If you need an introduction to my top ten lists, here is comedy first. I feel like a top ten list is fairly self-explanatory though and by no means is it necessary to read that first.
Drama seemingly had a weak year for the second year in a row. I think it's weak only relative to my expectations and that in the past, I've had shows that I had watched for a few years that I sort of expected to make my list that did, such as Mad Men, Justified and Fargo. The sort of show that I instantly know will make my list when I start this project. Few of those shows were present in 2018 for me, which made compiling a top ten list feel weaker. But honestly, I think this is just a misconception that I have for whatever reason. Looking at my past years' lists, it's not like all ten shows would wipe out this year's shows.
The list is much different this year. Alias Grace, The Leftovers, FEUD, Stranger Things, and Fargo did not air anything in 2018 and all made my list last year. I chose not to watch Handmaid's Tale, which made my list, because the reviews for season two pretty much aligned with my fears about the season after watching the first, which I even said last year in my top ten post. I watch a lot of shows so I have to be stingy when it comes to choosing what to watch. And onto the list!
#10 DC's Legends of Tomorrow (CW)
Model Episode: "Here I Go Again"
Oh how far this show has come. Never in a million years would I have dreamed this show would ever have a chance to make a top ten list back when this first aired. I probably would find it hard to imagine the show even being better than the other CW superhero shows. But it unquestionably the best of the bunch now.
Legends of Tomorrow is an absolutely ridiculous show and it sure knows it. They have the "Why not?" approach to storytelling, to take something absurd and just put it in the episode because it'll be fun. And it is! The show has weathered cast changes throughout this process, but as long as Caity Lotz is still the center of the show, it can probably suffer a few more changes. I picked "Here I Go Again" because I love Groundhog Day episodes.
#9 Haunting of Hill House
Model Episode: "The Bent-Neck Lady"
This show had a terrible ending and could have been higher if not for that. But at the same time, that tells you about the first nine episodes, that I still have it on the top ten even with a bad ending. I do not like horror stories. I do not understand the want to watch something that will deliberately scare you. However, I will watch horror movies if they are trying to accomplish something other than "scare the shit out of you." My favorite horror movies are the meta ones, which should tell you something.
Haunting of Hill House justifies its horror gene in other ways than just trying to scare you, which makes its scares more effective. The episode above is something that is going to stick with me, not necessarily because I was so freaked out by episode - though I was - but because just the idea of what happens in that episode is tragedy at its finest. It also features child actors who look remarkably like the adult actors so the time shifting narrative is not nearly as jarring as it otherwise might be.
#8 Jane the Virgin (CW)
Model Episode: Chapter 77
Jane the Virgin, a telenovela that can change tones and genres every week, somehow has managed to remain consistent enough through its first four seasons to land on my top ten list every year I've written one. Honestly, when I included on my list in its first season, I fully expected that to be the only year. I sometimes will gives shows extra credit when they are new and original and do something different over an established show that might be a similar quality. Nonetheless, Jane the Virgin has consistently been on the back half of this list.
There's really only so much I can say about this show at this point that I haven't already said three times. I will say, if you see this show on this list and wonder if you'd like it, the show was pretty much good from the beginning. If you don't like it right away, you probably never will. So give it a few episodes, see what you think, and whatever you think is roughly how you'll respond to the show for the rest of its run.
#7 Homecoming (Amazon)
Model Episode: "Protocol"
If you had one complaint about Homecoming, it's that it peaks a little early. There are ten episodes and it peaks a couple episodes before the last episode. It's mainly a mystery show and the show does deliver on the questions it presents, but it ends up climaxing a couple episodes before its actual ending. Homecoming started as a podcast - it was a fictional story told in podcast form.
Amazon or the television people at Amazon knew what type of show they had on their hands and went all-out on the casting and directing. Sam Esmail, of Mr. Robot, directs every episode. If you enjoy Mr. Robot and how it is filmed, you'll probably enjoy this. There are Hitchock homages and while the show can sometimes be slow, Esmail leaves plenty of breadcrumbs for people who are into that. Julia Roberts, Bobby Cannavale, Shea Whigman - even minor roles are played by Jeremy Allen Shrier of Shameless and Dermot Mulroney. Stephan James, who I'd never seen in anything before, was nominated for a Golden Globe and it was well deserved.
#6 The Marvelous Ms. Maisel
Model Episode: "Vote for Kennedy, Vote for Kennedy"
I have not seen Gilmore Girls, the previous series created by Amy Sherman-Palladino, but I know all about some of the complaints against the otherwise good series. She has a blind spot to certain characters. Her dialogue can be a bit too whimsy. It's an otherwise beloved show and I think I know why based off my feelings towards The Marvelous Ms. Maisel. Yes, she has a blind spot to a character (Joel) who should be nowhere near as prominent as he is and yes, the dialogue gets too whimsy. But I also know why people put up with that when the show is this good.
It's a decision made for the betterment of the show, but the stand-up comedy element of this is.. pretty unrealistic. I don't consider myself an expert on standup comedy history, but I'm fairly certain her jokes are about 20-30 years ahead of her time. In 1959, standup comedians would have the same 10-15 minute set for multiple years and Midge ends up having a different set every episode. Which again, is fine. It's not like we want to hear her say the same thing every episode. I also tend to think this show portrays standup comedy as much easier than it actually is because Midge very frequently goes on stage and just talks about what she did earlier that day without any sort of preparation for how she would deliver it. And with the exception of a unplanned wedding set, the audience pretty much always loves her. I think a little more struggle sprinkled in would go a long way with me personally. Not the "someone is blackballing" her struggle, but the actual making people laugh part.
#5 The Deuce (HBO)
Model Episode: "We're All Beasts"
I left The Deuce off my list last year and for one main reason: it is somehow forgettably excellent. The show is well done, there's no question about it. David Simon and I assume everyone who followed him to make The Deuce are all so good at their jobs that this show tends to fall under my radar. The Deuce is a perfect example of why it's very hard to make these lists. It's somehow easy for me to forget about the show and what makes it great just a few months later.
Nonetheless, I made sure to put it on my list this year. I remember specifically when I watched the second season that I noted to myself to put it on the list in case the same apparent amnesia fell over me when compiling the 2018 list. It isn't higher because the same exact thing happened to me this year. It is just not a show that sticks with me for very long and I have no idea why. Though fair or not, the next two shows on my list were all watched in the past month, so I'm lying if I pretend that doesn't make a difference. Which is unfortunate. The Deuce might still be here if I had watched in the past month though, so it's no guarantee.
#4 Lodge 49 (AMC)
Model Episode: "Full Fathom Five"
Lodge 49 has an almost impossibly appealing tone. I say it's impossible, because when I describe the tone, it probably doesn't sound that appealing. Its tone is basically what I imagine SoCal personified to be, laidback and not in a rush to get anywhere. The show has a mystery throughout the first season that is to be clear, interesting, but the show's tone makes it almost seem beside the point. It's the journey that matters, not the destination.
See how much of an idiot I sound trying to sell that tone as a good thing? But it unquestionably is, as two characters who lost their father - as in his body has not been found in a year and is suspected dead lost. Never finding the body never gave them a sense of closure and that defines where the characters are at the beginning of the season. They are lost, looking for direction, not sure where to go with their lives or what it can deliver. Until Dud - yes Dud - finds Lodge 49.
#3 My Brilliant Friend (HBO)
Model Episode: "L'isola (The Island)"
My Brilliant Friend is an Italian-American production about two friends, told from the perspective of one of the friends. Both are brilliant and very good at school, but end up taking different paths because of their home life. Neither are rich, but one has a more supportive family. Thus, My Brilliant Friend follows these two young girls from adolescent to their teenage years, reflecting on female friendship in 1950s Italy.
As you can imagine, this would hardly seem to be something that would appeal to me, a white mid-20s American male. But it is very well told, in eight installments, and it passes through time so much, that it never feels boring. The first episode is when the two girls are in 1st grade, the second in 4th, and then they skip to the teenage years. The casting is impeccable, but between the foreign language and the pure amount of characters, it can sometimes be hard to follow who is who at certain points. Because all the kids are played by different actors at two different ages. But if you are able to watch foreign language films, I'd recommend this show.
#2 Better Call Saul (AMC)
Model Episode: "Winner"
Boy do I need to rewatch the entirety of this show before next season. I sincerely hope I have time to do that. In the past, Better Call Saul aired at the beginning of the year and by the time December rolled around, I had different shows more clear in my mind, which made it hard to include on a top ten list. This year, the last episode aired in October, so it's a little clearer, but I still want to watch the entire show again. I have watched every season right after it aired, but never rewatched any episodes.
Better Call Saul, to date, has the misfortune of airing at the same time as one of my favorite shows of all-time. Said favorite show - which you should be able to guess if you have read any of these lists - ended in 2018, so Better Call Saul will have the chance to be #1 next year. I can only hope it achieves that lofty goal.
#1 The Americans (FX)
Model Episode: "START"
Thus The Americans, one of the greatest series to ever grace television, ends. If I'm being honest, I probably shouldn't have put The Americans #1 last year. It was clear they were setting up for the endgame, and while I enjoyed the season, it was mostly a set up season. However, because I did, The Americans has been my #1 show for four straight years. Even with said acknowledgement, The Americans WAS my favorite show all four years too so I can hardly say I made a mistake.
