Reverse Engineering "Little Mosque on the Prairie" Show Bible

 If you have watched the show "Little Mosque on the Prairie" (which can now be watched for free on YouTube), this post will be a really great read. If not, I understand it's not your cup of tea. I definitely recommend watching this show in the interim.

Running from 2007 to 2012, “Little Mosque on the Prairie” was a Canadian-produced TV show that caught a small audience in the US through Hulu. The show centers around a community of Muslims in a small town on the Canadian Prairie. Despite having characters as morally despicable as a shock jock and a fundamentalist Muslim who bashes Western decadence. Still, the show boasts a gooey small-town vibe like Andy Griffith or (sister show) Schitt’s Creek.

But how does such dissonance work? The show is filled with life events as serious as divorces, a major character quitting his jobs over unrequieted love, hateful characters being kept in check, a major character being put on a bus 

In trying to analyze how the show is successful, I tried considering what a character bible might look like.

For example, animator Chuck Jones of Loony Tunes and his team were said to follow these simple rules when creating the Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner cartoons

1. The Road Runner cannot harm the Coyote except by going “meep, meep.”
2. No outside force can harm the Coyote — only his own ineptitude or the failure of Acme products. Trains and trucks were the exception from time to time.
3. The Coyote could stop anytime — if he were not a fanatic.
4. No dialogue ever, except “meep, meep” and yowling in pain.
5. The Road Runner must stay on the road — for no other reason than that he’s a roadrunner.
6. All action must be confined to the natural environment of the two characters — the southwest American desert.
7. All tools, weapons, or mechanical conveniences must be obtained from the Acme Corporation.
8. Whenever possible, make gravity the Coyote’s greatest enemy.
9. The Coyote is always more humiliated than harmed by his failures.
10. The audience’s sympathy must remain with the Coyote.
11. The Coyote is not allowed to catch or eat the Road Runner.

So what might be the "Little Mosque on the Prairie" rules?
My take:
1. Even though some of the characters (particularly Fred, Joe, Baber, and later Reverend Thorne) are tactless, willfully ignorant and even malicious, the recipients of their spite are never emotionally affected. This keeps any negative vibes from dominating the tone of the show.*
2. The ordeals of the show's main protagonist,  Amaar, are largely secular concerns (people not taking him seriously with no beard, annoyances with Fred or Baber, working around Yasser's sloth, etc.) rather than existential religious struggles. This is to keep the show's tone in the realm of a light sitcom....
3. At the same time, Amaar's faith is constant. In fact, the issue of faith is such a non-issue, that it's not a source of meaningful enough drama to build an episode around. In one episode, for example, Amaar is lured into a double date which he endures to be socially polite. A show about a wavering cleric would have Amaar wrestle with his attraction for his date. Instead, Amaar never allows himself to consider the event a date, and the episode's comic inertia revolves around Amaar's insecurity that his non-date didn't have a good time.
4. The show's Muslim Characters fall along a dichotomy of taking faith too seriously or not seriously enough with Amaar and McGee at the center.
Sarah, Yasser, and Layla fall in the below axis whereas Baber and Joe are too religious. Rayyan falls roughly in the middle which is why there is so much foreshadowing that she is Amaar's other half.
5. The idyllic small-town feel is partially created by unlikely loving family units whether Baber/Layla, Sarah/Yassir/Rayyan and to a lesser extent Fatima/Jamal or the makeshift family of McGee/Amaar. Baber and Layla shouldn't get along since her father is such a tyrannical idiot but the show seems to make it work with the eyeroll and occasional temper tantrum. Similarly, Rayyan seems to do her fair amount of eye rolling but rarely do you see an adult child and her parents get along so well. The lack of family conflicts (at the nuclear level) is also a hallmark of 1950s and 1960s shows like Leave it to Beaver, Andy Griffith, and the Donna Reed Show and it was roundly mocked in the 1998 film Pleasantville.
6. Characters are inherently good but none of the secular characters are above cutting corners in life. Whether Yasser's sloth, the Mayor's vanity, or even Amaar's ego, there are areas within every character for self-improvement.
7. Characters are inter-connected. Fred and Baber, for example, are both dislikeable characters, but they both are able to carve out a healthy and affirming relationship with Fatima. Joe and later Reverend Thorne have good connections to the Muslim community with time.

*I've read a number of viewer reviews that were turned off of the show when Thorne entered in Season 4. This could be because his presence broke this cardinal rule. His threats of eviction of his Muslim tenants had definite consequences to the status quo.

If I picked the Emmys 2018-2019 (Comedy categories)

Comedy Shows: 
AP Bio
Arrested Development
The Good Place*
Marvelous Mrs Maisel
Miracle Workers
Trial and Error
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

"Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" and "Arrested Development" concluded their runs this year with the back halves of seasons that ran over two years. "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" is a more episodic show that lives or dies based on the quality of the episodic plot and it had a pretty high hit-to-miss ratio as it approached the end. "Arrested Development" started off clunky and didn't have as much stunt casting to rely on. Some might have even preferred the up-in-the-air status of things at the end of the fourth season, but the show managed to really focus on the labyrinthine plotting and organically earn its happy ending. Right after watching "The Good Place", I felt like the season dilly-dallied too long in Australia but looking back that seems like a minor blemish. The show world-builds like an adderrol-addled toddler playing with legos but it has such a plethora of quotable lines and pretty much every character on screen is memorable in some way.

Actor:
Adam Clayton-Holland, Those Who Can't
Daniel Radcliffe, Miracle Workers
Glenn Howerton, A.P. Bio*
Ramy Youssef, Ramy
Ted Danson, The Good Place
Tim Robinson, I Think You Should Leave

Howerton's transition from ensemble player in "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" to headlining his own show is the epitome here of how to retain popular elements of your screen persona and do something fresh with them: He's still a bit psychopath and unfeeling and is every bit the know-it-all as Dennis Reynolds but somehow it's just different. My runner-up here would be a close call between the TV veteran Danson and Ramy Youssef. Even though Youssef is playing a version of himself reading his own script (something that could lower the degree of difficulty) there's a lot that's affecting about his performance.

Actress:
Ellie Kemper, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidtt
Geraldine Viswanathan, Miracle Workers
Kristen Bell, The Good Place
Natasha Lyonne, Russian Doll*
Rachel Bloom, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
Rachel Brosnahan, Marvelous Mrs Maisel

It's hard to ignore Bloom, Brosnahan, Kemper or Bell because those shows are great female-driven comedies that put those actresses front and center. Brosnahan has had an incredible journey from the lower rungs of comedy actor obscurity so she's been quite rootable. Allison Brie is another great pick and I might have included here but I felt the second season of "Glow" was a fast turn towards boring and I'm not sure if she did anything new. Bell is a close-runner up here but Natasha Lyonne really dos an excellent job of channeling her low-filter id-driven screen persona and creating a comic lead out of it. Lyonne's character is so simultaneously kind-hearted and rude, watching her is an examination of  the more superficial elements of typical cordiality.

