicians today, the show posits that Joplin was likely aided by his historic rise through a mix of talent and being in the right place and right time promotion-wise. Similarly, the unabashed reverence that we give historical figures is challenged with Harriett Tubman and the vouyeristic possibilities that came as a result of Edison’s moving picture inventions are commented on by making Edison a snuff film pervert himself.

This week it’s Adolf Hitler. He’s derided by some critics as an easy joke target and that same school of thought translates to putting him in a historical fiction comedy. Aside from my preference for the show to focus on American figures (they jive better with this show’s take on the origins of American excess), there’s nothing much they do with him other than make him play the “who would you kill if you could go back in history game?” and, oh yes, they do give his hatred for Jews an origin story. But still, there’s nothing particularly sharp about it. On the bright side, it is a return for Brett Gelman as the shady lower class squall Hamish who apparently is a friend of the doctor. As a Jew, I can tell you that the praying they do before the Shabbat dinner is authentic Hebrew.

In other news, the incest plot between Freddie and Beatriz sister sort of gets resolved but sort of doesn’t. For my money, this thread seems like a remnant of the show’s early days when they were all over the place tonally and this is one of their ickier ideas. There’s also an archery competition which returns Helen Keller and Lillian who’s not as nasty to her fellow woman as usual. That job belongs to Brian Huskey’s character who’s gay repression has made him angrier and angrier and if seeing him get ANGRY tickles your funny bone, you might like this B-plot.

More of my writings on Another Period

Crashing-Pete and Leif/Bill Burr (Season 2 Episode 2, Season 2 Episode 3)-
There’s significantly more wiggle room in Pete Holmes approach to the rapidly oversaturating genre of comedians playing themselves when one considers that few comedians are as wet behind the ears as the Pete Holmes character. The format of using an audience surrogate who’s naïve and sweet allows us to witness all the freedom and decadence of the comedian lifestyle with enough distance that the audience is freed from complicitness.

In the season’s second episode, Pete sleeps with a woman who’s not his wife for the first time and, like many of Pete’s other misadventures, the differing view between Pete and Ally over “what last night meant” is a wake-up call that Pete is woefully unprepared for modern city life. It’s a mostly harmless encounter (I might be wrong, maybe he’ll be in therapy for this all the way through Season 4, who knows?). The distance between Pete and his friends is highlighted by the fact that his friends are much happier than he is that he slept with Ally. Also worth noting, Ally ( Jamie Lee ) looks a helluva lot like Pete’s first wife (Pete the character, that is) Lauren Lapkus that the casting doesn’t seem coincidental here.

Questions of Pete’s masculine identity are once again challenged by his host of the week Bill Burr. I have no idea who Burr (question of the week: does anyone know what Bill Burr is famous for? Does anyone want to save me the trip to IMDB?) so f--- him because he’s more toxic than Artie Lange in continually trying to turn Pete into something he’s not: a man’s man. Then again, Burr’s not that mad at Pete for his screw-up of the week, so it evens out. Although people repeatedly screwing up in epic ways is the hallmark of much of sitcom comedy, this show is too sweet to do that to its protagonist and that’s part of the charm. It’s also revealed somewhere in that Pete Holmes has a new gig as a warm-up comic for Dr. Oz so it looks like he’s at least gotten a second chance which is fitting for a show about second chances.

More on Crashing

Superstore-Groundhog Day
My general assessment of this show has been that it’s a bit overrated but it has its moments. Also some dead weight in Glenn (a waste of Mark McKinney’s talents) and Dena but this is an episode with minimal amounts of those two so that’s a plus. In fact, this was really a great episode all-around with plenty happening on the sidelines to give this place the feel of a hang-out show that it achieves in its finest moments. Jonah and Kelly handling of the announcements (with Sandra as a special guest) is the epitome of workplace goofiness that many with semi-fond experiences in the retail sector (if you were lucky enough to have a boss or two who granted you a little leeway) can relate to. Also worth asking, did anyone else see the lack of build-up to Jonah and Kelly’s romance as a missed opportunity? The show could have used just a few ounces of courtship.

