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. 

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?

Pilot Lookback: "30 Rock"

Something I like to do every so often is look back on the pilot of a show I love to see just how it all began. Today, I am doing it with 30 Rock, because I'm rewatching the first season for the first time in a while and had some new thoughts on the pilot. So, yes, I created a whole new category for it that I might never use again. Deal with it!

30 Rock pilot

Originally aired: October 11, 2006

The 30 Rock pilot is not one of the shows' more beloved moments - in fact, Tina Fey herself commonly trashes it, referring to it in her book as "sweaty" and saying that her writers have asked her to stop talking about how terrible it is. And yet, the 30 Rock pilot was pretty well-received when it aired - the show became a critical darling fairly quickly, even if audiences were slow to catch on (and never even fully caught on). I remember always having a pretty "meh" reaction to the pilot, but I started watching the show a few episodes into the first season after hearing how good it was, so I didn't get the experience of having it be my first introduction to 30 Rock. This time, I tried to imagine what I would think of the episode if I had never seen the show before, rather than unfairly holding it up to what would come after it. And the truth is, the pilot is a pretty strong introduction to a television comedy series, even if that television comedy series isn't the one that 30 Rock would later become.

The biggest different in the pilot episode from what came after it, other than the fact that it's pretty grounded and seems to take place in a reality similar to the one we live in, is how important it makes the fictional Girlie Show out to be. Indeed, that show takes center stage in this episode, and the entire tension of the episode is mounted in Liz trying to retain at the creative helm even as Jack is about to turn it into a corporate entity. The pilot suggests that 30 Rock is going to be a show about striking a balance between creativity and cold-hearted business, and while the show did more or less stick with that point of view, it did so in a way that became less about TGS and more about the characters' personal lives. It's almost comical to see Liz and Jenna caring so deeply about the show here and it's hard to imagine that happening not only in later seasons, but even halfway through the first season. I don't think this was inherently intentional - simply, I think the TGS portion of the show just wasn't as fruitful for stories as the writers expected it to be and they found the characters' lives outside of the show to be far more interesting to dissect - but it almost dawned on me that maybe this is because Liz, ultimately, failed in her desire to keep TGS something she could put her stamp on. 30 Rock's worldview has always been something along the lines of "people like Jack Donaghy are ruining the world because people like Liz Lemon are too much of a mess to step up and take it from them". This thought process was particularly poignant when the show premiered smack-dab in the middle of the second Bush administration, and although the show would eventually sympathize with the Jack Donaghy point of view (particularly once Obama took office and the political discourse shifted to the other direction) it always retained that sort of world-beat vibe, the vibe of someone who was tired of sticking it to the man and just wanted to sit and be bitter for a while.

And yet, the 30 Rock pilot still had a pretty firm grasp on its characters - particularly Liz, Jack, and Tracy. Liz's introduction (as well as the introduction to the show itself) is completely perfect in the way it both highlights her character as well as the sort of exhausted crusader vibe of the show itself. And there are few character introductions more perfect than Jack Donaghy kicking down a door and saying "Lou's dead. I'm Jack Donaghy". Tracy still feels a bit less crazy than the show eventually made him, and the Jenna here is obviously a relic of what Rachel Dratch's Jenna would've been, but this is a show that seems to know what it wants to be, even if it wound bend that slightly and become something even better.

Best TV of 2013

Hello, everyone! Due to some "oh no I never watched Breaking Bad let me binge through it so I don't look like an asshole when I make my top TV of 2013 list" related issues, my Best of 2013 post is a bit delayed. But that's okay! It's here now, and that's all that matters, right?

2013 was a pretty fantastic year for television, and it was an interesting year for my personal television habits. I've expanded my taste a lot this past year - previously I had mostly contained myself to the comedy genre, but that wasn't the case this year. There are plenty of shows on this list that I would've never dreamed could be on there in previous years. Why did I decide to finally expand my TV mind? Maybe it was because this was the year we lost 30 Rock and I needed something to vill the void. Maybe it's because Community was off and I needed something to fullfill THAT void. Maybe it's just because I was bored. I don't know! But I'm glad it happened. It lets me see TV in a broader and more interesting light.

Alright! Let's get down to it. But before we get there, I wanted to give a shout-out to....

30 Rock
30 Rock aired only four episodes in 2013, so it wasn't eligible for my list. But if it was? It would be a strong contender for the #1 slot. There wasn't a single episode of TV this year I enjoyed more than the final 3 episodes of the shows' run, which brought each of its characters to a perfect, well-earned conclusion. And all the while, it never stopped being the funniest show on TV. Farewell, sweet 30 Rock. We'll miss you. Well, we'll miss making new episodes. We're still going to watch you obsessively on Netflix, obviously.

Alright! And now for the...

Honorable Mentions

These shows didn't quite make my top 10, but they came very close. Therefore, they deserve mentions!

