Review of Reboot (Hulu)

 

I generally dismiss shows about show business as a tired trope from unimaginative writers, but occasionally something pops through that’s worth fighting against that bias. Created by Steve Levitan (Just Shoot Me, and more recently Modern Family), this show contains some of the more wholesome relics of old-school sitcoms while still maintaining a sharp subversiveness.

The doozy of a plot is as follows: Three has-been actors (Johnny Knoxville, Judy Greer, and Worthy) and one classically-trained has-been in denial (Keegan Michael-Key) are recruited to revive a multi-camera (AKA old-school, laugh-track) sitcom in a comedic landscape of more advanced comedy. This wouldn’t be unusual as tons of 90s schlock is being rebooted, but in this case it’s a little of an in-universe head scratcher as the proposed TV executive, Hannah (Rachel Bloom from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend), has pretentious high-art tastes. Secretly, however, Hannah is doing the show because her estranged dad, Gordon (Paul Riser), is the creator and she wants to ruin his legacy. Her daddy issues reemerge when Gordon appears back on set and has decided not to surrender the intellectual property so these two knuckleheads have to now work together.

They also have competing writing rooms: Old Borscht Belt comedians verses the kinds of LGBT and POC headliners who often populate hotlists merely because they are gay or a person of color (this is demonstrated by two women of color pitching a joke about two women discussing the Bechtel test but having nothing funny in the punch line). The show is an equal opportunity skewer (or is the word skewerer?) and the comedic tension of these eight secondary characters has the potential to give me about as much hope for intergenerational friendship as this polarized age can provide.

Like Levitan’s previous hit, Just Shoot Me, this is a sharp comedy with very shallow back-stabbing characters with the emotional heft of a (forgive me for using such a gooey word) beautiful father-daughter relationship.

Modern Family's Affluence Problem

When "Modern Family" premiered 11 years ago, it offered a "modern" take on the typical American family: a May-December marriage, two mixed-race families, characters with disabilities (Luke), and characters on the LGBT spectrum. But for all its attention to align with the "modern" family today, "Modern Family" differs from the typical American family because the Pritchett-Dunphy-Delgado-Tucker clan's amount of disposable income isn't so average.

Consider that:
1) The family has taken vacations to Hawaii, Italy  and Australia in between spontaneous trips to Vegas, dude ranches, Florida and the Pacific Northwest

2) Gadget enthusiast Phil tends to buy whatever home improvement devices or toys he wants without a second thought

3) When Jay and Gloria have an accidental pregnancy, they don't consider the economic costs of it because it's presumably something Jay can handle
4) There are few discussions about out-of-state verse in-state college costs with Claire and Phil's kids. The logistical need to keep the show's child actors as main cast members rather than recurring cast members, but the decisions of the children to return home throughout college range from being expelled to not getting into college to getting homesick.
5) Characters like Cameron, Mitchell, and Claire have quit or drifted out of jobs to follow their bliss without considering economic consequences. Granted, they might have nest eggs or savings but these economic considerations aren't necessarily alluded to.

The disconnect between "Modern Family" and its audience on the wealth issue marks a desire to embody both sides of a TV contradiction that has gone on since the beginning of the family sitcom: 1) The need to be both aspirational (to show an upward version of the American family) that TV advertisers prefer and that is alluring to viewers and 2) the need to mirror the American family viewing at home. 

As a result, many shows like I Love Lucy, the Cosby Show, the Brady Bunch and Friends have had disparities between how the characters well off the characters should be verse what we're seeing on screen. So which TV shows have been the biggest sinners?  

The very first shows to attract a following in the late 40s and early 50s were actually focusing on the ethnic and poor. Shows like "Life with Luigi" (Italian-Americans), "Mama" (the Swedish community), "The Goldbergs" (the Jewish community) and "Amos n Andy" (the black community) documented ethnic or racial communities in America and highlighted their struggles (my friend Christine Becker has a useful link). Part of this was that some of these were holdovers from radio and part of this was inertia. 

The biggest show of that decade, "The Honeymooners" , followed in that template and so did "I Love Lucy" but the latter had a flaw: Ricky was somewhat of a B-list celebrity in-universe who casually knew Bob Hope and John Wayne, yet Lucy still had to manage a tight budget in a small apartment with no domestic help. 

