A guide to the best Christmas TV episodes

The Christmas season is here, and you know what that means: TELEVISION. Because that's what everything means!

Seriously, Christmas specials are one of the key components of the Christmas season for me. There's something about the characters from my favorite shows indulging in yuletide cheer and getting festive that just...gets to me. So I've compiled a list of some of my favorite TV Christmas episodes. These are the episodes I typically have on repeat this time of year, so please enjoy them and do not shatter my soul by saying they suck.

Community - "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas"

Community might be the show with the best track record for Christmas episodes - gas leak year aside, every Christmas episode the show produced was a classic, from Season 1's heartfelt and down-to-earth "Comparative Religion" to Season 3's nightmare-inducing Glee parody "Regional Holiday Music". But I have a special place in my heart for "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas", which is not only my favorite Community Christmas episode but one of my favorite pieces of Christmas pop culture in general. "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas" is simultaneously exploding with cheer and deeply depressing - which, to my mind, are the only two emotions that should ever be used when depicting the Christmas season. It follows Abed as he has a serious psychological breakdown after his mother tells him she won't be visiting him for Christmas anymore - he begins seeing his entire life as if it's a stop motion Christmas special where his only task is to find the true meaning of Christmas. The way his perplexed and worried friends put aside their hesitations and join him in his Christmas wonderland of delusion is completely heartwarming in a way that makes me tear up every time I watch this episode, and it also delivers perhaps the best "meaning of Christmas" I've ever been given: "the meaning of Christmas is the idea that Christmas has meaning." "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas" is basically all of my tender, cynical, and painfully nostalgic about Christmas all wrapped up into a funny, heartwarming, slightly devastating and just all around beautiful half-hour of television. 

30 Rock - "Christmas Special"

30 Rock's approach to holiday cheer is to cynically expose some of the darker aspects of the holiday while mixing in few doses of the genuine pathos and comfort that the season can bring, which is exemplified well in plotlines like Colleen ruining Liz's Christmas to prove to Jack that she's not so screwed up after all, or a montage of Jenna and Paul dressed up as 2 "black Swans" singing O Holy Night. But the episode that nails this balance best is Season 3's "Christmas Special", which finds Jack accidentally running over his mother with his car and having to care for her through the holiday season. The entire episode is about people whose Christmases aren't lining up how they wanted them to and the ways they deal with it - Liz being left in the dust by her family this year results in her overcompensating with a Letters to Santa program, and Jack's unexpected holiday with his mother leads to him forcing the TGS crew to put together a live Christmas Eve special where he can make up for all of the Christmas Eves spent playing piano as his mother went to town on a random dude in their living room. But it's this haphazard special that leads to Liz helping Jack realize that the reason her mother spent Christmas Eve putting out was so that him and his siblings could afford presents that year. It's the mix of sick, sweet, disturbing and heartwarming that 30 Rock portrayed so well in its Christmas episodes.

Parks & Recreation - "Citizen Knope"

"Citizen Knope" is more of a Christmas-adjacent episode than a full out Christmas episode, centering around Leslie's adventures as she deals with her suspension from city hall after the fallout of her relationship with Ben. But it still uses the season of giving to build a seriously heartwarming plotline in which the entire Parks departments gets together to show their support for Leslie and offer to take over her terminated City Council campaign, doing so in the form of an elaborate Gingerbread house. That's the entire spirit of Christmas distilled in one plotline right there, and it's also the spirit of Parks & Rec, whose shiny optimism that comes out of even the most unfortunate circumstances is a perfect fit for the Christmas season.

Bob's Burgers - "Christmas in the Car"

Bob's Burgers is a show that often puts our beloved Belcher clan in dire circumstances and than uses off-beat humor and surprising acceptance to get them out of it, and "Christmas in the Car" does that with a little Christmas sprinkle. The Belchers set out on Christmas Eve to find a new tree after their old one dies and wind up on a seemingly life-threatening chase by a giant Candy Cane truck. Of course, in typical Bob's fashion, everything gets a warm and mushy ending when Bob and the truck driver come to an understand and exchange dutch babies. Don't worry, it'll all make sense if you're a Bob's Burgers fan.

American Dad - "Rapture's Delight"

American Dad is sometimes unfairly accused of being a rip-off of Family Guy, which is totally unfair because it's way better than Family Guy has ever been. While Family Guy has devolved into a lazy conveyor belt of shock humor, American Dad at its best is a completely surreal, absurdist animated comedy that goes to weirder depths than nearly any non-Adult Swim show I've ever seen. "Rapture's Delight" is the perfect example of that, as it takes what seems like a normal Christmas episode and turns it into a story about the rapture, the antichrist, and Armaggedon. The extent the show commits to this is impressive enough, but the way they managed to interject the typical Christmas show sentiment without losing a touch of the extreme absurdity and darkness of the rapture is what makes this a true Christmas classic to be enjoyed through the ages.

Doctor Who - "A Christmas Carol"

Doctor Who airs a Christmas special on Christmas Day every year, but none of them are really true Christmas classics - if they're not dealing with a regeneration (as many of them do) then they're typically bland and watered down byproducts of the show itself, often placing easily marketable concepts and guest stars over anything resembling actual quality. (Remember the one where Kylie Minogue rode the Titanic?) But the one exception to this is 2010's "A Christmas Carol", the best Christmas special the show has ever produced by a long shot, and an episode that truly does feel like the holiday classic a Doctor Who Christmas special should aspire to be. The episode is a takeoff of, yes, A Christmas Carol, centering around the Doctor trying to change the childhood Christmases of an evil and powerful man named Kazran Sardick who is tasked with saving Amy and Rory's lives by releasing them from the cloud they're trapped on but refuse to do it. Doctor Who is at its best when it's able to mix its ambitious sci-fi concepts with deep-rooted human emotion, and this special truly shines in that regard, as the Doctor's travels through Sardick's past tap into some really heartbreaking and heavily nostalgic Christmas feelings for pretty much anyone who's ever been a child on Christmas before. Not every Doctor Who Christmas special meets the mark, but this one is so good it makes up for all of the other ones.

South Park - "Woodland Critter Christmas"

You know what this is. It is the most beautiful, fucked up, disturbing, horrifying Christmas special to ever air. Yes, I love Mr. Hanky too, but this is a work of dark art and it needs to be seen by all. 