While Kelly and Josh provide some levity, Garrett’s promotion provides a little impetus for self-examination. How much do the people in a place like this crave upward mobility? Most of us can relate to having worked a job like this and simultaneously wishing to be the boss while not wanting the responsibilities of the extra paperwork or coming in to the store early as the key holder. Even bigger question here: Does the show really expect us to believe that intellectually curious egghead Jonah would be content at this job for this long? When I worked at a movie theater or a tea store, the college educated kids would generally be in and out the door in a few months as they used the job as a place holder for the next big thing.

Lastly, there’s the central plot: Amy getting back in the dating scene. The plot nicely uses light-hearted comedy to approach serious challenges in the female dating experience like slut-shaming and objectification. There’s also the more universal issue of the complexities of workplace dating. Also worth noting here, I just noticed that Tate is played by Australian comedy star Josh Lawson of “House of Lies”, “Anchorman 2” and is an amazing improviser. I also just found out while looking at the photo of the Academy Awards Luncheon that Lawson got Oscar nominated this past month for his short film . Congrats!

Looking at some of the 2013 shows that didnt measure up

I just posted my Top 10 List along with an Honorable Mention. On top of that, I include a list of shows that I watched so someone reading my Top 10 List will know what it was up against because no critic watches everything. In that respect, I'd like to also review 2013 by discussing some of the shows that fell short of being considered by myself for the year's best TV:

The Crazy Ones-It's a somewhat dependable sitcom and the Robin Williams/Sarah Michelle Gellar is a great pairing. I'll never understand the school of thought that Robin Williams is kind of annoying instead of a supremely talented guy who is among the most gifted comedians out there. Though I'd place myself in the top 10% of the population in terms of how much they like Robin Williams, even I found him a little redundant here. The show also loses points for having one of my last favorite stock characters: The lothario who is effortlessly irresistible to the opposite sex. This wouldn't be so bad except for the fact that it's supposed to be his comic trait and there's nothing that inherently funny about a guy who uses women like he does. Amanda Setton is clearly a talented actress but she isn't used particularly well here (ironically, I think she fit in better on "The Mindy Project") and she's given her character a weird tic of making every line of dialogue sound like a nervous question (perhaps she's trying to get on the cast of "Whose Line is It Anyway?").

Brooklyn Nine-Nine: This was a great addition to my weekly schedule for several weeks but the show had some irritating traits that eventually cancelled out the show's strengths. Andy Samberg does not make a believable cop (or a likable character for that matter) which begs the question: If the show's sole function is as a vehicle for Andy Samberg, why place him into TV's most overused genre when he doesn't fit into it? While some of the side characters (this show could win a diversity award for best Latino cast on TV) and relationships are excellent, the show lacks any sort of grounding upon which to build comedy. The comic tone is geared so much towards one-liners and quick gags, it feels more like vaudeville than a multi-layered source of laughs.

Modern Family-The show is high enough in quality to have merited honorable mention every year thus far, but by this point, the show has used up nearly every bag of tricks at its disposal. At this point, how many more hidden talents can Cam reveral? How many more revelations can there be that Jay's really a softie? How many more times can Alex surprise Haley by climbing her way up the social ladder? Hasn't she had her first boyfriend three times by now? This is not a fault of the show as it's doing what it is designed to do: Produce consistent and interchangeable episodes so that it can make a killing in syndication. I would happily watch this show five years from now when it turns up on the TV on a random afternoon and I still watch it now. It's just no longer event viewing.

The Sing-Off-It was probably right around #11 the last time it came on in 2011. Since the Sing-Off came back from the brink of cancellation, it acquired a new corporate producer in the form of Sony Television which made a few small changes that ended up making the show worse. I thought seven episodes was the optimal number but I didn't feel like I got the chance to know most of these groups. More backstory was needed and the swan songs, Ben's blog and the post-performance camera chats might have helped that.

The Awesomes (Hulu)-Seth Meyer's newest venture, the show got off to a great start and seemed to find something unique to say in the now overcrowded genre of superhero spoofs. I still watched it all the way through but the plots lost a little firepower after a while as certain plot motifs started repeating themselves (i.e. no one catching onto Malocchio's plan, Prock having a crush on Hotwire, Muscleman dealing with his inferior intellect in comparison to Prock) in ways that didn't build. Of the eight superheroes, I found only about half to really hold my attention as interesting characters. Coincidentally, that's the same hit-miss ratio as SNL sketches so, hey, at least Seth is consistent.
 