Supporting Actor:
Chris Redd, SNL
David Cross, Arrested Development
Mikey Day, SNL
Rob McElhenney, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Steve Buscemi, Miracle Workers*
Tony Shalhoub, Marvelous Mrs Maisel

One of my favorite characters on TV is Jason Mendoza but I think it's the way the character is written more than the actor. In contrast, Shalhoub is being fed the most stereotypical blather by Amy Sherman-Palladino and he still finds a way to turn it into something substantive. SNL nominations typically award people for having a hit political impression that catches but Redd and Day really deserve a lot of praise for doing a lot of the grunge work and carrying their weight so early in their careers. It's kind of a six-way tie between the four non-SNL guys with Buscemi taking it by a nose.


Supporting Actress:
Alia Shawkat, Arrested Development
Catherine O'Hara, Schitt's Creek
Kristin Chenoweth, Trial and Error
Juliette Lewis, Camping*
Lyric Lewis, AP Bio
Meredith MacNeill, Baroness von Sketch Show

This is a wealth of talent in this category with a wide range of variation. O'Hara has long been a fan favorite (and a real Emmy nominee this year) and you either love her or hate her snooty character on "Schitt's Creek" which is a testament to the actress. MacNeill is one of a very talented quartet but she really sticks out for her knack for physical comedy. Shawkat was the most dynamic character on "Arrested Development" this past season and you have to give it up for anyone who can simultaneously hold the affections of a septugenarian AND their first cousin. Lyric Lewis is one of a murderer's row of characters on "AP Bio" including a trio of teacher friends whose banter is so well-established they could convince the audience that pizza slapping is a thing. Lewis has slightly more sass than the others and plays best off of Durbin (Patton Oswalt). However, I'm going with Juliette Lewis who has been chugging along since getting Oscar nominated as a teenager, is wicked fun as a thorn in Jennifer Garner's side on "Camping."

Guest Star Actor:
Adam Scott, The Good Place
Jason Matzoukas, The Good Place
Jerry Minor, Those Who Can't
Joel McCrary, Trial and Error
Michael McKean, The Good Place*
Norm Lewis, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
Norm McDonald, The Orville

Lest you think Jason was a Season 2 presence, he appeared in the Season 3 finale to show off his refinement and help pump out babies. His delivery on the line "Hi, I'm Derek" is pretty much all he needs to be placed in this category. For those who need a refresher, McCrary was a judge with a prominent singing voice whose accident got him reduced to a near mute that only Peckers can here; Norm Lewis was the Broadway performer who introduced Titus to the Cats hoax; and McDonald is a member of the Orville's engineering staff who also happens to be an amorphous blob of slime (not making that up). Generally, a good one-off guest star is one who makes an immediate comic impression with something off-kilter that sticks out and McKean's worrisome apologeticness lends itself to some very good scenes.

[Update: Luke Kirby of Marvelous Mrs Maisel won this category]

Guest Star Actress:
Amy Sedaris, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
Elizabeth Alderfer, AP Bio
Maria Bamford, Arrested Development
Maya Rudolph, The Good Place*
Mindy Kailing, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Susie Essman, Those Who Can't
Tami Sagher, Russian Doll

I was so happy for Tobias to be able to hold on to DeBrie a little longer and I practically fell in love with Elizabeth Alderfer myself, so there are a lot of appealling choices. For those who can't recall, Susie Essman is a loud-mouthed hustler at Smoot High and Tami Sagher was the secretary to an Orthodox Rabbi who somehow manages to withstand Natasha Lyonne's patience for a good while. In terms of omissions, SNL hosts often go in guest categories but I didn't really think this was a stand-out season with any highlights in terms of who they bought in. Perhaps Emma Stone would be closest if this category weren't so packed. Maya Rudolph takes the cake here because not only is she a distinct comic character whose every line is quoteworthy, she looks like she's having tremendous fun being there.

[Update: Jane Lynch of Marvelous Mrs Maisel won this category]

Dialogue/Writing:
Arrested Development
BoJack Horseman
The Good Place*
Miracle Workers
Trial and Error*
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

I'm going to throw a bone to "Trial and Error" considering it didn't get picked up for Season 3 (who knows, it might get life elsewhere?) and give it a co-win. The sheer absurdity of East Peck really works itself nicely into much of the loopy dialogue (particularly Dwayne) and the show enjoys a lot of fun play off the motiffs. I can't leave "The Good Place" behind: I likely can take any random line and throw it in my twitter feed because it's just that consistently good. For "BoJack", I wasn't fond of the "Free Churro" episode and i thought the season didn't have as much significant movement, but the dialogue is always sharp and there were a few ambitious episodes like the one with four Halloweens or the Henry Fondle episode.


Theme Song/Title Sequence:
Baroness von Sketch Show*
The Big Bang Theory
The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
Lodge 49
Man in High Castle
Orange is the New Black

I didn't see the new "Man in High Castle"  or even know that the show was still running until I checked so that's nice for the theme song. "Lodge 49" is appropriately psychedelic. "Baroness von Sketch Show" just encapsulates who the four women are to the soundtrack of "Dancing Underwater" by Brave Shores

My Week in TV: Schitt's Creek Season 5 Episode 6: "Rock On!" Review

Stevie in an Awkward Jam

When you go nine or ten months between TV seasons (as opposed to what used to be a summer break), you often lose the sensory memory of what you enjoyed about that show. For a show like “Schitt’s Creek” which had a very specific groove, it’s an even greater sense of amnesia.

Tuning into this show for the first time in a year, I felt similar to my first season experience with the show where I felt like the jokes weren’t pushed hard enough and David wasn’t that likable of a character (relying heavily on holier-than-thou expressions at his podunk surroundings). Because the characters (including curmudgeounly David) grew heavily on me on the next two seasons, it’s possible those feelings will return but it takes a certain transition.

Generally this show relies on character beats rather than outright jokes with the biggest humorous impact coming through a twist at episode’s end (“Silicon Valley” might be the very best example of this format done right).

Of the three plotlines tonight, we had one that was primarily emotional (David dealing with his regrets over letting his boyfriend Patrick go on a date), one that was primarily comical (Johnny accidentally seeing Stevie topless) and one that had a mix of the two (Jocelyn coming to terms with her lost youth on an outing with Jazzagals).

The Johnny-Stevie plot (precipitated because Stevie is making a  naughty video for her long-distance boyfriend) is an example of humor done right. The primary source of laughs is awkwardness and the pair (with the unhelpful assistance of a scene-stealing Roland) finding themselves in situations where they’re unable to avoid bringing this up despite their best efforts. The plot escalates and stays true to the characters. Johnny being a fish-out-of-water-- both with his own family and the town of Schitt’s Creek-- is pretty much the central premise of the show. It’s also a situation where no one’s really at fault so there’s a certain ambiguity that the script has fun with.

In the David-Patrick plot, Patrick gets hit on and David decides the best way to give Patrick space and strengthen his relationship in the long term is to allow Patrick to sew his wild oats with another guy just once so he can ultimately realize how great David is at the end. Cue to ten minutes later and David realizes what a mistake it's been to let that beef cake get away. Alexis unintentionally gets into David’s head and makes everything worse. Although this seems pretty funny on paper there's a lack of comedy unless you count Dan Levy making grimaced expressions and you didn't predict that Alexis would make things worse.

For the most part, however, it’s a plot that could fit on a show like “Parenthood” where the show's flow is dramatic but not in an orchestra swelling way. It’s not as relevant here to the thesis that the show often doesn’t push jokes as far as they can go, so I’ll give this subplot a seal of approval from a dramatic perspective and move on.

