2014 Honorable Mentions

Since we are living in an era of so much superb television, I decided to once again make a companion post to my Best Of list. Some of the following shows didn't make the Best Of cut for various reasons, but if you ask me, they are all worth checking out:

Boardwalk Empire- A shortened final season of this show brought most of the characters' stories to a satisfying close without sacrificing quality or craft. The use of flashbacks could be tiresome, but were also powerful and crucial to the show's thematic finale. The quality of Boardwalk Empire got much better towards the end of its run and I for one will miss its impeccably tailored costumes and send up to Prohibition Era accents and culture.

The Comeback- Oh my goodness this season of The Comeback was so darn good that if I hadn't made my Best Of list before the final episode aired, it certainly would have been included. I loved everything about this nine-years-later second season. Like its first season, The Comeback manages to capture the television landscape of its time while commenting on the price of fame and the treatment of women in Hollywood in often poignant and distressing ways. The meta-ness of the show never ceases to surprise me and Lisa Kudrow is doing amazing work. Lisa Kudrow for all the awards!

Fargo- Fargo was all at once an homage to the Coen Brothers' filmography and something of its own entirely, toeing that line expertly with craft and quirk. And it did it all with a smirk on its face. I think what held it back was it's pacing as it took me a few episodes to actually get into the story. But once I did, I enjoyed it as much as the best shows on TV. A time-jump mid way through the season helped on every level. And the characters kept you guessing as they embraced the sometimes heightened reality of the world they lived in. I need someone to give Allison Tolman a new role ASAP.

Homeland- Oh, what to say about the see-saw that is Showtime's Homeland? It will never live up to its zany first season, but the reset of this most recent season was the best the show has been in a very long time (since the second season episode, "Q & A" if you ask me). Yes the show remains uneven: One second I'm thrilled to the edge of my seat and the next rolling my eyes at the improbability and 24-tinted plot points. But I very much enjoyed these most recent episodes, finger-guns and all.

The Mindy Project- The Mindy Project tends to get a lot of hate, especially from the males of the world (which I guess I can understand, although I do believe there's humor for everyone). The first season and a half of the show was okay, yet always comedic. But the later half of its second season and the first half of its third have been firing on all cylinders. The ensemble work is spot on while the one-liners and wordplay keep me laughing for days.

Orange is the New Black- I didn't love OITNB's second season as much as its first and I think it came down to the season's villain. Vee was just such a cartoon villain with no real motivation behind her lust for power/control and her subsequent manipulation over the entire social system. I guess later episodes made her out to simply be a psychopathic egomaniac, but that felt like a disservice to a show that normally has fantastic character work. Aside from Vee, I have no complaints about the season (except for Larry continuing to be The Worst).

Orphan Black- Orphan Black keeps so many balls in the air and while it could be more successful at it, its impressive all the same. But I'm just waiting for it all to fall apart. Tatiana Maslany carries the show on her shoulders by playing all the major characters with such nuance that you can always tell who she is (even when she's one character pretending to be another character). The science of the show can be wonky, but that is what sci-fi is all about. And the end of one episode in particular was so beautifully thrilling that I think I stopped breathing.

Parks and Recreation- Parks and Rec is a forever favorite of mine. The show hasn't gotten stale per say, but it has definitely plateaued in its humor, momentum, and general story. However, the final minutes of this year's season finale was a much needed shot of adrenaline and humor. Jumping ahead three years avoids bogging the show down with pregnancy (again) and other story lines the show has already explored. For the first time in a while, I'm very much looking forward to next season. Filling in the gaps between timelines will hopefully be hilariously fruitful.

Silicon Valley- I found the pilot of this new HBO comedy lukewarm, but as the show found its characters and general story, the show gained a lot of comedic momentum. It all lead to a season finale that happened to be one of the funniest episodes of television I've seen in a while. The show is smart, silly, and cutting. One character in particular, Peter Gregory, was a standout of amusing eccentricity, which only makes the passing of actor Christopher Evan Welch, that more tragic.

