A guide to the best Christmas TV episodes

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

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

Community - "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas"

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

30 Rock - "Christmas Special"

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

Parks & Recreation - "Citizen Knope"

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

Bob's Burgers - "Christmas in the Car"

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

American Dad - "Rapture's Delight"

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

Doctor Who - "A Christmas Carol"

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

South Park - "Woodland Critter Christmas"

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

The weirdest, most wonderful TV moments of 2014

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

Orange is the New Black - Morello's Backstory

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

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

Mad Men - Bert Cooper Serenades Don Draper

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

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

Too Many Cooks

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

Community - Dean Pelton's Peanut Rap

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Broad City - "Eight Fucking Thousand Dollars"

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

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

Work hard or die tryin', girl (or, another Bob's Burgers appreciation post)

Bob's Burgers returned to our television sets this past Sunday, and while I've already written substantially about what a unique and beautiful gem of a show it is, I thought I would briefly talk about its premiere, which was, in many ways, a showcase of everything the show does best. While the episode had some minor structural weirdness that kept it from being among the shows' all-time best, it still managed to be the bravest and liveliest premiere it's put on thus far, managing to be both a ridiculous extravaganza full of the absurdist showtunes that have become a hallmark of the show and one of the most compelling Gene-centric stories the show has done so far. The actual staging of the musical, which features the appearance of nearly every student of Wagstaff School that we've met so far getting together to put on a ridiculous mash-up of Die Hard and Working Girl, combines two of my all-time favorite things - ensemble pieces and ridiculous song lyrics - to make one of the best TV moments of the year so far. No, there is nothing substantial in this post. I just needed to restate how much I love Bob's Burgers. I love it so much, you guys.

Episode Review: Bob's Burgers - "Mazel-Tina"

Bob's Burgers - "Mazel-Tina"

Tina episodes are often my favorite episodes of Bob's Burgers, because Tina is basically the heart of the show. She's the most vulnerable and insecure of the Belchers, so whenever an episode centers around her, it often lets us see a softer, more genuine side of the entire Belcher clan. That was certainly the case with "Mazel-Tina", an episode that actually let us see the softer side of the hardest and most cynical of all of the Belchers - Louise. Generally speaking, if an episode can effectively squeeze a genuinely sweet moment out of Louise, it's a great episode of Bob's Burgers.

"Mazel-Tina" also demonstrated just why Tina Belcher has become such an important television character for so many people. In a world where there are still characters like Meg Griffin, who reinforces the idea that being a lost teenager is something worthy of insult and ridicule, Tina is a bright light in how she's allowed to be confused and lost without being embarrassed about it. Most shows might've ended this episode with Tina being shamed for taking over Tammy's party. But what's so comforting about Bob's Burgers is that she's accepted despite her mistakes and her insecurities. The world of Bob's Burgers - or at least, the world in the eyes of the Belcher family - is that everybody's got their own weird thing. Tina's is that her budding sexuality sometimes causes her to go crazy and take over bat mitzfahs. Linda's is that her passion for food, culture and...well, pretty much everything...sometimes causes her to accidentally crash a wedding without even realizing it. Louie's is that her devious love of pranks occasionally gets her stuck inside a giant replica of a tweens' head. Even minor, one-off characters like Janet are given specific quirks that are treated with admiration - Bob's is so good at character work that it makes us feel actual triumph when Janet flat leaves Tammy to pursue her Broadway dreams, and we barely even knew her for five minutes.

This warm character building is what keeps Bob's Burgers at the top of my favorite shows list week after week. There's so much out there, not just on TV but anywhere in the media or really, even in our everyday lives - that tells us we need to be a certain way, that we shouldn't do that or this or that we need to fit some kind of mold, just because that's the way it is. Bob's Burgers says "fuck you" to that concept and tells us to just be whoever we want to be - in the warmest, sweetest, funniest and weirdest way possible.

* * * * * (5 stars out of 5)

Episode Review: Bob's Burgers - "The Frond Files"

Let's see how this goes!

