So Il Douche was congratulating himself for there being no airline fatalities this year - the same number as last year, and the year before and the year before. . .but this time the lack of deaths was directly attributable to the um, thing. . . that Cheeto Mussolinin um,. . . did since taking office.
Since taking office I have been very strict on Commercial Aviation. Good news - it was just reported that there were Zero deaths in 2017, the best and safest year on record!
Okay, first I'm going to have to pull a Steve Harvey. Or a Warren Beatty or whoever screwed up at the last Oscars. Anyway, I have to correct myself and say that the best actor in a comedy for 2017 is actually Rob Delaney from Catastrophe.
Sorry about that.
Okay, now to new business.
Biggest disappointment:
Broad City Season 4
It seemed like we waited forevvvvvvver for Broad City to come back while Abbi and Ilana were busy "making mooovies" and "building their careeers," and when it did finally come back on the air somehting just wasn't right. The chemistry seemed a little off or the timing or something, I don't know it just wasn't the hilarity I've come to expect from Broad City.
And I think they may have known this because they trotted out a couple of gimicky episodes - the "Sliding Doors"-esque When Abbi Met Ilana episode and the mostly animated tripping on mushrooms episode. Neither of which really worked very well.
There was one positive thing about this season, though. . .
Best Character Addition:
Marcel, Broad City
It's RuPaul!
I knew he could sing and I knew he could host a reality show, but I did not know he could act. I don't know whether he's going to continue on the show next season, but they'd be crazy to let him go, he is hysterical as the arrogant restaurateur who gives Ilana a job and teaches her to be profitably bitchy.
Worst character addition:
The Garbage People, The Walking Dead
They're probably not really called the Garbage People. I think they're the "scavengers" or somehting, but the idea is that they have been hiding in a garbage dump during the zombie outbreak and somehow, even though there are at least a couple dozen of them and it's only been a couple years, they have somehow forgotten how to speak normally?. They talk in this ridiculous pidgin English, saying things like "Shot you. Why back after?" or "Show Rick up up up." Plus they all dress like extras from the Star Wars prequels. There are normal clothes everywhere for the taking, why in the hell would they all be wearing these post-apocalyptic tunics? Everything about them is annoying.
Biggest Gamble that Paid Off:
"Killing" Ozzie on People of Earth
Ozzie, played by Daily Show alum Wyatt Cenac, is the main character. Having him get shot and killed was a huge risk. Sure, you assume that the aliens will resurrect him, they have that technology, but this would be like the producers of Seinfeld decided to film a few episodes without Jerry Seinfeld. Anyway, it worked. We got to see the supporting characters develop, we got storylines about various relationships and it was still funny.
Come to think of it, George Elaine and Kramer probably could've pulled off a few episodes without Jerry too if they'd had to.
Worst Trend:
AMC going all in with nerd culture.
Sure, AMC somehow stumbled on to a huge hit with the Walking Dead. So I guess it shouldn't be surprising that they would try to duplicate that success. But now nearly their entire schedule is made up of shows based on comics or designed to appeal to the comic-book-reading demographic.
You jave the Walking Dead, of course, and the post-episode talk show Talking Dead. You have the spin-off series Fear the Walking Dead.
Then there's Preacher,
Based on this comic --->
There's Into the Badlands
There's Comic Book Men with Kevin Smith
There's Robert Kirkman's Secret History of Comics
and James Cameron's Story of Science Fiction
This from the network that gave us so many great original ideas from Breaking Bad to Mad Men to Halt and Catch Fire to Turn.
Nothing against nerd culture, but I would hate to see this once great channel start churning out sci-fi and comic book adaptations instead of coming up with new and original ideas. I mean, we already have the SYFY channel.
Show I used to Like that has Become Unwatchable:
Last Man on Earth
This show used to be pretty funny. I mean, it wasn't brilliant, It wasn't Arrested Development or Curb Your Enthusiasm. But it was enjoyable. Now it's just grating. Like fingernails onm a chalkboard-level grating. Will Forte's character has always been an annoying doofus, that was the point, but now he's just aggressively obnoxious. Like he's trying to win a bet by proving he can drive away his entire viewership. Worse, Kristen Schaal isn't even funny anymore. Do you know how hard you have to work to make Kristen Schaal not funny? She's not even likeable on this show. For some reason they decided that her character should just be negative and rude and unpleasant. A running "joke" o the show is that she corrects people's grammar.That's it. That's the joke.
The show has gotten so bad that bringing on Kristen Wiig and Chris Elliot didn't even help.
Unwatchable.
Best Opening Credits:
Dark
It's spooky, it's trippy, and the mirror effect eventually turns it into a game of "how many vaginas can you spot?" And since it seems to be a show (I've only seen 2 episodes) that centers around caves and tunnels and the dangers therein, I have to think this is probably not accidental.
Most Wildly Inappropriate Theme Song:
Mother, Better Things.
I get it. Pamela Adlon's main character has children, ergo she is a mother. Got it. But the John Lennon song Mother is a cry of pain from a boy whose mother has abandoned him by dying. My God, the ending of the song is Lennon shouting "Mama don't go. Daddy come home!" over and over again. It's heart-wrenching.
"Mother"
Mother, you had me but I never had you
I wanted you, you didn't want me
So I, I just gotta tell you
Goodbye, goodbye
Father, you left me but I never left you
I needed you, you didn't need me
So I, I just gotta tell you
Goodbye, goodbye
Children, don't do what I have done
I couldn't walk and I tried to run
So I, I just gotta tell you
Goodbye, goodbye
[4x]
Mamma, don't go
Daddy, come home
Definitely not appropriate for a "haha look how messy my life is, I get sarcastic with my disrespctful children" comedy that was better the first time when it was called "Roseanne."