Alpha House (Amazon)-Based on an article from the New York Times, the show about four Senators sharing a house in Washington is a premise winning enough to get a good bidding war and the necessary amount of hype to kick off Amazon's original content platform. The show is pleasant and breezy through the first three episodes. At the same time, it's somewhat underwhelming due to the fact that it seems episodic in tone with little serialization. It almost seems like the remnants of a multi-camera sitcom. It's also worth noting that John Goodman seems to be recycling some of his old roles for the lead character (I see some traces of Evan Almighty, Flight, the Babe and some of his  Coen brothers films). He is a bit grumpy, a little lazy, and that's about it. This is is even more disappointing considering that most standout shows in the Golden Age of TV have incredibly strong protagonists. The upside is that the show has a lot of potential for good plots as there's a lot of amusing situations I can imagine placing four senators in. In the third episode, for example, they go to Afghanistan on a fact-finding trip for self-serving reasons. Although I was disappointed that they were in Afghanistan only in the episode's third act, it had potential.


My disappointments with Lilyhammer, Scandal, American Horror Story, and 1600 Penn are covered elsewhere on this blog.
  
   

My predictions for the Hitfix Critical List

In the Golden Age of TV, it's important not just to analyze what's good and what isn't but to analyze the people making such judgments. Hitfix has an annual poll that collectively pools from all the Top Ten Lists of the TV critics.  I doubt I'll get a chance to participate in it but I thought it might be fun to predict what they came up with based on my impression of the critical temperature of TV. Note that the list is already out and I'm writing this from imperfect knowledge:

