7.) Nathan For You (Comedy Central)
Season one of Nathan For You was a riot. Season 2 was even better and more devious. Season 3 decided to combine both and add some philosophy into the mix as well, and with that it actually became a better, albeit different, show. Maybe it is people have learned to Google his name when Nathan approaches them for a spot, or maybe it was just getting more inventive, but in its 3rd season, Nathan For You strayed away from the normal 'wacky business consultant' approach more - and to great effect. It all came together brilliantly in his finale where he decides to take over a man's life, to the point of locking him away in a winnebago and walking around in a body and face suit of the man, to make him a hero. But even earlier in the season, when he turned an idea to make a bar into a live-action theater to allow it to skirt smoking rules (a pretty smart idea), into more about him trying to actually turn people milling into a bar into a viable play, it became clear Nathan Fielder's ambitions were beyond that of the wacky consultant. There was some of that too. His 'The Movement' business was just pure comedic genius, as was his take on Best Buy. There were fewer ideas, more episode-long projects, and overall less zaniness, but instead Nathan Fielder turned inward and examined himself even more than ever, which proved to be fascinating. Somehow, despite middling ratings, the show got a 4th Season, probably its last, and I can't wait to see where Nathan Fielder takes this strange little vehicle next.
6.) Parks and Recreation (NBC)
The final season of one of the best sitcoms ever was the sweetest season of an already saccharine show yet, but with this show who would want that any other way. Parks and Recreation was always unique in that so much comedy was mined from people being largely nice and compassionate towards each other. In fact, one of the few recurring bits that was less well received was the group continually hating on Jerry / Larry / Gary. Michael Schur's show had a great last season, one with so much sentiment, with three or four different episodes that could have emotionally served as a series finale, but somehow it always felt natural. With a five-year time jump preceding the season, all the main group were split from the Parks Department, but the growth felt so natural, from Tom being what he always wanted, a (small town) magnate, to Ron opening a building company, to Leslie being a more prominent politician. Parks and Recreation was a great show, and the last season showed that more than ever. Especially great were the various easter eggs thrown in by the writers to predict what the world would be like in 2020 (when the season was set). Nothing was left unturned, and by the end there was not a dry eye in the viewing audience. Parks and Recreation proved that comedy can be derived from happiness, but it also proved that sentiment, when done right, does not have a cap on television.
5.) Bojack Horseman (Netflix)
This is only for Season 2, but I did watch the first season this year. But just looking at the second season, this was arguably the best comedy this year. Bojack Horseman wonderfully combines the most absurdist of absurd comedy (for God's sake, the premise is a world with anthropomorphic animals, one of which was a TV-star in the 90's trying to reclaim his glory) with such true human emotion and introspective thought. It is a jarring combination, but works so incredibly well. The cavalcade of amazing guest stars providing voices also lended itself to a wonderful little guessing game of 'who's voice is that.' I naturally have a soft-spot for comedies that are so irreverent and off-beat (Arrested Development was the best at this), and Bojack is right there, easily the best animated comedy I've seen aside from prime Simpsons or South Park. The depths of story in Season 2 also improved so that characters outside of Bojack's immediate circle grew deeper, more independent, and just plainly funnier - especially Princess Carolyn and Todd, who had whole arcs independent of Bojack. I don't know if I laughed at any show more than this; but I'm more sure that in no comedy did I stop and think about the human, personal tones that the show was expressing as much.
4.) Show Me a Hero (HBO)
I've never really seen a true mini-series before Show Me a Hero. I don't really consider Fargo, or True Detective, to be mini-series. However, this six-part jaunt through a racially-charged, local integrated public housing debate from the 1970's was just so damn good it was hard to turn away at any point. Just read that description again. The show was literally about the public housing crisis in Yonkers, NY, in the late-70's, where the town was fighting back against a mandated integration of public housing; the central figures of Nick Wasicko, brilliantly played by Oscar Isaac, as the protagonist fighting against the public's racially charged interest. Somehow, that show, which featured a lot of time in local municipal town halls, was so enthralling, so captivating. In about 5 minutes, the tone of the entire show was set - not surprising given it was David Simon's brain-child and captured so many of the best qualities of The Wire. It had tangential small stories about local African-American communities, and their fears of having to move to public housing in areas no one seems to want them. It had stories of immigrant families fighting to make a living. And it presented the other side, the mixed emotions of so many public officials fighting for or against this decision. Just like in The Wire, there was no black and white, only gray. The real-life story had a tragic ending, and the show carried that truthfully, but it was so beautifully delivered you had to imagine David Simon dreamed it all up. Simon's post-Wire projects have been all largely good, but never has so strayed so close to his best materials, and not surprisingly, never has he been so close to that quality either.
