Writing Blind: Oz S3

Welcome to a feature called "Writing Blind."  In this series, I will be writing about seasons of television that I watched in the past year or so, but failed to write about at the time.  I call it writing blind, because I will be sharing my thoughts months after I have already finished the season.  This is both because I want to write about these seasons, but don't have the time to re-watch them and because it is a challenge to hopefully improve my writing.

Oz was a revolutionary show for its time.  I'm not sure there's a better example of a show whose impact vastly exceeds its quality.  This was the first HBO drama.  This set the stage for every other prestige HBO drama.  I don't want to heap too much credit on Oz, because it's likely that the HBO brass were very dedicated to having a brand of making quality television early on in their process, but it's one thing for that to be a goal and it's another thing to make it happen. 

Oz is a show reliant on shocks.  It's not very character-based.  It's schizophrenic, impatient, constantly trying to keep your attention.  Season three is a case of diminishing returns.  It's essentially a soap opera, except people stay dead when they are killed.  It's an entertaining soap opera and about ten times more violent than any soap opera I've ever heard of, but the more I think about it, the more the comparison makes sense to me.

Oz must have been ridiculously well-praised at its time.  First off, there weren't many options for good television in 1997-1998.  There were some shows, but if you just compare it to now, well... it doesn't compare at all.  Anyway, I bring that up because I noticed three directors that piqued my interest: Chazz Palmenteri, Steve Buscemi, and Matt Dillon.  That's right, those three directed three of the eight episodes.  This show must have had some serious critical buzz for those three guys to want to work on the show.

Anyway, on to the meat of the season, I'm having trouble actually getting to the plot and the characters, because essentially, if you've seen season one, you've seen season three.  I don't know if I'd necessarily recommend for you to skip seasons two and three, but if you're interested in the history of television and don't really want to commit yourself to a bunch of episodes, you'll get the general vibe of Oz just from the first season.

Anyway, this season features Miguel Alvarez mostly locked up in solitary.  Long-term this wasn't a very good idea.  He's one of the more interesting and better acted people on the show (You've probably seen Kirk Acevedo in Band of Brothers).  And he is seemingly stuck in solitary forever.  You can't really do much with characters in solitary.  For season three, it's not as much of an issue.  He struggles with depression, not being fond of solitary, and this allows Oz to reveal that prisoners aren't really properly treated if they have depression.  I'm sure most people do not give a single shit if prisoners with mental illness aren't treated for it, but the theoretical goal of prison is rehabilitation so you'd think that'd be a top priority.  Gloria Nathan represents the best version of a doctor, fully committed to the patient's well-being, and her fight with cost-cutting measures is shown throughout the season.

Adebisi, while well-played by Adewale Akkinuoye-Agbaje, is a pretty good example of diminishing returns.  I don't know if its the writing or what, but it truly seems like they have nowhere else to go for this character.  He's manipulative, devious, and predictable at this point.  Same thing with the rivalry between Schillinger and Beecher.  At this point, it's implausible neither of these guys are dead yet.  So they start killing each other's family members and we don't know them, so we don't really feel the impact.  There's no real threat in these stories - which is an odd thing to say when family members of two of the most prominent characters are threatened - but since we do not care about them, we do not care when they are killed.

This season marks the introduction of Claire Howell, one of my least favorite characters on this show.  She's poorly acted, she's abrasive, she coerces inmates into sex, and she's just not redeemable in any way.  There's a way to make this character work, but I just don't think the actress is good enough to pull it off.  Edie Falco is much better as the representative C.O. character.  Speaking of guards, the new head of the C.O.s is Sean Murphy, which is a welcome addition if for nothing else than for the fact I like Robert Clohessy as an actor.  He doesn't really get much to do, but again Clohessy does good work.

Also introduced in this season is Clayton Hughes, played by future Wire regular Seth Gillam.  Gillam is great in The Wire.  He's not great in this.  He didn't stand a chance as his character SUCKS.  He gives Adebisi a gun at the end of the season and this is completely at odds with how his character originally acted in the first episode.  That's nothing new to Oz though.

As for the last two characters I'll talk about, Kareem Said goes through a crisis of faith this season.  He "falls in love" with Patricia Ross, a defendant in his case against the state.  As you can see, I am not buying that they fell in love, but Eamonn Walker tries to sell the hell out of it.  It also features the unusual partnership of Said and Beecher by the end of the season.  It's pretty natural too for this show, although I wish it last longer.  (That's a complaint for next season).  Lastly, I still don't really like Tim McManus, and I think the show wants me to like him.  He has a sexual harassment thing against him and I kind of rooted for him to get fired so he could leave the show.

I could break down every character and every stupid storyline, but I overall enjoyed this season. JK Simmons, Lee Tergesen, Christopher Meloni and Dean Winters are just plain fun to watch.  Oh yeah I forgot to mention that Sister Peter Marie questions her faith based off her attraction and the manipulation by Keller.  This shouldn't work but the two actors are Meloni and Rita Moreno and the could successfully make a drama about paint drying entertaining.  

This show has the oddest mix of great actors and godawful actors that it's jarring.  It's basically a show designed to be judged on a scene by scene basis, not on an episode basis or even a season basis.  Oz is still pretty good in season three, something that clearly changes by the next season so obviously they did something better and different in this season.  I couldn't tell you what though.  So if you have the time, I'd still give this season a watch.

Grade - B

Rewind: The X-Files S6

When I started this series, I expected to immediately like it.  I had high expectations for the show and I thought I would have no trouble getting into the show.  I also weirdly expected a small peak that the show would only reach for a couple seasons, and gradually declining years until it became unwatchable.  As you've probably gathered, this is not at all what happened to me.  The high expectations made the first season a disappointment - it has one of the better season-long storylines and a few good episodes, but that's pretty much it.  That initial disappointment kept me at arm's length from loving the show for longer than it otherwise would have - although I'm only now seeing this in hindsight.

Anyway, my other "problem" with truly getting into The X-Files is that I was fully aware of the mythology before I started.  By that I mean, I knew it wasn't really going anywhere and would ultimately stop making sense or just start getting stupid.  While this did lead to not being frustrated at all when the mythology got that way, it also meant I pretty much never got invested in any early season mythology.  Welcome to the only show where I infinitely prefer the standalone episodes to their serialization.

So here I am in season six and the show's been mostly churning out 20 or so quality episodes each year for the past five years (with the exception of the fifth season, which had less episodes due to the movie).  So I didn't really expect to gain an appreciation for the show in its supposed decline years.  But my opinion of the show is much higher than it was in the second season or third season, perhaps because there are very few shows that remain good in its sixth season.  It's clear the show is starting to run out of ideas, but they are responding to this by being creative and experimenting with ideas.

The mythology is never less important than the sixth season, which I certainly am not going to complain about.  The show also took some backlash for two developments and I'm not sure how related they are to each other: season six tries to be funny for like six episodes in a row (it seems that long at least) and the production moved to California because David Duchovny didn't like Vancouver (this is at least what I've read so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong).

Despite the brighter colors and the shift in tone at points, you can't really say the show is that much worse than before.  It's probably not better than the 2-4 seasons, but during the fifth season, they were so clearly focused on the movie that it led to an inconsistent season with some rather high points.  The sixth season, whatever flaws you may give it, is a fairly consistent season at the very least.  "Milagro" is about the only really bad episode in the season, but to be fair wow did I hate that episode.  Thanks for wasting John Hawkes guys!

However, the best episodes of the sixth season tend to have one or two flaws preventing it from really matching the best episodes of the previous years.  "Triangle" is a lot of fun, but it makes no damn sense.  "Tithonus" is basically Vince Gilligan's attempt at writing Darin Morgan, and while he's a great writer, it's no "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose."  Not many things are, but it kind of invites the comparison and can't help but pale in comparison.  "Arcadia" is another fun episode, but the monster is fairly bland, dragging it down a bit.  "The Unnatural" is mostly a great episode because Jesse L. Martin is fantastic and it's kind of pointless to write down the flaws since those are also what makes it kind of endearing.

There's also "Drive," the episode that brought Bryan Cranston to Vince Gilligan.  Cranston is pretty much as good as advertised and you can definitely see how he convinced Gilligan to cast him in Breaking Bad.  "Monday" is the X-Files Groundhog Day episode (does every long-running genre series eventually have this type of episode?  I saw a Star Trek: Next Generation episode like this, but it aired before Groundhog Day.  It's basically the perfect format for TV).  I don't think I have ever not liked a Groundhog Day episode before, but I'm sure a bad one exists somewhere.