1. Breaking Bad, AMC-The show has been the recipient of so much hyperbole and had an agreeable enough ending that I'm pretty sure nothing else will take its mojo at this point. Like an Olympic diver who racks up 10's early in the competition, it was pretty much guaranteed high placement in its last season as long as it didn't flub the landing.
2. Mad Men, AMC-A show that was the MVP of the airwaves somewhere around 07-09 and hasn't had any major fall from grace, it should place pretty high based on plurality, particularly with some of the game changers this season.
3. Game of Thrones, HBO-The way this relatively nerdy show is crossing over into the mainstream and getting water cooler talk is going to bode well.
4. Good Wife, ABC-Steadily winning over critics over the years, I think this year will be a tipping point where the show finally hits big. I expect it will get a lot of votes in the 3-6 range
5. Enlightened, HBO-Whether critics will remember this monumental hit from way back in January-March or whether they'll be moved to reserve a slot for a TV show that's been cancelled is up for debate, but this was a truly special TV show and a lot of critics felt that way.
6. Broadchurch, BBC-I know very little about this show but like Downtown Abbey, BBC is crossing over very well into the US right now and I'm predicting this as the new critical darling
7. Orange is the New Black, Netflix- Somewhat of a sleeper hit (considering it debuted in the shadow of House of Cards and Arrested Development) I'm seeing enough buzz for it
8. Americans, FX-I have some personal issues with the way it stretches credibility, but I'm seeing a lot of potential for it among critics as the hot new show and in terms of creating genuine suspense (both multi-episode arc and in-episode), there's few shows that have done as well
9. Scandal, ABC-Quite possibly the most buzzed-about show this year (even more impressive considering we saw the back half of the second season and the top half of the third.
10. Homeland, Showtime-Some people haven't liked the third season as much but this show's a game changer and still very high quality. Even on an off-year, it will probably get enough praise to make the top ten.
11. Parks and Recreation, NBC- Critics will feel the need to balance out all the great drama with a comedy or two and this long-time critical favorite which has consistently placed on top ten lists throughout will likely be touted especially as an indirect way of honoring Greg Daniels' original vision of The Office which departed the airwaves this year and most agree has gone way too far off the rails to be honored in any way.
12. House of Cards, Netflix- Most of the feedback I heard was disappointment over the first couple episodes (I'm in that category) and then high praise from those who stuck with it and thought it came back around to brilliance. Even for TV critics, there aren't enough hours in the day to watch the 100+ programs that populate the airwaves every week and have to make decisions to optimize their TV watching, so I wouldn't be surprised if a number of TV critics didn't get to that point.
13. Arrested Development, Netflix-This show is hailed as the high water of the first decade of the 21st century in TV comedy, but it will be interesting to see where it places here as it existed before the Golden Age of TV and existed before episode-by-episode online scrutiny. The show has largely been seen as different yet still satisfying with a fair share of those saying the show lived up to or fell below the ridiculously high expectations
14. Masters of Sex, Showtime-The hype for the show was high and, by and large, it lived up to. The risque topic will earn the show bravery points and doing it tastefully will earn it quality points
15. Boardwalk Empire, HBO-A show that's been seen one of the most ambitious on TV for the past four years that has never got the love of Mad Men, Breaking Bad, or Homeland, but is never one to count out either. The season two back-half in which Nucky Thompson and protege Jimmy Darmody got engaged in a power struggle earned praise and critics appear to be even happier about this season with the show. Even if critics have already come to terms with this show not becoming the next big thing, it will likely get votes at the bottom of tens.
16. Orphan Black, BBC-A show I'm not familiar with but one that I have seen generating a lot of buzz
17. American Horror Story, FX-The show is clearly all over the place but several critics have latched onto the stuff that works and repackaged the parts that don't work as part of Murphy and Falchuk's vision worthy of celebration for its unique bizarreness. Last time, I intensely delved into this show's reviews (around 2011), it was a highly polarizing show but in a system of tallying up top tens, the haters won't have any sort of veto power. Besides, since 2012, the show has become more decisive about what it wants to be.
18. New Girl, Fox-As in "Parks and Recreation" critics will need to put some simple comedies on their lists to show that they're capable of enjoying light-hearted lists and with "30 Rock" offering too short of a sample to really be called a 2013 show, "Louie" out of the running, "Girls" having an off-year and "Community" losing even some of it's strongest fans, I'm going to predict this show. It will likely earn extra points for writing its characters into an unenviable shipping and navigating its way out of that disaster.
19. Hannibal, NBC-With "The Americans," "Bates Motel," and "Hannibal" there's been a lot of great TV that came about this Spring and I've seen this show pick up a lot of notice.
20. Bob's Burgers, FOX-I firmly believe that if you're putting this on your year-end list you're doing a disservice since I don't see it as ambitious and one thing that most shows in the Golden Age have in common is ambition. Still, I'm seeing a lot of people think it's great
21. Walking Dead, AMC-A show that earned most of its praise when it debuted in late 2010, but it's consistently been must-see TV year in and year out, that captures the attention of the populance and critics alike.
22. Sleepy Hollow, NBC-Among new prime time dramas, this one seems the only one worthy of attention and buzz. I haven't followed the reviews too closely so I don't have that good of a grasp on it
23. Archer, FX-I'm not sure if this is the year in which "Archer" goes from underrated to getting top 10 recognition but most people who are familiar with the show now that brilliant and the chemistry between the cast keeps getting better and better.
24.  Top of the Lake, Sundance Channel-This is the first year in which Sundance Channel has had some programs of note and some critics might not have even made it there. This could work in the show's favor for critics who want to show they're ahead of the curve. Also working in its favor is Elizabeth Moss's unjust loss at the Emmys.
25. Sherlock, BBC-Benedict Cumberbatch's high profile this year could work in this show's favor.
26. Downtown Abbey, PBS-I see no reason why this critical favorite shouldn't at least siphon a few votes even if it hasn't been as visible as previous shows
27. Veep, HBO-It now has two Emmy-winning actresses and it earned high praises last year so I don't see the show going anywhere
28. Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Fox-Although it's not amazing or even good by many standards, it's probably the only new Fall comedy that has any ambition and some might like its idiosyncrasies.
29. The Newsroom, Aaron Sorkin-Sorkin is a crowd favorite and this didn't have the water cooler buzz of "West Wing" but it's certainly better than "Studio 60"
30. Key and Peele, Comedy Central-These two comedians are certainly getting more notable for their innovative brand of comedy and no one's saying this show is subpar for sketch comedy. It's just not notable that even good sketch comedy makes it on these sorts of lists. They are game changers

Why is American Horror Story's bizarreness acceptable guilty pleasure watching?

American Horror Story came out of the gate this fall as one of the most anticipated programs. Especially in a weak fall pilot season like this, I knew AHS would be either godawful or massively engaging and that executive producers Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk would leave little middle ground.

The first season of American Horror Story had a certain set of complex rules regarding ghostdom in an extremely unlucky house where nearly everyone who lived on the premises gets murdered and then some. As someone who's not ordinarily a horror fan, the show took me to some dark and freaky places with a certain melodramatic aura characteristic of Murphy's style and that lent ambiance.