The Americans, as a series who is among the greats, had a very big hurdle to climb. They needed a good ending. A bad ending can destroy a series. Just look at Dexter. I'm happy to report The Americans has a great ending. An ending appropriate to the type of show The Americans was. I will recommend this show to anybody who listens, but I'm just happy that people who ignored me did not lead to it being prematurely cancelled. Thank you FX.
Honorable Mentions
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend - I still enjoy the show, but I feel like needing at least two original songs for every episode has caused a slight decline. It was close to making this list however.
Legion - I hope that Noah Hawley goes back to making Fargo, because this show is just a little too weird and out-there for me. I will still watch a season three if it airs.
Sharp Objects - I wanted to include this but I really didn't like the ending very much.
Castle Rock - Showed potential, but was kind of all over the place, quality-wise. Hopeful a season two, if there is one, has more consistency
Maniac - Given the names behind it, I really expected this show to be better than it was. Very weird show though.
This is Us - This show really is better than it has any right to be in my opinion.
Thursday, December 27, 2018
Wednesday, December 26, 2018
2018 Top Ten Comedies
When I started making top ten lists, I split up the top ten between dramas and comedies for essentially two reasons. The first is that I find it impossible to directly compare a comedy and a drama in terms of quality. They have such different goals. Plus, I tended to favor the dramas. In other words, I knew I'd probably end up with 8 dramas and 2 comedies or some lopsided amount of dramas. Secondly, there were really that many shows I thought deserving of a top ten. I didn't want to ignore 8 comedies or even the 3-4 dramas I wanted on a top ten. I thought they should all be recognized. (If you're wondering why I didn't do a top twenty, same fear: I felt like I might have 15 dramas and 5 comedies)
This might have gone differently if I had started top ten lists this year. I could very easily have made a top ten combining dramas and comedies - though with extremely difficulty still in comparing the two. I don't know what's different, but I used to be able to roughly guess what a top ten show looked like. I'd label the shows I was certain were a top ten show and then see how many top ten shows I had and I usually ended up with 15 for both genres. Then I'd struggle to cut it down to 10. This year, I did the same and... ended up with like 5 shows. Not sure if my standards are greater, or if TV just hit a boom a couple years ago.
With that said, I ultimately decided to stick with this format, because surprise surprise comedy ended up with over 10 comedies that I thought deserving of a spot once I went past my initial impressions. Dramas? Well that's for tomorrow.
#10 - Bob's Burgers (Fox)
Sample episode: "Taking of Funtime One Two Three"
I will present to you a hypothetical on why Bob's Burgers is on this list. I value peak over consistency. A B show with A episodes and C episodes would stand a better chance at making this list than a B show with all B episodes. Neither are likely to make my top ten list and rarely do television shows present me with that specific problem, but I made an exception for this rule with Bob's Burgers.
That's not to say they don't have any A episodes. The episode above is one such example. It just has about the same amount of A episodes as most comedies considered for this list, and they did it with less episodes. But its weakness is also its strength. In 2018, Bob's Burgers aired 24 episodes and there was maybe one or two weak episodes. Bob's Burgers is remarkably consistent. It's always a good show, sometimes a great one. This is pretty much the definitive family show for me. All the characters are nice, the family is extremely supportive of each other, and the closest thing the show has to a wet blanket is H. Jon Benjamin sighing and commenting on how stupid everything is, which is GREAT.
#9 Corporate (Comedy Central)
Sample episode: "Casual Friday"
"It's another day at heartless, multinational corporate hellhole Hampton DeVille where junior executives-in-training Matt and Jake are at the beck and call of tyrannical CEO Christian DeVille and his top deputies, brown-nosers John and Kate."
Given the channel it's on and its viewership numbers, most people probably haven't heard of this show. I didn't think I could provide an adequate description and I think whoever wrote that in Wikipedia did as fine a job as I would. Corporate is not for everyone. It's a very dark show and I mean that literally. It's like all black, grey, and blue. The episode above is "Casual Friday" and the place goes into chaos because one character actually dresses casual for it. It's that type of show. The highlight is easily Lance Reddick, who plays the CEO. Watch him in this Funny or Die skit, which predated the show by a few years, and if you enjoy that, you'll enjoy him in this show. It's basically the same performance.
#8 Bojack Horseman (Netflix)
Sample episode: "Showstopper"
Bojack is a victim of its own success. I don't mean the character, though it applies there too. I mean that I know what Bojack at its best and I think the most recent season was not Bojack at its best. I'm not sure if any of the episodes from this season would make my own personal top ten Bojack episodes.
But it's still Bojack Horseman. My above paragraph is only necessary because Bojack finished 4th last year. It finished 5th the year before. The fundamental nature of Bojack Horseman the show is such that I imagine it will have a difficult time for the next few seasons without just repeating itself. Bojack must always be struggling, must always do something self-destructive. It's a pretty clear pattern at this point. While I still love the show, I'm not sure it will ever get back in the top five because of this. Happy to be proven wrong though.
Cool note: Bojack Horseman's 4th selection in my 4th year of doing this makes this the only comedy that has been on my list every time. Two other shows were on my list for three straight years. Broad City took the year off. The other show is in my honorable mentions.
#7 Barry (HBO)
Model episode: "Loud, Fast and Keep Going"
It feels like Barry deserves to be higher, but unfortunately two things kept it at a very reasonable 7. The first reason is that it took legitimately three episodes to set up the premise. The premise is that a hit man wants to stop being a hit man and turns to an acting class. To not get into too many details, but they basically need a reason for him to stay in the same city so that he can attend the same acting class in order to make the premise work. Thus, it took about three episodes in order to get the characters where the show wanted them in order to make the comedy they wanted.
The second reason is that the show is only eight episodes. This was probably not an option, but I think it would have worked better if they essentially had an hour and a half pilot episode. Because the third episode still felt like part of the pilot. Nonetheless, the show's last three episodes are all great. If you didn't know Bill Hader was a hell of an actor by now, where the fuck have you been? He's perhaps giving the best performance of his career and Henry Winkler is just delightful in this.
#6 American Vandal (Netflix)
Model Episode: "The Dump"
American Vandal should have been a global phenomenon. It's just way too hard of a show to sell. It's impossible to tell people to watch the show without sounding like an idiot. Season one was such a perfect, impossibly good season that it was foolish to even make a second season. I mean where could they possibly go from there?
While I wouldn't say American Vandal's second season is as good as the first, I think it's about as good as it could possibly be. I don't know that there was a way to improve on this season, because it's got a self-limiting premise. The first season's tagline was "Who drew the dicks?" The second season's is "Who is the Turd Buglar?" This show's greatest strength is that they actually care about the mystery. Well, that and that they nail the mockumentary format.
#5 Big Mouth (Netflix)
Model Episode: "Dark Side of the Boob"
I watched Big Mouth's first season earlier this year, and thus have no idea if it would have placed on my top ten last year. Just decided to write it off too soon. It happens. Once I watched the first season this year, I made sure I wasn't going to forget to watch the second season in time. John Mulaney and Nick Kroll have a good comedic relationship, in case you haven't watched Oh, Hello or any of their openings for the Spirit Awards. Big Mouth is no exception.
Big Mouth is a show that I think would be good to show to kids going through puberty. It's too dirty to be shown in schools, but it's freely available on Netflix, so I'm sure kids going through puberty are watching the show. Some people are probably freaked out about that, but the show clearly strives for comedy AND to be educational on these topics. The highlights of this show are still the Hormone Monster, played by Nick Kroll, and the Hormone Monstress, played by Maya Rudolph. Watch this show for Rudolph if for no other reason.
#4 Dear White People
Model Episode: Chapter VIII
Congratulations to DeRon Horton, who appeared in both American Vandal's second season and Dear White People. I liked Dear White People's first season, but it was very clunky in a lot of parts. It reached a high most shows do not, hitting its stride in the middle of the season, but the rest did not live up to a particular incident that colors the whole season.
The second season has one of my favorite episodes of 2018, if not my favorite, when it has two characters in a room for pretty much the entire episode. They have a 25-30 conversation and it's great television. The show was just much stronger in this season. The show has always dealt with complex issues, but it was just better written in this season.
#3 The Good Place
Model Episode: Janet(s)
The Good Place did not have an appreciably better third season than the first two seasons. I placed the first season 6th and the 2nd season 7th in the past two years. The first season is a consequence of the show only airing about 9 episodes in 2016 and the ending of the first season, which I had not reached, kind of changed the game. Last year, The Good Place was in a ridiculously stacked year, full of shows that have ended or didn't air an episode in 2018.
No such issues this year. The Good Place is still constantly changing as a show and I can't explain why without spoiling it. But you should definitely be watching this show. I won't say anymore for fear of accidental spoilers.
#2 GLOW
Model Episode: Mother of All Matches
Unlike The Good Place, which I felt had a similar quality to its last few seasons (if not arguably weaker in fact), GLOW was a huge improvement over the first season in my opinion. I'm not saying it was bad. Indeed, it was only left off my list last year entirely because 2017 comedy was incredibly stacked (Nathan for You, Review, Rick & Morty, Broad City, Master of None - literally none of these shows aired a single episode in 2018 for various reasons).
In "Mother of All Matches," GLOW truly makes one of the hardest episodes of television to watch, but in the best way possible. Starting with that episode, GLOW pretty much nailed the rest of the season's episodes too. They had about seven straight great episodes in a row, with maybe one exception.