"Field Trip" is maybe my favorite episode of the season (oh look Vince Gilligan had a hand in that.  Shocker).  "Three of Kind" is a perhaps unexpected an dunnecessary sequel to the Lone Gunmen episode from the fifth season and probably falls apart if you think about it, but I had a lot of fun watching it.  Lastly, "Dreamland" has no business being a two-parter, but its got Michael McKean and he's always great.  I keep naming episodes I liked, but there's a lot of them.  (Last one: "How the Ghosts Stole Christmas" is great if nothing else for the performances by Lily Tomlin and Edward Asner.)

Are there X-Files fans who are mythology-driven and those who only want the standalone episodes?  The mythology probably sheds more light on the character of the two leads than the other episodes so they had their use in the beginning seasons.  But still...  I think I can count on one hand the number of mythology episodes that seemed useful.  (My impression is that I didn't really love those episodes even in the early seasons, but that could be just because I don't remember them at all.  Seriously these episodes do not stick in my brain like other episodes do for some reason.)

The sixth season was much better than I ever expected.  Besides season three, it might even feature the most good to great episodes.  (Though looking at my past grades, season four might have something to say about that.)  If I decide to rewatch the series and limit it to my most enjoyable or favorite episodes, this very well might have the most episodes on that list.  You'd think five seasons and a movie would diminish the writers' capacity for new ideas, but you can't really tell by the quality of these episodes.

Grade - A-

2015 Top Ten Comedies

** If you read my top ten dramas post, you can safely skip these introductory paragraphs.  It's pretty much the same thing I said then.  If you haven't read it, go ahead and click on this link.

I made the foolish decision to make an end-of-the-year top ten list.  Most top ten lists come out before Christmas, but there was just no time for me to watch what I felt I needed to watch in order to come up with the best possible list.  Given that the holidays provide loads of opportunity of free time, it was also more convenient.  I don't regret that decision either.  The comedy list would have looked a hell of a lot different.

For my order, I decided to list them backwards from 10 to 1 and then afterwards list the honorable mentions.  I feel by abstaining from listing the honorable mentions until afterwards, you might actually have some doubt as to what will come towards the top.  Also, I don't want to list your favorite show in the honorable mention, you'll get mad and then not read the rest of the post.

Both lists are what I think are the best, but I will admit a certain element of how much I enjoy the show comes into play.  By that I mean, there are a few shows that could technically be described as better than some in the top ten, but whenever I put them in there, it just felt wrong.  It felt like I was putting it in there only because I felt it was supposed to be in there and not because I thought it was one of my top ten shows of the year.

Anyway my opinions are my own and there's really no need to be offended that I didn't include your favorite show.  There's a decent chance I don't even watch it too.  I'm fairly certain Bob's Burgers most recent year would be strongly considered for comedy, but I'm just not caught up to the show and it was not possible for me to do so.  I've wasted enough words introducing this list so let's just get on with it.

*I only count episodes that air in 2015.  Most of the shows in this list have the entire season air in 2015, but for shows like The Flash that still follow the traditional network television format, 2015 covers one half of two different seasons.  To stay on that example, I'm not technically counting the first nine episodes of the first season of The Flash.

#10 Another Period - Comedy Central (Season 1)
I factored in originality a lot in my picks for both comedies and dramas.  If I felt the show was drastically different than other shows I've seen in 2015 or even ever before, I would probably put it ahead of other shows that perhaps might be considered better.  That is the case with Another Period.  It is a show that is essentially a parody of two things that are very mock-worthy, Downton Abbey and reality television.  It's an odd mix, but it works for this show.  This show evidently came about because someone - presumably Natasha Leggero or Riki Lindhome - thought "What if entitled rich people back in the early 1900s had reality television?"

And... it's probably not a lot different from what Another Period presents, as cartoonish as it tends to get.  We are talking about the reality television here.  Take the stereotypes of that era and the people inhabiting that era and then, because it's reality television, take the craziest of that stereotype and have those people play up their actions for the camera?  Yeah it's not hard to envision at all.

Anyway, I've never seen Leggero in anything except the Comedy Central roasts - and honestly she wasn't that great - but she seems perfectly suited for the tone of this show.  Similarly, I've never seen Lindhome in anything, but I kind of want to watch Garfunkel and Oates.  Jason Ritter is apparently hilarious in anything he appears in, because between this and Drunk History, that dude can make me laugh.  Also Paget Brewster is constantly trying to sound dignified while being high on morphine.  Unfortunately, the show loses Artemis Pebdani after the pilot and her replacement is but a shell of her.

Model Episode - "Switcheroo Day" (S1 E7)

This episode has a pretty sitcom plot actually with two of the servant characters being able to act like they are in the upper class.  One takes the role and pretty much doesn't change (arguing against the lower class funny enough), and the other takes the role and relishes it (by cruelly tormenting the servants).  Also Lillian orchestrates her own kidnapping because that's just the type of person she is.

#9 Bojack Horseman - Netflix (Season 2)

Bojack Horseman comes at a bit of a disadvantage for me in that I watched it directly after a show that dealt with similar issues and it just completely pales in comparison for me.  Needless to say that show will be showing up later in this post.  Nonetheless, Bojack Horseman is a show that deals with a character deep in depression.  Another character isn't sure how to add meaning to her life.  These issues are dealt with seriously and before servicing laughs.

But these issues do not come at the expense of laughs.  It's still a funny show, and at times very silly.  It really likes to make animal-related jokes and Vincent Adultman is still a character so you know it's not all serious, all-the-time.  But the voice actors bring their A game to this show.  Hell, Allison Brie seems to voice characters I only learn she voices later (Vincent Adultman???) and the somewhat famous guest stars always seem to go unrecognized by me during the episode.

Model Episode "Escape from LA" (S2 E11)

I'm curious, when picking the model episode, whether I should pick a show that best represents whatever show I'm talking about or pick the best episode.  I've been picking the best episode so far, and usually the best episodes of a show are the ones that diverge from their typical episode.  Thus, "Escape from LA" is certainly not your usual Bojack Horseman as Bojack gets to see what living like a (relatively) normal family life only for him to fuck things up in the most horrific way imaginable.  Well I'm sure I could think of something more horrific, but you get my point.

#8 Parks and Recreation - NBC (Season 7)

Parks and Recreation is one of those shows that honestly would have found its way on this list one way or the other almost regardless of quality.  I *know* that seasons 4-6 weren't as good as its prime, but I also know I enjoyed those seasons way more than most comedies.  So I have basically no way of being objective about the quality of Parks and Recreation.  But I actually think season seven was pretty good.  This will sound weird - because it's only two spots - but if I just wanted it in for the sake of it being on this list, it would be 10th.  (The implication being that it would not actually be my 10th best pick were I not insistent on having it on here.)

I think I said it on my top ten drama post, but for shows that aired and finished early in the year, I tend to have trouble remembering specifics of the season.  So I tend to lean more on the great episodes to help guide me.  I know Parks and Recreation began the season with Ron and Leslie at odds and I know that the show would never, ever end with them at odds because that's just not the type of show it is.  But the show did two interesting things with this concept.  First off, given their very natures, it actually seems very inevitable that they would eventually both be stubborn enough to fight over a small issue and not resolve their differences.  I'd say the only reason that it didn't happen before season seven is because the writers didn't really want a multi-episode conflict between two main characters.  While I have no doubt it would have made for some good television, Parks and Rec just isn't the show that's going to have its two characters have a season-long conflict against each other.  Secondly, the way the show handled their eventual reconciliation was one of their greatest episodes.

Model Episode - "Leslie and Ron" (S7 E4)

Like I said above, I think this is one of their greatest episodes.  They took advantage of the time jump by having Leslie and Ron have a previous fight that festered and continued for at least a year.  Both got to see what life was without the other and neither liked it all that much, especially Ron.  It's not hard to see why Leslie likes Ron - she's naturally inclusive of other people and fiercely loyal.  But Ron has always been a mystery.  So to have this fight be the result of Ron essentially feeling abandoned and then both of them being too stubborn to admit wrong is a good piece of writing.

