[katyperryismylife]

Allstar

[BoyOnBoy Wonder]

I had NO IDEA that you watched In The Flesh.

No surprises outside of that. The Affair isn't for me, pushing up the rest.

[Regina George]

I saw the pilot of In the Flesh and the episode 2 but I lost it. I did saw The Guest

[Mr.Link]

In The Flesh was amazing but I have to agree I got bored after the third episode, thank God I kept watching.

[Allstar]

Top TV Comedies

Quick rumbling: I cut out some sitcoms because I realized they didn't have a) a full season to judge from yet or b) I haven't watched all episodes that aired in 2014. So this is a Top 17 now. Sorry that this batch might feel a little rushed compared to what I'm usually posting but then again I don't think anyone really reads through that **** so.

#17 - Looking

Of course, being an up-coming gay comedy drama on THE prestige channel HBO 'Looking' sounded promising. Unfortunately, it wasn't and no amount of ATRL kids "living for it" or critics feeling obligated to praise it for its premise is going to change my feelings.

I really don't feel like writing up anything about it. I understand if someone watches it but I strongly disagree with 'Looking' on so many levels and that would be alright if the show could at least make up for it with some redeemable qualities in some storylines. Sadly, there were none for me.

Best Episode: "Looking For The Future"

#16 - The Big Bang Theory

'TBBT's days of being really good are long gone but I would be lying if I said I'm not still watching it. I sometimes wonder myself but I've grown so accustomed to its cast being a staple of tv every week I realized I don't really want to miss them anymore at this point.

It's no secret that this show's jokes often fall flat or are by no means as smart as they want to suggest through its characters but it would be a lie to say the show's characters themselves are not funny. The actors make up for the lack of spice being thrown into the jokes and somehow make this show still funny and enjoyable for me.

Best Episodes: "The Misinterpretation Agitation"; "The Champagne Reflection"

#15 - Bojack Horseman

Netflix's 'Bojack Horseman' was a funny comical look on Hollywood and the entertainment business. In the same style and humour as tv staple 'Archer' it looked at serious topics in an almost satirical way or at least so extremely ordinary they could make everything funny and still make you want to think about topics such as drug abuse, decay of fame, etc.

Even in its narrative nature 'Bojack Horseman' was quite experimential and tried to be a little more outlandish when it dedicated an entire episode to a side-character or had its protagonist experience his own personal drug trip that gave some insight about him for entire 20 minutes. It wasn't the best comedy I've watched and it won't stay in my memory for too long but it was funny and still a nice addition to our current landscape.

Best Episodes: "Say Anything"; "Later"; "Sabrina's Christmas Wish"

#14 - Modern Family

Just like 'The Big Bang Theory', 'Modern Family's best times have long passed, as well. But at least there was a time when 'Modern Family' was better than the other one ever.

It was filled with some of the most interesting family dynamics, used such fresh narrative structures every week to tell us a new story and turned all of its inentionally standard-tv characters into meaningful characters that were both fun and interesting to observe every week. By now, this ABC sitcom often feels like it's become what it always lightly made fun of.

It's gotten more of a habit now to still observe these three families, yet while an entire episode might never consistently be on the same level again anymore 'Modern Family' still has its great moments every now and then. And it's filled with so much heart and right ambitions to gladly make you look away from some its flaws, ignore its decline and just enjoy it.

Best Episodes: "Won't You Be Our Neighbor"; "Queer Eyes, Full Hearts"; "Strangers In The Night"

#13 - Archer

'Archer' has ALWAYS been one of my favorite tv comedies. It's sharply written, incredibly smart and clever and filled with some of the most hilarious characters ever supported by a strong voice cast.

So how come I rank it quite low in 2014? It's not so much that its quality immensely decreased (though it notably did) but moreso that this season - for better or for worse - pushed the reboot button on many of the show's main characters. This was all intentional as for the first time ever the show was called 'Archer: Vice' and not just 'Archer', anymore but it puts a damper on all developments of every affected character who suddenly had created an entirely new persona in the same world and so it got harder to keep resonating or clicking with them.

I noticed many people didn't have that problem but for me most of the things to have come this season, while still funny and smart, just didn't click anymore. I really hope they're going to un-do their mistakes and go back to the character formula which has worked out so well the previous four years. 'Archer' was one of my biggest disappointments this year, even if it was still good I caught myself not looking forward to it anymore.

Best Episodes: "House Call"; "Arrival/Departure"

#12 - Getting On

It's so bittersweet for me not to be able to put this and the next one in my Top 10. I wish a Top 10 had 12 spots.