When sitcoms focused on the WASP clans like "Leave it to Beaver" and later "Brady Bunch" they generally tilted towards the high life. In the former, the patriarch of the clan belonged to a country club and had his own secretary, and in the latter, the family had their own maid. A factor that was starting to play with TV sitcoms more than other genres is that the family sitcom directly reflected families at home so advertising wanted the shows to depict more inspirational pictures. The "George Burns and Gracie Allen Show" was sponsored by Carnation Milk and they went so far as to constantly remind the audience (with the subtlety of a mallet) in character of how they were having a great time enjoying Carnation Milk.

In the 1970s, social justice started to seep into the picture with "Good Times", "All in the Family" and "The Jeffersons" which resonated with an audience that was interested in seeing socio-economically imperfect families. The Jeffersons' theme song "Moving on Up" depicted upward mobility but the show also asked whether they belonged there and explored that class tension. More modern  examples that explore that race and class tension might include "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" and "Black-ish"

In the past twenty years, both formulas have largely worked with a different distinguishing factor of sorts. Family sitcoms generally have become endangered in such a competitive environment for eyeballs. The ones that have evolved are the ones with with strong voices.  In shows like "Raising Hope", "Everybody Hates Chris", and "The Middle", firm choices are made over what kind of universe the characters want to inhabit. 

"Modern Family" largely falls into this category too but because it's not really accounting for its characters wealth and financial privilege, there's something on-the-fence about it's approach to the issue. 

As for whether the show is the biggest sinner?
I would argue yes, because this show 1) exists in a more realistic era of TV or one and  2) This show has run in an era where we have a heightened concern about economic security. It debuted in 2009 at the advent of the housing bubble and restructurings of the economy in this decade have all been things Americans are more conscious of.  

Thanks to Sheri Ciscell for the research assistance

Modern Family: Phil's Sexy Sexy House

Though it's still reliably watchable and well-made, it's hard to make the case that Modern Family is still innovating enough in its seventh season to be rightfully called great TV. It's not a knock because the show is doing exactly what it was designed to do:  Produce consistent and interchangeable episodes so that it can make a killing in syndication. 

At this point, it's rare for Modern Family to surprise us but this was certainly one such episode for a couple reasons: 1) The show's deft handling of Hailey and Andy and 2) the classic comedy of errors plot that was elevated by a very game Phil Dunphy at its center.

Steve Levitan and company smartly decided in the first season not to shoehorn the extended Dunphy-Pritchett-Delgado-Tucker clan into every plot because it wasn't realistic, but the advantage of numbers can make a comedy of errors like "Phil's Sexy Sexy House" stronger.

Make no mistake: "Phil's Sexy Sexy House" isn't really a team effort. Mitch and Cam are acting as typical as ever, Sexy Claire has been done in this exact capacity before, Luke (hallelujah: the writers have given him a beer plot rather than a girl plot) is forgettable, and Alex's plot is such an afterthought we never even see them sneak into the house.

Instead, all these characters just add to the absurdity of Phil's aloofness. Seven seasons in, Phil Dunphy is an extremely durable comic character. Ty Burrell's commitment to the character's aloofness and his endless pursuit of dork-related activity rachets his presence up to eleven. 

As far as Andy and Hailey were concerned, Adam DeVine is underappreciated for the convincingly endearing brand of dorkiness with which he infuses Andy. For Hailey, it's a creepy case of "like father like love interest" but for a popular girl who was started out on the shallower end of adolescent TV characters, her relationship with Andy has been a tangible source of growth which is why their relationship has had a surprising amount of meat and bones.

Hailey and Andy make a "mistake" here but the episode provides enough wiggle room to make it a lapse in judgment as far as the future is concerned. The show has so far managed to portray a missed connection here with real-world grounding. The emotional and logistical costs of cancelling an engagement that is already in progress, is portrayed through Andy's explanation that his love has strengthened for Beth once he decided he was engaged to her. It sounds like an open doorway to a runaway groom scenario but it's also a sensible explanation and one hopes that the show doesn't abandon that practical middle ground. 