Speaking of which. . .
Annoying trend number two:
Digging up old tv shows
So there are suddenly new episodes of Will and Grace? With the same cast and everything? It's been off the air for a decade, did anyone really miss it?
They did a new season of Gilmore Girls. Rosanne is coming back. There's a new One Day at a Time and a new Odd Couple? I mean I know the entertainment industry is averse to original idea, but this is just sad.
As Sister Monica Joan, the resident poet-philosopher of Nonantus House, Judy Parfitt plays a wise elderly woman struggling with her diminished capabilities and feelings of no longer being useful and every word, every facial expression, every gesture rings true and she will make you smile and laugh and break your heart, often several times per episode. She is just nothing short of amazing.
Best Actress in a Comedy:
Rachel Brosnahan, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
She's smart, she's funny, she talks a mile-a-minute but her comic timing is spot on. There's an anger hiding behind the everything's fine facade. She's terrific. You should watch this show.
Best Actor in a Drama:
David Tenant, Broadchurch
Tennant's detective Alec Hardy is a man on the verge of a nervous breakdown - brooding one moment, exploding in fury the next. He puts too much of himself into each investigation and the mental strain is showing. It would be easy to go over the top into Jack Nicholson in the Shining territory, but Tenant plays it with restraint, never quite snapping and never chewing scenery. Just a fantastic performance.
Best Actor in a Comedy:
Zach Galifinakis, Baskets
Everyone knows Galifinakis is funny. One of the funniest comics around. But he really doesn't get enough credit for his acting.
So, 2017 has not been a banner year for television.When you look at all the shows that have either ended or been cancelled in the last couple of years, I'm not really seeing a lot of great shows stepping up to take their place.
To name a few, we've lost
Rectify
Tyrant
Orphan Black
Maron
Hell on Wheels
The Bridge
And probably a few more I can't think of off the top of my head.
But let's not dwell on the negative. Let's salute the people and programs that made life a little more bearable in this annus horribilis of 2017.
Show of the Year:
Call The Midwife
Even after losing two of my favorite characters, this show just keeps getting better somehow. The story of a group of nuns and nurses serving one of London's most impoverished neighborhoods, it deals with extremely heavy subject matter from domestic abuse to alcoholism to mental illness to all the tragic things that can and do happen in childbirth, especially to those living in poverty.But it somehow manages to keep an undertone of optimism and has an amazing ensemble cast playing complex, often difficult, but ultimately lovable and heroic characters that keep the show from descending into bleak nihilism. If you've not seen it, it's on Netflix so you can watch from the beginning. Just have a box of Kleenex handy when you binge this one.
Best Comedy:
Nathan For You
If you have a taste for uncomfortable comedy (Curb Your Enthusiasm, Extras, etc.) get ready to cringe-laugh. Nathan Fielder takes the idea of awkward comedy a step further by involving real people who may or may not be in on the joke. Nathan visits struggling businesses to lend a hand with his business-school expertise. His assistance generally takes the form of a convoluted scheme to publicize a business or skirt some sort of law or find a unique niche that the business can occupy.
Examples include changing the name of a coffee shop to "Dumb Starbucks," having a realtor hire a paranormal investigator to ensure the houses she sells are ghost-free and getting smoke detectors classified as musical instruments by getting a record played on the air featuring a smoke detector beeping.
That's maybe the most uncomfortable scene, and definitely not the funniest, but just to give you an idea of how awkward it can get. If you don't mind squirming a bit, it's often laugh-out-loud funny.
Best cop show:
Broadchurch
After spending the first two seasons concentrating on a single murder case, Broadchurch might have been in danger of falling into the Twin Peaks post-Laura Palmer or the Killing post-Rosie trap. Instead, they came roaring back strong with a new season investigating a rape case that somehow ends up with several likely suspects. Yes, it can be hard to watch some of the scenes involving the victim's emotional damage and this show certainly isn't for everyone. But it's absolutely gripping and keeps you guessing right up to the end. (And to be clear, they do NOT depict the actual rape, just it's horrible aftermath.)
Best Sophomore Season:
One Mississippi
The great Tig Notaro's semi-autobiographical dramedy came back even stronger in it's second year. Dealing with some heavy topics, mainly sexual abuse, it could easily have gotten depressing or humorless, but Tig has exactly the right light touch with even the most serious subjects (like Season 1's death of her mother and her recovery from cancer).
While season one kept viewers guessing about what was going on and who was responsible, season two had us guessing about when something was going to happen and who greenlit this shit?
Last season was about a mysterious television show that somehow was turning children murderous. This season was about a haunted house that. . . um. . .eats your memories. That's it. That's the scary part. Like the main character is starting to forget what her mother looks like. And that's supposed to be the danger.
And they don't even do a good job of pretending that any of this is scary. When the main chatacters find their way out of the house after being trapped in some sort of alternate universe for a couple of days, they run into some teen boys waiting to go in to the haunted house. "Was it good?" asks one of the boys. "Pfft, just go home." replies the main girl. Not "Oh my God do NOT go in there!" Not "run, run for your life!" Just a sort of "meh, don't bother." Which is pretty much what I would say to anyone wondering if this season is worth watching.
Based on this comic --->