Parks and Recreation
2013 saw Parks & Rec comfortably settling into its middle age. Many times, the show felt like it was running around in circles, rehashing plots it had done better in its peak years. It also lost its usuallysharp focus, often seeming unsure of what left it could do with its characters (and particularly its protagonist, who seemed halted in her growth). But even though the storytelling left something to be desired, Parks remained a show that I was happy to spend a half-hour with every week. And at the end of the year, the show made the curious decision to recall Leslie from her City Council position and send her off on an unknown path. It was the most interesting narrative choice the show made in several seasons, and it provides some hope that Parks can re-emerge as a vibrant and compelling show once again. But even if it doesn't, spending time in Pawnee is sure to remain a simple pleasure for as long as the show airs.
Highlight Episodes: "Leslie and Ben", "London", "Recall Vote"

Archer
Archer remained an incredibly funny show in its fourth season. The cast was still aces, and the writing was still sharper than just about every other comedy on TV. But one important competent was missing - the element of surprise that always drove the show at its best. This is pretty natural - as a show ages, there's no way it can continue to bring the same thrills it did at its peak. But it was still incredibly funny and entertaining, which likely would've been enough to give the show a long and fulfilling future - even if it meant a little bit of coasting. Of course, as we all know now, that wasn't enough for Archer. They hit the reset button this year, sending us on an insane journey that recalls the fast-and-loose experimentation that drives the show at its best. I'm glad Archer wasn't content to settle into a groove, but Season 4 proves that Archer coasting still made for a pretty great time.
Highlight Episodes: "Live and Let Dine", "The Papal Chase", "Sea Tunt"

Happy Endings
Happy Endings spent most of 2013 in burn-off mode on ABC, which caused many people - including myself - to sort of forget about it come the end of the year. But when VH1 marathoned all of Happy Endings on New Years' Day, it reminded me how much of a perfectly crafted joke machine it was. Few shows on TV make me laugh as loudly and consistently as this one did, and I'm going to miss its delightfully insane characters and jokes that are fucking poetic in how perfectly hilarious they are. The marathon also reminded that Happy Endings closed out with a fairly strong set of episodes. They were just as hilarious as the show had always been, and for the first time, they successful rang some pathos out of situations like the end of Penny's engagement with Piece and Alex and Dave deciding to call it quits. I'll really miss Happy Endings, but at least it went out on a high note.
Highlight Episodes: "The Ex Factor", "The Marry Prankster", "She Got Game Night"

Arrested Development
Arrested Development's long-awaited fourth season was sort of a beautiful mess. On one hand, the excitement of seeing the Bluths back in action was matched by very little else on TV this year. On the other hand, the confusion of the shows' downright strange narrative style was also matched by anything on TV this year. Since the original recipe of Arrested Development was heralded for its innovation to the TV sitcom, the Netflix revival seemed to feel like it had to follow in its footsteps - but that caused the show to often forget about what made it work so well in the first place. Luckily, this wasn't always the case. Even though the narrative was convulted, the humor on AD remained mostly sharp, and the fourth season succeeded in providing a new wave of classic Arrested Development quotes. It may not have completely lived up to the shows' original run, but what could? At its best, AD Season 4 was still an incredibly funny and entertaining show, with some intriguing character work. That's more than enough to keep me hoping we don't have to wait another seven years to see the Bluths again.
Highlight Episodes: "Colony Collapse", "Senioritis", "Off the Hook"

Alright. That's that. Now let's get on to the Top 10!

10. Veep

Veep is one of those shows that could've simply repeated its first season for its entire run, and a good portion of its audience (possibly including me) would've been content. I mean, it's a bunch of hilarious people dressing up as politicians and cursing, and that's awesome. But I was impressed by the narrative choices the show made in its second season - rather than continuing to hammer the "Selina is useless" shtick, Veep made her an integral part of her administration in Season 2 after her nameless party received a particularly harsh setback in the midterm elections. This raised the dramatic stakes in ways that helped keep the show fresh and interesting. The season ended with an even more intriguing twist, suggesting that POTUS will not be seeking re-election and that Selena will attempt to fill his seat. That paves the way for a third season that could be quite interesting indeed, and will certainly continue to give us the classic, profanity-laced exchanges we've all come to crave.
Highlight Episodes: "Hostages", "First Response", "D.C"

9. Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Brooklyn Nine-Nine is the most promising new network comedy in several seasons (perhaps since Community?), and the reason why it's been so delightful can be boiled down to a few simple components: it has a killer ensemble cast, it has top-notch talent behind it, and it has an interesting set of characters that it's willing to dig into. Oh, and it's really, really funny - far funnier than any sitcom halfway through its first season has any right to be. The shows' only real blind spot is its protagonist - Andy Samburg does a fine job with Jake Peralta, but the show has yet to give us a reason why we should be rooting for such a self-absorbed, obnoxious character. But other than that? Just about everything on this show is fire right now, and I'm incredibly excited to see where it's going to go.

Highlight Episodes: "The Vulture", "Halloween", "Thanksgiving"

8. The Middle

It's rare that I get overly excited about a family sitcom, but The Middle is just that good. And unlike most aging comedies, it's only getting better. As the Heck kids grow up and begin dealing with things like graduation, college, and part-time jobs, The Middle is able to renew its comic energy by digging into these rites of passages and putting its own unique spin on them. But change isn't limited to the kids - the show made the wise decision to give matriarch Frankie a career change last year, and it's resulted in a surprisingly interesting story about people trying to re-invent themselves in their middle age. The way The Middle manages to consistently find fresh new challenges for the Heck clan is the key to its success, and it's what makes it continue to be the quietest great show on television.

Highlight Episodes: "Wheel of Pain", "Change is in the Air", "The Potato"

7. Mad Men

After a dynamic 5th season that experimented with the shows' form in incredibly interesting ways, Mad Men's 6th season first appeared to be a bit of a cooldown. It was still thought-provoking and genre-pushing, sure, but it didn't quite have the spark of the 5th season. And then, about halfway through, everything changed, and the season arc became clear: this is the beginning of the end for Don Draper. The season suddenly became the story of a broken mans' downfall, as we saw Don sink to depths we had never seen him reach before. Add this to a sudden status quo change that merged Sterling-Cooper-Draper-Pryce with one of its rival firms, and you have another great, intriguing season of television.