The other ploys didn't really do much. I really had no idea what Jay and Gloria were doing and I didnt care. Manny has had so many love interests at this point, he's cycling through girls with the speed of a Seinfeld character and he's not even halfway through high school. Just think: There must be a well over a dozen girls at his high school who can form a club based on romantic contact with Manny. Considering he's not the dreamiest guy in his class, how many romantic options can there be left for the guy? Can we at least get one of the old girls back?

Episodic Highlights from 2015

Cory Barker's blog TVSurveillance.com has a year-end roundtable where they ask panelists to name their favorite episodes. While I love the critical format of looking at a TV series on an episodic basis, it wasn't until I participated in Cory's roundtable last year that I ever thought of defining a year of TV by its best episodes. Although I don't plan to amass some big or definitive episodes of the year list, it seems worthwhile to put some thought into episodes that resonated with me as we near the midpoint of the year:

While I eventually got bored of the show and hobbled to the finish line of the show's first season, there's a lot to be said for how strong 12 Monkeys came out of the gate.  The show's first three episodes built up high stakes and set up the ground work for loopy sci-fi scenarios with promising speed and efficiency. The series' two main characters were also strongly established from the start and their chemistry intrigued me enough that I was still invested after the way-too-soon death of Leland Goines in the pilot episode.

Though Modern Family is seen by many as a show that has gone stagnant, I continue to consistently enjoy it and maintain my faith that the writers are able to bring it when the occasion calls. "Connection Lost," in which the entire story is told from a half-hour screenshot of Claire's laptop, is the kind of ambitious episode premise that's dynamite if executed well. Some might call the idea of using various apps to tell a narrative might ring to some of shameless product placement, but it's unquestionably innovative and has a high degree of difficulty. This episode reminds me of those art class assignments involving found art.

Fresh off the Boat's 5th episode, "Persistent Romeo". was one of those episodes with a comic hook-- the boys mistake one of those sexual harassment videos they show during orientation as a how-to guide for picking up women -- that was executed perfectly just as the series was finding its groove. The show harkens back to 90's sitcoms in both a meta way and as a stylistic preference. The innocent idea of a kid badly wanting to fit in with his friends and the suspense around whether he'll be able to pull it off with a halfway decent sleepover was also an idea executed well here. My review at TV Fanatic is here.

I've always been weary of praising bottle episodes. Are we celebrating your lack of a locations budget or your homage to some era in TV history few people care about when locations budgets were a big deal? Of course, that was before I saw Archer's bottle episode "Vision Quest" which plays off the character beats so masterfully and establishes new gags (Cheryl's claustrophobia, Cyril's masturbation habit, the uselessness of 911) that escalate enormously over the course of a half hour. My review at TV Fanatic is here. I also gave high marks to the episode "Pocket Listing" for dealing with the sexual chemistry between Lana and Archer so well, for letting Cheryl unleash her crazy, and for giving everyone someone to do in a grandiose comedy of errors.

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia had another season that blew its competition out of the water. "The Gang Spies Like US" demonstrated the show's ability to mine tremendous comic depth out of a single comic misunderstanding with Dee causing such unparalleled destruction that it reminded me of some of the more well-executed set pieces in the Pink Panther series. "Charlie Work" was another one of those episodes that pushed the boundaries of a comedy and had the kind of innovative camera work that just won a film a Best Picture Oscar.

The inclusion to this list of Wayward Pines' second episode, "Do Not Discuss Your Life Before", is a testament to the potential it squandered by tipping its hand too early. The show is a mystery with an all-star cast and a solid premise, reminiscent of the best Twilight Zone episodes, about a sheriff trapped in a town where people have a habit of getting lost and staying in place for years. The show started out with promise and the second episode really heightened the tension by teasing out answers that seemed attainable but out of reach. The relationship between Juliette Lewis's Beverly and Matt Dillon's Ethan was also starting to give the protagonist a much needed sounding board. Unfortunately, the episode's end solved what I considered the most intriguing mystery (whether the town was in cahootz) and ended the storyline of the much-needed confidante. As a season finale it worked wonders, but the problem was it was the second episode.

