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| "And there was much rejoicing." "Yaaaaaay." |
Yes, this is just an excuse for me to list things (an admitted easier thing to do than articles and review), but in a time when the new Yogi Bear movie actually exists, Glenn Beck is alive, and Spider-Man actors are falling from the sky in greater numbers than rain, we need some basic structure. It's been a big year for television: Glee dominated the world with an iron fist (while singing "I've Got the Whole World in My Hands" I presume), Betty White appeared in just about everything, etc. So I figure what better place to start a year-endie set of lists than with my personal Top 5 TV Shows of 2010.
5. The Rotten Tomatoes Show (Current TV)
Here was an exquisite find I found one day early this year while flipping through channels; I can say that the majority of people who are reading this, or perhaps stumbled upon it, might have never even heard of this show. Like its title suggests, The Rotten Tomatoes Show is a television series spun off from the popular internet review aggregator RottenTomatoes.com. Naturally, it's a review show, and for a long time during 2010, the only one on television.
Think At the Movies meets Saturday Night Live, the show was a clever, hilarious, vibrant commentary on cinema. The hosts, Ellen Fox and Brett Erlich, are astonishingly remarkable, embodying personas that seem to be a mix between their actual personalities and scripted exaggerations, all while maintaining a charming chemistry. Throughout 2010, The Rotten Tomatoes Show went from the bottom of the barrel to the tippity top, providing well-thought out, hilarious commentary on films that came out that week. Intertwining all this were snazzy segments ranging from sketches to Top 5 lists (metaaaa~), all bolstered by surprisingly sharp one-liners that would otherwise seem forced and derivative had they not been delivered by charming leads and polished by a hairbrained but brilliant writing staff.
2010 was an interesting year for The Rotten Tomatoes Show: originally featuring webcam reviews sent in from viewers, online critics, and independent filmmakers mixed in with Brett and Ellen's own reviews in a hyper-edited ensemble sequence, somewhere about half-way through the season, the show decided to change the format. Now, it would review films a week before they came out, i.e., from their viewpoints as critic screenings. Thus, webcam reviews were removed and all reviewers were professional critics. Needless to say, fans bitched a lot.
But they all jeered their bitchings (and rightfully so) to a new development: the unannounced, unexplained canning of the show. In the last 1 minute of their "The Town, I'm Still Here, & Easy A" episode, Brett and Ellen casually announced the episode was the last of the show and that it was now being transferred over to Current TV's other (and now only) non-news program (though technically it's still a satirical news show), infoMania. RUINED FOREVER didn't even cut it; this new segment was atrocious, abridged to now freaking end, and a mind-boggling move on Current TV's part. Luckily, they grew some brains and released 3-minute review-only episodes of the show on On Demand and the internet. It's not the same, but it's better than the alternative.
The Rotten Tomatoes Show had a stellar, if controversial, run in 2010, supplying the boob tube a funny, quick-paced romp through movies. Truly a case of Too Good To Last at its saddest.
BEST 2010 EPISODE: "Alice in Wonderland, Stolen, & Brooklyn's Finest" (March 12, 2010) - Featuring (duh) reviews of Alice in Wonderland, Stolen, and Brooklyn's Finest, this episode showed RT at its finest--sharp, clever writing, a smartly analytical ensemble review (including one of Stolen, the only movie in the whole show's history to have a 0% Tomatoemeter rating, the announcement of which leads to a classically deadpan "Wow" from Brett), and a cavalcade of good segments. Classic lines are littered throughout this episode (such as Brett's "...or you can watch us on TV, because staring at us through our window all night--while flattering--is getting creepy"), plus a fascinating Favorite Films list from Stanely Tucci, a sketch featuring Brett as a judge declaring if actors known prominently for playing good guys make a solid turn into a villain role, and a hilarious cutaway to Ellen giving a toast at a wedding.
4. Futurama (Comedy Central)
Futurama ended its run in 2003, during its fourth season (as so many things are on FOX do), but the cult bravado of the science fiction comedy elevated the show to slowly rise from the grave. In 2008, the first of four direct-to-DVD Futurama movies began to be released, encompassing what became the fifth production season of the show. Fans cheered, but not as much as in 2010, when Comedy Central effectively brought Futurama back onto the airwaves. ALL GLORY TO THE HYPNOTOAD COMEDY CENTRAL!
This new season of Futurama was spectacular. The show is, and has always been, like the early days of The Simpsons--consistently funny, yet still retaining an enormous heart and several poignant moments. The 2010 season was no different, featuring hysterical jokes, the characters that we known and love, and all the heartwarming, character-driven moments that lend the show to their success. The animation, provided by Rough Draft Studios, is stellar, even better than the days of old; especially now that the show is broadcast in HD.
