As I did an exhaustive analysis of my movie watching in 2018, which soared, my TV watching sorely declined. After nailing 867 episodes of 81 shows last year, all I could manage was 476 episodes of 54 shows. TV is declining for me, what can I say? Here's a graph!
Show
Episodes
Percentage of Total
Seinfeld
35
7.35%
The Good Place
32
6.72%
Arrested Development
31
6.51%
The Office
28
5.88%
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
23
4.83%
The Simpsons
23
4.83%
Saturday Night Live
21
4.41%
The Venture Bros
20
4.20%
BoJack Horseman
20
4.20%
South Park
18
3.78%
American Vandal
17
3.57%
Ash vs. Evil Dead
15
3.15%
Last Week Tonight
14
2.94%
Broad City
14
2.94%
Future Man
13
2.73%
Brooklyn Nine-Nine
12
2.52%
Rick and Morty
12
2.52%
Mary Shelley's Frankenhole
11
2.31%
Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee
10
2.10%
The Fix
10
2.10%
The Last Man on Earth
9
1.89%
Marvel Avengers Assemble
9
1.89%
The End of the Fucking World
8
1.68%
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
8
1.68%
Disenchantment
8
1.68%
Adventure Time
5
1.05%
Documentary Now!
5
1.05%
Evil Genius
4
0.84%
Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law
4
0.84%
Big Mouth
4
0.84%
Monty Python's Flying Circus
3
0.63%
Mystery Science Theater 3000
3
0.63%
Black Mirror
2
0.42%
Community
2
0.42%
Aggretsuko
2
0.42%
Drunk History
2
0.42%
Bob's Burgers
2
0.42%
Dave Chappelle: Equanimity
1
0.21%
The Detour
1
0.21%
Dave Chappelle: The Bird Revelation
1
0.21%
30 Rock
1
0.21%
American Ninja Warrior
1
0.21%
Korgoth of Barbaria
1
0.21%
The Terror
1
0.21%
Seth Rogen's Hilarity for Charity
1
0.21%
Review
1
0.21%
Gurren Lagann
1
0.21%
Futurama
1
0.21%
Sense8
1
0.21%
Maniac
1
0.21%
Family Guy
1
0.21%
Rocko's Modern Life
1
0.21%
A Young Doctor's Notebook
1
0.21%
The Tigers of Scotland
1
0.21%
The most serious show I watched was probably Evil Genius, followed by Tigers of Scotland. Seinfeld won, of course. My Simpsons was way down, after hitting 105 last year and 222 the year before that.
Arrested Development and Always Sunny remain pretty strong, but props to The Good Place for being a relatively recent, contemporary show and not something that peaked in the 90s! I was definitely off my game for most of the year, and not into a ton of new shows like I used to be. The Last Man on Earth was cancelled, Brooklyn Nine-Nine is coming back but not this fall, and I just can't do The Flash anymore. To be honest, I've been kind of sick of The Simpsons after they couldn't have handled their Apu controversy with less aplomb. I'm still super into everything...90s... but stopped regularly watching every week.
I mean, it wasn't that hard to because the show got terrible. STARTING WITH SEASON 28.
Way back in the nether reaches of January, 2015 we produced a list of fifteen great pop cultural events dropping in the year that we ranked in order of most-looking forward to. As usual, most of these were utter, utter crap that I know don't care about. But let's take a look at what we were looking at a year ago anyway:
#15: The Return of Archer (01/08)
I'll be honest, I didn't really remember much of Archer's sixth season when it came time to write this reflection. It only ended in April. I suppose in early January of last year I was really looking forward to it and so it was naturally on my mind, but looking back at some of the episodes now to refresh my memory I'm filled with a surprising amount of "meh." I recall really enjoying the season when it was on, and there is still hardly a more complex and funny animated spy comedy on television right now, but for all my purpose here, it's fitting to be #15 and no greater.
#14: Pitch Perfect 2 (05/15)
I didn't end up seeing this. I want to. It landed with more a thud then a "YEAH!" and appeared to be mostly a re-hash of Pitch Perfect (2012), as awesome as that still is. It suffers from a hard case of sequelization where nothing is really added to the premise except that things get bigger, badder, and more outrageous. It's essentially a skip.
#13: Minions (07/15) Why is this on this list?
