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Every year, I publish a long, long “best of” list, but this year I’m going to break it up, making my blog even more of drain on your daily RSS checking than it already is. Happy New Year, everyone!
Peep Show
Peep Show is a Britcom following the troubles of two flatmates, stuffy constantly-smitten office-drone war-history-loving Mark, and scuzzy techno-groupie Jeremy. The show’s gimmick is simple but ingenious: Repeated use of internal dialogue, and camera shots from characters’ perspectives. Mitchell and Webb (the two actors and creators) create brilliantly funny and uncomfortable scenes, and mix in a dark sort of honesty that no show I’ve seen has touched. The from-their-perspective camera shows kissing as weird, unromantic act, and Jeremy and Mark crash through emotional highs and lows during the simplest of scenarios. Mark’s jogging expedition (Season 3, 2006) leads to a particularly familiar train of thought:
Oh yeah, I’m REALLY going! It’s like I was made for jogging, like my legs are two mighty pistons! I’m unstoppable! Jesus, is that a stitch? Think I’m going to be sick… slow… I think I’m going to walk, I’m literally going to be sick. What an idiotic boob I was ten or eleven seconds ago.
Peep Show sets itself apart from similarly dark British exports like The Office and Extras by creating such a deep affinity and sympathy for, as well as dislike of, its main characters. While both act (for the most part) like reasonable, almost caring adults, inside they’re actually obsessive, mean-spirited, jealous, and frightened, just like the rest of us.
YouTube Clip: “I Am Doing Excellent Shopping.”
Lost
I’m proud to say that in the year when 24 and Heroes tanked in the final episodes, Lost absolutely shined, airing the best episode yet for the Season 3 Finale. Overcoming its rough start this season, Lost won over critics by revealing more than ever, continually evolving the threats of the Island, brutally killing its least popular characters, and finally, blowing the doors off it all with the last few minutes of the finale. It looks like Season 4 is in a little trouble, both with Richard Alpert leaving and the writer’s strike, but I have absolute faith that this thing’s going to end well and be worth my years of obsession.
YouTube Clip: Season 4 Preview (With Jeremy Davies!)
30 Rock
In a year when The Office sagged with absurdly long episodes and over-the-top antics, 30 Rock stepped up and became the funniest show on American TV. 30 Rock seems to have inherited Arrested Development’s magic formula, namely complex plots compacted and strung together with light-speed gags and surprises. The show seems to have ditched its early “Tina Fey as sacred cow/modern everywoman” leanings and accepted that Liz Lemon is, like everyone else on the show, just blindly stumbling around in a panic most of the time. This season’s best jokes are funny enough that I laugh when I even think about them. Taking a shot at those manipulative Dove commercials? Werewolf Bar Mitzvah?! THE CARTOON WITH SHAQ?!? Priceless.
YouTube Clip: Unavailable because NBC doesn’t want you finding out about shows you’ll love and then watching them on their channel.
It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia
After you get over the fact that it’s about a bunch of hip 20-somethings running a bar (which admittedly takes several episodes), you realize the brilliance of IASIP. Here’s another show that has no sacred cows: The main characters are what most people would classify as the ‘villains’ of any story. Narcissistic, selfish, and greedy, they wander through manic plotlines that involve indecencies such as selling double-priced alcohol to minors, seducing each other’s moms for revenge, and setting up a third-world-sweatshop to make dresses which will dwarf the fashion skill of a girl who used to be fat in high school but now isn’t, the fact of which makes Dee angry.
It sounds pretty unbearable, but it’s all kept at a great, hilarious pace with an unnervingly peppy soundtrack. Also, I love Charlie’s voice. Dear networks: I will watch any show that makes that man yell in a high-pitched voice. It. Is. Hilarious.
YouTube Clip: “Are We Going To Talk About Pirates All Day?”
Missing From This List
The Office - Boo Office. This season, 90% of this show’s writing seemed to be “well, we have these craaaazy characters. Let’s make them go to a _____.” While the American Office’s focus on a larger range of characters was initially a great idea, now it just seems to run their bits into the ground, all while keeping Pam and Jim far above the rest of the crowd with their apparent inability to do anything stupid of clumsy on the job.
Dexter - Even though I tweeted that Dexter was the “best show evar” this season, I felt like the finale was a little bit of a let-down, which is a deal-killer for a show that revolves around a central storyline. But to give Dexter its due: Every episode up until the last one (especially the one before it) was mind-blowingly great.
A few weeks ago, I got to work with Cartoon Network to design a page and some ads for their August 1 TV event, ‘Animas!’ It was great talking with the team over there, and getting to use some of the character art and logo work they’d done. (It was also great to get to pull out my loudest colors and craziest fonts).
My favorite ad from the bunch is currently appearing on their homepage every few times you visit:
Thank you. Tonight’s episode was, for so many reasons, the greatest episode of this season and possibly of the entire show. Thank you for giving us answers to a Top Five mystery, thank you for the flashback revelation, thank you for the general sharing/asking of information between 815 survivors, and thank you for the closing frame, which was one of the best .3 seconds of television I’ve ever witnessed. I apologize for my early Season 3 doubt, I rescind all complaints about Island 2 and Jack/Sawyer/Kate focuses, and I submit myself to two more years of eager viewership and rabid fascination.
Thank you, also, for Locke’s performance this episode. After his apparent attitude problem in the previous episode, this week’s turn was a) effing awesome b) totally Locke. Thank you for creating a character we fear, admire, pity, love, and despise, and putting him on the List. Next week’s Locke-centric episode looks like it will be totally oh my god amazing and I will watch it and watch it again.
Also, if you like Lost and you’re not listening to the admittedly nerdy LostCast, you’re missing out on a weekly compilation of the theories, details, philosophical references, research, and general forum-scraping that makes the show twice as fun. I will stop now.
Stevens and Berdovsky took the podium and said they were taking questions only about haircuts in the 1970s.
When a reporter accused them of not taking the situation seriously, Stevens responded, “We’re taking it very seriously.” Asked another question about the case, Stevens reiterated they were answering questions only about hair and accused the reporter of not taking him and Berdovsky seriously.
Reporters did not relent and as they continued, Berdovsky disregarded their queries, saying, “That’s not a hair question. I’m sorry.”
-CNN
The best part about this is that the real offenders were the people that continued treating the devices like bombs all day instead of figuring it out after the first one. I don’t see how people who leave unattended vans in parking lots are less scary and suspicious than guys who put up lights. This is one of those situations that seems to escalate and escalate just because no one wants to look like an idiot.
Oh, and this video is great.
This will be expanded later on.
Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room
A smart, revealing documentary that leans too heavily on pop music in the first half. However, it makes up for everything during the closing credits, thumping financial stats to Tom Waits’ “God’s Away On Business.”
Children Of Men
A weird combination of dense and spare, Children combines long shots with showers of ads, background graffiti, and other incidental information that helps viewers put together a picture of the world around it. The clashes are brutally real, and the overall question posed is a terrifying one. Highly recommended.
Strangers With Candy
This early Comedy-Central cult favorite still has a unique and daring personality. Hint: Watch all the extras; Colbert and Amy Sedaris are at their best in their mistakes and dance-number breakouts.
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