Highlight Episodes: "For Immediate Release", "The Crash", "In Care Of"

6. Orange is the New Black

The most surprising new show of the season may have been Orange is the New Black, a Netflix original series that came seemingly out of nowhere and blew us all away with its intriguing premise, refreshing characters, intricate character work, and unique storytelling structure. Of all of the things to love about the show - from all of the reasons I just listed along with its amazingly diverse cast and subtly effective social commentary - the single element that made the show work may be the way it challenged the way we view characters on television. The way it was able to take characters that started off looking like villians - such as Alex or Red - and turn them into truly sympathetic individuals was an amazing feat, as was their ability to do the opposite with a character like Healy. Of course, the best example of this may be Crazy Eyes (or Suzanne), who starts off the series as a terrifying wildcard and ends it as perhaps the most lovable character on the entire show. The show even achieves this goal with its protagonist, who goes from poor, helpless soul to dangerous anti-hero in a surprisingly natural way. After a year where it made such a splash, there's few shows I'm looking forward to in 2014 more than Orange is the New Black.

Highlight Episodes: "Lesbian Request Denied", "Fucksgiving", "Tall Men With Feelings"

5. New Girl

New Girl continued its momentum in 2013 by giving us one of the most compelling will they/won't they arcs on TV in a long time - the epic romance of Jessica Day and Nick Miller. I was originally completely against a Jess/Nick pairing, but the show did an excellent job turning me by basically just forcing me to accept it. In "Cooler" - quite possibly the shows' best episode to date - the series simply throws the characters together for a passionate kiss and refuses to give the audience time to process it all. And it worked! That episode kicked off New Girl's best run of episodes yet, fueled by the perfectly constructed Jess/Nick romance. But Jess and Nick aren't the only factors that made New Girl so compelling in 2013 - the show continued to dig deep into its characters and ask them tough questions about who they really were and what they wanted. This was perhaps most obvious with Schmidt, who was forced to hold a bit of a mirror up to himself and question how good of a person he really was. It didn't always work, and the show had a few rocky episodes this fall, but when it did, there wasn't much else on TV that could match its mix of top-notch humor and deep-rooted characterization.

Highlight Episodes: "Cooler", "Parking Spot", "Menus"

4. Breaking Bad

Breaking Bad's final eight episodes were some of the most upsetting and emotionally disturbing things to air on TV this year, but that only cemented just how fantastic the story they were closing out was. All of the characters we've grown to care about (except Walt, because he's a terrible, terrible human being) were put in the desperate, grim situations we've known were coming for them since Season 1 - and it was every bit as terrifying and emotionally draining as we knew it would be. The best example of the beautiful misery of Breaking Bad's final stretch episodes was the breathtaking "Ozymandias", a nauseatingly tense episode of television in which everything we spent the past five seasons fearing was going to happen, happened - in the span of about 10 minutes. While the finale was a mild disappointment that never engaged with the psychological questions that the show was able to at its best, the build-up to it was perfect enough that Breaking Bad's curtain call will certainly be remembered for years to come.

Highlight Episodes: "Blood Money", "Confessions", "Ozymandias"

3. Enlightened

(The picture represents Amy and Tyler's reactions to ranking above Breaking Bad).

Enlightened is gone too soon, but what a beautiful story it told while it was here. After a strong first season that created a compelling protagonist in Amy Jellicoe, the second season of Enlightened put things into the highest gear possible and told a no-frills story about realizing what you're capable of. It was one of the most powerful shows on TV, and it was also one of the most unique - very few shows ever wear their heart on their sleeves as much as Enlightened did, which is perhaps why it wasn't a show for everyone. But if you could get on the shows' wavelength, you were lucky enough to experience some truly powerful messages about human connection, all done with some of the most lovable misfits this side of Community. It's a shame that we aren't getting anymore Enlightened, but part of me thinks we don't even need any more. What we got is such a beautiful, self-contained story that articulated its message so well, I'm just glad it existed in the first place.

Highlight Episodes: "Higher Power", "Follow Me", "The Ghost is Seen"

2. Doctor Who

On a purely subjective level, Doctor Who is probably not the #2 show of 2013. The second half of the shows' seventh season wasn't its all-time best, hurt a bit by the decision to split the season into two separate parts (although the two specials - the 50th anniversary and the Christmas special - were fantastic). But damn it, I'm putting it here anyway, because I don't know if there's a show that aired on TV this year that made me as purely happy as this one. 2013 was the first time I watched Doctor Who, and I binged through all seven seasons of the modern incarnation of the show pretty fast. What I love about Doctor Who is how, despite its seemingly complex nature, its really incredibly simple: it's about a time traveler and his companion, traveling all through space and time. Sure, there's plenty of other mythology to it, but that one sentiment sums up the child-like glee that you get when you immerse yourself in the shows' world. It's fun. It's campy. It's often funny, it's often heartbreaking. It's Doctor Who, and while it sometimes slips up a bit, there's nothing remotely like it on television.

Highlight Episodes: "The Rings of Akhaten", "The Day of the Doctor", "The Time of the Doctor"

1. Bob's Burgers

Oh, Bob's Burgers. Is there any show on TV that accepts people from all corners of the Earth as much as this one does? Is there any show with characters as downright lovable as the Belchers? Is there any show that could come up with a line as brilliant as "they'll say aw, topsy at my autopsy?". No. No, there is not. Bob's Burgers has such a refreshingly warm comic tone that brings a much-needed change of pace not just to the Fox animation family, but to television comedy in general. The way it manages to take characters that would easily be the butt of the joke on any other show and turn them into sympathetic and beloved figures is what truly sets it apart. That and its wonderfully weird and consistently hilarious sense of humor, of course. Sure, other shows might have kept me on my toes more, but no show made me as excited to spend time in its universe this year than Bob's Burgers. The way it accepts its completely weird, off-beat characters with such open arms is the kind of thing that really melts the heart of internet losers like me all over the world. Here's to another great year with the Belchers.