The weirdest, most wonderful TV moments of 2014

In our viral, millennial culture (ugh, someone punch me for that please), it's more important than ever to create individual scenes and moments that stick out and stay in our brains. 2014 saw so many oddly creative, completely weird, and totally surreal moments that have stuck with me, in some cases, for months and months, so I thought I'd make a quick list compiling the best, weirdest, most memorable TV moments of 2014 in no particular order.

Orange is the New Black - Morello's Backstory

(From Season 2, Episode 4: "A Whole Other Hole")

Through out all of the first season, we heard tales of Morello's fiance on the outside, sort of wondering why he never visited but nevertheless generally accepting her tales of a happy future outside of Litchfield. All of that was devastatingly destroyed in a single montage, which revealed that Morello's fiance is an ex that she spent years stalking and is continuing to do so, using the prison van to find his house, put on his real fiance's wedding dress, and live out the fantasy that she's convincing everyone is real. I couldn't find a clip of the actual scene, so just use this YouTube clip of "Almost Paradise", a cheesy love ballad that the show scored the scene with, turning it into a terrifying and heartbreaking cry for help.

Mad Men - Bert Cooper Serenades Don Draper

(From Season 7, Episode 7: "Waterloo") 

Some fairly major spoilers for Mad Men Season 7 follow, so if you haven't caught up, don't read. If you do read, then it's your own goddamn fault.  Some shows might put a tense cliffhanger as the close to the first half of their final season, but Mad Men, instead, decided to have a recently deceased character come back from the dead and serenade its protagonist about the soul-sucking contract he has just signed. And we wouldn't have it any other way.

Too Many Cooks

Too Many Cooks is an 11-minute short that premiered on Adult Swim's "Infomercial" block at 4 AM, got uploaded to YouTube by a bunch of stoners, and completely captivated the country for a few weeks. I don't need to explain why. I can't do it justice. I just need you to watch it. 

Community - Dean Pelton's Peanut Rap

(From Season 5, Episode 9: "VCR Maintenance and Educational Publishing") 

The Dean has had many different costumes over the years, but the best of them all came this season, when he dressed up as a peanut and offers an apology rap that quickly turns racial and disturbing. This is perhaps Jim Rash's best work ever, including that movie he won an Oscar for.

Rick and Morty - "Saturday Night Live of the Future" 

(From Season 1, Episode 8: "Rixty Minutes")

The "Rixty Minutes" episode of Rick and Morty is probably my favorite TV episode of the year, and part of that is due to the completely improvised intergalactic TV show ads. One of the best was what Rick and Morty imagines a futuristic SNL would look like, starring a bunch of inanimate objects and Bobby Moynihan. 

Bob's Burgers - "Work Hard or Die Tryin', Girl"

(From Season 5, Episode 1: "Work Hard or Die Tryin', Girl") 

Bob's Burgers produces some of the best music around, and that all came to a head when the show had Gene produce a musical that puts together Die Hard and Working Girl, creating the beautiful speicman known as..."Work Hard or Die Tryin', Girl."

Broad City - "Eight Fucking Thousand Dollars"

(From Season 1, Episode 9: "Apartment Hunters")

When Broad City opened its ninth episode with an elaborate music video parody, I was confused and thought I had changed the channel or something. Then I realized: nope. This is a music video, that they created, to showcase Abbi's $8,000 check from a dating service that used one of her drawings. It's wonderful, as is the snap back to reality after the fact.

Best TV of 2014

With a vast array of television shows to choose from each year, it seems a little bit redundant to declare each year the "best one" for the medium. And yet, every year it's hard not to do that, as the huge amount of content available to us produces so much amazing material that you have to get excited about it. The past few years of television have felt especially vital, too - they've been years of change, both in the television shows we consume with old stalwarts like Mad Men, 30 Rock, Breaking Bad, and Parks and Rec either ended or ending soon, to the way that the consumption of television is rapidly reinventing itself. This list features shows from network television, cable, and streaming services - a variety that would've been unthinkable even five or six years ago. So here I break down the top 20 shows that best captivated my interest this year. I went with 20 because there was so much good stuff on this year that I felt too bad leaving anything out. I know I'm indecisive, okay?! LEAVE ME ALONE.

ONE NOTE: I didn't put Last Week Tonight with John Oliver on this list because I always forget to categorize it as a TV show and not just, like, a way of life. But rest assured I love it. It's the best news-comedy hybrid on television right now, which is not nothing in a world with The Daily Show and the swan song of The Colbert Report. SORRY, JOHN OLIVER, but I love you anyway. Oh, and the same can be said of The Chris Gethard Show, which I also love but forget it's a television show and not just a hangout with some old, weird friends. I LOVE YOU TOO, CHRIS GETHARD. I LOVE EVERYTHING. Actually, I'm hoping to do an individual piece on The Chris Gehtard Show sooner rather than later so I'll give it the love it's due then. Until then, enjoy this list, if you want to!

20. Parks & Recreation

Now in its sixth season, it's only natural that Parks & Rec has lost some of the element of surprise from the time when it was a transcendent and refreshing spin on the old workplace comedy chestnut. But although this past season was probably the show's weakest, it still managed to be a funny, entertaining and consistently delightful half-hour, and considering the amount of affection we've stacked up for these characters over the years, that's enough to keep enjoying our time in Pawnee. Especially impressive was the shows' finale, which changed up its game quite considerably for its upcoming final season and proved that maybe it did have a few more tricks left in its bag after all.

Standout Episodes: "Ann and Chris", "Galentines' Day II", "Moving Up"

19. Black-ish

In a season that has made a strong case for the idea that cable has completely replaced network as the go-to for good comedy on TV, Black-ish has remained an important "except for...", as it's the only new network comedy this season that shows any sort of promise for the future of the medium. But Black-ish didn't earn the distinction of the seasons' best new comedy by default - it's a hilarious and creative family sitcom, one that balances social issues and family hijinks better than any show has managed to do in probably decades. Not only that, but the Johnsons are just a genuinely awesome family, the kind of TV family that you look forward to spending some time with every week. Shows like Black-ish are perhaps the last remaining argument for the worth of the network sitcom. Also, it's just really funny.