Episode Review: 
Bob's Burgers - "The Frond Files"

After what was about a month and a half but seemed like about six years, Bob's Burgers finally returns with "The Frond Files". This episode marked a bit of a departure for the show, as it utilized the three-vignette structure that has become common in animated comedies over the years thanks to The Simpsons' Treehouse of Horror episodes. Unlike the MacFarlane sitcoms or even The Simpsons, Bob's Burgers generally doesn't mess with its format too much, so seeing the show attempt this was pretty interesting. I am generally not a huge fan of the vignette structure - I like the classic Simpsons Treehouse of Horrors, but they're rarely among my favorite output from that show (save for Treehouse of Horror V and the excellent Shining parody), and I've found the swings that later-day Simpsons and Family Guy take at the approach tend to be kind of a sly way to tell a few half-assed stories without having to commit to a full narrative. But this is still-in-its-golden-era Bob's Burgers, and nothing is half-assed. The Frond Files was a hilarious, well-executed form experiment for the show that still managed to inject some of the staple acceptance and sweetness that has come to define the show.

The Frond Files' excuse for its three-vignette structure is that the kids have each written stories that Mr. Frond has deemed "inappropriate" to hang at the school's "Why I Love Wagstaff" fair. Bob and Linda are curious as to just how bad the stories are, so Mr. Frond allows them to read them through, and the episode takes us from there. Similar to the Treehouse of Horror episodes from The Simpsons, these stories sort of served as a way for Bob's to put its characters in genres and situations that wouldn't be possible in the shows' universe. Granted, the show often finds inventive ways to work in genre parodies (after all, one of the shows' best episodes is a straight-up E.T. homage), but this format was still a nice way to get us to see, say, Tina seducing a bunch of zombies in a parody of horror movies in a way that would've greatly threatened the fabric of the show otherwise. The three stories are sort of exactly what you would expect to be - Louise's centers around a prank leading to a futuristic Mr. Frond coming to wreck havoc, Gene's is about farts that destroy the school, and Tina's is her much-documented Erotic Zombie Friend Fiction, and they all have enough little details that made it obvious these stories were supposed to be written by the Belcher kids rather than...well, the writers. (This is most evident in Tina's story, which sees everyone acting a little awkwardly, even the ever-confident Louise). Little touches like this are what make Bob's Burgers such a rewarding experience, even outside of just pure laughs.

If I have one complaint about the episode, it's that the stories felt a bit too much like what we would expect from each character. This isn't a bad thing, per cay - it shows that the show knows its characters, which is great. But Bob's Burgers tends to reveal surprising new things about its characters and their world in ways that you might not expect from an animated sitcom, and that aspect was mostly absent here. It's not world-sinking. Not every episode has to cover new ground, especially for a show as reliably funny and entertaining as Bob's Burgers. It's just what separates the very best episodes from the rest of the pack. Still, what the episode lacked in character development, it made up for in sweetness - the fact that Bob and Linda actually support their kids stories is another example of just how damn supportive this show is. We've seen the "kids write a horrifying story" plotline on plenty of shows, but none of those shows found the parents actually supporting the kids. That's what makes Bob's Burgers the most warmly unique comedy on television.

* * * * 1/2 (4 1/2 stars out of 5)

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!

THINGS ARE HAPPENING

It has been a very busy week for television. This was originally going to be a post about Community and Parks and Recreation's most recent episodes. But then I put it off and like, eight more things happened. So let's get to it. We'll start with Community and Parks:

Community - "Basic Integluetal Numistatics"



I had no idea what to make of this episode at first. I wasn't thrilled that the show was already doing a genre parody only two weeks into the new season. I wanted to re-establish the characters! And the setting! But the episode slowly won me over by committing so damn well to its concept (which seemed to be a parody of David Fincher movies mixed with some crime procedural spoofing) that I ultimately didn't mind. The visuals were excellent, and the music was even better - Ass Crack Bandit is totally my new jam. I also thought the episode was quite funny, with a rapid-fire joke setting reminiscent of Community's early seasons. Community occasionally forgets to be funny with its concept episodes, and while it really doesn't matter because the show is capable of being excellent without being hilarious, it certainly made this episode much more enjoyable (and helped to bounce off the darkness of the source material). Where the episode didn't land for me initially was character-wise. I'm just really tired of the Jeff/Annie pairing - at least romantically (last week's Introduction to Teaching managed to rediscover how fun the pairing can be without the weird love story angle) and I didn't feel this episode added anything new to it. I also was not a big fan of how Pierce's death was handled. It was...sudden, and I got that it was kind of the point, but the death of a major character should really have more importance than it did in this episode. But after re-watching it about 4 times, and after seeing next weeks' episode (LET ME HAVE THIS) which deals with Pierce's demise in a really excellent way, I'm more convinced that...well, that was the point. The sudden, ambiguous nature of the ending was meant to point out how in real life, death isn't just another thing that happens. It has real life consequences. And although I didn't think the episode landed this concept as well as it could have (it probably shouldn't take 4 watches to get it, you know?) I applaud what they were going for, and it gave me a lot to think about it. So overall, this was another promising step for Community's fifth season, which has been seriously impressive so far.