Highlight Episodes: "Mother Daughter Laser Razor", "Topsy", "Christmas in the Car"

So there's 2013. It was a great year, but with the re-emergence of Community and Archer, the return of Louie, and a whole slew of promising new shows, I wonder if 2014 could somehow be even better. I guess we'll just have to wait and see! How FUN!

30 Rock is over and I have feelings and none of them make sense

So um.

I decided I needed to make a 30 Rock post. But honestly, I'm not really sure where to begin. I mean, obviously this show means a lot to me, considering I cried like a total lame-ass at it tonight and it's probably the first time I cried in like 3 years. Obviously it means a lot to me, because it led me to realizing that TV and comedy were the two things I wanted to at least attempt to dedicate my life to. Obviously it means a lot to me because I sprinted home from my last class in the freezing cold while on the phone with my mom telling her to make sure she turned on the TV so that if I was late for the series finale, I could just rewind it and pretend I wasn't.

And honestly, part of  me feels like this isn't exactly the end. I mean, it is, but this show's impact is never going to disappear from my life. I'm still going to watch every single episode over and over and over again. I'm still going to watch it in syndication every night, even if I'm just basking in the sound of its jokes as background noise. And I know that pretty much every single piece of comedy I watch - or every single piece of comedy I write - was partly inspired by my love for 30 Rock.

I've told the story of how I got into 30 Rock like a million times, so I'm not going to tell it again, but basically, I can safely say I grew up with the show. It started when I was an awkward, acne-clad, jew-fro rocking 8th grader (note: only the jew-fro has gone away, although prescription acne medication is certainly helping!) who really didn't know who the hell I was or what I was doing. I mean, my favorite shows were Mad TV and American Idol, guys. Shit was dire. But I decided to try out 30 Rock because my friend Ashlee would kill me if I didn't, and I remember loving it pretty instantly. I was only 13 and I'm pretty sure I barely understood half of the jokes - but there was something about it that was so unique, that was unlike anything I had ever seen in a TV show before. They were just so unafraid to be totally, unbelievably weird. I mean, I watched Pee Wee Herman dress up as a deformed Austrian prince and kill himself with a glass of wine. That kind of stuff has a lasting effect on kids.

Honestly, it didn't instantly click for me that the reason I was so drawn into 30 Rock was because it felt like parts of my own, weird brain were being televised right before my eyes. And there were times early on when my lack of identity got in the way of my enjoyment of 30 Rock, as I tried to get into other dumb interests, like...music or something. Blerg. But as I got older, I started to realize just how happy the show made me, and I tried to figure out why. And then it clicked. This was me. This bizarre, ridiculous show was the thing that brought me joy and the thing that I was most passionate about. It was around then that I realized nothing made me happier than sitting down and watching 30 Rock and experiencing some of the most daring, original, creative, balls-to-the-wall comedy I had ever seen in my life. And then I kind of never looked back. I started watching other comedy shows, I started writing my own comedy. I had found my identity. I was still kind of the awkward kid from the 8th grade, but I was the awkward kid from the 8th grade with a purpose, and that purpose was to spread my weirdness to everyone else, like 30 Rock had done.

So since then, there's been dozens of comedy shows I've also grown to love - at times, seemingly even more than 30 Rock itself. But these last few weeks of 30 Rock have really brought home the realization that nothing will ever top 30 Rock for me, because 30 Rock is what started it all. Every single show that I love, I love because I was a nerdy teenager who looked forward to nothing more than spending 22 minutes with  Liz Lemon, Jack Donaghy, Jenna Maroney, Kenneth Parcell, Tracy Jordan, Pete Hornberger...even Lutz, guys, even Lutz. So while 30 Rock may not be making new episodes anymore, it's never going to be "over" for me. It's going to continue through everything I do in comedy, whether it be watching it or writing it or wishing I was writing it - whatever it may be, it'll all be because of 30 Rock.

Anyway this has had far too many feelings than I'm comfortable with. So I'll leave you all with this:

The 12 Best Comedies of 2012 (if you have the exact same taste as me)

Hello, everyone/no one! I haven't posted in a while, because holidays I'm lazy/was busy with finals then got lazy. But I decided, on this wonderful New Years' Eve, that while everyone else is getting drunk, I'd intoxicate myself with television feelings, like I do most other nights. So, I'll be posting my top 12 TV shows of 2012 and my top 20 TV episodes of 2012.

Here are some disclaimers: I pretty much only watch comedies, so you can consider this a list of the best comedies of 2012. I do watch some dramas (okay, mostly just Mad Men), but I'm not as well-versed in them as I am in comedies. Also, I chose 12 because...I felt like it. Besides, 2012! Get it? Okay.

Anyway, here are the 12 comedies you should've been watching in 2012, according to me.

12. South Park 

2012 wasn't really South Park's strongest year, but it still managed to churn out a ton of pretty damn fantastic episodes that easily rank among the show's best. For a show that just ended its 16th season, that's no small feat, and when you compare to other aging cartoons like The Simpsons and Family Guy, the show's continued strength becomes even more impressive. There are probably dozens of factors as to why South Park remains a viable entertainment option while other cartoons have fallen prey to the DVR delete button, but I'd attribute it to the fact that the show is still interested in pushing itself and its characters to places they haven't been before. In this year alone, the show turned itself into an action reality show for half an episode, put its own spin on "shipping", and even questioned its own influence on morality. As long as the show can keep churning out similarly fresh ideas, it should have no problem remaining the reigning champ of long-running animation on TV.