Futurama's plots this season were twisty, trippy, and complicated--and deliciously so. Always interesting and unpredictable to watch, the show offered a healthy balance of comedy and character-driven, heartwarming moments. The show's a bit more edgy now that it's on cable, but that actually allows it for the show to be creatively more daring and explore new, risque plots (such as an entire episode where Leela and Zapp's private parts are covered only by small leaves). It's hilarious, unpredictable, trippy, and heartwarming, all at once.
BEST 2010 EPISODE: "The Late Phillip J. Fry" (July 29, 2010): One of the things Futurama does best, like I said above, in balancing its insane, science-fiction-based comedy with genuine heart and honest character moments. "The Late Phillip J. Fry" is this season's most triumphant example of this; Fry, due to circumstances usually beyond his control, keeps showing up late to his dates with Leela. This escalates even further when he, Bender, and Professor Farnsworth become entrapped in time when going in the Professor's new time machine that only travels forward into time. What results is a beautiful, heartwarming meditation, filled with stunning visuals, thought-provoking observations on the universe, funny jokes not at the expense of the story's tone, and creative plotting. It's one of Futurama's most mesmerizing episodes, and when we're discussing this show (and this season) that's saying something.
3. Louie (FX)
It's a concept that sounds a lot like Seinfeld (New York comedian playing a characture of himself book ended by the titular comedian's stand-up routine) and a credits list rivaling a Tommy Wiseau film (starring, written by, directed by, and edited by Louis C.K.), but FX's Louie is greater than anything you could put on paper.
Labeled as a sitcom starring and almost entirely hemmed by comedian Louis C.K., the series actually turned out to be more like a set of short films exploring deep, personal topics like death, religion, humanity, mortality, and life, while still being really damn hysterical. C.K. plays himself, an aging New York stand-up comic raising two little girls on his own while trying to find a happy medium between a good relationship with his kids and a decent sex life.
On display throughout Louie's debut 2010 season is a touching, hilarious portrait of self; it's a cringe-inducing, sometimes vulgar, always funny look on life told through the eyes of a stand-up comic. It's a no-budget series that consistently delivers laughs, all while showing C.K. toying with the craft, finding new ways to balance acrid depictions of his interactions with others with bleak, yet somewhat poignant, self-deprecation, all while providing consistently funny jokes, during the spectrum of both his stand-up and vignettes.
The first season of Louie consisted of 13 episodes, all airing rather late at night, and usually only being viewed by under 1 million viewers. It's a small show, yes, with a small audience, yes, but the impression it leaves is visceral; it's filled with non-stop laughter, and also a touch of beauty and poignancy.
BEST 2010 EPISODE: "Heckler/Cop Movie" (July 27, 2010) - In the first vignette, Louis viciously verbally attacks a truly atrocious audience member (the titular "heckler"), and in the second, he submits to his late agent's last request that he perform in a remake of The Godfather directed by Mathew Brodrick. This episode offered a consistent stream of laughs, with a hilariously ironic ending to "Heckler" with Louis realizing that he almost had a chance to bone the heckler, but the majority of glory comes from the "Cop Movie" segment. From C.K.'s agent insanely loud insistence that Louis does the movie, to the mere concept of the remake of The Godfather (where "they're all Jews"), to Louis's impossibly bad performance in the movie. It was Louie at its funniest, and while not quite as deep as episodes like "Bully" or "God", this set featured a comedic level not many shows can measure up to.
2. Phineas and Ferb (Disney XD)
I know what you're thinking: A Disney Channel show, a children's card game cartoon on your list of the Top 5 TV Shows of 2010? Surely you can't be serious! Well I am serious. And don't call me 'Shirley.'
I'm sure people have told you about this show before: Two step brothers (the titular Phineas and Ferb) are on summer vacation and decide to do reality-defying acts to stretch the most out of their vacation. Meanwhile, their sister, Candace, tries to tattle on them to their mother, who always arrives just too late to witness the boys' in the act, and the family's domesticated platypus Perry is secretly a spy fighting the maniacal yet incompetent Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz.
I'm also sure that if you've heard about this show, you know how unbelievably good it is. In the vein of '90s cartoon classics like Animaniacs and Freakazoid!, Phineas and Ferb is not actually made for kids. It's made for anyone who's watching, but chooses to not exclude children that are technically the program's demographics. The show is astonishingly smart, witty, and hilarious--any given episode will contain copious amounts of pop-culture references, satire, crap-getting-past-the-radar, and several other things that will (being unable to avoid the cliched term) soar right over kids' heads. All the while packing in likable, memorable characters and impossibly catchy original songs.