#12: The Avengers: Age of Ultron (05/01) I have really mixed feelings still about Age of Ultron. I left the theater really enjoying myself, but with seven months now to reflect, it's astonishing how much of a shitty movie it was. Ultron, while promised greatness in Jim Spader's voice and a stellar marketing campaign, ended up being a bit lackluster, with murky motivations and an evil maniacal scheme that seemed reductive at best. The film works well as an advertisement for Captain America: Civil War (2016), but shouldn't we hold our movies to a higher standard than that? We all know this. This film actually broke me - I didn't and still contain no desire to see Ant-Man (2015). I guess this was compounded by the excellent one-two punch of Marvel Avengers Assemble episodes, "Crack in the System" (S2;E14) and "Avengers Dissassembled" (S2;E15), which deal with a similar story line with greater efficiency and cleverness.
#11: Jurassic World (06/12) I'm going to have to side with similar feelings to this as I did with Ultron, although certainly not as drastic. It's a fine litmus test to try to think of a great scene from a movie six months down the line, no matter how jazzed I was watching it in the theater. Maybe it's the general souring of this film on the Internet that has me jaded, because I was a sole voice of reason during its initial $1.6 billion run. I did point out at the time that Chris Pratt only exists to explain things and be the only reasonable human being on screen at any given moment, and the film serves more as a meta-indictment of current blockbusters while acknowledging the superiority of Jurassic Park (1993) while relishing in its own blockbuster-yness. In the end I sorta just wish they made a better movie instead of pumping nostalgia, even if their commentary on doing just that is pretty canny.
#10: Better Call Saul (02/08) This is certainly a deserved chunk of pop culture and Better Call Saul quickly became extremely watchable television. It's amazing that a spin-off prequel to Breaking Bad could be so successful, but it works in part because it's not beholden at all to the original's mythology. It has simply taken a handful of characters from the original show and elucidated them under different circumstances. This is exactly what we want. It's what we always want.
#9: Halo 5: Guardians (Fall) This is kind of a curveball, I totally forgot that this was even coming out and that I even cared about this until I was re-reading this list. After slamming through some playthroughs, because I never actually play video games any more. Again, I'm totally just into the single-player campaign, which is probs the minority opinion among Halo Junkies. Anyway, the split focus recalls the middle chapter in the previous trilogy, although Locke is a bit less interesting than the Arbiter. At least we don't have to play as a gross Elite and be disgusted with ourselves. The composition of the story ends up being a little disjointed, and after Halo 4 really impressed me by subtly breaking away from some of the Halo conventions and feeling really fresh, suddenly Halo 5 seems like a retread. Well, time to look ahead to Halo 6: Space Monster Boogaloo.
#8: The Return, then Finale of Parks and Recreation (01/13) Parks and Rec ought to have secured its place among the pantheon of contemporary classics, even if its intense serialization has actually made re-watching a less enjoyable affair. The final season limped a bit with heavy losses to the cast and a show that ultimately didn't feature any of its core characters still doing the same work, but in its own way, that's what Parks and Rec was always about - a workplace comedy that eventually had all its people spin out of the workplace and go on with their lives. The final scenes were some of the strongest and most inspirational in recent memory, which also boils down to what it's all about - the most positive and hopeful show on television.
#7: Furious 7 (04/03) It's seemingly impossible that the seventh installment of a film series that once included Ja Rule would continue raising the bar for itself in every possible way. Each film seems better than the one that came before it both critically and financially. It's also amazing that we all realized that we cared so much about Paul Walker. It certainly lived up to expectations, although is it the Oscar hopeful we all thought it could be? Nah, but probs one of the better blockbusters of the year. Somehow.
#6: The Return of Broad City (01/14) Yes, a thousand times yes. Broad City strutted out in 2015 for its second season with an absurd amount of confidence and put together some of the greatest scenes in any show this year. It's hard to find a weak episode, with Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson firmly making their case for the funniest buddy duo of our time.
#5: The Revenant (12/25)
It's tough to follow-up a film like Birdman (2014) in terms of both direction, cinematography, cast, cultural context, and ambition, but Alejandro and Emmanuel dare try. Stick these guys with Leo and Tom who have both had spectacular careers lately (lest we forget they were buddies in Inception [2010]), and there's a lot going on here amidst the bear attacks and river fights. Totally worth it and this should have been bumped up this list a ton.