Highlight Episodes: "Cash for Gold", "Cartman Finds Love", "Raising the Bar"

11. Suburgatory

Suburgatory was a show that I was pretty torn on last year. I loved so much of the cast and felt it had tons of potential, but the whole "city dad moves his troubled daughter to the SUBURBS!!!!" angle seemed so trite, and the show wasn't really putting any new spins on it. Luckily, the show downplayed that aspect of it this year, turned its homebase Chatswin into less of a demonic Stepford Wives-esque world and more of a lovingly bizarre Pawnee/Springfield type setting. But what really made the show stand out - aside from America's favorite family, the Shays - was the way it was able to take Tessa's maturation into adulthood and relationship with her father seriously. The show was by far at its best when it was dealing with Tessa trying to reconnect with her long-lost mother and figure out just where exactly she came from, and how that affected who she is today. Suburgatory still stumbles into over-the-top territory a bit too often, but when it's at its best, mixing its off-beat humor with serious emotional depth, it's easily one of the most compelling shows on television.

Highlight Episodes: "The Motherload", "The Wishbone", "Krampus"

10. Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23

Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23 was easily one of the year's most surprising new shows. Its high level of quality wasn't necessarily what was surprising, but rather the fact that an ABC sitcom was allowed to go to places as dark, disgusting, and downright weird as Apartment 23 - or, more affectionately, Bitch 23 - went over the course of the year. The fact that a network that refuses to even air the show's actual title somehow gave the green light to a scene that prominently featured a main character blatantly masturbating in a bathtub is a television miracle in and of itself. Unlike some other shows that highlight their raunchiness, though, there's a lot of talent that goes into Apartment 23, and what makes the show as great as it is is not necessarily its raunchiness, but its excellent performances (especially by surprising comic genius Krysten Ritter), truly unique style of humor, and its way of taking old sitcom plot points and turning them in completely bizarre directions that somehow make total sense in its world. There's nothing else quite like it on TV, especially live-action TV. Unfortunately, that very well might lead it to an early demise, but even if Bitch 23's reign is a short one, the fact that it even happened at all is a pretty amazing achievement.

Highlight Episodes: "It's Just Sex", "A Reunion", "Love and Monsters"

9. Ben and Kate

Few shows have developed an online following as quickly as Ben and Kate, and with good reason - in the time where most sitcoms are figuring out just what the hell they're trying to say, Ben and Kate had already established one of the best comic ensembles on TV, with each character bringing something truly unique to the show's warm, pleasant rhythm. Ben and Kate's strength lies in its authenticity - the show's stakes aren't that high and it never digs all that deep, but it's formed a bunch of misfit characters whose problems and personalities feel real, down-to-earth, and extremely relatable. That's probably why its small but dedicated audience clung onto it so quickly, other than the fact that it's boasting some seriously excellent comic performances from just about every member of its cast. Unfortunately, as dedicated as they are, Ben and Kate's audience does remain very small. Here's to hoping 2013 brings around some kind of turn in fate for the show, because its created such a pleasant world that would be a lot of fun to hang out in for a few more years.

Highlight Episodes: "Kate's Birthday", "Scaredy Kate", "Reunion"

8. The Middle

If there was one comedy underdog in 2012, it was The Middle. Sure, the show's ratings are higher than any other show on this list. But in terms of acclaim and general fanfare, The Middle has slipped quietly under the radar - and that's a bit of a shame, as it's slowly turned into one of the most realistic family comedies in several years, and just a really great sitcom on the whole. It's understandable that the young folks of the internet wouldn't be interested in a family show that airs on ABC and stars Patricia Heaton, but the show has done an excellent job of painting an accurate picture of what it's like to be a family on the brink of economic turmoil - and considering the age we live in, the one where everyone is running around yelling things like "DEBT CEILING!" and "FISCAL CLIFF!" all the time, its message has become incredibly poignant. Still, the show's slow but steady march to greatness needs to be partially chalked up to the Hecks themselves - a flawed but endearing bunch who all have pretty big problems but are able to get past them and become a functional and even loving family unit anyway. With the show going into syndication next year, let's hope people who wrote it off as family-fluff will catch an episode in between Seinfeld re-runs and discover one of the strongest, funniest family sitcoms of our time.

Highlight Episodes: "The Guidance Counselor", "The Second Act", "Christmas Help"

7. Veep

Veep is one of those shows where there was basically no way it could have gone wrong. The Thick of It creator Armando Ianucci creating an American political satire with Julia-Louis Dreyfus playing a frazzled vice president? With Buster Bluth and the girl from My Girl playing her cronies? That sentence alone would be enough to make my "best of 2012" list. The best thing about Veep, though, was its ability to mix razor-sharp satire with extremely strong comic characters. The fun of Veep lied not nesseccarily in its big statements about American politics - truth be told, there weren't really many of those - but in the way it took seemingly powerful, all-important people and brought them to human levels, having them nonchalantly toss around phrases like "fuckload of bread" and...well, various other spins on the F word. It brought a weirdly human level to the annoyingly un-human world of politics, even as it was having its characters make some classically despicable political moves. And of course, so much of Veep's magic comes simply from having a bunch of talented people working in a room together. Sometimes, that's really all you need.