#1 Atlanta
Model Episode: "Teddy Perkins"
Atlanta is a show that changes what type of show it is from week to week. It can shift easily from being a horror film (Teddy Perkins), a coming-of-age period piece (FUBU), a road trip buddy comedy gone wrong (North of the Border), or a tale between a couple (Helen). You don't know what you're getting when you start an episode of Atlanta.
That makes it sound like a show that is wildly unpredictable and in some ways it is, but the show still has Earn being a manager for Paper Boi, with Van as the sort of love interest, and of course Darius being Darius. It's not that confusing of a show to follow despite the fact that the tone constantly changes. That's why this is #1. Because it has achieved the difficult task of being unpredictable but not with that pratfalls usually associated with an unpredictable show.
Honorable Mention
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia - The was the other show that was on my list for three years running. Ultimately, the show had two outright bad episodes out of 10 and I couldn't really say that about any shows on this list. The finale was excellent.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine - I wanted to include this, I did, but I had to give the nod to Bob's Burgers over B99. I'm unfortunately holding it against the show that they had less episodes and I felt a few more "duds," which is kind of unfair because I still enjoy watching a dud episode of B99.
Insecure - Insecure has taken a weird approach to storytelling since it has just eight episodes. Just too many pointless detours in plot that end up not mattering at all. Good finale kept it in the honorable mentions.
Casual - I'll give a shout out to Casual, which kept me entertained as a solid, but unspectacular show for four seasons.
Archer - Archer is changing its setting and tone for each new season and that's admirable, but I think it's well past its prime. I do give it credit for being different at least.
Blackish - Very solid, very consistent network comedy that only suffers because it's hard for a network comedy to make a list such as this.
Alright, that is my top ten for comedy. I am hoping I can write my top ten drama tomorrow, though I am definitely not guaranteeing it will get done. So if you're here tomorrow and it's not up, well this is your warning of that possibility.
This might have gone differently if I had started top ten lists this year. I could very easily have made a top ten combining dramas and comedies - though with extremely difficulty still in comparing the two. I don't know what's different, but I used to be able to roughly guess what a top ten show looked like. I'd label the shows I was certain were a top ten show and then see how many top ten shows I had and I usually ended up with 15 for both genres. Then I'd struggle to cut it down to 10. This year, I did the same and... ended up with like 5 shows. Not sure if my standards are greater, or if TV just hit a boom a couple years ago.
With that said, I ultimately decided to stick with this format, because surprise surprise comedy ended up with over 10 comedies that I thought deserving of a spot once I went past my initial impressions. Dramas? Well that's for tomorrow.
#10 - Bob's Burgers (Fox)
Sample episode: "Taking of Funtime One Two Three"
I will present to you a hypothetical on why Bob's Burgers is on this list. I value peak over consistency. A B show with A episodes and C episodes would stand a better chance at making this list than a B show with all B episodes. Neither are likely to make my top ten list and rarely do television shows present me with that specific problem, but I made an exception for this rule with Bob's Burgers.
That's not to say they don't have any A episodes. The episode above is one such example. It just has about the same amount of A episodes as most comedies considered for this list, and they did it with less episodes. But its weakness is also its strength. In 2018, Bob's Burgers aired 24 episodes and there was maybe one or two weak episodes. Bob's Burgers is remarkably consistent. It's always a good show, sometimes a great one. This is pretty much the definitive family show for me. All the characters are nice, the family is extremely supportive of each other, and the closest thing the show has to a wet blanket is H. Jon Benjamin sighing and commenting on how stupid everything is, which is GREAT.
#9 Corporate (Comedy Central)
Sample episode: "Casual Friday"
"It's another day at heartless, multinational corporate hellhole Hampton DeVille where junior executives-in-training Matt and Jake are at the beck and call of tyrannical CEO Christian DeVille and his top deputies, brown-nosers John and Kate."
Given the channel it's on and its viewership numbers, most people probably haven't heard of this show. I didn't think I could provide an adequate description and I think whoever wrote that in Wikipedia did as fine a job as I would. Corporate is not for everyone. It's a very dark show and I mean that literally. It's like all black, grey, and blue. The episode above is "Casual Friday" and the place goes into chaos because one character actually dresses casual for it. It's that type of show. The highlight is easily Lance Reddick, who plays the CEO. Watch him in this Funny or Die skit, which predated the show by a few years, and if you enjoy that, you'll enjoy him in this show. It's basically the same performance.
#8 Bojack Horseman (Netflix)
Sample episode: "Showstopper"
Bojack is a victim of its own success. I don't mean the character, though it applies there too. I mean that I know what Bojack at its best and I think the most recent season was not Bojack at its best. I'm not sure if any of the episodes from this season would make my own personal top ten Bojack episodes.
But it's still Bojack Horseman. My above paragraph is only necessary because Bojack finished 4th last year. It finished 5th the year before. The fundamental nature of Bojack Horseman the show is such that I imagine it will have a difficult time for the next few seasons without just repeating itself. Bojack must always be struggling, must always do something self-destructive. It's a pretty clear pattern at this point. While I still love the show, I'm not sure it will ever get back in the top five because of this. Happy to be proven wrong though.
Cool note: Bojack Horseman's 4th selection in my 4th year of doing this makes this the only comedy that has been on my list every time. Two other shows were on my list for three straight years. Broad City took the year off. The other show is in my honorable mentions.
#7 Barry (HBO)
Model episode: "Loud, Fast and Keep Going"
It feels like Barry deserves to be higher, but unfortunately two things kept it at a very reasonable 7. The first reason is that it took legitimately three episodes to set up the premise. The premise is that a hit man wants to stop being a hit man and turns to an acting class. To not get into too many details, but they basically need a reason for him to stay in the same city so that he can attend the same acting class in order to make the premise work. Thus, it took about three episodes in order to get the characters where the show wanted them in order to make the comedy they wanted.
The second reason is that the show is only eight episodes. This was probably not an option, but I think it would have worked better if they essentially had an hour and a half pilot episode. Because the third episode still felt like part of the pilot. Nonetheless, the show's last three episodes are all great. If you didn't know Bill Hader was a hell of an actor by now, where the fuck have you been? He's perhaps giving the best performance of his career and Henry Winkler is just delightful in this.
#6 American Vandal (Netflix)
Model Episode: "The Dump"
American Vandal should have been a global phenomenon. It's just way too hard of a show to sell. It's impossible to tell people to watch the show without sounding like an idiot. Season one was such a perfect, impossibly good season that it was foolish to even make a second season. I mean where could they possibly go from there?
While I wouldn't say American Vandal's second season is as good as the first, I think it's about as good as it could possibly be. I don't know that there was a way to improve on this season, because it's got a self-limiting premise. The first season's tagline was "Who drew the dicks?" The second season's is "Who is the Turd Buglar?" This show's greatest strength is that they actually care about the mystery. Well, that and that they nail the mockumentary format.
#5 Big Mouth (Netflix)
Model Episode: "Dark Side of the Boob"
I watched Big Mouth's first season earlier this year, and thus have no idea if it would have placed on my top ten last year. Just decided to write it off too soon. It happens. Once I watched the first season this year, I made sure I wasn't going to forget to watch the second season in time. John Mulaney and Nick Kroll have a good comedic relationship, in case you haven't watched Oh, Hello or any of their openings for the Spirit Awards. Big Mouth is no exception.
Big Mouth is a show that I think would be good to show to kids going through puberty. It's too dirty to be shown in schools, but it's freely available on Netflix, so I'm sure kids going through puberty are watching the show. Some people are probably freaked out about that, but the show clearly strives for comedy AND to be educational on these topics. The highlights of this show are still the Hormone Monster, played by Nick Kroll, and the Hormone Monstress, played by Maya Rudolph. Watch this show for Rudolph if for no other reason.
#4 Dear White People
Model Episode: Chapter VIII
Congratulations to DeRon Horton, who appeared in both American Vandal's second season and Dear White People. I liked Dear White People's first season, but it was very clunky in a lot of parts. It reached a high most shows do not, hitting its stride in the middle of the season, but the rest did not live up to a particular incident that colors the whole season.
The second season has one of my favorite episodes of 2018, if not my favorite, when it has two characters in a room for pretty much the entire episode. They have a 25-30 conversation and it's great television. The show was just much stronger in this season. The show has always dealt with complex issues, but it was just better written in this season.
#3 The Good Place
Model Episode: Janet(s)
The Good Place did not have an appreciably better third season than the first two seasons. I placed the first season 6th and the 2nd season 7th in the past two years. The first season is a consequence of the show only airing about 9 episodes in 2016 and the ending of the first season, which I had not reached, kind of changed the game. Last year, The Good Place was in a ridiculously stacked year, full of shows that have ended or didn't air an episode in 2018.
No such issues this year. The Good Place is still constantly changing as a show and I can't explain why without spoiling it. But you should definitely be watching this show. I won't say anymore for fear of accidental spoilers.
#2 GLOW
Model Episode: Mother of All Matches
Unlike The Good Place, which I felt had a similar quality to its last few seasons (if not arguably weaker in fact), GLOW was a huge improvement over the first season in my opinion. I'm not saying it was bad. Indeed, it was only left off my list last year entirely because 2017 comedy was incredibly stacked (Nathan for You, Review, Rick & Morty, Broad City, Master of None - literally none of these shows aired a single episode in 2018 for various reasons).
In "Mother of All Matches," GLOW truly makes one of the hardest episodes of television to watch, but in the best way possible. Starting with that episode, GLOW pretty much nailed the rest of the season's episodes too. They had about seven straight great episodes in a row, with maybe one exception.