#4: Tomorrowland (05/22)
I like a lot of what Tomorrowland tried to do, but it seemed to get lost in the shuffle of the summer and could never really break out sandwiched between Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), which drew the most eyeballs, Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), which drew the most wonder, and San Andreas (2015), which seemed to be able to mop everything up with the Rock and Alex Daddario better than Clooney and Britt Robertson. And Britt Robetson has total movie star potential, but Tomorrowland is ultimately forgettable - so she'll need something else lest she fall into fell Disney failure Taylor Kitsch territory fast.
#3: The Return of The Venture Bros. (01/19) This was pretty sweet. Well, the one special, "All This and Gargantua-2" was. So many storylines were wrapped up....so much loss. We're virtually at the same point we were A YEAR AGO with the promise of Season Six premiering in February. So Venture Bross will totally be on our anticipated list for next year. Great. I'm not going to let it get to me that the pilot dropped on February 16, 2003. That's six seasons in thirteen years. There are no other fans that know our pain.
#2: The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (Aug or Sep) I'd say this has been pretty good but not really the great, awe-inspiring change to late night forever as we know it that I sort of hoped it'd be. He got off to a real shaky start, despite what a lot of critics have said, but I've been disinterested in his faux-pundit persona for a while now. The more he's steered away from that and discovered more of who he wants to be on camera, the stronger the show has become, even if Fallon and Kimmel have a slightly stronger hold on virality right now.
#1: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (12/18)
And he's cute!
If you really want to hear what I think about this and have a good forty-five minutes or so, you can check it out right here. Re-thinking all that now, though, I suppose that if we divorce ourselves from this film's utter reliance on basic plot points and motifs from the Original Trilogy, it is a pretty great film. That's a tough call to make, though. I still believe that this has some pacing issues and problems with establishing a clear plot, but every new central character is fantastic and it absolutely feels like a gift more than the prequels, which is a true Christmas blessing.
So that's 2015 in a nutshell. As always, most of the pop cultural artifacts we were looking forward to were really really terrible. I might say 5/15 of these were really worth it?
What do you think of 2015? Do you agree? Stay tuned after the new year to find out what crap we're looking forward to in 2016!
2015 is going to be a beefy year - we're all getting hoverboards after all. So that's why we have a whopping FIFTEEN items of Popular Culture of note to discuss here. Half of them are movies, big and small, others are TV shows returning (or starting), and we even have a video game in there. Let's get in that ass:
#15: The Return of Archer (01/08)
The lack of Danger Zone in their ad
campaign is disappointing, though.
Luckily all of our TV show pumped-upness comes in January. Last season's completely experimental Archer Vice missed more than it hit, but eventually hit its stride as it ended with a long string of contiguous episodes. Archer is at its best when full of heady irreverence coupled with obscure references to pop culture from Burt Reynolds to Bartleby the Scrivener. This has become a show that can go anywhere, with characters strong enough to not be bound by their initial premise, which is an idea I'm hoping they pursue rather than playing it safe.
#14: Pitch Perfect 2 (05/15)
Here's my ace in the hole - somehow last summer I turned into a huge Pitch Perfect fan, which completes my transition into turning into a 14-year old girl. That film was a lot of fun and full of all these subtly bizarre moments like an extended puke fight and Brittany Snow's mysteriously deep singing voice that saves them at the end for some reason. I'm down with whatever the next one is trying to do, and as long as Anna Kendrick is getting her cups on for whatever medley of old favourites and contemporary pop hits they're throwing out. In all honesty, this is going to be a nice mid-May antidote for ridiculous stupid blockbusters assaulting our senses.
#13: Minions (07/15)
I'm not even a huge Despicable Me (2010) fan, and in a normal world I would not care about this spin-off that doesn't seem to have any artistic merit at all, but I mostly really really just want there to be no English spoken in this film and have it all be Minion jibberish. That would be incredible! What a giant screw-you to an animation industry built on miscast celebrity voices! That also forces the presentation of story to be pushed in new interesting, non-verbal directions, which has been successful so far with these little yellow turds in short bits. Will it work stretched into a feature film? Probably not, but damn I want to be riding this train when it goes off the rails.