Highlight Episodes: "Frozen Yoghurt", "Catherine", "Tears"

6. Parks and Recreation

2012 was a big year for Leslie Knope. Not only did she embark her on one of the most extensive fictional political campaigns in TV history, she got engaged to her Game of Thrones-loving boyfriend Ben Wyatt and was awarded with the seat of City Council. But if I'm being completely honest, I enjoyed Parks and Recreation the most this year not when it was telling big, grand stories of triumph and victory, but when it was telling smaller, more intimate stories, like Leslie learning she'll have to compromise a bit to be successful in politics, but can still stick to her roots - or April subtly showing she's grown to care about her job and the people in it. Not all of the beats the show hit during the campaign arc worked for me, and there were times where I felt like the story was taking the show off the rails a little bit. But the show always brought itself back around with the small, subtle character details that made it stand out in the first place. Parks is an aging show now, but it's built enough love and respect for its world and the people ingrained in it that it'll have us following them no matter where the show takes them. And that's pretty much exactly the place a veteran comedy show should be. No matter what happens, we'll always treasure the time we get to spend hanging out with the Parks Department in Pawnee.

Highlight Episodes: "The Comeback Kid", "Win, Lose or Draw", "How a Bill Becomes a Law"

5. Louie

I almost think Louie can't be ranked against the other comedies on this list, because what it's trying to do is so radically different from what any show on TV is trying to do. Louie has absolutely no concern with story, or character, or really anything that usually makes TV what it is. Instead, Louie is simply 22 minutes of Louis CK telling amazingly crafted short stories where he lets us in on his view of the world. The show doesn't just disregard continuity - it snarls in the face of it. Character development, storytelling - none of that has any place on Louie. It's a little jarring the first time you sit down to watch it - but it eventually reaches a point where everything is just so damn beautifully crafted that you stop caring about any of those things. And then it gets to a point where you actively enjoy the fact that you can sit down, watch an episode, and have no idea where it's going, because any sort of storytelling convention is completely out the window. You like that you're actually caught by surprise when the end credits pop up. It's a really unique and interesting new spin on the television format, and it'll be interesting to see if it winds up being a trendsetter or an outlier. Either way, Louie is something that's incredibly rare in pop culture - something that's never been done before.

Highlight Episodes: "Miami", "Daddy's Girlfriend (Part 2)", "New Year's Eve"

4. Community

Community had a turbulent 2012. It started the year on a forced hiatus with no announced end date. Then, its creator, the beloved Dan Harmon, was fired right after NBC announced the show would return for a shortened fourth season that would be buried on Friday nights. Right before its planned return date, NBC delayed the premiere until early 2013 - and if that wasn't enough, the troublesome Chevy Chase quit the show just before production on Season 4 ended. All of this turmoil seemed to cause a lot of people to forget that Community actually produced a fairly great run of episodes in 2012. Despite a few missteps, the show carefully put together an emotionally satisfying arc that dug deeper into its misfit study group than ever before, using Ken Burns-style documentaries, 8-bit video game spoofs, and Law & Order homages to tell a really excellent story about how far these people have come since we first met them, how much they've had an affect on each other, and how the influence they've had on one another will stay with them forever. Community's future may be uncertain, but its fans can at least take comfort in the fact that the three excellent seasons it did air were able to build to such an excellent, moving character study. Hopefully Season 4 will continue down that path- but even if it doesn't, and even if 2012 will go down as the end of an era for the show, it'll be an era that ended on a high note.

Highlight Episodes: "Pillows and Blankets", "Digital Estate Planning", "Introduction to Finality"

3. Happy Endings

Happy Endings was the true underdog of 2011, starting off as a generic mid-season replacement that no one cared about only to rapidly and unexpectedly develop into one of the fastest, funniest shows on the air. In 2012, Happy Endings cemented itself into the hearts of comedy lovers everywhere, continuing its delightfully wacky antics and joke-a-minute dialogue while simultaneously adding new comic layers to its dizzying array of hysterical characters. The show has little goal other than to make you laugh and smile for 22 minutes, and it hits the mark perfectly every single time. As the show continues on, though, it's begun to develop its own distinct personality - a perfect example is the fact that it has practically invented its own language through the weird iterations and shortenings of words that its characters use. Watching an episode of episode of Happy Endings is almost like entertaining another universe - a universe where just the way everyone talks is hilarious, and where you're constantly surrounded by people who would be the  "funny one" in any other group of friends. Other shows may make you think more or have better developed character arcs, but there's no show on TV right now you're going to have more fun watching than Happy Endings.

Highlight Episodes: "The Butterfly Effect Effect", "Cocktails & Dreams", "No Ho Ho"

2. 30 Rock

Most sitcoms limp their way to the finish line. Truth be told, trying to mine comedy out of the same characters for years upon years gets to be pretty difficult. But the very best comedies figure out a way to keep the momentum going despite their age, to keep you laughing and loving their characters right up until the end. 2012 was 30 Rock's last full calender year, but it can sit proudly up with the show's prime years as a fine example of the show at its very best. So how? How does a show keep such a high standard of quality after having so many episodes behind it? In 30 Rock's case, the answer came from two different factors - a willingness to go deeper and darker with its humor than it ever had before, and carefully plotted character arcs that brought its characters to their crescendo as 30 Rock neared its sunset. The best example is Liz Lemon, who the show has put through hell on her quest to "have it all" - which only made her first stable relationship, the first time she found someone who actually accepted her, her decision to finally fulfill her dream of having a baby, and her long-awaited marriage even more satisfying. There's still a few more episodes of 30 Rock left, so it remains to be seen if the rest of the show will wrap up as nicely. But either way, 30 Rock is going out with one of its best seasons and one of the strongest final seasons of a sitcom I can remember - and one of the best comedies of our times deserves nothing less.

