Best TV of 2016

Best-of lists are kind of dumb. Right? I love them, but they’re kind of dumb, especially in our era of “peak TV.” There’s so much television out there, covering so many different styles and genres and tastes, that who’s to say that any one person’s “best 20 TV shows of 2016” will have any bearing on you? I mean, don’t get me wrong, I totally compiled a top 20 list that I’m going to post somewhere and I spent weeks analyzing it and mulling it over but at least like, I’m acknowledging it’s dumb, right? Right.

Anyway, even if I don’t think “top TV lists” are necessarily the right way to spotlight the best that TV has to offer, I do think it’s nice to look back at the year in television and look at some of the great stuff it’s whipped up over the past 12 months. And I always think the “Best TV Episodes” lists do a little bit better of a job of capturing some of the joy that watching really great TV gives you. No matter how much Netflix wants to change it, TV is still an episodic medium, and no other medium quite matches the feeling of watching a really perfect episode that captures everything you love about a show in a mere ~30–60 minutes. So here’s some of the 2016 TV episodes that did just that for me.

Superstore — “Labor”

Superstore is a quietly strong little sitcom consistently plugging away Thursday nights on NBC. (Shameless plug: I wrote about why I think the show is great and underrated for VICE last month and you should totally read it.) The show started off seeming kind of like “generic workplace sitcom set in a big-box store”, but gradually distinguished itself with a compelling cast of characters and a subtle-but-effective focus on workers’ rights, and the show’s first season finale “Labor” felt like the major turning point in that direction. The episode finds teenage mother-to-be Cheyenne unexpectedly go into labor while on the clock, leading to store manager Glenn to give her two weeks of paid maternity leave — which gets him fired. The employees, angered at both their company’s lack of benefits and careless dismissal of their dedicated store manager, stage a walk-out, and although sitcom rules dictated that the walk-out be quickly remedied when the show returned in the fall, Cloud 9 has felt just a little bit more rebellious ever since.

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend — “That Text Was Not Meant For Josh!”

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is so good at so many things, from wacky sitcom hijinks to showstopping musical numbers to serious explorations of mental illness — and it’s always at its best when it manages to seamlessly combine all of those elements in one swoop. Perhaps the best example of that was the sublime “That Text Was Not Meant For Josh!”, which may be the show’s darkest and finest hour. The episode finds Rebecca in her most perilous Josh situation yet (she accidentally sent him a text admitting that she moved to West Covina because she was desperately in love with him) bringing her to her most drastic invasion of Josh’s privacy yet (she breaks into his apartment to find his phone and delete the text) and, after he catches her, her most over-the-top lie to cover her ass yet (she pretends that she was in his apartment because someone broke into hers and she needed to be somewhere she could feel safe.) She manages stages a break-in with the help of Paula and her husband, and while the break-in and Rebecca’s scheming are well-executed comic bits that earn plenty of laughs (that Textmergency number!!!), it all inevitably comes crashing down, and Rebecca finds herself in a spiral of self-loathing that culminates in the show’s most cutting and heartbreaking musical number yet (“You ruined everything, you stupid bitch” Rebecca sings to herself.) There are so many plates being spun here, and the fact that Crazy Ex-Girlfriend absolutely nailed all of them demonstrates why it was one of TV’s best shows in 2016.

Broad City — “Burning Bridges”

The ever-reliable Broad City took some surprising risks in 2016, and it resulted in a season that wasn’t quite as consistent as its first two but pushed the show in some exciting and intriguing new directions. The best example of that was arguably the “Burning Bridges” episode, which is the only episode of Broad City that may be more notable for its emotional elements than its comedy (although it had plenty of great comedy as well in its Mrs. Doubtfire homage.) “Burning Bridges” finds Abbi on a secret date with lovable douche Trey, but when she winds up at the same restaurant as Ilana and her family (who she turned down previously), Abbi has to scramble to keep her cover. Of course, she doesn’t, and it ends with the only major Abbi/Ilana rift that we’ve seen on the show thus far. Of course, it’s remedied quickly, but the same can’t be said for Abbi and Trey’s relationship, which ends on a surprisingly sad note. Kudos to Broad City for expanding its dramatic palate a bit more and totally landing it, without losing what made it great in the first place.

The Americans — “The Magic of David Copperfield V: The Statue of Liberty Disappears”

The Americans has gotten more tense and foreboding with each season, but this season felt particularly pressing: between the sudden execution of Nina, the FBI finding out about Martha’s ties to the Russians followed by her shuffling off to the Soviet Union, Paige blowing her parents cover with Pastor Tim, and Phillip and Elizabeth often finding themselves at odds over their plan for their families’ safety, the pressure just didn’t stop mounting. So this late-season turning point, in which the Jennings take a break from their spy work and the show time-jumps seven months to show them at the other end of a length vacation, was both refreshing and kind of devastating: on one hand, it was nice that our Soviet protagonists got some time off, but the way all of their happiness happened off-screen and we had to dive back into the trenches with them at the other end demonstrated how their stress and turmoil are never really over. The Americans is all about the concept of sacrifice and how far you’re willing to go for your cause, and it’s increasingly feeling like the Jennings are going to have to make a tough decision between their family’s livelihood and their country very soon.

BoJack Horseman — “That’s Too Much, Man!”

Most of the “best episodes” lists I’ve seen pick the largely silent “Fish Out of Water” episode to represent BoJack’s stunning third season, and while I mean no disrespect to that incredible episode (which was a masterclass of animation that could easily hang with the best of Pixar, come at me), the one that continues to haunt my dreams is the season’s penultimate episode, “That’s Too Much, Man!”. It has become a pattern for the penultimate episode of a BoJack Horseman season to completely break your fucking soul (Season 1’s “Downer Ending” saw a torn BoJack begging Diane to tell him that he’s a good person, Season 2’s “Escape from L.A” saw BoJack reach the point of no return after being caught in bed with his old friend Charlotte’s teenage daughter), but even then I still wasn’t prepared for this episode to break me as much as it did. “That’s Too Much, Man!” follows BoJack’s weeks-long bender after he misses out on an Oscars nomination, but the focus is really on his former TV daughter Sarah-Lynn, who is newly sober after several years of drug addiction…until BoJack convinces her to join him on his spiral. The two travel around visiting various characters that BoJack has wronged over the course of the show’s run, from Diane and Mr. Peanutbutter to Angela to, yes, good God, even Charlotte’s daughter Penny…but it all comes to an abrupt end in a planetarium, after Sarah-Lynn fatally overdoses on a batch of heroin appropriated named “BoJack.” The episode is such a gutpunch that five months after watching it, I still don’t feel totally emotionally recovered. (If you want to be even more devastated, rewatch Sarah-Lynn’s first episode in Season 1 and notice all of the heartbreaking parallels between that episode and this one. Or don’t. You’ll be very, very sad.)

You’re the Worst — “You Knew it Was a Snake”

This is another one where I’ve mostly noticed lists championing one particular episode (“Twenty-Two”, and rightfully so, given its deft exploration of Edgar’s PTSD) so I figured I’d throw some love to an episode that I’ve seen get less attention but I thought was just as great. This episode, aired as the first part of a two-part season finale, felt more like a stage play at times than a sitcom episode: it took the show’s three central couples, locked them each in a room together, and set them up against each other, highlighting all of the problems that have been mounting between them over the course of the season. It was thrilling, honest, funny, and heartbreaking, which at this point should be expected from this show, but it still manages to knock me off my feet every time it pulls off an episode like this. Season 3 may have had less of a clear narrative structure than past seasons, but it still knocked it out of the park when the moment counted, and this episode was a perfect example of that.

black-ish — “Hope”

black-ish has done an incredible job over the course of its three seasons of mixing heavy racial issues with primetime-friendly family sitcom hijinks, making it one of the most essential network television sitcoms in several years. There is perhaps no better example of this than this year’s “Hope”, which tackled the subject of police brutality head-on as the Johnsons watched as another police officer failed to be convicted of shooting an unarmed black man. “Hope” is heavy and heartbreaking, just as it should be, but it never crosses the line into treacly. A comic runner about the Johnsons struggling to decide what to order for take-out helps things from getting too dark and also makes it feel like an actual family grappling with this issue, rather than mouthpieces for TV writers. The tightrope act that black-ish walks is one of the most difficult on TV, so the fact that it gets it right so often and produces episodes as fantastic as “Hope” is a seriously impressive feat.