#7 Broad City - Comedy Central (Season 2)

When Broad City writers run out of ideas - when they don't know how to fill the next episode - they have one of the most reliable formulas to turn to: just have Abbi and Ilana shoot the shit and talk about whatever the hell those two want to talk about in that episode.  Seriously, there's no way this show can fail when those two are doing their thing.  Add in about 3-5 minutes of Hannibal Buress - they've deployed him basically perfectly, always keeping us wanting more of him - and Broad City is good to go.

You know what I wish Broad City would do though?  Get rid of Bevers.  That actor is way too successful at making him a lazy, poaching boyfriend.  He sucks the life out of scenes for me.  There's also basically one joke here - a joke worthy of a one-episode appearance, not a recurring character.  The other supporting characters?  Paul Downs has done great work as Trey, making him more interesting and funnier this season.  Arturo Castro as Jaime is used even more sparingly than Buress, but he's also welcome to stay on this show for as long as it airs.  Lastly, everything involved with developing Jeremy into a more complex character was just amazing writing.  Speaking of which...

Model Episode - "Knockoffs" (S2 E4)

It's a tough pick for me between this and "Coat Check."  One the one hand, you have Kelly Ripa having a secret crazy side.  You also have Ilana find out she is in love with herself (duh).  But on the other hand, you have "pegging" and Susie Essman as Ilana's mother (perfect casting).  Ultimately I'm going with Knockoffs because, while funny, the Ripa story has been done before (Wayne Brady on The Chappelle Show) and I don't think I've ever seen an episode of television deal with pegging.

#6 It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia - FX (Season 10)

Can I just say that I probably suffer the same symptom about this show as I do with Parks and Recreation?  This is up there for my favorite comedies of all time.  The show is also as strong as its ever been in its tenth season.  There are a couple classics here, episodes that would rank among the show's very best.  The show has also so mastered its formula that it's middle-of-the-road episodes are more entertaining than most comedies out there.

While I definitely think It's Always Sunny belongs below the upcoming five spots for reasons I'll explain above, the decision whether to rank It's Always Sunny or Broad City higher was among my tougher decisions.  One spot doesn't really matter, but I could have gone either way.  Ultimately, I went with It's Always Sunny, because I just enjoy the show more.  I enjoy watching the show more than any other comedy.  Among the shows above this, a couple mine comedy from cringe-worthy situations which, while funny and often brilliant, aren't exactly enjoyable to watch.  Another couple shows develop comedy through characters' pain.  Neither of those things are problems with It's Always Sunny.  I can enjoy it guilt-free without feeling bad for the characters and since the characters have no shame, there's very little cringe comedy here.

Model Episode - "Charlie Work" (S10 E4)

Here's another show with two really tough picks for me.  It was between this and "The Gang Misses the Boat."  I went with "Charlie Work" because it's a drastic change from anything they've done before, while "The Gang Misses the Boat" is a different variation of a theme they've been doing for years (albeit with an ending they've certainly never done before).  This is essentially the show's version of the movie Birdman, even though apparently this was written and filmed well before that movie was in theaters (which is shocking really since it's so eerily similar between having "one shot" and the drums)

#5 Master of None - Netflix (Season 1)

Master of None is a good example of a show that would probably be lower, but I value originality in picking my spots.  The concept of the show itself isn't that original - a comedian who finds dating life hard - but in its perspective.  The show dealt with "Indians on TV" and how they were portrayed.  It dealt with immigrant parents who moved to America for a better life.  They also had a great episode about how men will leap to other men's defense even if you're a guy like Aziz Ansari on Master of None.

Even in the well-worn familiar territory of a couple dating, Master of None changed it up.  They have their first date over the whole episode in Nashville.  We experience their relationships over months through only their mornings.  The way they first met each other was also fairly atypical of a relationship that's supposed to last a year.  This show is a good example of how diversity can make a television premise that's been done to death (Seinfeld and Louie for one) seem original because it's being told from a new perspective.

Model Episode - "Indians on TV" (S1 E4)

I could have went several different ways with this pick, but I've seen relationship issues tackled before while I haven't seen this addressed on a television episode.  (Aziz has probably dealt with this in his standup, but HOT TAKE I don't think his stand-up is that great - which to be fair, I seem to only really like three or four stand-up acts)  I would really like to watch this episode RIGHT NOW, but I simply don't have time.

#4 Rick and Morty - Adult Swim (Season 2)

Let's get this out of the way.  "Get Schwifty" is terrible.  I don't really mean the episode, but holy shit that song sucks.  I have no idea how the same show that did "Goodbye Moonmen" made... whatever the hell that was.  Is it a commentary on how shitty pop music is?  I don't care, that song sucked.  The rest of the season was pretty fantastic.

This season seem to deal with Rick having more humanity due his growing connection with his grandchildren.  While Rick is becoming a better person (relatively speaking I guess - he does still tell both of his grandchildren "fuck you" in the finale after all), Morty is starting to get a bit darker.  Meanwhile, Summer gets more involved and Beth gets further development as a daughter terrified her father will leave her again.  And Jerry... is still Jerry.

Besides "Get Schwifty" it seems like every episode is at the very least very hilarious.  They have an inferior sequel to "Rixty Minutes" and as much as I enjoy "Big Trouble in Little Sanchez," they are dealing with material already explored.  But the rest are episodes of television that I would say must be watched.  (At that point, might as well just watch the rest of the series though.)

Model Episode - "The Wedding Squanchers" (S2 E10)

Of course I have to pick this episode.  Rick & Morty, before this episode, didn't really work for me in terms of emotional attachment.  It felt like The Simpsons/Futurama strategy; ignore really trying the emotional aspect until the last minute.  However, man does this episode land like a gut punch.  It finally emotionally affects me on this episode.  "Total Rickall" was also a classic.

#3 Nathan for You - Comedy Central (Season 3)

I really though this series would have a limited shelf life on being great television due to its very premise.  There's only so many places you can seemingly go.  After watching season two, I was actually kind of bummed, because I thought season three wouldn't be as good and I wanted Nathan for You to be represented on this list.  But I know nothing and this might have been even better than the second season.

In this season, Nathan challenges Best Buy's price match policy, creates a fitness regime where you move boxes, create a fake play so that people can smoke in a bar, and impersonate someone else so that they can be considered a hero.  All of these episodes have hilarious, natural twists that only a show like this could produce because he's dealing with real people's reactions.  The fitness regime spokesman turns out to be an expert liar - like he's willing to lie about anything and everything - and of course Nathan takes to being another person well by being able to connect better with people.

Nathan the character is a brilliant creation.  He's just a guy with poor social skills who wants a friend.  In this season, he's able to make a friend - a guy with hilariously flexible boundaries.  (I'm curious about that guy now that he's seen the show, although if that episode is any indication, he'll just take it in stride.  More likely, the show has told him what's what by now, but a man can dream.)  Oh my god this season also features porn actors loudly having sex near a small child in a soundproof fake spaceship.  How exactly is he allowed to do that?  This might be too low of a ranking the more segments that I remember that he did.

Model Episode - "Smoker's Allowed" (S3 E5)

There are a few options here, namely his stunt in "The Hero," his way to get workers to work for free by making it a fitness craze in "The Movement" or even his antics to get Best Buy to sell a rival store TVs for $1, but ultimately I have to go with "Smoker's Allowed."  More than others, this just seemed like they had an idea for one segment, the people reacted unexpectedly, and they ran with it.  They not only ran with it, they took it to absurd levels.

#2 You're the Worst - FX (Season 2)

This might be a bit aggressive.  This show takes their characters' emotions and puts it first and foremost.  It's more important than comedy.  However, a lot of times, the comedy is used in order to highlight characters' emotions.  It doesn't necessarily need to be one or the other.  For instance, and this is more prominent in season one, Edgar frequently displays symptoms of PSTD, but he does so in a way that is usually very funny.

The reason it's this high though is because of Aya Cash's performance and the way the show treats mental illness.  I mentioned above that Bojack Horseman paled in comparison to a show above and that show is You're the Worst.  Both tackle the same issues roughly speaking, but You're the Worst is so much better at it and it's not even like that's a weakness of Bojack Horseman.  It's a strength.  But that just speaks to the ability of the You're the Worst writers.