I'm a fan of Silicon Valley but I'm generally enjoying it for the strong character work and sense of place and would disagree with an assessment that the site is consistently a laugh-out-loud comedy. The show's humor is generally long-form which can occasionally yield a home run like last year's season finale (which I cited on last year's list of favorite episodes). This year's "Homicide" was another such episode with a hilarious plot (Richard dealing with a client who secretly hates Ehrlich) and an even more hilarious side trip for Dinesh and Gilfoyle (although it's always a given those two will have the funnier plot) enhanced by another visual gag for the ages. On top of that, it was also a meaningful development moment for Richard as he first shows some backbone here. 

Inside Amy Schumer's "12 Angry Men Inside Amy Schumer" is an incredibly ambitious long-form sketch that pays off in droves. The key to the humor is the extreme attention to detail combined with the way accomplished actors Paul Giamatti and John Hawkes tackle the inanity of the subject with utmost seriousness.

My favorite episode of the year, to date, would be "The Gang Beats Boggs" from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.  The show's black comedy elements-Frank practically murders a kid, airplane security is jeopardized- were next level uproarious, the confined space of the airplane lent to a great comic intensity, and the running gag (of keeping score) held up throughout. This was the gang at their unruliest and the show at its most hilarious.

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.
  
   

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.

Top 10 of the Year in TV

My annual Top Ten of the Year in TV:
1. Homeland, Showtime 
The write-up for my #1 show typically has to be insightful and substantial so I'm going to wax a little poetic here and start with a quote from a forward to the book "The Manchurian Candidate" by Louis Menand:
"The secret to making a successful thriller, as Michael Crichton and Tom Clancy have demonstrated, is to slow down the action occasionally with disquisitions on Stuff It Is Interesting to Know- how airplanes are made, how nuclear submarines work, how to build an atomic bomb. Ideally, this information is also topical, food for the public's hunger of the hour."

Although Menand is not writing about "Homeland", he is saying that a great thriller should 1) tap into the zeitgeist and 2) include some howstuffworks.com-type content as a hook. But here's the catch: Topical films and television rarely capture the zeitgeist of the times without seeming like a rehashed newsreel. This is why so many war-related films (i.e. "Rendition", "The Kingdom", "Redacted", "Lions for Lambs") failed in 2007 when the war was in full swing. Homeland is a rare exception where I'm entirely hooked by a show about something I'm already sick to death of hearing on the news about. The acting by Lewis, Danes, and Patinkin is phenomenal, the characters are engaging, and the show keeps suspense going without seeming as though the cliffhangers are cheaply inserted. The show's "hook" is the insider look at CIA interrogations and terrorist watches but it branches into medicine, politics, and even throws in a Douglas Sirkian melodrama for good measure.

2. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, FX
I continue to find it astounding just how many layers this show can reveal around its five characters Clues are being dropped around us over time, but there's still room for our preconceptions to be challenged as we learn that Dennis wasn't as popular in high school as he thought or that Charlie's mom was a whore. At the same time, Sunny has such fun with dysfunction. Mac had daddy issues, Mac was fat, now Mac's a repressed gay, does it really matter? I don't know the answer to that but I'm having fun than ever trying to figure it out. The show is so comedically strong that many a scene can be lifted verbatim and, as a stand-alone sketch, it would be funnier than what you'd see on Saturday Night Live. "The Gang Dines Out", which had the makings of a stageplay, was one of the best episodes of TV I've seen all year. Ditto for "Charlie and Dee Find Love" which teased us with a rewrite of the character bible on Charlie (as someone who will never stray from the waitress) and the "Maureen Ponderosa Wedding Massacre" which added a horror component, more of the McPoyles and a cameo by Guillermo del Toro of all people. As of late, it's getting more apparent that the characters truly love each other which has led to a few more happy endings and that puts a smile on my face more than it compromises the show.