3.) Better Call Saul (AMC)
It became a punch-line that this show was actually supposed to initially be a 30-minute dramedy. The character of Saul Goodman was brought in as comic relief, but even in the run of Breaking Bad he became a larger piece in an incredibly complex dramatic puzzle. Through Vince Gilligan becoming more involved than he initially planned, the show turned into an hour-long drama, and it became surprisingly great. Saul Goodman, or for Season 1's purposes, Jimmy McGill, the show kept a lot of the tone of Breaking Bad including gorgeous photography in the desert, lowered the stakes, and told a great character piece. In many ways, Better Call Saul Season 1 was a more tortured version of early Breaking Bad. The latter had the catalyst of Walt's cancer to turn him bad, but here it was stunning to watch Jimmy McGill have his idealized vision of life as a lawyer torn apart bit by bit, with the season culminating with what we can imagine as the real catalyst, when his brother who he idealizes smacks him down. The small nods to Breaking Bad, including the incredibly (and smartly) cautious way they introduced Mike Ehrmentraut showed that there was an incredible amount of care and thought put into this show. It is clear that Gilligan, and creator Peter Gould, gave no haste when creating this show and they fully intend on it being a separate character study that holds up on its own.
2.) Fargo (FX)
My #1 show from 2014 didn't really get any worse in its Second season. In fact, I have seen many, many TV critics argue it was better. It certainly was different. Instead of an extended parable that was Season 1, the second season was a brilliant period piece of crime in rural towns in the 1970's. There were similar thematic elements, but like the Coen Brothers' films, so many differences as well. I personally felt Season 1 was slightly better - but in all reality it is really close and the #2 ranking is more a reflection of how good the show to come was this year. The story in Season 2 was more contained, with less superfluous characters and plot-lines (like anything to do with Stavros Milos in Season 1), and while that made it all the more tense, it did lose a bit of that Coen-y flair. The casting, acting, direction and photography in Season 2 was all just perfect. Again using the tapestry of Northern America in Winter (though not as Cold as season 1), Fargo set up shop to once again show the world that Man is capable of amazingly terrible things when pressed to. The show was more linear this year. All the various elements were connected. It was also more mythological, from actual, unexplained, appearances of UFOs, to even more parables and biblical lessons than the first season. The action was not as tense, but more cinematic, with more flair and pomp. What was amazing was the show still kept its heart, with characters like Karl Weathers (Nick Offerman), and Betsy Solverson, who is stricken with cancer and looking at the madness around her with that perspective. Fargo was already a brilliant show, but with repeating the impossible, creating a new world, with new brilliant characters and stories, we got another example that Noah Hawley is playing a different game right now.
1.) Veep (HBO)
I really worry about Veep going forward without Armando Iannucci. Thankfully the writing staff, and of course the cast, is staying, but his voice was so present in what was a brilliant show for four years, one that had a triumphantly great 4th season. The show's narrative ceiling initially seemed limited by the fact the character needed to be Vice President, but despite the name not changing, the show succeeded so well despite Selina's ascension to President. It was a genius tactic to make Selina basically have to campaign to retain her Presidency from Day 1 as it kept the underdog nature of the show. What also helped the Show in Season 4: mixing things up. There was a calm sense of steadiness with the characters in Seasons two and three, not much changed overall. Amy and Dan were still competing for Selina's effection, and the advisors were all there. This season changed it up, first pushing Dan out the door over to lobbying, and then Amy. The season also had some amazing dramatic moments, like the various times characters unloaded years of pent-up frustration at Selina. The season also, of course, shined with the addition of Hugh Laurie as Tom James; just a perfect casting job there, allowing Laurie to turn the shmarm meter up to 12. As always Julia Louis-Dreyfus, a National Treasure at this point, was brilliant, but the show got better the larger, and less Selina-focused it became. By separating the storylines and characters, limiting Jonah to the new-Veep, and moving the focus further away from the inane small-time, day-to-day nothings of the Veep's office and more to larger-scale politics, the show actually got better. It was always fun to watch Selina get marginalized as Veep and see that the '2nd most powerful person in the free world' was isolated and alone, but it has been even funnier to see that, as Selina realizes, it isn't that much better to be the 1st most powerful.