#1 Atlanta
Model Episode: "Teddy Perkins"
Atlanta is a show that changes what type of show it is from week to week. It can shift easily from being a horror film (Teddy Perkins), a coming-of-age period piece (FUBU), a road trip buddy comedy gone wrong (North of the Border), or a tale between a couple (Helen). You don't know what you're getting when you start an episode of Atlanta.
That makes it sound like a show that is wildly unpredictable and in some ways it is, but the show still has Earn being a manager for Paper Boi, with Van as the sort of love interest, and of course Darius being Darius. It's not that confusing of a show to follow despite the fact that the tone constantly changes. That's why this is #1. Because it has achieved the difficult task of being unpredictable but not with that pratfalls usually associated with an unpredictable show.
Honorable Mention
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia - The was the other show that was on my list for three years running. Ultimately, the show had two outright bad episodes out of 10 and I couldn't really say that about any shows on this list. The finale was excellent.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine - I wanted to include this, I did, but I had to give the nod to Bob's Burgers over B99. I'm unfortunately holding it against the show that they had less episodes and I felt a few more "duds," which is kind of unfair because I still enjoy watching a dud episode of B99.
Insecure - Insecure has taken a weird approach to storytelling since it has just eight episodes. Just too many pointless detours in plot that end up not mattering at all. Good finale kept it in the honorable mentions.
Casual - I'll give a shout out to Casual, which kept me entertained as a solid, but unspectacular show for four seasons.
Archer - Archer is changing its setting and tone for each new season and that's admirable, but I think it's well past its prime. I do give it credit for being different at least.
Blackish - Very solid, very consistent network comedy that only suffers because it's hard for a network comedy to make a list such as this.
Alright, that is my top ten for comedy. I am hoping I can write my top ten drama tomorrow, though I am definitely not guaranteeing it will get done. So if you're here tomorrow and it's not up, well this is your warning of that possibility.
Thursday, March 15, 2018
Seinfeld: A Good, but Not Great Show
When I started this blog, I tended to give my thoughts on each season of whatever show I was watching. For classic television shows, that doesn't make sense, because it is only relatively recently that writers have distinguished seasons from each other. Consider these type of posts indicative of my thoughts on the show as a whole.
Seinfeld never had a chance with me. I realize that now. I think Seinfeld is a good show. I want to make that clear. It wouldn't rank particularly high on my favorite comedies nor would it rank that high if I were to make an "objective" best comedies ever list. That is to say, if I decided one day to list the ten best comedies in my opinion, Seinfeld wouldn't be on it. I actually have no idea where it would rank, but I'm guessing "shockingly low" would be the answer.
All shows are dated in some way. I happen to think time was particularly cruel to Seinfeld. This is honestly a hard argument to make. The vast majority of people who watched Seinfeld consumed it at the time or they grew up with Seinfeld. I fully acknowledge that Seinfeld at the time was definitely worthy of its distinction. The thing is though - that brilliance isn't lost upon multiple viewings once you've seen it in the time and context it was meant to be seen. If you rewatch an episode that you first saw in 1994, it puts you back in 1994 and all those great memories return. For the people around my age who "grew up" with the show (basically watched it all the time as a kid and throughout their teens), it sort of has the same effect.
To use an example from my own personal life, I grew up with Friends. I find it much funnier than Seinfeld in a way that I simply cannot explain, but I assume it has something to do with watching and rewatching the show all throughout my childhood. Friends doesn't exactly have the greatest critical reputation - to say the least. If I started watching Friends for the first time tomorrow, I might still like the show, but I really doubt I'd love it. Who knows though?
Being that Seinfeld is primarily an observational comedy, it probably wasn't ever going to age all that well, but technology has made it worse than it otherwise could have been. The things Seinfeld observes pretty much don't apply now. Some do. Not many, but some do. There are legitimately episodes that only apply to living in New York specifically in the 1990s and no other time in history. That's not a complaint, but it makes it hard for me to love the show, especially with its emphasis on never developing its (unlikable) characters.
I'm going to look at another sitcom that crossed paths with Seinfeld as a comparison point to help illustrate my point. I'm going to ignore Friends, which I've already established I cannot look at objectively given that I grew up with the show and have literally spent thousands of hours of my life watching. The show I'm talking about is Cheers, which for me, would probably make a list of top ten sitcoms of all time. (Probably is only there because I've never given serious thought to make a top ten list at all)
First off, Cheers took the time to get you invested in the characters. They are way more likable even though they aren't necessarily "good" people. For the purposes of my argument, assume Cheers ended after five seasons. Sam is a sleazy womanizer. Norm is an alcoholic who neglects his wife. Diane is a pretentious asshole. Cliff is a pontificating know-it-all who actually knows jack shit. I will not say anything bad about Coach or Woody. Everyone loves a well-meaning buffoon. I haven't seen the show Frasier yet, but Frasier on Cheers has a book-worthy amount of issues you can unpack.
I think one key element between the shows is the acting. The acting on Cheers is just better. Julia Louis Dreyfuss and Jason Alexander aren't a problem, but Jerry Seinfeld is a terrible actor and Michael Richards* plays Kramer like he's on a different show from the rest of the leads. For whatever reason, I didn't enjoy about half the guest stars' acting either. It's not limited to people who can't act either. I didn't think Bryan Cranston was very good in his episodes. One example where this is an issue with me is Elaine's boyfriends, who frequently lack any charisma and look dopey in whatever 90s haircut they have.
*I'm going to admit that it's easier to hate on Michael Richards after what's come out on him. Similarly, Jerry Seinfeld seems like a huge jackass in real life to me. That's not an issue if the actor is good enough at acting to make you ignore real life, but Seinfeld is not. He might even admit that.
As a side note to the acting, I don't really want to harp on this too much, because it's not really what my post is specifically about, but I have to talk about how minorities and gay characters are portrayed on here. It's...pretty bad. For "comedies" sake, they usually went with the exaggerated, stereotypical, and borderline offensive accent, which would be less of a problem if that wasn't the only time the characters were represented.
I hate to bash on what is essentially the premise of the show, but... yes it got pretty old seeing Jerry and George date women way out of their league, only for the two of them to break up with them for some nitpicky reason. I'm not saying the nitpicky reasons weren't sometimes funny, but that's not something that you can sustain for 173 episodes - in my opinion anyway. It obviously worked best when you could understand the reason even though it's stupid, and you can only come up with so many stupid reasons to break up with someone that you sort of get.
Secondly, the combination of the "no hugging, no learning" strategy coupled with what I find to be mostly uninteresting characters leads to the entire episode completely dependent on how funny it is. George is really the only character that feels distinct and original from the others. I'm sure Seinfeld fans could do it, but I'm having a hard time trying to define either Elaine and Jerry as characters. JLD is a strong enough actress that it's not really a huge problem with her, but I legitimately find Jerry Seinfeld to be an awful actor. Kramer's a somewhat typical sitcom character - a character broad enough that they can write just about any storyline for him and it would be plausible. You can have one of those characters, but he's just not very interesting.
Seinfeld, in addition to being an observational comedy, was sort of a trial run of sorts to what Curb Your Enthusiasm became. There's three seemingly unrelated stories that may or may not come together at the end for maximum humiliation for one of the main characters. For example, Elaine buys her ex-roommate a bra out of spite because she never wears a bra. George finds that simply leaving his car at Yankee Stadium means everyone think he's working hard. The car gets bird shit all over it so they need to drive it to a car wash so nobody at Yankee Stadium is the wiser. They walk by the ex-roommate, who is wearing just a bra, which causes them to crash George's car.
I don't think Seinfeld started as that type of show, but eventually this type of plotting happened just about every episode. And... it sure makes New York City seem like the smallest fucking place in the world. To use the above example, Kramer and Jerry are really driving by Sue Ellen walking in her bra at the exact same time? IT'S NEW YORK FUCKING CITY. Do you know how big that place is? Or how many people are in it? Again, this is something that is fine to wave away sometimes, but it happens a lot. Granted, this is also somewhat of an issue with Curb Your Enthusiasm, but it's easier to wave away because it's a bunch of show business people probably going to the same places and the plotting is much tighter and better written.
That leads me to my last point. I don't find Seinfeld funny enough to overcome these flaws (to be a great show.) As I said, the show's lack of interest in developing its characters and my lack of interest in the characters themselves mean it's all up to the episode to be funny. It would not be inaccurate to say that a large part of the show's humor is observational humor, which goes back to one of the first points I made: it's dated particularly poorly. Now, I'm being unfair because I'm not going back and watching the rest of the sitcoms that aired in 1989. I'm sure I'd have a greater appreciation for Seinfeld if torturers Clockwork Orange'd me into watching every show it was up against. I'm comparing it to the classic comedies.
In that respect, I think I've at least watched enough of the shows that aired at similar times - to be able to declare that I just will never think of this as the classic many do. It's not as good as Cheers. It's not as good as The Simpsons. It's not as good as The Larry Sanders Show. I think Curb Your Enthusiasm is vastly superior in terms of Larry David shows (which to be fair has a whole bunch of advantages over Seinfeld by virtue of being on HBO and airing in 2000).
Seinfeld holds it place for me as a good, not great show. If I gave my honest opinion to people who hadn't seen the show on whether or not they should go back and watch Seinfeld, I'd say if there's a rerun on one of the channels and nothing else is on, sure go ahead. I would not suggest going back and watching the entire show. It's just not quite good enough to justify that to me. The reruns give a good sense of what type of a show it is. If you love it, well then my answer changes. If you felt like I did: "This is pleasant, a mild distraction from everyday life, but I don't get what the fuss is about" - it's really not worth it.