3. Boardwalk Empire, HBO (Note: I've watched Season 2 which goes up to half of 2012 but not the latest episodes)-Steve Buscemi's Nucky Thompson is anything but the burly man that you picture as the patriarch of a big crime organization, and that's what makes him so interesting. Starting out as more of a pencil pusher who cut corners and tried to keep the peace, Thompson has become a fascinating study in squirming your way to the top. Unlike other mob dramas, Boardwalk Empire has the added challenge of being a historic artifact. We know where Al Capone, Lucky Luciano and Nucky Thompson are going to end up, but that doesn't detract from the journey. Boardwalk Empire weaves together a number of interesting storylines and more often than not, the characters- Kelly McDonald as practical Irish immigrant who's moral purity slowly wilts in a marriage to a criminal, Gretchen Mol as a randy young grandmother who knows how to  play the angles, Michael Shannon as the Fed determined to stay within tracking distance of the bootlegging operation, Jack Huston as a gentle soul of a gangster with a disfigured face, and Michael Kenneth Williams as the criminal leader of the black community who can intimidate but knows his limits- do not disappoint. Season two succeeds in creating a more tightly coiled narrative arc with tension rising as Nucky and Jimmy head towards an inevitable showdown.

4. Suburgatory, ABC-Emily Kapnek's show isn't revolutionary by any means but it is the show watching and rewatching more than practically anything else. It has a unique voice and a sharp script. More importantly, the show has a vastly underrated cast with supporting actors (Cheryl Hines, Rex Lee, Chris Parnell, Alan Tudyk, Ana Gasteyer) who do exactly what supporting actors should do and more.  The show also gets a surprising amount of milage for its visual gags and is one of the few instances of voiceover that adds something. The show posits two urban transplants into a foreign suburban world and in that mismatch, sharp satire is added.

5. American Horror Story, FX-In both seasons, Brad Falchuk and Ryan Murphy have managed to create a compelling arc using the horror story homage. The show has a no-holds-barred sense of grandiosity. Nazi doctors and devious nuns not enough? How about aliens, demon possessions, and mutated monsters for you. In Season Two, things got a little excessive but they never got predictable. In Lana (Sarah Paulson), Kit (Evan Peters), and Shelley (Chloe Sevigny), the show's given us three characters to desperately want to see get out of this mess alive. Following a star performance in 2011,
Jessica Lange manages to patch together an otherwise shoddily written part and create a more nuanced character that could otherwise just be evil with a capital "E." Lily Rabe (whose career I am now going to make it a point to watch) and Joseph Fiennes were highly compelling, and while I was highly disappointed with the direction the show took Zach Quinto's character, he was one of the high points of the show before [SPOILERS AHEAD] it was revealed he was a psychopathe. With Quinto suddenly morphing into Skylar from Heroes (counterbalanced slightly be Sister Mary Eunice now being the only good guy in authority, the show needs at least one), I'm not thrilled with where the show stands now, but it's the unpredictable nature of AHS and the interesting directions the show has taken that gives me faith that the ship will either be righted or will at least leave me surprised.

6. The Guild, YouTube-An unabashed celebration of nerd culture and the banding together of six highly diverse misfits who initially never meant anything to each other except as anymous screennames to go on gaming quests with. Each season has succeeded in raising the stakes for the characters and developing them further. This season saw Codex get a job with the game and Vork head the protest movement. Felicia Day can play the violin, work a crowd at comic con, act, and is a talented writer as well. America's next great hyphenate in the making.


7. 30 Rock, NBC-How I will miss this show and wish I was kinder to it every year on my top 10 list. The show might have lost its novelty factor somewhere in the middle but it's never failed at being funny in ways both brilliant and gut-wrenching. This season, the show took on the election with "Mayor Dunston Checks In" and a satire of the presidential debates in which Jack and Liz debate for Jenna's tweeting power. Both were topical without overdoing it. Other reasons why 30 Rock had a great year: Kenneth finally got some forward movement and was hillarious as a member of the  Standards and Practices, Hazel (although this will be debated) was a great addition, the wonderfully vain Avery Jessup returned to turn the 30 Rock universe upside down for a few episodes before unfortunately departing again, and the 30 Rock staff scored two of their biggest successes of the year in improving on two of their past experiements: Queen of Jordan and The Live Show.

8. 30 for 30, ESPN-The series of documentaries launched by ESPN, currently in its second round, is a perfect compliment to the ESPN brand. More than that, the series of documentaries made by seasoned filmmakers is just what's needed to revive a genre of storytelling (sports reporting) that has become stale through heavy repitition. I caught 9.79, Broke, and Ghosts of Ole Miss, and think they could all work as stand-alone films in wide release.

