What did you think were the best or worst shows of 2012? Here are a few to get you started.
Best
Girls
Lena Dunham has managed to achieve something that we were skeptical about at first. She found a way to make the millennial generation with its angst and coddling, irony, and at times hapless nature – endearing. While she doesn’t shy away from the messy bits, and there are many, she has found a way to make these characters compelling. Whether you want to be like them, or nothing like them, or it kicks on your maternal or paternal nature, you really want these kids to figure it all out and ultimately be happy with their life choices. So far it’s pretty fun watching their ride.
Mad Men
This should come as no surprise. Mad Men is just one of those shows that finds a way to mix good television drama with an almost cinematic style that belies its small screen status. Every week you feel as though you’re settling in to an actual world of a bygone era. We are totally invested in the lives of everyone – even the younger characters. It’s not often when you watch Mad Men and find that you just don’t care about the people on the screen, and this last season seemed to move the needle. WE ARE SO WORRIED ABOUT JOAN! Yep, this is what Mad Men does.
Louie
What is this show even about? We have no earthly idea except to say that it’s brilliant. It’s awkward, and at times tortuous when we evaluate Louie’s life too closely, his relationships, his clumsiness when it comes to friends and family – but something about its earnest “It is what it is” format makes it charming and one of the best things on television. It doesn’t hurt that several episodes serve as a nice love letter to NYC, something we haven’t felt so strongly since, yeah, we’re gonna say it – Seinfeld went off the air. But it’s sooo much better than Seinfeld. Sorry Jerry.
The Walking Dead
If there were an award for comeback of the season it would go to The Walking Dead. Fortunately for fans it seems the writers listened to the viewers and decided to up the pace, to drop the existentialism, and to increase the tension and the fear factor. It’s the zombie apocalypse for goodness sakes. They’ve introduced some new intriguing characters, even if Michonne needs to find another expression other than a scowl, but all in all we’re excited to see where the season is going. We are a bit fearful that in the shadow of such a good start there will be too many cooks in the kitchen and too many outrageous ideas to come out of this new found success. Case and point, we’re dismayed by the current shuffling regarding the resignation of the show’s showrunner, Glen Mazzara. Some are predicting bad things in the wake. We’re going to remain hopeful.
Game of Thrones
While the second season may not have had the same punch in the gut some of the scenes of the first season delivered, it’s still one of the best things on television. The world of fantasy is a hard sell, but HBO has been able to turn the source material into a wonderful display that has us waiting anxiously for the third season to start. Along with that, there’s still no love lost for the series main and best characters. Things just keep improving and we’re thrilled.
Happy Endings
This is another show that is all about the ensemble, probably more so than any other show on television. This is all about the inside jokes, the one-liners, the subtle things that the viewer will miss if they don’t follow along and boy, oh boy, the chemistry. The show has loads and loads of chemistry. It is the mainstay of success. We can’t imagine any of these characters on their own. And we get the notion the on set camaraderie illustrates the same.
New Girl
We were skeptical about this Zooey Deschanel starrer. Well, you know why. Zooey with her huge eyeballs and baby doll dresses has a way of rubbing some the wrong way, but we’ve found with an outstanding ensemble cast, those quirks have stayed in the right zone and don’t often lapse into the annoying phase. We think it’s mostly because the show embraces the quirkiness, points out some of the weirdness, but also shows the oddballness of other characters to take some of the pressure off of Zooey. We like that this show is about the total group and not just the main draw. Who can really tell who the main draw is anymore (Schmidt!), and that’s fine with us.
Parenthood
Who would have thought NBC figured out a way to do drama in a way that really resonates? Yes, the show can be highly emotional and super family charged, but that’s what this show (and the original movie) is all about. This season they pretty much outdid themselves in that department and found a way to pull the viewer into the family life of the Bravermans in a way we may have disregarded last season. It balances the sappy with heart and zeal and we like that it raises questions about “parenthood” even if everyone talks really, really, fast.
Veep
Led by veteran Julia Louis-Dreyfus this little half-hour comedy of errors (mostly) is one of the freshest looks at politics that we’ve seen in a long time. The rapid fire pace works for the show, and the interesting way we are endeared and repelled by Selina Meyer is a boon to the show. They walk the line expertly and we think with a lot of effort that you just don’t see. We just love to loathe this woman and that’s the most fun of the show.
Worst
Animal Practice
Good gravy what was NBC thinking? This is the issue we always have with this network. While it can deliver the goods on some things — when they get it wrong – they get it really wrong. This thing was some sort of waste of time veterinarian show meets House meets Monkey Shines? We don’t know. It was ill-conceived from the beginning and never found an audience which is not surprising. Who’s watching a show about a jackass doctor and his pet monkey in 2012? Hijinks! Animal Snark! No one. That’s who.
Work It
Bosom Buddies or some such nonsense for 2012. This was a very bad idea. This was probably one of the worst television ideas ever conceived. From the outset it was deemed offensive and struck the ire of many human rights groups in defense of the transgendered community. Basically, this show read as outdated, out of touch, and wholly untenable in our more progressive society. We’ve come aways from the early 1980’s when you could get away with this kind of pandering. Rightfully, this became the very definition of a bomb.
Smash
HA! There are a lot of people who will say this show didn’t get a good enough chance. AND it is nominated for a Golden Globe. None of that changes the fact that the show looked like it was being work shopped as it aired. Every week some new hanging thread had to be clipped. Some character adjustment needed to be made, because if it wasn’t, from week to week the characters emerged with almost new personalities. It had all the potential to be great, but it was mired down by just trying to survive the season. We hope next season they really bring it.
Boss
We loved this show the first season. It was a political juggernaut. It was tense and dastardly all led by an excellent Kelsey Grammer. Then the second season happened and it all went to hell. There was too much random sex and thrown together storylines that involved a housing project, incest, drug abuse, a comatose patient, and various other loose ends no one really cared about. Too much happened all at once, none of it easily digestible. It’s a shame that the second season brought such strife to a really good show. The lesson here is: Less is more.
Two and a Half Men
We can’t even imagine why this is still on television. There doesn’t seem to be one cliché or overworked plot device it doesn’t depend on. In addition, many of the actors on the show seem to have had or are careening straight toward epic meltdowns. We think it’s time to put this out to pasture. Sheesh. Was Charlie Sheen right all along. Sobering (no pun intended) thought.
Rob!
We’re going to go with “offensive” for this one too. Something about Latin stereotypes and the one doofus at the center to bring light to said stereotypes is just a bit too much to handle in one archaic sitcom. We imagine it wanted to be a family comedy with a cultural twist. What it ended up being was an offensive comedy with a negligible family plot.
666 Park Avenue
The usually wonderful Vanessa Williams was wasted on this haunted hotel drama which wasn’t full of many haunts or much in the way of a compelling story. It wanted to be a Rosemary’s Baby meets the X-Files kind of thing, but ultimately it just fell flat. It was a mash of things that didn’t work and improbable scenarios to boot. And once you go too far on the “suspension of belief” wire, there’s just no turning back.
Did you think Homeland was great this year, or hate The Newsroom? Feel free to add your comments!