Season one of Nathan For You was a riot. Season 2 was even better and more devious. Season 3 decided to combine both and add some philosophy into the mix as well, and with that it actually became a better, albeit different, show. Maybe it is people have learned to Google his name when Nathan approaches them for a spot, or maybe it was just getting more inventive, but in its 3rd season, Nathan For You strayed away from the normal 'wacky business consultant' approach more - and to great effect. It all came together brilliantly in his finale where he decides to take over a man's life, to the point of locking him away in a winnebago and walking around in a body and face suit of the man, to make him a hero. But even earlier in the season, when he turned an idea to make a bar into a live-action theater to allow it to skirt smoking rules (a pretty smart idea), into more about him trying to actually turn people milling into a bar into a viable play, it became clear Nathan Fielder's ambitions were beyond that of the wacky consultant. There was some of that too. His 'The Movement' business was just pure comedic genius, as was his take on Best Buy. There were fewer ideas, more episode-long projects, and overall less zaniness, but instead Nathan Fielder turned inward and examined himself even more than ever, which proved to be fascinating. Somehow, despite middling ratings, the show got a 4th Season, probably its last, and I can't wait to see where Nathan Fielder takes this strange little vehicle next.
6.) Parks and Recreation (NBC)
The final season of one of the best sitcoms ever was the sweetest season of an already saccharine show yet, but with this show who would want that any other way. Parks and Recreation was always unique in that so much comedy was mined from people being largely nice and compassionate towards each other. In fact, one of the few recurring bits that was less well received was the group continually hating on Jerry / Larry / Gary. Michael Schur's show had a great last season, one with so much sentiment, with three or four different episodes that could have emotionally served as a series finale, but somehow it always felt natural. With a five-year time jump preceding the season, all the main group were split from the Parks Department, but the growth felt so natural, from Tom being what he always wanted, a (small town) magnate, to Ron opening a building company, to Leslie being a more prominent politician. Parks and Recreation was a great show, and the last season showed that more than ever. Especially great were the various easter eggs thrown in by the writers to predict what the world would be like in 2020 (when the season was set). Nothing was left unturned, and by the end there was not a dry eye in the viewing audience. Parks and Recreation proved that comedy can be derived from happiness, but it also proved that sentiment, when done right, does not have a cap on television.
5.) Bojack Horseman (Netflix)
This is only for Season 2, but I did watch the first season this year. But just looking at the second season, this was arguably the best comedy this year. Bojack Horseman wonderfully combines the most absurdist of absurd comedy (for God's sake, the premise is a world with anthropomorphic animals, one of which was a TV-star in the 90's trying to reclaim his glory) with such true human emotion and introspective thought. It is a jarring combination, but works so incredibly well. The cavalcade of amazing guest stars providing voices also lended itself to a wonderful little guessing game of 'who's voice is that.' I naturally have a soft-spot for comedies that are so irreverent and off-beat (Arrested Development was the best at this), and Bojack is right there, easily the best animated comedy I've seen aside from prime Simpsons or South Park. The depths of story in Season 2 also improved so that characters outside of Bojack's immediate circle grew deeper, more independent, and just plainly funnier - especially Princess Carolyn and Todd, who had whole arcs independent of Bojack. I don't know if I laughed at any show more than this; but I'm more sure that in no comedy did I stop and think about the human, personal tones that the show was expressing as much.
4.) Show Me a Hero (HBO)
I've never really seen a true mini-series before Show Me a Hero. I don't really consider Fargo, or True Detective, to be mini-series. However, this six-part jaunt through a racially-charged, local integrated public housing debate from the 1970's was just so damn good it was hard to turn away at any point. Just read that description again. The show was literally about the public housing crisis in Yonkers, NY, in the late-70's, where the town was fighting back against a mandated integration of public housing; the central figures of Nick Wasicko, brilliantly played by Oscar Isaac, as the protagonist fighting against the public's racially charged interest. Somehow, that show, which featured a lot of time in local municipal town halls, was so enthralling, so captivating. In about 5 minutes, the tone of the entire show was set - not surprising given it was David Simon's brain-child and captured so many of the best qualities of The Wire. It had tangential small stories about local African-American communities, and their fears of having to move to public housing in areas no one seems to want them. It had stories of immigrant families fighting to make a living. And it presented the other side, the mixed emotions of so many public officials fighting for or against this decision. Just like in The Wire, there was no black and white, only gray. The real-life story had a tragic ending, and the show carried that truthfully, but it was so beautifully delivered you had to imagine David Simon dreamed it all up. Simon's post-Wire projects have been all largely good, but never has so strayed so close to his best materials, and not surprisingly, never has he been so close to that quality either.