#12: The Avengers: Age of Ultron (05/01)
I have this pretty low just because I'm skeptical. I spoke at length concerning the trailer and how it's circumvented some of my hesitation, but there's still the concern that this is more fan pandering, easily digestible, mass market material rather than anything that pushes character insight or advances humanity. Maybe I'm being harsh and the film will be really cool. Ultron is suitably menacing and Marvel's stock is actually rising in the quality of their films as of late.
#11: Jurassic World (06/12)
See Ultron, Age of. This has potential to be really cool, but slightly larger potential to suck a donkey egg. I guess I'm just extremely skeptical about these long-range sequels' ability to offer something more to say about a topic or contribute some cultural significance. Instead of seeing the next Jurassic Park (1993) imitator, I'd rather have the next film that can change lives the way Jurassic Park did.
#10: Better Call Saul (02/08)
Is Breaking Bad the greatest TV Show of all time? Maybe Top Ten. But any excuse to play more in that world, especially with the much lighter Saul Goodman is fair game. Bob Odenkirk has put his time in as a character actor and it'll be something awesome to see this take off and him start to get Cranston-level respect, but I'm not sure the premise or fury is as strong as Breaking Bad. Any way you slice it this is an interesting direction and maybe we end up with the second-greatest TV Show of all time.
#9: Halo 5: Guardians (Fall)
Alright, I'm just a Halo junkie, which goes all the way back to playing it in High School with a room full of douchebags. And then I played Halo 2 in College with a LAN full of douchebags. I actually didn't even bother will multiplayer in the third and fourth installments, but I'm pretty curious about the story. That's actually really nerdy of me, but this series also has an epic feel that's missing from a lot of its imitators and spin-offs.
#8: The Return, then Finale of Parks and Recreation (01/13)
It's almost easy to forget how the previous season of Parks and Recreation ended, with a flash-forward jump in time and Leslie Knope firing Jon Hamm. There may not be a better comedy on Network TV right now, and there's certainly not one on NBC. It's the last vestige of a once impenetrable Thursday Night Line-Up (if not in ratings, then at least in quality) that will be missed dearly. Here's to the hope it goes out with a bang rather than a whimper.
#7: Furious 7 (04/03)
I have Furious 7 ranked above Jurassic Park and Avengers sequels? Of course I do. The rise of this franchise is one of the most unlikely and ridiculous in Hollywood, and for any fan, this is a true finale - finally we get to see what happens after The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006) ended and a lot of Han avenging / Jason Statham tussling with The Rock and The Diesel. By all accounts this is going to be spectacular - and hopefully also a fitting send-off for our dear Paul Walker, departed from the earth.
#6: The Return of Broad City (01/14)
Anything that comes close to "Destination
Wedding" (S1;E8) would be appreciated.
I found myself really jonesing for this a few weeks ago actually, while watching some Hannibal Burress stand-up. My only regret about Broad City is that in the year since its debut it's gotten way more mainstream. It's such a bizarre niche show that I really enjoyed it when I felt like I was the only one watching it. That's a stupid complaint, but I also feel like this show hinges on being grotesque and unique rather than primed for mass consumption. It'll be sweet.
#5: The Revenant (12/25)
It's tough to think about what you'll be doing on Christmas Day, 2015, but I'll probably be seeing this. Alejandro González Iñárritu has never been hotter coming off Birdman (2014), and the mix of actors and premise (Leo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy in a 19th-Century Fur Trapper thriller!) is palpable. There aren't a ton of images or trailers for this one yet, but with everyone involved it ought to be compelling. Hey, I made the same judgment on Interstellar last year.
#4: Tomorrowland (05/22)
Brad Bird is the man. So is everyone else involved in this. And a cool trailer that makes you go "Wha?" without totally losing your faith in God like some other trailers out there. I am all about original blockbuster filmmaking. I'm actually only concerned about the involvement of writer Damon Lindelof, who tends to purposefully obscure his projects in mysticism that confounds rather than entices. Oh Brad, be our balance, our light in the darkness. We beseech thee.
#3: The Return of The Venture Bros. (01/19?)
It's hard to be a Venture Bros. fan. What other show puts out six seasons over twelve years? You'd think we'd have stopped suckling at their teat by now, but the milk is just so damn good. Rumour has it that there's a January 19th premiere date, but other sources say Summer, and the only video they've put out merely says this year. That last one is probably as close as we're going to get to pinning something down. Any year that actually contains new episodes of this show is a good one.