One, shall we say, weakness of this show is that it treats Kether Donohue oddly.  Like, we're just supposed to pretend she's a fat girl or something and not ridiculously attractive.  She's not miscast.  But I tend to think they had a different vision of the role at the beginning, liked her so much that they cast her, and then pretended as if nothing had changed.  I might be alone on this.  In any case, this show is well cast.  Chris Geere and Cash have great chemistry - obviously a very necessary component of making a show around one specific relationship.  Both excel at the serious, the emotional, and the comedic aspects of their character that are necessary for the show.  They also have a few very reliably funny side characters like the rappers and their fake turned real beef, Lindsay's ex Paul, and Vernon (who's way funnier and more complex than he has any right to be)

Model Episode - "LCD Soundsystem" (S2 E9)

Like pretty much all of the comedies towards the top, there were some strong contenders for this part.  "There is Currently Not a Problem" features Gretchen's breakdown and is probably Aya Cash's Emmy submission.  The finale "The Heat is a Dumb Dumb" also ends the season on a positive note, although this still involves Gretchen trying to hook up with Jimmy's almost-fling.  But ultimately I went with "LCD Soundsystem" because Gretchen lives vicariously through a neighboring couple and temporarily is able to convince herself of happiness based off their relationship.  Of course, this relationship isn't as great as it seems and Gretchen takes it pretty hard.

#1 Review - Comedy Central (Season 2)

Here's another Comedy Central show whose very premise seems very limited to creating amazing television.  It was hard to imagine how they could follow season one, but they managed to even outdo that season.  Forrest McNeil at this point has convinced himself that Review is this extremely important public service that he's doing.  He's got to believe that Review is "very important work."  Of course it's just a TV show where people get to watch a man continually humiliate and hurt himself.

Review presents a man who consistently lets the show ruin his life and is unable to see that.  Even when he becomes aware of the absurd number of injuries he suffers, he blames everyone but himself.  Granted, the producer Grant is one evil, manipulative son of bitch, but it's not as clear how much he's manipulating things behind the camera.  In this season, Forrest cycles through three girlfriends over the course of four episodes, one due to blackmail, one due to trying to have sex with her on a plane, and one because she took over the cult he started.  (Ah writing episode descriptions of this would be fun.)  He also gets shot with a gun, he gets shot with an arrow, he burns a house down, and he voluntarily gets buried alive.

Meanwhile as part of the deal for coming back on the show, Forrest gets two vetoes this year.  Needless to say if you've ever seen this show, but he of course uses both of his vetoes only for the worst possible request comes into play.  Seeing as this show IS his life, he feels compelled to actually take that action.  The cruel part of watching Review is that we want him to figure out that it's just a show, but we also want to watch him hurt himself and ruin his life, because it is endlessly hilarious and at times heartbreaking.

Model Episode - "Happiness, Pillow Fight, Imaginary Friend"

The imaginary friend segment is by far one of the most brilliant things the show's ever done.  And that's saying something.  I'm tempted to go with "Conspiracy Theory" because watching Forrest try to figure out the conspiracy of him continuously do tasks that end with him harming himself is thrilling.  But ultimately, the conclusion of "imaginary friend" - which I won't reveal - is somehow both insane and plausible in this world while also being devastating to watch.

Honorable Mentions

Traditional Network Sitcoms
Network television gets a deservedly bad rap.  However, it still has a few comedy programs worth watching while I'll make the hot take that you can safely just ignore any hourlong drama on network television with no problems.  The best of these is Brooklyn Nine-Nine.  It actually hurts me to not have it be put on this list.  Blackish is pretty hilarious despite the fact that ABC doesn't know how to title its goddamn shows.  (RIP Trophy Wife)  Similarly, Fresh off the Boat is mostly worth watching for the parents, played by Constance Wu and Randall Park.

Sketch Comedy
This gets its own section because I think by sketch comedy's design, it'd be hard for me to include it on a top ten list.  I tend to gravitate towards shows that have a heart, an underlying season-long narrative, or character progression (or all of them.)  Sketch comedies... don't really have this.  So Key & Peele deserves to be mentioned.  For Inside Amy Schumer, if I could isolate all her top sketches, it would make my list.  "12 Men Inside Amy Schumer" is one of the best comedy episodes of television I watched this year.  Unfortunately, I'm not doing that.  The problem is that she seems to have a pacing problem with her sketches - she has far too many either one-joke sketches or predictable sketches that just run at least a minute longer than they should.  But when a sketch is good, it's really  good like the Friday Night Lights parody focused on rape.

Other Comedies
It's a little unfair I never really considered Silicon Valley.  I don't know, this takes the place of Better Call Saul for the comedy post in that I can't really articulate why this show was always an honorable mention and never really considered for my top ten.  Archer's sixth season was going to be in my top ten, but once I watched most of the Comedy Centrals hows on Hulu, it was pretty clear that it wasn't possible.  Nonetheless Archer does have a rebound from its admirable, but failed Archer Vice experiment.  Lastly, two comedies that very possibly would have found a way on this list had I actually seen them are Community and Bob's Burgers.  In both instances, I'm a couple seasons behind and I'm pretty adamant about watching things in order.

Thanks for reading and tell me what you think.

2015 Top Ten Dramas

I made the foolish decision to make an end-of-the-year top ten list.  Most top ten lists come out before Christmas, but there was just no time for me to watch what I felt I needed to watch in order to come up with the best possible list.  Given that the holidays provide loads of opportunity of free time, it was also more convenient.  I don't regret that decision either.  The list today, the top ten drama, could have been ably made without the extra time, although a couple shows are in the top ten that I just watched in December.  The comedy list on the other hand would have looked a hell of a lot different.

For my order, I decided to list them backwards from 10 to 1 and then afterwards list the honorable mentions.  I feel by abstaining from listing the honorable mentions until afterwards, you might actually have some doubt as to what will come towards the top.  Also, I don't want to list your favorite show in the honorable mention, you'll get mad and then not read the rest of the post.

Both lists are what I think are the best, but I will admit a certain element of how much I enjoy the show comes into play.  By that I mean, there are a few shows that could technically be described as better than some in the top ten, but whenever I put them in there, it just felt wrong.  It felt like I was putting it in there only because I felt it was supposed to be in there and not because I thought it was one of my top ten shows of the year.

Anyway my opinions are my own and there's really no need to be offended that I didn't include your favorite show.  There's a decent chance I don't even watch it too.  I don't have a specific example for dramas, but I'm fairly certain Bob's Burgers most recent year would be strongly considered for comedy, but I'm just not caught up to the show and it was not possible for me to do so.  I've wasted enough words introducing this list so let's just get on with it.

*I only count episodes that air in 2015.  Most of the shows in this list have the entire season air in 2015, but for shows like The Flash that still follow the traditional network television format, 2015 covers one half of two different seasons.  To stay on that example, I'm not technically counting the first nine episodes of the first season of The Flash.

#10 The Flash - CW (Season 1-2)

I consider this show's placement on the list to be an upset.  I hadn't planned on putting this on my top ten.  I wanted to put it in my top ten, but then I went through the list of shows that I was considering and I didn't seem to have any room for it.  The more I thought about it though, the more I realized it had to be on the list.

The Flash is unlike just about every other recent superhero show or movie in that it purposefully goes for a lighter tone acknowledging that being a superhero would be pretty fucking awesome, especially one who runs at lightning speed.  It's a show well aware of its origins and it embraces those origins.  It has the cheesy, pun-related and comic book dialogue while also retaining an emotional core thanks to a strong cast led by Grant Gustin and Jesse L. Martin.  Plus, it appeals to both comic book fans and people who have never read a comic book in their life (like me).  I've seen enough comments and read enough reviews to know you might actually enjoy this more if you're into the comics, because the creators are well-versed in its history.  But seeing as this is number ten on my list, it obviously appeals strongly to novices in comics too.

There are reasons to watch The Flash and then there is THE REASON to watch The Flash.  That reason is Tom Cavanaugh.  Words can't adequately describe just how good of a performance he gives, specifically in the first season.  He's Barry's mentor and he seems sincere in his intentions, but he also has hidden motives and is clearly not totally on Barry's side.  He's able to play these seemingly contradictory points to near perfection.