Highlight Episodes: "Leap Day", "Stride of Pride", "Mazel Tov, Dummies"

1. New Girl

No comedy had a more exciting 2012 than New Girl. The show debuted last fall to huge numbers, but most critics wrote it off due to its obnoxious advertising campaign and middle-of-the-road pilot as a soulless Zooey Deschanel star vehicle. Most comedies likely would've been completely fine with this, ranking in their huge numbers and carrying on. But despite its rocky beginnings, it was always clear that New Girl wanted to be something more than that. And in 2012, the show rapidly turned the corner - it brought out the talented members of its comic ensemble, toned down Deschanel's performance while simultaneously bringing out the best in her, and started working its way toward being a comic character study of a bunch of weird, lost 30-somethings who have nothing to rely on but each other. The show slowly started to earn back all of the people it had lost by churning out strings of excellent episodes that no one would've ever believed the show was capable of when it first started. This can be attributed to many things - creator Liz Meriweather's dedication, some truly excellent writing, but perhaps most important is the the chemistry between the show's ensemble, who - much like their characters - each have their own unique vibe and personality that they add to the show's whole. Watching New Girl grow from a troubled young show with a lot of potential into a legitimately excellent comedy has been pretty incredible, and while maybe the show isn't technically the very best comedy on TV right now, the journey it took me on this year was more rewarding than any other show this year, and that's why it's getting top honors on my list.

Highlight Episodes: "Normal", "Fluffer", "Eggs"

Notable mentions:

• Archer - Admittedly, I've just started watching this and haven't made it to the show's 2012 offerings yet. But considering I assume I'll be all caught up by the time next year rolls around, I would be pretty surprised if it didn't end up high on my list in 2013, unless it has a terrible year or something. Because man, I am loving the shit out of it.
• Saturday Night Live - SNL is like a totally different TV experience for me, so I didn't rank it among the other comedy shows on my list, because it'd be a weird comparison. The show's quality fluctuates so much from week-to-week and operates on such a different standard that I think it'd be difficult to really rank on a list like this. But don't worry, I still love it.
• Raising Hope - Poor Raising Hope suffers with me because there's just too much good TV on Tuesdays, but when I do happen to watch it, I usually really like it. Hopefully I will discover it on TBS in like 2 years and fully appreciate it or something.
• The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, The Soup - Again, like SNL, these shows are kind of a different type of TV viewing for me, but I enjoy them all very much.
• Mad Men - I'm not nearly caught up on all of my Mad Men, but I really enjoy what I what I do see of it, and it's a show I'm planning on sitting down and watching from start to finish sometime hopefully soon. It's definitely a landmark TV show and one that is doing some pretty amazing things.

Well, there we have it. This was a pretty incredible year for TV, honestly - lots of amazing stuff all-around. I feel like 2013 is going to bring a lot of change, but hopefully things remain just as good, because having TV be so great is pretty fun, right?

Jingle bells, jingle yay, jingle good for you! NBC Comedy Thursday 12/6/2012

It was Christmas night on NBC Thursday! And...it didn't really feel like Christmas in either 30 Rock or Parks & Rec tonight. But there were Christmas trees in the background! And they went to a Christmas party on Parks & Rec! And both episodes were good! So, yay! Jingle good for you, shows.

It would've been very hard to top last week's all-time classic, landmark 30 Rock. But...damn, if this episode didn't come really close. In terms of pure laughs, this episode might've even been better, even if it wasn't quite as "special" as Liz Lemon's WEDDING, YOU GUYS. Yes, Liz Lemon is MARRIED. And Jenna is pissed. The one thing I was very slightly disappointed to see in last week's episode was the lack of Jenna at Liz's wedding, but apparently it was just so that we could witness her beautiful, beautiful rage this week, so I have no qualms. It actually makes sense, because Jenna making the wedding all about herself probably would've threatened some of the subtle sweetness of Liz's big day. And again, it gave us this plotline, which featured Liz and Jenna attending an event celebrating women in comedy "who aren't Betty White". The plot featured a lot of female stereotypes (women can't work the TV! a woman whose husband left her and now she's horribly depressed!) but 30 Rock always manages to get away with making these kinds of generalizations because a) they're funny and b) it's pretty clear the show is doing it in a tongue-in-cheek matter, making fun of the generalizations more than the actual people they're generalizing. The plot actually does a pretty good job of highlighting some of the tension in Liz and Jenna's relationship with Jenna explaining that seeing Liz happy made her insecure because Liz was always a way for Jenna to feel better about herself, and now that Liz is actually doing well, it sort of removes that dynamic in their relationship. Of course, in typical 30 Rock fashion, Jenna is only being this open with Liz because she "took a pill that lets her feel things", but it was still a nice little analysis of their friendship. The show seemed to forget Liz and Jenna were friends for several years there, but in the past two seasons they've done a good job of going back to that relationship, which is good because it's always been an interesting friendship to me with a lot of comic potential. The other main storyline saw the return of Colleen, who seems to be at the end of her rope and is trying to give Jack signs, but Jack takes it as her trying to shame him yet again...which she does, by giving him a slightly condescending speech right before she dies. It was a surprisingly dark twist for an episode for 30 Rock - I spent a lot of the plotline wondering if the show was really going to go there. But I think they pulled it off, and it served as a nice conclusion to the Jack/Colleen saga, with Jack realizing that her pushing him and constantly criticizing him is what made him the person he is today. Also, it gave us a funeral scene that turned into Jenna and Paul's wedding and featured a guest spot from Kermit the Frog. Pretty amazing stuff right there. The C-plot was simple but actually much more entertaining than most C-plots - Kenneth is depressed after being dumped by Hazel and "wishes his life could be more like TV", which leads to Tracy trying to make Kenneth's life exactly like a TV show by getting him stuck in an elevator with Florence Henderson (Carol on The Brady Bunch), but of course, Florence is a mean alcoholic rather than a loving TV mom, and Kenneth discovers that life just isn't like TV. Pretty standard 30 Rock material, but that's not a bad thing - it was entertaining, had some great lines, a solid guest spot, and a typically perfect meta line (there wouldn't be a TV show where a famous guy tried to help a lowly janitor because if there was, no one would watch it!). It was all a lot of fun. I kind of forget that Kenneth isn't a page anymore, though. I'm still rooting for him to take over NBC at the end of the series.