#2: The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (Aug or Sep)
Four years ago I actually wrote that I hated The Colbert Report because it had grown repetitive, limited Colbert's comedic potential, and pandered to a brainwashed audience. I'd like to think that everyone else has caught on by now and it was really refreshing news to hear that Colbert was stepping in to fill Dave Letterman's shoes at The Late Show. I am infinitely curious to see whether or not Colbert can pull this off because it's really a slightly different direction than what The Colbert Report does. Colbert is still an incredibly funny, creative comedic genius, though, and stretching his legs with a more traditional Talk Show format is a move that I am very excited for.
#1: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (12/18)
Guaranteed to please both R2-D2 and Soccer Fans.
C'mon. It was never going to be anything else. Whether or not this is The Empire Strikes Back (1980)-level good, Return of the Jedi (1983)-level meh, or The Phantom Menace (1999)-level bad, it's a cultural event. New Star Wars, people! Star Wars is like pizza - even if it's old and cold you're still going to enjoy eating it. I can't even begin to imagine how the mix of Abrams' style with Lucas' world turns out, but whatever this thing is like I am seeing it, and so are all of you.
I'm feeling good about this list, folks. Then again, I almost always feel good about these lists and almost always disappoint myself. What's your pick for 2015?
Here we are again to the third installment of The Long Halloween, NMW's yearlong look at different movies to watch on different holidays each month. After years of going through the major ones though, we found that was just too easy. This year we're going for the more Obscure Holidays and so today we celebrate President's Day. Let's take a look at Abe and George's Greatest Hits:
George Washington:
There has been a surprising lack of cultural appearances by George over the years. He showed up in Mel Gibson's The Patriot (2000) as well in the TV Movie The Crossing (2000), played by Jeff Daniels for some reason. He was also the central figure in an episode of Masters of Horror, "The Washingtonians," where it is revealed that he was actually a cannibal at Valley Forge. He also battled the evil Hans Sprungfeld in The Simpsons episode "Lisa the Iconoclast" (S7;E16). Of course, everyone knows the best incarnation of our First President:
The important thing about George is how honorific we are of him. He was the founder of our nation, for goodness sake. The cat never told a lie, chopped down as many trees as he wanted, and had a ridiculous killing spree of British Children. The Cox & Combes' thing really exaggerates the mythical status Washington has in our minds. It's hard to argue against the video. How can you say he didn't make love like an eagle falling out of the sky? Washington is one badass mother, and you better do what he says.
Abraham Lincoln:
Soon with both Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012) and Lincoln (2012), we'll have plenty of good President's Day flicks to enjoy. Of course, we do still have the novel version. Still, unlike George, Abe appears just about everywhere. It's part of their physical appeal. Lincoln is still our tallest president (6'4"), and his gangly, weird limbs, ugly mug and chinstrap beard and stovepipe hat, which apparently no one else in history ever wore, makes him simultaneously distinctive and pretty goofy. There are tons of cultural depictions but some of his best include Rap Battles with Chuck Norris, Lightsaber Battles with George W. Bush, and Drunk History with Frederick Douglass.
He's also had some memorable appearances as a Ghost on The Venture Bros. and a convenient way to hide a Dan Aykroyd's giant coned head in Coneheads (1993). His statue even terrorized the Super Best Friends on South Park. These are terrible. His definitive appearance has to be in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989), which contains some true words of wisdom - "Be excellent to each other." That ought to satisfy your Presidential craving for now.
Alright folks, it's time to talk about some Television. 2010, like other recent years, was an incredible time for TV. Amidst some of the more legendary shows coming and going we saw the continued dominance of Cable Diversification and how much critics love it, startling audience breakdowns and NBC again really relying only on Fantastic Sunday Night Football coverage to support the entire network. Well, of course that AND the Winter Olympics.
RETURNING SHOWS OF 2010:
We'll break this down into a few categories because the TV season doesn't really measure up with our Calendar Year. I'll chat first about shows both in the 2009 - 2010 seasons as well as 2010 - 2011, then shows that ended in 2010 and finally shows that began in 2010. Now, naturally there's always the Mad Men and Breaking Bad and that people love, and these are some of the strongest narratives on TV, even if the former is incredibly boring and difficult to get into and the latter is so critically acclaimed that Norwegian Morning Wood really has no place supporting it here.