Parks and Recreation - "Second Chunce"

Parks celebrated its 100th episode this week, but it didn't really make a big deal about it, choosing instead to have a quieter episode that analyzed the fate of its characters going forward. This was probably its greatest strength. I liked Leslie realizing that she's destined for more than Pawnee - it wasn't exactly new, because it's been a running thread of the season, but it was sort of nice to see it solidified, and it pushes the show in a new direction it desperately needs. I'm hoping that this allows the show to try some new things with its protagonist rather than just giving her the "Leslie has obstacles, but she's so great so she manages to get through them!" cycle that she's spent the last two seasons running around in. I especially liked the return of Jen Barkley, giving Leslie the push in the right direction that she needed, because a) she's an interesting foil for Leslie and b) she delivered the best joke of the night, discussing her mothers' 19 year old boyfriend. The rest of the episode was...fine, I guess. It sort of demonstrated why my love for Parks has dwindled over the past year, though - it just felt like a retread. We've seen Tom question his direction in life before. Then he started Rent-A-Swag. Then the show took it away for him, because they always have to return everything to the status quo eventually. Oh, and there was a boring plot with Ann and Chris, and yet another nauseatingly cheesy Ben/Leslie end scene (yay they go to Paris they're so perfect yay). Just...do something different, Parks! Take Community and Archer's lead. You have the potential to with this Leslie story. Now let's see it out.

That seems like a good segway to Archer, but I would be remissed if I didn't at least touch on my best show of 2013 (full list coming soon, btw!)...

Bob's Burgers - "Presta Tina-o"

This was Bob's Burgers at its weirdest, and therefore, its finest. Of course, that sort of goes without saying with a Tina episode. Tina is just such a fan-fucking-tastic character. She's a confused teenage girl, sure. There's lots of those on TV. But there's no confused teenage girls who are as proud of being a confused teenage girl, and that's what makes her unique. And let's be honest. There's a little bit of a confused teenage girl inside all of us, isn't there? Tina Belcher shows us that it's okay to be insecure and weird and unsure of yourself. In fact, it's that insecurity that might lead you to sabotage a magician competition, only to un-sabotage it and earn yourself an honorable mention for on-stage chemistry, which isn't really real but makes your family proud anyway. The fact that I could just type all of that and have it make sense to at least 4 million people out there is a rock solid example of why I love Bob's Burgers as much as I do.

Alright. Let's get to....

Archer - "White Elephant"

Holy crap, you guys.

I liked Archer's fourth season, but I didn't love it. It was still hilarious, sure, but it just felt like a lot of plots that were rehashes of things the show had done in the past. The show probably could've comfortably carried itself to 7 or 8 seasons off of that, although it likely would've sacrificed its place as a boundary-pushing critical darling in the process. But nope. Adam Reed didn't want to do that. He got bored, and he didn't want to see his show circling the drain. So this season of Archer is no longer about ISIS and is now about the gang selling cocaine.

What's amazing about this episode is that it makes all of this feel totally organic. To be fair, Archer is always a show that has played fast and loose with its foundation, having no qualms about giving its protagonist cancer, or a baby, or turning major characters into cyborgs. So it's more likely to pull off such a massive change than a lot of other shows are - and in a way, the giant revelation that ISIS was never actually a government agency and that all of its work was completely illegal actually makes sense. Since Archer is a show where we have to suspend most of our ideas of what's "normal" on a television show anyway, it's able to pull off a trick like this pretty easily. I guess that's what Season 4 missed for me. It just didn't have that "I legitimately have no idea what the fuck is going to happen" feel that the show did at its best. So to see that return in such a huge way is a big relief.