To be clear, I'm grading this show against other classic, best of all time shows, because that's how it's perceived. I don't consider Seinfeld "timeless" in the way the best shows do. Obviously, you'll recognize when just about any television show was made immediately, but timeless shows have a way of maintaining their quality years later. I can't possibly explain why I think Cheers is timeless and Seinfeld isn't*, but as Justice Potter Stewart once said, "I know it when I see it." Again, Seinfeld was kind of always doomed on this front, just because the writers couldn't possibly have seen what technology was about to bring, not to mention Larry David and writers were not concerned what someone in 2018 would think about the show. But it's simply not timeless.
*Though here's a short attempt. The Diane Chamber years of Cheers covered a truly timeless sitcom staple: will they/won't they. Season two of Cheers is one of the greatest seasons of television and every episode checked in with Sam and Diane's relationship. The character-based work and focus on whether or not a relationship will work? That's always going to be present in shows. If the Rebecca Howe years were considered a separate show, however, I would not consider that timeless.
Am I judging this too harshly for what it was? Yes absolutely. But to me, a classic television show would hold up to these questions and survive. M*A*S*H was a classic (which I hope to write about one day, but I've only seen the fantastic first season so far). Cheers was a classic. The Simpsons - the show that got cancelled after 11 seasons - was a classic. Seinfeld? A good, but not great show.
Seinfeld never had a chance with me. I realize that now. I think Seinfeld is a good show. I want to make that clear. It wouldn't rank particularly high on my favorite comedies nor would it rank that high if I were to make an "objective" best comedies ever list. That is to say, if I decided one day to list the ten best comedies in my opinion, Seinfeld wouldn't be on it. I actually have no idea where it would rank, but I'm guessing "shockingly low" would be the answer.
All shows are dated in some way. I happen to think time was particularly cruel to Seinfeld. This is honestly a hard argument to make. The vast majority of people who watched Seinfeld consumed it at the time or they grew up with Seinfeld. I fully acknowledge that Seinfeld at the time was definitely worthy of its distinction. The thing is though - that brilliance isn't lost upon multiple viewings once you've seen it in the time and context it was meant to be seen. If you rewatch an episode that you first saw in 1994, it puts you back in 1994 and all those great memories return. For the people around my age who "grew up" with the show (basically watched it all the time as a kid and throughout their teens), it sort of has the same effect.
To use an example from my own personal life, I grew up with Friends. I find it much funnier than Seinfeld in a way that I simply cannot explain, but I assume it has something to do with watching and rewatching the show all throughout my childhood. Friends doesn't exactly have the greatest critical reputation - to say the least. If I started watching Friends for the first time tomorrow, I might still like the show, but I really doubt I'd love it. Who knows though?
Being that Seinfeld is primarily an observational comedy, it probably wasn't ever going to age all that well, but technology has made it worse than it otherwise could have been. The things Seinfeld observes pretty much don't apply now. Some do. Not many, but some do. There are legitimately episodes that only apply to living in New York specifically in the 1990s and no other time in history. That's not a complaint, but it makes it hard for me to love the show, especially with its emphasis on never developing its (unlikable) characters.
I'm going to look at another sitcom that crossed paths with Seinfeld as a comparison point to help illustrate my point. I'm going to ignore Friends, which I've already established I cannot look at objectively given that I grew up with the show and have literally spent thousands of hours of my life watching. The show I'm talking about is Cheers, which for me, would probably make a list of top ten sitcoms of all time. (Probably is only there because I've never given serious thought to make a top ten list at all)
First off, Cheers took the time to get you invested in the characters. They are way more likable even though they aren't necessarily "good" people. For the purposes of my argument, assume Cheers ended after five seasons. Sam is a sleazy womanizer. Norm is an alcoholic who neglects his wife. Diane is a pretentious asshole. Cliff is a pontificating know-it-all who actually knows jack shit. I will not say anything bad about Coach or Woody. Everyone loves a well-meaning buffoon. I haven't seen the show Frasier yet, but Frasier on Cheers has a book-worthy amount of issues you can unpack.
I think one key element between the shows is the acting. The acting on Cheers is just better. Julia Louis Dreyfuss and Jason Alexander aren't a problem, but Jerry Seinfeld is a terrible actor and Michael Richards* plays Kramer like he's on a different show from the rest of the leads. For whatever reason, I didn't enjoy about half the guest stars' acting either. It's not limited to people who can't act either. I didn't think Bryan Cranston was very good in his episodes. One example where this is an issue with me is Elaine's boyfriends, who frequently lack any charisma and look dopey in whatever 90s haircut they have.
*I'm going to admit that it's easier to hate on Michael Richards after what's come out on him. Similarly, Jerry Seinfeld seems like a huge jackass in real life to me. That's not an issue if the actor is good enough at acting to make you ignore real life, but Seinfeld is not. He might even admit that.
As a side note to the acting, I don't really want to harp on this too much, because it's not really what my post is specifically about, but I have to talk about how minorities and gay characters are portrayed on here. It's...pretty bad. For "comedies" sake, they usually went with the exaggerated, stereotypical, and borderline offensive accent, which would be less of a problem if that wasn't the only time the characters were represented.
I hate to bash on what is essentially the premise of the show, but... yes it got pretty old seeing Jerry and George date women way out of their league, only for the two of them to break up with them for some nitpicky reason. I'm not saying the nitpicky reasons weren't sometimes funny, but that's not something that you can sustain for 173 episodes - in my opinion anyway. It obviously worked best when you could understand the reason even though it's stupid, and you can only come up with so many stupid reasons to break up with someone that you sort of get.
Secondly, the combination of the "no hugging, no learning" strategy coupled with what I find to be mostly uninteresting characters leads to the entire episode completely dependent on how funny it is. George is really the only character that feels distinct and original from the others. I'm sure Seinfeld fans could do it, but I'm having a hard time trying to define either Elaine and Jerry as characters. JLD is a strong enough actress that it's not really a huge problem with her, but I legitimately find Jerry Seinfeld to be an awful actor. Kramer's a somewhat typical sitcom character - a character broad enough that they can write just about any storyline for him and it would be plausible. You can have one of those characters, but he's just not very interesting.
Seinfeld, in addition to being an observational comedy, was sort of a trial run of sorts to what Curb Your Enthusiasm became. There's three seemingly unrelated stories that may or may not come together at the end for maximum humiliation for one of the main characters. For example, Elaine buys her ex-roommate a bra out of spite because she never wears a bra. George finds that simply leaving his car at Yankee Stadium means everyone think he's working hard. The car gets bird shit all over it so they need to drive it to a car wash so nobody at Yankee Stadium is the wiser. They walk by the ex-roommate, who is wearing just a bra, which causes them to crash George's car.
I don't think Seinfeld started as that type of show, but eventually this type of plotting happened just about every episode. And... it sure makes New York City seem like the smallest fucking place in the world. To use the above example, Kramer and Jerry are really driving by Sue Ellen walking in her bra at the exact same time? IT'S NEW YORK FUCKING CITY. Do you know how big that place is? Or how many people are in it? Again, this is something that is fine to wave away sometimes, but it happens a lot. Granted, this is also somewhat of an issue with Curb Your Enthusiasm, but it's easier to wave away because it's a bunch of show business people probably going to the same places and the plotting is much tighter and better written.
That leads me to my last point. I don't find Seinfeld funny enough to overcome these flaws (to be a great show.) As I said, the show's lack of interest in developing its characters and my lack of interest in the characters themselves mean it's all up to the episode to be funny. It would not be inaccurate to say that a large part of the show's humor is observational humor, which goes back to one of the first points I made: it's dated particularly poorly. Now, I'm being unfair because I'm not going back and watching the rest of the sitcoms that aired in 1989. I'm sure I'd have a greater appreciation for Seinfeld if torturers Clockwork Orange'd me into watching every show it was up against. I'm comparing it to the classic comedies.
In that respect, I think I've at least watched enough of the shows that aired at similar times - to be able to declare that I just will never think of this as the classic many do. It's not as good as Cheers. It's not as good as The Simpsons. It's not as good as The Larry Sanders Show. I think Curb Your Enthusiasm is vastly superior in terms of Larry David shows (which to be fair has a whole bunch of advantages over Seinfeld by virtue of being on HBO and airing in 2000).
Seinfeld holds it place for me as a good, not great show. If I gave my honest opinion to people who hadn't seen the show on whether or not they should go back and watch Seinfeld, I'd say if there's a rerun on one of the channels and nothing else is on, sure go ahead. I would not suggest going back and watching the entire show. It's just not quite good enough to justify that to me. The reruns give a good sense of what type of a show it is. If you love it, well then my answer changes. If you felt like I did: "This is pleasant, a mild distraction from everyday life, but I don't get what the fuss is about" - it's really not worth it.
To be clear, I'm grading this show against other classic, best of all time shows, because that's how it's perceived. I don't consider Seinfeld "timeless" in the way the best shows do. Obviously, you'll recognize when just about any television show was made immediately, but timeless shows have a way of maintaining their quality years later. I can't possibly explain why I think Cheers is timeless and Seinfeld isn't*, but as Justice Potter Stewart once said, "I know it when I see it." Again, Seinfeld was kind of always doomed on this front, just because the writers couldn't possibly have seen what technology was about to bring, not to mention Larry David and writers were not concerned what someone in 2018 would think about the show. But it's simply not timeless.