2010 was notable for a few big returns. Futurama arrived on Comedy Central this summer, with a good amount of sub-par episodes but some incredible, instant classics such as "The Late Philip J. Fry" (S6;E7) and "The Prisoner of Benda" (S6;E10). The Simpsons also featured one of their greatest non-Treehouse of Horror episodes in years in "The Squirt and the Whale" (S21;E19) and have had some return to form after a couple terrible years. As you can tell, I primarily watch cartoons. South Park, while surely blowing a few opportunities with their Coon arc this fall, knocked out "Medicinal Fried Chicken" (S14;E3) and "You Have 0 Friends" (S14;E4).
The best two shows on TV, though I still believe to be the one-two of Community and Parks and Recreation on NBC. Neither are audience favourites but those who watch them get hooked immediately and they've topped many end-of-year-lists like this one. I've ranted and raved about both of these plentyoftimes before, needless to say they're the most incredible comedies on television and their continual Emmy snub makes me want to punch babies until my arm gets sore.
So what other general news from the year? American Idolswitched up its judges but no one really cared. Jersey Shore was everywhere, getting MTV ratings typically reserved for Networks. Everyone was DVR-ing and Satellite-ing and Hulu-ing, but that's not news. Olympics, World Cup, Thursday Night Football that non one was able to watch, fun sports year. Also we should note Super Bowl XLIV, which managed to attract the largest American audience of all time watching a TV at the same time. Of course, that's still a fraction of the people who logged on to Facebook at some point during the game.
NEW SHOWS OF 2010:
Let's talk about Conan. One of the hottest topics of 2010 was the huge NBC late night host controversy, in fact it has its own Wikipedia page (look how detailed that shit is!). In the end, Conan was able to settle into a new position on TBS with a dude who was more than happy to let him go wherever he wanted, and Conan has done pretty well ever since. By the way, currently 90.6% of households with a TV also had cable in 2010, is it that big of a deal that cable shows are beating Networks? It's also nice to see that amidst all the strange Late Night feuds there's at least two pretty cool rivals who like each other. I am growing into a pretty good Craig Ferguson fan by the way, who won a Peabody this year for interviewing Desmond Tutu, is settling into a fantastic "Awkward Pause" routine and also thoroughly skews Late Night standards with his Robotic Sidekick and other frank intimate moments. He's my dude.
Anyway, besides Late Night tangents, HBO debuted three fantastic series that should all be contenders for Best of the Year, including The Pacific, Treme and Boardwalk Empire. After being very impressed with the first episode of The Walking Dead, I'm not sold on how the season turned out, settling for more typical Zombie Tropes than the unrelenting comic series. My favourite new series of the year though is still Adventure Time with Finn & Jakeon Cartoon Network. Haha, that rules.I'll also mention delighting in the Sunday double-dose of Childrens Hospital and Mary Shelley's Frankenhole. Lots of new gems to find in the sand this year. Also I guarantee this the only list you'll find mentioning Frankenhole equal to Treme. Dammit, that's some funny shit.
ENDING SHOWS OF 2010:
The Boondocks tended to go out with a whimper rather than a bang, despite an awesome kickball episode. Other than that, 2010 saw the end of long-going series like Law & Order and Larry King Live (did a soul care?) The big knock-outs were Scrubs, 24 and LOST, though, the latter of which really swept up the Spring Zeitgeist. All of these shows ended for the exact reason there's not a whole lot to write about them, though. They're irrelevant, no longer interesting and really puttered out without much satisfaction.
BETTY WHITE:
What the hell, Betty White. From appearing on Community, SNL (winning an Emmy for a...pretty shitty episode) and truly igniting the Facebook community (what the hell does that mean), Betty White was THE TV artist of 2010 and didn't even really star in any shows. What a glorious old cunt. I don't really understand my generation's love of Betty White. Sure there's the old vagina jokes, and those can be pretty fun but what other joy do we get from watching this old woman get bounced around in Snickers Commercials (on that topic can we mention the creep-out Commercial of the year? Snickerrrrsss!!). This chick and like, Jon Hamm seemed to pop up in every weird little spot. Like the Season Finale of Childrens Hospital. What the hell, Jon Hamm. Go sell some John Ham.