Of course, part of what makes it work, too, is that the cast and characters are still the same cast and characters. And, really, that's always what made Archer what it was. Or at least, I assumed it was. This season will be ultimate test of that - but if that kick-ass preview of the upcoming season is to be believed, we have nothing to worry about.
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Aaaaand I just wanted to take a minute to talk about the Golden Globes. I generally have very little use for awards shows, but the Golden Globes are kind of a boozy trainwreck, so they're a little more fun than say...the Oscars. And with Tina & Amy hosting, there was no I wasn't watching at least a little bit - and I'm glad I did, because I was really happy with how things turned out. No, I'm not talking about Jacqueline Bisset's acceptance speech, although that was definitely a highlight! I'm talking about the awards themselves. Well, mainly just the TV comedy awards. Amy Poehler FINALLY winning for Leslie Knope is about three years too late but made me incredibly happy. And Brooklyn Nine-Nine winning Best Comedy was a huge shock, and while I wouldn't give it that distinction yet, I'm incredibly happy that the show will now likely have a chance to get there. We all like to say awards shows are useless. And they mostly are! Tastes are subjective, and who cares what a bunch of old rich Hollywood dumbasses and whoever the Hollywood Foreign Press have to say? But awards can be beneficial for a show like Brooklyn Nine-Nine. They certainly helped 30 Rock and Arrested Development earn recognition, and all of the "WHAT IS BROOKLYN NINE NINE SHOULD WE BE WATCHING IT" type of responses that circulated the internet today prove that it just may give that show the boost it needs right now.

TELEVISION UPDATE

HI! I have not written here in a while, because of life and because I'm terrible and stuff. So, since we're about halfway through November sweeps and coming close to the halfway point of the TV season (!!!), I thought I'd give a few updates on where a few shows are standing with me right now.

Let's start with Bob's Burgers. Bob's has only had 4 episodes so far this year, thanks to FOX's stupid dedication to SPORTS (gross!), but they've all ranged from decent ("A River Runs Through Bob") to fantastic ("Fort Night", which is, in my opinion, is already Bob's Burgers' Halloween classic). Bob's Burgers is one of those shows that's in such a great groove right now that it's hard to imagine it doing much of anything wrong. Other shows may be more ambitious, sure, but I still look forward to my half-hour with the Belchers every week more than anything else on television. Other than "Fort Night", nothing this season has quite hit the dizzying heights of episodes like "Mother Daughter Laser Razor" or "Topsy", but since the first half of this season will all be episodes made under the Season 3 production schedule (thanks to scheduling weirdness, now a staple of Fox's animation block), I'm fairly certain there's more classics waiting for us in the bunch. The thing that continues to impress me the most about Bob's Burgers is the way it just accepts everyone's flaws and quirks and does so in a way that is lovingly hilarious. It's such a refreshing tone, and it's certainly been present in all of the episodes this year. I really can't say enough good things about this show. It's a strong contender for my favorite show on television right now.

Let's get onto Brooklyn Nine-Nine, easily the seasons' best new comedy and probably the best freshman comedy since Community back in 2009. It's amazed me just how quickly this show found its comic tone - by the second or third episode, I was already consistently laughing out loud when I watched it, which is pretty rare for a comedy that young. The show has also done a great job crafting strong, relatable comic characters, from Captian Holt to Terry to Amy. And of course, it features the hilarious Chelsea Peretti, who was absent in this weeks' episode but is always there to bring her special touch of enderaring weirdness to everything she touches. My biggest issue with the show has been the way its lead character, Jake Peralta, can delve into douchebag territory far too quickly and never quite get the moments of redemption a character like that needs to in order for us to root for them. But the show actually remedied that a bit this week, with a stellar plot where Jake puts himself on the line after someone insults Captain Holt's sexuality. He's still not a perfect lead character, but I can see now that the show is working to make him better, and given Mike Schur & Dan Goor's track record with that subject on Parks & Recreation, I'm confident they'll be able to do so. One thing I find interesting about Brooklyn Nine-Nine is how old-school it feels - not so much in its humor, which feels very much like modern comedy, but in its relatively simplistic plotting and subtle character development. It's an interesting vibe that I'm wondering if the show will keep. I think it could stand to push its characters just a bit more, but other than that, I'm enjoying the bit of a throwback vibe its giving off, and I'm certainly enjoying the misfit ensemble they're crafting through solid writing and mostly pretty fantastic performances.