The Good Place — “…Someone Like Me as a Member”

The Good Place was funny and intriguing from the start, but over the nine episodes it’s aired so far it has grown from being “fun and promising” to “a surprisingly thoughtful, deep analysis of some of the most complex questions about the afterlife and destiny.” It’s also a really funny sitcom, with a very talented cast and some excellent joke writing and pitch-perfect comic bits. The show’s midseason finale is perhaps the best example of that delicate balance — it’s an incredibly funny episode with some hilarious bits (such as the amazing cactus runner and the “Nixon karaoke” scene, which gave me some of my biggest laughs on TV this year) but also brings all of the philosophical questions the show has been posing (like “is there such a thing as soulmates?” and “is the concept of good and evil really fair?”) to a head. It sounds like it’s impossible to pull of, and it’s pretty damn hard, but The Good Place has been nailing it so far.

Bob’s Burgers — “Glued, Where’s My Bob?”

Bob’s Burgers hit 100 episodes this year, and the show’s 100th (or advertised 100th, anyway) episode was a great example of why it remains one of TV’s most consistently delightful shows. “Glued, Where’s My Bob?” takes a ridiculous situation (Bob literally gets glued to a toilet on a day when a magazine is supposed to tour the restaurant) and turns it into a half-hour of top-notch jokes, catchy songs, and surprisingly resonant warmth. It was reminiscent of some of the earliest Bob’s episodes (which often revolved around something going horribly wrong for Bob during an important moment) but showed how far the show has come since those days by peppering in all of our favorite recurring characters and ending in a sweet, warm place. Bob’s Burgers may not be the shiny new thing on the block anymore, but there were few shows in 2016 that made me happier.

Atlanta — “B.A.N.”

It’s difficult to pick just one episode of Atlanta for this list, which tried on so many different tones and styles in its breakthrough first season and pretty much nailed them all. There are so many things that excite me about this show, but one of the best and most surprising aspects of it how it was willing to be a completely different show from week-to-week (not unlike the community college-based sitcom that Donald Glover hailed from.) “B.A.N” was perhaps the best example of that, as the show took a break from the whimsical, dreamlike season of narrative TV it had been up to that point to completely nail a Chapelle’s Show-style takedown of entertainment panel shows. Paper Boi’s reaction shots in this episode alone are probably one of the funniest things you’ll see all year, but the entire episode is some perfectly executed comedy. It bears almost no resemblance to the show it was in every other episode (although it still has the show’s signature surreal absurdism and subtle social commentary), but that’s what makes it so damn fun.

Insecure — “Real as F**k”

The first season of Insecure was the definition of a slow burn. It started off seeming like a funny, light dramedy with well-defined characters and a lot of genuinely funny dialogue, but it slowly revealed itself to be even more than that, as it subtlety dug deep into its lovable cast of fuck-ups and revealed their inner-most desires and flaws. Insecure slowly peeled away at each of its central relationships until they all finally came to blows in the season’s penultimate episode “Real as F**k”, which followed Issa to her first successful work project in quite some time but found every other aspect of her life falling apart. “Real as F**k” dealt with the fallout of the revelation that Issa cheated on Lawerence with her college sweetheart in appropriately gut-wrenching fashion, but perhaps the most emotional scene came from her coming to blows with her best friend Molly, as the two people whose friendship provided the backbone of the series hurled insult and after insult at each other. What’s especially great about Insecure is the way it doesn’t paint any of its characters as right or wrong, even as they do undeniably misguided things — its empathy for each of its characters’ flaws and fuck-ups is what made Insecure one of the best new shows of 2016.

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt — “Kimmy Meets a Drunk Lady!”

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’s second season took a little bit to get off the ground, but once you got past the tone-deaf “address the critics” episode, you’ll find a season that’s actually even better, funnier, and more poignant than its first. While Season 1’s designed-for-network-TV status kept it from fully addressing the darkness of the show’s premise, Season 2 had no such restrictions, and while the show didn’t necessarily plunge straight into the pitch black, the way it dug into Kimmy’s trauma in the back half of the season was genuinely brave. The introduction of Tina Fey as Andrea, Kimmy’s alcoholic therapist who is a completely different person during her drunken nights than her professional days, was a seriously winning addition, both as a great comic character and a stark reminder that Kimmy’s desperate need to “fix” everyone around her has some dark undercurrents. Plus, this is the episode that gave us all of those fake “Now That’s Sounds Like Music!” songs, so…

Orange is the New Black — “Toast Can’t Never Be Bread Again”

The reactions to Orange is the New Black’s heartbreaking death this season were incredibly mixed, but it’s hard to deny the power of Poussey’s final tribute in the season finale, which mixed the aftermath of her murder with a beautiful, joy-bursting adventure with her around New York City prior to her arrest. The finale does a great job of showing why the character was so beloved and just why the outcry over her death was so extreme — this was one of the warmest characters not just on Orange is the New Black but on television in general, and Samira Wiley’s portrayal of her was truly magnificent from start to finish. Even if I understand why Orange felt the need to use her death as a way to comment on social issues (whether or not it was successful is up for debate), it’s hard for me to accept that she’s actually gone, and Orange is the New Black — and its characters — will never be the same without her.

Veep — “Mother”

Veep’s fifth season didn’t miss a beat despite losing its showrunner, and “Mother”, in which Selina says goodbye to her mother in the midst of a bitterly contested election, is a perfect example of just how biting, caustic, and hilarious the show is when it’s working at its ultimate best. Considering the horrific track of politics this year, it would be easy for Veep to stop seeming like a funny comedy and start seeming like a horrifying documentary, but luckily Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s flawless performance manages to keep things hilarious even when they’re feeling a bit too real. “Mother” serves as both a political takedown and a character study, as Selena uses the death of her (cold, distant) mother to her political advantage while showing little actual emotion at her mother’s passing. It’s a little too real, maybe, but also, it’s just really funny.

Mr. Robot — “ eps2.6_succ3ss0r.p12”

Look, there’s no denying it: Mr. Robot’s second season was a giant fucking mess. It was strangely plotted, had too many unanswered questions, and seemed more concerned with tricking its audience than actually developing a compelling storyline. Still, there were some really good moments among the ruins that made the season a worthwhile endeavor despite its weaknesses. One of those was moments was the “Successor” episode, which almost completely sidelined Elliot and focused on the show’s supporting cast (which, no disrespect to Rami Malek’s continued great performance, carried the show this year.) The episode hones in on Darlene, and its focus on her attempts to be a leader shed a light on both her character and the importance of Elliot as this universe’s center. It’s also an episode that’s heavy on the dark moodiness that the show continues to do well: Season 2’s strengths lied in the way it portrayed the post-hack world as dark, unforgiving, and not what anyone really asked for, even if fsociety had technically “succeeded.” Even if this season was kind of all over the place, there was enough good in it that I’m still on board to see where this goes next year.

The Chris Gethard Show — “One Man’s Trash”

The Chris Gethard Show has been quietly producing some of the best, most innovative TV for several years now. What started off as a weekly public access show centered around a bunch of misfit comedians connecting to lovable weirdos around the country has seamlessly transitioned to cable via the Fusion network, and while the show’s first Fusion season was good, it did take some adjusting into its brighter lights and higher budget. The show’s second Fusion season, though, produced some of the best, weirdest, most surprising material it’s ever cranked out, and the very best of it was what’s referred to as “the dumpster episode”, which has a very simple concept: Paul Scheer, Jason Mantzoukas, and the viewing audience have to guess what’s in the dumpster on stage. I don’t want to spoil anything, because the episode is a genuine thrill ride from start to finish. (I was lucky enough to be in the audience for this episode and I can confirm that it was probably the highest-tension live show I have ever seen.) Just go in with an open mind and prepare to have your mind blown by the end of it.

Okay and HERE'S my full top 20 list: 

1. BoJack Horseman                                                          11. You're the Worst

2. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend                                                        12. The Good Place

3. Atlanta                                                                            13. Orange is the New Black

4. The Americans                                                              14. Veep

5. black-ish                                                                         15. Broad City

6. Lady Dynamite                                                              16. Search Party 

7. The Chris Gethard Show                                              17. Bob's Burgers

8. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt                                     18. Stranger Things

9. Insecure                                                                         19. Better Call Saul 

10. Superstore                                                                  20. Full Frontal w/ Samantha Bee 

I watched all of Fuller House

Over the past week, I have, for some reason, watched every episode of Fuller House. I'm not alone, of course: the show was so popular that it trended on Twitter for days and has already been renewed for a second season. That said, if you haven't watched it yet, please: do not watch Fuller House. It is not good, by any means. Even if you loved the original show, even if you have some twinge of nostalgia for it, it is not worth your time.