Model Episode: "Fast Enough" (S1 E23)

So far the best episode of the show was the season one finale.  One of the joys of The Flash's first season was that it was able to seamlessly blend its monster of the week and its season long narratives.  It all culminates in, frankly, a batshit insane finale.

#9 - Making a Murderer - Netflix 

Given that this was released two weeks ago and I've seen nothing like the cultural impact that The Jinx did when that aired, most of you probably haven't watched this.  (Edit: Well, when I wrote that, it was a true statement.  It's seemingly blown up recently though.)  Well, I'm going to need to take this opportunity to say that you should.  It is very hard for me to put a documentary series on this list - The Jinx wasn't anywhere close to making it - and yet I can't deny that this belongs here.  The show is about Steven Avery, a man wrongfully convicted back in 1985 of sexual assault.  He later gets released and well... find out the rest of the story by watching the documentary.  If you think that was a spoiler, he gets released by the end of the pilot episode and it was also apparently a very famous case.

The Manitowoc County police department is clearly corrupt, BUT this series does show certain things even honest cops might do that terrify the shit out of me.  Like when interviewing potential witnesses, accidentally give them crucial information that they otherwise would not know.  Although if you've seen this series, what I'm referencing is nothing short of despicable.

Model Episode: "Indefensible" (S1 E4)

It's hard to pick a specific episode, but I believe this episode had the biggest impact on me.  It's one of the hardest things I've ever had to watch, mostly because it really happened.  Again, I don't want to spoil, but I'm just getting angry thinking about it.  If you watched it, I'm talking about what happened to Branden Dassey and his appointed lawyer.

#8 - Sense8 - Netflix (Season 1)

This show is responsible for one of my favorite scenes of the year, when the group of sensates all sing along to "What's Up" by 4 Non Blondes.  I don't think my feelings towards that scene can be replicated because I tried to watch it on Youtube and it's just not the same as that first time.  That was the moment I fell in love with the show.  Sense8 is about eight different characters around the world of different ethnicities, sexual orientations, and genders.  They are able to communicate with each other gradually, through their special abilities.

There's something so different about this show.  It's full of the celebration of human life, of the differences in human beings and how we should celebrate those differences.  It's a show with eight characters that couldn't be more different using their differences to overcome the threat to their lives.  It could be characterized as slow and the characters themselves could be characterized as cliches.  To an extent, they do start out that way.  I'm starting to come around to the idea that being a cliche isn't necessarily a bad thing by itself as long as you develop the characters.  Also you could argue it's necessary with such an ambitious idea to familiarize the audience with the characters as soon as possible by creating known character staples.

The cast is quite good despite being full of relative unknowns (full disclaimer: the foreign actors might be well-known elsewhere, but I'm pretty good with actor's names and I've never heard of any of the eight principal characters so I feel comfortable saying they aren't well-known in the US).  Anyway, none of them are weak links.  If there is a standout actor, I'd have to give it to Miguel Ángel Silvestre, who plays Lito.  For the entirety of the show, his story is pretty much completely unrelated to anything else happening and due to him (and Alfonso Herrera and Eréndira Ibarra) it's arguably one of the most compelling.  And Doona Bae, who plays Sun, is also pretty good by virtue of playing my favorite character.

Model Episode - "What's Going On?" (S1 E4)

There's really no way for me to pick any other episode.  This is an episode that takes full advantage of its premise by having every character sing along to a... well it's not a very well-respected song critically speaking.  (I don't mind it, though I was literally one-year-old when it was popular and I have a feeling it being overplayed is a huge factor in why it's disliked among certain circles).  I also rarely can point to one specific episode that makes me love a show and how can I resist picking the episode of Sense8 where everything clicked.

#7 - Jane the Virgin - CW (Season 1-2)

It says a lot that two CW shows made my top ten list.  Seriously, when did the CW become so good?  (Also, I'm sorry iZombie fans, but this won't make my list and it's entirely due to the fact that, hey some really good shows needed to be left off this list).  Jane the Virgin distinguishes itself from other shows I watch because it is entirely different from every other show I watch.  It juggles different tones constantly between being a melodramatic telenovela, a multigenerational family drama, a romantic love triangle, a crime mystery (easily the weakest part, but hey you need to keep Michael involved), and I'm probably missing something else.

I'm not going to write a review of this show anywhere else so I need to say it here. One pet peeve of mine about this show is Jane's writing career.  In order to keep the show somewhat in reality, the writers clearly intend for some things to be realistic, like the familial bond, and some things that could come out of a telenovela.  I get the impression, and I could be totally wrong here, that her writing career is supposed to be at least semi-realistic.  I don't know what it is, whether it's my jealousy at how easily she's able to go back to school post-graduation (I would love to take the graduate program she did, but due to the price and lack of foreseeable income it would generate, I can't) or the fact that the show isn't all that convincing in portraying her as this great writer she's supposed to be, but it just rings false to me.

Anyway, I just had to share that.  I have to give credit to the show for creating a love triangle where both men seem like actual competition instead of the usual love triangle where it's pretty obvious which one is the better option.  (For what it's worth, due to the fact that Rafael's strengths are mostly pretty face and rich, I'm #TeamMichael)  Gina Rodriguez is perfectly cast, able to change her performance for whatever the tone of the scene requires.  Yael Grobglas's performance is so good that the writers know that no matter how bad her actions are, the audience will sympathize with her character.  Lastly, Jaime Camil takes an over-the-top telenovela star whose performance fits that characterization and makes him a character... somehow.  It's great.

Model Episode - "Chapter 28" (S2 E6)

Since I watched the first season in literally less than a week, it was kind of hard to pick a standout episode.  But ultimately I went with an episode that proved the writers were unafraid to try new things.  This episode occurs over three months, a pretty drastic change from its usual format.  I also could have chosen the episode when the "bromance" between Rogelio and Michael starts or the season one finale, which is probably a better representation of everything that makes Jane the Virgin great.

#6 Mad Men - AMC (Season 7 Part Two)

The first four shows on this list represent shows in their first season, so its fitting that I break the trend here with a show in its very last season.  There's not really anything new I can add that hasn't already been written about Mad Men.  Not many shows could have nearly every episode put an end to a character's journey.  Essentially, each episode seemed to have an episode where if if they were the main character, that episode would function as their de factor series finale.  They may have appeared in later episodes, but they did have a specific episode end their character journey.

I don't find anything particularly unique about Mad Men's final season (part two) compared to its previous seasons.  Obviously, given its placement on this list, that isn't a complaint.  I just mean to compliment the virtues of Mad Men's final season (part two), I might as well be complimenting what makes Mad Men, Mad Men.  While I hold the first four seasons higher than the following three - including the final season - what is "average" Mad Men is quite a bit better than everything else on television.

Plus, I think Mad Men stuck the landing for the finale.  I consider the journey more important than the conclusion (which is why I think Lost is still a great show), but I've found instances of picking this list where the finale factored a lot more into my thinking than I thought they would.  It ties everything together.  Hell - and this will probably sound blasphemous to some - it's significantly lowered my opinion of Breaking Bad (at least in terms of best shows ever).  So, thank you Mad Men, for ending the show on a good note.

Model Episode - "Person to Person" (S7 E14)

Well, it'd be really weird if this wasn't my pick after my whole last paragraph said how great it was that Mad Men ended the show on a good note, wouldn't it?  Anyway, I've always found it hard to tell apart Mad Men episodes from each other except for the select few that seem to end up on the "Best Mad Men Episodes" list.

#5 - Rectify - Sundance (Season 3)

I'm going to guess most people have either never seen this or if they did, thought it was too slow.  It's also only six episodes.  How do judge a show that only has the burden of making six episodes over a show that has to make 22 episodes?  Well, there are two ways I'm justifying this ranking.  First thing is first, not many shows have truly great episodes.  I mean you really enjoy a season and usually there's one or two episodes that you can pick out later when you make your "Best Episodes" list in your head.  But most of the time, you enjoy the show for its status quo.

Part of my rankings honestly were looking at the episode titles, reading about them if necessary, and then seeing how many episodes I instantly remember loving.  The whole episode comes into my mind and I want to go back and see that episode.  Mad Men hurt itself because I know a Mad Men episode that blows my mind and none in season seven really did it.  It probably set too high of a standard.  As for the Rectify, I have no problem in saying that there were more very good episodes in this six-episode season than most shows.  In fact, I had this ranked higher, but realized I couldn't simply make the argument that it was true for any of the shows above it.