BEST EPISODES OF 2010:
Community - "Modern Warfare" (S1;E23) was absolutely legendary, from the Apocalypse spoof to the lack of character shields, eruption of sexual tension and Ken Jeong's masterful final appearance, this was breathtaking.
Ugly Americans - "The Manbirds" (S1;E14) was pretty awesome. Does anyone else ever watch this show? Most of it is unremarkable, but this episode's pension for cockfighting, which I already adored here proved to be a great emotional tether for a classic sports redemption. Maybe not, but the Manbird language alone makes the episode worth watching.
The Venture Bros - "Operation P.R.O.M." (S4;E16) was a severely underlooked achievement. This scene alone may be one of the most fantastically constructed of the year and the amount of reward for the depth and growth of character this season doesn't fail to disappoint.
LOST - "Ab Aeterno" (S6;E9) took the show's most interesting and mysterious side character and developed an entire short movie about his backstory that was interesting, moving, gave some insight to the Island's Mythology (some insight). This is what LOST was like at its best - not necessarily following a strict narrative but using its episodic medium and huge cast of characters to tell little vignettes that tied into a more complete story. Despite a somewhat middling final season (although I think the Finale was spectacular), "Ab Aeterno" emerges as one of the best episodes of the year. You can take that to the bank.
Ah the changing seasons. Kids trotting off to school, leaves changing, sudden appearance of Goblins on occasion and the temperature goes from nice to shit real fast. In temperate belts. It also means a whole awesome smattering of new television for every boy, woman, girl, child, man and smizmar to enjoy.
Now for the past couple years it's almost inarguable to say that television has surpassed films in storytelling ability. As I proselytized in a massive, nine-part post last year, Current Television is just about the best it's ever been. Whereas every season has its winners and rejects (wait, who is who there?), which was actually recently summed up nicely here.
Anyway, it certainly goes without saying so far that a couple weeks (months...sorry) into the new TV year and...well it's pretty rough. There's hardly a hit among any of them, and out of that much less is a critical darling. Thus it's my intention to examine all of TV here (as I of course typically live by the TV mantra of Sports/Movies/Cartoons) to sum up the true swarth of what's on the tube. So let's kick it with the new shows:
Drink! Drink Like a Freshman!
Is there honestly a single offering here that jumps out at you? Apparently some people have dugHawaii Five-0 and Mike & Molly (REALLY?!). I mean, we're down to watching a retread of an ungroundbreaking show from the 70s and a show that from all appearances looks like a dumber Honeymooners? Honestly, we're still going with the fat, lazy lovable husband, but getting rid of the hot wife? It escapes me, how much safer can you get, CBS? Also what's scarier - it works.
But I digress. Let's look to cable. I haven't seen Terriers on F/X, hear it's good but despite my favour towards Donal Logue, doesn't seem special. Other than that, Boardwalk Empire has been a treat, if not simply equal parts every-gangster-movie-ever-made with a splash of interesting in the form of long-time genius B character actor Stevie Buscemi in lead. What makes the show work so far is that it takes from some of the best films out there. Whether it's sustainable through the scrutiny of its lead (already some love the idea of Buscemi as the perfect double-sided gangster, others hate him, either way it works for his character, though viewership may fluctuate). Whereas this series surely needs some room to grow, it's having a tough time finding out what exactly it can be right now. As it distinguishes itself however, I bet it'll be one of HBO's best.
So I'll admit to really enjoying one new show this season. Adult Swim's Childrens Hospital. This is the single new show I've picked up and followed and it rules.
Malin Akerman playing ridiculous is awesome. The babes in this show are unreal, as is the cast, which includes recurring spots by Winkler, The Bad Dude from Robocop and Mike Ceratops over the loudspeaker. Every character constantly plays ridiculous situations with an absolute straight face (including Rob Corddry in continuous clown make-up). It parodies Medical Dramas better than Scrubs (shot on the same set) and has a continual vein of surreality and silliness that hasn't let me down yet. Go watch it.
I'm also interested in The Walking Dead, premiering Halloween Night on AMC. The series of graphic novels has had some excellent themes and plotting, barring at times unreadable and unnecessary dialogue. With a good scriptwriter this could spin the standard Zombie apocalypse in an interesting way (as in an on-going serial, dealing with not the first few days nor simple long-term outrageous snapshots but rather a complex human reaction to a slow and marauding end of the world), helping to reinvigorate a genre that seems reinvigorating every four to six months.