The Jazzagals-Jocelyn plot exemplifies where the show seems a little lacking from the perspective of someone who hasn’t watched it in a while. Jocelyn had plans to go to a Poison concert (at first I thought this was the rapper that had that song “Poison”, that’s why I’m not a rock critic) but when she hears they’re cancelled on her planned night out, she falls into a funk. The Jazzagals (other than Twyla, Moira, and Ronnie, they’re nameless extras with no lines) try to cheer up and tell her they’ll still take her to the casino. There’s awkwardness to the situation here that shows potential: Jocelyn is leaning heavily on a group of ladies with a mid-life crisis they’re not particularly prepared to deal with. The differences between what Jocelyn is expecting and the reality of her casino experience (perhaps how far removed from Poison their replacement band is, stylistically) could also be mad awkward. So is Moira interacting with anyone in literally any situation.

Instead all that happens is that Twyla kind of enjoys the fried chicken while Ronnie appears sick of it, Jocelyn pours out her disappointment verbally (but it’s not a total breakdown so it’s not particularly memorable), and Jocelyn cuts her hair like an 80s rocker. The biggest void here is that there’s not much of a payoff post-haircut-reveal. The Jazzagals board their chartered bus heading home with a collective awkwardness and amid the tension, Moira attempts to cut it by making a half-flattering comment. It’s nice for character reasons that Moira has learned not to put her foot in her mouth at EVERY opportunity, but where did this plot get us? Awkwardness isn’t an end to itself. It’s potential begging to be used kinetically.

Then again, maybe this is your thing. Maybe, the haircut was the punch line. As I get more familiar with this show, I’ll come to see where these plots land.

Top 12 of the year in TV

1. BoJack Horseman (Netflix)-What was once a quirkily-structured universe of Hollywood has-beens and visual animal puns has now attained rare levels of multi-layered humor that will be collectively remembered, celebrated and memed for years to come mixed in with the kind of rare psychological insight from generational depression, to self-fulfilling prophecies of failure, to asexuality. When I wrote a piece on the critical community needing to break itself out of its limited view of diversity, this is the kind of show I was referring to. The fourth season saw BoJack coming back from his worst to achieve a cathartic level of self-moderations with hints that this sitcom has-been taking steps to becoming a better person.  Carolyn, Todd, and especially Mr. Peanut Butter and Dianne have had introspective arcs with the Mr. Peanut Butter/Woodchuck Coodchuck Berkowitz (that name alone should put this at least in any sane person's top twenty) race providing a hilarious government satire that is desperately needed in crazy times like these.
2. Good Place (NBC)-Few comedies have ever aimed this high conceptually and managed to avoid melting their metaphorical wings after a few episodes. By the first season finale, this show had us all collectively by the by the balls (or whatever the female equivalent is) and the show has continued to give us only the most tenuous view of what’s in store for its four denizens of its rapidly fluctuating version of the afterlife. The comic tics for each character have become finely tuned in the second season: In addition to unpredictable Stepford smiler Janet, fussy Chidi, and self-congratulatory Tahani; Jason Mendoza can carry the episode's laugh content single-handedly with his boundless stupidity and Michael has proven just as fun on the dark side as he was as a bumbling klutz. And then there’s Eleanor Shellstrop. Credit Kristen Bell’s fine performance and the crafty writing, but Shellstrop is an anti-hero for the ages with a backstory that’s filled with endless stories of being a hilariously terrible person and the slowly creeping potential inside of her to redeem herself from all of it.
3. Trial and Error (NBC)-This small-town courtroom drama burst out of the gate with a strong sense of place and hilarious characters to populate it with.  Seasoned sitcom pro John Lithgow plays to his strengths as the epitome of eccentricity with Jayma Mays doing her darndest to make you forget she ever played as prissy of a character as Emma Pillsbury in Glee. Nicholas D’Agosto, Sherri Shepherd, Steven Boyer, and even Krysta Rodriguez all are given a lot to work with and they all deliver characters that are memorable, comically sound, and endearing. 
4. Bates Motel (A & E)- The idea of Norman Bates’s character spread out over five seasons must have been a tough sell but the show worked beautifully as an idyllic small-town concealing a cesspool of voice and a sweet young man with a psychopath brewing inside. Over five seasons, Bates Motel accelerated ever so smoothly from a simmer to full-on terror while remaining tonally consistent and keeping an eye out for the long game. The fifth season brought us up to speed with overlap from the events of the landmark 1960 film with Rihanna unexpectedly connecting as Marion Crane and Dylan picking up the slack of the noirish detective. Would good or evil triumph and would either character make it out alive? With all deviation from the source material fair game, it was a nail-biting ride to find out. Hitchcock would have been proud. 
5. Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Amazon)-Raise your hands if you even knew stand-up comedy existed in 1958? Me neither and that’s why this show makes all the other comedians-playing-themselves entries look vain by comparison.This show is all that and a bag of matzah brie. Yes, it’s a little heavy on the Ashkenazi Jewish stereotypes (and mazels to Tony Shalhoub on your recent conversion to Hollywood Judaism, was Alfred Molina taken?) but it also has an endearing cultural specificity and a strong sense of momentum. While the show is about comedians, it’s very comfortable with its dramatic beats. The stakes are high – the protagonist goes from being excited about landing the rabbi for Yom Kippur to losing her husband, her home, and getting arrested in the span of a few days—and that’s just the first episode alone. As a period piece, this show allows for relevant feminist overtones without being preachy and also creates a superhero worth rooting for.
6. Glow (Netflix)-This show might be the greatest send-up to the joy of wrestling TV has ever produced but I’d have no idea as a complete noob to the sport. Instead, I see a show about raw pluck, girl power, and a docudrama about a ragtag group of underdogs (complete with the economics of constantly being screwed) all wrapped in a delightful 80’s time capsule. Like Jenji Kohan’s other main work of the Netflix era, “Orange is the New Black”, this show is a hodgepodge of diversity in the best sense with Indian and Cambodian characters and even a spoiled rich white guy worth rooting for. Make no mistake, though: Marc Maron (this guy was an actor??) and Allison Brie steal the show
7. Black Mirror (Netflix)-Creator Charlie Brooker’s series works best when tapping into our luddite fears about the future’s advances in technology wielding as much potential to hurt us as it does to help us. This year Brooker really found his groove in terms of delivering consistency (for my money, there was a humongous dip in quality after Nose Dive and San Junipero last season) and infusing his twist endings with the kind of bittersweet poignancy that allows the themes to resonate. The show also mixes emotional tones and genres whether it’s a sci-fi send-up that will make Trekkies drool (USS Calister), a psychological thriller (Crocodile), a cautionary tale framed as family melodrama (Arkangel), a futuristic love story played straight (Arkangel), a meta-commentary on the horror genre (Black Museum), or a Coen Brothers/Soderberghesque look at dystopia (Metalhead).
8. Crashing (HBO)-Pete Holmes is the kind of break from the mold to show us that not all comedians are degenerate, self-obsessed, foul-mouthed slobs. Well OK, some of Pete’s friends are, but that's what makes Pete Holmes (the character, although I'm assuming the person) such a breath of fresh air with his adorable naivete. It's a show about comedy but it is also a show about redefining your relation with your faith, parents, friends, and the concept of adulthood itself.
9. Orphan Black (BBC America)-Full disclosure: As someone who’s not a hard-core binge watcher, I drove myself to exhaustion by the time I set out on my project to go from the pilot to Season 5 within the span of less than a month. By the time I got to the end, my head was spinning whenever I was asked to discern the difference between neolution, Dyad and Castor and Gemini or Kabbalah or whatever, so I’m not necessarily the most reliable judge of the 2017 portion of this series, but this show is a smart thriller that is both tightly-paced and capable of juggling multiple storylines. It’s mostly known for the superhuman acting feat of Tatiana Maslany playing multiple parts at once but it’s been one of the best stories on TV for the past five years.
10. The Mick (Fox)-From the creators of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, this show engages in the same kind of duality of lovable yet deeply offensive characters as its sister show (which is still going strong, even if it didn’t make my list). The show started out as an unremarkable vehicle for Kaitlin Olson to reprise her role as a Dee-like character (maybe the producers will release her from  Charlie Work if she logs in enough hours?) and it’s now one of the most dependable sources of humor on TV. Carla Jimenez is a bona-fide scene stealer as Alba and Jimmy is equally funny as a guy who has no practical use to the Moing-Pemberton household but has managed to stick around thus far. It's the ultimate mix of privilege and cluelessness and the best found family on TV.
11. The Real O’Neals (ABC)-A modern renegotiation of the classic sitcom mold that was really beginning to find its groove before the axe came tumbling down. Curse you, trigger-happy ABC overlords!  The show’s handling of its gay teenage protagonist (Noah Galvin) went under-acknowledged during its three-season run but the show also deserves credit for allowing its progressiveness to coexist with more right-wing elements. Like the new breed of smart sitcoms that’s been reinvented on network TV in the past couple years, this show has the edge to power through gooey sentimental plots with a healthy dose of irony, but it’s ultimately a show about togetherness that this country sorely needs.
12. Schitt’s Creek (Pop TV)-With each season, this Canadian import becomes more assured in its characters and richer in its sense of place. As a result, the (primarily character driven) humor is richer in Season three with Catherine O'Hara leading the way in the laughs department as the ex-soap opera star still coming to terms with her fall from grace. Season Three is an unapologetically happy one with the Rose family finding themselves by embracing their adopted backwater town and at this point it's earned its cheesy feel good vibe. Much like how turning from black-and-white into color is something different for everyone in "Pleasantville," there's a bit of romance for David, a modest professional resurgence for Johnny, and a rededication to her education for Alexis.