Then there's New Girl, which got off to a bit of a slow start this year but has really picked up its game in the last few episodes. I loved this weeks' episode, "Menus" - it was my favorite of the season so far, and probably one of my favorite episodes of the show of all-time. It wasn't anything particularly fancy, but the way it took the characters' seperate insecurities and blended them into one meaningful and thematically strong storyline was some really excellent writing. I think the show is also being aided a lot by the re-addition of Coach, who has already freshened up the dynamic a lot in the two episodes he's been around. I am hoping that Coach's return will spark something in Winston, rather than having him pushed to the sidelines even more. Winston's been having a great season comedically, constantly providing the show with some of its funniest moments, but I do think it's about time we got a real, full-fledged Winston arc (and not just a half-assed romance one like the one he had with Brenda Song). I know some people are frustrated with the show this season, but I really don't understand why, other than the usual third season backlash narrative. New Girl has never been a perfect show, but that's sort of what I like about it. It doesn't settle into a groove and continue to coast. It's constantly pushing and re-inventing itself to get to the emotional truth of its characters. That makes for a show that isn't always consistent but, when it hits, it really hits, and it's still hitting enough of the time that I continue to find it one of the best shows on TV.

That seems like a good way to segway us into Parks and Recreation, which has spent much of the last several years in "coasting" territory. Parks & Rec has an incredibly strong core, so when it coasts, it's still pretty damn great a lot of the time - but it can still get kind of same-y and boring after a while, as it did for much of Season 5 and portions of this season so far. Luckily, the show came back roaring this week in its return from its random hiatus/not hiatus, and it did so by doing what it used to do well in its earlier seasons but hasn't done in a while (arguably since Leslie got Ben back in Season 4) - it let Leslie Knope lose. I know, tragic. Just tragic. It was! The scene where it was announced that Leslie was recalled was a gut punch, and millions of Leslie Knope fans on Tumblr all cried out in sorrow at the same time. But that's a good thing! These things make us feel more connected to the characters. What was missing with Parks over the past few years was that it didn't let Leslie fail anymore. It gave her everything she wanted, mostly without even trying. All she had to do was defeat a bumbling moron for City Council or go through ridiculous, cartoonish townspeople to get what she wanted. So I'm really happy to see the show actually testing her again. It's sad! But this is Parks, so you know something good is coming for her soon, and that something is going to be even more powerful now that she's been through a bit of a struggle. This season has been inconsistent so far, but I'm enjoying it more than the last because it feels like its slowly poking out of the narrative rut it was in for all of last year and even a lot of Season 4. Let's hope it keeps pushing itself as the season progresses.

And finally, The Michael J. Fox Show, which I have nothing to say about. Because I dropped it. Because that shit is boring. I love you, MJF, but please, get a better show.

So, there's the basics. There are other shows that I'm consistently entertained by - like The Middle, which is the best family sitcom in ages - and other shows that I've been consistently let down by - like South Park, which is showing more cracks than ever this season, but those are the shows that have been consuming my mind the most lately. And Doctor Who. Oh, do I need to make a post about Doctor Who. But that's for another time.

"No hard feelings but I hate you, not joking" - Tuesday (and beyond!) TV Roundup 10/1/2013

Hi everyone! It's been a few days. Not that much has happened since I last checked in, except for the government collapsing and shutting down or whatever. But let's talk about television instead! Tonight featured some very good episodes of Brooklyn Nine-Nine and New Girl that I'd like to get to. But then I thought - hey, why not talk about this weekends' new shows, too? Namely, Saturday Night Live and Bob's Burgers. No, not Breaking Bad. I haven't caught up with it yet, so everyone just shut the fuck up.


Alright, well, what's there to say about Saturday Night Live? This is probably going to be a very transitional season for the show, which is probably good, because the show's been getting a little stale these past few seasons. As much as I'll miss Bill and Jason and Fred, SNL thrives on change - it's what keeps the show interesting. So even though this season may be a rough transition, I'm sure it'll ultimately prove to be a good thing in the end. Besides, the season premiere was actually a pretty solid outing, led by Tina Fey, who can do no wrong (except Admission, let's just all pretend that didn't happen). There was a lot of really great sketches, my favorite being the Girls parody, but with "E-Meth" and the always charming Drunk Uncle not being too far behind. I'm also excited to see what Cecily Strong can do with Update - I liked her last season, though I was a bit taken back by her sudden promotion to Update anchor. Her first night at the desk was pretty smooth. Her jokes were a bit broad, but her delivery was solid and her segment with Tina was really great.