So then why did you watch every episode, you might ask me? Why not just stop after the first two when you realize, hey, this show is cheesy as fuck and so was the original show and why are you wasting your time? That's what all of the normal people did, the ones who at all value their sanity. I don't really have a clear answer for you. I guess it's because, like many people, I grew up with Full House, for better or worse, and I've seen every episode of the terrible original series so many times that it seemed wrong for me not to watch whatever else these assholes have up their sleeve. Still, I figured I would at least try to make my suffering worth something vaguely productive, so here I am, writing a blog post about how Fuller House made me feel inside.

1. Fuller House is not a good show, but it's not really any worse than Full House. Fuller House was met with extremely negative reviews and a divided fan response, which may lead you to believe it was somehow a disappointment compared to the already dreadful original series. But Fuller House is basically of the same quality of the original Full House. In fact, if I were being daring, I might argue it's actually a little bit better, if only because it's kind of in on the joke (which, in a way, makes hating on it less fun.) My guess is that a lot of people view the original series through rose-tinted glasses and don't realize how totally cornball and awful it is, and also I don't think the Netflix binge-model is really right for this "turn your brain off" style of sitcom, which might seem acceptable in bite-sized, after-school bits but really exposes its true shittiness when you stack it all together. Honestly, the quality difference between the two comes down to this: Full House was bad in a very '90s kind of way, while Fuller House is bad in a uniquely 2016 kind of way. Full House is the archetype of the soulless, mass-produced network family sitcom that was a staple of the '80s and '90s but is mostly confined to the Disney Channel these days. There's little consistency, absolutely no self-awareness, and really no attempt at any sort of depth or understanding. But sitcoms have evolved in the past 20 years, and now even lukewarm family sitcoms are slick and single camera and self-aware and have a baseline quality even when they're mediocre. Fuller House understands this and attempts to mimic it. Storylines actually continue from one episode to the next (an unheard of occurrence on Full House, a show that had at least six different sets of grandparents), there is an actual attempt at a few character arcs (they mostly fail, but they try!), and there are way, way, way too many meta jokes. Fuller House is not good, but it's not good in a way that at least feels relevant to our time period.

2. Fuller House doesn't know if it wants to be a nostalgia piece or a standalone show. The weirdest thing about Fuller House is that it seems genuinely unsure about whether it wants to simply reminiscence on its past or try to be something new. Girl Meets World, the Boy Meet World continuation on the Disney Channel, has made it to three seasons and not-so-terrible reviews because it's basically become its own thing, occasionally referencing the show it spins off from but also establishing a world of character of its own. (I haven't seen much of Girl Meets World, but I'm told it's basically fine for a kids' sitcom, and that it's become its own thing.) Fuller House sometimes seems like it wants to do the same thing. The show introduces a bunch of new characters (DJ and Kimmy's kids) but it never really does anything with them except saddle them with really annoying catchphrases and the typical Full House "one signature character trait." (Jackson is apparently some kind of wannabe rebel, Max - the new worst character on the show now that Michelle is absent - is a loud asshole, Ramona speaks Spanish and want her parents to get back together, and the baby is, uh, a baby?). When it focuses on the kids (it hardly does!) it seems like your run of the mill Disney Channel-esque family sitcom, which is whatever! It could continue on as that, and I would totally stop caring about it, but a bunch of pre-teens would probably be into it, and I could stop watching it and be on my merry way. But, no. Just when it seems like it's heading in that direction, Stephanie busts out a "how rude!" and Uncle Jesse comes trotting back in and it becomes totally clear just what the fuck show this is.

3. Fuller House could actually be good if it was, like, a different show. There are very, very, very, very rare inklings where you could almost see a good show in Fuller House. This is mostly due to the fact that the show has a surprisingly not awful rock in DJ Tan - uh, sorry, Fuller (yes, the title is a fucking pun), who is maybe a little bit of an "overworked single mom" stereotype (who in the Full House universe isn't a stereotype to some degree?) but mostly sells that character trait and makes it a believable struggle. That's a better center than Full House ever had (it never really cared to analyze the fact that it was about a non-traditional family), and while it doesn't really add up to anything, it's at least, I don't know, there. (On the other hand, just like the original show, there is almost no mention of the dead spouse that lead to the show's premise, except for like once or twice when it's convenient to the plot.)

4. Fuller House is stuck halfway between making fun of itself and taking itself seriously. The biggest failure of Fuller House is that it really never embraces its satirical center nor does it go full cheese. It is definitely more self-aware than the original series - there are a lot of meta jokes about the implausibility of a lot of the show's wackier sitcom shenanigans, and there are actual lines suggesting that the Tanner family is kind of a bunch of privileged white-bread dicks, which floored me a little - but it also fails to go full Brady Bunch Movie in its satire. It still insists on ending every episode with a talk and a hug, it still gives its characters easy outs at every corner, and it's still, well, about a bunch of privileged white-bread dicks who shamelessly appropriate Indian culture without even batting an eye. A lot of the show's tongue-in-cheek "can you BELIEVE this?!" material comes in the first few nostalgia-heavy episodes that have to deal with the sheer implausibility of the show's concept. By the halfway point of the season, the show starts recycling some of the exact same tired plots that plagued the original series. I nearly lost my shit when there was ANOTHER fucking plot about everyone trying to hide a giant barn animal from everyone else in the house, which I swear happened like seven times in the original series. (Not to mention when Stephanie DROVE HER CAR through the kitchen and they tried to hide that. Why do these people think you can hide giant, house-destroying situations?!). ANYWAY, the point is that even if it pretends it has, Fuller House hasn't learned. It's the same old shit, recycled yet again, and I guess that's what we wanted! Which brings me to my final point...

5. This kind of shit is what we want, isn't it? It's what we deserve, isn't it? Look, Fuller House only exists because we asked for it. We watched the syndicated re-runs as kids, we grew up and realized it was awful but kept watching it anyway, we started shitting on it and making fun of it only increasing its hype more, we made Buzzfeed lists and quizzes about it and all of its other terrible '90s sitcoms - we brought this onto itself. Because the truth is, there is something addicting about the specific dose of shared, hated nostalgia of these kinds of shows that's addicting, and that makes even the most skeptical of us watch the entire thing on Netflix and make a blog post about it later. That's why this thing exists in the first place, right? Fuller House doesn't learn, people don't learn, and you know what? I don't learn, because this shit has been renewed for a second season, and as much as I tell myself I'm not going to watch it, I probably am! Fuck it! Fuck it all! I'm probably going to go listen to that stupid Carly Rae Jepsen cover of the theme song right now too!!!

Anyway! Um, don't be like me, don't make my mistakes - please, don't watch Fuller House.

(On the other hand, at least Jodie Sweetin and Andrea Barber are getting paid, right? Good for them.)

Netflix's "Love" demonstrates the strengths and weaknesses of the binge-watch model

Over the weekend, Netflix dropped the new Judd Apatow rom-com series Love. As with all Netflix releases, a good chunk of the internet spent the weekend binge-watching and dissecting the series to exhaustion, although the furor around Love seems a bit more muted compared to past Netflix shows. It could just be the sparkle of the Netflix model's all-at-once release method is starting to wear off a bit after three years, or maybe it's just that Love feels a little less splashy then, say, the intensity of Jessica Jones or the sprawling character showcase of Orange is the New Black or the colorful absurdity of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Love is, more or less, your typical Apatow romcom stretched out across 10 half-hours. As an indie-esque romcom, it's pretty good! The story, though a little messy, is engrossing enough that I chose to spend my entire lazy Sunday watching til the end to find out if these two silly kooks worked it out in the end. (Spoiler alert: they did!). The performances are all fairly strong, particularly from Gillian Jacobs (who brings her now-signature lovable mess character to dark, fascinating places) and Claudia O'Doherty (who brings so much to her sidekick role that she arguably steals every scene she's in). Like pretty much every single Apatow movie, there are some really amazing scenes and a whole bunch of nonsense that definitely should've been cut, but all in all, it mostly hangs together. Still, Love is not a movie, as much as it feels like one most of the time. It's a television show. And while Love might have made a fine movie, it's doesn't quite know how to be a good TV show.