Ten Honorable Mentions:

13 Reasons Why (Netflix)-The show has some pretty heavy pluses and minuses (do high school students really talk like that? If Hannah was so self-aware that she'd do all that, it never occurred to her to get a therapist?) but it evens out to a TV show that's eminently watchable and provocative enough to at least launch a discussion.
Adam Ruins Everything (TruTV)-A friend who get better grades than I did in high school often told me that "it's all about appearance and presentation." This reminds me of how Adam Conover (AKA the guy with the funny haircut and pocket squares on TruTV commercials) and his cronies from College Humor manage to make this mythbusters-type show so engrossing: With visual ingenuity and a narrative arc (know-it-all educates a rube that they're initial assumptions about topic X are wrong) that's been perfected to a T.

Baroness von Sketch Show (IFC)-This IFC show isn’t just sketch comedy from a woman’s perspective but from a middle-aged woman’s perspective. Whereas many comediennes (Amy Schumer, Sara Silverman, etc.) make it a point to go blue to try to show they can be dirty in a man’s realm, these women are just organically comedic. What makes the show stick out as that this quartet-Meredith McNeil, Aurora Brown, Carolyn Taylor, and Jennifer Whalen- establish their voice and chemistry very quickly out of the gate.

Brockmire (IFC)-Adapted from a Funny or Die sketch, Hank Azaria plays a down-and-out announcer who's shown that out-and-out alcoholic misery can be fun or at least passable (and perhaps we're all going to hell for watching this)

Fresh off the Boat (ABC)-Constance Wu continues her reign as one of TV sitcomdom's richest mothers while the show continues to be one of the most dependably heart-warming and reliably funny on TV. 

Gifted (Fox)-A welcome entry into mutant lore that kept the momentum going from episode to episode.  

Ingobernable (Netflix)-Part Homeland-style thriller, part steamy Mexican soap opera, lots of Spanish subtitles to sort through. The basic plot is the President of Mexico is murdered, the first lady is the prime suspect, and she has to piece together the conspiracy behind it all while on the lam. Kate del Castillo might not be Clare Danes but she's not that far away.
I Love Dick (Amazon)-Set in a artist's collective in Texas that really puts the avante in avante-garde, this show is pretty out there but has a lot of wayward insight into everything in art from the male gaze to productivity and shines a window on the world of weird art.

Powerless (NBC)-A promising series cut before it had the chance to catch on. Although superhero spoofing is nothing new, the shows found a workable original angle and admirable casting: how often are you going to find a good sitcom vehicle for Vanessa Hudgins and Danny Pudi together?

Room 104 (HBO)-The Duplass brothers have used this loose platform to create some very intense and theatrical half hours of drama. The connecting thread between episodes is next to none which kept the show out of my top twelve, but hey, this is better than Togetherness (note to self: never watch Togetherness again)

Sorry folks, maybe next year (everything else I watched this year):
2 Broke Girls* (CBS), American Dad^ (TBS), Archer*^ (FX), Big Mouth (Netflix), Blind Spot* (NBC), Difficult People (Hulu), Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (BBC America), Emerald City** (NBC), Family Guy (Fox), Feud (FX), Friends from College (Netflix), Full Frontal with Samantha Bee (TBS), Future Man (Hulu), Girl Boss (Netflix), Grace and Frankie (Netflix), Great Indoors (CBS), Hack My Life (Pop TV)* I Love You America (Hulu), It's Always Sunny^ (FX), James Corden (CBS), Jimmy Kimmel Live^ (NBC), Lady Dynamite (Netflix), Last Tycoon* (Amazon), Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO), Late Night with Seth Meyers (NBC), Legion* (Fox), Lost and Found (Netflix), Man Seeking Woman (Comedy Central), Making History (Fox), The Mayor (Fox), Me Myself and I (CBS), Modern Family^ (ABC), Mom (CBS), One Mississippi (Amazon), Orville (Fox), Ozark (Netflix), The Path (Hulu), Rick and Morty (Comedy Central), Scandal (ABC), Sense8 (Netflix), Star Trek Discovery (CBS All Access), Stephen Colbert (CBS), Superstore (NBC), Tarantula** (TBS),Timeless (NBC), Time After Time (ABC), Tarantula** (TBS), Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt^ (Netflix), White Famous** (Showtime)
 
^ Made my top 12 in a previous year
* Viewed in limited capacity (two or three episodes)
** Only saw the pilot

Last Minute Emmy Wish List in the Comedy Categories

Here are some last minute predictions for the Oscars in the comedy categories using only shows I've seen. Seven shows get nominated in the comedy category and in the writing and directing categories the shows generally go to specific episodes. In this case, I listed overall writing and directing and then picked twelve episodes I really liked in hopes of picking them up. On the drama side, I don't really have many hopes except hoping that Bates Motel gets honored and that Aubrey Plaza gets a supporting nod in Legion.