The Best Returners:
There is a good crop of established shows out there, notwithstanding those that just wrapped up due to insane cable schedules. These include the requisite mentions of Mad Men, Breaking Bad and Sons of Anarchy. I'd like to highlight some shows that I watch most regularly (you can tell my interests and demographic immediately) and how they've done so far:
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia has gotten some of its steam back recently after a pair of lackluster season openers. My early concern has thus been reassured. South Park has also seemed to be more desperate in the past couple seasons, but tonight's was incredibly strong as are some previews that are building my anticipation. One of the first shows to successfully follow South Park for two consecutive years, Ugly Americans has also proven itself to be a pretty witty show, sneaking under my comic radar with its balls-out universe anchored to a very normal guy. I've also been impressed with the current (22nd somehow) season of The Simpsons which has found ways to still be simultaneously controversial, thought-provoking, artistic, innovative and hilarious:
Despite the fact that the Flight of the Conchords might have been the funnest part of the season so far, it's possible the show is gaining ground again after spinning its wheels for the greater part of the past decade (no clips on Hulu of this one for some reason, watch the whole ep anyway, you'll be pleased).
The two best-written shows of the Season so far though, have been The Venture Bros on Adult Swim and Community on NBC. I'm planning a thorough post on Community actually, the management of character and plot expectation in these early episodes has been fantastic, it's criminal this has never been recognised (sure it's only in its second year...but this is an NBC show now going against The Big Bang Theory on Thursday nights - how long is this going to last? This is NBC's funniest and most well written show - how is it doing the poorest?) Venture has also been spectacular, actually by now becoming one of Adult Swim's longest running and reliably well-plotted shows, but you guys knew that.
On to some shit, I think that The Office, 30 Rock, and How I Met Your Mother have all their best seasons behind them (although the live 30 Rock, while admittedly hokey and sitcom-y was somehow very entertaining, and the HIMYM race across New York was also probably the best ep of the season) and for the most part I haven't been that impressed. The Office has some of the best ratings on NBC, I'm curious its fate after Carell skips town.
Movies! On TV!
I realise I'm that bad of a TV junkie that I've memorised most of the release schedule for flicks showing up on the box. It's usually around a two and a half year lapse between theater premieres and showing up on F/X or some place, but we've had some great opportunities to watch shit on TV.
Now, we live in an age of Netlflix, Hulu, DVD and all matter of illegal download services. There's never really a reason to catch a flick on television. I've begged to differ on a fewoccasions. A flick like Jumper (2008) I'm never going to waste space with on my hard drive or preempt Harry Brown (2009) in my Netflix queue. But it's perfect to put on F/X on the background while writing blogs. It deserves about as much interest as Mark Zuckerberg gives deposing lawyers and that's what it gets. We'll flex the spectrum to Cloverfield (2008), The Hangover (2009) on HBO which I've caught on two non-consecutive hotel room visits and the awesome Forgetting Sararh Marshall (2008). Spectacular times, my readers.
Now for a Sports Update
How about the NFL Season this year? This stat is incredible, as is the simple fact that Sunday Night Football is NBC's highest rated program by far. In fact, it was the channel's only program to break the Top 25 after last year's ratings for the year were totaled. I'm not sure it speaks to the popularity of the sport as much as how absolutely terrible some other shows have been.
I don't talk about football enough here. It's an advertising goldmine, multi-billion dollar industry (my friends and I got in an argument of whether or not we'd rather own the entire NFL or Facebook over the next five years). It's also a focal point for zeitgeist and frankly, some of the raw programming is underrated (I challenge anyone against Kenny Mayne). Haha, I still just love that NBC stat, they need to advertise all of their shows during those precious few hours a week they're actually beating some one.
Part of the reason NFL games have done so well is because of an extremely high level of parity in the current season (fourteen teams have only two losses, six have three, none are undefeated and only two are winless...dammit). Longtime favourites have had fantastic nail-biting losses and Detroit was in a blow-out that actually favoured them. How the hell can you tell which game is going to be good? You can't motherfucker, you had better watch them all.
Which is exactly what's happening.
Oh yeah, and This:
So these are my early impressions of the year so far. I think there are many shows that can do better, there's certainly nothing really good among new offerings, but sports and movies are fantastic. Hail Xenu, keep your screens on, dear readers.