It's really hard to talk about Love without bringing up You're the Worst. Normally I don't love comparing shows because every show is different and each show has different goals, but the goals of Love and You're the Worst feel incredibly similar in many ways. Both shows are about a particularly privileged group of people living in Los Angeles. Both shows are about two leads who would be considered "unlikable" in most respects. And both shows are about those two leads learning to deal with each other's flaws and etching out a seemingly inevitable relationship. There are some differences between the two: while Love is a cinematic dramedy, You're the Worst is, at its heart, a satirical sitcom. You're the Worst certainly has its heavy moments (particularly in its transcendent second season) but its overall tone is a lot more outwardly comic than Love, which is an occasionally funny, often very depressing look into post-addiction life and the struggles to maintain an intimate relationship. Additionally, You're the Worst seems to feel that its protagonists' relationship is, ultimately, good for both of them. Whether or not Jimmy and Gretchen are endgame, it's clear to see how the show suggests their budding romance is genuinely improving both of them as people. With Love, that's far less clear. When the season ends with Rust and Mickey kissing at the spot they first mess, the tone is half wistful, half utterly depressing. These are two broken people, and the show doesn't seem convinced that they aren't breaking each other down even more. That final kiss is perhaps the very best scene in the show's entire first season, and it makes the journey there make far more sense in hindsight.

That, in essence, is one of the strengths of the streaming model and its inherent serialization - the end, in most cases, justifies the journey that got us there, no matter how messy that journey is. Most of the pieces I've read about Love today describe it as a show that has "a slow start, but makes it worth it in the end", or posits that the show "finds itself in its last few episodes." I'd quibble with this just a bit - to me the show never quite matched the heights of its second episode, which is the first time Mickey and Gus meet and the only time they seem like they might actually work as a couple - but, in general, the show does become more focused as it goes on, and after a really messy patch of episodes (episodes 3 and 4 are almost completely useless to the show's narrative), the show does snap into focus in its back half, once Mickey and Gus actually go on their first date. Once the show hits that point, it becomes easy to forgive some of the questionable, go-nowhere scenes that got us there. If Love were airing week-to-week, I doubt I would've made it that far - truthfully, I probably would've bailed after that awful threeway scene in the pilot - but when all of the episodes are laid out in front of you, it's hard not to think "alright, this is leading somewhere." (Plus, what else is there to do on a boring Sunday afternoon?). And then it does! And when it does, and when that "somewhere" is actually pretty satisfying, it's easy to think "well, they nailed it. They may have had trouble getting there, but they nailed it!".

Yet when a show is so focused on nothing but what it's leading up to, it starts to feel like it's missing something. This is where the You're the Worst comparison seems most apt. You're the Worst is generally structured like a traditional sitcom in that, while there is an overarching plot to its seasons, each episode is still, well, an episode. There are A stories, B stories, and sometimes C stories that come to some sort of conclusion at the end of 22 minutes. These stories work not to just establish the narrative of the season, but to study the show's characters, expand the show's world, and find out what makes the people who inhabit that world funny and interesting - and not just Jimmy and Gretchen, but Edgar and Lindsay and Becca and Vernon and Sam and...you get the point. All of these people serve purpose to Gretchen and Jimmy, sure, but they're also strong characters independent of their ties to the show's leads. This helps to create a world so well-developed that the show's two season finales both take place at giant parties that involved pretty much every member of the show's large ensemble, and never once when focusing on that ensemble are you wondering "okay, but what's going on with Jimmy and Gretchen?".

Compare that with Love, where pretty much every character is immediately defined by their relationship to Mickey and Gus. Bertie - the show's strongest character outside of its two protagonists - still mostly only appears in scenes involving one of the two (with the exception of a minor, underdeveloped plotline involving her hooking up with one of Gus's friends). The show does have a fairly sprawling supporting cast, and some of the most delightful scenes are when we get a behind-the-scenes look at the comically terrible show that Gus tutors for, but we don't get to see any of this working independently. We only get to see it when we're learning something that suggests why Gus or Mickey should be together, or shouldn't be together, or can't be together. Everything in Love serves the purpose of leading to that final scene at the gas station. And while that final scene is great, it doesn't change the fact that there's not really much of a show leading up to that point. The very best streaming shows - Bojack Horseman, Orange is the New Black, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt - find a way to combine the allure of the binge model with the episodic structure that works to create the very best TV. If Love wants to go from being a nice idea and a generally fine television show into a genuinely great show (and I do think the potential is there for that to happen), it needs to take cues from those shows and start acting like...well, a TV show.

NBC's Superstore will be my favorite show in 8 months

Superstore is not a perfect show. At this point, it's not even a great one. It's solid, funny, charming and has a likable cast, but there are still plenty of kinks to be worked out. The show occasionally goes too broad with its humor, some of its characters feel more like stereotypes than actual human beings, and it has a tendency to beat you over the head with its character development, rather than letting it progress naturally. Of course, the same could be said of the earliest episodes of almost any network television sitcom, from broad hits like Friends to beloved cult classics like Community and 30 Rock, to The Mary Tyler Moore Show to Cheers to Seinfeld to Parks and Recreation to New Girl to...okay, you get the point.

We live in an era where "network television sitcom" tends to draw minds to either "overly broad, unhip CBS-style comedy" (think The Big Bang Theory) or "family sitcom", of varying quality (from the excellent Black-ish and Fresh Off the Boat to the reliably solid The Middle to the mediocre, paint-by-numbers humor of latter-day Modern Family). The most exciting new comedies - the ones that draw the most attention, the most love, the most thinkpieces - tend to be niche, alt-style cable and streaming comedies, shows that come fully packaged with a distinct voice and point of view. These shows, from Broad City to You're the Worst to Bojack Horseman, recall some of the same mechanics as acclaimed dramas (creative freedom, distinct visual styles, unique viewpoints) to create some truly exciting, riveting, and excellent television. These are some of the best shows on television, no doubt, and we're extremely lucky to live in an era where they're in no short supply. But I still hold the old belief that there's a value to the age-old format of network television sitcoms, the kind of shows where you get a wide-ranging cast of actors and writers together and churn out a product whose primary purpose is to draw advertising dollars but, in the very best of cases, winds up stumbling upon something great. And lost in the era of niche cable comedy is the fact that, in the past year or so, there's been a bit of a renaissance of the network sitcom.

Now, it sort of feels like someone talks about "the resurgence of the sitcom" every few years. It seems to be an endless cycle of "the sitcom is dead!", only to be followed by "the sitcom has returned!", and the cycle repeats itself again. Indeed, it hasn't been that long since network television was blessed with a line-up of all-star hitters, from NBC's last great Thursday night line-up (Community, The Office, 30 Rock, Parks & Rec) to Happy Endings to Don't Trust the B in Apartment 23 to the beginnings of New Girl and Bob's Burgers. But while that line-up featured sitcoms doing their best to analyze, freshen, and deconstruct their form, the current network renaissance seems to be dominated by shows that are trying to get their unique stories told to as wide of an audience as possible. During the Eddie Huang/Fresh Off the Boat debacle, Huang (whose autobiography serves as the basis of the show but severed ties with it after ABC was unwilling to realistically portray his often gritty, heavy novel), when asked why he didn't take his story to a more auterer-friendly cable or streaming network, responded that he felt a need to bring his story to as many people as possible, and the only place to do so was on network television. We may be heading into an era where every show is specifically designed to appeal to a certain niche audience, but we're not there yet. There's still broad, network shows designed to appeal to a large amount of people. And however long that may be, it's great to see shows taking that opportunity to tell stories of people that aren't always represented on TV.

Maybe that's why I have such a soft spot for Superstore. I've spent many years of my life working shitty retail jobs, only getting through the day by reciting various funny sitcom lines in my head, over and over, to forget a little bit about the rather mundane reality I was stuck in. Seeing TV actually portraying that shitty retail job - even if it does a mixed job of portraying it accurately - certainly has an element of catharsis to it. And truthfully, there's not a lot of television shows that even attempt to broadcast the everyday mundane, struggling existence that a large majority of us put up with. One thing that sitcoms in particular have lost a step in recently - from the prestige to the mainstream - is creating relatable, down-to-earth realities. Since Friends ruled the '90s, it seems the large majority of comedies have a need to give their characters an element of glamour, whether or not it's actually realistic to their situations. Yes, there are exceptions - The Office, The Middle, Broad City - but in general, there's a trend in TV comedy to promote escapism over realism. This makes sense, to an extent - people watch TV to escape their realities, after all - but sometimes I want to see characters whose lives are kind of a big, boring ass mess, just like mine is! That's what makes Superstore work so well for me so far. Between the wacky hijinks and the sometimes thin character stereotypes, there's an element of sadness, the idea that these people are kind of stuck going through the motions and aren't sure how to get out of it. The show doesn't fully realize this is about itself yet, but it's slowly getting there - the most recent episode, "Color Wars", did a great job of balancing the wacky, big box silliness (a sales competition where everyone wears Red and Blue and the reward is $100 and a pizza party) with a little twinge of well-delivered sadness (Amy is so into the competition because money's tight and she needs cash to fund her college classes that her asshole husband doesn't support).