The second season, Asylum, was rife with grand potential. On top of being a period piece set in a really intriguing place (a 1950's sanitarium is the kind of thing you'd drop everything to see a History Channel documentary of), the show offered some highly intriguing castings: Jessica Lange as a sadist nun, Sarah Paulson as a steel-willed reporter (anything but her insufferable Studio 60 "comedienne" was a nice turn for her) , Joseph Fiennes as a monsignor, Chloe Sevigny being on TV at all, Zach Quinto as a court-appointed psychiatrist - and pretty much every actor delivered.

The show had a good villain in Jessica Lange's nun who would institute her reign of terror unchecked and a decent wild card in James Cromwell's Nazi doctor, but soon pretty much everyone started turning evil to the point where the show had about seven too many villains and to say that the balance between antagonists and protagonists was off would be a massive understatement. Suddenly, Lily Rabe was possessed by the devil, Zach Quinto (who, for the first time in recent memory, stood a chance of playing a good guy on TV) got possessed by his Sylar character from Heroes, there were aliens and mutant bears (I really wish either lions or tigers were included into the plot so that I could add an "oh my" at the end), and Joseph Fiennes' monsignor became guilty by association because he supported Cromwell's Nazi experiments. At least I think he did. After a while, I stopped keeping track. Was I really supposed to?

At some point the plot became secondary to the proverbial song and dance of the horror genre (hopefully that wasn't too lazy of a Glee reference) and Falchuk and Murphy were clearly having too much fun playing around to pay attention to the important details.


A message board commenter (thsholiver) I came across today wrote:
"I don't know about everyone else, but I at least watch the show for the batshit insanity, and any plot they can work in that doesn't get in the way of that is just a bonus."

The problem is that as the plot drifts down the list of priorities in AHS's storytelling kit, the show gets more and more forgettable. I remember last season for a few strong performances, and a random hodgepodge of standout scenes. Surely, the show benefits from Jessica Lange's "Name Game" Youtube clip but it would be nice if the actual plot was one of its strong points.

 
What's worse is that the show has such great potential with plots and characters. This season, the show takes place in New Orleans at a school for the witches. I'm not into True Blood, Vampire Diaries, Twilight (I don't even know if witches are in those shows so this could be an awful analogy, sorry) or whatever the hot show about supernatural teenagers is these days, but I AM interested to see a story about hormonal-crazed supernatural witches in the hands of Murphy, Falchuk and a stellar cast of Tessa Farminga, Sara Paulson, Jessica Lange, Gabourey Sidibe, Lily Rabe, and Kathy Bates.

And the show got off to a great start. But then there was a ridiculous plot in which Evan Peters's dead body parts are sewn together with that of other bodies in the morgue by a Tessa Farminga's Zoe who only knew him 15 minutes. The romantic notion of Zoe wanting to bring a guy you briefly fell in love with to life wasn't the problem so much that she thought it would be a good idea to sneak into a morgue and bring her quasi-boyfriend back to life by sewing his head and other dead body parts together.

If that wasn't enough, this week Gabourey Sidibe's character had sex with a minotaur this week. Trust me, if you didn't see the episode or don't know what I'm talking about here, it's as weird as you would have imagined.

The show is rougly 80% solid story plotting and 20% some errant writer just throwing weird shit into the script to see how much he can get away. In other words, the plot is starting to get derailed by that 20% batshit insanity and, even worse,  I'm starting to get the feeling that batshit insanity is going to start winning the day over a solid plot from here on out. How is that going to be memorable?