Credit: Deadline.com

Best Comedy

Good Place

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Trial and Error

The Real O’Neals

Lady Dynamite

Schitt’s Creek

Those Who Can’t

BoJack Horseman

Directing

The Good Place

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Trial and Error

Dirk Gentley’s Whollistic Detective Agency

I Love Dick

Brockmire

Writing:

Dirk Gentley’s Whollistic Detective Agency

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia

The Good Place

BoJack Horseman

Trial and Error

Brockmire

Lead Actor:

Hank Azaria, Brockmire

Randall Park, Fresh off the Boat

Pete Holmes, Crashing

Eugene Levy, Schitt’s Creek

John Lithgow, Trial and Error

Andy Daly, Review

Lead Actress:

Lily Tomlin, Grace and Frankie

Maria Bamford, Lady Dynamite

Kathryn Hahn, I Love Dick

Constance Wu, Fresh off the Boat

Kristen Bell, The Good Place

Amanda Peete, Brockmire

Ellie Kemper, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Supporting Actor:

Danny DeVito, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Fred Melamed, Lady Dynamite

Sam Waterson, Grace and Frankie

Kevin Bacon, I Love Dick

Tituss Burgess, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Ted Danson, The Good Place

Supporting Actress:

Martha Plimpton, Real O’Neals

June Diane Raphael, Grace and Frankie

Lauren Lapkus, Crashing

Mary Steenburgen, Last Man on Earth

Jayma Mays, Trial and Error

Catherine O’Hara, Schitt’s Creek

Guest Actor:

Adam Scott as Trevor, The Good Place

Daveed Diggs as Perry, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Ray Liotta as Paulie Fiuccillo, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Stephen Tobolowsky as Jack Barker, Silicon Valley

Aasif Mandvi as Parshwall, Another Period

John Gemberling as John Hancock, Making History

Guest Actress:

Cheri Oteri as Cattie Goodman, Those Who Can’t

Annie Mumulo as Jill Kwatne-Adelman nee Kwatne, Lady Dynamite

Christine Rose as Josie Davis, Trial and Error

Ramona Young as Allison, The Real O’Neals

June Dianne Raphael as Eleanor Roosevelt, Another Period

Sandy Martin as Mac's mom, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Annual 12 Best Shows of the Year List

This hasn't been a particularly productive year in terms of keeping up my blog, so it's helpful to briefly discuss why I have still been blogging for such a long time. Considering a few professional writers I know stopped blogging after they became published elsewhere because it's difficult to maintain content on multiple platforms, it does seem like at the very least, I can't logistically  put my very best content on this blog if I'm writing for other places. 

Contrary to popular belief, I don't write here to build a fan base. If you came here and are a fan, thank you (donate if you want!). My blog is used to showcase my writing for people that make their way over here, to develop ideas, to test promotional strategies and on rare occasions: Because there's something I just want to write. My 12 best shows of the year is strictly for me. It's literally something I think about every time I write a TV show: Will this show make my top 12? It pushes me artistically to broaden my horizons as a viewer and pushes me critically as well. I also just want to highlight what I think is great TV.

1. 11.22.63, Hulu  (Season 1)-This TV show recalled the work of Frank Darabont (not the "Walking Dead" era, of course) in telling a historic fable that retains its sense of sepia-soaked nostalgia without shying away from the era's darker elements like the casualness of domestic violence or the disenfranchisement of immigrants that could partially show how someone like Lee Harvey Oswald could fall through the cracks in the first place. Through it all, the show plays with all the logistical tropes of a loopy time-travel scenario (essentially, going down all the roads of the Hitler Time Travel Exemption with Kennedy's murder) and centers around a romance (with Sarah Gadon) and fragile alliance/friendship (with George McKay) that's played with utterly convincing sincerity by James "my life is a perpetual art experiment" Franco of all people. Between this, "Timeless", "Agent Carter", and "The Man in the High Castle", 2016 was a good year in television for sun-drenched nostalgia and the year's best show took this on with a singular vision.

2. People v. OJ Simpson, FX (Season 1)-Rarely has a docudrama aired on TV like this with so little wiggle room in the imaginations of its viewers (or, at least the portion who was alive in 1995): If you made the choice not to live under a rock back then, the events of the OJ Simpson trial were simply an inescapable part of daily life. With so much of this history so ingrained in our collective consciousness, it's a wonder at all that a narrative with any sense of suspense or discovery can be crafted at all. But "People v OJ Simpson" doesn't just do that; It weaves together found art to tell what might be the definitive tale of present-day Americana with explorations on the self-imposed tensions around race, our national obsession with celebrity, the fallibility of public opinion, and the curious way fame has a way of magnifying mistakes (although the show got admittedly clunky when trying to posit Robert Kardashian as a lesson in irony). Sarah Paulson, John Travolta, Courtney Vance and Sterling Brown are excellent as lawyers dead set on winning with varying degrees of moral integrity and at the hollow center of it all is OJ Simpson (played with a childlike misunderstanding of his own actions by Cuba Gooding Jr) who ultimately turned out to be the least important part of the equation.

3. BoJack Horseman, Netflix  (Season 3)**-BoJack is rolling in the animal-based puns and
pathos with more self-assurance and ambition than ever before. BoJack's depression is portrayed with such a level of realism that it wouldn't be surprising to know that a mentally-ill person could find comfort here. BoJack's universe continues to expand with the recurrence of his castmates and the reintroduction of Kelsey Jannings (BoJack's efforts to repair this relationship made for 2016's most popular and dissected episode). This is also a great year for Todd, who discovered he was asexual (quite possibly the most underrepresented sexual subset on TV), and for BoJack discovering who his real friends are: It turns Sarah Lynn was really reliable after all (while she was in the "alive" category) and Dianne had a nice moment or two. If the show didn't botch the ending, it would have topped the list.

4. Lady Dynamite, Netflix (Season 1)-My initial difficulty with this show wasn't because there was nothing like it on TV but because I saw traces of nearly everything else on TV: The cutaways of "30 Rock", the awkward attempts at social justice statements from "Master of None", the use of a comedic veneer to mask trauma that's shown on "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt", the fourth-wall randomness of "Man Seeking Woman", and the feminist celebration of woman as proudly dysfunctional adult from "Broad City." Within a couple episodes, however, Maria Bamford and crew are able to master all these tricks and weave them together into a coherent tone. At its heart is Maria Bamford as Maria Bamford (I know that comedians playing themselves is as old as time, stick with it): A modern-day Mary Tyler Moore if Moore's neuroses were slightly more severe and had clinically-defined labels that she wore on her sleeve.

5. The Good Wife, CBS (Season 6)-To be fair, I never watched a single episode before this year. Once I caught it on a domestic flight, I was immediately hooked and have since been gobbling up the last three seasons when I'm looking for a dependable dose of intellectual excitement. Rarely have I encountered a procedural with such purpose beyond going through the same rote motions. Rarely have I ever seen characters whose intelligence and sense of conviction can come across on screen so well without resorting to blatant Sorkinist cheats.