9. Alphas, SyFy-Procedurals rarely hook me but in this show, each mystery of the week helps develop the show and the characters. The special effects are top-notch and the action scenes are both physical and intellectual: The intersection of the characters' powers often play out like a game of chess. The show also works well because of the chemistry. David Strathain's Dr. Lee Rosen works well as a father figure to the group, Rachel and Nina have an intriguing budding relationship as surrogate sisters, and with Ryan Cartwright's Gary Bell, the show deserves credit for not treating autism as though it has kid gloves.

10. Lilyhammer, Netflix-The show's one big flaw is allowing it's protagonist to have become inexplicably powerful too quickly and too easily. Other than that, Lilyhammer has an excitingly well-defined sense of place. Because it's filmed by a Norweigan production company (in collaboration with Steve van Zandt), it goes without saying that watching this show transports you to another world. The cast of characters is wonderfully sharp and I get the strong sense that there's potential of better things to come in Season 2.

10 Honorable Mentions:
Mindy Project, Fox-My review of it is written somewhere else. Don't necessarily think Mindy's a star, but the show is capable of hitting a few emotional chords, and the supporting cast and infrastructure of relationships are both solid.
Little Mosque on the Prairie, CBC-Just as how the Cosby Show eased racial tension by showing how a black family wasn't that different than white middle-class Americans, Little Mosque could do the same in America if people watch it on Hulu.
Go On, NBC-An interesting show with a daring mix of sediment and character-based quirkiness. Sedimental shows run a high risk of disappointing but that's not even half the battle here.
Vegas, CBS-Of the two episodes, I've seen so far, the show definitely has potential. Las Vegas is always an exciting locale to set a drama but historical Vegas has a little something extra to it and I'm excited to see where that goes 
Portlandia, IFC-The show, which made my Top 10 last year, sticks out pretty strongly for its innovation.
Key and Peele, Comedy Central-Mad TV had a few bright spots when these two were on screen so it's a good thing these two have carved out a more specific niche for themselves in the sketch comedy world
Breaking Bad, AMC-I've only watched two or three episodes. It's inclusion on the list is only so I don't get my license revoked as a TV blogger.
Unsupervised, FX-Most underrated cartoon of the year. It's got wonderful characters, it's feel good and disgusting.
Modern Family, ABC-A still solid half-hour comedy. I am certain that out of order, these episodes will kill in syndication.
Bunheads, ABC Family-I never was a Gilmore Girls fan, so when I came at this show at a fresh angle, I was delighted by what I saw.


For reference, here is what I watched: 2 Broke Girls, 4 to 9ers, 666 Park Avenue, Alcatraz (just one ep.), American Dad, Bent, Big Bang Theory, Bob's Burgers, Brickleberry, Chelsea Lately, Comedy Bang Bang, Daily Show, Don't Trust the Bitch in Apt. 23, Eastbound and Down (one ep.), Family Guy, Futurama, Glee, Good Chrisitan Bitches, House of Lies, Last Resort, Librarians, Louie (a couple eps.) Luck (one ep.), MAD,  Merlin (although episodes date to 2008), Misfits, New Girl, The Neighbors, The New Normal, Office, Parks and Recreation, Revenge (Again, not sure what year I watched this),  Saturday Night Live, Scandal, Shameless (two episodes), Smash, Up All Night (I think? Can't remember exactly if it was 11 or 12), Vampire Diaries,  Walking Dead

Top Ten Shows of the Year

As if there aren't already 8 million of these floating around, here's my TOP 10 OF THE YEAR!!

1. Boardwalk Empire, HBO-The creation of the mob during prohibition is one of the most formative chapters of American history and if edgy film and television is going to practically be synonymous with gangster stories, someone might as well get to the heart of the matter. With Martin Scorsese and Mark Wahlberg among the producers, the show is in good hands. In addition, Steve Buscemi steps into a rare leading man role and deserves an Emmy for it.