Belated Top 25 characters in TV: 2012

1. Carrie Matheson, Homeland (Claire Danes)-Carrie has been through hell and back and you know the show has hooked you when you desperately want her to be redeemed. Carrie is firm in her resolve, intelligent, and has the traits of a great action hero, yet she still remains unequivocally feminine.
2. Nicholas Brody, Homeland (Damien Lewis)-It takes a great performance by Damien Lewis to pull all these contradictions and facades together. My only complaint is now having learned one of the best American characters I’ve seen on TV is British. I did not see that coming. 
3. Leslie Knope, Parks and Recreation (Amy Poehler)-The year that Leslie’s outsize ambitions finally met up with reality. It’s either a testament to the show’s growth that Leslie has come a long way from the godawfully awkward version of the same character we used to have.
4. James van der Beek, Don't Trust the B--- In Apartment 23 (James van der Beek)-Celebrities satirizing themselves are nothing new (Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, the guest stars from Extras, etc) but James van der Beek one ups them by diving head-first. What I find most interesting about his character is how as a celebrity he has everything a normal TV character could want (wealth, power, fame, romance) so he seeks to reinvent himself each week in increasingly superfluous ways.
5. Olivia Pope, Scandal (Kerry Washington) - Although she's based on Washington PR's Judy Smith (with a heightened sex life for dramatic purposes), Olivia Pope is her own creation. It would be hard to portray someone so appealing and self-assured that every power player in Washington wants to hire her and and the US President is uncontrollably in love with her, but Kerry Washington (a consummate working actor for the past decade) sells it.
6. Sister Mary Eunice, American Horror Story (Jessica Lange)-She's partially being awarded a high spot because Lange is riding the residuals of her Emmy-winning performance as the playfully flirtatious antebellum-mannered neighbor Constance in Season 1. The plot of AHS's second season is a mess but there are plenty of great characters. Like the first season, Lange steals the spotlight as disciplinarian nun Mary Eunice who also turns out to be a dynamic (English literature term for characters that change, not the other definition. That's all the spoilering I'll give) character. Compliments go to whoever directed that trippy dancing sequence and to Lange's dialect coach for that wonderful variation of the traditional Boston accent.
7. Phil Dunphy, Modern Family (Ty Burrell)-Superdad made my list last year, and he's certainly worthy of return. It's no wonder that the new season of Arrested Development referenced Modern Family here and there, as Phil is truly stuck in arrrested development and happy to be there. (Also: See last year's list)
8. Jesse Pinkman, Breaking Bad (Aaron Paul)-My obligatory Breaking Bad inclusion. The TV Critics Association fines me if I don't include it.
9. Agent Van Alden, Boardwalk Empire (Michael Shannon)-Likely the most obscure actor to get an Oscar-nomination in the past 10 years, Shannon is a wonderful foil to Steve Buscemi's Nucky Thompson. He brings such an energy to the role that I'm convinced Shannon really enjoys that old-timey dialogue. More pragmatic then he is obsessive, Van Alden is very much a shade of gray.
10. Kenneth Parcell, 30 Rock (Jack McBrayer)-It took Kenneth Parcell six seasons to grow on me. Of all the characters on 30 Rock, I might very well miss this uber-morally square one the most. Especially when you consider how unlikely it is that another character on TV will ever come along like him again. Unlike Liz, Jack or Tracy, Kenneth could only exist as a funny  and effective character when sandwiched between business-savvy executive, the overworked CEO, and the two empty-headed divas.
11. Schmitty, New Girl (Max Greenfield)-Greenfield successfully convinces us that Schmitty is both the dorkiest guy in the room and someone alluring enough that Cece (Hannah Simone) would want. Getting a model as a girlfriend tends to disqualify you in the former category.
12. Margaret, Boardwalk Empire (Kelly McDonald)-If you shift the focus to Margaret, Boardwalk Empire could almost be seen as a Prohibition-era version of Breaking Bad. Margaret, being the epitome of morality, makes a deal with the devil in her marriage to Nuckie and slowly starts to accept corruption into her life. One of the stronger stories of the series.
13. Dallas Royce, Suburgatory (Cheryl Hines)-One of the more underlooked pieces of the show, she is part of the out-of-it sanitized suburbia that Tessa fears so much, yet she is so comfortable in her skin (not to mention her low-cut dresses), that it's hard not to be won over by her (inexplicable, considering we're on Long Island) Southern charm. Indeed, she has carved her way into the hearts of both father and daughter Altman.
14. Stefon, Saturday Night Live (Bill Hader)-I admit I’m a little behind the curve in recognizing Stefon despite being an avid Saturday Night Live watcher. Two years ago when Stefon and creator John Mulaney were making the press rounds, I had no idea who he was.  Well, I’m happy to report I’ve caught up on my Stefon watching and I’m equally enamored with this lovably bizarre party insider. Unlike “What’s Up With That” or half of the other SNL characters, there’s a lot of room for diverse jokes with every Stefon outing, and even more room for creativity with the sketch’s ending.
15. Wilfred, Wilfred (Jason Gann)-We still don’t know exactly what Wilfed is and here’s hoping we never will.
16 and 17. Cheryl Tunt and Pam Poovey, Archer (Judy Greer and Amber Nash)-Whoever thought that the secretarial clerk and HR rep at an international spy agency could be the most fun characters to watch? Major points go to Adam Reed and company for giving continuity to the highly tenable character bullet that Cheryl is worth a half billion dollars but still shows up to a crappy job every day that she doesn’t appear to be all that crazy about. Bonus points for giving Pam a more active sex life this year as well.
18. Anne, Go On (Julie White)-Anne immediately struck me as the most multi-layered and unique character within Go On's ensemble cast and she's paid off in dividends. She can't easily be pigeonholed as she’s a little bit of everything: Supportive and loyal yet grouchy and blunt. Both desperate and confident. Open to the world around her but wanting to shut people out. Most importantly, Anne’s a confused soul and a complete three-dimensional character. She strikes the perfect balance between individualistic instincts and the need to belong that is the show’s main theme.
19. Lana Peters, American Horror Story (Sarah Paulson)-The level-headed journalist (who's lesbianism was surprisingly well-handled for a Ryan Murphy show) kept us relatively steady in a world that got increasingly ridiculous. She sold some of the show's best moments.
20. Selina Meyers, Veep (Julia Louis-Dreyfuss)-The program of Veep is particularly original on the whole but I give JLD marks for nailing the character. It's too bad The Thick of It and In the Loop came out first.