Parks and Recreation also saw the return of an old favorite tonight, but this one didn't die. Tammy II returned to stir the pot with Ron's new girlfriend Diane, and Leslie ain't havin' it. Oh, and the four are all at a woodworking awards show together, which is awesome. I've seem some complaints that the plot saw Tammy II awkwardly shoehorned in, and that the reveal that it was Leslie that Diane was jealous of rather than Tammy was forced. I get those criticisms and sort of agree with them on some level - particularly Diane being jealous of Leslie, which reminded me a lot of the 30 Rock episode where Avery told Jack and Liz they had to stop talking to each other. But 30 Rock pulled it off a lot better than Parks did - I just didn't really get the feeling that Leslie and Ron were really that close enough that it would be an issue, and it sort of seemed like creating plot for the sake of creating plot to me. But honestly, I can't say I really cared that much, because the Leslie/Tammy scenes were just fucking perfect, and I really liked the speech Ron gave to Diane at the end of the episode. I also really liked the B-plot where the Parks department is forced to realize that Jerry's life is kind of awesome and the fact that he's a klutz at the office seems minimal compared to his hot wife and loving family. Some people often feel the Jerry stuff goes too far, and this seemed like a good way to point out that Jerry probably doesn't really give a shit about it. The other plot of the night was a Chris plot, which largely haven't been working lately, and...this was no exception. Nothing even really happened, other than...Chris seeming marginally better and Ben noticing? The show hasn't really had anything for Chris to do since "The Trial of Leslie Knope", and they've kind of been running in circle with the character since then. But all in all, this was a really good Parks & Rec. Not necessarily anything groundbreaking, but very enjoyable to watch. And after a few seasons of brilliance, if that's the show Parks is going to be from here on out, who's to complain?

That's the last of these shows until January. Which...seems really god damn early, right? Since when do shows go on break for Christmas during the first week of December? Also, this means there's only four weeks of 30 Rock left, which...I hate life.

So there will be new episodes of all of the Tuesday comedies next week, but after that, we're completely done until December. What the hell?  But it's alright, because during the off weeks I'll be posting my year-end lists, which I'm pretty sure are going to feature my top 20 episodes of 2012, and I think my top 10 or 15 shows of 2012. Or 20. I haven't decided yet. We'll see!

Thursday Ratings: America is the opposite of what you want it to be

If Thursday nights are a reminder of everything that is good in the world, Friday mornings are a reminder of everything that is terrible. Week after week, comedy lovers sit and mourn as they watch their beloved NBC line-up get demolished by CBS's The Big Bang Theory and whatever shit they're putting after The Big Bang Theory at the time. It's a stark reminder that the world is cruel, that the public rejects everything you love, and that there is almost zero hope for the future of the human race.

So, yay! Let's go!

Alright, just look at the numbers for fucking The Big Bang Theory (5.5, 17.25 million). Just fucking look at them! The sad thing is those numbers are actually a somewhat specific drop from its previous airing, and yet it still outdid every show on TV that aired in the past week. By contrast, look at the minuscule numbers for the most important wedding in the history of television on 30 Rock (1.3, 3.61 million). If that isn't proof that the human race is a waste of time, then what is? 30 Rock was also beat by The X Factor (2.7, 8.32 million)  and The Vampire Diaries (1.4, 2.86 million). Yes, a CW show. More people watched The CW than 30 Rock. It did, however, outrank the just-cancelled Last Resort (1.0, 5.20 million), so uh...there's that.

At 8:30, Two and a Half Men (4.0, 13.74 million) didn't come close to Big Bang numbers but still handily beat everything else in the half-hour, including Up All Night (1.2, 2.97 million). But more people are probably going to tune into that once NBC adds a laugh-track to it for no reason, why? I mean, definitely. How could NBC go wrong? They peacock comedy.

The 9:00 PM hour should really be renamed "shows people apparently still watch", as Grey's Anatomy (3.1, 8.95 million), Glee (2.2, 5.39 million), and The Office (1.9, 3.88 million) all posed numbers far less than what they were doing at their peaks, although all are still fairly respectable, with Grey's representing the far high end of respectable and The Office representing the low end. There's also Person of Interest (2.9, 14.43 million), which does fine but isn't really CSI-ing it up like CBS probably wants it to, and Beauty and the Beast (0.6, 1.52 million), which allows The CW to return to shockingly awful status, where it is most comfortable. At 9:30, Parks and Recreation (1.4, 2.99 million) concerningly dropped a large amount from its last airing to pose its lowest result ever. I don't think we need to worry about it yet or anything, but I would hope this is a one-time thing.

Rounding it out, the 10 PM hour, which randomly has been posing pretty low numbers all-around this season, saw a tie for first between Elementary (2.2, 10.46 million) and Scandal (2.2, 6.64 million). There was also Rock Center (0.9, 3.45 million), which...did not tie for first. I would guess CBS has to be pretty disappointed in Elementary's numbers, but they seem to have a lot of faith in it (it's getting the coveted post-Superbowl slot) and it's actually their highest rated new show this year, so I don't expect it to go anywhere.

So there you have it. Everything sucks and everyone you meet is probably terrible because they might be contributing to this. Happy Holidays!