6. Orange is the New Black, Netflix (Season 4)**-In an era where your average high-profile TV includes an Oscar winner or two, "Orange is the New Black" is still the medium's strongest ensemble. As such, so many balls are being juggled in the air, that there are always going to be plots that will strike the viewer. This year, Soso and Poussay's relationship along with Pennsatucky's liberation from Coates were among the strongest in my eyes, but there were a lot of directions the writers went in that got traction. While I maintain that the season finale resonated with social activists because of erroneous connections, it's good to know that people draw inspiration from the show in whatever ways they see fit. Although cruel guards (have we forgotten "Pornstache" already?) are relatively familiar territory for this show and "Orange is the New Black" seemed relatively unaware that Season 4 was not a particularly new shade of evil, Brad William Henke made a memorable villain as Piscatella nonetheless.

7. Another Period, Comedy Central (Season 2)-For me, “Another Period” is proof positive that with a couple tweaks, a show can really grow on you. During first season, I thought the show was broad and -- because I had trouble finding anything likeable about the two sisters who anchored the show -- quite cruel. The second season has benefited from a grand karmic leveling with the girls being upstaged by Harriett Tubman and Hortense, along with Chair being a serious threat to Dodo's power upstairs. Of course, Blanche still isn't getting any human dignity from Peepers or the universe in general, but here's hoping she channels her inner craziness enough to flat-out stab him soon. The increased maneuvering for power and the *gasp* hidden Belacourt family secret(s) has posited "Another Period" more in line with the upstairs-downstairs class drama (likely "Downton Abbey") it's made to skewer with a more American twist. One jarring thing about the show is its mix of humor. It takes a while to appreciate because the jokes are so intricately plotted, yet there is no limit on how low-brow these guys are willing to go for a joke. Watching this meticulously crafted blue humor delivered by some of the straightest men on TV-- stoic Victorian personalities like Peepers (Michael Ian Black) and the adorably naive Garfield (Armen Weitzman)-has been one of my biggest guilty pleasures this year.

8. Those Who Can't, TruTV (Seasons 1 and 2)-This is an entry in which my head is telling me that it’s absurd to rank this show ahead of some 55-60 other TV shows I saw this year, but my funny bone simply can’t resist. From Denver-based comedy trio Grawlix (Ben Roy, Andrew Orvedahl, and Adam Clayton-Holland), "Those Who Can't" looks at secondary education through the world of three lazy teachers enabled by a dysfunctional school administration. The show is striking in how confident it is of its comic tone right out of the gate and how deeply it dives into that joke no matter how dumb or smart it is. The characters come fully-formed and what’s underlooked is how the episodes have an escalating complexity in their plot that leads to a eureka moment akin to “Seinfeld” (although that’s admittedly a pretty lofty comparison to make). The show also boasts a lot of supporting roles with unsung actors including Sonya Eddy as the off-again on-again principal, Mary Lynn Rajskub as a loopy drama teacher, Rory Scovel (full disclosure: I have no idea who he is and don’t even want to check his IMDB page to find out he’s not particularly Quinn-ish in real life) as a touchy-feely principal, and Maria Thayer (who looks like she’s having the time of her life here) as a librarian desperate to fit in.

9. Shut Eye, Hulu (Season 1)-A breezy noir that has explores the world of psychics with a little bit

of magic, hypnotism, and gypsy mafia culture for good measure. Jeffrey Donovan plays a variation of his character from "Burn Notice": level headed under pressure and always thinking two steps ahead. Donovan plays a former magician Charlie Haverford who reluctantly operates as middle management under a mother-and-son mafia threat. Charlie's ambitious wife (KaDee Strickland) wants to stake out a bigger piece of the pie for herself by going after a wealthy mark. From there, the narrative spirals in all sorts of directions as the couple juggles all sorts of external threats while keeping law enforcement at bay, doing damage control on a drug overdose on their premises, and trying not to let a lesbian tryst with a hypnotist (Emmanuelle Chiriquí) threaten their trust in each other.

10. The Good Place, NBC (Season 1)-The always-game Kristen Bell helms one of the year’s most ambitious sitcoms as a self-absorbed slacker of outrageous proportions who accidentally ends up in Heaven and has to bluff her way through it with the aid of an ethics professor. Helmed be Mike Schur (“Parks and Recreation” “The Office”), the show has a very self-evident sense of fun exploring surprisingly deep moral conundrums under a comic guise while doing an excellent job at building a world. Ted Danson is one of TV’s best characters as a nebbish celestial architect from above constantly fretting over his creation and newcomer D’Arcy Carden is a wonderful bundle of contradictions as an android personal assistant who takes every command too literally. Who knows how long the show can keep up these cliffhangers, but so far, it’s a great ride.

11. American Horror Story: Roanoke, FX (Season 5)^:  "American Horror Story" best functions as a supernatural whodunit of sorts: A regular Joe with a healthy dose of skepticism gets thrust into something otherworldly, and the exact nature of the evil perpetrator is revealed to them (and us) over the course of the season. The first season executed this to a T but the first season was just a house in LA with a bunch of ghosts. It didn't have the same potential for fun as a 1950s asylum or a tourist trap freak show. On the other end of the spectrum, the show became overloaded with excessive plotlines and camp as it set its sights higher. The second season alone had an evil Nazi doctor, a sadistic nun, some freaky form of beasts out in the woods AND a malicious monsignor who all just coincidentally happen to be doing their dastardly deeds in the same cul-de-sac of horrors.

Season Six was a return to form with the best of both worlds: Set within the context of the haunted ground of Roanoke’s Lost  Colony and the racially-tense modern day backwaters of North Carolina, this season exudes a great sense of place while maintaining the scale of a tightly-wound  narrative.

12. Schitt's Creek, Pop TV (Season 2)-Co-created by Eugene Levy and son Daniel (who's apparently semi-famous or, as we like to say, famous in Canada), the show centers around an obscenely rich family with stunted adult children (Levy and Annie Murphy) being stripped of all their assets and being forced to move to a backwater town. The show initially was watchable but didn't really deliver on its potential of a small-town comedy with characters eccentric enough to be engaging. It also didn't help that central character David (Levy) was mostly a sad sack whose lone emotional M.O. was cosmopolitan disgust at his surroundings. In fact, the show's only real source of delight in the first season was Stevie  (Emily Hampshire) bringing David back to reality.

In the second season, we had a David-Stevie relationship that was as fresh as ever, but it also helped that giving the kids jobs enabled their rough edges to be sanded off every so slightly while Moira (Catherine O'Hara) went in the opposite direction. She became more overtly aloof which drew more out-loud laughter from me. The TV landscape is shifting more toward soft-laugh dramedy and Moira's absurdist demeanor keeps "Schitt's Creek" out of that trap. There was also a greater sense of familiarity with the characters that enabled the show's character-based humor to shine more. I enjoyed the sweetness of David and Steevie's evolution alongside each other, but I also found myself suddenly becoming enamored with Twyla's tangential  blabbing, Jocelyn's eternal reservoir of patience and  Bob's creepy intrusions into  Johnny's space. Like "Another Period," this show had one of the best sophomore season spikes I've ever seen.