21. Tim, Life and Times of Tim (Steve Dildarian)-Take the most tragi-comic episodes of Seinfeld or It's Always Sunny and multiply them by a factor of 10 and you get perhaps the most unluckiest character ever conceived in the history of television. Tim is a 25-year old urbanite constantly in danger of losing his job, his girlfriend, or the respect of his friends and nothing in his external circumstances seems to be helping him any (think a walking Murphy's Law). As Tim goes out of existence this year with the non-renewal of the show (perhaps, the least buzzed-about show in HBO’s history), someone needs to give him a little love and this list might as well be it. Besides, Tim had a relatively good year: He didn’t get urine thrown at his face by a WNBA player (that was Amy), he was promoted to Vice President (likely not for long), and didn’t get caught when he stole the boss’ dog back. Of course, I haven't seen the series finale.
22.Andy Dwyer, Parks and Recreation (Chris Pratt)-See last year's list
23.Kylie Sinclair, Last Resort (Autumn Reeser)-Kylie's first on screen appearance is on the backend of a date with an aide for a senator she's trying to lobby, as she's talking about submarine schematics while making his mouth water as she undresses. Trying to introduce a character as knowledgable AND sexy within a talkative sex scene isn't anything particularly new (see Faye Dunaway in Network), but in Autumn Reeser and Last Resort's hands, Sinclair projects a confidence and duality that works here.
24. Morgan, Mindy Project (Ike Barinholtz)-It's been a few years since Ike Barinholtz was on the sinking ship known as the final seasons of Mad TV, and thank god, he found a good vehicle to return with. Morgan, the ex-con male nurse, is wonderfully unashamed of being a male nurse and pretty much devoid of inhibitions in general which makes him a wonderful foil for the uptight trio of doctors in charge 
25 (tie). Principal Stark, Unsupervised (Sally Kellerman)-Principal Stark-The kind of supporting character whose backstory could fill a novel, Principal Stark is a fine blend of pragmatism, strong-willed determination, and at times, sheer laziness. Her odd approach to running a school leads to some of the show’s funniest moments whether it's pepper spraying a kid who discriminates against a gay student or offering to send the lowest-scoring kids to grade school. And she’s voiced by Sally Kellerman who apparently is still alive. MASH fans rejoice!
25 (tie). Mr. Woolfe, Suburgatory (Rex Lee)-Chatswain High's closeted guidance counselor advisor came out of the closet in hilarious fashion at the start of the year ("Oh and one more announcement, I'm gay. So from will be driving a Miatta. Please let me know if you have any questions"). The way Rex Lee chirpily delivers the dreariest suburban platitudes gives Mr. Wolfe the most laughs per minutes on screen for a TV character with limited screen time.