Rectify is responsible for possibly my pick for the greatest scene of the year.  I would link it to you if I could find a link.  A drunk, depressed Teddy confesses to his nephew about something he did when he was younger.  Clayne Crawford is just spectacular in this scene.  It's one of those scenes where everytime I think of it, I just feel horrible at how often this likely happens.  Great piece of writing.  Great acting.

Model Episode - "Thrill Ride" (S3 E2)

This episode obviously contains the aforementioned scene I was talking about above.  As Brandon Nowalk of the AV Club says "This episode does for Teddy what Rectify does for Daniel."  We see things from his perspective and through other people.


#4 - Justified - FX (Season 6)

Full disclosure: Justified's last episode aired in early April so it's pretty hard for me to specifically remember some of this season.  If you're wondering why it's as high as #4, well I had the same problem with similar shows that ended so early in the year.  I'll have the same problem with some of the upcoming shows as well.  But I did read the episode descriptions for this season, and it brought me back the feelings I had for this season.

Remember that thing I said about how the ending was more important than I thought?  Justified's final season is a prime example of that.  Hearing the names Timothy Olyphant and Walton Goggins alone should probably be the end of my argument, but this season also featured Mary Steenburgen, Sam Elliot, and Garrett Dillahunt.  There's also the return of Kaityln Dever as Loretta from season two (the series' best season), the always reliable Patton Oswalt, the hilarious Jere Burns (this show is funnier than quite a few comedies actually), and Mykelti Williamson.  The only person missing from the Justified All-Stars is Margo Martindale.  And that was never going to happen.

Justified's sixth season is a season of master plotting.  Sometime in the middle of the season, the plot ramped up to where it seemed like anyone (except for Raylan or Boyd) could die and each successive episode somehow kept the tension as high as could be.  It was to the point where it was the eighth episode and hard to imagine how they could keep up the pace they were at - it really seemed like they'd need to either stall or have the last few episodes be quiet reflection with most of the characters dead or in jail.  And yet, they managed to believably keep the action and tension high into the finale.

Model Episode - "Fugitive Number One"(S6 E11)

Really, you could probably put any of the last few episodes of the season here and not be wrong.  This one stands out to me at least because of two death scenes that are brutal to watch.  For fear that not everyone reading has seen this series - and because I think everyone reading should watch this series - I'll not spoil the deaths, but both scenes just add to this sense of impending doom.  Both were also pretty heartbreaking to me, though none of the characters were "good" people.

#3 - Hannibal - NBC (Season 3)

Rectify made the top five based off its writing, for the most part.  Justified made the top five for its dialogue, pacing, and plotting.  Hannibal makes this list based off its directing mostly.  Put it this way: this director of this movie directed five episodes and the cinematographer of Pan's Labyrinth directed three episodes.  Directors come in and experiment with things to see how they can make use of a presumably small budget.  I think I read a quote from Bryan Fuller telling directors to make it like a pretentious art film.  (He was probably joking)  I can see how the directors followed that, but it's also underselling how good the show was.

Hannibal was perhaps worried about cancellation so the back end of the season dealt with the television show's interpretation of The Great Red Dragon.  Honestly, that's most of what I remember about the season.  Richard Armitage being effectively creepy and strangely sympathetic.  He gives a performance worthy of the character of Francis Dolarhyde.  The show also improves by giving a greater role to Gillian Anderson - always a good move - and making Alana Bloom a much more active and more interesting character.

Hannibal is essentially talented directors with free reign with the writing of Bryan Fuller brought to life by fantastic acting from the regulars to the supporting players.  Hugh Dancy, Laurence Fishburne and Mads Mikkelson - which is the definitive Hannibal Lecter performance for me anyway - all are as reliable as they've always been. Then good luck picking the best supporting actor of this group: Rutina Wesley as Francis' blind love interest, Nina Ariande as Will's wife, Katherine Isabelle as Margot Verger, or any of the actors I've mentioned above.  Seriously, all of them are making me run out of adjectives to describe them.

Model Episode - "Digestivo" (S3 E7)

I'm going to choose the bridge between the two halves of the season.  The first is focused on Will finding Hannibal and the second on the Red Dragon.  Both are good, but here is where we get exposed to an episode of Mason Verger (I didn't give Joe Anderson enough credit for Verger, but I sadly prefer season two's Michael Pitt).  At the end of the episode, the show reframes Hannibal's capture by law by having him give up to spite Will instead of actually being caught.  It fits in perfectly with the show.

#2 - Fargo - FX (Season 2)

I find Fargo and Justified pretty similar in terms of why and how they're good.  They both have unusually excellent plotting that lets the tension stay high.  Both shows make it seem like characters would have to die before the finale, manage to prolong it to the end of the season, and not make it seem like they stalled or faltered along the way.  Both have excellent dialogue that allows it to go slower than you might otherwise expect.  And both have quite the cast to boast with some of the best performances coming from the people you wouldn't expect.

If season one of Fargo was the Billy Bob Thornton showcase, season two is the Bokeem Woodbine showcase.  And the Kirsten Dunst showcase.  And though he wasn't in the whole season, the Nick Offerman showcase.  (Seriously, he was amazing in his drunken state trying to convince Bear Gerhardt to back away from the police station.  There's also Patrick Wilson, Jean Smart, Jesse Plemons, Ted Danson, and the list goes on.  Zahn McClarnon as Hanzee turned out to be a much better character than he initially seemed.

Model Episode "The Castle"

Here's another show where I don't really think you can necessarily go wrong with any answer.  This is the episode where everything turns to shit.  Basically, this is the episode where Hanzee turns on the Gerhardt family, the police are ambushed at motel, Ed and Peggy end the episode running away ("It's just a flyer saucer, Ed. We got to go."), and Betsy falls ill at home.  Again, I don't necessarily know if this is the best episode, but this is definitely the episode where the most seems to happen and that's as good of a choice as any really.  Nearly any episode would apply.

#1 - The Americans - FX (Season 3)

Come on, did you really expect any different - at least for those who follow me on Twitter?  This had to be the choice.  Fargo was a strong contender for #1, but ultimately I was pretty sure that it was mostly due to the fact that it was the series I JUST saw.  I'm a little worried it's too high still.  But The Americans third season was perhaps their best season to date.  (Season two's ending kind of breaks down the more you think about it and season one wasn't as great as either at keeping the story momentum.)

Due to both the viewership and the fact that - outside of people who I've met through the internet - nobody I know has ever watched this show (that I'm aware of at least), I'm not going to go into too much detail about what makes this season great.  The two protagonists, Phillip and Elizabeth, face a dilemma put upon by the Soviet government.  (If you aren't aware of the premise, Phillip and Elizabeth are married undercover Soviet spies living in America who speak perfect English)  One of the characters has no intention of following through on their orders while the other encourages it. Basically, this show excels at identifying perhaps the most important element of marriage - trust - and then making both skillful liars and spies, obviously making trust extremely difficult.

This season also really hammers down the toll that killing and lying and the things required of an undercover spy would have on a normal person.  We FEEL what the characters are feeling.  The show has built up two seasons worth of sympathy to the point where we root for them over the Americans.  This season features a dead body being put inside a suitcase, the most painful and intimate tooth extraction you'll ever see, and many deaths.  Oh and this season also features the dad needing to seduce a girl his daughter's age and it's actually worse than it sounds when you know why specifically he struggles with this.

Model Episode - "Stingers" - (S3 E10)

Wow it's going to be impossible to say why this is the episode without spoiling.  For people who've seen the show though, it's the episode where the primary conflict of the whole season - the conflict that it appeared would last at least to the final episode - is revealed in this episode.  The writing in this episode exceeds even the usual Americans episode as the characters behave as realistic as I can imagine in a situation nobody has surely ever experienced.

Honorable Mentions

Shows once in my top ten
The Leftovers - I would have felt dishonest if it were in my top ten.  I just don't really connect with this show as most seem to do.  I don't want to levy this criticism towards it, but I can't think of a better word: it's just a little too pretentious for me.  I don't think this is true of everyone in the sense that I don't necessarily think other people will find it pretentious.  I just find frequently watching the show that I'm not buying the events are as important as they show is trying to convey.