If Superstore can perfect that balance, it could go from being a pleasant, entertaining way to pass the time to one of network TV's best, most poignant comedies, one that helps restore the idea of a workplace comedy that accurately depicts the kind of workplace most of us actually work at. I think there's some solid evidence that the show is working towards being this kind of show as it heads towards finishing its abbreviated first season, and here's to hoping September will bring a splurge of pieces talking about how much Superstore's second season has turned the corner and become the latest, greatest NBC comedy, because having a sitcom that actually gives voice to some of the most underappreciated workers in the country would be pretty damn sweet.

A love letter to sitcoms

Hulu quietly added the entire run of Happy Endings to its library last week. Happy Endings, if you are sadly unaware, was a hilarious, weird, well-crafted little gem of a sitcom that aired on ABC from 2011 to 2013. It was never a substantial ratings hit, hence its too-short three-season run, and its previous unavailability on streaming platforms combined with its somewhat generic "friends living together in a big city" premise (that the show quickly rose above) kept it from being a cult hit along the likes of Arrested Development or Parks and Recreation. But at the time, it was one of the funniest shows on television, a proud member of what we may eventually know as the "last golden age" of sitcoms on television. This was a time around the late 2000s/early 2010s, from about 2008 to 2013, where there was a sudden uptick in quality of network television sitcoms, heralded by the much-cherished block of NBC Thursday sitcoms at the time (30 Rock, The Office, Parks and Recreation, and Community). These shows, heavily influenced by the adoration of shows like Arrested Development as well as animated sitcoms like The Simpsons and Futurama, managed to bring TV comedy to a new level. As The Office took its British counterpart's dry wit and realism and mixed it with big swings of emotion, 30 Rock set the joke-per-minute ratio to astonishing heights all while serving as a cutting satire of the entertainment industry. And then came Parks and Recreation, daring to have a big heart and a sunny worldview in an era where most sitcoms were downbeat and cynical, as Community tore apart the sitcom structure and re-examined it on a weekly basis. These were unique, strange, big swing shows that could only survive as long as they did on a network failing as hard as fourth-place NBC was at the time. And they went onto influence shows like Happy Endings, Don't Trust the B in Apartment 23, and New Girl, which helped round out an era where network comedy felt more daring and alive than either.

That era died a fairly fast death, though, as network TV ratings plummeted and streaming services heralded in a brand new world. NBC phased out its much beloved but low-rated and aging comedies for generic procedurals with half the creativity but double the ratings. Happy Endings and Don't Trust the B were cancelled, and while New Girl holds up a fort of generally strong comedies over on FOX and ABC has assembled a line-up of surprisingly strong family comedy, the sparkle and wit once found on network TV not so long ago now mostly exists on cable and streaming comedies like Broad City, You're the Worst, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and Bojack Horseman, places where these niche shows can conform to their own rules and structure without having to worry about appealing to a broad audience. It's great! I love it! I really do!

But as someone coming of age just as the NBC Thursday night line-up became the most exciting collection of comedy on television, I can't help but feel nostalgia for the old line-up. It's ridiculous to get nostalgic for a time that is barely even gone, but as I've been navigating this post-grad world as someone who wants to do fucking comedy for a living, the era has been on my mind a lot lately. I remember five years ago when every Thursday I would tuck myself into bed and watch the entire NBC Thursday line-up (taking a snack break during Perfect Couples), forgetting about whatever my anxious 17-year-old brain was fretting about at the moment and immersing myself in weird, rough-around-the-edge worlds like Pawnee and Greendale, where I felt I belonged. I remember nights where my friends would ask me to hang out and I would tell them I was "hanging out with my other friends" - yes, I was referring to TV characters. (I was not the coolest high schooler.) I remember realizing how happy these shows made me, how great it felt to just sit back and laugh all night, and I remember how it finally gave me a sense of purpose and direction in life. These were the shows that led to me writing my own comedy and finding my own voice. These were the shows that led to me majoring in motherfucking television, of all things. (Okay, it was communications with a focus in television, but ya know, still.) And weirdly, marathoning Happy Endings this weekend brought a lot of those feelings back. I guess it's because I've never stopped endlessly watching shows like Community, Parks and Recreation and 30 Rock - they've become regular "leave them on repeat endlessly" shows for me - but Happy Endings was almost like a re-discovery, and it brought me back to being barely graduated from high school, believing that a career in comedy was the most exciting direction I could go in.

Now, I have graduated college with my useless degree. Comedy is slowly becoming something resembling a job to me (though not one that pays), as I attempt to navigate my way through the New York improv scene and learn just how the fuck to actually do what I want to do. It's not exactly the fun comfort zone it was when I was a teenager, although it's still something that guides my everyday life and overall being. But watching Happy Endings reminded me of a time when it was, which reminds me of why I am, like an idiot, attempting to do this whole comedy thing anyway. It made me realize just how much joy it brings me at its root. It made me remember how great that feeling of watching someone take the thing you feel so passionately about - the thing that gives your awkward, strange, generally useless self meaning - and do something great with it is. And that's a nice, necessary reminder sometimes.

This is not a hot take on Making a Murderer

I watched two episodes of Making a Murderer today. I will probably finish the series, because I have a relentless need to fit in with a bunch of strangers on the internet who do not know I exist, and because it's pretty interesting! And yet, I will do so knowing that each and every episode of the show will fill me with dread and possibly send me into an existential crisis. You see, I have been given a brain that cannot handle even the slightest bit of uncertainty. I've had full meltdowns over gloomy weather forecasts, I constantly assume any ailment on my body is going to spell out my untimely death, and don't even get me started on the whole "is there life after death?" thing - I've had to lock myself in bathroom stalls to get myself to calm down over it. Truthfully, I don't really know what's wrong with me. I am guessing I have some kind of anxiety disorder, likely some form of OCD, but I can't get myself to a doctor because I'm convinced they're going to tell me I'm an idiot who's making it all up. Also, that shit's kind of expensive.

ANYWAY! I'm not sure where I'm going with this, but those two episodes of Making a Murderer gave me that familiar feeling I get whenever I've tried to watch shows like CSI or Law & Order or oh, Jesus, Criminal Minds. Especially goddamn Criminal Minds. They ZOOM IN on open wounds! Why are they allowed to do that?! Crime drama has always unsettled me to an extreme degree. I remember when my parents would watch crime documentaries and procedurals when I was a kid, and they would always just make me feel terrified. Part of that was normal childhood fear, the kind you get as a kid slowly realizing the world isn't what Disney movies told you it would be. But even as a little kid, the idea that human beings could commit such heinous crimes bothered me in a really deep way. My mind couldn't process it. "Well, if the people who do this are human, and I'm human, then what's the difference between me and them?". That thought would set me off for days. I would watch CSI and I would get legitimate anxiety if the revealed killer was someone I found myself identifying with at all through-out the episode. Hell, even if it was shallow, like they were short or had brown hair or something, I would think "oh my God, that short, brown-haired dude killed that mailman and stuffed him into a fish tank. I'm short and I have brown hair. Could I do that?!". Even at a young age, I realized this fear was completely irrational, and yet the hilarious thing about anxiety is that you can continue to worry about something even as you're totally aware it is completely and utterly irrational.