'Getting On' has proved worthy of recognition with its first season already and continued almost the same this year. It always needs time to get really going and be able to create a lasting impact but whenever it gets there it becomes one of those shows you're glad you never gave up watching. 'Getting On' shows a hilarious yet alsi realistic world of work in a hospital. Its supported by three amazing female performances and aims for all the right things. t gets really intense and emotional at times, like this season's finale, which makes it all the more fascinating how well it puts in ridiculous punchlines at all times no matter the subject. Its dark humour coupled with brave ambition is not to be missed!

B]Best Episodes: "Turnips...North Day...Yes, yes."; "Doctor Death"[/B]

#11 - Please Like Me

The Australian comedy 'Please Like Me' as AV Club perfectly said 'grew up into one of this year's best show's.

And it really did. This coming-of-age story is an honest view on romance, friendship and family. It goes much deeper, though, when this comedy is brave enough to deal with the topics of depression, anxiety or suicide so lightly yet real. It's never great through and through but it consists of many great moments. The 'mumblecore'-like (emphasis on 'like'!) part of it should be appealing enough for anyone here.

Since I'm not dedicating a big paragraph to anything in this batch I won't start now but 'Please Like Me' is that show you never knew you needed to watch. And you honestly, really ****ing have to!

Best Episodes: "Lapin a La Cocotte"; "Scroggin"; "Margherita"

TV DRAMA #20 - #16

[Kang.]

I thought BoJack's pilot was super super forced and unfunny but I kept watching and by episode 2 it got good!

[collin]

I watched all of Archer this semester Love that show.

[Allstar]

#15 - Orange Is The New Black

2013 was a groundbreaking one for the series landscape having the first truly successful and viral shows produced by an online provider, in this case Netflix. 'Orange Is The New Black' along with House of Cards were the frontrunners of this revolutionary movement. They weren't just popular because of their interesting premises but because behind this new promotion strategy they could both sustain a very high level of quality with almost every episode.
Sadly, either failed to come up with a second season as good as their debut one which shouldn't really come as a surprise to anyone.

This dramedy caught many people's eye because of its almost perfect blend of comedic and dramatic elements throughout every single episode. It had interesting prison dynamics ('Oz' (HBO)) coupled with strong character studies. While not as strong as last year 'OITNB' still tried to reach just as high. Trying to put a focus on even the smallest side-character the show only tangentially connects to this prison stretches its material out very, very thin but that's still admirable. It's only logical with such high ambition that not every character receives the same quality of treatment as others and by no doubt, it would do the show better to only stay focused on its main cast but that would dispute everything it's trying to do - set up a prison environment in which every minor character is supposed to become fleshed out at some point.

Many inmates like 'Crazy Eyes' who were so distant last season started appearing as relatable women thanks to an addition of even more insightful flashbacks each episode tells about one inmate. Granted, many of the flashbacks have been less gripping and effective than last year. The prison dynamics weren't quite as fun anymore with only very few side-arks that used to make the show's location come alive so much. The main story ark fell into cheap drama territory, though at all times the characters saved it from actually feeling cheap.
It's also hard to put my finger on a true standout episode because this web series has managed to create a season that flows so well and perfectly transitions into every following episode. The only downside about that is that the show has to try harder to create memorable scenes that don't fade away and this season failed at that.

Let's face it: We all know that at one point this show is going to completely fall apart. Cracks have started splitting up already and 'OITNB' can try to put tapes on it but they won't be able to fix it. At this point, however, it's still ambitious, funny and more profound than a lot of other dramas out there.

Best Episodes: “A Whole Other Hole”; “We Have Manners. We’re Polite.”

[Allstar]

Okay, seriously. The next 4 are so ****ing amazing I wish I could have included all of them into my Top 10. But some are more of my favorites than others so...

Still feel bad about it

[Allstar]

#14 - Louie

Arguably, 'Louie' has gotten better and better each season. I could have included it into my comedy category and there it would have most definitely ended up in the Top 3 but I didn't. Why? 'Louie' was always a blend of drama and comedy - its standup, pandead humour made it feel much more a drama than an ordinary comedy, however. Furthermore, this season was so experimential in its storytelling nature that it came much closer to the drama genre than ever before.

For the first time ever, Louis C.K. told his story on a much more epic scale as he introduced a love for Louie onto the show and told it to his audience over several weeks. It was a great way to do something new on the show while staying true to his experimential roots and it also amounted to some truly amazing character insights as the story climaxed into what's probably the show's best episode yet - 'In The Woods'.

Unfortunately, his focus on a big lovestory also resulted into his usual critical self brining up a lot of topics such as domestic violence or immigration without really delving into them. Many of the brought up themes were mostly only there to have been brought up which isn't typical for Louis C.K. who usually always takes his time trying to draw a full picture of everything he brings up.

Like I said, however, the latest season of 'Louie' might have very well been its best yet and delivered some of the strongest episodes this already amazing, witty, smart and ingenious show has ever seen. The fact Louis C.K. keeps experimenting and consequently growing as a storyteller and comedian is marvelous to observe every year.