Looking - I really did want to include this in my top ten, but then I watched Sense8 and then I watched Making a Murderer and it just became impossible to include it on my list.  I don't think I'll get many complaints about this one though.

The Knick - I wasn't really planning on putting it on the list, but then the ending of the second season was about as good a conclusion as you can hope for to any series.  So then it made it's way on, only to again be knocked off by my recent watches.  Anyway, if I had to pick a reason why this isn't on the list, it's probably that I don't find the writing that great.  This show is being considered almost solely due to the director, the setting and the acting.  Sometimes the writing is great, specifically the season two finale, but most of the time it's only average.

The Rest
I enjoyed the third season of Banshee and it had a few of the best action sequences of the year.  I really liked the first season of Better Call Saul, but if I'm being honest it was never seriously considered.  I can't really say why either.  It's just one of those things when I was making the list and highlighting certain shows, and this pretty much immediately was highlighted as an honorable mention show.  The same is said for Game of Thrones fifth season.  I've always thought of this as a good (with occasionally amazing episodes), not great show.  Nothing changed in the fifth season.  iZombie, despite its awful name, is a Rob Thomas show and he's got a pretty good track record.  This is a much better show than you think it is.  Jessica Jones was brought down by mostly one episode, an episode with narrative shortcuts and contrivances.  In fact, I think it's probably the worst episode of any of the shows mentioned on this post. (Edit: I forgot to mention Mr. Robot as another show that is on honorable mention.)

That is my list.  Tell me what you think.

Writing Blind: Oz S2

Welcome to a feature called "Writing Blind."  In this series, I will be writing about seasons of television that I watched in the past year or so, but failed to write about at the time.  I call it writing blind, because I will be sharing my thoughts months after I have already finished the season.  This is both because I want to write about these seasons, but don't have the time to re-watch them and because it is a challenge to hopefully improve my writing.

Oz is probably the best show in existence with characters who have flexible characteristics and motivations.  That's not really a compliment.  Oz is primarily focused on plot more than character.  The strength of the actors add character to places where there isn't.  The show seems a little less concerned with getting inside the head space of individual characters than it does in making sure the plot is interesting.  If it does attempt to do that, it does so bluntly.

The reason why I think this is the case is in its introduction to new inmates.  It shows them in present day, and through a different camera filter, shows what they did to get in prison.  This isn't a show particularly interested in delving into the complexities of man.  These people are defined by what they did.  This strategy helps with creator Tom Fontana's impatience with storytelling.  He can consistently shift character motivations in order to do what he wants to do.

In this season, Nazi supporter Vernon Schillinger and formerly sane and normal person Tobias Beecher continue their feud.  The smartest thing the show ever did was making Beecher crazy, in my opinion.  It's more entertaining, it's different than what you'd expect, and there's not a lot of places to go by placing a normal person in Oz.  So you get a cat-and-mouse game between the two that might not ever end.

The casting on this show is sometimes so goddamn good it's unbelievable.  Schillinger has tried the direct approach, but being a good villain that he is, he decides he wants to hurt Beecher in the most painful way imaginable.  So he sets Chris Keller in Oz to make Beecher fall in love with him.  And it works.  And it only works because Christopher Meloni is fantastic.  Seriously, he makes the entire thing believable.  It's cruel at the end when they break Beecher's arms and legs, and while that is the show's pulpy side, it's still affecting because Beecher was starting to gain some of his humanity back.

The other extremely disturbing storyline is undoubtedly Ryan O'Reilly, who begins the season in a power struggle for control of Oz with Adebisi.  That changes quickly when he has cancer, which Dean Winters of course excels at playing.  This is right up his wheelhouse.  Acting tough while showing you are actually vulnerable on the inside because you are scared to death.  Blink and that's sort of Dennis Duffy on 30 Rock.  But then it takes a very dark turn.

Like I said, this show has no interest in making its characters in any way redeemable.  You get the sense that they pretty much all deserve to be in prison for the rest of their lives and it's kind of a bold decision.  The fact that the show was able to pull that off while still condemning the prison system successfully is something I'm not sure how they did.  Because in theory, seeing that these are all evil sons of bitches would in some way prove the prison system works.  These are bad guys.  They are getting what they deserve.  And yet, the show doesn't hold punches in the flaws of the system.  Somehow it doesn't come across as hypocritical.  This is actually the first time I'm noticing the contradictory nature of it in fact.

Anyway, O'Reilly ends up falling in love with Dr. Gloria Nathan.  This seems innocent at first although he very quickly starts showing stalker tendencies.  Stalker tendencies is one thing, but nothing prepared for me for when he has his mentally disabled brother Cyrus, kill her husband.  (I have LOADS of problems with that character, but I'll get into that in season 3 when he's more prominent.)  He does end up sacrificing himself for his brother so that his brother will get sent to Oz, which well that's like the bare minimum of having human decency.  I mean he had his own brother, incapable of making decisions for himself or at the very least not in a position to say no to his brother, kill someone.  So yeah he deserves it.

Said continues to be a compelling character, but looking over the season, he doesn't get a lot to do.  That's a strange thing to say where I'm pretty sure he had something to do in each of the episodes, but he's still seeing what his purpose is after he orchestrated the riots.  He provides legal counsel to multiple inmates, including Schillinger, and helps Poet get out of prison.  The one false note to me was that Poet immediately got sent back to prison.  As we've known him, I just don't really buy how quickly he got sent back.

Miguel Alvarez at first is clearly the leader of his gang, but he's threatened when Raoul Hernandez comes to prison and immediately takes control.  Hernandez, played by the great Luis Guzman, challenges Alvarez and doesn't think he's tough enough for the gang.  So he basically gives him an ultimatum where he has to rip out the eyes of a former gang member to guard or he himself will be out of the gang.  So he does it.  The ramifications of this are explored in the third season, but needless to say between that and when he withholds information about who raped Glynn's daughter, he was a pretty shitty person.  (Side bar: Don't really like how they handled the rape.  It's not shown, but it's clearly used as a plot device and it feels icky throughout)

Lastly, Oz's least interesting character, Scott McManus, who the show unfortunately finds interesting apparently has a bunch of "White Male Problems."  God I hate McManus.  Am I supposed to hate him?  Terry Kinney is just a really shitty actor so I feel like that's where most of my hate is directed, but he just comes across as whiny and entitled.  I think I was supposed to care when he lied for Diane, but yeah I didn't give a shit.  He's such a boring character, no doubt to Kinney's performance.

In all, I don't think the quality diverged greatly from the first season and it managed to still remain mostly original.  The storylines aren't stale and that remains true of just about every character.  None of the characters feel the same and they haven't repeated anything yet.  The only recurring elements of the first season - the Beecher-Schillinger feud and the power struggle for the prison - still don't feel repetitive or boring.

Still it's a bit of a case of diminishing returns.  The show isn't exactly predictable, but you know what to expect at this point.  I think originality and wow factor of the first season is lessened here.  So while I don't think I liked the first a ton more than the second season, for whatever reason, I do think this season is marginally worse.

Grade - B

Rewind: The X-Files S5

Season five is a weird season and it's one that's weird almost by necessity.  In the summer after the fifth season, The X-Files movie came out in theaters, which means that either before or concurrent with the shooting of the fifth season, they shot the movie.  So Gillian Anderson, David Duchovny, and the writers weren't exactly available for your regular full TV schedule.

Hamstrung by time constraints, the show was forced to get creative with how to make a season of television while also making a movie for theaters.  This led to inventive and exciting new episodes while also having the most duds of any season since the first season.  Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny are both either missing or barely present in multiple episodes.  One of the show's two primary directors, Rob Bowman, only directed two episodes in this season because he was also directing the movie.  He had directed 23 episodes in the first four seasons.  (I find it interesting he was chosen for the movie.  Kim Manners directed more episodes of the show and also directed the finale.  Despite his obvious talent, he didn't seem all that interested in movies so maybe that was the reason?)

So the fifth season ends up becoming uneven and unfocused (especially contrasted with the extremely cohesive fourth season.)  But that's not a huge problem with a show as creative as this one got.  In "Unusual Suspects," The X-Files had a spotlight episode on its tertiary characters, the lone gunmen.  These weren't exactly characters I would have guessed could carry an episode on their own, even knowing they eventually got their own (failed) TV show.  But by focusing on the most normal one of the group, John Fitzgerald Byers, it ended up being similar to a typical noir story where the everyman is duped by a woman.  Predictable maybe, but still entertaining.