Veep- I simply love Veep. I think Julia Louis Dreyfus, Matt Walsh, Tony Hale, and Timothy Simons are all hilarious people. I'm a fan of politics. I'm a big fan of creative cursing. As long as this show is on, I'll be watching it. And like Parks and Rec, I suspect it will be a forever favorite.

D's Best of 2014

At this point, most of my posts start off with an apology for infrequent updates. And I know no one is coming here for excuses. The fact of the matter is that the summer months come, my television habit dwindles, my writing suffers, and its hard to get back in the swing of things. Next thing I know its December. And December comes with a gimmie: do a Best Of list. So here we go.

As I’ve said in years past, Best Of lists are arbitrary and kind of silly, but I still enjoy creating ones as an exercise in writing and to reflect on what I enjoyed this past year. It’s also interesting to look at my past lists and see how my tastes and affection for certain shows have changed over time. This particular "list" isn't ranked per-say. But it does flow from favorites at the tops to lesser favorites towards the bottom. Whatever that means.

That being said, without much fanfare, I present to you: 

D’S BEST OF 2014

BROAD CITY

Executive Produced by Amy Poehler with awesome guest stars and a killer supporting cast, you better believe Broad City is hilarious and perfect on every level. I rarely rewatch seasons of shows (and if I do I’m more likely to do it years after first seeing it). But I’ve rewatched Broad City’s first season at least four times this year alone. And usually it’s because I feel such an intense need to share it with others, that I’ll force them to watch it and next thing I know we’ve finished the season together. Abbi and Ilana are the new Lucy/Ethel, Mary/Rhoda, Tina/Amy and I can’t wait for them to breakthrough. And while I find Broad City way more relatable than Girls, listen to me when I say this show is absolutely for the boys as well. Come for the 90s R&B, stay for Hannibal Buress.

THE AMERICANS

The Americans is one of the best shows on television and the fact that it gets no awards love just goes to show how useless awards are. The acting, directing, writing, and feel of this show is all so damn engaging and superb. I loved The Americans its first season out, but its sophomore season was easily just as good and at times even better than the first. While the first season was a take on marriage and partnership amidst the Cold War and a world of espionage, the second season was about commitment, parenting, trauma, and coming of age. The season finale was a gut-punch of a twist on top of a harrowing season of intensity and heartbreak. If any show deserves recognition and viewership, it is certainly The Americans. Screw the nonbelievers. Come for the wigs, stay for the 69.

THE KNICK
Let me start off by saying The Knick’s writing is certainly lacking. While many people find it hard to look past the clunky dialogue, I never took much issue with it because everything else about The Knick is so damn good. Stephen Soderberg not only directed every episode (a la True Detective’s Cary Fukunaga), but he is the show's cinematographer, camera operator, and editor. On every single episode. It’s incredible because not only is it such an impressive work load, but because it is all so completely beautiful and subtle. There are dozens of “stealth-oners” (AKA one take tracking shots that are far less obvious than ones on showier programs) that had me writhing in delight. Every episode was lit and blocked to perfection. The camera took its time to focus on characters without cutting away to dozens of other angles. And the Cliff Martinez score pulsed through the season, giving The Knick its beating heart. So yes, while I’m normally the first person to point out shoddy writing, when it comes to The Knick it almost doesn’t even matter. The show could be in Dothraki and it’d still be great. Come for the liquid cocaine, stay for the liquid cocaine.

MAD MEN 

I’m sure at this point people are tired of hearing how good Mad Men is. But fuck them. Mad Men is fantastic. For the first half of its final season, Mad Men definitely hasn’t let up. The 1960s are coming to a close, times are changing, and while some are thriving in the times, others are struggling to keep their heads afloat. While Mad Men is certainly artistic, incredibly well written, and detailed at every stage, what keeps me coming back are the characters and the dynamics they’ve created. My favorite episodes of the series tend to involve Don and Peggy and this past season had plenty more of those little moments. From a dance, to a passing of the torch, to an Edward Hopper-esque pan-out of Don, Peggy, and Pete eating dinner together, I grew even more attached to these characters and their pseudo-family. You come to Mad Men for those moments, but you stay for the severed nipple.