Best Episodes: "Model"; "So Did The Fad Lady"; “Elevator (Part 6)”; "In The Woods"

[Allstar]

#13 - The Honourable Woman

This one is a political spy-thriller miniseries and subsequently was immediately compared to Showtime's American product 'Homeland'. Whereas the latter, however, has always struggled to maintain a neutrality on topics like foreign affairs this British show convinced through a great insight into all involved parties - whether it be the US, the UK, Palestine or Israel, 'The Honourable Woman' at no point shies away from drawing all of these in a corrupt light. And that's why it stood out so much this year because despite its braveness and realism it's still a fictious drama and knows that. One would think this show might get carried away in too many anti-war messages or too many frustrating messages about current humanity's downfall but while these surely are always underlying themes it's not what 'The Honourable Woman' wants to mainly achieve.

At all times it's able to create and most importantly sustain a hopeful and very humane tone. Even at the show's darkest and most depressing hours the audience was never flooded with waves of bleak events and messages that could have turned them away. Instead, while we were given the felling that our protagonists could all suffer a really bad fate in the end the show achieved throwing in lighthearted notions that left you hoping otherwise. And that was genuinely amazing. A show being able to create a kind of realism that makes you expect the unexpected in either way is something rare. We watch a show such as Game of Thrones knowing everything can happen but we always know 'everything' is usually limited to another brutal, inhumane twist that is shocking, yes and it's an achievement to get your show at a point where the public feels so surprised about it all the time. It's so much more, though, when you watch a series where you sometimes expect a surprise to work in favor of the one's you're rooting for.

'The Honourable Woman' wants to tell us an exemplary story to look different at current topics and such an ambitious goal has its downsides. It tangents a broad variety of themes that are connected to the Israel/Palestine conflict and has such an incredibly complex plot which is hard to follow at first that the show might be filled with too much ambition and too much material. However, even if the story might have been a little to complicated being filled with a high amount of intrigues, involved people and scandals to follow starting mid-season everything came together so fluently it's easy to overlook the beginning's bumpiness. Even when you doubted recently made choices, especially with a look into the future run of the show, it all started making sense or working out by the next weeks. That's clearly not be the best method of writing a show but it worked and besides, the finale cleared up all necessary questions and was therefore more satisfying than many had expected it to be.

Only two or three other 2014 shows have been as current as this series, too. They didn't fabricate its release as it had been announced long time before but ironically, 'The Honourable Woman' started airing just about when the Gaza conflict reached one of its climaxes this year and thus, became timelier and more important than it could have wished for. Its messages had deeper meaning and even provided the British press with a different view on that topic. It's always marvelous to observe how good television can have an impact outside of its own landscape and there's no doubt that the creators were hoping for exactly that.

Thanks to some of the most original storytelling methods such as its gripping flashback episode mid-season, Gyllenhaal's magnificient performance and a compelling Mid-Eastern soundtrack that capitalizeed every tense moment really well 'The Honourable Woman' provided us with many of this year's most intense, gripping and emotional moments. It was an amazing rollercoaster ride until the very end (especially in the end, actually).

Oh and of course, the feminist quote of the year from one of many great female characters: "Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that in a room full of pus-sies, I'm the only one with a vagina,"

Best Episodes: "The Empty Chair"; "The Ribbon Cutter"; "The Paring Knife"

[Allstar]

#12 - Masters of Sex

It's no big secret that I'm a huge fan of 'Masters of Sex' and try to keep advocating for it. Showtime's best show this year is very underrated, both by its audience and surprisingly also tv critics. Yes, they always acknowledge how excellent so many of this show's episodes are and how deeply thought-out or how well structured it is but for some reason all of them forgot about this drama by the end of the year and didn't give it its due credit in their best of lists. Well, I'm not making the same mistake because I know 'Masters of Sex' keeps delivering strong characterizations, great symbolics, meaningful dialogues and well-thought out notions on all topics.

This drama is about the lives of Bill Masters and Virgina Johnson who together revolutionized all of the knowledge we have about sex nowadays. A scandalous topic at that time they have to deal with many problems to continue their studies - financial issues, finding supportive test subjects, prejudice, technological progress. Yet, even if 'sex' should be the show's main focus it isn't. What the show really wants to talk about is that in sex there lies an ingredient of passion, of acceptance and longing to be recognized. That's why the affairs in focus are so incredibly rich to observe - they are about more than just wanting an adventure, they're about getting to know yourself.
The show's thematics don't begin nor end they here, however. We've seen interesting inclusions of racial prejudice this year, saw one of the most heartbreaking female friendships bloom and come to an end or observed a story so original and emotionally resonating when the show focuses on the struggles of a housewife supporting her long-married husband whom she finds out is gay. A show with that title yet it's much more versatile than the majority of our tv landscape.