So I guess this is the part where I address the shows' obvious diversity problem. I find it very disappointing, especially considering two of the shows' only non-white cast members (Jay and Nasim) were sidelined for most of the show last night. That said, I don't think Lorne Michaels actively hates everyone who's not white or anything. I just think that there's such a bulit-in homogeneity to the show that's holding it back from being as diverse as it could be. It's a bit of a bummer, and hopefully the backlash will let the show get it sorted out sooner than later.

Now let's move on to Bob's Burgers, which started its 4th season on Sunday, even though technically the episodes we'll be seeing between now and February or so are going to be from the Season 3 production line, thanks to Fox only airing 9 episodes of the show back in 2011-12 after ordering a full season. That means there's no need to panic about the shows' quality until then, internet, since the episodes airing now are in the same production line as the ones that aired in the spring. That's a relief, since the premiere was actually one of the shows' weakest episodes in recent memory. It wasn't a terrible episode of television or anything - there were still plenty of great lines, I laughed a ton, there was a fun song and any time with the Belchers is quality time, in my mind. But I thought the choice to kick off the season with an episode set in the woods was a bit of an odd choice. I missed the restaurant. I missed the great world of characters the show slowly built over the course of the first 3 seasons. I wanted to catch up with them in this episode, not be transported into the woods for a funny but overly wacky story that didn't let the truly unique personas of the Belcher family shine through completely. All in all, it wasn't a bad episode, but it was kind of a bad premiere. That's fine, because this is still Bob's Burgers. It's still one of my favorite shows on TV, and it's still great, even when it's not at its best.

And now onto actual Tuesday TV! I was very impressed by this weeks' Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which might be my choice for the funniest episode of the television season so far. The show already has such a tight grasp on its characters, and those characters are already just so much fun to hang out with. The plots still aren't terribly original - it's yet another episode centered around Captain Holt teaching Jake a lesson - but, geez, the jokes are. Chelsea Peretti has already established herself as a primetime sitcom treasure, and her interpretive dance to Christina Aguileria was one of the most beautiful moments on TV so far this season. The show is so close to greatness right now that I can't wait to see what it looks like when it gains a bit more confidence and starts taking some risks with its plots, which I feel probably isn't far off at all.

And now onto New Girl, which aired what was probably my favorite episode of its season so far tonight. Granted, we're only 3 episodes in, so that's not life-changing or anything, but I really loved a lot of things about this episode. The most important is Nick Miller, who just fucking knocks it out of the park every week, but his dancing and his reaction when Schmidt told him about his dilemma and his yelling about the valet and his helmet and just...his everything, was fucking perfect this week. And this episode also beautifully captured everything I love about Nick and Jess, particularly that last scene. Their awkward, weird, stupid, possibly lethal but kind of irresistible energy is so fun to watch, and the show is playing it perfectly so far. I also loved Winston's storyline - yeah, it sucks he's always getting sent off to his own plotlines away from the main cast, but I thought it was played perfectly this week. In fact, the writers kind of seemed to know that they have the tendency to do that to the character, and they sort of turned it into an emotional plotpoint. I have a feeling that we're building to something here - possibly something that intersects with the Coach arc, which should provide plenty of interesting fodder for Winston.

And that brings up Schmidt. There's been a lot of divisive reactions to his storyline around the internet - but honestly? I don't have a huge problem with it. Yes, he's being a total douche right now, but I thought he got what he deserved this week. Did that turn him into an ever bigger douche? Well...yes, but I sort of see this playing out similarly to the Pierce arc in Season 2 of Community. I think the show realizing what they're doing here, and I think they're doing it to send Schmidt on the same kind of path, where he really questions his own self, his actions and what he brings to this group. It's a bit of a darker tone for this show, so I understand what makes it jarring. And maybe I'm totally wrong and they're not building to anything. But this show has gained my trust, and it's given me no reason to believe I shouldn't trust it'll make something of all of this.

Last thing! I reviewed Super Fun Night for Sitcoms Online. I didn't like it very much. Read why!

http://blog.sitcomsonline.com/2013/10/abc-fall-pilot-review-super-fun-night.html

Alright, that's enough for tonight. Happy television! Or something! I don't even know anymore.