Anyway, these fears intensified as I got older, and they hit a breaking point sometime in college, when I spent a summer paralyzed in fear that I would one day find my inner serial killer and go on a rampage, often triggered by things like ho-hum episodes of network crime procedurals or movies starring dirty looking white men. I didn't really think I would be a serial killer, but the idea that I was physically capable of being one was enough reason for me to think it was a possibility, which was enough reason for my brain to run with that fear and send itself into a spiral of depression and horror. I pictured myself sitting in prison as my friends and family members gave interviews about "what a great person they thought I was" and how "they just aren't sure what happened." I pictured myself sitting in a cell thinking about my hopes and dreams, dashed - thanks to my secret destiny of being a murderer that had been with me since a child and had suddenly come out with absolutely no warning or reason whatsoever. In my mind, being a deranged killer was something you were born with, something that you just were, and that if I was having these thoughts, it meant I was one of the unlucky chosen ones. Again, half of me knew this was ridiculous. Half of me wanted to take my brain out, smack it, and ask what the fuck was wrong with it. But the half that was thinking these thoughts overtook the rational half. As I've learned, an OCD mind is one that gets stuck on a particular thought and can't let go. Lots of people probably have the passing thought of "whoa, what if I was a killer? That'd be weird, right?", but someone with an OCD mind thinks "wait, why did you think that? Do you want to think that? Is this a sign? Are you choosing to think that?". This thought process was not exclusive to the idea of committing heinous crimes - I would watch shows where a character loses their mom and spend the next few weeks saying "I love you" to my own mother every time I saw her, in fear it could be the last time. (And I lived at home, so I saw her a lot.)  I would watch a movie where someone got into a car crash and be afraid of even being in a car for the conceivable future.
But, naturally, imaging myself as a murderer was the most disturbing to me, and therefore left the biggest impact.It got to the point where I would dread waking up every morning and hearing this cycle of fear repeated over and over again, so I decided to do something about it. I did self-help exercises and minor forms of cognitive behavior therapy - anything I could find on my own, because I was too scared and too broke to afford actual therapy. And, surprisingly, it helped. A lot. I don't have those thoughts anymore, although my OCD tendencies tend to pop up in other (less dramatic and awful) forms. I've accepted the reality that: yes, we are all physically capable of doing terrible things, but if we don't want to, then we don't, and that's that. There is no part of me that wants to be a serial killer, so I'm not going to be one. Life is cool that way!

And yet, when I watch things like true crime shows, the uncertainty of it all sort of re-aggravates my brain. After I watched those two episodes of Making a Murderer, I drove my girlfriend home, carefully making sure that no one around was murdering anyone and could potentially pin it on me. Yes, I knew this probably wasn't going to happen. But it could. I mean, it's not impossible. It's not science fiction. It's not unicorns. It's happened to other people. It happened to Steven Avery, once, maybe twice. And as much as my brain knows that worrying about this is ridiculous, I think the reason Making a Murderer (and Serial, ect) is that everyone, a little bit, has that fear. And everyone knows that fear is mostly irrational, but it's a little justified. Because we're all human beings. Steven Avery is a human being. He's a human being who is accused of some terrible things, a human being who had some terrible things happen to him, and a human being who actually has done some terrible things. Let's be honest, he's not someone most of us would go and grab a drink with. But he's a human being, just like the rest of us. And both he and us deserve to live in a world where you can feel reasonably safe that if you don't commit a crime, you won't be imprisoned for it. It's not too much to ask for. And I guess that's why I'm going to finish Making a Murderer. It'll wreak my brain, but at least I'm more equipped to handle it now than I used to be. One of the most effective tools for treating anxiety is exposure therapy. I guess this is my exposure therapy. This terrible thing could happen to me. It probably won't! There's a 95% chance it won't! But it could. And running towards that fear, rather than running away from it, is what's going to keep me healthy in the long run. We all need to run towards that fear, because we should live in a world where that fear is as ridiculous as it could possibly be, and the only way to do that is to watch these things. Educate ourselves. Get angry about the system. Get angry about the system by realizing that you are not immune from the system. You can be Steven Avery. He's not an alien, he's not a monster, he's a human being. He might be a human being who killed someone. He might not be. You're a human being, you haven't killed anyone (hopefully!), but who knows? One day someone could think you did. It's a scary thought, but it's reality, and we need to be aware of that in order to accept it and make it right for all of us.


So, yes, I guess what I'm saying is, Making a Murderer is AMERICA'S exposure therapy, and...oh...no. This is totally a hot take on Making a Murderer, isn't it?

Best TV of 2015

Hi everyone! I know I've done a really shitty job of updating this blog recently. I'm going to try to fix that this year, for real. It's part of my *~New Years Resolution~*. So that means I'm definitely going to stick with it. Maybe. Probably. Maybe. (No, for real, I'm going to try really hard.) And maybe I'll try to use this blog for more than just television reviews, like it was before. It'll probably still be mostly for television, let's be real, because that's like, 95% of what I think about at all times. But maybe I'll talk more about how TV shows impact my life! Or what they mean to me! And maybe I'll talk a little bit about music and movies, too! Who knows what the future has in store?! But, for this post: who cares what the future has in store? Let's talk about my favorite TV of 2015!

I've been making "best of TV" lists for a few years now, and every year it becomes harder and harder to narrow my list down. Part of that is because my tastes have broadened past the "silly sitcoms only" territory that they once stuck to, but a larger part of that is that the amount of TV has absolutely exploded in the past few years. Yeah, you've heard about it, you know we're living in Peak TV, you don't need me to lecture you about it. But while Peak TV might be a nightmare for executives trying to counter-program against a mass glut of exceptionally unique television shows, it's a dream for people like me, who just love television so much and often like shows that didn't stand much of a chance in the old, mass appeal mandated system. So just know that this list leaves off plenty of shows that I really did love. I extended the list to 25 this year, and I feel these 25 shows do a fairly good job of representing both what I personally dug this year as well as the true diversity of programming available to us today. So let's go!

25. The Middle



It's not easy for a sitcom to stay fresh for so long, nevertheless a family sitcom with children who age and, as we've been taught to think, become less funny. But The Middle has become the rare show that's becoming more mature, more thoughtful and more poignant as it grows up around its characters. In 2015, we saw Sue Heck graduate high school and discover the world outside of the bubble she's been living with. We saw Mike deal with the fact that he's not going to be around forever and how to cope with that slowly growing realization. We saw Axl realize that his high school glory days are over and that he's going to have to start to forge his own path in life rather than relying on everyone else to figure it out for him. And we saw one of the most subtle yet effective coming out scenes I've ever seen on television. These are all heavy topics that would've seemed impossible when The Middle started and seemed like another run-of-the-mill family sitcom, and the fact that it's consistently knocking them out of the park while still remaining light and funny shows just how much the show has grown over the years.

Standout Episodes: "The Graduate", "Risky Business", "Halloween VI: Tick Tock Death"

24. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia



Another long-running sitcom that has remained fresh but for entirely different reasons, Always Sunny continues to be a deranged delight ten years into its run. Season 10 was somehow one of the show's tightest and funniest seasons, with nearly every episode clocking in as a near-classic. The show continues to subtlety experiment with its form, with a series best episode mimicking True Detective's famed one-shot sequence and another hilarious episode playing entirely as an episode of Family Feud with the Reynolds family. There's not many sitcoms that I would eagerly be awaiting an 11th season of, but Always Sunny is a proud member of that short list.

Standout Episodes: "Charlie Work", "The Gang Misses the Boat", "The Gang Goes on Family Fight"

23. Parks and Recreation



Parks and Recreation remained a delight through-out its entire run, but it sometimes felt as if it was struggling to find a purpose in its later seasons after it pretty much gave all of its characters an endless supply of everything they had ever wanted. That all changed in its 7th and final season, which made the bold move of jumping three years into the future and exploring how everyone had grown and changed, then showed us where they all ultimately ended up. This season almost felt removed from the rest of the series, which allowed it to function less as your typical season of the show and more as an intricate character study of each member of the ensemble. That's pretty much the best kind of victory lap any fan could ask for, and it led to Parks & Rec going out on a really lovely note.

Standout Episodes: "Leslie & Ron", "The Johnny Karate Super Awesome Musical Explosion Show", "One Last Ride"

22. Brooklyn Nine-Nine



Brooklyn Nine-Nine might be the most quietly consistent show on television. It rarely makes a big splash, but week in and week out it makes me laugh more than most other shows on TV, and it has the biggest, best and most lovable sitcom ensemble this side of NBC Thursdays. The show had a particularly strong run of episodes this past fall as it experimented with its dynamics a bit, finally pushing together its two romantic leads and actually managing to pull it off. It's also the only place you can go to find truly unique characters like Captain Holt and Gina Linetti, characters that make me laugh with pretty much every word that comes out of their mouth in a way that very few characters can. Maybe it's not quite a game changer, but there are few places on television I'm more eager to return to each week than the 99.

Standout Episodes: "Captain Peralta", "Ava", "Yippie Kayak"

21. Orange is the New Black



Orange is the New Black's third season was more understated than its first two installments, trading in some of the high-stakes drama for more of a laidback, hangout vibe. There were times when the show seemed to be hugging the "comedy" side of its comedy-drama hybrid surprisingly hard, almost as if it had forgotten that it was show about, well, prison. And yet in the back half of its season, that laidback vibe came crashing down in a very classic OITNB fashion, bringing us some of the most heart-wrenching plot developments the show has ever attempted. It all led us to a finale that stands as one of the show's very best episodes, one that had the show's full armory of grounded comedy, heart-pounding drama, and bittersweet undertones proudly on display.