Standout Episodes: "Crazy Mom", "The Prank King", "Black Santa/White Christmas"

18. Archer

At the beginning of its fifth season, Archer unexpectedly blew the lid off of its entire premise, ditching the spy agency that had been so kind to it in the past four years and sending its characters on a crazy quest as newfound cocaine dealers. While the season didn't quite live up to the tall order that its premiere set up, it was still a reinvigorated season for the show, with a lot of interesting twists on character dynamics that were beginning to feel a little bit stale. As it heads into its sixth season with a return to the status quo mixed with some new surprises,  Archer feels like it's in solid hands, and it can thank some of the experimental done by Archer Vice for it.

Standout Episodes: "White Elephant", "Baby Shower", "Arrival/Departure"

17. New Girl

In the second half of its third season, New Girl showed some signs of losing its way. The Jess/Nick relationship, while entertaining, was beginning to push the other members of its ensemble out of the picture, and the show seemed to be struggling to balancing it with all of the other changes it integrated in the third season, such as the addition of Coach and new endeavors for Winston. Luckily, the show seemed to realize this and quickly course corrected in its fourth season, which might just be the most consistent season of the show yet, even if it doesn't reach the heights of the all-timer that was Season 2. Still, Season 4 of New Girl has managed to be a reliable dose of well-executed farce week after week, with a sprinkle of the characterization that made the show jump out in its early seasons. It may not be the world beater it once seemed to be, but damn if it isn't still one of the funniest shows on TV.

Standout Episodes: "Basketball", "The Last Wedding", "Background Check"

16. Community

With Dan Harmon back at the helm, 2014 was a comeback year for Community after the deep trenches of the gas leak year. While the show has definitely begun to feel like a late-in-life sitcom at times (see also: my Parks & Rec write-up) it still manages to pump out episodes that rank among the most daring things I've seen a half-hour sitcom attempted, and given how much experimentation the form recieved this year, that's actually a pretty big statement. The 5th season also turned out to be the final one of the show's run on NBC, as it moves to its new home on the internet next year, where it has always seemed destined to be. As long as it continue to pump out ideas as fresh and hilarious as commemorative sperm jars and MeowMeowBeenz, I'll support it wherever it goes.

Standout Episodes: "Cooperative Polygraphy", "Bondage and Beta Male Sexuality", "App Development and Condiments"

15. The Middle

Year after year, everyone forgets about The Middle when it comes time to do year-end lists, despite the fact that it has been one of the most consistently great network sitcoms for at least four seasons now. The show continuously manages to breath new life into the family sitcom format, portraying characters who are unique both for the form and for television in general, and by not pulling any punches when it comes to its honesty about the Hecks' financial situation and almost constant sense of conflict. As its characters age, The Middle is finding more and more ways to dig comic honesty out of the world of small-town America characters its created, and it's only continuing to be an absolute joy to watch.

Standout Episodes: "Major Anxiety", "The Sink Hole", "The Christmas Wall"

14. Brooklyn Nine-Nine

After a strong start last fall, Brooklyn Nine-Nine solidified its place this year as one of the best ensemble shows on all of television, with a cast that completely pulls its weight in every direction and an array of characters that are diverse not just in their ethnicity but in their approaches to the world in general. The second season of the show has done a great job of deepening the roots between these characters and examining their bonds while beginning to experiment a bit with longer-term plotting, even successfully toying around with the idea of romantic arcs (though not going too far in that direction yet, thankfully). Like Black-ish, Brooklyn Nine-Nine is proving the strength of a show with a great group of characters that you look forward to spending 22+ weeks a year with.

Standout Episodes: "The Bet", "The Road Trip", "The Pontiac Bandit Returns"

13. Louie 

After a too-long hiatus, Louie returned this year with its more ambitious season yet, a season that almost completely abandoned the shows' previous structure of short, contained stories and instead focused on developing longer and even feature-length arcs. Still, the shows' sense of hard truth and deep-rooted emotional turmoil continued as Louie explored his relationship with the various women in his life, from his daughters to longtime companion (and new girlfriend?) Pamela to his past relationship with his own mother. While this was arguably Louie's most inconsistent season yet, what it lacked in consistency it made up for in sheer ambition. 

Standout Episodes: "Model", "So Did the Fat Lady", "Into the Woods" 

12. Transparent

The first great show to be produced by Amazon Prime, Transparent - not unlike fellow streaming exclusive Orange is the New Black  - uses its niche delivery method to tell a story that would struggle to get attention from a major television network. In this case, it's the story of Maura Pfefferman, a transgender woman who has recently settled upon officially making the transition late in her life. Transparent's groundbreaking story of Maura alone was enough to make it one of the most captivating shows of the year, but the way it used Maura's revelation to deconstruct the rest of the Pfefferman clan's assumed gender and sexuality roles only added to the fact that this was one of the most intriguing new shows of the year.

Standout Episodes: "The Wilderness", "Symbolic Exempar", "Best New Girl"

11. Nathan for You

Nathan for You was one of the strangest and most delightful pieces of pop culture I consumed this year, constantly keeping me on the edge of my feet more than most drama series are capable of doing. The shows' unique mix of cringe comedy, mockumentary, and reality show spoof continuously come together to produce some of the most hilarious television I've ever seen. In Season 2, the show began to hit on points of genuine pathos, as it gradually turned into the story of desperate inclusion for its lonely host. There's absolutely nothing on television like Nathan for You, which is what makes it something you absolutely need to watch.

Standout Episodes: "Souvenir Shop/E.L.A.I.F.F", "Dumb Starbucks", "Daddy's Watching/Party Planner"

10. Doctor Who

It's hard for me to remain unbiased with a show like Doctor Who, a show that appeals so directly to each and every one of my personal preferences, but I don't think it's my bias speaking when I say that this season was one of the very best seasons the show has done to date. Peter Capaldi as the 12th Doctor has brought a new energy to the character, one that gets down to the anger and ache that always exists under the surface but is finally being brought out to the light. And also adding to a great season was Jenna Coleman, whose character Clara rebounded from some spotty characterization last season to become a really great antidote to the smarmy darkness that Capaldi brought to the table. The show used this perfect pairing to create a season that constantly put the very fabric of the show into question and reinvigorated the series to heights I wasn't even sure if it was still possible to reach. Capaldi is thankfully signed on for another season, and hopefully he can keep pushing the show into uncharted and exciting territory. 

