DRAMA OF THE YEAR
Lost (ABC): Fittingly enough, one of TV's best and certainly most intricately analyzed series went out with one of TV's best and certainly most intricately analyzed finales. We'll debate for years whether the ending worked (in this corner, the answer is "yes" and "brilliantly"). But please: The island was real; only the "sideways" world was purgatory. People who hold to the mistaken idea that the island was purgatory are the reason we can't have nice things.
COMEDY OF THE YEAR
Modern Family (ABC): The American family in all its mixed-up, loving glory is brought to you by a show that is so well-written, so well-performed and so true that it seems destined to be a classic. In its beautifully constructed, cleverly interwoven stories and in its warm embrace of its characters, it's a reminder that comedy is more than snark.
Rest of the top 10:
•Mad Men(AMC)
•True Blood(HBO)
•Rescue Me(FX)
•The Big Bang Theory(CBS)
• Community (NBC)
• Justified (FX)
• Treme (HBO)
• Men of a Certain Age (TNT)
Five runners-up:
• The Middle (ABC)
• Nurse Jackie (Showtime)
• Boardwalk Empire (HBO)
• Breaking Bad (AMC)
• Archer (FX)
READER'S CHOICE FOR FAVORITE SHOW
Modern Family with 22% of 10,440 votes.
ACTORS OF THE YEAR
Comedy, female: Edie Falco for Nurse Jackie. If you heard her Emmy acceptance speech, you know Falco doesn't think she's funny. She's wrong. Falco's ability to make us laugh at Jackie, despite her lies, addictions and self-destructive behavior, is precisely what keeps us attached to her.
Comedy, male: Ty Burrell for Modern Family. No slight is intended to his co-stars, but in this second season, Burrell has emerged as a centering force. He's taken a character who could have been no more than a henpecked doofus and made him poignant and even noble — and shown us that Phil Dunphy is nobody's fool but his own.
Drama, female: Julianna Margulies for The Good Wife. This year, it's become clear that Wife is more than just Margulies. And yet, rather than diminishing the star's status, the blossoming of the ensemble around her has enhanced it by giving her an even better showcase for her own, deeply drawn performance.
Drama, male: Steve Buscemi for Boardwalk Empire. Odds are, Boardwalk would be a bigger hit and a more conventionally entertaining show with a more conventionally charismatic star. But would it be anywhere near as challenging or as unsettling?
WORST SHOW OF THE YEAR
$#*! My Dad Says (CBS): A thousand reality shows are equally soul-draining; the TBS comedies are even more incompetent. But we should expect better from the top-rated network, particularly when it's using Big Bang as a lead-in. And the most depressing part of it all is that CBS knows it.
Worst show, runners-up
• HawthoRNe (TNT)
• Outlaw (NBC)
• The Deep End (ABC)
• Happy Town (ABC)
• The Marriage Ref (NBC)
• Past Life (Fox)
• The Cleveland Show (Fox)
• Rizzoli & Isles (TNT)
• The Ricky Gervais Show (HBO)
MORE OF THE YEAR'S BESTS AND WORSTS
Best rebound of the year: Grey's Anatomy(ABC). Welcome back. We missed you.
Best miniseries: The Pacific (HBO). It wasn't a crowd-pleaser along the lines of Band of Brothers, but it had a much more difficult, much more sprawling story to tell. And if it wasn't always easy to watch, well, a little struggle may be the least we owe the men who fought in the Pacific.
Best miniseries we didn't know was a miniseries: Terriers (FX). True, those of us who loved this perhaps ungainly mix of comedy and conspiracy drama had hoped for a longer run. But it actually works devilishly well as a 13-episode miniseries, and it may actually benefit by being watched as a DVD whole.
Best mini miniseries: Sherlock (PBS). There wasn't much to this ingenious Sherlock Holmes update — just three movie-sized episodes. But that was enough for it to rank as the most unabashedly entertaining new show of the season, and more than enough to make us eager for more.
Best TV movie: Temple Grandin(HBO). Claire Danes was triumphant as autistic animal activist Temple Grandin in this fabulously stirring biopic. It's the kind of film that relaunches careers and, one hopes, opens eyes.
Best unscripted show: NBC's late-night fiasco. NBC went from Jay Leno at 10 and Conan O'Brien at 11:30 to (in its dreams) Jay at 11:30 and Conan at midnight to (in its living nightmares) Jay at 11:30 and Conan at TBS. A transfixed America laughed — more loudly and in far greater numbers than will ever watch either show.
Worst unscripted show: Jersey Shore (MTV). Jersey can take care of itself, but what has the poor, defenseless shore ever done to us that we should allow it to be linked with this low-rent, sand-for-brains crew? We'd better hope nature isn't plotting its revenge.
How will we ever replace him? Larry King. Where will we ever find someone else who does no research, shows no interest in facts and asks stupid, softball questions? Oh, wait ...
Best musical: Glee (Fox). The musical numbers are sometimes overdone; the stories are sometimes undercooked. But oh so often when it sings, it soars.
Worst musical: American Idol(Fox). Hands up: How many of you can hum something from the winner's CD? Exactly.
Best news of the year: Comcast takeover of NBC. Here's something for NBC's outgoing chiefs to contemplate. How incompetent do you have to be to make people root for a Comcast (COMCAST!) merger just as a way to get rid of you?
Network spy drama that ran a season too long: 24 (Fox).
Cable spy drama that ran a season too long: Rubicon (AMC).
Best year: Betty White. Jon Stewart and Glenn Beck had a good 2010, but when it comes to universal love, public acclaim and an almost ludicrously high profile, no one compares with White. There's almost nowhere to go now but down, which is a pretty good argument for maintaining a lower profile in 2011.
And a year-end thank you to a fun quartet: White Collar (USA), Castle (ABC), Fringe (Fox) and Warehouse 13 (Syfy). Some nights, all we want to be is entertained. Thank you for doing it so well.
Entertainment Plaza - TV, Movies, Sports, Music
http://members.shaw.ca/almosthuman99
Babe Of The Month
http://members.shaw.ca/almosthuman99/babeofthemonth.html
Hunk Of The Month
http://members.shaw.ca/almosthuman99/babeofthemonthman.html
No comments:
Post a Comment