2010 was a great year for the show: continuing what is approaching to be aHOLY SHITthree-year-long second season, Phineas and Ferb returned after a brief two month hiatus following the spectacular Christmas special, "Phineas and Ferb Christmas Vacation". Every episode this year packed a solid punch, delivering on the laughs, joy, and clever animation that we've been expecting. The songs might have had a bumpy road this season, varying from weak to orgasmically epic. It all accumulated with stellar special guest appearances from the likes of Seth MacFarlane, Ben Stiller, Clay Aiken, Chaka Khan, amongst others, increased publicity, a Daytime Emmy Award, and some of the best episodes in the show's broadcast history.
It's a smart show, a hilarious, witty show that's formulaic and yet mind-bogglingly creative and unpredictable, off-the-wall yet stylishly grounded, satirical and almost edgy, colorful, bright, fun...There are 104 days of Summer vacation, and you'll want to spend every day with Phineas and Ferb.
BEST 2010 EPISODE: "Nerds of a Feather" (August 16, 2010) - I border on considering this the single finest installment of the series in its run. "Nerds of a Feather" features the boys attending a science-fiction/fantasy convention in hopes of meeting a their idol, special effects guru (Kevin Smith). Instead, they get caught in midst between a acrid feud between sci-fi fans and fantasy fans. The results are beyond hysterical; scattered throughout are sharp parodies of everything the two genres have to offer, including even a reference to the quality of Star Trek films (evens=good, odds=bad, sans Nemesis [even, but bad] and Star Trek [odd, but great]). There's also a subplot featuring Doofenshmirtz pitching a '70s-cop-esque TV show to an executive producer (Seth MacFarlane) starring himself and Perry. It's something so outstanding you have to see it to believe it. The entire episode is loaded with great satire, hilarious gags both visual and verbal, and fantastic songs.
1. Community (NBC)
The best show on television (according to me), Community, holds such a title for many reasons. For one thing, like many shows on this list, it surpasses the restrictions of quality of its premise. Like a probably-superior Best 2010 TV Shows list from The A.V. Club noted, it's "better suited to a 90-minute Adam Sandler movie than a TV show". Instead, it's a hilarious, heartwarming show that's incredibly character-driven and not afraid to take risks. For another, it's got probably the single most perfect ensemble on television who breathe life into their ingeniously crafted characters.
And perhaps, most importantly: It's really, really, really funny.
In the show, a thirtysomething lawyer named Jeff Winger attends a crappy community college after he's been ratted out for having a fake college degree. While trying to get into the pants of a classmate, he ends up joining an unlikely family in the form of a neurotic study group. And unlike most sitcoms on TV these days, Community's writing staff knows what the hell it's doing, and is completely unafraid to try new, creative things. What started as a simple show about a selfish guy trying to get laid exploded into a metafictional, satirical exploration rooted strongly in its increasingly interesting characters. It's like Arrested Development that way, and also just like AD, the show is the best thing on television that nobody's watching, and critic's will like to remind you that as much as they can.
During 2010, Community shoved out the best half-hours of television of the year, be they small, character-driven bottle episodes or grand, over-the-top genre parodies. Each episode is unpredictable and inventive, with the writers taking new strides to allow each episode to feel fresh and not bleed into one another. It delivers on the laughs while still being surprisingly sentimental (sometimes even dramatic) and fair to its characters. When the show wants to deliver you a message, it will, but what's so great about it is that it will acknowledge the hell out of it without seeming derivative or pretentious. It's self-aware and satirical, but the reason it stays fresh is that it's able to be so while still being unpredictable and honest. And funny. Really freaking funny.
BEST 2010 EPISODE: "Contemporary American Poultry" (April 22, 2010) - "Contemporary American Poultry" was Community's first dive into over-the-top genre parodies that have defined other outstanding 2010 episodes such as "Modern Warfare" and "Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design." In it, the gang become tired of the cafeteria's shortage of chicken fingers and descend into a GoodFellas-inspired conspiracy iron-fisted by Abed. This episode is flawless. Just going to get that out of the way. Maybe I'm biased because GoodFellas is one of my favorite movies, but screw it. This episode is one of the perfect examples of what Community is all about--it's covered in hilarious, over-the-top parody, but at its core, it's an examination of one of the show's most complex characters, Abed. The episode is loaded with sharp directing and great lines; hell, this is the one where Troy remarks, "If God were edible, not that I'm Catholic, but if it were cool to eat God, he'd be a chicken finger." I might as well stop there. Community is the best show on television, and nothing proves that better than "Contemporary American Poultry."
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And there you have it. I'll be doing more of these, because they're fun (yet admittedly exhausting), and because it's a perfect way to round out the year in pop-culture. 'Till next time, happy holidays and keep on keeping it, keepers.
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