Standout Episodes: "Listen", "Kill the Moon", "Flatline"

9. Review

2014 was full of great, alternative comedies that ripped apart the sitcom structure and created something new and meaningful out of it. Out of all of the shows, the one that went to the most delightfully weird places was Review, a show about star reviewer Forrest MacNeil and his quest to review everything that his shows' viewers throw at him. Review would be great even if it was just the satire of critics that it appeared to be on the surface, but it soon became a dark, morbid tale of a man destroying his entire life for the sake of a silly television show, become one of the funniest shows of the year, as well as one of the saddest, darkest, and most disturbing. If 2014 is remembered as the year alternative comedy came to dominate the cable airwaves, Review will be a proud, strange and beautiful artifact of that movement.

Standout Episodes: "Pancake, Divorce, Pancakes", "Best Friend/Space, "Road Rage/Orgy"

8. Veep

After two seasons of portraying Selena Meyer as a comically inept narcissist, Veep took it to the next level this year by portraying her as something truly disturbing: a possible presidential candidate. This gave the show an added levity to its already near-constantly firing machine of beautifully crafted insults and nihilistic political humor, as all of the massive and terrifying fuck-ups Selena and her team encountered now actually mattered. It also allowed the show to cover some heated topics like abortion and equality with its trademark dark humor that doesn't even try to fix anything but instead points out just how massively screwed up it all is. With a surprise twist at the end of the season, the next season of Veep proves to be even more of a depressing, hilarious and painful journey to political turmoil for Selena Meyer. 

Standout Episodes: "The Choice", "Alicia", "Debate"

7. The Americans

In Season 1, The Americans was a gripping spy thriller, an unprecented role reversal that took a deeper look into what we always perceived were the "bad guys" in the Cold War. In Season 2, the show took a leap and became not just a spy thriller (though it was still very good at being that) but an analysis of what its characters value, how much they value it, and a test of how far they were willing to go to preserve it. Kicking off with a gruesome murder in the season premiere, constant fear crept around the surface of The Americans this year as Phillip and Elizabeth began to wonder whether their career was putting their childrens' wellbeing at stake. It all cultivated in a huge, unprecedented twist in its season finale that will make the shows' third season answer some very, very tough questions.

Standout Episodes: "Comrades", "Behind the Red Door", "Martial Eagle"

6. Orange is the New Black

It was going to be nearly impossible for Orange is the New Black to top its first season, a total surprise that burst onto the scene and practically made us rethink the way we all watched television. And yet...Season 2 somehow managed to, or at the very least, managed to match it. The second season expanded upon the shows' already giant universe, filling in the backstories for beloved characters like Taystee and Suzanne while simultaneously giving shades to characters that fell under the radar in the first season but came into prominent fruition in Season 2, such as cancer patient Rosa - nearly an afterthought in Season 1 that wound up being one of the key heroes this year. Between the addition of Vee and the divide she placed in the prison to the continuing saga of Piper and Alex to the isolation of Red from her prison family to the shocking dismantling of our perceptions of Morello to the strange friendship of Healy and Pennssatucky, Season 2 continued to do its job of making each and every inmate at Litchfield feel like a fully-rounded person that truly matters, and that mindset is what separates Orange from nearly anything else on TV.

Standout Episodes: "A Whole Other Hole", "You Also Have a Pizza", "We Have Manners, We're Polite"

5. Rick and Morty

In a year of amazing comedy, Rick and Morty was a true highlight, a show bursting at the seams with creativity. Centered around the Back to the Future-esque adventures of grandfather Rick and his grandson Morty as they travel through time, space, and reality, Rick and Morty blended comedy and hard science fiction more successfully than any show this side of Futurama. Week after week, Rick and Morty took us to heights that seemed more ridiculous, more exciting and more amazing than anything we'd seen before, all while grounding itself in some genuinely moving family drama. That kind of balance is so incredibly hard to pull off, but Rick and Morty did it with aplomb, making me extremely eager to see what the show can come up with next.

Standout Episodes: "Lawnmower Dog", "Rixty Minutes", "Close Rick-counters of the Rick Kind"

4. Mad Men

Thanks to AMC scheduling tomfoolery, Mad Men only aired seven episodes in 2014, but those seven episodes were something of a revelation. After the turmoil of last years' finale, Season 7 dealt with an exploded status quo - one that spelled out a dark end for our "hero" Don Draper. And yet, these seven episodes turned out to be more than just Don's death knell. They were the start of what I'm sure will be a doozy of an ending, a collection of episodes that brought together seven seasons worth of relationships and put a magnifying glass to them, showing which relationships were true and once were sprinkled with the artificiality that the characters of Mad Men treat as a second language at this point. The final absurdist scene, featuring a dead Bert Cooper singing to Don about how "the best things in life are free", brought everything this season was to a close: strange, surprising, a little disturbing... and yet somehow making perfect sense.

Standout Episodes: "A Days' Work", "The Strategy", "Waterloo"

3. You're the Worst

Romantic comedy is an old chestnut at this point, so that only makes it even more surprising just how excellent You're the Worst turned out to be. By putting its leads together in the pilot and slowly deconstructing all of the expected romcom tropes, the show was able to focus in on its characters and create two people that we didn't just want to see get together, but that we just wanted to see, because they were both relatable, funny, and well-drawn characters. You're the Worst also benefited from being more than just Jimmy and Gretchen's story - Lindsay and Edgar served as supporting characters that gawk at the idea of just being supporting characters, demanding that Jimmy and Gretchen treat them on their own accord. Additionally, characters like Becca & Todd, Allan, and a special bookstore cat added to the mix to prove that You're the Worst wasn't just about Jimmy and Gretchen's relationship, it was also about the comical, screwed up world that they both inhabit, which only added to the richness of their compelling hook-up. Renewed for a second season, I'm really excited to see where You're the Worst will take that world when it returns next year.