Honorable Mentions:
Agent Carter, ABC-This action show really nails down the aesthetics and feel of a 1950' action serial but delivers it with a knowing wink. It never failed as a straight-up action story while simultaneously keeping the subversive meta-commentary in the picture.
Billy on the Street, TruTV*-Billy Eichner's refusal to abide by pedestrian social norms as he grills contestants on minute pop-culture details isn't just hilarious, it's also incredibly creative. Look at how Escaping Margo Robbie's moment satirizes the zero-sum game of staying on Hollywood's A-list or how the "This is Olivia Wilde, aren't you hideous in comparison?" segment satirizes the way tabloids encourage us to worship celebrities.
Casual, Hulu**-For a show tonally stuck between drama and dramedy, "Casual" managed to be one of the most engaging programs on TV without a net of laugh-inducing moments to fall back on. If it hadn't lost steam around the last three episodes, it would have made the list again. Why it doesn't just take the leap into "drama" like the recently-concluded "Parenthood," I'm not sure. 
Dirk Gentley's Holistic Detective Agency, BBC-There was some criticism that this wasn't particularly faithful to the source material, but if the source material is as non-linear as Douglas Adams, what would have been the point? This show was one of the most unique television entries and I understand how it could be a your-mileage-may-vary type of series, but it managed to keep me engaged enough in its narrative to keep me involved in the story's endgame. Within an eclectic ensemble of characters, there were enough winning storylines to smooth over any rough patches.
Fresh off the Boat,  ABC**-Nahnatchka Khan continues to use her immigrant experience (though from a different part of the Asian continent) to consistently provide a mix of aw-shucks moments, subversive humor and 90's nostalgia each week. Although this is typical sitcom fare, few sitcoms are as consistently inventive on a weekly basis.
Grace and Frankie, Netflix*-Move over young'uns. Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda can still out-act the Julia Louis-Dreyfuses and Lena Dunhams of the TV world with their hands tied behind their backs. The second season was more of a lateral move narrative-wise than a stakes-raising season. Some of the big developments like Grace's new relationship or Frankie's business idea splattered with a thud but the new directions the show has taken have been interesting nonetheless.
Gravity Falls, Disney-An extremely rare breed of children's show that can be enjoyed straight by adults rather than the way Pixar likes to layer kid-friendly comedy (with references only adults can get). The difference with "Gravity Falls" is that you find yourself rooting for the kids and laughing on their level. The show's strong conclusion was an indication of just how far Dipper and Mabel have come as people and into our hearts. That last sentence was corny, I know, but this show has a way of eliciting those kinds of sentiments.
Late Night with Seth Meyers, NBC-The late night wars were a particularly cut-throat battle for eyeballs this election season, and Seth Meyers' unexpected ascension to must-watch commentary was great validation for those who watched him on Weekend Update and always admired his edge. As the Trump campaign got more ridiculous, Meyers just said "screw it" to fair and balanced and pummeled Trump with every "A Closer Look" he could come up and never surfaced for air until a somber post-election concession speech.
Silicon Valley, HBO^-Mike Judge's show is about how Murphy's Law is always conspiring against America's latest incarnation of the rags-to-riches myth in dot com start-ups. It's a different type of show with less emphasis on the characters' personal lives and more about them as a single (and rarely functional) work unit. This season, Stephen Toblowsky's deceptive billionaire provided the show with its best nemesis to date.
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Netflix**-Like "Grace and Frankie" this show didn't raise the stakes, but not all great TV has to make the narrative more intense from season to season. Kimmy and Dong didn't turn into Kimmy and Dong 2.0, for example, but that doesn't take away the merit of the interesting directions the show took. Having Tina Fey play a character again is just showboating, but there were plenty of positive developments with Titus's new romantic relationship being key among them.


**=Made my top 12 last year
*=Made my honorable mentions last year
^=Has made my top 10 or top 12 before  (Silicon Valley here and American Horror Story here) 
To give you an idea of how deep the field was, here were the other shows I saw this year (many of which were very good, but just didn't make the cut):

Adam Ruins Everything, TruTV; America's Got Talent, NBC; Archer, FX; Atlanta, FX; Braindead, CBS; Conan, TBS; The Characters, Netflix; Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, CW; Daredevil*, Netflix; Difficult People*, Hulu; Documentary Now!, IFC; Falling Water, USA*; Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, TBS; Flaked, Netflix; The Get Down, Netflix; The Great Indoors, CBS; Grinder, Fox; Haters Back Off, Netflix; Idiot Sitter, Comedy Central; Impractical Jokers, TruTV; It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, FX; Last Man on Earth, Fox; Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, HBO; Lost and Found, Netflix; Mad TV, CW; Modern Family, ABC; Mozart in the Jungle; Amazon Prime; Night Manager, AMC; One Mississippi, Amazon Prime; The Path, Hulu; Plebs, Hulu; Preacher*, AMC; Real O'Neals, ABC; Saturday Night Live, NBC; Search Party, TBS; Small Business Revolution, Hulu; Sing it Off, Pop TV; Son of Zorn, NBC; Strange Calls, Hulu; Supergirl*, CW; Speechless*, ABC; South Park, Comedy Central; Superstore, NBC; Time Traveling Bong, Comedy Central; Timeless, NBC

The asterisk means I didn't get around to watching the full run because in the case of most of these, I wasn't intrigued. In the case of "Supergirl," I watched it out of order.

Looking at sophomore shows in 2016

Most Improved:

Schitt's Creek (Pop TV)
My freshman year assessment: A decent and somewhat broad show with a few problematic characters but has its moments.
Choice Quote:
"An effeminate brat who’s likely gay but is restricted to asexuality at the moment (possibly because sex would get in the way of his daily sulking rituals), Dave is the weakest character on the show in that we know only what he doesn’t like (being around his sister, the town, daylight) and not what drives him. He would be more at home in the bratty teen comedies of the late 90s than he would in Doc Hollywood."

Sophomore year:
This year, I saw Schitt's Creek in a whole night. The three members of the Rose family not named Johnny are still all bratty and entitled but giving the kids jobs enabled their rough edges to be sanded off every so slightly while Moira went in the opposite direction. She became more overtly aloof which drew more out-loud laughter from me. The TV landscape is shifting more towards soft-laugh   dramedy and Moira's absurdist demeanor keeps "Schitt's Creek" out of that trap. It's partially my comfort with the show and partially a concerted effort for the show to deepen its bench that I started to really appreciate the entire populance of the town. In season one, the taming of the  David  through the power of Stevie's sarcasm was just about the only memorable character interaction the show had. In Season 2, I enjoyed the sweetness of David-Stevie's evolution but I also found myself suddenly becoming enamored with Twyla's tangential  blabbing, Jocelyn's eternal reservoir of patience and  Bob's creepy intrusions into  Johnny's space.

Another Period (Comedy Central)
My freshman year assessment: The period angles are generally pretty clever, jokes are too dense and haphazard to really get a solid tone going, there are two solid characters, but the protagonists in the middle are too mean-spirited and awful to really enjoy their company.

Choice Quote:
"The main drawing point of the show (and what keeps it watchable) is that it's a fun period piece and it's very rare to see "fun" and "period piece" in the same sentence of a synopsis....The show is too sloppy to be taken as much of a satire and its characters are too cruel to be taken sympathetically or even seriously. The bloated ensemble also leads to episodes that are overly crammed for the thirty-minute running time. Despite these flaws, the show is still watchable and worthy of a laugh here and there."