*Though here's a short attempt. The Diane Chamber years of Cheers covered a truly timeless sitcom staple: will they/won't they. Season two of Cheers is one of the greatest seasons of television and every episode checked in with Sam and Diane's relationship. The character-based work and focus on whether or not a relationship will work? That's always going to be present in shows. If the Rebecca Howe years were considered a separate show, however, I would not consider that timeless.
Am I judging this too harshly for what it was? Yes absolutely. But to me, a classic television show would hold up to these questions and survive. M*A*S*H was a classic (which I hope to write about one day, but I've only seen the fantastic first season so far). Cheers was a classic. The Simpsons - the show that got cancelled after 11 seasons - was a classic. Seinfeld? A good, but not great show.
Sunday, February 11, 2018
Patriot S1 Review
Patriot did something remarkable that I did not expect when watching the last scene of the last episode. It made me want to keep watching through season two. This is somewhat frustrating to me. I had become at peace with stopping Patriot after one season. It is a perfectly average show, with some rather glaring flaws that were hard for me to ignore. These flaws were too much for me to continue. But that last scene ended on a cliffhanger, and it's a cliffhanger that does intrigue me. Weirdly, I do not expect to like or be satisfied by the conclusion of this cliffhanger, but nonetheless curiosity killed the cat as they say.
Patriot is a show about John Tavner, an absolutely miserable human being and I do not mean miserable in the sense that he is a terrible human being, I mean he is legitimately miserable. He is one of the saddest characters I've ever seen in a television show. He is a spy who has been forced to do terrible, awful things that eat at his soul. I watched the 10 episodes over a period of a couple months, but there may have been one or two times total that this guy was even remotely happy. You can probably sense that I had a problem with this and I kind of do, but not necessarily in concept. He was just so sad sack ALL OF THE TIME.
My solution to this problem would be one of two things. You have to make him charming or clever or good with people. Something. He does not hide his depression. He is not good with people. He's not really even that good at his job since absolutely nothing goes right for him. Characters being excellent at their job is like the easiest way to get the audience on their side (Side note: that's pretty weird right? I mean it's absolutely true, but weird.) . I mean it's certainly implied that he's good at his job. I think we're meant to think it. I just saw no evidence of it throughout the season. He didn't even do fucking paperwork for the job. My second idea is to do flashbacks of him being normal and happy. I need something to compare his miserable self to in order to see how far he's fallen.
I'm going to be unfair here and I'm doing this to illustrate my points. I'm going to compare this show to what I consider the best show on television. The Americans is also about spies who are undercover, pretending to be someone they are not, who are constantly forced to do things they don't want to do, things that cause them to be miserable. Phillip, in particular, is probably as miserable as Tavner is. But he starts the show relatively normal. He's good with his kids, he's good interacting with people, and he's also really fucking good at his job. When he kills people or kidnaps them, the show makes it clear that's he forced into this situation. He wasn't prepared for this to happen and there wasn't anything he could have done (usually).
Tavner, on the other hand, doesn't really seem like he tries... like at all. He has a running tally of problems that accumulate over the course of the season, but he barely tries to address them or fix it. He's just constantly putting it off so that all of them can converge in the penultimate episode. For example, the easiest fucking problem he has, is paperwork. I swear the HR guy asks him to do paperwork so that he can, you know, legally fucking work there for like five episodes. Just do the god damn paperwork John. He keeps getting on the bad side of Leslie (well-played by Kurtwood Smith), but that's because Leslie is the type of character who appreciates hard work. Tavner wants to get on Leslie's good side. I think anyway. He sort of half-heartedly tries at it, but it's clear he couldn't give less of a shit.
This is not a particularly well-plotted show. I honestly don't care about that, for the most part. But things don't really feel natural to how things would go in these situations. It's clear Steven Conrad, the creator, wanted all of John's problems to accumulate at the same time in the final episodes. But it was just an overly absurd amount of coincidences for that to happen. For instance, John murders a guy, so the police are on his tail. That's a natural conclusion. I can accept that. The paperwork is just contrived though. That could be solved in a hour. Why did he not do it for so long?! Because that was just another problem he needed to have.
One of the best parts of the season though is something that snuck up on me and when I noticed it, I felt dumb for not noticing it sooner. Tavner's dad, as played by Terry O'Quinn, is a very good character. He's very manipulative. He's kind of painted as the villain. I appreciate that. He's not a mustache twirling villain either. Just a guy who's willing to let his son deteriorate his soul, because he's willing to do literally anything for his country. He's that type of guy. He'll justify any decision if he thinks it's good for his country. He's one of those stubborn guys who probably will never be convinced he did anything wrong. When I realized this, it painted John in a whole new light. He was manipulated into this life. I still wish he showed anything other than outright depression for more than two seconds, but it shaped his character more than anything else for me.
The actors in general are all pretty good. I don't really fault Michael Dorman for his character because I'm fairly certain that's how he's intended. Michael Chernus provides some much needed levity to this program. Kathleen Munroe is... fine I guess. She is given literally nothing to do so I have no way to know if she's a good actress or not. She gets like five minutes of screen time per episode and in that time, pines for his husband and doesn't really do anything else.
Patriot is listed as a comedy drama and I think that sums up a large part of my issues with this show. It's not a hilarious show. It has a dark humor to it, which produced few laugh out loud moments. But the comedy to a certain extent undercuts the drama of the situation. It may not for everyone, but it did for me. I never really felt tension when watching the show. It's a spy show. I feel like I should feel nervous about what might happen, but I didn't. I'm not saying the show should lose the comedy, but it's toeing a very difficult line, one I don't think it quite achieves.
(Sorry James. I didn't mean for this review to sound as harsh as it came out, but when the words start flowing, I can't stop myself)
Grade - C+
Patriot is a show about John Tavner, an absolutely miserable human being and I do not mean miserable in the sense that he is a terrible human being, I mean he is legitimately miserable. He is one of the saddest characters I've ever seen in a television show. He is a spy who has been forced to do terrible, awful things that eat at his soul. I watched the 10 episodes over a period of a couple months, but there may have been one or two times total that this guy was even remotely happy. You can probably sense that I had a problem with this and I kind of do, but not necessarily in concept. He was just so sad sack ALL OF THE TIME.
My solution to this problem would be one of two things. You have to make him charming or clever or good with people. Something. He does not hide his depression. He is not good with people. He's not really even that good at his job since absolutely nothing goes right for him. Characters being excellent at their job is like the easiest way to get the audience on their side (Side note: that's pretty weird right? I mean it's absolutely true, but weird.) . I mean it's certainly implied that he's good at his job. I think we're meant to think it. I just saw no evidence of it throughout the season. He didn't even do fucking paperwork for the job. My second idea is to do flashbacks of him being normal and happy. I need something to compare his miserable self to in order to see how far he's fallen.
I'm going to be unfair here and I'm doing this to illustrate my points. I'm going to compare this show to what I consider the best show on television. The Americans is also about spies who are undercover, pretending to be someone they are not, who are constantly forced to do things they don't want to do, things that cause them to be miserable. Phillip, in particular, is probably as miserable as Tavner is. But he starts the show relatively normal. He's good with his kids, he's good interacting with people, and he's also really fucking good at his job. When he kills people or kidnaps them, the show makes it clear that's he forced into this situation. He wasn't prepared for this to happen and there wasn't anything he could have done (usually).
Tavner, on the other hand, doesn't really seem like he tries... like at all. He has a running tally of problems that accumulate over the course of the season, but he barely tries to address them or fix it. He's just constantly putting it off so that all of them can converge in the penultimate episode. For example, the easiest fucking problem he has, is paperwork. I swear the HR guy asks him to do paperwork so that he can, you know, legally fucking work there for like five episodes. Just do the god damn paperwork John. He keeps getting on the bad side of Leslie (well-played by Kurtwood Smith), but that's because Leslie is the type of character who appreciates hard work. Tavner wants to get on Leslie's good side. I think anyway. He sort of half-heartedly tries at it, but it's clear he couldn't give less of a shit.
This is not a particularly well-plotted show. I honestly don't care about that, for the most part. But things don't really feel natural to how things would go in these situations. It's clear Steven Conrad, the creator, wanted all of John's problems to accumulate at the same time in the final episodes. But it was just an overly absurd amount of coincidences for that to happen. For instance, John murders a guy, so the police are on his tail. That's a natural conclusion. I can accept that. The paperwork is just contrived though. That could be solved in a hour. Why did he not do it for so long?! Because that was just another problem he needed to have.
One of the best parts of the season though is something that snuck up on me and when I noticed it, I felt dumb for not noticing it sooner. Tavner's dad, as played by Terry O'Quinn, is a very good character. He's very manipulative. He's kind of painted as the villain. I appreciate that. He's not a mustache twirling villain either. Just a guy who's willing to let his son deteriorate his soul, because he's willing to do literally anything for his country. He's that type of guy. He'll justify any decision if he thinks it's good for his country. He's one of those stubborn guys who probably will never be convinced he did anything wrong. When I realized this, it painted John in a whole new light. He was manipulated into this life. I still wish he showed anything other than outright depression for more than two seconds, but it shaped his character more than anything else for me.
The actors in general are all pretty good. I don't really fault Michael Dorman for his character because I'm fairly certain that's how he's intended. Michael Chernus provides some much needed levity to this program. Kathleen Munroe is... fine I guess. She is given literally nothing to do so I have no way to know if she's a good actress or not. She gets like five minutes of screen time per episode and in that time, pines for his husband and doesn't really do anything else.