Things I am looking forward to on the television this year

Hello again, dedicated readers! I thought I would take this rainy Saturday night before what remains of the traditional network TV season to run through a list of what I am looking forward to this season. Why? Because, well, this is my life, and it's time I accepted it. So let's go! In no particular order, here are my most anticipated shows, both old and new, for the upcoming TV season:

• The return of New Girl and Bob's Burgers, aka the two best comedies on television right now. Seriously, if you're a comedy fan and you're not watching these shows, you are depriving yourself of a great source of joy, and that's just sad. True, both of these shows got off to a somewhat rocky start, but they've really come into their own. They both were far ahead of the rest of the comedy competition last season, churning out endless streaks of near-perfect episodes. Both shows benefit from having a deep understanding of their brilliantly defined characters - the kind of understanding that only shows that take the definition of the sitcom and elevate it to new heights can achieve. While following up seasons that were as good as New Girl Season 2 and Bob's Burgers Season 3 is a tough act, I'm still incredibly excited to see where these shows take us next, and I'm pretty confident that wherever it is, it's going to be all kinds of awesome. 

• Brooklyn Nine-Nine. I've already talked about my enjoyment of the pilot on here a lot, so I'm not going to go into too much detail - but I really feel like this is the safest bet for a great new comedy in quite a while. The creators are great, the cast is possibly even better, and the characters are already proving to be pretty interesting. Now, to be fair, my most anticipated comedies of the past 2 seasons both turned into shows I didn't care for (The Mindy Project and Up All Night, if you were wondering), but I have higher hopes for this one, which is already starting with tighter characters and stronger promise than either of those shows had at their start.

• The Michael J. Fox Show. I haven't seen the pilot for this one yet, and my anticipation for it can best be described as "cautiously optimistic". Like any self-respected human being, I like Michael J. Fox a lot and am excited at the prospect of him returning to television. Plus, the premise of the show sounds like something that could make for genuinely interesting and powerful television. My fear is that NBC is pushing so hard for this to be their new flagship comedy that I fear it will be sunk in the process. That's why Go On ended up as such a miserable failure, and I'd hate it to see that happen here, because I could see this being a really excellent show if it's given the chance.

• The triumphant(?) returns of Community and Parks and Recreation. I love both of these shows. That's no secret. I would strongly consider naming Community my favorite show of all-time (only 30 Rock might stand in its way), and the first 3 seasons of it are basically as perfectly tuned to my interests as a television should could be. Of course, it's no secret that Season 4 of Community was a mess, and I don't think there's anyone left in the fanbase that would deny that. But Dan Harmon is back! The darkness is over! Sure, Chevy Chase is gone and so is Donald Glover after 5 episodes. But I have strangely high hopes for this season. I think everyone involved in committed to really giving its fans the return to form they deserve, and we've all seen what can happen when a show really buckles down and commits itself to turning itself around and making an impact again (again, see: 30 Rock). Re-watching the earlier seasons of this show has reminded me of just how amazing it used to be, and I really think it can be that again. As for Parks - well, this will be far less popular, but I also felt that show sort of fell off the wagon a little bit last season. Its season wasn't the disaster that Community's was, but it was kind of a bore, with a few stand-outs but mostly a lot of repeated character beats and half-assed plotlines (Chris and Ann having a baby, anyone?). And yet, those few stand-out moments - like the genuinely touching "Leslie and Ben" - proved there's still spark left to Parks - and I'm hoping Season 6 will expose those sparks once again.

• Orange is the New Black Season 2. The biggest TV surprise of the year for me was Orange is the New Black. Not only was its release trapped in the dead of summer - a time of year generally reserved for B-list reality shows and Suits -  I show had no interest in until I heard the unanimous critical acclaim. As it turns out, Orange was one of the best shows of the entire year, a thoughtful and gripping look into a womens' prison that had the most diverse cast I've ever seen on television - not only in terms of ethnicity, but also in just in terms of different types of female characters. It was a show that really opened our minds in terms of what a television show could do, both with its unique flashback structure and its hoards of completely original characters. It's the best defense of the Netflix model of programming yet, and I'm incredibly curious to see what it can do in Season 2. Part of me fears it will go all Weeds on us, but the more logical side of me trusts that a show this special can't be soured so easily.

So there you go. There are my 5 things I am looking forward to most on TV this year. Or, more accurately: here are a bunch of TV shows I felt like talking about and this seemed like the most convenient outlet to do so. Hope you enjoy my opinions!