Standout Episodes: "Empathy is a Boner Killer", "A Tittin' and a Hairin'", "Trust No Bitch"

20. Community



Community's sixth season shouldn't have happened. It only existed thanks to a last-minute save from Yahoo, of all places, and it did so with nearly half of its original cast having departed. And yet, the show managed to put together a sixth (and final) season that struck the right balance of humor, warmth, and experimentation that made so many of us fall in love with the show in the first place. It was a season that fully addressed the show's changed dynamic by centering itself around the idea of Jeff slowly watching his fellow study group members figure out their leaves and move past Greendale, as he's stuck repeating the same notes over and over again. In typical Community fashion, this was explored through an endless parade of winky sitcom tropes and genre parodies, albeit ones that seemed rather grounded and toned down compared to previous seasons. It all ended in a series finale that was an absolutely perfect way to send off these characters, one that makes me feel at peace that it's probably the end of the road for a show that's grown to mean a lot to me. (I still need that movie, though.)

Standout Episodes: "Queer Studies and Advanced Waxing", "Modern Espionage", "Emotional Consequences of Broadcast Television"


19. Inside Amy Schumer



Amy Schumer had a big year in 2015, with her new HBO special (at the Apollo!) and her massive comedy hit Trainwreck and her budding friendship with Jennifer Lawrence. But it was the third season of her weird little sketch show Inside Amy Schumer that had her best work of the year, churning out sketch after sketch of insightful, funny commentary on what it's like to be a woman in the entertainment industry and, more broadly, the world. Schumer comes from that dying '90s/00s brand of "mean is better" comedy that sometimes gets a little too cruel, but she's managed to outlast most of her other contemporaries from that time by making her comic targets big, powerful ideas in need of derision - things like sexism, patriarchy and unrealistic expectations for women in the media. As Schumer makes her way towards the A-list, here's to hoping she continues doing great, gutsy things like 12 Angry Men Inside Amy Schumer. 

Standout Episodes: "Last Fuckable Day", "12 Angry Men Inside Amy Schumer", "80s Ladies"

18. Transparent




Transparent didn't have the tight narrative arc of Maura's coming out to rely on this year, which made the show's focus a bit more generalized and less specific to Maura herself. That could've been a death knell for the show, but instead if allowed it to double down on the deeply flawed Pfefferman clan and constantly tested them and analyzed how exactly they came to be the way they are. Additionally, the show's widened scope allowed it to speak out on plenty of real-world issues facing the trans and LGBT community, such as the exclusion of trans rights from certain aspects of feminism, the concept of privilege, and a handful of other topics that made Transparent feel like a show very much rooted in our current real-world discourse on these issues. Oh, and also, it was pretty damn funny! The first season of the show often felt like a half-hour drama, but the show seemingly discovered its comic side this year, all while nailing some pretty heavy subjects. It's not always perfect, but Transparent is a show that I'm very glad exists.

Standout Episodes: "Kina Hora", "Mee-Maw", "Man on the Land"

17. Black-ish



Black-ish really came onto its own in 2015, combining super-smart and fast-paced writing, subtly strong character work, and a deft handle on real-world issues to become one of the sharpest network comedies in recent memory. Not only is pretty much every cast member, from toddlers to grandparents, giving it their all, and not only are the Johnsons one of the most lovable and relatable families on TV, but the show has gotten surprisingly excellent at handling seemingly taboo topics. One episodes features an in-depth analysis around the N-word debate, while another episode dealt with gun control in a surprisingly level-headed manner. It's the first show in quite a while to emulate the Norman Lear method of combining great, memorable characters with sharp takes on social issues, and it's made it a true standout in this vast television landscape.

Standout Episodes: "Elephant in the Room", "The Word", "Charlie in Charge"


16. Fargo



Fargo's first season was one of the most unexpected delights of 2014, taking what seemed like a highly questionable revival of a beloved Coen Brothers' film and turning it into one of the most thrilling new dramas of the year. The second season of Fargo took what made Season 1 so great and improved on it, creating a highly memorable cast of characters and getting them involved in a tightly-written conspiracy bigger than each and every one of them, then sat back and let all of the pieces fall. This created one of the most genuinely entertaining shows of the year, utilizing its knockout ensemble to its full potential each and every week. And whenever Fargo seems like it's about to skirt off the rocks (remember when they brought in aliens?), it manages to make a hard right turn and ground everything in genuine emotional groundwork. Fargo won't be back on our screens until 2017, but it sure made every moment it was here worth the while.

Standout Episodes: "The Myth of Sisyphus", "Rhinoceros", "Loplop"

15. Veep



One of the most consistently hilarious comedies on television continued to swing big in 2015, as Selena Meyer unprecedentedly rose to the position of president. Luckily for us, Selena is just as incompetent of a president as she was a veep, and her disastrous reign led to an unraveling of her entire staff that somehow ended up in all of them having to testify before Congress in a series-best, form-breaking episode that doubled as CSPAN congressional hearing. Veep ended in a cliffhanger this season as Selena remains unsure of whether she's been re-elected to the presidency, and I can't wait to see what the next year has in store for her and her increasingly ridiculous political career.

Standout Episodes: "East Wing", "Convention", "Testimony"


14. Fresh Off the Boat



Fresh Off the Boat was one of my favorite new shows of the year and the funniest new network comedy by a comfortable landslide. The show manages to combine the sweetness of a family sitcom with gutsy plotlines dealing with racial stereotypes and prejudices, all while tossing in some of the most jokes-per-minute since 30 Rock. Both Fresh and its ABC counterpart Black-ish feel a bit like a "next generation" of family comedies, allowing voices to be expressed that previously were being ignored on network television, all while having the lightning speed, live action cartoon tendencies of shows like Community and Happy Endings. It's been a while since a network comedy was on as much of a hot streak as this show is right now, thanks both to its extremely strong writing and top-notch performances from its dynamic leads, Constance Wu and Randall Park.

Standout Episodes: "Fajita Man", "Boy II Man", "The Real Santa"

13. Master of None



It's easy to compare Master of None to Louie - both shows take high-profile comedians into a short-story format and let them ruminate on particular topics that pique their interest. But by the end of its excellent first season, Master of None felt like something wholly unique - a show that was sometimes funny, sometimes sad, often beautiful and always offering a fresh perspective on topics that aren't always front and center on television. Whether it was the meaning of family, the struggle of immigrants, the hardships of getting old or the idea of what it means to live a "normal" life, Aziz and his writers were constantly exploring questions that they didn't quite have the answer to but were always pushing towards some kind of understanding of. Topped off with a surprise breakout performance from Noel Wells as Aziz's love interest, Master of None was one of the most fully formed and genuinely enjoyable shows of the year.

Standout Episodes: "Parents", "Indians on TV", "Mornings"

12. The Americans



The Americans continues to get more gripping every season, with the show's third season being its darkest and best season yet. This was a season that dealt with Paige's gradual realization that her entire life is a lie, leading into one of the tensest and most explosive scenes of television this year. It was also a season that found Phillip and Elizabeth being forced to go into darker and darker places, as the show continued to make its protagonists question themselves and the integrity of what they do. As always, I'm incredibly excited to see how this show manages to answer the various questions it continues to pose for itself, and I have total confidence that it's going to do so in a satisfying way while keeping me at the edge of my seat the entire time.

Standout Episodes: "Dimebag", "Do Mail Robots Dream of Electric Sleep?", "Stingers"

11. Bob's Burgers



After so many years of being the warmest, funniest show on TV, you would figure that Bob's Burgers has to decline in quality at some point, right? Nope. Bob's Burgers continues to be one of my absolute favorite ways to spend a half-hour, and there's few things that brighten up my day more than a Netflix marathon with the Belchers. In terms of the show's 2015 output, it continued to be just as strong and funny as ever, continuing to explore the sweet, off-the-wall dynamics of our beloved Belcher clan while continuing to explore the show's ever-expanding universe of well-rounded and off-beat characters. Bob's Burgers has been renewed for several more seasons already, so here's to spending a whole bunch more time with the best family on TV.