Standout Episodes: "Sunday Funday", "Finish Your Milk", "Fists and Feet and Stuff"

2. Bob's Burgers

Another year, another string of amazing episodes with the Belchers, my favorite TV family with some of my absolute favorite TV characters. Bob's Burgers continued to deliver total acceptance in form of warm, weird, occasionally gross but always hysterical comedy, and this season saw the show produce some of its strongest and most creative ideas yet, from the My Little Pony spoof The Equestranauts that had some interesting things to say about cartoon fanbases, to a Working Girl/Die Hard musical entitled Work Hard or Die Trying, Girl, to a new and improved(?) use for baked beans. As you can see, I love a lot of television shows, so it means something when I say there's no show whose world I look forward to joining more than the loving and twisted world of Bob's Burgers.

Standout Episodes: "Mazel-tina", "The Equestranauts", "Dawn of the Peck"

1. Broad City

I've mentioned several times what an amazing year this was for comedy, and I don't think there's a show that represents that better than Broad City, which was the show I laughed at the most in 2014 and also introduced me and the rest of the world to the comic stylings of Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer, whose humor offers a worldview that differs from anyone else's making television - both in terms of how upfront and honest it is about the struggles of young women in a big city (what other show would coin the phrase 'pussy weed'?) and in terms of just how beautifully, amazingly strange it is at every turn. The humor of Broad City is unlike any other - it's surreal yet grounded in some deep-rooted truth, it's smart and yet unafraid to appeal to its dirtiest impulses, and most importantly, it's just so fucking funny. This year in TV will be remembered as the year so many unique comic voices received a platform to share their stories, and the year that television proved there wasn't one specific way to tell a comedy story. And there's no better show that exemplified all of that than the fearless breath of fresh air that was Broad City.

Standout Episodes: "Working Girls", "Destination Wedding", "The Last Supper".

THERE'S MY LIST. Have a wonderful holiday season and watch all of these shows if you haven't. DO IT NOW.

In honor of NBC Thursdays

 

Earlier today, NBC announced that it would be burning off the final 13 episodes of Parks and Recreation over the course of two weeks this winter, essentially dumping it off as fast as it possibly could so it could move onto something else. This is not particularly surprising. Parks and Rec has always been a low-rated show, and the fact that it made it to seven seasons is something of a miracle in and of itself.  But it's still not hard to feel a twinge of sadness at this news. Parks and Rec is the last of a very particular brand of comedy on NBC (or at least, the last left on NBC: Community now lives on the internet, where it has always truly belonged), and its unceremonious dumping signals a hard end to an era that sparked some of the greatest, most original comedies to ever air on television. Of course, it's an end that's been in the works for some time: since 2012, to be exact, when network head Bob Greenblatt announced that it would be phasing out its "narrow, sophisticated comedies" in favor of more "broad, wide audience" shows. That move hasn't really worked out: since then, only one NBC freshman comedy has made it to a second season (About a Boy), and that show looks likely to be cancelled before it sees a third. But the networks' direction is clear. Between the cancellation of Community in the spring, the punt of Tina Fey and Robert Carlock's Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt to Netflix, and the race through the final season of Parks & Rec, NBC is obviously ready to close the chapter on that era in their history. It's cool - all eras have to come to an end, right? But it still seems take a moment to reflect back on just what a truly strange, unique, and all-around fantastic era this was for the network. It was an era that arguably shifted the direction of TV comedy in subtle but major ways, and most importantly, it was an era that gave us some truly fantastic comedy.

It all started in the mid-00s, when NBC was still recovering from losing Friends, Fraiser and Will & Grace, therefore sacrificing most of its cultural identity. TV comedy in general was going through a transitional period - this was the era of Arrested Development, the era where TV comedy was ready to go in strange new directions but the public wasn't yet willing to follow it. But in 2006, The Office started to experience a surprising sophomore surge (it had barely made it past its first season), as both critics and viewers became attached to the shows' mix of conventional and unconventional humor twisted with a fairly sizable helping of pathos. In many ways, The Office seems like the first show that used the off-beat, single-cam vibe and actually saw success with it, paving the way for nearly every beloved comedy that followed it. The success of The Office led to NBC picking up 30 Rock in the spring of 2006, hailed by SNL scribe Tina Fey and boasting a similarly "off-beat workplace sitcom" vibe. 30 Rock wound up pushing the format even further as it totally abandoned any idea of reality, constantly digging up the most bizarre, surreal, and outrageously hilarious jokes it could, pushing past traditional sitcom boundaries to become something that felt different. Then in 2009,
the line-up completed itself with the addition of Parks and Recreation and Community. As Parks and Rec settled into a bravely optimistic show that rejected cynicism and instead looked to build up its characters rather than tear them down, Community experimented with the very idea of what it meant to be a sitcom, constantly questioning itself and everything else on television as it told a strong emotional story about a bunch of unlikely friends sharing a bond. These four shows represented a mindset that both stuck to the tried and true sitcom formula while simultaneously tearing it down, analyzing what it was, and rejected the artificiality of it all. It was perhaps the most experimental night of comedy to ever air on network television, and it was exciting.

There was just one problem: other than The Office, none of these shows ever managed to become actual ratings hits. 30 Rock barely made it past its initial 13-episode order and continued to be low-rated through-out its run. Community and Parks and Recreation were nearly cancelled so many times that each show had at least four different episodes meant to serve as series finales. In any other era, none of these shows likely would've even seen a second season, nevermind a sixth or seventh season. But they were lucky enough to be on NBC in the late '00s/early '10s, a network in such disarray that a bunch of low-rated comedies seemed like a win compared to fiascos like The Jay Leno Show and The Cape and fuckin' Smash. So because of NBC's total failure, we got an era of network comedies that got to push the boundaries of what a network comedy could be - and we got shows that were able to do that for seasons and seasons.

So yes, that era is now over. But is it, really? The sensibilities of those NBC Thursday shows can be found today in cable comedies like Broad City, Review, Rick and Morty, and You're the Worst  - shows that continue to push the boundaries of where a television comedy can go. Who knows if these shows would've happened without the influence of 30 Rock and The Office and Community and Parks and Rec? These shows might not be on NBC anymore, but they live on. They live on in other shows, as well as on Netflix and Hulu and Yahoo and what have you. So we shouldn't cry when this era officially ends in February - instead, we should celebrate what it's accomplished. That's what Leslie Knope, Liz Lemon, Michael Scott, and Abed Nadir would want us to do, right?