2. The Choir, BBC, Office/Jamie Oliver's Food Food Revolution, ABC-Both those shows were insightful, educational, relevant and, ultimately, inspirational. One show involved a British chef's quest to fight America's obesity epidemic with Huntington, West Virginia as a starting point. Oliver, best-known as the Naked Chef (famous enough to be a punchline on Saturday Night Live), was supplied with his own ready-made villain in the form a radio DJ who believed Oliver was just out for fame and the town didn't care about lettuce. In winning the evil DJ and the town over, Jamie Oliver gave us some great tear-inducing drama and got us on board his cause and character. Consider me Team Jamie Oliver.

On the other side of the pond in England, choir master Garreth Malone attempted to tackle arts education in a coed school, a boy's academy and a community choir. Like Food, Food Revolution, it seems like an easy formula to mine some drama but then the tears start flowing and you're genuinely moved. Both shows were a reminder that reality TV doesn't have to be about artificial competitions when real life can be quite compelling.

3. Breaking Bad AMC-This is Breaking Bad's third year on my top 10 list but the first year in which it is considered the preeminent show on television which merits a bit more exploration:

Crime dramas are only effective to the extent that they can relate their universe to an audience comprised largely of people uninvolved in the criminal underworld who see meth rings, Mexican drug cartels and the like as largely abstract occurrences. Hence, films that deconstruct the gangster genre like Goodfellas, American Gangster and Scarface largely win the audience over if they can create enough of an arc where that violent gangster was once an ordinary Joe Schmoe.

Breaking Bad used two entire seasons to carefully lay the groundwork out for that ordinary Joe Schmoe to become a truly unsympathetic character (or would you argue he still retains his sympathy?? it's certainly a balancing act) which makes his moral demise all the more richer. What's more, he's paired with somewhat of a lowlife in Jesse Pinkman and as Aaron Paul's win at the Emmys demonstrated that character has morphed quite unexpectedly into a moral barometer of sorts.

The show's momentum can't be denied because it's the most ambitious on television. It sets characters on a collision course with each other and its as if the writers are on a dare to see how long they can keep the characters from colliding.

What I wrote about Breaking Bad 2 years ago on my 2008 list: http://bit.ly/eXUdIF

4. Futurama, Comedy Central-Whether I was Futurama's biggest fan or just a casual one before the show came back (I'd put myself somewhere in the middle), I fell in love with the show all over again during its run this summer. To be resurrected from the dead like Futurama is somewhat of a miracle in the world of TV, but the downside can be greater expectations. For me, the show met and exceeded the bar. The writing was sharp, the visuals were imaginative and the plots were consistently ambitious. If the episodes failed, you can at least say that they fell hard because they aimed high. The show also earns points for experimenting with new dynamics (i.e. Bender and Amy, Hermes and Bender, Amy and Nibbler, Fry and the Professor) between characters.

5. Modern Family, ABC-I enjoyed Arrested Development immensely but I also interpreted its success at the time to conclude that the traditional family sitcom couldn't exist unless it was being mocked and/or subverted. That changed when I saw Modern Family.

Modern Family went into new territory by bringing humor without a hint of irony. The show mines comedy out of the quirks of Dumphy, Prichett and Prichett-Delgado clans and mines drama of the forces that threaten to tear those family bonds apart. Is is significant that the comedy doesn't suggest that the family is worthless and the negative vibes in the family are always overcome (or at least ameliorated) by episode's end.

6. Party Down, Starz-I honestly have never heard of the Starz Network which is why it took me so long to discover this gem. Starring Adam Scott, Megan Mullally, and Lizzy Caplan (best known for this Jason Mraz video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oieBnV_HFB0), this show centers around a ragtag band of dreamers in Los Angeles working on a catering team together to pay the bills but hoping for bigger things. Their characters' varying degrees of disconnect from reality is contrasted with the very close proximity these people are to the people who nonchalantly live their lives. The show also manages to be edgy in bringing characters to the screen who aren't in love with their lives without being unnecessarily crude or depressing (a sin I find Weeds and Entourage guilty of).


7. Terriers, FX-There are so many procedural shows out there that it's hard for any one show to distinguish itself. So how does Terriers make the list? Likable protagonists that you can latch onto are a start. The pair of amateur detectives are mellow and easy-going (kind of functional versions of the Dude in Big Lebowski. The Dude did solve a crime over the course of the film but that was by pure coincidence. I do want to be specific in my comparison here, because Terriers isn't a stoner comedy) which is refreshing considering so many characters in cop procedurals take themselves so seriously. Like the characters, the plots also meander but in a good way: plots don't necessarily resolve themselves from episode to episode and the viewer can't really be sure where the show is going next.