Standout Episodes: "Housetrap", "The Oeder Games", "The Nice-capades"

10. Review



Review's first season was already one of the best dark comedies I've ever seen, but the second season took things to new, glorious heights. With his life already completely destroyed, Forrest returned to the show that stole his entire world from him with a sort of cautious optimism that was completely destroyed time and time again. From blackmail to violent cults to assault to flat-out murder, there was nothing too far for Review Season 2, and the show once again drove its deranged lead character completely insane by the end of the year. I've seen some call Review the Breaking Bad of comedy, and after finding myself just as nervous to get through an episode as I was with that show, I'm inclined to agree.

Standout Episodes: "Brawl; Blackmail; Glory Hole", "William Tell; Grant a Wish; Rowboat", "Murder; Magic 8 Ball; Procrastination"

9. Doctor Who



Peter Capaldi has been nothing short of a force as The Doctor. He's possibly the best actor to ever land the role, and he's been doing a banner job of bringing all of the warmth, terror, anger, and power required of it. Capaldi's Doctor wears his frustration and his pain on his sleeve. So when the show itself is as good as it was this year - the best season since Matt Smith's debut season five years ago - it all adds up to Doctor Who operating at the very top of its game, and when it's capable of doing that, there's not much like it on TV. This year, the show experimented with longer stories, with most episodes spawning two episodes instead of wrapping up in a neat 44 minutes. That gave the show time to breathe and fully develop each of its ideas, whether it be a Zygon invasion that stands in for current world issues, or a woman who the Doctor accidentally makes immortal, or a brutal companion death that the Doctor does everything in his power to try to reverse. Doctor Who will always be one of my favorite shows on TV, but that doesn't mean it's always one of the best shows on TV, so when it actually does earn that distinction, it makes it all the better.

Standout Episodes: "The Girl Who Died", "The Zygon Invasion", "Heaven Sent"


8. Jessica Jones



Jessica Jones felt like a new kind of superhero show. There was no spandex, no flawless, powerful heroes representing what we all aspire to be, no deus ex machinas swooping in at the last minute to help the good guys win. Instead, Jessica Jones was a dark, grounded superhero drama set in something vaguely resembling our reality, where everyone's a little complex, even the heroes make some questionable decisions, and the issues the characters face mirror issues in our own lives - misogyny, sexism, PTSD. Combine all of that with some total dynamite performances (Krysten Ritter is a force as the titular Jessica Jones, but David Tennant's performance made Kilgrave one of the best, most chilling villains of all-time) and a slick film noir aesthetic, and you have one of the most unique, interesting and exciting shows of 2015.

Standout Episodes: "AKA Ladies Night", "AKA WWJD?", "AKA Smile"

7. Mr. Robot



Mr. Robot was one of the strangest, most interesting, and overall best viewing experiences I had in 2015. Held together by its main character, the highly unreliable, drug addicted, mentally ill narrator Eliott, the show constantly brought you to a place where you thought you knew what was going on, until completely shattering all of your expectations at the last moment. In addition to a poignant narrative that gets a lot right about the highly digital world we live in, Mr. Robot's core strengths lie in both its complex plotting and unique cast of characters, all of which added up to make this paranoid tech drama one of the biggest surprises and one of the most exciting new shows of the year.

Standout Episodes: "ps1.3_da3m0ns.mp4", "eps1.7_wh1ter0se.m4v", "eps1.8_m1rr0r1ng.qt"


6. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt



From 30 Rock co-creators Tina Fey and Robert Carlock, Kimmy Schmidt borrows a lot of its comic sensibility from its esteemed and beloved predecessor, with a wonderfully loopy cartoon universe and some of the most finely crafted gags you'll ever see in your entire life. But while 30 Rock was a sardonic satire of the entertainment industry, Kimmy Schmidt is a darkly funny and oddly uplifting tale of human survival and connection, one that never forgets the dark roots of its premise (a woman trapped in an underground cult is finally released and gets to explore the 'real world') but also continues to push her forward into her sunnier future. Ellie Kemper was a revelation as the hopelessly optimistic Kimmy Schmidt, constantly putting on a happy face even as the world was telling her not to, but the rest of the cast was also up to task, from breakout star Tituss Burgess to Fey/Carlock staple Jane Krakowski. There are few shows I'm looking forward to more in 2016, as Kimmy Schmidt (which was originally produced for NBC but was thankfully swapped to Netflix) can finally loosen its reigns and operate within the freedom of Netflix.

Standout Episodes: "Kimmy Goes to a Party!", "Kimmy's in a Love Triangle!", "Kimmy Rides a Bike!"

5. Mad Men



Mad Men finally came to a close in 2015, and what a close it was. The final seven episodes reminded us of everything we loved about the show as it tore down the foundation as we knew it, folding the beloved Sterling Cooper & Partners and sending its workers off on their own journeys, whether that was an upward track at McCann (for Peggy), their own independent company (Joan), or happily married with children (Pete). The show's finale, in particular, was a revelation, giving us yet another question we can all chew on for years (did Don write that Coke commercial?) while offering perfect closure for every single character we've grown to live. (Also, Don totally wrote the Coke commercial, c'mon guys.)

Standout Episodes: "Time & Life", "Lost Horizon", "Person to Person"

4. Rick & Morty



Rick and Morty's second season doubled down on the extreme creativity demonstrated by its transcendent debut year, topping itself with endless creative concepts and even more cutting emotional depth. The show succeeded by bringing the entire family in on the action, as Summer became a regular traveler on Rick & Morty's trips through time and space, and the show tied the sometimes rote Beth & Jerry "marriage in crisis" plots into the bigger sci-fi concepts, with great results. Rick & Morty ended this year with an extreme emotional wallup and a giant cliffhanger that puts the entire fabric of the show into question, and I am already clawing for more episodes ASAP to see where the show goes from here.

Standout Episodes: "Total Rickall", "The Ricks Must Be Crazy", "The Wedding Squanchers"

3. Bojack Horseman



Bojack Horseman was one of the year's best slow burns in its first season, going from a funny but (seemingly) not particularly deep showbiz satire to one of TV's greatest ruminations on depression, self-improvement and what it means to be a good person over the course of just 12 episodes. The second season took this to an entirely new level, giving Bojack everything he could ever want - his dream job, a great girlfriend, some upward trajectory in his life - and watching him slowly destroy all of it, even as hard as he tried not to. There were few shows that gutted me this year as much as this one did, and it managed to do so while remaining a hysterical cartoon about a Hollywood where humans and talking animals co-exist in total harmony. Not many shows reach that level of creativity, but Bojack Horseman does it with ease.

Standout Episodes: "Hank After Dark", "Let's Find Out", "Escape from L.A."

2. Broad City



2014's biggest breakout comedy somehow got even better in 2015, taking Abbi and Ilana's ridiculous antics to even greater heights while exploring their unique dynamic in even more interesting and in-depth ways. Broad City remains one of the most positive, life-affirming shows on television - it casually drops references to its characters taking anti-depressants, does a plotline about pegging like it's hardly a big deal, and has its characters trip out in Whole Foods on weed and Vicodin with zero judgement. With endless acceptance combined with a well-drawn haunted house-esque comic universe where you never know what the girls are going to encounter next, Broad City continues to be the show that puts me in the best mood after watching an episode (or five).

Standout Episodes: "Wisdom Teeth", "Knockoffs", "Coat Check"

1. You're the Worst



You're the Worst's dark, realistic and surprisingly sweet take on romantic comedy made it an immediate standout in Season 1. In Season 2, the show built on the goodwill it had slowly accumulated over its first season by dealing with an altered dynamic (Jimmy and Gretchen are now living together) with aplomb, using its central couple's resistance against settling down as a way to more closely analyze their own faults and insecurities. That led to the show's slow and perfect reveal that Gretchen suffers from clinical depression, and the show's handling of the topic was perhaps the most honest and upfront portrayal of mental illness I've ever seen on television. It perfectly understood the issue from all sides - we sympathized with Gretchen while rooting for Jimmy to do the right thing, even though we weren't even sure what the right thing was ourselves. It was complex, heavy stuff, but it never felt overbearing as the show remained funnier than ever, honing and strengthening its sense of humor while continuing to expand its comic universe. It all ended in a genuinely heartwarming finale that left the characters exactly where you'd want them to be, leaving me incredibly eager to see what the show has in store for the future. There was nothing quite like You're the Worst this year, and I have total faith that it's going to continue being one of the best, funniest and most interesting shows on TV.

Standout Episodes: "There is Not Currently a Problem", "LCD Soundsystem", "Other Things You Could Be Doing"

There you have it, guys. 2015 was a seriously great year for TV, and I can't wait to see what 2016 has in store for us. Hopefully whatever it is, I'll be writing about it it right here on this very blog! PEACE OUT.