Season Review: Doctor Who - Season 8

 

Doctor Who Season 8 had a lot to prove. It had to prove that its new doctor, Peter Capaldi, was the right choice for the job. It had to prove that it had learned from the criticism and concerns surrounding the show's weak seventh season and could produce a better, tighter product. It had to prove that Steven Moffat, showrunner of Doctor Who, wasn't burned out and was still capable of producing material at the level of his earlier seasons (and his work during the RTD era of the show). It had to prove that Clara wasn't a mistake of a character and could actually be a relatable human being rather than just a concept. Now, this wasn't necessarily a perfect season. There were a few weak episodes (looking at you, Robot of Sherwood) and some head-scratching decisions, as are expected with pretty much any given season of Doctor Who. But this season surprised me in that it managed to prove every single one of my above points, and managed to make me feel completely comfortable about the direction of the show.

Doctor Who Season 7 had many problems, but the biggest one was its unwillingness to ever ground itself in anything even remotely resembling human emotion (other than the genuinely heart-wrenching exit of the Ponds). Doctor Who is a show that can float into whimsy so easily that it's important to have a human anchor at the helm, and each of the previous modern series companions did a good job of providing that anchor. But the show refused to let Clara serve that same purpose, never allowing her to escape what she was introduced as: the "Impossible Girl", the woman who the Doctor saw die - twice - and then magically came back. After this "mystery" was finally solved (Clara cloned herself to save the Doctor in a story that seemed to exist only to solve that very mystery), the show was too caught up on the 11th Doctor's upcoming regeneration to really give her the time of day that she deserved. So it was a relief in Season 8 to see the show spending so much time getting down to just who Clara really is, outside of an enigma. We learned a lot about her - her personality (turns out, she's a little obsessive and controlling but very passionate about the things she loves! Who knew?), what she meant to the Doctor, and what the Doctor meant to her. This allowed Season 8 to be rooted in the human emotion that keeps the show strong even when it's flying off the rails, which it tends to do, because it's Doctor Who.

But so much of Season 8's success has to be lent to Peter Capaldi, who immediately shattered any doubts about his capabilities as the Doctor by just nailing the role from basically the very beginning. Capaldi gave the Doctor a sinister edge that hasn't been at the forefront of most recent incarnations, making the show notably different from what it was during Tennant and Smith's long-running and (deserving) beloved tenures. This allowed the show to play with some of the formulas that became prevalent over the modern era of the show and even dating back to the classic era - episodes like Listen and Murder on the Orient Express toyed with the very concept of a monster and analyzed what defeating them really meant, in a way Doctor Who doesn't routinely go to but generally is wildly successful when it does. He was able to handle both the humor and the tragedy of his character with aplomb, and much of the season's darker material would be lost if it weren't for his capabilities. I'm really excited to see what else the show has in store for him, because this season proved that he could do whatever the show threw his way. 

Now, yes, there were some weird pockets of this season. The Robinhood episode Robot of Sherwood was pretty dire, as was the similarly flaky In the Forest of the Night. The show spent a bit too much time assuring viewers that this was still the Doctor they know and love even if he happened to be kind of old, and there was the occasional pratfall of getting overly complex that Moffat tends to fall into. But by and large, this was the best, most consistent season of Doctor Who in many years - and arguably one of the strongest seasons the new show has produced. This is a show that can turn into something else on a whimsy, which is part of what I love about it - but I'm hoping it sticks with this vibe for a bit longer, because I'm really, really digging it.

Final Grade: A-

ALERT ALERT BROAD CITY SEASON 2 TRALIER ALERT ALERT

EVERYONE STOP WHAT YOU'RE DOING. CANCEL ALL JOBS AND CLASSES ACROSS THE WORLD. THE BROAD CITY SEASON 2 TRAILER IS HERE.

If you haven't watched Season 1 of Broad City, DO IT NOW. Call in sick. Tell your friend that you died and can't go to lunch today. Or just tell them you have a bad case of diarrhea or something because it's only 10 episodes long and you could finish it in a day if you really tried! Broad City is the funniest show on television right now and one of the most original, creative comedies I've ever seen. If you still haven't seen it, it's not too late! You have two months to rectify that mistake before Season 2 premieres in January. So do it! Go! GO AND DON'T LOOK BACK.

It's November so let's go ahead and make judgements on TV shows

 

We're right at the start of November sweeps, a period of time where networks apparently are supposed to try to draw in big ratings for their affiliates but mostly don't bother and just keep churning out the same ol' shit, except for maybe taking that embarrassing low-rated sitcom off the schedule.  But November sweeps is also about the time where you can start to make some judgements about the shows you decided to pick up this fall and decide just what, if anything, you're getting out of them. So let's jump right in!

Black-ish - Black-ish was basically the only new comedy this fall I had any faith in, and it hasn't disappointed me whatsoever. In fact, it's actually exceeded my expectations and fears - I had some worries that the show would water itself down after its surprisingly pointed pilot and become Just Another Family Sitcom, but over the past few weeks it's managed to nicely balance its fresh voice with the burdens of being a family sitcom on ABC. Similar to The Middle, Black-ish keeps its network television audience comfortable by never veering too far away from sitcom convention, but also keeps itself relevant and interesting by peppering in some unique jokes and gags that you wouldn't necessarily expect from a wholesome family comedy, such as the horror movie framework the show used for its Halloween episode,. The show has also managed to present us with some welcome twists on cookie-cutter family sitcom characters - while the pilot mostly presented Rainbow and Andre's marriage as your typical "crazy father and down-to-earth wife" pairing, the show has given Rainbow a unique personality of her own, making her off-beat and strange in ways that differ from what makes Andre off-beat and strange. She's no longer side-eying Andre and saving him from making a fool of himself - she's joining right in on on his ridiculous displays herself. (The best example of this is when Rainbow learns that Andre has put a camera in every room, including the fridge - at first she's a little perplexed, then seconds later she inquires: 'do we have any grapes?') Even the kids on Black-ish, often a weak point on family sitcoms, are coming into their own, developing personalities that allow them to exist as more than just plot devices and ways to make viewers marvel at their cuteness. Black-ish is not quite a perfect show yet (the show could still resist sitcom convention more than it does) but it's surprisingly fully-formed for a show this early in its run, and is one of the shows I most look forward to watching every week.