"Post-Modern Prometheus" evokes an old-fashioned type of horror by being shot in black-and-white where we are dropped into a small town.  The X-Files episodes that focus on small towns are at the very least always interesting and tend to seem like real places.  But this is definitely considerably different than most X-Files episodes.  "Bad Blood" is one of the best episodes they've ever done with a "Rashomon" like story where we get two skewed perspectives and no sense of the truth.  "The Pine Bluff Variant" puts Mulder in a position where he robs a bank!  "Foile a Deux" is one of the creepier monster of the weeks they've ever done.  Just the idea that you can see a huge insect-looking thing coming towards you and nobody else can is one of the most terrifying things imaginable.

With the excellent come the very bad episodes as well though.  "Schizogeny" is confusing, not scary, and doesn't have a compelling monster of the week.  It's a slog to actually watch.  "Chinga," the Stephen King-penned episode, is quite awful.  Those two at least have good reasons for being bad.  Stephen King works haven't really tended to work that well either on television or in movies unless someone takes his idea and goes in a different direction.  The other one was a spec script that they accepted because they needed another episode.  "The End" has no such excuses with a child prodigy who can read minds and a forced love triangle from a completely new character.  That was the last episode of the series so even if the movie was on your minds, you'd think you'd actually put your best foot forward.

The fifth season, as I look at all the episodes I talked about, wasn't quite as uneven as I thought.  It has a rough middle stretch and the mythology episode at the end is probably the worst one thus far, but most of these episodes are good.  In fact, I'm not sure there've been so many off-the-wall ideas in any season thus far and nearly all of those ideas work.  The fifth season is rarely in its typical format which lends an unpredictability to the season.  While previous seasons have been better, when you click on the next episode, you usually know what you're getting.  That is definitely not the case in this season, for better and for worse.

So I'm pretty intrigued going forward to say the least.  I have seen from a number of people that Duchovny at some point stops giving a shit.  I can't help but speculate that the heavy workload this season could have been a factor, if true of course.  But this season, while somewhat of a letdown from previous seasons, in no way indicates a drop in the show's quality.  The top episodes are as good as the show has ever been and the weaknesses can simply be explained by the tough schedule they put themselves in.

Grade - B+

As an added note, I plan to watch The X-Files movie and the sixth season before the special six episode season coming out in January.  Since most people have recommended I stop after seven seasons, I'll probably end up recording the newest season, watching the seventh season and then finally watching the new episodes.  So it might be fair to say I won't get to the new episodes until March.

Reviewing the Netflix Comedies

Netflix released two comedies in back-to-back weeks recently, Master of None and W/ Bob & David.  Coincidentally, I just finished the first season of Bojack Horseman and not too long ago finally was able to finish Wet Hot American Summer television show.  So since I have trouble reviewing comedies, I'd thought I'd combine all four of these comedies into one post.

Master of None
Aziz Ansari's Master of None is brilliant.  This is the lone comedy that has a near one-hundred percent chance of making my top ten at the end of the year.  (To be fair, possibly unjustifiably angry readers, I have quite a bit of 2015 comedy still to watch.)  It feels natural in a way that most comedies don't.  It tackles issues that most comedies don't.  It's also funnier than most comedies.

Each of his ten episodes are singularly focused on one thing whether that's parents, the idea of having kids, or getting into a relationship with somebody who is married (or in a committed relationship.)  And yet it somehow never feels forced and maintains its naturalistic setting.

Aziz Ansari is playing a character who I'm fairly certain is essentially Aziz Ansari in real life.  The other major character in this season is played by former and seldom-used Saturday Night Live cast member Noel Wells.  The two of them together make a believable couple.  Ansari casts a few friends who he talks about his problems with throughout the show, the standout of which is Eric Wareheim, a big hulking giant.  A notable recurring guest star is H. Jon Benjamin (Bob's Burger's, Archers), a welcome person for Ansari to spill his relationship troubles.

It's also very well-directed.  It adds to the naturalism and they take full advantage of the high definition.  It makes New York seem to pop off in the screen as if you could simply walk your way into New York through your computer.  (Don't do that, stupid people).  I absolutely recommend this show to everyone who can watch it.

Grade - A

W/ Bob and David
I didn't watch Mr. Show with Bob and David so I was unaware of their type of comedy.  This is a sketch comedy where all of the sketches are related in some way.  So that's an interesting twist on your usual sketch comedy show.  This show definitely made me intrigued to go back and watch Mr. Show with Bob and David.  Unfortunately, I don't want to go back and watch it because W/ Bob and David was amazing.

W/ Bob and David largely failed for me.  I'm assuming they have basically the same format in the original show, which is a weird live audience monologue followed by weird sketches that connect in some way.  My main problem with this show is that I didn't find it that funny.  The only consistently funny part for me was John Ennis.  He's part of why I want to watch the original.  But it's also because it's really easy imagine me loving this show if the performers involved are just a little better at writing and a little better at performing.

It just felt very amateurish to me.  I think that's part of the joke, but that doesn't mean it feels any less amateurish.  One jarring scene for me was when Bob Odenkirk plays all of the characters on "What if Seinfeld cast played Star Wars characters?"  The joke was that it was a stupid skit that David hates.  But at the end of the episode, he's getting huge laughs from a presumably "fake" audience because nothing he was doing was funny.  I think it was supposed to be funny because of how bad it was.  And... that's usually not a great source of comedy.  Basically that entire scene made me suspect the live audience was nothing more than a laugh track sitcom disguised as a live audience because they seemed to be laughing on cue more than at jokes.  (I feel like a lot of my complaints could be responded to with "That's the joke" but it's not a funny joke!)

Grade - C+

Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp
What also made me interested in the idea of revisiting the old show was that a lot of the humor in W/ Bob and David seems similar to Wet Hot American Summer.  Since the show precede the movie and since original ideas almost always look better even after you've seen the copiers, I think my impression of the original would be improved.

That's a long-winded way of saying that I think the television series Wet Hot American Summer did the type of humor W/ Bob and David tried doing much better.  (It's not a perfect comparison since one is a sketch comedy)  Part of that undoubtedly is the actors involved.  As much as I love Bob Odenkirk (I'm mostly indifferent on David Cross), Paul Rudd and company are just so much better on delivering the weird than those two.  This is a cast so good it'd be worth watching no matter how bad it was.  It just simply seems impossible for the caliber of this cast to be anything other than above average.

Watching the series, it seems written with that in mind.  Like I don't want to disparage Michael Showalter or David Wain, but I can't imagine this was that funny purely on paper.  Just look at every scene with Paul Rudd in it.  Try and tell me that's funny with anybody but Paul Rudd doing it.  Or every scene with Josh Charles being as close to a perfect parody of a frat boy as possible.  Or Elizabeth Banks being a self-important reporter.  Or Ken Marino macho posturing in a way where he is clearly doing it because he's insecure (how does he do that so well?)  And yes the writers realize it so I'm not saying it's bad writing.  It's just writing for the medium.  Anyway, watch this for the performances.

Grade - B+

Bojack Horseman Season 1
Last year, when Bojack Horseman started, my roommates had it on.  I watched a couple of the early episodes, out of context, and wasn't impressed.  I returned to it about two weeks ago and the first episodes still didn't impress me, but I soldiered on and kept watching because I heard it would get better.  And it did.

It also started to be clear what the show was about more than anything.  The main appeal of this show is its portrayal of a man in a deep spiral of depression.  He has fucked up in his life and he isn't happy about it.  He doesn't think the spiral will end.  The fact that this is happening while a pretty funny television show is happening is an added bonus.  A large amount of credit goes to Will Arnett for making him a multidimensional character, who is talented, a goofball, an asshole, and depressed.  (It's not all that different from his character on Arrested Development, Gob actually.)

The show is particularly adept at small little moments of animal humor and its recurring Hollywoo subplot.  Also, I have to commend the show for making a gag out of Princess Carolyn dating three boys in a trench coat AND have it go on for three episodes AND somehow making it funnier and funnier the longer it goes on.  The Todd storylines mostly fell flat to me - not necessarily because of Aaron Paul - but because they were extremely broad.  Anyway, I'll be watching season two for sure.

Grade - B