The show also has noirish overtones and reminds me very much of Chinatown in the sense that a land deal becomes so much more than it seems on the surface.

8. Glee, FOX-Some critics felt that the show had a sophomore slump but I don't think that's the case with this show at all. Hot hits with the teenage demographic usually are the big fad one season and disappear pretty fast (i.e. The O.C., Gossip Girl, Everwood). At least for now, however, the show is strong enough to overcome the fact that it no longer has novelty working in its favor.

The episodes occasionally miss but I admire the show for trying to approach serious topics like anti-bullying, the limits of teenage aspirations, and prejudice, with a sense of gravity.

The additions in the second season have only made the show better. Dr. Carl (John Stamos) has been a much better rival for Emma Pillsbury's affections than Coach Tanaka and the additions of Sam combined with the expansion of Brittany, Mike Chang and Santana have been very effective at balancing out the melodrama stemming from the Finn-Puck-Rachel and Rachel-Quinn-Finn love triangles.

Further Reading on the Backlash and Continued Popularity of Glee

9. Parks and Recreation, NBC-This show has better characters and a better ensemble than most shows on TV. Amy Poehler, an SNL alum who gradually transformed into the show's MVP by her 8th season, is more than talented enough to lead a sitcom as bureaucrat. The supporting cast of players in the Pawnee parks department isn't just notable for being good: The writers and actors deserve credit for having the characters evolve as the show hit its stride. Despite being a polar opposite to Leslie Knope, Anne (Rashida Jones) has become the yin to Leslie's yang. Similarly, Andy (Chris Pratt) has gone from "the other guy" to a lovable hanger-on and Aubrey Plaza's unrivalled ability to deadpan has stopped overshadowing April's development.

The show is a welcome compliment to The Office and a great example of how to follow up something great without changing directions entirely.

10. No Ordinary Family, ABC-Think Heroes if the show were to compress all of the disparate storylines from Heroes into one family. There are also two sidekicks who make the show better with every minute of screen time they get. Romany Malco plays an impassioned district attorney and good friend of the dad (Michael Chilkis) and the other (Autumn Reeser) is an adorably nervous (and easy on the eyes) lab assistant of the mom (Julie Benz) and brings with her an overeagerness to live out her comic book fantasies through her. The show can get a little corny, but it has impressive special effects and an arc that's just now starting to considerably deepen.

Article of Best new fall shows of 2010 including Modern Family

Best show I discovered a year too late to put on my Top 10 List for last year and which I haven't seen this year because I couldn't find any bit torrent for it and HBO won't even allow itunes downloads for:
In Treatment, HBO-The raw drama, the power of the performances, the insight into the human psyche is, to quote Shawn Stockman on NBC' The Sing-Off (and if you saw his critique of Committed on that show you'd know what I was talking about), "What it's all about, man." The root of what makes drama good is right here. There's nothing but a room, a couch and a chair with a patient who we slowly learn about as the weeks go on and a psychiatrist who's pretty damn good at his job. More specifically, we're watching that guy pretty damn good at his job in four out of every five episodes. On that 5th episode, we learn how much of a basket case he is when he visits a psychiatrist of his own (Editorial note: I have restrained myself from watching the "Paul goes to therapy" episodes because I find it ruins the illusion).

[Ed. note: I since put it into my top 10 for 2009]

Runners-Up:
Sing-Off, NBC, Burn Notice, USA, The Office, NBC, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, FX (my #1 last year), Archer, FX, Outsourced, NBC (Still a fan and avid defender!)


Other articles of mine:
The Evils of Craigslist:
http://bit.ly/etV1vJ
The Morality of the Characters on it's Always Sunny in Philly
http://bit.ly/g70Aka
Which Filmic Version of Washington Suits you Best:
http://bit.ly/h4i5n1
A Day on the Set with the Extras on How Do You Know?:
http://bit.ly/gUWO0r