Marry Me - Marry Me still hasn't really figured out what it wants to be outside of "Happy Endings but without most of the cast", and that comes down to the fact that it has yet to establish a presence for anyone in the cast other than its two lead characters. That's not really unexpected for a show four episodes into its run, but the problem is that Marry Me is already sort of functioning like it's in its third season - it's not really giving us plots that get us to know any of the characters better, and leaves the work to its jokes to make us connect with these people. While those jokes are generally quite good (there's usually at least one line that makes me laugh uncontrollably each week), jokes alone aren't really enough to get me to understand who a character is. Marry Me desperately wants to be the kind of show you watch because you love the characters and will watch them do anything, but it's not doing the work it needs to get to that point. I'll keep watching because the show is genuinely funny most of the time, but it's not at the level of funniness it needs to be if it's going to completely disregard character work altogether. (Also, less Gil, please. He's playing the same character he does on Broad City, except everyone on Broad City realizes he's terrible).

Benched - Speaking of Happy Endings alumni, Eliza Coupe is starring in this new USA comedy, and although there have only been two episodes so far, it's shaping up to be one of my favorite comedies of the fall. That's not saying much at all, but there's some real promise here, with a killer cast (Maria Bamford! Oscar Nunez! Jay Harrigan!), a fairly good premise, and....well, you heard the Eliza Coupe part, right? Benched feels, in many ways, a lot like a network sitcom - it doesn't have the heir of experimentation that have aided many of the years' great cable comedies like Broad City, Review and You're the Worst, but it feels like a good network sitcom, the kind networks were making 4 or 5 years ago but now just make Bad Judge and think it's enough. Benched could stand to be a little funnier (it feels like it's requiring its actors to do most of the legwork right now, which isn't a terrible decision when you have actors as hilarious as these ones, but they'd be better served with really great writing) and its premise comes with a lot of cliches that the show doesn't do enough to subvert, but that's all basic early sitcom stuff. This has the makings of a show that could be something special, and I'm really hoping it realizes that potential, because a great sitcom with this team behind it would be mind-blowing. The biggest thing holding Benched back might be its network, which strangely announced it was abandoning comedy a few months ago (despite renewing its comedy Sirens) but promises this show has its full support. It better, USA. What else are you going to air, some procedural about beautiful and boring cops? (Yes, that's exactly what we're going to air, USA would probably reply).

Mulaney - Mulaney has actually significantly improved upon its pilot, attempting to give itself at least a bit more direction and experimenting with the idea of actually having a plot rather than just being bits of recycled stand-up pieces. Unfortunately, it hasn't really improved to the point where I feel sadness about the fact that it's pretty much doomed to cancellation at this point (its order has been cut and it fell to a 0.7 rating this week, AKA the number that got Manhattan Love Story and A to Z cancelled). The show has bits and pieces that work (I really enjoyed Nasim Pedrad's character doing a Little Shop of Horrors homage about a potential new apartment in the shows' third episode) but it still fails to make any sort of an impact on the whole, feeling at times like a collection of scenes that are supposed to parody the idea of a sitcom rather than being, you know, an actual sitcom. Part of me wonders if Mulaney would've been better off on a cable network like FX or Comedy Central, where it would be free to play with the form without having to worry about being a multi-camera sitcom on a major broadcast network. As of now, it feels like an unsuccessful compromise of being a mainstream show and an experimental analysis of the form of a sitcom. It's a tricky balance to pull off - Community, which more or less attempted the same thing, managed to pull it off successfully by just being both being really good at both sides of the equation and understanding when it was time to get weird and when it was time to ground itself. Mulaney seems like it's always attempting to do both at the same time - its scenes are generic and unimaginative but they're delivered like they're tongue-in-cheek, which doesn't satisfy the need of being a good experiment or a good sitcom. So I can't say I expect much more out of Mulaney, but hopefully it can at least send John Mulaney and the rest of this talented cast to a place that does a better job of complimenting their skills.

And now, while we're here, we may as well check in on some returning shows, right?!

New Girl  - New Girl has been having a surprisingly excellent rebound season, managing to dust off the messiness of last year and start fresh by basically just simplifying itself to being a show about five funny people. This "back-to-basics" approach is one that plenty of shows that flame out attempt to regain their composure, but most wind up just giving everyone a sense of whiplash as they veer from messy and complicated territory into a show that's basically just the same show it was in its second episode. New Girl has managed to avoid that by never keeping its characters more complicated emotions far away, even when the show itself travels into silly, go-for-broke farce territory. The shows' most recent episode, "Background Check", was a great example of this - a bottle episode that stranded the entire cast in the loft for 20 minutes in basically real time, it brought out both the most wild and the most sincere in all of its characters. The show may not be hitting the heights it was in its first two seasons, but it's arguably more consistent then ever, and seems to finally be on solid ground.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine - Brooklyn Nine-Nine has become sort of a "turn off your brain" show for me, which is not all meant to be insulting - in fact, it's a compliment that I've given some shows I seriously loved in the past, shows like Archer and Happy Endings. What I mean by this is that it's a show that is almost entirely focused on its comedy, allowing me to just sit back and get myself immersed in its ridiculous world, then simply enjoy the ride. Every episode has me laughing more consistently than nearly anything else on TV, and when the show does attempt to raise the stakes and analyze its characters' psyches a bit, it does so surprisingly eloquently - proven especially by the Gina/Boyle affair, which was both some really hilarious absurdity and surprising advancements for both of their characters (who arguably got the least progression in Season 1, other than like, Hitchcock and Scully...who I still can't tell apart). So while a show like Brooklyn seems like one that would be a nightmare to closely analyze week in and week out, it's a show that I really love just sitting back and hanging out with.

Doctor Who - I'm going to do a post about the full season after it wraps up next week, but I would like to take this time to say how much I am really, really enjoying this season. Peter Capaldi is fantastic. Jenna Coleman is fantastic, and the show has done the near impossible task of turning Clara into a legitimately interesting companion. Having a female Master is fantastic. Doctor Who has the tendency to totally fuck up its finales so I'm not going to make any definitive statements just yet, but this is shaping up to be a contender for the best season of new Doctor Who yet.

With that, let me end with the news that you were probably reading this post for, because you read every post on the internet hoping it will give you the answer - Galavant has a premiere date, and it is January 4. Life finally has meaning again.

What happened to the network sitcom?