Patriot is listed as a comedy drama and I think that sums up a large part of my issues with this show. It's not a hilarious show. It has a dark humor to it, which produced few laugh out loud moments. But the comedy to a certain extent undercuts the drama of the situation. It may not for everyone, but it did for me. I never really felt tension when watching the show. It's a spy show. I feel like I should feel nervous about what might happen, but I didn't. I'm not saying the show should lose the comedy, but it's toeing a very difficult line, one I don't think it quite achieves.
(Sorry James. I didn't mean for this review to sound as harsh as it came out, but when the words start flowing, I can't stop myself)
Grade - C+
Sunday, January 7, 2018
2017's Top Ten Comedies
I doubt that you have been on the edge of your seat awaiting my top ten, but this top ten is severely delayed. I originally planned to post this two days after my top ten dramas, which was a little over a week ago. Well I hadn't written a word when Thursday night rolled around because I forgot about it. The weekend, New Years Eve, and New Years Day were all out for drinking reasons. During New Years week, I felt under the weather most of the week, which ended up affecting me more than I thought as I found myself tired all the time. But better late than never.
#8 Master of None - Netflix
Model Episode - "Thanksgiving"
A tough show to place on a list such as this because of its inconsistency. On the one hand, episodes like "Thanksgiving" were among the best any television had to offer, providing a completely unique and engaging story that you can't see anywhere else. On the other hand, boy did a lot of this season just not work. Francesca is not a well-rounded character whatsoever. There's more chemistry in the first episode with Dev and his failed love connection than there is between Dev and Francesca. It really drives a lot of the season down. Dev getting a job as a food host also mostly didn't work that well.
But when they had a fantastic episode, it was among the best there was in 2017. When I'm looking at shows and what to place on this list, I tend to focus on peak more than overall consistency. That's why Master of None's second season made this list despite probably being worse than a few shows not on the list. Because it had a much, much greater peak than a B+ level show usually does.
#7 The Good Place - NBC
Model Episode - "Dance Dance Resolution"
This was not as tough to rationalize as Master of None, as The Good Place had arguably zero weak episodes in 2017. Keep in mind that I'm grading only episodes that aired in 2017, so we got the thrilling conclusion of season one and the batshit insanity of what happened at the beginning of season two. There was a few episodes there in a row where I wonder "how in the fuck will they keep this up" and they kept answering that question with great episodes. It's slowed down a bit since then, but I have complete faith in Michael Schur and the writing team to surprise us again at some point.
I'm going to make this one shorter just because I'm avoiding spoilers since this is a show particularly prone to spoiler ruining fun so I can't exactly specifically explain plot points I loved.
#6 American Vandal - Netflix
Model Episode - "A Limp Alibi"
I spent the first episode too confused as to how it was so good to appreciate what I was watching, so the second episode "A Limp Alibi" is really when I fell in love with this improbably fantastic show. There's no reason this show should be as good as it is, and it certainly falls squarely under the "I'm really doubting that can even come close to matching this in the second season." But wow. I'm going to avoid talking in detail for two reasons mainly. The first is that it's fucking impossible to try and explain how this show is good in a way that doesn't make you sound insane. The second and much more minor reason is spoilers.
So go watch the show and find out who drew the dicks and yes that is an example of how I sound insane when I say it is good.
#5 Review - Comedy Central
Model Episode - "Co Host, Ass Slap, Forgiveness, Helen Keller"
This is all the way down to #5 for a very simple reason. It aired three episodes. This is the highest I could reasonably justify putting it. This is a stacked year for comedy. While all three Review episodes were straight A quality, nearly every comedy on this list did manage to make three A quality episodes. I'm giving Review extra points for making EVERY episode a straight A and telling a perfect conclusion to a show that did not appear to need a third season. I mean I wanted a conclusion, but it wasn't strictly necessary.
Forrest MacNeil is a delusional host of a meaningless program that he has convinced is more important than it is. In fact, it's his whole life. You really need to watch the first two seasons in order to understand that, but Comedy Central is next to FX in making their programs inaccessible without paying for it, which... fair enough, but in the golden age of streaming TV, people just are just going to skip the show instead of pay for it. I was just going to recommend watching it on Hulu except it appears that is no longer the case. Ugh I'm sorry for those who didn't get to watch it.
#4 Bojack Horseman - Netflix
Model Episode - "Time's Arrow"
One thing I really appreciate about Bojack Horseman for the purposes of this list is that it's really great episodes - and really great episodes are an essential part of how I form this list - are really obvious when looking at the episodes because they all seem to knock you on your ass. "Time's Arrow" in particular - I just can't imagine anyone not being hit hard by that episode. This is mostly a comedy, but then there's episodes like this where you have a greater than average chance of cutting onions while watching the episode. If you were affected by the penultimate episode of season three - I won't spoil, but if you watch it, you should know the event I'm talking about - well I was hit much harder by the penultimate episode of season four. Goddam.
Anyway, Bojack Horseman is another example of a show that really shouldn't work as well as it does when you look at it on paper. But it straddles dark comedy, silly comedy, pun comedy, and unbearable sadness and depression really well. This obviously could only exist in cartoon form and I kind of appreciate that.
#3 Broad City - Comedy Central
Model Episode - "Witches"
In reality, I could have picked five different episodes. There's a great episode about their origin story, which is the first episode of the season. They conclude it with a celebration of their friendship which gives Broad City nice bookend episodes. There's also an episode where "Ilana can't orgasm in Trump's America" is a literally accurate headline for what the episode is about. I mean if you read that headline and you're not in, don't watch Broad City because it's not for you.
For whatever reason this was my favorite season of Broad City. I'm not sure I can tell you it was the best, although I am literally telling you it was the best in my opinion. I just have not quite been in tune with Broad City fans in the past so I'm not sure if that's the popular consensus. But I really loved this season.
#2 Rick and Morty - Adult Swim
Model Episode - "Pickle Rick"
Much like Broad City, I could have picked any number of episodes, but I have to give it to the episode where the creators make its main character a pickle for nearly the entire episode. It's an insane episode and probably not the best of the season, but I admire the audacity too much not to put it in my model episode.
There are two responses to my ranking, which are probably "Ugh why does everyone love this show" and "Ugh why is it not #1?" and I'm not sure there's many who are in between those reactions. I slightly am, although it is worth pointing out that the vast majority of the latter response, statistically speaking, do not watch the #1 show. Which brings me to....
#1 Nathan for You - Comedy Central
Model Episode - Finding Frances
With most model episodes, I intend to give you a portrait of what makes that show great. It's also usually the best episode of the season, although not in all cases. "Finding Frances" is why this show is on this list. This season is seven episodes long, but the seventh is "Finding Frances," and it's the length of a feature length film, which is fucking incredible if you've ever seen this show. It's not easy to imagine this show as a feature length film. Until you've seen Finding Frances.
Once again, Nathan Felder is somehow able to use real people's responses to his deadpan suggestions and create a narrative of a lonely person at the center of it. How in the fuck he does that, I will never know? But Nathan Felder is genuinely a character in this show. An awkward, sympathetic, hopelessly lonely character who just wants to make friends and find love. If this show sounds improbably more profound than a docu-reality series should be, well you're right. It doesn't make sense. That's why it's the number one show for me.
Honorable Mentions
Brooklyn Nine-Nine - This was my 11th show. Ultimately, B99 has a few too many forgettable episodes to place on this list and not quite enough "peak" but that's not a knock on the show. By my ridiculous standards, it's nearly impossible for a network comedy to fall on this list.
You're the Worst - This sure fell from grace. I didn't think the 4th season was bad, but it was a definite downgrade from seasons past. Part of the drop has to do with the amazingness of the shows around it, but it played its part in it for sure.
Silicon Valley - I'm in a perpetuating cycle with Silicon Valley at this point. I didn't place it in my top ten the first year, and I'm not really finding the show topping it self so I find it hard to justify placing it in a top ten. Either way, it was going to be impossible for Silicon Valley to find it this year. But I will give it a shout out because it's the best show that's never made my top ten.
Insecure - I definitely think this show suffered from not having as clear of a narrative structure as the first season, but most importantly, its down here because everything else raised their standard around it.
Glow - Ultimately, this was felled by the fact that I only really considered two episodes of this "really great" and those were the wrestling episodes. If I could have put it in the top ten, I would have, I just couldn't justify it to myself over these other shows.
Catastrophe - Going over the honorable mentions just makes me realize what a fucking impossible task this was. I fully intended to include this in my top ten at some point, but look at these shows! Plus, there's only six episodes and I kind of penalized it for that.
Veep - I finally caught up to Veep! And it probably put in its worst season yet. Go figure.
Sorry for typos and poorly written sentences. I wrote the majority of this rushed and will go over it after I post it to fix mistakes, but you first time readers get my ALL of my mistakes right off the bat. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it.
I mentioned in my previous post that the comedies may have arguably been better than the dramas. I'm not sure if that's true or not, but I found myself having tougher cuts. I found more shows were worthy of a top five and a top ten than there were spots to fill. Most of the honorable mentions legitimately belong on this list, but I just didn't have room.
#10 It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia - FXX
Model Episode - "The Gang Turns Black"
There is no better testament to the quality of this list than It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia being the tenth show. I promise you. It got the tenth spot mostly because it would be weird if one of my favorite comedies of all time didn't make this list while having about the same quality as it usually has. It's not a perfect measure, but I don't think the 12th season was appreciably worse than the 11th season, and the 11th season placed #4 last year.