3.) Better Call Saul (AMC)
It became a punch-line that this show was actually supposed to initially be a 30-minute dramedy. The character of Saul Goodman was brought in as comic relief, but even in the run of Breaking Bad he became a larger piece in an incredibly complex dramatic puzzle. Through Vince Gilligan becoming more involved than he initially planned, the show turned into an hour-long drama, and it became surprisingly great. Saul Goodman, or for Season 1's purposes, Jimmy McGill, the show kept a lot of the tone of Breaking Bad including gorgeous photography in the desert, lowered the stakes, and told a great character piece. In many ways, Better Call Saul Season 1 was a more tortured version of early Breaking Bad. The latter had the catalyst of Walt's cancer to turn him bad, but here it was stunning to watch Jimmy McGill have his idealized vision of life as a lawyer torn apart bit by bit, with the season culminating with what we can imagine as the real catalyst, when his brother who he idealizes smacks him down. The small nods to Breaking Bad, including the incredibly (and smartly) cautious way they introduced Mike Ehrmentraut showed that there was an incredible amount of care and thought put into this show. It is clear that Gilligan, and creator Peter Gould, gave no haste when creating this show and they fully intend on it being a separate character study that holds up on its own.
2.) Fargo (FX)
My #1 show from 2014 didn't really get any worse in its Second season. In fact, I have seen many, many TV critics argue it was better. It certainly was different. Instead of an extended parable that was Season 1, the second season was a brilliant period piece of crime in rural towns in the 1970's. There were similar thematic elements, but like the Coen Brothers' films, so many differences as well. I personally felt Season 1 was slightly better - but in all reality it is really close and the #2 ranking is more a reflection of how good the show to come was this year. The story in Season 2 was more contained, with less superfluous characters and plot-lines (like anything to do with Stavros Milos in Season 1), and while that made it all the more tense, it did lose a bit of that Coen-y flair. The casting, acting, direction and photography in Season 2 was all just perfect. Again using the tapestry of Northern America in Winter (though not as Cold as season 1), Fargo set up shop to once again show the world that Man is capable of amazingly terrible things when pressed to. The show was more linear this year. All the various elements were connected. It was also more mythological, from actual, unexplained, appearances of UFOs, to even more parables and biblical lessons than the first season. The action was not as tense, but more cinematic, with more flair and pomp. What was amazing was the show still kept its heart, with characters like Karl Weathers (Nick Offerman), and Betsy Solverson, who is stricken with cancer and looking at the madness around her with that perspective. Fargo was already a brilliant show, but with repeating the impossible, creating a new world, with new brilliant characters and stories, we got another example that Noah Hawley is playing a different game right now.
1.) Veep (HBO)
I really worry about Veep going forward without Armando Iannucci. Thankfully the writing staff, and of course the cast, is staying, but his voice was so present in what was a brilliant show for four years, one that had a triumphantly great 4th season. The show's narrative ceiling initially seemed limited by the fact the character needed to be Vice President, but despite the name not changing, the show succeeded so well despite Selina's ascension to President. It was a genius tactic to make Selina basically have to campaign to retain her Presidency from Day 1 as it kept the underdog nature of the show. What also helped the Show in Season 4: mixing things up. There was a calm sense of steadiness with the characters in Seasons two and three, not much changed overall. Amy and Dan were still competing for Selina's effection, and the advisors were all there. This season changed it up, first pushing Dan out the door over to lobbying, and then Amy. The season also had some amazing dramatic moments, like the various times characters unloaded years of pent-up frustration at Selina. The season also, of course, shined with the addition of Hugh Laurie as Tom James; just a perfect casting job there, allowing Laurie to turn the shmarm meter up to 12. As always Julia Louis-Dreyfus, a National Treasure at this point, was brilliant, but the show got better the larger, and less Selina-focused it became. By separating the storylines and characters, limiting Jonah to the new-Veep, and moving the focus further away from the inane small-time, day-to-day nothings of the Veep's office and more to larger-scale politics, the show actually got better. It was always fun to watch Selina get marginalized as Veep and see that the '2nd most powerful person in the free world' was isolated and alone, but it has been even funnier to see that, as Selina realizes, it isn't that much better to be the 1st most powerful.