 

Remember 2012? It seems like forever ago now, doesn't it? The entire country was in a fever of excitement over the least exciting presidential election of recent times, Instagram was just on its way to becoming a thing, and um...well, everything else wasn't that much different than it is now. Except comedy on network television was in a bit of a golden age. At the time, NBC's remarkable Thursday night line-up of 30 Rock, Community, Parks & Recreation and The Office was still in tact (though it was occasionally interrupted by nonsense like Up All Night and Whitney), ABC was picking up their queue with three uniquely off-beat comedies of their own (Happy Endings, Don't Trust the B in Apartment 23, and Cougar Town) along with a handful of solid family comedy options (The Middle, Suburgatory and a slightly less decayed Modern Family) and FOX had the rising star that was New Girl alongside promising newbie Ben & Kate. Sure, not all of these shows were hits, but they showed a serious revamped creative energy sparked by the rise of the experimental single-camera comedy that was pioneered by Arrested Development and transported to popular success with The Office. Cable and premium channels had completely dominated the dramatic landscape, but network TV was still able to hold onto the integrity of the sitcom. It was as if there truly was some sort of merit to the archaic process of writing a network television show when it came to comedy, the process of getting a bunch of talented writers to collaborate around a singular creator's idea and create something special with it.

And yet, almost immediately after that golden age, the ax began to fall. NBC's Thursday night line-up was dismantled in the 2012-2013 season, as The Office and 30 Rock were put to rest and Community lost its creator and its edge (only to eventually return again, but that's a story for a different day). It was all part of a new "broad comedy" initiative that was spearheaded by Greenblatt, an initiative that was technically unique to NBC but soon began to seep through the rest of the networks, as well. Now two years later, the remnants of the shows that once pioneered a golden age of network comedy are either dead (30 Rock, The Office, Ben and Kate, Don't Trust the B in Apartment 23, Happy Endings, Suburgatory), shipped off of network television to greener pastures (Cougar Town and Community) or on their way out (Parks & Rec and, if ratings keep going in the same direction, possibly New Girl as well). So what happened? Well, one might argue that none of these shows were ever cut out to be network television hits. Shows like 30 Rock, Parks & Recreation and Community made it as far as they did basically on a technicality; they only survived because they looked marginally less terrible in the wake of their network's total collapse. (Unsurprisingly, it was when NBC began to rebound a bit that they started ditching them). Happy Endings and Don't Trust the B lost most of the audience from their Modern Family lead-in, then got cast off to another night and lost all of their audiences. To be fair, these shows probably had no place surviving on network television. They played fast and loose with the rules of the sitcom format, their humor often lied on the margins on what TV comedy was capable of, and they experimented in ways that a network television show is not supposed to experiment. It was totally understandable that network execs had to ditch them to pave the way for shows that could truly sell ad dollars. 

Here's the thing, though: they didn't. They tried, sure. NBC's touted "broad comedy slate" of the 2012-2013 season promised to relate to the American people in ways their "overly sophisticated" Thursday night fare of years past didn't. The fate of all those shows? Every single one was cancelled by May. The only two comedies that survived the year were...Parks & Rec and Community. The next season was more of the same, but some minor success in other areas gave NBC enough confidence to axe Community and announce that the end was near for Parks. But here we are yet again, with a third straight year of failed NBC comedies: Marry Me, from the creator and one of the stars of Happy Endings, is barely surviving even with a strong lead-in from The Voice, and A to Z and Bad Judge are pulling in numbers that make the NBC Thursday ratings of years past look downright respectable. The pattern is mostly the same on the other networks (to ABC's credit, they've at least developed some hits in Black-ish and The Goldbergs, but also had this seasons' first cancellation with Manhattan Love Story and had a string of embarrassing failures like Super Fun Night and Mixology last season). FOX has given us the delightful Brooklyn Nine-Nine but has only been able to keep it alive by nursing it in between its high-rated animated shows; and on Tuesdays, it has a little NBC Thursday situation of its own, as fan beloved comedies New Girl and The Mindy Project repeatedly find themselves crushed by all of their competition. The networks can't make hit comedies anymore. Even mighty CBS is struggling: they have The Big Bang Theory but very little else: 2 Broke Girls was set up to be their next anchor, but it has failed to live up to the task and now mostly relies on buzzy guest stars to pull in ratings that can be passed off as acceptable, and both their attempts to get a little weirder (such as their foray into single-camera comedy last year with The Crazy Ones or the darker comedy of Mom) and a little safer (such as the paint-by-numbers The Millers) have panned out to results that bring in less than half of what Big Bang does or even what Two and a Half Men did in its heyday. So the networks have abandoned quality, subversive comedy only to find that safe, bland options don't work either. So what does work?

Cable is what works. What network TV has lost in 2014, cable has gained. This year has seen a murderer's row of exciting, promising comedy debuts on cable, from the whimsical sci-fi hybrid of Rick and Morty to the surreal DIY vibe of Broad City to the constant form experiment that is Review to the twisted romantic comedy of You're the Worst to the already promising and surprisingly politically pointed underdog story of Benched - not to mention the achievement of returning shows like Veep, Louie, and Nathan for You - cable seems to be the place where the spirit of the turn-of-the-10s "anything goes" network comedy vibe has gone to thrive. And who's really surprised? Cable has long been the home of most of the most exciting drama on television, allowing the freedoms of the form to dig into holes that a network drama would be restricted from going to. Those freedoms now seem to be starting to be seen in cable comedy, which has had plenty to offer for a long time now (dating back to the days of Curb Your Enthusiasm and the premiere of It's Always Sunny) but, since the success of Louie, seems more comfortable than ever messing around with its own form. And maybe that's what killed the creativity of network television. There used to be a popular thought process that the restrictions of network TV led to some of the most creative comedies there were - Community wouldn't have felt so revolutionary if there weren't forms for it to break down. But now that those restrictions have been broken down, do we really still need to point them out? When there are shows abandoning the form as well as Broad City and Review and You're the Worst are, do we still need the restrictions? Network TV is dying, but maybe it doesn't have to. Maybe if it just breaks down the barriers that it sets for itself, it can run and play with cable just like we know it really wants to. Or maybe it can just keep showing endless singing competitions and Big Bang Theory spin-offs until the only people still watching it are people whose TVs are stuck on CBS and they can't find the remote. Either way, if you need me, I'll be watching cable.