Either you're in or you're out at this point. It's been 12 seasons and until recently it was on Netflix for the past 5+ years. It was not hard to figure out how to watch the show. Most people reading this are probably internet savvy and have interacted with people who praise the show. So if you've gone on this long without deciding to watch It's Always Sunny, well you're probably not ever going to watch it. That's fine. I think you're missing out, but I understand the time value of picking your shows. For people who do watch it, I probably do not have to sell you on this ranking.
#9 Vice Principals - HBO
Model Episode - "The Union of the Wizard and the Warrior"
Danny McBride and the writing team evidently filmed both the first and second seasons back-to-back before the first season ever aired. They planned out a two season show, filmed it, and then the first season aired. This was rather surprising to me when I learned that. I watched season one and came away without much of an opinion on it. I liked Walton Goggins hamming it up, but as for the show? It was fine. The second season was like a show responding to a mild response to the first season and improving mightily. But... the show wrote and filmed season two before there was even a response to the first season. Like I said, I was surprised when I found that out.
There's much more emotional grounding in the wackiness that occurs this season. They delve deeper into Gamby's psyche and Goggins is able to provide some shading to Lee Russell as well. Plus, they got a classic whodunit, which provides a central mystery to the second season. This is just a well done dark comedy. I also enjoyed the focus on character - as outlandish as the two main characters can be - showing the two main characters respond differently to adversity. I'm not going to spoil, but I'll just say that on a character level, it was pretty great where they took the characters. In hindsight, it's clear that season one was part one of the story - and setup isn't as interesting as when the action happens (and you get action aplenty in the final two episodes of this season)
#8 Master of None - Netflix
Model Episode - "Thanksgiving"
A tough show to place on a list such as this because of its inconsistency. On the one hand, episodes like "Thanksgiving" were among the best any television had to offer, providing a completely unique and engaging story that you can't see anywhere else. On the other hand, boy did a lot of this season just not work. Francesca is not a well-rounded character whatsoever. There's more chemistry in the first episode with Dev and his failed love connection than there is between Dev and Francesca. It really drives a lot of the season down. Dev getting a job as a food host also mostly didn't work that well.
But when they had a fantastic episode, it was among the best there was in 2017. When I'm looking at shows and what to place on this list, I tend to focus on peak more than overall consistency. That's why Master of None's second season made this list despite probably being worse than a few shows not on the list. Because it had a much, much greater peak than a B+ level show usually does.
#7 The Good Place - NBC
Model Episode - "Dance Dance Resolution"
This was not as tough to rationalize as Master of None, as The Good Place had arguably zero weak episodes in 2017. Keep in mind that I'm grading only episodes that aired in 2017, so we got the thrilling conclusion of season one and the batshit insanity of what happened at the beginning of season two. There was a few episodes there in a row where I wonder "how in the fuck will they keep this up" and they kept answering that question with great episodes. It's slowed down a bit since then, but I have complete faith in Michael Schur and the writing team to surprise us again at some point.
I'm going to make this one shorter just because I'm avoiding spoilers since this is a show particularly prone to spoiler ruining fun so I can't exactly specifically explain plot points I loved.
#6 American Vandal - Netflix
Model Episode - "A Limp Alibi"
I spent the first episode too confused as to how it was so good to appreciate what I was watching, so the second episode "A Limp Alibi" is really when I fell in love with this improbably fantastic show. There's no reason this show should be as good as it is, and it certainly falls squarely under the "I'm really doubting that can even come close to matching this in the second season." But wow. I'm going to avoid talking in detail for two reasons mainly. The first is that it's fucking impossible to try and explain how this show is good in a way that doesn't make you sound insane. The second and much more minor reason is spoilers.
So go watch the show and find out who drew the dicks and yes that is an example of how I sound insane when I say it is good.
#5 Review - Comedy Central
Model Episode - "Co Host, Ass Slap, Forgiveness, Helen Keller"
This is all the way down to #5 for a very simple reason. It aired three episodes. This is the highest I could reasonably justify putting it. This is a stacked year for comedy. While all three Review episodes were straight A quality, nearly every comedy on this list did manage to make three A quality episodes. I'm giving Review extra points for making EVERY episode a straight A and telling a perfect conclusion to a show that did not appear to need a third season. I mean I wanted a conclusion, but it wasn't strictly necessary.
Forrest MacNeil is a delusional host of a meaningless program that he has convinced is more important than it is. In fact, it's his whole life. You really need to watch the first two seasons in order to understand that, but Comedy Central is next to FX in making their programs inaccessible without paying for it, which... fair enough, but in the golden age of streaming TV, people just are just going to skip the show instead of pay for it. I was just going to recommend watching it on Hulu except it appears that is no longer the case. Ugh I'm sorry for those who didn't get to watch it.
#4 Bojack Horseman - Netflix
Model Episode - "Time's Arrow"
One thing I really appreciate about Bojack Horseman for the purposes of this list is that it's really great episodes - and really great episodes are an essential part of how I form this list - are really obvious when looking at the episodes because they all seem to knock you on your ass. "Time's Arrow" in particular - I just can't imagine anyone not being hit hard by that episode. This is mostly a comedy, but then there's episodes like this where you have a greater than average chance of cutting onions while watching the episode. If you were affected by the penultimate episode of season three - I won't spoil, but if you watch it, you should know the event I'm talking about - well I was hit much harder by the penultimate episode of season four. Goddam.
Anyway, Bojack Horseman is another example of a show that really shouldn't work as well as it does when you look at it on paper. But it straddles dark comedy, silly comedy, pun comedy, and unbearable sadness and depression really well. This obviously could only exist in cartoon form and I kind of appreciate that.
#3 Broad City - Comedy Central
Model Episode - "Witches"
In reality, I could have picked five different episodes. There's a great episode about their origin story, which is the first episode of the season. They conclude it with a celebration of their friendship which gives Broad City nice bookend episodes. There's also an episode where "Ilana can't orgasm in Trump's America" is a literally accurate headline for what the episode is about. I mean if you read that headline and you're not in, don't watch Broad City because it's not for you.
For whatever reason this was my favorite season of Broad City. I'm not sure I can tell you it was the best, although I am literally telling you it was the best in my opinion. I just have not quite been in tune with Broad City fans in the past so I'm not sure if that's the popular consensus. But I really loved this season.
#2 Rick and Morty - Adult Swim
Model Episode - "Pickle Rick"
Much like Broad City, I could have picked any number of episodes, but I have to give it to the episode where the creators make its main character a pickle for nearly the entire episode. It's an insane episode and probably not the best of the season, but I admire the audacity too much not to put it in my model episode.
There are two responses to my ranking, which are probably "Ugh why does everyone love this show" and "Ugh why is it not #1?" and I'm not sure there's many who are in between those reactions. I slightly am, although it is worth pointing out that the vast majority of the latter response, statistically speaking, do not watch the #1 show. Which brings me to....
#1 Nathan for You - Comedy Central
Model Episode - Finding Frances
With most model episodes, I intend to give you a portrait of what makes that show great. It's also usually the best episode of the season, although not in all cases. "Finding Frances" is why this show is on this list. This season is seven episodes long, but the seventh is "Finding Frances," and it's the length of a feature length film, which is fucking incredible if you've ever seen this show. It's not easy to imagine this show as a feature length film. Until you've seen Finding Frances.
Once again, Nathan Felder is somehow able to use real people's responses to his deadpan suggestions and create a narrative of a lonely person at the center of it. How in the fuck he does that, I will never know? But Nathan Felder is genuinely a character in this show. An awkward, sympathetic, hopelessly lonely character who just wants to make friends and find love. If this show sounds improbably more profound than a docu-reality series should be, well you're right. It doesn't make sense. That's why it's the number one show for me.
Honorable Mentions
Brooklyn Nine-Nine - This was my 11th show. Ultimately, B99 has a few too many forgettable episodes to place on this list and not quite enough "peak" but that's not a knock on the show. By my ridiculous standards, it's nearly impossible for a network comedy to fall on this list.
You're the Worst - This sure fell from grace. I didn't think the 4th season was bad, but it was a definite downgrade from seasons past. Part of the drop has to do with the amazingness of the shows around it, but it played its part in it for sure.
Silicon Valley - I'm in a perpetuating cycle with Silicon Valley at this point. I didn't place it in my top ten the first year, and I'm not really finding the show topping it self so I find it hard to justify placing it in a top ten. Either way, it was going to be impossible for Silicon Valley to find it this year. But I will give it a shout out because it's the best show that's never made my top ten.
Insecure - I definitely think this show suffered from not having as clear of a narrative structure as the first season, but most importantly, its down here because everything else raised their standard around it.
Glow - Ultimately, this was felled by the fact that I only really considered two episodes of this "really great" and those were the wrestling episodes. If I could have put it in the top ten, I would have, I just couldn't justify it to myself over these other shows.
Catastrophe - Going over the honorable mentions just makes me realize what a fucking impossible task this was. I fully intended to include this in my top ten at some point, but look at these shows! Plus, there's only six episodes and I kind of penalized it for that.
Veep - I finally caught up to Veep! And it probably put in its worst season yet. Go figure.
Sorry for typos and poorly written sentences. I wrote the majority of this rushed and will go over it after I post it to fix mistakes, but you first time readers get my ALL of my mistakes right off the bat. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it.
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