Sophomore Year: This show  is easily one of my favorite things on TV
A general evening out of karma certainly helped here. The girls were exiled then upstaged by Harriet Tubman and Hortense, the servants had a semi-successful strike, and even Blanche got a good 6 or 7 minutes of maternity leave. Of course it's just a silly comedy, but it's preferable to see characters get their due than to watch the same well-meaning people get beaten up. This is especially true of TV because of the week-to-week repetition.  The oscillating balance of power between Dido and Chair (I'm Team Chair for the record) for control of the house, the possibility that the Commodore might lose his fortune, and the secret reveal of the Commodore's secret brother all moved the show closer to the source material it was meant to parody in "Downtown Abbey." Like "Schitt's Creek," my love for this show also had to do with my greater familiarity with the character beats over time which made the multi-layered character jokes hit that much harder.

Slight Improvement:

Real O'Neals (ABC)
My freshman assessment: I found this show to be passable but hampered by some over-dramatic tendencies by the protagonist. This extends on a meta-level as the show thinking it's more socially significant than it is: Divorces, gay teenage children, and whatever was inflicting the two other children (which were clearly gimmicks) are not really taboo in 2015 or 2016.
Choice Quote: I've never written about this show before.

Sophomore Year: The first season can best be seen as overly prolonged exposition with many of the plots revolving around the O'Neal family restating their problems as if they were wearing character-defining name tags. With the new season, the O'Neals are moving past realization to dealing with life under these new identities. Eileen, for example, is now dating a guy but her baggage lingers as subtext so the establishing premise of the show is existent at a less blaring level. Additionally, Kenny gets served up enough doses of humility to keep him from coming off as too egotistical. At the same time, the show's level of humor isn't as solid as it could be and the show could use a little more definition for Kenny's older brother (younger sister Shannon has been relegated to comic relief which I'm fine with).

Fresh off the Boat (ABC)
My Freshman Year Assessment: Ranked in my top 10 last year.
Choice Quote: "The show is simultaneously a throwback to TGIF family-style sitcoms of the '90s with a modern edginess to it in the vein of "Everybody Hates Chris" or "Malcolm in the Middle." More than those two shows, however, the show approaches 90's sitcoms with an ironic self-consciousness without omitting that genuine sweetness that those sitcoms were known for. More often than not, 11-year-old protagonist Eddie Huang learns a lesson in a round about way."

Sophomore Year (technically, we are in the top half of the 3rd season): The show started out being anchored by an amiable protagonist (Hudson Yang as Eddie), a breakout character in his mother Jessica (Constance Wu), a scene stealer in Grandma Haung (Lucille Soong) and an occasional choice moment by one of Eddie's younger brothers. Perhaps, it was a plus that Eddie's brothers weren't particularly well-developed in the opening season (I often joked that they were interchangeable). It gave room to flesh them out so much more in the second and third seasons. Similarly, Louis Huang has been developed although he sometimes is pushed into cliched aloof dad territory, he's often a solid foil for Eddie and Jessica and his own subplots can often be the strongest of the show. For the most part, the show continues to impress through strongly written plots that find ways to evoke sentiment and twists even with fairly standard set-ups.

For a show that prides itself on being so thoroughly engrossed in the past, it helps that they are slowly moving through the 90s at the same rate the show moves through the 2010s. We had the Bob Dole-Clinton election, Biggie Smalls death, and Shaq's Orlando move. Viva 1996!


Also in this category: Documentary Now (IFC)


Relatively Even:

Casual (Hulu)
My Freshman Year Assessment: I ranked it 10th on my year-end ranking for being one of the few character-based dramedies that is able to be both meaningful and entertaining (looking at you "Togetherness" and "Louie").
Choice Quote:
"Shows centering around flawed people dating are generally problematic because
it's hard to empathize with the trials and tribulations of good-looking actors with active sex lives. Few shows have highlighted the emptiness of sex like this show....Jason Reitman directed the first two episodes of this show and his penchant for combining a light comedic (or as they say "dramedic") tone and truthful character work is in full form here. With Tara Lynn Barr's character pushing the envelope of the bratty teenage daughter trope; Eliza Coupe as a manic pixie sexual nightmare, and one of the most meaningful sibling relationships on TV, there's a lot of great character work being done here."

My Second Season Assessment: Pro: More entertaining, Con: Lost steam towards the end
Shows automatically lose their novelty element in the second season which gets more problematic when novelty is why I liked the show in the first place. "Casual" took a brave approach by having a dramedy template but trying to entertain the audience entirely without jokes (my apologies to the show's marketing department, but who do you think you're kidding calling this funny?) and during the second season it appeared to work even better. I was thoroughly invested by the characters largely lateral movements in life. This would be in the improved column, but the show ran out of steam after around ten episodes when Alex got the girl and the last three episodes were an awkward mix of denouement and half-hearted plot recycling (Judd Apatow films are often said to experience the same problem).

Grace and Frankie (Netflix)
My Freshman Year Assessment: I found the show refreshingly novel in its coverage of the elderly. The closest examples ("Hot in Cleveland" and "The Golden Girls") treat their characters like punchlines next to the nuance shown here.
Choice Quote:
"Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin can act circles around all the young guns on TV so their arrival to serialized TV this year was a welcome surprise. The show is one of the few examples that shows about older people don't have to be tailor made for the AARP crowd. The trials and tribulations of Grace and Frankie were transcendent for all generations."

My second season assessment: The novelty was gone so the show had to swim upstream, to an extent, to maintain my level of interest but when it succeeded, it gave me a renewed appreciation for what the show was trying to do.

The two central characters had a few dragging plotlines. Most notably, the tryst with Phil (Sam Elliott) would have been worth it if it went anywhere but it went out with a whimper. On the plus side, a professional dimension was added to Gracie and Frankie's trials and tribulations. The kids have largely been phased out (wisely so) with the juiciest dynamic on the show being Brianna and Frankie. The tension resulting from personality differences between Robert and Saul finally erupted and the resulting scenes finally earned Robert and Saul the screen time they've been clamoring for.

Also in this category: Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (Netflix) (2nd season assessment here), Blind Spot (NBC),The Awesomes (Hulu)

Gone Downhill

Last Man on Earth (Fox)
My Freshman Year Assessment: I ranked it 2nd on my year-end ranking 
Choice Quote: "The novelty of the premise allowed the show to switch gears with new cast additions and subtractions which leant itself to one of the most unpredictable rides on television backed by one hell of a comic performance in Will Forte as the ever-evolving post-apocalyptic schlub Phil Miller 1.0 ."

My Second Season (although technically this is the 3rd season) Assessment: Blah
I don't blame this show for taking some dive in quality. It was a very high premise show whose high aims resulted in a brilliant one and a half seasons. It was with that same sense of ambition that the show made some gambles that didn't result in a show I still wanted to see. The show's first season was mainly Phil Tandy verse his worst instincts whereas the second season flipped the script to show the shortcomings of the group in not yet accepting a reformed Tandy before escalating into a situation where the other Phil became the group's number one villain. Unfortunately, the show couldn't sustain the tension when it substituted the militaristic grit of other Phil with the playful sibling rivalry of Jason Sudeikis. I like Sudeikis as much as any casual SNL fan but does he merit this much good will? The show needs a palpable sense of danger and "Last Man on Earth"'s unofficial rule of seven is starting to make things predictable.

Also in this category: Narcos (Netflix), Daredevil (Netflix)