'Masters of Sex' is the only new show in my mind which can make episodes like "Giants" with such sublime cinematography and visuals both underlining and foreshadowing thematics or future fates actually work. Or 'Fight' - an episode constantly cited amongst this year's top three (another reason why this show's lack of presence year-end is baffling). An entire hour solely dedicated to our two protagonists in a hotel room. How could I ever doubt that 'Masters of Sex's forbidden fruit angle would plummet into the depths of cliché and kitsch when that has always been the show's strongest link and 'Fight' just proved why. 'MIrror, Mirror' - full of several time jumps - was strong despite breaking out of habital storytelling structures and transcended this show's biggest flaw by pulling the most progressive plot development of the season.
So many more episodes that only very few shows could make work so incredibly well such as 'Mad Men'. In fact, it's similar to that tv giant in more ways than just sharing a time period. Bill Masters' might not be a Don Draper and therefore will never be able to truly carry the show's heavy weight as well as Don does but he's deeply struggled with actual intriguing qualities. He's a character worth writing a show about. Virginia isn't a Peggy, either, even if both carry the feminist spirit in their hearts. By no doubt, though, both Bill and Virginia are currently to be stated as one of the strongest and best written characters this decade.

I wanted to rank 'Masters of Sex' so much higher but other shows were just stronger overall. Maybe the showrunners are so fixated on all of those great details that they sometimes forget about the show's overall destination. It doesn't seem to move forward as well as it should considering it is a biography after all but then again who minds if their ruminating is so on point and their side-stories are so rich and versatile?
I really don't know what else to say. I think it's clear how much I genuinely love this show. Is it the best show on air? By no means but it's so deep, thought-provoking and one of the most poignant shows currently supported by an immensely talented cast that it certainly doesn't have to take a backseat amongst any of the following shows even if it has a few more flaws.

Best Episodes: "Parallax"; "Fight"; "Asterion"; "One For The Money, Two For The Show"; "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised"

[Allstar]

#11 - The Good Wife

'The Good Wife' was always great and arguably the best network television drama for several years in a row. Something marvelous happened in 2014, though, when this political drama hit a new peak and all critics came to the conclusion they had stopped giving this show its due credit.

I am not one of those who run around shouting how it's the best show on TV and it's never been my favorite show to watch in any season. However, I have always and will continue to treat 'The Good Wife' with the respect that it deserves to receive thanks to how mature, complex and thoughtful it is. Undeniably, it would fare a better fate on cable but at the same time 'The Good Wife' has reached such high ambitions it might have never even tried to reach if it had initially started on cable, either.

This year's big 'event' as I dare say it without spoiling anything is one of the year's most talked about tv moments. I'm one of the few in the opinion that, while I loved the entire idea about it, its execution was poorly handled and I have extremely mixed feelings about the way said event's aftermath was treated. Still, it served 'The Good Wife' well as it had gotten more media coverage than ever before and lead actress Julianna Marguiles a Best Actress Emmy win.

Despite my mixed feelings about many of this show's movements and decisions the show still proved that it can't just adapt to change very well but wants to keep changing. 'The Good Wife' always moves forward in every sense - it reflects a modern world and a society that changes, it wants to keep telling us new thought-provoking visions and it never wants to stop moving always having a bigger goal in sight the show seems to actually pull off everytime.
The sixth season sees this network drama at its most ambitious ever and trying to create some of the most original and interesting character arks of a show entirely. It's so amazing to see how a show on network can be so experimential and willing to try out new storytelling narratives while still providing an impeccable foundation of quality each episode existing of fantastic characters and one of the most impressive consistencies a show's ever had in history.

It's not my favorite show but I'd be a fool to say it hasn't been one of this year's best. I do think 'The Good Wife' still has flaws that most of us gladly look away from because we know exactly what this show wants to be and we want to be rooting for it to achieve those goals on all accounts.

Best Episodes: “The Last Call”; “Oppo Research”; “The Trial”

[Pedro]

I hear wonders about Orange Is the New black, I should see it! I also am curious about the good wife!

[Superpower]

I watch many of these
OITNB, I find this show overrated and not funny at all. For me it's more of a drama than a comedy. Everything about it is sad and kinda depressing. Watching season 1 was a drag but season 2 was much better thanks to V and Alex not being around so much.

[MP2K]

I just got into Modern Family, better late than never?

[Kang.]

Louie

+ haha nice banner.

[Razzle]

Modern Family, The Big Bang Theory

[Bloomers]

I'm behind on archer I'm not liking the sound of that reboot.

I've been wanting to watch orange is the new black and good wife, I guess nows a good time to get started watching

[Superiore]

The Big Bang Theory. It's declining but I still love it.

I heard a lot of good things on Orange Is The New Black, should I give it a watch?