LOUIE

What I love about Louie is the artistic free-form the show takes. From a mini-movie, to a serialized six-part episode, to a one-and-done candid plea from a full-figured gal, Louie has so much to say and so many different ways to say it. When I turn on Louie, I love that I don’t know what I’m going to get, that I don’t know which reality we’re living in, which characters are going to get a poignant or hilarious monologue, or where the episode is going to take me. A look at Louie’s adolescence felt like an episode of Freaks and Geeks in all the right ways. An episode where Louie bags a model is closely followed by an episode where Louie rejects a hilarious/sweet overweight waitress which manages to say tons about society and double-standards. The end of the season had even more to say on the matter as Louie attempted to force himself on a familiar woman. Serialization is more of a suggestion than a reality when it comes to Louie and it may seem like a season isn’t leading anywhere, but by the end of this latest run we explored so much about Louie, Louis CK, and the absurdity of love and humanity. This past season explored Louie’s relationships with all the women in his life (from his daughters to his mother to his Hungarian neighbor) and how those relationships reflect back on him. Which was ultimately a commentary on gender and society. I am continuously amazed at Louis CK’s pathos and diminished ego. Come for the model, stay for the fat lady.




TRANSPARENT 

Somehow Transparent is full of the most selfish characters you will ever encounter, yet you can’t help but engage in their story. What I appreciated about this show was how it portrayed the blatant messiness of families—something creator Jill Soloway picked up from the Six Feet Under writer’s room, no doubt. Inspired by her own father coming out and transitioning to a woman, Soloway wrote this show about a family with fluid sexuality/gender--and oftentimes a destructive relationship to sex--as they reel in the aftermath of their own father becoming a woman. Much of it was hard to watch and characters were hard to root for, yet a yearning for homecoming hung over the season. And I’m curious to see how they all grow together. Come for Jeffrey Tambor’s amazing performance, stay for Maura's outfits.

GAME OF THRONES

I hesitate to keep Game of Thrones on this list simply because of its distasteful use of rape and sexual peril. But then I’d be doing a disservice to a show that only manages to get better and better. Having read the books, I know what to expect from upcoming episodes. But David Benioff and DB Weiss have certainly diverged from the books by tweaking one or two narratives while completely fabricating story lines. It’s not always successful (Craster’s Keep, anyone?), but it keeps this book reader on her toes. From very well-choreographed battle scenes to the transformation of the remaining Stark children, the show knows how to land every moment, big or small. It manages to bring one-dimensional book characters to life on the screen as they crackle with charisma (only to die horrible deaths…valar marghulis). Come for the nudes, stay for the Dinklage.




TRUE DETECTIVE

Something about True Detective almost hasn’t aged well with me since it aired earlier this year. At the time the mystery and craft of the show pulled me in and was incredibly engaging, atmospheric, beautiful in its back-swampy ways, and thoughtful in its emotional and spiritual journey. But months later, after its effects have worn off, I find myself slightly annoyed at is pretentions, its rote philosophical pontificating, its disregard of female characters, and its highly praised yet unnecessary and overworked six-minute long tracking shot. (Look, I love me an impressive tracking shot, and True Detective’s was fantastic. But think about that episode and what anything in that shot had to do with anything whatsoever. Cut those last six minutes out of the show, and it would have no effect on the story or season. Which is certainly a waste in its showy, self-aggrandizing presentation.) That being said, True Detective deserves a place on this list and all/any lists due to its solid direction, solid acting, and what it has to say about life and existence. Come for Rust Cohle, stay for The Yellow King.